Iridikron Vs The Jailer: How The World Soul Saga's Villain Fixed WoW's Biggest Mistake

[@VanAlexi]

You can say Iridikron is better because he is more…grounded.

[@ay0859]

He’s down to earth for sure

[@nERVEcenter117]

His worries about us make sense since he's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[@azerothean]

He's the bedrock for the next wow villains

[@oswaldovzki]

He Rocks, man!

[@caderoster8333]

He definitely cultivates a somewhat stony demeanor.

[@darryleldon1284]

Favourite subtle dig 'The first time we see the jailer he is discarding Baine ... just like blizz.'

[@hobosnake1]

Baine better shine bright in this saga. Gnomes better do anything. It's kinda nuts that we're nearing the "end" of the story and there's so much left untapped. I just feel like we need something like class order halls for the races and race campaigns. Do it for classes too while you're at it, or incorporate the classes in the race campaigns. If you're a gnome mage you get different quests for some parts of the campaign that focuses on being a gnome mage. Will literally never happen, but that's my dream feature.

[@kalasmournrex1470]

Baine has a whole horde questline in DF

[@Iqnacio.]

@@hobosnake1The issue with class order halls for races is that it would make it a way, way more fragmented story than it already is unless you only tell relatively minor events, in Legion they tried to do that (and they did a pretty decent job at it) but still one of the major complaints around class halls at the time was how many stories you would miss unless you went out of your way to level an alt and play him through then current content for quite some time. Having to play 10+ characters to see the whole story was quite insane, even more so when it's not just leveling them but playing them quite a bit through then current content, which is why to this day you can find a fair amount of people doing some classes questlines because they never got to at the time and I know it cause I was one of them, and every time I go back to do a class questline there was people doing campaigns. Doing the same for all races alone already doubles the amount of different subplots, but if you then add more complexity by making them different depending on race _plus_ class it's on a whole different level to the point that for an MMO it just doesn't work.

[@Iqnacio.]

@@hobosnake1 What might work instead is something along the lines of... lets call it multiraces campaigns with sprinkles of class identity. Now what do I mean by this? a Relatively relevant campaign that involves a huge portion of a continent, thus involving multiple races and factions that have communities on those zones. For example, lets use Cataclysm as the revamp makes it easier to explain, imagine if the Hyjal campaign wasn't only limited to the Hyjal zone but the whole Northern Kalimdor? Maybe it could've started on Hyjal and then spread to zones like Ashenvale, Azshara or Winterspring. Then it would make for Orcs, Nelfs, Draeneis and even Goblins to lead that campaign, and then you could get a few classes to play it too like all Druids, Shamans and possibly Mages considering the Kirin Tors relationship with the Blue Dragons who care about Winterspring (maybe also DHs if they were playable at the time at the time), it could also be something even more simple like class flavour throughout the campaign, maybe if you are a Druid your "Gather allies" type-quest sends you to get Wild Gods, but if you are a Mage you go find blue dragons while also getting a comment about how other classes will gather other allies), maybe in a quest where you have to push against some fire elementals if you are a shaman or a fire mage you get a bonus that allows you to befriend some of the elementals, or if you are a frost mage you get to one shot them, and if you are a Druid you go with an ally cause the fire elementals counter you too hard. This allows for people to play all the campaings with way less characters, and it's also way way easier, cheaper and faster than creating completely separate campaigns, it also allows a more cohesive story, as you either play through or are completely away of what's happening in the zones you are no in, I think this makes the world feel more alive but also allows you to live through it without a 20+ character roster chore list.

[@myzorbos]

gonna be real, I'd have always accepted Iridikron having a gravelly voice because... he's the Earth Incarnate

[@ninibupu]

it was a missed opportunity to make them a female though.. All Earth guys are guys..

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@ninibupu No, did you forget about Princess Theradras? Or the Tauren's Earth Mother?

[@ninibupu]

@@MatthewTheWanderer I did forget.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@ninibupu I wish I could forget Theradras, lol

[@myzorbos]

@@ninibupu you're so fucking right... we deserve gravel voice women

[@lexcellent99]

I really love how careful Iridikron is around the player character...it makes you feel like a badass when the villain has to work his plans around your actions and throw 2-3 big distractions at you, and even then they barely work (we actually beat him until we go back and stop Deios instead)

[@LandoHitman]

"Is he a dumb-looking robot?" I love this.

[@DanielJames-lx3xk]

“He is discarding Baine, just like Blizz.” Got me laughing way harder than I should have 😅 spot on!

[@snozzmcberry2366]

I'm on team "Zovaal was manipulated by the Primus who is in cahoots with the Titans" so I think that he'll get a literary redemption arc when we get to the "the Titans are bad guys" part of the story. I'm looking forward to it. The Shadowlands story can still be turned into something decent in the grand scheme of things, if this is indeed the direction Blizz is going in.

[@nERVEcenter117]

If and ONLY if the First Ones aren't something new, but are entities we've known about for quite some time. Lore theorists will know what I'm talking about.

[@Tito-hz9zh]

Im on the team: make shadowlands non-canon.

[@Joe-pm9xv]

We dont know why the Zovaal wanted to reach the heart of the Sepulcher because he was being dominated by the Primus(the real Jailer). Thats why he has no personality. He acts just like emotionless Anduin when Anduin is dominated... If the Primus is in cahoots with the Titans and there's more untold lore there than the entirety of the Shadowlands and Zovaals plan could have been a way for the Titans to recreate the cosmos using the Heart of the Sepulcher or atleast control or destroy it.

[@lonelystarslibrary9326]

That's the only - and a good way - to save that whole thing, yeah

[@lonelystarslibrary9326]

@@nERVEcenter117 Please do tell me, i don't think i know which ones you mean

[@nakenmil]

I just want to dissent on one thing: I never thought the Jailer looked cool. The instant I saw him, I just went "but that's just The Lich King. Again. They reinvented the lich king!" It felt almost embarrassing how they just gave him more spikes, just like how they redesigned Sylvanas to have more spikes, or how they introduced scourge architecture but with more bones, etc. It just felt like such a bare-faced attempt to appeal to fan nostalgia while at the same time paradoxically throwing the things people were nostalgic for out the wayside.

[@CpnRad]

I remember when we had the first reveal and a lot of people were guessing the Jailer would turn out to be Kel'Thuzad because of how he looked then

[@popfloydplays788]

Anyone else notice that ZOVAALS specific music motif plays in TWW cinematic when the sword is revealed? The motif that only plays in the context of Zovaal? Man.

[@TheSilverwing999]

Oh i didnt, thats very interesting. So whatever is going on with the sword is very likely "the big bad" that was coming

[@Zeigler_]

I have always loved that the Incarnates are worried about us, Fyrakk lost due to his own ego and want for destruction, Ice Queen (Can't spell her name) joined us as she realised the fight was pointless and life was better and FAMILY! Iridikron is the scheming and planning type which I love in a Villian where it feels like you have caught them but realise they were always 20 moves ahead

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Do you mean Vyranoth when you say "Ice Queen"?

[@Direwolf1618]

Plus their motivations are a lot more…. Relatable. I get why they are pissed at the Titans, Vyranoth’s scene where she frees the storm drakes from Odin is a prefect analogy to freeing the dragons as a whole from the titans. The fact that she views continuing the fight as not in the best interest of dragons which is her concern makes it strike home.

[@fredy2041]

Vyranoth joined them why? After she was on prision for what it would be all eternity? Alexatra would have never relesed her by choise.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@fredy2041 Are you having a stroke or are just dumb? There are a shocking amount of misspelled words in your comment!

[@zacharyseiders5793]

@@fredy2041 Cus Fyrakk was going to burn the whole world.

[@Necrodoge]

Ok i know its talking about lore but the thumbnail makes it look like its a boxing match and i love that

[@zom8680]

If she doesn't recognize Street Fighter 2 match up screen, she's too young for you

[@Necrodoge]

@@zom8680 yea i was born in 2002 and havent looked too much into street fighter although maybe thats why its familiar

[@wtff]

Honestly, I have NEVER cared this much about characters or the narrative before. I loved all four of the primal dragons, especially Fyrakk. Everything about him was just so fun. I loved the blue dragonflight story. I literally cried at the nelf homecoming party (was a nelf for 12 years before switching mains). I even loved the little niffen guys and the exploration feeling you get with the dragonscale expedition.

[@frenchbassguy]

Yes, say what you want about specific story beats or characterizations, but I think Dragonflight will be remembered mostly for Iridikron, which we'll probably look back fondly on!

[@Aztonio]

R.I.P. Raszageth. The only one who achieved anything yet already forgotten. :'( Also Fyrakk literally stole and switched their whole personalities in the book, making her looks like the crazy one (that's peak feminism!) and acting as if we was already supposed to be the last boss and totally not 4.2 Ragnaros before the 4.3... I mean, 10.3, I mean, 10.1.5.

[@Subject_Keter]

I survived shadowlands.. but them dragons made me quit.

[@fynaglin9075]

"The first time we see him, he's discarding Bain just like Blizz." LOL I CAN'T...

[@PsychKenn23]

The Jailer had so much potential. My fear with Iridikron is they still have to to make him just the impetus behind void stuff getting to Azeroth and he'll be done after that.

[@Queldonus]

My hope is that we don’t defeat him in the World Soul Saga… He strikes me as the type of villain that always has an exit plan, and knows when to cut his losses, (or take the minor win over risking it all for the total victory), and escape.

[@kawgrath1876]

He said he's gonna go to Northrend and wait for the titans to show up, Last Titan takes place in Northrend, he's gonna be a boss there. Three expansions to make him iconic, I think Metzen's got this.

[@autisticrobotdragon17]

I just wanna say, this is a fantastic video Tali. Funny af and honestly hits all the nails on their heads. Iridikron is an absolute badass and the cinematic during the epilogue quests was soooooo good. It was like proper super villain vibes

[@KyleWilliams-it7de]

quality of this vid is crazy! loving the new set up

[@BattleF08]

Well, you put your finger on the exact moment the Jailer lost me too. The whole "Pitiful mortal" scene. It's where it really became clear we shouldn't expect much from him, where it came to interesting villain. Honestly at some point I was convinced he was a misdirect. Being played by Denathrius, as his battering ram into Zereth Mortis, only to be betrayed.

[@catrinastars]

Honestly, I was kind of hoping for back-and-forth between these two the whole expansion. More interactions with the eternal ones would’ve been nice too. I’m not surprised that they didn’t play the make it personal for the player character card with the jailer though I mean they did just use it on Nzoth.

[@iancraig9803]

Great set up! I dig the behind the desk look but “dapper stool Tali” has the “pay attention folks it’s about to get real fam” feel, i like it!

[@vegaskatus]

I actually LOL'd at "Stony Boy versus Nipple King"

[@FLLax11]

The Polybius behind you is amazing

[@Queldonus]

I did a double take the first time I saw it in their new setup.

[@alwaysworkingerin]

This may be your best video ever

[@lexcellent99]

It just occurs to me that Zovaal said his whole "cosmos divided" thing like a million years ago when we was imprisoned right? So he must've seen something imminent...so then did we miss it? Is it still coming all these years later? Then why was it urgent before?? Huh???

[@johnj4471]

Because they’ve been doing what they’re doing for a long time? It wasn’t urgent. He just was ready and learned his lesson the last time he tried to explain himself. If you were trying to save the universe and got humiliated and hurt by your allies would you bother stopping for the misguided ants rallying to stop you

[@marcoprezotto]

Also he is without his rune marks when saying this, and he is talking to right to the Primus, the “Runecarver” himself. This says it all to me. The Primus dominated Zovaal.

[@pocholo5177]

I thought he said this when we defeat him.

[@johnj4471]

@@pocholo5177 the cutscene is a mix of when the others turned on him and us beating him. It’s unclear if he said it both times or just when we won but seems likely both

[@johnj4471]

@@marcoprezotto I love thinking about all of this and speculating but part of me thinks we are overthinking it.

[@ChinnuWoW]

I hate how moisturized the graphics are in this expansion. Everything is made to look cuter like a Disney movie.

[@Eschatonin6666]

If only Dragon Ball Z Abridged's Buu Bits had came out while Shadowlands was in development. Because then the Jailer's first line could have been "Fucking morties"

[@abydosianchulac2]

"He's discarding Bane, just like Blizz" Ouch

[@catrinastars]

Shots fired lol

[@leonardceres9061]

Love the classic Street Fighter vs screen splashes for the vs ‘ screens. Classic! 😊

[@skitznick6012]

"A divided cosmos will not survive what is to come.." I believe is actually a brilliant nod and foreshadowing towards midnight and the void. Most of xal'ataths moves are COSMIC void. Zovaal was talking about the cosmos as a whole what if the first ones knew of the cosmic voids plans and knew what was eventually going to come to azeroth?

[@Skollshorties]

I love Iridikron. Best villain in a long time!

[@Anataxis]

We first heard of Iridikron from Alextraza when Wrathion found her. She said something about his hunger.

[@no.1machopfan503]

If the theory about the Primus proves true, then there may be more to the Jailer than we've seen so far that could make for more interesting development of his true character (even if he'd be no more than the Primus' puppet as a villain).

[@Eridian757]

The street fighter 2 music and banner comparisons for this film were great .

[@abydosianchulac2]

On the deep evil voice point, Iridikron may be more tolerable because, as you point out, he's one of three and has the vocal variance of the other two to break the monotony. But while it's boring having the same vocal profile time and time again, it's kinda realistic. These enemies are usually much, much larger than standard human size, so their larger vocal cords would lead to deeper voices.

[@jaywingate187]

True, all the dragons have deeper reverby voices in their true forms, and normal human speech in their visages

[@andrewshandle]

Love that Tali keeps going back to his "the Jailer was just an opportunist" theory despite it making _way_ less sense than the admittedly ridiculous "the jailer planned it all" theory. As bad as the jailer was, while the "mastermind" version might feel unearned, the "opportunist" version of the character is somehow even worse.

[@dscarmo]

Love the Jailer Shadowlands lore summary

[@ActuallyArcane]

Until you explained exactly what was happening in the Dawn of the Infinite dungeon I had no idea... This plays into what you've mentioned before about Dragonflight having an EXCELLENT Story, that is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find in the right order.

[@lonelystarslibrary9326]

"He's discarding Baine, just like Blizz." Ouch

[@LordKurgen]

Great video. And that back ground.. “chef’s kiss”

[@leonardceres9061]

I feel like if Shadowlands had some flashback cut scenes where events were shown to have been directly put into place by the jailer then that might have helped out the narrative to feel less like 5D chess. It was blizzard. Just wanted you to swallow, the whole storyline as presented and just accept the fact that this guy was secretly, the evil menace everybody should have been looking out for in the first place without any pretext

[@ysionx3646]

12:17 Taliesin : It sounds stupid The arcade machine : It's TRUE

[@Cliodhna-z1i]

The voice crack at the beginning pure slayage

[@themaelstorm]

You are spot on as usual and I wanna thank you for helping me save my sanity. Things like Jailer being an opportunist shouldn't be such a hot take! I just wanted to say - I think Arthas was also not meant to be a 4D chess guy. He just didn't have to care too much. He made his move, he saw us moving against him. He played some pawns, we got the better of them. No worries, he is undead. Minions are undead. Most are recreatable and he knows he can best us. Maybe he gets a bit angry now and then but overall no worries. Maybe he even enjoys the challenge. Maybe whatever good left in him secretly wants us to win. Maybe the evil inside him wants us to hope and be crushed. Maybe a part of him thinks this as getting back to Uther and those who cast him out. Regardless - he's chill. We do our thing and he sees we are almost good enough to beat him so he goes "welp, let's end this". Also possible that he wasn't THAT confident and he just want to use his ult to end it before we actually end him.

[@thorveim1174]

Also lets not forget one thing, Arthas was maybe testing the players as candidates to make VERY nasty death knights. If you manage to reach his throne and cause him trouble after all, you would make for very powerful servants once raised.

[@Junebug89]

The game does a terrible job of showing you "opportunist jailer" which sure doesn't help.

[@Junebug89]

@@thorveim1174 I've always felt this was kind of a stupid twist. If he can just kill us and turn us into death knights, why not do it before we kill all his current badass servants? Then his army would be even stronger! I am sure you could argue that he had greater power to kill us at the frozen throne or whatever, but that was never shown and even if it was the case, there was surely a way to do this that didn't involve losing his chief blight scientist, his favourite dragon etc. By all means, have the lich king try to raise us as soldiers. But him acting like it was secretly his plan all along for us to wipe out the strongest parts of his army is... not great.

[@shep1807]

What is the "Zovaal master plan," music?

[@House_Kreinath]

I also love Iridikron because they made it known even BEFORE he was introduced that he was supposed to be the most "dangerous" and extreme of the Incarnates as Alexstrasza and Nozdormu had explained when giving exposition on the Vault of Incarnates. And then they show us the actions that Iridikron takes to see his plan go through, even having tortured Dracthyr of the Sundered Flame to get information that he wanted before going down to Zaralek to get this strange "Vessel". And when that scene is done and over with, we don't see him. Iridikron made himself scarce because he would have known that We, the mortals he said to be wary of, were going to be hot on his trail the moment we caught wind. We didn't see anything of him until Dawn of the Infinites. As Tal mentioned, the use of the Infinite Flight's goal of corrupting Nozdormu in order to present a choice between the lesser of two evils to let go was perfection... I'm willing to be that when we were fighting Iridikron the first time, he was expecting that to have been the first encounter because "These mortals wouldn't be stupid enough to let Deimos corrupt the Bronze Aspect. I may die here, but I will win in the end." And when he was going past us later, he might even have been able to piece together that he WAS able to be stopped the first time and that there WAS a first time. Which makes the reason for him choosing to retreat all the more important for himself and his own plans. Iridikron is a very clever Incarnate and I'm glad that Dragonflight didn't try to introduce a character as being "dangerous" and "extreme" or a "strategist" only for them to end up just like N'zoth.

[@OmegaSoypreme]

The Primal Incarnates are just an awesome concept. I was on board with their motivation right away. Like yeah, it makes sense that not everyone was cool with the titans coming in and pouring their influence over the entire planet. I love their different character designs, both in dragon form and visage. I like the curious and thus far unexplained exploded chest and missing t-rex arms on Iridikron. I also love that they gave us that epilogue cutscene with Iridikron and Viranoth. That was so satisfying. It would have just been so awkward and lame if she had switched sides and it never got remarked upon.

[@NicolasBlasco-tc8ps]

The "pitiful mortal" part is what got me

[@Chrismagnu]

Loving the production on this one! Good job

[@kevenrules]

Jailer kinda got screwed with the game obviously being changed last minute and then ended early just like WoD to get out of it early At least half the quests have us set up to seemingly not trust the death pantheon, then all of a sudden they're our best friends. This story was cut everywhere. I do agree that Dragonflight had the better story and better vilians but it was also a complete game and didn't have a world shut down in the middle of it. Every story had time to play out at the speed that blizz wanted us to know the story. Everything had time to breath and was just fun to play so it makes the story experience feel even better

[@cheftiger9741]

"You've Done it! You Have all the Lego pieces you need to find where you left your Super Suit and Remake Unmake Undo Redo Bless you Gazontite Reality" What a sentence for the end of shadowlands!

[@jordancastle3050]

The fact he had us almost waste time in abberus shows us how smart he is. Along with the sundered flame!

[@lollolggb]

I haven't played wow in years but I still like these vids to "keep up" with whats going on! Cheers and thanks :)

[@mattwo7]

3:02 You know I just watched SypherPK do the same joke with Fortnite's Ice King (albeit in a video uploaded a year ago) but better (I know this is supposed to be a reference to the _Lich_ King but that's part of why SypherPK's version of the joke worked better)

[@xDheNgzTxD]

That big brain brainstorming was fun af 😂

[@corvus6779]

I love Iridikron because while yes, he's a big, powerful rock dragon, he's also the first real smart, tactical villain we've gotten in a while outside of Sargaeras. He doesn't win because of brute force, he outsmarts us, gives us an impossible choice: allow Murozond to come to power, or let Iridikron escape to continue with his terrible plans. He not only overpowers us, but outsmarts us. He used TIME to outsmart the BRONZE dragons! THE time dragons!! You can tell he's spent every single second imprisoned planning and scheming.

[@gonx9906]

AU Guldan is also worried about the player characters

[@javelinmaster2]

Not to forget that his final cinematic was just so... COOL!

[@zenmindgamer]

Gotta say, it feels great to have an antagonist who's aware of the player and Azeroth heroes as more than a minor inconvenience. As others have said already, that Iridikron must engage with multiple forces to find something the heroes of Azeroth can sink their teeth into while he works is definitely one of his finer points. Unlike the joke that Zovaal was playing 4D chess Iridikron actually is - dude literally had a contingency plan that hinged on Chromie/us redoing the timeline.

[@AlexFogle]

I'm here for the squarespace ads. The rest is also good though.

[@orsolyafekete7485]

The best part of every video is Evi finding yet another, never-done-before way to say "This video is sponsored by Squarespace" :P

[@mattpulliam4494]

Releasing of the primal dragons is like 80s superman II with the release of Zod and his crew. Parallel in there personal importants are the same. Takes a banger to make a banger

[@MysteryMan159]

Is it just me or are taliesin and evitel starting to look like eachother more and more every day?

[@MrTmac9k]

Zovaal looked like the robot dude on the cover of Queen's "News of the World" album.

[@monkeysk8er33]

Or...OR - and this is likely the case - the design for The Jailer never changed. The first trailer showed The Jailer, the second trailer showed Zovaal. Because Zovaal is a puppet. He's not The Jailer, The Primus IS. The "master tactician/Sargeras" of the Shadowlands is and always was The Primus. That first trailer outline looks way more like The Primus than Zovaal. It's intentionally left as just an outline of his figure for a reason, and that reason isn't "Zovaal's design wasn't finalized yet." Name one time in WoW's history that the main villain of an expac wasn't finalized art wise in the reveal trailer for an expansion. I'll wait...forever. Illidan, Arthas', Deathwing. Everyone's design was known by Blizzard by the time they announced an expansion. This is no different. SL was one expansion where who we thought was the big bad actually wasn't the big bad. It's next level storytelling, and the moment Blizzard fully reveals this insanely amazing plot twist openly, everyone is going to change their mind about SL and call it one of the greatest expansion stories of all time. Just like when people talked shit on MoP and it's regarded as great all of sudden so to will SL. Gameplay means nothing, the story is what matters in WoW, and SL was S tier. It simply was too deep of a story for 99% of the playerbase who don't even care to read quest text, let alone use their brain to connect the subtle dots needed to comprehend SL's story and lore. SL's hate showed me just how dumb the playerbase truly is. We need more stories like that, and with Metzen back, you better bet your ass we're getting insane plot twists like that again. And the reason Zovaal seems so emotionless in all but one flashback, is additional proof he's being Dominated by The Primus, who invented Domination gear by the way. The runes are etched into Zovaal's body. Anduin and Arthas' both showed no emotion while Dominated. Zovaal being emotionless is absolutely on point with the narrative and this twist. DF's story was mid. Nothing amazing happened, a bunch of missed opportunities in the lore with Galakrond, Murozond, and Deathwing. The focus on the Incarnates was a misstep. They barely added anything to the overall lore. SL gave us a metric ton of new amazing lore that we'd been waiting for for over a decade. The only great thing about DF is Dragonriding, the S tier music, and a few fun raid fights. Story wise, lore wise, DF disappointed me. Can't wait to see the Worldsoul Saga play out. It's going to be legendary.

[@benoitheylens4802]

The jailer plan summary was gold 😂 !

[@Lady_Nila]

The Emperor from BG3 is such an incredible, manipulative baddie that you don't even know he is one.

[@kawgrath1876]

“It was this guy all along!” type plot twists only work if we know and are invested in the character that it was. If they pulled that shit with like, a titan who we grew to know and trust over a hypothetical in-between-Legion-and-Shadowlands BFA replacement, and then Shadowlands started with that guy betraying us and revealing all the “Zovaal did it” nonsense I think it could’ve been amazing.

[@jasonm.6442]

perfect video, 10/10, ty Taliesin!

[@BattleF08]

Iridikron: "I'm going to corrupt the planet to lure the Titans here, then see to their destruction." The Jailer: "I'm going to unite the cosmos. Through domination. Rewriting reality to remove free will and make all suffer." Zovaal managed to be the worst thing about his own expansion. And honestly worsened two previous ones too.

[@howdoesonename7090]

Honestly I love Iridikron so far. I really like that his motivation isn't some grand scheme for taking over the world or 5D chess, but rather it's downright petty. He wants revenge, and he's let it consume him to the point he's willing to hurt those that were once important to him, hurt his home and his family, just to get it. I'm also hoping we'll see more of Fyrakk (I have a theory he'll come back as an elemental and that's definitely not just wishful thinking of course ;-;) too as I really just outright enjoyed him as a villain. He has a flair that a lot of WoW villains lack and I always find any scene he's in fun. (E.g. I never skip the scene after killing Smolderon where he thanks the player because I find it so fun how in that moment it's made obvious to us we just accidentally sped up his plans. I also love how he just outright mocks two of the bosses while we fight them.)

[@Omar-et7sb]

That bit about the Jailer's plan (even with Tali's apologist revision port-commentary that he didn't see it that way... he's a lovely Welsh but he's wrong on this one!) will NEVER get old. I laughed the whole time!

[@jdarys4051]

Love that room corner ! Nice

[@grip7777]

I always figured the plan was for the jailer to be in jail for the majority of the expansion. Like a being in prison like the thing that follows you in torghast after too many deaths. Like an old god or sauron its motivations doesn't need to be explained a lot, but also needing agents to do his bidding since he is trapped in torghast. These agents could be the bad guy defence force and include sylvanas plus some old and new characters. This means we have the boring overlay of the jailer that's just supposed to be evil and then the underlying threat that is the bad guy defence force that has motivation that can be more human and can also be more directly manipulated by the jailer. You could have had like 4-5 characters and reveal one of them to actually be a simulacrum of the jailer at a later date or something. There was so much you could do with a "jailer of the damned-type" character and I feel like they had a huge missed opportunity with the jailer .

[@Aeielon]

I LOVE your content, thank you so much for all this

[@thanatsdarkbourne458]

i am pretty sure i ve done the whole questline and end of campaign with my main, but i havent seen malfurion's return yet? Ysera returned to Ardenweald but the portal closed behind her. Malfurion never appeared. what am i missing?

[@kalasmournrex1470]

you have to beat the raid

[@thanatsdarkbourne458]

@@kalasmournrex1470 is it mythic ending then? because i ve beaten the jailer both on RF AND Normal but havent seen this. Only his death

[@davidgoodman2813]

Agreed and good run-down: I like how Iridikron takes the players seriously, it feels a lot better narratively to have us actually MATTER and not just being a side-character watching a series of side-shows about someone else. I would like to have more active engagement between us and the Big Bad over the course of an expansion though, and not in a "haha, you fell into my trap and everything is proceeding as planned, u suck lol next dungeon." have our actions MATTER, have the enemies suffer a SETBACK and have to improvise, and maybe it's WORSE, but let us FEEL like we are actually making a difference and not just going from one scripted sequence to another, even if that's still exactly what happens. The ends of raids always feel like "But wait, there's more!" when they should be "damn you adventurers!" before retreating.

[@samuelsimpson7452]

We could have totally thwarted Iridikron's plans and destroyed his shiny relic, but he was far from defeated. The fight played out as a desperate struggle with only Chromie's overpowered magic keeping him from squashing us like bugs. And this is before he powers up with whatever he's working with the Void to get. :)

[@tangentkatz]

I'm still catching up on the end of the DF story, but as soon as they introduced the post-Raz baddies, Iridikron was my favorite. I was happy to hear he's going to be sticking around. One thing I've liked about this expansion in general is how the villain's motivates are so clear and make sense. Are they complex, nuanced motives? No, but I don't care. I don't need every villain to be Emet Selch; I just want to know what characters care about.

[@jonasgerne3233]

I do hope in The World Saga they use the old world more. Sure we know some zones will be included, as far as they said during Blizzcon but I don't know. Seeing the Jailer using the Forge of Souls for some reason got me saying "Wow, that's cool". And I want more of that!

[@jalbertking5170]

So these mini-expansions are going to have as long a time between xpansions as full length expansions totaling 6 years?? 0:35

[@Shervin86]

A good antagonist doesn't need to do godly things to be bad; just needs to be a good character.

[@davidfear6098]

I'm not sure how the Jailer gets 0/10 for "Are they a dumb looking robot?" - surely he nails this category, 10/10?

[@Aerisot]

I would like to say Anduin actually grabbed two runes for Zorval, Bastion's and Ardenweld's.

[@yodiggievilla3825]

they really need to capitalize on Denathrius, such a good character. i would spin it to where he actually was using zuvaal.

[@DuckdaringZ]

I used to play just for the fun of playing and had no idea about the story line or the lore, so I never knew when it was lacking. However, for the last several expansions, I have enjoyed following the story with my main for the first run through, but I haven't felt vested at all in any boss fights, other than Sylvanas. Maybe Jaina a little bit. I would certainly appreciate a bit more depth in that aspect.

[@Boxkar24]

Firstly, the final soundtrack at the end of the video... I need it! What is it?! Name please! On topic: Strange thought hit me from the title of this video but isn't it sorta "strange" that shadowlands, the expansion follow-up of a sort to wrath of the lich king, was it's entire opposite? Wrath was the peak of wow while shadowlands was wow at it's lowest, all the while both shared very similar themes. Themes about death. The forsaken almost going rogue. Both expacs had a hellish landscape where you were defintely not safe. Garrosh and Varian were involved, albeit only for a very small amount of time. We saw more of Bolvar. All that and more and yet, these two expansions are so far apart in terms of reception, it's actually crazy to think about.

[@jondeeregreen]

Yes this is why I'm here! What part of the soundtrack is that from!?

[@ChrisMinchella]

I would have loved it if the reason Zoval was a bland puppet is that he was a red herring put there by Denathrius as a distraction for some nefarious thing he's been directing the Dreadlords to do for the last several aeons.

[@FancyTophatDude]

I like the Iridikron doesn't seem to care for the void either. He's not like Gul'dan who loved fel for the power he got from it. Iridikrom just wants these cosmic forces to take each other out instead of fucking with his home. I hope when we go to his actual layer at some point we don't get the "and he also did horrific experiments and stuff all the time so it's 100% cool to take him out"-treatment.

[@cameronbrewer2437]

Imagine being neutral force to life yet still being shackled just as life was. The jailer could have been so much more guys. Makes me wonder if the Titans of order are more like a correction code

[@AmbigousInfluence]

Ya see, the outline of the Jailer's "5000 IQ Plan" is why I liked the lower stakes in Dragonflight. People who complain about the "lack of stakes" are quick to forget that after BfA and Shadowlands there was a large animus regarding world shaking and cosmic level events.

[@lordhiten]

At least for the jailer, I don't think he laid out every single piece of his plan the way it played out. I see it as he did key events like giving the helm to the dreadlocks. But other things he could only subtly intervene, hence why Bolvar being the lich king was a huge wrench in the plans.

[@Manoomu]

tali your skin looks incredible in this video

[@GustavoNoronha]

I agree. Honestly, I think the obsession with mystery boxes harms the narrative too much. A mystery is only interesting if you have plenty of clues and breadcrumbs and feel like you are making some progress in uncovering it. As it is, even people who follow lore very closely got confused to the point of giving up.

[@Gorcnor]

Yes to all your questions at the end, except the one about you being wrong. I also sincerely hope we get to side with Iridikron at a later point in the upcoming expac's.

[@Grif92311]

Sauron Meme. Ah I see a man of culture.

[@Special_Tactics_Force_Unit]

Let's have Tali read the ads from now on so I don't feel bad about skipping them. Jk love you! Just love her a bit more

[@GreyGramarye]

The one bit I don’t get in Dawn of the Infinites is… why can’t we just do both things? Like our Galakrond’s Fall selves should still be able to fight Iridikron, and then 30 minutes “later” our Murozond’s Rise selves show up at the same point in time to fight Deimos. Essentially having us in two places at once. We’ve seen past and future versions of ourselves interacting directly with us before so I don’t know if any time travel reason why that shouldn’t work. Just seems like it’s that way because that’s the result the story needed.

[@josephbanet5410]

Such an unfair match up, but it is so true. I am so happy Iridikron wasn't a 1 and done antagonist like so many expansion villains. It's good to see WoW setting up a a much larger story that will span multiple expansions. The only other time they've done something like this is with WoD and Legion.

[@MrKvasi]

Ice king jailer would have been awesome. With Gunter as second to last boss where he transforms to Orgalorg in the last phase.

[@brookegravitt4117]

I'm at a point where my entire WoW experience is essentially watching Taliesin & Evitel's videos. Classic->BFA, skipped Shadowlands, Played a month of Dragonflight. Just can't back into it. On the plus side, I don't feel the irrational need to set up TSM anymore and feverishly check auctions and mail. Winning?

[@kalcheus]

Can confirm Emet-Selch is waaaaay better than Fandaniel

[@Maiyinlikesmusic]

Fandaniel made me want to chuck my monitor out the window!

[@marcustanaka983]

Zovaal, 20 years of history to that disappointment

[@kingdomheartsguy44]

imagine if the Jailer had Danathreus's Personality

[@zackatworkshhh]

How big a part did Danuser play in Iridikron's story? Will his absence impact the story's direction set in Dragonflight?