#wrex critical

[camalyng]

"I'd be more comfortable if they didn't have access to engineering and the CIC."

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

In the first game, I liked Ashley a lot and was a little sad that my female Shepherd wasn't able to romance her. Then she shot Wrex unprompted and so I blasted her ass off of Virmire.

[breadedsinner]

The dead Femshep statue is fucking stupid but I didn't think it was... sexualized?

I suppose you have to wonder why this of all things was chosen for Femshep, but taken at face value I don't see anything sexual about the design or pose.

It just makes me think people think a woman’s body is inherently sexual.

[thefloatingstone]

Listen I TRIED ok?

But I just can't with Ashley's constant negativity and criticism laced with blatant racism. Kaidan isn't that bad but it's a little painful hearing his bland musings on things when I can have Garrus give me the gossip on who he suspects is bribing the cops and Wrex being Wrex.

Garrus is so fucking skinny in his C-Sec uniform jfc

[williamvonlydonthe2nd-blog]

On the SR-1, Shepard comes down with 'Spacer's Sickness' (Essential the flu, Spacers who spend little time planetside are very susceptible to certain ailments but the term itself is used generally for any minor bugs one night catch aboard a spacecraft) and the crew have to deal without them since Dr. Chakwas gives the order that their CO is confined to the Captain's cabin till they get better.

The nonhumans are intrigued over human sickness and each react differently to seeing what's happening to Shepard.

Garrus is worried about Shepard"a status. Him having no frame of reference for most symptoms means that the ideas of "burning up" or being "congested" all sound horrific, like they'll go critical at a moment's notice. He can't tell what symptoms Joker is making up or are real when he asks the pilot about it.. Eventually Wrex eases his fears.

Tali wishes Shepard a fast recovery well also worrying about her own health, if one human can get sick...? She badgers Chakwas over symptoms to look out for and begins eyeing anyone who coughs or sneezes well working in the drive core. Engineer Adams eventual just takes her aside and explains humans just sometimes cough or sneeze well healthy and she's being overly paranoid.

Liara is shocked that the most capable soldier she knows is suffering, and offers to bring meals to Shepard since Asari biology isn't suspectable to human germs. Shepard sleeps mostly, more then they have in weeks in fact and Liara realizes that Shepard's actions are even more admirable. They aren't superhuman, in fact quite falable yet they've accomplished so much regardless.

Wrex is Wrex. When asked why he isn't worried he shrugs. When pressed by Garrus, about how he's so calm over Commander Shepard being laid low he stops cleaning his shotgun and glares at the Turian. He knows exactly how dangerous illness can be. He's a damned Krogan, his homeworld is a pile of radioactive rubble, not exactly a high level of healthcare to be expected. Sickness is common amongst the clans. He also knows Shepard's a formidable warrior. The strong always survive, and no case of the sniffles is going to kill them so stop whining like a varren pup.

Shepard recovers after three days and the hunt for Sarren continues.

[lilmissnatcat24]

Yet another post in defense of the Virmire Survivor because they get the rawest deal by the fandom.

But people love to clown on Ashley and Kaidan for how they act in me2 on Horizon (which is completely justified, by the way. Imagine your friend/partner comes back from the dead with glowing red eyes working for terrorists. Are they supposed to be okay with that? No! But that's another post). What people forget is that Wrex and Tali literally do the SAME THING to Shepard, and no one bats an eye.

On Freedom's Progress, Tali is HORRIFIED Shep is working for Cerberus. She knows what Cerberus did to the quarians, she knows what Cerberus did to Kahoku and the rachni, and now the one person she admired more than anyone else is working for them? She tells Shepard that she can't trust them, that she can't join up with them. And this is after Tali drops EVERYTHING to join them in me1. Sure, she eventually joins later in the game, but Shepard was alone and scared and surrounded by strangers after being dead, and the first thing Tali tells them is no. And yet no one criticizes Tali for that.

And Wrex? You can KILL him in me1. He's so distraught and angry over what Saren doing on Virmire, but what makes it even worse is that Shepard doesn't even blink before telling him that they need to bomb the facility. Wrex, who was so vocal about his people and how they're dying, doesn't even get to give them the benefit of the doubt before expecting to fall in line. He questions Shepard, questions their choices and their motives, and depending on your choices you can kill Wrex for his doubt. And yet no one criticizes Wrex for that. If anything, he's praised for being a complex character with firm motivations.

But when the VS tells Shepard that they won't join them on Horizon and criticizes their choice to join Cerberus, all of a sudden the entire fandom decides that they're EVIL and they're UNREASONABLE and they're DRAMATIC. When what they're doing is having the most valid criticism of all time-- the same exact criticism that Tali has in the beginning of the game (and, to an extent Garrus too).

And again, in me3 when Udina makes them a Spectre and for just a second it looks like Shepard is back with Cerberus, the VS doubts Shepard. Which is REASONABLE! They don't necessarily have the best track record. They're protecting the Council and here comes shepshep pointing a gun at them. Who wouldn't doubt them? The VS is such a critical part to the story because Shepard needs someone to check their impulses and their decisions, or else you get people like Liara and Garrus who blindly support anything they do. Shepard needs to be kept in line by someone.

In conclusion, VS fans are entitled to financial compensation.

[bellamer]

Mass Effect Characters that I think are black coded or poc coded since this game has like 3 black characters in the entire series but one dies, one is meh and the other is the worst fucking character in the series who’s every negative black stereotype in the book

Jaal Ama Darav- Fucking obvious. Tbh most Anagara are black. Maybe all of them. Yeah all of them.

Almost all Asari. Like I can’t even choose one because every one I meet gives me black woman vibes, even Liara, especially with how they’re sexualized constantly . I think all Asari are black women ot just women of color (shut the fuck up don’t say ‘they’re blue of course they’re woman of color’ I will eat your soul) but I’m claiming Liara, Matriarch Benezia, PeeBee, Samara, Morinth and Aria mostly

Most if not all Krogan but I’m claiming Wrex, Drack, Eve, Kesh and Grunt as black. The others can be whatever

Vetra, Syd and Kandros are my only black turians

If I’m claiming Salarians I’m only claiming Kirrahe and Kallo because Kallo reminds me of my nerdy ass brother

All prothean’s are black because they remind me of the angara

Thane is black and since he’s like the only Drell I know besides his son he’s the only one I claim as black plus his son. Maybe that one drell Liara likes or whatever but I don’t remember his name and I don’t care to google it

As for the other races like the Volus, Batarians, Vorcha and Hanar they can be whatever. I feel like Quarians or some sort of European coded but then you have Reegar who sounds like fucking soldier from TF2 so idk I’m not touching it

Also don’t come for me with “Oh why are you headcanoning most of the krogan as black they’re aggressive that’s stereotyping” which like in the game all krogans are stereotyped as aggressive but you have those who aren’t like Kesh but she’s treated as such by Tann and others just because she’s Krogan even though she’s a scientist who wants to use her brains, Eve who’s physically restrained even when she’s the one in danger all because of the stereotype of all Krogan being violent when she prefers to use her brains and even criticizes other Krogan for their old archaic ways of thinking with violence, like they’re treated how black women are treated all day every day 24/7 365. I’ll headcanon them as black if I want to.

If you want to know why I claim most of these characters as black feel free to ask but so far this is my list. Also I might do a thing where I draw a human design for the characters I think are black.

And if you disagree with these let me know why. Even though I most likely won’t read it because nine times out of ten when someone objects to a non human character being head cannoned as black it’s for racist reasons so I genuinely don’t really care if you disagree

[katthekatt]

I know it's already a thing, but here is my take on a Saren/Nihlus reverse AU because I really wish we could see more of both of them. Spoilers for the whole Mass Effect 1.

Okay, so Saren, while on the Normandy, is cocky and doesn't believe Shepard is fit to be a Specter, although he does see them as capable based on their background. I still want Saren and Anderson to be the ones with history between each other, so while on the ship, both of them are very passive aggressive towards each other much like in the scene in front of the council with Saren being accused. Saren is dismissive of Anderson and thinks this whole thing is a joke while Anderson is at his wits end trying not to punch the turian for Shepard's sake. The rest of the crew pretty much dislikes Saren because of the way he acts, but agree he is all that because he can back it up.

On Eden Prime Saren is like Nihlus quick to run on his own because he believes the humans will slow him down. And while Shepard's part is much the same with some jabs between them and Saren when they get updates on each other, Saren's part as Nihlus is a bit different. When he recognizes Nihlus, he is more careful and doesn't turn his back on him and actually gets to fight him. This is due to Saren's more careful/paranoid nature, which ultimately saves his life, but he is still overwhelmed, and when Shepard gets to him, he is in critical condition. Everything proceeds normal after that, with Nihlus getting to the beacon and then Shepard breaking it.

For the first ark on the Citadel, Saren is in a coma due to his injuries, and Shepard has to fight with the Council to show Nihlus' part in this only for them to be dismissed. There is also a subplot of Saren being almost assassinated, which is where he can die for the first time in the game. If Shepard lets Saren die, it's because of Tali that Nihlus is revealed to be working with Matriarch Benezia and the geth. If Saren is saved, he wakes up on time to crash the council meeting while they are presenting the evidence against Nihlus and backs it up. Before departing from the Citadel but after talking with Anderson, with him revealing his history with Saren, Saren shows up, and you can recruit him. If you don't recruit him, he helps you from the side with connections. Saren also goes on his own to hunt for Nihlus while you are, and you run into him on several occasions. A consequence of not recruiting Saren ends up in special dialog in the second game with him already knowing about the collectors because of already being on his own investigating.

If you take him in your crew, you can find him on the bridge next to the galaxy map. Some of his special dialogs are about becoming a Specter, about Anderson, The council, and about Nihlus. Like Wrex and Garrus, he has a special mission related to a Specter investigation he had prior to being assigned to oversee you. In the beginning, he is closed off and seemingly annoyed about Shepard talking to him, but with the story's progression, his respect for you grows, and he is much more open for when you talk with him.

Taking him on Noveria has him recognized as a Specter, and entering is much easier. While traveling to the facility like Liara, he can talk about Matriarch Benezia, and when you have both of them on your team, they have a unique dialog about her. With fighting the rachni, he recognizes what they are and gives little comments like "Those were.. no, I'm probably mistaken" kind of lines. With the confrontation with Benezia, Saren speaks up about how low she has fallen. He seems unapologetic even when it's revealed she has been mind controlled. He is highly against letting the Rachni Queen go and berates you if you choose to spare her.

On Feros, if you take him, he is less concerned about the civilians and cares more about getting the mission done, so you experience a bit of what Anderson had to deal with. Saren is all for you to kill Matriarch Benezia's soldier when she is off of the Thorian's control. He again berates you if you spare her. When having to fight the civilians, he seems to have to issue with killing them before Joker mentions the gas granades. At the end of the mission, Shepard confronts him about his lack of care for the loss of civilian life and mention what Anderson told them. This is the second time Saren can die, this time at your hand, because if the argument escalates, he draws a gun on you. This conversation has a lasting effect on your relationship with him, even in the later games.

On Virmire, he has special dialog when confronting Nihlus and him almost being killed when trying to shoot him down. Other than that, he just comments on how capable captain Kirrahe and his team are.

Before the final assault on Ilos, Shepard and Saren have a talk, he comments on how he now sees Shepard if quite fit to be a Specter and that he was wrong about them after seeing them in action. If you take him with you on Ilos, he has a weird feeling about the place, and with the reveal at the end, he is quite surprised like everyone. With confronting Nihlus at the end, his choice words are influenced by your talk of Feros depending on your choices. If Nihlus kills himself, Saren congratulates him for being strong enough to do what was necessary if Shepard kills him in the first phase of the boss fight, Saren insults him for letting himself be controlled to the very end. With the start of the second phase, Saren's sentences go from "Even in death loyal to them, huh?" To "His sacrifice was meaningless at the end." At the very end, he congratulates Shepard and tells them he looks forward to working with them.

That is for ME1, I might post more of this with ME2 and ME3, plus more detailed relationships of Saren and the crew in the future.

[melanie-ohara]

Weapons Training: A Liara/Shepard Drabble

Time to post a Mass Effect drabble! There may be more of these for other relationships or other series at some point, depending on how this does - so if you like it, please share!

“So you have been in a fight then?” the human Commander asked, leading Liara into the elevator. She leaned against the wall and regarded her with folded arms.

Liara nodded. “Mostly wild animals. And a few pirates, trying to steal artifacts from dig sites.” She could feel a blush rising in her cheeks and looked at her feet. “My biotics are quite good, but I’m afraid I’m not much use with weapons.”

The lift shuddered to a halt and the bay door slid down. Shepard shot her a disarming smile. “It’s okay, you’ll learn. If you’re coming out into the field with me you’ll need more than just your biotics. Come on.” Liara followed the human out of the lift and across the cargo bay. She wasn’t sure what Shepard had in mind, but she was more than happy to trail her around the ship and watch her flame red hair bounce ever so slightly as she walked. Everything from her steady gait to her broad shoulders and the hard muscles of her arms breathed the kind of easy confidence Liara had never had.

She shook herself as Shepard brought her to a halt next to Garrus Vakarian’s makeshift workbench. She exchanged what sounded like a grim in-joke with him - something about organs that would probably make Liara a little queasy if she heard any more of it - and the turian laughed.

The human picked up a pistol from his desk. “This one?”

“Yep,” Garrus said without looking up. “Charged and locked, I checked it myself.”

“Thanks, Vakarian.” As far as Liara had heard, Shepard called almost everyone by their surname. Never Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, Karin; always Alenko, Williams, Vakarian and Chakwas. Not her though. She was always Liara to Shepard. She forced herself to try not to read into it.

“This,” Shepard was saying, holding the pistol up to Liara with her pale pink finger pressed along the side of the barrel, “is an M-3 Predator heavy pistol. The heat sink can take 15 shots before it hits critical. It’s lightweight, fast-firing, and accurate at short to medium range. Take it.”

Liara shuddered a little as Shepard laid it almost delicately in her palm. Liara’s fingers curled around the grip and Shepard quickly pinched her index finger and moved it away from the trigger. “Careful, Doc. Fingers away from the trigger until you’re ready to put a hole in something.”

Liara felt heat rising to her cheeks again. “Right, of course. Sorry, Commander.” She let the weight of it sit for a moment. “It’s lighter than I thought it would be,” she said. Shepard smiled.

“Precision engineering,” she said. “Vakarian and I have fiddled around with it a bit. Lightweight materials, disruptor ammo, that sort of thing.” Liara could feel Shepard’s penetrating, almost luminous green eyes following her every move as she passed the gun from hand to hand. The intensity of it, of her, made her want to lie down. She steadied herself with a long breath.

“Comfortable?” the human asked, arms folded across her chest again. Liara wished she wouldn’t do that. The way it made the muscles in her forearms stand out made it very difficult for her to focus on anything else. “Great,” Shepard said with an encouraging smile. “Now shoot Wrex.”

“What?”

“He won’t mind.”

Liara looked over the bay at the massive hulking krogan in the corner, who was currently slurping down an entire pack of nutrient paste.

“Commander, I - ”

Liara didn’t even process Shepard moving until after it happened. The human wheeled around her in a blur, and she felt the pistol leave her hand as Shepard twirled past. There was no force, no snatching - she didn’t even feel her grip as she stole the gun away. Shepard’s little manoeuvre left her with her back to Liara, their shoulders lightly touching. The human brought her gun arm up and nearly deafened Liara with two blasts from the pistol. She yelped involuntarily, immediately feeling extremely silly when nobody else in the room even reacted.

Liara looked over at Wrex. For someone who’d just been shot twice in the chest, he seemed remarkably calm.

“Shepard.”

“Wrex.”

Liara could just picture the infuriating grin on the human’s face as she lowered the gun. Liara tried to put on an indignant face to cover how rattled she was as she turned to face the other woman.

“I’m sorry, Liara, that was a bit cruel,” Shepard said, entirely failing to look bashful as she held the Predator out for her to take. “Practice rounds,” she said by way of explanation. “They’ll still kick like the real thing, but they’ll only sting your target.”

“Or tickle, in Wrex’s case,” Garrus commented. He still hadn’t looked up from the sniper rifle he was calibrating on the desk. Liara took the gun back from the human and took extreme care to keep her finger away from the trigger.

“Nice,” Shepard observed of her trigger discipline, and Liara cursed how the human’s approval made her feel. The Commander wasn’t even three decades old yet! She knew it didn’t mean the same thing for other races, but she couldn’t understand why someone less than a third her age could make her feel like a schoolgirl with a silly crush on a teacher.

“Now then,” Shepard said, all brisk manners as she stepped right up to Liara and took her gun hand in hers, rudely oblivious to the effect it had. “This button under your thumb retracts the firing mechanism and engages the mag hook for holstering to your armour. Try not to get your finger caught in the trigger array when you hit it, I used to do that all the time.”

Shepard’s thumb guided hers to the switch and the pistol whirred and folded up, then unfurled with a satisfying click when she pressed it again. Liara couldn’t help a giddy, breathless smile coming to her face when Shepard manipulated her digits. It felt so… intimate.

“These lights here show that you’re shooting disruptor rounds. You know what that means?”

“Yes, it - ” she stopped to clear her throat, far too aware of the slight warmth and weight of Shepard’s body so close to her own. “It means there’s an electrical field that charges the ammunition as it passes through the barrel. On contact with a kinetic barrier it disperses the charge, overloading the capacitors and weakening their integrity.”

“Top of the class.” Shepard’s voice was low, appreciative, and made sweat bead on Liara’s brow. Images of the commander mumbling compliments like that to her under silk sheets burst into her mind and she felt heat rising into her face as the human gave her another of those damnable smiles.

“Alright,” Shepard said, stepping away. Liara immediately missed the absence of her form in her personal space. “That’s the basics out of the way. Weapon up.”

Liara lifted the gun, stabilising it with the other hand and lowering her centre of gravity, the way she’d seen Shepard do on Therum.

“Not bad at all,” Shepard mused. Achingly slowly, she circled Liara to check her form. After a second, Liara felt Shepard against her and couldn’t stop a gasp as those strong arms snaked along her own. “Sorry,” the commander whispered in her ear as she made fine adjustments to the position of her arms. “Didn’t mean to spook you.” Liara could almost feel the Commander’s lips on her ear as her breath tickled along her skin. Shepard’s hand settled on Liara’s as the asari fought to control her breathing. The human must be able to tell, surely. The idea was mortifying.

“It’s okay,” Shepard reassured her, mistaking her shaking arousal for nerves. “Just slip your finger up against the trigger and slowly squeeze.” The Commander guided Liara’s fingers with her own as she talked her through it. “Take all the time you need, just feel it glide back.”

Shepard’s low voice flowed like liquor. The dark, rich asari wine she had shared with a colleague. A prelude to faltering touches, soft lips on her own, fingers on her bare back…

“You feel that?”

“Yes, Shepard,” Liara breathed instinctively and blushed bright pink when she heard the pure need in her voice. The trigger had settled, almost imperceptibly, under their pressed-together fingertips.

“Any more pressure and the mechanism will shave a millimetre of metal from the ammunition block, lower its mass to near nothing, and accelerate it out of the barrel at nine hundred metres per second.” Shepard’s voice made everything else disappear until all that was left was her and the weight of the pistol they were holding.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

Liara squeezed the trigger a fraction of a centimetre more and the shot burst from the barrel. The world rushed back as the gun bucked against her palm and sent a shockwave up her arm. She felt Shepard take most of the recoil for her, and then suddenly her arms slipped away. Her body left Liara’s.

“Great!” Shepard cheered. “Right in the chest.”

Wrex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, good shot kid,” he rumbled. Liara smiled, shaking herself out of whatever strange haze always seemed to fall over her when Shepard touched her. She looked over at the Commander, hoping the human wasn’t totally oblivious to what she was doing to her.

“Okay, take a few more shots. On your own this time.” Shepard settled into that oh so familiar, oh so appealing pose with her arms folded across her chest and her weight on her back foot. She blew a stray strand of red out of her eyes and watched as Liara settled back into the position Shepard had moved her into.

“Very good,” Shepard commented.

“I’m not likely to forget it, Commander,” Liara murmured. She took aim at Wrex, who theatrically rolled his eyes and waited. She squeezed the trigger slowly, trying to forget about the warmth of Shepard’s arms around her for now. The kick was much worse without Shepard to stabilise her, but the bullet still found her target and she grinned at Shepard. She smiled back.

“Again. Five rounds, centre mass.”

It took her a few attempts and one embarrassing overheat, but she managed to hit Wrex five consecutive times. The krogan sighed and rolled his shoulders.

“Why don’t you make the turian target practice instead?” he growled at Shepard.

“Because you’re my favourite,” the Commander shot back. The massive krogan growled and stomped into the lift. Shepard waved him off as Liara laid the pistol back on Garrus’ workbench.

“Well done, Liara,” Shepard said, stepping close to her again. Liara thought she was slightly too close to be entirely innocent, but maybe humans had different expectations. She suddenly worried Shepard thought she was being aloof when she maintained a respectful distance.

“When we’re in the field, I want you to hold back, okay?” Shepard’s hand found her shoulder and gripped just enough for Liara to feel it through her uniform. “Stay behind me, use your biotics, and only worry about stripping shields with the pistol. And if anyone drops your shields, you put up your barrier and I’ll shoot them full of so many holes their mother will feel it, alright?”

Liara would have laughed at the joke if Shepard didn’t seem so intense, so instead she just nodded. The human lightly squeezed her shoulder again and let go of her.

“Okay, tomorrow we’ll start hand-to-hand practice.”

“Oh goddess,” Liara muttered.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” Shepard reassured, completely unaware of what the thought of the beautiful human woman grappling her and tossing her on the floor so she could straddle her actually did for the nervous asari scientist in front of her, though Liara’s daydreams usually involved fewer clothes, more soft beds, and definitely much fewer people standing around working on weapons nearby.

“I’ll see you later, Liara.” Shepard nodded to Garrus once before striding towards the lift, leaving Liara flushed and flustered in her wake.

[paragonrobits]

so this has been bugging me ever since i saw this post. Part of it is that this is a pretty common criticism that mostly seems to boil down to people who think the found family trope is the POINT of the story, rather than a facet of it and think that any ending other than staying together forever is a failure, and this is pretty reductive. lots of stories have end goals and purposes beyond found family, like there's agendas and goals beyond finding a group of people you like, there's things like justice and Saving the World and liberating sapient beings from subjugation and so forth, but the thing that bothers me the most about this is that it kind of illustrates the biggest issue with this kind of found family fixation

that almost none of the tagged series are actually a case of found families.

you see this a lot, but more often than not they're not actually found families. They're co workers. They're people who have similar agendas and shared goals, or they're hired by a larger organization, or they're working together for the same end, or they're led by the vision and goal of a magnetic leader, but I think you could honestly make an argument that none of these are actual cases of found family.

Star Trek is the most explicit case; they didn't volunteer to go together, mostly. they're people who serve on the same ship, and that's it. they might get along, or constantly argue, but they're co-workers.

The Outer Worlds is, they're generally following the Unplanned Variable, working with them and each other because they have nowere else to go, or they see it as a job, or they went 'fuck it, not like i have anything else going on'. They bicker and fight and most of them don't particularly like each other.

Dragon Age and Mass Effect all go together since, in this case, with the probable exception of Dragon Age 2 (which, i'll grant you, actually probably is a found family to some degree), they're also working together for a common goal, and that's the primary reason they meet you. Dragon Age 1 is them staying together to fight the Blight and save the world, DA2 is mostly a case of 'I FUCKING LIVE HERE', Inquisition is all the party members joining the Inquisition to save thge world from demon doom and fight the machinations of Tevinter imperialists. The Mass Effect series has something similar for the most part, from the 'fight the Reapers' motivation of the triology as well as Andromeda focusing on building a home in a new galaxy.

DA and ME both are people who share a larger goal, and are working together SPECIFICALLY for that goal; while its easy to build friendships, their mutual bond is not the primary reason they work together. They do that because its either work together or everyone dies. There's a larger goal, and their own agendas and fears (such as Wrex's concern for his people, or the quarian/geth conflict) can become factors in that. Even further proving my point here, a lot of the ME games have squad members not returning to be party members in other games because they have bigger matters; Wrex is only a squad member in ME1 and a single DLC because he has bigger things to do in leading his people rather than getting directly involved in Shepard's mission. They might care about each other, but their own goals ultimately come first.

I like found family, as a trope. I do! But its a trope that tends to get REALLY badly misused and applied to every group of characters with decent chemistry, even if they clearly only share a goal and don't want to stay together past that point, or even if they outright openly hate each other.

Another big issue with it is that the constant treatment of the found family not sticking together afterwards being seen as a failure state. Again, these aren't families; these are groups made to serve a goal, and the goal is done, so now they have other things to do. The implicaiton from a lot of these criticisms of the found family seperating implies that you might think that you're morally obligated to spend the rest of your life with the first people you meet that vaguely tolerate you, and that's just a platonic version of conservative 'get married out of high school ASAP' relationship values.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 3 replay, Priority: Tuchanka:

-Of course the salarians would anticipate the potential of using the Shroud to cure the genophage and sabotage it long in advance. They probably did so immediately after using it to spread the genophage.

-The dalatrass’ deal is actually solid.

Troops will not will the war with the Reapers; the Crucible will. Building it must be the priority. So in that sense, salarian scientists are more helpful than krogan warriors – particularly if the krogans can be fooled to believe they were cured.

Highly unethical, but extremely pragmatic.

-If you go renegade, it’s clear that there are concerns with curing the genophage even with Wrex in charge. He speaks about asking the Council for some of their old territory back, implies he’ll take it by force if denied, and wants to rebuild the krogan empire.

And none of these are wrong, per se. It’s reasonable for the krogan to request planets in return for their support; it’s reasonable for them to demand them if denied long enough – everyone else has colonies, why not the krogan?

And with the Hierarchy right there and the Alliance frantically colonizing every available world, scolding the krogans for wanting an empire is absurd.

But with the krogans’ history, hearing their leader speak about expansion and empire building would make anyone uneasy. Last time that ended with them invading an asari colony. How will it end this time?

-Meeting Wreav adds to that unease. He’s a stark contrast to Wrex and Eve and a reminder that not every krogan will obediently fall in line with Wrex’s version. What will the krogan do if he’s put in charge?

-Mordin once again centers the salarians in krogan history. He says the that the current circumstances of the krogan are the salarians’ fault.

Eve points out they nuked their planet long before Mordin showed up. The krogans have made their own history.

-If you go paragon, Shepard shows Wrex and Eve a recording they made of their meeting with the Dalatrass.

I’m not sure whether to be grateful that Shepard’s finally started recording everything or be deeply frustrated that they’ve never used the record function on their omni-tool in the past.

-Did the krogans seriously not check the road to Shroud before setting it off? Or did it get destroyed in recent fights with the Reaper?

-It’s tempting to criticize the krogans for not having mapped an ancient city that’s right there, but there are places on Earth that are not so it’d be hypocritical. The Paris Catacombs come to mind.

-But it sure is convenient that as Shepard is debating whether or not to cure the genophage that they’re explicitly shown that ancient krogan were capable of impressive feats of architecture and art. The plants sprouting in the ruins is just overkill.

-One of the paintings in the ancient city shows the krogan riding what I presume are kakliosaurs, that extinct krogan war beast the Salarians can revive. Nice touch.

-Liara comments that when she was younger she would have loved to have studied the ancient city.

Liara, you’re barely a baby for an asari. After the war you can retire from being an information broker and go back to being an archaeologist.

-ME3 is infuriating in how there are some areas of the game you are not permitted to Charge to but it doesn’t tell you. You just keep hitting Charge and then die because it doesn’t go off.

-Javik says the krogan only have a talent for destruction; they even destroyed their home. The genophage is necessary.

No surprises there. Renegade’s gone renegade.

-And Wreav conveniently dies to the thresher maw. One less voice opposing Wrex.

It would have been a shame if Shepard had to somehow be involved in removing him as a threat. Can you imagine the additional complexity that would have added to the game?

Far too confusing for players to handle. Better to let it the cinematic handle it.

-The Shroud was built in an arena that’s a shrine to Kalross to detour visitors.

How does that work? It was an arena. People would presumably visit there regularly to fight or witness fights.

That sounds like a poor deterrent.

-That’s the easiest I’ve ever rung the hammers. Go Vanguard!

-The scene of Kalros destroying the thresher maw is one of the best scenes in Mass Effect.

So is Mordin dispersing the cure.

I’d say the Tuchanka arc is the high point of ME3.

-How does the cure continue to be dispersed after the Shroud explodes?

For that matter, what happens to Tuchanka? The Shroud was necessary to fix its atmosphere.

I suppose the Shroud can be rebuilt after the war. Or the krogans have a really good argument for at least one additional planet.

As for the cure – everyone line up and get a shot, I guess.

Normandy

-I dislike how ME3 traps you in extremely long cutscenes after missions. Please let me save, walk around a bit, and choose when to progress the game.

-Garrus will coordinate the Hierarchy support for the Crucible.

I suppose that’s as good an excuse as any for him to stay on the Normandy.

This is also a good example of the game showing how Garrus has moved up in the Hierarchy and is trusted by the Palaven Primarch. Garrus isn’t just on the Normandy to assist Shepard – he’s actively coordinating forces between the Hierarchy and the Alliance.

-The dream sequences really are terrible. Did Bioware just run out of time or was this always the vision for them?

-And once again it’s Liara that meets with Shepard after a nightmare.

You can feel the game expecting that default romance to be active.

I’d have preferred if the game had cycled through companions after the nightmares. Let Liara be there after the first one, then Garrus, James, Tali… Show how they all comfort Shepard differently.

And if the squadmate that would normally be there is dead or missing?

Well, there are consequences for your choices. Wake up alone.

-Interesting that salarian Councilor comes to you, the first human spectre that barely speaks to the Council you supposedly serve, about Udina being dirty.

Why you?

Your human. Udina’s the human Councilor. I’m sure the turian Councilor has told the others about you and Udina commiserating about how much the others Councilors suck for not throwing all their resources behind the Crucible.

You might also have hung up on them repeatedly during ME1. Or left the original council to die.

You should be the last person told. The conflict of interest is obvious. If they need a spectre, there are plenty of others to choose from.

I suppose it could be because you and Udina are known to have a poor history. Udina grounded you in ME1; you committed treason by skipping town anyway to stop Saren.

Is the salarian Councilor gambling that your dislike of Udina outweighs any obligation you feel to him as the human Councilor? Or that the potential negative impact he may have on the war effort will do so?

I would have liked to have heard them out.

-In regards to curing the genophage, Valern says it’s fortunate that you saved his life once.

Or what, I wonder? Would he have had you assassinated?

I wouldn’t put it past him.

-As I’ve seen a post put it, Shiala is resisting indoctrination through the power of friendship.

I bet that medical company wishes they had examined the Feros colonists more thoroughly now.

-I agree with Garrus that Wrex needs a food taster, pronto.

-Garrus has toned it down considerably, but he’s still prejudiced against the krogans. This is more blatant if you go renegade.

-Protheans believed that evolution was the only force that mattered. The strong flourished and the weak perished.

Javik seems very unwilling to apply that to the Reapers genociding his species.

Unsurprisingly, this logic seems more of a justification for why the Protheans could rule over everyone else than a true belief.

-If you go renegade, Javik suggests using the weak as a distraction.

-If you go paragon: The strong grow stronger by dominating the weak. It is for the greater good of all.

Once again, Javik does not seem to include the Reapers in this dynamic.

-Javik: Do not care what others think. Do what you must.

Renegade to the core. But I wonder – was Javik always this way? Or is this the result of him continuing past his breaking point?

And if, when was that? After his crew were indoctrinated? After he killed them? After he woke up in the future?

I suspect even the most paragon of Shepards could become Javik if they lost everything.

[faif-girlcel]

Been playing Mass Effect lately and have to say it's so interesting how paragon Shepard is the definition of a "good cop". You're upholding a racially hierarchical regime where some aliens are explicitly stated to be seen as lesser and incapable of self governance despite being literal spacefarers with their own personal governments, and the actual emphasized incompetence of those supposedly "capable of governing", the council allows for all sorts of excesses and brutality among it's guard seemingly, and chooses on whims whether or not to aid certain species in their struggles based on favoritism, there is, from the councils perspective, *literal* slave labor used on the citadel that they're indifferent to because again, lesser species (they don't know that the keepers are designed to upkeep the citadel they just see them as an alien race to take advantage of at 0 cost), there is seemingly overt misogyny present among most races that is in no way tackled or challenged, limitations on free speech, genocide apologia from the highest ranks and engrained into educational databases, and throughout all of this, Shepard can't offer any institutional critique, despite being the good guy hero jesus person, because she's incapable of analyzing the system she exists in and actively serves and furthers. sure she criticizes individual actions of the council and can be rude to them, but ultimately she remains beholden to them, and carries out their missions, choosing to resolve them as a good cop or bad cop, which again maybe individually means saving a life or committing police brutality, but she still ultimately reinforces a system built upon extremely blatant oppression and never seriously questions this, not even when she leaves and joins Cerberus briefly.

And then there's the crew, barring Liara (who incidentally is the crewmate least linked to the military, and who,, is less excluded from this list in ME2,, but i wanna focus on 1) Mass Effect 1 feels like Bad Apple fixer simulator, you start with

Garrus: genocide apologist (thinks the genophage was justified) who LOVES extrajudicial murder

Ashley: groomed into being a would-be klan member

Tali: zionist who hated AI before it was cool (in a genocidal way)

Wrex: war culture mercenary super chill on war crimes

Kaidan: shown as the other "good cop" and generally the most reasonable person barring Liara, but also he did just murder someone in boot camp in a fit of rage

Through your actions, you can fix them! You can make the bad apples good apples (kinda) but like,,,,

2 of course moves away from this theme a bit while still never properly tackling corrupt institutions in a way that undoes the actions of the first game, but its focus is elsewhere and the crew is more diverse in its outlook

Ultimately i just find it interesting how Mass Effect is a game showcasing how a good apple or whatever is capable of making individual changes for the better but is ultimately still a tool of an oppressive system and can't do anything to fundamentally change that, even if they're the most important good apple in said system.

Worth noting maybe this'll change in Mass Effect 3, which i have yet to play as im in the process of finishing 2 currently (im a dragon age girl) but idk i like how it's handled at first i was iffy on it but no it's actually pretty cool.

Also sorry if this is super retreaded ground im new to mass effect discourse this is just my takeaways from it lol

[anghraine]

The best friend and I played a bunch of Mass Effect 3 over the last few weeks! The things I remember most clearly are Thessia, Leviathan, Sanctuary, Horizon, the Citadel DLC, and the initial return to [redacted].

Long ramble about all of it:

My best friend had me choose the companions for the run to the temple on Thessia, and naturally I chose our beloved Liara and problematic fave Javik. I wasn't glad to see it fall (quite the contrary), but it seemed a bit apropos that the asari leadership's various choices wrt the war came back to bite them. Still, it was really sad, esp since it's the only time we really saw it and Liara was really upset.

...all the more because we brought Javik and he kept interrupting her explanations to be like "all your religious beliefs are gifts we gave to your people's ancestors before they figured out writing." It was a lot for her, but I did feel a touch of annoyance at what seemed a bit of an unspoken assumption that this might happen to other people's homes, but not hers. Very asari, to be sure. And I like it as a subtle aspect of her character—not a criticism of the game there, just a sidenote, I guess.

Kai Leng showing up was just ... /sigh. I don't really get what his deal is beyond being Cerberus and hating Shepard a lot for some unknown reason. Eventually we do see the past!Illusive Man comparing him to Shepard (in a positive way!), so maybe it's something to do with that, idk. He feels pretty underwritten to me compared to the rest of the major cast, who are generally super vivid (I mean, I love background characters like Westmoreland!). So I'm just irritated when he shows up and disrupts interesting things.

The Leviathan DLC was a really good horror episode taken in its own right, but as part of the wider game, I'm not sure. I kind of ... didn't want to know more about the Reapers? The sequence was fantastic (especially down in the bottom of the sea!), yet the less mysterious the Reapers get, the less engaged I am by them. Whatever the hell is going on with Cerberus and the Illusive Man is a lot more compelling to me at this point.

Speaking of whom, Sanctuary was just what the fuck?! from beginning to end. I've always been suspicious of the whispers about it, but I didn't guess that they were transforming refugees into husks to experiment on, you know? Damn. Miranda was not exaggerating about her father's callousness even a little.

Speaking of Miranda, she is probably at the top of my problematic ME characters list, and ... look. Okay. I know the mechanics of the game suggest she's straight. To me she has the most intense bi energy of just about any human in the game. I love (female) Shepard/Liara, a lot, but I just feel like there's a ton of UST between our Shepard and Miranda, all the more by the end of the Citadel DLC. I'll just leave that there.

After that, it was extremely cathartic to wreck the Cerberus base on Horizon with EDI. No gods no masters <3

And then we got to finally kill Kai Leng for good. Asshole. Blahblah, more villain monologues from the younger-looking Illusive Man (/suspicion). I suspect he's in cahoots with Harbinger or something and thinks he's actually the one in control.

Then there was the Citadel DLC, which I've heard a lot of great things about. Early on, I wasn't actually sure I'd like it as much as other people do—self-referential humor and stakes-lowering banter are not to my taste in general, and there were several times in the earlier parts that it didn't quite work for me (not because it was bad, but I just don't like that kind of thing by and large). I did laugh at the "I should go" jokes, though!

We did it with Wrex-Liara and then Garrus-Liara, which felt very apropos to the storyline, since the whole deal with the clone is that she has all of Shepard's technical skills but overlooks the importance of Shepard as team player and friend. And Wrex, Garrus, and Liara specifically go way back with Shepard.

When the clone was going on her villain rants about how she has everything Shepard did, she can do everything Shepard can, I was like "but she can't do everything Liara and Garrus can ... oh. This is about the power of friendship!" And it was, in a really charming way.

I did think Brooks was suspect as hell the whole time, so that was validating.

The clone's obsession with being The Real Shepard and having the grand mystique and galactic stature and all of that did highlight something interesting to me. I'd read an argument that ME1 is actually the best ME game, and one of the reasons in that argument is that ME1 Shepard is ... cool, but not nearly the superstar legend she becomes later on.

And Shepard's super special awesome greatness is hammered in a lot through ME2&3. I'm not sure that's actually worse than being scrappier, in terms of some artistic merit kind of thing, but the DLC is so reliant on Shepard's mystique that it got me thinking again about how easily this could become really annoying.

Like, I've loved many special or chosen male characters, but the idea of male badass Shepard seems just incredibly tedious to me. I'm not sure I could buy into this except with the pretty specific scenario we have of a lesbian Shepard who came up through a hard childhood on the streets of Earth.

Anyway, I absolutely adored the end of the clone arc (Garrus and Liara pulling the real Shepard up ;_;) and then the entire rest of the DLC, except the pull-up thing with James (very tiresome mechanically and he's my least fave of the ME3 squad). Miranda and Jack semi-reconciling was really adorable and I loved all the bizarre inter-character dynamics at the party. Also, Traynor winning against an asari named Polgara made me cackle. And my absolute most hated from ME2, Zaeed, was kind of delightful. Zaeed vs The Claw was just ... jafdkk;jadfjk;a

And Glyph's little bowtie! Incredible all around.

Oh, and the little date with Liara was super sweet. I loved that it stopped where it did, just that image of them embracing. It's great.

It was nice to see them seriously together even later, of course. And we got back to Earth! I was incredibly tired at that point, so my main thought was that the imagery of the united galactic fleet was essentially what The Rise of Skywalker tried and failed to do, but it was fantastic here, especially after everything we've done to get (almost) everyone together. (We did basically tell the salarians to go fuck themselves wrt the genophage.)

London looks suitably dreadful and we'd just gone around and talked to Anderson and then essentially everyone. Pretty much everyone continually brought up how awesome Shepard is, again, which reinforced my sense that this could be really annoying but is very nice for lesbian Shepard, and in any case, it feels like it's going somewhere now. We'll see where exactly that is!

[ferusaurelius]

Mass Effect Universe Meta - 1

I suppose I should call this ‘mass effect critical’ but it’s really more a meditation on the questions that the series poses and the ones it chooses to ignore ... with a focus on ‘choice-based’ narrative, character-driven storylines, and geopolitical philosophy. 

If any of the above annoys you, I’d recommend not hitting the read more. This’ll probably be the first part of a series. xD

This first one is just a meditation on the choice-based narrative implementation in ME as a series. 

I’m sure I’m not saying anything someone else hasn’t already covered, in fairness, probably better or more extensively than I’m doing here ... but this is kinda where I have to begin in order to tackle my other themes.

If you just get annoyed by this sort of navel-gazing, probably best not to proceed past the cut. I’ll totally understand!

So You Want Choice-Based Story In Your AAA-Shooter

Starting with the above: much ink has been spilled on the way that gameplay implicates and frames morality. Back in the day, Mass Effect (2007) on release was stirring up controversy because it let players choose a lesbian relationship with Liara! We’ve come a long way since then. 

In some respects, Mass Effect is a product of its time and also another milestone in BioWare’s narrative portfolio. Which, before Mass Effect, included other games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Worth noting is that BioWare as a development house has refined its use of morality systems and mechanics over time! We’ve seen everything from lightside/darkside sliders, to paragon/renegade, to the innovation of ‘party approval’ ratings in the Dragon Age franchise. Of note is that once BioWare establishes a canon morality or choice-rating system, those mechanics tend to remain in place or consistent throughout a particular world.

There’s a notable (and expected) departure in Mass Effect: Andromeda because the writers felt like the Paragon/Renegade system was too tied to Commander Shepard, specifically, to be used as a basis for Ryder.

What makes these game narratives so engaging from a player viewpoint will also be necessarily limited by the under-the-hood mechanics of the systems and how they are capable of responding to the player. Without a set of key markers to help the game function and implement narrative choices, and without a highly-structured narrative framework that can accommodate or reflect those choices on-screen in ways that are emotionally resonant, we get ... whatever happened with Starchild.

... but we didn’t get there all at once.

Mass Effect 1: Cosmic Horrors and You

At a very high-level read, Mass Effect 1 sets the scene for the rest of the trilogy to follow and makes very clear the stakes and the plot-related questions it’s going to tackle. In the first five minutes of the game we’re confronted with eldritch horrors from beyond the stars, the return of the geth, AND Saren Arterius killing his friend, Nihlus Kryik!

I kinda knew right about then that the game was not going to be tackling plot questions (and cultures) in ways that were interesting to me, since if they were going to do that ... it would have made more sense for Nihlus to live. I have been (politely, affectionately) boo-boo-the-clown ever since.

While I still loved the aspects of universe exploration and getting to know my human and non-human crewmembers (Ashley, Kaidan, Wrex, Tali, Garrus, and Liara), the shocking moments of Virmire where you -- and I’m pretty sure this isn’t a spoiler at this point -- have to determine who lives and who dies and it’s a scripted loss? 

Narratively powerful because you’ve spent a while getting to know both characters, but problematic from a mechanics standpoint because now you have to maintain a universe that more or less hangs together throughout the game no matter “who” you chose to survive. Death-as-choice becomes a notable proxy in Mass Effect’s storyline for morality and impact.

Mechanically, you’ll also note that a lot of “moral choices” are framed as kill/don’t kill, to various and sundry effects. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the binary choice framework underpinning most of the game’s critical moments.

And rather than be totally critical I’ll just spotlight the one choice I DO remember: with enough paragon points, talking Saren into shooting himself before he gets reanimated as a Reaper abomination.

In fairness, I think it would’ve been nice for that moment not to be gated behind a Paragon points check, since it was a NEAT narrative flourish that I didn’t see structurally repeated in other areas in the game.

As much as I fell in love with the universe, the idea of the Protheans, and what Vigil and Ilos implied about the murky past ... I was less enamored of the Reapers as a universe-ending threat and more intrigued by the internecine conflicts between the various species of the galaxy. Other game-defining options which carried over into ME2 included whether or not to save the Council (cake or death?), who to appoint as humanity’s first Councilor (slightly less death-driven), whether or not to shoot Wrex (also cake or death).

The amount of “save or kill” decisions and the lack of other equivalents (and those that WERE provided being given less narrative weight than the life-or-death elements) clued me in to the design philosophy that what the game and the narrative would most remember about the world state was who was still alive.

On the one hand, the narrative impacts of presence or absence are obvious for the player! We know these decisions are significant. On the other hand, as you’ll see in my description of ME2, this design choice did start to paint the team into a corner.

Mass Effect 2: About That Suicide Mission

Much as I loved the new squadmates for ME2 and the overall pacing of the story, as well as the interim character development for each former squad member, the clue that most of this was going to happen off-screen or not at all was that these developments occurred while Shepard was not present -- conveniently killed by the Collectors.

Again, this was my hint that this story was going to focus on different questions!

Cerberus, who played the role of minor mooks in the first game, were upgraded to a level of influence that would be a conspiracy-theorist’s dream. One of my personal soapbox “dead dove: do not eat” elements is “but the conspiracies were REAL!” So this was honestly my bad.

Favorite moments in this game included getting to know new squad members, reuniting with old characters (including Wrex! and Grunt, who has one of my favorite arcs in the game alongside Garrus). YMMV about which characters and squadmates you connected with the most/least, but we can all agree that The Suicide Mission was Certainly A Choice.

With that said, it’s possible for no-one to survive and to avoid recruiting the new squaddies. Because choices, remember?

Unfortunately this also has the impact of “kill/save” being, once again, the primary impactful narrative game mechanic. 

One can forgive the developers and narrative designers for getting a little tired at this point, because we’re not sure who survived or how much narrative content we’re going to have to adapt to another totally new character in the third act, based on who survives The Suicide Mission. Which does rather put a crimp in the amount of relational development we can presuppose in the third game.

One gets the idea that Liara was the favorite child in part because she is more or less impossible to kill. She will survive all the games no matter what choices you make, unless that choice is getting killed by Harbinger’s laser beam at the very end of ME3 and failing the game.

Small wonder that, in many respects, one of the ways the game develops Liara’s character is actually taking away player choice to avoid having to do an “impactful kill/save” option that would otherwise render her permanently inaccessible to the narrative.

Mass Effect 3: Enter the Starchild

So, what are we to make of the “kill/save” and “presence/absence” dynamic as the most narratively impactful and important? Ironically, these choices have impact only insofar as they determine what resources and relationships your Commander Shepard has access to in the game. The narrative does not so much branch as continue on, with slightly different details, depending on who you saved or recruited.

There will still BE a Tuchanka mission with or without Mordin or Wrex, and you will still conquer the Reaper capital ship alongside Kalros, the mother of all thresher maws (which is a pretty cool moment, let’s be real).

From a narrative design standpoint, these moments are what’s absolutely critical to a functioning storyline -- the character-development bits are secondary, as they must be in a game where the suicide mission can deplete your squad so thoroughly that nobody is left.

I won’t spend too much time on the original choice to lock Javik behind a DLC gate, but that’s another unfortunate choice that limited the baked-in narrative options for the third installment of the game.

Outside of the Commander-Shepard-Driven set pieces on each world, at this point, character relationships were more the icing on the cake than the narrative bedrock, something as a consequence of deciding early in design that killing characters is the clearest way to communicate narrative impact.

However, the other side of this choice, is that killing off characters when you have no narrative attachment to them and no stake in that sacrifice, ends up having progressively less and less impact, even in a AAA-shooter where the whole point is to reduce endless waves of mooks into a fine mist...

... which is where Starchild comes in.

Commander Shepard is locked into a final color-coded narrative choice of who to kill and who to save. That’s the narrative’s way of making sure you know that the choice is important -- because, without that design choice, there’s really no other established way for the game to communicate significance.

Which is a tragedy in and of itself. So many other moments are often significant or meaningful ... and I really think the choice to go with life-and-death as the biggest, baddest, most narratively-supportive element is what essentially painted the team into this final corner.

If You’re So Smart, What Would You Do?

This is easy, since it’s ultimately what BioWare and its narrative designers decided to implement in its next games: party-based approval and relationship systems that operated separately from a Paragon/Renegade personal scale.

Yeah, yeah, a cop-out. I know. Essentially, this is just external evidence that the narrative designers learned from the limitations they encountered in the Mass Effect universe and applied those lessons to their Dragon Age games.

Which again is not to say that I’ve seen concrete evidence of leaning LESS into the “kill/save” dynamic as impactful (remember the Witherfang quest in DA:O?). But it’s the thought that counts!

Branching out to other choices being signaled and framed as impactful is a key to choice-based game design and storytelling being able to incorporate character-driven narrative alongside the raw individual plot.

While this ultimately didn’t happen in Mass Effect, I am interested to see how the mechanics will be implemented in DA4 to detail and interweave other motives and questions into that storyline.

That’s What Fanfiction is For

Watching the canon Mass Effect universe default to “kill/save” decisions as the framing morality structure is pretty much why I write fanfiction designed to fill in and detail out the other blank spaces in background and backstory, and to imagine what other questions might have arisen in a more flexible approach that would not have been possible before the relevant lessons for narrative design were learned in these games.

My motivation as a writer is to expand in areas that were dropped because they wouldn’t make the cut in a AAA-shooter on a protagonist-driven schedule.

For the same reason that narrative significance eluded the final “controversial” ending of the series, I find that there are enough other aspects of character-driven plot and geopolitical philosophy that remain interesting (and implied-if-you-squint by the codex material) to keep me sufficiently occupied for a number of WIP fanfics. ;)

Which, in the end, is more a testament to the strength of the central thesis of the game (what if humanity is the new kid on the block in a galaxy full of advanced alien species?) rather than the questions the narrative ultimately chose to center.

-Ferus, out.

[thefloatingstone]

You said some time ago that Mass Effect: Andromeda doesn't interest you. Did you start it or was that from research? If you could bring yourself to play it, your thoughts on the games exploration of colonialism would be welcome.

This is gonna sound weird but... I adore the trilogy SO MUCH you know?

To the point where it can be difficult to appreciate Dragon Age because it is juuuuust similar enough to remind me of Mass Effect without BEING Mass Effect. So a lot of playing Dragon Age, especially Inquisition, is me thinking at all times "GOD I wish my Mass Effect friends were here with me ;___;"

And I can only see Andromeda being the same at the very best of outcomes. At worst I just severely dislike the game. At best, I think it's a fun game but I will be missing the found family squad literally the entire time and just wish Garrus, Tali, Liara, Wrex etc et al were with me.

And the reason I believe this will be the case is because of one tiny, singular moment in Angry Joe's original review of the game where he did not like it, mostly due to the state it was in. This one moment did not actually have anything to do with his critique or his criticism or why he disliked the game. It was just a small clip sitting among the entire review when he was just discussing how bad the dialogue was in the game and he just mentioned it in the middle of his critique.

But although I could overlook all of this criticisms as things that might not apply to me, this one singular moment made me realise Andromeda would not be for me.

please note this does NOT MEAN I WANT SHEPARD IN ANOTHER GAME PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET HER REST. But it means Andromeda just.... doesn't measure up. And in the immortal words of Vanilla Ice "anything less than the best is a felony." when it comes to Mass Effect. The trilogy casts a LONG shadow...

(also a clip of a Salarian going "Kill me now" as a snarky response did NOT do it for me at all.... They would not fucking say that 😭)

[randoimago]

Question: Who's your favorite character in each fandom you write for? Good luck deciding

You're the bane of my existence anon /j

I did cheat on this a bit where if there's a sequel or smth then I added an extra character 😅

(this Link is to a full list of my favorite characters)

Favorite Character in Each Fandom (I regret it already)

Anime

Attack on Titan - Reiner (needs hugs and therapy) (Jean is an honorable mention)

Danganronpa - Kaito (Chihuro, Chiaki, and Shuichi are honorable mentions)

Demon Slayer - Kanao

Detroit: Become Human - Connor (Ralph is an honorable mention)

Dragon Age - Alistair (Origins), Fenris (DA2), Varric (DAI) (Dagna and Krem are v honorable mention)

Durarara - Shizuo 🥰🥰

Fruits Basket - Hatori (hugs and therapy)

Haikyuu - Bokuto 🥰 (Iwaizumi is an honorable mention)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Mista

Jujutsu Kaisen - Nanami (I can't wait for Shibuya, you guys)

K Project - Kusanagi (if I had a nickel for every blond bartender...)

Magi - Jafar 🥰🥰🥰

My Hero Academia - Ashido (my child)

Naruto - Rock Lee (my baby)

Ouran Highschool Host Club - Kasanoda

Sk8: The Infinity - Joe

Video Games

Ace Attorney - Apollo Justice

AI: The Somnium Files - Date (Ryuki is my fav in Nirvana Initiative)

Fable - Reaver 😔

Fallout 4 - Nick Valentine (Hancock is a dishonorable mention)

Final Fantasy 7 - Reno 🥰

Fire Emblem Three Houses - Dedue (the sadness this guy made me feel 🙄)

Fire Emblem Fates - Kaze (I restarted my whole game for this fucker)

Fire Emblem Awakening - Stahl

Genshin Impact - Noelle (my child)

Hades - Daddy Dionysus

Kingdom Hearts - Axel 🥰🥰

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Link, but specifically in the Gerudo costume

Mass Effect - Tali (Garrus and Wrex are honorable mentions)

Monster Prom - Liam 😒

Nier: Automata - 9S (hugs and therapy pls and thank you)

Persona 4 - Kanji

Persona 5 - Ryuji (Akechi is a dishonorable mention)

Pillars of Eternity - Xoti my love

Pokemon Swsh - Raihan 😔 (Leon is also there too)

Pokemon ScVi - Larry 🥰🥰🥰

Skyrim - Serana

Stardew Valley - Penny (hugs and therapy pls)

Spy x Family - Franky

Yakuza - Majima 🥰🥰

Zero Escape - Sigma (ZTD Junpei is fantastic tho)

Webtoons

Nevermore - Morella

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Lee Hyunsung 🥰🥰

Surviving Romance - Jihyeon (my baby)

Unholy Blood - Euntae

Other

Arcane - Jinx (my baby needs hugs and therapy)

Batman Universe - Jason Todd 🥰

Critical Role - Vax (C1), Caleb (C2), Laudna (C3), Dariax (ExU)

Young Justice - Dick Grayson