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Playing Mass Effect again, broken by Mordin again.

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Happy N7 Day! I’ll probably do more Mass Effect art later, but for now, I’ve added a new sketch to my series of fan art featuring my favorite Mass Effect NPCs :)

ICYMI: The concept here is roughly: The Last of Us, but Mass Effect, starring these two NPCs from the Docks Holding Area

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Ah shit I can't believe I forgot

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Shakarian + catching each other at the Collector base

not pictured: the “holy shit we actually made it!!!” kiss in the airlock 🥰

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you make me feel good enough.

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My lovely Shepard.

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I know it's a heretical opinion in the Mass Effect fandom, but I actually really like the elevator mechanic in the first game. I wish they'd kept it in the sequels.

It really helped the verisimilitude of being there in the game. Some areas on the Citadel had multiple elevator connections to different levels, and it felt like you were really traversing a city since you could find shortcuts and different stuff along the way. Plus, I adore the squadmate conversations that would occur. They gave great character insights, and were often entertaining all on their own. The news reports were less engrossing, but still a nice touch.

I agree they could have structured them better so they weren't so noticeably long, but I think it was a great way to fill the loading time. And Rapid Transit was available for people who didn't want to run through multiple elevators.

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Why does Ro end up taking more renegade actions in 2 and then both in 3?

because the way i write/see her is that she is trying very very hard to be a model alliance solider - she got into a lot of trouble as a teenager, and feels like she has a lot to make up for - to herself, her mother, to the alliance as repayment for putting her on the right path, or whatever. she learns exactly what the right things to do and say are, but sometimes the lessons don't actually sink in. in most cases she gets away with it, but sometimes it comes out in ugly ways.

for example, when garrus wanted help with saleon, she talked him out of going right for the kill. did the whole paragon dispensing life lessons thing. maybe she meant it when she said it, and maybe she thought she really believed in it too, but when it was her turn to face her past and she had haliat on agebinium, wounded but alive and crawling helplessly in the sand, she put him down. this hypocrisy is a major flaw and comes back to bite her in various ways

i hc her as being "incomplete" during the start of me2 - she needed a bit more time in the oven, but obviously didn't get it. she is not well. psychologically and physically, she's weak. she lashes out. she isolates. she does get better over time - the physical condition is a quick enough turnaround once she starts eating again, thanks to the cybernetics and accelerated healing, and she starts packing on muscle like nobody's business. but she's cracked a bit, and paired with her feeling abandoned and betrayed by the alliance, she basically just says fuck it. there's nobody left to impress anymore, all that matters is getting the job done, however it needs to happen.

by the third game, she's had the time to mellow out. she's still more of a risk taker than she was before her death - she's still got that impatient streak that she didn't have before, she's still fidgety and hotheaded, but she can exercise restraint. she can take a minute to think things through. maybe she's even had some time to reflect on the lessons that she previously failed to learn. waking up from the dead was no joke, but after a while it just becomes the new normal. she's had time to practice acceptance with herself and her circumstances. i kind of see this as her reaching equilibrium - she isn't repressing her more renegade tendencies anymore, and is acting according to her beliefs rather than what she thinks should be done. she does want to cure the genophage, she does want to help legion and the geth without damning the quarians - all of those paragon decisions are in accordance with her values and beliefs. but she's long past the point of caring about watching her tongue or applying violence if she deems it necessary.

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i feel like technically speaking this would be the equivalent of sniffing paint

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Have I really forgotten to put on Tumblr my piece for @beyondthecitadelzine?! Unforgivable. Have a Quarian Lab, you all! Mass Effect © BioWare

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you know what actually, let this be its own post

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME3 (dev. Bioware)

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"We'll dig in here, kill anything that moves, buy you some time."

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this is what playing mass effect as a non tech class feels like

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Thanks to @dragomirkingsman for this idea. Woe upon ye

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