As a veteran with a prosthetic hip, having Drack in the game felt weirdly good

Yeah, they did a good job with that regarding him. That scene where he talks to you about it in the medbay is one of the best scenes in the game. Makes me hopeful that they could do a good job with the Inquisitor in DA4 if they come back.

Its called 'identifying' and its why activist groups (or at least the genuine folk in them) do what they do about 'representation'.

Drack's place in things felt awkward.

Then we learn more and more about how that was entirely the point. And he may have the best script of any character in MEA.

I get it. I have health issues that leave me exhausted. Every video game is full of super fit ppl fighting to save the world, which is quite liberating to play as I can't match that irl. When a character isn't like that and faces physical problems, yet is still part of the crew, I feel a little smooshy about it. Joker for one.

This game is full of moments like that for me.

I'm a combat veteran with PTSD, and there are subtle things here and there that tell me that someone at Bioware "gets it" from that kind of perspective.

The conversation with Drack in the medbay, about sinking into that pit, feeling useless, etc.

The one-off ambient dialogue between Liam and Jaal after saving the Moshae and learning about exaltation (that a bunch of people hated, 'cause it seemed out of place if you don't "get it"...) where Liam asks if Jaal wants to talk about it, Jaal replies something along the lines of "Maybe, but just...not now" and Liam responds "Got it, inane chatter coming up"...

There are other moments besides those two. Those are the ones that really stick out to me, though. I simply don't understand the people who think this game had poorly written dialogue. I mean, sure, it's got its derpy moments, but it's a Bioware game. That's par for the course with Bioware. The writing isn't deserving of any Pulitzers, or any other literary awards, but it's solidly good from my perspective. Those other touches? People at Bioware really seem to "get" where some of us come from. And that's why I play Bioware games.

I can't say that I LIKE Liam's character all that much.  He's an ok guy who sometimes jumps in before he thinks things through.  I certainly don't DISlike him, however.

I will say, though, that I RELATE to him in a large way.

The whole bit where he and Jaal swapped armors and tried to find the line where cracking on each other became ACTUALLY insulting...yeah, there's quite a bit of that sorta thing in the US Military.  Well, the Army, for sure, and I wouldn't doubt it's in other branches as well.

Every unit has their own traditions and "codes" of conduct.  Most (if not all) of these rules are unspoken and CERTAINLY unwritten.  I switched units a few times during my service, and each time, I'd find someone who'd been in the unit for a while, but wasn't too high a rank, and start bullshitting with him/her to learn the ropes, so to speak.  I wound up stepping on a few toes, stuck my foot in my mouth a bit more than was comfortable, but I quickly learned the "rules," and most of the time the guys I'd pick to figure shit out with got what I was trying to do fairly quickly.

It's not as simple as asking "Hey, what are the rules that are unique to this unit?" 'cause most of the time you couldn't really express 'em.  If you tried to think what they were, you'd just kinda draw a blank.  But when someone BROKE those rules, you knew immediately they'd done fucked up.  So by testing the waters, seeing where the line was, and figuring the shit out before I did something waaaay outta bounds, I saved myself from doing something totally stupid.

Very similar to what Jaal and Liam were doing.  I got the point of that scene real quick, and Liam explaining the thing just kinda confirmed it for me.  So while Liam's character isn't exactly one of my favorites in ME:A, I really like how he was written and portrayed.  I honestly think Bioware has more than a couple veterans on staff, 'cause quite a few things in Liam's character, in Cora's and Drack's stories, all seem to be very "in tune" with a veteran's mindset.