Filmmaker Reacts: World of Warcraft - Mists of Pandaria Cinematic 

Who is your favorite character in Mists of Pandaria? Subscribe here and Follow me on twitch.tv/philiphartshorn Join my discord to help me choose my next video: discord.gg/J85mKhG Watch my film work here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FQg5b6bagGs.html Follow my Twitter: Twitter.com/philipharts

My personal two-cents as a mixed chinese woman who grew up in america; While it would be nice to have more human cultures in WoW, i dont think I ever had a problem with pandaren. There is humor and a sense of jolly-ness to them but theyre never really portrayed as a real joke or any sort of prejudice caricature as far as I know. (aside fron the people who try to use pandaren as a scapegoat for their reasoning on why wow is bad) So all in all, thumbs up for pandaren lol

Mists of Pandaria was one of the first times where the war between the Alliance and Horde was "felt". Our war brought disaster to the continent, and throughout the storyline a mirror is held up to our actions. The Alliance and Horde had worked together in the past, but it was the first one where the consequences of combat were really made "real".

The Pandaren in the Cinematic is Chen Stormstout. Here is some Background Info. Chen Stormstout is a legendary pandaren brewmaster from the Wandering Isle who left his home to journey the lands, searching for exotic ingredients for his ever-evolving concoctions. A skilled brewer and very powerful monk, Chen enjoys taking life easy as he travels from place to place.

The Pandaren are the chinese people of Warcraft, or at least inspired. Many other races have inspirations from real-life cultures and people. The night elves from 10,000 years ago like Azshara's empire was very Roman Empire / Greek-inspired, while some of the early WoW night elves had some japanese inspiration seen in their architecture. The trolls could be likened to Africans/Aztecs through their voodoo and living in pyramid cities. As for the discovery of the land, Pandaria was once part of the super-continent, but when the night elves caused about the Great Sundering (the tsunami in the azshara warbringers) they shrouded their chunk of the continent in mists which protected them and made them into an island nation. Deathwing fucked with their mists which hid them from everyone, and a horde and alliance naval battle just happened to be next to Pandaria. So finding it in the modern-day was purely coincidental.

I usually don't like react channels, because most of them don't add any value to the experience. But your insight and professional opinion opened up the cinematics for me. I always knew they were all special and really good (and not just from a purely and obvious visual viewpoint) but through you, I now know exactly WHY they always felt so good. So you added that value and your work is greatly appreciated. -> subbed

Mist of Panderia is still my favorite from an art standpoint. It was so beautiful 😍

About including Chinese people in WoW, Azeroth is a fictional place so you'll only ever see references to places or people. This expansion is the biggest reference they ever did. They entire expansion resembles Asia and the pandas class is literally a monk. Awesome video, see you in the next one

Pandaren are the first character race that could be either Horde or Alliance. The tie-in to the greater story here is the beginning of Anduin's story. He is a teen and is marooned on this new undiscovered continent of Pandaria that has been shrouded by mists for millennia. Here is more of the whole story. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nyeZ8khSEC0.html

Mists has to be one of my fav expansions, for many reasons one of which is the Pandaren themselves as to, as of time of posting, they are the only species to be able to pick their side in the Alliance V Horde conflict as individuals. You're human you have to be alliance, Orc you have to be horde. With the Pandaren they had their own starting zone in early levels as you learn your class and how to play and end that story with a choice of which side to go with. Not to mention the overall vibes of the Pandaren are immaculate very much the "Do no harm, but take no shit" vibes. As far as expansion stories go too, this expac had some of the most memorable quest lines for me personally. So much so I ended up getting the two tie in novels that related closest to the expansion. World of Warcraft:War Crimes & World of Warcraft: Vol'jin: shadows of the Horde. IMO, This had to be peak WoW for a good long time.

My favorite expansion so far, hands down. Came out in 2012. Warlords of Draenor came out next in 2014 and then Legion in 2016. There is a lot of the culture in this expansion, from the characters of Pandaria to the story scrolls you find all over the island, the architecture, some of the folklore. The Wowpedia has a great page about the expansion with several of the videos, pictures from the areas, and all sorts of information.

Always appreciate your insight, this was a wonderful and considerate commentary 🖤

The Pandaria music score is one of the most consistently awesome in the game. Now, you must find and review the short, ‘Bottoms Up’!

The two soldiers are nameless but a lot of Alliance players affectionately call the Human sailor Captain Mustache.

After the main cinematics are you planning on reacting to some of the side content? Would love to see your insights on Lords of war, especially part 3

looking forward to your take on the Old Soldier series of cinematics. easily the best story arc of the franchise.

Pandaria is such a beautiful place to explore. I sometimes go back there just to walk around enjoy the ambience

Yeah this is when they introduced the Monk class to the game, which is what the panda guy is in the trailer ofcourse and also interestingly enough Mistweaver is one of the spec/trait line names for Monks

I absolutely love the cinematic that tells more lore then just promote of a new game, like old soldier, lost honor, safe haven and the reckoning. They're telling stories and showing emotions. So you, especially as a warcraft veteran player. Can feel all the way in your soul.

To answer some questions for the Filmmaker. 1. There is a big map, but the continents aren't directly connected. There's a loading screen where you travel the map, if you take the ship. Just the lands of one continent are connected. 2. The characters in the cinematic are there to self-insert. Other than a short follow-up with them in a bar, drunk, talking about a bear in a hat, they don't feature in further content. 3. The continent is discovered in a time where the Horde and Alliance are at each other's throats. And upon its discovery, both sides seek to expand their influence there. There are a lot of lessons of balance underlining the story. In the end, the Warchief of the Horde and his loyalists get too evil, destructive and corrupted, and both Horde and Alliance need to combine their strength to bring the conflict to an end together. 4. The Chinese People in this expansion are represented by the Pandaren in their culture. Though Blizzard did recently add Asian-type face and hair options to Humans, among their efforts to increase racial diversity representation in their player options. Those are not a specific people with specific culture in this game though. Just regular appearance variation among the Human population. Mists of Pandaria came out 2012. But that makes it likely the cinematic was revealed in 2011. So indeed close to 2010.

The first time you encounter the starting zone in Pandaria, you see wartorn beaches and damaged temples. Once you get past that little bit and encounter the Pandaren, you get to see the Jade Forest. It is so STUNNINGLY beautiful. The landscape was beautiful and it was the first time where the focus was on the war between the Horde and the Alliance. This land was untouched by war, and the actions of both factions create absolute devastation in several zones. It was a great narrative throughout the expansion. The Pandaren focus on family and peace and home is such a core part throughout and it was such a refreshing change

this was another one of my favourites. it's a call back to an early Warcraft 3 cinematic with the whole Alliance vs Horde, but the Pandaren cleverly gets them working together. symbolism. Pandaren have been around since Warcraft 3 and were detailed in the Warcraft for 3.5 edition D&D sourcebooks.

Pandaria was such a beautiful place, a huge amount of respect was paid to many asian cultures in this expansion, be it through music, regions, donjons, story or characters, I have lovely memories of it and it comes from someone that has played the game since its begining

Real life cultures and ethnicities don't really exist in Warcraft, although many of the races and tribes in the game do draw inspiration from real life cultures, Pandas and Pandaria drawing heavily from Chinese people and their culture, Tauren from native americans, Trolls from African cultures (I think), and so on. Also, the next cinematic coming up is probably the best cinematic in WoW history, I'm excited as hell to see your reaction and analysis!

The next one, Warlords of Draenor, is my favourite trailer not just in WoW but in all of gaming. I can't wait for Thursday, so hyped ☺️☺️☺️

One of my favorite cinematics. I just binged all your other WoW videos and watched surprised to see this uploaded just now. Score! Keep it up. Love the insights your provide regarding the decision making and the creation of this content. I've been studying composition and it's been fun to see you spot love examples of it and break it down. Thanks!

While not cinematics per se, Mists of pandaria is the first expansion that introduced a new series of short videos that explain characters of the expansions. In this expansion, they are called "The burdens of Shaohao". I hope you will also react to those one day.

Everyone memes on MoP when it was announced, but it it had some of teh best gameplay, class balance and especially one of the best stories and visuals. The whole expansion was a great experience. I still level through Pandaria on alts regularly, just to see Pandaria. MoP and WoD had the best leveling experiences of any of the expansions so far. With great zones, stories and quests that weren't just "kill 12 of X" or "collect 20 Y".

I love the Pandaren's smile right at the end, really seems like a "thanks for a fun little spar guys" smile :)

Pandaria is a continent that was previously undiscovered and shrouded in fog. Pandaren live there, like the one from the cinematic. Monks were also implemented as a playable class with this addon. The next Expansion was Warlords of Draenor.

It might be worth checking out the cinematics "The Burdens of Shao Hao" for a little more lore behind Pandaria that Blizzard released leading up to launch of the expansion. This is the first expansion that they released a series of short stories that helps give a little more lore leading up to the launch of expansions. You are also getting pretty close to Battle for Azeroth that also has a series of cutscenes that kind of surrounds the main cinematic. I think you would enjoy all of it.

one of my favorites monologues of every wow trailer, most people put this trailer on the bottom ones but for me the whole concept of knowing ones nature "why do we fight? Might as well ask why the leaves fall, because its in their nature" we fight, its part of what we do as life to survive, and the evolution on the process to then if we are creatures who fight then what is a better question "what is worth fighting for?" it's such a profound and deep mantra of recognition of ones self and of the relation with our world

1:45 always loved how chunky and close to the in game art style the human looked in the MoP cinematic.

As others have said, it will be hard to find cultural representation in human form, because as other species, humans are a very specific kind of creature in this setting (and a very young race when looked with a global view in mind). Still, if you want more insight on how this asian-inspired culture of pandaren is displayed, check out the "Burdens of Shaohao" short videos (they are kinda like the Warbringers, but it was the first time they did it to tell stories in a non-cinematic way). And to your question: Yes, Pandaria is a southern continent that has been hidden behind a magic mist for 10.000 years. I would tell you how this happened, but it is explained the Burdens of Shaohao I mentioned before hahah

The human giving the weapon to the work to team up, is also a good representation of what always have happened in WOW's history, when a threat to all life shows up like Arthas or Deathwing, Alliance and Horde join forces to fight this new powerful enemy, even if they are enemies themselves, so yeah, the cinematics team are consistently great at their job, and this is among the best cinematics in WoW for sure. Oh and i believe these two are characters you meet in the game, i played only the Alliance side there, so there is a character you will meet many times that is Admiral Taylor, i believe this to be him, and usually in the Horde side there is a equivalent character for these quests, which must be the orc you see here.

Pandaria is a new continent found during fighting between the horde and alliance. The pandarans live here and have to try and keep the two factions from fighting because they cause the ancient Sha demons awaken within the peaceful continent. The Horde leader Hellscream doesn’t care and commuted genocide in this massive valley and causes the whole continent go into dismay. Pretty fun story.

Humans are descended from the Vrykul, which are Viking-inspired and live in Northrend, a cold, wintery climate. And they eventually settled in temperate zones similar to Europe. There isn’t really room in the current lore for non-European-looking humans, canonically. They have added options for more diverse player characters, though, despite this fact. Humans are a relatively young race, and don’t have the same breadth of diversity that other races like trolls and elves have. Orcs are similar. They are typically either brown or green depending on if they drank demon blood.

I love your analysis of these cinematic and the way you do them. The next one in the list is Warlords of Draenor!

I'd love to see you react to the many cinematics done for the story of Saurfang in the Battle for Azeroth expansion. Unfortunately while many of them are this style of cinematic, some use the pre-rendered ingame cinematic style. So you'd miss a few details of the story. But it's so good.

All these years later and the message of this cinematic still chokes me up.

Next cinematic is my favorite. I freaking love the Warlords of Draenor cinematic, especially for that ONE moment. Warcraft 3 players will know. Got goosebumps the first time watching.

Hope you also got a chance to watch the 'Bottoms up' video, showing the human and orc drinking together in a bar.

I don't remember who the orc is, but the Human is Admiral Taylor, who is a major figure in the questline. The Naval battle in the beginning was his ship, which was carrying Anduin, coming under attack from the horde. From the Alliance perspective, Anduin's father sends you to Pandaria to try to locate his missing son. That's the story hook for the expansion.

Fantatic analysis 👌 ❤ glad you are doing more of these world of warcraft cinematics thank you

This was the first expansion that had fully integrated the in-game rendered cinematics to flesh out the story even more as well, there were a few in Cataclysm, but MoP is where it truly began well. The fight between the Horde and Alliance in the Jade Forest that unleashes the Sha of Doubt, the fight between Garrosh and Taran Zhu in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, and the aftermath of your defeat of Garrosh in the Underhold beneath Orgrimmar, where you got to see the deliberations of each faction (Thrall bequeathing the mantle of Warchief to the Troll chieftan Vol'jin, who spearheaded the rebellion against Garrosh, and on the other side, Jaina's bloodthirsty demand for Varian Wrynn to destroy the Horde once and for all as she was still BIG mad over the nuking of Theramore, but Varian merely warned the Horde leaders that if anything like this ever happened again, he would END them.) Highly highly recommend you check those out too my man, going forward. They help to tell the more complete story of the expansion, and really took off even more in WoD, Legion, and BfA.

After the cataclysm, the mists around the island of Pandaria parted. A young prince Anduin was actually on one of the boats that ended up shipwrecked there, which is why the alliance goes in full force to extract him. The inhabitants of the island also have become super balanced and centered with their emotions because of something called the Sha. A long long long time ago, there was an Old God call Ya’Sharag that one of the titan’s ripped up from Azeroth. The blood and heart of the old god tell in Pandaria and cursed the land so that negative emotions manifest Eldritch creatures (sha). Over generations people were forced to come to terms with their emotions to avoid awakening the sha. When we showed up that all went out the window

10.000 years ago, the last pandaren emperor Shaohao saved his people and his land, from the burning legion and the shattering of the world, sacrificing himself after a long journey. He confronted his negative emotions which before manifested in monstrous shadowie biests called the Sha and defeated them by founfing wisdom in the land itself. He weaved the Mists around Pandaria and protected it this way from all threat from the outside. Pandaria, over time, become a legend and not many remembered, that this lost continent even existed. 10.000 years later, the terrible Cataclysm coused by the fallen dragon aspekt Deathwing weakened the Mists around Pandaria. And during a new war between the Horde and the Alliance, after a battle in the southern seas, Pandaria was rediscovered. The Pandaren shown in this cinematic is known as the famous Brewmaster Chen Stormstout. My favourite WoW character, by the way. 😅 PS: sry for my bad english. 😝

If it's not too late, Watch the Grom Hellscream vs. Mannoroth Cinematic from Warcraft 3 BEFORE watching Warlords of Draenor. It is by far the most lore dependent and referential cinematic so far, and that video with Thrall, Grom, and Mannoroth provides some much needed context to a great shot in the WoD cinematic. Also this is where WoW first really delves into time travel so the more you know, the better. WoD might not have been the best expansion but the cinematic has always been my favourite! Happy viewing!

10:35 The continent of Pandaria was discovered by accent during a naval battle. In the Warcraft universe, the land was covered in mist for thousands of years, so no one knew it was there. You do fast travel there in game by airship (if you're horde), and the horde and alliance bring their conflict to the Pandaren shores, causing all sorts of crazy problems.

It was this expansion where the in-game cutscenes were REALLY popping off. They were already good in Cataclysm but the models of the characters weren't super great; however, what is fun is the very first in-game cutscene they had was actually done by the staff rather than a professional level of modelling where they had people play the characters and then they'd edit the angles and facial movements. This cutscene was way back in Wrath of the Lich King called "Wrathgate". That was where they decided they wanted to pick up on in-game cutscenes but Pandaria was where they started making unique models purely for the cutscenes and it pays off so well. Cataclysm did have the first directed in-game cutscenes that were done with new engines specifically for cutscene making, but they weren't as high in infidelity as Pandaria became which grew overtime.

One specific little thing I like in this trailer is if you go and rewatch the 7:33 part, Chen (the Pandaren) makes both of them look really clumsy and awkward, totally dominating the battle and showing he's got some completely new and unknown martial arts within him noone from the outside has seen before. And that turned out to be true as this expansion not only introduced us a new playable race - Pandarens, but also a completely new class - the monk.

You see as the ships go down, Both flags drop together. When they fight they immediately realize they have to fight together against the enemy. One thing we learned in this expansion was that fighting was simply a means to an end. We fight to grow stronger, to protect Azeroth. This entire expansion was about realizing how our passions rule us and the more energy we give them, the more of a force they become. The Sha, were like Demons born from the blood of an Old god, they are manifestiations of our emotions, Anger, Despair, Doubt, Fear, Hatred and the most powerful, Pride. We had to defeat each one by one. Together... Alliance and Horde together. Most of the world didn't learn the lesson very well, but the message always stuck with the main characters, that cooperation was essential for success. The lesson has brought more fruit in later expansions, officially the age of the Third war was over after they ousted Sylvannas. (again who was working with Zovaal, the War for Azeroth was mostly his doing through her)

Within the World of Warcraft, if you want to travel from one continent to another, you either take a portal (instant with loading screen), a ship, or a zeppelin. Ships and zeppelins arrive and depart every few minutes, and they travel a ways before a loading screen hits and they load in a ways from your destination, so it gives the feeling of really traveling and some of the approaches are quite beautiful. Within a continent, the world is seamlessly connected (with a couple exceptions) so you can run, ride, or fly all over a continent without hitting a loading screen and fly over capitol cities (if you can dodge the flying guards over the opposite faction’s cities). I actually find it difficult when playing other games full of loading screens and fast travel points as they never feel like a true world to me, just a claustrophobic collection of instances and background paintings.

There is a second cinematic, that shows these two in a bar together before you move to the next expansion.

We meet Chen Stormstout all the way back in Warcraft 3 as a bonus charactor that helps Thrall out when 1st landing on Durotar and was founding the Horde Capital of Orgrimmar. (Orgrimmar is the city shown in the cinematic where Saurfang duels and looses to Sylvanas). Chen originally was from The Wandering isles (A land on the back of a giant turtle) and had left to see the world to find inspiration for his brews. I'm glad he eventually found his ancestral homeland of Pandaria and is now devoutly defending it.

Blizzard held off doing Pandaren stuff for a long time, apocryphally because they were courting the Chinese market. There were no Chinese servers till 2008, and there were some disputes with Chinese sensors about the way undead were depicted in the game. When they got to 2012 they decided to make an entire expansion as basically a love letter to China. It was such a directed effort it felt tonally jarring to some players, and the Pandaren arguably still don’t quite “fit” perfectly. But they fit well enough, and the Pandaren brewmaster Chen Stormstout was a fan favourite back in WC3:FT (2003). We were all very happy with to see him, and his homeland again after 9 years. So a good enough fit will do, and the expansion, while a little odd of a fit for the overarching story, features some of the most refreshing and interesting locations in the game.

Pandarens actually made their first appearance in Warcraft 3. Chen Stormstout (the Pandaren from this video) is a character who appears in the epilogue. People had been begging for years for the Pandarens to be a playable race when Mists of Pandaria was announced. They are essentially this worlds version of Chinese people and Blizzards tribute to their culture.

Along with this in mists of pandaria came a 6 part animated series called "The Burdens of Shaohao". (Pandaren Emperor) which would be a good watch. there are races that were introduced that were in line with the "oriental" theme and cultures. the Pandaren (pandas) are mostly the warrior monks (monks were added to the classes you could play in-game) and villagers. there was an ancient race that were built from stone that are called the Mogu, mostly akin the mongols. we have the jinyu, a fish-like species that are water sages that can see glimpses of the future and fortune. the hozen, a mischievous monkey group. the grummle, a nomadic race which took its inspiration from the sherpa of nepal. the mantid, an insectoid race that would attack in 100 year cycles. culling out their weak there are a few other races which were introduced but these are the important ones.

Can't wait for you to react to the WoD one. The closing shot/tittle reveal in that one is sooooo good!

Mists is such a good expansion. The human customizations options do have Asian options (though they didn't really do us justice with the eyes) but each race is based on an overarching culture, sometime loosely, sometimes heavily.

T'was a new race the Pandarian with 3 classes, brewmaster (tank), monk (dps), and mistweaver (Healer), racial ability: bouncy (Fall drop double below damage) and a bonus to cooking (food items stronger if cooked by a Pandarian in the game.)

LORE TIME! (but actually short this time): Anduin Wrynn's ship got lost and later attacked by the horde, before it got beached off the coast of the hidden land of Pandaria. While his father only wants his son back, the Horde warchief at the time wants this continent for the Horde, and so the two factions duke it out once again. Fun Fact: The first Pandaren in warcraft was Chen Stormstout, who appeared in Warcraft III, which was 5 years before Kung Fu Panda came out.

The Pandaren are their own anthropomorfic race. They were the introduction to the monk class. You can make a human character with Asian features. Next is Warlords of Draenor.

10:45 - "How did they find the Islands" Since you watched the Warbringers cinematics, you know about their "animated" 2.5D style cinematics. They released a similar set of cinematics for Mists of Pandaria which were less about introducing some major characters (Jaina, Sylvanas, Azshara) and instead tells the story about the last Emperor of Pandaria. The Story is like a fable where the emperor roams the land and learns valuable lessons and how it came to be that the entire island of Pandaria was covered in a protective mist to shelter it from all the chaos of the outside world. It's not really worth watching for the cool effects, probably not for cinematigraphy either, but it is still an entertaining shortstory in multiple short episodes!

Great video, yet again! On the point of the artstyle, WoW (and perhaps the Warcraft universe on that matter) is known for its "bulky" exaggerated shape artstyle which really is one of it's selling points and also plays a major role in the game's timelessness. To me it adds so much charm to the world and the game just would not be the same without it. You can see its impact on pretty much every single art in-game art asset from houses to trees up to the characters themselves.

one of the things that I like from here is that, they start to connect previous stories, of the expansions, to the next trailers, before this one each other was kinda independent stories, from here, everything start to build up to reach the war within, so, having that in mind, the players came from an expansion with everything is destroyed, cataclysm, and they need to make some sort of alliance to defeat deathwing, the big dragon haha, so everything is gone and seems that the battle itself will keep going and even worst because of the destruction, the colors also reflect that at the beginning of the trailer, but at the end, also comes a light, an small sparkle of hope, of change, that things could and need to be different, something that they explore more in the expansion but is just an insight

One thing I like about this cinematic is the small moment when they start working together the Pandaren gives a little smile, mirroring the words that get said later (and part of the theme of the expansion). We work together to fight for a reason, just fighting each other is not useful, and the way he is fighting these two forces them to learn that.

Nice reaction and explanation, so awesome that you are a trained shaolin warrior monk. This expansion was my firts introduction to China, i was a kid and seeing the architecture and the landscapes while i was playing, fascinated me and i discovered that it was based on China. Since then i started to investigate about China and now i'm obsessed with their history and culture. PS: The place of the cinematic i think it's based on zhangjiajie so it's even more awesome!

Absolutely love your breakdowns of these. Thank you for diving in to Blizzard cinematics! Continuity Importance: Since it seems you'll be watching all the expansion cinematics, when you get to the point of doing Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard released a bunch of overarching storyline cinematics for it (in full realistic cinematic quality, not in game style). Because of this, there is a preferred order of cinematics following the Legion expansion cinematic. So after Legion, you should follow this order: "Old Soldier" -> Battle For Azeroth -> "Lost Honor" -> "Safe Haven" -> "Reckoning" -> Shadowlands Those cinematics all represent a cohesive continuing storyline between them. A side note, right before "Old Soldier", was the events you already saw in the Warbringers: Sylvanas animated short. :) Watched you react to some of those on your recent stream. Hopefully you haven't gotten as far as BfA yet for the expansion cinematics! Viewers, thumbs up for visibility!

A small detail that is lost on many players who didn't play Warcraft 3 is that the Pandaren have been a part of Warcraft since 2002. Mists of Pandaria was released a decade later, and it was criticized by many for "copying Kung Fu Panda" despite it truly being used to expand on a 10-year-old character and the culture from which he originated. Mists of Pandaria ended up being one of the most lore-intense expansions ever released-and the art team knocked it out of the park on creating truly stunning environments, characters, and cutscenes unlike any we'd seen in the game prior. While there may have been better ways to bring Chinese representation into the world, Blizzard treated Pandaria and its inspirations with a care and reverence exceeding any standards they had ever set.

This was awesome, the Siege of Orgrimar patch cinematic which is a part of Mists of Pandaria expansion is incredible, I hope you get to watch it

Each of the races in the game strongly follows one or two general culture types in the real world. Several of the races are variations on elves and humans. Even the playable undead, The Forsaken, are all human. Taurens are representations of various Native American cultural groups, not necessarily individual tribes. So the Pandarens were introduced as a playable race and the monk the new playable class with the expansion Mists of Pandaria. The various zones of the continent offered different geology and climate, allowing for appropriation/homage to various East Asian regions, not quite exclusive to China. So the playable humans have a lot of facial and body features to choose from, but they're always human. Pandarens are the people you're looking for when you say you'd have liked to have seen some Chinese people.

in the video about making that cinematic blizz have talked about how their main goal was to introduce the mist as the 4th acting character all throughout the piece, imo they succeeded

Pandaren have actually been in WoW lore for a long time, since before WoW, when it was just Warcraft. There were references to a wandering Pandaren brewmaster in a secret quest in Vanilla, even.

To be fair, at this time WoW have very little in diversity of humans in general. Lore wise this was an ancient land that over 10000 years ago, before the first Horde invasion during the war of the ancients the emperor of pandaria sacrificed himself to shroud the lands in a protective mist. Panderan were once slaves to ancient titan race and had no way to fight back as they held no tools. So they created and taught themselves martial arts to rise up and defend themselves. Panderia is a beautiful expansion filled with tons of references to Chinese and martial arts history, monasteries in the mountains, farming fields layered like rice fields, spirit animals, ect. Before mortal races the titans who order the planets to harmony, they arrived and ripped an ancient evil old God from the planet itself causing a giant tear in the world. With the final breath of Y'shaarj (the old god) he cursed the land of pandaria, it rented to one's emotions, and therefor the people all learned to control their emotions. When the Horde and Alliance come to their shores they bring war and unkempt emotions which release the curse and cause great suffering and destruction. I really love Pandaria personally. (Please let me know if you found this helpful or enjoyable) ❤ (edit) Also lore wise humans are relatively new species only coming about after the war of the ancients split the lands and the curse of flesh turned the vrykul (titan constructs made of stone metal) to flesh beings, the children that were coming out weak and fleshy were ordered to be killed, but some of them were saved and taken to another land. There would have been no way to write humans into pandaria due to this preexisting lore.

Together with the Burning Crusade, this expansion was one of my favorites since it was very loreheavy and explored a continent we did't even knew existed and we got to play as Pandaren! so that made it even better. This trailer really shows the new conflict between the Horde and Alliance while Chen Stormstout comes in to drive them apart, love it! It was the last expansion i did raids. It all went downwards from here on out with the exeption of Legion, wich was the last time i played.

Pandarens were established in the margins of early Warcraft lore but never taken seriously or explored until this. It was hugely popular in China which used to make up an enormous part of WoW's player base until recently when the licensing deal with Blizzard was withdrawn.

MoP was my favorite expansion. I absolutely love Chen Stormstout. His character throughout the expansion was fantastic.

still my favorite cinematic, primarily because of the use of the music.. I adore Erhu flavored music. And of course his question about Why do we fight? That ended up being absolutely central to the entire story of what happned when Horde/Alliance invaded this new land...

I can’t wait for you to get to the next one Warlords of dreanor! That’s my favorite Cinematic

Keep in mind as well, this is the first time that Russell Brower and Neal Arcee gave the reigns of the musical score to Jeremy Soule. ( Composer for Skyrim and a lot of Elder Scrolls games. )

WoW is filled with anthropomorphic races; Pandas are only one of many. Foxes, Bears, Walrusis, Cows among others come to mind.

My favorite expansion! All 3 characters in this cinematic are not any prominent/specific characters. The lore is that this southern continent was shrouded in mists, more or less hidden from the Alliance and Horde until they accidentally discovered it, as depicted in this cinematic. Once word makes its way back to the main continents, both factions make haste to this new mysterious continent, where your champion is on one of the first boats to this land. The Pandaren are quick to inform you of Sha corrupting their land; shadowy amorphous beings that more or less represent physical manifestations of evil. There are also specific Sha named after each of the 7 deadly sins, which are found in a variety of dungeons, raids, and world encounters throughout the expansion. Upon agreeing to help the Pandaren, they ask you to first seek out guidance from their 4 Divine Spirits: a jade serpent from the east, a crane from the south, a tiger from the north, and an ox from the west. Each beast represents a role in WoW (magical damage, healing, physical damage, and tanking), and as you do more to help this land, the spirit for your role imbues more power to your hero. There's some other shenanigans involving another race, the Mogu, who have traded rule over the land with the Pandaren over thousands of years, and have been dormant for the last 1,000 years, until now. So the expansion is summed up as the Horde and Alliance teaming up with the Pandaren and their ancient spirits to ward off the Sha and the Mogu. This expansion features the new playable race of the Pandaren, who for the first time can choose whether they align with the Alliance or Horde. Additionally, a new class of Monk has been added, playable by many races, including the Pandaren. The next expansion is Warlords of Draenor. There are supplemental videos for Mists of Pandaria called "The Burdens of Shaohao" (6 Parts), which are narrated by Lorewalker Cho, the best new character in Mists of Pandaria, who throughout the expansion, periodically teaches you more about the lore of the land and folklore tales that shape the context of why you are helping them. Again, this is my favorite expansion, as it was a fresh experience in a new land that was so rich in lore and beautiful landscapes.

The general rule is that characters in cinematics that don't speak aren't actual Characters in the story, just generic Horde vs. Alliance. There is an official end of expansion follow up cinematic to this called "Bottoms Up," which breaks this rule with this human and orc. (The cinematic director said that they actually had a gap in their content cycles, so made the bookend).

I mentioned that Warlords of Draenor is where the cinematics started to kick off even more, but Mists had a couple you should check out as well. The Siege of Orgrimmar launch and ending cinematics are super! And when you do the cinematic for Warlords of Draenor, you should check out the Lords of War stories that go with it. Similar artstyle as Warbringers.

so basically as someone already said, this expansions shows how destructive the horde - alliance war is. Both factions arrive on this hidden continent by chance (the orc and the human are not named characters, just 2 players pvp-ing i guess), where is this neutral nation. Of course they carry their war on the continent and cause suffering and destruction. Eventually the leader of the horde finds a super powerful artifact and uses it, causing more pain to Pandaria and forcing horde, alliance and the pandaren to team up against him. This cutscene gives some context, although it is an in-game cinematic (a lot better than wrathgate, but nowhere near trailer quality). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-slzQOyS5TqQ.html

A problem that was seen with Mists of Pandaria, is a lot of people took it as stereotyping, childish, and gimmicky. 'Kung Fu Panda' movie series was a popular franchise at the time this expansion released, so it felt like Blizzard jumped on that bandwagon for viewership. At least this is how it seemed to most who didn't know the Warcraft history. The Pandaren have been in the Warcraft 'lore' since before 'World of Warcraft'. While they weren't ever a main focus in any real substantial way, they were thought of wayyy before the expansion, and well before WoW itself. Originally the Pandaren were thought up by Samwise Didier, one of the OG Art Directors for Blizzard. It was sort of an inside joke within his close friend group, where he had come under the nickname 'The Panda'. He eventually designed a concept image of the Pandaren as an April Fools joke, saying that they were going to be added into Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos expansion as a new playable race. People ended up feeling let down that it was only a quick joke, as they really liked the idea and wanted them in the game. So we are talking like 2001-2002 these ideas were created, 7 years before 'Kung Fu Panda'. From here on, they WERE added to Warcraft 3, not as an entire playable race, but as a bit of an easter egg hidden throughout the game levels and even character models. Eventually when Warcraft 3 saw its 2nd expansion, a Pandaren HERO unit was added as a controllable character, along with the first 'named' Pandaren character, Chen Stormstout. They also continued to be easter egged around the game world. After this Pandaren continued to grow in mystery amongst the Warcraft universe. Samwise would continue to ride the Panda nickname inside joke as well, adding panda easter eggs to artwork here and there. They were even planned to be the Alliance added race for WoW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade... but there was legal drama from China about it. Anyways :P, there's lots to read about all this online. I've always been an advocate for the Mists of Pandaria expansion. I've seen so many people over the years who hate on the expansion because 'Pands? Really? Why Pandas? That's silly and dumb.', and it just bugs me since it's an addition to the game that came from the heart of one of the OG creators in Blizzard. I'm ranting now, and I'm bad at ranting and talking, so there!

All of the cinematics you're gonna watch after this one are all really good, but I also cant wait until you get to the battle for azeroth cinematic cause that's the first one where you see Anduin, and you saw him in The War Within. ALSO, before watching the battle for azeroth cinematic, i would HIGHLY suggest watching "Harbingers - Sylvanas", "Old Soldier" cinematic, then the BFA cinematic, and also the "Lost Honor" cinematic directly after, gives some great interaction between characters

I love these. After the cinematics, you should watch the Hurricane wow videos since they were brought on as an official team!

I know a lot of people have told you that "Battle for Azeroth" comes with a lot of extra cinematics, but also make sure that you, for "Legion", watch the short cinematic teaser before the full trailer. And for "Dragonflight", watch the "Take to the Skies" after the full trailer. I'm assuming I'm not the first person pointing this out..

“What is worth fighting for” as he hoists a barrel of beer 😁

There are naval commanders in story but I am not sure that it is them who represented in cinematic. There is in-game cinematic in Jade Forest with confrontation near Jade Serpent statue. You can compare characters.

Fun fact : U have another cinematic video with the human and the orc in a bar, getting drunk together after be totaly powned by a Panda.

The look down the mountain at the monk class, is actually the starting zone for a Pandarian. Literally in the first minute of the game. It's an epic beginning.

i am from Hong Kong, and always love chinese Histroy and martial art novels, I actually started playing wow from this expansion, and love exploring in Pandaria, traveling, alot of the settings do reference some sort of real chinese history and geography

I have a friend from Hong Kong and she said "Oh its like I'm home" when we went to Pandaria the first time. The music and areas are very inspired. The Pandaren were the stand-ins for the Asian people, because at the time, there werent any "races" to humans in game, it was like 6 faces and very little customization. At this point, theyve been adjusting all the customizations and you CAN make beliveable asian and black humans now. At the time of this expansion you couldnt, so the Pandaren filled that in. I think very respectfully, because tbh the Pandaren were in Warcraft 3, so it wasnt just made up for that.

Humans don't reach Pandaria until this expansion. So this is the introduction to a new class the monk, and almost everyone can become a monk. Including humans. Though I can understand your perspective.

Pandaria is the southern most continent of Azeroth. It was shrouded in a mist for millennia until Deathwing broke Azeroth. After we defeated him and the Dragon Aspects gave up their powers in order to do so, the Horde and the Alliance both learned about this new land mass and went back to the classic Horde. vs Alliance. During MoP, Thrall stepped away as leader of the Horde and made Garrosh Hellscream the new Warchief. Garrosh quite literally nuked the town of Theramore which quickly prompted Jaina Proudmoore (the same Jaina from the Daughter of the Sea cinematic you watched during the 25k stream) to retaliate. The Pandarens were caught in the middle of their war and had to choose between Horde or Alliance - making them the first PC race that can be either faction. During our time in Pandaria we learned that's where the Old God Y'Shaarj ruled until he was ripped out of the planet by the Titan Amun'Thul. When this happened Y'Shaarj cursed the land with "shadows of his former self" these being the Sha. We learned that the Heart of Y'Shaarj was still intact, and Garrosh Hellscream used it's corrupting Void powers to become an amalgamation of an Old God and his orcish self. He was completely messed up and it was all just to wipe out the Alliance so that the Horde can rule over Azeroth. We defeat him, but Thrall decides to spare him even after everything he has done. Garrosh takes that opportunity to escape Orgrimmar and Azeroth entirely by going back in time BEFORE the Dark Portal was opened and the original Horde and Demonblood infused Orcs invaded Azeroth. And that bring you to the Warlords of Draenor cinematic. :) I definitely skipped over A LOT of what happens in MoP, especially with this being the start of Anduin's story (he was stranded on Pandaria, Varian sent another expedition to go rescue him, then the actual MoP questing zones begin) but those are some of the major story points that drives WoW to the upcoming Worldsoul Saga.

Can't wait for the Legion and Battle for Azeroth cinematics. Maybe you can even do the "old soldier" cinematics also?

I actually got to talk to one of the Devs the day they announced this expansion. They wanted to add the Pandaren in the first expansion, Burning Crusade, but China had a problem with showing Pandas in violent situations. After the Kung-Fu Panda movie came out, they thought, "Well, I guess we can add Pandaren now.". I asked what they'd do if China said they have a problem and I was told, "At this point, we'd just paint them brown and rename the expansion Mists of Furbolgia." Also, you can actually go to the place they're fighting at in-game. You can fix the... torch? ...thingy?, which seems to have fallen over a little bit. You get an achievement for it.