It seems that another Mass Effect 2 romance was initially planned to be implemented into the game, but was removed for fear of backlash. Jonathan Cooper, an animator who worked on Mass Effect 2, revealed on Twitter that a romance between party member Jacob Taylor and a male Commander Shepard was originally planned.
This news comes shortly after it was announced that Jack was also planned as a same-sex romance option in the game, but was cut due to concerns over potential outcry similar to the kind the original Mass Effect received from sources like Fox News about its romance scenes. While there was precedent for Jack being pansexual given some of her dialogue in the game, there wasn’t really anything in the game that hinted at Jacob being interested in men. Whether that is because Jacob’s romance was cut before Jack’s was is unclear, however.
As the game stands now, there are three major romance options for each gender in Mass Effect 2: Jack, Tali, and Miranda for men and Thane, Jacob, and Garrus for women. Both genders had the option to strike up more minor romances with Kelly, Samara, and Morinth however.
Jacob Taylor, for those who may not be familiar with the series, is one of the several human squadmates in Mass Effect 2. He is a part of the pro-human black ops group known as Cerberus and works alongside Shepard to take down the mysterious race of aliens known as the Collectors. He is also a biotic, someone who can manipulate dark energy. Jacob ended up being one of the least popular romance options in Mass Effect 2, and his romance storyline was effectively dropped in Mass Effect 3. It’s possible that more players would have pursued him had he been available for men to date.
One thing about both the removal of Jack and Jacob as same-sex romance options that is strange is the fact that, as previously mentioned, Kelly, Samara, and Morinth could have romantic interactions with the player regardless of gender. That means that there were already romantic interactions between a female Shepard and other female characters in the game. It is true however that there weren’t any male same-sex relationships in the game. It’s possible Bioware thought that would cause more backlash for some reason than female same-sex relationships.
Regardless of any potential blowback Bioware would have received for either same-sex romance option, Dragon Age: Origins already took that risk. In that game, which came out in 2009 before Mass Effect 2, Zevran, a male elf was able to be romanced by a man, and Leliana, a female human, was able to be romanced by a woman. Both romance options featured romance scenes as well, so it’s unclear what the Mass Effect team feared that the Dragon Age team didn’t.
Mass Effect 2 is available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be released in Spring 2021 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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