Guild Wars 2

Is by far my favorite NPC in GW2 thus far. I think this game is strongly lacking in story development, execution and mostly voice over during character and living story modes.

IMO the personality and voice over experienced through Scarlet has been my favorite so far and, again – my opnion, the most well-polished. I absolutely love her character; playful and malevolent… lots of personality and she doesn’t seem flat and bland.

Anyway, just wanted to give some praise to her development, as I’d like to see more with her level of character.

I’d also like to give general praise to all of the recent changes, developments and growth this game has seen with the last couple of patches. I feel like a lot of the horrible RNG is being made up for and these last couple of patches have felt like the balance of chance and acquisition has been strengthened and I just wanted to say thank you for that as well. I’ve had the most fun in a while during these last few weeks in this game.

Scarlet is pretty decent. I think she’s more annoying than anything though, not annoying in the good way that I want to know more about her, she is just plain annoying.

My favourite character must be Mad King Thorn. Granted, he’s from original Guild Wars as well, but his voice, riddles, lame jokes, his laugh, just made him so fun, and interesting. As seen in his name, he’s just mad, crazy, an evil being with decent lore going all the way back to original Guild Wars.

I’m with you OP. I like Scarlet a lot. I see how she could rub some people annoying like she does with @Farzo, but she cracks me up. The writing and development of her character is going well. She is not gone by any means and I can’t wait to see what they do with her next.

I find her hilarious and I hate her for what she had done.
I love this conflict. MOAR.

Also, amazing voice acting. Scarlet is the proof of the difference that the voice can make for a character. I am sure a lot of people would like Trahearne better if he had a voice that suits better a leader, for example.

Archaeos.3420:

and she doesn’t seem flat and bland.

If that is the case, then what is her motivation?
In fact, can you describe her personality to us?

I don’t think you’ll get much further than “brilliant, playful and crazy”.

I’ll give praise to the excellent voice talent of Tara Strong, she does a great job as usual. And this villain is pretty entertaining. But as far as villains go, so far she seems pretty flat and one-dimensional.

Gabby.3205:

I find her hilarious and I hate her for what she had done.
I love this conflict. MOAR.

Also, amazing voice acting. Scarlet is the proof of the difference that the voice can make for a character. I am sure a lot of people would like Trahearne better if he had a voice that suits better a leader, for example.

I don’t hate Scarlet. I think she’s a good character, just a little bit annoying. Her voice actor is good, but it’s her voice that annoys me ;P

Nothing beats the appearance of Mad King Thorn though! Nor his voice, I can’t say he’s a successful villain though.

Farzo.8410:

Gabby.3205:

I find her hilarious and I hate her for what she had done.
I love this conflict. MOAR.

Also, amazing voice acting. Scarlet is the proof of the difference that the voice can make for a character. I am sure a lot of people would like Trahearne better if he had a voice that suits better a leader, for example.

I don’t hate Scarlet. I think she’s a good character, just a little bit annoying. Her voice actor is good, but it’s her voice that annoys me ;P

Nothing beats the appearance of Mad King Thorn though! Nor his voice, I can’t say he’s a successful villain though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1oDdnMyVqs

Prince Oswald says, “DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”

When I realized that her ginger flower red hair meant that she’s a “ginger”, I laughed.

Is by far the GW character I hate the most & has almost irreparably ruined GW lore for me. It also made me understand that plot doesn’t make a character good. It’s their character/personality that makes a character good. Heck, we never even got Han Solo’s back ground & he still one of the greatest movie characters ever. He was great in the first 5 minutes on screen.

Scarlet is a supremely annoying childish craaaazy girl with the excruciatingly ridiculous OMG SO POWERFUL back story. Her personality isn’t fun, it’s annoying(the voice acting is great though). Tybalt was fun. Koss was fun. Scarlet is arrogant & “crazy” in a way that is an awful attempt to make her scary & commanding. But in reality it makes it impossible to swallow the idea that she could gather a force like that. This is what makes the “Oh but she saw the Eternal Alchemy” so frustrating. It’s an obviously jump-the-shark power boost to a character that only works on one level: being annoying. Good crazy/powerful character: River Tam. The craziness is real for her. it broke her. but you get little glimpses of her power & she can’t control it (cuz, acting like a sassy teenager isn’t crazy). she’s interesting, believable & you care about her character.

And even worse, it marginalizes much of past lore. They talked about how they wanted to introduce the Mursaat in an epic way. “do it right” well frick, Scarlet will just take em over or kill em. She knows everything. The Mursaat couldn’t hope to grasp all that, even Kormir may not know that much. But here comes the sassy, wacky, rebellious, crrrrraaaazy teenager; Scarlet! The Mursaat, master of magic could only amass a small army. but Scarlet, she’s really crazy, so she can get an infinite number of 3 armies! And she obviously knows how the dragons work! We can only hope for the LS update where Scarlet rides Kralkatoric into the zones! wooooo!!

Scarlet could work as a side kick. Someone that a real big bad “lets loose” on people to carve them up. But as a god-level intelligent master mind? Give me a break..

I can’t say I like this Scarlet very much…
And I prefer not to get attached to any character in the game…

My favorite characters were Sieran, Tybalt, and Forgal…

DarksunG.9537:

Is by far the GW character I hate the most & has almost irreparably ruined GW lore for me. It also made me understand that plot doesn’t make a character good. It’s their character/personality that makes a character good. Heck, we never even got Han Solo’s back ground & he still one of the greatest movie characters ever. He was great in the first 5 minutes on screen.

Scarlet is a supremely annoying childish craaaazy girl with the excruciatingly ridiculous OMG SO POWERFUL back story. Her personality isn’t fun, it’s annoying(the voice acting is great though). Tybalt was fun. Koss was fun. Scarlet is arrogant & “crazy” in a way that is an awful attempt to make her scary & commanding. But in reality it makes it impossible to swallow the idea that she could gather a force like that. This is what makes the “Oh but she saw the Eternal Alchemy” so frustrating. It’s an obviously jump-the-shark power boost to a character that only works on one level: being annoying. Good crazy/powerful character: River Tam. The craziness is real for her. it broke her. but you get little glimpses of her power & she can’t control it (cuz, acting like a sassy teenager isn’t crazy). she’s interesting, believable & you care about her character.

And even worse, it marginalizes much of past lore. They talked about how they wanted to introduce the Mursaat in an epic way. “do it right” well frick, Scarlet will just take em over or kill em. She knows everything. The Mursaat couldn’t hope to grasp all that, even Kormir may not know that much. But here comes the sassy, wacky, rebellious, crrrrraaaazy teenager; Scarlet! The Mursaat, master of magic could only amass a small army. but Scarlet, she’s really crazy, so she can get an infinite number of 3 armies! She obviously knows how the dragons work.

Scarlet could work as a side kick. Someone that a real big bad “lets loose” on people to carve them up. But as a god-level intelligent master mind? Give me a break..

To be honest, I think her character might could have worked if we just got some information about her now and then, but not everything at once.

Scarlet was this mysterious character you didn’t really know who it was, but she created this alliance since Flame & Frost.

But this patch, we got everything throwed at us at once. Meaning, they told us who Scarlet was, what she had done. She had done this, she have seen this, she’s this powerful, she is this, she is that, she’s done everything and she’s smarter than you, and nothing was really mysterious anymore, everything was just annoying about her, and her personality just made it even worse. The voice acting is great though.

If the information about her just came out a little bit slower, and more discrete, it could have worked out.

With the new Scarlet short story I am near willing to put money on the fact she is the reason for the Thaumanova Reactor meltdown. The Steam Ogre champ, her time with the Asuran colleges and Inquest. I would really be surprised if the Ellen Kiel Fractal went a different way.

I just read that story. First I though she was merely corrupted by nightmare. But now I think she may be going Deadpool on us…

Oh, gods… if that’s true…

What we’re missing in Scarlet is her motivation. Right now all we see is a motivation is to watch the world burn and consume herself in death orgies, but that doesn’t mean that is all the motivation she has. For those that are critical of Scarlet (I’m not), I would say be patient, she may have a lot more back story and motivation than the writers are letting on. Perhaps they are going to reveal her motivations slowly, over time. This has good possibilities…

Darth Vader as a villain was far more interesting once we realized his motivation was more than using the death star. Not that Scarlet is on the same level as senor Vader, rather, just pointing out that villains can become more interesting over time if their motivations are exposed slowly rather than all at once.

I know little of Scarlet beyond this event. I’m not invested enough in the story to research and read the lore because frankly I haven’t been able to bear sitting through any of the character progression stories. The voice overs and still shots are just so bland and sleep-inducing. My comment was in reference to the quality of production, more specifically to the voice acting of Tara Strong, as Mad Queen pointed out (ty).

I think the voice acting and cinematic production of this game is flat, and that her addition did a lot to liven that up. And also I’ll agree with Farzo – I completely forgot about The Mad King, as I had literally just started playing around Halloween of last year.

I would just like to see more dynamics put into delivering the story because I’m sure its amazing, however the telling of it thus far has yet to capture my attention save for a few highlights.

Fluffy Ferocious.9807:

What we’re missing in Scarlet is her motivation. Right now all we see is a motivation is to watch the world burn and consume herself in death orgies, but that doesn’t mean that is all the motivation she has.

Scarlet’s motivation is to break everybody free from destiny, to show that nothing is written in stone and that she can be more than a force against the dragons. She can be anything she wants to be. She can do anything and everything, not only be a dreamer or be lost in the nightmare. And why stop with herself, or the sylvari? Why not show all the world that we are not bound by destiny? Of course, that’s what her twisted mind thinks she is doing.
At least, that’s what I got from the short story.

This must be the 50th thread about Scarlet….

Gabby.3205:

Scarlet’s motivation is to break everybody free from destiny, to show that nothing is written in stone and that she can be more than a force against the dragons. She can be anything she wants to be. She can do anything and everything, not only be a dreamer or be lost in the nightmare. And why stop with herself, or the sylvari? Why not show all the world that we are not bound by destiny? Of course, that’s what her twisted mind thinks she is doing.
At least, that’s what I got from the short story.

& guess what? it doesn’t make her less annoying. or immature. or cartoon wacky.

All this “what’s her motivation” & “we need to know more” doesn’t make her character better. If someone is annoying, it doesn’t matter HOW they became annoying if they are still annoying. In fact, knowing that she actually DID see the Eternal Alchemy was the final nail on the “you must respect this awful character!” coffin. Watching it come out the cow doesn’t make it not a cow pie.

& about Darth Vader? umm.. after seeing 12&3, Vader dropped many pegs. You people put too much emphasis on plot & too little on character.

Characters become interesting because you understand their motivation. The Transformers movies had all kinds of plot and no character motivations, except to react to the plot. The reimagined Battlestar Galactica series was primarily an intersection of multiple character motivations with a single plot as a backdrop: run from the cylons.

In the case of Scarlet – we see her plot, but we don’t know all the why’s. I’m not saying the writing is great or terrible on her either way, rather, I’m holding out for more.

I also haven’t read the short story, so I might be missing some key information.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I can’t say I like this Scarlet very much…
And I prefer not to get attached to any character in the game…

My favorite characters were Sieran, Tybalt, and Forgal…

oh man, Tybalt & Forgal.. so simple, so fun…

Characters become interesting because you understand their motivation.

Their motivations may be interesting, but it doesn’t make a poor character good. It can make a good character better, but often makes bad ones WORSE when the motivations: don’t fit the character, don’t make sense with the rest of the world, have unrealistic or contrived origins or achievements, overshadow other characters rather than working with them or simply come out of left field regardless of how ‘logically’ they fit. The problem is you can cram anything into a story & have an explanation for it. It doesn’t make it good.

Like I said, Darth Vader suffered a massive loss of people collective good will when people understand his “motivation”.

The truth is, motivation isn’t necessary for an enjoyable character, even though it can help.. Their personality is. That’s why so many good characters have shadowy backgrounds. As for transformers, the Autobots HAD motivations (wanted the cube to heal their planet, an extremely believable, honorable & sympathetic motivation.). it didn’t make them great characters. Motivation is a small piece to a big puzzle.

ZilentNight.5089:

This must be the 50th thread about Scarlet….

lol. all I was trying to do was compliment the voice actress… /shrug.

Mad King Mad King Mad King!

So far I think she is terrible. There is a certain way you need to goofy characters that are to be feared. The Joker is an obvious a example, especially in the Dark Knight Movie. Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 is a another amazing example, hes pretty much the Japanese Joker though other then being a goof ball like the joker, he is his own character and pretty freaking evil too.

I find her to be a bit wacky and over the top like a cartoon villain. Her attitude, her over competence (she graduated from every Asura collage?) and the way she going around destroying kitten yet it just doesn’t feel all that devastating. Not that everything has to be serous but she just isn’t really “clicking” with me. Eh maybe she’ll grow on me later.

Weirdly I like Mad King Thorn and he’s pretty much just off his nut and evil. Somehow he manages to still be intimidating whereas Scarlet isn’t.

Demented Sheep.1642:

I find her to be a bit wacky and over the top like a cartoon viallin. Her attitude, her over competence (she graduated from every Asura collage?) and the way she going around destroying kitten yet it just doesn’t feel all that devastating. Not that everything has to be serous but she just sin’t really “clicking” with me.

Weirdly I like Mad King Thorn and he’s pretty much just off his nut and evil. Somehow he manages to still be intimidating whereas Scarlet isn’t.

Ya thats what I was trying to say there is just a certain art on how to do it. I am not sure myself but some work really well and others don’t. Scarlet missed the mark.

Archaeos.3420:

lots of personality and she doesn’t seem flat and bland.

Lol

MithranArkanere.8957:

I can’t say I like this Scarlet very much…
And I prefer not to get attached to any character in the game…

My favorite characters were Sieran, Tybalt, and Forgal…

No no, get attached to her. Please. Risen will eat her.

So far the only vibe I’m getting from Scarlet is “Muhahahaha, I am so crazy and evil! Dance puppets dance!”

I’m not seeing a flushed out character with depth and motivation. I could be wrong, I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her. But at the moment she carries all the hallmarks of a cartoon villain.

“And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you kids!”

I think she’s awesome, wouldn’t mind seeing more villains as zany and unhinged as her.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

So far the only vibe I’m getting from Scarlet is “Muhahahaha, I am so crazy and evil! Dance puppets dance!”

I’m not seeing a flushed out character with depth and motivation. I could be wrong, I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her. But at the moment she carries all the hallmarks of a cartoon villain.

“And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you kids!”

Did u read short story? Its so obvious, that she lose on purpose. Didnt u feel, that it was to easy? Even deadbrain newbie can finish her dungeon. Solo -_-.

She just wanted to make a scene. And she accomplished her goal. Now whole world is moving.

Sergoros.4398:

Did u read short story? Its so obvious, that she lose on purpose. Didnt u feel, that it was to easy? Even deadbrain newbie can finish her dungeon. Solo -_-.

She just wanted to make a scene. And she accomplished her goal. Now whole world is moving.

But for what reason? What are her motivations? And what is her personality? Can anyone describe her character?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sergoros.4398:

Did u read short story? Its so obvious, that she lose on purpose. Didnt u feel, that it was to easy? Even deadbrain newbie can finish her dungeon. Solo -_-.

She just wanted to make a scene. And she accomplished her goal. Now whole world is moving.

But for what reason? What are her motivations? And what is her personality? Can anyone describe her character?

1) Reason = strengthen the world against comming menace. Mayby even to pinpoint the individuals, that would play major role in defeating this menace.
2) Racial pride. She doesnt want sylvari to be puppets.
3) Stubborn, clever, open minded, independent. And sure proud.

Sergoros.4398:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sergoros.4398:

Did u read short story? Its so obvious, that she lose on purpose. Didnt u feel, that it was to easy? Even deadbrain newbie can finish her dungeon. Solo -_-.

She just wanted to make a scene. And she accomplished her goal. Now whole world is moving.

But for what reason? What are her motivations? And what is her personality? Can anyone describe her character?

1) Reason = strengthen the world against comming menace. Mayby even to pinpoint the individuals, that would play major role in defeating this menace.
2) Racial pride. She doesnt want sylvari to be puppets.
3) Stubborn, clever, open minded, independent. And sure proud.

1) What menace? The Elder Dragons? She’s on a mass-murdering spree, she’s as bad as they are. Nothing in any part of what we’ve seen of Scarlet strikes me as trying to save Tyria. The very, very opposite.

2) Who is making sylvari puppets? The short story was all about her rejecting the very core of what sylvari are and come from. If you mean the Pale Tree, I would say that going on a mass killing spree to make a statement about not wanting to do what the Pale Tree kindly asks of her spawn is a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think? Not to mention that she’s started her onslaught in DR. If her agenda was against the Pale Tree and the Nightmare, why is she not targeting them?

3) Stubborn, more like closed-mindedly pigheaded. Clever, more like unrealistically intelligent beyond belief. Open minded? Absolutely not. Independent, sure. And proud of what?

It sounds more than anything like you’re trying to make a mass murdering terrorist into a hero figure.

Tara Strong voices Scarlet.

Tara Strong also voice the following:
-Batgirl
-Juliet Starling from Lolipop Chainsaw
-Ben Ten
-Bubbles from PPGs
-Chowder
-Harley Quinn
-Raven from Teen Titans
-Rikku FFX
-Supergirl
-Timmy Turner
-Twilight Sparkle from MLP

Keep this in mind if one of your fav characters is the the listand if you are complaining about Scarlet’s voice.

Sieg.8439:

Sergoros.4398:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sergoros.4398:

Did u read short story? Its so obvious, that she lose on purpose. Didnt u feel, that it was to easy? Even deadbrain newbie can finish her dungeon. Solo -_-.

She just wanted to make a scene. And she accomplished her goal. Now whole world is moving.

But for what reason? What are her motivations? And what is her personality? Can anyone describe her character?

1) Reason = strengthen the world against comming menace. Mayby even to pinpoint the individuals, that would play major role in defeating this menace.
2) Racial pride. She doesnt want sylvari to be puppets.
3) Stubborn, clever, open minded, independent. And sure proud.

1) What menace? The Elder Dragons? She’s on a mass-murdering spree, she’s as bad as they are. Nothing in any part of what we’ve seen of Scarlet strikes me as trying to save Tyria. The very, very opposite.

2) Who is making sylvari puppets? The short story was all about her rejecting the very core of what sylvari are and come from. If you mean the Pale Tree, I would say that going on a mass killing spree to make a statement about not wanting to do what the Pale Tree kindly asks of her spawn is a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think? Not to mention that she’s started her onslaught in DR. If her agenda was against the Pale Tree and the Nightmare, why is she not targeting them?

3) Stubborn, more like closed-mindedly pigheaded. Clever, more like unrealistically intelligent beyond belief. Open minded? Absolutely not. Independent, sure. And proud of what?

It sounds more than anything like you’re trying to make a mass murdering terrorist into a hero figure.

No one knows. She just mentioned 2 forces, that pushes us in 2 directions. I feel its smth like good gods and evil dragons. Or smth above that. And she decided, that she wants this forces to clash. (antikitten) Its already a common theory, that sylvari are broken dragon minions. What if some force (gods, for example), while dragon was sleeping, changed the nature of part of his minions, and used human soldier to pick em up and raise?

And now we have 2 forces. Gods, that pushes sylvari to be “good”(pale tree sylvari) and awakening dragon, that pushes em to be “evil” (nightmare court sylvari).

And now. Here comes my theory:

Sergoros.4398:

So. Now we know, that she has a reason to do what she was doing.

Overall. What did she achive? She showed norn, charr, humans and asura that they all vulnerable. Norn and char – flame and frost. Humans – today event. Asura – by her techno achivements and threat of what inquest may accomplish with right alliance.

She didnt hurt any race to much, just provoked them. So what would be result? All 5 races would grow stronger and would eventually unite together against common enemy. (Sylvari allways wanted this, so she even works in favor of pale tree). Yes. Its already happened with pact, but there still was some elements against pact. So well…there would be even less enemys of such. Also, she brought to light the problems, that every race has to face. Fire legion, Dredge, Inquest and pirates. United them and made them a serious enough threat. Now they have to be dealt with.

What it looks like? Like she is preparing the tyria for a great stand against some big attack.

And no. I dont think, that she is a hero type. She is more like mad manipulator type “the end justifies the means”.

Soulstar.7812:

Tara Strong voices Scarlet.

Tara Strong also voice the following:
-Batgirl
-Juliet Starling from Lolipop Chainsaw
-Ben Ten
-Bubbles from PPGs
-Chowder
-Harley Quinn
-Raven from Teen Titans
-Rikku FFX
-Supergirl
-Timmy Turner
-Twilight Sparkle from MLP

Keep this in mind if one of your fav characters is the the listand if you are complaining about Scarlet’s voice.

I’ve not seen anything but compliments in this thread about the voice actor. But the character itself is meh.

I’ll enjoy any character that actually gets fleshed out and we see some sort of resolution to their story. Scarlet certainly has potential. Rox and Braham might, too, although GW2’s heroic NPC characters have a tendency to fade into the background and be lackluster and/or irritating. Tybalt was a notable exception.

Unfortunately, so far, the living story has just barely gotten started, so all we’re seeing is set-up for (we hope) bigger and better things in the future. Once most of the living story characters are established, I’m hoping for much more impactful, suspenseful, and less predictable storylines.

“Have you seen my Aetherblades? They work for me of course. Because they like living.”

Clearly they DON’T like living because about 19,000 of them have thrown themselves to their death against my steel this week.

I don’t buy for one second that Scarlet is scarier than the adventurer-zergs ravaging her minions…

Soulstar.7812:

Tara Strong voices Scarlet.

Keep this in mind if one of your fav characters is the the listand if you are complaining about Scarlet’s voice.

I have one complaint about the voice – a good choice in casting in no way excuses a steaming pile of craptastic writing.

I like her a lot. She has become my favorite character in GW2. I want to work for her XD