Mass Effect’s Kaidan Alenko
The Mass Effect universe’s finest Canadian has always gotten the short end of the stick in Mass Effect—quite literally, as even with the re-release of the trilogy this year, most of the ME fanbase let Kaidan babysit a nuke in the first game and save his fellow human foil, Ashley. That means many don’t get to see Kaidan’s arc across his brief return in ME2 and as a fully-fledged part character once more in the third game. Revisiting the series this year with Mass Effect Legendary Edition, especially with the critical intent to play my Shepard as a gay man after years grappling with my own sexuality’s relationship to Mass Effect’s heteronormative systems, Kaidan became a character I shaped my playthrough around as one of the rare chances that Mass Effect’s relationship systems let queer men express their identity. But it also reminded me just what a good character he can be, the human heart and grounding point for an adventure wildly beyond the scale of his or our imagining—and how unfortunate it is many people don’t let him live long enough in their playthroughs to make that clear. – James Whitbrook
