Canach's new VA

[Malus.2184]

First ime doing the Caledon Dragon Response Mission and the first thing I notice is the new VA for Canach. I can understand it being hard to always retain the same VAs, however, this one is dire and went in the opposite direction of the VA that had already left his mark. That VA had a voice for Canach that dripped with sarcasm even when he was giving compliments. This felt so right for the character. This one just tries to sound posh, which goes against everthing that Canach stands for as someone who has rebelled against the teachings of Ventari, without joining the Nightmare Court,  to become his own person.

[Super Hayes.6890]

Canach is one of those characters you really can't win with if you change voice actors. I'm just glad he didn't get the Zojja treatment. The show must go on!

[Fueki.4753]

I wish they had just shelved Canach until a later date when they may get hold of his proper voice actor again.

In my opinion, the new one is so unfitting that it is an insult to Canach as a character.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Kaliwenda.3428]

Running thru the living world seasons again for the "return to" achievements gave me a new appreciation for the original Canach VA.  What a masterful performance!

[Vancho.8750]

Well the problem here is that Mat Mercer has to make John Dimaggio impression on top of the Canach character . Mat has great Range but John has iconic, recognizable and very unique voice and replicating a part of that will be a huge task. 

[Kossage.9072]

While the change is jarring, we've had similar changes to other notable character voices such Glint's warm and motherly voice from PoF changing into Jocelyn Blue's more sharp voice in Season 4, or Almorra's voice changing from Jeyne Taini's gruff and elderly voice from personal story and Season 3 into Courtenay Taylor's younger and less deep voice in Season 4 and the Icebrood Saga.
At least with Canach the vocal change can be explained in-universe. Now that he's won his major bet and become very rich while traveling the world with Sayida to collect all that money, he can afford to stop acting like the gruff firstborn-despising fugitive or servant of the crown and can finally showcase some posh attitude as a rich man who has made his fortune from nothing. All things considered, Matt Mercer does an admirable job trying to replicate John DiMaggio's mannerisms; he just needs to add a bit more gruff tone and a bit more sarcasm to his performance and he'll get suitably close.🙂

[Malus.2184]

The issue with that head-canon is that you rarely interact with those characters mentioned while you're around Canach a lot. I never really noticed the VA of those characters changing even though I played those LW seasons recently due to your interaction withthose recently. Canach, on the other hand, shows up constantly.

 

I do the Thunderhead Keep North Meta almost daily and get to hear a Canach a lot. A highlight of that event is to hear his dry wit.

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

23 hours ago, Kaliwenda.3428 said:

Running thru the living world seasons again for the "return to" achievements gave me a new appreciation for the original Canach VA.  What a masterful performance!

This. One of my absolute favorite characters!

[voltaicbore.8012]

Matt Mercer (the new Canach VA for anyone unfamiliar) is of course quite talented and well-known in his line of work, but from day one I always said that Mercer's version of our favorite sylvari is low-cholesterol Canach. If you listen carefully a lot of DiMaggio's Canach is still in there (and is frankly a remarkable feat, in terms of voice work), but it's just not as rich in tone anymore.

I still prefer the original over what we have now, but I'm okay with our new version. As for getting DiMaggio back, I'm pretty sure that's not happening, as both he and his wife seemed to have stopped doing voices for GW2 a ways back.

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

1 hour ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

Matt Mercer (the new Canach VA for anyone unfamiliar) is of course quite talented and well-known in his line of work, but from day one I always said that Mercer's version of our favorite sylvari is low-cholesterol Canach. If you listen carefully a lot of DiMaggio's Canach is still in there (and is frankly a remarkable feat, in terms of voice work), but it's just not as rich in tone anymore.

I still prefer the original over what we have now, but I'm okay with our new version. As for getting DiMaggio back, I'm pretty sure that's not happening, as both he and his wife seemed to have stopped doing voices for GW2 a ways back.

Matt's an absolute unit in voicing the norn male commander, probably my favorite performance out of the player character ones.

[voltaicbore.8012]

2 hours ago, NorthernRedStar.3054 said:

Matt's an absolute unit in voicing the norn male commander, probably my favorite performance out of the player character ones.

Agreed. My other notable mention is Colleen O'Shaughnessey's female asura pc, it has a certain clarity that I like.

I was actually surprised by how little I liked some other performances from big names like Nolan North and Jen Hale. In particular I think Queen Jennah and female sylvari pc are among my least favorite Hale performances ever.

[Teletric.3821]

19 hours ago, Kossage.9072 said:

we've had similar changes to other notable character voices such Glint's warm and motherly voice from PoF changing into Jocelyn Blue's more sharp voice in Season 4

I honestly like Glint's post-HoT voice more because it sounds more like her GW1 voice, which was sharp. A sharp voice also fits in better with the idea of her being a crystal dragon. 

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

2 hours ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

Agreed. My other notable mention is Colleen O'Shaughnessey's female asura pc, it has a certain clarity that I like.

I was actually surprised by how little I liked some other performances from big names like Nolan North and Jen Hale. In particular I think Queen Jennah and female sylvari pc are among my least favorite Hale performances ever.

I think North's human male performance has steadily gotten better over time, and has really grown on me over time.

[Harak.8397]

Not quite on topic but adjacent: VA changes will always happen and I'm not too phased by it but I wish the VAs used for our player characters were harmonized. It's jarring to have your character say for example "For great justice!" with one voice from core VA  and something relating to the latest Elite specs with another. I'm just talking about combat voices here. The story segments are self contained so changes from ont to another has less impact to my ear.

[Fny.4502]

Canach's voice change really bothers me, tbh. Not that the new actor's not doing a good job, for he is, it's just that he's not Canach. 😭 And Canach, with the original voice, is imo the best character in the entire game. So yeah, feeling that loss.

[Teratus.2859]

On 9/25/2021 at 3:51 PM, Super Hayes.6890 said:

Canach is one of those characters you really can't win with if you change voice actors. I'm just glad he didn't get the Zojja treatment. The show must go on!

Really begs the question doesn't it.
If someone as popular and beloved as Canach can be greenlit for a VA change then what in the absolute hell has been going on with Zojja all these years?..

Yeah Felicia Day is a good VA and all that but honestly that has never been a good excuse to have Zojja basically Thanos snapped out of existence for several years.
If it's not possible to get Felicia back to reprise the role then seriously, Anet.. recast Zojja.

Honestly this should have been done years ago.. the fact that it hasn't been really does make it seem like Zojja was never really that important in the first place and was just your token Asura for Destiny's Edge to complete the whole one of each race thing.
Every other character has had story and development over the last several years.. Zojja has been utterly abandoned and forgotten about.

It sucks, she deserves better.