#Arrival DLC

[wetsocksinbed]

the Arrival DLC is so funny because Hackett is like “hey Shepard I know you’ve been given all these insanely dangerous tasks so I’m just going to ask you to do a really easy, really simple one. I just need you to go grab someone. Routine op, in and out. Nothing dramatic.” And then you end up blowing up an entire goddamn solar system and killing billions of people

[serendipitys-teapot]

Normandy crew after Shepard disappears alone to help Aria retake Omega, vividly remembering what happened the last time she disappeared alone:

"Surely she won't blow up another star system this time... right?"

[biowareproblems]

[shiara-tsoni]

[dovahbee]

Shadow Broker intercepted pt 2. Post Arrival DLC.

-

Subject(s): Tali’Zorah Vas Normandy, Garrus Vakarian, Jeff Moreau.

Location: Normandy SR2.

Mode: Text.

-

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

19:22- TZ: is Shepard taking visitors yet?

19:22- JM: Nah. She’s always a monster after an injury, wouldn’t want to see her yet anyways

19:22- TZ: how bad is it?

19:22- GV: Hackett is a raging moron, if he pulls a stunt like this again…

19:22- JM: Bruised lung, third degree burns, concussion, a handful of gunshot wounds. Pretty typical for LC actually

19:23- TZ: Garrus try to talk to her, she’s not answering me

19:23- JM: Word of advice Big Guy—— DONT. She’ll rip you apart

19:23- TZ: don’t listen to him. for some unknown reason she has a soft spot for you

19:23- GV: i cant believe she followed that order. reckless and ridiculous

19:23- TZ: shut up and go

19:23- GV: fine

[END TRANSCRIPT]

—

SUBJECTS: GARRUS VAKARIAN, JANE SHEPARD

LOCATION: NORMANDY SR2

MODE: TEXT

—

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

19:23- GV: any room in the medbay for your favourite turian?

19:23- JS: thought i already told you, Oraka’s my favourite turian.

19:24- GV: i know, but he couldn’t make it, sadly.

19:24- JS: pity

19:24- GV: so?

19:24- JS: no room

19:24- GV: bullshit

19:24- JS: sorry garrus

19:24- GV: cmon, everyone’s worried about you.

19:24- JS: fucking exactly. im not the victim here. this isn’t about me.

19:24- GV: people tend to worry when you leave a trail of blood leading to the medbay. I would know

19:25- JS: you’re worried about me? I’m blushing

19:25- GV: let me see?

19:27- JS: fine. get your flat ass over here.

19:27- GV: grumpy.

19:27- JS: bring my rations, im fucking starving

19:27- GV: Joker advised i stay away from you. He might’ve been right

19:27- JS: where’s my fucking food

[END TRANSCRIPT]

[lhs3020b]

Arrival - an analysis

As I was working through the DLCs for ME2 tonight, I got to thinking about the odd lack of drama that "Arrival" has.

A couple of thoughts below the cut, in no particular order...

I think the first problem with Arrival is the oddness of it. The lack of your usual squad is a bit strange - while it makes some sense in the context of infiltration, it still doesn't make very much sense. On re-playing the DLC I felt like there was a slightly not-quite-real feeling to it, like this was somehow not quite part of "Mass Effect proper", and I think the root of that was the lack of the squad.

Then there's the inconsistencies between how Aratoht is described in the Codex and what it looks like. The Codex describes an uninhabitable planet in the very early stages of terraforming; the visuals show a terrestrial world with an advanced ecology, normal atmosphere and weather. This incongruity, for me at least, added to the faint air of unreality.

The other issue with Arrival is perhaps a "structural" one. While re-playing it, I noticed that it lurches constantly between small-ish cutscenes, and these felt like they disrupted the flow of the action. Particularly later into the DLC, I actually felt a little irritated with some of them as it felt like they were obstructing doing things. The narrative felt oddly heavy-handed - there was a lot of Shepard talking to herself. Normally a lot of this would happen in more "organic" dialogue between Shepard, the squadmates and any NPCs, but aside from a few conversations with Kenson, Arrival has none of that.

Then there's the absence of any meaningful moral choice. You can't not fire up the engines on the asteroid. The closest you get to a choice is whether to warn the colony, and if you try, Kenson interrupts the broadcast, rendering it utterly moot. If you have no choice, then you have no agency, and if you have no agency, what reason do you have to care about the results?

(I am aware that very technically it is possible to run the clock down on Arrival and get a spectacularly non-standard game-over that way, so I suppose there is an element of choice there ... but how many Shepards are really going to stand there for half an hour on a random asteroid, doing nothing, while the clock ticks down to the Arrival?)

There's also the slightly-demotivating aspect of the denouement itself, which forces you to be personally-responsible for nearly a third of a million civilian deaths ... and then the game basically does nothing with it. You can express a bit of emotional frustration while talking to Hackett at the end, but that's basically it. "Hi, I'm a mass murderer and I'm supremely-unbothered by any of this." If the character is clearly feeling nothing, why should the player?

I think the last slightly-off element to Arrival is the brief conversation with Harbinger. The dark majesty that Sovereign had just isn't there. Harbinger rants at you for a bit, then pretty much throws a tantrum and rage-quits the comm-call. It's not awe-inspiring, it's not terrifying, it's not moving - rather, it's mildly-irritating. You're a giant aeons-old alien warship from outside the galaxy and the best burn you can manage is some wibbling about "dust on cosmic winds"? Really, Harbinger? Really?

I wasn't expecting an actual Reaper to - literally! - phone it in!

I think Arrival ends up presaging a problem that was rampant in ME3. The build-up to the conclusion was mostly-OK (with reservations) but the denouement was lacking. And that's a pattern that we saw regularly in ME3, all the way to the infamous endings.

[keepitmovinshawty]

I’m replaying the Arrival DLC and I finally just read the little description for Aratoht. The population confused me because later they tell you something like 300K batarians are killed in the explosion. But it says 90K on the description. Free is in parentheses. I kept reading and it says 215K after that with other in parentheses. I’m assuming other means slaves. This is why I struggle with empathy for the batarians.

[gamerkitten]

I love the Arrival dlc for the angst potential, but I can't get over the crew having Shep just...vanish for two days and not immediately launching a rescue mission to get her back. Like, the minute she went dark after returning to the base I know Garrus and Tali would be on their way to save her. Hell, it would probably be a full crew assault if there wasn't the chance of the enemy just killing her if that many boots hit the ground.

Also, this would have been a wonderful way to do another prison break mission like the one in Dragon Age Origins.

[shizuu-chann]

How does that batarian terrorist, Ghorek, even know Shepard was responsible for the Alpha Relay explosion? I recall hearing Hackett say there was just enough evidence for a witch hunt, but I do not understand how there's any evidence of that, either.

The Normandy is a stealth frigate, it got in and out secretly and intentionally. The comms were disabled when my Shep attempted to warn the batarians of the explosion, so that message never even went out. Even if part of it did, Shep only gets outs "this is Com--" before she gets cut off by the VI saying the comms are out. Ghorek says "everyone with a someone on Aratoht knows your face," but again, how?

Even if there was evidence ON Aratoht about Shep landing, like surveillance footage of her tearing through the base, it would have been destroyed when the system was obliterated. If Shep had to warn the batarians that a pseudo-supernova was going to destroy the system, then were there just enough batarians left at that base to send info about the breakout/infiltration to the Hegemony or something?

If that's what Hackett meant when he said there was "just enough evidence" for a witch hunt, like Shep was spotted on Aratoht and they informed higher ups outside the systems in the Kite's Nest or something, then I suppose it makes a LITTLE bit of sense? But why would they send anything to their homeworld when there's probably other bases and higher ups ON Aratoht they would likely report to FIRST? With the time frame of events it doesn't seem likely. I mean, Shep gets sedated for two days, and yet no one can track where the stolen shuttle went after they escaped in in the interim? I feel like with two days as a reference, they wouldn't have sent anything out to the Hegemony because they would have tried to handle t themselves. I could be wrong here, but the Batarian Hegemony comes across as a government that doesn't suffer failures, so the people of Aratoht would be inclined the keep shit hush-hush until such time as requesting aid from the higher ups is their only recourse--which, in two days, doesn't seem pressing enough.

I dunno. For me, I choose to believe it doesn't make sense for all the reasons listed above. There's likely never going to be a concrete answer, at least not one I agree with, and it's one of the (many) plot points I ignore in my head and pretend they just don't happen. I know ME3 has plot holes and things that don't make sense out the ass, but this one has been bothering me recently.

[theanimangagirl]

Alright Time to become a war criminal...

[veylia]

Randoms

[local-diavolo-anon]

i apologise if i'm posting this much about the DLC but i am very excited

so theory time! this time about Glamrock Bonnie!

someone found Glamrock Bonnie in bonnie bowl and someonw else got his pieces from the gamefiles and stuck the model back together (the images are not mine, i have no idea who even psoted them ebcause they've been reposted a crapload of times, but i know the originals came from twitter)

i feel a bit sad than logically he was there the whole time during the main game as well and we simply couldn't see him

but also: He has claw marks on his chest, which i think pretty much confirms that monty is the one that broke him apart.

however. that's not nearly enough damage to decommission a glamrock animatronic, as we have seen.

hell monty looks like this in the dlc and he is still kicking (probably by the power of god tho) and i remember seeing THIS video some time ago, so let me bring you something a bit painful:

most people i've seen pinpoin monty's actions toward bonnie as envy and resentment, however in monty golfs whenever we see character cutouts or holograms Freddy is the one in the shadows, always. wouldn't have made it more sense for monty to try and attack someone he quite clearly disliked instead of bonnie? we know freddy and bonnie were close, so with some stretch you could even say monty was jealous of freddy's relationship with bonnie (but i'm not going to account that here) If the theory from that video is true and bonnie was the first and only trial test of the grlitchtrap virus on a full glamrock animatronic, what if monty noticed? what if monty saw that bonnie was acting weird, and when confronted him realized something was severely wong for a reason or another? and either to prevent the spread of the virus, OR simply out of self preservation he was forced to fight with bonnie? because if the mimic were to see someone noticed him, he'd likely try and make them disappear in one way or another so my theory-timeline is: Bonnie was infected, started acting weird, wandered around and ultimately ended in monty golf, monty saw him and went to him, then noticed something was wrong, bonnie attacked him to make sure nobody knew, and monty had to defend himself.

i'm fairly sure this is at least somewhat correct because Monty's claws can do some serious damage, and definitely more than what Bonnie's torso and head show. (edit: yes even without upgrade, Monty still has very big and sharp claws, realistically they could totally do that amount of damage, + in the original draft of the game, from Monty you were supposed to take his legs, and the claw upgrade was not a thing at all, yet it was always hinted he did caused bonnie's decommission)

all of this to say that bonnie more likely was decommissioned not because of the damage, but rather because because when technicians tried to fix him they noticed something had infected him, and to prevent any further spreading they were forced to deactivate him.

[velvetjune]

thomas zane is such a nice person. his poetry inspired jesse and alan not to settle for shadows and keep going. u ever think about that. ignore the cult stuff and murder. and being a bit of a freak. what a truly inspiring and kind soul

[dioptasesystem]

guys did you hear??? They're adding Legendary Squidward to Mario Kart???????? So hyped. I will main him.

[gamerkitten]

Thinking of the post Suicide mission timeline for Cassia and I think I have it nailed down.

So, after everyone gets back from the relay in one peice, the squad slowly breaks off to do their own things over the course of about a month. Thane hops off at the Citadel to be a proper dad, Legion heads off to rejoin his people, Samara is doing justicar stuff, Kasumi and Zaeed leave to do their respective brand of crime/merc work ect.

Eventually, it's Garrus, Tali, Miranda and Jacob that are still on the Normandy when Garrus finds out his mom passed. Obviously, they immediately head to Palaven for the funeral, which is also when Cassia meets Sol and Castis for the first time. It's tense, to say the least, but goes as well as it can considering the timing. After the funeral, they stay for about two weeks so Garrus can have time with his family.

Then, Cassia gets a call from Hackett, asking her to save his old friend from Batarian prison. Cue Arrival dlc. Despite her objections that he should stay and be there for his family and that she'll be back, Garrus insists on returning to the Normandy with her. Because of course he does.

Everything goes the same, except for the fact that Cassia actually kept in contact with the Normandy after leaving the prison for the base so when she goes dark Garrus immediately launches a rescue mission with Tali and Miranda, who did pop a tracker in Cass...just in case. Things go pretty much the same once they find her and get back to the ship and through the relay just in time for the entire system to be taken out.

The debrief with Hackett goes pretty much the same except with the addition of a very pissed off Turian standing behind her while she explains herself. After Hackett leaves the ship Cass, Garrus and Tali have a little meeting in her quarters to decide what to do next. After a lot of arguing between Cass and Garrus, it's decided that they all need to do what they can to prepare their respective species for the Reapers. Tali gets dropped off first with the Fleet, then they head to Palaven where she stays for a day or two with Garrus before setting a course for Earth, but not before letting Jacob and Miranda off on the Citadel.

The minute the Normandy lands, Cass is arrested for war crimes and held until her trial a week later. Due to her history and the good word of Anderson and Hackett, she isn't thrown in prison to rot but she is grounded, discharged and placed under what basically amounts to house arrest for six months.

And then Mass Effect 3 starts.

[tealenko]

Finished this so long ago...

...but there's a part of me that really wants to edit it with the music (maybe I'll do if I find some free time)

WIP - Mass Effect (Post Arrival) x In The Heights (Breath)

I've been doing this all day (I don't know why I insist in complicating my life so much 😅)