#i dont like mshep as much

[ridragon]

Tali not being a femshep romance option is actually a crime against fucking humanity.

[hellafluff]

This still makes me laugh so hard, if anyone tries to argue that Aria isn't a lesbian I'm going to throw this video at them. THEY DIDN'T NEED TO ANIMATE IT DIFFERENTLY!

[illusivesoul]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

Was tagged by @nowandthane Thank you :)

I'll tag @marythegizka @vorchagirl @judithmactir @drelldreams @messydiabolical and @secretagentdragon . Only if you feel like doing this, of course.

I'll put the blanks here and my answers under the cut.

I am a fan since:

Favourite game of the series?:

MShep or FShep?:

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?:

Biotics or Tech:

Paragon or Renegade:

Favourite Class:

Favourite Companion:

Least favourite Companion:

My squad selection:

Favourite In-game romance:

Other pairings I like:

Favourite NPC:

Favourite Antagonist:

Favourite Mission:

Favourite Loyalty Mission:

Favourite DLC:

Control, Synthesis or Destroy:

Favourite Weapon:

Favourite Place:

A quote I like:

.

I am a fan since: 2017. I had finished the Dead Space series and was emotionally devastated, and wanted to try out more sci fic games. I had heard about Mass Effect (in particular the mess that the original ending for me3 had been and the Andromeda hate wave that was going around back then) and decided to give it a go. And I ended up emotinally devastated once more lol

Favourite game of the series?: ME3. The story, the soundtrack, the whole emotional weight and all the heavy moments make it my favourite of the series.

MShep or FShep?: Femshep, but I've definetely grown to like Maleshep over the years, especially cause of the Cortez romance.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: Most of my Sheps are earthborns, but I have a couple colonists and just one spacer. Love me some tragic backstories lol

Biotics or Tech: Tech 4 ever. Incinerate, hacking, tech armour goes brrr.

Paragon or Renegade: Have always leaned more towards renegade or paragade or renegon, mostly cause I feel that a pure Paragon Shep feels almost too naive and innocent with some of the responses they have.

Favourite Class: Infiltrator, followed closely behind by Sentinel and Engineer.

Favourite Companion: A tie between Javik, Kasumi and Zaeed.

Least favourite Companion: Legion. Not that I dont like Legion in particular, its just that i dont care much about the Geth overall.

My squad selection: I dont really have a set squad. Im always rotating characters to hear their dialogues.

Favourite In-game romance: Shiara was my main ship for many years, but now my favourites are Shaynor and Shortez.

Other pairings I like: Jack and Kahlee Sanders, Javik and Zaeed, Ashley and Samantha, Kaidan and Steve, etc. Rarepairs are my jam and I have so many lol.

Favourite NPC: So many, but just to name some. Gianna Parasini, Kelly, Lorik Qui'in and the turian mechanic in Noveria.

Favourite Antagonist: The Illusive Man without a doubt.

Favourite Mission: ME1 - Feros, ME2 - Kasumi's Loyalty Mission, ME3 - Thessia.

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Kasumi's.

Favourite DLC: Omega and Leviathan.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: Low EMS destroy is my favourite ending, cause I love all the angst and how it really shows just how destructive the war really was, and how hard the rebuilding will be. Its imo the most "realistic" version of the endings. Also really like Control and Refusal.

Favourite Weapon: The Black Widow and the Phalanx cause I like the sound it makes.

Favourite Place: Ilos cause it always makes me so nostalgic about the first time I played.

A quote I like: "There. Earth. I wish you could see it like I do, Shepard. It's so... perfect". This quote from TIM devastated me when I first heard it and it keeps giving me all the feels to this day.

[nowandthane]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

tagged by @menacingmetal thank you!!!! <3

tagging @grim-starling @stormikins @vakariansvixen @westernlarch @illusivesoul @drelldreams @xoshepard (i know you already got tagged but tag me in yours too if u do it i wanna see it xD) <3 and anyone else who wants to do this!!

I am a fan since: I first played in September 2022 and it's consumed my life since! I had the OT since like 2018/19??? but i couldnt play because it gave me motion sickness kjdfhgkdf then I got MELE free cause amazon was doing a thing and by that point i had friends who taught me to mod the game and i can play with relatively few issues now :3

Favourite game of the series?: oooh idk i love them all and i played them first time all in a row so theyre kind of like one game to me... probably me2?

MShep or FShep?: femshep. ive yet to complete a game with anyone other than femshep. well, anyone other than sarani specifically lmao but hopefully that'll change xD

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: earthborn!! (sarani again xD)

Biotics or Tech: tech (again... sarani. she is not a biotic)

Paragon or Renegade: paragon choices, renegade dialogue xD

Favourite Class: infiltrator!! ive never played a class other than infiltrator (yes, you guessed it, sarani :3) but im trying out vanguard like anytime now so we'll see?

Favourite Companion:

Least favourite Companion:

you could put a gun to my head and i still wont answer those two i will not choose

My squad selection: i dont really have a main i think? it depends on who's narratively appropriate for the mission, then on who will help me most with their build. i try to make sure everyone has equal time cause i wanna see them all....

Favourite In-game romance: well it's def thane if youve known me a while youd know i used his name for like over a year while i was figuring out my gender stuff xD also garrus and tali ofc <3 but tbh they're all good!! with the exception of jacob cause bioware did him so dirty ugh

Other pairings I like: joker/edi, miranda/ashley, miranda/jack are some of my faves but tbh this world is my playground i WILL mix and match them xD

Favourite NPC: jenkins nihlus and aethyta, i kind of really want her to [liara shoots and kills me]

Favourite Antagonist: Saren for sure i need him to choke me

Favourite Mission: Priority: Tuchanka probably... i love mordin so much and his arc... beautiful

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali!!!

Favourite DLC: arrival. ok no lmao. omega probably!

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: destroy i guess but only because i pretend the geth and edi dont die lmao.

Favourite Weapon: black widow!!!!!

Favourite Place: Rannoch

A quote I like: Tali's 'The difference was you.' and 'I got better. I got you.' (very romance specific i know i love her okay) garrus's 'gray... i dont know what to do with gray.' legion's 'do these units have a soul?' kolyat saying 'the prayer was for you' when wrex says shepard is a sister to him

im gonna go cry now

[ferniliciousness]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

Was tagged by @nowandthane Thank you :) You tagged me over a week ago, but I saw someone else do it and just remembered 😅 Covid brain.

I am a fan since: July 2023

Favourite game of the series?: Dont hate me for this, but its Mass Effect 1. The others have better mechanics, but the storyline and just pure variety and choice you have in one, not to mention THE MAKO! just makes me love it so much. And I'm saying this as someone who has yet to even romance anyone in 1.

MShep or FShep?: FShep hands down. Have never even contemplated playing MShep lol.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: Ive been Earthborn 2 or 3 times but I also enjoy Spacer.

Biotics or Tech: Tech. I am a tech girlie through and through. Ive only played a biotic class once. It was fun but I still prefer tech.

Paragon or Renegade: Paragon hands down lol. Sometimes a pit of Paragade but I'm too nice to be mean to people.

Favourite Class: Engineer or Soldier. I love the tech powers of Engineer but I also love my assault rifles lol

Favourite Companion: Tali, hands down.

Least favourite Companion: Jacob.... do i need to say more.

My squad selection: ME1- Garrus and Tali or Wrex, ME2 Garrus and Tali or Mordin, ME3 Garrus and Liara

Favourite In-game romance: In case you couldnt tell from above, cough, its Garrus lmao

Other pairings I like: Garrus is the only romance I like for the first two games for femshep, but Traynor <3, the amount of times I have almost broken up with Garrus for her is insane.

Favourite NPC: Kal'Reegar

Favourite Antagonist: TIM

Favourite Mission: Priority Palaven. As a Garrus romance it has one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali's, I love the ship and the drama if you bring Legion

Favourite DLC: Citadel

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: Destroy, everytime

Favourite Weapon: M-96 Mattock, best part of being a soldier

Favourite Place: The migrant fleet from Tali's loyalty mission.

A quote I like:  "Your best has my mandible on the floor. Damn."

[calamitouscynic]

i miss garrus :(

[blazingflareon]

wanna replay the mass effect trilogy now but im torn between just going mshep or actually going fshep for once so i can romance garrus fsdklhds

[salamanders-please]

Is it bad that I wanna play the Mass Effect series again... to romance Kaidan again with a new Shep??? Like not even necessarily do anything super new I’m a mess.

[bi-mirandalawson]

Kaidan is cute and charming and I don’t think he’ll be my favorite romance but he’ll probably be up there.

[biotic-boshtet]

Mass Effect Tag Meme

unofficially tagged by the lovely @jedirangerpenguin

im bad at tagging folks soooo tag you’re it, if you want, if you dont? thats cool too

I am a fan since: uhhh hang on, since at least 2015? i know i did most of my playing in 2017 though because i took a gap year

Favorite game of the series: Mass Effect 3, mostly because theres So Much To DO as far as story goes and side quests, but close second is Mass Effect 2 bc boy do i love the drama.

Mshep or Fshep? i have never finished a run with mshep sorry, femshep by default lmao

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer? ive only played spacer, but i’ve read the differences and i am sorry, but this is my emotional support spacer!shep, also, i like being able to talk to my mom so

Biotics or Tech? biotics, always biotics, why use tech when i can throw things aroundwith blue magic?

Paragon or Renegade? i always go hard paragon in ME1, then slip up in ME2 because those scars are so cool, but i reign it in a touch in ME3. so, generally paragon, but just enough renegade for cool scars

Favorite class: vanguard babey! gotta zip across the field to slam into a guy and then punch him to death, i love getting up close and personal with those biotics

Favorite companion: Kaidan is my boy, but after him, Garrus and Tali are tied

Least favorite companion: ok Samara only gets off the ship for her related missions because i think she’s boring

My squad selection: for ME1 it was always Kaidan and Ash, then Kaidan and Wrex or Garrus after Virmire, in ME2 i tended to go for Garrus and Tali, or Grunt and Jack, depending on how chaotic i felt, sometimes swapping one or the other out for Thane

Favorite in-game romance: Kaidan, because, god, he’s so sweet. it was all over the moment he tried to leave Shepard an out, just in case. i love the messiness of Horizon in ME2, and how raw things still are in ME3, but he still wants to try? thats the shit

Favorite NPC: Joker! he’s so fun and he’s so much more than comic relief, he’s grounding and good and not to be a sap, but he’s right up there with Shepard as one of humanity’s finest

Favorite Antagonist: hmm, i don’t think ive got a favorite, but Morinth was really intriguing, and i get why we didn’t see more of her, obviously, but it would’ve been nice to see, like, the effects of her activities outside of Samara’s loyalty mission

Favorite loyalty mission:  Tali’s! i love love love having to dig around the Alarei for evidence to clear her name, and also yelling at the Admiralty Board with that good good paragon rant

Favorite mission: Priority: Tuchanka, its really one of the first missions in ME3 where it feel’s like everything is coming together, we’ve got groups working together for a common goal, we’re curing the genophage, we get to see Mordin again, not for long, but he’s got work to do, we get Krogan history! we even get fuckign Kalros eating a reaper!

Favorite DLC: ok so Citadel, but Leviathan is a close second

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: destroy, mostly because i feel weird about control, and synthesis feels a little anticlimactic

Favorite weapon: my fists, the amount of times i charge in and then just punch some guy? worth it

Favorite place: Virmire is so beautiful i hate that its such a sad place

Favourite Quote: i really really like, “THERE’S A REAPER IN MY WAY, WREX!” , but "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there and no one will ever notice." will always be very very cherished by me

[berryshiara]

Mass Effect Tag!

Mass Effect Tag!

Tagged by @pip-n-flinx​, & @joking611​ thanks! :)

@1esk19​, @dr-jekyl​, @inquartata30​ @keelime-art @maskydoolovesmasseffect @maskydoo-main if you have done these, please link me i missed it! <3

I am a fan since: I actually don’t remember when my fangirling began. It started a long time ago, but i wasnt able to play for a very long time because i could not play a shooter with a gamepad. My best friend was the one who suggested i try it with keyboard and mouse probably like 3or 4 years ago, and iv never looked back. :)

Favorite game of the series: Its hard for me to say. I have trouble with things like time, and order. Picking out pieces of a greater whole, i love the story. I love the story arcs. All together it was wonderful. Is wonderful.

Mshep or Fshep?: FemShep forever. I’ve never played as mshep. <I didnt change this from Joking haha. Same.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer? I played earthborn so far. But i dont really have a favorite. Just things i havent thought about yet.

Biotics or Tech? I always went as the infiltrator so it meant no biotics. But in multiplayer I love playing biotics. They are awesome.

Paragon or Renegade? Paragon for the most part, but i have a few renegade points in there too. Someties ya just gotta push the button, or shoot the camera hahahaah.

Favorite class: Infiltrators, i like being sneaky.

Favorite companion: Liara -  she has so much growth, i love it.

Least favorite companion: I dont have a least favorite, honestly. I believe they had greater potential that was not used, but thats life. We all have that portential, and as a fanfiction writer and reader of fanfiction you can read some good things out there. Or even write some good things. So its all about perspective.

My squad selection: ME1 is mostly Wrex/Liara. ME2 is Grunt/Mordin. ME3 Liara/James. I get people who usually help where i am weakest. As an infiltraiter i need people who do crowd control and stand in the rain.

Favorite in-game romance: Liara

Favorite NPC: Samantha Traynor - shes super cute. Bray, he gets all the crap but i like him  a lot. Aria - she frightens me and fires me up. haha. I love her pirate persona and her banter. And at the end if  you play it right shes like you truly are a dangerous person shepard. XD

Favorite Antagonist: General Oleg and Cerberus in general. They are a good theme throughout the series. That drive you to investigate, and right wrongs. I like that a lot. On both counts. When you love to hate something then they did a good job making a bad guy.

Favorite loyalty mission: Aria’s mission to Omega was my favorite. That might not count as a loyalty mission but it is what it is. I liked jacks mission too just saying...

Favorite mission: The Citadel DLC ofc. I loved being dropped out of a fish tank into the seedy backstreets of the citadel until liara comes to find me :3

Favorite DLC: The shadow broker, the omega, and the citadel. But honestly I replayed the Omega DLC a billion times, and still do. :)

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: Destroy. Shepard survives! < again joking says it best.

Favorite weapon: In game it was the black widow and or the executioner, in multiplayer its the Cerberus Harrier hands down.

Favorite place: Omega or Thessia I really wish we got to see more of it.

Favourite Quote: "You truly are a dangerous person, Shepard.” Aria “It has a fare meter!” Liara. XD “I am yours.” Liara (ADDED QUESTON) The thing I like the least about the entire franchise: The “fans” who have nothing but bad things to say... shame on you.

[pestopascal]

what do you think with the romances in mass effect overall? i was kind of happy with andromeda in the end bu t i did miss some of the other ones

sidenote i actually got completely sidetracked with your question so let me preface with that despite a lot of grievances i do enjoy the romances and the characters, obviously, or i wouldnt still be here. yes even liara, to some degree.  not a lot but to some degree shes not the worst character ive met in a game. lots of things i would improve on or yknow. change but hey. we’re here now. rest under cut skjfdh

overall? hm. i mean................. there’s no denying that femshep got screwed over massively in the OT. i mean they were like ‘oh my god we dont have any hot aliens for femshep bc we never figured we’d get this far. lets throw a fish and a bird together and see what happens. oh but then give him terminal cancer and a son he doesnt speak to, and have him mention how much he loved his wife while you proposition him for sex’ and presented it with a lil bow on top. no wonder there were and still are soooooo many fics and art and comics out there rewriting the entire romance lmao. oh and jacob? cheats on you, knocks up another woman, names the baby after you. they wrote the black man doing that? like i know bioware is tone deaf but thats too much. and if you do decide to pursue vega? yeah. we all know what happens there. oh AND if you do decide to romance someone else in me2, after romancing kaidan in me1, he says you cheat on him. you cant call him out on it. however if you play mshep and romanced ashley then someone else, you can shut her entire conversation down. their justification btw was that, same with how kaidan doesnt use his biotics half the time anywhere like when eva core smacks him around the beginning, that it was too time consuming/expensive to rig an entirely new set of lines/interactions/everything, so it’s basically just. ashley’s stuff.

and that mass effect couldnt work out just what it wanted to be, even in the beginning, with being a new cool fancy space opera, but wait we still gotta be like. super manly. no one is gay in space. (like why bother recording the mshenko romance from me1, the mshrios one in me2, and then debating including mshakarian like hello. NEVERMIND tali, miranda, jack alone in me2 for femshep). and mshep can still pick up other romances in me3, however he can inadvertently kill his me2 love interest if he dumps them.

i love shrios. hate what happened with it. i played me2 first on ps3 (as obv me1 hadnt been ported and u didnt even get the genesis comics u got a longer questionaire with miranda and jacob), and so like if you play femshep, and say u saved kaidan.......... the game automatically looped in a romance. and i had NO idea who this bloke was, but his photo was in my cabin, and it ended up being face down lmao. i did go back to me1 eventually on the xbox, and played through with the romances but yknow. that will always be the funniest experience to me. like i love kaidan dont get me wrong but like. i had no idea who tf he was.

i think andromeda tried, but never should have promised. i mean like gil pre patch? his romance was terrible (the forced “oh i have to have a child with my straight female friend bc she guilt trips me into it and i cant imagine not having kids” or w/e it was entirely idk i just know that it was. yuck). and jaal shouldve been an option for both from the beginning bc yknow. entire species hinges on forming deep emotional relationships far removed from appearance and sexuality? but hey i mean, at least they arent a complete race of sexy blue babes so. i mean i love jaal i just 🤦‍♀️ @ bioware yknow. and i did romance reyes, but im still soooooo mad that his romance hinges on killing a black woman in a place of power who is doing the right thing by her people, whose story is in the prequel novel, and you dont even get to interact with to form an opinion, and is also hinted to be suffering from the effects of being in longterm cryo and just wants HELP. just basically a “if you wanna bang this dude? kill her” like. hello.

vetra though? what a fucking QUEEN i lvoe her. my sister actually romanced her on her first playthrough and then jaal and like. cried. over turning down vetra. it was adorable. also i love liams romance? so many ppl had problems with it but it was FUN and it was different and he was funny and seriously i love him with all my heart but its a crime that they were like “actually he has to be the token straight guy” like. SURE JAN.

[illusivesoul]

10, 15 and 23 of the violent ask game please 😆❤️

Thanks for the ask :) 10. Worst part of fanon Answered the one about the fanon here, but to add to it, Ill say the whole "Ashley is racist" thing. When the game shows you she isnt and when the writer himself tells you she isnt, people who to this day say that she is are basically believing in fanon thats not true

15. That one thing you see in fanart all the time

People drawing elves as basically humans with pointy ears (which i cant really blame them since its basically how Bioware did it for dao and dai) and ironically making Alistair super elf looking with pointy ears, sharp fangs, etc. It may be petty, but it makes me basically go "Why dont you just make him an elf?".

And for ME, people drawing turians as being super buff and thick. I'm no expert on the lore of the turian biology, but from what I remember, theyre supposed to be basically flat plates and spikes all over. Not sure how they'd get muscle from that.

23. Ship you've unwillingly come around to Wasn't a fan of Mshep/Ashley and Kaidan/Ashley cause i believe in fshepley supremacy (and cause i like to hc Ash as a lesbian), but lately I've been warming up to it. And I had never really cared much about Orsino before, but @ineedmyknightcommander turned me into a Meresino shipper by proxy lol Choose Violence Asks

[sights-on-the-scifi]

Why I like playing as FemShep.

I seem to relate more to female Shepard in MASS EFFECT because I like seeing those kind of stories where characters of different backgrounds, genders and so on wrongly considered less capable and competent in society. Rising to the occasion and defying expectations regardless of that constant pressure anyway, since for example I myself have a ton of disabilities that make my own creative pursuits very hard to achieve on my own. Though it is important to point out that the MASS EFFECT series has not always fully committed to the themes of gender equality despite that positive framework.

MASS EFFECT is a world where female characters are on a even playing field sure, but to the games detriment sometimes they sort of take the piss out of this a lot. Ashley is a strong competent soldier sure... But on many occasions she gets some really shitty jokes thrown her way aimed at the fact she’s a woman in an attempt to undermine that strength, those unfortunately sometimes coming from MShep in their romance. Some of it is set up in providing some cheap empowerment catharsis, like telling a guy off for saying something really sexist but most of the time... It is just blatant misogynistic humour, outfits and or cinematography.

A DOWN TO EARTH APPEARANCE ME1 AND ME2

Back to why I like FemShep, she’s just got that normal look to her in regards to the 1st and second games, makes her feel much more real to me. Not much makeup going on and just a very average looking face most women have, especially in the military. People tend to think that fitness equates to enhanced physical beauty but that is just a complete fantasy, go search on the internet for female members of the real armed forces and you will quickly see that most just look like your mum lol.

Looking like a super model requires a ton of its own work and effort to achieve that armies dont exactly give you a lot of time for lol.

CALL OF DUTY INFINITE WARFARE also got this look right too!

Male Shepard is cool and interesting in his own way dont get me wrong, I played MASS EFFECT for the first time with him and Mark Meer does as excellent job performing his character. He’s just that very archetypal male hero you see almost everywhere in science fiction and stories in general which over time, even as a man myself I have developed less of a connection towards, he’s got more depth than most though! 

But when I’m really playing the MASS EFFECT series for Shepards story, I do it with Femshep.

[lovphobic]

I'm annoyed so I'm gonna rant lol

But I'm annoyed because Mass Effect LE came out and I'm finally getting around to it but they still didn't unlock the Kaidan MLM romance in ME1 and that's complete bullshit! The voice lines are literally there, but they got scared and removed them before the original release. But now? In 2022? You can't have a mlm romance until ME3 still and that's just not right

Mass Effect Andromeda do not interact

yeah ive heard ab that. idr have much to say bc i dont care for kaiden and i also dont play mshep VAJDKSHDK but it IS kinda :/ like cmon now....

[alienshepard]

1, 5, 9, 19, 21 have fun :D

1. What OTP(s) in your fandom do you just not get? Jack x Miranda tbh. They clearly don't like eachother, they're barely becoming friends at the end of the Citadel DLC and threatened and insulted eachother multiple times during two games and yet people call it "sexual tension" and "clearly they're just frustrated by how much they love eachother" and?? People call out the "hate sex is hawt" trope, call relationship like theirs abusive when it's an m/f ship but because its two women it's suddenly okay or less toxic? I don't get it and its my biggest NOTP ever.5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you? Ye, shakarian was def ruined by the obnoxious part of the fandom. Don't get me wrong, there are so many chill shippers but there's a certain part of the fandom who just made me never want to touch this romance. The way they hype up Garrus as The Only Romance, the way they talk shit about other romances, especially Kaidan (making him out to be an abusive stalker and borderline rapist), putting down the other romances as "less real" because Garrus is the only one who talks about having a family with Shepard so He's The Only One Serious About It, their homo&biphobia when it comes to Garrus possibly dating an mShep and their oftentimes sexist interpretation of both fShepard and her relationship with Garrus (writing him as super Alpha Male and White Knight who needs to hold the small fragile Shepard or her fragile female brain won't be able to handle the stress and emotions), their absolutely shitty attitude towards other female characters showing interest in him or their general assholery towards any other ships that aren't fShepard x Garrus, their unwillingness to acknowledge that so many other romances got fridged for the sake of theirs etc. I could write whole essays aboutthis but I think I got my point across asdfghjkl 9. Most disliked characters. Why? I already mentioned in another ask that I heavily dislike Garrus' character arc during Mass Effect 1&2 but the only other character I really dislike is Conrad Verner. I prefer playing as fShepard and I could never see anything funny in Conrads obsession with Shepard. It's not hero worship, it's not liking a certain celebrity and being awkward around them - it's just straight up stalking. He literally tells Shepard he lied about his wife (which is oftentimes a tactic abusive creeps use so that women let their guard down around them) and then confesses he has a shrine of them at home?? I hate him and I hate how everyone treats this as this funny running gag 19. What is the thing you hate the most about your fandom? Ohhhhhhhhh boy the Mass Effect fandom is such a shitshow it's hard to decide tbh. I mean apart from the biphobia (or just queerphobia in general), the racism and sexism, it really has to be the policing when it comes to other peoples Shepards and the way individuals design them. There are the militant fShepard players who vilify mShepard as "just your average cishet dudebro" and write essays how boring he is, without ever acknowledging that mShepard is far from being the average cishet dudebro, the people who get angry about people not using the default Shepards, people making posts like "if you dont use Jane/John as your Shepards names, I instantly lose respect for you" or "biotic Shepards are so boring, yall just want to have an excuse to have space mages, nobody wants to read about biotic Shepards anymore", the ones who are way too stuck up about ""military protocol"" and harass people with super feminine Shepards and making posts like "who has time to do their make up during the war it's so unrealistic" or "umm sweaty actually only light make up and tied up hair is allowed in the navy :)" (who fucking cares it's the future, people are fucking aliens, I think the alliance couldn't give less fucks about Shepards hair as long as they do their job lmao?) And just their general attitude when it comes to romances like the posts that go like "if you dont romance Garrus, you're playing the game wrong" or "wow I can't believe Liara is the only canon romance for Shepard" etc. The fandom is just so obnoxious about others OCs and police so many people on their designs (Not included in this is valid criticism when people actually have insensitive and harmful tropes/designs for their Shepard) The fandom likes to brag about how inclusive they are on OCs compared to other fandoms but then they have those ridiculous ship wars and tear other people down for the way they design their OCs smh21. What are your thoughts on crack ships? I don't mind them as long as they're not harmful (like shipping mShepard with Traynor or fShepard with Cortez) I'm normally a big fan of the "these people have never met in canon but let's make them fall in love in fics", especially as someone who creates OCs simply to romance characters I personally like and who don't have LIs in canon. Shipping my mShepard with Ashley and Miranda and having the three of them be in a poly relationship started out as a crack ship but now it's canon for me lmao (Thanks for asking this got super long I'm sorry ahdjdsjsk)