final xpac bosses are becoming underwhelming
the last boss for the past few expansions has felt particularly underwhelming. none of these villains have felt properly built up to in their expansions. let me explain:
burning crusade: ilidan is the big boss of the xpac, gets dealt with for the 2nd to last raid. ok makes sense, he was built up.
wotlk, cataclysm: does this need explanation? arthas and deathwing’s final battles were built up over the xpac
mop: garrosh is not the center piece, but he does get built up over the xpac to make a fitting final boss
legion: i’d say this is more of an exception, as while argus was not built up, finally putting an end to the legion was the climactic finale, so there was a proper build up
bfa: let’s go faction war!! yay!! and then for the final patch, they fight *checks notes* an old god? huh? where was he for half the xpac? nowhere! he just shows up halfway through and he’s just supposed to be the climax of this xpac? makes no sense!
shadowlands: zoval was properly built up. felt like there was an end goal, which was fighting zoval. shadowlands might have been ass, but at least we knew what we were working towards
dragonflight: fyrakk felt close? he shows up first patch, cool, but then everyone around him gets cool moments and it feels like he’s just some side villain who got the spotlight because he was the only guy left cause the other guys had cooler stuff to do. and then… that’s it?
war within: who the heck expected a void lord? i mean, makes sense for where this saga is supposed to go but… alleria was on it. “we’re hunting for xal and we just gotta drop everything right now?” that’s exactly how it felt. huh? is this star wars? last minute third/final film/act and oh dang somehow palpatine returned! if there were hints of dimensius’ return early on, or less weird vague stuff with the shadowguard, i’d be like yeah ok, but it felt so absent.
point overall is: these final bosses have been less present in their build up as the xpacs come out. since bfa, these xpacs have started to feel less focused and more like separate stories connected by very lose plot threads. maybe it’s just me? i don’t know. it just hasn’t felt like we’ve been actually working towards taking down a big bad in a while.
edit: to further narrow down my issue here.
illidan, lich king, deathwing, the legion, etc, these guys felt like they had build up both within and out of their xpacs. they took half an xpac or more to bring down. now you bring in dimensios and n’zoth, larger than life villains, who have their build up outside the xpac, only to get wrapped up with in one patch?! huh?! why do literal fricking gods got wrapped up in a patch?!