Fashion week on Azeroth just came to a close, and our favorite villains are packing up their cursed runeblades, oversized shoulder plates and vintage anima bottles and heading back home. The awards ceremony for the best dressed among them concluded, and now it's time to let the tabloids do their thing. Their thing, as it happens, is a list of the worst dressed villains to ever grace the universe! From worst to absolute worst, here's the list:

This list does not include villains such as C'thun who, for all intents and purposes, are in fact naked.


10. Sylvanas Windrunner (Shadowlands)

Few villains can claim they swapped out their previously awesome garb (so awesome it showed up in a multitude of CGI cinematics) for something as bland as tap water. Taking a page out of The Jailer's book of bad choices, come Shadowlands Sylvanas decided it would be best to exchange her iconic armor for various spiky wall adornments, peeled off the various, equally bland chambers within Torghast.

This decision has some advantages: Sylvanas now looks like a wall, which is useful when playing hide & seek with The Jailer, but the transformation has rendered her as unsalted as the entire storyline of Shadowlands, and this mere association with the afterlife casts a shadow over our most fashionable villain's victory in our previous ranking. What happened, Sylvanas? Did you not take your handmaidens with you to the Shadowlands?

Here's Sylvanas realizing her new look wasn't doing her any favors:


9. Thaddius

Put aside for a moment the fact that Thaddius is an amalgamation of the flesh of innocent women and children (old Warcraft lore didn't shy away from the grotesque), or that during the fight, you can hear their wailing screams. Or that Thaddius is 'activated' by overloading two Tesla Coils, which confirms Nikola Tesla lived on Azeroth at some point in time.

With that disclaimer out of the way, whoever pieced Thaddius together somehow thought "yeah, the shorts of a child in mid-19th century America is the vibe to aim for". Thaddius is a giant, 9 meter (30 foot) tall child of the bygone era when children went outside and played with all sorts of things now considered too dangerous. He's even got several stitches to account for wounds presumably gained from falling off his massive bike, or getting mauled by a rusty fence when attempting to explore an abandoned factory. The various bolts that adorn his shoulders and knees attest to failed attempts at jumping from trash bin to trash bin.

To make matters worse, he's got a single shoulder plate. Who dressed this thing?! All the weak spots are unguarded! If he doesn't need armor, why does he even have pants, if you know what I mean? Surely Thaddius was designed for destruction and not for starting a family in some quaint little village, right? This is what happens when you let necromancers have a say in every aspect of the abomination design process.


8. Warlord Zaela

When you see everyone queue up to buy a pair of shoes just because some celebrity was photographed wearing them, that's exactly what Warlord Zaela did when she met Garrosh - except she didn't have the budget, nor the family inheritance to make it work.

Zaela jumped on Garrosh's bandwagon of poor choices very quickly. While Garrosh had what are possibly the best shoulder plates on Azeroth and a cool axe with a story, Zaela couldn't hope to compete. As such, she make a few poor choices to try and stand out. Let's talk about the hair.

What in all that is holy is up with the hair?! I get Orcs have a... particular fashion sense, but does anyone really think four tied-up locks look like anything other than four arrows or kunais burrowed deep into the skull? The nose-ring is a questionable choice as well.

To make things worse, she's done what every other technically dead villain has mistakenly done: Wearing a single shoulder plate. Will they ever learn?

After Garrosh's defeat, Zaela fled into Blackrock Mountain and got a slight couture upgrade: Her axe is slightly fancier, she's got a cool eyepatch and she finally understood how shoulder plates work, now wearing two. The hair is still there though, and overall, even with her slightly better attempt at dressing to kill, we can't help but find her overall look still firmly pedestrian.


7. Gul'dan

Gul'dan has been attending fashion week since the world was young - so young, in fact that both Azeroth Gul'dan and Alternate Draenor Timeline Gul'dan took part! Unfortunately for him, we can only refer to his outfit as desperation couture.

Gul'dan's childhood wasn't great - he's been struggling with self-esteem issues his whole two lives. This has translated to his wardrobe, where his unnecessary use of more than ten skulls, adorned on his back and waist, screams of "look at me I'm so tough".

If that wasn't enough, his robe - which looks rather pungent - has a whole bunch of bones fastened to it, and we can't help but wonder if Gul'dan gets a kick out of getting kicked in the knees every time he takes a step. We have to admit, however, his shoulder plates are pretty hip, but we can't help but wonder how much more hip they'd be on someone else.

Last but not least, Gul'dan, please trim your nails. Here's a close-up of his unkempt manicure:


6. Cho'gall

Continuing the everlasting trend of wearing a single shoulder plate, Cho and Gall's outfit reflects poorly on the fact it was put together by not one, but two brains. Depending on which Cho'gall you're looking at, he may not even have that single shoulder plate at all!

To give him a fighting chance, we'll review his Heroes of the Storm outfit for this ranking. When you look upon Cho'gall, the first thing you notice is the giant double gash on the chest. A lesson unlearned in why you should always wear chest armor, something a few more of our entrants (further down the list) are also stubbornly resisting.

While we're at it, notice the waist section: A giant metal buckle that further shifts Cho'gall's center of mass forward and what looks to be a very thin, ragged loincloth that leaves little to the imagination. What a disaster.

Here's Cho'gall having a hard time actually killing any of his opponents:


5. Deathwing

Deathwing's got a lot of issues, first and foremost his dragon form's outfit: It's literally coming apart at the seams, as is his entire body. As you can see in the Cataclysm trailer below, Deathwing's getting extremely risky goblin surgery, fitting him with various shoddily-crafted elementium band-aids in hopes of keeping him whole long enough to destroy a bunch of environments before the trailer cuts to black.

That's not all of Deathwing's fashion sins! Ignoring the question of how he can seemingly transform from almost-unwound-dragon-body to fully-healthy visage form, Deathwing's more palatable appearance comes with its own set of issues. Notice how he chose the visage of a human, eons before the human race existed. Questionable, but perhaps we can retcon that through some vision of the future he was beholden to.

Now behold his armor, obviously villainous before he even turned nefarious. But what is up with that widow's peak? Sometimes it's a genetic mutation, but I doubt Neltharion was born with human genetics, so it's most certainly a fashion statement. Was he going for a rugged, daddy vibe to complement his clearly cool eye scar? We keep finding out more about his past, shady work, but I have a feeling this mystery will remain veiled until the end of time.

Here's Deathwing taking a page out of Roland Emmerich's 2012:


4. Instructor Razuvious

Our list of worst dressed villains takes us once again back to Naxxramas, this time to the Military Quarter's own Duke Nukem cosplayer. Instructor Razuvious' outfit is equally intense as his hairdo. It's already quite the statement to unironically rock the Icebane set, an armor of such piercing icy blue to make most high elven fashionistas falter in horror. We can't fault Razuvious for his boldness. While the garment fits nowhere - not in Naxx, not in Suramar, not even in any fashion outlet on the streets of Dalaran - he is trying his best to appear imposing, if not domineering.

We must however emphasize his hair. How much hairspray is necessary to maintain the ever-pointy peaks of his square cut, so sharp they rival the highest peaks on Azeroth? What led this agent of the Lich King to pay so much attention to his haircut instead of wearing a damn helmet? Perhaps it was this unhealthy obsession with looks that led to his ultimate demise. To make matters worse, his trainees have it too!


3. The Jailer

There he is - the reason Sylvanas decided to look like wall art. He is the father of bland monochrome lairs, questionable motives and ambiguous warnings delivered too late. There's... a lot to unpack here. Let us first focus on his initial form, before he magically conjured full body armor out of thin air.

The Jailer is a gigantic weightlifter who holds the universe record of downing the most shawarmas in under ten minutes. His outfit is confusing: gloves, pants, belt and perhaps the most useless helmet in existence, designed to protect everything but his bald head (the one thing that makes sense about him). Once again, we have a villain lacking chest armor, and we couldn't help but wonder if, had he worn even a shirt, he wouldn't have a gaping hole in his sternum.

Now Zovaal, as we've come to know him, is certainly pretty tough. Observe how his feet are bare, yet he can effortlessly slow-walk the extremely cold halls of Torghast and the vast, unforgiving desert of the Maw, which we assume is brimming with broken bottles and cigarette butts.

For a being that was actually created synthetically, however, we cannot help but wonder why The Jailer has nipples. What... what's up with that? We literally see that underneath it all, he's just a fairly simple mannequin, with a chunk of meat and skin added on top. What does he need them for? This question haunts our sleepless nights.

To make matters worse, when he does put his true armor on, it is also just more of the same wall art he and Sylvanas are wearing. Just how uninspired can you be?! You've seen the epic highs Revendreth fashion, the mundane but still fashionable garments of Bastion! What gives?

Watch the Jailer being scolded for his poor taste:


2. Trade Prince Gallywix

The epitome of kitsch. Trade Prince Gallywix wasn't invited to the fashion gala, he bought his way in. For a goblin so self-absorbed that he built a giant head statue of himself on top his extremely luxurious palace in Azshara, we are at a loss for words as to how he only seems to collaborate with the worst fashion designers on Azeroth.

A gilded cane that looks like a bitter lollipop or a bottom-tier garden torch. A vest that doesn't fit, with an absurd winter collar (we've only seen Gallywix brave a snowy land once). Pants that look to be made from recycled plastic table mats, iron boots better fit for a Sludge Fen employee, a singular glove with an opening too wide, a bracer with a chain for a cufflink (rather problematic considering Goblin culture), and a hat straight out of the Darkmoon Faire.

It is perhaps fitting that he's wearing a Darkmoon Faire-like hat, because this outfit choice belongs in the circus.

Watch Gallywix trying to tempt Sylvanas towards kitsch fashion with his garden torch:


1. Fandral Staghelm

It was fairly hard to pick, among our final three, who could claim the crown of shame. We finally decided it would be Fandral Staghelm, evil Druid, but most of all, the night elf with the worst fashion sense ever, past, present, future. He learned nothing from Queen Azshara.

Observe the massive confusion actively besieging his body. Fairly decent shoulder plates, followed by a bare chest (you know the drill with this one). Fairly mundane gloves and a belt, coupled with the hairdo of a man who spent the last four years in a lightless cave. A dress, in all its low-polygon glory, that may have partly salvaged Fandral's reputation if it were a robe instead of a kilt. Bare feet.

How Ragnaros, in his ever-fashionable fire couture, could ever pick Staghelm as his majordomo is beyond logic. Children cower at the sight of this fashion assassination, and villagers shut their windows when the outline of this abhorrent man's form stains the horizon.

When Fandral was invited to fashion week, no one expected a half-defeathered, half-cooked chicken to show up in his stead. When he arrived at the red carpet, he was promptly removed by security and banned from attending future events.

Here's the chicken man in his natural habitat, being slapped around by offended spectators (he shows up at the 1 minute mark):


With that, Villain Fashion Week has come to a close and Azeroth's best worst, and worst worst, have all boarded their private zeppelins and headed back to their evil lairs. The critics have given their verdict, but what do you think? Who deserves another chance, and who is dressed so atrociously they ought to be retconned into nonexistence? Let us know in the comments below!