Why is Kaiden Alenko so popular?
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I disliked him right off the bat; moaning about his L2 shit, so I don't know why people like him. I'm glad I chose Ashley over Kaiden, I'm never looking back.
kickyourass: If you go to fanfiction.net, go to the Mass Effect section, choose Kaiden for the first character slot, then put shepard in the second character slot, you realize that the 2nd most amount of fanfic posts come up. 1st being Garrus and Shepard of course, and third being Tali and Shepard.
I don't think Kaiden is any more or less popular than any other character in Mass Effect. Sure he wasn't one of my favorites but clearly others did like him, as a poster on Bioware social network I know this for a fact. He is perhaps popular among girl gamers because, as people point out, he is a male LI that wasn't an alien but rather just an ordinary guy.
Ashley is not xenophobic, nor is she racist. Her prejudice against aliens is not based on a superiority complex or irrational fear or hatred of the unknown. Her Grandfather fought in the First Contact War and during that time he was forced to surrender to the Turians making him the first human ever to surrender to an alien race.
Thus her family name is blacklisted in Alliance military and she feels she has to redeem her family name but due to the bias against her name she is reduced to small groundside assignments and has gotten no experience with any alien races and has nothing to go on save for the history of the First Contact War.
That is why she distrusts aliens.
That said, on Virmire she still happily volunteers to work with the Salarian team and if she is picked for the job it's clear from the radio chatter that she is perfectly comfortable working with, and possibly leading, a team made up entirely of aliens.
She also mentions at one point to Tali (elevator conversation) that she heard some humans are blaming the Quarians about Eden Prime and furthermore expresses her hope that Tali helping them find Saren will help give Quarians in general a better reputation.
Also after Liara's mother dies on Noveria if you go and talk to Ashley she suggests to Shepard to go talk to Dr. T'soni because she just lost her mum and 'that's gotta hurt'.
She also despises Terra Firma passionately and refuses to have anything to do with them believing that whatever noble goals they may once have had haven now been replaced by simple racism.
Also she herself announces very clearly at one point that she doesn't believe humanity is superior.
Finally, she can be convinced to move past her former trust issues with Aliens and admit to herself that it wasn't the Council or Turians who blacklisted her family name, it was the Alliance. And that while there exist alien foreign powers who do oppose humanity they also don't seem to want to destroy humanity either so this is an opportunity to learn.
As for why people can like her? Well because she feels very believable for one thing. She's tough and aggressive certainly but she also demonstrates a compassionate side to her. She's funny and attractive without feeling like she was designed to be oggled over and the flaws make for good characterization.
Oh boy, another one of these. Let me start with the basics.will1182 said:
Ashley is not xenophobic, nor is she racist. Her prejudice against aliens is not based on a superiority complex or irrational fear or hatred of the unknown. Her Grandfather fought in the First Contact War and during that time he was forced to surrender to the Turians making him the first human ever to surrender to an alien race.
Thus her family name is blacklisted in Alliance military and she feels she has to redeem her family name but due to the bias against her name she is reduced to small groundside assignments and has gotten no experience with any alien races and has nothing to go on save for the history of the First Contact War.
That is why she distrusts aliens.
That said, on Virmire she still happily volunteers to work with the Salarian team and if she is picked for the job it's clear from the radio chatter that she is perfectly comfortable working with, and possibly leading, a team made up entirely of aliens.
She also mentions at one point to Tali (elevator conversation) that she heard some humans are blaming the Quarians about Eden Prime and furthermore expresses her hope that Tali helping them find Saren will help give Quarians in general a better reputation.
Also after Liara's mother dies on Noveria if you go and talk to Ashley she suggests to Shepard to go talk to Dr. T'soni because she just lost her mum and 'that's gotta hurt'.
She also despises Terra Firma passionately and refuses to have anything to do with them believing that whatever noble goals they may once have had haven now been replaced by simple racism.
Also she herself announces very clearly at one point that she doesn't believe humanity is superior.
Finally, she can be convinced to move past her former trust issues with Aliens and admit to herself that it wasn't the Council or Turians who blacklisted her family name, it was the Alliance. And that while there exist alien foreign powers who do oppose humanity they also don't seem to want to destroy humanity either so this is an opportunity to learn.
As for why people can like her? Well because she feels very believable for one thing. She's tough and aggressive certainly but she also demonstrates a compassionate side to her. She's funny and attractive without feeling like she was designed to be oggled over and the flaws make for good characterization.
He...he was popular? Really?
I found him pretty bland, so I never took him out on any missions or anything.
If I were to choose a male to romance, it'd definitely be Wrex.
...WHAT? No, it's not because he's potato-shaped. It's because he's a badass.
Besides, I'm sure it'd be hilariously awkward or blunt, so either way, win/win.
I usually went with Liara, though.
I found him pretty bland, so I never took him out on any missions or anything.
If I were to choose a male to romance, it'd definitely be Wrex.
...WHAT? No, it's not because he's potato-shaped. It's because he's a badass.
Besides, I'm sure it'd be hilariously awkward or blunt, so either way, win/win.
I usually went with Liara, though.
I think Kaiden is a pretty cool guy he fights aleins and doesn't afraid of anything./sarcasmTraitortoHeaven said:
I'm sorry you left that one wide open.
OT: I don't see why he was so popular in either game. I never used Kaiden for anything, other characters were far superior in terms of combat and he just wasn't that interesting.
I thought he was a pretty good character once you learned more about him. And aren't Shepard and Kaiden good friends at the beginning? Seems like it to me.
I may be slightly hypocritical here, but i cant stand ashley. I understand why other people lke her, but... meh.
Off-Topic: I think we can all agree that jacob is pretty much Plot Device #2293 who happened to be on the station when Shep woke up. He really has no personality other than his dad and maybe something going on with miranda (I may be reading too far into it though). And his face! The bottom half of his face is huge! I keep expecting him to talk with a lisp!
P.S: Tali Ftw. :3
I may be slightly hypocritical here, but i cant stand ashley. I understand why other people lke her, but... meh.
Off-Topic: I think we can all agree that jacob is pretty much Plot Device #2293 who happened to be on the station when Shep woke up. He really has no personality other than his dad and maybe something going on with miranda (I may be reading too far into it though). And his face! The bottom half of his face is huge! I keep expecting him to talk with a lisp!
P.S: Tali Ftw. :3
Its funny. Everything you listed is why I couldn't stand her. The first impression (xenophobic god-nut) was actually more interesting that the dishwatery bullshit further delving reveals. Made her seem like a paladin or warhammer 40k flavored space marine.Vrex360 said:
Also, the fact you can pretty much get her to drop all that bullshit with a few lines of dialogue paints her as impossibly dumb. "HMM, I NEVER THOUGHT THAT PARTIES WHO COULD HAVE NO POSSIBLE INFLUENCE ON MY FAMILIES NAME WEREN'T AT FAULT FOR MY BLACKLIST! OH SHEPARD, LET US FUCK."
Mind you, I also hated (hated hated hated) every single romancable character in me1. Mostly because outside of "lets fuck," the character progression stops dead unless you hack the gender back and forth to get around the arbitrary "oops! cant have that in a mainstream game!" gender checks.
It seems like whenever I looked up Shepard and Kaiden fanfics they ended up being male Sheperds.
OT: I liked Kaiden simply because he was well..simple. He made good points about this opinions, and was never afraid to be honest with you. I think many people (fellow girl gamers I know anyway) were turned off from him because of his blandness. He didn't exactly have a mystery factor or some big epic past that made him broody. He was just more of an average Joe who was easy to get alone with.
OT: I liked Kaiden simply because he was well..simple. He made good points about this opinions, and was never afraid to be honest with you. I think many people (fellow girl gamers I know anyway) were turned off from him because of his blandness. He didn't exactly have a mystery factor or some big epic past that made him broody. He was just more of an average Joe who was easy to get alone with.
Though he did break my FemSheps heart when he turned her town in the second game. Ha!
I still think she's a fair distance away from ever being a 'god nut' unless you assume everyone of any varying percentage of faith is automatically a 'god nut'. As it stands I did still find her quite interesting. The way she has to force herself to be better than the best, has grudges that can be moved past and can move past those and generally I just found her to be a very believable real example of a tough woman in gaming.Cynical skeptic said:
I think the idea is that she had always known that fact but because she was raised to be a 'patriot' to the Alliance she always sort of denied that and used the Turians and Council as a smokescreen to hide the fact that she really just felt inadequate among the Alliance.
That's how I saw it anyway.
She does admit that she knows that she can't actually blame the Council for what happened but that it was hard to be a patriot and pissed at her own government.
Plus she doesn't just instantly agree, she argues a bit first before finally conceding. I think that was somewhat well done.
Besides, remember, this is her first real experience with aliens. Up until now all she knows is that at one point there was an alien race that attempted genocide against the human race and her family name was disgraced by it.
But still I admit I can see where you are coming from, it is a little strange that it is through dialogue that you change her worldview but in Mass Effect that was essentially all you had. Interestingly you can also turn Kaiden into a bloodthirsty pro human extremist if you pursue the right dialogue. So it's not just Ashley who has a total change of heart in conversation.
However if you do not like Ashley, that's fine with me. I understand your reasons even if I disagree with them.
He wasn't my favorite character of ME1 at all, but I still connected with him. He was written as an extremely real person, and a dedicated soldier. He's almost too nice for his own good sometimes. Maybe that's why I befriended him. Wrex and Tali were my favorite party members, though.
If you're asking why girls like him, that's kind of a girl thing. Just don't bother. You're better off that way. Even if you got an explanation, would you understand it? No. You don't know what you're getting into. Why don't you just propose a Sasuke/Hinata coupling on Youtube? You would get flamed into a crisp. The only reason you're safe is because you're putting this on the Escapist. I would just drop it. The Fan-girls are deadly outside of these walls.
Also, I didn't even know who Kaiden was until shortly before Virmire. I went down into the Normandy and saw this random guy called Kaiden, and didn't know who he was, until I remembered he was that guy on Eden Prime.
Also, I didn't even know who Kaiden was until shortly before Virmire. I went down into the Normandy and saw this random guy called Kaiden, and didn't know who he was, until I remembered he was that guy on Eden Prime.
Eh, a big theme is science fiction is always the phasing out of old superstitions (or at least having them grow to all encompassing levels) in favor of more rational, less magical thought. God and such are typically assumed to be the "of the gap's" variety of deities. Thus with expanding knowledge, the role of faith must shrink.Vrex360 said:
Which makes any individuals' concept of faith in the "space age" a pretty determined bit of hardheadedness. So compared to the god-nuts we have today, shes extremely tame, but the god nuts even 60 years ago still believed the world was flat, the sky was firmament (with windows to let the rain through), god was going to destroy humanity in reprisal for "invading his domain" (space exploration), god would protect us from the ruskies, and the rest of the crap they still believe.
And as far as "strong female" lead, I can't really buy that either. What she acts more like is a non-existent japanese fantasy archtype, tsundere. Insecure girls hiding their "true feelings" behind a facade of anger and disgust.
Are fangirls really that savage and stupid? I was merely on a quest for knowledge and understanding(though due to the fact that it was about Kaiden, its not as awesome as I'm describing it). Are they really that blinded over something as stupid as a video game character?Lonan said:
