The difference a year makes: Romanced Miranda and Shepard
(Note: Post uses mods for both appearances as well as to enable a previously cut but voiced FemShep/Miranda romance, but these mods do not alter dialogue.)
In one of the first dialogues between Miranda and Shepard in Mass Effect 2, Shepard can try to get to know Miranda - but she rebuffs you coldly, noting "I'm not looking for a friend, Shepard. Stay focused on the mission.
The first time you meet Miranda on the Citadel in ME3, if you romanced her, the conversation could not be more different than your early days in ME2.
After taking a few moments saying hello and wanting to know if the Alliance has a plan for the Reapers (already a massive change), a romanced Miranda becomes the most vulnerable we've seen her so far.
Tenderly wanting to know...is there still a place for her in Shepard's life? Is she part of the plan?
It's here that something very interesting happens. If you say yes, Shepard all but proposes to Miranda. "You're the only one I want. I'd like to spend my life with you." It's the closest thing that a soldier in an apocalyptic war against the Reapers can offer - and it's one of a small number of Bioware romances where either party is already talking lifelong commitments - and it happens with nearly a full game to go.
Conversely, dumping Miranda is different than most others. Two VERY specific things happen if you break up with her.
While her voice tries to put on a veneer of stoicism and the previous 'coldness', Miranda is sobbing. We see it on camera for just a moment before the mask comes back on...and she immediately excuses herself.
She refuses further meetings with Shepard, resulting in her death later in the game. Formally breaking up with Miranda so thoroughly breaks her heart it leads to her death.
Because of how Miranda is perceived in general (both because of her early-ME2 coldness and because of the combination of early 2010s gamerbro marketing and persistently online gooners), one of the most devoted romances in Mass Effect is sitting just under everyone's nose. (and yes, BroShep's dialogue is basically the same.)
If you commit to Miranda Lawson, if you truly mean it she will love your Shepard with such unfaltering loyalty she is willing to tell The Illusive Man to go fuck himself, even if it means risking Oriana's future safety (which happens when TIM starts working with Henry Lawson). She will stand there and wish with you about the future even as the universe burns to the ground.
She'll love you so much, so hard, she literally can't stop smiling while teasing you to stop too.
And if you go back on it, if she opens the vault door to her heart to you and you force her to close it, it will so thoroughly break her spirit it leaves her open to the agent of her eventual death.
She is the only Mass Effect romance that cries if you break up with them.
She is the only Mass Effect romance whose death is caused by a breakup.
"Ice Queen"? Hardly.
