soapbox sobbing.
WC3R has a lot of issues that have all been elucidated a hundred times over by people more passionate about links and evidence and research than I, but I think one of the most disappointing aspects of it to me, as related to the context of this blog, is how much of a fuckin’ let down everything regarding Arthas was.
Disclaimer, gonna get real whiny here.
A significant part of why that sucks so much to me is that literally the minute he died, he stopped being treated as someone who had once been threatening. Practically every single reference to him postmortem has been about what a fool he was, how he wielded his power like a selfish child, how he was spoiled and stupid and short-sighted and blah di blah. None of which is especially wrong! Especially considering the people who say these things --- every last one of them, it makes sense why they speak of him this way.
but even in the meta and extraneous materials, he’s sort of constantly the butt of the joke. Almost every single HotS trailer shows him being defeated or shows the aftermath of his defeat. The KotFT Hearthstone comics have Jaina win the Throne instead of him. ( Which is definitely a result of the in-universe historical inaccuracy of the comics’ storyteller, and him only knowing that Arthas dies early why Jaina lives on for a while after, but still. ) ( Or they coulda just shared the Throne!! you know!! just as a thought!! ) Bolvar says that Arthas would have wasted Acherus in his vengeance whilst Bolvar would put it to better use. Also they made him look like mayonnaise in that nightmare sequence in BfA.
And then they ripped apart the helm and said Fuck the Ongoing Story with the Lich King and the Ebon Blade and what the Throne and Helm were doing to B.olvar which was..... certainly a story choice. I guess. :/
I’m not exactly.... complaining about most of this, much as I feel like he gets hit with this kind of treatment significantly harder than Blizz’s other big name villains, Gul’dan and Deathwing coming to immediate mind. Mostly I just wish that he’d get like, one cool thing. Literally even just a HotS trailer, I don’t ask for much, just literally one cool thing. WC3R I kind of hoped would be that thing! We’d get to see his story in its prime, watch his fall and ascension in a pretty, modernized game, and also get to see his cinematics gorgeously redone with Blizz’s current, wonderful animations. But we didn’t really get any of that, and I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.
