Trans characters in Mass Effect Andromeda

My main point of contention is that humans; straight, gay, bi, trans, what have you; are given priority over the other alien elements of the setting. I have nothing against there being LGBT characters persay, just that their inclusion typically coincides with special notation given to their status. It's not that Steve and Samantha were homosexual, but rather that they got more screen time in a single game, to showcase an addition of a homosexual character, then aliens like the Rachni, Elcor, Hanar, and Volus collectively got in all three games combined for example. Having more alien characters demonstrate those traits would go a little way in pulling the non-human elements more into the limelight, but as aliens like the Rachni, Thorian, or Liir demonstrate a simple copy and paste of our human social/political/gender identities wouldn't work across the board.

Also, why should inclusion of niche facets of humanity be given a priority in a setting filled with such a myriad of non-human species? It's not that I typically scoff at "let's add more gay/trans characters" because I hate people like that, but rather why are we getting a narrative focus there as opposed to that species which can see gamma rays and communicates via quantum tunneling? I have no bias in terms of human characters being represented, straight or not, I'm just looking at raw numbers. Adding in that special interest trans human is as annoying to me as adding in another run of the mill straight human romance option, save that the straight option requires less explaining and narrative attention.

A gender fluid species, like the Liir, could easily satisfy the requests for more exploration of those concepts without a further watering down/humanizing of the setting. Even people who might be uncomfortable with trans characters in general would be far more willing to accept a species like this over a human added to the roster primarily as a means of being the 'trans gendered character'. Both additions would accomplish the same thing but one comes across as more preachy /'tick in the check box' than the other

As for your other point, I agree about how characters like James should have been a Batarian, hell I felt Zaeed would have worked way better as a Batarian instead of another human mercenary. Personally, I felt that Steve and Smantha should have been an Elcor or Hanar, and not to explore homosexuality in those two aliens, but just to get more exploration of those species in general since our experience with those aliens outside of being a joke race is woefully lacking. It would have been great to see other alien's perspectives on the galaxy over more human companions clogging up the roster. After all,Kaiden, Jacob, and James all offer roughly the same perspective on things, just a slight variation on a few points. It would have been great to explore the Hanar's dual natured society and culture of extreme politeness, or the Elcor's collevetive attempt to speak descriptively for the other species' benefit, instead of three variations on a human soldier.

Why would I do that? I would just be reposting what I submitted here for the most part.

But if you really want to break it down into a list of what to voice dissent against and what to ignore then I would say that I post here because this thread was originally in the general discussion page and that such requests as this are needlessly excessive when we consider how much your "vanilla" humans are front and center in the setting as is. These requests to add in all these "special flavors" of humanity typically come at the cost of the non-human side of things, and as someone who originally fell in love with Mass Effect because of that non-human element, I would naturally be opposed to things that threaten to remove what little of that element remains.

What about LGBT+ aliens? No reason to not have those around.

That would be taking a very broad stroke to the Liir and their depiction in the setting.

Whatever role the Liir take up determines their use of pronouns and which gender they identify as. The caretakers, and other 'soft' roles, as you put it, are associated with females while those that involve the use of force or the taking of a life and other 'strength' are associated with a male gender.

The Liir are of course fluid in their identities, and their chosen role changes depending on their role in society.

Yeah the similarities with the Qunari are there, though with the Qunari it's more of an assignment via the Qun as to your role while the Liir can choose to become the role, complete with a change in gender, to suit their needs. A slight difference but otherwise very close to each other.


As for the definition of hard and soft, strength and weakness, those are more human analogues to familiarize the audience with the Liir than defined definitions. Like how females, in most western societies, are traditionally associated with child rearing and tenderness, and males were traditionally the workers and soldiers. The Liir themselves don't assume that females are 'soft' rather their biological function in bringing forth life and helping tend to the next generation. The males, especially the Black Swimmers are associated with that gender in relation to their separation from normal Liir society as warriors and bringing death and destruction, the opposite qualities to creation and life.

The difference in gender is dynamic to the Liir and as such they don't view one as more powerful or weak than the other, merely that the two serve equally important albeit different roles. For instance, the Liir all condsider their spacecraft and operating navy ships to be female; due to the fact that those vessels protect and feed the soldiers operating them. Alternatively, the more ancient Liir are not assigned a gender at all in the eyes of their society due to how they view the more venerable and undeniably powerful members of their species.

That reminds me--people were talking about how Bull approaches Krem is a retcon of the Qun, but I think we tend to forget that The Iron Bull is kind of awful at the Qun. That's the very reason why he's there, after all, he's had at least one re-education and it still didn't take hold, so he was given the job of a spy to southern Thedas because he pretty much is Tal-Vashoth already. My guess is that people like Krem would only be accepted like that if he was that good a warrior--and since we see that he still has to be taught a few things by Bull in the scene where we get Bull's companion quest, he probably wouldn't be considered good enough.

I take Bull's interpretation of the Qun as just that--his interpretation, his way of trying to live by the Qun while living in Southern Thedas. I get the feeling that in future games that will become a bigger point in the Qunari part of the series, a conflict on how to approach the Qun in these times, with Bull in the middle, if he survives through Trespasser.

I headcanon it as IB lying to himself that his Chargers would be accepted under the Qun.  When, in reality, they all represent what the Qunari see as wrong with Thedas:  Krem, Dalish, SKinner, etc are all people who reject convention and live outside societal norms.  The Qunari doesn't do that.  You belong, and follow the rules, or you get "re-educated"

This also holds true in the Dragon Age world and is one of the reasons why I think Krem is ridiculous.

Transgender: denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.

I don't want a companion that was born a guy, but since he used to play with dolls when he was a kid he thinks he should have been born a woman, is not only stupid, but sexist, and we are in 2186, one would think people should be way more advanced than us now.

Enlighten me then, what would be a good reason for a person in 2186 to be transgender?
And don't come to me saying "He feels like a woman" or "She feels like a man", being a man or a woman is not a feeling, and the fact that you don't like things that sexism said your gender should like doesn't you should have born with other thing between your legs.

Are we talking about the same medical/research science that said homosexuals were sick people?
There are a lot of researches handsome, are you going to base yourself in "researches I've found on the internet" or in real life? because I think we all know in real life that people don't have their personalities depending on what they have between their legs.