forthary wrote...
And it's a good thing I didn't, the cutscenes are disturbing for me to watch, although 3 is obviously far worse, as no matter what you do, Tali dies. Then again, even if I did save her, what good what it do for me? She would never love me again(The same is probably true if I either betray or not support her in ME2), she would refuse to help me for anything, and she would no doubt become a burden, because she would make probably multiple suicide attempts and her mental state will be shattered like glass.
That reminds me, she is pretty vulnurable to suggestion and commands...I hate the idea of bringing this up, but I think that if the game had more dialog creativity, a renegade female shepard 'could', with a high enough renegade, tender Tali's mind enough to have her submit to a female shepard and engage in a romance. It's a scary thought, having Tali submit and date a female shepard, but I can totally see this as being possible, though with some drawbacks.
This kind of goes along with what you said:
"
Tali: Garrus – if you do not mind me asking – how do you feel about hunting a turian?
Garrus: Saren is either a traitor or a madman. Taking him down will restore the good name of turians everywhere.
Tali: Things are different among my people. There are so few of us. We are expected to be loyal, even when it is difficult." -ME1 Elevators
The implications there are pretty crazy; Tali is basically saying that if Saren were a quarian, the quarian people would most likely protect him simply because of the shared genetic code. Trust is so huge, so ingrained in Quarian culture, that barriers otherwise impenetrable come crashing down when someone on your "trust" side decides something. You just follow unquestioningly.
This is both Tali's greatest strength and greatest weakness. It's also what makes her such a great character. IMO