So in Varian's death scene in the Broken Shore Cinematic this theme plays. The same little motif is also all over the Legion Opening Cinematic trailer: here , briefly on vocal, here again and very briefly here – some of them in different keys though. Anyways, first look, it seems like a fine idea to compose a kind of 'Legion theme', that plays when something epic happends in the cinematics; but try listening to Anduin's theme.

• It's the same. So if this in truth is a theme meant to represent Anduin, then that makes Varian's death scene not really about him, but instead about Anduin, even though he isn't even present on the broken shore. Wouldn't they have played a theme, that represented Varian? (Stormwind Theme)

And since the leitmotif was used so rapidly in the Legion Cinematic trailer, then that tells us, that Anduin is gonna be the main protagonist of the Legion expansion, doesn't it?

Well, some would say that (Sideways for one), but I don't think you can call it a “musical spoiler", like he does, as much as simply a narrating device. Remember that this entire theme is new; it was made for Legion. Surely we know that the theme represents Anduin, since they called it “Anduin's Theme”, but remember, that the theme in itself is never actually played in any of the cinematics – not the whole thing at least and with a different arrangements. Only the beginning motif in the theme – in this case a leitmotif. It could mean to represent for instance Anduin's relationship to his father, Anduin's philosophy and ideas, maybe even just the light. Let's think about, what this leitmotif is meant to represent; when do we hear this leitmotif the first time? This scene; a picture of Anduin on a compass (signifying him showing his father the way). Next time we hear it is in the scene with Sylvanas, where he says “...and from you [Anduin], I have learned patience, tolerance and faith...” followed by the leitmotif playing just as we see Sylvanas – because who's fault was Varian's faith in the Horde and thus fighting alongside Sylvanas? Anduin's! So of course it makes sense playing the leitmotif here! As well as when Sylvanas gets her shot, and the leitmotif plays again. Later in the cinematic where Varian is underwater, what is then the drive, that pulls him up to keep fighting? This compass and the reminding of peace. And what leitmotifs is played? Anduin's. Everytime we hear this theme, is when Varian acts because of Anduin, like a compass showing the way for Varian. Makes sense, right?

Regarding Anduin's theme in it's entirety; as far as I know, it only plays in the Battle for Broken Shore quest, and also by Varian's grave in Stormwind, Lion's rest. This supports the theory, that the leitmotif was never actually meant to represent Anduin alone – rather a relation between him and his father. Sure, it was in the cinematics, but that doesn't mean it represents the whole Legion expansion, only the parts about Anduin and Varian – if it was in the Cinematic Teaser for Legion, maybe it would be relevant talking about, but it isn't.

Okay, so what about this death scene in the Broken Shore Cinematic? Well, that's not really the death scene here, as much as a sacrifice for the letter to Anduin – again, Anduin's fault/influence. The real death scene is here. What theme is that?! Well, certainly not Anduin's. Remember we talked about playing the Stormwind theme for Varian's death scene to represent Varian? Well listen to this! That's the Stormwind theme – because what piece represents Varian better than Stormwind itself. Not only that, but I thought the choir sounds a lot like the choir in the Fall of the Lich King scene. Maybe that's just because they use the same … choir … but in any case it reminded me of that scene in particular – which of course is the point in leitmotifs in filmscoring! It would also make perfect sense; in both cases it is about passing over the torch to the next king, which in both case are (kind of) opposites of the previous king. Arthas and Varian were also childhood friends, and later friendly rivals (Arthas even recalled Varian as his best friend once). Supporting that, WotLK seems to be the only other expansion with the same kind of choir – their scores look alike! If you listen to any of the other WoW Opening Cinematics, none of them sounds more like Varian's death scene, than the Fall of the Lich King – it cannot be coincidental. Although I would've prefered it to be a little clearer, it's certainly worth mentioning (if you want to watch Varian's death scene with Oh Thanagor as the score, check out this link).

Anyways, this was really well done by Neal Acree – as well as all the others, who was a part of this. I have probably missed a lot of stuff, but I trust Blizzard, that they made a choice for every single little motif that plays, and that none of it is coincidental. We can therefore only disagree with what they chose to do, not complain. I've only covered this so called Anduin's theme in this post, there are thus much more to be discovered in these cinematics, that Blizzard has planned out as well. A last very important thing to mention about filmscoring, is that everything is meant to affect your subconsciousness. We're not supposed to search and find patterns or make theories. If it in fact was that well made, the reference to the Lich King would've already occurred in our subconsciousness, when we watched the cinematic for the first time - not our minds, but subconsciousness! That's why it's so easy make a bad score. In this case, I don't think many people actually thought of the Lich King, when they watched Varian die, but I think it at least forced us to still make a comparison between parallels of these two kings, without even noticing – the same concerning the compass with Anduin.