Mass Effect Legendary Edition (General Discussion)

The way personnel are addressed varies from nation to nation, branch to branch, etc... But addressing a Lieutenant Commander as "Commander" would be typical in the US Navy, if I'm not mistaken.

BioWare is all over the place with military details in this series. They really crap the bed in some ways, and it can be distracting. They could've used a consultant, or even just the internet and some employees' veteran family members, to do better. Oh, well.

Shepard's lack of promotion during the series makes perfect sense. I'm sure he had to leave the Alliance upon accepting appointment to Council SPECTRE. Then, when he finally rejoins the Alliance at the beginning of ME3, he is reinstated at his previous rank. Had he remained Alliance, he certainly would've been promoted to full Commander and then Captain, at some point.

As to Ashley, see above regarding "crapping the bed". The rapidity of her ascent is ridiculous. It makes no sense.

Kaidan's promotions always feel weird because of the terminology. BioWare couldn't decide whether to use Navy or Marine ranks. According to the internet, a USMC Major is an O-4, comparable to a US Navy Lt. Commander. That's completely reasonable, in my opinion, given his years in service and assignments. He probably could've been a full Commander, but I suspect they didn't want that kind of terminology overlap with "Commander Shepard".

Edit: May as well talk about Bailey, too. I've occasionally read gripes about Bailey's promotion from Captain to Commander. This would be wrong in the US military, where a Captain outranks a Commander. In US police forces, though, a Commander outranks a Captain; and C-Sec are police.

The chaotic nature of the Alliance makes re-texturing the uniforms a pain.



That said I'd rather have a chaotic uniform to re-texture than no uniforms at all (I'm looking at you MEA).

I always figured Udina lined up the promotion to get her on his side...she made it quite clear in ME1 that she didn't like politicians.

Another thought regarding Ashley/Kaidan's promotions...

Back on the official forum there discussions regarding Shepard's fraternization with soldiers under his command particularly given the difference in rank. Perhaps BW took pity on us and promoted the VS to make a bit more acceptable (not ideal, but sometimes you have to go with what you've got).

I was in that camp, which is why my canon Shep romanced Ms. Obsessive-Compulsive (Liara). Not that I'm saying that that she is a bad romance, but she can be rather creepy. Given the morbid collection in her Illium apartment my Shepard refuses to look in her freezer...you just know there's gotta be something in there.

Eh, to be fair, Shepard doesn't act on those feelings until after stealing the Normandy and "technically shouldn't even be wearing this uniform" 

What is the glitch?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/51b0f3/mass_effect_3_aria_eclipse_glitch/

Better yet, romance someone in ME2 only to have he/she die during the suicide mission, then in ME3 romance whoever without giving a second thought to the one that was killed. excellent.