Guild Wars 2

So what is everyone’s opinion on this topic? He’s quite possibly the worst character ever. I actually have no problem playing second fiddle, (I liked Rurik.). Just replace him with someone with a better personality and a different voice. Or who knows, maybe the same voice would look better on something other than a pre-pubescent sylvari.

Is there any developer opinion on this?

Well I asked once and they said they want to improve future characters and also that Trahearne will reappear in the story of GW2. But why make a new thread for this, there is one with the exact same topic on the very same page.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/why-does-everyone-hate-trahearne/page/2#post1890768

He’s too loathed to keep. Ignoring him (not mentioning him in the game) going forward would leave a huge hole in the lore; “what ever happened to the leader of the Pact?” Having him around just to fill some minor role, a quest-giver or such, will remind players how much they hate him. So I think he needs to die. But they can’t just kill him unceremoniously; doing so would be tantamount to an admission that he sucks as a character.

So what I’d do is have him assassinated by a member of some doomsday cult, a group of resourceful nut jobs who welcome the Elder Dragons and the destruction they bring. I’d then work this faction into the story going forward, having them oppose the Pact’s efforts the stop the dragons. They’d be the anti-Pact, filling a role similar to that of the Nightmare Court, Inquest, Sons of Savnir, Flame Legion, etc.

Drop a bridge on him – it’s more than he deserves

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP POSTING THIS!

Trahearne is considered the worst person in guild wars 2 because of the whole piggybacking thing, and the fact that he “lacks a personality.” which I call bull. The only reason people say that is because he just randomly pops up in non sylvari storylines, so he has no backstory. All they need is to alter the pre order storyline a little bit so he appears in them as well.

“Oh hey, person all orders like, how are you! Whats that? Your helping us fight? Whoop de do dah dee!”

I’d like to see him improved, actually.

Trahearne has (had…) potential, and some people actually like him.

I think with the state things are in, I’d still rather see the writers try to make something better out of what they’ve got than burn bridges. If you read about Trahearne’s exploits in a history book they wouldn’t seem ridiculous; it’s just that his performance and some other aspects of the presentation fell flat.

It’s still quite reasonable that the next phases of the story won’t involve Trahearne anywhere near as heavily; his Wyld Hunt is over. And perhaps that’s for the better – but it doesn’t call for punting him off a cliff, just sending him into the background for a while.

Since Trahearne finished his Wyld Hunt, just have the Pale Tree send him off on a quest to find the Tree that Malyck came from and any others that may be out there. That should keep him busy until people start to miss him in nostalgic kind of way.

(I personally have no big problem with Trahearne. I just found his character kind of ‘Oh, ok. Moving on…’)

If they were to have him written out – it’s not too difficult to do. I’m sure Orr will take a long time to fully heal, and you could easily have Trahearne passing on leadership of the Pact to someone else (the Commander/PC, or perhaps someone new) while he continues to work to fully restore Orr. You don’t need to kill him off to have a reason for him to no longer be leader of the Pact.

That said, I don’t think they’ll do that. I think we’re stuck with Trahearne, unfortunetly. I just hope they improve his character writing and personality

Written out? Yes. He can be played off to the background and stay there;; his role is done as far as the Wyld Hunt goes and the Pact has solidified enough that someone else probably can lead it now. (The biggest problem early on was inter-order issues, now that’s mostly gone down to a more grudging respect.)

Killed off? Why discard a character you may need to use later? We really don’t need another death for no reason, first off. Secondly, if the writers want to show us they’re better than what mess the personal story turned out to be then they can find a way to take this character and make him useful without letting him take over.

soboard.6974:

He’s quite possibly the worst character ever.

Trust me, he isn’t. Not in stories, not in games, not in MMOs, and no, not even in the GW franchise (there are some pathetically silly side characters in the two game series, but since they’re side characters, they’re ignored).

Honestly, the only thing they need to change about Trahearne is his voice actor. His personality, even if a bit bipolar, is fine. Most of the reasons I’ve seen folks hate him are really silly and nonsensical – or even just due to them not understanding the character(‘s background) properly (which isn’t a fault of the character, but the player and/or the storytelling).

And the only way that voice will sound good, if it’s on a golem or some other machine.

Beetle.2476:

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP POSTING THIS!

Trahearne is considered the worst person in guild wars 2 because of the whole piggybacking thing, and the fact that he “lacks a personality.” which I call bull. The only reason people say that is because he just randomly pops up in non sylvari storylines, so he has no backstory. All they need is to alter the pre order storyline a little bit so he appears in them as well.

Also this. Though even for non-sylvari folks, he has backstory. He just has backstory too late for them.

But aside from voice and the “randomly pops up” – people hate him because he “takes the spotlight” as Marshal of the Pact, though he doesn’t really do much in that spotlight he supposedly has people still give that claim. In reality, they just want to be the top dog without realizing all the boringness of being that top dog in the realm of economics (those people should try making a business).

There are plenty of storylines that could involve Trahearne without him doing much. For example, a smart elder dragon could want to break the Pact and decide to assassinate Trahearne. The threat from the remaining dragons needs to be re-established and this sort of storyline would prevent it from just being ‘Zaitan down, Jormag next’.

I personally think Killing Trahearne is a total cop out, plus it really makes a waste out of the last half of the story. I would much prefer them to take the expansion as a chance to develop him better than they have had the chance to thus far.

I can see a new Pact leader for every Elder Dragon campaign, to be honest. Trahearne was chosen because of his knowledge of Orr and Zhaitan and because all of the Orders respect him. Going forward against another Elder Dragon with an already-unified force, Trahearne’s no longer as “necessary”.

He is absolutely necessary, everything hinges around him. The only reason that the Order of Whispers, Vigil, and Durmand Priory help out The Pact is because they have a neutral party leading the group and making decisions on matters without favoring any one group. Take Trahearne out of the picture and you have a long battle ahead of you to find a new leader (the pact would not consider your player character because your character was already in an order and would thus have favoritism to that specific order).

@achensherd: I don’t think there’ll be a new Marshal per Elder Dragon. Rather, I think there will be specially chosen High Commander (name chosen at random) that’d be a rank over Commander (seeing how there’s currently 4 Pact Commander NPCs in GW2, and then the PC(s) being second-in-command). Sigfast or Skarti, who lead the Wolfborn, will be leading the fight against Jormag; one of the Sentinel leaders (there’s a Tribune in Steeleye Span – good of a choice as any) to take on Kralkatorrik, and probably Ogden to take on Primordus.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

soboard.6974:

He’s quite possibly the worst character ever.

Trust me, he isn’t. Not in stories, not in games, not in MMOs, and no, not even in the GW franchise (there are some pathetically silly side characters in the two game series, but since they’re side characters, they’re ignored).

Honestly, the only thing they need to change about Trahearne is his voice actor. His personality, even if a bit bipolar, is fine. Most of the reasons I’ve seen folks hate him are really silly and nonsensical – or even just due to them not understanding the character(‘s background) properly (which isn’t a fault of the character, but the player and/or the storytelling).

And the only way that voice will sound good, if it’s on a golem or some other machine.

Beetle.2476:

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP POSTING THIS!

Trahearne is considered the worst person in guild wars 2 because of the whole piggybacking thing, and the fact that he “lacks a personality.” which I call bull. The only reason people say that is because he just randomly pops up in non sylvari storylines, so he has no backstory. All they need is to alter the pre order storyline a little bit so he appears in them as well.

Also this. Though even for non-sylvari folks, he has backstory. He just has backstory too late for them.

But aside from voice and the “randomly pops up” – people hate him because he “takes the spotlight” as Marshal of the Pact, though he doesn’t really do much in that spotlight he supposedly has people still give that claim. In reality, they just want to be the top dog without realizing all the boringness of being that top dog in the realm of economics (those people should try making a business).

I can see your logic. His character’s role serves a purpose I believe, but his voice acting is done poorly you’re right. I wasn’t meaning to write him out completely now, but the idea that he works more in the background when we confront other dragons does sound appealing. He does have unique ties to Orr. Perhaps like other users said he could use more backstory, and maybe earlier mentions in the story to prevent his sudden appearance for other races.

How much backstory could you write considering hes just 25? That’s the real question.

All that was needed for Trahearne was a step to visit him after the finding Zaitan’s scouts since he was a scholar of Orr and could give advice. The player character could ask him to come to Claw Island and help then everything follows on more naturally afterwards.

Instead of writing him out, I think they should improve on him in the future.

FloXun.1456:

Instead of writing him out, I think they should improve on him in the future.

I think it is too late for that and I also don’t think it has to do with not having the proper backstory (depending on your sylvari story he has little to no role in that one too) but with his character.

The fact that he is suddenly being forced on you as your leader
His negativism (this won’t end well)
The fact that he is pushed to leadership but always needs you to tell what to do
etc

The problem with improving him is that it is his character, so I truly believe that having him have a heroic death would be a smart move.

mercury ranique.2170:

His negativism (this won’t end well)

I never heard that as negative on our part, more on their part. Of course, we’ve established I’m strange

mercury ranique.2170:

The fact that he is suddenly being forced on you as your leader
His negativism (this won’t end well)
The fact that he is pushed to leadership but always needs you to tell what to do
etc

The problem with improving him is that it is his character, so I truly believe that having him have a heroic death would be a smart move.

if he dont make us choice then the storyline will be the same for all players and classes with choice to make a decision. and i think the decision we are taking is we are telling our advise as we are seconed in command, it would the same as the highest rank in any military not asking for advise or thoughts from otheres.

given the chases he is saying that in, i gess i would say the same as most of the time its looking grim to say the least

No offense, folks, but I think a lot of this criticism of Trahearne comes from ppl who have never actually been a leader or in charge of other people.

Great leaders have to ask for help, especially when its something they’ve never done before. It’s not like Trahearne has ever served or led a military campaign. He has been studying for most of his 30 something year life, making sure he doesn’t engage more than a few baddies at once.

Nobody goes from scholar to general without having to lean on someone or a few people. He delegates quite a bit, and, having been in charge of an award winning restaurant location, I know that if you don’t do that you’re toast. I made it a priority to know everything I can and to do it just as well as my employees, but anyone who is a leader knows that you have to be what holds competent people together, not doing all the work.

Regardless, the personal story does suffer from being a bit watered down, and I think it’s because of all the choices that had to be taken into account and the sheer size of the 1-20 experience. You are certainly introduced into the world with plenty of options, but I guarantee you that there are options most people take and others few do, like the circus one for humans.

I’d rather give up those choices for a richer, more layered story that goes into the personal, regional, and world levels happening in a parallel and linear way. I really like scenes like the swamp scene with the Lich, or Varesh showing how close she is getting to Abaddon, etc. in Guild Wars.

I didn’t really have any problems with Trahearne myself. It was mainly in retrospect (particularly after reading some of his lines) that I noticed he can come across as glory-hogging. During my playthrough, I either didn’t notice or care; I’m not into that kind of attention and/or responsibility anyway. I admit I didn’t really like him initially, but I can easily attribute that to his replacing of Tybalt in my case, which to be honest would’ve probably applied to anyone that was to fill that void as quickly as the plot demanded. In fact, after a while I kind of liked the little history/lore buff thing he had going, especially during Ossuary of Unquiet Dead.

The ONLY thing that I didn’t like about Trahearne was his voice, primarily during his supposedly morale-boosting speeches. The very first instance of this that I can remember is in the Pale Tree’s vision, where he inspires some Pact troops to… go take out some Risen… or something. I thought what he said was indeed inspiring, but how he said it just didn’t move me. When he actually started doing it, I was pretty much always, “Man, I get you, I just don’t feel you.”

I feel like Trahearne’s character’s kind of expendable at this point because his knowledge of Orr/the Risen/Zhaitan are, in a way, obsolete. However, as Narcemus pointed out, the only reason the Pact exists as it does is because of him, so I suppose he can’t be going anywhere. And with that being the case, Konig’s idea about there being High Commanders leading the Pact in his stead against their respective Elder Dragons would work, and would also allow him to recede into the background enough so as to not fuel any more “Trahearne Hate” threads. :P

If there was a fractal where everyone played as Trahearne and you had to explore Orr sneakily, everyone would start loving his character.

Tuomir.1830:

If there was a fractal where everyone played as Trahearne and you had to explore Orr sneakily, everyone would start loving his character.

Nope, they’d still hate him and then the Fractal as well. People who didn’t like Gwen still didn’t like her after they released the Bonus Mission where you had to stealth as her. Nobody’s going to change their mind just because “they tried to justify Trahearne to us”.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Tuomir.1830:

If there was a fractal where everyone played as Trahearne and you had to explore Orr sneakily, everyone would start loving his character.

Nope, they’d still hate him and then the Fractal as well. People who didn’t like Gwen still didn’t like her after they released the Bonus Mission where you had to stealth as her. Nobody’s going to change their mind just because “they tried to justify Trahearne to us”.

And I was being completely serious, too!

Jokes aside, hating something brings the haters closer together, so hating Trahearne give the haters a communal feeling. Why Trahearne, well, there’s the thankless job of being the named main character, combined with the voice acting… and for sylvari characters him getting Caladbolg after you went through so much trouble to recover it to be used against Mazdak the Accursed was a bit like getting punched in the guts.

Not the worst character, no, but an easy target for viral hate.

I really hope Trahearne isn’t written out, he’s the best character in this game and by that I mean he’s the mose convincing. He’s like an adult in a playground of children, the only NPC with his head screwed on right. Most characters in this game are far too pantomime in my opinion and just dont feel fleshed out or serious enough at all. Trahearne actually has a personality, he isn’t some great hero of legend and doesn’t seek to make his mark on the world, he just seems to want to get his head down and do his job most of the time. I find his voice a refreshing change from other NPC’s shouting and spouting cliche lines with every breath, walking around in a perpetual cloud of cheese mist. I think people misunderstand the perceived ‘pessimism’ around his dialogue entering battle. To me, “This wont end well” always came across as a warning to his enemies if they came any closer, rather than a prediction of his own performance. Some may call Trahearne bland, but I call him believeable.

For the record, I also quite liked Tybalts character. I just wish he wasn’t part of the order of whispers, he really doesn’t fit there and his presence with them seems to be one of the main reasons people dislike the GW2 order of whispers compared to how they were portrayed in GW1.