Unpopular opinions

There is no contradiction. Her motivations in the game are clear. She is loyal to and believes in Cerberus until Mass Effect 3. This is directly stated. You are not arguing against me, you are arguing against the game. And so, you are wrong. There are no other "possible setups" within this particular question.

The difference is the control chip wouldn't have turned Shepard into a husk, or half-husk or whatever the troopers are. It would've been a failsafe only, not robbing Shepard of his will other than in the philosophical sense of being unable to choose otherwise and it wasn't Reaper tech, something that's been shown to backfire 100% of the time. But you already know this.

I actually like James Vega. I see much of myself in him. I thought he was overall hella cool, and people shit on him way too much.





I do think he very sweet and cute as well.

I like the character as well, but I would rather of had an ME2 squadmate on the roster instead

Of course, there was this little issue that any of the ME2 squad mates may not have survived the events of ME2.  Bioware probably didn't want the game starting out in a bunch of different possible ways.  I was actually surprised they brought the VS into the game so quickly... but then they kept the "branching" impact to a minimum by putting them in the hospital for the first half of the game.

I liked James as a character... sparring with him was a nice touch... He should have been a possible LI for FemShep though (and not just in the Citadel DLC).

Both came on a little later in the game... and the player still had that starting base of 3 squadmates (James, EDI and Liara) if Garrus and Tali had died in ME2. 

They could have always done it differently than they did (heck, they could have written an entirely different game)... but they opted to introduce a couple of new characters instead.

A little later - yes... as opposed to the very start... because James is introduced right at the very start of the game and becomes a squad mate immediately after leaving Anderson on earth.  Neither Tali nor Garrus are on the squad at the very start of the game.  My post is about the introduction of James as a new squad mate... not about the lack of ME2 characters becoming squad mates later on.  They opted to introduce James rather than start the game with a different old squad mate (depending on who had lived in ME2).  They could have written the beginning quest as a solo - generic one and recruited 2 different old squad mates on that mission but they opted to just introduce a new character and use Liara who could not have died in ME2... and then they made the first recruitment mission specific to the Turians and be one where you could possibly recruit Garrus (if he lived) as another squad mate.

I would appreciated it if you stop trying to twist my words to launch your pet peeves.

BTW, I absolutely would have loved being able to recruit Jack (if she lived) after Grissom Academy, Samara after Lessus, Miranda after Horizon, etc.... but they didn't write the game that way either.  I would have perhaps even put in a Cerberus arc before Palaven in order to recruit Miranda and Jacob before Garrus.  I would not have given EDI a body and put her on the squad at all... leaving Joker to be portrayed as the guy in love with the ship itself... but they didn't write the game that way either.

As for Wrex in the Citadel DLC... I took it as just a lark move... and it was DLC, so I didn't really care either way.

EDI was introduced to bring the count to 3... in case Garrus wasn't there to recruit... giving the player an option to pick 2 of 3 for their next mission.  If Garrus died in ME2... he does not join the squad before EDI.

Apparently Bioware doesn't do gay toggles (at least that's what another poster told me here not too long ago)... so James would be either straight or gay, but not both or either.  He is a straight FemShep LI in the Citadel DLC... so that's why I said for FemShep... basically meaning that the LI part should have gone into the main game instead of just in the DLC.

The cocky, wisecracking pilot trope. Don't mind in the least. Wish we could respond in kind sometimes. And pilots being possessive of their ships is also a well used trope.

I guess I just don't mind Joker that much.



As for Vega, yeah he turned out alright. I don't really buy the "can be dead" excuse for why ME2 squad was shafted. To the question of who would be the second squadmate until you get more, remember that not all ME2 squadmates have a set place to be. Sure Garrus is with the turians, Tali is with the Migrant Fleet, Samara is probably back in asari space etc. Others are less commitment heavy- Kasumi, Zaeed, Jacob, Jack or Thane for instance (and no, there's no reason to make him terminal yet). Have Hackett send one with you, or have them work with Liara on Mars and you meet them right away. Only requires one or two lines to explain. You can't import a save where all ME2 squadmates are dead (because Shepard himself dies in that case), I think the worst you can do is one, if you glitch the game and finish with just Kasumi and Zaeed and then do Zaeed's loyalty mission and kill him. That still requires Kasumi though. So she can meet you on Mars. Or at the very worst, you have Jenkins 2.0 that dies just before Liara comes along. Throwback to Eden Prime and all, you can even have the VS remark on it and everything.

I hate to break it to you, but Kaidan will date FemShep and BroShep with equal abandon.  They can't be that scared of the "gay toggles".  That said, there's no reason he needed to be available for BroShep in just the same way that Traynor isn't, or that Steve isn't for FemShep.

I personally always saw James as a sort of replacement for Ash, in so much that they are both human soldiers, but James is more useful in the squad than Ash and having two soldiers (3 if you play Shep as a soldier) in the squad is stupid, another reason why having Kaidan the sentinel in ME3.

They did that in DA2 with *everyone*, and that wasn't received well because it resulted in the - very implausible - impression that everyone's bi. I'm quite glad they ditched the idea for ME3 and DAI.