Just Wanted To Say That You're One Of The Few Halsin-centric Blogs I'm Never Nervous About Browsing.

What particularly frustrated me the first time I played was that Shepard can literally tell them that it wasn’t their choice, that Cerberus rebuilt them while they were in some sort of coma. But that line comes right before being accused of betraying the Alliance and them. So I ended up feeling like I had been talked over and ignored. It’s realistic but damn, it’s still frustrating every time it happens. 

you know whats hilarious about the games and the fandom giving ashley and kaidan such a hard time about criticising shepard’s decision to work with cerberus. is that they end up being right. cerberus was lying to shepard. the illusive man hand-picked kelly, gabby, ken and joker in order to give the impression of a friendly cerberus. hell, kelly was feeding reports back to TIM on shepard’s mental state throughout the entire game behind their back. and then at the end of me2, when push comes to shove? it turns out that the whole time the illusive man’s motives were getting his hands on the technology in the collector base in order to support cerberus in its pro-human agenda. and even then its made quite clear throughout the game that he doesnt really give that much of a shit about the colonies, considering he used horizon as bait. so like. idk man

-Gee, if only there was some way to make him tougher, to make him a class that is specifically designed to do that instead of control the battlefield and buff companions and debuff enemies.....what do you think, Withers? Don't you feel so frustrated that all our companions have these classes and no way to change them? Oh wait.....

-Should I ask if these same people have a problem with Jaheira or do they magically somehow manage to make her work because they're willing to figure out how she works best?

-Do they know how to make the Druid class work, or is this something they're using as an excuse for their bias? I mean, I struggled with the Barbarian class, but that doesn't mean Karlach should be considered useless nor that the class is bad.

-If you send your cleric to do the tanking, should we be surprised if they're getting stomped on? The whole point of the Druid class is making the terrain work in your favor. That's how Larian games work in general too. It's why there are high ground penalties, why you pay attention to elemental resistances, why concentration spells are a pain because they cancel each other out, why stats affect how far you move or how fast you react.

"Halsin is useless he can't take a hit and he's not strong"

HES NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HE'S A DRUID.

"He can't cast spells in wildshape smh what's the point"

Wild shape is a defense mechanism! You only wild shape as a last resort. Druids have a lot of spells meant to keep enemies away, you cast wall spells, field of thorns, everything you can to keep enemies away. Once in wild shape, they gain a new set of hit points. So say halsin gets down to 3 hp and he's suddenly surrounded by enemies. THAT IS WHEN YOU WILDSHAPE. Thats why wildshape only gets like 2 charges!!! Don't send him into a hoard of enemies in wildshape he's gunna get killed!

Gods. I'm tired of people saying he's useless in battle. You just think bc he's giant and can be a bear he's supposed to be a a melee attacker. He's squishy!! He's a lover not a fighter!!!

Temples are built for gods. Knowing this a farmer builds a small temple to see what kind of god turns up.

Rejection Sensitivity

Neurodiverse Journeys

I really do like headcanoning that a shakarian romance would have a great impact on turian-human relations throughout the galaxy (especially if we pretend that SPOILER Shepard somehow doesn't die).

Because Shepard definitely is a public figure, especially by the time ME3 rolls around and Garrus is calling Shepard his girlfriend left and right. But the first contact war only happened 26 years before ME1 so tensions are obviously still fresh between their two species. But also, as media has always shown us, a romance is always more sexy and compelling than a peace treaty.

So maybe Shepard and Garrus accidentally actually make relations between their two species really really good. Like repairing decades old wounds good. The two militaries start doing more joint trainings together because of the proof of how good Shepard's team is. More ships like the Normandy are built. Turian-human romantic relationships gradually become less and less of a taboo with them being the poster children for it.

And maybe they never say anything officially but various sources have overheard Garrus Vakarian refer to himself as Shepard's boyfriend and in both political and casual settings Commander Shepard is rarely seen without her right hand turian attached to her hip.

And as much as they both claim to want to retire post-war, the workaholics in them keep them active in their military and politics. So the cameras are still on them constantly, but since they're respected war heroes, the major news networks feel like speaking on their personal lives and asking questions would be inappropriate. And yet, the talking points Garrus and Shepard choose are often about how they are campaigning for more inter-species adoption and how cross-species colonies are vital to the galaxy's rebuilding efforts right now. And Garrus is often seen taking calls from Earth and Shepard from Palaven. So their legacy and mystery continues, and both turians and humans seen their friendship or romance as a pillar in their diplomacy efforts.

Lrb, I would also argue that Larian expected us to romance Halsin as a joke, what with how late in the game the romance occurs and how much emphasis the marketing put on the bear scene.

I feel like people really don't understand what happened in Early Access. I was there and can tell you what happened.

Myth: Larian promoted Halsin to a romanceable companion because straight female fans were soooooo horny for him.

Reality: While EA fans made a fair number of "daddy Halsin" memes, most were interested in Halsin because at the time, most of the good companions were still assholes (Gale and SH were much ruder back then, Lae'zel and Astarion were outright evil, and Karlach hadn't been added yet, leaving Wyll alone for "nice companion" rep) and were interested in Halsin because he was a genuinely nice and helpful guy who broke the mold for how elves and Druids usually were. The datamined story where Halsin was responsible for the Shadow Curse also was like catnip to the fans. There was wild speculation about how that story would play out for him.

Thirst was a child-sized piece of the entire pie for reasons people wanted Halsin. But then Larian added him and indulged only the thirst-based comments, not the people actually interested in Halsin and his story, so now people still have a laugh about how it was literally the "fault" of horny women (fucking women, they ruin everything am I right?) that Larian implemented Halsin in the worst way possible. Serious, take a look sometime at the Larian forums back during EA... those same posters now hate Halsin more than anyone else. I'm not one of them, I still like him, but this is not what any of us asked Larian for. I ordered a cheeseburger and got a wedge salad, and not only that, but I'm getting attacked for being the reason the person next to me didn't get fries with their burger too.

Halsin fans don't have it nearly as badly as Wyll fans, but we definitely got fucked over as bad as Karlach did.

.

Sometimes I wish for a mod that took the sex scene and used it as a reconciliation moment after his judgement (sans waking up alone in the barn)

gentle reminder that you don’t have to wind up naked and alone in a barn to continue the relationship with blackwall and can instead have the softest, purest scene with him instead at no cost of approval

Same here. It wasn't enough that she intentionally got pregnant, abandoned the Nexus and the people who needed her expertise, stole dwindling resources from a group who were facing hostile forces, she had also doomed her kid to a future that had no pleasant end in sight until Ryder started making major steps in turning the odds around.

And she had the. Gall. To be patronizingly smug with no remorse for what she did.

The game even acknowledged she's prone towards selfish actions but instead of giving the player and Ryder a chance to be furious with her for it, we're forced into a position and dialogue where we're supposed to admire her for it when she gives birth.

And the game does not let you refuse this quest. You will see it every time you go to the map or your journal.

This mission makes me so mad I've never finished it. I cannot stand talking to Zoe or Addison about it and there are no consequences to make me want to save this selfish woman from her actions despite me having a completionist streak for even the most innocuous side missions.

On a side note, has anyone else noticed that every single pregnant character in Mass Effect is written to be as obnoxious as possible?! Rebekah being willing to take a larger risk with her baby, Brynn rubbing the fact that she went after Jacob in Shepard's face if Shepard romanced him and that he's better off with her WHILE SHEPARD IS RESCUING THEM, what is up with Bioware doing that?! It's as weird as their tendency to write every one of Femshep's male LIs needing to talk about their exes before she can romance them.

CONFESSION:

For the most part, I enjoyed Andromeda despite the problems/flaws but there was a couple of quests that infuriated me, with one being "The Little Things that Matter". I thought Dr Kennedy was freaking selfish. I wanted to call her out and Addision out for kissing her friend's ass. If I ever do another playthrough, that will be quest I won't do.

For those wondering what that looks like. It was made by a Syracuse University professor Sam Van Aken, who grafted several stone fruits together to create these trees. It takes approximately 8 years for the tree to grow and produce fruits for those with money to burn and buy one. (Corrections welcomed by anyone who wants to add more).

Me giving the highest compliment I can think of: "You're like the tree of 40 fruits!"