WoW Moviewatch: Rise of the Lich King
by David Bowers 
Sep 12th 2007 at 11:59AM
We know that the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will take us to Northrend to fight Arthas. But if you haven't played Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne and seen the story of how Arthas became the Lich King, you may well wonder what all the fuss is about. Blizzard released a three part series of short stories about the Rise of the Lich King, (and we have our own summary here at WoW Insider) but now there is a movie version as well. This is a compilation of machinima before machinima was an art form for the masses -- Blizzard used their own animated sprites within the game to tell the story, with good actors providing their voices in between (and sometimes during) battles. Sylvictus has recorded these scenes from Warcraft 3 and presented them here for us over at Warcraft Movies. Even though it clocks in at a whopping 52 minutes, Sylvictus said that he had to cut a lot of things out in order to keep the story even that short:
Keep in mind that you'll want to skip this if you intend on playing through Warcraft 3 and enjoying the story experience first hand. If you don't have the time or interest, however, you may enjoy this taste of what it's like.
Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
- Fall of Sylvanas and her freedom which lead to the founding of the Forsaken.
- Sylvanas betrayal and failed murder attempt on Arthas.
- The 3 dreadlords that takes control over Lordaeron as well as their war with Sylvanas.
- The perils Arthas and Anub'Arak faces in Azjol-nerub.
- The scenes with Sapphiron, most Muradin clips etc.
Keep in mind that you'll want to skip this if you intend on playing through Warcraft 3 and enjoying the story experience first hand. If you don't have the time or interest, however, you may enjoy this taste of what it's like.
Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TwhiT Sep 10th 2007 1:24PM
that freakin' ROCKED! At the least, now i know a bit more about the lore, as probably a lot of WoW players may not have played any Warcraft games before. Thanks for this post! ^_^
Ryan Sep 12th 2007 12:26PM
No fair, Medivh got to use flight form in Azeroth!
David Bowers Sep 12th 2007 12:29PM
You can see from the first comment that this movie was originally posted for a little while on Monday before we had to move it to Wednesday for internal reasons. Sorry about the change, but I hope everyone who didn't see it then is able to enjoy it in full from now on!
Lodcid Sep 12th 2007 1:14PM
I have to say watching the lore like this is really disappointing. I mean it has been a while since I have gone through the campaign and I remembered Arthas as being a bad mutha, hes the opposite, hes just a whiny little kid who has no friends and somehow managed to get sick power. Throughout the whole freaking saga he acts like a lovable little tyke with tourettes who wants revenge? Revenge for what? Revenge for who? Nobody he knows was killed by any of the undead. He obviously didn't care about the people that much. So why was he so freaking bent on revenge? His freaking motivation makes no sense. Blizzard then decided that wasn't good enough and he goes even crazier for no reason and chases after a demon to the freaking north pole of azeroth? What? Not to mention he throws all his men into the hands of death and demons so he can get his freaking 'revenge.' Oh thank you blizzard for this awesome lore. Then.. *gasp* he finally gets his awesome revenge? AND IT TAKES 1 FREAKING SLICE OF FROSTMOURNE. So that was dramatic, whats next? Well by then I didn't care anymore because the story was so stupid my brain started to hurt and so was all my motivation to do ANYTHING with the next stupid expansion.
Tekoa Sep 12th 2007 1:33PM
@4
you're a moron.
and also...you say Arthas is a whiny little kid, when all you do is cry and complain yourself.
hypocrite.
Sylf Sep 12th 2007 1:46PM
@4 Maybe you should watch the video again. It's pretty evident that you obviously can't understand a bit of the subtle undertones to the lore presented. Or didn't watch the entire thing, anyway. Ner'zhul had it planned from near the beginning that they would meet on the Frozen Throne, which explains many of Arthas' crazy actions. Not to mention be pushed certain directions by Kel'Thuzad and Mal'Ganis, etc.
Anyway, I thought it was a great video. I'd forgotten some of the lore since I haven't played Warcraft in a very long time.
David Bowers Sep 12th 2007 1:47PM
I wrote a post about Arthas in Stratholme and his slaughter of all the people there (http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/08/29/slaughtering-no-its-just-burning-down-houses-with-people-i/), but most of the commenters said they thought he was justified in doing that. Yet here in the actual Warcraft 3 scenes, it's clearly portrayed as one of the pivotal moments in his downfall where he really does become evil (in a certain sense) before reaching Northrend and getting fully corrupted -- Uther and Jaina refuse to participate in his campaign. He kills his own people mercilessly out of desire for revenge against the enemies who killed his people mercilessly -- you see? It's insane, the way he does it.
So now in Wrath of the Lich King we're going to help him do that? Does that make us insane? Or are Uther and Jaina in this story just... you know... sentimental wusses or something?
Buliwy Sep 19th 2007 3:00PM
For some reason I cannot watch the movie.
The movie box is blank :{
Mikkel Rasmussen Sep 13th 2007 2:01PM
THis was just great if you haven't played warcraft but are thrilled of hearing of WotLK ^^
Avonturier Sep 12th 2007 2:13PM
I have never played the other warcraft games, I had no idea that WoW drew so much on the previous games! Not just lore, but also style and units. I think it's a great intro to the next expansion. The whole death knight thing makes a lot more sense now. And it was great to see some other well known characters, such as Jaina, in action.
Justin Sep 12th 2007 2:55PM
Awesome...I can't wait for the expansion now.
Lodcid Sep 12th 2007 4:11PM
@5 Haha yeah, well I am technically 'whining' about how horrible the lore is, it still doesn't remove the fact that the lore still stinks.
@6 Thats a cute way of getting out of crappy story/character motivation, "ooooo the guy was controlled by mystical forces from the start." If he was so hopeless why did Medivh (supposedly one of the most freaking powerful/all knowing beings at the time) bother talking to the guy.
Hey, you could be right and it was his fate to become the Lich King. But don't you think Blizzard could have done a better job of making some plot e devices besides the foreshadowing of "ooo you'll see" and then when he turns "yeah i told you so."
Maybe I'm crazy or maybe I'm just not a blizz fanboy when it comes to this lore stuff.
Acariquara Sep 12th 2007 5:55PM
Mal'ganis was downed in one hit!
Damn reckoning bomb pallies...
Xiphus Sep 13th 2007 3:16AM
I always loved the Fall of Arthas story arch. Personally, I found the story very well scripted. It started out with our pure-hearted though somewhat naive Prince, who, being naive and all, gets really peeved when his beloved country got torn apart by the Scourge and failed to see the scheming behind it all. Then, like a really angry child who is peeved at the big bully who broke his toy, he goes after Mal'ganis for revenge, and in the end, his quest for vengeance made him no better and almost as bad as the 'bully' Mal'ganis.
Ner'zhul made a wise choice to pick Arthas as his champion. Getting him to fall from grace is child's play. He would had alot more trouble trying to get other paladins to be his champion because they would be far too experienced and far wiser to realize those tricks.
MonkeyBrains Sep 13th 2007 4:47AM
@ 4 and 11
What game lore do you actually like? pokémon?
You sound about 6 years old.
If you dont like the lore in wow, then play something else, or just ignore it.
Mark Kemperman Sep 13th 2007 6:06AM
Really enjoyed this presentation, a creative way to depict one of the most compelling stories in warcraft lore.
Excellent stuff.
Mikah Sep 13th 2007 11:58AM
Very good idea to put together all those cinematics. Very instructive as I never played Warcraft RTS (i hate this genre).
Then, i figured out something. All the people saying Blizzard is milking its IP, I would respond : the lore that Blizz created is so deep that it would be a pity not using it for as much video games as they can. Not so much other video game IPs can say the same.
And this would explain WOW's success over others MMOs that don't have any real background to build a complete world from it.
@Lodcid : critics are easy, art is not. Plus you seems to have not understand anything to the story, that's why your head hurts maybe. You whining little boy.
KevSlider Sep 14th 2007 1:53AM
There was another video of this subject posted earlier this week. It used Warcraft III to tell the story, now I can't find it. Was it yanked? I started to watch it but then I got an error and had to reboot. When I came back to the site it was gone!