Guild Wars 2

I’m in a pretty small minority of players, but I know there are others like me. I also know I’ll probably get a lot of salt and shade for this but, I want some one at ANet to possibly see this.

There are a few us Trahearne fans who love him because we relate to him on so many levels. Even if the writers tried to say he isn’t neurodivergent they basically took most core aspects of “high functioning” autism and put them in Trahearne. It was great that we finally got a hero that we could truly connect with. Most writers take neurodivergent characters and use them as plot points- make a person more sympathetic (“Oh, look at what they put up with!” or “Aren’t they saints for caring for this poor mental cripple?”) or to push the story along by making a Red Shirt death “oh so very tragic!”. But ANet proved to be different- Trahearne has all these weird ticks and quirks, but he works with and around them and other characters work with him.

I know a few people who refused to buy HoT because it looked like things could go very wrong and they didn’t want to see them and become upset. I on the other hand was optimistic, I mean ANet has always made the game very inclusive and treated “different” characters well. Taimi has been an amazing character for those of us with physical disabilities and I feel that they would never do anything completely traumatizing to her. They take pride in the fact that disabled people relate to her and are happy to have a hero like them.

Sadly, I was wrong. Hell I had even thought that if he died it wouldn’t affect me too badly, but some massive insomnia later and I find that I am not taking it well. Most media uses neurodivergent people as stepping stones for “normal folk” and get the short end of the stick. We don’t get truly relateable characters, the only show that I’ve seen that made a great autistic character got canned after a few seasons. And now the ONE character that I had got taken away brutally and basically as a glorified Red Shirt.

I hate that I spent the money to buy the Ultimate edition. I probably won’t be able to get the same fun out of the game that I used to even if I never touch the HoT parts again. It’s so disappointing and I wish ANet had done better.

Your autistic Trahearne theory is a very interesting one. I get that you are sad that the hero you related to the most died, but keep in mind the way he died was one of the most heroic death in the lore to date. I would be happy if my favorite character logan went out in a way half as bad kitten as Trahearne’s death. (Still have my fingers crossed for a royal marriage though, please anet?)

Also keep in mind that Trahearne is a unique hero in that he is sylvari. So a at the vary least his memory lives on in the dream for all future sylvari. It’s sad that he’s dead, but he definitely made his mark on the story and we should all be happy that his character got as much attention from anet as it did.

I’ll admit I hated Trahearne, but moreso for the personal story turning more into about him than about us. Him as the character…dull at times, but not that bad.

As for the ending, it could be seen from a mile away. Mord gets ahold of one of the First Born, leader of the pact, and a powerful weapon. Yep, his backup plan is to plant (ha!) himself inside him and take full control of like an avatar, so we are gonna have to kill him. I mean, at least Mord wasn’t stupid enough to wait around to do it, he just did.

So yes, sorry your hero died, and people are upset that Eir died too. Heck, for me, the one death that almost brought a tear to my eye was Scruffy’s!

Yeah, that’s right. I almost cried over the death of a hunk of metal.

Deal with it

I hope that when the next part of the living story comes out we can see him put to rest in a more formal fashion. Same with Eir and all the Pact that fell during the botched assault. Your sadness is understandable, but they all died doing what they thought was right. Trahearne himself went out heroically. Heck it was stated they gave up their own chance to escape in order to give some Pact soldiers a chance.

While sad it shouldn’t lessen your admiration for these characters and I’m sure the writers love the fact that you appreciate them so.