Poll: Which is your favourite Mass Effect romance?

Random Argument Man

New member
May 21, 2008
6,011
0
0
Back when the first Mass effect came out, I had two relations going at the same time. I was more inclined towards Ashley with my male Shep. But then... Virmire happened. Ashley was on the diversion squad. Between the bomb which absolutely needed to be blown and my new girlfriend, I chose the bomb. Wasn't happy about it, but it added a bigger impact for the story for me. Then Liara came along and she became somebody that I felt Shepard could rely on....Then I learned on my second playthrough that the bomb would've blowned up anyway.

Talk about being pissed. Anyway, I sold my xbox 360 the year after. Bought a PS3 last year and got myself the Mass effect trilogy to play the other games. I tried to make my male Shep a renegade badass who's only getting the job done and I let Ashley die so it could make a decent story of how he started to think about other people. Mass effect 1 always felt like a pen and paper game so I tried my best to invest my own self in the mix.

Mass effect 2 came along and I chose Miranda. She was confident in her abilities, smart, beautiful and she was played by Yvonne Strahovski. That actress is one of my Hollywood crush so I couldn't pass this chance. Miranda was confident in her abilities, but not in herself. Shepard came along and make sure she would never have that problem ever again. But then it seemed weird that pretty much every female character on board had a crush on me while I was dating Miranda. It made Tali more funny in the long run. I continued to pursue my romance with Miranda in Mass effect 3 and I haven't regretted it. No Ashley meant that I had more time to pass with Kaiden and learn that he was an okay guy. Liara became a good friend. Tali had that drunken episode where she cursed my girlfriend. Garrus and me became bros.

I'm starting a second playthrough as Femshep and my favorite tragic character was Thane. I'm thinking of romancing him or staying with Liara.
 

Jake the Snake

New member
Mar 25, 2009
1,141
0
0
I cheated with Miranda but reconciled with Ashley in ME3. I liked her romance well enough, but I do agree with most on here that in retrospect it is a little bland. Miranda kinda got downgraded to shit character no one cares about in 3 anyway. I wouldn't even go there with Jack, and I've never understood Tali's appeal.
...cheered when Tali killed herself when I sided with Legion in ME3. Honestly, she's whiny and annoys the ever loving fuck out of me.

I didn't like Liara in ME1 but really came to respect her and fascinated by her character development through the other games. If I ever go back and replay the trilogy, I'll probably romance her.
 

Gizmo1990

Insert funny title here
Oct 19, 2010
1,900
0
0
I guess my favorite would be Liara with FemShep but my ideal one would be if Tali was a FemShep option. I like Tali more than Liara but hate ManShep's voice actor.
 

solemnwar

New member
Sep 19, 2010
649
0
0
Garrus forever. Seriously. Garrus' romance arc basically made Mass Effect 3 the best game ever for me. GAARRUUUSSSS.


And my least favourite is Jacob. Because one of my other sheps gave him a chance and then he fucks off with some other ***** LKSDJFLSKDFJLSDKFJSLFSLFJS. Why is there no renegade interrupt where you bunch his cheating face?!
 

Doom972

New member
Dec 25, 2008
2,312
0
0
Tali is my favorite due to her personality and mysteriousness. Also, I had to know what she looked like!
 

AgedGrunt

New member
Dec 7, 2011
363
0
0
TheCommanders said:
Miranda and Liara tie in my book. Miranda would probably win if she had gotten more screen time in 3 (although Citadel DLC helps a bit). I don't understand the hate for Miranda, whereas Tali gets a free pass. Sure Miranda starts off as a bit of a *****, but a bit of character development later reveals that unlike the superiority complex a lot of people assume she has, she actually feels inferior to Shepard. I usually stay faithful to whatever character I'm romancing, but I've watched all the break up scenes on youtube. Miranda is the only one who seems crushed if Shepard leaves her, which shows what a difference he made to her life.
Ah, Miranda. *cracks knuckles* I'll take a stab.

Let's see:
-Wanted control chip in Shepard (trust issue)
-Arrogant and needed loyalty earned (trust issue)
-Abandons loyalty if you side with Jack in ME2 (immature/insecure/idiotic)
-Fails to keep her sister safe and needs Shepard to solve her problems (irresponsible)
-Operative of freaking Cerberus, especially in light of her upbringing
-Seeks out no-attachment sex so long as the male has a clean bill of health


While it's arguable that Shepard changes Miranda and she starts to become a better person, she's not fit to carry Liara's laundry.

Remorse or not, that's pretty damning.

All considered, hate is a strong word. As a paragon I would just banish her from Shepard's life. Renegade, let's just say far worse.

Now Liara, there's not enough that can be said about her. She took over as Shadow Broker and knew how to act with power. Sure, she's consumed by her work and had to be cutthroat in ME2, but she develops into a truly complete character and never doubts Shepard. Well-deserved trust, honor and respect.

Miranda gets no sympathy from me, is bad at her job and as a person.

As for Tali, not a huge fan. Great character but not a love interest. Jack is a strong second for romance but only Subject Zero/Jack, not that PG-13 Alliance instructor.
 

Mikejames

New member
Jan 26, 2012
797
0
0
I actually did like Ashley's characterization in the first game, though she kind of fades out as her and Kaidan started to become the same character. Lair of the Shadow Broker is probably the best character-centric mission in the series, so Liara had some of the great moments there. Would have to admit I found Tali to be the most genuinely likable, after she finally got some character development in the second game.

Granted this is all after Mordin rejected me.
*siiigghhh*
 

Cabisco

New member
May 7, 2009
2,433
0
0
Romance I'm unsure about, likely Miranda I think just because I got on with her (thats a strange thing to say about a game character) than I did either Ashley, Tali or Liara. I liked the dialogue and interplay between them all to be honest, different play throughs different people :)

But if the question was 'Bromance', or 'who would you certainly die for in Mass Effect' it's Garrus. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
My two favorite romancable characters are Liara and Jack in roughly that order.

That said, I don't think any of the romance paths were bad, the very fact that conversations like this come up with some frequency is a testament to how well Bioware wrote this aspect of the game.

THAT said the ending of the series rendered everything else retroactively pointless and irrelevent, and destroyed all writing before it. It's hard to really look back on anything I once liked about the series because now I hate it knowing how it all ends. I mean at the end of the day who cares who Shepard wound up with? It all ends with Starchild and choosing to walk down path A B or C, where your desicians up until that point and who you wound up with pretty much cease to matter in the ending.
 

TheCommanders

ohmygodimonfire
Nov 30, 2011
589
0
0
Ok, you brought up some good points, so I'll respond in detail.

But first:
Now Liara, there's not enough that can be said about her. She took over as Shadow Broker and knew how to act with power. Sure, she's consumed by her work and had to be cutthroat in ME2, but she develops into a truly complete character and never doubts Shepard. Well-deserved trust, honor and respect.
I know, I like Liara a lot. As I said she's tied for my favorite with Miranda. It also helps that she's clearly the "cannon" romance because she's romancable by both male and female Shepards and gets the most screen time. I'm ok with that though, because I like her character and story arc.

Anyway, back to Miranda:

AgedGrunt said:
Let's see:
-Wanted control chip in Shepard (trust issue)
Ah, the only thing I know of her doing that I have any real problem with, but I offer two consolations. One, she sincerely regrets it later, and two, I can totally understand why she would want to. Think about it. All they know for sure about Shepard is s/he is extremely dangerous, loyal to the Alliance, and has personally killed dozens of Cerberus agents. Given that, can you honestly say you wouldn't have any reservations about having that person wandering free around your facility and having your biggest project dependent on them? I'm not saying its right, but I completely get it.

-Arrogant and needed loyalty earned (trust issue)
Ok... not sure where you are going with this. First off, unearned loyalty is meaningless, similar to unconditional love. Loyalty like respect needs to be earned for it to have any merit. In addition... EVERY character in ME2 needs their loyalty earned. You know, as it should be (although why Garrus and Tali need to be earned when you already knew them in ME1 kind of confuses me (maybe it's the fact that they thought you were dead...)). Also I would respectfully disagree with the arrogant statement. Close examination reveals despite acting a bit superior at times (mostly with people she doesn't know or doesn't like), and despite having many factual reasons to be arrogant (perfect genetics) she actually feels inferior to the other crew members, because she feels like she didn't earn her place among them (which is nonsense, because we're all a product of our genetics, the fact that hers are artificial is irrelevant, which Shepard helps her realize).

-Abandons loyalty if you side with Jack in ME2 (immature/insecure/idiotic)
I'll grant you that I always thought this was a little weird, but not to be petty, so do Tali, Legion, and Jack (actually, I believe all the characters were original supposed to have scenes like this, but most of them got cut). Besides that, this whole cat fight thing seemed a bit out of character and smacked of writers creating artificial conflict for the sake of this scene, because if you bring Miranda along on Jack's loyalty mission, her comments on the state of Jack's upbringing are much more sympathetic. In addition, Jack almost certainly started the fight and put Miranda on the defensive, and she reacted as such. It obviously wasn't that important, because you can get back her loyalty simply by explaining why you sided with Jack afterwards. Miranda definitely is insecure however, no argument there, but if she had no faults she wouldn't be an enjoyable character.

-Fails to keep her sister safe and needs Shepard to solve her problems (irresponsible)
I'm not sure how taking every reasonable precaution to protect her sister and immediately responding at the first sign of trouble constitutes irresponsibility. Also, her rescue didn't necessary depend of Shepard entirely, he was along merely as backup. Asking for backup doesn't mean relying on someone to fix your problems. A better example of that would be Tali completely failing to explain to the admiralty board that she didn't know what her father was doing. Sure, she probably could have cleared out the infested ship without Shepard's help, but her loyalty to a man who clearly wasn't who she thought he was (her father) would have gotten her exiled anyways, since she was incapable of verbally defending herself without the evidence. Even Tali admits that Miranda did a better job standing up to a difficult father than she did.

-Operative of freaking Cerberus, especially in light of her upbringing
So were (technically) Joker, Jacob, Ken, Gabby, Mess Sargent Gartner, Chakwas and Shepard. Cerberus is split into task oriented cells which have no knowledge of the activities of the others. The only things we know for sure Miranda was involved with was saving the council from terrorists with Jacob, giving Liara Intel that helped her save Shepard's body, bringing Shepard back to life, and helping to destroy the collectors. The first time the Illusive Man asks her to do something unethical (keep the collector base intact) she quits. Her loyalty to them was kept only insofar as it aligned with her morals.

-Seeks out no-attachment sex so long as the male has a clean bill of health
You've never had a one night stand? It's just a thing people do in between relationships. I don't really see how it's a comment on her character.

Miranda gets no sympathy from me, is bad at her job and as a person.
You've made it clear why you think she's a bad person, and I've given my arguments to the contrary for you to consider, but I fail to see by any definition how Miranda could be considered bad at her job. All the jobs we know of that she was responsible for, she succeeds at. In some cases, even being willing to sacrifice her own life to complete an objective (under certain circumstances in 3). So I would posit that without an example, that accusation is factually false.



To conclude: if you don't like her for personal reasons that's totally understandable (for example, I don't like Tali's voice because she sounds like my grouchy grandmother, and that's a purely personal reason), but I hope you'll see why others could like both her character and her romance.
 
Oct 2, 2012
1,267
0
0
For MaleShep! I'd have to go with Tali. I liked her character in the first game and was slightly disappointed that I couldn't romance her. Then 2 and 3 happened and I greatly enjoyed the evolution of their relationship and overall romance arc.

Honorable mention to Liara. First game I chose her because I hated Ashley and I enjoyed Liara's love of history and past species. I think the extreme expansion of her breasts since 1 was silly but eh I still liked her personality and dialogue.
Plus I have an odd attraction to the color blue. Real chicks with died blue hair automatically become 5x more attractive, and Liara is all blue :D

For FemShep! My preferred choice was Garrus followed by Liara and Traynor.

Garrus is just awesome. Tough badass with an amazing sense of humor (so much snark!) and real emotional attraction to FemShep (since he obviously isn't physically attracted) seals the deal.

Liara for MaleShep reasons and Traynor because she is funny and dat accent.
 
Aug 1, 2010
2,768
0
0
ME1, Liara. No question. Works for both Male and Female.

ME 2 and on, I prefer Tali for my MShep. Liara just got so damn cold and battle scarred. Besides, Tali is cute and awesome. Though I like to dabble with Kelly on the side.

If I'm playing my FemShep, I don't even have to think about it. Garrus is just...... Garrus. Even if his romance with the FemShep is woefully underwritten in ME2.

It just sort of boiled down to

"Hey Garrus. Crazy stuff, eh?"
"Yeah, totally. All this training reminds me of this one time."
"Oh?"
"Well, I was doing training with this awesome chick and we totally did it."
"Nice!"
"Yep."
"..."
"..."
"Wanna fuck?"
"Sure!"

*after*

"Hey Garrus?"
"[b/]CALIBRATIONS[/b]"

BUT EVEN STILL he was amazing, especially in 3. I don't know what you call a male wiafu, but he's damn close.

norashepard said:
Wait, wut.

No, wat.

No stop, what.

She...... You can...... Oh god............

I never even let her on my ship, but you can.... ROMANCE that creature???
 

AgedGrunt

New member
Dec 7, 2011
363
0
0
TheCommanders said:
I know, I like Liara a lot.
You made some good points as well, and I do state my personal opinion, not an objective one. I personally didn't trust Miranda, didn't ever feel I had a reason to and doubt her in many different ways.

With the control chip, she may have regrets, but her reasoning was still, at one point: "Yes, I want to enslave this person that we are restoring and counting on to save the galaxy". It's such warped logic that it even makes the Illusive Man (who wants the raw, untamed Commander Shepard and trusts him/her to do the right thing) appear heroic in overruling her.

That leads into the loyalty issue. Cerberus got what they wanted: Shepard is back and agreed to join up with the organization he/she swore must answer for the crimes found in ME1. That's a huge concession on Shepard's part, who must risk it all, including old friendship, to be the hero of the galaxy-- and she has the nerve to ask even more for her personal benefit? I found it pretty insulting to be doing favor on top of favor.

The fight with Jack-- is just inexcusable. She is supposed to be the leader and represents Cerberus on your team. Not only was she wrong with Jack, she damn well knows better. On the other hand, there's a lifetime of abuse and violent behavior in a girl who really doesn't know better and needs role models. What's more, she needed to hear some compassion from someone at Cerberus, and there was no one better than Miranda (who in the suicide mission doesn't have faith in her if you choose her to lead a squad). I'd agree the writing is in question, but it's cannon and she owns it.

-Operative of freaking Cerberus, especially in light of her upbringing

So were (technically) Joker, Jacob, Ken, Gabby, Mess Sargent Gartner, Chakwas and Shepard. Cerberus is split into task oriented cells which have no knowledge of the activities of the others. The only things we know for sure Miranda was involved with was saving the council from terrorists with Jacob, giving Liara Intel that helped her save Shepard's body, bringing Shepard back to life, and helping to destroy the collectors. The first time the Illusive Man asks her to do something unethical (keep the collector base intact) she quits. Her loyalty to them was kept only insofar as it aligned with her morals.
Not to harp on the control chip again, but we've seen her morals. As for the others, they either weren't originally Cerberus, don't trust them and just generally have small roles.

You've never had a one night stand? It's just a thing people do in between relationships. I don't really see how it's a comment on her character.
Most people meet at bars, clubs or parties and hormones get the better of them. She basically hopped on the galactic Craigslist and picked the first thing on two legs without disease. Sorry but that doesn't sound like relationship material; it's actually kind of creepy.

Much of my disdain is personal when I should forgive, but there are plenty of deserving characters and I'd put her pretty much at the bottom. I'd sooner steal EDI from Joker.
 

Silly Hats

New member
Dec 26, 2012
188
0
0
Miranda is the closest that i'll ever get to romancing with Yvonne Strahovski.

So her. Always.

Replaying ME2 currently before I move onto the 3rd, hooked up with Ashley in the first but I never really liked her. Considering her reaction to you in ME2, I decided that I just don't like her.
 

Epic Fail 1977

New member
Dec 14, 2010
686
0
0
Depends on whether you're looking at the whole trilogy or at the games individually. Sheploo+Liara and Sheploo+Ashley both worked well in ME1 (depending on personal taste) but they were both hit with the same giant wrecking ball in ME2 (and DLC did nothing to fix this in my book) so I could nominate neither of them for best overall romance. Sheploo+Tali seemed to work for a lot of people. It wasn't to my taste but I must say it does enjoy better continuity over the course of the trilogy than most of the other romances. Sheploo+Jack in ME2 was interesting for actually having a branching romance tree, but it meets the Bioware wrecking ball in ME3. The rest were all just "meh". So I guess Tali by a process of elimination.
 

TheCommanders

ohmygodimonfire
Nov 30, 2011
589
0
0
AgedGrunt said:
You made some good points as well, and I do state my personal opinion, not an objective one. I personally didn't trust Miranda, didn't ever feel I had a reason to and doubt her in many different ways.
I see where you're coming from but I disagree on a few accounts. A few quick points before I wrap up.

That leads into the loyalty issue. Cerberus got what they wanted: Shepard is back and agreed to join up with the organization he/she swore must answer for the crimes found in ME1. That's a huge concession on Shepard's part, who must risk it all, including old friendship, to be the hero of the galaxy-- and she has the nerve to ask even more for her personal benefit? I found it pretty insulting to be doing favor on top of favor.
Correct me if I'm missing something, but as far as I'm aware she only ever asks for one favor, provide backup while she extracts her sister. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Also, Miranda makes it clear that she always respected Shepard's abilities, but after this mission, she respects Shepard as a person. Makes perfect sense as far as I'm concerned. This is where Shepard transforms from a soldier into a friend (and from which point can go on to be more).

Moving on.

Regarding the fight: As I've mentioned, it felt a little shoehorned, but let's look at the context that lead up to that fight. As you know Jack had an instant hatred towards Miranda from the moment they met, despite knowing nothing about her other than that she worked for Cerberus. Basically, she holds something Miranda had nothing to do with against her. You mentioned that she was looking for comfort, but that doesn't sound like Jack to me. I would bet she went there looking for a fight. She twists Miranda's words, implying she condones what was done, when all Miranda says is that the group acted without Cerberus's approval (although the way Cerberus operates is conducive to extreme behavior, admittedly), and that she wasn't responsible. In addition to libel, Miranda finds herself threatened with bodily harm (she has a chair thrown at her). So she acts a bit defensively, but would you have maintained calm while you were verbally and physically assaulted for something you didn't do? I doubt it. Jack was looking for a scapegoat, and Miranda was the most convenient target. Not her fault.

As for the others, they either weren't originally Cerberus, don't trust them and just generally have small roles.
So these people were only attached to part of Cerberus, and only did so because of extreme circumstances, and did so because the actions they saw them take felt right to them? Sounds similar to Miranda's time with Cerberus to me. As I said, as soon as she disagreed with Cerberus's morals she quit. I know you think her morals are questionable because of the control chip which leads me to my last point:


Lastly, regarding the chip: I still think she was justified in wanting insurance. It's morally gray, sure, but think of it this way: Your boss tells you that the hope of the galaxy rests on the shoulders of an lone soldier. Ok... already kind of skeptical. Second, this soldier has attacked our men on sight before simply for being part of our organization. He's killed both scientists and soldier, just for being around questionable experiments. Alrighty, getting a little nervous now. Are you sure we want to let him loose before we at least get a chance to explain ourselves? At the very least I would have kept Shepard in a secure cell until we got a chance to explain why we had revived him. Look what happens the only other time Shepard awakes from sedation in ME2. He wipes out an entire alliance base single handedly. Yeah the Illusive Man ordered there be no control chip, but I would imagine he rather regrets that decision. All in all, while it may seem morally dubious, it would have been an entirely understandable precaution to install a failsafe in their 4 billion dollar weapon of mass destruction. I guess it comes down to how justified you feel Miranda was in wanting this, and how much you think her apology later means. Personally I think she was completely justified, but that her apology showed a growth in character by the third game. YMMV
 

putowtin

I'd like to purchase an alcohol!
Jul 7, 2010
3,452
0
0
Bara_no_Hime said:
putowtin said:
Ok so now it's all over (sob) and with the new romantic interactions added in Mass Effect: Citidel,
which is your favourite Mass Effect romance?
In canon gameplay, Liara (for whom I voted).

She's in all three games (with Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC) and the arc feels consistent.

Also, she's bi, so she can get with my lesbian FemShep.

Overall though? Tali. The fact that they didn't let her be bi is a fricken crime.
Aparently the voice actor didn't want to do the voice for a bi relationship
 

soren7550

Overly Proud New Yorker
Dec 18, 2008
5,477
0
0
Kaidan for sure! Besides being very useful for my Shep in combat, he voice is like liquid hot chocolate sex (don't think about that too much, I certainly don't), he's quite handsome, and he's a nice, noble guy. Also, it's good to know that he doesn't have a creepy obsession with Shepard (unlike some characters), and he's been with you from the start.