I realize WC3 fanboys, back in the day, wanted to see Arthas get his comeuppance, so Blizzard put WotLK as WoW’s third expansion to calm them down.
…but apparently every expansion after that, can’t seem to go by without some direct or indirect connection to the Lich King. Well after his death.
Did Blizzard make a mistake by finishing Arthas’ story too soon?
IMO what made Vanilla great was despite Naxx40, Arthas was still a looming threat, something to fear, but yet cannot be seen. This notion carried on through to TBC, when it had us focus on Illidan and the Blood Elves, both whom have been affected by Arthas as well.
Now what if we skip WotLK and went straight to the Cataclysm. As the lore would go, when the heroes returned to Azeroth after defeating Illidan at the Black Temple, we saw Azeroth being burned by Deathwing.
Then came Mists of Pandaria, and as we can all agree was a “Filler Expansion” that could’ve been done at anytime. But as the Loremasters said, that it was because of the Cataclysm, the Pandas came out of hiding, so I guess leave it there.
Warlords of Dreanor’s relation to the Lich King was with Ner-zhul before he became the first Lich King. A good opportunity to learn about the Lich King’s lore, before we take him out in the Prime Azeroth universe,
Legion is another expansion that couldn’t let go of Arthas, as it was the basis for the Death Knights’ class quests. But if WotLK is being told somewhere else, we could’ve have Darion fill in that role Bolvar had with missions to break into ICC under Arthas’ nose (as he slept on the Frozen Throne) to steal your artifact weapons. all the while filling us with lore of the Lich King between WC3 and today in WoW…kind of like a “primer” for the bigger showdown ‘yet’ to come.
Battle for Azeroth is interesting in a way, since it’s more about Jania than Arthas. She herself is still reeling in from the guilt of witnessing what Arthas has become. In most stories of good triumphing over evil, the hero themselves must overcome their internal struggle before rising above and vanquish the larger threat. Jania getting over herself over the failure of ‘saving Arthas’, and even trying to stop her father without killing him, would’ve made Jania a stronger character (reflective of the player’s new found strength) signifying that the player-audience is finally ready to attack the Lich King.
AFTER BFA, would’ve been the best time to release WotLK……We kill Arthas, but sooner after we realized there was a LARGER threat in the shadow, the true Puppet-Master behind the Lich King’s power…
And then with Shadowlands, knowing everything little thing Arthas did was because of the Jailer…wouldn’t it have been prudent to have the WotLK expansion before Shadowlands, but after Vanilla, TBC, CATA, MoP, WoD, and LEG?
I mean, wouldn’t it sound better than to kill the favorite bad guy early in WoW’s lore (relative to now), only to hear all the main lore characters since then pissing and moaning about him after his death? Or worse, make it sound like Blizzard is desperate they need to mention Arthas now and then to keep the player’s ear perked and excited?