BobbyTheI wrote...
In some ways, and I don't mean to belittle the storyline in anyway, but Jack's romance is, in a lot of ways, an extended version of a Hurt Comfort fic. It's a chance to take somebody damaged and try to make them whole again. The strength of the Jack romance, though, is that it isn't as fluffy and light as those fics: there's a LOT of hurt built up, and it takes a lot of working through Jack's defenses to even get to the comfort part. I've always said that, while it probably isn't realistic that somebody could start getting over past traumas like Jack's so quickly, it's a good feeling to think that you could.
In fact, I'm to the point where I almost don't have the heart to have a MaleShep go after anybody else anymore. Tali may be crushing on him, maybe even in love with him, but she's strong, she'll get over the rejection. And Miranda... meh, she'll survive. This might be the last chance for Jack, however, to find somebody willing to take the time to show her compassion; when in her life would she ever let somebody get close like this again?
(Wow, you guys spent all night talking about this, and I spent my night posting in troll threads and making MaleShep and Zaeed do it. I feel so ashamed. 
)
I think one of the great things that shows the versatility of the writing for the Jack romance is that, at one point, even Shepard himself has the option to say that he knows he can't just magically fix what's happened to her (
about 1-minute in). Now, I don't know what the other options at that point allow Shepard to say, but for someone like you, Bobby, and others who understand the extent to which Jack's life has been affected, it allows us to have our Shepard acknowledge that damage. It's nice to know that the writers gave some realism to the conversation on that level.
As for the romance scene and whether or not they had sex? At first, I think I always just assumed that they did have sex because there was a part of me that thought, "Oh that's what Bioware would have shown if they'd had the balls to do something like they did in ME1." But the more time goes by, the more I think about it, and the more I read and look at it... I don't think they ever did have sex, and instead it was like that Destructoid article said; they just spent some good, wholesome time being together and allowing Jack the first chance in a long time to drop all her defenses and truly be happy and content with something.
Now, I also believe that Bioware has constructed and presented these scenes, all of them, to be interpreted to whatever degree the player wants to interpret them. If you believe they had sex, then there's nothing to say they didn't, and likewise there's nothing to say they necessarily just cuddled and made out if that's what you think happened. Obviously, some of the romance scenes leave a bit less to the imagination (*cough*Miranda*cough*), but I think I'm coming to appreciate how Bioware decided to present these scenes this time around, and it's making the game feel like it's much more of "your" game. It's "you" that it's happening to, and it's "you" who decides the deep down, nitty-gritty details that are implied when the screen fades to black.
Not nearly as extensive as Jack's but ya.
Retour en haut
Seriously though, Jack's romance is about just that - the big L. It's not about getting your ashes hauled before you walk into certain death, and it's not about (and there's no delicate way to put this, but we're all Jackolytes here, sooo...) getting your cherry popped by your epic-crush before you walk into certain death. It's about letting someone inside your barriers. Big L, all the way... so, you be the better man, or you don't get another ride on the rollercoaster. Yep, them's my rules and I'm standing by them 
