#so spacer/war hero background

[gaiaplantress]

My brain deals with stress by going ‘hey you can smash two of your fandoms together and have your OTPs on the same ship’.   So Mass Effect AU Wei Wuxian in pursuit of  Wangxian and Shakarian supremacy .  Very specifically catered to me but it’s making me happy and I have put far to much thought into this.

 Alliance Lieutenant (I think I got the rank markings right, IDK) Wei who probably should have gotten in more trouble for insubordination but Captain Hannah Shepard took a liking to him. Around when the Reapers show up he suddenly finds himself on the Normandy.   Captain Shepard basically sent her daughter a message that said ‘sending you a trouble maker, you’ll probably like him’.  Ends up getting along with everyone on the ship.

LWJ is a turian.  Because it’s funny and I like the concept.  Supposed to be sort of an aide/liaison for Garrus but Not Happy about that fact, or the human who keeps bothering him when he shows up.  Wen Qing is still human.  Worked with Dr. Chakwas once.   Chakwas actually gets a message from her going ‘I heard Wei was on your ship now.  Good luck keeping him in one piece’. 

Nie clan are now Krogans because I find the thought of Huaisang being a krogan hilarious.

Maybe Baoshan Sanren as a terrifyingly powerful Asari Matriarch  who no one has really seen for centuries?

(Anatomy and Omnitool are scuffed because I didn’t look at many references, I just had to get this out of my head. )

[dalekofchaos]

Fixing Kai Leng

The problem with Kai Leng is Mac Walters desperately tried to convince us that Leng was Shepard's ultimate equal when he could barely hold his own against an aged Anderson and a Drell with terminal cancer and in the end he was a tryhard egdelord that would make Kylo Ren embarrassed.

The solution to this is make Leng deeply connected to Shepard's personal history. Making him be a ghost from Shepard's past with a personal connection would have made this character much better. His backstory could change with whatever your selections are for Shepard.

If you are Earthborn, you are both members of the 10th Street Reds

If you are a Spacer, Leng and Shepard's families served together and Shepard and Leng were childhood friends

If you are a Colonist, Leng was Shepard's childhood friend and was in the rubble with Shepard

If you are a War Hero, Leng was wounded as Shepard held off the Batarians during Elysium. Leng's survival and stand against the Batarians attack on Elysium caught Cerberus' interest.

If you are Sole Survivor, you both survived an ambush on Akuze. Only Leng wasn't taken to be experimented on. Leng was recruited into joining Cerberus for his survival. Cerberus convinces Leng that the Alliance left him for dead and so did Shepard. Leng's sense of betrayal and human supremacy leads him to joining Cerberus

If you are Ruthless, you and Leng slaughtered the Batarians on Torfan without mercy, The sense of ruthlessness inspired Leng's cold hearted exterior and human supremacist beliefs and led him to Cerberus.

Where do we go from here? Replace Jacob with Kai Leng. And the books would be his ventures with Cerberus(but less as a cringe tryhard) Jacob ultimately added to nothing. He's so fucking boring and unlikable and turns into the stereotypical black guy who cheats on you.

Kai Leng's motivation when it comes to Cerberus would be this. I would say he was a young man who wanted to serve the human race and the alliance but when he saw that the politics of the Alliance kept holding him back from doing the right thing or the greater good,  he saw that Cerberus was the only ones helping humanity.

Remove the cyber ninja aesthetic and combine Soldier, Adapt and Engineer to make him a Cerberus super soldier.

As for Kai Leng. A Leng who has personal history with Shepard has potential, plus Leng being indoctrinated with Cerberus human supremacist beliefs, but also somebody with a moral conscience when it comes to the missing human colonists, somebody emotional that you could agree with or understand, contrasting Miranda as a starting squadmate.

Through the course of ME2, he would grow on you as the rest of the squadmates of ME2 did. His loyalty mission would be centered around our background. If we're a War hero, we hunt down the Batarians who survived Elysium. If we are Sole Survivor, we hunt down the Alliance officer who led their squad to Akuze. If we're Ruthless, we deal with Batarians who want revenge for Torfan who plan on giving human hostages to the Collectors. Throughout their talks, Shepard can convince Leng that Cerberus is wrong and eventually Leng's loyalty with Cerberus begins to wavers, especially after TIM sends them to be ambushed in the Collector ship.

Leng started completely loyal to Cerberus, but when he works with Shepard he sees that Cerberus is wrong, but stayed loyal, but also loyal to Shepard. When The Illusive Man asks Shepard to give the base over and when he/she refuses, he asks Leng to force it. This is where Kai Leng finally stands up to Cerberus. Kai Leng all his life, all he wanted to do is serve and protect humanity. He sees that the humans of the Terminus Systems were proceed into becoming a human Reaper and was horrified and when the man he looked up to for years says we should use what killed the humans, he gets the message we should sacrifice humanity and the costs of uplifting humanity. Kai Leng has had enough. He sees through the illusion of Cerberus and with Miranda tells TIM to fuck off and he stays loyal to Shepard.

Between the events of ME2 and ME3, when Shepard betrays Cerberus, they realize that Kai Leng is probably the strongest link between Shepard and themselves, and try to use him against Shepard. Not as lucky as Miranda, TIM does not want to lose Leng so he captures and indoctrinates Leng, making him an agent, and reprogramming his mind to become somebody he was not before, working mindlessly for TIM, as his first lieutenant in combat, much like Bucky Barnes, we have an emotional connection to Kai Leng before seeing him as a villain in ME3.

The first time we'd see Leng in ME3 is on Earth. We see this lead Cerberus Phantom in a unique mask stalking you and Anderson. And as we're leaving Earth, we see Kai Leng killing Anderson. With Shepard swearing revenge.

Throughout ME3, Leng would be stalking Shepard. Causing trouble as we encounter Cerberus. Trying to kill Eve, activating the bomb on Tuchunka and the attempt on the Council.

He would become the same Kai Leng that we all know and hate but we would be able to sympathize with him more.

When we finally confront him in Priority Citadel, we face him and omni-slash his mask off. We get the reveal. Shepard is shocked, Leng hesitates after hearing Shepard utter his name. Maybe in the Cerberus coup on the Citadel, if his loyalty mission was completed in ME2, he would not kill Thane, out of respect of a former squadmate, and regain conscious thought again for a brief moment to spare him. 

It would also help to explain his inexplicable plot armor. Rather than surviving against the onslaught of Shepard due to plot reasons, he would not be killed, as Shepard still sympathizes with him, and doesn't want to kill him, sparing him and letting him escape, or not being able to fully focus, hoping there's a little bit of the real Kai Leng still in there.

Of course this would lead to multiple outcomes towards the end of the game. He could either be recruited back or un-indoctrinated somehow, but for a good plot he would only be able to turn good again and rejoin the squad way too late in the game, maybe in the last third of the game, like Legion in ME2. Bonus points if you can romance him as Femshep, would still make a better romance carrying on to ME3 than Jacob.

Otherwise, he would have to be killed and could not be saved. I don't think that convincing him to commit suicide like Saren or TIM would work, because it would be too similar to the TIM suicide not too long, and would lose impact because of it. He would have to be fought and killed one last time in combat, and have a tragic end most likely.

If we saved Kai Leng, he would've been transported on the beam. Depending on your reputation and war readiness, Leng can break through the indoctrination and kill The Illusive Man or Leng kills himself, which distracts TIM and Shepard shoots The Illusive Man. If Leng broke through and killed TIM, he apologizes for killing Anderson and being unable to control himself. If you were just friends they hug, if they were LI, they kiss. Leng's fate would be either being aboard the Normandy to put Shepard's plaque on the memorial or finding Shepard's body and bringing him back and then we'd get Shepard putting Anderson's plaque on the Normandy.

SO that's how I would've handled Kai Leng. Making him more connected to Shepard and less of a tryhard edgelord that they made him to be in canon.

[gammaraydeath]

So, Ro. Do tell us/me everything you want to tell. Or to be more specific, tell me five facts that you think one should know first.

omg yes hi!!! this is exciting :D thank you so much for asking! this is very long bc i love to talk about ro. this got very long so i'll have to break this up into two posts, i'll add the remaining facts in a reblog!

she has the spacer background. born on arcturus station. it does have a permanent population and i assume the space equivalent of on base military housing. hannah took maternity leave but couldn't stand being idle, and didn't take to motherhood as naturally as she had hoped. rose's father, placeholder name chuck, wound up being her primary parental figure. once rose was old enough to qualify for daycare/education services on larger noncombatant alliance vessels, around 5 years old, her parents sold their arcturus apartment and she was henceforth spacebound. dad took the career hit - hannah kept climbing the ranks and taking postings that rose could not board for. as a consequence, rose was closest with her father. naturally, he tragically perishes, leaving hannah in a tough spot. grieving, busy, and now with even more pressure to succeed in her career to provide for her child, she sent rose to earth to live with relatives, finishing her education in a more traditional high school setting. rose, ro to her close friends, had always had a bit of a rebellious streak though. having lost her father, feeling unwanted by her mother, cut off from the only life she had known and the unease of being planetside, she leaned fully into the shitty punk teen act. she plays a futuristic bass/synth instrument in a garage band. they play in dive bars. she gets her hands on all sorts of things she shouldn't, courtesy of her older "boyfriend". she doesn't go to school. she makes her poor gramma's life hell. her relationship with hannah is at its worst and most fractured, and although they will get closer (they do love each other), there will always be some distance between them that neither knows how to close. a series of misadventures culminates in ro committing a bit of light treason - given a choice between charges being pressed or her skills put to use for the alliance, she enlists. anderson is a personal friend of hannah's, and although he doesn't have a ton of weight to swing around at this point, he's got enough clout that when hannah calls in a favor he vouches for her daughter, and it's enough. ro takes her second chance extremely seriously, knows that she's starting with a disadvantage, and works hard to prove herself.

she also has the war hero background. i have this whole idea for how elysium goes for her - she's a second lieutenant, which is a bit of a high rank for her age, but hey she becomes commander at like 29 so whatever lmfao. she's rapidly rising the ranks, we'll just say that. she serves on the SSV Denver (placeholder ship name that also might just be kept) and mostly keeps to herself. she's known for being very serious, by the books, and studious. huge departure from her personality before enlistment. most are intimidated by her demeanor, and she feels unable to make friends. she's not yet the charming and personable commander that can befriend a whole crew. she does, however, have 1 friend - allison hartley. kid genius, only 19, intelligence specialist. allie comes from a rich family, skipped over high school, had full ride scholarships into the most prestigious universities, participates in community, sports, clubs, is kind, and is just an all-around good person; she stays humble despite her privilege. and she sets her sights on ro, the dour, quiet goth girl and works very hard to break down her walls to befriend her. and it works! and one day she convinces ro to take leave with her to visit her family's ski resort in illyria on elysium. and it all goes so very wrong, but not immediately! first, they do get to enjoy their vacation for a few days. they wind up meeting a veteran named louise, who is bitter about a recent divorce (get her drunk enough and she'll start opening up about her ex wife but anything less and she's a brick wall), and a bartender named audax (possibly the only turian who likes the cold; he's fond of skiing in his free time) that ro is a little bit taken by. all that time in space and she's never really met an alien before. these two, along with allie, will form ro's "squad" when shit goes down. ro is responsible for forming the plan to rally civilians to take back their city - block by block, they push back against the invaders, and they're gaining momentum. it really seems like they're winning, and the pirates all pull back like a tide going out. turns out they were clearing the area for an incoming orbital strike. allie is among the casualties. when the invaders return in force, ro pulls herself together enough to direct survivors to safety and hold the line until backup finally arrives. ro, louise, and allie's parents on her behalf all accept the star of terra award. audax receives his own dues, and has his moment of fame for being an exemplar of interspecies cooperation. ro gets a memorial tattoo of allie done in her honor - this will later be wiped by the lazarus project, and is redone as a pair of black bands around her bicep; one for allie, one for kaidan.

[solstheimtxt]

I did a lineup of my sheps :3c cause I have a ton

Text under the cut! :D

Left to Right:

Johnathan Emir Shepard (Emir) Earthborn/Sole Survivor Soldier, romances Steve Cortez Destroy / Paragon b. 2145; 6' (182 cm)

Vivian Aurelia Shepard Colonist/Sole Survivor Engineer, romances Ashley Williams Destroy/Paragade b. 2156; 5'09" (176cm)

Sybil Helena Shepard Earthborn & Spacer/War Hero & Ruthless Vanguard, romances Miranda Lawson Control/Renegade b. 2142; 5'09" (176 cm)

Vincent Nathan Shepard-Figueroa (Vince) Spacer/War Hero Engineer, romances Kaidan Alenko Destroy/Renegon b.2156, 5'07" (170 cm)

Jeanne-Marie Veronica Shepard (Jeanne) Spacer/Sole Survivor Sentinel, romances Samantha Traynor Destroy/Paragon b. 2154, 5'11" (180cm)

Emily Rose Shepard Earthborn/War Hero Infiltrator, romances Tali'Zorah vas Normandy Destroy/Paragade b. 2154, 5'03" (160 cm)

Ezra Saffron Shepard Earthborn/Ruthless Soldier, romances Ashley Williams Destroy/Renegon b. 2154, 5'03" (160 cm)

Caleb Morgan Shepard Earthborn/ Ruthless Infiltrator, romances Kaidan Alenko Destroy/Renegon b. 2154, 5'03" (160cm)

(Ezra and Caleb are twins, so they exist in the same universe, and their canon is slightly changed; such as their being no 'Virmire survivor' bc they both survive)

Sybil and Emir are older Sheps, and Sybil has the duo origin bc she's born on Earth, but has parents (like the Spacer background). She's also dual-psych profile.

Sybil and Jeanne also both have missing limbs, though Jeanne uses prosthetics (her legs, knee down), Sybil uses biotics instead.

[mariaalenkoshepard]

I just ran a poll asking what people’s favourite Mass Effect background combo is. The poll ran for one week, and gathered 1,283 votes. Here are the final results;

I’ve now compiled this data, so! Simple data to start with.

Of the 1,283 voters;

31% voted colonist

39% voted earthborn

30% voted spacer

-

59% voted sole survivor

30% voted war hero

11% voted ruthless

-

Now for the juicy interesting data! We’ve broken it down into each category

COLONIST:

Sole Survivor : 67.74%

War Hero: 22.58%

Ruthless: 9.68%

-

EARTHBORN

Sole Survivor : 58.97%

War Hero: 28.21%

Ruthless: 12.82%

-

SPACER

Sole Survivor : 50%

War Hero: 40%

Ruthless: 10%

-

SOLE SURVIVOR

Colonist: 35.59%

Earthborn: 38.98%

Spacer: 25.42%

-

WAR HERO

Colonist: 23.33%

Earthborn: 36.67%

Spacer: 40%

-

RUTHLESS

Colonist: 27.27%

Earthborn: 45.46%

Spacer : 27.27%

-

What I find most interesting is that people who pick colonist are least likely to pick ruthless. I really thought that would be higher. And people who pick colonist are most likely to pick sole survivor (I guess we love that double trauma huh)

Anyway I think this data is super interesting, and I hope you do too!

~Thank you very very much to @a-spectacular-pigeon for helping me compile the data because I am not good at maths lol~

(disclaimer; due to the way tumblr polls work, there is a very small margin of error eg 39% of 1,283 is 500.37, which would have to be rounded down to 500 people)

[theshepcollective]

Submitting!

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here but if you wish to submit your Shepard, here’s now!

Message me! With up to 10 screenshots (or art if you like) of your Shep.

Alternatively, you could also create the post for your own blog and tag me, so I can reblog it here :)

Let me know;

Their Backstory (Earthborn, Colonist, Spacer, or other).

Their Background (Sole Survivor, War Hero, Butcher or other).

Their Class.

Their Alignment (Paragon, Renegade, Paragade mostly paragon, Renegon mostly renegade).

Their Lover(s).

Their Best Friend(s).

And any other additional information you’d like to share about them!!

I’m always open to suggestions on how to improve :)

I’m also eager to post non-Shepard OCs here too, so if you have one you’d like to share just message me and we can figure out the best way to include them.

[voidendron]

I've been pretty creatively drained lately and it's made me v inactive here and I hate it :( so here's some AU ramblings

uuhhhhh if anyone wants to send an ask or something about one of them I'd love you forever, and it might help kickstart my creativity

Vehsz aus

Canon: the universe im normally talking about when I mention my ocs. Terrin (Grand Champion) is the Commander/Outlander. Though her alliance is militant due to her status as a Mandalorian, she does drive to bring relative peace to the galaxy, and she and her Alliance are respected.

Commander!Varrich: a personal favorite AU. Varrich is my trooper, and he becomes a fallen hero as Outlander. Hes the villain of the story, his Alliance is a dangerous military, and he's bound to meet his end being stabbed in the back.

Commander!Synnda: though not cruel, being Commander hardens Synnda. He no longer has his gentle edges, but he's a good leader who wants the galaxy to find peace. His Alliance is more scholarly and attempts to negotiate, resorting to violence only as a last resort in most situations. It's seen as soft until the moment Synnda no longer stays his hand.

Commander!Xaerez: He never wanted this. He never wanted the spotlight, the leadership. But he accepts it with a sigh and does his best to lead the galaxy into an era of peace. He's distrusted, and has to work a lot harder than the other Commanders in various V'ehsz AUs to earn his people's - and the galaxy's - respect and trust. His Alliance relies rather heavily on information and isn't afraid to resort to blackmail and assassination to end the war between factions.

Modern: An AU set in a modern, human world. It's essentially a coffee shop/slice-of-life AU. No war, assassinations, spies - just everyday people in various situations.

Fantasy: A medieval-fantasy setting. The V'ehsz Legacy is a series of fantastical creatures, sorcerers, etc. The kingdom is at war with an unknown force that's slowly draining the life from everything and everyone. Knight-Captain Terrin puts together a team to find and destroy the source of the decay.

Apocalypse: A zombie apocalypse with similar setting as Modern AU, all of them are human. They're just trying to survive a world that's out to kill them.

Rediscovery Era: While not technically an AU, it's set a few thousand years after Canon V'ehsz. The Alliance long ago fled into uncharted space, leaving behind only vague clues to their whereabouts. Spacers, pirates, adventurers - they've all tried and failed to find it. That is, until a group of scholars decide to take a leap and go on an adventure to follow the clues.

Role Reversal: What would happen if there was just a little change here, a little one there, to change the lives of the V'ehsz Legacy before the start of the class stories? In this world, they find themselves following far different paths from their canon selves.

Mermaid: I just. Really like drawing mermaids, so created this one during Mermay a few years ago. No story behind this one, it's just an excuse to draw some OCs as merfolk and give them eerie fisherman's tales type backgrounds.

[shizuu-chann]

Honestly, it surprises me the amount of people who play Sole Survivor. Not that it's a bad service record for Shep, and it's compelling and interesting, it just doesn't appeal to me. I would have thought more people would play the War Hero service rec. Idk why, probably something about being a big hero and being loved for making a difference.

I also always play a Colonist background, though. Earthborn (to me) is just too boring--bc if I'm given the opportunity to be from anywhere NOT Earth in a sci fi game, I'm choosing that--and Spacer is...idk, meh? I think I just like the tragedy of losing one's family and being haunted by it, and with Spacer, Shep has their mom (and for my one Spacer Shep, her dad, too).

The Colonist background is so tragic and for my Shep, it gives her the motivation to join the Alliance so she can help make sure that another Mindoir never happens again. And then being on Elysium for the Skyllian Blitz is the chance for her to actually make a difference for another 16-year-old and save their family when no one could save hers. My Shep and her sister both joined the Alliance to be that savior for someone else, and succeeded in doing so when no one else could bc they made a promise to themselves and each other.

It's what makes the Collector attacks so heartbreaking for my Shep, too, and what makes cooperating with Cerberus tolerable even if she loathes and distrusts them. Anyway, I feel like on tumblr I don't really see any Colonists or War Heroes, just Spacers/Earthborns and Sole Survivors and it makes me a bit sad.

[the-yearning-astronaut]

Commander Shepard Character Profiles

Joan Shepard

Background: Earthborn, War Hero

Alignment: Paragon -- tries her best to do the right thing with as few casualties as possible; she'd much rather talk things through before using violence. Moments where she's had to kill someone in a face to face confrontation and the loss of the OG council and the Batarians weigh heavily on her consciousness.

Class: Soldier, Commando

Romance: Garrus. And then after Priority Earth they invite Tali into their relationship

Best friends/favored squadmates: Garrus and Tali

Ending: Destroy

Summary: WIP

Character Tag: #oc: joan shepard

---------------------------------------------------------

Bryce Shepard

Background: Colonist, Soul Survivor

Alignment: Paragrade -- her moral compass doesn't point quite due north; she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty to get things done (think anti-heroes like Frank Castle) and doesn't put up with bullshit from anyone. Snarky and sharp tongued.

Class: Infiltrator, Commando

Romance: Thane

Best friends/favored squadmates: Liara and Garrus

Ending: Synthesis

Summary: Bryce's life is one of loss. From her friends and family on Mindoir, to her team on Akuze. She tries to distance herself from others and ultimately fails miserably. Of all her crewmates, it seems inevitable that she'd fall for Thane. Because she has already lost Mordin and nearly lost Grunt and had just gotten Kaidan back, losing Thane breaks her. She gets more and more reckless as the war drags on and Garrus and Liara and Cortez see that and do what they can to support her through her grief. It doesn't help much, but she appreciates the effort anyway.

Her final choice is easy in the end, after Anderson dies and she loses the closest person she had to a parental figure since she was sixteen. She picks synthesis because she's sick of losing people she loves and she's sick of so much death and she's sick of the ever growing hole in her chest. And she's tired. So, so tired. If synthesis gives everyone the best chance at survival, then so be it. She's fine sacrificing herself for that if it means EDI and the Geth won't perish, if the relays remain intact and families and friends aren't separated by the vastness of space, if the cycle of annihilation ends.

Character Tag: #oc: bryce shepard

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Amos Shepard

Background: Spacer, Ruthless

Alignment: Renagon -- has a ruthless reputation for a reason. Does what needs to be done to get the results he wants in the most efficient way. Has a strict moral code and aggressively defends it. He doesn't LIKE violence but many times it's easier to use than words. Seems cold, calculated, and out together on the surface but is a bit of a mess underneath.

Class: Vanguard, nemesis

Romance: Liara (ME1), no one (ME2), Kaidan (ME3)

Best Friends/favored squadmates: Liara, Kaidan

Ending: most likely Destroy

Summary: WIP

Character tag: #oc: Amos Shepard

[mephestopheles]

Just because I keep yelling about the game, here's what I'm doing on this play through.

Male Shepard, spacer background, war hero psych profile. Soldier Class. Casual difficulty to get the hang of things and I'm still dying a lot. I am not used to shooters in general and I have yet to figure out tactics.

Fave team up in mass effect 1 was Tali and Liara, with their biotics and the tech skills maxed they were fantastic and could hold their own in a fight. Thank gods for med-gel.

Garrus got a lot more action in mass effect 2 because of Liara being kind of on the side lines. But Tali still was front and centre.

Mass effect three the trio is back, but I've been picking others to get some new dialogue stuff as well.

Current favourite weapon is the black widow V sniper rifle with upgraded scope and thermal clip for more bullets.

Still haven't found a favourite among the others, but I generally go for either highest damage output or highest capacity.

I've finished every side mission, except for the Eden prime Intel mission in the from ashes dlc (couldn't find the 3rd piece of Intel) so that was locked after finding Javik. And Couldn't find Aria's couch for Harrot in the Omega DLC.

I think I got most of the war assets. Could not get one of them from the Hades Nexus, because the scanner tripped the Reapers, and I didn't have any missions to do to reset it, and I think I'm locked out now as of finishing Cerberus Headquarters.

I'm at work right now so I can't finish it, but I have a decent shot of possibly finishing this game tonight, with only priority earth and the finale left (the finale legit may just be credits and cut scenes I don't know, but I'm going by the ign walkthrough for section names)

Wish me luck. All I want to do is have a nap right now. Woke up way too early this morning and before I could think better of it, I got up and played the Cerberus Headquarters mission.

[average-mako-enjoyer]

Akuze is fucking heartbreaking, and it following Shepard is devastating because it's just pure trauma and loss, but I think the same can be said for all backgrounds.

Torfan. I think @swaps55 can explain this better than me, but I'll try.

Torfan is where Shepard is either retaliating for what happened to them in Mindoir, or just crumbling under the weight of their responsibility. They make this ruthless choice because it's freeing and easy, and the Batarians deserve it, they started it first.

Shepard is still very young, and it is not surprising that they act this way, but they have to live with it. Now they have the reputation of being a bloodthirsty monster, and everyone knows it, and everyone sees them through that lens, and it is easy to lean into it, and hard to shake it off.

In some ways War Hero is more nuanced. For Spacer, it's a career boost, something they're probably proud of, but I think a lot about my favorite Earthborn and how it's almost like stolen valor for them.

Earthborn is cynical, they hardly believe in the sanctity of the military complex, that the chain of command always knows better, etc.

For them, this victory, them not dying, is just a lucky case. They know that the Star of Terra doesn't mean shit and doesn't change anything. They survived and got the award, but so many people died that day just because the Alliance is deeply rotten. And everyone is throwing this award in Shepard's face like it's the only thing worth mentioning, like it can somehow please and grease them, and it's just... hollow?

I wonder if Shepard keeps that stupid medal on their desk as a reminder not to trust the Alliance and to do something real for a change.

Replaying Mass Effect and I'm struck this time around by just how often people bring up Akuze if you're playing with a sole survivor background.

Literally every person my character has spoken with, civilian or politician or military, if they know who Shepard is they bring up Akuze. And even though it's used as a segue to express admiration for her, even though I know from a gameplay perspective the developers are trying to show how much your character choices did matter and how it places you in this world, I can't help but wonder.

How often does my poor paragon Shepard wince as total strangers immediately bring up Akuze and how remarkable it was that she survived, while trying to keep her friendly smile now plastered on her face? How uncomfortable it must be, for every new acquaintance to immediately remind you of the worst moment of your life, a moment you'd never want to go through ever again. How often does she have nightmares about it, especially considering how it seems no one will let her forget?

[blackjackkent]

💘 heart with arrow and Matty for the ask meme!

(oc ask meme :D )

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them? - for Matthias Shepard

Hmm. Bit of a tough question cos Matty feels very Responsible for a lot of different people over the course of his life. The most obvious answers are:

His family - his parents, Eric and Hannah, and brother Simon. Unlike Philip (and I think unlike many Spacer Sheps), Matty was really close to his family growing up and stayed in close touch with them throughout the war, and they instilled a really strong sense of duty in him from a very young age. So even after he has become a hero in the eyes of the galaxy, their opinion of him is still really of very strong importance.

Ashley - Because love interest, obviously, but also because she is a real stabilizing influence for him in the late war. She's a badass soldier with the same Alliance background as him, but she can also match him intellectually with her love for poetry and literature, and it makes him feel like he can turn off being the commander sometimes and just be Matty, which becomes really important by the end of ME3.

I'll also go ahead and add a third item:

Mordin Solus - Matty's best friend, another person who lets him exercise the nerdy brain side of his personality and doesn't expect him to be "on" as the commander at all times. Mordin is also, I think, one of the first people who opens Matty's thought process up to the more nuanced nature of what "doing the right thing" can entail, which is an important growth step for him in ME2 given the transition from pure Alliance man to Cerberus recruit. (And, ultimately, the fact that Mordin survives Tuchanka is probably significant in terms of Matty's mental health in the late game; had things been different in terms of Eve/Wrex being alive, Matty wouldn't have stood in his way, but I think Mordin dying would have made Matty a lot less stable in the latter half of ME3 than he ended up being.)

[sol-consort]

With Survivor I’ve only got to the Citadel so I’ve only gotten a couple interactions but I was able to tell Jenkins (that’s his name right?) at the beginning of the game that those were some bad memories when he brought it up. The Spacer mission I actually missed and started it too late in the game so I wasn’t able to finish it but it was about a homeless vet that claimed to know my parents and you talk to him then go to the Normandy to call your mom to see if he actually knew them which she confirms that he did know them.

Also do you get blackmailed as an Earthborn? I had no clue about that

YOU GET TO CALL YOUR MOM? all I got was a throw away comment about having no family to Kaidan when he was trying to flirt with me, fucking ruined the mood.

YOUR MOM LIKE A WHOLE MOM THAT SHEPARD HAS? oh my god. Oh my fucking god I want parents too this isn't fair why must I choose between earth or parents.

And yes! The old gang you used to be with, the tenth street reds, congratulates you for being a spectre and says he can't imagine little Shepard all grown up and not the kid he used to know.

But he does it in a clear mean way yk? Then he tells you unless you want the whole news knowing your past in gangs, then you better do them a favour and free one of their guys, a xenophobe human who got kicked out of Chora's den.

I've always reported the guy and never looked back. Nothing happened after it, so that was an anticlimactic ending but still. Takes some courage to blackmail a whole spectre.

With the war hero, Jenkins tells you that you've already proved yourself in the blitz and he needs a chance. Also almost every important npc brings it up whenever you're trying to play the hero, they know you from the blitz before knowing you as a spectre, kinda nice. Some even bring up the medal you've got served.

Also, with the fan mission, he brings up Elysium instead of Eden Prime on your first meeting. Also if you're a woman than he flirts with you despite having a wife.

On the third meeting, you can charm him and bring up your background so he may stay home with his wife. Saying how you need someone back home for you to fight for, so you can go out there and risk your life for him and his wife to remain safe and happy. Something along those lines not the exact words.

I really liked the war hero honestly, i felt really recognised by having it more than I have ever felt by being a spectre.

The earthborn? Not so much. I expected visiting the moon in the dlc would get me something extra but nope. And now I've missed out on giving a mom call me :(

[average-mako-enjoyer]

I really don't want to sound antagonistic or like I'm criticizing this hot take, but I think it depends on how deeply you dig into each of these elements.

On the surface, yes, Spacer Shepard comes from a more privileged background, yes, they get the Star of Terra, and yes, they somewhat naively want everyone to get along and be happy.

But when you start digging deeper, all those things kind of change.

Spacer Shep spent most of their life moving from place to place, never really connecting with other people as a kid. Did they enlist at 18 because they wanted to pursue this career or because it was expected of them? Are they happy with their position in the ranks or do they always feel like they're living in the shadow of their Admiral mother? How lukewarm and distant is their relationship with their mother since she was always working her ass off as a high-ranking military officer? Was Shepard's decision to go through N7 training driven by their enjoyment of high-risk ground operations, or because they felt the need to distance themself from their mother, who mostly sits in her office?

The war hero witnessed numerous deaths of fellow soldiers and civilians during the Blitz. Deaths for which they was partly responsible, as they had no choice but to talk said civilians into arming themselves and facing off against the vastly superior enemy forces. And then, when most of the defenders were either killed or forced to retreat, Shepard single-handedly held the line to keep the batarians from advancing and killing unarmed people. That is why Shepard got their stupid medal.

Mind you, Shepard was 22 years old, a junior officer fresh out of training. Mind you, Shepard like most of the soldiers on the ground was on leave.

It all raises so many questions! Elysium is one of the most important human colonies, so why weren't there ground troops defending it? Why did Shepard take the lead? Was someone higher up immediately killed in the attack, or just not present? Why did it take the Alliance forces so long to get to the planet's side, and why did Shepard and the civilians have to face the Batarians for hours? After all this, is Shepard proud of their medal, or disgusted by it and the Alliance's inadequacy?

And finally, yes, Paragon's choices may seem easy and naive. "If we were all friends, there would be no reason for war! Let's all hold hands!" sort of thing. But is that really what happens in the Paragon playthrough?

Shepard's life is filled with violence, and none of it, no matter how brutal it is, gets punished. So what's easier: punching a reporter who throws wild accusations in your face, or not punching her? What's easier: to kill an unarmed merc who has decided to be snarky with you, or not to kill him? What's easier: to betray one side of a massive, centuries-old conflict and gain the other side's help in the galactic war you're completely losing, or to try to negotiate a truce between those two sides and risk losing both?

Is it really that easy to trust Legion or Wrex? Is it really so easy to show kindness and compassion when you are surrounded by death and suffering? Is Shepard just a naive idiot, or has the Prothean beacon filled their mind with so much pain and despair that these choices are their way of coping with it?

Is there really no darkness in this kind of playthrough, or are you just not digging deep enough?

Random Mass Effect Hot Take: Spacer/War Hero/Paragon Shepard is the epitome of a privileged protagonist.

There’s no grit. There’s no darkness. There’s no challenge. You do the right thing and it immediately gets rewarded. All the decisions are easy.

It’s boring.

[theshepcollective]

Harper Shepard

Harper belongs to @yanara126. Thank you for submitting!! I’m very happy to have her on the blog :)

Backstory - Spacer.

Background - War Hero.

Class - Infiltrator (she develops weak biotics after being rebuilt by Cerberus).

Alignment - Paragon.

Lover(s) - Had a relationship with Liara during the first game, but later fell in love with Tali.

Best Friend(s) - She could never choose between her children.

Harper is the daughter of Hannah Shepard and Viola Hackett (Admiral Hackett’s daughter), and so lived much of her life on spaceships. Due to her mothers’ different stations she often had to choose between them, not seeing the other for several months or sometimes weeks. These long and frequent separations eventually cause her mothers’ to drift apart. They eventually peacefully divorced when Harper was 17 and had moved in with her grandparents for a year to finish her education on earth. She still has a good relationship to both her mothers and her still living grandfather, though of course chain of command can make it a bit awkward at times.

Her hobby is music in general and the harp and violin in specific. She’d always been drawn to intruments plays quite a few of them at least on a basic level but eventually settled on, much to her mothers’ amusement, the harp and later the violin. She briefly considered a career as a stage musician but quickly decided to follow her family’s footsteps.

Harper is naturally somewhat melancholic, not helped by trauma that just keeps piling up for her. She is calm, collected and a natural leader and diplomat though she is perfectly capable of agression if she thinks it appropriate. This is paticularily relevant when interacting with krogans, since krogan diplomacy does often involve some degree of violence. She has certainly headbutted a few of them. Due to both her personality and what happened on Elysium she finds it difficult to surrender responsibility to someone else, preferring instead to be personally involved in pretty much everything, for better or worse. She is compassionate and friendly but does expect a degree a of discipline from her crew. That said, she is not above jokes, and eventually got a water spritz bottle specifically for the purpose of using it on Garrus when he said or did something she considered stupid (like suggesting killing hostages, we do not do that here, Garrus). She called it a pedagogical tool. Overtime it became and in joke with Garrus and the whole crew, and Garrus would repeated try and fail to steal the bottle from her. She values her crewmates deeply, makes it a point to have a friendly relationship with all of them, often becoming much more than just a superior to them (or employee in some cases).

She developed a relationship with Liara during the first game. She doesn’t tend to look very far into the future, always very acutely aware of her own mortality sometimes to an obsessive degree, but had life proceeded somewhat normally and had Liara eventually asked to settle down she wouldn’t have said no. When she met Liara again after dying and being revived by Cerberus she was initially overjoyed but soon noticed that Liara was simply emotionally unavailable at that point. It hurt her quite a bit, but at that point she had already started to process that it had been two years for everyone else and she couldn’t really blame her. Assuming that Liara had started a relationship with Feron in the meantime, she vowed to help her save her new boyfriend and move on from their prior relationship.

Now, Tali had developed a bit of a hero crush on Harper during the first game, which she very slowly painfully overcame when she grieved her over the two years prior. Nonetheless, the chemistry remained and though Tali once again found herself drawn to Harper, albeit in a more mature and less heroworshipping way. The two grew closer over the course of the Collector mission and eventually got into a relationship, which lasts even past the war with the reapers. (@yanara126 has quite a few headcanons for what they do after the games, but that is a behemoth for another post).

[findingblissinignorance]

Hi! Would you mind telling me about your Shepard’s background (where they were born and service history)? And is their face claim the one on your Pinterest board?

Thank you from your Holiday Harbinger

Ah of course!! Ardelia is a spacer and war hero and is a vanguard. Saved kaidan and the council, chose most paragon options, but a touch of renegade for smaller choices. And yep her face claim is Rebecca Ferguson from the pintrest board!

I always switch between her having longer or shorter hair and dyed or not so I think like early in mass effect 1 she did have short hair that she dyed a dark purple. Then after dying at the start of 2, she stopped dyeing it and let her natural dark auburn color return and then after being in lockdown at the start of 3 she started to grow it out, but by the end of 3 it started turning white due to all the stress. Idk why I have so many thoughts about her hair.

Thank you! And let me know if you have any other questions!