Her introduction and first conversations on the Normandy are dire. There she's a generic angry tattoo girl. I have no liking for that cardboard cutout archetype because it's almost always a shortcut instead of a personality. For one thing it's typically impossible to work out whether angry female = tattoos, attitude and shaved head, or shaved head, tattoos and attitude = angry female. That might sound like a silly thing to say; it's not. Which came first? Who was this person before? Often there is no before, or the before is a hazy bundle of cliche "This must make a woman go crazy for revenge!" tropes. She got raped and her family was killed. Her fiance was murdered by a drug cartel and she was possibly raped. She was abducted as a child and abused, and experimented on. Note the rape obsession with this trope. That's it, no actual depth, only cheap comic book ideas that don't affect the character in any way other than the makeover and sweary-kill attitude.
Jack's loyalty mission changes the character's presentation. When she suggested turning around and giving up on the bomb, that's when I started paying attention to her. If you drag her around in your party and talk to her at specific spots (e.g. the men's toilets on citadel) you find out a little more about her past. There's more to her than the generic rage, extreme makeovers, swearing and an obsession with killing. Most importantly, for once there's been some thought about how the traumas she's survived would affect her as a person. It's not the total shortcut of "She's been abused so she must swear at everybody!" Hidden deep inside Jack is the little girl who wanted to play with the other children. She's a mix between vulnerable and tough. Conflicted. Wanting to do 'normal things and at a loss of how to do it and terrified of something bad coming at her as a result. She knows she can kill with a thought and enjoys it, and knows she has been conditioned to enjoy it and so hates it at the same time. When she returns to the lab she is on the verge of having a breakdown, skirting on the edge of control, torn between running away and blowing it up. That is realistic, and the major difference between the generic angry tatto girl and Jack. Ms Generic wouldn't be affected.
Deep down Jack wants to move on, to be something else, and she will admit it. That's somewhat rare in this character cutout; normally they revel in what they've become and don't want to be anything else, often with generic proclamations about being anything else meaning being weak or vulnerable. Daft; no one ever wants to be so damaged, no matter how deeply they hide it. Hence blowing up the lab, and her comments later if you persuade her to let the other test subject live. At the same time and about as rare, there's no suggestion that a wave of the hand and a bit of love from a good man and she'll return to being a normal human being; such heavy psychological trauma cannot be washed away as though it never happened. If you handle Jack correctly you can see a bit of change, she's more in control, more willing to talk, and thinking about herself and what she wants to do next ... but she's still the damaged person she was at the beginning.
The other thing which helped Jack is that Bioware appear to have conceived Subject Zero first and the angry tattoo girl second. Jack's treatment by Cerberus is an important part of the story, it's the reminder that this group is not as nice as the Illusive Man would have you believe. She has every reason to be the way she is and the reasons came first, not second.
And, at the end, having her loyalty and thinking all of this, there was no way I'd choose her for the biotic shield part of the suicide mission. She's loyal to herself, has a grudging appreciation for Shepard, and couldn't give two figs about any of the others. Why would - or should - she put herself at such risk to protect them? It's not who she is. It's be great if she could but I wouldn't bet others' lives on her. I expect that if you have ticked the right boxes she will keep everyone alive ... I think the character works best if you never find out.
My Shepard was female. A male Shepard would have access to other insights; I hear she's romancable. Really not sure how that would work. Could be ok, could be a characterisation disaster.
Re: Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread
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Originally Posted by johnhughthom
in ME1. 
and I do hope they keep it for future games.
#Hillary4prism 
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