The Mass Effect Legendary Edition fans of the franchise will experience the original trilogy with a new coat of paint when it appears later this year, including the most award-winning game in the Mass Effect 2 series. Fans are excited to see team members like Garrus, Thane, Jack, Kasumi and more, although in a new interview interesting details came to light about changes made to Jack’s character. In a new interview with The Gamer, Mass effect 2 lead author Brian Kindregan revealed that Jack was actually supposed to identify himself as a pansexual, but that changed after a significant amount of development was done to the game thanks to criticism from Fox News.
‘I tried the bow of [Jack’s] romance, which for a large part of the development – it was actually very late that it became a male / female romance, ”Kindregan said. “She was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance.”
That changed after Fox News discussed the approach to sex over the game and the fact that it includes a non-straight romantic option.
“Mass Effect in the U.S. was pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized by Fox News, which at the time … maybe more people in the world thought there was a connection between reality and what was being discussed on Fox News,” Kindregan said. said. . ‘The development team of Mass Effect 2 was a fairly progressive, open-minded team, but I think there was concern at fairly high levels that if [the first] Mass Effect, which had only one gay relationship, Liara – who on paper was technically not a gay relationship because she was of a single sex species – I think there was concern that Mass Effect 2, if it would draw fire , had to be a little careful. ‘
Jack actress Courtenay Taylor also confirmed that the character was pansexual, and that’s how she portrayed her.
“It’s funny to me because my understanding has always been that she was pansexual,” Taylor said. ‘So I do not know if it’s just something I deduced from the character or something she said might have been cut. I was surprised that there was no female romance possible because that was my understanding. I think it was the time, you know? That was, what – 2008/2009? The industry has changed exponentially since then, and BioWare has been the leader. I do not know if this amounts to a budget constraint or that someone like ‘it’s too obvious’ because everyone was like ‘of course’ she’s a lesbian. But my feeling was always that she was [pansexual] and it just did not carry through. The community, of course, changed it right away so you can have it your way. ”
Kindregan said: “It was not like an anti-gay person in the Mass Effect 2 team saying, ‘We are not going to have this.’ The short version is that many of us were asked quite late to concentrate the relationships on a more traditional kind of vector.
The decision was made amid the development, so there are still pieces of dialogue that reflect the original version of the character, and many were surprised to find out that their female Shepard could not end up in a relationship with her.
“I have certainly heard a lot from people who were surprised that Jack was apparently not open to it,” Kindregan said. “I understand why. I would say that there are many seeds planted in her conversations that definitely imply that she is pansexual – she once referred specifically as part of a group. She says there was a guy and a woman she was dating, who invited her to their robberies and to their bed. She definitely refers to those things. It was explicit to send the message that yes, this is a character who is pansexual. In the eleventh hour review of its cleaning, she was already partially recorded with voice-over. Not all of this could be changed. ‘
“I would say even with the things I could change, and I do not know if it was the right decision or not, I still saw her as a character with an edge,” says Kindregan. ‘Not edgy, but with the advantage of not following traditional norms. I think I would, even during the review process, keep some of the things there with a feeling of like yes, this is a person who has done a lot of things already, from the farm and down to Paris. ‘
“I worked with lesbian developers who came to me and said, ‘Why is Jack not mine?'” Kindregan said. “And I have to say, ‘I’m so sorry, it’s partly my fault. ‘But I still insist on keeping her with a more diverse background. Maybe one day Jack will be portrayed as a pan. ”
Should Bioware honor the original vision for Jack in the upcoming Legendary Edition? Let us know in the comments, and as always you can talk, k all Mass Effect with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!