AWKWARD ZOMBIE

---MASS EFFECT TRILOGY SPOILER ALERTS BELOW---

Just a wee bit of background:
-Found this site for the first time last night, went through all the comics that were up.
-Loved most all of them. Funny, relate-able to gamers like myself, and obviously took a lot of skill and dedication to create.
-Particularly loved all of the Fire Emblem comics. We play the series very similarly.

However, i read a few of the Mass Effect Comics and proceeded to die inside, and began the over-analyzing process. See the Following:
http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php? ... mic=022012
http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php? ... mic=111411
http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php? ... mic=123112

Why were these painful to me?
1. None of the above had any "spoiler alert" warnings, when in a game where the plot is more vial than a majority of other games, and choice has greater consequences than most other games as well, i feel it is more important to give warning for the ME than other games.
2.a. Space Race- In the game there has absolutely no correlation whatsoever between genetic modification and skin pigment. You're taking a white man who did experiments on his own daughter and saying he's racist because she's white. I believe the more accurate correlation is that she has lighter pigment because it was inherited from him naturally. Yes, he may have had the ability to change her skin color, but there would be no viable reason to do so. By having Jacob say "You made her white", that's implying her father specifically thought about what skin pigment she should have, when it had no effect on his goals nor results.
2.b. I am unsure if the general joke was toward the 'racism of the entire game' or towards the specific character accused of being racist. If it's towards the game, then i will attempt to eliminate this accusation by claiming that there are multiple people or multiple races who really awesome (Anderson is one person who comes to mind). If the joke is towards the character himself, then i humbly retract 2.b. and eliminate it from the rest of my list.
3. Although i can understand why you dislike Miranda (I did as well when i began ME 2). However, I would like to defend her character and her depth in the ME universe. Miranda's difficulties with being genetically altered to perfection goes much deeper and i believe are overlooked by Katie. First, it has made her sterile, and therefore unable to bear children or (it is implied) enjoy intercourse. Second, It is stated very explicitly that her father had no love for any of his children. Miranda being distanced from a majority of people around her due to trust issues, abuse, and a lack of romantic desire has caused her to become fairly over-independent (in my opinion) and find a hope of love anywhere except in her twin-sister. This is the only thread of purpose she has in an otherwise ultimately hopeless life. Third, Miranda is very similar to Jack in the sense that she was forced into a life she did not chose. Because of the genetic modifications done to her, she was placed into trainings and programs completely independent of her personal choice- but all on behalf of a father who she felt no connections to.
If she has such trust issues, than why does she seem to open up to Shepherd so easily? It's because she envies Shepherd ability to choose, and to have that agency actually make an impact in Shepherd's own life and in the lives around him/her. Although it may not be openly obvious to Miranda, her founded trust in Shepherd is because Miranda wants to be more like him/her, and envies all that she has and can do. Thus we have the duality of being "unsatisfied" with her "perfection", and craving the life of the "imperfect" Shepherd. It should also be noted that she is her father's standards of perfection. That combined with her upbringing, she was denied the personal development stage most people experience during their preteen and teenage years. The consequences of being denied (not just 'not having the stage', but almost being unable to go through it entirely) left her emotionally damned and "imperfect". Also, because perfection is so relative, She's trying to grasp knowing that she is genetically perfect, yet knows that she is anything but perfect. Luckily, this contradiction was explained to her by her paren- oh wait... She still has to try to understand how she can be a living contradiction while not having the time to have a developmental stage while dealing with the missions, Cerberus, Reapers, and protecting the only personal and emotional purpose she has in life (her sister) from the antithesis of her life and the cause of every bad thing that has ever happened to her (her abusive and neglectful father).

I have to go now, and I've already spent 2 hours+ outlining and explaining and considering my points of how i can try to redeem Miranda's character to Katie and the readers of her Comic. I hope that now people will see her differently and hopefully have a little more compassion towards the woman without dismissing her feelings so easily and readily. P.S. No, before you ask, i never did romance Miranda. I actually romanced Liara. Blue alien babies would be too cute

Chill out. It's a comic. Not always relevant to the actual game book movie whatever the comic is based on. I'm sincerely hoping this is a joke, because I don't know of anyone that would be so easily swayed to hate a character over a webcomic.

1) It is no secret that there was a suicide mission where the wrong choice will get someone killed
2) ME2 early-game Miranda is very much a horrible person.
3)Your avatar is way too big, please read the rules thread to fine tune your avatar, as well as look over the forum's rules.

Thank you and welcome to Awkward Zombie Forums.

Its amazing what fanboys will find to complain about.

It's only a comic dude.

And there isn't need for spoiler warnings as the only real spoiler is Miranda gets killed during the mission on ME3

Wait is that a constant or can it be avoided?

Hello and welcome on AZ!
I think the point of Space Race is exactly to point out how ridiculous it would be if Jacob and Shepard said that. I'm pretty sure the intent of the game designers and Miranda's dad weren't to imply only white people can be perfect. It's just a joke by Katie about overthinking certain issues.
Although liking Miranda or not is all down to preferences, I don't think Katie was really trying to make a point about the character or her depth in these two comics. Sure, she dislikes Miranda, but the comics are here for comedy. Plus, you can understand Miranda's troubles and still dislike her.
So yeah, Katie draws/ writes stuff for funsies, not to criticize games in-depth. (though maybe she'll post here about how awful she thinks Miranda is). I understand disliking when an aspect of a game you like isn't portrayed faithfully, but remember it's all for laughs!

And yeah, as pointed out, our actual size limit for avatars is 200x220 pixels. Check the rules thread, it's a mandatory read

I'm not going to say 'Relax it's just a comic', because I found those points about Miranda pretty interesting and will keep them in mind, and also free speech is kinda neat and you were very polite about posting this int he first place.

oh wow, I guess you can change it, I was too busy not caring at the time to try and save her.
I would rather see her die a hero than live on as a "perfect" robo/organic slut, we already have Edi for that and one is too many.

Sorry about the avatar image. When uploading, I was told on the left-hand side:
"Maximum dimensions; width: 300 pixels, height: 300 pixels, file size: 195.45 KiB."

Guess it threw me off. Secondly, yes i probably did over-analyze the comics, but i think the purpose of the original post was to tell Katie in an indirect way why she should give Miranda a second chance. This is not that i don't understand the site isn't for humor or that by making fun of one of my favorite game, she can't make a comic about it (There were other ME, pokemon, and even Skyrim comics that i didn't refer to because they were funny, highly relate-able, etc.). I guess when you play something as emotionally involving as Mass Effect, it can be easier to try and have people see things similarly to yourself. In this specific case, convincing Katie of the moral and 'characteral' validity of Miranda.

Yeah, I think you've wasted a lot of your time here, you have your viewpoint and that's fine: Katie has hers, and that's also fine.

As for spoilers, the only possible spoiler was for the "suicide mission" which did nothing to give the game ending away. I wholeheartedly agree with you on spoilers - someone recently posted the plot of Pacific Rim on my IG feed and it spoiled a lot of the movie for me. On this one though, it says nothing about what happens in the end. I believe you've overthought and overanalyzed.

Nevertheless, I respect your viewpoint, and I'm sure other forumites do as well. Just don't expect a lot of support for your view.

looks like we have a strawguy2009 around here >_>

Here somewhere.

Golly, that mean old Strawguy2009 is up to no good!