Bringing Arthas back in Shadowlands will ruin his character

[MrLachyG]

I dunno, might prove for an interesting take to see if he truly is repentant for everything that he did but his story should stay confined to Shadowlands.

[Maell]

Resurfacing of "Where is Mankrik's (Spirit) Wife?!" In Shadowlands...

If Blizz don't do an easter egg with Mankrik's Wife in SL I would be greatly disappointed.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

If Blizz don't do an easter egg with Mankrik's Wife in SL I would be greatly disappointed.

she deserves to be in the maw

[Littleraven]

I have no problem with him coming back as long as it is just a cameo in the maw. Now if they actually try to make him central to the plot then yeah I have some issues.

[Unholyground]

If they bring him back as a broken spirit who is cynical and grumpy people will love it. Basically I am expecting him to be some kind of witcher character, maybe he hunts down evil spirits or something lol.

Throw some anima to your Arthas!

[Dellis0991]

His story arc in complete in WOTLK. Bringing him back just sours his story and death. Illidan's story wasn't complete, Arthas was with his death. Let Shadowlands be about Bolvar don't let Arthas return in any way besides flashbacks and just one little cameo like he made in BFA

It won't ruin anything, the most of him we'll see is him being tortured in the maw probably and that's it. We already know that's where he went. We won't be freeing his soul from there......I hope we don't because he deserve everything that happened to him.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't we are bringing anyone back to the land of the living, freeing souls from the maw ok but bringing people back with us.....naw.

[Oneirophobia]

He needs to stay gone so he doesn't get retconned into a completely different character.

By all means, bring back Nerzhul or Kel'thuzad or someone who didn't much involvement.

[Lupinemancer]

His story arc in complete in WOTLK. Bringing him back just sours his story and death. Illidan's story wasn't complete, Arthas was with his death. Let Shadowlands be about Bolvar don't let Arthas return in any way besides flashbacks and just one little cameo like he made in BFA

So you think that seeing a character who is dead after we go to the place the dead end up makes no sense? I see.

[Varodoc]

This post reeks of double standards (as if the way the poll is written didn't make that blatantly clear). Illidan's story was also complete then, since he was very much killed in 2.1, that was years before we learned people with demon souls are immortal outside of the Nether.

A character's story is not complete until the story is over, especially in an expansion where WE ARE LITERALLY GOING TO THE AFTERLIFE, an expansion written by a company that LOVES BRINGING BACK POPULAR CHARACTERS, Arthas being the MOST POPULAR CHARACTER IN WARCRAFT.

Sorry but it's obvious he'll feature in some form in Shadowlands.

[CrawlFromThePit]

His story arc in complete in WOTLK. Bringing him back just sours his story and death. Illidan's story wasn't complete, Arthas was with his death. Let Shadowlands be about Bolvar don't let Arthas return in any way besides flashbacks and just one little cameo like he made in BFA

So you're saying Arthas will come back in Shadowlands for sure.

[Raetary]

I wouldn't mind it if he just has a cameo in the Maw.

But other than that, no thanks.

[Florena]

Except it was. Illidan got his ass kicked by Arthas, went mad, then subsequently fled to Outland (to avoid KJ's wrath) where he became the tyrant we killed in TBC.

His character arc was about power corrupting even noble intentions, and his story was done. Turning him into a heroic character in Legion ruined him.

Agreed. Maybe it would have worked if they hadn't swung so HARD toward the heroic 'Illidan is right and was always right' thing but the way it was? I wish he'd stayed dead.

[Camelboy]

Arthas will be the next Warchief after we save him from the Maw. Mark my words.

Arthas to Anduin: "The Alliance didn't help me when I was lost. You killed me instead. Now it's my turn to kill you. Lock tar Oh car!"

[huth]

Agreed. Maybe it would have worked if they hadn't swung so HARD toward the heroic 'Illidan is right and was always right' thing but the way it was? I wish he'd stayed dead.

As opposed to the ridiculous "Illidan is bad and wrong and badong and you need to kill him" with no actual adequately explained reason in BC? Especially since it turned out a patch later that he had basically nothing to do with the issues at the time, and wasn't really doing anything worth our attention.

[GreenJesus]

I want him back. Arthas' story as The Lich King is complete.

Arthas' story as a Paladin still has some meat the Blizzard hyena lore team can scrape off the bone.

Arthas will never be a paladin again. If thrall lost his shaman powers on azeroth because he killed Garrosh (the guy that tortured and twisted the elements with dark shaman) on another planet then Arthas is waaaay too far gone. I still csnt believe Thrall cant get his shaman powers back. It should have just been a temporary loss of like... a patch and that's it. He just needed to regain some confidence in himself. I dont trust Blizzard writers anymore (especially after BFA sylvanas) so just let Arthas go and have his history set in stone. We dont need any more retconning.

[Nyel]

It's a horrible decision. To bring back dead characters just shows a lack of imagination. This reeks like WoD were they just wanted to bring back dead and admired characters that have been killed off - we know how that went.

They're doing it this time due to the exact same reason - the expansion itself has barely anything to offer so we need some fancy names we can bring up that get players interested.

[Kyphael]

Arthas will never be a paladin again. If thrall lost his shaman powers on azeroth because he killed Garrosh (the guy that tortured and twisted the elements with dark shaman) on another planet then Arthas is waaaay too far gone. I still csnt believe Thrall cant get his shaman powers back. It should have just been a temporary loss of like... a patch and that's it. He just needed to regain some confidence in himself. I dont trust Blizzard writers anymore (especially after BFA sylvanas) so just let Arthas go and have his history set in stone. We dont need any more retconning.

Let's not fool ourselves, Thrall being unable to regain his shaman powers back is purely author's intrusion. It makes no sense. It's just because Chris Metzen retired and he isn't available as much as they'd probably hope he would be to justify making him a main character again.

And Arthas returning is more about marketing than whether or not there's a story to tell. They brought Illidan back by hook or by crook to polarizing reception; some hated, some loved it. They retconned an awful lot just to justify having Illidan in the role he was in Legion when you think about it. The Illidan in Burning Crusade acted nothing like the Illidan in Legion, but the point is, marketing. Names like Arthas and Illidan transcend the IP, gamers at large know the characters and non-familiars may flock to a box with Arthas on it. They'll do it if they think it'll sell games and not bat an eye at whether or not it's a story worth telling. This is the same writing team that turned The Lich King's helm into a doohickey to open a portal. Nothing is off the table.

Wouldn't surprise me if the box art reveals Arthas' face on it and they've just kept his story involvement under wraps. I should have added him as a poll choice...

[GreenJesus]

Let's not fool ourselves, Thrall being unable to regain his shaman powers back is purely author's intrusion. It makes no sense. It's just because Chris Metzen retired and he isn't available as much as they'd probably hope he would be to justify making him a main character again.

And Arthas returning is more about marketing than whether or not there's a story to tell. They brought Illidan back by hook or by crook to polarizing reception; some hated, some loved it. They retconned an awful lot just to justify having Illidan in the role he was in Legion when you think about it. The Illidan in Burning Crusade acted nothing like the Illidan in Legion, but the point is, marketing. Names like Arthas and Illidan transcend the IP, gamers at large know the characters and non-familiars may flock to a box with Arthas on it. They'll do it if they think it'll sell games and not bat an eye at whether or not it's a story worth telling. This is the same writing team that turned The Lich King's helm into a doohickey to open a portal. Nothing is off the table.

Wouldn't surprise me if the box art reveals Arthas' face on it and they've just kept his story involvement under wraps. I should have added him as a poll choice...

ooo no.. I'm no doubting the power of the marketing team to force decisions. Just look at warlords. It was basically marketing saying "There is a movie coming out. We need to get people hyped for each other by having the old characters feature in the expansion!" There is no doubt the movie was why Warlords was made. Did that ruin a lot of the lore of the franchise going forward? Yes.

[Zyky]

Well, so far we know that a) Arthas did get sent to the Maw and b) we're the second of two people capable of leaving said Maw, and Arthas is not one of them.

So unless he gets freed during Shadowlands somehow, we have no reason to believe he isn't.

What do you mean as far as we know? We literally know nothing about how the Shadowlands work.

[Azerox]

I like to see alot of them again. If they do it right it's oke with me.