So First post here but really wanted to get some peoples opinions on how much Shadowlands has screwed with Arthas even though he isn't really present in the story.
We have to go all the way back to Warcraft 3 Human campaign to see where the shadowlands story starts to affect Arthas. It also starts to makes me start to question how much agency Arthas actually had as they have given so many other characters the same excuses.
- Kelthuzad Arguably one of the best villains of Warcraft only to be killed off in a raid. He first comes up in the campaign quite early as a protagonist to Arthas. He is seen leading the cult of the damned and is spreading the plague through lordearon. Shadowlands however has changed this story however as apparently Kelthuzad was always aware of the Jailer and been working for him. He also comes up again the undead campaign as Arthas is tasked with bringing him back from the dead at the behest of the lich king(again possibly the jailer) which lead to the invasion of Silvermoon.
-Malganis Next up is is the dreadlord who seem to target Arthas and torture him by actively taunting the young prince and putting him in no win situations like stratholme. Even Uther admits in the latest cinematic they released that inaction damns them all yet that was his solution for stratholme and the scourge when they first showed up. Malganis drove the prince into a corner and isolated him from his closest friends. Again Shadowlands has rephrased the as the Dreadlords are Also agents of the Jailer and working for him. These are the same beings that managed to corrupted a Titan and seemed to have been directed by the Jailer to target Arthas.
-Frostmourne was a Runeblade initially created by the legion now we are told it was also created by the Jailer which had apparently took Arthas Soul as its first Victim when he picked it up. We have seen the new "kingsmourne" completely dominated Anduin to the point he had no free will of his own. So how much Influence did the Jailer have over Arthas, if both the mourne blades were created to be similar make did Arthas have any control or free will? Also considering how much the whole "split soul" thing the Blade inflicted trauma on both Sylvanas and Uther to taint them into falling to the Dark side, so did it also affect Arthas the same?
-Helm of Domination we know based on the death knight campaign quests in Legion and the story in shadowlands that the Helm had a dark presence that affected the wearer and it needed someone with a strong will to resist. Even Bolvar during the legion campaign was being affected by this and was committing acts of cruelty by sending the DK to slaughter the dragon flight and raising Alliance and horde champions. Again how much free will did arthas have during Wrath when he wore the hlem?
So with all these factors coming into play and even in Wrath we have evidence that there was a small portion of Arthas's Humanity holding out and preventing the Jailer from unleashing the scourge or simply destroying the helm as Sylvanas had. Is Arthas now a sympathetic charcter who simply had everything stacked against him as he was targeted by a being far beyond his understanding and turned into a tool for the Jailer?
Seems like if Blizzard manage to leave Arthas out of the story but failed utterly at not changing his story.