#and as much as I love ME1 but coming back to ME3 is SUCH a nice feeling since it was the first ME I played back in the day

[painterofhorizons]

Reda Shepard & James Vega

[mostmagical]

Top 5 garrus moments :gaylylooking:

hehe. since sunny asked for shakarian moments, I’m going to keep this strictly non-romance

ME2 Loyalty mission - I simply think this is so well-written, regardless of Sidonis’s ultimate fate. All the moments leading up to this, it’s so clear that Garrus is being consumed by his grief and anger and guilt and it all comes to a head during this mission. He’s angry. He’s reactive. He’s struggling internally… Beautiful.

ME2 Garrus Introduction - quintessential scene for any Garrus lover. I will not elaborate.

Bringing Garrus and Wrex to Noveria in ME1 - Any time you have these two together is so interesting, but it’s so particularly fun on Noveria. Wrex has so much animosity towards him… Garrus has five bajillion faux pas moments. Oh, boy oh boy. Hehe.

There’s this little moment in ME3 that I’ve never gotten organically because I always play Earthborn Shepard, but right after Garrus is recruited, you can ask him about his family and Shepard will tell him “I’m sure they’ll be okay.” Garrus responds with something along the lines of “That’s the thing about getting old, Shepard. The platitudes get just as old.” If you’re a Spacer, he’ll ask next about Shepard’s family, and when Shepard says that they haven’t heard from their mother since the attack, Garrus kinda… stops. He gets quiet, rubs his hands together and says this stuttery “I-I’m sure she’s… okay.” Immediate platitude. I think it’s such an interesting character moment, where he’s suddenly unsure what to say and he realizes that another platitude is all he can give.

I love when you take Garrus on Mordin’s loyalty mission, and when you get to the hospital Garrus says, “That’s unfortunate. Hospitals aren’t fun to fight through.” And Shepard asks (so sarcastically, because why. why are you saying that Garrus), “What is fun fight through?” and Garrus without missing a beat goes, “Gardens, electronic shops. Antique stores, but only if they’re classy.” WHY HAS HE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS. WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM. And there’s even a call back to this line in the Citadel DLC and I love it so much he’s so funny

[janewayintersection]

I ... I really like how Kaidan is this man in his 30s who is confident and kinda quiet but exudes this aura of sureness in his words and actions - and then you have a strong presence in Shepard who is a leader, confident in their role as Commander, but not always sure of themselves when it comes to their subordinates/friends once the mantle of Commander comes off.

"Are you flirting with me?" - this line from Shepard sounds more like they're asking for confirmation that not only does a crew mate like them, but is interested in them. Interested in them, outside of the Commander title, and them as a person. Kaidan reassures them - even when he gets turned down the night before Eden, he still comforts Shepard.

I like that over the course of the series it seems to flip, where Shepard becomes confident in themselves in their work and relationships/friendships (much more out of necessity) and Kaidan falls more and more into this uncertainty with his personal connections, and most importantly, with Shepard. Just like Shepard, he doesn't compromise his work or his morals but you can see that on the personal side he's second guessing everything everything he knew about Shepard.

The ME3 romance is Shepard taking care of Kaidan the same way he took care of them in the first game. It makes me gush how much Kaidan gets back to his confident self from ME1 if your Shepard decides to pursue him again and how you build up that trust once more. Kaidan is much more confident in his relationship with Shepard, much like how he did to the Commander during the romance in ME1, and he allows himself to trust and be honest again.

Him asking if the Commander is flirting with him in the hospital? That's a mirror of what Shepard was doing - feeling - in the first game. Does Shepard feel the same way? Are they still interested after seeing him lose control of his anger at Horizon? Was he wrong to assume they wanted to end what they had?

I love me the dynamic between Garrus and Shepard (bros for LIFE), but there's something so wonderful about Kaidan saying he wanted to be that comfortable space, that safe person, for Shepard that just tickles my romantic side especiallg seeing how it looks like they swap roles by the time ME3 rolls around.

not to be too blunt or anything, but if i could make out with this ask and the meta you just wrote, i would. mwah. master craft. i am genuinely so honored and flattered you shared this with me - thank you! i literally never even thought about it this way before, but holy shit you are so RIGHT. right down to the fact that kaidan now technically outranks shepard as major in me3; he is a lot more confident in his profession and position as a leader in his own right. hell, its his main priority (up until the moment he decides to take shepard at their word during the citadel confrontation...).

it’s clear that romanced or not, shepard’s death hit kaidan and it hit kaidan HARD. no doubt that he recoiled back into his shell after that, and especially after shepard joins cerberus and causes a whole slew of misunderstandings, confusion, and people being kept out of the loop. it’s really, really sweet to see him bounce back after that.

even with a shenko that starts in me3 (with mshenko primarily, but also fshenko where the romance path is cancelled before it can even begin)… while kaidan never takes his shot in me1, and its directly stated that kaidan wants to avoid acting out of line with such a serious and professionally focused shepard (in his words, shepard was “always so focused on the work back then. the mission was everything,” to which shepard replies, “it’s true. i’ll never know what i missed.”). however, over the course of the plot he still manages to get shepard to warm up around him, becoming good friends w them and dealing with ashley’s death together.

so really, we’re back to our original parallel. kaidan was the one more assured in personal relationships while- wait. hold on. kaidan’s initial struggle in dropping formalities in this route could also be attributed to his uncertainty when it comes to working with shepard. this would be filed into kaidan being more uncertain when it comes to his work and interacting with his more ‘accomplished’ and emotionally constipated/serious commanding officer. SORRY. sorry. as i was saying, kaidan was the one more assured in personal relationships, while shepard was the opposite. and gah. GAH. taste. by design.

also, to add to your original take, his certainty in his actions are called into question in me3 too. he doubts his behavior towards shepard, he tries to sit down and think through the good people who were caught up in cerberus, he questions how the illusive man spiraled into the person he is and if he was ever a good person. its just good. sorry my thoughts are so jumbled and im just word vomiting as i write this reply. truly a failing grade paper on my part, i hope you dont mind!!

as for garrus, agreed! garrus feels like a really touching sort of “mentorship” ride or die comrades dynamic that builds over the course of the plot while kaidan definitely has the above mentioned parallels and has the “equals who can help bring out the best in each other’s weaknesses” thing.

also i made a meme just because of this ask.

[swaps55]

Hi! Sorry if you have already answered this somewhere, I love reading about your writing process for Opus and was wondering if you would talk about how you pick and choose which missions to assign Sam and Kaidan, like Kaidan taking on the Project Overlord mission? Also, lol, will Sam ever have the misfortune of driving a Hammerhead and how much would he hate it?

Hahahahaha, Sam would hate the Hammerhead so much. I will probably spare him that displeasure, given how much else he has to deal with.

This is such an awesome question; thank you so much for asking it, and I am so sorry this answer is probably far more involved than you were looking for.

Stories like Cantata, Fugue, and Kaidan's portion of Mezzo necessitated missions that weren't main plot for the trilogy. But since the codex is so rich and there are so many side missions across the three games, I made it an unwritten rule that I wouldn't make up a mission from thin air if I could help it. Instead I'd pull something from canon and twist it into a new shape. That put less pressure on me to invent something from scratch, and it meant fun Easter eggs for the reader.

This has taken different shapes. In Cantata, the mission where Sam experiences a blood sugar crash in mid-combat was going to be heavy on action, which meant a fairly elaborate "combat chess board." Designing a visual setting is one of my big weaknesses as a writer, so I set it on Benning because I could then use the ME3MP map as a template to craft the rest of the mission around.

The underwater mission Sam does on Proteus is what it is because the codex states that combat diving is part of the N program. I thought that was cool, and while perusing planets in the codex, the description for Proteus included an underwater colony. "Great!" I said to myself. "What if I broke it?"

Virtually every place the Yang Gang visits in Cantata is pulled straight from canon, as well as what they find there. It's something I'm pretty proud of.

(The big exception is the thresher maw on Sharjilla, which is pure artistic liberty, but I am beyond delighted that people have played that mission expecting to find one because of Cantata. At one point I had planned a really great joke where Sam nukes the thresher maw from orbit out of pure spite, so when they come back to Sharjila in ME1 and Kaidan mentions threshers, someone could go, "wait, there's thresher maws down there?!" and Sam would growl under his breath, "not anymore." But I couldn't fit it into Cantata, lol.)

As for all the side missions I've woven in, they provide a neat opportunity to spread the love. They are Shepard's responsibility in the games because Shepard is the player character, so the entire world revolves around them. In fic, I don't have that constraint, so I am free to take missions that have some good narrative potential and give them to other characters.

Side quests like Bring Down the Sky don't offer much to the canon plot, but for Opus it provided an opportunity for some pretty sharp character development while also advancing my reimagined plans for ME3.

In the case of Overlord, I loved the complexity it would add to something like Horizon: if Kaidan got a first hand glimpse at the terrible things Cerberus does right before discovering Shepard on Horizon, suddenly his distrust and anger take on new meaning.

Kasumi became Kaidan's partner in crime because the cast of ME2 is so dense that I went looking for ways to weed down the cast without having to just leave people out or inflict mass casualties. Kasumi's skillset as a thief never made sense to me for something like the suicide mission, but Kasumi herself is a delight. And like Kaidan, she has experienced the death of a partner. They seemed like such a natural fit for each other, and Keiji's role as a double agent with the Alliance also worked narratively in my favor: I got to use him to answer questions like, "how the hell does Cerberus get their hands on the Normandy design docs?"

Fugue also incorporates a few ME2 side missions that, again, just dovetailed nicely into what I was trying to do. Superimposing Keiji over the Cerberus agent in N7: Lost Operative just worked well for what I wanted to do, and N7: Imminent Ship Crash gave me a good segue into it, while also giving me the chance to explore how Kara and Aslany dealt with the loss of the 'Yang.

So how I choose what missions I use comes down to what I need for the story. I have a vague idea of what I need to accomplish, then look for a side mission or DLC that can help me get there. The Hammerhead DLC missions are utterly terrible to play, but there is just enough of an interesting story to them that I was able to weave something useful to future Opus plans while also letting Kaidan grow into his role as a leader.

The DLC and side missions are really fun to work with, and one of my favorite parts of Opus, even if I almost went bald tearing my hear out over N7: Imminent Ship Crash. XD

[dragonflight203]

ME1 replay thoughts, wrapping up the Citadel quests:

-The Quarians have uncovered the most mass relays. Logical enough, since they spend all their time in space

-Fist is long gone, but everyone is still talking about him like he's alive. Not sure if that's a bug or an oversight on Bioware's part

-There are a lot of humans in the Wards. I'm going to assume Shepard's in the Citadel equivalent of Chinatown for humans

-There aren't any Turians in the Wards until the Markets. Was that intentional on Bioware's part because of humanity's poor relations with them?

-Conrad's "wife" will love him hanging a picture of femshep in their living room. Uh uh. Sure.

-Starting the Keeper quest by speaking to Jahleed sure leads to different results! Had to fight Chorban. And volunteering to scan the Keepers means I missed out on the paragon points when I returned to Jahleed. :/ Worth seeing once, but not repeating in the future.

-The Keepers and the Citadel are a total blackbox. How did anyone get the idea that inhabiting this place was a good idea, much less making it the center of government? And why don't they at least research it?

-Yep, running all over the Citadel again to scan the Keepers is very aggravating.

-Just how did Septimus learn Xeltan's secrets?

-Turians only wear those hoods in the Wards, not on the Presidium. There are Turians in casual clothes on the Presidium, so I suppose the hoods are just super casual? Like hoodies?

-The Banes person who blackmails Dr. Michel is built up, and then goes absolutely nowhere. Others have said it more eloquently than me, but it is a letdown.

-Shai'ra's words are a bit disappointing to me. Insightful, I suppose, but not so poetic to be beautiful or helpful to be meaningful. I don't mind helping her, but I'm not counting the words as a reward.

-And again once she's done with me and asks me to leave, because she's everything she can for me... I'm just saying, Shepard could probably use a massage. Or someone that isn't a crewmate to talk to. This is what makes me feel used. At least invite me back for tea next time I'm on the Citadel or something.

It's like the consort wants to know everyone except Shepard.

-The Signal Source sidequest is probably the closest Mass Effect comes to foreshadowing the end of ME3, sadly enough. And a large chunk of players probably never started it, and even fewer probably finished it.

-I should have realized Tali would object to possibly resolving matters with the Signal Source peacefully. Of course she would assume it would turn on us. And it insisting that organics must destroy or control synthetics doesn't help.

Still nothing that even hints at Synthesis.

-Interesting. It's possible that Schells was involved in its creation.

The creator originally created a machine to help funnel money from gambling terminals. That machine became an AI, which created the Signal Source, and the original machine was destroyed when the creator realized it was sentient. And who did I just run into that created a device for winning at Quasar in Flux?

However, the Signal Source says the creator is currently serving time in a Turian prison, so Schells probably isn't the creator. They may or may not know each other. Or the Signal Source could have been lying about the creator, the Turian Prison, or both.

-Running all over the Citadel to check each shop is so tedious. Money will become meaningless soon enough, but right now I have very little. At least I picked up a half decent armor for Tali.

[sol-consort]

Who is a non romancable npc that you would've liked to romance in each game?

I want to fuck Admiral Hackett.

Man, it feels good getting it out there, you feel me? These things are good for you.

Anyway, so.

ME1

Wrex

didn't know much about korgans at the time and just thought they were the hottest thing alive. Especially that stare down Wrex and Shepard have when they first meet each other in the C-sec station and he's throwing his weight everywhere and not giving a single fuck about the cops trying to arrest him.

Are Korgans just not attracted to humans? He never makes a move on you. Ever. They're clearly into asari and we're not that far off.

In the first game, he was the only one to not respect Shepard from the start. It's kinda hot, yk? He was this mysterious edgy person with a jaded view on his race, and we were this hopeful human who wanted to encourage him to reunite the koragns. I wanted to have a slobby makeout session with him filled with teeth after his personal mission.

.

Nihlus

Listen to me. It was love at first sight. I still remember it so clearly when you talk to him in the prologue where he questions you about Eden Prime. The fact he was the one to recommend Shepard to the council as a spectre too is just the topping on the cake.

I think he was into us, as a human. Like everyone on the ship clearly was weary of him because of how fresh the first contact war was, and Shepard is the only friendly person to him besides Anderson.

My Ideal romance would've been us saving him from Saren then being a mentor and student kinda of ordeal? Like at a certian point we surpass him in power while sparring and he looks so proud of us and we lean in for the kiss and he doesn't pull away.

A Turian and a human romance would've been so scandalous on the first game bc of again, contact war. It would've been the perfect drama.

.

Doctor Chakwas.

You can't tell me that you didn't think about it! She is the only person taking care of everyone on this damn ship. We're in the middle of fuck off space clumsily stumbling our way into shootouts and coming out with bullets in godforsaken places!

She's the one that patches you up while scolding you for being so reckless. She can abandon protocols and formality as much as she likes because she's your doctor and has a right to! She can order a whole admiral around.

It doesn't help how she opens up to us about her fantasies in her youth of being this cute doctor and patching up wounded soldiers with stars in their eyes and living the romance dream. The game is begging you to make her dream a reality and give this older woman the true romantic experience she has been dreaming of!

.

Captain Anderson

Listen to me. Listen. No no come back. Come here!

I am an adult, you are an adult. We are adults. He is a very hot adult that I want to do unspeakable things to.

I'm just saying!!! I didn't know anything about him becoming Shepard's parental figure in ME2 and ME3.

So when I first met him in ME1 I was like oh. Are we about to...have a superior forbidden army romance situation? Am I your sugar baby? Golden trophy soldier? Why do you like me so much and treat me with so much favouritism? Are we doing it on the down low behind closed doors?

But no. They take him away from me like immediately afterwards and burst my bubble of fantasy. I forget about him for the rest of the game then I meet him at the end but it doesn't hit the same vibe it did at the start.

He just admires and respects Shepard. Nothing else :(

My romance and fantasy with him was very short lived and now he is more of a stand in parental figure.

.

ME2

The Illusive man

He is obsessed. Literally every interaction with him made me feel so giddy inside afterwards. It's like he gets off on just being near you and doesn't ask for nothing else. He is like a sugar daddy without the needed sugar.

And the "Cerberus allowance" credits money that you get after each missions just increasing in numbers didn't help. You report to him after every mission and he gives you more and more money. It almost makes you feel dirty in a good way.

Like based on his shadowbroker intel, he has the best escorts and strippers in the galaxy that he frequents. Yet it is you that he spends the most money on and you don't even have to put out or show a shoulder. It's not like a mercenary job either because one of his requirements is seeing you and talking to you, stalking you even.

Your meer existence gives him a rush and he keeps paying you for it, just to be allowed to witness you being you. I wish there was an evil romance option route where you go full human supremacy and agree with his evil plans to control the reapers and the last scene is like Shepard sitting on his lap in that room with the orange blue star.

I want that romance to be creepy and clearly self-serving. That both of them are using each other to get their own needs. There is no love involved, just obsession and hunger for power.

.

Legion

They wear a piece of your armour, they have a hole where their heart should be. They clearly look up to you so hopelessly with admiration.

And you're the first organic to treat them with kindness, show them warmth, help give them a name. You're everything they imagine love to be and more and they literally cannot process it. They can't comprehend the feelings they're feeling, they only know it's all consuming and they're short-circuiting around you.

It would've been a very fluffy and sweet romance where you really push the limit of the geth having a soul. To have a soul is to love, even if it's not romantic love.

But as a romance between you too, I feel like Legion having a scene where they pluck a small flower from the ground to present to you is everything. But then the flower gets crumbled in their iron grip and they look all dejected and sad.

You gently taking it and still thanking them for it, maybe putting the flower in the hole in their chest after giving it a small kiss. I have so many ideas, Legion deserves so much softness.

.

Aria

I don't think she'd allow a full romance, but we definitely would've had a complicated relationship. Both dominiating and ruling their own corners of the galaxy, yours just happened to be a moving ship.

It's like a ruthless queen and a faithful soldier. She could've made Shepard worse, you could've made her better. It's a very complicated love and hate relationship, a constant power play.

You send her Valentine's gifts that she claims to have thrown away, but you see her snacking on the box of chocolates that you got her the next time you visit. Threatening to cut someone's hand off because they asked for a piece.

She always tells you to go find someone cute to spend the night with but all of her strippers know better than to flirt with you. Aria warned all of them that you're off limit and no one even dares looks into your eyes.

Hell the fact she got a whole bartender to give you drinks for free after the last one tried to poison you? God that's hot.

But emphasis on complicated. Neither of you are willing to step down from your thrones and serve the other. She wants you on a leash like a dog at her side, you want to weild her like a dagger against your enemies throats.

Both of you were made for freedom and only deal with people who obey all of your orders. The two of you can never have a peaceful relationship because you're constantly at each other's throats but the attraction and tension is so thick in the air to deny.

.

ME3

Admiral Hackett

I don't have any excuse. I only started getting attracted to him during this game when we kept having constant communication with him.

He just...is very calm? Includes Shepard a lot and is very patient and wise. Steering you into the right direction and reminding you of the greater purpose you all serve.

But also he is down to earth in his own way, it feels intimate for him to call you just Shepard. Look at you with such eyes that have seen everything, it's like he is the single person that understands what you're going through in this, the single person to share your burden in all of this.

Because Anderson can't relate to Shepard in the way Shepard is supposed to be invincible steel, the way Shepard is supposed to be the unbreakable hero. But Hackett feels like he can relate to you in that way, like he too was in your shoes once and knows how lonely it must be.

How each relationship you have will always have a hallow emptiness inside because you can never be equal to someone. Each person you date will always see the commander Shepard before seeing you, the world will fall for your mask and not the one wearing it.

Except Admiral Hackett. It's like he can see behind the mask. He can see behind the titles and spectre status and the medals. He sees you as the little thing you are, so tired and exhausted from carrying the weight of the galaxy on your shoulders, you poor thing.

He's very caring in a way, no matter what wrongs you've done. He's very understanding too.

In ME2, he asks you for a favour and contacts you to help him. YOU! he asks YOU while you were a traitor working for Cerberus. god, the amount of trust he has in you.

Not to mention that he was actively stalling the alliance when it came to charging you for crimes for allying with Cerberus even before the whole favour DLC thing. In the Shadowbroker messages you can find him telling his subordinates "Negative" when they asked to finally bring you in.

It's also how commanding he is with just a single word? He does it twice. Once in the battle of Saren in ME1 when the alliance ships are beginning to retreat and he calmly refuses and tells them to move ahead.

And in ME2 where his subordinates write a long ass email on why you should be charged with treason but his literal only response is "negative."

His words carry such weight to them, fuck. It's so attractive the power and authority he casually throws around. Actually casually doing it unlike the illusive man who makes a point to show off to you. Hackett has nothing to prove and no one to impress.

The only person to view the commander Shepard as a fragile thing. The only person to understand what you're going through. The only person to realise what's truly at stakes here. How can I not want to be with him?

But with you he talks longer, he explains himself and line of thinking more. He doesn't treat you with the same strict attitude he gives to other soldiers. It's clear favouritism where he is gentler with you, softer like you're a fragile thing that might crack if someone even raised their voice at you.

Not to mention the whole "why pick me?" Dialogue option you get to ask him. On why he puts so much faith in you. Why he is always on your side.

And you get a straight answer for once. It's because you have this magical pull on people that gets them to work together, you were made to be a leader. It's easy to pay a merc to shoot a gun for you, but you cannot pay them for their loyality to follow you into hell twice. Yet you have that effect on people and he clearly sees your true skills that the others are blind to.

.

I have more, like James Vega, Samara, Mordin, Joker, EDI, Conrad verner, Saren, Sovereign, Kai Leng and Eve.

But I've written a lot, maybe for another time! Thanks for asking this, btw <3

[heartsbind]

🎮🐶😁

shannon the yapper

🎮 — favorite video game(s)?

OOOOH favorite....... that's so hard omg. i have a handful of games that were so impactful i made muses for but i'd prob say my top two are mass effect and dragon age. for mass effect i loved the whole trilogy and writing about kaidan alenko going from being only romanceable by femshep to being romanceable by both sheps from me1 to me3 literally was like a huge part of my college thesis DSFKDSFDSF and i also met my husband in the me rpc (we both wrote kaidan and our first interaction was him sending me an ask telling me how much he loved my interpretation DKJFDSJKFDSF and i in turn love his 🥹🥹🥹)

dragon age was ALSO part of my thesis (really the thesis was just about "playing queer" in video games from like romance mechanics to character customization and also like applying queer theory (anti-capitalism / difference / living in opposition to "normal" / etc) to play etc etc etc) but yeah if i were to think about games that i just keep going back to over the years it would be those two! honorable mentions persona 3-5 and skyrim dskfjndsfdsf

🐶 — any pets?

YESSSS my precious leetol dottir peanut... who is sat comfortably between my legs while i'm writing this / working DKFDSFDSF. i would have taken a picture but i am stuck-- but YEAH so her previous owner had to rehome her bc they were moving into a cat-unfriendly apartment and we've been caring for her for the past 3 years! she is a gremlin but she is also so sweet and precious... she was 8 when we got her tho we never learned her birthday so we just make it her gotcha day which was in may so she should be 11 now!

beyond that, my dad has a great pyrenees dog named bumble who i dogsit sometimes for him! he is a sweet and good good boy! and he also has a cat named zoey (she was a gift for my mom technically but she couldn't take her with her when they separated 🫣 but she is a youthful old lady. very mindful, not always demure--

😁 — what’s your favorite part about being part of the rpc?

the community! i love that it's a space to be creative and share creativity and the things they're passionate about with others. i took a 4-year sabbatical of sorts from the tumblr rpc (and that tbh was kind of after a year or so of being low activity prior once i graduated from college and my last computer started crapping out) and i really missed it! it's been amazing having people to yell and yap about shared interests with and also to like remind myself how to plot and flex my creativity muscles again! it was sorely needed because i really was at a point where any time my brain wanted to like develop plots every time i tried to Think of things it would just instead be like bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz white noise. still is doing that tbh but it's sloooowly getting better and dusting itself off!!!

i'm also so grateful for how quickly i've been able to get settled and comfortable here even though i'm soooo slow to actually write things still djfhdsfsdfdsf coming back right as we were entering the busy season at work was a CHOICE for me DFKJDSFDSF but!! yeah that everyone is just so lovely and talented and loves their muses SO much i just am always admiring even when anxiety sort of freezes me up a little i'm slowly getting out there again!

[queen-scribbles]

I saw the post about the big Bioware sale and figured you're a good person to ask since I've seen you posting about Mass Effect/Dragon Age a lot. The games look fun, and I'm a sucker for complex stories with customizable protagonists, but I am a complete weenie about the more, uh, mature stuff when it comes to romance and the 'M' rating keeps scaring me off.

Like I'm over 18 and I'm fine with the violence/drinking/most of the swearing listed with the M rating, but I just get deeply uncomfortable with the other stuff. I'm just weird like that, I guess.

Is it really a lot? Or is there like a skip option, or some kinda setting that'll just have it be a fade-to-black sitch like SWTOR? I won't be too disappointed if there isn't, I kind of expect that really, but I figured it was worth an ask while the sale is on/to keep in mind for the next sale.

I have major social anxiety and am kinda embarrassed about all this, so sorry about the anon-asking. :P

No, no, you're fine, I understand completely. (I can take or leave a lot of the sexier stuff myself) Now I will try to remember romance scenes bc I haven't played some of these games in 4-5 years, and some of the romances I haven't gotten to yet. 😅 (if you don't mind spoilers you can always look up the romance on yt to check for yourself if it goes past your preferences. but if you do wanna avoid spoilers I will do my best) P much all the romances there's only even potentially anything that might be a problem in the Culmination Scene.

(If I got anything wrong anyone please feel free to correct me)

I know in ME1 the romance scene(with Kaidan for f!Shep, Ashley for m!Shep, Liara for either) there's sideview but shadowed nudity for f!Shep/Ashely/Liara(with Arm Strategically Placed to block boobs so all you really see is a little bit of butt) and Kaidan/mShep is shirtless.

ME2.... I think there's 0 nudity and ftb for Garrus, Thane, Tali, and Jack(ftb on tenderness, comes back in to fully-clothed snuggles in bed), Jacob's shirtless, and Miranda you half-unzip her catsuit uniform so you can see her bra. Oh, and there's a mini-romance-y thing with Kelly and she wears something really skimpy if you do that.

ME3... I need to caveat I've only actually gotten through ME3 with my Kaidanmancers + the Jackmancer, but I watched p much all the others on yt to hurt myself. Also it's been a while. I don't thiiiiink there's any full nudity, when it gets to the big sex scene toward the end, the furthest it goes is cuddling/foreplay with underwear still on, then cuts to waking up still just in underwear, and not all the romances get that. Some of them, ah. end prematurely for different reasons, or the romance isn't an actual companion in this game, so there's less content(Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, Liara, and Tali get the most, since they join the team + have been established longer). There are new m/m and f/f exclusive option in ME3, but it's been long enough I don't rememberrrrrr if there's anything risque for them. I don't think so.

Andromeda I've only done Liam's romance and I don't think there was much in there(you can get him to stop wearing a shirt on the ship about halfway through and there's a makeout session on the couch that ftb). I think Cora's and Jaal's involve male and female shirtlessness, but I'm straight up blanking for the rest of them.

FOR DRAGON AGE

In Origins, the "big scene" for the romances does involve "sexy" movements, but the characters still have on underwear, so no nudity, and tbh with game engine/graphics advances that have been made a lot of people find those scenes cringey/silly more than sexy now. I think you can skip those, maybe, but if you can't there's dialogue after so you can just look away til you hear your chosen sweetie start talking and the conversation takes place fully clothed.

DA2 they did ftb for the four vanilla game romances. Love interest shows up, there's cutscene kissing fully clothed, ftb, wake up in underwear at worst. (Sebastian MY BELOVED is romanceable with a f!Hawke, but since he's a) chaste and b) a DLC companion, there's absolutely no sex scenes with him, you can get chaste married on his friend path and he'll talk about the two of you getting married to reclaim his homeland on his rival path).

DAI is... simultaneously best and worst in this regard lol Josephine and Solas there's nothing. Sera and Cassandra you see boobs and enough leg to hint at full nudity without actually showing it(Sera's might get a little more explicit, it's been longer for her so I don't 100% remember). Dorian's has... full rear nudity, but I think that's it. Blackwall's I don't remember, Cullen and Iron Bull both have scenes where you can tell they're naked, but the Inquisitor or an object is strategically in the way of the naughty bits.

OH AND not romance related, but possibly an issue, there are demons in the DRagon Age canon known as Desire Demons, who look like practically naked purple ladies(they have, like, an even skimpier version of the SWtOR Slave Girl outfit and are fond of caressing themselves seductively). They aren't in DAI, but do show up in the first two games for a few quests.

[monowires]

i fucking love my headcanon mshenko so much. [ESSAY INBOUND LMAO]

it's about shepard, earthborn & sole survivor, wrestling with the strange feeling of enjoying the companionship of another in ME1, even platonically.

it's about him realizing he hasn't ever really had someone have his back, not the way kaidan does, not in the way that it persists beyond the battlefield. it's about both of them practically bleeding alliance, so shepard smothers his developing crush—which, really, initially it'd only been a crush, a passing oh, he's attractive—and finds contentedness in just being kaidan's friend. because that's enough for him, really, it is, because he honestly just considers himself lucky that kaidan is interested in maintaining their friendship beyond active duty.

it's about the way in which shepard carefully trains himself not to overthink every gesture, every lingering shoulder touch or the eye contact that lasts a few seconds too long. because here, kaidan didn't have feelings for shepard, not really, those didn't come until after alchera. the regrets keeping him up at night for reasons he can't quite figure out—losing people is not new to him, it comes with being in the military—but it feels a bit more like he's lost a part of himself, an extension of himself that was seamlessly melded with him, operating fluidly as a whole. and without it, without him, he feels like he's floundering, like he can't manage to steady his feet beneath him.

and when horizon happens—there's an initial warm and subdued joy within shepard when kaidan shows up. but it is quickly replaced by aches, conflicting with one another, the realization that kaidan doesn't trust him anymore, not fully—and he doesn't blame kaidan for this, not even in the slightest, but it's still hard to wrap his head around, hard to truly comprehend. those years he was gone passed in the snap of a finger to him—it hasn't been years, it feels like it was just weeks ago that he was telling kaidan to go, to evacuate the crew. and kaidan doesn't trust him, doesn't trust cerberus—and neither does he, god, he doesn't, not now, not after what he'd witnessed while hunting saren, not after akuze. but shepard doesn't have a choice—owes his life to cerberus, literally, and they're damn well using it to their advantage. it's the selfish yearning for kaidan's companionship, the selfish want for kaidan to join him again even though it'd conflict with his morals—and shepard knows that kaidan is very morally guided, he knows that it's unrealistic and unfair of him to ever want such a thing, but still his heart yearns. it is the very naivety of the human heart that makes him want kaidan's trust, that makes him want kaidan to understand, because he wouldn't do this without reasoning, really, he wouldn't, and he knows that that doesn't negate the fact that he's working for cerberus, but he wants it to.

and watching kaidan walk away on horizon—that'd felt almost as painful as dying, and he finds some cruel irony in it, that his heart had been restarted only for it to be crushed into pieces again, this time seemingly irreparable. he feels it in the way they look at him, the ones that knew kaidan, the ones from before—feels the subtle questions in their eyes, the knowing looks that say they know of his aching heart. it's in the uncomfortable silences between him and joker, it's in the way garrus looks at him almost with pity—and tali has always been empathetic towards him, but she handles him now as if he's fragile, which he very well might be.

and kelly asks him about it, about horizon, and all he can say is that he wished they'd had more time, and what a selfish, selfish want that is. for he has already been given more time, already been given a second chance, and yet still he wants more.

it's about how they find each other again in ME3, after the reapers have descended upon the galaxy, after shepard's every warning came true despite the fact that none heeded them. and shepard hadn't buried his feelings, not even close—but that was just who he was, he avoided the emotions that he couldn't handle, kept himself composed regardless. he can't stop the hope, though, when he realizes that kaidan seems to want to trust him again—but the hope is at constant battle with the ache, the sharpness of kaidan's doubts. kaidan asking if he knows anything about cerberus's behavior, like shepard hadn't cut them off immediately after destroying the collectors, like he hadn't been on house arrest for the past half year—that even though the circumstances don't permit it, the doubts still exist; that's what hurts the most.

even if he understands it, accepts it, it doesn't quite remove the sting.

and it's a desperate sort of need to prove himself to kaidan, because even though it's been months since he destroyed the collector base, he hasn't quite managed to accept the loss of the companionship they'd shared back when fighting saren. and he's willing to try, feelings be damned—he just wants kaidan to not have to glance back at him after he says something, wants the subtle doubts to stop, misses the continuity of his trust.

and then on mars, watching that happen to kaidan had felt worse than watching the normandy split apart in the vacuum of outer space—it's a panic he can't quite quell, which is discomforting, because he has always been efficient at smothering his feelings. always has had to—it comes with being a leader. it's a panic, a terror, a please, no, i've only just got him back, the familiar feeling of the threads slipping through his fingertips.

it's about shepard visiting kaidan at the hospital. telling his unconscious and battered body all of the things he couldn't tell kaidan directly—telling him the truth, because the truth is that he needs kaidan, and he doesn't quite know when that started. perhaps he's lost kaidan too many times, perhaps he's lost too much to ever be okay with losing something else. it haunts him, images of mars, the idea of kaidan dying under his command being enough to distress him to the point of sleeplessness—but god it'd be fitting, wouldn't it, for kaidan to die on the first mission under his watch in years, because shepard can't seem to stop bringing death and destruction everywhere he goes.

but kaidan doesn't die, and for reasons shepard can't ever fathom, he wants to rebuild the bridges, to strengthen their bond. and it's a strange kind of relief to realize that kaidan feels just the same as he does, that he, too, yearns for the safety of their mutual trust. and shepard thinks there's some cosmic humor in the fact that it took one of them dying and the other nearly dying for them to finally realize themselves, but if there has ever been one good thing to come out of the shitstorm he's been wrapped up in for 3 years, it's kaidan.

and that, to shepard, will always be worth it. it'll be worth the time, the anguish, the patience (and lack thereof), the healing, the uncomfortable conversations, the unfamiliarity of emotional vulnerability. it'll be worth it. and shepard finds that love is the one thing that causes him to abandon his usual calculated composure, that overrides the logical thinking he relies on. because, yeah, it's foolish and naive to think this way, but shepard doesn't particularly care. if kaidan is okay, if kaidan is there, then shepard is okay, too—everything else is secondary.

because kaidan has been a constant since everything started—not in that he was constantly there, but in that he's here now, that their trust survived every test thrown at it. and they both find stability in that, they find strength in it, because it is theirs.

[gammaraydeath]

tagged by @milkywayes!! <333

welllll i pretty much always bring garrus with me everywhere so i won't count him for these. wrex!

kasumi and miranda are probably tied here... kasumi's a bit of a glass cannon but her stealth strike is awesome

i only played thru me3 once so no fave... i just went with liara for most missions to balance the squad but i'll be changing it up more for my second playthrough

widow!! i use it to near exclusivity

black widow also exclusively - i always prefer playing sniper in shooters ^^

i've only played infiltrator!! i'm sooo attached to ro rn but maybe in the future i'll come back and make a new shepard and try a different class out

this is harddd... idk if i have a favorite honestly! i do definitely have a least favorite and it's any of the super mountainous ones in me1 that you have to drive around on

oof ilos probably... i wish i could go back and play through that for the first time again for the vigil cutscene

ummmm archangel sorry but i am predictable

gonna waive this one bc i have to play it again to decide!

i'll give you one guess

femshep jack or miranda :(

mako!!!!! duh

personallyyy i don't see the appeal in kaidan i'm sorry :(

i actually like ashley a lot! i feel kind of opposite to most people with the virmire survivor lol

haven't played multiplayer :(

ditto

sr-2 it feels more alive

destroy... sorry my synthetic friends i love u soo much but it's the only choice that makes sense to me

on my first playthrough i was straight paragon but now that i'm going for round two and feel a little more adventurous (and have ro's personality more nailed down) it's more like paragon in 1 and then a renegade creep in 2... my idea is to have it be 50/50 (or close to it) in 3

UMMMM idon't know who to tag i don't really know anybody else on here... 😔 if u wanna do it though then i tag you!! @ me i wanna read other people's !! :)

[thatswhatsushesaid]

not a head cannon question exactly, but who did you romance across the bioware games (mass effect and DA)? and who do you wish you could romance?

oh damn this is a good one, and the answer for dragon age is literally everyone at least once lmao. I played the games with a small armada of wardens, hawkes, and then a smaller number of inquisitors, because I just was not as into dragon age inquisition as I was da:o and da2. but if you made me choose my favourite romance option for each individual game, then I'm going to be horribly predictable about it: morrigan narrowly beats zevran out as my favourite origins romance (like by the thinnest of possible margins, mind you, they might as well be tied); in da2 I am absolutely trash for anders, tho I have watched playthroughs of his romance with lady hawke and do not vibe with it as much as I do with dude hawke; annnnd in inquisition, yeah, I love the egg elf ok. he's horrible and arrogant and condescending and I love him, and also my lavellan low key wants to kill him now, so maybe I don't romance him properly lol

in terms of who I wish I could have romanced in dragon age, oh hell, who doesn't want to romance varric? but also since I loved the awakening expansion, I absolutely would have thrown myself off a cliff for the legion of the dead companion that game gives us, sigrun, and maybe I wrote a few little stories about her with my lady aeducan warden!! just a few, more like drabbles honestly. anyway I hope we see her again even if she isn't romanceable.

for mass effect, I have romanced all the original me1 squadmates and don't feel particularly wow'd by any of them because I am ride or die for both garrus vakarian and tali'zorah until the end of time 🙌 back when I still played the games on pc I specifically modded my game to make tali romanceable by female shepard and still am annoyed over 10 years out that she and garrus are apparently down to fuck aliens but they draw the line at being gay about it. anyway tl;dr I tried to romance other squadmates in the original trilogy, i really did, but even tho kaidan and male shepard do have a sweet arc in me3 and I found the payoff for romancing miranda successfully from me2 into me3 compelling (her carmen san diego energy is very sexy), I just. I know the type of trash I am, and I am trash for relationships between people who derive transparent joy from each other's company, have each other's backs even when they disagree with each other, and also who need help from a doctor when it comes time to fuck because they come from different planets and might accidentally poison each other if they 'ingest.'

....shit I actually forgot that mass effect andromeda existed for a moment but that doesn't really change my answer much lmao. I romanced vetra but uh, hand to god I can't remember much else about the game because it didn't really do much for me, so I don't know if there's anyone else I really *wish* I could have romanced.

[coraniaid]

Top 5 Mass Effect characters

Going with my gut and trying not to think too hard about it:

1) Legion

I love Legion in Mass Effect 2.  More broadly, I love what Mass Effect 2 does for the geth. 

In the first game it feels a bit too obvious that the geth exist to be disposable cannon fodder which the player can mow down without guilt.  Which … okay, yeah, they do.  But somehow by the end of the sequel they’ve been reimagined as something more than that.  As – I’d argue – the only really 'alien' aliens in the whole galaxy.  

I love that multiple geth processes can exist in a single body, and that they all share memories and experiences with each other all the time in order to understand each other better.  I love that instead of being some sort of scary sci-fi hive mind they are shown as being naturally trusting and cooperative, and how baffled they are by the fact that organic life isn't like that.  I love the way that Legion gets defensive when you ask them about the bit of Shepard's armor they used to repair themselves.  I love their silly little dance when they think nobody's watching.  I love the way Legion will defend the geth way of looking at the universe and tell the player not to anthropomorphize them or think of them as lacking something because they don't use "I" as a  pronoun.

And then Mass Effect 3 throws all of that out the window (or, uh, whatever it is that geth use instead of windows) so that Legion can Have A Soul.  Oh well.

2) Urdnot Wrex

Yeah, the krogan are basically just generic Klingons knock-offs and their society and history doesn’t really make much sense.  But, whatever: I like Wrex a lot.  I like the fact he doesn’t much like you in the first game.  And I like the fact that his opinion on you will slowly improve until, when you meet him again on Tuchanka in the second game, he's the only person from your old crew who genuinely and uncomplicatedly seems pleased to see you. ("Shepard! My friend!")

Unless, uh, you mess up and get him shot on Virmire, which I might have done once or twice.

I also think it's very funny that Wrex's loyalty mission in ME1 is this big hunt for his grandfather's old armor, and if you somehow stumble into possession of it without having recruited him the game strongly hints that Wrex would have had something important to say about it. Only, when you find it properly, and Wrex is alive and on board the ship, he just tells you that yeah, it's really old now so, of course, it's not very good or valuable anymore.  And that's the last you ever hear of it.

(It's similar to that bit in the original Dragon Age when you can heroically turn down the offer of gold for a villager's old sword you borrowed, only instead of giving you an alternative reward like some sort of reputational boost, the game just has the villagers shrug and not give you anything and never mention it again.)

3) Jack

My favorite Mass Effect 2 crewmate and one of the few characters introduced in ME2 whose story gets a fairly decent resolution in the third game.  

Yes, it would have been nice to have Jack back on the Normandy, but it makes sense for her that she doesn't come back.  She gets to be somebody who other people look up to and to protect younger biotics like herself, and that’s a really good place for her to be.

Choosing Jack as the biotic specialist for the Long Walk section of the final assault on the Collector Base after completing her loyalty mission gives her arc in her first appearance a nice conclusion too.  I think that’s one of the choices I always make (except when I’m deliberately trying to have the mission go badly for angst reasons, anyway), along with picking Miranda to lead the other team.  Just feels the way that things are meant to go.

4) Mordin Solus

The other character introduced in ME2 whose story gets a decent resolution in the third game.  (Honestly, the whole Tuchanka/genophage part of ME3 is so much better than the rest of the game it’s a little bewildering to think about.)

I almost always recruit Mordin first (sorry Garrus!) and I think the mission to go and get him is the point when ME2 really starts to properly work.  The new Normandy doesn’t feel like home until I can go and irritate Mordin while he’s working away in his lab.  I like the distintice clipped speech pattern Mordin effects -- I think it fits really well with the whole salaran short lifespan thing -- and I like Mordin’s loyalty mission and his attempt to turn you down gently if he thinks you’re interested in him romantically.  

(I don’t actually ever take Mordin with me in my squad though, outside of that loyality mission, because he’s kind of rubbish in a fight.)

Plus, he sings comic operas on request.  How many mad scientist war criminals can say that?

5) Liara T’Soni

I really like the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC and I think it’s probably the highlight of the series.  And the slightly strained relationship Shepard has with Liara by this point is definitely a key part of that (“I’m fine, by the way.  Thanks for asking.”) So yeah, I like Liara too.

My semi-controversial(?) Mass Effect take is that I would probably like the games better if, instead of giving you the usual Bioware option of romancing half the crew, the games just forced you to choose the Liara romance option every time. It always feels, to me, that that’s what the writers really want me to choose anyway.  Does any other character give you so many options to change your mind about after initially rejecting?  Is any other character so obviously still in love with Shepard even if you picked a different romance option?  But I’m aware I’m probably not playing the games for quite the same reason most people are.

Oh, also, Liara is hilariously overpowered in ME1.  The final part of the game is just a completely different experience with her in your party, especially if you’ve also made Shepard an Adept.  Which doesn’t quite gel with the story the game is trying to tell. “I’m just a shy young archaeologist who doesn’t like explosions”, Liara assures you, while effortlessly hurling yet another krogan battlemaster screaming into the void of space with nothing but the power of her mind. 

[serabellyms]

✦ Thoughts on duplicates following you?     ⤷ @firstkeptdaughter

In general: I don't mind duplicates, although I find it depends on the muse whether I'm okay interacting with that character or not. In general, I'm fine with duplicates (, though some duplicates I just won't write with or won't engage with. Truthfully, the only duplicates you'll never see me writing with are Sakura Haruno and Ashley Williams, and this is purely because of any muses on my multi, these two are hands-down the most deeply developed, and those portrayals are very dear to me on a more personal level/are characters that I resonate with on a deeper level.

If someone has them on a multi and writes them, I'm not bothered by that muse being in my space/on my dash/written by them, but I don't have any desire to write with those particular muses (partly because I do feel I'm biased to my own interpretation of them because I've put so much work into them, so it becomes hard to separate those interpretations in threads). Now, if a single-muse blog of that character wanted to follow and just interact OOC/send headcanon asks/generally vibe because we love the same character, I'm cool with that (I may or may not follow back, purely for dash cleanliness, but as long as they reach out to me and clarify that, it's totally fine) but it's not likely I'd follow back and I wouldn't accept any in-character interactions.

There is, however, one caveat I have with duplicates, and it's something I think most people can understand is a concern (under the cut):

My biggest concern with duplicates is headcanons. Specifically, unique headcanons or headcanons that are unique to my portrayal (or AUs unique to my portrayal) being used without my permission for their portrayal of the muse. It's one thing to have an AU that's similar (ex. to use Miranda as an example since that's a muse that applies to you/the person who asked the question: adding a ME1 squadmate or modern AU to your Miranda portrayal is fine, so long as there's clear and distinct differences, ex. she might be Alliance but the reasons might be different and to me that's fine, etc etc) but something else to completely and totally copy someone else's work. While I haven't had this personally happen to my muses, there's a certain train of thought I often put into my own portrayals, and while it's understandable to have some headcanons that are similar because they're built on canonical information, it's a different scenario to have the exact same or too similar of an interpretation of something.

For example, since Ashley is one of my muses with a lot of headcanons: it's not a stretch for another mun to say Ashley writes poetry, because she talks at length about her love for poetry. However, something like my delving into why Ashley's appearance changed so drastically from ME2 to ME3 and incorporating the change between the Sirta white and pink armour being her aesthetic (shown in her CE colours of her casual outfit) vs the blue we see her in (her ME3 default casual outfit, her new blue armour)... that, to me, is a unique headcanon (the fact that I add in that it's Kaidan's death that drives her to wear blue as a colour and why she chose the colour blue) that's distinct to my portrayal, and I'd be upset if someone copied/used that headcanon for their own portrayal without, at the very least, talking to me first. Sometimes someone else comes up with something that you like, and that's okay! I wouldn't mind if someone asked if they could also apply that to their own portrayal, and depending on the headcanon I might either allow it (so long as they point to me and say, hey, this person came up with it, I'm adapting it for mine with their permission), or politely decline depending on the nature of the headcanon (ex. Ashley's armour would be one I'd decline, as it not only is very in-depth, but also includes textures that I custom-edited myself for my own portrayal of her).

That being said: I believe it's up to me as the person with the headcanon to decide whether someone else's headcanon is too similar to one I have, not the community's job. If I don't feel like it's too close or copied mine too closely, then the rest of the community ought to keep their traps shut about it. People are going to have similar ideas. People are going to look at a portrayal and go, "oh, that's cool, that's interesting, maybe I can come up with something similar", and I think it's okay to be inspired by other writers.

That being said, if you're not sure, ask. And if you're the person being asked, understand that the person asking was inspired by your creativity, and loved your creativity enough that they came to you about it. Be proud that YOUR hard work was inspirational to someone else. And none of us in the RPC can't go about saying we haven't been similarly inspired by other works. It's the nature of human creativity. LITERALLY NO ONE can sit there and say they haven't been inspired by a piece of media ever in their life, whether that be a game, a book, a show, a movie, a comic, ANYTHING. Especially if you write canon muses. That canon muse was inspirational and impactful enough that they mean something to you. Remember that.

[selfvalidity]

this is where matson becomes like really fucking depressing as a guy. he is my exploration into how much i bottle up and fix things behind the scenes. after the horrificness of my version of the skyllian blitz, he knows he can't show weakness. he's a war hero of course he's fine. then he meets kaidan in me1 and he lets himself open up a bit, let's the crew see him as matson sometimes, not just commander shepard. he's in love with a sweet, steady guy! and he actually starts making friends for like the first time in his fucking life and the mission is going well

then virmire breaks him.

he thinks he failed. he made a mistake. he got too comfortable and this is why he's shepard first and matson second. he regresses and closes himself off. like how dare he choose kaidan over ashley just because matson is in love with kaidan. how utterly selfish of him

(he knows it was one of the other. saving ashley wouldn't have made him feel better. and deep down he knows that he needs kaidan in his ear more than ashley)

then he dies. gets resurrected but cerberus didn't come for matson they came for shepard. everything that he never wanted from the alliance i.e. gene therapy cerberus forces on him. because the galaxy needs commander shepard and nothing else and god forbid if he isn't perfect

kaidan leaves and matson cracks. kaidan looks at him like he's a stranger, and if the one person that made matson feel human looks at him like he isn't, then exactly what is he? so he tries to find out, carves up his face to see what's underneath and now his crew is disappointed in him and even his new scars aren't normal. they glow

so he decides fine, he won't act human. he gets a bit mean but even then he's not good at it. he's not a mean person at his core and then tali comes back and he's more stable with his best friend there. he's certainly not okay but he's present at least

and then fucking arrival happens

this is the breaking point. after horizon he couldn't break down, he had a mission to complete. but arrival? he killed thousands of people based on basically a dream and rightfully, deservedly gets put on house arrest. he has nothing to do

so matson is spirals. hardcore. he simulates ways he could've done arrival differently because how could've messed up so badly? it must've been his fault, his bad call. so through the hundreds of simulations why can't he find the correct way? he snaps when james confronts him about cause why doesn't james take off the rose-colored glasses and see what a monster he is?

they talk. they talk for awhile. matson stabilizes. again. he doesn't believe it when james says he's a good person, but maybe arrival was out of his hands

me3. galaxy needs commander shepard, so off he goes. kaidan almost dies, matson freaks out cause they were only just united. kaidan gets hospitalized and heals. and matson is tired. he wants one good thing, so he tentatively tries flirting with kaidan, like he did in me1. and kaidan reciprocates and matson doesn't know what to think. he doesn't hope for anything, but when kaidan trusts him again, when kaidan is back, maybe matson starts to hope again

they get together and it's so good

kaidan is with him, step by step, through the war and matson is happy, or as close as he can be with the reapers. he starts opening up and being honest about his feelings and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. thessia happens but kaidan is by his side, "it is what it is"

so when matson lies in the rubble caused by the crucible, he decides to live

[swaps55]

How do you think Kaidan would feel about Conrad Verner being a reoccurring character? Especially since no matter what option you pick, Shepard seems to have a bit more patience with him than other people

I hope you’ll forgive me if I Feelings Dump about Conrad Verner for a minute.

To first answer your question, I think Kaidan would be quietly jealous of Sam entertaining Conrad’s open adoration, even if he knows that Conrad isn’t exactly a romantic threat, because, well…no one is much of a romantic threat for Sam, lol. But I think Kaidan would be surprised that Sam gives him the time of day at all, much less shows patience towards him. And if he asked Sam about it…I’m not sure Sam would know how to answer, because I don’t think Sam knows why Conrad holds any object permanence in his head, especially during the events of ME1.

After Sam and Kaidan are actually together, jealousy isn’t much of an issue, at least on a serious level. And with Conrad specifically, I think Kaidan would give that a lot of space, and here’s where my feelings come in.

What I think makes Conrad stand out in Shepard’s eyes is that…he’s just a guy. The only thing special about Conrad is that he isn’t special at all. He’s awkward. He’s naïve. He’s in the way. His intentions are good, but he can’t get anything right, because as much as he dreams of being a hero and a soldier and a defender of the galaxy…he’s just a guy.

How many regular people does Shepard ever get to have a conversation with? Not many. And that’s something that actually means quite a lot to Sam.

The in-game conversation you can have with him during ME3 lives in my head rent-free. From a dev perspective, it was a fun easter egg to reward the player who kept pressing the button to see if he had any more dialogue. You get a war asset to reward you for the time-consuming side quests you did way back in ME1. You make jokes about thermal clips. It’s fan service, and I loved all of it. But from Shepard’s perspective…he stops in the middle of a quest to stop a terrorist and save more people to just…shoot the shit with Conrad. And…Shepard doesn’t want to leave the conversation. The conversation ends when Conrad asks you if you have more important things you should be doing. And…yeah. You do.

But imagine how good it feels in those few minutes, to forget how much responsibility you have to the galaxy, how much people are looking up to you, how many lives depend on you, and…have a normal conversation with just some guy. Not a turian Primarch. Not a krogan warlord, or the salarian dalatrass, or the Council, or your squad who know a million and one ways to kill people. For a few minutes, Shepard just gets to make a joke about thermal clips, and see the world through the eyes of someone who doesn’t have to look at the world as a chess board, and decide who has to get sacrificed here to save those people over there. Conrad Verner isn’t special. But what is special is that he lets Shepard also just be some guy instead of Commander Shepard, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

And I think if Kaidan senses how important that respite is, he’d give them as much space and time as he could to just be Ordinary Guys.    

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, Zaeed’s loyalty mission:

-Now’s a good time to contrast Kasumi and Zaeed.

They’re both DLC companions. Kasumi is paragon aligned, Zaeed is renegade aligned.

This is reflected in their loyalty missions – Kasumi’s is to infiltrate the scum of humanity to retrieve the memento of her murdered lover.

Zaeed sets fire to a refinery full of innocent people he was hired to save so he can pursue revenge.

-What’s most notable here is Bioware breaking from the dichotomy of male paragon/female renegade that they’ve had with prior pairs of human companions.*

As others may have raised, it’s possible that with the prior human companions the assumption was women were more likely play paragon, so their love interest (Kaidan, Jacob) should be paragon as well.

Men were assumed more likely to play renegade, so they’re love interests should correspondingly be renegade (Ashley, Miranda). Jack can also be thrown in here, although she’s not paired with another male human.

Since neither Kasumi nor Zaeed are love interests, they’re not obligated to follow the established pattern.

*I’m not including Liara, Garrus, or Thane in this discussion as they’re non-human. However, it would be interesting to dive into more detail about how mshep in ME1 has a paragon and renegade love interest, but femshep only has paragon love interests.

-Ah, the joys of planet scanning in ME2. It makes me wish I played on PC so I could install the mode that retrieves all minerals with one probe.

-Blue Suns are essentially the de facto government of Zorya as well.

Between this and Omega, I take it they’re a mercenary group aspiring to go into politics.

-Zorya looks like your average forest.

While I love that the quests in ME2 have unique environments, I mourn how all the worlds are very Earth like.

ME1 had many unique, alien settings. ME2 settings typically look like they could take place somewhere on Earth.

-Aaand it has pyjacks. I think by the end of ME2 they can be considered as invasive a species as tribbles.

Also, pyjacks are definitely what the food stall on Omega was selling. But how did it find pyjacks so big? Many were human sized; the in game model is a small monkey.

-It’s obvious the loyalty missions were not designed with a second companion in mind. In some the second companion has only one or two lines, in others none.

I took Garrus with me the first time I did Zaeed’s loyalty mission. Do you really think Garrus would remain silent as Zaeed talks about being betrayed by his men? Or that Mordin would be chill with leaving the refinery works to burn to death?

I wonder if at one point the assumption was the loyalty missions would only be you and the squad member, but later in development they let you take another companion to keep the fights more manageable.

-As numerous others have said, Zaeed and another human starting a galactic wide mercenary group twenty years ago, less than a decade after first contact, is ridiculous.

For the sake of my sanity, I will treat this like humans creating medi-gel. Zaeed and Vido started a chapter of the Blue Suns together. Maybe the first human chapter, and that’s why it’s so notable.

(I also have issues with the fact that all three notable mercenary groups in ME2 and ME3 were started quite recently in the Mass Effect timeline, but we’ll come back to that when we get all the codex entries for them.)

-Once again batarians are all villainized as evil. Vido hired them because they were cheaper; Zaeed called them terrorists.

I wouldn’t mind this treatment of batarians so much if the game ever played with it. Yes, treat a group as one dimensional at first, then later on show how they’re three dimensional. Make the protagonist face their own prejudices and move past them.

Or in a game like Mass Effect, fail to do so – and make that have consequences.

Neither happens, other than a possible minor loss of war assets in ME3.

As others have said, given the huge roster in ME2 the lack of a batarian party member is a missed opportunity.

-When confronting Vido, the framing of how Zaeed looks at the gas valve is similar to how the game frames an object just before giving you a paragon/renegade interrupt for it.

And just like you can when given the option, Zaeed takes a strong renegade interrupt.

-There’s another line of auto dialogue from Shepard when Zaeed blows open the gate.

-As others have noted, this mission is similar to the mission Anderson and Saren went on when Anderson was considered as a spectre.

Do you blow up a refinery and let innocent people die for your own gain or not?

You have the option to tellAnderson that you would in Mass Effect 1. He says that you would have a good reason to do so. If he learned that you let these refinery workers die to gain Zaeed’s loyalty, would he consider that a good reason?

-Since I’m not interested in listening people burn to death – done that once before to see the alternative mission path, not interested in repeating it – save the workers it is.

Honestly, the most baffling part if Shepard chooses this route is that they let Zaeed come with them. Considering how driven by revenge and ruthless he is, why is Shepard willing to trust him? How do they know Zaeed won’t put a bullet in their back so he can chase after Vido?

You should have an option to send him away like you do Liara on Noveria. Could be an autofail – if a paragon/renegade check fails, Zaeed tries to kill you and you’re forced to kill him.

-There’s no combat as you move through the burning refinery. No surprise; the mercenaries don’t want to burn either.

-That battle at the end is always difficult. Almost made it through with a few charges on my first try, then died to the mech.

Finally made it through, surprise surprise, by playing as a cover shooter.

-Neither of the paragon options with Zaeed at the end are compelling in my opinion. Obviously I went upper left to gain his loyalty, but the game doesn’t sell me on it.

Go upper right, you tell him you’re too much of a badass for him to kill in your sleep. You don’t gain his loyalty, but you do get grudging respect.

Go upper left, you threaten with a gun and tell him he’s part of a team.

The best is neutral, where you tell him he’s crazy but you need crazy for your current mission. I still don’t like it, but it feels more genuine than the others.

Normandy – Shepard’s Inbox

-Email from Talitha, the formerly enslaved colonist you talk down if you have the Midnoir background – One of her doctors works with Ceberus (because of course Cerberus has people everywhere) and that’s how she gets you the message.

The end is such emotional blackmail I question if TIM faked it:

The doctors say that other people are getting taken like I was. I hope you can help them like you helped me.

If it’s genuine it’s very sweet. If it’s not, I want to shoot TIM again.

-There’s also an email from Sha’ira the Consort which feels a little too on point:

When you fought Saren, only your resolve was tested, but now I fear you cannot rely only on your own strength. Take whatever steps you must to ensure that those battling at your side fight with clear minds and glad hearts.

Points to the game for encouraging you to complete the loyalty missions for the good ending. Points to Sha’ira for being more helpful than she was in ME1.

I’m docking points from the writers for not working that in more naturally.

-Dr. Michel wrote the winning email today, where she very blatantly is writing you because she’s hoping you can get her in touch with Garrus.

Girl has a massive crush on him for saving her, and he’s completely oblivious even after she gives him turian chocolates in M3.