by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Since the series just wrapped up this morning, it might be a good time to get an overview of the Lords of War animated series.

Critical Details

• Animatic shorts for the bulk of the episodes, with a framing narrative using enhanced in-game models.
• Released weeks prior to the Patch 6.0.2 systems patch for Warlords of Draenor.
• Features Vindicator Maraad recounting the stories for notable warlords in the Iron Horde for Varian Wrynn, characterizing both their savagery and their conviction.

Brief Synopsis

Maraad’s recollections of Kargath Bladefist, Grommash Hellscream, Durotan of the Frostwolves, and Kilrogg Deadeye all focus on major events that shaped the lives of each warlord.

1. Kargath was an enslaved gladiator who fought to free himself and rose to become a champion, only to learn it was no escape. A stroke of luck allows him to free himself by cutting off his own hand, and he takes revenge.
2. Grommash refused mercy for his own people after a defeat against the ogres and fought on instead, only to be captured. Taken to the brink of death, he would not surrender, and that quality is what allows him to survive.
3. Durotan gave in to his bloodlust while protecting his ailing mother. He successfully slaughtered the wolves, but also killed his mother’s own frostwolf in the process. He wears the frostwolf’s pelt to remind himself to harness his rage, and that is what makes him dangerous.
4. Kilrogg, chafing under his father’s stagnating reign, chose to perform the rite that would let him trade in an eye for a look at his own death. In the vision, Kilrogg saw his clan rising up in glorious combat, and consequently returned to kill his father and take control of the clan… which was the vision his father had seen.
5. Maraad recounts his own turning point, when he decides to pursue an orc on the battlefield rather than protecting the refugees he was tasked with. The refugees end up dead, and Maraad’s resulting fervor is about his desire to set things right.

Why It Matters

The chief reason why the Lords of War series matters right now is because it juxtaposes the chief conflict of the expansion (“The Iron Horde is coming”) against the idea that the top guys in the Iron Horde are heroes. They’re heroes who have been convinced that crushing everyone on Draenor and Azeroth is a good idea, but they’re heroes, nonetheless. Grom’s story has airs of Conan the Barbarian. Kargath’s story is a retelling of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Durotan’s story has echoes with Leonidas’ origin story in 300. Kilrogg’s has a Greek tragedy vibe to it, with the weight of prophecy guiding the choices of the Bleeding Hollow. And the heroism of Maraad himself is reinforced, because while he’s fighting against the Iron Horde, he’s doing it because he wants to atone for the mistakes he made in the past.

It frames the idea that the conflict we’re about to see play out in the next expansion is a war of heroes. If Mists of Pandaria was about reflecting on our motivations to fight, Warlords of Draenor is about looking at our enemies and recognizing that they have motivations that are just as worthy to them. And while it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re going to ultimately beat the Iron Horde into the ground, I think part of the objective of this series is to make Thrall’s Horde remember its roots. When the conflict comes back around to the Alliance and Horde of Azeroth squaring off once again, maybe both sides will have a deeper level of respect for each other.

We are all heroes. We are all fighting for what we think is right. Even if we ultimately strive for peace, war is the path we’ll choose if peace is untenable. In a world with limited resources, can there even BE a path without war?

From a craft perspective, another important reason to do this series now and showcase these heroes is to work at reshaping perceptions about them. Kargath and Kilrogg were introduced in Warcraft 2, where a bunch of orcish clans were introduced that all worked on similar themes: generally, the orcs in WC1/2 were characterized as warmongering badasses who would mutilate themselves as a demonstration of their resolve, whether that was cutting off a hand, plucking out an eye, knocking out a tooth, or just possessing a blatant disregard for safety and/or unbridled nihilism. It was all metal references and a convenient way to come up with eight distinct factions to match up with WC2’s multiplayer emphasis, but it’s the characterization that went into the canon at the time: the Horde is the antihero faction.

HEAVY. METAL.

The Blackhand/Doomhammer Hordes were created a time that being an antihero meant you didn’t play by the rules and you got to be as evil as you wanted to be while still getting to be the star of the show (see Venom, ‘Spawn, the Punisher, various other early 90s comics for examples). If you needed to feel some degree of validation as a “hero,” you could claim a thin veneer of it if you were fighting greater evils while you also tussled with the good guys.

In the twenty years since, the franchise has become refined, just as pop culture’s expectations about what constitutes an antihero have become refined. You start to see that refinement in Durotan and Grom’s original incarnations in WC3; Durotan existed as a prototype for Thrall to follow, retroactively adding a noble orc that would give Thrall an in with a Horde in search of redemption, and Grom as an orc struggling to harness his bloodlust and the weight of the crimes he’d committed.

In Lords of War, we see all of these guys painted very differently: Kargath doesn’t just cut off his hand to prove he’s a badass, but instead does it because living free (minus a hand) is better than dying a slave. Same goes for Kilrogg; the loss of his eye has far greater meaning for him and all chieftains of the Bleeding Hollow than merely being an initiation rite or a point of reverence for Kilrogg himself. Durotan’s nobility is given a more concrete reason: family is worth risking your life to protect. Grom’s indomitable will is painted very boldly to highlight the difference between the struggling Grom of WC3 and the unflappable Grommash of WoD.

But in every case, the portrayals we see in this series are there to add depth to characters who have never really been given a great deal of screen time on their own. (Okay, yeah, Durotan got most of Rise of the Horde to himself, but even his nobility there benefited from the bonus context we saw in Lords of War.) And because all of these characters are going to prominent in the launch content of the expansion (at the very least), the importance of having that refinement get played out now is pretty high.

The Burdens of Shaohao told a specific story (or, more succinctly, a specific retelling of a story) that was there to accentuate everything we needed to understand about the stories and themes surrounding our adventures in Pandaria; because Shaohao’s journey is an echo of the journey we take as characters, having it displayed at the end of the expansion lets the impact sink in. Lords of War, by contrast, tells a set of stories that are there to set the stage for what we’re about to get into. We’re not meant to identify directly with the warlords, but instead get a solid understanding of where they all come from and why they pose a threat. Which is especially important since we’re likely going to be killing most of them throughout the expansion.

Got a request for what we should cover next? Leave a suggestion in the comments, or hit me up @unlimitedblack.