Guild Wars 2

I think ANet meant to explain Scarlet’s motivation through the cutscene after you killed her – specifically what lies at the end of it.

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

It’s doesn’t matter cause us players will stop it anyway. ^chest bump Braham^

Heraldusluminare.2946:

I think ANet meant to explain Scarlet’s motivation through the cutscene after you killed her – specifically what lies at the end of it.

that and even if scarlets story is ending. The story of whatever she released is only just begun…

To be fair while the players might want to know it’s unlikely that if you were a character in that universe you would stop to politely listen to her explanation especially given how many times she’s escaped and people she’s killed. Although “it doesn’t mater, you’ve failed!”…well it still dose because her reason why might revel other things you need to be worried about!

It’s pretty clear what her motive was after the ending cut scene and it might be explained more indirectly later or through one of their shortstories (although most players never see these).

Scarlet: “Oh no! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it…” (hits down skill 4 – heal)

Braham: “NO! ” (stomp attempt)

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

You’re being pursued by people you have personally offended, part of you is elated that they’re so angry and can’t do anything to you. You imagine they’re absolutely frustrated with your activities, but surprised when they do corner you. You could buy time or savor their frustration by lengthily explaining your plot, basking in their awe at your glorious machinations.
You’re immediately informed they’re on their way to a dance recital and want to wrap this up.

I think Braham did the right thing. When I got to her I was like “Come here, you dirty little kitten! YOU DIE NOW!”

it felt so goooood, it is actually wrong of me
After all that chaos she caused, stupid laughing and close escapes, I could finally end it once and for all.

Mortifer.2946:

I think Braham did the right thing. When I got to her I was like “Come here, you dirty little kitten! YOU DIE NOW!”

---

it felt so goooood, it is actually wrong of me
After all that chaos she caused, stupid laughing and close escapes, I could finally end it once and for all.

Agree… also from Braham’s point of view, they had two goals there… one was to kill scarlet, the second one was to stop that giant drill before it hit whatever it was going to hit… Scarlet was blocking the entrance to the control room, it was obvious her explaining line was just to buy some time until the drill finished its job.

Of course, her dead didn’t change anything as far as the drill was concerned, she had designed it so it couldn’t be stopped in the first place, but they had no way to know that at the time.

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Mega Messiah.1734:

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Um, buddy, we still don’t know why she wanted to wake up the dragon. Crazy? Under orders? Wants the world to burn? Wants somewhere green? Wants to feed Audrey II? Who knows?

bullyrook.2165:

Mega Messiah.1734:

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Um, buddy, we still don’t know why she wanted to wake up the dragon. Crazy? Under orders? Wants the world to burn? Wants somewhere green? Wants to feed Audrey II? Who knows?

Um, “buddy,”

She hears voices in her head after seeing the Eternal Alchemy.
Then she wakes up an Elder Dragon.

Yup, Abaddon did it. Definitely wasn’t an Elder Dragon telling her to. Not like they have lieutenants or anything.

Maybe, but we don’t know if she was still in control of her actions or not. “buddy”

Mega Messiah.1734:

bullyrook.2165:

Maybe, but we don’t know if she was still in control of her actions or not. “buddy”

Occam’s Razor.

If it looks like it was Modremoth controlling her and she woke up Modremoth, then it is more than likely Modremoth.

Bub.

Edit: She even mentions the voices in her head in the holo fight, telling them to shut up so she can concentrate.

Very possible, bub. I guess only time will tell. I think there is more to it.

Heraldusluminare.2946:

I think ANet meant to explain Scarlet’s motivation through the cutscene after you killed her – specifically what lies at the end of it.

Still doesn’t explain a lot of things, such as:

- Why did seeing the eternal alchemy expose her to the dragon’s control?

- If dragons are connected to the Eternal Alchemy somehow, wouldn’t all of them had a chance to control her?

- So then, why this dragon? Why not one of the others? Or all of them?

- Why did she act like a mindless pawn in the last scene despite appearing completely independent and acting on her own volition up until now?

- Why was the dragon never mentioned or foreshadowed in “What Scarlet Saw”? Being “mind controlled” pretty much contradicts everything they established for her backstory.

- If dragons feed on magic, and the ley line was feeding this dragon a constant stream of magic, and Scarlet’s motivation was to disrupt the flow of magic feeding the dragon, wouldn’t that actually HARM the dragon instead of giving it what it wants? Why would the dragon manipulate her over a year-long period with the aim of interrupting its food source? Why would it want to harm itself?

MAKES. NO. SENSE.

I could go on and on. I don’t care that there’s suddenly a dragon, it does nothing to redeem this storyline or make sense of Scarlet’s motives.

PeterThomas.7243:

Still doesn’t explain a lot of things, such as:

- Why did seeing the eternal alchemy expose her to the dragon’s control?

We don’t know she saw the Eternal Alchemy for certain, either. All we have is what people think she saw was that, when I would speculate she peered into the Mists more.

- If dragons are connected to the Eternal Alchemy somehow, wouldn’t all of them had a chance to control her?

Possibly. Of course, one apparently did take the chance. Oh, though it probably wasn’t Zhaitan trying that. I hear he’s dead now. Some idiot ranger killed him with cannonballs.

- So then, why this dragon? Why not one of the others? Or all of them?

Good question. Don’t really need the answer, though.

- Why did she act like a mindless pawn in the last scene despite appearing completely independent and acting on her own volition up until now?

Was she acting as a mindless pawn? Far as I saw, she was still hoping she could pull through this if people were stupid enough to try walking into mines and her “Vader field”.

Which, mind you, Braham and Marjory were shortsighted enough to do. They need more WvW; send in the stealthed thief.

- Why was the dragon never mentioned or foreshadowed in “What Scarlet Saw”? Being “mind controlled” pretty much contradicts everything they established for her backstory.

Depends on whether it was a solid lock of control or just a fragmented thing. I would suspect fragmented control since . . . well, she acted in such a manner rather than a consistent one. At least, until the end when she had her goal and she was pushing to do it – drill to the leyline.

- If dragons feed on magic, and the ley line was feeding this dragon a constant stream of magic, and Scarlet’s motivation was to disrupt the flow of magic feeding the dragon, wouldn’t that actually HARM the dragon instead of giving it what it wants? Why would the dragon manipulate her over a year-long period with the aim of interrupting its food source? Why would it want to harm itself?

It’s said earlier on – Scarlet was fighting something and it was quite probable she was doing this out of spite. I personally suspect she did it to make it stir and so even though she died . . . it was going to die too if those who killed her paid it any mind.

MAKES. NO. SENSE.

We’re playing a game where there’s a race of seven foot tall men and women who run around in the snow with exposed flesh and can turn into bipedal and faintly anthropomorphic bears, wolves, ravens, and snow leopards. Where there are lava flows you can be fine standing right next to . . . and if you set foot in them you only merely die slowly. Where candy corn can grow out of the ground, be mined, and then baked into cookies.

Making sense is not Tyria’s strength

It was silly, what if they needed info out of scarlet to stop the drill. No because dimwit Braham doesn’t think about that does he…

So what happens next? he charges her and ends up with a broken leg.

If I could pick my group I’d leave that guy behind, he’s a liability.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s said earlier on – Scarlet was fighting something and it was quite probable she was doing this out of spite. I personally suspect she did it to make it stir and so even though she died . . . it was going to die too if those who killed her paid it any mind.

Then why would sneer at the players and tell them “HAR HAR HAR TYRIA HAS A NEW MASTER NOW!” She gave absolutely no indication in the last scene that she was doing anything out of spite; like I said, she acted like a mindless pawn who had done the dragon’s bidding and was proud of it. Which is completely contrary to her backstory and characterization up to this point.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

We’re playing a game where there’s a race of seven foot tall men and women who run around in the snow with exposed flesh and can turn into bipedal and faintly anthropomorphic bears, wolves, ravens, and snow leopards. Where there are lava flows you can be fine standing right next to . . . and if you set foot in them you only merely die slowly. Where candy corn can grow out of the ground, be mined, and then baked into cookies.

Making sense is not Tyria’s strength

What I mean is the game can still have an internal logic that is consistent. The first game did.

shrugs

Just because the game has a fantasy setting does not excuse bad writing.

PeterThomas.7243:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s said earlier on – Scarlet was fighting something and it was quite probable she was doing this out of spite. I personally suspect she did it to make it stir and so even though she died . . . it was going to die too if those who killed her paid it any mind.

Then why would sneer at the players and tell them “HAR HAR HAR TYRIA HAS A NEW MASTER NOW!” She gave absolutely no indication in the last scene that she was doing anything out of spite; like I said, she acted like a mindless pawn who had done the dragon’s bidding and was proud of it. Which is completely contrary to her backstory and characterization up to this point.

“This is MY drill!” “I’ll take you down with me if I have to!”’

Yeeees, not at all out of line with her previous times showing up. I mean, it’s not out of line with:

“Die, die die, DIE!”

I can see the distinction now.

Also, hard to say for sure since I’m not the writer, but “Tyria will bow before a new master” has several interpretations.

1 – The master is the dragon, and nothing we were going to do would stop her from making it rise. Assuming, of course, she intended to prod it into action. This also assumes the dragon wasn’t active already.

2 – The master is the dragon, and we stopped her attempts to try to counter it. A huge army which could be seen as a twisted mirror of the Pact, and a weapon in the marionette capable of great destruction. It’s possible she was intending to wake up the dragon and draw it to Lion’s Arch to try to kill it. Much like Destiny’s Edge chose to wait for Kralkatorrik and try to kill it there.

3 – We are the new master to whom Tyria will bow, as we push to go take on the dragons and kick Trahearne out the window of a speeding airship traveling over sharp rocks.

What I mean is the game can still have an internal logic that is consistent. The first game did.

shrugs

No, the first game managed to disguise it by back-writing things in awkward ways when it needed to. Especially around Nightfall and Eye of the North. It also did a terrible job of keeping the plotline of Prophecies straight until about 2/3 of the way through when the Mursaat bamfed onto the scene.

Just because the game has a fantasy setting does not excuse bad writing.

Nope, but this is not the bad writing you are looking for. This is the result of bad writing coming before it, and ANet dropping a hatchet on it so they can move on. Scarlet’s introduction and her first half of existence in the plot was bad writing, bad pacing, or keeping the hand too close to the chest and leaving us all just confused. Pick two.

To be frank, since the recap in the Dead End it’s been “good enough” as far as writing goes. They were running a three-legged race with a corpse, after all. (And no Necros around to help, tsk.)

Thobek.1730:

It was silly, what if they needed info out of scarlet to stop the drill. No because dimwit Braham doesn’t think about that does he…

So what happens next? he charges her and ends up with a broken leg.

If I could pick my group I’d leave that guy behind, he’s a liability.

I’d still take Braham over Logan.

I think they did it because they want to tell it during the next season.

Also, it was the right thing to do in my opinion. Before this people didn’t care about her, they just wanted her to die. Now people want to know her story and why she did it.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

1 – The master is the dragon, and nothing we were going to do would stop her from making it rise. Assuming, of course, she intended to prod it into action. This also assumes the dragon wasn’t active already.

Yes, she made it clear the dragon is her master and that nothing we could do would stop her. But she hates the dragon, so why would she be happy about it rising?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

2 – The master is the dragon, and we stopped her attempts to try to counter it. A huge army which could be seen as a twisted mirror of the Pact, and a weapon in the marionette capable of great destruction. It’s possible she was intending to wake up the dragon and draw it to Lion’s Arch to try to kill it. Much like Destiny’s Edge chose to wait for Kralkatorrik and try to kill it there.

No. There was no indication of this whatsoever. She appeared to be happy that it was going to rise, despite her own death (i.e., she acted like a mindless pawn). Watch the ending again yourself if you don’t believe me.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

No, the first game managed to disguise it by back-writing things in awkward ways when it needed to. Especially around Nightfall and Eye of the North. It also did a terrible job of keeping the plotline of Prophecies straight until about 2/3 of the way through when the Mursaat bamfed onto the scene.

You’re absolutely right, and yet Guild Wars 1’s internal logic and writing was still way better than the Living Story in every way.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Nope, but this is not the bad writing you are looking for. This is the result of bad writing coming before it, and ANet dropping a hatchet on it so they can move on. Scarlet’s introduction and her first half of existence in the plot was bad writing, bad pacing, or keeping the hand too close to the chest and leaving us all just confused… To be frank, since the recap in the Dead End it’s been “good enough” as far as writing goes.

I agree with you that the writing as been bad over the past year. However, my point is that the writing has been bad all the way to the end. Especially considering the fact that they didn’t manage to put a workable bandaid over the story’s problems (like they did in Nightfall when they explained why Shiro went bonkers).

I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. You’ve heard my reasons, I don’t think they’re invalid, and at this point I’m repeating things I’ve already said.

PeterThomas.7243:

Yes, she made it clear the dragon is her master and that nothing we could do would stop her. But she hates the dragon, so why would she be happy about it rising?

She didn’t make it clear the dragon is her master, and she didn’t make it clear the dragon was even there. We the players know about the dragon rising, but as of yet the characters do not. All they know is Scarlet was fighting some influence until the end when she was either not fighting or so dead-set on something it was no longer important.

We see what it was. She was drilling for magic. Drilling, notably, to disrupt the ley lines feeding into the dragon. If it’s her master then . . . why in Balthazar’s blue balls is she doing something to poke it with a stick?

Easiest answer – she’s not doing it to serve it, she’s doing it to spite it.

No. There was no indication of this whatsoever. She appeared to be happy that it was going to rise, despite her own death (i.e., she acted like a mindless pawn). Watch the ending again yourself if you don’t believe me.

Don’t need to, unskippable cutscene of it every time I did it for the Monthly Dungeon. Still think she’s less happy it’s coming because she’s its pawn and more because “now it’s going to lose”.

Because, you know . . . it is. Mordremoth is coming and it’s going to be deader than the 55 Monk.

You’re absolutely right, and yet Guild Wars 1’s internal logic and writing was still way better than the Living Story in every way.

Do not make me start dragging out examples of GW1 writing which was way worse than the Living Story. I’ll tell you true, all four storylines have a spot where it’s just . . . bad.

I agree with you that the writing as been bad over the past year. However, my point is that the writing has been bad all the way to the end. Especially considering the fact that they didn’t manage to put a workable bandaid over the story’s problems (like they did in Nightfall when they explained why Shiro went bonkers).

Conversely, that . . . that totally and completely ruined the tragedy of the character. And it’s what I’m talking about when I say their backfilling started to weaken things. Shiro was far more compelling when it was his fear of his own mortality which drove him to contemplate the unquestionable, rather than “someone pulled his strings until he became a puppet”.

The change to Vizier Khilbron, I don’t care about. He was barely a character anyway in Prophecies and more one part of a mechanism to get the players from plot point A to plot point B.

I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. You’ve heard my reasons, I don’t think they’re invalid, and at this point I’m repeating things I’ve already said.

But you’re repeating the same questions in response, and when I offered something to answer them by approaching from a different direction, you went “nah, I like saying there’s no explanation”.

Mega Messiah.1734:

bullyrook.2165:

Mega Messiah.1734:

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Um, buddy, we still don’t know why she wanted to wake up the dragon. Crazy? Under orders? Wants the world to burn? Wants somewhere green? Wants to feed Audrey II? Who knows?

Um, “buddy,”

She hears voices in her head after seeing the Eternal Alchemy.
Then she wakes up an Elder Dragon.

Yup, Abaddon did it. Definitely wasn’t an Elder Dragon telling her to. Not like they have lieutenants or anything.

Of course Abaddon did it. Why do you think they had Torment weapons going on sale at the same moment?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

She didn’t make it clear the dragon is her master, and she didn’t make it clear the dragon was even there. We the players know about the dragon rising, but as of yet the characters do not. All they know is Scarlet was fighting some influence until the end when she was either not fighting or so dead-set on something it was no longer important.

If you’re an engineer, you can use Scarlet’s console to discover that it is, in fact a dragon. So the player characters -can- know that it’s a dragon.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

We see what it was. She was drilling for magic. Drilling, notably, to disrupt the ley lines feeding into the dragon. If it’s her master then . . . why in Balthazar’s blue balls is she doing something to poke it with a stick

Exactly.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Easiest answer – she’s not doing it to serve it, she’s doing it to spite it.

Ironically, if true, this would make the most sense. But Scarlet’s attitude in that last battle is completely contrary to this. But if it does turn out to be the truth, there are problems with this scenario as well.

Let’s assume for a moment that you’re right. Scarlet is being driven mad by the dragon’s voice in her head, so she hatches a big-kitten master plan to disrupt its food source that involves the dredge, flame legion, krait, nightmare court, aetherblades, the captain’s council, etc., so she can finally get away with building a giant drill the size of the Black Citadel, drop it out of the sky and disrupt its food source. Takes about a year or so. Okay. Sure. Let’s assume ALL of that is feasible.

Throughout this time, the dragon has been watching her and continuing to speak to her and drive her mad. But after a while of this, wouldn’t it become conscious of the fact that Scarlet is aligning herself against him? Wouldn’t it realize after a while that Scarlet just wants to be left alone? Apparently not, it keeps screwing with her head until the very end (which we see in the hologram fight with Scarlet).

What does it have to gain by messing with her head, anyhow? In this scenario, Scarlet’s motivations make sense but the dragon’s do not, especially if the dragon’s primary motivations are to feed on magic (which they are, because that was established in the personal storyline). Essentially the dragon would be sabotaging itself.

Whether Scarlet was actively working for the dragon or not, there are problems with the writing.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Do not make me start dragging out examples of GW1 writing which was way worse than the Living Story. I’ll tell you true, all four storylines have a spot where it’s just . . . bad.

I played GW1 for six years. I know it is. But it’s still better than this.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Conversely, that . . . that totally and completely ruined the tragedy of the character. And it’s what I’m talking about when I say their backfilling started to weaken things. Shiro was far more compelling when it was his fear of his own mortality which drove him to contemplate the unquestionable, rather than “someone pulled his strings until he became a puppet”.

I agree, actually. I never thought they necessarily -needed- to explain Shiro, but they managed to get away with it because his story was vague enough that they could fill in the holes without hurting the lore too much. In the case of Scarlet, there are so many contradictions piled up around her already; tacking on a dragon to explain her has only amounted to cheapening and watering down the original premise of her character (and has raised even more questions).

PeterThomas.7243:

Heraldusluminare.2946:

I think ANet meant to explain Scarlet’s motivation through the cutscene after you killed her – specifically what lies at the end of it.

Still doesn’t explain a lot of things, such as:

- Why did seeing the eternal alchemy expose her to the dragon’s control?

- If dragons are connected to the Eternal Alchemy somehow, wouldn’t all of them had a chance to control her?

- So then, why this dragon? Why not one of the others? Or all of them?

- Why did she act like a mindless pawn in the last scene despite appearing completely independent and acting on her own volition up until now?

- Why was the dragon never mentioned or foreshadowed in “What Scarlet Saw”? Being “mind controlled” pretty much contradicts everything they established for her backstory.

- If dragons feed on magic, and the ley line was feeding this dragon a constant stream of magic, and Scarlet’s motivation was to disrupt the flow of magic feeding the dragon, wouldn’t that actually HARM the dragon instead of giving it what it wants? Why would the dragon manipulate her over a year-long period with the aim of interrupting its food source? Why would it want to harm itself?

MAKES. NO. SENSE.

I could go on and on. I don’t care that there’s suddenly a dragon, it does nothing to redeem this storyline or make sense of Scarlet’s motives.

We don’t KNOW the answers to these questions but, the explanations that are floating about are.

1. We do not know if the eternal alchemy is what she saw. Only thing we know is she thought she saw it. What ever it it was she saw broke her mind and unleashed something that was already their but perhaps walled off.

2&3. It is strongly hinted at that Sylvari have some connection to the elder dragon Mordremoth. It is speculated that the Sylvari are not aware because of Ventari’s Tablet and/or the Pale Tree (likely deception on her behalf) has sealed that connection away from the Sylvari. When Scarlet entered the “Eternal Alchemy” it broke that seal and reconnected her to Mordremoth (only Mordremoth because they innately have a connection to them).

3. Not sure why. As of now I agree with your notion that that part makes no sense.

4. My personal speculation is she wasn’t being mind controlled anywhere in the written story. It was just a testament to who she was before Ceara became Scarlet. According to her journal that is in the game it took awhile before the dragon fully took over her mind as she fought it for awhile.

5. I have no clue.

And I am sure all the loopholes in Warcraft 3 were wrapped up at the end.

What Illidan was u to, where Deathwing was hiding, why Arthas chilled out in Northrend for YEARS after his change into the Lich King.

And lets not get started how each expansion wraps three loose ends up and opens four new ones.

That’s called progress in writing. Not everything is cut & dry in each season. Not even in TV.

Why the HELL is Ash Ketchum STILL ten?!

Paraka.9724:

Why the HELL is Ash Ketchum STILL ten?!

Time lord.

Paraka.9724:

Why the HELL is Ash Ketchum STILL ten?!

Profit. Even still I lol whenever someone notices this.

This was actually a good scene to me. In many years of TV/films, the mirror has happened a lot: the villain has the hero captured and is about to kill them and then delivers a long monologue about their reasons for everything; meanwhile the hero uses the time to escape. What a dumb villain. Cue Scarlett; hurt in trouble and she is trying to buy time, and BAM – “no, we do not care and here’s your death”. So was satisfying; she was a loony.

Now I did the instance on a Engy and read the 3 control panels; and what it suggested to me was that Scarlett was, in her own loony way; trying to help. The dragon was feeding off the energy and she stopped that. But b/c she’s a whack-job she did not realize that the interruption of the Dragon’s food; aka-magic from the Ley Lines would wake it up. Maybe she did and would have told us that; no one knows yet. But it’s also possible that the reduced food may help, the Dragon wakes and is weaker and easier to fight, not sure but guess there will be another installment of As Tryia Turns in a month or so.

I do not expect a rebuild of Lion’s Arch anytime soon, since a POI was added at the Breachmaker. When have they ever removed a POI? I think LA is the revamp of Orr and it’s close and there will continue to be champs/train/farming of the Scarlett hoard. Maybe they will join up w/the new Dragon. But I will miss the hub and do not care much for the new gold sinks that are added to support the lack of LA.

Scar Rufo.7935:

This was actually a good scene to me. In many years of TV/films, the mirror has happened a lot: the villain has the hero captured and is about to kill them and then delivers a long monologue about their reasons for everything; meanwhile the hero uses the time to escape. What a dumb villain. Cue Scarlett; hurt in trouble and she is trying to buy time, and BAM – “no, we do not care and here’s your death”. So was satisfying; she was a loony.

Reminds me of Red vs Blue.

“Oh, come on Wash . . . what are you going to do,shoot-”
blam
“Yes.”

(REconstruction, Season 6, Episode 6.)

it’s just simple….
ANET either doesn’t want to tell you anything as it might anger many people,

or

They have no clue what is coming next, so they are making this up as they go….

Either way, it’s really a page from Lost…..

I still hope there will be a way for Scarlet to explain the things she did. I think one of the most awesome ways would be if you’d go back to her lair and she’d be there as a hologram that you can actually converse with as if she was really there, as if it’s her ghost, and she’d just be giving you riddles and hints while you search the lair for clues. Not really mocking you, but actually being helpful in a way, like it’s her last bit of sanity she had left and managed to put it into a hologram to aid whoever came after her before she completely went crazy.

OmaiGodman.2098:

I still hope there will be a way for Scarlet to explain the things she did. I think one of the most awesome ways would be if you’d go back to her lair and she’d be there as a hologram that you can actually converse with as if she was really there, as if it’s her ghost, and she’d just be giving you riddles and hints while you search the lair for clues. Not really mocking you, but actually being helpful in a way, like it’s her last bit of sanity she had left and managed to put it into a hologram to aid whoever came after her before she completely went crazy.

Kasmeer: “Scarlet, what were you trying to accomplish?”
Hologram: “I’m sorry, my responses are limited. You must ask the right questions.”
Marjory: “She was interrupting the flow of ley line energy, but to what? What could be out there drawing that much energy?”
Hologram: “The only known beings which depend on that much ley line energy would be beings such as Zhaitan, Jormag, or Primordius.”
Kasmeer: “A dragon. She was trying to do something about a dragon, one we didn’t know about before. So what . . . how . . .”
Marjory: "Scarlet, if you were under the thrall of the dragon, why would you try to interrupt what’s feeding it?
Hologram: “That, detective, is the right question.”

I may be the only one who thinks that she was not interrupting Mordy’s food supply. The way I see it, all the dragons woke to feed on magic or started feeding when they awoke. She did not interrupt it, she introduced it to it.
We shall see or at least I hope we do get all the info we need.

For the most part we all was wanting her to go away in a major way, most did not like her character.
Anet did one thing right by letting us have the last laugh or did they.
I don’t think I would like to find out that Scarlet died by our own hand and she was trying to be the hero, she did say “This is not the way it was supposed to happen!” right before you stick her. Of course then she really was like Treaherne trying to jump out in front of us and steal the lime light by becoming the hero with us as the sidekick.

I just hope that the patch fills in all the little questions that she has brought to the table and fills in some of the ones that have been ongoing since beta.

Edit: Boy was I wrong not only on the feeding off magic but that Anet would write in info that would explain things! From this we learn nothing new or anything old….we were already speculating what we got as the reveal.

I think Braham isn’t as “good” as we assume he is…

I think there’s anger that Eir didn’t really acknowledge him much, and that he’s on the back burner compared to Kas/Jory and that he’s been carefully grooming a facade that he “likes” Rox….

If Scarlet told the reasons why, then he would be discovered.

But, then again, I don’t like Braham much. Can you tell? lol

bullyrook.2165:

Mega Messiah.1734:

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Um, buddy, we still don’t know why she wanted to wake up the dragon. Crazy? Under orders? Wants the world to burn? Wants somewhere green? Wants to feed Audrey II? Who knows?

Does it really matter why? Would knowing why change anything? She did it, because she wanted to.

DarcShriek.5829:

bullyrook.2165:

Mega Messiah.1734:

PeterThomas.7243:

I actually laughed out loud when Braham interrupted Scarlet’s offer to explain her motives.

Scarlet: “Oh noes! You beat me! I bet you’re wondering why I did it. I’ll tell you all about my motives in a monologue at the end of act three as all poorly written villains do…”

Braham: “NO! WE’RE NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE YOU THE CHANCE! WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU AND NEVER LET YOU EXPLAIN ANYTHING.”

Scarlet: “Um… Okay then.”

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

After all, Arenanet can’t have Scarlet explaining something that they can’t even explain themselves…

>Scarlet dies
>Cutscene plays showing drill hitting leyline resevoir
>Dragon wakes up at end of cutscene

“Well, guys, I have no idea why she did it! We needed an exposition dump to find out!”

Um, buddy, we still don’t know why she wanted to wake up the dragon. Crazy? Under orders? Wants the world to burn? Wants somewhere green? Wants to feed Audrey II? Who knows?

Does it really matter why? Would knowing why change anything? She did it, because she wanted to.

No, she did it because screenwriters told her to.

Astralporing.1957:

No, she did it because screenwriters told her to.

“Darnit Scarlet, stop reading the stage directions from the script. Keep this up and we’ll make that hair even more ridiculous.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

Uh-huh.
(15 char)

DarcShriek.5829:

Does it really matter why? Would knowing why change anything? She did it, because she wanted to.

Because the story of a mastermind doing this because she wanted to doesn’t make sense. Especially considering all her history.
But who cares, I don’t mean to offend them, but the writers of this game seem to be writing for teenagers now so they try to keep it simple, with a joke every two lines (like the epilogue we just got…)

RedStar.4218:

DarcShriek.5829:

Does it really matter why? Would knowing why change anything? She did it, because she wanted to.

Because the story of a mastermind doing this because she wanted to doesn’t make sense. Especially considering all her history.

Of course, it’s still in line with writing before. See: Markis’ betrayal, and Saidra’s sacrifice.

But who cares, I don’t mean to offend them, but the writers of this game seem to be writing for teenagers now so they try to keep it simple, with a joke every two lines (like the epilogue we just got…)

It’s exactly in line with the epilogues from all four GW1 storylines, where the wrap-up was full of that sort of thing.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Of course, it’s still in line with writing before. See: Markis’ betrayal, and Saidra’s sacrifice.

It’s exactly in line with the epilogues from all four GW1 storylines, where the wrap-up was full of that sort of thing.

You’re going to have to explain the link between Saidra’s sacrifice and Scarlet’s lack of motivation.

And the epilogues being full of jokes is a rather big exaggeration. You just had the old Cynn/Mhenlo jokes, the rest being filled with “thank you”s and what everyone will now be up to.

But comparing GW1’s epilogues with this is unfair. It’s not the same thing, not only due to the size of it, but because we don’t feel things are right. Sure Scarlet is dead but what about her huge armies ? what about LA ? or the dragons ?

RedStar.4218:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Of course, it’s still in line with writing before. See: Markis’ betrayal, and Saidra’s sacrifice.

It’s exactly in line with the epilogues from all four GW1 storylines, where the wrap-up was full of that sort of thing.

You’re going to have to explain the link between Saidra’s sacrifice and Scarlet’s lack of motivation.

First, “lack of motivation” is an assumption and a big difference from “they had a motivation and didn’t tell anyone”.

Secondly, that’s not what I have to explain. What I have to explain is how three NPCs pretty much did things for absurd reasons. Markis betrayed the Shining Blade only after the player joined up and seemingly only out of jealousy. (Maybe because my ranger was better than him.) Saidra could have escaped with us but chose to run to her death and barely slow the Mursaat chasing us. Scarlet chose to not once explain or leave hints to “true motives” until she wanted to buy time to keep from dying.

Really, if Scarlet wanted us to know, she would have done so. That line “don’t you want to know why?” comes off as trying to give time for her to escape or turn the tables. She might have told us, but then we’d be looking like morons for letting her monologue. And we’d be having a topic: “Re: Scarlet’s Monologue, couldn’t we have just killed her?!”.

And the epilogues being full of jokes is a rather big exaggeration. You just had the old Cynn/Mhenlo jokes, the rest being filled with “thank you”s and what everyone will now be up to.

Heh, no. Check it out sometime, the Epilogue of Prophecies which was added late but had in-jokes explaining why the “old” henchmen disappeared for Ascalon’s Chosen. The Factions one had the Ministry bits. The Epilogue of Eye of the North had the norn and asura.

Even Nightfall had “Norgu’s Nightfall”. Do I really need to elaborate on that terrible thing? (I know it was intentionally bad. But then it falls into “comedy” instead of “bad writing”.)

But comparing GW1’s epilogues with this is unfair. It’s not the same thing, not only due to the size of it, but because we don’t feel things are right. Sure Scarlet is dead but what about her huge armies ? what about LA ? or the dragons ?

The epilogue following “Hell’s Precipice” was literally only Glint giving a voiceover version of “Congraturations, you won!”. Nothing about the titans which had escaped that far, nothing about the consequences of the White Mantle leaving a power vacuum in Kryta, and nothing about what happens to Ascalon when the only heir to the throne after Adelbern is dead.

All that got pushed in after the fact, and it still didn’t answer anything for . . . what was it, six years for War In Kryta? . . . let alone the fallout of Shiro’s plague . . . and there’s still threads which were left untouched.

There’s nothing new about the threads being left to dangle for exceptionally long times or seemingly forgotten about. I won’t pretend ANet is good at tightly written material – they’re not. They’re better at making it (mostly) entertaining along the way, and making some good characters we like to remember fondly.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

The epilogue following “Hell’s Precipice” was literally only Glint giving a voiceover version of “Congraturations, you won!”. Nothing about the titans which had escaped that far…

The titan stuff was followed up with the quest line starting with The Last Day Dawns http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Last_Day_Dawns_ ending in The Titan Source http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Titan_Source_. These were only available after completing the Prophecies main quest line. The quests weren’t very heavy on story; mostly the players were just cleaning up the titans that had wandered the map, but you did get some dialogue stuffs with Adelbern.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

… nothing about the consequences of the White Mantle leaving a power vacuum in Kryta…

The Shining Blade seized that opportunity to put Queen Salma in power. That’s why we were reporting to her in War In Kryta. Not quite sure why this is causing you confusion.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

…and nothing about what happens to Ascalon when the only heir to the throne after Adelbern is dead.

Ascalon became an uninhabitable ghost-infested ruin, that’s what. Go read The Ghosts of Ascalon http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ghosts_of_ascalon if you need more details.

Arenanet actually hasn’t been too bad at explaining things up until now, they just take their sweet time at it. Or they put those explanations inside purchaseable items such as the “Bonus Mission Pack” or the physical novels. The threads do get tied up eventually.

With Scarlet, however, they have their work cut out for them. The threads surrounding her story are a tangled mess that I doubt will ever make complete sense.

To get a good theory on Scarlet you gotta look a lot of different things going as far back as the beginning of the Sylvari.
1.The human Ronan steals a mysterious seed from a cave guarded with dangerous creatures and plants it along with a Centaur named Ventari, both were peace lovers and left a tablet by the seed when they died which influence the Sylvari on their birth and made them the way they are now. Possible evidence the pale tree was supposed to grow into Mordremoth’s lieutenant, but moved away from the dragon and its influence, something changed.
2. The “Where Life Goes” story arc in the sylvari personal story discovers a Sylvari NOT born of the Pale Tree who has no influence of the dream or nightmare, meaning there are other Sylvari out there somewhere, but why? More possible evidence that Mordremoth has minions out there but apparently they dropped the ball and have no influence over these other Sylvari.
3. Scarlet went beyond the Eternal Alchemy breaking the barrier the pale tree likely put up to possibly keep out Mordremoth’s influence, this done the dragon linked with her mind and while it couldn’t outright control her, it drove her mad. Wouldn’t having another voice in your head drive YOU mad? After coping with the dragon’s presence, the only way for her to be rid of it was if one of them were to die, but she is too proud to kill herself.
4. She begins all the preparations necessary to waken, attack, and destroy the dragon, creating her own army made up of strong land, sea, and air factions(her army really is better than the Pact, you gotta admit), even going so far as to create something large enough to take on a Dragon itself, the Marionette, which she tested on us all. Don’t forget the Miasma itself, which would wreak havoc on any army of dragon minions, or the poison sample she swiped from the nightmare tower the second it fell apart, which was likely to be used on the dragon itself as it was highly potent after evolving from our previous attempts to neutralize it.
5. Everything in place, she made her move on Lion’s Arch and was ready to awaken the dragon, but then we come in, right as she’s almost done at Lion’s Arch, does she stop? No she figures she can still win because she’s beaten us all over the world time and time again, but she’s out of luck. We critically injure her and she knows she’ll die, but she likely keeps the drill running just to unleash Mordremoth to get revenge on us, since she’ll be free from the Dragon’s influence anyway the moment she dies.

PeterThomas.7243:

[…]

Player: unceremoniously plants a stick in Scarlet

I did it twice, mind you. And never used a stick.

First used the sanctified finisher. Then I used the spectre finished when I retried for the achivement.

That crazy twig didn’t deserve the wings.

By the way, get all permanent finishers you can. They get unlocked for the account. That is good, so good, that all things should be like that, toys, tools, town clothes and skins.

MithranArkanere.8957:

By the way, get all permanent finishers you can. They get unlocked for the account. That is good, so good, that all things should be like that, toys, tools, town clothes and skins.

Sorry. I think finishers are lame. I agree with you that more store items should be permanent, but the fact that they have tried to introduce finishers into PVE content (toxic knights and scarlet) is very obviously a cash grab to try to boost sales of these undesirable items.

Despite reaching sPVP rank 30, all my permanent finishers are sticks, and I’m okay with that. I’ll leave the accumulation of useless vanity items to people with deep, deep pockets.

I always wondered why those guys required finishing like in PvP. Of course, it never occurred to me to waste gems on finishers because of it.