In a recent AMA on Reddit, Mass Effect writer Drew Karpyshyn revealed that fans’ desire to romance Garrus blindsided him and the team at BioWare. Once they saw that the thirst was real, they leaned into it for the sequel.
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Hold Me, Archangel
Fans of the Mass Effect series will be familiar with two things: the ability to chat up your crewmates in between missions and the ability to romance them after certain stipulations are met. In the first entry of BioWare’s trilogy, there was a comparatively small number of crewmates you could get fancy with, but that number increased with each subsequent installment. While it was evidently clear that someone like Liara T’Soni would become popular, it seems even the writers at BioWare were taken aback when interest in Garrus Vakarian reached a fever pitch.
Speaking about his experience working on the trilogy, Karpyshyn wrote, “I was a bit surprised fans wanted the romance options,” when discussing both Garrus and Tali’Zorah. “Tali I could sort of see… you never saw her face, so it was easy to imagine something vaguely human… Garrus blindsided me.” That sounds wild in retrospect, but one has to remember that most of the crew in the original game is only starting their journies. Garrus doesn’t have as much development as he would later see, so it’s not too unreasonable to assume people wouldn’t be interested in him. Then again, how could you not love him?
Laws of Attraction
As would become evident years down the line, Garrus rose in the ranks of Mass Effect’s companions to become a fan favorite. His somewhat cold demeanor and sarcastic edge create an aura of vulnerability that makes you want to hug him at every turn. Sadly, anyone looking to have space babies with him is out of luck as there is no interspecies reproduction in the series. As Karpyshyn explains, “The various species in Mass Effect are too biologically different to breed with each other. Except Asari, of course… it’s part of what made them unique.”
Maybe the upcoming Mass Effect 4 will change that rule and let Garrus have some human/turian younglings running around. That would certainly be a sight to behold.
