Personally, I find it’s Rox / Braham > Taimi interacting with Scruffy / Mama Rox / Pappy Braham > Taimi interacting with literally anything else > Claw of Jormag’s chain fears and knockbacks > the mobius cancer that is KasmereXMarjory.
Rox and Braham are written well for their roles. They are the replacements of Rytlock and Eir, and they KNOW that, so I can easily sympathize with their motivations to live up to their predecessors. On top of that, they still know how to be enjoyable to talk to even with all that stress on them to be great. (Also they’ve got some wonderful senses of style)
Taimi is at least written like a kid, which is rare in video game parties with kids. But, she’s an Asura, and like most Asura written by the GW2 team, that means she has to act like a know-it-all when the devs don’t really want to explain what she’s figured out (whether it’s through her explanation or us being able to piece it together ourselves and shut her up when we know it), AND since she is believably written a kid, she gets to act like a brat when she does it too, which makes me want to do nothing more than punt her into the nearest gaping Mordrem maw.
Claw of Jormag’s chain fears and knockbacks suck kitten . It’s repetative, it hurts, it wastes time, AND IT’S JUST kittenING ANNOYING. But at least you can cleanse it and dodge it.
The grotesque fusionbaby that is Marjory and Kasmere’s relationship, holy hell. Anet, please stop writing romances, because I honestly don’t think you know what romance is. Romance is not constantly pledging yourself to your partner’s side at every opportunity. Romance is not instantly agreeing with your partner’s point on a planning session, unless it involves them being put in danger. Romance is not saying “love” or “doll” or any other lazy pet name whenever referring to your partner. These things are just the top layer of snow that has fallen on the iceberg of romantic love. And love is definitely not casting a pretty look, a pretty smile, a prolonged face sucking, another pretty look, and then a calm, pretty hug when you thought your partner was DEAD. Romantic love is hesitation, and wandering hopes. It’s the beautiful resonation with another person’s cognitive processes, not necessarily instantly thinking like them, but the ability to make different trains of thought complement each other. It’s subtle appreciation for the mere existence of the subject of your affection. It’s most definitely ugly screaming, sobbing, and wailing when you think your partner is dead, and even more ugly sobbing, blubbering, and panicked attempts to make sure reality isn’t lying to you when they open their eyes. And it’s much more than that. Kasmere and Marjory’s sad excuse for a romance is elementary school play levels of believeable, it adds nothing to the forwarding of the plot outside of “they like each other more now” or “they won’t do that specific bickering anymore” or “now one of them is sad and the other one is sad by association” and it infuriates me whenever I have to sit still because of their kitten “drama” while there’s a plantpocalypse to stop.
