shep: Use it. Get angry. Someday that anger is going to be the only ammunition you have left, and Jason Prangley is going to save your life again.
Grissom Academy is much, much better without Jack, it really shows the struggles that the kids have with coming to terms with being ripped from their normal and sheltered lives and being thrust straight into war. Rodriguez coming up to you and asking how you felt when you first killed someone was the highlight.
I gained a real appreciation for the atmosphere and setting that Bioware were aiming for in ME3 when I played default, so much so that I've based my canon save around many of the default choices. I've made a few changes, such as when certain squad mates die, and I've fleshed out the world more by doing side quests, loyalty missions and DLC in previous games, and the only major change I made from default is that Wrex is alive(I shoot him later in ME3), so the game still retains its overall feeling of despair.
Yes, it's depressing as f***, I remember having to put down the controller at certain points when I played default(I played default first before importing on the advice of Priestly), because of the amount of loss and death I witnessed, so much so that by the end I just wanted to end it and I jumped into the Synthesis beam. The Rachni were gone, Quarians gone, Hanar and Krogan, guaranteed to be gone, Tali and most of the past squadmates, gone, I watched Miranda die in Shepards arms ffs. It was sad....and I loved every minute of it.
Thank you for showing me the light Priestly, playing default first was the best decision I ever made. It showed me what Bioware could do if they actually focused on writing a set story instead of trying to fit the narrative around multiple choices from previous games. Being able to import choices from previous games in the series's greatest strength, but bah gawd it sure as hell it's greatest weakness as well.
I think I'm going to take my canon Shepard through ME3 again, my current perfect war assets play through has gotten stale and boring and has stalled at ME2.