Filmmaker Reacts: World of Warcraft - Rejection of the Gift 

Is Illidan the strongest character in World of Warcraft? 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

"I AM MY SCARS!!" one of the best things about Illidan, he has sacrificed so much, yet he wears it like a badge of honor, not looking to erase it but EMBRACE it as a part of him.

Illidan’s voice actor is Liam O’Brien, and he does an incredible job with it.

One cool note, when xera says he has sacrificed so much for little, he gets an angry scowl. You can recall back to the animatic, how the whole theme of his order is sacrifice. So xera essentially insults his entire way of life with that one line

Liam is so good as Illidan. I love his regular voice, but when he puts a little extra grit on it, like for the line "IT IS NOT YOURS TO TAKE," it gives me chills.

"I AM MY SCARS" one of the most beautiful and intense lines ever spoken!!

I think that for a long time people just thought Light = good Void = bad When in reality they’re simply forces of nature, one of healing and creation and the other of destruction and entropy. They’re tools to be used as the wielder dictates, both needing to be in balance for the universe to exist as it does. The Naaru are beings infused with the light and as such are seen with reverence by those who worship the light. That doesn’t mean they are infallible or incapable of evil, as we see here. Adding more nuance to these larger than life beings and letting the light not be an absolute force for good was a very good decision on blizzards part imo

Fun fact: You can search "Illidan vs. chandelier" and this will (usually) be the first result

A cool detail - Turalyon's eyes become their normal color once the Naaru dies, showing that he was indeed blinded by the "light".

Turelion's eyes really make this cinematic on a detailed level. That and illidan's bleeding hand and how slowly the light moves at first before it's obvious.

Honestly this moment in the game was one that completely shocked me in the best way. The Light trying to force him to change, and him shattering it in response.

Warcraft has a lot of good lines in it, but almost everything illidan says is great, but these defiant exclamations from Liam O'Brien's incredible voice are very possible the actual best lines in the entire series. "I AM MY SCARS!" will never be forgotten

"MY DESTINY IS MY OWN!" So tries to tell Illidan to Azeroth inhabitants that their fate is theirs, not to be dicted by any godlike figures.

'MY DESTINY IS MY OWN'. I feel like I could run a marathon after hearing that. It just fills me with determination.

With Turalyon, his eyes are often overlooked in this scene. When Xera gets reassembled/revived, his eyes turn from brown to gold, and when Illidan pops her like a party balloon, they fade back to brown. Perhaps suggesting when at full power, she was asserting control over him, and probably other followers of the light. It's suggested that absolute light, is not necessarily better than absolute dark(void), living creatures in this universe need both in balance to thrive.

I implore everyone to read the book illidan. Will make you love him even more

I Am no Expert, but of what i know illidan saw the Power and the danger that the Legion would pose to Azeroth. He sacrificed his "Birthright" and accepted Fel/Demonic energy to course through him, to use it as a Weapon against the legion, to fight Fire with Fire. He Became the first Demon Hunter, was shuned as a Pariah and traitor by the Other Elves, and lost his love interest to his brother Malfurion. Some of his decisions led him to a Dark path, where he became the Legion's Puppet, but then got freed from this with the events of the 3rd War for Azeroth( wich happens during Warcraft 3: Tides of chaos and Frozen Throne expansions) He Prepared himself for the Legion's Return and formed and trained new Demon hunters, the illidari. He took the Black Temple has his base of operation in Outland, the ruined Orcs Homeworld. Its during the Burning Crusade expansion of WoW, that the players face off Illidan at the summit of the Black Temple( he's a Raid Boss), but just before that he send his illidari to a secret mission to get an Artefact that would allow them to open gates to Worlds controled by the Legion, to attack them. Its at this point that Players can make an Illidari/Demon Hunter character with the Legion Expansion, the Players go through the Class tutorial during that mission, then come back to see Illidan last moments ti the hands of Azeroth Champions( the Players), before getting imprisoned for years by the Elves in stasis. When the legion comes back during the Expansion, the Illidari players are freed and we face off against the Legion. In the span of the Expansion, Illidan's body was retrieved by the Wardens and put ina secret Vault, wich was stolen by Gul'dan, wich wanted to use it for his nefarious plans. Gul'dan's plans goes to shit when the players comes around to kick his arse, and illidan gets ressurected, Turning Gul'dan to ash and wanting to lead the Alliance and the Horde into an assault Vs the Legion. This Scene comes after another one, where the players, Khadgar and Illidan, faces off Killjeadan, one of the Eredar's and Leader of the legion. Illidan does a little trickery, where he use the Artifact that the illidari players got from their tutorial mission, to actually open a Portal to Argus, the Dreanie homeworld,a nd one of the legion's most important Base. Sargeras the mad Titan, and leader of the Burning Legion, captured the Worldsoul of Argus( Planets has Souls, think of it as the concept of Gaia etc) and uses its powers to continualy ressurect Demons so that they can go back to fight. Thats why the Legion is near impossible to beat, since you can kill them all you want, their souls go back to Argus and then they ressurect... So Conquering Argus and liberating the Worldsoul of Sargeras grip, is everyone objective, cause without it, no more infinite supply of troops for the legion. And illidan really ahtes Sargeras guts... In this scene, the Being of Light, is a Naaru, the Naaru's are essentialy the closest things to Angels, they are embodiment of Light and energy. They are MOSTLY Good natured and kind, but this one in peculiar was a bit forcefull, cause of the whole Child of Light Prophecy, wich is...illidan, so she ants to force his Destiny onto illidan, litteraly telling him that his choices where all shit and that he need to be remade. Wich he doesn't like, he's a stuborn man, but also proud of his choices, and he hates that someone tells him what to do... For him we don't need to be blinded with faith, salvation only comes to those that are ready to fight for it and put the effort themselves.

I knew you would LOVE this one!! We all do! Illidan is one of the most badass characters in the whole universe. "I am my scars" and "My destiny is my own" are just incredibly powerful lines

Illidan gave up so much to save Azeroth and her people and he's not sorry he did it. With that scene going forward we are now learning that the Light is not as good as we were led to believe. Illidan has been called The Betrayer since he started down this dark path to save Azeroth. His intentions were good, his actions to get there, not so much. Turalyon is a zealot. He couldn't see he was blinded by the Light and it is not good.

Oh, no one has explained the Naaru yet? Aliens made of/using the Light. Generally seen as "pure good", we can see that even the prime Naaru is capable of evil.

As far as i remeber, every time that Illidan gets more power is because he is offered said power and he accepts it, unlike this time that Xe'ra tried to force him to accept it. As for what would had happened if Illidan Accepted the gift, first of all his power most likely will have changed in nature, Illidan powers are Fel in nature so he will change to Holy magic, as for his spells probably stay the same in how the function but different school of magic behind, like the Eye Beam turning Holy instead of Fel but working like always. Most likely his appearance will stay mostly the same but all the Fel colors will be changed with golden Holy magic, so he will remain as a hoofed, horned, winged Night Elf. If my understanding of the Demon Hunter doesnt fail me, every demon hunter if fighting and struggling with the demonic power they have and one day when their will falters they will turn into demons, so he accepting the gift will give him a power that he doesnt need to contain probably will result in a Lightforged Illidan to be more powerful than a Demon Hunter Illidan. I like the parts of the Scars too, because in the end Illidan is a good guy, every person fiction or not is forged by our past it is what make us what we are right know and sadly we cant make the right choices every time, sometimes we fuck up things and usually those wrong decisions are the one who change us more for better or worse, and those wrong decisions are ours scars and to be fair Illidan is a very flawed character he is a character made out of bad choices, but despite all those failures he always pushed forward every time life pushed him down he always stood up, at the end Illidan for all his trouble and struggles he has accomplished very little but even with that Illidan feels proud of what he has accomplished, so for him "Erasing" his scars means that everything he did until that point means nothing. Everyone says how Turalyon eyes change when Xe'ra is destroyed symbolizing that he was blinded by the light, etc. But i always find ironic and poetic that the Blinded guy who got blinded by the "evil" magic is the one to tell him that he was blind all along.

Illidan is one of the most powerful beings canon in the universe, most characters in the game storyline are sadly dumbed down because they are canonized as too powerful to make a balanced story, for example Malfurian probably could have single handedly prevented the burning of Teldrisil. I've been a demon hunter main since legion launch, and loved Illidan since I played through BC for the first time and I LOVED legion because of how much screen time he got, hands down my favorite lore character.

My interpretation is that Xe'ra is SO aligned with the light that it almost overflows (like in a programming sense; numbers above the top end of the boundary go all the way to the BOTTOM boundary) into darkness; think of zealotry, for example. They use Illidan, an EXTREMELY gray- or dark-gray character, as the subject in this scene. They then juxtapose him against this being of utter light, but then they SHOW how too much good can become bad (in this case, attempting to unconsentingly metamorphose a character). They show this not only in the writing/VA, but also in the cinematography; you can see Xe'ra's light first gently reach out to Illidan, before suddenly becoming a restraint that binds him to her physical (metaphysical? pseudophysical? it's light.. I have no idea what prefix to use here, but you catch my drift) will. I think you played FF14: Shadowbringers, right? That expansion tells the SAME story as this; the Light is so overwhelming, that EVERYTHING that isn't utter and pure Good is hunted as if it/they are sins (think of Sin Hunters in XIV), and eradicated or otherwise transformed. This is a being of pure Light that is trying to take a subject, who is NOT of pure Light, and transform it (him) into something that aligns with her vision. The climax shows our gray-perceived character obliterating this force of pure Light which is attempting to force him, non consensually, to become something that he isn't. I think the greatest part about this, is it REALLY shows how a for-good character (Xe'ra) and a [perceived] for-bad character (Illidan) do not have to occupy their typecast roles as protagonist and antagonist (respectively). It show the viewer that, even a character who would be default perceived as a protagonist, can have sinister or otherwise unwanted intent, and we have our perceived antagonist (Illidan), directly showing us that "no, just because this character is light-aligned, I KNOW they are NOT going to put us on the path that we need to take." Wrote an essay here, it likely won't get to you, but just wanted to air out my thoughts and interpretations. Thanks so much for putting this video up! - Rhane

The whole thing with devotion to Light/Darkness with WoW reminds me very much of the whole Primal power and your gift as the Crystal's chosen. God it's so good. It's so lovely to see you react to this. It's also a pleasure to see this kind of theme done correctly so it doesn't feel REALLY cliche.

Not sure if your chat explained what that big yellow thing was, but the Naaru (fondly nicknamed windchimes because in-game they make a lot of soft, ethereal clanging sounds) are a race of Light/Holy-oriented beings that are dedicated to fighting the Void (darkness). They saved the Draenei (the mostly blue, horned, hoofed, tentacled playable race) like 25,000 ago from the Legion (Fel/demonic, if you see neon green in a cinematic it's probably this). Turalyon, the white haired human in the glowing armor, is basically the current commander of the intergalactic Light army, and that big windchime X'era was THE most important and oldest of all Naaru. Illidan killing her (it?) in self-defense was a HUGE blow to the Light.

i wish they made this ingame cinematic into a proper full CGI cinematic like they do for expansion reveals and what they did with saurfang stuff in BFA

Illidan was born with golden eyes, a symbol of a great destiny. Also, gold is the cosmological color for primordial Light, which Xe'ra is aligned to. Light opposes the Void, who employ the Old Gods (N'zoth; from Azshara's cinematic). Xe'ra is one of the first Naaru born after the manifestation of the universes themselves, and predates almost all life, IIRC. "She was there when it was written," basically. Side note, Turalyon is a Lightforged Paladin... Paladins are normally aligned to the light, but Lightforged are juiced up even more; indicated by his eyes turning golden (blue before, IIRC). Powered at least in part by Xe'ra, you can see them dull when she is destroyed. Xe'ra operates on a "the ends justify the means" basis. Or alternatively; To all that the Light opposes, nothing is considered an unacceptable strategy (at least apparently).... and this includes enslavement of beings _to_ the light, to be used as soldiers _against_ the Void if they refuse to volunteer. There are 3 dualities/6 cosmological inanimate primordial forces in the wow multiverse/universe. Light and Void are separate forces from the physical universe and the beings within it. There is no "good" or "bad" with these forces, since they pre-date most of creation begin with and are collectively the "ingredients" of existence itself. NEITHER Light nor Void are either "good" nor "evil." What is the case, is that there is absolutely a tendency for beings aligned in a certain way to use powers derived by certain forces. Light tends to be wielded by "good," entities but can be used aggressively. And Void tends to used by "bad," entities but can be used positively. With Light/Void, It's the difference between a light switch being on or off. There's even an alliance character who wields the void, and a race of void-infused beings who can be both hostile AND friendly to players. Primordial Light stands opposed to Primordial Shadow, and opposes the Void which seeks to consumes everything until there is nothing (but shadow/darkness). The Titans use Arcane which is the manifestation of Primordial Order; and oppose the Primordial Disorder (which is the source of Fel, used by The Legion--led by a former Titan); The Titans are thought to have gone so far as to _force_ structure and orderliness upon worlds and beings, and potentially to have obliterated worlds of disorder, as Disorder goes against their very nature as beings aligned with Order. In our world, a Order/Disorder conflict is like someone who wants "structured, pre-approved, fun" vs "spontaneous adventure." Most Naaru (like Xe'ra) and the TItans are cosmologically equal in terms of the heirarchy within their "lane" of primordial forces (which does not consider brute-force power). There is also a contingent of corrupted "Dark Naaru" who evolve into Void Gods, who are actually above them both, hierarchically speaking. However, in terms of brute strength, most Void Lords (different from Void Gods) do not have much brute force strength and also have incredible difficulty even manifesting a form in reality to begin with. They generally resort to corrupting the weakest forms of their prey as puppeteers/vassals, rather than corrupting mature mortals souls or world-souls

And so you have reached my absolute favorite cinematic from WoW and possibly all video games. I watch this masterpiece almost every month, the music, the voice acting, the visuals and the story here are all spectacular. This is the kind of thing that has kept me playing for over 10 years now

Best in game cutscene ever

This is my favorite in-game cinematic of all time, I find myself rewatching it once every 2-3 months since it came out.

The light is a cosmic force, this is a naaru (like a god). They are beyond the human’s moral (good or evil). They just have a plan and they will use mortal as they wish by our will or by force if needed. That’s why he said at the end “only we can save ourselves”. The cosmic force doesn’t care about the mortal.

1:43 This is a scene form the War of the Ancient, the Legion's First Invasion 10'000 years ago. When Illidan switched sides and joined up with the Legion, Sargeras himself burned out his eyes and infused the now-empty sockets with Fel. It was a "gift" to welcome Illidan. This new sight allowed Illidan to see the ambient magic around him as well as its more subtle uses (such realizing that Azshara was constantly mind controlling literally everyone around her - elf and demon).

Well, the best part is he destroys a Naaru, which is one of the closest beings to the Light, a force that all mortals have always used for good. The Light shares almighty power with few other forces. So, despite the attempted control, it was all meant for good. But his scars simply run too deep. He won't accept control ever again. So he committed a deep sin, but he's still the good guy, and no one (no viewer) blames him. It's challenging to describe just how significant the Naaru are in this universe, and he obliterates one for freedom.

Lore: Cosmologically, the World of Warcraft universe is made by balance. Every force in the universe is balanced by its in-universe opposite: Light to Shadow, Order to Chaos (Arcane and Fel, in the context of magic), Life to Death, none of these is "evil" or "good" as humans understand it, they simply are, they exist to balance the other and to create life across the universe. The Naaru, of which Xe'ra is an example of, are beings that represent Light in the physical universe, they are made of pure Light and are the direct opposite of Void Lords, beings of pure shadow (who cannot manifest without being extremely weakened). Both extremes of this axis seek to subsume the universe in their essence, regardless of what mortals want; light just has a better PR team because light has been used by the races of Azeroth for generations to heal, and as the larger part of the world is made up of diurnal beings, they have a closer affinity for it (but now we have shadow healing in-game, and beings with more affinity for shadow, and they're not evil at all). Our current timeline stands in balance, a very precarious balance but balance nonetheless. Another timeline, another world, was "brought to the light" very strongly, and it is depicted as an oppressive dystopia for anyone not willing to follow it, to the point where the world was consumed by the war of the Lightbound against those not willing to be assimilated. Light and shadow are not good or evil, they simply are, and they consume. Life cannot exist without balance, but these higher cosmic beings don't understand anything that stands outside of their own kind. For mortals, light is a tool. Many consider it good, but there is no stronger proof that Light isn't good than the fact that evil factions use the power of light in the same way as the good factions, because good and evil don't enter into the equation. Using the Light is merely a matter of conviction. If you believe in it strongly enough, if you believe your cause is just, then the Light will grant you its power. The Scarlet Crusade oppose undeath in all its forms, even the Forsaken (free, rational undead), and even by association (The Horde for welcoming the Forsaken), and by not standing directly with them (the Alliance by not crusading to exterminate the Forsaken), you become their enemy. They are the strongest case of "If you're not with me then you're against me" in Azeroth, and they're mostly priests who are very adept at using Light in all its forms, defensively, offensively, and for healing.

Your reaction videos are always great! Please watch the rest of the in-game legion cinematics, they are all incredible

The Legion is basically Chaotic Evil The Naru are Lawful "Good", they will do whatever it takes, even extreme measures. Between Good, Neutral and Evil, I'd say they still fall under the category of Good. I always get chills when he says "MY DESTINY IS MY OWN!"

To me it was always that kind of energy where you won't let someone do something for you no matter how good for you they are convinced it is.

Random fun fact, the voice actor for illidan also did the voice for chairman Prescott in gears of War 5 for some reason LOL

welcome to the Illidan is almost the best written character in the entire world of warcraft series so he is my favorite club

This cinematic is so important for the WoW lore, because it clearly shows that Light isn't better at all as the other cosmic forces. It has a clear position and when you don't follow along, it will just force you. It showed for the first time very clearly, that even if the "good" cosmic forces like Light, Life or Order would win, it would be desastrous for mortals. Someone like the Death God Zovaal says "Everyone shall serve me" and by that is clearly defined as evil, but the other forces might not say it - it's still how they think and act, though.

I think the writing on this is just phenomenal.

I remember when this was released, the community was like "it's so edgy and cringe." Disagree, it's hard as fuck to see Illidans conviction.

That voice change in ilkidan is his demon within power coming out if u look st him as hes shooting his eye beam he has the black smoke and all that black aura around him thats him tapping into his full demon with in power.

in light of what happened to Anduin, it does seem that Turalyon is at least an acolyte of the light if not brainwashed by it. The light demands order and cannot handle chaos. A dangerous combination.

You need to watch or read Illidan's story before World of Warcraft to understand his motives here, such as "freedom for power". He is a unique character, second to no other in the lore. His character is so well developed, that the audience itself goes through this "bad guy, but actually good guy, with pieces of his mind finally revealed" "I will sacrifice EVERYTHING to save Azeroth and destroy the Burning Legion"

Very interesting and probably correct conclusions you have about extremeties in faith. Thanks for the reaction, it was cool.

I love how even people who don’t know about the lore clearly understand that the Light is bs is as fanatical as the Legion. And recognise Illidan as badass 😎

OMG this is my favorite cinematic in all of WOW! There is no chosen one.

The cosmology of WoW is complex because of retcons and new lore coming out but in this situation The Light isn't really good or evil. The Light only cares about about itself. It can be used for good or evil but at the end of the day it wants to fight the void and gain control.

Anduin lost his light but in the story I think it was important that he had to lose it. Light isn't faith in this universe. Light comes from these beings. Anduin separating from the light will probably keep him safe from being controlled in the future.

In the book it goes into a little more detail about Illidans first encounter with the Naaru. Illidan is able to separate his spirit from his body, and he enters the twisting nether, or his spirit does, in search of Argus. While he is in Argus, he feels the presence of the Naaru but he is unable to "see" this being even with his spectral sight, which shows how powerful they are. At one point she intervenes to protect Illidan from detection when Illidan is in the throne room and is being affected by the spells woven there. This happens a few times before she reveals herself to him, and she shows him a vision of himself as an instrument of the light. During the vision, Illidan sees this as a possible redemption for himself, something he had given up on a long time ago . He finds a peace that he has never felt before in the presence of this "being of the light", and questions the path he has chosen. She tells him that he will die, but will also come back, in not so many words lol. She marks him on his forehead, and then tells him his time has not yet come, and sends his spirit back to his body. Once he is back in his body, he questions whether the encounter was real, but sees the mark on his forehead, which immediately fades away. He has a very deep distrust of this being, feeling that it is ultimately not good.

SO! Xe'ra, the thing that Illidan destroyed in this cinematic, is called a Naaru. They're cosmic beings of the Light and yes, they can be considered quite godlike. They're very powerful but also very fragile when compared to other beings of their stature. Hell, a demon has been able to kill one by simply reaching it and beating it 'til it was dead. In the game, a Naaru is never alone, there's always a group of Light-devoted followers protecting them, and they _rely_ on those followers to enact their will as well as ensure their own protection (this is more an observation of mine than something that's explicitly stated as canon thought). There's two cases we know of where a Naaru _wasn't_ with a following of people, and those are: K'ure, a Naaru in Draenor that, to make it short, was dying alone and turning into a being of the Void (as is part of their life cycle, when a Naaru naturally dies they become Void gods instead). M'uru, a Naaru that was taken by the Blood Elves back when they were far more evil-leaning than they are today, they used M'uru to attain the power of the holy Light without faith or devotion. They drained the holy magic out of it until it was empty of it, which accelerated its lifecycle and turned it into a Void version of itself. Xe'ra is the Prime Naaru. And as beings of Light, they have the ability to gaze into the future. BUT the problem with the Light is that it is hopelessly single-minded. It takes one truth and anything else that doesn't fall within that truth is a lie. As such their foresight is flawed, partially blind. She foresaw a future where Illidan was the key to the destruction of the Burning Legion. But she believed that meant Illidan would convert to the holy Light. And as we see in this short, that did not come pass. Because Illidan values freedom, autonomy and thinking for oneself greatly, he was never going to become a fanatic, pious worshipper of the Light. It's simply incompatible with who he is. But he still fulfilled the prophecy, he still lead the heroes of Azeroth through a push into the Legion's home world that resulted in their ultimate defeat. EDIT: OH YEAH! And about "this being of good" when referring to Xe'ra. This was basically a canon-confirming point for many of us. Many of us considered that the Light wasn't actually the cosmic force of good in the cosmos, as opposed to how it tends to be presented in most fantasy media. Though we never had much to go on to support the theory that the Light could be just as sinister as the other forces, or at least not beyond the fact that villains of the franchise (namely the Scarlet Crusade) HAVE wielded the Light simply because it responds to their zeal, fanaticism and devotion. And THIS MOMENT! This cinematic felt like a gift, because it confirmed our theory that the Light _is not_ the cosmic force of ultimate good. It is certainly a more benevolent-leaning one but due to its single-minded nature it allows no room for things that aren't aligned with it to exist.

I am my Scars! A line I can fully understand, and embrace.

The Light is a force of the universe. It has no “good” or “evil” but conviction in belief in what they are doing is right.

Players: do everything they're asked to gather the pieces of the LAST Naaru, source of the light. Illidan: ima kill it

"Power itself is not to be feared, fear instead those who wield it" - Non-cannon Death Knight Jaina in in Hearthstone Knights of the Frozen Throne. Light, Order, Life, Shadow, Chaos, Death... None of these are in herently evil even if some lean more in that direction then some others. These powers are in competition for a reason... Light is Purity, Order, and Faith... But it's nothing else... The World's where the light has won are barren waste lands of luminous golden crystals. Perfect Purity, perfect Order, and absolute faith that all is as it should be... Xera is a Na'ru a being of pure light, and near to the top of it's pantheon... but that high seat of power means the powers flaws... are her flaws...

This video is the turning point where you can see "The Light" as a potential villain... and you as the player really get a contrast between the mindless chaos of The Void, and the unbending "Righteousness" of The Light. You have to think which is worse, the aimless pure evil of The Void, or the "pure good" of The Light with a self serving motive which is still unclear.

People speculate that the titans created the Naaru, as Xe'ra is the Mother of Light and Prime Naaru its probably a way of the titans to infuse Illidan with the power of light but also gain control over him and his actions.

The light is not "malevolent" it just has its own agenda. In WoW there are 6 universal "factions" (plus a 7th that is unknown), 3 dichotomies: Light & Void, Order & Chaos, and Life & Death. The light is all about unity, certainty, prophecy, & above all faith... many light entities & light users have done great good. But as you can imagine, they've also used those values to do great harm. It's the same with the Titans: the forces of Order. They've done great good, but at the same time "free will" is a bit too messy for the tastes of the Order pantheon. They even call it a "curse." Also, the more stereotypically "evil" forces aren't necessarily always bad. The void is all about doubt, uncertainty, & change... sometimes that can be a good thing. Without death, life becomes dysfunctional, & so on. In this scene Illidan stands not with any of the big cosmic forces, but with mortals... whose interests don't always align with any of those cosmic forces. We don't know for sure, but I think if he had joined the light, he would have become its instrument & the light would have had its own crusade across the universe like the Legion already did.

Illidan Stormrage was born with golden eyes, just like Queen Azshara. To the Kal'dorei, this symbolizes that they are destined for great things. During the War of the Ancients 10,000 years ago however, Illidan was determined to prove that his sorcery was superior to his brother Malfurion's newfound druidism, and seeing that the Legion invaders also wielded similar magic, he went to them to learn of it, playing the part of a double agent. He swore to serve the Legion, but gave them inconsequential information on his people's tactics and forces, so that he could gain more of the Legion's power and use it against them. He was brought to the portal that allowed Sargeras to speak to Azshara (he was too powerful to come through it just yet) and Sargeras suspected Illidan's turncoat behavior, but decided to give him a gift anyways: that of burning out his eyes and replacing them with the fires of magic that would give him spectral sight, the ability to see the flows of magic all around him. After having seen and felt the awesome presence of Sargeras, he knew he could not defeat him as he was, and that his people could not weather another attack such as this without magic, so when his brother proposed destroying the Well of Eternity (the font of magic that gave the Night Elves their immortality, but whose magic had also drawn the Legion and was powering their portal), Illidan could not have that, so he took a vial of its waters, and created a new Well atop Mt. Hyjal after the Sundering was complete. Illidan has no illusions that the others that call themselves his 'allies' have their own agendas. He knows they all have their morals, their lines they won't cross, and their own demands that they expect to be followed should he accept their aid. He knows they'll also fail that way. He learned long, long ago that the only way, the ONLY way the Legion will be defeated is by beating them at their own game; fighting fire with fire, no holds barred, morality and honor be damned. Anything else will hold you back and invite your own demise, and this is why he turns down Xe'ra's "gift", because it comes with conditions, and denies the sacrifices that he and his Illidari have already made to fight their mutual enemy. Prophecies, ideals, portents, none of that is going to win. The only thing we can rely on is ourselves.

What was really interesting to me at the time was both how gratifying and contentious it was. At the time I followed the speculation content creator Pyromancer (say what you will, but his videos and thoughts on the lore were really intriguing). In that community we were really stressing how the pantheon, and other 'ordering' beings like the Naaru and Xe'ra, do not have the best intentions for mortals. Mortals are ultimately completely against the 'absolutes' of these beings, by the fact that they will die - and that we seem to ruin everything we engage with by whacking things until they stop moving. Anyway, I was talking about the cinematic with one of my friends and raidingbuddies, who does have a somewhat religious background, and he was stressing how Illidan acted as a spoiled teenager, since sacrificing himself to the light would be for the greater good in combatting Sargeras and the Legion - and probably eventually the void. I love this kind of 'morally grey' storytelling, even if Blizzard did get memed on it eventually with Sylvanas. I'm just going to finish on something that people will probably already have pointed out, but Illidan's whole story arc closely mimics that of Sargeras himself, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the Worldsoul Saga.

Illidan is one of the most powerful characters in lore. He mastered sorcery which Nerzul (the Lich King) could not, & which caused Draenor to be destroyed. In the novel, Illidan was able to astral project across the entire universe, then open a portal to invade a secret world (which you saw in the Illidan Harbringer cinematic), & he was even able to control the shockwave of the portal closing to destroy the planet after they left. Illidan is crazy. Alongside Azshara, he's probably the most powerful "mortal" in Warcraft lore.

You asked how powerful Illidan is, I think the Antorus Ending Cinematic give a great answer to that, and is an awesome capstone for Illidan's story.

Illidan and his brother Malfurion Stormrage are both demigod level powers although his brother Malfurian doesn't act like it all the time.

BTW idk if u know but the voice actors of WoW also do DND streams, their group is called Critical Role and they stream on twitch but also have their youtube. Amazon even made an animation that follows their DND campaign. Jaina and Illidan voice actors are both part of it

"There can be no chosen one... we need a raid."

Also, to answer your question: In the Illidan novel published just before legion, he describes having a vision of himself waging war against the Legion, tattoos filled with golden Light and armies of the righteous at his command. This is likely what would have happened had he received the Gift; whereas he appears demonic and dark now, he would have become infused with Light, appearing as a Light version of himself, and the magic he wielded would have become holy magic. Whether or not he would have become any more powerful, or more effective at hunting demons, is much less clear. He seems pretty fucking powerful and good at killing demons as is.

The Light is a force for good, but like anything in excess, too much becomes fanaticism. We explore an alternate alternate (the double alternate is intentional) world at once point where the Light reigns supreme and it’s shown to turn inward on itself and become very Spanish Inquisition.

The Naaru are beings of crystallized Light that consider themselves the stewards of hope and peace throughout the Universe, pure expressions of holy magic and sworn opponents of the Void Lords and their dark shadow magic. This, of course, is a generalization, as many naaru have their own personalities and agendas, and some have been known to do things 'for everyone's own good', whether they want it or not. They can be benevolent tyrants in some ways, and are also a danger to others when their energies are depleted, as they will invert into a dark naaru, a void being that sucks in Light and souls. The Draenei have always been closest to them, and revere them as essentially angels and the will of the Light made manifest, and indeed it was the naaru that powered their dimensional escape vessels and aided them in their exodus from their first homeworld of Argus when the Legion invaded there, and then from Draenor when the Horde committed their genocide against them. They are not many, however, and take care to surround themselves with protectors.

All of my hype for this cinematic and the reaction. Love it.

Both Light and Void powers can show you the future. Light shows the BEST possible future, and the Void shows ALL possible future (shadow priests go mad for this very reason). The Naru foresaw a grand battle at a mountaintop where Illidan, infused with light, leading the charge and decimating the Legion at ease. At the end of the day, no cosmic powers are noble. They just wanted a powerful pawn to fight against other seats of power.

should check out guldan death. it's short and satisfying also he was a regular (but gifted) nightelf in the past, he looks demonic now because he consumed an artifact called the skull of guldan (guldan sure is a problem huh?) way back in wc3 and that's what this naaru is trying to "heal" him from

There was a tease for what wouldve happened if Illidan was taken by the light, not directly though. During the questline to unlock Mag'har (Uncorrupted) Orcs as a playable race, you see how fanatical the Light becomes in order to convert all the Mag'har to joining the Light. Long story short, you go to Draenor to recruit them, and you save them from the Light fanatics led by a Paladin Draenei named Yrel.

Fun fact on the comment Xe'ra made regarding Illidan's eyes at the start: he was born with golden eyes, which is quite rare for Night Elves. In their culture at the time, almost all of them were born with blue eyes. Golden eyes are believed by them to be a good omen, a sign that the child is destined for greatness some day. In other words, from the day he was born, the threads of fate were already trying to take control of his destiny. When he sacrificed his eyes for his demonic sight, he also symbolically sacrificed that birthright of greatness, taking control of his own destiny. As a character, Illidan has always been all about taking control of one's destiny.

Okey; explanation: In Warcraft; the primordial elements of creation are Ligth and Void; basically ying-yang; life and death, creation and destruction... Most things are a mixture of both. Mortals are born and live under the ligth but they end up diying and falling into the void to allow for more life... balance after all... But since the begining; lots of creatures either sided more close to the ligth or more close to the darkness. The Titans are gods of creation, close to the ligth; the Old Gods are deitties of destrucction, prone to the void... the Burning Legion and its demons; are Chaotic Neutral... sort of; used by the Fallen Titan Sargeras to re-set a Universe allready corrupted and engulfed by the Darkness... ...but even deeper that the figth of Titans against Demons or Old Gods; is the figth of the Pure Ligth and Pure Void. The Ligth is not a god by itself; but rather just a 'force' without conscience; but the Naaru, are the only creatures of pure Ligth in the verse. They are sort of 'angels'; servants of the Ligth. So pure they are, that their enemies; the Void Lords, are actually what happens when a Naaru dies. The same way a Star dies to become a Black Hole; when a creature of pure ligth dies, it becomes pure darkness. So, Naaru and Void Lords have been figthing since the creation (motlly using mortal races as soldiers). The Titans serve the ligth, sowing live in the Universe; but they are balanced by the Old Gods who corrupt and destroy the life... but when Sargeras went rogue and took a 'neutral' faction and begun burning everything; the Naaru considered the balance had been broken; and very heavilly tried to balace the equation eliminating the Legion from the table... so they have been activelly helping the mortal races into fithing the Legion for milenia... ...so as we see here, thoose 'angels' may seem nice, and caring and good... but they only care on their eternal war and their balance; they don't 'care' for the creatures they use in their war... to be fair, they migth care for them; but been pure ligth; they are unable to see any other path. Illidan migth be a little rush destroying the Naaru; but his policy has allways been to use the Legion's power to figth them... so its a complex situation. Accepting the ligth would be accepting to serve them unncondtionally... Mortals care not only in the eternal war of ligth vs darkeness.... but they also expect to survive the whole ordeal XD

I think this one could be easily the best cinematic from all of world of warcraft cinematics. Even tho is not a expansion cinematic with those cool graphics, still could beat all of them

This cutscene was a great show that "The Light" is not as good as it say. It is benevolent and kind only as long as you go with its plan. And it made us question even other cosmic forces Titans and Order has agenda Maybe Void is not "evil" at least does not consider itself to be evil Abd so on and so on

I cannot tell you how satisfying this cinematic was. The build up they were doing with having him be THE CHOSEN ONE and everything, I hated everything about it. I hate every step of this questline with Xera, making Illidan out to be this person he was not. So I was pretty down on this questline the entire time I was doing it. I was not happy about Illidan being brought back at all, and I didn't like him coming down and killing Gul'dan. But then this scene finally happens and it's like okay devs, you win this one. I was not expecting Illidan to not just reject being cleansed but also killing the Naaru. It made me do a complete 180 on it. Also as a bonus I liked the little bromance they did between Illidan and Velen

i'm always stunned by how powerfull illidan is to oneshot trickshot a naaru. roflstomp

this one supports my antivillain category for Illidan, he hates the Burning Legion, but he isn't automatically a good person, and hatred for his enemy is his core identity and he would cease to exist if he gave it up. If he had been unable to destroy this entity, then one could argue he needs the power boost, but such is not the case.

I can't wait for him to watch the "Bwomsandi deal" and his spooky yet cool attitud!!

I feel like this cinematic, is sort of what "broke" the view people had on the forces of Warcraft universe. How there is more to them than meets the eyes

even though illidan was blasting a being of light, we were all behind him lol rooting him on!

I love this cinematic, and I'm with you, Illidan is my favorite. The line "I am my scars", I don't know if it's just me, but I can hear two voices. Illidans, and his inner demon. I know there is a comment lower about reading the book, and I have to second that. It really gives you an insight into who Illidan is, and why he does the things he does.

The light and the Naaru (the being of light in the video) are not necessarily evil, but in the warcraft universe where there is an infinite amount of timelines and possibilities; the light chooses to only believe and follow one path. If you do not follow or believe in the same path the light will sometimes force you to their side. (The light is also a sworn enemy of the fel which is the power that Illidan uses, so even though the Naaru knows that Illidan isn't a direct enemy it doesn't want to take any chances).

The reason Illidan can one-shot her is because Naa'ru are extremely vulnerable to fel magic. Also, before he became the demon hunter, Illidan was the leader of moon guard, basically queen Azshara's handpicked order of elite night elven sorcerers. So yeah, in addition to his physical prowess and combat abilities, he is also a very gifted mage enhanced by the power of Sargeras himself.

A lot of people believe the Titans and Light are on the same side. It was a titan that made the legion destroy planets and show up on Illidan's world. Accepting the light would deny his life's purpose. The Titans are a part of "Order" and order is close to light which also demands order and obedience.

So if it hasnt been mentioned, the naaru see one path as truth and reject all others as lies. The void/old gods see multiple paths and accept them all as truth. It's been established that the naaru and their allies will recruit others into the light. Whether they want to or not. Illidan has played for every side. He knows a bad deal when he sees one.

So something you won't get from this cutscene if you played the game obviously this is an in-game cutscene the moment this cutscene is over and everyone like goes out of this room where you the character is just like in the background the profit velen it's cleaning up the little gold shards that are all over the floor saying that they're still echoes and essences of her power in them that can be put to good use and he talks about how he can see why illidan did what he did because he's had the lights will force upon him this only leaned the player base to understand that the nauru the big Golden creatures there's many more of them weren't as Good as we thought they were they are enforce of the light but they will do whatever it takes to complete their goals regardless of whom gets hurt or who gets in the way they will use and abuse anyone from any race and it gives you the sense that even if you are a force for good fighting the forces of evil or illidan here is fighting the legion the nauru don't really care about the legion that much they're more focused on fighting the void which is a much larger threat on a universal or galactic scale so they want illidan to become their champion for that battle and again as a player you get so much more lore in game that leads us to think that we're just pawns in this overbearing game of chest that we can't even see

An explanation for the beginning of the exchange between Xera and Illidan: When a Night Elf is born with golden eyes, they’re believed to have a great destiny. Both Stormrage brothers had them. Illidan faked allegiance to the Burning Legion during its first invasion of Azeroth to gain demonic power and try to destroy them from within. That’s where the title "Betrayer" comes from. Sargeras himself bestowed power upon Illidan while at the same time showing him a vision of the full might of the Legion, which burnt Illidan’s eyes out. There supposedly was a profecy saying that Illidan - the child of light and darkness - was meant to lead the forces of the Light to victory.

Xera was going to purify the Fel energy from Illidan and "Gift" him with the light. In world of warcraft however, the light isn't the blanket "good" force like as expected in most fantasy settings. The light does equally as evil things as anyone. Illidan has been through so much and given everything to fight the legion. And he doesn't want to give that up to become a "slave" to the light.

I dont have much memory of legion. This wek, i took ky 70 dryid theought hw vlass mpunt chaon and cleared the arhua raid solo. This is some of my favortie content ive ever played in wow. If you have alts, the class quests and order hall are really fun. The funny thing i spent souvh tome unlicking the broken shores, inlocking argus access, fisning the crashed ship rescuing this holy wind chimes, and then illidan just killed it.

The Light isn't a good thing after all. Like the Titans, there is a huge amount of unknown things behind them. I remember of Warlords of Draenor, this alternate Draenor is, nowadays (so, after WoD), under Yrel's Light Tyranny. We can see that in the Mag'har allied race quest. And that's awesome.

i love illidan and this scene so much

If you want an idea of what would have been Illidan’s fate if X’era had gotten their way, check out Lothraxion, a “purified” Dreadlord. As always, LOVE the content and please keep it coming! Glad you enjoyed this cinematic about as much as the entire WoW community does. 😊💜

Going Head to head with a strong demon hunter is never for the faint hearted. 😂

Illidan appeared in the game as the final boss of the Black Temple, which was intended to be the final raid of the first expansion. As far as how strong he is, it took 25 of the world's most powerful individuals banding together to beat JUST him, after fighting through the rest of his forces. The being he destroyed is a Naaru, a being of Light, which is what the priests and paladins of the world worship for healing or benevolent magic. Naaru are kind of like the angels or messengers of the Light. The other people in the scene treat the naaru as a near-divine being, and Illidan is about equal to one. The Light is kind of like the light side of the Force; so sure that it's walking the path of right that it's willing at times to remove people's ability to make choices for themselves, and blinded at times by its own self-righteousness.

There is a nathrezim (demonic race - Illidan's fel corrupted form is very similar to theirs) called Lothraxion who was converted to the Light. It is unclear how Lothraxion came to join the Army of the Light but after this cinematic some speculate that he may have been converted by force. To answer your question it is possible Illidan would have faced a similar fate as a loyal and devoted member of the Light's forces. Powerful and favored certainly as the "Chosen One," a great champion in the fight against the Void, but by his standards little more than a puppet.

The Light only sees one path forward. Fel and void see multiple paths/futures. So Xera forcing the light upon Illidan was because the chosen one was the one path the light saw. If you watch Turalyon’s eyes before and after Xera, the light can create strong influence.

Most important thing is there is nothing good in "the Light". The Light is more fanatism, then good or bad. Fanatics can be good and they can be bad. If their faith is strong enough, "The Light" is there.