Trahearne didn't fight against Zhaitan???
Two reasons, I think. He seemed to be exhausted or somehow magically depleted after the cleansing ritual, and it’s just bad form to throw your leader into the middle of a meat grinder confrontation, which is what the aerial battle boiled down to. He wouldn’t have been able to do any good, and putting him needlessly at risk could’ve done a lot of harm to the cause.
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
Trahearne might be the current wielder of Caladbolg, but he is no Riannoc.
He is referred to as a scholar on more than one occasion and is extremely knowledgeable about all things related to Zhaitan and dragon corruption. He’s also a great strategist and tactician. He isn’t much of a warrior however. Putting him in the final battle would have just risked him getting killed without really contributing much to the effort.
He was recovering from the ritual. At the end of The Source of Orr’s main instance he’s exhausted to the point where the PC calls out for a medic (seriously, there were no medics in the team we brought deep into risen territory…). So he was basically in a near death state after that, and only recovered enough while we were off fighting Zhaitan.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I always figured he was just on a different airship.
Two reasons, I think. He seemed to be exhausted or somehow magically depleted after the cleansing ritual, and it’s just bad form to throw your leader into the middle of a meat grinder confrontation, which is what the aerial battle boiled down to. He wouldn’t have been able to do any good, and putting him needlessly at risk could’ve done a lot of harm to the cause.
Yep.
This (the second half) is why I’ve never really understood why so many people were upset that we didn’t get to be the Pact leader. The final battle isn’t really that unusual, throughout the story Trahearne actually spends a lot of time in Fort Trinity coordinating other people’s activities and waiting for them to report back on the outcome. He only goes into the field when he’s confident his specific expertise will be needed on the ground.
It’s the same in Season 2 – he’s moved to Camp Resolve in the Silverwastes but still spends his time in camp directing everyone else. He only takes a more active role during the HoT storyline because even after all that time investigating Mordremoth they’re pretty much going in blind – their plan comes down to “fly into jungle, find dragon, hit it with everything we’ve got”. So he needed to be on one of the airships to coordinate the attack.
I suspect (based on what he says afterwards) if he had been feeling better he would have been there to see Zhaitan defeated. But it would have been largely as an observer, maybe occasionally calling out targets, rather than an active participant.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Two reasons, I think. He seemed to be exhausted or somehow magically depleted after the cleansing ritual, and it’s just bad form to throw your leader into the middle of a meat grinder confrontation, which is what the aerial battle boiled down to. He wouldn’t have been able to do any good, and putting him needlessly at risk could’ve done a lot of harm to the cause.
Yep.
This (the second half) is why I’ve never really understood why so many people were upset that we didn’t get to be the Pact leader. The final battle isn’t really that unusual, throughout the story Trahearne actually spends a lot of time in Fort Trinity coordinating other people’s activities and waiting for them to report back on the outcome. He only goes into the field when he’s confident his specific expertise will be needed on the ground.
It’s the same in Season 2 – he’s moved to Camp Resolve in the Silverwastes but still spends his time in camp directing everyone else. He only takes a more active role during the HoT storyline because even after all that time investigating Mordremoth they’re pretty much going in blind – their plan comes down to “fly into jungle, find dragon, hit it with everything we’ve got”. So he needed to be on one of the airships to coordinate the attack.
I suspect (based on what he says afterwards) if he had been feeling better he would have been there to see Zhaitan defeated. But it would have been largely as an observer, maybe occasionally calling out targets, rather than an active participant.
A side note to what you said. I honestly didn’t think it made sense for him to be on the fleet attacking Mordremoth, but I guess since you (the commander) were occupied elsewhere, he felt he had no other choice?
Also, seriously, why did the Pact go in so woefully unprepared? They should sent in scouts, forward teams, etc to get the lay of the land, gather intel, etc before walking into what will become known as one of the biggest miliary disasters in Tyrian history?
Well, they didn’t “walk” into it – both figuratively and literally. They had no idea that Mordremoth could so easily reach out to devastate the fleet when no other Elder Dragon could – not even Zhaitan with a horde of airborne dragons.
Their plan was by all appearances literally to stay out of the reach of the vines – fly high. But the vines reached further and faster than they thought they could. And their goal was more of going after Mordremoth’s method of making minions (which turns out to be the Blighting Trees) rather than Mordremoth himself at that particular time. So it isn’t like they were going in for a confrontation with the end-boss with no intel.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
And another thing- they didn’t have the option of waiting for intel. It’s easy to forget now that the meta’s been stable for a year+, but their staging ground in the Silverwastes was becoming more and more tenuous. That last attack before they leave- the one we’re just barely able to turn the tide in? That was a ‘go now or don’t go at all’ moment.
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
But to me, that says if we are struggling to even hold onto our forward base, we aren’t ready for whatever awaits us further in. The Pact didn’t even wait for reinforcements from the 5 nations, beyond the presence of 3 of the 5 members of Destiny’s Edge.
They’d already gotten them- that camp had about as many Seraph, Peacemakers, Wolfborn, and so on as it did members of the Pact proper. The races had already sent what they could be convinced to spare, they’d developed a plan that they believed would put them beyond the reach of their enemy, and that enemy was growing stronger by the day. Regardless of whether they were ready then, they knew they’d be less ready later. Mordremoth would just be more powerful the next day, or season, or year, or decade. If anything, I believe they waited too long.
I think, on the whole, their plan made perfect sense. The only moves that I don’t think were sensible were bringing Trahearne along personally (although, besides Laranthir, at least none of the other major officers accompanied him), and artless firing into the jungle the way they seemed to do in the cutscene (although, being a cutscene, and thus not very big on elaboration, it’s possible they’d attained an actual target- perhaps one of the Blighting Trees, with an understanding that it wasn’t a natural growth, or perhaps a concentration of Mordremoth’s vines. I’d like to think that’s the case.)
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
Also take into account the sylvari who turned on the ships. Perhaps the ships would have been able to fight back against the vines and push to a better staging area, but a good chunk of their manpower turned suddenly, and I’m sure many were in position to do great harm, from sabotaging the engines, to attacking nearby ships with canons.
As for Trahearne being on the ship, why not, like others stated, they weren’t intending to push all the way to Mord, and a vast majority of their forces were moving with them.
So Trahearne staying behind in an even less defensible/manned outpost wouldn’t have made sense either.
(seriously, there were no medics in the team we brought deep into risen territory…).
Sure there were. We had to kill the team that held the door for us!