Since Sylvanas has been controlled by the jailer this whooooole time. This also means Arthas was controlled by the Jailer the entire time. Yes! When Arthas raised Sylvanas into the undead it was actually the Jailer!
Thus, just like Sylvanas committed war crimes on par with that little moustache man and can be forgiven because she was mind-controlled, so too can we forgive Arthas!
Time to revive Arthas and bring him back from the dead because it was just one big misunderstanding.
You have a point. The first soul Frostmourne took was Arthas’. So according to the Sylvanas stans, that basically absolves Arthas of everything he did as the Lich King.
Per Cdev, Arthas was evil before even touching Frostmourne, they are not the same.
Arthas said he would gladly take on any curse to save his people, Sylvanas did not, they are not the same.
There is a reason Sylvanas died a hero and Arthas died a spoiled man child.
Even more, when Arthas was a DK he was listening for orders from the Lich King. When he was a Lich King he was listening for orders from the Jailor.
Arthas was always under control, fully. So Arthas was more like a slave to the Jailors will.
While from the developers interviews we know that Sylavans was not under control. She was Jailors ally! Yes, Jailor did hide her good part of her soul, but her bad part of a soul was still doing all the bad things willingly. Its not the same.
So, Alliance human Arthas definitely should return to the heroes team.
Like you could find this out by playing WC3 and that game is somewhere around 20 years old. If you didn’t see Arthas wasn’t a good guy long before he picked up Frostmourne you had your head in the sand during the human campaign.
I don’t like the way the story has gone because I preferred the idea of Arthas damning himself, but logically if the game’s going to tell a “nobody deserves the maw” thing, then it’s only fair to include absolutely everyone in that. I definitely wouldn’t want to see him rezzed, though.
I think Sylvanas is just different on a meta level because of the two of them, she’s the one that was a racial leader and it feels like the horde’s churned through so many characters already that there’s little left to be attached to. Not that I want to see her rejoin, but the alliance in WoW never “lost” Arthas as a followable character to begin with.
Well Arthas did plenty of bad things before he picked up Frostmourne. He had already done the culling of Stratholm, and defied his father, the king, by not returning, and he sunk his ships.
Most if not all of the things Sylvanas has done that are considered evil happened after she encountered Arthas and the sword.
Did this actually happen? I don’t think this actually happened.
She wasn’t?
Being tricked is not the same thing as being controlled by.
Yeah, but he was already a p.o.s. BEFORE he picked up Frostmourne.
Well, I guess we’re on that path
gl hf
…and completely ruin anything good about his character’s arc! That sounds fantastic!
It’ll go right along with the theme of many current pop culture franchises. Build up a good character arc, pass it on to another writing/production team, then dive bomb it straight into the ground.
Niiiice. sunglasses
I think being told to forgive Arthas would be the point of no return to me. At best he is the world’s most destructive DUI when he chose to take up something that had cursed all over it. Just as those who do not want to buddy with Sylvanas, I don’t want to buddy with a person whose self serving revenge quest made him a tool for multiple genocides.
Honestly I’m very confident something like that would happen.
It would completely undermine the story of WC3. Arthas has already gotten a pretty wild head start on his sin quota before he picks up the cursed sword. Which of course is explicitly stated to be cursed by 3 separate sources before he grabs it. But the characters a loud, arrogant prick who doesn’t heed warnings so of course he picks it up.
Arthas is interesting because he behaves as if he’s aware he’s a handsome prince in a fairytale story. Clearly all the evil ish he’s done is just the hard choices everybody else is afraid to make- afterall who else is supposed to be the hero here? The Orc?
Turns out; yeah. Subversion of expectations is a bit of a meme phrase these days but when it’s done well it not only makes for a good story but expands the sort of stories you can tell in that setting. WC3 is still a gold standard for doing it right in this genre.
But we’re playing fan fiction at this point. The sort that ignores every point going so long as it’s favorite characters get to look cool. So I would actually be more surprised if we don’t get Arthas at the least making a heroic sacrifice by the end.
Will Arthas be saved from the Maw? Probably.
Will he be resurrected and return to life on Azeroth? Not likely.
Despite their similar situations, Sylvanas is technically still alive (albeit undead) and Arthas was killed by us. While he did not deserve to be cast directly into the Maw, he does deserve to face the judgement of the Arbiter, as anyone who has died should.
If we are able to restore The Arbiter and save Arthas soul then the correct thing would be to have him face judgement and be sent to the appropriate after life that takes into account Zovaal’s interfere an end in his destiny.
Unfortunately the going theory right now is that he was used to create Kingsmourne - so it may no longer be possible to recover him.
A lot people - somewhat jokingly- say Sylvanas might end up being the Arbiter, or part of a Council of Arbiters. It would be interesting if her first task was to try and judge Arthas fairly. That could be a test to see if she could put her personal issues aside and judge him as a whole for the correct covenant.
Please, God, no, I don’t want Blizzard touching Arthas. The team hasn’t been able to do right by anyone tied to the Jailer. I want Arthas to be done well, he is arguably the character to encapsulate the WoW franchise in a single image. If they ruin him, they’ll markedly damage the image of the game.
One of the things I despise about this, is that it will probably come true and a MORTAL will take on the task of judging every living soul. ugh 
As for Arthas, his redemption story was solidified in the Shadowmourne Quest, he held onto Jania’s locket. There’s still good in Arthas, I just know it! 