Vlast (PoF Spoilers)

[Malignant.6581]

I'm curious, what's your opinion on how this character was dealt with in PoF?

https://youtu.be/rEyxUTd9E3E

[Squee.7829]

I think it was fine. We don't have to know and witness every detail of every character in the gw universe. Vlast was always a background character. An optional challenge in gw1 and a few mentions are not things that really endear us to a character. As much as I hate Livia and her cliche personality, I can see why people were upset with how she was so casually reintroduced and tossed aside. She was a pretty big part of the lore. But Vlast never was. At least not important to anything that directly pertained to us players before PoF. Ï

[Fenom.9457]

> @Squee.7829 said:

> I think it was fine. We don't have to know and witness every detail of every character in the gw universe. Vlast was always a background character. An optional challenge in gw1 and a few mentions are not things that really endear us to a character. As much as I hate Livia and her cliche personality, I can see why people were upset with how she was so casually reintroduced and tossed aside. She was a pretty big part of the lore. But Vlast never was. At least not important to anything that directly pertained to us players before PoF. Ï

 

You covered it pretty well, I only really have one thing to add. Doot. That is all.

[Tamias.7059]

The fact that the character was introduced as Gleam in LWS2 (and we were told that we'd probably never meet him) suggests that added to the story relatively late. The fact that a detailed character model, animations, etc. were created for him suggest that he was removed from the story relatively late. He's another symptom of ANet's inability to come up with a plan and stick with it, and the story suffers for it.

 

Personally, I'd have not bothered with the storyline about Glint's egg or Aurene at all, and just run this same storyline about the balance of magic with Vlast instead (this storyline fundamentally _is_ necessary, as it's a logical consequence of dragons absorbing magic, as set up in the personal storyline - just not with Aurene). I've nothing against Aurene as a character, but it seems wasteful to spend two Living World seasons and an expansion setting up a character who is very similar to an already established character (who has GW1 nostalgia points to boot). Especially when, in the end, that meant that there wasn't room to explore all the story about the Nightmare Court, Malyck etc. that ANet had been setting up since GW2 release. All of that has gone to waste now.

[Danikat.8537]

I'm disappointed we didn't get to see more of him, because I like dragons so more allied dragons are definitely a good thing in my book.

 

But I think it's better for the storyline this way. Otherwise he'd most likely have fought with us against Balthazar and our character would probably have been relegated to a secondary role in the fight, something players have really hated when it's happened before and Aurene would be relegated to pretty much being the 'back-up dragon' kept safe in Tarir and not allowed to do anything until she's much older (aka when our characters are long gone) and/or something happens to Vlast.

 

It would have been interesting to see Vlast and Aurene together however. I'm not sure they'd actually get along, but it would be interesting. And maybe trying to get Vlast to help us find a way to communicate with Kralkatorrik and the other elder dragons so we can try and sort out this whole them destroying Tyria and killing us vs. us destroying Tyria by killing them situation.

[Torolan.5816]

I am pretty sad about the development of Vlast. I am not really a fan of what if storylines, and I hate to see the good side fail spectacularly like they did with Vlast. It is probably a bit weird, but I can´t shake the feeling that our hero from GW1 could have been the hero the Exalted were waiting for to be the Champion of Vlast. Add to this how the last exalted teacher of him died and his depressing messages and you have a pretty sad picture of a failed last ditch effort to save the world. Joko and Balthazar win again(at this point at least) and trample on the last remains of this effort.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

While I do feel there could have been more, I get what ArenaNet was trying to do and I actually appreciate it. Vlast was meant to be a character of sorrow not necessarily sympathy. We only get to care about his death in hindsight after learning of his past and how constrained his life was. ArenaNet wanted to make him a character of "missed opportunities" intentionally and they succeeded. Whether you agree with them doing that or not, you cannot say they didn't hit their mark this time - unlike all the other character deaths which were meant to simply be emotional because they're character deaths happening in front of us (cue Orr Campaign death #472).

 

I feel that Vlast was actually done well. It is weird that they had a unique model for him that we didn't really get to see, and I'm curious as to why his crystals were gold as opposed to blue like Glint's and Aurene's. But they definitely portrayed the idea of a sorrowful life that he led, and the notion of missed opportunities in our character's failure to save him. It also makes his sacrifice so much more painful in hindsight when we learn he suffered from depression and was actually suicidal himself, only keeping living because he felt obligated by duty brought upon him by being Glint's child.

 

Vlast was, simply put, a character who's death was meant to be sorrowful not as it happened, but after the fact. And I feel they hit that nail on the head.

 

One of the few characters written well in Path of Fire, IMHO.

[Ardid.7203]

The general idea of Vlast and his predicament was very good. However, knowing a character only through written, indirect data is not satisfactory. It is a good technique, but is only that: a gimmick. Sacrificing a proper presentation of the character, avoiding a real encounter between our commander and the old, bitter, yet still heroic dragon... that was a gigantic waste of narrative resources. Just one brief but good interaction between the commander and Vlast could have made PoF extremely superior as a story. It would also have made us feel Vlast death much, much more.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Honestly, I feel the opposite. If they had us interact with him once or twice and still killed him during PoF, it would have felt no different than the deaths of Demmi, Eir, Tonn, or most of the Orr campaign deaths. We wouldn't get to know them enough to care, and it would just be even more of a gimmick because it'd be a repeat of the same old writing style.

 

Without even a word exchanged before Vlast's death, then only learning about him in hindsight, changes the narrative of the death a lot.

 

There are, simply put, too many deaths in Guild Wars to make them truly meaningful. Other than trying to repeat what happened with the mentors, any character death wouldn't be truly impactful. Not without a full expansion and LW season without *any* major ally deaths.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

I really liked this part of the PoF story

Everybody : Hey do you know Vlast ?

Hero : no...

Everybody : The guardian of Tyria, of Elon for centuries, the son of Glint, he is incredible , you need to meet him

Hero : Oh yes he's h . . . well . . . he's dead.

"THE END"

[Ardid.7203]

I also don't get the name change. Was it really necessary? What was the purpose for that?

[Dashiva.6149]

Oddly enough I liked what they did with Vlast as a character. It certainly perked my interest when I first heard of him in PoF and felt regret when he died and listening to his memories that we didn't get to know him better.

And his death _was_ a suprise to me, I was totally expecting there to be some interaction or dialogue with him through the story of PoF. What better way to stand up to a renegade God than having a somewhat adult dragon by your side?

 

A gimmick for sure, but a well executed one IMO.

[draxynnic.3719]

> @Ardid.7203 said:

> I also don't get the name change. Was it really necessary? What was the purpose for that?

 

The name "Gleam" was pretty much always presented as a name that had been given by people who didn't know the scion's real name. Vlast is that real name.

[Metricos.5617]

Local dragon has clinical depression, then gets murdered.

 

Leave Vlast alone. He's been through enough.

[Valkyrie.1794]

Shortly after Aurene hatched I started doing research on Glint's first scion. At the time there wasn't much, but I loved the idea of another potential "ally" in the form of a dragon, especially one that would likely be "old" enough to engage in combat before our characters died of old age. My biggest hope for PoF or future story was more lore, or even interaction with him. When we first found out about his existence I literally gasped. I know that sounds dramatic, but I was so excited to finally have another link to Glint. I couldn't wait to meet his character, and then to have him die so suddenly was an emotional kick in the teeth. But that lack of interaction, and the personal hype I had built up over the past year or so caused me to listen closely to every crystal he left behind. I wanted more, but I fully understood why anet chose the path they did for him. The scarcity of the lore made me hang on every word of dialogue that was given about him.

 

Overall I was left wanting more, but I'm not mad about it. I was legitimately sad when he sacrificed himself for my character, and I fully felt his "lost potential".

[zealex.9410]

What i teraction with had with him through the story i find to be the best parts of the pof campaign imo. We never interacted with him and yet we know more about him that he would even be comfortable sharing with us.

[Ronin.7381]

Whole lot of build up and lore about him for such a cruddy reward with what we got out of it, tbh.

[Tamias.7059]

So, in Daybreak we have Aurene as an almost Vlast-sized dragon, once again suggesting that it would have been much more economical to have just used Vlast the whole time. We could have spent the time we spent on Glint's egg in LWS3 and HoT exploring things that players actually care about, like Malyck and the Nightmare Court; mysteries that ANet carefully spent time setting up but now we'll probably never get to explore because HoT was so poorly scoped.

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

Actually, getting up on the pillar next to her during the first instance, I'd be shocked if Aurene was half the size of Vlast yet. She's not much larger than our griffon.

[Tamias.7059]

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> Actually, getting up on the pillar next to her during the first instance, I'd be shocked if Aurene was half the size of Vlast yet. She's not much larger than our griffon.

 

I think the main reason for that is because (hopefully) we'll get to use Aurene as a mount at some point, with griffon controls.