Jaal Ama Darav (Official Thread)

That tragic couple still gets to me. When Cole tells my Inquisitor about it, even then I still choke up

I agree. I was really hoping they put some unique spin on Drack so he wouldn't just be your generic fight-happy Krogan. But from his bio he sounds like Grunt 2.0, but instead of being super young he's super old. *yawn* I mean, I've always though the idea of a space-grandpa type (which I've been speculating him to be) was pretty fun - but I was definitely hoping he'd be a shaman or historian or philosopher or closet science nerd or something to set him apart. But to be fair the bio doesn't tell us much, so hopefully his personality does have some quirks we'll find out about in the game. I'm guessing the prosthetics thing could be because he got injured when he was (relatively) younger, when he maybe wouldn't have had access to more advanced treatment, or he was too distrustful of the technology. And then he sort of just kept them because it was what he was used to, or because he was too stubborn - or maybe it's a source of pride. Much like Krogan scarring is a badge of honor and considered really attractive, losing your limbs and surviving makes you that much more hardcore. 

Back to Jaal, I'm going to say he's a mix of Garrus/Thane for sniping and Kasumi for tech. If he has any sort of biotic, it'll be something like Javik.

Yep! And the poor Quarian who loses his parents.

I'd prefer it if they had something similar to biotics, but unique to Andromedan species. We know nothing about the existence of eezo in the Andromeda galaxy. The Helius-cluster could be so rich in eezo it's the reason for the whole trip, or maybe there is none at all.

and I really want to impress Jaal with some flashy space-magic he has never seen before

Most likely one of three things. First, the cost but that is unlikely due to his occupation. Second, he isn't allowed one because of being a krogan who is a criminal and the krogan can't do that themselves. Third, he chooses not to because he likes it or something. 

His quote really puts down any notion of him being a warrior-philosopher or anything really other than a thug. Between that and him being an outright criminal, I want him nowhere near my ship and if I had my way have him in prison or if in charge not even allowed on the Initiative. 

Yeah, the Garrus comparison seems rather silly. Because he's got, what - a visor and a sniper rifle? We literally know nothing about his personality. Just seems stupid to judge him now. And if anything the 'dapper sir' stuff and the fact that he's well-dressed (I'm assuming, even among his people) makes me think he's really not going to be like Garrus at all. If anything Liam strikes me as the guy filling the 'badass loyal bro' slot. Actually I've seen comparisons to Jacob instead despite their personalities sounding nothing alike, because of the shallowest of reasons.

It's funny because meanwhile I don't hear many people complaining that Drack is just another Wrex/Grunt (okay, I just did, but I'm also reserving judgement on his character until I meet him, and am still optimistic he'll surprise me) though there's little to set him apart yet. People are more like, 'another Krogan! whoo!' What's the difference? The fact that he's not 'replacing' a romanceable character? And yeah, I love Javik, and if anything I'm getting Javik: the not-so-mean version vibes from him. Which, I loved Javik, so I don't mind at all!

I just don't get why people feel the need to label a character as the new *insert name of old character here.* Has Bioware ever introduced a new character who was nearly identical to an old one? I really can't think of any.

From the twitter thread:
Seems we should maybe keep an eye out for a briefing tomorrow too...?

I think I said this before, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jaal was our introduction to the Andromeda version of Biotics. Which I think there must be, because I can't imagine future games within the Andromeda galaxy having only the Milky Way squadmates have biotic-like abilities.

I wonder what color they'd be! Normal is blue, Javik's were green.

Sparkly purple space magic? 

I remember. His bio was the last to come out, if I recall, but they did finally include him in one of the gameplay videos. It was also where we first heard his voice, wasn't it? Also, he did finally make it into a trailer but it was the very last one released if I remember right.

I dunno... the hashtags make think of the briefing vids. I could be wrong of course, but I think we should keep an eye on the official site, just in case.   (They did release the last one on the same day as the trailer too.)

Well Solas was a...special case. I doubt Jaal is similar. They're likely holding out because he's the only new entity on our squad, so his stuff is much more spoilery and exciting than the others.

I'll hope that we see his bio next week! If he makes an appearance in the gameplay vid tomorrow, I'd say that would further solidify it since that would finally be real confirmation of him being a squadmate.

The teaser mention it's a new series of videos, so it won't be the briefing one. The weapons one might've been substituted with the Pathfinder team, when they decided to do a gameplay series of videos.