Arthas Menethil, Prince of Lordaeron, Lich King

This is an entry for the @archdruid contest (@archdruidcontest) for emotional game moments.
For me, hands down, this was standing with my guildmates on the Frozen Throne, after having defeated the Lich King.
But it was a lot more than that one battle, which took us about 50 tries before finally downing the boss.
It was Blizzard's storytelling and carefully constructed game play that left us fighting against overwhelming odds for incredibly high stakes, while ultimately feeling sympathy for the arch-nemesis that we were pitted against.
This tragic story begins with the Blizzard trailer for the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion, a cinematic that I saw as unmatched in its emotional power until the latest cinematic for "Battle for Azeroth."
This is it. I would encourage you to watch it. It is a masterpiece of art and marketing that grabs the gaming mind and beckons it to explore this fearsome character and his frozen realm of death.

The cinematic starts with the voice of Arthas' father, Terenas Menethil, saying perhaps some of the most emotionally charged words you can hear in any language:

My son, the very day you were born....
This instantly creates empathy even if you have no idea who "Arthas" is, and the pairing of these words with the graphics of the fearsome frozen death knight on a throne pitches the viewer into immediate conflict.

My child, I watched with pride as you grew into a weapon: of righteousness
(paired with the drawing of Frostmourne from its sheath, instantly identifiable as a weapon of evil)

Why do I start with a trailer?
Well, the job of a cinematic trailer is to set the theme for what follows, and this particular one is a masterful example.
I am going to interject and say that I know that Arthas Menethil exists as a character in the Warcraft RTS games, as well as in several Warcraft novels.
What I am going to focus on is Blizzard's choice to spin an entire expansion around building him as a tragic character.
For the Horde especially, this showdown, starting on the beaches of Northrend, would have had special significance, as it was Arthas who had corrupted the spirit of Sylvanas Windrunner, night elf ranger of Quel'Thalas, into becoming a banshee, now Queen of the forsaken from the sunken ruins of Undercity.
Starting on the edges of the continent, in the Howling Fjord for Horde, and Borean Tundra for Alliance, everything leads toward IceCrown Citadel, where the Lich King waits, from questlines to dungeon and raid progression, to the actual geography of the continent.

The first raid is a level 80 re-boot of Naxxramus, where you must fight your way through four wings before coming face to face with Kel-Thuzad.
This is the necromancer whose voice whispered to Arthas from beyond the grave, offering him options that seemed like good solutions toward the problems that the young prince of Lordaeron faced, but in reality was a ploy to lure him to Northrend, after bringing Kel-Thuzad back into a bodily form, and then place upon his head the helm that would turn him from Arthas into the Lich King.
The zones themselves have a bittersweet majesty to them that to this day stands as my favorite gaming experience of all time.
There is a beautiful blend of Norse mythology and Celtic music, with a landscape stretching from icebergs on the sea to sweeping tundras to towering snow-capped mountains.
Naxxramus is followed by Ulduar, a raid made to feel like an Indiana Jones archaeological dig that leads us to face the Old Gods lying dormant under the glacial ice, and has us taste the voices of madness that whispered to Arthas from across the oceans.

Again, this is tragic, since we are led by Brann Bronzebeard, the intrepid and loveable dwarf explorer with his Scottish accent.
Brann journeyed side by side with Arthas to find the legendary sword Frostmourne, one seeking knowledge, the other power.
When the sword was found, Arthas would strike down Brann and leave him for dead, while continuing on alone.
After this, we are led through a series of dungeons, leading up to the opening of Icecrown Citadel.
This is where the true tragic backstory of Arthas is fleshed out.
We are taken by the time-traveling gnome Chromie back to the days when Arthas was a young prince of Lordaeron, trying to decide how to deal with a plague of undead zombies sweeping his kingdom, being spread by maliciously infected sacks of grain.
Stratholme, now a festering scar in a zone known as the "Plaguelands," we get to see in Kinkade-like quaintness, looking much like the beloved alliance starting zone, Goldshire.

We stand by his side, as he realizes that it is too late, and that everyone in the city of Stratholme has already been infected, and must be purged.
His mentor, Uther, refuses and Arthas is forced to relieve him of his command.
His childhood sweetheart, Jaina Proudmoore, key figure in our current expansion and also tragic due to an ironic tough decision of her own she would later have to make that would cost many lives including that of her own father, decides to leave him for this decision.
The dungeon party is left to fight by the side of Arthas, suddenly alone in the world, to eradicate the city of its swarming monsters.

At the end of the dungeon, the dread-lord Mal-ganis appears to the angry and heartbroken prince, taunting him to come and find him in Northrend.
As we know, Arthas would rise to that challenge, losing his way in an ongoing path for revenge that would ultimately see him become the very thing he had started off fighting.
We watch his power grow in the 3 Ice Crown Citadel pre-dungeons, until he is firmly in the grips of the cursed armor he now wears and has abandoned any ally who might have helped to save him, resolute in his newfound terrible strength as the Lich King.
His immense strength and power suddenly seems an unlikely obstacle for even the combined forces of Horde and Alliance to overcome.

Another ironic twist, is as Arthas embarks on his quest for ultimate power, many of the Warcraft players are doing the same: those who chose to create death knight characters, and commit their own atrocities in their starting zone, and are now collecting quest items in a pursuit to attain the Frostmourne blade for their own nefarious (cough cough battleground showboating) use.
Never has Blizzard so closely forced its players to walk the path of their own nemesis so closely, and to ultimately see in themselves the possibility of becoming the very thing we are led to hate the most.
But now, we have fought our way through the wings of Ice Crown Citadel, and after months of grueling battles, are now face to face on the snow-swept Frozen Throne, staring at the Lich King, giant and menacing, casually laughing as he prepares to humor us in combat before resurrecting us as dead slaves to unleash upon the world and finish his conquest once and for all.

The 20 minute long battle, ghastly even on normal ten player modes, was a beastly struggle even after repeated nerfs from Blizzard.
There were waves of zombies and skeletons, swooping Valkyries, pools of necrotizing filth, and ultimately some would get pulled into the blade of Frostmourne itself, where we realize that the souls of its victims are still inside trapped, and waiting for release.
The concept of Frostmourne was created before the Harry Potter books were finished being written, so I wonder if JK Rowling was aware of this weapon as she wrote a world where souls could be trapped inside the wands of the villains who killed them.
In an ultimate show of strength, to prove that even the world's best raiding guilds were never close to being a match for this opponent, the Lich King wipes the entire party.
It is then that Tirion Fordring breaks free of his bonds, and attacks not Arthas, but instead Frostmourne, releasing its swarm of souls that attack and immobilize him for the resurrected raid to quickly regroup and finish off.
In a final tragic end, Arthas returns to his former self, when freed of his Lich King armaments, and dies in the ghost of his father's arms, seeing "only blackness..."

As far as personal heartstrings being pulled at the moment of this boss being vanquished: this tops my gaming experiences.
I had played through the entire expansion, after my shaman was picked up by a raiding guild and given a slot as a raid healer.
The suspense built up over the following year was incredible, culminating in this enounter, and a 1 A.M. kill that had us cheering and screaming and crying all at once over our Ventrilo voice server.
But seeing the Lich King's corpse lying there, we all felt like a little of ourselves had been killed as well: we had all been carefully led by masterful storytelling to identify with this prince who was seduced by power and ultimately sacrificed all to have: nothing.
Think that the drama ends there?
Nope, cause there must ALWAYS be a Lich King to keep the hordes of ravishing undead scourge in check, so that meant Bolvar Fordragon steps up, puts on the armor, sits on the throne, and is now the new Lich King, locked in as an eternal guardian in isolation for the good of Azeroth.
So that is who we see now on our loading screens as we revisit Icecrown Citadel for a chance at getting Invincible, the Lich King's flying mount.
Even his horse is tragic - it was his childhood friend that he had to put down to end its suffering after an icy riding accident, and then resurrected as an undead horse with Frostmourne years later.
Which of course, is also a favorite WoW forum troll joke: "Why is it called Invincible - I can still see it?"

The screenshots above are all mine, but they are all taken from the World of Warcraft game, which belongs to Blizzard/Activision.

Thanks to @archdruid for the chance at sharing this experience with all of you, and like many, I am hoping that this character ends up getting his own movie one day: it could make for some great cinematic suspense.

I'm running a contest of my own, for it's sixth week: be sure to stop on by and try your hand at cartooning! 9 SBI in prizes given away weekly, with 3 possible categories.
https://steemit.com/cartoon-off/@corpsvalues/sixth-weekly-cartoon-off-contest-guest-judge-sanderjansenart