Arthas is a Hero figure, he doesn’t just easily fall down like the rank and file cannon fodder. Putress and his alchemists severly underestimated just how tough he was, yet he didn’t stick around for a second dose.
Presumably because Arthas armor is saronite, just like what the fortress at Icecrown itself was made of. And presumably the Younger’s axe was just that… a well-made but mundane axe.
Sylvannas from the get go has operated through people who took the front stage while she remained in the shadow. Her first agents were Banshees who possessed Garithos’ subordinates.
You aren’t going to get exact answers just a pastiche observations. Bolvar was like Arthas, only a bit less so, so he didn’t just dissolve like everyone else who was there. Red Dragon fire burns and regenerates and so apparantly this is what happened to him.
Good writing is not about explaining things that the characters themselves never find out. It’s all about the presentation of the story. If the true "reason’ or mechanics aren’t discovered “in universe”, that means they aren’t intended to be the focus of the story.
For one, per Uther in the Halls of Reflection, the Lich King can only be killed at The Frozen Throne. And two, while we’ve seen the blight destroy lesser undead (which Arthas was surrounded by when the blight was launched) we haven’t seen it strike greater undead. For example if Kel’Thuzad or Anub’arak had been hit by the blight, they too might have been merely wounded over killed like the ghouls and skeletons.
The axe was just a regular axe and Frostmourne shattered artifacts like Felo’melorn (the sword of the Sunstrider dynasty and the fire mage artifact weapon) when they clashed before. Both the sword itself and Arthas’ strength played a role in the shattering.
Per the Sylvanas novel, she felt that it would be impractical leave the Undercity and fully planned on personally joining the war effort once the way into Icecrown was breached.
None of the leaders actually expected Arthas to show up at the Wrathgate, with all of them running their kingdoms while trusting their generals to combat the Scourge and keep them up to date on the ongoings on the war. I personally don’t think even Bolvar expected his taunt to Arthas to actually summon the guy. However as Chronicle Volume 3 revealed, Arthas personally showed up because he wanted to crush their hope because he felt if they breached Icecrown at the Wrath Gate the hope and determination they felt could push them to destroy the Scourge once and for all.
It was weird combination of the blight and red dragon fire. According to the World of Warcraft: Ultimate Visual Guide the blight doomed him to death but he ended up held in a living state by the red dragons’ fire. And the main reason it hasn’t been repeated for other people is that circumstances just hadn’t been repeated. From what it looks like by the time the dragon fire against the blight started Bolvar was only one still standing, thus the only one saved in this manner.
Never heard of this. Why would this even be the case? And surely if you destroyed his body that would have some sort of lasting affect on Arthas’ ability to be a threat.
Well, I guess that makes sense. I just didn’t think Frostmourne would be able to just… slice through weapons like they were made out of brittle glass. I figured it would take many blows to shatter weapons like Felo’melorn.
Doesn’t really make sense does it? It’s illogical to assume that only Bolvar was still alive when the Red Dragons came in… there should have been many other people in exactly the same circumstances as Bolvar was in that led to that… it seems more like just a random thing Blizzard wanted to do and made up explanations after the fact.
She didn’t plan it. Afrasiabi muddied the waters on this for a few years, but the Sylvanas novel reaffirms the original course of events. Putress and Varimithras planned it and in the aftermath staged a coup against Sylvanas.
Yes. Why only Bolvar? Who knows. Maybe he just got lucky, or maybe the Lich King made sure he survived so he could break him and make him into a servant.
Okay, so while yes on paper you are right Uther said “you must destroy the Lich King at the place where he merged with Ner’zul atop the Frozen Throne”
But here’s the deal, regardless of Daunser’s handwaved response that this manifestation of Uther was the result of the fracturing of his soul (which doesn’t make sense because his soul also appears in the Paladin Ashbringer Scenario, how many soul shards does this guy have?) Or a manipulation to lure Jaina into a trap the LK later pulls in that very same dungeon…
You haven’t even considered that this information is wrong or potentially contradictory, because guess what, we killed the LK at the Frozen Throne and we only killed Arthas. Why? Because
iirc, the meta reason was because of an outcry that Bolvar was ‘killed off’ in a way no-one was expecting him to go out on. So Blizzard made the whole ‘there must always be a Lich King’ thing as a way to keep Bolvar in the story moving forward.
It did make the Lich King’s death more memorable than most though. I used to hate the “there must always be a Lich King” stuff but in hindsight it was a good move. Illidan’s death fell flat in comparison because there was no pathos to it. He went crazy and died and the story moved on without missing a beat.
Per Blizzard it was speculation about Bolvar’s fate after the Warthgate that got Blizzard deciding to make him the new Lich King.
Their original plan with Bolvar is currently unknown.
ICC might of had both Dranosh and Bolvar as a duo Death Knight boss battle. Or Bolvar could have been the DK boss with Dranosh just being dead after the Wrathgate.
This was one of the stupidest pieces of writing in WoW history. “The Scourge are totally way stronger when they’re unorganized and have no leadership than as an organized and coherent military force. If there wasn’t a Lich King HOLDING THEM BACK they would totally just rampage through the world and kill everyone!”
It was a horrible move. It was completely horrible writing.
I don’t know. It was just the story that Blizzard decided to establish.
It’s possible that when Ner’zhul was tossed into Azeroth by Kil’jaeden, the energies from the Twisting Nether wrapped around him and thus when he crash landed, it turned the Frozen Throne into like a “Kill Lich King” area or something.
it doesn’t make sense though, that’s where he’s the strongest. It was easier to kill him in Lordaeron. Sylvanas almost killed him when she broke free of him, it took Kel’thuzad to save him.
The image of Uther was luring the Aliance heroes, and Tirion into a trap.
Thinking of the Shadowlands, that Soul might not have even been Uther, could have been Zooval telling the heroes to go ICC and defeat the Lich King, knowing they would all die. Which everyone but Tirion did.