Guild Wars 2

During the bit in Camp Resolve, I also noticed something else that was off about Caithe. If you talk to her after the story there is over, she has a voiced line in which she refers to you as ‘boss’ but with a somewhat condescending/teasing tone. At first I thought it was just Caithe being playful and being amused by the boss worship of DE 2.0 which she witnessed, but after this chapter was over and looking back to what happened in this and the previous update whenever she was around, these things seem to indicate that this might not be Caithe at all but perhaps a mesmer posing as her.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Pact has been infiltrated by a mesmer (Labwan the Deceiver in one of the fear storylines from the Zhaitan campaign). We know that Faolain is Caithe’s former lover as well as a mesmer who has been oddly absent from the story since Twilight Arbor except for apparently making a deal with Scarlet to use one of the TA paths as her factory in the Twilight Assault update. She had a rather teasing, condescending tone when talking with Caithe during TA story path, and that kind of behaviour would fit well with ’Caithe’s’ dialogue options in this update.

Looking at the rewards from the recent collection achievements, we see both Caithe and Faolain’s Blossoms with interesting flavor text, for Faolain’s Blossom in particular: “Here at last, dearheart. Are you prepared to join me?” Coincidence? I think the quotes, referencing events from TA story path, are foreshadowing things to come as the devs do know how many players would like to see Faolain back if only to resolve the plot about her and Caithe, not to mention to give the Nightmare Court a role as out of the Sinister Triad they’ve been the only member faction oddly absent since we moved west. Add to that the maze mission with Nightmare pods which has been added in this update, and all the clues are starting to come together.

What I propose is that ‘Caithe’ is not who she seems to be, at least not since her seeming return from the events of World Summit, and that she’s either Faolain or one of Faolain’s minions in disguise to use us for the Court’s own ends. What if the real Caithe never returned from her mission since the Summit and was captured by Faolain who would know her best and how to catch her when she was separated from everyone else and focused on the Shadow of the Dragon? Faolain would know Caithe’s mannerisms and fighting style the best considering how close the two of them were in the past, which would help her infiltrate the Pact without raising suspicion among Destiny’s Edge. However, Faolain’s character flaw is that she can’t help but be a tease at times, which would explain ’Caithe’s’ somewhat ‘weird’ comments during this update.

Or then it’s just Caithe trying to be mysterious, or Mordemoth starting to influence her, although I’d much prefer to see this being the handiwork of Faolain, which would ultimately lead us to tracking her down and rescuing Caithe from her clutches, perhaps ending with us finally cornering the deceiving Grand Duchess in a suitably dramatic battle.

Bleh, had to cut the post in two due to length. Please, Anet, can’t you consider allowing us to post longer posts? Finns like me can’t write in a concise manner, so it’d be much appreciated. >_>;

Twyll Blackleaf.9641:

Soule’s music uses all the sounds available to a full symphony, and a massed choir, in a style that strikes me as John Williams-ish; it modulates in key, developing in the organic but structured way that so much classical music does. In fact, much of his music seems to be in the Williams vein— technically background music but highly melodic, tonically structured like a classical piece, and perfectly playable in concert (I’ve actually played “Through the Meteor Field” or whatever the name is of the music for the, well, flying through the meteor field sequence in Star Wars as part of a concert). While this is great for a lot of things, there’s actually a reason that Lucas and Williams chose not to use ANY music during the lightsaber fights in the original Star Wars movies: dramatic music is great but can distract from the action and sound if there’s too much of it. (Also they wanted to show off the fancy sci-fi lightsaber sounds— but still, the point stands.)

The track you’re thinking of is called “The Asteroid Field”. Must’ve been awesome to play it; it’s one of Williams’s finest with a very catchy theme and nice orchestration.

Also, a minor correction if I may as a fan of John Williams’s music. The Original Trilogy does have music in some of the lightsaber clashes, the most famous piece being when Luke attacks Vader in Return of the Jedi (the old name for the track used to be Final Duel before the complete soundtrack came out). The use of that choral theme during the climactic duel serves a narrative function, adding an almost Wagnerian layer of tragedy and destiny as father and son clash in battle which can have no winner. In here Lucas was wise to use Williams’s talents to punctuate this point, and the music (along with cinematography, acting etc.) is what makes that scene one of the best in the entire Star Wars franchise, IMHO.

Soule’s music for GW and its sequel didn’t quite resonate with me with a couple of exceptions. I considered whether his way of using the sampled instruments has something to do with it as the samples tend to rub me the wrong way. Perhaps they would benefit from being performed by an actual live orchestra as synthetic strings hardly ever sound “good” to my ears as they lack the organic feel.

The samples used by Leif and Maclaine can be a hit or miss but I tolerate such use. They’ve provided music which serves it purpose in the game, at times offering us some sweet tracks melody-wise and other times establishing atmosphere, which is important for a game so heavy on atmosphere such as GW2. And yes, it is possible to compose music which is straightforward and not too complex and yet can resonate with you and be aesthetically pleasing even if it isn’t “complex”. Just listen to Zoltan Kodaly’s vocal music, for instance, as an example of how this approach is done right (not that he doesn’t have complex musical tapestry in his repertoire too!). There’s room for different kinds of music out there, for both Hans Zimmer and Jerry Goldsmith, and I’m willing to give our duo a chance considering they’re not solely composers but also work in other aspects of the game too.

As for “A simple iteration over a simple theme. It’s not composition.”, I’d like to point out that several recognized bigshots in music (Sibelius, Mozart, Schubert, Prokofiev etc.) have in fact done such iterations during their careers, and the results have often been beautiful works of art. I’d definitely count that as composition, as I would John Cage’s stuff.

The same can be said about “cliched” chord progressions; you can write good and complex music using those; to paraphrase TVTropes, tropes are not bad, and you can use cliches to your advantage as long as you do it well. The end result (how it works in context) is what matters. Just look at James Horner and John Williams and how they pay homage to classical music, sometimes even outright “stealing” material from the old greats, yet they give that music their own stamp. Not that they’re anywhere near Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Miklos Rozsa levels of music mastery, IMHO, but that’s still a commendable effort.

The “Battle on the Breachmaker” track worked for me on many levels. It may have stereotypic chord progressions but its orchestration works for the scenes it plays in, giving us a memorable tune and changing movements. The Yoko Shimomura-like use of piano is a very nice touch, IMHO, and I like how the tune itself has several variations of Scarlet’s theme while turning that somewhat silly theme into a melancholic and chaotic dirge which serves the narrative function of lamenting a lost soul to the entity that ultimately corrupted her and made her commit all those atrocities in the story. Thanks in part to the music in the final battles, I finally felt an emotional connection with Scarlet and could feel sorry for her due to the inherent tragedy of her storyline; the use of the somber piano variation of her theme during the final instance when you finish her off was a very nice touch, giving her a somber sendoff. So in that regard the tune is a success as far as I’m concerned. It may not be Howard Shore or Elliot Goldenthal level of complexity, but it doesn’t have to be as it does what it’s meant to do: evoke emotions, punctuate the final battle and tell a story through music and thematic continuity.

I’ll quote the aforementioned post from Angel McCoy herself in case there’s still some confusion (and if anyone wants to check out the thread she replied to, as she did write other interesting posts in it too):

Angel McCoy.1832:

4. Why do her alliances…continue working with her?

Each has its own reason.

Krait: They’ve been warped by Scarlet and the Nightmare Court. By the end, the scenario had changed. Scarlet proved she could bring back a prophet to their satisfaction (whether it was actually a prophet or not, no one really knows, but the toxic krait believe it was). And they can’t exactly go join other normal krait. How do you think regular xenophobic krait would feel about these toxic ones?

Dredge: They want power and magic. This group of dredge see an opportunity to add magic to their repertoire. Given their history, this would be a huge feather in their caps. Besides, how often do you get the opportunity to atomize a city like Lion’s Arch? Now that’s fun!

Flame Legion: They want technology and power. This group of FL is taking a huge risk. If they can go home with awesome swag, then they’ll be welcomed, but if they can’t, then they’re likely to be killed the moment they arrive. A large body count (especially the charr and human ones) along with whatever weapons technology they manage to acquire is an inspiring reward for them. And, they get to say they helped bring down Lion’s Arch. They hope to be lauded as heroes when they return to the FL.

Based on this reply and the use of the phrase “this group of dredge” in it, it’s not actually the whole Moletariate which is invested in the Molten Alliance but only a faction as is the case with the splinter group from the Flame Legion.

Yes, this cue is fine indeed, and my thanks go to Leif Chapelle for following such a leitmotivic approach by using variations of Scarlet’s theme (first heard during her appearance in Queen’s Jubilee). The prior theme is twisted into becoming a dirge as it goes through different movements. The melancholy feel of it with dark choral presence, wailing strings, beautiful piano and a steady beat in rhythm create an almost tragic atmosphere for someone who could’ve been a great asset to the world but who fell from grace and became a pawn of a more sinister force in the end.

(continued…)

Talonblaze.3175:

What was the point of the Marionette in the grand scheme of things?

Rox said this after a successful marionette run:

“She [Scarlet] doesn’t fight like she wants to win. She sacrifices her weapons to take some of us out. It’s like she’s culling the herd.”

This is further supported by the fact that if you fail the event, the marionette still explodes…so it was merely meant to distract us and take as many of us with it as possible while Scarlet prepared to target her true goal, LA. Although canonically (as per a developer livestream if I recall) it seems there was only one marionette battle, and it ended with us defeating it, so the other marionette battles were there simply for gameplay purposes.

I hope this clears some issues regarding these questions. Admittedly some of these could be easily missed unless you were on the right place at the right time, but thankfully the wiki has most of this stuff written down for later reading.

Pirlipat.2479:

And now we could have got an answer about Scarlets motivation, if we didn’t have a low IQ 3meter man in our group.

To be fair, Braham isn’t quite the typical “dumb muscle” kind of guy. If you listened to the idle chatter between him and Taimi. during the Edge of the Mists storyline, it became clear that Braham does understand and can in fact discuss complex concepts such as ley lines even if he doesn’t know all the proper technical terminology. This show of intelligence actually caught Taimi off guard as she didn’t expect a norn like Braham to understand technobabble, and this (coupled with Braham finding out about Taimi’s condition) is likely one of the reasons why they came to see each other in a new light and helped deepen the bond between them.

I’ll try to answer some of the questions with what we have learned from the story. Some people have already posted fine answers to some of the questions, so I’m simply following up on what they began and further elaborate on some of them.

Talonblaze.3175:

Did Scarlet have anything to do with Southsun?

When entering Scarlet’s Lair during the Origins of Madness, we saw one of the poisonous plants used by Canach to stir the wildlife during the Southsun story. The plant was near the antidote which we helped create to combat the Nightmare toxin during Tower of Nightmares, and this implies that Scarlet combined the toxins of Canach’s plant with our antidote to create the miasma with which she later attacked Lion’s Arch. There are even some npcs dialogues littered here and there in these recent patches which further discuss the nature of the miasma and how it differs from the Nightmare toxin from the Kessex adventure.

Talonblaze.3175:

If Scarlet had been successful, what would she have done then? What about the voices?

This is further confirmed by what Canach says about Scarlet if you go talk to him in his cage in Vigil Keep where he states that Scarlet wants to rule the world from a throne of rubble, basically (which appears not to be in the wiki yet). We also learn a bit from Scarlet’s motivations from the short story What Scarlet Saw where her plans are elaborated on:

Scarlet’s voice rose as she went on. “I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

Although this had been her goal, things likely would’ve changed after her master's awakening, as the dragon's modus operandi--destroy/corrupt stuff and feed on magic--differs from Scarlet's, who ended up being a mere pawn in its scheme to help it wake up.

Talonblaze.3175:

How was she able to ‘bully’ the Aetherblades into fighting for her?

We learn during Twilight Arbor Aetherblade path that the Aetherblades are worried that she’ll kill them if they fail. This was also mentioned in the short story “Twilight Preparations” where we witness discussion from the NPCs we end up fighting as bosses during that path. Scarlet herself states during her invasions that “Have you met my Aetherblades? They work for me, you know, because they like living!”

It’s likely the Aetherblades also work for her for the loot like any pirate would. Sacking Lion’s Arch has to be a pretty profitable endeavour, after all.

There could even be another reason for their co-operation, although this is mere speculation on the double meaning of the wording of “because they like living”, so take it with a grain of salt. So, depending on whether they knew about Scarlet and her “master”, they and other factions might work for her because if they oppose her, they’ll face her master’s wrath…so literally, they want to live through the cataclysm which her master will bring, hence the co-operation despite all the abuse from Scarlet as they know the alternative will be far worse. This idea is potentially implied if you chatted with the Molten Alliance prisoners in the cells of Black Citadel during the Flame and Frost storyline (although admittedly that dialogue can be looked at from different ways, but it’s fun to speculate). Here’s the bit of relevant dialogue from the Flame Legion prisoner:

Just curious. What did you hope to accomplish?
“You could never understand because you and your people are destined to die in our fires. Your time is coming. You should prepare yourselves.”
What are you talking about?
“Nothing. Nevermind. Go fight your dragons. If you don’t, they’ll annihilate you.”
They’ll annihilate you too.
“I doubt it. We’ll be here long after the dragons have swallowed you and yours.”

(continued in next post…)

Thanks for posting, Sarah. The dialogue you provided is very much appreciated. I added it into the wiki in Rytlock’s quotes page.

Such a shame I missed this dialogue in the game itself; it sure is interesting. Hopefully we’ll see more of Junia Twistgear in the future. ^^

When I played through PS, I thought Trahearne was alright. Although he did have some problems as far as presentation and plot goes, he nevertheless ended up being someone whose story I was interested in and one of the more fleshed out characters in the story as a whole. I never felt he stole the spotlight from me, and it didn’t seem jarring to see him get a more prominent spot in the storyline.

One of my favourite story moments with him is the bit in the Source of Orr quest where you defend him while he completes his Wyld Hunt. That little bit of emotional dialogue just before the fight (“Here, at the end, I am glad that it’s just you and me. We will cleanse Orr together—as we were meant to do.”), the juxtaposition of “Fear Not This Night” with the desperate battle against Zhaitan’s hordes and then, finally, the triumph and light at the end of the tunnel after all the sacrifices you two had to make to get that far…it’s all very satisfying from a storytelling perspective, seeing how this timid scholar has come a long way and turned into the hero the Pale Tree wanted him to be, and that you two pulled all of this off together, making the impossible possible.

I do hope we’ll see him again in the storyline someday as I want to see what he’ll do now that he no longer has the weight of his Wyld Hunt on his shoulders and can find a new way to define himself.

Thanks for sharing. It’s a beautiful video with fitting music and nice directing.

BrunoBRS.5178:

but this is a videogame. and the password is obviously a gameplay mechanic. trying to treat every gameplay thing as lore canon will just lead to inconsistencies (like how does scarlet manage to keep recruiting people if they all die miserable, short deaths? or how she never succeeds, and her grand designs always have painfully obvious design flaws?)

Many of the minions we’re fighting by now are holographic things used to replace the earlier fleshy minions, which helps explain how Scarlet has a seemingly neverending number of mooks to unleash on map-wide events like Scarlet invasions despite us slaying thousands of them. Back in Twilight Arbor Aetherblade dungeon path the Aetherblades were working on "a fleet of airships and an army of holographic pirates to fight alongside the meat variety” (mentioned in the short story Twilight Preparations).

As for Scarlet “failing”, although we defeat her schemes over and over again like the Molten Alliance dungeons, Nightmare Tower and the Twilight Arbor hideout, she still manages to get something out of it which she deems of more value than what she lost (e.g. getting the venom from the tower despite losing the hybrid and the tower itself in the process). As far as she’s concerned, she’s gained from each of her little “experiments” so far and left the “cleaning up” for us to do, like a chess player who is more than willing to sacrifice a few “pawns” to distract us from her real objective. The only time Scarlet has expressed any sort of frustration at us interfering with her was during Queen’s Jubilee when she didn’t catch the Queen and was beaten back by us…and even then her attack had been more of a spur-of-the-moment thing inspired by Jennah’s statement of humanity’s resolve, but she still got the watchwork knights into her army in the end anyway.

It’s hard to say for sure at the moment whether the OMADD password and the time issues with it are intended for actual pinpointing of timeline or if they should indeed be treated as a gameplay and story segregation. I would prefer the former, but until devs tell us more (through the game or on forums), all we can do is speculate.

Shiren.9532:

I can view a lot of things as lore and gameplay segregation but not portraying Scarlet as a serious threat that has the attention of Tyria. I hold them to a higher standard with something like that. If Scarlet’s a threat and the story wants to treat her like one, the appropriate Tyrian forces need to be involved front and centre. If the Living Story cast are getting in the way of that, why have them at all?

I think the problem here goes back to Personal Story interfering with Living Story, an issue the devs are working on. If we didn’t have the events of PS to worry about, we’d most likely be seeing a lot more involvement from the Pact and Destiny’s Edge in this conflict as they’d already defeated Zhaitan and could pool some resources into hunting down Scarlet. But because some characters are still playing through PS, we can’t have too much involvement from the “iconics” or it would screw up the timeline. This is why the writers have brought us what they call the “biconics”, the new “main NPCs” to fill the role of recognizable faces in the story.

We’ve had some tidbits in the story pointing out that the events of LS do take place post-Zhaitan (Aetherblades stealing airships, Karka invasion etc.) but the devs have been hesitant to involve the PS crew too much unless it can be done in a way which won’t interfere with PS. Thus we won’t be seeing Rytlock etc. taking more direct action (except for Caithe in TA Aetherblade path) until this issue is resolved one way or another.

Shiren.9532:

Not only are they not helping to tell a good story, they are making it worse by replacing the believable protagonists (the Living Story cast could have been believable protagonists but only Rox is given a marginal excuse to be as involved as she is and even that comes at the expense of a better story imo). I think Tyria and ArenaNet have more potential than that and this goes beyond reasonable suspension of disbelief.

To be fair, they all have som excuses for being present. Braham tends to tag along wherever Rox goes (except for Tequatl event which I found curious), so it’s reasonable to assume he wanted to follow her to the fray. And he’s a norn, so he likes fighting and creating his own legend. The two of them likely also have an issue with Marjory telling them that “they let Scarlet go”, so they want to show those pesky humans that they can take her down this time. Taimi is there to gather data on Scarlet and hopefully meet with her. And Kas and Jory are around because they want to prevent Scarlet from causing any more damage after their experiences in the Nightmare Tower. On a broader scale these biconics are like our player characters: we appear to fight the marionette because we want to put an end to Scarlet’s schemes, so if a bunch of heroes of all races can do it, so can the “biconics” themselves. It’s our world that is being threatened, after all, and I can’t see these Living Story NPCs sitting on their butts while there’s danger out there.

Yes, the reasons for their involvement could be fleshed out more, but for what it’s worth, we do have some reasons (flimsy or not) why they’re around.

Shiren.9532:

It’s not good enough for characters to be present because they are the main characters. That’s the role of the player. The NPCs need to make sense because the burden of making this world believable and realistic falls on them.

I agree that our character should have more of a presence but unfortunately this issue has less to do with story and more with real life limitations development-wise. It costs a lot to voice dialogue for main character (2 genders x 5 races = 10 voice actors, and add in other languages for localization, and it quickly adds up) not to mention arranging all those VAs (who have busy schedules) to sit down and record in a booth before deadline hits. It’s a logistical and budgetary nightmare, which is why Anet hasn’t given us spoken dialogue for our characters in a while and why they had to make adjustments because of VA availability (I’ve heard that Kiel was originally meant to be a man but the devs couldn’t find a male VA to fit into the schedule, so they chose a woman as VA and tweaked Kiel’s gender accordingly). Until Anet can figure out how to make this work with their budget etc., we’ll have the biconics taking center stage and interacting with heroes and villains.

At least we have some written, race-specific dialogue to compensate for that. Hopefully we do get to hear our voices again at some point in the future; it would suck me more into the game to actually hear my character talk to, say, Scarlet and argue with her instead of the monologue Scarlet’s speeches often turn into.

CharrGirl.7896:

Why would the only pay off be if one of them died? I noticed this pattern with a lot of stories, when certain characters become a pairing then one of them dies, because the writers obviously don’t know how to evolve them beyond that point, so death is their tool of development… I personally think it’s cheap and it sends a cliche, lame message.

There are many potential payoffs for this development. One is, as stated above, an eventual death for one (or both) of the Kasjory team, another is them becoming a couple (or good friends) for years to come, giving us a nice team for future Living stories. Yet another could be Kasmeer actually being evil and deliberately manipulating Jory’s emotions with the sad story to make her lower her guard for whatever nefarious reason before a later betrayal.

Also, I believe that any “cliche” can be used in a story as long as it’s used well; tropes aren’t inherently bad (as TVTropes and literary critics keep telling us xD) since so many stories have been told by now so one will inevitably run into “cliches” sooner or later no matter what one does. Using a well established trope doesn’t make a story “cheap”, IMHO. I’ve read many stories where the death of a pairing has had impact on the storyline in a good way, and not because “the writers obviously don’t know how to evolve them beyond that point, so death is their tool of development”. It can definitely be done well by a good author. Granted, bad writing can indeed make it come out in a bad way, but if it’s handled well not only character-wise but story-wise, it can give weight to the story in a good way just as further developing a friendship or romance further would do. It’s all in the pen of the storyteller, IMHO.

CharrGirl.7896:

Same with characters that were “supposed” evil yet it oh so turns out they’re not, they do something for greater good, then die, without any redemption or character development past that point. I could mention at least 10 characters I know that are like this but….it would be kinda unfair to spoil since we’re talking about quite popular stories here.

Again, if it’s done well, it shouldn’t matter; using tropes is inevitable, so delivery is what matters. If writers make the characters interesting and complex and write a good story around them, the antagonist, for instance, can be more sympathetic or villainous and come off as a well fleshed out character, whether s/he’s a well intentioned extremist or has been your ally who reveals his/her true colours and betrays you in a shocking twist.

I’ve read/seen/played just as many stories with sympathetic antagonists being redeemed before their death as I’ve read stories where they reject redemption or even live on with the guilt of what they’ve done. There have been bad stories but also gems in the bunch, so it all depends on how well the author manages to convey the idea to the audience.

The present Living Story has had its ups and downs, but for the most part I’ve found myself enjoying it. There are lots of interesting story possibilities out there and many plots one can follow, and I believe Anet will deliver us some nice stories as they iron out the kinks and learns what works and doesn’t work story-wise.

Graendall.4765:

Rytlock dies in the final chapter of Scarlets story,his warband is revealed and Destinys Edge is broken handing the reigns to Destinys Edge 2.Also Rox doesn’t have to stop adventuring with Braham.Game of Thrones fitting end. /discuss

This isn’t something the writing team can do at this point of time because it would conflict with Personal Story. Until they figure out how to separate PS from Living Story (and this can be done with a bit of tweaking, IMHO), they won’t be killing off any PS characters as that would only make people still leveling up their characters confused. And I certainly hope any of Destiny’s Edge won’t bite the bullet yet as there’s still so much character development that they could go through…unless Anet has a good enough reason to make any of such deaths impactful in a good way instead of just in a “shocking swerve” way.

I have a lvl80 charr thief who’s the second character I’ve created for the game. His name is Omaroch, and he’s a proud member of the Ash Legion and Durmand Priory, ready to explore the unknown.

Shiren.9532:

Ask yourself, of all the people in Tyria, for an event this big, why are these the five people present? Do they make sense in this location? Should other characters be there as well/instead? Does it make sense to include these five people and exclude everyone else but the player characters?

This is sort of a necessity for the story in a way; since these characters are our main NPCs, the story must keep including them to keep them relevant and so that once the time comes to face Scarlet, we’ll stand side by side with them and (hopefully) see why each one is present.

As for why only they seem to be involved, I’ve seen it as not cluttering up the fight too much with NPCs; it’s already a big enough event with so many players running around so no need to have more NPCs around. I imagine that in “lore” the battle will be seen as having included several people from Priory, Vigil and Order of Whispers along with our group of heroes and the main NPCs, so it won’t just be the “main NPC” show. Basically look at it as gameplay and story segregation.

Shiren.9532:

When I initially read this, the line about missing the man who held her hand seemed to imply she missed part of her father, but not all of him. I thought it was something sinister, like he used to hold her hand but he later became an alcoholic and she didn’t miss him when he was an alcoholic. I still find her phrasing weird, why not simply say she misses her father instead of singling out the man he held her hand?

Yeah, that was my initial impression as well: that her father was someone she had once admired but had later come to view differently for one reason or another. That’s why I found Kasmeer’s revelation about her father rather interesting in the story instance as it painted a different picture of her father than I had imagined.

Shiren.9532:

Rytlock and Rox are talking about a mission to take down Scarlet (Why is a busy charr like Rytlock visiting Lion’s Arch to receive a report? If he was too busy to see her in Black Citadel, why is he suddenly free to travel to see her?).

Rytlock has other reasons for coming to LA, so he wasn’t just there for Rox. When I visited Black Citadel during Wintersday and went to check out Rytlock’s office, he was nowhere to be found, and his aide informed me that Rytlock had left for LA on some business. Him meeting Rox was incidental as he had some other matters to attend to, and it just happened to be the same location, so he decided to hear her out since she was there. At least that’s the impression I got.

It’s going to be interesting to see in future patches if this little subplot will be developed and what other reason Rytlock will have for visiting LA. Could it be related to Evon’s worries about Scarlet targeting LA, perhaps a chat with the Captain’s Council? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Shiren.9532:

Marjory and Kasmeer have a random moment of backstory because this day is incidentally her father’s birthday, it felt forced into the whole scene and it’s extraneous to the overall plot (it’s relevant to Kasmeer and Marjory but it’s not relevant to anything else).

Assuming that the theory that something happens to Kasmeer at the end of the story turns out to be true (as a scene in the Tower of Nightmares hinted, although that could just be a red herring to lead us astray), then this scene would serve the purpose of deepening the bond between Kas and Jory…whether that means romantically or in deep friendship. I noticed that Marjory’s dialogue in Lornar’s Pass before the marionette event shows that she’s overprotective of Kasmeer at this point, so if anything were to happen to Kasmeer because of Scarlet or something else, it would hit her pretty hard, which could lead to her turning this Scarlet issue into a more personal matter.

So even though that nice little dialogue on the beach may not initially have anything to do with the overall plot, it does serve as character development for these two characters and will likely have repercussions in the story later on. This is what I would do as a writer if I wanted to foreshadow things to come as far as these characters are concerned.

I too enjoyed the instance, and I thought the acting was fine for the most part, so thanks to both the writers and the voice actors for that.

I liked Kasmeer’s melodramatic dialogue and could sympathize with her (although I can understand why some people don’t like it), and the ending with her and Marjory standing together holding hands while facing the sea was nice. I was also happy to see that Taimi was just the right amount of kitten instead of becoming an insufferable twerp like some kid characters in stories tend to be, and her interactions with various characters were interesting. Rox and Braham’s friendship is put to the test, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

It would’ve been nice to see at least some brief interaction between Rytlock and Logan, but I understand why that didn’t happen; hopefully we do see some of this in future Living Stories once the issue with LS and Personal Story “interfering” with one another are taken care of.

I look forward to seeing where the story goes next although the hints at Scarlet’s hideout are certainly intriguing.

As a sylvari I’d be happy to see a new friendly sylvari face in this nice group. Then again, I’d be really interested in seeing Scarlet have additional dialogue for my sylvari considering we’re of the same race; one of the things I enjoyed in the Dead End dialogue was the banter between my sylvari and Kasmeer about her views on sylvari and how naïve our race is. Lovely stuff which adds nice character dynamics between the two of us.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. It was nice listening to interaction between the characters and see them develop as the character dynamics start to emerge. The conversations provide interesting tidbits, not only about E’s involvement (which I liked) but also Rox’s current state, which leads me to believe that if/once she’s accepted into Rytlock’s warband, it might happen at the end of this story arc in the final patches as a “conclusion” of this particular subplot.

The conversations also mentioned Beigarth, the norn fellow who taught Scarlet. Has his Scarlet dialogue existed in Hoelbrak before this patch? Either way, it was nice getting to hear his insight on Scarlet in that additional dialogue option after we got those other conversations with one of the asura councillors and the Pale Tree about Scarlet earlier.

I also went to the Black Citadel to chat with Rytlock after I heard what Rox had to say about him being busy with Legion business, and I got very interested when I didn’t find Rytlock in his office and learned that he’s moved towards Lion’s Arch. I haven’t been able to see him in LA or the surrounding areas yet (he might only show up in the next patch unless I missed some obvious spot), but that’s a nice bit of foreshadowing, maybe with ties to the probe investigations or Consortium stuff? I haven’t checked yet if charr characters have additional dialogue which might reveal more about Rytlock’s current mission, but I’ll be sure to check it out after that nice bit of additional dialogue for my sylvari in Dead End.

With Rytlock moving towards LA, Evon mentioning LA’s weakened defenses in passing and how Scarlet might try to attack LA again…I can’t help but wonder whether the hints mean that the conclusion of this “Scarlet saga” will indeed have a final battle in LA where we deal with Scarlet once and for all, or if this is all red herrings to lead us astray…considering we still have those mysterious probes as well as Consortium schemes to deal with, too (and looks like they might all lead towards the same outcome as loose ends are tied together…or maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part). Either way, LA is sure to get involved in one of the upcoming patches, and I look forward to finding out what’s in store for Tyria, our characters and their friends (hopefully with some added development for the likes of Canach and Mai Trin if we’re lucky).

Kudos to the writing team at any rate. Even if the pacing might’ve been a bit slow at times and the storyline and dialogue has had its ups and downs, I do like how you’re adding stuff from the short stories into the game to add depth to the storyline and how you keep the mystery going with these neat little additions which the community are discovering one bit at a time. You’ve got me hooked since the delightfully Raymond Chandler-esque Marjory introduction cutscene, so tease us with the answers to these riddles as we move towards the big finale!

It would be nice seeing the Centaurs get involved in the Living Story. After we beat Ulgoth in the event chain, I wonder who will have become the new leader of the Centaur Alliance and whether that means long-term changes of any sort. I’d also be happy to see some development for the different tribes in the Centaur Alliance; we only see very little of their interactions, and the different tribes have unique enough flavours (as seen in wiki and game) and are thus good candidates for being fleshed out if the writers so choose.

draxynnic.3719:

Word of dev, though, is that Scarlet has no connection to the factions active in Kryta – her antics in the Jubilee were pretty much just her taking a break from her long-term plans to cause a little mayhem, not part of her plans. There’d probably be more respect for Scarlet and her place in the world if she was connected to the political factions in Kryta.

Interestingly, though, the End of Nightmare instance puzzles include a bit with the Watchknight which reveals the activation/deactivation phrases for the Watchknights. In one note in the “lab” within the tower Scarlet essentially states something along the lines of “Stupid humans always getting in my way!” as well as an interesting tidbit about wanting to secure the Crown Pavilion to herself. This makes me wonder if there was actually more behind the attack than just a spur-of-the-moment thing (and the Twisted Playground stuff) and what exactly humans had done to make Scarlet despise them to point it out so blatantly in written form (unless the note was written after the Jubilee incident, but to me it seemed not to be the case, so the attack may have been motivated by something involving humans in her past…or maybe I’m just reading too much into it).

Will the Queen’s Jubilee incident end up actually holding more weight in the future (than just the Watchknight involvement) and the note could perhaps foreshadow things to come or perhaps make Scarlet more interested in humans after her failure in QJ? It’s something to consider, and I hope the later Living Story releases will shed light on this idea after those interesting text bits in the End of Nightmare instance.