#me2 critical

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I've always disliked the idea of Shepard being dead - and then a hate group bringing them back. Whats worse, Liara, who Shep can be romatically involved with, cooperated with the group to get their remains to the Lazarus Research Station. It just seems such a strange solution for 'we need time to pass between the titles and need a good reason for Shep to be away from all their friends and not know what happened to any of them or what is going on'

And its not like the project is really explored either. Like there are so few implications drawn from it. Shep is asked about some things from the last game (To confirm some game choices) and then thats that. Sure I know the whole thing comes back in the DLC - but then its treated as a one off as well. I mean imagine if Shep was plagued by the doubts of them being a clone as well - or not knowing if they came back right.

You are told Shep is full of implants now - but you literally have the choice to erase the scars forever and never worry about it again! I just wish this was explored more. Like, it kind of reminds me of the body horror of Aliens: Resurrection where Ripley (the galaxy's savior) comes back wrong. How about reaper tec being used in bringing Shep back? Or discovering a cloning facility at the Colleactors ship? There's just so much that could have been done aside of just 'They died and came back like jesus'...

It's such a shame BioWare didnt really choose to explore this further.

[omegastation]

their friendship is everything

from the way he makes them join the dancefloor, her comment about him not knowing how to dance, his little smile, the way they proceed to dance anyway

me2 is so bad regarding mshep&jack, and this makes things so much better. i love them like this

[shepardlives]

I’m going to make a longer post about this later but Lair of the Shadow Broker should’ve been about Liara coming to terms with her mother’s death and her legacy

Edit: thoughts on this hypothetical under the cut

[solstheimtxt]

So i resumed my me2 insanity pt:

Squaddies are absolute ass no matter who you bring, so i googles it and apprently the best thing to do is literally have them wait back a bit, and just solo the whole mission and use their powers as needed

✌️😭✌️ fuck me2 man this shit sucks can the squadmates pls just get out of the line of bullet fire??

So far my pt has been:

>keep squaddies back, run forward to cover. Use squaddies powers, use combat drone, get a few shots in as needed, rinse and repeat

[jadequarze]

Replaying ME2 Suicide Mission ost while drawing Imogen with a long coat inspired by the new ME trailer. In my silly little zone

[greypetrel]

Live Max Reaction

Going on with Mass Effect 2, I would have a couple of things to say about the romances, but I'll let Max "Disagio" Shepard do the talking.

(Hi new followers, welcome! In case you were wondering, my superpower is entering romances in Bioware games without knowing it. It happened with Alistair and Anders in Dragon Age. Oops, I did it again: It happened now with Jack. Which I'm told shouldn't be romanceable by a female Shepard, but I don't know what to say, I succeeded. Max decided to be genderfluid. And a bro. Liara waits for news about her as one waits for the next episode of a tv show full of cliffhangers.)

(I love Garrus, btw, it was just so much of a TMI that I laughed hard, and had to draw a live Max reaction.)(thane is a great character, but that romance option was a little out of place? I laughed too)

[ghostryders]

there’s no way the Lazarus station attack wasn’t planned bc we’d have had to do like 5 quick time events for Shepard to take out a catheter or something.

[villainanders]

seeing mass effect 2 came out just about a year before da2 is explaining a lot to me bc 1) even tho me2 seems to be a more thought out game than da2 in just about every regard it seems like there's a lot similar stylistic impulses going on 2) bioware was REALLY into 9/11 during this timeframe apparently. i don't know what was going on over there nearly 10 years after the event that made them feel like it was finally time to start dropping their 9/11 political commentary but it was happening i guess

[lilmissnatcat24]

Yet another post in defense of the Virmire Survivor because they get the rawest deal by the fandom.

But people love to clown on Ashley and Kaidan for how they act in me2 on Horizon (which is completely justified, by the way. Imagine your friend/partner comes back from the dead with glowing red eyes working for terrorists. Are they supposed to be okay with that? No! But that's another post). What people forget is that Wrex and Tali literally do the SAME THING to Shepard, and no one bats an eye.

On Freedom's Progress, Tali is HORRIFIED Shep is working for Cerberus. She knows what Cerberus did to the quarians, she knows what Cerberus did to Kahoku and the rachni, and now the one person she admired more than anyone else is working for them? She tells Shepard that she can't trust them, that she can't join up with them. And this is after Tali drops EVERYTHING to join them in me1. Sure, she eventually joins later in the game, but Shepard was alone and scared and surrounded by strangers after being dead, and the first thing Tali tells them is no. And yet no one criticizes Tali for that.

And Wrex? You can KILL him in me1. He's so distraught and angry over what Saren doing on Virmire, but what makes it even worse is that Shepard doesn't even blink before telling him that they need to bomb the facility. Wrex, who was so vocal about his people and how they're dying, doesn't even get to give them the benefit of the doubt before expecting to fall in line. He questions Shepard, questions their choices and their motives, and depending on your choices you can kill Wrex for his doubt. And yet no one criticizes Wrex for that. If anything, he's praised for being a complex character with firm motivations.

But when the VS tells Shepard that they won't join them on Horizon and criticizes their choice to join Cerberus, all of a sudden the entire fandom decides that they're EVIL and they're UNREASONABLE and they're DRAMATIC. When what they're doing is having the most valid criticism of all time-- the same exact criticism that Tali has in the beginning of the game (and, to an extent Garrus too).

And again, in me3 when Udina makes them a Spectre and for just a second it looks like Shepard is back with Cerberus, the VS doubts Shepard. Which is REASONABLE! They don't necessarily have the best track record. They're protecting the Council and here comes shepshep pointing a gun at them. Who wouldn't doubt them? The VS is such a critical part to the story because Shepard needs someone to check their impulses and their decisions, or else you get people like Liara and Garrus who blindly support anything they do. Shepard needs to be kept in line by someone.

In conclusion, VS fans are entitled to financial compensation.

[anneapocalypse]

I realize I already haven't been posting a lot of DA stuff relative to how much FFXIV is on here these days, and that is probably going to be the case for the next couple months, until I've had time to play the new game at my own pace.

While I have found the barrage of promo material a bit overwhelming and have mostly chosen for myself not to worry about keeping up with it all, I'm not especially worried about spoilers ruining the game for me. For one thing, spoilers don't ruin a story for me, and for another, Bioware loves to do fake-outs in promo material where they show you something out of context that look like a massive spoiler and in some sense is but they don't give the context and it usually turns out to be something very different than the impression it gave us (showing In Hushed Whispers Leliana without revealing the time travel thing, for example, or showing Shepard's death like it was a potential ending for ME2 and not the prologue to the game). So like, whatever wild shit they've already shown or will get talked about after previewers get to play a scant few hours of the game, I'm pretty confident that there's going to be plenty of big moments and story context that very deliberately will not be shown before release. I'm going to beef up my blacklist, but I'm also not worried about it, personally.

Mostly, I am probably just not going to be engaging in a lot of meta discussion for a bit, because this just isn't my favorite time to be doing that. I was around for the hype train for DAI and also for the game's initial reception and I'll just say it was not the most pleasant time to be in DA fandom. And please don't misunderstand me--I'm not saying that none of the criticism was warranted or that nobody should complain when they play a new game and don't like something.

I'm just saying that a big new story with lots of new characters and lore and locations and details takes time to absorb. It takes more than a couple of weeks to fully process and analyze a complex story sometimes. And in my experience, the meta and lore discussions get better and more nuanced and interesting with a bit of distance from the initial release. And personally, that's where I start to really enjoy it. I had a lot more fun talking with people about DAI--its strengths and its faults--once the initial hype and backlash had died down. I expect it will probably be that way with DATV too. Again, I want to stress that I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing and discussing first impressions, including negative ones, just that I will probably enjoy the discussions more once things settle a bit.

So if I'm not talking about Dragon Age much here for a while, it's not from lack of interest, I just might chill for a bit and enjoy it on my own before jumping back in.

[mass-effect-anonymous]

CONFESSION:

I'm going to be honest. I recently replayed ME2 and while I still enjoy it for the most part, the stuff with Kelly Chambers really made me uncomfortable now.  Maybe its dues to getting older and having grown a lot but it just makes me cringe now

[omegastation]

(if you don't want to read something critical avoid this post because something bothers me a bit)

one of Shepard's first conversations in the Citadel in ME1 is with Din Korlack, who is so grumpy that we think, aaaaw, he's just mad the volus don't get a seat on the Council, but he talks about how some species are not seen as equal, and when you get to Avina in the embassies and you ask her about the volus and Council seats, she ends her little speach with "The embassies allow lesser species to have a voice on the Citadel." she was 100% programmed to tell visitors that, with those words.

fastforward in me3 and you can tell the writers don't know how to deal with the batarians and the sheer level of atrocity that has been commited in me2 yes yes, the reapers would have done worse in arrival and shepard had no choice, and yes, the batarians have done terrible things but it's so big, as in "every remaining batarian knows shepard's face because of what they're done" big that the writers can't deal with what truly happened and what it should do to a human being

so we get a sort of simplistic story in me3 to make the guilt seems less than it should be (the remaining batarian leader, Balak, is bad and wants revenge). after a talk with him, batarians with their ships become war assets. it goes okay?

but when Officer Noles asks Shepard if they want Balak arrested and Shepard replies "I want you to put a bullet in his head… but we're all making some sacrifices today", I'm thinking that's a very questionable default line right there and that's not how I see Shepard. because yes Balak is not exactly someone innocent in this story but the use of the word 'sacrifices' is really annoying me considering arrival and the near extinction of the batarian race.

Balak just told Shepard he feels he can't save his people. and if you read the war assets, batarians are described as "enraged survivors". he even implies that the remaining batarians are basically cut from war info, he knows the location of Reaper forces because he's listening to Council transmissions. so he's basically their only hope at this point, and it's clear he doesn't know what to do. the level of despair there is just really high

"No collection of vessels is more eager to engage the Reapers than Khar'shans last warships."

so... it's not like i want shepard to be a full on batarians fan but there was a better way to express themselves after talking to Balak

[bellamer]

I have several grievances with Liara’s portrayal from ME2 and onward and I don’t know how to say it into words. Like I’ve deleted three paragraphs trying to explain why I dislike Liara’s change but the words aren’t forming. Mostly because I don’t like how it seems like instead of criticizing how Asari are always fetishized and sexualized, the game seemed to do it to Liara . Granted I think they did that the first game with her almost clueless and naive behavior and whatever but like she turned into a breathy voiced “good girl gone bad” fantasy and I just don’t like it idk

It’s like, I can’t explain it into words but like: Despite being a romance option for both male and female Shepard’s it seems like Liara is more male gaze focused. Like comparing her to Vetra and PeeBee’s romances in andromeda, where BioWare actually tried to fix some of their previous romance criticisms when it came to same sex romance, Vetra and PeeBee seemed to have been made with women in mind while Liara feels like she was made with solely men in mind

I don’t know can anyone at least try to understand what I’m trying to say ?

[solstheimtxt]

Jk the praetorian is murdering them

I FINALLY GOT PAST THAT FUCKING COLLECTOR SHIP ROADBLOCK ON THE COLLECTOR SHIP LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO

[locuas642]

Another day another series of grifters taking a surface level reading of a property (Dragon Age) to complain about the latest entry (Veilguard) "Going Woke" when the previous entries were famous for being some of the earliest examples of a game with a, No BS, Gay Romantic Option.

That being said, I think it needs to be acknowledged, Veilguard IS a step forward for the series in that regard. It IS an improvement for the game over Origins that it allows, say, for the player to make their character Trans and that it is reflected by the game's narrative.

That is something Origins did not have.

Now, is it something the original game could have had? Either from what was socially acceptable (Remember: In ME1 kissing Liara as femshep was called a "sex simulator" and created controversy, which is believed to have led to ME2 scrapping a gay romance for Jack, which people have given Bioware a lot of hate for over the years which I dont think is entirely justified) or what the game's coding could have allowed? I dunno and I am not even saying it as a criticism of those games.

Because as important as it is to say "Dragon Age was always Woke" it's also important to acknowledge how each game also tried to push forward each time.

[nonuel]

so, mass effect galaxy ends with the big bad telling jacob that they are more alike than he thinks - that jacob would also go to great lengths to protect his own people. you know, standard villain stock phrases and stuff. there are a few options jacob can say here, but as the game is defunct and there's only one existing playthrough left of it that i can find, i have no way of knowing what all the variances are. the playthrough has jacob say "we are nothing alike" - you know, standard hero stock phrases and stuff - and that's really it, the game ends, jacob saved the day, and we never hear anything about this ever again

this bothers me, because i can't help feeling this was the perfect set up for what jacob's loyalty should have been about. while the lines exchanged were cliché, they're cliché for a reason: the villain is often a foil to the hero in any given story, and while mass effect galaxy is a mobile game of limited storytelling, it is Still A Story where the writers were making conscious decisions to include the dialogue and story beats that they did

when you combine this with the fact that (1) jacob is introduced to us as a counterpart to miranda's staunch support of cerberus, someone who is far more critical and doubtful of cerberus; (2) yet he is in cerberus anyway because of the freedom it allows for him to get the job done in a way he was unable to in the alliance; (3) then when you ask jack's opinion of him, she says "jacob doesn't know who he is"; (4) and when you ask samara's opinion of him, she says "events will either forge him into a great man, or utterly destroy him"...

all of these provide a proper set up for a loyalty that would have jacob reckoning with the idea he is, in fact, willing to go to certain and possibly dubious lengths to do what he think is right for humanity. he is already on this path by willingly being in cerberus, instead of staying within the tried and true but often utterly ineffective method (as evidenced in me2) of being in the alliance

note here that this is not a criticism of the alliance per se so much as an observation of the obvious. the alliance is an organization that cannot afford to do what it pleases regardless of the cost, because if it did, then it would have no allies and various wars. these are the sacrifices that have to be made to Exist In Society. this naturally means that the alliance is not always effective at its stated goals

jacob is an action-oriented character concerned with doing good, but he didn't have to join cerberus to keep doing good, because one's standard for "doing good" is subjective. let's contrast him with another action-oriented character concerned with doing good who doesn't join cerberus, and in fact is utterly hostile toward the idea of doing so: kaidan. this post is not about kaidan and i have no desire to derail it by spending much time on him, but i want to illustrate a point

kaidan, much like jacob with cerberus, is willing to criticize the alliance but overall defends them as being the best option. unlike jacob, he is unwilling to meaningfully consider alternatives due to his own personal hangups that relate to his story and background. despite his own misgivings, kaidan will stay with the alliance because he believes it will always be better than joining cerberus, even if cerberus is objectively doing a better job in the moment of handling a dire situation. this is all to say: kaidan already has a hard limit of what he is personally willing to do in order to "do good" like he wants

we never see this hard limit for jacob, hence my saying he is already on the path of doing whatever it takes by merely joining cerberus. my personal feelings of cerberus aside (as that would really derail this post), they are known for the dubious methods they are willing to take to get what they want and are, canonically, classified as a terrorist organization

it would have made a lot more sense to actually explore this hard limit in jacob for his loyalty, rather than we got. what is jacob's limit? what lengths is he actually willing to go in order to do what he feels is right? what effect does this have on him? and this is where jack and samara's statements about him materialize. like most of the loyalties, there would've been a paragon and a renegade route, and samara's prediction would correlate with whichever route was done. and at the end of it, jacob would grapple with his identity in a way a lot of the squadmates do at the end of theirs, and this is where jack's assessment would be answered. jacob would know who he is at the end of his loyalty, for better or for worse

the details of whatever it is jacob does isn't really the point of this post, because it could really be anything as long as the dilemma within the loyalty was sufficiently complex enough. i personally think something involving cerberus, the alliance, and characters from mass effect galaxy would be best, because these are all things that already relate to jacob's character and the main plot (or significant b plots)