Character Spotlight | Tali’Zorah Vas Normandy

After over a month absence, we’re happy to again bring the Romance DLC community another Character Spotlight . This week’s column discusses our favorite Quarian engineer, Tali’Zorah, and was written by Noelemahc over at HTL.  Here’s what he has to say about himself:

“I like all sorts of games, although if we’re getting down to brass tacks, I’m an “oldgamer” — Wasteland, Rogue and Rise of the Triad are among my favorites. I’ve been playing for over 20 years (out of my 26.5 years of living, yeah!) and it has probably coloured my subsequent existence in a strong way…”

An interesting aspect of the modern role-playing game genre (although, to an extent, this applies to any and all video games with sufficient player agency) is the fact that looking back on the decisions you’ve made during gameplay may bring you unexpected revelations about yourself and the way you view the world.

The fandom’s relationship with Tali’Zorah nar Rayya is an interesting example. Like many others, I was exposed to her for the first time not really in that dark alley next to Chora’s Den, but rather in Ambassador Udina’s office, with the debriefing, the swift revelations about Saren’s true turncoat nature and, of course, the way the incriminating evidence came to be discovered…and it left a mixed impression. An Eastern European accent, her face hidden behind a mask, the entirety of her body covered by the envirosuit, she initially presents as a pastiche of stereotypes about the Near and Middle East (the revelation that she even ran into the Geth because she was on her Pilgrimage added some weight to that particular camel’s back), but…

So, yeah, I was one of those weirdos that liked her way back in the first game, and though the initial cause was the cute accent (and what little you could make out of her face through that faceplate adding to it) and the wonderful curve of her hips, it blossomed out from that because of how she was written. That is when most (if not all) of the preconceptions you may have built based off your earlier assumptions come crashing down.

Tali is an Admiral’s daughter.  In her society that’s like being the daughter of a politburo member, and while it didn’t alter her workload, it did change how she was perceived by her peers — something she obviously minded when it happened. Despite her status, there is no place for nepotism in Quarian society, so she was thrust out into the world on her Pilgrimage with no sense of direction. Then, of all the space stations, and all the Alliance commanders she could have bumped into, it was Commander Shepard (on the Citadel, with a pipe wren — oh, wait, wrong game).

You see, just like most other major characters in the Mass Effect ‘verse, Tali is flawed. Not in the writing sense, but in the human sense. Nobody’s perfect. People that perfect are just hiding some hideous secret that will one day jump out of the closet, astride a skeleton, and shoot you dead with a jellybean fired from a bellows. People that are flawed, however, are interesting, as their flaws and limitations define who they are and, largely, why they are who they are. It’s a sign of good good writing when a character is believably flawed — and we’re not talking “oh, she’s educated and smart and pretty but every full moon she turns into a freakish monster that has FRECKLES!”, but rather “oh, so that’s why she grew up that way!”. And, no, neither do I mean the immuno-challenged envirosuit confinement.

In Mass Effect, Tali was obviously intended to be the “little sister” archetype (much like Imoen in Baldur’s Gate, for example…and that example didn’t turn out the way the authors planned for the fandom either!), mostly serving as a source of world-building information on Quarian society and the origin of the Geth as a way to give Shepard better insight into his electronic foes. Nobody probably ever planned for her to become an object of affectation for gamers, because, speaking frankly, she’s a geek and not the typical idea of a babe love interest for the hero. The accent, the shy demeanour, the fascination with machinery (which is, again, an actual necessity in the Quarian lifestyle) — most of it is simply due to the difference in cultural values (and shipboard safety regulations, judging by her paranoia about how quiet the Normandy’s engines are) and not actual intent to, well, “woo” people like me who like geeky girls. Sidebar: it should be noted, as any Scooby-Doo viewer will attest, there is some sort of conspiracy in Western media to portray geeky girls as having wider hips than other cast members.

In retrospect, of course, the factors that endear Tali to the players who jump at the chance to romance her in Mass Effect 2 are also those that make her life outside of Shepard’s presence so problematic.  She’s given her own team to command in the second game, and if you play your cards right (which you probably do if you’re romancing her), she even joins the Admiralty Board in the third! But her track record whenever Shepard’s not around isn’t actually that great  — she has a problem with self-doubt, not enough steel in her spine or voice, and frankly speaking, her issues with disobedient underlings probably stem from their opinion of her being a xenophiliac.

However, these same flaws also paint a life-like portrait of a driven young woman seeking any and all options to prove herself to her people — but more importantly, to herself — as she struggles with blind prejudice against her race outside the Flotilla. All this, of course, and the fact that she provides Commander Shepard with an emotional grounding. She supports him in any way she can, and in the long run, probably teaches the Universe a thing or two about the irrelevance of obstacles dividing two hearts in love — especially those silly things such as race, amino-acid compatibility or physical contact. Personally, that’s one more thing that attracted me to her. Who cares what she looks like under that mask? She’s still awesome, and with proper precautions, even that obstacle can be overcome.

And overcome it was.

There is a throwaway phrase in the third game that many people overlook, but which carries stout significance to Tali especially, as a Quarian.

“There is no more allergic reaction. My body has adapted to you.”

This phrase carries more significance than a simple acceptance of the fact that her biology has synced itself with Shepard’s – it is the victory over the Quarian people’s main woe, the weakening of their immune systems by so many generations of life in filter-scrubbed recycled air of starships. It is the seed of hope that one day, their world, her world — the world by this point that Shepard has already helped liberate — will truly be theirs once again.

You can blame me all you want for being overly clinical in my description, but it’s the only way I can think of to carry this point across without overusing cat smiley emoticons (for reference, it’s one of these: =3 ). Tali’s journey is more than a simple story of star-crossed lovers overcoming the obstacles on their path to each other, it is, essentially, the journey of an entire race towards redemption in the galaxy…and that way lies through the acceptance of others.

Although, it is also a tale of gorgeous hips, arachnophobia, covering up dark family secrets (useful tip: if your loved one helps you bury your familial skeletons in the closet, hang on to them!) and way too much squeeing than should normally be heard from what is supposed to be a grown-up man playing what is supposed to be a grown-up game about outer space. Of course, you do get to shoot and maim lots of multicoloured aliens and humans and robots — a detail which I shouldn’t neglect to include on the off chance that I’m at risk for having my “manliness card” revoked for being too mushy about Tali (my feelings of who really can’t be directly put into words).

Still, in the end that is the core of what makes Talimancers such a mixed and singled-out category of Mass Effect fans. We probably care too much. But is that such a bad thing?

Noelemahc is a game reviewer and editor on holdtheline.com. Fantastic Spotlight and many thanks for your contribution, Noel!

Remember, if you want to write a Character Spotlight for ME3 Cosmic Love, just follow the criteria in this post, and send your submission to sarah_ann_mann on HTL or sarahann62380 on BSN!