When I say I'm always learning new things about Mass Effect, even after multiple playthroughs, I'm not kidding.
I always play a Male Shepard, Spacer and Sole Survivor.
This time, I'm playing a Female Shepard, Colonist and War Hero.
And the Colonist part............... I have seen many posts over the years from many of you, and I always felt like that background was really sad, but I didn't get HOW SAD until I met Talitha.
Her story is devastating and the wording used to explain it is striking. The voice acting is incredible. Her suffering is felt so deeply.
And the whole time she was talking about her as an animal not getting a name (btw, "Animal don't get names" reminded me a lot of the dehumanization of Jack and her being called Subject Zero), about her "masters" putting metal all over her, her mom and dad telling her to "run" and dying after, I thought... My Shepard is right there and she lived it. She lived the raid. Her friends and family members are dead. And Talitha of course was rescued much later after the read.
Genuinely at this point i was like... It's fine, I'm not crying.
And Talitha asks: Why are you alive? Why are you-- Why aren't you like her? Broken. Only fit to dig and carry.
Shepard replied she was broken for a while, but had to keep going, as she said "pull herself up".
And playing her as I was, she comforted Talitha, gave her the sedative, telling her she won't have a bad dream:
The mission is a matter of de-escalation, and I think it's done very well. Lieutenant Girard is a good man. He and his men could have killed Talitha (as no doubt, others would have done) but he instead called Shepard. He even insisted that Shepard walk away if it doesn't work. He wanted to save Talitha so badly. And it shouldn't be unusual, it should be the norm.
The fact that the mission is written by Chris L'Etoile is also quite interesting.
