(SPOILER) Hypothetical Line-Ups for the Kralk Fight

[Dante.1763]

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@Dante.1763 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@Dante.1763 said:on top of that im really tired of villians from the first game coming back, i want new villians.

Well congrats, they're all dead and they died pitifully and in ways that was far beneath their worth at that.

I guess thats true, depends on what you thought they were worth to begin with, only one i wasnt very happy with was Lazarus.

TBH, Menzies got the shortest stick. He apparently kicked the bucket off-screen, despite being a major villain in GW1 that never got revealed. But Dhuum also had a rather pathetic display. Joko was... okay, but IMO he deserved more. And Balthazar just shouldn't have been a villain at all (S3 and PoF would have made much more sense if it was Menzies we were fighting).

Wasnt aware Menzies was even mentioned in this game, never been able to do W5 so never will know what really happened to Dhuum(thank you anet for putting story behind stuff like raids /s.), I was for sure happy with the Joko ending, i was hoping he woulda died inbetween GW1 and 2 anyways, so when i found out he was going to be in this game i just groaned and when he died i was very happy, Balthazar pissed me off a little, but his ending, and how he was treated wasnt overly bad(wasnt great) i want to know who replaced him as the god of war though, thats the only thing that makes me annoyed now.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@"Dante.1763" said:Wasnt aware Menzies was even mentioned in this game, never been able to do W5 so never will know what really happened to Dhuum(thank you anet for putting story behind stuff like raids /s.), I was for sure happy with the Joko ending, i was hoping he woulda died inbetween GW1 and 2 anyways, so when i found out he was going to be in this game i just groaned and when he died i was very happy, Balthazar pissed me off a little, but his ending, and how he was treated wasnt overly bad(wasnt great) i want to know who replaced him as the god of war though, thats the only thing that makes me annoyed now.

Menzies isn't explicitly mentioned, but some of the lore surrounding the Herald of Balthazar aka Devona mentions that the Eternal Battle (aka the fight against Menzies) had ended sometime after her death. Since Menzies' goal was usurping Balthazar, unless the Six Gods pulled the dumbest move ever and allowed one of their greatest rivals to become the new god of war, that would mean Menzies was killed. Add on the fact that the devs stated in an AMA that one of the reasons Balthazar wanted to fight the Elder Dragons so badly was due to the lack of "a good fight" in ages, would indicate that Menzies was killed before Balthazar's revolt.

Can't really agree with the rest you said about Joko and Balthazar.

[Dante.1763]

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Dante.1763" said:Wasnt aware Menzies was even mentioned in this game, never been able to do W5 so never will know what really happened to Dhuum(thank you anet for putting story behind stuff like raids /s.), I was for sure happy with the Joko ending, i was hoping he woulda died inbetween GW1 and 2 anyways, so when i found out he was going to be in this game i just groaned and when he died i was very happy, Balthazar pissed me off a little, but his ending, and how he was treated wasnt overly bad(wasnt great) i want to know who replaced him as the god of war though, thats the only thing that makes me annoyed now.

Menzies isn't explicitly mentioned, but some of the lore surrounding the Herald of Balthazar aka Devona mentions that the Eternal Battle (aka the fight against Menzies) had ended sometime after her death. Since Menzies' goal was usurping Balthazar, unless the Six Gods pulled the dumbest move ever and allowed one of their greatest rivals to become the new god of war, that would mean Menzies was killed. Add on the fact that the devs stated in an AMA that one of the reasons Balthazar wanted to fight the Elder Dragons so badly was due to the lack of "a good fight" in ages, would indicate that Menzies was killed before Balthazar's revolt.

Can't really agree with the rest you said about Joko and Balthazar.

Huh, i never got the connection that the Herald was Devona, makes sense now that you mention it though, and the rest of what you said makes sense so ill run with it, though i do highly doubt theyd turn Menzies into the new god of war would be to idiotic.

Im not really surprised you cant, i know quite a few people who dont, so i usually dont say anything.

[Balor.8432]

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:Menzies isn't explicitly mentioned, but some of the lore surrounding the Herald of Balthazar aka Devona mentions that the Eternal Battle (aka the fight against Menzies) had ended sometime after her death. Since Menzies' goal was usurping Balthazar, unless the Six Gods pulled the dumbest move ever and allowed one of their greatest rivals to become the new god of war, that would mean Menzies was killed. Add on the fact that the devs stated in an AMA that one of the reasons Balthazar wanted to fight the Elder Dragons so badly was due to the lack of "a good fight" in ages, would indicate that Menzies was killed before Balthazar's revolt.

Can't really agree with the rest you said about Joko and Balthazar.

Do we have a ball park when Devona died? It seems like 50 years after GW1 a lot of things happen.

[Kossage.9072]

Given how Zojja was intended to appear in S4Ep2 as a damsel in distress before the rewrites, how Logan was mentioned in Ep4 ambient dialogue and how we saw some heavy references to Edge of Destiny lately, I hope it means we'll see a reunion of Destiny's Edge for one last hurrah as they aid us in the fight against Kralkatorrik alongside other allies from Tyria and the Mists. Not only would it be nice for Zojja to meet with Snaff but also for Logan to see Snaff and Glint as well as Aurene (so he can apologize to the two ghosts for not being there when they needed him, and to Aurene for losing her mom). Thanks to all the spirit shenanigans, it'd be nice to see Vlast return so we can have a proper dragon family reunion with him, Glint, Aurene and Kralky. It would be nice to hear Kralky actually speak, even if just for one or two lines, just to point out that he's not a force of nature but an intelligent, manipulative, selfish being as suggested in game and in the Edge of Destiny novel. ;)

After Sandswept Isles introduced us to the intriguing villain Kuda (who is possibly the daughter of Kudu who in turn was both Zojja's archenemy and Snaff's first apprentice), I wonder if we'll see more Inquest involvement in S4 or if that's left until later. The fact that Kuda was continuing Kudu's research on controlled dragon minions (notably the crosscorrupted Subject Beta who was the successor of Subject Alpha, the notable enemy from Crucible of Eternity), it would be nice if part of the solution to the Kralky dilemma would be taking control over Branded or other dragon minions with Kuda and the late Brie's research (the latter being notable for subjugating Risen with specific devices as seen in Arah dungeon's mursaat path) to sic them on Kralky.

Caithe's appearance in Ep4 might also lead to further solutions to dealing with Kralk, especially if the writers refer to the plot hook from the end of Edge of Destiny where she was shown gathering dragon blood from the Crystal Desert and searching for the secrets of the Elder Dragons. Just imagine her figuring out how to use these drops of blood as powerstones to try have someone mentally wrestle with Kralkatorrik as Snaff did:

Caithe walked along the Dragonbrand—the wide swath of destruction laid down by Kralkatorrik. Every once in a while, she would bend down and pull a large green crystal from the sands.
“Dragon blood,” she said, staring gladly at one such stone before sliding it into her pack.
It was lonely work, wandering these desolate places, searching for the secrets of Kralkatorrik and the Elder Dragons. But it was even lonelier when she traveled to Hoelbrak or Rata Sum or Divinity’s Reach or the Black Citadel only to find that her onetime friends had become strangers.
But they would be friends again. Someday, they would join her. Someday, they would fight the dragons again.
Someday.

A cool concept for the final battle would be us confronting Kralky in the Hall of Heroes in the center of the Rift (which itself is the center of the Mists and acts as a gateway to pretty much everything there is in the Mists, including the multiverse itself assuming that Ree Soesbee and Jeff Grubb's statements from GW2 China release about there being multiple alternate Tyrias in wvw's Mist War for resources to combat their own reality's Elder Dragons is still canonical). Based on Ree and Jeff's answer, all alternate Tyrias follow the same timeline with the same important NPCs (the only unique beings per Tyrian realm are player characters for unknown reasons), so by this point Kralkatorrik Prime and its alternate counterparts (from at least two alt Tyrias as seen in wvw; originally there were as many Tyrias as there were servers for wvw, but this explanation might change once the wvw alliance update goes live) should have entered their specific corner of the Mists by now. If all the Kralkatorriks find themselves headed for the Hall of Heroes (i.e. the very center of the multiverse from which they could spread their corruption wherever they want in the space/time continuum), theoretically they should become aware of one another's existence (and that there are multiple Tyrias, gods and other realms to consume in the multiverse).

The somewhat destroyed Hall of Heroes already exists in GW2.dat as datamined by that_shaman (seen on Gw2wiki) but was scrapped during PoF development due to not having enough meaningful content for it according to Linsey Murdock (originally it was just a hub from which we would've accessed Kormir's Sanctum), so introducing it as a notable story instance would give the devs a reason to reimplement it in a new way (if they want to add some Branded crystal effects there). Imagine us entering the now darkened Hall of Heroes and witnessing some crystalline effects which show us glimpses of other Tyrias' Kralkatorriks flocking there as well while these alternate realms' Pact Commanders fight their respective Kralks. It would be great to actually hear lines from multiple player characters there for added creepy effect (so if I e.g. enter the instance as a male sylvari, I could hear female sylvari and male/female asura, charr, human and norn echoing from the other side to hammer the point home that we're not in Kansas anymore). If Kralk's gonna go out, let him go out with a boom by introducing folks to wvw lore in a big way with the multiverse reveal. :)

Aside from seeing Mai Trin and Aetherblades return to finally give us an answer what exactly Scarlet sent her to the Mists for (and why she didn't return to aid Scarlet in the Battle for Lion's Arch), I would hope to see more past allies and villains appear, and us convincing them to join forces with us because Kralk threatens all reality and thus by extension them. This way we could see Alastia Crow's ominous words from human personal story's Kellach arc chapter "Speaker of the Dead" act as nice foreshadowing: "I know of you, Hero. Many of your foes walk now in the Mists. They speak of you with hatred and fear. Beware, lest you join them." Since those slain in the physical realm eventually end up in the Mists, it would be cool to reluctantly team up with e.g. the ghosts of Scarlet Briar, Kudu, Caudecus Beetlestone, Gaheron Baelfire and Lazarus even when we can't be sure if they try to backstab us later. Even better if we got some sort of bittersweet reconciliation scene between Scarlet and Omadd (the mentor she murdered; I wonder if Omadd would forgive Scarlet once he learned how Mordremoth kinda made her attack him) and perhaps see Taimi interacting with both of them for the circle to be complete (given how she was introduced in S1 as a Scarlet fangirl and used Omadd's machine to help us in later seasons).

I would expect at least one or more notable deaths to take place before the end and for Blish's sacrifice to be final to emphasize the cost of war. Would Glint sacrifice her spirit to help defeat Kralk for good, or will anyone else fall prey to the Crystal Elder Dragon? Whatever ends up happening, I hope the writers give Kralkatorrik his due as a menace and characterize him as a malicious individual. He might be the most vile out of all the Elder Dragons given his history and he has such a crucial part in the building of GW2 story that he needs his time to shine and leave a big impact regardless of how his story ends. ;)

[perilisk.1874]

Hmm... wouldn't multiple Kraalkatoriks want to kill each other to become the true, final Kraalkatorik? Though obviously the last one standing would be taken out by Jet Li.

[ErickDntn.1847]

I predict something along this line as well, especially after Eir, Snaff, and Caithe's appearance in eps 4. I think DE being together again might be used as a pivotal point in having a better outcome in Aurene's foresight. As others said, it will allow DE to finally close their book and disband for good this time, thus allowing Dragon's Watch to assume their place as a symbol of united races in Tyria.