"For the Greater Good"
The Exodite is a 3D animated series set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
The series is set in Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, where the forces of the Imperium of Man and the T'au empire battle upon the ruined husk of an Aeldari maiden world. The recently promoted Shas'vre, Lako'ma, is sent on a mission along with her stealth team to capture an Aeldari Exodite known as Kelseth, who is responsible for escalating the war by framing the T'au for the death's of the Imperium's commanders. Lako'ma and her team descend to the maiden world's surface on the hunt for the exodite, unaware of the aeldari's plan for a greater vengeance upon the invaders.
The series is exclusive to Warhammer+ subscribers.
The show provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Kelseth throws a knife straight through the armoured faceplate of a T'au stealth suit, giving the operator the fright of her life. Of course justified as it is likely a monomolecular blade.
- Antagonist Title: Kelseth is the titular Exodite, and the target of Lako'ma's vendetta.
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The Imperium/T'au conflict on the Exodite world eventually draws reinforcements from Craftworld Saim-hann, who arrive at the planet in force and drive both from the world with heavy casualties.
- Badass Native: Kelseth is an Exodite warrior from an Aeldari subculture that rejects high-technology in favour of a restrained existence in a natural environment. He demonstrates considerable prowess with a variety of weaponry ranging from sniper rifles and shuriken catapultsnote to simple spears and blades.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Several times, due to the setting.
- BFS: The "Ashuna-Valcry'le" used by Aeldari Phantom Titans is an upscaled power sword the length of a freight train that can cut through Imperial Warlord Titan armour with contemptuous ease.
- Bittersweet Ending: From Kelseth's perspective: He avenges his homeworld after summoning an Asuryani Warhost, and he is assured that the invaders will be driven off and the souls of his people will be saved from damnation. However, his people are still dead and his once beautiful world is a fiery ruin, and it is suggested that he sought death after his goals were completed before the Shadowseer who rescued him offers him to join his troupe as a Death Jester.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Lako'ma is last seen stranded alone in Commorragh, as the mocking laughter of the Death Jester stalking her can be heard in the euclid fog all around her.
- Carry a Big Stick: A wounded Krieg guardsman surprises one of the squadmates with a trench club, clubbing him dead with it before being riddled with plasma fire.
- Catchphrase: As standard for the T'au, they are fond of declaring "For the Greater Good". In their final confrontation, Kelseth sardonically throws this line back at Lako'ma, and in effect at the T'au race.
- Character Title: Kelseth, the titular Exodite.
- Chekhov's Gun: The first episode has Lako'ma being given a beaded necklace by the T'au ethereal. The third episode reveals that it is capable of stunning it's target, as Lako'ma throws it at Kelseth once Doro'm holds him in place. It becomes subverted when Kelseth manoeuvres Doro'm in front of him, thus stunning Doro'm instead.
- Continuity Nod: During their final confrontation, Lako'ma mentions how Kelseth's people were once the dominant species of the galaxy. Kelseth further adds (though vaguely) that his people, in their arrogance and decadence, gave birth to the Chaos God Slaanesh, which led to the creation of the Eye of Terror and the collapse of their empire.
- Cultural Posturing:Kelseth: Welcome, Shas'vre.
Lako'ma: You speak our language?
Kelseth: It is as simple as your belief system. - Curb-Stomp Battle:
- A cadre of Crisis Battlesuits attempt to take on a Warlord Battle Titan after its void shields are down. Not only are their attacks ineffective, but a second Warlord Titan appears and proceeds to completely annihilate them.
- The Stealth Suit squad annihilate a small party of Krieg troopers, shearing their Chimera transport in half with plasma fire and then save one wiping the squad out. This is apparently the entire point of Mont'ka — an overwhelming surprise attack that does maximum damage.
- However the squad are themselves no match for Kelseth in their first skirmish. Using an Aeldari sniper rifle and then a kind of Exodite spear, he takes out a drone and three squadmates and wounds Doro'm in the leg without them landing any successful hits in retaliation.
- Death Seeker: Kelseth only wanted to bring the Asuryani to his world to fight the Imperium and T'au and avenge his people. He did not expect to survive, wishing for the "smile of the scythe to end [his] tale". A Harlequin Shadowseer talks him out of it by convincing him to join the Harlequins as a Death Jester.
- Do Not Go Gentle: The opening of the second episode has a wounded Fire Warrior about to be run over by a Leman Russ tank. The fire warrior pulls out their pistol and defiantly empties it into the tank trundling towards him before being squashed by the tank's treads.
- Downer Ending: From the T'au perspective: The efforts of the T'au are all in vain, as Lako'ma fails to capture Kelseth and de-escalate the war. Kelseth manages to achieve his vengeance over his ruined world by summoning an Asuryani Warhost to engage the forces of the Imperium and the T'au, which will leave the latter two defeated and bloodied. Lako'ma is unable to avenge her fallen comrades as Kelseth is saved by the Harlequins and ends up stranded in Commorragh, doomed to an uncertain fate.
- Dwindling Party: Lako'ma starts the series with a full squad of Stealth Team units and two drones. By the end of the second episode, only Lako'ma, Doro'm and a single drone are left. And by the end of the series, only Lako'ma remains.
- The Faceless: The ethereal Aun'Soh'Ai's face is kept out of the viewers sight.
- Foil: Through the conflict between Shas'vre Lako'ma and Kelseth, the differences between the cultures and worldviews of the two alien warriors are explored and contrasted. Lako'ma is a soldier of an mechanistic alien species, gradually expanding into the universe under a manifest destiny to spread a hopeful ideology among the stars. Kelseth is the last of a sect of alien warriors from a race that enjoyed their golden age millions of years before the rise of the upstart humanity and T'au, now clinging to traditions and spirituality and desperate to keep them alive. Kelseth dismisses Lako'ma's arguments and the tenets of "Greater Good" utilitarianism as simplistic philosophy at odds with the bitter realities of the Crapsack World that is the Warhammer 40000 universe, and the subtext seems to suggest the audience are expected to agree.
- Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: The Harlequin Shadowseer speaks in this manner.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One Krieg guardsman has the upper half of his body vaporized by Lako'ma's fusion blaster.
- Humongous Mecha: The Imperium has deployed Warlord Class Battle Titans upon the planet's surface to aid the Imperials as they fight the ground war against the T'au forces. Also, the Aeldari Phantom Titans from Episode 3.
- Impossibly Graceful Giant: Aeldari Titans are portrayed as such, being capable of running and with smooth agile motions unlike the Imperial Titan's slow, lumbering, mechanical movements. One charges an Imperial Warhound, and then slides on its knees beneath the Warhound's line of fire to cut the Imperial Titan's legs off.
- Irony: During her confrontation with Kelseth in Episode 3, Lako'ma insists that the T'au Empire does not stand for vengeance and hate. However, when Kelseth kills Doro'm and summons an Aeldari Warhost (with one of their Titans blasting a transport that kills her commanding officer) Lako'ma flies to a rage and tackles Kelseth with the intent to kill him. However, the scuffle causes them to fall into the Webway Gate. When it is discovered that Lako'ma is lost in the Drukhari city of Commorragh, a Harlequin Death Jester appears and can't help but be amused by the fact that her attempt for revenge has caused her to be stranded in one of the worst places to be in the entire galaxy.
- Last of His Kind: Kelseth is the last of the maiden world's Exodites.
- Make Sure He's Dead: Several Krieg guardsmen bayonet the bodies of T'au fire warriors to ensure they are dead. One of the fire warriors was shown to still be alive before being impaled in the gut. Lako'ma's stealth team fails to do the same when they kill the guardsmen in turn, and it gets one of them killed.
- Neck Snap: Kelseth kills Doro'm in this manner by stepping on the latter's head hard enough for the T'au's neck to break.
- No Animals Were Harmed: Parodied in the end credits where it is claimed that no Kroot/Drones/Titans were harmed in the making of the episodes.
- No Focus on Humans: The show focuses on the T'au protagonists and Kelseth the exodite. Whilst humans are present, they are not given much focus.
- Not Quite Dead: One seemingly dead fire warrior is gutted by a Krieg guardsman, who groans and spasm's in pain before dying for good. One Krieg guardsman whose squad was decimated by Lako'ma's stealth team is also revealed to still be alive, and manages to kill one of Lako'ma's squadmates before being shot dead.
- Powered Armor: Her promotion to Shas'vre has Lako'ma donning an XV25 stealth battlesuit.
- The Reveal: Kelseth has been activating a series of beacons for an unknown purpose. The third episode reveals that they are intended to open a Webway Gate and allow an Asuryani Warhost to cross through and engage the forces of the Imperium and the T'au.
- Rock Beats Laser:
- Subverted by Kelseth. The most advanced weapon he uses in his battle against Lako'ma's warriors (who are all armed with cloaking technology, plasma weaponry and autonomous drones) is an Aeldari sniper rifle; he uses a spear and knives for many of his kills. But these are likely monomolecular or even power-blades; the Exodites actually use highly advanced technology compared to the Imperium and the T'au, verging into Magitek, even if it is deliberately very limited by Aeldari standards.
- Played entirely straight however by the nameless Krieg Guardsman who, thought killed in the squad's ambush, suddenly surprises one of Lako'ma's squad and beats him to death with a trench club.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Lako'ma is a strong believer in the T'au Empire's manifest destiny to unite the stars under the ideology of the "Greater Good", and claims that it stands above racism, hatred and vengeance. Kelseth bitterly rejects this notion, sneering that his people are dead and his world a scorched ruin, all for the sake of her "Greater Good".
- Space Battle: There is an ongoing void battle upon the maiden world's orbit, fought between the Imperial Navy and the T'au Protection Fleet.
- You Are in Command Now: The first episode has Lako'ma being promoted to Shas'vre of her stealth team after her previous commanding officer was killed in battle.
- The Worf Effect: The Imperial Warlord Titans are on both ends of this trope.
- A Manta Missile Destroyer wipes out a group of Imperial tanks with ease, wiping them out via actually dropping a mountain on them. Then a Warlord arrives, shrugs off its Macross Missile Massacre and blows it in half with one shot.Two of them later decimate an entire flight of XV8 battlesuits with ease.
- In the following episode, an Aeldari Phantom Titan armed with an "Ashuna-Valcry'le" (a power sword upscaled for anti-Titan combat) cuts a Warlord Titan clean in half at the "knee", causing it to come crashing down.
- Wretched Hive: Lako'ma unfortunately finds herself stranded in the Dark City of Commorragh, the realm of the vile Drukhari.
