Canadian Delicacy - The Kaidan Alenko Thread

Fandoms can be really weird and assholery and certainly ME fandom also has their share of assholes.
When I was romancing only Garrus I never heard that I only want a yes man or the stuff about Kaidan, thankfully. Sorry anyone was told that by others. No LI is better, it's just a matter of preference.

I have been on a MET binge lately, lol, and thought why not give Kaidan a fair chance and now I prefer his romance and character. Part of the reason is that he has emotions that make him seem more real to me, because I think he reacts in a realistic way to my Shep and calls her on her bullshit. Last time I played ME2, I thought the VS (Kaidan for me) was the only one with any sense when dealing with Shep.


Shep - what's up. I was rebuilt by terrorists and am working with them.

VS - what is wrong with you? you could be brainwashed or worse. How do you even know Cerberus didn't orchestrate this shit?

Shep - this is fine. I'm space jesus. Come with me.

VS - WTF?!! NO! BYE, traitor. I'm going now to report this incident to people who aren't terrorists.

Shep - wow. the VS is an asshole for not 100% believing space jesus.

About Thane, well, on the old BSN their thread was quite nice and friendly, but I dared not post in it because I though Thane should die like a hero and I didn't want to upset anyone about it.
That being said, his romance in ME3 was total shit and Thane fans deserved better.

I want to give Liara romance a try on my next ME playthrough after I get my vanguard for Kaidan into ME2, I will make a character for Liara.
I like her character a lot but I understand that others don't and hate how in ME3 she is everywhere.
As much as I like her character, even I was annoyed that my Shep was only seeing her when waking up.

I think what I was trying to say is that a character shouldn't be beyond criticism. It's that assumption of an entire fan group's motivation gets kinda messy when it pulls in others who feel differently. If I don't like a character, I'll say why, but I'd rather not speak for someone else as to why they'd feel differently.

I don't think I'll ever come around to liking Liara; She does too many things that are too suspicious and petty, especially with her keeping Shepard's resurrection secret from Ashley and Kaidan. A lot of that is the result of the writing but it's little comfort. That said, the fans have a right to like her if they do. That's the point after all; they wanted her to be liked.

But a lot of complaints I would have with other characters and her all boil down to choice, or the lack of it. I can't love how Thane fans weren't given the choice to have a happy ending with him. I can't like Liara if we're never given a choice in how we react to her. I don't like that we don't have a choice to see the consequences of doing things that Garrus should be mad about.

With Kaidan, I do feel the frustration when people don't listen and go along with their own perceptions. I'm sorry that you've had to deal with pushy strangers. It shouldn't affect how we personally feel about characters, but if it were as easy to let things go, we'd still have that awful original ending to ME3 instead of the extended cut.

Oh lord the endings...the original ending had Liara as Shepard's last flashback if you hadn't romanced either Ashley or Kaidan. ME3 is still difficult to play in the beginning because there's so much railroading. Once the cutscene comes around, I leave and go make a sandwich. When Kaidan got K.O.'d by that Cerberus bot, I literally screamed, "NOOOOO! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME I DON'T GET TO PICK MY TEAM FOR THE NEXT MISSION?!"

*Shoots the bot a few more times*

Actually have to agree with bfritos on one thing: I don't think teammates should be ok with certain actions Shepard does. It's like you said about Dragon Age: They at least let us establish whether we are on good terms with teammates or not. Mass Effect did do that in some ways with the chance to lose loyalty if you didn't pass a persuasion check, but I also think certain other things should work against Shepard. Betraying Wrex should have been a sore spot for Garrus, given what happened with Sidonis, just like Tali shouldn't trust a Shepard that consistently screws her over or Liara should be wary around a Shepard that threatened to throw her into a volcano. I almost half expected a conflict to arise between Kaidan and Liara over Horizon if you romanced him and it's always been a waste that never got explored.

Heck, that cutscene doesn't even fit if there are Shepards whose reactions are different from their personality. Had one who would have been a godawful backseat pilot telling Joker to hightail that Normandy to the nearest hospital instead of just standing there staring at a rapidly declining teammate. Another would not have been comfortable showing that much vulnerability in front of people.

ME3 is not a favorite because of the railroading but it at least brought back ME1 characters. I was hoping that game would have given us a set number of slots and the choice to pick certain teammates from both ME1 and ME2. And they gave Kaidan an assault rifle! And his own custom armor! It was like old times having him back again along with Garrus as Shepard's old team from ME1!

To be fair, Vyrnnus was a dick. Training from that guy showed how that the Alliance had made some bad decisions in their choice of trainer. ME lore doesn't say, but they'd have had to go to the asari next, or just try to figure it out "in house". Since Cora went to the asari it's not that much of a stretch to say they trained at least some humans.

If you go through ME1, you see multiple instances of L2's going crazy. There were three that I can remember. Major Kyle's cult, the ones holding Chairman Burns hostage, and one other I'm forgetting about right now. It shows just how rough they had it. Despite Kaidan choosing the Marine route, and having earned a number of commendations, and being in command of others (Kaidan mentions not having lost anyone under his command in battle), something was still holding him back. That might even explain why he rose so fast in the ranks in the span of two years.


True, but Ash was a hell of a soldier. Shepard said so without knowing anything of her background. That meant that the Alliance ignored her skills because they held a grudge. Like Kaidan, the Alliance finally made it up to her post-ME1 and pushed her up quickly. True, she earned them, but she also should have had at least some of it already.

*giggles* Captain Canada

Joker seems to suffer from a lot of the same problems as the fanbase in terms of not realizing that just about everything that might have convinced Kaidan that Shepard was trustworthy had been actively withheld from him.

the (imo.) wonderful friendship between Kaidan and Garrus
credit to ScruffyPalmTrees

Now that I think about it, I think Joker blames Kaidan for getting him grounded. Think about it. Even without the council and the Alliance trying to cover up Shepard's discovery, getting your commanding officer killed because you were too stupid to abandon ship right away will get any pilot's wings clipped. And who would have testified regarding Joker's actions? Kaidan was the one trying to convince him to leave before going to find Shepard.

The face behind Kaidan Alenko. I follow him on Instagram and let him know that he's my favorite ME face.