#MEAPPRECIATION - RELATIONSHIPS
I sort of touched on this in my general post, but I feel like it was missing something.
Something like that, actually. My general post was just that, totally general (and perhaps slightly biased) - this post is not. This is a shipper’s post, touting the supremacy of their ship in their eyes. In other words, this post will be about the non-canonical romantic relationship between Joker and Shepard - if you are offended by this, or your immediate reaction is to whine ‘but what about EDI’ - please don’t. Don’t read, don’t comment, don’t reblog and add in how it’s cute but what about EDI in the tags - just - don’t.
I came into this fandom biased. I was biased towards a FemShep/Kaidan pairing because of the content that crossed my dash, that led me into this fandom. And it was fine, you know? I romanced Kaidan like I’d fully intended to in ME1.
But something kept bothering me.
Yeah. That was the thing that was bothering me.
But sitting here, trying to actually explain why I ship this? It’s hard. It’s more than them looking cute together, more than the little snark-fests that end with this kid of cuteness. They look out for each other. Shepard has his back, puts her own life at risk to save his - and he would do the same - has done it. Unless someone out there thinks it was fucking EASY for him to stand in the airlock with an assault rifle shooting at Collectors.
But - that’s not JUST it. It’s the way he looks at her, if you’ve not romanced anyone else, and you’re about to board the ship after the Citadel DLC. The way he stands to salute her in what could be the last time they’ll see each other face to face. It’s the way he screams her name during the Collector attack in the beginning of ME2. The way he brushes aside his own issues with that to give her a safe place to land at the end of a mission. The look in his eyes when he realizes that she’s not coming back, not this time.
It’s the way that she smiles at him, with that half-amused, half-annoyed look on her face, like ‘you’re an adorable pain in the ass’. The way she fucks with him when it comes to ‘Thing’ on the bridge of the SR-2. The way she says goodbye to him in that shuttle on Earth - her promise that she’s coming back. It’s the way she protects his feelings with bad humor, something she JUST gave him hell for, when she realizes he blames himself for her death - something she knows he never meant to tell her.
And yes - it’s the way they flirt with each other, so adorably over-the-top, in that set-up dinner scene in the Citadel DLC. It’s the way they smile at each other when they first see each other again after that Collector attack. Even how adorable they are together is part of it.
They balance each other. Complement one another.
This non-canonical pairing is the reason I will never be over this series. The on-screen relationship between these two characters is what emotionally invested me in this series. And it’s why I’ll always, always remember it.
