Smores over Felfire

I like to think of myself as a fairly logical individual. If someone is pissed at how I run things, I do my best to fix it. If we’re wiping on a boss encounter, I change the plan. But when Blizzard released the piece of music entitled “Invincible” I found myself doing something entirely illogical: getting choked up.

No matter how invested you are in a character, a guild, or an arena team, WoW  is a game. Nothing within the bounds of the game will ever happen in this life we call “time we spend AFK.” You will never throw a fireball at a zombie, orc, or night elf. You will never conjure chains of ice around a fleeing goblin. You will never trap, tame, and feed a T-Rex. This is a video game based on a world that simply does not exist. With all that said, I still got a bit emotional while listening to “Invincible.”

You can put a demerit on my man-card later, walk with me for a moment.

The story of Arthas is one of loss.  No matter how much you hate/love the character of the Lich King, keep in mind that the guy we’re going to be killing in a month or so is NOT, in fact, Arthas (as Uther informs the Jaina in Halls of Reflection). Arthas was a headstrong, and occasionally ruthless, Paladin who simply wanted peace for his homeland. In Warcraft 3, I honestly don’t think he did anything that would classify him as a “villain” until he is twisted by the Lich King and kills his father. Prior to the Culling of Strathome in Warcraft 3, he kills demon-worshiping orcs, bandits, and the occasional worshiper of some tiny little undeath cult (Cult of the… unhappy?). His methods are a bit more straightforward than Uther would like (ie: stab the problem until it goes away), but in the end the threat has passed and his people are safe and/or happy.

That is, until he discovers what’s happened in Andorhal.

In Strathome, every man, woman, and child is infected with the plague due to the tainted grain. As we, the players, were able to experience in the Zombie event in late 2008, the plague was fast-spreading, deadly, and near-impossible to cleanse (especially when the incubation period dropped to, say, 15 seconds). Arthas knew that once you were infected, you were as good as gone. He wanted to save Strathome, but the only way he could help the infected was to kill them before they were twisted into mindless zombies. Uther, for as much as he is venerated by NPCs in WoW, would rather have waited for every villager to be twisted into an undead monstrosity. Furthermore, in waiting for the villagers to die/come back he was putting his own men at risk (as soldiers can be killed by zombies when there’s a horde of them). Arthas was being as humane as possible in a horrifically dire situation, and he’s vilified for it.

Moving beyond Strathome, his actions are a bit more… well… “evil-ish” in Northrend, though still in line with what he is at his core (the headstrong and slightly ruthless Paladin). While Arthas is out scouting, a messenger comes and tells Arthas’s captian that King Terenas, on Uther’s urging, has recalled Arthas’s soldiers and, as a result, would put a stop to Arthas’s hunt for Mal’ganis.

Let’s dwell on that for a moment: Uther (the guy who didn’t have the balls to limit the amount of suffering those in Strathome would go through) convinced Terenas (who is completely clueless as to how to deal with the undead) to recall Arthas (Who’s the only person doing a damned thing) from Northrend (which is where the Lich King is pulling together an undead army to slaughter the living). Intel dropped the ball there… big time.

Let’s move back to Arthas. His captain informs him of Terenas’s command and, predictably, Arthas is a bit on the pissed side. He hires a bunch of mercenaries to help him burn the Alliance ships to the ground, turns on them, and lies to his men to keep them on track. Most view this as a big, red, flashing “HE R EBIL NOW!” moment in Warcraft history, though I would beg to differ.

Arthas found mercenaries (sidenote: who’s bright idea was it for the mercenary camp to be in the frozen north anyway?) who, given a different financial backer, would stab Arthas to death in half a second. Furthermore, they were ogres and trolls who, but a few short years ago, were part of the Orcish Horde which slaughtered thousands of humans. If it weren’t for the “you have to be dead” pre-requisite to joining the Scourge, it’s not much of a leap to assume these mercs would join up with the Lich King for their own gain. None of Arthas’s men are killed in the “betrayal” of the mercs, he gives his men a clear goal to their return home… and he’s condemned for it? If he returned home, all the lives he had to end in Strathome would have gone unpunished (as he would likely be imprisoned and/or restrained). Yes, lying to his men was regrettable, but saying “Oh yeah, you know who the guy who burned down our ships was? That was totally me!” would have ended with him dead, his men dead, and Mal’ganis grinning. He did exactly what a leader should do: motivate his soldiers, give them a clear goal to fight for, and minimize his losses (which he did by outsourcing the “killed in furious anger” department to some ogres and trolls).

Then comes Frostmourne.

Those of you who are waiting for me to point to the runeblade and say “this is when he falls” will be greatly disappointed.

What does he say when he picks up the blade? “I will give anything or pay any price, if only you will let me save my people.” Meaning he, in typical Paladin fashion, was perfectly willing to sacrifice himself to save the kingdom that was actively trying to destroy itself by calling Arthas home before he could get the job done.

The anti-Arthas folks will likely take issue with this due to one line he says. Namely: “Damn the men! Nothing shall prevent me from having my revenge, old friend. Not even you” (“Old friend” being Muradin). This line of dialogue, some would say, show that he’s clearly gone insane as he’s obsessed with killing Mal’ganis.

When you’re in war, it’s understood there will be casualties. Every man and woman with Arthas knew there was a very real chance that they would die up here, but they accepted it because they were protecting their families. “Damn the men” isn’t a sign of insanity, but a sign of focus. Muradin was trying to play on Arthas’s uncertainty (what uncertainty?) and guilt him into returning home. Muradin was so scared of the blade (rightfully so, by the way) that he was willing to give up the one opportunity they had to killing Mal’ganis (and theoretically ending the threat of the plague).

So when was Arthas’s “fall?”

I’d have to say it was somewhere after him saying “It is finished” when he stabs Mal’ganis and his return to Lorderon to stab his daddy. Y’know… the time he spend running around Northrend with the Lich King and the recriminations of all those he loved as company.

From Arthas’s perspective, he has been the perfect Paladin. He mercifully euthanized the inhabitants of Strathome, all of which were going to spend eternity trapped in rotting corpses. He risked his own life finding, hiring, and leading a band of ogres and trolls (who likely have relatives that stabbed at the ancestors of Arthas’s men) through Scourge-infested wastelands. He sacrificed his own soul to “end” the plague after he killed Mal’ganis. What did he get in return: Blame from a weak-willed Uther, disgust from his love-interest Jaina, and disappointment/shame from Muradin, King Terenas, and his own captain.

This would be a great story of true self sacrifice which the people of Lorderon would look back on honorably if it weren’t for one, small, tiny, problem. Y’know how Arthas said to “the spirits” who were ostensibly around Frostmourne that he’d pay any price to save his people? You know who was paying attention to Frostmourne?

The Lich King.

Do you think he was interested in taking Arthas’s bargain when another legitimate option was taking Arthas’s soul, killing one of his jailers (Mal’ganis), and using the prince in a flawless coup on Lorderon?

The new piece of music (I’d get back to the original topic eventually) perfectly expresses that loss Arthas embodies. The child’s singing, which was very similar to the child singing in the cinematic intro, mirrors the pain Arthas must have felt while he was still alive wandering Northrend (and slowly going insane). The choral singing, voices of grown men and women, represent those who died in Arthas’s service and those who were killed by Death Knight Arthas. Where the child gives a mournful feel to the music, the men and women give something different: loss and resolve. And it’s that subtle difference that makes the piece so much more than just a “it’s sad” song. That’s what makes “Invincible” a beautiful arrangement that brings warcraft 3, it’s expansion, and WoW together in one richly-woven choral masterpiece.