Guild Wars 2

I don’t get all the hate. I have a huge crush on him. :P

I love the fact that he’s timid and unsure of himself, it’s pretty realistic actually. I think ANet did a good job with him.

Nothing wrong with that but I do think you may be in the minority.

Personally I can not stand him, bring back Rurik. Now that was a character I could like.

Dont hate on the British Sylvari! :P

Speaking as a British person, his accent makes him sound like someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I dislike him because he doesn’t do anything whatsoever to deserve the prominence he gets – I wouldn’t mind him as a bookish secondary character who helps you out with his knowledge of Orr but to have him as a military strategist and leader is just taking the kitty!

My dislike of Trahearne isn’t with his personality, but the simple fact that he repeatedly takes credit for things he didn’t do. Though the fact that he has a powerful sword and he’s still useless in a fight isn’t helping either.

My main issue with Trahearne is that he’s forced into the spotlight so much of the time in ways that feel contrived, rather than taking a more natural supporting background role.

When it comes to being unsure, though… in most circumstances, I agree with you. Not, however, when you’re a major military leader with the lives of soldiers in your hands. People who would fight and die for the Pact were looking to Trahearne for guidance, and he was so often wringing his hands or entirely absent brooding about his own problems. When you agree to take on that sort of leadership role, you have to be able to table your own problems for the sake of your followers’ morale, but Trahearne came off to me as absorbed in his own issues the majority of the time.

He has a personality?
He’ the most flat, reading-from-a-script voiced character in the game. Even putting aside how our story becomes his story, he fails to evoke much emotion in me. I dig the idea of a scholar being forced into a position he’s not comfortable with, leading troops into battle and organizing raids on an enemy, but Trahearne never "sells" it to me.

I’d expand, but the last time I wrote about things I didn’t like in the story the thread got infracted. I must be too passionate about my disappointment.

If Guild Wars 2 was a novel, Trahearne would be a great protagonist; he is a peaceful scholar with an almost impossible Wyld Hunt who is unwillingly thrust into a position of leadership. Unfortunately, Guild Wars 2 is not a novel, and despite the player characters generally being very bland, it is the player character who is supposed to be the hero of the story, and unfortunately Trahearne overshadows the player from level 50 onwards.

Make no mistake, I love the character, but the fact that 30 levels’ worth of personal storyline is focussed on him is more than a little annoying.

Focksbot.6798:

Speaking as a British person, his accent makes him sound like someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Should have made him a Yorkshireman!

Lutharr.1035:

Should have made him a Yorkshireman!

If he was a Yorkshireman like Sharpe, that would have solved all issues people have with him.

His accent isn’t British. It’s exceptionally rare to find someone who talks like he does naturally, since in most cases anyone who does talk like him is usually putting on a fake accent to fit the damaging Hollywood stereotype that paints all British people as either talking like a street rat or a pretentious snob. A shame, really – England has a huge variety of diverse accents even within the space of a few miles.

His voice actor is British and sounds exactly like the character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8Ldrg1dE8

Anyway, I don’t understand all the seething hatred, either. I think the character concept is great, although I agree he really needed a better introduction and more of his backstory shown to everyone, not just Sylvari.

Have you lot ever heard of selflessness? Perhaps that is what is going on here in the game’s personal story. So what you did not get all the fame and glory, but you did the right thing anyways right? I bet you noobs never thought about that one did ya?

Garenthal.1480:

His accent isn’t British. It’s exceptionally rare to find someone who talks like he does naturally, since in most cases anyone who does talk like him is usually putting on a fake accent to fit the damaging Hollywood stereotype that paints all British people as either talking like a street rat or a pretentious snob. A shame, really – England has a huge variety of diverse accents even within the space of a few miles.

Interesting reply but I will have to say you are wrong. In fact allow me to inform you on how wrong you are. My mother is a Brit and so are her nine other brothers and sisters. Have a blessed day! =D

I like that he respects me and considers me his good friend and adviser. What I don’t like is that he takes over MY story and takes credit for EVERYTHING.

I agree with Aevic, but i can add that for SOME reason, because Mother Plant has faith in him, all the bickering, stubborn, or otherwise distrustful races of Tyria manage to unite under his “leadership”. Something he didnt exactly work for. Any credit he has to the mantle of “Pact Leader” is due to you doing virtually all the work. Hes a terrible strategist, and on more than one occasion he has simply let men die under his command. During the battle of Fort Trinity, its clear that the gates are swung wide open, and you couldnt keep a stray cow out if you tried. Then he shuts them, effectively abandoning his men to certain death (despite the Risen being able to…not care about walls at all, they burrow through sheer titanium if it means more fighting for YOU to have to do). He puts more thought into his battle speeches than he does his battles. Hes a scholar alright.

Imperialist.6927:

During the battle of Fort Trinity, its clear that the gates are swung wide open, and you couldnt keep a stray cow out if you tried. Then he shuts them, effectively abandoning his men to certain death (despite the Risen being able to…not care about walls at all, they burrow through sheer titanium if it means more fighting for YOU to have to do). He puts more thought into his battle speeches than he does his battles. Hes a scholar alright.

Seriously am I the only one who noticed everytime a Gate had to be closed in Fort Trinity mission that a NPC would tell both you and Trahearne to leave them behind so they can buy us time to seal the gate.

I don’t dislike Trahearne, just think that he’d be better suited for the role of an advisor. It was where he said “And this is my second in command” and I thought ‘Oh, second? I’m pretty sure I did alot more to unify the pact orders?’.

He just doesn’t seem ‘gritty’ enough for someone to lead an epic fight. Rytlock for example is a flawed kitten and I doubt anyone would question his leadership, not saying he should be the leader just that people would be more accepting of a character like that in Trahearne’s position.

GanNing.5963:

I don’t dislike Trahearne, just think that he’d be better suited for the role of an advisor. It was where he said “And this is my second in command” and I thought ‘Oh, second? I’m pretty sure I did alot more to unify the pact orders?’.

You did do a lot, in a field agent capacity. That’s why you are the guy who get to run around getting his hands dirty while Trahearne stays back and does the paperwork. Honestly, I cannot believe how much people playing GW 2 want to stay stuck behind the desk doing paperwork! Or do you guys not realise that a General spends 99% of his time doing paperwork?

And no, you can’t be an “absentee” general who drops by the base every so often to look over the paperwork. It just doesn’t work like that. As for what Trahearne did, he pretty much did everything. Those troops didn’t gather themselves. Fort Trinity did not establish itself. Behind the scenes, Trahearne worked out the logistics, made sure the Vigil, the Order of Whispers and the Durmand Priory all worked together, pulled their fair share etc, etc. A lot of logistics and management people. Not glamorous running around slaying dragons but looking over ledgers, making mundane but important decisions about everyday things like food distribution, medical supplies, latrine locations, not to mention keeping huge egos like Gixx, Armora Soulkeeper and Master of Whispers in check.

Trahearne’s job is not fun people! It’s a managerial role for which he is highly suited. If you had gotten the job, you couldn’t be off “adventuring”. Please think carefully about what you are asking for and be grateful that Trahearne is doing all the boring stuff, so you can do all the exciting stuff.

Tinni.4351:

Trahearne’s job is not fun people! It’s a managerial role for which he is highly suited. If you had gotten the job, you couldn’t be off “adventuring”. Please think carefully about what you are asking for and be grateful that Trahearne is doing all the boring stuff, so you can do all the exciting stuff.

Really? That’s funny, because I seem to recall Trahearne tagging along on quite a lot of my missions after about Level 50 or so.

And that’s the problem – the game tries to have it both ways. It would make sense for Trahearne to be the leader taking care of the mundane stuff, kind of like General Soulkeeper for the Vigil and whoever has similar rank in the other orders. They were also your superior officers, and they left you to get the job done.

The thing is, the game won’t just leave it at that when it comes to Trahearne. The game insists on forcing him into the spotlight over and over. He’s both the leader and somehow has to star in many of your missions. I think that’s actually the biggest problem.

The Pact leadership could be peripheral, like the orders leadership was – but it isn’t. It’s treated as a central aspect of the story, and since it’s about another character, it makes the story seem to be about him.

The story would seem more personal in my opinion, even if it was about your character as a footsoldier, if the focus was on footsoldiers rather than on the hierarchy.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Tinni.4351:

Trahearne’s job is not fun people! It’s a managerial role for which he is highly suited. If you had gotten the job, you couldn’t be off “adventuring”. Please think carefully about what you are asking for and be grateful that Trahearne is doing all the boring stuff, so you can do all the exciting stuff.

Really? That’s funny, because I seem to recall Trahearne tagging along on quite a lot of my missions after about Level 50 or so.

And that’s the problem – the game tries to have it both ways. It would make sense for Trahearne to be the leader taking care of the mundane stuff, kind of like General Soulkeeper for the Vigil and whoever has similar rank in the other orders. They were also your superior officers, and they left you to get the job done.

The thing is, the game won’t just leave it at that when it comes to Trahearne. The game insists on forcing him into the spotlight over and over. He’s both the leader and somehow has to star in many of your missions. I think that’s actually the biggest problem.

The Pact leadership could be peripheral, like the orders leadership was – but it isn’t. It’s treated as a central aspect of the story, and since it’s about another character, it makes the story seem to be about him.

The story would seem more personal in my opinion, even if it was about your character as a footsoldier, if the focus was on footsoldiers rather than on the hierarchy.

He didn’t tag long to that many and inbetween, he was at headquarters. However, there is a problem with how the story was told. My brother and I were talking about it at one point when he commented that he felt like an NPC after battle for Claw Island. Now both of us are happy with Trahearne being pact leader. That makes sense and as I said, means we don’t get stuck behind the desk.

The problem is more subtle, the way the story missions happen. The way the NPCs talk and react to you. If it feels like you don’t have to be there for the mission to succeed, then it is not your personal story. Admittedly, in some of the missions, that’s how it feels – even when Trahearne isn’t around. It’s not really a Trahearne issue but more a wider interaction issue between the player character and story mission characters. Trahearne is just an easy target to focus on.

Yeah, I think NPC reaction plays a part in it. For Sylvari, at least, I hear the Pale Tree seems to forget you, which is literally like your mother not remembering you. There are a lot of fun GW2 NPC interactions, but those aren’t in the story mostly for some reason after the racial arcs. Different teams maybe?

But part of it is that Trahearne’s voice is just annoying.

Gilosean.3805:

Yeah, I think NPC reaction plays a part in it.

Yeah. There are also examples like in Forging the Pact where keeping Trahearne alive was actually hindering rather than helping me, but the NPCs we saved were talking about how great it was to be rescued… by Trahearne. Like I wasn’t even there. :P

Those are the sorts of points where the antipathy for him starts to build, I think.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Gilosean.3805:

Yeah, I think NPC reaction plays a part in it.

Yeah. There are also examples like in Forging the Pact where keeping Trahearne alive was actually hindering rather than helping me, but the NPCs we saved were talking about how great it was to be rescued… by Trahearne. Like I wasn’t even there. :P

Those are the sorts of points where the antipathy for him starts to build, I think.

This is exactly how i feel as well, you do so much of the story line and NPCs basically dismiss you as a nobody with “i’ll follow Trahearne” etc

That to me just upsets and angers me, while making me dread doing my story line at all…

Yes i’m not the king of the world but do i deserve some recognition for saving the pact so many times, including trahearne.

I didn’t mind Traderp for the beginning of it. Seeing him in the Pale Tree vision I was glad to see some character growth even if his speech was monotone and written by a middle school DM. What broke it for me were a few things:

Sieran and Tybalt for starters
Both of them had better voice acting that actually sold their personalities. They both had quirks and they both had better character arcs. Comparing Traderp to those to make his seem like a lesser “citizen” standing in the background muttering prerendered dialogue.

Another portion was the idea that he stood there taking a lot of credit for things he didn’t do. While I do agree, we shouldn’t have been “Leader” of the pact, he stole the spotlight and almost made it seem like our contributions were nigh important.

The last one was one phrase he uttered in a storyline mission. I can’t recall the exact mission or the exact words but it pretty much amounted to: “Thank goodness you’re ok Commander. While the monsters attacked you I can tell their REAL target was me!”

That was the most self-indulgent BS I’ve heard in a while from a storyline and it really just made me want to chop him into planks so at least when we used him to build barricades he’d at least be useful.

It’s a shame too, I WANTED to like Traderp, but his voice acting, dialogue, forced character arc, and comparing him to others I met in the story just made it impossible for me.

Dante.1508:

This is exactly how i feel as well, you do so much of the story line and NPCs basically dismiss you as a nobody with “i’ll follow Trahearne” etc

That to me just upsets and angers me, while making me dread doing my story line at all…

Yes i’m not the king of the world but do i deserve some recognition for saving the pact so many times, including trahearne.

You know, I would even have been okay with something like “being rescued by Trahearne and his friend.” Just some sort of acknowledgement that I even helped. It was like I wasn’t even a blur in the background, and while I agree the PC doesn’t need constant adulation, having my presence at least noticed when I worked hard on something would be nice.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Dante.1508:

This is exactly how i feel as well, you do so much of the story line and NPCs basically dismiss you as a nobody with “i’ll follow Trahearne” etc

That to me just upsets and angers me, while making me dread doing my story line at all…

Yes i’m not the king of the world but do i deserve some recognition for saving the pact so many times, including trahearne.

You know, I would even have been okay with something like “being rescued by Trahearne and his friend.” Just some sort of acknowledgement that I even helped. It was like I wasn’t even a blur in the background, and while I agree the PC doesn’t need constant adulation, having my presence at least noticed when I worked hard on something would be nice.

Agreed. Trahearne is a great guy but he isn’t so magnificent that his presence blinds all to everybody else. Or at least it shouldn’t!

Plus I think it was a mistake to have the PC not have more contact with their order following Battle for Claw Island. Most people choose their order with care and I personally found it upsetting that I am not having more contact with Gixx (my order head). More importantly, I genuinely like my order and thus I worry that going forward, Anet will trivialise the order I choose to belong to and that’s not cool.

So really, I love Trahearne and I have nothing against him or him being the leader of the pact but I do think Anet dropped the ball in terms of story telling in the later part of the story.

KeyLimPi.9031:

I didn’t mind Traderp for the beginning of it. Seeing him in the Pale Tree vision I was glad to see some character growth even if his speech was monotone and written by a middle school DM. What broke it for me were a few things:

Sieran and Tybalt for starters
Both of them had better voice acting that actually sold their personalities. They both had quirks and they both had better character arcs. Comparing Traderp to those to make his seem like a lesser “citizen” standing in the background muttering prerendered dialogue.

I agree, Trahearne (Traderp, as I’m going to call him from now on—thank-you!) was not a spotlight ready character. And no, I’m not talking about him being “forced” into a leadership role. I mean that the character “works” as a background or even a secondary character. But not as a main character.

Tybalt would have made an excellent continuing main character. He had a strong personality and strong voice acting that made him incredibly memorable. He would have been a fine companion through the final storyline missions, especially since he had not only his Charr training and Order of Secrets training, but he had also spent years doing research-type work for the Order. Was he a scene stealer? Sure, to a certain extent, but in a way that was endearing rather than annoying. Tybalt was a mentor-turned-friend, and it worked well. Traderp was a vegetable-turned-overlord, and that didn’t work out so well.

Traderp would have been a much more enjoyable character—even as pact leader—if he had been kept as a background character, and only shown up in missions when absolutely necessary. Instead he’s touted as this masterful, yet reluctant military strategist and leader who has a mighty sword. Yet he fails to lead, he spends more time writing speeches than battle plans and he rarely puts his sword to good use.

#SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found Trahearne very flat in personality. His voice acting agitated me ((Even though his voice actor does amazing work.))
He jumped out of god knows where and decided. “Hey we should be buddies!” Right after the characters we enjoyed ((depending on which order you joined)) kicked the bucket in the stupidest way possible.
Then the shrub goes at takes over your story. Sure you get praised here and there every so often by non-cutscene dialog. ((Meaning you actually have to talk to the non-essential characters in the mission to hear said praise.

Now honestly I understand his Wylde hunt was to cleanse Orr and this was important to his character development. This would have been great, and easy to swallow if it took up only two or three of your main stories missions to get to the point and tie his character together. But the gross spotlight holding he does kinda bit it for me.

My leveling necro is getting close to the claw island event he’s already 61 and truly I feel I could go to 80 without ever finishing the string that leads up to the poorly thought out character arch and never look back.

Just a final note, if Anet EVER catches this random post by a random player in this very enjoyable game. Don’t forget that WE as the players LIKE being Dragonbourn, we like being Snake in metal gear solid. We enjoy being Corvo in dishonored and we enjoy having the spotlight on us, not only for our own characters developmental but for the immersion of that character being YOU inside the world of Tyria!

Snow White.9680:

I don’t get all the hate. I have a huge crush on him. :P

I love the fact that he’s timid and unsure of himself, it’s pretty realistic actually. I think ANet did a good job with him.

Full ack, i also like him

The one and only time I heard Trahearne having even an ounce of emotion in his voice was on a quest where he, well.. it was really an illusion of trahearne summoned by some powerful mesmer and not the real trahearne, but still same voice actor. I kind of liked that Trahearne better actually. Even the risen show more emotion than Traderp.

I finally understand and agree with all the hate after having to solo wave after wave of risen and a champion by myself while he stood there and then claimed all the credit.
What a Scumbag.

Stelleriath.3829:

If Guild Wars 2 was a novel, Trahearne would be a great protagonist; he is a peaceful scholar with an almost impossible Wyld Hunt who is unwillingly thrust into a position of leadership.

I compleatly agree with you. What made me dislike Trahearne so much was the voice acting. I thought he was good looking at just the story of him.

I don’t mind my character being a secondary character, I actually rather liked being secondary character to say, Destinys edge.

But being a secondary character in my personal story is total BS.

LOL im not the only one! Anyone who’d throw themselves at the Marshal, I welcome you to my blog. http://trahottie.tumblr.com/
If I must throw in my argument here, I personally disagree with people complaining that he “takes all of your credit”. Maybe it’s just my bias, but what comes to my mind are the numerous moments Trahearne thanks you for your partnership (I even have screenshots of that in my silly blog) And the moments when people of importance such as Caithe and the rest of the Destiny’s Edge thank ME- yes, me, me, me, not Trahearne, for making wonders happen.

I can understand if you dislike Trahearne if your personal tastes don’t agree with his personality or voice, or if you but disapprove of Anet’s writing, but I don’t think I can truly understand the passionate hatred around him for the mostly emotionally driven reasons people have..ah well… And his “uselessness” in combat I find hard to believe to be enough reason. After all, I’ve yet to meet a NPC that makes wonders on his/her own. 1) I don’t think there’d be a point in the game if there were NPCs like that 2) If people have, come on, where’s the adoration?

The problem I have with Trahearne is that I just can’t seem to empathize with him.

It was so easy with Sieran, Tybalt and Forgath – in just a few quests, I’d learn that they were quirky or silly or serious and that they’d have strength and weaknesses or that they really wanted to be something or lost something… A bond was formed because I knew a bit of who they were. And they also felt like a friend, making jokes about things (apples!) or getting into misschief and the like.

Trahearne feels distant. I’m not his friend, I’m just a colleague who’s working with him and that’s it. He never makes a joke and I don’t know if he has any hobbies or silly quirks. After the job is done, we have nothing left to do together. And considering I have to be with this guy for quite a long time, that can feel quite annoying.

Long story short, Trahearne needs more depth. But I don’t hate him.

Playing as a Sylvari, I felt Trahearne actually had a lot of depth of character. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that you meet him right away as one of the Pale Tree’s firstborn.

My boyfriend was wondering out loud about who Trahearne was when he showed up in his storyline, but he started off playing a Norn. Part of people’s hatred toward Trahearne, I think, is not having had a proper introduction/attachment to him.

I’m a girl, and I have to say that I actually kind of fell in love with Trahearne’s character, playing as sylvari. There were moments where I was like, “aww, just stand right there so I can take pretend romantic screenshots with you” <3 <3 <3 I thought he had some very good moments, and I actually empathized with him quite a bit.

I felt some major romance going on when you fight the last eye and are about to cleanse Orr, and he tells you that he’s glad it is just you and him. I seriously thought they were going to kill him somehow, and then I really would have cried! Though I admit this doesn’t really make sense unless your character has a crush on him.

These points aside, I can see why other races besides Sylvari might have a problem with him. He seems to have just showed up out of nowhere in the other race storylines.

As of playing and recording a full play through of the game during launch month and just now replaying the story arc on an alt, they most certainly beefed his combat ability up by several orders of magnitude. Trehearne can actually hold his own and takes quite a bit of pressure off the player now. I think I only had him go down in one mission, the Ark one, when he got jumped by a pair of veteran abominations that spawned behind the group and pinned him in a corner. Seriously though, that would have ruined most peoples day.

I feel like im being forced to like trahearne instead of actually having any reason to do so. I agree he is flat and the character feels rushed and generic.

I agree that as a Sylvari, he’s more likeable. The issues of him “taking over” parts of the story are still there, obviously, but at least you get some sense of his motivations and personality. When I leveled my second alt of a different race, I was kind of shocked at how little character development he got outside the Sylvari racial storyline. Seriously, if you care about the story at all, it’s basically mandatory to level a Sylvari up to 30 if you want to understand the second half. It should not be that way.

I like the character, I just found myself annoyed in places because I felt his importance and my character’s importance should have been switched. I was thinking about it the other day though and I think they made him the star to avoid the whole you’re such a special amazing one of a kind hero….just like the other millions of people playing this game thing. I can live with it.

Some spoilers:

But that doesn’t mean I like it. I think he should have been your support, your friend and yes your destinies could very well be wound together, but to have him get Calabolg for example? That was bs. Especially since I already wielded it earlier. I should have gotten that. I needed to be special in a way that was apparent.

I don’t hate Trahearne its the fact he takes over our personal story that is the problem

I love him too. I think my male Sylvari character might share the feeling….

Revan.3185:

I don’t hate Trahearne its the fact he takes over our personal story that is the problem

lol reminds Kormir leeching all the way and then she becomes a god !
Now its the Sir Plant, playing big boss as you make decisions for him.

I have mixed feelings about Trahearne, I like the voice itself, however I also think he could show a bit more emotion. During some scenes I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d start doing a weatherforcast in between telling me how many people got killed today.

Actually I think he started to slightly annoy me once the pact was forged.

I also think he could’ve been fleshed out a bit more, but then again, it’s a game, and there might not be a whole lot of room for it.

No real hate, no real love towards him really. x’D