#I also love Garrus

[reallyquitestrange]

"KAIDAN IS BORING! HES SO BORING OMG!"

I'm sorry you don't want to hang out with a guy who has his shit together cause he has to be on ALL THE FUCKING TIME. I'd bet half the migraines he gets are from having to constantly box his problems up and deal with everyone else's shit! Comparatively, the backstories of all the other romance options in the first game, Kaidan is the only one who actually learned something from his own mistakes! Ashley "family honor" Williams takes 3 games to really learn that hey aliens aren't the problem, government is; And Liara "mommy issues" T'soni has to be perfect so everyone will love her and not see her as "the girl with the dead mom who helped Saren"

Kaidan is already there, 32 year old independent man with trauma he has dealt with and dealing with of his own design. he knows the Alliance and governments meddle and make hard, fast decisions the enlisted pay for with their lives. He gives you advice on how to avoid making those mistakes. Emotional maturity isn't your turn-on? That sounds like a you issue.

[spagh3ttii]

Just finished the Mass Effect Trilogy and im thriving

[vaguely-concerned]

on the one hand I think inner demons could stand to have a bit more romanced rook specific content, but on the other hand the underlying in-built implication that 'yours is the one true voice of comfort and safety in my inner world' is a sentiment and intimacy so way beyond the romantic or the platonic or any secret third thing you could care to name that it makes me lose my entire poor little mind a bit. it's so big and fundamental — near-existential — that in that exact moment at least the distinctions kind of seem irrelevant.

all the people lucanis' mind conjures up along the way are relationships he has that are unavoidably mixed and fraught in some ways even when they're also full of love (they are fraught BECAUSE they're full of love) — the good in them inseparable from things that hurt him at the same time. (it's about: the basic disorganized attachment patterns this poor guy is dragging around with him. careful with those, they're dellamorte heirlooms. what you love also inevitably hurts you and you won't be allowed to have one without the other, you have to surrender parts of your soul to hold on to what little you have left: this is the story up until now.) and the idea that rook isn't that to him — that beneath the fear of wanting them when romanced (which is more its own separate thing because within this psychology, actively wanting something and not just clinging on for dear life to even a meager status quo lest you lose it is in itself dangerous bordering on catastrophic), this is a relationship where there isn't resentment, or guilt, or shame, or dread, or rage, or self-hate, or any of the other emotions that keep him paralyzed, unable to move this way or that. no debts, nothing owed of yourself and your soul's substance except what you can freely and safely and happily give. love and freedom don't coexist — but, I mean, you're almost starting to make me think........... unless...👀👀👀. the unconditional and undramatic 'you are here and I am here with you, you can be exactly how you are right now with me and it's safe for us both even though you're afraid it won't be, I'm not going anywhere' acceptance rook shows him here that he returns to them in the big romance scene, when it's rook who needs it. the way he's just. standing there in the center of it all, like a child desperately helplessly waiting to be found, hiding in the place he hopes you'll know to look first. (rook does know. it's one of the first things they say in there.)

in short the most important room in his little mind palace for the romance is the very first room — the one where rook isn't. where, in fact, rook cannot be, because they disprove the entire structure of the place with their existence and presence in his life. with everyone else he's putting words in their mouths about what they think of him, and rook is the one who actually gets to come in to speak their own words to him — and have him listen. ('he'll listen to you, he always listens to you', 'your voice is a comfort'.) of course rook isn't present anywhere else in there — at the risk of stating the obvious to a tedious degree, they aren't one of the locks, they're bringing the key. in the very finest 'the messenger and the message' sort of way.

[shittybundaskenyer]

[wispythreads]

It's interesting seeing the dichotomy between Mordin and Garrus while trying to recover Jack. Garrus immediately clocks that this is an extortion rig and that the warden's motives aren't as pure-of-heart, good-for-the-galaxy oriented as he claims, but still believes that these people deserve what they get for being scum of the earth. Even with no proof that everyone here has done something worth their imprisonment. Even after the warden's heel-turn attempt to imprison Shepard.

Mordin meanwhile is just absolutely horrified at the level of cruelty surrounding him and believes in the possibility that anything disturbed these prisoners may express while we're here could've been a direct result of their treatment at this facility.

I just find it interesting since Mordin has been so-far described as cold, calculating, and ruthless. He (seemingly, at this point, it's very clear later that this is not really the case no matter how much he wants it to be) has no regrets in his part of continuing a horrible genetic disease that is slowly but surely dooming a species to extinction. But he clearly does have a lot of empathy, wants actual good done rather than theoretical good.

Meanwhile Garrus has always been a hot-headed renegade that has been very loud about how he wants good done in the world, even if it isn't done the right way. But at the same time, he very quietly follows the structure and abides by the rules. He follows the idea that the ones in charge are doing the right thing. It takes his own background knowledge of a situation and being physically or metaphorically blocked by the authority from doing what he believes is right in order for him to not just instinctively believe in it. Idk I'm just rambling again.

[uglynicc]

How I used to draw turians:

How I draw turians now:

Proof you really just gotta stay thirsty to draw what you love better 🕺💕

[lovelywingsart]

Doodle to get it out of my system before I try to work on a commission lmao

When in doubt, headbutt the ever living shit out of your partner to let them know you care, no matter how embarrassed they may get uwu

Really, he should know not to trust them if they just grab him out of nowhere

[topaz-carbuncle]

shakarian in the citadel dlc, my beloved

[the-teddy-bear-butch]

Hi Mass Effect lesbians. I’m begging you to see my vision. Butch lesbian Garrus Vakarian. Thank you and goodnight.

[universe-prime]

This is less of a "character study" and more like my own personal "bullshit cheat sheet"

Bioware is a bunch of cowards and REFUSES to show us naked turians so, in the chance I need to do my part for society, I wanted a personal reference for Garrus + some little extra stuff of Null. Feel free to use this for yourself if you like, but just know that biology was NOT in the forefront of my mind and I purely designed shit based on aesthetic/what kinda makes sense visually

[sailforvalinor]

Wait. You’re telling me that the pilot of my starship having an enemies-to-lovers romance with my starship’s robot AI is a real plotline that happens in Mass Effect 3?? What is this???

[spaghetticat3899]

Kinda wish male and female Turians looked identical. I don’t care if it’s lazy, if anything it would’ve been easier to pull off, since the only reason they were introduced so late is because of the reduced memory the games had, therefore having difficulty adding a whole new model. Now, I don’t hate the female turian design, I know some folks do, but I’m kinda indifferent to them, there’s things I like and dislike. Their faces can be pretty, but the lack of back-head-covering feels a tad odd to me, especially since the plates are meant to provide protection from solar radiation. They could’ve still had the crests, just smaller or flatter, no? There’s also a line of dialogue saying most can’t tell the difference between a male and female turian, which implies they’re near-identical, right?

I don’t know, it was just something I was thinking about because I’ve been thinking about Mass Effect again.

[val-the-protoss-simp]

Part 1/3 the Tal'darim

Part 2/3 the Khalai <- you're here Part 3/3 the Nerazim

Part two of this ask, the Khalai

Erzadar. Formerly Erzolun (Because I have another Khalai OC named Talizun and I thought the names were way too similar) First concept was from 2022 (can be seen on the far bottom right of the art compilation) She was originally a tiny researcher from the Shelak tribe (??? I think??) Erza and her team of Khalai protoss were essentially Auir’s equivalent to Shakuras’s delegate team of Nerazim/terran diplomats/researchers/whatever.

She (and all the OCs from this story) were in kind of a limbo as they laid forgotten high on a metaphorical shelf of my mind, collecting dust, while I played with other OCs and stories. Until I was *this* video like half a year ago (no, it is not a Rickroll) and was like oh my god. oh. not to be a lesbian but oh my god. oh my fucking god Jesus Christ- we all know the meme.

Anyway, since then she became a tall, beefy adept.

She’s still mostly in development and therefore there’s not much to say about her. She’s a former zealot (became an adept during the events of LotV) With a friendly personality in a way only people in their early 20s have. She was assigned as a bodyguard/guide to the Dominion delegates Auir hosts and quickly becomes friends with most of them, namely Victor. And yes, I absolutely do plan to drag these two through months and years of delicious angst and yearning and denial and more angst before I allow them to become a thing. Their fault they’re my OCs.

Talizun is also a character who I’ve had for a looooooong time too (2018????? Before 2020) but I never really fleshed him out despite his key importance to the plot of Zhakul’s story. He didn’t even have a name until late 2021 ahaha oops. Most of his story was also conceived that year, meaning it’s pretty outdated and also prone to change in places, but I think it’s skeleton will remain.

Tali is a chill templar from a fringe Khalai colony so far away from the empire that it was entirely excluded from the great war that took place during the events of SC2. Him and many of his templar brethren were in stasis for centuries, only awakened AFTER the war was concluded, which is also the reason why he still bears his cords and is tethered to the Khala. (One of the big changes in this AU, aside from Shakuras not exploding and the Daelaam not being a thing anymore, is that the Khala prevails. This could be a separate yap session for later, I’m just making this clear now in case someone is confused over me mentioning it)

Anyway. He’s very chill and level-headed for a zealot, which actually came in handy because Zhakul needed to do some serious deconstructing of the bullshit Dal filled his head with and Tali was up for the job. The two end up bonding over a similar experience (being removed from protoss society for so long they feel like complete outsiders) become friends and eeeeeeeeeeventually form a Zhakul-centred polycule that also includes Jake and various other terrans and protoss.

Tali eventually gets himself killed in a border skirmish with the Tal’darim (originally it was Y’rash that yeeted him, now I’m not sure that’s canon anymore) he’s stuffed into the shell of a dragoon and does his best to continue with his life as well as he can, which is made much more complicated because he ends up having an oopsie baby (who we will also talk about later) and from then on struggles with the crushing feeling of knowing he can never be an adequate parent to them because his broken body must forever remain locked in a dragoon exoskeleton. 

The Talendir Orchard Head FamilyTM

The main characters in Project Sammuro. There’s very little to say about them for now because the story they were created for is at its infancy and therefore their characters are also very underdeveloped. They’re a down-to-earth family of protoss living in rural parts of Auir, growing and harvesting sammuro fruit for it’s rich blue dye, then distributing it across the Khalai empire as needed.

The story focuses on this entire process and also works as a lightbulb moment for Victor, who realises that the strongly capitalistic society of the Dominion is very very  flawed in comparison to the more traditional, socialistic economy the protoss have where culture, tradition and the well-being of it’s people are far more important to them than profit and power.

[vaguely-concerned]

emotional security is stored in the undramatic calm utterly certain and unbearably soft way alistair says 'my love?' when you switch to him once he's reached 'love' status

[inkyquince]

i gotta stop romancing people who get other love interests if i dont, like bruh I WILL NEVER ROMANCE ANYONE ELSE brother PLEASE

[edenprime]

Thats such a good question though like how do priority: palaven and priority: rannoch go without garrus and tali?

It never occured to me until now but yeah, it's 100% possible to make it to ME3 without them both, but it'd be so empty? From the player's POV, they are the ride or dies!

It might sound reductive, but a little bit of it is true. No matter how busy they are or what very good reasons they might have not to (tali in both me2 and me3 and garrus more in me3), they always join Shepard's mission. They don't leave their other responsibilities aside, but they still join up in the Normandy.

Tali's and Garrus' perspectives and cultures are completely different, as are their motivations and priorities, so the fact that they BOTH continue to choose to remain with Shepard must be so important to Shep? Hell, this is even acknowledged by the game, in ME3, when all three have their talk in the main battery. How would that go, without one or the two of them? How would Shepard feel?

Regardless of the nature of their relationship with Shepard, Garrus and Tali are a constant through the hardest parts of Shepard's life in the trilogy. The special goodbye is between the three of them for a reason, in my opinion.

Basically, what this all amounts to is that I can't imagine the story without those two next to Shepard.