Thank you Jennifer Hale, for Ms. Shepard

Mass Effect: The Need For Strong Female Characters – Up at Noon

What Commander Shepard actually looks like
What Commander Shepard actually looks like

 

On the IGN show Up at Noon, Greg Miller sits down with Jennifer Hale to talk about the Mass Effect series, one of many games she has been a voice actor on; and discusses the necessity of having more strong female characters and leads in video games.

I have never played through the Mass Effect series as a male Commander Shepard, partially out of reluctance to be a one-dimensional head-cracking meathead but primarily because Ms. Shepard is just a better character to play.

This video is most predictably a honeypot for raging mouth-breathers like the ones I’ve written about previously, featuring such gems as:

This guy may be a member of the proud and not at all insufferable "Men's Rights Movement"
This guy may be a member of the proud, responsible, and not at all insufferable “Men’s Rights Movement” or “Seduction Community”

So feminists have apparently ruined Sci-Fi Fantasy for pasty misogynists everywhere, and the final refuge of the armchair lady-haters is under siege by the horrifying spectacle of women being portrayed as equally capable as men. I am admittedly curious if Theodisc is the kind of fella that needs to reinforce his masculinity every day before he can ride his big wheel on down to the local Game Stop to impress his peers with exciting tales of homophobia conducted entirely on Xbox Live, but not enough to want any contact with someone that may be still contagious with Category Five Stupid. A quick trip to other comments this person has made indicates that it’s a really important crusade he’s on, another practitioner of the proud Internet Warrior Tradition.

If it ruins gaming to have more female characters and to put a much-deserved end the sweaty sausage fest of vidya games, I don’t see any problem with that — You’ll always have Leisure Suit Larry.