Guild Wars 2

I don’t mind not being the star of the show in the personal story. It’s rather refreshing for a change. However, Trahearne doesn’t feel at all like a suitable replacement.

He’s never intense, passionate or excited about anything. His speech is universally blah.

He spends too much time in too many quests standing around admiring his nails instead of fighting, and half the time when he does engage, he ends up quickly dead. Some hero. I’ve also yet to see him do a single necromancerish thing.

It all comes together to make him feel like a bit of a poser, and so I feel neither like a hero myself nor a follower of a hero. It doesn’t ruin the story for me, but it certainly detracts from it.

In other media the sidekick can be the most important character. Tolkien said that Sam was the real hero of Lord of the Rings and I agree.

But I don’t play video games to be a sidekick. It’s not a character study when I’m playing the character. It’s just a question of “is this fulfilling or not for me to live vicariously through?” The answer is no.

I have discovered a way to make the post-50 Personal Story fun for the one of my characters who made the mistake of going to Claw island. Hopefully, for those still working through it (presumably in the hopes that it won’t turn out to be a massive disappointment) my solution will provide a few moments of joy amidst the tedium.

In every episode where there is combat I make absolutely certain that Trahearne, the Hero of Orr, engages the enemy first single-handed, and dies while I stand off to one side giggling; then I go in single-handed and do the job.

It’s petty I know but it’s all I’ve got.

For the people asking for Trahearne to be modified to fit the story better, I honestly believe that this is impossible. The character is flawed beyond hope.

For starters, there’s no continuity regarding his abilities. Take Rytlock for example. Rytlock is a Warrior, and when you fight by his side, he does the sort of thing Warriors do. At no point does Rytlock suddenly whip out a staff and start shooting fireballs, and rightly so; it wouldn’t make any sense given what’s been established about the character. But Trahearne? Well he’s meant to be a scholar with little fighting experience, but then he gets given a sword and suddenly he’s a master of melee. Fair enough, the player thinks, he’s a Warrior or possibly a Guardian given that spin move. But then he suddenly decides to summon a bunch of undead minions. Quite aside from the fact that not a single person thinks there’s anything remotely strange about the guy who devoted himself to studying Orr being able to raise undead servants, there’s a major disconnect here. But it gets worse. Later on, Trahearne is tasked with cleansing the waters of Orr, channeling his power as he calls it. Excuse me, what? Where at any point was it stated HOW exactly Trahearne is about to do this? How does this fit with anything else he’s done?

Then there’s his selection as Marshal of the Pact. This one is a real kicker. You’ve got the Vigal, Order of Whispers, and the Priory all willing to turn command for this massive joint operation over to a person who’s sole benefits are that he isn’t a member of a particular order and he knows about Orr. He has zero experience leading armies, or even small groups, next to no combat experience, no pertinant knowledge about logistics, tactics or strategy, no knowledge of anything that isn’t Orr and no demonstrable charisma. And we, the player, are meant to accept that the Orders would accept someone like this as their leader voluntarily. It just doesn’t make sense. Trahearne should have trouble being selected to lead a community knitting circle, let alone one of the most important organisations in the world.

How about personality? Well this is a tough one, because Trahearne doesn’t have one. Leaving aside the truly dreadful voice acting for him (more on that later) his dialogue gives us virtually no insight into him as a person and we feel zero empathy for him as a character. We don’t care what he does because he’s not a character; he’s an emotionless drone with no distinguishing characteristics. What makes this immesurably worse is that every NPC, and our own characters, treat Trahearne like he’s oozing charisma from every pore. They cheer at his dreadful speeches and treat every tactical choice he makes like it was a brilliant insight. Meanwhile we’re sitting there thinking “This guy is really, really boring. Can we please just hurry this along so I can do my next quest?”. I tell you what, I bet most people weren’t thinking that when they were questing with Tybalt.

(cont)

No rant about Trahearne would be complete of course without mentioning his voice acting. Despite what many people say, I honestly feel that a lot of the voice acting in GW2 is good. There’s clearly some talented individuals out there that were hired by Arenanet. So why they decided that their most important, central character in their grand overarching story would have hands down the worse voice acting in the entire game is completely beyond me. Trahearne’s dialogue redefines “wooden”. He shows absolutely no emotion at any time, meaning that his “inspiring” speeches sound about as inspiring as an airport announcement that Flight 714 has been delayed. Of course the NPCs cheer and shout about how great it was, whilst the player is staring dumbfounded at how anyone could cheer at that. The final straw for me was in one of the last missions, where Trahearne and his faithful lapdog opps, I mean, loyal Commander, venture into the Orrian royal tombs to attempt to cleanse Orr. It’s a tense moment, the possible completion of Trahearne’s Wyld Hunt, and the culmination of years of research and countless lives. The ritual is completed, but alas, it fails. Oh the woe, oh the hubris! Not that you could recognise this from what Trahearne comes out with. “No, to come so close. How can we fail now”. He sounds exactly as wooden and emotionless as he does at any other time. He’s just had his hopes and dreams shattered completely, and he still shows no emotion. Was the voice actor on Valium 24/7 or something?

There’s just too much to fix. You can’t make players like this character with a few band-aid fixes. Arenanet would have to sit down and redo the entire personal story from Claw Island onwards to have any hope of redeeming their story. They won’t do this (it’s a tremendous investment of time and energy for what is for them bound to be a low priority), so my only hope is that the next expansion doesn’t feature Trahearne. Because he took what was, up to level 50, a very enjoyable story experience, and made it into total dross.

Haters! i like Trahearne :’(

We would all have been better off if Treefern had been thrown on the burn pile when he awoke from the dream, because this guy is nothing but a nightmare. Wow, he gets the sword of 1000 truths from the tree lady and he still does no damage or anything useful in the story quests. Bravo twiggy. Seriously though, I hate that guy.

What can I say that hasn’t been said in a far more eloquent manner here? Well other than the fact that I personally don’t like the character nor do I like how the personal story is presented in GW2.

Perhaps I’m spoiled by having played Bioware games and Witcher games, but when it comes to RPG experience I need to have that freedom of the type of personality and direction I want my character to go to.

I’ve played GW1 so I know that Anet prefers your player characters to be on the goody goody side but it just seems like a wasted opportunity with GW2. With such advancements in the technology and architecture the personal story being so linear was just downright disappointing.

So in light of the criticism by many players, in this forum, guru, youtube, etc, I hope that the expansion offers more freedom of choice in the story. I would love to play my character the way I always wanted to in GW and that’s just an anti-hero that doesn’t play second fiddle to anyone and not a superman boyscout.

I agree. I get that ANet doesn’t want anyone playing a bad guy, because never, ever could villains also have the self-preservation instinct to also oppose the dragons, amirite?

Sure, whatever, force me to play a good guy. But being one of the good guys doesn’t mean you have to be gee-golly-gosh saccharine sweet all the time. It’s cringe-inducing.

So I’m not the only one who wanted to strangle the guy within 2 missions of his arrival in the story.

I used to be a hero like you, then I took a Trahearne to my story.

Yeah, I agree, Trahearne sucks so bad. This voice acting and character style has me skipping my alt story missions. I do the mission, cut scene skipped. Trahearne sucks, I nominate him for worst “hero” ever.

Side note: I love how the GW2 forums says personal story it really is all about you, I would add, following and doing what Trahearne tells you. This story is most certainly NOT about you, lies.

You know the funny thing about the people who like how you’re no longer in the spotlight?

The sole purpose of the Personal Story was to give you that spotlight.

So when you’re saying that you think it’s a nice change that you’re no longer the hero, you’re basically praising something for not doing what it was meant to do.

I believe he needs a good makeover…

For a nerdy scolar who becomes the hero, he surelly doesn’t show it.
At least have him change gears as the story progress! Have him first appear in simple scholar, non-Sylvari, clothes (to look well traveled) and with a backpack full of books.
Then by the end put him in some kitten armour that fits his sword and position.

If A-net re-record his voice acting, it would also be wellcome!

Kite.2510:

I believe he needs a good makeover…

For a nerdy scolar who becomes the hero, he surelly doesn’t show it.
At least have him change gears as the story progress! Have him first appear in simple scholar, non-Sylvari, clothes (to look well traveled) and with a backpack full of books.
Then by the end put him in some kitten armour that fits his sword and position.

If A-net re-record his voice acting, it would also be wellcome!

Well that armor set Trahearne had during the cutscene at the end of Battle for Fort Trinity fit that description you say.
I still wonder why Anet didn’t give him that Pact Gear set they had him wear in that cutscene.

binidj.5734:

In every episode where there is combat I make absolutely certain that Trahearne, the Hero of Orr, engages the enemy first single-handed, and dies while I stand off to one side giggling; then I go in single-handed and do the job.

I find that he does this anyway, regardless of whether I’m trying to kill the over-glorified broccoli man or not.

My main issue isn’t that he’s the hero and I’m not – I can accept that. The problem is that he’s such a boring character! He has the personality of a piece of broccoli. As the meager scholar he started off as, it was in character (even if he took it to a whole new level). But when he’s giving a rallying speech to an army, he still sounds like he’s half asleep and has concussion.

2nd time through all dialogue is muted. I can’t stand listening to that little twerp.

Honestly if Trahearne wasn’t monotone he would probably be more likable but he says dire things and cheerful things in the same tone . This unfortunately makes people yaaaaaaaawn through the zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Huh oh sorry Trahearne was talking and i dozed off

I hope that this thread grows large enough for some of the GW2 staff and writers to notice it. I really would like to know where they were coming from when introducing such a boring, uninspiring character and having that character hijack your personal story.

Personal story was the reason I bought this game. Now I don’t even know if I want to finish it.

They may read this thread and there are bunches of threads on Trahearne. However I wouldn’t hold your breath on waiting for a response.

1. most of the employees weren’t involved with the storyline so they can’t say much.
2. the writing of the story as you can tell was handled by a variety of different teams so hence you can see why it feels so drastically disjointed.
3. there isn’t a blessed thing they can do with it. we are stuck with this very poor storyline. They would have to re-write and have voice actors and change stories and then there would be be people that have gone completely through the story that would be upset they couldn’t see it again on their main. They unfortunately woefully underestimated the impact of the personal story as far as work, effort, communication, impact, time, money, energy. They should have spent money on a larger writing team that had better communication and meetings that would have made tons more impact and lasting desire to try other storylines. Instead they invested on expensive and famous Voice Actors. I am not saying the voice isn’t important but you could still get good ones without going for famous.

The only thing this will do as a thread is hopefully open their eyes toward an expansion on what they attempt to do.

Trahearne just felt like the annoying boss you wanna punch in the gob cos he takes credit for all your hard work. Guys a (insert fluffy animal name) and I detest him. I cant even face the storymode on my other 2 lvl 80s cos he annoys the crap out of me

Do what I do… in events when he accompany’s me… let him rush in first and get killed then clean it up afterward. It doesn’t make the story any better but it gives you a little revenge for anything he says in the CS.

Also just ignore the story the second time around when it reaches that level or stop doing it when it becomes so mindblowingly irritating.

GW 2 story has great, if also unintentional, symbolic value. It gives one insight to “lives” of all the NPCs who do their best to fight and yet are doomed to obscurity because Great Storyline Script demands that glory goes to someone else, no matter what that someone else really does.
GW 2 does indeed have a personal story. What isn’t mentioned is that apart from those early-level “personal” elements that become totally meaningless after level 20 or so, the personal story is Trahearne’s personal story. Your character is just the anonymous unknown roadie/dirty-work-doer whose only purpose in life is to do all the hard and nasty work so that someone else, at this case Mr. Woody, can be a hero.

While somewhat similar to Kormir from GW 1, Trahearne isn’t just “Kormir 2.0”, he is far worse. Like people have been pointing out, your character gets repeatedly referred to as “Trahearne’s right hand”, NPCs are repeatedly praising Mr. Woody and so on. While for story purposes it is understandable that there has to be a single definite hero, at least with GW 1 they kept Kormir mostly in the background, while with Mr. Woody the story misses few if any chances to heap him praise and glory.

Trahearne and his role in story are just extremely bad writing, no way around that harsh fact.

I thought the way Kormir was handled was fine, she was an important element at times, but it was you pushing things forward, rescuing her etc.

It also makes no sense that the guy in charge of the entire Pact is also going on all these missions with you. In fact the Pact as a whole is incredibly poorly run as a supposed military force, I’m surprised the war wasn’t a complete failure with the level of tactical nous and logistics on display.

They kill the best characters at the begining. In my story all the cool characters are killed.

I think going forward Arena Net has a great opportunity to take out Trahearne and bring a personal touch to everyone’s stories in one swoop. They’d be off on the right foot by giving a race-themed demise for Trahearne. Here’s a few ideas that I think really complement the kind of personality that each race embodies:

Asura: Trahearne is annihilated in a freak accident involving the hero’s latest invention, or is captured by the Inquest and used in experiments.
Charr: Trahearne and the hero are out on an expedition in Ascalon when they are ambushed by the Flame Legion. Trahearne is captured, chopped up, and used to create an effigy which the hero must then defeat.
Human: Trahearne and the hero save orphans from a fire, and Trahearne decides that orphans are so great that he retires so that he can spend his days working at an orphanage.
Norn: Trahearne and the hero are walking on a glacier and Trahearne falls into a really deep crevasse.
Sylvari: Trahearne, the hero, and a third sylvari become embroiled in a 3-way love triangle. The third sylvari is eventually pushed out and jealously plots revenge against Trahearne and the hero, and successfully kills Trahearne before being defeated by the hero.

How come trahearne is allowed to have 8 or more flesh golems and wield greatswords but we necromancers can only have one flesh golem and no greatsword at all?

And where the heck did this character come from? Does he appear sooner in the sylvari story, because I’ve never heard of this guy until the one mission way later in the game.

Honestly I think this is Anet’s way of trolling us necromancers while favoring other classes. cough thieves

By the six this is still going on?

@Lezard
Trahearne does have a history before GW2 but Anet seem to failed to give us that history so there is a lot of confusion and frustration about him. Anet should of given us a book about Trahearne before they released GW2 so we know about his past history Anet constantly repeats about in the Personal Story but only introducing a small amount of that history through a few Dialogues by our Order Leaders and Mentors. They even could of ended the book about Trahearne at that moment he leaves to Claw Island so we know how he got there in the first place.

Anet introduced to us Destiny Edge in Edge of Destiny which is what made us know and love each member despite how annoying it is to see them constantly arguing among themselves over the same issue over and over again when they could of just said “sorry” from the start and fix their friendships that easily.

Trahearne role as Pact Leader is understanding since we needed someone who was not a part of the Order and also well respect by them to keep the Orders together and we all know we don’t want our character being the guy who has to get the desk duty and fill in the paper works which Trahearne will be doing from now on since he is the Pact leader but Anet did not introduce to us his past history like they did with Destiny Edge which is a very important part that would of explained what made Trahearne respect by all 3 Orders long before GW2 story began.

As for his ability to summon more Minions it is mostly due to having more years of experience compared to our character who only has months of experience. His study of Orr and the Undead most likely is why he learned a lot about controlling more minions. Anet may add new Necro skills o trait that will allow us to summon more minions in future expansion if they plan on it since lore wise our character will have more experience by then with controlling minions..

My take on Trahearne. I did a Sylvari Character first. You are introduced to him very early in the game by Caithe. He is with you for some of the missions. So the storyline did make alot of sense and I tought it was really a good story. You see Trahearne and he tells you he doesnt know if he can lead. You see his vulernable side and also see how he evolves into something more, a leader.

Then I startet a second character, great Story and then I get to Claw Island and … WTF is Traehearne doing there? I was first perplexed thinking there should be some Norn there (Eir) because it was a Sylvari for the Sylvari, it should be Eir or another Norn for my Norn Character right?

I had to learn that from this point on Traehearne was everywhere.

It is stupid.

Fun note:

My guild is using Trahöööööööööörrrrrrrn as a curse word. For example we did a dungeon, last boss he has 10% and 2 members die. We do still fine then the boss goes invulernable and heals up to full. You hear a collectivte Trahöööööörrrrrrrrrrn from every member in the Teamspeak. Thats how bad Treahearne is.

I can’t agree with the suggestion of a book about Trahearne. Any lore that is needed to grasp a game and its characters must be in the game itself. Period. I’m not going to waste my money on a buy-this-buy-that scheme when all I want is to enjoy a new game. Once a new setting has proven interesting, I might be interested in further material on it. Even so, what contact with “franchise fiction” I have had over the years has convinced me that it’s usually a big steaming pile of horribly written BS, so I’d be doubly wary of a game that expects me to pay extra for books, comics and other nonsense to understand what’s going on.

Destiny’s Edge could have been handled better in the game, too.

Trahearne was chosen to be general cos he was neutral. Hobos live at the sewers are neutral too. That’s not a reason to elect someone to general.
He was an expert in the science of risen? What? Then why don’t we recruit someone who lives at the vicinity of the island of Orr. I’m sure he/she would tell us more about the risen. The rest we can read in the library or ask a historian.
Then I have to convince the pact leaders that he is a good general in fact that I share their concern.
Finally you meet the holy tree lady who is a gipsy fortune teller and you almost kill yourself to get her predictions (wich are no use for you cos it would happen if you didn’t know it and by knowing it too). And no I didn’t forget she wishes you luck at the end. Thank you! She also gave Trahearne a greatsword. Why him? You did the job and Trahearne just followed you like Sancho Panza! Becouse his a sylvari? Let’s visit one of my own people then! I’m sure the other races has fortune tellers too.

Couldnt he just take and arrow to the knee and stay out of the way while we get the actual work done?

I was hoping that near the end of the game, we would be fighting side by side with our respective orders. Why does this Sylvari have to take all the credit? It doesn’t have to be one character that defeats Zhaitan, can’t it be all of us? I’m sick of having npc’s such as Destiny’s Edge take the spot light. All those in between dramas about Destiny’s Edge getting back together, I DON’T CARE! I want the cut scenes to be about me, and the characters that I’ve met along the journey.

Frankly, wouldn’t it have been better if Zhaitan had been just one giant group event in an explorable? No dramas about Destiny’s Edge or Trahearne, just all of us fighting the elder dragon together. Teaming up on the side of the order you joined, in an all out epic battle.

And if there have to be cutscenes, can it be between me, my fellow party members, and members of the order I joined? This entire story could and should have been told without Trahearne and also without Destiny’s Edge. Why should we care if this random band of adventurers that does not include me has broken up? Why not have the player break up with their order, and then get back together again? That is a way more involving and interesting story line.

@ Mad

That is because Destiny Edge are the main Characters of the Main Story. Our character is only telling and seeing the Main Story from his or her own perspective. Which is what Anet didn’t make clear when they described the Personal Story. Personal Story is not the Main Story but simply our character’s perspective of the Main Story.

Trahearne is only the main character for the Orr part of the story since Anet need to set the stage for who is the Pact Leader and how did he become the Pact Leader so they don’t have to use him a lot in the future story line because they got that part of the story out of the way. We will probably only see Trahearne very little from now on in the future Personal Story because his part in the story will be simply a NPC known as the Pact Leader.

Azoetia.2183:

In other media the sidekick can be the most important character. Tolkien said that Sam was the real hero of Lord of the Rings and I agree.

Yes, and Tolkein brings in Hobbits on page 1 and spends a the best part of half a volume introducing us to these characters so we have sympathy with them. By comparison for all but some Sylvari characters Trahearne is a deus ex machina that turns up halfway through the story, just as the action is picking up, and proceeds to steal the show. I can see why he’s so unpopular

A little OT, but in comparison to the genuinely self-sacrificing characters of LotR, Destiny’s Edge seem to behave like spoiled teenagers rather than real heros. Their behaviour is so selfish I wouldn’t trust them to rescue my soup, let alone the whole world.

Heroes don’t have to be nearly invincible in combat with sword or spell, they just need to have a heart and sprit like Samwise.

So I ran into this thread again. And then after reading all what was said since last I put my two cents in, the very last sentence is what sums up the lack of feel in most the writing of Guild Wars 2, as it is now.

Faze6948

Heroes don’t have to be nearly invincible in combat with sword or spell, they just need to have a heart and sprit like Samwise.

They gave Trahearne a gorgeous voice and brilliant accent, but no emotion lies behind it.
They gave him intelligence, but no gratitude for being able to obtain it.
They handed him a sword and the power to wield it, but not a moment of doubt or a thought went through his thick gray skull as he first barged into the fray.

He lacks heart. Anything he does goes without say. That also, makes it very hard to make him credible. One of the bottomline rules for writing any sort of adventure story, is that there has to be a conflict or a problem, that our heroes must overcome.
Sure, the Elder Dragon(s) count for a problem… but closer to home, Trahearne is near perfect and has absolutely nothing to strive for. Dedication: zero.

Destiny’s Edge, whilst given plenty of problems to solve, also lack heart. It was mentioned time and again by people all over the forum that they most resemble a group of snarky teenagers, and I can do nothing but agree.
Mourning a lost member is one thing. But passing the blame on for that long is a tad unrealistic. If nothing else, it shocked me that aside from female-Trahearne Caithe and emo Eir, nobody was even remotely interested in doing what was right…
It felt too forced. “Look at Caithe trying to be good! Look at Logan crying and Rytlock worsening things! Look how Zojja is grumpy! Look how Eir is mother Theresa in Tyrian terms!”
They’re stereotyped and lack redeeming features until ages later… it feels forced.

What gets me is the friggin voice acting.

There was that one mission much later on in Orr where he tries to cleanse Orr or something like that and it doesn’t work out, and the line is :

“NO! It failed… blah blah blah.

But it was the most monotone, bored voice acting ever :

“oh no, it failed, what ever shall we do.”

I actually busted out laughing because it was so unexpected, he should be freaking out, but the voice actor obviously didn’t give a kitten lol.

It doesn’t have to be one character that defeats Zhaitan, can’t it be all of us?

Exactly!

This isn’t the kind of story where a singular hero is needed or even makes sense. Personally, it’s not that I want the PC to be the chosen one – it’s that I don’t see why there has to be a chosen one at all. The story about us all working together seemed to be just fine.

History could just say, “The Pact defeated Zhaitan.” Because when you play through the story… that’s what you actually see happening. The victory doesn’t need to have a singular hero’s name attached to it, because no one person alone could have done it.

It seems to me like there would actually be less of a continuity issue that way – after all, we can’t all be the canon second in command, even if Trahearne is named the canon hero.

There were times during the personal story that I felt like a GW1 henchman, and Trahearne felt like the PC. I assume that wasn’t intended, and I hope ANet rethinks the PC/NPC balance in future content.

1. Improve the voice acting.
2. Implement additional backstory for non-sylvari players.
3. Improve his AI, he’s pretty much only useful for minor tanking while you go spanking (or make his backstory include ADD or something).
4. In the first few missions with his shiny weapon, make him goof up. Like when he tries to use whirling wrath but then knocks himself down, or he drops the the sword a few times (big sword, little scholar, no training). Also, make people refer more to their order leader or lieutenant.
5. Towards the later missions, have him have a few scripted fights where he pretty much showcases his great skills (or better, the power of the sword itself) after his on-the-go training. Now make people worship Trahearne as they currently do.
6. When done with his Wyld Hunt, make him really depressed. Make him drunk if you have to! The guy’s sole purpose for existing was cleansing Orr, he should be having the midlife crisis of the millenium. Implement it as a thing after the current finale, so this thing has had time to sink in with the plant, like sending a message to meet at a place of drinking in the PC’s home instance.
7. Did I mention the voice acting?

i just hope he will meet a warband of vegan charrs in a future update..

Trahearne badly needed a Mad King joke… “Why is Trahearne so wooden? Because he’s a TREE!”

When I first encountered Trahearne, I hadn’t progressed as far in my storylines as some of the posters on here. I thought he was rather unmemorable, and the voice acting somewhat flat, but I didn’t quite understand why he seemed to be almost universally despised.

I understand now. It doesn’t really matter what happens during the story because he says everything in that monotone. His voice actually reminds me of Moss from the IT Crowd, but what works well when portraying a socially-awkward nerd doesn’t have quite the same effect when we’re looking at this guy who everyone in the game seems to look up to. You hear one early expression of mistrust because of his profession in Claw Island but after that, it’s all ‘I don’t trust (insert whatever plan here) but I trust Trahearne, so I’ll help’.

And we’re almost never rid of him. If he was a minor NPC I wouldn’t have taken much notice of the ineffective voice acting, but when he has the starring role plus he’s with us for most story missions, that’s as much of a problem as the limelight-stealing from the player character. I know some people disliked Kormir’s role in Nightfall because they felt she usurped the PC too, but at least we didn’t have her thrust down our throat for the entire plot.

Let me kill Trahearne so he can be a villain in an expansion. I haven’t finished my story yet but let me kill him please.

Totally agree i paid $98 AU to play Trahearne’s Personal Story line…Really a let down Anet…

if i wanted to be a Sidekick i’d go play DCUO

I gotta say i really liked going to Fort trinity and being told the portals are for higher Ranked People, so they are Trahearne’s personal Asura portals are they…

Also going into the instance at fort Trinity, Trahearne basically says “hi mate bit busy right now bugger off”

What a great personal Story….not.

Kite.2510:

I believe he needs a good makeover…

For a nerdy scolar who becomes the hero, he surelly doesn’t show it.
At least have him change gears as the story progress! Have him first appear in simple scholar, non-Sylvari, clothes (to look well traveled) and with a backpack full of books.
Then by the end put him in some kitten armour that fits his sword and position.

If A-net re-record his voice acting, it would also be wellcome!

I believe the storyline needs a complete make over, its my personal Story not Trahearne’s i don’t care if he gets the pact together or not hes a nobody NPC that needs to be treated as such, its my Story line….so all i ever amount to being is some pleb that works for an idiot…great news..

Time for a complete over haul to me…if anyone should die its Trahearne, i don’t even care if tyria and the pact get destroyed now im a sidekick…

Edit: Sorry double posted..

I personally haven’t completed the personal story (i just have to do the dungeon) and I have a hard time going further than the racial storyline anymore. It’s painful to say the least.

Pretty much. The personal story in general is just a huge failure and Trahearne is ONE of the causes of that failure. (There’s a lot that I don’t wanna go into because it’s not related to the thread and I don’t want to write anymore essays tonight.)

“I don’t mind not being the star of the show in the personal story. It’s rather refreshing for a change. However, Trahearne doesn’t feel at all like a suitable replacement.

He’s never intense, passionate or excited about anything. His speech is universally blah.

He spends too much time in too many quests standing around admiring his nails instead of fighting, and half the time when he does engage, he ends up quickly dead. Some hero. I’ve also yet to see him do a single necromancerish thing.

It all comes together to make him feel like a bit of a poser, and so I feel neither like a hero myself nor a follower of a hero. It doesn’t ruin the story for me, but it certainly detracts from it.”
-mosselyn

I Agree with this, if he was going to be the leader of my story he should atleast be more confident than I am. The really cool preceptor of whispers for example. He is fluent, demands respect, but is also funny. This is the kind of guy who should be in this place. But, i wouldn’t mind if you sacrificed him off for the greater good… You know

Guys, it’s called bad writing. Whether or not this is because it’s an MMO story or because the authors were bad is up for debate, but at the end of the day – it’s still bad writing. It isn’t REALLY a personal story when you toss in a Mary Sue that can do just about everything.

Remember back in elementary school, you may or may not have ‘roleplayed’ to be your favorite super hero (or power rangers)? Trahearne is the kid everyone hated. He’s the kid who made kitten up on the fly to be better than you and everyone else at the playground.

I kept playing the personal story thinking the writing would have gotten better, but Trahearne was the cherry on the icing. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I would not say bad, careless yes and definitely neglectful of the perspective of the player character. They story for the most part was well written and captivating, just certain aspects were not created with the mindset of `How will the player view this?´.

The worst culprit is when they have written an arc expecting the players to react in a specific way without realising they have not laid out the prerequisites to generate the desired reaction. An example is being BFF’s with Trahearne upon meeting without him even earning it. It is quite odd they do this, especially when they occasionally achieved it so well in other parts of the story , for example with Forgal.

Aedelric.1287:

I would not say bad, careless yes and definitely neglectful of the perspective of the player character. They story for the most part was well written and captivating, just certain aspects were not created with the mindset of `How will the player view this?´.

The worst culprit is when they have written an arc expecting the players to react in a specific way without realising they have not laid out the prerequisites to generate the desired reaction. An example is being BFF’s with Trahearne upon meeting without him even earning it. It is quite odd they do this, especially when they occasionally achieved it so well in other parts of the story , for example with Forgal.

This is exactly why the writing is bad from my point of view. Every character I met was thrown at you without any kind of backstory or lead up.