angeldormante:

The other day, I wrote up a couple essays analyzing the Garrus romance for the Garrus thread over in the official Bioware forums. I thought I’d share. Two parts for now; I’ll post the other half tomorrow, and will probably add more when ME3 is released.

Analysis: Garrus Romance (Mass Effect Series)

Part I: Is Garrus Just Not Into Shep?

I will say right now: for this romance, you have to dig deep to find what you’re looking for. And it can be a scary thing to do with someone you’re so afraid of pushing away. But, for this particular romance, what you will find is gold.

Consider: Is Garrus really the kind of person to lie just to make Shepard feel better? Would he honestly engage himself in a relationship that would make him miserable? That would endanger his relationship with Shepard?

That last question is particularly crucial. Imagine you are Garrus, and your closest friend in the galaxy, the woman you respect more than anyone, who trusts you enough to even think about this,  is propositioning you. You are flattered - but not interested. At this moment, you have two options:

1) Kindly turn her down, at the risk of feeling like an ass. She may be embarrassed, and your friendship may be strained for a while. This is unfortunate…but would it really ruin the friendship? Do you really believe she would resent you for putting her in the friendzone? Would she crush your entire relationship under her heel over it? For a friendship so solidly built on trust and respect…I would argue “no”. Yes, it may be awkward for a while, and yes, you may feel awful for not being able to give her what she wants…but in the end, and once the smoke clears, the respect and trust was always there.

2) Accept her proposal, despite your misgivings. And now, you’re hating every moment of it. You’re locked in a relationship you didn’t want just to appease her - maybe you thought you were doing good, giving her that one thing she wanted before you’re both blasted to hell, but it’s wrong. You’re lying to her, and she’s making you miserable. Who’s winning? Who gets satisfaction from this? And what happens if she gets invested, so very attached to this relationship? Could you hide it forever? Would you live in peace knowing you could never leave to find your own wife and children among your species? Would you grow to resent her? And what if the truth came out? What would happen to the very foundation of the relationship - trust and respect - if she found out you’d been stringing her along the entire time? That she was making you miserable?

Speculation, at best. But still something to consider.

Of course - Garrus’s reaction to the proposal was stricken and hurried, so it’s probable that he never actually took the time to process these possibilities. And that’s fine. Because the promptness of his answer stirs up another whole issue: It’s his gut instinct to say “yes”. Garrus is brash and quick to act, even when it comes to Shepard…but that doesn’t make him wrong. It’s just the regular formula.  Garrus has always reacted to situations without looking back - shooting the thug holding Dr. Michel, ordering the hit on Dr. Saleon’s ship full of hostages, shooting Sidonis as soon as you get out of the way. He does these things, and doesn’t give them a second thought, doesn’t regret them for a single moment…unless Shepard brings it up. Unless Shepard forces him to take a step back, think about what he’s done, what his actions have entailed for long-term.

See the pattern? When Garrus makes a rash decision, he never doubts he’s making the right choice…unless Shepard is involved. And then, suddenly, there are a hundred shades of gray, and they all scare him, because he doesn’t know what to do with them.

Depending on the point at which it’s initiated, Garrus’ break-up dialogue goes through several stages: if broken off immediately after the proposition, Garrus is fairly relieved. If ended after the first conversation has been smoothed over - and it’s notable that Garrus expresses a greater interest in the relationship before the “break-up” option in this one is available - then he haltingly agrees, and an awkward silence is sustained between the two before he goes to return to his work. Finally, if rejected at the final romance scene, Garrus is thoroughly humiliated - standing in silence, rubbing his forehead, and awkwardly agreeing before he apologizes and quickly leaves the room with the bottle of wine still clutched in hand.

That’s where the relationship evolves: in terms of romantic interest, Garrus goes from being nervously passive, to actively expressing investment, to putting forward his best effort to make things work. For a proposition that never suggested anything other than a straight lay - it’s as though Garrus made that initial leap, and then stared into the gray, and drew from it so many colors that he finally was able to decide for himself - not what C-Sec told him to do, or what Shepard told him was true, but something he looked at and drew his own conclusion what he felt was right. Garrus had this one single, horrifying moment of, “oh, hell, I want this”…

…but he has trouble conveying that. Because they’re emotions, and Garrus has never been one for emotions - actions are how he speaks, and it’s far easier to remain focused on the physical aspect of the relationship when Shepard isn’t pushing the emotional part. Which is why, maybe not even until that final culmination in ME2, when he’s laid bare before his closest friend in the galaxy: he’ll admit to her, and to himself, that he wants something more.



Next time:

Body Language, Your Turian, and You!

By: Angeldormante (AlphaDormante @ BSN)