For my 200th post, I'm honoured to welcome guest blogger K.C. Alexander, Author of Necrotech from Angry Robot Books, oh and she's played the occasional game.Mass Effect & Writing
I think it’s no secret that I love Bioware
games. With the exception of one—okay, two
notable abominations, I have been a Bioware fanatic since Knights of the Old
Republic (please, we will not speak of The Unfortunate
Sequel). To date, I have over 500 hours clocked in to the Mass Effect
franchise, creeping up on 400 in Dragon Age, and prepping for more as Mass
Effect: Andromeda nears its release date.
Anyone who has read my books and played the
games probably realize exactly how much playing these games flavors my writing.
First of all, Bioware has made a fucking art out of turning a protagonist into A
Protagonist™. Of course it’s always about the player in a single-player RPG,
but Bioware takes it a step farther.
Between Bioware’s steadfast refusal to
canonize Shepard, for example, and their loud and proud public line of
validating the player’s choices, they make clear that whatever your Shepard
did, it was their choice, the right
choice for Shepard, and that’s that.
If it meant your Shepard was a stonecold
bastard who Renegaded every chance he got and slept around with everyone he
could before the romances tangled? Then that’s Shepard.
If your Shepard was a hardcore diplomat with
a heart of gold, cozied up to Liara in the first game but fell for Thane’s
“gonna die” zen in the second? That’s Shepard!
Did he die?
Did she live?
Did he make the choice to finish the
mission?
Did she decide to play god?
Any option, all options, specifically
chosen by the player in the moment, combined to create a powerful, solid,
thought-filled (if not thoughtful) character. Was she woman? Who cares! Was he
a man? Who cares! Did he sleep with other men? Who cares! Did she sleep with eeeerreone? Who cares!
You, as they say, got to do you, boo. And
Bioware didn’t flinch.
Mass Effect inspired generations of gamers
to believe that their choices, their character, their dialogue mattered, and
they only got better with time.
So I thought to myself… Who says I have to
stay in a lane designated by some old white guys back in the day? With all due
respect to them, I am neither old (yet) or a guy (mostly), but I am white, and
as a white female-presenting author, I was tired of being told that my
protagonists had to be “heroes”. That they had to be “redeemed”. That they
couldn’t have flaws that would make them “unlikable”—and counted among them, I
felt, were protagonists of color. Of sexuality different than what the
stereotypical “men can sleep around for virility and women can’t because
chastity” trope demands.
My Shepard is a badass woman who talked a good Paragon game and pulled
a fast Renegade hand. She’s a woman who fell for a crewmate and made a hard
fucking choice, only to be betrayed by that same crewmate. She’s pansexual,
hard-assed, with a sense of humor and a fierce protectiveness for her crew.
But she ain’t afraid to hit ‘em if they
come at her. Or get punched for her troubles.
My Shepard has never been sexually
harassed.
I took these choices—this right to make these choices—and I wrote Necrotech without bowing to the
establishment. Riko is a thug: angry, loud and crass. She’s a multi-racial
balls-to-the-wall woman—shit-talking, sex-loving, aggressively flawed and
incredibly skilled. The kind of ambulatory tech-sporting bundle of energy and
sinew you hope to god you never meet on the thrashdance floor because she’ll
take you out at the knees and leave you with the trash when last call rolls up.
Shepard made choices that no one else can
take away from her. So does Riko. As The Protagonist™, her story is her own.
Maybe readers will see their playstyle or themselves in her, in her swag or her
mistakes, but I never bend to someone else’s demand that my characters be
something else. I didn’t start in Dragon Age, when that bastard noble
interrupted my wedding, I didn’t start when those old white dudes in SF/F told
me women weren’t supposed to act “like men”, and I ain’t starting to bend now.
So thanks, Bioware. Thanks for showing me
that I could tell the story I wanted
to tell, and that it could be epic and heartwrenching and badass and never even
bother to take beauty, gender or tired old limitations into account.
Riko is what she is. She makes the
decisions she does because of who she is. I stand by them.
Any good RPG would, too.
About the Author
About K C Alexander
K C Alexander is the mostly human, occasional Outer God, and author of Necrotech – a transhumanist sci-fi called “a violent thrillride” by award-nominated noir urban fantasy author Stephen Blackmoore. Previous writing credits include a critically acclaimed stint as Karina Cooper, where she won an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for her steampunk urban fantasy series and contributed to well-received collections such as Fireside Fiction Magazine, Protectors 2: Heroes, and Last Night, a Superhero Saved My Life.
After peeling off sixteen layers of outer chitin and hiding the evidence across dimensional planes, K. C. Alexander is now indistinguishable from the rest of the human species. She intends to make the most of this by writing transhumanist sci-fi, epic fantasy, and speculative fiction of all stripes.You can find K C online at her website and on Twitter as @kacealexander
Street thug Riko has some serious issues — memories wiped, reputation tanked, girlfriend turned into a tech-fueled zombie. And the only people who can help are the mercenaries who think she screwed them over.
In an apathetic society devoid of ethics or regulation, where fusing tech and flesh can mean a killing edge or a killer conversion, a massive conspiracy is unfolding that will alter the course of the human condition forever. With corporate meatheads on her ass and a necro-tech blight between her and salvation, Riko is going to have to fight meaner, work smarter, and push harder than she’s ever had to. And that’s just to make it through the day.
This post is part of Blaugust 2016, an initiative to Blog throughout August. For more information visit the Tales of the Aggronaut Blog
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