Jaal Ama Darav (Official Thread)

Late to the Jaal party, but I just finished a a Scott/Jaal playthrough and just wanted to talk about some stuff.

Firstly, I made the mistake of taking Peebee in the Nomad with Jaal and it was really frustrating to have to listen to them talk about procreating together even after I thought I had locked in the romance (by visiting Jaal's family). That was really, just... ugh. My Scott was all "WTH, I'm sitting right here!" I'm sorry for everyone who had to experience that. It was not... great.

Secondly, I initially tried the Jaal romance with Sara and he was just not a good fit for my Sara. She was a dorky introvert and he was just so overwhelmingly affectionate that it made her (and by extension, me) kind of uncomfortable. Definitely an extroverted Sara would have gone with him much better. My Sara also had an aversion to Reyes, whereas my Scott (who is sort of a meathead) really liked Reyes' mix of sexy and underhanded. So, I thought if anyone could stand up to having "MY DARLING ONE!" shouted at him across the room, it would be my Scott.

During the playthrough, I was still not really sure how I felt about the romance, but I was bombing through at breakneck speed replaying all of the conversations and just trying to harvest clips for a video, so I wasn't paying full attention. Only after I started putting together the video did I realize how great Jaal can be, especially with a Scott who isn't particularly close with his family. In one conversation they talk about impostor syndrome and in another it's really touching how Jaal tells Scott that Alec would be proud of him. My Scott lied to Sara while she was in a coma, so she was pretty pissed at him, and Cora kept giving him the side-eye for being sort of reckless and trollish, so having someone who understood the pressure Scott was under and who tried to repair his relationship with his father was just... wow.

Also, I played all of the romance scenes with all variations, and I really liked seeing Scott and Jaal feeling so comfortable touching each other (leaning their heads together, hugging, holding hands) in a way we don't usually get to see between guys in media. They just look like they're giving each other comfort and respect in a really heartwarming way. If I think of Scott as being starved for affection (your Scott may vary) even if he covers it well, it's a really huge thing for him to have someone like Jaal. The ending scene at Meridian where Scott and Jaal hug and kiss and then just stare into each other's eyes was really special. (By contrast Sara's scene had her riding Jaal like a mechanical bull, which was so unlike my Sara I was really put off.)

I've always thought that my Warden Tabris wants nothing more than to give Alistair a happy childhood, and I feel Jaal and Sahuna are going to do the same for Scott. They're just going to take him and give him the affectionate, supportive family he (possibly) never had. With pie. And I can just see him becoming so much more confident and loving in response. And maybe not feeling like he has to pretend to be okay all the time. So, yeah, I can see why Jaal is really something special for the right Ryder. Jaal telling Scott "You make me feel safe" gave me all the feels. (Of course, he'd also be great with happy, extroverted Ryders, too.)

I set the video to I'm Still Here from Treasure Planet which refers to the main character being abandoned by his father. It gets off to a slow start, sorry.