Originally Posted by LucidityAxel
The cinematic shows the Lich King using Frostmourne to suck some sort of energy from the corpse of Saurfang the Younger. (Presumably his soul.) No such thing happened to Bolvar. Arthas never so much as touched him with Frostmourne, much less used it to drain his soul. Bolvar was felled by the Putress plague.
We saw Bolvar collapse, heard some of this thoughts, and saw him stop moving. His face was not melting off like it was with some of the other plague victims. It's certainly not farfetched to assume that Bolvar died, but it's also possible that he was only very near to death. It was never really established in the cinematic either way.
When the Reds burned the plague, you could clearly see flowers sprouting up in the aftermath of those flames, as well as see them in-game afterwards. The Red dragonflight's domain is life, and the protection of all life. Their breath burns, but it can also renew and rejuvenate. They can restore barren ground to life by merely walking on it.
Those are all facts, established in the cinematic, in the game, or in other lore. The rest of this post is pure speculation.
I think the most likely outcome is that Saurfang the Younger's soul was taken by the Lich King. I don't know what he will do with that soul, but it wouldn't be all that surprising to see Saurfang again in Icecrown, either as a raid boss or as some other sort of minion who is bound to the will of the Lich King. There are some interesting dramatic possiblities here with Saurfang the Elder, perhaps in a scripted boss event.
Bolvar, on the other hand, regardless of whether he actually died or was just very near to death, had Red dragon fire breathed on his body from some of the very strongest members of the flight, possibly from Alexstrasza herself. It would not be at all surprising if he is alive somewhere, either saved from death or resurrected by the Red flight. The idea that Alextrasza and her consort were talking about Arthas is intriguing, but I think it's a lot more likely that they were talking about Bolvar Fordragon, who is not actually dead as we think, but is very much alive because the Reds have a plan for him.
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This is the best post I’ve seen on the topic in some time. Most people just assume that Bolvar was burned, but no one ever saw that happen. You clearly see him exhale in what you presume to be his last breath before the scene cuts to the dragons destroying the bodies left on the battlefield. There is no proof that Bolvar even died from the plague, let alone had his corpse incinerated.
To be really picky, there's also no real concept about how much time elapsed before the dragons arrived either. The cinematic simply cuts from one scene to the next and you just assume it was instant. However, it's worth noting that like many things in the cinematic you're simply seeing "highlights" of what happened that are not in real time. For example we did not see the full battle against the Vyrkul and Scourge at the gate, we see just a few hits before the scene cuts to Bolvar taunting Arthas (presumably after defeating all of the forces outside).
Another interesting point is that the two respective factional quests post Wrath Gate require two different turn ins – Horde require Saurfang the Younger’s armor (clearly implying that his body was destroyed) yet Alliance require Bolvar’s shield. If Bolvar was indeed incinerated, his armor would have been left behind like Saurfang, would it not?
Venturing in to the world of speculation, there was allot to be learned from the recent interview with Metzen on the latest Blizzcast. He quite implicitly implies that the old gods have allot more to do with what is going on than most people realize, and with Ulduar bound to be the second major hook of the Wrath storyline I think there’s allot more to come from the old gods that may even (directly or indirectly) relate to Bolvar’s fate. The idea of Bolvar coming back as a Death Knight is certainly a new one to me, but I can see the merit in it.
No matter how this pans out, this is certainly the most epic quest line (for me) since the Marshall quest line (Onyxia attunement) and they definitely deserve kudos for it.
01/25/09, 2:31 AM
