Guild Wars 2

Just wondering if anyone knows what her motive is? Why is she doing all this? I’m thinking I might of missed some big reveal because I have no idea.

Can you answer all or maybe one of these questions:

*her main motive.
*the reason to her childlike attitude (bobby has already said there is a reason, its not natural).
*the way she convinced all these races to join forces. pick one of the many
*the way she can teleport at the slightest danger – basically her advanced technology.
*her connection with the steamcreatures
*her ability to grow red vines from her body
*where and how she gained this large group – the aetherblades
*where and how she created the clockwork machines
*the secret she knows about Caithe.
*why her obvious dislike to Queen Jennah.
*how she appeared in the fractal to talk to us about the Thaumanova reactor. Was she part of the fractal or joined like we did to experience it.

I recently started a notepad to try to figure this out…
This is how far I’ve gotten so far, in it’s raw form.

Inquest

- Knowledge
- No rules

She can use their knowledge and research something she wants to know without being bound by rules.
Dragon energy.

Molten Alliance

- Dredge
- Flame legion

Creates new types of weaponry fused of dredge sonic tech and charr tech and fire magic.
Invades Shiverpeaks and Ascalon to take prisoners and try their weapons on live targets.

Aetherblade

- Inquest
- Pirates
- Holograms

Threatened and paid to work for Scarlet.
From the future?
Got part of twilight arbor for an airship factory as a deal made by Scarlet.
Builds airships for Scarlet.

Twisted Watchwork

- Watchwork

Corrupted from Queen Jennah’s Watchwork
Morphs and rebuilds itself.
Cheap and recyclable

Toxic Alliance

- Nightmare court
- Krait

Nightmare made deal with for part of twilight arbor (against a nice spot to cause havoc at in Kessex Hills?)
Krait priests (Oratuss) “fooled”, but still not, into thinking that one of their prophets would be (re)incarnated. Used obsidian shards. Priests manipulated the krait.

Her Life.. kinda

Born Sylvari
- Bound by the dream
- Dragon fighter

The Grove
- Studying

Hoelbrak
- Study metalurgy

Black Citadel
- Study firearms and artillery

Arcane Council
- Study Dynamics, Statics and Synergetics
- Study Eternal Alchemy

Inquest
- Study without being bound by rules

Michoan Marsh
- Study the Hylek alchemy

Omadd (inquest?)
- Study Eternal Alchemy
- See the Eternal Alchemy
- Pale tree tried to stop her
- She lost sanity
- Killed Omadd

Inquest
- Knowledge about dragon energy
- Thaumanova Reactor
— Research dragon energy

Creates Molten Alliance
- Weaponry

Threatens Aetherblade
- Airships
- Hologram Tech

Aetherblade in Lion’s Arch
- Place Mai Trin in the council
— Multi-racial hub
— Dragon fighting professionals
— Make Lion’s Arch do something
—- Funding?
—- Manpower?
—- Corruption?

Corrupts Watchwork
- A meatwall of metal that can rebuild itself
- Kidnap Queen Jennah
— Dislike?
— Destroy Charr-Human treaty?
— “Show how frail human society is”
— List of people that needs to be shown how insignificant they are
- Seem to know everything about everyone – should know the queen was a decoy
— Use the decoy just to cause drama

Invasions
- No points of strategiacal interest, away from racial cities
- Field test?

Aetherblades in twilight arbor
- Build airships
- Capture Caithe
— List of insignificant people?
— Caithe’s secret?

Toxic Alliance
- Seal the deal for Twilight arbor
- Hallucinogenic poison
- Lifeform engineering

Thumpers
- Disturb dragon energy leylines?
— Irritate/taunt dragon(s)?
— Cause magical chaos?

There is one large itch…

She wants weapons and airships.
Why?

She also wants something with the dragons.
Why?

Does she want the weapons and airships to fight the dragons?

Does she want to enslave the dragons?
Since she knows everything worth knowing she should know that they can’t be enslaved.

Does she want to “awaken” the dragons so that they attack the player races?

She has her list of insignificant people.
Is that a side quest from her main quest army creation and dragon something-ing?

My theory is she’s trying to become a god or an Elder Dragon. Considering how much she enjoys manipulating people. Creating/ Infusing different species together. It all makes me believe these are nothing but experiments to prefect something that she will ultimatly do to herself.

Chaotic Storm.2815:

My theory is she’s trying to become a god or an Elder Dragon. Considering how much she enjoys manipulating people. Creating/ Infusing different species together. It all makes me believe these are nothing but experiments to prefect something that she will ultimatly do to herself.

thats the first theory ive seen that might make sense. maybe she on a mission to find out what happened to the gods or mursatt and is going to try to change herself so she understands them better and is more like them.

If you haven’t read the Scarlet short story, here’s the link again:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/

But good luck finding a motive. There doesn’t seem to be any. The best they give us, is that she just “wants to be bad” and deny the Pale Tree from controlling her destiny. Which is pretty thin, if you ask me.

She’s just a poorly written character.

Scarlet’s motive is to remove the shackles of her pale tree’s believe system. She doesn’t like that she is compelled to choose one direction or the other. She yearns to be free and to free everyone else.

DarcShriek.5829:

Scarlet’s motive is to remove the shackles of her pale tree’s believe system. She doesn’t like that she is compelled to choose one direction or the other. She yearns to be free and to free everyone else.

By pillaging and murdering everyone? … Hmm… Nope, that’s not it.

Furthermore, if her beef is with the pale tree, why the hell hasn’t she attacked the Grove yet?

I think Scarlett’s intentions are quite clear in the short story.(Bold where emphasis is needed.)

Were the lives of all sylvari so easily encapsulated? Birth, travel, experience, death, all played out under the dictates and philosophies of the godlike entity that created them?

She refused to accept that. Everything she had learned said that no system, no matter how complex, can perpetuate itself indefinitely. Those that did not evolve inevitably failed.

“So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain…it’s all part of a grand design.

“But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were “born to be.” No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

Scarlett was born with a natural fascination with complex systems. She sees the entire life-cycle of the Sylvari as a system, and one that is flawed because it does not allow the freedom of choice. She intends to mend this system, apparently by evolving the Sylvari race.

This next section foreshadows what she will do to the Pale Tree, and where her story arc will climax.

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.

Then Ceara was the vine, squeezing the great tree’s trunk like a desperate lover. The tree struggled against her: she was meant to be part of it, to participate in its grand purpose. Instead, she was no more than an irritant, a provocation.

Now do you see? The Pale Tree’s voice was faint and distant, but it snapped Ceara back to viewing the tree from a distance. If you are not one with what you were born to be, you are lost. Worse, you are dangerous.

Scarlett isn’t going to literally destroy the Pale Tree, but she will “choke” everything it represents. She will take the Sylvari outside the limitations of Fate and force them to evolve as a species, possibly evolving the mother of the Sylvari, the Pale Tree itself, in the process.

Target the Pale Tree by not even attacking its children.
Her targeting computer is a bit off.
At the moment she has hit:
-Norn and Charr territory with the Molten
-Lions Arch with the Aetherblades
-Humans during the Jubilee and Toxic Alliance

If anything she’s got her fascination towards the humans more than her own people.
She needs to point those silly guns that a way (Points to the Maguuma areas)

And that’s really the sad thing to me about her.
Had her plans and releases hit the Sylvari areas more she might have been a more compelling character.

ricky markham.8173:

Chaotic Storm.2815:

My theory is she’s trying to become a god or an Elder Dragon. Considering how much she enjoys manipulating people. Creating/ Infusing different species together. It all makes me believe these are nothing but experiments to prefect something that she will ultimatly do to herself.

thats the first theory ive seen that might make sense. maybe she on a mission to find out what happened to the gods or mursatt and is going to try to change herself so she understands them better and is more like them.

Plus after her little accident that showered her the “universe” she might actually believe she is one.

I think she’s trying to build a watchwork dragon.

I hope she’s building a watchwork dragon.

I really want to fight a watchwork dragon.

Mmmm Mecha Zhaitan. I could almost forgive her if this was done properly.

Finnway.2183:

I think Scarlett’s intentions are quite clear in the short story.

If there’s this much debate about it, it’s obviously not “clear” at all.

After reading the story again, I still don’t see any good evidence to say she’s going to try to “evolve” the Sylvari, or help anyone but herself. There isn’t enough evidence to say what her motives or plans are at all. She even admits she has no solid goals in this line:

“I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

As far as I can tell, she just wants to be bad for the sake of being bad. And that’s a really thin motive for a villain.

She’d be a great villain for a children’s cartoon. But this is an MMO with a more mature audience, and people are expecting more. We’ve gotten great villains from Arenanet in the past: Faolin, Kudu, Canach, Julius Zamon, Vizier Khilbron, Varesh Ossa, and Palawa Joko are a few examples. So people are wondering why they’ve dropped the ball this time, especially with a character that is so prominently featured.

Finnway.2183:

Scarlett was born with a natural fascination with complex systems. She sees the entire life-cycle of the Sylvari as a system, and one that is flawed because it does not allow the freedom of choice. She intends to mend this system, apparently by evolving the Sylvari race.

It doesn’t allow the freedom of choice, so… she…chose to do her own thing?

Is this really what you’re saying?

Really?

Besides, just what do you think the Soundless are doing? They’re making a choice to remove themselves from the Pale Tree and the Dream to be their own people. And guess what, they can do it without being violent, cackling madmen.

Lazy writers, I say. They didn’t want to take the time to actually write her a good motivation that they would then follow up. Writing such a motivation, while not giving that motivation away immediately, would require throrough thinking and planning.

So instead they give her some vague motivation and just make up stuff as they work forward.

That, or they actually did carefully craft a motivation, and it’s so brilliant we just haven’t figured it out yet.

Not holding my breath for the latter one, though.

Tom Gore.4035:

Lazy writers, I say. They didn’t want to take the time to actually write her a good motivation that they would then follow up. Writing such a motivation, while not giving that motivation away immediately, would require throrough thinking and planning.

So instead they give her some vague motivation and just make up stuff as they work forward.

That, or they actually did carefully craft a motivation, and it’s so brilliant we just haven’t figured it out yet.

Not holding my breath for the latter one, though.

Well I won’t say her motivation is vague more like we have yet to understand them so we come up with theories on what it might actually be. Its common for villians to keep their master plan secret and only reveal it near the end. So I’m leaning more to your latter. Course anet hasn’t exactly wowed us with heart stopping stories yet.

Atlas.9704:

Target the Pale Tree by not even attacking its children.
Her targeting computer is a bit off.
At the moment she has hit:
-Norn and Charr territory with the Molten
-Lions Arch with the Aetherblades
-Humans during the Jubilee and Toxic Alliance

If anything she’s got her fascination towards the humans more than her own people.
She needs to point those silly guns that a way (Points to the Maguuma areas)

And that’s really the sad thing to me about her.
Had her plans and releases hit the Sylvari areas more she might have been a more compelling character.

I think she’s targeting other races because they’re more complex and defined in terms of being systems, compared to the Sylvari. The Sylvari are still a child race in a lot of ways, while Humans, Charr, and Norn are very old races that have well defined, complex cultural systems. Taking them out, or damaging them, might just be more of her testing her abilities in preamble for what she hopes to do with the Sylvari.

I’m certain the end of her story will probably be attacking the Grove and Pale Tree though.

Vexander.9850:

I think she’s targeting other races because they’re more complex and defined in terms of being systems, compared to the Sylvari. The Sylvari are still a child race in a lot of ways, while Humans, Charr, and Norn are very old races that have well defined, complex cultural systems. Taking them out, or damaging them, might just be more of her testing her abilities in preamble for what she hopes to do with the Sylvari.

My theory is she is making these alliances to gain their technology/resources, and in return she is attacking their rivals.

Some people think Scarlett is building her own Chaos Reactor, like Thaumanova, and The Tower of Nightmares IS that reactor. I don’t know how a Chaos Reactor fits into attacking the Pale Tree though. We will just have to wait and see…

Finnway.2183:

Vexander.9850:

I think she’s targeting other races because they’re more complex and defined in terms of being systems, compared to the Sylvari. The Sylvari are still a child race in a lot of ways, while Humans, Charr, and Norn are very old races that have well defined, complex cultural systems. Taking them out, or damaging them, might just be more of her testing her abilities in preamble for what she hopes to do with the Sylvari.

My theory is she is making these alliances to gain their technology/resources, and in return she is attacking their rivals.

Some people think Scarlett is building her own Chaos Reactor, like Thaumanova, and The Tower of Nightmares IS that reactor. I don’t know how a Chaos Reactor fits into attacking the Pale Tree though. We will just have to wait and see…

Maybe its not so much the Tree that she’s after, but the Dream and Nightmare. She doesn’t seem to want the Pale Tree to die (that’d mean the extinction of her race, not the evolution, since they cannot procreate without the Tree), but she doesn’t want the Dream and Nightmare to essentially control the Sylvari.

Finnway.2183:

Vexander.9850:

I think she’s targeting other races because they’re more complex and defined in terms of being systems, compared to the Sylvari. The Sylvari are still a child race in a lot of ways, while Humans, Charr, and Norn are very old races that have well defined, complex cultural systems. Taking them out, or damaging them, might just be more of her testing her abilities in preamble for what she hopes to do with the Sylvari.

My theory is she is making these alliances to gain their technology/resources, and in return she is attacking their rivals.

Some people think Scarlett is building her own Chaos Reactor, like Thaumanova, and The Tower of Nightmares IS that reactor. I don’t know how a Chaos Reactor fits into attacking the Pale Tree though. We will just have to wait and see…

would make sense considering how she was before she when crazy.