The New Characters of The War Within - 'Shadows Beneath' Cinematic Rundown

Posted 2024/07/29 at 11:00 AM by Portergauge

Shadows Beneath cinematicWarning: Minor Spoilers for The War Within The Earthen of Khaz AlgarThe Arathi of Hallowfallstrange creatures from the expansive underground oceanOrweyna and the HarronirThe Nerubians of Azj-KahetXal'atathNot M.O.T.H.E.R. approved.The Blade of the Black Empire wielded by Natalie Seline, founder of the Cult of Forgotten Shadows.Xal'atath's form as the Blade of the Black Empire, from Hearthstone.Xal'atath's new elven form, wielding the Dark Heart.

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Comment by DeVeteranOh, wow, we're actually doing this... quite, aaah, a brave thing to dissect the cinematic after, well... it's enough of a look at the comments both on WoWheads article and YTs section and like/dislike ratio...

...still, GG to the writer, you are doing the Pantheon's work!Comment by DeVeteranOh, wow, we're actually doing this... quite, aaah, a brave thing to dissect the cinematic after, well... it's enough of a look at the comments both on WoWheads article and YTs section and like/dislike ratio...

...still, GG to the writer, you are doing the Pantheon's work!Comment by GaddPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by DeVeteranAlso, if someone knows, I'd like to know (also, hehe) if that "lance" that Lothar is weilding, like...

...is that even possible? Lances of that type were used by JOUSTING nobles in games, I haven't seen stuff like that in battle anywhere to be used. Besides being quite *thicc* for a 1 hand lance, like... how do you fight with that thing? You thrust (hehe), okay, fine, but... it's short. How do you keep the enemy at bay? And you can't slice with it or do anything except thrusting since it's round thiccness doesn't help you with anything.

This feels like if the people doing the cinematic watched the Princess Bride or something like that, and they were like: "OMG look at THAAAT" sort of thing.

Imagine if Thrall in the Safe Haven cinematic, instead of going and picking up an axe that is BIG, he'd get a small dagger and "prompt" that on his shoulder? Like whaaa...?

And yes, insert obligatory Diablo 4 devs mistook the WoW building for the D4 one, that's why they don't have the Paladin class and we have that Monk from their game into our cinematic :|Comment by BwgmonPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by DeVeteranPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by KolplerFerriAlso, if someone knows, I'd like to know (also, hehe) if that "lance" that Lothar is weilding, like...

...is that even possible? Lances of that type were used by JOUSTING nobles in games, I haven't seen stuff like that in battle anywhere to be used. Besides being quite *thicc* for a 1 hand lance, like... how do you fight with that thing? You thrust (hehe), okay, fine, but... it's short. How do you keep the enemy at bay? And you can't slice with it or do anything except thrusting since it's round thiccness doesn't help you with anything.

This feels like if the people doing the cinematic watched the Princess Bride or something like that, and they were like: "OMG look at THAAAT" sort of thing.

Imagine if Thrall in the Safe Haven cinematic, instead of going and picking up an axe that is BIG, he'd get a small dagger and "prompt" that on his shoulder? Like whaaa...?

And yes, insert obligatory Diablo 4 devs mistook the WoW building for the D4 one, that's why they don't have the Paladin class and we have that Monk from their game into our cinematic :|Comment by AusteresPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by WarderDragonI guess I shouldn't be surprised that people hate on Faerin, but I'm still amazed that people complain about something like that in 2024.

What I disliked in the trailer was the dance! Technically impressive but so dissonant in tone compared to every other shot. Everything else is preparation for war, the dance was... communing with spirits? Something like that? It felt like scenes pasted in from another trailer entirely.Comment by KolplerFerriPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by DeVeteranAlso, if someone knows, I'd like to know (also, hehe) if that "lance" that Lothar is weilding, like...

...is that even possible? Lances of that type were used by JOUSTING nobles in games, I haven't seen stuff like that in battle anywhere to be used. Besides being quite *thicc* for a 1 hand lance, like... how do you fight with that thing? You thrust (hehe), okay, fine, but... it's short. How do you keep the enemy at bay? And you can't slice with it or do anything except thrusting since it's round thiccness doesn't help you with anything.

This feels like if the people doing the cinematic watched the Princess Bride or something like that, and they were like: "OMG look at THAAAT" sort of thing.

Imagine if Thrall in the Safe Haven cinematic, instead of going and picking up an axe that is BIG, he'd get a small dagger and "prompt" that on his shoulder? Like whaaa...?

And yes, insert obligatory Diablo 4 devs mistook the WoW building for the D4 one, that's why they don't have the Paladin class and we have that Monk from their game into our cinematic :|Comment by DeVeteranPeople don't like the cinematic ? Why ? No stowy ? They want a stowy ? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, why ? It looked cool, and yeah it introduces major players. I, for one, I'm down to play after that. But whatever, to each his own.

Edit : by the way, in case it gets deleted, the guy below me is saying something with pretty racist undertones. Maybe that's a reason.Comment by Shaedryn"in lieu of a story analysis, here we will give a brief rundown of the cinematic to better inform new and returning players of who they'll be meeting in the upcoming expansion"

yet then you go on to tell the whole story campaign of each of these people that we will meet...this is more than just a break down. This is straight up spoilers for the factions and people we meet. Tell me the last cinematic trailer or even teaser that tells the whole story of an xpack? we have always gotten teasers and very little information that build hype and wonder around where we are going and what we are doing.Comment by philipje1I am not even joking, that was by far the worst cinematic Blizzard has made. The spider city was cool, but everything else was so damn generic I thought I was watching any random Chinese mmo clone and not WoW.

Complete lack of identity (Chris Metzen is back, right?), lots of woke points, and weird pseudo-Troll dancing.

What was their DEI protocol called again? "King's Diversity Space Tool?" https://www.wowhead.com/news/kings-diversity-space-tool-a-leap-forward-for-inclusion-in-gaming-327053?webhookComment by DarenienAwesome cinematic, love the lady character forgot her name now ,that army reveal behind her was badassComment by DruidBernI liked the trailer before this. Now that I've had an explanation about what it is, I still like it. 2 thumbs up from me. I can't wait to dive into it.Comment by BlightyNot a fan of the trailer because it didn't give us any context for anything.

I would much rather it focused purely on Xalatath or someone with a lot of presence in the next expansion. I didn't like the dragonflight trailer, but at least Alextrasza is a recognised character and was narrating things.

What am I supposed to get from this trailer? It's just a bunch of close up shots of people looking at the camera, it tells me nothing. Every other expansion trailer was clear with what the expansion was going to be about, Legion - invasion, BFA - faction war, Shadowlands - Sylvanas bringing us to the realm of death, DF - dragons returning home, the war within - ? Evil spider thing, a random dwarf, a random half troll, a random half elf, and xalatath.Comment by Bwgmon
SPOILER

You're playing the campaign, you meet her, and, unless they changed that, you ask her if she wants a mechanical or magical arm to, you know, regain body function? and she's like: NO! I AM MY DISABILITY! --- like, what?
She's offered an all-around better prosthetic that would give her more functionality overall than the current shield-mount prosthetic she uses, but the concern is that the physical rehab it would take to get used to the prosthetic, as well as the martial retraining around its use, would mean she would be unavailable to attend to the defense of Mereldar and its surrounding villages as a Lamplighter, which is a sacrifice neither she nor the Arathi as a whole can currently afford. The Lamplighters are already stretched perilously thin due to the increasing shadow-shifts of their "sun" Bereldar and the growing threats of the Kobyss, the Order of Night, and the Nerubians tunneling up from Azj-Kahet.Comment by philipje1
SPOILER

You're playing the campaign, you meet her, and, unless they changed that, you ask her if she wants a mechanical or magical arm to, you know, regain body function? and she's like: NO! I AM MY DISABILITY! --- like, what?
She's offered an all-around better prosthetic that would give her more functionality overall than the current shield-mount prosthetic she uses, but the concern is that the physical rehab it would take to get used to the prosthetic, as well as the martial retraining around its use, would mean she would be unavailable to attend to the defense of Mereldar and its surrounding villages as a Lamplighter, which is a sacrifice neither she nor the Arathi as a whole can currently afford. The Lamplighters are already stretched perilously thin due to the increasing shadow-shifts of their "sun" Bereldar and the growing threats of the Kobyss, the Order of Night, and the Nerubians tunneling up from Azj-Kahet.Comment by eternalwhitemoonTangent: there is currently a typo where you say the Dark Heart was obtained by Iridikron from the essence of the 'great proto-dragon Iridikron'. It should say Galakrond there :)

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