GameSided Roundtable: Emotional Character Deaths

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Steve Pattersson (Twitter)

Seeing Arthas Menethil’s dead body, then watching the cinematic of what happens immediately afterwards, was a melancholy moment for me. The way that the raid on the Icecrown Citadel ended, with the fall of Arthas, the Lich King whose wrath inspired World of Warcraft’s second expansion, was very much like his life and much of the time spent by players leveling from level 70 to 80.

As for Arthas, his rise, or perhaps fall, into the role of the Lich King came as the undead minions of the Burning Legion began to threaten his homeland of Lorderon. His father, King Ternas Menethil did not heed the warnings of impending disaster and move his people out of harm’s way. Thus, it was left to Arthas and his fellow Knights of the Silver Hand to save the kingdom.

The first big moment came after driving the undead before him in a series of victories in which he discovered that the large city of Stratholme had been infected with shipments of plague ridden grain.

Prince Arthas cast away the objections of Jaina Proudmoore, his former lover and a high powered mage, and also his mentor Uther, a paladin known as the Lightbringer, and slaughtered his own people to prevent them from becoming undead.

What followed was a running fight to the continent of Northrend where he found the rune blade Frostmourne, and he agreed to give anything to have the weapon with which to defeat the Legion. Though he did not know it, the other end of the deal was that the blade needed souls and it claimed his on the spot.

In his hands, Frostmourne carried him to victory, and subsequently he returned home and killed his father, whom he thought was weak, thus making himself King of Lorderon. That was probably not the way he had planned it, but it was working–the Legion was driven back and he was king. He then set out to rid the land of remaining legion outposts and ultimately back to Northrend where he was summoned to the feet of the Lich King’s frozen throne and body.

By shattering the ice tomb with Frostmourne, the Helm of Domination fell to his feet, he put it on, and he became the Lich King. Out with the light and in with necromancy—he had also become a Death Knight.

Things are going great. As a two-time knight and a two-time king with his own personal army and his own continent, Northrend, he sets out to building Icecrown Citadel.

But there is one problem. The living members of the Horde and Alliance have named him public enemy number one after what he has done to so many and send their armies to Northrend.

As a player, questing through Northrend is a lonely experience at times. Much of it is either frozen tundra landscape, or ruins, and much of the music has a soothing, almost sad, tone to it.

At the end of the raid, which can only be done once a player reaches level 80, is the confrontation with the Lich King, and it is something to behold.

He sits high atop a frozen set of steps on his frozen throne while the players are on a round ice platform below. As a level 80 character, it was a very difficult fight to put it mildly, and still today level 90 players can get into a jam if they do not know certain mechanics of the fight.

It opens with Highlord Tirion Fordring, the Supreme Commander of the Argent Crusade, calling Arthas, the Lich King, down to be held accountable for his crimes. Queue the fighting.