[Spoilers] Shadowlands: Afterlives Cinematic Discussion

[Izzyfurious]

I think it was made by Christie Golden

Nope.

Blizzard
Directed by: Marc Messenger
Produced by: Taka Yasuda
Written by: Robert Brooks
Art Direction by: Laurel Austin

Illustration: Adam Baines, Jasmine Goggins, Josh Tallman, Laurent Pierlot, Will Murai, Yewon Park

Storyboard: Chap Yaep

3D Motion Story: Matthew Mead, Emily Hsu, Jared Mayberry, Cathy Blanco, Christi Kugler, Michael Taranto, James Wright, Enrique Munoz, Kaz Shimada, Daniel Kruse, Scott Trosclair, Benjamin Conner, Christopher Erickson, Ray Chih, Mike Hardison, Jon Styles

Post Production: Jake Patton, Joanna Griebel, Aaron Woitas, Rebecca Lilienfeld, Hannah Dalrymple, Ed Decker

Voice Performances: Josh Petersdorf, Max Mittelman, Maria Angelico, Tam Mutu, Omri Rose, Jeff Schine, Karen STrassman, Ray Chase, Patrick Seitz, Erica Schroeder, Michael McConnohie, Tim Russ, Patrick Seitz, Courtenay Taylor, Debra Wilson, Dee Bradley Baker, Keston John

Sound and Music: Paul Menichini, Caroline Hernandez, Ariel Wang, Brian Johnson, Erik Magnus, Larry Peacock, John Thomas, Chris Battaglia, Derek Duke, Nicholas Papaleo, Neal Acree, Gary Summers, Nathan Nance, Isaac Hammons, Andy King, Andrea Toyias, Michael Roache, Ashley Collins, Alec Santos, Peter Steinbach

Localization: Felice Huang, Thomas Floeter

Creative Development: Jeff Chamberlain, Venecia Duran, Phillip Hillenbrand, Brian Horn, George Krstic, Dennis Bredow, Sean Copeland, Madi Buckingham, Jacob Rivera, Claver Knovick, Tim Loughran, Shannon Eric Denton

wowhead is source

[Orby]

I need the soundtracks to these cinematics, like right now, the musical score to these episodes have been phenomenal

Also well done to the team on this one. Havent teared up from the get go like that in a while lol

[Feanoro]

Can anyone explain to me why the loa/Ancient spirits of Ardenweald have to be fed anima in order not to die completely while all the other souls are stripped of their anima and still function just fine without any outside support?

That was pure anima collected from lesser spirits that had ended up in Ardenweald. Animals, hunters, druids, etc.

Nameless/NPCs lives don't matter, apparently.

[Aucald]

Great cinematic. Not quite as amazing as Bastion but better for sure than Maldraxxus.

If you can just straight up destroy a soul and turn it into anima, though, can someone explain to me why there's anything left to save from the Maw? Why wouldn't the Jailer just turn them all to soul juice, to both permanently obliterate his enemies and boost his own power?

That's basically what the Jailer is doing now, although he also turns souls into physical matter used to make weapons, the power-siphoning chains (like the kind Sylvanas uses against Bolvar), and to extend his own kingdom so to speak. A lot of anima appears to be being gathered as a means to pry open the Maw and make a permanent means of exist for the Jailer and his Mawsworn, as opposed to the relatively tiny foothold they currently have.

A plot point that happens in Ardenweald is the Winter Queen sending a missive to Sire Denathrius asking for the reserves in Revendreth to be given to Ardenweald to stem the terrible fatalities caused by the Drought. It... doesn't go well.

[Sluvs]

Yeah you become one with the land so to speak as your anima disperses, but you yourself are gone and cannot return.

I thought you only lost your memory but were eventually reborn as a new entity

[Super Dickmann]

Written by: Robert Brooks

I am Jack's lack of surprise. Brooks is among their most reliable writers.

[Combatbutler]

I thought you only lost your memory but were eventually reborn as a new entity

Who knows how life plays into all this, after all there is supposed to be a balance between the two and aima is essentially just life experience, could be that a new soul is formed down the line and thrown out of the shadowlands, but so far there is zero hints to any of it, all we have are plenty of really dead people throughout the Questing experience in shadowlands.

[Piamonte]

Well, that is not what they said in a interview. That might have changed, but the idea was that when you die there, your energy is repurposed and reborn.

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* Written by her

i think you are confusing what happens to regular souls and what happens to the souls of those owl fella in bastion.

[Izzyfurious]

I am Jack's lack of surprise. Brooks is among their most reliable writers.

Idk, i've never read the books he's done for ages for them. Maybe some of his writing has being hit and miss. But this one...

This reminded me of the old blizz lore i cared about, unlike the ingame garbage.

[Combatbutler]

Additionally, we have a better idea of the time difference since multiple seasons/years passed in Ardenweald while the drought went on whereas for those in the real world it was only a few years.

Still vague as hell, a season is after all just a quarter of a year.

[Sluvs]

i think you are confusing what happens to regular souls and what happens to the souls of those owl fella in bastion.

But aren't they the same? I mean, in the end both are souls that inhabit the shadowlands

[Aucald]

Still vague as hell, a season is after all just a quarter of a year.

I don't think that's what's meant by a "season" in Ardenweald.

[Trollokdamus]

Wild Gods and Ancients aren't just present in Ardenweald, they're actively fed anima so that they can be reborn back in the living world after a time. They *can* be brought to a state where they can exist in Ardenweald without being reborn, though; with the Winter Queen allowing it - but that's not the purpose of Ardenweald or the function of the lifeseeds, though.

I get it that they require large amounts of anima to be reborn, the question is why they cease to exist without it while all the "ordinary" souls don't have such an issue. What exactly is the difference?

[Combatbutler]

Anyone noticed the Winter Queen started to tear up when she was telling him it's his choice?

Well whatever he chose it would have been a hard choice, if he had upheld his oath trying to protect Ursoc, he would have been killed, the other choice is killing his innocent charge for the greater good, thus breaking his oath and his innocence.

So in essence she has empathy, but is still willing to do what is necessary, even if it means killing innocents.

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I don't think that's what's meant by a "season" in Ardenweald.

Could be or not, we have no indication otherwise so I am going with the standard definition of a season.

[Coconut]

They mentioned somewhere that anima is like air in the Shadowlands. So presumably for Ardenweald since you need more anima to get people to revive you're getting it from somewhere else, but if that somewhere else is also rigged to the Maw you've got a drought and they have to decide who lives and who dies.

I'll have to pay attention in the quest lines to how it all works.

In any case, I felt this was better than the other two, though it still had a couple of moment that work better if you don't think about them (Is there really so little communication in Ardenweald that the satyr guy wasn't aware there was a crisis? What does it even mean to call the Wild Hunt if the viewer substitute character, guardian of a single soul, has to be informed individually by the Covenant leader herself? And did the Winter Queen provide every grove tender with a choice to sacrifice their charge(s)? After her minions tried to get them anyway? :P). All those are within the norm for Rule of Cool fantasy writing, though, so not too bad...

The more interesting part is that the clip seems to debunk that whatever was in the Soul Cage broke the Shadowlands, unless one is inclined to stretch the chronology and assume that Val'sharah, The Dark Thicket and the Emerald Nightmare raid all happened in extremely quick succession and somehow still edged ahead of the events in Stormheim, which seems a bit reaching to me.

[Combatbutler]

They mentioned somewhere that anima is like air in the Shadowlands. So presumably for Ardenweald since you need more anima to get people to revive you're getting it from somewhere else, but if that somewhere else is also rigged to the Maw you've got a drought and they have to decide who lives and who dies.

So far the only source for the zone are mortal souls, just like any other plane, mortal souls wander these groves usually giving up their anima over time.

[Coconut]

I get it that they require large amounts of anima to be reborn, the question is why they cease to exist without it while all the "ordinary" souls don't have such an issue. What exactly is the difference?

I think this is a very good question. Uther and Draka seemed to plop into the Shadowlands pretty much exactly as they were at the time of death, and Ardenweald must get its own "normal" souls that turn into tenders, but the Wild Gods that need to be reborn return in an embryonic state. Perhaps this will be explained in game.

[Aucald]

I get it that they require large amounts of anima to be reborn, the question is why they cease to exist without it while all the "ordinary" souls don't have such an issue. What exactly is the difference?

They don't, really. Ardenweald is dying because of the Drought, as it is reliant on its own ecosystem of anima in order to function (although being waylaid by the Drust hoarding anima also isn't helping). Most souls who go to Ardenweald don't take the form of spirits, they give up their anima freely to help the Wild Gods, Ancients, and Loa spirits to be reborn - essentially becoming part of those beings in the process. Of all the Covenant realms of the Shadowlands Ardenweald is the primary spender of anima. Without that influx of raw anima the ecosystem is dying, and the Night Fae are basically cannibalizing some of their charges (like Ursoc in the cinematic) to keep the system going for the more important souls that remain. Ursoc didn't rate as critical, apparently, and so he became fuel (this could also be voluntary in Ursoc's case).

[Combatbutler]

I think this is a very good question. Uther and Draka seemed to plop into the Shadowlands pretty much exactly as they were at the time of death, and Ardenweald must get its own "normal" souls that turn into tenders, but the Wild Gods that need to be reborn return in an embryonic state. Perhaps this will be explained in game.

They get to choose an animal form usually, now that you mention it, I haven't seen a mortal soul ascend to a tender status so to speak in ardenweald, they just wander about as anima batteries.

[Moonrage]

I get it that they require large amounts of anima to be reborn, the question is why they cease to exist without it while all the "ordinary" souls don't have such an issue. What exactly is the difference?

Seems like you have found a plot hole. My guess would be that Wild Gods are meant to be reborn, and their souls aren't supposed to exists as mere spirits in the Shadowlands.

That's my theory I literally just pulled out of my ass.