Just a random thought that I had. To be clear, I am not suggesting reviving Arthas or that one character is better than another. I am more suggesting a battle in the center of the mind between Arthas and Anduin. With Arthas representing everything Anduin fears or hates about himself. In fact, this could open up other such battles in the center of the mind for other characters and be an interesting way to bring back characters who have been killed earlier in the setting to be fought again (Thrall vs Gulâdan for example). What do you think?
2 Likes
In a cinematic that be really cool, specially if we see an actual clash between them! Arthas being Anduins Shadow Form or Darkside would be very interesting IMO.
Although writing anything other than Arthas winning unlike Thrall vs Gulâdan would be face with A LOT of criticism IMO, for different many opinions on how most view Anduin.
Both clashes should have some screen time for sure though⌠however I would advise cautions of what type of verbal exchange those would have and the reasoning behind such a mental struggle. We got A LOT of old hardcore fans behind each and everyone of those characters.
However I think it be enlightening, entertaining, interesting and compelling to see such in screen!
2 Likes
Could offer something similar to tales from the borderlands where he has to cooperate with the invasive mind inside him. 
1 Like
What do you mean by this, as in, how do you want it portrayed? Personally, I had enough of the two of them.
If Blizzard released 5 short stories about different characters, with a couple non Thrall Horde Characters like maybe Garona or Voss or Rommath⌠I would probably just ignore the Anduin story, and that is the best option for me.
If Blizzard released one story all about Anduin and his thoughtsâŚ. that would be irritating, because it doubles down on the Anduin melodrama.
If they did such a thing, release it in a bundle of other character short stories.
Heaven fore-fend such a thing makes it in game, as something we need to do to progress in the story or endgame.
1 Like
Two exampleâs that come to mind, I will try to keep this to the current expansion.
- Azerothâs Radiant Memory Interactions: In other words, players are exploring an area that is being overwhelmed by radiant memories and various characters come to aid players in confronting these memories. One of these encounters could be Anduin versus Arthas in a way that helps Anduin to fight his demons, literally. This example could include a lot of variety with different characters interacting with each other (Jaina, Thrall, Voss, and many others could have a few issues to work out with this).
- Mind Delves: This one Iâm not as certain would be interesting beyond just the first or second interaction but it could also work as a way to expand on the idea of delves. Short version, through a ritual, players are able to actually enter the minds of different characters as a means of purifying them before a major conflict. Players would then work with those characters to face whatever personal demons they may have and Anduinâs could be represented by the shard of Arthas that was forced onto him in Shadowlands. This would be a way to deal with that matter and resolve it so that Anduin would take a backseat in the story for the next expansion or two.
3 Likes
OOOOOooo this is a cool idea⌠maybe you could a mix of both too IMO.
1 Like
On one hand, considering what they did to him in Shadowlands, Iâd like to see them bring Arthas back and give him a proper ending. On the other hand, Itâs okay for characterâs stories to end, we really gotta stop bringing everyone back and rehashing the same stories over and over and over.
He had a proper ending⌠on Icecrown. What happened afterward was an epilogue.
2 Likes
I donât think the Arthas SL thing would have stung quite so bad had they not (Ion, I think? Iâd have to go digging) said they would need to be careful with how they handled Arthas if they chose to include him.
On one hand we have a spoiled prince who never accepted the death of his horse, and the other hand we have a prince who lost his both parents, faced the sha of despair in MoP and was forced to actually ruleâŚ
Clearly Anduin have a stronger will than Arthas, Arthas never accepted the death of his horse, instantly killed innocent and dammed his soulâŚ
That was not Ion that was Danuser, i think people should stop creidt Ion on lore claims when Ion is not a lore guy lol.
2 Likes
Ion has answered some story related questions on more than one occasion.
Not these kind of questions, there is a difference between explaining a lore that happenned and say how the lore team think about one element
Personally I absolutely forever loathe âShadowlandsâ with seething hatred, for trying to make Anduin have a parallel to Arthas & go all death-knighty with death âDoMiNaTiOnâ magics etc â Because I so keenly wanted to see Anduin get corrupted by the void and have a character development journey with that instead 
Especially as a priest.
- Naturally the void ordeal with Anduin is out of the window now, as theyâre probably not going to âcorruptâ him twice â Plus it wouldnât have the same shock value now as it would have, even if they did
Not to mention theyâve shoehorned the prime void dealings to Alleria now 
As for races relevance to such ordeals, the void is gobbled up by the Void Elves â The Forsaken having dealings with shadow magic is all but a forgotten concept now (especially with the Alliance having undead too now via Darkfallen).
Ultimately:
I rather donât like the Arthas VS Anduin parallels, because I feel it takes away the potential of Anduin as a stand-alone character 
1 Like
Whatâs funny is that Blizzard already had a character that was a parallel to Arthas and his fall from grace did not involve death magic but the void. That being⌠Garrosh. Even Garrosh says so in War Crimes.
It is so painful to see how hard Danuser tried to make Shadowlands the âend of the first book of Warcraftâ by shoehorning any sort of connection to WC3 as he could. Legion will forever be the true end of the âfirst bookâ imo. Because it ends with the Legionâs final defeat. The actual main antagonists since WC2 did a lore revamp to make Warcraft its own entity.
I still maintain that SL wouldâve landed a bit better amongst most players if Zooval was at least HINTED at. They couldâve dropped hints in BfA that there was someone behind the scenes pulling the strings.
Hell, they could have Bolvar mention a shadowy figure in Legion and have him explain thats why he was building up a new generation of Death Knights, letting go of the reigns slightly on the scourge, etc.
Honestly, Shadowlands âLoReâ felt so rushed, forced and insistent on itâs oh so apparent âImportance / Significance / totally-planned-foreshadowing-for-reals!â â Given FFXIV had a tidal-wave build up of storytelling which was praised at the time, it kind of felt like Danuser was trying to pull off a wannabe version of it.
- I ultimately hated how much retcons & butchered aesthetics he did to justify the god-awful âstory-tellingâ â villain, and overall expansion
After buying so many books, only to have mass amounts of them retconned felt like Blizzard wiped their asses with my money â which is why I didnât bother to buy the 4th volume of Chronicles, given the pass three I felt were disrespected with Shadowlands.
Thank GOD Danuser got thrown out when Metzen returned.
That wouldâve been cool⌠in Shadowlands. Now it would just feel like cheap drama and a desperate attempt to cash in on Arthas.
Thatâs still how it felt â in Shadowlands
I doubt much wouldâve changed with the way they wrote that grotesque expansion & retconned others merely to justify its terrible writing & attempt to uplift their villains.
Arthas had no shortage of will, certainly not lacking of will compared to Anduin. But will can have darkside to it, called Stubborness, and itâs Arthasâ chief defining trait. It led him to take a steed out and push it beyond itâs readiness, to defy his father, his own moral code in the actions he took at Stratholme, and Northrend, coupled with a zealous tendency to go to the extremes.
In short, the main difference betweent hese two princes is moderation. Arthas had practically none, and Anduin at times, a bit too much.
1 Like