Hello friends, glad to see you back here.

Apologies in advance if you have a vendetta against the Reforged graphics - I find the re-skin mostly tasteful but that appreciation is admittedly soured by knowing that Blizzard wouldn't commit the time or resources to the remaster that Warcraft 3 sincerely deserved. At least the phenomenal voice acting wasn't re-touched, particularly since I think WC3's characters have better vocal variety than the usual booming bass that I've noticed (from a distance) that WOW deploys.

Otherwise, preference about Warcraft 3's characters/factions is very subjective and mine does show in this video. Interested to hear who you rallied behind and rooted for,  and if you think I skimmed over any important details relating to Arthas, Illadin or the other key players.

Much love!

When faced with a Trolley Problem, Arthas believed that pulling the lever was the morally correct choice, while Uther and Jaina believed that pulling the lever is murder. Not only did any side convince the other, they fought over it so hard that their relationship was ruined. And then, Arthas ended up doing a Multi-track Drifting by accident.

Illidan not communicating is core to his character. He is a massive planner and doesn't trust anyone, which intice him not to reval his plans to anyone , even his lieutenants

You see, the biggest issue here, is that, the Humans didn't have enough gold or lumber in order to resurrect, King Terenas at their local Alter of Kings, but it coulda been a no build mission, so, it may have just been an insta fail for their campaign.

Here's the fun fact about DK Arthas that probably unknown for some people. Arthas's undead horse was named "Invincible" who died because Arthas's recklessness when he ride it during the heavy snowstorm that results in Invincible's leg are broken. So, Arthas killed it in heavy heart to put it out of its misery.
Then after Arthas become Death Knight, he come to his former steed's grave and raise it into undead steed.

Fun fact, in the book when Arthas dumps out his fathers ashes the wind catches them and blows them back into his own face and causes him to choke a little

I am still salty at how the Burning Crusade treated my favorite band of misfits Kael Vash and Illidan

KT and anub are the biggest bros in the game honestly

The aspect of interwoven threads and characters from different campaigns meeting each other as both allies and opponents was something from the original Starcraft campaign that I really enjoyed. It's surprisingly deep how the player fills the shoes of the Magistrate, a Cerebrate and an Executor who are all, in the campaign itself, never given a name but are only ever addressed by their rank or position - and are later thwarting themselves or even killing their alter egos in other campaigns. The Executor of the Protoss campaign even becomes a named character in the expansion. Blizzard might not have been the most original storytellers but they were always clever with how the stories were told.

"Oh hey, that's a neat title, i'll just quickly watch it before sleep-"
"TWO HOURS?!"
You mad legend, you!

You're missing the point in Archimomde's Dalaran destruction cinematic. It's there to tell us how powerful this being is, to show us how easily he can destroy anything, and giving a huge development to his character and an overall antagonist.

part of the tragedy I feel, is I dont think Arthas would of fell if Uther and Jaina had stood with him after Stratholm. Arthas ultimately did the right thing, an entire city was about to be killed and turned into the undead, Arthas culling the city was an act of sick mercy that he was forced to carry out. And after being forced to slay the people he loved to stop them from turning into undead slaves of the burning legion what he needed was compassion and sympathy, not judgement and scorn.
Arthas wasnt lost when he decided to cull Stratholme he was lost when his friends scorned him for it. It works so well because you can see why Uther and Jaina felt the way they did, about such a callous act, but they didnt see what the plague could do

1:48:00 As a former player, let me just start with some "nice" bits about the story.
Remember Kael? That Blood Elf prince who's entire motivation is to save, protect, and restore his people?
Well, in the second expansion they immediately made him, Vashj, and Illidan into mustache-twerling villains, removing any and all depth. It's especially bad for Kael, because it's not even a retcon like what they did later for Illidan during Legion's expansion. They outright erased everything that is Kael, leaving only a mockery and a new placeholder character as a leader of Blood Elfs (which on it's own has been meme'd to death back in the day).

Unfortunately, WoW being MMO effecitvely ruined any hopes for proper story continuation, because everything story-wise MUST play second fiddle to gameplay, game mechanics. Night Elves joining the Alliance came up completely out of nowhere, and is against Tyrande's characterization (it's literally a plot-point in Warcraft3, that she treats both humans and orcs alike, because they did the same damage to their forest). Forsaken joining the Horde is of the same variety, the only connection for them are arguably blood elves, since so many of the Forsaken, Sylvanas included, are the undead elves that died protecting their kind.

Both of these factions should've remained "their own", but the game only had Horde and Alliance, so Blizzard just bend the rules.
I like the visual style of Draenei in WoW. But i'm incapable of properly put into words how much damage the introduction of Draenei proper did to the worldbuilding.
Only travel between worlds could be done via dimensional rifts (that very few people can create even for short period of time) and outstandingly complicated summoning rituals? What a joke, there are now SPACE SHIPS.
And this is just one of the first things that came to mind, it goes much deeper, up until writers scrap the bottom of the barrel and find themselves WRITING TIMETRAVEL - not as self-contained micro-story, but the nexus of huge changes in the world. Entire third Legion's invasion wouldn't have happened without it.

Wrath of the Lich King is wildly considered "the last good expansion of WoW". Cataclysm was weak, but mostly because the overwhelming task of completely renewing the world. Pandaria was where it all began, the absolutely awful out-of-nowhere retcon of Garrosh. It also wouldn't be the last, since they did the same later on with Sylvanas - both warchiefs of the Horde, btw.
By the Shadowlands expansion, NONE of the warcraft 3 characters survived. NONE. ALL of them were either killed in-universe, or turned inside-out writing-wise. Sylvanas was butchered the most, turning from tragic and complex character into walking Mary Sue with all character traits, motivation and common sense removed by authors violently injecting themselves and their garbage story into her.

I could go on and on. This is something that is very close to my heart, because i've liked this world for far too long to just not care.

AAWWWWWW YEAHH 2 HOURS OF NERD TALK IM STRAPPING IN

I also loved Kael the most. Thats why i was the first to utilize bloodmage first in professional wc3.

I feel like players will often use Arthas’ Holy Light spell to for the first two levels. The 3rd level onwards you fight nothing but undead and have access to priests who also heal. Meaning players would naturally use the Holy Light spell less for healing and more for attacking Undead as Arthas is doing narratively.

1:05:00 If you watch Tyrande closely you will notice she just pays lip service to loving Malfurion. She loves Illidan but knows they can never be because of his treachery.  Mal is totally second fiddle but so wrapped up in his dream he doesn't notice he's her second choice.

Arthas character arc is absolute peak

Thank you YT recommendations. Good job bringing me to the gang. Pls more WarCraft lore!

I just watched a multi-hour Warcraft 3 campaign review a few weeks ago but I'm already feeling down for a new one