(edited by Apollo.6573)
So it took Tyria's greatest detective.
Spoilers to Follow
Yeah, I cringed quite a bit when the big reveal at the end of this was that Scarlet was going to attack LA…you know, the plot we’ve all known she’s been aiming for since Dragon Bash? To say nothing about the trailer a few weeks ago for the Season 1 finale that ended with LA in flames…
The major reveal this chapter was supposed to bring was painfully underwhelming, to the point where I wonder if Anet thinks we’re all incapable of putting two and two together for such a simple story line (or god help us that they think this storyline is somehow intricate and sweeping).
The only thing this chapter really confirmed that we weren’t sure about was that Scarlet’s being controlled by a third party, either an Elder Dragon or one of the Gods. Had the LS focused more on that (Which I was hoping it would), I think this would have been a bit more impactful.
But I agree, this LS makes Jory, Kasmeer, and the entire party out to be a bunch of blundering fools who need us to spell things out for them, to say nothing about Kiel and the Lion’s Council.
Wasn’t Kiel supposed to be stepping up security in LA after the Dragon Bash incident, not saying “Naw, Scarlet obviously won’t attack the same place twice. Criminals never return to the scene of the crime!”. Of course there’s also the possibility of another painfully obvious plot twist where Kiel has been working for Scarlet all this time.
Right now, there is almost nothing the last two episodes can do to really sweep us off our feet and give us an epic conclusion none of us see coming. The end result that will change Tyria for ever is LA being wiped off the map, and whatever big baddy that Scarlet is working for crawling out of it’s remains.
I’m hoping against hope that the big baddy is going to either be a God, not a Dragon, or even better, a real twist in that Abbadon returns after somehow surviving the encounter in GW1, and brings about a second Nightfall with his return. THAT would be a nice twist, and the little finale by zooming in on the moon at the end of the preview trailer would be a rather nice nod in that direction if it were true.
But it’s likely going to be Primordius and his Destroyers. But could you imagine if it was Abbadon, and the Zones in GW2 during Season 2 became Nightfall Touched? That would keep me interested for another year far more than the more obvious route of what’s coming.
The investigation was meant to serve as a way for newer players to catch up with the storyline. As for the whole big reveal, I have this feeling that it’s more of a red herring, but that’s just me.
A good fight in Lion’s Arch with a gigantic drill, and the Marionette returning, a big nemesis at the bottom, that could look great. It will probably be fun. The story is completely full of holes though. I mean it is utterly unconvincing. Everyone in the world looks like an utter idiot for not bothering to work any of it out earlier. Scarlet has been able to do everything she is doing because … she’s just such a nemesis she can do anything, seemingly.
Spoilers to Follow
Wasn’t Kiel supposed to be stepping up security in LA after the Dragon Bash incident, not saying “Naw, Scarlet obviously won’t attack the same place twice. Criminals never return to the scene of the crime!”. Of course there’s also the possibility of another painfully obvious plot twist where Kiel has been working for Scarlet all this time.
Kiel actually wants to step up defences it’s just the rest of the council who didn’t want to.
Ill explain the reason.
One Majory wasnt introduced until around queens jubilee so she doesnt know anything about the events before dragon bash only that a council member was assassinated and only way to know about the dragon bash stuff was from Kiels reports which was probably hard to get in which only the order of whispers could whisk away and hand to the priory.
Two while the players have an idea on what scarlet is up to you have to remember these are characters in the story they wouldnt be able to figure everything out or go on crazy elaborations and theories while a crazy madwomen hearing voices is running around killing and destroying crap for her little experiments since up until now everything she has seemed to be doing was just rallying alliances and an army while experimenting with new toys for her own sick pleasure.
Three the laylines were hinted but not mentioned except by a picture in scarlets lair on her projector and without the research the characters wouldnt have known. Also an anet dev gave us the story about scarlets past in the device that made her the way she is which was also not known until getting the said items to research.
Four the whole reason to figure out the plot was for the newer players to get caught up in the past events of the Living Story.
Five Cheetos are awesome.
Six more of Majorys backstory.
Seven the captains council is known to have an ego and known to stick their noses up at the bigger pictures and keep to themselves for greed sake. Even though both Evon and Ellen know about whats gonna happen neither can do anything because Evon isnt on the council and Ellen has to go by the laws and have the motion carried by vote which failed.
Tizzle Mindwrack – Crazy Asura Lore Keeper of [AARM]
But it’s likely going to be Primordius and his Destroyers. But could you imagine if it was Abbadon, and the Zones in GW2 during Season 2 became Nightfall Touched? That would keep me interested for another year far more than the more obvious route of what’s coming.
Hmm…. if this would be what would have been hinted at if Evon won instead of Ellen and we got the Abbadon fractal…
The reveal, to me, wasn’t so much that Scarlet plans to attack Lion’s Arch. It’s why. There’s something under the city that’s she’s after. Something to do with the ley lines and dragon energy. Something she may very well awaken in the next few weeks.
Dakka Warforge- Level 80 Charr Engineer
Xairro – Level 80 Asura Revenant
Make matters worse Ebon Gnashblade has been saying that she would attack LA for awhile now.
Vorpp suggested it might be an aspect of the Sylvari dream, not a god or dragon. If we have to go with one of those, I’m going with possessed by the DSD, or possibly Lyssa (less likely), both of which have a twinned thing going on, like Scarlet’s symbol of the red vine and the pale tree (and a water aspect, not that it matters for scarlet). And it would explain the illusions, the charisma, and how she got the Krait obelisks, plus the obsession with duality (alliances, magic/tech) and subversion (watchwork).
If I was going to make a totally off-the-wall, baseless prediction: we will learn that the magic in the leylines is the source of power for the dragons and for the gods (six different forces of magic). We’ll find that Scarlet wants to intercept the leylines at LA to cut the dragons off and ascend to godhood, to regain her independence. We’ll intervene, and Destiny’s Edge 2.0 will have to sacrifice themselves to absorb the energy and become the new gods:
Braham: neo-Balthazar (sort of similar names)
Rox: neo-Melandru (she’s a miner and her name is Rox, of course’s she’s getting the Earth element)
Marjory/Kasmeer: neo-Lyssa. Yes, Lyssa takes two female vessels. It’s her thing. They’re a pair, linked by fate. One does Illusion, very well. One is named “Del Aqua” (of water, get it?).
Canach: neo-Grenth. Because Trahearne is busy. Anyway, poison sort of fits the sphere. And his misunderstood anti-heroism sort of fits the profile of a good death god.
Taimi: neo-Dwayna. Because what else is left? And crystals and sparks and whatnot fit the air magic profile; maybe she doesn’t do healing (unless it plays a role in the LS regarding her medical issues), but that’s because it got kicked out of the trinity.
Of course, that doesn’t leave any LS character to be Kormir. Unless… oh dear gods… nevermind, forget I said anything, this was a terrible idea.
If this actually did happen, it would suggest that the dragons would be getting very hungry, very soon, and might start to go on the offensive.
Make matters worse Ebon Gnashblade has been saying that she would attack LA for awhile now.
Now that would be a nice twist, Ellen working to get Ebon on the council.
Delaqua’s instance should not be used for new players to recap the story so far.
To propagate a story forward you cannot keep recapping. Right now it’s like every episode in a TV drama series is a recap of the previous episodes such that the story is mostly Episode 1. We have a wiki for that. That’s what I did when I missed out on GW1 lore since I never played GW1.
My crazy theory: maybe Scarlet want not to attack LA, but to defend it from something that lies beneth it? Maybe she’s assembling this massive army to beat something biig? During the Dragon Bash she tried to put someone to Captain’s Council, so they do something to preapere LA defenses. Maybe this new toxin make you immune to Dragon influence?
And you know, Devs could latter say that we didn’t see this comming, what a twist etc:)
Vorpp suggested it might be an aspect of the Sylvari dream, not a god or dragon. If we have to go with one of those, I’m going with possessed by the DSD, or possibly Lyssa (less likely), both of which have a twinned thing going on, like Scarlet’s symbol of the red vine and the pale tree (and a water aspect, not that it matters for scarlet). And it would explain the illusions, the charisma, and how she got the Krait obelisks, plus the obsession with duality (alliances, magic/tech) and subversion (watchwork).
If I was going to make a totally off-the-wall, baseless prediction: we will learn that the magic in the leylines is the source of power for the dragons and for the gods (six different forces of magic). We’ll find that Scarlet wants to intercept the leylines at LA to cut the dragons off and ascend to godhood, to regain her independence. We’ll intervene, and Destiny’s Edge 2.0 will have to sacrifice themselves to absorb the energy and become the new gods:
Braham: neo-Balthazar (sort of similar names)
Rox: neo-Melandru (she’s a miner and her name is Rox, of course’s she’s getting the Earth element)
Marjory/Kasmeer: neo-Lyssa. Yes, Lyssa takes two female vessels. It’s her thing. They’re a pair, linked by fate. One does Illusion, very well. One is named “Del Aqua” (of water, get it?).
Canach: neo-Grenth. Because Trahearne is busy. Anyway, poison sort of fits the sphere. And his misunderstood anti-heroism sort of fits the profile of a good death god.
Taimi: neo-Dwayna. Because what else is left? And crystals and sparks and whatnot fit the air magic profile; maybe she doesn’t do healing (unless it plays a role in the LS regarding her medical issues), but that’s because it got kicked out of the trinity.
Of course, that doesn’t leave any LS character to be Kormir. Unless… oh dear gods… nevermind, forget I said anything, this was a terrible idea.
If this actually did happen, it would suggest that the dragons would be getting very hungry, very soon, and might start to go on the offensive.
Why would they use old gods?
Braham: God of Brooding and Emotional Issues.
Rox: Goddess of Sole Survivor Guilt.
Kasmeer/Marjory: Goddesses of Rule 34 art.
Tiami: Goddess of Adorable Precocious Urchin Prodigies
Canach: God of Misunderstood Motives
And of course Scarlet:.. the new Goddess of Godmodding.
(edited by Teofa Tsavo.9863)
Why does everything have to tie into GW1?
Yes it’s a big deal for players because it’s the bit of Tyria’s history we were actually involved in, but in-game it was just one of any number of eventful periods, 250 years ago.
Can you tell me what was going on in the real world in and around 1764 and how it ties into everything happening in the world today? Or even some things?
On and unrelated note I think they’ve put so much emphasis on recapping the story because not long ago players were complaining that they couldn’t remember much of the Living Story (or weren’t aware of it in the first place) and it seemed to be a jumbled mess of unrelated events rather than a single coherent plot. They may have over-compensated, I think one cut scene with a character re-capping everything we know so far would have been sufficient – but they had good reason for thinking we needed it explained.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
The final of season 1 LS better be another thing than ’’Lion’s Arch in flames!‘’ because this was really ’’patheticly’’ obvious…
@op, so this is your only problem so far?
3 more patches and we HOPEFULLY end this sorry excuse to push gem items, aka Living story. Gem items was not a leftover of LS. They create an item, then put some fast made up bs to justify why that thing even exist.
just let it go soon will be over… if you cant, play another game and come back in 2 months.
A Skritt is dumb. A group of Skritt are smart.
A Human is smart. A group of Humans are idiots.
Who is Scarlet?
I just realized I have to sit through Marjory, Rox and Kasmeer talking before I can continue on with the quest. Who cares when they met? The storyline has become click-through boxes for me and it saddens me. I had more interest in friggin’ Personal story and Trahearne, for crying out loud.
Why does everything have to tie into GW1?
Yes it’s a big deal for players because it’s the bit of Tyria’s history we were actually involved in, but in-game it was just one of any number of eventful periods, 250 years ago.
Can you tell me what was going on in the real world in and around 1764 and how it ties into everything happening in the world today? Or even some things?
On and unrelated note I think they’ve put so much emphasis on recapping the story because not long ago players were complaining that they couldn’t remember much of the Living Story (or weren’t aware of it in the first place) and it seemed to be a jumbled mess of unrelated events rather than a single coherent plot. They may have over-compensated, I think one cut scene with a character re-capping everything we know so far would have been sufficient – but they had good reason for thinking we needed it explained.
You do have a point. But Tyria as it is now is still a world influenced by magical, divine and omnipotent forces (be it lingering influences from the six gods, power from the Elder Dragons, or asuran magitech). Take the Priory for example. They study history of magical entities from long time ago and see how it can affect the present. And so does the Order of Whispers – history of sociopolitical entities in their case.
On your point of 1764 and 2014: in a similar case, people today still study holy scriptures and ancient religious literature and the prophecies that they theorize. But having that said, between 1764 and 2014 it was a period of rapid changes. There was not ONE but MANY eras. We had the Industrial Revolution. We had the Cold War Arms Race that changed technology. We had the Internet Revolution.
In the case of Guild Wars universe, it is more like 1764 and 1514ish. Or even an earlier period with fewer eras of changes. Between GW1 and GW2, there were major changes but they were similar kinds of changes. So it was mostly one era of changes, and it is documented in the in-game book ‘The Movement of the World’ (see Durmand Priory).
Okay but at the end of it all, it may not have to connect to GW1. But new lore cannot just come out of nowhere. The characters involved in the events must have certain motivations to ignite them. And we’re not seeing the significant clues to these motivations. Yes, there are the leylines. But what about them? I can’t do anything about them. You must have let me something to suspect. And build Living Story quests/journeys/instances towards that suspense. Let me try to prevent it with what I have. ONLY THEN when the plot twists, I will be OMG’d.
The worst part for me was that Scarlett was a “special consultant” for the Inquest which lead to the explosion of the reactor in Metrica Providence.
I am surprised actually that they didn’t make her the inventor of the steam creatures too.
The investigation was meant to serve as a way for newer players to catch up with the storyline. As for the whole big reveal, I have this feeling that it’s more of a red herring, but that’s just me.
That is the impression I have as well. I took a break after Flame and Frost prelude, came back right before the marionette and this episode did indeed give me a rough idea of what has happened so far.
They’re special! They got aspirations.”
Finn the human
Delaqua’s instance should not be used for new players to recap the story so far.
To propagate a story forward you cannot keep recapping. Right now it’s like every episode in a TV drama series is a recap of the previous episodes such that the story is mostly Episode 1. We have a wiki for that. That’s what I did when I missed out on GW1 lore since I never played GW1.
And we’ve had quite the number of people in forums scream how they shouldn’t need to scour through stuff outside the game to see how the plot progresses.
Besides this update was more for the WvWvW folks and is leading up to a bigger one, or at least in theory, so a final recap and focus on the next big target isn’t that bad.
Of course people invested in researching lore could strongly suspect everything occuring during “investigation” or consider it outright obvious.
The point of this instance was in my opinion to make kitten sure that even people who don’t follow closely to all the theories or bits of lore or simply just joined in on LS can catch up. Gotta remember that the game is not just for us lore maniacs who spent time lore sniffing since Prophecies.
Of course people invested in researching lore could strongly suspect everything occuring during “investigation” or consider it outright obvious.
The point of this instance was in my opinion to make kitten sure that even people who don’t follow closely to all the theories or bits of lore or simply just joined in on LS can catch up. Gotta remember that the game is not just for us lore maniacs who spent time lore sniffing since Prophecies.
And so it didn’t “come out of nowhere” as I’m sure there will be topics about anyway.
I don’t care who you are, you don’t try to defend some place by killing 10s of thousands of people. Generally speaking, that’s what the villain does.
Yeah I agree to a certain extent but it was really fine.
On another note, a fan work did a real good job here. Bit laggy but this is definitely how I’d like to see story told in game sometimes.
my theory is that Mai Trin was just a decoy for a replacement in the seat for the council i mean we found her out way to easily, i think its far more likely that scarlet has manipulated or is blackmailing Kiel, that way Kiel could convince the council that scarlet was no real threat and leave the doors wide open, we know that scarlet is very good at manipulating people and getting what she wants so whats to say that she didn’t manipulate kiel into running for council
Seems too obvious to attack LA. There is a definite motive, but i seriously think it’s not directed at LA. Pretty much think the plot twist is that she’s going to dig up the dragon and all the prep up to this point is so she can battle him. Awesome video BTW CharrGirl.
I’m still hoping for Ellen Kiel heel-turn. I mean, during the story instance Marjory was talking about how Scarlet wanted to plant her puppet in the council I was going, “Yes, and she succeeded!” but alas, my character in-game couldn’t say it to her.
Ill explain the reason.
One Majory wasnt introduced until around queens jubilee so she doesnt know anything about the events before dragon bash only that a council member was assassinated and only way to know about the dragon bash stuff was from Kiels reports which was probably hard to get in which only the order of whispers could whisk away and hand to the priory.Two while the players have an idea on what scarlet is up to you have to remember these are characters in the story they wouldnt be able to figure everything out or go on crazy elaborations and theories while a crazy madwomen hearing voices is running around killing and destroying crap for her little experiments since up until now everything she has seemed to be doing was just rallying alliances and an army while experimenting with new toys for her own sick pleasure.
Three the laylines were hinted but not mentioned except by a picture in scarlets lair on her projector and without the research the characters wouldnt have known. Also an anet dev gave us the story about scarlets past in the device that made her the way she is which was also not known until getting the said items to research.
Four the whole reason to figure out the plot was for the newer players to get caught up in the past events of the Living Story.
Five Cheetos are awesome.
Six more of Majorys backstory.
Seven the captains council is known to have an ego and known to stick their noses up at the bigger pictures and keep to themselves for greed sake. Even though both Evon and Ellen know about whats gonna happen neither can do anything because Evon isnt on the council and Ellen has to go by the laws and have the motion carried by vote which failed.
No, Marjory was called in during Dragonbash to find out who killed the counselor. Marjory came up with a device that “sought out” Mai Trin who was in the audience. She doesn’t need Ellen’s notes, she was there!
I don’t care who you are, you don’t try to defend some place by killing 10s of thousands of people. Generally speaking, that’s what the villain does.
Have you seen Watchmen?
I don’t care who you are, you don’t try to defend some place by killing 10s of thousands of people. Generally speaking, that’s what the villain does.
Have you seen Watchmen?
How about Star Wars . . . I submit there were thousands of people on the Death Star when it went up. While some of them were undoubtedly evil people, many were more than likely just doing their jobs or posts without actual malice in their hearts.
That’s not even touching what happened to the still-under-construction second Death Star. I mean, those work crews . . . whew.
How anyone doesn’t see the Rebel Alliance as anything other than murdering terrorists is beyond me
I don’t care who you are, you don’t try to defend some place by killing 10s of thousands of people. Generally speaking, that’s what the villain does.
Have you seen Watchmen?
How about Star Wars . . . I submit there were thousands of people on the Death Star when it went up. While some of them were undoubtedly evil people, many were more than likely just doing their jobs or posts without actual malice in their hearts.
That’s not even touching what happened to the still-under-construction second Death Star. I mean, those work crews . . . whew.
How anyone doesn’t see the Rebel Alliance as anything other than murdering terrorists is beyond me
Meanwhile the Federation in Star Trek lets whole planets die due to their precious Prime Directive.
I don’t care who you are, you don’t try to defend some place by killing 10s of thousands of people. Generally speaking, that’s what the villain does.
Have you seen Watchmen?
How about Star Wars . . . I submit there were thousands of people on the Death Star when it went up. While some of them were undoubtedly evil people, many were more than likely just doing their jobs or posts without actual malice in their hearts.
That’s not even touching what happened to the still-under-construction second Death Star. I mean, those work crews . . . whew.
How anyone doesn’t see the Rebel Alliance as anything other than murdering terrorists is beyond me
Meanwhile the Federation in Star Trek lets whole planets die due to their precious Prime Directive.
I know, right? Unless you’re on the Voyager, in which case you do it because . . . quantum.
The reveal, to me, wasn’t so much that Scarlet plans to attack Lion’s Arch. It’s why. There’s something under the city that’s she’s after. Something to do with the ley lines and dragon energy. Something she may very well awaken in the next few weeks.
Exactly what I got from the story this patch, and like others have said this one and part of the last patch has served as a way to catch up the ones who have not been following the whole story. This has defantly got me back into the Living Story I am excited to see where it is going.
on a side not I personally think that if it is an Elder Dragon, it might be the rumored sixth one, There is a lot of Jungle/plant themes going on. More so if you subscribe to the theory that the Sylvari are connected to the dragons some how.
I’m still not convinced, personally, it’s actually Lion’s Arch she’s after but the city’s Lionguard are in her way. And rather than try to just sneak her way through, or buy her way through . . . she’d rather just smash through.
By the by, I expect someone’s going to pay Canach’s bail and say “hey you, shrubbery, get to work defending Lion’s Arch to pay us back for your messes”.
I had more interest in friggin’ Personal story and Trahearne, for crying out loud.
IKR lol! Come back Traherne, all is forgiven!
You know what? If Traherne turned up and killed Scarlet at the end, that would actually be awesome. That would totally redeem his character for me and it would be in keeping with his glory-stealing persona!
(edited by transtemporal.2158)
The investigation was meant to serve as a way for newer players to catch up with the storyline. As for the whole big reveal, I have this feeling that it’s more of a red herring, but that’s just me.
I think it’s that and some awkward way to wedge Marjory (and the gang) into the story. The story treats the rest of Tyria like idiots so that the cast can take the spotlight. I was really disappointed to hear the Captain’s Council dismiss the information. The idiot ball (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall) is used in almost every update of the Living Story. The dredge and Flame Legion held it, the krait held it (I honestly don’t think the Nightmare Court were developed enough to hold it), the orders of Tyria are mostly absent from Tyria with token appearances and now the Captain’s Council are holding it.
I’m waiting for the Scarlet Briar cover version of “Wrecking Ball” where she rides on top of the marionette remains as it swings and destroys the asura gates in Lion’s Arch.
There are some really compelling plot points going on but the way that we get there is painful.
I had more interest in friggin’ Personal story and Trahearne, for crying out loud.
IKR lol! Come back Traherne, all is forgiven!
You know what? If Traherne turned up and killed Scarlet at the end, that would actually be awesome. That would totally redeem his character for me and it would be in keeping with his glory-stealing persona!
Ahaha, I’d love that. And I never had anything against Trahearne, he was just stuck with all the boring diplomacy and paperwork stuff while I got to slay things :P
I liked that we had story stuff. I liked the instances where we got to know more about Rox, Kasmeer and Co. Buuuuuut……… The Study in Scarlet… I wouldn’t have minded if they gave newer players some way to catch up on the side, not at all, but how they made it the main event, and such a huge deal out of such a simple conclusion felt a bit like an insult to the players and Marjory & Co (and to Sir A. C. Doyle). Now, I know that it’s a fun twist to add some Sherlock references to a deducing game, but then I want at least something surprising from it, especially when Anet placed so much faith in this one. I thought, they have gathered all the evidence, Marjory used all connections she had, we have an Asuran bigshot with insane IQ here, we’re gonna figure something out! I I tried during the whole instance to figure out the larger connections, what Scarlet’s motives are, what she saw etc., something larger along those lines. I mean, we even found her lair, maps, and diary! Instead I got “She’s going to attack LA”. I think most of us assumed that at the latest when the probe in LA turned green.
On a side note though, I love the art teams. They’re doing a great job 90% of the time. The clockwork creatures, the toxic alliance, it at least LOOKS awesome.
While it did seem a bit obvious, I really liked how they finally decided to have a followable storyline. Plus the Sherlock Holmes reference made me laugh.
Talking about Trahearne. It’s painfully obvious after the mention of “Air Superiority” and the fact we’ve seen Scarlet’s new air fortress that the first thing LA should do is to prepare anti-air defenses. Of course, the council isn’t going to do that, they don’t believe the threat is credible. Despite Scarlet’s hideout making it pretty hard to ignore that LA may well be her target.
Still, maybe the LA council is really daft or really doesn’t have the budget for this.
My first thought then was: well, my character is the commander of the Pact, and the Pact have a massive fleet of airships. Let’s go to Fort Trinity and see if Trahearne can spare the manpower.
Unfortunately, Trahearne did not have any new dialogue to spare. Such a wasted opportunity. :p
LOL i don’t even read the story or w/e i just spam click it all forward to get the cheevos