hopefully the time stamps help that shit took forever.

People always ask "who is Umbra?" But they never ask *"how* is Umbra?"

What people don't seem to realize regarding Umbra's resurgence and why it happened now, is that it's most likely because when we pulled the Moon back into our dimension, it received some damage, causing a crack in his cell He was freed by the events of The Second Dream and went after the cause of his torment

I love warframe so much. Ballas talking about how the Tenno can take away the pain of others, not through any magical or mystical way, but instead by being there and offering support and comfort means so much. The Tenno have been through and put through so much pain and countless hardships that they KNOW how bad things can get, and that being why they help others is so amazing it makes me cry

"It was that somehow, from within the derelict horror, they had learned to see inside an ugly, broken thing, and take away its pain." Always gets me to cry, this constant theme of the Tenno healing people's broken hearts and minds, just so beautiful.

The second dreams song is thematicly a duett. There is the choir of children, and the solo female singer, the Tenno and Lotus respectively. When Lotus leaves you, listen to it, Its only the child part of the song, singing alone, calling out for their mother, who isnt answering. And the Umbra quest is straight up about processing grief. You just lost your mother, and Umbra has been reliving the memory of killing his own son. So you help each other process grief. PS: Umbra is Space-Uncle.

I have a lower functioning brother, who is three years older than me, so the Chains of Harrow quest just makes me feel awful for Rell. We used cards and similar things for him, for stuff like washing hands or how to communicate emotions, and seeing Rell sacrifice himself to hold off TMITW, and eventually being laid to rest for suffering so long... I just wish he had some better life than the one he got.

"We accept this memory, and move beyond it's reach".

Man, everytime i hear smiles from juran i start weeping. It kinda gives me off a feeling of a renewed honour, achieved through pain, sadness and grief. Such a delicate and potent theme.

The "don't I have a robot that does this shit for me?" when you were scanning the scene actually got me lmao

Watching someone play all the main quests back to back is surreal. I sometimes forget the crumbs the community fed on between patches, hours of theorizing and speculation. But you get to be hit with beautiful emotional storytelling all at once. And i love to watch how storytelling, how art affects people so profoundly

some context: Rell had Autism, hence his sensitivity to intense stimuli, inability to express himself or read others expressions, but also why he was so smart when it came to advance space faring technology and sciences like Void drives that allowed for Void Jumps. he was shunned cause off his Autism even after the failed Void Jump that drove all the adults aboard violently insane and left the Zariman adrift in the void until it eventually returned temporarily to normal space, its was during this time that Rell came into contact and understanding of The Indifference aka The Man in The Wall (more on that in future quests) so when the other Tenno were being put into stasis for their Transference into warframes, Rell was denied possibly cause he was deemed unfit for combat. he gained help from some in founding the Red Veil and had them tranfer him into his Warframe Harrow completely to hopefully seal away TMITW. Lotus is a Sentient named Natah and the last daughter of Hunhow (the Sentient leader that tried to get The Stalker to kill the true you) before they made the jump from Tau system back to the Orokin system through Void Space which left any Sentient that made the jump unable to replicate and basically have kids, because void energy is the only kind off energy that Sentients cant adapt to and easily repair themselves from. She was made to look like Marguilis to gain the trust of the Tenno so she could kill them from the inside, but she soon took to caring for them instead like a mother (hence why the community refers to Lotus as Space Mommy), and so betrayed her own kind. this is also why Ballas is obsessed with Lotus being Marguilis, who he let the other Orokin execute when she spoke out against turning the Tenno into child soldiers. The warframes are people that are mutated, either willingly or not, by the Helminth Strain of the Infested plague. they were meant to be weapons used to fight the Sentients in the old war but most of them went mad and became uncontrollably violent until the Orokin figured out using Marguilis's concept for transference to have the Tenno go into and control the bodies. all warframes had their memories wiped, which may have helped in them being uncontrollable, except for the one that was turned into Umbra Excailbur. he was a Dax soldier that spied on Ballas and found out he was going to betray the Orokin to the Sentients. so in an act of petty spiteful revenge Ballas infected him, strapped him with a special transference and bolt and made it so the Dax would have and relive 1 single memory, Killing his own son in an initial burst of violent rage after he fiinally changed into Umbra Excalibur.

The Second Dream gave us knowledge The War Within gave us power The Sacrifice gave us peace

This story is incredible. I remember waiting years for the Sacrifice, and it was so worth it. But your journey is not over just yet, Tenno. The New War awaits.

34:42 I love how there’s umbra in the background doing an idle animation

At 16:03 when the motif from This is What You Are plays you can hear it is the response voice of the child choir instead of the lotus as if they are calling out to her only with no response

Smiles From Juran - To Take Away Its Pain So many years later, it still gets me

I like that in a game that is all rule of cool nonsense and grinding for the grind, you find humanity. To be fair, every factions in the game aside from the Sentients were human. Orokin, human. Tenno, human with void exposure. Grineer, human but degenerated because of cloning. Corpus, human just using lots of robots. Infested, basically zombies. There are no aliens in Warframe. Even the Sentient are man made. So yeah. I guess finding humanity in the story is about right. And yes, the Sacrifice contains one of my most favorite moment. When Smiles from Juran (or To take it's pain away) plays. And the tenno/we knelt in front of Umbra. We didn't say anything, we didn't touch him. And yet, Umbra was able to calm down. Simply because we saw his pain and we lived through similar pain that we were able to connect with him. I wonder if you have experience the cephalon fragments?

So 5 years ago, I wrote some lyrics down for Smiles from Juran, and I wanted to share them here, as this quest is my absolute favorite, I had to Hope you all like them, (these are for the Shawzin parts, the string at the beginning, as to be sung like a lullaby.) Rest your weary head, my lonesome child Smile for you are free, for you are safe here now Smile for those who fought and those who died. Smile for you are brave, my child

Chains of Harrow still gives me chills and frights; the sound design is just absolutely perfect. There's actually a mini-comic online about Rell which provides some additional insight into his story

Haha i liked how you called Ballas "Ball ass" a few times x)

In case it wasn't immediately clear, Ballas' vitruvian recording is the reason Second Dream quest happened. Ballas sent it to Hunhow, which prompted Hunhow to send the Stalker to destroy the Reservoir.

This playthrough we have here really is special to me as Warframe is a game that evolved with me for the last decade and re-living all the quests through Marco's stream really made it feel even more special. But inbetween the livestream of yesterday and now I have had a terrible news. Today, I got told that my mom's liver is dying for real and we need to do many things in order to have enough funds for a transplantation, or else she will not go through 2024. I immediately thought of what Marco said about being in the room with his father: I started crying silently already seeing myself in that position. Even though it could happen in years from now. My heart and minds are filled with many conflicting emotions and I don't know how to deal with them. For the first time in many years I am crying on and off extremely easily, I can tell my body and mind really need it but at the same time it hurts so much. As if I started griefing even though mom is still here and still suffering. I must stay strong for my family... but it is going to be hard. Thank you Marco for sharing all your experiences, good and bad, happy or sad ; the way you explain and go through how music and the storybeats make you feel has been helping me make peace with my inner struggles. ♥

I hope you like lovecraftian themes, because the Indifference, The man in the wall, SCREAMS Lovecraft. I love where theyve taken the story. Amazing that it's all hidden beneath "oh hey cool space ninjas"

And thus you have it, my go to main frame in the game: Excalibur Umbra. Not only do we get him for free, not only do we also get a badass sword for free, not only is he a suped up version of Excalibur, but his backstory is so...tragic, I can't help to love it. Plus Smiles Of Juran is such a cool theme.

31:54 "You are." Just two words is enough to know not only how inhuman the Orokin are (especially Executor Ballas), but also how they see only those lower than their stature as playthings. Powerful and sinister, a poisonous combo. Your reaction also says so many things in one furrow of the brow. You're almost there, The New War awaits. I hope to be present when you stream it.

I love how you pronounce Ballas as "Ball Ass". As a ten year Warframe vet it gets me every time.

You being scared big time during Chains of Harrow is pretty much the indicator of Job Well Done by DE for this quest. One of the many reasons why Chains is held in such high regard.

An interesting thing that this quest adds to the second dream. Is that it possibly explains why when the stalker was about to kill you in your ship, your warframe moved on its own to break the sword and save you. All your warframes might be sentient to different extents.

This games story really shows the importance of pain and how we have to heal from it. This universe has a lot of trauma, and the Tenno who were created to inflict war upon it are now the key to healing it.

It's amazing how well Warframe portrays how we as humans struggle with loneliness and grief. As someone on the spectrum, Rell's story resonated with me. That being said, I like how much care the writers put into portraying him. In lots of media, autism is portrayed as a sickness or something that gets in the way. But in Chains of Harrow, it's portrayed as something that deserves to be understood. It's also very creative how the story chooses to portray it through our senses. I feel like the horror elements portray what a sensory overload is like: overwhelming, terrifying, difficult to get out of.

There is just something so powerful about how Tenno are innately able to sympathize with extreme trauma. And take away the pain.

So as I'm typing this comment, it is a bit ironic the timing of this video, and the time at which I watched it. I lost my grandmother to stage 4 cancer Friday (the same day you posted this). I decided to watch this video just before her funeral. I'm bawling obviously lol but I'm so glad you got the chance to tell him all the things I did not get to tell my grandmother. I keep telling my family and friends that TIme in finite. I am glad for the time I got with her, but I wish I would have said more. You comment comparing the infestation to cancer gave me pause, and then I had to chuckle because my grandmother would have actually gotten the correlation because I always talked about video games with her (I'm an avid FFXIV and Warframe player). She didn't understand any of it but she liked to listen to me. Thank you, because in a way you helped me in the process of my grief.

I knew this quest would strike a chord with you. I still remember your video on Smiles from Juran, and I'm glad you got to experience it at its source. You're exactly right: the way we relate to these stories is _at least_ as compelling as the stories themselves. I was grieving a lot of things in 2018, when this quest released. My stepdad, my home, and much more. When Ballas spoke of an 'ugly, broken thing,' I could only look at myself. I think all my life, I've looked to storytelling and media for a lesson, an answer -- _how to take away my own pain._ I channeled my anger into Umbra and chose Wrath, because both of us wanted someone to pay for stealing our families away from us. My headcanon was that my operator learned this from my main at the time, Valkyr. Sometimes you just want to scream until the walls shatter. My life and I have both mellowed out in the last few years. The rage and the panic have melted into tenderness, but I still can't hear Smiles from Juran without inhaling a sob. That's not a bad thing.

I love seeing how different people experience the same things as someone else in the game, in a different way. Some people feel mad, while someone else gets excited, and another feels heartbroken. I think it shows to how good the team has been with narative that people are able to place their own personal interpretations into it, and view the scenes different from how another does. Like how during The Sacrifice i ended up personally becoming more and more angry with Ballas as my chief emotion

Your very first 'Hey Kiddo' :D

12:24 one of many instances of seeing the man in the wall, do watch out, he may appear when you least expect it, but i cant a wait for you to experience the other missions, though you would need a free day for going through "new war"

Warframe moves players in ways that no other game does. Thank you for sharing the story of you and your father! As for me, as someone on the Autism spectrum, I found the story of Rell very true to my own experiences.

I do not lie when I say that halfway through this quest, it was make or break for me as to whether or not I could continue playing Warframe. Allow me to explain. I have played Warframe for a long time. It's my most played game, the one who's lore is the most all-consuming for me. After the mind-blowingly beautiful quests of Second Dream, War Within, and Chains of Harrow, The Sacrifice was to answer a long-standing question for me: what EXACTLY is a "warframe"? Then I got to the part where Ballas explains that warframes were once human, transformed and tortured by the Helminth strain of the Infestation. I was very concerned at this point. Were we...body snatchers? Pilots of a long-dead, or worse--perhaps still-alive body? What of the host? I was extremely uncomfortable at this point. If it turned out we were just callously controlling these warframes as our own bodies, I don't think I could ever look at them the same again. All the time spent coloring them, styling them, would turn sour in my mind. So I continued the quest. It arrived at the part. You know the one--that fateful line, perhaps the best, most meaningful line in the entire game: _"...and take away its pain."_ I literally gasped out loud in relief. I felt like a weight had been removed from my soul. We--the Tenno and the Warframes--were a team. A willing, symbiotic team, bound by human compassion and shared suffering. They gave us their power, we gave them peace. Oblivion. An outlet for their rage. A relief from their agony. To this day, that scene, and the sobbingly beautiful piece "Smiles from Juran" never fails to move me to tears. The game was truly elevated in that moment in my mind. The Second Dream will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the greatest quests in video games...but The Sacrifice is my favorite. It changed everything. It made everything I had done in the game to that point...whole. Meaningful. It removed the last bit of self-doubt as to the righteousness of our cause. What a game. Thank you for playing it, Marco, and thank you for sharing your reactions with us.

"Rap tap tap" never fails to give me shivers

Absolutely love seeing your experiences with these quest, they're beautifully done. My personal favorite moment from this quest was finding out that the frames arent robots, they're people (although really deformed). Able to think and decide, but given humanity by the Tenno. Its just awesome :)

Ballas was sure talking a lot of shit for someone within sword's reach

Glad he is putting time towards playing Warframe. I'm having flashbacks to when I played these quest for the first time.

I tear up at the "to take away it's pain" part every time

Seeing Marco playing the game I've known and seen its progress for 10 years and actually enjoying makes me so happy. Warframe is an excelent game in general, but people tend to overlook how well made are both soundtrack and the story, and how much love was poured into it.

The Sacrifice is bar none my favourite quest in Warframe, and possibly one of my favourite quests in all of video games - definitely a top 10, at least. Very few games can reduce me to bitchy ugly tears the way that The Sacrifice can.

I like the alignment system in this game it is essentially daoism rather than being about good vs evil

I hang around on stream a bit, and the amount of your thoughts and opinions that has been cut with this edit is crazy. This playthrough is clearly so that we can enjoy YOU playing the game, so I believe it would be great to have more of your reactions. Even in an edited stream vod.

At the time this released years ago, acceptance was the perfect message. After everything these past years and learning first hand Umbras pain...wrath is a completely valid option looking back at it.

"The music - the way that it moves and that it propels us forward there - it is this mix of rage, vengefulness, acceptance, and it fits the three options that we pick when we have that moment." Brilliant analysis, I love that piece, and this gives me a new appreciation for it.

The fact that they actually managed to do horror in a game where you're an unstoppable killing machine impressed the hell out of me.

When I played Chains of Harrow way back when it came out, I was still a teen at the time and didn’t quite understand it much and kinda made jokes about it. Now after not playing for many years, coming back to it just makes me appreciate what they tried to tell. Just hearing Rell, it makes me sad that such a child was left the way he was and left with a burden larger than anything else. It sucks that I laughed it off mostly as a kid, but at the same time I just simply didn’t grasp the concept due to my mindset towards the game being more casual and also because I didn’t know much about mental disorders.

I totally agree on the last part regarding the "wonders of Warframe." It's a prime example how video games are a burgeoning medium of art. An amalmagation of music, literature, philosophy, and cinematography. Add to it the immersion of gameplay and control as well as the technological innovation to achieve such. It probably feels pretentious and cringe saying this to a free-to-play looter shooter, but Warframe is truly profound when you get past the idea of afk farming with Octavia. 😂 I got more memorable gaming moments and more profound experience in Warframe than on some AAA paid games. Enjoyed the stream btw! Looking forward for more!

33:10 This is BY FAR my favorite part of Warframe, I love the entire sequence, the scene, composition, ost, dialogue....EVERYTHING. Second Dream and War Within are the best quests DE has made.

Rell was rejected because he had autism, which made him different

The re-contextualization of the story after following the story for so long and reliving the quest through this channel-- it made that end of Rells quest hit a little hard ngl. How hard he fought against Wally for God nows how long, and how tired he was. Goodbye, Rell, you were a trooper 🫡

At the time, revelation from Ballas' recordings regarding the creation of warframes and the role that Tenno play in making them function added much needed depth and characterization to the game. This knowledge could be extrapolated to all warframes, meaning they all have their stories. Some volunteered for the process, others were subjected to it against their will, like Umbra. Most were ultimately driven insane regardless. The 'frames we use are implied to be vessels without such memories, essentially clones. But even now it's not exactly clear. What makes Umbra unique is that Ballas utilized technology he developed to come up with the pettiest and most horrible revenge for daring to cross him, this quest really shows how much of an a*shole this Orokin is. Not only he turned this nameless decorated Dax commander into an Infested puppet, warframe for the Tenno he despises to use, but also made him kill his own son, and ensured that this memory is imprinted forever in his mind. Then proceeded to imprison him for literal ages on Lua, unbeknownst to anyone, alone in agony, relieving that horrific moment constantly. And somehow Tenno manage to soothe that pain. That was definitely the height of Warframe storytelling for me, I wasn't particularly happy with where things went with The New War and what followed.

"like I'm living two separate experiences with it" This makes me picture walking up to the Somatic Link where the Operator sits with my Warframe and watching them both breathe in sync.

Thank you for including the Rell quest, one of my favorites as it hits close to home. I appreciate all the effort it must have taken to edit this as well!

Absolutely love watching you play Warframe. I would love to watch you play anything really, love everything about ya!!

Thank you so much for sharing these and all the extra stories and vulnerabilities with us. To hear how all these different experiences can align and bring out the deepest things in all of us is amazing for games as a medium and I just wish all the more people could see this themselves

so good. was really nice to see your playthrough and reactions, and I loved your commentary too. cheers.

two of best quests in warframe ever back to back is an amazing treat, chains of harrows is an underrated quest and i loved your reaction to it

Thank You for this playthrough.. it was the (can't find words).. can't wait to watch the rest up to the newest lore quest

I wish they'd do more missions like this. While tense, it is a nice change to feel of most missions and the general gameplay.

Although i watch most of your videos for the music but seeing u experience them in game with another context has been alot of fun for me, its like a lovely journey we're goin through together. Keep it up marco

I genuinely love your connection with Warframe's personal stories with personal stories of your father. It's honestly such a beautiful thing to listen to you relate and share it with everyone and I'm glad Warframe was able to help you resonate with that. It's one of the reasons why I love Warframe's story so much, because there is so much intrinsic reality - love, compassion, pain, anger, loss, grief, and acceptance - packed into such an insanely weird and fantastical world.

Marco perfavore keep going forwards and enjoy the story of the game, your insight has been a treat! I finally found a newbie to warframe who actually wants to understand the game's lore and appreciate it to the extent you do!

Marco with his music nerd hat on: I like these creepy strings. Also Marco: Incoherent terrified screaming.

Thanks for serving as a sort of a recap as I’m in the process of picking up where I left off which is just after The Sacrifice. DE left the main story for too long that I had to drop WF for a while, hopefully the new content would be just as gripping as the 2nd Dream and this.

Thank you for opening your heart to us. 1 hour ago you were a stranger to me and now I know one of your deepest, fondest memories.

This was a wonderful experience to watch. While I don't have the deeply personal connection to grief that you do, Umbra's story still resonates deeply. The sounds of the Origin System resonately deeply with its stories. There's a lot of deep and layered lore surrounding Ballas, Margulis, The Lotus and the Tenno, but while I want to share my thoughts, feelings and theories I think it's better you experience them firsthand from the game and its story and music first. Some of it remains shrouded in mystery, probably indefinitely, but we look forward to where the stories take us next.

Thank you for sharing this playthrough and your experiences. I had been very lucky and never had to deal with grief until I was over 40 (43 now), but now I've had to deal with it twice within two years and this quest hits differently. Smiles from Juran is by far my favorite song from the game.

The words you said about understanding loss, thank you. After losing mother suddenly in 2016, for the longest time I have been lost in the isolation. The world keeps going, the years fly by and its easy to forget that you alone are not the only person who understands grief. Love you bro, seeing you grow and work through these feelings through these games and KZfaq has become a place of relief and comfort for me. ❤

Shame I couldn't make the live stream but seeing this video after the fact is good enough. It's always fun watching someone learn the lore of a fun game like Warframe and hear your thoughts about it. Keep up the fun times Marco

I really appreciate you talking about your experiences.

This mission. This mission hits harder on subsequent runs, or, watches of others playing through it. Shedding tears, yet again, for Umbra, whoever he once was. For Isaah, for the tragedy that occurred, and that finale piece, Smiles From Juran. We finally get to hear it, but in a context that is heartbreaking. ;_;

There are personal scan targets. Completing the scans give more lore. You'll find them in the syndicate consol Select Cephelon simaris Instead of the normal interface, you'll have a list of research entries. As these are scan targets, they pop during missions, and have no musical significance. You might want to do them as part of your lore dive.

There's something really interesting about rewatching these quests, they really beat in the theme of "this is who you are/what I am" The Tenno *are* devils, Natah *is* that, and how they act in or break out of those roles.

I've... lost count on how many times I've replayed The Sacrifice as well as watching people's first time reaction towards the quest. But one thing for sure what always happens is that the moment Smiles of Juran starts playing my tears starts flowing. I had quite a lot of fun watching your playthrough and hear your thoughts for this game. The Sacrifice is a story that came out years ago, yet I don't think I can find any story in video game or media that might make me want to rethink everything as much as this for decades to come. I'm glad you have a blast with Warframe and I hope you'll have a blast with everything that comes afterwards as well.

Thank you, fellow Tenno, for a trip down this path. Hope to see you after the New War.

"oh yes! Oh no!! What the fuck- Oh god!!!" Such a perfect beat for beat reaction to umbra's remaking xD

I love how the horror minigame that is Chains of Harrow got you too. lol It creeped me out so hard.

the campaings and locations just get better and better every campaing

CLEM! GRAKATA! 🧡

Can't wait to see you play through the second war and the angel of zaruman quests

Having played Sacrifice before getting diagnosed, I missed that Rell was on the spectrum. So when i saw this i came to the same conclusion. I maybe higher functioning but I've always felt alone. Another link in the chain to my void, depression.

I was hoping you would play this game for the context behind the music! I didn’t realize you had started at all! Well now I’m gonna need to keep up with this. Can’t wait for you to get to new war. It is a culmination of so many years and loose threads of story bits being tied off while creating future plot points that are currently in progress as we speak. And the new war has some more interesting music at a certain point that actively has to do with fortuna. And I won’t say anymore on the topic as to avoid any spoilers.

Welcome Tenno so glad you like our game.

i remember playing this quest like 2 years ago absolute peak, i loved it so much i main umbra now

I love how you can really feel umbras anguish and rage

I'm catching up on the playthrough but I wanted to make a quick suggestion. I have recently over the months discovered the Wasteland game series and the music in all three games are top two reasons I love them! Definitely give those games a try or their soundtracks a listen. They're from the original team that made Fallout and the composer did the first two Fallout soundtracks as well, which you should also listen to! Especially Metallic Monks and Second Chance.

Loving the playthrough

Oh cool, I didn't know we were gonna be sad today!

4:42 fills me with joy

Also clem is frien frien is clem List of things you can do with clem: give clem cuddles Forfeit all mortal possessions to clem Help the clem in clem missions :>

Perfectly Timed Ordis strikes again.

I didn't know you played Warframe! eyyyyyyy

12:23 i almost cried at that part while the rest of the chains of Harlow scared me

Buddy, the new war quest is gonna be at least a 3 hour experience. Be ready and enjoy a blast of a quest