The Astartes Phenomenon

The Astartes Phenomenon. This is the name I've given to a strange effect. What is that effect? Well, essentially anyone who comes into contact with this animation, regardless of their background or former interests, becomes engrossed in the world of Warhammer. Many have wondered how this could be possible. Was this the work of a genius? A prodigy? Or simply a madman pushing himself to the limits? Well, Siama Peterson is that man. And I personally believed all these points to be true because what he accomplished by himself seems almost impossible. Introducing Astartes. One of the finest cinematic animations to hit the internet in the past decade. Rivaling even those from large studios. I want to find out just how Astartes manages to not only completely capture the audience's attention, but also interest them to the point they go play Space Marine 2. Like seriously, this guy created the singular best ad you can possibly have for Warhammer without that even being the intention. And doing all of this without a single word spoken other than some screams and demonic sounds. For this analysis, I'm going to be re-watching and analyzing Astartes through the perspective of someone who knows absolutely nothing about Warhammer. I'm talking zero knowledge. Don't know any of the lore. Never played the games. Just a blank slate. Why? Because that's how I and many others were introduced to the world of Warhammer. Through this animation. I think it'll be a great demonstration of just how well Astartes conveys information without the need for any exposition or any background info. All while maintaining its focus on what's happening in the narrative and finding that perfect balance between confusion and intrigue. To show how well Astartes conveys information without the need to use language, let's start with a simple example. This vault door. How as the viewer do we instantly know that the Space Marines are storming this ship in order to get whatever is sealed behind this vault door? Well, we could take a look at some of the filmmaking. For example, this close-up shot of the enemy's face with them looking back. Leading the viewer's eyes to the vault door. And then simply keeping the camera here for much longer than you'd expect. But let's take this one step further. Throughout this entire sequence where the Space Marines are storming the ship, we only see them fight these normal soldiers. The Space Marines of course walk right over them. They're of no challenge. Their ambush is futile. It's only when they come across these two, the only other enemies that look different from the rest. Enemies who literally stand tall above the others. That the Space Marines struggled a bit. That by itself already conveys importance. The two most powerful dudes guarding the most valuable part of the ship. Makes sense, right? But I'd like to go much more into detail than just that. First, let's take a look at this room as well. And why when this scene pops up, we immediately and automatically recognize something's different. Throughout the entire Storm the Ship sequence, the pacing, atmosphere, and overall tone feels different. It's fast-paced, non-stop action while always on the move. Small corridors and hallways demonstrating the size of the Space Marines and their overwhelming dominance in comparison to their average enemies. And the one time we get an open space, it's still dark. This is the only large open area we've come across so far that is brightly lit. The pacing slows down as the Space Marines for once are the ones setting up an ambush. All of a sudden, when they come across these two, everything changes. And just like that, it clicks in our head. Ah, this is a boss fight. I'd also like to point out that because this is such an alien and new world for many of us who have never seen anything Warhammer before, keeping the initial storyline quite simple and straightforward definitely helps. While the series does have an astronomical level of detail within the animation and characters, the story, at least in the first half, is pretty straightforward and easy to grasp. And I think that was absolutely the right move, and of course, an intentional one. Astartes opens with Space Marines loading onto a shuttle, storming this ship, and working their way towards this vault door. It's a simple enough plotline that gives you something to be hooked on, but doesn't require any prior knowledge to understand and enjoy what's happening. Let's rewind for a moment and take a closer look at some of the scenes we just went over. Because now I want to talk about how Astartes manages to first convey absolute power for the Space Marines, and then utilize that image of an unstoppable soldier to create tension and even fear in the later scenes with a mind-blowing conclusion. You might think, oh, why would I be scared if I'm rooting for the protagonists? They're so overpowered, nothing can hurt them, right? And I think that's exactly what you're supposed to feel. Because aside from the fact that this is an accurate depiction of Space Marines, not expecting something to go wrong leaves you vulnerable for one hell of a sucker punch. So let's start with how Astartes manages to fully convince you of the Space Marines' power within just a couple of minutes. The main point I give credit to is that the enemy did everything right. That is one of my favorite aspects of Astartes. I believe it's a fantastic and brilliant way to really drill into the audience's heads just how capable our Space Marines are. Instead of relying on the enemy's failures to achieve victory, Astartes has the enemy play their cards perfectly, but still lose. From the moment the Space Marines boarded their ship, these soldiers immediately set up an ambush, took the high ground, and are funneling the Space Marines through a choke point. They're utilizing every advantage they could have had at that moment. They're using cover while the Space Marines need to walk in the open. They surround them on all sides and funnel them through a choke so they know exactly where to shoot. If these men fought normal soldiers here instead of Space Marines, they most likely would have won this fight with ease. But instead, through sheer technological and combative superiority, the Space Marines just walk right out, shrug off everything thrown their way, and use wallhacks combined with perfect aim to kill every last enemy soldier in a matter of seconds. You can even see here, this guy gets popped the exact moment he's peeking, meaning the Space Marine already knew where he was and was simply waiting for him to show his head. These men fought almost perfectly, yet still, they stood no chance at all. And from this point on, these soldiers continue to fight exactly how they should. We see even more ambushes, a lot of times, utilizing their knowledge of the ship environment to their advantage. But yet again, this accomplishes nothing. They set up more choke points and funnels, not even a scratch. And here, in one of my favorite scenes, again, we see all the same advantages. High ground, choke point, cover. In any other situation, all they would have to do is simply wait for the enemy to walk into this corridor and press the trigger. Just like that, they would win the fight. But here, it's a completely different story. They even sacrifice hundreds of their own men out of desperation in hopes that maybe, just maybe, they'll get one Space Marine. All that planning, all that sacrifice, completely negated by a single trigger pull. Now that is how you demonstrate a Space Marine's power. So, now let's skip forward, back to this scene. All of a sudden, it's the Space Marines doing the planning. All of a sudden, they're the ones taking the high ground, setting up an ambush, and using cover. And after everything we've just been shown, this makes us wonder just how powerful these two are for our unstoppable soldiers to be doing this. Before the fight even starts, we're already hooked. Because Astartes managed to use the information it's given us from previous scenes to inform us of this one before anything even happens. Despite no words being spoken and having seen zero explanations, on an intuitive level, everything makes sense. And now, it's time to talk about a very important point which we have to consider. For me, it boils down to one simple phrase. Gods don't bleed. If you want the defeat of an overpowered character to be believable or acceptable even, you must first, at least, see them struggle. You must first, see them bleed. And that's exactly what this scene does. For the first time, we see our Space Marines struggle against an opponent. For the first time, we see them get hurt. It may not seem like much, but that's all that was required. We, as the audience, now recognize that despite all their power, the Space Marines can still die. And despite them winning the fight without any casualties or serious injuries, this marked the beginning of a transition from absolute domination to the Space Marines being overwhelmed by powers beyond even their comprehension. All of a sudden, it's much easier for us to accept that maybe, just maybe, our gods have their own gods above them. This is just one small detail out of many shown in Astartes. Like using this damaged eye as a way to establish a recognizable main character of sorts as we progress to the last half of Astartes, where things really start to get confusing and incomprehensible. Or for example, the Space Marines turning their body so that their shoulder guard takes the bullet instead of their chest piece. There's simply so much depth in this animated series beyond the already startling quality that we see on the surface. Just a quick look at the cinematography, the composition of these shots, like positioning the camera close to the ground or walls to emphasize speed and movement, or even the sound design which you don't once question. Everything flows so well and just like the Space Marines, everything works together flawlessly. In conclusion, I have but one thing to say. Syama Peterson, how the f*** did you do this?