Guild Wars 2

I finally leveled my main through to 80 and through the story and…well, Trahearne is freaking awesome. I never felt overshadowed by him, more like partners. Throughout the plot it was obvious that we saw our development alongside Trahearne’s own growth.

I dunno, not ranting or anything, I just don’t get all the hate. Is it envy for that wicked greatsword he’s got or something? He’s pretty cool, IMO (but yeah, dat sword).

dirtyklingon.2918:

you must be a wesley crusher fan too.

Nah. Wil Wheaton seems like a great guy, but overall I’m a Picard kinda guy.

Well, if we’re taking the story seriously, he’s an idiot. The lord commander of the pact goes out on field missions with his lieutenants?! Are you kidding me?

I understand that its a fantasy world but its also not a kids’ cartoon.

you must not have been paying very close attention to anything going on around you

He’s whiny, lifeless, and get’s so much credit for stuff you never see him do.

Oh, except for when he upstaged my necro by summoning 5 flesh golems and everyone praised him for saving the day despite the fact that he literally does nothing while I kill everything for 99% of the story.

That’s all.

And that voice acting…. my god it’s like he didn’t even care.

He has zero personality and takes all the credit despite doing absolutely nothing. At least he didn’t ascend to godhood like Kormir did, that would’ve really made me mad.

Pretty much what others said. Takes credit for doing nothing, ect.

However I forgive him because he revives you during the last boss in campaign mode(excluding arah)

I hate him because he get to play with that sword when I got it taken from me after 1 mission.

Tomkatt.1684:

I finally leveled my main through to 80 and through the story and…well, Trahearne is freaking awesome. I never felt overshadowed by him, more like partners. Throughout the plot it was obvious that we saw our development alongside Trahearne’s own growth.

I dunno, not ranting or anything, I just don’t get all the hate. Is it envy for that wicked greatsword he’s got or something? He’s pretty cool, IMO (but yeah, dat sword).

I feel the same way Trahearne is cool, he’s like your partner and yes dat sword!

I think it’s because he sounds like that Xtranormal character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0W2j-XWR8

Rhyse.8176:

I think it’s because he sounds like that Xtranormal character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0W2j-XWR8

I’m so tempted to make a video about trahearne lol.

“No! The ritual failed.”

No not the wimp wes. at least that is what I called him.
Trafern isnt that bad just that he is the hero in the end and you work for him. Dont mind being the help but kinda wished I could have death blossomed him and handed him over to the dragon. Become the king of the risen and all but then that is another story.

Tybalt reminded my kinda of Gus from Tor and that was a good role and enjoyed that story line.

I get all of your complaints and appreciate the legit comments, though I really don’t appreciate the kitten who want to take jabs at me personally based on my opinion.

That said, I stand by my opinion. Despite overall dislike of Trahearne, he does grow as a character over the course of the campaign, and I actually found him likable, and have no issues with his voice actor either. You do see him progress, much as you do yourself, and I think a lot of the butthurt about it stems from the fact that it makes another character in your campaign as important as you, the player, are.

I personally like the fact that my progression as a character occurs via my interaction with the campaign plot, while Trahearne’s progression occurs likewise, via interaction with the player character. I have no issue with dissenting opinions, but leaving personal attacks out of it would be nice.

He comes across as having a really weak personality frame.

Yet he is the leader of the pact.

It just seems wrong on many levels.

One thing to keep in mind is that unless you are a Sylvari, he is literally shoe horned into your story because really the Zhaitan story is very Sylvari focused.

For me, I never felt overshadowed myself. At the same time though, I do not hate but I also do not like him. He had potential for being a interesting character……..but felt rushed, especially for non-Sylvari players.

Unfortunately, presentation has never been GW’s strong point. The plot and lore? Great, but the presentation is where is normally falls apart with exceptions such as Tybalt. Some will tell you otherwise, but even Guild Wars 1 had bad presentation with a few exceptions. Funnily enough, in my opinion Nightfall was the strongest of the stories……..while having possibly the worst character in Kormir.

Trehearne’s calm and grave demeanor upsets people. There is also the fact you share a good deal of your personal story with him were he is the main focus. That wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t just pop out of nowhere.

Personally, I like him too, for some reason he makes me laugh.

Before I actively played my story, I thought Logan should go die in a fire. After I played my story up to the parts where Trahearne shows up, I didn’t care about Logan anymore. That guy still deserves to die (permanently instead of in every single encounter with every single mob) but Trahearne is just so much worse.

Basically everything about Trahearne annoys me. They should rather have done the story missions with the (also horribly written) Destiny’s Edge drama club than give us Trahearne.

Celestina.2894:

One thing to keep in mind is that unless you are a Sylvari, he is literally shoe horned into your story because really the Zhaitan story is very Sylvari focused.

For me, I never felt overshadowed myself. At the same time though, I do not hate but I also do not like him. He had potential for being a interesting character……..but felt rushed, especially for non-Sylvari players.

Unfortunately, presentation has never been GW’s strong point. The plot and lore? Great, but the presentation is where is normally falls apart with exceptions such as Tybalt. Some will tell you otherwise, but even Guild Wars 1 had bad presentation with a few exceptions. Funnily enough, in my opinion Nightfall was the strongest of the stories……..while having possibly the worst character in Kormir.

I liked him pretty well as a Norn, but yeah, I have to admit I liked him a lot more and understood his place in the plot better after rolling a Sylvari up to 20 or so.

I liked Trahearne’s concept, a gentle scholar whose destiny throws him a massive curve ball, forcing him to become the one thing he never thought he could be.

I didn’t mind being his partner, as a Sylvari myself, I respected Trahearne for being a firstborn of my kind and felt he was much more deserving of being the pact’s leader.

I kinda saw myself as his right hand, the commander with a reputation for killing stuff lol. Obviously, I have far more prowess in battle but Trahearne I always saw as a strategist behind it all.

So yeah, I liked Trahearne but my biggest issue with him was his voice acting, it’s shoddy and disconnected at best. I honestly don’t know what Anet was thinking, approving such BLATANTLY awful work for such a main character. Have a look at The Secret World’s voice acting and you’ll really be able to see how amateur Trahearne’s voice acting is. I know the OP has no problem with it, but maybe you would if you had a point of comparison.

So yeah, loved Trahearne’s character concept, but felt it was spoiled by that god awful monotone.

Panzen.4625:

Before I actively played my story, I thought Logan should go die in a fire. After I played my story up to the parts where Trahearne shows up, I didn’t care about Logan anymore. That guy still deserves to die (permanently instead of in every single encounter with every single mob) but Trahearne is just so much worse.

Basically everything about Trahearne annoys me. They should rather have done the story missions with the (also horribly written) Destiny’s Edge drama club than give us Trahearne.

Geez, I guess I’m really in the minority here. I also like Logan, though I admit, his Queen obsession can be grating at times (though obviously he’s in love with her, so it makes sense from the character perspective).

I liked Trahearne. But I like everybody. My biggest fault.

Tomkatt.1684:

Panzen.4625:

Before I actively played my story, I thought Logan should go die in a fire. After I played my story up to the parts where Trahearne shows up, I didn’t care about Logan anymore. That guy still deserves to die (permanently instead of in every single encounter with every single mob) but Trahearne is just so much worse.

Basically everything about Trahearne annoys me. They should rather have done the story missions with the (also horribly written) Destiny’s Edge drama club than give us Trahearne.

Geez, I guess I’m really in the minority here. I also like Logan, though I admit, his Queen obsession can be grating at times (though obviously he’s in love with her, so it makes sense from the character perspective).

I liked Logan a bit more as I went further in the story for dungeons……mostly because of the delicious bromance between him and Rytlock. The major flaw I feel stems a lot from the book, while I have not read it, I have heard the book that introduces this conflict was horridly written. It really was a no-win situation for Logan and COULD have been very good, but again from what I have heard the writing betrayed it.

While that’s obviously not the reason for everyone’s dislike of Logan, it is certainly one reason.

And back to my point about presentation, it really does not do Logan any favors either.

Are you kidding me? He immediately replaced Tybalt, and we loved him, and he’s this guy who just comes up out of the blue and hijacks our personal story. He’s arrogant, has no real personality, and doesn’t seem memorable at all.

I thought he was a pretty well thought out character myself. He’s a gentle guy thrust into the hot-seat and although he could come across as timid he knows what needs to be done and isnt afraid to help out. I liked his character progression and im sorry but I liked the voice acting as well. I think the main reason why the acting is seen by some as poor is because its not showy and bold. He isnt that kind of character…. Sylvari’s are a gentle but smart race and im not just saying that because I have leaf-tinted glasses on! To me it felt as though he knew what he was doing every step of the way and it was down to you to do the showy things. He isnt the typical main character and I felt I could connect with more because of this fact. I dont know…maybe you have to be a Sylvari to fully understand him.

One more mention- I was happy to hand the sword over to him. Then it started to grow on me…. now I demand that he gives it back to me!

I don’t blame the voice actor – the dialogue given to Trahearne is some of the corniest in the game – on par with the tosh you hear in the human origin stories.

I can’t really hate Trahearne, because we really don’t know enough about him to form a solid opinion. Like most of the characters met in the personal story there isn’t much substance to him.

He’s a moron, with a seed for a brain and he is boring so boring I mute the game and read what he is saying while pumping some trance music, worst endgame companion character ever ! In the companions department SWTOR totally beats GW2 I’m sorry to say.

His sword saladbowel of whatever it was called was pretty cool.

giving necro guardian abilities what a boss sword

I dislike Trahearne because he repeatedly takes credit for things he didn’t do.

Well my first run through the game was with Order of Whispers, I did loads of stuff with my partner who was a great bloke, we had a lot of laughs, we got a lot of big important stuff done….then Trahearne took all the credit.

He’s an opportunist leech with all the personality of a plank of wood. And he’s rubbish in a fire fight.

The change in hispersonality from scholar to marshal is too fast and makes him seem conceited more than anything else, and his voice acting… oh God the voice acting. I swear every single passerby NPC had more emotion than he did.

Its not that I hate Trahearne it’s that the story goes to crap once you meet him.

Yashimata.2986:

I dislike Trahearne because he repeatedly takes credit for things he didn’t do.

Orr Story spoilers

hide spoiler

Trahearne: The priory has a ritual that we think could cleanse Orr. (http://i.imgur.com/ufHiZ.jpg)
Next stage…
Trahearne: I have created a ritual that might cleanse the dragon’s corruption. (http://i.imgur.com/RQx4M.jpg)

To me this reads as the Priory has a ritual that him and the priory members think could cleanse Orr. It needed refining so he took that job and now has a more powerful ritual definitely able to cleanse Orr.

I never felt that Trahearne took over the story. However his acting, dialogue, and overall personality grated on me.

Thereon.3495:

Yashimata.2986:

I dislike Trahearne because he repeatedly takes credit for things he didn’t do.

Orr Story spoilers

hide spoiler

Trahearne: The priory has a ritual that we think could cleanse Orr. (http://i.imgur.com/ufHiZ.jpg)
Next stage…
Trahearne: I have created a ritual that might cleanse the dragon’s corruption. (http://i.imgur.com/RQx4M.jpg)

To me this reads as the Priory has a ritual that him and the priory members think could cleanse Orr. It needed refining so he took that job and now has a more powerful ritual definitely able to cleanse Orr.

Trahearne forgets when I’ve already met people and keeps re-introducing them to me. (My mesmer was introduced to Tegwen and Carys due to a choice I made, and then later when they are part of a Pact mission Trahearne behaves as if I’ve never met them before. Fortunately, during the mission, they don’t pretend to have just met me.)
Trahearne sounds like a text-to-speech program, with about the same emotional range as a toaster.
Trahearne is placed above the Orders’ leadership due to being impartial. Cool, we [the characters in the game, I mean] all agreed that one member of one of the Orders, which included our player character, might not be impartial. But apparently a side-effect of being the Marshal means Trahearne gets to take credit for everything you and the notable NPCs of the world do.

Somehow Trahearne is the one who gets credit for the Pact despite it being the player character’s idea.
Trahearne seeks out your advice for various things and then claims he came up with it. It starts with simple things -- your character tells Trahearne what to call the fortress the Pact is building [Fort Trinity], but then the next time it comes up he tells everyone in a rally that he came up with the name -- and grows.

I would need to get back into some of the missions to snag more dialogue for examples, but there are several, like the one mentioned above about the Priory.

The idea of Trahearne, that of a scholar on his own Wyld Hunt to heal the lands being forced into a position of leadership and to command warriors, scientists, explorers, assassins, etc. and bring together disparate groups under one banner, is genuinely pretty good.

But too often the storytelling praises Trahearne, focuses on him, and/or ignores details about who you are and what you’ve done. When paired with his poor acting, the writing surrounding Trahearne makes him an awful character.

Each of the mentors you work with prior to being paired with him had far more personality as well.

Awesome.6120:

Anet took away Tybalt and gave us Trahearne in his place. The resentment should be understandable.

Hehe this.

I don’t even hate Trahearne or anything, and hadn’t really put too much thought into it before I saw this thread, but my main is Charr, and therefore the first story I played. I thought Tybalt was awesome, and was actually sad when he was killed, even though yes this is just a video game. I thought he was part of my story line because we were Charr. Trahearne just doesn’t compare in the story to the Tybalt character, who was so very likeable.

Now, playing through with my Norn thief, it is becoming evident that Tybalt is going to die AGAIN…awful, just awful! I honestly didn’t think the different profession and race story lines would be that close. Kinda figured you would get partnered with different characters. But either way, Trahearne pops up out of nowhere which makes him seem more…meh.

I can’t say I take issue with the credit part, though. I feel like our characters progress rather fast from nothing to something, and I rather felt the opposite; that playing second in command to him was a reach for MY character, rather than his leading being undeserved. I assumed all along that someone like Trahearne has been around a lot longer and has some established experience built up. Maybe I will play the Sylvari story and find that not to be true.

Spoiler -

I will try not to be too harsh, but it is hard to do when he literally does everything I am about to type.

He is a horrid glory thief, constantly takes credit for the players hard work. Has a position of authority that he did not earn and at every corner he shows he is not capable to lead.

Firstly Claw Island onwards is Trahearne’s personal story, not the player character, which instantly irks anyone who is paying attention to what is going on around them. Seriously, this is meant to be my (your) story.

I honestly thought I was back at school when he asked me to quiz the pack people what they thought of him, what is he fourteen? He steals credit from the priory in regards to the cleansing ritual as stated above. He comes right out of left field and acts like he is the player characters BFF, without even earning it like Forgal and the rest do, he even completely forgets you met before if you have the Sylvari origin. He rarely makes any decisions as the leader constantly relying on the player character to make almost all of them.

He states multiple times how hopeless the situation is and that members of the pact are throwing their lives away, while they are right in front of him, seriously bad leadership. His speeches are delivered quite flatly, not entirely the voice actors fault, it is correct for a Sylvari to be emotionally impared as most seem to be, but the speeches all lack that `Commander Shepard´ special something. As for his use in combat, he is pathetic but that would be nitpicking.

I must say it really was a feat of writing, but Arena Net did manage to create a character more disliked than the glory thief Kormir, who stole Godhood from us. That is not a good thing by the way!

It boggles my mind that anyone can find any endearing qualities in the character.

Aedelric.1287:

Spoiler -

I will try not to be too harsh, but it is hard to do when he literally does everything I am about to type.

He is a horrid glory thief, constantly takes credit for the players hard work. Has a position of authority that he did not earn and at every corner he shows he is not capable to lead.

Firstly Claw Island onwards is Trahearne’s personal story, not the player character, which instantly irks anyone who is paying attention to what is going on around them. Seriously, this is meant to be my (your) story.

I honestly thought I was back at school when he asked me to quiz the pack people what they thought of him, what is he fourteen? He steals credit from the priory in regards to the cleansing ritual as stated above. He comes right out of left field and acts like he is the player characters BFF, without even earning it like Forgal and the rest do, he even completely forgets you met before if you have the Sylvari origin. He rarely makes any decisions as the leader constantly relying on the player character to make almost all of them.

He states multiple times how hopeless the situation is and that members of the pact are throwing their lives away, while they are right in front of him, seriously bad leadership. His speeches are delivered quite flatly, not entirely the voice actors fault, it is correct for a Sylvari to be emotionally impared as most seem to be, but the speeches all lack that `Commander Shepard´ special something. As for his use in combat, he is pathetic but that would be nitpicking.

I must say it really was a feat of writing, but Arena Net did manage to create a character more disliked than the glory thief Kormir, who stole Godhood from us. That is not a good thing by the way!

It boggles my mind that anyone can find any endearing qualities in the character.

“Yeah… hey commander? I don’t know what to do, any ideas?”

~Later on~

“I did it!” ~whispers~ “Thanks commander, now go do this”

Such terrible voice acting.
Arguably the cheesiest lines in the game.

Pretty much that. No match for the decent people like Tybalt or Rytlock etc.

I play a Sylvari Necro so meeting Trahearne was very exciting for me. My mentor. The one I should look up to. My hero worship faded.

First off he only used minions 2 times. Once on the wall to guard himself during the retaking of Claw Island and them again in the cave when he summoned 5 Flesh Golems. Whats up with that. He is using a Scepter and a Focus. Where your minions dude.

Next. Yes the Greatsword the Pale Tree gives him is awesome but he is a necromancer and necro’s can’t use Greatswords. What the hey? He does start to fight more after he gets the sword instead of standing there getting smacked in the face.

I actually liked the sound of his voice but the script was bad at times. He seemed depressed. His favorite line “This isn’t gona end well.” Thanks for the confidence Eeyore.

I am OK with him being the Leader. He can stand there and let me do all the work. That’s what leaders do. They also take all the credit for all the hard work there underlings do. It’s just the way things are.

He does show some affection to me sometimes. Telling me he is glad I am there. He is having a hard time being in charge of things. He is not a natural leader.

At times I like Trafern then he whines and I want to smack him. Then he is nice to me and I forgive him. It’s a love hate thing we have going.

I want Tybol back.

Personality wise he is not as good as any of the three mentors of the orders who are all very well done. He can’t make a decision to save his life but gets all the glory for things that you as the player do.

I didn’t decide to play a fantasy game so I could be robin… I want to be batman. Becoming the sidekick to the main storyline was a very bitter pill to swallow, which wasn’t helped by the poor implementation. My first character was human and I didn’t know who the heck this Trahearne guy was who suddenly took over my story. After playing as a Sylvari it makes a little more sense, though I still don‘t feel that Trahearne is any more qualified to lead the pact than me. If anything he should be your advisor since he has knowledge of Orr, but your character is clearly the one getting things done.

The worst thing you can hear during a personal story quest is Traherane telling you “Whatever you decide, I’m going with you.”. Arghhh, go away!

Trahearne is totally lifeless and devoid of personality. It sounds like the actor is just reading the lines out and not engaging fully with them, probably because the script was so poor he felt embarassed saying the lines. Pretty much every other character in the game has better voice acting. For such a central character this just isn’t good enough and I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t bring myself to complete the personal story on my alts because of it.

Aedelric.1287:

Spoiler -

I will try not to be too harsh, but it is hard to do when he literally does everything I am about to type.

He is a horrid glory thief, constantly takes credit for the players hard work. Has a position of authority that he did not earn and at every corner he shows he is not capable to lead.

Firstly Claw Island onwards is Trahearne’s personal story, not the player character, which instantly irks anyone who is paying attention to what is going on around them. Seriously, this is meant to be my (your) story.

I honestly thought I was back at school when he asked me to quiz the pack people what they thought of him, what is he fourteen? He steals credit from the priory in regards to the cleansing ritual as stated above. He comes right out of left field and acts like he is the player characters BFF, without even earning it like Forgal and the rest do, he even completely forgets you met before if you have the Sylvari origin. He rarely makes any decisions as the leader constantly relying on the player character to make almost all of them.

He states multiple times how hopeless the situation is and that members of the pact are throwing their lives away, while they are right in front of him, seriously bad leadership. His speeches are delivered quite flatly, not entirely the voice actors fault, it is correct for a Sylvari to be emotionally impared as most seem to be, but the speeches all lack that `Commander Shepard´ special something. As for his use in combat, he is pathetic but that would be nitpicking.

I must say it really was a feat of writing, but Arena Net did manage to create a character more disliked than the glory thief Kormir, who stole Godhood from us. That is not a good thing by the way!

It boggles my mind that anyone can find any endearing qualities in the character.

This sums up my opinion of him perfectly

it’s because he’s a worse mary sue than the vast majority of devoiant art fanfiction.

if kirk and spock had a baby and that baby went on to save the galaxy single handedly and marry wesley crusher, it would be more interesting and less 2 dimensional than traehearne.

bella swan has more depth and pathos than traehearne.

If anything it feels like Trahearne is more of my receptionist or at most an adviser; it just doesn’t feel like he did much of anything.

The story, starting from where Trahearne first appears, just starts to feel rushed. Many characters that we are seemingly supposed to feel connected to, just have no attachment because almost no time whatsoever was used to build that connection needed. “Oh, look another character I’m supposed to care about just died… ok wheres my phat lootz.”

I personally don’t think Trahearne was the problem, but the lack of depth of the characters due to that half of the story just feeling so rushed (I mean it was polished and all, but it was missing so much needed character building)…

i didn’t mind him till he gave me my first order of business as his second in command. what was the first thing he gets you to do? go ask people why they don’t like him. Holding him by the hand and leading him around the school yard asking people to like him made me feel like a kitten.

synk.6907:

Trahearne forgets when I’ve already met people and keeps re-introducing them to me.

To be honest, continuity is just terrible all around in the story. I have a sylvari that fought side by side with Trahearne before I joined an order, met Tybalt, and then had Tybalt “introduce” me to Trahearne.

Also in that personal story, the first part I meet a stranger in the midst of battle, trust him, and then I’m betrayed by him as he leads an assault on the Pale Tree. Caithe is by my side this entire time. Next mission, I meet another stranger in the midst of battle, trust him, then Caithe tells me “I trust him because you do.” Yeah, OK Caithe.

And let’s not even talk about the time when my asura visited Eir in Hoelbrak after reuniting Destiny’s Edge and slaying Zhaitan with them. “Hello, stranger.”

He has an incredibly weak insecure personality. In Forging the Pact he all but tells you to go and talk to the orders for him because he’s not sure that they’ll like him. And he’s the leader.. Also suffers from being on the heels of Kormir who was the leader of the sunspears despite being an absolute moron and ends up stealing godhood at the end of the game just because..