#when i remember i wasn't exactly the friendliest person either while going through a lot of trauma

[thornheartfelt]

I didn't wanna go into a kinda unrelated ramble here so I'm making this an actual post. Yeah the way that people treat Jav.ik actually annoys me and that was an example I was thinking of. I do get that a lot of it is related to limited character development due to being a DLC character but still.

So you've got this guy who was born into war, was raised for war, who was woken up to discover he was the last of his kind and the things that killed his people are back. He wants to fight in this war despite how traumatising all of that will be, he is willingly helping.

Except he's struggling to adjust to a brand new life upon waking THOUSANDS of years after everyone he knew was killed. Especially considering he is now in a completely different culture with different technology, different ways of communicating etc. So yeah he's gotten annoyed with people and verbally lashed out. He's been subject to the propaganda of his empire but hasn't exactly ever had the chance to unpack all of that because he's always lived in war that he was probably bred to be a soldier in.

Jav.ik is not constantly rude to everyone and IS capable of polite, respectful conversation. If everyone I knew died and then people just kept asking me about it while I was still trying to come to terms with that, then yeah I'd be snippy with people too.

Mor.din on the other hand had more opportunity to reflect on things. For most of his life he still came to the conclusion that the geno.phage was necessary. He still held onto prejudice and convinced himself that it was for the greater good. I'm not gonna break down all my thoughts on viable alternatives but spoilers: the geno.phage was never necessary. And Mor.din got the chance to experience that character development and to seek to make up for his actions in-game.

If you're reading this then you already know how much I love Mor.din, but he's also a good example of how hypocritical people get towards these characters. Look at Garr.us who's also well liked. A lot of his dialogue, mostly from the first game yeah but still, is also him clearly reciting propaganda and harmful rhetoric that's been passed around. And with Shep.ard being a good influence and Garr.us having new experiences, he grows as a person.

In conclusion, both the game and fans are unfair to Jav.ik. He just had so much potential as a character and it was unfortunately kinda wasted. And people really forget the context of WHY he is the way he is. No, he's not been nice but neither have other fan favourites in similar ways.