Living World Season 2 - Big plot hole or did I miss something?

[BadBobaRat.5367]

A bit after I replayed the story, I started thinking - Why hasn't the Pale Tree alerted either Trahearne/The Commander of Mordremoth's effect on Sylvari? 

 

In Caithe's memories, Wynne told us that she spoke to Mother Tree about her dream (Sylvari being creations of the Dragon), right? She also told Caithe, and asked her not to tell anyone. I suppose Caithe is forgiven, since Mordremoth already had somewhat of a grasp over her mind. But why hasn't the Pale Tree said it? Sure, she got injured - but she had the time to give us the vision, why not include this small detail in either the vision or a part of a conversation, since it's so important?

 

(just a little complaint, feel free to skip this part) I'm going to forget the fact that she hasn't told Trahearne a long time ago. We were shown that he holds onto the Ventaris Teachings so much that Faolain got frustrated and told him off for it. You're telling me the "wise" Pale Tree wouldn't tell her most dedicated son and the Marshall of the Pact about it? Right. 

 

So, did I miss something? Maybe I interpreted/remembered something wrong? I hate to think that ArenaNet used it as a cheap excuse to just somehow start Heart of Thorns with a boom. 

 

 

 

(Sorry if some of my writing doesn't make sense, english isn't my native language.)

 

[Rogue.8235]

The only thing I can think of is that the Pale Tree possesses mortal fallacy like everyone else, id est, she can make mistakes because she is not omniscient nor omnipotent. 

What I can gather is that she greatly fears how the Sylvari will react to such news, and how it would alter their behavior.  The Nightmare Court is bad enough.

However, in her attempts to keep the truth hidden it mistakenly led to the worst possible method for the Sylvari to find out, by experiencing it.

So that is demonstrable of short-sightedness and emotional decision-making.  It makes the Pale Tree less of a mystical figure and more of a regular mortal like everyone else.

 

Essentially, she screwed it up big time because she was acting on an emotion, despite Ventari's tablet reading "Act with wisdom, but act."

 

Other than that, yeah it's a big plot hole.

Anyone else got something?

 

[Fueki.4753]

It's likely that she feared the other races would shun, or even slaughter, the Sylvari once word gets out that they are minions of the Jungle Dragon.

[deatine.2498]

She was like "nah, it'll be fine". She was stupid. And she's a tree after all who knows what's going on in her mind. 

To be fair her "dream" successfully shielded the Sylari from Modremoths influence up until a certain point. Guess she just didn't foresee that it would fail so soon.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

just wait for HoT. It is just one big plot hole after another.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

On 11/13/2021 at 10:31 AM, BadBobaRat.5367 said:

A bit after I replayed the story, I started thinking - Why hasn't the Pale Tree alerted either Trahearne/The Commander of Mordremoth's effect on Sylvari?

Basically, the Pale Tree wanted to keep the truth of the sylvari as secretive as possible. Wynne and then Caithe differed to the Pale Tree on when they should share the info, but because the Shadow of the Dragon assaulted and rendered the Pale Tree unconscious during The World Summit, the Pale Tree could never make the revelation - Caithe was already MIA by the time she first woke up, and Trahearne was to busy.

Why she didn't decide to let others know and relay the message to Trahearne is unclear, but that would be a huge morale breaker if the origin of the sylvari was revealed just before the campaign began.

In addition, the Pale Tree likely didn't know that Mordremoth had an effect on sylvari - she might have been able to suspect such with information about Scarlet's and Aerin's insanity, but that was highly speculative until after the fact. Mordremoth had specifically waited until the Pale Tree was out of commission before it began whispering into the minds of sylvari via the Dream Wyld Hunt channels. And even then, from a player perspective, Mordremoth only showed the capability of influencing one sylvari at a time until the Season 2 finale.

And if the Pale Tree didn't know Mordremoth could influence thousands of sylvari at once, then what good would telling the Commander do other than incite fearmongering among the army poised to take out Mordremoth? Assuming she could even think properly in her bouts of total unconsciousness, she probably was hoping that the Pact could take out Mordremoth before the truth was revealed. Since, again, she would have no way of knowing that Mordremoth could influence thousands of sylvari at once.

So yeah, pretty obvious in hindsight. But in foresight, not so obvious.

Quote

(just a little complaint, feel free to skip this part) I'm going to forget the fact that she hasn't told Trahearne a long time ago. We were shown that he holds onto the Ventaris Teachings so much that Faolain got frustrated and told him off for it. You're telling me the "wise" Pale Tree wouldn't tell her most dedicated son and the Marshall of the Pact about it? Right. 

Actually, yes. Because Trahearne was busy trying to fulfill the Wyld Hunt and spent all his time studying Orr. He only became Pact Marshal and directly in charge of hundreds of lives only two years prior, during all this time he was very busy dealing with very unrelated-to-Mordremoth things.

And in addition, as @Fueki.4753 said, she feared the ostracizing or slaughter of the sylvari because "dragon minion bad", which would mean that she'd want to wait until the last reasonable moment to tell the truth.

It could very well be that she intended to hold Caithe, Trahearne, and the Commander back to make the revelation in secret after The World Summit so plans could be made accordingly, but Shadow of the Dragon happened.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[The Greyhawk.9107]

7 hours ago, deatine.2498 said:

She was like "nah, it'll be fine".

Drinker fan?

[Tiffany.8216]

17 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

It could very well be that she intended to hold Caithe, Trahearne, and the Commander back to make the revelation in secret after The World Summit so plans could be made accordingly, but Shadow of the Dragon happened.

Honestly I've always thought that's what she called the Commander back for.