http://www.petitiononline.com/iiiidan/petition.html

Maiev was resurrected, Kael’thas and Kel’Thuzad will be resurrected… so why not Illidan, who is stronger than any of them?

interesting discussion here.

I firmly believe Illidan is not dead, he is one of the most influent characters in the current history of Azeroth and Outlands, his path to corruption started back in the time when the War of The Ancients took place. Then he was condemned and spent 10.000 years plotting his revenge, I’m sure he figured out everything.

Illidan already knew about the portal being reactivated, the “invasion” of warriors from Azeroth wasn’t unexpected for him, he knew this Azerothians were after his head and also knew there might be a possibility for Maiev to be released (via treachery or maybe the NEs doing it) so he could make some arrangements to avoid being defeated at all.

As you said, one of the major themes of WoW is redemption, we saw that with Meidvh, Grom, and other less important characters.

Bruce says this is kind of repetitive, this could be true, but lets no forget the powerful one hasn’t redeemed yet (and probably never will). I’m talking of Sargeras.

Regarding Arthas’s defeat probably would involve Tirion and Ashbringer (Frostmourne v/s Ashbringer maybe?).

I still don’t want to see her hurt.

I’d like to see a character fall into darkness and stay there for once. True tragedy tugs at the heart strings more than a lame redemption, same as leaving some people dead is far better than having their ghosts return for some trivial thing (Uther, for example, would perhaps be better off dead than being summoned in Western Plaguelands for trivial matters).

Now that Illidan’s dead, I’m waiting to see what happens to Arthas and I’d love to hear what you think about his predicament. If he’s redeemed that could be lame. If he’s released from the grip of Ner’zhul and left to fend for himself in a world hostile to him that’d be interesting. If he’s killed as the depraved individual he is and damned for all eternity for his choices, with a large fanfare and enough story to make us feel sorry for him, that’d be awesome. Not because I’m some evil person that likes to see others suffer, but because it’d be a reality check; while demons are pure evil and Naaru are pure good, mortals can be both and have to deal with the consequences of their evil choices.

There was a thread on the US general forums where people were debating how Arthas would die, whether it’d be one of the following or a mixture:
Uther the Lightbringer (as a death knight)
Sylvannas Windrunner (as revenge)
Jaina Proudmore (as pity)
Thrall (as necessity)
A few others were mentioned, and the whole discussion was fairly interesting. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on what would be the most emotionally moving end for Arthas’ crusade.