Who did you hook up with? (Mass-Effect series)

[clyde]

I was just listening to episode 443 of the Gamers With Jobs podcast and they had the best who did you hook up with? conversation I think I've heard on a podcast. It made me realize that I don't think anyone has started a thread where we can tell the stories of our romances throughout the entire series in one place.

So who did you hook up with in the Mass-Effect series? Why them? How did it work out.

[SuperBiasedMan]

In ME1 I accidentally romanced Kaiden. I was just flirting about with him for fun, then all of a sudden he got all serious and I'm stuck in this relationship. I wasn't sure what to do but a while later this dangerous mission came up, so naturally I sent him to take care of it. He died, and that's how we broke up.
I think we're both happier for it.

 

In 2 it was even rougher. I asked out the scientist but he said no so I ended up on the rebound and dating this assassin who was sad about losing his wife. That kind of fizzled when I just never went to see him again.

[clyde]

I think Mass-Effect was the first game I played that had a romance-option so I pretty much ran into Ashley's arms even though she was pretty uninteresting as a partner. I was loyal though, we pretty much had a boring relationship. I think we both just wanted to forget it ever happened in 2(? my memory isn't good) more than it fizzling out. Didn't she die of a disease or something?

I was totally into Liara during the ShadowBroker DLC and I thought Miranda looked hot, but nothing satisfying ever really happened with my romances. I just wanted to camp out in the ShadowBroker's base and watch TV with Liara for the rest of the series. Talk about shit, listen to music, fuck.

[Professor Video Games]

ME1: Nobody (they are all terrible).

ME2 & 3: Garrus, all day every day. Why? Because he's the best . In ME3 you can tango with him and it keeps presenting the option to switch dance partners, which is insane why would you choose anyone else. I also love that when you start talking about getting down and dirty, neither character is exactly sure how it will physically work and they need to do research first. Being able to romance Garrus is one of the many reasons playing as female Shepard is the best.

[Gormongous]

I dated Liara in the first game, because Ashley was a space-racist and I wanted none of that. I still sent Kaiden instead of her to die, though.

 

Second game, I tried to make it with Jack, but deeply disliked how her personality turned once we got serious, so I reloaded (oops!) and went after Tali instead. Man, that was tepid, and I got so much more out of Liara in the Shadow Broker DLC.

 

I didn't play the third game, but I think the DLC for the second would have convinced me that it's best to be loyal to Liara anyway.

[clyde]

I liked that Liara had her own thing going and that it was based on something she was actively enthusiastic about rather than something she was avoiding or something she thought someone else wanted her to do. I wanted to help her reach her potential because I was also interested in her goals. The non-human aspect was also exotic.

[Zeusthecat]

In Dragon Age Origins things got really hot and heavy between me and Alistair. It started out innocently enough but one thing led to another and I ended up taking his virginity and blowing his fucking mind.

 

Then I got bored. He was just too inexperienced and couldn't satisfy my radical dwarf sexual desires. So I moved on to Leliana and within one conversation I had fallen deeply in love with her. The only problem is that I never bothered to mention any of this to Alistair. Before I knew it gossip had spread around the camp that me and Leliana were an 'item' and she forced me to make a tough decision. If I wanted to get anywhere with her I would need to break up with Alistair. I was torn. On the one hand Alistair was a nice enough guy and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. On the other hand, he couldn't give me the radical dwarf sex I desired. So I went with my baser instincts and kicked him to the curb. Then me and Leliana lived happily ever after.

[Trip Hazard]

"I dated Liara in the first game, because Ashley was a space-racist and I wanted none of that. I still sent Kaiden instead of her to die, though."

 

Hah! Such a wallpaper character that people would rather keep the space-racist. I made the same decision, Gormongous.

 

In the first game, my first time through, I think I kept uttering supportive platitudes to Liara, basically to bolster my paragon points, and she eventually wanted to do it. Did we do it? I don't remember. Is it even possible to shag anyone in the first game? I'm drawing a complete blank.

 

In the 2nd game, Garrus. Garrus all the way. I tried it on with Jack as a male character but fucked it up by saying something nice to her at one point, when I felt we were better acquainted. She always rejects praise, I think, so whatev. No big loss.

 

In the 3rd game, nobody. Was playing as a Renegade and really enjoyed being petty and mean to all of my crew.

[Gormongous]

In Dragon Age Origins things got really hot and heavy between me and Alistair. It started out innocently enough but one thing led to another and I ended up taking his virginity and blowing his fucking mind.

 

Then I got bored. He was just too inexperienced and couldn't satisfy my radical dwarf sexual desires. So I moved on to Leliana and within one conversation I had fallen deeply in love with her. The only problem is that I never bothered to mention any of this to Alistair. Before I knew it gossip had spread around the camp that me and Leliana were an 'item' and she forced me to make a tough decision. If I wanted to get anywhere with her I would need to break up with Alistair. I was torn. On the one hand Alistair was a nice enough guy and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. On the other hand, he couldn't give me the radical dwarf sex I desired. So I went with my baser instincts and kicked him to the curb. Then me and Leliana lived happily ever after.

 

I went after Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins, because Claudia Black and because they shove the possibility of her in your face from square one, but after the first time we hooked up, she let loose the stream of Damaged Character Bullshit that Bioware has gotten a bit too good at writing. I didn't really want that in my Dragon Age as well as my Mass Effect, so I started flirting around, had fun with Zevran for a while, and then ended up with Leliana, who was a lot more interesting and giving than Morrigan. Surprise, though, because Leliana is damaged too, albeit in very different ways and for very different reasons! It made me want to date Aveline really bad in Dragon Age 2, but she wasn't an option beyond the flirting I did religiously, so I went for Merrill, who was cute and Welsh but... surprise, also horribly damaged! There are other kinds of women, Bioware.

 

"I dated Liara in the first game, because Ashley was a space-racist and I wanted none of that. I still sent Kaiden instead of her to die, though."

 

Hah! Such a wallpaper character that people would rather keep the space-racist. I made the same decision, Gormongous.

 

Kaiden's biggest character point was that his equipment gave him headaches sometimes. I don't know what else we were expected to do besides ditch him.

[juv3nal]

Liara all the way through. I did romance someone else in ME2 but ended up reloading it and replaying with no romancing to see if there was any payoff to being faithful in ME3. From what I gather, not so much.

 

edit: I remember wanting to go for Leliana in DAO but having done something (or possibly a whole bunch of somethings, I have no idea, it's been so long) that made her pissed off at me, making that impossible.

[Vasari]

I went with Ashley in the first game, but I doubt I'd make that choice now.

 

In 2, I went with Miranda. I almost went with Jack just because you can sleep with someone in Mass Effect by just choosing the top right dialogue option over and over again.

 

In 3 I was pretty annoyed about the whole game and left Ashley. In hindsight, she'd almost died and was on a hospital bed when I dumped her so I wish the game had reflected that by making everyone else on the Normandy treat me like a piece of shit. Instead everyone was cool with it and James shagged her and told me all about it while he was making food in the mess hall. Again, I probably should've been able to flip out and punch him at that part, but the romances only go one way or the other.

[Latrine]

I stayed with space racist in all three games. Like Vasari I regretted it because they really bungled her character in ME2 and ME3. I know a lot of people hated Ashley in ME1 but at that point she was a much more realized character than the idealistic but shallow Liara. In retrospect Liara seems like the best choice if you wanted to be in the same relationship for all three games.

[syntheticgerbil]

Captain Thygh.

[Mawd]

My femshep was a mostly good centred paragon who dated Carth Onasi Kaiden Alenko for most of ME1. He was a boring character but I've always felt pity for how much of a dickbag Revan I was to him. So much that in a sea of meh he was my fallback. That and paragon femshep's french vanilla mixed well with his regular vanilla.

 

By the time ME2 rolled around I had been forcibly put back together & had been reborn into the world a shattered version of what I once was. As a harsh and bitter renegade my outlook quickly infected my work thereby destroying all of Kaiden's love and trust in me. That was fine. The only solace for my harsh fucked up world was Garrus and presuming that I eventually reinstall with my old save file; I will romance the shit out of that wonderful man.

 

In case you can't tell I tend to RP my characters. For DA:III my female Inquisitor isn't interested in anyone.

[Salacious Snake]

I also went with Kaiden, followed by a double helping of Garrus. Garrus's vulnerable awkwardness is so endearing.

It just felt so right, because he was already my go-to companion. I liked his attitude and his combat abilities, and I almost always had him with me. By the time it became an option to romance him, it felt pretty natural, and the relevant scenes were so well written.

It fit with the characters as I saw them. It felt way less forced than is the norm for these things.

[osmosisch]

I can't really put my finger on it but something about this thread creeps me the heck out. Maybe it's because I'm so sensitive to objectification now that even seeing it applied to essentially objects makes me nervous. Could be s reflection on the strength of the character writing.

Something about the harem aspect of Bioware games has always made me uncomfortable, and seeing this thread made it even worse.

(oh, and Liara all the way)

[clyde]

I can't really put my finger on it but something about this thread creeps me the heck out. Maybe it's because I'm so sensitive to objectification now that even seeing it applied to essentially objects makes me nervous. Could be s reflection on the strength of the character writing.

Something about the harem aspect of Bioware games has always made me uncomfortable, and seeing this thread made it even worse.

(oh, and Liara all the way)

I compare it to shooting dudes in games. It's a power-fantasy that I enjoy experimenting with in a fictional world.

[osmosisch]

I compare it to shooting dudes in games. It's a power-fantasy that I enjoy experimenting with in a fictional world.

Yeah, I hope I'm not sounding judgemental, rather puzzled. For what it's worth I'm less and less comfortable with shooting dudes as well, but hey.

[Dewar]

ME1: Nobody (they are all terrible).

ME2 & 3: Garrus, all day every day. Why? Because he's the best . In ME3 you can tango with him and it keeps presenting the option to switch dance partners, which is insane why would you choose anyone else. I also love that when you start talking about getting down and dirty, neither character is exactly sure how it will physically work and they need to do research first. Being able to romance Garrus is one of the many reasons playing as female Shepard is the best.

 

Mordin: "Human ingestion of tissue could provoke allergic reactions. Anaphylactic shock possible. So don't, ah, ingest."

 

Garrus is the best. I would have considered Mordin if he was interested.

[Dewar]

Kaiden's biggest character point was that his equipment gave him headaches sometimes. I don't know what else we were expected to do besides ditch him.

 

To be fair, his character point was supposed to be that that he volunteered to be one of the first folks tested on for the biotic implants and the lab rat/body horror thing, but Bioware failed to really make it come out in the first game. I accidentally killed him at the end of ME1, so I never got to see how he developed, but it had to be better than how Ashley ended up.

[JonCole]

ME1 - Ashley (who I sacrificed)

ME2 - Miranda

ME3 - Nobody (stayed loyal to Miranda, I guess)

[feelthedarkness]

Liara all the way, nobody in 2, though my female Shepard was really close with Thane. Emotional support I guess in Liara's absence. He's cool, and would never use the words friendzoned. 

[mikemariano]

I only slept with you for the Xbox Live Achievement.

[Apelsin]

Only finished ME2 and didn't have a relationship with anybody. 

The closest I got was the Yeoman, Kelly, but made the choice to "wait" until the conflict was over. 

[Bjorn]

Oddly enough, the most satisfying "relationships" in ME for me were the friendships, primarily the ship's doctor, Mordin, Garrus and Wrex. The way those interactions were written genuinely felt like there was a deep affection and mutual respect between Shepard and her allies.

For romance, I stuck with Liara in my Paragon playthrough, and never messed with romances with it as a Renegade. I got a bigger kick out of the other romances, such as Edi/Joker and Tali/Garrus.