#and I've already been beaten to a pulp with announcements

[ministarfruit]

WELCOME ABOARD!!

[ideas-on-paper]

Yep, I definitely think the huge social pressure placed on Tali also plays a role here. Actually, considering the Quarians are very focused on family and community, there's probably an expectation of following in your parents' footsteps. I could imagine that betraying/abandoning your family (and by extension, their legacy) is considered as the greatest shame, so perhaps Tali feels a "moral obligation" to defend him even though she knows he's in the wrong. (It might just be Tali's own personality, but I like viewing her actions as culturally influenced as well.)

That Tali ultimately always has to rely on Shepard is the one point of her character arc that I think could have been improved upon. When you have to make the final decision on Rannoch and you tell her to call off the fleets, the admirals just ignore her order to do so - and after that, Tali immediately gives up on trying to convince them, so the ultimate resolution of the conflict falls to Shepard (Tali also doesn't hesitate to announce "Shepard speaks with my authority", basically leaving it to them to solve her problem).

While this makes for a nice "story scene", it doesn't really do Tali's character development any favors. I don't mean this as a personal attack on her either, but she really needs to be more firm if she expects others to listen to her.

I actually had Liara with me during the first part of Noveria, but I didn't really consider that dialogue in the context of her later development. However, I can see how it's a big missed opportunity - right now, it's just a funny contradiction, but it would've been really cool if they actually did something with that.

When I first saw the scene with the rifle, I thought that Legion was maybe going through the (collective) memory of the Quarians who were killed that day (that's how I interpreted the line "It is an efficient model"). However, I must say I quite like your interpretation - it fits in nicely with Shepard's previous remark "That looks a lot like the sniper rifle you used to carry", establishing a direct connection with Legion.

Also, that some of Legion's programs already existed during the Morning War is one of my personal headcanons as well. I actually conceptualized a Geth OC for my pre-Morning War story who consists of some programs that would later go on to become part of Legion; thus, Legion also shares their memories. (I've been thinking about implementing this as a cameo somewhere, though I'm still toying with ideas at the moment).

Anyway, it's definitely noteworthy when Legion pauses, since Geth think a lot faster than organics - a one-second pause for them is probably equivalent to multiple hours of contemplation for a human. (I suppose it occurs whenever they need a particularly long time to reach consensus.)

Actually, I recently looked up all the scenes where Legion pauses, though for a different reason. It's about this line at the end of Jacob's loyalty mission if you pick the neutral ending; I had never seen it before and didn't even have the faintest idea that it was there, and well… let's just say I've been fraying my mind over it for the past few days.

Due to the context and the wording, some people seem to have interpreted this as morbid curiosity on Legion's part. However, I can't see Legion watching carnage for the sake of carnage, so if anything, I'd say they want to do this to catalog organic emotional reactions. The Geth's little experiment with the story about the stars was also to see how organics would react to it. (Still, there's a bit of a difference between that and watching a guy being beaten to a pulp; also, from the context of the mission, it's clear that the hunters are out to kill Taylor, so the end result is already clear.)

What makes this even more odd is the choice of the term "creativity", and the pause makes it almost sound like a euphemism - the thing is, Legion doesn't use euphemisms. By standard, Legion's manner of expression is very factual and precise, and I couldn't find any other instance in ME2 where they actually use a euphemism - like, not a single one. (Also, since the hunters' intentions are known, it would be objectively superfluous anyway.)

To my knowledge, there are only two other instances in ME2 where Legion pauses during their dialogue, both of which happen during the conversation about the N7 armor: Once at the beginning when Shepard asks "Where did you get it?" and Legion briefly hesitates before answering "It was yours." (I suppose the pause is out of uncertainty how Shepard would react to the statement), and the second time at the end when Shepard says "That doesn't explain why you used my armor to fix yourself." (I like to read this as Legion themselves not being entirely sure about the reason they did it; personally, I think it may have been out of a desire to become "part of Shepard" and vice versa, which is like the Geth equivalent of admiration/respect.)

In ME3, Legion's pauses become much more frequent. If you want to, you can interpret this as Legion becoming more self-aware (alternatively, you might chalk it up to ME3 Legion having a different writer). Aside from the conversation about the M-98 Widow rifle, the instances I have been able to observe are:

After Shepard's remark on the Geth Dreadnought "So we went to that Geth station and rewrote/destroyed the Heretics for what? Nothing?", Legion takes a brief moment to answer. Not sure if this is due to the game engine, but if it's not, I'd say it's because Legion is unsure about Shepard's reaction.

When discussing interfacing with a Reaper: "A single thought was immense, overwhelming… unknowable." I guess Legion is looking for adequate words to describe something that only happened on a digital level.

About the programs lost due to the destruction of the Dyson sphere: "Some programs… could not be recovered." Maybe because they're "reliving" the memories? (The context makes it sound a bit like sorrow.)

In the server, about why the Geth didn't wipe out the Quarians: "We chose isolation rather than face this… uncertainty." Recalling the memories in combination with being uncertain how to put their reasoning into words? (Again, maybe they weren't sure why they did it themselves.)

"Hope sustains organics during periods of difficulty. We… admire the concept." Probably due to looking for an appropriate word choice. (I once wrote a post about how curious it is that the Geth would adopt such a concept, and how it proves they tried really hard to cling to their ideal of peace with the Quarians despite the odds.)

When discussing the effect of the Reaper code upgrades: "We find this growth… beautiful. Indicative of life." I always found Legion's choice of words a little "flowery" here; I kinda just wrote around it by assuming it makes the Geth able to process more data which gives them a broader perspective/consciousness, and that's why Legion terms it "beautiful". (My own opinion on the Reaper code matter notwithstanding.)

When Legion reveals their Reaper upgrades to Shepard: "This unit still carries remnants of… the Old Machine upgrade code." Definitely due to being uncertain about Shepard's reaction.

After Shepard's statement "How'd we get here? The Geth are better than this.", there's a long pause before Legion responds: "No. Based on empirical evidence, they are not." I suppose it took them some time to come to that self-reflection, and then contemplating whether they should share it?

At the end of Priority Rannoch: I think the pause after "Direct personality dissemination… required." is Legion realizing they're going to die. The reluctance with which they say "I… I'm sorry. It's the only way." seems to be genuine regret. (I just realized Legion switches to colloquial Englisch in their final moments. Usually, they're using very correct phrases like "I am" and "it is", but this is the only time I've ever seen them using "I'm" and "it's".)

So, getting back to my issue from above, what I consider the most likely possibility is that the pause before "creativity" is due to searching for an accurate term to describe organic behavior they observed in the past. During the conflicts they studied (and maybe during their own war with their creators), they may have realized that organics frequently come up with new strategies and ideas to attack or denounce their enemies, so they might have come to the conclusion "anger increases creativity". Still not sure if that's a plausible explanation, though... (It's a bit of a misleading word in this context, since creativity is usually associated with a productive process, not a destructive one; if anything, I'd say it's meant more like "abundance of ideas" in this context, regardless of whether these ideas lead to a productive result.)

It's a bit of an unusual line for Legion, all things considered. I'd like to check what the other squadmates have to say in this situation, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to find clips of every character. According to one comment under the video I linked above though, Thane's response to Taylor's "You don't know what they'll do to me!" is "Oh, they'll kill you." At first, I thought this might be Thane speaking from his own experience here, perhaps mentally reliving the time when he went after the murderers of his wife. However, I stumbled upon this compilation of squadmates' opinions on the torture in Purgatory Prison (including those who technically can't be present), where Thane says "If you must kill, kill cleanly."

In general, Thane is very concerned about doing things the professional way and avoiding unnecessary cruelty (at one point during his loyalty mission, he says "pure results come from pure methods"), so it's a bit surprising he seems to be so chill about the prospect of Taylor getting torn to pieces by his former crew. Maybe I'm reading into this a bit too much, and it's just because they wanted all squadmate dialogue to have the same "flavor" instead of bothering with individual opinions - still, that would be a bit strange, since the writer of Thane and Legion (Chris L'Etoile) usually puts a lot of thought into his characters... (I'd be most interested in Mordin and Samara's comments about the neutral ending, especially Samara's; I imagine her codex must have an opinion on how to deal with ship captains needlessly torturing their crew.)

Good points about the development of technology. I remember being pretty amused when first reading the Codex entry about the thermal clips when I played ME2 - like, they took the extra time to explain how the weapons work without clips in ME1, and I just imagined the game designer going to the lore guy and saying "okay, so we're gonna be using traditional ammo clips right now - we need an in-lore explanation for that", and the lore guy just being like *internal screaming*. xD

Also, I found it pretty hilarious how it's actually an invention by the Geth that revolutionized combat. Idk, but it's just so ironic to me that synthetics are setting the standards for new technological developments, and the organic races are simply copying it and trying their best to keep up. (Nice catch about the thermal clips during Jacob's loyalty mission, though; I guess this mission is a little headache-inducing in more than one way. xD)

Well, I'll have to adjust some of the canon story for my ending concept, so I'm probably going to have to rewrite some stuff anyway. xD

The idea with Grunt is actually not half bad - I don't think the Krogan encounter Grunt with quite the same reverence as Eve (Eve's position of power is largely linked to cultural factors, while Grunt doesn't really have any "legacy" to speak of), but Krogan leaders are respected for their combat prowess, so Grunt might still be able to fill the power vacuum left behind in the event of Eve's death. (Also, one thought that I just had: Given the possibility of a civil war among the Krogan, Wrex might even need Grunt to keep the rebel clans under control. That would mean Grunt would have to be alive to ensure lasting peace, though.)

I agree that Grunt would probably go with whatever political sentiment is predominant, though - if Wrex is in charge, he's going to support peace, but if it's Wreav, Grunt isn't really going to have any objections to going to war with C-space, either.

So, to sum it up, the possible ways to get the true ending would be:

Wrex alive/Eve alive -> Genophage cured (-> Grunt backs up Wrex)

Wrex alive/Eve dead -> Genophage cured -> Grunt steps in for Eve

Wrex dead/Eve alive -> killing Mordin -> Genophage cure faked

Wrex dead/Eve dead -> convince Mordin to stand down -> Genophage cure faked

A bit complicated, but I think this could work. ^^'

ME1 replay thoughts, wrapping up the Citadel quests:

-The Quarians have uncovered the most mass relays. Logical enough, since they spend all their time in space

-Fist is long gone, but everyone is still talking about him like he's alive. Not sure if that's a bug or an oversight on Bioware's part

-There are a lot of humans in the Wards. I'm going to assume Shepard's in the Citadel equivalent of Chinatown for humans

-There aren't any Turians in the Wards until the Markets. Was that intentional on Bioware's part because of humanity's poor relations with them?

-Conrad's "wife" will love him hanging a picture of femshep in their living room. Uh uh. Sure.

-Starting the Keeper quest by speaking to Jahleed sure leads to different results! Had to fight Chorban. And volunteering to scan the Keepers means I missed out on the paragon points when I returned to Jahleed. :/ Worth seeing once, but not repeating in the future.

-The Keepers and the Citadel are a total blackbox. How did anyone get the idea that inhabiting this place was a good idea, much less making it the center of government? And why don't they at least research it?

-Yep, running all over the Citadel again to scan the Keepers is very aggravating.

-Just how did Septimus learn Xeltan's secrets?

-Turians only wear those hoods in the Wards, not on the Presidium. There are Turians in casual clothes on the Presidium, so I suppose the hoods are just super casual? Like hoodies?

-The Banes person who blackmails Dr. Michel is built up, and then goes absolutely nowhere. Others have said it more eloquently than me, but it is a letdown.

-Shai'ra's words are a bit disappointing to me. Insightful, I suppose, but not so poetic to be beautiful or helpful to be meaningful. I don't mind helping her, but I'm not counting the words as a reward.

-And again once she's done with me and asks me to leave, because she's everything she can for me... I'm just saying, Shepard could probably use a massage. Or someone that isn't a crewmate to talk to. This is what makes me feel used. At least invite me back for tea next time I'm on the Citadel or something.

It's like the consort wants to know everyone except Shepard.

-The Signal Source sidequest is probably the closest Mass Effect comes to foreshadowing the end of ME3, sadly enough. And a large chunk of players probably never started it, and even fewer probably finished it.

-I should have realized Tali would object to possibly resolving matters with the Signal Source peacefully. Of course she would assume it would turn on us. And it insisting that organics must destroy or control synthetics doesn't help.

Still nothing that even hints at Synthesis.

-Interesting. It's possible that Schells was involved in its creation.

The creator originally created a machine to help funnel money from gambling terminals. That machine became an AI, which created the Signal Source, and the original machine was destroyed when the creator realized it was sentient. And who did I just run into that created a device for winning at Quasar in Flux?

However, the Signal Source says the creator is currently serving time in a Turian prison, so Schells probably isn't the creator. They may or may not know each other. Or the Signal Source could have been lying about the creator, the Turian Prison, or both.

-Running all over the Citadel to check each shop is so tedious. Money will become meaningless soon enough, but right now I have very little. At least I picked up a half decent armor for Tali.