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average-mako-enjoyer · 5 months

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Mass Effect LGBTQ+ representation issues and some headcanons

I've seen a few Mass Effect posts about the sexuality of the trilogy's characters, and I'd like to add my 5 cents, since none of those posts take into account the whole xenophilia aspect of canon relationships. And some of us are here for it. For the aliens. I am here for them. I'm not sorry.

Also, I have to acknowledge the fact that Bioware has made some very questionable choices, and the in-game representation is bad. Like BAD-bad.

I.E.(this list is going to be looong):

All Male Shepard/Kaidan Alenko dialog for ME1 and ME2 was written and fully voiced, but NOT INCLUDED in the final version of the game. And I know that the same thing happened to FemShep/Ashley, but that a bit different because...

The only "gay" romances in ME1 and ME2 are for femShep, and either with a female-representing human-like aliens (who like to dress in tight clothes that emphasize the size of their breasts), or with the equally feminine Kelly Chambers in ME2. Because, you know, guys who buy this game will be more tolerant of two "hot chicks making out" (insert a bunch of mods that make your femShep wear only lingerie and look like a TikTok e-girl) than a more realistic same-sex romance.

Especially when this romance is between two guys. Because ew. Right, Bioware? But you also wanted to sell your games to LGBTQ+ folks, so you installed a…

… so-called "gay button" into your games.

Before ME3, no one except for "hot chicks asari" states their sexuality. You can go through two entire games as a straight character completely surrounded by other completely straight characters. Oh, maybe Kelly likes aliens a little too much, but "who doesn't like asari", right? Even asexual salarians are into them. Sure, a straight woman like femShep…

"Hot chicks making out" really sells those game copies, I guess.

If you think ME3 is better, think again. The only two gay characters in the game are Cortez and Traynor, and they are both supporting characters, who are not even in your squad!

Cortez and his whole "I lost my husband" drama is conveniently placed on the lowest deck of the ship, so if this story offends your bigoted sensibilities, you can just ignore him along with the "dumb jock" Vega who is really unpopular with the players. Is it because he's really friendly with an openly gay character? Oh, who knows?

Meanwhile, Traynor is either mocked (oh, she found EDI voice hot and commented on that! what a shame! awkward lesbians, amirite?) or fetishized (don't get me wrong, Donnelly is funny, but his remarks about Traynor are even more yucky than the way he talks about EDI and lube).

But don't get mad about all this, because all the women in the trilogy are fetishized and heavily sexualized. The best example of this is Samara, whose character design is a war crime.

Bioware made Benezia look horrible (she tried to make Saren change his ways not with her power or wits but with those giant bazooms and the cleavage, I guess), and then they doubled down in ME2 and gave a warrior samurai nun a boob window. A FUCKING BOOB WINDOW. Because boys buy games, and they love boobs, y'know.

Oh, and any inappropriate remarks made by NPCs in the game are directed only at the femShep. Just like the MShenko romance, the male version of the dialog is fully voiced, but conveniently excluded from the game. Because guys can't tell other guys that they look hot in "that soldier getup". That can make bigots uncomfortable.

And let's talk about bi representation, because Bioware apparently hates bisexuals as much as straights and some queers do (trust me, as a bisexual I've experienced both types of hatred, and it's ugly). The only bisexual characters in the game are Kaidan and Diana Allers.

If you're a bigot playing as the maleShep, you can "safely" kill Kaidan on Virmire in the middle of the first game and not have to deal with his uncomfortable love confession at all!

So, yeah, Bigots: 1, Representation: 0. The bisexual is successfully killed, congratulations!

If you play as femShep, you won't even know that Kaidan is/was bi. Because who wants a bisexual guy who is comfortable with his sexuality? You can't sell that kind of romance to the good ladies who buy this game.

Diana Allers romance, meanwhile, is laugh-worthy. If you play as maleShep, you won't even know that she's bi. And if you're femShep, this romance is as insignificant as the one with Kelly, you won't even get an achievement for it! You can also kick her out of your ship without any consequences, so she will be KIA offscreen. You will find about it via fucking email. Bigots: 2, Representation: 0. Both of dirty bisexuals are successfully killed, congratulations!

The bi-xenophile Kelly suffers the same fate: no achievement for her romance, you cannot continue the romance after ME2, and she will either take a poison pill and die or be killed in the Collector's Base/Citadel offscreen in ME3. If she survives both the base and the Cerberus attack, you won't even get to say goodbye to her before the final battle of the game. Bigots: 3, Representation: 0

9. And I almost forgot about Omega DLC that kills the only female turian in the game. Who's also into asari. God, they did her dirty.

"Those were different times," you might say, but all of this could have been fixed in 2019, when the Limited Edition was released. Instead, we just have fellow modders changing the design of Benezia and Samara, restoring MShenko (one of the most healthy, respectful, and mature romances in the entire trilogy) and other gay romances in the game, making all NPCs flirt with your character, adding female turians and krogans to the environment, etc., etc.

Still, I think these games are great. The characters, the cinematics, some aspects of the writing, great! I love that canon. But the LGBTQ+ representation in those games sucks. Big time. But that doesn't stop me from having a bunch of headcanons. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to separate out all the characters for the games in which they debut.

Mass Effect:

MaleShep/FemShep: Both are canonically bi. Both don't mind the alien physiology thing and polyamory. Both are "married to your job" type, so they were okay with casual sex and one-night stands, and only mellowed out while in charge of the Normandy crew. Because of convenience, both had more hetero than same-sex hookups.

Ashley: Straight as a plank and xenophobic, but not homophobic. She's definitely into maleShep, but more into the idea of him as a sole survivor/war hero/butcher of Torfan than an actual person.

Garrus: He likes turian and quarian women. And both fem and maleShep. But with maleShep, he's more busy with the whole "flirt him to death" aspect of their bromance, so there's really no time to get on the floor and get dirty.

I also feel that turian society in the game is very patriarchal, so Garrus has a bias towards femShep and feels less restricted by her rank. With mShep, I think he would have only acted if mShep had specifically pursued that relationship. But mShep is also more interested in just flirting with Garrus.

Kaidan: Canonically bisexual (more into women) and demi. Not into aliens, but not xenophobic. Not a stranger to casual sex, but would really prefer to go steady because #introverted and has enough problems already. "How can you flirt with all these people, Shepard, it's exhausting…"

Liara: She's into both versions of Shepard. And maybe a bit into one drell. Classic demi/asexual. Also, imo, all asari are agender and Liara is not an exception.

Tali: Is a mess and can definitely go cross-species (her romance with Garrus is canon, after all). She's also a massive nerd and a bit kinky. I think she's into human/turian/quarian males, but maybe this femShep really is THAT SPECIAL.

Wrex: Krogan women - that's his sexual orientation. Real bros with mShep, more cautious with femShep because bias. Another "married to his job" character.

Joker: Straight and nerdy. #Irony. Too cool for homophobia.

Chakwas: More married to her job than anyone on this list. Cool lesbian aunt.

And this post is already so long that I'll make a separate one for ME2 and 3.

#mass effect #commander shepard #ashley williams #garrus vakarian #kaidan alenko #liara t'soni #tali'zorah #urdnot wrex #jeff moreau #headcanons #lgbtq headcanons #ranting #fuck bioware #my stuff #my thoughts

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mosscreeperao3 · 2 months

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The funniest thing about me being so deep into the mshenko obsession is that my Kaidan romance play through started mostly as a joke.

I’d just finished up a Liara/femshep paragade run and made a joke to my partner about how I was quickly “losing the boy-scout competition to Kaidan” who I decided was my lesbian femshep’s best friend.

The whole point of the John Alan run was to essentially see if I could play a bigger boy-scout than Mr. Integrity. Then the slow burn hit me like a truck and here I am.

Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE Liara/FemShep but mshenko is just such a sweet love story and my gay little heart needed more.

Also my gaggle of gays decided to challenge me to write gay smut because they doubted a lesbian could write good gay male smut and I took that personally.

#mshenko #mass effect #gay shenanigans

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elvenbeard · 11 months

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Thanks for your answer on the bi/straight mod question! Very interesting to see your perspective, especially since I myself am straight and feel like that is a topic I'm not qualified to offer my opinions on. Bioware, and Dragon Age in particular is what made me bring it up. I was there for the Dorian drama too and it was messy. I never downloaded that mod, it didnt sit right with me either knowing his story, I just happily romanced him with a male inqusitor and went on my way. But then I think about Mass Effect and characters like Jack, is who definitely bi, and Tali who does seem to flirt with FemShep, they're only romanceable for MShep, so I sometime wonder if there's a grey area there where a mod would be ok? Or like for Kaidan, who is bi but not romanceable by MShep until game 3, It seems like a mod for him in ME1 is acceptable. Idk, I'm rambling, but I guess in my opinion they may be okay for some characters, like Kaidan, but not okay for others, like Dorian. And like you said, maybe that's hypocritical, but that makes the most sense to me in a way? Again, not trying to start anything, just happy to have a civil discussion about it instead of seeing both sides yell at each other while I watch from afar and try to make sense of it.

Always happy to discuss things like this in a civil way, cause that's how you learn and see different perspectives!

I think everything considered, everyone needs to decide for themselves what's okay and what isn't. If I love a character so so much, but I cannot or don't want to romance them with a PC they'd be attracted to given their background and story, then what is it that I love about that character (especially if their sexuality is integral to the story)? Do I really love the character for who they are, or do I just hate being turned down by them, despite always being nice to them (do I feel cheated by the narrative)? What is it that prevents me from enjoying this character's story how it's written (is it bad, or is it just not what I expected, what I know from other media)? Is it internalized homophobia, or does it make me uncomfortable to be adressed as a different gender than my own (what can I learn about myself from this)? Something else, all of the above?

I can answer that for myself in regard to why I personally don't mind headcanoning some straight characters as bi or gay. Most random example: Cassandra from Dragon Age. I didn't play her romance, I know vaguely how it plays out though. It's sweet, it's dorky, it's romantic af. I love Cassandra as the strong leader who also loves cute romance novels - get yourself a girl who can be both! But also, from what I know about it, her romance feels like something I've seen depicted in media 1000 times before. I feel like romancing her with a female Inquisitor could give her story a different vibe entirely, one that I personally could relate more to. I'm not saying that her canon romance and orientation are bad either - it's just something that doesn't grab me as much when here are LIs that are "less conventional" (read: more like myself), with stories I can relate to more.

Regarding Jack, Tali, and Kaidan: considering how old Mass Effect 1 is, and how utterly radical it was at the time to have Liara as an LI for both female and male Shepard, I think they really wanted to play it safe with who was canonically available to whom as an LI, and only got braver when ME3 rolled around. It's been too long since I played the games myself, and I only ever played a male Shepard, so I can't comment specifically on Tali's behavior towards Femshep for example. And again, I think it's totally fair to headcanon Tali as bi or lesbian or whatever you want, and get mods that unlock her romance, because it's only relevant to your own game and story and doesn't affect anyone else. It's totally fair to headcanon Kaidan as straight, because if you're only ever playing Femshep, I'm not sure if anything ever comes up that would suggest he's bi, romanced or not (correct me if I'm wrong!). And it's also not gonna take away from me having the ultimate slowburn romance between him and my male Shepard either xD I know there's mods that unlock his romance for male Shep in ME1, too, but I personally do not mind that he's not an LI there. Cause heck... maybe Kaidan didn't realize himself at the time that he is bi, and maybe he realizes only by the time he starts to trust male Shepard again in ME3 "hmm... maybe I'm feeling a little more than just admiration and friendship for this man." I love the M!Shenko romance so much as a slowburn, because sexuality is a shifting thing, and it's never too late to realize that maybe you're not as straight (or cis) as you thought you were.

I don't wanna go into morals or what's okay and what isn't, because in the end, as I said, these characters and their stories are all fictional. Also, good queer representation is by far not as rare anymore as it was by the time of Mass Effect 1 or Dragon Age: Origins, where I kind of accidentally stumbled into Zevran's romance with my male Warden and had my mind blown that it was possible to be gay in a fantasy story. Overall though, there's still too little rep, and if you look around the world rn, at the political climate and the rising tension towards queer people, we need it more than ever, still.

Another reason why I'm personally more "forgiving" towards mods that make canonically straight, cis characters queer, because there's so little gay fantasy knights in shining armour romances, so little dorky space lesbians. The queer characters used to often be the sexually more deviant, morally grey, shady characters (I love you, Zevran, but also.... yeah). They still sometimes are, and not only do we need more, we need more diverse stories. More quiet romantic queers, more serious respectable queers, more evil queers that are evil because they're evil, not because they're queer.

And sometimes you just need a little bit of self-fulfillment in fiction when the real world constantly tells you "no one would ever love you the way you are". I can see why you don't wanna be turned down by your favourite fictional character, and there is no harm in "what if" scenarios that mods allow you to experience. Since being straight is still considered "the norm" in large parts of society and in fiction, I feel like some straight people playing games with diverse queer rep experience being turned down for their gender and orientation for the first time in their lives there. And maybe "make this character straight" mods are a way to cope with that unexpected rejection from their favourites (and again, being turned down by your fave is never fun, and when you have the chance to play out "what if" scenarios in your head or with mods, by all means, go for it! I get it, I really do).

But my guess is as good as any other and still: me understanding it doesn't mean I wanna see it on my dash.

Simultaneously, I get it that female players want to play female characters, cause even female protags are not something that was always just there from the beginning of games. Me personally, I prefer playing male characters when given a choice. And now you have games like Cyberpunk, where you can canonically make V trans (it's not perfect by how it's pulled off, but what in life is perfect?). Having that option alone was another utter *mind blown* moment for me, and I hope more and more games will pick this up in the future and "normalize" it, make it standard, expose people to the existence of queer people at every opportunity xD And now I'm completely off topic so I'll stop here with my rant!

TL,DR: Let people mod what they mod, if they really wanna, they're gonna do it anyway. Everyone needs to decide for themselves what's okay and what isn't, and there are no bigger, all encompassing morals to adhere to. Maybe we're all not that different in our experiences and wishes and daydreams and just need to realize it more. Be kinder and more respectful towards each other. Focus on creating and enjoying the things that you love and share it with people who love it. And, if all else fails... block/mute/blacklist things and people you don't wanna have in your life XD

And there's nothing bad in being a little hypocritical sometimes, hell, I still get mad af at stupid mods and stupid takes XD I'm far from perfect, I'm super petty actually. I've fucked up in the past, and will probably fuck up in the future, too, it's just human. But I still will try to do my best to be respectful and just remove myself from environments and content that gets me mad, and focus on the good things and the cool people and what they do and support them. Help them be louder against bigots as best as I can.

#answered asks #anonymous #fandom stuff #long post #if you wanna come off anon would also love to chat about this more in private!

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arielleej · 1 year

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Why I’m crying over Bumbleby

I was originally thinking about doing this on Twitter but after spending several hours browsing both it and Tumblr I came to the conclusion that Tumblr is just better for long-form content. Plus a huge number of the RWBY content creators (be they artists, fanfiction authors, or otherwise) that I follow or whose work I consume are here anyway, so I figure they must know something I don’t.

Anyway I wanted to talk about why I was so emotionally affected by Bumbleby finally getting their moment, and why as a member of the single most over-represented demographic in “western” media (i.e. a Caucasian cishet male) that I found it mattering to me.

For most of my life I’ve been bombarded by cishet romances in media. And like, that’s fine, but they start to lose any kind of meaning if they’re in literally everything you consume. I think the last one that I really felt emotionally connected to was Yennefer and Geralt in Witcher 3. Coming into that game with no prior experience left me with no biases towards any of the potential love interests, and their journey to reconciliation while trying to find their missing kid was something I found truly special.

Other than that one, most of the relationships I really felt connected to in media I’ve consumed have been gay. I think - and I have no idea if I’m right about this or not - that the reason for this is gay romances have to try so much harder to be valid and real than straight ones do. The lengths the characters go through to show how much they care for each other is just mesmerizing.

That’s the kind of love I want to have in my own life.

The first example of this to me was Femshep/Liara in Mass Effect. When I finished Mass 3 for the first time I was a depressed, sobbing, mess. I spent almost an entire weekend in my bed crying. I recognize that a lot of the lines Shepard uses are similar no matter what relationship you choose to pursue, but something about Jennifer Hale and Ali Hillis’ line delivery was incredible. I suspect that no small part of my attachment was a result of Liara being the only character you can have a relationship with spanning all three games.

A more recent example was Bill and Frank from The Last of Us on HBO. We were only given one episode (a long one, granted) but was enough to get me hook, line, and sinker. Doing domestic shit like secretly planting strawberries as a surprise gift, or establishing a trade network through some friends made on the radio (or online, to use a current day analogue) is what I live for. As for the ending, I would’ve done exactly the same in Bill’s place.

Which brings us back to Blake and Yang.

I’ll be the first to admit that it took me until V6 to figure it out. Specifically it took Arryn Troche (https://twitter.com/dontyoudarryn) pointing out in their V6 reactions that the interactions between Blake and Yang are clearly romantic in nature. Specifically the scene where Yang is dropping Blake off to go sabotage the radar tower, and Yang says “Go” in the softest voice fucking imaginable. After that point, it all made sense.

Yang trying her hardest to coax Blake out from behind the anti-social defenses she had built up in V1/V2. Yang being the one to knock Blake out of her self-destructive spiral in V2. How heartbroken Yang was when Blake didn’t believe her story about the match with Mercury. Yang stepping in to protect Blake from Adam without a moment’s hesitation.

And then in V4 (and subsequently the comics) Yang is utterly heartbroken because this girl that she felt something for - even if it’s clear she didn’t know what it was exactly - just vanished after the most traumatic event of her life. Again it wasn’t until after V6 that I realized “A part of me is gone and it’s never coming back” was not only talking about her arm, but also the fact that Blake took her heart when she ran.

It’s pretty clear from the comics and V4/V5 that Blake realized what Yang meant to her while she was in Menagerie. But Yang wasn’t there and in order to get back to Yang to fight for her again, she first needed to fight for herself and what she believed in. She fights to win her parent’s love again (easy), she fights to convince the people to help her stop Adam (medium), and she fights to redeem one of her oldest and closest friends (hard). Only then is she able to take on the most difficult challenge in V6 - fighting for her future with Yang.

By the time we get to V7/8 it’s pretty clear that Blake knows how Yang feels about her, even if Yang doesn’t understand it herself. She laughs at every stupid joke Yang makes, makes a fool of herself dancing just so she can spend time with her, and spends time putting on makeup - all to try and coax Yang into giving a voice to their feelings. Honestly one of their best scenes is in V7 discussing how to talk to Robyn. They initially disagree on the approach but talk it out, and Yang is the one to come up with the solution based on Blake’s feelings.

It’s obvious to us as the audience that Yang is a total goner for Blake, and that’s even more true in V8 when they disagree about the best way to help Mantle and in the aftermath the thing that Yang is concerned about the most is if she somehow hurt Blake’s feelings.

Which brings us to V9C6.

To me the most beautiful thing about that scene is how all Blake did was give Yang the safety to talk about her feelings, and immediately validate them once they were given voice. Blake knew what she wanted and never doubted for a second what Yang wanted, even if Yang doubted herself.

Just like Yang said, Blake never gave up on them.

That’s the kind of shit that makes me cry.

#bumbleby #rwby vol9 #rwbyv9 spoilers #rwby spoilers #shouting into the void

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mickstart · 1 year

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hello i would like to hear your opinions on

This is such a mood. Thank you for asking!!! I love mass effect! A lot!

I probably have opinions on most characters tbh. I like the original ME1 squad the most. My shepard is a psuedo-oc and I love her and her found family SO much. Like it'd be really hard for me to pick a mass effect squadmate I dislike they're almost all very dear to me. So here's a companion tier list and then honourable mentions and explanations below

Garrus: malewife with autism. Local Man In Awe Of His Very Strong Wife. Dork. Beloved. I Am Not Immune To Turians.

Tali: wife so beloved they had to nerf her by refusing to make her bi even though if femshep romances Garrus you can find Tali fantasizing about the three of you Together at the citadel dlc party.

Wrex: that's my grandpa and I love him

Ashley: she and Shep are the two best friends who have been friends so long they always have five ongoing arguments of varying severity but they will always be The Girls. She is ONLY down in b tier because I use her so little during the actual game and I wish there had been more actual content.

Joker: that's my stupid weed smoking cousin and the only one who knows im gay at the family reunion.

Grunt: Shepard has a sign on her door when she's busy and has asked not to be disturbed and it says "SON BOY ALLOWED" with a picture of grunt. He will always be her son. He is just a baby.

Anderson: dad. I love him. but also it's true what they say once you've heard Keith David as the arbiter he is the arbiter to you forever and there's nothing you can do.

Hackett: I just really like Hackett he's like Shepard's strict but fair dad and Anderson is her fun dad.

Kasumi: Shepard's annoying little sister I LOVE getting gossip from her it made the ship feel so alive.

James: I need to help my himbo son realize he is bisexual and it's not Just Bro Things to constantly ask Cortez if he's enjoying watching you work out and thinks you're hot.

Jack: I LOVE JACK I LOVE JACK SO MUCHXHDHDDHDH BIOWARE HOMOPHOBES. If you even look at jack wrong then Natasha Shepard will kill you. That's her sister.

Miranda: I Am Not Immune To Women Or Hyper Competence.

Samara: hngh... milfs.... With a code of duty and honour and ethics.... Hnghhhhhh.

EDI: I love robot AI stories I just wish someone gave my darling friend some clothes. She looks cold.

Legion: I will make bioware pay. I swear it to you legion.

Bonus Honourable Mentions: I genuinely am a stereotypical "turians are my blorbos" mass effect player. I think more than the game probably wants me to about Saren and indoctrination and Nihlus (and how they had a Thing I'm a truther) and it's one of the reasons I hate the ending so much because bioware seem intent on pushing synthesis as the "good uwu" ending which. That's what Saren wanted to do in me1 make up your damn minds.

Okay! Dishonourable mentions!

Thane: his loyalty mission glitched on my first ever playthrough and it ruined my perfect run on the suicide mission AND got kirrahe killed in me3 bc he took Thanes place in the coup fight. I don't dislike him he's like my joke nemesis but I'd probably forgive him for the broken loyalty mission if he was more interesting to me.

Kaidan: I actually really do like kaidan this is the same thing as Thane. I took him to the tholian planet in me1 my first time out, when I was shit at game, and he just kept dying constantly leaving me at the mercy of the thralls. (Garrus, knight in shining armour, was my only hope.) When virmire happened I was like "you know what you did." The game also railroads you if you're playing with femshep and makes every conversation with him flirty which! I didn't enjoy! At all! Jesus can I just get to know you without you asking if this means I'm in love???? So thus I have spent the least time with kaidan of all the squad. I really want to do a maleshep run some day and like. Actually get to know him. Because I think he's be higher if I did.

Javik: I find the airlock stuff funny but like. The fascist colonialist overlord thing. Gets old quick! Believe it or not! I don't get on with him but he makes me laugh I guess.

Jacob: this isn't about Jacob this is about the racist and bland writing that went into him. I want to love Jacob but he has both the racist writing and the same problem as Kaidan where if you even suggest you don't want him to die the game takes it as a sign you love him

And now. The big one. The one that's gonna get my sapphic card taken away.

Liara makes me uncomfortable. The way you can see the Devs lust for her all over the way she's written and designed and posed and used. The way she fulfills every "hot alien babe" fantasy. The way asari in general are agender when bioware want to tell you it's not really gay and "just all female" the rest of the time or when they're drooling over them. The way the game railroads you the same way it does with kaidan and Jacob and probably Ashley if you're maleshep. The way she has multiple obligatory missions and the favourtism is so obvious that she's basically the only character who can ONLY die if you get the absolute worst ending of all where the entire galaxy dies. The way the game will regularly assume you romance her.

Idk I really wanted to like her I was SO excited when I found out the game had a bisexual love interest. It's not like I dislike anything at all that's actually about HER. As a character I love her she's autistic coded she's sweet she's beautiful and smart and kind. But whenever I'm interacting with her idk how else to describe it except I am taken out of the experience of the story BC I am so aware of all the contexts and shit influencing what I'm seeing and doing. She's NOT down here because I hate her. It is exclusively the fact that when I'm seeing her I am so acutely aware that I am seeing a fictional character people workshopped.

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crocophant · 1 year

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Would love to hear about your shep(s) whenever you get a spare moment ^^

so, my sheps are mostly just thinly veiled self-inserts and exist as excuses for me to romance steve/liara but i guess i'll talk about them

also this took like a week to fully flesh out because i kept writing it and then getting distracted by shiny things while I don’t have to be at work for three weeks

Much of this is completely just me rambling about why i played the game one way and continued to do so for the next many playthroughs (because we all know how people play bioware games)

In general, don’t take too much of this as gospel for the ME Holiday Exchange because I’m willing to read about Shepards who make different choices than I did (swaps’ Opus series is a great example)

if you have more questions, feel free to hit me up!

i usually choose the spacer background, not for like nepotism reasons but because as someone who is familiar with familial pressures that's the only way you could get me into the military (also, Colonist/Earthborn just feel like they're just extra trauma for the pile, let Shepard at least start the series with a normal amount of trauma, they get dogpiled enough with it later; see:literally everything past landing on eden prime)

For Psychological Profile, I completely go back on my about how much Trauma we’re injecting into Shepard’s life and go Sole Survivor because both War Hero/Ruthless kinda squicked me for my self insert, but also I do like the thought of Shepard coming off of Akuze back to active service and getting put on the Normandy only to have Eden Prime happen (can the world stay saved for FIVE MINUTES)

for class, it's either sentinel/adept. as @partyhatjigglypuff will no doubt confirm, if there's magic, i'm gonna play it, because otherwise WHAT IS THE POINT (in dragon age i am a mlm - mage loving mage in DA2/Inquisition) but also, i am a completionist/hate the level curve in me1 where you have to open everything or use console commands furthermore, i do think a world where biotics are just starting to be a thing for humans, you’re going to be pushed into the military, after all, it’s not like it’s thessia, where every asari has some level of biotic aptitudes and some of them can just fuck off and be archaeologists (i do see the point of playing a soldier, aka “just a normal human who gets thrust into fuck off circumstances” but again, this is *my* power fantasy let me have fun here, also i am bad at aiming a gun so powers are the Way To Go)

I tend to make a lot of the same choices throughout the series for both m!Shep and FemSheps because that’s the way I like the story to go?

Plot Highlights for Both: Spare the Rachni Queen, Sacrifice Ashley, Give Wrex his armor, Save the Council, Anderson is Councilor, Destroy the Collector Base, Geth/Quarian Peace (cry about Legion), Cure the Genophage (Cry a lot about Mordin), There Was Red Light and the Reapers Died but the Geth and EDI survived because Otherwise is Too Horrible To Imagine

my female sheps are usually the sentinels, because I played through the series with a fem!shep first so i was still figuring out WTF was going on, and then i just didn’t stop, for the most part. anyways, even before i was super regularly going by jane, i still named my sheps jane because it’s a nice name, gosh dang it. she always romances Liara/Nobody/Liara because you can’t be gay on the Space Racist Ship i believe in love. she rewrites the geth heretics because Legion asks politely. she thinks about the dalatrass’ offer re:salarian support but politely declines (as much as that can be done, like ‘sorry ma’am but i had previously made a promise to Wrex, whom I like more than you’). She’s very much pragmatist/idealist/again i had no idea what was going on my first playthrough so it was a mix of “i’m hedging my bets

my male sheps are the adepts. diversity win! the super space soldier who is acting as a beyond-the-law agent of the government uses femme-coded space magic. anyways, i usually use more or less the default mshep because the male character creator looks like a frog no matter what i do imho? this is my “how do i get the ‘best’ ending” shepard. he tends to destroy the heretics because he’s a bleeding heart. not to dip too much into a different hyperfixation but this lore tab from destiny 2 explains why: "If a Guardian kills me with violence," she explained, "I am Eido until my death. But if a Techeun controls my voice… am I still Eido?" he doesn’t romance anyone in ME1/2 because MLMs haven’t been invented yet, but he does fall in love with Steve in ME3 (I’m not saying this because I also fell Unexpectedly in love with Steve but like, if the shoe fits, I will wear it for numerous playthroughs). I like the thought of Kaidan/Shep being in orbit around each other in ME1/being each other’s hobby crush like in this post, but not wanting to commit or break regs, and by the time they’re both ready to trust/like each other again/Kaidan feels comfortable enough to make the move (steak sandwich convo), Shep’s already fallen for Steve/gotten together with him.

I just think pilot/biotic!Shepard is a good combination, especially when steve turns off the stabilizers in the Citadel DLC like you cannot tell me that an adept Shep doesn’t get pointers from Kaidan (Mr. Control post-Vyrrnus) and Liara for how to better finetune the control so that he can give Steve some of those juicy g-forces in the bedroom one day.

also! they both have purple armor because that’s the correct color

#mass effect #jane answers

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felassan · 3 years

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For MELE PC gamers who are interested in mods for gay romance, this article is a detailed look at where the MELE modding community is currently at on this front (sounds promising). (Cut for length)

Mass Effect Modders Are Using Official Audio To Restore Gay Romances For Jack, Thane, Tali, And More

Modders have unearthed official, unused dialogue for seven same-sex romances in Mass Effect 2.

Four months ago, we published a story about how Mass Effect 2’s Jack was originally supposed to be pansexual, but her romance arc was made exclusive for Male Shepard due to fear of backlash from Fox News. Shortly afterwards, it was discovered that a “Brokeback Mountain” cutscene had also been animated for Jacob and Male Shep, but was cut from the final product for similar reasons. Both of these revelations hit the Mass Effect community hard, with countless fans all over the world being disappointed by the decision to remove same-sex romances from Mass Effect 2 in particular.

As it turns out, dialogue exists in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition game files pertaining to same-sex romances for both Jack and Jacob, as well as Kaidan, Ashley, Miranda, Thane, and Tali - and it looks like modders are going to use it to restore these romances in full.

“There’s dialogue present for all of these characters, yes, but I should point out two things that are very important,” Ryan ‘Audemus’ Ainsworth tells me. Ainsworth helps manage the largest Mass Effect modding community in the world, and is individually renowned for creating the A Lot Of Videos mod, which upscales every cutscene in the trilogy to 4K resolution.

“The first thing is that just because this audio is present doesn’t necessarily mean the character was intended to have a same-sex romance,” Ainsworth explains. “A lot of the time this audio gets recorded accidentally just due to the sheer volume of lines that Mark Meer/Jennifer Hale [the voices behind Shepard] had to record - it’s very easy for certain things to slip under the radar.”

Ainsworth says that the organization appears to get better with each subsequent game in the trilogy, meaning that there’s much more unused audio early on in the series. In the first game, for example, modders have dug up Mark Meer saying, “You’re interested in me? Even though we’re both women?” The point is, we have confirmation from Jack’s writer that she was originally pansexual, but just because there are audio snippets of Tali and FemShep flirting doesn’t mean the romance was consciously cut - it could have just came about from recording lots of different scenarios for each character during development. Still, it’s there to play around with if you know your way around the fan-built Mass Effect modding tool set.

Ainsworth also explains that the dialogue in the game files is present to varying degrees. For Ashley and Kaidan’s romances in the first game, everything is there, which makes the fact that Kaidan is a gay romance option two games later a bit strange - and the fact that Ashley isn’t even stranger. By the time Mass Effect 2 comes around, the romances for Thane, Jack, Miranda, Jacob, and Tali only have the dialogue for the first romance encounter - the kiss with Miranda, the initial “Siha” conversation with Thane, and Jack’s one night stand. The audio for the final romance scene with these characters does not appear to exist in the files, meaning it may never have been recorded. Still, Ainsworth sent me footage of the FemShep/Miranda romance mod from the original trilogy, where the section from 32:45 to 33:20 uses official audio found in the game files as part of the restored romance. The next scene, however, uses a technique called FOVO to generate audio/lip sync patterns from other conversations in the game.

“This was the only way to do it for Mass Effect 2 because we couldn’t add new audio,” Ainsworth says. “For Legendary Edition’s version of the mods, we can be a lot more creative with how we implement new dialogue for these scenes since we can add new audio.”

This new opportunity comes from the fact that the games have updated the Wwise audio engine to a newer version. Without getting too into technical speak, this means that the audio engine used in Legendary Edition’s versions of Mass Effect 2 and 3 allows for much better audio-related modding than ever before. For the original trilogy, Mass Effect 3 was already pretty limited in this capacity, whereas Mass Effect 2 had pretty much no modding potential for audio-related projects whatsoever. Fortunately for us, that’s changed.

All in all, this means the Mass Effect modding community is now fully able to take those official, unused game files and build full-fledged same-sex romances for Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob, Jack, Miranda, Thane, and Tali out of them. In all of these instances, at least the first romance scene will use audio that was actually recorded by Mark Meer or Jennifer Hale during development. Where necessary - for Thane and Tali, for example - modders will handle the rest of the work using the new audio functionality, but for the most part, these romances are based on legitimate assets that can still be found in the game files in Legendary Edition.

“I think the lack of LGBT representation in the Mass Effect trilogy is quite disappointing,” Ainsworth says. “Especially since, for example, you can’t get the full Paramour achievement in Legendary Edition if you play a strictly gay male Shepard. I know there are petitions to get BioWare to add in those romances for Mass Effect 2 and Kaidan’s gay romance in [the first] Mass Effect, and while it’s a shame that it doesn’t look like that’s going to end up happening, I can say that with our improved Mass Effect 2 audio modding potential, plus the fact that all of the unused same-sex romance voiceover is still present in Legendary Edition’s files, these mods are not just on the table - they’re pretty much certain to be made.

“So PC Gaymers can rejoice (that was a terrible joke, don’t print that lmao). Off the top of my head, these would be for Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob, Jack, Miranda, Thane and Tali. For some of them there isn’t enough in the files to fully restore, but we can be very clever with reusing/splicing existing lines to fill in the blanks.” [source]

#bioware #mass effect #video games #longpost #long post #lgbtq

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samsaintjames · 3 years

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okay so: fic recs

So this is gonna be really long and rambling (I'm sure), but we start with the basics.

If you're only ever going to read one and only one fanfic in your entire life you have to read Increments of Longing. It's a Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner fanfic, but it's AU enough and so well written, that you probably do not actually need to know anything about Warcraft or World of Warcraft and the respective lore and backstory to enjoy it. Just look at it like a very good fantasy novel about an arranged marriage. [...]“But you would tell me what you want?” Sylvanas asked in a voice that was far too controlled to be truly nonchalant."[...] I could not even tell you why, but this line there from the second chapter? It gives me feels (and I could not even tell you what exactly I'm feeling, but yeah).

Anyway, read it (I've read it twice now)!

Okay, from the same author I also whole-heartedly recommend you search the mountain. Which is another Jaina/Sylvanas story, again AU, with Jaina being Drust. You do not necessarily need background info - there even is a map of Kul Tiras included - but you'd probably benefit from it. Particularly the early chapters, when you get to know Arthur, made me laugh and giggle quite a bit, even though the story itself is - since it's about the Drust and a civil war - a bit of a horror story/military fiction crossover I'd say. Good read.

And my kinda guilty pleasure (also from the same author) is no end in sight. It's a story about Suramar (and healing). And when I started playing WoW towards the end of Legion, shortly before the Argus patch, I absolutely fell in love with that region/city and the Nightborne - probably because I wasn't stuck on the repetitive content of it for forever lol. So this story about Thalyssra and Jaina and the other Nightborne NPCs is awesome. I was actually considering to also write about Jaina/Thalyssra, simply because just imagine the insane magic those two could do when working together (I mean they kinda do in Nazjatar), but knowing me, this will probably never get past the conception stage.

Inevitability is also absolutely amazing (it's another - you probably guessed it - Jaina/Sylvanas AU, with both of them being professors - considering I've been working in academics for the last 15 years that's kinda my jam). And I have a lot of thoughts about it, which for the sake of not boring people to death I'm gonna abbreviate (but well I'm ready to talk people to death if they are interested). One: I'd love to meet this Sylvanas. Two: I'd never have the guts to talk to her, but I'd totally want her to take me home lol (and I'm not even sure I'm gay). Three: life at universities around here is very different from - I'm assuming - the US.

(Also if you're into AUs, go check Fearless - which features witches and ghosts and is fun.)

Okay, so now we're coming to how I actually fell into the whole Jaina/Sylvanas thing. It's because of Daugthers of Sea and Snow. Which is a Frozen/WoW crossover featuring Jaina/Elsa I found by looking through Frozen Fanfics when I was bored around the time Frozen 2 came out and then completely forgot - it was still work in progress then; I found the still open tab in my browser like four to three weeks ago, saw it was finished now and devoured the whole thing. And while I was there, I looked at the other things that author had written - and that's how I stumbled upon Jaina/Sylvanas, like two years late. Which is probably kinda ironic, since I played BFA a lot (mythic raiding beginning with Uldir), loving the Storyline in Kul Tiras and being absolutely enamoured with Jaina especially after her Warbringers vid (I still sometimes humm the song) - and liked Sylvanas since Warcraft III. Sometimes life is weird.

So and after that I jumped down this particular rabbit hole while doing a thrilling backflip. There is an assortment of other stories that I very much enjoyed.

A Touch of Arcane - the first fix of political marriage AU for Jaina and Sylvanas that I got (I think it was actually the first Jaina/Sylvanas fic I read period). And boy did I get hooked to that.

Along the same lines but different are Worth the Trouble and Two Rooms.

If you're into AUs for that pairring, you'll find a lot of intereseting ones from the Author katofthenorth. The one about diving is really cute.

Stories not yet finished that I thoroughly enjoyed so far (most of them political marriage AUs - lol I'm a sucker for those okay, it's not my fault!):

Ink and Honor is amazing. I came for Jaina/Sylvanas, but I love the Thalyssra/Vereesa storyline just as much - it's sooooo cute, like even Genn ships them ^^.

threads of silk.

climb the walls.

Measure of the world. They aren't married (yet, it's a possibility though I'd guess and I haven't even reached the end of the so far posted chapters yet, but enjoyable read nonetheless).

The Lighthouse. Amazing AU, I love the idea - and it's not political marriage! I cannot wait for the next chapters.

I've dug too many holes into this thawing ground. This story gave me a lot of feels too.

Honorary mentions for stories that I'm assuming might never be finished, but are amazing reads.

Shot in the Dark. Fuck that is awesome! Secret agents and spies - okay technically snipers, but it's the feeling that counts, right? (and Tyrande in a suit is a nice bonus).

Trust in Me. Sylvanas as Jainas bodyguard AU.

Okay so... I still have like 250 tabs or something ridiculous open in my browser (that's not overstating it, it's fact, in fact I might be understating it at this point and it could already be 300) and I haven't obviously read all the amazing Jaina/Sylvanas fanfics out there yet, particularly short ones or one shots or series might have gotten lost, since I usually filter for high wordcounts only. So, if anyone feels stuff is missing, it does not mean I didn't like it, it could be I've just not read it yet.

And now for something completely different.

I want to point towards one of the coolest crossover stories/series I've ever read: Felicitas. Which is an Arrow/Highlander/Raven crossover that imagines Felicity as an ancient immortal. And it's just soooooo good, I've been following it for years. (That being said, I never watched Arrow past season 2 and I probably never will considering what I know about how the story of the show continues, I've been burned once with Bering and Wells, I'm not going there again. But that's totally fine, because Felicitas also only goes as far as Season 2.)

And then there's still waters and quiet men. I'm not even sure what to say about it. The sheer lunacy and the insane escalation present in this story should not have amused me as much as it did I think, but I remember laughing tears when reading this, because while it's actually really sad that some people might find this kind of behaviour of male characters in fiction normal, it was abso-fucking-lutely hilarious in my opinion. (That said, I've probably only read it halfway, but still, it's hilarious! Well if you have the same maybe weird sense of humor I have anyway.)

New Beginnings is a FemShep/Liara crossover with Stargate SG-1. So it's combining my favourite TV show with my favourite Videogame of all time. And it's brilliant.

So yeah that's my fic recs for the time being. If you just want a tl;dr, go read Increments of Longing. (I just cannot stress enough how amazing that story is.)

I'm only tagging Jaina/Sylvanas since most fics are about them.

#fic rec #fic recs #Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner #sylvaina

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the-jade-goblin · 3 years

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An incomplete list of what i would change if I made the mass effect remake

1. Stop the insta love with kaidan and liara

Idk if its just me but it seems no matter what the hell i say to those two I always get those im in love with you Shepard convos like no pls im just trying to be nice. Like I'd put a flirt icon or smth like in dragon age so I knew when I was intentionally being a hoe

2. Bi Garrus.

Maybe I'd make garrus a romance option in me1 idk I kinda like that they're friends first tho

3. Bi Kaidan from me1.

4. Bi Ashley dammit

5. Bi fucking Tali

6. Fix the Samara boob problem

7. Conversations with Kasumi!

8. More conversation scenes with Chakwas

9. In fact more personal interaction with the crew in general. I like my crew

10. Better dress options than the trash bag dress and the undercover dress for femshep

11. The ability to punch the fuck out of the turian councillor.

Just once pls hes such a dick sometimes

12. The ability to do whatever the fuck you want fuck the law especially on Noveria you're a damn Spectre they said i would answer to no one and could do what I liked so why the fuck do I keep having to bow to corporate rules this is bullshit

13. More shore leave

14. I would add way more story to the Shepard clone plot that could have been so much more

15. Romance joker option

16. Romance James option

17. Get rid of the unnecessary sexy voice when talking to Jacob

18. Remove the Jacob cheating in me3 trope thats just yikes

19. I want a salarian romance okay, maybe not mordin but someone.

You cant tell me salarians live so short they have no sex drives or romantic wants and then show me a salarian on illium getting hot and heavy to an asari stripper, and a salarian who is an asari's bond partner buying her a gift and a salarian having a gay awakening due to thane being so sexy when he kills people and expect me to believe you. Like dont pigeonhole the whole race give me one cute salarian to smooch bioware

20. If thane must die hes not going out in such a pussy way as getting fucked by that bitch boy kai leng ok thane could have crushed that little boy into the dirt

21. Fuck this virmire sacrifice altogether actually im saving both of them alright shut up.

22. The ending choices were bullshit we all know that.

23. Add asari who look more like their father species. We love genetic diversity

24. Let me punch Udina just one time. Thanks Anderson but I want some

25. Also let me romance or at least flirt with executor pallin. Or that turian ambassador dude on the Normandy in me3. I just like turians okay.

26. Look romancing wrex isn't something I'd die for but like...im open to the idea.

27. Not have EDI's body be a damn sex robot

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rubyredsundae · 3 years

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Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

#mass effect #mass effect trilogy #mass effect trilogy tag

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antibioware · 4 years

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I haven't played ME, just have a lot of mutuals that have and I've read the wiki a bit. Why is Kaidan a straight only romance option in ME1 but then bi in ME3?

Let's start by saying ME is not like Dragon Age. It has romance option, but romances aren't as much of a focus as they are in the DA games, and also, unlike DA, you have... WAY less gay romance options.

Out of all the romance options in Mass Effect (Ashley, Kaidan, Liara, Miranda, Jack, Jacob, Garrus, Thane, Tali, Cortez, Traynor) there are two main gay ones for women and two main gay ones for men. Liara (since ME1) and Traynor (an NPC from ME3) and Kaidan (since ME3) and Cortez (an NPC from ME3)

Before ME3 came out, there were VERY FEW gay romance possibilities. And by very few, i mean only Liara and a couple women you could mini romance as femShep (read: put there as lesbo porn fuel for male players). There were supposed to be gay romance options in ME2 (Tali, Thane and Jack, the first two to the point that the full voiced romances can be recovered via modding) , but they got scrapped with some bullshit excuses in the development.

So from what I've been told, a lot of gay fans lamented the lack of gay romances before ME3 came out, so as a way go "placate" them they made Kaidan bi. Kaidan wasn't a particularly popular character in general, too (because people have no taste), so you can imagine why he was chosen. Accidentally thought, they characterized this choice very well: I'm just playing his romance and I can say it really Sounds like Kaidan realized he was bi for Shepard.

But yeah, thats the reason. Homophobic writers to the game.

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transmortifried · 4 years

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so i’m playing mass effect 3 for the first time for the second time (made some bad choices on my first run, starting over) and i’ve got some hot takes i want to raise about the “story and mission-based companion-focused rpg” genre

1. companion quests make any game with companions better by their inclusion. not all companion quests are good obviously, but it’s definitely something i miss in 3 that i loved in 2, where it was a prominent and vital part of the game. (there’s like 3 or 4 missions total in 2 that aren’t recruiting a new party member or solving their deep-rooted personal problems.)

2. how games let you romance your companions has problems.

2a. for one, hey devs i don’t give a SHIT if you think nobody wants to romance the awful crab alien or the robot detective, i GUARANTEE that your players do. (although i would personally hate a javik romance b/c he’s awful and terrible, the bit where you bang him in the citadel DLC is fucking HILARIOUS). also bioware, where’s the krogan romance options? if we can figure out how to bang the cute quarian without killing her with our terribly filthy human germs and incompatible amino acids, we can figure out how to bang a krogan without dying

2b. no het-only romance options pls. i’m okay with same-gender-exclusive romance options purely on the grounds of we (the gays (me)) are starving so badly for gay romance options, but you look at me and tell me that garrus vakarian wouldn’t bust it wide open for “one-man-cybernetically-augmented-superman” mshep or tali’zorah “hero-worship-sublimated-to-romantic-feelings” vas normandy wouldn’t let femshep turn that suit into a full-body dental dam then you are a coward. also jack is the most bisexual woman i’ve ever seen and bioware is too chicken to acknowledge it.

2b, subheading a. that said, i hate the bethesda route of “playersexual npcs” where the romance routes are totally identical regardless of player gender, but with mad libs style fill-in-the-blank-with-your-pronouns-here writing. idk if there’s an easy compromise to make here.

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expertmakodriver · 4 years

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Exactly. I totally agree with you. People like me (the bi guy anon from before) at least got to enjoy romancing Kaidan in me3 as maleshep, but they should have just made him bi from the start. Kaidan doesnt have the excuse that he wasnt close enough to Shepard in ME1 to want to date him, because he sure as hell had some goo goo eyes for femshep. The Mass Effect fandom is pretty tame but ive had my experiences with crazy fans who called me homophobic for stupid reasons....

Yeah, I'm really not a fan of the idea of changing a character's sexuality based on what fans want. It's up to the writers to decide what traits they want their characters to have. Kaidan is a difficult case because while I wouldn't normally agree with suddenly making him bi, he DID provide some seriously-needed representation for gay/bi men. It's also totally possible that Kaidan discovered that he was bi by the time of ME3, so if you squint hard enough, you can run with this idea. That still doesn't excuse the lack of male love interests for Maleshep, though. I understand why mlm would feel frustrated with this, but Garrus being straight is just objectively not a problem, and it shouldn't be turned into a problem.

But regardless, once you look past the handful of shit-stirrers and/or radical shippers, the Mass Effect fandom on here is generally a pretty nice place. I've never been in such a relatively civil, enjoyable fandom before, and I'm grateful that my favorite game series has a good community around it. It's really refreshing. I hope your experience in this fandom has been at least half as pleasant as mine, anon. Don't feel threatened out of speaking your opinion. If people don't like what you have to say, they can just ignore you - that's what the block button is for.

#mass effect #asks #anonymous #kaidan #garrus #maleshep #my post #anon if you wanna message me to talk about this then i'm down #i always like chatting about mass effect stuff

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commander-sass-effect · 5 years

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My favorite Shepard build

Gender: I will always play as female Shepard, because A) if I get an option to play as a woman in a video game, I’m always going to and B) Jennifer Hale is a Goddess of voice acting and brings Shepard to life so perfectly (especially in ME3!!! The emotional range!!)

Pre-Service History: Earthborn. This was the one that I chose the first time I played the game, mostly because hey, something about a game that takes place in space should be grounded on Earth, right? And this ended up becoming my favorite when I played ME3, because that was her home. She made her final stand for the galaxy on the planet she was born. I love the poetry of that. On a different note, I love the idea of a young Shepard trying to survive being an orphan by doing morally questionable things, and then joining the Alliance and being able to make the decision to do the right thing always.

Psychological Profile: Sole Survivor. I love the tragedy of this history, especially with the things that Shepard has to deal with in ME3. It’s not as much fanfare as being a war hero and not as definitive as being ruthless, its just this horrible experience that Shepard was able to live through. Like, imagine the psychological stress of not being able to save your fellow soldiers and you end up outliving all of them... I’m evil, it seems.

Military Specialization: Vanguard. I love the combination of weapons with biotics! I’m not a fan of sniper-play and assault rifles are meh, but I LOVE shotguns so this had me satisfied. I also love getting up close and personal with enemies and destroying them with my biotics, especially in ME 2 and 3! All around great class, vanguards. So versatile.

Romance: Liara. I don’t know how I’ll ever play through this game without romancing her, there’s just something so compelling about her (lol). Her arc from game to game is amazing, I loved watching her grow and learn and become Shepard’s right hand (romanced or not!). ANYways I’m too gay and too invested to every properly romance anyone else in Mass Effect.

Physical attributes: Usually I go for the really short hair, as I think it looks good on her and is practical for combat. I love the dark red/auburn color, as the original color is just too red for me. The face I keep mostly the same except I tweak a bit here and there for aesthetic reasons (and because you have to get it just right in ME1 if you want to keep the same build the next two games without making any changes). I love the strong jaw and square facial structure look, and I can’t decide if that’s because I’d love to look like that or I would love to date a woman like that. The sapphic world may never know.

Morality: Paragon. Like really paragon. I’d like to think that I’m a sarcastic asshole in some situations or that I like to every now and then question the boundaries between right and wrong, and then a video game comes along and gives me the opportunity to just be the absolutely most moral person and I smash that interrupt!! There are only a few times that I make renegade decisions, and it’s usually just one of the more minor renegade interrupts that are sometimes really funny and not actually impactful. I’m really soft for Paragon femshep.

#mass effect #biotiqueue #shepard build #earthborn shepard #sole survivor shepard #vanguard shepard #paragon shepard #shiara #femshep #sorry for the long post but i feel really emotional about this build now that I've finally settled on one that i love #mine

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pestopascal · 6 years

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about the reyes romance: what bothers me so much with bioware is how many of their bisexual LIs are either in shady business, or turn around and betray you? Oh and you can kill a bunch of them as well. Not to mention how often they'll be like 'gotta add some POC in the mix and some variable sexualities, so let's just throw those two together in a character with a smaller role like no one will notice!'

Look, don’t get me wrong. I loved Reyes. I really enjoyed Kadara as a whole, despite how pointless the entire world was. I was deeply annoyed with the outcome of it, and how you have to allow Sloane to die to even get the romance, but him as a character? Yeah, wish they explored that more. Or, y’know, didn’t sabotage their own game and are going to shove everything into a book to pick up all the pieces. But that’s another argument.

But in saying all that: I cannot stand how also, for the record, just about every bisexual romance is a character of colour who is either doing something or is someone that is supposed to turn the player off. Just about every single fucking bisexual in Bioware’s history of bisexual men and women… are characters of colour in shady or unsavoury businesses. Or, better yet, are influenced heavily and noticeably by religions or races that aren’t white and Relatable™. They’re so fucking transparent.

Zevran Arainai, Isabela, Iron Bull, Reyes Vidal and Theron Shan are three I can think of off the top of my head, just because Bioware played the ‘no gays in space’ during Mass Effect 2, and then waited until (paid) expansions to add in bisexual characters for SWTOR. As far as I recall, their early games didn’t have many either, apart from Dorn, Sky, Silk Fox…

Bioware thinks they’re ticking all the diversity boxes and doing the rest of us right. It’s like they have a little check book and every time they get to ‘bisexual character’ they’re like “oh shit. we don’t want to make another character. quick, who do we have that’s available to be made bisexual” and then pat themselves on the back and move on

Or, or, my favourite, is the bisexual man who’s bisexuality is only apparent to a particular gender of the character you’re playing. Case in point: Anders and Reyes’ bisexuality is only explicitly stated in game if you’re playing a male character. Anders has extra dialogue about how his relationship with Karl ran a lot deeper. No matter who you play (Sara or Scott), one of your flirt lines sounds vaguely jealous when having to confront a former partner. But said partner is a woman, and while playing as Scott does it hold water for reaffirming in game that Reyes is bisexual, because he has no other dialogue to suggest it.

EDIT: I forgot Kaidan, who’s bisexuality was actually removed in the first game, because Bioware thought that all their male gamers would freak out if anyone other than the blue space babe race was remotely interested in mshep. I’m like. Slightly sure Kaidan actually drops a line to femshep about his bisexuality, but even then it’s not something that is brought up with her. Mshep actually is able to see it with Kaidan’s comments from ME1 and ME3.

And all it does is reinforce, especially to female players, that their perfect female character is the only one, and Kaidan/Reyes/Zevran/Anders/Take Your Pick was never interested in men (I’ve seen this argument more times than I can count in the last year alone). Or, it’s just gross fuel for the bullshit fire of Love Interest/female PC/Russian roulette on the poor other male of some self indulgent threesome. Mostly I’ve seen it for the only other resident man of colour in ME3 who didn’t get written off by Bioware (I’m so sorry Jacob I still love you).

About betrayal though, as much as I argue that’s on the player to also do something to prevent it… it fucking sucks that it’s pretty much always the character of colour who has betrayal possible throughout the game. It’s always them. And I don’t mind the whole ‘character will leave the party if certain requirements are not met’ because, yeah, people will leave you eventually anyway because of some reason… but Bioware try a little harder.

#replies #bioware critical #lmfao i hate it #Anonymous

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