Canach is not absent from the story long enough for it to seem like he’s not in the main cast, but he is absent long enough for it to need remarking on when he shows up, and i swear the Commander is getting more and more gratuitously overjoyed each time they greet him
For the sake of comparison this is the very first time you talk to him in season 2 after he lands back in the story after you arrested him
Canach: Careful there. You don’t want to be seen getting too friendly with the staff. […] I know I have a reputation for acting rashly, but those days are behind me.
Commander: Pardon me if I don’t entirely believe you. […] I’ll be at the front of the hunting party if you mess this up.
Canach: I would expect no less, though I do believe you might have a hard time catching me again. No offense intended.
You’re openly hostile to each other, but dressed up politely because you’re at a social event. This isn’t voiced but you can feel how they’d say it, with fake sweetness and false smiles and a bit of teasing, and Canach is clearly enjoying being able to freely goad you with diplomatic immunity.
You’re likewise rather scathing to him when he meets you after being deployed in the Maguuma Wastes to your cause:
Canach: You’re welcome. Forgive me—you’re welcome, Commander.
Commander: Spare me the sarcasm, and just show me which way Caithe was headed.
He makes a little show of how he’s acknowledging now that your station outranks his, not claiming the Secondborn should have an innate authority any more.
But after you go through Heart of Thorns it all becomes very genuine.
Commander: Canach, glad to see you’re alive.
Commander: If Canach is harmed, I’m holding you responsible.
Countess Anise: This mission is bigger than one soldier
[…] Canach: Thank you, but I’ll show myself out!
Commander: Canach!
Canach: Hello, Commander
Commander: Canach! What are you here? Enjoying your time off?
Canach: Freedom is a sweet drink, Commander.
(after fighting Balthazar alone)
Canach: Commander, are you okay?
Canach: Looks like you could use some help, Commander.
Commander: (rapturously as though he’s the best thing they’ve seen all day) Canach!
Commander: Canach? Is that Canach?
Canach: It IS Canach!
Canach: Ah, Commander, good timing. Just got here myself.
Commander: If feels like it’s been years, Canach. It’s great to see you again. I just wish it was under better circumstances.
I believe it’s an aspect of knowing he’s a fan favourite and writing the Commander’s reactions tailored to that, and the effect is we sound genuinely overjoyed to be back in his presence - most recently, even openly saying we’d rather spend downtime with him than always being in a crisis. We’ve also told him upfront that we enjoy his company.
The overall route has become the Commander’s genuine pleasure of seeing him becoming more pronounced to combat Canach’s natural personal distance. He doesn’t reciprocate this warmth so we’re getting even more direct about it. We invited him to our guild personally and said ‘You’re a good friend’ and that made him shrink away like we’d burned him. But he’s getting better at this, as seen in his last appearance when you bid farewell again for god knows how long:
Commander: It’s good to see you again, Canach.
Canach: Likewise, Commander.
Look at that progress! Over time we’ve exposed him to enough warmth that he actually expressed enjoyment of our company! We can crack him yet, one day maybe we can call him our friend and not have him recoil and hiss like a startled cat.
[ID: Guild Wars 2 squad chat screenshot.
Commander Sasaari: 40 sec for Port back
Ctrl N P Enter: Comm says wait. I wait.
Ctrl N P Enter: Comm farts. I breathe in. End ID]
The Pact Commander’s a bitch ass motherfucker. They pissed on my fucking army. That’s right, they took their Tyrian fucking mesmer illusions out and he pissed on my fucking army and they said their kill count was “this big” and I said “that’s disgusting”.
So I’m making a callout post on my twitter dot com: Commander of the Pact, you got a small army, its the size of this walnut except way smaller. And guess what? Here’s what my army looks like. That’s right baby, all corpses, no wills, no pillows, look at that it looks like two balls and a junundu.
He fucked my army so guess what? I’m gonna fuck the this delegation. That’s right this is what you get, MY SUPER SCARAB PLAGUE. Except I’m not pissing on the delegation, I’m gonna go higher, I’M PISSING ON AMNOON. HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT QUEEN JENNAH, I PISSED ON AMNOON YOU IDIOT!
You have twenty-three hours before the bug drop-el-ets hit the fucking continent, now get out of my fucking sight, before I piss on you too.
Okay Ive been thinking about this so much and I need to just put it somewhere. Do you ever think about how if you are a sylvari commander you were basically made to destroy the world. Like your wyld hunt is your purpose your reasoning for being and its destroying the world, point blank period. You were made for doing this. Do you ever think about how fucked up that must make yall commanders? Because I think about it very often.
Like your wyld hunt doesnt rest til you complete it and I feel like that takes such a toll on my commander. That he was made to destroy
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commander who feels lost and without purpose now that the Dragon cycle is over.
The others are moving on; Aurene has ascended to an even higher plane. The Pact has new leadership. Treaties and alliances are being formed. The world is opening up for a new age.
And the Commander doesn't feel needed anymore.
It's one thing to be without the stress; a welcome relief from the weight that crushed their shoulders for a decade. To live out the rest of their life, free to do whatever they please.
But what do they do? Their whole life has been dedicated to their cause, to building a legend for themself. And they did - They went above and beyond. But that's the issue; theres nothing left.
They explored lands few would dare to step foot in. Seen the birth of new species and races, of countries and more. They've killed countless, made enemies of gods and allies of dragons.
What's left for them to do? Wait around til a next big threat shows up? Or will there be new heroes, new people ready to tackle the big things - Leaving them behind, alone, just a legend. Forgotten by the ones they called friends and family, forgotten by the world they sacrificed themself and dozens of others for, forgotten by themself.
honestly fuck jennah big time for being all "haha commander your life must be so simple, you just smash things until they go away, i wish mine was that easy", especially considering this takes place right after HoT which was a living nightmare for everyone in the field while Jennah and her human assembly of clowns that she calls ministers and nobility just hunkered down in the city having business as usual, and especially if she's saying that to a sylvari commander at that
Humans in guild wars 2 are very special because they practically live in their own world. Like of course Humans outside of DR don’t fall prey to this but moments like the crashed noble encampment in Verdant Brink show it off the best.
It’s like all of those memes about england that have england be an old person saying “i used to rule the world!” while another country says “yes we know” except in guild wars 2 it’s all the other races going “can you PLEASE get your head out of your ass there are DRAGONS KILLING US”
considering how ryland's role in the story shakes out/how jormag perceives him and how we're going to be replaying all those instances as part of the 'return to' achievements i propose we, as a community, mentally swap out every instance of 'champion' with 'silly little bastard' because the story remains completely unchanged and DARE I SAY even enhanced?
Some people have Commanders that switch off, groups or Commanders who retire and leave room for new, fresher faces once they're tired from the world that needs saving. Some people have the same Commander from start to present and onwards. Either way truly works great, there's creative and unique narratives to be found in both.
But for the steady plot Commanders who stick with it to the end...how much must they grapple with how stubbornly life clings to them?
It's easy to focus on the dangers the Commander faces, all the close calls, the near-deaths and the losses that went too far. But what about the fact that they've come back from each and every one of those? Especially when so many others around them have much more finite lifespans.
Sure, things move smoothly at first, you kill Zhaitan and Scarlet and Mordremoth, no sign of death to yourself though the bodies around you pile up. The miasma of death surrounds you from the very first moment you commit to this duty after all, with the target of a dragon who thrives off it. You're no stranger to widows and lost friends. And you likely expect that one day it's your own loved ones who will receive the most unwanted letter of how your final moments were spent.
But then, you survive. The bodies keep piling up, at others hands, at your enemies' hands, at your own...but not a scratch on the famous Commander. For a while at least.
You do die eventually though, don't you? Your time runs out deep in the desert alone and burning hotter than the air around you. That luck that somehow followed you for years runs out at the hands of a god and you think this is it. You'll wake up in the mists, if anywhere at all, and someone else will take up the mantle.
Until you wake up and find yourself somewhere else entirely. No name or memories until you work to recollect everything, all the way up to the very event that put you there. But you decide that it isn't your time. There's another way, as the judge so kindly tells you, and you seek out that option. Sure it has the chance of erasing you entirely, but then it can also revive you. And until now you'd been so lucky, hadn't you?
A second chance at life and your luck seems to return. Things run smooth again, death surrounds you but never touches you.
Until another close call, when Joko has you all but beat. But Aurene comes in doesn't she? No one but Braham knows how close that call was. But you survive again, death doesn't touch you.
A blast from Kralkatorrik, you were nearly right on top of where Aurene died but got lucky with her reaction time. Just some minor injuries, not even enough to keep you from walking around.
An arrow imbued with the magic to seriously hurt an elder dragon, shot right into your chest. Things go black that time, it almost seems like it's happened, but again...you wake up. You're okay. A healing pool so powerful that it's as if you were never shot in the first place.
You see people die, you're surrounded by death, again and again. You're in situations repeatedly that necessitate a level of danger that could kill you at any moment. And it's one thing to just be lucky, to have close calls but misses. It's another to have seen your death and faced it down multiple times, in ways that should've never reasonably had an escape route.
What does that do to you? Not the deaths, but the defiance of them. The fact that Life clings to you almost as thoroughly as death to the risen, keeps you going, keeps you surviving on your path. If you were anyone else, if you'd taken any other dangerous job, would life be this stubborn? Would you have survived as a simple footsoldier better than any of the others you'd seen die?
Would it drive you to guilt and trying to drown out the memories, layer upon layer of survivors guilt as the faces of those you've lost blur together, too many to even count any more? Would it push you to believe yourself unkillable, a god among mortals every bit as powerful and defying of mortality as the dragon you've bonded to? Would it simply wear you out, make you long for that choice you'd had in the Domain of the lost so many close calls ago, the promise of a straightforward end and the letter finally sent?
What does it do to a person, to be so thoroughly unkillable yet fragile?
I really miss trahearne. I love guild wars 2 but it's really missing something since he died. "Wow look it's the commander, you saved the world commander, you're a hero commander" is nice but "well done, commander, I'm glad you're here, you deserve some well earned rest my friend" made me
He's just so sweet and encouraging and idk just cause I'm the protagonist by virtue of being the player doesn't mean I need to be The Hero™️ maybe I just want to feel helpful and have the plant necromancer say nice things to me. I miss not being the Most Important Person in Tyria and I miss HIM. I don't care we "had to share the spotlight" with him i just want him back. Give us back that kind, gentle goth houseplant
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