Filmmaker Reacts: World of Warcraft - Burning Crusade Cinematic
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Cinematic Trailer Reaction ! Subscribe for more and follow my twitch to discuss live!
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Been playing a Blood Elf Paladin since TBC actually lol!
Druid for life
I’ve been playing hunter as my main for over 8 years now
ATM jumping between my Dracthyr Evoker, Void Elf Hunter, Void Elf Warlock, and Human Monk.
Pally 😅
When you get to the "Battle for Azeroth" expansion you HAVE to also watch the side cinematics that tell a huge story about the game and a beautifully done. They're called "Old Soldier", "Lost Honor", "Safe Haven", and "Varok Saurfang's Mak'gora".
It'll help you understand the lore and the visuals and storytelling is incredible.
And the War with in’s new trailer too
ua-cam.com/play/PL8169E0880E832896.html here is a Play list with ALL the HD cinematics from world of warcraft
Yes, please add those, they are real cinematics even if they aren't expansion trailers
@@krim7 He started with the war within cinematic before he started from the beginning.
Varok Saurfang's Mak'gora - it's all BFA cinematics in one.
The voice actor for Illidan (Liam O'Brien) is one of the most famous (and best) voice actors of all time. He conveys so well the hurt and Hatred in Illidan.
He was also the voice of Vincent Law in Ergo Proxy. I loved that series!
Illidan and Arthas (both Boss enemies you fight in game depending on expansion) were such a struggle for people, they wanted them both to have redeemable story arcs since they both ended up villains because of "good intentions" wrong way to go about it though, type story lines. Most the Villains that started out as regular people of their race, bliz did a good job of fleshing out their story, even the ones who are not really Main Villain leads will pop up before they become a problem for the player maybe, expansions later. lol.
I, honestly, can't wait for you to review the Litch King cinematic. It was so epic, and it was the trailer for WoW's most successful expansion.
and WoD. both are great
God I miss wrath.
Legion was the best expansion, WOTLK is second
I went to the comments to say this same thing. I think the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic is the best by far. However, I think that's the case because Arthas/Lich King is my fav character. So maybe it just hits different for me and other big lore buffs. If you don't have a connection to the character it will probably still be a good cinematic, but maybe not THE best.
Yes, the expansion that saw an almost 10% increase in player base! Obviously much more impressive than the ~100% increase in TBC. Vanilla was awesome, TBC was epic although a little grindy, and WotLK was decent but made me never want to come back again. Truly the beginning of the end
so that's illidan Stormrage. the first two expansions focus on characters from warcraft 3, which really set the core for world of warcraft. he's a night elf who was imprisoned for 10,000 years, freed during world of warcraft to fight the burning legion, which are demonic invaders. he, however, fights the burning legion by taking their power and using it. he was originally imprisoned for doing just that, taking the power the demons sought, and actually almost playing a double agent role, working with the demons to be gifted power. And when he was freed, he went and absorbed the power of an artifact called the Skull of Gul'dan, which, if you played warcraft 1 and 2, might ring a bell, as it's literally gul'dans skull imbued with all of his demonic fel power. This is why and how he has hooves, wings, horns, and a demonic visage. The glowing tattoos and blindfold come from the first time he was gifted demonic powers from Sargeras.
This is a SUPER cliff notes version, however. Warcraft 3 has much more lore, actually delivered through cinematics, some of which are, believe it or not, approaching this level.
Also the voice actor for Illidan in WoW is Liam O'brien! absolutely iconic.
The Purple character with the gigantic amethyst hammer is a Dreanei Paladin. Dreanei are natives to the planet you go through in that portal (sort of, that's deeper lore but technically they were refugees even back then) Dreanei are a new faction to Burning Crusade.
The next is a Blood Elf Sorceress, also a new playable species. They are the remnants of what used to be the high elves, who were destroyed by a faction that will come into focus next expansion. The High elves were actually magic addicts, supported by the Sunwell, destoryed during Warcraft 3, and blood elves are high elves who've had to turn to alternatives to feed their addiction, like the blood elf we see feeding on that Mana Wyrm, and with green eyes instead of blue to signify they have fed heavily upon fel magic instead of arcane.
Some additional lore--the portal goes to another planet known as Outland. However, outland used to be Draenor, which is the planet that the Orcs and Ogres originated from, and invaded from in Warcraft 1 and 2. That portal IS the dark portal from warcraft 1 and 2--Illidan Stormrage, however, made his way there during warcraft 3, and took it from the fel orcs and demonic overlords that now rule over the broken world. Broken after Ner'zhul, in warcraft 2, shattered the planet trying to create portals to escape through....
nice summary!
It's a Blood Elf Priest tho. She literally ressurects the dude.
@@Fusso There's no such thing as a Blood Elf Sorceress in WoW so that part's wrong. The cinematic isn't particularly true to class, we do see her resurrect the Orc which only a Priest could do, but then a few shots later we see her use a Fire spell which only a Mage, not a Priest, could do.
Edit: After watching it again, I'm going to say that the AOE spell she casts later on is Holy Nova, so unquestionably a Priest, not a Mage.
@@sylviawylie9218 I believe it's a holy nova, not a fire spell
@@sylviawylie9218 sorceresses are another word for priest, also they are literally a blood elf unit in warcraft 3. But yes the rez makes it seem like a priest
If I'm remembering this correctly, Blizzard have stated in the past that some of the characters in this video are supposed to be the same as we saw in the previous one - but way more experienced and battle-hardened. Like that undead warlock, or the mage applying a sheep spell. They wanted to showcase that those characters, much like the players themselves, have been on an incredible journey so far. I also like the fact that they flipped each respective reveal of the two new races on its head in an interesting way: the noble, blessed paladin steps out from the shadows, while the beautiful and elegant blood elf acts rather sinister, unexpectedly. That was very much a conscious design decision.
About you noticing that something feels a little off @07:11 - you're absolutely right. The earlier cinematics, from what I've gathered watching some "behind the scenes" material that was on the collector's edition DVDs, weren't as technically advanced as the later ones. They took quite a lot of shortcuts and "cheated" here and there, for example: many of the background elements aren't really 3D models or renders, but more like matte paintings. That's of course then becoming a limiting factor for how much you can do in terms of parallax etc.
Context:
The guy talking, show at the end with the skull, is Illidan Stormrage, a night elf, who in order to save his people, absorbed demonic power from the skull of a very powerful warlock, but then, because he dared to use demonic power, was shunned by his people, thrown into prision, to then escape, and flee through a portal to another world, a ruined world known now as "Outland"
The blue guy is Maraad, a space alien from a race known as Draenei. His race is aligned with the Light, and he is a Paladin, a holy warrior that can use the light to cast holy spells. In fact, the spell he casted on himself is a "blessing", a spell that increases his attributes,.
The blond girl is an elf, more specificaly, a Blood Elf. They are addicted to magic, and they often have to suck it from other creatures.. what she did in the scene was to suck all the magic from that magic creature, effectively killing her.
Then you see an Orc fighting Nagas. Nagas are a cursed race that once were elfs, but now are these acuatic snake people. Then you see briefly a Troll riding a raptor.
The next scene, our friend Maraad is killing some undead.
In the next scene, the orc falls from the wounds, and the blood elf, which class is a priest, aka a healer, revives him.
Then we see a human mage turning a Tauren, that minotaur-like race from the 1st cinematic, into a sheep with an spell.-
The next scene, an undead warlock burns a bunch of murlock, fish-like creatures, using a spell called Hellfire, which fun fact, used to hurt the caster as well.
Back fo the blood elf priest casting Holy Nova, a spell that would hurt enemies and heal allies.
Finaly shot with Illidan looking into a skull, a call back to when he absorbed the power from the Skull of Gul'dan. (fun fact, in lore it is said that he kept the skull and would talk to it often. but that was a rumor started by the game devs) then flying up, showing his famous weapons, the Warglaives of Azzinoth, letting us know, once again, that we were not prepared!
The drenei and blood elf were featured in the trailer because they were new playable races in this expansion. And the blood elf was using a racial skill that would allow them to absorb essence from some creatures to power their magic. It's a part of their lore, but they've since removed that skill and replaced it with something else .
They didn’t remove arcane torrent. They just redesigned it from silencing AND removing magic effect to removing a magic effect and granting resources.
Mainly because removing a buff AND silencing the pc is absolutely broken.
Draining creatures for magic is still possible even if it’s not a spell
@@VelvetSkyye I recall the original design was to steal mana. I started the game late BC and blayed a belf mage and running out of mana so fast, but the spell would recover some mana. The mana worms around the starting city (I can't remember now, I've been playing alliance now for over 15 years) wouldn't aggro so you could drag a mob over to them and use them to extend your mana pool.
@@VelvetSkyyeoriginally blood elves had two active racial abilities: mana tap and arcane torrent - mana tap would syphon a bit of mana from the target and grant you a stack, arcane torrent would consume the stacks of mana tap to generate resources and silence/interrupt cast everything around you
they got rid of mana tap in WotLK and changed arcane torrent to not require stacks of mana tap, then reworked arcane torrent in BfA to no longer silence/interrupt but remove magical buffs from enemies
The voice of Illidan, the one with the horns and wings, is Liam O'Brien and he is one of my favorite voice actors!
Art Dad himself.
All hail Illi-daddy Liam! Liam O'Brien was the perfect choice for Illidan Stormrage, so much intensity and I'll be glad for his return!
Long time Warcraft fan; just recentlly fell in love with Vox Machina and Criticall Roll... and Liam, of course. I just find this video and I'm like...Liam?? Fucking Vax was Illidan ALL THIS TIME??? XDDDD Now all makes sense... XDDDD
new illidan is MUCH better voice actor . He also voices yasuo in league . No comparison, legion illidan IS badass
@@arthasmenethil5748 is it not the same voice actor? I thought Liam has been the voice since BC
Do not miss animated series. You may want to watch them in chronological order too. There were a series for an expansion since Mists of Pandaria.
Also there are a lot of really amazing cutscenes on game engine worth checking. Like Wrathgate, Broken Shore, Found memento, Rejection of the Gift... Latter features Illidan from this trailer, but they are really far from each other in timeline.
@AkridianRU is correct. Though I would almost consider them animatics or like animated storyboards or something, as opposed to an animated series. But yes:
Philip, each of the WoW expansions have their own supporting videos:
- Mists of Pandaria expansion has "The Burdens of Shaohao"
- Warlords of Draenor has a series called "Lords of War"
- Legion has a series called "Harbingers"
- Battle for Azeroth, has a main series of cinematic videos, but also has supporting material called "Warbringers"
- Shadowlands has a series called "Afterlives".
- Dragonflight has "Legacies".
Hope this helps.
Liam O'Brien is the voice actor and probably among my favorite American VA's . He has done voices such as War from the Darksiders games and Akihiko from Persona 3 just to name a couple but he has many many voice roles he has done in TV and gaming. He also is one of the players in the D&D group Critical Role
After being with this game for the last 20 years, and having these cinematics etched into my mind's eye... having someone point out that the sunlight actually goes out during the shot of the blood elf absorbing the mana wyrm... something I don't think I've really thought about, but what a great integral part of that shot! Your filmmaker eye is honed to a razor edge and I love these analyses! I'm in for this journey.
13:27 You'll see this same scenery again in one of the Battle for Azeroth trailers that were made about 12 years after this. Its a good way to compare how the technology improves. The region in the background is called Nagrand and its the ancestral homeland of the Orcs
The blood elf absorbing mana, like you said they have a dark and sinister side to them, they as a race are addicted to the magic and develop a ability to absorb magic, sometimes absorbing darker kinds of magic like fel and later void magic. It all crazy.
Well. Little correction.
All elven races process ability to absorb and feed on magic.
This is due to highborn ancestry and well of eternity.
Blood elves become too addicted to Sunwell, which is why lossing it cause them to feed on anything they find magical.
Illidan, the voice speaking to you and you see him at the end. Is the anti-hero of WoW, ultimately has many of the same goals as the player but is willing to do whatever to achieve them and is put at odds with the players because of it. He's one of the more beloved characters of the franchise.
About Illidan’s backstory and imprisonment, besides all the lore we had from the original RTS, it’s been clarified and given another perspective in WoW’s 6th expansion, Legion. There’s actually a series of short animated stories released for Legion, called Harbingers
Love the progression between the 2, you are right that's the same Mage turning that same Tauren Shaman from the first trailer into a sheep. That undead warlock casually killing the murlocs, also the same guy. Shows the idea of veteran players ready for a new challenge in my opinion. Actually now that i think of it, the Orc Warrior that got ressurected, the sword he's using is from the second raid dungeon called Blackwing Lair, it drops from the last boss and a best in slot warrior item at the time.
He is not ready for the next one, no one ever is. Can't wait for it. Just know that the next cinematic you are going to watch is a classified top tier in the gaming history as a whole.
You are not prepared. Just know you will see a character that sacrificed everything including himself for his people and kingdom to powers beyond him that in the end just used him for their own goals. It's really the most popular character in the whole universe.
Also Anduin, the human in The War Within cinematic, is a character that poetically was forced into the same path but he recovered and that's why he is so broken. (Remember the sword towards the camera shot ;) The whole cinematic is amazingly character driven and story driven so feel free to analyse everything that you see. )
I hope I wrote it well without spoiling and only hyping it up 😅❤
Those first two trailers i always call "the non-story cinematics". From here on its a little movie with A LOT of story in them. I am so excited for you to watch all these amazing ones. My favorite comes next, WotLk, but i also love the MoP one and the Cataclysm one. I always get so hyped and teary eyed at the same time, when i watch the cinematics again.
5:31 that is an Eredar... there are a few subspecies like the Manari(which means "unnatural being") Draenei(meaning "exiled ones") Krokul(meaning "broken") and there is one other subspecies known as the lightforged but lets just forget about the lightforged the writers sure did(there isn't even an eredar translation for their name that is how little the devs think about the lightforged... and its also complicated by the existence of lightforged undead so now we need to clarify which lightforged we are talking about)
the Draenei were Eredar who were kicked from their home world Argus after it was taken over by demons(hell it was so infested by demons it became an extension of the twisting nether)
the Manari were Eredar who started using fel magic(demonic magic) which turned their skin red and made them all demonic(we can now play as Manari but they have been reduced to a customization option with no new racial ability to match their demonic origin)
the Krokul are probably the ones you are familiar with as they were the Eredar that appeared in the original warcraft trilogy they are basically Eredar who were abandoned by their gods and ended up becoming shamans(which caused them to eventually become horrifying-looking creatures with sharp pointy teeth)
the lightforged are Draenei who were infused with light in its purest form by Xe'ra the Naaru(the Naaru are the Eredars gods) who died in the legion expansion because she tried to "infuse" Illidan(the demon guy from the end of the burning crusade cinematic trailer) without his consent... he responded by shattering her to pieces
One cool thing, in the behind the scenes DVD for the collectors edition goes into detail about the characters in this cinematic. The human mage, undead warlock, tauren shaman, and orc warrior are all the same ones as in the original WoW cinematic. They just updated the models a bit with new armor/hair styles. They added the troll in because they weren't able to have them in the first cinematic due to being added to the game as a playable race after the cinematic was first done, and the blood elf and draenei were in it as they were the 2 new playable races in The Burning Crusade.
I'm SO excited for the next one!!!
Really happy I stumbled across your channel.
Your analysis style is a great balance of reaction and commentary.
Also great to see someone entirely new to the story and the lore. It gives us a fresh take on older content, so your perspective is really welcomed, as well as your clear and simple explanations of filmmaking rules.
Thanks!
PS...Play Horde...just saying...lol
PEACE!
Alliance! Don't join those savages called the Horde..
@@Benedict00_ItchyManko One of the things that I love about WoW is that neither side is perfectly good or evil. Both sides have committed atrocities against each other and their own people. Both sides also have noble aspirations and high standards and values. They're really great at showing how people fall into darkness and how it's possible for individuals and societies to recover from such falls.
@arasdeeps1852 who on the alliance committed atrocities in the name of the alliance? I don't know much about the lore
@@Benedict00_ItchyMankodurnhole keep ?
The horny guy with wings and holding the skull is Illidan Stormrage.
We first met him in the Warcraft 3 RealTime Strategy game released in 2002. His story itself started 10.000 years earlier when the Queen of the Elven Kingdom decided that she wanted more power.
At the heart of the elven empire was a font of insame amounts of magic (The Well of Eternity, which has its own history), literally a pool of sloshing magic which helped evolve the elves into elves but also became part of their sustenance. The elves fed off the magic around them.
The leader of the demons, the Titan known as Sargeras (a former good-guy turned to desperation as he saw the inevitability of the Dark forces and started to do evil stuff simply because he saw it as the only way to stop the complete annihiliation of the universe) spoke to the Queen of the Elves and promised Power if she used the Magic of the Well to make a portal so he could appear. Rebel elves resisted and at one point Illidan acted a traitor to see behind the enemy lines and give the good forces important military intel. He was taken to speak to a projection of Sargeras and was given full sight beyond sight (I guess think of it a bit like Neo seeing code in the Matrix). His eyes were burnt out with demonic magic so that's why the blindfold.
Due to the percieved treason, when the rebel elves eventually won, Illidan was imprisoned in darkness for 10.000 years, with magic wards to instantly heal him if he tried to harm himself, and magic to sustain him if he tried to starve himself.
Eventually as the Demons returned he was let free to help beat them which he did, but he then went rogue.. He fed on the Demonic energies and souls of demons, which gave him more power and also turned him more into a Demon.
"Imprisoned for 10.00 years and banished from my homeland".
Over the expansions we realise that he might not have been as evil as we thought.
The Squidface with the book is a Draenei.
They lived peacefully on a their own world long before the elves appeared on our planet in a society with advanced tech and magic. Sargeras, the dude that spoke to Illidan, approached the three leaders of the Draenei and offered them Power and abilities. One of the three had a premonition about what that Power actually was but his two friends/brothers did not heed his warning. They accepted the offer of Power and got turned into powerful dmonic creatures and generals of Sargeras demonic armies. Every Draenei on their planet was converted with demonic magic, except for a small group (still thousands, but few compared to the full planet) who managed to escape thanks to a Race called the Naaru. The Naaru are holy beings of Light and Order, so since their exile from their home world they have been bouncing around, always being hunted by the two that accepted the demonic offering of power. So as a Thanks for being saved, the Draenei now worship the Light (they kinda did before as well, but even more now). What we saw here was a Draenei Paladin reading a holy libram to gain a buff and enhanced abilities for the battle to come.
His hammer is basically a crystal and their entire tech is very Crystal-based..
The lady is a Blood Elf. When the portal to summon Sargeras failed, the magic backfired and everything went down the drain. The world was basically one big continent but the explosion from the failed magic and feedback and all that caused an explosion enough to sunder the world (literally called "The Sundering") into three major continents (and as expansions are released we find more and more islands). For obvious reasons the Elves that survived were not keen on people using Magic (considering they were sumoning demons and caused the land to split apart) so some decided they should move to another continent where they could still do magic without being prosecuted. The elves that remained pivoted to Nature magic (the purple elven lady in the first cinematic that could turn into a Cat) and even celestial magic from their moongoddes Elune so they still had a source of Magic.
As the exiles wandered they were no longer sustained by the magic of the former city. They had withdrawl. They were also no longer immune to diseases. They needed magic. They meet Illidan who promise a source of Magic if they join him. The dealings with the Blood Elves is part of the Warcraft 3 expansion "The Frozen throne" be in short, they realize that they are actually dealing with demons and they are made to do some nastu stuff, but at least they now have magic to feed on. Fel magic, which is why her eyes turn green. So she's feeding on the magic of the "Mana wyrm", a creature native to their current homeland.
There is a LOT of Lore in this world!
Part of it is ret-conned, part of it is "kinda" ret-conned but more of a "let's see what actually happened from the eyes of the villain" and we see that maybe the bad guy wasn't so bad after all.
Many of the elves in WoW become addicted to magic. The blood elves lost their main source of magic in Warcraft 3, and in the Burning Crusade we learn that they've begun stealing magic power from other sources to feed their addiction. You noticed it darkens when she steals the creature's power. This may be foreshadowing for the faction of blood elves led by Kael'thas who takes the thirst for magic too far.
Him: "What's this dark portal?"
Me: "Yes."
a huge theme in warcraft is people losing themselves when trying to achieve victory against perceived evils at all costs. Arthas and the lich king being the prime example, with illidan in close 2nd. He was a regular night elf who lived in the shadow of his more successful brother who became so desperate to fight back the demons and the burning legion that he used their own magic against them and to strengthen himself, and more or less fell to madness in the course of that fight. He knew the demons were almost guaranteed to be victorious, so he was willing to do anything and everything to stop them, including enslaving entire populations of people in outland and creating his own demon army to bring the fight to sargeras. Burning crusade sort of botched his arc a little when they made him the villain in that way, but he has a massive redemption arc a few expansions later. remember the line "you are not prepared" youre gonna hear it from him a lot lol
edit: the 10,000 years of imprisonment is because of the batshit crazy things illidan was doing in the early stages of this fight, the night elves imprisoned him before he could do more harm with his extreme methods of saving the night elves and destroying the burning legion. he was jailed for 10,000 years and then when the night elves were desperate they released him to help them fight, but he kept doing whated he wanted basically
As other have said, BFA has a number of additional cinematics that help fill out the story that are worth watching. I also recommend the Warbringer side story animations as they are incredibly well done.
The big dude in the final scene is Illidan Stormrage, his history is unreasonably long.
His voice actor is Liam O'Brien.
To encapsulate Illidan into a single sentence, he's the guy who does what needs to be done because no one else has the balls or the ability to do it.
thank you philip I'm having a blast with your reactions, can't wait for the next one cause it's a favorite of mine and probably most of the community too!
This expansion came so fast, that the WOW cinematic team didn't have much time to do much so it was great in the small time period. Also the next cinematic is the Lich King (the first that will blow your mind)... which was recently released in 4k... so make sure you get that version. Lore wise, the huge guy is a new race to play the Draenai, that came from the same land as the Orcs. He is in the race's new captical city. The race was imprisoned by the orcs, and life force sucked out from them, to make the portal to Azeroth. This can be seen in the WoW movie. The class is paladin for the Draenai. The woman is another new race, a blood elf, with her captial city behind her. Blood elf was ressing the orc, as the blood elves joined the horde.
The blue dude is a Draenai Paladin and the other is a bloodelf consuming a manawyrm playable ingame yes and yeah shes reviving him cause they are horde races (horde: orcs + mag'har orcs, tauren + highmountain tauren, bloodelfes, trolls + zandalari trolls, goblins, nightborn elfs) the blue guy is the other faction. the evil looking guy is this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illidan_Stormrage
I genuinely think if you want to understand the lore which it looks like you do then you would really enjoy watching every single cinematic (including in game ones) to really appreciate the lore of wow. Warcraft has some incredible stories you’d really enjoy.
While they're days' (or possibly weeks!) worth of binge-watching, the lore videos of @Nobbel87 and @Athelarius are a terrific way to really dive deep into the lore. There is SO much, and those two really do a fantastic job of explaining the who what why, when, and where of it all.
Illidan Stormrage is the Jamie Lannister of WoW (minus the Cersei part.) He’s a Night Elf in love with his brother Malfurion’s lover, the leader of the Night Elves, Tyrande Whisperwind, who does care for Illidan, but feels loyal to Malfurion (a Druid) who disappeared into the Emerald Dream to take a 10,000 year long nap to protect it. Meanwhile, Illidan basically sacrifices himself to become a demon in order to infiltrate the demonic forces to lead them all to protect Tryande and by extension Azeroth in the process, and gets imprisoned himself for 10,000 years for saving everyone (because of his method.) Of course, when the demons return his jailers let him out of prison to help them, and he sacrifices himself again to save the world because he’ll love Tyrande forever.
The one thing they did do with displaying the new races in the trailer. (they never do this again, and we never really talk about it) BUT the Draenei (Blue Armored Man with the big purple crystal mace) in this cinematic is actually a Lore character named Maraad, he is a Paladin and paladins (at the time) used Libram's to cast Seals so that is what he is doing in the first animation. While the blood elf in the cinematic isn't a specific lore character they display the Blood Elves addiction to magic. Absorbing the Mana Wyrm you see in the trailer is their method of quelling their need for magic in order to survive. If they don't do this they can wither and die.
The Voice over is Illidan Stormrage a prominent lore character that goes back to the Warcraft III RTS game, and has been featured in several books and has his own book. He is voiced by Liam O'Brien, who does a lot of other VO work but is more recently famous for his part in Critical Role along with some other famous voice actors who have also worked on Warcraft.
The actor for Illidan Stormrage, the guy with the horns and wings who narrates the opening is Liam O'Brien
This was the first cinematic that was done after Terran Gregory joined Blizzard. The voice actor for Illidan(big bad) is Liam O'Brien.
It's been 19 years and only just now I noticed after Philip pointed out the transition. Somehow I missed that all these years 😀
No one holds a candle at Liam O'Brien, absolutely my favourite VA, and Illidan is the one that introduced him to me
The blue guy with the shiny armor, book, and big hammer is a draenei(alien warriors of the holy light) paladin. The elf in red who absorbs the mana wyrm is a blood elf (elves addicted to magic who forcefuly absorb magic to sustain themselves) priest (she later heals the orc warrior and does a holy nova)
This trailer has haunted my dreams for years, i played this expansion alot and this trailer always got me revved up to go in again.
As for what its showing, its about u as the player going to Outland, the destroyed homeland of the Orcs, once conquered by the demons and now taken over by Illedan Stormrage and his Naga and Blood elf Followers.
The first Race, the Draenei were the new race for the Alliance and them also be able to become Paladins.
The second race are the Blood Elves who join the Horde and are addicted to arcane magic to a exstreme, hence the elf draining the manawrym of its energy in the cinematic.
And finally it shows Illedan The Betrayer, the first demon Hunter who now is the main villain of this expansion.
Him saying " U are not Prepared!" became so popular they made it part of his personality in later expansions and as a meme.
I've been playing an Orc Shaman since the very beginning and still playing "Troct" to this day! It is interesting to look back on it now given the overall feeling we had as a community. First, they introduced two new races. Draenei were sort of retconned to fit for an Alliance race and the Blood Elves for the Horde. I remember it fueling a lot of controversy among the community. They also added flying and heroic dungeons which became staples of the game itself. It was the first time I felt like getting to max level was just the beginning, whereas vanilla had a clear end game. Illidin's comment about not being prepared felt personal for a lot of players because we had spent a large patch (1.8) quite literally "preparing" for that raid with a massive realm wide effort. The character of Illidin as an amazing anti-hero would take too much time to explain as there are whole books that pertain to his story. I will say that he does return in many future content patches and expansions, even inspiring a "Demon Hunter" class.
This is the first WoW cinematic to feature actual lore characters, though it's only two. Well, two and a half.
The first is Maraad, a Draenei Paladin, who is the large blue holy warrior with the crystal hammer. His story is explored in some of the lore books and in an animated video from WoD. He's a good guy,
The second is of course Illidan Stormrage, the winged and horned Night Elf Demon Hunter. He first appeared in the Warcraft 3 RTS game and is one of the most integral Night Elven lore figures in Warcraft. He's up there in the top ten most beloved and most loathed characters of the series.
The half is Gul'dan. That skull Illidan is holding is the Skull of Gul'dan, a magical artifact Illidan recovered in Warcraft 3. The Orc Warlock Gul'dan was another pivotal lore figure, one of the key founders to forming the Old Horde, which was the predecessor to the New Horde that WoW Horde players are part of. The skull was infused with demonic energy and Illidan siphoned it, which is why he looks the way he does. It's also a raid trinket you can loot in-game.
This expansion introduced the Blood Elves (in the Horde) and Draenei (in the Alliance) which was how the Horde got Paladins and Alliance got Shamans for the first time because especially originally, the class options were very restricted by which cultures had specific traditions the playable classes are part of.
The purple Night Elves in the Alliance had banned Mages for 10,000 years after their magical empire became so powerful, it attracted the attention of the Burning Legion, demons on a crusade to destroy the universe, and their queen, Azshara, the most powerful mage to ever live, sided with them and invited them in through a portal so large and powerful that when it was destroyed, sank most of the continent and destroyed their empire.
I know it's not really cinematics, but reacting to (or just watching on your own time) storyline videos or lore videos can really add to these cinematics! And there are some in game cutscenes that aren't like these cinematics but rendered with the game engine that also add to the over arching story, where even if you don't react to them on the channel, it could be neat for you to understand their intentions and how they use the lore and backstory to enhance their cinematics.
Like the recent War Within one you watched, has a lot of deep emotional build up, since a lot of players interacted with Anduin since he was a child and grew into the crestfallen Hero that we currently know via each step and hardship he had to face.
I play on the Horde side, so while Anduin isn't part of the faction I play for, It's still really endearing to follow his story and Thrall's strories.
The bit with the elf is supposed to be sinister. That is a Blood Elf, and they are a twist on the usual “pretty good guy elves” trope. They are elves, but they are darker, harsher, and they have this addiction to magic that means they have to drain the magic from living beings to survive. So it starts by playing on your expectations with this pretty elf girl in a beautiful natural environment, and then twist it with her feeding on the wyrm’s magic.
The elf (Blood Elf). They were a High Elf race that worshiped a font of magic called the Sunwell. It gave their people life and fed them their magical abilities. Arthas (Lich King) destroyed and poisoned the Sunwell during Warcraft 3 (RTS). Since they lost the light and magic of the Sunwell they resorted to sucking magic out of the world around them to feed and fuel themselves. That's when they take on the name Blood Elves. In the cinematic that change from light to dark and her sucking out the magic of the creature shows off this backstory for their race.
For the Burning Crusade, they once more focus on player characters and battles, with the exception of the voice actor and the ending. They focus on the release of two new races primarily, which at this point has a certain amount of story to them.
The Draenei (Purple dude) are a people fleeing from their homeworld that has been corrupted. They came to a world named Draenor, hence their name, and lived there for a long time. However due to strife with the worlds inhabitants were forced to flee and has just now crash landed (that makes more sense in context) on Azeroth and joined the Alliance.
The Blood Elves (The Elf in "Rivendell") who are the remnants of what used to be the High Elves. A race of Elves who evolved in relation to the historic elvish queen Azhara. They lived in the north-eastern lands of Quel'thalas until their homeland was destroyed by Arthas in Warcraft III. The heir to their throne, Kael'thas Sunstride took most of their kin with him to serve Illidan in Warcraft III. The ones remaining are the ones we play as here, who came together and rebuilt Quel'thalas. They are dealing with a crippling mana addiction, hence the mana wyrm being drained in the cinematic.
In order of appearence the playable characters are.
Draenei Paladin - A hybrid melee/caster class focusing on the utilization of the light to protect and vanquish.
Blood Elf Priest - A caster class either dedicated to shadow magic to deal damage, or holy magic to heal and protect.
Orc Warrior, in this case fighting the serpent race the "Naga", who in Warcraft III along with the Blood Elves are serving Illidan.
Troll Hunter riding his raptor.
The Draenei Paladin fighting the Fel Orcs, remnants of the demonically controlled Orcs who used to live on Draenor.
A dying Orc Warrior being resurrected by the Blood Elf Priest.
Human Mage using the Polymorph spell.
An overleveled Undead Warlock dealing with Murlocs.
Blood Elf Priest casting Holy Nova.
The final part along with the voice acting focuses on Illidan Stormrage, who took over Outland (what used to be Draenor) and is the current ruling lord of it. He's conveying his story up until this point mostly in the monologue, but important to note is that Illidan is holding an artifact called "The Skull of Guldan" as the cinematic shifts to him. This artifact is infused with Fel power and Illidan absorbing it in Warcraft III is what caused him to evolve to look the way he does, despite initially being a normal Night Elf. He's also someone who has always hungered for power and is filled with hatred for being banished from his homelands for doing things he considered to be right.
i've watched some of your videos years ago, and i loved your insights, but seeing you now pop back up on my youtube and reacting to and dissecting my favourite videos is such a treat! and your respect and enthusiasm for the cinematics and the lore makes me so happy. definitely earned a sub from me :D
The elven woman is a Sin'dorei ("Children of blood" in their in lore language) their entire premise in Burning Crusade is their home has just been, totally and ultimately annihilated by an undead army (the Scourge), which is also why they are called the children of blood. They used to be Quel'dorei, or basically literally High Elves ("Rivendell stuff"). The name Sin'dorei came about in honor of their people slain by the undead, and the blood shed by Arthas.
They're basically starving because they lost their most sacred font of magic that also nourishes them and have to absorb mana just to survive, that is what is happening in that scene, the serpent is a creature of pure mana and she just, sucked it all in to nourish herself. Very vampiric without being a vampire as we typically know them.
(unrelated: You're gonna Love the Wrath of the Lich king cinematic, it's still my all time favorite personally)
You are on the right track with the first few characters showcasing new things, though this time instead of classes, they are to show off new playable races.
The first one is a Draenei. Devout followers of the light, they have gone through a lot of hardship. Once known as Eredar, they resided on the planet Argus. That is, until two of their leaders, Kil'jaden and Archimonde, were drawn in by the power offered by the dark titan Sargeras and were transformed, along with their people, into demons to bolster the ranks of the Burning Legion to help Sargeras' crusade to destroy all life in the universe (to prevent it from being corrupted by an even greater evil, long story).
However their third leader, Prophet Velen, saw through this deception and gathering whoever he could, fled Argus. Renamed to Draenei, "Exiled Ones" in their own language, they arrived on Draenor and after their long journey, built a new life of relatively peaceful coexistence with the native Orcs. Until the Burning Legion once again caught up to them and corrupted the Orcs, leading them on a genocidal warpath against the Draenei.
Forced to flee once again, now after decades of journey the Exiled Ones have arrived on Azeroth, which they pray will finally be their permanent home
The second character we see is a Blood Elf. Originally formed from the Night Elven arcanists exiled after the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, the Blood Elfs became their own distinct people through the influence of the Sunwell, a font of incredible magical power they found far away from their homeland after their exile. Within its light they thrived for thousands of years, until..
The Scourge, vast armies of undead under the command of the Lich King came to conquer their lands, seeking to use the power of the Sunwell to resurrect the necromancer Kel'thuzad as a lich. They succeeded, and with the resurrection of Kel'thuzad, the Sunwell was destroyed.
Soon after its destruction did the elves realize that the limitless magic of the Sunwell was in reality a curse. They had grown addicted to the arcane power, and without it the consequences were dire.
They are desperate to find any source of magical power to sate their addiction, and they are not too picky on what it is or where it comes from. Even their leader, prince Kael'thas Sunstrider, has made some rather... questionable pacts trying to provide for his people.
Whew, and that is just the basic backstory of the new races. To avoid this comment becoming even longer I'll let someone else explain the "narrator", the big horned fellow named Illidan. I'll just say that he is very interesting indeed, premium anti-hero type of character.
That final character is Illidan Stormrage. His key story precedes WoW, it is actually back from the Warcraft games. If I'm not mistaken, his homeland was being attacked/destroyed by the Burning Legion, and he then decided to drink demon blood (or something like that), to turn into a half-demon and thus be able to fight them off. However, he later was banished to Outlands, where he remained, waiting for his revenge.
Hes Homeland is azeroth, from the last trailer, you right they atack us multiple times (Burning legion) ofc not destroyed, we Kick them out
because you make me think about these things for the first time in a while, im realizing the opening shot is more interesting than it seems.
as a lore nerd, you'd obviously have been in awe already, because the Dark Portal is a pivotal location in warcraft.
but for me, back then, not knowing that much yet (and being a somewhat clueless teen), the foggy/dusty approach towards this portal simply means meeting something unknown. and thats truly what it felt like back then, because the very first expansion took players away from azeroth to a different, unexplored world. many of us also truly didnt know what was gonna happen, because back then datamining and news coverage sites about the game werent as prelevant and readily available, so many of us didnt know anything about the upcoming expansion, except for the mini event ingame, leading up to it.
Something I always found interesting not many people notice was there's definite character continuity between the original WoW cinematic and the Burning Crusade one. One immediately notices the characters from the first cinematic and the implications of what happened to those not seen again. The Tauren is fighting the mage, but the Dwarf is dead. The Undead survived the fight with the mage because he just threw an Infernal at him from a distance. The Orc who was with the Blood Elf killed the Night Elf from before.
13:00 - Resurrection is a thing in the game, mostly for Gameplay reasons. Bringing someone back from the dead as aprt of the actual Lore is extremely difficult.
The animation (the pillar of light) does resemble the animation when you resurrect a player in the game.
And yes, the Blood Elves are allied with the Orcs.
There are two playable factions in Warcraft, The Alliance and The Horde.
The Alliance are Humans, Night Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Worgen and some others. The Horde are Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves, The Forsaken (an Undead race), and some others.
These are so good, I love it when someone from "outside" gets to look at the amazing cinematics Blizzard has done.
Please do, at some later time, reviews of the Warcraft 3 cinematics! This character, Illidan, is also the focus of the intro for The Frozen Throne (Warcraft 3 expansion).
I’m especially excited for you to react to the next one!
Colors are a huge theme throughout World of Warcraft. The reason you see so much unnatural green here is that the color is indicative of the Burning Legion. They are the demons led by a fallen Titan that have been one of the biggest threats that this universe has faced (up until the end of the Legion expansion). So when you see that green, it's Legion/Demons. The gold colors of the Draenei (blue character) is a sign of the Light, which is another source of power. It's not limited to specific factions, either.
The blue man you see at the start is a new race, Draenei. He is a paladin. At this time in the game, races had secondary items they used other than weapons that were unique to them. Paladins utilized Librams. The elf woman that you saw was a new race to this expansion, the Blood Elves. Their zones have a gorgeous red and gold theme to them. That shade of blue refers to mana, which is another source of power, or magic. Blood elves are addicted to it. The reason their eyes are that demonic green is that they have had to siphon demonic energy to stave off the effects of magical addiction when their usual font of power (The Sunwell) was destroyed and corrupted.
The amazing Liam O'Brien voices Illidan Stormrage, the primary antagonist "You are NOT prepared" (a master voice actor and director, more recently part of the Critical Role team)
Totally right about the "sinister" shift in the elf, it's super cool how they demonstrate that. For the record she is a "priest" class healing later with the orc, absorbing the blue wyrms power was a racial ability
She's a blood elf, one of the two playable new races added with this expansion the other being the tentacle amethyst guy, draenei. The "blood elves" were originally called high elves, they look beautiful with wonderful landscapes, a penchant for magical ability, very refined and noble maybe even haughty. But their race suffered extreme losses, and turned to darker sources to save themselves and sate their literal addiction to magic, turned the eyes green from the original blue, and changed their names to "blood" elves in honor of the fallen. It's very much a subtle undertone of the race at this point in the story, the dark dystopian ugly truth beneath their society and their lands outward beauty and power.
It's a bit sad that the darker side of their race was sort of done away with after this expansion, I always thought it was a really unique and interesting take on the typical fantasy elves. They get "cured" of their addiction basically, and they turn away from those darker practices. They're kind of just humans with pointy ears after this point tbh lol
That is Illidan Stormrage, The betrayer and Master of the Illidari!
One of my favorite characters in the game lore! :D
Great analysis and I'm excited for the rest of the series!
I'm one of those day one, been playing for 20+ years (counting the RTS games) players and I'd love to answer your lore questions!
There had been established characters prior to World of Warcraft (including Thrall who you saw in the War Within cinematic) from the RTS games, however World of Warcraft as an MMO was more of an experiment for Blizzard at the time, and the main character of the original game was really meant to be the world itself. Your observations regarding all the varied shots from the vanilla WoW cinematic are spot on, they wanted to show the wide world we would soon be exploring. As for the characters, all of the characters in the vanilla cinematic were intended to represent potential player characters. A Dwarf hunter, Night Elf druid, Undead warlock, Tauren shaman, Orc warrior, and Human mage.
However, for their first expansion, they started to bring back old characters, stories and lore from the RTS games, to finish off unfinished stories. The voice over and 'villain' we see at the end is Illidan Stormrage, and his story is somewhat complicated (and has been retconned over the years). The rest of the characters we see are again representations of what players might choose to play as in this new expansion. Our blue and amethyst friend is a Draenei paladin, Draenei being a new race introduced to one of the factions (the Alliance, who's traditional colors are blue and gold), while the very red elf woman is a new race for the other faction, the Horde (colors red and black), called the Blood Elves. What she does to that creature is extract it's mana, destroying it, as these specific elves were having a mana addiction crisis at that time, while the Draenei is indeed searching his spell tome for a buff to cast on himself.
The rest of the characters we see are actually from the first cinematic, only 'leveled up' so to speak. The orc warrior with his now massive sword (that was a real sword in game btw, named Ashkandi), the undead warlock adorned with skulls and effortlessly burning those fish people (murlocs), the Human mage polymorphing the Tauren shaman who apparently killed the dwarf hunter in the first cinematic. And the moon shot, I remember at the time losing my mind over this because Trolls had not been featured in the first cinematic, however that shot was of a Troll riding his raptor.
Super excited to see your analysis of the next cinematic for Wrath of the Lich King. It's quite a bit different than the first two, and marked a change in their style of cinematic that has lasted until War Within. Keep an eye out for the absolutely amazing parallel drawn between War Within and Wrath of the Lich King, it adds a whole new level of depth to a moment in the War WIthin cinematic.
My favorite part about Illidan is that he will do anything to advance his cause, which is ultimately for the greater good, but is why he was imprisoned, because they thought he went too far.
The patch trailers NEED to be watched as well. They all just get better and better as time goes on.
The woman with the creature is a blood elf, playable race and the story with them is that they were “robbed” of their source of magic and had to substitute, her draining that wyrm is basically her feeding her addiction.. this is also the racial ability you can do in game (every race has one): steal a buff and some mana from the target i think. She is a priest since she revived the orc, something priests can do (also blood elves are part of the horde so they are allies)
And the character at the end… i can just say that you are in for a wild ride, this is one of the 2 best written characters in the wow universe
Hey, when you get to Mists of Pandaria I think you’d really enjoy watching a side project they started then: small series of highly stylized 2D storyboard-like animations that introduce characters and story beats. The first series (the one for MoP) is called “Burden of Shaohao”.
I’m LOVING your journey so far! I watched pretty much your entire League of Legends journey so seeing you get to my favorite game has been a blast!
As for recommendations, if you’re gonna watch in-game cinematics on stream then I highly recommend going chronologically, in parallel to the cinematic trailers. That is, you analyze a cinematic trailer, then you do the in-game cutscenes and cinematics for that expansion before moving on to the next one.
This way, by the time you reach a new Cinematic trailer you’ll have much more context and you won’t miss any story beats. This is important later on when they develop a more cohesive narrative.
While the only “in-game” cinematics in The Burning Crusade are Patch Trailers, Wrath of the Lich King already has important story elements told through this medium. I’d personally watch you stream them in a heartbeat, it’s a different medium and as such I’d love to see your takes on how it progresses.
The Blood Elf woman used the ability called "Mana Tap" on the mana wyrm. Mana is arcane resource most casters use. Blood Elves used to be able to drain a portion of this resource from an enemy. The mana tap ability has since been removed from the game.
So a quick rundown of some of the things in this cinematic and a little backstory:
The Burning Legion was created by Sargaras, a Titan charged with protecting creation who eventually got overwhelmed by all the evil everywhere and decided to wash the slate clean. He corrupted the leaders of the Draenei: Archimonde and Kil'jaeden. The third leader, Velen, escaped with the uncorrupted Draenei aided by the Na'ru, which is a being of pure light, working against The Burning Legion. They had a brief stint on the Orc homeworld of Draenor, now called Outland, before fleeing again and arriving on Azeroth. Outland is where the expansion takes place.
The guy with the book is a Draenei. A paladin in this case.
The woman is a Blood elf. They were previously called high elves but took on the name Blood elves after Arthas/The Lich King and his Scourge (an army of undead) destroyed their homeland and now they want revenge. They had a fount of power called The Sunwell that they drew magic from and after it was destroyed they suffered from withdrawal. The thing she absorbed is called a Mana Wyrm.
10,000 years ago Azeroth was invaded by The Burning Legion in The War of the Ancients. Azeroth was one continent then and the elves had a fount of magic called The Well of Eternity, similar to The Sunwell, only much larger. In an attempt to turn it into a portal to bring The Burning Legion into Azeroth, the well got destabilized and eventually imploded. resulting in The Great Sundering and sinking some 80% of the landmass below the sea, leaving only the major continents Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend and Pandaria, with some other smaller islands as well.
The guy with the wings is Illidan Stormrage. He's a Night Elf who along with his brother Malfurion and their shared love interest Tyrande Whisperwind fought against The Burning Legion during The War of the Ancients and later as well. He was quite adept at magic and did some questionable things to gain more power. He made a deal with Sargaras and got a gift. Sargaras burned out his eyes but gave him new eyes with the ability see all forms of magic, which is why his eyes are wrapped in cloth. He was appalled by the idea of destroying The Well of Eternity (this was done on purpose to stop the creation of the portal). He took some water from the well and tried to create a new well in the mountains. This earned him a lifetime of imprisonment. 10,000 years later Tyrande broke him out to help deal with the threat of The Lich King/Arthas and The Scourge. Shortly after he absorbed a relic called The Eye of Sargaras, which increased his powers and transformed him and gave him the wings and satyr-like legs and hooves. He eventually left for Outland where the expansion picks up. He's very much an anti-hero. Much of his motivation is gaining power but he has done good things, mainly because of his love for Tyrande. He hates The Burning Legion with a passion and is committed to wiping them out. Unfortunately, he also causes quite a lot of suffering from his presence in Outland.
Lastly, the portal you see is the gateway to that the orcs originally used to invade Azeroth from Outland, after they had corrupted their own homeworld. The Burning Legion has tried to destroy Azeroth since they failed 10,000 years prior and Kil'jaeden spent a long time corrupting the orcs to use for the invasion. Kil'jaeden was also responsible for the creation of The Scourge which destroyed the homeland of the Blood elves.
Hello again, Philip.
I wasn't able to make a comment on your video about the cinematic for Vanilla WoW (your last one) since there isn't much lore to tell that others hadn't already shared. World of Warcraft's base game is basically set after the events of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, and not much was explained beyond that.
As for this trailer for The Burning Crusade, there's actually quite a fair bit to unpack:
In terms of the characters shown in the cinematic (barring the one that appears at the end), they are all surrogates for the player characters.
For the recurring cast, you recognized characters like the Human Mage, who turned the Tauren Shaman (magic dust bullman guy from the previous cinematic) into a sheep. There is the Undead Warlock, but now decked-out in better, more sinister-looking gear. Another is the Orc warrior now has an enormous two-handed sword that he used to slice through those Naga (lizard-like enemies).
Among those who have yet to appear in any cinematic, the first is the Troll (hunter presumably) astride a raptor in the moonlit scene. While not a new race or a new class, it's the first time that even the suggestion or silhouette of a Troll even appears in a cinematic. The next is the Draenei Paladin, the blue-skinned alien-looking guy with cephalopod-like tentacles on his face, and the last is the Blood Elf priest. However, the Draenei Paladin does double duty in that it's supposed to be a surrogate for a player character, but he also depicts a character that is part of the lore: Vindicator Maraad, who himself is a grizzled Draenei Paladin with some importance to lore that happens in extended/adjacent media of the game.
What is significant about the reveals in the Burning Legion cinematic are three things:
1) The Draenei race looked considerably different to what was shown in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, as opposed to when they were first shown and referenced in Warcraft 3. In fact, it was probably quite jarring for long-time fans to have seen the Draenei Paladin because he more resembles the demon-corrupted Man'ari Eredar, which are found amongst the more commanding and cunning forces of the Burning Legion. The players would later learn that this is indeed a retcon that Blizzard's narrative team committed to, and that both are descended from the Eredar race. From then on, the Man'ari would be known as the corrupted faction of the Eredar race, while the Draenei are those individuals who rejected the demonic corruption and then subsequently fled their home world of Argus in self-exile tens of thousands of years prior. Given their virtuous, lawful and compassionate nature, they would eventually be drawn into the Alliance as a playable race for that faction. Additionally, the original aesthetic of the Draenei was recontextualized as the form that a Draenei degenerates into if exposed to magical corruption.
2) The Blood Elf priest, or rather the Blood Elves in general. They first appeared as their own race in Warcraft 3, and were the Quel'dorei-or 'High Elves' in the common tongue-that survived when their homeland of Quel'thalas was ravaged by the shambling hordes of the Undead Scourge. They renamed themselves Sin'dorei, ('Blood Elves') in remembrance of their brethren whose blood was spilled in those bloody, fateful battles in defense of Quel'thalas-which ultimately ended in failure and the near-extinction of their race and heritage. By the end of Warcraft 3, their fate was left ambiguous, at least until The Burning Crusade when they were announced as a playable race for the Horde-as a mirror to the Draenei who went to the Alliance.
3) The realm shown in the cinematic is called Outland, which is a scattered series of landmasses that used to make up the Orc homeworld and planet called Draenor. This is where Thrall's ancestors came from, at least until their warmongering and use of demonic magic ruined the land nearly beyond repair, thus making it necessary for them to seek out another habitable world to live on. On the surface, that's the reason why they invaded Azeroth in the first Warcraft RTS. At the end of Warcraft 2, a desperate gambit by the Orcish shaman Ner'zhul tore Draenor apart on a fundamental level, and the ruined remnants became known as Outland. Outland-and Draenor's subsequent fate after its destruction-was first revealed in Warcraft 3, and has been shown to be something of an outpost for demonic forces. The breaking of the world on a fundamental level also put its natural laws out of order, which is the reason why you saw floating islands and such during the scene with the Human Mage and the Tauren Shaman.
Now, relating to Point #3 is the character shown at the end of the cinematic:
His name is Illidan Stormrage. Formerly, he was a Demon Hunter-THE Demon Hunter-of the Kaldorei ( 'Night Elves'), who are a race native to the western lands of Kalimdor. For reference, they're the race that the purple-skinned elf woman in the first cinematic who shapeshifts into a panther belongs to. He and the Night Elves were first debuted as playable in Warcraft 3, and Illidan's story spans millennia and stretches back to the then more fleshed-out origins of contemporary Warcraft as we would come to know it.
I won't go into detail on that backstory, but his journey in Warcraft 3 pretty much causes him to cross paths and blades with-and then re-establish himself later on as subsequent pawn of-the Burning Legion. After the events of Warcraft 3, and during a campaign in The Frozen Throne expansion, he opened a portal to Outland and proclaimed himself as its lord after conquering it from the demonic commander that was currently holding the realm.
This is why in the voice-over, he calls it his realm, and we're going to be-at least from his point of view-invading it. His appearance with the horns, wings, hooves, and demonic power is the result and consequence of consuming the essence of a demonic artifact as a tactical gambit. He did this in order to fight toe-to-toe with-and ultimately defeat-a powerful demon commander leading an invading force of the Burning Legion ravaging his race's ancestral forest homeland of Ashenvale on Kalimdor. However, because of his race's long-standing abhorrence to magic and anything related to demons, Illidan was forced to go into exile.
Because of how he's written and portrayed, Illidan is famous among the fans of Warcraft as something of an anti-hero who will sacrifice anything and everything to ensure victory-and by any means necessary
The voice actor for Illidan Stormrage is none other than the brilliant Liam O'Brien of Critical Role. He and the rest of the Critical Role cast have done numerous characters in WoW.
I cannot really add anything to the conversation that hasn't already been said. It is just nice to feel the excitement through someone elses eyes.
i'm so excited for you to do the next one, wrath of the lich king. it still gives me chills.
The face drop 😭😭😭😭
Your favorite emote 😂
Liam absolutely murdered this roll.
I can't wait for you to watch the next one. Wrath of the lich king. It's cinematic is when blizzard went full in on story, unlike this one where the tease it at the start and finish. Also can't wait for you to see why Anduin holding that sword to Thrall in that specific pose was even more threating to people have been long term wow fans
The lady elf suddenly going evil is interesting. Blood Elves were former high elves that had their source of magic infected/lost. If left them sort of like magic addicts when the magic disappeared, They have done some bad stuff to deal with that, and the alliance stuck their nose up at them and they joined the horde. But yeah, mostly magic elves with a bit of a desperation and mean streak because their body lacks magic they no longer easily have. Although years later this magic thing was resolved, and now they are just pretty awesome elves comfortably on the horde.
Big guy is a draenei. They are one of the nicest races in the world, they are just big. The one you saw was a paladin. Buffing and later smiting things. They are actually aliens to azeroth unable to get back. Both blood elves and draenei were the new races that expansion, so that is why they have the focus.
And yes, the blood elf was reviving the downed orc
One human dickhead and his forces stuck their noses up at the Blood Elves and thankfully he got what he deserved. I think we all know the real reason they ended up with the Horde and it wasn't for any solid lore reasons. The millennia long hostility the elves had with the trolls and the undead being the whole reason for their current (at the time) predicament absolutely superseded any flimsy excuse they gave to try to make the decision make sense. Horde wanted a "pretty" race and the elves just happened to be in their edgy phase at the time, lol.
The elf priest is nebulously tending the orc with healing magic. In terms of game mechanics, it looks like a ressurection (the orc falls still as if dead); but typically resurrection doesn’t work in combat.
That said, resurrection is one of those gamey murky points because it’s not clear how much is a concession to the playability of an MMO and how common it is inside the lore of the world.
The important part is that the player knows the coding of the visuals. Staff=Caster. Golden light=Healing Magic. The gamer mind intuits that the blood elves are joining the war - apparently, shockingly, on the side of orcs instead of men.
Additionally, back in Warcraft 3, one of the alliance were elf priests, who healed your troops; so bit of a callback there too.
Great breakdown, looking forward to the next one!
Liam O'Brien is such a great voice actor! I love his voice for Illidan^^
I have been playing since The Burning Crusades and have about 17 different characters. Ranging from Human Fire Mage, to Undead Shadow Priest and Everything in between.
16 years later, Illidan's voice lines still give me the chills.
That's the end-boss Illidan. He drops a trinket called Skull of Gul'dan as well as the two War Glaives.
11:45 - You mention that someone had commented about screensize limitations, etc
That is very correct. There is a "diary" written by one of the very early developers where he comment that they wanted to make a dungeon but they had to cut a lot of it because there were too many polygons used and most of the home computers at the time would not be able to handle it smoothly, especially not when adding all the enemies and effects and considering many would play the Online game using a Dial-Up 56k modem..
Today we are expected to download 150Gb on release and that the computer specs at home can run everything in maximum settings!
Watching your reaction reminded me back then, when I too didn’t have a clue of who was what 😅 ah lots of memories. I loved that expansion.
You are so far away but the old soldier series through BFA is unreal.
I cannot wait until you get to the Battle for Azeroth trailer cinematic. That’s the one that made me love the game
I'm glad i stumbled across your channel, I love the lore of WoW, and I highly suggest looking at current in game races/classes to help you with the videos you're watching! While watching the expansion cinematics, you should also tune into the in the game ones as well (as I think probably some have mentioned). Welcome to the fandom!
"You are not prepared!" One of the most iconic lines in gaming...
You would also love Warbrings" Jaina (Daughter of the Sea), Shadowlands Afterlives: Ardenweald...parts of a different kind of animation series that they put out. Truthfully, there are so many amazing cinematics
One of my favorite guild names I’ve seen is “You Are Not Repaired”
I love how much you reference lord of the rings. those movies truly shaped a generation!
That's a blood elf, she didn't suck out it's soul, but it's mana, they were basically addicted to magic, the dimming of the sun is probably a hint at the Sunwell, which was a pool of arcane energy they nearly drained. It was a raid in the game we had to defend from the Burning Legion, a demon army. Illidan wasn't evil, the world thought he allied with The Buring Legion since he became half demon, but we learned he did so to fight them, and infiltrate them, and was just a misunderstood good guy, but still an anti-hero.
The female Blood Elf (Sin'dorei - Children of The Blood) is not taking its soul. It just happens to be a creature unfortunate enough to be made of mana, living in a nation of mana-addicts.
Edit* And yes, that does appear a Priest ressurection spell she casts on the Orc Warrior. Though, unless that archer died right as he fired that last arrow, she wouldn't have been able to ress him yet. That would have required her to be a druid, which the Sin'Dorei cannot become.
Okay. Lots of lore to unpack!
-The "You Are Not Prepared" guy is Illidan Stormrage (voiced by the wonderful Liam O'brian). He is one of the once immortal night elves who fought against the Burning Legion 10,000 years ago in the War of the Ancients. In this fight, he took some of the enemies fel power to better understand and fight them, making him the first Demon Hunter. Nobody understood this choice, and so after he was a key instrument in ending the war (and trying to remake the now destroyed Well of Eternity, which is how the legion entered Azeroth in the first place) he was imprisoned, spared by his brother and lost lover who later marries his brother when others wanted him dead. Eventually, a very, very long time later, he was freed to help fight once again. He did a bunch of stuff, some appreciated, some not so much, but he ended up in the Outlands (once called Draenor), where the Orcs are from, and kind of the Draenei (the blue tentacled dude). After recruiting Naga, Blood Elfs, Broken, and new Demon Hunters, he planned to take the fight to the Legion themselves. This is everything up to the point of our confrontation with him.
-Blood Elves (the race of the woman with the mana wrym around her arm): Once night elves turned High Elves, the blood elves, or Sin'Dorei, sustained themselves on the light magics of the Sunwell, which they created as a replacement to the Well of Eternity. Then the Lich King came and ruined the whole place, causing them to seek a new source of magic, and their Prince, trying to help, allied with Illidan and gave his people fel magic. This whole series of events changed their eye color from blue to green and caused them to rebrand as the Blood Elves, in vengeance for what had happened to them.
-Draenei: This blue goat people came from the world of Argus, but after two of their three leaders became tempted by visions from the Burning Legion, most of their people allied themselves with the fel. This didn't sit well with the third leader, the Prophet Velen, or quite the few others, so they were chased off world alongside creatures of pure light who offered to power spaceships for them. Weird? No. The Legion chased them for a long time, until eventually they made a home on Draenor alongside the orcs, until the Legion turned many orcs into fel-crazed beasts, once more making the Draenei flee, this time to Azeroth (though the orcs made it through via a massive portal they built by secret command of the Legion, what a coincidence).
-ther Notes: There was no new class, though the Blood Elves and Draenei (Dran-Nigh) were new races. The Draenei is a paladin (warrior of the light!). And yes, the Blood Elf does heal / res the orc.
This video is from 2007. It looks amazing for the time this cinematic is made.
My favorites are the "Mists of Pandaria" and "Battle for Azeroth" but really, I love them all. As for as classes, at the moment I have 36 level 70's covering almost all classes. If I had to pick one it would be the druid, then the monk.
For context at 1:12 "For 10,000 years", please reference Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Night Elf Campaign for the history of Illidan Stormrage.
Buckle up for the next one, my favorite one for sure, insanely well made!
If the reaction to the classic and TBC is less receptive than the War Within. It's because the Blizz team didn't really hit their stride on these cinematic until Wrath. I'm so pumped for your Wrath, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion reactions. Classic is my most beloved version of the game but the cinematic for it and TBC was pretty meh in comparison to the rest. Your gonna have a field day going forward with these.
And to add to some comments here: Legion and Battle for Azeroth had quite a few lore heavy cinematics, some to promote the expansions and some in-game.
It's so much fun to see you viewing these cinematics for the first time!
Oh boy I'm so excited for him to see Illidan!