Skoll Shorties

Having the Dreadlords being the one to give Kil'jaeden the Helm and Frostmourne is better than him just showing up and stealing an idea from another guy who they retconned into being behind it all along. Because at least the Dreadlords playing 8D chess has been established.

I guess that's fair enough. I just personally liked the idea of K'J mounting an assault into the Maw and claiming the Helm of Domination for himself for his own schemes. Showing not only his power but also his skill. But you've got a good point too.

I just don't know why they've stopped even trying to write the new villains as having their own agenda. They always just retcon them now to be the TRUE mastermind behind a plot point that's existed in the lore for literally over 20 years now.

Why couldn't The Jailer just take advantage of the chaos that the Dreadlords (And perhaps Denathrius) caused by creating the Lich King and him just use that to accomplish his own goal? Why does HE have to also be behind the Lich King now?

There used to be quite a few villains that did this and having them take advantage of another unrelated situation to benefit themselves showed that they were smart and dangerous. Like Gul'dan. Or Azshara (Ignoring BfA). Or even minor characters like Magatha or VanCleef.

I didn't like the retcon initially and still I'm iffy on it. The main reasons I liked it was it made the Lich King a far more important figure in the lore (at least in regards to the Shadowlands) and it gave a good reason as to why there aren't more LKs.

But does the Lich King need to be more important than he was? He was already a world-wide threat, now they're leveling the concept of the Lich King up to like an agent of a literal universe-ending one. Power scaling for villains just keeps getting worse and it kills tension.

Starting in WoD, every single expac villain has been said to be more dangerous than the last. It starts to make you not care or see them as dangerous when the game keeps going, 'IF YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS BAD, THIS NEW GUY MAKES THE OTHERS LOOK LIKE PUNKS.' Miss me with that.