[Spoilers] About Aurene

[Bast.7253]

> @"Alimar.8760" said:

> > @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > I hope they don't bring her back. It would ruin so much of the emotion. This episode added a sense of boldness and fragility that I haven't felt in awhile in this game, and now I'm actually interested in the writing again. I think if this is the real end for Aurene, we'll see a lot of players appreciating Path of Fire more and playing through the living story content again just to spend some more time with our special little scion.

>

> It will really depend on how they handle the next few episodes. If they immediately bring her back (In my opinion) make it feel like this episode was filler because 'Why kill her if you're just going to bring her back in 3 months?' Character deaths should be used sparingly and if it is used, bringing people back should be even more sparingly. Mostly because you remove the emotional risk of death if characters have obviously perceived plot armor. Again, it really depends on how it's handled. Personally I want her to come back, but I wouldn't mind if it's a year from now so that we truly believe she is dead before bringing her back.

 

So if she comes back next episode then this episode is somehow deemed a cheesy filler and a waste of time? Why?

 

Honestly, with all this constant talk about how bringing her back next episode would be cheesy writing and make this episode pointless, I'd rather them just end living story all together. Obviously everyone is an expert writer, so why even bother trying?

 

I mean, who cares if the past three years of raising this baby dragon, forming a bond, defeating countless enemies and episodes upon episodes of priming her for a prophecy is undone, it's her resurrection and the events that happened in one episode that really matters!

 

Yeah, it's probably better that they write her out of the plot all together. That way we can find something else to solve all of our problems and with absolutely no story introduction at all! We'll just magically have a solution or start a new quest to find said object that gives us a solution to our problems... that just decided to reveal itself out of nowhere and manage to be left out of years of planning of aforementioned prophecy! Great idea! F that Aurene deus-ex-dragon that solved all of our problems for us! It's so bold and great and grand that they had the courage to write her out of the story because she was a dead end weak plot device anyway! Let's introduce Jojo from a pocket universe in the mists, that has this super awesome staff that you can use to just bind elder dragons to your will! Or, hey, wait, there's another dragon in Cantha everyone forgot about! They're clearly the right dragon to defeat Kralk. Let's just devote one quick season to that dragon though. And hey, it's the second time we've tried this but it should surely work this time right..because we already pulled the "Bold story decision - kill this character even though we've killed countless main characters off already-lever".

 

 

I genuinely want to hear what some of these expert writers think is a good next step for the coming season or the resolution to the current plot. Because any deviation from the "prophecy" that we've been following for the past few years is going to take significantly more explanation, planning, and make far less sense than Aurene simply being not dead due to consuming Joko's magic - and given that Joko's death was a sign within this prophecy, I really don't see why people think that it's so far-fetched to have her remain the resolution. Oh, that's right, because everyone is an excellent writer and has this edgelord desire to see the writers kill off characters to make the story "darker." Because having an estranged son watching his mother get impaled, or a former lover turned monster chase their partner, or a brother's soul being trapped inside of a robot and said robot sacrificing themselves for what could be eternity just to give their brother a mere CHANCE at succeeding isn't dark enough? Or I don't know, Aurene's entire family being killed already anyway.

 

It's just ridiculous. Ridiculous that people seem to think there's another direction they can go with the story if Aurene stays dead, or because of Aurene's death, that makes anymore sense or is a better resolution to the current plot that wouldn't take an equal amount of time (years) to be worth our current journey. Your best case if Aurene did die is that she goes to the mists and somehow helps us from there. But then she's serving the exact same role that Glint has served this entire time and what is the point then? To give us visions to guide us somewhere that for some reason Glint, her much older and more knowledgable mother didn't seem to be privy to?

 

 

It's ridiculous that people just assume that Aurene is going to be this be-all end-all solution if she becomes an Elder Dragon and that she had to die just because she's helped us out thus far. When in reality, the reason she's helped us thus far is to lead her to the point that she could become the Elder Dragon - and then she's no longer our sidekick that swoops in and saves us, she has other responsibilities, like using her newfound power to fix the current brand. She won't have time to follow us around everywhere and help us everytime we need it.

[flog.3485]

> @"Alimar.8760" said:

> > @"flog.3485" said:

> > I would say this about Aurene:

> >

> > It is not because Aurene died that her magic is gone. And her magic still lives through Caithe because she absorbed the magic of Palawa Joko imo.

> > Caithe might have lost her connection with Aurene but it the end she still became a minion of Aurene.

>

> Well when Zhaitan died it didn't mean the undead weren't still infesting ore. All it did was open up a way for others to cleanse the undead or re-purpose them. Same thing with Mordremoth. Minions don't just die if their master dies.

 

True I just wanted to point out that whether Aurene is alive or Caithe being a receptacle of Aurene, we might still be able to balance out magic no matter what.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > @"Alimar.8760" said:

> > > @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > > I hope they don't bring her back. It would ruin so much of the emotion. This episode added a sense of boldness and fragility that I haven't felt in awhile in this game, and now I'm actually interested in the writing again. I think if this is the real end for Aurene, we'll see a lot of players appreciating Path of Fire more and playing through the living story content again just to spend some more time with our special little scion.

> >

> > It will really depend on how they handle the next few episodes. If they immediately bring her back (In my opinion) make it feel like this episode was filler because 'Why kill her if you're just going to bring her back in 3 months?' Character deaths should be used sparingly and if it is used, bringing people back should be even more sparingly. Mostly because you remove the emotional risk of death if characters have obviously perceived plot armor. Again, it really depends on how it's handled. Personally I want her to come back, but I wouldn't mind if it's a year from now so that we truly believe she is dead before bringing her back.

>

> So if she comes back next episode then this episode is somehow deemed a cheesy filler and a waste of time? Why?

>

> Honestly, with all this constant talk about how bringing her back next episode would be cheesy writing and make this episode pointless, I'd rather them just end living story all together. Obviously everyone is an expert writer, so why even bother trying?

 

Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

 

In my opinion, the best time to bring her back is Season 5, episode 2 or 3. That gives us a couple episodes to grieve, deal with fallout of the failure, start to scrap together a new plan that nobody believes will work (as key pieces to exploit Kralkatorrik's weakness are now gone), and start toward Asencion ourselves in Season 5 (this seems to be getting hinted at).

 

Then, a couple episodes into Season 5, we get some real hope again.

[perilisk.1874]

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

> Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

 

I think it really depends on whether her death was a genuine failure that we have to fix, in which case turning it around so quickly does feel cheap, or whether it was all part of the plan the whole time, in which case there's no point to dragging the return out unnecessarily. e.g., if she knows she has Joko's immortality and getting turned into a pincushion is NBD, then it feels worse and arbitrary to leave us hanging for longer. The 3 month gap is already a long time to wait.

 

[Bast.7253]

 

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > @"Alimar.8760" said:

> > > > @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > > > I hope they don't bring her back. It would ruin so much of the emotion. This episode added a sense of boldness and fragility that I haven't felt in awhile in this game, and now I'm actually interested in the writing again. I think if this is the real end for Aurene, we'll see a lot of players appreciating Path of Fire more and playing through the living story content again just to spend some more time with our special little scion.

> > >

> > > It will really depend on how they handle the next few episodes. If they immediately bring her back (In my opinion) make it feel like this episode was filler because 'Why kill her if you're just going to bring her back in 3 months?' Character deaths should be used sparingly and if it is used, bringing people back should be even more sparingly. Mostly because you remove the emotional risk of death if characters have obviously perceived plot armor. Again, it really depends on how it's handled. Personally I want her to come back, but I wouldn't mind if it's a year from now so that we truly believe she is dead before bringing her back.

> >

> > So if she comes back next episode then this episode is somehow deemed a cheesy filler and a waste of time? Why?

> >

> > Honestly, with all this constant talk about how bringing her back next episode would be cheesy writing and make this episode pointless, I'd rather them just end living story all together. Obviously everyone is an expert writer, so why even bother trying?

>

> Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

>

> In my opinion, the best time to bring her back is Season 5, episode 2 or 3. That gives us a couple episodes to grieve, deal with fallout of the failure, start to scrap together a new plan that nobody believes will work (as key pieces to exploit Kralkatorrik's weakness are now gone), and start toward Asencion ourselves in Season 5 (this seems to be getting hinted at).

>

> Then, a couple episodes into Season 5, we get some real hope again.

 

 

If someone loses their child in the supermarket for 10 minutes and then finds them again it doesn’t cause them to unfeel that 10 minutes they spent worrying about whether their child was coming back. They still learn the valuable lesson of keeping a better eye on their children and gain more appreciation for their child in general. So I still don’t see the logic behind implying her resurrection would negate her death completely.

 

[TheGrimm.5624]

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

 

> Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

>

> In my opinion, the best time to bring her back is Season 5, episode 2 or 3. That gives us a couple episodes to grieve, deal with fallout of the failure, start to scrap together a new plan that nobody believes will work (as key pieces to exploit Kralkatorrik's weakness are now gone), and start toward Asencion ourselves in Season 5 (this seems to be getting hinted at).

>

> Then, a couple episodes into Season 5, we get some real hope again.

 

Seeing it the same way. Last eposide of this sesaon is building on that we failed bit, which is setup for the next season. Next season is us recovering and getting Aurene back. That leads us to the next expansion which is Kralk focussed, us keyed up and looking for payback, and finishing the fight with Kralk in the expansion. Classic writing technique, tear them down, give them a reason to go on, letem fight, have sammiches. No they gave us too many paths out already between all the energy absorbtions, ascensions, god/liche devouring and forsight of future events. Plus remember Bath's follower clueing us in that she could feel Bath when she encountered Aurene. Hence those energies weren't just consummed and disposed of, they remain a part of the Aurene. Not to mention the whole passing in and out of the spirit realm. But it was a great ending even if it left some of my guildmates mad. Shows that it was impactful when people get mad at story instances. At least IMO.

[Bast.7253]

> @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> > @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

>

> > Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

> >

> > In my opinion, the best time to bring her back is Season 5, episode 2 or 3. That gives us a couple episodes to grieve, deal with fallout of the failure, start to scrap together a new plan that nobody believes will work (as key pieces to exploit Kralkatorrik's weakness are now gone), and start toward Asencion ourselves in Season 5 (this seems to be getting hinted at).

> >

> > Then, a couple episodes into Season 5, we get some real hope again.

>

> Seeing it the same way. Last eposide of this sesaon is building on that we failed bit, which is setup for the next season. Next season is us recovering and getting Aurene back. That leads us to the next expansion which is Kralk focussed, us keyed up and looking for payback, and finishing the fight with Kralk in the expansion. Classic writing technique, tear them down, give them a reason to go on, letem fight, have sammiches. No they gave us too many paths out already between all the energy absorbtions, ascensions, god/liche devouring and forsight of future events. Plus remember Bath's follower clueing us in that she could feel Bath when she encountered Aurene. Hence those energies weren't just consummed and disposed of, they remain a part of the Aurene. Not to mention the whole passing in and out of the spirit realm. But it was a great ending even if it left some of my guildmates mad. Shows that it was impactful when people get mad at story instances. At least IMO.

 

 

Oh joy, dragging Kralk out for another living season AND an expansion. Didn’t they say Kralk was being resolved this season? I remember them saying something about Kralk and Joko.

 

I really don’t see them dragging Kralk out for a full season AND an expansion. I’d rather him be finished next episode seeing as he’s already on the verge of death anyway. Would be a little anticlimactic to just give him a full season and an expansion to recover from this encounter, especially when the only reason we rushed this attack is because Glint said that Kralk is doing too much damage to the mists. What then during this season and expansion? He just keeps roaming around recovering and devouring the fabric of reality for us to all of a sudden be able to do what we couldn’t do this episode or the next?

 

[TheGrimm.5624]

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

 

> Oh joy, dragging Kralk out for another living season AND an expansion. Didn’t they say Kralk was being resolved this season? I remember them saying something about Kralk and Joko.

>

> I really don’t see them dragging Kralk out for a full season AND an expansion. I’d rather him be finished next episode seeing as he’s already on the verge of death anyway. Would be a little anticlimactic to just give him a full season and an expansion to recover from this encounter, especially when the only reason we rushed this attack is because Glint said that Kralk is doing too much damage to the mists. What then during this season and expansion? He just keeps roaming around recovering and devouring the fabric of reality for us to all of a sudden be able to do what we couldn’t do this episode or the next?

>

 

Not saying next season would be about Kralk, would be about us preping and recovering for a fight. Plus Kralk wasn't unscathed by that fight so it could all be about minions he throws at us as we try and regroup as well. You can't just wipe out forces of nature during living stories on a regular basis else where do you go from there. Elder dragons are for expansions, not living story episodes, that's for growth and and the Dragon's champions. IMO.

[Athel.2076]

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> Oh joy, dragging Kralk out for another living season AND an expansion. Didn’t they say Kralk was being resolved this season? I remember them saying something about Kralk and Joko.

>

> I really don’t see them dragging Kralk out for a full season AND an expansion. I’d rather him be finished next episode seeing as he’s already on the verge of death anyway. Would be a little anticlimactic to just give him a full season and an expansion to recover from this encounter, especially when the only reason we rushed this attack is because Glint said that Kralk is doing too much damage to the mists. What then during this season and expansion? He just keeps roaming around recovering and devouring the fabric of reality for us to all of a sudden be able to do what we couldn’t do this episode or the next?

>

 

This.

 

Oh, by the way, are we out of dragonsblood weapons now? Because without those, we've pretty much lost already, right? So its either ressurection so we can get the factory going again, or you've got some cheap trapdoor in the story.

 

Either way, the Kralk bit is getting old. We've still got Jormag, Primordius and seasick-Steve the underwater wonder. Can we move on, please?

[perilisk.1874]

> @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> Not saying next season would be about Kralk, would be about us preping and recovering for a fight. Plus Kralk wasn't unscathed by that fight so it could all be about minions he throws at us as we try and regroup as well. You can't just wipe out forces of nature during living stories on a regular basis else where do you go from there. Elder dragons are for expansions, not living story episodes, that's for growth and and the Dragon's champions. IMO.

 

Seems unlikely. Each episode is 3 months of content, and has to do a lot of narrative work. Look at the pace of this one:

 

1. Establish that Kraalkatorik has gained new abilities, and the Joko is back on Tyria and has a vendetta against the Commander. Aurene is big and dangerous. Introduce the pirates and larger sunspear organization. Foreshadowing of Ep2.

2. Introduce the Olmakhan, Blish, and Gorrik. Commander, Inquest, and Joko vie for control of the Scarab Plague. Joko wins.

3. Fight to prevent Joko from releasing the plague. Joko nommed. (Note that we entirely turned the loss in the previous episode around in one episode, we didn't spend three episodes building an army or whatever).

4. Sort out the political fallout, introduce the Free Awakened as a faction and humanize the Awakened, and make Kraalkatorik the main threat, and a more powerful and world-threatening threat, by establishing that he can now travel to the Mists and nom on the fabric of reality (denim, in case you were wondering). Establish that all of this is wearing on Aurene both physically and emotionally, culminating in her vision o' Doom. Introduce Zefira. Attach a tracker to Kraalkatorik, Blish's sacrifice, and oh, Taimi is dying. That's a whole lot happening in one episode.

5. Find Aurene and give her a confidence boost (yep, turned that around from within about two instances). Learn about making Dragonblood Spears. Starting gearing up for a fight against Kraalkatorik. Caithe is a spokesna'vi. Kraalkatorik decides to start the fight early by hitting our weapons facility. We have a Big Idea, turn it into a quick and dirty Plan with some help from Canach, and have the fight. We defeat Kraalkatorik...'s eye. Aurene is dead.

 

Basically, played back to back, the plot moves very, very fast (at 3 month intervals, not necessarily so much). The odds that Kraalkatorik is alive after next episode, after having been a threat through both PoF and all of this season, seem pretty slim to me. That's not much time to introduce any fix to the "don't kill more dragons" problem, other than reviving Aurene. They might give it until late in the episode but for all we know she'll back on her feet in instance 1.

 

 

[Alimar.8760]

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> So if she comes back next episode then this episode is somehow deemed a cheesy filler and a waste of time? Why?

 

I think we can all agree that living story episodes play very fast with the story. There's very little time from the beginning of the episode, to the rising action, to the climax and then the falling action. Currently, with Aurene being dead, we have feelings of remorse and mourning. At least that is the way it is intended. But if that is superceded next episode by Aurene being alive and all is well, then people will look back on the previous episode as a betrayal of the emotional energy and time spent. Writing and crafting a story is all about suspension of disbelief.

 

We all know that characters have plot armor to an extent, there are plans writers put in place in order to tell a story. The important factor is telling said story in a way that the audience themselves will believe was planned all along, and will make sense given the rules of the universe. Which is why I stated it depends on how it is handled. If Aurene is brought back without any consequences, without any solid reason, without any references to this episode and all the epicness it had. Then it will (For the most part.) be considered lackluster if there is no reason for the audience.

 

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> Honestly, with all this constant talk about how bringing her back next episode would be cheesy writing and make this episode pointless, I'd rather them just end living story all together. Obviously everyone is an expert writer, so why even bother trying?

 

Most of this seems sarcastic but I'd like to take time to answer this. For the first part, I said it depends on how it's handled. (See my above statment.)

 

As for the second part, are you saying that I can't appreciate, or critique a story if i'm not a writer myself? Is there some line in which I have to cross in order to state my opinion and how I believe a story should be written? For example, do I have to be a composer and published musician to know what music I like and give advice of music prefernces to others? The short answer is no.

 

When you deal with a passionate community, people that invest time and effort into understanding the nuances of lore and story that is provided. It is important to have discussions. Stating that sarcastic comment doesn't help the discourse and discussion we're having.

 

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

>I genuinely want to hear what some of these expert writers think is a good next step for the coming season or the resolution to the current plot. Because any deviation from the "prophecy" that we've been following for the past few years is going to take significantly more explanation, planning, and make far less sense than Aurene simply being not dead due to consuming Joko's magic - and given that Joko's death was a sign within this prophecy, I really don't see why people think that it's so far-fetched to have her remain the resolution. Oh, that's right, because everyone is an excellent writer and has this edgelord desire to see the writers kill off characters to make the story "darker." Because having an estranged son watching his mother get impaled, or a former lover turned monster chase their partner, or a brother's soul being trapped inside of a robot and said robot sacrificing themselves for what could be eternity just to give their brother a mere CHANCE at succeeding isn't dark enough? Or I don't know, Aurene's entire family being killed already anyway.

 

I do not believe anyone in this thread has ever said "Hey, I can write better than the current authors for these episodes!" This discussion has been about Aurene and our opinions and ways in which we think the story will continue forward. I posed the idea of Joko's lich powers because as stated earlier in another AMA, I expressed the opinion that Joko's death seemed sudden and unneeded and was almost a "One and done" storyline. Which was shot down by a developer stating that it wasn't like that and they had their specific reasons. See Link: [https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/584385/#Comment_584385](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/584385/#Comment_584385 "https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/584385/#Comment_584385") .

 

 

As for the rest of your comments, I'm not sure what you want an answer to since there isn't really any questions involved. Feel free to ask more questions if this doesn't clear up everything for you.

[Alimar.8760]

> @"flog.3485" said:

> > @"Alimar.8760" said:

> > > @"flog.3485" said:

> > > I would say this about Aurene:

> > >

> > > It is not because Aurene died that her magic is gone. And her magic still lives through Caithe because she absorbed the magic of Palawa Joko imo.

> > > Caithe might have lost her connection with Aurene but it the end she still became a minion of Aurene.

> >

> > Well when Zhaitan died it didn't mean the undead weren't still infesting ore. All it did was open up a way for others to cleanse the undead or re-purpose them. Same thing with Mordremoth. Minions don't just die if their master dies.

>

> True I just wanted to point out that whether Aurene is alive or Caithe being a receptacle of Aurene, we might still be able to balance out magic no matter what.

 

I'm sure that the connection with Caithe is no mere coincidence it happened. I'm sure it'll be used somewhere down the line to do something important. It's too much of a "lantern" to just create a whole new model and weapon set for Caithe only for it to remain unused story wise.

[Alimar.8760]

> @"Athel.2076" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > Oh joy, dragging Kralk out for another living season AND an expansion. Didn’t they say Kralk was being resolved this season? I remember them saying something about Kralk and Joko.

> >

> > I really don’t see them dragging Kralk out for a full season AND an expansion. I’d rather him be finished next episode seeing as he’s already on the verge of death anyway. Would be a little anticlimactic to just give him a full season and an expansion to recover from this encounter, especially when the only reason we rushed this attack is because Glint said that Kralk is doing too much damage to the mists. What then during this season and expansion? He just keeps roaming around recovering and devouring the fabric of reality for us to all of a sudden be able to do what we couldn’t do this episode or the next?

> >

>

> This.

>

> Oh, by the way, are we out of dragonsblood weapons now? Because without those, we've pretty much lost already, right? So its either ressurection so we can get the factory going again, or you've got some cheap trapdoor in the story.

>

> Either way, the Kralk bit is getting old. We've still got Jormag, Primordius and seasick-Steve the underwater wonder. Can we move on, please?

 

I don't think we're out of dragonsblood weapons. There isn't really a time frame in which we're given when we start production and fight Kralk. But we had enough weapons to equip a decent sized army at least according to the story. But remember, Dragonsblood weapons were the easiest way to damage Kralk, not the only way. There was the fact that Snaff was able to defeat Kralk mentally in the books.

 

Plus there are other "Good" dragons around. Most notable according to GW1 history are ones that are living in Cantha. Kunnavang comes most to mind since she helped the PC's back in the game prepare to kill Shirou.

 

Honestly though, I don't think the writers are flying on the seat of their pants. They (I hope) have put a lot of thought and work into how to tell this story. So we'll be able to see if our concerns are founded in the upcoming episode.

[CETheLucid.3964]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> That's the only explanation I've heard which makes sense to me.

There's actually a new spicy theory floating around

 

 

That it's actually the Commander (PC) that got branded. Not entirely, but we're trapped in a powerful branding crystal from Krakatorrik himself and slowly getting corrupted but life is continuing as normal for us in our head with the discovery of Aurene being killed and us trying to figure out where to go from there.

 

So effectively until the story continues life goes on as it always has. In reality Aurene and the others are trying to save us. Aurene was probably badly injured since she actually did take the attack and it still got us. Having removed us from the fight, we did injure Kralkatorrik enough to probably make him screw off to heal and satisfied he had branded us. Pretty spooky.

 

https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/ager7g/spoilers_my_strange_theory_on_episode_5/

 

 

 

[Alimar.8760]

> @"CETheLucid.3964" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > That's the only explanation I've heard which makes sense to me.

> There's actually a new spicy theory floating around

>

>

That it's actually the Commander (PC) that got branded. Not entirely, but we're trapped in a powerful branding crystal from Krakatorrik himself and slowly getting corrupted but life is continuing as normal for us in our head with the discovery of Aurene being killed and us trying to figure out where to go from there.

>

> So effectively until the story continues life goes on as it always has. In reality Aurene and the others are trying to save us. Aurene was probably badly injured since she actually did take the attack and it still got us. Having removed us from the fight, we did injure Kralkatorrik enough to probably make him screw off to heal and satisfied he had branded us. Pretty spooky.

>

> https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/ager7g/spoilers_my_strange_theory_on_episode_5/

 

>

>

 

While that theory is quite extraordinary, I'm not sure that that'll be the actual one. Props for whoever came up with that theory though. Its a fun brain teaser.

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"Matt H.6142" said:

> My theories are

> >!1. She stays dead, and she joins her mother and brother together in the Mists for the true final fight. She doesn't not return to Tyria.

《 probable

> >!2. She's a seed in Caithe like Mordremoth was in Trehearne.

《 that was a very Mordremoth thing to do. Kralkatorrik and his lineage can't replicate it. Mordremoth wasn't a physical dragon, bit rather a mind that inhabited any plantoid body.

> >!3. She's just dead, and we struggle through the hopelessness of it until some 'power inside us all along' moment happens.

《 more probable. Deus Ex Machina all the way to the end.

>

>

>

 

 

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

> Bringing her back in the very next episode very much cheapens her death in All or Nothing. It would do away with the tension and desperation that the heavy loss hit us with far too quickly.

>

> In my opinion, the best time to bring her back is Season 5, episode 2 or 3. That gives us a couple episodes to grieve, deal with fallout of the failure [...]

 

If she comes back, then sacrificing Aurene in that fight was not a failure but the actual plan all along, i.e. what Glint had foreseen from the beginning.

[Matt H.6142]

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> > @"Matt H.6142" said

> 《 probable

> > >!2. She's a seed in Caithe like Mordremoth was in Trehearne.

> 《 that was a very Mordremoth thing to do. Kralkatorrik and his lineage can't replicate it. Mordremoth wasn't a physical dragon, bit rather a mind that inhabited any plantoid body.

 

Thanks for the reply. She has absorbed Mordremoth power though; Taimi alluded to that in Caithe’s transformation. Her baby design had intentional Mordremoth influence to signify this and she’s been telepathic since the start. Guess we’ll see.

 

 

 

[Alimar.8760]

> @"Matt H.6142" said:

> > @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> > > @"Matt H.6142" said

> > 《 probable

> > > >!2. She's a seed in Caithe like Mordremoth was in Trehearne.

> > 《 that was a very Mordremoth thing to do. Kralkatorrik and his lineage can't replicate it. Mordremoth wasn't a physical dragon, bit rather a mind that inhabited any plantoid body.

>

> Thanks for the reply. She has absorbed Mordremoth power though; Taimi alluded to that in Caithe’s transformation. Her baby design had intentional Mordremoth influence to signify this and she’s been telepathic since the start. Guess we’ll see.

>

>

>

 

While we're getting into theories that really have no solid evidence. I think the magic of Mordremoth was absorbed, but not his uniqueness. If that makes sense. We know that just because Kralk absorbed Zhaitan's magic, doesn't mean he suddenly became the undead dragon, or started growing 3 extra heads.

 

Hard to see what the plans are. I think Aruene will always remain a crystal dragon and she will stay that way. Unless something pulls the rug from under us and we get a "You are what you eat." and she suddenly turns into a Part Crystal, Part Plant, Part Zhaitan, Part God, Part Lich dragon queen? I'd pay to see that show.

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"Matt H.6142" said:

> > @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> > > @"Matt H.6142" said

> > 《 probable

> > > >!2. She's a seed in Caithe like Mordremoth was in Trehearne.

> > 《 that was a very Mordremoth thing to do. Kralkatorrik and his lineage can't replicate it. Mordremoth wasn't a physical dragon, bit rather a mind that inhabited any plantoid body.

>

> Thanks for the reply. She has absorbed Mordremoth power though; Taimi alluded to that in Caithe’s transformation. Her baby design had intentional Mordremoth influence to signify this and she’s been telepathic since the start. Guess we’ll see.

>

>

>

 

I thought it was caithe alluding to the fact that aurene didn’t corrupt her, but layd a connection.

That said, i also remember taimi being confused rather than alluding to mordremoth’s power, as she something along the lines “i thought minions couldn’t be corrupted”.

I cant give an absolute answer to this query, but i think the revival bit was really just mordremoth since his real ‘he’ was just a mind, in a body he made himself, so i suppose he could just move it around freely.

 

 

Although I hate the theory myself, **if** aurene comes back, Joko is the probably the hook they’re going with. Otherwise i dont see why they would bring it back in ogden’s prophecy

[Athel.2076]

Caithe the crystal Pale Tree?

 

Yeah, I dunno guys...

[Poormany.4507]

I think most likely for the next episode's and Season cliffhanger either Aurene comes back somehow (Joko magic maybe) and we kill Kralk early next season (similar to Joko arc lasting 3 episodes). That or the PC decides to just go for it and finish off Kralk next episode and watch as the chaos unfolds as the season ending and Aurene comes back next season and deals with that issue. Either way seems like the same outcome and we'll be moving on from Kralk to the next threat in Season 5.

 

Hoping they don't drag Kralk much longer because chasing him across the desert from one spot to the next is getting kind of boring at this point. However, I also hope that if Aurene doesn't come back to replace Kralk, they don't just macguffin their way out of the killing elder dragons problem with solutions involving the Pale Tree or other characters coming out of nowhere randomly (i.e. real Lazarus) without any kind of prior hinting in game, or some other copout solution.

[casualkenny.9817]

Would like to know how you guys interpete aurene's final glance at us (I tot that bit was really well done, to capture emotions in that single backward glance)

 

Personally, I felt it conveyed foreknowledge, resigned determination, a certain sense of farewell, a wish to say something important.

 

I think that penultimate moment suggested that Aurene was already emotionally prepared for it, but for hers (and glint's) reason, had not shared it with anyone.

 

I'm guessing a trojan horse ploy, and I'm guessing that we will never see Aurene again as Aurene.

 

Edit: ah... I rewatched it on YouTube and yea I got the sequence wrong lol...

[PseudoNewb.5468]

Aurene looked back and the Commander nodded (by the motion of the screen). Not sure if Aurene was actually asking us a question, nor do I think we knew the full extend of what she was asking about... but that is what the scene showed. Most simply, Aurene was simply hesitating, and waiting for encouragement, but that would be odd considering Aurene seems to have the most knowledge about what had to happen. The whole time the Commander is swinging blind in this episode (and most of the GW2 story), but she seemingly approved the plan, while also having more understanding of the situation, why would she looked towards the Naive commander for reassurance?

 

Also for the final moment, I don't know how many people caught on to it, but after repeatedly re watching it, I have determined that Kralkatorric showed little interest in Aurene for that final attack. In fact, Kralkatorric was directly targeting the Commander until Aurene canceled his beam. Only then did Kralk turn the bean towards Aurene, increase it's power and overcame Aurene's counter attack. Kralk barely paid attention to where Aurene flew off to, she could have easily escaped that attack.

 

That means Aurene had a choice not to die there. Wouldn't be good for the game if the player character was blasted away... so the narrative didn't have a choice... but it conveys that Aurene chose to protect the Commander and face her certain death. Realizing that, makes her death more sad? But, since she chose it, maybe we can be reassured that it is according to plan... perhaps at according to prophecy?

[IstariWho.7342]

> @"Hesacon.8735" said:

> Aurene also

> >! counter-branded Kralk, as you could see at the end he was at least half blue from a direct hit from Aurene. That could make Kralk a _minion of Aurene_, in some sense.

>

> So there's that.

 

I was thinking the same thing, most likely in forlorn hope, but what if she just took his body.