Guild Wars 2

signed. garbage writing/story telling

CorneliusCoffin.3169:

Here’s an update: You are not supposed to like the villain. You’re supposed to hate the villain, hate what they do, hate that you don’t understand why or how they’re doing it and get so emotional that you call for their early demise.
Judging from the majority of the reactions on these forums here, I think ANet have done a pretty good job with achieving that.
Kudos.

Why the villain is disliked is very important. Scarlet is just a really shallow, poorly written character that gives off bad fan fiction vibes, with the essence of a silly cartoon villain. I agree when others describe her as a character that a novice roleplayer would create. Maxed out character sheet, unreasonably long talent list. The story focuses on Scarlet at the expense of much better existing lore.

She is not a Sauron, Satan, Moriarty, Magneto, Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader, or whatever. The Joker is a deeper character.

Among repetitive video game boss characters, even Dr. Wily seems more interesting, and he doesn’t say much. Bowser is a more believable character. Castlevania Dracula is way better.

Scarlet reminds me of:

http://imgur.com/r/FCYHFT/mTX1K

I want to see an epic narrative, not the monthly mischief of the plant cartoon.

Bureiku.8790:

Scarlet Briar is not a villain. Scarlet Briar is that annoying side character henchman who hangs on the tails of the real villain. Also, for the record, don’t let that statement give you guys any ideas. “Scarlet Briar has wreaked havoc across Tyria, but now revealed is her true master!” Please.

I’d be okay with that actually, it’d be a good excuse to phase her out and replace the villain.

Make her the vanguard for Emperor Palawa Joko, riding on an enthralled Kralkatorrik, leading his cyborg zombie legions on a path of conquest through Tyria. Or something else. Might as well jump some sharks, the sky’s the limit.

Josip.8267:

I Do Not Like Scarlet Briar

Here op, I fixed it for you.

Thank you, but I’m afraid you’ve missed the mark. As you can see, the “we” in the title refers to the many who have posted here expressing their dislike of Scarlet Briar. There are a significant amount of players who are giving good, constructive feedback which, hopefully, ArenaNet is reading (I always assume they are).

Whether players like her whole package or find her story unrelatable, the sort of feedback presented here hopefully serves as a good mark for developers to process and adjust to keep their audience satisfied.

To summarize this thread (up to this point), the majority of posters, both lovers and haters of Scarlet, feel that her popping up in everything is becoming overly redundant.

Aedelric.1287:

Heta.8629:

I like scarlet and know others do too

Each to their own, but be warned you are in a severe minority.

Prove it. Show me one scientific poll that supports your hypothesis.

i just could never wrap my head around as to why having so much lore to choose from they decided to provide us with a half cooked no reason evil doer…. the LS at this point in time has ceased to be interesting for me. there is no emotional attachment to the plot anymore, i just hope this arc ends soon and we can go back to slaying dragons.

Hell, make it so scarlet kills trehearne and we avenge his death by slaying her…. and lets just carry on with THE BIG PICTURE….

deepwinter.9015:

Josip.8267:

I Do Not Like Scarlet Briar

Here op, I fixed it for you.

Thank you, but I’m afraid you’ve missed the mark. As you can see, the “we” in the title refers to the many who have posted here expressing their dislike of Scarlet Briar. There are a significant amount of players who are giving good, constructive feedback which, hopefully, ArenaNet is reading (I always assume they are).

Whether players like her whole package or find her story unrelatable, the sort of feedback presented here hopefully serves as a good mark for developers to process and adjust to keep their audience satisfied.

To summarize this thread (up to this point), the majority of posters, both lovers and haters of Scarlet, feel that her popping up in everything is becoming overly redundant.

Kind of like all those undead that are supported by Zhaitan? Like that isn’t overly redundant. I don’t believe for a moment that your issue is redundancy.

thetoetag.5183:

Aedelric.1287:

thetoetag.5183:

I love Scarlet! I don’t understand why everyone hates her so much.

Easy, try reading the countless topics that explain why she is hated.

So people hate her because they dont know how to follow along with the living story? OMG SHES THE WORST!

learn reading, thexy complain that she is basicly the one and onyl reason everything bad happens in tyria right now. she di that she did this. thats not beeing unable to follow up a story, thats shoe horning in a charcater that doesn´t need to be everywhere.
thats why people " joke about" that scarlet is the reason for the dragons to rise or abbadon to betray the other gods in the past. because anet would jsut do it that way.
She is a mary sue.

Palador.2170:

So… let’s think about this for a moment.

Scarlet’s story had started before the election, right? If they really did plan all this with her from the beginning of Frost and Fire, it had to.

The election to decide which fractal to make wasn’t held until much later. So, there’s no way this could have been an important part of her story all along, unless ANet had no intention of letting the other fractal get made.

So, which is it? Are they just adding her in where ever they can now, even though it’s not really part of her story? Or did they plan to make this fractal all along to tell an important part of her story, meaning that the election was a sham?

problem is we only knew her name but had no idea WHO scarlet was. she was jsut a name that appeared only twice during the beginning of the living story, in a letter nobody reads and ming said somethign about scarlet. thats it.
then she came into play and BOOOOOOOOOM MARY SUE POWERS OF REDICULOUS

Signed. I hate Scarlet Briar. Plot armor should never be so blatently obvious.

Arenanet needs to implement a polling system in the game to be more interactive with their audience.

Upon conclusion of a 2 week LS, there can be a short poll on the story.
Polling is one time only per account per 2 weeks conclusion.
The questions asked can be as simple as " Do you want to see more of Scarlet Briar?-Answer Yes or No."
The questions can also be more detailed based on the possible directions the story can evolve into. “How would you like the Scarlet Briar Story arc to end?-Option A,B,C”

The voting for Kiel/Evon was a step in the right direction for player interaction, but you need to remove the WP reduction+BL key cost reduction incorparated as that would make the polling be about the financial aspect and not the story aspect.

Carighan.6758:

KOPPER.1458:

At this point when we get a LS in JAN we already know “Scarlet did it”

And this is surprising during the Scarlet Living Story? Really? Wow, you have weird expectations.

I do still mind it, but for a different reasons. You mind the “Scarlet”-part of Scarlet did it. I mind the “it”. She didn’t do anything of significance. Except maaaaybe the reactor, since that directly impacts me. But in a positive way, it gave me a pretty nifty dungeon.
She needs to actually do something. Appear randomly and tranq-dart people, mid-dungeon-fight. Now there’s a way to get players angry and – more importantly – make them care for removing the villain.

hey what about south sun BOTH updates. or the new mini story durign halloween. THEY WERE NOT scarlet stories and yet they were much more interesting then scarlets, even though southsuns game mechanic weren´t that good but it was one fo the first out there.
ADN WHAT do we get at halloween?
M TO THE TO A AND D BLOODY PRINCE YO.

this guy is a villian: a easily accassable (meaning we can figure it out in game and not some written story ona website (which is BS)) his backround and lore make sense in the context of the event, his anger and motivs are understandable and his threat is very well known.

scarlets history makes a joke of basicly every race specialy asura, how she optained all knowing is rediculous, her charcater never actualy changed with the event in her backround story she was allready a unsocial psycho and it was NOT WELL INTEGRATED in the game it self. it literaly said in game: she did all thing which were impossible previewously stated in game thansk to the personal story and became a villian the end.

DarcShriek.5829:

deepwinter.9015:

Josip.8267:

I Do Not Like Scarlet Briar

Here op, I fixed it for you.

Thank you, but I’m afraid you’ve missed the mark. As you can see, the “we” in the title refers to the many who have posted here expressing their dislike of Scarlet Briar. There are a significant amount of players who are giving good, constructive feedback which, hopefully, ArenaNet is reading (I always assume they are).

Whether players like her whole package or find her story unrelatable, the sort of feedback presented here hopefully serves as a good mark for developers to process and adjust to keep their audience satisfied.

To summarize this thread (up to this point), the majority of posters, both lovers and haters of Scarlet, feel that her popping up in everything is becoming overly redundant.

Kind of like all those undead that are supported by Zhaitan? Like that isn’t overly redundant. I don’t believe for a moment that your issue is redundancy.

are kittening kidding me?! are you serious? you compare an elder dragon thats has been established with its motives and power since the very first kitteninng secound of the games teaser trailer with a mary sue of a charcater?
first of all the undead are not SUPPORTED by zaithan, they are his kittening minions, puppets at best only a few are ALLOWED to think strategicly. he owns them controls them, he raised them from the dead, zaithan is the elder dragon of the undead.
It´s like saying the lichkings undead army is redundant. ARE YOU INSANE?

ShroomOneUp.6913:

Problem is we only knew her name but had no idea WHO Scarlet was. She was just a name that appeared only twice during the beginning of the living story, in a letter nobody reads and Ming said something about Scarlet. That’s it.
Then she came into play and BOOOOOOOOOM MARY SUE POWERS OF RIDICULOUS

Oh, trust me, I’m not arguing that. I agree completely.

What I’m pointing out is that either:

a) Scarlet was always behind the reactor failure, and they intended to tell us this story. Which means that the votes were faked, we had no impact on the outcome at all.

or

b) The reactor failure and Scarlet were not linked to begin with, and they’ve simply shoehorned her in. If the vote had gone for Evon, they wouldn’t be telling this story at all, so it can’t be an important plot point in their plans for Scarlet OR the reactor.

I just want them to tell us which it is, a or b.

Scarlet is the biggest shame in video game history.
Please kill it already, remove it from story.
Forget about it ANET. Please. The community beg you!

DarcShriek.5829:

deepwinter.9015:

Josip.8267:

I Do Not Like Scarlet Briar

Here op, I fixed it for you.

Thank you, but I’m afraid you’ve missed the mark. As you can see, the “we” in the title refers to the many who have posted here expressing their dislike of Scarlet Briar. There are a significant amount of players who are giving good, constructive feedback which, hopefully, ArenaNet is reading (I always assume they are).

Whether players like her whole package or find her story unrelatable, the sort of feedback presented here hopefully serves as a good mark for developers to process and adjust to keep their audience satisfied.

To summarize this thread (up to this point), the majority of posters, both lovers and haters of Scarlet, feel that her popping up in everything is becoming overly redundant.

Kind of like all those undead that are supported by Zhaitan? Like that isn’t overly redundant. I don’t believe for a moment that your issue is redundancy.

If “Supported by” in this case means “created by” and “told what to do by” and “Exist only because of” then yes, those two things are equals.

But since it doesn’t, no that’s not the same. Next.

Palador.2170:

b) The reactor failure and Scarlet were not linked to begin with, and they’ve simply shoehorned her in. If the vote had gone for Evon, they wouldn’t be telling this story at all, so it can’t be an important plot point in their plans for Scarlet OR the reactor.

Not really.
For the fall of abaddon, we could be stepping into a fractal where Scarlet already is, studying it herself. This would make a lot of sense given how if Dessa can do it, we have to assume Scarlet can do the very same.

And the relation to magic would be of interesting to her, so…

Heta.8629:

Who is we? I like scarlet and know others do too

I’m here to cancel out the vote/influence of this pro-Scarlet guy. Include me in with the “we”. I encourage people to keep up the anti-Scarlet movement to let Anet know that the story have become ridiculously forced and rigid.

Carighan.6758:

Palador.2170:

b) The reactor failure and Scarlet were not linked to begin with, and they’ve simply shoehorned her in. If the vote had gone for Evon, they wouldn’t be telling this story at all, so it can’t be an important plot point in their plans for Scarlet OR the reactor.

Not really.
For the fall of abaddon, we could be stepping into a fractal where Scarlet already is, studying it herself. This would make a lot of sense given how if Dessa can do it, we have to assume Scarlet can do the very same.

And the relation to magic would be of interesting to her, so…

See, that would work for me. Her being in the same fractal as us, studying the same things as us, that works! It wouldn’t be her making the events recorded in the fractal happen, it would be her interacting with us as a fellow explorer. Hell, that would be a great chance for them to have Scarlet talk with us, instead of at us. We could get to see a new side of her, and maybe get a glimpse of a decent character with real motivations.

But that could have happened in either fractal, because both have to do with magic and both might be of interest to her. (Mind you, for all we know, collecting toe fungus to make little dolls out of and having them get married and live in a dolly dream house is of interest to her.) Either way, it would not be her causing the events that the fractal replays, and it would avoid the problem I’ve pointed out.

If they were REALLY smart, they would have included a pre-Scarlet Scarlet in the reactor fractal at some point. Just doing something minor, not an important plot point at all, but letting us see a small glimpse of her prior existence.

CorneliusCoffin.3169:

Here’s an update: You are not supposed to like the villain. You’re supposed to hate the villain, hate what they do, hate that you don’t understand why or how they’re doing it and get so emotional that you call for their early demise.

Honestly, I couldn’t disagree with this any more if I tried. A villain with a somewhat justifiable motive, a villain that shows internal conflict, or even just a villain with some sort of history or backstory that shows what has turned them into what they’ve become is simply so much more compelling as a figure than someone like Scarlet who is simply bad because being bad is fun.

I (as well as what seems like the majority of people here) don’t hate her for the reasons that one would hope to dislike an antagonist for. We hate her because she’s just a terrible fit for the role that she’s been placed in. The playful prankster personality type just doesn’t work when you’re portraying someone who is supposed to be as seemingly all-powerful as she is, and the fact that she’s behind every single unrelated conflict for the past 4+ months without any sort of tying of loose ends or even any sort of explanation for why she’s here to begin with just makes it so much worse.

I tend to love all the characters in this entire game. Ones that mattered the most to us (our mentors) we lost. There are two characters in Guild Wars 2 Universe which I wouldn’t mind loosing at all. Those two would be the following:
Trahearne
Scarlet
Do what you want with these two. Hell make it so Trahearne was Scarlet’s minion if you have to, but make them go away…

I love Scarlet Briar and i can see her story becoming something much more relevant than what we all thing.

Sons.5493:

I love Scarlet Briar and i can see her story becoming something much more relevant than what we all thing.

There was a time and place for that. I’m thinking… 4-5 updates ago. We’re months into this whole Scarlet thing and she’s not relevant in any way whatsoever. She’s that “bad guy” that’s behind everything that ever happened since Living Story started. It’s almost like I’m a kid again watching [Insert any childhood super-villain here] come up with evil scheme just run away at the end, and come back in the next episode with another scheme… It got old when I was 12, and to have that kind of writing is just not very appealing anymore. We’re at the point where if anything is wrong, we know (not speculate, nor think) that Scarlet is behind it all 100% of the time. The element of surprise and excitement was lost long ago…

I guess it’s time for a guild named “Get rid of Scarlet Briar ffs!” or something like that.

Acutally that’s a pretty good idea. We should really do that.

hell i wouldnt mind an update a month, or even two months, if it came with compelling plots, interesting story lines, and layered characters that make you wanna play the content, and speculate as to what is to come, or how will it unravel….

perhaps the pace at which ANet wants to update the content in GW2, in order to stay relevant to its playerbase, with all the new mmos coming….its in turn, in fact… alienating said playerbase, due to not being able to relate to ingame lore or storytelling anymore…

Palador.2170:

If they were REALLY smart, they would have included a pre-Scarlet Scarlet in the reactor fractal at some point. Just doing something minor, not an important plot point at all, but letting us see a small glimpse of her prior existence.

Now that you mention it, that’d add a depth which she kinda needs to her. We don’t need to see her non-insane. We can assume she never was. :P
But it’d be interesting to see be at work with the Inquest, and nothing else. No grand schemes, just getting that reactor rolling to find out wth is going on, “playing along” for the time.

Bonus points if this happens while modern-day Scarlet is in there with us, talking to us about how she tricked them into thinking it was their idea and so on.

Sons.5493:

I love Scarlet Briar and i can see her story becoming something much more relevant than what we all thing.

That’s what I’m afraid of.

The more significance they give her the worse the whole fiasco gets. Having a slap-happy teenager with i-can-do-everything-better-then-you powers who says “later tater!” be a significant character is the WHOLE PROBLEM.

Soulstar.7812:

I like Scarlet.

but the story is getting ridiculous with her being behind every kitten plot.

You.
You deserve my +1, because I echo this feeling.

I don’t hate her, but I also don’t get the feeling of her as the personal nemesis that ANet was trying to cook up.
She’s a filler villain, only there to give their teams more time while they make a villain worth my time.

summarizing my sentiment for this character

The writing of the character is so simplistic and borderline stupid that it sounds like it was written by a 13 year old aping something else he’d read. Apparently ArenaNet dont care about providing decent writing, and thats the most irritating thing for me.

We need a Collaborative Development Initiative to discuss Scarlet.

deepwinter.9015:

Hopefully this thread maintains the constructive criticism these forums require and not be deleted.

I really enjoy this game for a lot of reasons, from dodge rolling to WvW. The world was rich an immerse the moment I stepped foot into it. Once I caught up on the lore by playing Guild Wars 1, I really appreciated the story.

Then a weed named Scarlet was introduced. Sure, she felt a bit wacky, but I was okay with it at first. Then she started cropping up in everything, and it began to feel forced and unoriginal.

Now she is behind the Thaumanova Reactor and there are aether-looking items around the world with a sign saying “DO NOT TOUCH” (clearly of Scarlet design), and I’m just done.

ArenaNet writers, your players are speaking to you.

Listen closely; this is the important part:
We do not like Scarlet Briar!

I originally voted for Evon, but now I’m glad he lost; I swear to god, the Abaddon fractal would have shown how Scarlet invented a time machine at some point, and was the one who originally defeated Abaddon.

Grimwolf.7163:

deepwinter.9015:

Hopefully this thread maintains the constructive criticism these forums require and not be deleted.

I really enjoy this game for a lot of reasons, from dodge rolling to WvW. The world was rich an immerse the moment I stepped foot into it. Once I caught up on the lore by playing Guild Wars 1, I really appreciated the story.

Then a weed named Scarlet was introduced. Sure, she felt a bit wacky, but I was okay with it at first. Then she started cropping up in everything, and it began to feel forced and unoriginal.

Now she is behind the Thaumanova Reactor and there are aether-looking items around the world with a sign saying “DO NOT TOUCH” (clearly of Scarlet design), and I’m just done.

ArenaNet writers, your players are speaking to you.

Listen closely; this is the important part:
We do not like Scarlet Briar!

I originally voted for Evon, but now I’m glad he lost; I swear to god, the Abaddon fractal would have shown how Scarlet invented a time machine at some point, and was the one who originally defeated Abaddon.

Spoiler alert: Scarlet is Kormir.

“hey what about south sun BOTH updates. or the new mini story durign halloween. "

Actually the return to southsun update the one with Kanack (spelling?) had to do with scarlet indirectly. There was a short story about how he was in works with the molten alliance or something to this effect. Perhaps someone else with more knowledge could enlighten us more on the subject.

Anyone know if it’s the same team doing the story for Guild Wars 2 as Guild Wars? If so, can someone get them to read the story of/play Guild Wars so they remember that the did amazing work back then. If not could you get those guys back? I liked there story’s better.

Probably the worst storytelling I’ve encountered in my life.

Absolute garbage, even compared to the Personal Story.

1) Where are compelling characters that stick around?
2) Where is continuity?
3) Why do voice-over if you have just a few voice actors (all voices sound the same)?
4) Everything is childish like hell making the story feel dumb, not serious.
5) Fragmentation, fragmentation, fragmentation.
6) Scarlet.
…

future living story
“hahahahah the one that was behind the alliance of the ghosts of ascalon and the dragon minion skritt wa-”

“happy wintersday scarlet”
gives wintersday gift and mince pie

gasp “a teddy bear?…. no ones ever given me a present before… i shall renounce my evilness and start making toys for all of tyria – happy wintersday one and all!!!”

the end.

Grimwolf.7163:

I swear to god, the Abaddon fractal would have shown how Scarlet invented a time machine at some point, and was the one who originally defeated Abaddon.

Don’t joke. There have been April fools time travel missions in Guild Wars. Next thing you know ANet will be saying that it was her that sent the Golems back in time to kill Gwen and Sara.

CorneliusCoffin.3169:

deepwinter.9015:

Listen closely; this is the important part:
We do not like Scarlet Briar!

If I were a writer at ArenaNet, I’d really be congratulating myself on a job well done.
People claim that Scarlet is poorly written, but the truth is that over the past decades, thanks largely to Hollywood writing, we’ve become far to accustomed to sympathetic villains. Antagonists, who are often the antithesis of the hero, troubled by deep psychological trauma, whose actions are to a certain degree understandable or at leat comprehensible to the reader or viewer. This developement has lately reached a point, where the “gentleman” villains often become the protagonists themselves (e.g. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Pirates of the Carribean etc.)
Scarlet isn’t that. She isn’t likeable, her actions aren’t comprehensible, she’s annoying because she meddles with everything and people are spewing venom and bile because they don’t like her.
Here’s an update: You are not supposed to like the villain. You’re supposed to hate the villain, hate what they do, hate that you don’t understand why or how they’re doing it and get so emotional that you call for their early demise.
Judging from the majority of the reactions on these forums here, I think ANet have done a pretty good job with achieving that.
Kudos.

EDIT: I don’t want to say this is the case everyone. I can tell from reactions to this thread that there are also people who see right through what is actually happening here. But there are far more people on these boards who claim to be disinterested in the Scarlet story-arc, yet the emotionality in which their posts are usually written reveals that this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

You’re being naive, Scarlet is a poorly written villain, she isn’t mysterious. She is predictable. We all knew that she was behind Thermanouva before it even happened because she is behind everything. The fact that they even held that rigged vote for an Abbadon fractal is also insulting. What were they going to do? Make Scarlet responsible for Abbadon’s fall to darkness?

Atlas.9704:

She’s a filler villain, only there to give their teams more time while they make a villain worth my time.

http://youtu.be/O5aThJq4Xvo?t=2m10s

Dand.8231:

Queens Jubilee
This was a little far-fetched. I thought it was sorta strange that Queen Jenna just randomly, out of nowhere, got these mechanical soldiers, and not 5 minutes later, Scarlet appears and controls them.

If there was SUPPOSED to be a link between these two events, IE Scarlet is the one who sort of made the technology available for the sole purpose of taking it over later, that would have been more plausible. Instead, she just magically took control of EVERYTHING, effortlessly. That reeks of heavy-handedness on the part of lore.

Sidenote: I was on voice chat with my guild when I first saw the clockwork knights, and I kittening called that kitten. Those mecha-knight things obviously should have had an antivirus and firewall installed. How could I predict they’d get controlled, and an ENTIRE city, and it’s Leadership not know this was a bad idea? Ugh

Molten Alliance
Alright. The Flame Legion are religious fanatics. HOW would they EVER ally with anyone who DIRECTLY disagrees with their belief system??

Now if there had been a faction of Dredge, who were converted to their religion, then I can TOTALLY believe an alliance would be possible. But that isn’t the case.

And the Dredge used to be slaves, and are crazy communists. Why would they ally with someone who’s goal is to ENSLAVE everyone, via magic and religious conversion?!

And why would EITHER of them listen to Scarlet?!?!

The whole ting felt forced again. And why does Scarlet have ANY influence with the Dredge OR Flame Legion?! Now Scarlets Mary-Sue BS has gone from heavy-handed, to implausible.

Sidenote: I do appreciate the tiny, but noteworthy efforts to make the alliance appear as a fragile one, such as the dredge and flame legion arguing, calling one another incompetent, and blaming one another as they start to lose to the player characters.

Scarlets Backstory
She’s overly capable in everything she ever touches for no reason other than she . She’s smart than the Asura, better Engineers than the Charr, etc. It’s total nonsense. This just further demonstrates she’s a complete can-do-anything-mary-sue.

Toxic Alliance
I can always see the Nightmare Court working with her, due to the fact that they’re evil Sylvari, and she’s a kitten of a Sylvari…. but the Krait?! They’re xenophobic, murderous, jerkfaced maniacs with a superiority complex. Just like the flame legion and dredge, why would they EVER listen to Scarlet? Or ally with Sylvari, evil or otherwise?!

This is just complete and utter BS at this point. Scarlett can do everything because the Devs have decreed it. There’s no

Inquest Reactor
Kitten BS. Kitten. BS.
KITTEN. BS.
Grah!

Lots of helpful information is on the wiki if you want to understand more about the game. The Queens Jubilee is when the clockwork guards were introduced then they were manipulated by Scarlet during clockwork chaos which was 2 weeks later. 2 weeks is enough for Scarlet to figure out how they work and make her own version considering she is an engineer and a genius.

The 2 groups in the molten alliance were planning to use one another for their own gains. The flame legion were going to use dredge tech to seize more territory then enslave them while the dredge needed fire magic to improve their weaponry. Scarlet likely did not have much influence over either group but convinced them they could gain from working with each other. Scarlet only brought the offer of an alliance from the Flame legion to the dredge.

About her backstory Scarlet might just have been born a genius like many people in real life or just wanted more knowledge than most sylvari which motivated her to learn.

Regarding the Toxic alliance the Krait worked with a faction of the Nightmare Court because the Krait thought they could help resurrect their prophets with the extra help and resources. Scarlet likely just approached them and proposed they help resurrect their prophets. There was no evidence that they were being forced.

Regarding the Thaumanova reactor, Scarlet likely persuaded the Inquest to look into the chaos and draconic energies because it could help them acquire knowledge and as an inquest agent there says “take over the world”.

No group except the Aetherblades show any real fear of Scarlet and she likely used her silver tongue to persuade others to work together and she just reaped the benefits.

Down with Scarlet!

For people who don’t know, here’s a full break down of WHY lore lovers, story buffs and general players of GW2 hate Scarlett.

1. We have no personal connection with her in our ‘personal’ story. We as a player just get to watch her muck things up and clean up her mess but nothing ever directly affects the world for more than two weeks. She’s an annoyance more than a villain. Bad guys of other games are busy raising elder gods of destruction, overthrowing kingdoms, dooming the planet and otherwise killing off large populations of people while Scarlett is doing a little jig and summoning creatures that get their metal butts dismantled before they do any real harm. The only reason we as the player stop her is for the sweet loots.

2. She’s very VERY poorly written. From any stand point. 1302 AE is the first appearance of the first born Sylvari, we are not told but are pretty sure she’s not a firstborn as most of them seem highly regarded as plant people royalty. This puts her to be at most 20 years old. Not only does no one know anything about her, even the pale tree herself the ‘mother’ of all Sylvari never mentions this possible threat at any time. Seems like something an all knowing mother tree would give a hint about. That also means in only 20 years time Scarlett managed to graduate from all 3 asura colleges, travel to the home cities of all the other races, become accepted and lean all of their trade secrets (warband leadership for Charr, great hunt for norn, her own Wyld hunt, and whatever it is humans do…join the army?). As an example Asura are put into pre-classes for their colleges as prodigy (children) so young that one class is ‘nap time’ Asura train their whole lives to be part of a single college. The greatest mind of their race, Snaff only graduated from one. And what’s even a worse kick in the teeth to the pre-set lore is that she ‘saw’ the eternal alchemy? That god like magic to the Asura, the thing they have been trying to understand since their creation? Yea she just kinda saw it for funsies. I would complain even if it WAS an asura who managed it in such a cheap way.

3. Going along with everything stated above she is NEVER mentioned before the Queens event. Not a single bit of info is given by any NPC of this grand master of all races. No matter what town you go to they say and do nothing to tell you that anything in her story ever took place. You would think SOMEONE would know something. If anything a pretty prominent Asura died and even he’s never mentioned. It was only less the 20 years ago.

4. Her existence removes all threat and care from the dragons. It seems that Anet staff care more about her story than the DRAGONS that have been awoken and now seek to suck all the magic from the world. I haven’t heard a thing about them since the whole sunless re-boot and that lasted less than anything Scarlett has done. They write her to overshadow everything and everyone in the game, yet nothing in the game after these events ever represent that.

5. Her mechanics are tired. She summons things for…some reason? We fight them, they die and she laughs. Every time they have the chance to make her likable, relatable or even remotely interesting they just put a holo of her somewhere and a voice over saying creepy rhymes and then poof. ‘Scarlett did it’ is all we get. Leaving us asking ever time. “WHY?”

6. In many instances there are much better, pre established character villains that could be used to great advantage. Speaking on the new frac, Kudu. The Asuran ‘leader’ of the inquest would have pages of reasons to cause this type of mayhem. He’s done it before and always has a good if not evil reason to do so. He is loved as a villain by so many has a believable and at times emotional backstory and best of all his anger is at times relatable. Who here hasn’t been ignored or pushed aside even though you’ve had great ideas and wanted to throw that anger it peoples faces? While people will say ‘oh he died’ that’s not confirmed and would be even cooler with a great ’this is who I escaped! story to go along with a run.

7. Unless she has some mind blower ending to all this nonsense it will have been months of pointless patches and story that went nowhere. I know some people like her and that’s fine. I liked her at first to removing the horrible writing of her backstory and the copout plot. But over time we just keep getting the ‘wait and see’ build up for things that make no sense and no one wanted to begin with.

If you like her that’s fine, but this has gone on long enough. I would love it Anet listened to it’s players because it’s scary to see posts on tumblr of people down right quitting the game and just giving up.

Palador.2170:

Atlas.9704:

She’s a filler villain, only there to give their teams more time while they make a villain worth my time.

http://youtu.be/O5aThJq4Xvo?t=2m10s

Best response ever.

Heh, I resented and still resent Scarlet, but now I just don’t really give a kitten .
I played GW1 since the start and GW2 since beta being an avid lore fan, but now it just feels too “meh” to care. So yea, +1 to OP, I hope I’ll get drawn in to the rich lore and tales of Guild Wars sometime in the future, but for now… “meh”

What dislike towards scarlet? ya my dislike turned into a non caring attitude a long time ago. She just doesn’t impact me emotionally with anything she does or has done. She killed or left everyone she met in her short story yet acts like a clown that won’t leave you alone in the game. I guess an I don’t care about scarlet thread wouldn’t really make sense though.

I agree with much of what has been said. It’s not that dislike scarlet per se, she’s just so boring… I roll my eyes and click ‘skip’ at every cut scene.

A “living story” is one which uses elements and enemies already present and has them evolve. Why don’t the centaurs ever move their battle lines, or the sons of Svanir ever try some new ritual to give their god/dragon the upper hand? You already had TONS of material for great living story that would feel like it had an actual impact on the world and the problems it had already. For example using a character people knew – Lord Farin – was probably one of the few (very, very few) enjoyable moments in the LS so far. Scarlet doesn’t feel like she was part of the world which evolved, she feels like she was slapped on top of an already established world and story.

Signed wholeheartedly.

We were promised dragons, and what we got was the most poorly written Mary Sue villain I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve played and read a lot of fantasy stories over the last 30 years, so that’s saying something.

I tolerated her during the Clockwork Chaos, but she should have been killed there and then, and the story reins passed on to someone who actually knows anything about writing quality fiction.

Every new story arc is just another predictable disappointment. Please stop.

Currently the only thing that will restore my faith in the GW story at all will be when we retcon Scarlet out with time travel, or humiliate & emasculate her to the point that she’s a talking head we can play soccer with. At the end of her story I want to feel like the writers are saying “I’m sorry, you’re right she’s dumb & we are going to act like she’s dumb. here’s something to make up for it.” It would be a nice change from “We hated everything you loved about GW1 & we’re going to make a character so annoying that it will be frustrating to even play the content”

deepwinter.9015:

Hopefully this thread maintains the constructive criticism these forums require and not be deleted.

I really enjoy this game for a lot of reasons, from dodge rolling to WvW. The world was rich an immerse the moment I stepped foot into it. Once I caught up on the lore by playing Guild Wars 1, I really appreciated the story.

Then a weed named Scarlet was introduced. Sure, she felt a bit wacky, but I was okay with it at first. Then she started cropping up in everything, and it began to feel forced and unoriginal.

Now she is behind the Thaumanova Reactor and there are aether-looking items around the world with a sign saying “DO NOT TOUCH” (clearly of Scarlet design), and I’m just done.

ArenaNet writers, your players are speaking to you.

Listen closely; this is the important part:
We do not like Scarlet Briar!

Don’t speak for everyone. Just because (in my opinion) most players lack the attention span to appreciate a slow build-up to a climactic encounter with an arch-nemesis (the lack of which, before she arrived, was lamented ad nauseum by the same community you’re speaking for), doesn’t mean everyone does.

Her story is being fleshed out gradually…we don’t need to know the entire story and beat her in one update. Want an end-game? You’re getting it. Want an arch-nemesis? You’ve got it. You can’t choose your enemies, you know.

I don’t mind her, I found her an interesting character at first with a half decent backstory. I DO feel their shoving her fingers into too many things at the moment, this causes a “Oh it’s just scarlet again.” Effect where people won’t be surprised for new content.