The first Mass Effect game was a great game, my favorite things about it were the characters, really it was Wrex, Tali and Garrus that I really liked. Now; I do like Ash, Kaiden, and Liara, but they did not really "do it" for me than the other half of the squad did. My biggest complaint of the game though was the romance; the romance I thought was not up to the standards of usual Bioware character writing, granted those are high standards but I still felt disappointed.
My problem with the romance in ME1 was how arbitrary it was, you could not just talk to Ash or Kaiden or Liara without getting into a relationship. I usually play male, so talking to Kaiden was easy, it came off as simple buddy-buddy conversation, talking to Ash was difficult because how the conversation would suddenly shift into a romance I did not even ask for. When I do sometimes play as female, the roles are reversed, Ash talks were easy, but Kaiden suffered from the same thought process Ash did; we are now in a relatioship and I am unwittingly flirting with him. Now Liara on the other hand came at you very strong on the second conversation, regardless of gender, she spoke to you nearly the exact same way, I felt I could not escape that no matter what I did, unless I flat out refuse to speak with her. Like I said, I do like the three of these characters, but I strongly disliked how we were pushed into a relationship.
Now I can explain why I love Wrex and Garrus, but the topic is Tali. During Mass Effect's release, I saw some of the pre-release material, information on all the races and such and even saw some of the characters. The quarians fascinated me more than the other races because of their nomadic nature and because they reminded me of gypsies, and the one quarian depicted was named "Tali." When the time came and I got to play the game, I was preemptively interested in her. Come her introduction and I got to see a self-admitted alien drifter on a quest to bring back valuable resources to her people back home. What I did not expect was her to be a very sweet-natured young woman who was still trying to adapt to an entirely new environment because she is so used to the insular nature of her own people. The way she speaks to you really made you-- well me for that matter, really feel like someone very important to her, and not out of respect or rank, but because I am giving her such a big oppurtunity to someone who has been otherwise felt out of place everywhere she has been.
Tali tells you that back on the Flotilla that because her father has a position on the Admiralty Board, she is being held to a higher standard. And on her Pilgrimage she is often looked down on because she is a quarian. But aboard the Normandy she feels very welcome because of how she is being treated, Tali feels important and is important to a cause outside of the Flotilla, that is a big deal to quarians and as the sole quarian of the game, she embodies her peoples spirit and nature. She is young but not inexperienced, Tali has learned how to take care of herself, she is even one of the few characters able to hack geth, an impressive feat in the game lore.
I was actually pretty disappointed that Tali was not a romance option because she interested me as a LI far more than the others did in the first game. Her talks show you how much she trusts and likes Shepard, she feels comfortable telling Shepard of her insecurities of being away from home for so long and how surprising it is to her to be treated so well, equally, unlike how she has been treated at home and on her own journey. I always thought that she was simply not interested in such a close relationship, and while that did disappoint me, I did not think less of her. But according to ME2, Tali has expressed interest in Shepard. It's easy to see, too:
"What could I possibly be suggesting? I mean, a young woman gets saved by a dashing commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy? How could she possibly develop any kind of interest in him?"
Tali, while quite independant and smart, comes off as the shrinking violet because she is very insecure about love, that is part of her character. As much as she wants to be with Shepard, she would rather let Shepard choose. The reason why she comes off as insecure is because of who she is; a young quarian woman who has only until recently been trying to help out her own people, Tali is unsure that she is 'good enough' for Shepard. When Shepard does begin to return the affection, Tali loses control of herself and acts very nervous and awkward because she did not expect Shepard to actually show interest.
I thought her romance was beatifully done, among my top three for ME2. The developement is what I thought made it so great, the entire first game was establishing her as a character, while on her part she was judging her own feelings. Tali was beginning to show an interest in Shepard and she has been dismissing it as a crush rather than actual feelings of love. Then Shepard dies, the man who she thought she may have loved has died. Tali has moved on and goes back to the Flotilla, her Pilgrimage completed (likely with Shepard's help) and again continues to help her people. Two years later, the man who she thought was dead reappears, she along with the others have obviously missed Shpeard, but because you get to see her early, Tali has been thinking a lot about him. Her feelings of affection arise again, but now it has become more difficult for her to control them. Tali has matured over the two years, taking assignments directly from the Admiralty Boards, leading research projects, but seeing Shepard again, Tali begins to shift her feelings. Once again aboard the Normandy, Tali tries to subside her feelings, telling herself that no way Shepard would be interested in her, but after the initial surprise that I already explained, Tali graciously thanks him for loving her back.
The fact that any physical contact could potentially kill her really illustrates how much Tali cares for Shepard, anything of that sort is not to be take lightly. She has been in that suit her whole life, and she has never cared for anyone enough to do so, that is why it's such a big deal that Tali does remove her suit. The consumation was the best way to show how her whole romance went; Tali is very nervous about having her first intimate experience, she keeps telling Shepard how she feels about the whole thing, Shepard then alleviates her of her fears, and together they take her mask off. All of her anxiety relinquished with her mask, Tali passionately kisses Shepard., scene fades to black.
I really was not that bothered by not seeing her face, I did not romance Tali because I wanted to see her face, I did because I adore her. Her whole romance was about getting over the species barrier and growing that crush into real love, what she looks like was not a factor at all in the romance and I thought it was better for it. Now I do want to know what exactly is under the mask, but I am willing to wait.
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