Guild Wars 2

It is a common sentiment among forum posters and the general community that Trahearne is a bad character. He is commonly described as an unnecessary, credit-stealing Mary Sue/Marty Stu who ruins the personal story.

I’m going to make a bold statement in regards to Trahearne. He is not a Mary/Marty, nor is he a bad character in his own right. The way he is presented and integrated into the story, however, is awful.

On his birth and Wild Hunt

Trahearne is the first Sylvari, assigned to a special and important task by the Pale Tree. It is natural that she would have a special goal in mind for her first child, and so the importance of his particular quest should not come as a surprise, particularly when one considers the critical nature of Wild Hunts assigned to Firstborn Sylvari as a whole.

Trahearne’s hunt is to cleanse Orr – a difficult task that comes across as abstract, if not impossible. The gravity of the goal that has been thrust on him is a heavy weight that has intimidated and crushed him, though, to his credit, he took the task head on and lived alone in Orr for years to observe and learn about Zhaitan, Orr, and the Undead.

On his perceived perfect reputation.

The biggest source of his Mary Sue label may come from the sheer reverence that he receives from all three Orders. Certainly, it would seem that this is undue and unearned on the surface.

The fact of the matter, however, is that the respect he received from the Orders was entirely earned, albeit offscreen.

Let’s start with the Priory, as this one should be obvious. They are an organization of scholars and explorers. Trahearne is the foremost scholar on Orr and the only known individual with extensive, hands-on knowledge of the Undead hierarchy and of Zhaitan. This naturally puts him in a prestigious position among Tyria’s scholars. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that he has earned a status on par with any magister of the priory. In a perfect world, he would, in fact, be a gifted Priory scholar.

To understand his appeal to the Order of Whispers requires a bit more analysis of his accomplishments, but it is not much of a stretch and it does not require a great deal of lore theorycrafting. To survive alone in Orr requires stealth. Trahearne, whether it is shown by the game or not, would have naturally needed to be quite accomplished in this field or would have needed to adapt to this requirement quickly in order to make it to the position that he enjoys today. Even ignoring this necessary talent, which would make him a natural fit into the Order of Whispers, albeit with training, he also possesses a wealth of knowledge on Zhaitan and the Undead. Like the Priory, the Order craves knowledge and its acolytes, therefore, would love to have Trahearne in their ranks.

Now onto the Vigil. Why would an order of warriors have such great respect for a “simpering scholar,” as its members have described the Priory? It’s simple, really. Trahearne may come across as hesitant and emotionless, but the mere idea of stepping into Orr, much less living there is a concept that requires considerable courage to face. But let’s ignore this quality, for this is not the source his real value to the Vigil. Again, it doesn’t come down to any new kitten -pulled trait of perfection, but rather to his already-established knowledge of the undead, which holds immense and valuable tactical knowledge to the Vigil. Though Trahearne is certainly not a trained tactician, if the Vigil had managed to train him and add him to their numbers, he would have become an asset to their force.

Here we have a simple, logical explanation as to the immense value that the Orders have assigned to him. This is why he is a natural fit to lead all of them.

On his legendary sword, Caladbolg

Trahearne is no warrior. That much is obvious. Even after obtaining Caladbolg, he comes across as an utterly incompetent swordsman. Anyone who has played through the personal story and observed him in combat can attest to that.

And he is supposed to come across as an incompetent swordsman. Because he is. He has no martial training. Indeed, to quickly become a worthy wielder of the sword would have been a common Mary Sue trait.

So why then, did the Pale Tree give it to him?

It’s simple, really. The present had three purposes. Primarily, it was necessary. The sword turned out to be the catalyst that cleansed Orr at its source. The Pale Tree, with her apparent extensive knowledge of the world’s workings, would have probably understood this. It also had a secondary function, however, as the weapon is also symbolic. Bestowing it upon Trahearne granted him an air of authority that his lack of social skills left him profoundly lacking.

But that’s only two purposes. What is the the third function? Favoritism. Any Sylvari player knows that the sword has a natural strength against the undead. Granting the weapon to Trahearne was an effective means of protecting her firstborn child.

Why is he such a powerful Necromancer?

Any player who has seen his Legendary tag or watched him summon a horde of elite minions in “Forging the Pact” would no doubt question the great talent with which he practices necromancy.

Why does he have so much magical talent?

Because he has been observing the most powerful death magic in Tyria firsthand for years. It is also entirely possible that he has been absorbing energy from Zhaitan and Orr for the entirety of his stay. Is it really much of a stretch to assume that he would have developed such great talents.

If this is worthy of question, why not ask these as well:

Why is Queen Jennah capable of illusion magic powerful enough to trick a dragon? She just is.

Why is Kasmeer so talented? She just is.

And so on.

Really, Trahearne is one of the few characters whose absurd magical talents can be readily explained.

On his social reputation

Trahearne’s interactions with other characters are strange. While the Orders respect him, many of his Sylvari view him as strange and even unnerving or creepy.

That’s right. He does not have the respect of his own people. He is not, like most characters accused of Mary Sue status, a beloved member of their society. He is, in fact, a social outcast, and, socially speaking, this status is well-earned. He is quiet. He is awkward. His time in Orr has left him with an air of mystery that can come across as unnerving. Furthermore, his prolonged separation from society has left him incapable of functioning in it.

But why then do the players’ Mentors love him so much? Wasn’t that a bit of an kitten -pull?

In Sieran’s case, it makes perfect sense. It would have been unnatural for a Sylvari to NOT know of a member of the Firstborn, much less THE Firstborn. That leaves two questions, of course. How does he know her? Why doesn’t she view him with the same distaste as many other young Sylvari? The answer to the first is obvious enough. He no doubt met her during his interactions with the Priory. Chances are, he gifted them with knowledge at times, wanting to help their cause. It is also highly likely that Magisters, like Sieran, were sent as envoys to recruit Trahearne or that Sieran, with her curious nature, accompanied Trahearne on occasion to learn more about Orr. Now, the other question’s answer should also be obvious. Sieran is friendly, bubbly, curious, and non-judgmental. She is, in herself, a bit of a social outcast and was no doubt able to look past Trahearne’s faults and form a friendship with him.

Forgal and Tybalt are, of course, more difficult cases. I don’t really have an answer here, outside of Trahearne’s interactions with their orders. In all likelihood, this was just Anet’s writers matching the interactions with Sieran and (unsuccessfully) attempting to endear Trahearne to their players.

But why is he so boring?

Would you have social skills if you had lived alone, surrounded by undead, for the better part of your life? I think not.

The fault in his characterization comes not from his awkward, bland personality and stiff dialogue, but rather from the lack of character development as the story progresses. But that’s not unreasonable. Old habits die hard, and Trahearne would realistically need a lot of time to fit into his new role on a social level.

What does he need to come across as a better character?

Anet’s implementation of him failed on all three levels of presentation: backstory, integration, and development.

Backstory – Players need to experience it. Novels are great, but an ingame medium like cutscenes or a bonus mission pack like those in Guild Wars 1 would be ideal.

Integration – He should have joined the story sooner and befriended the player character more smoothly.

Development – Now that he’s here, he either needs to die (to the delight of the masses) or to redeem himself through character development. He has awkwardly stumbled into the shoes that he has earned. Now he has to learn to wear them proudly and naturally.

A nice analasys, but I have two remarks:

FirstTrahearne knows Sierran due to an accident with an undead Gorrilla. Sierran let it out of his cage which caused a lot of damage. Trahearne helped the priory in the issue. It is not a stretch that Trahearne would remember her. Here is the dialogue in the mission “The battle of Claw island”:

Magister Sieran: Dear Trahearne. I haven’t seen you since you helped the order with that undead gorilla!
Trahearne: The drowned Orrian one you let out of the cage? Yes, that was a menace. Did everything end up well?
Magister Sieran: I misread the sign language! It was saying “kill” and I thought it was saying “I feel better.”
Magister Sieran: It is wonderful to see you again.
Trahearne: If you don’t mind, I’ll accompany you on your rounds. It’s been a while since I’ve toured the fortress.

Secondly Trahearne made character development(warning this contains spoilers):

When Trahearne received his Wyld Hunt, he believed that he was send on an impossible task. He believed that Orr could not be cleansed more importantly he did not believe in his own capabilities. Nontheless he went to Orr and he began there to study the Orrian culture. During said studies he finds himself in Claw Island just before the invasion. After the battle of claw island he knows something has to be done to save Tyria.

So he went to the Pale Tree for advice. The Pale Tree reënforces her claim that Trahearne must cleanse Orr and this time she added he to defeat Zhaitan as well. Trahearne still believes that he cannot cleanse Orr nor defeat Zhaitan. The Pale Tree sees that Trahearne still doesn’t believes in himself and decided to give him two things. The first thing she gives is the first step to take against Zhaitan: help the orders and unite them against Zhaitan, the second gift was Caladbolg. Out of two gifts the second was most important one, not because of the value of Caladbolg, but because what the gift meant: It was a sign of the Pale Tree’s unwavering trust in Trahearne. While Trahearne still does not believe it, he still went to help the orders.

With the help of the PC he saves an order and unites them. He then lead the assault on Claw island. After the succesfull assault he sees the truth in the Pale Tree’s words and for the first time he start believing in himself, if just a little. With renewed vigor he starts forming the pact and changes from an socially-awkward scholar to an inspiring Marshall. Throughout the victories of the pact he starts seeing that his task was not as impossible as he believed it to be and more importantly he starts believing in himself. In the quest “Against the corruption” he almost relapsed due the failed ritual. Instead with some help he persevered and finally conquered Zhaitan and his self doubts.

hey just want to add a little thought to this thread.

many complain that Thrahearn steals the show, and in some way he does, but for me this really seems as part of the story, the PC has just left home and is finding itself in a whole new world. it has just meet destiney edge, and is only beginning to create its own legend. to me the living story is were the PC is meant to shine, we now know the world and all the people in it, and we are now forming our own story, to me the personel story is a story about destineys edge, Orr, and the ending of a story that startet before the game. the living story is our story which will forge our legend.

I actually always liked Trahearne, but could not really explain to all the haters why I think he is alright. You pointed it out pretty well.
I would be one of the few sad people if he died.

To be honest I had never really a problem with him.
He, like many other characters you meet toward the end of the personal story started their story in some other parts of the world and you often never met them.
However the writers included them and their destiny (death in some cases) and asked us to care about them in some way.
That sadly failed as often (if our character knew them) they did not recognize them, or you did not know what the fuss was all about. Why should we care about random namend NPC Number 145?

Trahearn entered the limelight in the wake of a forced and in some cases uncharactaristic death of our former mentor and we are suddenly stuck with him.

I personaly did not mind, just that he wasn´t as cool as the one we had before.
Overall he was there for me and did his job.

Over time I did not mind being the driving force and possible puppetmaster behind him

At the moment however he is really bad presented in my opinion.

That is mostly (again, my opinion) the writers/pacing/cutting room floor/etc. fault, as he is nothing more than the only representation of the pact we got in four episodes and a long time since the roar (the event everyone agrees on is the wake of Mordremoth and everyone is knowing about).

He rose in confidence and knowledge throughout the PS, however now, in the LS he tells us things like:

I’m only here to give you moral support and to answer any questions about the Pact’s current plans. You’re the one who must make the world leaders see that this is a matter of dire importance.

I am there as the pact comander. That I was the one to make the call to them just should not have been nessessary.

And if I may interrupt, this Pact commander has far more knowledge about Mordremoth than I do.

How am I, someone who only stumbled about, more knowledgeable then the Pact itself, who by developer explanation not only knew about Mordremoth from the roar itself. Knew about his name and nature and has the knowledge of the Priory (a gorup of scholars whose goal at the moment is to defeat and study the EDs), the Order of Whispers (a secret organisation devoted to gather all intel, also against the EDs atm.) and the Vigil (an army skilled in ED fighting).

I do not know what the writers have in store for him, however right now he does not convincingly represent the pact nor himself.

His words told me indirectly that I should lead the pact which is impossible, because I am still member of an order. I am okay with commander title.

I got the feeling too that he was a bad replacement of my order mentor, but without him I would have had to do all the things without backup. I wouldn’t have been able to unite the orders and actually missing any useful backup for the fight against the dragon turning the story into one with some helping hands against a dragon.

The “boring” voicing of the character is well done in my eyes showing his concerns and the full weight of the task he got, but that is far from being best friends. All of our order mentors had their special moments (Tybalts mission status, Sieran – Gixx – Relation or the overdrawn fun rude way Forgal did his missions) and all of them showed joy during their missions. Trahearne gave an emotionless feeling but stepped to our side as soon as we lost our partner. He did well and there are people in real life which are doing things for the greater good without beeing recognized or are even liked.

The only thing that he did wrong is that he should have come along on the final stage. He should have helped fighting the dragon, but no, he gives us the pact resources for the mission (making us the temporary leader of the pact) and welcomes the heroes after the fight with throwing a giant party. I mean, he was on every important mission around, but not on our final one while we are the reason he was able to finish his final mission.

I generally agree… I dislike him, but it’s mostly because of how he is used in the game. He would have worked a lot better as an advisory role in the pact for example; I still think it’s wise not to have the player as the highest hen though – would have liked a third power to form a triad

Additionally, I think the voice acting is a bit lacking in delivery. It’s actually a great voice, but sometimes its tone is a bit off – or at least, I picture Trahearne able to sound more emotional than that, to reflect when he -does- get involved. In other situations than those it works though.

You should change the title to “The story: Badly presented, not bad” because this applies to nearly every aspect in this game story-wise.

I think his main problem was he’s supposed to be the leader of the Pact, but doesn’t really act like it. He comes along as a peon on each mission, and a weak one at that. You get this disconnect between his position and his capabilities.

It would have been much better if he had stayed back at base (except on the two cleansing missions of course, kind of needed to be there) and the story propped up his image through simple dialogue of the successful missions he’s planned and turned the tide of the war.

To some extent the player suffers under this too. We’re commander of the Pact forces and yet we’re off on all sorts of missions that would really be more suited for people in less of a leadership role. Its sort of the Kirk Effect. Captain, yet goes along on every single dangerous away mission.

Fiction often has this difficulty because you want main characters to be important with prestigious ranks, yet you can’t just have them always out of the spotlight and away from the action. It doesn’t have to be that way for Treehearne though, he can stay back at base where a scholar belongs.

Maybe they should have made Rytlock the leader of the Pact, it would be plausible he goes off to punch things on every misison. : P

Rukh.9287:

I think his main problem was he’s supposed to be the leader of the Pact, but doesn’t really act like it. He comes along as a peon on each mission, and a weak one at that. You get this disconnect between his position and his capabilities.

It would have been much better if he had stayed back at base (except on the two cleansing missions of course, kind of needed to be there) and the story propped up his image through simple dialogue of the successful missions he’s planned and turned the tide of the war.

To some extent the player suffers under this too. We’re commander of the Pact forces and yet we’re off on all sorts of missions that would really be more suited for people in less of a leadership role. Its sort of the Kirk Effect. Captain, yet goes along on every single dangerous away mission.

Fiction often has this difficulty because you want main characters to be important with prestigious ranks, yet you can’t just have them always out of the spotlight and away from the action. It doesn’t have to be that way for Treehearne though, he can stay back at base where a scholar belongs.

Maybe they should have made Rytlock the leader of the Pact, it would be plausible he goes off to punch things on every misison. : P

True. Though in this scenario, Trehearne has extensive knowledge about the Risen as opposed to Rytlock, being that he faced the Dragonspawn and to an extent, Kralkatorrik.

I will say this, it would have been better development for Treahearne had he developed his social skills with his new generals. On the part where he was asking the Commander to speak to the other three for feedback on Treahearne as a leader, it would be much better if we saw him directly interacting with them, which would lead to them being more than confident in him as a general. (It’s been a while since I last played the mission so chances are I may have forgotten some of the minor details)

As for my PC being Commander despite doing the same old grunt work, yeah I do agree with you there. But at the same time, it can be nice to be a part of the action as opposed to directing troops to do it for me.

Yeah I don’t have an alternate suggestion wrt us going on dangerous missions, jeopardizing the command structure of the entire organization. Its just one of those fiction tropes people sort of live with.