Stupid Newbie Questions, The Prequel: Mass Effect 1

I played around with the dialogue a lot, so I guess that's why I never had any "accidental" romance issues that seems to be a big problem for a lot of people? Other than the bug, that is...

But it's probably the better call to go with Liara over Kaidan, that way there's no awkward weirdness with him later on. Liara, on the other hand, well... not much of a real difference there I guess either way.  

Does anybody know if/when you can turn her away at some point, does that "end" the romance or would it still import?

That was my understanding too, but it might not be true. In my last playthrough with a single mShep Kaidan was always the one at the beginning of ME2, not Liara. I don't think it's a bug, so maybe the game just realized that Kaidan and my Shepard were meant to be together. (I might have... also... brought Kaidan with me... everywhere in ME1. For science. :ulikeit:  Could that have any effect?)

In any case, I think it makes more sense to see Kaidan/Ashley at the beginning of 2 than Liara if there was no romance.

Unfortunately that doesn't happen if the player has a ps3. I romanced Ashley and it was the asari  my Shepard told to get to the escape pod

yep

Correct... you haven't broken up with her.  Also, keep in mind that people can change their minds about waiting when the "end of the world as we know it" is in sight.

ME2 - I recommend you Play LotSB (Lair of the Shadow Broker) DLC, after you commit to your ME2 romance.  IMO, it's actually one of the better done "cheating" scenarios in this game.  If you play it a very specific way... you won't have to head canon anything.  If you really don't want to cheat, then the option also exists to play LotSB before committing to your ME2 LI and cooling the relationship with Liara at that time for other reasons.

As far as I know, there is no significant differences in the actual romance.  Dialogue does change, particularly since MaleShep can "fling" cheat on her with more people generally than FemShep can, and MaleShep does not have an unavoidable LI death scenario (i.e. cannot romance Thane).

No, Wrex will be on Tuchanka as leader of Clan Urdnot; and if you do ask him to join you, he will refuse (nicely refuse - you are good friends).  His leadership style is much, much different than Wreav's (and this may influence what you do about the genophage... and that may influence what ultimately happens between you and Wrex in ME3).  Also, there are different factors that determine whether or not Grunt survives on Utuku in ME3.  However, if they both survive in ME3, both will be at your Citadel DLC party.

Actually, it would be interesting to do the romance and see if you still feel the same way about needing it to be Garrus in ME2.  Mind you, I always choose Kaidan, so I get it, but my choices are far fewer than yours, particularly across three games.

Depends on when you do LotSB... If you do it before you commit to Garrus...

If you decide to do LotSB after you commit to Garrus...

At least I have options. It's too bad one of those options isn't a save editor to erase the ninjamance in the first place I don't really look forward to hurting her. (Or can I start 2, then open the save in the ME2 save editor to erase the romance, then continue playing? I don't actually know how the save editor works.)

I still haven't gone to Virmire in this game, so I have some time to think about it.

One way around the ninja-mance is to go back to a save before the argument and choose Kaidan... then unfortunately arrange to have Kaidan die on Virmire.

I know also that it is readily possible to piss Ashley off before the romance scene and not have it culminate in a love scene... but I've been told this doesn't actually undo the romance flag in the game... probably because the "closeness" has some sort of effect on Ashley's attitude towards you in ME3... that may alter whether or not you have to shoot her, etc.  I don't know if you can similarly piss off Kaidan.

I don't know why you couldn't turn away Liara before the final scene. I remember choosing a 'What? Now?' sort of line, and she went away. Maybe it was a neutral option that got rid of her - it would be just like Bioware to do something counter-intuitive like that.

Don't know about Liara but it doesn't for Kaidan. The game (and he in 2 and 3) assumed things went on as if he'd stayed. I guess at that point you're locked in whether you like it or not.

Ok, after reading all this and reading about the ME2 save editor, I've decided to play the remaining romance scenes in ME1 in whatever way best fits my Shepard's personality, then try to legitimately break up with Liara in Shadow Broker (playing it as early as possible in ME2). And if that doesn't work for some reason, it looks like I should be able to use the ME2 save editor mid-game to change the romance flag. I hope I'm not misunderstanding that.

How early in ME2 can I play Shadow Broker?

So, the Alliance sends some probes armed with nuclear warheads into turian space, and now it's my problem! Thanks, Hackett!

At least this planet has a pretty sky.


Edit: Well, shit. I'm glad I had oodles of omnigel, because I still suck at manual bypasses.