Good catch on the bear and the grading, that's a real marketing observation. One problem with the frame though, the 2004 cinematic you're holding up as the darker original, Seasons of War, has a female narrator, Debi Mae West, credited on WoW since the early days. Both ends of your comparison are a woman reading a script, so gender isn't the variable, tone is, and I'd blame the audience. 2004 was selling a threat to a niche of hardcore PC owners, 2026 is selling a comfort memory to forty year olds. Marketing hedging risk, not a planner. The pliability stuff I'd drop, it's the only line that makes a fair reader stop reading