Which World of Warcraft villain had the most unrealized potential?
![](https://cdn.blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Jailer-End-Raid.jpg)
The more I think about the Jailer, the main antagonist in Shadowlands, the more I feel like he didn’t end up working out as I’d hoped. I mean, sure, he served his purpose — primary instigator of the events of the expansion and ultimate evil we had to defeat, all that jazz — but he started off the expansion as a big, shadowed in mystery threat we knew little about, and he ended the expansion as a big, shadowed-in-mystery threat we knew marginally more about. This is not to say that I personally need to know everything about a big bad by the end of their first appearance, but compare the Jailer to Sargeras, or Garrosh Hellscream, or even Deathwing — not only was there a lot of story and backstory about those guys, but I got to see them and learn more about them before they became the primary antagonists.
I knew who Sargeras was before I saw him get sucked into the Seat of the Pantheon to spend eternity beating up Illidan Stormrage. I got to see the effects of Deathwing’s machinations and witness his interactions with his former fellows, the Aspects. Garrosh we saw change and grow over the course of multiple expansions. The Jailer, by contrast, never lets us in on what he’s thinking or feeling, and we only had the barest understanding of his motivations, even now after we stopped them from coming to pass.
I’m not saying I wanted to be pen pals with the guy, but a slightly more in-depth look at his origins, maybe actually a few scenes of his days as Arbiter and a flashback or two to spice things up and give us a more personal reason to be angry at the guy than he’s bad and he’ll do bad things. I just feel like there was more they could have done with the Jailer — more potential for the character and his story.
But that’s one from me. What about y’all? Do you remember running, say, Dragon Soul and wondering why there wasn’t any time to really get personal with any of the bosses? Would you have loved to see Emeriss’ death on screen instead of in a novel? Share the bosses you think needed more focus or could have given us more cool moments than they ended up with.
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