Spoileriffic.
Like for reals, if you don’t want to know how Wrath ends, do not read this post.
‘kay.
thx.
bai.
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SPOILERS HEREIN
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Like properly
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There are spoilers coming
Honest proper spoilers
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Right, that should be enough.
So the final cutscene of Wrath is out. View it here (spoilers) if you haven’t already.
It’s competently done, WoW is showing its age a bit – those hands just don’t look natural – but that’s not particularly what I want to talk about.
What I want to talk about is, well, the whole premise of the whole damned thing.
So Arthas dies, and he’s all “Father, is it over … I see only darkness before me” and Terenas is all “No king rules forever, my son” (which I *think* is all parallelism-y with stuff he says in Warcraft III but to be honest I can’t freaking remember). As end sequences go it’s not bad, but then Terenas Menethil stands up and says that apparently without their leader, the scourge will be “even more of a threat” and that there must therefore “always be a Lich King.”
This is dumb for so many reasons.
Scourge 101
Back in the day, the Burning Legion seduced a shaman by the name of Ner’zul, tricking him into believing that he was saving his people. Ner’zul finally turned against the Legion and was punished by being tortured past the point of physical existence and imprisoned in a frozen throne on the distant world of Azeroth.
Thus was the birth of the Lich King. It was also the origin of the Scourge.
Ner’zul created the scourge partly on behalf of the Burning Legion, but partly as his own personal tool. Their purpose, which they have pursued wholeheartedly under whichever Lich King has commanded them, has been to scour (to “scourge” in fact) all life from the face of Azeroth. This brings us to two important points.
Firstly, the scourge were created and are maintained entirely by the Lich King. Yes, there are other Necromancers, but it seems strongly implied that it is the Lich King who gives those necromancers their power – at least in part – and even if there were people who practised Necromancy independently of the Lich King, the vast majority of the Scourge seem to have been his personal creations.
Secondly, given that under the direction of the Lich King the scourge were actively trying to annihilate all life on Azeroth I really don’t understand how removing the Lich King makes them more of a threat. It seems to me to be the equivalent of the Allied armies rolling into Berlin in 1945 and saying “with their leader gone, the Nazis will be even more dangerous. There must always be a Hitler.”
The idea that without the Lich King the scourge would somehow run wild is completely inane. They’re running wild already, that’s the whole point. That’s why the PCs are, y’know, there. To, y’know, destroy the y’know, Lich King because that will stop the ‘y’know, Scourge.
Why Am I Here Again?
Which brings me neatly to my second point. So there must always be a Lich King, eh Terenas? Well couldn’t you have told us that before we wasted all this freaking time trying to kill the bastard? If there has to be a Lich King it may as well be Arthas for all I (or, perhaps more to the point, my entirely-Horde player characters) care.
Perhaps I’m just a grouch, perhaps it’s genuinely a Horde/Alliance thing, or a Played WCIII/Didn’t Play WCIII thing, or possibly even a Played Vanilla When Naxx Was Endgame/Didn’t Play Vanilla When Naxx Was Endgame thing, but I don’t give a rats arse about taking out Arthas Menethil, fallen Prince of Lordaeron. I care about taking out the Lich King. If there’s still some human dickweed on the Frozen Throne, sending waves of zombies out to kill innocent orcs and raise our bold warriors as Death Knights then I have wasted my freaking time.
Seriously, give me that helm-crown-thing right now and I’ll smash it with my axe.
Seriously. Right now. Then I’ll go get Orgrim’s Hammer, and see if we can’t blow up the freaking Plagueworks. C’mon guys, the Scourge is a solvable problem. They come from one place, where they are created by one guy, who has just been killed you don’t need to sacrifice any loyal servants of Stormwind to keep them in check, you can just pwn the damned things faster than whatever’s left of the Cult of the Damned can bring them back up.
Now to be fair, there’s a lot I like about this ending, I like the fact that it humanizes Arthas, and I like the impression that he’s been wanting a way out of being the Lich King for a long time – it makes sense of some of the more annoying supervillain moments you have where Arthas shows up, could just kill you there and then, but instead says “no, you are part of a larger plan”. I’m not sure but I think there’s a deliberate implication here that Wrath was basically Arthas committing suicide, deliberately provoking both Horde and Alliance into sending their strongest warriors after him, so that there could finally be an end to it. In that light, all the taunting, the not-roflpwning-Tirion Fordring-when-he-had-the-chance and endless monologuing makes a lot more sense. He wasn’t acting like he wanted to win because he, well, didn’t.
The problem with this, though is that it’s got no room for the players. If you cast the whole of <em>Wrath</em> as being about Arthas’ internal struggle you make all the rest of it feel utterly irrelevant. And you feel really bad for the thousands of people that died to help him resolve his issues.
Beyond Redemption
One of the things that I was worried would bug me no matter how they handled it was the whole question of Arthas’ redemption. If he wasn’t redeemed, or redeemable, then that would reduce him to an annoying cardboard cutout villain (why hello Mr Sunstrider, fancy seeing you here) if he was redeemed then that would feel kind of corny, as well as feeling like preferential treatment (hello again Mr Sunstrider, just a setback you say?).
What I never quite expected was for them to redeem Arthas retroactively. By deciding that the Lich King is some kind of cosmic necessity, and by treating the Lich King’s crown as a burden which some heroic individual must take up, though it lead them into madness and damnation. It turns Arthas’ stint as Lich King in and of itself into something heroic. Again this kind of screws with my motivation for playing the game. I wanted to take take down the Lich King to stop his scourge armies ripping up Azeroth, not to give Arthas bloody Menethil a holiday.
A blog I used to read once had a rather insightful post about the Star Wars prequels in which it suggested that the biggest problem with Revenge of the Sith was not Jar Jar Binks or the interminable “i wuv u more” scenes, but the simple fact that it did not actually set up the original series in any way. Similarly, I think the problem with the final cutscene of Wrath is that it is an excellent ending to a story which never actually took place.
The Lich King is not a necessary feature of life in Azeroth, becoming the Lich King was not a burden Arthas nobly bore, there is no need for anybody to be sitting on the Frozen Throne – it’s something Demons made, and something they made comparatively recently. It’s made very clear in Rise of the Lich King that Arthas broke free of Ner’zul’s control (destroying the Orc in the process) when he became the Lich King, so he most certainly was not being controlled by anybody or anything when he sent Naxxaramas against Azeroth, or unleashed the zombie plague, or all of the other terrible, destructive things he did as the Lich King.
Arthas as he appeared in the game was an evil dick. No two ways about it. He wasn’t tragic, he wasn’t heroic, nobody forced him to attack Azeroth. Once he rid himself of Nerzul he was in control the whole way.
The ending we get, though, is the ending to the story of a noble prince who struggled against a terrible darkness, a darkness that at last consumed him. It might even have been a very good story, but it was not the story of Prince Arthas and the Lich King.
Right on, Chasity. While I do appreciate the fact that Blizzard wanted Arthas to be something more than a "Oh noes, the Lich King!" generic-cartoon-villain, I think they've been going way too far with their tragic figures lately. KT, the noble blood elf who was only trying to protect his people? Illidan, misunderstood hero? What's wrong with HAVING A VILLAIN?? I was looking forward to seeing an end to the Lich King, both as a force of unspeakable evil and the finale of a story arc involving someone who we actually /knew/. (What? Yogg who? lol!)
There's a general feeling against outright villains these days, it's an attitude I often view as kind of adolescent. It dismisses the notion of absolute evil as childish, and clings to no-less-mature notion of almost-but-not-quite-absolute evil which is like all tragic and shit.
Right on, Chasity. While I do appreciate the fact that Blizzard wanted Arthas to be something more than a "Oh noes, the Lich King!" generic-cartoon-villain, I think they've been going way too far with their tragic figures lately. KT, the noble blood elf who was only trying to protect his people? Illidan, misunderstood hero? What's wrong with HAVING A VILLAIN?? I was looking forward to seeing an end to the Lich King, both as a force of unspeakable evil and the finale of a story arc involving someone who we actually /knew/. (What? Yogg who? lol!)
—————-> (plot)
* (my head)
Yeah, it went completely over my head. I guess it really is due, in part, to the fact that I never played Warcraft, I don't know the history of Arthas & the Lich King, so the whole Scene of his death has about zero impact on me. Though, when couched in your retrospective, I can seee your point, quite clearly.
–> this way to easy way out.
It must be George Lucas' fault.
I only know the history of Arthas because I wikied it a while back, when I was trying to work out how Ner'zul fit in (short answer: he didn't, they ret-conned him out).
I completely agree with you Tam. After watching it, I thought "So… if there's just going to be another Lich King, wtf have we been doing busting a gut trying to bring him down in the first place?".
Maybe Bolvar will be more able to control the evil-ness than Arthas was, which I seriously doubt because he's just fused his soul with the Lich King and all.
Also, does this mean that in Cataclysm we're gonna have to deal with a big-arse dragon, the destruction of Azeroth AND the scourge? As if we didn't already have enough to do.
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That's the thing, it doesn't make sense however you look at it. If Bolvar remains uncorrupted and able to rein in the Scourge then … well why not just let the scourge be destroyed? If he doesn't, how is he doing any good? And if Arthas was trying to hold back the scourge, why did he devote so much time to developing plagues that would destroy all life? And if he wasn't how can an unrestrained Scourge be more dangerous than the scourge being *actively driven* to exterminate everybody?
You give me credit where it is not due – this was Chas
Oops, sorry Chastity
l2read /bops self
My husband tells me it's a Diablo 1 ending… But I never played Diablo lol
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I played 2 for a bit, but no I'm as clueless about that as you are.
Yeah…but you got to consider that there's a shitload of zombies that can kill everybody if they go berserk. And yes, berserk zombies can ROFLSTOMP both the Horde and the Alliance. That's why it makes sense.
Could have been worse. He could have been redeemed by the love of Jaina. Now that's cheesy.
The thing is, that's manifestly untrue. The Horde and Alliance have been systematically beating back the hordes of the Scourge since the invasion at the launch of Wrath, The idea that the scourge would somehow "go berzerk" without the Lich King has no evidence to support it whatsoever.
If nothing else, how in the name of sweet zombie jezus do you expect a horde of berzerk zombies to arrange transport out of Northrend? It doesn't matter how loudly NPCs insist that an uncontrolled scourge would be, like, ten million times as dangerous, it's clearly not true.
The reason the Lich King's zombie hordes are any kind of threat at all is that they're *infinite* in number. The reason that they are infinite in number is that the Lich King can always create more. Kill the Lich King and you've just got a bunch of weak-ass zombies that are actually very easy to kill.
Good point. Although "weak-ass zombies easy to kill" is untrue. Mainly because zombie-fication (or whatever, just sounded cool) is caused by the Plague of Undeath, so it ends in a war of atrition, and we all know how that ends.
Besides, there isn't, like, intelligent undead who can take charge of the show without a Lich King? Yes I said that the rank-and-file zombie would go berserk. But what about all the Forsaken and the Ebon Blade and the Liches (or Lichs) and Scourge Death Knights? Any of them could say "cool, there isn't nobody running the show, now to kill the living with a zombie army".
Or what if the Forsaken and the Ebon Blade go berserk or crazy or whatever? The Horde and the Alliance could win, but it's going to cost them a lot. That's a risk that nobody wants to face.
Zombification is caused by the Plague of undeath, which was created by the Lich King, who is dead, by his plague scientists, who are dead, in the Plagueworks of Icecrown citadel, which have been destroyed, and the Plague Wing of Naxxaramas, which has also been destroyed. The plague is not naturaly occurring, and most zombies do not carry it. Destroying the Lich King, Noth, Heigan, and Putricide effectively eliminates the possibility of another zombie plague ever striking Azeroth.
As for the Forsaken and the Knights of the Ebon Blade – there is no evidence that they would all go berzerk if the Lich King died. The whole point of the Forsaken and the Ebon Blade is that they have *already* freed themselves of the power of the Lich King.
And as for somebody else taking over … so now the reason there has to be a Lich King is … in case somebody decides to take control of the Scourge? Because they might … try to use the scourge to destroy the living? Which is exactly what the Lich King was doing in the first place? And exactly what they will presumably continue to do even with Bolvar as Lich King?
I agree that the main danger of the Scourge is their infinite number but if you recall back to the Scourge Invasion event pre-WOLTK, that was maybe a taste of what the Scourge could do when they are acting for themselves, uncontrolled by the Lich King.
The main danger present during that event wasn't being killed by a zombie, it was being infected by the plague of undeath and eventually becoming one. Obviously gameplay mechanics meant that once you'd been zombiefied and died you would rez as yourself again and carry on your quest, from a lore point of view that wouldn't happen, you'd simply be dead and would probably have turned 10 others in doing so (Orgrimmar AH at peak times + Zombie Explosion = Awesome:D)
I do think that the ending was a little weak but can see Blizzards reasoning behind keeping The Lich King going, remember, he was a tool of the Burning Legion and we still haven't sorted them out yet, it'd be nice when it comes down to it if we had him fighting with us rather than against us
… the scourge invasion event was orchestrated *by* the Lich King. I don't quite see how it's evidence of how much worse the Scourge would be *without* the Lich King.
My point is that it was intended to infect the players, I don't know about you, but when I got infected and turned, I wasn't being controlled by the Lich King. I was acting of my own accord when I ran around infecting as many other players as I could (Like a good zombie should:p). In other words, scourge that aren't under the Lich Kings control can run amok and generally make as much trouble as they please.
Arthas was holding them back from doing so (Uther says as much in HoR), without the Lich King controlling them they would very likely go wild, just as the players infected during the Scourge Invasion did.
"So there must always be a Lich King, eh Terenas? Well couldn’t you have told us that before we wasted all this freaking time trying to kill the bastard?"
We were actually told previously by Uther in Halls of Reflection that there must always be a Lich King, because without a ruler, the Scourge will destroy Azeroth.
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I somehow missed that, probably beause every time I've been in HoR it's been with a PuG after somebody dropped out midway.
Either way, just because it was foreshadowed doesn't mean it makes sense. Saying something blatantly untrue more than once doesn't make it true.
Incidentally I have a pet theory that all the people saying "there must always be a Lich King" (mostly ghosts and visions after all) are actually members of the Burning Legion in disguise…
Paladins are immune to the corruption of the scourge because of their believe in the light. That's why you don't have undead paladins. (Do not look to deep into the area at crusaders' pinnacle, they screw up there.)
Arthas crossed a line when he exterminated the inhabitants of Stratholme. That's when the light left him, at least partially, and he got corruptable. Bolvar is still a paladin and hasn't done something like that. It is very likely that he can control the scourge.
> Believe in the light and all is possible.
This begs the question: why kill Arthas in the first place?
- If the Scourge lack a King, they will destroy Azeroth.
- Therefore, if a King who actually *wanted* to destroy Azeroth became King, then Azeroth will be destroyed – all that person would have to do is say to the Scourge "hey guys, just go crazy, OK?"
- Arthas was on that throne for a good while and did not destroy Azeroth.
- Therefore, Arthas cannot possibly want to destroy Azeroth, because if he did, he could have taken the necessary steps to do so at any time.
- Therefore, Arthas cannot be allowed to die. Why replace someone who you *know* does not want to destroy Azeroth with someone who *might* end up wanting to destroy Azeroth?
This being the case, why didn't everyone just stick two fingers up at Arthas's death wish and say "nuts to you, we know you're bluffing and we can't afford to get rid of you, so you can just go on suffering your eternal undeath"?
I completely agree, (I've said the same things in my blog over the last few days but not as well), but in the end, there is one reason why there always has to be a Lich King.
Levels 70 – 80.
Otherwise all you'll be doing is killing Tuskar.
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Even then, what they normally do is just ignore the fact that continuity has moved on. I;m still levelling 18-20 on my warrior killing Kirin Tor mages, after all.
I played Warcraft III, but that doesn't really help. Sure, you help Arthas through a lot of stuff, but you don't really get a connection to him. He starts out as a increasingly annoying boy with a slight "holier than thou" attitude and from there he developes into a massive douchebag who stumbles after his goal without ever looking back to question if that goal is still right or if the goal really always justifies the means. So even if I'm an Alliance player who knew Arthas for a long time, don't expect sympathy for him.
And since this is my first comment after several weeks of lurking: Nice blog, I like your style. I would have commented sooner but you nearly always seem to manage to let me sit there after reading your stuff and think "Yeah..totally right. I can't add anything to that".
Yay! Welcome to the blog.
I played the first bit of WCIII, but gave up because I suck at RTSes
Quite easy to get around sucking at RTS's: cheat codes of invincibility!
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I played Warcraft III, but that doesn't really help. Sure, you help Arthas through a lot of stuff, but you don't really get a connection to him. He starts out as a increasingly annoying boy with a slight "holier than thou" attitude and from there he developes into a massive douchebag who stumbles after his goal without ever looking back to question if that goal is still right or if the goal really always justifies the means. So even if I'm an Alliance player who knew Arthas for a long time, don't expect sympathy for him. And since this is my first comment after several weeks of lurking: Nice blog, I like your style. I would have commented sooner but you nearly always seem to manage to let me sit there after reading your stuff and think "Yeah..totally right. I can't add anything to that".
Very true Chas. This "there has to be always one LK" is a poor deus ex machina to keep scourge mobs running around Azeroth. Once Arthas dies 99% of the scourge should crumble to dust, without any powers supporting their unnatural existence. The ones still powerful enough and with some kind of free will could still exist, but these bound to the powers of the LK should cease to exist at once. I can see the point that maybe what was still something left of the original Arthas that was keeping the LK from launching a whole total assault on all Azeroth, but again it's a very poor excuse. Arthas willingly chose to wield Frostmourne and free Ner'zul's essence from the Frozen Throne. Even his "last human remain" is destroyed in a WotLK quest (see Tirion's Gambit), so nothing but a very tiny human presence should be left, not enough to keep the scourge at bay.
It's a good ending as you point out, with some kind of last second redemption, but they should have come with another idea to keep the scourge rolling and kicking. I'd get some demonic essence to come out of the crown, not powerful enough after the LK defeat to kill the people present in the throne room, then encrusting in the ice of the Frozen Throne to rebuild a body able to wield the dark energies and wear Frostmourne once again. Some kind of material rebuilding simmilar to Sauron. "You have won, you're free to leave, but I'll be back! You've only destroyed the container, not the content!" That would be more smart than that "control must be always maintained" nonsense. Control? What control? I wouldn't call "control" the lack of any coordinated attack that would have swept away all life, or at least turn more zones into undead-ridden areas like the old kingdom of Lordareon.
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I'm happy for the scourge not to instantly crumble to dust once Arthas bites it (if nothing else, it'd make running ICC Heroic really dull) it's the notion that the Lich King is some sort of "necessary evil" that bugs me.
As Morbo would have it: THE SCOURGE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!
I somehow missed that, probably beause every time I've been in HoR it's been with a PuG after somebody dropped out midway. Either way, just because it was foreshadowed doesn't mean it makes sense. Saying something blatantly untrue more than once doesn't make it true. Incidentally I have a pet theory that all the people saying "there must always be a Lich King" (mostly ghosts and visions after all) are actually members of the Burning Legion in disguise…
I agree that the main danger of the Scourge is their infinite number but if you recall back to the Scourge Invasion event pre-WOLTK, that was maybe a taste of what the Scourge could do when they are acting for themselves, uncontrolled by the Lich King. The main danger present during that event wasn't being killed by a zombie, it was being infected by the plague of undeath and eventually becoming one. Obviously gameplay mechanics meant that once you'd been zombiefied and died you would rez as yourself again and carry on your quest, from a lore point of view that wouldn't happen, you'd simply be dead and would probably have turned 10 others in doing so (Orgrimmar AH at peak times + Zombie Explosion = Awesome:D) I do think that the ending was a little weak but can see Blizzards reasoning behind keeping The Lich King going, remember, he was a tool of the Burning Legion and we still haven't sorted them out yet, it'd be nice when it comes down to it if we had him fighting with us rather than against us
"The Flying Dutchman must always have a captain" was all I was thinking while watching the final bit of the video. I dont fully get the whole lore thing so that's probably why I was thinking that
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Yeah, it did have that slightly iffy "just quoting their favourite lines and themes from movies" vibe to it.
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My point is that it was intended to infect the players, I don't know about you, but when I got infected and turned, I wasn't being controlled by the Lich King. I was acting of my own accord when I ran around infecting as many other players as I could (Like a good zombie should:p). In other words, scourge that aren't under the Lich Kings control can run amok and generally make as much trouble as they please. Arthas was holding them back from doing so (Uther says as much in HoR), without the Lich King controlling them they would very likely go wild, just as the players infected during the Scourge Invasion did.
Chass,
Yeah I feel robbed, cheated by this ending. Here we are working our butts off to kill this bastard, and this is what we get. Bah!
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Yeah, it's just a bit … bleah isn't it?
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I think the implication is that Bolvar is pure at heart and the "burden" he accepts by becoming the new Lich King is controlling the Scourge and not allowing them to wreak havoc like Arthas was doing. It does sort of fall apart when you look at it closer though. But I assume we will never have to fight "The Lich King" again as a major boss, because if we do it REALLY emphasizes the "why did we bother in the first place?" idea.
In terms of Arthas' resolution, I was perfectly happy with it. I was really concerned that Blizzard was going to shove a "oh Arthas is redeemed and actually was this Super Nice Guy!" down our throats but instead it was a perfect blend of humanity (relief and release, Arthas clutching at his father) and best of all, he was NOT redeemed, and did NOT go to a happy place.
Kind of a little disappointed only Fordring and Bolvar were there though. Sylvanas and, much as I hate to say it, Jaina also had intensely lore and personal reasons to be there at Arthas' demise. And for completely opposite reasons too, which would have been interesting.
I think we're using different definitions of "redemption".
As far as I'm concerned (and as I say above) Arthas was absolutely, unequivocally redeemed by this ending. Like it or not, is is now a matter of World of Warcraft canon that the Lich King is a force for good in the world. Yes, Arthas goes to whatever the WoW equivalent of hell is, but that just makes him a tragic hero.
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I think we're using different definitions of "redemption".
As far as I'm concerned (and as I say above) Arthas was absolutely, unequivocally redeemed by this ending. Like it or not, is is now a matter of World of Warcraft canon that the Lich King is a force for good in the world. Yes, Arthas goes to whatever the WoW equivalent of hell is, but that just makes him a tragic hero.
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You missed a big point, Bolvar Fordragon (now the new Lich King), being a holy warrior, will now contain the scourge and reel them in. It's his will and last service to Azeroth. Bolvar's new designation is "Jailer of the Damned ". The reprieve will come in the story line leading up to Cataclysm. Blizzard can put the Lich King on pause while we deal with Deathwing in the next expansion. Then if he's ever needed in the next expansion in 2.5 years they can bring him back out. It all makes perfect sense, so Blizzard can recycle content later. It doesnt make sense for all the Death Knights to just disappear out of the world (of warcraft).
No, no, I got the whole "jailer of the damned" thing. It's mentioned explicitly in the video after all. The problem is that it's forced, heavy handed, and makes no freaking sense.
The damned don't need a jailer. The damned are an aberration. They were created by the Lich King, they can be destroyed permanently once the Lich King is destroyed.
To put it another way, what is Bolvar actually supposed to *do* as Lich King? Is he going to order the scourge to destroy each other? Can he do that? If he can't, what can he do? Can he stop them working on new plagues? Can he stop them attacking people? Can he release them all into the gentle embrace of natural death?
Bolvar's becoming the Lich King is sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice. The most useful thing he can do on the Frozen Throne is nothing.
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I have never fully appreciated the lore, although leveling an alt with easier access to instances is definitely helping. The challenges of building a narrative in which there truly can be no change really prevents any satisfaction of taking part in a major event. The narrative must continue intact for all players at all levels of the story, and each can logically have contact with each other. So in a sense all players no matter where they are or when they started the narrative are existing in the same time period.
The developers have tried separating the narrative by geographical space, but cannot separate it chronologically.
It's like trying to write a book in which all current readers at different points of the book can logically communicate with each other without giving anything away in the story. It's the whole circular logic of time travel in which you can't change history because if you did, you would change yourself.
For that reason, the lore tends to be very unsatisfying.
And furthermore, it would have been nice to have been warned that you were going to give away the ending!
I generally don't mind the static nature of WoW, it's the fact that they've been so blatant about it that bugs me. I mean what's next: "there must always be a Hogger"? "There must always be a Battle of Hillsbrad?"
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When I first heard Uther’s ghost make that claim in Halls of Reflection, it was a serious WTF moment. It makes no sense, for reasons you and others have said, and it goes against every previous impression of what is going in. Sadly that is hardly a first for Blizzard.
In terms of lore, Wrath is one big mess, even more so than TBC and vanilla. What is new in Wrath, though, is the massive focus on certain writers’ pet NPCs. Yes there have always been more prominent NPCs, and there should be, but they have never actively stolen “our” glory or felt like the game was all about them. Wrath does exactly that.
Alliance-side it’s all about punk “king”. He has some good points, the Horde does NOT want peace and never did. But Varian is made to act like he rules the whole Alliance, when in fact he is just one of five, and by far the youngest. (I’d like to see him pull the “your king” BS on Tyrande or Velen, though since he IS a writer’s pet NPC they’d probably promptly fall to their knees and lick his feet like good little vassals.) Even worse, his reintroduction retcons a good deal of player effort out of existence and that is just bad, bad form.
“Arthas” is another big fat writers’ pet. Yes, the expansion is all about the Lich King, so of course he has to be prominent. But the expansion isn’t actually about the wrath of the Lich King. If this is how it ends, it should more appropriately be called “supposedly tragic death of the emo-prince”. First off the Lich King was two people, yet the expansion never even mentions Ner’zul. For his part, Arthas went to his fate with his eyes wide open in WC3 and has done nothing but commit unspeakable evil since then — so why are we now supposed to feel sympathy and even admiration for him?
I could happily buy the necessity of having to guard the source and seat of the Lich King’s power if it cannot be destroyed, to prevent the Burning Legion or any old wannabe necromancer to build a new Scourge. But for a Lich King to be needed? That implies the Scourge is needed too. If a Lich King truly was necessary, for which there is proof beyond that wacko claim they suddenly jumped us with, then fine: why doesn’t poor Bolvar just shut the Scourge down, pacify them, so they can be destroyed without further trouble? That could have made for a pretty kickass cutscene, at least, and rewarded the people who kill “Arthas” with a clear demonstration of what their heroics have made possible. As it is, the video gives a “Back to square one, did we just waste the past years or what?” impression.
I mean for which there is NO proof, of course. Geez. :p
When I first heard Uther’s ghost make that claim in Halls of Reflection, it was a serious WTF moment. It makes no sense, for reasons you and others have said, and it goes against every previous impression of what is going in. Sadly that is hardly a first for Blizzard.
In terms of lore, Wrath is one big mess, even more so than TBC and vanilla. What is new in Wrath, though, is the massive focus on certain writers’ pet NPCs. Yes there have always been more prominent NPCs, and there should be, but they have never actively stolen “our” glory or felt like the game was all about them. Wrath does exactly that.
Alliance-side it’s all about punk “king”. He has some good points, the Horde does NOT want peace and never did. But Varian is made to act like he rules the whole Alliance, when in fact he is just one of five, and by far the youngest. (I’d like to see him pull the “your king” BS on Tyrande or Velen, though since he IS a writer’s pet NPC they’d probably promptly fall to their knees and lick his feet like good little vassals.) Even worse, his reintroduction retcons a good deal of player effort out of existence and that is just bad, bad form.
“Arthas” is another big fat writers’ pet. Yes, the expansion is all about the Lich King, so of course he has to be prominent. But the expansion isn’t actually about the wrath of the Lich King. If this is how it ends, it should more appropriately be called “supposedly tragic death of the emo-prince”. First off the Lich King was two people, yet the expansion never even mentions Ner’zul. For his part, Arthas went to his fate with his eyes wide open in WC3 and has done nothing but commit unspeakable evil since then — so why are we now supposed to feel sympathy and even admiration for him?
I could happily buy the necessity of having to guard the source and seat of the Lich King’s power if it cannot be destroyed, to prevent the Burning Legion or any old wannabe necromancer to build a new Scourge. But for a Lich King to be needed? That implies the Scourge is needed too. If a Lich King truly was necessary, for which there is proof beyond that wacko claim they suddenly jumped us with, then fine: why doesn’t poor Bolvar just shut the Scourge down, pacify them, so they can be destroyed without further trouble? That could have made for a pretty kickass cutscene, at least, and rewarded the people who kill “Arthas” with a clear demonstration of what their heroics have made possible. As it is, the video gives a “Back to square one, did we just waste the past years or what?” impression.
I mean for which there is NO proof, of course. Geez. :p
I mean for which there is NO proof, of course. Geez. :p
I mean for which there is NO proof, of course. Geez. :p
I mean for which there is NO proof, of course. Geez. :p
So if Arthas had cleansed Ner'Zul, Arthas left the building, what was left in to the helmet?
I also don't give into this "The Scourge would go berserk without king!"-thing. So if they were that powerful, why didnt they just outright slayed everything? Oh, Arthas wanted to get himself killed and held them back…? amm.. there are easier ways for suicide… Actually, he even had plenty of occasions to "die nobly" on a battlefield.
In Halls of Reflections, bolvar says the Scourge could have won, but Arthas is keeping them at bay on Northrend, because he doesn't want to end all life on Azeroth. Maybe that was the Scourge's original intent, but it changed when Arthas became Lich king.
One part I think you have gotten wrong Chas, is Arthas motivation. If you would had seen the whole kill (and not just the end cinematics) you would see that at 10% health Arthas casts an "kill all newbs" spell as says something along the line of "you where pretty great at fighting. I liked that. Ofc you where no match for me, but you proved to be the greatest force of a team ever assembled. Now watch as I reanimate you into my own image and kills the world". Then stuff happens and the cinematics starts.
So the reason why he doesn't kill us all along wrath, is that he is testing to see who the mightiest of mighty players are, to turn them into warriors of his side. I really liked that. That made it all worth it.
Apart from that little bit, I could not agree more, it does not make sense that there always has to be a lich king. And the sad part is, there could have been a reason.
Off the top of my head: "[italic] It seems that Arthas was more than just the Lich king. He still held the power to the portal between our world and the burning legions main forces. He kept it closed to take Azeroth for himself, but now that he is no more, there needs to be a new Lich king to take control over that power, and to keep the remaining scourge at bay[/italic]" There! Freakking problem solved. Why didn't they hire me to make their plots for them?
I don't think you can draw conclusions about the nature of the scourge from the player-controlled zombies in the launch event. Taken absolutely literally, this would imply that there is a strain of the zombie plague that not only turns you into an infectious zombie, but also puts you into the control of a capricious, godlike being from another reality, that seems to be treating you like some kind of fictional character in an artificial gameworld.
Apart from the metatextual knowledge that the plague zombies were all being controlled by players, there's no evidence to suggest that they weren't being directed by the will of the Lich King. Indeed it seems very probable that they were.
My recent post Spoileriffic Lich King Vid Post
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