Episode 4 Ending Warning/Foreshadowing (Spoilers for a lot of things)

At the end they have the warning of "perhaps we shouldn't be tearing holes in reality" about the portal used to reach Kourna, as indicated by the big tear that remains. I'm wondering if this is foreshadowing a future conflict, whether post elder dragons, or one of the many in-between threats. Likely something from the Mists.

There's already several instances of rift problems or Mist entities in the world just from current events:

• The directly related Awakened Portal-rifts everywhere.
• The Rift Stabilizer event chain, for which there has yet to be a conclusion as far as I know.
• The existence of the Mist demon Deimos from Bastion of the Penitent
• The now empty God domains filling with mist beings and shadows
• Bloodstone Fen Rifts to everywhere.
• The revenant weapons Mist Trader.
• The astral creatures apparently appearing in dungeons and the Mists.

While there are many instances of rifts from Vanilla, I'm not including those since they may or may not be related.

Basically, Tyrian reality is Swiss cheese at this point, and given the beings we've seen in the mists, this seems like it could be a future plot line. I think it could be big enough to replace the Elder Dragons as the constant threat, but could easily be one of the "meanwhile" plot lines.

@"Techstriker.4130" said:At the end they have the warning of "perhaps we shouldn't be tearing holes in reality" about the portal used to reach Kourna, as indicated by the big tear that remains. I'm wondering if this is foreshadowing a future conflict, whether post elder dragons, or one of the many in-between threats. Likely something from the Mists.

There's already several instances of rift problems or Mist entities in the world just from current events:

• The directly related Awakened Portal-rifts everywhere.
• The Rift Stabilizer event chain, for which there has yet to be a conclusion as far as I know.
• The existence of the Mist demon Deimos from Bastion of the Penitent
• The now empty God domains filling with mist beings and shadows
• Bloodstone Fen Rifts to everywhere.
• The revenant weapons Mist Trader.
• The astral creatures apparently appearing in dungeons and the Mists.

While there are many instances of rifts from Vanilla, I'm not including those since they may or may not be related.

Basically, Tyrian reality is Swiss cheese at this point, and given the beings we've seen in the mists, this seems like it could be a future plot line. I think it could be big enough to replace the Elder Dragons as the constant threat, but could easily be one of the "meanwhile" plot lines.

This makes sense, but because of the slow speed it's "distributed" in the LW and expansion, it makes me skeptical about Anet's possibility of developing a bigger plot about it.

The final dialogues with companions are all foreshadowing something.

Taimi, what to do with remain awakened, ghosts:

Taimi: So, Commander—the ghost army was mopping up when we came in here. They were really enthusiastic about it.Taimi: But I don't know how long they're gonna stick around before they, y'know, ghost away, or...dematerialize. Before they leave.Taimi: We should ask the Sunspears to watch for Awakened coming to, and make sure they don't hurt themselves or anyone else.Taimi: I mean, it's fine right now while they're all sort of dazed, but what happens when they snap out of it?

: I honestly don't know, Taimi. But that decision's not up to just us.

Rox unintentionally pin the commander:

Rox: My pleasure, Commander. They really are amazing fighters. But they don't let fighting DEFINE them.Rox: One of the Elders told me the wisest thing... Sorry. I don't mean to go on. Anyway, it was an honor to fight with them.

Canach and Braham hints towards Aurene role:

Braham: I don't know why everyone's so skittish around Aurene. EATING Joko was the only sure way. Makes perfect sense.Braham: Kinda wish I'd thought of it myself.Canach: You know, I'd almost forgotten Aurene was a dragon. In my head, she was more of a person in dragon form.Canach: Of course, all...THIS...is certainly a...visceral reminder. I hate to ask this, but...Canach: Do you think she would have done this before she absorbed Balthazar's magic? Or could have?Canach: It does seem to have made Kralkatorrik more aggressive. And it certainly changed her SOMEHOW.

: She's still Aurene.Canach: Perhaps you're right. It's easy to forget: she's always been the granddaughter of an Elder Dragon.Canach: Maybe this is just what they do.

Gorrik hints future concerns abouts rifts open:

Gorrik: Yes, his arm is fine. He's back keeping an eye on the rift. He's not sure now that he should have done it.Gorrik: Says maybe Taimi's right—maybe—and we shouldn't go around ripping holes in the fabric of space-time.Gorrik: On the other hand...you can't make science without breaking a few pieces of the temporo-spatial continuum (snicker).Gorrik: Speaking of which, there's so much here to STUDY!

I'm particularly nauseous of the Rifts theme because of the Dragon Age Inquisition, when in Bloodstone Fen appears events for us to close rifts, really was not interesting and it is difficult not to associate with the D.A.I Hero.

The final line of Gorrik makes me wonder what he to he refers to as "here." Elona as whole? Kourna? Gandara?

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:The final line of Gorrik makes me wonder what he to he refers to as "here." Elona as whole? Kourna? Gandara?

Gandara, most likely.

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:The final line of Gorrik makes me wonder what he to he refers to as "here." Elona as whole? Kourna? Gandara?

The table right in front of him?

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:Rox unintentionally pin the commander:

Rox: My pleasure, Commander. They really are amazing fighters.

But they don't let fighting DEFINE them.

Rox: One of the Elders told me the wisest thing... Sorry. I don't mean to go on. Anyway, it was an honor to fight with them.This felt more like Rox was referring to the High Legions and typical charr culture with the whole "they don't let the fighting define them".

Rifts appearing in Tyria has kind of been a thing since Nightfall (or Dragon Festival 2006 technically). It's how the Margonites and torment demons invaded. And while they're not called "rifts", we do have many such things in the game long before Bloodstone Fen's explosion - Godslost Swamp and Reaper's Gate being two such places with them.

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:The final line of Gorrik makes me wonder what he to he refers to as "here." Elona as whole? Kourna? Gandara?

Next to Joko's throne, where Gorrik stands, is a series of shelves with bottles, parchments, etc. etc. They were all Scarab Plague samples, I took it as. Joko's "workbench" of sorts.

Would be cool to travel to other planet, perhaps where humans originally came from..

It's crazy but that chunk of rock we appeared on in the middle of space/mists at the end of the previous episode I kinda thought could have been a remnant of the human home world. Will never be confirmed and is probably not but it could be cool.

I'm thinking at the moment that the reason the human home world exploded was because of a similar-but-not-entirely-the-same situation to the threat to Tyria with Elder Dragons dying. Except it was older gods dying that caused that world to decay and ultimately be destroyed. Balthazar's father could have been one of these "gods" but was killed by Balthazar in the closing moments of that world's destruction, hence why he arrived on Tyria carrying his father's head.