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00:00Here are some hidden details that you might have missed in League of Legends new ByteMarks
00:04cinematic.
00:05Obviously this cinematic builds off of where we left Arcane, building on certain themes
00:10and narratives from the show.
00:12One such theme is that in the first shot of the cinematic we can see some continuity from
00:16Arcane, as Major's eyes, like LeBlanc's, seem to have brighter, more pronounced colours,
00:22unlike a character like Darius.
00:24To answer one simple question, are you strong enough?
00:31LeBlanc's narration revolves around Mal and her arrival in Noxus.
00:37Her sigils throughout the episode are there to symbolise different characters in the cinematic.
00:41This wolf that we see represents Mal Medada, as she was pronounced the wolf by her mother.
00:48It also has the Medada star on its forehead, which makes this more blatantly obvious.
00:55Before we even see LeBlanc, we know it's her because her fingertips are blacked out.
00:59We discussed this in one of my previous videos about Arcane, but basically you can always
01:03tell it's her based on her hands alone.
01:06This cinematic shows us why her hands are like this, it probably has to do with the
01:11sigils that she casts.
01:13Mal lands on the shores of Rokrund, which is her mother's hometown.
01:17This is the exact same location where Embessa's cinematic ends, drawing a parallel between
01:23the mother and daughter.
01:25This sigil represents Katerina, and somewhat resembles her daggers.
01:29The masks and the robes in this theme are somewhat a stylistic and thematic reference
01:34to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.
01:37This was famously the last film he put out before he tragically passed away.
01:41The double-sided axe sigil represents Darius, who leads his battalion into battle in this
01:46part of the story.
01:47However, it doesn't seem like Darius is the hand of Noxus yet.
01:51In fact, bro, he looks like he skipped leg day.
01:54My boy looks famished.
01:56We are led to believe that this is the present timeline, since LeBlanc uses the sigil as
02:02a reference to him.
02:03The rotational dance and Katerina having to spin around this room is a reference to her
02:08abilities in League of Legends, where most of her kit revolves around, well, her revolving
02:15around.
02:16This multi-faced feminine mask is a great way to further emphasize this.
02:21Now some people are saying that this is Jhin.
02:24And while I don't agree with this at all, it's worth pointing out that every time we
02:28see a mask in Arkane or any League-related content, people are screaming Jhin.
02:34So Riot Games should probably give him more love, because it's quite clear that people
02:38want him to show up.
02:39LeBlanc reveals Elise's sigil around Katerina's sigil, as somewhat an indicator that this
02:45job that Katerina was on is a trap to eliminate her.
02:49Speaking about Elise, the number 8 pops up quite a bit in this black rose mask scene.
02:56The room is built in an octagon, and the rose in the center has 8 petals.
03:01Elise's mask implies that she has 8 eyes, with 2 of the eye slots open when she is in
03:08human form.
03:09Elise in human form also of course has 8 legs, she has it in spider form as well.
03:15Another thing she has in spider form is 8 eyes, so there's a lot of emphasis being put
03:20on that particular number with relation to Elise.
03:24Some genius on Twitter managed to notice that Trundle actually steals away Darius' armor,
03:30which is his ultimate ability in game.
03:33Even the ratio of the armor he takes is approximately 40%, which is the ratio in game.
03:39This is one of the more crazy things that they did with the cinematic if it's intentional,
03:44which I suspect it is.
03:46A reddit user noticed that this shot looks a lot like Errol the Tracker from Legends
03:51of Runeterra, which would imply Oegli's reference Riven.
03:55However, this creature on the wall does look more like a stallion or a horse to me.
04:01But it is a nice shot considering what we see later on in the cinematic.
04:06In this shot, this ram's head seems to be placed to stand out.
04:10It slightly resembles Darius' axe and sigil motif.
04:13It is shown again here zoomed in in the next shot, with Mal's hand magically reacting to
04:19it to emphasize its importance.
04:21Katarina's mark for assassination also has LeBlanc's sigils tattooed on him.
04:26What this means, however, is anyone's guess.
04:29We can see that by the end of her fight with Elise, she does manage to off him with gold
04:34coins scattering across the screen.
04:36Maybe that's why she did it.
04:38Later in the cinematic, Mal fights against these enemies who resemble the Grey Legion
04:43from Legends of Runeterra.
04:45Basically the Grey Legion is led by this woman named Lady Faris Neradi, and they are a battalion
04:51which uses Hemomancy to revive their dead allies as zombie-like forces.
04:57With Hemomancy becoming a bigger deal in the story, obviously with the reveal of Vladimir
05:02later in the cinematic, and because of the fact that Lady Faris and her daughter Ophelia
05:07are Black Rose members, we can assume that we'll be seeing all of these characters tied
05:14to Mal later on in the story, and that we'll see the Grey Legion again in some form.
05:20How they'll deal with Mal though is anyone's guess, as she happens to be a counter mage
05:25and the Hemomancy doesn't seem to work on her.
05:28Darius breaks his axe in his battle with Trundle, and one of his hands are frozen.
05:33I wonder if this is the reason why he is called the Hand of Noxus, representing a man
05:40who fought the King of Trolls and won.
05:43Another interesting catch is that much like an arcane, Darius' forces watch him fight
05:48much like Embessa's forces did.
05:50This seems to be a Noxian custom, or rather a custom that we see throughout the world
05:56of Runeterra in different traditions, which maybe favour battle and honour when they engage
06:01in combat.
06:02This also seems to be a way to not lose all of your troops in battle, as you might only
06:06end up losing one general, who happens to be the leader.
06:10It's worth mentioning now that Mal's journey to the Immortal Bastion seems more like fate,
06:14as it was something that was hinted at in her old paintings.
06:18Mal's visions also show her destroying buildings and monuments, which makes the gold paint
06:24splashed over the Immortal Bastion mean a lot more right now.
06:32Perhaps we should focus on the opportunity that's washed up on our shores.
06:38This opportunity that Vladimir is referencing is obviously the wolf Mal Mudada.
06:44He might view her as somewhat a threat, as he does say this in a little bit of a sarcastic
06:49tone and seems to fret about this.
06:52In contrast to his demeanour, Leblanc doesn't seem fazed by the arrival of Mal Mudada, in
06:58fact she seems to embrace it.
06:59She then shows the last sigil of the cinematic.
07:03This one is a big one and had everyone guessing.
07:06It seems to be a sword or a dagger with an eye on it.
07:09It instantly reminded me of that.
07:12There are two possible scenarios.
07:14One is that recovering Riven's blade has now become top priority to Leblanc.
07:19Mind you she is the one who forged Riven's blade in the first place and has been looking
07:23to recover it anyway.
07:24The other more likely possibility is that this is a reference to the Darkin, which do
07:30tend to take the form of a weapon with an eye on it.
07:34Specifically, this could be a reference to Neferi and her dagger.
07:38One more thing about this sigil which I found personally cool is that it does resemble Malekith's
07:43black blade from Elden Ring quite a lot.
07:47And that made it a bit more special to me personally.
07:51And that is everything you might have missed in Welcome to Noxus Byte Marks which happens
07:56to be League of Legends new cinematic.
07:59Let me know what hidden details I missed in the comments.
08:02This is Lois signing off.