Guild Wars 2

Did anybody else feel like the Mad King’s story (told by the ghosts in the Mad Memories quest) was a bit too dissonant with his actual character? It seems like the quest was trying to make him out to be a total monster that we should revile (hanging people and putting rotting pumpkins on their heads, killing his wife, etc etc), but than he comes out and plays Mad King Says with us and sounds genuinely sad about dwarves being gone. Seems like they couldn’t decide which direction to go with him…

I don’t think so, although I can understand where you come from. I’m an English major, so I guess I look at it differently because I base it off of perspective. The “narrators” (the ghosts) are all biased. We never get the Mad King’s perspective on what happened, but instead just the victims’. If you look at it that way, sure it is dark (which I like), but who knows what the Mad King’s actual perspective is!

He was always dark from GW1 as for a backstory. Though I would have liked a little bit more played on his playfully dark insanity rather than the constant psycho mass murderer story they told. I think they could have done a better job of playing both sides of the story to get their point across while not making us feel guilty for loving the guy. He’s always been one of my favorite characters.

Keep in mind that in GW1 we helped him and he us when Dhuum invaded. I’d like to have some more of the side of him we saw in GW1.

He is ‘mad’ afterall, as in pretty messed up. He kills and revives players during the GW finale just for fun. Even the worst of people aren’t always at their worst.

a story from others is always going to be exaggerated/misinformed, you’ve just never seen it happen in a game before

I mostly don’t get why he calls himself ‘mad’.

Jabberwock.9014:

Did anybody else feel like the Mad King’s story (told by the ghosts in the Mad Memories quest) was a bit too dissonant with his actual character? It seems like the quest was trying to make him out to be a total monster that we should revile (hanging people and putting rotting pumpkins on their heads, killing his wife, etc etc), but than he comes out and plays Mad King Says with us and sounds genuinely sad about dwarves being gone. Seems like they couldn’t decide which direction to go with him…

People can have issues with just about anything these days o.o he is mad so alot can fit into the category, what is so weird that he was a mad psychopath? If he were anything else nobody would have had a problem with him and none of this would be here now, even his sporadic sadness is nonsensical and therefore: mad.

Like in the MK instance when he is mumbling random commands and suddenly yells at us to dance for him, the next second he “sounds” almost sad/desperate by saying again “dance for me….” its all part of the mad act

Also your title is what felt strange for me as with the post itself as you seemed to be asking if the story was too brutal(which it isnt, its just a story) but in the actual post itself you are just asking if the story made sense

He is insane, thats all.

He’s just misunderstood!

I don’t see how my post and title are dissonant. In the title I ask if it’s too dark, and in the post I ask if it’s too dark (considering his character). Seems pretty consistent.

Anyways, I guess as a psychopath he is entitled to all the mood swings he wants. I don’t have a problem with it, I was just curious what others thought. Seems nobody can have a discussion these days without being branded something or another…

Mad King: “A servant told me ‘I can’t feel my legs!’ I said ‘Of course you can’t stumpy, because I cut off your arms!’ And I did, too.”

I’m sorry, where’s the disconnect here?

He is evil, but he is also mad. Thus is actions aren’t always evil, sometimes they are simply irrational.

The strangest thing is that he refers to himself as mad.

Wendigo.7931:

Mad King: “A servant told me ‘I can’t feel my legs!’ I said ‘Of course you can’t stumpy, because I cut off your arms!’ And I did, too.”

I’m sorry, where’s the disconnect here?

At the shoulder, obviously.

King Thorn is clearly out of his gourd. Always has been. Perhaps even more now that he is a gourd.

it’s halloween…it’s supposed to be “dark”

I liked the story, it was good and perfectly dark with some humour.

People called him Mad King Thorn while he was alive, too. What sort of person would take a title like that and wear it as a badge of pride? I mean, that’s just… you’d have to be…

Oh, yeah. It’s all coming together.

The irony:

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

Had to

Perfect madness if you ask me.

I misread that as beware the Wabbajack.

Can’t you just picture Sheogorath and Thorn kicking back in the mists and sharing tales of the mortals they drove into gibbering insanity?

Sure, he killed a lot of people, but it was all in good fun.

Ben K.6238:

Sure, he killed a lot of people, but it was all in good fun.

You can’t spell ‘Manslaughter’ without ‘laughter’!

Jabberwock.9014:

but than he comes out and plays Mad King Says with us

In Guild Wars 1 he would kill anyone who messed up at Mad King Says. Sure they got revived pretty soon but I wish he’d still do that instead of knockdown.

It’s possible that there was a physical problem with his brain that caused his insanity when he was alive. Or, perhaps, a curse of some kind had been placed upon him when he was a child. (Not like we’ve never heard stories of such things before.) When he died, he would have been free of that and able to regain at least a little of his sanity.

And then, looking back upon the horrors of his life shattered his mind completely, causing him to flee from self-awareness and into comic insanity. Looked at that way, he could actually be one of the more tragic characters in GW lore.

I liked him a lot better in the original GW before they decided to give him a backstory.
He was far more interesting as the random, mysterious “Halloween dude” with a candyman army than he has been since being cited as a king of Kryta who lead a reign of terror, had a rivalry with Palawa Johko, had a load of wives, etc…

Of course, I also feel Kieran Thackery was better off as just “The Wintersday dude” as well, so meh…

Nope. I think it PERFECTLY personifies just how absolutely INSANE he is. Look at Caligula for example, an actual roman ruler. He was one of the more beloved emperors until he became sick and went completely insane, and I mean COMPLETELY. The mad king gives off this air of jovial lunacy in person but the story serves to exemplify the undercurrent of murderous glee that bubbles just below the surface of a very scarred psyche.