30 Days of Mass Effect: Day 2
Apr. 29th, 2013 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaAhahahaah and already I'm skirting the edges of the deadline and it's only day 2. But whatever, 'tis meant to be fun, and I was only late due to 1) squaring away some stuff for Vidukon, which, for once, went all smoothly and stuff, so that was nice and 2) watching Defiance, which...to be honest with you is not very good but reminds me of 90s scifi in a way that makes me fairly kindly disposed towards it anyway, although I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to keep up.
ANYWAYS:
Honestly, guys, if I HAD missed out today, would any of you have really questioned my answer?
CLEARLY FEMSHEP.
I also feel like explaining why is sorta redundant, but whatever, I will anyway because I like talking, and I like talking about Commander Shepard.
Let's talk about the name "femshep" first. When I started discovering the online fandom and the fact people called her Femshep, I really hated it. It felt alternate, and it felt, I dunno, it just sounded awkward. But I basically use it now for a few reasons. One of the big ones is that I saw the official Mass Effect twitter using it alongside Broshep for male Shepard, and that made me feel a little less awkward about the concept of having a name for her - the politics of Fem vs Bro aside.
So basically I'm mostly all right with the name now, but only in the context of Femshep and Broshep, not in the context of Femshep and Shepard. Cus fuck that. I try to simply refer to her as Shepard and just default to female pronouns wherever possible, but sometimes it's useful to have a simple way to refer to the version of Shepard I'm talking about.
So, without further ado, let's talk about why it's a wonderful decision to play Commander Shepard as a woman.
I mean, basically it comes down to the fact that, dudes, epic female action heroine. It's the limitations of the medium, possibly even the apathy of the creators, but male or female, Shepard says, in almost all situations, the same things, reacts the same way, including physically - I believe they share identical motion capture.
In some ways that's sad - Shepard was almost certainly written as male, not gender-neutral, it's a valid criticism to say that simply subbing in a woman isn't exactly the definition of progress, but it is a fascinating exercise. And I think if nothing else, Shepard is at least not written as a heaving, muscled bastion of bromantic masculinity, and while it may be depressing that male can equal neutral in a way female rarely does, it does mean that when I played as a woman, there was never a moment when I sat back, awkwardly, thinking, shit man, that part was clearly written for a dude, this is awkward.
Shepard, as a woman, feels like a complete character. And there's guaranteed space for her as the protagonist and hero. She will never suffer the fate of Olivia Dunham in Fringe's final seasons.
I would also argue strongly that Femshep's voice actress is superior to Broshep's. Like...radically. I think that's part of the reason she has as much of a following as she does: there are a lot of people out there who say that they play her because her voice acting is so much better.
But when you play as a woman, it's not just an unusual chance to see an almost completely unsexualised female space hero saving the world, with very few specific references to her gender. It's also that it really changes the nature of the relationships within the game.
Obviously it doesn't change them on a technical level - with the exception of the gender-specific romances, dialogue is identical. But context is important and with a female Shepard, the games suddenly become a series of wonderful, Bechdel-passing relationships, both friendly and antagonistic, uplifting and painful. Even platonic friendships with men, where any ego or conflict present aren't immediately and irrevocably tied to sexual tension (unless the player chooses to pursue that), are a rarity in our media.
On the other hand, brothers-in-arms amongst men (and the occasional, token, "badass" chick) is a tried and tested trope for male characters.
Which brings us to the romances. I'm also going to make the case that Femshep gets more interesting romances. This isn't a specific judgement on any one romance choice or character - rather I would argue she has more variety in terms of tone, and also that there are more Femshep than Broshep romances where the romance adds something significantly additional to our ability to bond with and get to know the character.
This is obviously super subjective, but I'll plead my case.
1) Variety. Unlike Broshep, Femshep can choose her sexual orientation from the first game. Unlike Broshep, Femshep has romances that unavoidably end in tragedy and heartbreak (Thane) or even betrayal (Jacob).
This is a tricky thing to be arguing. Because I also think that the fact you can't be a gay man until ME3, but lesbians in space are fine, is hella sketchy. And yes, I think that the fact all three of Broshep's ME2 romances continue happily, whatever the reason, creates an unfortunate imbalance that might well come from additional attention and space on the disc given over to those stories. And while I'll defend Thane's death to the end, the fact it was Jacob who ran off and knocked up another woman, is dodgy as fuck.
But the ideas are good ones. I would redress that balance by giving Broshep's relationships similarly diverse endings, not by giving Femshep a spread of happy-ever-afters.
So yeah, the execution is lacking at points, and kinda gross at others, but from a narrative perspective, you get more choice as a woman, and you expose yourself to a wider variety of possible endings. You take chances, and some of these people will stay with you, and others will die, and some of them may even turn out to hurt you, badly, by accident or out of ego. But that's fantastic in a story about choice. We didn't make the wrong choice, we got a story, and this part maybe was painful, was maybe about being let down by someone you cared about, or about losing someone you loved, but it's a story, and I'd take that over the formulaic structure of Broshep's relationships (again, not a comment on the characters themselves).
For all their flaws, Femshep's romances end in far more diverse ways than her male counterpart's.
2) Character depth. Okay, this is again strongly based in personal opinion, but basically, I think that some characters, whether you romance them or not, you have the opportunity to form a strong, important relationships with them. Garrus, Tali, Liara... If you're not romancing them, they still make sense as people close to you. Liara can still be your best friend, or your adopted little sister. Garrus is still your bro, the one who's always got your back. Tali still backed you from the time she was a kid on her pilgrimage, to that time you served on a terrorist ship, to the day you saved her world. If she survives, she brands herself with your ship's name, whether you're sleeping with her or not, and that says family.
But there are other characters where romancing them seems to make a much larger difference, and I think more of those belong to Femshep than Broshep. Again, partly this is socialised expectation - I'll always find the relationship between Miranda and the cyborg woman she rebuilt more interesting than the relationship between Jacob and the resurrected man he's agreed to serve under.
But I also think there're some objective elements to arguing that a romance helps the characters of Jacob and Thane.
Jacob is basically Kaidan; the thoughtful biotic soldier who will, eventually, tell you about a less than ideal childhood/family history. But Jacob is competing with a cast of 10 - 12 rather than 4 - 6 for your attention, and competing with two other love interests instead of another one. Even if you don't romance Kaidan, saving him on Virmire creates a bond with the character we never get the chance to form with Jacob. Unlike Miranda, who will eventually confide her insecurities to any Shepard, whom we can slowly convince to leave the Illusive Man, Jacob is too sensible to need our encouragement. He's a guy who basically has his shit together - he doesn't need Shepard the way many of the other characters do. A romance creates that personal connection.
To a lesser extent, I'd argue the same about Thane - he's a private guy, and given the uniqueness of his romance trajectory, there's an intensity of emotion around what happens in ME3 that shifts powerfully depending on your romantic status. Note: I also adore this in its platonic form; I actually like some of the dialogue better, but what I'm saying is, there's a greater difference, in my mind, between Thane in ME3 with or without romance, and like, Jack's mission or Miranda's, or even saving Rannoch.
At which point, I think I'm done.
OH NO WAIT:
- "Kolyat, why did the last verse say she?"
- "You did good, child. I'm proud of you."
Play as a woman because a) amazing female protagonist b) better voice acting c) interesting relationships with other women, d) more varied romances.
:D
ANYWAYS:
Honestly, guys, if I HAD missed out today, would any of you have really questioned my answer?
CLEARLY FEMSHEP.
I also feel like explaining why is sorta redundant, but whatever, I will anyway because I like talking, and I like talking about Commander Shepard.
Let's talk about the name "femshep" first. When I started discovering the online fandom and the fact people called her Femshep, I really hated it. It felt alternate, and it felt, I dunno, it just sounded awkward. But I basically use it now for a few reasons. One of the big ones is that I saw the official Mass Effect twitter using it alongside Broshep for male Shepard, and that made me feel a little less awkward about the concept of having a name for her - the politics of Fem vs Bro aside.
So basically I'm mostly all right with the name now, but only in the context of Femshep and Broshep, not in the context of Femshep and Shepard. Cus fuck that. I try to simply refer to her as Shepard and just default to female pronouns wherever possible, but sometimes it's useful to have a simple way to refer to the version of Shepard I'm talking about.
So, without further ado, let's talk about why it's a wonderful decision to play Commander Shepard as a woman.
I mean, basically it comes down to the fact that, dudes, epic female action heroine. It's the limitations of the medium, possibly even the apathy of the creators, but male or female, Shepard says, in almost all situations, the same things, reacts the same way, including physically - I believe they share identical motion capture.
In some ways that's sad - Shepard was almost certainly written as male, not gender-neutral, it's a valid criticism to say that simply subbing in a woman isn't exactly the definition of progress, but it is a fascinating exercise. And I think if nothing else, Shepard is at least not written as a heaving, muscled bastion of bromantic masculinity, and while it may be depressing that male can equal neutral in a way female rarely does, it does mean that when I played as a woman, there was never a moment when I sat back, awkwardly, thinking, shit man, that part was clearly written for a dude, this is awkward.
Shepard, as a woman, feels like a complete character. And there's guaranteed space for her as the protagonist and hero. She will never suffer the fate of Olivia Dunham in Fringe's final seasons.
I would also argue strongly that Femshep's voice actress is superior to Broshep's. Like...radically. I think that's part of the reason she has as much of a following as she does: there are a lot of people out there who say that they play her because her voice acting is so much better.
But when you play as a woman, it's not just an unusual chance to see an almost completely unsexualised female space hero saving the world, with very few specific references to her gender. It's also that it really changes the nature of the relationships within the game.
Obviously it doesn't change them on a technical level - with the exception of the gender-specific romances, dialogue is identical. But context is important and with a female Shepard, the games suddenly become a series of wonderful, Bechdel-passing relationships, both friendly and antagonistic, uplifting and painful. Even platonic friendships with men, where any ego or conflict present aren't immediately and irrevocably tied to sexual tension (unless the player chooses to pursue that), are a rarity in our media.
On the other hand, brothers-in-arms amongst men (and the occasional, token, "badass" chick) is a tried and tested trope for male characters.
Which brings us to the romances. I'm also going to make the case that Femshep gets more interesting romances. This isn't a specific judgement on any one romance choice or character - rather I would argue she has more variety in terms of tone, and also that there are more Femshep than Broshep romances where the romance adds something significantly additional to our ability to bond with and get to know the character.
This is obviously super subjective, but I'll plead my case.
1) Variety. Unlike Broshep, Femshep can choose her sexual orientation from the first game. Unlike Broshep, Femshep has romances that unavoidably end in tragedy and heartbreak (Thane) or even betrayal (Jacob).
This is a tricky thing to be arguing. Because I also think that the fact you can't be a gay man until ME3, but lesbians in space are fine, is hella sketchy. And yes, I think that the fact all three of Broshep's ME2 romances continue happily, whatever the reason, creates an unfortunate imbalance that might well come from additional attention and space on the disc given over to those stories. And while I'll defend Thane's death to the end, the fact it was Jacob who ran off and knocked up another woman, is dodgy as fuck.
But the ideas are good ones. I would redress that balance by giving Broshep's relationships similarly diverse endings, not by giving Femshep a spread of happy-ever-afters.
So yeah, the execution is lacking at points, and kinda gross at others, but from a narrative perspective, you get more choice as a woman, and you expose yourself to a wider variety of possible endings. You take chances, and some of these people will stay with you, and others will die, and some of them may even turn out to hurt you, badly, by accident or out of ego. But that's fantastic in a story about choice. We didn't make the wrong choice, we got a story, and this part maybe was painful, was maybe about being let down by someone you cared about, or about losing someone you loved, but it's a story, and I'd take that over the formulaic structure of Broshep's relationships (again, not a comment on the characters themselves).
For all their flaws, Femshep's romances end in far more diverse ways than her male counterpart's.
2) Character depth. Okay, this is again strongly based in personal opinion, but basically, I think that some characters, whether you romance them or not, you have the opportunity to form a strong, important relationships with them. Garrus, Tali, Liara... If you're not romancing them, they still make sense as people close to you. Liara can still be your best friend, or your adopted little sister. Garrus is still your bro, the one who's always got your back. Tali still backed you from the time she was a kid on her pilgrimage, to that time you served on a terrorist ship, to the day you saved her world. If she survives, she brands herself with your ship's name, whether you're sleeping with her or not, and that says family.
But there are other characters where romancing them seems to make a much larger difference, and I think more of those belong to Femshep than Broshep. Again, partly this is socialised expectation - I'll always find the relationship between Miranda and the cyborg woman she rebuilt more interesting than the relationship between Jacob and the resurrected man he's agreed to serve under.
But I also think there're some objective elements to arguing that a romance helps the characters of Jacob and Thane.
Jacob is basically Kaidan; the thoughtful biotic soldier who will, eventually, tell you about a less than ideal childhood/family history. But Jacob is competing with a cast of 10 - 12 rather than 4 - 6 for your attention, and competing with two other love interests instead of another one. Even if you don't romance Kaidan, saving him on Virmire creates a bond with the character we never get the chance to form with Jacob. Unlike Miranda, who will eventually confide her insecurities to any Shepard, whom we can slowly convince to leave the Illusive Man, Jacob is too sensible to need our encouragement. He's a guy who basically has his shit together - he doesn't need Shepard the way many of the other characters do. A romance creates that personal connection.
To a lesser extent, I'd argue the same about Thane - he's a private guy, and given the uniqueness of his romance trajectory, there's an intensity of emotion around what happens in ME3 that shifts powerfully depending on your romantic status. Note: I also adore this in its platonic form; I actually like some of the dialogue better, but what I'm saying is, there's a greater difference, in my mind, between Thane in ME3 with or without romance, and like, Jack's mission or Miranda's, or even saving Rannoch.
At which point, I think I'm done.
OH NO WAIT:
- "Kolyat, why did the last verse say she?"
- "You did good, child. I'm proud of you."
Play as a woman because a) amazing female protagonist b) better voice acting c) interesting relationships with other women, d) more varied romances.
:D
