Member Opinion Piece: 'ME - No Homosexual Asp

Hey all, IndigoWolfe here. Most of you probably don't know, but I have, in the past, posted member written editorials about certain aspects of the Mass Effect universe in order to promote member discussion. I figured it was about time to do it again. Also because the author asked so nicely.

I haven't done one of these in a while, so here's the lowdown:

This is not the opinion of consensus among the staff here at the Mass Effect Club. It reflects only the opinions and viewpoints of the original author of the posted editorial. You are free to post in the comments section with your response, whatever it may be.



"Mass Effect - No Homosexual Aspects"

Written by HikariKinawa

Hikari-Kinawa is long time Mass Effect fan, asari lover and Tali devotee.


Hey there,
First of all I want to clear the term "Mass Effect - No homosexual aspects". My opinion isn't really that Bioware or EA has some homophobic attitudes but many players haven't noticed that Bioware/EA has avoided serious homosexual relationships in the Mass Effect Saga.

Many people think Mass Effect treats their homosexual fans, or the fans who are interested in homosexual relationships, in a good way. In fact they don't. They don't even give the homosexual community or the people who want to have a homosexual relationship a chance. Lets go through all these allegedly homosexual romance options:

Female:

Liara: In fact is the sexuality of Liara not defined. Her race has just one gender and she said in ME1 that she is not a woman. So we don't have here a homosexual relationship. She was always the "flagship" of the lesbian romance option. She was a serious team member with a story and she was since part one in your team. But as you can see she doesn't count as lesbian.

Kelly Chambers: She was also called a lesbian romance option and many people think that would be enough reason to prove that homosexuality is a serious romance option in Mass Effect. But that is wrong because all about Kelly Chambers is not a real romance option. She is just a sidekick. The player doesn't has a close relationship to her. You flirt with her a little bit and that was already the whole "romance". Additionally the romance doesn't really continue in ME3. So we can't call this romance option as "serious". She is nothing more than a water drop on a hot stone.

Jack/Subject Zero: She told you that the gender doesn't matter to her but still she is not prepared to begin a romance with you.

Diana Allers: The same problem as with Kelly Chambers. The romance is poorly written and basically we don't even get any cinematics or any deeper view in their feelings. It is nothing more than a quickie in Shepard's cabin.

Samantha Traynor: She is a cute and lovely version of Kelly and by the way she is the first character who is homosexual exclusively. She is the most closest person I would call as a lesbian romance. But lastly she is still nothing more than a sidekick. What makes it worse is that she is a very new character and not even a part of your squad so she is not involved in scenes which happens outside the Normandy. She doesn't fight next to you and she just comes out at the third part of the Saga. Bioware placed her aside you because of the lack of homosexual relationships in ME2. It was more like "here, now you have got one. Now be quiet."

Tali'Zorah: The most authentic romance which would prove that Bioware/EA would care enough for their homosexual, loyal fans and their fans who want homosexual relationships, was taken out. There they have shown that they fall on their knees in front of the critics instead of standing up straight to defend the homosexual rights of their fans who trust them and spend their money for the Mass Effect franchise. We support them and they pull out the only real homosexual romance option in the whole game.

What makes everything even worse is that Tali was the perfect chance for Bioware. She is a woman, she was demanded as a romance option, it would be authentic because it was planned and they already flirt in ME2 with each other and lastly she is almost since day 1 on the Normandy and one of Shepards closest friends.
In case that you dont know about that, here is the proof that Tali was planned as a romance option:
[link]
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Male

Kaidan Alenko: I have to admit I am not sure with him. As far as I know Kaidan told Shepard that he makes an exception for him. That would make him not homosexual. But I am not good informed about him, so tell me if I am wrong.

Cortez: A homosexual character like Traynor. But even there is the lack of depth. He is also just a sidekick. No team member and no character of the past. It is exactly the same as with Traynor. Bioware set them next to you and say "here you go. Make the best of it".


As you can see is there a big lack of real homosexuality. I write about that because only a few persons have noticed these facts.

Also many people complain about fans who want to make every squadmember "bisexual" (I have another theory about this term but that is not the case) but that is not the point of this text. I just want to show that Bioware/EA haven't considered the homosexual community enough. Many fans cant really understand the problem but I want to make you understand our position:

Imagine you play another part of Mass Effect. Like Mass Effect 4 and they will start another trilogy until Mass Effect 6. New Squad, new people, new ship, etc. And now imagine that you have again a full squad of 6 characters in every part. 3 male 3 female.

Then you discover in Mass Effect 4 you only have one straight character and the rest of the team is homosexual. In Mass Effect 5 you have no straight character in your squad but instead you have a sidekick like Kelly Chambers who is straight. Again is the rest of the team homosexual. Then in Mass Effect 6 you would get your straight squad member out of Mass Effect 4 and another straight sidekick option. But again the whole team is homosexual.

Please imagine this example very closely. Think about your current romances (if you have chosen a straight romance) and then imagine that this person would be homosexual and not interested in your character. That goes for almost every character in every part of the game.
Maybe now a few people can understand where the problem is.

Ps: This journal is only about romances. I know romances are just a little part of the game but it is an important part. Otherwise there wouldn't be there so many people who discuss about the topic and when you are watching at the fanwork then you will discover a huge amount of fanfics and fanarts about pairings.

That was something I had to tell. Please think about that and I hope you people will understand now.

HikariKinawa is long time Mass Effect fan, asari lover and Tali devotee from Germany. Please pardon any spelling or grammatical errors I might have missed in my overview, English is not her primary language. If you want to check out her gallery, head over here hikarikinawa.deviantart.com/ga…