What's with the retconned change in tone about Saul D'Alessio?

[Belisaria.8136]

Saul is a character very near and dear to me, and I'm left scratching my head after completing most of the story and some of the side stuff. There is a regular undertone that Saul was complicit in the murder of the chosen and a disdain from the commander towards him. This makes no sense. Saul has always been presented, from GW1 onwards, as a good man who was deceived and immediately upon realizing what was going on, being horrified and thus being kidnapped for torture. All of the HoT raids and the HoT legendary armor collection all put huge weight on the redemption of Saul's character, and the commander personally sees him to true rest and peace. And now we're scoffing about "D'Alessio's bootlickers" and getting all these implications of his role in the bloodstone sacrifices? I really don't see what's being gained from retconning his whole character and throwing all of wings 1-4 and all of his story arc from GW1 out the window, and it's a shame to see given how much the character means to me. I've started just mashing through all the white mantle content now in this expansion, which is unfortunate.

[HearldofTime.8294]

Is it not because history twisted the image of him? Even in wing 3 if you approach his statue as a human being your character will mutter "traitor." Only in wing 4 do we, the player, find out what exactly happened to him, and as far as I know wing 4 is like its own thing and not part of the main story like W1-3.

[Scar.1793]

18 minutes ago, HearldofTime.8294 said:

Is it not because history twisted the image of him? Even in wing 3 if you approach his statue as a human being your character will mutter "traitor." Only in wing 4 do we, the player, find out what exactly happened to him, and as far as I know wing 4 is like its own thing and not part of the main story like W1-3.

Meh, they retconned too much imo. Instead of trying to surf on the good remains of GW1 for nostalgia points, they should come up with brand new stuff. Reminds me of how they tried so hard to paint Scarlet as some sort of hero after all the murderhobo spree she went on, on top of being insane.

The storytelling is too often not that good, engaging or simply logical : the Janthir prologue is about a Tyrian Alliance and somehow despite having flying warships, missiles and lasers... You're sent to Janthir for an alliance, for some reason. Would have been simpler to say the commander is looking for an adventure and exploring unknown territory would satisfy that wish.

That's why now I skip at times, or just fall half asleep. I did like the story of the Janthir kodans so far, even though their speech is slow as hell. HoT and PoF had good storylines. The rest ? not so much, EoD was horrible with lots of politics injected in it.

Edited August 24 by Scar.1793

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

Him being deceived doesn't change the fact that he's an important character in the history of the White Mantle from their rise to power, which led to all the suffering and the Krytan civil war.

Then again, D'Alessio's bootlickers doesn't sound like it's directed at him, but much rather at the White Mantle, which have never been painted in a good picture.

Just now, Scar.1793 said:

Meh, they retconned too much imo. Instead of trying to surf on the good remains of GW1 for nostalgia points, they should come up with brand new stuff.

Nothing has been retconned as we knew from GW1 Saul's backstory and - at the time - fate of being taken by the Mursaat. GW2 only added closure to his character with W4 and the Envoy Armor collection.