Trahearne can be fixed. Please DO NOT kill him off!
I see a lot of people asking for Trahearne’s death and blood, but I think that would be a huge, HUGE Mistake! Why? In short: It would be repeating the ‘Trahaerne’ cycle over again.
When Trahearne came into the story, players were pre-conditioned not to like him, not because of Trahaerne’s character itself, but because the way the Personal Story was set up.
1. Throughout the entire personal story, from level 1 to finish, we are introduced to characters who befriend us for about 10 levels, then simply get replaced. By level 50, when Trahearne is introduced, we already get that feeling about him as a “replacement”.
2. Our mentor’s death. As players, we thought our mentor would actually stick with us, as they remained for more than 10 levels. Our mentors had spicy, fun personalities, and then they are suddenly replaced. That felt really bad.
3. Trahearne came off TOO much as our friend. There wasn’t much time to build trust, even during the Sylvari storyline. It felt like he was being shoved in our face during the Clawr Island arc, and that instantly made him unlikeable to many.
4. Praise without any exposition. We met Trahearne, and he seemed like an incredibly humble scholar, and he seemed okay. But then other NPCs continuously praise him, and we learn he’s some sort of HERO BADDASS WHO TRAVELED INSIDE AND OUT OF ORR LIKE IT’S NOTHING! Yet to Trahearne, he likes to be humble about it. Okay, that’s all fair, and if he’s a humble baddass, that’s pretty cool. But here’s the problem with that: We never actually learn about what he did. And I don’t mean publishing a short story online. I mean, we never learn, through interacting with characters, why they respect Trahearne so much? That gave players the false impression that he is a Mary Sue or the writer’s pet, and it rubbed us the wrong way.
Yet despite his flaws, most of them aren’t Trahearne’s character itself. Quite the contrary, he is the ONE character to properly thank us and give us credit for our actions, and he even gave us command of the ENTIRE Pact during the battle against Zhaitan!
So why do people hate him, Trahaerne himself? They think he is boring. Why is that? My guess is because we rarely saw him interacting with other characters, so he became too much of a machine simply to guide along the players of the Zhaitan storyline. If anything, Trahearne himself is the victim here, because ANET forgot about him even during his own story arc!
However, this concern about Trahearne can be addressed very easily, and there were a few instances where I felt genuinely interested in his character. During the Sylvari Personal Story, we got to see him interacting with Caithe, while during the Claw Island arc, he was humerously remarking upon his misadventures with Sieran, and he actually made me laugh! It was the few scenes like those, where we actually got to see his personality and interactions with others, which actually gave players an interest in Trahearne!
Sure, Trahearne is a stoic Necromancer who has confidence issues, who is still a little shy even at the party after you defeat Zhaitan. But at the same time, if done right, that personality can make him very loveable if he were to interact and respond to other characters.
What defines a character’s personality are tension, conflict, and their approach to problems. In Trahearne’s case, he is not too good socially, and he is quite shy. Interacting with Taimi and getting a little embarassed around her, is a good way to define who he is. Or perhaps even more interesting, his interactions with a muscle-head like Braham, since Trahearne is a scholar Necromancer who uses tactical reason over Braham’s brute force.
My point is that Trahearne can be good if done right, and killing him off would be a bad decision since it repeats what we were pre-conditioned to hate him in the first place. ANET should instead show the community that Trahearne can be repaired.
So for pete sake, PLEASE keep Trahearne alive! (And stop killing characters so much…)
