Hating James Vega?

[Xathos]

I loved James Vega XD I was actually hoping he was open to be a romance option, and I was sad when he wasn't. (I even went through the whole Fem!Shep flirt side-story with him.) Squad talk, he was always in my squad. Worked nicely with my Biotic shep.

Also being voiced by Freddy from Scooby Doo hugged my inner child.

Well, there's always the Citadel DLC! Lucky FemSheps =P

I really like Vega, and out of all the Human Characters, he was the one I took the most into a fight (certainly better than Jacob at least). He was a soldier, but he hadn't seen the amount of crazy stuff the Normandy's crew would do, so it was interesting to hear his take on events when you took him places. His character development isn't really as pronounced as compared to the others, but its still there. He just always came across as a sort of Buddy buddy type of guy, which I had no problems with. Liked his friendship with Cortez too.

Seriously though, I don't know how awesome Kaiden is in ME3 (mine never made it that far, lol), and I don't think Vega approaches Miranda's usefulness like in ME2, but he is better than Ashley in my opinion. Then again, I was playing a Vanguard, so meh. Still had a good amount of banter though. I never thought he was annoying, or out of place, or anything like that.

I'm fine with people not liking him of course, provided it isn't simply due to the fact that he looks the way he does.

 

[Judgment90]

Speaking from someone who hasn't actually played Mass Effect 3, my initial analysis is that I think Vega isn't a BAD character, but I wouldn't call him a good character either. Being the only "new" crew member in the 3rd game, he isn't really developed. If he was in an earlier game, even as an NPC, there would have been more opportunities for him to expand as a character like the others. Also, I do find him a little boring. But overall, through first impressions, Vega isn't what I call a "hate-worthy" character, that would be Morinth.

 

[Mossberg Shotty]

I loved James Vega XD I was actually hoping he was open to be a romance option, and I was sad when he wasn't. (I even went through the whole Fem!Shep flirt side-story with him.) Squad talk, he was always in my squad. Worked nicely with my Biotic shep.

Also being voiced by Freddy from Scooby Doo hugged my inner child.

He was? Ugh, I liked him a bit more before I read that.

I actually really liked Vega, and I've always assumed that all the hate he got was because he was just introduced, and had to compete with all of the well-established/well-loved characters from the previous two installments. His personality is hilarious, he's useful, and he knows a cure for the common hangover. What's not to love?

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I don't get why people hate Vega either, I hated him when I saw his pic online but I made assumptions over his personality (thought he'd be a jerk). I also thought Jack would be a ***** to me all the time but she turned out to be at least KINDA a nice person.

I don't mind Vega, he's chill...

 

[natster43]

I liked him. He was a fun character. I think what made me like him so much was his thing about dinosaurs on Eden Prime when talking to Liara.

 

[Malfy]

I didn't actually hate Vega, but I couldn't stand most of my crew from ME3 overall, save from EDI. Compare the crew from ME3 with the awesome crew from ME2 (save from Jacob, but since they were so many characters to chose from, he usually got buried at the bottom of the pile). Add on to the fact that the characters you miss from ME2 show up in missions only as cameos basically, and after having fun with them, you get to return to your ship, where Vega is doing pull-ups and being useless, and having boring convos with Shepard and trying too hard to have a battle of wits with Cortez. All Vega did was make me miss the likes of Kasumi, Grunt, Thane, Mordin, etc. Oh, and I was also a soldier Shepard (yeah I know, boring) so I really had no use for Vega skills-wise.

 

[Miyenne]

I liked him, I thought he was adorable. He didn't take himself seriously, and I never took him seriously either. He lightened the mood by being stereotypical and he knew it.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Honestly, there seems to be a lot of human squad-mate prejudice in the Mass Effect community, as well as towards anyone not Garrus or Tali. Honestly, I really liked James. He was a pretty funny guy. I would've liked to have had Wrex on my squad, but I understand that he had more important stuff to do. I only really hated Morinth, so I never even considered recruiting her. I also didn't like how they pushed you towards Liara.

 

[Loneski]

Vega was not someone I used often, didn't really enjoy his character so I tended to stay away from interacting with him.

 

[bojackx]

I hated him because he was never introduced, the game just thrust him on your party and he was Shepard's best friend but I'd never met him. It was just massively incongruous.

This, and he was way too chummy about everything. The fact he assigned his commanding officer a nickname after barely being introduced just made him seem too cocky for my liking.

After that, I never used him as a squadmate and I never went to speak to him. Maybe he got a lot better, I wouldn't know.

 

[Dr. Doomsduck]

He replaced the Krogan character that would have been in your squad. There was enough humans already.

Exactly! I like my snarky krogans. They worked well with the playing style I had and jesus, if you only have six squadmates, it seems fair to limit it to one of each species. Besides, shepard is already human. That's three humans in a team to save a rather diverse universe.

 

[votemarvel]

I didn't warm to Vega in the game because Bioware obviously wanted us to like him but forgot to give a good reason why.

That was answered in the Paragon Lost movie.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yes, homosexuals all share their feelings. That's what they do.

WTF. Not sure if serious.

A lot of people just hate Vega based on his appearance. Damn shame too because he's easily the best human squadmate in the entire series. He's an interesting guy who has a lot of funny moments too

"Easily the best human squadmate in the Mass Effect series" is kind of like saying "a better date than Jeffrey Dalhmer" or "More fun than a rectal exam with a claymore."

All he really has to be is not utterly contemptable and he's already outdone half the human cast. In fact, this is one of the few stories where I agree with the alien sense of smug superiority and dismissal of humanity. If not for Anderson, I'd consider the entire race a wash.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

he rubbed me the wrong way mouthing off at me on mars, but then I beat him up back on the Normandy and we were cool again.
Was damn tanky in a fight too, which was interesting on the squad balance since I played as a more damage focussed soldier. (who are STILL very tanky)

 

[Something Amyss]

Vega was remarkably stereotyped. A solid, macho soldier man; out of touch with his feelings and inept in any scenario he can't resolve with his gun/biceps. Perhaps there was slightly more to him than that, but not a lot more. He was comic relief more than anything else.

To be fair, it sort of fits with the OP's character, who appears to be just a gay stereotype. Perhaps that's why there was such a connection.

 

[Requia]

I thought he was alright.

Obviously I didn't like him as much as the characters I'd spent three whole, long games coming to know and love. He spent my entire first playthrough stuck on the Normandy, presumably doing weights and making coffee.

I brought him along a fair bit on my second run through though. I actually found a lot of his dialogue to be pretty amusing.

Random example:

Dammit, I *just* did that mission but didn't have him to kick the tower to death with

 

[Greymanelor]

I didn't use him too often, but I liked James plenty.

When he first showed up and Shepard started treating him like an old comrade in arms, my initial reaction wasn't positive. In fact, it was along the lines of "Who the hell IS this guy?" One thing they did early on that I appreciated though was showing just why James could roll with Shepard. He was daring, he was dynamic, he had a sense of humor and fairness and history. He succeeded in being an actual character, compared to someone like Jacob from ME2 who felt like he could have been replaced by any generic member of the Normandy crew with almost no changes to the story or dialog. James added enough unique color to the game that he'd be hard to replace.

 

[Phaethom]

A lot of good thoughts here guys. Interesting that there are so many differing opinions about the characters. Of course I love Liara and Garrus (and oh my god Tali!) but I seriously have a thing against the Krogan. The only reason I even spared their race was because of Eve. She was the only redeeming thing I saw about them. Otherwise I was just annoyed that their solution to every problem seemed to involve brute force. Didn't appeal to the intellectual side of me (or my Paragon Shepard).

 

[The Madman]

I neither liked nor disliked him, although I was extremely irritated by some of the dialogue Shepard had when interacting with him. It just didn't fit at all with the Shepard I had built up in ME1 and 2 to have her suddenly half-flirting with this guy who I've barely even met, hell, since when did my Shepard flirt with anyone? I very purposely hadn't done any romance at all in the games so Bioware's writing with Vega just seemed very out of place.

But then again something like 95% of players probably pursued romances so I'm no doubt the unexpected exception to the rule. Pity. Lonely Shepard makes for a very sympathetic hero.

 

[badgersprite]

He was a fun guy and pretty damn cool to be around. The only thing I didn't like was that the game kind of forced you to flirt with him, at least if you were playing a femshep, which I felt should have been the player's choice considering that can be completely out-of-character for a particular Shepard, but it didn't rub me too badly because it came off like it the flirting was just a joke between them.

Sure, he didn't get a whole lot of development compared to the other characters, but he had a distinct personality.