Hammer and Bolter - 'In the Garden of Ghosts' - Review Threa

[Petitioner's City]

Hi all, a review thread for Eldar-focused 'In the Garden of Ghosts' in the Hammer & Bolter series. Script by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (source?), animated by Farside Features (a sister company to Sun and Moon Studios), a company co-directed by Louis Jones and Dylan Shipley.

 

 

 

A small party of Aeldari return to the ruins of their ancestral craftworld to seek the spirit stones of the dead, so that those lost in battle might be returned to a semblance of life, and their memories preserved. The Warlock Iocarus has a more spec...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[StraightSilver]

I absolutely loved this one. Beautiful story but the music was also fantastic. 

Really nice to see things from a non-Imperial perspective.

[Vazzy]

Yeah, I have to agree. This was an excellent episode. Written by ADB so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

[Noserenda]

Yes was looking forward to this one since ADB revealed he was writing it, 100% not disappointed, some really good animation in the focused bits too (The usual slightly janky moving pictures for a fair bit though) probably the best Hammer and Bolter so far and definitely the most touching.

[Marshal Rohr]

God this one was brutal.

[byrd9999]

This was a superb episode. Possibly the best so far.

 

It was great to see the Imperium as the fanatical antagonists that they are, their blunt brutality in contrast to the cultured empathy of the Aeldari.

[lansalt]

This was a good tale, despite the low quality animation spoiling it a bit as in the other episodes.

 

But I'm baffled by the decision of using primaris Ultramarines from the 5th company as the antagonists in the flashbacks. It makes no sense. Those guys are too busy defending Ultramar from the Death Guard or other incursions to go hunting craftworlds, not to mention the Guilliman/Eldrad understanding against Chaos/Necrons should probably forbid it.

 

Also the use of "alien" instead of "xeno", and the lack of "mon-keigh" was weird, like they dumb down the dialogue for people not into the lore but at the same time they don't explain what an eldar soul stone is.

[Noserenda]

This was a good tale, despite the low quality animation spoiling it a bit as in the other episodes.

 

But I'm baffled by the decision of using primaris Ultramarines from the 5th company as the antagonists in the flashbacks. It makes no sense. Those guys are too busy defending Ultramar from the Death Guard or other incursions to go hunting craftworlds, not to mention the Guilliman/Eldrad understanding against Chaos/Necrons should probably forbid it.

 

Also the use of "alien" instead of "xeno", and the lack of "mon-keigh" was weird, like they dumb down the dialogue for people not into the lore but at the same time they don't explain what an eldar soul stone is.

Plenty of time after the plague war for the Ultramarines to destroy a minor craftworld, especially if its preying on the citizens of Ultramar somehow. Eldrad has literally no authority to cause a whole species truce even if Guiliman wanted one, so, maybe the Ultramarines dont shoot up Ulthwé on the other side of the universe? It would be like assuming an understanding with the Dali Lama would stop you invading Argentina. 

 

Xeno is good, but ultimately is just a slightly more pretentious Alien at the end of the day. Mon-keigh is crap and belings on the cutting room floor. It kinda works as a written pun but said aloud its just stupid, and "barbarian" conveys a lot more of what the Exarch is thinking than "monkey"  ever would.

[Marshal Rohr]

I sincerely doubt the Ultramarines were specifically mentioned by ADB and it was an art department and managerial decision to make them a recognizable chapter. WH+ is still in it’s Every Show A Buy Now button artistically. I wouldn’t expect anything deep or world building in terms of who is in these stories for years.

[Mordas]

I loved this episode, story and music was great.

 

Now we just need to see the Eldar fight like that on table :D

[Knockagh]

I had resisted warhammer plus until I saw this but ADB writing Eldar is a major dream come true. I desperately hope he writes a book. Someone of his caliber taking on Eldar would just about allow me to forgive BL for the last few months of garbage.

I shall watch this with my beans on toast and yoghurt tomorrow lunchtime

[Orange Knight]

I thought this was an exceptional episode. The story was tragic, and it was nice to see it from the point of view of the Eldar.

 

I don't have an issue with how the Ultramarines were portrayed - they are still killing machines at the end of the day. There is no galaxy-wide truce between the Eldar and Guilliman, and it's entirely possible that this Craftworld has harmed humanity in some way.

 

I see people complaining about the omission of the term "Mon-Keigh" but honestly that's just a silly pun and it only works when it's written down. It would have been silly if the Eldar Exarch called the Astartes a Monkey during their duel lol.

[Knockagh]

Loved this. I’ve never been a fan of animation apart from Ben and Holly, really disliked the Star Wars ones just couldn’t take them seriously. But this worked really well. The Eldar came across exactly as I like them in my head. Super stuff