As you may know by now, the culmination of the plotline where you break Lady Ashvane out of Tol Dagor so that Sylvanas might speak with her is that she goes into a dark pact with Queen Azshara and ends up being turned into a giant sea monster for her loyalty.
To me this was quite a shock, that the writers took a character such as Priscilla Ashvane who proved to be an interesting villain throughout questing in Kul Tiras and ultimately had her story end with being slain by a group of heroes. She owned a company which had total control over a nations economy and industry, she managed to manipulate some of the most vicious pirate crews on Azeroth to attack Kul Tiras and even had a Kraken bound to her will which was never seen again after it swam away at the end of the Siege of Boralus. I think it’s a shame that they threw a character who was so interesting and had such complex reasoning for what she does away because they couldn’t find another Naga to be a raid boss.
I would have thought things could go far differently with Priscilla Ashvane working alongside the Horde. Imagine her old industrial areas being used as a means of gaining more footholds in Kul Tiras, her company and its workers being freed from Tol Dagor and aiding the Horde. She could have played a great role in Sylvanases plan through aiding in the manufacturing of increasing numbers of Azerite weapons and bringing more pirate crews to the aid of the Horde just as the Horde had the Fogsail Crew agree to aid them in return for their freedom from their Captain and the pirate hunters of the Alliance and Kul Tiras.
Do you think Lady Ashvanes fate screams wasted potential for an interesting ally to the Horde/Villain? Are there any other characters who you’ve seen die in the story during Legion and Battle for Azeroth which you wish hadn’t been killed off the way they did?
I personally just don’t understand the ending of Priscilla’s story at all - mainly because it seems to be tied to Sylvanas (She who moves in mysterious ways) and her motivations. While Sylvanas’ other actions might be explained differently, it is hard for me to see how supplying Azshara with an azerite weapon provider is not a direct move to help N’zoth.
But I guess that’s a bit offtopic… On Priscilla herself… I guess it could have been cool to show her a bit more morally gray. Jaina’s mother seems to have been a really, really terrible ruler, and if Priscilla had some positive vision of Kul Tiras’ future that went beyond just letting it fall to pirates, that would have been really cool to see. But as it is… she had the depth of a Disney villain, so I mostly regret her not transforming into The Little Mermaid’s Ursula, when she became a water monster, since she already looked the part so well.
And I really don’t think there was any need at all to give her a role in the Horde. You want a greedy industrialist who manufactures Azerite weapons for the Horde? Take Gallywix. No reason to give his obvious role to a human. And after her collossal failure, and probably the loss of her fortune, I wouldn’t want even pirates to follow her. I don’t see any wasted chances here, just a dodged bullet.
It’s not just Priscilla that had very strange ending, Prophet Zul’s Uldir cameo was a massive disappointment too.
But overall I also agree that both of them deserved more morally grey writing, than flat out villain bat.
Priscilla could’ve been proper Alternative to senile Proudmoore, She really didn’t need to be the villain I’d in fact rather have her than Jaina and Katrine, as she shown initiative as you said, and actually worked to improve Kul’Tiras. I would also want a proper lore about Kul’Tirans using slaves and not for it be mere footnote that “oh it was just Ashvane”.
Same goes for Zul, back in Cataclysm he was making a good points regarding troll plight. This should’ve been used as proper narrative and looked into seriously.
Just look at examples of Zul’Farrak and Zul’Drak - these two factions while not being known from diplomacy didn’t really do anything to deserve raiding. And yet the PC and their factions are the reason for their downfall. While the latter Actually tried to fight back the scourge.
But no he had to be made into worshipper of blood slug, instead of being ol’ fasioned racial supremacist with valid concerns and narrative.
But that is the entirety of BfA lore in a nutshell. Cheap shock factor and follow up of plot points instead of writing of meaningul and lasting story.
A big company skilled at crafting azerite weapons could have been important in this expansion about faction war and azerite. But as others stated before, after the siege of boralus you hear absolutely nothing of her anymore. Atleast until you suddenly see her crafting gear with nagas in nazjatar. If you dont play both sides she makes absolutely no sense
She also knew Kul Tiras and more specifically Boralus like the back of her hand. She knew all of her nations strengths and weaknesses and her old facilities and industrial areas could have been brought under the control of the Horde to create more footholds in Kul Tiras; yet sadly they did end her plot in a senseless, garbled way which makes you raise an eyebrow as to what exactly drove them to end a characters story so abruptly.