What If Zhaitan...?

[zolcor.2601]

What if Zhaitan had a voice actor like Kralk, Mordremoth, and Jormag did? If so, who would make a good voice actor for him, and would you have liked him to be voiced even a little?

 

[Harak.8397]

When unfathomable, eldritch creatures get a voice to acknowledge us with, they lose the little something that was supposed to make them into the force of nature threat they were sold to us as and into something much closer to the mustache twirling villain stereotype.  Mordremoth was the worst offender for this, while the context of Kralkatorrik and Jormag speaking when they did made sense and actually brought something to the story. (Mordy's voice should have been for Sylvari alone, even in Dragonstand. The mind fight brought its own issues with it)

In that optic, I feel that Primordus is still the most intimidating presence, as far as the concept of unfathomably old Elder Dragon beings go... and he took that very short lived  mystique to his early grave. ( Kralk made best use of it but was still humanized in the end )

All in my opinion of course.

[Batel.9206]

I'm kind of glad it wasn't voiced. It really helped sell Zhaitan, Elder Dragon of Death, as this mindless, obscenely powerful thing. Not even a sentient being, really - just a primal force of nature. It was like trying to defeat a hurricane or a volcanic eruption: there's no intelligence to reason with, to connect with. It just is. How exactly are you going to fight something like that, let alone defeat it?

 

...and besides, it's a giant multi-headed diseased zombie dragon that looks like it came straight out of Dark Souls. I don't really know how its voice should sound were it given one. Bone-rattling deep? Creepily high-pitched, shivering and rasping? A multitude of voices from each dragon head? [shrug] Each could be fitting, in its own way, and no doubt voice actors and sound designers would've made it the most terrifying thing ever to listen to, but....

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Well Zhaitan has no mind powers, and we didn't go inside him either, so no way to communicate.

 

He did talk alot through his minions, in fact I'd say he talked the most out of all the Elder Dragons. Even just wandering in Orr his minions are just randomly trash talking you during events. I'd say at times he was even more overconfident than Mordremoth, though since no Elder Dragon had been killed before he had good reason to be.

 

Players saying Zhaitan was a force of nature who never said anything didn't pay attention. He talked both the most and the least depending on how you look at it, and in a way I think that made Zhaitan.

 

For players who complain about Mordremoth and Kralkatorrik talking, only Sylvari could hear Mordremoth up until the final battle in which he speaks through his Mouth, and for the other instances we were basically inside their minds and bodies so it makes sense.

 

And Jormag talking was basically their entire thing. Its what made them sinister., not the opposite.

 

Primordus is the only dragon that is truly a force of nature, btw. Its whole meaning of existence is basically conflagration (war, destruction, etc.). It doesn't exist just for self-preservation like the others, but to literally just destroy everything .It'd probably end itself if it meant ending the world.

 

While Jormag counters Primordus in abilities, Mordremoth would counter Primordus in philosophies.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[draxynnic.3719]

12 hours ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

Well Zhaitan has no mind powers, and we didn't go inside him either, so no way to communicate.

 

He did talk alot through his minions, in fact I'd say he talked the most out of all the Elder Dragons. Even just wandering in Orr his minions are just randomly trash talking you during events. I'd say at times he was even more overconfident than Mordremoth, though since no Elder Dragon had been killed before he had good reason to be.

 

Players saying Zhaitan was a force of nature who never said anything didn't pay attention. He talked both the most and the least depending on how you look at it, and in a way I think that made Zhaitan.

 

For players who complain about Mordremoth and Kralkatorrik talking, only Sylvari could hear Mordremoth up until the final battle in which he speaks through his Mouth, and for the other instances we were basically inside their minds and bodies so it makes sense.

 

And Jormag talking was basically their entire thing. Its what made them sinister., not the opposite.

 

Primordus is the only dragon that is truly a force of nature, btw. Its whole meaning of existence is basically conflagration (war, destruction, etc.). It doesn't exist just for self-preservation like the others, but to literally just destroy everything .It'd probably end itself if it meant ending the world.

 

While Jormag counters Primordus in abilities, Mordremoth would counter Primordus in philosophies.

I'm not sure Mordremoth is the one that actually counters Primordus the most in philosophies - it might actually be Jormag again. One of Jormag's big deals seemed to be preservation - Ice fortifies, and Ice protects. Mind you, Jormag's idea of preservation seemed to be to freeze everything in ice so that it would never change at all, which isn't exactly a good thing from a mortal perspective either. But I think that in itself deepens the contrast: Primordus is essentially pure chaos (something that naturally results in destruction sooner or later) while Jormag represented absolute, unchanging order, where life requires a balance between the two where there is enough stability for survival but where things can still move, change, and grow.

[Zola.6197]

I’d love to hear Cree Summer as an elder dragon. 👀

[Teratus.2859]

They don't all need voices tbh.

Both Zhaitan and Primordus only spoke through corrupted minions and that was fine.
I kinda hope the Sea Dragon also doesn't speak but given the EoD art work, if that is the sea dragon which I think it is then it's looking very mystical and serpent like so I expect it will have the ability to speak.

[AgentMoore.9453]

I'd be on board with a VA for Zhaitan if its only voice lines were variations on 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' and other noises of anguish and rage. Distorted breathing, weeping, siren wailing, groaning, the whole thing. Do you really think it was capable of speaking through all of those tentacles anyway without it coming out sounding like 'WHAAAARGARBL'?

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

Speaking through their Champions is what made both Zhaitan and Primordus interesting. I've enjoyed the whole idea of "I'm so powerful I let my minions do my talking for me" trope they were going with.

Kralkatorrik having a voice was alright since at least it made them sound like a genuinely ancient being. Jormag is the Elder Dragon of Ice and Persuasion so it made sense for them to have a voice to begin with, cuz you know "Voice of Jormag" and such.

The worst dragon to have a voice is Mordremoth, they literally just sound like an angry boomer all the way through. Now I get the whole beer belly look for his avatar lel

Edited September 3, 2021 by ChronoPinoyX.7923

[Amanda Whitemoon.6173]

On 9/2/2021 at 1:14 PM, Teratus.2859 said:

They don't all need voices tbh.

Both Zhaitan and Primordus only spoke through corrupted minions and that was fine.
I kinda hope the Sea Dragon also doesn't speak but given the EoD art work, if that is the sea dragon which I think it is then it's looking very mystical and serpent like so I expect it will have the ability to speak.

we know how the other 5 dragons look like, and that cinematic with the orbs in POF shows a blue dragon that looks not like the other 5, so it must be the deepseadragon, i dont think the eod artwork is the deepseadragon, but it could be a hydra with multiple heads, but that scinematic from also pof also looks like it will speak

[Teratus.2859]

7 hours ago, Amanda Whitemoon.6173 said:

we know how the other 5 dragons look like, and that cinematic with the orbs in POF shows a blue dragon that looks not like the other 5, so it must be the deepseadragon, i dont think the eod artwork is the deepseadragon, but it could be a hydra with multiple heads, but that scinematic from also pof also looks like it will speak

Both the Hydra artwork and the Dragon in the Orb cinematic are old now.. and we know that Anet is very inconsistent when it comes to the actual in game designs of their Elder Dragons.
To put it bluntly.. they change them when it suits them and we can see that clearly with Primordus and how massively his design changed from Living World Season 3 and the Finale of the Ice Brood Saga.

Zhaitan's in game model was vastly different from most of his original artwork as well, some of which was show in trailers and even in the game.
And it's not just Elder Dragons either, some other big characters have also had their designs vastly changed.. Dhuum in Gw2 for example is completely unrecognisable from his vastly superior Gw1 design.
 

[Dean Calaway.9718]

[This message is unwelcomed and was removed.]

Edited September 30, 2021 by Dean Calaway.9718

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

46 minutes ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

No, I don't like it that Elder Dragons suddenly speak the common tongue of Tyria (don't like there's one to begin with) when they have been sleeping for 10,000 years, where did they learn it from? If it was around even back then, how did it not evolve into something else entirely.

It isn't all that sudden though. It's firmly established in the personal story that the Elder Dragons know all their minions know both before and after the point of corruption. In Season 2, we learn that Mordremoth and Glint both began its communications in what Ogden says he is "hesitant to call a language" and from Scarlet's journal, it's described as images in her mind.

Mordremoth learned the common tongue of Tyria through his mental connection with Scarlet, and only began to whisper actual sentences in her mind in the second half of Season 1 - that's nearly 5 years where his communication was through imagry more than words.

Aurene begins communication the same way in Seasons 3 and 4 - where she gives visions to the PC instead of using words, only in War Eternal, after corrupting (bonding) Caithe does she begin to become capable of using words - but it's still telepathic, like Glint and Mordremoth.

Jormag, similarly, had already corrupted hundreds of norn, quaggan, and kodan before they began communicating in the modern tongue - and even as late as 1320 AE, their champions still used bizzare language (though no mental imagry). Though Asgeir's journal does mention Jormag speaking and having a voice, which happened so early on in its current waking cycle (but had corrupted many kodan and norn by that point too).

 

Primordus, who never corrupted a living being willingly, doesn't speak. I imagine if he did, it'd be broken sentences, like Braham's state during Dragonstorm.

[DaZeeHero.5210]

Primordus be like, "Stop! Me want take my lava bath! Why make me fight mean ice sister!"

[Amanda Whitemoon.6173]

On 9/13/2021 at 4:14 PM, Teratus.2859 said:

Both the Hydra artwork and the Dragon in the Orb cinematic are old now.. and we know that Anet is very inconsistent when it comes to the actual in game designs of their Elder Dragons.
To put it bluntly.. they change them when it suits them and we can see that clearly with Primordus and how massively his design changed from Living World Season 3 and the Finale of the Ice Brood Saga.

Zhaitan's in game model was vastly different from most of his original artwork as well, some of which was show in trailers and even in the game.
And it's not just Elder Dragons either, some other big characters have also had their designs vastly changed.. Dhuum in Gw2 for example is completely unrecognisable from his vastly superior Gw1 design.

true about that, not only characters, also statues, the Lonely Vigil ( the fallen statue in the desert) changed sex from gw1 to gw2:D, (still no idea why)