Title says it all. For me it is Kil’jaeden, as he is responsible for pretty much everything. The creation of the Horde, the genocide of the Draenei and the First and second war is all his fault and it led to the creation of the Lich king, Sylvanas turning into a banshee and ultimately the Legions defeat and us entering the Shadowlands to stop the Jailer
Drakuru. Even after his villainous reveal he remains a friendly chap and wishes you luck before going off to deal with his own business (that you so kindly helped him with).
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I’m gonna admit that no fictional villain ever has made my blood boil just by looking at them until I started learning about Sylvanas. I hate her so much hurting and killing her is my ultimate fantasy.
So props to Blizzard for making her so hateable? Not gonna say she’s my favorite, but what’s “favorite” for me here is Blizzard’s ability to create a villain that I hate from the bottom of my soul
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Millhouse Manastorm ofc.
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Well Gul’dan is a proper scum, just pure evil
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Depends on the definition of “villain”.
Azshara is supposedly one. At the same time, there are story bits found here and there that suggest that she was just played by old gods and Xal’atath to get into a situation where she did not have a choice.
Possibly something similar turned Helya into what she is nowadays.
Old gods are supposedly villains who do their villainous things and manipulate the events from the background. Then we have N’Zoth, who claims that he can “save us”. Which does not sound good, but still a bit odd sentiment.
There is Sargeras, mad dark titan, who seek to burn all worlds (a task which the demons supposedly were doing anyway even before Sargeras). Yet what does his “no matter how hard this world fights [Azeroth?] it will fall” truly mean? Could be nothing, could be foreshadowing that the things might not go all that nicely in the future.
I guess from the alliance perspective there is a close pick between Garrosh and his treatment of Theramore captives, and Sylvanas and destroyed souls in the Maw.
Extra points to Zul and Cool’dan, but they felt between “not developed enough” and “too comic-book-alike”.
gl hf
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Garrosh and I say this as a Horde main and a fan of Orcs. He’s pretty much everything I’d hate about a world leader or even just your average guy in real life. Like I couldn’t associate with people who were like him at all. I actually changed my decision to play Revendreth’s covenant first because he was in the trailer for the zone, and I didn’t want to see him play any role in the story. It seems like, so far at least, I’ve had no reason to worry though.
Kil’Jaeden is a close second though. As you say, he’s the catalyst for the entire world that we know, in some way or another. Many WoW villains have fleeting spotlights, but you can feel Kil’Jaeden’s influence everywhere even now.
When going through the list of villains, I had problems finding someone I actually felt anything towards. For most of them I default to being disappointed with the writers, either for writing these horrible characters, or for wasting the potential of ones that seemed intriguing.
But I guess I still feel something for Mal’ganis. Now that’s a guy who was easy to hate. Taunting Arthas, while Arthas was forced into the hardest choice of his life… damn, I certainly wanted to see that guy dead.
Which he still isn’t, by the way.
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Kel’thuzad is probably my #1. Don’t think anyone else is as sneaky and cruel than KT.
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My serious pick would be Onyxia because i actually felt she ruined a lot of lifes and finally exposing her in Vanilla gave me a feeling of accomplishment that was just superb.
On a not so serious note Jaina and Greymane for killing Rastakhan and then just being able to leave like so. Infuriating.
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Am I allowed to say King Mechagon ?
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Gul’dan.
He is quite the definition of what I’d expect from a true villain. And the perfect candidate that works both on a high and low fantasy level.
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Star Augur Etraeus. He seemed intelligent. And he has a sexy voice. Wouldn’t mind running into him somewhere around the Shadowlands.
Depends of your definition of “favorite”.
I like how Yrel is turning orcs into paladins.
If you’re talking about someone I love to hate that would probably be the Burning Legion, with special mention to Kil’jaeden.
Archbishop Benedictus! There is no good, no evil, no light, there is only POWAAAH!
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To be honest, I’m kind of struggling to think of a villain that isn’t a stereotype in this universe. What I mean by that is a villain that would challenge our perspective, but ultimately we disagreed with their methods. No villain so far in wow has a point about something important.
Seems like they’re just either archetypal villains like “muhahaha I will destroy all that is good because I’m power hungry and eeeeviiiiil muhahaha”. Sometime there’s a genuine tragedy in their origin story but then they go so crazy that they basically become the same aforementioned archetype.
Sargeras had a pretty interesting fall, started somewhere noble and fell real low because of despair, ignorance, manipulation and ultimately betrayal. Ultimately though there was nothing interesting about his new position: “Destroy all existence so it doesn’t become corrupted by old gods/shadow”??? Absolute nonsense.
Deathwing also had an interesting fall, his main power was also what led to his downfall to madness, again kind of tragic because it wasn’t his fault. But then it becomes the stereotypical “Booooooh destroy all boOooOOooO big bad dragon goes roaaaaar”.
Lich King / Arthas have been retconed so much it’s hard to even have an opinion of the character’s arc.
Garrosh was handled pretty poorly from MOP onwards. An interesting character with strengths and flaws but ultimately, the latter were turned up to 11 so he’s impossible to sympathise with. I fear Sylvanas will suffer the same fate (very interesting video essay on her and other characters called " GREY MORALITY: The Case for Sylvanas Windrunner " on utoob, go check it out if you’ve 1h40m to spare)
Azshara although an interesting manipulator still is yet another self centred narcissist. At least her character has been very consistent throughout all mediums she’s been explored in.
Kil’Jaiden / Archimond are just overall villainous villains who do their master’s bidding. Not sure why they tried to humanise Kil’Jaiden in the end a bit, didn’t really work.
Gul’Dan: archetypal power hungry villain, nothing to see here, next (both versions).
As for the Jailer, I guess we’ll have to wait and see, I feel like they’re trying to pull a Thanos here, but not sure they’ll execute it correctly and we’ll just end up with another big baddie who wants to have his way because reasons. Hoping for the best though.
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Yeah, agreed on almost all counts there (not entirely agreeing on Azshara, she’s a little more interesting than the rest). That’s why the minor ones tend to be more interesting or even relatable.
They have reasons, they have ideas, plans, and aren’t artificially made “mysterious” by going “Mwa-ha-ha” all the time.
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Gul’dan is the only character in this game I have 0 sympathy for. Evil to the bone, not a single spark of humanity in him.
He’s quite something.
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