🟩If you have a suggestion or a piece of content with an amazing story, please let me know, I would love to see it! ============================================================================================== ► Want to be a filmmaker/storyteller/writer? These books will help you! Links in the description. ►►Patreon: [AD FREE, EARLY ACCESS, EXCLUSIVE & EXTENDED] www.patreon.com/KaiZammit ►►►Merch - www.kaizammit.com/ ==============================================================================================
Destiny 2 had a 10 year long story about the light and dark The "end" of this story came in the most recent expansion I would pive to see you react to: destiny 2 the final shape
I'd love you watching/reacting to Destiny 2's Last stand of the Gunslinger cinematic. The "camera work" has always been phenomenal, the visuals look cool and their music/sound design is out of this world. I'm really wondering how much/what parts of the themes and story come across to a filmmaker V fan.
To continue the Halo streak, have you considered reacting to some Red vs Blue? In particular, Monty Oum's work around season 10 is an excellent showcase of both Halo content and animated fight scenes.
The battle for azeroth cinematics 'old soldier' 'lost honor' 'safe haven' 'reckoning' and ofc the announcement trailer, are probably my favorite wow cinematics ever. Super excited to see you cover these.
The orc's kid has a tragic story that goes back to the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion released in 2008! That expansion had Blizzard's first ever InGame cinematic, "The Wrathgate". During that The Alliance and The Horde both assault a gate into the Lich Kings citadel. The leader of the Alliance army was Bolvar Fordragon and the leader of the Horde was Dranosh Saurfang, the son of the Orc in this cinematic. The son is knocked down and killed by the Lich King and is later raised in Undeath and becomes a mind controlled puppet. Us players face off against him in the final raid (Ruby Sanctum doesn't count, fight me) and we kill him. If you play as the Alliance, Saurfang and another Horde character appears and the Alliance NPCs are ready to attack, but the Alliance leader (Varian Wrynn) tells the guards to step back. The orc is no threat. It is a father there to grieve his son, and as a father to another Varian lets Saurfang retrieve the body of his dead son. The cut in this cinematic to the son on the ice is a harsh reference back to that moment when Saurfang is able to retrieve and grieve his son. Now context, here's an orphaned troll youth who look up to Saurfang as a bit of an idol and possibly as a fatherfigure, and in that Saurfang sees a bit of his own son, so when he says "live another day" it hits as if it's Saurfang's son telling him to not give up but to live another day. Sidetrack, "The Wrathgate" was directed by Terran Gregory who made a fan-video set in World of Warcraft using InGame assets. He attended BlizzCon and was able to speak to one of the devs. When the dev realized he was the one whohad made that fan video he wa amazed and said the devs had all passed that cinematic around the office because they liked it so much! He was told to apply and was hired for the Cinematics team. Terran is kinda seen by the players as a guarantee that the stuff will be good. If Terran hypes it before release, players listen.
Went into a bookstore to mindlessly drone about after a few drinks at a bar next door and when I walked in Christie Golden was doing a book signing for " Before the Storm" and Terran was there with her. I was so stoked, I had no idea they would be there for a singing and I was planning on buying the book anyway because BFA was coming out soon. Got my book signed and then had a great convo with Terran on how much the WoW cinematics have been something I always look forward to and to this day go back and watch (much like this reaction lol). Unrelated to the video but thought I'd share a cool experience!
@@kaizammit love the reactions and in depth analysis brother, can't wait for the rest of the Saurfang cinematic reactions, they are some of my favorites!
Terran Gregory the Cinematic Director for Blizzard, has always had his team nail the perfection of their cinematics. He's one of my favorite people who still work at Blizzard today, he's such a nice down to earth guy.
You do the best breakdown analysis out of any filmmakers that I watch - bar none. I like how you don't pause the video while it's first playing, you take it in and enjoy it, instead of pausing and talking for minutes at a time. People who pause a lot like that, lose my attention to the emotions to the videos you watch. Thanks as always.
I appreciate that! I have to experience it for how it was made first, absolutely! Even though I'm talking out loud when watching, I'm enjoying it still because I'm still dialled in. I'm glad you liked the video!
There is a short prequel to this series called "Warbringers: Sylvanas," in a simpler (but very effective) art style - a series of stills with character voiceover. Whether you react to it or watch it on your own, I would strongly recommend giving it a watch. It provides some very valuable story context for what is coming in this series. Very much enjoying your breakdowns so far. :)
Overlord Saurfang is an old Orc, his generation still remembers their old tribal traditions before they came to this planet. Painting your face white is a death mask, it's like announcing you plan on dying in battle soon. They may do this out of bravado, or shame. Saurfang is attempting to punish himself for what he's done, he followed a Tyrant (the elf lady who burned that tree killed thousands of innocent civilians, with his help). He removed his armor and approached the enemy front line seeking the death that's avoided him for years.
It's a little thing, but Warcraft gives it's elves those eyebrows to make them more dystinct from all the other fantasy elves. Small details can give flavor, changing just another version of old trope into its own thing and I imagine it helps a great deal when people can tell just at a glance: "Yep, that's from this IP".
Its an incredible joy to listen to you talk about my favorite cinematics of all time. And your appreciation of music is making me incredibly happy. Music is actually the reason I started playing the game 16 years ago and didnt stop since. Even their shorts like - Warbringers series,Harbingers,Lords of war - all of it,is incredible. I wish more than anything to have those shorts released again before the new expansion.
a bit of background for this one, sylvanas (the woman in the flashback), who is leading the horde at this point, burned down the city at the second world tree, teldrassil. that event basically kickstarted this war. before this there was an uneasy peace between the horde and alliance, and teldrassil was a very important alliance location.
To add nuance: The World Tree Teldrassil was the home of the Night Elf race in the game. They lived among its branches and the tree was big enough for them to have entire cities and small villages! When Sylvanas called to burn the tree she burned almost an entire race into extinction, thousands of not tens of thousands. The players of The Alliance can do a quest where we all wake up there and next to us is a Mage holding open a Portal with Night Elves jumping through it to safety. We get a quest to save 999 elves and a 3 minute timer. We can save maybe 10-20 elves in that time and after that we as players must escape or we are told to evacuate as well or we will die. The Mage holiding the portal however decides to stay to keep the portal as long as they can to hopefully be able to save a few more civillian elves. I'll admit I'm not one to easily empathize with game characters (more moved by cinematics than InGame quests) but the way they designed this quest and the NPC dialogue did really hit me hard.
@@Ferdawoon I quit WoW with Cataclysm, and I've more or less fallen behind on the lore, but thank you for sharing this. Even just hearing your account of it was stirring up some emotions, and now I may need to go watch some playthrough videos for the story.
I remember when the short Warbringers: Sylvanas came out, I hadn't paid attention to WoW since cataclysm, but when I watched it I was almost nauseous with horror. I'd been a Night Elf main back when I played and I can still picture every part of Teldrassil, I was genuinely speechless to see it burn.
The Burning of Teldrassil is one of the defining moments in Warcraft lore, with repercussions going far beyond the _Battle for Azeroth_ expansion. We don't get a full story resolution until the end of _Dragonflight,_ two expansions later. Saurfang is rightly horrified by what Sylvanas did, and it shakes him to such a degree that he nearly loses his loyalty to the Horde and seeks an honorable death right there on the spot. The Troll, Zekhan (aka Zappy Boi, a fan favorite characters), reminds him why he really fights for it.
I've been a part of this since Warcraft 3 came out. I can feel the tension, the desperation, the hopelessness.. the tired feeling of fighting with no end in sight. I absolutely love Varok Saurfang (The old Orc) That burning tree?.. Teldrassil, Night elf Capitol. So many lost.. It's always been Horde against Alliance. I've always been Horde, but I speak for all of us when I say, what Sylvanas did, was going way too far. If you ever see me. I am a Blood elf named Naerissa. I tend to wander Alliance territory and watch over new faces.
Beautiful. Now you have to watch the warcraft Lords of War and the Harbingers. These are to me a completly other style that Blizzard did. Very intrested in your view of it.
Thank you for yet again, another incredibly educational and spot on break down! I plan to have my motion artists watch these back to back once you finish this set of cinematics. I keep telling them how important camera movement and lighting is and how much it can make or break a scene.
Can't wait for your reaction/breakdown of the next part, the actual Battle For Azeroth cinematic, my absolute favorite cinematic one aswell (Definitely not my favorite expansion though but let's not go into that..) but the cinematic itself is insane. Can't wait. Hope you upload it soon!😁
I love your vidoes, I love world of warcraft and i can be like "yeah this looks nice" but i've never thought about how much works that gets put into these cinematics before watching your video, really changes the cinematic for me and makes it even better
Great Breakdown! I can only agree with other commentators. The Battle for Azeroth cinematics are masterworks. What i also really do like about these, that there is a music-Leitmotif everytime the necklace is shown. Not only in this one, but the others that are coming up too. Its so well made, I still tear up sometimes :D Thanks for the video
Ngl, I'd like to watch a 1-2 hour video of you reacting to a few of the Azeroth cinematics back to back instead of one per video. Your stuff is always so interesting.
I can't remember how many there are but I could do the final four like that and breakdown just the one. I've already recorded the self titled Battle of Azeroth. Let me know.
@@kaizammit draw it out and make your content, friend. I love the way you really broke this one down. I'd love to see the others done in similar fashion. We're here to watch your takes on these, not solely to watch someone say "oh wow that's cool" like all the other 'anyones with a webcam and mic'.
@@kaizammit Doing individual videos is fine. People who want to binge all of it back to back can still do that once the videos are all out. Make the content you want to make, and your fans will enjoy it regardless.
Another lovely video, the amount of knowledge I get as a person who knows nothing about cinematography and such is amazing! You give me so many moments of "oooh that makes sense why they did that" Can't wait to see more reactions and breakdowns of World of Warcraft cinematics, the Blizzard team is incredible. Thank you for your videos!
Another piece of detail, look at he does with his fist against his sons chest after he grasps the medallion, he does the same to the young troll later. Sign of respect. First the butt of the fist, then turn it to fingers facing inwards. They do loads of these details that are easily missed. In the war within cinematic when anduin puts the sword out, shaking, when thrall puts his chest against it, it stops shaking, Thrall is supporting him, visualized by how he supports the trembling of the sword.
Its always baffled me that Blizzard never made an actual movie, they have incredible writers, artists and directors! All of their IPs have great stories to tell!
I would settle for a Netflix/Amazon series of shorts like this covering different stories from around the world, even stuff from the past that we never actually got to see in game
After these, there was a sort of in game showing of respect and loyalty to Saurfang, Horde players started mirroring the taking off of the shoulder pads with more and more doing so over the course of these releasing. Was really cool to see folks rally behind the character in an in-game capacity through that shared idea ^^
Blizzard also has that pattern about the cinematic lighting that those that play around the start of a new story play at dawn and travers towards dusk as the story reaches its end.
funny fact, blizzard cinematic deparment leader, have said this cinematics 5-8 minute take them between 4 to 8 month from begin to end. i think they said that Legion Cinematics took them 7 month to make.
This cinematic movie is the first half of whole one. The second part is the official trailer to the expansion that starts exactly where this one finishes and starts being narrated by the elven woman you saw on his memories that was leader of the Horde at this time.
This cinematic came out shortly after "Warbringers: Sylvanas", a piece that literally tore apart the Warcraft fan community. In that one, we see Sylvanas (the elf lady) commit an atrocity so vile that it shocked everybody. Many Horde players were asking, "Wait, are we the villains now?" "Old Soldier", released on its heels, reassured everyone that Blizzard understood their pain and their questions. If Saurfang, a veteran of many wars and a symbol of what it meant to be Horde, could find hope, so could we. Even I, an Alliance player, felt the emotions here. During the expansion, Horde players get to pick whom they side with: Saurfang or Sylvanas.
An aspect of this that might be missed by a non wow player is how the deliberate use of *blue* vs *orange* light fits in with the faction war theme of the alliance (in blue, sieging the city) and the horde (in red/oranges)
I looked at the start of this when it came out and saved it for later; one thing, Zappy Boi the young troll, (and he got that nickname when nobody knew his name, then he kept showing up and had to have a name), has an interesting young face but in the close ups you see that he has a mouth that always looks smiley he is junior but he is also a bit adorable for a guy with tusks and a Mohawk. In the other video when Zappy is fighting he has his helmet down which covers his whole face so it isn't that nasty image of smiley kid blowing people up. It's interesting with the faces totally under control what they choose for main character faces. There's a lot of cinematics, trailers and a HUGE amount of cutscenes right now with War WIthin release and the quality is really variable. If you do analysis on how someone f'd up, the negative comments on this one are piled up, aimed at players, Powers Within about cool new hero talents :P th-cam.com/video/8E3VRgrQ7Ko/w-d-xo.html are sky-high, lol. OTOH this one was done in a new style and is really well received Alleria backstory th-cam.com/video/IgY1YrAHYBI/w-d-xo.html
Blizz cinematics were always amazing, every new one would be better than the last but... old soldier took it too another level, especially if you knew Saurfang's back story.
You probably have miss of these videos planned, but I'd like to suggest one more. It's from a series of videos called Warbringers. Specifically the one for Sylvanas. It will give you more context for not only Old Soldier, but much of the rest of the Battle for Azeroth. I won't spoil it, but it's also well done.
I know you have a queue of these from people in your ear about what to watch. I also know you tend to do your due diligence. There will be a lot of people that want you to watch every in-game cinematic etc. You can just watch the main ones from this expansion listed in another comment you've already replied to: "Old Soldier", "Battle For Azeroth", "Lost Honor", "Safe Haven", and "Reckoning" for the actual cinematics. I'd also recommend checking out at least "Warbringers: Azshara" as a stand-alone thing and maybe the Jaina and Sylvanas ones but the latter two are more story driven even if they're pretty awesome.
I'll have to check them out fella! Please remind me though in a comment, it helps push content from my list to the front as I can see you guys want it. Thank you for being here!
@@kaizammit I can do that but only because you asked. I don't want to seem like some rando constantly harassing you. Thanks for being candid with us here in the comments. I'll be sure to remind. You just be sure to keep making great videos. (i know you will, i'm just being silly)
Weeee, been waiting on this ☺️ love how you make me see these videoes that i know and love in a different light, thanks for that 🤗 Was a little sad that you didn’t gocmuch into detail on the characters themselves, and the story and writing. But as usual, amazing video ☺️🤗💙
It depends really on what I pull from it, I mentioned that I can see how each character is used within story writing but I don't know the characters well enough to go proper into detail. Maybe as we go on with this series I might be able to open up a little. REV IT UP!
Super happy to see you doing the old soldier and BFA cinematics. Ive been waiting for this. Also, not sure if its really your thing, but most of the WoW expansions also release a handful of 'animated' shorts leading up to the release. While not cinematics like this, the style is much more hand-painted, they might be worth looking into. If nothing more, watching some of the BFA ones (Warbringers: Sylvanas in particular) might give some context to the story if youre interested.
@@kaizammit would highly recommend Warbringers: Sylvanus, because it gives a bunch of info about Sylvanus and a bit more on the burning of Teldrassil, which they touch on briefly in this cinematic (the giant burning tree).
Huzzah! My friend, we Warcraft fans have been waiting for you to get to this series. It’s the high water mark (so far) for Blizzard’s cinematic storytelling, which is saying a lot because the real OG gamers have been fascinated by Blizzard’s cinematics since _Warcraft 2_ (1995); arguably earlier. As with _The War Within_’s trailer, it’s great gaining your filmmaker insights into this stuff because it adds more dimensionality to our lore-based appreciation. I hope you enjoy us all freaking out and overinforming you about the lore, too. Speaking of freaking out and overinforming, let me freak out and overinform. This cinematic landed on us like a hype grenade. We needed it, too - the WoW expansion it belongs to, _Battle for Azeroth_, had a troubled launch. The orcs of _Warcraft 1: Orcs & Humans_ (1994) are the unrelatable, bloodthirsty barbarian horde common to many fantasy settings. By _Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos_ (2002) the decision had been made to elevate the orcs genuinely out of the pit of caricature bad guy race and into the light of relatability. Players learned, controlling Thrall (the orc from the _War Within_ trailer) that the orcish Horde that was defeated by the alliance had first been manipulated by the demonic Burning Legion. _Warcraft 3_ lets the player follow Thrall exploring the twisted past of the orcs, their nobler ancient history, and a revivification of that older, better orcish heritage that would prove the basis for the new Horde. The Horde and the Alliance have been at a simmering state of aggression since _Warcraft 3_ - diegetically, the Third War. But they did fight together to destroy greater threats! The Lich King was ultimately destroyed by their combined and costly efforts. And in the expansion immediately before this one, _Legion_ (2016), they finally engaged and destroyed the demonic army that had corrupted the orcs and ravaged Azeroth. The Burning Legion was the world’s chief antagonistic force, and now with them gone, the next Warcraft chapter was a mystery. The devs decided to take the game back to its roots: the simmering conflict between Horde and Alliance boiled up and exploded into the Fourth War. It kicked off with that burning tree - Teldrassil, home of the Alliance’s Night Elves. This plot point had been leaked, but we saw it stark and clear in a short video (_Warbringers: Sylvannas_) as part of the expansion’s hype campaign back in July 2018, and we played through this fiery prologue in the weeks before the expansion was released in mid August. Fan reaction was mixed. You’ll see more of that sinister looking elf, Sylvannas, but suffice to say she’s a fan favorite, and some felt the decision to have her immolate a city full of innocents was a heel turn that didn’t fit her development. For others, it was a stark reminder of the pragmatic, brutal creature she has always been: a victim of atrocity, now willing to perform atrocity to avoid ever being victim again. But _Old Soldier_ came out on August 3 - long after the Beta and the hype campaign, yet before the expansion’s full release on August 14. Fans had become accustomed to artistic shorts like the _Warbringer_ series and the occasional in-engine cutscene, but we’d only ever seen actual cinematics used to launch expansions. _Old Soldier_ is chronologically before the expansion’s flagship cinematic but was released long after that one showcased at Blizzcon. We just weren’t expecting it. For some it wouldn’t be enough; but for other players, that went a long way to absorbing the shock of the new story’s direction. As it would turn out, there were several of these cinematics planned - I look forward to seeing your reaction to those, too. Varok Saurfang (Saurfang the Elder) is the orc here. He used to stand in the main valley of the Horde’s main city Orgrimmar since launch in 2004. Horde players heard him announcing that their guild had slain mighty dragons. Alliance players remember him as one of the first threats rushing to oppose them when they dared to raid Orgrimmar. Huge, powerful, festooned with spikes - if Thrall is the idealized icon of the ‘New Horde’ with all its promise, Varok Saurfang was the jagged shadow of the old, with all its savage glory and disquieting baggage. Players really got to know him first in the _Wrath of the Lich King_ (2008) expansion. His son, Dranosh, was killed in Blizzard’s first in-engine cinematic _Wrathgate_. Your followers will probably make you watch that sooner or later, but ‘Saurfang the Younger’ suffers a shockingly sudden end at Arthas’s hands and is raised as a Death Knight in the Lich King’s service. In the endgame raid to slay Arthas, the players must kill Saurfang the Younger to gain access to Arthas’ fortress. This depends on the raid’s faction. If the raid is composed of Horde Players, then Saurfang the Elder personally leads the battle against his corrupted son. He had promised his late wife their son would never be endangered or tainted - no battle could be more personal. After the battle, he recovers his son’s body and quits the field, enjoining the players to never forsake their personal honor. If the raid is composed of Alliance players, Saurfang the Younger is put down without his father present. But in a post battle outro event, we see the old soldier come to his Alliance rivals and Varian (Anduin’s father, the King of Stormwind) intervenes to permit it. Varian, too, is an old soldier, desperate to keep his son safe from a savage and corrupting world. It would be hard to miss the parallels between them, and the Alliance makes way for the orc to convey his son’s remains to rest. Whichever of these scenes is canonical for a given player, they are transported eight years back to the event when we see Saurfang embracing his fallen son in this cinematic here. Players didn’t know the troll when we saw him, and connected him to his presence as a lightning throwing shaman in the main expansion cinematic, dubbing him “Zappy Boi” and wondering what his significance would be to the story going forward. As we see in the cinematic, he’s the son of a slain father just as Saurfang is the father of a slain son. He’s also a young troll inheriting an old war. Moreover, trolls are native to Azeroth, not the orc homeworld of Draenor. He’s disconnected from the demon pacts, and the warcrimes, and the mass of death and suffering that has come before him. He’s just stepping up, trying to have honor, precisely as Saurfang has always encouraged young soldiers to have. But Varok Saurfang has been through the wringer, at this point. He is burdened by the terrible things he has done in service of the Old Horde during the early wars, back when he was a catspaw of the demons like the rest of his kin. Later he threw himself wholeheartedly into the New Horde and the idea that honor could uplift them from that past. Even carrying his son’s body in his arms, his injunction was to show honor over all things. But it’s different now. In the last expansion, _Legion_ (2016), we destroyed the demons haunting the orc’s past and everyone’s future once and for all. In the expansion before that, _Warlords of Draenor_ (2014), through a convoluted plot that involves time travel, players were given a chance to witness what the Old Horde could be like if they had turned down the demon’s bargain, but nonetheless elected to invade Azeroth for the sake of their own savagery. If _Warcraft 3_ sought to uplift the orcs by making their invasion and crimes the product of demonic corruption, these two expansions sought to invest some accountability back into their narrative. Saurfang cannot dismiss the things he did in the Old Horde. And now, with the fires licking up the sides of the elven tree full of noncombatants, he finds himself once again part of an army doing unspeakable things. ‘There is no honor in this’, he laments, before ultimately suppressing his objection in the moment rather than show disloyalty. He’s obviously been stewing on it until we see his self-destructive walk toward the enemy line here, abandoning all hope for meaning beyond a death on the battlefield. When Zekhan retrieves Saurfang’s son’s necklace from the fire and returns it to him, fans are seeing a fresh young face to the narrative inviting this old storied one to pull back from the brink of despair for the sake of what is good within the Horde even in the shadow of ongoing strife and atrocity. Alliance players in the narrative had experienced a certain privilege of possessing the classical silhouette of the good guys - noble knights, wise magi; an alliance of elves, dwarves and men against the ravening armies of destruction. The Horde’s story is always going to be more complicated than that. There is brutality and savagery in their immediate past, even in their present, in a way that it is not for the Alliance. It’s awesome as a longtime fan to watch Blizzard focus and articulate that story rather than pitch towards something safer and more comfortable. _Battle For Azeroth_ is regarded as having many of the games best cinematics but still is held in contempt by some fans. It spawned the comical situation of forums full of Horde fans wailing that they were being made to be the heel of the story (because the Devs prefer Alliance), while Alliance fans wailed that their side never got such textured and interesting narratives (because the Devs prefer Horde). But the writing team took a big swing, and I respect them for it. I think most fans, even those ultimately with some complaints, do too.
@@kaizammit I am from Canada! I am a System Administrator. Love learning about these kind of details, I love movies but typically would just say or feel like a film was 'boring' without being able to dissect what I really didn't like or liked about it! Sourfang is a really great story, you're in for a treat, they are all awesome! Excited to watch more with you!
Glad to have you here! From Canada too, that's so cool. I love hearing that some of you are literally on the other side of the world but still here with me watching, it's awesome! I hope you enjoyed that lunch break. Kai
I remember when this cinematic came out. It was really late and it popped up out if nowhere without warning. What an amazing piece. Dont even know how many times ive watched it Edit: And this actually came out way after the expansion reveal cinematic, which follows directly after this one chronologically.
Varok saurfang. Supreme commander of the might of kalimdor. High overlord of the horde. The embodiment of a true warrior. The man. The legend. And the most honorable man to ever exist❤😂
We all wish we could get a feature length film or 20 made like this. Blizzard has always been on another level with their cinematics. They would have so many possibilities of different story lines they could cover. Unfortunately the movie they released wasn't the greatest choice imo as for non warcraft people it can be very confusing. It really needed several movies to tell that story.
I would love to see your filmmaker reaction to two fan made videos on wow, Naxxaramas & Black Temple by Hurricane (top tier quality cinematics). Seeing the breakdown on the creative choices he made would be real interesting. I know, more work and videos but these are interesting :)
I don't think I've seen a rubbish one so far. I've always been blown away and differently with each one I watch and cover on the channel. Thank you for watching fella and I hope you enjoy my contribution to the video etc. Kai
very good to watch tnx for the video. but i think u made a mistake by not watching from the first one trailer back in the 2004 by then ull see how powerfull they were and how they create something that nobody cant even reach the half of it by that time.
You have dozens more of these, not 5 or 6, FYI. This isn't even an expansion announcement clip. It's just something they showed us in the game as we played it.
Hi and welcome to the channel, love that you're here and commenting. I think I said at the beginning or end, one of them that I will be covering all parts of this. Second one has already been recorded but not edited but soon! Kai
Yeah, during the Battle for Azeroth expansion Blizzard went full overdrive with the cinematics. The expansion was horse shit but the cinematics were quite exquisite. Dunno if You've seen it yet but the last one seems to be "Cinematic: “Reckoning” (Spoiler)" - it kicks ass ;) Edit - I'm talking rubbish, there are thee left. "Lost Honor", "Safe Heaven" and "Reckoning" - there's full story video called "Saurfang Mak'Gora". Cheers!
Don't worry, Wow players have always laughed at the elves ears and eyebrows, both in game and in cinematics. It's a style-choice Blizzard made, and in game you can now shorten both ears and eyebrows if you wish xD Trolls also suffer from the long ears haha
Bruh this is just a baby cinematic. You should react to the famous Wrath of the Lich King cinematic. Still hailed as one of the greatest Blizzard has ever made even though it's nearly 15 years old now give or take. The moment I saw it I instantly went out and bought the full game after just playing the old trials over and over deciding if I wanted to delve into such a large game. And I've been playing it since then.
@@kaizammit This a half ingame/rendered cinematic. In the Legion Expansion was a lady dragon, In the expansion before then one your reacting to, who died there very pretty: th-cam.com/video/P4lRZ3mJQOM/w-d-xo.html The one i refer to have updated graphics and are shown in Shadowlands the expansion after the one your currently reacting to. This is the cinematic were Lady dragon Ysera gets reborn, one of the biggest moments in that expansion: th-cam.com/video/MhV1k1l_jgc/w-d-xo.html I do belive the later cinematic embodies alot of the rollercoaster emotions this game can show when its done right.
@@Lightwish4KAh shit,I obviously went to watch them and now Im crying and blowing my nose like a little bitch🤣 it happens every damn time. I remember questing in Legion,and totally oblivious whats gonna happen,and seconds later I was a fkin mess lol. Legion was glorious! But I think these short ingame cinematics are something us players connect with,not the guys who dont know the game. But I may be wrong.
@@sonia417 Yeah i totally feel you! I know everyone was sad over the dried out content but i loved Warlords of draenor, the "Ending frostfire ridge" or "Ending Talador" killed me dead twice that expansion it was sooo goood! :D
Thanks for your reaction, but. Man you should have went for entire compilation, i know its really long (you want a movie, im suggestin one) but this video is something like you want to skip 80% of the movie and just want to get to the end. Old Soldier is great video, yes its literally calm before the storm but still, its so far ahead. There is a ton of material before that..........Imagine it like this - You want to watch entire LOTR trilogy and you just skip to the point where Aragorn and others venture into caverns of the dead. Still, no hate. Thank you for all your reactions, its always great to watch them :)
5:16 We're still waiting for that mate....the one they did make was pretty MEH. We all who are fans of WoW want the studio to release a darn animated movie....
I hate/love this cinematic, not because i think its bad or so but rather i hate how Blizzard ended saurfang or rather miss wrote this. Dont get me wrong i think this is a great portrait of saurfang but i hate that Blizzard wrote or forgot a few things over the year. For context, during wrath of the lich king saurfang lost his son and 3-4? Expansions later Sylvanas burns the NE tree and leads to the events in the cinematic. The thing that bothers me is the gossip line between Saurfang and Garrosh at the start of wrath, where saurfang tells of his past and compares the killing of draenei children with slaughtering swine, and warns Garrosh if he follows that path he would kill him himself. Where did that saurfang go?
Sylvanas Windrunner, Warchief of the Horde, in an effort to drive the Alliance from Kalimdor for good, led an offensive through the Ashenvale forest and into the region known as Darkshore. On it's northern shore where the crossing to Darnassus, the Night Elves' capital nestled high in the branches of Teldrassil the World Tree, was made, she ordered the immediate burning of the Tree. She did this to dishearten the Night Elf forces arrayed against her, to carry the tale to the rest of the Alliance to kill their hope. As a player, it was awful. You're given a quest in the midst of the burning city to rescue 982 civilians and douse 10,000 flames, and you're given three minutes to do this. Flames and screams are everywhere, and you sit there thinking there is absolutely no way this can be completed. But you try. You try anyway, because what else can you do? Maybe something will happen that will make it easier, maybe halfway through some powerful archmage will show up and portal everyone to safety. Maybe a flotilla of airships arrives and begins hosing down the burning buildings and trees. So you try, you rescue as many as you can, with hope in your heart. But there is no hope, as the timer ticks down to zero, and you've only rescued a handful of people. The fire rages out of control, and both King Genn Greymane and High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind shout at you to hurry, there's no more time, the city is lost. But you try to save that one last person. You try, and there's not enough time, so you have to escape. The sense of defeat, of hopelessness, of anger, it was real. It was palpable. There was nothing more that I, and every other Alliance player in the game wanted to do at that time than to go and raze the Undercity, the main Horde bastion in the Eastern Kingdoms, to the ground with everyone in it, combatant or no, to meet their savagery with our resolve. And that is what we did. This cinematic starts off on the eve of that battle, the Battle for Lordaeron, where the Horde sees that our resolve, our will, cannot be broken, and that they had better prepare for annihilation. The flashbacks to the Tree are Saurfang's conscience and guilt coming to the fore, as he is not prepared to fight on behalf of more genocidal monsters as he has in the past, but finds new purpose in Zekhan and his vision of what the Horde could be, to fight for that world, and ultimately to betray Sylvanas and lead a rebellion from within so that a massacre like Darnassus ever happens again. This expansion was great right up until the point where Blizzard decided we all needed to team up again to fight another BBEG and then their writing went completely into the shitter for the rest of the xpac and beyond. That's when I stopped playing. I'm an oldschool Warcraft player from the first game in 1994, and loved getting back to the WAR in Warcraft, but alas, it was not meant to be :/ These cinematics from Old Soldier up to Reckoning, and the in-game cutscenes and patch cinematics that accompanied them, were peak Warcraft. Since then it's just been... bad. Maybe not graphical quality bad, but storytelling-wise, it's awful.
It's a commercial fella, I've seen it! He wrote into them with his idea, good little story actually. The lighting is pretty basic visually too, nothing fancy.
Gotta say Blizzard really nails down the cinematic style trailers for World of Warcraft. Seen your breakdown of the Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle trailer. But I would recommend checking out the original trio of trailers for Elders Scrolls Online that far outshine that trailer. The Alliances ( th-cam.com/video/uq1o2VG1ogY/w-d-xo.html ) The Arrival ( th-cam.com/video/NIlFMSyIOk0/w-d-xo.html ) The Siege ( th-cam.com/video/AI4dDdw3GCo/w-d-xo.html ) There is also a supercut of these trailers called the The Three Fates ( th-cam.com/video/uuHWWC9xxmk/w-d-xo.html ). It's almost a full on mini-movie.
Blizzard has many flaws, but the cinematic department is NOT one of them. They are close to holy in the cinematic industry, they set the standard That being said, For the Dark Lady! (That's Sylvanas for you noobs:P)
I really enjoy watching them and making them plus, I teach the viewers the good stuff afterwards. Maybe if you just react and that's it but I don't do that on my channel.
![FILMMAKER REACTS: ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE | [ALL TRAILERS] | WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2ey0jzlB6l0/mqdefault.jpg)
🟩If you have a suggestion or a piece of content with an amazing story, please let me know, I would love to see it!
==============================================================================================
► Want to be a filmmaker/storyteller/writer? These books will help you! Links in the description.
►►Patreon: [AD FREE, EARLY ACCESS, EXCLUSIVE & EXTENDED] www.patreon.com/KaiZammit
►►►Merch - www.kaizammit.com/
==============================================================================================
Destiny 2 had a 10 year long story about the light and dark
The "end" of this story came in the most recent expansion I would pive to see you react to: destiny 2 the final shape
I'd love you watching/reacting to Destiny 2's Last stand of the Gunslinger cinematic. The "camera work" has always been phenomenal, the visuals look cool and their music/sound design is out of this world. I'm really wondering how much/what parts of the themes and story come across to a filmmaker V fan.
To continue the Halo streak, have you considered reacting to some Red vs Blue? In particular, Monty Oum's work around season 10 is an excellent showcase of both Halo content and animated fight scenes.
Cant wait for you to breakdown the rest of World of Warcraft’s cinematics. Stellar content, thank you!
@UsherCoolOff I'll be jumping back into it soon!
The battle for azeroth cinematics 'old soldier' 'lost honor' 'safe haven' 'reckoning' and ofc the announcement trailer, are probably my favorite wow cinematics ever. Super excited to see you cover these.
I'm glad I can cover them for you and guess what, I'm excited too fella! 💪🏻🙏🏻
@@kaizammit Keep up the good work!
@@kaizammit Yeah the Battle for Azeroth is the next one chronologically, then lost honor, safe haven and Reckoning.
shame it was kinda the best of the entire expansion
The orc's kid has a tragic story that goes back to the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion released in 2008!
That expansion had Blizzard's first ever InGame cinematic, "The Wrathgate". During that The Alliance and The Horde both assault a gate into the Lich Kings citadel. The leader of the Alliance army was Bolvar Fordragon and the leader of the Horde was Dranosh Saurfang, the son of the Orc in this cinematic.
The son is knocked down and killed by the Lich King and is later raised in Undeath and becomes a mind controlled puppet. Us players face off against him in the final raid (Ruby Sanctum doesn't count, fight me) and we kill him. If you play as the Alliance, Saurfang and another Horde character appears and the Alliance NPCs are ready to attack, but the Alliance leader (Varian Wrynn) tells the guards to step back. The orc is no threat. It is a father there to grieve his son, and as a father to another Varian lets Saurfang retrieve the body of his dead son.
The cut in this cinematic to the son on the ice is a harsh reference back to that moment when Saurfang is able to retrieve and grieve his son.
Now context, here's an orphaned troll youth who look up to Saurfang as a bit of an idol and possibly as a fatherfigure, and in that Saurfang sees a bit of his own son, so when he says "live another day" it hits as if it's Saurfang's son telling him to not give up but to live another day.
Sidetrack, "The Wrathgate" was directed by Terran Gregory who made a fan-video set in World of Warcraft using InGame assets. He attended BlizzCon and was able to speak to one of the devs. When the dev realized he was the one whohad made that fan video he wa amazed and said the devs had all passed that cinematic around the office because they liked it so much! He was told to apply and was hired for the Cinematics team.
Terran is kinda seen by the players as a guarantee that the stuff will be good. If Terran hypes it before release, players listen.
Great info about the cinematic team for us oldguard and good to know lore context for those who are unaware. Nice one, thank you.
Return was an AMAZING fan machinima made using in-game assets, and Terran is a genius, he leads that team now.
Went into a bookstore to mindlessly drone about after a few drinks at a bar next door and when I walked in Christie Golden was doing a book signing for " Before the Storm" and Terran was there with her. I was so stoked, I had no idea they would be there for a singing and I was planning on buying the book anyway because BFA was coming out soon. Got my book signed and then had a great convo with Terran on how much the WoW cinematics have been something I always look forward to and to this day go back and watch (much like this reaction lol). Unrelated to the video but thought I'd share a cool experience!
@eckce that's awesome!!
@@kaizammit love the reactions and in depth analysis brother, can't wait for the rest of the Saurfang cinematic reactions, they are some of my favorites!
Terran Gregory the Cinematic Director for Blizzard, has always had his team nail the perfection of their cinematics. He's one of my favorite people who still work at Blizzard today, he's such a nice down to earth guy.
You do the best breakdown analysis out of any filmmakers that I watch - bar none. I like how you don't pause the video while it's first playing, you take it in and enjoy it, instead of pausing and talking for minutes at a time. People who pause a lot like that, lose my attention to the emotions to the videos you watch. Thanks as always.
I appreciate that! I have to experience it for how it was made first, absolutely! Even though I'm talking out loud when watching, I'm enjoying it still because I'm still dialled in. I'm glad you liked the video!
There is a short prequel to this series called "Warbringers: Sylvanas," in a simpler (but very effective) art style - a series of stills with character voiceover. Whether you react to it or watch it on your own, I would strongly recommend giving it a watch. It provides some very valuable story context for what is coming in this series. Very much enjoying your breakdowns so far. :)
Overlord Saurfang is an old Orc, his generation still remembers their old tribal traditions before they came to this planet.
Painting your face white is a death mask, it's like announcing you plan on dying in battle soon. They may do this out of bravado, or shame.
Saurfang is attempting to punish himself for what he's done, he followed a Tyrant (the elf lady who burned that tree killed thousands of innocent civilians, with his help).
He removed his armor and approached the enemy front line seeking the death that's avoided him for years.
I can not wait for you to do the next cinematic. It's one of my favourites.
Not long now fella, I've already recorded it! Thank you so much for being here and commenting. Kai
It's a little thing, but Warcraft gives it's elves those eyebrows to make them more dystinct from all the other fantasy elves. Small details can give flavor, changing just another version of old trope into its own thing and I imagine it helps a great deal when people can tell just at a glance: "Yep, that's from this IP".
Oh really, that's interesting. Quite long those bad boys.
all the battle for azeroth cinematics feel like proper movies, truly telling the story and conflict.
Its an incredible joy to listen to you talk about my favorite cinematics of all time. And your appreciation of music is making me incredibly happy. Music is actually the reason I started playing the game
16 years ago and didnt stop since.
Even their shorts like - Warbringers series,Harbingers,Lords of war - all of it,is incredible. I wish more than anything to have those shorts released again before the new expansion.
a bit of background for this one, sylvanas (the woman in the flashback), who is leading the horde at this point, burned down the city at the second world tree, teldrassil. that event basically kickstarted this war. before this there was an uneasy peace between the horde and alliance, and teldrassil was a very important alliance location.
Yeah it is basically a genocide event, where she brought an ancient race to the brink of extinsion.
To add nuance: The World Tree Teldrassil was the home of the Night Elf race in the game. They lived among its branches and the tree was big enough for them to have entire cities and small villages! When Sylvanas called to burn the tree she burned almost an entire race into extinction, thousands of not tens of thousands.
The players of The Alliance can do a quest where we all wake up there and next to us is a Mage holding open a Portal with Night Elves jumping through it to safety. We get a quest to save 999 elves and a 3 minute timer. We can save maybe 10-20 elves in that time and after that we as players must escape or we are told to evacuate as well or we will die. The Mage holiding the portal however decides to stay to keep the portal as long as they can to hopefully be able to save a few more civillian elves.
I'll admit I'm not one to easily empathize with game characters (more moved by cinematics than InGame quests) but the way they designed this quest and the NPC dialogue did really hit me hard.
@@Ferdawoon I quit WoW with Cataclysm, and I've more or less fallen behind on the lore, but thank you for sharing this. Even just hearing your account of it was stirring up some emotions, and now I may need to go watch some playthrough videos for the story.
I remember when the short Warbringers: Sylvanas came out, I hadn't paid attention to WoW since cataclysm, but when I watched it I was almost nauseous with horror. I'd been a Night Elf main back when I played and I can still picture every part of Teldrassil, I was genuinely speechless to see it burn.
The Burning of Teldrassil is one of the defining moments in Warcraft lore, with repercussions going far beyond the _Battle for Azeroth_ expansion. We don't get a full story resolution until the end of _Dragonflight,_ two expansions later.
Saurfang is rightly horrified by what Sylvanas did, and it shakes him to such a degree that he nearly loses his loyalty to the Horde and seeks an honorable death right there on the spot. The Troll, Zekhan (aka Zappy Boi, a fan favorite characters), reminds him why he really fights for it.
I've been a part of this since Warcraft 3 came out. I can feel the tension, the desperation, the hopelessness.. the tired feeling of fighting with no end in sight. I absolutely love Varok Saurfang (The old Orc)
That burning tree?.. Teldrassil, Night elf Capitol. So many lost.. It's always been Horde against Alliance. I've always been Horde, but I speak for all of us when I say, what Sylvanas did, was going way too far. If you ever see me. I am a Blood elf named Naerissa. I tend to wander Alliance territory and watch over new faces.
I love this cinematic so much, it makes me cry every time.
Beautiful. Now you have to watch the warcraft Lords of War and the Harbingers. These are to me a completly other style that Blizzard did. Very intrested in your view of it.
Man, you deserve so much more attention.
I'd like to agree haha ;D
Every time i see one of Wow cinematics i get goosebumps lol
yeees! i've been waiting for this! excited to watch this and hear your thoughts!
That's so awesome to hear! Thank you for watching and I hope you like it. Kai
You can basicly watch this as a mini movie since they have a lot of cinematics in this storyline. It´s a story from Battle for Azeroth warcampaign.
Thank you for yet again, another incredibly educational and spot on break down! I plan to have my motion artists watch these back to back once you finish this set of cinematics. I keep telling them how important camera movement and lighting is and how much it can make or break a scene.
Sounds like an exciting time for you! Thank you so much for watching, Kai
I am absolutely loving your commentary and breakdowns of these cinematics! Keep the videos coming!
Thank you so much for watching and letting me know, that's awesome!!
Can't wait for your reaction/breakdown of the next part, the actual Battle For Azeroth cinematic, my absolute favorite cinematic one aswell (Definitely not my favorite expansion though but let's not go into that..) but the cinematic itself is insane. Can't wait. Hope you upload it soon!😁
I love your vidoes, I love world of warcraft and i can be like "yeah this looks nice" but i've never thought about how much works that gets put into these cinematics before watching your video, really changes the cinematic for me and makes it even better
That's so cool to hear, thank you for letting me know and I'm glad you like the videos. Kai
Great Breakdown!
I can only agree with other commentators. The Battle for Azeroth cinematics are masterworks.
What i also really do like about these, that there is a music-Leitmotif everytime the necklace is shown. Not only in this one, but the others that are coming up too. Its so well made, I still tear up sometimes :D
Thanks for the video
Thank you so much for watching! I'll keep an eye out for that leitmotif. Thank you!
still remember when this released, and players removed their shoulderpads to stand with Saurfang, and the REAL horde
Ngl, I'd like to watch a 1-2 hour video of you reacting to a few of the Azeroth cinematics back to back instead of one per video. Your stuff is always so interesting.
I can't remember how many there are but I could do the final four like that and breakdown just the one. I've already recorded the self titled Battle of Azeroth. Let me know.
@@kaizammit Honestly even this sounds great tbh lol.
@@kaizammit draw it out and make your content, friend. I love the way you really broke this one down. I'd love to see the others done in similar fashion. We're here to watch your takes on these, not solely to watch someone say "oh wow that's cool" like all the other 'anyones with a webcam and mic'.
@@kaizammit Doing individual videos is fine. People who want to binge all of it back to back can still do that once the videos are all out. Make the content you want to make, and your fans will enjoy it regardless.
This is my first time to the channel and I’m blown away by the intricate analysis! Chef’s kiss!
Thank you so much for checking the channel out, awesome to have you here!
Super excited to see the next one! One of my favorite cutscenes, makes my hair stand up even thinking about it.
Honestly the BFA cinematics are the best Blizzard has made.
Another lovely video, the amount of knowledge I get as a person who knows nothing about cinematography and such is amazing! You give me so many moments of "oooh that makes sense why they did that" Can't wait to see more reactions and breakdowns of World of Warcraft cinematics, the Blizzard team is incredible. Thank you for your videos!
Thanks for watching and commenting, means so much!
Another piece of detail, look at he does with his fist against his sons chest after he grasps the medallion, he does the same to the young troll later. Sign of respect. First the butt of the fist, then turn it to fingers facing inwards. They do loads of these details that are easily missed. In the war within cinematic when anduin puts the sword out, shaking, when thrall puts his chest against it, it stops shaking, Thrall is supporting him, visualized by how he supports the trembling of the sword.
I loved that part in the War Within cinematic. So powerful.
Its always baffled me that Blizzard never made an actual movie, they have incredible writers, artists and directors! All of their IPs have great stories to tell!
doing a 3-10 minute cinematic and doing feature length movies are two very, very different things
It's always a budget thing!
To do a full 2 hour production of this quality is estimated to cost close to one billion $, It's just not doable yet
I would settle for a Netflix/Amazon series of shorts like this covering different stories from around the world, even stuff from the past that we never actually got to see in game
IIRC, a short cinematic like this can easily take six months for Blizzard's cinematic department to produce
After these, there was a sort of in game showing of respect and loyalty to Saurfang, Horde players started mirroring the taking off of the shoulder pads with more and more doing so over the course of these releasing. Was really cool to see folks rally behind the character in an in-game capacity through that shared idea ^^
Blizzard also has that pattern about the cinematic lighting that those that play around the start of a new story play at dawn and travers towards dusk as the story reaches its end.
funny fact, blizzard cinematic deparment leader, have said this cinematics 5-8 minute take them between 4 to 8 month from begin to end. i think they said that Legion Cinematics took them 7 month to make.
Totally not surprised!
"We shape the light" We spend our every waking hour in some form of lighting, so the better the lighting in film the more realistic it feels.
This cinematic movie is the first half of whole one. The second part is the official trailer to the expansion that starts exactly where this one finishes and starts being narrated by the elven woman you saw on his memories that was leader of the Horde at this time.
This cinematic came out shortly after "Warbringers: Sylvanas", a piece that literally tore apart the Warcraft fan community. In that one, we see Sylvanas (the elf lady) commit an atrocity so vile that it shocked everybody. Many Horde players were asking, "Wait, are we the villains now?"
"Old Soldier", released on its heels, reassured everyone that Blizzard understood their pain and their questions. If Saurfang, a veteran of many wars and a symbol of what it meant to be Horde, could find hope, so could we. Even I, an Alliance player, felt the emotions here.
During the expansion, Horde players get to pick whom they side with: Saurfang or Sylvanas.
An aspect of this that might be missed by a non wow player is how the deliberate use of *blue* vs *orange* light fits in with the faction war theme of the alliance (in blue, sieging the city) and the horde (in red/oranges)
I looked at the start of this when it came out and saved it for later; one thing, Zappy Boi the young troll, (and he got that nickname when nobody knew his name, then he kept showing up and had to have a name), has an interesting young face but in the close ups you see that he has a mouth that always looks smiley he is junior but he is also a bit adorable for a guy with tusks and a Mohawk. In the other video when Zappy is fighting he has his helmet down which covers his whole face so it isn't that nasty image of smiley kid blowing people up. It's interesting with the faces totally under control what they choose for main character faces. There's a lot of cinematics, trailers and a HUGE amount of cutscenes right now with War WIthin release and the quality is really variable. If you do analysis on how someone f'd up, the negative comments on this one are piled up, aimed at players, Powers Within about cool new hero talents :P th-cam.com/video/8E3VRgrQ7Ko/w-d-xo.html are sky-high, lol. OTOH this one was done in a new style and is really well received Alleria backstory th-cam.com/video/IgY1YrAHYBI/w-d-xo.html
Blizz cinematics were always amazing, every new one would be better than the last but... old soldier took it too another level, especially if you knew Saurfang's back story.
You probably have miss of these videos planned, but I'd like to suggest one more. It's from a series of videos called Warbringers. Specifically the one for Sylvanas. It will give you more context for not only Old Soldier, but much of the rest of the Battle for Azeroth. I won't spoil it, but it's also well done.
I know you have a queue of these from people in your ear about what to watch. I also know you tend to do your due diligence. There will be a lot of people that want you to watch every in-game cinematic etc. You can just watch the main ones from this expansion listed in another comment you've already replied to: "Old Soldier", "Battle For Azeroth", "Lost Honor", "Safe Haven", and "Reckoning" for the actual cinematics. I'd also recommend checking out at least "Warbringers: Azshara" as a stand-alone thing and maybe the Jaina and Sylvanas ones but the latter two are more story driven even if they're pretty awesome.
I'll have to check them out fella! Please remind me though in a comment, it helps push content from my list to the front as I can see you guys want it. Thank you for being here!
@@kaizammit I can do that but only because you asked. I don't want to seem like some rando constantly harassing you. Thanks for being candid with us here in the comments. I'll be sure to remind. You just be sure to keep making great videos. (i know you will, i'm just being silly)
You mentioning Bob Ross while I get a feeling of Bob Ross from you when you describe and observe the scenes.
Oh that's awesome! Happy accidents and all. Thank you for watching. Kai
Zappy boi was the best thing ever in this cinematic.
The cinematic's only get better from here on.
Weeee, been waiting on this ☺️ love how you make me see these videoes that i know and love in a different light, thanks for that 🤗
Was a little sad that you didn’t gocmuch into detail on the characters themselves, and the story and writing.
But as usual, amazing video ☺️🤗💙
It depends really on what I pull from it, I mentioned that I can see how each character is used within story writing but I don't know the characters well enough to go proper into detail. Maybe as we go on with this series I might be able to open up a little. REV IT UP!
They never disappoint, do they ?
I've not seen one that's not impressed me in someway or another. You're immediate immersed.
Super happy to see you doing the old soldier and BFA cinematics. Ive been waiting for this.
Also, not sure if its really your thing, but most of the WoW expansions also release a handful of 'animated' shorts leading up to the release. While not cinematics like this, the style is much more hand-painted, they might be worth looking into. If nothing more, watching some of the BFA ones (Warbringers: Sylvanas in particular) might give some context to the story if youre interested.
Nice I might give them ago, even if it's just for me to watch.
@@kaizammit would highly recommend Warbringers: Sylvanus, because it gives a bunch of info about Sylvanus and a bit more on the burning of Teldrassil, which they touch on briefly in this cinematic (the giant burning tree).
Love them or loathe them you can't deny that Blizz are top of their game when it comes to cinematics
Huzzah! My friend, we Warcraft fans have been waiting for you to get to this series. It’s the high water mark (so far) for Blizzard’s cinematic storytelling, which is saying a lot because the real OG gamers have been fascinated by Blizzard’s cinematics since _Warcraft 2_ (1995); arguably earlier. As with _The War Within_’s trailer, it’s great gaining your filmmaker insights into this stuff because it adds more dimensionality to our lore-based appreciation. I hope you enjoy us all freaking out and overinforming you about the lore, too.
Speaking of freaking out and overinforming, let me freak out and overinform.
This cinematic landed on us like a hype grenade. We needed it, too - the WoW expansion it belongs to, _Battle for Azeroth_, had a troubled launch.
The orcs of _Warcraft 1: Orcs & Humans_ (1994) are the unrelatable, bloodthirsty barbarian horde common to many fantasy settings. By _Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos_ (2002) the decision had been made to elevate the orcs genuinely out of the pit of caricature bad guy race and into the light of relatability. Players learned, controlling Thrall (the orc from the _War Within_ trailer) that the orcish Horde that was defeated by the alliance had first been manipulated by the demonic Burning Legion. _Warcraft 3_ lets the player follow Thrall exploring the twisted past of the orcs, their nobler ancient history, and a revivification of that older, better orcish heritage that would prove the basis for the new Horde.
The Horde and the Alliance have been at a simmering state of aggression since _Warcraft 3_ - diegetically, the Third War. But they did fight together to destroy greater threats! The Lich King was ultimately destroyed by their combined and costly efforts. And in the expansion immediately before this one, _Legion_ (2016), they finally engaged and destroyed the demonic army that had corrupted the orcs and ravaged Azeroth. The Burning Legion was the world’s chief antagonistic force, and now with them gone, the next Warcraft chapter was a mystery. The devs decided to take the game back to its roots: the simmering conflict between Horde and Alliance boiled up and exploded into the Fourth War. It kicked off with that burning tree - Teldrassil, home of the Alliance’s Night Elves. This plot point had been leaked, but we saw it stark and clear in a short video (_Warbringers: Sylvannas_) as part of the expansion’s hype campaign back in July 2018, and we played through this fiery prologue in the weeks before the expansion was released in mid August.
Fan reaction was mixed. You’ll see more of that sinister looking elf, Sylvannas, but suffice to say she’s a fan favorite, and some felt the decision to have her immolate a city full of innocents was a heel turn that didn’t fit her development. For others, it was a stark reminder of the pragmatic, brutal creature she has always been: a victim of atrocity, now willing to perform atrocity to avoid ever being victim again.
But _Old Soldier_ came out on August 3 - long after the Beta and the hype campaign, yet before the expansion’s full release on August 14. Fans had become accustomed to artistic shorts like the _Warbringer_ series and the occasional in-engine cutscene, but we’d only ever seen actual cinematics used to launch expansions. _Old Soldier_ is chronologically before the expansion’s flagship cinematic but was released long after that one showcased at Blizzcon. We just weren’t expecting it. For some it wouldn’t be enough; but for other players, that went a long way to absorbing the shock of the new story’s direction. As it would turn out, there were several of these cinematics planned - I look forward to seeing your reaction to those, too.
Varok Saurfang (Saurfang the Elder) is the orc here. He used to stand in the main valley of the Horde’s main city Orgrimmar since launch in 2004. Horde players heard him announcing that their guild had slain mighty dragons. Alliance players remember him as one of the first threats rushing to oppose them when they dared to raid Orgrimmar. Huge, powerful, festooned with spikes - if Thrall is the idealized icon of the ‘New Horde’ with all its promise, Varok Saurfang was the jagged shadow of the old, with all its savage glory and disquieting baggage.
Players really got to know him first in the _Wrath of the Lich King_ (2008) expansion. His son, Dranosh, was killed in Blizzard’s first in-engine cinematic _Wrathgate_. Your followers will probably make you watch that sooner or later, but ‘Saurfang the Younger’ suffers a shockingly sudden end at Arthas’s hands and is raised as a Death Knight in the Lich King’s service. In the endgame raid to slay Arthas, the players must kill Saurfang the Younger to gain access to Arthas’ fortress.
This depends on the raid’s faction. If the raid is composed of Horde Players, then Saurfang the Elder personally leads the battle against his corrupted son. He had promised his late wife their son would never be endangered or tainted - no battle could be more personal. After the battle, he recovers his son’s body and quits the field, enjoining the players to never forsake their personal honor. If the raid is composed of Alliance players, Saurfang the Younger is put down without his father present. But in a post battle outro event, we see the old soldier come to his Alliance rivals and Varian (Anduin’s father, the King of Stormwind) intervenes to permit it. Varian, too, is an old soldier, desperate to keep his son safe from a savage and corrupting world. It would be hard to miss the parallels between them, and the Alliance makes way for the orc to convey his son’s remains to rest. Whichever of these scenes is canonical for a given player, they are transported eight years back to the event when we see Saurfang embracing his fallen son in this cinematic here.
Players didn’t know the troll when we saw him, and connected him to his presence as a lightning throwing shaman in the main expansion cinematic, dubbing him “Zappy Boi” and wondering what his significance would be to the story going forward. As we see in the cinematic, he’s the son of a slain father just as Saurfang is the father of a slain son. He’s also a young troll inheriting an old war. Moreover, trolls are native to Azeroth, not the orc homeworld of Draenor. He’s disconnected from the demon pacts, and the warcrimes, and the mass of death and suffering that has come before him. He’s just stepping up, trying to have honor, precisely as Saurfang has always encouraged young soldiers to have.
But Varok Saurfang has been through the wringer, at this point. He is burdened by the terrible things he has done in service of the Old Horde during the early wars, back when he was a catspaw of the demons like the rest of his kin. Later he threw himself wholeheartedly into the New Horde and the idea that honor could uplift them from that past. Even carrying his son’s body in his arms, his injunction was to show honor over all things. But it’s different now. In the last expansion, _Legion_ (2016), we destroyed the demons haunting the orc’s past and everyone’s future once and for all. In the expansion before that, _Warlords of Draenor_ (2014), through a convoluted plot that involves time travel, players were given a chance to witness what the Old Horde could be like if they had turned down the demon’s bargain, but nonetheless elected to invade Azeroth for the sake of their own savagery.
If _Warcraft 3_ sought to uplift the orcs by making their invasion and crimes the product of demonic corruption, these two expansions sought to invest some accountability back into their narrative. Saurfang cannot dismiss the things he did in the Old Horde. And now, with the fires licking up the sides of the elven tree full of noncombatants, he finds himself once again part of an army doing unspeakable things. ‘There is no honor in this’, he laments, before ultimately suppressing his objection in the moment rather than show disloyalty. He’s obviously been stewing on it until we see his self-destructive walk toward the enemy line here, abandoning all hope for meaning beyond a death on the battlefield.
When Zekhan retrieves Saurfang’s son’s necklace from the fire and returns it to him, fans are seeing a fresh young face to the narrative inviting this old storied one to pull back from the brink of despair for the sake of what is good within the Horde even in the shadow of ongoing strife and atrocity. Alliance players in the narrative had experienced a certain privilege of possessing the classical silhouette of the good guys - noble knights, wise magi; an alliance of elves, dwarves and men against the ravening armies of destruction. The Horde’s story is always going to be more complicated than that. There is brutality and savagery in their immediate past, even in their present, in a way that it is not for the Alliance. It’s awesome as a longtime fan to watch Blizzard focus and articulate that story rather than pitch towards something safer and more comfortable.
_Battle For Azeroth_ is regarded as having many of the games best cinematics but still is held in contempt by some fans. It spawned the comical situation of forums full of Horde fans wailing that they were being made to be the heel of the story (because the Devs prefer Alliance), while Alliance fans wailed that their side never got such textured and interesting narratives (because the Devs prefer Horde). But the writing team took a big swing, and I respect them for it. I think most fans, even those ultimately with some complaints, do too.
Dude, that was a lot to read but I appreciate it! haha.
@@kaizammit haha, well thanks for taking the time. I banged into the TH-cam comment cap and had to cut it down.
Guess imma cry on my lunch at work, aight im in it
You're on lunch! What do you do and where are you from? I enjoy learning about you guys.
@@kaizammit I am from Canada! I am a System Administrator.
Love learning about these kind of details, I love movies but typically would just say or feel like a film was 'boring' without being able to dissect what I really didn't like or liked about it!
Sourfang is a really great story, you're in for a treat, they are all awesome! Excited to watch more with you!
Boys cry, men don't.
Glad to have you here! From Canada too, that's so cool. I love hearing that some of you are literally on the other side of the world but still here with me watching, it's awesome! I hope you enjoyed that lunch break. Kai
@@OriginalPuro sure thing tough guy 👍
I remember when this cinematic came out. It was really late and it popped up out if nowhere without warning. What an amazing piece. Dont even know how many times ive watched it
Edit: And this actually came out way after the expansion reveal cinematic, which follows directly after this one chronologically.
Varok saurfang. Supreme commander of the might of kalimdor. High overlord of the horde. The embodiment of a true warrior. The man. The legend. And the most honorable man to ever exist❤😂
We all wish we could get a feature length film or 20 made like this. Blizzard has always been on another level with their cinematics. They would have so many possibilities of different story lines they could cover. Unfortunately the movie they released wasn't the greatest choice imo as for non warcraft people it can be very confusing. It really needed several movies to tell that story.
Shaun of the dead does great going to the shop scenes and both times they use it to foreshadow and reveal the situation
Absolutely!
@@kaizammit omg omg omg they replied :p
Why would I not? I try to be active in the comment section.
@@kaizammit just being weird and fanboying :) quite enjoy your videos and learning quite abit from them
Epic to hear! Love it!
I would love to see your filmmaker reaction to two fan made videos on wow, Naxxaramas & Black Temple by Hurricane (top tier quality cinematics). Seeing the breakdown on the creative choices he made would be real interesting. I know, more work and videos but these are interesting :)
If you want a good thing anything from ghost of tsushima either cutscenes or trailers its all amazing
Nice video!
Thank you!
I love zappy boi ❤ great video
I miss these cinematics. It was such a big deal when these were released. Bllizz just stopped making them.
Love blizzard's cinematics
I don't think I've seen a rubbish one so far. I've always been blown away and differently with each one I watch and cover on the channel. Thank you for watching fella and I hope you enjoy my contribution to the video etc. Kai
very good to watch tnx for the video. but i think u made a mistake by not watching from the first one trailer back in the 2004 by then ull see how powerfull they were and how they create something that nobody cant even reach the half of it by that time.
Just FYI not two Orcs - one (the 'boy') is a Troll.
The blue one is a Troll!? No way, thank you for telling me.
You have dozens more of these, not 5 or 6, FYI. This isn't even an expansion announcement clip. It's just something they showed us in the game as we played it.
Guys, hi i am new and loving this channel, has Kai said if he will watch more WoW cinematics? :Be_blessed:
Hi and welcome to the channel, love that you're here and commenting. I think I said at the beginning or end, one of them that I will be covering all parts of this. Second one has already been recorded but not edited but soon! Kai
@kaizammit ahhh alright! Sorry I probably forgot or missed it 😅 thank you! Have fun watching!
Yeah, during the Battle for Azeroth expansion Blizzard went full overdrive with the cinematics. The expansion was horse shit but the cinematics were quite exquisite. Dunno if You've seen it yet but the last one seems to be "Cinematic: “Reckoning” (Spoiler)" - it kicks ass ;)
Edit - I'm talking rubbish, there are thee left. "Lost Honor", "Safe Heaven" and "Reckoning" - there's full story video called "Saurfang Mak'Gora". Cheers!
Don't worry, Wow players have always laughed at the elves ears and eyebrows, both in game and in cinematics. It's a style-choice Blizzard made, and in game you can now shorten both ears and eyebrows if you wish xD Trolls also suffer from the long ears haha
If you like good lighting, your mind is going to get blown by Lost Honor. Called it!
Alright, you've sold me on that one!
Bruh this is just a baby cinematic. You should react to the famous Wrath of the Lich King cinematic. Still hailed as one of the greatest Blizzard has ever made even though it's nearly 15 years old now give or take. The moment I saw it I instantly went out and bought the full game after just playing the old trials over and over deciding if I wanted to delve into such a large game. And I've been playing it since then.
I would die to let Kai see World of warcraft - Ysera Reborn cinematic... its the most emotional shit that killed me dead to death 5 times
Is that part of these cinematics? You'll have to link me it and explain where it fits in the timeline. I can barely hold on as it is haha.
@@kaizammit This a half ingame/rendered cinematic.
In the Legion Expansion was a lady dragon, In the expansion before then one your reacting to, who died there very pretty:
th-cam.com/video/P4lRZ3mJQOM/w-d-xo.html
The one i refer to have updated graphics and are shown in Shadowlands the expansion after the one your currently reacting to.
This is the cinematic were Lady dragon Ysera gets reborn, one of the biggest moments in that expansion: th-cam.com/video/MhV1k1l_jgc/w-d-xo.html
I do belive the later cinematic embodies alot of the rollercoaster emotions this game can show when its done right.
They are two short clips if you just wanna watch something pretty by your self or so.
Sadly i cant find them in 4k
@@Lightwish4KAh shit,I obviously went to watch them and now Im crying and blowing my nose like a little bitch🤣 it happens every damn time. I remember questing in Legion,and totally oblivious whats gonna happen,and seconds later I was a fkin mess lol. Legion was glorious!
But I think these short ingame cinematics are something us players connect with,not the guys who dont know the game. But I may be wrong.
@@sonia417 Yeah i totally feel you! I know everyone was sad over the dried out content but i loved Warlords of draenor, the "Ending frostfire ridge" or "Ending Talador" killed me dead twice that expansion it was sooo goood! :D
Thanks for your reaction, but. Man you should have went for entire compilation, i know its really long (you want a movie, im suggestin one) but this video is something like you want to skip 80% of the movie and just want to get to the end. Old Soldier is great video, yes its literally calm before the storm but still, its so far ahead. There is a ton of material before that..........Imagine it like this - You want to watch entire LOTR trilogy and you just skip to the point where Aragorn and others venture into caverns of the dead. Still, no hate. Thank you for all your reactions, its always great to watch them :)
5:16 We're still waiting for that mate....the one they did make was pretty MEH. We all who are fans of WoW want the studio to release a darn animated movie....
I hate/love this cinematic, not because i think its bad or so but rather i hate how Blizzard ended saurfang or rather miss wrote this.
Dont get me wrong i think this is a great portrait of saurfang but i hate that Blizzard wrote or forgot a few things over the year.
For context, during wrath of the lich king saurfang lost his son and 3-4? Expansions later Sylvanas burns the NE tree and leads to the events in the cinematic. The thing that bothers me is the gossip line between Saurfang and Garrosh at the start of wrath, where saurfang tells of his past and compares the killing of draenei children with slaughtering swine, and warns Garrosh if he follows that path he would kill him himself. Where did that saurfang go?
Sylvanas Windrunner, Warchief of the Horde, in an effort to drive the Alliance from Kalimdor for good, led an offensive through the Ashenvale forest and into the region known as Darkshore. On it's northern shore where the crossing to Darnassus, the Night Elves' capital nestled high in the branches of Teldrassil the World Tree, was made, she ordered the immediate burning of the Tree. She did this to dishearten the Night Elf forces arrayed against her, to carry the tale to the rest of the Alliance to kill their hope.
As a player, it was awful. You're given a quest in the midst of the burning city to rescue 982 civilians and douse 10,000 flames, and you're given three minutes to do this. Flames and screams are everywhere, and you sit there thinking there is absolutely no way this can be completed. But you try. You try anyway, because what else can you do? Maybe something will happen that will make it easier, maybe halfway through some powerful archmage will show up and portal everyone to safety. Maybe a flotilla of airships arrives and begins hosing down the burning buildings and trees. So you try, you rescue as many as you can, with hope in your heart.
But there is no hope, as the timer ticks down to zero, and you've only rescued a handful of people. The fire rages out of control, and both King Genn Greymane and High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind shout at you to hurry, there's no more time, the city is lost. But you try to save that one last person. You try, and there's not enough time, so you have to escape. The sense of defeat, of hopelessness, of anger, it was real. It was palpable. There was nothing more that I, and every other Alliance player in the game wanted to do at that time than to go and raze the Undercity, the main Horde bastion in the Eastern Kingdoms, to the ground with everyone in it, combatant or no, to meet their savagery with our resolve.
And that is what we did. This cinematic starts off on the eve of that battle, the Battle for Lordaeron, where the Horde sees that our resolve, our will, cannot be broken, and that they had better prepare for annihilation. The flashbacks to the Tree are Saurfang's conscience and guilt coming to the fore, as he is not prepared to fight on behalf of more genocidal monsters as he has in the past, but finds new purpose in Zekhan and his vision of what the Horde could be, to fight for that world, and ultimately to betray Sylvanas and lead a rebellion from within so that a massacre like Darnassus ever happens again.
This expansion was great right up until the point where Blizzard decided we all needed to team up again to fight another BBEG and then their writing went completely into the shitter for the rest of the xpac and beyond. That's when I stopped playing. I'm an oldschool Warcraft player from the first game in 1994, and loved getting back to the WAR in Warcraft, but alas, it was not meant to be :/
These cinematics from Old Soldier up to Reckoning, and the in-game cutscenes and patch cinematics that accompanied them, were peak Warcraft. Since then it's just been... bad. Maybe not graphical quality bad, but storytelling-wise, it's awful.
If you havent yet, the League of Legends has some more great cinematics, Rise is my favorite. Great story
I think I've covered that one already, on the channel.
Can you react to the Ed Sheeran Heinz ketchup commercial?
It's a commercial fella, I've seen it! He wrote into them with his idea, good little story actually. The lighting is pretty basic visually too, nothing fancy.
Please please please react to Gears of War E-Day trailer 🙏🙏🔥
The problem is the cut scenes the cinematics are incredible in game - how could they ruin it with a movie that was so poorly done. It crushed me.
Gotta say Blizzard really nails down the cinematic style trailers for World of Warcraft. Seen your breakdown of the Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle trailer. But I would recommend checking out the original trio of trailers for Elders Scrolls Online that far outshine that trailer.
The Alliances ( th-cam.com/video/uq1o2VG1ogY/w-d-xo.html )
The Arrival ( th-cam.com/video/NIlFMSyIOk0/w-d-xo.html )
The Siege ( th-cam.com/video/AI4dDdw3GCo/w-d-xo.html )
There is also a supercut of these trailers called the The Three Fates ( th-cam.com/video/uuHWWC9xxmk/w-d-xo.html ). It's almost a full on mini-movie.
I'll have to check them out, thank you for the link!
Blizzard has many flaws, but the cinematic department is NOT one of them.
They are close to holy in the cinematic industry, they set the standard
That being said, For the Dark Lady! (That's Sylvanas for you noobs:P)
Man i forgot how good these cinematics was, shame the expansion sucked
+
Blizzard always was great with cinenmatics, but the BoA ones were and still are just insane. Shame they basicly are the best of the entire expansion.
wow lets talk over everything. wow lets comment over every damn thing.
Eh?
I suggest not making "reacts" videos, as those are the lowest form of youtube content
I really enjoy watching them and making them plus, I teach the viewers the good stuff afterwards. Maybe if you just react and that's it but I don't do that on my channel.