Alleria is DEAD... Long Live Alleria | Light & Shadow Cinematic Analysis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- World of Warcraft War Within launch draws near and we have a brand new TOTALLY new type of cinematic in the style of Castlevania and Vox Machina, telling the story of Alleria. her battles with Sylvanas against the trolls and orcs in the second war yto defend silvbermoon, her abandonment of her son Arator and her embrace of the Shadow. Join Taliesin for a deep dive cinematic analysis as he discusses the themes, references and techniques that make this animation so special
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Alleria achieved the "Shave and a haircut" achievement.
0:03 seconds in and I know Tali sped out of the shower for this
0:30 oh lo and behold
@@nothisismyhandle Taliredsin
throws on a shirt ... oh i need something else... throws on another shirt. that'll do
Illidan would be So proud, She is *SO* prepared.
Why would he care? 😂
I assume they just commented this because it was the highest voted comment on the actual video..
Probably a bot
If only if he was here to see her.
@@insulareshdxo9454 because Illidan hates the Legion, of course.
Illidaddi has a tear in his eye right now.
I noticed how, with the theme of "If I had known, would I have done things differently?" with the 3 scenarios Alleria thinks through, it plays into why she seeks out the voids "know all outcome, good or bad" and shuns the light's approach of "follow without knowing"
The light is reflective of Christianity, while the void is reflective of Psychology.
Finding an error in how the light tends to make decisions does look like what she is doing. Right now I am thinking of it as a meta of old school entertainment storytelling.
@@neodhani an ad referencing St. Paul asking me if I ever had to do things I did not like to do just popped up as I came back from viewing the comments. Hats off to the Serendipity.
@neodhani - the void is reflective of despair and torment and its power is in spreading it..
you know what psychology is empty of? Any moral foundation..
- Christianity is a total framework of moral principles and virtues to live by, many false religions and hippies try to copy cat the virtues and claim them for themselves but it’s the OG moral thought. Even zealotry is tied with protecting a moral society from evil forces.
- No one thinks that wow’s void magic is an analogy for psychology lmao!
But yes holy magic is analogous with Christianity because it is a moral guiding “light” for your soul against biblical defined evils of human behaviors (demons). You must understand that in real life much of our society in the west is built upon Christianity whether you like it or not or even care to understand. How many video games have a “good/evil” system based on heaven & hell, holy kingdom vs barbarism? You are not exempt or “above” human morality, Christianity changed the world from tribal savagery and gave us high trust societies we enjoy today. Educate yourself.
The Windrunner sisters (actually, the whole family) just can't seem to catch a break.
They all have a thing for manflesh, none of them ever fancied elves.
nope, not really. but at least Alleria managed to get a family of her own.
They do like their man flesh though, they all fancy humans and not elves
@@UltimateGamerCC Vereesa?
@@Metsa25 Who's Vereesa?
I agree that it's perfect for WoW. When Metzen does his hype man "routine" and talks about orcs and war it just gives you a very 80s cartoon vibe.
She’s sacrificed everything! What have YOU given?!
My illidari approves
She IS Prepared!
At least she actually sacrificed something.
I love that Blizzard paid an adspot to play this on the Critical Role break last night. Travis Willingham being the CEO and cast member. Not to mention being one of the writers of their own animated series Legends of Vox Machina.
Also great that soooo many members of CR are very important in Warcraft, specially Matt, Liam and Laura
@@urbannusTravis is the voice of Tyralion, who does have spoken lines in the cinematic so I think that's the main reason in this particular case but yes
@@JoULove I never knew that! So cool!
@@JoULove more importantly, the Voice of Gazlowe! lol (okay maybe not more important right *now*)
@@EyeKahnography grindin' gears
Discipline priests have been mastering shadow magic for ages without becoming insane or otherwise falling away from the light
Light in one hand, shadow in the other and their body in between as a buffer. Mind, body and soul.
22:13 "it's kind of cheap, that shot." Every parent watching this scene 😭😭😭
The "Saturday morning cartoon" art style is more or less from the same era as Wacraft 2 (and we actually see this kind of art style, albeit a bit simpler, in the cancelled Warcraft Adventures game that was suppsed to cover events in the interim between the Second War and the Third War). Seeing events of the Second War depicted in that art style felt so right.
It is so much better than the typical Netflix anime/cartoon aesthetic. I hope they never go the lazy Netflix route of animation. That stuff sucks so bad. I know they look similar, but this WoW one looks like the proper version of it.
Sylvanas the Purple is going to come back as Sylvanas the White, like Gandalf 🤣
Not my shadow hunter
Rip Vol'Jin.
You were done dirty, and we'll never forget
Too bad Vol'jin was born with the one trait Blizzard hates! Being a guy.
@@JeanDefeedon’t google blizzard and discrimination.
The catapult does not destroy a meeting stone, it's one of the runestones that create the shield defense of the city. Arthas has to destroy all of them to reach the sunwell in WC3
You're right but it's a joke haha
@4F0xSake do you think I was oblivious to that lol, come on. Why do people always have to "it was a joke" like they think they're saying something. Chill
The scene where Arathor is pulled away from her is so painful and sad, it made me cry twice already. 😢
As a parent myself, I bawled at that scene.
Indeed it was very sad seeing baby Arathor cry not seeing his parents again.
Arator
i had big anxiety waking up this morning, so i decided to watch old T&E content. i’m so happy this is here now! thank you guys so much :,)
Saaaaaame
I dont even know, how Alleria still had her old bow, as it is still in my (and tausends of other hunters) Hands!
we have like 5 good bow models that matches some armour and 4 of them is a legion artifact skin 😂
You always do such a great job breaking these down with an excellent eye for tiny thematic details. Enjoy the camping trip!
10:20
It was so cool that they made a deep-cut reference to the Runestone at Caer Darrow.
This was a weird piece of Warcraft lore. In Warcraft 2, it was said that this runestone protected Quel'thalas. They are kinda like protective wards. So the first phase of the Horde's plan to invade is to remove this from the equation. But they didn't destroy this runestone. Instead, Gul'dan took it, studied it, and from that, he developed the procedure that turns two-headed ogres into ogre magi. Parts of the runestone became embedded onto buildings called Altars of Storms, where this procedure is done. (I think this was retconned by Chronicle, because ogres in Draenor always had the ability to become magi.)
Thrall continued using Altars of Storms in Warcraft 3 but removed all warlock influence in their construction. They were instead used for shamanic purposes.
And another weird lore tidbit is that in the Warcraft 2 manual, the Runestone at Caer Darrow was mentioned to be created by "elven druids," which wouldn't make sense because Quel'thalas didn't have druids. This piece of lore must have been written when elves were just elves in the lore and the complicated elven history that we have now hadn't been written yet.
So many little lore tidbits like this after 20 years. It's wild how much I've forgotten. I used to know all this. It slipped my mind. Cool comment, ty!
They also show up while questing in Eversong Woods as a level 10 or so Blood Elf.
Turalyon looks like he's ready to serve the Emperor and purge some heretics.
Hey Tali! You can use the < and > keys on your keyboard to go forward or backwards frame-by-frame in youtube. Generally you have to push it twice per frame.
I think the "would I have done things differently?" bit is a great foil to her void powers. We've been told the Void is a power and perspective that sees all possibilities and regards then as equally valid.
Her pondering these what if's, rejecting them, and doubling down on her convictions seems like a defiance of that. Whether it's her triumphing over her doubts and the madness they could bring in, or just staving off the encroaching influence of the void, I think they make a really cool counterpoint.
I always watch cinematics at their release and think, "Oh, that's neat", but then wait for T&E to explain what my mortal eyes missed, like the torches on the map scene and the premise of the campfire and her memories. Thanks for being the WoW YT channel! Enjoy camping :D
She’s not rescuing the souls of the night elves in the Maw. She is rescuing ALL souls in the Maw. The new Arbiter, Pelios, believes EVERY soul deserves another chance.
Pelios 😂
We spent 5 years of wowtime in the Shadowlands and you still don't know his name 😂😂
Vol'jin was the shadow hunter. He did not live long 😢
34:38 his face is half light, half shadow. cast by his mother's statue
It would be cool to see the two sisters succeed in defending quelthalas this time because they were TOGETHER.
"That poor meeting stone. Now they will have to run to that dungeon" 🤣🤣🤣
As an American, I can affirm that describing the style as "American Saturday morning cartoon" style is a perfect description.
I honestly fucking LOVE these cinematic breakdowns
In 10:20 I believe it is no meeting stone but some rune/way stone that was at some point in history used by Gul'dan and Cho'gall (not sure about him though). I think it is located in southwest part of Eversong Woods.
@40:00 more about Artus. I remember Nobbel87 did a commentary on a novel about Arthas a long time ago. Arthas' horse died, and he made a vow then and there to do anything possible to help anyone in need so they wouldn't die on him. That was the driving force behind all his decisions, including the culling of Stratlom and finally, willingly taking up Frostmorne even after being warned of the curse.
I love that we get these new WoW cinematics and sometimes they are in a new art style, occasionally because it fits a short series for an expansion/patch and occasionally because it tells the story better. I would LOVE to see a 'History of WoW' through this art style as a full series, each episode following a new character from the 'main cast' and leading to the introduction of the next characters point of view and story, but I would want Alleria to have a proper full episode and the series should follow historic moments leading up to 'The Last Titan'.
Start with Eonar and the 2nd would be Tyr, because I think the best story will show us Eonar receiving the world tree branch from Elune and the true nature of Aman'Thuls anger ripping it out (I still think the world tree might have become Y'Shaarj) and how Tyr was made and what purpose Aggramar gave him that lead him to experiment on dragons and eventually side with life (known to be the bane of Order as 'Life is chaos') and his brief jump-cut to the present where he is restored (with a 'to be continued...') before moving on to... a flashback to the first world tree and the race emerging from the branches (maybe the Harronir? Give us a random leader at the time to follow their story) leading to the Dark Trolls on the shore of the Well of Eternity.
Honestly, the episodes seem obvious, but I wouldn't want the series unless we could get all the answers, so they would either need to wait a couple expansions OR release them out of order, but give us the number as they release so new players can follow along. This would literally be perfect for new players and as a great 'wrap-up' to the Titan story arc we've been on thus far in WoWs corner of Blizzards universe. Since more story is to follow, a series like this would be great to avoid the problems I find in story heavy games like FF14... who did a whole world revamp and there is no way for a new player to break into the worlds history. This game is rich with history, but giving us a 20-something episode long series of 23ish minute videos (standard anime/season length) to summarize solid set in stone lore that the players AND devs could reference from here on out would be brilliant!
I find it really interesting how vague the reference to Lirath's death is, when it was supposed to be such a huge motivator for all three of the Windrunner Sisters. I am assuming the elf they cover when Sylvanas accuses Alleria of choosing the Alliance over her own family is that moment. Feels a little trivialized.
That's not Lirath.
In my opinion they skipped the most important bit on the rift moment. She says to Turalion: „Just know that we are not enemies, not now, not ever, please believe it“
This small bit would have made this sequence here way better and would again show her absolute will to not be fully consumed by the void in the end no matter how much power she has to draw from it.
To me it feels like blizzard wants to lead the narrative to the inevitable outcome that Alleria will succumb to the void eventually and the above mentioned quote would interfere with that planned direction 🤔
I wish they would explore the nuance of the question in a way we haven't seen before - the sacrifices did in fact did not have to be made. They were made out of fear, ego (I have to do it because I'm afraid to admit I have no other answers). The result equivalent or worse than if alternative choices (e.g. leaning on said family for support) would have been taken.
Right??
Maybe this is overthinking but Arathors face is like half in light half in shadow. Cant stop thinking about him as a child of light and shadow.
oh 100% yes, not overthinking at all
I noticed that too! Yeah, I want to believe that's intentional.
People want Turalyon to be the bad guy because they're desperate for the Alliance to finally be the villains the next time Blizzard forces the faction war plot again.
Also Illidan didn't murder Xera, that was self defense.
Turalyon is actually torturing people with the light in one of the books while Anduin is gone when trying find Sylvanis. (hence the bad guy vibes)
Nah. Illidan was frightened to give up his power. To actually make a sacrifice. It was done out of cowardice, especially after he sold tales of sacrifice to the illidari.
That’s not a meeting stone that gets obliterated. It’s a rune stone, one of many set up to protect the border of Quel’Thelas.
If you want to dig deep into WC lore (which obviously you do) those rune stones were originally set up by what we would perceive as Blood Elf Druids but were realistically that group before they retconned the night elves into being the nature team.
Watching this cinematic, all throughout it feels like to me Alleria has... unique(Thats me being generous) views on herself and what she's endured and what she has had to do(Or what she thinks she has to do). I guess I just find flaws in her thinking(Weather that was intentional on Blizz's part or not is unknown). And yeah "If only I embraced this dark power things would be better" Yeah thats not a omen, totally not >_> I mean yeah Blizzard could go differently but... I feel like it makes the Void less dangerous. Locuswalker Seemingly isn't losing himself to the voices(Or thats the case he's extremely suspicious).
I dunno, I think Alleria might being set up as cataclyst for Midnight.
I was pissed as hell as a Hunter to give back that quiver and she knew that and just left it there smh alleria mail it to me
This makes me think of Thralls' shaman trial and transformation during Cata.
She finally replaced those TBC leveling greens
Her new armor is like Jaina's new hair.
That was not a meeting stone, at the part with Sylvannas, but a protective runestone, guarding the borders of Quel’thalas.
I totally would watch a WoW tv series in this style. Please make it happen!
Have always loved watching your cinematic analysis videos!
World of Animecraft. Reminds me of the movie Heavy Metal without all of the nudity and drugs.
10:26 - the ‘meeting stone’ or rather the rune stones powering the barrier to protect Silvermoon, foreshadows them being destroyed in Midnight :)
Man this cinematic really makes me want full series with wow lore, even if it's just retelling stories we've seen in game(s). It's honestly the biggest tragedy of the warcraft movie in many ways is the stifling affect it seems to have on their willingness to extend to series/movies on topics people are more excited for.
Hey, you leave Vol'jin alone! Hes my sweet, dead warchief.
Midnight with an army of ghost elves that were Sylvannas' fault in the maw would be really excellent
Around 10 mins in, that’s not a meeting stone; it’s one of the stones around Silvermoon City that are part of your starting questing story.
That's why the style looked familiar: THUNDERCATS HOOOOOOOOO!
Or He-Man..!
@@ShadowsOfThePast I HAVE THE POWERRRRRR!
@@MrTmac9k Golden memories from the 90's !! 😎
Only reason I know there is a new cinematic is when T&E post the analysis!
New Arator model with the twin dragon tattoos will look so good, I also do love Alleria's new armor
@28:00 For me it was never so much that I wanted him to be bad, just that with back-to-back expansion-villains that came from the Horde - I just wanted Alliance villains. But I didn't just want another Arthus where the good becomes bad - for me Turalyon would have worked because zealotry demonstrates when good *is* bad, especially with Legion explicitly making Light=/=Good a plot point. But they've spent too much time since Legion establishing that he's actually a swell dude who actually cares about building bridges; so I'm firmly against making him a villain now, although it is a shame to miss this rare occasion of the Alliance Leader changing.
I fully expect the Arathi Emperor to fill this role of Light-as-the-Villain. I'm hopeful the Arathi halfelves join the Alliance during the World Soul Saga so that Alliance players actually get some of that internal conflict.
thats a Elven Rune Stone, not a summoning stone, a network of them protected the kingdom taht Chu'Gal usd to make deathkngihts
Is it just me or did this make anyone else not like Alleria? It came off kind of whiny to me.
I turned my back on..I mean sacrificed my sister. Thanks light.
I turned my back on...I mean sacrificed my son. Thanks light.
I turned my back on...I mean sacrificed my husband. Thanks light.
The light sucks soooo bad. I had to sacrifice everything to save all the people I couldn't be bothered to stay with.
But I got cool power and new armor. Look how awesome "not the light" I mean not standing with your family is.
Ulysses! - exactly what I said to my wife about it; "it's me NoNo, small robot you know!"
You kept saying the "implied answer" to all the "rhetorical" questions she's asking herself through the cinematic is "no" when she literally says "no" out loud at the climax of the cinematic at 32:06. you just missed it because you were talking. It's not implied. It's explicitly the thesis of her entire monolog
I think taliesin is forgetting one thing about the light and shadow theme. With the light there is only one truth one future. With the shadow all is true. So maybe she is embracing the shadow because in those other alternate lines she did choose differently and she can see those paths now.
where's the hour of her third death quote, this is the one time that all 3 hours are depicted in an impactful way, surrounding "her"
we are just as important as your family(xalatath). thank you for the video.
The hawkstrider would go into the oven, Thanksgiving (Boxing Day) would come early.
Calling it now, Arator is gonna die, and Alleria is gonna go crazy, fully giving into the void, and we'll have to kill her or at least stop her.
Not Arator. But Turalyon.
They seem to be retiring / replacing the old leaders with their kids.
@@zom8680 Hopefully, I hope Arator sticks around for a while (given he has a decent voice actor.) We need a refreshed cast of characters, theres only so much of Anduin I can take.
Rofl. We won't kill Alleria. Blizzard doesn't have the balls to kill a woman because WoMAn StRoNg. They even resurrected that green dragon woman.
You know they are completely vaulting Vereesa when Alleria is taking over her color scheme
hmmmm leaving 3 things, 3 deaths....By the hour of her 3rd death she will usher us in
idk, Turalyon pivoting into bad news bears light zealotry isn't less supported than the pivot into cackling villainy that Sylvanas makes across the first patch of legion. And it's time for the Alliance to be the bad guys for at least an expansion
Alleria did curse Sylvanis by training their brother against the orcs. Which in turn got him killed. This is shown even in this video as the male elf having the shroud pulled over them after their death and causing the rift between the sisters. 😮
At 10:30, that wasn't a meeting stone, that was some runestone thing that was making some magical barrier, as far as I remember.
A little note about the 2.5 animation style, the artist that did them up until shadowlands doesn't work for blizzard anymore and in dragonflight new people did that: you can see the style of the drawings was in fact very different, even if they tried to be similar. I think the old author did them more as single paintings that tell a story, rough brush that is their signature style, while the new author does them more like they're part of an animation and the images are more polished. This doesn't mean the new author is somehow bad or something, they produce some amazing images, this is just to say that we probably won't be able to get the old style back so if they're more comfortable in different styles it's probably better they search for that style, otherwise we'll always inevitably compare and find the original style "better".
If arathor lives in quel'thalas, does he consider himself part of the horde or the alliance? Would be cool seeing him have friends that are other horde races since I'd imagine some migration and cultural exchange
I was refreshing youtube looking for you guys vid!!!!
Interesting to see that TH-cam suggests the exact same videos to both me and Tally.
Reminds me of Kael'thas a bit personally. "Our noble kingdom, all but erased. Survival often felt more like a burden than a blessing. I did everything I could think of to keep our people strong. But perhaps the path I took was..." he also embraced an "evil power" to save Azeroth. He failed the saving throw to not fall victim to said power unlike Alleria though.
Tali, Hear me out here.
Alleria *IS* Xal'Atath.
By the time that we hit the 3rd expansion in the world soul saga, Arator will be front and center. and Xal'Atath, seeing Alleria's only weakness, takes him, and either possesses hm, or outright kills him. The end result is Alleria giving in to the void in its entirety, allows Xal' Atath to Possess her on the promise of creating a brand new timeline (SoD) where Arator is safe. Or, she kills Xal'Atath, and ends up absorbing *HER* void energies, becoming the elven Xal'Atath weve been introduced to in SoD. Youre right, Shes sacrificed everything. but will she keep it up if Arator falls?
I don’t think of Saturday-morning cartoons when I look at this, but I can see how you got there, because I think what this is referencing is the World of Warcraft Manga style
Hmmm 3 flashbacks that changed her forever, eh?
"At the hour of her third death, she ushers in our coming."
The third one being when she first used the void....
That was not a meeting stone. That was one of the runestones that were used to create a magical barrier called Ban'dinoriel to protect Quel'Thalas. They where destroyed during the Scourge Invasion.
JESUS, TALI! We are so spoiled that you took time for this! Please enjoy your weekend with the family!
Alleria has always been my favorite WoW lore character. The redesign of her costume stinks!
The new armor does look like shite yeah 😂👍🏻
It's the style more like the old Warcraft 2 art, when compared to the modern looks, that relates to the 3D models we see in game.
I feel like Alleria is gonna be a casualty of war in either TWW or Midnight and that’s how they’ll get Sylvanas back into the game & story. This one felt a whole like Old Soldier, imo
I attribute the scream less to Sylvanas in BFA and more to Sylvanas in Shadowlands breaking the helm. Both Sylvanas and Alleria in these two moments are crossing the threshold of no return. They are both committing to their new life/new direction and let out a scream of release(?). Thats just me though
I really hope that Turalyon doesn't do the cliché thing of gradually abandoning his family and humanity to become a light-flavoured baddie. Perhaps if he sees what Yrel has done in the name of the light he might realize that lightforging Orcs and Draenei isn't really that much different to what the legion did to the Fel orcs and the Eredar.
and likewise for Alleria. It feels like the only way to truly overcome the void's influence (and by extension the light's gradual influence) is to balance the two powers, as represented by the bond between Turalyon and Alleria, or the phases of the Na'aru.
Little baby Arathor looks so cute with that grin. That grin makes me think of Spike from The Land Before Time.
In the shot with the catapults, the one that a lot of folks thought was at Teldrassil, there's a bit of the sky that is in a paler grey against the dark blue of the rest of it. That grey bit in the sky is roughly in the shape of a large tree.
Not taking anything away, or disagreeing with her thoughts (and granted, I'm a complete Sylvanas loyalist), but couldn't the entirety of her arguments and reasoning be fully applied to Sylvanas (who btw had no soul thanks to Arthas)?
Also... as a community we keep saying Sylvanas made decisions for herself after she broke the mind control, and she did but she had no soul ... no conscience... so not exactly the same as someone with full faculties making decisions).
I think it was a lynx actually? The trial bit.
I had some problems with the animation style at first, but thanks to your great analysis of this video, that was resolved.
a lot of artists themselves have said that their metaphorical curtains are just blue, sometimes they just want you to picture the setting the way they picture it, it is intentional but that doesnt always mean there is some deep meaning, the whole point of the blue curtain example is to highlight how people can overthink things.
I think if she knew before, she would not have anything with Turalyon - she would have just sacrifice the whole relationship before it even started.
This video needs a clock in the corner that shows how long he stayed up to do this
Point of clarification: Illidan did not 'murder' Xera. He defended himself from her.
You know, if you were to stream Hazelnutty and Evitel, just going into a DF dungeon (heroic or even mythic), and just killing together, EVERYONE would watch.
^ Can we talk about what a pick-me-up this might be for Hazel too? ❤😢
Ew no
Hazel is meh
I keep wondering, what if our favorite Knaifu turns Alleria and just like Sylvanas before her, she is at the front of an army sacking her home, bereft of her own will.
Alleria was heir apperant to the position of the ranger general never had that position and never were officially named as the heir but everyone knew lireesa would pick her if she accepted.
also I find it funny that you don't see the retcons of this video and events which timelinewise are impossible if you have read tides of darkness, beyond the dark portal, chronicles 2 and sylvanas books.
I’m curious what you’d think about this perspective Tali…
Your “maybe she’s a baddie” (or, alternatively, she’s been unknowingly influenced by a baddie all along) commentary was thought provoking to me. If we look at the cinematic from that perspective, then we can look at her “sacrifices” instead as “abandonment of responsibility.” I.e.
1. Leaving Sylvanas and quel’thalas is abandonment of her family and responsibilities as Ranger General.
2. Leaving for Draenor is abandonment of her responsibilities as a parent.
3. Accepting the void and leaving Turalyon is abandonment of her marriage. (Arguably, it also invites an opposing power, void, into the inner circle of the army of light which is quite reckless)
Obviously this is a very unforgiving reading of her choices… but maybe meaningful?
I WAS TODAY DAYS OLD WHEN I LEARNED *A THOUSAND YEARS OF WAR* WAS A SHORT STORY TOO?!?! 😭😭😭😭😭 [for context: i VASTLY prefer reading to listening when it comes to stories... this is everything to me rn holy shit.]