Who else thinks World of Warcraft *needs* to bring back Arthas?

[Deleted]

Arthas? nty. Illidan? Yes pls.

[Kanogan]

No, I don't want to see Arthas again. Don't get me wrong, he is one of my favourite characters.

But when thinking of Arthas, Frostmourne comes to mind. We saw it being shattered in ICC, but we don't know where it remains are. What if someone (most likely (a corrupted?) Bolvar or Tirion) reassembles it and manages to raise Arthas from the grave?

[Ciddy]

Personally, I would find it kind of lame if Arthas were brought back in any way. I mean, what would he do? Randomly show up out of nowhere and deliver some "Icecrown was merely a setback!" line? He was an awesome villian, but I wouldn't really be able to take him seriously anymore if that were to happen. He's had his big moment and epic death. Time to move on.

I wouldn't mind if Bolvar and the Scourge had some kind of minor role in the future, but Arthas is dead and gone.

[Silent Earth]

I have very mixed feelings about this topic.

Arthas was pretty much *the* reason I got into WoW in the first place. I wanted to know what happened to him after the events of Warcraft III and the Frozen Throne.
Finally, in the game's second expansion, we did see some closure to the character, and it was so... so...

...ehh.

In my humble opinion, the story of Arthas' fall is one of the best told and well executed of its kind. He is a tragic hero, as he goes from a shining example of light and hope to becoming the very thing he swore to destroy. And still, even at the end, when we've seen all the horrors he has caused -- first in the name of his people, and then in the name of his master -- you still can't help but want him to succeed. And to hope that there might yet be a chance at redemption for him.

I totally get that Arthas didn't NEED a redemption arc. In fact, I applaud Blizz for taking a bit of an original curve with the character by saying, "Yeah, uh, he's WAY too far gone at this point." THAT in and of itself could have been brilliant. But the in-game telling and execution of that story was a far cry from what I was hoping for by way of conclusion for one of my favorite video game characters.

So, yeah, Arthas was pretty damn important to me. I wish they had given him a better send off. But bringing him BACK? I just... can't see that doing anything good for the character or the game, much as I may want to see it.

[Willias]

Can we start making new interesting villains that stick around for a while instead of killing all of them off as soon as they pop up? Garrosh is a step in the right direction.

Arthas and Illidan are dead. Keep them dead. But Blizzard really needs to stop killing off every bad guy they throw at the players, or they're going to run out of decent villains. (favorite example of this: Vanessa VanCleef. So much potential there.)

Having the bad guy get away occasionally works pretty well for a lot of stories!

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Bringing him back would only serve to further destroy his character.

[Jyggalag]

If you care about the villain then you're implying you care about the lore, but that can't be right because I'm willing to bet you didn't know that in chronological order there are full 6 Warcraft books before Arthas name is even mentioned. In those alone there is an amazingly vast amount of lore around this fictional universe that does not involve Arthas and as powerful as he was at the time, he pales in comparison to the likes of Sargeras and the old gods and is no where near as cool as characters like Medivh and Illidan.

He is very uninteresting, in my opinion. He was the prince who was manipulated into sharing an eternal prison with one of the most powerful orc shamans to have ever lived - yet 90% of the warcraft playerbase couldn't name that orc.
He employed magics previously utilized by Gul'dan in bringing undead to life and failed to take over Azeroth just as illidan and the horde before him. In short - Spoilt kid falls to his own arrogance, copies others, fails in the same fashion.
If it wasn't for the fact that Blizzard hyped him up in the RTS games, and gave him his own expansion then no one would care about him.

The whole Lich King thing shared similarities with Lord of the Rings and actually did Blizzard no favours in some respect as I have friends who refuse to give WoW a chance because they feel the lore is just a complete rip off from LotR. In fact, WoW is benefiting massively by making their film NOT about Arthas as some people wanted. It will allow a wider audience to see that there's much more to it than someone so boring who is now 100% dead and should under no circumstance be brought back to life for gameplay sake.

[Silent Earth]

books

-reaction image snipped-

Only two of which were released before Warcraft III, and Arthas.

Look, I love books. They are a great way to expand the lore of a universe. But I will be the first to say that in a series with its roots based in video games, the story told in the books doesn't come close to the importance of that told in the games.

It's like the Star Wars expanded universe. Yeah, some of them are great, but the books are not what made the universe great in the first place.

Also, power doesn't make for an interesting character. What made Arthas (Lich King) interesting wasn't how powerful he was, but how he came to be there -- at the top of the world, staring down all our player characters with a look of contempt -- in the first place.

Don't use reaction images or gifs please. Thanks!

[Bumbasta]

Stop re-using content and make some new content. WoTLK was great but it ended. done.

[Khaza-R]

Absolutely no. Clinging on to old characters and resurrecting them pointlessly a is a sure sign an IP is dead.

[Captnmexico21]

So a villain needs to return in order to become the hero by bringing his evil back to Azeroth in order to save the real-life existence of a game?

Oh, my head...

Jaina: Arthas? ARTHAS! Why is he killing defenseless people Uther?
Uther the Lightbringer: Because we have to have a martyr.
Lordaeron Soldier: Okay we're going in! Go, go! Move!
Jaina: He didn't do anything wrong.
Uther the Lightbringer: Because he's the hero Lordaeron deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Death Knight.

[McNeil]

They let a trainwreck character like Garrosh be the main villain of an expansion and gets to live...... yet Arthas got the axe

[Jyggalag]

Only two of which were released before Warcraft III, and Arthas.

Look, I love books. They are a great way to expand the lore of a universe. But I will be the first to say that in a series with its roots based in video games, the story told in the books doesn't come close to the importance of that told in the games.

It's like the Star Wars expanded universe. Yeah, some of them are great, but the books are not what made the universe great in the first place.

Also, power doesn't make for an interesting character. What made Arthas (Lich King) interesting wasn't how powerful he was, but how he came to be there -- at the top of the world, staring down all our player characters with a look of contempt -- in the first place.

Thanks for the unicorn, though I can't see the relevance.

I played WC2, 3, vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Cata and 5.1 of MoP before I read any Warcraft books. I enjoyed Arthas' campaign in the RTS and WotLK was one of my favourite expansions; but what I'm saying is that if you could drag yourself away from the ignorance that some people have that the game revolves around Arthas or Illidan you would see that there are a shit-load of awesome characters with original stories that haven't yet made it to the limelight or had en expansion devoted to them.
There is a wealth of content to be expanded upon in video game form before there would be any sense in bringing back Arthas just for the sake of some subs. The story writers at Blizzard clearly agree with WoD - time travel to see some of the biggest names in WoW's lore that have so far went under the radar of the majority of non-book reading players.
Pick another, 'alive' villain - put him at the top of the world, devote an expansion to him and it'll have the exact same effect. WoD is doing just that.

[Pull My Finger]

he was clearly killed by raid-designers, not writers.

I think your theory of Arthas "being killed off by raid designers" sounds very forced and arbitrary. It's just some arbitrary argument to support yet another "incompetence at Blizzard" theroy. It doesn't hold any water. He's been killed of because that's how they intended the story to end. If they wanted to let him survive, they could have done that. He could have escaped at 1%, or just lose the battle, but survive, for whatever reasons. It's not like they never did that with other raid bosses.

[yjmark]

Arthas had the most recent Warcraft game behind him. The story was brilliantly told in the Warcraft III RTS. So, it was not surprising that so many people loved it when he came to WoW.

However, I feel that bringing him back would be a mistake. Blizz needs to forge a path forward, and not backward. Unfortunately, they did not take the opportunity to really tell an immersive story for any new expansions. Hopefully that will change in WoD. Without a real immersive storytelling experience, they will never get anyone like Arthas again.

And the current way of questing is not sufficient to really tell an immersive story. imho

[Deleted]

As opposed to Garrosh, who is a complex and multilayered character?

Did I say Garrosh was better?

[rcshaggy]

Bringing him back would only serve to further destroy his character.

Yeah its like;

Arthas; Is it over?

King Terrny; No my son. Blizzard decides to bring you back after you being freed of the Lich King's hold on you.

Arthas; NO I will NOT........I WILL......*Dies*

King Terrny; There must always be a Lich King....DERP....

Did I say Garrosh was better?

I am not a fan of Garr.

[Doomaz]

it is done with all that arthas crap, get over it or abandon the game, cuz i dont think there are any leftovers from wc3 that you could obsess about

[DizzyBala]

Bring him back? No. I do however wish that with future stories, they evoke the level of emotional involvement and satisifaction of putting a bad guy down.
Illidan and Deathwing have been let downs in my opinion and Garrosh, we didn't end up actually killing him.

The Arthas tale is the sort of story that you could make a film about. It, for me, drews parallels with the story of Anakin Skywalker's turn into Darth Vader. It had the love, the tragedy, the badassery and the betrayal. I wasn't a big fan of Arthas' daddy interfering in the end but they can't get everything right.

I gave a fuck about Arthas. I felt like i could possibly identify on some level with his character as well. I got to work for him in the opening quests of my class and I felt the best i've felt about the game when i killed him.

[The Flavour Cat]

Don't bring Arthas back. His story has been told, and they played his death straight at the end. It'd be a shame to undo all of that and have him roaming around. I'm one of those people who thinks he was buried in the SW GY. I think there was Lordaeron crest on one grave? That might be his spot.