I just wanted to say (now that I’ve beaten ME3 a while back) thank you for answering my ask about it all those months ago! And also I think you had something you wanted to say about how they handled Thane but couldn’t say it at the time due to spoilers. Still want to say it? Because I wish I could talk about ME3 with more people…

Yes, I was glad to! And I still pretty much stand by what I said back then. (This was the answer I gave, if anyone’s curious) 
 

AND I DO WANT TO SAY IT but so many other people have put it a lot more succinctly than I have! I’ve been seeing some really awesome discussions about the way they handled Thane’s character on my dash for the past few months—talldarkbishoujo, madsabroo, and goddessofcheese all come to mind—and the longer it’s been since the end, the more I am really seriously unimpressed!  
 

(Putting this under a cut because I know for a fact that there’s people playing through ME3 right now; HOPE YOU’RE HAVIN’ FUN, SLIMM) 
 

 

Basically, to sum up: Thane’s writer (who also wrote Legion, Ashley, EDI, pretty much all of Noveria, the Codex entries and planet descriptions in ME1, sidemissions like I Remember Me and Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things, Zakera Ward…basically the guy was pretty damn awesome) left BioWare to work for another company before they started to get the ball rolling on ME3. …Aaaand it shows. The difference between how Thane expresses himself in his romance scene (I want to live, I’m not ready to face my death and it frightens me) to how he acts in his brief scenes in ME3, which is supposed to be only a matter of months later (I’ve lived a good life, I’m going to sit here and wait to die while you go off and fight to save the galaxy) is so stark that I’d almost guess his new writer was handed a codex entry and a few key cards and told to have at it. 
 

There is almost no difference in his lines between a romanced Shep and a non-romanced one. The additions are hand-holding for a second, a kiss if you hit an interrupt, and a really awkward dry-humping scene in the middle of the hospital—and you can’t get any new conversation out of him, ever. His death scene hit me hard, that’s true—I was bawling like a baby after his wish was for you—but afterwards? Not a single mention of him from anyone on your crew. Garrus will even say ‘I’m glad we didn’t lose anybody!’ if you pull Ashley/Kaidan out of there while standing in front of the memorial wall Thane’s name was just added to. Oh my goodness. 
 

You never see or speak with Kolyat again after that, you never talk to Bailey about the dude that he seemed to get along with pretty well, it just does not. Come. Up. Ever. It’s like they completely forgot about him other than usage as “heart-wrenching cannon fodder against the plot-armoured BIG EVIL RIVAL™.” And you want to know what’s even worse? In the original script that got leaked about a year back, his and Kolyat’s (and Kasumi’s) parts in the game were so much bigger. There was more exposition about Udina! Thane did his badass assassin thing! C-Sec was actually kind of useful for something! THERE WAS MAYBE A POSSIBILITY TO SAVE HIS ASS. 
 

But, point is, ball got dropped hard. I have plenty of issues with a few things in the entirety of the game (some that were soothed a bit with the EC, others not so much), but that is one of the things that seriously just sticks in my craw. No me gusta. I’ve since replayed (and fully enjoyed!) ME2, but it’s like…I can’t even work up the energy for ME3 anymore. (which, again, is for many reasons) I still own it and I do look forward to replaying again at some point, but…not yet.