fetishistic portrayal of the species in the first game and asari characters began to gain more agency and prominence as nuanced characters in more recent installments. She disclosed that she relates strongly to the asari as she experiences gender dysphoria and identifies as transgender, and that she finds comfort in BioWare's overall depiction of the species in Mass Effect media. The asari is considered to be synonymous with the Mass Effect franchise. Susana Polo from Polygon described as the asari as "possibly the most infamous alien race to appear in the Mass Effect series". Digital Spy opined that "almost everyone could name the game, if not the race" if they are shown a visual image of the asari. Mike Suszek, of Joystiq, cited them as his favourite fictional race in video games, commenting that the asari as a whole intrigued him, "from their intellectual ways and place in the universe to their biotic prowess." Brittany Ferrendi from South California Gay News consider the asari to be collectively one of the best non-binary video game characters. Fans have embraced the asari as a popular choice for fan art as well as cosplay at gaming and science fiction conventions since the franchise's inception. References Further reading Lucas, Alexandra, Beyond the Blue-Skinned Space Babe: Deconstructing the Empowered Asari in Mass Effect, Microsoft Cortana, Game Narrative Summit. Mass Effect characters Anthropomorphic video game characters Extraterrestrial characters in video games Female characters in video games Fictional matriarchies Fictional androgynes Fictional queer characters Fictional pansexuals Fictional telekinetics LGBT characters in video games Video game characters introduced in 2007 Video game species and races