The one quote that stuck with me during EoD...

[Arnox.5128]

WARNING: Small EoD spoilers.

Spoiler

I hated Gorrik once. Resented how oblivious he was to me- to me, to the world. Now... I don't feel anything. Sitting on these crumbling ruins at the edge of the world, I'm looking out at emptiness. We're like ants. Scuttling through life until we die; then nothing's left but bones and rubble. The stars, the gods, the dragons... Our lives are a rounding error on the scale of their existence... Screw it. I won't be a rounding error.
- Ankka

Also, I haven't finished EoD quite yet. Yes, I know. Shameful display.

[JayHog.3280]

Personally, I find her obnoxiously dramatic like most villains.

 

Crying because Gorrik didn't like her being inquest and not going above the Asura expectations in terms of social interactions. And putting a fit because she finally realized the meaning of life is that she's just one of millions and that the world doesn't revolve around her.

 

I dare to say even Ryland was less obnoxious than she was, and he was a kitten who threw away his potential to act like he's better than everyone.

[Farohna.6247]

I like her as a villain for the reasons that JayHog does not.  I like that she realized she is just a no one in the short blip of a lifespan and futility of hanging on to it when other longer lived forces are constantly at work.  How often do people feel like there is nothing and not a point to it all, and while she probably should have found a good therapist instead of becoming a doomsdayer, it is an extreme example of someone questioning their reality to the point of calculated madness.

Ryland was the kid who had potential but wanted it too fast and too easy, and followed misguided mentors trying to not be his parents.  I like his development into champion, and his lack of understanding that he does not have true power.  

Ankka knows there is no power, no glorious end.  Just an end.  

[maxwelgm.4315]

6 hours ago, JayHog.3280 said:

Personally, I find her obnoxiously dramatic like most villains.

 

Crying because Gorrik didn't like her being inquest and not going above the Asura expectations in terms of social interactions. And putting a fit because she finally realized the meaning of life is that she's just one of millions and that the world doesn't revolve around her.

 

I dare to say even Ryland was less obnoxious than she was, and he was a kitten who threw away his potential to act like he's better than everyone.

From other dialogue by Ankka and her diary entries this is pretty much not a resentment about not being liked by Gorrik but rather a jealousy about how he was able to be oblivious to everything else. She never wanted his affection to begin with according to herself and Gorrik alone nurtured positive feelings about her. With that said her nihilism is obnoxious, but comparing it to Ryland? Ryland is literally Anakin Skywalker and not in the good sense - Ankka is on a genocidal-suicidal mission and doesn't care if anyone cares or not, Ryland pretty much begs for attention at every corner and opportunity. He's the classical bully and Ankka is the more interesting "Kevin" type of character, however obnoxious she sounds because media is oversaturated with villainous tropes.

[Wolfb.7025]

7 hours ago, JayHog.3280 said:

Personally, I find her obnoxiously dramatic like most villains.

 

Crying because Gorrik didn't like her being inquest and not going above the Asura expectations in terms of social interactions. And putting a fit because she finally realized the meaning of life is that she's just one of millions and that the world doesn't revolve around her.

 

I dare to say even Ryland was less obnoxious than she was, and he was a kitten who threw away his potential to act like he's better than everyone.

Agree.

Ankka felt like an arbitrary villian just for the sake of having a replacement scrappy for Mai Trin.. very forgettable.

IBS is my second to last favorite gw2 episode, but I have to say Ryland development felt really good imo, sure he was a complete a ss but he had that essence of being a good, despicable villian. He had reasons for his acts, motivations, it went to his head when he gained that power and found complete despair and pain once he was defeated.

[DexterousGecko.6328]

I've never enjoyed Villains that were just "life is meaningless". Especially when they spend so much energy and effort trying to let you know how pointless everything is. We get it, you're depressed, get some help.

[Ashen.2907]

7 hours ago, JayHog.3280 said:

Personally, I find her obnoxiously dramatic like most villains.

 

Crying because Gorrik didn't like her being inquest and not going above the Asura expectations in terms of social interactions. And putting a fit because she finally realized the meaning of life is that she's just one of millions and that the world doesn't revolve around her.

 

I dare to say even Ryland was less obnoxious than she was, and he was a kitten who threw away his potential to act like he's better than everyone.

Those are reasons to like her as a villain for me. If the rest of the writing lived up to that she would have been a memorable villain with very human elements (taken to an extreme) that made her villaing understandable even if not completely relatable in scope.

[Gibson.4036]

I want to like Ankka as a villain. There's a ton of potential there. The idea she had to kill versions of herself in the mists to survive and ended up enjoying it is chilling. I don't think she suffers from being a bad character. She suffers for not having the time and space to develop, which is true of the rest of the characters.

The writing of EoD feels a lot like movie adaptations of properties I loved when I was younger. You watch the film, and all the important moments are there, but the adaptation had to take a novel or several novels and condense them down into about two hours, so you miss the room for the characters to really breathe.

Mai Trin wanting to change but finding no space to do so... Mai Trin with an insane mass murderer in her head... Joon thinking she'd found the perfect solution to advance the living of her people and help Soo Won to the point where she'll just keep trying to patch out the instability of the whole thing... Ankka wanting a world in which people aren't just insects squashed unthinkingly by titanic Elder Dragons and Gods but becoming the thing she hates... all of these things have a ton of story potential. It's not that these characters are flat or empty.

It's that EoD only had the space to give us the Cliff's notes of their arcs.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Gibson.4036

[Dante.1508]

18 hours ago, JayHog.3280 said:

Personally, I find her obnoxiously dramatic like most villains.

 

Crying because Gorrik didn't like her being inquest and not going above the Asura expectations in terms of social interactions. And putting a fit because she finally realized the meaning of life is that she's just one of millions and that the world doesn't revolve around her.

 

I dare to say even Ryland was less obnoxious than she was, and he was a kitten who threw away his potential to act like he's better than everyone.

Same i found all the enemies in EoD and many characters, even the commanders lines were Obnoxious.. Ayumi and Ivan were good additions imo, Gorrik redeemed himself in EoD imo. Everything else story wise was a mess.

 

When did the Commander the character we play become such an ahole... Because they are.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Dante.1508