Welcome to the latest installment of my latest occasional series, Show and Tell, where I dive into the world of WarhammerTV’s suite of video programming.
Some exciting news last week on the Preview Show as WarhammerTV’s next animation, The Butcher’s Nails, will be landing this August. It’s a one-shot for the Hammer & Bolter series, but I’m delighted to see the programs continue at a steady pace.
Meanwhile, last Friday saw the final installment of the most recent series, Aeronautica Imperialis, come in for a landing.
The Story
On the planet Sigma-Nova, the men and the machines of the Imperium toil away at the planet’s surface, mining the rocks for precious ore and minerals. Little do they know, however, that the site is considered sacred by the Aeldari of the Saim-Hann Craftworld, the Tracts of Fuethán1 “where our god once walked.”
Naturally with no open dialogue and mutual hostility and mistrust, there’s only one way to settle this: war.
Thrust into this cauldron is Kae, wing commander of Steel Flight. As we open, she and the trio of Thunderbolts in her squad have made planetfall and are on their way to report in at the Aeronautica base attached to the mining facility. As they near the landing, a chilling sight awaits them below: a graveyard full of destroyed Imperial aircraft.
Ambushed by nimble, sleek- and deadly- Aeldari Nightwings led by a pilot named Idranith, Kae’s entire squadron is destroyed, all pilots killed in action.
Before she’d arrived, Kae had never seen an Aeldari. Now, she can’t wait to kill one.
As Kae integrates into the Thunderbolt force defending the base, the “phantom” Aeldari fighters appear from nowhere- and disappear just as quickly. Outclassed in the air, and uncertain of where their xenos enemy is based, the desperate Aeronatica pilots get picked off again and again, their identifier tag getting posthumously added to the wall of honor.
What they need is a lucky break.
They’re about to get one.
The Talent
Details on the cast and crew are thin, as usual with these, but we do know a couple names attached to the voice talent.
Kae is brought to life by Elsie Lovelock, herself no stranger to Warhammer productions having voiced the navigator companion (and combat nuke) Cassia Orsellio for Owlcat’s Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. She also supplied some Imperial Guard voices for Space Marine II, was Queen Ansurek in World of Warcraft, Kennen for League of Legends, and loads more.
David Monteith, meanwhile, plays the role of Romas, the base’s flight commander. He’s been in plenty himself, including Baldur’s Gate III, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and 007: First Light.
At time of writing no actor had been identified for the role of Idranith, the Aeldari pilot, which is somewhat baffling. That said, voice actor Christoper Tester- who has featured in several Warhammer video games including the role of Heinrix van Calox in Rogue Trader- was delighted to get his first appearance in a Warhammer animation thanks to a ‘cheeky cameo.’
While story duties were handled by the “Warhammer Storyforge,” whoever that is2, Dan Abnett does have a writer’s credit on IMDB. Given his work on Double Eagle and Interceptor City, the pieces would certainly fit!
Production duties were handled once again by M2 Animation. They’re the studio behind other Warhammer fare such as Pariah Nexus (reviewed here), The Tithes, and Angels of Death.
Notes & Impressions (Spoilers Ahead)
I watched this with two of my daughters, aged 12 and 11. While it’s listed as being recommended for ages 15+, that’s largely down to a couple of instances of mature language rather than any gore or adult-oriented content. They both really loved it, one rooting for the Imperials and the other cheering on the Aeldari. Something for everyone!
I’m personally a big fan of swears in my stories, because that’s how (most) real people speak. It’s authentic and genuine, even when an author prefers to use ‘swear substitutes’ (like drokk, frakk, or fething). Nobody’s getting shot by an Ork and crying out, “heavens to Betsy, I’m hit!”
I found the animation a bit stylistically uneven here. Check out the cockpit sequences, where there’s a sort of blocky angularity that reminded me a bit of The Clone Wars or the (criminally underrated) Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles.
Compare that with your first look at Kae out of the cockpit, now looking more like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. This aesthetic duality persists throughout the entirety of the series.
Shot of the Series Award goes to this one, the fireball from a crashing Thunderbolt illuminating a speeding cargo train. It’s almost blink-and-you-miss it from the second episode, but it’s a hell of a moment.
GW has gone full-court press on this release over at the mothership, with each episode not only getting a callout article, but each one also getting a trailer. Extra credit for this one even having a callout for where you can buy Thunderbolt minis3, well done.
Terrific dialogue in episode two, with the Aeldari discussing the nature of humanity. “But they keep coming. They may be brief things, but given long enough…
Overall I enjoyed this one, it was an hour well-spent with some fun dogfighting action and a solid story that would have benefited from another fifteen minutes of length to really fill out. Idaneth’s fateful choice at the end, in particular, was less of an emotional beat than it could have been due to time compression. Still, the parallels in the story arcs between Kae and Idoneth were fertile territory for storytelling.
That’s it for Aeronautica Imperialis! With the next animation not dropping until this August (The Butcher’s Nails), next time I’ll be going back into the archives. A little Heresy, perhaps?
The closed captioning spells this as “Fuethane,” but interestingly enough Fuethán is an enclave of the Idoneth Deepkin, aelves of the Mortal Realms in the Age of Sigmar. So that’s what I went with here.
Uncredited writer’s work at Games Workshop is a longstanding pet peeve, such as with the mini-stories we are treated to on the mothership.
I actually have a wing of the Legions Imperialis ones decorating the Aeronautica wing of the Black Library Museum. Beautiful little things…