February 14th – better known as Valentine’s Day – is a day to celebrate love, or at least an excuse to buy boxes of chocolates. As such, I couldn’t let an opportunity to babble about the bond between Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian pass me by.
Garrus is often regarded as the ultimate best friend. Throughout the entire Mass Effect trilogy, Garrus consistently comes to Shepard’s aid whenever needed with no questions asked. Well, he might ask questions, but only after shots are fired. The point being that Garrus is always ready to help Shepard no matter what the galaxy throws at them. While Garrus isn’t the only Normandy crewmember around for all three games, he earns the spot as Shepard’s right hand man by degree of availability compared to the others. He’s trustworthy, only a call away, great with a sniper rifle, and he’s hilarious. And, if players decide to explore a different side of him, he can also be my – I mean Shepard’s, of course… – boyfriend.
If it’s not evident yet by the above sentence, or like the fact I’m making an entire post on the subject, I’m a huge fan of Shepard and Garrus’ relationship. I had heard great things about it, so I decided to go for his romance route during my first Mass Effect playthrough. However, I expected to have a good time and I absolutely did not expect to be left with a lingering semi-depression after Mass Effect 3. So much so that I have yet to make posts about Mass Effect 2 and 3. But that’s a subject for another day… This day is all about Garrus.
I am a simple woman who enjoys a nice romance story, and this one was great. Not saying it’s the greatest love story or anything, but romance that involves two friends getting to know each other and slowly falling in love is very sweet and nice. It’s important that players got to see Garrus and Shepard interact as friends and teammates before delving into what would become a serious relationship. They had each other’s back before the spark of feelings, and that’s the true test of a strong bond. Garrus isn’t a romanceable character until Mass Effect 2 due to BioWare mistakenly thinking nobody would want to romance a Turian. I hope the mountains of fanfic and Garrus appreciation posts on Reddit have shown them just how wrong they were.
When Shepard makes her feelings clear, Garrus shows a totally different awkward and clueless side to him. The battle-hardened veteran who has no problem keeping his cool in a fight is completely clueless about women. The fact that Garrus is a Turian and Shepard is a Human just makes things that much more interesting. Watching these two test the waters of their relationship and move past their uncertainty until they become much more confident in Mass Effect 3 was really sweet. I think that if I didn’t choose to romance Garrus, Mass Effect 3 wouldn’t have hit so hard for me.
I still have hope that the upcoming Mass Effect game will include both characters in some way, or at least allude to their life after the Reaper War. Maybe it’s best to keep it vague as many players have their own headcanon for what happened with them, and my personal canon involves several adopted Krogan children. So happy Valentine’s Day and, if anyone reading this is lucky enough to have a Garrus in their life, make sure to express your appreciation for them. Because there’s no Shepard without Vakarian.