Guild Wars 2

I’d say Canach is a better villain, mainly because he has a decent motive rather than just plain evil. Canach actually has a sense of morality and justification, so that gives him surprisingly more depth than any other GW2 villain so far.

What I would like to see is Canach trying to take on the Elder Dragons as well, but opposing the Pact because their growing numbers made them a rogue state dangerous to political stability in Tyria.

Nilkemia.8507:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Shiren.9532:

Zhaitan killed Tybalt Leftpaw. Checkmate.

The problem was Zhaitan never gloated over it. He never mocked our characters after doing it. From what we’ve seen Zhaitan didn’t even know that he killed an NPC important to our characters anymore than a hurricane would know it knocked down a house.

A good, memorable villain makes you want to hate them. The Elder Dragons are so empty of personality and motivation (from what we are shown in the game) that there’s nothing for us to hang any feeling of vengeance. You might get angry at a flood, but you can’t hate it anymore than you might hate a rock if it fell on top of Tybalt and killed him.

To be fair, somewhere I’ve read that in a certain spot somewhere after Claw Island, you can encounter some Risen saying “We’ll send you to shake hands with Tybalt!” or something similar. Same thing happens with Seiran as well in Bloodtide Coast, where a Risen Commander says “We’ll plant you in the ground next to Seiran!”

Also, the Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan will mention your mentor’s death, and that they are now Risen. (Although, it was probably lying.)

There’s also one for Vigil members in the upper Ascalon area near the Searing Cauldron itself that gave my Exotic geared necro a run for her money…

…Tho I wouldn’t say these are some kind closure or that the Risen who spawn are suppose to be your “reanimated” mentors. They’re more like taunting reminders that Zhaitan is always watching you (until you kill him)

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

Soulstar.7812:

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

this +1

My biggest issue with her is that she’s sylvari and look fruity. I get that they’re still trying to sell us on the new race but enough is enough. A deranged giant norn who acts like a five year old would have been funnier.

Soulstar.7812:

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

Her base motive that started all this? I never personally said anything about her motive, but you’re addressing all of us, so.. I know what it is, and you should, too, if you’re fond of her. Your comment leads me to believe you don’t? It’s stated right in the short story.. and should have been in the game, but whatever.

It’s just an awful motive in this context and is a bit paradoxical. She’s raging against something which absolutely cannot be escaped.

Which has considerable potential, but the writers seem unaware of using it in a way which actually would be interesting. Heck, they might even be unaware of the paradox itself, I don’t know.

I expected the first post of this thread to read “…said no one ever.” Hehe. Sorry I’m just not feeling Scarlet as a villain at all.

Her stats are high, and she is labeled as a “boss”/“villain” but she isn’t….
She ain’t a Dragon, nor some kind of overpowered, ancient and mystical creature that deserves to be called a “boss” or “villain”!
Abaddon was a villain, Shiro Tagachi was a villain, Dragons are villains!
She commands Dredge and Charr? So what? I killed thousands of those! No challenge here! I just don’t feel her as a “villain” because…It’s just a Sylvari!
Throw a Torch and see what happens when it hits her! Hahahaha!

Scarlet events are the best addition to the game. I would even like a full expansion developing her story.

Soulstar.7812:

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

Ho so you mean it’s ok that we have to wait way past the introduction of a story to finally know why we may be interested in said story (or to have the right to express our concerns about the story not catching our interest in the first place) ?
I’m sure the Lords of the Rings would still be a perfectly fine story if we had to wait until the third book to finally be introduced to the ring. I’m sure Star Wars would still be the success it is if the rebels vs empire theme had only been introduced in the Return of the Jedi.
You know, there’s a reason why, if you study litterature, cinema, or any other storytelling media you’ll necesarily be taught about the rule of the first five minutes, or an equivalent. It’s just the harsh reality that, as a writer, if you can’t give your readers/viewer/players a good reason to care about your story from the very beginning then they have no reason not to close the book and put it back on its shelf, or leave the theater, or just stop playing the game, even though they paid for it.
We’re not asking for her motive, we’re not asking for her detailed background and origins, we’re just asking to know what is at stake in this story Anet is trying to tell us. Because if nothing hangs in the balance and all remain in a perfect status quo why would our characters even need to lift a finger ? (Anet putting a plot shield on pretty much everything due to them trying to avoid any “paradox” between LS and PS doesn’t help that).
Anet could have used Faren’s kidnapping to great effect, giving us reason to act against Scarlet (even if you don’t like Faren it’s better than no reason at all), but we didn’t even know about him getting kidnapped until we had to save him… such a great way to build tension… The only thing Scarlet did was preventing us from farming the Crown’s Pavillion, but since the invasions were far more lucrative, and it was so poorly communicated (I’m not sure if there was even one clear, explicit mention of the fact that Scarlet locked herself in the Pavillion during the Queen’s Speech instance) I can’t reasonnably consider it as a decent attempt to engage the players.

We’re not kittening just for the sake of it, we’re simply pointing out that there are a certain number of base elements that, as a writer, you need to put together if you want to build something that can be called a story. Catching your public’s attention is probably the most important one.

Caduceus:
- He’s a most definitely a high ranking member for the White Mantle. Probably a Confessor or Demagogue.
- Bandits are paid by the White Mantle, but only the highest rank bandits know that.
- Centaurs are also stirred by the White Mantle.
- Some day we’ll finally meet the White Mantle again, far to the northwest of the map.

White Mantle → Caduceus wins.

It’s the Ancient Karka, not the Karka Queen.
It’s Lord Faren , not Ferran. You can’t leave the “Lord” out.

Best villain is Anet. They made Trahearne. Plain and simply the most evil thing any one could have done in this game.

Tauril.8504:

Soulstar.7812:

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

Ho so you mean it’s ok that we have to wait way past the introduction of a story to finally know why we may be interested in said story (or to have the right to express our concerns about the story not catching our interest in the first place) ?
I’m sure the Lords of the Rings would still be a perfectly fine story if we had to wait until the third book to finally be introduced to the ring. I’m sure Star Wars would still be the success it is if the rebels vs empire theme had only been introduced in the Return of the Jedi.
You know, there’s a reason why, if you study litterature, cinema, or any other storytelling media you’ll necesarily be taught about the rule of the first five minutes, or an equivalent. It’s just the harsh reality that, as a writer, if you can’t give your readers/viewer/players a good reason to care about your story from the very beginning then they have no reason not to close the book and put it back on its shelf, or leave the theater, or just stop playing the game, even though they paid for it.
We’re not asking for her motive, we’re not asking for her detailed background and origins, we’re just asking to know what is at stake in this story Anet is trying to tell us. Because if nothing hangs in the balance and all remain in a perfect status quo why would our characters even need to lift a finger ? (Anet putting a plot shield on pretty much everything due to them trying to avoid any “paradox” between LS and PS doesn’t help that).
Anet could have used Faren’s kidnapping to great effect, giving us reason to act against Scarlet (even if you don’t like Faren it’s better than no reason at all), but we didn’t even know about him getting kidnapped until we had to save him… such a great way to build tension… The only thing Scarlet did was preventing us from farming the Crown’s Pavillion, but since the invasions were far more lucrative, and it was so poorly communicated (I’m not sure if there was even one clear, explicit mention of the fact that Scarlet locked herself in the Pavillion during the Queen’s Speech instance) I can’t reasonnably consider it as a decent attempt to engage the players.

We’re not kittening just for the sake of it, we’re simply pointing out that there are a certain number of base elements that, as a writer, you need to put together if you want to build something that can be called a story. Catching your public’s attention is probably the most important one.

You’re talking about how’s it’s a failed plot because it’s not introducing her background early enough…. Yet all you have for examples are PLOTS, we know she’s evil , we knew the empire was evil, we knew the ring was evil, but we didn’t know jack kitten about Vaders back story, or Sideous’ back story until the end of the second movie. And even then I don’t think we found out kitten about Sideous in those movies.

Can you give an example now that fits the argument? And I’m sorry you didn’t read anything from the Queens Speech event, countess Anise said like 2 times that Scarlet locked herself in there, it even had a little mini movie of the pit closing up as she(scarlet) laughed. The asura even states that she locked herself in there and is using her relative safety there to open portals up around Tyria to send out her clockwork robots.

Just because you need someone to draw you a map, and then spell out every kittening detail of the story doesn’t mean that everyone else does.

PS: we knew for a fact that hobo-tron was kidnapped as well as that bard, or did you manage to miss that bit of dialogue the scene where aetherblades closed in on them too?

Sorry Mad King is. He is actually pretty evil like when he light a villager on fire and watched be burn, they screamed and screamed as he laughed and laughed leaving that one woman alive to witness it to tell others.

Scarlet is failed Harley/Joker/Mad King/Kefka. * Kefka is pretty much the Joker in FF6 though only with some similarities., hes probably more realistically evil then the typical joker not including the new one in the movie. *

Since we also already have a character in GW like that we don’t need another one and MK doesn’t need a side kick that acts like that either.

Fungalfoot.7213:

My biggest issue with her is that she’s sylvari and look fruity. I get that they’re still trying to sell us on the new race but enough is enough. A deranged giant norn who acts like a five year old would have been funnier.

Ya what is up with all these evil tree people. We had Canach and now we have Scarlet. -_-

MithranArkanere.8957:

Caduceus:
- He’s a most definitely a high ranking member for the White Mantle. Probably a Confessor or Demagogue.
- Bandits are paid by the White Mantle, but only the highest rank bandits know that.
- Centaurs are also stirred by the White Mantle.
- Some day we’ll finally meet the White Mantle again, far to the northwest of the map.

White Mantle -> Caduceus wins.

It’s the Ancient Karka, not the Karka Queen.
It’s Lord Faren , not Ferran. You can’t leave the “Lord” out.

It’s “Caudecus”, not “Caduceus”.
Caduceus is the staff Hermes held (Greek mythology).
Caduceus is also a Dungeon Boss in the game “Rift”, and not GW2.

well I’m extremely concerned… for the potential of interplay between Scarlet & Mad King.
It was bad enough already that the Mad King was so obsessed with an imaginary pony
(like a certain subset of the internet … which has long since gotten out of hand)

StinVec.3621:

[…]

It’s “Caudecus”, not “Caduceus”.
Caduceus is the staff Hermes held (Greek mythology).
Caduceus is also a Dungeon Boss in the game “Rift”, and not GW2.

That’s why the want you to think.

Mursaat did anagrams.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Caduceus:
- He’s a most definitely a high ranking member for the White Mantle. Probably a Confessor or Demagogue.
- Bandits are paid by the White Mantle, but only the highest rank bandits know that.
- Centaurs are also stirred by the White Mantle.
- Some day we’ll finally meet the White Mantle again, far to the northwest of the map.

White Mantle -> Caduceus wins.

It’s the Ancient Karka, not the Karka Queen.
It’s Lord Faren , not Ferran. You can’t leave the “Lord” out.

Maybe he just wants Kryta to have a democracy instead of being ruled by a queen born into luxury and unearned leadership? Sure his methods are inexcusable (supplying the enemy) but dethroning the queen in favour of a democracy (even if his plan is to install himself as leader) is a good thing. The charr in leadership positions earned those positions. The same with the asura and the norn (although norn don’t have traditional leaders). The humans have a bizarre system where the kingdom could be ruled by a complete imbecile simply because they are born into. In a time where humans are so pushed back, you want the best person for the job in the leadership seat. It’s statistically unlikely that the single person with royal blood is the best decision maker and optimum candidate to navigate the kingdom through the current conflicts and challenges.

Don’t hold your breath on White Mantle. The story is trying very hard to stay away from human centric plots and thus GW1 lore. There is room in the story to tell explore racial specific conflicts, but the White Mantle would either be a shallow enemy or too involved to justify having all the other races dealing with it for any lengthy period of time.

We’ve been clearing up after Scarlet since Flame and Frost. So far she just seems to cause chaos. In an interview the writers said her motive to appearing at the Jubilee was to challenge the Queen’s new watchwork knights. She wasn’t there to cause political upheaval or make a name for herself, she wasn’t trying to destabilise the government or pit the humans against the other races. Her motive is simply as shallow as “I feel like they are challenging me so I will attack”. It’s believable enough, but it’s truly disappointing because it’s not very meaty. You could replace that motive with “I just wanted to attack for no reason” and the story repercussions would be the same, and that’s a disappointing story imo. It’s hard to care about a character or an event when the reasons were that shallow. When you look at all the events she was behind this year (Flame and Frost, Sky Pirates and Queen’s Jubilee) it’s really sad to think there was no master strategy. There was no higher plan. It was just a game. Suddenly all the complexity of the story, the intelligent plots that could have been, they are replaced with "none of these layers matter, Scarlet did these things on a whim (getting on the Captain’s Council is the outlier, that’s rather specific).

The story on the website talked about how she resented a predetermined path for a sylvari from the moment she woke. She rejected the guidance (note that it is guidance and no-one actually forces the recently awoken sylvari to follow a path – they are free to turn away from the aid just as Scarlet did) of those trying to help her and she shows open contempt for the Pale Tree. We know from the lore that sylvari enjoy a great deal of freedom, they don’t have to follow their Wyld Hunt or their dream, they don’t have to follow Nightmare and some sylvari have even managed to disconnect themselves completely from the Pale Tree so much so that they don’t even hear her any more. Freedom for the sylvari already exists. Scarlet seems to have this unexplainable desire to free herself and other sylvari from an imaginary destiny that isn’t supported by the existing lore. Had the writers heard of the Soundless when they wrote Scarlet’s character? It simply doesn’t make sense that Scarlet so strongly resented this idea of destiny or a predetermined life when it doesn’t exist for the sylvari in the first place.

Scarlet motives usually make her dangerous, but they aren’t particularly interesting. There is a big difference between the two.

It’s not even close to any of the big names in GW1, as someone else made a post earlier. I still remember every villain and their role and how impactfull it was from GW1. The only reason i will remember (if) Scarlet is because she’s annoying.

She was fun at first….but now..meh…whatever…

I personally feel that anet is going through a crysis when it comes to making characters that have an impact on the player to be honest….and it’s sad considering they can look back at GW1. Nothing against u guys at ANet but seriously u are miles away from the story or the emotional attachment u achieved in GW1…….miiiiles. Only ppl who find scarlet as being a real foe are ppl who either didn’t play GW1, or played it briefly/very fast for HoM….but we do leave in a world where quality comes second to quantity…that’s a sad truth i guess.

Nilkemia.8507:

This feels like a troll post, but I’ll bite this time.

Canach wasn’t really a villain, he awoke the Karka by accident the first time, and while his methods were really dumb, he was still doing what he thought was right in the Secret of Southsun. He still has potential.

Caudecus wasn’t behind the Separatist plot in his manor. (at least I got that impression) And while his plots were easily foiled, he’s managed to cover his tracks well enough that we can’t get rid of him yet.. people are probably more interested in the White Mantle/Mursaat, who he might be working with.

While Zhaitan’s last stand was pitiful, he still rose an entire sunken continent and its dead population. That takes effort.

While Kudu is pretty much a bland nemesis for Zojja, it is somewhat personal if you picked an asuran character who had the weather device as their first invention.

Sorrow’s Embrace shows him as the first to get the dredge to work with them, even for just a while, and shows his experiments with draconic energy. Then he gets away, to be killed in the Crucible of Eternity. Still, he found a way to control dragon minions, something that the Inquest put to use even after his death.

I’ll agree with you on Gaheron, he was bland. And he didn’t reach godhood.

Didn’t fight the Karka Queen from the first time, so can’t comment on it.

Admittedly, Faolain didn’t do much besides waiting for Caithe to show up so she could try turning her evil. Cadyern got an even worse deal than her, the guy created the Nightmare Court and he’s just Faolain’s second in command when we meet him.

THIS.
All of those villains appear to have more depth to them than Scarlet. And at least with those guys, we got them presented to us IN GAME.

The thing with Scarlet is … she really does have a good voice actress and that makes her really likable to me. She sounds fun really.
Yes she really has little depth but other majour villains had neither depth nor personality and also very little screening time either, which did not help at all.
Only villains I really recall are Kudu and Faolain … they had atleast an ounce of charisma but way too little screentime so you don’t get the chance to care enough.
Also they really need to implement more of the lore IG somehow… it does make a hell of a difference.

Rebound.3409:

It’s not even close to any of the big names in GW1, as someone else made a post earlier. I still remember every villain and their role and how impactfull it was from GW1. The only reason i will remember (if) Scarlet is because she’s annoying.

She was fun at first….but now..meh…whatever…

I personally feel that anet is going through a crysis when it comes to making characters that have an impact on the player to be honest….and it’s sad considering they can look back at GW1. Nothing against u guys at ANet but seriously u are miles away from the story or the emotional attachment u achieved in GW1…….miiiiles. Only ppl who find scarlet as being a real foe are ppl who either didn’t play GW1, or played it briefly/very fast for HoM….but we do leave in a world where quality comes second to quantity…that’s a sad truth i guess.

Ugh, GW1 villains were terrible. Khilbron literally had a mustache to twirl. Shiro ultimate plan was to abandon his role as a powerful psychopomp so that a bunch of out-of-towners could kill him. Also, to talk like a constipated batman. Varesh, crazy cult leader. Abandon, the god of secrets certainly knew to keep his mouth shut.

The only good GW1 villain was Joko, and he wasn’t even a villain in the story.

The problem with most of these villains was that they were so remote from the heroes, that it was weird that we were even fighting them. Khilbron at least knew our character’s names. But the rest must have felt like, “Where did these kids come from, who just foiled my plans?! Totally unfair!”

Deim Hunir.8503:

The thing with Scarlet is … she really does have a good voice actress and that makes her really likable to me. She sounds fun really.
Yes she really has little depth but other majour villains had neither depth nor personality and also very little screening time either, which did not help at all.
Only villains I really recall are Kudu and Faolain … they had atleast an ounce of charisma but way too little screentime so you don’t get the chance to care enough.
Also they really need to implement more of the lore IG somehow… it does make a hell of a difference.

My impression is that people like empty (Bella-like) characters that they can imagine their own personalities for. This explains the popularity of Canach, Marjory, and Kasmeer. Their personalities are so shallow and lacking definition that people can imagine them to be whatever they want.

^Um… We know enough about Canach and Marjory to know if we do or do not like their personalities, and we surely do not have to imagine one for each them. Marjory’s short story, her dialogues and the cutscene outlined her personality pretty well. Canach’s short story, the interactions we had with him during the first Southsun event, the informations the devs gave around here and everything the other NPCs said about him all gave him a pretty solid personality, too.

But I can agree with you about Kasmeer.

Scarlet is so awesome she got rid of an entire part of an explorable path!

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks, as always, for the feedback.

And thank you guys for not having a fight with scarlet where she just escapes randomly after you kill her. That was some class A lamesauce. Twice.

The only problem I have with Scarlet is her motive. She’s been behind so many things, and the only motive we have is “she’s crazy”. That just doesn’t cut it.

Kyrel.8942:

Scarlet is so awesome she got rid of an entire part of an explorable path!

ROFL

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks, as always, for the feedback.

Highlight Scarlet, push the delete key please!

A lot of the npcs can use a little more work. Rytlock, Snaff, Tybolt, and Farren are the only ones I liked/remembered.
Compare that to the gw1 npcs
Zho
Mhenlo and his posse
Master Tojo
Little Thom
Glint
Gwen
Pyre Fireceshot
Zinn
etc…

Whosever says that this villian is “like hte joker” doesn’t know the joker. Scarlet has a grand plan, scheme, she’s not just doing mahem for the sake of it, or to russle your feathers. I think from a plot point of view she’s the best villian. My beef is that this should always belong to the dragons.

BobbyStein.2315:

I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so…

..So why did you do it? You had to have seen this reaction coming from literally 6 months away. Its not exactly high art to not write characters that kitten your readers off because of your own spotty/slipshod presentation.

Egon Vidar.9125:

Soulstar.7812:

LOL

You guys are forgetting one important detail…

You don’t know what Scarlet’s motive yet…

How about you let them finish the story.

Flat Character LMAO
Not one you have a clue on the … (cough) letter on the subject.

Her base motive that started all this? I never personally said anything about her motive, but you’re addressing all of us, so.. I know what it is, and you should, too, if you’re fond of her. Your comment leads me to believe you don’t? It’s stated right in the short story.. and should have been in the game, but whatever.

It’s just an awful motive in this context and is a bit paradoxical. She’s raging against something which absolutely cannot be escaped.

Which has considerable potential, but the writers seem unaware of using it in a way which actually would be interesting. Heck, they might even be unaware of the paradox itself, I don’t know.

“That whole statement made no sense, and you are making statements for me, so I will do the same and bump my post at same time.”

So you are basically telling me by writing this you KNOW Scarlet is awesome, that is fantastic I only agree to that and nothing you ever stated before or after this comment about how you love Scarlet.

because things are planned for well in advance. You don’t say HEY GUYS lets make a new dungeon path, and have it out the door in 2 weeks. This was planned probably even before the players knew that scarlet existed.

BobbyStein.2315:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

The only problem I have with Scarlet is her motive. She’s been behind so many things, and the only motive we have is “she’s crazy”. That just doesn’t cut it.

We haven’t revealed her motive yet. I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so we’re looking at ways to accelerate the plot and implement some features that will make it easier to track Living World content. The first phase of that system will be implemented before the end of the year.

Can we get a Scarlet mini already?

a mini scarlet holo perhaps.

Then 6 months later using it will spawn an army and kill everything.

BobbyStein.2315:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

The only problem I have with Scarlet is her motive. She’s been behind so many things, and the only motive we have is “she’s crazy”. That just doesn’t cut it.

We haven’t revealed her motive yet. I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so we’re looking at ways to accelerate the plot and implement some features that will make it easier to track Living World content. The first phase of that system will be implemented before the end of the year.

Yes, you haven’t revealed her motives, but the problem is that nobody cares because she is utterly uninteresting. In terms of gameplay, GW2 beats out most MMOS, but most beat it out in terms of story.

Honestly, I would suggest hiring more writers. If the story of Scarlet were a fantasy novel, nobody would buy it and it would be getting 1 star reviews. Hire a professional fantasy writer to help with the GW2 story. R.A. Salvatore has assisted in story writing for many games. At this point, it seems like you guys have no idea where you want the story to go at. It is just kind of floundering around. Get somebody on staff that has a proven record of knowing how to tell an interesting story.

Uh, how do you know the whole story of scarlett and know it sucks when you don’t yet know the story.

That is a little unfair.

And its a bit untrue to say no one cares considering there are lots of threads that are full of people that WANT her to have a good motive.

Draygo.9473:

Uh, how do you know the whole story of scarlett and know it sucks when you don’t yet know the story.

That is a little unfair.

And its a bit untrue to say no one cares considering there are lots of threads that are full of people that WANT her to have a good motive.

That excuse gets nowhere with me.The game is a year and change old. They have had more than enough time to make the story interesting. The story in SWTOR was more interesting within the first 30 minutes of any class you chose to play than any Living World addition that Anet has added to date. I enjoy the story in most MMOS that I’ve played, including GW1, much much better than what I have gotten in GW2 so far.

By far, GW2 is the worst story experience I have had with an MMO. Fortunately, it is among the best gameplay experiences that I’ve had, which balances out to keep my playing. The call it the living story, but it is more like an undead zombie story to me. It is moving and pretending to be alive, but it is pretty dead.

So again, I think they need to bring in some writing help. Everybody hires consultants for everything these days.

Draygo.9473:

Uh, how do you know the whole story of scarlett and know it sucks when you don’t yet know the story.

That is a little unfair.

No, its not, because one of the fundamentals of writing is start strong, not flail around like a dying goat and hope people linger long enough for you to spit out your punchline.

I just really, sincerely hope we’ll all be able to look back on this day and think, “How could we have ever hated Scarlet?”

Just please don’t ever mention hiring new writers. Self-improvement is much more important than having someone do all the work for you (even if it’s quality work).

Plus it’s more impressive, memorable, and gives everyone a boost in morale, which can lead someone to do even more impressive things in the future.

Sure the living story has room for improvement, but it’s not like it’s an absolute failure. I love the stories so far. I want to know more about Scarlet and now I want to know more about Caithe’s secret past. I’m mightily compelled so far.

Needs more painterly cutscenes. Like when Holo Briar and Caithe were speaking to each other. Seeing the emotions from Caithe would’ve been nice instead of generic idle character animation.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks, as always, for the feedback.

It would be nice if you also look into threads like these rather than looking at one you think you would like:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/twilight/OMG-not-Scarlet-again

And if there is a suggestion that I might add to this Scarlet character, its to do away with her by killing her or retcon her out as soon as possible. I do not like her, I find her childish in the dungeon, and you doom her by making her a villain sue when you add this horrific background to the short story and ingame:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/

You might actually get more clear-cut feedback from checking in on something positive. If a complimentary thread like this is turned almost immediately sour, then I guess you know you have a problem.

Checking negative threads for feedback is difficult as it requires sorting through actual feedback and mindless complaining (something negative threads kind of promote).

The unfortunate truth, that the only vilain that did something in this game, is also a complete plagiarism from a child comic book, is depressing.

How much Arenanet are paying their storyboard staff?

Alkyone.7983:

The unfortunate truth, that the only vilain that did something in this game, is also a complete plagiarism from a child comic book, is depressing.

How much Arenanet are paying their storyboard staff?

Originality is hard to come by. Would it disappoint you to learn that both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings were both heavily borrowing from The Ring Cycle operas by Wagner? All the major plot points from both are there, but I don’t bother going around criticizing the creators for this. Some stories and characters are timeless and proven.

Besides, from the Scarlet short story, I see a huge difference. The Joker “just wants to watch the world burn” and Harley just wants to please him. Scarlet wants to burn the world and have a hand in recreating it. She is not crazy, she is enlightened. Still that is not a motive, just a frame of mind. Her motive is fueled by pure evil, self importance, and a paranoia that if she does not do this, then she doesn’t matter. To her, it seems like everyone lives and dies and the world is still how it is supposed to be, and she doesn’t like that. Crazy? No, she knows what she’s doing, and she is smart enough to know how we perceive right and wrong, but she just doesn’t care. Evil.

P.S.- I get how she is like Harley, but I would actually compare her to Cyborg Barry from Archer. “Later, tater!”

BobbyStein.2315:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

The only problem I have with Scarlet is her motive. She’s been behind so many things, and the only motive we have is “she’s crazy”. That just doesn’t cut it.

We haven’t revealed her motive yet. I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so we’re looking at ways to accelerate the plot and implement some features that will make it easier to track Living World content. The first phase of that system will be implemented before the end of the year.

See the teaser image for next Living Story update … is that Canach making his return? This is a bit like taking part in GI Joe or whatever of those classic kids shows with good and evil faction rivals. On the good side we find Rox, Braham, Caithe, and the villains are Scarlet, Canach and Mai Trin – probably only a matter of time until they all join causes, willingly or not.

Scarlet is far from crazy, that’s just her maniacal laugh fooling you; she’s got something big planned… at least I hope so.