Guild Wars 2

Just got the chance to play through episode 5 and I’m getting pretty tired of this trend where Taimi is getting bigger and bigger story roles. She’s been alright in the comic relief role through the communicator, but honestly the character has zero place in serious story moments. She’s a stuck up brat, and it’s so kitten annoying when moments that should be dramatic and epic are just ruined by her attitude. I don’t know why the devs seem to love her so much, but honestly I think they need to realize that Taimi’s not nearly as great as they think seem to think she is.

Taimi is great. All asuras have the same attitude and it happens that Taimi is a young asura, who also has naive view on everything. I don’t know what’s the beef between you and Taimi but I wouldn’t get happier if she gets replaced with Phlunt.

You do realise all asuras are basically Phlunts 2.0 or some sh…..it. So idk what you want to do. get rid of Asura race? Get the hell outta here B. No other race knows about tech as much as asuras. You want Braham to do bamboozle kaboom shish woosh with Omad’s machine?

What is your problem here B?

To be fair, I think Taimi is there for a reason. With everyone going their separate ways, I think Taimi has taken it upon herself to look after the Commander, who admittedly must not be feeling great given how their “team” has fallen apart around them. Unlike the rest of the team, the Pact Commander has no emotional crutch to rely on, and is thus the most emotionally vulnerable member.

As for the “Asuran” focused resources – Taimi is an Asura. It makes sense that when she plays mission control, the resources at her disposal are mainly affiliated with Asuran interests – similar to how we used pact resources when we lead the story as the “Commander of the Pact”.

I don’t think Taimi is the issue of the story at present – if anything, I’d say her writing was one of the things done right. The reason why she is the lynchpin of the season is because she’s the only member of Dragons Watch who could be there for our character through and through.

Westenev.5289:

To be fair, I think Taimi is there for a reason. With everyone going their separate ways, I think Taimi has taken it upon herself to look after the Commander, who admittedly must not be feeling great given how their “team” has fallen apart around them. Unlike the rest of the team, the Pact Commander has no emotional crutch to rely on, and is thus the most emotionally vulnerable member.

As for the “Asuran” focused resources – Taimi is an Asura. It makes sense that when she plays mission control, the resources at her disposal are mainly affiliated with Asuran interests – similar to how we used pact resources when we lead the story as the “Commander of the Pact”.

I don’t think Taimi is the issue of the story at present – if anything, I’d say her writing was one of the things done right. The reason why she is the lynchpin of the season is because she’s the only member of Dragons Watch who could be there for our character through and through.

<3

I agree with the OP, she’s just an annoyance, just like Braham.

I also agree with the OP that Taimi should not be the central character of every story. I would like to see more variety. If Asuran tech is indeed the answer to every problem, then they should be the master race on Tyria already. In the beginning, Asuran tech used to be “hit-or-miss” – sometimes it worked but often it went horribly awry. Which is why Asura are not actually the master race. But along comes Taimi and suddenly she has the answer to everything. I HATE that kind of writing!

I have a sister and the self-assured Taimi gives me a chuckle. What’s wrong with a bit of rudeness when you’re young?

Djinn.9245:

I also agree with the OP that Taimi should not be the central character of every story. I would like to see more variety. If Asuran tech is indeed the answer to every problem, then they should be the master race on Tyria already. In the beginning, Asuran tech used to be “hit-or-miss” – sometimes it worked but often it went horribly awry. Which is why Asura are not actually the master race. But along comes Taimi and suddenly she has the answer to everything. I HATE that kind of writing!

Asura are master race when it comes to magic and eternal alchemy. They understand it better than anyone else. You have to understand that Tyria is not on the surface of Earth. A whole different set of laws apply to races there. If Charr really wanted, they probably could wipe all the races from Tyria. So really master race is a very abstract term here to use.

The Charr would try, but they’d just get the Asura angry.

Ask Tequatl how that went for them. And Zhaitan. And Mordremoth.

In fact, just don’t get in the way of the Asura.

Taimi has a leg up on most other asura because she studied Scarlet’s tech, and Scarlet was an insane genius by most standards. (Or so we had to be told.)

Taimi’s been an easy go-to for plot exposition and information dumps, but that does need to come to an end. With Omadd’s machine gone and her secret lab outed, Taimi’s resources should be just about at their end. It’s time to get Scruffy 2.0 fully operational, and let someone else do the info dumps.

Westenev.5289:

To be fair, I think Taimi is there for a reason. With everyone going their separate ways, I think Taimi has taken it upon herself to look after the Commander, who admittedly must not be feeling great given how their “team” has fallen apart around them. Unlike the rest of the team, the Pact Commander has no emotional crutch to rely on, and is thus the most emotionally vulnerable member.

As for the “Asuran” focused resources – Taimi is an Asura. It makes sense that when she plays mission control, the resources at her disposal are mainly affiliated with Asuran interests – similar to how we used pact resources when we lead the story as the “Commander of the Pact”.

I don’t think Taimi is the issue of the story at present – if anything, I’d say her writing was one of the things done right. The reason why she is the lynchpin of the season is because she’s the only member of Dragons Watch who could be there for our character through and through.

The player character should feel that they have agency and power in the story. The fact that Taimi consistently “plays mission control” is exactly the problem. The player, the commander of the pact, should be in control of the mission, not some npc kid.

And I dunno about you, but I don’t really agree that the role you’ve outlined for Taimi makes for a good story. Depending on an immature child as an emotional crutch isn’t exactly my idea of a fantasy epic, or a role that my character/myself could even identify with. I’m not emotionally devastated by braham leaving, I’m annoyed that we even have to spend time dealing with these childish problems.

To live up to the big set pieces coming up (gods, dragons, elona) Arenanet needs to tell bigger, more dramatic stories. Taimi’s one element holding them back from that. She works best in small doses imo. Keep her on comic relief, away from the main storyline.

Linnael.1069:

The player character should feel that they have agency and power in the story. The fact that Taimi consistently “plays mission control” is exactly the problem. The player, the commander of the pact, should be in control of the mission, not some npc kid.

And I dunno about you, but I don’t really agree that the role you’ve outlined for Taimi makes for a good story. Depending on an immature child as an emotional crutch isn’t exactly my idea of a fantasy epic, or a role that my character/myself could even identify with. I’m not emotionally devastated by braham leaving, I’m annoyed that we even have to spend time dealing with these childish problems.

To live up to the big set pieces coming up (gods, dragons, elona) Arenanet needs to tell bigger, more dramatic stories. Taimi’s one element holding them back from that. She works best in small doses imo. Keep her on comic relief, away from the main storyline.

Living Story isn’t the main storyline though – it’s just hype for the next expansion. Taimi’s ongoing relevance to the plot has no bearing on this.

Personally, I’m happy our team isn’t portayed as emotionally rounded mary sues. They’re developing characters who the commander hasn’t seen in half a year. Of course they’re going to move on and deal with unresolved issues in the wake of Heart of Thorns, like we presumably during the time skip. It’s also important that the character can’t actually lead the pact, because there would be too much politics behind the scenes for us to actually do anything hypeworthy.

I think the biggest problem with Living Story is the lack of choice, and the length/frequency of the episodes. We don’t like being told what to say during the BIG decisions, or how we treat the people around us and this can sometimes make the story feel forced.

Time is also a heavy factor. I’ll use Dragon kitten as a case and point. The Namik saga took 7 in-universe days, but took up 2 years worth of sundays to finish. It makes for good watching in a marathon, but it can seem somewhat repetitive when you’re stuck watching reruns for 2 years waiting for the series to catch up.

We also don’t have any definitive reason to care about anyone on our team. Maybe they were more endearing when we recruited them in LS1 – I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t there. It would be nice if Anet added a new “reintroduction” – maybe a beach party on Southsun set after HoT, where we can play 20 questions with the members of Dragons Watch.

The narrative, political climate and characters aren’t bad imo, they just need a little more roleplay charm (Episode 4 was a good example of this). I also think we haven’t had the right experiences (as players) to truly care about our team, which, for the time being, will persist no matter who we end up teaming up with from Dragons Watch.

to be honest, even though I have played season 1, saw her introduction and have been stuck with her since, I still feel absolutely no attachment to Taimi. I find her to be an annoyance, I did when she was shoved into the group for no other reason than ‘because Scarlet’, and I still do.

I feel more attached to Phlunt, and would take him any day over Taimi. at least his ‘I know things’ moments would be slightly more believable.

Linnael.1069:

Westenev.5289:

To be fair, I think Taimi is there for a reason. With everyone going their separate ways, I think Taimi has taken it upon herself to look after the Commander, who admittedly must not be feeling great given how their “team” has fallen apart around them. Unlike the rest of the team, the Pact Commander has no emotional crutch to rely on, and is thus the most emotionally vulnerable member.

As for the “Asuran” focused resources – Taimi is an Asura. It makes sense that when she plays mission control, the resources at her disposal are mainly affiliated with Asuran interests – similar to how we used pact resources when we lead the story as the “Commander of the Pact”.

I don’t think Taimi is the issue of the story at present – if anything, I’d say her writing was one of the things done right. The reason why she is the lynchpin of the season is because she’s the only member of Dragons Watch who could be there for our character through and through.

The player character should feel that they have agency and power in the story. The fact that Taimi consistently “plays mission control” is exactly the problem. The player, the commander of the pact, should be in control of the mission, not some npc kid.

And I dunno about you, but I don’t really agree that the role you’ve outlined for Taimi makes for a good story. Depending on an immature child as an emotional crutch isn’t exactly my idea of a fantasy epic, or a role that my character/myself could even identify with. I’m not emotionally devastated by braham leaving, I’m annoyed that we even have to spend time dealing with these childish problems.

To live up to the big set pieces coming up (gods, dragons, elona) Arenanet needs to tell bigger, more dramatic stories. Taimi’s one element holding them back from that. She works best in small doses imo. Keep her on comic relief, away from the main storyline.

I don’t know about you, but Season 3 has been pretty God kitten ed epic. It’s your problem you’re concentrated on one thing: Taimi, and can’t see anything else. First Mursaat, then the God revealing himself, new AMAZING maps, all this tension between in-game characters makes a pretty epic story.

Some people like Phlunt more than Taimi, while I prefer Taimi. Some people might say they want Braham to become a pact commander. I say why don’t you all shut the hell up and enjoy the story as it is? I mean, I would like that my father was a president. Am I whining about it? Nah, because you can’t change it. And there are too many opinions to appeal to everyone.

zomgbuffalo.5276:

Linnael.1069:

Westenev.5289:

To be fair, I think Taimi is there for a reason. With everyone going their separate ways, I think Taimi has taken it upon herself to look after the Commander, who admittedly must not be feeling great given how their “team” has fallen apart around them. Unlike the rest of the team, the Pact Commander has no emotional crutch to rely on, and is thus the most emotionally vulnerable member.

As for the “Asuran” focused resources – Taimi is an Asura. It makes sense that when she plays mission control, the resources at her disposal are mainly affiliated with Asuran interests – similar to how we used pact resources when we lead the story as the “Commander of the Pact”.

I don’t think Taimi is the issue of the story at present – if anything, I’d say her writing was one of the things done right. The reason why she is the lynchpin of the season is because she’s the only member of Dragons Watch who could be there for our character through and through.

The player character should feel that they have agency and power in the story. The fact that Taimi consistently “plays mission control” is exactly the problem. The player, the commander of the pact, should be in control of the mission, not some npc kid.

And I dunno about you, but I don’t really agree that the role you’ve outlined for Taimi makes for a good story. Depending on an immature child as an emotional crutch isn’t exactly my idea of a fantasy epic, or a role that my character/myself could even identify with. I’m not emotionally devastated by braham leaving, I’m annoyed that we even have to spend time dealing with these childish problems.

To live up to the big set pieces coming up (gods, dragons, elona) Arenanet needs to tell bigger, more dramatic stories. Taimi’s one element holding them back from that. She works best in small doses imo. Keep her on comic relief, away from the main storyline.

I don’t know about you, but Season 3 has been pretty God kitten ed epic. It’s your problem you’re concentrated on one thing: Taimi, and can’t see anything else. First Mursaat, then the God revealing himself, new AMAZING maps, all this tension between in-game characters makes a pretty epic story.

Some people like Phlunt more than Taimi, while I prefer Taimi. Some people might say they want Braham to become a pact commander. I say why don’t you all shut the hell up and enjoy the story as it is? I mean, I would like that my father was a president. Am I whining about it? Nah, because you can’t change it. And there are too many opinions to appeal to everyone.

Forums are for discussion. If you’re just here to tell people who disagree with you to shut up, then this isn’t the place for you.

^ Good point. I, too, wrote my own opinion to support the fact that I just deal with the story as it is and immerse myself in it instead of complaining about it. Honestly, I could probably put up with anything in the story as long as it’s explained.

Atleast Taimi is showing loyalty to Poobah with the greater problems, the problems which actually mean life or death on Tyria. Yes, it’s great that we don’t have to kill the dragons and they’re setting the game up for a multitude of other stories to come and go that don’t revolve around Elder Dragons (find dragon, kill dragon, rinse repeat would get very boring).
Kasmeer disappeared for reasons we don’t really know yet. (one can assume it is queens business on her path back to nobility)
Marjory jumped ship with ‘Lazarus’, and has shown disparity with the commander with what little dialogue she’s had.
Braham, has strayed the furthest, absolutely resenting the commander, even though in HoT finale he’s right by your side to kill Mordy, his ‘revenge’ for his mothers death should have ended there. It’s this character that bothers me. But I think it is set up for Braham to die in a blaze of glory.
Rox, well, follows Braham like a shadow. She’s always done what she thought was right though, she’s an anchor for Braham.

So given that, Taimi has a lot to fill at the moment. Story direction, comic relief, knowledge. I really like Taimi. When she was first introduced to now, I love her development, and can’t wait for Ep6 and beyond.

You want a non annyoing Asura? That wouldn’t fit the lore.

DirtyDan.4759:

You want a non annyoing Asura? That wouldn’t fit the lore.

This.

zomgbuffalo.5276:

Djinn.9245:

I also agree with the OP that Taimi should not be the central character of every story. I would like to see more variety. If Asuran tech is indeed the answer to every problem, then they should be the master race on Tyria already. In the beginning, Asuran tech used to be “hit-or-miss” – sometimes it worked but often it went horribly awry. Which is why Asura are not actually the master race. But along comes Taimi and suddenly she has the answer to everything. I HATE that kind of writing!

Asura are master race when it comes to magic and eternal alchemy. They understand it better than anyone else. You have to understand that Tyria is not on the surface of Earth. A whole different set of laws apply to races there. If Charr really wanted, they probably could wipe all the races from Tyria. So really master race is a very abstract term here to use.

No, they really aren’t the master race when it comes to anything. Go back and play Metrica again. Almost every heart and event revolves around an experiment going wrong.

DirtyDan.4759:

You want a non annyoing Asura? That wouldn’t fit the lore.

Who said they wanted an Asura at all?

She’s the only decent character left in the story. If she’s sidelined, might as well nuke Tyria from orbit and start from scratch.

Ariurotl.3718:

She’s the only decent character left in the story. If she’s sidelined, might as well nuke Tyria from orbit and start from scratch.

I think that might be part of the problem. Sideline this one supporting character and the entire world falls apart?

I liked her in LS1 despite her Scarlet fangirling, then she just kept getting more selfish and obnoxious, putting people in danger for the sake of showing off her Brilliant Solutions to Everything. The last straw for me was when she decided going to Rata Novus was more important than rescuing the captives from Mordremoth. I wouldn’t mind if the next thing she gets put into is a dragon’s mouth.

Gomoratoad.9867:

I liked her in LS1 despite her Scarlet fangirling, then she just kept getting more selfish and obnoxious, putting people in danger for the sake of showing off her Brilliant Solutions to Everything. The last straw for me was when she decided going to Rata Novus was more important than rescuing the captives from Mordremoth. I wouldn’t mind if the next thing she gets put into is a dragon’s mouth.

Hey as far as I remember she didn’t ask we go with her. She would’ve gone there anyway. We just understood the importance of the research we might find in there so we went there as well. In the bigger picture couple of captive lives ain’t sh….it compared to a knowledge on how to defeat a dragon.

More Taimi please.

I crack up with every bit of dialogue – mostly due to the excellent VA for her but also how she is written. Taimi is the best (read: my favourite) character in all of GW2.

I love the light hearted tongue-in-cheek nature of the story (I don’t expect gritty serious story from GW2) and more Taimi is always good.

I don’t like the Disney’esque childlike characters in LS3. They should stick to more mature content. If you played The Witcher you know what I mean. Even GW1 had more mature story although the voice acting (Shiro…) and movements of the NPCs in the cut scenes are beyond ridiculous.

BOOKAHS!!! Pfffffttt…

When Taimi sends Scruffy to connect the beam.. oh the feels..

Ariurotl.3718:

She’s the only decent character left in the story. If she’s sidelined, might as well nuke Tyria from orbit and start from scratch.

Tyri-Alderaan

Djinn.9245:

zomgbuffalo.5276:

Djinn.9245:

I also agree with the OP that Taimi should not be the central character of every story. I would like to see more variety. If Asuran tech is indeed the answer to every problem, then they should be the master race on Tyria already. In the beginning, Asuran tech used to be “hit-or-miss” – sometimes it worked but often it went horribly awry. Which is why Asura are not actually the master race. But along comes Taimi and suddenly she has the answer to everything. I HATE that kind of writing!

Asura are master race when it comes to magic and eternal alchemy. They understand it better than anyone else. You have to understand that Tyria is not on the surface of Earth. A whole different set of laws apply to races there. If Charr really wanted, they probably could wipe all the races from Tyria. So really master race is a very abstract term here to use.

No, they really aren’t the master race when it comes to anything. Go back and play Metrica again. Almost every heart and event revolves around an experiment going wrong.

And yet the writers decided to transform our PC from a Commandeer that was able to lead the Pact from near total destruction to victory into a blubberer and stutterer that coddles a vain glorious child’s effort to get one over on Phlunt. Asurans are almost always presented as vain glorious experimenters who don’t care what happens to anyone else and yet our PCs go along with Tiami building a dragon killing weapon in secret that is obviously going to backfire. Why? Because of her rivalry with Phlunt.

The focus on Tiami was fan service at the expense of our PC.

Is it my imagination or did Taimi also get a lot bigger? I swear, during the last Living Story she was as big as an adult Asura.

Give me back my tiny lovable munchkin!

ProtoGunner.4953:

I don’t like the Disney’esque childlike characters in LS3. They should stick to more mature content. If you played The Witcher you know what I mean. Even GW1 had more mature story although the voice acting (Shiro…) and movements of the NPCs in the cut scenes are beyond ridiculous.

Actually, I think the more lighthearted stuff with Taimi (and some others) is a good thing for maturity.

It’s very hard to do maturity all the time, especially in a video game. So, instead you do lighthearted stuff, and then drop unexpected serious moments as bombs. An example of that would be Futurama. Fans of the show may not remember what was going on when they first sat down to watch what appeared to be just another funny episode, but they remember the episode name of Jurassic Bark. Why? Because the emotional ending caught them entirely off guard.

Another example would be Full Metal Alchemist. Nina Tucker was a cute kid, with a big dog named Alexander. Alexander was always played for laughs, and paired with the cuteness of Nina, those two were one of the most lighthearted parts of the show. If you’ve watched the show, you know what happened and how that emotion bomb felt. If you’ve not watched the show… I’m not going to spoil it for you. But I think you get the point, right?

It’s hard to do serious all the time, and get a good emotional impact out of it. But keeping things lighthearted allows for better emotional bombs.