23 replies to this topic

[CriticKitten]

Reina Takayama, on 07 November 2013 - 09:53 AM, said:

Southsun has karka because of the Sea Dragon xD

Yeah, and....that's it.  That's the entire extent of the dragons' influence in the storyline.

It's like saying that SAB is directly tied to the dragons because Primordus forced the asuran race up from the depths and sparked the creation of Rata Sum, where the SAB resides.  Yes, you'd be technically correct, but that's not what we'd call a "direct link" by any stretch of the imagination.

So that sorta proves my point: neither Southsun nor the SAB are directly connected to the dragons, and both are (generally speaking) vastly superior stories.

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-the rest-

The problem is that they started out their "TV series" with episode 1 talking about how important the dragons are, and then every episode since then has completely ignored the dragons and focused on this entirely different person who, regardless of what anyone might say, is still a much smaller threat than any one of the dragons.

You can say that she has far reaching implications and ties to lore and that they're dropping subtle hints, and I'm not going to doubt that she might.  What I'm telling you is that we haven't seen any of that so far.  All she's actually done so far is ally a bunch of people who should never have been allies, gotten her butt whooped, and escaped with a quick "I'll get you next time, Gadget" line at the end.  There has been no substance, no explanation of her character in-game, no revelations or motivations implied, nothing.  ANet has executed the Living Story so poorly to this point that, when people see Scarlet in a release, they don't go "oh great, it's Scarlet, I can't wait to see what she has in store!", they go "oh great, it's Scarlet, I think I just might skip this release and wait for the next one".

The way they're writing the story right now, Scarlet feels very much like a "filler arc" in a given anime or TV show.  She's a convenient distraction to keep us busy for an extended period while they try to decide how to implement the rest of the dragons.  That's the best explanation for her releases being so hollow and generally lackluster: because the "big guns" are busy elsewhere with bigger projects.  The only other explanation is that she really is supposed to be a big deal, in which case ANet's entire writing staff is horrendously incompetent.  If she is meant to have more significance than just presenting us with new Villains of the Month, then they need to actually give her some.  Add in some details about her, have her show a different side of herself once in a while, give her a fricking character beyond "female Joker".  Because right now, when most folks see her face on a release, they don't get excited.  And that's a sign that the writers have failed to tell her story in a way that interests people.

[Reina Takayama]

CriticKitten, on 07 November 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

The only other explanation is that she really is supposed to be a big deal, in which case ANet's entire writing staff is horrendously incompetent.  If she is meant to have more significance than just presenting us with new Villains of the Month, then they need to actually give her some.  Add in some details about her, have her show a different side of herself once in a while, give her a fricking character beyond "female Joker".  Because right now, when most folks see her face on a release, they don't get excited.  And that's a sign that the writers have failed to tell her story in a way that interests people.

Completely agree, I think their writing staff is incompetent. Perhaps they do have extensive lore and back story in mind but they aren't executing it at all. Or perhaps the lore / writing folk aren't even communicating with their game developers and the game developer just kinda implements whatever... Of course, there's still the chance Scarlet has no real meaning, i just prefer not to think of it that way, til they really crush hopes but if it's at that point, they better have something else to offer right after

[Gatita]

Just glossing some of the recent posts, but it truly sounds like they wanted Scarlet to be an interesting villain. There was a forum post (which I found linked via reddit, so sorry I don't have a link) that stated they have a lot they want to do with Scarlet, but the way the LS has been so far causes their ideas to come out disjointed and the bigged picture is lost. Supposedly there will be big things planned with some of these upcoming LSs which are supposed to flesh Scarlet out.

Now, I myself would like to hope they can redeem her in the sense they can blend the story better and it all becomes clear with the big finale (whenever that is), but... I won't be holding my breath. We've had... how many LS updates? They've all been pretty bleh at telling the story.

[CriticKitten]

I'd love for Scarlet to be an interesting villain.  But she's just not, right now.

All she is, at the moment, is a female Joker with Twilight Sparkle's vocal chords.