Filmmaker Reacts: Welcome to Noxus - Bite Marks - League of Legends
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Welcome to Noxus - Bite Marks (ft. TEYA) | 2025 Season 1 Cinematic - League of Legends Reaction ! Subscribe for more and follow my twitch to discuss live! See my Fiance's Mel cosplay on her channel @AliyaWill
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Red haired girl is named Katarina (my Main in League xd)
Spiderlady is Elise
The dude with the axe is named Darius
And the troll hes fighting against is Trundle
In the end are LeBlanc (the lady) and Vladimir
the golden eye and the omnipotent mage is Leblanc
the spider lady is Elise
the red hair assassin is Katarina
the man fighting with the ogre is Darius and the ogre is trundle
"LIKE SHES PRESIDING OVER THE ENTIRE WORLD" LITERALLY MADE ME SHOOT UP OUT OF MY CHAIR. THAT IS EXACTY WHAT LEBLANC IS!!!
Nailed it.
She is literally predicting and moving her pieces to react and prevent stuff.
Katarina still manages to kill the target tho
@@_Azurael_ feels more like the man was a trap to bring out kat. elise doesn’t seem too bothered to save the guy, she’s there for kat. leblanc’s magic kinda int to that too with the way elise’s spider form is drawn around kat.
@@bxrbxri Agree with you. The frame were Leblanc draws a spider around the assassin (Kat), really suggest Elise is there specifically to kill Katarina. Kat's target is just bait.
However... Elise backs away from the fight when the target falls... She transforms into Spider form, but that backing away from her gives "no more reason to fight" vibes.
(or she just knows Katarina got her CD Reset and is cautious ;p)
@@_Azurael_ Not exactly predict, she's basically doing all this because she's beyond scared of what lies in the Immortal Bastion, and for the last thousand or even more years she's been doing everything in her power to either create, build, gather strong things, people, items, if Calamity arrives.
honored to be your mel, my sweetheart 🖤
Honored to film you as always my love, can’t wait to shoot more league of legends content with you 🖤⚔️
Low-key remember watching the final act of season 2 and thinking "Aliya's gonna cook with these new character designs." Of course you guys always deliver!
from the looks of it your going to get a few more outfits to play with. happy day for you when it comes out. but then again for us fans it will also be a happy day.
you guys are such a sweet couple omg
10/10 cosplay now its time for Philip to cosplay Jayce and make photos together that would be so awesome and cute
This man pulled Mel irl, as far as I'm concerned he has won
okay but your wife is STUNNING! she is literally mel indeed
The shot with the dancer having the many faces is a nod to Le Blanc and HER many faces. Poetic.
also, spider foreshadowing! Lotsa eyes
Just noticed the shot of Mel on the coast is the same camera angle from Blood Sweat and Tears video
I was just gonna comment that lol
Literally just noticed that as well, most other reactions don't dwell on that shot, but once Philip did I got a better look at it and went "hold on?"
Beach of Étretat/France... 🙃
Yeah its the same beach where ambessa almost died
Yes
The asssasin is Katarina, the Redheaded Chick that appears in multiple of the early Cinematics like New Dawn
The Spider woman is Elise, a noble that was prisoned by her husband, and she survived by making a deal with a Spider God from the Shadow Isles, the deal includes providing a stream of sacrifices for the god to consume ... she is part of Black Rose. For Black Rose the deal facilitates for them the ability to plunder artifacts from the Shadow Isles.
The blue beast is Trundle a Troll with the ability to wield a True Ice weapon from the Freljord, people who are able to use such weapons are called Iceborn, the thing with True Ice is tha if a non Ice born touches it it will kill them, and before that they will suffer excruciating pain.
Wile it was not directly touching True Ice, the fact that Darius the Noxian General was able to use the freezing axe to do a strike without outright dying is a testament to the mans tenacity.
If I have one complain I was hoping this would help clarify where Arcane fits on the Timeline. Unfortunately this did no help at all
Darius and Trundle here seem to be younger, Darius was fighting in the north at the borders of Freljord during the Invasion of Ionia
The discussion between LaBlanc and Vladimir the 2 immortal schemers and the Leaders of the Black Rose, happened after Arcane, as Mel landed in Noxus territory, but could be happening before/during or after the Invasion of Ionia.
Katarian going after members of the Black Rose should be happening after Swains Coup and the end of the Invasion.
The scenes can be happening at different times, so still we are left with no Idea when Arcane happened
The Vision Mel has about fighting towards the Immortal Bastion, the center of Noxus and the secret base of the Black Rose, is about her fighting their forces, probably the Grey Leagion an army of unded soldiers raised through Hemomancy ie Blood Magic ... and the red magic wielding figures that attack her would be Hemomancers ... they learned this magic from Vladimir who learned it as a hostage to the Darkin from a distant land over the ocean.
GIGACHAD analysis, ty!
Also wanted to comment about true ice. Knowing the pain Darius felt holding the axe makes the moment so much more badass. Good job giving people some context!
katarina using shumpo means that her fight with elise is happening after the mage rebellion in demacia has started since she gets the rune magic on her daggers after coming back from demacia
@@DWIP798 Possibly but the timeline is currently so uncertain because of them making Arcane canon that we cant say for sure
Nice analysis
I love how Katarina (masced girl) keeps her focus, and even while fighting Elise (spider lady) she manages to kill the target.
Considering her backstory of "failing to kill a target has consequences", it's awesome.
She also puts her dagger towards her target and then baits Elise into moving away so she couldn't defend him as easily, then she shunpos (teleports) to her dagger and maneuvers so she can kill him while still keeping an eye on Elise
9:41 OMG I just noticed that Fortiche actually animated the camera as if an actual person was there with a hand-held camera for the shot 😱 you can clearly feel the "steps" taken, they blow my mind seriously
Nice detail spotted!!!!😮
Damn, I watched this 3 times and I never noticed that!!!
I really love how the background is composed of mostly desaturated, muted, colors and tones; while the characters are more allotted more vibrant colors and gold accents mixed into their designs like a color choice meant to highlight the main players in front of the backdrop. Perhaps maybe to convey the sense that the characters are the "highlight" of the setting versus the physical location where the story is set.
I agree, they really are expanding the Arcane style while introducing so much new!
@@PhilipHarts Also really like the choice to have Mel, stop and walk through the stone gate; perfect metaphor for a character crossing the threshold. Her guards always behind her like she could always double back and return to safety but once she steps through the gate, there is no going back with her eyes on the horizon.
I can FEEL the FUN they had making this cinematic... the passion... It is beautiful, more beautiful than the cinematic itself.
studio fortiche is truly amazing
When Darius picked up the axe, the magic sound wasn’t his magic. It was the true ice properties from the club infused on the ice that only a few people can tolerate. Trundle is a troll but also an ice born who has the special ability to wield the true ice but Darius couldn’t which is why his arm was frozen over.
Kind of want that arm to be amputated and regrown by magic of the grey army.
I feel they kind of can't get a beat on what true ice actually is.
4:55 this scene is exactly like the occulorum that Mel was trapped in with Kino. Shaped like an eye because Leblanc was looking down on her watching
Fortiche are on a class of their own, no animation studio can come even close at this moment.
Omg her Mel cosplay is Sickk!🔥🔥🔥
What a beautiful woman!💎
mel arriving in noxus, the fight between darius (very young) against trundle (from freljord, a region that has borders with noxus) the red-haired girl is katarina (a noxian assassin, from darius's side) fights against elise (the spider, member of the black rose) and the final scene is leblanc and vladimir (the leaders of the black rose) in season 2 of arcane, the woman all in black who looked like a shadow, who talks to mel, is leblanc.
As a tricker myself is amazing that you caught the butterfly kick katarina does.
Thank you! I have lots of martial arts content on my other channel!
IM SO EXCITED FOR NOXUS. fortiche is such an incredibly talented studio. I can never get enough
Also if you want to know more about the Lore I would recommend watching the video from Necrit on the Black Rose.
But a VERY tldr
The figth from the Axe Dude and the troll is something that happened in the past. His name is Darius and he is one of the three leaders of Noxus nowadays. This was one of his battles that made him famous among the soldiers.
Mel is fighting the grey legion. A subgroup of the black rose with undead warriors and blood mages.
The Spider Lady is Elise an assassine for the black rose and the knife Lady is Katarina an assassine for noxus. Katarina also has some connection the the black rose since her daggers work with blood magic but she is not part of the Black Rose. She got sent to kill the dude who is just a noname character.
The "overseer" is LeBlanc who is rumoured to be also one of the three leaders of Noxus. She is OLD, like OLD OLD and a master of deceivers. She and Vladimir founded the Black Rose. She is also the one that trapped Mel in arcane like the shadow lady
the lady at the end is the black rose sorceress in arcane
Leblanc
no, the one in arcane is just a random low value member probably, leblanc wouldn't be defeated by a newly awakened mel, leblanc is practically inmortal (in age terms) and she is probably one of the most powerful character in noxus
@@pokenoobmx3445 that was her clone, so technically it's her.
@@AndromedaSikip damn, i really thought it was some unnamed black rose member
@@pokenoobmx3445 well her clone is considerably weaker than she is in person but is still strong and i think it shows how powerful Mel could be against Black Rose bc her power kinda counters Leblancs in some ways ig not too sure tho since i think there isnt any lore on Mel and her powers and arcane is the only thing that gives us some clues on it
DUDE THE EYE SCENE TRANSITION HOLY MOLY
best reaction ive seen so far!! I thought i would be the only one beeing hyped up about minor things and you found them all
The black rose has 2 leaders, Vladimir a master of blood magic, and Leblanc that we see in Arcane(it was her magic that captured Mel) with illusion and more, they are shown at the end.
14:47 The soldiers Mel is fighting are blood magic powered soldiers, and blood magic mages wich has sayed are Vladimir followers (it's there mainly to show she's fighting the black rose)
The Red hair girl is named Katarina and she's also fighting the Black rose, the half spider girl Elise. She was a noble noxian when she got cursed by a ancient artefact wich turned her into what we see
And for information, no there wont be Arcane S3, the new series will be in the same universe and it seems like it's Noxus. But knowing Arcane and how well Fortiche arrange things, i have no doubt they'll do their best to referance Arcane in there
i think the one who was cursed by some sort of artifact is cassiopeia , elise made a pact with Vilemaw (the spider god from the shadow isles).
@@idirbouchdoug1567 Cassio wasn't exactly an artefact either. She just murdered the last descendent of the shurimian imperial family(sivir) in their crypt and it activated a defense mechanism which attacked her and turned her into it (and triggered azirs resurrection.
@@math-yx3tw maybe i am remembering wrong but wasn't sivir's weapon an artifact and was the key that activated everything in the tomb after cass attacked sivir?
IIRC Vladimir is not THE leader in the Black Rose, but a member of it. LeBlanc mostly controls the entirety of the group. But maybe in Arcane they clarify Vladimir's position
Can't believe Hozier and Mel Medarda are together, what a power couple (I jest)!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this video as an Arcane and animation fan in general, especially your comments on the composition and sound design. On a baseline level I feel that the character design and overall "look" is what people admire about Fortiche, but those first two parts are also something they've mastered and which has helped push their work. Also as someone else has mentioned, the camera work in this cinematic is unbelievable. Really flexing your filmmaking knowledge here!
You've got a new subscriber :)
I wasn't expecting a Stormlight comparison for LeBlanc's wall of drawing, but yes, very Taravangian.
Honestly, i believe Fortiche has taken inspo from Brandon Sanderson, so i wouldnt be surprised if this scene was actually inspired by Taravangian. Still really cool to see!
The axe gets a taste of true ice which is a type of ice that like "godly - demon" beings touched (the watchers of the void). That Ice can only be touched by some special people or beings called the iceborn (like Trundle - the king troll he is fighting); pretty much darius here is accepting unseffurable pain to be able to handle the axe and be able to move it, and probably long term consequences for his arm having experienced the frost of the true ice. Thats the price he has to pay to win. Incredibly badass and incredibly noxian.
NOXUS WILL RISE!
Not all true ice was touched by the watchers, that's only lissandra's black ice(I think that's the name, may be dark ice instead not 100% sure but it's a subcategory of True ice). Normal true ice has no link to the watchers that I am sure of. May be anivia, volibear and ornn or other such deities but not the watcher except for what lissandra and her followers use.
Katarina has an ability in game where she places a dagger and can then jump/teleport to it. You can see it in the cinamtic as well how she jams it into the ground, and although hidden by the pillar, it cuts to her hand-standing on it. I just love it when they include in-game mechanics in these things in a smart and elegant way.
What's so amazing about these animators' giftedness is how they can-with the subtlety of reality-add touches that just connect. You don't super think about it, but you catch it. Like how Mel's walking has taken on a very Ambessa energy. That's subtle but strong and so so there. Like the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment of the assassin's face looking back at her target *while in the fight* like the fight is casual.
Read hair lady: Katarina. An assassin to put it short.
Spider lady: Elise. Part of the black rose.
The main fight was featuring Darius (Noxus commander) and Trundle (Troll king from the Freljord).
Lady at the end is Leblanc, leader of the black rose. The guy is a 'vampire' and blood bender, Vladimir. Also black rose.
Do some research on the lore of all these characters, it's really deep and amazing. Can't wait for next show.
put some respect on my man Darius hes not just a commander he is one of the Trifarix who are the 3 controllers of Noxus as a whole, he represents Might, Swain Represents Vision and Leblanc represents Guile
@@Frijit257 ya i wasn't trying to lore dump on him right there and then :) Keeping it simple lol
@@Frijit257 also Leblanc is all but confirmed to be the illusionist sorceress that wanted Ambessa dead and used Mel for that purpose
@@Frijit257I mean technically he works under Swain more than anything else
@@MrWorld-cq4ps He willingly joined swain.
They are equally as powerful in Noxus hierarchy.They just have different positions , Swain is moreso a Strategist and a politician , while Darius is a military general.
The ending of the duel is so much more badass than most people realize. The blood in the guy's entire arm was literally freezing into ice when he pulled up that axe. The axe was basically cursed by the opponent to freeze everything it touches. If he held the axe a second longer he probably would have died from his heart getting frozen.
Black fingers lady - Le Blanc (the one Ambessa was running from and disguised as Amara in Arcane )
Armor dude - Darius
Troll - Trundle
Red hair girl - Katarina
Spider lady - Elise
White hair guy - Vladimir
They're all champions from the game!
Another detail relating to League gameplay is @7:25 Trundle's 'Q' ability in game is 'Chomp' and when he hops over to Darius after stripping some armor off (also part of Trundle's theme) that's the way Trundle runs in-game.
non league player here. i saw that one of trundles ability in game takes 40 percent of the enemy's armour. and in this cinematic if you count the pieces of armour, you can see after the fight that 40 percent of it is gone. idk if its true tho but it souns amazing.
Riot said there's not gonna be an Arcane season 3, but they mentioned they want the next thing they do to go to either Demacia, Ionia, or Noxus, and this seems like confirmation that it's going to Noxus. They said they wanted to use characters from Arcane to tie into these other regions, so this seems like a perfect way to do it. I don't think Vi and Jinx and Cait will be involved in this, but they could be if they were following the Black Rose threads. I interpret the ending of Arcane as being Jinx on the airship, since back in episode 1 we get Powder saying she'd ride one of those one day and the final shot is almost identical to that scene.
May be if we're lucky, we get noxus and ionia at once in the invasion, although if this cinematic is a trailer of sort it would seem to be more about the establishment of the trifarix and noxian political strife against the black rose. that would pose some timeline issue tho because it would completely jump over any possibility of swain delivering chemical weapons to noxus, which can't be retconned without affecting the story of riven's desertion and through it that of Yasuo with his master likely not dying the way he does unless they find Riven another reason to desert strong enough to be realistic for a noxian aristocrat who grew up in that culture of war without ever questioning it.
@math-yx3tw remember, tho riot recently said that arcane is the new primary canon, and instead of overhauling the lore all at once, they're just gonna change things over time, so the show has the freedom to retcon and change timelines freely if it suits the narrative better. So far they've done a great job.
i appreciate you appreciating the transitions!! especially the eye to birds-eye view of the danceroom!! The sound design IS fantastic, you can hear the wind breaking when the troll swings because he's SO large, you can hear and FEEL that duel I love it so much!!
So with the assassin (Katarina) with the dagger, you notice she places one on the floor before jumping over Elise (Spide lady), then theres that wipe behind the pillar which seems like a transition, but what actually happens is when she places a dagger in the game, she can then instantly dash to one thats on the floor and thats how that happens but it would probs looks funny animated hence why they hid the dash with the pillar and it just looks so cool. Also Elise has 2 forms which she switches between in game but idk the lore on that.
for elise lore , the tl;dr to it is she is a noxian noblewoman who due to certain circumstances ended up in the shadow isles and made a pact with a spider god there that turned her into what she is and gave her immortality in exchange for bringing him a consistent supply of human sacrifices .
She was later recruited to the black rose because unlike most people she can go in and out of the shadow isles freely and the black rose use her as a foothold on the shadow isles to get access to all the magical artifacts there .
@ ah interesting ty ty
The red hair woman is Katarina, an assassin and if you notice after she kills the man you see coins fly out instead of blood which I assume represent her completing her kill contract.
The spider woman is Elise a member of the black rose, but in this trailer she's acting more like a bodyguard to the target and once Katarina successfully kills her target she grins at Elise in a provocative manner, you also see Elise completely uncaring that her charge was killed and turning back into her real form just standing there in an non hostile manner. Adding all these small hints together I assume the assassination was a test set by the black rose for Katarina.
Seems like Leblanc uses Elise to test Katarina's ability.
Lore enjoyer here.
- The redheaded woman is Katarina, one of the oldest characters in League of Legends, been around since the beginning. She is an assassin who is often in conflict with The Black Rose, the organization Ambessa was running from in Arcane. Most likely, she was hired to kill that random guy who was being protected by the spider lady, and infiltrated the party to do so.
- The spider lady is named Elise. She is one of the most prominent members of The Black Rose, and was likely there to try to trap and kill Katarina, with the random man being bait. Right before Kat's first appearance, it shows a figure being drawn on that weird magic tapestry thing, then when Elise deflects her first shot, we go back to the tapestry and see that same figure being surrounded by a giant spider-esque shape.
- The guy fighting the big blue troll is Darius. He is known as 'The Hand of Noxus' and he's the strongest warrior in the land. It looks like Noxus is launching some sort of invasion into Freljord (the northern/arctic region of the world) based on the snowy mountains in the back, and they're being contested by the trolls. I think you hit the nail on the head with what's happening, Darius probably challenged the troll to single combat to decide the fate of the armies.
- The big blue troll is Trundle. He's the king of the frost trolls, who live in Freljord and serve the ice witch, Lissandra. The most special thing going on with him is his ice club. Trundle's club is made of something called True Ice. True Ice is a magical type of Ice that can only be handled by people called Iceborn, people who have a specific genetic marker. For non-Iceborn people, even touching True Ice can be fatal. So when Darius chopped into the club, his axe began to freeze and was coated in a thin layer of True Ice. When he picked it back up to win the fight, he may have permanently damaged his arm, and he narrowly avoided death. He probably survived because it was only a small amount of ice, and because it didn't touch his skin directly, but we do see the frost creeping up his arm and even into his neck, so it was a close thing.
- The two people at the end are Leblanc and Vladimir. They are the two leaders of The Black Rose, though Leblanc is the real mastermind. They appear to be plotting their next move, and Vlad suggests going after the 'opportunity' that has washed up on their shores. After which, the tapestry comes into focus, showing the wolf with the Medarda clan symbol, indicating he means Mel. Leblanc wants to push forward with another plan, something to do with that sword-shaped image on the tapestry. Vlad's reaction to it could indicate that Leblanc is planning something with the Darkin.
- The Darkin are ancient warriors who, through an arcane ritual, had ascended to near godhood to fight against The Void. After the war with The Void, the Darkin went a little crazy and conquered a bunch of the world, including the kingdom Vlad came from. He was a prince who was taken as a hostage to ensure cooperation, and his Darkin master is where he learned his blood magic, which he uses to make himself basically immortal. Eventually the Darkin were sealed away with the help of the celestial gods. Their souls were sealed inside their own weapons and the weapons scattered and hidden away. Whenever any living being tries to hold a Darkin weapon, the Darkin can attempt to take over their body and return to the world. A common piece of Darkin imagery is eyeballs on the weapons, which the sword on the tapestry might have.
- The tapestry sword also looks similar to Riven's sword so it could be a reference to her. She is another champion from Noxus, and a fan favourite one at that, but Vlad's reaction makes me think Darkin is more likely.
is Trundle Dies?
@redcecrossans2189 Hard to say, it looks like two trolls are carrying him away after the fight, so he might still be alive. Trolls do have powerful natural healing factors.
@@matthewpelletier6900 ok ty mate
@@redcecrossans2189 I think Trundle could be seen breathing after Darius struck him down. Just knocked out I believe
@@redcecrossans2189 I don't think so you can clearly hear the sound of something knocking rather than cutting and the image seems to show him get hit by the side of the axe. Darius probably just knocked him out there. besides he's a game character so I don't think they'd kill him in some random cinematic just to show that Darius is strong.
We saw Mel at the end of Arcane, and now we get to see the beginning of her adventure. It’s magnificent!
In the cinematic, we see characters from League of Legends and Arcane.
At the beginning, Mel from Arcane appears. She is not yet in the game but will be added soon (she’s already available on the public beta server - PBE).
Darius: The man with the axe is a commander of the Noxian military. He has a brother, Draven, who has appeared in other League of Legends cinematics.
Trundle: A troll wielding an ice club, he is the King of Trolls from Freljord.
Elise: Known as the Spider Lady, Elise can transform into a massive spider, as seen on the ceiling. She is from Noxus.
Katarina: The masked woman is a renowned Noxian assassin.
LeBlanc: A woman with black hair and golden eyes, LeBlanc is one of the leaders of the Black Rose.
Vladimir: The white-haired man who appears at the end is a master of hemomancy, a type of magic that manipulates blood. This ability has rendered him effectively immortal.
Riot has named it the 2025 Season Cinematic, but it also appears to serve as an introduction to the continuation of Arcane in the land of Noxus. It seems that the game and the Arcane series will be more interconnected moving forward, especially since the upcoming League of Legends season is themed around Noxus.
(Sorry for the mistakes english isn't my first language...)
Finally a good reaction to the teaser for the upcoming show. Love your reactions mate, keep them coming. :)
You can see at 12:06 that she cuts her assassination victim midfight with a spider lady
yep. one would think they showed coins just to censor the blood, but it could also symbolize that she's earned her bounty, thus the coins.
Wasn't that freaking amazing?! Ugh I'm looking forward to the Noxus show. I am so excited!
In Blood sweat and tears musical clip Ambessa steped on exactly the same beach as Mel here btw
i wish he noticed that. its an amazing shot.
Elise is the "spider lady" as you called her, she is a champion from league of legends, she's my main and her lore is actually pretty cool. Her character is kind of a bit of a play on the idea of the "Black Widow" or Femme Fatale archetype, as she actually can turn into one. She was originally just a normal noblewoman of house Kythera, who attained a higher position w/ her betrothal to a stronger house (house Zavaan) and she seduced her husband and effectively took control of all of the affairs of his house, he grew resentful and poisoned her, but she killed him and found the antidote on his body. Then she was approached by LeBlanc of the black rose, and joined them. In an attempt to gain favor within the Black Rose, she set upon a quest to try and recover an artifact of importance to the group that was on the Shadow Isles. Which is where her group befell a terrible fate, they stumbled upon an ancient evil, the Spider God Vilemaw, and they were promptly destroyed except for Elise who was instead transformed by a venomous bite from Vilemaw. Whom she now serves, she lures unsuspecting people to the Shadow Isles to feed to Vilemaw using her influence and coercive capabilities.
She has a human form, a spider form, and a half-and-half form. I love the character a lot and I was super happy to see her in a cinematic (as she's never been in one prior). Especially with how well they nailed her unsettling nature. Thank you for your analysis of the scenes
Ok so the basics:
in the mel arc, she travels into noxus after finding one arch. On her way she contests the grey order, soldiers revived by the black rose's hemomancers (blood mages) to become zombies essentially. The arches contain depictions of important people and moments in noxian history, including the founding and story of house medarda. It is speculated that these pillars are critical of ambessa, a thief and someone who once cheated kindred using a pre birthed mel to become the chosen of the wolf. Also she was the sole survivor of the noxian invasion of ionia shown in blood sweat and tears, which is seen as taboo in noxus.
the 'spider lady' is elise, a character who differs slightly from the game. in the cinematic she is presented as a guest to the dance, where the black rose try to recruit members who have power in other regions. The girl fighting her is katarina de courteau, an assassin sent by swain, the grand general of noxus, representing vision. Side note(s): swain didnt send katarina to fight elise, just to assassinate the man. katarina is bound by blood to her blades, allowing her to almost instantly move toward them at any moment. The three eyed crow at the end of arcane is swain's scout
the man who fights the troll is darius, one of the three leaders of noxus, who represents strength. This is a younger version of him fighting trundle, the troll king. the reason his axe freezes is that the club that trundle wields is true ice, created by lissandra, a mage who basically has semi-godly powers. Side note: trundle is not dead
the 'eye' belongs to leblanc, the leader of the black rose, who is a first class illusionist mage rumoured to be the third leader of noxus, representing guile. She is able to see anything happening in noxus, and draws it on the wall. The man talking to her at the end is Vladimir, the secondary leader of the black rose, who is a first class hemomancer leading the grey order. Side note(s): the wolf leblanc draws is the symbol of house medarda. more specifically their relationship with kindred, the god of death. the blade is katarina. the odd symbol is the crest of leadership in noxus, representing darius. the spider is elise.
Just found this video on my recommended, enjoyed this veery much you pieced together some of the stuff I wasn't sure about in it
to note they said as arcane season 2 ended they are working on noxus (what we have here) demacia and i cant remember if it was ionia or the freljord. so yea they will be going all over runeterra cause i doubt that will be it.
Something I'm not sure you pick up on in this video: the woman with the golden eyes (Leblanc) is the shapeshifting sorceress from Mel's arc in Arcane Season 2. That's why she brings up the events in Piltover as something that her faction (The Black Rose) was involved with.
Oh, I thought Mel defeated her!
@@PhilipHarts That's basically correct. It's speculated that her (LeBlanc's) goal was ultimately to take control of Mel, and not Ambessa (who was just a means to an end). Mel would be an incredible asset to LeBlanc and co. due to her apparently broken magic ability. Obviously LeBlanc failed in that respect, as they note in the last shot.
@@PhilipHartsLeblanc can not die . She is thousands of years old . Her clones are spread in the entire league of legends universe , disguised as powerfull people in every region , like for example , Amaara in arcane . What Mel destroyied was just one of Leblanc's many clones.
@@PhilipHarts It's one of her many clones that got destroyed. LeBlanc specializes in illusion magic, and her illusory clones, while much weaker than her actual self, are so sophisticated they can interact with the physical world and act independently of her.
@@PhilipHarts She defeated one of her many clones. If you noticed, in the series her shadow clone had typical human fingers but here, her fingers are shadowy.
I love the little shots - like the medium close up of Katarina when her eyes briefly dart to her target and sees him get up, and then quickly darts back to the fight. Very small story telling
“Does anyone know Stormlight Archive?” I just finished Wind and Truth like 15 min ago.
7:43 It's interesting they made a shot like this with the imperfections from a real camera man. It looks like a cameraman running towards the action, not holding the camera still, and adjusting the focus.
1:59 someone said its the same bg Ambessa stood on at the end of “Blood sweat and tears”. And maybe its another detail that Ambessa is looking out into the ocean, but here Mel is looking towards Noxus.
Lady at the end is Leblanc - this may be her true form. She was the mage that trapped Mel - she is the leader of the Black Rose.
The gold coins flying from the JUICY shutdown.
stormlight reference caught me off guard. Love to see another storming fan!
Like how they forshadowed Elise by making the mask having 8 faces in the shot right before she is revealed. Such a nice Detail
little frenchy tip :the plan at 2:00 is base from étretat a city near the sea who is know for is cliff, you get the same angle on the beach.
Came for the great reaction, stayed for the Stormlight Archive Reference! Loved the video! Would die for a Stormlight Archive or Mistborn Series from animators like this
Can you imagine!! Would be a dream!
i think the scene Katarina have many reflections is the transformation of Elise from human to the huge spider. Masterpiece !
Trundle biting in darius armor and ripping a part from it is like his ultimate skill in the game where he steals armor from his enemies. Same with kata teleporting tox̌ her blade, its also her skill from the game
The lady with the golden eyes is the "deciever" as mel calls her and she is the leader of the black rose. The actual playable characters are those who are mainly focused on. This cinematic is both new season of league of legends as well as season 3 teaser
i wish they would do a movie series instead of netflix series, i need this in the cinema
The League characters shown in this are Mel (she's just got added to the test servers and will be added to live ones soon), Darius (axe dude), Trundle (the ice troll), Katarina (redhead assassin), Elise (spider lady), Leblanc (epilogue girl), and Vladimir (epilogue guy). The shore that Mel landed on is the ancestral seat for House Medarda (it's also shown in Ambessa's video) so while it was the whole looking forward to the future, it was all about her homecoming too. The next time we see Mel she's heading to the arches (called Noxtoraa, they're league's play on "All roads lead to Rome," except all the Noxtoraa lead to the capital of Noxus) that show Noxian history, also emphasizing her homecoming feeling until she has her vision where she's attacking the Immortal Bastion (palace in the capital). She's specifically fighting the Black Rose because the soldiers shown are zombies called the Gray Legion which is one of the Black Rose's secret forces and she's also attacked by the blood mages, also one of their secrets. We don't know who Katarina is assassinating, but we do know where she is. It's a ball thrown by the Black Rose to invite strong people from around the world for recruitment. Katarina wasn't invited and instead was sent to the party by Swain (another character and one of the three rulers of Noxus) to draw out the Black Rose which is why you can see her smiling once Elise reveals her spider form. The Darius/Trundle fight is pretty much just to show a fight and doesn't expand much on lore - Darius already has a lot of stories of him invading Freljord (northern area of the continent covered in ice) but because of the banners he's showing and his young appearance, it's inferred that this is before he becomes one of the three rulers of Noxus and he's just some general there. For the epilogue we see Leblanc doing her monitoring and is approached by Vladimir (they're the co-founders of the Black Rose and both have lived far longer than Noxus has existed). Vladimir offers Mel as their new weapon to fight Mordekaiser (founder of Noxus who pretty much was too angry to die and instead became a god of the death realm and has been amassing power for over a thousand years to attack the living - the black rose's entire goal is to prevent that but they also do a lot of shady stuff) and Leblanc looks towards a new symbol. There's theories about what or who it would be but considering it's a weapon with an eye, it's hinting towards the Darkin (demi-gods that wield blood magic and were also the ones who taught Vladimir his magic - there was also a massive war called the Darkin wars before the founding of Noxus that ended when the Darkin were sealed within weapons and they're only reborn when someone tries to wield one of them) it would also make sense for Vladimir to be so flustered if it was the Darkin because he was pretty much just a toy for them.
would highly recommend that you watch the other cinematic, blood sweat and tears, and also read up on the league lore to learn. lots of references and lore sweet meats in this cinematic
just a bit of inside info from a league player, the giant/troll is trundle the troll king. his ultimate ability in game is he steals 40% armor of his opponent for a brief amount of time and slows everything down. if u look closely he rips down exactly 4 piece of armor from darius (the guy with the big axe) . the resemblance is amazing .
8:41 - The sound design is by Riot, not Fortiche even in Arcane. I agree, Riot Games' sound design is one of the best, if not the best.
I'm assuming someone already told you but Leblanc (gold eye character from the end) is in arcane as "The Deceiver" (black shadowy shapeshifter who kidnaps and imprisons Mel with the red and black chains). She's a mastermind controlling the government from behind the scenes with clones of herself as other people.
9:42 I really love the camera effect where it runs to the action
If you look at 04:23 in 0.25 speed (yes even then its hard to miss) the moment Elise (with the red Mask) spits her venom towards Katarina and the camera zooms in, you can see that she has not one but three pupilles, which is another part of her spideresque features, the amount of detail in this is off the charts , at 13:25 its sadly hard to see cause of the reflection, but if you go frame by frame you can determine a small dot in the top left corner of her iris which is her second one
oh wow, didn't expect a stormlight reference in a random reaction video wow
Seeing the video I felt it was really electric, and special.
This cinematic is beautiful and just SO powerful. It is, technically speaking, a League of Legends trailer, not an "Arcane's successor series" trailer, but... I would be really surprised if it didn't tie in with Arcane's successor. Now, Mel isn't the only one here that we saw in Arcane. The woman with the black fingers is LeBlanc... the mastermind of The Black Rose. Remember the shadowy figure that Mel spoke with, who had those markings trailing down from their eyes, and look at LeBlanc's makeup at the end there. As for what Mel is heading toward, I'm pretty certain that she's going after The Black Rose just like she promised. Also, you saw the lone warrior with the axe and the assassin with the daggers in the A New Dawn cinematic from 2014! I love how it all ties back together!
Also, one of the figures that LeBlanc is 'painting' ... I'm pretty sure is a representation of the Wolf. We already know about Mel's association with the Wolf from Blood Sweat and Tears, and Arcane. I'm really excited to see her story continue!
You nailed exactly how I felt about Elise's entrance (spider lady) - the contortionist, inhuman movements just absolutely freaked me out in the best possible way, even as a major arachnophobe! LOVE Aliya's Mel cosplay; now subscribed to both of you!
18:14 I LOVE THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE!!!!
The ''arcane'' energy was getting himself almost killed by the frost magic of the club that got a hold of his axe. It wasn't a power up it was all Darius fight for survival.
At 15:25 Katarina's smile to me looked more like a "I killed my target and you couldn't stop me" more than "This was a good fight". She killed her target while fighting Elise, which for me makes it the best shot of the video, she killed him right before the transition.
I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable on the deeper lore (at least not of Noxus and it's characters) so I'll let the more well-equipped loremasters cook, but I gotta say I was eager to see your breakdown & insight on this cinematic's scenes, your content really reveals the deeper layers to cinematics, especially Riot content, and I can't wait to see more from you, Phil!
10:43 seeing her Roman inspired cloak makes me think she's the daughter of Pantheon/Atreus(since the Targonians have connections to the Solari i.e Leona, etc). That or her father is part of the Solari clan(since it will explain her powers)
Red haired lady with the mask: Katarina, Noxian asassin.
spider woman:
Elsie
at the end
the black haired woman is LeBlanc she is "the deciver"
white haired man: Vladimir, he is a blood mage if im right
Dude is literally married to a Mel. Lucky sonova-
0:50 If you wanna play a game on your own: just play Legends of Runeterra. U get all the pretty art, descriptions, voicelines, fun gameplay and no competitive kids with anger management issues and inferiority complexes
11:57
Yes, the characters are:
Mel, Darius (Axe Guy) One of the 3 leaders of Noxus, Trundle (King of Trolls, ice trolls specifically), Katarina (Noxian Assassine), (Lady) Elise - the spider Lady and a member of the Black Rose, LeBlanc - Leader of the Black Rose, Vladimir - Camovorian Prince sent to Noxus cuz politics, was able to learn Hemomancy and is now basically Dracula and also a member of the Black Rose
14:49 very long lore story short:
Underneath the Immortal Bastian (center of Noxus), there isa formor warlord who now has become the god of death (there are different kinds of dead and undead in LoL, kinda complicated) of some sort sealed by the Black Rose. He is a threat to the whole world tho so the blackrose gathers strong individual (sometimes through questionable means) and items in order to prepare for his - Mordekaiser - reemergence. What you see there looks to be Hemomancy mages who guard the place he is sealed (respectively his armor, which is also his physical form).
So ignorant Mel might actually accidentally unseal Mordekaiser by trying to defeat the black rose. RIP world.
18:02 yes, the Black Rose nowadays Orchestrates any big event in the world, or at least is somehow involved. All for the sake of gaining power.
19:14 there is no Arcane Season 3 XD 2 was the final season. This is just the start of the year cinematic - we get one every year - to hype up the new year (season) for the game. We also get lore. So I'd argue, rather than adapting the game stuff 1:1 or the other way around, they will weave back and forth. So in order to get "the complete story" youll have to be active in all media. Show and games, events and cinematics. Motion comics, voice lines etc.
21:41 since you were pausing on that frame for so long i couldn't help but notice... the body underneath her clothing. can even see the ass crack
The red hair girl was Katarina, sent to assassinate the random dude. In the 'dance' with the spider lady, at the end, you can see her swipe her blade across the random guy's throat. The easter-egg is that you see gold coins, like he had a bounty on his head, like in league of legends. The smirk she gives under the 8 segmented eye view is a 'hah, i still killed my prey, you lost' smirk, as Elise retreats to the ceiling. It was a trap, they lured Katarina there to see what she can do, and she performed well, so she got to join them, in theory.
Loved the Stormlight Archives reference!
My theory: The next season of league animation (will not be arcane, but a sequel) is almost confirmed to be about noxus and since the lore is being unified this year between the games and animations, a huge element on the world of Runeterra is The Void. Darius, the guy fighting Trundle, the ice troll, is taking Noxus' army up north to Freljord, the ice lands, and in Freljord there's a bridge in which an ancient evil is trapped in true ice, that ice magic that freezes Darius' axe. That ancient evil is called The Watchers and the symbol Le blanc, lady with golden eyes, is looking at remembers me A LOT of their iconography from Legends of Runeterra and some other lore pieces. When Le Blanc says they must be bolder and Vladmir says THAT is going too far, it's because THEY KNOW that messing with the void could be the end of the world because the void creatures only know how to devour, assimilate and destroy. They want Runeterra to not exist anymore and the last time someone from Runeterra tried to use the void to win their battles, it was in Icathia and Icathia doesn't exists anymore, it is now just a giant gate for and from the void.
The graceful dancer is Katarina. She is quite literally a blade dancer assassin in game. Well done!
Funfact, the Beach mel arrived is the same beach ambessa fought on in her music video
League is a FANTASTIC game to play with friends. You and four buddies hop in, have a good time, strive to better yourselves, and win or lose have a good time.
The problem with league is when you play solo. You will often experience toxic random teammates who dont try to win, blame you for anything that goes wrong in a game, and are overall abrasive and difficult to get along with.
I strongly believe the game is only fun with friends
14:53 They are Vladimir's followers sorta, but they're a special group within the Black Rose. See them as undead hemomancy mages
Did you notice that the beach where the Mel starts is the same that Ambessa ends in the music video Sweat, Blood an Tears? They are both in the same place, but facing the opposite directions. Ambessa is looking at the ocean, away from Noxus, while Mel is facing toward the continent.
btw this cinematic (especially mel's part) is connected to the ambessa cinematic because at the end of ambessa cinematic we end up on her pregnant on a beach and with this one we start with mel exaclty were ambessa was standing but facing opposite directions telling one story ends just so another could begin, love the small detail Fortiche is giving us (and btw love your content)
Play the game man I have been playing since season 1 and when see your champs in this cinematic the emotions are so great it brings tears to your eyes.
In the words of Victor ''Embrace the glorious evolution!!''
A good Mel cosplay. I'll be damned. You are one lucky bastard.
One of Katarina's moves in the game lets her teleport back to an enemy or ally and also to a blade she left behind.
The very first close-in shot of Mel, at the beach, looked like Mel. The very last close-in shot of Mel, as she walked away from the arch, looked so much like Ambessa. That determination, and look, like she's becoming Ambessa.
I didn't catch it the first few times, but I noticed during this review that Katarina successfully killed her target right before Elise transformed into the giant spider.
The character are:
Mel: you know her.
Katarina: the red-haired assassin with daggers. She is Noxian, quite self confident.
Elise: the spider mistress. She works for Leblanc. Her true form is the giant spider.
Darius: The warrior general with the huge axe. Here is probably when he was young.
Trundle: The ice troll. His club is magical. The ice is so cold that kill who touch it if it is not born with special magic, called iceborns.
Leblanc: the sorceress that see everything from afar. She IS the Black Rose, the enemy of Ambessa and Mel.
Vladimir: the vampire-like noble near to Leblanc.
All the others are NPCs, including the guy killed by Katarina. The guys that Mel fought in her vision were undead soldiers (grey legion), and blood mages, which are ruled by Vladimir, which is a strong ally of the Black Rose.
The Woman you see at the end is "Leblanc", Chier of the black Rose and you already see her in Arcane. She is the one who discussed with Mel etc etc
I'm surprised with all that "bookend" talk you didn't notice the bookend scene for the troll nation fight with Darius. How when he first approaches the field, we are heading /to/ that fight with him and see the ruler/champion standing there looking at us in a VERY iconic pose.... inviting us- as you said earlier- to come along for the fight. Then after the fight you have Darius where the troll champion was, now looking at the rest of the tribe /leaving/ the fight as Darius now strikes the same, self-assured pose, but with his back to us, and us looking over his shoulder to the retreating army.
Stories, within stories, within stories.... and then we get the final capstone at the end with that little piece of dialog and we realize that Mel, Darius, that troll champion and also Elise (spider lady) and the red-headed assassin (who I've forgotten the name of) are all just pawns; pieces on a board to these other two people (Vladimir and LaBlanc?) and the black rose people.
And all of that in only five minutes. *chef kiss*
That first shot with mel is a real place in France btw. Just look up Etretat cliffs.