Deliberate Subtle Details in Afterlives Shadowlands Cinematics - Screen Rant Interview with Steve Danuser

Posted 2020/10/31 at 9:57 AM by perculia

full Shadowlands interview with Steve DanuserChroniclesAfterlivesrevealed yesterdayAfterlives

Steve Danuser: We know that no detail, no matter how small or seemingly incidental, escapes the watchful eye of our players. From concept, to script, to storyboards, to animatics, all the way to final sound and images, every word and every frame is lovingly crafted in painstaking detail. Nothing is there by accident.

Players have already picked up on a number of elements that hint at larger storylines or concepts. When we depicted Uther's soul being shattered by Frostmourne, we wondered if the detail might be too subtle. But in fact, the community spotted that immediately and began speculating what that might mean for Uther and other characters. When we showed Draka infiltrating a Burning Legion stronghold, viewers quickly picked up on a reference to an earlier cinematic and realized the implication that the Necrolords not only defend against invasions, but travel beyond the Shadowlands to neutralize potential threats.

There are other details in the Afterlives series that will take on greater meaning once players can play through the full Shadowlands story and see how these elements tie together.

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Comments

Comment by badpathing

lol, wow has pretty much never had a good story. The voice acting is typically forced and cliche and the writing in general is just...bad. I stopped caring about wow's "story" over a decade ago.

Letting go of that has allowed me to enjoy the game immensely. Don't play wow for the story, you'll just be disappointed.

Comment by Wasselin

I'm sorry but I just don't believe Danuser. I really think they are just making it up as they go along and just nodding and smiling at the fan theories they never even though of.

I had the revelation the other day that the story in wow is more akin to a daytime soap than epic fantasy. The plot and characters are whatever they need to be for that dramatic cliffhanger. But that's okay, daytime soaps can be fun if you don't take then too seriously.

Comment by Itacolomi

Yeah the whole "souls can somehow leave the Shadowlands and go do super secret 'behind the scenes' things in other worlds" aspect still makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

All of Maldraxxus feels like a total afterthought.

Blizzard wanted to make Thrall's mom Garona, but forgot she wasn't dead.

This is our universe Aggra, so she very much is dead and has been for 30 years.

Though you are right that its all her centered for no good reason. Like, she's the special child of destiny and is somehow leading two ACTUAL leaders (Mograine and Vashj) despite her 0 experience leading. She's just there because 1. She's a female characters. 2. She's a Horde member and, likely, 3. She's one of Golden's favorites.

That is one of the most BS take i ever saw lol

Comment by kaleestraza

Yeah the whole "souls can somehow leave the Shadowlands and go do super secret 'behind the scenes' things in other worlds" aspect still makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

The Shadowlands is barely an after life at this point. Essentially its just a second life. You die once, get sent to somewhere in Shadowlands, you can still go to other places if you have the right sort of magic. But if you die AGAIN then thats (maybe) complete soul destruction.

Its pretty much no different than just going to Argus or going to the Emerald Dream, or to an Elemental Plane at this point.

I've been saying this for ages but everyone just calls me a stupid *!@#$%^ that just doesn't understand Danuser's wonderful masterwork.

What is the point of even having a soul to pass on if it is not immortal? Literally just why do the Shadowlands even exist if they can’t protect you from material woes such as, idk, WORRYING ABOUT DYING? What do the Shadowlands even accomplish except a slight lengthening of existence to no end?

And don’t talk to me about Ardenweald because we all know goddamned well that it is just a section of existing Emerald Dream reincarnation lore ripped off and forced onto another plane for no reason.

In human history, the whole impulse to define an afterlife (or reincarnation cycle) is to instinctually assume our consciousnesses cannot cease to exist, so we must explain where it goes when it leaves our bodies. The Shadowlands do not fulfill that need. All they are is redundance. So why is it here?

So nu-Blizzard can remake WoW under their own authorship and remove anything they don't like from the real lore. They didn't like the Light, so that ^&*!'s gone and otherwise villain-batted. They didn't like the Horde ancestral religions so that &*!@'s apparently gone. They didn't like the Vrykul explanation of Spirit Healers and prefer their horrible creepy mindwipe #$%^ so that's gone. They wanted a spy character but didn't want to develop it so they scabbed off of Draka's character for the ez name recognition. Many, many major characters are being totally redefined using their afterlives so they can remake them how they prefer. Ect etc etc. And we can't forget that they threw N'zoth and Azshara in the trash.

They just don't care for the flavor of WoW, so they are taking us to somewhere otherworldly so they don't have to be 'constrained' by making a WoW game.

Comment by xerav

Lets be honest: WoW Story went downhill after Wotlk and hit rock bottom once they started to make the Player Character into the biggest badass overpowerd dude in the entire warcraft universe... pretty lame.

Cant wait for em to make Arthas suddenly the good guy (like they did with Illidan cuz he had so many fanboys).

Comment by Vikoloco

So... Draka's shoulderpad on her right shoulder not beign there on the frist scene, and suddenly appearing in the second is not an accident ? hmm....

Comment by kaleestraza

Imagine being Chris Metzen and being all excited to see what the characters you created are up to now. Imagine doing the Alexandros storyline and getting it dictated to you that ACTUALLY, all that stuff you wrote about the Light was stupid bull#$%^ and Alexandros was just delusional all this time and all your characterization is thrown out the window. Because reasons. LMAO

God, I hope they don't touch Tirion.....

Comment by kaleestraza

Unfortunately this has already happened. In Chronicles they define the Lich King as a cool guy that just wanted to protect Azeroth from the Legion by uniting it in death.

Comment by Alechs777

I agree that tuning the player into some kind of a chosen one, while obviously we as PC are nowhere close to lore characters is just dull.

Does it matter that I am the champion of Azeroth and the Commander of my faction forces if I cannot say a word about our war strategy?

Spoiler, no it does not.

Comment by kaleestraza

I mean, they did an okay job of that in WoD. It's just that they totally abandoned the expansion part way through lol

Comment by Matrixwolf

Yeah the whole "souls can somehow leave the Shadowlands and go do super secret 'behind the scenes' things in other worlds" aspect still makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

maldraxxas arent just souls they are scourge

Comment by Carnagefiend

What is the point of even having a soul to pass on if it is not immortal? Literally just why do the Shadowlands even exist if they can’t protect you from material woes such as, idk, WORRYING ABOUT DYING? What do the Shadowlands even accomplish except a slight lengthening of existence to no end?

A soul is immortal, but it's not impervious. That's why destroying souls is considered a pretty dark deed and typically the realm of demons. Feel as if we'll get our answers about the nature of the Shadowlands through Sylvanas, so I'll let them explain it first before I criticize it.

And don’t talk to me about Ardenweald because we all know goddamned well that it is just a section of existing Emerald Dream reincarnation lore ripped off and forced onto another plane for no reason.

I suppose it is, but like someone else said, you can't take this storytelling too literally. This isn't Martin's or Tolkein's work where you have one person with a massive universe. The original writers stopped creating their universe a long time ago, and many others have stepped in. This is going to demand alterations, retcons, and expansions. I mean, you present Ardenweald in the most unflattering way possible. Ardenweald is just a manifestation of that rebirth, expanded and fleshed out. Janky? Sure, I can grant that.

In human history, the whole impulse to define an afterlife (or reincarnation cycle) is to instinctually assume our consciousnesses cannot cease to exist, so we must explain where it goes when it leaves our bodies. The Shadowlands do not fulfill that need. All they are is redundance. So why is it here?

Well, let's let them explain that, and if they fail to, then take up critiques. It's clear that the presence of the "First Ones" indicates the Shadowlands, in some capacity, is manufactured.

So nu-Blizzard can remake WoW under their own authorship and remove anything they don't like from the real lore. They didn't like the Light, so that ^&*!'s gone and otherwise villain-batted.

The Light and its realms work for its own interests. That doesn't make it evil. It answers the commands of both villain and hero. It will take the form of the intent of the wielder, from healing light to scouring flame. This is a long, long established truth.

They didn't like the Horde ancestral religions so that &*!@'s apparently gone. They didn't like the Vrykul explanation of Spirit Healers and prefer their horrible creepy mindwipe #$%^ so that's gone.

Horde ancestral hunting grounds are not gone, we just don't quest there. There are infinite realms. Also, what Vrykul explanation? I tried to find sources for your question but couldn't find them. And, lastly, what mindwipe? From what I've seen the Kyrians encourage you to forget your past to continue the duty of Bastion so as to remain impartial in your work.

They wanted a spy character but didn't want to develop it so they scabbed off of Draka's character for the ez name recognition. Many, many major characters are being totally redefined using their afterlives so they can remake them how they prefer. Ect etc etc. And we can't forget that they threw N'zoth and Azshara in the trash.

I'm not sure how you quantify "totally redefined", need specifics on who you're talking about. But otherwise, yeah, agree with the rest.

They just don't care for the flavor of WoW, so they are taking us to somewhere otherworldly so they don't have to be 'constrained' by making a WoW game.

Shadowlands has been postulated as an expansion for years. Furthermore, there's no way for you to know what their intentions are. You can say they hate their own product, and made SL to escape the lore but how could you ever prove that?

Comment by orca2017

Shadowlands is like purgatory not a final resting place.
But if you die in purgatory then its final death

Comment by kaleestraza

What's this new deal with people seeing a criticism that explains a bit of lore and takes issue with it, and thinking that if they reword the lore ever so slightly differently that somehow refutes the criticism lmao. Saying it's bad to kill a soul permanently does literally nothing to refute the fact that it's $%^&ing ridiculous that souls can be killed at all.

Retcons from Legion are not "long established truth".

Putting characters that should exist in certain afterlives into crappy second-best zones de facto disproves their existence. Why do you think we can say X afterlife exists if NONE of the characters that should have ended up there did so?

Imagine thinking new writers NECESSITATES &*!@ing with the lore. lmao. You do realize it's possible to simply continue a story rather than remix it? Just because you LIKE the remixing doesn't mean it's necessary or even justified.

Removed(##RESPBREAK##)272##DELIM##Uchur##DELIM##Not relevant

Comment by kaleestraza

Shadowlands is like purgatory not a final resting place.
But if you die in purgatory then its final death

Purgatory is defined as a transitional plane to prepare one for the true afterlife. Calling Shadowlands Purgatory "but no afterlife" is nonsensical......

Comment by voidox

You do realize it's possible to simply continue a story rather than remix it?

ah well you see, that would require talent, creativity and effort on the part of the new writers.. and why bother with that when the Danuser method of "retcon/change anything and everything to fit our garbage stories" is just so much easier (lazy) that having to of write good stories that fit the existing lore -_-

as for SL lore, honestly don't know how some people can be excited for what's to come when these are the same writers who gave us BFA. Sure the world building and setting of SL has some interesting parts, but world building in wow was always fine/good.

And we're already seeing bad writing, plotholes, retcons and so on, recent one being "oh look the sylvanus's valks just easily kidnapping all these powerful characters without a fight or breaking a sweat" -_-

Comment by orca2017

Oh ok..

Comment by Necrodoge

story bad

edit: thanks for the reddit gold kind stranger

Comment by BwonsamdiTheDead

There are other details in the Afterlives series that will take on greater meaning once players can play through the full Shadowlands story and see how these elements tie together.

Yeah, like a troll having a Beard

Where's mine

it take a trolls whole life to grow a beard....

Ask Vol'jin how long it takes to grow one lol

Comment by Xanthous

The soul splitting was just as subtle as box of TNT caught on fire.

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