60 Days of Gaming: Decade Anniversary - Day 7: Favourite Couple
Then: Khalid and Jaheira from Baldur's Gate
Now: Shepard and Ashley from Mass Effect
I very nearly almost had Joker and EDI (again from Mass Effect) here.
As a "rule" I had wanted to avoid couples in which the player had any agency in forming or was an active part of.
However, despite Shepard's numerous romance options across the original trilogy (and trust me, I went for a brief, passionate affair with Jack on the second game as a way of playing relationship chicken and a one-time thing with Diana aboard the Normandy in ME3), it's the relationship with Ashley that stuck to me.
Whoever chose to save Kaidan missed out: an army brat that is a little bit xenophobic, Ashley's tough exterior eventually cracks to let the good human being she is out. We believe she has a past before Shepard, with her own preconceptions and ideas. We compromise and eventually change her mind on some. And eventually she falls for Shepard just as much as we fall for her.
When she finds out he's alive in the second game, she doesn't rush back into his arms; there's no infatuated damsel routine, no words of longing and affection, no relief. She's surprised, both in a good and a bad way. She's bewildered and needs time to process someone she loves being back from the dead without so much as a holo-call.
And in the third game, when that reunion eventually comes, it's done on her own terms, after she's had time to process, think and decide it's what she wants, not just what the player wants. It's always been you, Ash.
Bonus points for the unexpectedly super mature way Jack handles being dumped for Ashley as well. This is a relationship that progresses each character it touches, not just the two people in it.
As a "rule" I had wanted to avoid couples in which the player had any agency in forming or was an active part of.
However, despite Shepard's numerous romance options across the original trilogy (and trust me, I went for a brief, passionate affair with Jack on the second game as a way of playing relationship chicken and a one-time thing with Diana aboard the Normandy in ME3), it's the relationship with Ashley that stuck to me.
Whoever chose to save Kaidan missed out: an army brat that is a little bit xenophobic, Ashley's tough exterior eventually cracks to let the good human being she is out. We believe she has a past before Shepard, with her own preconceptions and ideas. We compromise and eventually change her mind on some. And eventually she falls for Shepard just as much as we fall for her.
When she finds out he's alive in the second game, she doesn't rush back into his arms; there's no infatuated damsel routine, no words of longing and affection, no relief. She's surprised, both in a good and a bad way. She's bewildered and needs time to process someone she loves being back from the dead without so much as a holo-call.
And in the third game, when that reunion eventually comes, it's done on her own terms, after she's had time to process, think and decide it's what she wants, not just what the player wants. It's always been you, Ash.
Bonus points for the unexpectedly super mature way Jack handles being dumped for Ashley as well. This is a relationship that progresses each character it touches, not just the two people in it.
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