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Like I told you in a previous video, just watching the fully rendered cinematics would not show a lot of the story. Here you see the story jumped from Medivh trying to rally the king to prepare for the Burning Legion, to his son coming home, corrupted, and killing his father. A LOT happened in between.

Here is a brief explanation of these cutscenes to make them easier to understand: 0:46 - End of the plague campaign, at the end of the expansion we return to Arthas who must come to the frost throne where the Lich King rests, because he is threatened by Illidan. 3:20 - Basic intro of the game that appeared at the time of game launch. 5:11 - Introduction to the tutorial campaign, the visible orc is called Thrall and he is the leader of the horde, at the end of that mini campain, he learns that he should take his people to the west, to the land of Kalimdor (other continent of this world). 8:05 - Beginning of the Alliance campaign, where we leading Prince Arthas, we fight the plague that one of the ambassadors talks about and which ends with his transformation into the Death Knight, the most important commander of the Lich King. 11:43 - End of the Alliance campaign, return of the victorious Prince, therefore everyone cheers without knowing about his transformation. 14:18 - The next cutscene is the end of the undead campaign, the plague as it was called in the game. Here we have the further fate of Arthas after the transformation, we learn here that the plague was sent by the burning legion (demons) who want to conquer the world of Azeroth, the visible figure is one of the legion leader (Archimonde) summoned at the end of the campaign, he destroying the wizard city Dallaran. 16:21 - End of the Horde campaign, during it we accompany Thrall while exploring the land of Kalimdor, at some point the action splits into 2 threads, the orc shown here next to Thrall, Grom Hellscream initially succumbs to the corruption that long ago on the orcs were sent by demons from the burning legion (which is why Grom has red eyes). The rest of the story is about saving Grom and healing him, the cutscene is a confrontation with the minor legion commander who was responsible for Grom's "disease". 20:18 - End of the Night Elf campaign, the legion's invasion of Kalimdor is in full swing, the elves for whom the Alliance and the Horde were intruders at the beginning, finally join forces to defeat the legion together. Here we see the leader of the legion, the same as in the excerpt from 14:18, trying to destroy the world tree, if he succeeded, Azerot would face doom, the character that appears in the foreground is the druid Malfurion Stormrage, the most important elven druid who uses the artifact we had to get in during the campaign to summon the ancestral spirits that defeat Archimonde. 23:04 - Intro to the expansion, visible guy is Illidan Stormrage, Malfurion's brother, we get to know a piece of his story in the night elf campaign. His mission, however, is recognized by his brother and Tyrnade, the leader of the elves as crimes against nature and he is banished, here we have the continuation of his story, how he tried to gain more power. 26:10 - Epilogue of the expansion and the whole game, reconciliation of the Death Knight and the Lich King (after fight from the begining of the reaction). Arthas will be sitting on this throne until the World of Warcraft expansion pack, whose intro you've already seen.

Its worth noting that in a lot of Blizzard's games, a huge chunk of storytelling is done during the gameplay. Cinematics are usually reserved for the BIG lore moments

Ah crap! Why did they put the Illidan/Arthas duel in the front?! Still awesome visuals. The Orcs vs Mannoroth is still my favorite.

Great video, thanks for this! If you want the lore filled in, I'll leave it below (it'll be a little long lol): Firstly, the first cinematic was out of place. It should have been second to last, so ignore that for now. Back in the day, the orcs showed up to invade this planet after being corrupted by a bunch of demons. These demons also corrupted a powerful mage called the Guardian who actually opened the portal to let them into this world. This Guardian is Medivh, the crow man who tries to warn everyone that the demons are coming back now that he's no longer corrupted. This is what he is referring to when he mentions failing humanity once before. The next part of the game centers around Arthas, a paladin and the son of the human king. He's trying to stop the plague mentioned in that cinematic, which is turning people into undead. Along the journey, Arthas slowly does worse and worse things mostly out of necessity, and finally takes what appears to be a cursed sword in order to be powerful enough to defeat the demon that seems to be leading the undead forces. In doing so, the sword steals his soul. The next cinematic is when he returns home, ostensibly a war hero, having defeated the undead army and their demon leader. But he is now corrupted and kills his father, and slaughters most of the kingdom, turning many into undead. Arthas, now a death knight, obeys his demon masters to a point, helping to get them into the world, but is also trying to secretly work against them because he is just a tool to them. He works with the Lich King (a spirit trapped in a magical block of ice called the Frozen Throne) who is the leader of the undead forces, under the command of the demons. They successfully summon Archimonde, a powerful demon leader. He is the one in the next cinematic who destroys the mage city of Dalaran with the spell in the sand. Next, the orcs actually did listen to Medivh's warning, and they sailed to another continent. Lots happens there, but most importantly, a faction of the orcs decides it would be a good idea to drink the blood of a demon, Mannoroth, which is how they got corrupted years ago in the first place. Eventually you as the player manage to rescue some, including Grommash, the leader of this faction. In the next cinematic, he and the leader of the orcs, Thrall, track Mannoroth down, and Grommash sacrifices himself to kill the demon, freeing himself and the rest of his people from the corruption. Finally (for the first part of the game), almost everyone bands together to stop Archimonde. Archimonde wants to get to and consume the World Tree, but the Night Elves and everyone else lay a trap for him, and detonate the whole tree, destroying Archimonde in the process. This is the end of Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. The next cinematics are newer as you noticed, as they are from the expansion, The Frozen Throne. The guy with the horns is Illidan, and he was a night elf. He was locked away about 10,000 years ago (they're immortal) for dabbling in demonic magic, although his excuse was that he used the weapons of the enemy to fight the enemy. He was released as a sort of desperate last measure to help fight the demons while they set the trap at the tree. In the process he snacked on yet more demonic magic, so they banished him afterwards, so now he's mad, and in the cinematic he summons the naga (fish people) to serve as his army. A lot of relatively minor stuff happens in the rest of the game, but the relevant stuff is that another demon lord shows up and strongarms Illidan into working for him again, and tasks him with destroying the Frozen Throne, because the undead are now just rogue and not serving the demons anymore. This is where that first out of place cinematic fits in. The Lich King sees the attack coming, and calls Arthas to defend him. Arthas and Illidan race to get there first, and meet in the north. They fight, Arthas wins, and he climbs the spire to the Throne. Cue last cinematic, where Arthas breaks the Throne and puts on the helm, merging with the Lich King. He sits down and has a rest for a few years, and people forget about the undead menace for a bit. The events of World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade take place, and finally Arthas awakes as the Lich King in the cinematic that introduced the Wrath of the Lich Kingg.

You are indeed missing loads of information, i'd say about 95%. Each cinematic is the intro to or culmination of one of the large chapters of the game. All of them very powerful moments which fitted the tone of the chapter perfectly. Seeing Hellscream avenging his people or Arthas 'succeeding' his father still gives me shivers.

3:25 no thats way out of order, should be second last, 7:57 it is Michael Bell, 13:30 that was the voice of Ner'zhul (the current Lich King) whispering to him through the sword, 15:00 Transcrpit for this scene: "Let this scar signify the first blow against the mortal world. From this seal shall arise the doom of men, who, in their arrogance, sought to wield our fire as their own. Blindly they built their kingdoms upon stolen knowledge and conceit. Now they shall be consumed by very flame they thought to control" 16:00 Archimonde is an Eredar, a demon corrupted Dranaei, who is one of the generals of the the Demonic Burning Legion, which is one of the main antagonists in Warcraft. 24:56 this is the start of the expansion pack.

2:45 Surprisingly enough, there has been quite a few people calling for Henry Cavill to star as Arthas in a Warcraft movie

YES! Another Legacy of Kain fan! Michael Bell as Raziel and Simon Templeman as Kain will forever be etched in my memory.

The guy who destroyed the city is known as Archimonde, one of the 2 great demon lords under Sargeras - They generally lead the burning legion most of the time, as Sargeras is pretty much always absent. What he spoke about was the arrogance of humans, how they've mostly just copied others, attempted to control demons, and things like: "Let this signal the first blow against the mortal world."

The first scene is Arthas just before he becomes the Lich King (Hence no helmet). The "enemy" he faced was Illidan. That was from a Warcraft 3 Expansion called The Frozen Throne. This is one of the last of the cinematics of the series.

The very first cinematic feels weird, because reforged version was trying to recreate in game engine scene from 2001(i think), at the time, it was really good because taken by surprise(especially for RTS genre), but in that case, i dont really know what they wanted to achieve tbh. Its not full cinematic, and not full in game engine.. its neither version. And reforged came out in 2021 if im not mistaken. Also, the next cinematic in this video, is the only one was properly reforged in... reforged version. And clearly for pretty trailer purposes. That's why this part looks most modern. Rest of cinematics are just re rendered in 4K, or could be just upscaled compared to original.

I remember finding these in my War3 folder when I was a kid, I was too bad at the game to actually finish it at the time and get to see most of these cinematics, but when I got to watch them without any real context in the game files, I remember being so excited and happy and these cinematics were really what made me eventually a Warcraft fan, they were awesome and seeing people watch them without context always reminds me of my own childhood and it's a fun experience, you just get to appreciate them as what they are.

I love how the king was all bored and no looking them at all, until that dude in the background said "quarranteed" and the king pop up "HELL NO YOU WONT" showing that even when the king isnt paying attetions to what this people said, he actually still sharp as hell.

I feel like these cinematics were all over the place time-line wise. And a lot of the context is out of order. Arthas is a paladin and the son of the king you saw in the cinematic with the mage transformed into a raven. He goes to investigate the claims of the plague ravaging the outer regions of the human’s kingdom to find that not only is there a plague ravaging the populace, not only had the plague infested all of the grain shipments moving through the country, but that this plague causes the victims to rise again as a legion of undead monsters. Faced with an impossible choice, he opts to purge the city of the still living but infected people so the undead might not be able to spread farther. This caused his mentor Uther and friend and love interest Jaina to abandon him and to see him as a monster. In his purge of the city he comes across a dread lord, a demon commander responsible for the plague, who tells him to seek the demon in Northrend, the forgotten frozen waste of a northern continent to that Arthas might fight him to get revenge. While Arthas does find the demon he also finds Frostmourne, the great sword you seem him using in the cinematics. The sword is very powerful, but it whispers to him and slowly corrupts him into what we come to know as the Lich King. The demon hoped he would become corrupted and take him on as a commander, but Arthas used the power to strike him down. It was merely a setback, for the demon. When he took the sword, it caused an explosion that killed his good friend (or so he thought) giving him even less of a reason to resist the whispers of power from the sword. After returning victorious from Northrend, he kills his father like you saw in the cinematic with all the rose petals and throws the kingdom of man into chaos. This would prevent one of the stronger world powers from stopping his next move, going to Northrend and claiming the frozen throne as his seat of power over the quickly spreading undead legion - remember the infected grain. Without the Lich Kings helm, the Crown of Donination, his possession is incomplete. The first cinematic shows Illidan, a demon hunter, trying to stop his ascension to the Frozen Throne where the crown awaits him. Once defeated, Arthas takes the throne and the crown where he becomes the Lich King in full and loses his last shreds of humanity. Or so we think, until we completed the events of Wrath of the Lich King. He started as a force for good, a paladin of the light, and a beloved prince poised to take control of a vast kingdom of people who adore him. In a single moment, he is given an impossible situation and makes the best decision he felt he could, losing all of his friends and loved ones respect in the process. In his desire for revenge, he was driven to take up a dark power which ended up destroying everything he had loved and cared for.

Thank you for this; I always like seeing cinematics and stories I've enjoyed through the fresh eyes of others. Mind, as others have pointed out - trying to gleam the story arc of the game through the final reward cinematic of each separate campaign is like watching the last five minutes of every Lord of the Rings movie, and then writing a book review about it. You don't pick up much of the character development that way. :-p I'd point towards the cinematics from the first Starcraft game, if you crave more 90s retro feel - but the same problem exists there; they're the "grand finale" moments of long story arcs, meant as rewards for the player - not really for separate viewing.

100% meant to have subtitles. Also love the comment about the cinematic quality going up when you started with the most updated lol

Clicked as soon as I saw this! Awesome to see you go through these already since our chat on your last video with the lich king trailer, wasn't expecting it so soon! Much love man.

Id love for you to do the all Warcraft cinematic's every one of them in amazing and so is your commentary!

2:50 haha in the story actually the guy with green is the witcher lol. he's trying to prevent the swordsman from becoming evil which is when he puts on the helmet. and as you said the sword is the evil influence.

The Death of Hellscream cinematic is one of my favorite pieces of video game "cinema", period. It's just done SO well. That sequence, and how it played out, single handedly compelled me to start playing World of Warcraft back in the day when it was still in Beta. EVERY time I watch it, I get choked up. It's just so damn awesome.

starting by the very last cinematic of the game, what a genius

These clips sure brings me back! What a treat. 😁 Yes, that part does have subtitles. Yes, a lot of story elements are missing from just the cinematics. The story flows well as you play through the game(s). Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne.

20 years later and I still remember all the lines in all the War3 cinematics. Pointless to say I still play War3 when I have some spare time during weekends.

Another great video, and I'm looking forward to the next one! 😀

If you decide to watch every Warcraft cinematic in chronological order, you have a good 1-2 hrs of content. It's always fun to watch people with no experience trying to piece the story together. And if you ever decide to watch the cinematics in order and with the added in game cutscenes, well you are gonna have a blast! Especially when you reach the later expansions. Some good 10-15hrs I believe. Take care! 💪🏻

Always enjoy seeing your breakdown on some of the scenes. I think various elements of this have been laid down by some other comments, but I can add a very brief bit of context to each of the cutscenes. 0:43 - This scene is the second to last cutscene. It was re-made in Warcraft 3 Reforged. Arthas and Illidan spent the final mission of the expansion competing to reach the Frozen Throne first, and Arthas wins. This scene is played out in-engine which is why the graphics look so different. While the models are in-engine, they are much more detailed than the standard unit models. 3:22 - This was the teaser trailer for Warcraft 3, but this version was re-made much later based on the original. The human and orc each represent the most basic unit that each race uses, the Footman (human) and the Grunt (orc). In Warcraft 1 & 2 they were the only races, and fought each other. The fire from the sky, and the demons invading were new to Warcraft 3. 5:12 - This was the intro for Warcraft 3, it doesn't really have much plot persay (beyond the broadest strokes), it mostly exists to get you hyped, and the end where he points at the camera leads into some Prologue missions, where that character gives the Orc leader some further plot, while also teaching the player the basic controls. 8:07 - This was the intro cutscene before the Human campaign began. The plague briefly spoken of is a large factor in the plot. The raven/man shows up to some additional characters during the first few missions (including the still-good Arthas) 11:49 - This was the final cutscene after completing the Human campaign. Over the campaign, Arthas has been your main POV, and while he started heroic, he was slowly corrupted. The final mission is where he claims the cursed sword you see him using. The voice it speaks with is the voice of the Lich King (who isn't Arthas at this time). 14:18 - This was the final cutscene after the Undead campaign. The final mission was to summon an Arch-Demon, while defending against waves of enemies. The creature you see is that Demon, who uses his formidable powers to devastate an entire city to show off how big of a deal it is that he's here. He's the big-bad of the game. 16:22 - (This one was my favorite growing up) This was the final cutscene after the Orc campaign. The two orcs were your main POV characters during the campaign. During the earlier Warcraft games, the demon you see here used his blood to both empower and enslave the orcs. The orc with the Axe willingly drank the blood again for power, and the final mission is fighting against his demon-empowered orcs who are slaves once more, as the hammer-orc tries to save axe-orc with magic. 20:18 - This was the final cutscene after the final campaign of the base game (the Night elf campaign). The demon you see is the same demon you saw in the earlier cutscene where he destroyed the city. The final mission involves holding out against his invasion long enough to prepare the big spirit-bomb that defeats him in the cutscene. 23:04 - This was the intro cuscene for the Expansion "The Frozen Throne". It was produced later, and the technology has indeed improved. You see Illidan (a popular character from the Night Elf campaign who was also corrupted) summoning the primary antagonists for the expansion. 26:12 - This was the final cutscene after the Expansion (the expansion only had two pre-rendered cutscenes). Arthas spent the expansion racing back to the Frozen Throne, both he and the Lich King losing power as the game goes on (instead of gaining power like other heroes have been). In the end, he is victorious, but the audio clips you hear are all the dark moments from along his journey, echoes of what he lost. But none of that gives him any pause anymore. Anywho, these are all core memories for me growing up. Lots of personality and epic moments, and they were great rewards after struggling through a really tough last mission.

30:06 Great video. As far as the missing story bits, Blizzard does A LOT of its exposition in game, especially Warcraft 3. Starcraft has some of my favorite story beats ever.

So happy to have another Soul Reaver fan out there! Hope the series makes a comeback. Love your insight mate keep it up.

I love, that you took your time to watch the WC3 replays and I enjoyed the reaction, but trust me, no matter how much you read and learn about it it is just not the same as being there, seeing it for the first time as a fan all those years back.

Warcraft III is my favorite game from childhood, thank you for bringing these memories, you're great man 🥳

indeed it feels so weird watching the cutscenes without seeing the in game ones

I recommend going through all of the World of Warcraft cinematics (the wrath of the lich king one you watched previously is one of them) They’re all self contained and serve to establish the story and themes of an entire expansion pack. Their production value is also through the bloody roof

So you're absolutely right that there's a ton of context missing from these as they are designed to play at the end of each subsequent race's story campaign in the game culminating in their specific plot points while driving the overarching story forward. Here's a bit of context that can be fit into a youtube comment. 1:03 - Out of order. Fight actually takes place just before the cinematic at 26:10. Arthas fights the horned elf, Illidan, for access to that cavern with the spire and what is known as the Frozen Throne. This is also the only cinematic that was actually a remaster in any significant way; the rest are mostly slight lighting differences. 3:20 - Real first cinematic - NM actual plot relevance besides displaying the arrival of the Big Bads "The Burning Legion" an endless interstellar demon army. 5:45 - Medivh (Raven Mage Guy) showing a dream vision of the Legion's arrival to Thrall (that orc with the hammer) to convince him to lead the orcs west to their "salvation." That's why you see the orc wake up part way through and then a raven flies off after. Thrall goes on to become the warchief of all the orcs and, along with some other alliances, forms "The Horde" that is known today. 8:15 - Medivh attempts to warn the human kingdoms to also go west to salvation; the plot shows later that he expects the humans and orcs to join forces with the elves who live in "the west" to repel the Burning Legion. The plague that one council guy mentions is a huge plot point of WC3 as it leads to the downfall of the human kingdom. 11:55 - Takes place after human campaign. Arthas, then the crown prince of the kingdom and a righteous paladin (and player character), attempted to stop the plague that was turning the infected into zombies. Fails completely and goes on a downward spiral of rage fueled vengeance against the perpetrators behind the plague of undeath. Ends up finding the evil magic sword and picks it up after making this vow "I will give anything or pay any price, if only you will help me save my people." Sword says "Bet" and consumes his soul. Now soulless, he becomes an ally of the undead and shows up where the cinematic starts and proceeds to assassinate his father and, now as a "death knight" leads the undead invasion upon his own kingdom. 14:15 - Mage dude is one of the top 3 space demons in the Burning Legion and named Archimonde. He just got summoned to our world and proceeded to do that magic trick to destroy the mage city that tried to stop his arrival. He will the go on to lead the Legion's invasion as a whole of the planet. This cinematic was mostly just a flex of his power. 16:22 - Thrall (hammer orc) and Hellscream (axe orc) are chiefs of their people and consider each other brothers. Orcs aren't originally from the human planet. They got ported there by the Burning Legion as a kind of advance invasion force after the orc leaders (led by Hellscream) were corrupted in a bargain for power where they drank the big burny faced demon's blood (Mannoroth); their green skin is proof of this corruption and is hereditary as Thrall was born afterwards and never actually drank. The effects of the corruption caused the orcs to become magnitudes more brutal, violent and savage turning them into berserkers that were enslaved to the will of the demons. All this corruption etc actually takes place during Warcraft 1. Leading up to the events of WC3, the orcs have fought to free themselves of the demons, but the curse from their bargain remains. This cinematic is Thrall and Hellscream confronting Mannoroth as he showed up to corrupt the orcs even further and force them to rejoin the Burning Legion's army. Instead, Hellscream overcomes his own bloodrage and manages kills Mannoroth; though the resulting explosion mortally wounds him. This breaks the orcs' curse of rage and servitude as Hellscream implies when he says "The demon fire has burned out in my veins. I have freed myself." Thanks to his actions here, no more orcs will be forced to bow to the demons and they are a free people once again. Poetic since Hellscream was the first to damn them by drinking the blood on the day of the bargain. Thrall proceeds to join forces with the humans and elves to stop the demons once and for all. 20:22 - Archimonde has grown into a giant and is attack that big tree (The World Tree) to consume its powers and win the day for the bad guys. All the spirits that show up are called "wisps" and they are actually the souls of elves' ancestors that remain on the mortal plane. Any single wisp is largely incapable of causing harm as they are actually the worker unit for the Elves' player race. They have one offensive feature which is a self-destruct that burns mana of anything in the affected area. The amount of wisps in that cinematic proves fatal for Archimonde since he is, himself, a giant magic space demon pretty much filled with nothing BUT mana. The fiery explosion afterwards was the blowback of Archionde's death in response to the wisps kamikazeing him. As Mannoroth showed, demons go out with a bang and Archimonde was one of the biggest. 23:10 - Illidan (the elf with horns and wings) is called "The Betrayer" by his people due to his actions during a previous war vs the space demons causing the death of many elves and he specifically made sure a font of magic called "The Well of Eternity" survived the conflict despite it being the catalyst for the demons' original invasion. He stated his reasons were that we would need it to fend off the demons again, but the elves had had about enough of arcane magic as they outlawed it after the war and he was the first offender. Illidan is the typical edgy and misunderstood anti-hero. Here he summons the naga (the snake people) to serve him as he goes to try and stop Arthas from reaching the Frozen Throne. The reason for the jump in quality that you saw is because these next cinematics were from an expansion to WC3 called The Frozen Throne. It was released almost exactly 1 year after the original game in July 2003. Insert the 1:03 cinematic here. Climatic fight between Illidan and Arthas as Illidan is all that stands between Arthas and the Frozen throne. 26:10 - Having bested Illidan and with no more opposition to stand in his way, Arthas ascends the spire to the Frozen Throne where he finds that armor and helmet in the block of ice. Said armor is possessed by a ghost named Ner'Zhul. He was placed in the ice as a prison by the Burning Legion (the undead plague turned out to be Plan B for advance force invasions for the demons). This way, Ner'Zhul was their prisoner and master of the undead via telepathic control. He was also the voice in the evil sword (Frostmourne) that corrupted Arthas. The voices you hear as Arthas climbs the spire in the cinematic are all his former allies and loved ones that tried to stop him from falling to darkness; several of which he ended up killing with his own hands. He breaks the ice and Ner'Zhul is freed from his prison and from the control of the demons. When Arthas puts on the helmet (known as The Helm of Domination) their souls merge into a new and even more powerful being known as The Lich King. He then takes his place on the Frozen Throne of his undead kingdom and sits there until the start of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King where he serves as the big bad for that expansion. Heck of a comment wall I know, but these are the basic cliff notes of context for these cinematics without getting into a ton of the minute details; such as the specifics of Arthas's many unspeakable crimes or the allies that Thrall meets to form his new Horde etc. All that stuff is learned and experienced by playing through the game. I hope this helps though!

this was my first game, i realy love these cinematics and it makes me feel so nostalgic. PD: great video, love to se your content

After this one you must see the last one that remains from classic Blizzard, and that would be Starcraft. The first game cinematics can be a little too old and basic but theyre filled with emotion and is pretty enjoyable, but the cinematics in Starcraft 2 are really something to see and comment, its purely amazing although like this one, its usually the beginning or the ending to a whole story. I hope you do it soon. Great work there man!

love ur analisis, i have learn a lot from!

At 15:49, the being destroying Dalaran is a Man'ari Erdear. They are the evil cousins of the playable Draenei who are the exiled Eredar group that refused to accept the gift from Sargeras.

I'm glad for the reaction and the honest opinion. I've always loved this game so much especially the lore. I'm glad I was born in this generation. This game is a masterpiece and the lore even more.

The voice actor for the wizard Medivh is Michael Bell. Indeed the same guy who voiced Raziel.

You are quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite reactors. Love your stuff, please keep it up.

Keep up the good work. Felt like you were a bit short on the film maker bit in this one but was nice to see your reactions. Used to play the warcraft series so much that it was kinda an obsession. But the wast lore and great characters really sucks you in and really makes you want to see how it ends

I was already subscribed but as soon as you mentioned Beast Wars, I really wanted to subscribe again

You will now gather the entire warcraft audience on your channel! It is very interesting to listen to your reasoning! The phrase "Succeeding you, father" gives me goosebumps all these years. The legendary phrase

A fellow legacy of Kain enjoyer I see. Loved the vid mate.

Arthas begins the game as one of the protagonists - Paladin and heir to the throne, surrounded by good people (Uther his Paladin mentor and Jaina his childhood friend and love interest). As he tries to save his people from the plague, he begins to make wrong choices which eventually lead him to his end. Arthas eventually goes for the promise of power that Shadowmourne (the evil sword) offers and it costs him his soul. From that point on he will eventually kill his mentor, father and defeat Illidan (Antihero - winged demon character you saw) and eventually wear the helmet that turns him into the Lich King.

For me my favorite scenes were the illidan one and the one where arthas killed his father, I loved the voice acting... I watched it when I was kid back in 2004

The orange and blue tones of your studio lights work very nicely

Now that you have this background, it's time to watch all the WoW trailers in sequence. Points up for the the 2 orcs vs the demon sequence. IYKYK.

The voice you are curious about (you are right, same voice actor as Raziel)...the character is named Medivh (pronounced med - eve). He is responsible for the orcs being on Azeroth (Warcraft's version of Earth). He opened a portal from a far away world known as Draenor and the orcs flooded through it. He's seen as a prophet, and remains a key lore figure throughout.

The thing with watching "just" the cinematics is that they tell the lore only very fracmented. There is like 1 to 2 per campain, which limits what they will tell

5:00 i remember, that those hands where seperated from the bodies in the original version. Did Blizzard cut this in the reforged version, or did the uploader of the compilation cut it out?

The blood on the steps and on the floor from when Arthas killed is dad the king in this cinematic, can be found in world of warcraft.

It's funny you make the comparison to 90's Mainframe Studios animation(Beast Wars) given many of these were actually from 2002.(I believe the opening cut scene, with the Knight and Orc, was the only one that was completely remade for the 2020 remaster.) It's interesting how we often remember things from a nostalgic stand point as, semi-recently, I went back and looked at the older 90's CG cartoons and it is much, much, rougher around the edges then we often tend to think in our minds eye.

28:45 Yes. Wrath of a Lich King was basically the sequel to this part of the story.

Around the 24 minute mark, thats the start of the expansion of Warcraft 3 the Frozen Throne which is basicly the beginning of Wrath of the Kich King trailer. The "kraken people" are Naga. They used to be High Elves that got drowned in a very important event known as "The Shattering" which was caused by their Queen Azshara. They got cursed to become Naga by a deal with one of Warcrafts worst antagonists called Old Gods, N'zoth in particular, who are basicly planet sized immortal space gods with the power to do anything. The Naga are featured in the 2nd WoW trailer and expansion along side the big horned winged guy (Illidan Stormrage) thats summoning them in the trailer you watched , who also used to be a High Elf, now a demon and even if he looks like the bad guy and is treated as the bad guy, he is actualy the only true hero in the universe. Along side Arthas of course. Arthas did nothing wrong.

Man I loved seeing your reaction to the cinematics but as a lot of people already told you this is kinda like watching 5 mins of a large series and then making it into a single video. so much amazing lore is done in the game proper and so many details on who Arthus is what he goes through how it is he becomes the lich king is what makes these cinematics shine just so much brighter and makes the wrath of the lich king cinematic feel so ungodly different. whilst I am not even sure if you will read this message if you have the time and are interesting in how it all comes to be I highly HIGHLY recommend playing warcraft 3 and it's dlc The frozen throne (which was that up in quality you saw) to fully understand the jump to characters and the change the people go through. yes it is pretty decently long and sadly reforced is really bad (it got a 0.4 on metacritic for a reason) the main story is still to this day one of the greatest stories ever told imo and I again HIGHLY recommend you play the game yourself and maybe you could have record the reaction to the story? idk maybe that is taken it a bit 2 far but seeing these cinematics are making me wanna play warcraft 3 again and feel the love for that story just rushing back!

Gonna try to add a bit of context to the Cinematic with the two Orcs and the Demon. The one with the Hammer is Thrall, who would basicaly become the leader of the Horde which consits of various races like Orcs, Trolls and Tauern (many more later on). Next to him is Grommash Hellscream or Grom, you could call them good friends or even kin but Grom is not only far older but also far more ferocious and impatient. He doomed many of the Orcs to do the bidding of the Demons by drinking their Blood and subsequently succumbing to unpredictable rage. Long story short, Thrall smacked some sense back into his friend and they went for Mannoroth, the demon in the cinematic who is the one who offered his blood to Grom and his people. Thralls Hammer is a powerful weapon indeed but Mannoroth is close to the top as far as demons are concerned, it took the sacrifice of a very angry orc on demonic steroids to cast him out. Grom freed himself, and all the other orcs who drank Mannoroths blood, from the demonic influence and died as a hero, though you can make the argument that he doomed them in the first place. Twice even depending on which lore you consider as cannon (Blizzard retconned a lot). You'd get to see a few interactions between Thrall and Grom prior and during the corruption, learning more about everything surrounding this event but that is happening during ingame cutscenes / conversations.

Love the reactions! Would be awesome if you do the Baldur's Gate 3 intro cinematic :D

6:00 People already probably told you but yes, that is indeed Michael Bell who played Raziel in Soul Reaver

Those who recommended the cinematics, forgot that a lot of context is based on ingame cinematics :c

I would recommend playing this game sometime. You have only gotten a surface level look so far.

Next up? World of Warcraft Cinematics! I like that you reacted to many in one video and didn't pause. If you keep to reacting with commentary on KZfaq, you can safe the Break Downs for Patreon content. Which I'll be sure to join.

Great reactions, I would love to see your reaction to Arthas' Betrayal, it was the first legit cinematic I think they made in the warcraft universe. It still burns in my mind, and why the lich king was so big in WoW. Keep doing what you do.

The first cinematic was released after the Wrath of the Lich King one, the original Arthas vs. Illidan Fight was not a CGI cinematic but a real time enginge cinematic from the Warcraft 3 expansion The Frozen Throne. This Warcraft 3 Reforge game is a remaster of the original game and is infamous for being a bad remaster on every aspect. The remaster was not made by Blizzard but rather comissioned to a third company that made all the in game assets while literally 4 or 5 guys from Blizzard worked on the code. The story of WC 3 is about Arthas and his journey to become the Lich King, he gains acces to the Helmet after defeating Illidan, thats why he does not have it yet. Not only that, he was being controlled by the magical being that possessed the helmet and planned to just take Arthas body, but ultimately Arthas will and resolve overwhelmed the Lich King and he took control of the combined form and embraced his name: The Lich King.

unfortunetly all of the cinematics save for the intro cinematics, are all story capstones so without the gameplay that has told the story through dialog they don't really tell you anything. Though even if you arent a gamer Warcraft 3 reforged is actually a pretty good game, even if only to play off stream when you have time.

Up next has to be some of the world of warcraft cinematics. Absolutely incredible videos for that game, just like the wrath of the lich king cinematic showed

Counter Strike: Global Offensive trailer is one i think would fit really well for this series. intense short story, thrilling music, from a filmmaking standpoint it's really cool since the cinematic is run in the engine of the game, pretty much only adjusting the light on a playable map for cinematic effect. And as always i love watching these video game cinematic/trailer reactions from you, keep it up lad.

Im glad im not the only one who only hears Raziel lol.

Shoutout to all my boys still playing warcraft 3!

This is Illidan, elf demon hunter obsessed with power. He was imprisoned by the elf's for 10 thousant years. This is the intro to expansion to warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 is mainly about Arthas, human paladin and son of a king. He take the cursed blade Frostmourn to save his kingdom and He fell in the trap of lich king, he became unded knight. Lich king sits on the frozen throne, he dont have body and is imprisoned in the ornament crown. In the main game Ilidan is released to help fight demon's invasion. Combine force of all the races drive back demon's. Arthas remains in the ruin of his kingdom as the king of the unded and Illidan is banished from the land of the elves. In the expansion Illidan is recruited by the demon's to destroy unded lich king who betrayed them, he find new allies, Naga underwater species. Lich king sensing the threat summons to the frozen throne his champion Arthas. At the end Illidan lose and Arthas unite with the lich king by placing the crown on his head. Thats the plot for the two first RTS games, later is WOW and entire diffrent story...

Now you have to check out World of warcraft ingame cinematics "Wrathgate" and "Fall of the Lich King"!

W3 cinematics are awesome but what makes them special is the impact on you while actually playing the game.

I just realized Arthas @ 1:34 looks just like Henry Cavill. A live action fall of Lordareon with HC would be epic!

There's so much context being left out by cinematics. Well, you see it all by playing the game :) If I may, another great Warcraft cinematic is Illidan Rejection of the Gift

the thing that destroyed the city with sand was a demon (later world of warcraft made him a different race that became a demon but here he was just always a demon) and yes there are subtitles, he's basically saying that the mages in the city play at magic like children but soon they see true power as it destroys their world

That was indeed Raziel from Soul Reaver. You have good taste in stories. :)

OMG, you recognized Raziel's voice actor!

I think to complete the Wrath/Icecrown/Lich King arc the Shadowlands Release cinematic would be a great next one. Despite the sentiments about Shadowlands as an expansion, that cinematic was insane.

I wasn't prepared for the deep feeling of grief I felt watching these. As someone who remembers saving up money they earned cutting firewood to go and buy Warcraft 1, 2, 3, and the Diablo games, it's really sad to see what's become of Blizzard and their worlds. I'd be willing to watch a Warcraft movie with Henry Cavill as Arthas. I reckon he'd do it justice since he played World of Warcraft.

Correct, most of the story is told in gameplay, the cinemátics are like rewards for listening the story in game

what you don't see at around 5:10 because it was for some stupid reason removed in the remake, was that it was JUST their hands, the pull away shows them just lying in a pool of blood nothing else besides, more powerful then what we saw here

If you feel confused by these cinematics, that's alright. In the game the movies are shown in between of whole campaignes, so story makes huge jumps. In short, old enemies must put aside their differences to defeat even greater threat ("aliens" falling from the sky, and the "troll" that destroys the city with sand magic; they are the Burning Legion btw). In the process heroic prince Arthas, by trying to save his poeple by whatever means necessary, grows in power, looses his humanity and turns into villainous Lich King, ruler of the undead. His story continous in Wrath of the Lich King, where he is the main antagonist. It woudn't be too far off to say, that the Lich King is Warcraft's Darth Vader.

Michael Bell, the voice of Raziel (and Medivh) 😍

The son that killed his king, later became the lich king

The Battle for Azeroth Opening Cinematic is amazing

You can activate subtitles. Would had translated what that demon was saying.

Most of the Overwatch animated shorts are nice to analyse, for example Overwatch Animated Short | “Alive”

Please react to ALL Leauge cinematic breakdowns!!! Except for this year haha. PLEASE! You have the best reactions! Thank you :-)

There's a LOT of context missing from the 2nd and 3rd cinematic but it tells a compelling yet albeit unoriginal story. Still very good. A classic to be sure.

Arthas' story is excellent, about how the pride and need to win eclipses a good man's desire to protect his people. Throughout the "human" campaign, Arthas is paladin in gold and blue, wielding a warhammer. He's young and confident, and over the campaign we see him taking turns towards the dark. He uncovers that the plague is being deliberately spread through grain shipments, and fights the undead that arise from the plagued villagers. He arrives at the city of Stratholme, to find the city has already had shipments of the grain, and the people are slowly turning. He orders his soldiers to burn the city and kill everyone, living or dead, before they turn into a huge army of undead. His Paladins, including his mentor and girlfriend abandon him at this point. "You are not my king yet, boy! Nor would I obey that order even if you were!" "I'm sorry, Arthas... I can't watch you do this" These are some of the quotes we hear as he ascends to the Frozen Throne. Arthas leads his soldiers north, to the frozen continent of Northrend and the source of the undead plague. They fight the undead hordes, but his men, far from home and uncertain of what they are trying to achieve begin to doubt him. As he hears of a magical runeblade that might help him defeat Mal'Ganis, the demon responsible for the undead plague, his men desert him, and begin to break camp. He hires local mercenaries to burn the ships at anchor, so his men *can't* leave, and blames the mercenaries, who are slaughtered by his troops. "You lied to your men, and betrayed the mercenaries who fought for you... what's happened to you, Arthas?" He leads his men to claim the runeblade, and assault Mal'ganis, but the blade is guarded by strange spirits who claim to be guarding *him* from the blade. The blade's pedestal reads "Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit." His best friend explains the blade is clearly cursed, and begs him to abandon his quest, he's done enough to protect his home. Arthas finally admits it's not about protecting Lordaeron, it's about revenge on Mal'ganis and his own wounded pride... and nothing will stop him now. He discards his paladin's hammer, and takes up the sword. His army gets him to Mal'Ganis, and he cuts him down, and Mal'ganis begs him to spare him... and Arthas explains "I heed only the voice of Frostmorne, now" - the voice of the Lich King. The cinematic is the first time we see Arthas outside of his heroic blue and gold. Arthas is a riff on the classic antihero, like Elric, who brings doom on his home, and wields an evil, soul-hungry runeblade.

I recommend watching the minor cinematics from Wrath of the Lich King as well, many people skip them but I think they're even better than the trailer. "Fall of Lich King patch 3.3" for example is brilliant.

No subtitles, he is speaking in a language alien to this world.

There's many ingame cutscenes/cinematic from WoTLK expansion leading all the way up to the heroes final encounter with Arthas, what happens to him & what comes next for the Scourge (the Undead's that he controls). And then fast forward maybe 10+ years and Blizzard finally decided to come back to the Lich King's story. For example your reaction to the Expansion Shadowlands cinematic will be "Wtf? Where's my boi Arthas? Who's this guy? Wow who's this badass chick?". But Arthas is a good starting point because his story is all tangled up with the Banshee Queen Sylvanas' story, someone who you'll be seeing fairly soon if you carry on watching the WoW Expansion cinematics... Just like Arthas she's a huge figure in the Warcraft community. Everyone will suggest the WoW Cinematics... I'd recommend the short stories called Harbringers, Warbringers and Afterlives. These are 4-6minute long cinematics which tell the stories of the main figures from some of the later expansions and can easily be bulked together in 1 video per expansion. These characters all have incredible stories in there own right. So I'd suggest just reacting to them after watching the main Expansion Trailer Cinematics. The short stories belong to the follow expansions: Harbringers (Guldan, Khadgar, Illidan) from Legion expansion Warbringers (Jaina, Sylvanas, Azshara) from Battle of Azeroth expansion Afterlives (Bastion, Ardenweald, Maldraxxus, Revendreth) from Shadowlands expansion Arthas is involved in both Afterlives: Bastion & Sylvanas' cinematics. What makes Bastion very powerful to watch is it's the story of what happened to Uther (someone Arthas looked upto as an uncle of sorts) & his regret over the decision he made at the plague of Stratholme (the first event that set Arthas on his path to turning into what you see in the cinematics). Ps. Great job on the reacts buddy!

You should watch all of the Warbringers cinematics and the warlords cinematics from world of warcraft. They have alot of story telling that is very easy to understand.

Let's gooooo

Bold statement for being a filmmaker. I can do a film anytime. Am I bold enough?

All in the game for the rest of info

The original has 3 major parts and a ton of half major parts, and also alot of minor parts. They play out mostly simultaneously witch can be confusing. The famous ones you see alot and hear alot about is Illidan (a night elf) and also Arthas (human). Then you also have the Burning Legion, witch is a bunch of different races, most visible is the eredar witch is corrupted Drarneis that turned and joined the Legion and the doom lords serving the corrupt titan Sargeras, that have a part in both stories. There is a red thread running through. Illidan did most things to help the world but got shunned. Arthas armor is actually a shaman that got torn apart and is not the greatest guy so to speak. It's a lot of lore 😅 And yeah, then there is the Naga witch are nightelves almost drowning after the well of eternity (they were in process of summoning the legion as queen azshara was mindcontrolled cind of) blew up the world. So they joined the old God N'Zoth to be turned in to fish people 🙂