Guild Wars 2

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

Vayne.8563:

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

Could they kill each other at the same time? I would drop 50 bucks on gems if that happened.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Vayne.8563:

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

Could they kill each other at the same time? I would drop 50 bucks on gems if that happened.

I think players would be pretty annoyed if they weren’t the ones who got to kill Scarlet themselves, actually. If they killed each other, then people would complain about Trahearne stealing the show again.

Vayne.8563:

I think players would be pretty annoyed if they weren’t the ones who got to kill Scarlet themselves, actually. If they killed each other, then people would complain about Trahearne stealing the show again.

In which case… we would kill Trahearne, the pack would disintegrate, and the Elder Draogons would win.

GASP

You discovered Scarlett’s secret plot.

If she killed Trahearne, I would probably quit :T

Scarlet turns out to be Trahearne’s father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.

I don’t dislike her. That would require caring. So I don’t really care what they do with her.

Trahearne on the other hand…. yeah. Cannon shot. Dragon. Mouth. Choke.

Anything to silence him.

Actually, you know, if they’d used Scarlet as the perky cab driver in the MMO Migration vid, yeah. That might have made her interesting.

No, Trahearne is a good character compared to Scarlet.

The solution is to have Trahearne bury Caladbolg in Scarlet’s face. She’s dead we can all be happy about that and Trahearne got rid of her for use so now we like him again.

Next year they’ll add a worse villain, and we’ll look back and say “I really wish Scarlet was still around instead of this guy”.

Substance E.4852:

The solution is to have Trahearne bury Caladbolg in Scarlet’s face. She’s dead we can all be happy about that and Trahearne got rid of her for use so now we like him again.

But then, people that don’t get that the player can’t do Trahearne’s job will complain that he stole their story again.

Maybe Trahearne could toss Caladbolg to the player and the player could bury Caladbolg in Scarlet’s face instead?

In the middle of a Scarlet/Trahearne fight.. odds are they would come to the conclusion that two of the Master Race squabbling on behalf of the lessers is silly.

And so would begin the Age of the Sylvari, with the world split between Trahearnia and The Scarlet Empire. Everything would revolve around one or the other. Or both.

oh and something something dragons bla bla bla. filler.

PVStar.3658:

Next year they’ll add a worse villain, and we’ll look back and say “I really wish Scarlet was still around instead of this guy”.

Not possible. The grand engineer of the entire apocalypse could be a cackling crack addict who farts on people as his attack and it would still be a better villain than Scarlet.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

In the middle of a Scarlet/Trahearne fight.. odds are they would come to the conclusion that two of the Master Race squabbling on behalf of the lessers is silly.

And so would begin the Age of the Sylvari, with the world split between Trahearnia and The Scarlet Empire. Everything would revolve around one or the other. Or both.

oh and something something dragons bla bla bla. filler.

Does that mean we get to hyperbeam the Pale Tree? Because there ain’t no genocide like righteous fury genocide.

Celtus.8456:

No, Trahearne is a good character compared to Scarlet.

QFT.

Actually, the funny thing is that Trahearne is a good character in general (IMO). It’s just that Anet’s presentation of him has been incredibly lackluster.

His antisocial, dull nature is to be expected of a character who has lived alone in Orr for years on end and who is considered a social outcast among most of his peers in the Grove.

It is natural that the Vigil would desire to recruit him, as he obtained valuable knowledge of the undead from his years of study. With training, he would no doubt make a superb tactician.

Is is natural that the Priory would revere him; he is Tyria’s foremost scholar on Orr and (arguably) the boldest scholar in Tyria.

It is natural that the Order of Whispers would not only desire his information but would also respect the natural gift of stealth that Trahearne would have needed to have in order to survive alone in Orr for decades.

With these things in mind, Trahearne’s character comes across as the perfect fit for the role that he has been given. Unfortunately, he is introduced so late and in such a lackluster fashion that he comes across as a pointless, show-stealing Marty Stu.

If Trahearne had been introduced early – in both the game and in the novels – he could have had more potential for characterization. Really, his biggest issue is that he never develops. He just kind of immediately steps into the shoes of Pact Marshall without having to learn advanced tactics. He immediately earns the player’s loyalty and friendship without really earning it. He never learns how to socialize (or even lose his monotone) despite occupying a position of command. Basically – he immediately does things that should require multiple story missions to develop.

Character development is more difficult than characterization – and this applies double to the MMO genre. As such, it’s rather easy to understand why Trahearne suffers from this developmental failure.

Scarlet’s problem, on the other hand, is that she is a legitimate Mary Sue who naturally excels at everything for no discernible reason. Trahearne earned his knowledge through years of study and survival. Scarlet just somehow managed to breeze through schools designed for Asura. Trahearne demonstrated the qualities and possessed the knowledge that the Pact organizations needed to face Zhaitan. Scarlet commands her underlings because… because she’ll kill them all, or something. Scarlet is just sorely lacking in terms of both development and in core characterization – she does things for teh evulz with no clear motivation or explanation.

Or they could get a new writer. The plot-lines have been horrid so far compared to say GW1. The personal story sucked and the living story sucks, Scarlet is just being used as a scapegoat.

Substance E.4852:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

In the middle of a Scarlet/Trahearne fight.. odds are they would come to the conclusion that two of the Master Race squabbling on behalf of the lessers is silly.

And so would begin the Age of the Sylvari, with the world split between Trahearnia and The Scarlet Empire. Everything would revolve around one or the other. Or both.

oh and something something dragons bla bla bla. filler.

Does that mean we get to hyperbeam the Pale Tree? Because there ain’t no genocide like righteous fury genocide.

No. We would have plenty to do, collecting tribute for them and having events in their honor. For Achievement points, ofc.

Daily names would change. “kill ambient creatures” would become “Scarlet wants a Hat made of 30 fluffy Bunnies” Kill 5 Veterans would become “prove your worth to Trahearne by killing 5 Veterans and claiming he did it”

It will transform the game, and yet nothing will actually change, appropriate for both of these Characters.

Oh yeah. dragons yadda yadda. fit them in sometime.

For me, the simple first thing is to see less of her. I get that Anet wants their darling psychotic Scarlet as the star of the LS, but i do think it works to their advantage by not shoving her in our face all the bleedin time.

And quit the repetitive “Scarlet escapes again” gag at the end. Tying with my first point, if she wasnt psychically present she wont need to ‘escape’.

And oh yea it really is far tooo lonnnnggg that theyre in the phase of “establishing the plot” for the story, GET ON WITH THE STORY ALREADY and start unveiling the next phase of her plan or sumthin instead of instead of introducing more “Alliances”. Show me what happens next to say the molten alliance after we kicked their sorry behinds or such. Continue with what we players have achieved instead of broadening even more plot establishments.

You know i had to get this out of me so ill say it. A number of people, quite a lot i suppose, hated vertical gear progression and want horizontal gear progression. But here, in storytelling, we’re ready and begging for the “vertical” progression of the stories, we dont want more horizontal progression of story/plots. Well, at least thats how i am seeing it, :P

Duke Blackrose.4981:

His antisocial, dull nature is to be expected of a character who has lived alone in Orr for years on end and who is considered a social outcast among most of his peers in the Grove.

It is natural that the Vigil would desire to recruit him, as he obtained valuable knowledge of the undead from his years of study. With training, he would no doubt make a superb tactician.

Is is natural that the Priory would revere him; he is Tyria’s foremost scholar on Orr and (arguably) the boldest scholar in Tyria.

It is natural that the Order of Whispers would not only desire his information but would also respect the natural gift of stealth that Trahearne would have needed to have in order to survive alone in Orr for decades.

^This.
But really, I started liking Trahearne when I played a Sylvari. It is interesting how the other Sylvari think that he is weird, despite the fact that he is not only a firstborn, he is *The Firstborn*. He is a good character, but his voice acting sucks.

Edit: We simply can’t do what he does. Our role is to fight, his is to command. He is a scholar, we are adventurers. We are part of his army. He takes credit for what his army do because he is in charge and that’s how it works.
Also, I would like to remember everybody that Trahearne loves you. He gets worried about you when you have to go somewhere dangerous without him ("*happy* Welcome back! *relieved* I am glad you are safe.") and he trusts you more than he trusts anybody, including himself. He needs you to keep pushing him forward because he is really insecure, and he always let you know that he is grateful for everything you did. I can’t hate someone like that.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Celtus.8456:

No, Trahearne is a good character compared to Scarlet.

QFT.

Actually, the funny thing is that Trahearne is a good character in general (IMO). It’s just that Anet’s presentation of him has been incredibly lackluster.

His antisocial, dull nature is to be expected of a character who has lived alone in Orr for years on end and who is considered a social outcast among most of his peers in the Grove.

It is natural that the Vigil would desire to recruit him, as he obtained valuable knowledge of the undead from his years of study. With training, he would no doubt make a superb tactician.

Is is natural that the Priory would revere him; he is Tyria’s foremost scholar on Orr and (arguably) the boldest scholar in Tyria.

It is natural that the Order of Whispers would not only desire his information but would also respect the natural gift of stealth that Trahearne would have needed to have in order to survive alone in Orr for decades.

With these things in mind, Trahearne’s character comes across as the perfect fit for the role that he has been given. Unfortunately, he is introduced so late and in such a lackluster fashion that he comes across as a pointless, show-stealing Marty Stu.

If Trahearne had been introduced early – in both the game and in the novels – he could have had more potential for characterization. Really, his biggest issue is that he never develops. He just kind of immediately steps into the shoes of Pact Marshall without having to learn advanced tactics. He immediately earns the player’s loyalty and friendship without really earning it. He never learns how to socialize (or even lose his monotone) despite occupying a position of command. Basically – he immediately does things that should require multiple story missions to develop.

Character development is more difficult than characterization – and this applies double to the MMO genre. As such, it’s rather easy to understand why Trahearne suffers from this developmental failure.

Scarlet’s problem, on the other hand, is that she is a legitimate Mary Sue who naturally excels at everything for no discernible reason. Trahearne earned his knowledge through years of study and survival. Scarlet just somehow managed to breeze through schools designed for Asura. Trahearne demonstrated the qualities and possessed the knowledge that the Pact organizations needed to face Zhaitan. Scarlet commands her underlings because… because she’ll kill them all, or something. Scarlet is just sorely lacking in terms of both development and in core characterization – she does things for teh evulz with no clear motivation or explanation.

I will comprehend that “QFT” as “quit kittening trolling”.

Trahearne does not even stand out in the whole storyline for me. All I could remember was that Tybalt Leftpaw sacrifice himself for his best friend and a useless commander. What happened to that commander? I don’t know—I was busy fighting cc-chain orrians.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Substance E.4852:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

In the middle of a Scarlet/Trahearne fight.. odds are they would come to the conclusion that two of the Master Race squabbling on behalf of the lessers is silly.

And so would begin the Age of the Sylvari, with the world split between Trahearnia and The Scarlet Empire. Everything would revolve around one or the other. Or both.

oh and something something dragons bla bla bla. filler.

Does that mean we get to hyperbeam the Pale Tree? Because there ain’t no genocide like righteous fury genocide.

No. We would have plenty to do, collecting tribute for them and having events in their honor. For Achievement points, ofc.

Daily names would change. “kill ambient creatures” would become “Scarlet wants a Hat made of 30 fluffy Bunnies” Kill 5 Veterans would become “prove your worth to Trahearne by killing 5 Veterans and claiming he did it”

It will transform the game, and yet nothing will actually change, appropriate for both of these Characters.

Oh yeah. dragons yadda yadda. fit them in sometime.

I kneel to no shrubbery, sentient or otherwise. I guess it’s off to the acid mines for me then…

Spoiler Alert

Trahearne is Scarlet’s ex-boyfriend, which pretty much explains everything so far.

They split up after Scarlet, whose wry sense of humor is often tragically misunderstood, swapped Trahearne’s Miracle-Gro™ plant food with Roundup® weed killer, which yellowed his leaves and nearly led to an untimely demise. After a lengthy recovery in the intensive care greenhouse of a nearby nursery, Trahearne made good his escape by stealing away to Orr, and Scarlet has never been the same since.

Hell hath no fury, and all that.

Scarlet vowed to regain Trahearne’s affection by defeating all the Elder Dragons, and pretty much everything else, but to do that she needed hired muscle, which is what all the _______ Alliances are about. Once all the dragons are gone, Scarlet plans to capture Trahearne and make him her love slave once again.

So really, all you Trahearne haters out there ought to pity the poor sap, because if there’s anything worse than being Scarlet’s love interest, it is not known to the learned scholars of Tyria.

Vayne.8563:

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

i would love to see her with a bag on her shoulder, giving away presents while wearing a red costume

Maybe Scarlet and Trahearne will fall in love then elope and leave Tyria altogether?

Leo Paul.1659:

Maybe Scarlet and Trahearne will fall in love then elope and leave Tyria altogether?

They can move to Cantha and then we will never, ever see them again.

I hate them both equally.

Vayne.8563:

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

I’ll quote something from one of current developers of Exalted RPG. The statement was made for completely not connected case, but it seems really relevant to this one.

Holden Shearer

I don’t know if you’re familiar with professional wrestling, but for such a lowbrow thing it has a very, very highly evolved lingo for describing story-building techniques within a complex milieu, which has proven very useful to me over the years. One of the pro wrestling concepts is that of ‘building heat’ i.e. generating interest in and support of a character with the audience. There are a number of ways of going about this. The most common, and by far the worst, is to steal heat from someone else. For example, you bring a relatively new guy out and have him beat the snot out of one of your established stars. If you are very lucky this builds heat for the new guy without hurting the old star too badly. More often it’s seem as the cheap manipulation it is, and it just makes everyone involved look bad.

Good heat-building methods usually take longer and involve an established property ‘giving the rub’ to the guy the company is trying to ’push’—rather than just having the undercard guy go clown an established name, you have him start hanging around with the bigger guys, maybe tag-teaming with them, put them in some three-way matches where they’re not carrying all the weight. By association with bigger names, some star power rubs off, and the transition isn’t jarring. When they finally beat one of the bigger names, it seems like they’ve arrived where they ought to be.

In other words, you’ve elevated one of your properties without losing anything. This is better than building up one of your properties at the expense of another.

Granted, Trahaerne is not one of the “bigger guys”, but still the above applies. Scarlet needs to be able to stand on her own – building up her popularity solely by stealing the show from others is not going to help her any. She would still remain as badly written as before.

Scarlet is Trahearne. Or perhaps I should say that Trahearne is Scarlet. Taking on her form fulfills his need to be naughty without besmirching his impeccable reputation.

If the writers turned the tables, and made Scarlet an ally, I would like her more.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

If the writers turned the tables, and made Scarlet an ally, I would like her more.

I doubt that would be the case at all. The crap she done to the game made her extremely unredemptionable.

Sure, but what plagues the character the most is that the writing is so predictable and cliche. The writers need to take some risks, and make her a more compelling character. In my opinion, the way to do that is to present her less as a Saturday morning cartoon villain (“Next time Gadget! Next time! -flies off-”).

GW2’s characters need some complexity. Make the players work together with Scarlet on something, and it becomes a whole different story. And maybe make Kiel a villain for a change.

What, Kiel a villain?! Are you serious? Yes, I’m serious. She is way too perfect and boring. The writers should allow her to make mistakes, and maybe explore some darker sides to her character. Maybe she gets fed up with all the corrupt games of politics, and goes rogue. Then the players find themselves in conflict. The story needs conflict on an emotional level, and not just good vs evil (and mad).

Qawsada.4251:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

If the writers turned the tables, and made Scarlet an ally, I would like her more.

I doubt that would be the case at all. The crap she done to the game made her extremely unredemptionable.

Unless the experiment drove her mad and we can cure her madness somehow.

Scarlet did it in the Thaumanova Reactor with a candlestick!

Scarlet’s not bad. She’s just written that way.

There is no redemption for the writers responsible for this character.

Vayne.8563:

Unless the experiment drove her mad and we can cure her madness somehow.

Scarlet may have a lot of important knowledge that could help us fight the other Elder Dragons, and that would make for an interesting twist. Sure, she’s evil and mad. But she’s also a genius, and might be against the Elder Dragons too. It’s a missed opportunity that the writers haven’t explored this angle yet. I hope they do.

What if Trahearne IS Scarlet (now play The Crying Game music theme),… you know a wig, some lipstick, a few operations here and there… one is not the same after defeating an elder dragon… O.o!

You know, everyone talks about how much they hate Scarlet. Funny…isn’t that what the devs want?

Hear me out: They’ve thrown a villain at us that is cartoonish, silly, and really doesn’t DO anything other than have her minions (ahem…alliances) fight for her. In a way, she’s just a superfluous figurehead. But, she has galvanized most of the rest of us into hating her, and wanting to see her dead by increasingly cruel means.

Scarlet needs to have her story fleshed out a bit, and she could be a great villain. Finally, when we get to the last chapter in her living story, everyone in the entire game is going to willingly complete it, just to see her die. And, if it’s an instance, they’ll do it repeatedly…

So, in a sense they have accomplished exactly what they were going for with her. We all hate her, or at least most of us do.

Ashabhi.1365:

You know, everyone talks about how much they hate Scarlet. Funny…isn’t that what the devs want?

Hear me out: They’ve thrown a villain at us that is cartoonish, silly, and really doesn’t DO anything other than have her minions (ahem…alliances) fight for her. In a way, she’s just a superfluous figurehead. But, she has galvanized most of the rest of us into hating her, and wanting to see her dead by increasingly cruel means.

Scarlet needs to have her story fleshed out a bit, and she could be a great villain. Finally, when we get to the last chapter in her living story, everyone in the entire game is going to willingly complete it, just to see her die. And, if it’s an instance, they’ll do it repeatedly…

So, in a sense they have accomplished exactly what they were going for with her. We all hate her, or at least most of us do.

No,… everyone hates the Lanister, but we love how well developed those characters are. Not the same hate we have for Scarlet.

My problem with Scarlet is that I can’t get past the fact that she seems to have been voice modelled on Queenie from Blackadder.

That aside, as any good RPer knows, character development and progression can improve characters and add more depth to them. I’m hoping that this is the case with Scarlet.

Vayne.8563:

Would that make you like her more?

Technically yes, “more” is a relative term. I still wouldn’t appreciate her sticking around and ruining everything good about this game.

The only way to make us like her more is if she inadvertently deleted her existence somehow. Possibly even take the rest of the Mary Sue race with her.

Ashabhi.1365:

You know, everyone talks about how much they hate Scarlet. Funny…isn’t that what the devs want?

You misunderstand.

There’s a crucial difference between a bad character and a bad character.

People don’t hate Scarlet, they hate the people who made her.

Kimhyuna.1035:

Or they could get a new writer. The plot-lines have been horrid so far compared to say GW1. The personal story sucked and the living story sucks, Scarlet is just being used as a scapegoat.

I’m wondering where they get these writers from? The temp worksite place? Do they stand in front of barnes and nobles waiting to get picked up, much like illegals do in front of home depot?

Teasing of course, but would explain so much….

i think if they gave her a personality. she got a background story but a silly personality. if we are to like her we got to understand her in a bit not just she crazy and like to do stupid things combining. until they give out more of her personality that we can relate too we wont like her she generic with what i call a stupid background. this is all my opinion of her. i could understand if her motives were revenge against a wrong done but ive read of no wrong and it seems like she just doing stuff to do it. if they gave more motive for doing crazy stuff i might hate her or like her more but just doing so she can isnt enough. so what she killed someone i dont like she took someone i liked lord faren. i wish they have faren get released and have a big cutscene where he gave info on her out maybe she told him some of her motives and future plans her dreams something. btw has anyone seem hobotron since he disappeared

Substance E.4852:

Leo Paul.1659:

Maybe Scarlet and Trahearne will fall in love then elope and leave Tyria altogether?

They can move to Cantha and then we will never, ever see them again.

LOL I see what you did there :p

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Could they kill each other at the same time? I would drop 50 bucks on gems if that happened.

This man is a smart man, I like the way he thinks.

Vayne.8563:

Okay I know a lot of people really dislike Scarlet, so I was thinking, how could Anet make her more popular, and something occurred to me.

What would happen if Scarlet killed Trahaerne in a future LS?

Would that make you like her more?

Your proposal to get me to like one crappy thing is to have it share screen time with another crappy thing? I’d be happiest if they just scuttled the whole storyline. Admitted that Scarlet was a bad idea from the beginning and stopped wasting resources telling stories about her.

“What happened to Scarlet?”, we would ask cautiously, afraid that mentioning her would encourage them to start using her again.
“She had a fatal heart attack when no one was looking. The Pale Tree personally paid a roaming Charr Warband to use her body as a dummy for ballistics tests, until nothing remained but ash ", they would say.
“Was Trahearne involved?”, we’d ask.
“Trahearne was not, and will never again be, involved with any story in any way. After the Pact’s thrilling victory over an unresponsive Zhaitan-shaped Pinata, he retired to live in a cave somewhere, and then he was eaten by bears in his sleep. The end.”
“Hooray!”, we would all cheer, and I’d start budgeting to buy things from ANet again.

But before I could do that, they’d introduce a third brand new Plot-Hijacking Mary Sue Tree-Elf, because they’ve very consistently failed to learn anything from the unrelenting string of mistakes that’s made up the entire post-launch development schedule.

Mesket.5728:

Ashabhi.1365:

You know, everyone talks about how much they hate Scarlet. Funny…isn’t that what the devs want?

Hear me out: They’ve thrown a villain at us that is cartoonish, silly, and really doesn’t DO anything other than have her minions (ahem…alliances) fight for her. In a way, she’s just a superfluous figurehead. But, she has galvanized most of the rest of us into hating her, and wanting to see her dead by increasingly cruel means.

Scarlet needs to have her story fleshed out a bit, and she could be a great villain. Finally, when we get to the last chapter in her living story, everyone in the entire game is going to willingly complete it, just to see her die. And, if it’s an instance, they’ll do it repeatedly…

So, in a sense they have accomplished exactly what they were going for with her. We all hate her, or at least most of us do.

No,… everyone hates the Lanister, but we love how well developed those characters are. Not the same hate we have for Scarlet.

First, no… Not everyone hates the Lannister. There are some who genuinely like parts of them.

Secondly, I never said it was the same type of hate. All I said is that if the mission was to make everyone in the game hate her, then they accomplished it well.

Ashabhi.1365:

Mesket.5728:

Ashabhi.1365:

You know, everyone talks about how much they hate Scarlet. Funny…isn’t that what the devs want?

Hear me out: They’ve thrown a villain at us that is cartoonish, silly, and really doesn’t DO anything other than have her minions (ahem…alliances) fight for her. In a way, she’s just a superfluous figurehead. But, she has galvanized most of the rest of us into hating her, and wanting to see her dead by increasingly cruel means.

Scarlet needs to have her story fleshed out a bit, and she could be a great villain. Finally, when we get to the last chapter in her living story, everyone in the entire game is going to willingly complete it, just to see her die. And, if it’s an instance, they’ll do it repeatedly…

So, in a sense they have accomplished exactly what they were going for with her. We all hate her, or at least most of us do.

No,… everyone hates the Lanister, but we love how well developed those characters are. Not the same hate we have for Scarlet.

First, no… Not everyone hates the Lannister. There are some who genuinely like parts of them.

Secondly, I never said it was the same type of hate. All I said is that if the mission was to make everyone in the game hate her, then they accomplished it well.

Indeed. Jaime is probably my favorite character. Tyrion is a fan favorite.

Here’s what I see happening. They’re wanting to kill off a major character to show just how changeable the world is with the Living Story. BUT, they can’t do in any of the major characters because they’re important to the Personal Story.

Solution? Invent a new character, MAKE her important, and then let players kill her. This can actually work well, if done right. Look at all the people that got upset about Tybalt, he was an example of something like this done right (though his death was done poorly to get Trahearne into place). We knew him for a short time, but a lot of us really cared. Scarlet, however, is an example of this done poorly.

I’m sure people can think of more examples, good and bad, for themselves. Now, the question is, where did Scarlet fail, and can she be recovered? I’ll leave the first part of that question to other threads, and focus on the second part. Can she be recovered? That’s actually a tricky question, and the answer is “No and Yes”.

No, she can not be recovered as a character. Her first impression was bad, and it’s tainted everything that’s come after. Yes, some people like her, but a lot do not and it’s something that will color any attempts to rework her into something more likable. No amount of retconning will change how she was introduced and what we were told, in game, the first time she appeared. Nor can it change the fact that we, the players, have been forced to hold the idiot ball whenever she’s around.

Yes, she can be saved as a plot element. How? By letting us not only wrap up the story as intended, but by using it to push forward other plot elements that have nothing to do with her.

For example, let’s say that it’s time for the final fight. Scarlet is laughing and making her usual remarks as the players fight their way to her. She delays them for one last moment as they come within sight of her, and with her usual flippant remarks, activates her teleporter… and nothing happens. Mentally, she’s thrown off balance for a moment, and then in walks Logan from behind her. Logan, who calmly tells her that they decided they were tired of her running, so he has Seraph mages jamming her teleporters. And then he turns it over to the players, who finally get the end fight with Scarlet as she’s forced to stand her ground on our terms. And when it’s over? She tries to surrender, only for Logan to pronounce that she’s already been sentenced to death for crimes against Kryta. We’re given the option of killing her ourselves, or letting Logan do it. Bang, Scarlet’s gone, and suddenly Logan has some character development and much needed respect.

This is how I see it. Not everyone will agree, I’m sure, but I’ve tried to remain objective.