Been around five years since this game came out, but this is still my favorite introduction in a game. It sets up everything to get the player in the exact mindset of the game. All the details in every scene, the shifting corridors, Ahti, Jesse’s past, the hiss against hedron, etc. are all beautifully and seamlessly introduced
but of course savathun the “caring for literally anything is cringe” queen would have the very thing that killed her preserved under heavy guard in the care of her most trusted witch
my Shepard in 2011 was obsessed with her own tragedy, unsure about the nature of her body and in a fraught relationship with someone who was mourning the same thing she was. my Shepard in 2024 is healing a post-war galaxy with her three self-assured girlfriends
the pattern isn’t necessarily reflective of my interests in characters generally! back then I was also writing Aislinn as intentionally well-adjusted (or, trying, and without removing her from her child soldier backstory). and nowadays Kass is lawful good and untouchable through and through. It’s not that I write characters who are “more fun” now — it’s that specifically my Shepards would not get along and that’s funny. I never bothered to give the new one a different name tho