Sargeras's Crimes & Final Act — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:04] is coming back. Blizzard haven't quite said it out loud, but they've spent enough time setting it up. I mean, we know that the world soul saga is going to deal with the damn sword that's been stuck in Silithus for years. We know the

[00:16] Titans are returning. We've seen plenty of wacky world soul lore that all kind of points out how Sargeras may just have been on to something. Well, that community belief totally checks out. But, there are some of us that think

[00:30] it's going to go a step beyond just the return of Sargeras. Some think, and some fear, that he'll get a full redemption. That Sargeras was right, and that in

[00:42] fact all the pure evil he unleashed in the universe was for a greater good. Now, sometimes in life it's better to stay out of debates, but not this debate, not this time. I have got to push back in this hard, and I'll do that

[00:55] by asking you all to take a step back. Whether you are somehow team Sargeras, or, you know, just want the big man to go and finish the job, then take a step out in your mind, the thousands of

[01:09] years, the hundreds of thousands of burning planets, and realize that there's just no coming back from what Sargeras [music] did. He is not getting a redemption arc. You

[01:21] He is not getting a redemption arc. You simply cannot uncleanse half the known universe. But, whilst you have that perspective, remember that Sargeras is coming, and it is actually for a very important reason. So, today we're going

[01:34] to be doing two things together. First, we're doing a rap sheet. We're going to we're doing a rap sheet. We're going to lay out all the evil, all the crimes. That's when you'll see, like the final hammer landing in Better Call Saul, no

[01:46] matter how much you want your man to get away with it, the extensive list of away with it, the extensive list of crimes simply doesn't lie. And second, we're going to talk about the fact that Sargeras likely will feature in the last

[01:59] Titan, that yes, he had a point, and that if recent leaks are to be believed, then maybe we'll need someone with his type of Titan-killing knowledge around to help us. Not a redemption arc, but maybe a final deed that might be good

[02:13] before finally leaving the setting. There's a lot to talk about today, so There's a lot to talk about today, so let's begin. up a huge thing, and that is Azeroth. Azeroth, our world soul, has been

[02:27] hounded since the beginning of time. Void, Order, Sargeras, the Jailer, and and so on. They've all wanted the same thing, ultimate power. Now, they wanted with examples ranging from consume the universe to rebuild reality. All mad

[02:44] stuff, but there is a bit of a mistake there, because Sargeras actually shouldn't be on that list. Sargeras did not want Azeroth's power. He's one of the few, maybe one of the only, who did not want her power. No, he wanted to

[02:58] ensure that nobody got it, and he wanted to do that by killing her. See, the difference between Sargeras and the rest is that he realized just how hopeless it was to control Azeroth. He understood that anyone force, anyone like group

[03:14] controlling her would kind of be the end. Now, that began for him with the Void. He was basically so afraid of the Void's victory that he started the Burning Crusade. He formed the Burning Legion. You know, better to wipe out all

[03:27] life and let the cosmos restart itself in a few billion years, I guess. You the Halo rings. Well, that's a different universe. Now, if you wanted to say that Sargeras was right, you totally could. I mean, Xal'atath is on the precipice of

[03:42] taking Azeroth, and if some leaks are to be believed, it's better to say that maybe she'll become Azeroth or something. Now, in that case, we might actually need Sargeras to bust his sword out of Silithus to fight an Ascendant

[03:58] Void God. You could say that Sargeras simply had a brutal solution to the problem. That's why some believe he is worthy of a redemption arc. They did it for Illidan, right? And I agree. Sometimes you do need to respect

[04:13] uncomfortable. But Sargeras was not simply pragmatic. Sargeras was goddamn evil, and that brings us to the rap sheet. So, here are, as condensed as

[04:25] sheet. So, here are, as condensed as possible, the crimes of Sargeras. even before he fell to madness. You see, as the Titan Pantheon's champion, he

[04:38] as the Titan Pantheon's champion, he bathed worlds that they deemed unfit in the maker's flames, extinguished civilizations for what they called abusive magic, and they [music] stuffed desirable souls into a prison realm

[04:51] named Mardum. On that point, Sargeras actually transformed a world into a plane of existence from which nothing could escape, and then he just put as many demons as possible in it. Even for demons, that was a real miserable

[05:08] experience. And consider that we now see some demons in the setting with free will, their own we odd culture, and I suppose lives worth living, and remember that their ancestors just spent an eternity being locked up in Mardum.

[05:23] But it wasn't his fault that revealed Sargeras's evil. It seems to us that in turned on the Pantheon and killed them all. In reality, it wasn't that. It took many thousands of years of brooding and ruminating. But when it happened, it

[05:39] happened hard. Here's where it really kicked off. Sargeras discovered a sleeping world soul, and he was convinced, through nathrezim treachery that it had all but fallen to the void. Thinking that this was the event that

[05:52] would end the cosmos, he cleaved the planet in two. So, that's a baby titan dead along with anything that lived on it. He then returned to the Pantheon with this revelation that the void would eventually win and that in some way it

[06:08] was their own fault for unbalancing the cosmos. Now, the titans just could not see past the murdered world soul but so they did not listen to him and they condemned him for what he did. So, Sargeras decided to just take matters

[06:24] into his own hands. He would be the big bad evil guy that the setting deserved bad evil guy that the setting deserved but also the one that it needed.

[06:36] establish premeditation. Sargeras basically considered what to do and he finally decided on the Burning Crusade to just wipe out all life in reality. First step, get an army. So, he went to Mardum and in the process of

[06:51] cracking the prison planet open, he was engulfed in fell energy which turned him into a physical representation of all the evil in sight. Not all demons were on board with his plan. They're beings of chaos. They maybe don't want to just

[07:06] of chaos. They maybe don't want to just serve some new big daddy. So, Sargeras then created an enclosed prison realm within a magical scythe and simply devoured any demons who refused to join the Legion. The last rebellious lord,

[07:19] Ulthalesh, was the blade's final victim giving the blade his name. And if you're a warlock in wow, well, um, you can have it. Okay. The Legion was unleashed and its first victim was a titan ordered planet. We don't know much about it but

[07:35] we know it was overseen by a constellar like Algalon who, uh, Sargeras rapidly killed. So, that was a hit on a titan world. Now, this hit forced the titan Aggramar, who was effectively Sargeras' apprentice, to try and bring Sargeras to

[07:51] justice. Obviously, he failed. The entire Pantheon then tried, and they even told Sargeras about Azeroth, saying that actually Azeroth had so much power that that she would be the solution to all of their problems, including

[08:05] worried about. But, Sargeras knew better. Sargeras knew that she would be the source of all of their problems. That a power source like Azeroth just existing was way too dangerous. So, he unleashed all his power, and he slew the

[08:19] titan Pantheon. They were all gone. Now, they didn't manage to have their essences escape through the trickery of Norgannon, but at the time, Sargeras did seem to be up to now a kill count of seven titans. That is, of course,

[08:33] including the sleeping world soul. He then turned his gaze on the rest of the cosmos. Now, this is a dark period of the lore, maybe because the Legion conquered countless worlds, with over a hundred thousand of them apparently

[08:47] still like active somehow with the Legion on them. But, of course, the reason we know very little about this period of time is because all the people who could have recorded it are uh dead, and uh we haven't exactly seen [music]

[08:59] their artifacts and such. But, you can imagine what it would look like. Worlds turned to ash, nuked for orbit, cut in half, firebombed out of existence, and not just a few times. All this went on for 25,000 years. But, of course, since

[09:13] Sargeras' discovery of Azeroth, the past 10,000 or so years have been spent 10,000 or so years have been spent solely on figuring out how to wreck our solely on figuring out how to wreck our planet.

[09:28] been interesting. Of course, right now in the setting, the void looks dominant, had been a threat. But, they were always a bit of a sideshow. The truth source of nearly all of our threats was of course none other than Sargeras. Let me

[09:45] explain. He corrupted the Eredar. That led to the rise of Archimonde and Kil'jaeden. They then dominated unnumbered sentient races turning whatever mortals they found into fresh demonic servants. They used pit lords to

[09:58] dominate the orcs creating of course the bloodthirsty green skins of Warcraft 1 and 2. One orc though was taken and twisted rebelled creating the Scourge of Warcraft 3. Of course as a second order

[10:13] effect of that Lordaeron was made into a wasteland and then of course there's the thousands that died in the invasion of Northrend. But he did a hell of a lot more. He whispered lies of power to Azshara and well was only stopped by

[10:27] Azshara and well was only stopped by literally shattering our world when the that event the end of the War of the Ancients is far from far from all. You know, there's been demons haunting us. There's been misfired spells, portals

[10:40] being opened, him sniffing out just any way he could a clean bridge to our planet. He fought the guardian of Azeroth Aegwynn and feigned defeat only to inhabit her son Medivh whilst he was still in the womb. Medivh that was the

[10:53] one who opened up the Dark Portal and of course in doing that well led to the events of Warcraft 1. So as it turns out Sargeras is the true person who doesn't work that way. Warcraft 1 was a funky little RTS and a whole bunch of

[11:08] this lore is basically because Chris Metzen tried to go pretty hard when he was writing lore in the game manual. But hey, here we are now. And what I've Sargeras tried to bridge his way to Azeroth. Now the most recent one and the

[11:22] successful one was through AU Draenor's Gul'dan who of course launched the third Legion invasion. A big epic conflict that began in Azeroth and ended at the throne world of the Burning Legion. That is where we saw the depths of Sargeras'

[11:37] is where we saw the depths of Sargeras' evil up close. Jawless nathrezim traitors tortured fallen titans bent to the Legion's will, war rooms projecting the Legion's ongoing cleansing of the universe, all leading to a final

[11:51] showdown with Sargeras. But though he was stopped, we don't know if he went on was stopped, we don't know if he went on to face justice cuz him the titans flew away. All we know is that every villain arc story and plot beat from Warcraft 1

[12:06] through to the end of Legion manifested from Sargeras' evil. And with that laid out, let's do the count. Let's list that evil.

[12:19] a funny hat for this one. Defendant of the dark, it's time to read the charges. Count one, crimes against peace. Sargeras launched an unprovoked peace. Sargeras launched an unprovoked war against the the people who exist,

[12:33] war against the the people who exist, all of them. Count two, omnicide. He pursued the destruction of all life. Count three, crimes against humanity, by which I really mean all sentient life. He committed mass murder on an

[12:47] incomprehensible scale. Count four, civilizational coercion. Sargeras corrupted whole species, forcing them to fight his wars. Count five, crimes [music]

[13:00] into fell blasted wastelands. Count six, using weapons of mass destruction. Turns out he actually did have them, and he deployed his world-ending devices without distinction between combatant and civilian life. Count seven, the

[13:14] killing of numerous major and minor gods, with the attempted of course counting. Then count eight, a total denial of moral rights. There is no conceivable moral system that can justify the

[13:29] actions of Sargeras. It cannot be done. So, the hammer has came down. Sargeras is a villain beyond compare. More calculating than Xal'atath, who is

[13:41] driven by the Void's hunger, more brutal than the Titans' obsession with order, He's more unhinged than the Jailer ever could have been. I mean, sure, they may

[13:53] have both realized that the whole system was broken, but Sargeras had freedom and thousands of years to prosecute his Burning Crusade. Everything [music] considered, there is no conceivable space for a redemption arc. But, there

[14:09] space for a redemption arc. But, there may be space for one final act. The World Soul saga has been building towards an immense clash of the gods. The Titans return, Xal'atath is ascendant, and Sargeras is in the mix,

[14:24] And then, there's Eredarion, who's just really pissed off and wants to kill the Titans because vengeance is delicious to him. But, the thing is, up until now, it was hard to see how Sargeras would figure into this war. I mean, we know

[14:37] we'll get perhaps a deeper understanding of why he started his Burning Crusade, but without any details, the door was just left open for for something. Some people maybe thought a redemption arc, others a return to his evil roots, or

[14:51] maybe something else entirely. But, there is then those recent leaks that bring a bit of a new perspective to this whole World Soul saga thing, and specifically its end state. We will go into this in a dedicated video soon, but

[15:03] for now, know that, at least per those leaks, Azeroth is set [music] to wake up. I mean, we kind of already knew that, but the more shocking reveal is that Azeroth doesn't want to just slurp up Azeroth's power, but she

[15:17] maybe wants to like merge with Azeroth, like dominate her mind, kind of become her. And of course, we've seen this throughout Xal'atath's character arc. She's literally a parasite. Her void form was, of course, bound to the blade

[15:30] of the Black Empire. Since then, though, she body-hopped into an elf called N'Zoth and has spent every waking moment since consuming as much power as possible. Final step of that plan? It's one last body hop into our world soul.

[15:45] the grapevine is to be believed, that's the direction we're going. Now, if Azeroth was to wake up as Xal'atath, then well, she would have basically the It's quite hard to see how we win against that. Unless, of course, we use

[16:01] every available force in the setting to fight her. And at the last critical moment, maybe Sargeras appears. Maybe pulls his sword from Silithus and finally plants it in his target. Just that this time the body of Azeroth would

[16:14] be inhabited by Xal'atath. That would not be a redemption in any way. It could be seen to be a final heroic deed. It I suppose would literally save the universe. And with it done, it would be up to us to take everything Sargeras

[16:29] learned about, say, balance in the cosmos and maybe apply some less brutal measures to the problem. That'll be for WoW 2.0 to figure out. For now, well, I'd say this, what would Sargeras do after

[16:43] he does whatever he does? Does Sargeras end up being the final boss? Perhaps. Because look, it's totally possible that Med'an ends as the leak suggested, [music] that somehow we lose, Xal'atath gets what she wants. But it's also

[16:59] >> [music] >> we do end up defeating Xal'atath, maybe with the help of Sargeras. But by no means does that mean that the expansion would be over, that that would be the final story, and that Sargeras

[17:12] and us would just head down to the pub for a pint together like we're somehow for a pint together like we're somehow friends. No, Sargeras is still Sargeras. He is morally irredeemable. We know that, he knows we know that, and I'm

[17:27] pretty damn sure an alliance of convenience to take out Xal'atath, much like our alliance of convenience with her to deal with the Demetrius problem, would be just that. I'm not sure we might deal with Xal'atath merged into

[17:41] Azeroth, but what will be left? Maybe Azeroth? Would Azeroth still have power? And what of all the other characters? The Titans would be there, Sargeras would be there. Sargeras and the Titans are not friends. Eredar crown would be

[17:55] there, and he wants to kill all the Titans. So, very much I would not think that dealing with Xal'atath, [music] and maybe Sargeras helping us do that, means that he'll be redeemed and that that will be the end of the story. Very much

[18:09] no. So, if you want to deeply understand what's going on, watch our video on the Sargeras, he saw the universe was doomed, and how it all points to a Titan conspiracy, which is of course the Titan conspiracy that is driving world soul

[18:25] conspiracy that is driving world soul saga.