Guild Wars 2

Why is she so popular?

Because ANet gave no other option. It was just kinda here’s this by the way

she isn’t. she’s just the only “bossmob” out there since making us fight dragons seems to be too much of a bother to anet.

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

She is not.

I’d say she’s more unpopular than popular. To the fans.

It seems to be the opposite to the writers. They must have some “grand reveal” they think is so awesome to be worth all this tedious wait.

I’ll hold out hope, as ever, that they do have something that’ll improve Scarlet from a saturday morning cartoon villain to something better, but I’m not seeing it yet.

Maybe if they make it that Mordremoth twisted Scarlet and she doesn’t realize it. Or they stop tying everything to Scarlet or a repercussion to it.

zaced.7948:

she isn’t. she’s just the only “bossmob” out there since making us fight dragons seems to be too much of a bother to anet.

… You guys do know that she is most likely the character who will bring us those new dragons right?

I don’t think you guys should love the lore in the way it’s presented currently, but if you do have a moment and actually check things Anet does give us, it doesn’t need a rocket scientist to see where they are trying to go. Are they doing it right or wrong, that will be for everyone to themselves to decide, but the means are starting to look more obvious, if you just focus on studying what we do have, instead just dreaming about what we want.

1. Anet has made clear in interviews that there is no expansion. They might change their mind in the future, but that is current situation. Period. Instead they will bring all the new content trough the LS. And there will be dragons. They are constantly saying on interviews that they are trying to bring story together, but they are doing it by their own time, and so that it fit the storyline they have envisioned. They have stated that storylines going on are connected, and they release stuff according how it works to storyline they have in mind for current moment.

2. It’s a common theory, that the sylvari are actually connected to the plant dragon. According the lore they can’t be corrupted. Zhaitan’s minions seemed to have connection to each other trough Eyes of Zhaitan, while sylvari are connected to Pale tree. Also, only plant dragon we see so far in whole game has been in sylvari starting story, with-in the dream. Nightmare Court would, thus, easily be thought as plant-dragon minions. Even id sylvari aren’t minions of the Dragon, there is connection between them and the dragons most surely in form or another. As Tyria’s immune system, if nothing more. That’s ties Scarlet, per se, to the dragons. but if this Theory is true, it does raise a intresting point: during personal story, krait had that blue orb, remember? One you fetch with Apatia? Which drives undead away? Shiny blue orb… This is just speculation, but if we consider sylvaries to be dragon-minions-and-thus-don’t-get-corrupted, only thing we know to give immunity to dragon corruption is presence of another dragon. Since krait fled from water dragon, there is possibility, that the orb is from it, it would nicely tie krait indirectly to water dragon… Go and figure. Since Krait have been turned undead, their relationship wouldn’t be same to underwater dragon than sylvari have to plant dragon. Sylvari (or Pale Tree) would be more like Glint.

3. Scarlet short story in webpage states that Scarlet has been interested of learning stuff and coming more powerful. It also states that she studied dragon energy with inquest. In case you never truly followed the storyline in Sorrows Embrace and CoE, Kudu was studying dragon energies and how to se them in their own advantage. CoE is basically littered with every dragon minion possible (but the water dragon). End of CoE story, Kudu let’s himself corrupt (by Kralkatorrik, I believe, because the purple crystal stuff) for power.

4. During Ice and fire we had lots of fire going on, pointing toward Primordus. Also hints towards Jormag. during Tequatl, Tequatl who should now be weaker got stronger, after Scarlet messing up everywhere in past few events. Yes, after dragon energy studying sylvari doing freeky stuff all around. we also found shard and stuff around Claw of Jormag and Shatterer. They told us that they are getting stronger.

5. Scarlet goes and does stuff with nightmare court. and Now suddenly kraits, who hate everything else, are doing something with Nightmare Court all of the sudden, turning in to glowing things like most of our dragon minions, so far as we know, are.

Wrapping things up: Anet says that this all is connected.

Scarlet has studied dragon corruption, and as a sylvari, she is naturally immune to it. Dragons getting stronger and she jumping around the background all the time suggests she is somehow involved with it, so probably she has learned how to manipulate dragon energy, no matter what is people’s personal opinion about that. Inquest have already done some of that, so she basically just need to build on stuff she has learned, without risk of doing “Kudus”. This power is most likely thing that is affecting krait: they are attracted to power after all. and If there is connection between krait gods and Dragons, Scarlet who wields dragon energies would make more sense to affecting them. Those pictures of krait do look pretty corrupted by… something, plant dragon, water dragon, who knows: but it does stink like dragon corruption to me. It reminds me of orr, places influenced by icebrood or branded areas.

(to be continued)

(addition to last post)

So, we are definitely working with dragons here – at this point, I’d say more with their energy. Remember what happened to vizier who where playing with Lost scrolls which unleashed the wave of undead (which we so handily connect to Zhaitan, and thus dragon corruption, and their energy)? Well, Orr happened. It’s told in your personal story.

Scarlet is playing with dragons right now. it’s pretty obvious. We will get the dragons after they get foothold trough her, do we want it or not. Yes Scarlet != Dragons, but scarlet will lead us to dragons. That’s the Anet way. Or that is most logical assumption out of this.

There will be dragons. Just let the mad woman finish.

Tiirikka.7291:

double snip

I was an dreamer like you once. Then I took a Scarlet to the knee.

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

She isn’t. People do the content associated with her for one or more of the following reasons:

• Farm loot
• Farm levels
• Farm achievement points
• Farm exclusive items

A hand puppet would be just as popular in that regard.

zamalek.2154:

A hand puppet would be just as popular in that regard.

Fighting Mr. Hand and his minions would be amazing… And you know Mr. Slave would have to make an appearance

Tiirikka.7291:

snip

Sorry, but I rather have another way for the dragon to appear in the game than using that weed as an anchor for such.

zamalek.2154:

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

She isn’t. People do the content associated with her for one or more of the following reasons:

• Farm loot
• Farm levels
• Farm achievement points
• Farm exclusive items

A hand puppet would be just as popular in that regard.

That Sir it sums it all up what is pve about.

I really like Scarlet, but then I have always really liked Harley Quinn and they are very similar. I find her dialog to be entertaining and kind of funny.

jazzllanna.1278:

I really like Scarlet, but then I have always really liked Harley Quinn and they are very similar. I find her dialog to be entertaining and kind of funny.

I think that post does a disservice to Harley Quinn.

Aeolus.3615:

That Sir it sums it all up what pve has become all about.

Fixed for you.

Tiirikka.7291:

zaced.7948:

she isn’t. she’s just the only “bossmob” out there since making us fight dragons seems to be too much of a bother to anet.

… You guys do know that she is most likely the character who will bring us those new dragons right?

The Elder Dragons dont need “bringing about.”

Kralkatorrik has already awoken and caused that wonderful Brand through Ascalon.
Primordus has been awoken by the Asura and is responsible for driving them to the surface.
Jormag has killed at least one of the Norn’s Spirits of the Wild and is actively corrupting Norn and Kodan… and has driven both races southward.
“Bubbles” has also driven the Krait and Quaggan further out of the Endless ocean to the point they’ve taken up residence in lakes inland.
Zhaitan is the whole plot of the Personal Story.

All the Elder Dragons, with the exception of Zhaitan (if he IS really dead) are active in Tyria right NOW. We dont need Scarlet to make them a threat worth taking down.

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”

All I see on the forums is “Scarlet this. Scarlet that.”

Seems pretty popular to me.

Azure Prower.8701:

All I see on the forums is “Scarlet this. Scarlet that.”

Seems pretty popular to me.

“Popular: regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general”

nope, not popular at all. More like discussed with dislike.

i hope the krait sacrifice her to their god

Tiirikka.7291:

2. It’s a common theory, that the sylvari are actually connected to the plant dragon. According the lore they can’t be corrupted. Zhaitan’s minions seemed to have connection to each other trough Eyes of Zhaitan, while sylvari are connected to Pale tree. Also, only plant dragon we see so far in whole game has been in sylvari starting story, with-in the dream. Nightmare Court would, thus, easily be thought as plant-dragon minions. Even id sylvari aren’t minions of the Dragon, there is connection between them and the dragons most surely in form or another. As Tyria’s immune system, if nothing more. That’s ties Scarlet, per se, to the dragons. but if this Theory is true, it does raise a intresting point: during personal story, krait had that blue orb, remember? One you fetch with Apatia? Which drives undead away? Shiny blue orb… This is just speculation, but if we consider sylvaries to be dragon-minions-and-thus-don’t-get-corrupted, only thing we know to give immunity to dragon corruption is presence of another dragon. Since krait fled from water dragon, there is possibility, that the orb is from it, it would nicely tie krait indirectly to water dragon… Go and figure. Since Krait have been turned undead, their relationship wouldn’t be same to underwater dragon than sylvari have to plant dragon. Sylvari (or Pale Tree) would be more like Glint.

It doesn’t break your whole point here, but:

Being already affiliated with a dragon granting protection to draconic corruption is a theory that’s been well and truly debunked – Crucible of Eternity shows that a being can be infused with the energy from multiple dragons. Thus, the argument that the sylvari are dragon minions because they’re immune to draconic corruption is one that really should be dead.

Apart from the natural immunity of the sylvari, the only way we know of to gain immunity to corruption (and to cleanse it) is through the magic of the Forgotten. So if the sylvari immunity is the result of having been created by another force, that force would most likely have been the Forgotten.

Now, it’s possible that the Forgotten may have cleansed an existing dragon champion to do so, like they did with Glint, but it’s just as possible that they infused an existing species with the magic they use to protect their artifacts.

Azure Prower.8701:

All I see on the forums is “Scarlet this. Scarlet that.”

Seems pretty popular to me.

The Scarlet discussion I see is either “I hate Scarlet” or “What’s Scarlet’s story?” (As in, how the hell does she fit in to GW.) The “I actually like Scarlet” posts are a minority.

Aedelric.1287:

jazzllanna.1278:

I really like Scarlet, but then I have always really liked Harley Quinn and they are very similar. I find her dialog to be entertaining and kind of funny.

I think that post does a disservice to Harley Quinn.

You see, thats exactly the problem. You don’t just take someone else’s idea and call it yours. She’s pretty much the Joker transposed straight into GW minus any sort of character progression.

You certainly don;t take comic book villain and stuff it into a high fantasy MMO. It’s like making a sequel to the Lord of the Rings called The Fellowship of Batman or putting toothpaste as a filling on a sandwich.

She fits a common villain archetype. That there would be similarity to other villains should not be surprising.

It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.

DaShi.1368:

It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.

Then Anet should do a poll on the front page and give a message in game telling you about said poll and see if people actually like her.

Xae Isareth.1364:

DaShi.1368:

It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.

Then Anet should do a poll on the front page and give a message in game telling you about said poll and see if people actually like her.

I think that wouldn’t be honest to set that poll on this forum seeing how toxic and vile the forum is, from critics seem to bash the game, and/or scarlet.

People like Scarlet, and the haters have to deal.

Even the Devs, HARDLY take anything anyone says in the forums seriously, because of the trolls. They consider you a small percentage of vile community.

Seriously GW2 has the worst fan community, and forum community

i actually might have liked her if they fed us tidbits about her from several ls stories. they could have started back in the molten alliance. reason i hate her is mainly cause they sprung her on us and made her kind of a huge thing without building her up right

Soulstar.7812:

Xae Isareth.1364:

DaShi.1368:

It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.

Then Anet should do a poll on the front page and give a message in game telling you about said poll and see if people actually like her.

I think that wouldn’t be honest to set that poll on this forum seeing how toxic and vile the forum is, from critics seem to bash the game, and/or scarlet.

People like Scarlet, and the haters have to deal.

Even the Devs, HARDLY take anything anyone says in the forums seriously, because of the trolls. They consider you a small percentage of vile community.

Seriously GW2 has the worst fan community, and forum community

Then have it as an ingame vote, like Cutthroat Politics, except without the ability to acquire extra votes. Have some incentive to vote to minimise the “silent majority” effect (with the incentive being EXACTLY THE SAME for each choice, so people aren’t voting for the incentive associated with a particular choice like some people did for Cutthroat Politics), and that’d probably be the best metric you can get.

You can stick your head in the sand claiming that the feedback you’re getting is not representative of the population, but unless you take the metrics you can never tell. My experience from map conversations in LA is that people there don’t like Scarlet either, while I haven’t seen anyone saying anything good about her outside this forum that you say is so biased in weeks.. Your experience might be different, but as the witticism goes, data is not the plural of anecdote.

The way to judge popularity is to have 3 bosses in 3 identical instances. They all drop the same loot, have identical mechanics and you can only kill one, once a day. The bosses are:
1. Traherene
2. Scarlet
3. A new boss we’ve never heard of

:)

Thobek.1730:

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”

You know who else was a minority on the forums? Kiel supporters.

I wasn’t ready to dismiss scarlet after her first appearance, you guys could atleast wait to see what anet would do with her, instead of crying after she appeared the first time “So when is she going to be gone?” Do you also read the title of a book and then say you read the entire book?

@Shan: Interesting as that idea is, it’d be too easy to misinterpret. If one of the bosses is killed over the others, is that because they’re more or less popular? It also becomes a question of who’s willing to expend more effort (just as Cutthroat Politics was) – someone who decides that the boss fight just isn’t worth repeating is going to end up with a weaker “vote”.

@Rainbow: Valid point, although I don’t think Kiel supporters were actually a minority in the forum, it’s just that the Evon supporters were more vocal and that gave the impression they were also a majority.

On Scarlet… well, one can claim that the forums aren’t representative, but George Lucas could also say that the jar Jar Binks haters were a minority and not representative of everyone who enjoys the Star Wars franchise. Both cases might be right, but we’d need more metrics to say for sure which is true.

On the title page analogy, we’re actually several chapters in to the Scarlet story: even if we exclude the “responding to things Scarlet did” chapters like Secret of Southsun and Cutthroat Politics, we’ve got F&F, DB, QJ, What Scarlet Saw, and TA. The first couple of chapters were, as far as the story was concerned, quite well received – however, we’re now at least five chapters in, and a lot of people – whether that’s a true majority or a loud minority – would like to read something else for a bit.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that Scarlet can be redeemed as a character, but I think ArenaNet needs to give themselves and us a break while thinking carefully about just what they want out of her before proceeding. At the moment, it’s disjointed – the VillainSue criticism has come about because ArenaNet has made her BEST AT EVERYTHING (between What Scarlet Saw and what we’ve seen on-screen, she’s better at every race’s (magi)technology than their inventors as well as a godlike diplomat) – a characteristic of Mary Sue characters that usually arises because the writer doesn’t have a clear idea of what they should be good at and thus keeps adding more until the suspension of disbelief comes crashing down.

There’s also the disjoin that she acts like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, but we’re expected to take her seriously. She’d probably work better if they toned down the silliness (letting herself get walloped by her own cannonballs and attacking famed adventurers with an unwieldy club… are these the actions of someone we should take seriously?) or if they went whole hog and embraced the Saturday morning cartoony villain-ness – at the moment, she’s an awkward quantum superposition of both.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

Thobek.1730:

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”

You know who else was a minority on the forums? Kiel supporters.

I wasn’t ready to dismiss scarlet after her first appearance, you guys could atleast wait to see what anet would do with her, instead of crying after she appeared the first time “So when is she going to be gone?” Do you also read the title of a book and then say you read the entire book?

No, we read the first chapter. It was awful.
Then we read the second chapter. It was also awful.

Do they expect the user to keep torturing themselves?

Also, looking on the back if the box of the game, it says ‘The Elder Dragons have awoken’ not ‘Silly Sylvari brat did spontaneous stuff’. Im sorry if I’m being impatient, but it’s been an entite year already and I still do t see where the LS plot is connected to the dragons.

Drax, I was being semi serious. Regarding Scarlet. I’m kinda ambivalent about it. Like most people I just tend to look at the achievements as a to do checklist and get on with it.

It don’t want to, I want to be engaged in the story, want to feel like scarlet is a real threat and a priority way above that of the dragons but… I just don’t.

She’s like a whack a mole villain, one of those characters who emerges from nowhere and goes bwo-ha-ha before skulking away. I think it’s too late for scarlet now.

We need a proper build up, use the DE’s to set the scene before suddenly pouf’ing new stuff in the map. While I like that the new LS was dropped in before hand it could have been so much more.

E.g More DE’s with krait taking captives, stopping krait or whoever chopping down the woods. DE’s to help majory and Kassmeer investigate etc etc. Use the game engine to set the scenes, not external stories or suddenly appearing content.

Xae Isareth.1364:

DaShi.1368:

It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.

Then Anet should do a poll on the front page and give a message in game telling you about said poll and see if people actually like her.

there you go..
VOTE IF YOU LIKE SCARLET OR NOT: http://strawpoll.me/610036/r

^ it needs to go on the front page, by which I mean either in game or on the front long-in page, because otherwise there is potential for sample bias.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

Thobek.1730:

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”

You know who else was a minority on the forums? Kiel supporters.

I wasn’t ready to dismiss scarlet after her first appearance, you guys could atleast wait to see what anet would do with her, instead of crying after she appeared the first time “So when is she going to be gone?” Do you also read the title of a book and then say you read the entire book?

Where is Kiel now? good job voting her in. I still have my doubts she was legitimately voted in, I think its more like Anet skewed the numbers to avoid making the abbadon fractal.

Anyway as for waiting for Scarlet’s story to develop, its not about giving it time. The writers should develop the character over time, not give one massive reveal at the end. Just how we received a letter from Mr.E, or the quick-talking city dweller from the frost and flame patch… these small things develop the story and hint of something more. Although sadly. nothing more is said of Mr.E and we still don’t know if that quick-talking city dweller was in fact Scarlet.

Thobek.1730:

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

Thobek.1730:

Azure Prower.8701:

Why is she so popular?

she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”

You know who else was a minority on the forums? Kiel supporters.

I wasn’t ready to dismiss scarlet after her first appearance, you guys could atleast wait to see what anet would do with her, instead of crying after she appeared the first time “So when is she going to be gone?” Do you also read the title of a book and then say you read the entire book?

Where is Kiel now? good job voting her in. I still have my doubts she was legitimately voted in, I think its more like Anet skewed the numbers to avoid making the abbadon fractal.

Anyway as for waiting for Scarlet’s story to develop, its not about giving it time. The writers should develop the character over time, not give one massive reveal at the end. Just how we received a letter from Mr.E, or the quick-talking city dweller from the frost and flame patch… these small things develop the story and hint of something more. Although sadly. nothing more is said of Mr.E and we still don’t know if that quick-talking city dweller was in fact Scarlet.

Mr. E. = Mystery.