#mass effect

[xcal1bur25]

The counterpart to this is that Garrus is the singular person in ME2 who Shepard can 100% trust. Cerberus crew? Untrustworthiness is self-explanatory. Ex-Normandy crew? Okay, the trust is not zero but come on you joined Cerberus. Everyone being recruited? Might be trustworthy eventually, but all new faces, and all ones Cerberus explicitly gave the okay to. Tali? Sure, 99% trustworthy...minus the fact that Cerberus was okay with her being there. Only allowed onto the team once Cerberus was sure that she wouldn't destabilize the relationship between Cerberus and Shepard. Like, yeah, you can absolutely trust Tali! But also Cerberus has implicitly clocked her as a risk they're willing to accept and a variable they're able to work around. But Garrus? Cerberus didn't vet Garrus. They vetted Archangel. They absolutely would not have allowed Garrus on. But OOPS, turns out Archangel is Garrus AND he's 100% ride or die for Shepard specifically and Shepard is super happy to have a trustworthy face so they can't exactly go back on recruiting him now without ruining their whole plan.

Something that really stuck with me while I was playing Mass Effect 2, and that I feel was so important to understanding the relationship between Shepard and Garrus, whether you romance him or not, is that Garrus is your only companion from ME1 who never moved on.

You died. The crew watched you die. Assumedly they grieved you, there was a funeral service, there were tears and all five stages of grief. Things were rough, but eventually life took on a shade of normalcy again.

Kaiden/Ashley got reassigned and continued their work for the alliance. Liara fights tooth and nail to get your body to Cerberus, but then it’s out of her hands and she becomes an information broker. Tali goes back to the Floatilla, like she was always supposed to. Wrex becomes a clan leader. And yes, they’re all fundamentally changed by their time on the Normandy, but no one seems as stuck as Garrus Vakarian.

Because he doesn’t go back to the Citadel. He doesn’t join the Turian Hierarchy. He ships himself off to Omega, one of the most dangerous places he could be, and makes a life out of pissing off the most dangerous people there. It’s kind of a suicide mission, especially after what happened with Sidonis. He kind of figures he’s going to die doing this, but what else can he do?

There is no normalcy for Garrus in a world without Shepard, and I think that’s why he’s always immediately ready to come back to the Normandy. The Normandy, and Shepard, are home for Garrus and that’s why I think romancing him feels like the natural conclusion for so many femme Sheps, because Shepard feels that way too.

Of all the companions, no one needs Shepard to live more than Garrus, and no one needs Garrus more than Shepard. They’re perfectly matched, as lovers, as friends, as soldiers, as whatever they are in your universe and when you’re that perfectly matched with someone, you never quite feel whole without them.

No Shepard without Vakarian.

[felassan]

Mass Effect 2 released 15 years ago today!

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Love it when a video game has two female companions with different worldviews but chemistry that's just off the charts get into a fight that your protagonist is just absolutely in no way qualified to mediate and the tension is so high you're pretty sure as soon as you left the room they had angry gay sex about it.

[graciescribbles]

my one and only Commander Shepard.

[edgepunk]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME3 (dev. Bioware)

[arinchez-png]

[ashalle-art]

I rarely get to do father/daughter vibe art, so I was super happy to work on this commission with a friendship between Shepard and Anderson 💕

[gingermeg]

hate him and his slutty little waist

[clericofshadows]

REGIS SHEPARD MASS EFFECT 3 - TALKING WITH ARIA CLERIC'S VEILGUARD CASUALS FOR MALE SHEPARD & MORNING'S ACCESSORIES FOR SHEPARD MODS

[gameplaymen]

COMMANDER JOHN SHEPARD in Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition (2021)

[hyperions-light]

Bio(ware)feedback 1/25/25

Hello! It is Saturday, January 25th, 2025, and it is Bio(ware)feedback day!

How it works:

Reblog this post and add a link to your fanfiction from the Mass Effect or Dragon Age fandoms (other BW properties are also fine, but I don’t know them as well)

I will reblog your addition for reach, read your fic (for multi-chapters, I only read the first one), and leave kudos + a comment (my pseuds are hyperions_light and flyiing_giraffe)

This process usually takes a few days. Thanks for your patience!

Guidelines:

All ratings, all pairings are fine, but please warn me if you are sending explicit stuff, especially if your fic is somewhere other than AO3.

I will reblog fic/fic posts here on Tumblr, but please link them in your reblog for convenience.

This is intended primarily to bring exposure to works that might have been overlooked. If your fic has over 700 kudos or comments, I am going to respectfully ask that you send a different fic or sit this event out.

I am scheduling this post for 12 p.m. MST, and submissions will be accepted until 12 a.m. MST. Check the time here!

If you include more than one fic and have a preference for which one I read/comment on, please indicate it.

If you want to submit a fic you’ve already submitted, that’s completely fine! I think you should promote your work! However, I will prioritize fics I haven’t read before for comments. (I’ll read/comment on another chapter, though!)

I know there are a lot of fantastic writers in the BW fandom whose stuff gets overlooked because of the sheer volume of content/the relative popularity of pairings, so I just want to give people a place to promote their work. You don’t need to follow me or agree with me or anything to participate in this— just please be polite! Thanks so much for sharing your work!

[average-mako-enjoyer]

The more I play Veilguard, the more obvious it becomes to me that this game hates being a Dragon Age game the same way Andromeda hated being a Mass Effect game.

It also fails to be a Dragon Age game in the same way that Andromeda failed to be a ME game, and I find it very funny.

[notebooks-and-laptops]

When Garrus Mass Effect engages in literal police brutality on a daily basis everyone falls in love with him, but when I, Aveline Dragon Age--

[wepepe-draws]

She likes to kiss his scars 😚

[edgepunk]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition: ME3 (dev. Bioware) ↳ Liara's New Armor [x]