Guild Wars 2

I understand that its Trahearne story happening at the same time as mine,i get that all the players cant be the saviors or tyria at the same time nor lead the Pact.
Sure his story was a bit ill handled,but we cant ex+ect the same 5 or 6 guys to always save the world..like Destinys Edge
But i also agree with some of the posts here regarding his choice as hero simply because hes neutral..a Kodan is neutral..pick him!!^^

i get that all the players cant be the saviors or tyria at the same time nor lead the Pact.

But all the players can’t be Trahearne’s second in command, either, by the same logic.

Nor can we all have the same sister or parent, the same warband, the exact same small handful of life experiences, etc.

To make the personal story work at all, you have to separate it from everyone else’s personal story in your mind. If you try to make everyone’s personal story fit together, you get gibberish.

When it comes to the historical record, it would make the most sense to say, “The Pact defeated Zhaitan.” Because… it’s the truth. None of us acted alone – not the PC and not Trahearne. Pinning anyone’s name to the battle exclusive of everyone else is creating problems that don’t even have to exist if we accept the story we actually saw play out. Everyone helped, and that’s exactly how canon ought to reflect it.

We’re all heroes for being part of the fight. We don’t need a special chosen one.

I too dislike Trahearne…

My solution. Options, Audio, Dialog Volume: 0. Skip all the cut scenes and only complete story mode above 50 If short of 80.

I purchased the game to , in part, play my story; Not Twigmans.

“I was going to make a bad salad joke….”

But Trahearne already stole my line…

I find the constant introduction of disposable characters, and the unlikeable pseudo-protagonist butting in every time you just want to be paying attention to the character you actually care about, reminds me a great deal of the “story” in all of the 3d Sonic the Hedgehog games.

I was doubly reminded of this when Trahearne would not shut up with his intelligence-insulting tutorial lines during the battle on “Clawr” Island. Echoes of “IT’S USING AN ARM ATTACK” rang in my ears.

I can appreciate that something of this scale will never have the polish/acting quality of a AAA single player game, but whoever was in charge of the plot for the personal story simply does not know how to write, and the Trahearne actor simply does not know how to act (or had horrible direction). Neither should return in the future of this game.

Galen.9042:

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.

Oh, now be fair. They covered their doubts about his leadership abilities in “Forging the Pact.” I mean, they gave the orders a WHOLE single dialogue tree. With three steps! EACH! Clearly, that’s not a hole in characterization at all!

I too, do not like Trhearne. It’s not because he’s the leader of the Pact. I wouldn’t even mind being just another soldier in the fight. Frankly, I get tired of being the Messiah of every game. One of the reasons I enjoyed TSW’s story so much is that I was just another cog in the machine.

Trahearne is simply too implausible as a leader. He’s supposed to be Marshal of the forces of the pact and we don’t really see any experience in his background that would make him a leader of people, let alone a sound military mind. I suppose he’s supposed to be a “natural” or a “hidden gem” that rises to this very powerful and influential position, but I’m not buying it.

I would like to be rid of him. I vote that he be eaten by a dragon.

I’ll put my dislike of Trahearne this way… I went with the Durmand Priory, and immediately hated every inch of Magister Sieran’s bubbly, happy-go-lucky personality. BUT, by the end of the battle for Claw Island, it brought a tear to my eye watching her die. When you can make someone start off hating a NPC’s guts, and then make them actually begin to appreciate that character, you have written a good story.
Trahearne, on the other hand, I would have not felt an ounce of emotion for, had he kicked the bucket. My arguments are the same as everyone else (horrible voice-acting, No backstory for non-sylvari, no growing into his leadership role), but everyone else who died during my personal story, I felt some sort of emotion for. I know it is too late to fix what has been done, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! don’t make the same mistake twice!

Stoic. Boring. Flat. Ugly.

Why is it that he has to be such a massive part of EVERY story? I mean is it really about “We just had to make one because we were having too much fun making the stories then we realized we can’t afford to make fully personalized stories so we just make this character that everyone should not hate nor love and go with that as the hero instead bla bla kitten ”

I disliked him on my first go, but now that I made another character and chose priory, which has the best supporting role in the whole game – god bless magister Sierran, you crazy tree! – The story got simply ruined by getting rid of the only interesting character and giving me such a flat uninspired lame-o instead. Wasted oppoturnity for sure. I want to hear sierra and her crazy stuff, but no, what I get it is quicon jin, the master of stoic.

Ugh.

Anyone else just hate trahearne and rather have the main supporting role from the order they chose?

I would much rather have Sieran or Tybalt than boring old Trahearne. Boringness aside, why do we have a necromancer in the newest race in the game suddenly an expert on all things zomb… err i mean “Risen”? Seems like a conflict of interest having a necromancer killing undead, not that he does much killing anyways since he is worthless in battle and usually dies near the beginning. I think a game of Mad King Says is in order. "Your Mad King Says… say the word “Claw” correctly. Oh sorry Trahearne, time to die!" smh

For the Sylvari we had him for like 20 levels at the start of the game! And yet he can’t remember us we he’s commander…

Drede.4701:

I would much rather have Sieran or Tybalt than boring old Trahearne. Boringness aside, why do we have a necromancer in the newest race in the game suddenly an expert on all things zomb… err i mean “Risen”? Seems like a conflict of interest having a necromancer killing undead, not that he does much killing anyways since he is worthless in battle and usually dies near the beginning. I think a game of Mad King Says is in order. "Your Mad King Says… say the word “Claw” correctly. Oh sorry Trahearne, time to die!" smh

or as another user put it so well “Your Mad King says… Display emotion! Any emotion is fine, show me that my subjects do not lack passion!”

To be perfectly honest, I’d be much more comfortable having Mad King as the leader of the pact than Trahearne.
He at least was an accomplished leader and all around lovable fellow.

I was expecting him to die at the end, usually I wish no person any ill, but it was such a disappointment that he lived.

Unfortunately from Arena Net’s track record we are likely going to work very hard to kill a God in the future and he will ascend and take it’s place, or something equally disheartening. I really can not stand Glory thieves and `Saladhead´ as some people call him, fits the bill. He and his personal story (It sure is not ours) is such a badly thought out arc, definitely not Arena Nets greatest achievement.

So many topics cover the fans displeasure over him and even the Zaitan story arc from Claw Island onwards. I wonder if Arena Net had a second chance they would do it differently, perhaps they would pull a Bioware and claim `Artistic Integrity´.

Regardless, the rest of the game is an absolute joy and such a bad egg does not ruin the experience, though a few tweaks to the story to make it stink less would be nice.

Drede.4701:

I would much rather have Sieran or Tybalt than boring old Trahearne. Boringness aside, why do we have a necromancer in the newest race in the game suddenly an expert on all things zomb… err i mean “Risen”? Seems like a conflict of interest having a necromancer killing undead, not that he does much killing anyways since he is worthless in battle and usually dies near the beginning. I think a game of Mad King Says is in order. "Your Mad King Says… say the word “Claw” correctly. Oh sorry Trahearne, time to die!" smh

Necromencers are not bound to be masters of the dead but can be a profession to learn about Undead and medical knowledge. Trahearne has spent years before GW2 story began studying Orr directly and is also only 1 of the 2 people who has ever saw Zhaitan in person and lived.

Think Necromency as Biology Scientist or Doctors where by studying the dead he has a better understanding how the body of things work. It is also common practice for people to use what they know in combat and since Trahearne has spent his entire life studying Orr and the Undead his Necromency knowledge he obtained from his studies provide him with the combat knowledge he needs to fight.

Trahearne is upsetting because he really displays no emotion or anything. I get that he’s level headed and whatnot, but even in instances where he’s supposed to be incredulous at the thought of commanding the Pact, or supposed to be growing as a leader, he simply has the same flat personality in all instances. I’d like him more if:

A) He was more involved in all aspects of the story from the beginning. Show him as someone reliable and continues to be so as you find him suddenly more and more integral to fighting Orr.

B) Have your character compliment them. I understand this requires assigning a more specific personality to the PC than most would want, but for the sake of story I’d be okay with Trahearne being something of a backseat personality until you just help to mesh and synergize with him, that he eventually truly becomes the leader of the Pact.

C) GIVE HIM EMOTION. God, every instance he is seen he sounds flat. He’s neither afraid, nor courageous, nor emboldened, nor meek. He simply -is- which does NOT make him any sort of a leader.

Agreed. He has no personality. None. Even the other members of the Pact have their doubts about him and his leadership potential – he sends you out to talk to them on the very topic!

I must admit I was indignant when he named himself Marshall and informed me I could call myself Commander. Awfully big of one whose bacon I’d pulled out of how many fires?!

Gasoline.2570:

Anyone else just hate trahearne (…)

So much that if there was a options ingame to join Zhaitan I’d do it in a heartbeat just to have the opportunity to mangle Trahearne to death.

Trahearne would send a mayonnaise sandwich back for being too spicy.

Honestly, I don’t mind someone else getting the credit for all the things I did for The Pact. That’s kind of how an organization works. Trahearne’s the face and leader of The Pact, so regardless of rank, he’ll get credit. It does irk me when he gets all the credit on the field though. He gets public credit—I get credit amongst our ranks. That is how it should work I think.

I have a real problem giving my credit to someone so underdeveloped by the time of the Orr arc. Like, he had the potential to be very interesting, but failed in execution. We learn NOTHING of his past (if they do this later, it’s a bit late for that) with the other orders and the only legitimacy he has is the Pale Tree’s vision that was shared with you.

I thought he’d sacrifice himself to restore Orr then I did the cleansing Orr personal story and he didn’t die. The only thing I have against him is his constantly saying, “this isn’t going to end well”. Thats right up there with “To the end of us all”. WTH kind of battle cries or those? You’re supposed to encourage your forces not depress them.

Also it was pretty silly for my order mentor to introduce my sylvari to him like we didn’t know each other. Makes sense for other characters but they should have modified that for sylvari. There’s a simliar problem with two sylvari acting as if my sylvari ,who went through the mirror with them, knew nothing about their earlier visit to Orr.

How did they get it soooooo wrong?

If I had 3 wishes in the whole universe:

1) Ability to control my own mortality
2) Vast intelligence
3) Ability to enter the world of Guild Wars 2 so I can beat Trahearne to an inch of his life and dump him in the Straits of Devastation to get mutilated by Krait like the worthless little twig that he is.

I can’t stand Trahearne. If they ever continued the story and Trahearne would become a traitor, I’d kill him any chance I got. I’d rather beat him up than any dragon.

He is in fact the ‘pale tree’ … flat personality, no richness to his character, nothing that makes him stand out as a leader hero.

I think Trehearne wouldn’t be as bad with just some tweaks. The big one would be re-record his lines and include the instructions “Don’t sound like a robot”.

But even just things like making him stronger in fights would help, since then PCs wouldn’t have to keep rescuing him. Oh NPCs, why do you have to die all the time?

Jaglavak.5806:

So much that if there was a options ingame to join Zhaitan I’d do it in a heartbeat just to have the opportunity to mangle Trahearne to death.

That is amazing! So funny! Agreed, though.

Yes, a voice actor with even half an ounce of emotion would do wonders for trahearnes personality and not some no good voice actor that seems to have recorded his lines in his sleep.

They should do a new storyline where the real Trahearne shows up and uncovers the one we have now to be nothing more than than an imposter sent by Zhaitan.

…Or, they could just write up something quick about him being drowned in that muck swamp in Queensdale.

Blackwolfe.5649:

Yes, a voice actor with even half an ounce of emotion would do wonders for trahearnes personality and not some no good voice actor that seems to have recorded his lines in his sleep.

He could do with an update to his looks too, there are literally npcs in lions arch that stand there all day that look better and more imposing than trahearne ever could…

Also why is a necro using a great sword like a Guardian?

Gawna.6519:

Jaglavak.5806:

So much that if there was a options ingame to join Zhaitan I’d do it in a heartbeat just to have the opportunity to mangle Trahearne to death.

That is amazing! So funny! Agreed, though.

Hahahaha! Count me in!

I love this thread! So much creative discussion. My favorite so far is the “Trahearne is really a traitor” angle. If only forum threads had a poll functionality… we can take a vote on how best to dispatch of this useless plot device.

I feel like the voice actor was trying to troll us.

I too, loathe Trahearne.

I agree, he is horrible… sounds like a bad TTS engine, and has about the same emotional depth. I mean, I’ve never heard anyone deliver a supposedly fiery speech with such a flat tone.
I understand that Sylvari are supposed to be a bit detached bit he’s far beyond that in the regions usually reserved for robots. His whole story, the constant ramblings about himself, just make me want to make f*n chair out of him. At first I thought Logan was a punchable character, but Trahearne makes him look like a great one in retrospect.

I don’t think the Sylvari are detached, having played one. They clearly form relationships and have emotions. Magister Sieran is positively excitable. I think it’s just Trahearne’s voice actor doing a poor job. We wouldn’t have even noticed him if he hadn’t been given the most major role in the story.

If they had built him up as the story went it would not be so bad. Start with a “wooden” character then as the story says, open his potential and show him as a true leader of all races. Did not happen though, at the end he was still sending you around to find out if the cute girl really liked him and would she go out on a date.

Blackwolfe.5649:

Yes, a voice actor with even half an ounce of emotion would do wonders for trahearnes personality and not some no good voice actor that seems to have recorded his lines in his sleep.

I honestly can’t stand Trahearnes voice and stoic (to the point of being cardboard) emotion, however I don’t blame the voice actor. The voice actor is being led by a group that will tell him to redo the line in a different manner if they don’t like the sound. The actor is being directed.

The lines being presented to us are the ones the company chose for the presentation of Trahearne. That is what baffles me. I just wonder if ANYONE listened to the story (any of them) from front to start and ENJOYED it. That’s what I consistently wonder.

I don’t see how anyone can play the story (like the human story) and not see a disjointed hot mess of a story. It has it’s good points but so often it simply gets pushed along at an unnatural pace.

I would like to see a quest where we are given the opportunity to sacrifice an NPC in order to resurrect our mentor. I’d tear out Trahearne’s heart with my bear hands on top of an Aztec pyramid wearing nothing but an ostritch-feather speedo just to bring back Tybalt.

Traherne would make perfect fire wood for Tybalt’s Return celebration

Now that I’m at the point of the story where I get to enjoy the snooze-fest that is Trahearne I fully understand what everyone here is going through =\ Can this guy get corrupted or something so we can kill him off in a future content patch?

He actually did show a tiny bit of emotion in a certain part of my mesmers storyline.. but that was not the real trahearne, just an illusion created by some mesmer servant of zhaitan.

I didn’t mind Trahearne speaking in monotone, I just brushed it off as a personality trait.

However, I did have two problems with him.

One problem was that he made me feel like a supporting character in my own personal story.

Rather than accompany me on my personal story, I felt I was there to help him complete his (which I did in fact with his Wyld Hunt).

The reason for my detachment is that I never saw this guy before. I didn’t have enough time to get to know him, or even like him, much less follow him or care about helping with his Wyld Hunt

He just got shoved into my story, and now it felt like I was following him around to support him and his new role.

The other problem I had was seeing the role he was given. He may have had experience with Orr and the Risen, but that didn’t justify making him the leader of the Pact.

That wasn’t enough to put him in charge of leading factions, developing military strategies, and leading the war effort. He was so far out of his area of expertise, it was ridiculous to put him in that role.

He should have been given the role of an eminent advisor, hearing proposed military plans, and adding perspective to the military leaders on how the plans might play out against the Risen in Orr. That’s a fitting role for a scholar.

A benefit would be that we could be freed up to do missions together, with him teaching me what he knew, as we worked on goals for the war effort.

Well another way to look at it is your character isn’t the center of the story cause you keep getting people you work with killed and maimed. Your character’s partners have the longevity of a Dirty Harry sidekick. Who would want to follow you?

Still, he is annoying isn’t he?

That’s a good point, I was a bit of a death magnet :)

Please make an expansion where he’s been corrupted so we can kill him :-)

/signed
His voice acting is horrible.

And he stole the spotlight from me in my PERSONAL Story.

Oh, and what’s with the sudden amnesia of who I am despite the fact that he was a major character in my personal story levels 1-20 (I main a Sylvari)?

This thread makes me sad….and feel out of place. I actually enjoy the personal story working beside Trahearne. At first, the way he spoke was kinda awkward but I got used to it. It felt more like he’s “supposed to be” awkward. He’s a Necromancer put up as the leader of the pact because he wasn’t exactly part of any of the groups but knew people in them. Sometimes, it has to be the odd man out that is more fitting as a neutral leader than make things seem unbalanced by giving the role to someone who is a top big show of their group.

I feel Trahearne doesn’t get the credit he deserves as a character. Many people have complained they feel he kind of steals away the glory from their own character but I disagree.

He’s never gloaty, never willingly takes credit for things that you did as a player. He just lets things slide by because it doesn’t interest him as it’s unimportant in the big picture.

The big picture being the fighting for survival of all races against the dragon onslaught. As long as stories of glory keep these races inspired he’s fine with whatever nonsense stories go around. That’s the very reason why I like the personal story of my Asura Engineer who, together with Trahearne, is fighting simply because it’s the right thing to do and doesn’t care whether he gets credit for his actions or not.

Mind you, Trahearne is a wuss in combat. Can’t count the number of times I had to put him back up on his feet with a combatres

He is boring and uninspirational. I dont understand why anyone would follow him. Suprised half the pact doesnt fall asleep during his speeches.

Agreed very much on the amnesia part. It’s a very weird thing that Trahearne doesn’t remember the Sylvari characters. In the Order of Whispers line, you get a chance to help a certain Asuran Professor from the “meeting the orders” part of Asuran story. If you choose to help him as an Asura operative of the Order of Whispers, he instantly remembers you. Trahearne does not have anything like that.

Apathia should have lead the pack… but guess what? Anet killed her! …zzzzz