When and why exactly did Arthas turn evil?

[Friendlyimmolation]

Yes, it is. It's not literal mindless puppeteering but there is a broad spectrum here. You even go on to say that taking up Frostmourne "conditioned his actions". Being magically conditioned is being mind-controlled. Even in the real world we make exceptions for people like Patty Hearst who were kidnapped and through Stockholm Syndrome "converted" to the terrorists' side. And she wasn't even, you know, having her soul magically ripped out by a cursed artifact created by demons.

The arthas book goes out of its way to show Arthas knew what he was doing was wrong, and he pushed down his regrets because if he acknowledged his evil he would succumb to his regret and not be able to take it. He also feels this way when he thinks hes going to lose to Uther.

[killwithpwr]

"Christie: Invincible?

WoW.com: Right, Invincible.

Christie: I have two major themes that I enjoy when I write. The first one is that I like to explore is, "What makes good people go bad?" The other is the power of the human spirit. I know they're cliche, but oh well. The idea is that Arthas doesn't really like to fail. He's a good kid, but he's not above lying or doing wrong things. With Invincible, he's put in a situation where an animal is completely reliant on him, and he does something wrong which ends in failure for him. He knows he shouldn't have done it, but he sort of lets it happen. He also has a bit of an ego, and he needs to justify what happened to himself.

Once he's fallen in with the Lich King, what does he do? He brings back Invincible. That's his justification. He didn't do anything wrong anymore. If Invincible hadn't died, he wouldn't have been able to raise it in undeath to be his steed later. That's the basis for a lot of what Arthas does. He's trying to justify himself and what he's done. He refuses the fact that he might have failed. This was the ultimate justification."


Right from the mouth of Christie Golden. Arthas, as a borderline psychopath, always refused to that he failed. It happened with Invincible and then the continuous escape of Mal'Ganis.

People here dont relate to the minor subtelties that make a human being... Even in this fantasy world...
Having to kill his horse was a minor turning point that had affected him majorly down the path to insanity

[Deleted]

I was always under the impression post WotlK that it was Yogg-Saron who turned him evil. That he was drawn to Northrend cause just being there fucks you up mentally. Not sure if people like Mal'Ganis and Kel'Thuzad were aware of Yoggie being there under the snow, but they probably knew about something being wrong with Northrend.