Red J, on 29 November 2012 - 10:22 AM, said:
True, however, after Claw Island, he and Pale Tree still treat our sylvari PC like if they never met him before. It broke last pieces of immersion I had to that point.
This is actually a bug.
Play a charr. During A Light in the Darkness, a charr character can ask if going into the Dream of Dreams during that step is like when "Caithe helped me fight the Nightmare before I awakened"
Yeah, was rather weird when I first did the mission, on my charr. And then the second time, on my sylvari.
And at Claw Island, he does say hello to the sylvari character in a short cinematic, but then it goes to the typical everyone else's cinematic - which I suspect is also a bug, or was done to conserve on resource spending (aka corner cutting), and thus is no fault upon the character Trahearne.
DuskWolf, on 12 December 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:
There's no emotion, there's no empathy, there's no trauma from all the people dying, there's no evolution. There's no moment where Trahearne drags you aside and admits being on the verge of emotional collapse due to all the responsibilities placed upon his shoulders.
I disagree. A lot.
Yes, his voice actor was rather... bad. And that's probably putting it gently. But that's really the only bad thing about him.
He does have emotion (not in his speaking habit, but in how he acts). He shows concern during Forging the Pact, he shows hesitation in A Light in the Darkness, he shows depession in Against the Corruption (too fast and too much though), and he shows relief in Victory or Death. If that isn't showing emotion, I don't know what is. The issue is that the voice actor didn't portray it well enough.
And I do think there's evolution in his character. Especially for sylvari characters.
He starts with the external show of confidence in himself and what he's doing like any other expert in the field, but when Claw Island is attacked (specifically during A Light in the Darkness and up til the retaking of Claw Island) he looks back on his 23 years of life and realizes... all that pervious confidence was a bluff - to him and to others - that though he may be an expert in the field, he's never actually worked towards his goals, and always backed away from them, hesitating because he feared failure. And this fear hung onto him all the way through - and it manifested fully when his attempts at the royal tomb to cleanse Orr failed.
I think the biggest issue for people like you is that Trahearne isn't in the front lines enough - and this is because he's a bloody general. You don't have generals in the front lines except when they're needed to be in the front lines. And to clarify - by people like you, I mean people who don't seem to see the full story (whatever the reason).
DuskWolf, on 12 December 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:
And all Trahearne thinks about is how much glory Trahearne can hog! Except right at the end, where you need aid the most (the final fight against Zhaitan), he's nowhere to be seen!
And this is proof you don't pay attention to the storyline.
Trahearne didn't care for glory or any of that. He led the Pact not to get his name written down in history, but because he felt like he must - because if he didn't, well, who would?
He never wanted to lead the Pact until convinced by the Pale Tree and the player character. That's a glory hog to you? I don't want to see what someone like all those who wanted their characters to become a god in Kormir's stead would be if not a glory hog.
And Trahearne outright stated that he wasn't present in the fight against Zhaitan because he was seeing to the cleansing of Orr elsewhere His duties as Marshal prevented him from being in the final battle (not like he'd be of any help, since none of the NPCs were of any, not even Destiny's Edge, but this is more of a mechanical issue).
Really, all this Trahearne hate is more ridiculous than all that Kormir hate. Just because of some bad voice acting or bugs in/bad storytelling, Trahearne gets all this hate. Its not Trahearne who deserves the hatred, its whoever voice acted him (I suspect VoiceMaker v2.0.9), and (less so) the developers who worked on continuity in making old decisions important later on (something that held a lot of bugs).
MazingerZ, on 17 December 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:
Yeah. Everyone trusts Trahearne. Unless it's relevant to the plot not to. IE: Forging the Pact.
It's not so much that they don't trust Trahearn. It's that they're warry of Trahearne being able to lead an army under pressure, because he holds no military experience.
They always trusted Trahearne for his knowledge on Orr and the risen. Even during Forging the Pact. But they've always viewed him as a scholar, not a fighter - even he himself acknowledges this fact.
MazingerZ, on 17 December 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:
Riel trusts him because of a one-off comment about putting down the former Master of Whispers.
I'm surprised at the faith Gixx puts in him.
Dunno about Almorra, never played that far.
Its got mostly to do with how much aid Trahearne has put into fighting the Risen off-screen before the start of the game. I don't remember if Almorra ever gave a specific reason for why she trusts Trahearne, but I don't think there was one - it was because of what Forgal said: Trahearne has helped the Vigil devise means to kill any undead they come across and show him. For Gixx, I haven't played far enough, and Riel trusts him not only for helping killing a dragon-corrupted former Master of Whispers, but also because he worked with the Whispers just as he did the Vigil and Priory, and he knows how to keep a secret (the fact Riel's the Master of Whispers).
Wikid, on 17 December 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:
I think ANet pushes the story too much. Most of the story arches feel rushed. The character development is almost non-existent, the pacing awful and a serious lack of connection with any character including your own. I've been through 3 different human story arches and 2 Asuran and one for both the Charr and Sylvari. I do not think any of the story lines are interesting, compelling or make any real sense what so ever.
While I disagree with the last sentence, I do agree that the story arcs (not arches) were rushed. I wouldn't mind them being twice the length, even at half the story possibilities.
Thoug in regards to Trahearne, the best thing Anet could have done was make him part of the non-sylvari races' lvl 20-30 storylines in some form.
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