Unpopular opinions

I do agree that every author tends to have a favorite character but authors should always take care that this love for a character does begin to negatively impact the story. Favoritism for a character that sometimes result in a lack of awareness about how that character is presented. This is often, in my experience, what leads to the dislike for a Creator's Pet. 

I'll see if I can explain what I mean:

While George R. R. Martin loves all his characters, he has said that he loves  the character Tyrion Lannister the most. What keeps that love from becoming favoritism and taking overhand is that he does not exempt or shield Tyrion's character from things that are unpleasant or doing things that are unpleasant. Tyrion remains a flawed person whose flaws are acknowledged and whose character development, positive or negative, make sense given what he deals with. There are times where he's humiliated and times where he gets the upper hand. What Tyrion accomplishes also tends to be because he made an effort to achieve them and when the effort pays off, it is in a believable way. While there are times where luck saves his hide, luck is not always there nor is it always how he manages to escape certain situations.   

To contrast, there is the character Tyrion Lannister in the Game of Thrones series who has become significantly different and who I'd consider to be an example of favoritism taking overhand later on. This Tyrion practically sails through events in comparison to his book counterpart without facing much of any real obstacle and is even granted positions that he hasn't earned in a believable way. Basically, favoritism making the writers give special treatment to a character.  

Source: grrm.livejournal.com/381419.html

Is there anything that says Shepard has reaper tech implanted in her/his skull?

I'm not forgetting anything. They wanted to survive. They may be doing the same to get Shepard to choose them
Is there anything proving that will happen outside of what the geth says?

And if that risk backfires, the galaxy may not have enough left to stop the reapers after dealing with the geth.
Or how previous cycles were able to add to the thing without knowing if what they added would do anything

A statement clearly saying "Shepard has reaper tech"? No of course not, the game leave it open.

It's more intuition than anything else.




Don't know, Legion v1.0 is pretty straightforward with us, Legion v2.0 is the problem.
Yes, I know, in the geth server mission he also use the opportunity to save more of his people without telling us.
He has justification to do it, the Quarians would not approve the operation if they knew it.

Xen don't even care about it, she's only interested in gaining control over those Primes, not the fact they were activated.
Also won't we do the same if the positions were in reverse?

Common mike, it's the survival of the galaxy at stake. You take a chance or not, but this kind of circular logic is getting old.

Ok, I don't like to use political quotes because they tend to cause disagreements, but that's the only thing I have at the moment:
If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons - Winston Churchill


How exactly we will need to deal with the geth? We are fighting to destroy the reapers, right?
And we use the Crucible to destroy them, which in turn will destroy every synthetic life in the galaxy, including the geth.
So no, we won't need to worry about them later.



Or building the thing and then in the middle of the road discovering that firing it would destroy the entire galaxy because the local distribution forgot to send the correct screwdriver we still need to find the missing piece?

I judge people who think the genophage is a morally defensible act.



Tali is awful and so is Liara.



Shep isn't competent at much else besides being a soldier.

I think most people agree that while the change was SHOWN in a comic, it still wasn't a result of character development. Yes, we understand that the change was shown, but it was not a part of character development. She still behaved in a way that was inconsistent with her background and behavior to date. That's not character development. What they did was graft an entirely new behavior onto her.

I would totally be on board with an ME1 remaster that gives you three options for death on Virmire, with all of them being love interests.  I wonder how many people would love the chance to save both Kaidan and Ashley but allow Liara to die?  I'm not a super Ash fan by any means but I'd love to see them double teaming Shepard on Horizon, or maybe you get to have one of them join you on the SR2 while the other sits out ME2 because that person is an "Alliance [wo]man".  Repurpose Tela Vasir.  Have her join in the hunt to track down the SB, eventually replacing him.  Imagine how much better she could serve the Council in that capacity.  In ME3, she could return with intel on the Mars Archives and become a squadmate.  She would, quite frankly, make more sense than Liara.

Now, I don't hate Liara, but if she were a third option to kill on Virmire she'd have a decent shot at dying.

I probably should have clarified that my post was mostly in response to the problems of author(s) having favorite(s) and not so much about the problems related to Liara's character. That's my bad. As I see them, some of the problems in regards to Liara's character are a mix of different things. Such things include a lack of relationship meter and her status as unkillable until late in the third and final game. I also agree with what you've said here.

I had a longer post planned but I decided to cut it since it became too clunky. 
 

The only time Shepard can be mean, if that's what someone wants to call it, is when Shepard tells her that he/she wants to throw her in the volcano. Apparently that was forgotten in ME2/3. I would guess why that happened is because Bioware didn't want to create any friction between Shepard and T'soni.

As far as not dying, I would have her killed on Thessia instead of Leng turning her into a bag of potatoes and throwing her across the screen. But she can die if ems is below 2000 and taken on the beam run.
When the trailer was released for Citadel, someone made a thread showing it. A lot of people complained it showed a lot of Liara. Chris Priestly asked why they were complaining? They wanted to see others characters shown in the trailer. It seemed like the dlc was focused on the asari and the other characters didn't matter. I don't believe I posted in that thread, but I agreed what people were saying

When Liara shows up in that scene, she says "having a bad day Shepard?" Many people did not like that.. It wasn't the words, but the way she said it. It sounded like the two were a couple. I didn't like it. Its too bad my Shepard couldn't say, "What do you think dumda**? A bunch of clowns want to kill me. So yes, I'm having a bad day Don't make it any worse by asking stupid questions."

What is also bad is if you romance Steve, Miranda, Jack or Samantha, its the asari that will show up. Why couldn't Jack or Miranda show up? Wrex can be a squadmate. Wait a minute. Is it because he's an ME1 squamdate?

Look at Steve. He could have shown up. He leads one of the teams when they go after copycat Shepard in the archives.

Samantha would be hard to explain.

I would have Bailey show up instead. He says he happen to be nearby when he heard all the shooting. Or have the edibot show up. No reason for the asari to show up.

The broker dlc I didn't like. If taken on the Normandy she does the friend crap by saying what's wrong, but not what Shepard would say to the others.

In ME3, there is no reason for her to show up after the first two dreams. The first dream she tells Shepard what the player and Shepard already know,and the second dream she tells Shepard the councilor wants to talk. What is wrong with using the interscom? Or have Traynor or the edibot tell Shepard over the intercom.

If you do ignore her for the whole game, besides cutscenes, she will not offer her gift at the fob , if you decide to talk to her at that time.

Of course it has reason for Liara to shown up, she's the goddess of the galaxy. Haters gonna hate...

Now on a more on-topic note, if you have your love interest on the Normandy and is a squadmate is them who appear instead Liara, isn't?
Kaidan/Ash, Garrus or Tali.

I like Liara and you know it, she has tons of problems, but I still like her. My biggest issue is how almost the entire ME2 squadmates are sidelined.
I mean, Tali and Garrus doesn't count, they are with us since ME1.
Name it only one squadmate introduced with ME2 that have an important role like Wrex besides Legion? You don't have it.

Kasumi or Zaeed? Pfff, I lost what without them? 100 points of assets at best? Two scans in the galaxy and this is covered or even surpassed.
Miranda? Unless she is a love interst, nope, she doesn't matter.
The same goes for Thane, don't have it because he died? No problem, I have Kirrahe, so my salarian fleet will still be available.
Jack I can rationalize, since she is battling the reapers with her students, but this is easily justifiable by saying they are at the Citadel for that time. But unless she's your love interest, what do you lose? 30 meaningless war assets when she's not present at Grissom Academy?
Jacob, Samara, Diana Allers and even the ones sidelined in ME2, Kaydan or Ashley, doesn't count for anything unless they are a love interest (excluding Samara, who can't be romanced).
Not even Mordin matter in the end because you have Padok. Sure, the situation is touching and/or tragic with him present, but this is also true to Padok.

And Padok is a very interesting character.

Take Miranda for example. Is not my prefered character in the whole series, nor I dislike her, is just your run of the mill "strong type".
But heck! Imagine if you could convince her to serve on the Normandy?
Not only this could lead to tons of interesting situations since she is a ex-Cerberus serving in an Alliance ship, you could really add to Kaydan and Ashley being distrustful of you.
Why Bioware didn't do it? Fear of being accused of favoritism? Already having Tali and Garrus from ME2? I simply don't know and can't find a valid explanation besides "for reasons".
Shepard could help with the search for her sister, wich could lead to Horizon without the whole "I'm Shepard, look at my glorified penis or vagina angry and bow to me".
I get it, the purpose is show a humane side of Shepard and his/her feelings, but the whole scene is pathetic.

"Yes Vega, that's right, let's kick Cerberus in the balls for a change. Where they are hiding, do you know it", for the guy who can't disable a simple geth turret without kicking it.
With EDI and a comm specialist responsible for handling strategic information right next to Shepard to add insult to injury!

Is very contradictory to have a game that is allegedly based - also - on the relationships you create during the course of it and in the end those relationships won't matter for the most part.
Unless it has sex involved.

Maybe Matriarch Aethyta is right after all.

WoW, this came out as a rant. LOL
Sorry to everyone, not my intention.

Wait, wait, wait. When can you tell Liara you want to throw her into a volcano? The only time I thought you can be mean to her is when she wants to know more about you and starts digging around your past. And you can tell her to shove off. But after she claims to keep the relationship professional, she acts like none of that happens and acts like your BFF. It still irks me that only Liara apparently cares enough about Shepard to help save him/her. I am also aware she can die if you have low enough EMS, but come on. That shouldn't count. That means a large part of the galaxy has to die just so I can get rid of her. That's just dumb and unfair. Tali, Ash, Wrex, Kaidan, and Garrus can all die and you can still save the galaxy in the end. So why can't I let Liara die and have my happy ending?

As for the rest of your message, I'm going to respond to it respective of what you said. I don't want to quote everything and make this message super long.

I wasn't around when the Citadel DLC trailer was released. I am a fairly new to the series overall, so I never saw this. I'd have been annoyed at this trailer as well. Yeah, her asking me if I'm having a bad day when she's not my romance annoys me. I know this has nothing to do with the Citadel DLC, but speaking of dumb questions, I cannot stand Liara on Thessia. Every time I get to the part where she says "next time maybe the Alliance can spring for air support?" Like a nerd, I actually say "shut the hell up Liara, nobody here likes you." She's obnoxious on Thessia and I fully support Leng cutting her to ribbons. I actually like him more than her anyway.

As for other romance options, they could have been a possibility as well to come help Shep. Miranda is technically trying to avoid assassins and find her sister. So depending on when you do the Citadel DLC, she might not be available. But there is no excuse for this scene. Who ever you talk to the most should come help you. As for the Normandy scenes, I think Shepard is the star of those scenes. It humanizes Shep a bit, but I'm not happy that it has to be Liara that has to be the one to get it out of Shepard. And you're right that the first two times after your dreams are unneeded.

I am also aware that if you barely talk to her she doesn't offer you a gift. And can I just point out how creepy it is that she rests her head on your shoulder regardless of romance if you do accept the gift? Just... yuck. I know you also told me that if you don't talk to Liara she will not hold your name plate at the end of the game. Hopefully that will be the case in this run since Jack is my romance. Javik and Kaidan have been the ones I've talked to the most. 

Forgot about this.

When I first heard her say that, I turned my Shepard around and shot Liara. Unfortunately she didn't die. That line was crap. I would have put in a renegade interrupt. I won't get into specifics of what action Shepard would take, but I would have Ashley with me. I would also remove Liara from the squad for that comment. After the mission, I would drop her off at the Citadel. There was no reason for that comment.