Arthas' ultimate fate
Hmm....this probably doesn't mean anything, but I just noticed something while reviewing my Statistics on the WoW Armory...
For most bosses, it counts "kills." "Magtheridon kills..." "Gruul kills..." "Lord Marrowgar kills..."
However, not all encounters end in the boss's death, so the wording is different for those. For instance, for the Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme, it says "Mal'Ganis defeated..." since you don't kill him, just fight him to a standstill before he flees to Northrend. For the Keepers of Ulduar, it's listed as "Freya victories" and "Thorim victories" (IN THE MOUNTAINS!!!) since you don't kill them, you help them break free of Yogg-Saron's corruption. In the Argent Tournament encounters, many of the battles end with the surrender of your opponent, so it lists "Victories over Argent Confessor Paletress," etc. In a not-yet-unlocked section of Icecrown Citadel, it lists "Valithria Dreamwalker rescues," as we have to help and heal a green dragon to win the boss encounter.
Then, way down at the bottom of the page... "Victories over the Lich King"!
Hmmmmmm... Verrrrrrry interesting... Very interesting indeed!
I posted the above to the official forums. We'll see what the unwashed masses there think about it. If the post is mysteriously deleted we'll know I'm onto something. ;)
GAH, I can't wait to find out how the Lich King battle unfolds!!!
I care from a plot standpoint more than a gaming one, partly since I'll never raid it at the proper level. I wish I was an uber player on the cutting edge of endgame, but I'm not. I never saw Nefarian at level 60, or Illidan at 70, and I doubt I'll see the Lich King at 80. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not counting on it.
---
Warning! Incoming rambling speculation, critical analysis a.k.a. English major B.S., Warcraft lore review, and spoilers for the last Harry Potter book, Icecrown questing, the Halls of Reflection dungeon, and the Arthas novel! ;)
---
Also, although I'm much more of an Illidan fangirl than an Arthas one, I'm a sucker for a villain redemption plot arc, and after seeing Blizzard throw both Illidan and Kael'thas under the bus of "OMG he went craaaaaaazy, go kill him for epix, lulz", I'd really like to see something different this time around. Kael'thas deserved that treatment the least out of the three, as he was desperate and determined but never evil in WC3. Illidan was obviously a less-than-upstanding fellow with dubious moral character, but he was more or an antihero in WC3 than a villain. He was usually working toward a good goal somehow, albeit with questionable means. Still, it's more believable for him to go the brazen villain route than for Kael.
And then there's Arthas. Although he's not my first or even second choice for a redeemed character, I'd really like to see him regain a glimmer of honor, somehow. (For my first and second choice, see previous paragraph...but that's water under the bridge now, I guess.)
For one thing, his relationship with Jaina is one of the very few canon romances in the Warcraft universe, and seeing that come to the forefront again would make me very happy. (I'm a girl, okay, I like some mushy romance in the midst of all the spraying blood and oozing plague slime. :-p So shoot me!)
Furthermore, he was such a stubborn putz in WC3 that I want him to have learned from all that's happened. Simply killing him won't bring back the thousands of lives lost to the Scourge, and it won't make Lordaeron a fertile, idyllic land again. Neither would an apology, of course, but some hint of remorse from him would be satisfying.
It's actually a bit mystifying to me how much I want Arthas' redemption. He's not my favorite lore character, he doesn't turn me into a giddy fangirl like Illidan, and he's basically the embodiment of soulless, unrepentant EVIL in all of Azeroth. Why do I care whether he goes to his death reveling in how gosh-darn evil he is, or whether he regains any of his humanity?
I guess I just would love the plot twist, the departure from all the big bad bosses before him. And there's a deep-seated human need for redemption stories. I won't drag the Bible into this (much), but there's a reason that literature from Dante to Rowling has resonated so strongly with the masses. We humans are miserable, fallible creatures, and anyone with a moral compass will at some point find themselves feeling remorse for their misdeeds. We need to believe that we can find peace and happiness in the future, unhindered by our past failings. (I almost wrote, "We need to believe that we can redeem ourselves somehow," but as a Christian I believe that isn't possible. We can only find redemption through Jesus Christ. The world of Azeroth, of course, is a completely different universe, so Christian beliefs need not apply. Basic human instincts and spiritual yearnings, however, are very much applicable.)
It's like the Prodigal Son. It's easy to blandly admire Uther the Lightbringer because he's good and noble and pure and just and yawwwwwwn, whatever. Boring. It's hard to relate to saints. But a character like Arthas, who tries, fails, agonizes, despairs, resents, repents, pouts, rages, and (potentially) claws his way back into the Light...that kind of character is vastly more interesting and relatable. On the flipside, the cookie-cutter Evil Overlord isn't that much fun, either. Pure goody-goodys aren't enjoyable, and neither are pure "Grr, I'm evil and I kill puppies JUST BECAUSE I CAN, BWAHAHAHAHAA!!!" types.
It's similar to what drew me to Severus Snape as a character. Critics such as John Granger (no relation to Hermione) suggested that he was playing the role of the penitent sinner from classic Christian literature, and Book 7 bore that out.
If I can step back from the heavy theological discussion, I'd like to shift gears a bit and point out how funny it is that the more Blizzard goes out of its way to convince us that Arthas is completely, unequivocally, 110% past all hope of redemption...the more I dig in my heels and want it to happen.
WAYS BLIZZARD IS TRYING TO HAMMER IT THROUGH OUR SKULLS THAT ARTHAS IS NOT REDEEMABLE
Way the First: The Tirion's Gambit questline in Icecrown
You find the heart of Davy Jones Arthas Menethil that he tore out and locked in a chest buried on an island threw down into a cavern beneath the citadel, and eventually you and Tirion Fordring confront the Lich King about it.
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: That might be, but I don't need to stand on holy ground to run that disembodied heart of yours through with the Ashbringer.
The Lich King says: I call your bluff. You're a paladin after all. Your obsession with redemption goes beyond the insane.
The Lich King says: You surely wouldn't destroy humanity's only chance to redeem its most wayward son. You'd sooner die!
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: The heart... the last remaining vestige of your humanity. I had to stop it from being destroyed. I had to see for myself. And at last I'm sure...
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: Only shadows from the past remain. There's nothing left to redeem!
[Copy-and-pasted from WoWWiki because I'm lazy.]
At which point Tirion destroys the heart with the Ashbringer, wounding the Lich King but knocking himself out. The Knights of the Ebon Blade swoop in and rescue you and Tirion, and the quest chain is over.
Way the Second: The novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
At the end the Lich King very blatantly destroys both his innocence/humanity, and Ner'zhul's presence in his mind. There's very little wiggle-room given by Christie Golden's wording. From page 306:
[Inside his dreaming mindscape, the boy who embodies Arthas' innocence/humanity is speaking.] "It doesn't have to be too late," he said quietly.
"No, Arthas said quietly, staring raptly at the boy. "It doesn't."
He touched the curve of the boy's cheek, slipped a hand beneath the small chin and tilted up the shining face. He smiled into his own eyes.
"But it is."
Frostmourne descended. The boy cried out, his shocked, betrayed, anguished cry--that of the wind raging outside--and for a moment Arthas saw him standing there, the blade buried in his chest almost as big as he was, and felt one final tremor of remorse as he met his own eyes.
Then the boy was gone. All that remained of him was the bitter keening of the wind scouring the tormented land.
It felt...marvelous. It was only with the boy's passing that Arthas truly realized how dreadful a burden this last struggling scrap of humanity had been. He felt light, powerful, purged. Scoured clean, as Azeroth soon would be. All his weakness, his softness, everything that had ever made him hesitate or second-guess himself--it was all gone, now.
Yep, that's pretty cut and dry. >_<
Way the Third: Jaina in the Halls of Reflection
Jaina, the only person living who really knew Arthas as a man, the one who loved him most, holds out desperate hope that some shred of him remains.
When she calls forth the shade of Uther from Frostmourne, he warns her not to maintain such notions.
Uther: Jaina, you haven't much time. The Lich King sees what the sword sees. He will be here shortly.
Jaina: Arthas is here? Maybe I...
Uther: No, girl. Arthas is not here. Arthas is merely a dwindling presence with the Lich King's mind. A dwindling presence...
Jaina: But Uther, if there's any hope of reaching Arthas, I...I must try.
[Uther explains that there must always be a Lich King to keep the Scourge in check, so even if we kill the current one someone would have to take his place.]
Uther: I suspect that the piece of Arthas that might be left inside the Lich King is all that holds the Scourge from annihilating Azeroth.
Jaina: Then maybe there is still hope...
[Uther is not sympathetic, and tells her to snap out of it, the only way is to kill Arthas.]
Jaina: Tell me how, Uther? How do I destroy my prince? My...
Go ahead and say it, Jaina, we've all know you and Arthas were "more than friends." ;)
She pulls herself together and promises to deliver the information to the Ashen Verdict, just about the time Mr. Frostpants himself shows up and Uther's ghost goes poof. She runs off to try reasoning with her former main squeeze while the poor schmucks heroic players have to stay behind to fight Falric and Marwyn.
When you catch up with them, they're in combat and Jaina is clearly losing. She manages to freeze him long enough for you to get a head start running away. If you're lucky you manage to barely escape from the waves of undead he sends after you, and at the end Jaina is down to a sliver of her health. Only the timely arrival of an Alliance gunship prevents the Lich King from draining the last of her life away.
After this harrowing ordeal, even Jaina admits that all hope is lost. She says, "Forgive me, heroes. I should have listened to Uther. I... I just had to see for myself. To look into his eyes one last time. I am sorry. We now know what must be done. I will deliver this news to King Varian and Highlord Fordring."
Thus the ONE PERSON who was desperately clinging to the hope that Arthas might be reached, recovered and redeemed...is now resigned to the necessity of destroying him.
Yet for some stupid, unfathomable reason, I still won't give up.
One final thought: whatever Blizz does to Arthas in the end, they better have a kickass cinematic to go with it, dammit.
For most bosses, it counts "kills." "Magtheridon kills..." "Gruul kills..." "Lord Marrowgar kills..."
However, not all encounters end in the boss's death, so the wording is different for those. For instance, for the Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme, it says "Mal'Ganis defeated..." since you don't kill him, just fight him to a standstill before he flees to Northrend. For the Keepers of Ulduar, it's listed as "Freya victories" and "Thorim victories" (IN THE MOUNTAINS!!!) since you don't kill them, you help them break free of Yogg-Saron's corruption. In the Argent Tournament encounters, many of the battles end with the surrender of your opponent, so it lists "Victories over Argent Confessor Paletress," etc. In a not-yet-unlocked section of Icecrown Citadel, it lists "Valithria Dreamwalker rescues," as we have to help and heal a green dragon to win the boss encounter.
Then, way down at the bottom of the page... "Victories over the Lich King"!
Hmmmmmm... Verrrrrrry interesting... Very interesting indeed!
I posted the above to the official forums. We'll see what the unwashed masses there think about it. If the post is mysteriously deleted we'll know I'm onto something. ;)
GAH, I can't wait to find out how the Lich King battle unfolds!!!
I care from a plot standpoint more than a gaming one, partly since I'll never raid it at the proper level. I wish I was an uber player on the cutting edge of endgame, but I'm not. I never saw Nefarian at level 60, or Illidan at 70, and I doubt I'll see the Lich King at 80. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not counting on it.
---
Warning! Incoming rambling speculation, critical analysis a.k.a. English major B.S., Warcraft lore review, and spoilers for the last Harry Potter book, Icecrown questing, the Halls of Reflection dungeon, and the Arthas novel! ;)
---
Also, although I'm much more of an Illidan fangirl than an Arthas one, I'm a sucker for a villain redemption plot arc, and after seeing Blizzard throw both Illidan and Kael'thas under the bus of "OMG he went craaaaaaazy, go kill him for epix, lulz", I'd really like to see something different this time around. Kael'thas deserved that treatment the least out of the three, as he was desperate and determined but never evil in WC3. Illidan was obviously a less-than-upstanding fellow with dubious moral character, but he was more or an antihero in WC3 than a villain. He was usually working toward a good goal somehow, albeit with questionable means. Still, it's more believable for him to go the brazen villain route than for Kael.
And then there's Arthas. Although he's not my first or even second choice for a redeemed character, I'd really like to see him regain a glimmer of honor, somehow. (For my first and second choice, see previous paragraph...but that's water under the bridge now, I guess.)
For one thing, his relationship with Jaina is one of the very few canon romances in the Warcraft universe, and seeing that come to the forefront again would make me very happy. (I'm a girl, okay, I like some mushy romance in the midst of all the spraying blood and oozing plague slime. :-p So shoot me!)
Furthermore, he was such a stubborn putz in WC3 that I want him to have learned from all that's happened. Simply killing him won't bring back the thousands of lives lost to the Scourge, and it won't make Lordaeron a fertile, idyllic land again. Neither would an apology, of course, but some hint of remorse from him would be satisfying.
It's actually a bit mystifying to me how much I want Arthas' redemption. He's not my favorite lore character, he doesn't turn me into a giddy fangirl like Illidan, and he's basically the embodiment of soulless, unrepentant EVIL in all of Azeroth. Why do I care whether he goes to his death reveling in how gosh-darn evil he is, or whether he regains any of his humanity?
I guess I just would love the plot twist, the departure from all the big bad bosses before him. And there's a deep-seated human need for redemption stories. I won't drag the Bible into this (much), but there's a reason that literature from Dante to Rowling has resonated so strongly with the masses. We humans are miserable, fallible creatures, and anyone with a moral compass will at some point find themselves feeling remorse for their misdeeds. We need to believe that we can find peace and happiness in the future, unhindered by our past failings. (I almost wrote, "We need to believe that we can redeem ourselves somehow," but as a Christian I believe that isn't possible. We can only find redemption through Jesus Christ. The world of Azeroth, of course, is a completely different universe, so Christian beliefs need not apply. Basic human instincts and spiritual yearnings, however, are very much applicable.)
It's like the Prodigal Son. It's easy to blandly admire Uther the Lightbringer because he's good and noble and pure and just and yawwwwwwn, whatever. Boring. It's hard to relate to saints. But a character like Arthas, who tries, fails, agonizes, despairs, resents, repents, pouts, rages, and (potentially) claws his way back into the Light...that kind of character is vastly more interesting and relatable. On the flipside, the cookie-cutter Evil Overlord isn't that much fun, either. Pure goody-goodys aren't enjoyable, and neither are pure "Grr, I'm evil and I kill puppies JUST BECAUSE I CAN, BWAHAHAHAHAA!!!" types.
It's similar to what drew me to Severus Snape as a character. Critics such as John Granger (no relation to Hermione) suggested that he was playing the role of the penitent sinner from classic Christian literature, and Book 7 bore that out.
If I can step back from the heavy theological discussion, I'd like to shift gears a bit and point out how funny it is that the more Blizzard goes out of its way to convince us that Arthas is completely, unequivocally, 110% past all hope of redemption...the more I dig in my heels and want it to happen.
WAYS BLIZZARD IS TRYING TO HAMMER IT THROUGH OUR SKULLS THAT ARTHAS IS NOT REDEEMABLE
Way the First: The Tirion's Gambit questline in Icecrown
You find the heart of Davy Jones Arthas Menethil that he tore out and locked in a chest buried on an island threw down into a cavern beneath the citadel, and eventually you and Tirion Fordring confront the Lich King about it.
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: That might be, but I don't need to stand on holy ground to run that disembodied heart of yours through with the Ashbringer.
The Lich King says: I call your bluff. You're a paladin after all. Your obsession with redemption goes beyond the insane.
The Lich King says: You surely wouldn't destroy humanity's only chance to redeem its most wayward son. You'd sooner die!
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: The heart... the last remaining vestige of your humanity. I had to stop it from being destroyed. I had to see for myself. And at last I'm sure...
Highlord Tirion Fordring says: Only shadows from the past remain. There's nothing left to redeem!
[Copy-and-pasted from WoWWiki because I'm lazy.]
At which point Tirion destroys the heart with the Ashbringer, wounding the Lich King but knocking himself out. The Knights of the Ebon Blade swoop in and rescue you and Tirion, and the quest chain is over.
Way the Second: The novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
At the end the Lich King very blatantly destroys both his innocence/humanity, and Ner'zhul's presence in his mind. There's very little wiggle-room given by Christie Golden's wording. From page 306:
[Inside his dreaming mindscape, the boy who embodies Arthas' innocence/humanity is speaking.] "It doesn't have to be too late," he said quietly.
"No, Arthas said quietly, staring raptly at the boy. "It doesn't."
He touched the curve of the boy's cheek, slipped a hand beneath the small chin and tilted up the shining face. He smiled into his own eyes.
"But it is."
Frostmourne descended. The boy cried out, his shocked, betrayed, anguished cry--that of the wind raging outside--and for a moment Arthas saw him standing there, the blade buried in his chest almost as big as he was, and felt one final tremor of remorse as he met his own eyes.
Then the boy was gone. All that remained of him was the bitter keening of the wind scouring the tormented land.
It felt...marvelous. It was only with the boy's passing that Arthas truly realized how dreadful a burden this last struggling scrap of humanity had been. He felt light, powerful, purged. Scoured clean, as Azeroth soon would be. All his weakness, his softness, everything that had ever made him hesitate or second-guess himself--it was all gone, now.
Yep, that's pretty cut and dry. >_<
Way the Third: Jaina in the Halls of Reflection
Jaina, the only person living who really knew Arthas as a man, the one who loved him most, holds out desperate hope that some shred of him remains.
When she calls forth the shade of Uther from Frostmourne, he warns her not to maintain such notions.
Uther: Jaina, you haven't much time. The Lich King sees what the sword sees. He will be here shortly.
Jaina: Arthas is here? Maybe I...
Uther: No, girl. Arthas is not here. Arthas is merely a dwindling presence with the Lich King's mind. A dwindling presence...
Jaina: But Uther, if there's any hope of reaching Arthas, I...I must try.
[Uther explains that there must always be a Lich King to keep the Scourge in check, so even if we kill the current one someone would have to take his place.]
Uther: I suspect that the piece of Arthas that might be left inside the Lich King is all that holds the Scourge from annihilating Azeroth.
Jaina: Then maybe there is still hope...
[Uther is not sympathetic, and tells her to snap out of it, the only way is to kill Arthas.]
Jaina: Tell me how, Uther? How do I destroy my prince? My...
Go ahead and say it, Jaina, we've all know you and Arthas were "more than friends." ;)
She pulls herself together and promises to deliver the information to the Ashen Verdict, just about the time Mr. Frostpants himself shows up and Uther's ghost goes poof. She runs off to try reasoning with her former main squeeze while the poor schmucks heroic players have to stay behind to fight Falric and Marwyn.
When you catch up with them, they're in combat and Jaina is clearly losing. She manages to freeze him long enough for you to get a head start running away. If you're lucky you manage to barely escape from the waves of undead he sends after you, and at the end Jaina is down to a sliver of her health. Only the timely arrival of an Alliance gunship prevents the Lich King from draining the last of her life away.
After this harrowing ordeal, even Jaina admits that all hope is lost. She says, "Forgive me, heroes. I should have listened to Uther. I... I just had to see for myself. To look into his eyes one last time. I am sorry. We now know what must be done. I will deliver this news to King Varian and Highlord Fordring."
Thus the ONE PERSON who was desperately clinging to the hope that Arthas might be reached, recovered and redeemed...is now resigned to the necessity of destroying him.
Yet for some stupid, unfathomable reason, I still won't give up.
One final thought: whatever Blizz does to Arthas in the end, they better have a kickass cinematic to go with it, dammit.