Thane: He's Gonna Live Forever

Oh, Mass Effect, I do love you.  So much that I believe you will be the subject of many posts over time.

Starting now.

In Mass Effect 2, I play a female Commander Shepard, or FemShep.  She is the main character of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.  Commander Shepard can be either female or male.  I *vastly* prefer the femShep, not just because I am female, but because she is voiced to perfection by Jennifer Hale (one of my all time favorite voice actors, and yes there's a blog post waiting to happen).

One of the team members in Mass Effect 2 is a Drell (alien species) assassin named Thane Krios.  He is a bad ass.  He is also my love interest of choice in Mass Effect 2.

There's just one teeny problem (spoiler alert).  He has a disease called Kepral's Syndrome, which can affect his species because they no longer live on their native planet.  At the end of Mass Effect 2, assuming he survives your game play, he has "a few months" to live.

For the record, if in Mass Effect 3, there is no way to avert Thane's death, I am going to 1) throw my controller  2) cry 3) cry some more 4) make nonsensical posts on twitter 5) cry even more and then 6) write Bioware a mean letter in which they will be called "poopyheads." 

Let me explain.

I have an extremely over-active imagination.  I can't watch scary movies or realistic violence (though I can handle most cartoon/superhero type violence because I know it's not real).  I am the so-called perfect audience, because if I am into a story (and it doesn't take much) I *live and breathe* for it.  Beyond that, I can handle mediocre plots as long as I care about the characters.

I (me, Kat, not my femShep character) have emotional ties to Thane.  To the point where, even when I try to do another play through with a different style, I can't.  I have literally played Mass Effect 2 making many of the same choices about 5 times.  Because I will try to take a different path, and it feels wrong.  Maybe one day I'll be able to try those other paths.  But not anytime soon.

So, Thane is going to live forever.  Because I say so.  And really, what better reason is there for a fictional character to live forever?

[By the by, Thane is not the only character I feel strongly about.  But I'm sure we'll get to those other ones in time.]