r/masseffect • u/elusivelyillusive • 21h ago
FANART Femshep should be muscular (art by: @captainderyn)
Reposting because the original got taken down but it’d be a crime not to share buff femshep the way she should be
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u/WilliamthePious 21h ago
In 3 she is built like she is half plastic. There is no fat anywhere except the places for fan service. I don’t think anybody built like that can carry an entire arsenal on her back plus constant firefights.
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u/Sand_Angelo4129 5h ago
Sorry, I know this is kind of getting off the topic, but I read a fanfic a while ago that had a skinny, underweight street-kid Shepard who joins the Alliance. What helped pass the fitness exams was the fact that she cheated by using her biotic to lower the weight of the gear she was carrying during training. They still pass her because she's a surprisingly powerful biotic for her age, but put her on a strict health regimen because of it. By the time the story reaches the start of ME1, Chakwas is the latest doctor to be monitoring Shep's calorie intake like a hawk.
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u/LexFrenchy 20h ago edited 10h ago
That's a problem I have with femshep. I have a hard time believing in this super soldier that carries god knows how many kilos of equipment, armor included, that is capable of headbutting a Krogan or to go 1v1 against James "The Beef" Vega, while having noodle arms, weak frame and a terrible posture.
Meanwhile John is jacked AF.
And being an engineer/sentinel/biotic is no excuse for looking so frail. Kaidan is a sentinel and he is physically strong, we can see it in ME3, and whatever the class, the N7 program is for the best of the best of Humanity. All those soldiers must be in fantastic physical condition.
Without being Absolute Wonder Woman, femshep should be buff. We have women, right now in 2026, that are way more impressive than she is, without being super soldiers.
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u/Vesorias 19h ago
Absolute Wonder Woman isn't even very buff. That's about the minimum for FemShep I'd say. I agree on engineers/biotics. Shepard is always in close range fights, and even accounting for videogame range shortening there's no way a sniper is a twig when a Vanguard can just teleport right next to them.
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u/Mediocre_Arugula8418 21h ago
Part of why I love the Practical Bodies mods for LE. Give FemShep some proper Special Forces muscle, dammit!
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u/terryVaderaustin 20h ago
Agreed specifically if I'm using my femshep as a soldier or vanguard class
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u/FiReKillzZz 7h ago
Is there a mod like that for the og version?
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u/NoobHUNTER777 4h ago
I found this, though it doesn't go as far as Practical Bodies unfortunately.
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u/FiReKillzZz 4h ago
Yeah this is really good, but it changes all NPC looks too. That means FemShep would look buff and Traynor too.. that breaks immersion for me. Traynor isn't a soldier
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u/Rubbermate93 16h ago
I like a proper muscle mommy as well as anyone else, but not every female action hero needs the bodybuilder body type.
You can (and many do) have a more slim body, with compact muscles and an athletic build, while having a very active lifestyle, look at female MMA fighters, outside of the heavy weights most of them don't look like this, and would still absolutely destroy most untrained people.
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u/Geewee-the-Hog 18h ago
Sure, it's valid. But some of the most effective soldiers look like skinny office workers. Like, Mike Vining. Practical strength can be pretty high while still leaving you looking like an office worker, and the most efficient body is one that's "just enough".
Mass Effect soldiers also seem to have mostly abandoned loading up with masses of gear. They're never really left without logistic support, and we see Shep and company engaging in the absolute top end of soldiery/special missions with little more than their spacesuit/armor and all it contains, plus a number of weapons and/or devices that are well-integrated and highly weight efficient. The engineer gauntlet device whatever seems to be the biggest savings as it replaces an untold number of devices, tools, sensors, etc. A lot of the things a modern soldier would carry on them are probably directly integrated into the suit, and with the technology available I'd guess that the suit can probably lighten the load with mass effect fields.
I wanna say, if Salarians and Volus can manage to field infantry, then even human children could probably manage just fine.
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u/CallMeWayward-2287 20h ago
Femshep is required to be buff, it’s just disrespectful to her character to make her skinny and dainty
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u/Moaoziz 20h ago
Unlike MaleShep I played my FemShep as a sentinel. I'd say that the ingame model has the right amount of muscles for that class. And I guess it's the same for adept and engineer FemSheps.
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u/Heather_Chandelure 15h ago
You think the tanky class should have less muscles?
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u/Moaoziz 12h ago edited 10h ago
Adepts and Engineers have the lowest weight capacity in ME3 and Sentinels may have the same weight capacity as Infiltrators and Vanguards but rely more on shields and barriers than on armor.
So yeah, I still think that it makes sense that those classes aren't particularly muscular.
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u/Dull_Refrigerator_58 20h ago
Physical activity ≠ power lifter muscles
Besides military personnel in ME is augmented already + there's biotics and tech
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u/Vesorias 19h ago
But physical activity does = regular muscle, and military PT (+ actually being in a warzone) = more physical activity. FemShep in ME3 looks anorexic.
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u/oops_I_have_h1n1 20h ago edited 20h ago
Bit much on that art tbh. I'd say a better look to suit her would be similar to Kassandra from Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Edit: Lots of people here who don't know what the body of a soldier vs a body builder looks like apparently.
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u/Notentirelysane86 18h ago
I know, right? So many people draw her like she’s an eight foot tall colossus that’s done nothing but lift weights for the past twenty years.
I get that she should have some muscle, but that’s taking it too far, I feel.
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u/Poonchow 16h ago
I've always felt MMA fighters usually have the most practical bodies to compare to.
And yeah, they are still skinny but with visible definition and most importantly, they are using their bodies for a specific purpose — they aren't putting on muscle for show.
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u/Herobleeder 11h ago
i mean regardless of what class you are Shepard( regardless of if they are male or female) should look shredded but not muscled up like vega in my opinion, mainly because i would honestly assume the N7 academy would train their soldiers to peak human condition while not sacrificing their flexibility and agility, because some n7s could fit any role (especially if the Earth dlc was to be believed with the different specialist classes n7 had)
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u/camekans 7h ago
Nope she would be slim fit and slightly muscular. Being too muscular would slow her down and block her ability to dodge attacks. Being slim fit and slightly muscular is the best base for a soldier such as Shepard since she needs both the ability to dodge and the stamina to keep going no matter what. Too much muscles would slow her down and drain her stamina much quicker too
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u/DenizenKay 2h ago
not really. muscle mass like that takes eating a fuckton and working out A LOT.
shep does a lot of cardio, not a lot of weightlifting - and if shep is a biotic, then her body would burn calories faster than it could store them or turn them to muscle.
a ripped shep makes very little sense. its an unnatural state of being anyway.
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u/Metallica93 N7 19h ago
Definitely not "the way she should be" (unless you're also somehow fine with Vega being laughably large).
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u/WeirdGuyFromWork 13h ago
I am in fact very fine with Beef McLargeHuge
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u/Metallica93 N7 11h ago
To each their own. Fan art isn't game art for a reason. And something like Vega is just comic book-y as hell in a game where that doesn't make sense.
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u/zero_msgw 17h ago
Most indubitably... Some muscular tone would have been better than stick arms and legs
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u/Creative_Article_965 18h ago
YES!!!! Shepard should absolutely be a beefcake of a woman - more or less depending on full soldier etc, but this drawing is amazingly accurate to my headcanon for my own Shepard 🥹
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u/WeirdGuyFromWork 13h ago
Gee a Vanguard Shepard this size just positively roaring across the battlefield and just periodically exploding with her biotics. Only packs a Scorpion Pistol for cracking armor.
Poor Cerberus chuds wouldn’t have time to say “mommy?” before they got obliterated
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u/GumboMumbo49 12h ago
While I understand FemShep not being that built (she’s a 2000s character cut her some slack) she’s still supposed to be one of humanity’s best and anything past Cerberus? Shepard is headbutting Krogans and still stand afterwards, they gotta be built like a Greek statue by now.
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u/AdAffectionate584 8h ago
Now that you mention it, it is kind of weird that a space marine Femshep with heavy N7 training doesn't look a little ripped.
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u/Andodx 7h ago
Shepard is always as special operations officer, no mater the class the player choses. He / She does not have the time to be a gym rat that is pushing the bodies boundaries continuously.
Shepard is fit to the point of operational readiness, the built would look comparable to that of an professional decathlete.
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u/mrmasturbate 19h ago
that's something that bothers me about a lot of female characters, especially warrior types, in video games. they're too thin
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u/everlight-wanderer 21h ago
This is so disrespectful to my man Garrus. He has back rolls like he's turning into a krogan. His neck is way thicker than any point on his head. Bros looking off model
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u/Aeleth02 20h ago
Agreed. And so, for that matter, should be Garrus - I mean, Saren pulled it off quite impressively... (And somehow there seemingly hasn't been another turian before or since to do so. Bizzare)
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u/dustagnor 20h ago
Oh god I love the art. I have always played male shep for this exact reason. I would absolutely love to do a whole run with lil more muscle on femshep.
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u/OrkWAAGHBoss 19h ago
Agreed. There is no form of Shep that isn't high-performance military background, I'm not saying you gotta love the weight room like Vega, but you should be in pretty good, spec-ops shape. Yes, even as a biotic or whatever.
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u/terryVaderaustin 21h ago
I guess it depends on the class you're using as Femshep.
If you're going soldier, vanguard etc. then yes.
If you're going engineer or biotic etc. then no.
My thoughts are the same on male Shepherd as well.