#dragonvoid

I was finishing a replay of EoD (second character through, finally) and noticed a singular line in the ultimate mission that summarizes my largest issue with the End of Dragons plot and, more than that, the issue of the Dragonvoid from a narrative standpoint.

There's a lot of issues to it, like the laziness of how they depicted it as just a shader effect on pre-existing models, or how it feels shoved in and solved just to give End of Dragons a final dragon battle after retconning Soo-Won into a good guy dragon (and yes, it was a retcon - devs back in 2010/2011/2012 outright said the deep sea dragon was evil, NPCs outright say that they fled the ocean depths because of dragons, etc.).

But this line is the perfect explanation for the biggest issue I have with Dragonvoid - the one that makes me say "The Dragonvoid is a terrible antagonist".

This line happens after the platform with Kuunavang and the Commander, the two strongest fighters of the group (besides Aurene), is swarmed with void creatures and both are near death. Aurene saves the Commander and, somehow, everyone who was moments prior unmoving on the ground are mobile again - even if we assume that they were unconscious (despite no breathing animations and swarmed by Void which unmakes reality), there are ZERO casualties on the platform... and everywhere else in the planet that the Void is breaking out.

There are literally zero deaths to the world breaking apart and reality being unmade.

Not even Soo-Won's death can be attributed to the Dragonvoid outbreak, since she was dying anyways and died from exhaustion after it was solved.

Zhaitan? Killed hundreds of Pact soldiers. Almost killed one close friend (Logan).

Mordremoth? Killed hundreds of Pact soldiers, assaulted the Grove, indirectly caused the destruction of Lion's Arch, and caused the deaths of two close friends (Eir and Trahearne), traumatized/heavily injured four other close friends (Logan, Zojja, Braham, and Marjory).

Kralkatorrik? Havoc across Elona, wiping out villages (of which we saw one) and tearing the fabric of reality in a real and tangible way, and caused the deaths of two close friends (Snaff and Blish).

Jormag? Assaults on villages (a few seen), killed numerous Pact soldiers, and caused the death of a close friend (Almorra).

Primordus? Assaults on villages (several seen), killed numerous Pact soldiers, and traumatized a friend (Braham).

Dragonvoid? Killed maybe a few unnamed characters (most off-screen) before it broke out in full force, killed no one when it did break out in full force; tore up some places. Slightly injured one close friend (Logan).

Yet we're told that the Dragonvoid was the biggest threat, so big it required the Commander getting a powerboost from Aurene which none of the previous dragons required.

Told. But never shown. Even Primordus, rushed as he was with Champions, was still shown to cause death to numerous villages and even cities across Central Tyria.

And no ramifications beyond Soo-Won's death, who's hard to feel sad for because we only got introduced to her 10 hours prior, though ArenaNet's writers sure as heck wanted us to feel sad for her with how the Commander acted.

Proof enough that EoD's plot should have ended with Ankka's death, and the two rushed acts afterward should have been spread across a Living World Season 6.

Which is not enemies, not lovers, secret third worst thing

I got really attached to the idea of them being roommates and learning to tolerate each other. Somehow, that evolved into queerplatonic. Important to note I also ship creedock, but I think they got married and moved in together after the dragonvoid ( i've decided that's Alster and Lance's... duo name?? I don't ship them at all) situation happened. I don't think they really call each other queerplatonic partners, but they're aware of it, and so is dock.

They are (to me) the world's strangest polycule

Also, the name dragonvoid comes from Alster's powers being described as similar to a black hole and me being an astronomy nerd

ohhhhh my gosh. thanks!!!!!!!!

yeah lol i really like toxic queerplatonic dragonvoid (great name btw!!) thank you for sharing its wonders with me. toxic wonders polycule my beloved.

i imagine its like. at first theyre just really passive aggressive with each other but then as they get much closer they also start actively trying to murder each other. then the big climax of the story could be something like alastor poisons lance and lance guts alastor and then as they lie on the floor frothing at the mouth and bleeding out respectively they realise they do actually care about each other. i just think it would be really funny. (then dock walks in and is like "what the fuck are you two doing")

it’s an unusual word! ingame, it’s frequently associated with the Void; we’ve got Kaineng Unmade, Echovald Unmade, the Void-afflicted child in Teleri chanting about being “unmade and rearranged”

i thought it would be fun to compile a list of all the other places where the word appears, prior to End of Dragons! i’m not drawing (many) wild conclusions, just making observations. in antichronological order:

1) at the end of the Icebrood Saga, as Ryland’s been left as a broken husk in the fallout of the Dragonstorm:

"No one made me! I made myself. And I will never be unmade!”

might be worth noting that Dragonvoid is resultant of raw clashing magic, and Ryland is standing on ground zero of the combined detonation of Jormag, Primordus, Kralkatorrik, Mordremoth and Zhaitan magic

2) the Riddle of the Weaver earned by traversing Jackal portals:

“The same hands that make the pattern also unmake it.”

first off, jackals are magical constructs feeding on the remnants of a dead god.

but more significantly, the whole deal with Weavers is that they... weave magic together! there’s a fantastic reddit post delving into the lore implications of Weave Self and Tailored Victory. the two most notable things: unweaving the elemental magic “unravels gravity itself”, one of the more obvious signs of Void affliction. and if you look closely, the elementalist releases a black shockwave and tendrils of darkness along with the strains of magic, which latch onto enemies in the vicinity. oh my.

3) in the challenge version of the Shattered Observatory Fractal, Artsariiv starts throwing these out these lines as their health drops:

“Don't fight unmaking. Hold on to the hurt. Squeeze it tight.” ”Yes. Unmake me. Stop it all.”

this whole fight is just. terrifyingly chaotic. a whole lot of wild magic without a single crumb of context.

(i’ve. got a lot of thoughts about consequences and implications of the Fractals. that’s for another time.)

4) The Bloodstone’s Unmaking in the Ruined City of Arah:

the place in Orr where the Six Human Gods split apart the Bloodstone for humanity’s sake. the Gods accidentally empowered it with Zhaitan’s magic while they were at it. you know how it is!

those were the big ones! special mentions:

5) whatever’s going on with Koda:

Quiet Thinker in Deep and Troubled Waters says that “[Koda’s Rage is] a time when Koda sees fit to test us. Our physical, mental, and spiritual strengths are subjected to trials that prove our devotion, or unmake us.”

and the Voice currently enduring it says: “My eyes...won't close. My mind is...chaos.” which i take note of here, just because it seems similar to the symptoms of Void affliction! probably just a happy coincidence

6) Magister Sieran hanging out with some quaggans:

Shashoo: Oo! Look out! The bad ice makes monsters. Magister Sieran: It's okay. We unmake monsters. Come on!

something something the dramatic irony of one unaware dragon minion pitting herself against another

7) an asura yelling at their golem in Caledon Forest:

ZXS-705 "Zaxis": Probability—that—this—experiment—will—be—successfull: 9.9—percent. Researcher Widd: Quiet. I made you; I can unmake you.

yeah this isn’t magically significant. this is just some guy. but at least it’s more interesting than

8) the bed:

“The bed has been slept in recently. It is unmade.”

entropy incarnate, appearing before you just prior to your visit to Claw Island... watching silently from the sidelines as you seek to recover a potentially traitorous ally who, unbeknownst to you, has already fallen to a minion of Zhaitan... this bed manifesting shortly before you earn the distinguished, lifelong title of Commander, at the cost of a dear friend...

So, the dragonvoid, an avatar of magics true form and eldritch god bent on unmaking existance. But its appearence was kind of disappointing in my opion, just an amalgm of the dragons we’ve already fought. BUT, I feel like there was a better option for its appearance that its a shame they didn’t take.

So void shows up when high levels of magic becomes too unbalanced and combines together but do you know what else has been shown to appear in these conditions?

Anomalies. Strange humanoid looking entities that display varying levels of hostility towards us. And having the dragonvoid take this shape would solve the mystery of what the hell these things are and why they keep showing up around magic, it would just be an echo of the dragonvoid leaking into our reality but unable to fully manifest as void due to there being still too many dragons remaining. All they’d have to do is apply the void infusion to the anomaly model and give it some particle effects to make it look more grand

They wouldn’t even have to ditch the ‘shadow dragon echoes’ idea, they could just have them show up as part of the voids attacks, like a final fantasy summoner casting summon bahamut. 

little shitty comic to expand on this post