Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Goreschach]

Jack needs like 3 years of therapy before any Shepard of mine would think of romancing her.

And 3 years of hair.

[tmp]

Hair is highly optional

[Lantyssa]

The Jack cosplayer is even prettier.

[Sjofn]

I really like Jack, and her looks could not be furthest from my mind on the romance front. But she's broken. Utterly broken. I would've liked her romance as a platontic friendship character arc about a BILLION TIMES MORE. As it is, her showing up in your cabin for make out time feels utterly creepy to me. I'm not saying people who have been through extremely fucked up shit can't love or anything, but it just feels so rushed and gross and like all she needed were a few Q&As with the Magical Mister Shepard so really she was just a big whiner.

Also I have no idea how people could side with Miranda in that fight unless they're metagaming + in a relationship with Miranda, because ugh.

Also, Thane's romance was the only one I felt much connection to, and I don't usually go for aliens because iew. He had some very sweet lines, and LadyShep wasn't nearly as creepy talking to him as she is with Jacob and Garrus for some reason. To be fair, I haven't actually done the Garrus or Jacob ones to completion, because a) Jacob is boring and LadyShep is in full on Cougar Mode and it skeeves me out, b) Garrus has NO LIPS, INTO THE FRIENDZONE and LadyShep does that gross voice with him too.

[Strazos]

You can probably watch the romances on Youtube - that's what I did for Jack, I think.

[tmp]

b) Garrus has NO LIPS

But he has cat face :3

[Sjofn]

I need more than a headbutt. I NEED MORE.

[Fordel]

Jack needs like 3 years of therapy before any Shepard of mine would think of romancing her.

And 3 years of hair.

I'm sure in the future we can grow hair with a fancy shampoo or something!

[Ingmar]

Jack needs like 3 years of therapy before any Shepard of mine would think of romancing her.

And 3 years of hair.

I'm sure in the future we can grow hair with a fancy shampoo or something!

(made by a division of Elkoss Combine)

[Jeff Kelly]

The Jack cosplayer is even prettier.

Pics or it didn't happen 

[Koyasha]

I did the Garrus one just because I wanted to get him to say something other than that he had to do calibrations!  Garrus seems so disappointing if you try to just be friends because he just shuts down completely after a couple conversations.  Nothing there if you don't romance him, basically.

[Surlyboi]

The Jack cosplayer is even prettier.

Pics or it didn't happen 

I wouldn't say she's prettier because, come on, it's Natalie Portman. But she is close.

[Bunk]

[Lantyssa]

I've never found Natalie Portman attractive.  Though I also remember when she was a kid, so maybe my perception is permanently skewed.

As for the cosplayer, there are some pics back in this thread.  Or you can do a search for them.  I don't have them readily available myself.

(Or Bunk will post one while I'm typing.)

[caladein]

I'm in the opposite position as I first remember her from the Star Wars prequels when I was a teenager.  Of course, that meant that when I first watched The Professional a few years back... it was a little awkward.

[Strazos]

Portman has a better-shaped head.

[LK]

I'm actually fascinated to see what kind of changes Jack goes through by the time Mass Effect 3 rolls around.

[Furiously]

Nun.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The lack of female relationships for femshep in ME2 was really disappointing since they could have gone a couple really good directions storywise with not only jack but whats-her-face asari paladin.

[LK]

It was a directive from on high that Shepard could not get into a relationship with Samara. In fact that was one of the core tenets of her character.

It makes sense when you really think about it. There was no way a Samara / Shepard relationship could work.

[Ratman_tf]

I've never found Natalie Portman attractive.  Though I also remember when she was a kid, so maybe my perception is permanently skewed.

...

Personally, I'd be happy if they tore out all that creepy gamer written relationship/sex scene crap. It's painful to watch.

[Fordel]

Then lose half their playerbase? 

[Jeff Kelly]

True Lies was Eliza Dushku

[Stormwaltz]

True Lies was Eliza Dushku

Whoa. I did not know that.

I first saw Portman in Leon (The Professional), and second in Beautiful Girls. She'll probably always seem like moe jailbait to me.

[Ratman_tf]

True Lies was Eliza Dushku

Yeah. It just popped into my head on the subject of child actors grown up and being sexay.

[Ratman_tf]

Then lose half their playerbase? 

I'd make a terrible game producer. (Or whoever's the guy who decides a game doesn't have enough panty shots.)

[Sjofn]

Depends, do you object to the less-than-awesome writing (and really it's more the voice acting in ME2, imo) or the fact the relationship minigame exists at all?

[UnSub]

Sex scenes in games are usually odd things, since the player just has to execute the right combo of button presses to unlock the prize. So it's kind of like Dance Dance Revolution, but with words.

In some ways I appreciated the way The Witcher handled sex better - the other party didn't have to love you and may just be doing it to get you on side - but then it also had the card collection element, which struck me as sorta "Hey baby, just let me take a photo on my phone for my personal collection - I'd never put you up on the internt! heh heh!" thing.

[Ratman_tf]

Depends, do you object to the less-than-awesome writing (and really it's more the voice acting in ME2, imo) or the fact the relationship minigame exists at all?

The writing. And that it's pretty jarring to have a 'relationship' situation where they only relate during specific conversations and one fuck scene. Whereas in other types of fiction, two characters getting together usually affects the story itself. I'd rather have one good relationship that's part of the story than a handful of drop-in minigame events.

[Sjofn]

See, I feel the relationships in ME are about exactly what relationships in a typical sci fi blockbuster would be (some talky flirting, sex scene towards the end), so while I would like them to have more ... MORE, I can sort of wave my hand and accept it, since that seems to be the feel they're going for. I also appreciate their utterly optional nature, so while I'm sure I could enjoy a relationship that develops over the game as part of the plot, I would prefer not having that forced on me. I find most of the love interests unappealing for one reason or another in Mass Effect, so I appreciate being able to skip them. If the game forced me to persue Garrus (and bear in mind, I actually really LIKE Garrus) because OMG PLOT, I would not be happy.

All that said, I do find the "sex is the end game of this relationship" tiring, and much prefer the Dragon Age approach (DA2 took a step back on them, in my opinion, but this part was true for both games), where sex can/will happen but it's not necessarily the Final Step.

[Lantyssa]

I was going to make a snarky comment about needing more female writers, but DA2 has at least two yaoi fangirls writing, so I'm going to revise it to relationships in videogames need to be written by people with healthy attitudes towards sex while completely ignoring the suits.

[tmp]

so I'm going to revise it to relationships in videogames need to be written by people with healthy attitudes towards sex while completely ignoring the suits.

Well, following this recipe got us DA2 Isabela and her relationship doesn't exactly stand out from the rest of them. On second thought, maybe it just means that all involved writers had healthy attitudes towards sex, but then it still failed to produce any notable results, imo. And it doesn't feel that's due to listening to any suits.

[LK]

Relationship stories in video games need a climactic conclusion / reward for the player. Sex is often what it is in this case, and I think because of this, Liara was kept out of ME2 because they wanted something more with her, you've already "conquered" her, and she was the only guaranteed romance option to survive ME1.

Yeah you're there to get it on in the final scene of Shadowbroker, you always have an option of picking the right thing to say to get with the bootie or get with the more meaningful stuff in a relationship, but "I dunno, growing old together and having a number of blue kids running around." from Shepard had to be the defining moment of the Liara / Shepard relationship where I knew that, for this series, it was the best, healthiest, most mature relationship option, and probably the one they are going to exploit like a motherfucker in ME3. I knew that was the Shepard I wanted my Shepard to be, not "I'm going to fuck you now then get back to saving the galaxy on my terms."

Seriously the Paragon options in Shadowbroker where you start to break Liara's shell down were some of the best moments in narrative gaming for me.

I can see the following also playing out in M3:

1) Shepard never entered into a relationship through the ME series. Work is his life. He saves the galaxy but is alone.
2) Shepard's romances from ME2 carry over to their logical conclusion, successfully similar to Liara (Garrus?), remorsefully (Thane), "We're both badasses and love fucking" (Miranda), explosively or nothing at all (Jack -- still up in the air what they're going to do, or if the relationship can even be pursued.)
3) Ash / Kaiden potentially developed, but I foresee this going into friendship territory rather than developing into a Liara-level seriousness.
4) Shepard fucks many different people, no relationship bond, in it for himself and nobody else. Helps everyone with their problems so he can fuck them later. (They are never going to chide the player for how they conduct their lives, but I am waiting for that wall-banger moment where someone Shepard / the player admires and trusts comes down hard on their behavior, and the player has the option to tell them to Fuck Off or have an epiphany of the highest order AND ACTUALLY TEACH THE PLAYER SOMETHING ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS).
5) Shepard starts a relationship in ME3 where he didn't before, finally learning to let people in.

[Sjofn]

so I'm going to revise it to relationships in videogames need to be written by people with healthy attitudes towards sex while completely ignoring the suits.

Well, following this recipe got us DA2 Isabela and her relationship doesn't exactly stand out from the rest of them. On second thought, maybe it just means that all involved writers had healthy attitudes towards sex, but then it still failed to produce any notable results, imo. And it doesn't feel that's due to listening to any suits.

Aw, see, I think she does stand out because she isn't fucking insane or broken or nothin'! Just a little bit commitment issue-y, it's totally quaint.  


Also my Mansheps would be happy to let someone into their heart, but they are the only gay men in the universe. :(

[tmp]

Aw, see, I think she does stand out because she isn't fucking insane or broken or nothin'! Just a little bit commitment issue-y, it's totally quaint.  

I kinda treat it as her overall quality rather than something specifically relationship-related  Relationship-wise she seems as formulaic as the rest of them -- flirt in act 1, bang in act 2 (and they all come to Hawke for it, it seems?), resolution in act 3.