Guild Wars 2

I’m really curious about her motives though. Assuming she isn’t evil for the sake of being evil.

I’m glad that someone likes her… to me she is almost unbearably annoying. Every time I hear “Later tater” I want to punch my monitor. I, like a lot of people, expected some kind of twist or something.. a giant event or reveal to explain the secrecy, but no, she was just some annoying new character.. lots of suspense building up to the reveal and it was just extremely anti-climatic..

Weindrasi.3805:

I just wanted to say that I was irritated when I saw how much people on here were slamming Scarlet. I think she is marvelous. The critical people just need to sit back and enjoy. The Queen’s Speech instance had me laughing out loud, marveling at the creativity of Scarlet’s minions, and just generally enjoying myself. It was a pleasure to play. So far, the Living Story villains as a whole—from the Flame & Frost bosses, to the Aetherblades, and so-on, have been great fun.

You probably haven’t seen alot of fantasy stories because most people complaining have legitimate complaints and have seen this cliche character archetype so much it’s annoying to say the least. Heck there’s even a trope bout it it’s used that much.

Weindrasi.3805:

I just wanted to say that I was irritated when I saw how much people on here were slamming Scarlet. I think she is marvelous. The critical people just need to sit back and enjoy. The Queen’s Speech instance had me laughing out loud, marveling at the creativity of Scarlet’s minions, and just generally enjoying myself. It was a pleasure to play. So far, the Living Story villains as a whole—from the Flame & Frost bosses, to the Aetherblades, and so-on, have been great fun.

I’m happy that you’re capable of enjoying yourself on such a base level. Sadly, after absorbing a large amount of literature , comic book/scooby doo villians with paper thin motivations and see through agendas no longer “do it” for me.

I enjoy Scarlet’s show too. She seems like a villian I’ll enjoy to fight, and a tons more fun than anyone else so far

Pavees.7281:

Weindrasi.3805:

I just wanted to say that I was irritated when I saw how much people on here were slamming Scarlet. I think she is marvelous. The critical people just need to sit back and enjoy. The Queen’s Speech instance had me laughing out loud, marveling at the creativity of Scarlet’s minions, and just generally enjoying myself. It was a pleasure to play. So far, the Living Story villains as a whole—from the Flame & Frost bosses, to the Aetherblades, and so-on, have been great fun.

You probably haven’t seen alot of fantasy stories because most people complaining have legitimate complaints and have seen this cliche character archetype so much it’s annoying to say the least. Heck there’s even a trope bout it it’s used that much.

You realize of course everything has a trope at this point yes? NOTHING is 100% original anymore simply because it’s no longer realistically possible. That does not instantly make something bad however.

Celestina.2894:

Pavees.7281:

Weindrasi.3805:

I just wanted to say that I was irritated when I saw how much people on here were slamming Scarlet. I think she is marvelous. The critical people just need to sit back and enjoy. The Queen’s Speech instance had me laughing out loud, marveling at the creativity of Scarlet’s minions, and just generally enjoying myself. It was a pleasure to play. So far, the Living Story villains as a whole—from the Flame & Frost bosses, to the Aetherblades, and so-on, have been great fun.

You probably haven’t seen alot of fantasy stories because most people complaining have legitimate complaints and have seen this cliche character archetype so much it’s annoying to say the least. Heck there’s even a trope bout it it’s used that much.

You realize of course everything has a trope at this point yes? NOTHING is 100% original anymore simply because it’s no longer realistically possible. That does not instantly make something bad however.

When did i reference bout being original. I just said people are tired of this particular thing. Here borrow my glasses you seemed to have missed the point entirely.

this is not a complaining post, but instead, a “i love you post”

Scarlet Briar, BY FAR, is not only the most awesome, amazing, and most devious character, but her voice acting……-takes a moment to soak in the voice acting again- holy kitten, i love her voice acting sooooooooo much…..its….just amazing. Thank you for putting this villan in, and giving her this type of script…..i love it!

I don’t know.. she and the robots remind me of Ratchet & Clank.

my problem with Scarlet is that i still have no idea who the heck she is and why i should give one flying kitten about her. the content so far is a lot of fun, but the storytelling lacks. at the end of the Queen’s Speech event Anise announces (after doing nothing throughout the entire battle i might add) that she had information on a threat to the Queen, but she doesn’t give any of the details of how she acquired that information, why she took it seriously, etc. a number of NPCs seem to know more about Scarlet than what is being shared with players.

i am very hopefully this event will provide further information on who Scarlet is and why we should care, but for now i am still super confused by this living story and have no idea how any of it ties together. in some ways, being confused can be fun, but i was hoping for a big reveal at the Queen’s Speech and that never happened. that said, my first battle in the field was a heck of a lot of fun and helps make up for my current state of confusion!

I think she’s a marvelous villain and quite successful.

Hello everyone.
We have merged these threads to ensure clarity. Thank you for your understanding.

I am actually not very impressed by her. She reminds me somehow of the lovechild of the joker, harley and poison ivy.
Your typical maniac villain who comes “out of nowhere”.
For now she is just hell bend on destruction without giving any reason. sure she might have one, but at now it is too late.
If nothing really suprising happens it is just your typical wanna-be-chaos-villain-78682.

Also, making her a super-genius, “above” asura level…

I really had to laugh as i saw her first. she looked so stupid with her antennas. she should have kept her hood. it actually pains me though. her artwork i great (see my second sentence), but ingame…

overall.. it is kinda underwhelming

I vote for scarlet killing Trahearne and Logain, so i never have to watch any cutscenes with them.

It may have been a bit more enjoyable if it weren’t for the rediculous ‘passed all 3 Asura colleges in record time’ while also being Sylvari.

That’s just lame.

The voice acting is amazing here, Scarlet is just great!

so, can we have a scarlet fan club? id totally join so fast, also, one of her lines

“go on, beg for mercy!” any day for you scarlet, any day

whops sorry delete

Scarlet is a cartoon villain copycatted (and unsuccessfully) off of Joker. An annoying Villain Sue.

The writing of this Living Story has reached an all time low with her and her “invasion.”

Really now… this supposed ultra-genius clown and her mecha-army just came out of nowhere and are already invading all of Tyria. Great build-up, ANet!

she didnt come out of no where :/ she was there at the beginning of the crown pavillion, sure she appeared and said yo wut up, im gonna steal this tech from yall and be like, all invade yo kitten , but still, who cares, its harley quinn

I absolutely love Scarlet, her whimsical attitude, her voice acting, her look, she’s just awesome! I’d quite like to learn more about her story, and I admit she’s a bit sue-ish, but for the sake of such an awesome character, I’ll happily overlook it ^^

And no, I’m not some simpleton who’s never experienced any other fantasy world like some people are unfairly assuming, I’ve played tonnes of fantasy games and watched a good amount of fantasy-movies; I love reading about lore from different universes and everything, and I still really like Scarlet’s character!

Huh, I didn’t think being a comic book geek was a requisite for being a good critic on characterization and plotline. Intuition sorta had me going the other way … I’m not sure she ‘came out of nowhere’. Yeah, she did to us, but how much foreshadowing do you need to make a good villain? Not much, thank you very much, Norman Bates. Slap me around, I guess, but it’s a little early to be so dismissive. This isn’t the comics, after all – there’s undoubtedly more to play out. As for a careful analysis of her character, how many different types of villains are there, out there? There’s the Evil Scientist who is bent on just taking over, there’s the Out for Revenge who’s got it out for someone, and then there’s the Evil for the Sake of Being Evil who has no real agenda but to, well, just be evil. The limited ‘air time’ we’ve got of Scarlett isn’t enough to clasify her as cliche, right? Or am I missing something?

I’m disappointed in Scarlet because of a the speculation and hype. Some of the fan ideas were better than Anets and thus I feel like I got my hopes up to bd let down.

My own fault really.

Yeah, she’s annoying.. Certainly not menacing or cool. Getting sick of the “whimsical , laughy cutesy female”. IT works as a side character, but it’s just head-scratching when she’s supposed to be the big bad. And the “She’s a genius!” is laughably dumb.

Should have just been an Alternate Shodd. He’s got a less annoying personality & doesn’t look .. well.. like her.

Scribbles.3974:

she didnt come out of no where :/ she was there at the beginning of the crown pavillion, sure she appeared and said yo wut up, im gonna steal this tech from yall and be like, all invade yo kitten , but still, who cares, its harley quinn

Actually, as is now verified, she was around before with the Molten Alliance. Probably the one who talked them into working together, or one of her agents. She was named during the last deal with the aetherblade captain, Mai Trin, though she quickly shut up about it later.

Given her use of strange portals? It’s highly likely we didn’t hear about her for a similar reason to not hearing about the Grand High Sovereign. She didn’t exist here until she showed up.

Brutal Arts.6307:

I’m happy that you’re capable of enjoying yourself on such a base level. Sadly, after absorbing a large amount of literature , comic book/scooby doo villians with paper thin motivations and see through agendas no longer “do it” for me.

Pavees.7281:

You probably haven’t seen alot of fantasy stories because most people complaining have legitimate complaints and have seen this cliche character archetype so much it’s annoying to say the least. Heck there’s even a trope bout it it’s used that much.

Just because you require all your villains to be deep, conflicted, complicated beings doesn’t mean my enjoyment of a more simplistic villain is “base” or mentally inferior. Furthermore, I read constantly, and I have seen villains of all sorts and kinds from the “Team Rocket” and “Scooby Doo” style, to midrange “Voldemort” types, to multi-layered ones like Captain Kennit from Robin Hobb’s trilogy. And I enjoy ALL of them, because they all offer their own brand of uniqueness and fun.

Lastly, we barely know anything about Scarlet or her motivations. We don’t know if she’s cliché, because we know virtually nothing about her past, her character, her inner thoughts and conflicts, or her ultimate goals. We do, however, know that she influenced the Molten Alliance, and has dealings with the baddies in the other past living stories, and in my mind that is quite a compelling and interesting thing to follow.

…As for her just “appearing out of nowhere”, she didn’t. She’s been working behind the scenes since the Molten Alliance, as I mentioned above.

She is interesting, yes. But I think she is working for someone that is more… serious. And the fact that she is sylvari makes me think about Faolain.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I’m really curious about her motives though. Assuming she isn’t evil for the sake of being evil.

^ SO MUCH THIS!!

just dropping a villain in the world and saying she is linked to steam creatures, the molten alliance just isn’t enough. We need motives to develop the villain which is obviously something from her past. At the moment we have nothing but a figure.

questions need to be answered. They don’t all have to be answered at once but hints would be nice. Then a twist, then a reveal.. then hopefully a twist again once we think we have it all worked out to rock our world.

I think we should actually lose this part of the story and scarlet takes over a portion of the map. Then we have to take it back next month. I’d like to think that scarlet is that powerful we get the horrible feeling all is lost, then we hide in secret locations and plan a counter attack… I don’t know, something big anyway.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I’m really curious about her motives though. Assuming she isn’t evil for the sake of being evil.

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Her invasion felt kinda abrupt, but I’m not quite ready to call yet a villain sue yet. We don’t know anything about her.

For all we know, Scarlet isn’t the real nemesis.

It DOES seem improbable and shoe-horned though. You’re telling me she was a prodigy who graduated all Asuran colleges, trained by the charr legions, and so on and so on? And ye we NEVER heard of her before? Honestly, they should have left that bit out.

I just LOVE her evil character.

To bad Queen Jenna didn’t die ***cought***
and Logan, and Ellen …

I actually like Scarlet quite alot. She’s does seem to tie back in all the way back from the steam creates, who use the same portal technique. I’m very curious to discover what made her so powerful to get a whole race of steam creatures going, and now watchworks.

Sure her mannerisms are quite like Harley Quinn or those other cartoon villains, but that is actually quite fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually is a dragon minion in the end, or some such. Claiming that she saw the eternal alchemy sounds more like she saw a dragon.

I know that might be pressing too much into it perhaps, but most people here claiming shallow and stupid writing don’t really seem to know who Scarlet is at all.

I don’t know but a good character is build up over time. This is the first time we saw her, I want to know if she changes at all over the course of the living stories. Because that’s way more interesting.

First impressions sure might be important, but I’m not particularly set back because she might seem like a character-type that is used before.

Scarlet is less subtle a villain than a brick to the face named “villain”.

I actually really enjoyed the cutscene c: She seems like quite an interesting character that I’d love to see develop in more ways. I particularly loved some of her lines where she was scoffing about the pale tree not approving and such c: I think this is probably one of my favourite cutscenes to date I can’t wait to hear more about her motives and such c:

The only thing I’ve not been so keen on with her, lore wise, is that if she’s so high an mighty, in terms of graduating from all of the Asuran Colleges and other racial education facilities too, why have we never heard her mentioned before? (other than Mai Trin in the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon)

Of course, I understand that with a tight schedule and such, it’d be hard to implement something like this. But even a couple of NPC ambient city chatter audio clips, just mentioning it and snuck into game in the middle of the month, would do amazing things for piecing together the lore c:

Something like (NPC Chatter) “Hey, you know that Sylvari that graduated from the college of statics last month?”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“I wonder what happened to her, what she’s doing now? …It’s not often that the colleges let…y’know, bookah’s into their ranks”

…..I know this is a terrible example, I’m no writer xD but just something like that would be really cool c: Even if it was just a couple of them dotted around.

Chances are, at least a few people would hear it, and with some of the people invested in and helping spread the lore, in the Guild Wars 2 community (Wooden Potatoes anyone?) I’m sure the word would get out quickly, when it was found c:
and even if it was a case of you worrying about whether it’s worth it, if it’s not guaranteed to be noticed, why not put something in the patch notes for the Release 2 weeks prior to introducing a big character/event implying NPC’s are talking/rumours are spreading, so people interested will actively go seek them out c:

I really love the Guild Wars 2 lore and I’ve really been enjoying the living story a lot too. But I feel, in order to make it believable and seem..well…like a ‘Living Story’ the characters need to be built up a bit more, before shoving them into the story with…….“this character is evil, help stop them” kinda thing.

Just a few suggestions, I think would be good c: I get that you guys are on a tight schedule and I’ve seen so much improvement in the last few living stories, keep up the amazing work Keeping GW2 in one of the MMO topspots

how can you not love the sweet succulent mass murdering borderline insane cutness like, for real shes so cute

People go easy on Scarlet. She’s just fresh out graduated from 3 colleges with her PhD thesis: Evil Masterplan to destroy Tyria and achieve world domination.

I think she spent a lot of time studying for straight A+s with no break, parties and certainly not enough work experience in real life (Proof: tricked by a mesmer clone and exhibiting some mental breakdown syndromes).

Well, my bigger problem with her is, that she makes no sense (which might be intentional or just for stupid gameplay reasons):
we know what of her?
- She is a super genius
- she was behind everything
- she scares others
- she wants to teach us something
- she is kinda crazy
- she can do portals
- she is a silvary

overall… nothing. We have no idea of her motivation, which appearently isnt even revealed in the funhouse (if i am not mistaken).
However what makes no sense to me is this: Why is she all over the world?

This was supposed to be a singular attack and now she attacks all over the place? why? if she wanted to make an example out of the humans/kryta, why does she jump around everywhere with her mix and match army of former enemies?

Why is the molten alliance there, even though they had a big setback thanks to her, loosing a lot of her work (sure, she could talk them in again, with her "poer, but then they are still diggin in)

The whole invasion just feels like: oh we need to give the whole playerbase something to do. Which feels forced, deludes from the character itself, who appearently only shows up to get on your nerves and then vanishes (what is she doing there) (oh the invasion looks underhwelming, too. just some random spawns. no dark sky, some cool portal effects.. nothing. the portals there are barely visible)

She should have just conenctrated on kryta or DR and wreck chaos there. Right now she feels annoyingly unfocused and just villian-101 like with: take over the world for chaos sake)

(oh and the watchknights? That was their only reason to be created? How forced can it be… just to be twisted into her marionette monsters… really?)

There is a saying in moosh kama kama land…

Fifteen and five is twelve.

Solve that riddle and you will know why she is all over the world.

I love the Scarlet intro and everything about her so far except one thing: She dies in .5 seconds lol. Give her some armor and hp already! But other than that, hats off to the Anet team. you guys really did a good job on this patch thus far. Keep it up!

I hope it ends anticlimactic with a McGuffin showing up and just kills scarlet. worst villain ever with a whole squad of better villains at her command somehow. take criticism for once don’t just say im glad some people like so and so. Its a game yet you act like any negative criticism is terrible. maybe being humble for once would be nice.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I’m really curious about her motives though. Assuming she isn’t evil for the sake of being evil.

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Ugh, you aren’t SERIOUSLY comparing her character to the Joker? that’s like comparing a Risen to Galactus.

Yes Scarlet is awesome , she being a Sylvari is the icing on the cake

offence.4726:

Yes Scarlet is awesome , she being a Sylvari is the icing on the cake

That’s not ICING!!!!!

DarksunG.9537:

Yamsandjams.3267:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I’m really curious about her motives though. Assuming she isn’t evil for the sake of being evil.

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Ugh, you aren’t SERIOUSLY comparing her character to the Joker? that’s like comparing a Risen to Galactus.

But they both go “I HUNGER!” so they must be similar, right?

Right?

. . . eh?

I’m almost certain Scarlet is based on Helena Bonham Carter. The comparison is uncanny!

Being told “hey, she’s a star graduate of ALL THREE Asuran Colleges!” is not really the way to make me take the character seriously in any way, shape or form.

It’s a bit like saying “Oh, Toshimoko’s got a skill of 7… in a game where the max is 5.”

i might have missed something.. where did Scarlet come from and why is she doing what she’s doing? or we’ve yet to find out?

i will say when she first came on screen, i wanted to burn it with fire. and that is a good thing. i think.

Thalador.4218:

The writing of this Living Story has reached an all time low with her and her “invasion.”

Exactly. All the seasoned writers of GW2 seem to have left after release. sigh