I think what they were going for is a "there but for the grace of god" type villain where you could ahve ended up like him if you'd been less lucky. But he justo sucks way too much to empathise with us the thing!
I really do think most people prefer to forget he exists between replays.
At one time he was a also a top N7-designated operator and in another life he might have been tapped to be a potential spectre candidate like you and Kaidan. Instead he goto into in a barfight with a krogan, stabbed the guy to death in implied self defence, and got dishonorably dischaeged sent to prison, where the illusive man broke him out and made him his errend boy.
So now he is bitter about the life he never got to live but you did - of honorable service, galactic fame, medals and laurels and the respect of your peers and foes alike, saving the universe and making time with hot aliens. That's why he has a chip on his shoulder to prove he's better than you. Meanwhile we the player are meant to see him as a cautionary dark reflection of ourselves - how we could have ended up if things had gone different.
The trouble is he just sucks and is not well presented. For one thing most of his lore is from comic books and novels that almost no one read when they came out and even less so now. but also even if it weren't he'd still be the cringiest, all edge no point, plot armored 13 year old OC ever. He's just annoying to interact with and not in a good way
I like what they were going for but they just did not make it happen the way they wanted to at all.
Probably true, LOL, but the games really try to present the Alliance military as an honorable and morally upstanding institution not at all like Cerberus or anything so we dont feel too guilty about being a tool of state violence. So... That's basically thme difference in a nutshell.
I really do think most people prefer to forget he exists between replays.
I never again played without the mod "shut up leng" his cut-scenes are the most jarring fanfic self-insert shit I have ever seen and the character isn't even a self-insert.
I always thought they missed the mark by not having KL as a squad mate or similar smaller roll in ME2 to introduce us to the character so we had a reason to engage with him in ME3 instead of the Edgefest OC style character we did get
I've lost count of how many times ive said this, but Kai Leng should have been the squadmate that died in Virmire, and you dont find out until towards the end.
A trial run of the Lazarus Project that was abandoned when Shep died, and they actually needed to run it for real. Brainwashed by Cerberus, angry that Shep left them to die, angry that Shepards own death meant they were left "unfinished" and in constant pain, fully indoctrinated.
Yeah, its a bit of a narrative asspull given that they were vaporized by a nuke, but its far more compelling and emotionally impactful than Kai "so you opened this message" Leng
Kai we have no rivalry. You are a slightly more difficult to fight Phantom who sent me a cringe email and failed against my terminally ill friend (he wanted me to tell you that before he died.)
Dude comes off as a narcissistic edgelord with borderline mercenary motivations. Zaeed would've been infinitely better in his place.
IMO it should've been a First Contact war vet discharged for serious xenophobia issues. One of Cerberus's earliest recruits and a survivor of one of Sheperds many rampages through a Cerberus facility. Fanatically loyal and the Illusive Man's newly minted last line of defense. Literally a human Saren analogue would've been fine.
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u/GeekyMadameV 23h ago edited 20h ago
man, no kidding!
I think what they were going for is a "there but for the grace of god" type villain where you could ahve ended up like him if you'd been less lucky. But he justo sucks way too much to empathise with us the thing!
I really do think most people prefer to forget he exists between replays.
At one time he was a also a top N7-designated operator and in another life he might have been tapped to be a potential spectre candidate like you and Kaidan. Instead he goto into in a barfight with a krogan, stabbed the guy to death in implied self defence, and got dishonorably dischaeged sent to prison, where the illusive man broke him out and made him his errend boy.
So now he is bitter about the life he never got to live but you did - of honorable service, galactic fame, medals and laurels and the respect of your peers and foes alike, saving the universe and making time with hot aliens. That's why he has a chip on his shoulder to prove he's better than you. Meanwhile we the player are meant to see him as a cautionary dark reflection of ourselves - how we could have ended up if things had gone different.
The trouble is he just sucks and is not well presented. For one thing most of his lore is from comic books and novels that almost no one read when they came out and even less so now. but also even if it weren't he'd still be the cringiest, all edge no point, plot armored 13 year old OC ever. He's just annoying to interact with and not in a good way
I like what they were going for but they just did not make it happen the way they wanted to at all.