Cora Harper (Official Thread)

I know I'm 'necroing' slightly, but I gotta say it: I don't really care for Cora. And it's not that I hate her honestly. It's that I don't care that she's in the game, and I wouldn't care if she was taken out of the game. And it's a little sad honestly, since someone put in a lot of time and effort for this character that I can't find even one thing I truly care about. I can't say she's boring, but I can't say she's interesting either.

I think though, I can boil my issue with her to two things: Her backstory, and her personality. Hear me out before you break out your pitchforks .

The story of someone being the strongest (blank) ever born/created has been done to death throughout all mediums of art and entertainment. And it's sad too, because Cora is the first implementation of how human biotics were treated due to 'superstitions', and yet the writers stuck to the same 'freak because they're super powerful' cliche. How cool would it have been of Cora wasn't the strongest human biotic, but had a biotic ability no one had seen in humans before. Remember how Morinth could control people? Or how Samara could suck the life out of living things? Remember how those two abilities are what people are afraid of in biotics? I like to imagine Cora's fascination with gardens stems from the fact that she couldn't be around certain living things, such as plants, because she would siphon the life out of them by accident. And since she now has control, she has made it a goal to plant gardens of her own just to prove to herself and others, that's she's not a 'freak'. It could also explain why her parents didn't know what do for her, and why the asari were the best bet for training her, and even why Cora was so hurt by the fact the the asari made her leave. Heck, it could even explain why she attached herself to Alec so quickly, in that he wasn't afraid of her ability. He was only concerned about whether or not she could get the job done with them. Once again, my issue comes from the fact her backstory has been done countless of times, and nothing was added to it to separate it from the rest of the stories like hers.

And now we get to her personality. Once again, it's not that I dislike it, as much as I have no idea what the writers were going for. I remember seeing a post somewhere that sums it up pretty well. Cora is a "no-nonsense-laid back-disciplined-rule bending-tough-softy..." The list basically goes on. To me, Cora has no actual set, let alone basic, personality. It's all over the place. And on the one hand, this could make a very interesting character that is trying to decide who they are and what they want out of life. Are they laid back? Are they overly disciplined? Emotional? Logical? It's not every game that you get a character that is trying to discover who they want to be as a person. But it seems like Cora wasn't written for that, as much as to be a 'player pleaser'; the writers just threw every thing they thought people would love and called it a personality. And this may be unfair of me to say, but it also feels as though the writers REALLY want you to like Cora. I mean with Liam, we can reprimand him for his actions, or Peebee for hers. But Cora? We don't get that option ever. I thought it would have been quite interesting for there to be an optional 'strained' relationship between Cora and Ryder, over the fact that Cora knew your own father better than you did (think about the lucky rock). Here Cora is upset over the fact that Alec didn't chose her to be Pathfinder, and here you are, not only having witnessed your father die, but also continuously hearing how Cora 'thought' she knew him. All in all, I thought it was a missed opportunity. And if the game doesn't want you to like her, it wants you to pity her. Now I'd like to think that I'm an overly-empathetic person, but Cora really pushes the limit sometimes. She NEVER stops whining. Literally every conversation it feels like is her complaining about how hard her life was, or praising the asari. She never seems to talk about anything else, let alone 'let' Ryder actually move the conversation somewhere else. And once again, it sucks because I want to sympathize with her frustrations, but how it was written makes it hard to do a lot of times. So maybe the issue isn't her personality per-say, as much as I'm not allowed to actually define how Cora and Ryder's relationship works.

This of course, is simply my own personal opinion, so please don't take what I say too seriously. And who knows though, maybe in the sequel she'll grow on me.

Lol. Bring it on haters! I forgot to put in one final point in my post I guess. See, I appreciate what the writers were trying to do with Cora. I love her overall design. I think she looks really good, but not in the Vogue model sort of way. More of the designers we're trying to play around with different types of facials structures and features, and make a brand-new character. Honestly I love it. I also appreciate what they were TRYING to do with her in terms of character, but fell short of the mark just a little. Instead of making a character that could be seen as a person in real-life, it felt like they were trying to get everyone to like her by making her, and I hate this term, mary-sue. And once again, it sucks cause I want there to be some connection/relationship between my Ryder and her.
But hey, maybe I'm just being too critical.

No I really do see your side of it. And in many areas, she does seem flat. I guess I can appreciate and look past it enough to at least enjoy her character. But to be fair, a little more fleshing out (like in a DLC or something non-book related) could help

I based my decision more on how my Ryder was personally. He wast just a care-free, laid back guy and was more content with just spending a quiet night with Cora rather than bumping uglies with her. Both paths are good, but really, if you can't decide, I'd maybe try to figure out what your Ryder would do based on how he is personally.

Cool

And you're welcome

In case anyone wants to know Cora's age - Jo Berry just tweeted that Cora is 26 at the start of MEA. On my phone so I can't embed it.

Thanks

'Finished the game last night.

As a pansexual, hetero-flexible male playing M!Ryder, a lot of LI options appealed to me. Cora, Vetra, Peebee, Reyes. Cora caught my interest first, though, and so I decided to stick with it.

'Too early for a final opinion yet on any given character, but my initial feelings of Cora...

Better than Miranda, not ME1 Ash good, not terribly interesting, but likable -- there's a place for companions like that (can't all be big egos/rockstars, some low-key types are needed).

Decent romance, decent character.

*edit* I just noticed nobody posts in these threads. LOL