Jaal Ama Darav (Official Thread)

Jaal: *turns completely dark violet the second Ryder enters the room*
Other crewmates* .... Awkward.

I'm laughing because just a few pages ago you were talking about being this situation and you're like "but I'm having so much fun as femshep for the first time romancing Liara and it's so fun?" And now Kaidan shows up ... haha

I feel you and I don't think they will. It seems the team is quite gung-ho about their romances, and keep in mind ME3 was in 2012... that was so long ago when you think about. People still argued over whether gay people should get married. Today treating female and LGBT fans like second class citizens/players is just not in BioWare's MO. I'm hoping, at least.

Damn couldn't agree with this more. 

Yeah tumblr shows no mercy. I think the forums have been relatively kind when it comes to leaks and major spoilers. Though I will admit that maybe a few days before access I'll be going dark at least until I'm satisfied that I've enjoyed as much as the game without watching vids, reading walkthroughs, or going to the wiki as possible.

I remember back in Solas thread, we made a whole separate thing to discuss spoilers so there was no chance it'd be leaked on the main thread and we didn't have page upon page of spoiler tags. Perhaps we can consider doing that here when the big leaks start dropping?

Thought I'd share this... just for hell of it

OMG I LOVE THAT SONG (AND THAT ALBUM) - that is now going to be my Jaal/Ryder otp song until release XD

Ha that's hilarious I'm eager to see what makes Ashley so beloved. (She has her haters, but don't they all.) Now keep in mind I'm coming at the Kaidan romance from a M!Shep perspective, which honestly is SO DIFFERENT from poor FemShep. In ME1 with M!Shep it's a relationship that starts out with mutual respect. There are a few warm looks and comments, but nothing that would go beyond friendship. The two become close but that's it. Then ME2 happens. Shepard is presumed dead for two years. Imagine how Kaidan feels about this. Probably devastated. Surely hasn't thought too hard about his relationship with his former commander and any "feelings" he might have; he's just very sad to hear about his death. But he moves on with his life. Moves on with his career. 

Then out of NOWHERE -- he learns that Shepard is alive. Probably he is shocked at first, overjoyed/relieved next. But then he quickly hears that Shepard is working for Cerberus?! The people who experimented on fellow human beings and murdered Admiral Kohaku?? He's beyond shocked. He's actually... hurt. How could Shepard do that? He respected the man, looked up to him, cared about him. When he encounters Shepard in person, he can't hold his feelings back. He accuses him of working for the enemy. He's not aware of how his true feelings are revealing themselves. He walks off in disgust. Shepard is taken aback... he was expecting a warmer welcome from a dear friend and colleague he hasn't seen in two years. Back on board the Normandy, the Illusive Man makes a smart ass comment about Shepard's "past relationships" (yes, this is real!) and Shepard can snap back that his past relationships are none of your damn business! Shepard is clearly hurt by Kaidan's response.

Fast forward to ME3. Kaidan and Shepard see one another again for the first time since that fateful day on Horizon. Both seem a little surprised to see one another. Their greetings are cordial. They seem reluctant to depart one another's company. Kaidan gives a departing Shepard a rather, ahem, longing look as Shepard walks off. 

On Mars emotions finally flare up again. Kaidan admits he's having trouble trusting Shepard. Shepard, still reeling from what just happened on Earth, cannot believe Kaidan is pulling this shit right now. The conversation ends with little between them having been ironed out. Then Dr. Eva appears. They chase her and she nearly kills Kaidan. Shepard is... beside himself. How could this have happened?? How could he have let this happen?? He hovers over Kaidan's bedside, unable to think straight. Liara appears and tries to speak sense to him: they MUST take Kaidan to the Citadel for treatment. Shepard agrees and gives the command to do so.

Fast forward again. Kaidan is recovering nicely; Shepard buys him a bottle of whiskey (I think? lol) as a sort of awkward "Get well soon" present. They talk. After everything that's happened, their previous differences seem... unimportant. Both are a little on the sheepish side. 

A few more visits later and Kaidan is out of the hospital. The attack on the Citadel occurs, and Kaidan chooses, after a final tense moment, to trust Shepard that Udina is the enemy. His trust pays off. He requests rather humbly and sheepishly to rejoin the Normandy. Shepard can agree to this with obvious pleasure. Eventually, when they're back at the Citadel, Kaidan invites Shepard out to dinner. They talk about the future... how there may BE no future. They talk about how there's so little time left, and that there's no point in trying to live a lie, basically. The idea of the two of them... as... well. It comes up. They look at each other, they smile. It feels ridiculous that it's taken this long. 

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I WROTE THAT UP. I REALLY DON'T.

See, the way you write that actually makes the Kaidan fan love far more apparent to me. I love this, and wish FemShep had gotten the same (which is strange to say, since I know gay male players lamented not being able to romance him in ME1). Instead we get a default Kaidan relationship that's almost impossible to stay out of, or a relationship with him where you're basically being a jerk to his poor unrequited feelings. The second obviously doesn't lend itself well to a slow burn romance like you described... and the first, well...

You and Kaidan have a romantic relationship that builds over the course of ME1. You get together and you stay together (as indicated by ME2's prologue.) Cool. But then you see him and he comes across as this huge jerk. Like, his suspicion and disappointment make sense, but that fact that he has zero interest in hearing your side, that of his Commander and girlfriend he supposedly loved and thought dead. And then to top it off, he writes you a letter in which he talks about how he'd finally moved on and even mentions some chick he was going on a date with (like how dare you come back to life and ruin it! - least that's how it felt to me). Like, DUDE.

And then there's all that stuff on Mars where he questions you more, and then in the hospital he accuses you of cheating on him if you moved on to someone else. Maybe his romance is totally great if you can forgive him for all that, but by then I'm so over him! I just don't think his romance is a success if you carry it over as FemShep at all. If I had the chance to wait, I might love that scenario you described. But the only way to get it is by being an asshole to him in ME1 which totally messes up that narrative where you have that mutual respect/friendship thing. Again, not assuming that the only reason we wouldn't want to romance Kaidan is because we hate him would have been nice. 

Unfortunately I don't like playing male characters, so, let's hope for some better romances for everyone in Andromeda! And I'd love the option to have the romance happen later in the game if I wish. I think Inquisition did that pretty well, where you could skip the first few flirt lines and still get the romance later.

Now imagine, they dont know what it means... And Jaal tries to awkwardly making something up in order not to reveal his feelings. 
But the crew catches up pretty fast and know whats going an. Everyone but Ryder. They are completly clueless.
It becomes this fremschämen / aww arent they cute / god, are they blind or what  thing XD



Yeah, I was never able to continue his romance with my femShep. Shepaloo no problem. He and Kaidan are AWESOME. Super cute. They are my Shepaloo OTP.

Yeah things are pretty quiet right now. That's how it goes. We talk about stuff that's released. We run out of things to speculate on, so we go off topic. Sometimes it's in a way that's annoying - so people argue, let off steam (The NOT FUN way) and then things go quiet until the next piece of news. Rinse and repeat! 

Anyway even the Twitter thread's kinda dead at the moment, and we've been talking about Kaidan in here.   So you didn't miss anything.

Anyway hopefully we get something tomorrow (Tuesday seems a day we always get something even if it's small). We're all getting a little antsy in here. I certainly am - I'm snowed in and it's gross outside so I'm super unmotivated to do anything. Some Andromeda news to discuss would be nice...