Ben Brode - ARTHAS

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"How did Arthas become the Lich King? Sure, you could read the story, or go play Warcraft III. Or you could just listen to this rap!"[1]

"Ben Brode - ARTHAS" is the title of a rap by Game Director Ben Brode, released July 31st, 2017.

History[edit | edit source]

In February 2017, Blizzard announced the Journey to Un'Goro expansion for Hearthstone and released a cinematic trailer for the expansion. Players were quick to notice the lack of a song in the trailer, leading to the creation of a reddit petition to make Game Director Ben Brode sing a song. The day after the petition was posted, Brode released Un'Goro: The Journey, a video featuring himself rapping, on his personal YouTube channel.

When Knights of the Frozen Throne was announced in July 2017, players again noticed the lack of a song in the trailer. Within a few days of being posted, a player-created reddit thread entitled "Petition to make Ben Brode record another song" had received roughly 13,400 upvotes. Brode responded to the thread with a tweet stating "This is some kind of bizzaro world we are living in where "rap petitions" have 10k upvotes".[2]

During his July 14th reddit AMA, when asked if he was going to perform another rap, Brode hinted at the possibility.[3]

On July 24th, Brode tweeted an image of the room and office chair seen in "Un'Goro: The Journey", with an accompanying message simply reading "ARTHAS" 07.31.2017.[4] He also referenced the lyrics of "Un'Goro: The Journey"[5][6] and stated that the tweet was not hinting at an upcoming card reveal,[7][8] nor at the release date of Knights of the Frozen Throne, but rather at something "HOT".[9]

Finally, on July 31st, Brode released "Ben Brode - ARTHAS" on his personal YouTube channel.[10][11] The rap tells of the story of Arthas Menethil, the future Lich King, by recounting the events of the human campaign in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. The video is interlaced with gameplay and cutscene footage from Warcraft III and also features the appearance of several Hearthstone cards.

By popular request,[12] Brode also released a lyrics-only version of the song for fan remix purposes.[13][14]

Video[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  • Brode created the video in his home during his free time, taking about 20 hours to write and 40 hours to record and edit.[15][16] He wrote the lyrics to the rap by himself.[17] In the YouTube video's description, Brode extends special thanks to all of Team 5, and especially Andy Brock for mixing the soundtrack.[1]
  • When asked if the rap had taken any inspiration from the musical Hamilton, Brode stated that he had "probably listened to that soundtrack 80 times this month"[18] and that he had listened to "assloads" of the musical while writing the song.[19]

Lyrics[edit | edit source]

Well met!
My name is Ben Brode
I got a story to tell
Are you ready?
Then come on and listen well
Many years ago there lived a paladin
He was prince of the Alliance when our story begins
This ain't a happy story, it's a little dark
This ain't no summer day
This ain't no walk in the park
You see, this prince's name was Arthas
AKA the Lich King
This is the story of how he became him
It all started with a mysterious plague
Only vague reports were all the Alliance scouts gave
The King sent Arthas to go check out the rumor
And he met up with his college buddy, Jaina Proudmoore-a
Arthas and Jaina, yo, they were on the case
They found some crates with grain that were poison-laced
Suspicious - they looked about
as something moved in the forest
Shadows emerged and Arthas yelled
"They're coming right for us!"
That's when the Scourge attacked
The defenses just cracked
and Arthas just snapped
He jumped in to act
But quickly got trapped
Ghouls at his front and ghouls at his back
Arthas looked up and through battle
saw a necromancer's shadow
It was Kel'Thuzad
Arthas gave him a nod
And then he swept the ghouls away
And clawed his way towards KT and
punched that necromancer straight square in the teeth
KT said, "seek Mal'Ganis where he makes his home
He controls the Scourge from the city of Stratholme"
Those were the last words Kel'Thuzad said
Arthas killed that necromancer with a blow to the head
Then said, "Jaina, I demand
that you call the Silver Hand and
Uther will command them
and we will purge the damned then"
And Jaina said, "Yo yo yo, OK I'll go
I will go find Uther and I'll tell him what I know. Yo"
And she teleported away
There wasn't much else to say
They had to go stop the plague
undead were coming this way
Right then he arrived at Hearthglen
Looked down
Saw plagued grain on the ground again
Arthas took a deep breath, then turned around
he was surrounded by the entire town
"Wait a second", said Arthas, filling with dread
"This plague doesn't just kill it turns you into UNDEAD"
The prince's stomach began to churn
At that second townsfolk began to turn
Twelve hours later, Arthas barely alive
His royal bodyguards, well, they didn't survive
The undead had him on the ropes, all outta hopes
Guess who showed up then?
You better check ya notes!
It was UTHER, Arthas' tutor
an incredible maneuver
shoulda come sooner
He saved the day
Poor Arthas would never be the same
Something clicked in his brain
And they heard him exclaim:
Mal'Ganis is there
He will pay for what he did today, I swear"
And then he left, still covered in ichor
heading to Stratholme, all alone
And here is the kicker:
Empty crates lined the streets
the plague had been released pretty soon
the city would be an undead army of beasts
Arthas knew he couldn't let them become Scourge
Turned around and shouted, "Listen to my words!
There is only one way to emerge as victors
We surge into the city and PURGE the villagers!"
Uther said, "Are you serious?
Your father would be furious!
You can't possibly consider this!
There must be some other way!"
Arthas said, "Not today
There is no other way to save this town
You betray the crown!"
Uther said, "Fine, then, do it alone
I'm taking my army home."
Arthas started killing people in the night
They were sleeping? Didn't matter, he would kill 'em on sight
Better to kill 'em now before they turned to undead
so he burned the town down 'til the skies turned red
Then he found Mal'Ganis in the wreckage
He was just seconds from wrecking him
when he said, "Wait, I have a message
Do you think you can get the best of me?
Then come to Northrend, Arthas!
Fulfill your destiny!"
Yeah, he went up to Northrend
He would chase Mal'Ganis and do anything to avenge
the death of his people, including doing things that sound a little evil
or at least a little illegal
But his campaign in Northrend didn't go very well
His army kept getting weaker
His soldiers fell
It was bleak, they'd only been there for a week
but they were close to defeat
Arthas was willing to cheat
There was a rumor of a sword full of ultimate power
But the inscription said that it would devour
the soul of any that touched it
It was called Frostmourne
Arthas tracked it down anyway
because he'd sworn
to kill Mal'Ganis
It was worth any risk, including this
So he lifted his fist and gave the sword a twist
It came out of the altar
Arthas did not falter
He ran back to his army where the undead all were
Arthas tore through the undead forces
straight to Mal'Ganis, of course
The dreadlord laughed
"You think you're winning?
When you picked up that sword
you became a pawn of the Lich King"
And Arthas knew it was true
He was doomed, through and through
"I've damned everyone and everything I've ever loved
and I still feel no remorse."
A lot happened after that
He killed his father
But I'm just not gonna bother to rap the rest
I guess I oughta tell you one last thing
He found the crown of the Lich King
He put it on his head and now it's time to sing

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Ben Brode - ARTHAS, video description. (2017-07-31). Retrieved on 2017-07-31.
  2. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-07). 
  3. Ben Brode on reddit. (2017-07-15). 
  4. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-24). 
  5. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-24). 
  6. Ben Brode on reddit. (2017-07-24). Retrieved on 2017-07-24.
  7. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-24). 
  10. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-31). 
  11. Ben Brode - "ARTHAS" (The story of Arthas, performed as a rap, because I'm SUPER excited for the new Hearthstone expansion!). (2017-07-31). Retrieved on 2017-07-31.
  12. Ben Brode on reddit. (2017-07-31). Retrieved on 2017-08-01.
  15. Ben brode on reddit. (2017-07-31). Retrieved on 2017-07-31.
  16. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-31). 
  18. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-31). 
  19. Ben Brode on Twitter. (2017-07-31). 

See also[edit | edit source]