Building a better Alphinaud

[Boblawblah]

The point of the Exarch persona was that G'raha thought he was going to give up his lifelong dreams in the end. Not only was he now an old man with most of his body missing to crystal, but if his plan worked the way he wanted, he'd be sacrificing his life to absorb the WOL's excess light with the WOL believing he was some half-baked "villain" the whole time. Literally all it takes for this facade he's been wearing for 100 years to break is the WOL calling him by his name just before his would-be sacrifice.

G'raha Tia was never the grown-up he pretended to be, and literally being given a new lease on life has allowed him to finally live out his dreams.

Again, all that being said, nobody HAS to like the character or find his immaturity charming. However, it IS the whole point of his tale from 5.0 and beyond.

That moment when we call his name tears me up everytime! That said, I disagree with your conclusion that "it IS the whole point". I don't think wringing his hands, eating a burger, and fan service are his personality, he's much more than that imo. Also, "living out his dreams", i don't disgree, but I do think his characterization took a turn for the silly. Too silly for me, but that's okay

[Raven2014]

I don't think wringing his hands, eating a burger, and fan service are his personality, he's much more than that imo.

And they did show all that too, his knowledge of Allagan, his foresight of using his bloodline, the way he rallied the people of Tharvinar during the crisis like a true leader .etc. In fact, most of his dialogue whenever the Scion have a serious discussion carried a tin of wisdom befitting someone who had lead for 100 years. Are you sure you are not just focusing on what you DON'T like?

At the end of the day it's an MMO, people tend to forget the character get VERY little screentime to portray themselves so most of the time it's necessary for their personality traits to be amped up during the little screentime they got. The amount of screen time an NPC have to themselves in an expansion would fit in one single chapter of a story centric RPG. For Tia he's meant to be a characters with TWO distinct personalities because he's two soul merged into one. The old men who lead half a surviving civilization for 100 year, and the flamboyant scholar (if a bit immature). It's easy to forget the latter is also part of his personality who had never went through the same experience of the former and is also actually the main host of his current body. His character has to show both sides to stay in character, and not severe the connection it has with other NPC like Krile or Tataru, who only know the younger Tia.