Liara Can Technically Die But It Requires:

I'm actually super surprised to see that there are people who don't like Halsin. I guess I've found myself in the right circles because I've never seen anything but love for him!

Ok, so I've been trying to gather my thoughts on this, because it's not a fun topic to discuss. But some of the most insane takes I have seen has been like this:

While others are pointing out how insane it sounds and getting call out posts for it as though they have had no good reason to talk about it:

It's gotten bad enough that Dave Jones, Halsin's voice actor, is being quoted by people saying he should be put on a list:

Dave is a voice actor. A goddamn voice actor. He doesn't have control over how Halsin is written nor is he endorsing any creepy behavior. This is a serious accusation to make and honestly, why are Halsin haters following the voice actor of a character they hate?!

People are entitled to their feelings and they have a right to feel safe, but that does not give them the right to falsely accuse real people for things that did not happen.

This is fictional work. Fictional characters who are written out with a set plan in mind. We know Halsin's intent from start to finish and it's never changed like other, more controversial characters are intended like:

Halsin: I understand, and I will cherish our relationship.

Minthara: I already know your mind. I will know your body, one way or another.

This is not a condemnation of Minthara. She's intended to be difficult and bossy, because she had to be in the cutthroat world of the Underdark. This is, however, intended to be a comparison of the double standards I've been seeing from fans and wish would be applied fairly and civilly. I would deeply dislike being deceived if I was a new player trying out this game and found out I had been misled so badly on different characters. I've already felt aggravation finding out fans pushed a popular headcanon over what's actually in the game in other games.

people are like "no one wants to work anymore" when every job application is like upload your resume and cover letter. okay now manually type out your resume and cover letter in our text boxes. okay now answer these 10 riddles. okay now take a rorschach test. okay now upload a photo of your childhood bedroom and explain the relationship between its layout and the adult you are today. okay now show us your youtube watch history. okay now define the color "red." okay now walk into a patch of poison ivy and take a selfie of you holding up a paper saying "i <3 ivy." okay now wave your hands in the air if you just don't care. that one was a trick to cull the applicants who don't care. okay now choose a loved one to sacrifice. great! thank you for submitting your application we will not be calling you

can I just say how heartbreaking it is that Halsin continuously doubts someone could love him? when he says "my heart does not stir lightly... but it does now" he actually has to take a moment to breathe and close his eyes. like he's scared to admit it. like once he opens his eyes, the PC will be gone. even during his romance scene, you have to encourage him that this was what you wanted and that when he goes into wildshape and back into his regular form, PC tells him "it's okay, now come here" like he's TERRIFIED of scaring the PC because he rambles and apologizes profusely.

and when you solo romance him/decide to leave with him post brain, he tells you in the epilogue:

"Yet you chose me", like he STILL can't believe pc could've picked him over ANYONE SIX MONTHS LATER. This man wants to be loved but STRUGGLES to believe it once someone actually loves him and it's so heartbreaking. He's just a gentle giant. (also thank you @autistichalsin bc you've encouraged me to start analyzing Halsin with your posts)

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.

I like to headcanon that my Shepard Amara, who's so used to cramped military quarters, was utterly appalled at how much open space in Anderson's apartment was going unused by a single occupant. So she's invited several crewmates to stay with her during shore leave beyond the party and several took her up on the offer like James who laid claim to the bedroom below for the gym equipment and Tali who claimed the one above since Quarians rarely get any private spaces. It's not uncommon for Amara to wake in the morning and walk past someone passed out on her couch or to head downstairs and see another eating breakfast. She's thinking about converting the art gallery and upstairs living room into more bedrooms. It works out for everyone since living space is becoming more and more difficult due to refugees and the apartment is far superior to the standardized accommodations.

*Halsin kissing Tav while holding them so tightly that not one mote of light could come between them, kissing them so deeply that there is no room for thought, only sensation of his scent, the calluses on his hands, the firmness of his body, the heat emanating from him. Every touch he gives is to bring them closer until it feels like they'll be consumed by his passion before it ends.*

Halsin: *smiling* Was there something you wanted, my heart?

Tav: 😶

Halsin: ....my heart?

Tav: .......I think I forgot my name.

enough silliness what’s y’all’s favorite fruit

Reach

Female Tav x Halsin

(Just a personal headcanon for one of my Tavs)

The Imp patagium laid on the highest shelf, just a few inches out of her reach if she went on tiptoe. Normally, not a terrible inconvenience if she floated a bit, but with the lambent flames cooking the suspensions and the steam of the sublimates, she was reluctant to risk an accidental brush with her robes. She tried approaching from the side, but the distance just felt longer. She tried placing a knee on the edge of the stone slab used as an alchemical workspace, but the shelf was behind the arrangement of vials and flames and stinging steam.

"Let me, my heart." One long, broad arm reached above her head to pluck the small vial. Looking upwards, she could see the smile on his face.

"I could have gotten that."

"Indeed you could." Wrapping one arm around her waist, Halsin laid a gentle kiss on her head. "But I figured this was easier for you."

Luth could feel herself relaxing into his embrace, swaying with him as they often did during their moments alone.

"Thank you. Really." She turned around, smiling as she reached up to take the patagium from him.

He kept it out of her grasp.

Puzzled, she extended her arm, all the while looking at his broadly grinning face that never changed. He inched it further from her hand. Dawning comprehension revealed the mischievousness in his smile as he leaned a bit further back.

"You're almost there," One step, then two before he had already led her away from the alchemy bench and had sat down on a nearby slab. Every time her fingertips grazed the glass, he'd swap hands with it.

"How-" She let out a huff of laughter. "-how are you so tall?!"

Frustration had her gripping his forearm with both hands, hands that still could not encircle his arm completely, pulling herself further up until she finally snatched the elusive ingredient with a triumphant cry.

"Aha!"

"Very well done, my heart."

His grin had never faded and she had now realized, that he had maneuvered her so that she'd be draped all over him. Only the clothing they wore separated them from fully feeling the length of each other's bodies. From his vantage, he had the satisfaction of watching his beloved's face flush redder and redder, mere inches from his.

"You planned this."

"Mm-hmm." Thick fingers had already slid under her embroidered robes, rubbing circles on bare skin. "Whatever should be done about that now?"

"You-" Luth could not even pretend to be mad, not with growing evidence of his interest beneath where her legs were straddling him. "This is why we're behind on our potion stock."

"By all means, don't let me stop you, my love."

Luth had to laugh. "You are dangerous."

His chuckle joined hers as the vial of patagium fell to the ground.

Sometimes I wish for a mod that took the sex scene and used it as a reconciliation moment after his judgement (sans waking up alone in the barn)

gentle reminder that you don’t have to wind up naked and alone in a barn to continue the relationship with blackwall and can instead have the softest, purest scene with him instead at no cost of approval