Guild Wars 2

Jaken.6801:

We never really interacted with her. Most of her lines were with Majory.

You could go and talk to her some more in the begging of first episode. It’s not enough but made me like her a bit. I would like her to stick around.

Disappointed with the story. Not like the group plot-wise needed any extra motivation to hunt a dragon. If they truly wanted emphasize the danger, they should have killed off one of the duo immediately rather than at a climax point. Killing a red shirt character is a common occurrence anymore, so any shock/motivation Anet would be expecting falls short.

Killed the character too soon for meaningful impact, but we’ll see how they play out the depressed/out for revenge angle now.

I agree, she died too fast, and she had put on the Star Trek red security suit as soon as we met her in the Dead End, but there might be a bit more going on behind the scenes. I suspect there’s some story line brewing with the rest of Marjory’s family, specifically why she doesn’t want them to meet Kasmeer. This might be part of a long running plot line and it needs to start early, albeit too early.

Stooperdale.3560:

I agree, she died too fast, and she had put on the Star Trek red security suit as soon as we met her in the Dead End, but there might be a bit more going on behind the scenes. I suspect there’s some story line brewing with the rest of Marjory’s family, specifically why she doesn’t want them to meet Kasmeer. This might be part of a long running plot line and it needs to start early, albeit too early.

She’s the unknown heir to the throne of kryta.

Ryan.9387:

I want people to die Game of Thrones style.

Wait for when Marjory and Kasmeer get married.

. . . I have a charr band all lined up.

Ryan.9387:

I want people to die Game of Thrones style.

Anet would have to increase the PG rating first

I’m more than sure Belinda’s death was not meant to affect us directly. There’s so much analyzing of her death in several threads, it’s not that complicated.

I didn’t even realise she was dead at first, she looked alright to me. I thought she was doing the new hot Tyrian thing. You know, just like planking and whatever else came after it. “Vining” seems to be all the rage now among youngsters in Tyria.

While I do somewhat agree that ‘we’ hardly had time to get acquainted, there is this thing called ‘empathy’ … I know it’s not present in all and there seems to be shortage of it in general, but it’s somewhat like imagining how somebody else might feel in a certain circumstance and based upon your own experience in similar cases feel for the other person having to go through something like this.

I will say though, that a cut scene where we got to witness her being grabbed, and ‘us’ (including Marjory and Kasmeer) being able to do nothing about it, would have been more impactful and dramatic. Now obviously you have to be sparse with active killings, they can become a ‘there is yet another’… but seeing we had seen so many tangled up already seeing it in action for this important plot twist might have been a good one to have seen it put in action.

Arghore.8340:

While I do somewhat agree that ‘we’ hardly had time to get acquainted, there is this thing called ‘empathy’ … I know it’s not present in all and there seems to be shortage of it in general, but it’s somewhat like imagining how somebody else might feel in a certain circumstance and based upon your own experience in similar cases feel for the other person having to go through something like this.

I will say though, that a cut scene where we got to witness her being grabbed, and ‘us’ (including Marjory and Kasmeer) being able to do nothing about it, would have been more impactful and dramatic. Now obviously you have to be sparse with active killings, they can become a ‘there is yet another’… but seeing we had seen so many tangled up already seeing it in action for this important plot twist might have been a good one to have seen it put in action.

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perhaps we can see one of our group be grabbed, and given the time to rescue them, that give a nice urgency and despair moment

Redshirts in the original star trek had more time to gain empathy with them than Belinda. Not to mention for a video game crowd, this is very much the been there, done that type of hero-ing we’ve seen and done a thousand times.

EgonVenkman.1907:

Redshirts in the original star trek had more time to gain empathy with them than Belinda. Not to mention for a video game crowd, this is very much the been there, done that type of hero-ing we’ve seen and done a thousand times.

Perhaps I meant ‘empathy’ for Marjory ? But I know ‘empathy’ is a quality that is dieing out, so I don’t blame you for missing my point

Death is cheap in gw2. The slit throat of a family member is only a nickel. It’s hard to care after all that’s happened. It doesn’t really help her death is completely non-sequitur. “You won! One of your allies is now dead. What.”

Well if what has been datamined is true, that Majory was planned to die by Scarlet, then… I don’t think Belinda’s death exists for emotional reasons, but to simply as a device to sideline Majory out of the living story. Majory isn’t written to be a part of the next episode so they dispose of her by saying she is grieving for her sister. They probably had to do this now, so that they can make room for the final bi-iconic.

Canach, soon to be shining blade, is going to be tasked with the delicate task of tracking down a certain locket to protect the royal bloodline. The pale tree will notify the group of adventurers about the dire danger to the leaders of the Tyrian races and specifically of the heir to Divinity’s reach. On the same trail, they will meet and Majory will be sidelined for the rest of who knows when.

Pyreo.8517:

Part of the story is the encroaching threat of these dragons. What games often do to make the threat tangible is to show death early on when the main antagonist becomes clear. See Mass Effect 3 and that little kid you meet right at the start, who comes to personify the main character’s survivor guilt, as just one example.

The story telling here in GW2 is a lot tamer than with Mass Effect probably due to wanting to reach a broader audience, children, ect. and while as you said characters die when telling a story they shouldn’t die for no apparent reason, or have the reason so obvious it jumps down upon you like a whole shelf of books. That becomes lazy writing and its disappointing to see and disappointing to play because it hints at potential for an interesting story, that could still have included death, lost.

I think what the Mass Effect writers did well with that kid is that they connected it to something more. As you pointed out survivors guilt. Balthazar knows Shepard’s passed a lot of dead without batting an eyelash and as a whole the player feels nothing for them but the kid stands out because in the story he has a purpose. That purpose is not to die simply for some feels but to highlight a broader picture of the events unfolding. He is loss of the innocents personified, he is Shepards guilt, he is to some extent the cost of war. He is not just some kid who dies, which is kinda how I feel about Belinda.

Overall it felt like a cop out, like they didn’t know how to get from point A to B without killing someone randomly. And that is frustrating.

I don’t know if it counts as a woman in the fridge because it’s not to stir someone up. Mordy doesn’t care about who he kills. He probably can’t tell the difference between the peons that he kills.

I think it’s just a character we don’t care about who is related to a character the writers want us to care about (success debatable) dying. And we were fairly certain that she was being brought in so that she could get killed off; the only difficult part to estimate was when.

If she was killed off later, like halfway through the season instead of in the second episode, after we’d gotten to know her and maybe Marjory had gotten less annoying, then it’d have a bit more emotional gravitas. With this timing, she’s just a redshirt. A slightly complicated redshirt because it’ll change Marjory’s behavior, but a redshirt.

Also I thought the cinematic was kinda cool. Cooler than the four minutes of bickering that the two women went through immediately afterwards. The cinematic takes about 15 seconds and covers everything we need to know, and it’s immediately followed by 4 minutes of wasted space!

Ryan.9387:

I want people to die Game of Thrones style.

So by that baseline Belinda lived ~40% too long, right? And everyone else except Taimi is long overdue for a few deaths?

Nah, that’s not how it works. Taimi is by far the most popular of the Biconics. By GoT law which states that any popular character WILL die, that means she’s also the first on the hit list.

Ironically, that means Braham and Rox, the first two Biconics introduced, will end up living the longest.

Sarrs.4831:

I don’t know if it counts as a woman in the fridge because it’s not to stir someone up. Mordy doesn’t care about who he kills. He probably can’t tell the difference between the peons that he kills.

That’s not how “Woman in Fridge” works exactly. I mean, that’s how it’s usually used but it’s also more about the writer’s intent than the story. It’s the feeling of a “Disposable Woman” for the sake of drama.

Of course, my opinion? Of course women are expendable for the sake of drama, anyone should be or you can’t tug the strings for drama. But it has to be done much more masterfully than that – you can’t just off a random bystander and expect people to go “Extra Man, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”.

And you can’t just off Mauve Shirts (which is more of what Belinda was than “Red Shirt” – she had more actual work put into her than Seraph Warrior #335) shortly after introducing them because it makes more savvy viewers wonder if that was the whole reason in the first place.

The only time I can recall of the top of my head where it worked was “Lower Decks” from ST:TNG. They were all “Mauve Shirts” there, and once you saw one of them leave the ship into potential danger you kind of knew what was going to happen . . . but at the same time, you’d just spent an entire episode watching this character and being steeped in them enough to have it hit with some impact.

Belinda should have gone out like Joss Carter. We should have had an entire season to get attached, then give her an out which made us applaud even as we had to wipe our eyes. She should have “gone out” like Gwen – no body, just her heirloom sword Marjory takes back to DR . . . then she shows up having survived some stories down the line with something which is useful (information, a weapon, something).

Alas, this just isn’t as good . . . unless the grief is a permanent shift in Marjory’s character, but even then it’s still just barely decent.

What i don’t understand is…

If Belinda’s dead, why doesn’t she just respawn at the nearest waypoint?

cafard.8953:

What i don’t understand is…

If Belinda’s dead, why doesn’t she just respawn at the nearest waypoint?

The same reason they don’t use a Phoenix Down on Aeris.

cafard.8953:

What i don’t understand is…

If Belinda’s dead, why doesn’t she just respawn at the nearest waypoint?

The player character never dies; they are just ‘defeated’.

Shadowmoon.7986:

So pretty much a female character who pretty much had has no story development is killed for as a plot device in this LS. She is involved in only one mission, and then is sent to her death off screen in the next mission. Pretty much this character was created to die for the A-team to feel emotion, but for me I feel nothing because she has as much development as the thousands of npcs I kill everyday. This is unlike the mentor you get in your PS who you actually develop a relationship with, and then dies in a heroic way. Personally I do find this type of story extremely lazy and somewhat offensive.

Shadowmoon.7986:

and somewhat offensive.

Uh oh somebody call the police, this one is offended!

The death of that character was not directed at you, but at her sister. That was the gimmick, “Oh no her sister ended up dying after reminiscing of the times they barely spent together when S2E1 rolled out. Oh no, what a turn of events! Now she will never be able to spend time with her sister, so sad.” It was meant to crush the morale of one of the characters, not yours.

She was also a Seraph. Soldiers die in battle. Many soldiers died protecting that fort and ArenaNet decided that she was no exception.

Also I like the title, trying to sway people. Did anyone make a “Man in Refrigerator” when Theo Ashford died last Dragon Bash?

I read Belinda’s death scene a bit differently. I think some artists decided it would look really cool to splot-light her mangled corpse, and that’s all.

Her death does not progress the story one lick. Marjory did not need any more motivation. No one needed to be reminded of the danger posed by Mord. Belinda would have been better used as a way to explore the relationship between Marjory and Kasmeer. Belinda’s death was just schadenfreude. The writer’s need to stop watching Lost and The Walking Dead.

I still miss Tybalt.

Shadowmoon.7986:

So pretty much a female character who pretty much had has no story development is killed for as a plot device in this LS. She is involved in only one mission, and then is sent to her death off screen in the next mission. Pretty much this character was created to die for the A-team to feel emotion, but for me I feel nothing because she has as much development as the thousands of npcs I kill everyday. This is unlike the mentor you get in your PS who you actually develop a relationship with, and then dies in a heroic way. Personally I do find this type of story extremely lazy and somewhat offensive.

I have loved what Anet is doing so far in the LSS2. However, killing off an undeveloped characters feels a little weak to me. Maybe it was lazy writing ,poor implementation, or they simple didn’t have the resources to develop her character idk.

I would have preferred they killed off one of the Biconics and “hurt” the community. Sure Marjy was hurt but it doesn’t really mean anything to the players who have only even seen Belinda a couple times. I doubt many people had developed a real rapport with her.

No connection = no sense of loss

Personally, I was sad to see her die.

Marjory is annoying. Her whole “hard boiled P.I.” routine gets old really quickly for me. She’s far too full of herself.

Belinda was far more humble acting. She seemed to be practical and took orders even when she didn’t like them, but wasn’t an unthinking drone. The fight at Salma even shows that she cares about those under her command and puts at least a little thought into tactics. Personally, I think she would have fit in great with the biconics. The only one that might not want her around would be Kas.

She seemed like the kind that would listen to Taimi, but put her foot down when needed (and perhaps ask her to wait for the others before charging in). She was respectfully military, something Rox could relate to. Fairly laid back but willing to fight, which Braham could get along with. Heck, I could even see her starting up a relationship with Braham (assuming he and Rox never get one going).

If one of them had to die, I kind of wish it had been Marjory. I liked her sister more.

I was actually alright with the amount of time we had to get to know the character. Heck, I can get emotionally invested in handfuls of seconds with zero lines of dialogue if the presentation is right. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs, http://vimeo.com/39312642)

But, like Arghore, I mostly found the scene itself lacking.
Marjory was reacting before my eye even had time to go to the hanging figure and process what had happened. You don’t have to hit me over the head with it, but, some subtle things to draw my eye to the subject matter before getting to the reaction would’ve been nice.

Admittedly, a little harder to pull off in a game where the targeting/camera scheme leaves us perpetually enraptured with the floor (ugh). But, just to toss some ideas out there; motion and shadow? Like, have the vine+figure swaying in an otherwise stock still scene, and then Marjory can fall to her knees for her moment, so my eye is drawn to the motion from one to the next? Or go all Tarzan on it and have a very telling shadow cast on the floor, so that even if your eye naturally gravitated to Marjory at the start of the scene, you’re given some vague hints about direction to look and what you’ll find there.

I guess we are seeing the extremely slow progress of the writing staff. Once they get bashed over the head enough by the community they will learn how to write a compelling story.

Season 1: Almost completely non-cohesive story.
Season 2: Better cohesion, but lacking modern storytelling conventions. Almost as if the writers are stuck in 1960’s plot mode.

With the death of Belinda, and the mindset of Anet so far, we can expect the predictable grief story arc for Majory: Mourning; Revenge Mode; Push away loved ones; Almost die (again); Come to terms. Unoriginal, but Original Storytelling isn’t exactly Anet’s strong point.

Tossing in my two copper. I agree that Belinda died way too early. The moment I saw her body in the vines, I thought, “Ugh… so Anet’s pulling this crap again…” It didn’t work in the latter end of the personal story and it sure as hell isn’t going to work now. It was also blatantly obvious she was going to die because Marjory said she wanted to spend more time with her. The writers really need to stop showing their hand in this fashion. If you absolutely must do a quick kill, don’t telegraph it. That way the shock of how fast it happens also pulls at the player’s heartstrings. NPCs also need to die in a way that makes it obvious they can’t be revived by in-game rules. In this particular instance, it could have been the vines wrapping around Belinda’s body and, while she’s struggling to get out and follow seraph are desperately hacking away to get her free, the vine quickly contorts with a wet, crunch that’s followed by Belinda going completely limp. A few seconds of silence spent capturing the shock on various faces and you would have at least some emotional impact.

However, as things are now, I do have one glimmer of hope. A necromancer just watched her sister die and adamantly insisted on being alone when taking the body home. Toss in how Marjory’s story really got started with the death of a little boy and there are some dark, juicy developments that could come from this. Sadly I’m fairly certain anet won’t go that route. They totally ignored the potential of Jennah and Anise being split personalities of the same person during the Queen’s Jubilee, even though the mesmer forum practically handfeed them discrepancies in the game and novels that would fit the framework perfectly.

I’m not really inclined to call this a fridging. On a technicality, I suppose it arguably fits the bill (female character killed off to further someone else’s plot), but we’re not left with a short supply of female characters as a result, and the plot/character development being advanced is that of even more female characters.

It’s one of those cases where yes, there is a widespread pattern of killing off female characters for narrative purposes in the media. But killing off characters is not inherently a bad thing in a narrative (not everyone can be a main character and it can have emotional impetus), and when it happens in a game or movie or TV series where you have a balanced and diverse cast, the gender of the character killed is less of an issue.

I do wish we’d got a little more interaction with her though. It was a little abrupt, but then maybe that was the intention.

The hilarious melodrama drummed up for Marjory went hand-in-hand with the horrible in-your-face “you’re a shcmoopie!” character herself. Working as intended.

CharrGirl.7896:

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

ThiBash.5634:

To be honest, I did get attached to Belinda (more than Kasmeer en Marjory anyway)…

Yeah, she was way hotter.

Majory is ugly.
Annoying.
Pretentious.
Needy.
Weak.
A loser.

Tell me, what’s there to like in a woman like that?

Bellinda is attractive.
Has a real job with actual payroll.
Is a soldier, slugging it out for her nation.
Clearly takes care of the irresponsible careless mutt of the family.
Takes care of her mom.
Wears armor.
Has Canthan sword.
Strong.
10/10 would collect 250 Superb Charr Idols for

Yep, a character should be judged on her looks alright. And not to mention a character’s worth is measured by hotness level.

Do you even read?
Marjory has exceedingly little admirable qualities in a human being, much less an ally.

Seriously, help me understand how you can, with a straight face, tell me Bellinda isn’t ten times the woman Major-pain is.

The fact that her character model is better to look at was a funny unintended bonus that for the purposes of that post I used.

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

Seriously, help me understand how you can, with a straight face, tell me Bellinda isn’t ten times the woman Major-pain is.

Oh, that’s easy. Because we wouldn’t know. The amount of exposure Belinda had is minimal. But that wasn’t the point. Neither was the whole issue with “We didn’t know her enough to care”. Again, not the point. Marjory cares.
This is a way to remove Marjory – who players seem to dislike a lot if you listen to the forums and I think ANet is making the mistake of doing just that – from the team temporarily. Nothing more. Nothing less. Pretty obvious too, isn’kitten

I look at the death as a good part of trying to make the living story have some semblance of realism. Haven’t you had a friend of someone close to you die or suffer a tragedy? It wasn’t directly impacting on you, but you see how it impacts someone closer to you?

To have a real living story, not every single thing is going to always be focused directly on the main person. Every one that dies within your circle of acquaintances isn’t going to be the most important person in your life. When a story makes it seem that way, it loses the bit of realism it could have.

Forum players wanted someone to die.
Looks like they got what they wanted to me…

Thousands of fictional characters are created just to die for the sake of drama, and you’re offended because…? Because this particular plot device character happens to be female? That’s the impression I’m getting.

People will find agendas in everything, I swear.

and then we get another 10 episodes spin off about how Belinda really died.

Its not us who are supposed to feel something about her death, its Marjory. Now if it wont have that much of an effect on her in the long run, that will be a waste.

Carighan.6758:

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

Seriously, help me understand how you can, with a straight face, tell me Bellinda isn’t ten times the woman Major-pain is.

Oh, that’s easy. Because we wouldn’t know. The amount of exposure Belinda had is minimal. But that wasn’t the point. Neither was the whole issue with “We didn’t know her enough to care”. Again, not the point. Marjory cares.
This is a way to remove Marjory – who players seem to dislike a lot if you listen to the forums and I think ANet is making the mistake of doing just that – from the team temporarily. Nothing more. Nothing less. Pretty obvious too, isn’kitten

Okay, listen.
In the minimal amount of exposure Belinda had, I actually liked(respected) her infinitely more that that loser Marjorane!

In that small, miniscule, teeny-weeny window of us getting to know Bellinda, we can surmise ALL that kitten, that I put in my first post. While also pointing out all disgusting failings of her dreg sister.

If drugs and alcohol played a more prominent role in Tyria, you can bet your sweet kitten Marjoryjane would be the next one “tangled” in “vines”… Or hardcore chems, courtesy of what would SURELY be of Asuran manufacture.

Forget Guildwars2, if you met these people in real life, seriously, which one would you hang out with?
[eidted for horrible spelling errors]

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

Forget Guildwars2, if you met these people in real life, seriously, which one would you hang out with?

I’ll have to say Marjory.

Maybe not for same reasons as mentioned above, but considering given time, I liked Belinda better.

MadDemon.7548:

Ayrilana.1396:

Spoilers!

My sentiments exactly Dr. River Song.

Hey let’s keep the spoilers to the Lore forum where it belongs :P

dekou.6012:

That was really awkward. I had to stare at the screen in a mix of amusement and disappointment. ANet’s writing has improved a bit this season, but the death was painfully obvious and pointless.

Not pointless though, I think it’s a means of removing Marjory temporarily from the LW and thus allowing for more focus on Rox and Braham in the next episode (I think, maybe I’m wrong). But I will agree slightly with the obvious part and add to it not something that led to any sort of emotional-reaction.

Lévis.5489:

Anet have been doing that kind of cheap writing tricks since the original personal story., and it have nothing to do with the character being female or not.

*Introduce new character
*Make him / her stand out for 1-2 missions
*Kill them off for cheap emotional shock

Like I said previously, I don’t think it was purely for the emotional shock.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Her death was premature. We should have got to know and like her first. Now it’s not really shocking for us.

Well she seemed like an interesting character with some potential. However given the medium (video games) the sort of characterization required to make her death shocking would be difficult to convey. Where a TV series is mostly talking a video game is mostly gameplay. The amount of time that can be spend on a secondary character is limited I’m afraid.
Although I will agree that randomly killing her was a bit of a waste, but with the limited ‘cast’ there’s only so many people you could kill…

Lamir.6702:

This happened all the time in the personal story, especially during the Orr part. See: greatest fear plotlines, priory’s plan plotline, etc. Your mentor was an exception.

Yeah, death does seem to be used more often as a “things-just-got-real” than a emotional-shocking-situation. Although their was the plotline with the 2 Asura that fell in love (or I think they did) that wasn’t too bad, although they were also a bit under-characterized (probably more because of the limited time we spent seeing their relationship grow).

nexxe.7081:

They should’ve at least showed us how she died with a cutscene. We just see her hanging from a vine. lol.

Yeah. In S2 story has improved a lot but there’s still not enough cinematic-presentation of things. I guess they’re still sorting out the technicalities of the cutscenes (all of the in-game cutscenes so far have been mainly zoomed way out with very basic character animations).

EgonVenkman.1907:

With the death of Belinda, and the mindset of Anet so far, we can expect the predictable grief story arc for Majory: Mourning; Revenge Mode; Push away loved ones; Almost die (again); Come to terms. Unoriginal, but Original Storytelling isn’t exactly Anet’s strong point.

Possible, but I don’t think ANet is going to turn Belinda into Majory’s revenge motivation. Doing so would remove what little emotional impact there is. If the goal was for us to not morn the death of Belinda but to morn for Majory’s lost we’re more likely to see Majory experiencing pain, loss and sadness and not a thirst for revenge.

I must say, as blunt as this may come off, I am glad she was offed before Destiny’s Edge 2.0 became “Girl Squad with the collaboration of Braham!”
I would really enjoy some more diversity in the lineup. We already have all these powerful and interesting female characters in the setting taking most of the spotlight if we overlook Trahearne, why can’t we get a bit of both in the main characters instead so we are reminded of the availbility in the writting spectrum.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Of course, my opinion? Of course women are expendable for the sake of drama, anyone should be or you can’t tug the strings for drama. But it has to be done much more masterfully than that – you can’t just off a random bystander and expect people to go “Extra Man, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”.

If a woman dies in a fictional piece, it’s WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS.

If a man dies in a fictional piece, it’s a Wednesday.

cainejw.7142:

If a woman dies in a fictional piece, it’s WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS.

If a man dies in a fictional piece, it’s a Wednesday.

And if a child dies in a fictional piece, it’s time to tear the author asunder with wild horses and rope.

Aphoticrain.8420:

Pyreo.8517:

Part of the story is the encroaching threat of these dragons. What games often do to make the threat tangible is to show death early on when the main antagonist becomes clear. See Mass Effect 3 and that little kid you meet right at the start, who comes to personify the main character’s survivor guilt, as just one example.

I think what the Mass Effect writers did well with that kid is that they connected it to something more. As you pointed out survivors guilt. Balthazar knows Shepard’s passed a lot of dead without batting an eyelash and as a whole the player feels nothing for them but the kid stands out because in the story he has a purpose. That purpose is not to die simply for some feels but to highlight a broader picture of the events unfolding. He is loss of the innocents personified, he is Shepards guilt, he is to some extent the cost of war. He is not just some kid who dies, which is kinda how I feel about Belinda.

And I think it was something Bioware did poorly; providing an avatar for something that they wanted us to feel which ultimately detached those of us who HAD an avatar for ’survivor’s guilt’; the Virimire Sacrifice. It’s something that forced the character of Shepard to feel not allow the player to start questioning. If (in my case) Shepard had suddenly had dreams and halleucinations about Kaiden, someone who I’d let go due to an event I experienced; it might’ve paid off but instead we got some random kid that wouldn’t come out of an airvent.

It sets up a cognitive disassociation where we are pushed out of immersion because we are being forced to feel something rather than becoming attached and then feeling it ourselves. Belinda’s death was nothing more than a show piece in a long line of showpieces.

Aphoticrain.8420:

Overall it felt like a cop out, like they didn’t know how to get from point A to B without killing someone randomly. And that is frustrating.

At this point it’s a problem with saturation. Molten forces murdered thousands, Aetherblades killed thousands, Toxic killed thousands and ruined Kessex, Scarlet killed thousands and ruined Lion’s Arch, even though Scarlet’s dead; the Zephyrites are now being killed off, Fort Salma is destroyed….

I forget who said it but “I’m finding it hard to care”.

RIP Warmaster Forgal Kernsson.

The sadness of my character intensified to such degrees, his model just went into a new level of mopey.

Anet’s heavy reliance on these types of shocks has become so frequent that it doesn’t feel emotionally impactful at all, instead it feels cheap and tacted on. Players already understand the gravity of the situation there was no need to kill a character with promise and amazing room for growth.

I would’ve thought the writers would have realized this after the needless character deaths in the personal story.

I expected her to die, but not so soon like in the personal story after your mentor. So the shock to me was, ‘why? Why so soon?! Let me get to know her first! Has game of thrones taught you nothing?!’