#i recommend reading nexus uprising if you get a chance

[hostagesandsnacks]

so the Kadara Port part of the game has been bothering me since the first playthrough, where i sided with Reyes and started to really annoy and frustrate me in the second one, where i decided to choose Sloane. because the thing is, that part never feels like an actual choice that you have to consider and think about very hard. every time it feels like you’re almost forced to pick Reyes over Sloane, so probably the majority of the players do. and why shouldn’t they? he immediately starts charming you on the first meeting, you share a lot of scenes with him, funny, cute, romantic, you name it. on top of that, he’s a romance option, arguably the best m/m romance and in case you got too busy with other stuff, you get constantly reminded to have a chat with him. with Sloane on the other hand, the game frames her as pretty much The Worst Person, with little redeeming qualities, no hope of change and almost universally hated. she gets people hooked on drugs? well of course she does. i’m surprised they didn’t pile on cannibalism. you spend way less time with her and her attitude towards Ryder is cold at best, at least initially, and she only becomes more friendly after you’ve already saved her. she’s disillusioned about the initiative and openly hostile towards Tann. and the thing is, there’s a lot that could be explored with her character but never is. she’s the leader of the outcasts not because she wanted to be, but because for each choice she made during the uprising, the alternative was worse and at the end all the rest of the rebels expected her to take the lead so she did. someone who knows they all have 2 weeks of supplies and if they don’t find an alternative by then, they’re all dead. who probably knows she should return the port to the angara after liberating it from the kett, but realises she can’t afford that kind of luxury. who knows she can’t lead and inspire her people like Jien and she will have to resort to violence and intimidation to get them to work for their survival. who values loyalty only to realise she’s gotten to a point where people so easily betray her when the collective orders Kaetus to be beaten up. anything like that. but the overall portrayal of the conflict is very polarising and lacks nuance so one side is clearly favoured over the other in terms of content and characterisation, not to mention that Reyes survives the conflict no matter what you do and if you want to pursue and continue a romance you enjoy, you have to willingly allow her (a black woman in power on top of everything) be killed in a dirty duel with no alternative solution.

i wish i could hope there is some reason for that setup, but i’m too old and bitter and i know better than to hold my breath. and with so many players predictably siding with Reyes, demanding more of his content & creating tons of fan art and doing none of that for Sloane (quite opposite, i wish i could unsee the countless posts and threads of people joyfully declaring how they wish they could shoot her themselves, not terrifying at all), i wouldn’t be surprised if she ‘magically’ disappeared from any later content. 

for now i’m gonna keep saving her out of spite, because bioware apparently doesn’t want me to, but she really deserved a better treatment.

[omegastation]

I just finished mea & I loved it!Is it set in stone that we will never get the quarian ark or other dlc? I fell hard for this game and it’s hard to believe it’s dead for good:( I thought it had a compelling story, that final mission had me on the edge of my seat. I think it’s beautiful, they seem to have fixed the wonky animation(I didn’t see any in my play though) the crew is wonderful. People I didn’t like when I started the game became some of my favorites. Is there any chance of a sequel?

I was still in the epilogue when I wrote that last one. there are so many questions left unanswered. Hints that meridian may not be what we think, who drove out the jardaan (scary to think about), what even were the jardaan doing. So many more loose ends. Sorry I’m emotional after that ending lol. Finding out I probably won’t get to save the quarian ark is upsetting. I guess we’ll get books but those aren’t the same when they know they don’t have to keep an open ending for follow up games

Oh don't be sorry for being emotional, I'm emotional right there with you!!!I'm in the middle of a long lore playthrough and everything I see in that game makes me want MORE.Among the mysteries, there's also the identity of the Benefactor (!!!!) which is really my favorite thing to ponder (who do you think it is, btw?).I'm also glad you found the crew wonderful. They really are, and same, some I didn't especially like at the beginning end up being my favs. Now they’re all my babes lol

Now for the sequel, DLC, books...We won't get a DLC for sure. Next book is about the resolution to the quarian ark and while we were supposed to get it in June, they postponed it. We might get it in October. I think, considering the situation, that the book will not have an open ending. I believe the ultimate ending, in a potential DLC or book, is the quarian ark joining the Nexus at the end. With a DLC, Ryder would have to get involved since it would be like a new mission. With the book, I think there is a good chance they'll keep most of the story about original characters. But the ending seems set to me.

The other two books: I highly recommend it but I gotta warn you, the story in the game doesn't always fit the one in the books. Or rather, you don’t see the full consequences of it in the game, which can be frustrating.Nexus Uprising is not as good as Initiation, but it features my babe Sloane and if you really want to know what happened while the Nexus was stranded, this is it. You'll find that "history written by the victors" is very much a thing in MEA, because the exiles aren't the assholes the Nexus paints them to be. Sloane herself is not the asshole she eventually becomes.

Initiation is written by N.K. Jemisin (idk if you know her but she's an excellent writer, I highly recommend reading her fantasy series!!!!) and Mac Walters and features Cora in a prequel mission. It's before she officially joins the Initiative. You'll get the CUTEST relationship between her and a version of SAM, insight into her relationship with Alec, and a very entertaining read!

As for a sequel, I think we'll definitely get a new Mass Effect game but I'm not sure we will get one for Mass Effect Andromeda. The fans are very divided as well, a lot of people just don't want more Andromeda. Me, I'm team #mea2 but yeah... A lot of waiting until we'll know for sure :'(Bioware is focused on Anthem for now.