#who will romance Jaal

[husband-steve-cortez]

Miles would be a pretty good Ryder too actually, taking his issues and making them daddy issues specifically and making him always feel like he's in Alec's shadow and having survivor's guilt works nicely...

[mogikarp]

compensating for being asexual in real life by being extremely horny in mass effect: a four part masterclass by me

[livingsurreal]

What is it with Baldurs Gate 3, that this game has so many characters I completly obsess about? I am usually a "one-true-blorbo" kinda girl. Fenris, Solas, Garrus, Jaal. Those are my Bioware blorbos.

I might try to smooch some one else but it never really works out.

Now for some reason, in BG3 my brain makes blorbos out of half the cast.

Astarion is my No 1. He is a very angry feral cat and I will love him till I die. He is perfect and sweet and angry and deserves sunlight and hugs and sweet gentle kisses and patience and a fucking hero in shining armor who stands beside him, without expecting shit in return. Who is there and is his shield and voice of reason. Some one who doesn't save him but gives him the space and chance, so he can save himself.

But damn, there is Raphael who takes way to much space in my brain lately. Give me that pillow princess and I will make him so much better he forgets what contracts even are. This poor sweet devil prince who never experienced love or someone who truly cares about him. All he knows is terms and conditions and life is so much more than transaction. Such a shame that he cant be romanced ingame. He is just the best devil and damn he looks soo soo yum. (WHERE IS MY RAPHAEL ROMANCE)

Karlach who is the bestest ever and I want her to ride me into the ground, and I want to hug her and hold her hand and never let her go and tell her is is the best thing since the invention of icecream and she deserves EVERYTHING!

Gale, sweet Gale who deserves unconditional true love, kindness and so many kisses. Someone who tells him "you are enough" and just loves him and blows him till he sees stars.

Wyll who deserves someone loyal, and sweet, who stands beside him and doesn't throw him away and tells him he is perfect the way he is. Also dances in the moonlight yayyy!

Dammon with his cute smile and sweet voice who needs to be smooched very gently. (WHERE IS MY DAMMON ROMANCE? Also he and Karlach would be perfect for each other if not romanced)

Rolan with his snotty attitude who needs to be smooched very hard. Also he needs to be fucked against a wall. (WHERE IS MY ROLAN ROMANCE)

Zevlor who deserves all the hugs and love. Also he needs someone who grabs his horns while riding him into the ground. (WHERE IS MY ZEVLOR ROMANCE)

Lae'zel and Shadowheart are made for each other. They are my sweet angry baes who really need to take a room and fuck it out of their system. Sorry, I would love each one of them but I just don't dare to come between them. But I will be their cheerleader and be the most embarrassing friend when they finally stop being silly. How sad is it that our companions dont find each other if we dont romance them. They deserve love, and Tav/Durge cant kiss them all!

Halsin who gives the sweetest bear hugs and seems somehow lost in Act 3, and should be kissed and hugged and be given lots of little ducky plushies.

Jaheira who is just the coolest and a damn good friend and gives great (bad) advice and who would share a blunt and a bottle of wine and I would listen to her stories all day, I love her so much. We all should have a Jaheira in our life.

Minsc who also tells the best stories and if you want really good (bad) advice you would ask Boo. He would be the best (worst) wingman, and the no 1 person you go to when you have a bad day. He just makes everything better. When in doubt just go and do some asskicking and everything is good.

How can ONE (1) game have so many wonderful characters, where I want to band almost every single one of them.

[aylinvail]

Tanna Talk: This Week in the Rogue Trader AO3 fandom (March 17 - 23 2024)

Hey hey hi, I want to be annoying on main so I thought it would be fun to start doing these weekly summaries of "What's new in the AO3 Rogue Trader fandom?" because my little rabbit brain can't keep up with the sheer amount of content and I loved @holylustration's dopamine week and think, you know what would be cool? Weekly newsletter style dop week minidose. This goes out to you @pycnolite my darling fellow organizer brained fan. Anyway, this is user aylinvail reporting to you live over vox caster from the Starseeker Bridge.

Events

Flowers of Spring (March 21, 2024) has officially concluded. Flowers of Spring is a floral-themed Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Edition. You can find all the entries on the Flowers of Spring (March 21 2024) tag. This was preceded by Rosette Coordinated Strike Day which was dedicated in honor of Inquisitor @leadflowers's birthday.

Cool new fics

Maybe the fic did something new. Maybe it innovated. Maybe it's an entirely new concept we haven't seen yet. A non-comprehensive list. Here's what I chomped on this week.

Salt in the Wound - user Weretoad_Writer explores the aftermath of the decision to exterminatus Rykad Minoris. Excerpt: "When you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, right? So either take a swing or get the fuck away from me!”

Omnissiah Forgive Me - user @jaal-ama-daravv has launched the long awaited Pasqal/RT longfic. Excerpt: "Okay, Tech-Priest, you don’t get to die that easily.”

Killing Instinct - user @nerendus cooked a very sexy Tervantias the Archmachinator x RT dead dove fic. Excerpt: “Then don't allow it,” the Rogue Trader suggests. “Force me into submission as I do the same to you. Break me as I break you.”

Who updated?

Just because my silly rabbit brain is at capacity for longfics doesn't mean it's impossible to round everyone else's plot rabbits up.

Theatre of Hearts - RT/Nocturne of Oblivion arranged marriage. And from what I hear, getting really cultural difference-flavor of interesting.

My Knight So Daring - An Imperial Knight!Heinrix x noble!RogueTrader arranged marriage AU. And from what I hear, getting really hot.

Edge of Daybreak Unbroken - Heretic Rogue Trader gets brought back to the start of the game. Time travel shenanigans ensue.

Into Temptation - Ministorum priest x Marazhai x Heinrix. Dead dove!

Pigeons and Eagles - Argenta/Cassia! Enemies to Friends to Lovers.

Tapestry of Fate II - Heinrix/RT. The Godmother of Rogue Trader Heinrix fics. Elena M is currently the furthest along the events of the game out of all the current longfics.

Starseeker - Heinrix/RT intrigue rewrite of game events with Kunrad-related canon divergence. And a shoujo romance.

I Can Be Your China Doll, If You’d Like To See Me Fall - RT/Calcazar. RT is voidborn and Theo's daughter, has met Calcazar before game events.

gossamer of starlight - RT/Yrliet. Yrliet watches her elantach's dynasty fall apart in slow motion. Non chronological.

A Thousand Floating Worlds - OC/Calligos Winterscale where Calligos becomes the Rogue Trader to save his Found Family from Interrogator Calcazar.

Addendums

will be updated, changed in the next few days, changes logged here. I just needed to get this out of my brainstem.

- Added I Can Be Your China Doll, If You’d Like To See Me Fall, gossamer of starlight as of March 22. Added A Thousand Floating Worlds on March 23.

[rpgchoices]

TOP 20 videogame romances voted in the tournament of fav rpg male romances.

For this I used the maximum votes received by each character in one poll (so I picked the one where they had the most votes, as each vote is a person).

All characters who were in the tournament and their maximum votes under cut:

Wyll (THE WINNER; highest amount of votes: 6374 in round one) Garrus (1461) Fenris (1432) Gale (1336) Astarion (944) Cullen (796) Dorian (761) Anders (746) Zevran (530) Halsin (513) The Iron Bull (376) Alistair (376) Aloth (329) Jespar (339) Daeran (309) Jaal (308) Preston (295) Blackwall (261) Solas (260) John Hancock (242) Marazhai (234) Tekehu (212) Kaidan Alenko (206) Thane (188) MacCready (176) Regongar (175) Heinrix (165) Tristian (150) Fane (150) Flanker (128) Kerry Eurodyne (120) Reyes Vidal (118) Vasco (115) Valen Shadowbreath (78)

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 1 MATCH 94

Jaal propaganda:

“His romance is all about trust gained, vulnerability and making each other feeling safe and he's SO sweet throughout. Player character (Ryder) arrives unannounced on the planet where Jaal's species live, and he joins them to assess their intentions. He's slow to trust (last aliens that they made contact with literally started a decades-long war against his people) but after a while he can start to open up (he responds well to Ryder trusting him and not intervening in certain scenarios, choosing to help his people rather than just finish a mission, honesty in general). He's curious about everything, eager to share knowledge on language, food, biology, culture, literally anything that comes to his mind. He likes tinkering and understanding how things work, he writes poetry and he sews. If romanced, he invites Ryder to his home to meet his mother(s) and the rest of the family, tells them "You make my heart sing" and asks them if they want to be together. Eventually he will take Ryder on a date to his favorite place on the planet to confess his love (player can agree to an intimate scene but it progresses the same even if they say no to him). After they officially get together he'll start using pet names like "Darling one" or "dearest" or "amazing heart" or "You are the light that we all follow, that I follow". Plus, after Ryder meets her, his mother starts doting on you and sending you emails to ask questions to make them feel 100% welcomed in the family (especially since Ryder is human and they face public scrutiny for being of two different planets/species). He's constantly smitten for the player character and not afraid to make it clear for everyone in the general vicinity.”

Jun propaganda:

“He was a gay option in a JRPG in 1999. He’s an astrology bitch. He attacks by throwing flowers a la Tuxedo Mask. He and Tatsuya (the player character) exchanged their most treasured possessions with each other while standing in front of a bridal store. His relationship with Tatsuya is central to the plot. Choosing him as the romance unlocks a demon contact option where the two of them just stand in front of the demon and flirt. One of his solo demon contact options is just him doing an “I’m just a little guy” routine. He’s kind and sweet and caring and earnestly wants to help people but may the heavens have mercy if you piss him off because he also has no qualms about committing murder. Most characters, when their stat bonuses from eating run out, will just make a comment about getting hungry but Jun will take the opportunity to ask Tatsuya out on a date. The lead devs agreed in an interview that he’s the best romance option.”

[commandershepardvasfuckit]

Well those notifications are never going off. Ever. First dear Bear Husband Halsin. Then Jaal. The happy sounds!

Oh Jaal my beloved

For the faults Andromeda had, it also gave us Jaal, who I think is my favorite ME romance

[infernal-feminae]

FUCK ZODIAC SIGNS, WHO'S YOUR FAV MASS EFFECT ROMANCE?!

Garrus and Jaal. Because of course I went for the alien boys ckydyoyfgfii

[ageless-aislynn]

Oooo, you play mass effect, it finally clicked in my head. Who do you romance in Andromeda?

Also, I really did enjoy the game regardless of the amount of hate it got

ZOMG, you must've missed me at my most Andromeda obsessed, lol! I haven't actually been able to play it since last November, when my previous computer gave out and then this one has been super lousy. However, as soon as I can hopefully get my Vegas back on and thus be able to GIF (and vid) again, I'm planning on going back to Andromeda to finally finish the big Ryder twins romance GIF project I had going, lol!

In short, I've romanced every single option available except Scott/Peebee and Scott/Jaal. Scott/Peebee was in progress when I got derailed. But here are some posts I've made about various things, if you'd like to see them!

Sara's romances with Jaal, Reyes, Peebee and Vetra

Scott/Cora and the shocking, unexpected Scott/Harry romance 😂😜

I was working on the Scott/Gil vid here

I've vidded Sara/Reyes, Scott/Cora, Scott/Gil and my final vid ever was about Scott and his dad, Alec

Mass Effect: Andromeda incorrect quotes

Me at the bottom talking about doing an Insanity run and showing my Sara in her Mjolnir-like tanky armor plus the name of my crafted weapons 😂

I absolutely adore this game and I've honestly missed playing it so much! Also, did you know that Kate Kennedy aka Kai from Halo is the voice of one of the Angara?

I romanced Avela as Scott JUST for that fact alone, lol!

Anyway, like I said, I never did get the chance to finish making GIFs for all of my romances and I still hope to finish those last two for Scott. As for which are my favs...

Sara: Reyes. I'm a sucker for that scoundrel, what can I say? 😍😇 But Vetra is a close second. I have to physically restrain myself from flirting with her if I'm planning on romancing somebody else because there's no way I'd hurt my best Turian girl like that! 😱😉

Scott: Gil surprisingly became my favorite "I have to make SURE not to click the flirt options if I'm romancing somebody else" romance. I also, no surprise, loved his romance with Reyes. Cora also was great!

I honestly really enjoyed all of the romance options, except for Keri's (the reporter) and not for any fault of hers but I disliked how she looks kinda uncomfortable with either Ryder flirting with her while she's just trying to do her job. I felt like a real creep, I have to say! 😩Then at the end, after I've annoyed this poor Asari at her workplace this entire time, the "payoff" was we went from a table at the Vortex to Ryder's just suddenly outside of her room? Not even a kiss? 🫤(I legit have headcanoned that Keri never actually let Ryder into her room, just went in herself, closed the door, and left them out in the hall, lol! "That's for continuing to come on to me and never taking the hint while I'm clearly just doing my job, you creep!" 😖😂😉)

If I could've romanced Evfra *points up at his pic above* I totally would have because I'm a sucker for a good "enemies to lovers" trope, lol! And I think Evfra would haaaaate himself for falling for the human Pathfinder. 😍😍😍

I clearly have put a lot of silly thoughts into Andromeda, lol! Anyway, thanks so much for letting me ramble about this! Who did you romance? Have you played as both twins or do you prefer just the one? Default or custom? Do you mod? My computer was coming off the rails at the time so I've only stuck to what's available in-game but I've seen some beautiful Ryder twins and some awesome clothing options with mods. 😉💖💖💖

[vaiyamagic]

I have played so many games where I've been like "oh, I'm going to romance this person" only to immediately fall for someone else.

Oh, you want to romance Anders because you know him from Awakening? Just kidding! You're going to fall for the broody elf instead (but really pine for the unromancable dwarf.)

Think it might be funny to romance Cullen as the most hated person in Thedas? (Female, mage, qunari.) Well, not only does it turn out he doesn't date qunari, but also you suck playing a mage as a first playthru character, and who's that? Yeah, that's Dorien. You're going to have to restart and play as a dude.

Thinking you want to romance Preston Garvey? Turns out he has a really annoying, difficult to avoid, repeating quest. Also, you've fallen for the noir detective toaster. Alas.

Mass Effect Andromeda has just come out and you're thinking Liam? Well, you've made it pretty far into his romance actually, go you. But you're starting to really like Jaal's character and Liam's personal quest reveals him to be far too reckless for the character you've created. Oh well!

Gale is looking really nice and his voice is good, so let's try the mage romance, but oh no! Astarion is surprisingly charming and has a soft side! Guess you're romancing the vampire like you said you wouldn't do.

[skyeknight-hyperfixations]

I want to imagine, if Scott is romancing Jaal, and he decides not to take him with him on the push to Meridian is a lowkey way of making sure he's in a safer place because Scott knows, as he is spearheading the mission, that he would be in the most dangerous place.

Jaal knows this and indulges him, but when the battle gets more intense, his worry overpowers him and doesn't disagree when proposed to take shuttles and follow after Scott and the other two squad mates he takes with him.

Liam told Jaal to tell Scott to blame him and say he's the one who insisted they all follow him instead of staying with the ground troops surface level with Reyes and the others.

[imagine-silk]

Why is Liam only romancable for a female Ryder? My man has no game. All the female companions don't like him.

He immediately says Vetra is irresponsible for bringing her sister to Andromeda so she's not happy with him to put it mildly. He tries to joke with Cora but fails and narks on her time in the asaari military revealing their differences in taking orders. And he does not give Peebee the time of day and she picks up on that immediately. Not to mention Drack's dialogue with him. The only person who gets along with him is Jaal, the person who gets along with everyone.

Dude is rude and judgmental as hell towards the women. Why would I want to romance him if I was a woman???

[veshialles]

we oughta interact more, not enough mass effect mutuals =(

also who is your favorite: male romance, female romance, and just general companion?

yes we really ought to!! I'm so sorry about leaving this in my inbox, things have been so hectic this past week and a bit! And fuck yeah I'm always down to talk about Mass Effect!!

favourite male romance: I actually haven't. done any of them fully except part of ME1 Kaidan (who died 😭) and ME2 Garrus one time. and part of Liam and Jaal's romances. I hear good things about ME3 Kaidan tho and I'm kind of tempted to let him live again in my next playthrough even though it's supposed to be Ashley's turn to survive lol

Favourite female romance: Vetra!!! my cool spiky space wife who i miss every day 🥺 also Jack's romance is so good, especially when modded to reintroduce her canon bisexuality, my beloved 🥰

fav companion: ohh tough call. Huge fan of Tali and Miranda (parental traumas 🤝 parental traumas), and I'm also very taken with Peebee she's such a hot mess disaster of a woman <3 and Jaal is just such A Swell Guy you know?

thank you for the ask!! Would love to know about your ME favs too 👀

[rpgchoices]

Fenris vs Jaal! One is the classic angsty broody romance of Dragon Age 2 (and the reason I started playing videogames), where you will get a touch of extra angst if you play as a mage. The other is Jaal, an alien who will join you in space (Mass Effect Andromeda) and will gladly surpass the difficulties of two different cultures to romance the player character. I honestly cannot choose between them, I love them both!

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 2 MATCH 47

Polly propaganda:

"Polly comes across as a party girl. She's wild, she likes sex, she likes drugs, she likes drinks. She is besties with Scott and Vera. She loves pulling pranks. She's fun all around. But as you get to know her throughout her endings across the three games, you discover a deep sadness within her. She's a chess master. She loves Russian literature. She's actually kind of a genius. She had a hard life but she won't let that stop her afterlife. Her secret ending in the first game about how she actually died (which she lies about all the time) absolutely broke my heart. She's just so nuanced and layered. She brings out the best in the player characters because she wants them to understand that you can have fun and goof off and it not be the end of the world. She has lots of backstory and she's major plots in both the first game (Prom) and the third (Roadtrip). I highly recommend playing the games because experiencing her secret endings in both is just absolutely heart wrenching."

Jaal propaganda:

“His romance is all about trust gained, vulnerability and making each other feeling safe and he's SO sweet throughout. Player character (Ryder) arrives unannounced on the planet where Jaal's species live, and he joins them to assess their intentions. He's slow to trust (last aliens that they made contact with literally started a decades-long war against his people) but after a while he can start to open up (he responds well to Ryder trusting him and not intervening in certain scenarios, choosing to help his people rather than just finish a mission, honesty in general). He's curious about everything, eager to share knowledge on language, food, biology, culture, literally anything that comes to his mind. He likes tinkering and understanding how things work, he writes poetry and he sews. If romanced, he invites Ryder to his home to meet his mother(s) and the rest of the family, tells them "You make my heart sing" and asks them if they want to be together. Eventually he will take Ryder on a date to his favorite place on the planet to confess his love (player can agree to an intimate scene but it progresses the same even if they say no to him). After they officially get together he'll start using pet names like "Darling one" or "dearest" or "amazing heart" or "You are the light that we all follow, that I follow". Plus, after Ryder meets her, his mother starts doting on you and sending you emails to ask questions to make them feel 100% welcomed in the family (especially since Ryder is human and they face public scrutiny for being of two different planets/species). He's constantly smitten for the player character and not afraid to make it clear for everyone in the general vicinity.”