Guild Wars 2

So, a question for you guys:

What do you think about the writing around Scarlet’s character? Do you think she was well written, or poor? Does she fit the current lore of GW2? Does she enhance other characters?

Do you think she was a good idea, from a story writer’s perspective?

If you were to rate her character from 1 to 10, what score would you give her?
(obviously we’ll just be analyzing what we have actually seen from her character, ignoring future character development)

Personally, I’m a bit so-so (4/10)
It sorta feels to me as if they just combined Joker’s twin sister(if he had any), Time-traveling Space/Air Pirates and the Cyberpunk version of Skynet’s evil robot army from another dimension.

They get a 1+ for their imagination, nonetheless
I still can’t say she fits the current story(or stories), and have a hard time to take her character seriously, unlike something like the dramatic Charr vs Human conflict for instance(just one example).

she is funny, i like that. but to me, the only way she could really made sence together with all the other stuff is that she is a second in command.

in starwars, darth vader is like the evil one, smart, strong, capable of alot, but he is actually the second in command after that emperor, who set the whole big army/empire up.
luke/vader also had some kind of nemesis together too.

i do hope scarlet is just the second in command.

but, her actions and way of talking, i like it:)

I refuse to believe a character such as that is the person behind the molten alliance and can properly command the aetherblades. She’s fat too immature for the role.

I was expecting a brutal and cold character. Instead, we got a petulant child.
2/10, she’s at least amoral.

As Scarlet is currently being shown off, I think that she’s poorly written. Her entire personal seems to be based off of a joker-complex where she’s trying to cause as much chaos as possible, but without an actual goal to it. Her personality’s one-dimensional so far, with no redeeming value and worse of all, no motivation to back her actions.

It’s like she’s just there for the sake of being there, and her actions are done just for the hell of it. And on top of this, she’s some sort of super-genius in a race that shares knowledge with each other… yet no one else knows the things she does?

Where’s her motivation? What’s her goal (please let it be more than just ‘causing mayhem’)? What made her decide to go the route of villainy? Without answering these questions properly, you just get a dull “kill her and be done” villain – and how Scarlet’s set up is that she’ll be around for a long time… which will just kill GW2 into becoming an achievement grindfest.

Honestly, as flat as Kiel is, she is far more interesting than Scarlet.

From what we’ve seen, I rate Scarlet a 3/10. And I give her that 3 because she still has room for improvement, with some implied interesting facts behind her:

1. She’s claimed to have effectively seen how the universe functions, and the meaning of life. Though as a sylvari, this means that there should be others who know this – as well as the Pale Tree herself. Unless she’s from a different tree (such as Malyck’s which is implied to not even have a connection to the Dream of Dreams), or is a Soundless – though she doesn’t act like one.
2. She has ties to the Steam creatures. Depending on how that connection is explored, it may improve her character, or do nothing to it.
3. One of her lines you can hear while in Divinity’s Reach is something along the lines of “First DR, then everything between here and Ebonhawke!” – this is an odd statement given how she utterly ignores the Maguuma Jungle (and even in the invasions, the Maguuma is skipped due to the lvl 1-25 not getting invasions mechanic). If there’s an actual story reason given to this, it can improve her character. But if it’s just because of mechanics with no story purpose… well, it lowers her character.

I just see nothing original in Scarlet or her actions. There’s nothing interesting behind her. The only interesting part in her and her actions is the design of the Twisted minions.

I think the Joker comparison is fair and the Joker is a good villain. Heath Ledger played the Joker very well as he kept giving clues to the Joker’s character but then made it all a ruse, leaving you no closer to really knowing what he really wanted. I’m guessing that Scarlet will however need a proper history and hopefully we’ll uncover that in the story. Crazy isn’t good enough on its own.

Well, I don’t know what ANet was aiming for with her, but I do find her an amusing villain. Props to her voice actress, she did a great job imo.

i like her, i don’t like how they overplayed her intelligence to ridiculous degrees.

the complaints about her not having motivations are void. just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. she’s not a twirly-mustache, reveal-the-whole-plan-beforehand character, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. the writers have been saying that for a while now. her arc doesn’t end here.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s like she’s just there for the sake of being there, and her actions are done just for the hell of it. And on top of this, she’s some sort of super-genius in a race that shares knowledge with each other… yet no one else knows the things she does?

@ Konig:

Just because she knows all of the things she does, doesn’t mean that other sylvari will. I mean you know, as well as anyone else on the lore forums, that the Dream doesn’t just work as an easily read deposit of information, otherwise the Order of Whispers would never allow sylvari inside. Plus the Pale Tree itself never claims to hold all the knowledge of the Dream either. She just merely claims to shepherd it somehow.

Plus, as intelligent as she is, she may have been able to find a way in which she partially separates herself from the Dream. It’s not unthinkable, based on the fact that soundless exist, that she could just prevent specific information from being recorded within the dream while still connecting to some degree. There are plenty of options.

On my side, I like her too. I think a lot of the hate comes from so far not knowing all the information, which is something that the playerbase should expect from the introduction of other factions in the past.

BrunoBRS.5178:

the complaints about her not having motivations are void.

In my case, I’m saying that she doesn’t show to have any motivations or goals. She very well may have them, but as long as they’re fully in the dark, all we see as the audience is a child-like persona who apparently knows all there is to know and wants to cause anarchy. And that alone doesn’t make a good villain.

Hence why I said that she still has room to improve.

Thing is, first impressions matter. And Anet’s trying to string Scarlet’s story out in the “Living World” (more like “Scarlet’s World” IMO – everything is focused around her or the aftermaths of her actions ever since Wintersday passed; that is not a living story at all, and eventually new players will be at a lost at the whole Scarlet plot). Eventually, we’ll tire of this figure unless they show us her motivations and goals relatively soon, even if not this time around.

@Narcemus:

The Pale Tree actually is said to know what all other sylvari tied to her dream know. Now, whether or not this is true… that’s up to debate still. And while not all sylvari know everything the Dream has, they do have a chance at learning anything a sylvari still tied to the Dream learns. So one would think that with all this knowledge Scarlet has, some of the newer sylvari would know some of it, at least.

But my point to this is that they give no hint or indication to give that other sylvari shouldn’t know these things. Other than the fact the players never heard of her, apparently Scarlet’s this big-shot in multiple communities. Yet nonetheless, she appears out of no where, with no background to her other than she was the one who united the Molten Alliance and Aetherblade/Inquest.

Personally, my problem isn’t the lack of information – in fact, I’m using that as hope for improvement. My problem is just how her personality and portrayal currently is. It’s not all that enjoyable. More annoying than anything.

I like her personality and voice, but she’s smart. Impossibly smart.

I’m confused as to how she could graduate from even one college, let alone all three. Or how any one of them would accept her, given how they never have before and have shown no signs of letting stupid bookahs in since. That is to say nothing of the curriculum in front of her. Asura language is a mixture of characters and mathematics applied in ways that the lesser races can scarcely understand, let alone study. It would be a struggle at best and impossible at worst for the little fern to learn the alphabet, let alone write the basic formulae necessary to do any sort of experiment. Her ‘colleagues’, if you had the naivety to put them on an equal level, would be outright against the idea of tutoring or helping her.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

I like her personality and voice, but she’s smart. Impossibly smart.

I’m confused as to how she could graduate from even one college, let alone all three. Or how any one of them would accept her, given how they never have before and have shown no signs of letting stupid bookahs in since.

Or how every asura within Tyria hadn’t already heard of Scarlet? Seems to me any asura player character ears should have perked the minute Scarlet’s name was mentioned by the aetherblades.

Scarlet is a Villian Sue. Whereas the oft-compared Joker isn’t good at everything and is often undone by his own hubris, Scarlet is a flat character with no motivation so far. I really hope ANet can rescue her and make her interesting and understandable, but given how ANet’s history of Mary Sues and non-complex characters, I don’t hold out much hope.

I know this is a case of gameplay getting in the way of the story, and not strictly speaking related to her personality, but I want to chime in and say how jarring it is that this super-genius marshaling secret armies that stretch across a continent repeatedly damages herself with her own explosives.

I like her, althoug she is little too childish. She is clearly nuts, but even the hairstyle calls “spoiled brat” to me, maybe they overshooted there. She could use some sort of motivation besides pure chaos, but as far as we can see,that´s it – chaos.
And the Asuran colleges? that´s just insane and unimaginable to me. Like you already said, I can´t imagine asuras to let salad study on one of their colleges. But all three and being so excelent? Oh, and she studied with all other races in the free time! Ridiculous, really.
I´d give her (as a character) 5/10, let´s see what we will get in next releases. But if I have to count in hers back story…2/10
oh, and hey should explain why she has last name too! Sylvari normally have just one name, unless they´d want to adopt one or something

‘Scarlet’ isn’t really a sylvari name anyway. An obvious villain name without having any apparent depth beyond the negative connotations? I’ve no doubt she picked it for herself in preference to the name she awoke with. Same with Briar.

you got a point there, should heave think of that nevermind that point then

what doesnt make sense to me about scarlet is why she’s focused on the human kingdom of kryta. Looking at her past, it would make far more sense to invade the grove or rata sum. From the pre-patch build up we know that she specifically wanted to see KRYTA in flames. Why? What could a mad sylvari leading the molten alliance and aetherblades possibly want with kryta?

That grudge, I think, is where most of the expansion on her backstory will take place. pre-patch build up aside, she deliberately threatens human society. Also, did you notice how humans are the only ‘major’ race she didn’t supposedly learn from?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

That grudge, I think, is where most of the expansion on her backstory will take place. pre-patch build up aside, she deliberately threatens human society. Also, did you notice how humans are the only ‘major’ race she didn’t supposedly learn from?

That’s true, perhaps this indicates that the monarchy somehow snubbed her- or perhaps her “benefactors” are anti-human?(mursaat?)

Also her naming scheme seems to be human as well. Charr usually get a last name dependent on their warband and her last name doesnt sound nornish.

Is it actually stated anywhere that she has ‘benefactors’?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Is it actually stated anywhere that she has ‘benefactors’?

No there’s no concrete statement about it, im just making inferences

Gotcha. Personally, I believe her ‘special dispensation’, and maybe a bit more, was achieved by buddying up with the Inquest, but I don’t feel I have enough information to stick my neck out and speculate on the exact nature of the relationship.

Well, here is why Scarlet is Crazy and the motivation of her actions..https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/?utm_source=client

So, it’s less that she’s crazy and more that she’s operating on principles beyond our understanding. I suppose I can work with that. Though it would’ve been nice if we had gotten that impression from Scarlet herself in-game.

Also, I’m even more disappointed by the fight mechanics now.

And here I’ve thought that after the last short story, the writing could not get any worse. I was wrong.

Scarlet is not a Villain Sue, she’s The Villain Sue. The whole short story screams it. I sincerely hope we kill her off permanently soon and move on.

I disagree. The writing here is nowise as bad as the last couple have been. Furthermore, the story is fulfilling an actual useful function again. There is no way that much backstory could have been satisfactorily communicated in-game (well, perhaps a Lost Shores style scavenger hunt tracing Ceara’s footsteps), and it’s stuff that us players actually benefit from knowing. As for Ceara herself, she still seems unnaturally talented, but other than that there is nothing objectionable about her character. She’s a megalomaniac who just might be justified in her high opinion of herself, a sylvari that rebels against the Pale Tree and her Dream but has better sense than to become the Nightmare’s slave, a mortal playing at godhood. Yes, the scope goes a bit beyond most of Guild Wars’ villains, and yes, there’s really no reason that a sylvari should be able to out-asura an asura. However, she is not flat, she has plausible reasons for being the way she is, and she is relatable to a degree. She doesn’t check out as a Sue of any form.

I’m rather disappointed.

The awakening scene paints a good picture for Ceara, aka Scarlet Briar (why the name change?), but the rest just diminishes her character a bit:

1. Apparently from the pictures, she awoke in her magitech armor…
2. So she learned from the best modern norn blacksmith, just to wave him away? Then all the other things on top if it? So she’s some sort of prodigy that can do everything and anything. Right…
3. Perhaps the most xenophobic and territorial hylek tribe to ever exist goes and gives Scarlet refuge? Seriously?
4. Oh, and apparently she’s now the cause for all asura players’ problems in levels 1-10, perhaps even some 10-20 as well, storylines.
5. And here’s the biggest issue of mine: okay, so she sees the purpose and fate of all sylvari. Fine, I can go with that. And seeing this makes her go insane – a warning was given to her but her lust of knowledge makes her avoid it. That works great, even. And now she wants to change the fate of sylvari, to let them chose their own destinies rather than live out pre-determined lives. I can relate to that. But… how the hell does assaulting Hoelbrak, Black Citadel, Lion’s Arch, and Divinity’s Reach fit into all this exactly? Why must continents burn and nations fall, exactly?

Her goal and her actions have no relation.

And this stuff should be shone in the game. I enjoy these short stories a bit, but come on now. This stuff should be shown to us in the freakin’ game. And it wouldn’t be all too hard either.

But I guess her being able to do everything and anything is little different from the PCs (which isn’t exactly a good thing either).

The Michotl are friendly- there’s even a heart to help them. They’re also blue. The person taking those screen caps just didn’t know what they were looking at.

And I agree that there is more to this- all of the vision we saw had to do with sylvari. Whatever she saw after that has to be what drove her ‘mad’ and has her targeting humanity, ‘cause the human race isn’t mentioned at all in that story.

Ah yes, I was mixing them with the Cautl due to the skin color, since those are the red ones in Metrica Province.

And I don’t think she saw much after that – not beyond the sylvari. When she woke up she mentioned realizing the point behind the Pale Tree and the Nightmare Court, of Caithe and Faolain… but only made mention of realizing things about the sylvari.

Gods I hope it won’t end up being that the sylvari are indeed minions of Mordremoth and the Pale Tree is somehow purified and now Scarlet is a Cadeyrn 2.0 in wanting to “fix” that. >.>

There had to have been something big about Caithe and Faolain. And whatever it was, it completely changed her- what we saw of what she saw is nowhere near enough to account for such a dramatic alteration of her personality.

I’m finding a big disconnection between the Scarlet that’s described and the Scarlet we see in game. She’s the most brilliant inventor of weaponry ever with and she’s fighting us in her playhouse with cannonballs, gunpowder, and a blunderbuss.

Don’t forget her club! :P

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ah yes, I was mixing them with the Cautl due to the skin color, since those are the red ones in Metrica Province.

And I don’t think she saw much after that – not beyond the sylvari. When she woke up she mentioned realizing the point behind the Pale Tree and the Nightmare Court, of Caithe and Faolain… but only made mention of realizing things about the sylvari.

Gods I hope it won’t end up being that the sylvari are indeed minions of Mordremoth and the Pale Tree is somehow purified and now Scarlet is a Cadeyrn 2.0 in wanting to “fix” that. >.>

Gods…. The “I Told You So’s” would never end Konig…

She feels like a character that A-Net was gonna put lots of effort in.. And then, when this patch came out they were like, ‘Ehkittenit.’

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

She feels like a character that A-Net was gonna put lots of effort in.. And then, when this patch came out they were like, ‘Ehkittenit.’

“Hey, they’re starting to say the Living Story needs some forward momentum! Quick, get that Scarlet character modeled and ready. Yeah I know your story wasn’t supposed to hit until after Super Adventure Box but we gotta get something non-festive in there now or there’s going to be a riot.”

BrunoBRS.5178:

she’s not a twirly-mustache, reveal-the-whole-plan-beforehand character, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one.

To be fair, she IS twirling her mustache at us constantly. During the opening ceremony, she was constantly teleporting around just to show off (twirling her mustache). And during the invasions, she also pops up constantly, only to mock the players and teleport away.

In that regard, Konig is spot on with her being a shallow villain.

I don’t really care for her. I wish it was clear why she’s doing the things she’s doing. Apparently she likes to cause chaos… but for what reason? On a positive note, I do like her voice.

All I have to say is wait. This is her first appearance, and I would assume after her appearance the story would go on to finding more out about her and trying to find her plans/motives in order to stop her and bring her to justice (in this case hopefully killing her instead of imprisoning her, because we all know how well imprisoning the joker always worked out…).

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

BrunoBRS.5178:

she’s not a twirly-mustache, reveal-the-whole-plan-beforehand character, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one.

To be fair, she IS twirling her mustache at us constantly. During the opening ceremony, she was constantly teleporting around just to show off (twirling her mustache). And during the invasions, she also pops up constantly, only to mock the players and teleport away.

In that regard, Konig is spot on with her being a shallow villain.

that’s just being kitteny (watch as the filter censors it).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’m rather disappointed.

The awakening scene paints a good picture for Ceara, aka Scarlet Briar (why the name change?), but the rest just diminishes her character a bit:

1. Apparently from the pictures, she awoke in her magitech armor…
2. So she learned from the best modern norn blacksmith, just to wave him away? Then all the other things on top if it? So she’s some sort of prodigy that can do everything and anything. Right…
3. Perhaps the most xenophobic and territorial hylek tribe to ever exist goes and gives Scarlet refuge? Seriously?
4. Oh, and apparently she’s now the cause for all asura players’ problems in levels 1-10, perhaps even some 10-20 as well, storylines.
5. And here’s the biggest issue of mine: okay, so she sees the purpose and fate of all sylvari. Fine, I can go with that. And seeing this makes her go insane – a warning was given to her but her lust of knowledge makes her avoid it. That works great, even. And now she wants to change the fate of sylvari, to let them chose their own destinies rather than live out pre-determined lives. I can relate to that. But… how the hell does assaulting Hoelbrak, Black Citadel, Lion’s Arch, and Divinity’s Reach fit into all this exactly? Why must continents burn and nations fall, exactly?

Her goal and her actions have no relation.

And this stuff should be shone in the game. I enjoy these short stories a bit, but come on now. This stuff should be shown to us in the freakin’ game. And it wouldn’t be all too hard either.

But I guess her being able to do everything and anything is little different from the PCs (which isn’t exactly a good thing either).

I had my wife actually look at the story and she asked me what it was bout and i said a “main villain who appeared in the new story ingame who acts all crazy” and the very first thing she said literally as i finished saying it was"she looks at something goes insane wants to burn everything right?".

She then read the story and said “what the hell is this? this is more of a crappy romance then anything. Yes the writer does a decent job of writing bout emotions and surroundings but alot of the details they use are borderline erotic in their use. The worse part is the dialogue that is said outside of her talking to the guy who is there when she awakens is so basic and cliche that it’s easy to see where anything is going since the writer is more worried bout writing borderline smut with the words and wording of what they are writing then actual engaging dialogue”

I also agreed with her and i even said that this type of storytelling needs to end pronto. if not the cliche dialogue and characters then the way they don’t know the basic saying that is pretty much one of the 3 rules of story telling “SHOW DON’T TELL”.

Seriously read or watch a few animes hopefully ones that are decently known for their story telling and get an idea bout character depth. Animes can get away with that because of their usual length and lack of censorship on whole. One of my favorite examples is “Fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood” or “Ghost in the shell anime series” both actually show good backstory or give enough crumb trails to keep you interested.

I’ll fully admit that anime is not everyone’s cup of tea but to be honest i’ve seen more deeper characters on average from anime then most movies. The reason being is there is so much competition for revenue and actual recognition that it gives alot of writers A REASON to try as hard as they can because they know there are other people doing the same profession for the same spot they want.

1/10 meaning terrible. Absolutely terrible. A shrieking, spiteful, egotistical brat that is somehow the smartest, bestest, coolest thing ever. I can’t for the life of me fathom how anyone would spend three seconds around her, never mind teach her anything other than “fix your attitude NOW or I’ll whip you into the next century”.

I don’t like the term Mary Sue because it’s used disproportionally for women while male characters often get away with a lot more. But if one core component of a Sue is that everyone is in awe of its superiority, and another is that it never has to face any negative consequences for its BS, then yeah — Scarlet qualifies big time. And those two issues are among the WORST for any character and any story.

Also, I bought the game for a magical, mystical, epic adventure about saving the world from the Elder Dragons. I did VERY MUCH NOT expect nor want a game about helplessly scuttling around at the whim of some out-of-control, untouchable teenage brat and her oh-so-cool pseudo-techno-babble-nonsense.

I think she’s neat: a sylvari, so very young, intelligent and ambiguous enough to blow past every race’s interpretation of success and genius, finally learning enough that it drives her batty. I wouldn’t want her as a real life enemy, that’s for sure.

There was an error somewhere on the road. Scarlet in game is not the Scarlet in the short story. I actually liked the story, but really…seeing “Eternal Alchemy” will turn you into the spoiled brat? Because thats the only explanation as of why is she acting like one.
But I liked the reason as why she was able to study all three colleges. OK, how she actually got into the first one is pretty stretched and “Scarlet knows all the best”, but as they allowed her to the others only to see what she is capable of, thats where I thought “that´s so asuran!”.
But yeah, I hope we will kill her soon enough and be done with this

Pavees.7281:

Seriously read or watch a few animes hopefully ones that are decently known for their story telling and get an idea bout character depth. Animes can get away with that because of their usual length and lack of censorship on whole. One of my favorite examples is “Fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood” or “Ghost in the shell anime series” both actually show good backstory or give enough crumb trails to keep you interested.

GitS:SAC is not really . . . good . . . at “show don’t tell” as there is an awful lot of having things explained and infodumps going on, from what I remember when I watched it. (And I loved it, watched it and the second season but it was worse in the second season with the infodump and dialogue creep).

It is still a superb choice for viewing, just . . . take notes, because it is complicated. And the show does not help you.

Another good one might be “Cowboy Bebop”, though it’s overhyped these days. not because it’s not good, but because everyone and their second cousin tells people “you have to watch this”. Also, Steve Blum.

Recently I was reminded about “Macross Plus” and halfway through rewatching it I do have to advise to watch it as well.

Also, and this is one I have not seen but enough people I respect speak highly of it, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Not technically anime. Still worth it from what little I know of it.

But at the same time, please please please please PLEASE remember there is a world of difference between written works and viewed works. For writers it can be much more difficult to get to a point in the page where it magically just WORKS. If we’re going to try to bring up better works, it would be best to stick to writers rather than animation or film.

I’ll even start: Lois McMasters Bujold’s “The Vorkosigan Saga”, anything by Timothy Zahn (conservation of detail very much so), and Tad Williams’ “Tailchaser’s Song” or even “Caliban’s Hour”.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Pavees.7281:

Seriously read or watch a few animes hopefully ones that are decently known for their story telling and get an idea bout character depth. Animes can get away with that because of their usual length and lack of censorship on whole. One of my favorite examples is “Fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood” or “Ghost in the shell anime series” both actually show good backstory or give enough crumb trails to keep you interested.

GitS:SAC is not really . . . good . . . at “show don’t tell” as there is an awful lot of having things explained and infodumps going on, from what I remember when I watched it. (And I loved it, watched it and the second season but it was worse in the second season with the infodump and dialogue creep).

It is still a superb choice for viewing, just . . . take notes, because it is complicated. And the show does not help you.

Another good one might be “Cowboy Bebop”, though it’s overhyped these days. not because it’s not good, but because everyone and their second cousin tells people “you have to watch this”. Also, Steve Blum.

Recently I was reminded about “Macross Plus” and halfway through rewatching it I do have to advise to watch it as well.

Also, and this is one I have not seen but enough people I respect speak highly of it, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Not technically anime. Still worth it from what little I know of it.

But at the same time, please please please please PLEASE remember there is a world of difference between written works and viewed works. For writers it can be much more difficult to get to a point in the page where it magically just WORKS. If we’re going to try to bring up better works, it would be best to stick to writers rather than animation or film.

I’ll even start: Lois McMasters Bujold’s “The Vorkosigan Saga”, anything by Timothy Zahn (conservation of detail very much so), and Tad Williams’ “Tailchaser’s Song” or even “Caliban’s Hour”.

i wasn’t intending for ghost in the shell to be an example of “show dont tell” it’s more of “it does a better job of defining believable characters and emotions”

also avatar the last air bender is defined as a western anime since anime in general is usually the art and story style as opposed to the traditional style used elsewhere.

Exosferatu.2961:

Scarlet is not original. Her character is somewhat plagiarized from Christoper Nolan’s The Joker. The Joker and Scarlet have identical characteristics and philosophical doctrine: nihilism.

Don’t knock them for deriving, because I honestly don’t think any character can be made (realistically) which will not be tagged for being derivative of something. Heath Ledger’s Joker is not the first character to take that philosophy, nor was Kefka, nor were anyone else in modern literature.

Also, while I may grant she has certain aspects of the other character? She has some things those two do not: namely, it is not her goal as shown in the story simply to destroy order. That’s a part of the path she intends to take. What she is aiming for is to destroy order and then supplant it with something she sees as superior.

At least, that’s what I saw. She rejects the order she sees the world in, but not simply to have an absence of order. But to have one which, to her, makes more sense.

. . . I’d rather look to Shin Megami Tensei for this sort of plot than The Dark Knight Saga.

I will be harsh.

Scarlet is just like the rest of gw2 lore – boring, shallow, silly, full of stupid jokes, memes and plot-holes, and generally butchered for the sake of fan-service.

Anet went with the cheapest route – make a crazy villain that kills for kittens and giggles. No need for writing interesting dialogues, just put some weird jokes and rl-references.
I won’t say it’s taken straight from some fan-fiction, because they tend to be super-dark and edgy and ‘mature’. Scarlet is just like the rest of lore – silly.

And her short-story… please… I swear, it was written after seeing the complaints about her. Scarlet from the story and Scarlet from the game are not even the same person, but after Canach I expected nothing more. I won’t even comment on the whole ’it’s not in-game’ thing as there were so many complaints about that. Anet listens – yeah right…

Now I only await the appearance of the mursaat. I am really curious how they will butcher them.

Oh well, nice seeing Anet taking the Blizzard path. Too bad that before the release this mmo was advertised as lore-frienldy… I wish only this game was called differently, maybe like “My Little Guild Wars 2: Teamwork is Magic”

For me …
We can not get out as easily Colleges Asuras.

Neither will come easily either.

This is the only thing that stops me.

I highly doubt the “What Scarlet Saw” was hastily thrown together because of the angry response. I’m pretty sure that it was already planned out, especially since they had done similar things all the way since Flame and Frost introduced Braham and Rox…

I do think there’s something to be said about the comparison to Batman’s Joker. I am very interested, though, as to how she keeps all of these factions under her control, and where she’s been keeping them hidden this whole freaking time. I mean I understand the twisted creations thing, but there is an armada of Aetherblades attacking zones at any given time, and there is still a large portion of Molten Alliance individuals to be found. I just don’t understand where she’s kept this army hidden away at, and how she keeps them under her control. Eventually mercenaries or people terrorized into service leave their master after they have been massacred to a certain point…

Sorry for diverting the topic, but I’m getting tired of people complaining about her personality, when nothing about it is gonna be changed during this chapter of the story. Obviously it’s gonna take time for her character to be filled out.

@Konig Des Todes
“It’s like she’s just there for the sake of being there, and her actions are done just for the hell of it. And on top of this, she’s some sort of super-genius in a race that shares knowledge with each other… yet no one else knows the things she does?”

I agree with most of what you have said other than this, the asura may share some knowledge with each other but the colleges are often seen to be in competition and on top of this we have seen the inquest sabotage or steal from other asura.

This being said I would rate her a 2/10 “die,die,die,die,die,die” just sad. I would expect that we will not kill her though as there has been quite a big build up, I expect that jormag will be a major focus this year based on all the year 2 minis there are alot of SoS and Wolfborn to fight them. this being said there are also many other groups in the minis for this year such as inquest vs peacekeepers, and perhaps a new centaur leader. or maybe I’m just reading too much into the minis they have made for year 2.

Except that it’s more than just the three collages she’s famous for.

She studied from the most famous Blacksmith – who holds both direct and indirect multitude of ties to the personal story. She studied under a gladium who also, iirc, has ties to the personal story. And the Pale Tree herself viewed Scarlet as a threat it seems.

But yet… she’s only now being revealed to the open world? When she is being made to have been a super-genius and threat for a while now?

It’s one thing to have “a new villain” and another to have “an ‘old’ villain who’s now being introduced” – at least with Abaddon, all knowledge of him was supposedly wiped out.