#but that doesn't change how displeased I am with her writing prior to EoD

[legendary-alliance-stance]

Caithe

Oh this one will be interesting!

How I feel about this character

I have extremely complicated feelings about Caithe. Boy howdy do I have complicated feelings about her.

I think she's a very interesting character, especially during the Sylvari personal story! But I also think she gets away with a LOT of shit that the narrative does not call her out on or punish her for at all, and that's really frustrating.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Nnnnno one! She def deserves someone better than Faolain tho. Fuck Faolain.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

As of EoD? I'm becoming a bit fond of her bond with Aurene. But only in EoD. They did way too much telling and not showing with that bond prior to EoD.

My unpopular opinion about this character

OH BOY.

Well, as I said, I think the narrative doesn't call her out on things nearly enough. That's one main thing.

I also think they did a REALLY awful job at portraying her bond with Aurene. We're told that she has a really strong bond with Aurene, that she's like a mother to her... But she is never around when Aurene needs it. A particularly egregious example of this is during PoF, when a still baby Aurene flies off to the desert to find the Commander -- There is zero mention of Caithe, even though we're led to believe that theoretically, she'd be concerned about Aurene, right? If there had been even just a mention of "Caithe is worried and trying to find a way to follow her" would be enough for me. But there isn't, and it really bothers me!

Overall, I think Caithe is a very complicated and interesting character that is not handled by the narrative well AT ALL. She definitely has potential, and I did enjoy her role in EoD (Where she's actually there for Aurene, like she's supposed to be!) but generally I'm not very pleased by how she's written.

Also, disliking Caithe/not enjoying how she's written is neither inherently lesbophobic or misogynistic. I can't believe I have to say that. My feelings, and those of a lot of other people who also feel similar, about her have nothing to do with her being female (and I'm not even going to touch the fact that sylvari are inherently pansexual....), so I think it's very disingenuous/bad faith to accuse anyone of being bigoted simply because they don't enjoy how a character is written, especially when those gripes are not about her being female or gay at all.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I just wish they did better with her bond with Aurene!! It's definitely better in EoD, but prior to that? It felt so much like an informed thing, without enough actual display of it in the narrative.

I also wish that there was more to the Commander calling her out on stealing the egg, that didn't amount to Caithe just going "WELL I wasn't thinking properly because of Mordremoth" and moving on. It's especially egregious with a Sylvari Commander tbh.

#sylvari-bouquet #for the record: I don't like. hate caithe or anything #but i am extremely tired of the very aggressive fans of her accusing everyone of bigotry for daring to not enjoy how she's written #she had potential! she really did! and i'm far more happy with how they wrote her in EoD! #but that doesn't change how displeased I am with her writing prior to EoD #(disclaimer: obviously not all caithe fans are super weird about this lmao) #(i've just encountered some that are REALLY REALLY REALLY aggressive about the topic and it's not at all helped my opinion of caithe)