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

World of Warcraft Dragonflight introduces to a new villain in Iridikron, and he looks to be the main antagonist of the franchise heading into the upcoming World Soul Saga, probably being the big bad guy through The War Within, Midnight and Last Titan. But has he got the chops? Is he really a cut above the usual Warcraft fare and can he reach Arthas or Garrosh levels of awesome? We pit him up against the LEAST popular villain in WoW, Zovaal the Jailer from Shadowlands, and show how Blizz have made an interesting villain at last and avoided their past mistakes

Check out Flying Buttress who made the Jailer's Plan montage for us:

Let Me Tell You Just How Smart The Jailer Is Reddit post:

[VanAlexi]

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

[myzorbos]

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

[lexcellent]

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)

[darryleldon]

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

[LandoHitman]

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

[DanielJames-lxxk]

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

[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.

[snozzmcberry]

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.

[popfloydplays]

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.

[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.

[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

[PsychKenn]

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.

[lexcellent]

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???

[Necrodoge]

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

[BattleF]

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.

[fynaglin]

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

[Skollshorties]

I love Iridikron. Best villain in a long time!

[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

[mattwo]

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)

[abydosianchulac]

"He's discarding Bane, just like Blizz"

Ouch