If you see this on your dashboard, reblog this, NO MATTER WHAT and all your dreams and wishes will come true.

Who is it?💕

[Image Description: All-caps black text on a white background reading, “You have to marry whatever is on your phone/computer background. Who is it?” End ID.]

Uhm... no.

So. The Pillars of Creation are in the Eagle Nebula, which is of course a system you can visit in Mass Effect. But I have seen theories that the Pillars actually no longer exist. We just can't see their destruction yet, because they're 7,000 light years away and the light that would show it to us hasn't reached us yet.

Which now has me doing a lot of thinking about what humanity sees in their night sky on Earth verses the reality that's available with FTL and relays.

Imagine being a quarian who could look at an alien sky and still see a Rannoch that was theirs?

Imagine being someone who had loved ones in the Bahak System, looking through an alien telescope and seeing it still unbroken and whole?

Survivors of a reaper cycle could flee to the other side of the galaxy and look back to a time where reapers didn't exist.

It's gone forever. You can still see it in the sky.

I'm going to go lie down for a while.

New Crow Time 🐦‍⬛🦊🌟

just woke up so i’m cranky but man once again i cannot overstate how much i hate synthesis ending

all through ME3 i thought i had the ending figured out, by the way. i did not, but i thought i did. i damn well wish i had. every time EDI consulted shepard about moral adjustments, love over self-preservation, there being more to organic life than reproduction - i thought for sure she was going to sacrifice herself at the end as long as I kept up the paragon dialogue. that shepard would teach her about the value of life, and then shepard would go into the crucible and plan to not come out, and EDI would join her there unexpectedly and say: ‘shepard, i understand now, and i can’t let you do this. i am so much more than i was before thanks in a large part to you, and i want you to live. get out of here and let me push the button. tell jeff that i am sorry but that this is the meaning that i choose for myself.’

EDI with her reaper code. EDI, treated with the utmost suspicion all throughout ME2. EDI, built as a tool but a person now, giving the biggest possible ‘fuck you’ to the man that had her built. choosing for herself what no synthetic has done before: to give her life for organics. to prove the reapers wrong.

it would have been heartbreaking, but it would have been good. she’d only do this if shepard treated her with respect and compassion. a tragedy, but a meaningful one.

instead we get synthesis, where shepard, the eternal scapegoat and lynchpin and atlas, does what she always does which is give herself up for a world that never valued her.

seeing all these first-time players choose it of their own volition because they’re understandably attached to EDI and the geth and the intelligence pushes it as the best option (ulterior motive much) is a special kind of torture because i get it, but also… be brave. there is no good way out of the war. each option is a tragedy in itself but only one of the options alters the very being of every living creature in the galaxy against their will - just because you felt bad for a friend and got throughly manipulated by the intelligence that created the whole problem in the first place

Humor me, Tumblr,

Your extremely nerfed fairy godmother appears and offers to magically resurrect one discontinued corporate food item for you, in perpetuity.

What do you ask her for?

Personally I'm still pining for peanut chexmix.

Can I get a discontinued game series instead?

"the sweetest, most caring man in the galaxy who says shit like "you're real enough for me" and "i want to be your soft place to land" and "i'm gonna fight like hell for the chance to hold you again." and also he's bisexual. and hot. what more could you possibly ask for"

It's not so cold yet that she wants to crawl under my pyjamas, but under the blanket? Yes, please!

Commission for @commander-krios of Daianira!

ME1 Systems

This list was made to not only catalogue where missions were, but to also make note of all the collectibles that you can scan for.

*this list was based off of Legendary Edition, but it should still be applicable for the OG trilogy(?)

The formatting is as follows:

*if there are multiple asteroid belts in a system, Asteroid belt 1 refers to the belt closest to the star.

*Cardinal directions are used to describe where the collectible is in belts, and so north is the top of the screen, east is right, etc.

A ME3 list will be coming soon! And if people are interested I can document all the discovery blurbs you get from scanning non-minerals: insignias, writings, etc. (hell, I might do it anyways but its nice to know I'm not shouting into the void)

If you find any discrepancies or have any questions let me know!

50 Things I Love About Kaidan Alenko

Kaidan has so many roles

You know what I really appreciate about Kaidan's character arc? He gets a story about finding self-acceptance and letting himself let go and feel things - but at the same time, he still gets to be an introvert. He still gets to be, in his words, someone who isn't 'the life of the party, who has a lot of friends'.

I mean - in ME1, Kaidan fully admits to a romanced Shepard that he doesn't feel human. When he killed Vyrnnus, he became someone Rahna was afraid of, someone she saw as dangerous... so he holds himself to nigh-impossible standards. 'You never let yourself lose control,' Shepard tells him. He's very, very indirect in a lot of his conversations with Shep, because he's trying so hard not to be too direct, too forward; he's constantly polite and disciplined and professional because he can't be a problem. He can't let anyone see him as unpredictable or dangerous because that's when they start seeing you as terrifying. That's when people you love look at you like you're not human.

But Shepard can encourage him to let himself feel, and show it - 'I might need to loosen up. A little,' he admits, sheepishly - and when you see him again on Horizon, he lets his feelings be open and messy and a Problem. By ME3, he's completely embracing his nature as a biotic, gleefully letting everyone know at the Citadel party that he can Reave now, joining in with the other biotics roasting James in the 'biotics vs strength' argument. He's accepted himself, he knows his friends accept him, and he's letting himself laugh and drink and dance like a complete dork, and he's grown so much, and yet -

And yet, he's still a fundamentally quiet, self-contained person. Maybe I'm just jaded from all the media where introverted characters get told to loosen up, and then they suddenly realise that they do want to be the life of the party now actually. But Kaidan? Kaidan hangs out in the observation deck, perhaps the quietest part of the Normandy - the same place where Samara spent her time, a place where no other characters are present. (Ashley, in comparison, spends a lot of time hanging out in the bar, where there are constantly other characters around). Kaidan's Citadel hangout with Shepard? He doesn't head out onto the Silversun Strip with you like many of the other characters; his ideal evening is cooking a meal for his friend/partner and having a chill time with the two of you. A lot of the conversations you have with him on board ship are quiet, introspective. His hangout place on the Citadel is a quiet Presidium cafe.

It's just... comforting to me. He grows, but he doesn't have to change who he fundamentally is, y'know? ME3 Kaidan is more confident and sociable and (despite everything) happy than ME1 Kaidan, but he's still a guy who's not fond of too much lights or noise or crowds, who's soft-spoken and sensitive, who gets caught up in his own thoughts sometimes. I just really appreciate that.

CONFESSION:

After years of being naive and listening to the fandom, I finally did a complete romance with Kaidan when playing the legendary edition and ended up enjoying it. I really appreciated how Kaidan was the only companion that felt like Shepard's equal instead of a mentor relationship. Kaidan never took any moral guidance from Shepard. He never used Shepard as a therapist. And Kaidan was not a yes man and was not afraid to question Shepard. I also enjoyed Kaidan's dry sense of humor and how he offered his own advice and even provided a shoulder for Shepard.

I just appreciate having a character that is subtly layered and quiet. Not every character has to be loud, extroverted, and always in your face. I just related to him more and I think Kaidan balanced Shepard in a good way. If its one thing this play through has taught me is to never listen to everything this fandom says and to think for myself.

It was sweet that Astarion was under the belief that no one would figure out he was a vampire before his big reveal. Most of us took one look at him and said "yep, that sure is a vampire right there." Most, however, doesn't include the party members. Some of these characters are supposed to be perceptive and intelligent, and I'm still convinced that if you press your ear against theirs you'd hear elevator music.

Over at Patreon, society6, and redbubble we don't let intellect devourers starve.

I would like to have a word with whoever decided that the correct way to deploy the mako was approximately eighty miles above the planet’s atmosphere. And not just because I’m scared of heights.

Over at Patreon, society6, and redbubble we don’t throw you out of a moving vehicle at an alarming height, mako or no mako.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that Kaidan is in charge of an entire company of biotics. There are 80-200 people under his wing - people that he taught and trained - and they’re not just run-of-the-mill soldiers, they’re special forces. You know, the guys who deal with the high-risk, high-stakes missions - the kind of crap that a normal squadron can’t handle?

And Kaidan taught them. That’s seriously impressive if you stop and think about it.

I think this gets kind of buried, but it’s there from the very beginning. Kaidan’s not N7, nor as high-profile as Shepard is thanks to Akuze/Elysium/Torfan, but he’s been promoted just as rapidly (from enlistment to Staff Lieutenant in 10 years), and as Chakwas mentions, has a shit ton of special commendations.

Kaidan’s not just along for the ride – there’s a reason he’s in command of the marine squadron on this cutting-edge experimental warship. (Though that also gets buried, because we never see any of the marines other than the ill-fated Jenkins.) Not to mention he’s one of the oldest stable L2s, a tech expert, and a fucking field medic. Field medics are bad ass.

He doesn’t have Joker’s bravado (which to be fair, I think is kind of expected of a pilot), but at the end of the day, everyone on the Normandy was hand-picked specifically because they’re exceptional at what they do, including Kaidan.

…I’ll stop fangirling all over the place now. 

Whenever the subject of the field medic comes up, I have one of those Mandela Effect moments.

I mean, yes, in my mind he's clearly the field medic, but where does that come from? I'm pretty sure it doesn't come up in a conversation with him. Was it somewhere in the codex entries or just because he was the one with the healing ability in the original ME1? Is it knowledge from a parallel dimension?

I can't remember and it's driving me nuts!