Everyone? Arthas is easily one of the most popular characters in Warcraft and the most popular villain. I think you meant to write something different.
Na Sylvanas deserves nothing less then oblivion at this point.
Here’s the thing with that statement, it’s both correct and incorrect.
I don’t think Taretha deserves to be punished for freeing Thrall, she deserved to be punished for freeing Thrall after he made it very clear he intends to free the rest of his race. You know, the race that committed genocide on a massive scale against multiple other races aswell as other unspeakable crimes.
Any crimes the Horde has committed after her death is on her, the same way that is someone broke a serial killer out of jail and he ended killing a bunch of other people, they also share blame.
I never thought Id see the day id actually be happy to see Varian and here we are. Too bad Saurfang had to show up and ruin the moment tho.
Good riddance to Arthas and very fitting last words for him from Sylvanas of all people. And who better than Sylvanas. Uther can’t go a single minute to acknowledge Arthas was a monster long before frostmourne came into the picture and all his teachings was wasted on him and Jaina was always too love struck to see Arthas for what he really was.
The guy kept Sylvanas’s blood and items of Uther and Jaina for Christ sake not as mementoes of his humanity but as a serial killer who keeps trophies of his victims.
Tyrande has her power, but she isnt an avatar of the Night Warrior anymore. By letting go of her self consuming hatred she became an avatar of Elune’s Mother Moon aspect instead, hence her eyes are all glowy white.
The Kyrian 9.1 chapter, which came out less than a year ago. Uther and his relationship to Arthas are a major focal point of that chapter, and he expresses his guilt about throwing Arthas into the Maw to Pelagos. Pelagos specifically clarifies that since Arthas wasn’t judged by the Arbiter, he may have had a chance at finding redemption.
You’re ignoring entirely the context that Arthas was only in the Maw to begin with because Uther wrongly put him there. We don’t know if he would have been sent there by the Arbiter. The whole reason that Arthas is reduced to a fragment, not even a whole soul that could face judgement as Sylvanas observes, is because he spent years being ground down by the forges of the Maw. His state is a direct result of Uther’s actions, not any justice system of the Shadowlands.
As for Sylvanas, she has explicitly been told by Uther that her soul being split doesn’t absolve her of her actions. Uther even compared his corruption into Forsworn to her crimes, both being examples of them each becoming the antithesis of what they were in life as a consequence of their split souls, but that they both must carry the weight of those actions anyway. That’s why the title of that cinematic, “Shattered Legacies,” is plural, and why he uses “we” instead of “you” when he tells her, “We cannot change the past, and we may never find forgiveness in the future, but inaction damns us all.”
He burned his own ships and then killed the mercenaries he had hired, which also likely would have led to his own soldiers dying from exposure or starvation had they not been killed by him after he returned with Frostmourne. He was warned that Frostmourne was cursed and picked it up anyway, ignoring Muradin’s pleas. He left Muradin to die in Frostmourne’s cavern, even though he had the ability to heal him on the spot. He was being manipulated, yes, but he was not being dominated, he still had autonomy and the ability to make his own choices before he picked up Frostmourne. Ner’zhul never showed any ability to dominate a living person as far as I can recall; all the forces he dominated in Northrend were undead. Arthas chose to hunt Mal’ganis without telling his father, he chose to run off to Northrend, he chose to burn his ships when he was reprimanded, he chose to ignore one of his staunchest allies, and he chose to leave that ally to die so that he could go make out with a sword he knew was cursed instead. Ner’zhul didn’t force him to do any of that, that was all his own doing. Even then, Shadowlands still tells us that he might have had a chance at redemption, but Uther denied him that chance, and so we’ll never know.
Literally anyone who isn’t 100x worse then Arthas is. Sylvanas crimes make Arthas look like a jaywalker and that isn’t an exaggeration. And before you go, “Nuh uh, that was all the Jailer” then everything Arthas did can also be chalked up to the Jailer.
Let me ask you something, let’s say Blizzard got lazy, lazier then usual and completely copied this same cinematic but for the Zorval fight, except this time Sylvanas was about to be obliterated from existence and instead it’s Tyrande Whisperwind going, “Fade away little Banshee, let your memory be forgotten” and all the Night Elf posters are cheering and hollering, would you think that’s a good story decision?
Ner'zhul began to reach out his vast consciousness and touch the minds of Northrend's native inhabitants. With surprising ease, he enslaved the minds of many indigenous creatures, such as ice trolls and the fierce wendigo - and drew their evil brethren into his growing shadow. He found that his psychic powers were almost limitless, and used them to create a small army that he housed within Icecrown's twisting labyrinths.
Although we never see any of that in the game though. Which makes it questionable. This is before he found out that he could control undead. He found that out when he used his new plague to kill a whole human village living in Northrend. Kil’jaeden did tell him prior but… the demon lord is called the deceiver for a reason
As the Lich King mastered his growing powers under the Dreadlords' persistent vigil, he discovered a remote human settlement on the fringe of the vast Dragonblight. Ner'zhul decided to test his powers and his dread plague on the unsuspecting humans.
Ner'zhul sent the plague of undeath, which had originated from deep within the Frozen Throne, out into the arctic wasteland. Controlling the plague with his will alone, he drove it straight into the human village. Within three days, every human soul in the settlement was dead. Yet, in a surprisingly short amount of time, the dead villagers began to rise as zombified corpses. Ner'zhul could feel their individual spirits and thoughts as if they were his own. The raging cacophony in his mind caused Ner'zhul to grow even more powerful – as if their spirits provided him with much needed nourishment. He found it was child's play to control the zombies' actions and steer them to whatever end he wished.
Thanks, I’d forgotten that part, though I do wonder how much of it is still considered canon at this point, since as you say, it’s not seen in game. Ice trolls I assume would mean Drakkari, and in Wrath there are still plenty of living Drakkari who are fighting against the Scourge; the only Drakkari I can recall serving the Scourge were undead.
I feel like Ner’zhul abandoned that part of his abilities when he found out that controlling undead was easy and simple to do. As each soul under his control gave him more power. But yeah, the only living people who serve Ner’zhul do so willingly (i.e. the Cult of the Damned). Another thing WC3 Reforged should’ve done. Had enemies that are alive but clearly enslaved to Ner’zhul… I mean “Mal’ganis” (to keep up that illusion) during the 3 missions that take place in Northrend.
I remember this. And Arthas specifically didn’t find redemption because of author fiat. Again, this isn’t being framed as a tragedy of fate, especially not by this cinematic. This is the problem with giving Sylvanas the monologue instead of leaving viewers to come to their own conclusions about this. This just comes off as the writers telling you what to feel about this circumstance. The writers specifically telling you to forget about Arthas’s legacy.
All decisions made in the context that Mal’ganis was the head of the Scourge, and killing him would be the only way to stop it. He doesn’t need to be dominated by domination magic to not have a free choice in this circumstance. Arthas didn’t know about the Lich King at that point. He knew less about the situation and the circumstances he was in than Sylvanas did when she made the choices that she did, but we’re expected to have more sympathy for Sylvanas than Arthas. There’s an entire reason why this is framed from her perspective, because she’s the damn protagonist of this expansion.
Let me clarify that the entire reason why I’m taking exception with this turn of events is specifically because they’re redeeming Sylvanas. I was fine with Arthas dying the way he did in Icecrown, because that made sense. It was framed as a tragedy. He didn’t get any absolution there either, and that was okay. But if we’re going to start asking philosophical questions about the nature of free will and posing determinism versus libertarianism, then this was probably the worst way it could’ve turned out. Despite really wanting to, Danuser is not capable of tackling these subjects.
I don’t care Arthas was far worst and I’m not going to waste my time debating otherwise.
All of Sylvanas’s bad decisions always came from when she was undead/soul split and she will always have that excuse (Hell, I don’t even like that excuse) given how see seen DK and forsaken become twisted virions of themselves to varies degrees. Where Arthas was 100% alive long before he even put on the helm of domination.
I would hate every bit of it. But it would be the most appropriate outcome if they never resorted to the whole soul splitting thing.
And granted yes they could have used someone else to have last words for Arthas, but the only other two candidates (Uther and Jain) to this day always bring the goodtimes they had together or blame themselves for Arthas’s choices.
don’t 