To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.
— Altmeri commentary on Talos
THLMR is a web animation series created by Russian animator and musician All In All. Esentially, it's a The Elder Scrolls fanfiction heavily leaning the more esoteric side of the franchise, especially C0DA and other Obscure Texts created by Michael Kirkbride. Expect numbers of nods to extremely obscure motifs, memes and fan theories.
The plot is pretty incomprehensible without extended knowledge of The Elder Scrolls' mythology, and even then author heavily utilize unusual Narrative devices, such as Painting the Medium, In Medias Res, Minimalism, Postmodernism and Mind Screw among many others.
THLMR tells a story about the illegitimate child of a Thalmor Emissary ambassador Elenwen and leader of the Stormcloak rebellion, Ulfric. The child was conceived when Ulfric had been the Thalmor's prisoner of war and possible collaborator. After extremely messy Parental Neglect on Ulfric's part, the traumatised child was groomed by the Thalmor to help them accomplish their plans.
Episodes so far:
- Pelinal (Animated Opera)
- not an official part of the series, but content of this episode laid some very importnant groundwork for things to come. - EVANGELIDIUM. EPISODE 9: YOU ARE (NOT) A GOD
- THLMR EPISODE 2: To Die
- THLMR EPISODE 3: The Eagle and The Worm
- THLMR EPISODE 4: TAVERN
- THLMR EPISODE 5: TOMB
- THLMR EPISODE 6: GAME
This series provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: In later episodes, some more complex visuals were made in 3D. This is especially present in Episode 6, where 2D and 3D aspects are blended seamlessly, and full 3D effects used to, metaphorically and quite literally, bring to life the utterly alien thing that is The Sunbird of Alinor Tu'whacca resurrects for Cyrus to ride upon back to Mundus.
- Absurdly Cool City: Crystal city of Alinor until it's destroyed and transformed into a giant robot.
- Abusive Parents: Ulfric to The Child. He cut off their ear, deeply traumatizing them.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Played with, but ultimately downplayed if not subverted. The Child is a youngish (even by human standards) person, but grown-up nevertheless. They hold high position in Thalmor, but it's strongly implied that they're being manipulated by the Thalmor officer that's almost always with them.
- Acid-Trip Dimension: We can briefly see Mannimarco's plane of existence during his fight with Morihaus.
- The Far Shores, the Plane of Aetherius that is the Redguard afterlife, and the location of Episode 6 takes place in.
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Episode 5 uses this trope to great (maybe even too great) extent.
- Adaptational Abomination: Averted. THLMR is based on the wildest interpretation of The Elder Scrolls' canon, but it's extremely true to the text (apart from some intentional goofs here and there, like Mannimarco's golden guitar for example).
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Between Elenwen and Ulfric. In the video game, they're enemies. Here they were lovers.
- Affectionate Parody: To Neon Genesis Evangelion in EVANGELIDIUM.
- Adaptation Personality Change: All over the place. Sometimes for fun, sometimes for dramatic effect.
- All There in the Manual: You need a good comprehension of the more esoteric side of The Elder Scrolls universe to make any sense of this series.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Child is presented in an androgynous way and there's no indication if they're male, female, or a non-binary individual.
- Apocalypse How: Class 0 at the very least, probably way, way higher considered Thalmor is aiming for unmaking the whole of creation and in the finale of episode 4 they seem have begun executing their plan.
- Ax-Crazy: Pelinal Whitestrake.
- Alien Geometries: Mannimarco's plane of existence.
- When Cyrus exits the Far Shores on a Sunbird of Alinor, he somehow exits upside down, which he acknowledges out loud.
- Anachronic Order: Plot is presented in roughly reversed order.
- Chess with Death: The subject of Episode 6, where Cyrus the Restless is granted his request to return to the living world of Mundus after winning a game of Domino against Tu'whacca, Yokudan aspect of Arkay.
- Cyborg: Pelinal Whitestrake, as is implied in canon, is depicted as such in his video, with his right arm carrying an arm cannon, Stat-O-Vision checking if the mountain of skulls he's standing on are all elf ears, and him attempting to achieve CHIM at the end of his video to avoid death is similar to a computer rebooting.
- Faux Affably Evil: Mannimarco. He's easily the show's most chill character, but only because his immense power gives him the freedom to screw over his enemies.
- Hell Is That Noise: The trumpeting, almost eldritch sounding horn of The Third Numidium, piloted by the Thalmor, announcing it's arrival to the city of Sentinel.
- Humanoid Abomination: Mannimarco and Zurin Arctus, as per usual. Pelinal to a slightly lesser degree.
- Humongous Mecha: The Numidium, natch. Which makes quick work of Alinor's defenses. The Third Numidium naturally as well, which makes equally quick work of the city of Sentinel. Then the Thalmor turns Crystal-Like-Law into an even bigger Crystal Numidium.
- Mechanical Abomination: Numidium in all its reality breaking, physics violating glory. We get to see it turn Cyrodiil from jungle to temperate, obliterate the Altmer navy, and in the hands of the Thalmor, transform Alinor into another walking Tower. It's also taken on aspects of Organic Technology in this interpretation, with red veins beneath its mechanical shell.
- One-Man Army: Pelinal Whitestrake's body count is well into the millions by the time he dies. Enough said.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: PELINAL is just 3 minutes of Pelinal Whitestrake butchering thousands, millions of Ayleids (and Khajiit) after Huna dies in battle.
- Sore Loser: Tu'whacca, after Cyrus wins his Chess with Death against the Yokudan God of Souls, who is...very deeply in denial he's lost. Having his familiars thoroughly check the board, the pieces, and Cyrus himself to make certain he actually won, all while insisting that there is absolutely no way he could lose and even tries pulling a "we're playing again" in refusal of defeat. Subverted however, as when Cyrus reiterates firmly that he has won the game, and Tu'whacca silently checks the board one last time, he finally admits defeat, and allows him to return to the living world as was promised. He even becomes a Graceful Loser by resurrecting a Sunbird of Alinor and offering it to him as his exit vehicle despite not being part of the deal, and refers to him as "No Shira", the Yokudan word for "Noble Person".
- Wham Line: A pretty major one in the mid-point of Episode 4, for the implications of what these words mean in the lore of Elder Scrolls, and the horror of what it is the Thalmor have done:Old Redguard: The Tower!! (Panting) ... THE TOWER WALK- (LOUD DRONING HORN)
CITIZENS OF SENTINEL. FEAR NOT.
