Astartes Analysis & Review - Details You May Have Missed 

The creator of Astartes accomplished a marketing victory that Games Workshop has in its entire history failed to match. And he did it because he loves the universe so much that it inspired him. When the fans of a product care more about the product than the producer of said product, it really says something.

The Inquisitor actually says "Withdraw them immediately" its muffled by his mask but with good headphones you can hear it

God damn, if those flashes on the pillars in the end are the other marines surging from the warp, I got the whole scale wrong, those skeletons are absolutely gigantic.

No one has pointed out that @2:12 you can see the weapon light turn on from him blessing his weapon.

I've watched it so many times and never noticed the robed figure in episode 1. Great spot.

You're missing something crucial: two psykers paired and linked, one killed the other flinches; and two spheres also linked. The sphere holding the marines is struck by something and shrieks: the tether holding the sergeant vanishes and he is flung back into the material world (instead of the grim fate the sphere envisioned for him). So what happened? Safe money says the captain responded to the emergency not just by promptly executing the unfortunate possessed, but by subsequent destruction of the sphere before him, thereby staggering its twin and saving his men. So much for attempted salvage and decryption of the target; now to pick up the pieces.

One thing you forgot to mention was the marine flanking the gun emplacement at 5:40. He briefly appears visible during the muzzle flashes before shooting both of the rebels.

Regarding the segment at 14:35. To me this looks like the warp-entity is keeping the squad captured, but something/someone kills it (The dark blast), which causes the Marines (Or at least the Sergeant) to drop out of warp.

We can't see it well in this video, but in the original Astartes Part 4, we see at 24 seconds «MANTICORA» engraved on the bolter. Kudos to the guy that noticed it first (not me!). The gun is indeed a Manticora pattern boltgun.

TacticalTortoise play it back at .75 and the convosation is a lot clearer I orb: Inquisitor orb S orb: Ship orb Iorb: Who is here? Sorb: I have failed brother, We have all failed. The astarters deny our touch. We/you must return. Break your seal/shield. Iorn: Impossible, we'll never survive. Sorb: you must, take the alpha (possible referring to the inquisitor Not necessarily stating that it must take an alpha level psyker, just take the one in "charge") Inquisitor: Recall them immediately Iorb in a moment of weakness: At last

Those last two chapters were the Dragons of the Void and Hands of Death chapters, I say the Hands of Death are battling Dark Eldar on a hive world or something and have been sent to defend the planet.

A note about Ep. 3 when the Auto cannon crew fired on the marines. You see when they realize what's happening one of them ducks down and purposefully puts his Pauldron in the way to take the AC round coming at him and keeps going

Yup. That's a Failed Perils of the Warp test alright. I also was stunned and amazed by how quickly the Captain and Lieutenant reacted and blammed the compromised Inquisitor.

Another detail i havent heard anyone mention: 7:09 the marines alternate laying down covering fire. The Psychers stop the bullets by "catching" them in the telekinetic fields but this is mentally demanding. 7:41 the defensive strategy switches to deflecting the bullets since its probably easy to parry a bullet than to directly stop it with telekinesis.

i think my favourite part about the fight with the psykers is how weighty their powers feel like, even when they’re just holding the sergeant there’s that deep rumble that is oh so wonderful

03:52 finally someone mentioning the Thunderbolt's attack run. Don't know if it takes the engines out or not, but it certainly draws fire away from the boarding craft.

1:58 Darth vader realized, he was on the wrong ship

14:30 According to information from other users, this is basically a scene from the warp wherein the Xenos has followed the instructions of it's peer/sibling. The orb is perhaps a shield, or a seal from the negative effects of the warp, and once it fell the Astartes were taken. What a lot of people didn't understand is that the dark shadows around the tentacle xenos in the center are warp predators. Most likely the creator's artistic interpretation of Ebon Geist. *"Ebon Geists or Warp Predators are nearly-mindless creatures that hunger for the life of mortals. An Ebon Geist is blacker than emptiness itself. It writhing like a shadow, supple and elusive but its talons sharp and deadly. The attacking Ebon Geist leaves behind only an empty husks and the screaming shadows of its victims."* Visually a word for word animation of this bestiary entry.

I do love how the Sargent doesn't flinch when shot with the cannon. Fires back then finds cover with an immediate flash grenade. Do you think the giant robot might be one of the emperors men of gold?

@14:26 I have an issue with everyone saying that the sergeant "rolled a 1". I think it's more accurate to the scene and the setting that the sergeant actually rolled three degrees(ish) of success when shooting while the barrel was obstructed. Because it don't matter what kind of gun it is, shooting with a barrel obstruction is not a good idea. Now, when it's either that or be sucked inside of a weird daemon coral orb thingy of not-so-good things happening, it's a pretty good choice in comparison, while still ultimately ineffective.

@14:31 Here we are inside the Warp. Being powerful psychic beings, the spheres emit a powerful light in the warp, causing it to be instantly attacked.

There are actually three spheres. You can another one in the background on the right at 9:25

The level of detail is incredible..... makes that GW crapfest ultramarines look like a kindergarten finger paint thing by comparison. This is even better than Grey Knight by Erasmus Brodau...... one guy made this 5 piece amazeballs thing......that beats the crap out of most of Hollywoods output today. Amazing piece of work

I could never figure out what the red lights were during part 2. Very cool.

One of three spheres, there's a second restrained sphere in that room with the veteran and inquistorial psyker.

Me: gets back into warhammer RU-vid: *ASTARTES*

7:41 Don't forget the detail of the bolter rounds being deflected by the incoming blast wave.

5:40 that guy shooting the canon gets killed by one of the marines.You can see him approaching as he shoots

I love watching these breakdown videos. I got sucked into the lore of the 40K universe really quickly.

I wanted to thank you for this video. As someone who knows nothing about 40K, it was an amazing analysis to help me understand.

inquisitor says "Recall them immediately" But great reaction by you :) thumb up

When the sergeant cracked the ice on the floor, I think I saw the floor flex just a little bit from the sheer weight of the marines.

Not sure if someone already mentioned this: the robed figure can not be the inquisitor agent since he is on a completely different ship along with the Veterans.

Those orbs are likely Yu'Vath. And The Characters had names in their right Pauldron, 3 are identified if slow enough.

The inquisitor says ' recall them, immediately'. The sergeant is 120-200 yrs old,a according to the marks on his forehead. Those other chapters are patreons supporter chapters.

@3:28 you can see the fighter craft do an attack run on the enemy ship and disable its engines, cool detail missed that before!

The boarding ship is most likely a Cestus Assault Ram. The camera is positioned on the back and the top of the ship. It even has the turret that pops up

I also liked that the smoke grenade he throws at around 6:21 stops the laser shots from getting through, probably absorbing them as they're still light.

I know like 3 things about 40k besides these Astartes cinametics, but this is really cool. Thank you.

14:34 the black stuff was probably the Spyker using his last moments after death to save the Marines

Answered lots of my questions thanks. Couldn't work out the conversation between the spheres. Must have watched the completed version about 40 times ....So far. Brilliant. Love the creators passion

Every shot is poetry in motion. The lack of dialogue only adds to the atmosphere.

there were 6 to start with one was killed in the battle with the twins. you can tell there were 6 because there were 2 on the upper deck, and two down the hall firing at the twins. 2 more were preparing for the assault. in the confrontation with the sphere there are only 5 marines.

This is probably the best information covering of Astartes I've seen yet! Very much enjoyed it. I haven't had the time to go through all of the comments but some of what I've found is covered concerning speculation/unknowns. I really like and support the theory that the orbs are Yu'Vath and the rebels are under their subjugation. The 2 psychers are either humans they adapted or just molded by them, which they show more of briefly in the Inquisitor's vision. I also agree with the belief that the rebel ship Yu'Vath was taking them to either its homeworld or a world previously dominated by the Yu'Vath and long since abandoned, but because of the psychic power it uses to draw in the Astartes, it makes a big ol psychic HELLO in the warp which attracts a warp predator either killing it or forcing it to release the space marines...conveniently to the planned destination.

I'm surprised you didnt mention the "demon" in the warp which was in the bottom right corner and then the 2nd demon killing the entity in the orb

My theory is that they're suppress and secure mission of the orb, the spikes are Psi-suppressors, which do work but very strong psykers have ability to break through the suppression. The orbs have been suspected to be Yu'Vath The Psyker on Inquisitor's ship could be the Inquisitor or one of his/her retinue. And he was monitoring the captured orbs for sudden activity, likely to avoid loss of expensive astartes. And the Orb occupant is violently assaulted and killed by a Warp Predator prowling for tasty psychic signatures, when it broke its seal that apparently protected it.

You say in the beginning that it's not official canon. But can we even call the lore in 40k "official canon" at all seeing how poorly administered it is? Tons of stuff varies a lot from story to story, take for example the service marks on astartes' foreheads where gold is mainly established as a hundred years, but the silver marks are anything from 10 to 50 years...

Just one detail. When you hear the clink of something shatter on the floor, I believe that is a piece of the lens covering his optical array inside the helmet. As he moves the piece of glass drops to the floor broken, hence the noise. Really enjoyed your breakdown.

That would’ve been the best intro to a 40K game ever

Valiant effort on trying to translate the distorted alien conversations, but I'm sure plenty of people have correct the mistakes so far. I can imagine though why you thought they said Shield instead of Seal. Unless he can instead of "At Last" is a little more confusing, but a decent try none-the-less. Get them out of there is pretty far off from the more widely accepted "Recall them immediately" though.

excellent work here, caught a few details i missed

I saw someone mention somewhere that they thought the place the marines were teleported is the Mariana Gorge. Makes a lot of sense and fits the description.

Great analysis. You offered some observations that I missed and insights to things I didn't know. This may have been pointed out already but there's actually 3 of those mysterious spheres in the vid. At around 09:24 of your video there's a third one. It's to the right and just above in the shadowed background of the sphere in the foreground. Also any ideas as to why the two psychers killed were on the same scale as armoured marines? That and the spheres addressing each other as brother has my mind racing. I don't know a lot of lore and I'm not suggest it is this, but I'd love it to be referencing one of the two lost 1st founding Chapters.

A detail that I love and you didn't mention is at 7:40 when the Marine dumps a mag into the coming Psyker blast resulting in all of the boltgun rounds whizzing off course.

Wow I never noticed how small the space marine is at the end. He's on one of those pillars crazy.

One detail I love is at 7:42 when the psyker launches that blast, you can see it push the bolt rounds out of the way. By the emperor, I love this guy!!

Not many people pay attention to the casual ease that the Marines dodge the missile with at around 5:20 or so. That missile moves HELLA fast.

An absolutely gripping series which, with your excellent notes, give it even more Life. Subbed basically on this video alone. Bravo.

Thank you! All I've been able to get some articles on these videos are recaps, no depth or analysis at all. I don't need someone tell me what I just saw, but I thank you for describing what it means (to the best of your research and ability). I'm a big fan of Warhammer, fantasy and 40k, but not a big enough nerd to understand what was going on here.

I think that the last words that the inquisitor hears are "you must take the alpha" rather than "you must take them to the block" and that the sphere speaks either of the sergeant (who will be brought back to their world), or of the captain (because it is the sphere of the rebel ship which gives this order and the fact that it itself takes the sergeant on their world shows that it wants to capture the officers to perhaps convert them more easily), or it's quite simply of the inquisitor that it speaks, this one becoming the target of a possession which would allow the psychic being which is in the sphere to be able to escape by using the body of the inquisitor. What do you think of that ?

That was the most comprehensive analysis of Astartes I've yet to see. Great job! You've earned a subscriber

Excellent breakdown of these videos! Great job!!

2:54 mid top left of the frame you can see a structure on the surface of the planet, could it be the gorge seen at the end?

This was a great video. Into was good and short and then got into it. Pointed out a few things I’ve missed before

12:50 I honestly heard, "Impossible, we will never survive" and "You must take the Alpha" Maybe the Alpha was either the Inquisitor or the Captain... I dunno.

14:03 the space marine FLINCHED, he fucking flinched

Cool video, I have watched the astartes series so many times! But still learnt something from watch in yours 👍 can't wait for it to return with more!

SO much stuff I missed! The Inquisitor passing in the hallway!

My interpretation of the spheres conversation: When one says "you must return, break your shield" originally I thought it was the one on the ship saying that to the one in custody, the 'shield' being the shackles, but after thinking about it a bit I believe it's referring to their version of the Gellar field (whatever that may be), which is why the other replies "we must not, we will never survive" It knows that in the warp without a shield it will not last long, then sure enough once they're in the warp they are flanked by Ebon Geists and one attacks it, killing it which servers the tentacles and the marines 'pop' out of the warp onto the stone pillars. The "unless he can" likely refers to getting the other one free of it's shackles in that case, since they would have still been speaking in the time while the inquisitor broke free to warn the marines.

Cant wait for the next Astartes to come out! Nice spots and insights, ty TT

ive never noticed the flashes on the demon world as the others are brought in... incredible!!

09:23 there are 2 spheres in the picture and the 3rd one is the one captured by Sgt. Kohren's Impulsor Squad.

That massive skeletal extra-dimensional hellscape reminds me a lot of Beksiński's work. I absolutely love it.

at 6:56 you can see the name of the squad member, bottom of shoulder guard right under the arrows, set play back to slow speed at 7:00, you'll notice the gun trigger has 2 modes, all this time they have been on single shot, the double press makes it full auto. At 7:41 you can see the force wave coming towards the marines. At 8:19, the marine lunged with his pistol forward instead of his knife (must have predicted the psykers move), which is instead concealed in the other hand, which he then uses both his hands and all might, to plant into the psykers face. There isn't much distance between a persons hand and his face, but the speed in which the marine swaps to his knife after the pistol gets slapped off, shows just how fast these marines are with their reactions and strategy. At 9:59 if you pause the scene, the floor shows multiple dark patches, this is ice, later a marine steps over it and crushes/breaks it (by the depth of the sound, it was frozen to glass thickness) At 11:10 to 11:12 the sphere says 'No Second Chance' At 14:21 (pause frame) the entity has Dual Face, the top most being a female face, followed by a demon right under it, which almost looks like a Neurotyrant At 14:32, the entity gets attacked by a creature living in the warp (in the original video, you'll find 1 or 2 flying around in the same scene, in the lower dark part of the screen), the creature and the entity explodes, sending the marines into different locations (i believe the warp creatures are called Daemons) At 14:56, the marine displays 3 service studs on his forehead, Gold studs = A century of service, Silver studs = 50 years the end scene shard bullets seems to be from a dark eldar weapon.

A video like this is really great for new guys like me! Thanks heaps!

A nice small detail to add is. If im not mistaken, psykers use their power by "dipping" into the warp. This is like having a connection to hell, its pretty much a suicidal power.

Best explanation of Astartes I've seen! Thank you

Should have mentioned the scene where his hand is first pulled to the sphere! You can see the warp affecting reality as it warps the surface of his ceramite armored gauntlet! The Astartes even looks away at that moment, potentially showing his disgust/realizing the dangerous of directly seeing the effects of the warp on the mind.

Watched it so many times and getting more impressed with the sound design every time

The shards at the end are almost certainly splinter weapons. Craftworld Shuriken weapons fire disks.

i hope his next chapter will involve tyranids in it

A really subtle but fascinating detail: there are more than two spheres in the last part. When we first see the sphere in front of the inquisitor, If you look closely behind the right side of the sphere, you can clearly see another captured sphere in the background.

2:30 According to RU-vidr Logos of Game, it is a Caestus Assault Ram, though it has also been mistaken for a boarding torpedo. 8:39 It seems like there are 6 Impulsors earlier, but there are five now. Did I imagine the extra one, did one die, or was there a continuity error? 14:34 You didn't mention the sphere's occupant getting yoinked by a warp entity.

At about 10:18 you can see a series of demolitions charges wired all over the walls and ceiling to destroy the goodies held inside the vault in the event of a containment breach or as some form of failsafe

One detail that I love is in part 4, when the space marine is firing at the Psychers but the wave is knocking is bolter bullets out of the air 7:40

Just to bring more info+ideas to our discussion ok? Another video explanation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2O9kmYZlQWM.html

How do you only have 8k subs...This is great content!

Another small detail at 7:40 when psyker did something with it's power, space marines bullets are deflected by the shield which didn't happened when they first started to shoot them.

The boarding torpedo is what they use I do believe , in the beginning

13:23 it cuts off but in the original, you can see the left guys shoulder cape thing get blown around by each blast of the guy on the right's gun explosions

I believe the shadow figure we see walking in the corridor ahead i think is the Capt he is the only Astartes robed i know the Insquistor is also Robed but as you can see compared to the Astartes he isnt as large as them and the Figure in the shadow is much larger than the figures around him maybe heading to the room were he is with beak helmet watching the Atsartes boarding team before going to the sphere . Then head to the Inquistor Anyway no matter what anyone says simply amazing next level work creating so many fans this i can see being movie length soon what a great a imagination great story telling without words and given the fans are raving about the Astartes series i thinks its Games Workshop ? anyway they should be talking to this guy and making a movie ...... could you only imagine the movies this guy could make . I just noticed his robe is a full robe you are correct it would be the Inquistor

One thing you missed about their boarding vessel, it's not a homebrew. It's a Caestus Assault Ram. the Lascannon on the front is actually a Magna-Melta, though it seems to do just fine at blowing up missiles too.

Few points and theories I have. 10:07 circle on the rear of their shoulder plates; each is different and likely represents something such as; speciality or award. Get back said by the being inside the ball likely indicates that this race is not related to Chaos, and not currently the aggressors; instead, they are on the defensive. The vision is either the future fate of the squad or more likely the past where this civilisation previously met another lost squad of marines at some point and may be the reason the race is familiar with marines. Due to that past encounter, this race knows the hatred and fear the Imperium holds towards psykers, so they decide to build an army of psykers for the coming and unavoidable war at some point in the future. This race is either based in an alternate dimension or another galaxy, and the ball is a wormhole or similar such as; tech build by this ancient race.

bro this dude reached such a wide audience because it is so FUCKING DOPE

Incredible. Thank you.

The second legion at the end, there emblem reminds me of the Alpha Legion and they have the proper colors of pre-heresy Alpha Legion.

I would hazard a guess at the two chapters at the end. Coiled serpent/dragon with black armour and white helmet (Black Dragons) Skeletal hand symbol (Emporer's Scythes) Either way amazing work here.

One thing: notice how the inquisitor/psyker had black smoke emananting from him. Later, when the Marines are sucked inside the sphere and you see them entangled in the blue tentacles, you see a burst of black smoke/aura that hits and destroys whatever was holding the Marines. Leads me to believe they had another psyker somewhere that was able to track them into the warp and kill/damage whatever entity was holding them, causing the sergeant to "pop" out of the warp alone, and the whole unit might be scattered.

Two things: The markings on the caped veteran marine do not match the hq markings laid out by the creator in that background fluff image; a captain would not have the "elite" symbol and would have an iron halo Secondly, just a fun little detail, there's very subtle writing on that marine's right shoulder pad, barely visible in the scene when he punches the inquisitor in the face

Someone actually pointed out the names of the Space Marines are etched into the shoulder pauldron to differentiate them. While most of them are really hard to actually see, you can actually see two of them in part 4 if you slow it down frame by frame. The Sergeant’s name is actually Kohren and another one’s name is Monos.