#ME2 spoilers

[catsharky]

As terrifying as it would have been, I like to think there was a moment of peace there at the end, among the stars.

-

So... this is the next part of the Shakarian comic, but it's not the big one I said would come next. I've made the decision to put that on the back burner for now and pick away at it a lot more slowly while I continue on with what I originally had planned. The next thing you see from me will likely be the Joker-centric part I mentioned a while back, but for now please enjoy this rare coloured comic in the meantime.

Part 1 • Previous Part • Next Part

[sol-consort]

Two years dead and everyone arounds you act as if it was your fault, as if you coming back to life disrupted their mourning.

And I get i, I get it. But to Shepard, it was only a few weeks. They were lost in space in anguish from the pain of choking as their lungs burned. The vacuum of space sucking whatever life left out of their beating heart as their final moment before their eyes closed.

Then they open them and find themselves on a medical bed. Two years passed in a blink, a second to them. Their body is the same, except for a few missing scars. Everything about them is the exact same as if they were plucked out of space during that moment and thrown two years ahead into the future.

But everyone else has changed, moved on. And no one wants to explain themselves, close friends treating them like strangers, news mentioning their name as one of the past legends, left to collect dust in the history books and memorials.

Like crashing their own funeral just when everyone else was done crying, and people feel upset at you for somehow beating the odds and surviving. Then it's Immediately back to duty, you don't even get to announce the fact you're alive again publicly. It gets spread in rumours and witness accounts.

And no one acknowledge how lonely it must have been to die surrounded by friends, knowing at least you died for them to survive. Only to wake up alone and remain alone, for everyone you've known died, or changed beyond recognition.

[anotheroneformasseffect]

The thing about Garrus Vakarian that makes him such a 10 is that he came out of fucking nowhere.

In the first game I felt mid about him, even a little low-key concerned because he had some alarming ideals and I just had people closer to me who did the job better. Wasn't too sad to see him go.

And then there was the whole harrowing fiasco that was ME2 where he just fucking ajzbeinrbfusjanwb... And his reveal was such a roller coaster, such a colossal relief and horror and relief again. And the ride or die thing, because if you thought I was letting the emotional support vigilante out of my sight after that, think again.

I think I was like 10 hours from the end of ME3 (and WAY too far up another romance route), when the realization knocked me flat on my ass.

I love Garrus Vakarian.

Wtf am I doing with [xyz]?!?!

Holy shit, I LOVE him.

Embarrassing, honestly. He's pixels. I'd had game feelings before but... like via the main character, not like... hit me with a sack of bricks, stop dead in my tracks on a random Tuesday, moment of complete clarity type feelings. The Garrus thing really does sneak up on you though, lmao. Full arc. 10/10. Such damn good writing. Love that little guy forever.

[maintitle]

I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but the first time I ever played Mass Effect 3 I did the full playthrough without Garrus. I managed to save everyone on the Suicide Mission in ME2 blind except Garrus, and I didn't realize until a few days after the game launch that Garrus could survive the suicide mission. It was a very confusing experience that I pretty much rushed through because I wanted to replay the second game and fix my mistake. It's also why I think I'm a bit frustrated that there aren't more companions from ME2 in that game, because the phantom memory of a playthrough without BOTH Garrus and Javik still exists as a spectre of horror deep in my soul even after the memories have largely faded into the abyss.

[carnalapples]

was this your first time through me2? who did you romance, fave companion, did you lose anyone, thoughts!!

It was!! So many thoughts:

I played FemShep, and I didn't romance anyone in ME2, but I romanced Kaidan in ME1 and I'm very intrigued to see him again

God, Horizon—the idea that he's been grieving for 2 years and is finally coming to terms with this, but to Shepard, it's been a matter of weeks?? That he was always on your side before, but now he has to draw the line and throw that wall up

I'm also so intrigued by the whole concept of Shepard being brought back to life and how that would work? And whether they would feel like they were still themself or not

It is so hard to choose, but my favorite companion is probably Tali—I had a little crisis during her loyalty mission, and I loved seeing how she was so torn between telling the truth and preserving her image of her father

I also really liked how you could challenge her on the geth, and I felt my opinions changing the more I interacted with people on the Migrant Fleet—the whole story of the quarian/geth struggles was so interesting!

I love Miranda and her strength—she really grew on me through the game, and I ended up taking her and Tali on most of my missions

I also love Legion: when you ask why he waited so long just to use Shepard's armor to patch that hole, and the response is just "no data available" ugh

There wasn't a character I disliked; even if I didn't get on with them at times, I could understand them—I thought the writing was great on that front

(On a side note, I really enjoyed that so much of the crew either had daddy issues or was the parent causing the issues)

The suicide mission stressed me out so much, especially making so many on-the-fly decisions—I loved it, and I thought the stakes felt so real. I lost Zaeed, which was—looking back on it, a fitting end to his story, but I was so shocked and I wish I could have gotten everyone out

On a more superficial note, the new Normandy looked amazing?? As much I missed the Mako and my horrible driving/"XO Pressly has the deck," I loved being able to wear sweatpants and the idea that Shepard puts together model ship kits in her free time

"Assuming direct control" haunts me

It was so haunting walking around the ship after the Collector attack—I loved the atmosphere of ME1, but I think this game had some really chilling moments

Sorry, that was a lot, but I loved this game! I can't wait to see how the next one goes—thank you for asking!

[fridayenights]

I never thought about it like that… makes me happy now that I always choose him to be the leader of Fire Team.

My boy is getting that closure he so desperately needs. 🥹

A thought I had about Garrus "I Took A Rocket In The Face And It Only Made Me More Mad" Vakarian in ME2: picking Garrus as the leader of at least one of the fire teams in Suicide Mission is not only sensible, because as the Shadow Broker terminal says, he has excellent team-building and leadership skills, it's also a chance for Garrus to get closure that doesn't have anything to do with revenge. He lost his whole team back on Omega, but is now leading another into hell against impossible odds - and he pulls it off. He gets the job done and brings his team back alive. Hearing his gleeful exclamations trough Shepard's earpiece throughout the fight makes me feel like it's exactly what is happening. What he needed was not revenge. What he needed was something to go right. Just once.

[walking-loather]

so im normal and bc of that i wrote 5k words of battlefield medicine mass effect 2 fanfic and my wonderfully eloquent title was "garrus esploded :/" and i forgot about that until i opened it up for proof reading and promptly lost my shit.

[scripts4dreamers]

Hey, so don’t think about your romance partner from Mass Effect going back to what’s left of Anderson’s apartment in the wake of the final mission.

Don’t think about them seeing the photo you took at that last party, the two of you smiling at one another instead of the camera because you were just so happy.

Don’t think about them slowly packing up the things of theirs they’d left behind back when they thought you would still have a future at the end of everything.

Don’t think about them finding the Datapad Anderson had left behind, the one where he talks about Shepard. About how hard they worked, how alone they had been, how they never complained. Don’t think about them sobbing silently, clutching the pad to their chest as David Anderson mocks them from beyond the grave.

“A person like Shepard is even rarer.”

Just don’t think about it.

[lizzybeeee]

DATV explaining the 'Regret Prison'

A REGRET PRISON IS STUPID AND I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING THAT ITS NOT

TL;DR: a prison can serve as a metaphor but it shouldn't be entirely comprised of a metaphor.

From what I understood from what the game gave us: Solas has made a new prison to move the God's too - since bringing down the veil would free them from the Black City. This new prison is separate(?) from the fade or so far removed/contained that bringing down the veil would not compromise it...apparently. We interrupt his ritual, Solas gets sucked into the new prison he made, and the elven gods are free.

When Rook gets kicked into the fade they're physically there - which means it's a physical place in the fade, like how it was a mixture of physical/thought when we entered it in DAI. Which makes sense - the gods are real and living beings, they need to be in a place, there must be some aspect of physicality to it.

Alright, cool, it's a Black City 2.0 - I assume it's better defended to prevent people breaking in/out again?

NOPE.

We get there and it's a 'regret prison'?? It's tied to the regrets of those within it? Composed of regrets??? Solas had to wait for the right moment for Rook to be sufficiently 'full of regret' that they could switch places?

So is the prison tied to Solas's regrets? If so, how can Rook escape? The prison seems to work around the idea that it relies on the regrets of the person it's holding to work - which is how/why Rook was able to be trapped and later free themselves (along with whatever remains of the team apparently being able to do something on their end, not that we hear about it).

WHICH IS STUPID!

Are you telling me the prison intended to hold to megalomaniac elven gods was going to imprison them based on their own regrets? Is Solas assuming that Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are as self-pitying as he is? They'd break out quicker than Rook did! He made a time out corner for the elven gods to sit in and gave them an out if they reflected on their emotions/regrets or decided that they don't regret what they did. Elgar'nan, a spirit of tyranny, is not going to 'regret' his actions - he is going to justify them by telling himself and others that he knows what's best.

We can come across some of Solas's regrets in the prison if you run around a bit and explore:

Remnant of Failure - talking about the orb from Inquisition.

Remnant of Parting - talking about Mythal

Remnant of Reflection - more vague, talking about the Titans I believe.

So maybe he altered it - maybe he intended the prison to be 'locked' with his own regrets because after a millennia of having a pity party he still can't bring himself to self-reflect and look to the future. But what if Solas died? Or if his guilt lessened - would it diminish the strength of the regret prison?

We already have pre-established lore (though DATV has shown they don't really give a crap tbh) that once the being that has claimed/altered an area of the fade is slain, it's influence diminishes both in and outside of the fade. So if the prison was tied to his regrets then it would require Solas to basically live forever to keep it stable - especially if he brought down the veil and removed the one barrier that kept the world and the fade apart.

Rook and Solas needed some assistance to exit - but it doesn't seem like it was much! Solas used his dagger and Rook just...got out through a fade tear? This is Solas's 'more secure' second prison? It has a worse track record than the Black City! If Rook - who is not an elven god - managed to escape the regret prison what is to stop anyone else from breaking in and out of the prison?

And what did Solas intend to do with the blight - the bulk of which is apparently in the black city?? If bringing down the Veil would free the gods in the black city doesn't that mean that the blight would also be released?! Did he have a plan? Why does he go fully ahead with bringing down the veil at the end if the black city is still there and filled with blight?!

I get it: the 'regret prison' is a metaphor for how Solas holds onto the past and how Rook can move past their regrets and grow. He's trapped by the past - it's a prison. Cool. But this prison is supposed to by a physical place to contain the gods - not just to solely contain Solas. The mission is literally called 'A Cage for Gods'.

The Black City is an actual place that's so far out of reach of anywhere else in the fade that no mage can ever reach it while in dreams - let alone physically, which was only done once and took tremendous effort/blood sacrifices. It made sense - it was cool to see floating in the sky in DAO!

Though it's not said specifically, it's strongly implied that Arlathan is the Black City. You can see in the concept art that floating elven city is exactly the same as the black city in DAO! It's this foreboding thing just lurking in the sky - a constant reminder of the sin that led to the horrors of the blights and darkspawn. A real place with lore and history that also serves as a metaphor for the hubris and destruction of those who call themselves gods and act as tyrants -> for both the evanuris and the magisters.

I WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS BIOWARE!

WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS NONSENSE???!!

[mrs-gauche]

So I have seen several people now playing with the idea that Rook might've actually died at the ritual site and that whatever happened there with their blood and their connection to the Fade/Solas/the Dread Wolf pride demon was something similar to what we know of demon/spirit possession that can bring people back to life...... which would be absolutely insane to me, given what that could imply for the story and also how Solas feels about free will and abominations and... you know, all of that. 😂

BUT (and this is probably the most tinfoily I'm gonna get at this point lol)....

Between THIS and *checks notes*...

The short story "The Wake" implying that Lucanis died some time after The Wigmaker Job, him being called "The Demon" and all the pride demon imagery in his design/tarot card, having people suspect that he was brought back to life by a pride demon.

The devs saying "Manfred the skeleton is not romanceable, but we're not saying NO skeleton romance".

Harding suddenly having magical abilities.

There being something eerie about a lot of the companion tarot cards, mostly because of the glowy eyes that we often associate with possession.

....so I'm just gonna put the tinfoil hat back on and conclude that all this clearly has to mean that.. uh...

Everyone is dead...?

And they're all abominations now, which means that somehow all of them have a connection to some powerful spirit/demon that brought them back to life to join Rook on this final mission to save the world. 😂

Or something like that, Idk, the heat is clearly getting to me. lmaoo 💀

[sol-consort]

Mass effect 2 screenshots pile that I forgot to post

[tragicblondie]

COMMANDER AVELINE SHEPARD spacer • ruthless • infiltrator • paragade

[princessshikky]

DAO: Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the good of the many. Your Warden might leave Redcliffe to be ravaged by the undead, let Branca have the Anvil of the Void, convince the werewolves to massacre a Dalish clan, side with the man who committed fratricide for the throne and plans to usurp the power, recruit a man who started a civil war in his own country and sold its citizens to slavery - all in the name of stopping the Blight.

DA2: Sometimes there is no good choice. Shit happens because of things that are outside of Hawke's control, and the best thing Hawke can do is try to manage the outcome.

ME2: Shepard literally has to genocide the batarians in order to delay the Reapers' arrival and buy some time for the galaxy to prepare for a war.

ME3: Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the good of the many. Shepard might lie to the crogan about curing the genophage in order to get the salarians' help, sacrifice either the geth or the quarians (or potentially both) and forcibly alter the bodies and minds of every living being in the galaxy.

DAI: Sometimes the best outcome is the one where you let that Orlesian empress be killed and help that elven rebel blackmail the new emperor into submission. Also, you may convince the future Divine that killing people is the easiest and fastest way to victory.

...

DATV: Oh no! Solas, an army general fighting in a rebellion against slavers and tyrants, had to *gasp* sacrifice some people in order to obtain a weapon that could bring them victory! How could he!.. What an irredeemable monster, right?

Just. How? How did we get from genuine grey morality to this? I just... ugh.

[ndostairlyrium]

I think I'm less disappointed with the finale than others because I was there for the me3 finale debacle lol

The bad part is that me3 finale made sense. It was just um, straight up one of the worst ideas they could ever think of, but it made- sigh.

Here you have like, the perfect build up, the stakes are me2 level of "if I fucked up during the pt my friends are gonna pay the price", and closure with your companions. However it's contradictory asf, it forces you to break immersion and, in the wrongest moment for a rational thought makes you say "wait, why are we back to step 1? what about the bli- aw the lost elf theme ;; hold on, why aren't you bringing up the things that has been repeated nonstop via super long expositions throughout the game?? MR. MORRIS COME BACK, CONFUSE ME AGAIN"

It's gorgeous, but it doesn't make sense, and then it does, and then it doesn't again. I am confusion

Back in my days (lmaooo) we got an apology and a 2gb free dlc called "extended cut" that was like this meme

but it did patch only a few things. The finale stayed there. Immutable

and we only had to presume what went wrong during development, but then we all saw the artbook and agreed that maybe there were interferences from above and that the real treasure was the friends we made along the way and that would die horribly if you had 50% or less of reactivity that you could raise only by playing the multiplayer and those who were playing the game on a console had to spend money to gain access to it

Yeah, I don't think they're good at finales. "But at least"

[galedekarios]

honestly, i am enjoying my second playthrough of veilguard so much.

taking my time with the game and really exploring every nook and cranny of its environments offers so many cool moments.

yesterday i found two things that i loved and wanted to share bc i do appreciate that sort of love for detail.

during harding's quest you can see a manifestation of a titan watching you from afar throughout the mission:

a companion (in my case emmrich) even comments on feeling a "malevolent" gaze upon us:

when you turn back around, this figure is gone:

this figure appears multiple times during the quest.

2. minor quests that you may think are unimportant/tedious lead into new quests that do have an impact later in the game

yesterday i finally decided to do minrathous treasure hunt quest, expecting it to be nothing more than a tedious fetch quest.

it wasn't.

it lead into the catacombs below minrathous to a conspiracy of a demon feasting on the despair of dock town's citizens:

in general i can say that the level design in this game is actually amazing. it's truly a standout to me. i think if i had stopped at that one playthrough, where i completely rushed through the game just to get from point a to b, i would like the game much less than i do now.

also listening the variety of companion banter while i explored is genuinely a treat.

[mothshrub]

The inside of Grunt's brain: