Holy kitten, thank you Anet team for a great story this episode! (Spoilers!)

[Chasind.3128]

The story made me feel like an errand boy

It made me realize that my teammates are morons and once again, your efforts are pointless bc youre taking on the role of supporting character.

[Gambino.2109]

Honestly.. it did feel like your team we're not hitting it off as well as they could have

[Teratus.2859]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > I don't think Aurene is gone for good though, simply too many key factors say otherwise.

> > >

> > > There are crystal spikes driven through her body. Are you kidding me? ;)

> >

> > Whats your point. Its a magical world.

>

> There are still rules to this world, and Aurene is DEAD. Do you want her to return as a zombie (Zhaitan magic) or Lich (Palawa Joko)?

 

Death is a funny thing in this game.

 

Yeah I suspect that Aurine is very much dead dead at this point.

She can't come back the same way we did and she can't revive herself like Joko either.

 

But since Kralkatorrik is essentially invincible now that she's gone we are going to need her back and I expect Kralkatorrik himself will be responsible for doing this.

Anet has put a fair bit of focus on Kralkatorrik having Zhaitan magic.. there is even dialogue during the fight of him using it.

My guess is that Kralkatorrik who has eliminated the threat of Aurine and suffered severe damage from the recent battle will seek to recover from his wounds and since he's also lacking a champion (that we killed in Jahai) he will take advantage of Aurines corpse.. branding it from death and reviving her under his control.

Season 6 prediction then involves seeking out the forgotten and learning how they broke Glint free from her corruption in the past so that we can replicate the process on Aurine regaining our most powerful ally and our only viabile solution to killing Kralkatorrik.

His influence will likely empower her as well making her bigger and stronger and once freed she will have even more power to use against him the next time we face off.

 

[Katastroff.1045]

Cant wait till the next fight with Godzilla. =)

[Sevifor.1925]

> @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> Sure but just because you or I might meta-think that one through, doesn't justify what our characters do. There is no indication of our character and the alliance around them having that discussion. So we learned we shouldn't kill anymore dragons and then we go out to kill another one just the same. Without a reason in the story to change our mind on that, the plan was just to go out and kill another dragon and that's a pretty daft thing to do.

 

We've had that conversation, though. I cannot for the life of me remeber exactly when, but it was around the time when Aurene gobbled up part of Balthazar's magic. We destroyed the spear because letting the dragon magic run wild would, according to Taimi, destroy Tyria. Later, it is discussed that Aurene could take Kralkatorrik's magic into herself and thus he could be killed safely. Its the only reason we **are** trying to kill Kralk. Ill see if i cant pin down exactly when it happened, but i know its in there.

 

 

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> Cant wait till the next fight with Godzilla. =)

 

Yes!! More poking its eye! (LOL) =)

 

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> But since Kralkatorrik is essentially invincible now that she's gone we are going to need her back and I expect Kralkatorrik himself will be responsible for doing this.

 

Well, what would be the point then to our benefit? An undead Aurene under Kralkatorrik's control won't be of any use to us nor would she be able to replace him (as we would need a living dragon for that, or else Glint could have returned from the Mists to do the job ;) ).

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > I don't think Aurene is gone for good though, simply too many key factors say otherwise.

> > >

> > > There are crystal spikes driven through her body. Are you kidding me? ;)

> >

> > Whats your point. Its a magical world.

>

> There are still rules to this world, and Aurene is DEAD. Do you want her to return as a zombie (Zhaitan magic) or Lich (Palawa Joko)?

>

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"phs.6089" said:

> > > What happened with magic Aurine suppose to let out if she is gone, I wonder?

> >

> > See this guy gets it :+1: :# ;)

>

> Their question about the energy that has LEFT Aurene's body when she died was completely unrelated to your funny claims.

>

Your way of thinking is rather closed minded if i do say so. It has EVERYTHING to do with the whole point of why we cant and shouldn't go willy nilly killing anymore elder dragons. Because they release tons of magic on death. The fact that we didnt directly see this happen with Aurene leaves the possibility open that she will in some way be brought back to some one who is rather observant to the actions of past events in the game.

Vlast was not an elder dragon and died and on death exploded releasing the magical energy that was within his body while leaving no trace of his body other than Crystals scattered all over.

We know that Aurene was strong and had quite a bit of magical energy built up inside her in fact this whole time she has been getting stronger so why... ON HER DEATH would she not share a similar result to every other dragon of power and relevance we have seen thus far.

 

Im sorry but its completely related to my so called "Funny claims"

 

 

[perilisk.1874]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> How could Ascension bring her back? It is not a ritual to revive the dead, now is it? At least I don't remember it as that from GW1. ;)

 

I seriously doubt it's the direction they'll go, but one of the trials involved fighting a doppelganger of yourself. So, if she could perform Ascension magic, she could maybe have done a bait and switch to fool Kraalkatorik. I doubt it, though.

 

Alternatively, with no gods, and with her having god essence now, maybe we need her in the Mists to start enabling mortals to ascend again. Maybe "Ascension" is the weapon that enables mortals to do the work of dragons, though that doesn't make much sense -- Balthazar wouldn't need it, or would already have access, or something.

 

Another possibility is that Glint gave her the equivalent of the blessing Kormir received, but it just primed her for becoming a god/dragon/whatever. Actually triggering the change then required eating a massive burst of living energy point-blank, and only her spirit actually transformed. Though, you would expect her body to be vaporized in that case.

 

It could be the Joko thing though -- some people don't like it, but it would make a more coherent story out of the season, since the first three episodes would be as critical for the conclusion as the last two. There were out-of-game hints that Arenanet planned for Aurene to become undead at some point, IIRC.

 

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"perilisk.1874" said:

> It could be the Joko thing though -- some people don't like it, but it would make a more coherent story out of the season, since the first three episodes would be as critical for the conclusion as the last two. There were out-of-game hints that Arenanet planned for Aurene to become undead at some point, IIRC.

 

Really? For that to work, she would have needed to be dead already (but she died as a living being with no precautions being taken to resurrect her) _and_ have someone to resurrect her. Also, her body would have needed to be intact and not mangled like that (even an undead needs some physical basics to function properly ;) ).

 

If _that_ is what they have planned for an upcoming plot line, I will go berserk, because I am so tired of dragon-related crap as main plot. I thought we would be done with it soon and move on to something more inspiring, but no such luck. :/

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > > I don't think Aurene is gone for good though, simply too many key factors say otherwise.

> > > >

> > > > There are crystal spikes driven through her body. Are you kidding me? ;)

> > >

> > > Whats your point. Its a magical world.

> >

> > There are still rules to this world, and Aurene is DEAD. Do you want her to return as a zombie (Zhaitan magic) or Lich (Palawa Joko)?

>

> Death is a funny thing in this game.

>

> Yeah I suspect that Aurine is very much dead dead at this point.

> She can't come back the same way we did and she can't revive herself like Joko either.

>

> But since Kralkatorrik is essentially invincible now that she's gone we are going to need her back and I expect Kralkatorrik himself will be responsible for doing this.

> Anet has put a fair bit of focus on Kralkatorrik having Zhaitan magic.. there is even dialogue during the fight of him using it.

> My guess is that Kralkatorrik who has eliminated the threat of Aurine and suffered severe damage from the recent battle will seek to recover from his wounds and since he's also lacking a champion (that we killed in Jahai) he will take advantage of Aurines corpse.. branding it from death and reviving her under his control.

> Season 6 prediction then involves seeking out the forgotten and learning how they broke Glint free from her corruption in the past so that we can replicate the process on Aurine regaining our most powerful ally and our only viabile solution to killing Kralkatorrik.

> His influence will likely empower her as well making her bigger and stronger and once freed she will have even more power to use against him the next time we face off.

>

 

This is a very possible idea and there is still the idea of Cathie too. She has always been a bit of a shady character and its possible that she still knows something that she may be keeping hidden from us. The bond she shared with Aurene appeared to be fading but we will have to wait and see if she fully returns to her normal self completely in the next bit before we can assume to much.

 

To be honest I though that she was going to die to considering that kind of connection she shared with Aurene but she didn't.

After the final trails Aurene was taken away from the player and clearly shown something during the same moment that we were being told about a world without Kralkatorrik. Its possible that Aurene already knew she would die and was just now brave enough to face it regardless of if she is DEAD DEAD or only kinda dead she will for sure make a return to us that I have very little doubt in.

 

While i don't think we will be able to find any forgotten (considering most of them are.... all puns aside forgotten) aka dead or branded its not likely thats the solution. Glint mentioned something about having to be there for her and endure with her (2 things of which did not really come off strongly in the final fight or though the chapter outside of that trial) so while i think your ideal is a total possibility in regards to having to cleanse a death branded version of her. I don't think the forgotten will be an option we have.

 

There is also the possibility that Kralk has no reason to brand Aurene either. He could have just rebranded Glint when he went for her but didn't and just killed her instead. In truth we dont know what Kralk is going to do thats part of what makes him such a good character in the plot of it all. If he is thoughtful he might not want to risk the same mistake again as he did with Glint and knowing that it means he wont want to brand her why not just leave her dead dead. If he did that he technically already won.

 

The story open to a lot of things right now but i think going in hopes of saving the world without an Aurene is highly unlikely. ;)

[perilisk.1874]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"perilisk.1874" said:

> > It could be the Joko thing though -- some people don't like it, but it would make a more coherent story out of the season, since the first three episodes would be as critical for the conclusion as the last two. There were out-of-game hints that Arenanet planned for Aurene to become undead at some point, IIRC.

>

> Really? For that to work, she would have needed to be dead already (but she died as a living being, so...) _and_ have someone to resurrect her. If _that_ is what they planned for an upcoming plot line, I will go berserk, because I am so tired of dragon-related kitten as main plot. I thought we would be done with it soon and move on to something more inspiring, but no such luck. ;)

 

She didn't eat an Awakened, she ate Joko, who could self-resurrect. The rumors of her mortality could be drastically... overstated. We've never seen ordinary necromancy do what Joko could do (endlessly create fully sapient thralls and self-revive). I suspect he somehow got his hands on divine magic, though I doubt they'll bother explaining it. But we have seen that when dragons consume divine and draconic magics, they retain much of their original nature, rather than being converted into the dragon's own magic. Anyway, there's a chance that the Awakening magic is still functional inside Aurene, much like Zafirah can sense Balthazar's presence.

 

Plus, with the Awakened, there's a whole "undead are people too" thing going on all season to soften the blow of our dragon being awakened. Not like crystal rots anyway... Aurene's magic combined with Joko's is more like transfiguration than undeath.

 

And they put an Awakened sylvari in the last instance to establish that dragon minions can be Awakened -- this is probably not just coincidence.

[Zagerus.8675]

I agree. Little hard to find words right now but.. I've never went so fast from feeling like a Hero who's helping to answer the call of destiny to.. well. Best patch ever (again.)

[coso.9173]

this was really awesome to be honest. i have been moved by gw2 just a few times, and this is one of them. congratulations! it was really shocking and sad ending, but awesome.

Also, is it me or when kralkatorric fires his beam at us in the final battle, we can see mordremoth, baltazaar and... bubbles? i wasn't able to see correctly, what was that that appeared next to him?

[Teratus.2859]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> > Cant wait till the next fight with Godzilla. =)

>

> Yes!! More poking its eye! (LOL) =)

>

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > But since Kralkatorrik is essentially invincible now that she's gone we are going to need her back and I expect Kralkatorrik himself will be responsible for doing this.

>

> Well, what would be the point then to our benefit? An undead Aurene under Kralkatorrik's control won't be of any use to us nor would she be able to replace him (as we would need a living dragon for that, or else Glint could have returned from the Mists to do the job ;) ).

 

She wouldn't be dead technically.. Branded isn't undeath it's something else.. we typically just say corrupted.

Glint was Kralkatorriks original champion and she was freed from his corruption.. if branded was undeath then Glint would have been regarded as an undead being.

[Teratus.2859]

> @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > > > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > > > > I don't think Aurene is gone for good though, simply too many key factors say otherwise.

> > > > >

> > > > > There are crystal spikes driven through her body. Are you kidding me? ;)

> > > >

> > > > Whats your point. Its a magical world.

> > >

> > > There are still rules to this world, and Aurene is DEAD. Do you want her to return as a zombie (Zhaitan magic) or Lich (Palawa Joko)?

> >

> > Death is a funny thing in this game.

> >

> > Yeah I suspect that Aurine is very much dead dead at this point.

> > She can't come back the same way we did and she can't revive herself like Joko either.

> >

> > But since Kralkatorrik is essentially invincible now that she's gone we are going to need her back and I expect Kralkatorrik himself will be responsible for doing this.

> > Anet has put a fair bit of focus on Kralkatorrik having Zhaitan magic.. there is even dialogue during the fight of him using it.

> > My guess is that Kralkatorrik who has eliminated the threat of Aurine and suffered severe damage from the recent battle will seek to recover from his wounds and since he's also lacking a champion (that we killed in Jahai) he will take advantage of Aurines corpse.. branding it from death and reviving her under his control.

> > Season 6 prediction then involves seeking out the forgotten and learning how they broke Glint free from her corruption in the past so that we can replicate the process on Aurine regaining our most powerful ally and our only viabile solution to killing Kralkatorrik.

> > His influence will likely empower her as well making her bigger and stronger and once freed she will have even more power to use against him the next time we face off.

> >

>

> While i don't think we will be able to find any forgotten (considering most of them are.... all puns aside forgotten) aka dead or branded its not likely thats the solution. Glint mentioned something about having to be there for her and endure with her (2 things of which did not really come off strongly in the final fight or though the chapter outside of that trial) so while i think your ideal is a total possibility in regards to having to cleanse a death branded version of her. I don't think the forgotten will be an option we have.

>

Well we still know of them.. the Forgotten were involved in Path of Fire as we saw and learned a little but no living members of the race have been seen in the game.

We thought the Mursaat were all gone too and yet one returned and was impersonated.

If I am right about Aurine being revivebranded then the Forgotten are the only ones with the knowledge on how to free her and it would be cool to go and track them down to learn how.

I've long wanted to see them again in this franchise ^^

The only living members would likely be in the mists and we've kinda made a habit of going there for answers lately.

 

> There is also the possibility that Kralk has no reason to brand Aurene either. He could have just rebranded Glint when he went for her but didn't and just killed her instead. In truth we dont know what Kralk is going to do thats part of what makes him such a good character in the plot of it all. If he is thoughtful he might not want to risk the same mistake again as he did with Glint and knowing that it means he wont want to brand her why not just leave her dead dead. If he did that he technically already won.

>

> The story open to a lot of things right now but i think going in hopes of saving the world without an Aurene is highly unlikely. ;)

 

He might not have had the chance to rebrand Glint.. she didn't oppose him alone and I think she actually sacrificed herself during that battle and at the time Kralkatorrik did not possess the ability to brand the dead.

He may have had a new champion Shatterer at that point as well.

Kralkatorrik has recently lost his Death Branded Shatterer Champion and we've seen no other dragons under his control.. a few wyverns but no dragons.

It's possible that he may brand Aurine because he lacks a champion right now and she is far more powerful than anything else in his army and it may be easier for him to brand her corpse than revive the Shatterer again.. plus Shatterer has proven to be a failure against the moral races on two different occasions.

 

Aurine was Kralks biggest threat but in his weakened state he may fear we could take advantage and finish him off.. after all Aurine didn't do all this damage to him on her own.

I don't know if Kralkatorrik knows that his death would end the world without a replacement but his fear of a world without him tends to hint that he is not aware of this and thus does not know that without a replacement we cannot kill him.

That fear could be the reason he seeks a new champion to protect him while he recovers from his wounds.. that could be why he may brand Aurine.

More so if he thinks that the ritual used to free Glint has been lost to time and that the only race who knew how to perform it have gone extinct.

[Gehenna.3625]

> @"Sevifor.1925" said:

> > @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> > Sure but just because you or I might meta-think that one through, doesn't justify what our characters do. There is no indication of our character and the alliance around them having that discussion. So we learned we shouldn't kill anymore dragons and then we go out to kill another one just the same. Without a reason in the story to change our mind on that, the plan was just to go out and kill another dragon and that's a pretty daft thing to do.

>

> We've had that conversation, though. I cannot for the life of me remeber exactly when, but it was around the time when Aurene gobbled up part of Balthazar's magic. We destroyed the spear because letting the dragon magic run wild would, according to Taimi, destroy Tyria. Later, it is discussed that Aurene could take Kralkatorrik's magic into herself and thus he could be killed safely. Its the only reason we **are** trying to kill Kralk. Ill see if i cant pin down exactly when it happened, but i know its in there.

>

>

 

Ahh well if that happened then I missed that. I will admit that sometimes I drift off because some conversations seem to go on forever, but if that's the case that would explain it for sure.

[sorudo.9054]

congrats, for ones in my GW2 times i am in awe.

the sheer details gone into the zone is stunning, the story is really good and it finally made me cry from the inside when i saw aurene impaled.


 

[Falan.1839]

The cinemats were good, but the fights were just boring as hell. I actually managed myself to get stuck on the way to the final fight and ended up in the wall. I was still occasionally hit there, but kept getting out of combat, meanwhile Aurene fought Kralkatorrik without me and actually without taking damage. So eventually she did the whole fight without me while I was deperately trying to get myself killed to get out of the fucking wall. Quite the underwhelming experience, and frankly in line with the fights before. Like, killing a few trash mobs close to the pillar with 3 extra buffs? Really?

[Zola.6197]

I legit cried. That ending was TRAUMATIZING (in the best way possible). Not much gets me emotional, but just the seer storytelling with the walk of doom opening on the exact pose of Aurene's death that we foresaw in her vision.

 

ADSLKFJNadsflkjnSA DFLKJ BHSDFVLKAJS CNVLKJ ALKSJNFKSL;DJVN ALSKFJNVA;LSKFNVM'ALDKSVMF;s

[Clyan.1593]

> @"Chasind.3128" said:

> The story made me feel like an errand boy

> It made me realize that my teammates are morons and once again, your efforts are pointless bc youre taking on the role of supporting character.

 

Oh boy, here we go again. In what sense are you a supporting character? You are that anyway, no matter what. Every hero is in support of anything.

 

[chopsaki.3021]

that was awesome

I was in shock, numb. What that can't be right

I am the hero, I need to get to that shield spell, maybe I needed to jump down that hole

I was just standing in the wrong place, it was rushed things happened to fast, I was not ready.

then I go to that dark place in my child hood and hear Vader's voice "I am your father"

 

my daughter was sitting next to me she has this angry-hurt look on her face, intense eyes boring into me

and she was looking at me like it was my fault

I begin to think maybe it is my fault am I somehow future Kralkatorrik, did I want this to happen

i no longer feel sad but start feeling rather guilty.

how does she know? How does she know?

no....no that has to be way too dark.

almost in tears she demanded that "I do it again again, and do it right this time!"

thankfully she stormed off after that.

 

[Talindra.4958]

> @"Okami Amaterasu.9237" said:

> Holy Kitten Kitten, thank you ArenaNet for another amazing episode! I’ve been waiting a long, long time to see in the story when

our plans eventually backfire and we fail so incredibly, enormously disastrously just right after promising that everything will be alright. Having Kralkatorrik withstand our assault and then break through Aurene’s defense of us and end up impaling and killing her with Brand was so marvelous and absolutely fantastic! Not only was the shot of Kralk slithering away creepy and ominous, but the whole “slow, uh oh what just happened walk” in the branded destruction with Taimi's? eerie cries echoing in the background really built up the suspense towards that moment and I absolutely loved it. I suppose my only nitpick this time would be the first instance and how it was a little slow, especially with just crystalline sound effects and no actual music, but oh well. If what we get in return are more cutscenes and story development like what we had here, then I really, really don’t care about the little things like that. This was well worth the wait, and I can't wait to see what happens next! Please don't resurrect her, please, thank you.

 

>

> Once again, I absolutely loved the story. The map is very, very pretty and I loved the verticality to parts of it, reminding me of Verdant Brink in parts and Frostgorge Sound in others. It felt Dwarven, which is something we've needed ever since Lornar's Pass and Dredgehaunt Cliffs. And with the episode's ending, I have no idea where we'll go next, but at least we got out of the desert this time!

 

This sound sarcastic... The whole thing was like a big joke. I dont like any of the story. There's so many ways to end this.. they have picked the easiest.

[Talindra.4958]

> @"chopsaki.3021" said:

> that was awesome

> I was in shock, numb. What that can't be right

> I am the hero, I need to get to that shield spell, maybe I needed to jump down that hole

> I was just standing in the wrong place, it was rushed things happened to fast, I was not ready.

> then I go to that dark place in my child hood and hear Vader's voice "I am your father"

>

> my daughter was sitting next to me she has this angry-hurt look on her face, intense eyes boring into me

> and she was looking at me like it was my fault

> I begin to think maybe it is my fault am I somehow future Kralkatorrik, did I want this to happen

> i no longer feel sad but start feeling rather guilty.

> how does she know? How does she know?

> no....no that has to be way too dark.

> almost in tears she demanded that "I do it again again, and do it right this time!"

> thankfully she stormed off after that.

>

 

I had my 8yo daughter, myself and my hub doing the story together.. no one say anything at the end. We just walk away from the computer and I said to all time to sleep let's go.. silly game silly story...

[ProtoGunner.4953]

It really seem that a great amount of gw2 players never played high quality story telling single player games like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy or God of War. This is nothing special, I really don't get the hype. It wasn't bad for an MMO though.

[Okami Amaterasu.9237]

> @"Talindra.4958" said:

> This sound sarcastic... The whole thing was like a big joke. I dont like any of the story. There's so many ways to end this.. they have picked the easiest.

 

You would have preferred if we had killed Kralkatorrik right then and there? When he had just consumed Even More Magic after Balthazar's death by going into the Mists and consuming that magic there? What a way to diffuse any Weight behind the story if we could just kill him so easily the very first try after "he's even more powerful now!".

 

The whole Destiny's Edge team (except Logan who had a date with Jenna) along with Glint herself (who was far more experienced than Aurene) couldn't defeat Kralkatorrik when he was just the Crystal Dragon. Now he is the Crystal + Plant/Mind + Death/Shadow + Balthazar (Bloodstone, Primordus, Jormag, Mists) + more Mists - Dragon. You think we can beat him with just most of Dragon's Watch (where are you Marjory and Kasmeer?), the allies we've gained since Path of Fire and LWS4 (which amounts to about the same number of people as the Pact before they launched their fleet into Verdant Brink and still lost, against Just the Jungle Dragon), and an adolescent, inexperienced Aurene? Aurene even had a vision of all of the futures where she faces Kralkatorrik right now and she Died in every single one of them. We rushed it.

 

Do you think after all of that if we had won it would have been a better story?

Do you think if we had lost but had no actual consequences for losing, it'd be a better story?

 

Personally, I'm really satisfied with this ending as it leaves us confused, saddened, and now even more vengeful against Kralkatorrik, whom we still have to deal with before he ultimately Brands over Tyria. I'm excited to see how Aurene's death affects everyone, how it affects their perception of us and our judgement, and how we're going to manage to bring everyone together again to fight Kralkatorrik once more, but killing him For Good this time. Also, we need to see his whole body. Until we see his whole body, I'll think we're gonna lose in that fight. Anyway, time to explore more of the new map, so see y'all there!