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Warcraft Retrospective 23: Darth Arthas
Last time, we stopped at the shocking twist of an undead-looking Arthas returning to Lordaeron and killing his father, cementing his fall to darkness. And please hear me out: this might be an unpopular opinion, but while the human campaign was a compelling story, I don’t think its epilogue, specifically, was executed that well.
Sure, by the end of the campaign, Arthas fell to extreme “ends justify the means” thinking, but he still committed all these atrocities in the name of saving the people of Lordaeron from the Scourge — because he thought he was the only one willing to what it took. Everyone, and everything, was expendable in the name of victory over the undead, and sickness was to be purged. He was a Scarlet Crusader before there was a Scarlet Crusade. A well-intentioned extremist. He was Redcloak, having gone too far to save his people to stop now.
At the end of the campaign, he was not Darth Vader.
Actually, speaking of Darth Vader, there’s a similar problem with his story in the prequels.
Warcraft Retrospective 22: To Atrocity and Beyond
Before I continue, I should, once again, praise the music in Warcraft 3. The human theme perfectly captures how the Alliance sees itself: as a bastion of order, majesty and valor. Even if — as we know, and are about to see once again — it doesn’t always quite live up to these ideals.
Warcraft Retrospective 21: A Boy, a Girl, and a Grandpa
While the orcs and their new troll allies are sailing to Kalimdor, we turn to the human campaign. It’s titled “The Scourge of Lordaeron”. Ominous.
Warcraft Retrospective 20: Exodus of the Horde, Part Two
So the orcish Horde has embarked on stolen human ships and is now making its way westward to Kalimdor. Finally we’re going to learn what’s on the other side of the Great Sea… but not right now.
Warcraft Retrospective 19: Exodus of the Horde, Part One
All right! Let’s start Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, and play through all the campaigns, in order. If you want to see a video review of the campaigns, I recommend this one by GiantCrabGames, which covers both the base game and the Frozen Throne expansion in amazing detail, while also focusing on what makes the Warcraft 3 gameplay captivating.
Warcraft Retrospective 18: Reign of Chaos Manual, the Newcomers
Today we’re looking at the rest of the Reign of Chaos manual, the factions we’ll be seeing for the first time: the undead Scourge, night elf Sentinels, and demonic Burning Legion. The latter is a pure antagonist unplayable faction, though they were planned as playable at one point in Warcraft 3 development.
Warcraft Retrospective 17: Reign of Chaos Manual, Red and Blue
Warcraft Retrospective 16: The Last Guardian
Today we’re looking at The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb1, the last of the four novels meant to set up the stage for Warcraft 3.
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Who, surprisingly, didn’t write any other Warcraft books other than co-writing the decanonized RPG. ↩
Warcraft Retrospective 15: Lord of the Clans
A year before the release of Warcraft 3, Blizzard faced a problem. Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, the adventure game that was supposed to bridge Warcraft 2 and 3, was canceled. Its lore, however, was too important to simply discard, as it set up the orc storyline in Warcraft 3. Therefore, Blizzard commisioned a novel adaptation of the game’s scrapped plot. After the first author failed to finish it, Christie Golden was brought in, with only six weeks to write the novel based on Chris Metzen’s plot outline.
Warcraft Retrospective 14: Day of the Dragon
This week we’re looking at the novel Day of the Dragon by… (sigh) Richard A. Knaak. Now, I could have cheated with this one, since Ramses already did a chapter-by-chapter review years ago, but I have some things to say about this book that he didn’t. And at any rate, I cannot ignore this novel, as it introduces one of the foundational concepts of the Warcraft setting as we know it now: the five Dragon Aspects.