In Case Anyone Wanted To Read The Fic This Post Was Talking About

To add to this, Garrus can die in the suicide mission in ME2. ME3 is designed to go on without him in that scenario. You can flat out refuse to let him on the team in ME1. I have literally done a Shepard run who kept him off the team as much as possible (and discovered that his romance hinges on being on the team in ME1).

Meanwhile, I'm finding out that Liara had intentionally stayed quiet in ME1 about Tali's crush to increase her chances of getting with Shepard. That in of itself isn't a bad thing, but it does bring up questions as to whether she refused to update Ashley/Kaidan (to whom Shepard could even be romantically involved with) for the same reasons. She somehow can remember details on Tali's masturbation habits from 6 months ago to spite her in front of Shepard, but she couldn't remember to update Shepard's potential girlfriend/boyfriend about them being in Cerberus hands?! We should not be wondering whether Horizon is the result of Liara trying to sabotage Shepard's potential romantic relationship at Shepard's expense.

This is one of the many reasons why Liara creeps out people.

if u haven't read it a lot of liara's more action-oriented shift was told in the comics. the shadow broker DLC didn't quite capture how much effort she went thru to secure shep's body and how big feron's role. i personally welcome the change and while i like archeologist liara i think her ME1 characterization is so superficial. she's mostly just a fan girl. the shift is abrupt but it's nice that in ME2 she has her own thing going on outside shepard cos i believe the writers wrote her as the canon love interest in mind so her character often suffers from the fangirl disease. i think a lot of people in the fandom dislike how the game shove her to us so much. which is funny since another famous shepard ship is garrus, who's equally as pushed as liara and is just as much of a shep fan. it's just that he's a guy so he doesn't suffer sexist hate.

I haven't read/seen anything outside the games, no! I've been thinking of getting into that, but first I'd like to sort out all of my feelings wrt the main event - the games. I feel like if I got into the "peripheric" media, it could maybe influence how I view the games and i want to analyze those by themselves (i'm thinking i'll finish this playthrough + another one in which i might or might not play as mshep) and then see about everything else. Thank you for the rec, though! I knew there was extra stuff about tali and garrus but this is the first i'm hearing about liara <3

And well... let's be real, most of the squad is part of the Shepard fan club, even those that can't be romanced, like Grunt and Wrex. The fact that Shepard gets a breeding request in Tuchanka after completing grunt's loyalty mission is like the most Mary Sue thing ever (and I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way). The asari, sex symbols of the galaxy, are throwing themselves at them left and right (Liara, Shiala, arguably Sha'ira, Morinth...). Shepard is the main character, everyone wants a piece of them. It's one of the entertaining parts of the games (or at least I have a lot of fun with it, if maybe a little bit ironically).

I suppose people might single out Liara because she's the one whose actions are the most extreme, and thus it crosses the line from "cute" to "creepy", but she's not the only one. Legion literally wears the armor off their dead body. As I said in my post, maybe her actions and/or attitude aren't 100% justifiable, but they are understandable.

I'm not sure about the game pushing Garrus as a love interest (I think the game itself is skeptical of the player making this choice, like when Shepard says she "can't believe she finds comfort in the arms of a turian" or something like that), but I do think he's definitely meant to be one of the characters that's most influenced by Shepard, regardless of gender.

Personally, I think him being so popular a choice (at least on Tumblr, which has a mostly female userbase compared to other social media) is due to him being a man, yes, but not necessarily because of sexism (or not always), but because het ships are farrrr more popular than femslash. Also, it's very clear how much he respects Shepard in basically every aspect, and it's incredibly fucking rare to see a het relationship in such equal ground, especially with a """bad guy""" lmao. (though ME in general does quite good in that regard I think, the romances in general are not toxic™️ or unequal) (mostly... ignoring that Shepard is basically everyone's boss... lol).

I completely agree that there's a double standard in how female characters are expected to behave vs male ones, and from what i've seen Liara is 100% a victim of this (I had the very bad idea of reading some threads on reddit...yikes). I don't know the fandom enough to know how it compares in relation to Garrus in particular, though, or if there's a correlation between Shakarian fans and Liara haters.

What is it about laying on the floor when you're overwhelmed that makes everything feel so much better?

A distinct lack of Halsin on my dash lately 🐻😔

So some time ago, it occurred to me as to why there's strong ghoulcy vibes in Fallout. It was kinda obvious in retrospect, but I was slapping myself in the head when I noticed it.

The flashbacks.

Cooper and Lucy's flashbacks are being shown in greater detail than any other characters. Maximus has his, but they keep repeating back to an image of a Brotherhood knight rescuing him, not his life before Shady Sands was destroyed. It's odd, because you'd think that Maximus and Lucy would have more in common since they both had once lived in Shady Sands and that Lucy's parents directly affected Maximus.

But no.

Instead, we're seeing more parallels drawn between Lucy and Cooper to explain why Cooper invited Lucy along his journey, why he sympathizes with her and why they're leaving together at the end.

"Well duh," I can hear in the back of my mind. "Of course that's why other ghoulcy fans are fascinated by this dynamic."

Thing is, why go through all that for those two? Why not a rivalry that continues, a race to get to Lucy's father instead? Why not Maximus leaving with her since he too would have been ripe for a revenge tale? We'd get more of a destined lovers feel if we were getting more of Maximus's past shown in flashbacks alongside Lucy's, but instead, we get the sense that Maximus is more focused on the future instead of being haunted by his past.

Things aren't still decided, and for all we know, Maximus and Lucy may still be endgame, but it gets harder and harder to ignore the questions. I do want to see more of Maximus's life before he joined the Brotherhood. I want to see why Dane is so devoted to him (there has to be a history there). I feel like Maximus is on the brink of becoming a revolutionary in changing the Brotherhood once he figures out himself and what he ultimately wants. He straddles the line between doing the right thing and being pragmatic.

But most of all, I want to see more ghoulcy. I want to see Lucy and Cooper develop alongside each other. I want to see Lucy change in ways Cooper didn't expect the way Clarice from Silence of the Lambs became someone Hannibal didn't predict.

I can see the story now: Orc warrior who was so angry he dragged himself several miles to kill the foes who thought him dead. Right to the end they lacked the wisdom to fear him, for none knew the skill and sheer determination he had in how precisely he could throw his axes while propped up on one exhausted arm.

Paraplegic orc warrior who uses a wheelchair crafted from the bones of his fallen foes.

­Disability rights but they're fucking awesome.

"You are the red of the sunrise, the yellow of high noon and the orange of sundown."

I did a double take when Wyll said that to Hemera as it suited her color palette really well.

For me, personally, Bioware's Mass Effect romances has soured me a lot towards the bashful, hesitant tropes, because they were frequently Femshep's while Maleshep had clear and present interest from Tali, Liara, Jack and Ashley ahead of time. There was another tendency for every one of Femshep's male LI options to talk about their past lover. Kaidan had Rana, Garrus had that turian scout, Thane had Irikah, and Jacob had Miranda.

It's not that people shouldn't have had past relationships, it's that the frequency of them discussing their ex, in glowing terms, is not a turn on before trying to start a romance with that LI. I mean, if you're Maleshep, only Miranda and Jack's romances ever involve discussion of an ex. None of his other potential female LIs ever talk about another in sad, wistful tones. Curiously, his male options do.

Those two things combined with Vega's literally ending in a date rape have forever put me off of any LI who seems like they're dragging their feet about a relationship the entire way.

Ok, I’m probably very set on who I’m romancing my first playthrough of Veilguard, but then I was wondering what might make me change my mind. And then I was wondering what everyone else’s dealbreakers might be (and i wanted to ask before we learn much more about them!)

(Also to be clear, i’m just asking this out of curiosity, and not saying that any of these options are good or bad. this is just for funsies & i wont hold you to it 😂)

Carrying across a threshold or getting ready to chuck? Place your bets here, people!

Defending my new favorite ship again because why tf not

I’ll start by stating the obvious (cuz apparently it isn’t a given to some of the folks on here, which is weird, but okay). We DO NOT condone abuse in any form. With that said, an explanation is not an excuse and many folks, almost all I’d venture to guess, have been abusive at some point in their lives (I know I wouldn’t have been on the receiving end of so much abuse if that were untrue - hurt people hurt people). We also DO NOT condone racism. I get the feeling people assume malice on the Ghoulcy shipper side because of disgusting comments that were made long ago about Rey and Finn (which was a similar dynamic that, I’d argue, made more sense than a Lucy/Max relationship but that’s also my 🌈 heart shipping him with Dane). These disclaimers also extend to the villains, which Barb is one of. We DO NOT condone misogynoir here either cuz while I haven’t seen much racism on Lucy/Max, I have seen a surprising amount about Barb. Being a fictional villain does not allow for any kind of bigotry, NOTHING does, but I digress.

So on Ghoulcy, I’ll say this. The foreshadowing is layered heavily throughout the story. Whether they are intended to be friends or partners is up for debate, but the writing makes it quite clear that these characters are destined to team up, bringing us to the end of Season 1 when Lucy walks off with Cooper. I’m brought back to what Wilzig said at the beginning of the season, when Lucy was by herself camping and he warned her several times to go home before finally saying:

“The question is, will you still want the same things when you’ve become a different animal altogether?”

Lucy is very distraught at the end of the season after learning everything she does about her dad and Vault-tec and, for her to return to the vaults and live out her days there, with or without Max, seems like a stretch when things are all said and done. This can be poignantly compared to Persephone going to the underworld (in Lucy’s case, the surface world) - she has eaten the proverbial pomegranate.

This isn’t the only dynamic which Ghoulcy has been compared to, either. I have also seen them compared to Beauty and the Beast, which brings Max back into the dynamic often as a Gaston. Personally, I don’t see that, but if he turned out to be a villain it would be an interesting storyline and Aaron Moten could play it off very well. But bringing Max back in, something about his character to me feels very incomplete and I’m not sure if a love interest is the way forward for him. We only know one of his wants:

“I want to hurt the people who hurt me.”

And at the end of the season it’s like he seems less convinced by that, even though it’s hard to guess exactly what he’s thinking when he is knighted (something he should want, but judging by his expression he seems disenchanted by it) and finds Lucy has left. Part of the reason I ship him and Dane is because Dane has been a rock to him, one who he can probably trust with doubts about the Brotherhood. But returning to Ghoulcy, Cooper has been exactly where Lucy is before. He was betrayed by the one person he trusted most and what did he love most about Barb before they divorced (remember there was talk about alimony in the first episode - not sure how people forgot that):

“I know you always try to do the right thing. That’s what I love about you.”

Who embodies that better than Lucy, I ask you. (Cooper very well could still care about his ex-wife so take that with a grain of salt) But when it comes down to it, and we don’t know who initiated the divorce so it’s up for interpretation like any good story, part of Cooper died when he listened in on Barb’s Vault-Tec meeting just like part of Lucy is dying after she learns what her father did to her mother and Shady Sands.

“If my dad found out that I destroyed an entire community to save him... that'd break his heart.”

That is likely what’s on repeat for her when she learns about the city. And when Cooper offers her his company to New Vegas, his tone notably softens. I think when they first met, the vile things Cooper did to Lucy made her realize very quickly what she would have to do to make it on the surface. Cooper is intrigued, maybe even put off by, her genuine goodness. And it’s not just that, but he sees part of his past self and seeks to kill it any chance he can get. I’d argue that’s a large part of why he’s so cruel to her (him shooting the Vault Boy poster was more than just a fuck you to Vault-Tec). And likewise, Lucy shows him that embracing his humanity again is not so bad - whatever morsel he has left. It begins with trust, though, whatever they have. When she follows him, he has his back turned to her and is walking ahead with the dog. Normally, he wouldn’t put himself in such a vulnerable position, but he is showing her that he believes in her golden rule. Or more accurately that he believes that she believes in it.

Anyway, I dare not risk turning this into an actual essay. It’s already long enough. I’m interested in exploring other aspects that I might have missed if y’all have any thoughts.