Gil Brodie - Chief Engineer (Official Thread)

At least mods which doesn't work before the new Patch are working now.

excaryder.tumblr.com/post/162845695087

Not sure if this has been posted, but just wanted to show the Gil community some lovin'

Great work exca

Gil's romance is very short and mostly not even about his relationship with Scott sadly-it's more about his relationship with Jill.  If you can get past it-and you like Gil as much as you seem to- it might be a good time for you still.  

Vetra also has a rather short romance-but you might really enjoy how sweet it is.  Peebee is a roller coaster ride.  I feel like I am not the best to judge her romance path though-as I'm still grossed out by the fact you have her forced on you so much if you aren't very careful. Of the 3 you mentioned PeeBee is the only one with an actual sex scene-not sure if that matters or not-but I feel like content being graphic was worth mentioning.  

Yeah this is the real kicker for me with the Gil romance. There is a significant dearth of content, it's true, especially if you're comparing it to Jaal's, but there are some really great moments in it as well.

He's the only MEA LI for me.

Every player will react differently. Some will look at the Gil romance, see the wasted potential there, and have that negatively impact their experience. Other players can appreciate what is there and roll with it. Yes, there are problems; I can write paragraphs on them and have done so, in this thread and elsewhere. But what's done is done, and it's not going to change or be patched away. For me, the only solution is to focus on the moments I do like and downplay the rest in my mind. I don't have a choice to do otherwise.

Thank you, guys, I really appreciate your input on all the romances I've mentioned. It'll definitely help me choose better.

I'm still hitting up Twitter and writing about why SOMETHING for Gil needs to happen to the devs, hoping for something, even knowing the futility - if nothing else, I'm hoping for something through the DLC. I mean, if they're bringing the actors back into the studio anyway... Look, let me dream.

But yeah... As happy as I am about Jaal being bi, and despite writing chapter and verse at a length to rival War and Peace, Gil's still my top pick. As much crap as I have to sift through, for all the rage that that crap induces in me, I fell for the guy completely. I've always been a fanfic writer anyway, this gives me loads of material to work with. It sucks that I practically have to build the romance wholesale, because the writing favors Jill, a character who literally gets two minutes tops of screentime in the whole damn game, but... Gil's an absolute sweetheart regardless, and cares about Ryder. Not that the others don't, of course, but... That romance scene makes it palpable for me.

You have written the Gil romance so much better then BioWare did!  I love your stories! 

I think it's some combination of these three. I've always felt that the idea was sort of a cutsey "gay dads" sort of thing, but was just implemented terribly without any real consideration to how gay players would react to it all. There are some gay players who really appreciated the opportunity to have this in the game, despite Jill, so I think that minor part of it worked for those players. But Jill, and everything about her, remains the problem.

I'll give a related example. I don't think they would have done something similar for female characters, telling them that they had to get pregnant for the good of the colony. I don't think they would have done the same to Suvi. The bodily autonomy of women is a hot-button issue, so I don't think they would go near that. But the same logic just didn't come into play when considering how it would look to say that to gay men. I don't think it's homophobia on the part of the writer -- I know some in this thread will disagree -- just utter cluelessness.

There are little bits here and there that show that there were deeper elements of Gil's personality that were considered by the writer, but they just weren't given a platform in the game. This might be the same for Suvi as well, but I don't know as much about her as I do Gil, so can't speak to that.

In the end, it comes down to one very basic problem when it comes to Gil or Suvi, and their development. These are non-squad crew members, and were deemed less worthy of development by the devs. Suvi at least has the benefit of being right there on the bridge, so you see and hear her all the time just through the function of her job, but that's not the case with Gil, so he appears shunted off to the side as the most neglected crew member on the Tempest.

Let's compare Gil to Cullen. Cullen is also a non-follower with his own issues. But because Cullen's character and screen time is much more involved, his lyrium addiction is only a bit part in everything the player sees of him. Because Gil has so little content, Jill just takes over everything. If he had been more developed, perhaps focusing on his sleeping issues and other things, then the stuff with Jill would only be that bit part; the focus would be more on him as a person, not some other character.

For yet another example, we can use Vetra and sister Sid. Like Gil's frequent mentions of Jill, Vetra talks about Sid a great deal. While that can also be tedious, it's done to showcase her personality, goals, and priorities as a character. Those life experiences relating to Sid are formative for Vetra as a person and in how the player perceives her. But the same cannot be said for Gil because we don't learn why they're friends, how they met, or other such things. Jill is just there, existing, and talking over Gil's characterization.

Yeah you summed up so much.

I think there's a skeleton of a fantastic character there, but:

1)It was not muscled out, let alone fleshed out.

2)Even the skeleton has stuff that I'm raising my eyebrows at seeing a second time (non-squad homo, non-white, character creator, back end of the ship, mechanical sort, very optional to interact with compared to most).

3)Even the skeleton stuff is not that compelling. It'd need a lot more layers than Bioware seemed willing to put in the base original game appearance.

I consider Sam/Steve to be token. Token in largely enjoyable ways, and I never raged against them, but token. Slot this thing here and have that line there and here we have diversity.

I was astonished to see a Gil (and arguably Suvi, but as you point out, she's more involved in several important ways) that's even MORE token than Steve, in my opinion. And in a few ways that I was stunned to find personally insulted me; that is, in the minimal way that a video game can insult me. I think it was that I live near enough to Montreal, know enough game devs there and elsewhere, perhaps I kept on imagining who these people are that decided this stuff.

It isn't that 'I hate Gil'. There's a lot I like, and there's a lot I imagine I could like, or could see turning into something I like. But generally, I get disappointed when I see several other MEA NPCs that felt like better candidates for the only exclusive m/m romance. Or frankly, wouldn't carry that tinge of insult (intended or more likely not intended) with them.