Cinematics and Trailers

[Sharnie786]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

[Throwme]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

When it makes sense for the story they want to tell.

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

No.

[SkagenRora]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

The darkshore one had some malfurion.

Basiclly they will feature them if they are relevant for that content.

[Eapoe]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

Legion had plenty of NE things. Emerald Nightmare. The entire zones of Azsuna and Val’sharah. Suramar is technically a NE city and the NB are offshoots of them. Illidan being 1 of the main protagonists of Legion. Hell, in a weird way the entirety of the xpac of Legion was a NE xpac since they never would have came to Azeroth had it not been for the NEs.
BfA had the entire Naga zone, who happened to be mutated NEs.
Think what I’m trying to point out is that there is plenty of influence of the NEs all over that they don’t really need an entire xpac themed around them.

[Harbour]

As far as i remember in some of recent interviews asked about Tyrande and her revenge some of the dev hinted at her story continuing and Old Soldier style cinematics.
Take is how you want. I take it as a hint on cinematics about Tyrande.

[matrix123mko]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Hopefully not soon.

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

Legion.

[Traveler Voltin]

of course it was a night elf fan.

[Shinrael]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

Really? After two expansions full of cinematics with Night Elves xD ?

[Dellis0991]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

When they need to tell story and legion was centered around night elves and draenei. You probably gonna see night elf stuff when Elune becomes front and center.

[Moonrage]

Really? After two expansions full of cinematics with Night Elves xD ?

I don't know about you but there were exactly two cinematics that centered around Night Elves. The one in Val'sharah with Tyrande and the one in Darkshore with Malfurion.

Meanwhile Saurfang, Jaina, Sylvanas, Anduin and Genn have gotten way more screentime.

- - - Updated - - -

When it makes sense for the story they want to tell.

It made sense to make a cinematic about the Night Elves after Teldrassil's burning, but the writers decided it was a better idea to put Saurfang in the spotlight.

[Villager720]

I feel like Illidan has been in quite a few.

[Sarethion]

You had Malfurion and Tyrande in the Darkshore cinematic. Tyrande also appeared in the Ysera cinematic in Legion.

Also, Illidan was featured a lot in Legion cinematics.

As for Shandris... She is like one of the main characters in Alliance war campaign in BfA and appeared a lot in Nazjatar.

---

Going forward - Tyrande is present in the Shadowlands and Ardenweald story supposedly goes over a lot of Night Elf related stuff, like Ysera, Night Warrior, Elune, nature spirits, etc. It's also likely that when we deal with Sylvanas, Tyrande or some other Night Elf character will be a part of that.

[Sharnie786]

People don't know the difference between a cutscene and a cinematic.

Cinematics are like Old Soldier and Reckoning
Trailers are like BfA, Legion, WoD styled videos.

There hasn't been a single one with a Night Elf featuring in it. Even the Battle for Lordaeron (BfA cinematic) we see some female Night Elf shooting arrows but we don't see their face.

+ Legion was a Legion expansion, not a Night Elf one. Night Elves just featured a lot because the whole world was their empire at one point.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

People don't know the difference between a cutscene and a cinematic.

Cinematics are like Old Soldier and Reckoning
Trailers are like BfA, Legion, WoD styled videos.

There hasn't been a single one with a Night Elf featuring in it. Even the Battle for Lordaeron (BfA cinematic) we see some female Night Elf shooting arrows but we don't see their face.

+ Legion was a Legion expansion, not a Night Elf one. Night Elves just featured a lot because the whole world was their empire at one point.

Vanilla WoW's cinematic has a Night Elf Druid in it.


So... yeah.

[Nerovar]

I miss the times when WoW was focused on small stories, world building and believable events that your adventurer-type character could partake in. Ever since WotLK the game has spiraled into this ever increasing expectation for cinematic storytelling that actually excludes your own character. BfA had more than 1.5 hours worth of handcrafted cinematics (not counting the ingame scenes) and for what purpose? The characters are more annoying, whiny and clichéd than ever and we got a copy of the LOTR ending with a Dragonball cameo thrown in.
This shit is simply getting ridiculous.

But yeah, after an expansion about sad orc cinematics we definetely need an expansion about sad elf cinematics.

[Kyphael]

Night Elves aren't really main characters in WoW. They're relegated to supporting characters. Blizzard loves its Orcs and Humans. No other race can really be the main characters unless they're villains. Let's look at the main characters to every expansion, shall we?

Burning Crusade: Illidan and Akama. This is before the days where cinematics, in-game or otherwise, and trailers were the focus of moving the story forward. Akama is a Broken, former Draenei, and is pretty much the only good guy with any relevant screen time outside of just in-game quest givers. Illidan is a night elf transformed demon, and he was the main villain. Kael'thas was arguably a bigger villain in the expansion, albeit not featured heavily, with Kil'jaeden being tacked on at the end with a minimal role, very 2-dimensionally as a big twist.

Wrath of the Lich King: Tirion Fordring was the good guy, hands down. He was the Obi-Wan to Arthas' Darth Vader. Both humans. Straight forward.

Cataclysm: Thrall, an Orc, main hero of the expansion, villain is a big scary dragon. Again, very straight forward. This was the expansion that started laying it on thick who the major NPC good guy is. Thrall was all over the place. Green Jesus, World Shaman, you've heard it all.

Mists of Pandaria: The main good guy wasn't clear cut here. It was sort of a combination of Thrall, Varian, Jaina, and Horde leaders leading the charge against Garrosh, big bad Orc villain.

Warlords of Draenor: This was a fucking mess. For the most part, Khadgar was the main good guy, a human. Yrel rose up during the expansion, but she was not the main her. Villain role was all over the place. Grom at first, then Gul'dan, and finally Archimonde, but I'd probably go with Gul'dan as the major orchestrator and face of evil. Archimonde, like Kil'jaeden in BC, was a surprise twist, very 2-dimensional in his role. A puppet master without puppets. Again, heavy Orc presence, human as main good guy.

Legion: Varian was the good guy on the cinematic... and he dies. Illidan was arguably the good guy all expansion, with Velen as the main supporting hero, Khadgar and Turalyon mostly playing third fiddles.

Battle for Azeroth: Hands down, Varok Saurfang was the main hero of the story, Anduin close second. Sylvanas was the main villain whether Blizzard wrote it correctly or not, N'zoth was a... terrible, terrible twist ending. Point is, Varok, Orc good guy again, more humans.

Night Elves are sub-plot characters. Malfurion in Val'sharah, Mount Hyjal, and Darkshore for example. Humans and Orcs will always be the main good guys. Illidan is the exception, and he's the closest to a Night Elf main good guy you'll get. This game is all about Orcs & Humans and Blizzard makes no bones about that.

[Shinrael]

I don't know about you but there were exactly two cinematics that centered around Night Elves. The one in Val'sharah with Tyrande and the one in Darkshore with Malfurion.

Meanwhile Saurfang, Jaina, Sylvanas, Anduin and Genn have gotten way more screentime.

- - - Updated - - -



It made sense to make a cinematic about the Night Elves after Teldrassil's burning, but the writers decided it was a better idea to put Saurfang in the spotlight.

Legion: Val'sharah Cinematic with Tyrande & Ysera. All the Order Hall mini-cinematics about Illidan and Xe'ra. Suramar (you literally have 3 zones fully dedicated to Night Elves with Azsuna) cinematic. Nighthold cinematic. Rejecting the Gift 7.3 cinematic.
BFA: Darkshore Cinematic, Burning of Teldrassil cinematic, Night Warrior mini-cinematic. Nazjatar (an entire zone dedicated to Night Elven lore) intro cinematic, other Nazjatar cinematics, Azshara defeat cinematic.

There are so many races and things in WoW, so many who have never even been in the spotlight. You might find 10 cinematics over the course of the last 4 years too few, but that is a technical limitation, not a favouritism towards other races. Not the slightest bit.

[Triceron]

When are we going to see Night Elf characters like Malfurion, Tyrande, Shandris, Mordent, Maiev, or similar in a cinematic or trailer?

Do you think there will ever be an expansion centred around Night Elves?

Malfurion was shown once in WC3 cinematic, the end one where he blows the horn of cenarius to call the wisps to attack Archimonde. Other than that yeah, Night Elves have been portrayed by no-names in the cinematics more than not. Illidan's the only one who got any major screen time.