Loose Threads
The lore forums were filled with complaints over the many, many unused and loose threads from the stories still yet to be touched upon. It would be interesting to have a genuine discussion between the writers and the community on how they compose stories and situations and try and get to the root of why they leave so many things untended.
It’s almost as they write things knowing them to be throwaways to set up something else, forgetting that many actually pick up and take notice of all these bits. Which as an attentive audience is how we should be viewing these things.
As you say, it was very rushed. Anet realised that the Living Story was not keeping players content and threw out an expansion with raids as quickly as they could.
While new features can be added at a later date, the story will always remain. Even if it got revamped, we’ve already played through it in its current state. Just as the original story’s final boss felt rushed, the entire thing does with HoT. Two maps are missing, massive plot holes, unused plot points (Marjory, racism against sylvari after the first story mission and a couple of events), completely removed parts of the plot Nightmare Court, anyone?). Stuff was cut, they had a schedule so tight it choked them, etc, etc – it was rushed, we know it.
Still, the fact it turned out as good as it did, knowing all of that, is quite impressive. I don’t know what they can do with Season 3 to redeem the story issues, as what’s done is done… but I hope that they somehow make it work.
The Waypoint thing got resolved inside S2 (in a mission with Taimi)
it explained why mordy would eventuly stop noming the waypoints
Taimi had worked out how to stop it .. but then the Kitten from Rata Sum took her invention to be held in escrow till she became of age i thought which ment they were not going us use it? Which is why Taimi went bat%#^& crazy and ran away with the device.
You guys do know there’s a living world season 3 planned, yes?
Chances are some of the answers will be in that season.
While it is possible they could answer the Nightmare Court issue post HoT i think my Marjy issue is a little less likely.
Unless she goes all Emo on you for stealing her revenge .. but then … it was her choice to stay behind.
I think its more likely that belinda’s soul sword is going to be dropped … swept under the rug and forgotten.
Who cares if it was rushed or not? Did you have fun playing through the first time? Were you engaged with the characters? Did you feel forced out of the story by the events or dialogue? In the end, those are the key factors and everything else can be ‘fixed’ with the next story.
I think HoT’s story is exactly on par with everything else that ANet has done in the past. I connected with the people (although, as always, some voice acting seems not up to the same level as the majority) and I wanted to see how they’d handle each new conundrum. I was sad when [spoiler this] and [spoiler that] happened, even on repeat.
Oh, and yeah, there are loose threads, just like every story ANet’s ever told from GW1/Original through to today. Like the OP, I feel that ANet has some ‘splainin’ left to do.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
(about Taimi) making the waypoints network magic taste nasty to mordy was the whole point of that mission it was the only way Phlunt would agree to come to the leaders summit.
he only took away her claim to the invention. dosnt mean they didnt just use it themselfs
IIRC the only reason Phlunt came to the summit was if we handed over the device.
Im sure Braham said to her we will find another way.
… Ill have to replay that episode again tonight after i finish work and refresh the mind but i came away from that episode thinking well that was a waste of time .. now what do we do?
Talk to Marjory in the hub after the story mission. She talks about having revenge for her sister.
It’s not well shown during the story step, but for Marjory, preventing the mordrem from interrupting you while you killed Mordremoth was just as much revenge as killing Mordremoth herself.
Taimi had worked out how to stop it .. but then the Kitten from Rata Sum took her invention to be held in escrow till she became of age i thought which ment they were not going us use it? Which is why Taimi went bat%#^& crazy and ran away with the device.
It was used. During the releases, vines were actually attacking waypoints – some of them (3 I think) were destroyed. With the release of episode 4, the episode where Taimi’s device is finished and taken by Phlunt, the vines in the open world disappeared.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
It was used. During the releases, vines were actually attacking waypoints – some of them (3 I think) were destroyed. With the release of episode 4, the episode where Taimi’s device is finished and taken by Phlunt, the vines in the open world disappeared.
I think the point is: we spent all this energy to understand what was happening to WP, the source of the vines, and getting Taimi time to build the device… and then the actual repair of the WPs happens… off camera, behind the scenes.
In other words, in retrospect, there’s an explanation; as we actually participate in the story, it feels missing. In effect, it’s real-time retcon (by which I mean: it affects some people the same as others are affected by retroactive changes to the past story).
Although, again, in my view, none of this matters in the least if it doesn’t pull us out of the story completely making us wonder “what the heck?” That happened for me during LS2 (oh yeah, Scarlet woke up Mordremoth, the Jungle Dragon) — there was nothing in the story I watched that prepared me for that revelation (although, yes, I read the developer explanation, which was coherent & logical — I just no longer cared at that point, because I already got pulled out of the story).
tl;dr sometimes it’s better to leave ends loose as mysteries, sometimes better to deal with them within the story, and it’s rarely best to just throw in resolutions for the sake of tying them up alone.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
i see no issue with that the PC was only involved to get the leader summit going.
the waypoint thing being fixed off screen makes sense (if you pay attention to the chatter in the mission it was actually resolved right then!)
there are still waypoints around the world still shattered even now
I think there’s the misconception that the device was used after Phlunt took it… but it wasn’t. It was used before.
At the end of the Taimi mission in Episode 3, when we help construct it, Taimi turns it on and begins the reprogramming of the waypoints. She outright states its going to take a while, so in the mean time we should go do other things than sit around twiddling our thumbs. And we do – we go do Party Politics story instance. When the device is done, Phlunt demands confirmation so we then do that silly test “in miniature!” which draws dragon minions (how that drew dragon minions but not using it across a sub-continental-wide network is beyond me).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I think what attracted the Mordrem there was not the waypoint recalibration device itself, but that the demonstration involved about a dozen mini-waypoints that were configured to broadcast a similar magical waypoint as a regular pre-recalibration waypoint, all situated near a ley line that was already needing to be cleared of Mordrem on a regular basis. After all, it was the mini-waypoints that the leyleecher went for rather than the recalibration device (although the other Mordrem going for it indicates that they realised that the recalibration device was denying the leyleecher its meal).
Regarding Marjory, I was surprised myself when she didn’t put her hand up as one of the people to go into Mordremoth’s mind.
To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.