Guild Wars 2

Let us compare Scarlet to the rest of the villains in the Guild Wars 2

Canach
-Awoken the Karka
-Escaped arrest and hid for a few months
-Decides to become a hero of settlers trapped by contract in Southsun Cove, by having the Karka attack innocent people.
-Arrested… Kiel blows up consortium ship holding contracts and blames it on Canach

Caudecus
-Puts on a public face to win public’s favor while his goons create upheaval
-Pays for carnivals
-Kidnaps Queen, but is almost killed when his thugs turn on him and the queen.
-Placed on time out under the Queen’s watch.

Zhaitan
-Raises Orr and a dead army
-Tehearne does his mojo and undoes Zhaitan’s mojo slooooowly
-Patiently waits as you shoot him with rail gun to kill him

Karka Queen
-Dipped in lava after one long bad day in November

Kudu
-Look at me I am so intelligent, and this “insert device” will kill you
-Runs off escapes, and Zojja gets kitten y he got away
-Decides to stay and fight in Crucible of Eternity and dies… surprise.

Gaheron Baelfire
-Wants to become god of the Flame Legion
-Becomes god for 5 minutes
-Dead

Faolain
-Drama and Caithe drama drama drama drama drama
-Drama drama drama
-Still a better story that twilight (Why in the hell did I say that?)

Scarlet Briar
-Went crazy, master portals, killed her Asura teacher and told off “her mother”
-Created an alliance between Flame Legion and Dredge
-Uprooted Norn and Charr from their homes
-Persuaded The Molten alliance to build weapons
-Sent an assassin to kill Lion’s Arch council members
-Attacked Lion’s Arch to finish the job
-Disrupted a Lion’s Arch election
-Interrupted Queen’s ceremony, almost killed Queen, almost blew up Divinity’s Reach
-Invaded different parts of world with her axis of evil minions
-Held hostages, almost ate Ferran, fought players and escaped with speech and fireworks
-Sent you gift to show you there was no hard feelings

Now looking at all this, who has personality? Who is still alive? and who is the better villain?

The answer is Scarlet.
I win, check please! http://youtu.be/a9Ehhq8EbOM

I was going to come in here and tell you how wrong you were, and then I realized that she is the best we have. The thing is, to me that is sad. I am not a fan of scarlet at all, I think she is just Harley Quinn in Sylvari mode. My opinion of course, but ultimately I have to agree with you.

Kysin.6349:

I was going to come in here and tell you how wrong you were, and then I realized that she is the best we have. The thing is, to me that is sad. I am not a fan of scarlet at all, I think she is just Harley Quinn in Sylvari mode. My opinion of course, but ultimately I have to agree with you.

She’s voiced by the same voice actor as Harley Quinn.

Scarlet is the BEST villain in GW2.
and the lady made me laugh… that is impossible.

Too much Joker/Harley Quinn these days. Nothing creative.

Soulstar.7812:

Let us compare Scarlet to the rest of the villains in the Guild Wars 2

Canach
-Awoken the Karka
-Escaped arrest and hid for a few months
-Decides to become a hero of settlers trapped by contract in Southsun Cove, by having the Karka attack innocent people.
-Arrested… Kiel blows up consortium ship holding contracts and blames it on Canach

Caudecus
-Puts on a public face to win public’s favor while his goons create upheaval
-Pays for carnivals
-Kidnaps Queen, but is almost killed when his thugs turn on him and the queen.
-Placed on time out under the Queen’s watch.

Zhaitan
-Raises Orr and a dead army
-Tehearne does his mojo and undoes Zhaitan’s mojo slooooowly
-Patiently waits as you shoot him with rail gun to kill him

Karka Queen
-Dipped in lava after one long bad day in November

Kudu
-Look at me I am so intelligent, and this “insert device” will kill you
-Runs off escapes, and Zojja gets kitten y he got away
-Decides to stay and fight in Crucible of Eternity and dies… surprise.

Gaheron Baelfire
-Wants to become god of the Flame Legion
-Becomes god for 5 minutes
-Dead

Faolain
-Drama and Caithe drama drama drama drama drama
-Drama drama drama
-Still a better story that twilight (Why in the hell did I say that?)

Scarlet Briar
-Went crazy, master portals, killed her Asura teacher and told off “her mother”
-Created an alliance between Flame Legion and Dredge
-Uprooted Norn and Charr from their homes
-Persuaded The Molten alliance to build weapons
-Sent an assassin to kill Lion’s Arch council members
-Attacked Lion’s Arch to finish the job
-Disrupted a Lion’s Arch election
-Interrupted Queen’s ceremony, almost killed Queen, almost blew up Divinity’s Reach
-Invaded different parts of world with her axis of evil minions
-Held hostages, almost ate Ferran, fought players and escaped with speech and fireworks
-Sent you gift to show you there was no hard feelings

Now looking at all this, who has personality? Who is still alive? and who is the better villain?

The answer is Scarlet.
I win, check please! http://youtu.be/a9Ehhq8EbOM

It is in the mail, like always.

People do not like Scarlet not because she is a weak villain but because she is a weak character. Every man to his own taste, I like to say, but it is believed that she is a kind of Mary Sue (absurdly cool character, which combines incongruous traits and abilities, unconsciously created by the author). It can be argued, howbeit… However her’s excessive infantilism coupled with a “super-abilities” brings her very close to the edge of “Sue.” These fun-crazy characters just teeming within some of imaginary universes, such as D&D for example. Personally I would not mind to have such one in GW. Perhaps this character will shows shows herself in a new unexpected way. But again, every man to his own taste…

Hmmm, Anet needs more talented writers it seems…

I am gonna say its nice Tara is voicing Scarlet but she is not Harley’s original voice actor. Arleen Sorkin is and she dose it better then Tara But i love Tara strong and she has a certain childish side to her voice that’s perfect because that’s what scarlet is a child she is a character who is not mature seeing as her race is a nice 25 years old. She and Harley share allot of similarity’s though but there as deferent as night and day.

NO. Canach 4 life <3

Though he is more like an antihero than a villain, and the Consortium is anything but innocent.
Kiel’s little plan would have been good for nothing if Canach hadn’t destroy the copies of the contracts in LA.
Canach was desperate. He was being hunt like an animal by the Consortium and he was completely alone (a dev said that. He is a sylvari, that’s not good for them). He was trying to do the right thing while getting rid of the people trying to kill him. I can’t blame him.

I hope that ANet still remebers him. I really want to see Canach again.

So true. Now I am sad.

I don’t wanna be a living-in-the-past cliche` here, but let me do a little name droppin:

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Demonic_Fortune_Teller —> (Shiro)
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Razakel —> (Terick) --> Khilbron
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kanaxai
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Verata
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bahltek
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rend_Ragemauler
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rragar_Maneater

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Blarp (not actually a villain, but still made Liadri look EASY by comparison)

Most of these were very unique characters doing interesting, or mysterious but SPECIFIC and very Nefarious things that justified the title villain…. And most of them had a very profound impact on what the world is 250 year later.

Don’t forget Galrath.

…never forget Galrath.

all the enemies in this game are so lame, its like anet just hired every writer from disney channel to come up with these goofy kitten villains

Lucky.9421:

Don’t forget Galrath.

…never forget Galrath.

Oh I KNOW, but I don’t want to jump the gun on him until we find out what’s going on with this Floating Spire outside Kessex Hills…

We wiped ten times just trying to get to Galrath. Those were the days. xD

Palawa Joko wins. but I don’t feel it’s entirely fair to call Canach a villian, I think anti-hero does fit best and he just didn’t really think things through

I think Cadeyrn is the best villain in GW2.

Which really makes it shame that all he does is say almost nothing and then die in TA Story.

ilr.9675:

I don’t wanna be a living-in-the-past cliche` here, but let me do a little name droppin:

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Demonic_Fortune_Teller —> (Shiro)
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Razakel —> (Terick) --> Khilbron
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kanaxai
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Verata
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bahltek
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rend_Ragemauler
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rragar_Maneater

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Blarp (not actually a villain, but still made Liadri look EASY by comparison)

Most of these were very unique characters doing interesting, or mysterious but SPECIFIC and very Nefarious things that justified the title villain…. And most of them had a very profound impact on what the world is 250 year later.

This made me smile. Thank you for that.
And then it made me sad.

All of the villains listed i like better because they die from you killing them unlike some special someone who doesn’t when their time is up.

To be fair you could say that Scarlet is the best villain in GW2 and actually be correct because there’s nothing else really in the way competition to compare her to. The writer, and I am not giving plurals because i’m convinced it’s just one person, has spent more time working on Scarlet than any other villain. For example I don’t even know who Canach is because I wasn’t playing GW2 at the time when he appeared in LS for two WHOLE weeks never to be heard from again. Am I going to back and read up on him? No. Why? Well look at the impact he left.

Long time GW players are forced to pull up baddies from GW1 because well …. just look at the list it speaks volumes.

So yes OP is technically correct.

ilr.9675:

I don’t wanna be a living-in-the-past cliche` here, but let me do a little name droppin:

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Demonic_Fortune_Teller —> (Shiro)
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Razakel —> (Terick) --> Khilbron
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kanaxai
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Verata
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bahltek
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rend_Ragemauler
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rragar_Maneater

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Blarp (not actually a villain, but still made Liadri look EASY by comparison)

Most of these were very unique characters doing interesting, or mysterious but SPECIFIC and very Nefarious things that justified the title villain…. And most of them had a very profound impact on what the world is 250 year later.

So many feels man…

I really like Scarlet, I hope Faolain gets some more story too involving her

I actually do like one or two of GW2’s villains: foremost, Kudu and Shukov.

There is potential in Scarlet, but no real gravitas. Harley’s manic energy comes with the reminder that what she does is truly dangerous, truly homicidal. Scarlet, on the other hand, has no lasting impact. The manic energy is directionless, and feels shallow.

fey.5438:

Too much Joker/Harley Quinn these days. Nothing creative.

People like things that are like things that they like.

Scarlet is the worst thing that could have happened to the living story. I hope anet realizes that and get’s rid of her soon. There’s nothing intimidating about her. It’s just “lol i’m gonna do this evil thing for no reason lol so random, btw did i mention i’m perfect at everything but making a successful plan”.

I wish I could explain how wrong the OP is, but I don’t think it would matter.. It’s like having someone watch the Plinkett reviews of Episode 1,2&3, & they still like them.

frostyraziel.1854:

Scarlet is the worst thing that could have happened to the living story. I hope anet realizes that and get’s rid of her soon. There’s nothing intimidating about her. It’s just “lol i’m gonna do this evil thing for no reason lol so random, btw did i mention i’m perfect at everything but making a successful plan”.

agreed. on paper, she might sound good, but there is no accounting for being an annoying joker knock-off.

I don’t wanna be a living-in-the-past cliche` here, but let me do a little name droppin:

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Demonic_Fortune_Teller —> (Shiro)
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Razakel —> (Terick) --> Khilbron
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kanaxai
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Verata
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bahltek
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rend_Ragemauler
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rragar_Maneater

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Blarp (not actually a villain, but still made Liadri look EASY by comparison)

Most of these were very unique characters doing interesting, or mysterious but SPECIFIC and very Nefarious things that justified the title villain…. And most of them had a very profound impact on what the world is 250 year later.

I love you.

I feel the people who excessively dislike Scarlet didn’t actually read anything about her and just think she’s a joker clone

Edit: there is reason and a cause behind her actions.

A Massive Headache.1879:

I feel the people who excessively dislike Scarlet didn’t actually read anything about her and just think she’s a joker clone

Edit: there is reason and a cause behind her actions.

But none of that information to read on her or the reasons behind her actions are included in-game. If it is important then it should be included in-game. Even after reading the out-of-game information on her it is even more evident that she is a joker clone, and a poor, uninspired or creative one at that.

It is really disappointing to me that any person can think up a deeper and more believable backstory in 5 seconds for the Owl and Raccoon that wander around together in Queensdale than has been included in-game (and out-of-game) for Scarlet Briar.

Aden Celeste.3650:

Hmmm, Anet needs more talented writers it seems…

this times a million!

Just because she’s the best only highlights how bad all the others were. So many villains and Scarlet is the best?! They had a good thing with Canach, he solo’d a molten facility, killed off assasssins, then to rescue the workers he sets a bunch of rampaging karka’s on to them… such a incompetent plan for someone previously so cunning.

^Again, Canach was not thinking straight. He was running for his life for months, starving, barely sleeping, being hunt by mercenaries and completely alone. The radical change on his looks translates this, according to a dev’s post. He was desperate and in a pretty bad shape. Wanting him to develop a master plan would be asking too much. The guy could barely survive, give him a break.
If anything, the fact that he made such a mess just makes him an even better character.
Ugh, I really want him back.

This feels like a troll post, but I’ll bite this time.

Canach wasn’t really a villain, he awoke the Karka by accident the first time, and while his methods were really dumb, he was still doing what he thought was right in the Secret of Southsun. He still has potential.

Caudecus wasn’t behind the Separatist plot in his manor. (at least I got that impression) And while his plots were easily foiled, he’s managed to cover his tracks well enough that we can’t get rid of him yet.. people are probably more interested in the White Mantle/Mursaat, who he might be working with.

While Zhaitan’s last stand was pitiful, he still rose an entire sunken continent and its dead population. That takes effort.

While Kudu is pretty much a bland nemesis for Zojja, it is somewhat personal if you picked an asuran character who had the weather device as their first invention.

Sorrow’s Embrace shows him as the first to get the dredge to work with them, even for just a while, and shows his experiments with draconic energy. Then he gets away, to be killed in the Crucible of Eternity. Still, he found a way to control dragon minions, something that the Inquest put to use even after his death.

I’ll agree with you on Gaheron, he was bland. And he didn’t reach godhood.

Didn’t fight the Karka Queen from the first time, so can’t comment on it.

Admittedly, Faolain didn’t do much besides waiting for Caithe to show up so she could try turning her evil. Cadyern got an even worse deal than her, the guy created the Nightmare Court and he’s just Faolain’s second in command when we meet him.

While Scarlet has managed to accomplish a lot compared to them, most of her accomplishments are utterly nonsensical/improbable based on what we know. Also, while those previous villains left some effect on Tyria after they were gone, Scarlet’s left barely any impression.

She united the Dredge and Flame Legion…somehow. Keep in mind that both factions are xenophobic (and sexist, at least in the Flame Legion’s case), so seeing them working together is improbable, and seeing them both working under her is utterly immersion breaking for any who know the lore behind these two groups. They’ve basically shed what little traits their groups had to become mindless minions for Scarlet. Sure, they displaced the norn and charr for a while, but we kicked them right back out, and now nobody really thinks about it. The only lasting thing from them I recall is the nice unlimited pickaxe they made.

She also leads the Aetherblades, somehow. Notice something here? While they went to the trouble to make a short story about her start of darkness, they don’t really explain how she went about forming these alliances and what their motivations for working under her are.

The attack on Lion’s Arch was more Mai Trin than anyone else. And they only managed to kill one member who nobody even cared about, and was replaced soon after, with no benefit to the Aetherblades whatsoever.

Then the Queen’s Jubilee. This would finally be her big chance to shine…except we all saw it coming a mile away. We knew she’d screw up the watchknights, (making them become rather neat-looking enemies was a nice touch though) we knew she’d go after the queen, (she didn’t get the queen due to Anise being very good) and we knew she’d try messing with the Pavilion. Then instead of taking over the rest of Divinity’s Reach like it was implied she’d do, she just sends her minions out to random locations standing around while we kill them until we get the parts we need to get in and kick her out of the Pavilion. Once again, no lasting effect besides the random invasion every now and then.

And, as I’ve pointed out before, they could’ve easily made Faolain the mastermind behind all of this rather than Scarlet. How, you ask?

-Use her mesmer magic (and maybe one of her courtiers as a middleman) to get the Dredge and Flame Legion to unite.

-The Nightmare Court and Inquest have already been talking to each other and working together in the Brisban Wildlands, so that would explain Faolain being in control of the Aetherblades to some extent.

-Corrupting the watchknights is a bit more of a stretch. But again, she could pick up some knowledge of technology from the Inquest, or kidnap some asura and siphon their knowledge with her mesmer abilities. Plus, nightmare corruption, since the Twisted glow green already.

-Her motivation? She wants to spread death and chaos throughout Tyria (and the nightmare with it), and all her time out of the spotlight has been her preparing to do all this.

And profit! They could’ve expanded on an already existing villain and make her more formidable then she had been in Twilight Arbor. But we didn’t get that.

And of course, while I didn’t play the first Guild Wars, some of those villains seem more interesting then the weedy brat we’re dealing with now. (Or soon, anyway.)

I think scarlet just doesn’t like idea of her life being predetermined by the pale tree, and is trying to forge her own destiny through force. I don’t know, this games lore and story telling is incredibly weak, you can’t argue that, but i still don’t see her as a bad villian. I think Nilkemia is pretty correct, but I think they’ve given the impression that Faolin is too obsessed with Caithe to actually do anything significant herself.

StinVec.3621:

This made me smile. Thank you for that.
And then it made me sad.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only person who had this same reaction. It’s like my first reaction is all those things were so freaking awesome, then I remember this is technically by the same company and it makes me sad to see none of them in this new game. I want Kanaxai back…my favorite thing by far in GW1.

Gabby.3205:

^Again, Canach was not thinking straight. He was running for his life for months, starving, barely sleeping, being hunt by mercenaries and completely alone. The radical change on his looks translates this, according to a dev’s post. He was desperate and in a pretty bad shape. Wanting him to develop a master plan would be asking too much. The guy could barely survive, give him a break.
If anything, the fact that he made such a mess just makes him an even better character.
Ugh, I really want him back.

I want him back too. Perhaps his actions were out of desperation. To date he is one of the most interesting characters. A villian? anti-hero? who knows, they should bring in new writers to develop him further. I believe he is cunning enough to escape his cell and I hope he does as well.

I would like him to become more of an anti-hero whose methods are questionable but not completely ruthless as to turn people away from him. A bit like a vigilante. If there was a quest to break him out of jail I’d do it.

Please, even the Mouth of Zhaitan is a better villain.

If they want to give player characters a personal nemesis, they should introduce one that’s worthy of the commander of the most powerful organization in Tyria.

That’s either a dragon champion or a commander of the Mordant Crescent.

“I sustain Zhaitan, and Zhaitan makes me strong.”

“Bow before the power of the dragon!”

“Another meal for my master.”

Even the minor villains we fight in our personal stories are better deserving of being personal nemesies than Scarlet is.

Isn’t the Mordant Crescent in Elona? Now I want to see what Palawa Joko’s been up to…

Reading all of these bosses really shows how lacking the villains in GW2 have been overall. Does anyone have any idea why they have been done so poorly compared to GW1? Even the EotN bosses have great stories which presumably had GW2 in mind. If some of the same people are writing, what happened that shifted their work so dramatically?

Thobek.1730:

I want him back too. Perhaps his actions were out of desperation. To date he is one of the most interesting characters. A villian? anti-hero? who knows, they should bring in new writers to develop him further. I believe he is cunning enough to escape his cell and I hope he does as well.

I would like him to become more of an anti-hero whose methods are questionable but not completely ruthless as to turn people away from him. A bit like a vigilante. If there was a quest to break him out of jail I’d do it.

This a gazillion times. And if I could kick Kiel’s face while at it, even better.

Nobody ever talked about him on interviews though (I mean, since the SoS is over). He is probably not so popular, nobody ever asks the devs about him. I just hope that he has not simply disappeared.

It would put me at ease if we could at least see him and talk to him while he is in prison, like with Mai Trin.

Gabby.3205:

Thobek.1730:

I want him back too. Perhaps his actions were out of desperation. To date he is one of the most interesting characters. A villian? anti-hero? who knows, they should bring in new writers to develop him further. I believe he is cunning enough to escape his cell and I hope he does as well.

I would like him to become more of an anti-hero whose methods are questionable but not completely ruthless as to turn people away from him. A bit like a vigilante. If there was a quest to break him out of jail I’d do it.

This a gazillion times. And if I could kick Kiel’s face while at it, even better.

Nobody ever talked about him on interviews though (I mean, since the SoS is over). He is probably not so popular, nobody ever asks the devs about him. I just hope that he has not simply disappeared.

It would put me at ease if we could at least see him and talk to him while he is in prison, like with Mai Trin.

Kiel kind of finished what he started with freeing the people from the consortium, so your action to kick her would be dumb.

A Massive Headache.1879:

Kiel kind of finished what he started with freeing the people from the consortium, so your action to kick her would be dumb.

And got all the credit for it, having a settler even to thank her and to say that she “solved everything so easily” when comparing her solution with Canach’s, even though Kiel would have solved nothing if it wasn’t for Canach to begin with. Then, she threw Canach in jail and we never heard of him again, while she got promoted all the way to captain.

I don’t mind when characters get the credit for what the player did (Like Trahearne, I really don’t mind him), but I do mind when characters get the credit for what other characters did, specially when I like these other characters better (Canach and Marjory).
I hate Kiel since the first Southsun event and I always wanted to kick her face, that’s nothing new

A Massive Headache.1879:

I feel the people who excessively dislike Scarlet didn’t actually read anything about her and just think she’s a joker clone

Edit: there is reason and a cause behind her actions.

There is, but not only is it very poor, but it doesn’t help make her interesting.
Plus when you see that the writers actually had to minimize the whole “three asura colleges” thing in an interview when they realized it was clearly too much you actually start wondering if they have thought things through.

Scarlet background is actually more about focusing on justifying her ridiculous level of power than on making her a fully fleshed out character. Anet, if you’re going to have characters that are so powerful that you feel the need to justify it, don’t make them so powerful in the first place.
Power is not what makes a character interesting, character is. You can actually have a character that is all about power and still have her be interesting by focusing on how this character relates to this power rather than just saying that she has power. Tell us what it means for her to have this power, what she aims to do with it and why, tell us what she fears about this power and how she can overcome this fear. These are things that we can relate to as human beings, and if a character isn’t going to have any of this you may just as well have a lifeless machine.

In the case of Scarlet, her reject of both Dream and Nightmare, and any kind of pre-determined path imposed on her actually has a lot of potential toward making her interesting, but it is completely overshadowed by a long series of “power-ups” that completely miss the point of the character. When Scarlet goes to several of the races to learn stuff, we could have seen her struggle with how those races also involuntarily try to impose their views and expectations on her, it would have reinforced the main theme of the character and create situations in which we can empathize with her, or outright disagree with her since she is a villain. Instead, she’s just given more power so that she can bypass any kind of interesting struggle.
Same thing for her madness. Seeing the meaning of the world and suddenly wanting to kill people is… well, sure it’s way overdone and now boring, but that’s not even the real problem. The real problem is that it doesn’t add anything to the character. Her madness could have come perfectly naturally, from the struggles she experiences. See, she likes engineering, she believes that understanding systems, breaking them down and rebuilding them is the way she can forge a way that is truly her own, but at the same time, her love for engineering probably comes from the Dream. So she’s caught in a paradox that’s slowly driving her mad, especially if people point it up to her. Add in one or two traumatic events to unleash the underlying insanity and you can have an insane character, with enough justification to it, that holds itself together by constantly staying true to its original theme, without having to resort to excuses. Because that’s what Scarlet’s background currently is, excuses. We know from quite a long time now that Anet likes to design content using the “rule of cool”. Someone comes up with an idea “hey let’s make a villain that’s skilled in engineering”, or “let’s make her insane, it will be fun !” and then the writers have to patch together all these “cool” ideas, and their solution is to use excuses like “she graduated from all three asura colleges, that’s why she’s so good at engineering” to make sure that it’s coherent. But here the problem is that while coherence is important for proper immersion, I actually don’t care if a character’s abilities suddenly come out a bit out of nowhere, as long as they serve to flesh out the character, either by teaching us more about her or by making some interesting character development (the character overcoming her fear for instance). Focusing on the character will go a much longer way toward making a story believable than focusing on the logical details of why this or that character has this or that power.

[second part on next post…]

[second part]

Do you know what makes Darth Vader an interesting villain even in his first minutes of screentime ? Not the fact that he wears black, has a dark voice, can lift people and strangle them with one hand and is overall soooo evil. Well, it helps, but what actually makes him interesting is the fact that the droids escape and that Leïa isn’t impressed by his evilness. It sets two goals for Vader : finding the droids and breaking Leïa’s will. That’s why the desctruction of Alderaan is an emotionally impactful moment. Not just because it is soooo evil, but because that’s when Vader starts winning and Leïa starts losing, that’s when the balance changes. So, Vader has two things : a goal that threatens the success of the heroes, and a weakness in his rivalry with Leïa (and later, Tarkin) that makes us want to see if he can overcome it and, by doing so, evolve as a character.
Scarlet ? Well… she just blows stuff up, deliver some good voice acting and fails to have any kind of meaningful impact on the overall plot (if there actually is one, because we still don’ know what really important thing is at stake in this whole Living Story thing).
The fact that the game mechanics are not able to deliver the narration properly doesn’t help either. Those ingame cinematics were way too buggy to actually care about the implications of what was going on (the painterly one was ok though), and, let’s face it, Scarlet’s “invasion” being only about spawning mobs that will stand still in the least populated corners of Tyria doesn’t make me want to take her seriously. Her minions can rule over the local flowers, or clean the Brand for the High Legions, I honestly see no reason to stop them.

Right now, Scarlet is a nicely wrapped gift, with good voice acting and funny, crazy actions but it is an empty gift that doesn’t give me any reason to care about it once it’s been unwrapped. She doesn’t have a goal that can threaten the course of the overall plot and make me want to see if it can end well anyway, and she doesn’t have the weaknesses that make me want to see if she can have some interesting character development.
I hope this metaphor sums things up correctly.

Now, about GW1, while Anet has never been renowned for their storytelling skills, at least they’ve always been very good at keeping their lore in order. I hope the “all three colleges” incident never happens again, and I hope the quality of the writing improves and that Anet will learn how to better deliver their narrative through gameplay, and not only writing. I’m not asking for anything complicated, just for the most basic level of story telling, the one that you learn in writing and cinema schools, the one that’s just good enough to actually make you care about the story. Even if that means using some very obvious tropes it’s perfectly ok as long as they are used to keep me interested

Now hold on, I loved guild wars 1 story telling. but other than that, I feel you’re largely right, I never intended to say that scarlet was a great villian, but just that compared to the rest of the game as is that she’s not so bad. I feel she was given an actual rival to stop her we may have seen a comparison with Vader and Leia, cuz Scarlet vs world is rather lame, but something about characters in search for absolute power and their fall usually is at least a good read, even if the characters themselves aren’t that great.

I read a lot of short story fantasy collection books, so that kind of plot isn’t exactly frequent, at least not in the ones I’ve read, so it catches my eye.

Zhaitan killed Tybalt Leftpaw. Checkmate.

Gabby.3205:

A Massive Headache.1879:

Kiel kind of finished what he started with freeing the people from the consortium, so your action to kick her would be dumb.

And got all the credit for it, having a settler even to thank her and to say that she “solved everything so easily” when comparing her solution with Canach’s, even though Kiel would have solved nothing if it wasn’t for Canach to begin with. Then, she threw Canach in jail and we never heard of him again, while she got promoted all the way to captain.

Wow, I never liked Kiel to begin with but after reading that I hate her even more. I voted for gnashblade, he was an interesting character but alas now just stands in the BLTP in LA. At least I can visit him now and again unlike Canach.

Why don’t they put the prison in the game, it would be interesting to visit and see all the law breakers in one place. Almost like a trophy room for your character.

Tauril.8504:

Power is not what makes a character interesting, character is.

I agree, you need more than just power, you need motives, mystery, a struggle, a weakness, faults, strengths… and so much more.

So far they haven’t given us much. She rejects the Pale Tree – why? why her and not countless others before her.

When, where and how did she amass such an army? did she recruit them in another land off the current playable area?

Who did she contact in the flame legion and dredge? did she just turn up and they all suddenly agreed to follow her plan? Is she the quick talking city person the dredge prisoner talked about?

So she rejects the pale tree, why suddenly go on an all out attack on tyria? especially why the human race?

We know she is a genius but why does her personality not reflect that, she seems crazy and immature.

I really hope Anet know how to wrap up a story.

@Thobek, I can almost asure you, no, ANet really doesn’t, if the personal story is anything to go by anymore. And as for Kiel, the contracts being blown up, a lot of people would have been hurt if it was done by Canach, Kiel made sure no other innocent people were hurt. The hate Kiel gets just blows my mind

A Massive Headache.1879:

I feel the people who excessively dislike Scarlet didn’t actually read anything about her and just think she’s a joker clone

Edit: there is reason and a cause behind her actions.

Well, a Joker “clone” could still have the potential for massive impact on people.
In the DarkKnight for instance, they took him in a really dangerous direction without it being too much of a “gritty Cliche`/Trope”. IOW: the Devil really is in the Details.

That’s what appears to be missing with Scarlet here… There’s nothing in the way of meticulous early groundwork laid here to explain WHEN, HOW, WHY …. there was never any foreshadowing and there’s yet to be any foreboding either. The connections between her and her “power bases” or accomplices makes the cheesey late 70’s Legion of Doom look like band of brothers by comparison. …This I think, is where people use the word Mary Sue the most infact. Connotating that which feels completely alien to the carefully laid canon … in layman’s terms: Wedged in there

I’m not a writer, (i only know how 2 draw), but even I understand that much :p

The only villain I liked instantly was Kudu. Love the voice actor.

I thought he delivered that condescending, “I’m-so-smart-I-can’t-be-bothered-with-you” attitude perfectly.

Caudecus has potential to be a Lex Luthor type villain. But so far there has been little spotlight on his scheming.

At this rate I wouldn’t mind if Tequatl is depicted as highly intelligent. Glint and many dragon champions are sentient (or retain sentience), why are the Big 3 reduced to just grrr and rawr monsters?

I kinda hope that Teq’s upgrade is a result of his scheming, rather than just “Because Magic!”.