I really like Denathrius’s voice. He definitely seems like the most interesting Shadowlands villain. He seems super charismatic here and hopefully that continues into the game (I haven’t watched any questing videos so no idea).
This was literally the only Afterlives video I liked lmao. Bastion and Maldraxxus were boring and Ardenweald outright made me angry.
I’m in the location of that quest right now in-game (Gul’var). There’s only a single statue and there’s nobody doing excavation animations around it. Just Gul’dan and Razuun channeling fel in front of it.
Unless you have pictures or video of something I’m not seeing.
https://i.imgur.com/3Gd0DMf.jpg
Only until we find him in those dungeons, kill him and destroy his soul forever. And when I do with him and hopefully Keal’thas and Arthas I’m going to pull a Vindicator Kuros each time. “Breathe your last breath, heathen!”
Quite. I would’ve been more excited if Denathrius, shady though he is, ended up being the lesser of two evils and we ended up keeping him in power.
Cool short and I’m still going Venthyr, but there really wasn’t much to this one.
There is no mention of shadowmoon being allied to Gul’dan or whatever either.
I liked it enough. A good end for Garrosh, eternally drained of anima. I mean, if he actually repented they might stop but Garrosh being Garrosh we know he never will, a hell of his own making.
I’ll find it later if I can, there’s a few of them around Shadowmoon Valley, I think 2 or 3 or so. Have class soon.
Dread Expanse youtube goes into it a lot in his “True Enemy of All” video, it’s fun speculation but the questline and video clip of in-game is there.
You have to admit they do look identical to the Revendreth statues, and I believe that is intentional.
Nerzhul was invading Draenei parts of Shadowmoon Valley in collaboration with Gul’dan, it’s part of the questline.
I am, too. And I tend to like smug aristocratic themes (Azshara is my favorite villain). And I like Denathrius alot.
It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. There was nothing really new shown, except Garrosh (with no dialogue), and, if we’re honest, it was pretty generic and cliché. But maybe that’s my fault for spoiling myself on the story.
What the absolute f are you talking about? Nerzhul was never in league with guldan in shadowmoon valley.
Was really hoping for more Garrosh in this one. Overall kinda meh. Sounds like Suramar 2.0.
Probably is intentional given the plot at question is a confirmed conspiracy, yeah.
This one didn’t really do anything for me. There was a complete lack of urgency, just felt like a corrupt, witty ruler being corrupt in a location I have zero attachment and investment in yet. It could be a fun zone, but the preview was very tame.
This is like the most un-druid thing to say ever, hot damn.
That was good for what it is, I enjoy it. Not disappointed by Garrosh in this at all, it’s great seeing what’s happened to him after he’s died and it’s very fitting. I’m more convinced now that Arthas would’ve been sent to Revendreth with the same happening to him. For these cinematics, from best to worst: Bastion, Ardenweald, Revendreth, Maldraxxus. They haven’t changed my mind about much but I enjoyed watching them and got some good info from some of them.
D.E.H.T.A would disapprove
Please only purchase your anima from free-grazing Garroshes.
My understanding was even though AU Draenor was from an AU it didnt exist until that bronze dragon (forgot the name) made it exist. So he looked into potential different timelines found one he liked then copy/pasted it into our timeline. Hence why anyone who died there would be in the shadowlands.
I feel like that was a pitfall of the delivery. While I like Denathrius being smarmy, I think a better route would have been to hear some dialogue from Burny McAshes explaining how bad things are, so we could have had the chance to get at least some emotional attachment to him before he got dusted.
So I loved the voice acting and music here. I thought it all fit really well. The animation, while fitting and definitely evocative, clearly establishing the thematic vibe, to me–it didn’t seem to flow, as well–as in, the story was more about what was being said, and the art was meant to play counterpoint to it–which the music alludes to well. I think, there, I just wanted more. I don’t know if it would have made things better, though, but I can see how people might find it disappointing in that light compared to the others.
That said, …I really liked this. I liked the visual story that belies the spoken one. I like that we get to see Denathrius as a real villain here, and that we see his own scribe being disgusted by this while his loyal and trusted ones are afforded every anima luxury.
I also REALLY like that Blizzard included a zone like this in the game. Imagine being tortured for “eternity” and when you’re finally broken, being offered the chance to become one of the torturers (a.k.a. the Ven’thyr.) While I doubt that story angle will be capitalized on much in the game, as this is a T for Teen rated game, the fact that it’s still there to be explored by older players, to me, is amazing. And this short definitely sets the mood for those stories to be told.
I especially liked seeing Garrosh unrepentant–defiant, even, and while I didn’t get a good look at his eyes when they showed them (I watched the video twice, and the second time, I was more listening to the voice over than looking at the art,) I felt like there was some clear hatred there. There was a comment over on YouTube where someone said it would be cool if Garrosh became like a vampire hunter type character, and I have to admit–I think that would be pretty cool. I still feel like Garrosh needs to confront his own mistakes and then desire atonement for all the lives he destroyed, but I’d love to see that story happening along with a vampire hunter arc. It just seems like a cool idea. Apart from that, though, I really did get a vibe of hatred from that one scene when we see his eyes, and I think that was really well done. It also leaves me wondering if he’s working with someone else… Is he in league with the Jailer? Is he in league with someone else? I certainly expect him to be opposed to Denathrius and his ven’thyr either way.
Like many others have said, I do see that tie to Elisande and her Court with the arcwine–those stories that are similar, and while some have said it seems lazy to do another re-write of that story here, I like the re-treading of themes here, since I know the story isn’t the same. While Elisande seems to have had good intentions at the start, is that something simliiar to Denathrius, or are there differences there? I believe there are, and it is those differences that I really am looking forward to uncovering–since there is a whole cosmology here in the Shadowlands that alludes to more new lore things!–of which, as you can see, I am very excited about.
I loved that someone caught that the scribe was left-handed in the video. I actually went back and looked at those scenes at the end again just to confirm it. It has no bearing on anything else, but those little details, and the fact that someone noticed them, are very cool. As a writer, and I assume as an artist, it must be really wonderful when little touches like this are noticed when they’re included.
Overall, I felt really uncomfortable when this video started. Those screams, that coloring–it really combined to make me feel “not right.” Juxtapose that with then the lovely quartet music and the refined (if dark) aesthetics of the art combined with the decidedly cultured tone of Denathrius’ voice, and it played beautifully into those two different vibes–uncomfortable and tortuous vs. refined civility. One has to wonder what being tortured, and then becoming a torturer does to ones’ psyche over time. And it leaves us wondering what kind of “person” Denathrius really is, and if things have always been this way but never noticed until there was a drought. Because that’s the vibe I get from having watched this. And I guess his people are finally seeing a side of him they never knew existed until now. Which makes me wonder NOW–was he doing this to his own people before, and did it seem justified then, or is this something new? Because it doesn’t ‘feel’ new–just his peoples’ perceptions of it do.
Anyway…just questions to see if there are answers to when playing through the covenant story line in the game.
All in all, though, the questions this poses, the tone this set, and the overall delivery made this video far better for me than just the sum of its parts. So while I think this was a great lead in to Shadowlands and the story lines of Revendreth, I don’t think, overall, it was that great of a video. But I give it higher marks because to me, it allows for speculation and questions–and I feel like good art should always do that, even if it isn’t, itself, great. It leaves you thinking about it and remembering it, and wondering about it long after you’ve walked away from it.