Mass Effect Legendary Edition will allow fans of the franchise to experience the original trilogy with a new coat of paint when it arrives later this year, including the most popular game in the Mass Effect 2 series. Fans are excited to see team members like Garrus, Thane, Jack, Kasumi and many more, although in a new interview some interesting details came to light about the changes made to Jack’s character. In a new interview with The Gamer, Mass effect 2 lead writer Brian Kindregan revealed that Jack should actually identify as pansexual, but this has changed after a substantial amount of development has already been made into the game due to criticism from Fox News.
“I was trying to draw the bow [Jack’s] romance, which for a large part of the development – it was actually very late that it became an exclusively male / female romantic story “, said Kindregan. “It was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance.”
This changed after Fox News began discussing the game’s approach to sex and the fact that it included a non-right romantic option.
“Mass Effect was quite strong and really unfairly criticized in the US 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. “said Kindregan. “The Mass Effect 2 development team was a fairly progressive, open-minded team, but I think there was a concern at quite high levels, which if [the first] Mass Effect, who had only one homosexual relationship, Liara – who on paper was not technically a homosexual relationship because she comes from a mono-generous species – I think there was concern that if this caught fire , be a little careful. ”
Actress Jack Courtenay Taylor also confirmed that the character was pansexual and that’s how she interpreted it.
“It’s funny to me, because my understanding has always been that he was pansexual,” Taylor said. “So I don’t know if that’s just something I deduced from the character or something he said maybe was cut. I was surprised that a female love story wasn’t possible, because that’s how I understood it. I think it was time, you know? That was, what – 2008/2009? The industry has changed exponentially since then and BioWare was leading the accusation in this regard. I don’t know if it came down to a budget constraint or maybe someone is like “this is too obvious” because everyone was like “of course she’s a lesbian.” But my sense has always been that she was [pansexual] and he was simply not followed. Of course, the community changed it right away so you can do it the way you want. ”
Kindregan said “It wasn’t for an anti-gay person on the Mass Effect 2 team to say, ‘We won’t have this.’ The short version is that many of us have been asked quite late to focus our relationships on a more traditional type of vector. “
The decision was made in full development, so there are still dialogue pieces that reflect the original version of the character and many were surprised to learn that their wife Shepard could not get into a relationship with her.
“I’ve certainly heard a lot from people who were surprised that Jack turned out not to be open to that,” Kindregan said. “I understand why. I would say that there were a lot of seeds planted in her conversations, which certainly implied that she was pansexual – she once referred specifically to the fact that she was part of a problem. She says she was a guy and a woman she ran with, who invited her into their robberies and into their bed. It certainly refers to those things. That was explicitly to start sending the message that yes, this is a character who is pansexual. By the eleventh hour of the cleaning review, she had already been partially recorded with her voice off. Not all of this could be changed. “
“I would even say with the things I could change and I don’t know if this was the right decision or not, I still saw her as a character with an advantage,” says Kindregan. “He is not nervous, but he has an edge of not respecting the traditional norms. I think I could have, even during the review process, kept some of these things there with a feeling of yes, yes, it’s a person who has been around and done a lot of things, left the farm and descended to Paris. ”
“I worked with lesbian developers who came to me and said, ‘Why isn’t Jack in me? ”Said Kindregan. “And I have to say, ‘I’m sorry, it’s partly my fault.’ But I still stick to the idea of keeping it with a more varied background. Maybe one day Jack will be described as a pan. ”
Should Bioware honor the original vision for Jack in the next legendary edition? Tell us in the comments and, as always, you can talk, k all things Mass Effect with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!