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ugrakarma.9416
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JANUARY 2019 AFC: Members of the team that created Episode 5 of Living World Season 4 – All or Nothing – will be participating in an ArenaNet Forum Chat that is open to your posts now and runs through Friday, January 18. Join us in the dedicated AFC Subforum!
Episode 5 SPOILERS topic.
ugrakarma.9416
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in Lore
Can any gentle soul give a summary of the chapter to those who will not have time these days and who do not care about spoilers?
Tannhauser Engineer(SoS) | Atlantean Sword | Khel the Undead
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Hopeless future, our friend is gone.
Golemancer Tixx - Far Shiverpeaks (EU). Achievement Hunter (+34k) ~850 on the AP Leaderboards.
We start by going to Glint's Lair to get Aurene back with Caithe. Do some trials, learn that Kralkatorrik is actually not some great unknowable force of nature but is actually an evil SOB that saw a vision of everyone getting along without him around and is having an ages long fit over it.
Trials are successful, though Glint's voice takes Aurene away briefly to explain Ascension to her properly.
We go to Thunderhead Keep after this, use a forge underneath the keep manned by Exalted and Zephyrites to start making Dragonblood weapons.
We spend more of the episode getting doohickeys and knickknacks such as Dredge mirrors to boost the resonance output of crystals (Because Branded crystals are Kralk's weakness).
During this more ghosts start popping up because Kralk is in the Domain of the Lost eating souls and getting more and more powerful so the plan is to fight him NOW.
There is more elaborate plotting including bringing a mountain down on him to pin him in place.
We fight him in big cave, end up wounding him, he plays dead though and when we get near he blasts us point blank that Aurene defends us from. We get blasted through a mountain, somehow survive, start staggering our way up the path passing people going "OH NO HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN" and then we see Aurene impaled on Branded spikes and dead.
Kralkatorrik slinks off.
That is the cliff notes version ask about specifics and I will try answer.
Man, what the hell can we do now? And is there one more episode about this, 1 more in S4? or will S5 also be kralk?
HARRY! DIDYA PUT YER NAME IN DA GOBLET OF FIYAH?!
Also where the kitten were Marjory and Kasmeer.
And the answer to what we can do is simples, go find the Gods and get them to help in some manner because CLEARLY everything we're coming up with doesn't work.
That manner would probably involve resurrecting Aurene but who knows at this point. ArenaNet threw a curveball.
I hear mention of a God's image appearing over Kralkatorrik when charging... Is it Balthazar's face? Did his will overpower that envious Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik's? We know that ex-God's don't die that readily as shown by Dhuum and how Kormir had to break Abaddon's will in order to not be possessed by him...
It's an image of Balthazar in equal standing with the orbs representing Mordremoth and Zhaitan's magic, so it just seems to represent some of his power in Kralkatorrik's hands.
Amazing thanks so much for the summary
Tannhauser Engineer(SoS) | Atlantean Sword | Khel the Undead
About Aurene fate is easy to bet:
Praise Joko!!!
since shes absorbed lichs powers, probably will rebuild herself soon, or we gonna have to get some Joko "artifact" to activate this powers, "dark tools for a dark times".
Tannhauser Engineer(SoS) | Atlantean Sword | Khel the Undead
Oh man, I honestly forgot about them completely!
HARRY! DIDYA PUT YER NAME IN DA GOBLET OF FIYAH?!
HOLY kitten!!!!!!!!! HOLY kitten HOLY kitten HOLY kitten HOLY kitten!!!!
Caithe is dying too, means
( NOOOO WHAT THE HECK YOU DID TO MY GUILD WARS?!
Serious face though, well played ArenaNet. You have my attention again.
That was a great episode. I did not expect it to unfold that way. I actually didn't even expect that we actually fight Kralkatorrik. For the whole time I was just sitting here "Ok, where is the cliffhanger ending just before the fight?" and then boom, everything happened all at once and ah.. well..
Very sad and emotional ending, kinda wish it wouldn't end so apruptly. We should've been let to stay in the instance for as long as we want and "mourn" / watch every one else mourn.
Also, after leaving the instance and getting my rewards, my sylvari just said "Ah, it was nothing." that really ruined the mood lol!
Aurene will revive.
This is what I am asking since nonsense PoF Balthaddon.
Arenanet keeps it simple. All possible visions showed the same outcome. When Aurene confronts Kralk she will die. Now she faced Kralk and is dead.
But dont forget the "connection" of Aurene to the murderer Caithe established in this episode. My guess is thats the backdoor out of this. Aurene is now in Caithe or something like that. Or in regard of Mordremoth power... Aurenes Mind is now in Caithe.
Oh my God!!!!
That was so unexpected but my my...that story...NOW THAT'S A STORY!!!!
Anet you have outdone yourselves here!!! Fantastic, just fantastic. Needless to say, I did cry. I really hope Aurene lives on in the next episodes, but this is exactly the depth I expected from the story.
Amazing!!!!
Caithe said, Aurene is gone, and her connection broke down.
This is just like games of thrones.
Best part comes this year.
Fall down seven times, get up eight.
I fear they are writting themselves in a wall with this.
I feel so sad.
Poor Aurene
Rest in Peace.
I would have liked an instance to mourn her death afterwards with the rest of the team.
The end just does not feel right. After this emotional scene, you immediatly go back to the map and hear some stupid skritt npc screaming.
They seem to be sending us to our darkest hour forcing us to find the weapon that would allow Mortals to take the place of Elder Dragons(which we foolishly mistook for the spear... Aurene wouldn't have been capable of handling Kralkatorrik's power and hunger anyways being so young so she was fortunate to go out fighting.
Kralkatorrik is wounded to the point where he played dead so he has lost power from our battle. We have bought ourselves a reprieve to say the least.
So, Anet ruined yet another elder dragon. What a waste.
How come?
The elder dragons were originally sold to us as forces of nature rather than dragons. This had a very cosmic horror vibe and being able to overcome an opponent that didn't even notice you sounded extremely satisfying. Instead, the dragons have personalities that are very similar to people. So similar that you could replace the elder dragons with people and very little would actually change. Writing interesting unknowable monstrosities is a much simpler task than writing compelling people. For my part, I've found the devs ability to do the latter inadequate. They flush interesting takes for mundane mediocrity. I just want the elder dragons we were sold.
Edit: I should note that "I've found the devs ability", I should have said, "I find that video game writers' ability...". This is an issue with video game writing as a whole.
It was mostly a fetch and carry episode with a reasonably decent Dragon fight (well his head) and ending with Aurene's death, which was absolutely the right thing to do given I feel she's hurt the plot since she was introduced. Not a lot really happens throughout the episode until the end - it's mostly just filler stuff to highlight the Pact is "prepping"
What sleep is here? What dreams there are in the unctuous coiling of the snakes mortal shuffling. weapon in my hand. My hand the arcing deathblow at the end of all things. The horror. The horror. I embrace it. . .
I think u are taking it to the extreme, some amount of knowledge on its part isnt bad imho. They dont see to want to turn kralk into a compeling character or make him any less intimidating, he is still the same kralk as the kralk before the episode and hes powerful enough to do what he did.
The Elder Dragons really ceased being unknowable monstrosities of nature the moment Mordremoth was introduced as a talking antagonist, to be honest.
You could even argue they started moving away from that as far back as when they started elaborating on Jormag's personality, and even Kralkatorriks in the Destiny's Edge books.
This is not a new thing.
There are a few things that are interesting. First, the three signs. Why is Jokos death one of the signs? Its like even now this is a Joko season and i'm not sure on how to think about this. Does Joko still have an influence now? Like his magic still being important?
Second: The thing about ascencion and what only dragons can understand. Why put it in there if Aurene is just gonna die? I guess this will have some importance in the future.
Well I would say that this defeat had to happen. I mean, Kralkatorrik got way stronger after Balthazars death, Aurene got her visions of the future and we got really rushed towards this battle with a plan that was put together on like a few minutes, how should things go any other way? I mean, ok Kralkatorrik got really wounded ( like the third time now ) but the visions had to mean something, especially if it feels like they aren't even mentioned in the episode. With how the story developed the way it did Aurenes "death" is only logical. There are still some things that bug me still, the way it got rushed to the battle still doesn't seem right, like we were meant to go there and fail horribly. Like someone did set us up to this defeat.
The only question is. What do we do now? Right now we have a dead Aurene, which basically destroyed Glints Legacy and we have no safe way to kill Kralkatorrik and not destroy Tyria. Well there is still the weapon mentioned by Vlast....
I have to admit, remember one of the critiques with Zhaitan back in release, that although dealing with him throughout the story, we never saw him until the end. I think they are doing a good job with showing lots of Kralkatorrik, even maiming his eye. It really shows this Elder Dragon is built like a tank. Two assassination attempts have failed already.
The Lich is immortal til is devoured, Aurene absorbed lichs powers, Aurene is "killed" but not devoured, the teoretchally she is able to ressurect herself like Joko. after shes devoured Joko, she (in theory) become a lich dragon.
This is very misterious and intriguing since Ascension is related to gods, but i didnt have more knowledge about if theres a link to dragons.. and worst, some npc in Elon Riverlands said ascension doesnt work more(Because gods left the mists).
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension
Tannhauser Engineer(SoS) | Atlantean Sword | Khel the Undead
As one of the bigger critics of the story on this forum recently....
wow.
Really impressive.
I think the key to what comes next lies in the bond that Caithe and Aurene established.
I strongly believe that the gods needs to grow some balls and come right back, because we cannot defeat kralky anymore.
Maybe now we can finally find a way to balance and properly regulate the magic on Tyria without having to use ANY Dragons as a crutch. I never liked the "oh we can't kill Dragons anymore without replacing them or Tyria is doomed" twist in the story introduced back in Living World Season 3. I'm still on board with replacing them but not with another Dragon, especially since it was stated in the first chapter of this Episode that there was still temptation with absorbing large amounts of magic, meaning that not even Aurene was immune to such a thing.
Of course, that's my interpretation of it and I'll admit that I could be wrong due to not being as knowledgeable about the lore as others on here.
EDIT: Also I thought it was a smart move on Anet's part to not have Kralkatorrik be killed this episode considering Zojja is still absent. It's not a real Destiny's Edge vs. Kralkatorrik rematch without her. I really think she should be there in some capacity when we finally do skewer the Crystal Dragon for good.
Make Dragon's Watch great again (by booting Rytlock out of it).
Asura fanatic.
World's largest Zojja fan.
Illconceived Was Na fanboy.
Well, considering how forgettable they are, I don't blame you.
I just mean they should have been mentioned in the last few episodes
HARRY! DIDYA PUT YER NAME IN DA GOBLET OF FIYAH?!
Kas and Marj were mentioned at the beginning of Episode 4, Braham makes some comment about having lost contact with them, and no one knows where they are.
This is true, they were the ones that mentioned that Kralkatorrik vanished.
Ok, I guess if they vanished then they’ll probably have some new information to help us in episode 6
HARRY! DIDYA PUT YER NAME IN DA GOBLET OF FIYAH?!
Caithe wasn't dying. Her crystalline flowers that represented her connection to Aurene wilted.
Still, I had completely forgotten about them in our massive collection of allies that referenced even as far back as the freakin norn tutorial (Ms. Griffonbane, her only appearance before this ep being the norn tutorial).
Funny that they pulled callbacks throughout the game out of the woodworks like crazy, but continuously retconned Edge of Destiny's descriptions. Makes me wonder if they consider that novel completely non-canon now, in all honesty.
Forgot about the attempt on his life in Edge of Destiny too.
My norn said "A fitting reward!" and I facepalmed.
There's most definitely more episodes. They do this, Holidays come along and they focus on festivities before jump-starting Living World arcs. Think of it like your favorite television shows that take a month or so hiatus. Same thing really. I just wonder if we'll see the next episode in two weeks or they're lengthening the time somewhat.
Well... the ending was fully expected, really. I wasn't 100% sure they would kill her, but I wasn't exactly shocked either. The whole point of the bit in Episode 4 was to show that this outcome was inevitable. The fact that Glint was pushing her forward anyway meant that Glint had somehow seen past Aurene's death to a means of defeating Kraalkatorik. So, don't worry about Aurene. Give her a few days to get back on her feet.
If this was the case, however, Glint is an even bigger liar than we believed:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystalline_Memories
Lying to the point of lying to her magical journal for us to find, believe she couldn't foresee anything more, and plot out the entirety of Season 4.
Well, someone is foreseeing things, anyway, based on what Ogden said. If not Glint, there's another prophet out there. Probably another of Kraalkatorik's line, considering it seems to run in the blood. Or crystals. Or whatever.
So I posted this on an older topic, with the discovery that Kralkatorrik also has prophetic visions, is that his second magical sphere of influence? Seems to be an ability only native to Kralkatorrik and his kin.
Makes sense after all psychics use a crystal ball.
And out of all of the elder dragons including Mordremoth, Kralk foresaw that there was peace among everyone without him? Was it just without him? As in Zhaitain and Mordremoth were fine or they plus Kralk? As in the other three remaining are fine? That whole portion just seemed really random to me. Like, Kralk just seemed like this endlessly hungering thing without much motive to me and now he's this evil prophetic mastermind or something? And this ascending stuff? I'll feel a lot better about this entire plot in 4 months I guess. Or 5. Or whatever amount of months they decide to go with this time for unforeseen problems. Just getting really tired of the cliffhangers so I hope the next finale has kind of a subtle hint and not a, "Oh no, a favorite character might be dead or might not be.. find out in 4 months when we start the next living story season!"
I'm also really hoping they don't drag Kralk out for another living season, but I don't know how they will just suddenly wrap up Kralk in the next episode without bringing Aurene back, which I hope they do.
Here's to hoping it's a much shorter wait this time. They've got lunar new year and then what? Super adventure box in April? So maybe we'll get it in between?
And did Glint forsee her death? I can't remember. Or did her visions just stop at a certain point and she reached the conclusion that she died? Because if she didn't forsee it and Aurene did, then perhaps that's a hint that she isn't finished yet, because she doesn't actually die?
My prediction is the next step is going to hinge on Glint taking Aurene aside to explain Ascension - Which is linked more to the Gods and Forgotten than dragons, so there's some kind of cooperation or great plan going on here we're not privy to - Especially since it was a story point that Ascension had stopped because the Gods left.
It's either that or Aurene eating Joko.
Either way it still leaves the fact we clearly still do not have the power to take Kralkatorrik on.
Pretty clever, I suppose.