Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: I like Scarlet as a villain, but I’m starting to wonder how we’re going to stop her. First I will explain why, with contemporary examples. The tl’dr at the end will be my most plausible suggestion.

armies
Currently under her (apparent) control: Steam, Watchwork, Molten Alliance, Aetherblades, Inquest
With the next release, one can add Nightmare Court to that list, and we’ve seen some Hologram creatures who may be yet another army for her.

To me, this seems like going up against an alliance of all 5 of the UN security council permanent members with the players being part of the Benelux.

powers
This alliance is controlled by an almost godlike being who is:
- about as omnipotent and omniscient as the christian god.
- has the character of The Joker
- the scientific insight of Stephen Hawking
- the teleportation abilities of Slender Man on steroids
- Sylar’s ability to learn
- the appetite of Christian Grey

Can we really stop her? Can we even get to her, given the number of super powered armies between her and us? When we get new skills and traits, will one of them be become god incarnate.

tl;dr: solution
I can see only one way to stop her. Dei ex machina, preferably all six.

Mental battle with a gestalt of the whole sylvari race through the pale tree which makes Scarlet realize the error of her methods and redeems her. About as bad and cheesy as the character herself so I see no problem with it in this case.

It can even be the finale of the upcoming LS since it deals with Scarlet messing with Sylvari. The sooner we are done with her the better.

You are vastly overestimating her powers. Omnipotence and omniscience, really? If she had anything near that level of power, she would have no need for an army. She would just erase us from reality with a thought.

She seems overly powerful, because she’s the main LS villain for this arc, but you have to remember all her powers come from her gadgets. She needed her vast intelligence of engineering to make them, but all her powers still come down to gadgets, minus the actually briar manipulation.

Teleportation? Gadget.
Damage Immunity Shield? Gadget.
Control of the Steam creatures? Most likely programming and a gadget.
Watchwork? Gadget.

Once we find a way to nullify her gadgets, she is just as vulnerable as everyone else.

Erukk.1408:

You are vastly overestimating her powers. Omnipotence and omniscience, really? If she had anything near that level of power, she would have no need for an army. She would just erase us from reality with a thought.

She seems overly powerful, because she’s the main LS villain for this arc, but you have to remember all her powers come from her gadgets. She needed her vast intelligence of engineering to make them, but all her powers still come down to gadgets, minus the actually briar manipulation.

Teleportation? Gadget.
Damage Immunity Shield? Gadget.
Control of the Steam creatures? Most likely programming and a gadget.
Watchwork? Gadget.

Once we find a way to nullify her gadgets, she is just as vulnerable as everyone else.

So we need an EMP?

Sounds doable. That only requires Uranium enrichment, heavy water and the 10 most brilliant minds of the 20th century on one photograph.

Scarlet dislikes the Nightmare Court just as much as she dislikes the Pale Tree. I don’t think she’ll be working with the Nightmare Court anytime soon and the preview seems to be a case of “despite the Nightmare Court’s presence, Scarlet’s here” – that the two are just in the same place but not working together (may even be fighting each other).

Though I can see Scarlet toying with the NC, I don’t think she’d use them as proper minions.

The Inquest haven’t been seen since Dragon Bash either, so I think they’ve discontinued working with Scarlet.

Allegedly, the Inquest and Arcane Eye are supposedly keeping an eye on her (according to that interview that they couldn’t be bothered to have on the site), but they don’t seem to care enough to stop her. Probably because she hasn’t messed with Rata Sum…yet. Maybe. If we count the Molten Alliance’s initial attack as her machinations, she’s messed with norn, charr, and humans during the Queen’s Jubilee, and now the sylvari in Twilight Assault. Could she be saving the asura for last?

I have a feeling she is somehow going to be tied to the yet Unseen Earth Dragon. That dream she entered and the Vine just makes me think Elder Dragon Champion.

From what Scarlet Saw:
It was then Ceara saw the thorn vine. It emerged from the roots at the base of the tree and began to climb, wrapping itself around the trunk and scoring the bark with its dusty red barbs. Green-black ichor oozed from these wounds, and the great tree shuddered.

It’s the vine attacking the tree that makes me think Earth Dragon. But I could be completely way off and just hoping they actually plan on having the Elder dragons involved in the LS.

Ed, from this interview it is revealed that the “dream” she saw was merely a hallucination of sorts – the device she entered was a sensory deprivation device which removed her senses, and doing that can lead to folks hallucinating things. She didn’t actually witness what she thought she witnessed.

Thanks for the link and info Konig. I was not aware this interview had taken pplace.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ed, from this interview it is revealed that the “dream” she saw was merely a hallucination of sorts – the device she entered was a sensory deprivation device which removed her senses, and doing that can lead to folks hallucinating things. She didn’t actually witness what she thought she witnessed.

Supposedly. The short story however, seems to imply that she didn’t imagine all of it, with the Pale Tree telling her not to go on. Her mind still went somewhere during all that.

You can hallucinate travel as well as other people speaking. So it’s not as absolute as you seem to claim. The words from the Pale Tree talking to her is likely part of that hallucination.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You can hallucinate travel as well as other people speaking. So it’s not as absolute as you seem to claim. The words from the Pale Tree talking to her is likely part of that hallucination.

Know how we can determine this with (relative) certainty? By doing what we should have done the minute Scarlet revealed herself and ask the Pale Tree. (*cough*Itsahint,devs*cough*)

Still hoping for a Neo/Matrix moment where on some level she knows that the world is completely programmed and all her actions stem from the idea of ‘freeing everyone’ from predetermination. Or we could just kill her because she’s ‘evil’.

This post lacked a TLDR so I will provide it for you;
Delete all living story content and actually come up with permanent content that is fun/ challenging.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You can hallucinate travel as well as other people speaking. So it’s not as absolute as you seem to claim. The words from the Pale Tree talking to her is likely part of that hallucination.

Then why would her mind even hallucinate that to even begin with? Was the Pale Tree being there just what little conscience she did have, some lingering doubt in her mind? Given how far she’d gone already, it makes little sense for her mind to try subconsciously stopping her from continuing.

Again, the short story still implies that her mind went somewhere (possibly into the Dream itself?). The whole “she might’ve hallucinated the whole thing” is the writers just playing vague now. And seeing as the short story is right here on the site while that interview isn’t, I’m tempted to hold its credibility a little higher than that interview.

Granted, part of me does hope it was just some stupid fever dream she had…

Alleluia.1320:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You can hallucinate travel as well as other people speaking. So it’s not as absolute as you seem to claim. The words from the Pale Tree talking to her is likely part of that hallucination.

Know how we can determine this with (relative) certainty? By doing what we should have done the minute Scarlet revealed herself and ask the Pale Tree. (*cough*Itsahint,devs*cough*)

A pity they didn’t think that far ahead. Or did they?

(Nope, tried talking to her and you can’t mention Scarlet/Ceara. Figures.)

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ed, from this interview it is revealed that the “dream” she saw was merely a hallucination of sorts – the device she entered was a sensory deprivation device which removed her senses, and doing that can lead to folks hallucinating things. She didn’t actually witness what she thought she witnessed.

Hi Konig, I’ve seen you say, that she just dreamed / hallucinated a number of times. this is the first chance I’ve had to actually listen to the interview and this is what Scott actually said.

“… a meditative state, we don’t know if she actually travelled to another place or if she just thought she did or if her mind did.

But yes, she was in a very unusual almost dreamlike place and she felt she caught this understanding of the world, and reality.

So it wasn’t anywhere in Tyria, it was in her own head and it remains to be seen how much of that is actually accurate and how much of that is just her broken psyche."

They are giving an interview on a story in progress and are choosing their words carefully so as to not give spoilers, but this whole sections say’s we (the players) are not intended to know what happened at this point.

You seem to have locked in on this hallucination idea, but I can’t see how you’ve gotten that from the interview. Angel makes a comment “I think the moment when Scarlet had her communion with the universe and came to understand how it all works in her mind. That’s how she see’s it.” Scott talks her about her having a sanity breaking moment which could be what the machine did to her, or she saw something that was literally mind blowing. He also talks about her being able to do miraculous things and we’ve seen her twist the watchknights into her own creations. I believe she manipulated the matter which fits with someone who really does understand the way the universe works. My take is that she did see what she claims to have seen, but I can’t say it for sure.

Like I say, we aren’t supposed to know for sure at this point, and I don’t see how you can flat out state it was just a dream.

Also as Nilkemia say’s the Game, the Short Stories are what I would think of as canon, until one of those tells us what happened in the machine, we just don’t know.

Nilkemia.8507:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ed, from this interview it is revealed that the “dream” she saw was merely a hallucination of sorts – the device she entered was a sensory deprivation device which removed her senses, and doing that can lead to folks hallucinating things. She didn’t actually witness what she thought she witnessed.

Supposedly. The short story however, seems to imply that she didn’t imagine all of it, with the Pale Tree telling her not to go on. Her mind still went somewhere during all that.

It was confirmed by the very person who wrote scarlet that the vision was in fact a hallucination caused by the device as per the interview. Yes it magnified her mental capability but keep in mind that this is the same person whose achilles’ heel is rocket leaping into explosive barrels.

I don’t have a lot of high hopes for her if the only thing you need to do is bait her into traps that she herself set up.