Bolvar Fordragon, We Hardly Knew Ye

It occurred to me that although the ending to Wrath of the Lich King was not very surprising for the most part, there was one thing that actually was a surprise. Spoilers are absolutely everywhere in this post.

Bolvar Fordragon, is the new Lich King, the self-styled Jailor of the Damned. There are a few reasons you couldn’t be blamed for saying WTF? during this cutscene.

Merely a Setback

But wait. Fordragon died at the Wrathgate. Right? I mean, he did watch Saurfang the Younger get roflpwned by Frostmourne, then he did get betrayed by Grand Apothecary Putress and some of the Forsaken with the New Plague, which almost killed even the Lich King himself, and then, wasn’t his body, even if it did survive the battle and the plague by some sort of miracle, incinerated by the fire breath of the Red Dragonflight?

Well, yes.

But, you see, it turns out that that was all merely a setback (Scroll down to the Warcraft series list of instances after that link. It’s huge.) Now, there is no good in-game explanation offered as to why the hell Bolvar would still be alive after dying at least two deaths. This is not to mention the horrific torture that he suffered at the hands of the Lich King after they recovered him from the battlefield in order to pimp him out for the Scourge. I do believe, though, that this is a perfectly plausible outcome, and I will tell you why. If you accept that the cutscene of the Wrathgate only shows him falling, not necessarily dying.

Fordragon was a paladin. Although he might have made a misstep or two as regent of Stormwind while Varian was on his little excursion, he did a reasonably a good job for guy who did not intend to be the king. He is supposed to be quite an upstanding, honorable paladin. Wowwiki says that he was “as stalwart and loyal of a soldier as they come.” When King Wrynn returned, Fordragon became the commander of the 7th Legion forces, one of the most elite Alliance units, at the Wrathgate, where they faced the Lich King in battle. You don’t hand that command to just any random dude.

I think it’s a fair to say that this was a very disciplined and honorable champion of the Light. This explains why he would be able to survive the Lich King's tortures. As far as discipline goes, we know Dranosh Saurfang rushed forward impetuously and got schooled while Bolvar stayed back. As far as his holiness and honor goes, Tirion Fordring is apparently good friends with him. They refer to each other in very familiar terms- “brother,” “old friend.” If you’re BFF with Tirion and you’re a paladin, you’re probably a pretty good one. So he can withstand all the torture, fair enough.

Eternal Flames

Even Tirion was surprised to see him alive, but here’s my theory on that. Putress and the Forsaken rebels (we could argue about whether they were rebels or not, I know) unleashed the New Plague killing the Scourge and the living alike. The Red Dragonflight, guardians of life as they were, were understandably uncool about this happening right in their own backyard, so they handled it by breathing fire and burning away every trace of it.

Now, let’s consider that for a moment. These dragons are the guardians and protectors of life, and I think it reasonable to assume that their fire breath has some life-giving properties (which of course come and go at the will of the writers). Especially because, after the Wrath gate, the zone that you are then phased into shows that the area where the battle took place, which was previously frozen wasteland, is now suddenly growing wildflowers and plants everywhere. Alexstrasza, Queen of the Dragons, the Life-Binder, is sitting right in the middle of it. So their fire breath burns, but it is also the fire of life.

And then, when you actually see Bolvar at the Frozen Throne, he is scorched, but the flames are perpetually crackling and burning. Without consuming him, or at least consuming him very slowly. Hmm. Something that burns without being consumed. That sounds a lot like the Burning Bush from the Bible, which was a holy place, and arguably touched on the theme of purity and holiness. Fire is a process that many believed and is often thematically understood to be a purifying one, but the bush and the ground on which it stood were perfectly pure and holy. Therefore, the fire, the process of purification, continued on eternally without consuming the bush. I forget when I heard this in the few times that I went to church, the point is, I think its fair to say that although it may not be a direct reference to the Bible, it is certainly analogous and thematically referential. It’s not a stretch to think of the fire of life as also having purifying properties as well. That is in fact, what the dragons used it for- to purify the land of the unholy New Plague.

Bolvar was a champion of the Light, who battled evil with all his might and did not waver or falter. He was a holy and righteous man. My guess is that the powerful magic of the dragon’s breath would probably have simply overwhelmed and destroyed some random dude or chick. But Bolvar, due to his spiritual, mental, and physical fortitude and purity brought on by his service to the Light became something of a burning bush for the Light, and for life itself.

Now what?

As we all have seen, there must always be a Lich King- Terenas Menethil’s creepy last words before his spirit vapored off to…wherever. Without something to control them, the Scourge would devour Azeroth whole. So Bolvar makes one last sacrifice, donning the Helm of Domination, insisting that he is screwed anyway and Tirion and his champions still have something to live for. Now he will be the Jailor of the Damned, keeping the Scourge in check. But the Scourge is evil and demonic in origin, and so is the armor that allows you to control them. In fact, Frostmourne to some extent controlled Arthas. So why should we believe that Bolvar will be any better than Arthas? Why should we believe now that the Scourge will be any less of a threat?

You might have wondered why I focused specifically on the burning bush reference and the fire imagery. Think about it: A pure, holy man who takes the burden of the sum of so much evil onto his own body for the rest of eternity, who sacrifices himself to singlehandedly rid the world of it? Who does that sound like? The answer is Jesus (Not like, the answer is Jesus. The answer to my rhetorical question. Happened to be Jesus.).

Look at the imagery of the old Lich King versus the new, particularly his eyes. Check out this video from WCIII, where Arthas dons the Helm of Domination for the first time.



Skip to 2:00, and we see that what signifies his transformation is that his eyes glow an icy blue.

And in the awesomely epic opening cinematic for Wrath of the Lich King, showing his reawakening.



At 0:25, we see the first thing that happens is his eyes lighting up, frosty and blue once again. And when Arthas dies in the final cinematic, the first thing we see is that signature glow fading as he returns to his mortal self once again just before taking his final breaths.




Compare that to the end of the cinematic, when Bolvar takes the Helm on, his eyes explode with the same orange fire that is burning his body, at 3:15. And, if you look at the Northrend loading screens for Cataclysm, there is a strong focus on how his body is permeated by this fire. Just after the cinematic is over, you can see that the fire is not extinguished by the ice of the Frozen Throne, even as it encases him. His pose is on the loading screen is one of, I don’t know, tenacious lamentation? Is that how you would say it? Like, life sucks for me, look at how much I got screwed over, but I have no choice, it’s the right thing do.

All this points to the fact that whereas Arthas eventually became the epitome of the evil he had set out to destroy, this will not be the case with Bolvar. Arthas did a lot of things that made the other Knights of the Silver Hand and his closest friends question how righteous and just of a person he really was. To some extent, it was Arthas’s personal flaws, namely his hubris and brashness, and his poor understanding of the ways of Light that made him so corruptible, not just the demonic magic of the armor. Arthas started this war to lure the champion’s of Azeroth into corruption as a reflection of his own journey, and what does he say to you when he finally attempts to deliver his final master stroke?

The Lich King yells: No question remains unanswered. No doubts linger. You are Azeroth's greatest champions! You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught, your unbridled fury... Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder.

So it seems, the way I interpret this comment, that Arthas is implicitly admitting that it was not righteousness that drove him. In a way, he’s been trying to prove to the world that they were just as corruptible as him. Seems that Arthas is at least somewhat jaded and cynical about this whole Scourge thing and that makes sense given all that horrors that he endured- and perpetrated. But is that how a true holy warrior thinks?

That is what the all the visuals of fire inside of Bolvar’s body is alluding to, and the burning flames in his eyes represent. Arthas went through the motions of serving the Light because it was his duty, but he made it evident on a number of occasions that he was always cold-hearted and proud. There has never been anything to suggest that Bolvar was not a paragon of humility and compassion (perhaps because he just wasn’t that important of a character before now), including his final act of sacrifice. He’s a burning bush and Jesus allusion combined into one noble sufferer- and I think that his holiness and perpetual purificiation will be what allows him to serve as the Jailor of the Damned, and resist the temptation to bring about yet another attempt at unholy dominion over Azeroth. Because check this out:

The Lich King says: The breaking of this one has been taxing. The atrocities that I have committed upon his soul. He has resisted for so long, but he will bow down before his king soon.
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon says: NEVER! I... I will never... serve... you.
The Lich King says: In the end you will all serve me.


Ironically, Bolvar ascended to the Frozen Throne by fighting the Scourge like Arthas did. And yet there is double irony: Arthas proved Bolvar was the perfect candidate for King by trying to make him his minion. Bitter and evil as Arthas was, he completely failed to corrupt Bolvar, despite doing his damnedest. That’s a good sign.

The Real Question

But is Bolvar up to the task? Frostmourne has been destroyed. If you’ve forgotten (and I don’t see how you could have), it was forged along with the rest of the Helm of Domination and the Plate of the Damned by the Nathrezim for the purpose of creating and controlling the Scourge. Frostmourne was a powerful and integral part of that, and when Ashbringer destroyed Frostmourne, the Lich King was severely weakened. It’s like losing a set bonus. Seems important that they stay together. Can we assume that the new Lich King will have the same amount of control over the Scourge that the old ones did? That is not clear to me. The first Lich King, Ner’zhul, was not immune to losing control; that’s how we got the Forsaken. So it will be interesting see how well he can do from the Frozen Throne. Does he have the strength of will to make up for Frostmourne’s absence? Does anybody?

Speaking of strength of will, and the Forsaken, what will happen if he does lose control? The spirits of Terenas and Uther the Lightbringer suggest that this is a bad thing. But is it necessarily? I personally have the feeling that mindless Scourge would spend so much time aimlessly making trouble they’d be fairly easy to contain, though the more sentient and purely evil members, perhaps not. And when Ner’zhul lost control, some of the mindless regained their free will, and it freed Sylvanas, who is pretty hawt for a dead elf chick. We also know that the Val’kyr actually join the Forsaken after Arthas dies. Uther and Terenas were stuck inside Frostmourne for much longer than I was, so they would know better, but really last time it wasn’t all bad. Those who aren’t Forskaen, including Bolvar, might think differently. But might Bolvar also purposely release control over some of the Scourge, if he believes they would regain their will and do something good? Or might he lead the unholy legion of the Scourge to some cause of righteousness?

Only time will tell how this Jailor of the Damned thing will play out. We can be sure from the ominous ending of the final cinematic that we haven’t seen the last of Bolvar, and the devs have confirmed we haven’t even seen the last of Ner’zhul yet. They are saying that’s going to be a good one. But I’m excited: A tortured Jesus figure charged with keeping an unholy undead army in check with the use of demonic armor and magic? There’s no way this won’t be good.

The Lich King's Defeat: How Surprising was the Surprise Ending?

Recently, I killed the Lich King. I read on a forum somewhere that whatever guild killed Arthas for their first time, gave points to Blizzard for the "twist ending." At first I agreed, Wrath of the Lich King was an exemplary piece of storytelling I thought. A lot of people I talked to in-game seemed to believe that, yes, this twist ending was, in fact, fucking awesome.

But then I wondered. Was that really a surprise ending?

First, let's look at what happened. You came in through the Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, battled your way north through the Dragonblight and/or Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, and Icecrown, you discovered the secrets of Ulduar, and you've fought your way into Icecrown, through the Lower Spire, the Plagueworks, the Crimson and Frostwing Halls. Now you're DPSing/Tanking/Healing, dodging defiles, killing Val'kyrs, and not getting blown up by Vile Spirits long enough for the Lich King to finally kneel down and you see the debuff pass on your screen (if you don't have scrolling combat text on, you're insane), and then you die. Here's what you get to watch.

The Lich King's Gambit: It Was His Plan All Along.

The Lich King casts Fury of Frostmourne, killing all players at once.
The Lich King yells: No question remains unanswered. No doubts linger. You are Azeroth's greatest champions! You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught, your unbridled fury... Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder.
The Lich King yells: You trained them well, Fordring. You delivered the greatest fighting force this world has ever known... right into my hands -- exactly as I intended. You shall be rewarded for your unwitting sacrifice.
The Lich King begins to cast a resurrection spell.
The Lich King yells: Watch now as I raise them from the dead to become masters of the Scourge. They will shroud this world in chaos and destruction. Azeroth's fall will come at their hands -- and you will be the first to die.
The Lich King laughs.
The Lich King yells: I delight in the irony.
(from wowwiki)

So! It turns out, after all that hard work trying to defeat him, it turns out every rotting zombie you cleaved, every Coldflame you dodged, and the Argent Tournamet, all of it, every thing that you did, including stepping on to the Frozen Throne and nearly killing the Lich King himself, it was his plan all along.

It's true: in order to defeat the Lich King, you have to pretty badass in game. Even now, with Hellscream's Warsong/Strength of Wrynn buff, there are still players who have not defeated him, and if you ask me, he is the hardest boss in the game, far and away harder than anything else in Icecrown Citadel. So, it turns out, that all those challenges were set before us to test our mettle, so that when the time came (and it did), he would raise us up into his most powerful and horrific weapon yet, ensuring that Azeroth fell completely. All of your efforts, they were almost all for nothing, because you were just a pawn in the greater game. Shocking and unexpected, right?

Wrong.

He Told Us His Plan Repeatedly.

Let's go back to the very first thing anybody ever heard not just from Arthas, but about Wrath of the Lich King at all. The very first trailer that was unveiled at Blizzcon, way back in 2007. It is narrated by Arthas himself. And what does he say?

"It's begun. Young heroes...I was once like you. You have come to this place seeking to bring judgement upon the damned. You will venture deep into forgotten lands. You will see wonders beyond imagining. But be warned. The land itself will rise up against you. Long forgotten terrors will smother your courage. Sacrifice everything as the final darkness falls...in the end, all that awaits you is death. Only then will you understand - you've been following in my footsteps all along. So come then, you heroes! Come in all your power and glory! For in the final hour, all must serve the one... true... king. "
(wowwiki again)

We've been following in his footsteps - just as the trailer shows a paladin being overwhelmed by Scourge, and rising up as- surprise- a death knight. Now originally, I just took this as him planning to kill us and raise us as Scourge. Pretty standard procedure.

But think of all the other times you encounter Arthas personally. In Drak'Tharon Keep, in Zul'Drak, where he says:

The Lich King says: As for you...
The Lich King says: I spare your insignificant life as a reward for this amusing betrayal. There may yet be a shred of potential in you.
The Lich King says: Be warned...
The Lich King says: When next we meet I shall require much more to justify your life.
(wowwiki).

He shows up several times in Icecrown, after you defeat the Vrykul Overlord Balargarde we get:

The Lich King yells: You have bested one of my finest, but your efforts are for naught.
The Lich King yells: The frozen heart of Icecrown awaits....

and then even at the Argent Tournament where he literally just waltzes into the middle of it, and instead of Fury of Frostmourning everyone, like he could have done in the Halls of Reflection later on (Do you really think a wall of ice would stop the Lich King? Really?), and smashes the floor for you to fight the Nerubian king again. So here we have multiple times where the Lich is actually inviting us, not so subtly in several cases, to best his greatest champions. And we consistently defeat them.

And then, think about all the times where you were doing something, and the Lich King just Death Gated to wherever you were, proclaimed he knew what your plan was the whole time- and then let you go on doing whatever it is you were doing. Surely, you must represent a serious threat to his regime. Yet he lets that threat continue to exist. WTF?

That's when it dawned on me that the Lich King could have swallowed up pretty much all of Azeroth at any time he wanted. He's got a gigantic army that knows no fear, pain, or remorse, that can only get stronger the you longer you fight it. Also, given the infighting between the factions, namely the Horde and Alliance, who were stupid enough to fight even within Icecrown itself, he was clearly fighting a group of opponents insistent on weakening themselves even as he loomed over them. We, the people of Azeroth, were really no match for the full wrath of the Lich King.

The real shocking thing to me is that after all those obvious signals that he was only luring us in to enslave us when he could have annihilated the world at any time (which I do remember wondering about as I quested) we completely ignored that. Indeed, the whole time he was hoping that we would own the shit out of every single challenge he placed in front of us, and we did. This whole show was for Arthas' vanity (see what Chris Metzen had to say about it even before WotLK came out).

I Delight in the Irony.

There's a few levels of some delicious irony here.

The first bit is the I mentioned above about following in Arthas's footsteps. Really, we almost did exactly what he did- by trying to destroy the Scourge, and vanquish evil, we proved ourselves to be great champions, but nearly became the very evil we were fighting. This is also a bit of poetic justice, or maybe poetic vengeance, for Arthas. The fate that he suffered trying to defend his people, he now attempts to inflict on us. There is a second layer of irony there, we nearly end up just like him by trying to destroy him, even though we were fully aware of what happened to him and that he planned to do it to us. That stroke of evil genius actually gives me chills. But, as it said on the Wrath of the Lich box when you first buy the game: If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

There is a another bit of irony in the way that the Lich King actually falls. Fortunately, you or another player managed to free Terenas Menethil from Frostmourne, and the Lich King did not count on this. Tirion calls on the Light to free him, breaks free from his icy prison, shatters Frostmourne releasing the trapped spirits inside it, who incapacitate Arthas. Then Terenas resurrects the raid to take advantage of his vulnerable state, and you finally kill him.

But how did Arthas get into being the Lich King in the first place? He, despite all warnings and good judgment, thought that he was the only one who knew best how to save Lordaeron. So he purged Stratholme, and later he took up Frostmourne ignoring his friends and supernatural warnings. Arthas was the picture of hubris before he took up Frostmourne, and he thought that he would be in control. But in the end, Frostmourne controlled him.

And when you defeat him, Terenas and the other spirits turn against him after being released from Frostmourne. When the Lich King harvests your soul into the sword, you actually end up defending Terenas, and helping him. Those spirits being released are what weaken him long enough for you to deliver the final blow.

The true surprise for me was that I don't think Arthas fully understood what Frostmourne really was, ever. If he had never played this gambit of trying test the world greatest champions for what essentially was his own amusement, he would have simply squashed us like insects underfoot, and washed over the world with Scourge the way he intended to. Especially when you consider that he intended to enslave Tirion and forced him to watch the whole process out of spite, but underestimated Tirion's and the Light's power, allowing Tirion to escape. Which allowed Terenas and the spirits to escape. Arhas mistakenly thought he was the absolute master of all these forces, and that everything was under control. That's what cost him his victory, just like last time. Really, he engineered his own defeat.

And once again, it was Arthas's own hubris and overconfidence in his powers that led to his fall. Finally, it is ironic then, that that was how he got to be the Lich King in the first place.