The Mass Effect franchise, created by BioWare, has long been known for its inclusivity and willingness to break societal constructs, especially in regards to its same-sex romance storylines. While some romances haven’t exactly aged well, others have stood the test of time, which is what makes them a pleasure to relive in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. However, despite how revolutionary Mass Effect was at the time of release, it’s also missed the mark at times in regards to its same-sex romance options.
Recently, the truth about some planned romances in Mass Effect 2 came to light, making a lot of players and fans unhappy with some design decisions. Namely, Jack from Mass Effect 2 was supposed to be pansexual and have a romance option with FemShep, while Jacob Taylor (also in Mass Effect 2) was supposed to be a romance option for BroShep. One fan group went further into the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition audio files and found recorded lines that hint at same-sex romance options for a slew of characters. The “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” movement is a fan-led project that hopes to see BioWare acknowledge and maybe even correct the same-sex romances that were seemingly scrapped but still exist within the code of the game.
The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Characters Who Were Supposedly Bisexual
According to the Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive movement, the audio files found embedded within the different games of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition suggests several characters were supposed to have both same-sex and heterosexual relationship options, including Kaidan, Ashley, Thane, Tali, Jack, Miranda, and Jacob.
Of those listed, Kaidan is the only one whose sexuality does change from having only a heterosexual romance option to having a bisexual option in Mass Effect 3. This reason, coupled with the found audio recordings, makes Kaidan the most obvious choice for BioWare to change to be a same-sex romance option in all three games. He’s already established as bisexual, so it would make sense to correct Mass Effect and brief moments in Mass Effect 2 to allow for a same-sex male romance spanning across the entire trilogy—something that’s still non-existent, even in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
The other characters listed are a bit trickier, but Ashley Williams’ FemShep romance is the second most attainable new same-sex romance in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. The Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive movement reports that Thane and Tali have about half of the dialogue needed, but Jack, Miranda, and Jacob would require all new same-sex dialogue to be recorded. As far as animations go, the “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” movement says that all existing animations could be slightly altered to create same-sex romances, meaning no full reanimations would be necessary.
What the Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive Movement Hopes to Accomplish
The “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” movement is about more than changing fan-favorite characters to have accessible romances for all players—in fact, it’s not about that at all. If that were the main goal, the movement would also be asking for characters like Garrus Vakarian to have a same-sex romance, but those audio files do not exist in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, meaning a same-sex romance would change his established sexuality in-game. The “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” campaign simply wants the characters who were presumably supposed to be bisexual to have that written back into the story.
It’s worth noting that while FemShep can have a consistent same-sex romance throughout the entire trilogy with Liara T’Soni, BroShep doesn’t get any male romance options until Mass Effect 3. On a certain level, it’s not fair or equal that FemShep can have a same-sex romance in a continuous arc and BroShep can’t. In one statement from Mac Walters, the project director of many Mass Effect games, he said they didn’t remake Mass Effect, regarding the same-sex romance options that were cut, reiterating Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a remaster didn’t want to take away the experience players had when creating their own Shepard:
In theory, Walters’ answer makes sense. However, the choice to exclude a male same-sex romance until Mass Effect 3 still alienates gay male-identifying players, forcing them to choose to not have romances in the first two Mass Effect games or participate in a heterosexual romance that doesn’t mimic their real life. BioWare has made it clear that representation matters to the company, so it would be a good idea for it to go back and make these changes to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
“…you talk about ‘My Shepard,’ you talk about, you know, fans are very quick to claim their Shepard as their own. And I think what they mean with that is it’s everything around the choices they made about how their Shepard looks, yes, but also the choices their Shepard made throughout, um, with relationships and things like that. And so being that that was sort of what we considered the heart and soul of it, we didn’t want to touch it and it’s it is, um, I’ve struggled for an analogy. Pick Up Sticks isn’t the right one, but like you start pulling on any of the narrative threads like it’s like you know what we’ll just change this one conversation - the whole thing starts to unravel really fast…”
The “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” campaign doesn’t want the entire trilogy rewritten from the ground up—it just wants the characters who were designed to be bisexual actually portrayed as such. It also wants all players to have gameplay experiences that match their real lives. Anyone looking to get involved with the “Make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Inclusive” movement can read the open letter to BioWare, sign the petition to restore the same-sex romances in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and bring awareness to the campaign by using #MakeMELEInclusive on Twitter.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Sources: Open Letter to BioWare, Petition
