#farferello

One thing that frustrated me so much is that as soon as Laura shows up, suddenly everyone is seeing sparks between her and Ryan when her motive is to save her boyfriend. It's so weird, and disappointing that anything romantic you may have initiated between Ryan and Dylan just… evaporates to force the weird heteronormative stuff into the plot and it makes no sense given how focused Laura is on her boyfriend.

Yeah, like I said, it just weirdly appears, even though character motivation and even the characterization itself have no justification for it. Like it IS weirdly heteronormative and all, shoving the queer pairing out of events so bluntly it makes you even wonder why the option even existed in the first place, but at the same time, it's SO out of left field, character-wise, that it is actually WEIRDER than standard straight-washing.

Like it'd have been one thing if, say, there was an ongoing love triangle between Dylan and Kaitlyn and Ryan (which, there does seem to be some early implication of things going in that direction, but it fizzles out quickly as well, since Kaitlyn doesn't really seem to be interested in Ryan beyond Jacob teasing her and her being a kiss choice during truth or dare for Ryan) and then the Kaitlyn path got more content. It'd suck, but it'd be expected and unsurprising and at least have a foundation.

Can’t say I’m thrilled with the new colour. D:

Yeah, and I realize there’s an economics issue in here of only making the one turndown rather than variable ones that indicate different types of turndowns, that they have financial concerns about one more line that goes in and has to be animated and responded to... I don’t ignore that issue.

But that the default response to this just seems to be framing it as “I wish I could, but I can’t” is a problem.

It’s things like this that DO make me thing a “gay toggle” could work, just not in the way that the dudebros mean it. Rather, it sets the tone of these interactions, that if you’ve marked the character as “gay,” they won’t have flirt options with women and the response if they still take interactions as flirtation will be less “but I regret deeply that I can’t” and just simply “this isn’t going to be a thing, please accept that.”

Of course, the dudebros would still have a fit from that type of toggle, because what they mean is that it should shut down all possible indications that gay people even exist in their game, and that’s not where I intend to take this at all.

Clap with me. All this could have been avoided had Liara just fucking told someone. ANYONE. What she had done and that she knew WHY Shepard was being forced to work with Cerberus. *Screams into the void.*

AND she has the audacity to call Ashley/Kaidan “short-sighted” in LotSB for their reaction on Horizon, as if they weren’t explicitly locked out of the loop BY HER. 

Yeah, I’ve reached the point where I just... have to deal with this stuff, since it’s obviously not where BioWare wanted to focus on things, but... I do not Liara as presented. And the worst is that I actually could like the character we see in game, IF they were actually approaching her even slightly critically. I could enjoy a character who is obsessive about the PC, if they were approached by the writing as such.

space magic

No, that can’t be it, there’s no holo-child involved and no green circuit overlays on anything.

I’m still pissy Shepard can’t a: act more traumatized about the fact they got spaced and b: that they can’t be more pissed at Liara for giving their body to Cerberus but for also not telling the Virmire survivor about it. Like, Horizon would be a hella lot less BULLSHIT if she’d bothered to tell your possible love interest what she had done. (SR1 definitely deserved better though.)

Please don’t get me started. Blood has been shed on both these matters, and I’m not exactly in the right frame of mind to do this without frothing at the mouth and scaring the dog.

I hate that same shit with male and female Hawke and and then Alexios and Kassandra. I don't know why people have to tear down characters to build their own up. If it's not the voice acting they're bitching about it's something else, even what the characters are the -same- person just different gender.

Yeah, and the thing that always gets me about those statements... What I hear, whether or not it’s meant, with the active dismissal of the male PCs often tends to be “gay men don’t matter.” Because all they care about is Female PCs as a FEMALE icon, or (in special cases) a lesbian icon, and that if you’re a man seeking the validation that the male PCs offer, you are AT BEST grudgingly accepted, but you must accept the “superiority” of female PCs. And if you dare to prefer the male PC, for whatever reason - ESPECIALLY vocal performance, but even just in general - that makes you solidly and empirically WRONG and you need to accept that.

And I get that for most, it’s an exaggeration, a reaction to the whole “video games are marketed to men” bullshit attitude. I understand most just mean it as just a joke and don’t realize how it ends up coming across for, say, a gay guy who is empowered by playing a gay male PC, only intending to hit at straight male ego. But that’s the thing - this attitude makes gay guys collateral damage, because it’s basically telling gay guys that they’re only kind of tolerated, which... Hey, that’s how the straight male playerbase tends to treat us too, so thanks for letting us know we don’t have a space.

Really. It’s exhausting. Especially with the people who just seem to think that the ONLY reason to not “accept” the “superiority” of the female PC is for reasons of misogyny, and not, say, for example, you look to the male PC as your role model, as your representation - I’m a gay man, so yeah, I’m gonna gravitate to the male PCs who romance male characters. Hearing this “lol only female PC COUNTS” stuff just tells me that I am not going to feel entirely safe or represented or cared about in this community. 

Like, I remember back right after Andromeda announced the twin protagonist thing, and the DAY OF, there was already a post circulating around that was, effectively, “Imagine the fun of the Ryder twins, of SisRyder repeatedly rescuing her hapless idiot of a brother.” And while I was glad that it got called out quickly... The attitude is still rather pervasive in a lot of places of fandom I see. Only in those cases, it doesn’t get called out. It’s the standard state of affairs.

And when they do that... Like, where is a gay guy going to go, then? This is a medium that doesn’t really love us to begin with, and then when we go to the creative/transformative fandom that allows us to express what we want, we’re still seeing the push because “well, this allows US a place, so just take what little we offer.” Which, again... Thanks, that’s no better.

I mean, I’ve seen some confessions on the ME confession blog from trans guys, talking about how good it feels playing male Shepard - it’s the same kind of feeling I look for in playing a gay male PC. So the jokes about “femShep is the only one who counts”... I just see that as coming down to “if you don’t play like this, you’re not valid.” And maybe it’s taking things too personally, but hi, I’m already living in a world that doesn’t like putting people like me in the heroic position. I’m gonna take it personally when what I hear is someone saying “you shouldn’t be the hero.” Funny that.

It bothers me the most because apparently there was going to be a way to save them both at one point and then... just didn't happen. That survivor's guilt for the one rescued must suck, but also a lot of pressure on Shepard for having to make that decision is going to stick with them, especially if they're a Soul Survivor and already have all that guilt.

See, I do see the logic behind it - if it were there, players would likely believe it to be “the correct” way, in the same way that players can easily see bringing everyone back from the Suicide Mission in ME2 that way. The problem just is, like that one, it DOES limit the resulting usage of the characters involved.