---
title: 'Have We Lost "The WoW Look?" Blood Elves, Paladins & Void Attacks... Midnight Cinematic Analysis'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShlNyAM5TJw'
video_id: 'ShlNyAM5TJw'
date: 2026-09-16
duration_sec: 2240
channel: 'Taliesin & Evitel'
---

# Have We Lost "The WoW Look?" Blood Elves, Paladins & Void Attacks... Midnight Cinematic Analysis

> Source: [Have We Lost "The WoW Look?" Blood Elves, Paladins & Void Attacks... Midnight Cinematic Analysis](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShlNyAM5TJw)

## Summary

This video is a detailed cinematic analysis of the World of Warcraft: Midnight reveal trailer, examining its visuals, narrative implications, and community reactions. The creator also addresses popular criticisms and offers personal opinions on the trailer's place in WoW cinematic history.

### Key Points

- **Introduction and Sponsor** [00:00] — Video sponsored by Squarespace. Creator Taliesin introduces the topic: analyzing the Midnight cinematic and community reactions.
- **Cinematic Analysis Approach** [00:12] — The video is not a reaction video; it involves stopping, starting, and discussing the cinematic in detail.
- **Army of the Light Appearance** [32:49] — The cinematic depicts the moment players join the fight in Midnight, similar to previous expansion cinematics. The Army of the Light's arrival is a key narrative beat.
- **Opening Scenario Connection** [33:03] — The defense of the Sunwell and arrival of the Army of the Light likely serve as the opening scenario for the Midnight expansion, akin to the Broken Shore or Attack on Lordaeron.
- **Questions About the Army** [33:29] — Questions raised include how the Army arrived (teleportation via Sunwell or Vindicaar) and why they look human-like rather than showing diverse races like draenei.
- **Creative Choices and Criticisms** [34:13] — The creator suggests the vague aesthetics may be to keep focus on blood elves, but personally would prefer more obvious Army of the Light insignia and draenei silhouettes.
- **Zalatath's Mysterious Exit** [35:09] — Zalatath smiles and leaves after the Army of the Light arrives, hinting she may have orchestrated the battle, a tactic seen before.
- **Overall Impression** [36:04] — The trailer evokes nostalgic old-school WoW vibes, especially through Silvermoon's architecture. The creator hopes Liadrin and Lothamar feature prominently in Midnight.

### Conclusion

The Midnight cinematic successfully evokes nostalgia and sets up intriguing narrative possibilities, though some creative choices leave room for debate. The creator is optimistic about the expansion's direction and eager to see how these story threads develop.

## Transcript

This video is sponsored by Squarespace. Hello Internet, Tal Yesson here, and today we are talking World of Warcraft Midnight.
The intercession reveals cinematic, and some of the loudest and most common reactions to that cinematic. Namely, in how it looks, and why, whether it makes sense, whether it is the result of cinematic department budget-slashing,
who these guys are, and whether it actually looks like a World of Warcraft cinematic. Oh, and of course, whether or not this is the worst World of Warcraft cinematic trailer of all time, or not. That's right, it's cinematic analysis time.
But whereas usually I make these videos in the days directly after the cinematic launching, making my views pure and untouched by the general community reaction to them, I wasn't able to do that for Intercession, because I was at Gamescom,
watching all that go wrong first hand and in real time, which is quite fun, actually, because it gives me a chance now to do something a little bit unusual and have a traditional analysis, but also respond with my opinions on some of those internet talking points, too.
So, the usual warning supply. This is not a reaction video. If you want to watch Intercessions for the first time, this is going to be a terrible way of doing it. We're going to be stopping and starting and skipping bits and talking all over the top of it and generally just having a lovely old nerdy time.
So if that sounds like the kind of thing you might enjoy, join us as we ask, what's good about the midnight cinematic? Where does it fail? And have we lost that Warcraft look? The light of the sun will illuminate my path.
The light of the sun will illuminate my path. The light of the sun will illuminate my path. I need you with me on the walk.
We begin with this establishing shot of the Sunwell. The location that we've known for years now would be the major setting in Midnight, but it's not just a reveal of those glowing, light-infused waters, but one of the two main protagonists of this cinematic, Lady Liadrin,
reflected in the pool, her image distorted and animated by the lapping waters. Her prayers sound distant and indistinct at first, but as the camera pans up to frame her properly,
taking in and establishing her glistening Blood Knight armour in the process, The camera rotates on an axis, but stays level to its original position, like we are seeing her from the point of view of the Sunwell, almost.
And even if you don't recognize this character at first glance, and you probably didn't, it's much more likely that you recognize Lothar Mott straight away as he enters and draws focus in the background, sternly, matter-of-factly, not acknowledging the Sunwell at all.
His orders are stern, almost impatient sounding, like he considers Liadrin's prayers an indulgence. He thinks nothing is cutting in right through them. And by this, we know straight away that he doesn't consider the Sunwell and its power
to be helpful in whatever challenge they are currently now facing. There is a low-key secondary conflict in this cinematic in the shape of these two characters. Their different approaches and beliefs. And actually, it's this conflict between Rotamar and the Agents that ends up forming the main arc of this trailer.
And so with that tension established... Rotamar, the void will envelop us, Bill. Only the light can save us now. No.
The signs of prayer have come. The sharp cuts from the glowing gold light at the Sunwell to the broken, ravaged void portal in the sky above it establishes our most obvious conflict of the trailer,
that between the light and the void. Beautifully depicted, I think, in this shot of our heroes looking down over the battlefield, the dominant colours here are the gold and the purple, as you would expect,
but their expected sides are inverted. The dark shadow is cast over the blood elf forces, showing how the void threat is enveloping Kel'danath. held an ass. I love the volume missiles raining down in all directions, while the
light is distant, on the horizon, literally retreating from this battle as the sun sets, seemingly abandoning the Adrien and the Blood Elves to their dark fate. As Lothar Moth says,
the time for prayer has passed. Don't tell me about the new praise system, okay? Blizz loved using sunrises and sunsets for their cinematics. The Sourfang film, Sour B.S.A., took place
over the course of one symbolic day, the first being set just before dawn, right into sunset in the final installment. And yes, obviously this is also supposed to invoke the possible sunset on the time of
the elves. They are literally fighting to their very existence here as midnight approaches, metaphorically and literally. And now, I think it's time for us to pause and look at some of the most popular opinions about this cinematic so far. With all this, I want you to know
that I'm just expressing my opinion on the various talking points. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I mean, there are some things which you can say are objectively right or wrong. Like, if a comment says that Liadrin's armour is green and she wears a
top hat, that's objectively wrong. But mostly, this is all just subjective opinions and vibes, you know? So, first up, let's talk about the visual style. The style and production values are so drastically different to previous cinematics, I'm wondering if this was even done in-house
and not outsourced to different groups. Comparing this to virtually any previous cinematic in past few years is like comparing night to day. And in my opinion, it is definitely true that this cinematic is striking in how different its overall aesthetics are to more modern WoW cinematic
trailers. And in my opinion, there are two quite interesting main reasons for this. And the first is that we are seeing a race here in the Blood Elves that we have never seen in this hyper-realistic
WoW cinematic style before. I consider the modern style of WoW cinematic to have begun with the rest of the Lich King trailer. The first two are cool, but they have a very different vibe and style and purpose. And so Blood Elves popping up here is a first of sorts.
We have very little frame of reference. The closest we've probably come is Sylvanas. And I would say that more for Marlon Liadrin's look here is pretty consistent with the decisions made for her. More on that in just a bit.
Because the second reason, I think, is a creative choice. To me, this cinematic felt nostalgic. It felt like it was purposely harking back to older WoW trailers than the ones in the last few years.
Conversations I've had with the devs would suggest that that is intended. And you might think that's cool, you might think it sucks, but I'm pretty sure that is the creative intent. It's why, personally, I've been quite surprised by comments that say that this cinematic loses the feel and look of WoW.
because for me, and this is just my opinion, remember, this feels way more like a cinematic trailer from the capitalism or warlords of Dranel era than it does, say, the War Within trailer. For me, this was WoW very much trying to be old school WoW again.
I really appreciated that. Clearly a lot of people didn't feel the same. As for the outsourcing part of that comment, I don't know. I don't know what's going on inside Blizzard. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. What I can tell you is that Javier Blanco, one of the most respected and best-known cinematic character artists on Blizzard's books,
definitely worked on this, and that dude made Lilith. He rocks. He's like Blizzard Cinematic A-Team. I also want to talk about this idea that the war within Cinematic is better quality, like night and day,
or have a higher budget, because, again, personally to me, that seems like an odd take. Yeah, the characters look unusually awesome in the War Within trailer, as in spectacularly brilliant. As you'd hope, really, because the entire thing consists of two characters in one setting, one lighting state,
literally standing still and talking to each other for four minutes. The Midnight trailer has a whole army of character models. Two armies, shit, three armies in multiple different locations and lighting states, as well as, like, loads and loads of fighting,
which is a lot harder and more expensive to animate than standing still talking. What I'm saying is these cinematics do two different things on purpose. Criticising Intercession for having no lips as crusty as Anduin's
is like criticising The War Within's for having shit fights. It's not what they're trying to show. Like I say, this is just my opinion, but if I had to take a guess at which cinematic cost more to make, I'd actually say The Midnight one out of the two for those reasons.
But I think there is a question of why the characters look so different from their in-game models here. And I think that's a fair point to make. Although, actually, let's be clear, because when people say this, they're not talking about Lorsamar.
And they're not talking about Zalatas, generally. Because those two look exactly like you'd expect, based on their in-game models. Lorsamar is the most Lorsamar-looking dude who ever Lorsamared here. There's no way anyone sees him walking the shot and doesn't know this is Lorsamar, right?
Likewise, Zali, she's perfect. I mean she's way more than perfect but anyway so when people say this they really just mean Liadrin and not an insignificant amount of that is weirdos being weird about the shape of her jaw like somehow having a strong jaw is now un or unattractive
and that's just weird. It's a take that directly contradicts established mainstream beauty standards for the last hundred years. It's basically meaningless. I locally don't trust anyone that unironically uses it as a critique, because they're probably just about to start on some culture war bullshit that I don't have time for, okay,
because I've got a hot wife and a job and a family. This idea that we're supposedly not allowed to have attractive women in this trailer is weird to me as well, personally, because, I mean, Zara Tapp is in this trailer, and, I mean, f*** my life, look at her!
But it also doesn't make sense, because, honestly, in my opinion, the actress is a stone-cold ten. She literally looks like Evangeline Lilly in this cinematic, who also has a strong jaw, because that's attractive, and who literally plays an elf in The Lord of the Rings, like, come on!
There is way more fair criticism, though. Like, she doesn't look exactly like her in-game model, like the other two do. And okay, Lortimar and Zaratas have unique in-game models, so you could argue it's much more easy to make them recognizable in a cinematic
than someone like Liadrin, who just uses the standard Blood Elf options and has the same face as, like, 500 other people in-game. And yeah, you could say, just make her look more like that, but that's not really what these cinematics have ever done.
Just my opinion, again. but these trailers have always been a different format and medium to the in-game graphics. Characters go through a reinterpretation of sorts when they appear in one of these hyper-realistic cinematics
and win the portrayal in the BSA cinematic. A trailer that this one references directly at times couldn't look less like his in-game model in that expansion if you tried. One is a tiny-nosed baby Brad Pitt crying angel boy,
the other is a massive-snob Gerard Depardieu look-alike. In my opinion, Liadrin looks way more like her in-game model in this cinematic than Anduin does in the BFA one, and no one used that as a genuine criticism for that trailer.
I mean, we joked about it because it's objectively funny. He's got a tiny nose, he's got a big nose, but we didn't use it to lament the fall of Blizzard or the death of the Warcraft look or whatever. We just accepted that characters can look a bit different in these cinematics.
And honestly, I don't know why that suddenly changed. Maybe you can explain it to me in the comments. There's also a lot of talk about the eyes of the elves and how they aren't glowy enough. And yes, honestly, I'd buy that. That's fair.
If I had a dial that could just make these eyes a bit glowier, I'd probably turn it up a little bit. I think that's a fair shout. However, to suggest that this is a new development is probably wrong. Lothalmar and Liadrin's eyes are consistent here with Sylvanas's in these cinematics.
And actually, also, with the only ever blood elf that we've ever seen in a trailer. the Burning Crusade lady. Go watch the Burning Crusade cinematic. That was blood elf eyes done right. Here they just look odd. If you re-watch the Burning Crusade cinematic, you can tell they
have glowing eyes. They literally have a decent looking blood elf in the Burning Crusade cinematic. And I have to say, and this is just my opinion, but I don't think that's actually true. About the eyes at least. Obviously the Burning Crusade one is way more low res, but the Beastie Mage also has
black pupils and white sclera like Liadrin is definitely not supposed to have, according to lots of comments. And if you compare their eyes at the dullest and brightest moments of their respective cinematics, I mean, I think the glow is, like, very similar, if not brighter, in the
Midnight Cinematic. Am I being stupid here? I, personally, if I was trying to make this point, wouldn't point to the BC Mage as an example of when elf eyes were much glowier in cinematics. And then the overall stylistic look of these two elves.
And, yeah, Liadrin and this elf do look different from each other. But, to be fair, they are two different people. And people don't all look the same. And would it make sense for a magic user to be more slender and feminine-looking, if you like,
than a close-quarters paladin fighter? Not that Liadrin isn't slender, mind you. Her waist is absolutely snatched to an absurd degree in this cinematic. she's just wearing armour
like she does in game. But I mean, please, seriously, can we just take a look at how thin this girl is? For sure, these two blood elves don't look exactly like each other but can I buy that even 20 years apart and with two completely different aesthetic concepts
for the cinematic that they're the same race? Personally, yeah, I have absolutely no problem with that. I've seen quite a few comments asking why they suddenly made the agent's hair more red. And again, it does look more red than it currently is in game, for sure
but in WoW and WoW adjacent official art She's been depicted as having more red hair for quite a long time now. This isn't a cinematic change. Okay, one last comment, I promise. The humanification of the elves needs to stop.
And I agree. Liadrin looks more human than her in-game model. And again, it is only Liadrin we're talking about here. Lothar doesn't look human, in my opinion. Zalazath doesn't, in my opinion. And again, different races becoming a little bit more human-looking in these cinematics
is established precedence at this stage. Sylvanas, obviously. But also Orcs. They have eyebrows in these cinematics for f***'s sake. Eyebrows! Personally, she looks plenty elf-y enough to me.
Like, if someone showed me this picture and told me it was a human, I'd say, yo, why does that human look so much like an elf? Especially when not being uplit and viewed from below, which, let's be honest, is not anyone's best angle. In summary, then, my take is that I personally like the nostalgic,
less modern feel of the aesthetic here. I think the action looks awesome, and I definitely would. L'Automare looks beautiful, and I absolutely would. And yeah, maybe I'd like the eyes to be a bit glowier, but it follows the pre-established style of these trailers.
And also, I acknowledge that there is a character progression thing linked to it, too, where their eyes do get brighter later on. Right, I think we can go back to the cinematic now. Oh no, wait, where are the spellcasters?
Great point, honestly. The High Elves and then Blood Elves, OG's super motivation was that they didn't want to give up magic, and they loved magic so much. Why are there no spellcasters in the ultimate battle against the Void?
And the obvious and correct reason is that it would muddy the intended scenes of the trailer, which is very much light versus void. But beyond that, if you need a headcanon, you'd expect majors to be up on the wall here strategically to pew-pew.
The range on major buildings is 40 yards. The void forces are clearly way further away than that, so they're absolutely useless in this part of the fight. They've probably got better things to do, like protect the city from all the falling void missiles or something. Case closed.
I'm not going to fall. It's not what I thought. An important line to the relationship of these two characters here, Liadrin is very much singular in her statement about protecting the Sunwell, in the defense of it as purely her responsibility and her duty. Remember that, because right now, it's time to get into some good old-fashioned fighting.
I love these fight scenes. I love the faceless Blood Knights getting absolutely stomped by the new cloudy, hairy looking void race.
I love Liadrin and Lortamar weaving around each other from one side of the training to the other as they slice void dudes up. A training that shows simultaneously how they have each other's backs, but are also hopelessly surrounded and penned in by the multiplying enemy forces.
I love how faithfully their armor and weapons are recreated from in-game. It's just so great to see blood elves being so badass and cool, in my opinion. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, and I like feeling all warm and fuzzy, it's nice.
But then, of course, Zalatak. I can see you, Groh, nearly. How much longer can you hold out?
Please, entertain yourself. So we hear her voice, and then the underscoring drumming starts up, with all its exhaust connotations, and her entrance is just so great, how she just rises out of the portal in the ground,
way too smoothly, which is absolutely intended, and just gives her this weird horror vibe, how she's barely moving a single muscle in her entire body, but the light from the portal and the storm and the battle
make shadows dance across her face and provide a sense of animation and movement that she isn't doing for herself. That slight tiny little head tilt and of course, the little elves. It's just so dismissive and patronising
and sassy and perfect as well as bringing to mind Sylvanas' little lion insult to Anduin. I think the colour palette here and use of light is really effective too. The last dregs of the sun's beings setting behind Zalatath
and framing her in almost like a blazing halo. Something you might expect the paladins to all have, but they don't. It's almost like Zali is stealing it from them, like she is their sun well.
Please, don't save yourself. The other, the dope, might be Richard. You see? I do think it quite funny that Zaratath genuinely seems to think Liadrin is actually turning to three when she tells her to
because no one else thinks she is. Lotharman knows that Liadrin is heading straight back to the Sunwell to continue praying, and he is so pissed off about that. That don't is laced with resentment for a faith and a course of action that he just doesn't think is useful right now.
In this moment, when they are in the fight for their lives against the powers of a Void Lord, he could say, don't be dead, b***h, and it would still fit with the whole meaning. And in the wake of Liadrin moping out, and Lothamar finding himself alone with Void Mummy,
there is no doubt that with Zaratas lines here, she is full-on monologuing at Lothamar. She could kill him on the spot, but she's just so flat-out spiteful. It's never enough just to defeat people, she has to break them too, which is what she's doing here.
It also makes me suspect that she might actually be stalling a little bit here as well. Like, maybe she actually wants what the Adrien does next for some reason. More on that later.
Because then we follow our Blood Knight Captain back into the Sunwell.
I... I know that I am unworthy.
And whereas when we were first here, the music was slow chants and singing, now the soundtrack is building in a much more exciting way that I really like, as at first she goes back to her standard light mantra,
but then realises that isn't working, and decides a much more personal, sincere approach. It's the first blood elf paladin, and their leader claims they're not worthy. Great writing. So, yeah, the Adrian is the first blood elf paladin, and did create the Blood Knights,
but do you know how the blood elves became paladins? Because it wasn't by praying. Hey, team. So what with all these new things on the horizon, I felt like it's only sensible to tidy up and clean house.
Thankfully, Squarespace makes it easy to cut the fat, to eliminate all unnecessary elements. Thank you, Squarespace. You really speak to me on that level. And thanks for sponsoring this video. We have a bio site, a really nifty link explorer you can plant in your social media bios,
and which is linked up with Squarespace. I was delighted to see that sales of our red spoiler bot sushi, which ended in October 2024, was still at the top of our links. So, thankfully, the editor made it extremely easy to just get rid of.
Adding a new link, in this case, our actual Instagram account, was just as simple. I was also super excited to see all of the updates in the nearly 10 months since I've updated this, including the ability to add YouTube videos.
And, actually, while doing this and updating our socials, I realized that our link section was completely superfluous, and I did what I meant to do. I put it in the bin. Another new feature is the Squarespace Shop integration, which directly pulls in your existing products,
which is amazing considering how much nonsense I buy while scrolling through my phone. And then, after fiddling with the layout to make it more visually enticing, I filmed a YouTube video of it, you know, to personalize too.
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Or just use code taliacanevatel at checkout and make the website and bio site of your dreams. That's squarespace.com slash taliacanevatel. That I'm absolutely reflux. It wasn't by being worthy, it was by literally kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing a Naaru
and stealing its light energy for themselves. That's why the Blood Knights have a traditional affiliation with fire imagery, because, you know, it's like the light, but way more violent. They were taking their power by force.
And by the end of 2BC, the Adrin and the Blood Elves had a much healthier relationship with the light that has been improving ever since. It's actually a really nice callback to how the Blood Knights even got their powers in the first place, but she still feels, deep down, she's unworthy of them.
You can totally imagine how those previous impersonal chants and mantras are almost like her way of distancing herself from the light during worship, in a way. Now, this could almost be the first time she's ever really spoken to it with her whole heart,
suggested even more by the extreme close-ups that the camera takes of her. I think this is a terrific performance by Liadrin's voice actor here, by the way, as well as being the best facial animation in the whole cinematic, too.
just really effective. Why is wow dialogue like a Marvel movie now? I've seen this said a lot in relation to this particular cinematic, and it's not a criticism that I agree with. I'm not saying that wow dialogue is good. It's not. But the problem with Marvel dialogue is that it tries
just too hard to be breezy and clippy and light-hearted at the most serious of times, and that's the opposite of wow dialogue, which is usually self-serious to the point of absolute absurdity and that's definitely the case here although I think given the setting and the stakes
it just about manages to work in this cinematic it doesn't always I don't know if I should be your help but I know my people do
please give them the range I love these uber dramatic Snyder Cut slow-mo fight scenes as he's praying. Especially this one as Lothomar, because it's not just him pulling a cool pose,
although he is, he's spinning around to see a soldier about to get etched by a void race, while in the background, another soldier, the one he was just looking at, is being tossed about like a ragdoll. Lothomar is helpless to protect his troops, his people, by himself.
He can't be everywhere at once. There is just too much for one awesome dude to deal with here. I admire your spirit, but that will not save you.
Soon, I will break your world down. Something I think this cinematic does really well is these incredibly jarring, quick moves of the camera from one subject to another, which I think really helps portray the chaos, urgency of the battle that's happening.
And I swear, okay, I wrote that bit about Zali needing to break her foes as well as just defeat them before I got to this bit again when I was writing the script. But yes, here she is confirming it. And it makes me wonder exactly what her plans for Azeroth actually are.
Does she just want to destroy it? Does she just want to eat it? Or is there something a bit more personal about this? But anyway, then Lord Samar calls Zalatath a very rude word. You can't even break one elf.
And this is his big showstopper moment, his act of defiance and slap talk and big balls. I also personally think he might be referring to Emmeria here, and how Zaratath's very obvious mission to corrupt her throughout the war within totally fell on its ass.
She's the elf Zaratath could not break. But it's hilarious to me how Zaratath undermines this show of strength so easily.
But if she doesn't even move, she doesn't have to. A flick of her eyes is all it takes to give us an idea of her true power level.
And she mind-spikes everyone in the vicinity, including the leader of the Blood Elves, and leaves them screaming for their lives without even moving. And even then, you sense she only bothers doing that in a moment of spite and water-mouthed flash spit,
not because she feels like she has to to win the battle. This darkness comes to devour everything. And when it is finished, there will be no more light.
I think it's really cool how during this transition, Lothar Mott and Liadrin are shown to be back-to-back still, just in different locations. And I don't know why, but I find that line, when it is finished, there will be no more light.
Just really cool and effective. just laying on the line exactly what the stakes are here, and how scared the Adrien is under her cool exterior. Without the heartbreak,
we will perish. And then you get shots like this, which, again, just makes me wonder how anyone can not think that some seriously talented artist worked on this.
This training is stunning, and also, this isn't a big deal, and actually I barely even care, But also, it is the only time that you see Zalatowski in the entire cinematic, so it also my favourite scene in the entire cinematic I beg you Help me And then cinematic and then as Liadrin is literally begging the light and the Sunwell to help
that hand on her shoulder. And I know a lot of people thought this was Anduin's hand at first. Honestly, it still could be, and I would definitely appreciate the callback to the war within cinematic there, where Ptol comforted him in a moment where he felt helped
and disconnected from the light. Now he's back, returning the favour to another lost soul in need. And from here on in, I think the cinematic just has such great momentum, all the way down to the end.
First, Zalatath bearing down on Lothomar, And I just want to let it be known that if I ever find myself in this exact situation, like if I'm Lothimar here, please, don't help me, okay?
I've got it, alright? Just don't go calling an army of the light or anything, okay? Let me solo her. I've waited so long. Liadrin and the forces of light make their extremely epic appearance, the shaft of the Sunwell beaming out behind them,
silhouetting Liadrin's tiny waist to a literal brass fanfare. Quite an important part of this whole sequence that I don't see mentioned is that although the army of light's appearance does buy him a moment of time, Zoltanar breaks
free of Zali's mind spike himself with his own force of will and strength. And I'm happy to admit, I know not everyone feels the same, but this pushed all of my wow buttons.
The Sunwell will not fall! Liadrin slicing some dudes with her fire sword, the handheld feel of the camera, the world soul music,
which I absolutely adore and use in any video I can, and this moment of unity between our two lead characters, who before were very much opposed in the best way to defeat this world-ending threat,
but are now united. The Sunwell will not fall, Liadrin begins, and Lortimar finishes the statement this time. Not while we progress.
Because the point is, of course, that it takes everyone. It takes the warrior standing toe-to-toe with the big bad, but it also takes the faith in the light and the help of your buddies. That's actually always been how we defeat the big bads in WoW, right?
I found this absolutely magical. It gave me a little lump in my throat. And as the Blood Elves and their new team raise their swords and hammers and hurtle headlong, triumphantly, into the Void Forces, it's obviously BFA that this cinematic most closely resembles.
Especially Zalata's wry smile in the face of opposition. I love the way her skin is washed out by the light being cast from the Sunwell here. It almost cleanses her and makes her appear just for a second to be a living high elf
rather than an ancient unimaginable eldritch monstrosity inhabiting the corpse of an elf. I just think it's a fifth-pumpingly good ending to the cinematic and got me absolutely hyped, as it's supposed to.
I gather from the internet that hasn't been the case for everyone, and that's cool. Like I say, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, but after War Within's trailer, I needed fighting. I needed Zalatash, I needed some cool stuff I hadn't seen in one of these cinematics before,
and in all of those things, this totally delivered for me. The big question is, of course, um, these guys? Who are these guys? Many people assumed they were the Arathis, since they are all basically human-shaped,
and the world soul music that plays in this final segment is often heard near Belodar in Hallowfall. It could equally be the Silver Hand, but no, actually, this has had been confirmed by Maria Hamilton on more than one occasion to be the army of the light.
As in, the actual, literal guys from the Vindica. As well as also kind of representing the forces of light in general, including us, the player, answering the call and coming to Silvermoon's aid.
Which is a stylistic flourish that Evertel cottoned onto straight away. She was like, oh, that's us. And which I really like. Because yes, I would be as suddenly confident in the face of certain defeat as Lothar Mawr and Yadrin appear here too, if we turned up to help.
Because we've beaten literally everyone they've pointed us at in every raid ever up to this point. This whole cinematic is also apparently a depiction of the moment we join the fight in Midnight. much like the Legion and BFA cinematics were too,
which suggests that this defence of the Sunwell and the arrival of the Army of Light will be the opening scenario of the Midnight expansion, just like the Broken Shore or the Attack on Lordaeron
were in those expansions. More literally though, yes, it is the Army of the Light. So it makes sense that we see members of that army in some of the previous screenshots of the opening Voidstorm raid. But that does raise some questions too,
Like, how did they get there? Did they get teleported by the Sunwell? Maybe. It has been used as a portal before, but probably not. If it's the Army of the Light, they probably arrived on the Vindica, didn't they? And, like, why do they all look so human-y?
Why don't they wear more obvious armour? Where's my boy Leprechaun, the big dreadlord guy? I think if there's a creative reason for this, beyond how expensive it would be to make so many different models, it's probably something like they wanted to keep the aesthetics of the Army vague,
vague so as to not distract from the blood elves that the cinematic is centered around. It's their moment after all. Let them enjoy it. And I get that. I think that's pretty noble. It could also be specifically to spark conversation and speculation which,
okay, I don't love that so much, but I get it too. I think though, in my opinion, I would like to have seen these guys be more obviously the army of the likes. Canonically, even though we've only ever really seen Jirani members of this army,
it's made up of all different races. But I think some more obviously draenei-looking silhouettes would have been better communication, as would having obvious insignia on the armour. I just think knowing who these soldiers were
would have had more of a satisfying impact on the ending of the cinematic, even if it clearly doesn't spoil it for me. I also think of all of these options, the Army of the Light is the most interesting one from a narrative point of view too,
especially if it means that Vindicaar is going to get involved again, because I'm not being funny, that shit can fly in space! It would definitely seem like the most obvious way that we can shoot through that void portal to the void storm, wouldn't it? I'm also intrigued by one last detail here, and that's the way that Zalatath nopes out of the battle after smiling when the Army of the Light appears.
After just the slightest, smallest hand gesture to order her void race forward, she's gone. And that's funny, isn't it? Because then I think, well, she showed that she could pretty much end this battle single-handedly at any point, if she wanted, but she didn't.
And she took a very long time talking shit to Lortimer, and even bearing down on him, almost like she was stalling. And then she actually seemed kind of pleased to see the Army of the Light and zapped off,
almost like she had wanted to make that happen all along. And then I think, well, it wouldn't be the first time we'd seen Zalatav gently encourage two armies to fight against each other, is it?
Like, that's a genuine established tactic of hers at this point. And then I think, well, why did she want the Army of the Light to arrive? What is her real plan here? Can't wait to find out. And that concludes our cinematic analysis and response
to some of the more popular criticisms of this cinematic. In my opinion, this is a trailer that makes a lot of effort to evoke bygone eras of WoW cinematics. It gave me, in spades, those nostalgic feels
that I'm hoping continue throughout much of the expansion. I know some people do disagree, but for me, This just drips old-school WoW vibes. Not least because Silvermoon itself, all that Blood Elf architecture, is just so evocative of a different time in WoW for me.
I do very much hope that Liadrin and Lothamar feature extremely prominently in Midnight and aren't just here for the cinematic. And you know, I appreciate seeing someone who isn't an orc or a human or Sylvanas
in one of these, honestly. It just feels really good. But what do you think? Do you agree with my takes here and my opinion on some of these comments? or absolutely not. That's okay, you know. Let us know in the comments below. And thanks
for joining us today. If you like this video, don't thank us. Thank our patrons who give their actual, real-life money to make all of our work happen. And seriously, patrons, thank you, because without you, there would be a whole lot less. Taliesin, never tell.
If you didn't like it, downvote the shit out of it. And remember, my name is Angel Ikatosh. No, my name is Taliesin. From me and Evie and Zali to... Until next time, cheerio.