Allright so amidst all this fuss about ME3 being delayed until next year, I decided to re-install ME1 and ME2 on Steam, and play through the games again.
Now, since I HATE spoilers, I haven't been browsing the net for too much info on ME3, but evil search engines on Google and the Escapist, has lead me to the info that a certain loveable Quarian will be making a comeback in ME3. And no I am not talking about Qip-Qip or whats his name. Rumors has it, that we will finally see what the Tech-savy race looks like in ME3, as their homeplanet has been confirmed as a visitable location in the game.
Now Tali is by far one of the more "normal" characters BioWare has presented to the masses, but also one of the most intruiging. Why? No one knows what she LOOKS like (except Shepherd), so her entire character is almost build around actions and personality - and a very tight spacesuit, that only hints at the physilogical nature of the non-obese Quarian female. And in my opinion this is what makes her a very great character. Now, I am not talking solely romance here, but what makes Tali so engaging as a character, is human curiosity.
It is by far also her biggest flaw. Think about it. Will Tali really be that intresting a character once we, hypothetically, learn that she is in fact a humanoid spacenewt-ish amphibian, or a feather covered birdwoman, with a bad skinrash? I mean this revelation has the chance of ruining the players commitment and intrest in the Tali character completely? I mean in terms of romance, most other BioWare female romanceable characters (maybe except Ashley Williams, and all the males) have had plenty of cleavage to show. In Dragon Age, you could basicly undress every female, and Morrigans dressup isn't exactly hiding things, and although Morrigan, Lelliana and Wynne had exactly the same body despite background history and well....age, not much were hidden from eyesight if you wanted to. Basicly there were plenty of gender charactaristics to be hinted at, and while all three had very distinct and different personalities, looks also played a part in your judgement of the character. However in Mass Effect, everybody wears layers upon layers of spacewear, and that leaves more to the imagination, and a larger emphasis on personality (in my opinion).
Now on the romance front, Tali was very intresting because her looks are mysterious, and you only have her personality and actions to go on when you determine wheter you want to bang spacesuits with Jack, Miranda or Tali. Imagine the moment you learn about her looks, and suddenly decide that her looks ruined YOUR subjective idea of Tali. Some might say "could be worse", while others might consider breaking up and in despair try to engage a romance with Grunt or Legion, simply because her looks, and the mere thought of "it" engaging in sexual intercourse resent you so much.
My point is, if Tali doesn't live up to your subjective expectations, she has the chance of becoming a very average character. She would go from great to average (imo). Now I might be overreacting here, but I just think that the fact that Shepherd - the character you play - decides to be with Tali based entirely on the relationship they've developed through the two games, without Tali ever showing her real face, is a really really, well, romantic thought and builds emphasis on the fact that female characters in computer games can have more than looks in their writing, character and concept.
To me, Tali represents that you can make intresting and engaging female characters, without showing huge cleavage and tons of skin. Hell, in my eyes she is only beaten by GlaDos from Portal - who is a computer.
What do you guys think?
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