Ryder v Shepard: The Making of Legends.

To me the basic difference is Shep earned everything him/her gained, even Spectre status since they were already on their way to that title. Ryder on the other hand didn't do anything to earn their rank and I have wondered if he/she hadn't been infused with SAM to the point it would kill one or both if removed if they would have remained a pathfinder after reaching the Nexus. Also Shep always came off as a leader where to me Ryder is more of a peer or friend than a leader.

You know, the problem I have with the Ryder Defense Squad is that the general assumption seems to be that people don't understand Ryder. No, Ryder is not a difficult character to understand as a video game hero. Thematically, Ryder is a perfectly standard Chosen One coming-of-age hero (whereas Shepard was just a Chosen One). I respect if someone is not tired of that story yet (I am very much), but I'm seriously confused how you would consider "mentor figure dies so young unprepared would-be hero has to prove himself in the role s/he was just thrust into with the help of a plot device (in this case SAM) to boost their raw powers" a subversion of a trope. That's like, every second fantasy book since LotR and every third SciFi story since Star Wars IV.

I think the general idea of Ryder as a "pussy" (I hate that description) is not a result from their role in the story. Obviously Ryder is also a huge badass who succeeds against impossible odds doing inhumanely awesome things, yada, yada, s/he is a main character in a Bioware game, that's par for the course. So far, the complainrs seem to come more from the fact that the writing didn't really give you huge tonal differences in the dialogue options in a series which usually allowed you to do that. And yes, I will defend that somewhat on the basis that a 22 year old non-military type probably wouldn't throw their weight around like someone with Shepard's credentials - but then I question why I was put in the shoes of such a character in a roleplaying game. The fact of the matter is, ME:A is the first game in the whole of Bioware's modern RPGs where you can't consistently play a character who uses an aggressive/abrasive tone (though Ryder can be pretty ruthless in their actual decisions - when the game feels like it). Every other ME and DA game gave you that option. It's not strange that the absence of said option would make people think of Ryder as, well, 50 Shades of Paragon. Ryder is different from their forebearers.

If you want a character arc for Shepard, you will have to make it. You can play a Paragon Shepard who slides into Renegade-ism over three games, or a human-first Renegade whose contact with other species in his teams softens him/her over the course of the story. For me, Shepard is a character with serious roleplaying potential (obviously within lines), whereas Ryder so far is more like playing Gerard from the Witcher 3. There are ways to influence their personality, but it's not, in the end, my character, it's a character Bioware pre-made and gave me to tweak within reasonable parameters. There's nothing wrong with that, a more defined character can absolutely head an RPG, but it's definitely a different approach from before. And for me - I just don't like that character. Which is fine, Bioware doesn't have to write characters I like. I'm just not used to the main character being so locked into their personality that they can be one of them.

is it really so hard to understand that i am talking about in game events only? Yes many of the backgrounds were tragic, yes they established sheps bad ass cred. But as soon as you took control of the commander the entire universe just bent over backwards to accomodate them. Throwing common sense and lore integrity out the Window. So much so that Shepard was a religious icon at the end of it all.

The exact same can be side about Ryder whose daddy literally gives him or her the most important AI in the universe in the first half hour of the game.

but the reasons for that decision were revealed later in the game. It was because Alec made a very personal very human choice. And the Intiative and even your team spent a good part of the game being skeptical. Instead of, in Sheps case, save us oh immortal great one.

except who would alec or the initiative have chosen differently? Cora? Maybe. But by her own admission later in the game she would have stunk at the role.

probably. But in that case we should be glad she didn't given in that case she would have found out she didn't have the chops to do the job while doing the job she doesn't have the chops for.