Hey all! As a non-gamer, I had no idea what was going on with Blizzard until I posted this video and you all let me know in the comments. Much of today has been spent learning about the law suit. I go back and forth in where I stand in the discussion of separating the art from the artist. I know a lot of people are talking about boycotting Blizzard. Some people are staying in Blizzard communities to help push for positive change. Both options are valid. We can create positive change together. Treating people, all people, like people, is how. Though I was horrified to learn what happened to women who worked at Blizzard, I was not surprised. To the people who were surprised, I hope you're paying attention now. Sexism in the workplace is painfully common and is a result of how society sees and treats women every day. It is all of our responsibility, collectively, to help change that. And I know we can. I know we can because of the overwhelming positivity I get in my comments as a biracial woman in the gaming world. The disgusting comments are manageable because of how amazing my core community is. For that, I thank you. Though I will step back from watching Blizzard stuff for a while, it will not be forever. There is a difference between cancel culture and accountability culture. I prefer the latter. It gives people, companies, and communities, an opportunity to change, grow, and be better. It gives us all a chance to be friends instead.
The great games were created by people who left the company years, even a decade or more ago. Activision corrupted Blizzard, after buying it. I think the only good game that was created afterwards was Overwatch. Hence, most of what is going on with Blizzard right now has almost nothing to do with the people who made Warcraft 3, for example. Speaking of which, I think you would really enjoy something with a plot, something like this:. th-cam.com/video/zFtBoUMx--Q/w-d-xo.html
The good in Blizzard was pushed out. Their games' 'success' relies on their reputation of past games, but they've ruined their games like World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3 reforged. Check out the article on the leaked Warcraft 3 Reforged details.
Blizz story is pretty much Arthas story. Once beloved and heralded as a great Hero, but one bad decision after another it became the very thing it was figthing against...
Not gonna lie, a bunch of character development was missing here. At the start of WC3 Arthas was do-goody paladin with a little too much zeal. Basically as you play through the game you witness him slowly forsake his ideals to vengance and eventually he picks up Frostmourne (his cool sword) that the frozen helmet belongs to and slowly becomes the posessed death knight and eventually the lich king. The biggest event I would have included is the Culling of Stratholme as it is probably the main turning point of Arthas to evil, detailed here by PlatinumWoW th-cam.com/video/HphgKmMB_IU/w-d-xo.html
It certainly is interesting. I ahve not scene any of these in years and the reforged one at all. With what I know from shadowlands (not playing wow atm myself) these are not jsut the normal nostalgia, from seeing them again and with what is happening to WoW and Blizzard atm, they are also even more tragic.
not to go on a nerdgasm here, but Arthas had a reason to why he purged stratholme and in his mind it was the right thing to do, and tbh I agree with that. if you read about the fate of his horse invicible, he made a resolution. that the sacrifice of few benefits the life many. If he did not purge stratholme, those people would've turned and go on to kill and turn more citizens of Lordaeron. He hunted Mal'ganis to northend because he thought he was the cause of the Scourge. If he didn't hunt Mal'ganis, he would just come back to cause harm to the kingdom again, which is where he picked up Frostmourne, which slowly caused his corruption.
Turning point?... It was necessery to do, and he did what True King should do in that moment. Im not saying it didnt cursed him even more.. im just saying that he did right in that moment. But yeah as you said.. Watching just these cinematics is pointless withnout the whole awesome story
@@adamdyson3977 yes he did. He picked up mindcontrolling sword. I mean cmon. Stratholme was ok. His intentions picking up the sword too, but he did underestimate the curse.
the video is skiping the whole story of arthas trying to save his people and his eventual corruption and jumps directly to the part where he is already evil. i guess thats one way to do it, albeit a bad one. Whoever recomeded that did you no favours, 90% of the story and the important bits are missing.
When Arthas is ascending the spiral stairs at 7:00, the quotes playing were some of the key moments in his story. Basically echoes of everyone who thought he was going too far in his quest to save his homeland. All of that happened before the first cinematic.
I like Arthas' character. His story is really the tragic hero becomes the villain. There are other characters like him in Warcraft, but you get to see the progression of his character in game from noble paladin to evil lich king. Plus Frostmourne is a badass sword.
@@HannaHsOverInvested The thing is: Arthas was doing (mostly) the right things, for the right reasons. If everyone had just placed some faith into him, he would have won without the help of Frostmourne. Warcraft III has 4 campaigns. In the first you play Arthas as he fights to protect his kingdom against the undead and in the second Arthas leads the undead to destroy the very same kingdom.
That compilation would be very confusing for someone who have no idea who this characters actually are 😂 Arthas was a paladin, warrior priest of the light as you will. But as the cult of the Damned lead by dreadlord Mal'ganis ravaged his kingdom, he slowly became obsessed with vengeance. Vengeance which lead him to Northrand where he picked up cursed runeblade Frostmaurn and eventually climbed Icecrown Citadel and donned Helm of Domination becoming the Lich King. And yes in that last part that was his father talking, as ironic echo of what he became, opposite of everything he once was.
@@HannaHsOverInvested to go lil deeper. Arthas is knight of light granted special (mostly healing) powers and a prince. He is a good person, caring for his people although still young and sometimes to haste with decisions. Than the plague happened. He meets a Malganis (as he believe the brain behind the plague) at an infected city were he is left with choice to either kill still human citizens or let them die to plague and become undead (there is no cure or anything). He kills the city believing that its the right choice for kingdom and mercy for those people. Thats the beginning of his fall. He starts to lose the line between justice and vengeance, takes an army and travel to another continent chasing Malganis. There he hires some local mercenaries to help him burn the ships (so noone can go back before his vengeance is complete), blames mercenaries and kills them (FUrther showing his progress from morals into "end justify means"). Ultimately he finds cursed sword and picks it so he can have tool powerful enough to defeat Malganis, but The blade has the price that must be payed. While he believes the price is a life of someone close (and kills a friend to achieve it) the real price is his own life and soul which he learn soon after. Thanks to the frostmourne (the blade) he manages to kill Malganis only to find out that it all was planned and he did exactly what Nerzhul (the real mastermind behind plague, dreadlords and frostmourne) wanted becoming his puppet with very limited will. Second cutscene is fight Arthas vs Illidan. Pretty much two fallen heroes against each other since Illidan did the very same 10000 years before. He was a demon hunter that, in order to protect his beloved, "sold his soul" for the power to see and fight demons (he doesnt have eyes, the green light is magical energy that allows him to see demonic energy). Both wanted good and become who they hated most. All the lines you can hear while he walks up the stairs are lines people betrayed by him during campaign says. Its pretty much all his conscience. Helmet is a soul of Nerzhul. Basically it was talking to him and pushing him ever since he got the sword. By putting helmet on he became a vessel for Nerzhul. But the soul of Arthas still is there trapped inside, seeing all the bad happening due to his wrath and unable to do nothing about it. The last trailer shows it of sort. How twisted became everything he did. How dead became "his" people and how bright future changed into death and suffering.
@@HannaHsOverInvested To be honest this was a very bad video to watch if u wanted to know how Arthas became the Lich King or there lore in general. Becouse the fact that u know very little about this, these short 5-10 min videos are gonna be almost useless to u. If u are just looking for content then sure they work but if are legit wanting to learn about this caracter that has lore dating back almost 20 years by the way or wow lore in general. These 5-10 min videos are just not gonna cut it especially not a random cinematic as they are based on the fact that u are already supposed to know the history. A good 1 for Arthas without being 3 hours long is this. th-cam.com/video/NtRMkhfs-z8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Athelarius This 1 is probadly as condensed as possable and still it´s over an hour. Split it up into parts if needed as anything less then this and your gonna miss very important context that will transfer over to other main caracters if u havent played WarCraft 3 or wow for years. This 1 even goes into some basic lore for Sylvanas (eyebrow)
The tragedy of Arthas is that he was once a noble defender of his kingdom, but his efforts to fend off hordes of demons and undead drove him to greater and greater extremes, until he took up a cursed blade, Frostmourne, that set him on the path to become the Lich King. This fall-from-grace narrative is the focus of the Human Campaign in Warcraft 3 and largely conveyed through in-game dialogue rather than full cinematics. The quotes when he is ascending the frozen mountain include, among others, lines from his mentor Uther (whom he murdered after his fall) and his friend Muradin who tried to dissuade him from claiming Frostmourne.
I'm so happy you're doing these Warcraft III remains the only Warcraft I've ever played. Back in 2002, a 17 year old me was blown away by the visual quality of the FMVs and the storytelling. I'd recommend starting from the beginning though, it'll give all this more context for you.
WC1 and 2 are a bit dated, but man were they fun when they came out. I grew up on those, so I was absolutely blown away when they started showing off WCIII at E3.
The story of Arthas is really a sad story. A paladin guided and protected by the light who wanted to save everyone even if it meant for him to lose his soul. You really should play the game and witness his decisions one by one who were making sense in the time he was making them, but in doing so he was closer and closer to the darkness.
Like you, I've never played it. Also like you, all I've seen are the cinematics. My geeky af boyfriend has all the videos unlocked on his copy of the game and one day I ended up watching them. They were good!
@@HannaHsOverInvested May I suggest to both of you to check out JoseBV 's channel? His Reign of Chaos series is essentially an amazingly well-done animation that presents the backstory from this game using 3D models for World of Warcraft, dialogue from the original cinematics of Warcraft III as well as random character quotes. It's honestly very impressive work, with great cinematography and very clever use of the assets from both games. The episodes are available in multiple languages (including English, using the original voice lines from the game), and each episode is like 3−5 minutes long, or you can watch the two 20−30 minute compilations that bundle the episodes one after the other. I was thinking it would be perfect for you, Hannah, since you've mentioned you like more character and story-driven cinematics :)
For several to many years now, several if not many videogames have better lore than most movies/tv series. You think game of thrones is sad/epic/brutal?, wow is larger and messier (so far only the cinematics cover very very little). Star wars is cool? Eve online (the lore is "developed" by the players) has a nuts lore. Last of us 2 (surely even many non gamers have heard of it) has ignited so much discussions that im surprised not a single president of any country has mentioned so far.
@@sanhcman666 EVE is fucking nuts. What was it that happened in that one fiasco? A rival company catfished another CEO, planted sleeper agents, then completely destroyed everything and made off with thousands (maybe even millions? I don't remember) of real-world dollars in assets? All of these years and months of planning for a fucking game LMAO. At least those players had a somewhat healthy (?) outlet for their devious schemes. For people who don't know, EVE Online is a Massively Multiplayer Online game set in space focused on player vs. player interactions. Unlike a lot of other MMOs, EVE not only allows griefing (i.e. picking on new players, sabotaging teammates, etc.), scamming, and trolling, EVE actively encourages it. Players are allowed to form corporations in the game and some of those have hundreds of players working together to do bad things to players in other corporations. Years ago it made national news when one of the largest corporations in the game was destroyed by their rivals. It brought up issues of what should be allowed in online games because of the real-world costs that were involved.
@@nekrataali so true. I was doing fine in the little corner of new eden of eve online several years ago, even playing lord of the rings hobbits music while playing, and some of my corporation mates told me i was living to the edge
That throne room scene cinematic still holds up to this day!! It blew my mind as a kid and it was indeed a very sad moment as we had played as him trying to do good, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions 😔
This video explains the lore of the lich king, and actually begins before Arthas' story: th-cam.com/video/_Ih-GVjv9n0/w-d-xo.html Like most stuff with WoW, there's a lot of background information available. His story (Arthas') is one of my favorites in the franchise.
3:42 : this throne room is literally haunted. Now called "undercity", if you wait in this area, you can hear the ghostly voices of Arthas and his father replay out this murder scene.
for warcraft lore i recommend platinum wow's videos. he does great editing and contains his videos to a narrative through line really well. his last video went up yesterday. the first part of how the horde came to exist. in addressing recent events at activision-blizzard he posted it as a fund-raiser for rainn
Arthas story is pretty much in the same vein as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. That of a young and idealistic Hero that falls to the Darkness and Becomes one of the biggest Villain of said franchise.
7:05 those are in-game voices that were spoken to Arthus throughout his journey. Some that I recognize are "you are not my king yet boy" from Uther (silverhand paladin and Arthus's teacher whose later killed by Arthus after Frostmourne claimed him), the "You lied to your man and betray your mercenaries..." from Muradin Bronzebeard (dwarf that lead him to Frostmourne and impaled by the shattered ice imprisoning it when Arthus claim the sword)
Arthas was heir to the Lordaeron throne, a prince. A young Paladin in training (A holy warrior of the light), he was hot head headed, brash, strong willed, but he had promise. While investigating the undead threat plaguing his homeland, through several unfortunate events and his expedition to the frozen lands of Northrend, he became corrupted by the Lich King, master of the undead. They merged into one being, and Azeroth was changed forever.
The cinematics you watched here take place at the end of each campaign, so you're missing events that play out in game that are still very relevant to story and in game dialogue. I can try to give a summary if you'd like. I also have a playlist of 290 videos from the games. It's every cutscene, cinematic, mission briefing and trailer in as close as I could get to absolute chronological order, if you decide to check those out and I can kind of summarize as you go. th-cam.com/play/PLicQbBy4iV3bY_HfOsNEjdYxJo9Q6CQTu.html
I always loved arthus's story and this part quote of the curse of Frostmorne "just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit" and from what I've seen in the comments (so far) no one explains the curse but that's good because now you have been baited into the rabbit hole with the rest of us gl getting through it would love too see more reactions.
Always happy to see your takes on these! Going be long-winded so if ya wanna dodge a nerd rant this is the line. Arthas' story is a kind of tragic take on Arthurian legend. The player starts out seeing him as a Paladin (holy knight) in training under Sir Uther Lightbringer, a famed Paladin from the previous game. We learn that he is also the Crown Prince, and that he's been sent to look into some troubling rumors of a plague in the northern region of the Kingdom of Lordaeron to which he's heir. From there we follow a trail of mysterious figures, living-dead creations, and eventually tail a cult of undeath to their plan to spread plague and disease throughout the land to kill, and then Animate the kingdom's people to provide soldiers for their further conquest in the name of an absent leader, The Lich King. This all comes to a head, as has been said before by others here, at the city of Stratholme (Strah-Thol-m). He gets there before the plague has taken effect, but too late to prevent it from infecting the town, as the cult had been putting the plague into the food for the whole populace. This is where some of the lines you heard whispered as he climbed the stairs of that ice-tower come from. th-cam.com/video/sC_SZToF82U/w-d-xo.html (Btw, that's also Jaina Proudmore there, the Daughter of the Sea in her younger years) Anyhow, this leaves Arthas with no one he trusted as an authority on his side, but grim determination to go murder the hell out of the citizens of Stratholme before they became an undead army and over-ran the kingdom's countryside. At the end of it though, the individual orchestrating the whole endeavor of the cult, a Demon named Mal'Ganis, taunted Arthas to come to the frozen land of Northrend if he wanted to do something about it. At this point, unable to do much for his people but avenge them, Arthas did Exactly That. His troops were with him at first, but while Arthas took a fleet and an army to Northerend, Uther went to the King to tell him what his son was up to and how bad it looked. This convinced the king to send word to recall the whole debacle of an invasion ASAP. Arthas got the message, and his men were like "sorry dude, King's orders out-do your's" and started packing up. So, Arthas and Muradin (a friend of Arthas' who'd been exploring up that way), hired a handful of local mercenaries, went along the shores before his army could get there, and burned the ships so that there would be no way home. th-cam.com/video/LEsWkr7QHRo/w-d-xo.html Then, to avoid responsibility for his actions, he blamed the mercenaries as random interlopers, and convinced the army that there was nothing to do about it but push forward for victory and justice etc. When that went about as badly as anyone could have predicted, Arthas and Muradin find themselves trapped, about to be surrounded and attacked by undead, they make a mad dash for the thing Muradin had been exploring for; a powerful rune-blade that might tip the scales in their favor. Arthas and Muradin went out to find the sword. Arthas returned alone, with the sword Frostmorne in hand, after taking the sword from a frozen plinth of stone. th-cam.com/video/bSBJeIKesYo/w-d-xo.html So, Arthas takes the sword, takes to the front of the battle, pushes into the undeads' base, and wins the day. th-cam.com/video/4TCmlY9MUyU/w-d-xo.html And then, after getting his revenge, he continued to listen to the whispers of the runeblade. After abandoning his men to the cold, he wandered around in Northrend for a while, learning from the Blade's creator, the Lich King. He finally returned home some time later, and enacted his rise from Prince to King, as you saw in the cinematic with the bells and rain of flower-petals. Then a LOT OF OTHER THINGS HAPPEN (Like the bit where we meet Eyebrows WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE and see how she dies and gets reanimated, but I also think you saw a version of that in the Warbringers video? th-cam.com/video/TVp7yLfnmrE/w-d-xo.html ) that I'm not going to go into, but the cinematic after that is Arthas fighting to return to the Lich King as the Frozen Throne (big block of ice that Arthas then broke him out of) was basically keeping the Lich's soul on UnLife Support and failing, and that demonic looking dude has about as much baggage as Arthas does but I'm not going into him today. Anyhow, taking up the Lich King's Armor and combining the two of them was a way to keep them both going, as Arthas'd die without the Lich King and LK was getting into a bad state of affairs. AND THEN they sat on their collective ass for 10 to 15 years or so. No joke. A lot of that time was spent hashing out exactly Who and What was calling the shots in their shared head, as it actually ended up being a 3 or 4 party discussion rather than just Arthas and LK, but again, not doing details at this point. The last cinematic was released with Wrath of the Lich King in the WoW MMO 5 years later IRL, and is Arthas the Lich King finally getting back up off his ass to put all those undead he'd been collecting and creating in Northerend to use. It's a mess and I can't bring myself to go into it more at this point. More recent blizz lore stuff makes me sad to remember a lot of this back when it felt like the writers respected their own story.
One thing that should be mentioned is that the guy with horns and wings is called Illidan and he's also a sort of tragic villain in the game. Unlike Arthas though, he actually finds redemption in the end. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent video for him but if there is it would be interesting to watch. Also, the armor inside the ice was inhabited by the spirit of an orc warlock who betrayed his demon masters and was punished by having his body destroyed and his soul trapped inside the ice until Arthas put on the helm and merged with him.
Just a random little tidbit: For the longest time, that castle where Arthas kills his father was the starting city for the Forsake, the undead race in world of warcraft. You passed through the throne room every time you entered the city from the front gate. There was an easter egg in that throne room. You could hear the scene of Arthas killing his father if you turned up your volume. The bloodstains and I think the broken crown were both still in that room.
When Warlocks summon a demon ally in World of Warcraft the demon throws out a one liner. When you summon an imp they'll sometimes say "Can't we all just get along?"
Hannah, this "full movie" started in the third act of Arthas becoming the Lich King. Honestly all the context that makes him a tragic story is missing.
I played WoW a lot and was never really interested much in the lore, but the Arthas' story arc stood out. This final cinematic, with the undead dragon, is still by far one of the best cinematics of all time for me. The imagery and music are amazing and the accompanying voice-over of Arthas' father is an extra stab to the heart, as Arthas becomes the exact opposite of all that his father hoped and wished for his son. The irony of it all.
This is just a compilation of the cinematics hes in, the story goes on for quite a while before he kills his father, and then even more until he gets the crown. It could be a great trilogy of movies. You haven't actually seen the end of the story though, so if you want to you should check out "Wrath gate cinematic", "Fall of the Lich King trailer" and "Fall of the Lich King Ending". They're in-game trailers, but good.
Even all these years later, the Wrath of the Lich King trailer (the last cinematic in this video) is still so good! I can't get over the dichotomy of what's happening on screen and Arthas' father's (king he killed earlier) words being the exact inverse of it all. It's such a good way to callback to Arthas' fall from grace without recounting the whole story, yet gives just enough context to give the idea that said fall happened to newer viewers. I can't help but gush!
Remember, our line has always ruled with wisdom, and strength 2020: And benevolence? no? 2021: And evil? i loved that and also the "and if i'm wrong, still don't tell me, just let me have this ok? ok?!"
The book "Arthas: Rise of the Lich King" is actually really good. Otherwise there are a lot of videos about Arthas because: a) his story is pretty good (like one of the better things blizzard wrote) b) he was a one of the main characters in warcraft 3 and main antagonist in second wow expansion c) his whole story echoes in the warcraft lore to this day (he made eyebrows from alive elf to not-so-alive-yet-still-perfectly-capable-to-move-elf)
The dragon at the end was Sindragosa. An undead frost wyrm that Arthas resurrected as part of his undead army. In life however, Sindragosa was a wife and prime-consort to the leader of the blue dragon flight Malygos as such she was pretty much the Queen/Lady/Matriarch of Dragons while alive.
Hannah just to give you some context, the woman singing in the background are the High Elves (Sylvanas's People). Which Arthas slaughtered. So in a way, the song, is haunting Arthas. The Dragon, Arthas raises front the lake, is Syndragosa, which Arthas also killed. And yes, the voice you hear is Arthas's dad, which he killed. He's made an army of his people in undeath, and there voices haunt him, even though he never has explicitly expressed remorse.
There's a lot of context missing, the lead up to Arthas's corruption. He was corrupted by frostmourne, the rune blade he wields in this video. Warcraft 3 was when his story began. He was a paladin of the light and all he wanted was to save his kingdom from the plague brought on by the scourge. One poor decision lead to another and he culling the entire town of stratholm to stop the plague spreading which was the start of his corruption and downfall. He then sought out the most powerful rune blade in the land to gain the power to stop the scourge. But the moment he picked up frostmourne it spoke to him and completed his journey to corruption. The blade put him on the path to seek the helm of domination. The moment he donned the helm, he and an entity imprisoned in the helm known as 'the jailer of the damned' became one. Thus... the Litch King was born again. He is kind of a tragic villain as his intentions were good initially but he succumbed to the evil thoughts. After beating him though someone must take his place... There must always be a litch king to keep the army's of the dead under control.
To answer your question, "how much was it walking to him before", the entity within the armor (nerzhul or something) has been in contact with arthas for a LONG time, and was a large player in his manipulation.
Also, to fully undestand why he became this you need to see his life from Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos till his "end" in Frozen Throne. You miss alot of why and when.
Funny that you are watching that now, when everything about it is getting rewritten. When WarCraft III came out it seemed like Arthas had sold his soul to the cool big sword for power. When he picked it up he swore to pay any price for his vengeance. As far as I remember he sword enabled him to slay the demon he was hunting but put him under control of the spirit in the helmet. Now the guy who made the helmet has a new formerly blonde toy (King Anduin) but he never became evil, he never picked up his new sword willingly, he got straight-up mind-controlled. So no idea what exactly the matter with Arthas was.
The real turning point was when he had cleared a village of the plague but it was so pervasive and easy to transmit that he chose to exterminate the entire village rather then risk it continuing. Of course it was all for nothing. Then he slayed his mentor and friend, and after that there was really no going back.
That last cinematic was more than a decade old... but it was so iconic that I think game of throne sort of recreated that dragon scene when NightKing destroyed the wall in Game of thrones.
My love for swords came from 'Frostmourn' the sword. When I saw it for the first time I fell in love with it. And my most favorite video game character Lich King (Arthus)!!
So when the helmets on and the eyes are blue, it's the Spirit of a warlock that was bound to the crown that's controlling him, when you see eyebrows fighting him in the Shadowlands trailer it's a different person, the one from the cinematics in this video is killed by us at the end of the expansion at the feet of his throne, the one you see fighting eyebrows is Bolvar, someone who is strong enough on a willpower level to hold off the spirit and keep the hordes of Undead in line and when his shrugs his hammer and the flames turn blue, he's giving control over to the spirit to fight eyebrows
All these whispered lines are memories and are lines you hear during the Human campaign where you play the young prince Arthas (a paladin of light) during the beginning of a plague outbreak. He takes more and more desperat messures culminating in him cleansing a large city (read - burn it to the ground) and going to the northern continent to find and fight the one he thought to be responsible for it all (he fought him during the city cleansing already but he got away.) In Northrend he loses more and more of himself, first his father orders all of his troops and him back to the homeland to which he response by using mercenarys to burn down the ships of his troops, than blaming the mercenarys and have them killed. Further persuing his "true enemy" he goes for an ancient, rumored artefact, the sword you see in the trailers. While drawing it the prison which holds the sword shatters and the shards kill his last remaining friend (all others have turned away from him for his actions ..) The sword starts whispering funny little things to him, reinforces his lust for power and argues away all the concearns that were mentioned to him. Than you get the cutscene of the young prince coming home as at this point already more or less corpse under almost full controle of the lich king (frozen armor on the ice throne) Between that cutscene and the second one (fight against demon boi) is an entire expansion of gameplay which is basically a race to the throne. The closer arthas gets the louder get the voices and by putting on the helmet of Nerzuls armor (lich king) they become one effectively ressurecting Nerzul in Arthas (though their personality and beeing merges)
A lot of context is missing, but I will try to sum it up with out to many spoilers. I did leave out several details just incase you were not done with this. Only relevant information is posted. Arthas, The Lich King was Born basically Prince Charming. He was expected to be a warrior to some degree. He became a Paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand. He learned directly from one of the best Paladins, Uther The Lightbringer. Many of these Paladins eventually got horses they they gave cheesy names like "Valor" or "Zeal" Arthas, Named his horse, "Invincible". One day, Arthas was being stupid and doing risky and dangerous jumps in the snow. On one said jump, that Arthas and Invincible did a few hundred times, Invincibles hooves slipped out form under it, both Arthas an Invincible took a pretty bad Spill and Invincible had to be put down, Arthas made a Promise that he would never let how he feels get in the line of duty again. Shortly after, undead started popping up over all over The Eastern Kingdoms which includes Lorderon, Which was Arthas's home and place of birth. Desperate to stop these undead who were more or less mindless and killing every one, Arthas decided the best course of action would be to Purge them before they could turn, One such even became known as the "Culling of Stratholme" before this event, Arthas's mentor, Uther The lightbringer and Arthas's girlfriend, Lady Jaina proudmoore basically begged him not to kill the citizens because they wanted to see if they could reverse the undeadification of the plague itself. Arthas, Honoring his promise to Invincible, Culled Stratholme any way, Which lead to him meeting Mal'Ganis a Demon lord, who Arthas thought was creating the plague. Time goes By and seeking power, Arthas picks up Frostmourne, Which is a cursed sword, but also has immense power. Arthas, Gaining frostmourne over Powers Mal'Ganis, but in doing so, hears the Whispers of Ner'Zul who isn't very important for this story. Ner'Zul basically tells Arthas "You're my Champion" and tells Arthas to go through a grocery list. Including reviving Kel'Thu'zzad, a Lich and a Powerful Wizard and an advisor to Ner'Zul. Returning home, Arthas kills his Father, King Terenas Menethil II, Usurping his own Father, Kills his Mentor, and reclaims his fathers ashes. To revive Kel'Thuzzad Arthas had to lay siege into The highelves of Quel'Thalas, During this event, Sylvanas Windrunner got killed by Arthas and raised as a banshee however: for this story, is not relevant. just know Arthas created Eyebrows as you know her. After the sacking and near genocide of the blood elves, Arthas has to return to The Frozen Throne with Kel'Thuzzad for his connection to Ner'Zul weakens. The further away Arthas strays from the Frozen Throne and the Longer he stays away, the weaker he becomes. Subsequently, the closer he is, to the frozen throne, the stronger he is. Its also somewhat important that Arthas can only be killed at the frozen throne, where he is most powerful. on Arthas's way back to The Frozen Throne, He encounters Lady Vashj, The Queen on the Naga, Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider and Illidan Stormrage, The betrayer. (The guy with the horns and the batwings and the twin one handed swords.) They failed to stop Arthas from reaching The Frozen Throne, as Arthas nears the Top, the voices from the past speak to him, Which is highlighting the mistakes he made along the way. (Culling Stratholme, chasing Mal'ganis to Northrend, and taking up frostmourne respectively.
i don't know if you already know this, but when arthas was young and not corrupted was the lover of jaina (the daughter of the sea). After full corruption he's the one who kills eyebrows and makes her undead.
(i just wanted to give you a little info to connect characters you already know, if you want to know more I'm sure there are videos that explains it well and the book about him)
@@HannaHsOverInvested Oh i know! And i admire your determination to dive into new subjects that people suggest! My comment was more pointed towards whoever gave this suggestion without providing context. :)
Original title for WC3 was reign of chaos. Arthas is being taken over by the lich king through the rune blade, frostmourne. Thats why he killed his father. The demon hunter illidan (from the night elves) has a tragic story as well. Consumed by his hatred, he consumes the skull of gul'dan- a powerful orc sorcerer- which deformed him into the demon-like state. Arthas brings the runeblade back to the lich king and they become the same entity. He goes from paladin to death knight through the course of the campaign, over his will to succeed, his failure to listen to his dwarven friend, he stops being a paladin after killing his own forces and sacrificing the dwarf for the runeblade, which helps him kill one of the dreadlords. But turns him into undead.
The wyrm that get's revived is called Sindragosa (formerly a member of the Blue Dragon Flight, her abilities before death just happened to be frost) and she was mate to Malygos (also in Blue Dragon Flight but also he was one of the 5 Dragon Aspects, his strength was magic, basically a top tier dragon). "Blinded and near death, Sindragosa sought desperately to reach the Dragonblight - the place where dragons instinctively travel to die. Weakened and no longer able to fly, Sindragosa plummeted to the cold earth in the peaks of Icecrown. The blue dragon gathered what remained of her energy and called out to Malygos for aid. Her only answer was the howling arctic wind as she struggled on, but the distance was far too great; agonizingly, she realized that her spirit would not find rest within the Dragonblight. Her life continued to fade away as her sanity deteriorated. In the midst of her delirium, Sindragosa's final thoughts turned to bitterness and hatred: hatred against the Legion, hatred against Neltharion, hatred even against Malygos. But most of all, hatred against the world of mortals. And in her dying moments, Sindragosa vowed revenge". That's just insanely cool. (My favourite dragon is Galakrond btw)
Talk about judging a book by its cover. "I don't know who I want to win. Propably not this guy" Talking about Illidan, possibly the most selfless hero in the entirety of the Warcraft franchise, sacrificing his.... elf-anity(?) to become a demon to gain the power needed to eliminate all of the demons. While Illidan is the ultimate edge-lord, he is still one of the better characters and absolutely morally good that you want to root for. He's the good guy Hannah.
Events before he killed his father: Arthas used to be a prince and a paladin(servant of the light), who did everything he had to do to save his people and his kingdom (ex. Fighting the Horde, the Scourge and purging his own people who are infected with the plague) he's willing to do what was necessary for his people what ever the cost, in his search for power he found the sword "Frostmourne" the cursed sword of the lich king witch in turn corrupted Arthas.
Arthas trought all the story of W3 is super well writen, I even like more the evil Arthas than the good one, his story is very tragic I saw how he ends in WOW and you know he deserves it, you know that he is beyond redemption, but when he says "I only see darkness in front of me" that gave me chills, I feel sad for him. The dude that he was fighting is Ilidan that's the other tragic villain in the story, a dude that's very misunderstood, he is just a very pissed off dude that tries to do the correct thing but doesn't care about the methods, that and having the worst brother in the world. It's just epic see them fight but I really liked them both.
The full story is a lot longer, and has smaller details along the way to really flesh out the character. One tidbit of information for example, and I'm not sure this counts as a spoiler when the content is 10+years old, but Arthas was found to have kept a locket from his sweetheart to the very end, and he used his powers of necromancy to bring his old horse back from the grave. There's also a lot of stories that surround Arthas, like the fall of Lordaeron, the scourge invasion of Quel'thalas that destroyed the Sunwell which the High elves drew their powers from, the conversion of Sylvanas from Ranger-General to Banshee and eventually to her leading the Forsaken Undead as their Banshee Queen and joining the Horde, the reason Sindragosa, the Queen of the Blue Dragonflight, could not find her rest when she perished, his interactions with both Jaina and Kael'thas growing up, Kel'thuzad's various deeds, and many more.
Missing a fair amount of development leading up to this. Arthas was the image of a hero as he was a paladin, but a plague of undeath spread across his homeland. This led him down a dark path that became set when he ordered the eradication of an entire city to prevent the spread of the plague. It was then he learned it was the doing of a demon (I can't remember if it was Mal'Ganus or Tichondrius) and he hunted the demon down to the frozen land of Northrend where he took up the cursed sword Frostmourne which bound him to the Lich King's will and made Arthas the first Death Knight The lines being spoken when he reaches the Frozen Throne are from his decent into darkness prior to becoming a thrall of the Lich King
Arthas was the prince of his kingdom when he began investigating a plague being spread deliberately through his people. He hunted down those responsible, know as the Cult of the Damned. The plague didn’t simply kill those it infected but turned them into mindless undead. From his perspective he wa just chasing down bad people. But the leaders of the cult had the ulterior motive of corrupting the prince. They lured him north to the frozen continent of Northrend (lots of depictions in the cinematics you just watched. There he stranded his men who were beginning to get cold feet (heh) to convince them to fight on. Needing more power, he sought a rune blade (which turned out to be cursed). Eventually he succumbed to the insanity. And truly sealed his fate as the Lich King. He then returned to his kingdom with the intent to finish wiping out the last vestiges of humanity. As part of the process of switching alignments he murders the paladin order (the knights of the silverhand) which he used to be a part of. He assaulted the homeland of Eyebrows (Quel’thalas) to revive the leader of the cult of the damned which he had previously destroyed. And murdered his father before orchestrating a systematic genocide to make sure none of his former people survived. There’s a whole history to the men that were stranded with Arthas. But the short of it is they either turned to his side or were hunted down and killed. Two of his fallen lieutenants were shown as his hooded guards in the scene where he kills his father. The lower quality and probably more confusing cinematic in the middle where arthas fights a demon figure (Illidan) comes from the final fight in Warcraft 3: the frozen throne. Illidan is a hugely important character. But the short of that fight is: Illidan recognized the threat arthas would pose to the world if he was allowed to consolidate power in the frozen wasteland. So he set about to stop him but was ultimately unsuccessful. The Lich king is something like a hive mind that controls the army of undead bound to it. You see him resurrecting a great blue dragon, Sindragosa, which he had previously killed. And the army of mindless undead below him. That scene is the opening cinematic for the world of Warcraft expansion: The Wrath of the Lich King.
If you want to get some insight into both Salvanas and Jaina people often miss watch the halls of reflection cinematic for both the horde and the alliance.
what a lot of people including wow fans dont understand.. is that many of the choices that Arthas made, were his own. The whispers he heard were promises of power and Arthas decided he wanted that power, then Arthas decided to do many bad things in his pursuit of that power. Once he gained the helm he fought with the soul living in the Helm for control over his mind. Arthas ultimately won and banished the soul (Nehrzul) to a quiet corner... the game makes it seem as if he got rid of Nerhzul completely, but later we find that Nerzhul never left, just stayed silent and watched. This is proven when a new lich king is made (Bolvar). And Bolvar has a tough time keeping Nerhzuls evil tendencies at bay.. Bolvar starts doing a lot of bad things behind the scenes for many years. Bolvars actions as the Lich king arent his choices, this is proven later once The Helm of Domination is broken and he is free of Nerhzuls control. After the helm is broken Bolvar is basically a good guy... he is completely different from when he wore the Helm, letting us know that his actions and things he said, were not his own. (the guy used to put us through torturous games for his amusement and constantly threaten us with death)
Every time I see someone watching just the bad Arthas stuff I feel like they've watched the last 15 minutes of a movie. I feel like 80% of perception of this character is based upon his change from good to evil and his efforts that brought about that change.
not gonna lie, i forgot Warcraft 3 Reforged was a thing untill this video. I wish i didn't remember. But otherwise the video could have used the "improved" in-game cinematics that show Arthas slowly fading away and the Lich King actually rising
Well Arthas is like... Dart Vader. Yes that's good compare. He sacrificed everything "for saving his people". Sword took his soul and fooled him. And after this he became vilain. Tragic story about "Descent of pure good to pure evil". That's why many people love this character. Sometimes being bad guy is not the choice.
Yes it's his dad talking. But it's something his dad told him growing up, so there is an immense amount of irony in what he's saying there considering what Arthas became. He was meant to become a great king but slowly corruption and mind games took hold. He is also the reason Sylvanas is undead.
All of these cinematics are great but they have 200x more weight to them if you read the book. I admit, as a warcraft lore nerd i'm incredibly bias but Arthas : rise of the lich king is a fantastic fantasty novel even if you dont know anything else about the universe and i could not recommend it enough.
when it was made, they were both evil. it has since been retconned that demon boy was good all along, and using evil magic to save the world. it's o k though, he survived.
Yeah, Arthas is tragic af... Golden boy, super paladin, charming prince... But to save his people, he made questionable choices, that lead him towards a dark path of vengeance, and finally made him a monster. In the end, he became the Lich King, the whole anti-thesis of who he were. Sad stuff... Too bad the video didn't include his demise, at the end of the Icrecrown citadel raid, where his Frostmourne ( the blade ) gets shattered, releasing all the souls it stole, and Arthas being watched by the soul of his father in the end. Great, great stuff. Super sad as well.
You have books out. That is so cool. I'm buying for sure but I'm curious. Are they only available as audio books? I'll get them either way but I'm older and love holding a real book in my hand. 🙂
I miss this era of Warcraft/WoW. Could be because I played WC3/FT as a kid, and then my first real proper experience with WoW was around WOTLK era. There is a pretty short novel (sub300 pages iirc) that covers whole story of Arthas, its a pretty good fast-paced read.
Late to this particular party, but you all gotta love it when Hannah goes "Yes, yes, I remember!", raises her eyebrows and just second guesses! Who else would love to just sit with her and explain it all in exaggerated detail? hehe
Hey all! As a non-gamer, I had no idea what was going on with Blizzard until I posted this video and you all let me know in the comments. Much of today has been spent learning about the law suit.
I go back and forth in where I stand in the discussion of separating the art from the artist. I know a lot of people are talking about boycotting Blizzard. Some people are staying in Blizzard communities to help push for positive change.
Both options are valid.
We can create positive change together. Treating people, all people, like people, is how.
Though I was horrified to learn what happened to women who worked at Blizzard, I was not surprised. To the people who were surprised, I hope you're paying attention now.
Sexism in the workplace is painfully common and is a result of how society sees and treats women every day.
It is all of our responsibility, collectively, to help change that. And I know we can.
I know we can because of the overwhelming positivity I get in my comments as a biracial woman in the gaming world. The disgusting comments are manageable because of how amazing my core community is. For that, I thank you.
Though I will step back from watching Blizzard stuff for a while, it will not be forever. There is a difference between cancel culture and accountability culture. I prefer the latter. It gives people, companies, and communities, an opportunity to change, grow, and be better.
It gives us all a chance to be friends instead.
The great games were created by people who left the company years, even a decade or more ago. Activision corrupted Blizzard, after buying it. I think the only good game that was created afterwards was Overwatch. Hence, most of what is going on with Blizzard right now has almost nothing to do with the people who made Warcraft 3, for example.
Speaking of which, I think you would really enjoy something with a plot, something like this:. th-cam.com/video/zFtBoUMx--Q/w-d-xo.html
The good in Blizzard was pushed out. Their games' 'success' relies on their reputation of past games, but they've ruined their games like World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3 reforged. Check out the article on the leaked Warcraft 3 Reforged details.
now can you do "BEFORE DAWN" and "ABSOLUTION" by League of Legends?? It is the continuation for RUINATION
Blizz story is pretty much Arthas story.
Once beloved and heralded as a great Hero, but one bad decision after another it became the very thing it was figthing against...
@@Mugthraka This.
Not gonna lie, a bunch of character development was missing here. At the start of WC3 Arthas was do-goody paladin with a little too much zeal. Basically as you play through the game you witness him slowly forsake his ideals to vengance and eventually he picks up Frostmourne (his cool sword) that the frozen helmet belongs to and slowly becomes the posessed death knight and eventually the lich king.
The biggest event I would have included is the Culling of Stratholme as it is probably the main turning point of Arthas to evil, detailed here by PlatinumWoW th-cam.com/video/HphgKmMB_IU/w-d-xo.html
It certainly is interesting. I ahve not scene any of these in years and the reforged one at all. With what I know from shadowlands (not playing wow atm myself) these are not jsut the normal nostalgia, from seeing them again and with what is happening to WoW and Blizzard atm, they are also even more tragic.
not to go on a nerdgasm here, but Arthas had a reason to why he purged stratholme and in his mind it was the right thing to do, and tbh I agree with that. if you read about the fate of his horse invicible, he made a resolution. that the sacrifice of few benefits the life many. If he did not purge stratholme, those people would've turned and go on to kill and turn more citizens of Lordaeron. He hunted Mal'ganis to northend because he thought he was the cause of the Scourge.
If he didn't hunt Mal'ganis, he would just come back to cause harm to the kingdom again, which is where he picked up Frostmourne, which slowly caused his corruption.
Turning point?... It was necessery to do, and he did what True King should do in that moment. Im not saying it didnt cursed him even more.. im just saying that he did right in that moment. But yeah as you said.. Watching just these cinematics is pointless withnout the whole awesome story
Arthas did nothing wrong
@@adamdyson3977 yes he did. He picked up mindcontrolling sword. I mean cmon. Stratholme was ok. His intentions picking up the sword too, but he did underestimate the curse.
the video is skiping the whole story of arthas trying to save his people and his eventual corruption and jumps directly to the part where he is already evil.
i guess thats one way to do it, albeit a bad one.
Whoever recomeded that did you no favours, 90% of the story and the important bits are missing.
🤷🏽♀️ I like watching what people suggest even of it's not the best thing.
@GamerBear I didn't think I was being blamed.
th-cam.com/video/bcabX08bdcQ/w-d-xo.html
maybe... this one can be suggesting? i thought this one is better
@@임태균-g9q pretty good recommendation, one of the best summaries I've seen
When Arthas is ascending the spiral stairs at 7:00, the quotes playing were some of the key moments in his story. Basically echoes of everyone who thought he was going too far in his quest to save his homeland. All of that happened before the first cinematic.
I like Arthas' character. His story is really the tragic hero becomes the villain. There are other characters like him in Warcraft, but you get to see the progression of his character in game from noble paladin to evil lich king. Plus Frostmourne is a badass sword.
Those kinds of characters make me feel so much.
@@HannaHsOverInvested
The thing is: Arthas was doing (mostly) the right things, for the right reasons. If everyone had just placed some faith into him, he would have won without the help of Frostmourne.
Warcraft III has 4 campaigns. In the first you play Arthas as he fights to protect his kingdom against the undead and in the second Arthas leads the undead to destroy the very same kingdom.
@@feuerderveranderung6056 Just like Eyebrows!
WoW's own Anakin Skywalker :D
He's the very definition of "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" IMO.
That compilation would be very confusing for someone who have no idea who this characters actually are 😂
Arthas was a paladin, warrior priest of the light as you will. But as the cult of the Damned lead by dreadlord Mal'ganis ravaged his kingdom, he slowly became obsessed with vengeance. Vengeance which lead him to Northrand where he picked up cursed runeblade Frostmaurn and eventually climbed Icecrown Citadel and donned Helm of Domination becoming the Lich King.
And yes in that last part that was his father talking, as ironic echo of what he became, opposite of everything he once was.
Confusing but still fun!
@@HannaHsOverInvested to go lil deeper. Arthas is knight of light granted special (mostly healing) powers and a prince. He is a good person, caring for his people although still young and sometimes to haste with decisions. Than the plague happened. He meets a Malganis (as he believe the brain behind the plague) at an infected city were he is left with choice to either kill still human citizens or let them die to plague and become undead (there is no cure or anything). He kills the city believing that its the right choice for kingdom and mercy for those people. Thats the beginning of his fall. He starts to lose the line between justice and vengeance, takes an army and travel to another continent chasing Malganis. There he hires some local mercenaries to help him burn the ships (so noone can go back before his vengeance is complete), blames mercenaries and kills them (FUrther showing his progress from morals into "end justify means"). Ultimately he finds cursed sword and picks it so he can have tool powerful enough to defeat Malganis, but The blade has the price that must be payed. While he believes the price is a life of someone close (and kills a friend to achieve it) the real price is his own life and soul which he learn soon after. Thanks to the frostmourne (the blade) he manages to kill Malganis only to find out that it all was planned and he did exactly what Nerzhul (the real mastermind behind plague, dreadlords and frostmourne) wanted becoming his puppet with very limited will.
Second cutscene is fight Arthas vs Illidan. Pretty much two fallen heroes against each other since Illidan did the very same 10000 years before. He was a demon hunter that, in order to protect his beloved, "sold his soul" for the power to see and fight demons (he doesnt have eyes, the green light is magical energy that allows him to see demonic energy). Both wanted good and become who they hated most.
All the lines you can hear while he walks up the stairs are lines people betrayed by him during campaign says. Its pretty much all his conscience.
Helmet is a soul of Nerzhul. Basically it was talking to him and pushing him ever since he got the sword. By putting helmet on he became a vessel for Nerzhul. But the soul of Arthas still is there trapped inside, seeing all the bad happening due to his wrath and unable to do nothing about it. The last trailer shows it of sort. How twisted became everything he did. How dead became "his" people and how bright future changed into death and suffering.
@@HannaHsOverInvested To be honest this was a very bad video to watch if u wanted to know how Arthas became the Lich King or there lore in general. Becouse the fact that u know very little about this, these short 5-10 min videos are gonna be almost useless to u. If u are just looking for content then sure they work but if are legit wanting to learn about this caracter that has lore dating back almost 20 years by the way or wow lore in general. These 5-10 min videos are just not gonna cut it especially not a random cinematic as they are based on the fact that u are already supposed to know the history. A good 1 for Arthas without being 3 hours long is this. th-cam.com/video/NtRMkhfs-z8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Athelarius This 1 is probadly as condensed as possable and still it´s over an hour. Split it up into parts if needed as anything less then this and your gonna miss very important context that will transfer over to other main caracters if u havent played WarCraft 3 or wow for years. This 1 even goes into some basic lore for Sylvanas (eyebrow)
It is incredible how your reactions to the Wrrath of the Lichking trailer were the same on your second time watching.
I've watched this before?? Oh gawd...
@@HannaHsOverInvested Only the last trailer if i remember correctly. Like more then a year ago
The tragedy of Arthas is that he was once a noble defender of his kingdom, but his efforts to fend off hordes of demons and undead drove him to greater and greater extremes, until he took up a cursed blade, Frostmourne, that set him on the path to become the Lich King. This fall-from-grace narrative is the focus of the Human Campaign in Warcraft 3 and largely conveyed through in-game dialogue rather than full cinematics. The quotes when he is ascending the frozen mountain include, among others, lines from his mentor Uther (whom he murdered after his fall) and his friend Muradin who tried to dissuade him from claiming Frostmourne.
I bet that was super impactful for those who played through the whole story.
Since they went that way, the uploader should have added the bastion cinematic as well in the end.
I'm so happy you're doing these
Warcraft III remains the only Warcraft I've ever played.
Back in 2002, a 17 year old me was blown away by the visual quality of the FMVs and the storytelling.
I'd recommend starting from the beginning though, it'll give all this more context for you.
"Frostmourne hungers..."
Is that the thing? That's the thing, right?
🤣
@@sarahscott5305
Yes! That is indeed 'the thing'
I'm so proud of you!
And I'm a little ashamed that I've corrupted you.
WC1 and 2 are a bit dated, but man were they fun when they came out. I grew up on those, so I was absolutely blown away when they started showing off WCIII at E3.
The story of Arthas is really a sad story. A paladin guided and protected by the light who wanted to save everyone even if it meant for him to lose his soul. You really should play the game and witness his decisions one by one who were making sense in the time he was making them, but in doing so he was closer and closer to the darkness.
Like you, I've never played it.
Also like you, all I've seen are the cinematics.
My geeky af boyfriend has all the videos unlocked on his copy of the game and one day I ended up watching them.
They were good!
geeky af haha
@@HannaHsOverInvested May I suggest to both of you to check out JoseBV 's channel? His Reign of Chaos series is essentially an amazingly well-done animation that presents the backstory from this game using 3D models for World of Warcraft, dialogue from the original cinematics of Warcraft III as well as random character quotes. It's honestly very impressive work, with great cinematography and very clever use of the assets from both games. The episodes are available in multiple languages (including English, using the original voice lines from the game), and each episode is like 3−5 minutes long, or you can watch the two 20−30 minute compilations that bundle the episodes one after the other. I was thinking it would be perfect for you, Hannah, since you've mentioned you like more character and story-driven cinematics :)
For several to many years now, several if not many videogames have better lore than most movies/tv series.
You think game of thrones is sad/epic/brutal?, wow is larger and messier (so far only the cinematics cover very very little).
Star wars is cool? Eve online (the lore is "developed" by the players) has a nuts lore.
Last of us 2 (surely even many non gamers have heard of it) has ignited so much discussions that im surprised not a single president of any country has mentioned so far.
@@sanhcman666 EVE is fucking nuts. What was it that happened in that one fiasco? A rival company catfished another CEO, planted sleeper agents, then completely destroyed everything and made off with thousands (maybe even millions? I don't remember) of real-world dollars in assets? All of these years and months of planning for a fucking game LMAO. At least those players had a somewhat healthy (?) outlet for their devious schemes.
For people who don't know, EVE Online is a Massively Multiplayer Online game set in space focused on player vs. player interactions. Unlike a lot of other MMOs, EVE not only allows griefing (i.e. picking on new players, sabotaging teammates, etc.), scamming, and trolling, EVE actively encourages it. Players are allowed to form corporations in the game and some of those have hundreds of players working together to do bad things to players in other corporations. Years ago it made national news when one of the largest corporations in the game was destroyed by their rivals. It brought up issues of what should be allowed in online games because of the real-world costs that were involved.
@@nekrataali so true.
I was doing fine in the little corner of new eden of eve online several years ago, even playing lord of the rings hobbits music while playing, and some of my corporation mates told me i was living to the edge
hannah remembers! yes that is the helmet she pulls apart. this took place years before that
Go me!
To this day that shot of the dragon climbing out of the ice behind him is still my favourite WoW cinematic moments
Arthas culling Stratholm is sorely needed for more context here.
The earlier cutscenes give the background as to why Prince Arthas went from goody-two-shoes Paladin hero to evil goth boy band death metal bastard.
Honestly Arthas's story is what I consider the PERFECT fall from grace/tragedy, story written..
That throne room scene cinematic still holds up to this day!! It blew my mind as a kid and it was indeed a very sad moment as we had played as him trying to do good, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions 😔
Super sad moment for sure.
They started you at the end of his fall, not sure why. Yes, we're sad about that moment.
It was so sad!
This video explains the lore of the lich king, and actually begins before Arthas' story:
th-cam.com/video/_Ih-GVjv9n0/w-d-xo.html
Like most stuff with WoW, there's a lot of background information available. His story (Arthas') is one of my favorites in the franchise.
I just wanna say that your vibe that you have in these videos are always so comforting
3:42 : this throne room is literally haunted. Now called "undercity", if you wait in this area, you can hear the ghostly voices of Arthas and his father replay out this murder scene.
for warcraft lore i recommend platinum wow's videos. he does great editing and contains his videos to a narrative through line really well. his last video went up yesterday. the first part of how the horde came to exist. in addressing recent events at activision-blizzard he posted it as a fund-raiser for rainn
Thanks!
Arthas story is pretty much in the same vein as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars.
That of a young and idealistic Hero that falls to the Darkness and Becomes one of the biggest Villain of said franchise.
7:05 those are in-game voices that were spoken to Arthus throughout his journey. Some that I recognize are "you are not my king yet boy" from Uther (silverhand paladin and Arthus's teacher whose later killed by Arthus after Frostmourne claimed him), the "You lied to your man and betray your mercenaries..." from Muradin Bronzebeard (dwarf that lead him to Frostmourne and impaled by the shattered ice imprisoning it when Arthus claim the sword)
Arthas was heir to the Lordaeron throne, a prince. A young Paladin in training (A holy warrior of the light), he was hot head headed, brash, strong willed, but he had promise. While investigating the undead threat plaguing his homeland, through several unfortunate events and his expedition to the frozen lands of Northrend, he became corrupted by the Lich King, master of the undead. They merged into one being, and Azeroth was changed forever.
yes the helmet and sword turn him evil. is called the helm of domination for a reason. but he did also give himself to it
Hannah: *asks a question, looks at the camera*
Me: *desperately trying to answer but she does not hear me*
🙏🏼🙏🏼 thanks for trying.
@@HannaHsOverInvested I'm still a fan of World of Warcraft almost exclusively for the story at this point. I would love to talk about it!
The cinematics you watched here take place at the end of each campaign, so you're missing events that play out in game that are still very relevant to story and in game dialogue. I can try to give a summary if you'd like. I also have a playlist of 290 videos from the games. It's every cutscene, cinematic, mission briefing and trailer in as close as I could get to absolute chronological order, if you decide to check those out and I can kind of summarize as you go. th-cam.com/play/PLicQbBy4iV3bY_HfOsNEjdYxJo9Q6CQTu.html
I always loved arthus's story and this part quote of the curse of Frostmorne "just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit" and from what I've seen in the comments (so far) no one explains the curse but that's good because now you have been baited into the rabbit hole with the rest of us gl getting through it would love too see more reactions.
that is a great line.
well i've been here since the very first non gamer reaction! and i really appreciate what you are doing , always enjoying your reaction
omg really? The very first one! Thank you so much!
Always happy to see your takes on these! Going be long-winded so if ya wanna dodge a nerd rant this is the line.
Arthas' story is a kind of tragic take on Arthurian legend. The player starts out seeing him as a Paladin (holy knight) in training under Sir Uther Lightbringer, a famed Paladin from the previous game. We learn that he is also the Crown Prince, and that he's been sent to look into some troubling rumors of a plague in the northern region of the Kingdom of Lordaeron to which he's heir. From there we follow a trail of mysterious figures, living-dead creations, and eventually tail a cult of undeath to their plan to spread plague and disease throughout the land to kill, and then Animate the kingdom's people to provide soldiers for their further conquest in the name of an absent leader, The Lich King.
This all comes to a head, as has been said before by others here, at the city of Stratholme (Strah-Thol-m). He gets there before the plague has taken effect, but too late to prevent it from infecting the town, as the cult had been putting the plague into the food for the whole populace. This is where some of the lines you heard whispered as he climbed the stairs of that ice-tower come from.
th-cam.com/video/sC_SZToF82U/w-d-xo.html
(Btw, that's also Jaina Proudmore there, the Daughter of the Sea in her younger years)
Anyhow, this leaves Arthas with no one he trusted as an authority on his side, but grim determination to go murder the hell out of the citizens of Stratholme before they became an undead army and over-ran the kingdom's countryside. At the end of it though, the individual orchestrating the whole endeavor of the cult, a Demon named Mal'Ganis, taunted Arthas to come to the frozen land of Northrend if he wanted to do something about it. At this point, unable to do much for his people but avenge them, Arthas did Exactly That.
His troops were with him at first, but while Arthas took a fleet and an army to Northerend, Uther went to the King to tell him what his son was up to and how bad it looked. This convinced the king to send word to recall the whole debacle of an invasion ASAP. Arthas got the message, and his men were like "sorry dude, King's orders out-do your's" and started packing up.
So, Arthas and Muradin (a friend of Arthas' who'd been exploring up that way), hired a handful of local mercenaries, went along the shores before his army could get there, and burned the ships so that there would be no way home.
th-cam.com/video/LEsWkr7QHRo/w-d-xo.html
Then, to avoid responsibility for his actions, he blamed the mercenaries as random interlopers, and convinced the army that there was nothing to do about it but push forward for victory and justice etc.
When that went about as badly as anyone could have predicted, Arthas and Muradin find themselves trapped, about to be surrounded and attacked by undead, they make a mad dash for the thing Muradin had been exploring for; a powerful rune-blade that might tip the scales in their favor.
Arthas and Muradin went out to find the sword. Arthas returned alone, with the sword Frostmorne in hand, after taking the sword from a frozen plinth of stone.
th-cam.com/video/bSBJeIKesYo/w-d-xo.html
So, Arthas takes the sword, takes to the front of the battle, pushes into the undeads' base, and wins the day.
th-cam.com/video/4TCmlY9MUyU/w-d-xo.html
And then, after getting his revenge, he continued to listen to the whispers of the runeblade. After abandoning his men to the cold, he wandered around in Northrend for a while, learning from the Blade's creator, the Lich King. He finally returned home some time later, and enacted his rise from Prince to King, as you saw in the cinematic with the bells and rain of flower-petals.
Then a LOT OF OTHER THINGS HAPPEN (Like the bit where we meet Eyebrows WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE and see how she dies and gets reanimated, but I also think you saw a version of that in the Warbringers video? th-cam.com/video/TVp7yLfnmrE/w-d-xo.html )
that I'm not going to go into, but the cinematic after that is Arthas fighting to return to the Lich King as the Frozen Throne (big block of ice that Arthas then broke him out of) was basically keeping the Lich's soul on UnLife Support and failing, and that demonic looking dude has about as much baggage as Arthas does but I'm not going into him today. Anyhow, taking up the Lich King's Armor and combining the two of them was a way to keep them both going, as Arthas'd die without the Lich King and LK was getting into a bad state of affairs.
AND THEN they sat on their collective ass for 10 to 15 years or so. No joke. A lot of that time was spent hashing out exactly Who and What was calling the shots in their shared head, as it actually ended up being a 3 or 4 party discussion rather than just Arthas and LK, but again, not doing details at this point. The last cinematic was released with Wrath of the Lich King in the WoW MMO 5 years later IRL, and is Arthas the Lich King finally getting back up off his ass to put all those undead he'd been collecting and creating in Northerend to use.
It's a mess and I can't bring myself to go into it more at this point. More recent blizz lore stuff makes me sad to remember a lot of this back when it felt like the writers respected their own story.
One thing that should be mentioned is that the guy with horns and wings is called Illidan and he's also a sort of tragic villain in the game. Unlike Arthas though, he actually finds redemption in the end. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent video for him but if there is it would be interesting to watch. Also, the armor inside the ice was inhabited by the spirit of an orc warlock who betrayed his demon masters and was punished by having his body destroyed and his soul trapped inside the ice until Arthas put on the helm and merged with him.
"He must be so lonely." Trust me, plenty of company in that head of his.
Just a random little tidbit: For the longest time, that castle where Arthas kills his father was the starting city for the Forsake, the undead race in world of warcraft. You passed through the throne room every time you entered the city from the front gate. There was an easter egg in that throne room. You could hear the scene of Arthas killing his father if you turned up your volume. The bloodstains and I think the broken crown were both still in that room.
When Warlocks summon a demon ally in World of Warcraft the demon throws out a one liner. When you summon an imp they'll sometimes say "Can't we all just get along?"
Hannah, this "full movie" started in the third act of Arthas becoming the Lich King. Honestly all the context that makes him a tragic story is missing.
You get things right, and yes he is a tragic villain, once a hero of his people.
I played WoW a lot and was never really interested much in the lore, but the Arthas' story arc stood out. This final cinematic, with the undead dragon, is still by far one of the best cinematics of all time for me. The imagery and music are amazing and the accompanying voice-over of Arthas' father is an extra stab to the heart, as Arthas becomes the exact opposite of all that his father hoped and wished for his son. The irony of it all.
There's actualy a movie version covering ingame cutscenes and in game voiceovers for the full story(it's also about as long as a real movie too)
I bet it is!
@@HannaHsOverInvested do you want it ?
This is just a compilation of the cinematics hes in, the story goes on for quite a while before he kills his father, and then even more until he gets the crown. It could be a great trilogy of movies. You haven't actually seen the end of the story though, so if you want to you should check out "Wrath gate cinematic", "Fall of the Lich King trailer" and "Fall of the Lich King Ending". They're in-game trailers, but good.
Even all these years later, the Wrath of the Lich King trailer (the last cinematic in this video) is still so good! I can't get over the dichotomy of what's happening on screen and Arthas' father's (king he killed earlier) words being the exact inverse of it all. It's such a good way to callback to Arthas' fall from grace without recounting the whole story, yet gives just enough context to give the idea that said fall happened to newer viewers. I can't help but gush!
Remember, our line has always ruled with wisdom, and strength
2020: And benevolence? no?
2021: And evil?
i loved that and also the "and if i'm wrong, still don't tell me, just let me have this ok? ok?!"
haha I love that you call her eyebrows. Every once in a while, I catch myself calling her that.
🤣🤣🤣
Arthas actuelly turned "eye brows" to a banshee
The book "Arthas: Rise of the Lich King" is actually really good. Otherwise there are a lot of videos about Arthas because:
a) his story is pretty good (like one of the better things blizzard wrote)
b) he was a one of the main characters in warcraft 3 and main antagonist in second wow expansion
c) his whole story echoes in the warcraft lore to this day (he made eyebrows from alive elf to not-so-alive-yet-still-perfectly-capable-to-move-elf)
The book would help a lot to fill everything else before that final. But I agree, it is easy to find anything about him.
The dragon at the end was Sindragosa. An undead frost wyrm that Arthas resurrected as part of his undead army.
In life however, Sindragosa was a wife and prime-consort to the leader of the blue dragon flight Malygos as such she was pretty much the Queen/Lady/Matriarch of Dragons while alive.
Hannah just to give you some context, the woman singing in the background are the High Elves (Sylvanas's People). Which Arthas slaughtered. So in a way, the song, is haunting Arthas.
The Dragon, Arthas raises front the lake, is Syndragosa, which Arthas also killed. And yes, the voice you hear is Arthas's dad, which he killed. He's made an army of his people in undeath, and there voices haunt him, even though he never has explicitly expressed remorse.
Seeing your wonderful reaction to these is giving me some whiplash after seeing everything that's been getting unveiled about Blizzard lately.
What's getting unveiled??
@@HannaHsOverInvested there is a sexual harassment lawsuit. A lot of employees are walking out in protest.
@@pedr0pabl014 poor timing for this vid then huh...
There's a lot of context missing, the lead up to Arthas's corruption. He was corrupted by frostmourne, the rune blade he wields in this video. Warcraft 3 was when his story began. He was a paladin of the light and all he wanted was to save his kingdom from the plague brought on by the scourge. One poor decision lead to another and he culling the entire town of stratholm to stop the plague spreading which was the start of his corruption and downfall. He then sought out the most powerful rune blade in the land to gain the power to stop the scourge. But the moment he picked up frostmourne it spoke to him and completed his journey to corruption. The blade put him on the path to seek the helm of domination. The moment he donned the helm, he and an entity imprisoned in the helm known as 'the jailer of the damned' became one. Thus... the Litch King was born again. He is kind of a tragic villain as his intentions were good initially but he succumbed to the evil thoughts.
After beating him though someone must take his place... There must always be a litch king to keep the army's of the dead under control.
This year would be 27 years of warcraft. Also I thought my phone was ringing when yours went off
To answer your question, "how much was it walking to him before", the entity within the armor (nerzhul or something) has been in contact with arthas for a LONG time, and was a large player in his manipulation.
Also, to fully undestand why he became this you need to see his life from Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos till his "end" in Frozen Throne. You miss alot of why and when.
Funny that you are watching that now, when everything about it is getting rewritten. When WarCraft III came out it seemed like Arthas had sold his soul to the cool big sword for power. When he picked it up he swore to pay any price for his vengeance. As far as I remember he sword enabled him to slay the demon he was hunting but put him under control of the spirit in the helmet.
Now the guy who made the helmet has a new formerly blonde toy (King Anduin) but he never became evil, he never picked up his new sword willingly, he got straight-up mind-controlled. So no idea what exactly the matter with Arthas was.
The real turning point was when he had cleared a village of the plague but it was so pervasive and easy to transmit that he chose to exterminate the entire village rather then risk it continuing. Of course it was all for nothing. Then he slayed his mentor and friend, and after that there was really no going back.
That last cinematic was more than a decade old... but it was so iconic that I think game of throne sort of recreated that dragon scene when NightKing destroyed the wall in Game of thrones.
My love for swords came from 'Frostmourn' the sword. When I saw it for the first time I fell in love with it.
And my most favorite video game character Lich King (Arthus)!!
So when the helmets on and the eyes are blue, it's the Spirit of a warlock that was bound to the crown that's controlling him, when you see eyebrows fighting him in the Shadowlands trailer it's a different person, the one from the cinematics in this video is killed by us at the end of the expansion at the feet of his throne, the one you see fighting eyebrows is Bolvar, someone who is strong enough on a willpower level to hold off the spirit and keep the hordes of Undead in line and when his shrugs his hammer and the flames turn blue, he's giving control over to the spirit to fight eyebrows
2:25 ... ngl that call sound triggered my anxiety and i had to double check it was in the video
All these whispered lines are memories and are lines you hear during the Human campaign where you play the young prince Arthas (a paladin of light) during the beginning of a plague outbreak. He takes more and more desperat messures culminating in him cleansing a large city (read - burn it to the ground) and going to the northern continent to find and fight the one he thought to be responsible for it all (he fought him during the city cleansing already but he got away.)
In Northrend he loses more and more of himself, first his father orders all of his troops and him back to the homeland to which he response by using mercenarys to burn down the ships of his troops, than blaming the mercenarys and have them killed.
Further persuing his "true enemy" he goes for an ancient, rumored artefact, the sword you see in the trailers. While drawing it the prison which holds the sword shatters and the shards kill his last remaining friend (all others have turned away from him for his actions ..)
The sword starts whispering funny little things to him, reinforces his lust for power and argues away all the concearns that were mentioned to him. Than you get the cutscene of the young prince coming home as at this point already more or less corpse under almost full controle of the lich king (frozen armor on the ice throne)
Between that cutscene and the second one (fight against demon boi) is an entire expansion of gameplay which is basically a race to the throne. The closer arthas gets the louder get the voices and by putting on the helmet of Nerzuls armor (lich king) they become one effectively ressurecting Nerzul in Arthas (though their personality and beeing merges)
the lines you hear when he walks up the stairs is from the game before he becomes a death knight
A lot of context is missing, but I will try to sum it up with out to many spoilers. I did leave out several details just incase you were not done with this. Only relevant information is posted.
Arthas, The Lich King was Born basically Prince Charming. He was expected to be a warrior to some degree. He became a Paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand. He learned directly from one of the best Paladins, Uther The Lightbringer. Many of these Paladins eventually got horses they they gave cheesy names like "Valor" or "Zeal" Arthas, Named his horse, "Invincible".
One day, Arthas was being stupid and doing risky and dangerous jumps in the snow. On one said jump, that Arthas and Invincible did a few hundred times, Invincibles hooves slipped out form under it, both Arthas an Invincible took a pretty bad Spill and Invincible had to be put down, Arthas made a Promise that he would never let how he feels get in the line of duty again.
Shortly after, undead started popping up over all over The Eastern Kingdoms which includes Lorderon, Which was Arthas's home and place of birth. Desperate to stop these undead who were more or less mindless and killing every one, Arthas decided the best course of action would be to Purge them before they could turn, One such even became known as the "Culling of Stratholme" before this event, Arthas's mentor, Uther The lightbringer and Arthas's girlfriend, Lady Jaina proudmoore basically begged him not to kill the citizens because they wanted to see if they could reverse the undeadification of the plague itself. Arthas, Honoring his promise to Invincible, Culled Stratholme any way, Which lead to him meeting Mal'Ganis a Demon lord, who Arthas thought was creating the plague.
Time goes By and seeking power, Arthas picks up Frostmourne, Which is a cursed sword, but also has immense power. Arthas, Gaining frostmourne over Powers Mal'Ganis, but in doing so, hears the Whispers of Ner'Zul who isn't very important for this story.
Ner'Zul basically tells Arthas "You're my Champion" and tells Arthas to go through a grocery list. Including reviving Kel'Thu'zzad, a Lich and a Powerful Wizard and an advisor to Ner'Zul.
Returning home, Arthas kills his Father, King Terenas Menethil II, Usurping his own Father, Kills his Mentor, and reclaims his fathers ashes.
To revive Kel'Thuzzad Arthas had to lay siege into The highelves of Quel'Thalas, During this event, Sylvanas Windrunner got killed by Arthas and raised as a banshee however: for this story, is not relevant. just know Arthas created Eyebrows as you know her.
After the sacking and near genocide of the blood elves, Arthas has to return to The Frozen Throne with Kel'Thuzzad for his connection to Ner'Zul weakens. The further away Arthas strays from the Frozen Throne and the Longer he stays away, the weaker he becomes. Subsequently, the closer he is, to the frozen throne, the stronger he is. Its also somewhat important that Arthas can only be killed at the frozen throne, where he is most powerful.
on Arthas's way back to The Frozen Throne, He encounters Lady Vashj, The Queen on the Naga, Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider and Illidan Stormrage, The betrayer. (The guy with the horns and the batwings and the twin one handed swords.) They failed to stop Arthas from reaching The Frozen Throne, as Arthas nears the Top, the voices from the past speak to him, Which is highlighting the mistakes he made along the way. (Culling Stratholme, chasing Mal'ganis to Northrend, and taking up frostmourne respectively.
i don't know if you already know this, but when arthas was young and not corrupted was the lover of jaina (the daughter of the sea).
After full corruption he's the one who kills eyebrows and makes her undead.
(i just wanted to give you a little info to connect characters you already know, if you want to know more I'm sure there are videos that explains it well and the book about him)
Someone should've pointed you towards a vid who showed you who these folks were first. This is basically the back half of his story.
So I'm learning... Ahh well. I understood some things.
@@HannaHsOverInvested Oh i know! And i admire your determination to dive into new subjects that people suggest! My comment was more pointed towards whoever gave this suggestion without providing context. :)
Original title for WC3 was reign of chaos.
Arthas is being taken over by the lich king through the rune blade, frostmourne. Thats why he killed his father.
The demon hunter illidan (from the night elves) has a tragic story as well. Consumed by his hatred, he consumes the skull of gul'dan- a powerful orc sorcerer- which deformed him into the demon-like state.
Arthas brings the runeblade back to the lich king and they become the same entity. He goes from paladin to death knight through the course of the campaign, over his will to succeed, his failure to listen to his dwarven friend, he stops being a paladin after killing his own forces and sacrificing the dwarf for the runeblade, which helps him kill one of the dreadlords. But turns him into undead.
I guess if someone has a voice in their head they probably will never feel lonely.
false hahahah
Creepy dark dude with wings's name is Illidan Stormrage. Def look up some of his story, its extremely tragic but very good
The wyrm that get's revived is called Sindragosa (formerly a member of the Blue Dragon Flight, her abilities before death just happened to be frost) and she was mate to Malygos (also in Blue Dragon Flight but also he was one of the 5 Dragon Aspects, his strength was magic, basically a top tier dragon).
"Blinded and near death, Sindragosa sought desperately to reach the Dragonblight - the place where dragons instinctively travel to die. Weakened and no longer able to fly, Sindragosa plummeted to the cold earth in the peaks of Icecrown. The blue dragon gathered what remained of her energy and called out to Malygos for aid. Her only answer was the howling arctic wind as she struggled on, but the distance was far too great; agonizingly, she realized that her spirit would not find rest within the Dragonblight. Her life continued to fade away as her sanity deteriorated. In the midst of her delirium, Sindragosa's final thoughts turned to bitterness and hatred: hatred against the Legion, hatred against Neltharion, hatred even against Malygos. But most of all, hatred against the world of mortals. And in her dying moments, Sindragosa vowed revenge". That's just insanely cool.
(My favourite dragon is Galakrond btw)
Talk about judging a book by its cover.
"I don't know who I want to win. Propably not this guy"
Talking about Illidan, possibly the most selfless hero in the entirety of the Warcraft franchise, sacrificing his.... elf-anity(?) to become a demon to gain the power needed to eliminate all of the demons.
While Illidan is the ultimate edge-lord, he is still one of the better characters and absolutely morally good that you want to root for. He's the good guy Hannah.
Arthur killed " eyebrows" and made her thing she is now.
Arthas was the good guy all along. Betrayal and coward companions lead him to become the wolrds nemesis. Long live King Arthas.
Events before he killed his father: Arthas used to be a prince and a paladin(servant of the light), who did everything he had to do to save his people and his kingdom (ex. Fighting the Horde, the Scourge and purging his own people who are infected with the plague) he's willing to do what was necessary for his people what ever the cost, in his search for power he found the sword "Frostmourne" the cursed sword of the lich king witch in turn corrupted Arthas.
Arthas trought all the story of W3 is super well writen, I even like more the evil Arthas than the good one, his story is very tragic I saw how he ends in WOW and you know he deserves it, you know that he is beyond redemption, but when he says "I only see darkness in front of me" that gave me chills, I feel sad for him. The dude that he was fighting is Ilidan that's the other tragic villain in the story, a dude that's very misunderstood, he is just a very pissed off dude that tries to do the correct thing but doesn't care about the methods, that and having the worst brother in the world. It's just epic see them fight but I really liked them both.
Honestly feel bad for Arthas. As he was corrupted into being the lich on a quest to save his people
Unpopular opinion: arthas really isn’t that good of a villain. He just looks really cool and has nostalgic factor to a lot people.
He does not want to be friend instead, he wants to be zombies instead.
Arthas was a tragic hero that became a villain due to circumstance.
The full story is a lot longer, and has smaller details along the way to really flesh out the character. One tidbit of information for example, and I'm not sure this counts as a spoiler when the content is 10+years old, but Arthas was found to have kept a locket from his sweetheart to the very end, and he used his powers of necromancy to bring his old horse back from the grave.
There's also a lot of stories that surround Arthas, like the fall of Lordaeron, the scourge invasion of Quel'thalas that destroyed the Sunwell which the High elves drew their powers from, the conversion of Sylvanas from Ranger-General to Banshee and eventually to her leading the Forsaken Undead as their Banshee Queen and joining the Horde, the reason Sindragosa, the Queen of the Blue Dragonflight, could not find her rest when she perished, his interactions with both Jaina and Kael'thas growing up, Kel'thuzad's various deeds, and many more.
Really looking forward to your third book!
Missing a fair amount of development leading up to this. Arthas was the image of a hero as he was a paladin, but a plague of undeath spread across his homeland. This led him down a dark path that became set when he ordered the eradication of an entire city to prevent the spread of the plague. It was then he learned it was the doing of a demon (I can't remember if it was Mal'Ganus or Tichondrius) and he hunted the demon down to the frozen land of Northrend where he took up the cursed sword Frostmourne which bound him to the Lich King's will and made Arthas the first Death Knight
The lines being spoken when he reaches the Frozen Throne are from his decent into darkness prior to becoming a thrall of the Lich King
Arthas was the prince of his kingdom when he began investigating a plague being spread deliberately through his people. He hunted down those responsible, know as the Cult of the Damned. The plague didn’t simply kill those it infected but turned them into mindless undead. From his perspective he wa just chasing down bad people. But the leaders of the cult had the ulterior motive of corrupting the prince. They lured him north to the frozen continent of Northrend (lots of depictions in the cinematics you just watched. There he stranded his men who were beginning to get cold feet (heh) to convince them to fight on. Needing more power, he sought a rune blade (which turned out to be cursed). Eventually he succumbed to the insanity. And truly sealed his fate as the Lich King. He then returned to his kingdom with the intent to finish wiping out the last vestiges of humanity.
As part of the process of switching alignments he murders the paladin order (the knights of the silverhand) which he used to be a part of. He assaulted the homeland of Eyebrows (Quel’thalas) to revive the leader of the cult of the damned which he had previously destroyed. And murdered his father before orchestrating a systematic genocide to make sure none of his former people survived.
There’s a whole history to the men that were stranded with Arthas. But the short of it is they either turned to his side or were hunted down and killed. Two of his fallen lieutenants were shown as his hooded guards in the scene where he kills his father.
The lower quality and probably more confusing cinematic in the middle where arthas fights a demon figure (Illidan) comes from the final fight in Warcraft 3: the frozen throne. Illidan is a hugely important character. But the short of that fight is: Illidan recognized the threat arthas would pose to the world if he was allowed to consolidate power in the frozen wasteland. So he set about to stop him but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The Lich king is something like a hive mind that controls the army of undead bound to it. You see him resurrecting a great blue dragon, Sindragosa, which he had previously killed. And the army of mindless undead below him. That scene is the opening cinematic for the world of Warcraft expansion: The Wrath of the Lich King.
If you want to get some insight into both Salvanas and Jaina people often miss watch the halls of reflection cinematic for both the horde and the alliance.
what a lot of people including wow fans dont understand.. is that many of the choices that Arthas made, were his own. The whispers he heard were promises of power and Arthas decided he wanted that power, then Arthas decided to do many bad things in his pursuit of that power. Once he gained the helm he fought with the soul living in the Helm for control over his mind. Arthas ultimately won and banished the soul (Nehrzul) to a quiet corner... the game makes it seem as if he got rid of Nerhzul completely, but later we find that Nerzhul never left, just stayed silent and watched.
This is proven when a new lich king is made (Bolvar). And Bolvar has a tough time keeping Nerhzuls evil tendencies at bay.. Bolvar starts doing a lot of bad things behind the scenes for many years. Bolvars actions as the Lich king arent his choices, this is proven later once The Helm of Domination is broken and he is free of Nerhzuls control. After the helm is broken Bolvar is basically a good guy... he is completely different from when he wore the Helm, letting us know that his actions and things he said, were not his own. (the guy used to put us through torturous games for his amusement and constantly threaten us with death)
'the path to hell are paves with good intentions'.....that's arthas
Every time I see someone watching just the bad Arthas stuff I feel like they've watched the last 15 minutes of a movie. I feel like 80% of perception of this character is based upon his change from good to evil and his efforts that brought about that change.
not gonna lie, i forgot Warcraft 3 Reforged was a thing untill this video. I wish i didn't remember. But otherwise the video could have used the "improved" in-game cinematics that show Arthas slowly fading away and the Lich King actually rising
Well Arthas is like... Dart Vader. Yes that's good compare. He sacrificed everything "for saving his people". Sword took his soul and fooled him. And after this he became vilain. Tragic story about "Descent of pure good to pure evil". That's why many people love this character. Sometimes being bad guy is not the choice.
Yes it's his dad talking. But it's something his dad told him growing up, so there is an immense amount of irony in what he's saying there considering what Arthas became.
He was meant to become a great king but slowly corruption and mind games took hold. He is also the reason Sylvanas is undead.
What song do you use for intro? Sounds so familiar
I had it written for me.
2:30 made me think someone was calling me
HannaH! Don't hate yourself. Let US hate for you!
All of these cinematics are great but they have 200x more weight to them if you read the book. I admit, as a warcraft lore nerd i'm incredibly bias but Arthas : rise of the lich king is a fantastic fantasty novel even if you dont know anything else about the universe and i could not recommend it enough.
when it was made, they were both evil. it has since been retconned that demon boy was good all along, and using evil magic to save the world. it's o k though, he survived.
thanks for the info! and for watching!
Yeah, Arthas is tragic af...
Golden boy, super paladin, charming prince... But to save his people, he made questionable choices, that lead him towards a dark path of vengeance, and finally made him a monster. In the end, he became the Lich King, the whole anti-thesis of who he were. Sad stuff...
Too bad the video didn't include his demise, at the end of the Icrecrown citadel raid, where his Frostmourne ( the blade ) gets shattered, releasing all the souls it stole, and Arthas being watched by the soul of his father in the end. Great, great stuff. Super sad as well.
8:48 A lament for a fallen prince, now crowned king of the dead. ;_;
You have books out. That is so cool. I'm buying for sure but I'm curious. Are they only available as audio books? I'll get them either way but I'm older and love holding a real book in my hand. 🙂
audiobook, e book, and paperback! Let me know what you think if you do test one or both out!
@@HannaHsOverInvested Awesome. Thanks
I love your videos so much!
Thank youuuu
Your welcome!
I miss this era of Warcraft/WoW. Could be because I played WC3/FT as a kid, and then my first real proper experience with WoW was around WOTLK era. There is a pretty short novel (sub300 pages iirc) that covers whole story of Arthas, its a pretty good fast-paced read.
Late to this particular party, but you all gotta love it when Hannah goes "Yes, yes, I remember!", raises her eyebrows and just second guesses! Who else would love to just sit with her and explain it all in exaggerated detail? hehe
I really want to see her watch the full Astartes project. The cinematic is so cool and nice, and shows more of the warhammer stuff.
they should have added the Bastion cinematic as well when he was thrown into the maw.