Mass Effect Digressions 1 - Why I love it when Thane calls me 'Siha'

Note: I have been playing through Mass Effect. I will periodically post thoughts here.

I'm playing Shepard as a mostly paragon dutiful alliance officer. War Hero, Spacer. Bit of a fuck up when she's not fighting, but she wants to do her duty and do the right thing while she's doing it. The alliance military is and has always been her life.

So I play her in Mass Effect 2 as a woman who's had her identity taken away from her. She's no longer with the alliance, she's working for people she hates, and the military discipline she loves has been replaced by low life thugs like Zaeed and the insulting familiarity of Ms. 'Call Me Kelly' Chambers. She'd done things that she isn't sure she can live with, like helping Garrus murder people. In general she feels like she's gone from fighting on a battlefield to murdering mercs in back alleys. And she doesn't feel nearly as bad murdering said mercs as she should. She worries that she'll turn into Zaeed. So she spends her time getting black out drunk at Dark Star whenever she's not able to keep herself busy with the mission.

And then Thane comes along. Another killer who wants to make the universe a better place. And he looks her in the eyes and calls her a warrior angel, a protector of the innocent. He's saying that Shepard really is a guardian of humanity. And I think that's something she really needs to hear.


EDIT: I also doubt that Shepard's ever really been able to let someone see her whole self, except maybe a few old war buddies from Elyssium or the N7 program. I imagine her hiding from her boyfriend that the worst thing about Elyssium is that she misses it, and having to conceal how miserable the boredom of civilian life makes her, since he'd never understand that. With Thane she can share both who she is 'on the job' (and that job is her life) and off of it. And that seems like something she needs.