So romanced Liara the first time around and I thought she was a little milktoast for my taste. This was while playing MascShep, around 2007. I was 24. I was living in an apartment in Wortley Village. Liara was an immortal lady scientist, and she was romantically paired with a new soldier, who was a war hero and a soldier. And he, the soldier, and my representation, was a nice person. They were a nice couple. It was nice, but it wasn’t firey or exciting. But it was date a cool blue lady scientist, or date the racist. I chose Liara.
Replaying it in 2021, the relationship dynamic feels really interesting if instead it’s Liara the proper immortal lady scientist, paired with her rough-n-tumble human soldier girlfriend played by FemShep. Suddenly the relationship has some excitement and attraction in it. Suddenly, when Liara asks to stop flirting because she’s finding it overwhelming, I believe her.
I also realize this time how racist Liara is too, and the main difference between her and Ashley is that Liara expresses her racism as condescension, rather than aggression. It is better to my moral compass (as Ashley is somewhat aggressive about this topic) but it’s interesting that I’ve grown into this realization largely because of the events of 2020.
I had also considered before how much Shepard brings to the table in these games. And I suppose that’s true in all collaborative storytelling mediums too; the other person’s performance is restrained by the character you bring to the encounter.
