I’m not just being an Arthas fanboy with this - I like what they’ve done with Jaina’s character recently, and I’m pretty neutral with regards to Uther (although the Afterlives Bastion video seems to be setting up a pretty dark turn there).
However, for a long time I’ve felt pretty strongly that, if you could shake a finger at anyone OTHER than Arthas, Ner’zhul and Kel’thuzad with regards to responsibility for the Fall of Lordaeron, it was actually Jaina and Uther who are most culpable.
Why?
First of all, Arthas at that juncture (at the gates of Stratholme) had the most experience fighting the plague - neither Jaina nor Uther were engaged in direct combat with the nascent scourge as much as he was. So, personal feelings (re: revulsion) aside with regards to the proposed culling, both Jaina and Uther should have taken into consideration that he might be correct, and that there was no alternative.
Second, people were transforming into zombies before their very eyes. This wasn’t a “hey, let’s tend to these people and hope for a cure to pop up” kind of moment - the population of the city was infected and dying, and there was no cure at hand. The moment they perished, they would be zombified, spreading the plague to others (and there would be no way to assure that the residents who did escape wouldn’t be infected themselves, carrying the disease to, say, the capital). Both Uther and Jaina at least knew this, even if they lacked Arthas’ personal experience in fighting the Cult of the Damned directly.
Finally, two people as close to Arthas as Jaina (his ex lover) and Uther (his mentor and pseudo-father figure) should have recognized that this was a singularly crucial moment for such an important (heir to the most powerful kingdom on Azeroth; an extremely potent paladin in his own right; commander of an enormous army) person as Arthas Menethil. Even if Jaina and Uther (obviously) could not peer into the future, it was very clear that a) their friend was struggling deeply, b) he - not previously being a mass murderer - would not lightly condemn innocent people to death, and c) simply walking away (saying “hey, I want no part of this, but you do you, bro”) was a complete abrogation of both their personal responsibility to a buddy, and their positions as leaders/heroes of humanity (IE, if you believe Arthas is that wrong, kill him. Walking away doesn’t save anyone, it just dumps all the grief, agony, righteous zeal, etc. onto Arthas’/his men’s shoulders).
In retrospect, of course, we know that Arthas was completely correct - there was no cure for the plague; certainly no cure that could be called upon in the short window of time before Stratholme was totally consumed by the undead. So the options were really a) cut down everyone and spare them the suffering of rotting alive/becoming a shuffling corpse, or b) walking away and letting exactly that happen, and allowing it to spread to the rest of the world. There wasn’t any rosy proposition c) that left everyone alive.
However, even in the moment, knowing how little they did, the way in which Jaina and Uther acted was - in the very least - completely irresponsible. And, frankly, I believe they both bear a fairly hefty portion of the blame for every bad thing that followed with regards to the Lich King. Walking away from Arthas at the gates wasn’t just a personal betrayal, it was a perfidious abandonment of their own proclaimed morals. “I can’t watch you do this” is in no way the equivalent of “I can’t let you do this.” You either have the guts to stand for what you believe in (however wrong) and intervene, or you don’t. And they didn’t.
You do have to wonder about the implications of knowing - for sure - there was an afterlife. My guess is, such a revelation would cause IRL society to completely implode.
Fate implies a certain amount of destiny. Now, obviously the writers wanted Arthas to fall, so he was destined to fall. But in-universe, while Arthas was definitely a marked man, I’m not sure things had to turn out the way they did. For example - in the most extreme case possible - we know that the AU WoD Arthas isn’t the Lich King. One would assume he’s a prince or a young King of Lordaeron, potential married to AU Jaina. Because, clearly, no Horde invasion means a completely different reality for that Azeroth.
I don’t think Arthas was destined to be the Lich King, though once his friends made their call at Stratholme, his fall into at least being a death knight was just about assured (recall that even the Lich King didn’t necessarily know he would need to merge with Arthas until the expansion).
The Argent Crusade is curing infections in Stormwind. Granted time has passed and knowledge of the scourge has increased, there might have been another way. It is not given that no cure existed, only that Arthas didn’t know about one. He should have listened to Uther. There might have been another way.
It would be incredibly risky - utterly reckless, in fact - to try and quarantine what becomes mindless undead, when there’s no indication that anything is left of the person they were.
“There might have been another way” is a call to our morals when there were far, far worse things that could have happened if Arthas hadn’t done what he did. Outright slaughter was a bit far, but killing the infected and turned was about all that anyone could do.
The plague was completely foreign to people. It’s easy to see why Uther and Jaina reacted the way they did. Stratholme is really just to show you why Arthas started becoming what he has, he’d do anything to defend his people and that was his downfall as he ended up picking a cursed blade not realizing that the thing he thought would give him the power to help his people would make him kill all his people.
I’m definitely not commenting what that other way might be because quite frankly, I don’t know. It is absolutely a call to morals. Arthas was a paladin, a defender of life and the light. Proclaiming that Uther had committed treason and disbanding the Silver Hand demonstrates the rashfullness of Arthas’ thinking.
I started reading your post before looking at your profile picture. While I was reading, my peripheral perception made me think your profile pic was that of Momo. Kind of a startling way to start the morning.
They didn’t have time. The people of the city started turning into undead shortly after the Cull began.
It’s fairly safe to say that there was no way a cure would have been thought up in time to save Stratholme and Arthas was doing the people a favour by ending their suffering and saving them the fate of rising as an undead.
In my opinion, it’s a far better “grey area” situation than the whole Sylvanas shenanigans. Do you either a) wait and pray for a cure while the people die and become mindless undead so as to possibly save some or b) assume no cure will arrive in time and cull the doomed so as to potentially save those they might later kill?
To me it’s definitely one of the better story points in Warcraft history, that’s for sure. It’s a legitimately divisive moral and ethical dilemma and, at least in my eyes, the choice that was written for Arthas was the correct one given everything that was known at that time.
Pretty much this, which is why i’ve never liked Uther & Jaina.
Not only did they not have the stomach to do what was required, they both left Arthas to bear it on his shoulders alone.
Stratholme would’ve descended into a fortress for the Scourge had Arthas not taken action when he did, meanwhile Uther & Jaina wanted to sit on their hands. The plagued grain was distributed, people were turning in the streets and their homes, ripping their loved ones apart.
Uther & Jaina failed Arthas that day, I don’t understand what Uther is mad about in SL. It’s his own fault.
Problem was, Mal’ganis was in the city accelerating the conversion process.
It was a lose lose no matter what Arthas chose. That is the whole point of it. Go in and kill those who are infected and burn their bodies before they turn, or sit back and form a plan to cure them, but by that point it would be too late with Mal’ganis running around inside the city. Either way, Arthas loses and seeks to get revenge on Mal’ganis.
It was why Medivh was trying to convince the key people in power, including Arthas to drop everything and flee to Kalimdor. Lordaeron was lost long before Arthas and Jaina went on their quest to investigate the plague.
People were already turning in the streets, where would there have been time for this?
Unlike in the game, people on Azeroth still travel by horseback or foot. With Stratholme quickly descending into madness, how on Azeroth would they have made it in time to be even remotely effective?
The funny thing is, blizzard would repeat this scenario in Starcraft 2 wings of Liberty. Where Raynor has to choose between defeating the Protoss to give Dr Hanson enough time to find a cure to the Zerg virus, or aid the Protoss in purifying the infected. However, blizzard sees the “good” ending (Safe Haven mission) canon in that scenario. Personally, I would’ve preferred if Havens’ Fall was the “true canon” option, because it adds to the overall tone of WoL.
I used to be of this opinion until I did Chromie Time, where you get to see the start of the culling from the other side. You’re just doing mundane quests, learning about these people’s worries, the orphans, etc, and then all of a sudden, there’s shouting, Prince Arthas is outside, murdering people with an army. It’s terrifying. Horrifying. What did they do to deserve this?
I think all those people died scared and in pain, which is as awful as having become a Scourge. There could have been another way to save them. Maybe freeze the city or some kind of magical temporary slow down. Or if you had to kill them, make it all once, and painless. I get what he was trying to do. He wasn’t wrong for wanting to stop the plague, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
This end did not justify his means. It was a bloodbath, and he was so quick to do it, not even humoring a non-lethal take down or the ethical ramifications of it. ‘There’s no time to explain, murder these civilians with me for they carry the scourge disease’ and then basically trying to strong arm people into do it. Instead of brainstorming an idea, or at least hearing their feedback or arguing for it. If you ask me ‘What do you do about Stratholme’ I don’t have an answer, but I don’t think culling it was the right call either.
ever since I played that campaign as a kid in warcraft 3 it never sat well with me. I think the tone of arthas was really what made him look bad, as in, his mind was set and he was convinced he knew the solution, and yeah he kinda did.
but how uther and jaina responded made us sympathize with them when deep down in reality we all knew arthas was right. i think this is a big reason why to this day his story is so hugely celebrated, because initially we all knew the dude was correct, then frostmourne happened woopsie
