The Character Romance thread (Official)

The only things I am worry about really, are gay and lesbians companions existing. I am mostly sure we will get less content and it is going to be NPCs. I am sorry but straight women at least have LIs on the companion rooster for sure with relevant content.

I didn't realize that straight male players were physically blocked from entering Dorian or Bull's romances if they were playing as a male Inquisitor. 

The problem with all of this is that personal taste plays too large a factor. I'm really turned off by BDSM, so Bull's romance actively repulsed me. I wouldn't even consider it an option because of that- and it seemed that a lot of female players agree with me on that regard. And the matter of taste has come about again with Mass Effect Andromedas LI's. I've seen gay male players who love what we've seen of Jaal and are perfectly happy, and ones who don't like him and think they have "gotten the shaft" because there may be no bi/gay human squadmate. You also get people like Hanako with unique criteria, caring about the presence of a sex scene and explicit confirmation that the couple has had sex above all else. 

The addition of more alien LI's makes it even more confusing. A lot of players don't find the more alien species, such as Turians, Krogan or Salarians, physically attractive. Do they still count as options, even though a large portion of the demographics the romances are aimed at find them physically repulsive? If women had access to a Krogan, a Salarian, a Turian and an Angara and men had access to two human women who has it better, the ones with more options or the ones or with options that have wider appeal? 

I don't understand the mindset that a romance only has worth if you are playing as the gender you are IRL and are attracted to the gender of the person. I've never played a female elf in Inquisition and I don't plan to, but I have watched all of Solas romance scenes and I think it is a great, dark tragic story. That content has meaning to me, even though I have never even played it and don't fall in the demographic that it's supposedly meant for. And there were many people who were angry that said romance was added and would rather it had never been added, because it gave straight female players "more options" than everyone else.

I feel that if some people had their way we would four clones, available to everyone, with the exact same personality, length of content, level of tragedy and exactly the same romance scenes shot for shot. It would be equal, yes, but it would also be insanely boring. 

That's not right. Straight BroShep had Liara as option no matter what. She couldn't die and it didn't matter you didn't start to romance her in ME1 or ME2. She's option no matter what happened in past games. So straight broshep always has option in ME3 as well as lesbian and gay shep. Only shepard who could have zero was straight femshep.

Well, yeah, I do hope LGBT players of all genders get some good options this time around with equal content, absolutely. And I certainly sympathize with lesbian players for the lack of quality in their romances, and gay male players who had it even worse. I'm just stating why I, as a straight female player, am feeling concerned about my options despite the fact that I did have a couple decent ones in the trilogy. And why the romance reveals so far being three to one female to male is super frustrating, especially with the only official confirmation for a specific player group being for a straight male Scott. Again, I'm trying to be optimistic for now, but these twitter reveals are doing nothing to assuage my concerns.

Because if my speculation is true, I'll probably have three guys to choose from - Liam, Jaal, and another human guy somewhere. I think that's a safe bet. And I'm actually pretty alright with that. But at least one of those guys, based on past Bioware precedent, will lie, betray me, dump me, or something. Meanwhile a straight male player will have twice as many options, plus a fling or two, and all will end happily ever after. (Well, I may be exaggerating here, but, frankly I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the case.) A shitty scenario, even if I can go on to admit that gay players might only end up with two options each with only one being a squadmate is an even shittier scenario (though lesbian players will likely get more, maybe even as many as straight female players if the trilogy precedent holds - yes, I know - quality vs. quantity, but still). I think I'd still have the right to be annoyed on my own behalf in addition to that of LG players. Admitting you guys have it worse doesn't mean I can't still be pissed if compared to straight male players I'm getting shafted as well.

And to be clear to the straight male players, I'm not saying male players should be punished for this by your options being taken away... unless you honestly think the resources toward your sixth romance option being given to a third option for someone else counts as 'punishment.'

You have every right to be upset but I get the feeling that lesbians get pair with straight players like that is even possible, most of the time we get those options for the male gaze. Mass Effect is full of that shit. Ah well it not really anyone fault, in a perfect world everyone would get the same amount, sigh.

I am being honest here, do you really do not understand why is that important? I mean it is kinda of easy to guess why.  It is not at all about liking the companion, it is about having the same content and relevance as any straight romance. Mass Effect 2 and SWTOR originally only had straight characters, how is that fair to anyone? and why are gay characters in Mass Effect only NPCs and why the gay romance only present in the last game for gay men?

I am sorry but people are confusing having access to the bare minimal with having 10 LIs and not liking anyone.

And with highest number of potential LIs that could appeal to you you have the highest chance you will find someone you like. So of course you still have the most options, c'mon.

I can understand preferring gay romances if you are yourself gay, or because there are fewer of them in media. I hold the latter view myself. What I don't understand is the idea that all other romances in the game are somehow meaningless, or that there must be exact numbers for each gender/orientation/race of protagonist, even if it doesn't really make sense. 

As I said in my Inquisition example, a lot of people were angry that the two bonus LI's Inquisition received were limited to a female Inquisitor and were both men. They were even more angry that Solas was elf-only. But extra content is extra content, why complain about more stuff being added? Even as someone who didn't play a female Inquisitor I watched Solas romance on youtube and highly enjoyed it. And it wouldn't have worked with a non-elf Inquisitor. Sometimes having the options not be completely equal is important for the story and charterers. 

It's not that simple, that's the whole damn point. 

The implication that because I don't care about gender I find everyone attractive and have this endless plethora of romances at my disposal is somewhat... insulting? 

I have plenty of deal breakers, turn offs, things I find uncomfortable... maybe, and probably, more than most people. But because gender isn't one of them it's just "preferences" that aren't important. obviously they can't be as important as gender, because gender is always the most important isn't it? It's in a category all it's own. How on earth could somebody like me be fussy about the "small" things like personality, interests, appearance, chemistry when I don't care about something as HUGE, vital and all-encompassing as gender? That thing that all sexuality in the world must revolve around and that I'm some manner of abhorrent freak for not acknowledging as something that matters?

What does it ultimately matter if gender isn't one of my limiting factors or deal breakers when it comes to attraction and romantic interest? Do I actually end up interested and attracted to more people I meet than other people I know? No. Do I end up being invested in and attracted to more Bioware romance options than most people? No. 

But I should just keep my mouth shut and be happy with my endless harem, obviously. 

The first part of my comment was for this quote of yours:
Why in the world would you think that? There isn't a decent reason when that damned word is brings up, thousands of straight characters are created every minute, main protagonists, side characters etc, and none of the early mentioned are considered pandering because we live in a world dominated with a heteronormative way of thinking. One single LGBTQ character is created? PANDERING. As a non-english speaker I'm so tired of this word, it's useless and when it comes to LGBTQ is homophobic. So really, I'm sure is not your intention, but it is homophobic. Oh, and maybe you don't like your options sometimes, however you have ten options for every single one I have.

Maybe is a suicide since a marketing point of view, but that is not going to stop me to rant about it. So hear me whine

You mean the same Liara that this Straight BroShep already passed over in ME1 (equivalent to killing Kaidan in ME1)? Not to mention, making a new ME3 save option exists and it even lets you pick between Ash and Kaidan. There's also, I know shocking, option to replay trilogy from ME1 and perhaps NOT kill the lead male human again.

This selective cherrypicking ME3 as a closed bubble is laughable. It was a trilogy with transferrable Player Character AND romances attatched to it and everyone knows straight FemShep was not the one most shafted throughout the trilogy, not even second-most, so these attempts to retroactively repaint the history are just silly

You mean the same Liara that this Straight BroShep already passed over in ME1 (equivalent to killing Kaidan in ME1)? Not to mention, making a new ME3 save option exists and it even lets you pick between Ash and Kaidan. There's also, I know shocking, option to replay trilogy from ME1 and perhaps NOT kill the lead male human again.

This selective cherrypicking ME3 as a closed bubble is laughable. It was a trilogy with transferrable Player Character AND romances attatched to it and everyone knows straight FemShep was not the one most shafted throughout the trilogy, not even second-most, so these attempts to retroactively repaint the history are just silly