Guild Wars 2

Now for starters everyone should know that this is only theoretical based on a few facts from LS2 and HoT so it doesn’t mean anything. But based on these facts it is possible to deduct which race makes the most sense.

OK so which of the 5 races is it? (drum roll)

To the surprise of absolutely no one on the planet the Pact Commander is most likely HUMAN!

But of course you all want to know how did I come up with this conclusion so here goes:
First hint is in “Fallen Hopes” at the very start of the mission Taimi says that She, Braham and Rox cannot go along for this one due to their weight. Of course Taimi is the lightest of everyone but she cannot move long distancess without Scruffy.
So that eliminates both Charr and Norn in one go as for a fact they aren’t even that big for their own race standards. Braham is in fact slightly shorter than Eir so he probably isn’t even a fully grown Norn yet. I did LS2 with each race and both my Charr and Norn characters are much bigger than them. Heck I would say my Charr Engineer when placed near them looked like he would weight more than the 2 of them together.
Same goes for my Norn Warrior – well he would be lighter than my Engineer though.
So when I did this on my Engineer (he was the 2nd character I did this with) I was like “LOL how is my char not too heavy for this?”

Ok so now we have 2 races less what remains are Asura, Human and Sylvari.
Next is pretty obvious as there is no way the Commander is Sylvari if you look at this from a logical point of view. No one would trust the commander if he/she was a Sylvari after it is revealed they are servant’s of Mordremoth. I mean how would the pact trust a leader who at any moment may lead them to their doom?
In fact a good leader would know that himself and give up his command to someone else – at least until Mordremoth is defeated. For example he/she could give leadership to Rytlock Brimstone – he is a tribune which makes him experienced at leading armies. And he is the only member of destiny’s edge that remains in the game during HoT. Well apart from Caithe but you can probably guess why she does not have the right qualifications.

So all that remains is Human and Asura. Well while Asura would fit too most dialogues do not speak in their favor. I mean like every race they have a few of their own. But most of the time even if the commander is Asura he/she still needs everyone to explain everything despite the fact they are suppose to be smart.
Also the Asura only dialogues are inconsistent sometimes. Like when they find Scarlet’s secret room the comander makes fun of Scarlet’s early Steam Golem design. Yet when Timi decides to stay he tells her he would love to stay and document this too.
Another thing is when they find Omadd’s device which allowed Scarlet to see the “Eternal Alchemy” the commander has no unique dialogue related to it. And probably every Asura would love to see it yet the commander is not excited about it before or after witnessing it. The commander also does not seem to have any unique dialogue when talking to Phlunt or any of the other Asura with him.
And before you ask yes I know that if you play Asura the commander will know about Rata Novus – that would be strange if there was no different dialogue for that.

And that’s why the commander being Human is most consistent with the story – at least thus far. But as I said before all of this means nothing and the race is not specific lore wise just like gender.

I would disagree. In my opinion, the commander’s race which fits the story the most is, in fact, sylvari. From what I’ve seen, they (meaning sylvari PCs) have by far the highest amount of unique dialogue options, reflecting both their inner conflict and their external confrontations with those who would not trust them any longer. Besides, a sylvari commander is basically the only person in Tyria capable of convincing others that his/her race does not consist entirely of Mordremoth’s allies and can, in fact, still be trusted.

Besides, the commander’s guild (DE 2.0) includes NPC members of every race but sylvari. The original DE represented all five dominant races of Tyria; it would make sense for the new guild to include members of all five races, too.

That, and Mordremoth was voiced specifically to be heard by sylvari PCs.

There are several errors in your logic by the one in the fallen hopes section is pretty large.

Taimi basically says that Rox+Braham+Scruffy+Marjory+Kasmeer+Commander = too heavy. You have concluded that since Rox and Braham get left out that a charr or norn commander is also too heavy. The problem is that Taimi only said that everyone combined was too heavy, not that a charr or norn on their own would be too heavy.

Rox and Braham get left out not because they’d be too heavy on their own but because they’re rather useless compared to the one man (or woman as the case may be) army that is the commander.

See above post.

Plus almost all of HoT gives a nod to your race, adding content for sylvari but noting when you’re not one as well. The fact that you can still command respect from your troops and get them to shape up when playing as a sylvari or keeping your troops in line/keeping sylvari in your sights as another race is a testament to the player character being given a better role.

All that’s missing is something unique for norn in one mission in particular and some charr chatter with Rytlock and Rox, in my opinion. Otherwise they did a decent job of bringing the player character into matters without, sylvari aside, explicitly referencing race.

I definitely disagree, Sylvari has an entirely unique story in Heart of Thorns. Sylvari is most likely the ‘canon’ choice, with human being a close second.

If you’re going to argue canonical race for the Pact Commander, go do the Season 1 recap and watch the video that shows Scarlet Briar’s end.

Who does it show stomping that violent little shrub as the Pact Commander? Female norn.

/thread

What are you talking about? What pact commander? The player character is the pact commander. I don’t get this silly topic. There is no canonical race, and that is the point of GW2 story narration.

Sylvari commander is the most fun!

I agree about the jarring inconsistency. When Taimi was thoroughly patronisingly explaining to my Asura main what frequency modulation meant, I really wanted a “They don’t hand out Snaff Prizes like sweets, kid!” dialogue option.

Then, a bit later, Taimi says to that Charr scientist/engineer that ‘I’ didn’t need to be talked down to, since ‘I’ was a Snaff Prize winner, don’tchaknow….

GW2 gets lots of things right, but story telling ain’t one of ’em.

Yeah, there really needed to be more dialogue options…

AsurasRCute.4136:

I agree about the jarring inconsistency. When Taimi was thoroughly patronisingly explaining to my Asura main what frequency modulation meant, I really wanted a “They don’t hand out Snaff Prizes like sweets, kid!” dialogue option.

Then, a bit later, Taimi says to that Charr scientist/engineer that ‘I’ didn’t need to be talked down to, since ‘I’ was a Snaff Prize winner, don’tchaknow….

GW2 gets lots of things right, but story telling ain’t one of ’em.

There was also that moment in LS2 when you discover Scarlet’s lab in Dry Top where Taimi talks about co-authoring a paper with you (if you were an Asura), but then treats you like a bookah in the next few chapters.

If there’s something that ANet’s really consistent with, it’s being inconsistent.

Mortifer.2946:

What are you talking about? What pact commander? The player character is the pact commander. I don’t get this silly topic. There is no canonical race, and that is the point of GW2 story narration.

He’s saying if you watch the S1 recap, it doesn’t automatically put your player character in there, it uses a default character, which is a female Norn, and the argument is of course that since she is the default used in a story recap, then clearly that must be the true pact commander.