I would've loved if Momma Shepard was a war asset, with her bringing large amounts of morale to those serving with her since she's the mother of the legendary commander Shepard.
Yeah, almost as impactful as Overlord. Powerful stuff. Wish there was more of that and less of the fan-service comedy that spewed out of every orifice in ME3. I really, really hate Easter eggs. Seriously childish on the part of writers and fans. Typical, though.
I love redhead Femshep. But some of those statements about blonde Shepard were REALLY judgmental. I’m not anything close to blonde, but that’s really rude to say about someone based on hair color.
@@noblej7897 no, most redheads have either blue or brown or hazel eyes, green eyes are the most rare in ALL hair colors and most green-eyed people have brown hair, blond second common and red the most rare. So yes, declaring blue-eyed blondes rare but using green-eyed redheads is not really logical. I like the design tho. Played a blonde Jaime Pressly/Margot Robbie-looking FemShep originally, but recently tried more variations from tanned gyaru to purple haired goth.
True... But seems it wasn't about Aryan-ness but people being sexist by claiming a Barbie-looking woman can't fight and is only good for shopping with a chihuahua. The red hair she has tho isn't looking natural (too red instead of orange, and black eyebrows), can pass for a dye job with a color generic enough to stand out and without being too outlandish (but once they added purple everyone tried it in LE).
@Mythic that dads name was Alec. i currently on my 5th MEA playthrough and never bothered with Scott. despite all the hate it gets it has a lot of cool stuff like the name thing. And no alignment system so nice that you can let Drack drop that guy down a cliff without having to worry about dark site points.
@@dreammirrorbrony1240 well it makes sense not to have long hair. She is in the military. That's why alot of people were super confused by Ash's look in ME3
The DA armor in ME looked good but never made any kind of sense. They are so far removed from the medieval aesthetic that it's jarring, lol. I assume the same would've been said for ME armor in DA.
Something I thought was neat with the backgrounds, was to flip the script a bit. My last playthrough, I had a paragon Shep, but she had a ruthless background. This kinda implied that she had more of a regrettable record than a shiny one, or perhaps made the wrong decision, did the most she could with a really bad scenario, or had a hotheaded start and learned to be different. These things aren't that big of a deal for the game overall, but being able to have that extra bit of characterization is really neat, even if it is just mostly head canon. Like with how sometimes paragon Shep can do things that seem a little over the top with the good guy act, and I thought having a regrettable past gave a bit of context on why this Shep insisted on it more often than not
I like to mix it up too. Like going Earthborn and War Hero, or Spacer and Ruthless. If I want a super tortured Shep, I'll go Colonist Sole Survivor, and pick romances that die off or end horribly, lol.
I did this with my favorite Shep. She has the Colonist and War Hero backgrounds, but goes really heavy on the Renegade choices in game. So internally it creates this conflict where she gets touted as this inspirational war hero, but is actually fairly ruthless and in a permanent state of fight-or-flight, and over the course of the series has to balance out her inclination towards pragmatism and selfishness with her growing responsibility and care for her crewmates. All while sticking to mostly Paragon options for the really big choices (saving the Council, appointing Anderson, destroying the Collector base) because, despite her rough around the edges personality and general pessimism about the galaxy, deep down she's always been a fundamentally decent and heroic person.
Bioware released statistics for the Legendary Edition and 68% of players chose MShep and 32% of players played as Femshep. That's a pretty big jump for the old statistic you used in your video
still don't matter. maleshep is the default. it would be more interesting to read such a stat if the default had been femshep. as going maleshep would then involve the strenuous effort of clicking the 'other gender' button. :)
@GetShaftedBuddy you saying a few hits of enter would NOT create a character and start the game? funny. worked just fine for me, just now. and the DEFAULT(top) choice were MALESHEP.
@@hansolav5924 no male shepherd is not default I’d accept him as canonical but as default most normal players playing an RPG notice that there is a default, male and female appearance that’s it then you customize appearance ,class and background
That paragon/renegade ratio makes sense, I'm just surprised more players don't do a second playthrough just to see how the renegade options change the experience.
Im more suprised that there a so few who play Paragon first, I never did, I also never played MarkShep because Jen Hale is much better, Mark Meer is a great actor, He just does not work for me as Shepard.
I'm uncomfortable being rude both in real life and videogames, and one of the few times I chose some renegade dialogues, i was so shocked. I remember Shepard was talking with Grunt about how he hated turians and I chose "don't hurt garrus" thinking my Shep would be like "whatever happens, do not even dare to hurt my turian bf" and the real dialogue was so fucking crazy. "DO NOT DARE TO TOUCH GARRUS 😡😡😡" and Shepard was soo fucking mad and even pointing him with her finger. And Grunt was like "nah, i won't"
@Mythic depends on how you use it, I guess. my renegade femshep was quite amused at how the first game ended, with anderson talking 'humanity first' like another cerberus recruit. :P I've always gone into the games intending to go full renegade...but in the second and third games I found it hard to treat my old crewmates badly. Nevermind that I read 'getting the job done' as 'keeping your crew functioning well'.
@@angie_lavellan there are a few lines that are great. Shep threatening to restrict Joker to decaf is one. But I agree on most with you. Shep needlessly goes ballistic. It's annoying and makes me love Paragon Shep all the more.
Renegade didn't get good until 2 and 3, and really only with the interrupts. I can't stand playing a character that oscillates between cartoon villain and Space Karen™. Renegade Shep should've been a stoic hardass marine. Drill Sergeant type. Not an impulsive idiot who goes around punching female reporters while being filmed/livestreamed for everyone to see.
Never knew about the femshep vote, kinda crazy about the controversy over the blond vote, imagine being blonde with blue eyes being told shep can't look like that, some folks are toxic i say 😂
I never knew Shepherd becoming a Reaper Cyborg was considered. While I appreciate the work Bioware put into the renegade option, I just couldn't bring my self to knowingly become a total a**hole. Some of the interrupts were pretty good, though.
Main reason why I could never go full renegade either, mostly because of how cartoonishly ass-holeish the answers were. Like there's a thin line between ruthless pragmatism and straight-up dickish behaviour. IMHO anyway.
tbh I would have loved to see some choices where you just question if the milky way species is even worth saving, involving interspecies related issues but what also needs to be realized is that such a thing would have massively increased the scope of the game and we know what game companies are like. Still, a reaper shepard is something I would have liked to see.
Playing Legendary right now. Still in ME1, mostly Paragon, but will use Renegade on occasions. Even my patient saint Shepard has its limit. Anyway, with the unlimited Paragon/Renegade points glitches still working, no reason to not max out both.
Only found your channel a month ago with your video on Sandal from Dragon Age, really loving the quality of your work. Your clips are well chosen, visually interesting to look at while not too full of detail and not so rapidly edited that they distract. I'm a big fan of both Bioware franchises and it's nice to see a lot of lore well done in one place. Even though I'm a guy I typically play FemShep as I think Jennifer Hale's performance is so strong. I always made a custom Shepard, although they didn't look that dissimilar from the Default. Although I can understand why so many fans would want Mark Vanderloo involved at conventions, you also have to give the guy his due for making his choice and divorcing himself from the role which would probably end up taking over his life. Again Great channel and keep it up.
10:41 wow, that article sounds super offensive, actually. White blondes cant be heroes. I also prefer the redhead look, because, well, redheads... but if that was said about a person of colour then imagine the uproar it would have caused... Anyway, I've played through the trilogy too many times that I'd like to admit, but I did not know the psychological profiles affecting paragon/renegade points. No idea how I missed that I've played the games many different ways, but I've always preferred to be default maleshep, spacer, war hero. Call me basic, I guess. Oh, and thank you for hating the ending as well - I feel my emotions being validated every time someone mentions it. Same goes for Andromeda
7:15 Yeah, but getting through ME1 as anything other than a soldier is a pain in the butt. When I do a playthrough these days it's Soldier in 1, Vanguard in 2 and 3. Vanguard in ME3 (and in Andromeda although we don't talk about Andromeda) is amazing. Side note, it makes me happy that 11 years after ME3, there are still new youtube videos being made about the series.
The huge freakout over blond Shepard was just hilarious and just more proof for the pile of evidence that most journalists really shouldn't be trusted.
Saria 9:31-9:35 What is your source regarding Indoctrinated Ending Where Shepard succumbs to Indoctrination by Reapers therefore dooming All Humanity, possibly including every Milky Way Galaxy Species.
The best part about the FemShep votes was that the final version was so closely related to what I had created in ME1, that I used it for my ME3 playthrough. I really couldn't believe it at the time, hair parted in the same direction, very close facial features, hair color, etc.
11:40 though I agree that red haired female Shepard is ICONIC and everything else feels strange, like femshep IS a redhead that’s just how it is, HOWEVER, the people that are angry at a voted favorite if blond hair, to me, just says that those people are prejudiced against whites and blonds. Sad to see.
The catalyst voice is best heard in headsets, male shep is dominant in on one direction, female shep is dominant in the other. Then the deep child reaper occupies both.
i recently finished another playthrough and i thought i heard other party members in the catalyst voice too, such as garrus and tali but maybe it was the indoctrination getting into my head from that beacon years ago...
I like the name shepherd because it sounds like the German word "scheppert" witch means something breaking/crashing/exploding or making a bang. Witch is fitting since explosions follow Commander Shepard wherever he goes
My absolute favorite reference to ME in another game is in No Man's Sky. There was a limited time expedition that let you unlock the Normandy SR1 as a frigate for your fleet.
The year of Commander Shepard's birth changes depending on what background you choose for him/her. The codex entry in the first game that tells the events up to the current time during Mass Effect the year it says Commander Shepard is born changes depending on the background differing from Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer. But only by 2 or 3 years. I believe Commander Shepard that is a colonist is the one that is a few years younger and the Earthborn is a few years older with spacer in the middle.
The quoted speech on the blonde shepard is actual horrendous, align it with a different look especially one of a marginalised design and people would lose their sh##, people get so butthurt when things don't fit their own vision or ideas and vent like they are owed something better than what "majority" of people actually chose. I remember voting and choosing 5 but did like most of the designs, I think the blood red hair they finally went with suits the character but the fact that it was changed due to outrage of her having blonde hair (green eyes not blue), which resulted in belittling people with a different hair pigmentation as being lesser and dumb and associating them with a backwards "aryan race" concept is just horrible. Hypocritical fan to the max that wrote the quoted text.
Idk man I played thru as both genders. I felt like shepherd was supposed to be female. Based on the delivery of dialogue in similar situations as male shepherd. The tiny inflections and suttle differences really made femshep stand out.
I really really love the pre service record system, just like Dragon Age Origins, it gave you a chance to feel like you knew your character before the game really got underway and then, through even those short missions related to the background, you got to choose what sortt of person Shep was underneath the N7 badge, I don't think it can be overstated how important that can be to forge a connection with a protagonist in an RPG like this. I just finished replaying the trilogy again in the Ledgendary edition and, still, even after all these years, it's a masterful set of games and a huge achievement narratively and it all really does hang on how close you feel to Shep as a character (I can even forgive the ending now, somewhat) (maybe not...) (lol). Edit: INDOCTRINATION THEORY FOREVER, the only reality I accept.
I mean I get that people are sick of classically pretty blonde hair blue eye action hero babes, but at the same time saying that that look for FemShep looks like she'd be more concerned with gluing on her fake nails is stupid. Being blonde doesn't stop her from being a total badass.
Yeah. My "main" Shepard is a white blonde with blue eyes partially because I like that combo (it's also my own skin/hair/eye colour in real life), but also out of spite for people who complain about it. That said I do like the red hair femshep a lot too. Strangely, a lot of characters I like from various franchises are redheads. Examples include Keyleth (The Legend of Vox Machina), Orihime (Bleach), Misty (Pokémon)...
I was one of the Jack Shepards. I'm guessing it was so high up there because of Jack Shepard from the show, Lost. He actually looks similar enough that I thought that they modeled Shepard to look a bit like him when the game came out
Femshep is canon in my book. First time I played through these games was an Adept Femshep, I don't remember the other background options I picked but when I played through the games I just made choices that I thought I would do in that scenario. Like I chose killing the galactic senate in order to have more firepower on the reaper in ME1. Love these games and love your videos!
As a blue-eyed blonde that *doesn't* have a tiny dog and press on nails, and has led a relatively bad-ass life, I feel attacked 🤣 I didn't realize so many people felt that way about certain hair and eye colors, hahaha
Cool stuff, thanks Saria! That redhead Shepard looks a lot like you, so I totally understand why you identify with it, I preferred the brunette one, always. :)
I played as paragon first then I played as renegade which I’m glad I did because shepherd looks awesome 👏 I’m happy they made renegade shepherd amazing
Funny the reference because at the end of ME:3 the boy and his grandfather are talking and the boy ask for another story about “The Shepard” also The SR2 that crash landed on an unknown planet lifts up and takes off but tbh I can’t ever remember that happening before and I have played that game through with all the dlc numerous times.
I've also heard from Raphael Sbarge, voice actor of Kaidan Alenko, that ME is one of the few games with a high rate of female players (probably due to Garrus, Kaidan and Thane lol)
Listening to you go over the statistics over the percentage of people who chose paragon or renegade more made me smile honestly. Because I felt like I was one of the unique ones who often choose the not so common choices. The gender one I followed suit like everyone else however but only because Male Shepard had the better romances
There's also a reference to Mass Effect, or more specifically the N7, in The Expendables 3. [Slight Spoilers Ahead] When they are all sitting in the van after having captured Mel Gibson's character early on, you can see the N7 logo on a hat hanging from the wall.
the psychological profiles are actually tied to different quests they just aren't unique. all three quests can be done by anyone but going on the quest that your background is tied to gives you more info and unique dialogs for that quest. for example the war hero background you speak with the person that was behind the attack on elysium and they really really hate you for saving it. the sole survivor background you meet another survivor of akuze, and the ruthless background you meet someone who was affected by your actions on torfan. so each quest is deeply personal to shepard if it matches their background.
Mephisto was recommended by goodboy. He absolutely adores you. And probably your content too. Mephisto met him playing swtor and I want to get into other bioware games like Mass effect and Dragon age as well. Looking forward to seeing your perspective after I play some of the games to completion.
i definitely made my femshep a redhead with grey eyes before me3 came out. so seeing a redhead on the cover was cool. was glad i got to vote on it hehe. at the end of the day i still went with my customized shep tho
What I want to know is how come they didn't put anymore weapons from ME1 into ME3. My favorites were the Crossfire AR, the Avalanche Shotgun and the black weapons.
I love that there’s an engineer class and I know it’s not an “engineer,” in a generic sense, but I just can’t see Shepherd as an engineer. To me, they’re a combat soldier (“fighter”) of some kind. That being said, I’ll do an engineer playthrough soon enough.
I base my shepard in usability, I mean, what profile can use more weapons and abilities, the other... well were too limited for me. Paragoon and renegate were more for fun more than doing what is correct, but also I have a save file with what I think is the correct answer in every situation; and also, yes all squad was lost in the suicide mission, but also I made some minimals changes and get them out.
I thought the red stripe on the armor was a NASA reference, specifically during the Apollo missions where the commander of the mission had the red strip on their space suit.
I just don't really believe the Femshep statistics. Jennifer Hale is extremely well known to have so few players who actually were exposed to her. She is arguably the most liked between the two voice actors, because her acting was outstanding (creepy Jacob talking aside). I would like to understand how they arrived at those numbers. And if they counted the Legendary Edition players later or not. Same question for the paragon and renegade options. Another enjoyable video.
@Mythic Makes sense. I'm just glad they gave us a tough female protagonist with actual armor, no chain mail bikinis, no hysterics, but cool and calm, smart and badass.
I'm surprised they bothered with a vote for default FemShep's look with those low stats. Maybe more people were making a fuss about it than actually played it, lol.
I don't think the stats matter much. It's merely opinion and personal preference. I love Jennifer Hale in other games but found her voice acting just not right for me in ME. I tried it for 5 or 6 hours but personally couldn't resonate with the female voice work at all. Many other people feel completely opposite of me, and that's fine too. If you're going to be playing a game for what could be hundreds of hours over the trilogy, you want to have the main character resonate with you. In that, there really is no right or wrong choice. Just do what works best for you.
one of my favorite Mass Effect crossovers was their recent one with No Man's Sky to get the Normandy as a frigate, sadly you can't land on and explore it but it is a really good frigate by that game's standards
Male Shepard here, Infiltrator and full Paragon. I played Male, because I like to RP myself as the character so I customized my character a lot to kind of recreate myself in the game as much as possible :)
I preferred playing as femshep because I preferred Jennifer Hale’s voice acting. Don’t get me wrong, Mark Meer is amazing too. The engineer class was my favorite to play!
I too prefer Jennifer Hale's Shep, especially in 3, I think she nailed the gravity of the situation. And the weariness I hear, especially in the "ruthless calculus of war" conversation with Garrus
Accurate statement on the default redhead shep, never knew she was almost blonde an that stings, redhead wins always lmao fantastic video again, always enjoy watching your content :D
Just going to put this thought out there.... what if they are following through with that concept of Shepard having to adapt with reaper tech as the next Mass effect game. Choosing the destroy ending on ME3 with the inhaling shepard cut screen. That is a possibility.
Just imagine that same today and white, blonde, blue eyed Shepard had been chosen. Calls and accusations of racism, white supremacy and right wing narrative would be thrown around by the likes of Kotaku, IGN and every wannabe games "journalist". Regardles if you can change skin, hair and eye color. The fact that the default models, both of them, are white and blue eyed will piss some people off and start virtue signaling on steroids.
To be honest, I was always going to vote for Red Head FemShep. That was the hair color I always pick when I play a FemShep run. Just looks good on her. Gives her this kind of firecracker look.~
![Mass Effect [Legendary Edition] Part 1 - Intro (No Commentary)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/No9cjViCm-A/mqdefault.jpg)
![Dragon Age Veilguard: Joplin & the Artbook [SPOILERS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6hYocL1UNOo/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for the shoutout, the thumbnail was really fun to work on!!
Well done it was rlly good is this a job or jus a one time thing
@@valz2282 Thank you! This is just something I do for a hobby, but I’m always looking for new projects
can you post it somewhere i wanna use it as my background on PC 🙂
@@myteamsupreme4348 Sure! See if you can get it from my drive here drive.google.com/file/d/1C7Ik1JspvoWB1jQY9kht9pk_3YkzJYit/view?usp=drivesdk
@@UnchainedAtomFilms omg tyvm its so good !
"You can fight like a Krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"
Miracle of Sound ftw!
"I'm Commander Shepard, the man with the method, to brandish a weapon, and then handle the geth with it!"
I would've loved if Momma Shepard was a war asset, with her bringing large amounts of morale to those serving with her since she's the mother of the legendary commander Shepard.
The side quest: I remember me, put me in tears. Very well written, and acted. I felt the heartache, and pain.
Yeah, almost as impactful as Overlord. Powerful stuff. Wish there was more of that and less of the fan-service comedy that spewed out of every orifice in ME3. I really, really hate Easter eggs. Seriously childish on the part of writers and fans. Typical, though.
I love redhead Femshep. But some of those statements about blonde Shepard were REALLY judgmental. I’m not anything close to blonde, but that’s really rude to say about someone based on hair color.
"No, we can't have FemShep look like an Aryan, so we'll give her one of the rarest white genetic makeups" (Natural redhead with green eyes)
based Bioware?
Redhead with blue eyes were rarer I thought?
You'd wonder if it ever occurred to games journalists that people can be.......born with those stereotypically Aryan features?
@@noblej7897 no, most redheads have either blue or brown or hazel eyes, green eyes are the most rare in ALL hair colors and most green-eyed people have brown hair, blond second common and red the most rare. So yes, declaring blue-eyed blondes rare but using green-eyed redheads is not really logical. I like the design tho. Played a blonde Jaime Pressly/Margot Robbie-looking FemShep originally, but recently tried more variations from tanned gyaru to purple haired goth.
True... But seems it wasn't about Aryan-ness but people being sexist by claiming a Barbie-looking woman can't fight and is only good for shopping with a chihuahua. The red hair she has tho isn't looking natural (too red instead of orange, and black eyebrows), can pass for a dye job with a color generic enough to stand out and without being too outlandish (but once they added purple everyone tried it in LE).
4:12 Sarah ended up being the name of Ryder in Andromeda. And if you name her that, other characters actually call you Sarah
I thought that was pretty cool. I wished they did that for Shepard.
@Mythic what's so bad about Scott?
@Mythic Like John and Jane Shepard are any better, lol. Might as well have had their last name Doe.
@Lordnilliam Scott's VA was WAAAAY better that Sarah...
@Mythic that dads name was Alec. i currently on my 5th MEA playthrough and never bothered with Scott. despite all the hate it gets it has a lot of cool stuff like the name thing. And no alignment system so nice that you can let Drack drop that guy down a cliff without having to worry about dark site points.
"I wanted to punt that damn kid, but thats just me." Wasn't expecting that subdued aggression. Nearly choked on my water. ☠
I had the same thought. That kid is annoying. Lol and those dream sequences should jus be gone.
The only thing I need to know about Shepard is which store on the citadel is the actual favorite!
I never knew about the voting for Femshep. Also too bad about the Mass Effect armor not making it into DA2. It looked really cool
I participated in the Femshep voting! 🙂
@@davidsharpe1611 Same
My only complaint for femshep was there were no long hair options, but it was a minor complaint.
@@dreammirrorbrony1240 well it makes sense not to have long hair. She is in the military. That's why alot of people were super confused by Ash's look in ME3
The DA armor in ME looked good but never made any kind of sense. They are so far removed from the medieval aesthetic that it's jarring, lol. I assume the same would've been said for ME armor in DA.
Something I thought was neat with the backgrounds, was to flip the script a bit. My last playthrough, I had a paragon Shep, but she had a ruthless background. This kinda implied that she had more of a regrettable record than a shiny one, or perhaps made the wrong decision, did the most she could with a really bad scenario, or had a hotheaded start and learned to be different. These things aren't that big of a deal for the game overall, but being able to have that extra bit of characterization is really neat, even if it is just mostly head canon. Like with how sometimes paragon Shep can do things that seem a little over the top with the good guy act, and I thought having a regrettable past gave a bit of context on why this Shep insisted on it more often than not
I like to mix it up too. Like going Earthborn and War Hero, or Spacer and Ruthless. If I want a super tortured Shep, I'll go Colonist Sole Survivor, and pick romances that die off or end horribly, lol.
I did this with my favorite Shep. She has the Colonist and War Hero backgrounds, but goes really heavy on the Renegade choices in game. So internally it creates this conflict where she gets touted as this inspirational war hero, but is actually fairly ruthless and in a permanent state of fight-or-flight, and over the course of the series has to balance out her inclination towards pragmatism and selfishness with her growing responsibility and care for her crewmates. All while sticking to mostly Paragon options for the really big choices (saving the Council, appointing Anderson, destroying the Collector base) because, despite her rough around the edges personality and general pessimism about the galaxy, deep down she's always been a fundamentally decent and heroic person.
Bioware released statistics for the Legendary Edition and 68% of players chose MShep and 32% of players played as Femshep. That's a pretty big jump for the old statistic you used in your video
still don't matter. maleshep is the default. it would be more interesting to read such a stat if the default had been femshep. as going maleshep would then involve the strenuous effort of clicking the 'other gender' button. :)
@GetShaftedBuddy you saying a few hits of enter would NOT create a character and start the game? funny. worked just fine for me, just now. and the DEFAULT(top) choice were MALESHEP.
@GetShaftedBuddy I'm sorry for you and your inability to understand 'default'(the choice you get when rushing through things to get to the game)
@@hansolav5924 no male shepherd is not default I’d accept him as canonical but as default most normal players playing an RPG notice that there is a default, male and female appearance that’s it then you customize appearance ,class and background
@@nickanderson55 My point stands.
In my first play through I chose renegade options for anyone who wasn’t my crew. That Shepard was my favorite.
That paragon/renegade ratio makes sense, I'm just surprised more players don't do a second playthrough just to see how the renegade options change the experience.
Im more suprised that there a so few who play Paragon first, I never did, I also never played MarkShep because Jen Hale is much better, Mark Meer is a great actor, He just does not work for me as Shepard.
I'm uncomfortable being rude both in real life and videogames, and one of the few times I chose some renegade dialogues, i was so shocked.
I remember Shepard was talking with Grunt about how he hated turians and I chose "don't hurt garrus" thinking my Shep would be like "whatever happens, do not even dare to hurt my turian bf" and the real dialogue was so fucking crazy. "DO NOT DARE TO TOUCH GARRUS 😡😡😡" and Shepard was soo fucking mad and even pointing him with her finger. And Grunt was like "nah, i won't"
@Mythic depends on how you use it, I guess. my renegade femshep was quite amused at how the first game ended, with anderson talking 'humanity first' like another cerberus recruit. :P
I've always gone into the games intending to go full renegade...but in the second and third games I found it hard to treat my old crewmates badly. Nevermind that I read 'getting the job done' as 'keeping your crew functioning well'.
@@angie_lavellan there are a few lines that are great. Shep threatening to restrict Joker to decaf is one. But I agree on most with you. Shep needlessly goes ballistic. It's annoying and makes me love Paragon Shep all the more.
Renegade didn't get good until 2 and 3, and really only with the interrupts. I can't stand playing a character that oscillates between cartoon villain and Space Karen™.
Renegade Shep should've been a stoic hardass marine. Drill Sergeant type. Not an impulsive idiot who goes around punching female reporters while being filmed/livestreamed for everyone to see.
Never knew about the femshep vote, kinda crazy about the controversy over the blond vote, imagine being blonde with blue eyes being told shep can't look like that, some folks are toxic i say 😂
The greatest unanswered question I have about Shepard is...what truly was Shepard's favorite shop on the citadel😉
The consort obviously.
pretty sure it was the one that gave him a discount.
har har
I love your content! Your research and delivery are always on point! As a fellow Bioware fan, I appreciate you a ton.
ahh thank you! Glad you like them! ❤
I never knew Shepherd becoming a Reaper Cyborg was considered. While I appreciate the work Bioware put into the renegade option, I just couldn't bring my self to knowingly become a total a**hole. Some of the interrupts were pretty good, though.
Main reason why I could never go full renegade either, mostly because of how cartoonishly ass-holeish the answers were. Like there's a thin line between ruthless pragmatism and straight-up dickish behaviour. IMHO anyway.
tbh I would have loved to see some choices where you just question if the milky way species is even worth saving, involving interspecies related issues but what also needs to be realized is that such a thing would have massively increased the scope of the game and we know what game companies are like. Still, a reaper shepard is something I would have liked to see.
Playing Legendary right now. Still in ME1, mostly Paragon, but will use Renegade on occasions. Even my patient saint Shepard has its limit. Anyway, with the unlimited Paragon/Renegade points glitches still working, no reason to not max out both.
Only found your channel a month ago with your video on Sandal from Dragon Age, really loving the quality of your work. Your clips are well chosen, visually interesting to look at while not too full of detail and not so rapidly edited that they distract. I'm a big fan of both Bioware franchises and it's nice to see a lot of lore well done in one place. Even though I'm a guy I typically play FemShep as I think Jennifer Hale's performance is so strong. I always made a custom Shepard, although they didn't look that dissimilar from the Default. Although I can understand why so many fans would want Mark Vanderloo involved at conventions, you also have to give the guy his due for making his choice and divorcing himself from the role which would probably end up taking over his life. Again Great channel and keep it up.
Didn't know I shared a birthday with Shepard. I think that's so amazing.
10:41 wow, that article sounds super offensive, actually. White blondes cant be heroes.
I also prefer the redhead look, because, well, redheads... but if that was said about a person of colour then imagine the uproar it would have caused...
Anyway, I've played through the trilogy too many times that I'd like to admit, but I did not know the psychological profiles affecting paragon/renegade points. No idea how I missed that
I've played the games many different ways, but I've always preferred to be default maleshep, spacer, war hero. Call me basic, I guess. Oh, and thank you for hating the ending as well - I feel my emotions being validated every time someone mentions it. Same goes for Andromeda
Yeah, bro really had some thoughts about blondes
7:15 Yeah, but getting through ME1 as anything other than a soldier is a pain in the butt. When I do a playthrough these days it's Soldier in 1, Vanguard in 2 and 3. Vanguard in ME3 (and in Andromeda although we don't talk about Andromeda) is amazing.
Side note, it makes me happy that 11 years after ME3, there are still new youtube videos being made about the series.
Infiltrator in me1 is pretty busted too, those sniper riffles make a huge difference
There might not be an N7 armour in dragon age, but here is a dragon age armour in mass effect
The huge freakout over blond Shepard was just hilarious and just more proof for the pile of evidence that most journalists really shouldn't be trusted.
Saria
9:31-9:35
What is your source regarding Indoctrinated Ending
Where Shepard succumbs to Indoctrination by Reapers therefore dooming All Humanity, possibly including every Milky Way Galaxy Species.
Femshep is my favorite to play with.
I thought it was everyone’s
The best part about the FemShep votes was that the final version was so closely related to what I had created in ME1, that I used it for my ME3 playthrough. I really couldn't believe it at the time, hair parted in the same direction, very close facial features, hair color, etc.
Thanks for all the great Mass Effect content with professional quality. Subscribed.
11:40 though I agree that red haired female Shepard is ICONIC and everything else feels strange, like femshep IS a redhead that’s just how it is, HOWEVER, the people that are angry at a voted favorite if blond hair, to me, just says that those people are prejudiced against whites and blonds. Sad to see.
The catalyst voice is best heard in headsets, male shep is dominant in on one direction, female shep is dominant in the other. Then the deep child reaper occupies both.
i recently finished another playthrough and i thought i heard other party members in the catalyst voice too, such as garrus and tali but maybe it was the indoctrination getting into my head from that beacon years ago...
Great content! Starting to see your videos on my recommendations and I’m glad I clicked. Thanks for the mass effect lore lmao keep it up!!
FunFact: when choosing your ending color, you can totally just turn around and shoot the catalyst
Smearing Shepard for looking "Aryan", the Metroid fans would've obliterated them if someone defamed Samus like that.
I like the name shepherd because it sounds like the German word "scheppert" witch means something breaking/crashing/exploding or making a bang. Witch is fitting since explosions follow Commander Shepard wherever he goes
The red and white armor is basically the Phoenix Armor with the pink parts being red, its in the concept art.
My absolute favorite reference to ME in another game is in No Man's Sky. There was a limited time expedition that let you unlock the Normandy SR1 as a frigate for your fleet.
Great job! Well presented and great information!
The year of Commander Shepard's birth changes depending on what background you choose for him/her. The codex entry in the first game that tells the events up to the current time during Mass Effect the year it says Commander Shepard is born changes depending on the background differing from Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer. But only by 2 or 3 years. I believe Commander Shepard that is a colonist is the one that is a few years younger and the Earthborn is a few years older with spacer in the middle.
Learning something new every day. I knew that femshep's face was the result of a poll but didn't know that she originally was blonde.
The quoted speech on the blonde shepard is actual horrendous, align it with a different look especially one of a marginalised design and people would lose their sh##, people get so butthurt when things don't fit their own vision or ideas and vent like they are owed something better than what "majority" of people actually chose.
I remember voting and choosing 5 but did like most of the designs, I think the blood red hair they finally went with suits the character but the fact that it was changed due to outrage of her having blonde hair (green eyes not blue), which resulted in belittling people with a different hair pigmentation as being lesser and dumb and associating them with a backwards "aryan race" concept is just horrible. Hypocritical fan to the max that wrote the quoted text.
Another mass effect video!!!!!! And I love it... Thank you for doing this ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I named my male Shep "German" as first name. A true German Shepard.
Idk man I played thru as both genders.
I felt like shepherd was supposed to be female. Based on the delivery of dialogue in similar situations as male shepherd. The tiny inflections and suttle differences really made femshep stand out.
Lmao being blond hair with blue eyes is illegal now.
Dang, that Dragon Age armor!
I knew 80% of these but I enjoy watching mass effect content, especially from new content creators :)
I really really love the pre service record system, just like Dragon Age Origins, it gave you a chance to feel like you knew your character before the game really got underway and then, through even those short missions related to the background, you got to choose what sortt of person Shep was underneath the N7 badge, I don't think it can be overstated how important that can be to forge a connection with a protagonist in an RPG like this. I just finished replaying the trilogy again in the Ledgendary edition and, still, even after all these years, it's a masterful set of games and a huge achievement narratively and it all really does hang on how close you feel to Shep as a character (I can even forgive the ending now, somewhat) (maybe not...) (lol).
Edit: INDOCTRINATION THEORY FOREVER, the only reality I accept.
I mean I get that people are sick of classically pretty blonde hair blue eye action hero babes, but at the same time saying that that look for FemShep looks like she'd be more concerned with gluing on her fake nails is stupid. Being blonde doesn't stop her from being a total badass.
Yeah. My "main" Shepard is a white blonde with blue eyes partially because I like that combo (it's also my own skin/hair/eye colour in real life), but also out of spite for people who complain about it.
That said I do like the red hair femshep a lot too. Strangely, a lot of characters I like from various franchises are redheads. Examples include Keyleth (The Legend of Vox Machina), Orihime (Bleach), Misty (Pokémon)...
Love your vids!! Very informative!
Thanks so much!
The supposedly 'Aryan' FemShep always had green eyes though, so calling her a blue eyed stereotype is just flat out wrong.
Coming from one who always name my Shepard after my own name, Alexander, the fact Alex tops the top 5 list is actually pretty rad.
I was one of the Jack Shepards. I'm guessing it was so high up there because of Jack Shepard from the show, Lost. He actually looks similar enough that I thought that they modeled Shepard to look a bit like him when the game came out
Femshep is canon in my book. First time I played through these games was an Adept Femshep, I don't remember the other background options I picked but when I played through the games I just made choices that I thought I would do in that scenario. Like I chose killing the galactic senate in order to have more firepower on the reaper in ME1. Love these games and love your videos!
As a blue-eyed blonde that *doesn't* have a tiny dog and press on nails, and has led a relatively bad-ass life, I feel attacked 🤣 I didn't realize so many people felt that way about certain hair and eye colors, hahaha
R u american?
@@akale2620 yep
@@sinistersaint are you female?
@@akale2620 lol yes
Cool stuff, thanks Saria! That redhead Shepard looks a lot like you, so I totally understand why you identify with it, I preferred the brunette one, always. :)
I played as paragon first then I played as renegade which I’m glad I did because shepherd looks awesome 👏 I’m happy they made renegade shepherd amazing
Funny the reference because at the end of ME:3 the boy and his grandfather are talking and the boy ask for another story about “The Shepard” also The SR2 that crash landed on an unknown planet lifts up and takes off but tbh I can’t ever remember that happening before and I have played that game through with all the dlc numerous times.
I've also heard from Raphael Sbarge, voice actor of Kaidan Alenko, that ME is one of the few games with a high rate of female players (probably due to Garrus, Kaidan and Thane lol)
Nah we here for the bluebies
Listening to you go over the statistics over the percentage of people who chose paragon or renegade more made me smile honestly. Because I felt like I was one of the unique ones who often choose the not so common choices. The gender one I followed suit like everyone else however but only because Male Shepard had the better romances
8:50 There's a ending in special edition if you shoot the runt
Both Commander Shepards appear in the film by Steven Spielberg called Read Player One.
Damm people really got mad at character they could customize hahaha
There's also a reference to Mass Effect, or more specifically the N7, in The Expendables 3. [Slight Spoilers Ahead] When they are all sitting in the van after having captured Mel Gibson's character early on, you can see the N7 logo on a hat hanging from the wall.
So, a woman with this looks couldn't do any of those things? 10:43 People try really hard to be stupid...
John Sheperd, is also one of the main chars in SGA and has alot in common with our ME Sheperd. :)
Renegade is awesome with male Shepard, the voice acting is way more aggressive.
Those not picking Femshep are missing out. That's my canon and I'm sticking to it.
You can't ship Tali without John Shepard. It's unspeakable in the community.
@@robertagren9360 I can respect the Tali love and that is the ONLY reason to play a Broshep for me. I will accept the exception to my canon 🤣
Mark Vanderloo as the face model for Shepard is widely known? It's why we all referred to default male Shepard as "Sheploo" back in the day
the psychological profiles are actually tied to different quests they just aren't unique. all three quests can be done by anyone but going on the quest that your background is tied to gives you more info and unique dialogs for that quest. for example the war hero background you speak with the person that was behind the attack on elysium and they really really hate you for saving it. the sole survivor background you meet another survivor of akuze, and the ruthless background you meet someone who was affected by your actions on torfan. so each quest is deeply personal to shepard if it matches their background.
Mephisto was recommended by goodboy.
He absolutely adores you. And probably your content too.
Mephisto met him playing swtor and I want to get into other bioware games like Mass effect and Dragon age as well. Looking forward to seeing your perspective after I play some of the games to completion.
commander shepherd is a model confirmed
i definitely made my femshep a redhead with grey eyes before me3 came out. so seeing a redhead on the cover was cool. was glad i got to vote on it hehe. at the end of the day i still went with my customized shep tho
I customized my Maleshep and played the default Femshep.
What I want to know is how come they didn't put anymore weapons from ME1 into ME3. My favorites were the Crossfire AR, the Avalanche Shotgun and the black weapons.
I love how Jack & Kate are two of the most popular Shepard names... Any Lost fans here?
I love that there’s an engineer class and I know it’s not an “engineer,” in a generic sense, but I just can’t see Shepherd as an engineer. To me, they’re a combat soldier (“fighter”) of some kind.
That being said, I’ll do an engineer playthrough soon enough.
I base my shepard in usability, I mean, what profile can use more weapons and abilities, the other... well were too limited for me.
Paragoon and renegate were more for fun more than doing what is correct, but also I have a save file with what I think is the correct answer in every situation; and also, yes all squad was lost in the suicide mission, but also I made some minimals changes and get them out.
I thought the red stripe on the armor was a NASA reference, specifically during the Apollo missions where the commander of the mission had the red strip on their space suit.
Dragon age needs N7 armor. Maybe they’ll do it for dread wolf as a tease.
Femshep voting was a genius big brain move.
Default femshep looks like Kate from fallout 4
0:10 Goddamnit, Tali! That Executioner Pistol and Salarian Grenade Launcher are worth far more than your life!
Wonder if Engineering class being the least popular influenced it's hidden Paragon prompt in the Omega DLC
Also there's a Mass Effect easter egg in the sims 4 aswell it's a baseball cap and t-shirt with N7 on it
I just don't really believe the Femshep statistics. Jennifer Hale is extremely well known to have so few players who actually were exposed to her. She is arguably the most liked between the two voice actors, because her acting was outstanding (creepy Jacob talking aside). I would like to understand how they arrived at those numbers. And if they counted the Legendary Edition players later or not.
Same question for the paragon and renegade options.
Another enjoyable video.
They're old statistics. Bioware released the numbers for Legendary Edition and it was 68% Mshep and 32% Femshep
@Mythic Makes sense. I'm just glad they gave us a tough female protagonist with actual armor, no chain mail bikinis, no hysterics, but cool and calm, smart and badass.
I'm surprised they bothered with a vote for default FemShep's look with those low stats. Maybe more people were making a fuss about it than actually played it, lol.
I don't think the stats matter much. It's merely opinion and personal preference. I love Jennifer Hale in other games but found her voice acting just not right for me in ME. I tried it for 5 or 6 hours but personally couldn't resonate with the female voice work at all. Many other people feel completely opposite of me, and that's fine too. If you're going to be playing a game for what could be hundreds of hours over the trilogy, you want to have the main character resonate with you. In that, there really is no right or wrong choice. Just do what works best for you.
@@johnfrancis2472 Well said :)
one of my favorite Mass Effect crossovers was their recent one with No Man's Sky to get the Normandy as a frigate, sadly you can't land on and explore it but it is a really good frigate by that game's standards
i still can't belive EA gave the OK for that. but seeing it jump in was really cool.
Male Shepard had more military/authority in his voice while Female Shepard had more grit/go-getter in her voice.
The whole "the catalyst has sheps voice in back" wouldve been more impactful if it were ashley and kaidan but thats just my personal opinion
Para-Gade lol.. begrudgingly doing the right thing on big missions but always use the Renegade interrupts and tellin people off 😂
That thumbnail. I want it as a mod for the legendary !
Male Shepard here, Infiltrator and full Paragon. I played Male, because I like to RP myself as the character so I customized my character a lot to kind of recreate myself in the game as much as possible :)
Y’all know there was armor in ME1 right? Like lots of different options with different color schemes and patterns
I preferred playing as femshep because I preferred Jennifer Hale’s voice acting. Don’t get me wrong, Mark Meer is amazing too. The engineer class was my favorite to play!
I too prefer Jennifer Hale's Shep, especially in 3, I think she nailed the gravity of the situation. And the weariness I hear, especially in the "ruthless calculus of war" conversation with Garrus
It's crazy that more people don't pick engineer... it's crazy OP, especially in ME3
I'm sorry but vanguard is broken in ME3
Hmmm, the Deadpace armor makes sense...and it explains why Zaeed wears the default Deadspace armor.
Accurate statement on the default redhead shep, never knew she was almost blonde an that stings, redhead wins always lmao fantastic video again, always enjoy watching your content :D
Just going to put this thought out there.... what if they are following through with that concept of Shepard having to adapt with reaper tech as the next Mass effect game. Choosing the destroy ending on ME3 with the inhaling shepard cut screen. That is a possibility.
Damn, that ME armor for DA2 looks pretty good, I hope they eventually put it in
I'm baffled that blonde femshep got hate...for being blonde. Who is seriously judging people by their hair color like that?
Just imagine that same today and white, blonde, blue eyed Shepard had been chosen. Calls and accusations of racism, white supremacy and right wing narrative would be thrown around by the likes of Kotaku, IGN and every wannabe games "journalist". Regardles if you can change skin, hair and eye color. The fact that the default models, both of them, are white and blue eyed will piss some people off and start virtue signaling on steroids.
Game 2 is great playing Renegade - some of the best lines ever!
Femshep and Broshep both both made it onto Ready Player One movie as well
To be honest, I was always going to vote for Red Head FemShep. That was the hair color I always pick when I play a FemShep run. Just looks good on her. Gives her this kind of firecracker look.~