Mass Effect fans have been on the edge of their seats since the announcement of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which will be a complete remaster of the original trilogy’s games. Since the announcement on N7 Day, the excitement has only heightened, but now players have a solid release day to look forward to thanks to the official confirmed date for the remaster. May 14th is when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will see the light of day, and with it all the technical upgrades and changes that players have been asking for over the years.
However, there’s one thing that Mass Effect: Legendary Edition had the opportunity to change, but didn’t — the romantic storylines. BioWare has long been lauded for its creative storytelling, immersive environments, and romance stories that stick with players long after the game has ended. The issue for the most part doesn’t lie in the storytelling itself, but rather who the romanceable options are throughout the three games. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition could have expanded the romance options for each Commander Shepard, especially in light of the recent news of the censorship during the initial development, but chose not to.
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Recently, a former BioWare writer revealed that Mass Effect 2’s psychotic biotic was originally written to be pansexual, and would have been open to a romantic relationship with both male and female Commander Shepard. However, the higher ups at BioWare decided against this for fear of media backlash, especially from Fox News. Despite the news network's reputation, BioWare actually had a valid reason for concern, as the news channel previously went after the original Mass Effect game for featuring a romance scene between female Shepard and asari Liara T’Soni.
What's most frustrating about this change is the fact that the crumbs of Jack’s queerness are still sprinkled throughout her dialogue with both Commanders. It wasn’t until much later in development that her sexuality was changed. So late was the change made that the developers had already animated scenes for both male and female Shepard, and the latter didn’t make the cut for the final version of Mass Effect 2. To many, including BioWare's former writer, Jack’s queer-coding makes her pansexual in their minds but it doesn’t take away the sting of what could have been for Jack and female Shepard.
Another member of the Mass Effect 2 team recently revealed that Jacob Taylor, another squadmate in the game, could have potentially had a same-sex romance with male Commander Shepard. This romance, which was “matching shot-for-shot from Brokeback Mountain,” was also scrapped due to fear of backlash from the same media outlet. The reasons for cutting it at the time are sound, but it’s still disheartening to learn that something modeled after another “acceptable” gay romance was cut.
Jacob is by no means a fan favorite from Mass Effect, but adding in a same-sex romance for him and Commander Shepard would have added the first gay romance to the Mass Effect franchise, sooner than Mass Effect 3. As it stands now, Mass Effect 2 only allows for players to romance women and female-presenting characters as male Commander Shepard: Tali, Miranda, Jack, Kelly Chambers, Samara, and Morinth. The last three listed are actually romantic options for female Commander Shepard as well, but are also the only women/female-presenting options available in the sequel.
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It isn’t until Mass Effect 3 that male Shepard is allowed a gay romance story, and even then, it’s not with an “official” squadmate. It’s with Steve Cortez, a pilot aboard the Normandy who cannot be selected for the squad for official missions. However, female Shepard has a variety of different same-sex (or same-sex presenting) relationships throughout the games. Why allow for female Shepard to have a gay romance long before male Shepard?
The answer lies in the concept of fetishization and palatability, along with the concerns of backlash from media companies. BioWare had a valid concern for continuing to add same-sex relationships to the original Mass Effect trilogy, yet it still added Kelly Chambers as a romance option for FemShepard in Mass Effect 2. When Jacob Taylor’s Brokeback Mountain-esque romance scene was cut, the former animator was told “America isn’t ready for it.” Despite this, America was ready to see two female-presenting characters in a romance scene.
This hypocrisy isn’t only found in Mass Effect, and has been a recurring problem throughout various media representations of LGBT relationships. Female/female relationships are consistently fetishized, especially by men and those not in the LGBT community. Which means they’re more likely to be accepted by the public — but not for the right reasons. Those who are female/female fetishists might look at the romance between Liara and FemShepard and think it’s “hot.” Meanwhile, a male/male romance wouldn’t get anywhere near that reaction because it is less accepted by society, and less likely to be fetishized.
In any piece of media, a romance should be included because of the storytelling involved, not how easy it is to market to the public. BioWare is well known for its romances, so it’s clear these options wouldn’t have been included without proper storytelling behind them. At the same time, BioWare may have been unaware of the societal implications of including only same-sex options for female Shepard from the start of Mass Effect. However, it had the opportunity to correct them with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and BioWare chose not to.
BioWare has clearly grown as a company, especially when players campaigned to have a male Ryder romance with Jaal added to Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the developer patched it in. It’s good to see the company trying to add more LGBT representation, as it’s crucially important to the community, but it’s still upsetting that the developer didn’t right the wrongs of the original Mass Effect trilogy. While it’s gut-wrenching that players won’t be able to experience Jack as pansexual, or Jacob as a romance option for male Shepard, there are still other romances to look forward to revisiting when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition releases.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition releases on May 14 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.