Mass Effect Trilogy General Discussion

I posted the article about Jacob in the main Mass Effect group, it was approved but a moderator closed comments before any comments could be made. I'm wondering if it was because when someone posted about Jack they had to yeet a lot of people who made homophobic comments from the group and they wanted to avoid more of the same (the mods are in heavy favour of the airlock when it comes to bigots) or if it's because the tweets linked in the article tell homophobic gamers to go fuck themselves

Yeah, end of the day, as much as I rage about BioWare in specific... A lot of it does come down to MORE than just BioWare. We still see queer content slapped with higher content than similar cishet stuff. Even things more explicit cishet stuff. So the ratings boards or the publishers or the various corporate elements will step in and say 'hey, can you NOOOOOOOOOT be so explicitly queer? Cuz otherwise we're gonna pull funding.'

Even when BioWare's people want to do more, they have to fight just to get what they do - remember the fight over Suvi's sexuality? I can definitely believe that there came a point where it was fight for Suvi's lesbianism to remain intact OR fight for something with the M/M options, and cutting Jaal was a triage moment - on paper, by cutting Jaal's same-sex romance at release meant there was still a gay man and a bisexual man in the romances, so it was still representing those groups. Of course, as we pointed out with the whole #MakeJaalBi campaign, it was still a problem. But I do genuinely believe that it was a wound inflicted in the name of protecting other representation.

I definitely agree with the "one deviation" interpretation - I mean, we can discuss the more general racism in Hollywood, but... How often do you see shows with queer characters of color? I mean, I do have a couple that come to mind, but put that in perspective with the white queers we get.

It’s really noticeable with female characters but there’s been some progress with non white bi/gay guys lately. The bigger issue is they are side characters. The only non white non straight main characters I can think of that are main characters are a show I forgot that had a scene where the main guy is sleeping with another guy and is told to use more lube and so he squirts a bit and his partner is like nonchalantly squirting more and more (forgot the name but it’s a comedy). And Bowen yang from Nora from queens but he is kinda the side character to awkwafina. Wilson Cruz from Discovery got more screen time I guess and Philippa was I think pan. And Raffi from Picard touches Seven of Nine’s hand. 

But there is the inverse trend where you make a side character check as many boxes as possible. So you’ll have one character be femme, non binary, not white, pan, and call it a day.

There's also Conrad Ricamora, who played Oliver on How To Get Away With Murder, and is now recurring on The Resident. Points for the actor being gay, as well as the character evolving from "random hook up" to recurring to a main (as well as effectively a full series romance with the same character) on the basis of his chemistry with Jack Falahee. He was specifically who I was thinking of at writing.

But yeah, it's not exactly common. So that "one deviation" law seems to wrap itself around things with Jacob, at least so far as things in 2010 were concerned - he could be black or he could be queer, but not both.

I mean, even Kaidan (whose face model is Luciano Costa, who I believe is Latino) got whitewashed in ME3. Though between Cortez, Gil, and Reyes, I suppose maybe we're seeing some pushback on this front? Look, let me hold my silver linings.

I don’t disagree, but you’re forgetting about Liam.

I think that’s maybe an issue with BW creating companions in a vacuum. We’ve had 2 black female companions in DA, but zero male ones. And the opposite in ME. That’s before we consider the repeating bisexual rogues and gaps in made up species representation (looking at main games, we still have no female Krogan, Drell, Salarians, dwarves, and Qunari, and no male Quarians).

It seems to be a bigger problem in ME, where they look at the cast, finally notice it’s too white and straight, and try to balance it with side characters (Steve, Sam, Kasumi, Gil, Reyes, Suvi). That’s why you can cut or replace those characters without much impact, whereas you can’t really do that to Josephine.

The diversity in ME is also complicated that the main cast feels very British, Canadian, or American. Or alien. There’s like a few side characters who might not be from those countries, but the main cast is very culturally Anglo.

I had this conversation with my uncle about Chakotay from Voyager. A lot of people criticized his character in the early seasons but he’s one of the few non white characters in a space sci-fi genre that is really vocal about their culture in ways we usually reserve for aliens and make the humans homogeneous besides their skin color. Which is a double edged sword for me the older I get.

True. Similar with Disney’s Pocahontas but I believe that was more their consultant was a sellout. And is based on a horrible story they completely white wash. But that’s like the thing with Native American rep in media. It either exists as a stereotype by and for whites or it doesn’t exist. 

The whole plot line from the next generation with the Native American colonizers of the cardassian  neutral zone is weird too. But considering native people are not a monolith I know several of my family who thinks it’s better than nothing. 

but the idea that people with visible indigenous cultural beliefs being in the “future” is a tiny bit better though the bigger problem with Chakotay is they use hi as a “wise brother in arms” which is a recurring trope and his religion and culture is completely made up. so if Chakotay was say, played by an actual indigenous person and his culture wasn’t a weird fake thing rooted in a weird piece of Star Trek lore and a fake charlatan. 

So it would be great if we had visibly non culturally Anglo people in sci-fi. I guess a better example would be TOS where Sulu was also not like Harry Kim who was painted as an all American boy, where as Sulu was vaguely non Anglo culturally. As much as Cyberpunk 2077 is a shit show there is a better multi cultural vibe that should be in more sci fi. 

edit: there’s also that one lady from Discovery, owosekunn, who I would have mentioned but that her culture is defined as luddites living near caves of Africa and it never really gets mentioned beyond it let her learn how to hold her breath, I thought it was a worse example. From our present times. So it’s pretty shitty all around. 

Very interesting article on Bioware staff's thoughts on the ending, if they had problems with it too: www.thegamer.com/mass-effect-3-ending-controversy-dev-opinions/

I’m... gonna go with “cautious.” A straight up adaptation of the games is a losing proposition at best, but there’s plenty of room in the Mass Effect universe for a TV show completely unrelated to Shepard.

Though, while on an eye candy level, I’m pro-Cavil, does he really HAVE to be in every adaptation of video game franchises?