What was the point of Scarlett's marionette?
I think I somewhat remember the marionette being a test for the breachmaker. It was a long time ago though..
The reason for the marionette is one part diversion, and one part testing. Scarlet needed a way to distract the world orders as she prepared the Breachmaker. She knew she would attract resistance when she will drill for the ley line (no matter where it would have been, seen she did not know it would be in Lion’s Arch). So she created an assault in the Shiverpeaks to distract and keep the orders busy. This was optimal, in my opinion, why Scarlet’s attack on Lion’s Arch was so devastating.
The second part is testing. Not the marionette, but the Breachmaker. If you looked carefully, you would not that the Marionette always appears from the Breachmaker. Scarlet needed to test out her airship in battle condition to see how it would fare against the might of the three great orders.
So why was it created in the shape of the puppet? Moral deterioration. After her bombing of Divinity’s Reach and her subsequent hijacking of the Jennah’s machine, Scarlet needed away to play with her enemies’ emotion, so she affected they morals by creating a mockery of her past events. This type of physiological warfare would not be the first time we see it from Scarlet. We see it occur all over the Tower of Nightmare, and even in our first confrontation with her in the Pavilion.
The marionette was never going to be used again, seen as how she left its remains in the mountains, for any asura to learn how it works. It would have been easier to posthumously learn of a counter to the puppet. So it is logical that it was never meant to be used again.
If you witnessed an event success:
Braham: “That was fun. I actually thought we might not win against that thing.”
Rox: “I’m starting to think Scarlet doesn’t care if she wins or loses against us.”
Marjory: “What does that mean?”
Rox: “She doesn’t fight like she wants to win. She sacrifices her weapons to take some of us out. It’s like she’s culling the herd.”
Kasmeer: “Our herd.”
Rox: “Yeah. Tyria’s defenders.”
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 don’t think it was the weapon being tested, but the defenses, much as Konig’s piece of dialogue implies.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
I don’t think it was the weapon being tested, but the defenses, much as Konig’s piece of dialogue implies.
Exactly. It was the Breachmaker she was testing, not the Marionette. The Breachmaker was her defense.
I don’t think it was the weapon being tested, but the defenses, much as Konig’s piece of dialogue implies.
Exactly. It was the Breachmaker she was testing, not the Marionette. The Breachmaker was her defense.
No.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
I don’t think it was the weapon being tested, but the defenses, much as Konig’s piece of dialogue implies.
Exactly. It was the Breachmaker she was testing, not the Marionette. The Breachmaker was her defense.
How exactly can she test the Breachmaker when we didn’t even think of acting in regards to it.
The defenses Tobias means is the good guy’s defenses. Though this would be inaccurate; what she was doing, per the dialogue, was killing would-be heroes so they couldn’t fight her when it mattered (to her).
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.
Though this would be inaccurate; what she was doing, per the dialogue, was killing would-be heroes so they couldn’t fight her when it mattered (to her).
That’s what is being guessed at what she is doing, which still makes little sense – that sort of culling would leave the stronger and more capable behind and thin out only those who couldn’t handle it.
I think she was rather testing to figure out response times, and what sort of defenses might get deployed swiftly to try to thwart her invasion. Afterwards, she could take the data of those defenses and work on a countermeasure.
Such as a miasma which would provide area denial. Huh. Wait a moment.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
I think she was rather testing to figure out response times, and what sort of defenses might get deployed swiftly to try to thwart her invasion. Afterwards, she could take the data of those defenses and work on a countermeasure.
Looking back at the dialogue, this makes more sense than what I thought previously.
Depending on her overall motivations that are still up to debate. If she, by any chance, wanted to prepare Tyria for Mordremoth’s awakening (as its vaguely theorised every now and then), and you take into account the similarities between the fights with the Marionette and the Vinewraith, one could argue that the marionette was to test us, not just for her attack on Lions Arch, but for attacking one of Mordremoth’s champions.
This thinking feels a bit backwards though; How could she predict that kind of confrontation quite so accurately? Well, she heard the whispers in her head that could come from Mordremoth (still unsure though), and she saw the Eternal Alchemy (or parts of it) through her experience and experiments with Omadd’s machine. It could also be quite an unconscious choice from her part to make a fight so similar to the Vinewraith’s .
(Of course there is also the fact that Anet could just figure that the Marionette was a winning formula for a large world boss battle and adapted it, but thats out-of-game theory that I’m not going to involve in the lore discussions)