For people wondering why this isn't in the game in the first place, it was always like this, the game has minimal lore tidbits around and a general story to follow from the eyes of a bloke who doesn't know anything anyway and they put all the relevant lore in books/comics to sell more. It has been their business model for ages partially because 90% of people who play the game don't really do that for the lore so that would be wasted dev time and a lot of people who like the lore don't actually play the game
Honestly, I'm genuinely and pleasantly surprised that I don't hate this explanation for why Sylvanas joined the Jailer's side. This whole time we were expecting Sylvanas to have been buddied up with him after her second death, but her being skeptical and untrusting at first only to gradually begin to believe his lies is actually a really good way to handle it in my opinion. I do have to question how he knew about Sargeras stabbing Azeroth, and we're probably never going to know now that he's dead, but other than that, I think it was a solid way to handle it.
If even just half of this had been ingame cutscenes DURING Shadowlands, not a book after, then the expansion might have had a chance to be decent.
Kinda reminds me of the Illidan novel in a way. In TBC we are told Illidan is bad, we must stop Illidan. Maiev Shadowsong is like just help me stop him.We don't know why just that he's bad and works with the legion.Then the Illidan novel comes out with all this extra details not in game and we are like. So he wasn't a bad guy after all.Reminds me of that line from Wreak-It Ralph. "Just because you are bad guy doesn't mean you are bad guy".
This is the ^&*! that should have been in the game from the beginning of shadowlands.We should have seen this before we ever saw the jailor, or the maw, or the shadowlands themselves. Before we met the primus or the runecarver, we should have found out that the primus is the one who made frostmourne and the helm of domination.This is the stuff that makes the identity of the jailor as a convincing leader who others willingly follow believable. This is the stuff that makes Sylvanas's actions credible. This is the stuff that makes reveals like Mue'zalah and the dreadlords interesting - because we would realise that his 'prophecies' were never true prophecies, they were his plans.But coming after the fact makes it fall so flat. It makes it come across as rationalisation afterwards, not as honest motivation or storytelling.
Dumb. The Jailer wasnt even a concept in Legion, let alone in Edge of Night. You cant just retroactively insert the involvement of a character that never existed when these events were conceived and expect that to be compelling.
Step 1: create substandard game based on popular franchise with minimal plot. Leave players wondering WTF is going on.Step 2: create assorted novels, short story anthologies, and comic book series in effort to cash in on (assumed) popularity of franchise.Step 3: use non-game merchandise to explain events in game as way to compel fans to spend more money on franchise.Step 4: ?Step 5: PROFIT!
I do like the idea of having the books explain some stuff about about the lore a bit more, but this should have been in the game. Lore which explains why stuff happens in an expansion should be in the game. Lore which is needed to understand the ingame lore but provides just a bit more background should be in the books. If Blizzard put these things in the game, maybe just maybe the lore wouldn't be so terrible this expansion.
The jailer still never explained his plan. He saw things as unjust, but what exactly was his plan to fix all of this? That's where this falls apart to me more than anything else. It's like the underpants gnomes in South Park Step 1: See injustice, Step 2: ?, Step 3: It's fixed. The why makes sense, but the how is appears to be non-existent.
Now imagine if they put this kind of story telling in the game. What's also hilarious is from expansion to expansion they assume everyone reads the books and they don't so usually its just "here things are going on for reasons."