LW4EP6 conspiracy theory time!

Since Aurene is seemingly no longer with us, Kralkatorrik takes control of Caithe, and the Commander has to kill her. This is the tipping point that pushes the Commander over the edge and decides "Screw it!" and just marches on Kralk and slays him. The Commander then absorbs all of Kralks released energy and is imbued with the powers of Zhaitan, Mordremoth, Balthazar, and Kralkatorrik, becoming the new villain in the GW2 story. The Commander takes control of the Branded and the remaining Forged and conquers Elona, slaying any that stand in their way, including former guild mates. Then turning their attention to Tyria, launch a pincer attack with Branded and Forged coming from the east, Risen from the south, and Mordrem from the west, all imbued with the fires of Balthazar. Crushing all beneath their heels, the Commander conquers Tyria and starts a dark reign that lasts 1000 years.

For myself personally, I would resurrect my beloved Ceara from the Mists and take her as my Queen and we will rule Tyria forever...FOREVER!

You see kiddies, this is why i don't write for Arenanet.

You know what's kind of funny about this? Anet kind-of hinted at a similar fate for some player characters. Specifically asura whose first invention was the Infinity Ball. The specifics were different but the outcome was similar.

Also if I was going down that route I'd definitely want to get the Commandos on-side. I mean yes, you'd have the full power of 3 elder dragons and a god, but it couldn't hurt to have the option to call in an air strike too.

I think chapter 6 will start right where 5 left off, not with a remote meeting anywhere.Because there was a fade to black right after seeing Aurene, without giving us the chance to walk around or speak about what happened.Another reason is, most maps are frozen in time after the story that takes place.But this map is frozen in time early. Through the rifts you can see an unwounded Kralkatorrik, and all heart quests are preperatory actions.

As for what happens?Well.. maybe Aurene, Vlast and Glint dominate the now wounded Kralkatorrik on the mist-side, forcing him back to our end, where we katapult a dragonspear into his skull, through his eye.

As for what happens then? Don’t know, without Aurene the magic is gonna go buckwild.Maybe the gods show back up for a completely nonsensical deus-ex-mach, or Jormag or Primordus consume it all.Either way, with Aurene dead we’re toast, unless anet pulls something Joko out of her.. eh.. crystalline posterior organ

I don't if I would laugh or cry if ANET really pulls an "Infinity Ball" trick a this point in history.

The joke episode - starts with the black screen, blurry and fades in - the commander wakes up. Episode 5 repeats.

It wouldn't surprise me if we were in for some time-travel shenanigans, especially considering Rytlock's connection to Glint and The Mists.

Assuming Requiem is exposition and not foreshadowing, we can then assume that some time passed between the end of All or Nothing and the start of Season 5.

Here's what I'd do: Kralkatorrik retreated to and is hiding within The Mists, which means he can use the weakened Veil in Elona to "planeswalk" between them at will. We have research and technology available to warp and restructure The Mists and its unique magic, as well as the Dragons' energy and magic. We can use our technologies and magicks - along with Rytlock's connection to Glint, Zojja applying Snaff's research, our experiences with Joko, and our knowledge of Elona's history - to siphon Kralkatorrik's magical energy back on itself and use it to reinforce the Veil, effectively sealing him off inside his own lair, and permanently away from Tyria. This has the side effect of dramatically lowering the ambient magic in Elona, and all across Tyria, removing nearly half of the energy from the system. Half as much magic means less to go around, but it also means a more stable system with fewer Dragon "nodes" necessary to regulate it. It's a temporary measure, as magic will build back up eventually (and more quickly), but it buys us time to consider less desperate options.

In Season 6, as predicted, Magic starts building up again, but even faster than we anticipated. We can't funnel enough into the dimensional stabilizers to properly contain Kralkatorrik (which is why there are still Branded everywhere), but at least he's dealt with for now. This is where we return our focus to Primordus and Jormag, to see if we can't Twinrova their energy again, and use some of that to further fuel Kralk's prison... but they won't fall for the same ploy twice. They'd be weary of picking fights with each other again, even if we could cleverly instigate them. So, instead, we simulate that ol' Bubbles is invading the surface and encroaching on Jormag's and Primordus's territories. It works as well as could be expected. But what we didn't count on, is actually drawing Bubbles' attention...

@Healix.5819 said:The joke episode - starts with the black screen, blurry and fades in - the commander wakes up. Episode 5 repeats.

I love that idea from a story perspective, but sadly I don't think it could happen because it would mean repeating the exact same fight two episodes in a row and I think that would be consider a bad choice from a gameplay perspective.

@Trise.2865 said:It wouldn't surprise me if we were in for some time-travel shenanigans, ...

Great. It'll be like every Rick Berman Star Trek movie. OOOooo look, another temporal anomaly! [/sarcasm]

I really hope not.

@kharmin.7683 said:

@"Trise.2865" said:It wouldn't surprise me if we were in for some time-travel shenanigans, ...

I was thinking more Superman "I can turn back time because I'm just that awesome... but only for this and only this once, and making this one tiny change automatically fixes everything because of who I am as a person."

But yeah...

There are hints of some Flashpoint "stressing the multiverse with time-travel shenanigans has additional, multiverse-destroying side-effects" in there.

While we keep thinking of all elder dragons as bad, what if we are wrong. What if the real answer is that Bubbles is actually the elder dragon that is meant to bring about balance and we will find that out and help it (since Kralky is kinda stronger than he should be) and in some kind of epic twist take care of restoring balance in that way. Either that or the human gods get their collective heads out of their nethers and come back to actually help turn the tide. I can't be the only one irked at the human gods constantly putting their hands up like they are tied to the prime directive or some nonsense. Seriously they've done this since the GW1 days. its time they got their hands dirty.

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:While we keep thinking of all elder dragons as bad, what if we are wrong. What if the real answer is that Bubbles is actually the elder dragon that is meant to bring about balance and we will find that out and help it (since Kralky is kinda stronger than he should be) and in some kind of epic twist take care of restoring balance in that way. Either that or the human gods get their collective heads out of their nethers and come back to actually help turn the tide. I can't be the only one irked at the human gods constantly putting their hands up like they are tied to the prime directive or some nonsense. Seriously they've done this since the GW1 days. its time they got their hands dirty.

Anets twitter has been seeding info about the Gods background for a couple of weeks (no new info though). It seems a bit odd, so it is speculated the return of the Gods is being hinted at

Aurene isn't dead....well she is just she's not.

She ate Joko (consumed his magic) and is thus immortal by transitive properties of digestion.

I'll bloody uninstall if we gonna kill Caithe.

@"Trise.2865" said:It wouldn't surprise me if we were in for some time-travel shenanigans, especially considering Rytlock's connection to Glint and The Mists.

Assuming Requiem is exposition and not foreshadowing, we can then assume that some time passed between the end of All or Nothing and the start of Season 5.

Here's what I'd do: Kralkatorrik retreated to and is hiding within The Mists, which means he can use the weakened Veil in Elona to "planeswalk" between them at will. We have research and technology available to warp and restructure The Mists and its unique magic, as well as the Dragons' energy and magic. We can use our technologies and magicks - along with Rytlock's connection to Glint, Zojja applying Snaff's research, our experiences with Joko, and our knowledge of Elona's history - to siphon Kralkatorrik's magical energy back on itself and use it to reinforce the Veil, effectively sealing him off inside his own lair, and permanently away from Tyria. This has the side effect of dramatically lowering the ambient magic in Elona, and all across Tyria, removing nearly half of the energy from the system. Half as much magic means less to go around, but it also means a more stable system with fewer Dragon "nodes" necessary to regulate it. It's a temporary measure, as magic will build back up eventually (and more quickly), but it buys us time to consider less desperate options.

In Season 6, as predicted, Magic starts building up again, but even faster than we anticipated. We can't funnel enough into the dimensional stabilizers to properly contain Kralkatorrik (which is why there are still Branded everywhere), but at least he's dealt with for now. This is where we return our focus to Primordus and Jormag, to see if we can't Twinrova their energy again, and use some of that to further fuel Kralk's prison... but they won't fall for the same ploy twice. They'd be weary of picking fights with each other again, even if we could cleverly instigate them. So, instead, we simulate that ol' Bubbles is invading the surface and encroaching on Jormag's and Primordus's territories. It works as well as could be expected. But what we didn't count on, is actually drawing Bubbles' attention...

I wonder what having fewer dragons does to their sleep cycles though. I wonder what the optimal pattern is. Is it better to have them all sleeping and waking at the same time keeping them around the same level of power but wreaking havoc in each of their designated locations, or is it better to have two sleeping and one awake and potentially reaching whatever cap they need to sate their appetite faster.

And while it's entirely possible that Asura will save the day yet again, that would be a huge gut punch for those of us that became attached to Aurene and spent the past few years raising her. Would also seem entirely ridiculous after spending an episode gaining every strategic advantage we had and sacrificing Aurene when we could have just used magicks to trap him somewhere he won't be a threat.

Though your post may be sarcasm, I'm too tired to tell.

If the twitter hints at the god are an indication of the upcoming story, I think it's safest to assume that we'll either be gaining their help to kill Kralk and Aurene is revived via Joko magic, gaining their help to replace him via some ability they have that we didn't know about or teaching us more about ascension or Aurene, or simply cleansing a death-branded Aurene as the final step for her becoming a viable replacement for Kralk.

I also am more likely to believe more than ever before, that the introduction of Zafirah wasn't just to pay homage to the finished story-line with Balthazar and perhaps it's possible that all of this talk of Ascension will have to do with more than just Aurene's ascension to an Elder Dragon.Then again, that same private talk she had with Glint about ascension, could tie in with the role that Caithe plays and Aurene's little mind-melding moment with her in that Caithe is passing along that knowledge to the Pale Tree further explaining why she felt so "humbled." It would admittedly be a bit disappointing to me to go that route and leave Aurene as this martyr messenger, but I suppose it's possible.

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:Either that or the human gods get their collective heads out of their nethers and come back to actually help turn the tide. I can't be the only one irked at the human gods constantly putting their hands up like they are tied to the prime directive or some nonsense. Seriously they've done this since the GW1 days. its time they got their hands dirty.

I still say Abaddon had to know about the dragons, and the fact that he pushed for more magic anyway means that he had a plan for dealing with them. Even his fall was part of the plan, and we're caught up in it.

@"cptaylor.2670" said:And while it's entirely possible that Asura will save the day yet again, that would be a huge gut punch for those of us that became attached to Aurene and spent the past few years raising her. Would also seem entirely ridiculous after spending an episode gaining every strategic advantage we had and sacrificing Aurene when we could have just used magicks to trap him somewhere he won't be a threat.

Why? The damage she and the Commander were able to inflict left Kralkatorrik the weakest he's ever been; even weaker than when Destiny's Edge battled him. Nothing like that would have been possible without them. Did you think the Elder Dragon was just going to sit there and watch us point lasers at him? no, he needed to be hurt; driven back, forced to retreat deep into his hidey-hole... so we can collapse the entrance.

Aurene was our only plan. We were so focused on her, we ignored every other possibility. Now that she's gone, we need a new plan. We have to take advantage of this opportunity, and capitalize on this moment of weakness, or her sacrifice would have been in vain, just like Glint's and Vlast's (and don't think I didn't notice that little bit of symmetry, ANet. This was Glint's plan from the beginning, wasn't it? to attack Kralkatorrik from within the mists, with their combined power.).

@Danikat.8537 said:I love that idea from a story perspective, but sadly I don't think it could happen because it would mean repeating the exact same fight two episodes in a row and I think that would be consider a bad choice from a gameplay perspective.

If they actually did that, the commander knows that they'll fail and it'll completely change how it would play out. Either way, we're going to end up having to deal with the dragon again. It would be funny however if they legitimately had it restart episode 5 and left it up to the player to realize that they were in a loop, where I guess cancelling the episode would be the trick to starting the actual finale.

There's plenty of ways they could undo everything if they really wanted to. If they ever want to revisit one of the events of season 1 for example, here's a chance to take a misstep into the mists and have the commander travel through time.

I think it's a safe bet to assume the commander is going to make their way back to the Land of the Lost to help Aurine find her way back, and possibly finish her ascension by killing whatever kralky minion is eating/processing souls. Doing so will somehow foil Kralkatorik's plans, which will delay him for a few episodes (or until the next expansion).

Or we could just kill Braham now that he's actually become a decent guy who genuinely wants to make amends. Kick the puppy while he's down, I say.

@Trise.2865 said:

@"cptaylor.2670" said:And while it's entirely possible that Asura will save the day yet again, that would be a huge gut punch for those of us that became attached to Aurene and spent the past few years raising her. Would also seem entirely ridiculous after spending an episode gaining every strategic advantage we had and sacrificing Aurene when we could have just used magicks to trap him somewhere he won't be a threat.

Closing his "hidey-hole" does no good if you can't extract his ability to traverse the mists. This supposed thin veil over Elona makes no difference. There's a "thin veil" in Woodland Cascades near the raid. And even with that, a thin veil isn't necessary when you have the ability to come and go as you please wherever and whenever. Rhytlock appearing out of thin air due in Verdant Brink due to Balthazar - the same magic that Kralk is using, is proof of that.

And the only known way to get that magic out of Kralk, that we know of, is to kill him.

Weakened or not, he's still stronger than us, and aside from whatever special abilities Glint's Army had in the mists that allowed them to damage him before we ever fought him, it takes us having a specially made weapon just to damage him. But yeah, sure, we could Taimi our way into creating Omadd's machine 2.0 and applying the resonance technology to it somehow, but that's about the cheapest thing they could do.

I see your points, but regardless, I highly doubt magitech is the route they're going. Especially given we already used that with Primordus and Jormag.

I imagine, we'll probably all be wrong and whatever they come up with will be completely out of left field. But I guess we'll have to wait and see.

@Westenev.5289 said:I think it's a safe bet to assume the commander is going to make their way back to the Land of the Lost to help Aurine find her way back, and possibly finish her ascension by killing whatever kralky minion is eating/processing souls. Doing so will somehow foil Kralkatorik's plans, which will delay him for a few episodes (or until the next expansion).

Or we could just kill Braham now that he's actually become a decent guy who genuinely wants to make amends. Kick the puppy while he's down, I say.

For some reason I think Braham is the one character that's actually safe in all of this. At the rate we're going, I'd be surprised if Taimi, Canach, Marjory, and Kas survive this season. Considering they stated that they originally planned for Caithe to die this episode but changed their minds to give Aurene's death more emotion, I find it unlikely that she's going to die anytime soon either. I don't really believe they had plans to kill her off to begin with though. I've got to hand it to her though, she always manages to find a way to make herself relevant somehow. Sneaky cabbage.

@Abraxxus.8971 said:[...] You see kiddies, this is why i don't write for Arenanet.

I don't know what you mean. ;) Seems plausible! :p

@"PookieDaWombat.6209" said:While we keep thinking of all elder dragons as bad, what if we are wrong. What if the real answer is that Bubbles is actually the elder dragon that is meant to bring about balance and we will find that out and help it (since Kralky is kinda stronger than he should be) and in some kind of epic twist take care of restoring balance in that way. Either that or the human gods get their collective heads out of their nethers and come back to actually help turn the tide.

So here is my crackpot theory in the vein of bubbles saves the day for what it is worth. The speculated concept art of the deep sea dragon, is a serpent with it head weirdly separating into two. I speculate that that dragon has the domain of chaos, which having a mercurial form and creating an unpredictable future. This is a direct countering to Kralkatoric's presumed domain of prophecy. In Ep. 5 we counter his crystalline body with itself, and in Ep. 6 the commander finds they can use the powers of chaos to overcome prophecy and along with whatever remains of Aurene transforms Kralkatoric into a benevolent entity of Tyria. Thus reversing Kralkatoric's vision of a future without him, but also sorta validating it, because the new entity is unrecognizable as Kralkatoric.

So where does the commander get chaos? Well lets go deeper down this crackpot theory. The commander is quite something in history, now, being a catalyst for many events of change in a tumultuous time of constant transformation. As Joko un-succinctly points out, the commander has already thrown the world into chaos. And he knew, as well as Odgen (one of the three signs) and Glint, that the only thing that could end his hundreds of years reign, was the force of chaos from the deep sea dragon. He fancied conquering and eliminating the force that would end his life, but deep down, knew that it could not be stopped. That is because he knows the commander is a dragon's champion, but not the champion of dragon of prophecy, not the champion of a baby dragon (because how can a not elder, juvenile dragon have a champion? more like a caretaker.), but a champion of chaos and the deep sea dragon. So when Glint's legacy, talks about bringing together the Scion and Champion, she is talking about the restoration of balance, by introducing the cooperation of the forces of two opposed dragons. A champion of chaos and scion of prophecy, one ripping at the treads of time and the other reforming into something new.

Wrapping up this theory... Of course, as is the nature the deep sea dragon, it's own champion will find it hard to know what it is, people randomly forgetting the dragon's name in the presence of the champion, other's refusing to acknowledge it when they see it, and most others simply oblivious, chaos bolstered by unknowing. So In Ep. 6, "Destiny's End" the commander will face Kralkatoric one last time to rewrite the future, confused but un-deterred by newly discovered abilities. In Season 5, we turn towards what is known to be the last potential threat the deep sea dragon, not knowing, neither the road blocks in the way, nor what such an endeavor will lead the commander to discover...

@PseudoNewb.5468 said:

@"PookieDaWombat.6209" said:While we keep thinking of all elder dragons as bad, what if we are wrong. What if the real answer is that Bubbles is actually the elder dragon that is meant to bring about balance and we will find that out and help it (since Kralky is kinda stronger than he should be) and in some kind of epic twist take care of restoring balance in that way. Either that or the human gods get their collective heads out of their nethers and come back to actually help turn the tide.

did you get that theory from stretch armstrong

I have a very simple theory, we are heading to charr homeland to use their big cannon against kralk. Some concept arts are already made concerning that big steam cannon:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/a/a2/Canon_concept_art.jpgHere I concede, it's a dredge one but can be adapted.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/c/c9/Charr_architecture_11_concept_art.jpg

https://wiki.guildwars.com/images/6/60/%22Siege_Engine%22_concept_art.jpg

remember that time charr made it rain giant crystals? that was fun.

but to get back on topic:

don't know about the theories, seem a bit far fetched