Jack was supposed to be pansexual in Mass Effect 2, but BioWare changed his romance after the first game was criticized by the mainstream media.
In the 11 years since the release of Mass Effect 2, fans often wonder why Jack – a character who specifically refers to times when she became intimate with non-male romantic partners – is only romantic if Commander Shepard is one man. It turned out that this was not the case. Jack was originally written as pansexual, but his relationship conditions changed at the end of development due to concerns about the reception of mainstream media for the first Mass Effect game.
Following the launch of Mass Effect in 2007, Fox News presented an extraordinarily tactless panel regarding the game’s sex representation. As expected at the time, sex was spoken of as if it were a total taboo.
The panel instigated a domino effect, which led to unfounded criticism not only of the Mass Effect sex scenes, but also of the fact that it included a non-hetero romance option in Liara T’Soni (Kaidan Allenko was trapped in a relationship arc only straight to Mass Effect 3).
“I was trying to draw the arc of [Jack’s] romance, which during much of the development – in fact, it was too late that it became a male / female romance only, ”Brian Kindregan told me. Kindregan was the lead writer for Jack, Samara and the first Horizon critical path mission in Mass Effect 2, and also made his first stint in Grunt and Tuchanka, “She was essentially pansexual during most of the development of that novel.
“Mass Effect was criticized very strongly and unfairly 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 is discussed on Fox News,” continues Kindregan. “The Mass Effect 2 development team was a very progressive and open-minded team, but I think there was a concern at very high levels that [the first] Mass Effect, who only had a gay relationship, Liara – who on paper was not technically a gay relationship because she was a kind of unique gender – I think there was a concern that if it had caused a fire, Mass Effect 2 would have to be a little careful. “
Interestingly, Courtenay Taylor – who played Jack in Mass Effect 2 – also expressed that she was originally a pansexual character. In a recent chat with our own Kirk McKeand, Taylor said:
“It’s funny to me because I always understood that she was pansexual. So I don’t know if this is just something I inferred from the character or something she said that maybe it was cut. I was surprised that there was no female romance possible, because that was my understanding. I think it was time, you know? That was, what – 2008/2009? The industry has changed exponentially since then, and BioWare was leading the charge. I don’t know if it came down to a budget constraint or maybe someone saying ‘this is very obvious’ because everyone said ‘of course she is a lesbian’. But my feeling has always been that she was [pansexual] and it just wasn’t followed. Of course, the community modified it immediately so you can do it your way. “
As Jack’s writer, Kindregan explains that he didn’t necessarily agree with the decision to change his sexuality. He understands why it happened and says, “It wasn’t like a senior anti-gay person on the Mass Effect 2 team said, ‘We’re not going to have this.'” Instead, it had to do with the storm of controversy that Mass Effect had received in 2007 and with an attempt to minimize the amount of criticism that would be directed at the community by vehicles like Fox News again. “In short, many of us were asked very late to focus relationships on a more traditional type of vector,” says Kindregan.
“I definitely heard a lot from people who were surprised that Jack ended up not opening up to it,” he continues. “I understand why. I would say that there were many seeds planted in her conversations that certainly indicated that she was pansexual – once she specifically referred to being part of a thrupple. She says that there was a guy and a woman she was running away with who invited her to her robberies and to their bed. She definitely refers to these things. This was explicitly to start sending the message that yes, this is a character who is pansexual. In the eleventh hour review of the cleaning, it had already been partially recorded with the narration. Not all of that could be changed.
“I would say that even with the things I could change, and I don’t know if that was the right decision or not, I still saw her as a character with an advantage,” Kindregan says. “Not nervous, but with an advantage of not following traditional norms. I think I must have, even during the review process, kept some of those things there with a kind of feeling, yes, this is a person who has been around and done many things, left the farm and went to Paris. “
Ultimately, however, Jack became a romantic option that was available exclusively to the male Shepard, despite the fact that his writer and actor agreed that she should originally be pansexual. 2010 was just three years after Fox News’ infamous mass effect disaster, so BioWare was reluctant to follow some of the ideas that were specifically put into practice early in development. At the end of production, the only non-hetero romance options in the game were:
- Kelly Chambers, who is not a teammate and does not disqualify other relationships.
- Samara, who expresses that she has feelings for you, but ultimately rejects you – Kindregan compares this to someone saying, of course, I will be with you, but I am in love with that other person and I will leave you for them if they come to call.
- Morinth, who literally kills you in less than a second after having sex.
“I worked with lesbian developers who came up to me and said, ‘Why isn’t Jack in the mood for me?'” Says Kindregan. “And I have to say, ‘I’m sorry, it’s partly my fault.’ But I still maintain the idea of maintaining it with a more varied background. Perhaps one day Jack will be portrayed as a pot. “
Keep an eye on TheGamer.com in early February for our Mass Effect Day – a full day of in-depth articles dedicated to one of the best RPG series of all time.
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