Guild Wars 2

TLDR:: Jenna likely wanted Kralkatoric dead. Scarlet likely wants Mordremoth dead first. Attacking Jenna prevented the campaign.

Why did Scarlet attack the pavilion?

I think an important part of understanding Scarlet is to ask the question: What was the Queen’s speech actually going to be?

Right now Scarlet attacking the pavilion seems jarring and unnecessary. It’s a large part of why people think Scarlet as a character is adapted to what the developers want to do rather than acting logically.

But this need not be the case, as there is potentially a good reason that Scarlet did attack the pavilion.

What has Scarlet done: *

Molten Alliance- To mine chaos crystals, and to supply a metal equivalent to Iron Legion steel.

Aetherblades- Technological research, holographic projectors, cloaking devices, portals.

Nightmare Court- Husks.

Toxic Alliance- Plant Reactor, mind altering chemicals, hybridization machine.

The reactor

With all these components she has everything to make a stable (metal), hidden (cloaking), and reliable (husks) reactor. But what is she going to use that reactor for?

In the short story Ceara is described as wanting to break free of the control that the current systems put people under. This character would not want to be enslaved either by the Pale Tree or the dragons. So it can be fairly easily assumed she regards both as enemies.

To kill a dragon

If the goal is to kill the dragons, the first she would logically want to kill is Mordremoth- the plant dragon right next to her homeland which could possibly be able to corrupt Sylvari despite their current immunity to the known dragons.

Jenna vs Kralkatoric

With this in mind, what was the queen’s speech going to be about? Divinities Reach recently won a war against the centars, no other major enemy is threatening their homeland as far as they’re aware. But their sister city Ebonhawke, which they have a portal straight to is under threat by Kralkatoric. It would seem logical to imagine that if she is making a speech to all the representatives of the world it would be something of global importance, and if she was going to declare war on a specific dragon it would be the one threatening her satellite city, and the Black Citadel which would mean she’d likely get their support.

This would put Jenna’s plans in direct conflict with Scarlet’s as the dragons are on opposite sides of the world.

The logic of Scarlet’s attack

Were the humans to attack Kralkatoric the rest of the world, and the pact would surely follow. Scarlet’s actions could well be to prevent this and save them for fighting Mordremoth.

Risingashes.8694:

TLDR:: Jenna likely wanted Kralkatoric dead. Scarlet likely wants Mordremoth dead first. Attacking Jenna prevented the campaign.

I’m going to stop you right there. Queen Jennah probably wants all Elder Dragons dead, as does almost everyone on Tyria. But she’s probably most concerned with simply keeping Kryta safe. I don’t see any reason why Jennah specifically would want to go after Kralkatorrik.

We don’t know if Scarlet wants the Elder Dragons dead. Certainly Mordremoth is never spoken of. So those are two very wild assumptions.

Risingashes.8694:

I think an important part of understanding Scarlet is to ask the question: What was the Queen’s speech actually going to be?

It was an opening of the new pavilion, and some blabla about Kryta overcoming great obstacles. I really don’t think there was any intent to announce something important during the speech.

Risingashes.8694:

If the goal is to kill the dragons, the first she would logically want to kill is Mordremoth- the plant dragon right next to her homeland which could possibly be able to corrupt Sylvari despite their current immunity to the known dragons.

I don’t think Scarlet considers that as her homeland.

Risingashes.8694:

and if she was going to declare war on a specific dragon it would be the one threatening her satellite city, and the Black Citadel which would mean she’d likely get their support.

I don’t think Jennah is that concerned about Ebonhawk. It’s outside her rule, and she simply supports it with supplies. But would she pull all her forces away from Kryta to go after Kralkatorrik? Not likely. And good luck getting the Black Citadel and Ebonhawk to work together. Ebonhawk’s forces will stay where they are, and defend the city for as long as they can against dragon minions and Charr. They are not going to leave the city and risk it falling into the hands of the Charr.

Risingashes.8694:

Were the humans to attack Kralkatoric the rest of the world, and the pact would surely follow. Scarlet’s actions could well be to prevent this and save them for fighting Mordremoth.

I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Most likely the Charr would have Kralkatorrik on their agenda, but the Norn have Jormag to worry about. The humans are mostly busy mopping up the remains of Zhaitan’s army, and have Scarlet to deal with.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I’m going to stop you right there. Queen Jennah probably wants all Elder Dragons dead, as does almost everyone on Tyria. But she’s probably most concerned with simply keeping Kryta safe. I don’t see any reason why Jennah specifically would want to go after Kralkatorrik.

The fact that Kralkatorrik (or well, its minions) attacked and decimated much of the garrison of Ebonhawke and tried to kill her would be a rather good reason to want to target it first.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It was an opening of the new pavilion, and some blabla about Kryta overcoming great obstacles. I really don’t think there was any intent to announce something important during the speech.

So your assumption is that the speech was completely meaningless, and simply an excuse to allow Scarlet to appear and try to kill Jenna for no reason.

I’m saying that such a thing is horrible writing, and I’m offering an alternate explanation. If the speech was actually meaningful, what was the Queen actually going to say?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I don’t think Scarlet considers that as her homeland.

Then rephrase my statement as: If the goal is to kill the dragons, the first she would logically want to kill is Mordremoth- the plant dragon which is most likely able to corrupt Sylvari despite their current immunity to the known dragons.

Since the homeland thing is completely irrelevant to the actual point of what I was saying.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I don’t think Jennah is that concerned about Ebonhawk. It’s outside her rule, and she simply supports it with supplies.

Then which dragon would she be most concerned about? Because the one on the doorstep of her closest ally:the only other human city on the continent, seems like the best bet to me.

Kral is also a threat to the Black Citadel which Jenna has been trying to strengthen her non-aggression pact with. Allying against a common enemy would go a long way to cementing relations.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

But would she pull all her forces away from Kryta to go after Kralkatorrik? Not likely.

Why not? She’s just defeated the centaurs according to the timeline, the number one threat since the beginning of the personal story. No other organised force exists as a threat to Divinity’s Reach.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

And good luck getting the Black Citadel and Ebonhawk to work together.

Getting a common enemy would specifically facilitate this, and once completed would be a great way to stop the tension between these two parties.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Most likely the Charr would have Kralkatorrik on their agenda, but the Norn have Jormag to worry about. The humans are mostly busy mopping up the remains of Zhaitan’s army, and have Scarlet to deal with.

The Pact would be accompanying the human army, not the races individually. And a racial leader declaring war on a dragon would likely cause the Pact to join in, otherwise the risk would be the human’s would fail making future efforts weaker.

You can assume that there was no point to the speech, and no point to Scarlet attacking. But that really is just believing that the story is poorly constructed, and extremely shallow.

If not a campaign against a dragon what would the Queen’s speech have been about if Scarlet didn’t interrupt it? And if Scarlet didn’t want to interrupt the speech why was she there?

Don’t forget the bandit/white mantle which is directly threatening divinity’s as well as ministers seeking to overthrow the queen….

http://wartower.tumblr.com/post/60458277036/this-lorespecial-is-about-scarlet-briar-the-evil

TL;DL: According to the writers, the speech was just more of what we’d gotten all Jubilee: humans are resilient, we cannot be broken, we will not yield, we are still here. Scarlet only heard the “we cannot be broken” part, and thought on a whim “we’ll see about that.” Unsatisfactory way to introduce a villain who had had four months of foreshadowing? Yes, but there you have it.

Risingashes.8694:

So your assumption is that the speech was completely meaningless, and simply an excuse to allow Scarlet to appear and try to kill Jenna for no reason.

I’m saying that such a thing is horrible writing, and I’m offering an alternate explanation. If the speech was actually meaningful, what was the Queen actually going to say?

But do we have any reason to assume she was going to say something important?

Risingashes.8694:

Then rephrase my statement as: If the goal is to kill the dragons, the first she would logically want to kill is Mordremoth- the plant dragon which is most likely able to corrupt Sylvari despite their current immunity to the known dragons.

Since the homeland thing is completely irrelevant to the actual point of what I was saying.

Why would she be specifically interested in killing Mordremoth? First of all, most people do not know of his existence. Does Scarlet know he exists? And if she did, would she care specifically about that dragon? Also, we do not know if he can corrupt Sylvari… so that’s a big IF. But even then, why would she care about the other Sylvari? She works together with the Nightmare Court for starters (in a temporary alliance). Doesn’t seem like she’s on the side of the Sylvari.

Risingashes.8694:

Then which dragon would she be most concerned about?

None or all. She is a Queen. She cares about Kryta and direct threats to her nation.

Risingashes.8694:

Kral is also a threat to the Black Citadel which Jenna has been trying to strengthen her non-aggression pact with. Allying against a common enemy would go a long way to cementing relations.

All of the Elder Dragons are a threat to all of Jennah’s allies. Kralkatorrik is really not that special, except for the fact that he may be the one Elder Dragon who is the furthest away from Kryta.

Risingashes.8694:

Why not? She’s just defeated the centaurs

Who are terrorizing Kryta. They are a direct threat to her people and to the stability of the region.

Risingashes.8694:

Getting a common enemy would specifically facilitate this, and once completed would be a great way to stop the tension between these two parties.

It would never work. Ebonhawk is independent, and doesn’t care what the Queen thinks about Charr-Human relations.

Risingashes.8694:

The Pact would be accompanying the human army, not the races individually. And a racial leader declaring war on a dragon would likely cause the Pact to join in, otherwise the risk would be the human’s would fail making future efforts weaker.

The Pact is a cooperative effort of all the races to fight the Elder Dragons. They all recognized Zhaitan as the biggest threat. But now that Zhaitan has been defeated, it might be difficult to convince the Norn why the Pact should go after Kralkatorrik, or convince the Charr why the Pact should go after Jormag.

Risingashes.8694:

You can assume that there was no point to the speech, and no point to Scarlet attacking. But that really is just believing that the story is poorly constructed, and extremely shallow.

Not a big stretch to be honest.

Risingashes.8694:

If not a campaign against a dragon what would the Queen’s speech have been about if Scarlet didn’t interrupt it? And if Scarlet didn’t want to interrupt the speech why was she there?

We have no reason to assume she wanted to interrupt the speech specifically. We only know that she wanted to disrupt the festivities and take control of the Watchwork Knights. For what reason, we do not know. But we know she likes to be in the spotlight, and is a bit of a drama queen.

Well, we’ll find out soon! By the end of February, the story arc will be completed. I guess we’ll have to wait and see! I’m hoping the writerss ability really shines, I’m hopeful that the end will bring sense to the story as a whole, and maybe some of the angst can dissipate.

I really hope you’re right. I hope there’s a positive note to all this, and that we all get to see Scarlet in a more positive light when this storyline concludes. It would be interesting if Scarlet deliberately tried to influence the Queen’s actions in some way. I posted an idea before about Scarlet using her assault on the Queen’s Pavilion as a distraction to spring Mai Trin from jail. That would be a nice twist. But that’s not what we got. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for some clever turn of events.

Early March, seeing as the next release after Wintersday won’t be until the second half of January; but I too am hopeful that the extra month they have to work on these will prove fruitful.

We know why Scarlet attacked the Queen’s Jubilee.

It was done on a whim. This was explicitly stated by the developers during this interview. Scarlet had no reason, no plotting behind it, no pre-calculation. She just saw the event happening with Jennah saying humans have been tested and basically went “well they haven’t been tested by me!” So she just went and attacked for no true reason.

As for why she attacked pavillion, I have made a comment on reddit somewhere two months ago where I try to figure this out. Dont know if it fits into the whole discussion here but here goed nothing:

I find this theory interesting. It made me think. Dragons are by far not the only ones who can sense magic. For one, I think Scarlet can sense it very good and presumably even tap into it. But I also know Queen Jenna has very strong abilities in this part of powerfulness-things. I also remember that in the same post where Anet devs said that they held information from the playerbase for pace reasons. This is because it wouldnt be a great hype if something big was discovered, so Anet could work on the topic on their own pace, so they would have less pressure. A fragment of the post:
“I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players. It’s something we’re always looking to improve. That stated, we have deliberately held back some story details for pacing reasons. More dots will be connected in the coming months, so I will continue to encourage folks to let us know what they think with each release. We appreciate the feedback.”
Back to Queen Jenna. It is possible that she sensed the strong change of magic in the world, and wanted to warn/point on the subject during the Jubilee to a lot of people and races all together, so we could make use of it/prepare for it to take the fight to enemies (read maybe other dragons). This plot twist obviously didn’t occur in Scarlets chaos-spreading plans, so when she discovered the queen wanted to take action, she ruined the whole Jubilee. So it might not have been Scarlets intention to really kill/capture her, but just to shut her up. Now discuss!!

I think it definately had a reason she attacked the Jubilee. In the new puzzle instance she is whining about the humans that they are always in the way. I stay with the theory I have posted above.