World of Warcraft has had some tough years, and Battle for Azeroth is considered one of the low points of the MMORPG. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus played it back then and has only a few really good memories. But a short film made especially for the expansion still haunts him to this day.
What kind of video is this? For Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard released the short film series “Warbringers”. The series was meant to provide background to the story of BfA and notable characters from the Warcraft history.
Part of the series was the famous attack on the capital of the Night Elves, where Sylvanas Windrunner burned Teldrassil. The videos generated many emotions back then, including unfortunately also quite bad ones.
However, one short film especially stuck with me since then: Daughter of the Sea, which tells the story of Jaina Proudmoore, who is now the Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras.
What makes the video so great? Warbringers: Jaina revisits Jaina’s past. She accompanied her father Daelin Proudmoore to Kalimdor in the war against the Orcs – but left him. Jaina always sought peace and refused to fight against the Orcs.
Her father died in the war, the fleet sank and was considered lost since then. Jaina became a curse for Kul Tiras, the dangerous “Daughter of the Sea”. After Jaina had to endure several tragedies, she regrets her actions back then.
The video is accompanied by a top-notch shanty, as one would expect from sailors. It is the song, combined with Jaina’s singing, the story, and the images that make the video so grand. Just the lines: “I’m listening now, Father” and: “Beware, beware of me” give me a lump in my throat every time.
You can find the full story of Jaina Proudmoore on MeinMMO here. We have embedded the video for you:
Daughter of the Sea – So good that there are countless versions
With Warbringers: Jaina, Blizzard has proven that they are simply the kings when it comes to storytelling in videos. The short film and especially the song featured there are so good that many artists were inspired to do covers.
As you may know from my recent report on Kalle Koschinsky and Electric Callboy, I enjoy listening to metal. Therefore, I was quite surprised when a metal cover of “Daughter of the Sea” by Skar popped into my Spotify playlist.
That was about two years ago. Since then, I have been listening to both Skar’s version and the original version repeatedly – even if I occasionally just watch the Warbringers video on YouTube for the visuals. You can also find Skar’s version on YouTube.
Although the video consists only of still images and is not one of the famous cinematics, it still conveys a somber atmosphere. But even here, Blizzard continuously delivers, for example with the latest cinematic for Dragonflight:
There are several other versions of “Daughter of the Sea”, including in Russian and with different female voices. However, the original in English will always hold the top spot in my ranking.
No matter how much I complained about Battle for Azeroth, without the expansion, these short films would probably never have existed. For that reason alone, I am grateful. And Blizzard has apparently learned from its mistakes, as the current course is really good:
For 12 years WoW has been dying, but now Blizzard is doing (almost) everything right again
