#me fandom critical

[bluerose5]

My Thoughts on Horizon...

Not saying it's everyone, but this is just from my own personal experience of interacting with posts in the Mass Effect Fandom. A lot of the fandom seems to have this intense black-and-white view of the events that happened on Horizon where they feel the need to become overly defensive of one side over the other, and it never fails to shock me that people can't acknowledge that maybe —just maybe, hear me out— both sides have their merits...? Either I see people treating their Shepard as if they could do no wrong, or I see people defending the Virmire Survivor (more often Kaidan in the corners of the fandom where I venture) to the point where they exclude Shepard’s perspective entirely and make Shepard out to be the villain in this circumstance, even though they're both very much victims in this scenario. Yes, the VS has valid concerns about Shepard joining up with a terrorist organization. No, the VS should not be expected to immediately welcome them back with open arms after 2 years of grief and mourning. On a similar note, no, Tali and Garrus should not be patronized for welcoming Shepard back with open arms. They grieved and mourned just like the VS, and they shouldn't be ridiculed for clinging to the one person who had such a great influence over their growth throughout the course of ME1 (mind you, unlike Kaidan, they are only early to mid twenty somethings who very much do not have their lives together, which is okay). Both are valid ways of dealing with Shepard’s death and resurrection. There is no right way to deal with that, and if the VS was Shepard’s LI, people should really stop acting like that one partner should be honored that the other "took them back" after they've both been through significant trauma because of Cerberus. Yes, Shepard’s attempt to play it casual was stupid and tone-deaf in the moment (and frankly, bad writing), but is it understandable? Yes, to an extent. To them, they've lost out on two years and have only been back for several months. They not only just finished up with an intense battle at this point in the conversation, but they are also still processing and coping with the loss of, well, everything. Of course, they could've sent the VS a message earlier to avoid blindsiding them, but did they deserve to be cut off completely and labeled a traitor to everything they stand for when they were already in a vulnerable headspace? No. They didn't ask for Liara to hand their body over to Cerberus to be their next pet project, recklessly risking Shepard being caught under Cerberus' control via Miranda's control chip idea, but that's for a different post. The point is, as much as fandom likes to simplify the issue and act like one party is the saint while the other is the villain, the whole Horizon fiasco is far from simple.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

This confession will likely not be well recieved but as a gay man into games I really cringe at how some of the straight girl fandom  ship Kaidan/m!shepard.   And when I brought up the issue I had one completely understand where I was coming from and she actually ceased to be offensive.

The other ones acted all offended and claim they are 'representing' and they don't even get at how offensive they are. They claim to be allies but they don't even want to listen to me.

Maybe its wishful thinking but I hope if there is another game or any game for that matter, that the straight fandom learn to realize how they come across when shipping same sex pairings. Sorry for the tone of this but I have seen far too many things that have offended me.

[edgepunk]

While we're at it I'm tired of seeing those types of posts that show a scene from the game and shakarians are like "only Garrus says this so he's special!!!!" even though you could take a different character on the same mission and they'd have a similar or the same dialogue with Shepard,,,

(before u decide to crucify me: I ship shakarian and I love Garrus but the fans are a pain in the ass to put it lightly)

[skyholde]

“little things i like about x male character” posts that focus only on their male romances, thereby completely ignoring the fact that once again a female character exists, are Unfortunate

[wardenoftheeast]

Why would you schedule kaidan appreciation week the exact same week as the ashley appreciation week in the mass effect ladies project (which I think? was established first like a month and a half ago)? I get how this makes sense since they are sort of “alternates” to each other, BUT HERE’S THE THING: most of the ashley hate I’ve seen comes from ppl who are kaidan stans. Obviously not all kaidan fans are like this, and I like him too; but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ashley hate post on here that wasn’t from someone who really loves or just strongly prefers kaidan. Kaidan stans posting hate in her tag is one of the major reasons she needs an appreciation week in the first place. And then to schedule a kaidan appreciation week at the EXACT SAME TIME as ashley’s?? A quick run through her tag and I found hate posts, from kaidan fans - during her appreciation week! Did the same with kaidan's tag: no hate from ashley fans. Hmm. I just really wish we could've had a week for just ashley. NOT for the virmire survivor in general, JUST FOR ASHLEY. As much as I like Kaidan too, Ashley absolutely needs it more. Ashley fans need it more, when we deal with hate literally anytime we enter the tag.

[bluerose5]

To all those people I've seen criticize Irikah’s comic book appearance because she looks "masculine," you're a coward. Even if she doesn't have what I call "sunset-colored eyes" as described in ME2, she's still drop dead gorgeous. I personally could've done without the drell boobs myself (because lbr why would a reptilian race need them again?), but if your only hangup on her design is because she isn't feminine or petite enough for your tastes (which is judging her by humanity’s beauty standards of femininity and masculinity, mind you), then heads up you might want to unfollow right now because in this house we love and cherish Irikah’s badass design. Thane took one look at this woman and thought, She could top/dom me any day of the week. And honestly, mood. Had she lived to meet my Shepards, they would have been honored to be a part of that throuple. 😭

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I really appreciate that salarians have no concept of romantic love, sexual attraction how they believe sexuality is strictly for the purpose of reproduction. And I also appreciate how some do value friendships the way Mordin did and Kallo. I LOVED his friendship with Suvi. I keep hearing several things from the fandom. We should respect alien culture but then others say every race should be romancable. For me respecting alien cultures means respecting their beliefs and if they are not interested in romance that should be respected.

[edgepunk]

the funniest thing about those obnoxious sh///ak//ar//ians is that they scream “sexism!!” when someone plays as mshep (it’s 2018 stop that. seriously.) but they slap the most sexist clichés onto fshep in their fics and turn g*rrus into a toxic macho man. hmmmmm.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I get really annoyed when people say that the “Quarians got what they deserved”. No, the people who should be punished... died 200 years ago. These are their children, ignorant of what actually caused the Geth Uprising. Do the children deserve the sin of their fathers? Not unless you want to blame every Geth for joining the Reapers.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

Sloane gets people addicted to drugs and demands fees to stay in the port where its safe and if they don't pauy, she has them tossed out. I find her to be a Neo-Feudalist Tyrant I'm sorry but she has died in the majority of my playthroughs. She is too callous for me. I would never say this on my blog because according to the fandom, she is supposed to have a shrine.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:  

I cant take seriously people that say they support multiple ships and then have content only based on unleved love-polygons (love triangles etc). Be honest, please. It's fine having a preference as long as you respect those who have other preferences, what is not nice is saying you like something/someone as a fair excuse to you belittling/hurting/dimishing it/them.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION: 

As someone from South America I cringe every time I see people state that the POC characters/npcs with red or auburn hair are not realistic. I think its mostly an American thing since geography and cultures are not taught to the degree they should be taught. I just want to say that there are POCs in real with red or Auburn hair. We do exist.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I think people need to realize that not only every Shepard is unique (and they are all equally valid) but every NPC/Companion is also different for each fan. The games give you 3/4 railed interactions with preset responses, the filled in blanks/extrapolations are completely in one's mind. The way some paints a character as perfect/abusive/fun/stupid/bland/interesting/… says much more about the person than about the character (who is but a skeleton really) or his/her/their fans.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I know a couple who found each other through their grief. They shared stories of the love they lost but found they had similar interests.  These two men found loveand settled down together.  They actually have portraitsof their previous loves on the wall together. So lets not judge the Cortez/Shepard relationship please.Grief is different for everybody.  I have found most people who question the Cortez/Shepard ship really do not have an understanding of grief. Oh...the couple I was referring to was me and my husband. We have not forgotten our previous loves and never will. We have chosen to go on. Romance who you want but some of uswould appreciate it if you didnt judge us for preferring Cortez over Kaidan. Thanks.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:   GarrusxLiam popularity comparison proves to me once we don't recognize our own prejudiced bias. Their origin story arc is incredibly similar,they both tend to turn their frustration into anger and violence. They both express prejudice and/or animosity against some of the squad mates,but have a very high regard for Shep/Ryder’s authority/opinion. I know there are also differences,I can tell.But how come the core basis of the character is the same and yet belittled in one and praised in the other?

[edgepunk]

 ranty rant

I noticed this weird mentality in the ME fandom (specifically on that *one* confession blog) so when someone submits a confession about something that happened to them in the fandom, a lot of people will comment “this didn’t happen to me, I never seen this happen so I think you’re lying” like???? What the fuck?? Just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it can’t happen to other people, your experiences aren’t universal stop invalidating other peoples’ experiences just because it didn’t happen to YOU. When someone says they’ve been bullied because they romanced someone else then it’s not your place to say that it didn’t happen. Yes, some people lie about these things but I’ve seen this kind of fandom bullying and know for sure they’re not pulling these things out of their asses. Honestly I hate this “this didn’t happen to me/ I didn’t see this so it never happened” mentality.