Brass_Buckles wrote…
Garrus's Advantages Over Kaidan:
*snip*
• If he's flirty, it's not intentional (and probably subconscious on his part), whereas Kaidan, despite knowing the rules against fraternization in the Alliance, keeps up the very blatant flirting anyway. I know some people would argue this is a disadvantage, but it helps to keep things professional within the squad. That's hard to do with Kaidan coming onto you every few minutes.
That’s not entirely true. I agree that the conversation tree doesn’t leave you enough choices to get out of the romance at some points, but Shep’s behaviour and what she actually *says* IS encouraging Kaidan’s flirting. She talks to him about personal stuff, and when he asks whether she always talks to her subordinates like that, she says “no, just you” (in 3 different ways). If that’s not encouragement, I don’t know what is. He also leaves you several outs in later conversations and even states so himself during the lockdown: “you know me, I always leave an out for the other person”. So no, if he’s coming onto Shep it’s because Shep is encouraging him. He’s the one who brings up the rules against fraternization, and Shep who decides to throw caution to the wind in the end. Kaidan’s flirting isn’t actually as unsolicited as Ashley’s (who will tell you “so behave” before you even hint at romance at ALL and without asking you whether she's imagining things or not) or Liara’s, who gets ideas about a mutual attraction.
I replayed ME1, and while you can turn him down, Kaidan does flirt consistently with Shepard on his own outside of his regular shipboard conversations, up until you either go with the flirts or you reject him. It doesn't matter how many times you turn these flirts down, he'll keep trying! The first one is when you first reach the Citadel. That one I remember for sure. I seem to remember one or two other times, too. You can tell him to shape up and act like a soldier, but he'll still do the second (and possibly third?) flirts. Again, these are not shipboard flirts.
Granted Garrus gets a bit flirty, too, but with Garrus I'm reasonably sure it's not intentional or conscious on his part (somewhere in the back of his mind he might be hoping that Shepard's into men with scars or that she'll flatter him a little, but it's probably more for mending his battered ego than it's meant as a 'Hey, Shepard, are you into me now that I have this badass battle scar?'). Kaidan on the other hand knows perfectly well what he's doing when he starts telling his commander how great she looks, etc. And frankly, if he's really interested, he ought not gawk so openly at the asari at Chora's Den!
Back on the "serious relationships" thing. I'm not saying Garrus hasn't slept around. I don't think he was celibate other than that one recon scout. However, I don't think he ever had anything remotely long-term, and I don't think he was as much a ladies' man with the turian women as he'd like male Shepard to believe, either. The evidence is there in ME1, when he's so utterly shocked that General Septimus would be so torn up over a woman, of all things. Now, maybe Garrus has enough self-control that he could just put on a brave face despite his love life falling apart (and really, the evidence in ME2 suggests he does have that kind of self control, although I wonder what it'll do to your friendship in ME3 if you dump him right before hitting the Relay). More likely, he's never been THAT into someone. This might have changed between ME1 and ME2, but since he was apparently on Omega for a lot of that time, I have my doubts. It might, however, make for an interesting fanfic if someone wanted to write a story about how Garrus did have a serious interest in some turian, who dumped him because he remained loyal to Shepard while everyone was doubting him/her (depending whether you'd want a male or female Shep) (jealousy, or she just thought he was crazy), thus contributing to his going to Omega to play hero. Anyway, I wasn't saying he'd never had a girlfriend for any length of time (although as others have also said, there are plenty of perfectly normal people in their 20s who haven't really ever been in any sort of committed relationship), just no one on a level that she'd be baggage like Thane's dead wife. If Shep gets compared with some turian he's been with, it's likely to be only briefly--although she's probably not going to compare favorably in the beauty department, considering he makes it clear he prefers turian women.
Anyway my point was ultimately, "no serious baggage." Even if he's been in past serious relationships, they appear to be over because unlike every other guy in game, Garrus doesn't feel the need to inform Shepard.
Retour en haut
