You know, personally I had no issue with the way Tali LOOKED in that picture. I was more upset that they approached it in the manner that they did. In all fairness, I don't think it would have been such a big issue had they:
1) hired a model & photoshopped THAT picture
or
2) done #1 and CG'ed the end result
As such, there are some truly amazing pieces of fanart, some which even incorporate the "canon" concepts. One of the popular CG models uses Fang from FF13 and gives her pale skin and eyes. I think most people assumed that quarians looked like dark elves from WOW anyways (I personally liked some of the rejected concept models for the asari). Again, the fault was more in the PRESENTATION of it.
On that note, it is interesting that humans and quarians are the only species with hair (keratin based fibers), as opposed to crests (krogans & drell), head fringes (asari & turian), or nothing (salarian & yahg "horns/pokey things"). It's partly why I left the idea of batarian "hair" intentionally vague in my story. In my story, it's made of tubulin fibers that MIGHT be part of an artificial headdress (think the dreadlocks on a Predator...hair or headdress?). I also gave them two sets of mammaries...simply b/c I liked a fan-created concept art. Does it make sense? I dunno, but it was a fun and amusing to write about the distinction.
Also, while I understand the biological reasons for krogan/turian women looking similar to men, I still prefer the idea of well-defined differences (whether it be mammaries/pectoral muscles, defined hips, longer hair/fringes, etc). It's an aesthetic preference, I suppose. Ostensibly, it was done as a cost-saving measure (uses the same model)...but I like that Nyreen and Eve were given baggy clothing, so as to mask the differences. That way, they can be anything the audience wants.
Furthermore, this is all assuming a HUMAN idea of biology/physiology/evolution. Just b/c turians are an avian species doesn't mean they would have to conform to "Terran" bird morphology. Moreover, the evolution of such a species might mandate changes that human logic couldn't account for. Birthing hips, for instance, might be just as important for laying eggs as for delivering a baby.
Any argument that morphology HAS to conform to any idea...especially in a universe as large as ME, is a bit...myopic. Heck, the duck-billed-platypus is the perfect example of morphology not caring about evolutionary precepts.
Bah...I ramble again. Anything to procrastinate writing my next stories, I suppose...
For me it was both the way they made Tali look and the insultingly lazy way it was done. I mean, after building up the "mystery" for the first two games and most of the third, then they just make the reveal a photo of a human after a thirty-second photoshop job? Not only that, but I remember one of the developers commenting that they already had the look of the quarians worked out...then ME3 comes along and it's clear that they didn't, and decided a hasty, lazily-manipulated stock photo would be good enough. But that's not the only thing they lied about, regarding ME3....
Probably would've been better if there'd been no reveal at all.
As for hair, I had this mildly amusing idea that humans are the only species that has any. Lots of SF stories do the humans-are-special thing, but I kind of snicker at the idea of the thing that sets us apart is something as superficial as hair. 
On differences between krogan and turian males and females...yeah, that's a good point. Slight differences in figure, maybe larger hips or slimmer waists (or the exact opposite), or something like that. I just figured the differences being more apparent in the way they move would make them a little more alien. My problem with the official look of the female turians, though, is that they look like a sort of distant-cousin species, the differences are so pronounced. But I'm sort of head-cannoning it as females like Nyreen might be of a different "ethnicity" (for lack of a better word) and there could be males who have a similar overall look, depending on what continent on Palaven they're from. Maybe they're descended from ancestors who evolved in the polar regions where there's less radiation from Palaven's sun, so they didn't have the long fringe/spike thingies for extra protection.
About batarian mammaries...heh, you did that, too, eh? 
I don't remember where I saw this, but in another thread there was a brief discussion about batarian females having more than one pair due to giving birth to high numbers of children. So I had an idea that some would have four and others might have six, possibly as another ethnic distinction, or possibly just depending on which genetic trait is dominant in the individual. Of course, the first thing I did when this came up in Freelancers was to have Captain Bailey nickname her Sixpack. 
I also have this idea that she might have hair surgically implanted at some point for reasons similar to humans getting piercings or tattoos. I'm thinking she was pretty much smothered by the batarians' repressive culture, and the first time she went off-world it was like she'd taken her first breath...and since she's young, she's looking for a way to stand apart from everyone she grew up knowing.
Sounds like something Mel Brooks or Lewis Black would say, or George Carlin, haha.
This should totally be said in a gravelly voice per Deus Ex: HR.
Incidentally, I would prefer the next ME taking place far enough in the future that we can't tell what ending was chosen. There could be a throwaway line that "the Reapers wasted away," blurring the idea of whether they were "destroyed/controlled." There could also be the advent of a neural net (like in Ghost in the Shell) that connects all beings if implemented, blurring the concept of "synthesis/not."
I know that we complained about our actions NOT making a difference, but I honestly thinking resetting the script would be preferable to interquels and prequels. I rarely like them (as we know the ending, and canon becomes a hindrance to the story-writers in such a setting). Besides, it's about right for how Bioware approached other games. KOTOR 2 blurred the legacies left behind from KOTOR 1, and ME2/3 railroaded the ramifications for choices made previously (ie: the rachni are still around regardless, as is the Genophage cure; and destroying the Collectors (ME2) / Council (ME1) matters little except for Galactic Readiness).
Anyhoo, the concepts of choice, and all these multi-verse theories, further add to the "legitimacy" of fan-created content. As such, I suppose I could be amenable to a truly amazing interquel/sequel...I just can't help feeling like it would be a step backward. That's likely why I have gotten into the fanfiction realm of the ME universe so much. There are so many choices, SOMETHING is bound to cater to my taste.
If what I've heard is correct, ME4 will be a prequel. Which I'm not at all interested in, knowing the state the whole galaxy will be left in, eventually. 
I can't really work up any interest in seeing the Mass Effect setting in the distant future, either. The only thing that could really get me interested enough to buy another game is if another developer buys the rights and either does a full-on reboot of ME3 or just removes everything about the Reapers but leaves everything else as it was in 1 and 2 and tells a whole new story.
But yeah, that's very true about choices and fan-created content. Something good that came out of the ME3 mess was all the writers who needed to "fix" the story in their own way. I'm still keeping up with Marauder Shields, and will figure out my own "real" end to the story.
And speaking of ME3, a couple days ago I started watching Archengeia's Twitch playthrough and...wow. It's been a couple years since I tried to play that game, and seeing it now...it's even worse than I remember it being. (The videos are worth watching, though...it's not just a thorough analysis, it's downright exhaustive. And in the third one, there's an absolutely hilarious moment when he has an epiphany about how Kai Leng really fits into the whole mess.) That entire introductory segment shouldn't have even happened. That's going to be hard for me to grit my teeth and slog through when I start playing through it myself, but I'm hoping the MEHEM and Citadel Epilogue mods will make it worthwhile.
Gotta keep my eye on the priiiiiiize....
That was wrong, and I apologize. 
Retour en haut
