And you seem to think there’s some hidden agenda to remove male heroes from Guild Wars 2 when there isn’t. Stop with your crusade, there is no female master plan to destroy male characters in GW2.
You seem to want more men not out of a genuine desire for equality but because it makes you happier and out of some misguided belief you need an equal amount of men for a story to be interesting, relatable and engaging.
Its not hidden when the current cast of characters in this patch are ALL female, all 8-9 of them. I know there is not some master plan, what a silly thing to say. But it may be an oversight that they haven’t balanced out the characters.
And its not misguided at all, I would like to see a character that I identify with. Having a lunatic female villain combating the two lesbian lovers is like some HBO soap opera. Throw in another character like Forgal to add balance. I’m not saying remove them but instead consider other sexes when putting together npc’s for the LS chapter not just an entire cast of females.
You see this all the time in movies, tv shows, books, games etc… they give you a range of characters and people are normally drawn to one they identify with, it helps with the immersion when you actually like a particular character.
Lets have it your way, from now on continue to make the entire cast females, and the few males comic sidekicks, dimwits or love sick puppies.
So…
You don’t like men being treated the way women have been for decades in most media and video games, you don’t like the fact GW2 favors portraying women in important roles rather than men, and you think this is a issue that needs to be fixed or “balanced”?
Forgive me for not taking you very seriously and seconding that if all the female roles were occupied by men, most of the player base would see no issue at all.
I love GW2 for having a lot of women in a lot of very important roles – gay/bi/pansexual women too – and while there are things that need improvement, an overabundance of women isn’t one of those.
oh god stop with your moral crusade. I’m not talking about how they are portrayed in other media or games. I’m talking about GW2 ONLY. Don’t start with this treatment of woman in other areas, I’m talking about an MMO, THIS MMO.
and yes I would like to see an EQUAL balance, what’s so wrong in that?! Having a mixture of personalities and sexes makes for a more interesting setting. You should have characters in the game you can relate to and having a good mixture helps with that.
You seem to think this is some hidden male agenda to keep woman down or out of sight. Its not at all so stop making it out to be.
But currently there isn’t a male in sight, nor has there been for a while.
Mad King? Bloody Prince?
That’s not the LS, its a festival. geez come on!
I dunno, it’s nice to see a lot of women in roles that gaming traditionally gives to men….
This is my issue with the abundance of females taking up the major roles. No balance.
In F&F you had the dimwit Braham and the much smarter Rox. We had some balance there but still favoured the females as far as competence is concerned.
Then things went heavily skewed towards female heroes – there was Kiel (female) that was used as the main point of contact through a few patches.
Now its moved on to Scarlet (female) as the main driving force behind the next LS arch. But it overlaps with Kiel (female) investigating the pirates and Marjory (female) tracking down the killer (who happens to be… another female)
Faren is there for comic relief and is a bit of an idiot. Nice male representation there.
Scarlet (female) turns up again and you accompany Caithe (female) through TA.
Currently we have Scarlet (female) + Krait (leaders are Priestesses – females) + NC (leader Faolain – female) and on the shore overlooking this are Kasmeer, Marjory, Dolja, Mykala, Senna and Kari (all females)
I like that Anet are willing to give major roles to females, I have no issue with that. But currently there isn’t a male in sight, nor has there been for a while. Unless you think Canach who we encountered once in a small cave is enough to balance out the ratio. Which it isn’t.
*Depends on your definition of “main cast”, but the broader you go the more the straight couples are predominant.
I am talking about the main cast. Npc’s we deal with on a regular basis. Yeah I know about Braham who is single (failed relationship), Eir is not in a relationship anymore (widow) and Logan has a spell cast over him by Jennah – its a magical bond and therefore doesn’t count at all.
Those others you mention are not main NPC’s. Of course Tyria is filled with happy families, but that is not my point. Its the main cast are either lesbians lovers or single. Perhaps another type of relationship would be a refreshing change. Rox and Rytlock seems interesting although that is more of a mentor/student relationshp.
The way they have paced this LS is terrible. Absolutely terrible. After each patch they never leave me wanting more, or wanting to find out more. Only in F&F did they manage that.
But here’s my take on Scarlet. She is a herald or servant of Mordremoth. He invaded her visions and Scarlet, like Snaff when he linked with Kralkatorrik’s mind and almost went insane, Scarlet went one step further and actually did lose her mind. Bobby Stein says – “There is a reason to her madness but we haven’t revealed it yet.” – I’m guessing it is that.
But now scarlet has been injected with power from Mordremoth, allowing her to grow red like vines from her body who she choked Omadd with. I can’t explain her genius level intelligence and its probably one of the major things that has bugged me about her, this mary-sue like excellence.
As for the Krait and the Nightmare court, I believe the Krait are actually the ones in control of the situation and the NMC are unwittingly just pawns in this alliance, tricked by Scarlet to help. The Krait will treacherously backstab them when they have the obelisks (yet another thing that bugs me about scarlet – where did she get them from, how has she managed to find them when the Krait having been trying for years)
Too many convenient unrealistic plot fillers for my liking. But I’m hoping they don’t just stay on this path and give us some juicier content.
If you’re unable to relate to a female character, that says a lot about YOU, not about arenanet.
Actually this kind of stuff stems from child psychology. Children of both sexes will happily read a book with a male hero, but mainly girls will happily read one with a female heroine.
Currently having all the main cast in this patch as females is wrong, they should have a good balance. Because right now we have Scarlet and the Krait queens vs Kasmeer, Marjory, Dolja, Mykala, Senna and Kari. Even the officer that lead you in the cutscene was some female soldier.
balance? not even close.
I know they work together but when marjory says “I’ve been thinking about scarlet” and Kasmeer butts in and says “She can’t have you.”
errr… seems like a odd thing to say.
They’re either BFF’s or they’re lovers, but neither situation makes it " an odd thing to say.". The only thing odd is your questioning of an emotional attachment between characters within a story.
I’m merely implying that their work relationship may be more than what it seems, so get off you moral high ground.
But lets look at the games relationships. How many couples are there and what percentage of those are lesbian. I know of possibly two out of the main cast of characters, and how many from the main cast are male/female couples? Hmmm currently none.
There is a reason to her madness but we haven’t revealed it yet.
I might add that I’m slightly disappointed that you tell us this within a Q&A thread.
So after a few releases it started to feel like there were a lot of unresolved plot threads out there and you (the player) had no way of knowing which ones would be resumed.
few releases? we’ve had plenty more than just a few and no questions were getting answered, its just more of a case of questions getting stacked upon the unanswered ones.
there are ways to hint on things without giving away the secret you want to be revealed later, a series of steps leading up to the big reveal which are tied off after each patch but still progress further along a development line.
For example you say there is more to Scarlets craziness than what we know, you could have a scene with a clouded figure behind her with only the eyes visible. Now we know something is behind her just not what or who or why. But you have given us something… a development or possibility. It doesn’t even have to be a figure it could merely be the eyes… just anything to help understand this story, and to understand her better. Its a cliché example but still its an example of how to progress things while still pushing the story further.
For that example it would tell us something but not exactly who, next would reveal who but not why, then why but not how…. etc
I’m just waiting for this thread to turn into another Scarlet hate thread.
you know she’s the one behind people not clicking on the obelisks correctly? and yesterday I spilt coffee on my shirt, she was behind that as well. kitten her to hell!
So the alliance between Scarlet and the Krait is pretty much confirmed, but there is still a high possibility that the alliance between the Krait and Nightmare Court is not necessarily an alliance.
As much as I doubt it I really hope your right. This way it will hold partly true to the nature of the Krait. Normally they will kill on sight but perhaps the lure of obtaining the obelisks was too great and reluctantly forced them to use another race instead of instantly sacrificing them to their prophets.
Scarlet who doesn’t like the nightmare court could of convinced the Krait to enslave them, while tricking the Nightmare court into thinking it was an alliance.
But why use the Krait in the first place? why not build on what she has already got? Perhaps her chaotic nature is trying to disrupt all the races.
Then I hope Scarlet is not actually just a rebellious sylvari but instead an agent of Mordremoth. That way it could explain how she received such power and intelligence.
You forget that a certain Quaggan claims that the Krait enslaved the Nightmare Court.
All this implies that the Krait see Scarlet as servant getting them Obelisk shards while the Nightmare Court are seen as enslaved(whether they actually are or not is irrelevant) constructors and armies.
Oratuss most likely see all Krait as expendable
this is just a Quaggan saying the Krait must be behind it all, that’s just because of the Quaggan’s hatred towards the Krait, nothing more.
She could unite ALL OF THEM.
Oh god please NO!
I know they work together but when marjory says “I’ve been thinking about scarlet” and Kasmeer butts in and says “She can’t have you.”
errr… seems like a odd thing to say.
Fits into Anet GW2 charter: “just say no to males.”
so true… not a male in sight in this patch. the sisterhood is strong.
And Scarlet using obelisk shards to seal the deal is… well, that’s both easy and hard to take in.
And where did she get them? more bullkitten plot fillers. Scarlet always seems to have exactly what ever race she is dealing with wants. Untold resources to build huge ship yards, her ridiculous education, this pirate army of inexhaustible numbers… now she just happens to have obelisk shards. ughh
when she is finally taken care of I would like some answers to how this one crazed teenage sylvari managed all of this.
The Kraits intentions are to flood Tyria and destroy land dwellers, included in that are the nightmare court.
It like some massive housing corporation is going to level your neighbourhood to rebuild and you side with them to help wipe out the street, but your house is also on the hit list. Why would you side with them? Quite simply – you wouldn’t
There is no reason to not betray their allies, After the krait got what the wanted. They can destroy the land dwellers non the less when their prophets return.
You missed my point, the Nightmare court are aligning themselves with a group whose ultimate goal is to annihilate them. that is strange. I can understand it if they had a similar goal, but they don’t.
The only way I can deal with this is both groups are reluctantly working together to first take out their common enemy (everyone if your Krait) then both the nightmare court and the Krait are planning to backstab each other.
I know they work together but when marjory says “I’ve been thinking about scarlet” and Kasmeer butts in and says “She can’t have you.”
errr… seems like a odd thing to say.
molten facility was on of my favorite releases of the entire LS. and this looks to be heading the same direction……i hope.
F&F was done well, perhaps a little too slow to get things started but it developed, giving you hints and questions and most of those questions were answered. Also the way the flame legion and dredge did not get along was a nice touch, believable and stuck to the lore of GW, the hint of another force behind the alliance was nice as well (still not sure if it was scarlet – because they never actually said it was)
But this latest patch!? sigh. seeing the krait and the nightmare court fighting side by side just feels wrong. But as per usual the art team have done a fantastic job, the area looks great. The new group events, the introductory quest are all done well… it’s just the big slap in the face to lore, and that stupid villain scarlet that dampens the whole patch.
I hoping scarlet has tricked the Krait, and in the end they hate her with a passion.
The Kraits intentions are to flood Tyria and destroy land dwellers, included in that are the nightmare court.
It like some massive housing corporation is going to level your neighbourhood to rebuild and you side with them to help wipe out the street, but your house is also on the hit list. Why would you side with them? Quite simply – you wouldn’t
I dislike the way alliances have been done so far simply because they reduce the two allied factions into their superificial elements (dredge have machines, Flame Legion have fire magic) and they haven’t respected the depth that the different factions have.
well said!!
I hadn’t even thought to why I dislike these alliances but this is a really good reason. Instead of giving depth to races they are watering them down. Maybe the writers don’t know how to?
1. Write every enemy faction’s name on a slip of paper.
2. Put these slips in a hat.
3. Draw two slips of paper. These enemy factions will form an alliance.
4. Hint to that this alliance was forged by a greater force.
5. Reveal that this force is Scarlet.
6. Rinse & repeat
you made me feel sad reading this, I had hoped that they would at least stick to lore and keep the Krait the extreme xenophobic race that it is… but noooo.
Good job Anet in ruining what I thought was the only decent race left. As soon as you infected them with the Scarlet virus they lost all credibility.
So annoyed with these so called writers now.
ROFLMAO
My bad for guessing ANet would pick the same naming system twice…
All hail the unloreful Toxic Alliance and its Villan Sue mistress! :/
you nailed it! never overestimate the creativity of the writers again… maybe they saw your suggestions and picked one?
I can see the disgusted look on the faces of the GW1 writers now.
what are you saying? we have to wait a year before anything interesting happens in the story? That’s just bad writing.
No scarlet isn’t shown as a genius of everything/all knowing, her short story shows that she learns some blacksmithing(norn), Sniper/demolition(charr), Alchemy(hylek), dynamics =the branch of mechanics concerned with the motion of bodies under the action of forces. Synergetics = is the empirical study of systems in transformation, with an emphasis on total system behavior unpredicted by the behavior of any isolated components, including humanity’s role as both participant and observer. Statics=the branch of mechanics concerned with bodies at rest and forces in equilibrium.
I like it how you say Scarlet isn’t shown as a genius of everything, then go on to point out all the knowledge she’s learnt from the leaders in each field of study, who happen to be from a particular race that also excels in that field.
And she learnt them all. Yeah, scarlet is no Mary-Sue. /sarcasm.
I dont get this. Scarlet has been a major and decent villian ingame for a while now.
She’s not a “decent” villain. Everything she’s done that we’ve put a stop to doesn’t make me feel like I’ve accomplished anything or that I really feel like I want or need to stop her. I don’t dislike her in-game, I don’t even care about her. What I do dislike is this boring villain IS currently the main villain in the game.
I find her development is lacking, her dialogue childish, I find all the unanswered questions frustrating – how has she funded this army? where do the countless numbers of pirates come from? how have they kept their presence hidden (even massive bases built IN lions arch)? how did she manage to get races that would normally kill her on sight work together for her? How did she convince all these mentors to train her when they normally guard their secrets from outsiders? Is there some connection between her and the steamcreatures? Why attack Divinities reach and not the Pale tree? Why was there no mention of this Scarlet before her arrival, she was obviously a genius but not even one murmur? Where or how did get these powers to spout red vines from her?
there is no development just unanswered questions, and a whole lot of questions is NOT development, answering one while taking its story further with another question IS.
One thing we do know, Scarlet did unlock some extra powers in there. Before going in, she was just an engineering genius, but coming out she could also grow red thorny vines at will, which in the story first she sees growing around her hands, and then uses them to tie and then kill Omadd.
Its beginning to look more and more like Mordremoth is behind it, empowering scarlet. Possibly getting into her head, perhaps using trickery by appearing as the pale tree in her vision (I like this theory) but I have my doubts the Anet team have thought up the same thing.
I don’t like the possibility that the Krait and Scarlet could be working together. A xenophobic race suddenly teams up with this crazy teenager, it goes against everything written about the Krait. I wish they would sick to the GW1 lore while developing new and interesting stuff – so far failing with one, possibly both.
Why is she so popular?
she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”
You know who else was a minority on the forums? Kiel supporters.
I wasn’t ready to dismiss scarlet after her first appearance, you guys could atleast wait to see what anet would do with her, instead of crying after she appeared the first time “So when is she going to be gone?” Do you also read the title of a book and then say you read the entire book?
Where is Kiel now? good job voting her in. I still have my doubts she was legitimately voted in, I think its more like Anet skewed the numbers to avoid making the abbadon fractal.
Anyway as for waiting for Scarlet’s story to develop, its not about giving it time. The writers should develop the character over time, not give one massive reveal at the end. Just how we received a letter from Mr.E, or the quick-talking city dweller from the frost and flame patch… these small things develop the story and hint of something more. Although sadly. nothing more is said of Mr.E and we still don’t know if that quick-talking city dweller was in fact Scarlet.
I like reading these theories. Because it’s much more interesting than what actually happens in game.
agree.
I really like the first couple of paragraphs, the idea she went mad because she came in contact with an elder dragons mind, and now he’s using scarlet as his pawn. But then he went and said Destiny’s edge is a threat to the elder dragons – Ummm yeah, not really.
It’s hard to judge Scarlet’s actual popularity. There are a lot of threads and posts disparaging her. But they all are from the same relatively small group of people with an ax to grind.
Then Anet should do a poll on the front page and give a message in game telling you about said poll and see if people actually like her.
there you go..
VOTE IF YOU LIKE SCARLET OR NOT: http://strawpoll.me/610036/r
Scarlet is the best! The amount of hate, rage, vitriol and QQ directed her way means ArenaNet has finally made a memorable villain.
memorable yes, good? NO.
To say that Scarlet is good because people want to see her never again mentioned in the game is the worst argument you could possibly give in favour of her being a good villain.
Look at the classic villains, she will never appear in the top 100 instead she will go down as one of the worst villains in gaming history. And its a shame becaue these writers are supposed to know what they are doing but instead they have created a flat one dimensional, shallow character with the promise that “it will all be revealed soon” again a bad way of giving a character depth.
A character should develop, not wait for the final show before revealing everything about them.
not even Kiel who promised to look into the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance (ironically, just before Scarlet decided to reveal herself). And lo-and-behold, Kiel’s not doing much about it (but Magnus is, thank god).
Really? What is Magnus doing about it? Finally a male in a role that isn’t comic relief or a dimwit.
I’m all for equal rights but currently we have the villain scarlet (female) and the Krait queen/priestess (female) joining forces while Marjory (female) and Kasmeer (female) are looking into it. All we need now is Kiel (female) and Rox (female) to turn up and the sisterhood will be complete. I suppose you can include the dimwit Braham to act all stupid and the effeminate Faren for some comic relief…
Mad King was a sucess while Scarlet was a failure in the category of Comical yet evil and serious.
He’s great because built around the atrocities he committed why acting like its all a joke. Skinning villagers alive? – now that’s a villain I want to hunt down and kill.
If they want to step up for scarlet stop with all this bullkitten about approaching other races and have her do some real damage, like kill off Kiel for example.
All I see on the forums is “Scarlet this. Scarlet that.”
Seems pretty popular to me.
“Popular: regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general”
nope, not popular at all. More like discussed with dislike.
because scarlet came and talked to them and her bad dialogue made them all puke up on each other.
So people are basically spamming every LS thread with hate about Scarlet, even if said living story have nothing at all to do with Scarlet?
Sounds like you people are quite obsessed about her.
if by saying “obsessed” you really mean “disappointed” – then yes.
Hm?
First it was apparently data-mined (which was never supplied) and now it is suddenly Anet saying it?It doesn’t really matter which “proof” people use unless they actually give links that PROVES what they are saying.
I don’t think there is any proof that she is involved, even then the horrible possibility still exists.
…until I found out that it’s been confirmed that it’s Scarlet again. Like seriously..the Krait are supposed to be Xenophobic??? Why Anet…just WHY?!?
Spot on! If scarlet (an outsider) has somehow managed to bend the Krait to her will then the Anet writers are basically giving GW1 lore the middle finger.
GW wiki – "These intelligent creatures are vicious and xenophobic, attacking and enslaving all other species on sight. "
or
“Krait are vicious creatures, completely uninterested in the needs or well-being of others. The krait have never felt threatened by any of the land or other sea-dwelling races. They believe other, lesser races have nothing to offer them, so the krait never bother to communicate with them.”
They wouldn’t stop to listen to the mad rhubarb, then actually do what she wants like all the other dumb races she’s bent to her will.
Why is she so popular?
she is not popular at all… the are a couple of people that try desperately to defend her but they are minority on these forums, and most the reasons they think she is great is the same reasons others don’t like her. “But she’s good at everything!!” – “that’s why we don’t like her”
“I don’t know what scarlet wants, I don’t know why, and I don’t know how to stop her.”
What there is of her story and motives, which isn’t much, are found all over the place: obscure interviews, short stories found on this site, some of her story is even included in the game, but not much. Mostly its her being an annoying little brat spamming “DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE” – hardly a super villian, if I did that I’ll get muted for spamming map chat too much…
That summary…. just made me sad…
Who in their right mind would hire those “writers” and where are the people who wrote the original GW / GW2 main storyline?!
I’ve been asking myself that question since frost and flame ended.
I’m not sure where the writers get their ideas from but they don’t seem to translate well into a game. I don’t think the abyssal delivery of the story which often leaves people guessing is purely to blame. They just never seem to create interesting high fantasy stories.
I’m just waiting for them to turn this next patch (krait) into something stupid, like plant some asura device in the obelisk to blow it up thus saving some unknown villagers and maybe you get to fight a nameless krait queen which is just the same as any other krait queen found in tyria.
For the love of frick don’t ruin the Krait too by associating them with Scarlet as well..
this times a million. Keep the cabbage patch kid out of this story. Make it dark and gritty, surround it with mystery, have interesting characters, give us players something to discover to develop the lore behind the krait, and end it with a twist which helps lead into the next krait chapter.
off to such a good start, could the writers stuff this up?
Has anyone seen Kari? She is AUX-1’s mistress. Kari was last seen heading southwest from Marjory Delaqua’s camp. Maddox sent out a search party but could not locate Kari.
I went looking for her but I suspect she’s been caught and is currently sitting in some cage awaiting to be sacrificed to their god.
(just look how a few things have sparked more interest than scarlet ever could).
Oh?
I am quite sure there were MASSIVE amount of interest around Scarlet before The Queens Speech.
ok there originally was but after people found out how much of a mary sue villain she was and how lame her “where is my place in the universe” motive was… people quickly grew tired of her.
Who knows what it’ll be but this is certainly shaping up to be kitten awesome…
it certainly does. Now we need good quests that add to the mystery (just look how a few things have sparked more interest than scarlet ever could), a decent cutscene to introduce the patch and set the right tone, good rewards that people actually want, unique boss models, good boss mechanics, epic dungeon design(large scale areas), introduce our antagonist early so its not just some random krait witch.
I’m sure there is more.
If they limit this to just kessex hills which I will find disappointing I hope that central area at least gets expanded on with submerged caves and a gigantic underwater area that has opened up underneath to explore (that lake is too shallow as it is atm). Having the Leviathan swim around in that lake will just feel silly. Its like putting a whale in a pool.
I’m also not completely convinced about the way these krait are chopping down trees, then storing these perfectly piled tree trunks around. All their architecture shows them reusing boats to construct crude towers. It would of been better if they left the trees alone and ransacked the surrounding towns for materials.
(edited by Thobek.1730)
If this has anything to do with Scarlet I’ll go crazy!! enough of the stupid rhubarb already!
You are not alone, but i’m gonna have to take a trip to kessex and have a look around.
I went and had a look around, not really much to see but I do like the ambient sound of thunder that helps set the scene something ominous is brewing. And they have seemed to have stripped those ruins on the north bank of all wood and stone. Next week they should include a weather effect like heavy rain and lightning in the sky.
This next patch is looking positive, its off to a good start.
I still don’t like the location though. Its too landlocked for a race that is a deep sea dweller. The Mire Sea would of been better.
I hope the really work on this dungeon like the Aquatic Ruins Fractal and include darkness in some areas, or the Flooded Castavall in Bloodtide Coast where you dive down into the depths.
If this has anything to do with Scarlet I’ll go crazy!! enough of the stupid rhubarb already!