People will never be happy with it. There’s always something or otter.
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I love slow-burns. Waited years for Mulder and Scully to kiss, and despite Chris Carter being a ginormous hack, they are and forever will be one of my favorite TV dynamics. However, I absolutely agree that slow-burns can be dragged out for too long and that this often actively hurts an otherwise good story.
I also wouldn’t wait multiple games for a single RO unless it’s Varric Tethras finally allowing me to touch his magnificent chest hair.
Haha. And then there are people like me who, one day, suddenly go, “Huh, I think I might have been crushing on this person five years ago without ever realizing it. Welp.” 
For me, it would depend on the reason. Trust issues? Trauma? Bad self-image? Maybe they’re the only person in your life who gives a shit about you, and feelings would only make it weird: “Are you ready to lose this one touchstone in your life because you don’t have your feelings in order?” Cue delicious angst.
What I don’t like, however, is when one character who is very aware of the other’s feelings, decides for them that a relationship is out of the question because they, the noble idiot, “know what’s best”. It can work if the character in question is a well-written, well-intentioned mess but the potential for frustration is sky high here.
I guess I can see the romance in longing. In giving without expecting to be rewarded. But, as you say, the real romance starts when actual work is involved. Are you being kind to me even when it’s difficult? When I’m at my most ugly and uncomfortable? That’s the good stuff right there. Will you take a chance on me? Will you hold me accountable? Are you, in turn, ready to be flawed and seen? Don’t fall in love with me. Rise in love with me.
To find my way back to the actual topic: I really dislike Anders and Liara. Could never complete either romance. I also never romanced Leliana but I appreciate her as a companion.
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You’d have to get in line, third behind Bianca, and then Bianca (the crossbow).
Or in my case:
My Roommate: “Dude, that cashier girl was totally making eyes at you.”
Me: “She was doing what now?”
My Roommate: “She was totally trying to flirt, I saw it!”
Me: “You should probably get your eyes checked.”
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I’m open to a threesome relationship with a crossbow. As for the other Bianca? Nope.
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Bioware had a ninjamance problem. I always triggered her romance flags for not being a jerk, same with Kaidan and Jacob in Mass Effect. With Leliana, I was not disturbed, just “broke up with her” and got together with Morrigan. Kaidan and Jacob were more problematic because unlike Leliana, I didn’t like either of them and was forced to be an asshole just not to ninjamance.
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In fact, it was Liara, Kaiden AND Ashley who all had it so that, if you were anything BUT perfectly professional and detached with them at all times, you would run the risk of tripping their romance flags out of nowhere. I’ve seen old forum posts from players who suddenly walked into the love triangle confrontation and had no idea what they’d done to even get to that point because they weren’t even romancing Liara or Kaiden/Ashley in the first place. Pretty sure it was a case of, “first game in the series so we didn’t hammer out all the kinks in the coding,” rather than Bioware purposely trying to pull shit, although Liara DOES try to get in your pants stupidly fast after you recruit her - like one mission, I think?
And then game two rolled around, with its blatant ass shots of Miranda and boob shots of Samara (who you CAN’T EVEN ROMANCE ANYHOW, BIOWARE, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT? And even if you trade out Samara for Morinth, you STILL can’t romance her because you’ll die!) and Jack running around literally shirtless all the time (her tattoos and the straps she wore over her boobs helped keep that fact under the radar)…
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Given Shepards kinda famous, I like to imagine Liara was already curious with the prothean thing and basically did the equivalent of some facebook stalking to learn more and went “Oh no, shes hot” along the way.
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That bug with Kaiden went all the way to ME3. If I let him live, once we go to the citadel he get to ask me ‘About us’ and I’m like…what US? There is no US! there is just Samara and meeeeeee 
If its a bug, it was never fixed. Just like the many bugs the game had. Eyeballs twisting, hair gone missing…lol
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Also lots of other reasons that are not often touched upon in most games, mostly because the ro’s and mc’s tend to be very, very young. However it could be that you only get a second chance with a childhood sweetheart after their divorce, for example. Or if you fancy a colleague who also happens to be your boss you could also wait and work towards a promotion or transfer of your own to be on a more equal footing with them.
Again, lots of other reasons for why romance cannot always happen immediately. Though I do dislike the kind of overly long dragged out thing Wayhaven does with Adam as it is really pretty obvious both parties are single adults and know what they feel by now.
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Yeah, I always liked Leliana. It’s just that Morrigan and Zevran were… Right. There. 
Feeling this wrath but especially as a Femshep player. Why make Samara only flirt with Malesheps?
Which, to be fair, is very reasonable of her. If I could romance Femshep as Femshep, I’d absolutely go for it. (Not talking about the Citadel clone.)
This so much. I wasn’t feeling the age divide so hard a couple of years ago, but man, some games with their 20-something romances really do make me feel ancient.
To be fair, I’m not even talking about Wayhaven here. Only played the first book and Verda seemed like the most appealing character by far. 
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I would… she deserved better! #Freethecloneromance!
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/VastMasculineIvorygull-size_restricted.gif
Also knowing BW, here how it will go!
Player: Let me romance myself! I play Femshep, so let me smooche Femshep!
BW: Sure thing, here you go!
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On slow burns: like a lot of things, to me at least, it really changes depending on execution. I’ve read a lot of CoG and IF in general and if I had to pick two ROs I don’t think I could choose between Alessa in Golden Rose and Cyril in Arcadie. Alessa is pure slow burn in a long game, Cyril is someone you can sleep with and declare your love for before the end of the demo. Both are done excellently imo.
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I mean… I would have romanced the shit out of Wrex, Mordin, Legion. #JudgementFreeZone
You’re giving me straight-up nightmares here.
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Shrug That is what happen when we asked for Qunari that looked like the ones in Dragon Age 2.
And that’s after they insisted them changing the elves in DA2 was because they looked too humans. Like what?! So elves cannot look humans like, but Qunari do? Huh?
Anyway, back to topic at hand!
Hm, how about the Prizzze in mass effect? I mean what was the purpose of that romance? And while we at it, what about ‘Fling only’ romances?
Does anyone feel like they bring something to the game?
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The worst thing is that I thought Jacob’s character model was really cute. If the writing had been less… unfortunate… he could have made a great romance, I’m sure.
Never really paid attention to the flings. Kelly was forgettable, IMHO. However, I really liked Reyes in ME:A if that’s considered a fling. They did us dirty with the Javik ONS in Citadel.
ME romances that did nothing for me:
- Ashley in ME3. I really liked her in ME1 and would have loved a same-sex romance between her and Femshep later on as we got with Kaidan and MShep. Both the Battle Barbie look and her writing in ME3 were really disappointing and did nothing for her as a character.
- The James fling in the Citadel DLC. I would have absolutely romanced him as a regular LI but the way this ONS was set up during the party, just made me feel dirty.
- Steve. I really wanted to love him but his bland backstory just never worked for me. I feel similarly about Samantha (not a fan of the shower scene, sorry) but, at least, she’s got some cute banter.
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Next to Miranda, even a squirrel seem nicer lol
He start off good, then you get the Normandy and it goes down the drain
Honestly, I though Kelly was a bot. I mean, here I’m telling her to keep it professional and she just reset that over and over.
‘I love everyone, and everything. Rainbows and Unicorns. Also, you’ve got mails’
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I don’t mind slow-burn, but what I don’t like is, that this almost always comes with:
I am interested in you and I know you are interested in me, but we can’t be together because it is dangerous, [insert danger here] that has more to do with things inside me than any actual danger, that I may not tell you about.
So I am gonna push you away and be cold to you, but only because I am protecting you, I know what is best for you and not at all because I am being selfish.
While making puppy eyes at a distance, when you stop chancing after me. 
I am looking at you A.
I am sad to see many slow-burns have this.
I wot love to see slow-burns, where it is just the Mc and the Ro taking the time to get to know each other.
Or maybe it is just me being too old for drama. 
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Lucky you…for me there is only Kaidan…though yes, Jacob did have a really cute character model and outfit…what could have been if his writing had been different/better and they’d made him bi. 
Though I 100% would have done Wrex, had that been an option.
It could be worse, at least he’s not Gil in Andromeda cause with gil it’s like they crammed every stupid thing about the gay side characters in 1990’s era sitcoms into one NPC and then made him the designated gay romance. Compared to that just bland was far, far better. Although in both cases the lack of effort really shows as they both have character generator faces, instead of unique models and it is not even like they were particularly well done character creator faces either.
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Gil was traumatic. I hated having to talk to him.
So was Jacob, but for different reasons. And here I though nothing could top Jacob lol
BW wouldn’t even give us a dwarf…forget a Krogan!
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I also hate when as soon as they get together, the series ends. I get that writing the actual relationship is harder that the will they won’t they but if that’s where it ends, what’s the point? Come on! I waited six seasons for this! You’ve got to show me how they work as a couple!
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