Why Arthas, Illidan and other Early Expansions Characters of Warcraft Universe are so Compelling

 

In my previous articles about WoW, I mentioned that the key reason why players like early expansions more than those that came after Cataclysm is because they have better story and characters. I decided to elaborate on why characters are particularly so likable.

Arthas and Illidan are some of the most archetypical Millennials out there, they are us and their stories are basically stories of our lives pretty much to the dot.

Arthas

To begin with Arthas. At the beginning of his story, he is a paladin under tutelage of Uther. Uther teaches Arthas not so much how to fight but mostly values of paladin order and expects Arthas to uphold these values. Back then Arthas listed and did as he was told.

That is just like how many boomers spend so much of their time trying to pass their values and principles. They did not teach us how to fight, how to win, how to advance, but how to be a "good person" and doing "right thing". At first, we Millennials also listened and tried to live the "good person" live.

Then came Strathholme. A situation when doing a good thing, just as Uther have taught him, would mean certain defeat and death. Arthas has a choice between what is most practical and what Uther has taught him. Arthas chooses the former, Uther protests, insisting on his "values". Arthas dismisses him, Uther threatens to inform the King as he leaves, Jaina leaves with him.

Sooner or later in our lives, we Millennials too came to the point or realisation where boomer values, our parents have taught us, clearly did not work. A situation where following values would clearly be detrimental to us. Most of us did just like Arthas did and choose what was practical over what our parents have taught us. For some it resulted in a spat with parents or even complete break up of relationships. Some likely lost girlfriends over this too.

After Strathholme Arthas continued on with his mission as he saw it. He still believed in protecting the Kingdom and its people, just in doing it his way. As he went on, he encountered more and more impediments from Uther and people around him. He worked his way around them, gradually becoming more and more ruthless in process.

That was the same for many Millennials, for the time after early disillusionment we still somewhat partially believed in what our parents told us. We thought of finding out way in the world only to face more and more obstacles. We tried to do good but did not received any rewards for our efforts, only more impediments.

Ultimately Arthas won over Mal'Ganis, fulfilling his mission of protecting his kingdom, but by that time he was thoroughly disillusioned with the Kingdom, Uther, paladins and their values. He wandered around in search for answers to his questions and ultimately found them in complete rejection of everything his Kingdom and his mentors have stood for. He gave up on being a paladin and join his former enemy, The Scourge as Death Knight.

After achieving our objectives in life like education (for most Millennials it was education), but not receiving any rewards we were promised, we could not help but wonder if what we did was worth it, why we did nor received the rewards we were promised, we wanted answers. Most of us found these answers in completely rejecting everything our parents have taught us. Life as we experienced it proven our parents and their values to be wrong and it would be stupid to cling to these erroneous values boomers still preach even today. Just like Arthas we rejected these values in favour of something completely or nearly completely opposite. NGTOW, Alt-right, new right, MAGA and such are all movement of disillusioned Millennials who found answer to their problems in being the opposite of what their parents used to be.

Ultimately Arthtas returned back only to kill his father the King, his mentor Uther, destroy paladin order and let Scourge take over the Kingdom.

We too are back and with vengeance. We too seek to destroy all the things that have betrayed us: cultural leftism, feminism, age-care, boomers are among many targets we see in our crosshairs. Just like Arthas we will prevails. Degenerate boomer kingdom shall fall and from its ashes shall arise a new order that will shake the very foundation of the world.

Even later developments somewhat mirror the WoW. For example, extreme woke leftism is just like Scarlet Crusade in WoW. Lefty boomers lost their minds and sold out to Kremlin and Chinese in order to fight against Millennials, just like Scarlet Crusade is controlled by Demons of the Burning Legion.

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