#I often bring him and Kaidan for my other Shep

[death-rebirth-senshi]

It's always funny that of course one companion protests to being left behind by Shepard at the beam run and has to be kind of dragged away but that requires the other one to be like. Hell yeah I'm evacuating

[onedismay]

Mass Effect Tag Game

Stole this thing from @messydiabolical. :)c Anyone is welcome to steal it from me as well!

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I am a fan since: Forgot what year it was but I remember ME2 had already been out for a while before I bought ME1. But I caught up quickly and got to experience the release of the Arrival DLC in real time. :D

Favourite game of the series?: It's hard to pick between 1 and 2, but I'll say 2 because the concept of loyalty missions is MY JAM. Also ME2 is my favorite graphics-wise, it's got that high contrast I love so much. (hate the simplified skill trees though)

MShep or FShep?: Most of my Sheps are fSheps because the character creator for mSheps isn't versatile enough for me. :( Where's the long hair! Let me look impractical!

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: I might slightly prefer Earthborn. I enjoy playing characters who've had a rough start in life and made some bad decisions, but grew up to become decent people anyway.

Biotics or Tech: Can't pick, I like variety!

Paragon or Renegade: peace for everybody in the galaxy :') But I reeeaally love the Renegade eyes so I do have some mean Sheps as well.

Favourite Class: I used to main the Infiltrator class but in my most recent run I really enjoyed the Adept. Hard to pick a favorite but I do know my favorite class is NOT the Sentinel, it always feels clunky to me somehow.

Favourite Companion: Tali or Javik. Kaidan and Thane are nearby too. Tali's character development feels very natural and wonderful to me on every playthrough and I always love to see it. Javik is a fave because he's haunted and completely alone and that combo always hooks me like, I MUST see to it that this sad man has at least one nice thing in his life.

Least favourite Companion: It's the writers' fault but Liara. It gets really old when the same companion treats you like her love interest in all 3 games no matter what. I haaaate forced hugs in roleplaying games, don't put me through that, it'll ruin the character for me.

My squad selection: In my most recent playthrough it was unsurprisingly Javik and Tali. But I also ran with Vega quite often in the early game and I kinda missed him in the end game, haha.

Favourite In-game romance: Kaidan, especially with mShep because I really enjoy a slow burn of several years. 🔥

Other pairings I like: I am motioning at my blog and presenting to you Tazzik and the Shadow Broker...... no i don't have anything else to offer at this time

Favourite NPC: I like all these shady-ass salarians like Anoleis and Jaroth and Maelon and Linron (yes) (no i'm not defending her, i just find mean characters interesting sometimes) and Chorban and probably others. Valern isn't all that shady but still a fave. Charn! And Balak, I always look forward to finding out how my Shepard reacts to him. Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib I always loved you and I knew you were the best admiral before ME3 ever happened

Favourite Antagonist: the Shadow Broker, I was so into the mystery in ME1 and man I was not disappointed when we got the reveal. I would have loved to learn more about his early life.

Favourite Mission: ME2's Suicide Mission because I lovvve how it's a culmination of all your previous actions. It felt really scary and chaotic on my first playthrough and like anything could happen. Now I know all the mechanics so nothing surprises me, but I still look forward to seeing every little detail play out.

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali. Also Mordin. And Samara, ugghhh I love Omega and I love playing bait uwu

Favourite DLC: Hmmm I love about half of LotSB very much but I might like Bring Down the Sky more as a whole? The mood is great, it's not super long, and nothing about it annoys me. :D I've only played the Leviathan DLC once so far so I'm not confident enough to call it a fave yet but I liked it a lot, too.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: I just wanted an ending where we finally talk the Reapers down and they go "yeah u right actually, let's not fight anymore. :( handshake?". All this star child borderline magic stuff is kinda goofy to me. I've picked Destroy almost every time tho.

Favourite Weapon: Recently enjoyed the Blood Pack Executioner... Historically I've probably used the Widow the most. Also I LOVE the way the Revenant looks but I can't stand using it myself lmao. My hand hurts just thinking about it.

Favourite Place: nnnoooo there's so many good places. I adore the Shadow Broker's ship, first of all. Such a cool concept. Noveria for the snow and miserable people. Feels like home. I loved visiting the Migrant Fleet! But my absolute favorite place is probably Omega because it's so rough yet there's still a weird sense of community.

A quote I like: The first that came to mind is "I have a home." Idk, I don't really remember quotes unless they're repeated over and over and by that point I start hating them.

[shizuu-chann]

Let’s spread some positive vibes by remembering what we love about the trilogy. Fill in and tag your friends. Feel free to add your own categories to this survey.

tagged by @togepies, thanks again for including me!

Tagging with zero pressure: @nicolasadrabbles and @iheartgarrus

I’ve been a fan since: technically Andromeda, but I only played Andromeda first bc the LE was coming out in a few months. I loved the Dragon Age series before that, and I figured I would probably like ME, but the old graphics were a major turn-off for me. When the LE was announced, I got really excited bc it was another BioWare series I could binge and adore, but it wasn't out yet. My friend had just finished Andromeda and convinced me to try it, and now it's probably my favorite game series ever~

Favorite game of the series:  ME2! While I love ME3 because the graphics are beautiful, and you get more substance out of romantic relationships (Garrus, specifically), ME2 has my favorite vibe. You're kind of a rogue agent, assembling a team of the most dangerous and skilled people in the galaxy, and they all become a sort of found family for Shepard after the Alliance and the Council hang you out to dry. Plus, I love the interface for the game; the orange menu screen is easy on my eyes, and I like the clicky selection noises <3

MaleShep or FemShep?: FemShep <3 I love her so much. Played MaleShep once, and I loved him, too, but it really feels like FemShep is THE Shep to me.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: Colonist

Paragon or Renegade? Paragon (close to ParaGade, but not quite)

Biotics or Tech? Tech, but biotics are really cool.

Favorite class: Infiltrator! I don't really love any class in ME1, but ME2/3 make Infiltrator the fucking best. Tactical cloak and sniper rifle, my beloveds. Vanguard is a close second.

Favorite companions: Garrus, Zaeed, Mordin, Tali, Wrex, Grunt, EDI~

Least favorite companions: Kaidan and Jacob. I have nothing against either of them personally, honest, and I think they're generally good characters. But Kaidan bores me, I find him wholly uninteresting, and Jacob is just repackaged Kaidan, imho.

My squad selection: ME1: this changes every playthrough, honestly. Often it's Garrus and someone else, most recently Ashley. Others it's Ashley and someone else, most often Wrex. ME2: Usually Zaeed and Garrus; those two are my go-tos and my faves. Current run is Garrus and Miranda, but I've taken Grunt a fair bit. ME3 is, surprise-surprise, most often Garrus and someone else, but I try to tailor squad selection to each mission so I can get the most interesting story dialogue.

Favorite in-game romance: Shepard and Garrus <3

Other pairings I like: I cannot pair my Shep with anyone else, so it's difficult, but I do appreciate others. I like FemShep with Tali, Liara, Ashley, Miranda, and Jack (bc I just think all the characters should be bi, lol).

Favorite NPC: I'm choosing multiple--Aria T'Loak, Joker, I adore Hackett, and Anderson.

Favorite antagonist: The Illusive Man in ME2. Sure, you're cooperating with him, but he's definitely an antagonist.

Favorite mission: ME1: If we're talking purely vanilla game, probably Feros. Otherwise, maybe the Bring Down the Sky DLC. ME2: Thane's recruitment or the Suicide Mission, if we're excluding loyalty missions. ME3: Grissom Academy.

Favorite loyalty mission: Oooh, tough. I really like most of them. It's a toss-up between two, but for different reasons: either Garrus's or Samara's.

Favorite DLC: ME1: To my knowledge, there was only one for ME1, besides pinnacle Station, but that couldn't be added to the LE. ME2: Lair of the Shadow Broker--LOVE the level designs. ME3: Super original and revolutionary: the Citadel, lol. That's the canon ending in my mind. OH! But I also love the Omega DLC! Hmm...

Control, Synthesis or Destroy?: Destroy, but I also change a bunch of that ending in my mind, too. Namely, that EDI and the geth live and the Citadel isn't destroyed.

Favorite weapon: N7 Valiant sniper rifle <333

Favorite place: Omega or Illium

A quote I like: The whole exchange during Priority: Rannoch right before Shepard takes on a Reaper on foot. There's so many, many of them from Joker. But, for the sake of choosing: "This is why I love hanging out with you guys! Why shoot something once when you can shoot it 46 more times!" --Urdnot Wrex, 2186

[smokeybrandreviews]

Fleet and Flotilla

I’ve played a lot of Mass Effect in my day. So much of the original trilogy and twice with Andromeda. Man, Andromeda is so goddamn disappointing. Thee is so much potential there and it just did not live up to any of it. I’ve been the protagonist of Shepard’s adventures in space for a little over a decade. I’ve put in hundreds of hours into those original titles on the PS3 and have already beat the Legendary edition five times. In pieces. Haven’t beat ME1 on Legendary, saving that for later because i need to do the Romance through three games thing. That is reserved for Liara. Also the Space Racist, i guess. That brings me to the point of this essay: My favorite Mass Effect Romances. I’ve romanced every character in this trilogy at least once, and i have thoughts. I Wanted to take a look back and kind of rank where i would out them as i slowly progress through Legendary Edition, adding new notches to that all too familiar galactic belt. Spoiler alert, Tali is my favorite. She’s number one. Tali is best girl and fight me about it.

Before we get into the meat, i want to acknowledge the Morinth, Diana Allers, Aria T’Lok, Javik, James Vega, and Kelly Chambers hook-ups. These “romances” are okay but not really all that fulfilling. Kelly bails on you after ME2, Morinth literally kills you, and Allers is just hot for Shep dick. As i recall, the Diana Allers romance is a literal hit-it-and-quit-it scenario that has no effect on your primary paramour. OR, at least, that’s what i remember about the original games. That might have been changed in Legendary. Haven’t gotten through the ME2 romances to play around with ME3 yet. I did get the elusive kiss from Aria once during Overlord by being an absolute bastard and it was the most gratifying thing i ever achieved in these games. The Javik and Vega one night stands were adorable, too. Now, on to the actual list. These first few are basically one-and-dones. I don’t really get into them all that because there is nothing there to hook me like the others but i did complete them once.

Ashley Williams - Romanced by M!Shep

I don’t like Ashley. I think she’s kind of a terrible person. Ma is an objective Human Supremacist, definitely a Speciesist, and is just generally annoying. I can’t stand this chick so, while i acknowledge her growth as a character through her interaction with Shepard as the narrative progresses, this b*tch is still the f*cking worst! Like, bro, you let this man inside of you, watched him die, and decided to call him a traitor to his face when he comes back to life? After experienced, first hand, the very reason why he decided to join up with Cerberus? Really?

Jacob Taylor - Romanced by F!Shep

Jacob was the first romance i did as F!Shep. I don’t really play as her all that often because, and i might be blaspheming here, i don’t care for Jennifer Hale’s voice. That sh*t is weird and it kind of takes me out of the game. That said, for the sake of completion, i did run through the OG trilogy a few times as the one with the booba, and took down Jacob in my inaugural run. Jacob is a nothingburger of a character. Even with the romance, he’s still as plain as white bread. And then f*cking leaves you! You save the entire galaxy together, turn yourself in because it’s the right thing to do, and he shacks up with the first brown chick he sees, then knocks her the f*ck up Dude is the worst!

Thane Krios - Romanced by F!Shep

I’m going to be honest: I don’t understand the allure. Thane was the romance i chose for my second run as F!Shep and i just kind of felt “meh” about it all. I’m a dude so Thane is definitely not in my wheelhouse but a lot of my female friends who play these titles, swear by the Drell Assassin as strongly as i swear by my darling Quarian Engineer and i guess that’s fair.

Kaidan Alenko - Romanced by M!Shep

Never pursued Kaidan as F!Shep because of the aforementioned distaste but i did run one playthough where i allowed Kaidan to live specifically to Romance later. I was kind of glad i did. Kaidan is definitely not my favorite player but i admit, he’s a better person that Ashley in every way. I still sacrifice him almost all the time though, because I'm a whole ass monster and Ashley has boobs. Still, the one time i saw Kaidan all the way through, i opted for the same sex romp with my M!Shep and it was surprisingly rewarding. It’s not in my top romances but it’s still a solid choice, in my opinion.

Steve Cortez - Romanced by M!Shep

Steve is the first, true, same sex option in Mass Effect and their flirtation is one with real depth. Steve fast became on e of my favorite characters through just interaction with him over the course of the game. He’s smart, witty, insightful, and comes across as a real person. I loved all those little scenes so, when he and my Shep finally embraced, it felt right. I can’t say his Romance is top tier for me but it’s, for sure, the first one right outside that tally. Like, Steve is definitely knocking on that door.

From this point on, we’re getting into repeat romances, with the exception of one, specific, entry. That one leap-frogged the one-offs because it was just so goddamn rewarding, i had to put it in the creme de la creme. The following Romance options are the ones i always revisit, the one’s i find absolutely necessary.

Garrus Vakarian - F!Shep

I ventured that muggy quagmire i call Laura Bailey’s voice three times, specifically because i love watching Garrus squirm. Dude is a top three Squadmate when I'm M!Shep so of course i wanted to see what he’d be like when trying to get into them Turian trousers. In all seriousness, this Romance feels like the only real option for F!Shep, which is why i actually pursued it three separate times. That’s right, i played F!Shep three times because i enjoyed dating Garrus that goddamn much. This Romance almost makes up for the grating drone of Laura Bailey's performance. I REALLY dislike Laura Bailey's F!Shep...

Liara T'Soni - Romanced by both M!Shep and F!Shep

Liara was the only character i romanced as both a Male and a Female Shepard and, i must say, i definitely prefer the M!Shep route. They just have so much more chemistry together, in my eyes. In my own personal headcanon, Shepard shacks up with Tali, is best friends with Liara, and is Garrus’ best friend. The effortlessly comfortable nature between these three relationships really give an added bonus to their respective relationships, no more so that the Liara paramour. She’s just so adorable and, as the trilogy progresses, become so much more than that naive young woman trapped in a bubble. By the time the trilogy ends. she’s every bit the legend Shep is and, together, they share a romance written in the stars.

Samantha Traynor - Romanced by F!Shep

Listen, by the time Mass Effect 3 rolled around, i was all F!Shep’d out. Not only did i do the ME2 Romances, but i completed them all through Mass Effect 3, as well. Imagine my surprise when i found out you could romance Samantha Traynor, too. Sh*t was f*cked up because, from what i saw, Traynor was f*cking Amazing! I had no choice but to go back in, slumming it with Jennifer Hale’s voice grating on my nerves but i did it and i am SO glad i did. Samantha Traynor’s romance is f*cking awesome and adored every second of it! It was mad difficult deciding who to put in this spot, Liara or Traynor, because they are very similar in their arcs but Traynor won out. I’ll always have a soft spot for Liara but Traynor did so much, with so much less time in the SKWAD.

And now, we get to the best of the best or, as Macho Man Randy Savage would say; The Cream of the Crop! These are my unabashed favorite Romances in all of Mass Effect. I have an incredibly difficult time not pursuing one of these three relationships whenever i play, Tali giving my the hardest pull. She’s tops for a reason but these other two? Yeah, they are just as enthralling for me.

Miranda Lawson - Romanced by M!Shep

Miranda Lawson was the first character i ever romanced in a Mass Effect game. She was my target in the my very first playthrough of Mass Effect 2, a decade and change ago. Her Romance was one for the ages, bolstered by the excellent additions in Mass Effect 3. The Lawson romance really takes off there, even if you don’t see much of it in real time. Those little meet-ups were amazing in terms of Miranda’s development leading to a solid f*cking payoff on Horizon. And then came that amazing Citadel DLC and i just swooned for our genetically perfect, Cerberus Cheerleader all over again. I am currently working my way through her Romance on Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition for the first time because the other two romances on this list got me for multiple playthroughs every time i tried to start on Miranda’s route. Them pulls is just that hard! Now, just for transparency, Miranda ranks so high straight up because of nepotism. She was my first Romance and really left an impression. If I'm being honest, Liara is probably a better overall experience but i jut love Miranda more than i should, i guess.

Jack - Romanced by M!Shep

Oh, my lovely, lovely, Jacqueline Nought. I Romanced her on my second playthrough of ME2. I’m a sucker for New Game+ so it was easy going back into the Collector Conflict for a second time. Staying true to my real life preferences, i went after the emotionally damaged, definitely crazy, super hot Goth chick with all the tattoos and let me tell you, a little edgelord love was exactly what i needed. I ended up falling in love with this paring. I actually put off Romancing Tali several times in favor of this one because, and i can’t stress this enough Jack is f*cking perfect! She has one of the deepest, richest, character arcs in the entire franchise and seeing her blossom into who she becomes during ME3, directly because of your influence, was amazing. I’ve only ever pursued her as a Renegade once, though. While that was fun or whatever, i found that pairing her with a Paragon She works the best. It’s like a dog dating a cat and i kind of love that juxtaposition.

Tali - Romanced by M!Shep

Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. Tali'Zorah vas Neema. Tali’Zorah vas Normandy. Tali’Zorah. Tali. So many names. So many times Romanced. I f*cking love me some Tali, man. She was the last Romance i pursued when i first played Mass Effect a decade ago, but was the very first one i completed when Legendary dropped. This romance has everything you want in a relationship arc. It really enriches Tali as a character, builds upon her already steadfast awesome, and really hammers home why she is best girl. After that first time choosing her, i had a VERY hard time choosing anyone else. Like, i love what happens with Shep an Liars in ME3 if you continue from ME1 and I'm always going to stan a Jack entanglement, but they got nothing on locking down Tali. Seriously, the scenes you share with her on Rannoch, alone, are worth the price of admission but literally EVERYTHING up to that point, and after, is still gold. Also, if you play on the PC, definitely check out that Tali Romance mod on Nexus Mods. Totally worth it!

[smokeybrand]

Reap What You Sow

Finally finished Mass Effect Legendary Edition and gearing up for a second run. Before that, though, i wanted to stop and reflect on how well this game holds up, how ell this story is told. I’ve been playing these games since Mass Effect 2 was released on the PS3 over a decade ago and i haven’t regretted even a second of that time spent. I love these games. I loved these titles. And Legendary gave me an opportunity to experience the entire narrative, on one system, with a gorgeous face lift This makes me want Bioware to take another shot at Andromeda because, holy sh*t, can they deliver when they’re not hindered by corporate bullsh*t and it looks like EA is starting to accept that as fact and policy, rather than just the gripes of fans. I love these games and before i get back to it, i wanted to highlight my favorite companions because Mass Effect is nothing without those who run headfirst into the fire with you.

Urdnot Wrex

I hate the first Mass Effect but that’s because i’m a Sony shill so i started wit the best one of the franchise and had to double back. It was a poor experience by comparison but Wrex was f*cking delight. I loved this dude but his time on the throne in 2 and his limited time with the squad in 3 is what that sealed it for me. Uncle Urdnot is a goddamn joy to play with and even more hilarious as an NPC. If you romance Liara, definitely talk to him during the Cure the Genophage mission in 3. You wont regret it.

Aria T’Loak

I’ve been a fan of Aria since the first time she introduced herself in Afterlife. “Don’t f*ck with Aria.” Yeah, she definitely made an impression. Mostly an NPC in the second game, she really came into her in the third. The extended time we spent with her in the Omega DLC was exceptional. I loved that side of her we got to see and, if you play Paragon, you get to see an interesting evolution in her character. Not as dope as getting that awkward kiss at the end but still just as rewarding.

Javik

Good ol’ Prothy the Prothean. I don’t really bring him on missions in 3 but i make sure to check in after every major battle because dude is a f*cking fountain of snark. I do, however, make sure to take him on the Thessia mission because the banter he and Liara have n that temple is very compelling. Their dynamic is one of the highlights in Mass Effect 3 and i absolutely adore that sh*t. It never gets old and it never disappoints. I’ve played this game dozens of times over the years and i have never once deviated from these two, on that mission, since the first time i took them into that battle together. Plus, Javik in the Citadel is a whole ass delight. Make sure to check your bathroom when you wake up the next day. There’s a surprised in there for you!

EDI

EDI is a ray of sunshine in such ire circumstances. Long before she got Eva’s body, EDI was a full member of the Normandy crew. Her banter after becoming unshackled was brilliant in 2 and even more dynamic in 3. Seeing her becoming more and more “alive, over the course of that last title, was a real pleasure and i hated seeing her name on that board at the end. I almost always pick Destruction because that’s the only one where Shepard survives but it’s always a struggle. Me or EDI? My life or Hers? I hate having to make that choice but the time spent with her until that point, is always so much fun.

Urdnot Grunt

Grunt is MY Wrex. He’s the Krogan i was introduced to first and he’s definitely be the one i have the most love toward. I basically raised this dude in-game during 2 and seeing him finally come into his own in 3, is a big moment for those who are as invested in this series as i am. Not only is he an absolute unit on my squad, but the kid is hilarious. Some of the best banter in 3 comes from Grunt and it makes me wish i got to play with him more. Similar to Jack who is definitely going to make an appearance later down this list, you only get fleeting time with him but that time spent hunting Rachni is one of the funniest missions in all of Mass Effect 3.

Miranda Lawson

My darling Cerberus Cheerleader Princess. Miranda is never my first choice on a mission and was, like, my last romance option originally but, upon running threw these titles a decade later, she’s a lot stronger a character than i remember. Seriously, the growth she shows throughout Mass Effect 2 is real and is presented with a proper focus in her driven resolve during her solo mission in 3. Miranda Lawson is one of the most complete, best written characters in the entire franchise and I'm frustrated with myself that it took a whole ass decade to finally see that. Plus, i mean, she got a fat ass, too, so...

Mordin Solus

Listen, I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. Mordin is amazing and if you didn’t feel something when he did what he did in 3, f*ck you.

Kasumi Goto

Oh, Ms. Goto, i do enjoy you so very, very, much. Kasumi is like the mascot of my squad, the ship cat who keeps knocking sh*t of the table. She is an absolute disaster but i still love her anyway. She has some of the best lines in the entire franchise and i dearly missed her snark on my ship in 3. Tat lone mission with the Hanar was not enough time with the galaxy’s best thief but it had to be because Kasumi is nobody’s fool. She was like, “No galactic war with eldritch space horrors for me, sir.” but she made up for it in the Citadel DLC.

Liara T’Soni

Now we’re getting into the meat. Liara is a mainstay in my squad during Mass Effect 3. She is dub overpowered, especially with that Singularity, and i rarely go into a boss fight without it. Beyond her fighting abilities, Liara just has such a sweet relationship with Shepard that spans the entire trilogy. She opted not to be an official part of the team in 2, later taking up the mantle of the Shadow Broker, but more than makes up for that in 3. Liara is a principal character in Mass Effect 3 and her relationship with Shepard in that game, specifically, is fantastic to experience. If you romance her, it’s even more rewarding.

Garrus Vakarian

Garrus is one third of my Death Lineup. He and Tali stay in my squad in 2 and alternate with Liara in 3. Dude is, for lack of a better term, a straight up killer. I’ve only played mShep so i never actually romances Garrus but dude is easily one of the best companions in the entire game. The relation he has with Shepard and the way it develops over those three games, is only topped by one other character and she’s the premier on this list. Garrus is hilarious and a real force in the game but, more than that, he’s arguably Shepards’ best friend and a solid foundation they can rely on as dude shapes the history of an entire galaxy.

Jack

Oh, my darling Jacqueline Night. You were SO close to the top spot on this list and only missed it because you were introduced in the second game. That’s it. Jack is dope, one of the most complete characters in the entire franchise, and definitely a great romance option. I adore this chick for all of the reasons but mostly because of how realized she becomes by the end of 3. Her growth from “Psychotic Biotic” into maternal teacher for a bunch of biotic kids, was a turn i didn’t expect but loved to see. I love Mass Effect 2′s version of Jack, for sure, but her appearance in Mass Effect 3 is head-and-shoulders better than her initial introduction. It hurts we never got to actually got to play with her in an actual fight but her appearances were still outstanding.

Tali’Zorah vas Normandy

Tali is the best f*cking thing about this franchise and I'll fight you to the death over it. Listen, Tali, for me, is best girl, best character, best development, best everything! I adore Tali. She made that first game bearable but really came into her own in the second. By the third, she was the premier supporting character in the entire franchise for me. Literally her and Garrus stay in my party and for good reason. Tali’s romance is so goddamn saccharine that it gave me diabetes but her maturation as that narrative continues is exceptionally written. Being one of two squad mates who has ridden with Shep through the entire trilogy really gives Tali room to grow and it shows. She is the best companion in the game and i almost never leave her behind.

Look, all of the squadmates hold a special place in my heart but these twelve, specifically, always seem to find their way into my onsite shenanigans more often than not. Obviously, just because you didn’t make this list, doesn’t mean you didn’t have your moments and Aria being on here instead of, say, Thane, is not a knock against him at all. Aria was just hilarious and i enjoyed what little time we shared. Everyone on the Normandy is dope and i cannot wait until my next mission to save the galaxy from the Reapers with them. Not Kaidan, though. Never Kaidan. F*ck that guy, specifically.

[crqstalite]

&burn

thinking about AJ last night and her relationship with kaidan (remember when i said 5/7 of my canon sheps have been paired with him? yeah.) and even though no one asked, i think billie eilish’s &burn  fits really well for where her character goes. is it cliche? maybe. but i like this song so there >:(

it’s a bit long. and a bit silly but nonetheless -- first look in AJ herself i guess.

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Lips meet teeth and tongue My heart skips eight beats at once (That's better) If we were meant to be, we would have been by now See what you wanna see, all I see is him right now H-h-him right now

Kaidan’s one of the few people AJ’s ever learned to trust by the time Saren’s investigation begins -- she’s the sort of person that refuses to let people get close unless she knows they won’t hurt her. And close often means just learning the name she prefers to go by. She likes to keep people at arms length.

Kaidan is different. Kaidan doesn’t press on her to trust him faster than need be.

She admires that about him. It’s still a slow process to open up to him, but it isn’t as needlessly painful as she’d believed it would be. There’s no fear to actively revealing parts of her character she’d never been able to show before.

It’s new. He’s new. How she smiles whenever she catches his eye is new. She isn’t sure whether she likes it or not. But he does mean a lot to her. She knows he’s a new part of her life she wants to be around. That she actively wants to get to know, that she wants to become part of his.

AJ wonders what’ll become of them after Saren is gone and the mission is over. What does he see her as? A stepping stone to someone better? Or is this real? One of the few things she’s chased after for most of her life?

Someone who loves her unconditionally, platonically and romantically?

She doesn’t know what he is to her. Maybe she doesn’t want to. If she says it out loud, if she says she really cares about him, that she loves him...

My heart skips eight beats at once (That's better)

Will it still be real when she wakes in the morning? Will June and Kaidan still be...

She can’t find the words for it. Nor does she want to. That means making that real. That means putting a name to it. A name means that it exists.

A name means it can be ripped apart.

I'll sit and watch your car burn With the fire that you started in me But you never came back to ask it out Go ahead and watch my heart burn With the fire that you started in me But I'll never let you back to put it out (Thanks)

This is after the Normandy crashes, and the two years have passed where AJ is wondering where he is. Searching for anything she can find to bring him back to her. Looking for anything that she can do to take her life back, to rewind the clock.

Futilely, of course.

With the fire that you started in me But you never came back to ask it out Go ahead and watch my heart burn

And that part specifically is Horizon and everything after it. It isn’t fair, she was so sure that what they had was real. She was always under the assumption that when you found real love, that was forever. That it’d always be there. She thought Ilos and everything that came before and after meant something in the grand scheme of things.

And then he leaves. She watches him leave. She lets him leave, biting her tongue for everything she said, wondering how this encounter could’ve gone differently.

Later, she understands. Later she can rationalize it away. Later, it all makes sense and it doesn’t quite hurt as much. It’s all in character, and it’s fair of him to walk away. 

She’d asked too much, pressed too hard, and deserved exactly what happened when he pushed back.

Later isn’t now, though. Now is when she’s hurt and broken and shattered like glass. She sees whatever future they had together go up in flames. That makes her angry, it makes her frustrated that there’s nothing she can do to stop it. There’s nothing she can do to fix it.

She always could fix these things. But she can’t even find the pieces to glue back together. And maybe she doesn’t want to fix anything. Maybe she wants to throw everything off her desk and scream and cry and stop acting like she has everything together when she doesn’t.

The shattered photo on her bedroom floor when the dark energy stops flickering over her is what breaks her completely.

Go ahead and watch my heart burn With the fire that you started in me But I'll never let you back to put it out

Alexandra June AJ doesn’t know if she wants their relationship back or not. She doesn’t know it’s worth letting him come back and re-light the fire he’d set the first time. She burned her hand on this stove once, and she can’t afford to do it again.

7-4-2008, I still remember that Heaven sent a present my way I won't forget your laugh Packing everything when you leave You know you comin' back

Here is where I assume Kaidan is never able to forget about Shepard -- or in this case AJ. He might try in those years she was dead, but no one else is her. The corners of their eyes don’t crinkle the same way her’s do, no one else smiles the same, no one else’s laugh is so muted you consider it treasure enough to even hear it at all. Her voice is sharp but at the same time, the only thing he’s wanted to hear since she died.

And then she was gone. Just like that, a candle light flickered out by the freezing cold of space. Choked out by the air that was supposed to sustain her.

Then she was back. At first he thinks he hallucinating.

He’s not.

It’s whiplash, trying to wrap his head around that. He’d grieved for her for nearly two years by the time he sees her again across that field on Horizon. He isn’t sure that it even is her at first, with the long dark hair missing, a red mop of hair on her head now in it’s place, orange light pulsing behind scars on her face.

The relief in her voice is palpable, the same breathless Kaidan off her lips when she hugs him. It’s the same smile, the same dark eyes he could lose himself in if he let himself go.

She’s here.

But at the same time, she’s not. The scars on her face aren’t her’s. The insignia on one of her’s crew’s armor makes his blood run cold. She’s upset, tripping over her words to try and explain to him why she’s with them.

Cerberus. Them.

Walking away is one of the hardest things he’s had to do. He wonders whether it’s the right decision for a long time. 

She doesn’t yell after him. Her voice is strained enough, on the edge of barely held back tears with his name on her lips.

The empty look in her eyes when he’d had to say goodbye haunts his dreams.

I try to wait for the storm to calm down But that's stubborn, baby, leadin' to war We droned down on each other Tryin' to even the score

They live to see the end of the suicide mission. They live to see each other return to Earth. So close, and yet so far. It isn’t the same like when she was dead -- he knows she’s here. He knows she’s alive at least.

She’s aware she’s a walking political catastrophe waiting to happen. Not to mention there are space cthulus on the horizon.

She’s aware he’s here in Vancouver. And very much alive. 

Do they miss each other? Or do they miss the idea of each other? Something she’d had to learn, and something he’d had to consider. Was there anyone out there like him? She hadn’t had the chance to look, she hadn’t wanted to look.

He already knew there was no replacing her as is.

They don’t have time to decide.

The Reapers hit Earth.

A storm is whirling around AJ. She barely knows what’s happening anymore, and there’s nothing she can do about any of it. The Reapers are here and destruction reigns. And yet she barely has enough time to process any of it, trying to find an opening to get back to some semblance of normal. She needs to find a crag in the side of the mountain to pull herself back up and stop her fall.

Kaidan. 

He nearly dies there on Mars.

That forces her to slow down because it turns her world upside down. It leaves her dizzy and sick because she isn’t sure what she’d do if he died. They may not have been together in years, but he still means everything to her.

She can’t control the Reapers. She can’t control Cerberus. She can slow all of those things down, but nothing she herself does will affect any of those things.

But what she can do here? What she can even do to convince the only man she’s ever loved to trust her again? Is her fear of going back to something real, something with a name going to hold her back from finding a sliver of happiness in this dimming galaxy?

What they can do here? He sees someone else in her shoes, even if it’s still the same AJ he’d spent the night with, she’s changed. For the better, for worse, he can’t tell. Maybe both. Maybe neither. Is it worth the risk of giving himself back to her?

Well, they can try not to burn each other on re-entry.

Go ahead and watch my heart, watch my heart burn You know you coming back, you know you coming back

“I want to understand what this is between us...and make it real. That’s what I want. What do you want?”

“I can’t bury what I feel for you anymore. And I don’t want to.”

Go ahead and watch my heart, watch my heart burn

[ameliasnormandy]

The Others

Miranda was the first to walk through the door. Commander Shepard wanted to see how her team was going to react, before she showed herself. She thought that it would be for the best. “What’s this about, Barbie?” Jack asked. Jack looked somehow older and younger than the last time Commander Shepard had seen her. Her hair was the exact same, but she had now opted for an Alliance jacket crop top. Her pants were loose, and barely hanging on to her hips. Shepard wondered why she was there, and not back at Grissom Academy. Those kids needed Jack and Shepard wondered why Jack wasn’t fighting alongside of them.

Joker walked through the door before Miranda could answer. It was quick to realize that no one knew what to make of the fact that Joker was there. They all suddenly seemed uneasy, and that was hard to do with a bunch of well-trained Alliance personnel. “What is Mr. Moreau doing here?” Kaidan asked. Now, Kaidan looked older. He had more wrinkles than Commander Shepard remembered. His uniform was starting to look like it was wearing him, like being a human specter was weighing on him more than anything else. It seemed that everyone was wearing who they used to be, but they weren’t the people that they were anymore.

“I am taking the Normandy back,” Joker said, taking one of the four empty seats. Commander Shepard wondered what he meant by that. She wondered if he understood the pain that might cause him, but the truth was that it seemed that he wouldn’t care.

“Over my dead body,” Kaidan whispered. Again, Commander Shepard wondered what that meant. Why would Kaidan be so against Joker taking control of the Normandy.

“You have no say. You aren’t captain anymore,” Joker said, with a smug smile.

“So, Kaidan got the Normandy,” Commander Shepard said, walking into the room. “Seems fitting.” She was a little surprised that he could the ship. She thought that even after the war it would go back to Admiral Hackett. It seemed like that would make sense, but to give it to Kaidan, to give it to him, seemed to honor what had happened. Shepard died. That was a hard thing for her to remember. It was her death, again, that prompted the need for them to feel like they needed to honor her. Was her death worth honoring? She still didn’t have that answer. She still didn’t know the answer to that. Not even a little bit.

“Who are you?” Jack asked, standing up.

“Yes, I thought this was invitation only,” Kaidan said, glaring at Joker.

“I was invited,” Commander Shepard said, straightening herself up a little bit. “As was Joker.”

“See I was invited,” Joker said, patting Kaidan on the back. “We will be working together again.”

“Under whose orders,” Kaidan asked Joker.

“Mine,” Admiral Hackett said, walking into the room.

“Yes, sir,” Kaidan said, standing up. “Why do we need Joker or whoever this is.”

“Whoever this is,” Shepard said, shaking her head. She looked over at the door, Admiral Hackett nodded and she closed the door. “Whoever this is,” Commander Shepard said, shaking her head. She couldn’t understand what Kaidan meant by that, but she knew that he was going to find out soon who this was. She took off her helmet.

Commander Shepard had to try not to laugh as she watched his mouth gape open, as she watched all of their eyes slowly begin to open wider and wider, almost as if they were realizing what this implied in waves, as if they, none of them, truly wanted to know what that meant, and their minds were making them understand, no matter what they actually wanted to do. “Shepard,” Kaidan said. His eyes refused to stop looking at her.

She gave him a smile and took a seat beside Joker. Kaiden shifted his weight just a little bit when he saw this. It was hard for him to see her choose Joker over him. “It’s good to see you, Specter, Alenko.” Shepard felt weird saying that. It was not that she believed that Kaiden shouldn’t have been a specter it was more that she had not gotten used to the idea when she had been forced to do the right thing for the galaxy once again.

Jack never being one to mince words or to let things just play out felt like she had to say something. “It can’t be her. She has to…” Jack began, that was the best that she could do, even she was having a hard time choosing what to say.

Miranda gave a smile. “I wouldn’t say clone,” Miranda said.

“She’s a little touchy about that,” Admiral Hackett said, walking into the room. Shepard wondered how long he had been listening, and wondered if he was just waiting for the right time to walk in.

“How would you guys feel about that if you had to face down your clone? And then watch your clone die for that matter.” Shepherd sounded slightly annoyed by the whole thing, but the truth was it was an experience and she found it slightly amusing. The whole thing that happened with her clone was a bit of an adventure, one she knew that she had given most of them. They had taken this story. They all had that. They had a story because of her, and she wondered what that meant for them. Were they just people connected by stories or could they really be people that could find a family with each other, something they might not have fully felt otherwise. She no longer knew the answer that she would have given so quickly before. Sometimes she did wonder, just for a moment, if she was somehow a clone, and she didn’t realize it.

“Besides clones don’t have the same memory or handprint as the one that they were cloned from. We should all know this by now.” Miranda added. She was right. They had all heard the stories, some of them had even been there to see it.

“Has anyone tested her hand print?” Jacob asked, leaning forward in his chair. He seemed the most skeptical of all of this. It was too much for him to believe that this could really be her. He wasn’t sure that he was ready for it to be her.

“Are you questioning that she’s Shepard?” Miranda asked him. There was an odd thing going on between Miranda and Jacob, and Shepard couldn’t tell what it was, but she could tell that it bothered both of them greatly.

Jacob didn’t say anything at first. Instead he just looked around the table. He was looking for someone else to support him. He was looking for someone else that saw this all as madness and was willing to speak up, but they were all too stunned to say anything, they were all just trying to believe, even for a moment to say anything. “We all should be questioning,” he said, looking at Commander Shepard. “She appeared out of nowhere.”

“You can’t say she appeared out of nowhere. You were the one that found her,” Miranda said, glaring at Jacob.

“She was the one off the planet?” Jacob asked.

“Odd way of putting it, but yes I was the mad man that was studying the reapers too closely,” Commander Shepard added, deciding that at that moment it was time for her to step into the conversation once more.

“You knew that is what I called you?” Jacob asked, standing up in outrage. Shepard didn’t understand what his outrage was about. She didn’t understand why he was so angry.

Commander Shepard shook her head and smiled. “Of course,” she finally said. “You think that I wouldn’t have access to the Alliance system. You knew that I did. You guys caught me in the system, remember.”

Jacob sat back down, for just a moment he seemed to be calmed once more. “I would assume that Shepard would, but that would have shown up on the system and you did not show up on the system.”

“You think the whole galaxy, all of humanity, would in like to know that a Commander, even if it is Commander Shepard, has access to all Alliance intel,” Admiral Hackett said, looking at Jacob. Commander Shepard remembered the moment that they had made that decision, it felt so long ago, but everything felt like it was a long time ago.

Jacob didn’t say anything for a second. “But shouldn’t you at least know who she is, or who she was. Shouldn’t you have been able to tell.”

“That is something I can answer,” Commander Shepard said, looking at Jacob. “I half used my code and then also used a hack together it left me completely undetected. It’s something that Tali and Legion helped me understand how to do it.”

“Why would you care?” Jacob asked.

“Care about what?”

“About being known.”

“I already came back from the dead once, who was going to believe I had done it again?” Commander Shepard asked, looking at a table full of people who had questioned her revival. Not one of them made a sound. “I think my point has been proven.” It seemed that they were all aware that she had said something that held truth. “Besides that no one seems to know what to do with me as I am.”

“We want to believe,” Kaiden said, looking around the table.

“It’s just I have done this too often so far, right? You don’t want to get your hopes up to watch me go again, right?” No one said, anything, but she knew that she had hit it on the head, but maybe the best thing she could do was move on. “Which brings me to a small favor, Traynor.”

Samantha Traynor who looked a little older but a little more prepared, it was almost as if she wore everything better than most of the people that had been with her stated, “I will locate the rest of your crew and try to get you in contact with them.” Samantha Traynor still had her trademark British accent. She still had her little shorter than shoulder length black hair, but she looked like she commanded the room better. She looked like a woman no longer afraid of her own shadow. Instead she was making people afraid of hers. Commander Shepard was joyed that she had come into her own, but was lost knowing she wasn’t there to see it. She wasn’t there to see a lot of things. The only thing that Commander Shepard knew was that there were going to be a lot more things that she regretted, things that she couldn’t fix with a simple word. But she was going to do her best. She had to. If she was alive, she was going to make things matter, she was just going to make things the best that she could, make up for her past mistakes.

“Thank you,” Commander Shepard said, offering a smile to Traynor.

Traynor seemed to accept the smile. Jack seemed to care less about the exchange that had just happened. “What are we doing here?”

Commander Shepard believed that because of Jack’s coarse attitude meant she didn’t care about the Commander Shepard being back, not that Commander Shepard didn’t understand. There were so many reasons that they could have blamed her for. Shepard wondered what this particular thing she was getting blamed for though. Commander Shepard refused to think any more of it. “The reapers.”

“They’ve been dead since you were,” Vega said, looking at Commander Shepard. Vega had a certainty to his voice that seemed to be lacked in the voices.  

“Dormant,” Commander Shepard corrected. “From my research the ones that didn’t explode or suffered irreparable damage seem to be dormant, not dead, as we all previously thought, as I previously thought.” Commander Shepard realized that putting her voice into the we section didn’t seem to be right. It just felt wrong. It all felt wrong. She tried not to think about it.

“We all previously thought,” Kiadian said, sitting up in his chair. This wasn’t what he really wanted to talk about, and he was going to talk about what he wanted to talk about. “How long have you been alive this time?”

“Two years, give or take a few months.” Shepard said, worried that they were going to get too far off topic, but she knew that the words had to be spoken.

“And Cyberus is now just letting you go?”

Commander Shepard glared at Kaidan, the same man who promised he wouldn’t think of her involvement with Cerberus anymore, nor would he hold it against her, was now dragging her name through the mud again, because he still hated the fact that she worked with Cerberus. He hated that she had chosen Cerberus over the Alliance, which wasn’t what happened, but Kaidan would never believe that, he would never listen. “I wasn’t with Cerberus.”

“I can answer this one,” Miranda said, looking at Kiadian. Miranda was the only one that seemed to care. The only one that seemed to be standing up for Commander Shepard. Not that Commander Shepard didn’t understand, and not that Shepard needed someone to stand up for her in the first place. “She was marooned on an unknown planet and was there until we picked her up.”

“You didn’t try to make contact?” Kiadian asked, clearly hurt by the idea, and also suspicious that any of this could be true.

“I tried…” Commander Shepard began.

Miranda interrupted Shepard before she could finish. “She tried the entire time she was on that planet. We have her logs that prove it.” Shepard looked at Miranda, but didn’t say anything.

“And while you were on this planet you were on this planet you just sat around studying a reaper?” Kaidan asked.

“Other than trying to send messages, then yes, yes I did spend my time studying the reapers,” Shepard said, looking at Kaidan his skepticism was not completely unwarranted, but still her question set everything to rest, “What was I supposed to do?”

“What did you learn?” Jacob asked, leaning forward.

“More, than I had in my years chasing them. I was just hunting them then. I also didn’t have the background I do now. This doesn’t help with the problem of why they are still alive,” Commander Shepard quickly flashed to what happened to her the last time she went through the beacon. She refused to think about Captain Anderson, but she pushed past him to the catalyst. He would know. The child that had been haunting her dreams, he would know, he would have to know. “I know someone who might know.”

“Javik would know,” Kadian suggested. This was the first time that Shepard noticed that Kadian wasn’t yelling at her for some slight that she had done. He wasn’t yelling at her for not being saved sooner, and not trying to get saved sooner.

Commander Shepard didn’t say anything for a second. She really thought about it, and wondered why she hadn’t thought of Javik. “That wasn’t who I was thinking of, but it never hurts to talk to a Prothean about this topic.”

“Who were you thinking of?” Miranda asked her.

“The one that started it all, the reasons the reapers attacked, the catalyst.”

“What are you talking about?” Miranda asked, looking over the table. Miranda noticed the same thing Commander Shepard had. They were not a team any longer. They were strangers. They were now bound by nothing more than shared experiences. That is what brought them all together, nothing more. And that hurt Commander Shepard more than she could say. She had worked hard believing that she had left them as a family.

“There was someone that I met when I was on Citadel.” Commander Shepard leaned forward. “If anyone would know anything, he would.”

“Who is he?” Kaidan asked.

“Someone I thought would be dead,” Commander Shepard said, shaking her head.

“What’s to say he isn’t?” Kaidan asked.

“Because I’m not, because the reapers are not. Why should he get to die?”

“Where can we find him?” Admiral Hackett asked. He seemed to be the only person that knew that they had something that they had to do, and they couldn’t get distracted.

[pip-n-flinx]

Little bit of Mass Effect Salt Incoming

So, one of my favorite twitch/youtube personalities recently released a video about his favorite series ever, mass effect! While I was initial thrilled (I didn’t even know he played ME tbh) I gotta say I’m a more than a bit salty about it. I still love him and and watch his stuff, clearly ain’t nobody perfect, but I want to get some things off my chest and most of the people I know who are into ME follow me here. SO here goes.

Here’s the thing, he absolutely hates one of my favorite characters from the franchise. He made jokes about leaving them to die, not regretting it, how horrible a character they are, and even references several moments in the first game as the source of his opinions. He goes into far less details from the 2nd and 3rd games in the franchise, but contends that they failed to change his mind.

Now, it will come as no surprise to some of you that he hates Ashley Williams.

For the sake of clarity, I’m going to get some stuff out of the way right here before explaining to you what he said and why I disagree:

- I have done multiple playthroughs of ME. One included the Ash Romance.

- Most of my playthroughs I romanced Liara.

- My opinions are not ‘ASH IS BEST GIRL CHANGE MY MIND’

- Before someone @’s me with some bullshit, I’d just like to observe I’ve heard a ton of Ash Hatred since I got into the fandom. I would be surprised if you were bringing something new to my attention when it comes to Ash. I’ve spent a great deal of my time playing this game and even more following other content creators of any medium I could find. Please Please Please PLEASE don’t waste your time regurgitating something you heard someone else say and I SWEAR BEFORE ALL THAT IS GOOD if I hear one more “She’s just a ____” comment I will end you no character in this series is “just” anything.

- THIS IS NOT KAIDEN ALENKO HATRED. I actually find the Virmire decision heart wrenching every time.

- Finally, before we move on, I’m not telling you how to play the goddamn game. I have enough trouble with Virmire, Horizon, and the Coup d’etat missions in my own playthrough, I have no intention of re-living the guilt and stress of it for someone else’s Shepard. I got enough emotional baggage from this game already thanks. MOVING ON “Ashley is a space racist.” ALRIGHT listen up kiddos. Her Grandfather, the one who started the Williams Curse? He did that by creating and signing off on Cerberus during the First Contact War. The pro-human splinter group founded during the first encounter and conflict with aliens that humanity experiences? That was her Grandfather’s Idea. And yes, she begins ME1 with some pretty racist commentary. “Can’t tell the aliens from the animals” is a reprehensible line. Now, I don’t think she says anything reprehensible when she talks to Shepard about not liking the aliens on the Normandy, but I can also agree that it comes from a place of fear and discomfort, and that definitely contributes to the argument that she’s a space racist. HOWEVER: what a lot of the Ash haters miss is a moment after Virmire on the Citadel, in the wards, when a isolationist xenophobic populist party known as the Terra Firma party approaches Shepard asking for their support in the next election. This comes after Ashley has had a chance to work with Wrex, Garrus, Tali, and Captain Kirrahe. She DRAGS the leader through the muck, stating that while she likes some of the parties platform the party is full of racists and the refusal by the Terra Firma leaders to denounce the racist comments and racists members of the party is enough to lose them her vote already. She gets so heated about Shepard has to command her to stand down. You don’t get to cherry pick her interactions from ME1 and ignore her character growth. She also falls right into her big sister roll with Tali almost immediately. She tells Tali that it took years to get women accepted in the military. When Tali responds that the Migrant Fleet doesn’t have the luxury of sexism, she replies “sounds great, but I don’t think I could get used to the uniform.” In ME2 she refuses Shepard’s offer, despite earlier referring to Shepard as “a god back from the dead.” Why does she refuse? Because Shepard is working with Cerberus, the organization her GRANDFATHER CREATED. She’s all for the Alliance, and the Alliance is either working with or directing the Citadel Council having earned an honored spot after the Geth attack 2 years before. She is committed to working with the government that is dealing with the other races and refuses to work for Cerberus even though you could argue its in her blood and definitely in her upbringing. Honestly, I can’t fathom why people bring up this scene when trashing Ash, this is a moral stand from a woman accused of being a racist and the flip flop here even from people in the fandom I respect is baffling to me. In ME3 there are a whole plethora of scenes you could pick from but I want to talk about her reuniting with Tali. She immediately tells Tali to drop rank with her, observing they’ve been through enough together that the rank isn’t important. This is especially poignant to me if Tali herself is exiled after the events of ME2.

“Ashley is just a soldier, she doesn’t have any personality beyond that.” BULLSHIT she doesn’t. She’s struggled to find her place in the military due to the family stigma around her grandfather, so she hangs a ton of her personal identity on her family. She’s a supportive older sister, an adoring daughter, at least passingly religious if only because “there are no atheists in a foxhole.” She calls her sisters regularly, tells stories about growing up with them, mourns her late father and reads a ton of poetry, demonstrating a more critical appraisal of literature than Shepard, Vega, Joker, or even Kaidan (”its about not giving up?” is that the best you’ve got Shep? thats pathetic.) Whats more, she doesn’t just read one poet, she picked up some poems from both her “sappy” dad and more pragmatic mom. She’s also a great window to military families in ME, which you can’t really say for Kaidan or 2 out of 3 Shepard backstories. I think in a story about a war to end all wars it would be a disservice to not write about all the widowed men, women, an aliens who are living not quite far enough from the war.

“Why can’t she just trust Shepard? Why does she have to refuse to help in ME2 and then be so standoffish in ME3?” Honestly? If my lover had been declared KIA and then magically came back working under cover for a shady organization with a history of criminal crimes like murder and torture I TOO would have trust issues. I feel like we often gloss over just how horrible an organization Cerberus really is. Even ignoring the “they rebuilt you” angle which gets EVEN CREEPIER in the first Mars mission in ME3 I can’t imagine immediately flip flopping between Cerberus are war criminals to my best friend presumed dead is working for them to its alright now totally nothing out of the ordinary that compromised my opinion of their judgement took place.

So I just can’t see the Ashley Williams hate. I can see leaving her behind (no I can’t, no one ever dies in this series, how dare you tell me anyone dies?) on Virmire. But I just can’t fathom the hatred.

With all that said Kaidan is not boring, Ash is more than a racist soldier, and I love all the characters in the ME trilogy. Thank you. Good Night.

[forlornmelody]

Double the Trouble Chapter 6 -- Miss Communication

Rating: Explicit (other chapters are NSFW)

Ship: FemShep x Femshep Clone // Shenko, eventual OT3

AO3 Links: Chapter 1 // This Chapter

Summary: Shep had planned to spend another night alone. Instead she has a surprise visitor--one she had never expected to see again.Unapologetic consensual clone smut.

Note: Well, one year after the most recent chapter, I finally get around to updating this thing. Oops. This is a sequel to Spare Parts, but obviously you can read this without reading the other fic. I’ve spent the year developing the characters and their story arcs, so this smutty crack fic now has plot! Lemme know what you think. 

What the hell are you doing here, Shepard? She stood in front of the door, boring holes into it with her gaze. Maybe if she stared long enough the hammering in her ears and chest would fade. So far no luck. Shepard needed to not panic. First step—control her breathing. Deep breath in; deep breath out. Her chest felt like lead. Second step—stay grounded. The door is green. There are six rows and six columns of rings in that grate. That would make—36 diamond…thingys. Yeah. We’ll call ‘em thingys. Just as her stomach slowed its churning, someone tapped her shoulder.

“You gonna say the password, bitch? Or are you going to just stand there all day?”

Shepard whipped around, grabbing him by the wrist. She didn’t waste time before bending it the wrong way. “Get your hands off me.” So much for keeping things under control.

“Hey! Let go.” He reached for his pistol.

Fat chance, big guy. Shepard took a breath, channeling her adrenaline towards her eezo nodes. Her eyes glowed, and she lashed out with just enough force to knock his pistol out of his hands. It barely moved. Shit.

___________________________________

“What would you like to talk about today, Shepard?” Her therapist leaned back in her chair, balancing a datapad on her lap.

“I need you to authorize a new biotic amplifier.”

“Mm. Are you ready for a new amplifier, Shepard?”

Narrowing her eyes, Shepard tried to keep her voice level. “I’ve been ready for months, Doctor.”

“Please, call me Susan.”

“Authorize the damn amp, Susan. We’ve talked through everything—“

“About your military service, yes. Your recent personal relationship with Major Kaidan Alenko, even. Your brief association with Thane Krios. But what about your childhood?”

“I dealt with that shit years ago. No need to bring it up.”

“Your insistence on avoiding the subject is telling, Shepard.”

_____________________________________________

Shepard stared down gun’s barrel, bracing herself as she heard the safety click. Maybe next time don’t pick a fight with only half your body working, dumbass.

“Your amp short out, freak?” The thug’s finger slid towards the trigger.

She held up her right hand. The left remained stubbornly at her side. “Must’ve left it at home.” Shepard put on her most winning smile. I’m so sorry, Kaidan.

BANG!

Shepard fell to the ground. The door slammed behind her, and Shepard caught herself with her right hand. She groaned as her wrist cranked under the full weight of her body. A twitch in her left arm.

“What the fuck is going on out here?” Jane shouted from over Shepard’s shoulder.

The thug dropped his pistol, backing off. “N-nothing Jane. I—we—”

“That’s Ms. Doe to you, asshole. Now get out of here before someone calls the cops.”

“Yes Ms—“

“I said out.”

The thug scrambled out of sight. Shepard looked up, half-expecting her to offer a hand. Of course, she had forgotten who she was dealing with. Jane glowered down at her, folding her arms. “What are you doing here?”

Grabbing onto the door, Shepard dragged herself up. “We need to talk.”

“If I wanted to talk, I would’ve returned your calls.” Jane turned around, ducking back inside, but leaving the door open.

Shepard followed, rotating her wrist. “Could we talk somewhere else? A park? A different bar? Hell, we could even go back to my therapist’s office and I wouldn’t even—”

Jane stopped, looking over her shoulder with a smirk. “This place not good enough for you?”

Shepard clenched her fist. Oh no, this place would be perfect. Discreet. Dim lighting. Loud televisions. Full of private rooms for its loyal customers. Well compensated and well armed bouncers in case shit hit the fan. Plenty of alcohol. If only Shepard could breathe in this fucking shit hole. “Too many memories,”  she managed to spit out.

“That’s one thing about not having a past.” Jane stepped inside one of the private rooms. Shepard noticed with relief that it had a desk, not a bed. “No baggage.”

Despite all the alarms needlessly blaring inside her head, Shepard followed. “Jane, please. I can’t—”

Jane whirled around, her eyes dark with hate. “Do you have any idea how many people begged the Alliance to send you back to Earth during the Invasion? But you were too busy kissing alien ass to even bother.”

Shepard knew she should keep her voice down, that Jane only knew how to push her buttons. “You think it was easy for me to leave? I had to! We couldn’t fight the Reapers on our own!”

“You owed the Council nothing! They covered up your death. Conveniently forgot about Sovereign.” Shepard’s pulse pounded in her ears.  “Ignored the Collectors. Allowed the Alliance to arrest you after Bahak.” Shepard’s throat closed in on itself.  “And then,” Jane jabbed her finger in Shepard’s face, “they all came groveling, asking for your help when the Reapers showed up. Not once lending a hand to our system or its colonies.”

Shepard backed up into the door closed behind her. Her body shook. “Is that what Brooks told you?” Something flashed in Jane’s eyes. “Or what did she call herself at Cerberus? Rasa?”

Jane’s arm collided with Shepard’s throat, pressing her up against the door. Not enough to cut off her breathing, but just enough to hurt. “Don’t you dare talk to me about her.”

She should’ve probably held up her good hand in surrender. She should’ve backed down. Instead, Shepard stared down her clone, even as she started to see stars in her eyes. “What did she do to you?”

The clone dropped her so she could storm off to the other side of the room. “What’s it matter to you? She’s dead.”

Taking a few gulps of air, Shepard rubbed her throat. That’ll leave a bruise. “Shit. Jane...whatever...whoever Brooks was, I’m sorry you lost her.”

Jane snorted, pulling a small rubber ball from her jacket pocket, and bouncing it off the wall. “You’re a real trip, you know that?”

“What are you talking about?” Shepard must have hit her head on the way down.

Her clone spins around, her eyes flashing with rage. “You kill my...partner, and then you have the nerve to say you’re sorry??” She stretches out the O, as a reminder of just how different their origins were. Streets and a lab. A womb and a test tube. A homeworld and a space station. “Is that how you won over the tribunal? By apologizing?”

“Cute.” Shepard rubbed her face, trying to think, replaying the Clone’s words in her head until they made sense. “Hey. Look. This may be hard for you to believe, but if Brooks is dead, I had nothing to do with it.” She snorted, using her good hand to gesture at her body. “I mean, look at me. I can hardly dress and feed myself as it is, how the hell am I taking out hits on people?”

“You didn’t kill her after the war, genius.” Jane leaned against the wall, bouncing the ball harder and faster. Her fists started to glow. “Guess it was hard to notice her body with all the other mercs.”

Shepard’s face jerked up to look at her. “On the Normandy?” She blinked. Jane nodded. “She didn’t...Oh. Of course you don’t know. You didn’t see anything after you...fell.” She swallowed hard, the look of horror on the clone’s face after she dropped from the Normandy still burned in her brain. Breathe. “We arrested her. Sent her to some top-secret facility with other terrorists...I don’t even know where it is.”

Jane finally deigned to look at her, her mouth hanging open. “Brooks is alive?” The ball fell from her hand, bouncing several times before skidding to a stop. “Rasa is alive?”

Shepard took a deep breath, rubbing her bad arm. God, it was cramping so bad. Like pins and needles. “As far as I know, yeah. I mean, for all I know the Reapers took out the facility along with everything else. But I had nothing to do with it. I can swear to that.”

Stepping towards her, Jane asked softly. “Do you know where she is?”

Shit. “I...I don’t. Even if I did….I I don’t have the authority to release that information.”

Snorting, Jane nodded her head, unsurprised. “You don’t trust me. That’s...fair.”

God, she wanted to. “Two spectres and a councilor have to approve visitors. Doesn’t happen to often.

“You’re making that up.”

“Nope. Read that section of the Spectre manual the night after we...ran into each other.” Shepard swallowed, the taste of her still in her mouth.

“Repeatedly.” They both snickered. Jane kicked her foot back and forth. “What do I need to do to get that information? Money? Information?” She took Shepard in slowly, reading her, probably. “Sex?”

Shepard turned abruptly to hide her blush. “Bribery? Really?” She scratched the back of her neck. “I’m not even sure I count as a Spectre anymore.”

“Bullshit. You saved the galaxy, how many times? They’re not going to fire you over an injury.”

“I’m not exactly battle ready, Jane.” Shepard sighed. “I’ll talk to Kaidan about, okay? He’s still active. He’s on better terms with the politicians, anyway.”

Jane watched her closely, arms still folded.

“You don’t believe me.”

“Trust is hard to come by these days.”

This room really could use a few windows. Anything to keep the walls from closing in. Shepard cleared her throat.  “Is...is this about the other night?”

This time, Jane blinked at her. “What?”

“...I thought you were mad.” She could feel the heat burning in her cheeks. “Me and Kaidan….Kaidan and I...we...we kind of lost track of you after.”

“After we fucked, you mean.” Jane smirked at her discomfort.

“Well, yeah.” Shepard chewed her lip. “You didn’t get any aftercare from us and---”

“I’m mad about Brooks, not being your unicorn. Because I’m. Not. Anyone’s. Unicorn.” Jane pulled the ball back into her hand biotically, passing it from hand to hand. She shook her head. “I’m mad that you never brought up Brooks.”

“...With the way things went down...I didn’t realize you--”

“--Cared? Please, Shepard. I’m not the monster you think I am.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” Moving towards the desk chair, Shepard slipped and out of her pockets fell two small boxes. As she fumbled to get to the floor, Jane picked one up.

“Dental dams? Latex gloves?” Jane quirked an eyebrow as she watched Shepard turn as red as their hair. “You sure know how to charm a girl.”

“This sounded way more smooth in my head.” Shepard leaned against the back of the chair, sliding her index finger across the lid of the box. “What I’m trying to say is...I don’t want to use you. I mean...if you want to be exlusive with us, that’s fine. But if you want to see other people, that’s cool too.”

“So smooooth.” Jane traced her fingers across Shepard’s, laughing softly, only to frown when she saw the whites of her knuckles. “Shit. This place...it really fucks you over, doesn’t it?”

“LIke the underside of a thresher maw.” Shepard said quietly, starting to pull her hand back.

Jane grabbed her wrist. “Hold on.”

Looking up at her, Shepard swallowed hard.

“You uh...have plans tonight?” With Kaidan? She asked without words.

“Well...Kaidan’s out of system right now.” Chewing her lip, Shep pulled out her phone, shooting Kaidan a text.

Hey.

Got time for a vid call?

Jane leaned her chin on Shepard’s shoulder. “You flirt like this with everyone?”

Shepard glanced at her with narrowed eyes. “You want to fuck or not?”

Both of them stared down at the phone, waiting. “What if he’s on duty?”

Chewing her lip, Shepard brushed her nose with hers. “How about dinner?”

“Sushi?” Jane smirked.

“Are you going to blow up the fish tank this time?”

“Only if you ask nicely, Shepard.”

[ajacks99]

All the multiples of four for that mass effect ask meme pls

I’m answering this for Amelia ‘Amy/Ace’ Shepard, my nonbinary and paragon soldier!Shepard. This got....really heckin long so I’m putting it under a cut- I really could talk about my Shep for years.

4. What would damage a friendship for Shepard?

Amy’s fiercely loyal to her crew and her squad, so if anyone started insulting them they’d be very angry- especially if it was a comment on how useless they are/saying they don’t bring anything to the squad, or insulting their species.

8. How did their friendship change over time?

(Amy’s best friends are Joker and Tali) With Joker, Amy moved from seeing him as a dependable and friendly pilot only, to considering him a loyal squadmate and potential brother figure- even making him XO in ME2/3 if they or their significant others aren’t available.

With Tali, by the end of ME1 they saw her as a little sister figure, and liked to check up on her about her latest projects and how she’s feeling. After ME2, and during ME3, due to Tali’s maturity and Amy’s own experiences the two become confidants and very close, each trusting each other to have their back.

12. Does Shepard have any siblings?

A twin brother called Blaine (because you can pry the twins!Shep headcanon from my cold dead hands lets be real). He’s an alliance military pilot/engineer, and the two of them are very close- promising to contact each other at least once a week to update each other on how they are. He spends a surprising amount of time on the Citadel for a military pilot, and Amy’s squad knows that if the twins run into each other when she’s at the citadel two they aren’t leaving for at least two hours whilst the siblings catch up. He’s the more cautious of the two, but just as loyal and trustworthy.

16. What’s Shepards favourite memory of their family?

Amy’s favourite memory, surprise surprise, includes Blaine. When they were around 14, they told Blaine about them being nonbinary simply because they needed to get it off their chest. He was really accepting and helped them buy a binder etc and his next birthday present to them was very nonbinary-themed (lots of flag memorabilia and a shirt they still wear on shore leave sometimes).

20. What are their common interests or hobbies?

(Note: I romanced both Garrus and Kaidan as Amy, so I treat them as a poly trio). All three of them love space obviously, and weaponry/fighting (though Garrus and Amy prefer it more than Kaidan does). Kaidan likes talking about Earth a lot to both of them, since Amy has a spacer background and rarely sees Earth, and in turn Garrus likes talking about Palaven. All three also like cooking, though it gets a bit difficult due to the levo/dextro business and the fact Amy can’t cook to save their life.

24. How do they show each other their love?

The little things, mostly. Kaidan makes sure his partners aren’t working too hard, bringing them drinks and food if they forget and cuddling a lot at night. Garrus makes sure their gear is always in top condition, and is always on the hunt for upgrades (especially for Amy since they’re a front-line attacker). Amy likes to make things easier for their partners, and always keeps a bottle of painkillers for Kaidan on their person at all times, and one for Garrus too if his scar starts acting up (do Turians even have painkillers?). They’re very big on physical touch, so often you’ll see two or all of them just holding each other whilst they’re working or just relaxing, and they always end up in a giant cuddle pile at night.

28. What would they like to change about the other?

Garrus and Kaidan would want to change the fact that Amy always charges into battle, and always takes too much pressure onto their shoulders- if anything goes wrong, no matter what they could or couldn’t have done to change it, they blame themselves. In turn, Amy wishes that Kaidan didn’t keep things like his headaches a secret, and wishes that Garrus would get a little shorter (they’re only 5′1, absolutely tiny in comparison). Kaidan sort of wishes Garrus wouldn’t be so overprotective, but agrees that it’s part of both his charm and character- even if he wishes he didn’t have to see Garrus getting injured to protect either of them ever again. Garrus, similarly to Amy, wants Kaidan to stop hiding his injuries or worries so much.

32. Do they have a favourite spot to hang out together?

They like hanging out in the little side cabins of deck three (like the ones Samara, Kaidan, Diana, and Zaeed go to) to watch the stars and cuddle, but they also enjoy spending time on the Citadel and just watching the world go by- it helps them forget any of their pressures and worries.

36. What are their best memories together?

One of the best is probably at the end of ME1, where Shepard re-emerges from the rubble of the Citadel after the fight against Saren. The joy on their faces could’ve lit up a room when they reunited. Other than that, anytime in battle where Amy gets really into a fight sticks in the memory of Kaidan and Garrus- especially when they have to pick one of them up if the other is injured (it happened like twice to Kaidan in game and it’s by far one of my favourite things). Also, kinda a deviation from canon but I imagine they first talked about geting together just before the start of ME2- Amy and Kaidan ended up together first simply because they knew each other longer, and Garrus joined the relationship just before ME2 started. The first time all three of them had a date is by far their best joint memory.

40. Is there someone in the squad of ME/ME2/ME3 Shepard dislikes? Why?

Amy tried very hard to make sure that they got on well with everyone in their squad- the only issues came in the form of squadmates exploring their boundaries with each other and Amy getting annoyed if they overstepped, but mostly they got on well with everyone. The only one that came close to ever making her dislike them was Ashley, but the two of them reached an understanding- just in time for Virmire.

44. Is there an enemy for whom your Shepard have/had respect?

Nothing comes straight to mind, but Amy always has respect for their foes unless they’ve done something like betray them/others or injure civilians- in which case, they might have respect for just their fighting prowess rather than who they are/what they stand for. 

[lesbianyennefer]

ok ive finished andromeda and so im gunna collate my final gathered thoughts below:

All in all its been a good game but for the first time in my life in not just a mass effect but a bioware game i dont LOVE it i cant even say i think its very good - ive even been edging on outright disinterest and boredom at various points throughout. bioware games for all their faults have always made me get fully into their stories get completely immersed in the world and in mass effects case in their characters too. but andromeda is the first time ever that i find myself saying if someone asked me how good it was i would say meh. if someone asked me how the latest installment in my favourite thing to exist on this planet was i would say meh. as someone who for whom the original trilogy is genuinely my favourite thing in existence there arent words for how much it upsets me. im not even like ‘i wanna play again!!!’ like i usually am because im usually still so immersed in the world. here are some thoughts and delving deeper into the things that stood out to me:

- the writing: its poor. there have been a few funny moments and lines and most of the main quest dialogue lines are good but compared to what we are used to from mass efefct it PALES. only one moment of real enjoyment stands out to me in the entire game and that was the movie night one - of the only moments in the game I got happy about like the original trilogy. the writing for dialogue not just with npcs but with companions is often clunky, nonsensical, boring and adds nothing to furthering knowledge/relationships. i honestly couldnt tell you a lot about many of them because the conversations didnt pertain to actually getting to know them. it says in the codex that they all consider me close friends but its never been mentioned that they even considered me one nor can i recall when the friendship actually got going or how we reached the ‘close’ part. similarily a lot of criticism from critics was about the base elements being rehashed from the original and its true. so much has just been copy pasted from the ot in a way that actually makes this version less interesting. the big ‘reveals’ in the story are also so badly done that when jaal mentioned the angara were made by the jaardun is it? i didnt have a wow moment like mass effect has given me in the past i was so confused by everything going on i was just like what? nobody seemed to make a big deal out if either considering an entire race just found out they were genetically engineered. the only real ‘wow’ moment i had in the game was finding out ellen ryder was still alive and jien garson was murdered and even then you cant tell anyone and its pretty much forgotten!! ryder knows that jien was murdered by possibly this benefactor who seems to have ulterior motives for all of them and she also knows the reapers invaded and as far as shes aware eradicated the entire milky way. maybe thats something that should be shared with leadership hmm? (as much as i hate tann)  

- the plot: touching on the last the plot was, to me, nothing to write home about. ive always enjoyed that mass effect has a linear storyline that you get stuck into and follow through at a good pace. now i know they said andromeda was going to be more exploration based game - which i would normally like! - but not when the exploration has almost nothing to do with the main story and is so fucking much that you could play for 3 days 12 hours a day and not get to the next bit of the main storyline!! when you space it out too much the audience - or i - loses all connection with the sporadic main plot and what we are actually supposed to be doing so much so that by the time you go to play the next segment you dont even really know why youre there or whats going on. similarly the plot never made me go :O which the ot did a lot. an example ive mentioned before is that seeing the citadel always makes me go ahhh!!! the nexus by comparison is pretty boring. despite its flaws i love the storyline surrounding the reapers and it always gets me each time i play. sitting her writing this if you asked me to detail the main plot of andromeda i honestly couldnt. i cant remember what i did or in which order. theres no substance or linearity.  

- the exploration: i again cant believe im saying this but swtor a mmo game from 2011 has more interesting open worlds with more MANAGEABLE and relevant side quests than andromeda. they might be beautiful but none of the worlds stood out to me - though i loved elaaden and the downed remenant ship star wars reference. i dont mind doing a few bland side quests but when there in the 50s and they lead you on goose chases across entire planets i begin to get agitated. i cant recall the amount of times i had to go back to planets like kadara for one 5 minute firefight and a couple of lines of dialogue. going through the galaxy map animations, the landing animations, the lift down to the slums then crossing the threshold to actually reach the map to THEN find your destination? yeah im pretty done by then.    

- side quests: tying into the above side quests! bioware hinted theyd learned a lesson from dai and taken inspiration from the witcher 3 for their approach to side quests and they appear to have done neither. there are MORE side quests than there were in dai and i actually didnt mind dais but andromedas have become an issue for me - probably because there were so godamn many. they dont have any baring on the story and they are bland and uninteresting mostly fetch quests. i hate bringing the witcher into this because i dont like giving praise to cd projekt red but the truth is bioware could stand to ACTUALLY learn from the witcher 3. the side quests in that are small in number, long in plot and actually connected to the main story. they dont make you feel like youre straying from the plot, their content is deep and very good and they quite often have major consequences. see triss’ quests in novigrad.  one thing i will say is they did seem to take a little of the last into andromeda. some choices have consequences ie saving the salarians over the krogan. that was pretty cool but still underdeveloped. 

- the relationships: by the end of the story i  can say I love all my squadmates despite the fact that i feel like i barely got the chance to know them (the only one il say i dont know at all well enough to love em is gil who has no content aside from the incredibly uncomfortable jill storyline and i wonder why hes the negelected one hmm?). i loved how they moved around and talked to each other but the amount of times i went round to see them and they had nothing to say was a LOT compared to the fact that in me3 everytime you went to see someone they had something (or multiple somethings) to say often without having to enter into a cutscene style animation just to see if they actually want to talk. in terms of romantic relationships ( i romanced peebee) i was disappointed by how little your romanced companion interjects on the story. at least in peebees case there was very little content and she seemed hardly bothered when my ryder got injected then killed herself and then died AGAIN to save them aside from a little snarky “hands off” comment when the archon grabbed her face. she mentioned a little bit back on the ship but compared to me3 and how liara/garrus/ash/kaidan would interject a lot on mission and have hints to their romance sprinkled throughout it felt like another forgotten thing. not one person on the ship mentioned me and peebee aside from a quick thing from sam when i went to see him in my cabin. also jazzed up sex scenes dont mean anything if the rest of the relationship is bland and overlooked. i prefer liara and sheps me3 scene 10x over peebees (my little gay heart still cries). 

- the music: WHERE WAS THE MUSIC??!?! one of my favourite things about games FULLSTOP and the cherry on top of mass effect has always been the music. to this day i love the atmosphere that noveria creates and vigil makes me fucking cry. the suicide mission gets me pumped and leaving earth leaves a gaping hole in my chest. (diverting a bit even dai had fantastic music. in hushed whispers, the lost temple and thedas love theme are among my faves.) aside from the heleus galaxy map music and the ambient from that one destroyed planet i cant recall a single piece of music that stood out. i can remember about 3 tunes overall the map, the main menu and the one that plays a lot when you fight kett. there wasnt even any proper ambient music for the worlds!!!!! there arent words for how upset i am that theres no fucking mission themed bangers. im just really sad about this.       

i think at the end of the day a big reason for me why i havent loved it is because as ive said before it doesnt feel like mass effect to me. to a pretty great extent i think the reason for this is the decision to move to the Andromeda galaxy. the absence of shep and the crew and the normandy is another huge factor but rather unavoidable in terms of continuing the games, but moving to andromeda has robbed the series of everything that made it mass effect. the mass relays, the citadel, the council, the alliance, earth, thessia, palaven they all made mass effect mass effect. Not to mention the quarians (one of my fave races ever), the drell, the volus, hanar, batarians, vorcha they were all a part of what mass effect IS. even the architectural style of the colonies, the nexus its all different and it doesnt have any connection to the ot and the world it created. andromeda feels like its own game completely unrelated to mass effect and one that when considered on its own has an incredibly shaky foundation and sporadic storytelling. at the end of the day it was fun to pass the time but as a huge mass effect fan i feel it was incredibly disappointing and to be quite honest i dont consider it a part of the mass effect i love.   

[smokeybrand]

Fleet and Flotilla

I’ve played a lot of Mass Effect in my day. So much of the original trilogy and twice with Andromeda. Man, Andromeda is so goddamn disappointing. Thee is so much potential there and it just did not live up to any of it. I’ve been the protagonist of Shepard’s adventures in space for a little over a decade. I’ve put in hundreds of hours into those original titles on the PS2 and have already beat the Legendary edition five times. In pieces. Haven’t beat ME1 on Legendary, saving that for later because i need to do the Romance through three games thing. That is reserved for Liara. Also the Space Racist, i guess. That brings me to the point of this essay: My favorite Mass Effect Romances. I’ve romanced every character in this trilogy at least once, and i have thoughts. I Wanted to take a look back and kind of rank where i would out them as i slowly progress through Legendary Edition, adding new notches to that all too familiar galactic belt. Spoiler alert, Tali is my favorite. She’s number one. Tali is bet girl and fight me about it.

Before we get into the meat, i want to acknowledge the Morinth, Diana Allers, Aria T’Lok, Javik, James Vega, and Kelly Chambers hook-ups. These “romances” are okay but not really all that fulfilling. Kelly bails on you after ME2, Morinth literally kills you, and Allers is just hot for Shep dick. As i recall, the Diana Allers romance is a literal hit-it-and-quit-it scenario that has no effect on your primary paramour. OR, at least, that’s what i remember about the original games. That might have been changed in Legendary. Haven’t gotten through the ME2 romances to play around with ME3 yet. I did get the elusive kiss from Aria once during Overlord by being an absolute bastard and it was the most gratifying thing i ever achieved in these games. The Javik and Vega one night stands were adorable, too. Now, on to the actual list. These first few are basically one-and-dones. I don’t really get into them all that because there is nothing there to hook me like the others but i did complete them once.

Ashley Williams - Romanced by M!Shep

I don’t like Ashley. I think she’s kind of a terrible person. Ma is an objective Human Supremacist, definitely a Speciesist, and is just generally annoying. I can’t stand this chick so, while i acknowledge her growth as a character through her interaction with Shepard as the narrative progresses, this b*tch is still the f*cking worst! Like, bro, you let this man inside of you, watched him die, and decided to call him a traitor to his face when he comes back to life? After experienced, first hand, the very reason why he decided to join up with Cerberus? Really?

Jacob Taylor - Romanced by F!Shep

Jacob was the first romance i did as F!Shep. I don’t really play as her all that often because, and i might be blaspheming here, i don’t care for Jennifer Hale’s voice. That sh*t is weird and it kind of takes me out of the game. That said, for the sake of completion, i did run through the OG trilogy a few times as the one with the booba, and took down Jacob in my inaugural run. Jacob is a nothingburger of a character. Even with the romance, he’s still as plain as white bread. And then f*cking leaves you! You save the entire galaxy together, turn yourself in because it’s the right thing to do, and he shacks up with the first brown chick he sees, then knocks her the f*ck up Dude is the worst!

Thane Krios - Romanced by F!Shep

I’m going to be honest: I don’t understand the allure. Thane was the romance i chose for my second run as F!Shep and i just kind of felt “meh” about it all. I’m a dude so Thane is definitely not in my wheelhouse but a lot of my female friends who play these titles, swear by the Drell Assassin as strongly as i swear by my darling Quarian Engineer and i guess that’s fair.

Kaidan Alenko - Romanced by M!Shep

Never pursued Kaidan as F!Shep because of the aforementioned distaste but i did run one playthough where i allowed Kaidan to live specifically to Romance later. I was kind of glad i did. Kaidan is definitely not my favorite player but i admit, he’s a better person that Ashley in every way. I still sacrifice him almost all the time though, because I'm a whole ass monster and Ashley has boobs. Still, the one time i saw Kaidan all the way through, i opted for the same sex romp with my M!Shep and it was surprisingly rewarding. It’s not in my top romances but it’s still a solid choice, in my opinion.

Steve Cortez - Romanced by M!Shep

Steve is the first, true, same sex option in Mass Effect and their flirtation is one with real depth. Steve fast became on e of my favorite characters through just interaction with him over the course of the game. He’s smart, witty, insightful, and comes across as a real person. I loved all those little scenes so, when he and my Shep finally embraced, it felt right. I can’t say his Romance is top tier for me but it’s, for sure, the first one right outside that tally. Like, Steve is definitely knocking on that door.

From this point on, we’re getting into repeat romances, with the exception of one, specific, entry. That one leap-frogged the one-offs because it was just so goddamn rewarding, i had to put it in the creme de la creme. The following Romance options are the ones i always revisit, the one’s i find absolutely necessary.

Garrus Vakarian - F!Shep

I ventured that muggy quagmire i call Laura Bailey’s voice three times, specifically because i love watching Garrus squirm. Dude is a top three Squadmate when I'm M!Shep so of course i wanted to see what he’d be like when trying to get into them Turian trousers. In all seriousness, this Romance feels like the only real option for F!Shep, which is why i actually pursued it three separate times. That’s right, i played F!Shep three times because i enjoyed dating Garrus that goddamn much. This Romance almost makes up for the grating drone of Laura Bailey's performance. I REALLY dislike Laura Bailey's F!Shep...

Liara T'Soni - Romanced by both M!Shep and F!Shep

Liara was the only character i romanced as both a Male and a Female Shepard and, i must say, i definitely prefer the M!Shep route. They just have so much more chemistry together, in my eyes. In my own personal headcanon, Shepard shacks up with Tali, is best friends with Liara, and is Garrus’ best friend. The effortlessly comfortable nature between these three relationships really give an added bonus to their respective relationships, no more so that the Liara paramour. She’s just so adorable and, as the trilogy progresses, become so much more than that naive young woman trapped in a bubble. By the time the trilogy ends. she’s every bit the legend Shep is and, together, they share a romance written in the stars.

Samantha Traynor - Romanced by F!Shep

Listen, by the time Mass Effect 3 rolled around, i was all F!Shep’d out. Not only did i do the ME2 Romances, but i completed them all through Mass Effect 3, as well. Imagine my surprise when i found out you could romance Samantha Traynor, too. Sh*t was f*cked up because, from what i saw, Traynor was f*cking Amazing! I had no choice but to go back in, slumming it with Jennifer Hale’s voice grating on my nerves but i did it and i am SO glad i did. Samantha Traynor’s romance is f*cking awesome and adored every second of it! It was mad difficult deciding who to put in this spot, Liara or Traynor, because they are very similar in their arcs but Traynor won out. I’ll always have a soft spot for Liara but Traynor did so much, with so much less time in the SKWAD.

And now, we get to the best of the best or, as Macho Man Randy Savage would say; The Cream of the Crop! These are my unabashed favorite Romances in all of Mass Effect. I have an incredibly difficult time not pursuing one of these three relationships whenever i play, Tali giving my the hardest pull. She’s tops for a reason but these other two? Yeah, they are just as enthralling for me.

Miranda Lawson - Romanced by M!Shep

Miranda Lawson was the first character i ever romanced in a Mass Effect game. She was my target in the my very first playthrough of Mass Effect 2, a decade and change ago. Her Romance was one for the ages, bolstered by the excellent additions in Mass Effect 3. The Lawson romance really takes off there, even if you don’t see much of it in real time. Those little meet-ups were amazing in terms of Miranda’s development leading to a solid f*cking payoff on Horizon. And then came that amazing Citadel DLC and i just swooned for our genetically perfect, Cerberus Cheerleader all over again. I am currently working my way through her Romance on Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition for the first time because the other two romances on this list got me for multiple playthroughs every time i tried to start on Miranda’s route. Them pulls is just that hard! Now, just for transparency, Miranda ranks so high straight up because of nepotism. She was my first Romance and really left an impression. If I'm being honest, Liara is probably a better overall experience but i jut love Miranda more than i should, i guess.

Jack - Romanced by M!Shep

Oh, my lovely, lovely, Jacqueline Nought. I Romanced her on my second playthrough of ME2. I’m a sucker for New Game+ so it was easy going back into the Collector Conflict for a second time. Staying true to my real life preferences, i went after the emotionally damaged, definitely crazy, super hot Goth chick with all the tattoos and let me tell you, a little edgelord love was exactly what i needed. I ended up falling in love with this paring. I actually put off Romancing Tali several times in favor of this one because, and i can’t stress this enough Jack is f*cking perfect! She has one of the deepest, richest, character arcs in the entire franchise and seeing her blossom into who she becomes during ME3, directly because of your influence, was amazing. I’ve only ever pursued her as a Renegade once, though. While that was fun or whatever, i found that pairing her with a Paragon She works the best. It’s like a dog dating a cat and i kind of love that juxtaposition.

Tali - Romanced by M!Shep

Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. Tali'Zorah vas Neema. Tali’Zorah vas Normandy. Tali’Zorah. Tali. So many names. So many times Romanced. I f*cking love me some Tali, man. She was the last Romance i pursued when i first played Mass Effect a decade ago, but was the very first one i completed when Legendary dropped. This romance has everything you want in a relationship arc. It really enriches Tali as a character, builds upon her already steadfast awesome, and really hammers home why she is best girl. After that first time choosing her, i had a VERY hard time choosing anyone else. Like, i love what happens with Shep an Liars in ME3 if you continue from ME1 and I'm always going to stan a Jack entanglement, but they got nothing on locking down Tali. Seriously, the scenes you share with her on Rannoch, alone, are worth the price of admission but literally EVERYTHING up to that point, and after, is still gold. Also, if you play on the PC, definitely check out that Tali Romance mod on Nexus Mods. Totally worth it!