How do you feel your relationship turned out?​

PW: I’m fortunate to have gay and lesbian friends at BioWare who were willing to take a look at Traynor for me and help me edit a few bad lines that played into negative stereotypes. As for the fans, the reaction has been very positive so far – I think the nicest thing I’ve heard was, “I think I’ve actually had that conversation in real life.” The largest concern I’ve heard in feedback about Traynor is that people want more conversations with her – which I think holds true for just about every romance in the game.

Traynor’s shower scene has also raised some eyebrows. I liked it, but for a while we were on the fence about whether to have that scene or just do a fade to black as Shepard stood up. We put it in because this scene was Traynor’s biggest romance moment from a cinematic perspective (her endgame love scene is very short and simple), and I didn’t want to say, “Romancing Ash? You get a big cutscene. Romancing Traynor? Fade to black.” And also because I think it’s a lovely, funny scene from Guillherme Ramos (who also brought you the Liara cabin scene in Lair of the Shadow Broker).

DE: Though I was a bit out of my element here, I’m very happy with how Cortez turned out. Given the nature of the relationship, I expected that my work here would be scrutinized more than anything I’ve ever done, so not one word was written lightly. The early feedback I’ve seen has been encouraging, and I’m eager to hear everything players have to say about him, both positive and negative.​