I told the interactive comic I was with Liara in ME1. In ME2, I kissed her at least twice, and we talked about our relationship. At the beginning of ME3 I told her i wanted to keep it going, and she then proceeded to kiss me again. Then suddenly, after shit goes down on the Citadel, it's all "I'm glad to have you... as a friend." To which I responded that I want to be more than just friends, which I thought we already were. "I guess you're lucky I feel the same way."

Would it have been that hard to record the extra 1 or 2 lines of dialogue it would've taken to acknowledge my blue-alien-love-making?

I was wondering if the other returning love interests get this treatment as well.

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

Yeah, it was kinda indicated throughout that I was with Liara throughout ME1,2,3 but that scene on the citadel is weird. They could have done a better job indicating that shepard/liara are together.

It is especially weird considering Shadow Broker that the relationship was rekindled.

Yeah, I also experienced that scene on the Citadel which I found to be very weird even since it was pretty clear what my Shepard and Liara's relationship was in ME1, ME2 and the Shadow Broker DLC.

Hmm, I don't know about the Liara thing, but let me tell you my Ashley experience, make what you will. I romanced her in 1 and was told off by her in 2 like everyone else.

@Pazy said:

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

This. All my dialogue with Tali in ME3 made referernce to us being a couple in love. Even when she gets drunk she shouts about drinking with her Human boyfriend. That was awesome.

The interaction with Jack was pretty good after you continue it after 2 into 3. It's always acknowledged by both characters too.

Also WTF at that bit where you go into mind space with her.

I love Liara as a character and she'll always be my Shepard's true love interest, let Tali and Garrus have each other.

Yes some of the romantic scenes could have been better.

Yeah, I had that happen too, but I had assumed it was because I had in-game sex with Miranda in the second (though I like Tali and Liara more), so when I met up with Miranda in the game again, I did everything paragon. I just assumed that's the reason she had acted only as a friend. I guess not, but whatever. I don't know why, but I already feel like ME3 is somewhat old news by now.

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed in the continuation of the Liara romance going into 3, especially after being one of the very few stayed faithful:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/6074641/1

ME2 Romance Statistics:

Miranda - 42%

Tali - 26%

Jack - 6%

Jacob - 1%

Garrus - 5%

Thane - 2%

Kelly - 4%

Samara - 2%

Morinth - 1%

Nobody - 13%

Basically this means that about 20% of people didn't take advantage of romance options in ME2, and of those, I have no idea how it breaks down as far as people who skipped the first game or didn't bother with romance in that, and people who picked Ashley, but let's assume that maybe 10% of ME2 players stayed faithful to Liara.

It was super obvious whenever I was seeing a scene that was trying to pull double duty for new converts to the series. It was also kind of gross. I guess the main difference between the Liara and Tali romances were that with Tali, there were only two possible states: In love or friends. With Liara, they reduced it to that too, with some very, VERY minor references to the first game, and that made it feel incredibly unnatural. I mean, let's get real here. If you played the first game, you MURDERED her mom. She's responsible for bringing you back from the dead, and the motivations for that are going to be INCREDIBLY strong, either through loyalty or love. There's no way around that. Here, she brings up her mom again and there isn't even a little bitterness about that fact, no illogical blame placed at your feet. Here, she stands with a person she brought back from the dead through determination and love and she's incredibly civil and professional (as if she could have only recently just met you, hmmm). Nothing at all that makes it feel like it was worth it holding a torch for her all this time because it feels like you're getting the exact same romance dialogue as a complete neophyte to the series with the solitary exception of one line of dialogue on Mars where Liara asks where you two stand.

I went with Tali, and I'm pretty satisfied with how it went.

Yes I agree it felt a bit wonky to feel like you had to 'romance' her all over again even though you're clearly very much back together after Lair of the Shadow Broker and remained faithful.

With that said, I played the first couple of levels on a default Shepard without prior saves and when meeting Liara it was all "Oh hey there. Nice to see you again." While when I used my ME1-ME2 < ME3 save Shepard, that little smirk both of them flash when they see each other was pretty much a reminder that, yeah these two have something more together. The little things always helped cement and remind me that things at least happened in the past and shouldn't be forgotten, and I can appreciate that.

@onan: How did they romance Samara? Even with maxed out paragon, Samara will not give up her obligations. She resists kissing Shepard, then she walks away to be alone.

Rekindling relationships at the Citadel was a little awkward. The first person you talk to should be the one you want to be with. I didn't want to be the one giving, "we should be friends speech". Once that decision is made the other people will except you as a friend. Of course in real life it never seems to work out that way.

@SamStrife said:

@Pazy said:

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

This. All my dialogue with Tali in ME3 made referernce to us being a couple in love. Even when she gets drunk she shouts about drinking with her Human boyfriend. That was awesome.

Yeah, I really feel like the Tali relationship has the most payoff. You get to see her face (I don't care it's a stock photo, it doesn't matter) and you get some great dialogue and fun moments like a drunk Tali.

I was pretty disappointed with how disjointed the romance scenes were. Again, I went with Liara and despite sticking with her through all three games (skipping a romance in ME2) I still got the weird "I'm glad we're friends" scene. I'm guessing they did that in case you changed your mind and wanted to go with someone else, but I think they could have been handled a lot better. Although a few of the scenes with her really well nice.

@AlisterCat said:

@SamStrife said:

@Pazy said:

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

This. All my dialogue with Tali in ME3 made referernce to us being a couple in love. Even when she gets drunk she shouts about drinking with her Human boyfriend. That was awesome.

Yeah, I really feel like the Tali relationship has the most payoff. You get to see her face (I don't care it's a stock photo, it doesn't matter) and you get some great dialogue and fun moments like a drunk Tali.

Agree 100%.

@Zleunamme said:

@onan: How did they romance Samara? Even with maxed out paragon, Samara will not give up her obligations. She resists kissing Shepard, then she walks away to be alone.

Rekindling relationships at the Citadel was a little awkward. The first person you talk to should be the one you want to be with. I didn't want to be the one giving, "we should be friends speech". Once that decision is made the other people will except you as a friend. Of course in real life it never seems to work out that way.

I think it was a poll and not something reported by the software or anything, although I guess it could have. I would have fallen under the Samara romance option, as well as the Kelly option. Given the choice, I would have hooked up with Samara in ME2, she was my absolute favorite "love interest" out of the ones available in each game. The resolution is one of mutually acknowledged attraction, but she doesn't want to pursue a relationship because it could only result in another ardat-yakshi, which I could totally respect and understand. She basically has Asari AIDS.

@AlisterCat said:

@SamStrife said:

@Pazy said:

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

This. All my dialogue with Tali in ME3 made referernce to us being a couple in love. Even when she gets drunk she shouts about drinking with her Human boyfriend. That was awesome.

Yeah, I really feel like the Tali relationship has the most payoff. You get to see her face (I don't care it's a stock photo, it doesn't matter) and you get some great dialogue and fun moments like a drunk Tali.

you get drunk Tali either way, she just doesn't call you her boyfriend, and, as much as I like her, I can't help but feel she's better with Garrus anyway. They're both dextro-amino based, and can therefore cook eachother dinner without poisoning eachother.

I actually thought the Romance was handled rather poorly this time around, at least in comparison to ME2 (though you could say that about a lot of other things between them). I mean if you romanced Jack, Miranda, Samara/Morinth/ Kelly Chambers, Thane and Jacob then there wasn't really much there to be gotten. Granted, Thane dies since he has Kepler Syndrome but I had hoped that they would give him more dialogue. But Jacob? Ooooh boy he ends up impregnating another woman and says my real love was the Normandy.

The only really developed ones were Liara (of course considering she seems to be the canon LI), Ashley/Kaidan, who are rather likeable but otherwise still "YOU'RE WITH CERBERUS!" annoying which is funny because Tali and Garrus are probably the most loyal of your squaddies. At least they got real good dialogue and scenes though it was slightly unusual to see them hook up if you don't romance either since that came out of nowhere (bar a couple of lines in ME3). Cortez and Traynor are likeable as well though there's something about Traynor's arc that feels a little shoehorned in (that shower scene for example). I don't mind too much since my main LIs were Tali/Garrus but yeah, they could've done a better job overall I thought.

@WiqidBritt: None one has my Tali but me!

And yeah she gets drunk wither way but the fact that she has a different dialogue depending on whether she's a love intrest is awesome and something the OP feels Liara lacks.

I went with Ashley in ME1 and immediately switched over to my lovely test tube baby, Miranda in ME2. I continued with the Miranda arc in ME2, because, well, I don't really like Ash, and she is kind of a space racist. Miranda's arc was good, but could have been great had I been allowed to bring her along with me. Also, (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) - Miranda lived in my version of ME, but I have youtube'd the alternate scene, where she dies and THAT is some heart wrenching shit. Also, if you turn her down on the Citadel, she takes it pretty poorly.

I think it would be really funny if you never romanced someone in 1, tried romancing Samara in 2 (Fail because of her crazy code) and never get anywhere with anyone in 3 because of attachment issues, world going to end, etc...

@WiqidBritt said:

@AlisterCat said:

@SamStrife said:

@Pazy said:

I went with Tali in ME 2 and 3, they make it pretty clear thats its a continuing thing.

This. All my dialogue with Tali in ME3 made referernce to us being a couple in love. Even when she gets drunk she shouts about drinking with her Human boyfriend. That was awesome.

Yeah, I really feel like the Tali relationship has the most payoff. You get to see her face (I don't care it's a stock photo, it doesn't matter) and you get some great dialogue and fun moments like a drunk Tali.

you get drunk Tali either way, she just doesn't call you her boyfriend, and, as much as I like her, I can't help but feel she's better with Garrus anyway. They're both dextro-amino based, and can therefore cook eachother dinner without poisoning eachother.

haha, that's a good way of looking at it.

Morinth is the way to go when it comes to romance.

Also i found the Liara dialog weird,but it still was different if you had romanced her. If you romanced her in ME3 she seems a little freaked when Shepard tells her he/she wants to spend the rest of their lives together. The whole conversation will "lock" the romance so if you wanted to change your mind mid-game you could go someone else.

I want to see how Liara/Ashley or Tali react if i choose Steve in ME3 instead of them :D

I didn't have such a weird reaction. I'm Tali all the way, but for my playthrough I romanced Miranda in ME2 and Liara in ME3 (and 1).

The talk on the citadel was fine...though to be honest I didn't pay much attention. I found her whining during the destruction of her home planet a bit much. What about Earth and Palevan? Whiney bitch.

@Sitoxity said:

The interaction with Jack was pretty good after you continue it after 2 into 3. It's always acknowledged by both characters too.

I’ve just recently finished my second play through as I’d originally picked Samantha (Traynor) as my love interest and Kelly had been killed by Cerberus. Liara was and should have been the one for me, so feeling guilty, I jumped back into the game again to get my true love and also save Kelly.

So with Kelly saved and my love for Liara still to be fully confirmed, I found some interesting dialogue options with Kelly. She spoke about having someone close what with the war and shit going on. This presented me with an option to say I loved her or turn her down.

I turned her down. Then went off to speak with Liara and the scene about confirming our relationship took place as many of you have already mentioned.

I reloaded my save and told Kelly I loved her, wondering if I’d still have the relationship confirming option with Liara. And surprisingly I did, there was no repercussions.

I reloaded my save again and instead spoke to Liara first, told her she was fucking awesome and wanted more and headed off to see Kelly. No options at all came up with Kelly.

And once again I think Mass Effect is fucking awesome in how it can change and adjust different outcomes.

I'm actually kind of disappointed you don't get to bone down on Sha'ira the Consort again. It would have brought the game around full circle, too. You left the Citadel the first time a young man/woman full of potential. You return a galactic hero on the eve of your greatest battle.

"Nelyna, cancel all of my appointments for today. The Commander and I will be... busy."

"Yes ma'am."