Knights of the Eternal Throne

Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMO run by Bioware. Now, while the story of the game is pretty fantastic at times and it's a fun game, it's not what I'm here to talk about.

I'm here to talk about the trailers.

The animators for the trailers, Blur Studios, handle them wonderfully. They fit action into it like people are expecting but they fit in characters who put off surprising amounts of emotion in a 6 minute trailer. (More like short films than trailers, honestly) The first trailer, Hope, shows a desperate stand and the struggles of a war. Return and Deceived show the brutality of the sith. Sacrifice catches sets up the character of Arcann (The main antagonist from the main expansion to the game) and shows how he grew up to his eventual cementation as a villain. Of these trailers, Hope and Sacrifice stood out to me with the scale and emotion put into them, delivered with some fantastic techniques.

Trailer order below; Return, Hope, Deceived and Sacrifice.

The latest trailer does something special though. It takes a character that, if you've played through the game, you already know. Arcana's sister, Vaylin. a character that most people loath. She's sadistic, murderous and just an all around nut case. A few jaws short of a sand crawler, in other words.

And the trailer makes you relate like her. Or rather, feel sorry for her. It takes this character and flips the view of her on it's head. Suddenly, it's not some villain casually hurling one of her troops of a bridge because the trooper failed her. Suddenly, it's a little girl who was outshined by her brothers and felt hurt by her mother's seeming betrayal. And it also catches Senya (Vaylin and Arcann's mother and an ally in the game) throughout it, showing her love for her children and hurt at what they become.

Anyway, rambling again. I'll leave you with this wonderful trailer.

"While the sacrifices are heavy, we fight knowing that a single spark of courage can ignite the fires of hope...."