Zola.6197

A new map set in Orr for a future story would be cool. Maybe Zhaitan’s corpse fell there (or was moved there for some reason, maybe by Unchained or sylvari/pact folks), and it’s called something along the lines of “Dragon’s Rest.” Could give us another look at Orr post-reclamation by the sylvari, and perhaps the devs could find an excuse for residual death magic to partially reanimate Zhaitan’s mindless body as a meta event? New content that gives us what we missed out on originally. I’m reaching, but it could tie into the Risen in Raisu Palace somehow.

I’m not a fan of Braham. Narratively, I felt there were no consequences for his choices in Champions, and I really disliked that we were forced to view his decision making in a positive light (and that the plan made any sense to begin with). He didn’t die though. I would like to take a nice long break from the character, but killing him off now would have no impact or purpose. I don’t want characters killed off because a vocal minority dislikes them. If they explore his PTSD down the line that might be interesting. I’d be absolutely fine with him essentially retiring moving forward. His Legend will be the most famous for millennia, I imagine. He could probably take on a shamanistic position due to his connection with the spirits, and remain in Hoelbrek/Shiverpeaks to guide his people.

These whiny threads are getting annoying. I wish there was an eye roll reaction. 🙄

“Please don’t take an LGBT+ defensive stance just because I don’t like seeing LGBT+ relationships.” How many games, shows, novels, movies, comics, etc have you enjoyed where there were only heterosexual relationships and no LGBT+ relationships. Did the imbalance bother you then?

I’m not here for cheap shock value deaths for the sake of artificially creating an emotional impact, or, you know, getting rid of the characters you personally don’t like. Moreover, the writers have killed major characters off in the past. They don’t need to cram in deaths for the sake of death. That would be horrible storytelling.

The single biggest lore mistake would be the Commander and friends killing off Jormag and Primordus in a Champions without providing any narrative justification for why we thought killing two dragons at once wouldn’t end the world. At no point did anyone question the repercussions of our actions. Even if Taimi’s theory has been disproven due to vague revelations at the conclusion of EoDs, we had no reason to believe we could kill two dragons without major consequences to the world at the time. Moreover, we had no reason to believe Aurene could balance The All alone. These concepts just weren’t set up. All the knowledge Dragon’s Watch had collected over the trials and errors of their campaign against the elder dragons was completely ignored to rush out an ending. And sure, we know the real world context of why Champions was messy. Doesn’t change the mistakes that were made. I don’t know why a few lines of dialogue could not be included somewhere in Champions to debunk what we had learned, to even propose the idea that we may have been wrong or that Aurene could handle The All without them. The Commander, Taimi, Aurene were all silent as we did the very thing we’d “learned” we weren’t supposed to do. They could have even included dialogue along the lines of “we might destroy the world, but if we don’t stop Jormag and Primordus they’ll destroy it anyway.” I don’t think any other lore/plot contradiction has been as egregious imo.

Yeah, it’s been a long time since I played the Asura personal story, but I remember her being fairly calculatingly aggro. Makes sense she’d want to be doing her science while busting heads in the field. It just depends on what role she could fill for the narrative team’s purposes. Since the cast rotates spotlight so much, I feel they could certainly make room for her by rotating a cast member out. With Braham and Rytlock on breaks atm, maybe there’s hope for her in the future. As of now I expect the members of DW that were in EoDs will be the focal characters in whatever story patches come next, plus the local Canthan characters. Not sure there’ll be much room for Zojja in the near future, but I think she’s a definite possibility to show up leading into expansion 4 depending on what it’s about. It’s just a matter of the devs planning a narrative reason for her return and committing, I imagine. Yeah, this idea has been on my mind too. She’s our lead in to whatever the next issue we’ll tackle post-EoDs era (including LW6). She discovered an early warning of some problem, and left to investigate herself. Hard to imagine she wouldn’t say anything, but I’m sure the writers could make it work. She felt like she was the only one who could solve this problem, or it stemmed from something very personal to her. Maybe she felt it too dangerous or delicate to involve others, maybe it’s a covert assignment by the Arcane Council. Could be plenty of reasons she’s gone off on her own, hypothetically.

You're putting a lot of effort into trying to sound intellectual when your entire message is pretty simple: women aren't leaders in real life, and so they shouldn't be leaders in stories. It is in fact true that women can be (and are) leaders in real life, and if there are fewer women in power in the real world, it is because of well documented efforts to oppress the rights and mobility of women throughout history that people have been fighting against for the past century in particular. You also inherently misunderstand what fantasy, or storytelling, primarily is. It is anything you want it to be. You can pick and choose which elements reflect real life. You can keep the realities from our world that serve the purposes of your story, and ditch the ones you don't want to incorporate. You can have a world where only women are in power, and you can still create a story that is meant as an allegory for the dangers of climate change. Every person in the story could be black. Maybe they're in space. Or whatever else you want to write about. There is no limit. You're running circles around yourself to mask the fact that you just don't like seeing women in positions of power. A lot of people in this thread are. "It's not realistic," and "it isn't good story telling because Aristotle" are terribly weak and fallacious arguments that expose what you're really saying. The truth of the matter is that there are plenty of realistic aspects that reflect the real world in GW2, and plenty of real world aspects the setting and story drop to achieve its storytelling goals as a fantasy franchise. You're just picking and choosing the aspects you do and don't like, and trying to play them off as some kind of intrinsic method for "good storytelling."

The Purists being genocidal racists is set up from GW1 by the devs of that era. There’s no “balanced approach” for that.

I agree the Balthazar stuff feels especially pointless in retrospect. I was never into the reveal that Lazarus was Balthazar in disguise, and that he had gone mad with vengeance and lost his care for humanity. I’d also like Lyssa and the remaining gods to be our allies, and I thought using the phrase “working with Lyssa” implied that Zojja was there willingly/under friendly terms being veiled by her. I was being facetious with the comment anyway since people like to attach Lyssa to everything. 😛 The last thing I want is an evil Lyssa that goes the route of Balthazar. I could probably live with it if she just hates the player character specifically for killing Balthazar as the Vision description implies, but even that’s… meh. I’m a little underwhelmed by the notion of Zojja retuning as a kidnapping victim, but it’d depend on the specifics of the story. Would be a good chance to bring Kuda back if it’s the inquest, but honestly the idea could tie into any faction that needs an asuran genius by force if necessary.

I felt as if the line was more the writers winking at players who are wondering about Zojja's status, as it has been a fairly hot topic since HoTs. Of course it could have a double meaning. Perhaps Zojja has disappeared. The notion of Zojja suffering some kind of brain damage was, essentially, gossip we heard in S3 by asuran NPCs. There's no actual evidence of that being true, but it is the only mention we've had about her status until Taimi's line at the beginning of EoDs. When she comes back (because I feel she will at some point, especially after Taimi's line) it will be interesting to see how the writers explain why we have been out of contact with her for so long, and why we (and everyone else we know) have not mentioned her in the years since HoTs (in and out of game). It's certainly an awkward conundrum that I hope we get sufficient answers for someday. If she's been in a coma all this time, why have we/others never mentioned it and/or visited her? If she's disappeared, why has that not come up? If one of our close allies really disappeared without a trace, I can't imagine we wouldn't care enough to investigate in the time since. All in all I'm excited at the prospect of her coming back, period. Maybe she's working with Lyssa, who has affected our memories of her. 😛 The only shred of information I can offer besides the little we do know is that there was a draft of S4E2 (A Bug in the System) where Zojja was kidnapped by the inquest, but they ultimately scrapped the draft because Taimi had just been kidnapped by Joko in S4E1. They were looking for an opportunity to bring her back, but they felt it too repetitive to make the cut back then. Here's to hoping they're still hunting for the chance to sufficiently reintroduce her.

I think it’s a compelling idea. They’re both important in a more… cosmic sense to Tyria, and both have origins stemming from the EDs. Could be a very cool conversation! Might be a good opportunity for this if we ever investigate what the Dream and Nightmare actually are, and would love a proper update on the Pale Tree since we’ve only heard about her once or twice since HoTs.

This is a nice idea, would definitely love to see that turned into an achievement. Good way to fit in some of the more superfluous-yet-character building aspects like Ottilia. Honestly would be interesting if they meet again in a future story after all this time. Braham has been through a lot, and I wonder how she’s fared too. Seconded, especially so on shoring up things in Icebrood Saga. My additions to the wildest fantasy list: reworked/new Zhaitan fight in the personal story (double as a strike?), and Marjory as a selectable companion for the final battle in Mordremoth’s mindscape! Let her avenge Belinda, dang-nabbit! Oh, and Snaff and Eir in Dragonfall??? Always been a bit sore they show up for a cameo earlier in S4 but then not for the final battle against Kralk. 😔

Definitely an exciting prospect! Looking forward to seeing where you and the team take things. 😊

The Ottilia cuts are unfortunate but an ultimately understandable aspect to put on the chopping block imo. Especially given the original dialogue was stretched over a few festivals it would’ve been awkward to force it into the episode as it exists. We’re in Crisis Mode, so stopping to chat with Braham’s love interest would’ve felt discordant with that. Cutting out all Southsun content is a pretty big bummer. Really do hope it can be worked in retroactively later because they do feel like important events that set up important characters, even if it’s not directly related to Scarlet. Edit: Plus I thought Canach could make an interesting strike boss. 😛 I’ll say though I’d rather have Southsun happen offscreen and lose out on minor, albeit interesting, dialogue like the exchanges with Ottilia, than not have a playable abridged version of S1 at all. Veterans may not be completely satisfied, but I think it’ll be healthy for the game overall and keep newer players more invested post-PS.

Did the dialogue between Braham and Ottilia make it into the patch? He did specify that she wasn’t interested in the celebration at the end, but I don’t think they included the scene itself anywhere. Or was that a blog post?

Does it really make sense for players to be directed to S1 when it’s not yet complete in game? No skin off my teeth either way, but that might just confused new players before the season rerelease is over.

This article from the other day really makes it sound like there will be no Southsun: https://gamerant.com/guild-wars-2-interview-living-world-season-1-modernization-challenges-joe-kimmes/ “Transforming this massive pile of events into a linear story was no simple endeavor, Kimmes explained, and Guild Wars 2 had to make cuts if it would make a coherent, containable story in the modern era of the MMO. Obviously, the Guild Wars 2 holiday events, such as Wintersday or the Super Adventure Box, were easy cuts from Scarlet's War, but other story arcs are being culled from the story as well. The Southsun Cove arc is one such casualty, as ArenaNet decided to focus on Scarlet Briar and her schemes first and foremost with the rerun of Living World Season 1. Unfortunately, this means characters introduced in that chapter, like Ellen Kiel and Canach, will have to be introduced elsewhere in the narrative.”

I really enjoyed the episode. It does feel a bit dated, but not terribly so. It was pieced together coherently and wow, we finally have a real introduction for Braham and Rox. New players will no longer be confused who the Dragon's Watch characters are when they reach season 2, because they'll have met everyone in season 1. I am pleased for that reason alone. Also found the achievements fun for the most part, and not too difficult to complete. Some of them helped flesh out the events of the episode nicely. Great work overall. Bobby Stein mentioned there would be some new elements in the s1 reintroduction to fill things out or make transitions more functional. I'm not sure how much was new in this episode, but there were several lore notes that mention Icebrood Saga characters like Crecia Stoneglow and Efram Greetsglory. That was interesting to see those seeds planted a little earlier. Makes those characters feel more cemented in the world/lore. I am curious how it would feel to finish the personal story and transition into this. Might be a little awkward? One thing I'm sad to hear though is that they're cutting a lot of content from the original season 1 and just focusing on the parts about Scarlet - all of the Southsun Cove content, for one. It's a great shame because I never got to play that section originally, and I was looking forward to doing it with this reintroduction. 😞

They also don't have the yellow interactable names, so you do have to hunt for them a bit. They're just white pieces of paper that will have a faint green outline when you mouse over them.

A novel about the early days of Tyria as the world was new before the EDs went mad would be neat. Show them devolving over time, maybe explore a few notable dragon cycles. Maybe it ends with Soo-Won going into the reactor? Edit: a novel focusing on Kuunavang’s life and other saltsprays sounds compelling to me.

I was really hoping we’d get a trailer yesterday too!

The blog post a few weeks ago that confirmed expansion 4 and S1’s return.

We have located the devs self insert character! 😉

Indigo is also the name of the dev who wrote most of the New Kaineng map, I believe.