Guild Wars 2

Scarlet’s story line actually has a beautiful poetic justice thing going on with it. Since her birth the only thing she really wanted was to discover the world on her own accord and be free of everyone’s plan for her. That is actually a very brave thing to do especially as a Sylvari. Yet in the end that desire left her completely willed by the motivations of another. Terribly tragic.

Yet throughout the living story anet didn’t tap into this facet of her character at all. All along it seemed as if she was just doing things randomly when she actually had a depth to her character that could have pulled people in. You could have left hints along the way that she was conflicted by her actions and/or unhappy about what she has become. Maybe even made her character model look more and more corrupted as the story goes along.

Now I am no writer but I have paid attention to this story line in depth and sense the story is written for me the player character, I thought that It would be good to at least offer anet the opportunity to see what I think could have made her a better villain.

What do you guys think? Do you think anet should have explored this part of who Scarlet is more?

Her character was a one dimensional roll player’s fantasy.

Spiked. Dead. Do not ever come back you useless twig!

I’m glad it’s over.

Lol seems like most people are just kinda over the whole thing. I definitely can see why.

Got carried away with my response… kinda should be in its own thread.

I will say I agree wholeheartedly and leave it at that.

I sadly understand why she did what she did, since i’m the same. I completely understand Scarlet’s motivations and i would probably had done the same if i was in her spot.

Why? because life’s unfair. Not everyone can get everything, not everyone can be happy, not everyone got a free pass to 1st world needs (or in scarlet situation, a free will, something was in her mind)… and people like us totally deserve to get the same as everyone else, so we fight our way in. How? Nobody knows. That’s the truth, it would look easy from outside but it’s a complete different path for every person… and sometimes you are so desperate that you try to break the fabric of reality, habits, rules, promises… just trying to find that “something” that would releas you free.

Scarlet was a brilliant creation, just not the kind that would be appreciated by everyone, since most people will never feel utter despair. I’m sad about the fact that i can’t even describe in english (properly) what i want to say :\

I also feel the same way. Scarlet for a villain, all her motivations were seen as random and had no substance at all. And it was just attack at random and leave no reason as to why she was doing this. The main reason was: she was constantly in the shadows. Whenever she did show up, you never faced her, but her lackeys and minions. The only time you did face, was the only time where you never really did face her. Her potential as a villain was never really fleshed out. Her journal pretty much explained her thoughts. And even then it wasn’t really touched upon. Simply put players were fed up with a badly developed character and wanted it gone asap.

jweez.7214:

Yet throughout the living story anet didn’t tap into this facet of her character at all.

I honestly don’t even think this facet of her character even existed until the end.

I think the LW writing team had nothing for her personality. I mean, look at the short stories, then remember her words during Jubilee, Twilight Arbor, during Tower of Nightmares, and yes even the recordings in Origins of Madness/Edge of the Mists. Notice something?

In the short stories, she’s presented as this cold, calculating, evil genius that understands everything but doesn’t care about anything. In Jubilee and Twilight Assault, she’s a crazed “makes a joke and fun out of everything” and never messes up. In Tower of Nightmares, she’s presented as far more darker (via the hallucinations) and then back to her “makes a joke out of everything” attitude when we get to her. In Origins and Edge of the Mists – and yes, in Battle for Lion’s Arch too – she has suddenly become a tragic hero.

On top of this, in interviews a few things from the What Scarlet Saw short story got redacted, and it was the parts that was most hated by the playerbase (her going through all three colleges and her seeing Eternal Alchemy – got downgraded to going through special classes in all three colleges to show she can do full coursework but never doing said full coursework; and her going into a sensory deprivation tank and only thinking she saw the Eternal Alchemy). In Edge of the Mists, the latter got altered again.

Scarlet’s story really feels like it was hashed together. It feels as if the end product wasn’t even a glimmer in the writer’s mind when she was revealed. And even then, the earlier stuff feels like each writer had a different idea of what Scarlet was supposed to be – people bring up the possibility of schizophrenia between Ceara and Scarlet Briar, but I think this is just people trying to reason how messed up her character mentality is in the writing, that again it seems like the writers couldn’t decide which way to take Scarlet.

Scarlet in What Scarlet Saw? Completely different from Scarlet in Clockwork Chaos. Which is completely different from Scarlet in Tower of Nightmares, and in turn is completely different from Scarlet in the last four updates. The only consistency I see is between Clockwork Chaos and Twilight Assault – and the cinematic of Scarlet’s monologue during The Nightmare Incarnate which felt like an attempt to merge the Tower of Nightmares’ writing with the Twilight Assault writing – and in turn, an attempt to “fix” the players’ view on Scarlet.

And I would bet that if there wasn’t such negativity on Scarlet that she would have been kept around as long as possible.

I agree, they could have played Scarlet’s story as a tragedy at the very end. She could have become disgusted in what she finally became, but had little to no free will to change her fate. It does irk me that even the writers themselves on the forums expressed for us to “watch her demeanor change dynamically,” during the final 4 chapters of the living world storyline. She did not change overall, and pretty much stayed exactly as over the top as she was at the very beginning. Scarlet had no character depth and even with the epilogue approaching with accordance to her demise, I think we will never be privy to that information.

I actually feel now that Scarlet was meant to be the polar opposite of Trahearne was. Scarlet was born out of the hatred that was out there for Trahearne to see if the community would like the idea better. You can really compare and contrast these two characters, but they are still written verily poorly. While Trahearne was the exposition king, they made sure that Scarlet was the lunatic without reason. Angel Mccoy herself has expressed before her biased for the Sylvari race. However these two characters have not helped in creating any relate-able or enjoyable experience, for me to even consider the Sylvari race to be intriguing (beyond just their appearance). It just makes me think that the writers can use the Sylvari race for any ultimate Deus Ex Machina BS plot device tool; whenever they want to. Of course they believe it’s okay because we could careless.

She didn’t indicate that she was controlled or doing someone elses plan. She just mocked them that they’ll have to deal with the dragon now instead of her. For all we know she may of been aiming to control the dragon herself.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

jweez.7214:

Yet throughout the living story anet didn’t tap into this facet of her character at all.

I honestly don’t even think this facet of her character even existed until the end.

I think the LW writing team had nothing for her personality. I mean, look at the short stories, then remember her words during Jubilee, Twilight Arbor, during Tower of Nightmares, and yes even the recordings in Origins of Madness/Edge of the Mists. Notice something?

In the short stories, she’s presented as this cold, calculating, evil genius that understands everything but doesn’t care about anything. In Jubilee and Twilight Assault, she’s a crazed “makes a joke and fun out of everything” and never messes up. In Tower of Nightmares, she’s presented as far more darker (via the hallucinations) and then back to her “makes a joke out of everything” attitude when we get to her. In Origins and Edge of the Mists – and yes, in Battle for Lion’s Arch too – she has suddenly become a tragic hero.

On top of this, in interviews a few things from the What Scarlet Saw short story got redacted, and it was the parts that was most hated by the playerbase (her going through all three colleges and her seeing Eternal Alchemy – got downgraded to going through special classes in all three colleges to show she can do full coursework but never doing said full coursework; and her going into a sensory deprivation tank and only thinking she saw the Eternal Alchemy). In Edge of the Mists, the latter got altered again.

Scarlet’s story really feels like it was hashed together. It feels as if the end product wasn’t even a glimmer in the writer’s mind when she was revealed. And even then, the earlier stuff feels like each writer had a different idea of what Scarlet was supposed to be – people bring up the possibility of schizophrenia between Ceara and Scarlet Briar, but I think this is just people trying to reason how messed up her character mentality is in the writing, that again it seems like the writers couldn’t decide which way to take Scarlet.

Scarlet in What Scarlet Saw? Completely different from Scarlet in Clockwork Chaos. Which is completely different from Scarlet in Tower of Nightmares, and in turn is completely different from Scarlet in the last four updates. The only consistency I see is between Clockwork Chaos and Twilight Assault – and the cinematic of Scarlet’s monologue during The Nightmare Incarnate which felt like an attempt to merge the Tower of Nightmares’ writing with the Twilight Assault writing – and in turn, an attempt to “fix” the players’ view on Scarlet.

And I would bet that if there wasn’t such negativity on Scarlet that she would have been kept around as long as possible.

Deep down I feel that yeah they were just winging it. At the same time I really just hope that isn’t the case.

However with their confession that the LS was written in two days by two people locked in a room together I may just need to face the fact of the matter that yes indeed alot of what has happened wasn’t really planned. Just things they tacked on as they went.

I personally want her and most of the Living Story content rectonned. Its bad enough that she got a mary sue-like background story in day freaken one, and now she practically ruin most of the other content in the game with her existence (see Fractal and WvW).

I think the problem was that ANet wanted to build the story focused on our side, not Scarlet’s. Only they wanted a main villain, so the two ideas clashed, quite a lot.

I think the NPCs on our side were really well done, for that matter. Rox, Braham, Kasmeer and Marjory I like a lot (I only minded the overdone hand-holding scene in the Marionette story instance, because the cool part of them two was that their relationship wasn’t shoved into our face. In the ending now it makes sense that it is, kinda.). Taimi can be interesting, too little exposure so far.

The problem was that if they were supposed to be the focus, I wouldn’t try to also have a main villain. I did genuinely expect Scarlet to be the last member of Destiny’s Edge 2, simply because a main villain doesn’t fit a multi-hero story all that well in this context.

The best thing about scarlet was wanting her head on a pike on a day to day basis, now that she’s gone, we have nothing.

Now there’s a spike in her head, I guess I can settle for that.

Yeah, it is possible that the story might have been written well. It would have been a completely different story, however – there’s just too much wrong with this one that minor fixes would not suffice.
The best thing about Scarlet would be if we never got her story at all – so in that regard, the LS definitely ruined that possibility.

jweez.7214:

However with their confession that the LS was written in two days by two people locked in a room together I may just need to face the fact of the matter that yes indeed alot of what has happened wasn’t really planned. Just things they tacked on as they went.

Wait. Seriously? Do you have link to this confession?

Sindex.9520:

It does irk me that even the writers themselves on the forums expressed for us to “watch her demeanor change dynamically,” during the final 4 chapters of the living world storyline. She did not change overall, and pretty much stayed exactly as over the top as she was at the very beginning.

I actually really started to enjoy Scarlet more (than my base), after the Marionette patch. It was a point where we could clearly see what she had been and what happened to her (especially through her journal).

To me, her high pitch voice was her over the top demeanor without a care in the world. Her mature voice was more serious and in my opinion, almost like she hated her circumstances (whether it be the players, her general frustration, etc.) We’ll probably never know for sure, of course.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

jweez.7214:

However with their confession that the LS was written in two days by two people locked in a room together I may just need to face the fact of the matter that yes indeed alot of what has happened wasn’t really planned. Just things they tacked on as they went.

Wait. Seriously? Do you have link to this confession?

Hi Arden the link to it is below and it begins at about 4:45

jweez.7214:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

jweez.7214:

However with their confession that the LS was written in two days by two people locked in a room together I may just need to face the fact of the matter that yes indeed alot of what has happened wasn’t really planned. Just things they tacked on as they went.

Wait. Seriously? Do you have link to this confession?

Hi Arden the link to it is below and it begins at about 4:45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP8Qp_n1ufU

To be fair they may have meant they planned a general overview of each patch and not literally wrote the entirety of it. Nonetheless still seems rather short.