Guild Wars 2

I’m sure this has been discussed before, but I was thinking about this earlier today and wanted to get my thoughts down on paper.

“Tonight, I saw it. I started into the abyss, and it stared back at me. … It communicated with me through images of death, destruction, and destiny. I must know more. I must confront it and put an end to this madness.”
— Scarlet’s Journal

“Caithe, someday you’ll see. Tyria needs me.”
— Scarlet Briar

Okay, so, we know Scarlet was a maniac. And we know she killed a lot of people. But I think its possible that she could have been wrestling with that voice inside of her head and at least in one point throughout her reign of terror, she may have been secretly planning to kill Mordremoth instead of merely awakening him. And its for a reason that’s not quite obvious.

I dont think Scarlet would oppose the dragon for altruistic reasons. Rather, I believe she would oppose it in defiance of her destiny and a wish to choose her own fate. Even from her awakening and long before she was Scarlet, Ceara detested the thought of being tied to a destiny she couldn’t choose:

“I’ll find my own place, thank you very much. And it’s hardly ‘my’ purpose if someone else gives it to me. …where my life is concerned, I will be the one who chooses.”
— Ceara, from the short story “What Scarlet Saw”

Recall that the sylvari believe the Dream of Dreams is moving them toward their collective “destiny,” though they do not know what this will be. Some of the Pale tree believe their destiny is to fight the dragons, and, while its not confirmed, I think the Nightmare Court and/or the Soundless will align themselves with Mordremoth, believing that serving the dragon is the sylvaris’ destiny.

But Scarlet emerged from Omadd’s machine wanting to forge her own path and not be constrained by a destiny she didnt choose for herself:

“An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so. But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how."
— Scarlet Briar, from the short story “What Scarlet Saw”

I’m going to take a step even further and say that Sylvari, the Dream, and Mordremoth are all connected. Perhaps the Dream is Mordremoth’s conciousness in some form, and the Sylvari are tied to it because they are minions of Modremoth.

Here’s why this makes sense: If Scarlet wanted to choose her own fate, then destroying the Dream would be the way to do it. And if the Dream is propagated by Mordremoth in some way, killing Ol’ Mordy would would result in the destruction of the Dream, freeing the Sylvari of their predetermined fate.

Now, how would Scarlet go about killing a dragon? Well, it goes back to some of the things that we don’t quite understand yet: the purpose of the marionette, the toxic alliance’s toxin, and the aethercannon.

While we can assume the Tower of Nightmares was constructed to produce the miasma that plagued Lion’s Arch, there’s nothing to my knowledge to hint that the original toxin and the miasma are the same thing. The toxin was a pollen, but the miasma was a gas. The toxin was hallucinogenic, but the miasma was not. The different color pallate also needs to be considered: toxic alliance was electric green and its plants were green/blue, while the miasma was red. So, its my theory that the toxin produced in the Tower of Nightmares had some yet-undiscovered purpose.

I think the same goes for the Breachmaker’s aethercannon and the marionette, too. Both were not used in the attack on Lion’s Arch, so what was their purpose?

I think they were all a part of a plan that Scarlet never had the chance to put into action, and that merely disrupting the ley lines was not her ultimate goal. Rather, I think she wanted to combat Mordremoth with the toxin and perhaps her clockwork army. Now, with Scarlet dead and Mordremoth awake, all Tyria would need is someone who knows her work well enough to pick up where she left off…

Taimi, anyone?

It is a common trait where a tragic villain starts off trying to do the right thing. Scarlet had a lot of interest in knowledge prior to engaging Omad’s machine. She was just a curious individual who wanted to know everything she could – scholar worthy if anything. Although she wanted to pursue her own endeavors without the Pale Tree, she didn’t hate it. There she found the horror which by the sounds of it, she started out with the goal to confront it.

At the conclusion of Season 1 and talking about Season 2 they did say, while confirming that Scarlet was dead, that Season 2 would contain a lot of content regarding who she was.

I’ve thought much the same thing before. She always seemed to be developing technology that was never really fully implemented. She was a terrible person, but I could totally see her using her desire to pursue her own path as inspiration to take down the dragon.

The one thing that puts a damper on the theory for me are Scarlet’s final words. IIRC they are something to the effect of, “You’re too late, it’s done.” That makes it sound like awakening the dragon was the entirety of her goal. Who knows? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

A curious topic I keep thinking of is why she drew that figurative map of the world hanging in her room in Prosperity. It looked strikingly similar to the Realm of Torment only with the Pale Tree at the center. (previous threads have mentioned this as well)

In Guild Wars Abaddon was the God who granted magic to all the races of Tyria but was imprisoned in the Realm of Torment by the other five to prevent him from spreading his nefarious influence. After his imprisonment he tried numerous times to return to the mortal realm by creating the Titans, who were seen as Gods to the charr. The titans granted the charr the power and knowledge to perform the infamous searing of Ascalon. One of Abaddon’s demons was responsible for persuading Vizier Khilbron to read the Lost Scrolls which sank Orr in the also infamous cataclysm. There are also the events of the Nightfall campaign that would take a long time to explain, but it was a plot for him to return to the mortal world.

Back during Living Story season 1 in “Cutthroat Politics” we were given the choice as a player base to decide if we wanted Evon Gnashblade and his Fall of Abaddon fractal or Ellen Kiel and her Thaumanova fractal. I can’t help but think Anet wanted us to be knowledgable of Abaddon’s story at some point. My question to you all is this: Was the voice in Scarlet’s head that of Abaddon scheming to return once more?
Perhaps harnessing the ley lines is part of this. Maybe her glimpse of the Realm of Torment is what drove her insane.

I like to think that when she said, “An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so. But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how." is her hinting at her plan to not simply awaken Mordremoth (the dragons being one of the forces that push us one way) but to set him against the remaining power of Abaddon (the gods being another force that shaped much of Tyria).

This may be a pipe dream, but the implications of Scarlet directing an Elder Dragon’s destructive force against a God and a realm from the first game is huge. It could effectively force the return of the Six in some capacity. Admittedly a big flaw in my hopes for this kind of story is that Abaddon’s power was transferred to Kormir when she ascended into Godhood. But one can imagine ways for him to scheme regardless :p

I’d agree with the OP that the clues are there but at the moment it still doesn’t add up. Some of the season 1 stuff that seemed like nonsense is finally getting some explanation in season 2, so maybe Scarlet’s motives will be made more realistic too. I’m worried that this sort of ‘Scarlet is a hero’ story line will be forced upon us though and still be utterly unconvincing.

The big problem with waking up Elder Dragons just to defeat them is that you’re not likely to defeat them. When you lose to them you lose everything. Everything gets corrupted whether it is your identity, your home, your people, your land, your magic, everything. It seems just such a bad plan when you could leave the dragon where it is and it might sleep through all of your lifetime. Also if you’re in mental contact with the Elder Dragon then it is probably going to win all the mind games, and my best guess is that the Dragon goaded Scarlet into doing exactly what it wanted.

All Scarlet’s paraphernalia will come back into the story I’m sure: the marionette, the probes, the watch works and steam creatures, aetherblades. Once our allies stop being stupid and start investigating this stuff they’ll probably be able to use some of it against the Elder Dragons somehow.