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

[Velerios]

I would say Illidan is starting to be more of a player choice to bring back...its possible with WoD, and seeing that we saw very little of him untill the end of BC.

It was even before MoP possible to bring Illidan back. He is a Demon. Demons cannot die on the Mortal Plains; i think they are like Elementals: They can only be killed in their Habitat (twisting nether).

Only the Body dies, but not the spirit. He can search another body and pocess it.

[Orcbert]

They did! Get your heroes of the storm on brother and you just hang with The Big A-Man till you are happy!

[DarkTZeratul]

It was even before MoP possible to bring Illidan back. He is a Demon. Demons cannot die on the Mortal Plains; i think they are like Elementals: They can only be killed in their Habitat (twisting nether).

Sorry to crush your dreams, but Outland is part of the Twisting Nether. It got blasted there when Draenor exploded.

[Aquamonkey]

The Dark Below expansion is actually about us going into hell and fighting Arthas who has become king of the underworld.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Leave Arthas alone. He's in another place now. No need to drag up back up again.

[DeeTwelve]

There really isn't depth to his lore. Infact, he seemed to just come back out of nowhere following the events of Warcraft 3 to wage war on the living.

There was lore on Deathwing, betraying his siblings, stealing the demon soul, chromatic/twilight drake experimentation. He was pretty much the perfect villain. Also, giant metal fire dragon.

Arthas' lore was more extensive, but nothing really deep. Made some tough choices he thought would help but pushed allies away, was turned evil, turned on his former allies and aided his new master.

Deathwing was corrupted by an old god, turned on his siblings, then preformed acts more horrible than that of the scourge. I mean, did you SEE Blackwing Descent?

Deathwing's lore was mostly from the "so long ago nobody but roleplayers give a fuck" department. That and some WC2 shit where he wasn't even a big player.

[Stormcall]

The game hasn't gone downhill because Arthas is gone, if they brought him back they'd just write him as shittily as they wrote Garrosh.

[Giscoicus]

Deathwing's lore was mostly from the "so long ago nobody but roleplayers give a fuck" department. That and some WC2 shit where he wasn't even a big player.

Most of WoW's lore is from that time. The fact that most players do not know anything beyond Warcraft 3 however is why Blizzard has had such a hard time since Illidan and Arthas passed.

Its why players don't understand that orcs are the driving force behind the story, why Draenor is different than outland, why pandas were not entirely made up and were more than a joke, or the fact that Deathwing was always relevent.

But there is no way for them to stretch much more from Warcraft 3, except maybe a couple more Caverns of Time instances. If players don't know the lore then what is Blizzard supposed to do? They will claim Blizzard pulled the stuff out of their ass either way, but at least if Blizzard does draw from older lore the real lore buffs will be happy.

[bionics]

Even as someone who supports the idea, Arthas' return could easily turn into a cringe-worthy affair, if not handled with great care. I would probably stick Christie Golden on the case, as she seems to be the best writer that Blizzard has worked with yet, but she's clearly worked with the character before. Again, I'm not really sure how they could even revive him without it seeming forced, though.

I enjoyed reading your post and can see you where you're coming from -- although I believe you may have answered your own question, so to speak, with your "I'm not really sure how they could revive him without it seeming forced," comment though.

The better move then might be to create a human character that can be viewed on equal footing with Arthas. Varian Wrynn is alright, but he's lacking any real characterization that makes me see him as anything more than a hackneyed warrior-king trope.

Anduin on the other hand? He's already more likeable than Varian; he has an altruistic demeanor and a precocious way of diplomacy already about him; I think if they continue building Anduin the right way and then throw some red herrings and monkey wrenches into the mix he could become synonymous with the human face of the franchise.

[militaryspartan]

I don't believe that we want Arthas back per-say, but I do know a lot of players want to at least revisit the Wotlk story of the LK and the Frostmourne shards.

Arthas had a great story and a great ending, pretty much the best out of the major lore villains and I don't want that ruined. So no to bringing him back, maybe a memory or talking to him from beyond the grave at best.

Again however, I would be down for at least retouching on Bolvar and the shards.

- - - Updated - - -

Most of WoW's lore is from that time. The fact that most players do not know anything beyond Warcraft 3 however is why Blizzard has had such a hard time since Illidan and Arthas passed.

Its why players don't understand that orcs are the driving force behind the story, why Draenor is different than outland, why pandas were not entirely made up and were more than a joke, or the fact that Deathwing was always relevent.

But there is no way for them to stretch much more from Warcraft 3, except maybe a couple more Caverns of Time instances. If players don't know the lore then what is Blizzard supposed to do? They will claim Blizzard pulled the stuff out of their ass either way, but at least if Blizzard does draw from older lore the real lore buffs will be happy.

Well, they can build on their lore to explain things. There were a lot of players who went into Wotlk who didn't know Arthas from WC3 or it's xpac. However they handled it very well with quests detailing his fall as a paladin (his old comrades, culling of stratholme, etc.), his rise to becoming the LK, and what he had been doing for 6 years.

At the end of it, players had a pretty decent idea of who and what he was; he was a very 3 dimensional character.

Deathwing by comparison received virtually no work. We never interacted with him on any serious level, understood his motivations, barely saw the guy, etc. In short we received so little that we cared just as much.

[Koreche]

The game hasn't gone downhill because Arthas is gone, if they brought him back they'd just write him as shittily as they wrote Garrosh.

they wrote him worse. arthas sucks.
after wc3 he was just shit

[Azutael]

Can't deny that I love Arthas' story, but we can't rely on the old heroes/villains to keep the story interesting in the long run.
Sadly bellowed characters need to die at times, and give room for new characters to grow.

Besides, I think that bringing back characters again and again would just make things worse.

[Zuben]

Maybe an alternate universe version alá WoD.

[Deleted]

Just stop bringing back anything in WoW pls

[Darmalus]

Arthas Part 2: Electric Bugaloo is not an expansion I want to see. It's bad enough they are resurrecting WC2 NPCs for the next expansion.

WoW Lore needs to more forward, not backward. Bringing old lore figures back from the dead, human or orc, is not a good direction for the game.

[Deleted]

They never should have killed Arthas in the first place. He was THE character of Warcraft. Wotlk should have had an open ending in the fashion of Icecrown citadel collapsing on the LK and frostmourne being shattered.

But no they shouldn't bring him back after the story ending the way it did. It is the best story of warcraft. Shouldn't cheapen it.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

The dude obviously regretted what he did (whether because he died or he honestly hated it remains to be seen). He deserves to stay dead.

Not only that, but the mere mention of the name, "Arthas," is enough to drive almost any person on Azeroth into a completely different mindset, whether it be fear, rage, or in the case of a few individuals, sadness. Even if he was brought back, he'd face nothing but fear and scorn for the rest of his time spent alive, not to mention an absurd amount of death threats and assassination attempts. And I'm not sure he could pull a Hitler and survive all of them.

I don't think he's WoW's poster boy either. Sure, if you were introduced to Warcraft with Warcraft 3, I guess. Warcraft has far too many other characters for Arthas to be the poster boy. He was a major player in one major storyline alongside many others; nothing more, nothing less. His story is finished. Let him rest in peace (or not, as the case may be).

[Cerus]

Most recognizable character in gaming? Not hardly. Sorry but WoW isn't THAT popular in comparison. Mario holds that title.

[Zantera]

I never cared for Arthas. His story is basically the same as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and while I liked the Undead-story (and how they took over), Arthas himself was never a favorite.

[Vaelorian]

I agree Arthas was the sole reason for a lot of WoW players to start playing WoW. Including myself (and people I know).

I would like to see more of Arthas in WoW. Perhaps something that we did not cover yet in any books. Perhaps his spirit escaped from the void and is trying to make amends somewhere somehow. But no I do not want "Arthas" back into the world as a solid NPC/Important Lore figure. His days are done. But if they would let him return I wouldn't be mad about it. Arthas was my favourite NPC.

And I am very sad to say so because his cinematic was soooooo anti-climactic. He got 2 sentences to say? Seriously? I fucking played 6 years for 2 sentences? And he just died and that was it? Bolvar got to say more, Tirion got to say more. It was like: Oh he is dead, let's move on RIGHT AWAY.

It was so anticlimactic I lost the drive to play for Heroic ICC 25. I did it anyway but my drive was diminished for sure.