Was he wrong though?
That entire city was a ticking timebomb to an undead horde. The city was lost before he even got there.
I don’t think it is arrogant to dismiss the ravings of a crazy old doomsayer that you don’t know.
Mediev did not introduce himself as the Guardian of Tirasfal, Terenas said “I don’t know who you are or what you believe”.
So are you of the opinion that we should just take the word of every old doomsayer as gospel?
I’m more worried that people are actually trying to defend arthas. Sylvanas is a different story. She was literally violated by arthas and turned into a banshee and than manipulated by zooval
And Arthas wasn’t violated by Ner’zhul and turned into a soulless monster, and then manipulated by Zooval?
Everything arthas did, HE himself did so willingly
No he didn’t.
He picked up Frostmourn believing it to be a magic weapon… You know, the things the WoW player character use all the time to defend Azeroth? And he did it only when being threatened with the death of his family and his people.
And after that, his soul was twisted and damaged, his humanity forcibly stripped from him. This is illustrated in the Arthas novel, as a sickly child representing his slowly dying humanity, the exact same narrative tool being used with Ranger General Sylvanas.
They are literally intended to mirror eachother.
The difference is only that Arthas’ story was written well, and Sylvanas is a joke.
Yes, in fact I actually took the time to reopen it prior to my message. The warning for arthas to take it easy was years prior to the incident where arthas has to put invincible down.
If you can defend Sylvanas but hate on arthas, this is incredibly hypocritical.
If I do my make up like I did when I was all gothed out, and threw on a black crop top, y’all think I could get away with burning down an orphanage?
Yes he was. In the end his actions only weakened Lordaeron and made things worse by sundering the forces needed tostand against the end.
Arthas also had that chance, and like his father, he chose not to heed.
His actions after his humanity was forcibly stripped from him, maybe. Stratholm spesifically, not at all.
An undead army would have sprouted up from Stratholms ruins and run rampant through the Northlands. Arthas’ stopped that.
Heroism is rarely wrapped up nicely in a pretty bow. Most of the time it is thankless and ugly.
Next time a homeless man gives you some off-the-wall life advice, best do what he says.
Just on the off chance that he is a Wizard who can see the future.
Mathias Shaw thought there could have been better ways to handle Stratholme.
Mathias Shaw is also an idiot who fell for the “Brilliant” strategy of the Horde turning right instead of left at the Cross Roads before War of Thorns.
“Should we garrison our border? I mean… the Horde is right there.”
Shaw: “Naw, they are going south, it’s good.”
Horde: “Sike”
It is actually amazing how much writing impacts the world as a whole. Compared to Warcraft 3, it’s like all of the major players in Azeroth are all idiots.
Imagine replacing all the WW2 world leaders with people from the Story Forums.
And he ignored every warning that the blade was a trap, that it was cursed. He committed lies betrayal and muder… and this was after Stratholme and BEFORE he took up the blade.
There is not much I wouldn’t do to save my family, and I would question the character of anyone who doesn’t share that sentiment.
Hindsight is 20/20. Could Arthas have choosen something better? Of course but the reason he didnt was because he was under alot of stress at the time/there were too many unknown variable.
As oppose to say the Accuser? Who’s every profit “came from murdering innocents”. At the very least Arthas has the excuse that what he was doing was in a (bad) attempt at trying to save his kingdom. Why does the Accuser get a second chance and Arthas does not? Seems like her crimes are graver then Arthas. Or how about Kael? When push came to shove on his kingdom he decided to ally with the Legion. He never had a morneblade split his soul but his actions could have been as devastating if not more so had the Alliance/Horde not stopped him.
I don’t agree, but I could understand why Arthas’ moral character pre-Frostmourne would be called into question.
What I don’t understand are the people who think Arthas is evil and Sylvanas is a just a victim of circumstance. That has to be the stupidest thing I have ever read on these forums.
To quote on of my fav scenes in television.
Melisandre: “It was the only way! I was just doing what my Lord commands!”
Davos: “If your Lord commands you to burn Children, your Lord is evil.”
At least the people at Stratholm were already dead.
His possessive refusal to accept anyone’s agency but his own got a lot more sinister and creepy when he was older. Specifically, his whole “never deny me” thing to Jaina while they were cough “reuniting” one night during the pursuit of Kel’Thuzad.
Followed by his flipping out when she subsequently “denied him” when called upon to help slaughter the population of Stratholme. It amounted to “you said you’d do anything I asked when we slept together, how could you then refuse to help me kill all these people?!”
Arthas had an extremely one-sided understanding of loyalty. Everyone else was supposed to meet his expectations, but he was allowed to set the terms of every interaction and feel betrayed by their reactions when he was the one breaking trust. Sure, as royalty he technically “gets to do that,” but its no less of an immoral, self-centered way of framing everyone by their use and convenience to him.
The hate you have for other women is just so disgusting. Do you have low self esteem issues? Wth is your problem?
So goth women are evil to you? Get a life.
If you put on a crop top and makeup you’d still be the miserable person you are, just prettier I guess.
I’m just so tired of your internalised misogyny against femininty or anything “feminine” it’s annoying af.
Your wierd projections against Sylvanas for being hot is just so transparent and makes me sad. Do you need someone to call you pretty?
… I am pretty Goth, m’am, lol. Not as much as I used to be but… Still. I like dark colors and dark clothing. My comment isn’t an attack on women, it is an attack on the Sylvanas fandom, which is mostly made up of horny dudes fetishizing her.
I mean, he didn’t flip out at Stratholm, he was heart broken. Of course Jaina was within her right, but Arthas’ emotions toward that is also just as valid.
Arthas believed he was doing the right thing… And imo, he was.
Well… He was a Prince in an absolute monarchy… Like, of course he does. Does that make him a bad person? Does that mean he wasn’t acting in the best interest of his Kingdom?
What are you even talking about? lol
Me: A Goth feminist who often shows midriff because I have hella abs.
Ren: “SO YOU HATE HOT GOTH GIRLS!?”
Like… what?
Um…yeah.
There have been many kings/princes IRL. Some were extremely exploitative and abusive of the power their positions afforded, constantly taking what they wanted at the expense of those who had less.
Others were more measured and restrained, not cavalierly causing widespread harm with capricious demands and abuses with indifference to who was affected.
I’m no fan of monarchy as a principled form of government, but the latter as individuals were being better people than the former.
His response at Stratholme was extremely messed up because of the very fact that rather than knowing someone like Jaina would reject the idea of butchering an entire city, his only thought was “but she promised to never deny me!” He wasn’t seeing her as a person with her own identity; he was seeing her as the person who’d promised to obey. His entire context for caring about her was “we broke up before because our relationship wasn’t exclusively on my terms, now we’re back together on the promise that she’ll do everything my way, on my terms.”
Not a healthy or moral way to deal with other human beings.