[EoD Spoilers] My Hope/Request for Future Content with a Certain Captain

[Satori.1978]

Hi there,

 

I don't use the forums hardly at all, so I'm hoping this is the right place to put this. If not, please do tell me where to post it! Sorry if I'm messing something up.

Big ol' spoilers for the story of End of Dragons ahead, so please be warned and turn back now if you're not done with it! It's really good!

 

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Spoiler

 

So I'll start with the thesis:

 

Please bring Mai Trin back.

 

I loved the entirety of the EoD story, but hands down the runaway star of the show for me in my heart was Mai Trin. Kelly Hu's performance of this brash and brazen pirate captain who has just fallen so low, is faced with the consequences of her actions, and is so genuinely repentant and sincere in trying her best to make things better and to be better--it was just, god, my heart. It was so good. I love her.

 

Which is why it was just, way, WAY too short a time for her to be on screen. I'm personally not a fan of character deaths in general, I'm a big ol' softie (I know, how on earth did I survive Heart of Thorns, right? *shudder*), but I do think this was well written. I'm not bashing what's there. But there can be so much more!

 

And I phrase this as being my "hope" because I do think there are a decent number of signs that this is already the plan. There are /so/ many little hints that she's not really dead, and so many ways for her to come back from what happened.

 

For one thing, she is one of the only main characters to have "died" off screen besides Blish (unless I'm remembering wrong?). We see so many other beloved characters get brutally impaled, exploded, stabbed in the neck, all this other awful stuff. Could it just have been creative camerawork? Sure. But I believe it was a significant choice to never show her body. 

 

That said, there is of course afterwards the public 'belief' that she's dead; we hear from Mi-Rae that the Empress gave her a posthumous title, Joon is building a hecking statue, lots of characters at the finale reminisce about her, you get a /memory/ of her in the Dragon's End meta (not a ghost, but the Commander's memory) etc. But we never see a dang body. 

 

One possibility is that Joon is working on her in secret and is gonna go all Jade Tech Iron Man on her and give her like, a Jade Tech heart or something. That'd be neat. And so maybe Joon is keeping that under wraps to protect Mai at first, since Ankha and the Aetherblades clearly wanted her dead.

 

Or there's so many ways a Revenant in general could come back, not to mention that we've /never/ seen a character who spent so long in the Mists come back. Who's to say she can't literally just walk back out at this point? Or her having channeled Scarlet may have done something to prevent her from fully dying, who knows?? There are so many options for my gurl to still be okay T_T

 

I would personally love for her to have a role in the story again, but mostly? I just want her to have the chance to make good on her redemption arc. For her to really just settle down and do some good and feed her cats and go fishing with Jory. I really don't think it changes the narrative that much for her to have survived, mostly because I honestly don't think she would /want/ to be a major player in the story again (as much as I'd love to have a meta where we get to fight beside her some more). As she says in the last scene we have, she just wanted stability in her life. She just wants to eat noodles and build stuff with Joon. T_T

 

I know Guild Wars 2 tends to be more brutal about stuff like this, or it was in earlier expansions for sure, but this is one story where I feel like things turning out okay would still genuinely be very interesting. I want to see more of her grappling with the consequences of her actions, of her trying to change, to make up for what she did. 

 

For now, I cling to my headcanon that she's okay and write my fanfics about her 'n the Commander going fishing together. But I sincerely hope that once we get into new content post EoD, I'll get to put that aside when my Captain comes back ❤️ 

 

 

[Miraweave.5934]

+1, character is cool as hell and deserves way more screen time than she got.

 

The redemption arc they put her on was really cool and refreshing to see since since seeing characters actually grapple with their past wrongdoings and struggle to improve themselves is a pretty rare sight, and it sucks to see that turned into a generic "and then she sacrifices herself to save the day" redemption story.

 

I also think that bringing her back could tie well into a general "fractal weirdness" plotline in the upcoming story, since a fairly significant piece EoD left hanging was the fact that the Aetherblades spent years in the fractals and managed to either avoid becoming fractalized, or their fractalized versions managed to leave the fractals, both of which would have pretty significant implications given the existing fractal storyline with Dessa and Arkk. Bringing her back would be a great way to simultaneously explore that loose end AND finish the excellent character work they started with her.

 

Anet pls

[Kalavier.1097]

You can literally read the journal entry where Joon talks about Mai Trin being dead and the body recovered.

edit: It'd be EXTREMELY weird if they went and said 'Oh but Joon rebuilt her robocop/iron man style!' after her own journal, her personal private writing has her declare Mai Trin dead.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Kalavier.1097

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

She's dead, Jim.

[Poormany.4507]

I do not want to see her brought back in physical form tbh. Her death and redemption arcs were one of the ones Anet pulled off really well and had an impact. Bringing her back would just cheapen that imo (similar to the fake Aurene death in LWS4). Though, I would like it if we saw her in a Mists/Fractal form and let her pass on/gain peace knowing that people view her differently now.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

This is...not a good idea.

[Zola.6197]

I also wish we’d had more time with her. A very interesting character and the plot involving her was the highlight of the expansion imo.

 

If they can’t bring her back, that’s fine. It might be cool if she was a future Rev legend, or we heard from her spirit down the line.

[ugrakarma.9416]

agreed Mai Trin arc was great.

 

but, woud be weird if her "ressurrected", ppl are tired of so many ressurrections on LS4. Perhaps shes can appear on some mists trip, or became a rev. legend. 

[Lord Trejgon.2809]

"died off screen"

the whole cinematic cutscene of last standoff between Mai Trin and Ankka: "am I a joke to you"?

[Ashen.2907]

After a poorly written, forced, "redemption," arc I am glad she is gone.