Where Zovaal says the Lich Kings were all failures because they could resist him. We’ve been over this already.
Find me a source for your claim that the only thing Arthas resisted doing was sending the Scourge across the world.
Here’s the quest where we learn the Lich Kings all failed to do what Zovaal willed. No mention of the Scourge.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Jailer%27s_Grasp
That itself was contradicted in Wrath where Arthas has the memories of Ner’zhul, saying that he was once a shaman. And the back of the Arthas novel says they did merge.
“Upon learning this, Calia Menethil, his older sister, stated that while Arthas made his own choices, the Jailer had a part in them.”
That quote doesn’t exist in the article you linked. What does it this:
“As a result of this, while Calia still acknowledged that her brother had made his choices, she felt that the Jailer had a hand in them too.”
Even Calia acknowledges Arthas made his own choices.
It’s literally the quest I already linked you, buddy.
The quest which confirmed Arthas was acting as Arthas wanted. He was no agent of Zovaal.
In the form of the Redemption Equals Death trope.
It really would have complicated things if Anakin had survived.
Arthas has his memories, but in the ultimate mind duel, he obliterated Ner’zhul’s personality. When his eyes open in the beginning Wrath cinematic was the moment of that ultimate triumph.
She also acknowledges that Zovaal manipulated those choices though.
What? everything I have read says he lost his soul and was assimilated.
Where is this stated?
That isn’t what she said. She said Zovaal had a hand in the choices Arthas made on his own. She doesn’t say Arthas was manipulated, just that Zovaal has some culpability.
She, again, accepts that Arthas’s choices were made by Arthas.
Then I guess you haven’t read the Arthas novel. The Lich King sits on his throne for 5 years between the events of Frozen Throne and the beginning of Wrath. It reveals that those 5 years were a constant battle between Arthas, Ner’zhul, and the remains of his Human empathy, internalised as a child. In the end, the Arthas personality obliterates those other two and that final moment of triumph is when his eyes open and he breaks out of his ice encased form.
“No” Arthas whispered. “No we. No one tells me what to do. I’ve got everything I need from you - now the power is mine and mine alone. Now there is only I. I am the Lich King. And I am ready”
Excerpt from the back of the Arthas novel….after he stabbed Ner’zhul in his dream state. No contradiction 
Nope never did. Thanks, that was enlightning.
So the person we face in Wrath Arthas and not Nerzhul controlling Arthas. Is it a good book? Should I give it a chance? I so rarely have time these days.
But if I do read it and Danuser retcons something in it I will be so damn pissed.
Also are you sure he obliterates the other rather than absorb them? If Arthas does show up in this expansion eventually… I wonder if Prince Arthas is going to be facing a Deathknight Arthas like RG Sylvanas had to face the Banshee Queen.
It’s admittedly a little bit unclear. His internalized psychic “self” specifically uses an internalized psychic manifestation of Frostmourne to slay them, which could theoretically represent the Arthas personality enslaving both as subordinate, locked-away parts of his mind the way Frostmourne consumed and imprisoned its victims. At the very least he seemed to retain all of Ner’zhul’s knowledge, so not everything of the elder shaman was destroyed when Arthas’ personality took over.
Plus there’s the echo of Ner’zhul that DK players encountered when claiming the shards of Frostmourne, so Ner’zhul didn’t seem to have been entirely erased. Most importantly he was reduced to the point of no longer being a decision-making portion of the Lich King’s psyche, so the only “hands at the wheel” were Arthas’ (minus all that inconvenient empathy and compassion), with the voice of Frostmourne whispering suggestions in his ear all the time, which informed his borderline obsessive fixation with incorporating the blade’s motif all over Icecrown Citadel.
Well it does explain how Bolvar seemed to be on our side when he put on the helmet though he wanted us to leave and not mess with him.
I don’t like the new Bolvar. I do not like him at all.
When I said the back I meant the actual back.
You know, that paragraph or two that summaries the main plot of the novel.
Also nice of you to ignore the part I referenced from Wrath… which came out after the novel.
Weird how you guys always ignore things that you can’t move the goal posts with.
You know, in a meta sense maybe Zovaal IS the greatest villain in all of World of Warcraft- who else has shown the power to reach back and retroactively turn the game’s greatest expansion into a crapfest?
I remember it as a good read.
Rewatch the Wrath cinematic again. There’s a reason why the narration is Terenas talking to his son Arthas.
Are you being dense on purpose?
“Long before his soul fused with that of the orc Ner’zhul…” That is from the actual rear of the book. The back cover.
One throw away line in wrath doesn’t nullify the novel….