[Q&A with the Narrative Team - Another broken promise?]

@AgentMoore.9453 said:Thanks for the update, Tom.

It may not seem like it, but informal, excited-opossum-screaming-aaaa posts from devs go a long way. People forget that you're employees working in a demanding industry, and remarks like yours are both informative and a good reminder that you're not ignoring the players so much as just working on stuff. Even if you can't tell us what that stuff is, just making noise on the forum at all is always a welcome sight and a tension breaker.

I hear that, and I appreciate the reminder. We’ll do our best to keep it in mind. Julia is great about noticing that and pointing it out to me, which is just one reason she’s awesome and I’m grateful we have her. I can’t imagine a better Narrative Lead for GW2, nor one more dedicated to keeping her finger on the pulse of what players are saying and feeling.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team - Another broken promise?]

FWIW, BTW, the reason we did the Q&A to begin with is that we knew it had been a little while since you’d heard from us and we wanted you to know that what might seem like radio silence from the outside was actually just us working like crazy to give you something awesome in what’s coming up. We’re truly excited about the direction the story is going. We think you will be too, when you hear about it on August 30.

We seriously love you guys and spend a lot of our days figuring out how best to knock your socks off. Hang tight; my remaining answers will be posted sometime this week, and, come August 30, much will be revealed about what’s on the way. Honestly, it’s killing us not to be able to share it with you yet. I mean, here I am posting from a ?; that’s how excited I am. :D

[Q&A with the Narrative Team - Another broken promise?]

Hey folks—Sorry about that. I wanted to answer some more questions before the 2nd but was busy with other pressing work stuff for GW2, and in fact I did write a few more answers over that weekend. The idea was that I would do so in a doc, then one of our fab Marketing folks would unlock the thread and allow me to post my answers...except what actually happened was that my week turned out to be crazy busy and I never had time to do it. However, the good news is, those answers are still coming. I’m out on vacation this week, but even in my absence, Julia’s gonna try to get them posted while I’m gone. Worst case, I’ll do it myself next weekend. Thanks for your patience!

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@"zealex.9410" said:A couple of questions:

1.What was the thought process behind having a "meaningful character deaths" panel after ep5 regarding the death aurene only to have her back in action in the first 5 minutes of ep6? Doesnt that kinda devalue the whole "meaningful" part? (not trying to be a kitten, just curious on the thought process)

2.Looking back at it would you have done smth regarding her death and revival differently?

And finally, the concept of her resurection for many ppl ended up not being quite the surprise some (maybe you guys and gals too) whould've hoped for. Alot of us found the implications of her eating Joko so clear that were expecting her to die past that point.

3.Do you believe it was the right call to make her imminent revival thanks to eating joko so clear for tho who paid attention to the story? Do you think that could've been handled differently? Maybe in a less apparent way?

Legitimate questions. I recommend you watch the Guild Chat Julia and I did in May after “War Eternal” was released. I addressed a lot of that in our discussion.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Incognito.3529 said:Do you guys ever think about returning Scarlet in any form (spirit, clone etc)? I kinda miss this character (mostly thanks to Tara Strong VA performance).

Speaking only for myself, I’ve thought about it. Haven’t come up with anything I really like yet, and, anyway, that whole area isn’t where we’re focused at the moment. But never say never.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@"Ayalet.4970" said:On the season 4 finale "War Eternal", Canach did not have a single word to say with everything that just happened or throughout all the episodes.

Did Canach had anything on his scripts in this episodes? Why did he had no interactions or nothing to say?

It was a very crowded episode, and we wanted to have as many characters involved in the battle, but inevitably had to focus on fewer than we might have liked. Epics are unwieldy beasts from a writing perspective.

Also since Aurene can talk on her own now will Caithe's branding/connection with Aurene come to any use on the future in the story? ( you can be vague )

That connection isn’t going away anytime soon (or maybe ever).

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Invidia.9074 said:In the fight against Kralkatorrik's Torment, we're fighting the manifestations of foreign magic inside him. Manifestation of Balthazar is named Facet of Fire and War, Zhaitan's is called Facet of Death and Shadow, however Mordremoth's manifestation (whose domains were called Plants and Mind in Living World Season 2) is called 'Facet of Roots and Madness'. Is there any bigger significance behind this change in naming, or is it simply an oversight/retcon? It would have actually interesting implications if Mordremoth's mind magic magnified Kralkatorrik's insanity to the point of developing split persona.

It would, wouldn’t it?

As Julia likes to say, we don’t do anything by accident.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@"Crystal Black.8190" said:

Why were Majory and Kasmeer not included in Story episodes of LS4?

Two big reasons:

1. We have VO budgets, which require line count caps, which place a practical limit on how much dialogue and, to a degree, how many characters we can feature in any given release. At this point we have so many significant characters that there’s no way we can have all of them around all the time. (Not that we didn’t try in “All or Nothing” and “War Eternal.”)

But maybe more importantly:

2. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do with Jory and Kas. They are the example I referred to in another answer of characters who’d been left in an awkward place—Kasmeer runs away while Balthazar is torturing Marjory, and then has a major episode of religious disillusionment when Kormir and the other gods “peace-out,” as Linsey likes to put it. Oh, and they’re engaged. Those were the facts on the ground coming out of Path Of Fire. And, while we love those characters and we know players love them too, the facts on the ground didn’t suggest easy or obvious directions to take them in.

So what does that mean for their future? We can’t give any solid details, but I can tell you we have spent quite some time discussing Kas and Jory. And I will tell you that we were indeed able to see a way forward with them, and that the secret to doing so turned out to be stopping thinking about them as a couple, a unit (Marjomeer?), as important as their couple-ness is for lots of reasons, and starting to think about them first as individuals. Only once we feel like we really know who they are as individual human beings can we then start talking about them as a couple who are in love with each other—because the reality of relationships is that just being in love guarantees nothing. People are people, we are all flawed and complicated, and simply treating Marjory and Kasmeer as some sort of poster couple doesn’t do justice to them as human beings and doesn’t do justice to the truth and reality of same-sex relationships (or any other kind, for that matter). And it’s very important to us to do justice to all that.

So. It’s taken us some time. We now know where we want to go with Kas and Jory. More to come.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Shadowmoon.7986 said:Will Blish be gone for good? It seems his remains could be recovered, he is attached to tracking device. We also saw that Snarf's golem was only partially branded in glints lair. He could also be revived as shown in episode 3, where he was disconnected and reconnected to the golem network. This seems like the only loose end not resolved at the end of LS4. It seems there were a ton of clues showing he could be brought back, similar to how lich magic was used with another character.

I don’t see a flaw in any of that reasoning, FWIW.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@MakubeC.3026 said:Regarding a bit of the future:With the Dragon menace mostly controlled by the end of last season, should we expect the narrative moving away from Elder Dragons or is that something you still want to pursue in other ways?

When we were beginning Season 4 planning just as I joined the company in February of 2017, I asked Mo what, in his opinion, the story of Guil Wars 2 was about, in as few words as possible. His response: “Dragons.”

By my count there are still four Elder Dragons on Tyria. Draw your own conclusions. ;-)

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@"Windrider.3718" said:when did you all know you were going to go for the "dragons are also victims of magic" bombshell plot point? the writing has been on the wall since S3Ep1 (the bloodstone crazed white mantle and Pact soldiers), so what made you all decide that S4Ep6 was the right time? was it back in S3, or in S4 and you all decided to pay off on the other stuff?

Actually, Bobby is the only non-Editing/VO person on the team who was around during S3 planning, so I can’t say what the folks who worked on that season had in mind. What I can say is that, in the earliest discussions for what we’ll be introducing at the event at the Moore Theater on August 30—and, when I say earliest discussions, this is over a year ago—we realized that, before we could decide where the story was going, we had to answer a whole category of questions that I refer to as “cosmology” questions. Things like, what exactly is magic in our universe? What’s the relationship of Elder Dragons (and of other creatures) to that magic? Etc. Like you, when we looked at what the player-facing lore on those topics was, it suggested that, assuming one wasn’t prepared to simply accept Elder Dragons as naturally evil and destructive beings (which we weren’t; as I’ve mentioned in my answer to someone else’s question, we were pivoting to seeing them as people so we could make use of them as characters, and characters need to be emotionally comprehensible)...it suggested that something might be making them act as if they were. Like you said, dragons eat magic, so...the answer seemed pretty obviously to lie in that direction.

At this point in the story (meaning following the events of “War Eternal”), we know that Kralkatorrik had been driven mad, to the point of his mind fracturing into two warring personalities, and the implication is obviously that that was at least one factor in his long history of destructive fury. We also know that he had absorbed the magics of Zhaitan and Mordremoth upon their deaths and the death of Balthazar, and we also know that Aurene had absorbed much of the same, both in the egg and after she hatched. What exactly the effect of all those magics was on Kralkatorrik, and what it, plus his own magic, will be on Aurene, especially now that she has Ascended, are questions yet to be answered.

I think it’s safe to speculate, though, that Aurene herself, and those who love her, are probably going to want to find those answers. ;-)

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@"Arden.7480" said:Caithe's Branding was quite an interesting thing to see, and I wonder how the Pale Tree and other Sylvari will react to her being... different.

I wish to ask if there will be any consequences of this situation in the future, but I will impatiently wait for Season 5 :)

What actually made you to put Caithe in such a big spotlight?Was it because you wanted to let her leave her shadows? Or maybe connect the Sylvari (the Dream) with Aurene?

I thought about the Pale Tree vision from Season 2 instantly when I witnessed the Crystal Bloom cinematic. And I thought that it was the Pale Tree that made us realize how important the Egg aka Aurene was...

When Kralkatorrik said "Mother"... Did he call the Mother Tree?

Gosh Season 4 made me ask so many questions, and I thank you for that.

I also like how Aurene talked to Kralk and the Commander - She calls them by who they are, she is so transparent, so... prismatic.

Grandfather. Look at me!

I cannot explain what's about to happen, Champion...

Champion...

So much empathy... I always knew Kralkatorrik was different.

The Forgotten's ritual worked, but only on his Heart, Glint was too blind to notice, and Aurene noticed that instantly.

There are things about the Ascension that can only be expressed between Dragons... She said.

Heart to Heart.

I want to share it with you. All of you.

Gosh... every word you choose for Aurene to say was spot on, no other words would be more perfect.

Thank you for tears and laughs this Season, Guys.

First, thank you for the very kind words. We’re very touched that those Aurene lines moved you.

Taking your two big questions (for which we have answers we can share):

RE Kralkatorrik, we confirmed in our Guild Chat in May that he does indeed say the word “Mother...” as he’s dying. Whom he’s referring to is as yet unclear.

RE Caithe and why we put a spotlight on her, we made a decision as we were planning Season 4 that, given our approach is highly character-based, we wanted to pick a character or two who, there seemed to be a player consensus, had been last left in a place, arc-wise, that people weren’t particularly satisfied with. (Or, in one case, that WE weren’t satisfied with.) We felt Braham and Caithe were great examples and so set about figuring out how to move their arcs forward. In Caithe’s case, she didn’t really fit easily into the first three episodes (the Joko arc), but, as Aurene and her role as Glint’s Scion moved center-stage in “A Star to Guide Us,” that seemed a perfect moment to bring Caithe back into the story. As we discussed her long history with Aurene, even in the egg stage, it occurred to us that Caithe and the Commander were, in a sense, like Aurene’s foster mother and father (regardless of gender), and that Caithe would feel drawn to help Aurene confront the legacy Glint had left her. (We also kind of loved the idea that, at some point after eating Joko in “Long Live the Lich,” teen Aurene might have gotten mad at the Commander and flown off to cool off with Caithe, like a teenager whose parents are divorced might get mad at one parent and take off for the other’s house for the weekend. :D ) It also gave us the opportunity in “All or Nothing” to have Aurene repay that maternal love by choosing Caithe to bind with her even more intimately, be Branded by her and be the voice Aurene did not yet possess. And, of course, that led to the Crystal Bloom and all that came with it, as you noted.

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Arden.7480 said:

@Tom Abernathy.5893

I really love your collaboration with VA team (and every other), but Eve Eschenbacher and you put together in one livestream is just the best thing ever.Just saying. :)

I appreciate that. :-) Eve has sadly (for us) now moved on to Bethesda (as the world’s biggest Fallout fan, it’s pretty much like she’s gone to Valhalla) and we miss her terribly, even as we’re happy for her. Definitely a fun person to do Guild Chat with. :D

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Edelweiss.4261 said:I'm not sure if this can be answered, but here goes. Back toward the beginning of GW2's life, I remember reading that the Elder Dragons were supposed to be more along the lines of forces of nature(and thus incomprehensible to mortals). With Mordremoth and Kralk, it feels like there was a shift away from this concept as both have very human aspects(pride and fear/familial love respectively). Was this intended from the start or did the plan change somewhere along the way?

The way we’re currently thinking of it is that, pre-Aurene, mortals understandably perceived Elder Dragons in the way you mention, thinking of them as forces of nature—but that our principal characters inevitably have seen Aurene as a person (if you follow the distinction I’m making), as well as Glint, Vlast, and even, most recently, Kralkatorrik. As a result, they’re re-examining some of their long-held assumptions. For example, all Tyrians used to refer to an Elder Dragon as “it”; as they get more visibility into the inner life of Elder Dragons, some Tyrians are coming to refer to them with gendered pronouns where appropriate.

(In all candor, treating the EDs as people rather than impersonal forces also allows us to therefore use them as actual characters in our storytelling. A hurricane doesn’t have motivation or reason or emotion or a soul; a character does, and is thus a kitten of a lot more useful from a storytelling perspective.)

[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

@Randulf.7614 said:Can you discuss how the team has changed since the beginning in terms of who does what, structure etc. Its clear the vision for the story has changed a lot, either season by season or at times episode by episode.

Yeah, there’s no question evolution occurs as a result of normal staff turnover; not counting Editing and VO, there’s only person on our team who has been here longer than three years. But evolution would happen even with the same writers who worked on the Personal Story and Season 1. And frankly we enjoy the freedom such an elastic IP gives us to do different things. “A Bug in the System,” for example, starts out as an Ocean’s 11-style heist movie and then takes a left turn into Cronenbergian body horror once you discover what’s really going on in Rata Primus. It’s a lot of fun to have that broad a stylistic palette to work with.

As far as team structure, currently we have four writer/narrative designers (and are recruiting for a fifth) working on GW2. The GW2 Narrative Lead, Julia, runs the narrative side of the dev process and is supported by Armand, our Writer/Narrative Designer at Large (which means he’s a craft coach who’s not on one specific project) and VO Lead; Bobby, the Associate Narrative Director; and me (Studio Narrative Director). We all collaborate closely with the Content Leads and designers during story breaking and episode breaking, and production, as well as Cinematics, Audio, Art, and Localization.