This Inconsistently Heinous was Headlined on November 2024.
“
This kingdom shall fall, and from the ashes shall arise a new order that will shake the very foundations of the world!
„
~ Arthas, moments after murdering his father King Terenas Menethil.
Arthas Menethil is one of the main antagonists of the Warcraft franchise.
He is the former Prince of the kingdom of Lordaeron before he was tragically corrupted by the cursed sword Frostmourne and turned into a Death Knight in his attempt to save his people. Ironically, he ends up slaughtering his own people and becomes the very thing he initially fought against. He then merged with the Lich King, sat on the Frozen Throne and waged war on the whole world.
He destroys the town of Stratholme and purged most of its population. Though it could be argued this was justified to an extent because he was trying to prevent the Undead Plague which had infected the town from spreading to other parts of the kingdom, Uther and Jaina still call him out on this action even if they understand he has good intentions.
While he is in Northrend hunting for the Dreadlord Ma'ganis, he ignores his father, King Terenas' orders, to return back to Lordaeron. Instead he burns down all his ships to stop his men from leaving and to force them to fight for his cause to the bitter end.
He betrays the mercenaries who had helped him destroy the ships, lies to his men that they had acted on their own and commands them to kill said mercenaries.
He sacrifices his friend, Muradin, to take the sword Frostmourne even though he knew that the blade might corrupt his soul. He did so at the cost of his friend muradin's life.
He kills his own father, King Terenas, by stabbing him with Frostmourne which throws the kingdom of Lordaeron into disarray and allows the Undead Scourge to conquer it.
Arthas leads the Undead Scourge into many battles, betrays his own people and slaughters many of them and resurrects them as Undead to cleanse his former kingdom from the living.
He kills his old mentor, Uther, to take a special urn from him which contained his father's ashes. He throws away his father's ashes and placed Kel'Thuzad's remains inside, so they would be preserved.
He regularly imprisons the souls of his defeated enemies like Uther inside his sword which is considered a fate worse than death.
After decimating his own kingdom, Arthas attacks the Elven kingdon Quel'thalas, destroys it and kills most of the High Elves.
He kills the elven Ranger-General, Sylvanas Windrunner, with his sword having split her soul, revives her and torments her both physically and mentally despite Sylvanas asking him for a clean death. He tortures her body for his pleasure and forces her to participate in the massacre of her own people and to commit many other atrocities which traumatises her. this makes him partially responsible for how Sylvanas turns out later on.
Arthas attacks the magical city of Dalaran and kills a lot of the wizzards including Antonidas to take the magical book of Medivh.
He gives the book to the Lich Kel'Thuzad to open a portal to summon the Burning Legion into the world of Azeroth even though he knows that they seek to exterminate all life they encounter. This leads to the Third Great War which cost countless lives and the world was barely saved from utter annihilation.
While he eventually betrays the Dreadlord Tichondrias and allows him to be killed by the Night Elves which allows Azeroth to be saved, it's done only to serve the will of Ner'zhul and is not a selfless act and he and Ner'zhul had planned to betray the Burning Legion from the very beginning.
Upon his return in Lordaeron, Arthas usurps the Dreadlords who are in charge and decides to destroy the last remnants of humanity in the kingdom, destroying several villages in the process as tribute to Ner'zhul and killing some members of the Silver Hand.
When his master Ner'zhul is in danger and calls him to come to his aid, Arthas goes oon his way to him and uses a shortcut to reach him faster, killing a lot of Dwarves and Nerubians on his way to the Frozen Throne. He also kills many Naga and Blood Elves to defend the Lich King.
Afterwards, as the Lich King, he transforms many of Illidan's former servants and resurrects them as the darkfallen to serve him.
Upon his ascention as the Lich King, he wages a war on the entire world in an attempt to wipe out all life on Azeroth and resurrect it as his servants and consumes his master's spirit to become the sole identity of the Lich King.
He corrupts the vrykul and drakkari trolls.
He corrupts many people to transform them into Death Knights in an attempt to make a new generation of Death Knights who would fight for him, serve him and slaughter his enemies.
He allows Kel'Thuzad and the Cult of the Damned to continue with their depraved experiments with living test subjects and with the creation of terribe monstrosities that would serve him.
He has the capitals of the Allience and the Horde, Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively, attacked by huge armies of Undead in an attempt to have them destroyed and purged of life which fails because of the efforts of the heroes defending the cities.
He sends plagued grain to many of the big cities of the world to transform the people into mindless ghouls who would serve him and attack his enemies, even their own former friends and family members.
He devastates the Scarlet Enclave and its towns with his minions and kills many members of the Scarlet Crusade for opposing him.
He tries to have Light's Hope Chapel destroyed and its inhabitants killed and resurrected as Undead to destroy the Argent Dawn. During the Third War, the remains of thousands of heroes of the Light had been unearthed and moved to Light's Hope Chapel to protect them from being raised by the Undead Scourge, making it even worse. He throws away the lives of a small army of Death Knights to draw out Tirion Fording and tries to kill him along with the other people present.
Arthas captures the Emerald Dragon, Valithria Dreamwalker, and subjects her to many torturous experiments in an attempt to discover the secrets of the Emerald Dream.
He slays the champions who storm Icecrown and reveals that the entire campaign in Northrend was a trap, and what he really wanted, was to control Azeroth's greatest heroes as he begins to raise those heroes from the dead.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
He is too tragic to be Near Pure Evil. As the prince of Lordaeron, he was driven by his desire to protect his people from complete annihilation at the hands of the Undead Scourge and was forced to witness the atrocities that were commited against his people which angered him. He took drastic measures to protect his people and stop the Undead from spreading and at the end decided that the only way to stop them is to take the sword Frostmourne and use its power. However, Frostmourne corrupted his soul and as a result, Arthas ended up joining the Undead Scourge and slaughtering his people instead of saving them.
It's also worth noting that in his moment of need for emotional support after witnessing the atrocities of the Undead Scourge across Lordaeron and he was considering conducting a culling on the town of Stratholme to stop the Undead plague from spreading further throughout his kingdom, his mentor Uther and his girlfriend Jaina Proudmoore condemned his decision but didn't try very hard to convince him to seek another solution and left him. Had they stayed with him, gave him more emotional support and tried to convince him harder not to do it, Arthas might have seen reason and sought another solution and he might not have fallen to darkness.
He has moral agency issues because his soul was corrupted by Frostmourne and his worst atrocities are commited because of its influence.
In the Halls of Reflection, Uther tells to either Jaina or Sylvanas that he suspects the small piece that has remained from Arthas' humanity inside the Lich King is the only reason that has prevented the Undead Scourge from annihilating all life on Azeroth, which indicates there is still some good in Arthas even after his transformation.
He had a lot of redeeming qualities. While he seemingly loses many of them when he takes Frostmourne, they aren't truly subverted because at that point the sword corrupts him and deprives him of moral agency. Furthermore, when he is freed from the corruption in his final moments and is about to die, he seems glad to see his father which indicates that they are retained deep down despite his corruption:
He loved his horse as a young boy and was devastated when it died.
When he visits Lord Blackwood, he shows disgust at his amoral behaviour, especially at his treatment of Taretha Foxton whom Blackwood uses for sex without caring for her opinion. When Blackwood sends her to Arthas to please him, Arthas is disgusted and doesn't take advantage of her, but instead engages her unfriendly conversations.
He loved his family and admired his father. During his death scene when he is finally freed from the curse of Frostmourne, Arthas sees his father's spirit and is glad when he sees him and asks him if his torment is over. This is proof that his loss of his redeeming qualities is only because of the corruption of Frostmourne and he restores them once he is freed of it.
He admired his mentor, Uther, and despite their arguments he cared about him.
He had a friendly relationship with Muradin.
He loved Jaina Proudmoore and wanted to marry her.
He deeply cared about his people and wanted to protect them. In fact, his fall to villainy and his decision to take Frostmourne despite the risk to his soul was because of his desire to protect them.
His death scene after his defeat is played very sympathetically. He sees his father's ghost, grabs him by the shoulder and asks desperately if it's all over. He then mutters that he sees only darkness and dies while there is a sad music playing in the background, and his father closes his eyes.
After he takes Frostmourne and becomes a Death Knight, he develops a friendship with the former necromancer, Kel'Thuzad, which is genuine at least on his part. At one point, after Kel'Thuzad had saved his life, Arthas even admits that he had been a loyal friend and leaves him in charge of his domain while he goes to save the Lich King at Northrend.
Trivia[]
Arthas Menethil is one of the 4 Inconsistently Heinous characters to be displayed on the background of the wiki along with Eric Cartman, Eren Yeager and Galactus.
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Inconsistently Heinous
Inconsistently Heinous
