Poll: Tali Reveal

[Aleate]

Why not make it optional to the audience? Let them choose in game if they want to see her face or not.

"No Tali... I like it with the mask on."

...sorry I just had to.

OT: I think this is actually a really good idea. Let the player decide. Don't force it on them, let them decide if they want to see it or not. (Just not in the creepy way depicted above)

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I've always been a fan of "keep people wanting more" and leaving it a mystery only amplifies her attraction to most people. So I vote no.

besides, we all know what's really under there...

Spoiler: you already know

 

[Canadish]

Should Microsoft show what Master Chief looks like? If anyone says no then you can't really explain why Tali's face should be shown.

There is a difference. Master Chief is a blank slate "insertyourselfhere" protagonist.

Tali is a fully developed character which you do not control, but interact with.

Master Chief should never be shown because he's a power fantasy for thousands of people around the globe. He represents humanities best and showing what he looks like would be viewed as a statement.
The Chief is more of a walking symbol then a character. As with "V", there is no face under there.


Tali on the other hand is an interesting, young, kind and flawed character.
I went into more detail in my above post, but seeing her face is needed for the emotional climax of her character. It could be used to say something about her, as with the Darth Vader example.

 

[Mr Thin]

I'm surprised by the number of people who want to see it, I expected this poll to be a lot more one-sided. Have you people never had your expectations dashed? Don't you know what it feels like?

By this point, no face they provide will be satisfactory, it will be an inevitable disappointment. Is the idea of a mystery left unrevealed so abhorrent that we have to provide a face, any face, as long as it's an answer?

 

[Arehexes]

Should Microsoft show what Master Chief looks like? If anyone says no then you can't really explain why Tali's face should be shown.

There is a difference. Master Chief is a blank slate "insertyourselfhere" protagonist.

Tali is a fully developed character which you do not control, but interact with.

Master Chief should never be shown because he's a power fantasy for thousands of people around the globe. He represents humanities best and showing what he looks like would be viewed as a statement.
The Chief is more of a walking symbol then a character. As with "V", there is no face under there.


Tali on the other hand is an interesting, young, kind and flawed character.
I went into more detail in my above post, but seeing her face is needed for the emotional climax of her character. It could be used to say something about her, as with the Darth Vader example.

Your right, I must be the only loon who wants to see what he looks like (After that halo 2 ad vert where is like "Give me a gun" or something like that).

 

[Lucyfer86]

Personally? I don't care. Tali's a great character and all, but it won't bother me either way.

By the way, what's with everyone wanting to bone Tali? I never really got the attraction there. She's an alien with a helmet for a head - what the hell?

I haven't actually explored any of the romance options in ME2, but on this playthrough it's Miranda or bust

Also, I wonder what a romance option with Legion would be like? I'd love to ask Mordin for some hints and tips on the matter... shocking, I know, but fucking aliens can is just as grotesque.

Can't say for others, but for myself she is the most interesting character in game, kind of positive attitude that makes me feel warm inside (meh, im such a nerd..), and oddly seductive mysterious.

 

[x-machina]

Am I the only who doesn't care? I was never interested in tali in the slightest. I have a much bigger complaint of every alien race only having one character model. ( I'm not talking about asari) You never see female turians, salarians, krogans, batarians, etc.

They came up with excuses for most of those races, but the whole thing just feels lazy

 

[dyre]

Do not want. At all.

The chances a random alien race is attractive by human standards? Almost zero.

The chances that whatever Bioware has in mind for Tali's face will satisfy over 20% of their fanbase? Even closer to zero.

Seriously, people like Tali already. Probably for her personality or something. No need to make her another pretty face.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Just lower the tint on the mask, she doesn't have to almost kill herself for people to have a better idea about what she looks like.

 

[manythings]

A very strong no.

And an even stronger NO NO NO to all you people who think the quarians should be revealed, but not Tali. What the fuck? Why would you want that? That's the dumbest compromise ever. It ruins the mystery of how the race looks, destroying all your personal imaginings, without actually revealing the only one you care about seeing. It pisses off everybody and pleasing no one.

That sounds like every compromise.

 

[TimeLord]

And an even stronger NO NO NO to all you people who think the quarians should be revealed, but not Tali. What the fuck? Why would you want that? That's the dumbest compromise ever. It ruins the mystery of how the race looks, destroying all your personal imaginings, without actually revealing the only one you care about seeing. It pisses off everybody and pleasing no one.

Because at this point not knowing what Quarians look like is stupid as hell. We've seen dozens of them. We've seen them charge into battle. We've seen them get injured. We've seen them get their stupid bucket heads crushed. And yet somehow, not a single ripped suit or smashed helmet. It feels absurd. How can a YMIR mech pump an entire round into a Quarian's skull and somehow her helmet doesn't break?

Furthermore, it creates a narrative disconnect between the player and the characters in the game becuase they all know what Quarians look like. It's not a secret to them, becuase a single extranet image search shows you what unmasked Quarians are. It feels weird that every character knows what Quarian's look like but the player does not due to completley arbitrary reasons.

I don't care if they show Tali. Let people keep thinking she's a space elf or whatever the fuck they want. However the quarians are already a really dumb race. Keeping their appearance hidden at this point is just making them even worse.

I thought the very idea of including a race that you don't know the look of introduces an amount of mystery in that they can be whatever you want them to look like. If they reveal what she looks like, they will never be able to please everyone (see: Doomsday Arcade Finale).

Anyway, you can't really rag on Quarian's being able to take minigun fire to the face and not have a scratch. Because then you would have to rag on every character of ever game of every series of every genre ever that could take a shot to the face with or without a helmet and still survive. Realism was never and is never, an acceptable idea in a game as then every conceivable outcome to every shot in a game would need a realistic outcome. Operation Flashpoint showed that an FPS that close to being real isn't fun, that's why you can pick up a health kit and stick it to yourself, hide in a corner and wait for your health to regenerate or carry multiple guns and ammo that you could never hope to fit in all the spaces of your armour unless you had Time Lord pockets.

 

[silvertoast]

Bioware needs to make a decision here. Making the player choose is a bad option in my opinion.

Even if the player can decide, and never wants to see Tali's face, they are going to see it no matter what. This is the day of the internet and nothing is secret forever.

On this basis, I feel like they shouldn't show her face. Mystery's lose all appeal once you explain them.

 

[KaizokuouHasu]

Yes. Obviously. Not revealing her face to us is just a lazy move on Bioware's part in the continued conquest of not actually putting the effort in to developing... anything. So far they've only downsized their projects from very ambitious (but still failing - DAO and ME1) to not ambitious at all (which is a massive fail - ME2 and DA2 being the example).

If we don't see Tali's face by the end of this trilogy, by George will the ME trilogy feel shallow. And when are we going to see what a Volus looks like without their suit?

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

Yes. F' da mystery.

 

[Alluos]

Yes, to some degree.
I at least want to know what Quarians look like, at least if we get the chance to retake the Quarian home-world give us a silhouette of her unmasked, actually that's a pretty good idea, something of an epilogue with a sun-set in the background.

 

[ChupathingyX]

There is a difference. Master Chief is a blank slate "insertyourselfhere" protagonist.

No he isn't, he has a personality, a voice, backstory and in one of the novels it mentions him having pale, white skin.

 

[Tim Mazzola]

Definitely yes, but only if you did certain things in 1 and 2.

 

[kalt_13]

this is one of those cases that less = more. keep the mask on.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I've said what I think in the official thread, but I'll copy the message here as well:

As its the end of the series, I think its finally appropriate to see her face. The mystery is great and all, but we're at the end now, and dragging it out will only get annoying, it won't stay fun like it is now. That feeling eventually just gets bitter. And then expectations can NEVER be met.
(Example: LOST)

I think this is the reason they showed the Shadow Broker, and why the very strange and unexpected reveal worked quite well. We had expectations, sure, but it was still great.

This is the final lap of the story now, and seeing her face should be at the emotional climax of her story arc. More-so if your one of the MANY people who romanced her, in which case, its important to both her and Sheperd.

Someone cited Darth Vader as an example in an earlier thread, and I think he's another perfectly good example of concluding the mystery, and giving the viewer the needed emotional climax with this character.
The audience's expectations were NOT met on purpose. The great and mighty Darth Vader....was actually a very sad, sickly looking old man under the mask. You might even say pathetic.

This completely gives the audience a new perspective of the character, an understanding and perhaps even sympathy/forgiveness. Truly one the the great moments of cinema.

Subverting expectation can work. The main difference I see is that unlike Lucas and his old team, Bioware does not have a clear idea themselves.

Honestly, I feel that as the end of the series proper is now, they should show it, before the mystery spoils. They just need to go with what is appropriate and not worry about the audience reaction. Just make it appropriate in the moment, and trust your audience.

this is actually a very good point/view, and i do agree with it, and also as someone said before, the quarians are an ENTIRE RACE, one that we have dealt with many times before in the games, and its an absolute bullshit disconnect if we don't get to see at least one of their faces, as everyone else in the game, even shepard, knows what they look like.


hell we already know what her eyes are like, just give us the damn rest of the face!