Mass Effect 2 may have been released over a decade ago, but it seems there’s more to learn about the sci-fi action RPG. An interview with ex-BioWare writer Brian Kindregan revealed details about the studio’s original plans for the character Jack. He shared that Jack was originally written to “essentially” be a pansexual in Mass Effect 2, however BioWare ultimately changed those plans in response to media criticism.
In an interview with TheGamer, Kindregan provides a deeper context surrounding the situation in Mass Effect 2. He explains how he was the lead writer for notorious, romanceable outlaw Jack, as well as Samara and other parts of Mass Effect 2. Jack was written to be pansexual for most of Mass Effect 2‘s development, he said, in other words she was open to sexual relationships regardless of biological sex, gender, or gender identity.
As Mass Effect 2 players know, Jack is not pansexual or bisexual in the final game. She can only be romanced by a male John Shepard player character, implying that she’s straight despite quite a bit of dialogue from Jack which implies she’s pansexual, or at least open to relationships with both men and women. The plan to make her pansexual, or at least open to a relationship with fem-Shep, was rewritten sometime further into development.
The reason for the change, according to Kindregan, was to avoid the threat of a controversy started by Fox News. Kindregan explains how the original Mass Effect was a target of Fox News, since the game featured a same-sex relationship romance option between fem-Shep and Liara T’Soni. At least, it was an implied same-sex relationship, as T’Soni is from a mono-gender alien species in the game’s canon. Regardless, this was at the height of conversations in the media about same-sex marriage, and Fox News was targeting potential depictions of queer love.
Kindregan said that while the Mass Effect 2 development team was “pretty progression” and “open-minded,” developers at the high levels of BioWare were wary. He goes on to say that he doesn’t know the final reason for Jack not being written as a pansexual, but believes possibilities come down to a budget constraint or that Jack being queer was “too obvious.” Regardless, Kindregan said, “My sense was always that she was [pansexual] and it just didn’t get followed through.”
“A lot of us were asked pretty late to focus the relationships on a more traditional kind of vector,” Kindregan said. He still views Jack as pansexual, however, and said that he hopes “someday Jack will be portrayed as pan.” For the time being, BioWare’s apparent self-censorship of queer relationships in Mass Effect 2 may be seen as representative of the views of the time.
Mass Effect 2 is available now on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: TheGamer
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