goddessofcheese:

kondratskiy:

Someone Else Might Have Gotten It Wrong by ~EllenSchebor

Augh, this kills me because Shepard knows he’s right.

Shepard is the person who is used to having to do the dirty work themselves. By now, they’re used to all the blood, all the scrapes, all the sweat and tears, and the players are too. They’re the heroes after all, and we expect them to have to suffer a bit for the greater good.

But when it’s a friend, it’s worse. You expected that you’d be doing all the dangerous, life-threatening stuff and still come out alive, ‘cause Hero (tm)! But then Mordin steps up, and you realize what a hero really is. Someone who knows they’re not coming back, but who’s okay with that, because it’s part of the bigger picture. Being a hero doesn’t mean you have to be muscled and scarred, that’s just a side effect sometimes.

Being a hero means knowing when to step up. Being a hero means knowing when to let go.