GW’s new darling Taimi complains about “that bookah” Ellen Kiel’s handling of the Zephyrite festival activities.
In Lion’s Arch, a couple of merchants complain that they are likely to lose their business to Evon Gnashblade because of Kiel’s actions during the Scarlet crisis.
I doubt seriously that many people really cared much about either candidate personally during the election. I think most people probably voted based on the campaign promises they wanted GW2 to institute in our game. From the NPC complaints about her, it sounds to me as if we’re being prepped for something unsavory to crop up with the Ellen Kiel character. A sinister plot to take over sole control, perhaps? The Captain’s Council must be fragile right now with LA in ruins.
Or is she simply an innocent poster child for incompetent administration?
Or does the “NPC Overheard Conversation Team” for GW2 just prefer to write dialogue for Evon Gnashblade, and let their personal feelings spill out into their writing?
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
I’m going to go with innocent poster child for incompetent administration, though if she is removed from her position, evon better get to work on that abaddon fractal.
Also, she is very obviously a hero, she performed heroic actions, I don’t see her becoming an actual villian.
Is she a hero? I thought I was a hero, but then I met Trahearne. He’s the true hero of my personal story, apparently.
I remember Magnus losing an eye for the city. I didn’t do all the various events, but I don’t remember seeing Kiel around.
oh kitten , not this arguement again. no duh, you’re a hero, and also no duh Trahearne is a hero. I don’t know why people can’t accept that the protagonist doesn’t always get the all the glory, even though in this game you do, everyone aknowledges your role, you’re just not the general of the pact, which also in an mmo that wouldn’t work, having every single player character be a leader. So get over that for starters. Kiel has been a hero since she stepped into the picture, she made a good resolution with the consortium in southsun, she started the investigation of the murder of the council man she took the place of, which we all voted for her to do so, she helped us fight against the aetherblades, and she helped us against the final fight against scarlet. yeah, she’s a hero.
After Magnus lost his eye, Kiel came in with her airship to rescue him and take him to safety. Without her arrival, Magnus, Lawson Marriner and a bunch of the Lionguard would have been killed by the miasma in Fort Marriner. She then took to the front lines in the subsequent Battle of Lion’s Arch, dealing with one of the Assault Knights (flanked by Heal-o-Tron) while Braham, Rox, Marjory and Kasmeer fought the others. If you were at that southern fight, then she would also follow you into the battle with Scarlet and her Prime Hologram upon the Breachmaker, going so far as to have special dialogue after that fight is won where she promises to do her part to help pardon Heal-o-Tron, saying that he can be considered a hero of Lion’s Arch.
People are grumbling about her, but that’s not a sign that she’s a secret villain. She just isn’t a politician. Evon Gnashblade is finding a way to turn things to his advantage, as he always does, and for all her heroic tendencies (tendencies that Gnashblade completely lacks) she just doesn’t see that she’s giving him an economic advantage in the resettling of the city.
And Taimi’s complaints are just Taimi’s complaints. She thinks an Asura would’ve done a better job. Put any other Asura in her position and that Asura will say the same thing.
I’m going to go with innocent poster child for incompetent administration, though if she is removed from her position, evon better get to work on that abaddon fractal.
Also, she is very obviously a hero, she performed heroic actions, I don’t see her becoming an actual villian.
Everything ellen did she didn’t do. The players did and she just showed up and well claimed it all for herself like treehorn did in the personal story.
Follow the darkness into the depths, it’s more fun than the light can provide.
I’m going to go with innocent poster child for incompetent administration, though if she is removed from her position, evon better get to work on that abaddon fractal.
Also, she is very obviously a hero, she performed heroic actions, I don’t see her becoming an actual villian.
Wasn’t Mai Trin rather heroic as well?
^Kormir, Treehead, Ellen Kiel. I think there’s a pattern in Guild Wars.
Everything ellen did she didn’t do. The players did and she just showed up and well claimed it all for herself like treehorn did in the personal story.
And the reason Ellen and Trahearne are like that is because this is an MMORPG. It’s hard to try to write the game specifically for the players without any intermediaries, because the writers can’t know who the players are.
Lets say you’re a brand new player. Would you like to be told that you’re the hero who entered the Aetherblade Retreat and routed their forces, when you just started playing two weeks ago and have no idea what an Aetherblade is? I don’t think that’s really immersive. Enter Ellen Kiel. She went with the players into the Aetherblade Retreat. Players who did that event can now say “I was there, I helped her”, while players who weren’t there can say “okay, this NPC did it”. That’s why all these NPCs are there, from Destiny’s Edge to the Order mentors to Trahearne and Ellen and the B-Iconics. The story is delivered to you through them, because crafting dialogue to deal with five races and two genders of player characters simply isn’t feasible. They cram a lot of dialogue into the game already, but imagine if they had to do ten times as much of it because it’s your character doing the talking in the cutscenes rather than Braham. We already saw the effects that can have from the Personal Story, where your distinct racial quirks displayed in the cutscenes go by the wayside once you hit the Order portion of the story that overlaps between races. The Charr discipline and Asura sarcasm and Norn boastfulness and Sylvari wonder all goes away.
The player is still the hero at the end of the day. People who were there to kill Scarlet get credited as her killer. Kiel calls you the ‘leader’ of the adventuring group in the story cutscene for this release. Trahearne doesn’t get to kill a dragon like you do, he just gets to sit on his rear end for however many years now trying to cleanse a rotting continent. But he’s not the Pact Marshal because they want to belittle the players, he’s the Pact Marshal because it’s easier to script that part of the game around one character rather than potentially ten different ones. You still wind up making all the important decisions, doing all the fighting, and in the end getting all the credit as Hero of Tyria.
I’m going to go with innocent poster child for incompetent administration, though if she is removed from her position, evon better get to work on that abaddon fractal.
Also, she is very obviously a hero, she performed heroic actions, I don’t see her becoming an actual villian.
Wasn’t Mai Trin rather heroic as well?
^Kormir, Treehead, Ellen Kiel. I think there’s a pattern in Guild Wars.
not even close? where the heck did you get that idea from? She was an inquest spy who killed the late council man that kiel replaced.
I’m going to go with innocent poster child for incompetent administration, though if she is removed from her position, evon better get to work on that abaddon fractal.
Also, she is very obviously a hero, she performed heroic actions, I don’t see her becoming an actual villian.
Wasn’t Mai Trin rather heroic as well?
^Kormir, Treehead, Ellen Kiel. I think there’s a pattern in Guild Wars.
not even close? where the heck did you get that idea from? She was an inquest spy who killed the late council man that kiel replaced.
That’s the point, you don’t know a good spy is a spy until its too late
Everything ellen did she didn’t do. The players did and she just showed up and well claimed it all for herself like treehorn did in the personal story.
And the reason Ellen and Trahearne are like that is because this is an MMORPG. It’s hard to try to write the game specifically for the players without any intermediaries, because the writers can’t know who the players are.
Lets say you’re a brand new player. Would you like to be told that you’re the hero who entered the Aetherblade Retreat and routed their forces, when you just started playing two weeks ago and have no idea what an Aetherblade is? I don’t think that’s really immersive. Enter Ellen Kiel. She went with the players into the Aetherblade Retreat. Players who did that event can now say “I was there, I helped her”, while players who weren’t there can say “okay, this NPC did it”. That’s why all these NPCs are there, from Destiny’s Edge to the Order mentors to Trahearne and Ellen and the B-Iconics. The story is delivered to you through them, because crafting dialogue to deal with five races and two genders of player characters simply isn’t feasible. They cram a lot of dialogue into the game already, but imagine if they had to do ten times as much of it because it’s your character doing the talking in the cutscenes rather than Braham. We already saw the effects that can have from the Personal Story, where your distinct racial quirks displayed in the cutscenes go by the wayside once you hit the Order portion of the story that overlaps between races. The Charr discipline and Asura sarcasm and Norn boastfulness and Sylvari wonder all goes away.
The player is still the hero at the end of the day. People who were there to kill Scarlet get credited as her killer. Kiel calls you the ‘leader’ of the adventuring group in the story cutscene for this release. Trahearne doesn’t get to kill a dragon like you do, he just gets to sit on his rear end for however many years now trying to cleanse a rotting continent. But he’s not the Pact Marshal because they want to belittle the players, he’s the Pact Marshal because it’s easier to script that part of the game around one character rather than potentially ten different ones. You still wind up making all the important decisions, doing all the fighting, and in the end getting all the credit as Hero of Tyria.
Can this be the last post on Trahearne/NPCs “stealing” players’ glory? Forever? Like, this post just drops a /thread on every conversation on the topic from now until the end of eternity? There’s really nothing else to it. If you want recognition from scripted NPCs, single-player RPGs are better. Hell, I bet in DA:I, you get to be the biggest hero in the history of forever once you close that rift. So let’s all wait for that.
As for Kiel, I don’t see her becoming a villain – Taimi doesn’t like her because obviously, an asura would be better at organization than a human, and merchants would just complain about something else if Gnashblade had won – unless something drastic happens. Which it could! <insert Mordremoth insidious parasite>
“Quaggan will kick your tail so hard it slaps you in the face!” – Willoo
