We Fight or Die

"This isn't about strategy or tactics. This is about survival. The Reapers are more advanced than we are. More powerful. More intelligent. They. Don't. Fear. Us."

I am too excited about Mass Effect 3. I play the demo all the time now.

This piece was created due to the events in the demo. The whole time in the beginning while running around the falling city the Reapers were so huge and ominous.

My Shepard (Helena) was a colonist, her colony raided by slavers, the whole colony was decimated and everyone she knew and loved were killed when she was a teenager. She was rescued in the nick of time by an Alliance patrol, which inspired her to inlist in the Alliance military. She then went on a mission where her whole patrol was attacked by thresher maws and killed. She managed to get away, and it was only when she was to safety that she realized she was the sole survivor.

Now, with the Reaper invasion, I imagine Helena is seeing history repeat itself. This painting takes place after her encounter with the boy, but before she is picked up by the Normandy. There were so many wide shots of the Reapers and how they dwarf humans, but you never see Shepard's expression when she gets out there. I wanted to capture a brief moment of her internal struggle, providing an angle that is more intimate with the viewer so we can empathize, yet still see her as small.




I do not consent for this piece to be used in any AI generators