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dgcatanisiri · 4 years ago

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thegrandshow replied to your post “It speaks volumes, at least to me, how much of an afterthought BioWare...”

So I'm playing ME2 for the first time right now and I feel so lonely. NO ONE seems happy to see me back from the dead. Garrus will barely talk to me and doesn't come in to your crew being "loyal" even after the events of ME1?? Shepherd has received ONE (1) hug since coming BACK from the DEAD. Since dying horrifically, in space, alone, and being reconstructed by the organization behind the death/torture of her unit on Akuze. No one has asked how she's doing. I am :(

Yeah, this has frequently been the source of frustration for me. Shepard’s death is a major traumatic event. You don’t just ‘walk off’ dying, legit dying, not just nearly getting killed but actual death, especially given how that prologue ends, with Shepard gasping for air as they float in the void of space, their orbit beginning to decay and you can see the friction burn of reentry starting as the fade to title happens. This was not an easy death, on top of it being, y’know, DEATH.

And yet it’s almost immediately reduced to a joke by BioWare - “turns out I was only mostly dead.” “I got better.” Sure, on a memetic level, it’s great for Shepard’s badassery, that even death can’t slow them down. On a character level, though, it just undermines all the emotion of that prologue and makes you wonder why even bother?

Like there are numerous stories that hinge on the idea of both life after death and coming back from the dead. There are stories that use this as a focal point, the thing the whole media itself revolves around. This? This is using it as a plot device and then discarding it once it’s done its work.

And yet it still occasionally tries to use that as a point of contention with characters - Horizon has a one scene reunion with Ashley/Kaidan, who are antagonistic with Shepard, for VERY good reasons, considering that Shepard is now flying under a Cerberus banner, when the previous game had Shepard and company encountering multiple cases of Cerberus as the enemy (utilizing thorian creepers, rachni soldiers, and husks as experiments that, lo and behold, broke free and killed all their guys), murdering Alliance officers (Admiral Kahoku), to say nothing of their involvement in the Akuze background. They have ever reason to be suspicious of Shepard - what if Miranda had gotten the green light for that control chip she says she would have implanted in Shepard?

To say nothing of how the game’s writing has everyone not Ashley/Kaidan just rolling with ‘Shepard was resurrected.’ To anyone without that imposition by the writers, the likelier, more reasonable explanation is that Shepard went underground for two years, getting in to Cerberus as an organization. And maybe it’s an undercover op... but maybe Shepard’s turned. With that two year gap, that two year silence, it’s reasonable for Ashley/Kaidan to ask “do I still know this person?” And yet, by the game’s logic, them questioning Shepard is evidence of them not being loyal enough to Shepard.

Now, if there had been more of an issue of Shepard’s resurrection from anyone else - Garrus or Tali in particular - I guarantee you, Ashley/Kaidan would have more favorable responses from the fandom. Instead it’s a common comment that they ‘betrayed’ Shepard or something by not joining up with them after Horizon. But with no one else CARING about the resurrection, their entirely reasonable concerns get framed as them ‘turning their back on Shepard.’ And yet they probably have the most realistic reaction to it anyone even does, Shepard included.

Shepard’s resurrection means NOTHING in tangible terms of characterization. And it’s frustrating, because this is something that DOES impact people, is something that will linger and haunt them. And yet, it just... isn’t THERE in the game. No one discusses it, there’s no room to bring it up...

Even more egregious when the whole justification for the loyalty mission structure is that Shepard is ‘clearing their operatives’ heads prior to the Suicide Mission,’ and yet this isn’t something that necessitates clearing SHEPARD’S head, clearing the head of the mission commander? I even did a fic actually tackling the subject head on a few years back. Because this MATTERED. This should have been significant. Instead, “Shepard was dead for two years” is effectively a footnote in the series.

#thegrandshow #dg replies #dg plays mass effect

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