Heropedia: Arthas Menethil

the tragedy of prince arthas, and the lore surrounding his life up until he picks up frostmourne and becomes the lich king has always fascinated me. now leave him alone in shadowlands!
"the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

#arthas#lore#warcraft

[Ghostcharm]

May we never forget the true story of Arthas.

[Balgoriusis]

Jaina and Uther were hypocrites at Stratholme. They refused to help Arthas, but also refused to do anything else. Dumping the problem and choice on Arthas.

[loganswalk]

Uther:"Remember Arthas, we are paladins vengeance cannot be part of what we must do."
Arthas:(uses a weapon named Light's Vengeance)

[_JayRamsey_]

" Blond hair _flowin', _ big hammer *_goin'_* "

[fiendish]

The whole of Arthas's campaign was great, but one aspect that grew on me was the Captain. He didn't have much dialogue and is basically just a stronger footman but I made it my mission to ensure this dude fought alongside Arthas and never died. Finding out he had a name in WoW and the novel was very cool :)

[PedroE]

Arthas, the legacy smashed into dust by a bunch of psychopaths intent on destroying an entire franchise at any cost

[istivanp]

13:13
"Glad I could make it, Arthas."

"I watch my tone with you old man. I may be the prince, but you're still my superior as a Paladin."

[NumbingDisasterAnon]

What was great about the Stratholme Purge is that in the novel, it was at that point that doomed Arthas down his path to the Lich King.

The novel describes how Arthas went down the mindset that he was abandoned by the Light, the fervor of his faith, and the glow of his hammer representing his power wielding thr Light, dwindling with every innocent he killed.

Arthas knew that this was something that he had to do, but he also knew that the Light would never approve of it. It was both right and wrong and it was this knowing that the Light abandoned him that marked his downfall. He had already turned his back on the Light, so what’s falling down a bit further?

I feel that if both Jaina and Uther somehow got convinced to join him in the purge, Arthad wouldn’t have felt the Light had forsaken him and could have stayed on a righteous path

[brendenhester]

I feel like I finally got in on the ground floor of a good channel before it takes off

[tuscanlegate]

Well, according to Blizzard now, Arthas is an irredeemable villain who deserves to be forgotten, as per Sylvana's word (she who burnt down Teldrassil btw)

[Weeboslav]

"pls shadowlands don't ruin my boy"
they didn't ruin Arthas as much as they killed him, set his body on fire, feed his ashes to a dog, wait ill dog crap the ashes, set them on fire again, collected those ashes into a jar, throw it into a cesspool, pored gasoline in cesspool and set it on fire

[Morindor]

Ah the age old debate of what happened in Stratholme, entire forums posts and reddit threads have been in conflict over this over the years.

But Arthas was right. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop this.

If you ignore the Light and morality for a second, Arthas purged a city that was already doomed, it wasn't like he was killing people that had a future, nobody in there had a future anymore. He purged a city that would have created a big scourge invasion point for the Scourge to launch a huge attack throughout the land.

Any other option would have made their lives 10 times worse or even spell their doom.

And I do agree that Uther and Jaina acted like chidlren here. His mentor and love interest did nothing. They chose to leave and take no action, with or against Arthas. And he was left alone with this only choice, no alternative options, no time to think, nothing.

Yes morally it's still in a grey area but morality did not save Lordaeron that day, the Light didn't save the Kingdom that day. It was a hot head of a prince and his troops that saved the land that day and them sacrificing their humanity for the better for many.

Maybe looking at it from the perspective they had at the time (not knowing how powerful the Scourge is and what they are capable of doing), what he did was barbaric and unthinkable but looking at it back with what the Scourge did, the man should be hailed a Hero for what he did. (up to this point, not talking about what he did afterwards)

[etherdeef]

I honestly don’t blame arthas for getting annoyed with uther, he finishes up at hearthglen after a morally destroying scenario. Then, he says he will go and defeat mal’ganis, the creature who is responsible for this, and what does uther do in response?

He laughs at Arthas’ eagerness to run to battle. With Arthas trying to pursue a just cause, Uther laughing at his resolve and passion only served to make arthas all the more bitter.

[thewonderfullymadejaraid]

The action of burning the ships and framing the trolls was his one evil act that he was in control of. He was driven by desperation and probably temporary madness. I think that he was still a hero up until he became corrupted by Frostmourne, but he was no longer himself afterwards. The man with Frostmourne was never Arthas. He had good intentions until he was forcibly turned evil.

[looksfineforme]

Once a glorious character, now disenchanted into 35 Anima

[_JayRamsey_]

Arthas was killing those people in Stratholme minutes before they turned, and there was no way to save them, so...

[graveyardoperations]

The Culling of Stratholme. It was a necessary... not evil. The villagers had no idea what was happening. It was not their fault. The tragedy of the Culling of Stratholme is Uther's and Uther's alone. As a mentor, guardian, and friend, Uther failed to stick to his guns being a paladin and failed to hear Arthas' tone behind the words.

Remember at the beginning of the game? The two were friends and joked with each other over the meaning of titles. Throughout the story, however, Uther almost... disregards Arthas due to his age. There is a holier-than-thou attitude to the elder paladin, and when you are an ADULT, and heir to the crown of your kingdom, only for what equates to a Superhero to tell you that you are wrong and all of your demands will not be met because "I know more than you, boy", it is natural there would be anger and rash decision making.

Had Uther been Arthas' true mentor and friend? Uther would have realized the gravity behind Arthas' sudden shift in thought and his desperation and would have asked the big questions instead of pointing fingers and making Arthas out to be a hasty kid and not a future king making a horrible, necessary decision.

Arthas becoming a Death Knight all boils down to Uther turning his back on his charge. The tragedy of Lordaeron falls on his hands alone.

[arsadell]

Not only does my man make a video on dagoth ur but now he goes to my favourite rts and make an amazing video on arthas?! Hell yeah

[Makujah_]

0:58 "..but in this video I'm gonna focus on what I believe was the original vision.."
And that's the moment I realised the video is probably gonna be good.

[baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis]

My head cannon states that Arthas lost his soul to Frostmorn when he picked it up and then it ordered him to do things which he didnt care to ignore and when he wandered the frozen wastes of Northrend he froze to death and turned undead and as undead was now under the control of the Lich King.