TheMass Effectfranchise, created by BioWare, has long been known for its inclusivity and willingness to break societal constructs, especially in regards to its same-sex romance storylines. While some romances haven’t exactly aged well, others have stood the test of time, which is what makes them a pleasure to relive inMass Effect: Legendary Edition. However, despite how revolutionaryMass Effectwas at the time of release, it’s also missed the mark at times in regards to its same-sex romance options.
Recently, the truth about some planned romances inMass Effect 2came to light, making a lot of players and fans unhappy with some design decisions. Namely,Jack fromMass Effect 2was supposed to be pansexualand have a romance option with FemShep, while Jacob Taylor (also inMass Effect 2) was supposed to be a romance option for BroShep. One fan group went further into theMass Effect: Legendary Editionaudio files and found recorded lines that hint at same-sex romance options for a slew of characters. The “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” movement is a fan-led project that hopes to see BioWare acknowledge and maybe even correct the same-sex romances that were seemingly scrapped but still exist within the code of the game.
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The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Characters Who Were Supposedly Bisexual
According to the MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive movement, the audio files found embedded within the different games ofMass Effect: Legendary Editionsuggests several characters were supposed to have both same-sex and heterosexual relationship options, including Kaidan, Ashley, Thane, Tali, Jack,Miranda, and Jacob.
Of those listed,Kaidan is the only one whose sexualitydoes change from having only a heterosexual romance option to having a bisexual option inMass Effect 3. This reason, coupled with the found audio recordings, makes Kaidan the most obvious choice for BioWare to change to be a same-sex romance option in all three games. He’s already established as bisexual, so it would make sense to correctMass Effectand brief moments inMass Effect 2to allow for a same-sex male romance spanning across the entire trilogy—something that’s still non-existent, even inMass Effect: Legendary Edition.
The other characters listed are a bit trickier,but Ashley Williams’ FemShep romanceis the second most attainable new same-sex romance inMass Effect: Legendary Edition. The MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive movement reports that Thane and Tali have about half of the dialogue needed, but Jack, Miranda, and Jacob would require all new same-sex dialogue to be recorded. As far as animations go, the “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” movement says that all existing animations could be slightly altered to create same-sex romances, meaning no full reanimations would be necessary.
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What the Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive Movement Hopes to Accomplish
The “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” movement is about more than changing fan-favorite characters to haveaccessible romances for all players—in fact, it’s not about that at all. If that were the main goal, the movement would also be asking for characters like Garrus Vakarian to have a same-sex romance, but those audio files do not exist inMass Effect: Legendary Edition, meaning a same-sex romance would change his established sexuality in-game. The “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” campaign simply wants the characters who were presumably supposed to be bisexual to have that written back into the story.
It’s worth noting that while FemShep can have a consistent same-sexromance throughout the entire trilogy with Liara T’Soni, BroShep doesn’t get any male romance options untilMass Effect 3. On a certain level, it’s not fair or equal that FemShep can have a same-sex romance in a continuous arc and BroShep can’t. In one statement from Mac Walters, the project director of manyMass Effectgames, he said they didn’t remakeMass Effect, regarding the same-sex romance options that were cut, reiteratingMass Effect: Legendary Editionis a remaster didn’t want to take away the experience players had when creating their own Shepard:
“…you talk about ‘My Shepard,’ you talk about, you know, fans are very quick to claim their Shepard as their own. And I think what they mean with that is it’s everything around the choices they made about how their Shepard looks, yes, but also the choices their Shepard made throughout, um, with relationships and things like that. And so being that that was sort of what we considered the heart and soul of it, we didn’t want to touch it and it’s it is, um, I’ve struggled for an analogy. Pick Up Sticks isn’t the right one, but like you start pulling on any of the narrative threads like it’s like you know what we’ll just change this one conversation - the whole thing starts to unravel really fast…”
In theory, Walters’ answer makes sense. However, the choice to exclude amale same-sex romance untilMass Effect 3still alienates gay male-identifying players, forcing them to choose to not have romances in the first twoMass Effectgames or participate in a heterosexual romance that doesn’t mimic their real life. BioWare has made it clear that representation matters to the company, so it would be a good idea for it to go back and make these changes toMass Effect: Legendary Edition.
The “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” campaign doesn’t want the entire trilogy rewritten from the ground up—it just wants the characterswho were designed to be bisexualactually portrayed as such. It also wants all players to have gameplay experiences that match their real lives. Anyone looking to get involved with the “MakeMass Effect: Legendary EditionInclusive” movement can read the open letter to BioWare, sign the petition to restore the same-sex romances inMass Effect: Legendary Edition, and bring awareness to the campaign by using #MakeMELEInclusive on Twitter.
Mass Effect: Legendary Editionis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
