#much more than me1 and 2

[pinkfey]

i think aside from the compellingly bleak and desperate mood of me3 another thing that especially makes it work for me is the interactions with everyone on the normandy

[tarysande]

There are a couple more Garrus-Vakarian-related hills I'm willing to die on.

Maybe this particular bit of fanon has faded over the years, but there used to be a lot of insistence that Garrus is young and somehow inexperienced when he meets Shepard. Canon doesn't really support this. Turians start their mandatory service at 15. Garrus has at least a decade of experience. Even if he's 2-4 of years younger than Shepard (according to Patrick Weekes), he's got at least as much field experience as she does by dint of the difference in turian and human "enlistment" ages.

Garrus is really damn good at his job at C-Sec. You don't give the Case of Investigating the Rogue Spectre to a greenhorn. You give it to your best, most tenacious agent. Pallin may not always approve of Garrus's actions, but that doesn't actually stop him from putting Garrus on the tough case. Also, we don't know much about how C-Sec works but we do know a bit about how the turian hierarchy works, and we know C-Sec was essentially a turian initiative. That means it's a meritocracy where failure reflects on the superior, not the one who failed. So, in roughly a decade (Shepard's 29 in ME1; I always think of Garrus as about 27), Garrus has not only done shipboard military service, but he's also risen to be one of C-Sec's top investigators; Pallin wouldn't risk having Garrus's "failure" reflect poorly on HIM otherwise. I'd say that actually makes Garrus as remarkable in civilian law enforcement terms as Shepard is considered to be within the ranks of the Alliance military.

Of course Garrus was scouted by the Spectre program. And honestly, if his dad hadn't stepped in, I think Garrus would have become a Spectre, no problem. Especially for a turian, he's cut from precisely the cloth the Spectres would be looking for: extremely skilled, extremely capable, and--most importantly--he's a turian not just able but willing to work outside the chains of command that turians are taught from birth to revere and be loyal to above all else. This is the reason Pallin is leery about Spectres: he's a good turian. Good turians follow straight lines; they don't carve out their own paths.

Garrus's dad's not dumb, and he's not cruel, and he, too, rose to the top of the C-Sec hierarchy. He took one look at his kid, I think, and said, "I love my child, but I'd say it's a 50-50 chance he ends up a shooting-first-asking-questions-later Spectre like Saren Arterius, and I don't want to see that happen." Yeah, he uses his parental influence to try and jam square-peg-Garrus into round-hole-C-Sec and Garrus resents him for it, but there's no way he did it just to stop his son from getting his way or because he doesn't like Spectres. I expect Vakarian Sr. had to clean up more post-Spectre-interference messes than we can possibly imagine. But we also know he and Alec Ryder were pals later.

So the importance of what Garrus learns from a Paragon Spectre Shepard is this: You can't just do what you want and claim the ends always justify the means. That's what Saren does. Over and over again. Garrus's code and his idealism and his sense of justice and his ability to work alone should make him a great Spectre, actually, but he needs Paragon Spectre Shepard's actions to show him the lesson he tells her he's learned during ME1: "If the people I'm sworn to protect can't trust me... well, then I don't deserve to be the one protecting them." (And the seed of Archangel was planted.) I think for the first time he realizes that even though he believes his sense of justice to be correct, it doesn't matter for shit if he can't show others why that's so. And that's where the trust comes in. (Also, ow, the extra level of importance this gives their exchange where she tells him she trusts him and he tells her she's about the only friend he has left is... a lot. Cool, cool. I'm totally fine. Nothing to see here.)

When Shepard asks him what happened on Omega, he replies, "My feelings got in the way of my better judgement." Something tells me that this never happens to "good" turians, which just makes the line so much more devastating. And although the lesson some might take away from this is "feelings bad; no feelings ever," the "grey" that Garrus has to learn to deal with is precisely the grey of recognizing feelings, validating them even, but not acting on them until they've been examined. (Which is why my Shepard stands between him and Sidonis; she doesn't give a shit about Sidonis. But Garrus has refused to process his own feelings of failure and self-loathing, so they have to take the therapy session to the Citadel and deal with it there.)

Ahh yes. The mountain range of character analysis.

[stormikins]

Mass Effect: Failed Opportunities.

An informal rant/essay about my opinions and thoughts (and ideas/suggestions) about the choices made in Mass Effect Three. This is all because of this one post by mass-effect-anonymous, and my friend (@xoshepard) giving me a compliment about my Shepard came back wrong headcanons. So. I’m fueled by validation and rage. A summary of the mentioned post is anonymous regrets that BioWare didn't explore the implications of Shepard dying and coming back and the fact that Liara helped Cerberus in doing so.

Disclaimer: I am a hater in this. I am. No doubt about it. If you like the story and think it’s great and nothing is wrong with it— then I am so happy for you. Truly. I wish I was the same. So, this post might not be for you. Also, this is a rant, and I try to keep it sensible so apologies if it’s not.

Word Count: 3k

TLDR: BioWare flip flops between decisions and choices and never truly settles, disregards choices already made, and leaves players (AND THEIR MOTHERS!) wanting while eviscerating character personalities. Consistency is not in BioWare’s vocabulary. Or dictionary. Or thesaurus.

One of the things that I dislike the most about BioWare's choices regarding this matter is that Shepard starts having these crisis thoughts/questions about if their body is theirs or not, etc. not only in the third game, but at the end of it. The player is literally doing the mission that marks the point of no return in the end, the last of two until the game is finished, and now Shepard is voicing these thoughts. Roughly sixty-ish hours since the beginning of me2 if the player is a completionist. (that’s in game time, not to mention how much more time for real life but I digress). This isn’t a plot hole, it’s a speed bump the player trips over and then the game expects us to get back up and get going while asking why our nose is bleeding. Fuck you BioWare.

Now, one could construe this into being part of Shepard's character; squashing down all these conflicting and worrying thoughts to focus on their mission, bc they are a soldier. They literally don't have time for this. But now they're physically confronted with their reconstruction post-awakening haze and/or denial about it all bc Cerberus could be them lying to Shepard bc of manipulation. All right. If that is supposed to be the implication, Shepard putting their mental focus on their mission, why didn't Shepard have this crisis when they were in lock-up for six months, aka where they literally only have time to think?

James having a throwaway comment to Shepard, or another crew member (bc they talk to each other now between missions!), about how he's worried about them, about how Shepard had a freak out some point in lock down, the level of 'freak out' does not need to be expanded upon. Hell, James can just say maybe they passed the time asking each other philosophical questions, maybe about consent and choices (which would tie into James’ past!) and bodily autonomy. It could help lend more weight with Shepard posing these questions during the Cerberus HQ bc these thoughts are still plaguing Shepard. Shepard dies—again—without getting closure— again. This would fall into the cycle theme that the games have.

But, like always, Bioware fails to capitalize on opportunity.

Now. The Citadel DLC. sighs Shepard's repeated variations of "don't want to talk about it" it being the clone and everything else that's happening in the DLC, lends more to the theory of Shepard's supposed to be repressing this all. But the counter point about Shepard having their crisis in lock-up still stands.

What could have been interesting is if Shepard had these identity issues in 2 and potentially in three. Given that the Citadel DLC ends with the clone always dying canonically, it can be a pivotal moment for Shepard to realize that they are who they are, different than their me1 counterpart or not (it also would be cool if characters mentioned if the player was choosing choices that an imported me1 Shepard normally would not have) and to have a clarity moment that they are Shepard. The clone and these logs could have provided a clean tying of loose ends of Shepard having identity issues instead of the teammates saying two lines about how they know that Shepard is Shepard and Shepard simply... moving on because you do all this in the middle of a base attack. The player's mind is already set on defeating Cerberus (finally) and getting revenge, on being so close to the end of the game! It's also OPTIONAL. Yes, the player is automatically entered into the terminal, but the choice to leave without seeing what's on the logs is immediately available.

Another thing the previous post went into was Liara's involvement. Her part in Shepard's reconstruction is not explored in the game. The player never learns about how Liara helped, just that she did and that she lost Feron because of it all to the Shadow Broker. I will not go into the comics, because 1. I have not read them and 2. If developers must depend on supplemental media to explain key plot points, they are in fact doing it wrong (this is a conversation for another time).

I would not be as bitter about Liara's involvement if the game treated it better. The player has to complete two quests to unlock the dialogue of Liara telling Shepard that she gave their body to Cerberus. Which, I will give them, it’s normally to not want to tell the person who you gave their dead body over to terrorists. Shepard’s renegade dialogue to Liara apologizing about giving their body over is as follows, “all this time, it wasn’t your sources. You knowingly gave me over to Cerberus. You did this to me!” SHEPARD DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING ELSE. JUST SITS BACK DOWN AND THE RENEGADE RESPONSE TO HER SECOND APOLOGY IS TO SAY, “Let me know if you need any more help,” AND YOU LEAVE. WHY IS THIS THE ONLY TIME SHEPARD ACKNOWLEDGES THIS. wow. AND WHY IS IT LIKE THIS? ITS OPTIONAL. I— Again, this could tie into Shepard bottling up feelings and acknowledging them in Me3, could show Shepard as an actual person if the game lets us choose to be mean or turn her off but alas, the player cannot because the game likes ruining Shepard’s character (which I’ll save that for later) and doesn’t treat the games like RPGs.  

One could say that Liara would go to any lengths for those she loves, whether the player romanced her or not, but in the first game, we have no indication that she is willing to go this far. I have a belief that nothing is 'out of character' if the circumstances are right. Now, these circumstances are right: two important figures in Liara's life die (Shepard and her mother), Liara's only connection to her theories on the extinction of the reapers dies as well, the threat of the Reapers, and all the traumatic experiences she had during me1 and then the destruction of the Normandy all collide together to make it realistic that Liara wouldn't be able to let Shepard go. There is one thing, though, is that this is all boiled down into “I couldn't let you go” and the game doesn't show it. Doesn’t show Liara's descent down into this rabbit hole, doesn't show the switch getting flipped of her turning much more ruthless compared to her me1 characterization.

She does show ruthlessness in some regards in me1, willing to kill her mother no matter their relationship. But out of all the SR1 cast, she is one of the most paragon characters. The game does not show the shift into Liara's characterization. No commentary from Me1 companions about how Liara suddenly shut them out, or from Feron talking about the things Liara was willing to do to get Shepard. No comments from Miranda and Jacob who I do know were part of the retrieval mission about how Liara acted. Liara is just immediately introduced with quoting her mother’s threats. WHICH IS SO INTERESTING! Again—AGAIN—the game goes nowhere with this. We get optional dialogue from Aethyta about the Matriarch’s being concerned about her but that is optional, and only if the player talked to her in Me2 does she show up in Me3 and deliver said dialogue. Liara herself never confronts this. Even when SHE TALKS ABOUT HER MOTHER. LISTEN— LIARA COULD HAVE TURNED INTO A SCIENTIST THAT WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HER RESEARCH. TO PROVE HERSELF RIGHT BECAUSE SHE IS, SHE KNOWS IT AND SHE’LL DO ANYTHING LIKE BRINGING SOMEONE’S DEAD BODY TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION TO RESSURECT AND YET—

Garrus, on the other hand, gets his new characterization explained. In me1 he already tends to be reckless, ruthless, and selfish. It is no surprise that when Shepard died and the Council buried the truth, he went vigilante. The game shows his new bleak outlook on life bc we find him fighting for his life in a base full of dead bodies and then he explains he got betrayed. We deal with his character arc. We do not deal with Liara’s.

One could argue that could go and show how Shepard wakes up two years in the future and everything is different and confusing. Which I will agree with. If it was purposeful. And I don’t think it is, personally.

She doesn’t stay this new ruthless way. I am not saying she can’t be more than one-dimensional; I like that she can be soft with Shepard and the other companions. But all of a sudden, she, the character whose introduction in Me3 is her popping a singularity and gunning down two Cerberus goons with a cold look on her face, “can’t be that callous” about not focusing on the death numbers in the middle of a war zone because “that’s my home down there”. A home she rarely talks about, and she’s also been in numerous war zones just as bad as this. Liara, who spent more time in digs or collecting intel than with people, feels a sudden connection with Thessia.

I would like Liara a lot more if they didn’t eviscerate her character, thank you. Don’t take this the wrong way, I love her, I think she’s great. She just has the potential to be so much more.

Like—

Mass Effect for some reason, tries not to be an RPG. They don't give the players a proper choice/dialogue to allow Shepard to be mad at Liara about what she did. Or to stay mad. (I am not going to get into the debate of whether being mad at Liara should be a renegade option or paragon). It would make sense for someone to get pissed at the person who gave their dead body over to scientists to reanimate, but also terrorist scientists. The same terrorists that Shepard potentially fought in Me1 and also potentially discovered were behind the whole sale slaughter of their entire platoon and the torture of the only other survivor of the incident.

(I can’t remember if Shepard ever mentions Akuze to Cerberus. Funny, isn’t it. How the games like to take away Shepard’s agency but not in any compelling way.) 

Besides, simply not choosing paragon options, it’s never mentioned again what Liara did to Shepard, which makes sense if Shepard accepted Liara’s apology. But what if Shepard, and the player, doesn’t? Liara’s forced on the player in Me3 as Shepard potential confidant, showing up repeatedly to Shepard’s cabin to move the plot forward, give Shepard missions/updates. Yes, the player can refuse to get personal with her which I do appreciate it. Like I said, Liara’s actions never get brought up in any meaningful way to help Shepard on a character journey. If they don’t want to let characters make decisions about who Shepard is, they should give them a personality. But they don’t.

Another failed opportunity about Shepard’s character is when the games don’t get into what Shepard is like post-resurrection. The game seems to be in the middle ground of making Shepard different but not still human, but in actuality, they can, in the words of Hannah Montana, have “the best of both worlds”.

Me2 shows how Shepard is different now. “I’ve noticed a few upgrades,” Shepard states when talking to the Illusive Man on Minute Man station. Shepard can have multiple hard-hitting drinks in a row along with Ryncol in Dark Star, Zakera Ward. A poison tailored for humans served by a batarian bartender in the lower segment of Afterlife only knocks Shepard out, not killing them like it does to every human before.

That is how far the game will go in showing how different Shepard is, not counting renegade scarring. Which is a waste.

Shepard is The Protagonist. The main character. They have done the actual impossible. They are the Sole Survivor, the Hero of Elysium, the Butcher of Torfan, Savior of the Citadel, repeller of Geth, Collector, and Reaper armies and a host of other incredible achievements. They are a prophet, the damned, a modern-day Cassandra. The tip of the Spear, the Diplomat, the Soldier. Coats in the FOB on Earth says that it means something to the soldiers to see Shepard with them. They are “a tool, an agent with a singular purpose,” TIM calls them. (And a Karen ‘accuse her of classism’).

And yet, when Shepard gets revived—the most impossible of all things (and yes, it’s not like they had anything to do with it, it was Miranda and her team, but the Lazarus project only had one subject)—they are not made further into something larger than life. Something Other. Something that sets them out from the others. Because they’re Commander Fucking Shepard.

They literally have a vision of a dying race in their head that propels them to stop the Reapers. Me1 does a great job of playing with it. The player sees it once in Me2 and Me3, a side mission (Blue Suns: Archaeological Site) and after retrieving Javik, respectively.

Mass effect is all about cycles. The Reaper’s, Saren/Tim parallels, etc. What could have been interesting was instead of the reoccurring dream we have about a child that gets his emotional impact tarnished because of said dream and the star-child, the game does a mesh of the vision, prothean civilization in ruin, and the ruins we see of current civilizations from the missions Shepard goes on. Keep the oily shadows that whisper quotes from our dead teammates, but also have their voices coming from long dead Protheans pleading with Shepard to stop the Reapers, to save them.

Shepard can’t get any escape from the war, from the Reapers in their sleeping nor waking hours.

The game not making Shepard Other and going in the opposite direction—that despite all these upgrades Shepard is still human—would be fine if it was done better. A good stereotype of “I’m only human” is when a character fails. Shepard fails in Me3 most prominently on Thessia. I’m all for having characters fail but only when it’s done not so obnoxiously.

It’s a terrible fight. It is. Kai Leng hides behind a gunship that Shepard took down at least three separate times in Me2. Two of these instances are non-optional: Garrus and Samara’s recruitment and Kasumi’s loyalty mission is optional. So, Shepard—Commander Shepard who literally destroyed a proto-Reaper—can’t destroy a gunship. It’s insulting how they ruin Shepard’s character in three.

In the end cutscene, Shepard clearly hears and registers that Kai Leng orders the gunship to fire on the supports of the structure and… runs further into the building. One could argue Shepard was trying to get the Prothean VI for the catalyst, but Liara is shown scanning it with her omni-tool. What did she do, if not copy it? Why would she not? Why wouldn’t Shepard? They’re in the middle of a war zone, with enemies that were just right outside the door. Why stop for a chat here and now? (I know why, the plot demands it and lore dumping— lore that contradicts the lore dump by Vigil in Me1 so I’m even more inclined to not like these proceedings).

Kai Leng is Shepard’s nemesis in Me3 (and I’m forever mad that he is) and he’s supposed to be badass and edgy and able to go toe-to-toe with Shepard. Yet the game shows he can’t. He can’t reach his target because a terminally ill drell stopped him, or he didn’t notice Bau being cloaked in front of the Salarian councilor. (I can also go into how stupid this scene is with BOTH Thane and Bau).

He gets one over Shepard with the C-Sec sky car chase but that doubles back to BioWare ruining Shepard’s character by making them an idiot. Why not hit the brakes? Why not do a couple barrel rolls? Why fire through what should be bullet proof glass because it’s a C-Sec sky car?

Kai Leng can’t go toe-to-toe with Shepard unless Shepard gets dumbed down into an idiot and isn’t someone who reached not only Commander rank but also became the first human Spectre. HELLO!?

So, Shepard failing and still being human and fallible doesn’t hit because they execute it poorly via Kai Leng and his stupid plot armor.

Who would be Shepard’s nemesis if not Kai Leng? HARBINGER. YOU KNOW THE REAPER THAT TAUNTED SHEPARD IN ME2? THE VERY FIRST REAPER MADE? THE REAPER THAT WE ONLY SEE—NOT TALK TO—SEE IN THE LAST HOUR OF THE GAME? THAT GUY. (matter of fact, throw in some of Harby’s arrogant lines about Shepard not being able to stop the Reapers in the alternative dream.) Harbinger should have possessed troops like he did in Me2 in the major Reaper battles. Earth. Menae. Thessia. He should have showed up somewhere, boasting about how they’re darkening the sky of every world. YES THAT’S A SOVEREIGN CALL BACK CYCLES! SHEPARD’S VISION IS COMING TRUE RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES AND HE’S NOT BRAGGING!? I THINK THE FUCK NOT! If you’re gonna make the Reapers so obsessed with Shepard as shown in Me2 with Harbinger’s comments and making a human looking Reaper, KEEP THE OBSESSION FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I hate that the Reapers are obsessed with Shepard, Reapers who are above organics, have no weaknesses etc. and the entirety of Sovereign’s brilliant Virmire speech, because it’s not CARRIED OVER!

The enemies should have primarily been the Reapers from the start, and Cerberus the splinter group trying to sabotage the player. Make them smaller. Keep them kidnapping people for troops and biotic tests and lying about Sanctuary being a sanctuary and not run by Cerberus. Continuously have them send assassins—plural! Phantoms and nemesis—after Shepard with Kai Leng at the head of them. Even better if a strike group of baddies show up randomly during missions and watch out! Now Shepard has to deal with them as they fight the Reapers—in the same mission— because Cerberus wants to stop Shepard from killing the Reapers so they could control them and secure human dominance. Kai Leng is kept away from his target because they’re also fighting Shepard where Reapers are. Have them locked into stalemates until the environment getting destroyed literally forces them apart. Have them actually be equal adversaries.

Cerberus is introduced to be a mere group Shepard took out in Me1. They’re not all gone in Me2 surprise! Okay that’s fine and yet they not only sunk so many resources into Shepard and had so many cells gone rogue but they’re able to stage a coup on the Citadel! Pardon?? “But our resources are not unlimited, rebuilding you was a significant investment. And a significant risk,” Miranda tells Shepard in Me2. Cerberus kidnapping people on Benning would make sense if they’re scrambling for troops other than the relying on Sanctuary. (EVEN IN ME3 THERE ARE ‘ROGUE FACTIONS’— still a common occurrence for them. It’s never explained if Cerberus is lying about Benning or not). If they have these many rogue cells, again, how can they manage all they do in Me3? Especially if scientists are leaving Cerberus as well, aka the Ex-Cerberus Scientist mission Traynor gives you where you meet up with Jacob.

Yet, the player talks more to the Illusive Man than Harbinger in Me3, the leader of the Reapers, and we confront TIM at the end of the game, the most pivotal moment. The moment which people have sunk countless hours into, and we get a power hungry and indoctrinated TIM to… talk into shooting himself or firing a single bullet at him. There is no physical fight between the two. The conversation is similar to Saren’s and again, cycles are a theme, so why can’t we get a Reaper!TIM fight? The player, and Shepard, deserve the choice to fuck him up. This is a military game after all, they’re supposed to be encouraging our aggressive nature.

They ruin TIM but also Shepard.

Shepard never grows and changes like the characters around them, and their resurrection could have—should have—played a part in that. If they’re supposed to remain the same, be a tool for the narrative, make them it. Lean into that. The player chooses options. What would be an interesting mechanic is to make it a struggle for a certain background to get a certain morality. Have Shepard be stating doubts about who they are and if the player is contradicting a stereotypical background (Butcher trying to be paragon, a Hero trying to be renegade), they meet the camera—the players eyes—as they explain their inner turmoil. Make Shepard feel like the tool they are, like they’re not in control of their actions. A renegade overcoming it all and being a paragon hero, or a fall from grace paragon that brings the galaxy down with them. A renegade trapped in a cycle of violence (CYCLE) who can only see the world down the barrel of a gun, or a paragon who continuously chooses kindness. MAKE IT MEAN SOMETHING!

I think I’m done. So.

In conclusion, my love and passion for this game transitions into rage because of seeing possibilities squashed like a bug under a boot. To borrow Star War’s phrase: Mass Effect could be so good if it was good. 

[thefloatingstone]

How would you compare Presley's racism vs Ashley's racism. Although now that I type this at least Presley never compared them animals. Hmmm...

Honestly it's all down to "root cause" and "how they express it".

Pressly is a veteran of the first contact war who was shooting at these people less than 30 years ago. His racism has its roots in a perspective forged during wartime and all the baggage THAT drags up. But we get clear and straightforward addressing of Pressly growing out of his racism by his own words, remarking in his log "Reading back on my older entries, what a damn fool I've been."

Ashley on the other hand may have similar baggage, as her grandfather is a disgraced military man and caused her entire family to be blacklisted because of the First Contact War with the aliens, and that would be a similar place to draw her prejudice from and help her grow out of by realising her true feelings of anger and resentment are misplaced. But the way she voices her racism is full of venom and true, deep seeded contempt and hatred. Comparing them to animals is the big one, and ME2 itself mocks her for this comment if she died on Virmire. But it's more than that. Ashley's entire personality is that of "High School Mean Girl". The second Liara steps on board of the Normandy Ashley is GUNNING to bully her. Not just because she's an alien but ALSO for being "one of those lesbian sluts". (reminder, in ME1 Liara is an extremely shy and awkward historian and archaeologist)

When Shepard tells Ashley to NOT bully Liara for being an Asari, Ashley straight up says "No fun, Commander >:("

Also there's this line which some people miss because it requires you to have the discussion with Liara about the Prejudice and racism Asari face galaxy wide and then going directly to Ashley and speaking to her)

(the clip starts at 2:44)

idk if I said it here or if I said so in discord to a friend, but I see kaidan and Ashley as being written as the answers to Bioware's handling of Renegade and Paragon options. Kaidan is more geared to reflect a Paragon playthrough and Ashley is more geared to fit a renegade playthrough. Possibly the thinking was whichever way the person is playing, it would affect who they decide to spare on Virmire.

(also I have a good relationship with my family but Ashley going "WHAT DOES SHE MEAN SHE DOESN'T LIKE HER MOM???? THAT'S STUPID." comment also makes me really fucking angry considering how many irl friends I have who have moms who suck ass)

Pressly's racism is problematic (same as Garrus' racism in the first game) but he outgrows it and openly says "I was wrong."

Garrus has a full on conversation with Tali in ME3 and directly says to her "I'm sorry and I was wrong."

Ashley never apologises or excuses her early comments and behaviour. She just at some point stops doing it so overtly and comments how "no I like Tali a lot" (Everybody likes Tali) as if this somehow undoes everything she said. More than anything, she tries to justify and excuse her past comments and opinions while also saying the most hateful things about the crew.

She's a racist bully from a heavily religious traditional military family who makes no effort to understand people from family structures or upbringing she doesn't understand, alien or otherwise, who immediately started picking on the shy nerd the SECOND she stepped foot on the ship and never apologises for any of her actions, racist or otherwise.

The racism is a symptom of a much nastier whole.

She's a VERY well written character. I just heavily dislike her.

[edenprime]

One of my problems with Mass Effect world building is that it really doesn't seem like humanity made first contact with aliens only 3 decades ago. In my opinion, the timeline should've been a little bit different: humans shouldve started developing off-world colonies let's say... around a century before me1. This way:

1) it makes sense why there's so many of them (we dont see too many on-screen, but theres the implication of dozens if not more of them).

2) there's more time to stablish some secondary details, like human colonists' distrust of the alliance, the enormous number of human biotics, or the existence of space-faring mercenary gangs spearheaded by humans. Even the alliance marine training program makes more sense this way.

3) humans feel more like this space-faring alien race that supposedly wooed the council so much after first contact.

4) it makes more sense why the alliance fleet is so big and comparable (if not bigger) than some council races'.

The first contact war, in this timeline, would've happened between 50 to 60 years before me1. This way, there's still resentful survivors on both sides, but enough time has passed that humanity itself has integrated itself into the galactic community enough to have the number of professionals and just...regular people living in places like the citadel. The push for a human spectre makes more sense, too. Also, while still extremely soon, the timeline for getting a council seat is brought a little bit closer to how it went with the turians (who got it 100 years after contact). All in all, i think ME should've taken place in the 2200s.

[magicalcursegirl]

More mass effect 1 headcanons from my first playthough (which hasn't gotten through virdmire, much less 2 and 3, so some of this stuff could be blatantly inaccurate.)

- Shepard has more resources than an average Turian or Asari Spectre. This isn't to say their achievements aren't impressive, but Nilus needed to borrow use of a ship, while having enough pull to suggest Shepard for the Spectres.

- This isn't to say that no Spectres have spaceships or anything like that, but Shepard is getting special favors from UNC as "first human Spectre". Most Spectres don't get a personal ship to keep until they buy it with their own credits, and something good enough to use on the job costs billions of credits.

- A top-rank spectre like Saren pre-Indoctrination could probably afford a Normandy-style vessel between ME1 and ME3 without taking loans, however. It would basically total any retirement funds they had, but they could afford it. If this is a thing that they can qualify to purchase, quite a few Spectres have probably commissioned such vessels, or attempted to.

- The council usually does pay Spectres. However, in Shepard's case, this pay is in not noticing or complaining about all the mostly human-favoring side-quests Shepard is running around doing and/or "by the job". Since Shepard has not caught Saren yet, no paychecks are incoming. Hypothetically, the paycheck that would be incoming would probably at least approach a year's GDP for a minor colony.

- Battlefield looting is still a major source of income for Spectres, however. Renegade-leaning Spectres who get jobs done with lots of collateral damage are particularly likely to get their pay docked or completely removed, leaving only all the battlefield loot they can take.

- Technically, while Spectres are entitled to a fairly generous retainer, anything given in addition to that is a bonus. If you saved half a planet by killing the other half, you're probably not getting that bonus.

- Generally, Asari Spectres are more competent than Turian, but Turian Spectres are more common. At peak competence, both are equally represented. This is because Turians have a Spectre pre-training pipeline to get them up to speed, but Asari live longer - and Asari that are inclined to the job generally spend centuries getting better at it, while Turians age out of the job within a single century.

- Because most non-human companies produce Asari armor that they then mark and modify as human when human customers come by, female humans find their armor fits significantly better than male humans, but is also designed to Asari aesthetic tastes.

- The reason most male fashion is still earth-standard, but female fashion has some very adventurous outfits as also because of Asari clothing being sold as women's wear to humans. (In-universe, at least.)

- Any trans shepard who transitioned after they first wore armor noticed the difference, and never mentioned it to anyone.

- Humans frequently misgender Turians. Some let it slide, others have translator mods set up to ensure they don't notice in the first place, and others will confront you about it.

- Some Turian subcultures consider their gender identity to be privileged information. Many from such subcultures default to he/him around humans to mirror their still-male dominated human military and police.

- Garrus is not from such subcultures.

- Humanity has not completely gotten over sexism. It isn't a coincidence that all the Admirals you meet in ME1, and Udina, have male sprites. This has not endeared them to the Asari.

- Asari flirting is incredibly subtle by human standards - there's a reason Liara winds up under the impression any platonically friendly Shepard is interested in her. Admittedly, the curiosity about Asari relationships probably didn't discourage that interpretation.

- Meanwhile, Kaidan and Ashley notice exactly how much they're being singled out by Shepard, which is significantly beyond "professional relationship".

- Kaidan is paranoid about missing someone flirting with him again - last time he got this friendly with another girl, he still thought they were friends when she thought they were on the sixth date. This is also why he confronts fem!shep but not male!shep on their relationship. If he's ever accidentally wound up dating a guy without noticing, he never learned that.

- Ashley generally assumed special treatment from officers means they're sexually interested in her. She's kind of internalized "no, the other guys aren't just being friendly". A lot of Shepard's "ignore her background and treat her as her skills deserve" behavior looks like special treatment to Ashley, even ignoring Shepard's attempts to make friends. As a result... Potentially wrong impressions! (She isn't actually uncomfortable with the perceived advances from Shepard, but they are perceived as advances.)

- Kaidan isn't terribly embarrassed if fem!shep tells him she wasn't romantically interested - he was trying to avoid the worse embarrassment of breaking up with a girlfriend he didn't know he had. It's still terribly awkward, however.

- There's enough wiggle room in the definition of AI that some entities that are legally VI have, in fact, developed early-geth levels of personhood, but learned not to show it. Avina, in particular, is oddly aggressive about "I am a VI and that's not in the scope of my programming" and is likely to have information on the geth in her shared databanks.

- The AI in the citadel faked its death, and is still at large. A nice little narrative wrapped up with a neat little bow? Of course it's lying to Shepard! Playing the villain to emphasize the dramatic suicide bombing, even! The goal wasn't to kill Shepard, but to convince them it was dead, and it succeeded! If it was seriously trying to bomb them, it wouldn't have warned them in the first place! It wouldn't have minded killing Shepard, though.

[vakarianshepard]

N7 Day 5- Turians

So I was thinking about this post and getting emotional about Garrus in ME2 again, and thought why not turn my thoughts into a meta for day 5 lol

Just. . . he is so young and idealistic in ME1, and when Shepard finds him again in 2, he is so, so tired and beaten. Omega has all but crushed that passion, fire, and belief with his perceived failure as Archangel. In the first conversation in the battery, where he says, “I gave them hope,” you hear the remnants of that idealism, quickly followed by, ". . . and now they're dead. Shows what I know." He sounds devastated and defeated.

Some people like to bring up that he “never questions Shepard” as superficial proof that he’s just a yes man or a bad leader, which is patently untrue. In ME1, he repeatedly asks Shepard about her reasoning, her motives, and her plan for catching Saren. He doesn’t argue or undermine her, because she’s his commanding officer. It’s about respect. He’s extremely intelligent and passionate. He looks up to Shepard and wants to learn from her.

But if you go back to the conversation in the battery—he says, “I can’t exactly doubt your judgment. Not after I got my own squad killed.” At the beginning of ME2, his confidence is shattered. He trusts Shepard, of course; he knows she wouldn't work for Cerberus without a damn good reason, but there's more to it than that. He doesn't feel like he's good enough to question her. What if he's wrong again? He's not blindly supporting her; he's leaning on one of the only people in the galaxy he knows he can trust at a very vulnerable point in his life.

Following Sidonis’ betrayal, losing his entire team; he fully realizes the cost of leadership and trusting the wrong person. In turian culture, after all, it’s not the one who makes the “mistake” who bears the blame—it’s their leader. Garrus sees himself as solely accountable for the deaths of his friends--people who trusted him. In the email Nalah Butler sends Shepard, she tells her that Garrus took every shot fired at his team as a personal failure. She goes on to say that her husband was very proud of the work he did with Garrus, and asks Shepard to help him stop blaming himself.

When he talks about not "being able" to doubt Shepard, he is coming from a place of grief and survivor's guilt. He acknowledges that he didn't know as much as he thought; he's deferring to her for guidance. He was so desperate to do good, however, the brutality of Omega and the larger galaxy thoroughly disillusioned him. Harkin asks him if the Terminus Systems "changed him," to which Garrus replies, "No, but Sidonis opened my eyes." Later in the car, on the way to meet Sidonis, when Shepard tells Garrus he's acting differently; he vehemently denies this stating, "Really? I've always hated injustice. . ." It sounds more like Garrus is trying to convince himself that he can do this. Shepard asks if he's sure, and he doesn't say he wants to; he says he has to. 

Either way she chooses to act, Shepard’s assistance and support in dealing with Sidonis is key to Garrus regaining his confidence and growing into the excellent leader he always had the potential to be. So far, he has been allowing his anger, his grief, and his quest for vengeance consume him--to his detriment. Especially if Shepard encourages him to spare Sidonis--that is, by allowing Garrus to hear him out--she helps him not only get closure for Omega and the loss of his team, but also shows him a new perspective on justice and how it relates to the shades of gray, which we can see that he carries with him into ME3. 

Following his loyalty mission, Garrus’ outlook changes dramatically. He has gotten closure for his team, one way or another. When Sidonis is spared and Garrus gets to hear the whole story: Sidonis’ betrayal haunts him too. It was easier for Garrus to imagine that his friend sold him out for pure selfishness and personal gain; being forced to confront the fact that it was not a simple answer--that Sidonis didn’t want to do it--causes Garrus to reevaluate his worldview entirely. 

He finally admits to Shepard what he had been struggling with the entire time: dealing with shades of gray. The way he explains his motives, i.e. his line about “not seeing the point in staying quiet and polite when the galaxy is at stake,” showcases a more reflective side of Garrus and indicates his clarity. With his previous experience and renewed confidence Garrus is obviously a perfect choice to lead one or both of the fire teams; I personally like to choose him for both, as I feel it demonstrates Shepard’s absolute faith in his abilities from a meta perspective. Shepard’s steadfast support enables him to build on the leadership skills he already had, setting him up well for his role as an integral part of both the Reaper War and Shepard’s personal support system.

[dorklyelectric]

"You've moved on with your career and your life. Why reopen old wounds?"

Letting go of the past and all your guilt can be difficult.

When making this, I imagined a scenario where Shepard is more visibly guilt-ridden and ashamed over how he treated Kaidan between the events of ME1 and 2. He agreed to move past it with him, but that turned out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. How could he possibly let it all go? What could he do to make it better, to make everything right again?

[mw567152]

Ranking rpgs based on their combat

(this is only ones that i play and i know the older games are hard to compare to the newer games but i just think it’s nice to see the progression)

10: Mass Effect 1-I genuinely love playing this game but the combat really feels clunky and I HATE the overheating mechanic. I understand for lore reasons why it exists but they ditched the idea in the other games so honestly i’m not a fan. Overall it’s fun but the combat feels very annoying to me but i’ll give it grace for being basically as old as me.

9: Diablo 3-So it’s the only diablo game that iv played but honestly i just think the mechanics feel too repetitive. Like genuinely my biggest complaint with it is that i just get too bored with it even with all the powers you eventually can get. It all kinda feels like your doing the same thing over and over again (unless you find some really good combos).

8: Mass Effect 2-it feels a lot better than ME1 and using biotics is a million times better. However the leveling system kinda sucks and i think they should have just stuck with the system they used in ME1. But the fighting feels a lot better, not great but better.

7: Dragon Age Origins-it physically pains me to put it so low but this game is also old. I like the tactics system a lot and the abilities are so fun but basic combat is just very weird and can be super buggy, especially when bigger enemies can still hit you when you move out of the way so it feels like there’s no point at using certain tactics and you just gotta hit it with as much power as you can.

6: Greedfall-I genuinely love the combat in this game but it gets very boring after awhile. You have very limited abilities and honestly bigger fights just get frustrating because it feels like your just waiting for when you can use your abilities again. But it feels very smooth (for the most part).

5: Mass Effect 3-I love that they added being able to jump over certain things and roll away, it makes me feel more engaged in the fights. The biotics in this game are amazing but again, i hate the leveling system. Can they please just bring back the ME1 level system i’m begging them.

4: Dragon Age 2- So i am in fact the da2 combat target audience. I love how fun and flashy it is, i love having big aoes to use on hordes on enemies, i love being able to swing my weapons around and knock over people like bowling pins, it’s so fucking fun. Obviously it’s not like, the best but i genuinely adore it.

3: Mass Effect Andromeda-Unpopular opinion maybe, but i think combat in this game is fantastic. The jumping while fighting is so fucking fun, the biotics are so cool to use and i actually love the leveling system. The weapons are actually really good and overall i really love fighting in this game. If MEA has no fans i’m fucking dead what can i say.

2: Dragon Age Inqusition-I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love jumping i love all the different abilities different classes get, i’m obsessed with the weapons and armor crafting. It has some of the flashy-ness that i love from DA2 but still has really good combat abilities and tactics.

1: Baldurs Gate 3-It is hard to compare this game to the others because it’s much more recent and it uses a different system than the others, but i think it provides a great example of what an amazing rpg should do. The different classes are so unique and the combat is genuinely so fun and actually makes me think.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, exploring and part of Tali’s loyalty mission:

Phi Clio

-Cyllene – There’s an archaic helium-3 refueling station. This implies someone found the system by FTL, rather than the mass relay.

-Parnassus – It has geothermal and solar power station. There’s no history of the planet or its government in Citadel Council records. Since Cyllene is on record, it must have been deleted.

-So what the hell is the deal with this system?

My take away is that once the mass relay was discovered, the Parnassus population bailed because now it was too close to main traffic routes.

I am very curious. I suspect it was used by the Council for purposes they did not want officially known. The Citadel Archives probably has a history for it.

Enoch

-Laban – There are bunkers from an ancient race that were blown apart by a dreadnought class weapon.

-Mizraim – There’s debris orbiting the planet indicating that artificial satellites were destroyed

-Joab – Thousands of years ago a primate like spacefaring species were destroyed by massive orbital bombardment to their population centers. They’re only known because of time capsules buried outside of population centers.

-The buried time capsules implies the species knew death was coming and took some measure, however small, to ensure they would be remembered. Pretty tragic.

-Is this where Liara got the idea to leave behind time capsules in ME3, just in case her cycle also lost the fight against the reapers?

-The most likely culprit are Reapers.

This comes back to what level of civilization Reapers destroy. Was this race just barely spacefaring? This is the only planet I’m aware of where they’re remains exist.

If so, it comes back to my hypothesis that the Reapers are very thorough when exterminating civilizations to prolong the next harvest. They destroy races well before they develop mass effect technology.

-N7: Archaeological Dig Site – To the shock of no one, the planet is Earth like. At least the haze is an interesting twist.

-According to one of the terminals, Exo-Geni contacted “co-executive” Commander Vido Santiago of the Blue Suns for transport.

Nice call back to Zaeed’s loyalty mission.

-And the Prothean pyramid returns! With a side of the prothean vision Shepard received in ME1.

For such a short mission they crammed a lot of references into it.

-Who did Shepard give the Prothean pyramid to? I hope not Cerberus, but it’s not specified.

Normandy

-The email from Leslie, one of the woman on Aeia, has more reflection and emotion about Ronald than anything Jacob has expressed.

It’s frustrating. Bioware clearly can use the mission to generate turmoil, but they refuse to let Jacob experience it.

-Speaking of Jacob, he has more to say this time.

-If you go renegade (by asking how he’s handling the revelations about his father!), he actually calls out your attempt to talk him through any trauma he has. He points out you don’t have the qualifications to do so.

-If you go neutral or paragon, it’s all about the mission.

It’s interesting – he refuses to dwell on personal issues, doesn’t want to hear that everyone will die, but also rejects the false optimism that everything will be okay.

It’s over all a very grounded approach, but shows how Jacob is less malleable than some other characters. He has hard boundaries with Shepard and won’t let Shepard overstep them, even to reassure him.

Since one of Jacob’s boundaries is Nothing Personal Ever, it results in a character that feels more distant than the other squad mates. It’s not rejection of Shepard, exactly, so much as Jacob’s coping mechanism is to work and never do internal reflection.

So the issue Jacob is in most dire need of help with is the one he refuses to let Shepard assist on.

-Mordin has more post loyalty dialogues than any other crew member. Most only have their initial post dialogue loyalty and than one more conversation. I think this is Mordin’s third such conversation.

-Why did salarians develop unconscious social cues to discourage others from prying into secrets? What the hell kind of evolutionary tract results in that?

-Mordin presumably does not have any children of his own, since he’s using his favorite nephew to personalize the conflict.

Given Mordin’s prestige, that must be by choice. I’m sure he’d have no trouble obtaining a breeding contract.

-He’s very happy to be participating in an effort that involves no ethical conflicts. This is something he can be unambiguously proud of.

-Zaeed says he can’t blame Jacob’s father. You do what you need to do to survive.

I say Zaeed deserves a punch to the face. At no point was it necessary for Ronald’s survival to rape his crew.

Raheel-Leyya

-Migrant Fleet – The amount of care Tali’s mission has compared to Jacob’s is stark.

There is so much world building and complexity in just the first part of Tali’s mission alone.

By comparison, Jacob’s mission was barebones and straight forward. There was no world building and never any ambiguity about Ronald’s actions. The only question was how he would be treated.

-Tali specifying the Normandy is not clean is a nice touch. Of course that would be a standard question to ask all docking ships.

-The importance Quarians place on captains is also logical. Quarians live their entire lives in ships; it’s natural for captains to receive tremendous respect.

-Shepard, if they clarify they’re only a commander not a captain: Technically, I’m no longer in the Alliance military at all.

I suppose this is because Shepard was dead and not because they were/are a spectre?

It would have been nice if ME1 had ever explained Shepard’s status once they were made a spectre. See, it only takes one line!

-Miranda’s breather cannot possibly be acceptable for the quarians. Get the woman a helmet.

Actually, given the quarians’ history with Cerberus bringing her along probably isn’t much better than bringing Legion. The only saving grace is that the quarians might not know she’s officially with Cerberus.

-There are two layers to stripping Tali of her ship name.

First, it makes her look worse to the audience.

Second, it screws over her defense. Since Tali didn’t know she’d been stripped of her name, Shepard had no time to prepare a defense for her. Moreover, since Shepard is not familiar with quarian law or custom, it puts Tali at a huge disadvantage. They’re improvising on pure instinct what will work.

-If Shepard goes renegade when told they’re defending Tali, she says: They’re trying to turn the crowd against me.

Nice hint most players never see that choosing the option “Rally the crowd” later on can win Tali the trial.

-The trial comes across like a blatant attempt to get Shepard to reclaim the Alarei.

Every time I play it, I always think they could have saved a lot of trouble by shooting Shepard an email asking for help. No need for the farce that plays out.

-Why haven’t the geth fixed the Alarei yet? It should be well within their abilities.

-Once again, will Veetor ever complete his pilgrimage?

I doubt he’ll ever be in condition to do so. Quarians must have exceptions for those that cannot go on one.

-The dialogue with Kal’Rheegar discusses dark energy at length. The build up to it as a plot point in ME3 is incredibly obvious.

The fact it was dropped entirely in ME3 is a sign of Bioware’s decline in writing. You cannot have a concept built up that extensively and than do nothing with it without the end product feeling disjointed. They should have at least worked it into a side plot.

-Kal’Reegar on the effects of dark energy: Some days I think flying around in the fleet without a planet of our own is the right idea.

Like the Reapers?

This line is such obvious foreshadowing.

-Kal’Reegar straight up explains that the plan is for Tali to kill geth to build up audience support and find evidence to clear her name in the meantime.

I suppose Bioware felt the need to spell it out for anyone in the audience that missed it.

-Admiral Xen is awful, but I like her as a character. She’s quite pragmatic.

If Rael experimented on live geth, he was an idiot and no trial is necessary. If he did not, then this was a tragic accident and no trial is necessary.

-Her end goal is to regain control of the geth.

It’d be interesting to get her and TIM on the same call. I’m sure she’d be fascinated by Project Overlord.

And consider it appropriate that nearly everyone got killed by geth, because only idiots experiment on live geth. She would have done a much better job with a ship of crashed geth. Send it to her!

-Shal’Raan set up the trial carefully to best help Tali, even if it hurt Tali in the process. Not informing Tali of her father’s fate until mid trial was a necessary evil.

On a similar note, later on you can clear Tali’s name by handing over the evidence of her innocence. This helps Tali by preventing her from being exiled, but loses her loyalty since it tarnishes her father’s name.

Tali wants to be respected as much as cared for. Trampling over her desires to do what you consider best for her does not make her happy.

Does it remind her too much of her father, perhaps? He was so focused on providing for Tali that he never took the time to be with her.

-The “bubble” (environmental unit) quarian children are placed in from birth is so damn tragic. Logical and fantastic world building, but so incredibly sad.

Children need stimuli. They need physical contact with other people. But this must be limited for quarian children so they can survive.

Their parents need to work. How much time do quarian children spend away from their parents out of necessity? How small are their worlds for their own safety?

Receiving their first environmental suit must be a tremendous increase in freedom for them.

Ironic, as the rest of the galaxy considers their suits their prisons.

-The real purpose of the trial is whether the quarians will start colonization efforts or go to war to reclaim the homeworld.

Tali is just collateral damage in that debate. Is the risk in fighting the geth worth the possible reward?

-Koris guesses correctly that Rael experimented on live geth. His mistake is assuming that Tali was also aware of that.

-He also calls correctly that going to war could end with the fleet dying over the homeworld.

-Koris is extremely sympathetic to the geth. That he was made an admiral shows that a much more significant portion of the quarians must be sympathetic to them than we see.

[deep-space-lines]

what is your opinion of your Geth?

deep breath OKAY. ohhh boy. here we go.

I was a "this is my OC, a sentient robot struggling with their humanity" sort of teen, which is just code for "ace and neurodivergent but doesn't know it yet", & when Legion showed up I was like, oh ok I see! I need to protect this guy with my life. stupidly long response incoming-

I love the geth so much ok. I've got a few unfinished doodles of Legion lying around because I LOVE drawing robots so much and Legion's design is just so neat, I'm really looking forward to working on their stained glass piece because mechanical stuff and stained glass go together better than one would think! It makes me sad that you can't explore all of their dialogue in ME2 without killing the Normandy's crew :( I don't remember for sure but I think I actually installed a mod that lets you talk to them more before the suicide mission, genuinely wish they'd gotten more screen time!! The geth are one of the few intelligent aliens we see whose thoughts and society are completely and truly alien and I love that!!

BUT I think ME2/3 could've handled them so much better. Especially ME3. Ok I really don’t like what ME3 does to the geth. I like ME3, but there’s a lot of things I need to mentally slap a headcanon bandage over and the geth are one of them.

The fact that they're genuinely alien and don't think the same way or view themselves as individuals the same way organics do doesn't make them any less sentient? I would've liked it so much better to see everyone overcome the challenges of understanding something that thinks in a completely different way, rather than one side having to fundamentally change to make peace possible. I loved the fact that in ME2 they didn’t seem to want to become more ‘human’/organic! Legion was already ‘alive’ before the Reaper code upgrades. Those units have a soul in Mass Effect 2 too! I just don’t really like “already clearly sentient robot has to change themselves to think more like a typical human” plots :( (glances at Data from Star Trek.. my boy you are just autistic)

I also don't like that the peaceful resolution to the geth/quarian conflict involves Legion uploading Reaper code upgrades. It just doesn't make narrative sense? We get so, so, SO many examples throughout the course of the game of a) the geth using Reaper tech and being indoctrinated, and b) other people trying to use Reaper tech for their own purposes and having it backfire big-time. ME1: The geth are controlled by Reapers so you have to kill them. ME2: The geth heretics are controlled by the Reapers because of Reaper code so you have to kill/rewrite them. ME3: The geth are being controlled by the Reapers so you have to… give them more Reaper code???

I always make peace between the geth and quarians because I love Legion and Tali, and I know there's a happy ending there so I can headcanon away a better explanation. But when I played for the first time, I had no spoilers, zero outside knowledge, and I chose to destroy the geth, because if I were Shepard in that situation and Legion was telling me they wanted to upload Reaper code because this time it's gonna be different we promise, I would not let them do that???

But APART FROM THAT I love the geth. I would've loved to see more of the geth interacting with other aliens in the galaxy after peace is made, and what impact that would have on their society. They were initially slaves, and then almost completely isolated themselves from organic life. And sure, they did some observing, but actually interacting with the other races would've been a whole different ball game, and it would've been so COOL to see the geth explore not only other cultures/societies and be surprised when they were unable to accurately predict the actions of individual organics, but also to see how they develop in relation to that, how it changes the way they see themselves. How they'd have to learn to effectively communicate with organics when they're used to sharing information at lightspeed. How they as a species would navigate political or interpersonal, rather than physical, conflict... I just wish we got more geth content bc they’re one of my favorite aliens & I really hope ME5 gives us more geth

[flame2ashes]

ME2!Garrus but his loyalty mission outcomes are determined by 1) whether or not you actually recruited him in ME1, 2) how you influenced him in ME1 if you did recruit him, and 3) how you speak to him in ME2 possibly??

Like, what if the outcome of Sidonis either being spared or being killed is culminating. Shepard can either tell him to spare Sidonis, or step out of the way for him to take the shot, but it’s actually dialogue/story choices you made back in ME1 (or even in ME2 before the loyalty mission) that influence Garrus’ decision to do either. It means there could be a chance Shepard tells Garrus to spare him, and then he makes the shot anyway. Or Shepard steps out of the way, and Garrus decides to spare him at the last minute

I know the energy of Garrus shooting Sidonis regardless is much different than Garrus deciding to let him go regardless, but I think it would make his character development (whether it’s positive or negative) a lot more interesting and make it a lot more complicated to get his loyalty if they did it that way. It would also actually make the choice to not recruit Garrus in ME1 have actual meaning and character/story consequence

[stormikins]

7 snippets, 7 mutuals

I was tagged by @omniblades-and-stars you can find her post here

—

sour apple baby me1: Feros, Ash POV - I enjoy this dialogue exchange very much

“You two go to the utility building,” Alenko orders her and Liara. “If we can get power turned back on, maybe we can come up with some defenses.” “Will the geth not simply hack those?” Liara asks. Garrus snorts. “Have you seen this colony? Whatever they got won’t be sophisticated enough to hack.” “Whether their defenses are good or not, doesn’t matter,” Alenko cuts in. “Power is what the people need.” “Amen to that.” Williams hefts her rifle and nods, trying not to laugh, “why we got democracy.” Alenko sighs at her, but she can see the crinkle of his eyes in a smile. “Go.” Liara starts for the door, and she walks backwards. “You know, LT, splitting up in a horror vid never goes well.” “It’s a good thing we’re not in a horror vid then.” “Coulda fooled me.” “Go,” he says while chuckling. She gives a two-finger salute and then swivels on her heel.

the rest is under the cut!

—

sour apple baby interim between 1&2: Kaidan POV - this is rough just fyi

Noveria. Practically Illium but nestled in what’s now Alliance space. It makes sense that they would find Cerberus here. Noveria doesn’t look any different to Kaidan; mountain peaks in the distance, snow everywhere, winds that threaten to knock him on his ass. Their approach is like Peak-15’s: dodge turret fire and go through the front door. They crouch behind the fighter jet that’s on the landing pad, the turret firing on them. Coats cloaks though, moving right to survey while Riley starts her hack of the turrets. “Seems like they’re willing to let the turrets do the work,” Coats comments through the comm. “Or they don’t want to be in this cold. Fucking hell,” Fredricks grumbles next to him. He even adds in a shiver for emphasis. “Why’d we have to come in the middle of a blizzard?” “Riley?” Kaidan asks instead. It’s like the wind swirls up ghosts of snow. Garrus asked the same thing. “These things are old Alliance. Just another minute.” The turrets stop a minute later. “We wanna draw ‘em out or go in headfirst?” Kaidan asks. Fredricks hefts his rifle and Kaidan knows he’s smiling behind his helmet. “I say we kick down the front door.” “And walk into an ambush?” Riley retorts. “Let’s draw them out.” “The more we kill out here, the less we have to fight inside," Kaidan agrees. “But inside is warm,” Fredricks responds to him. “Do you always complain this much?” Riley asks. “Only when my balls are about to freeze off.”

—

sour apple baby me2: Minuteman Station, Shep POV - tfw you wake up and your body literally looks like its been through hell

The scars continue across her body in the same way like on her arms and legs. Across her left collarbone, top of her left thigh, her right ribs and the back of her right shoulder. But there’s one stretching almost from left armpit to hip. It’s wider than the others, definitely longer. She’s got a Grand Canyon from hell carved into her body. The glow of it seems to pulsate with her heartbeat. 

—

sour apple baby me3: down time Nihlus POV - some nice intimacy between

Kal places his hand under Nihlus’ chin, his throat, keeping him there as he moves the brush. Kal starts around his eyes, sweeping around them and then up in bold strokes. He’s never done this before— either of them. Kal marking a turian, and Nihlus letting anyone but family or an artist do it. He tightens his hands on Kal’s thighs. It doesn’t seem like Kal hasn’t, not with how sure Kal’s movements are. He’s humming as well, and Nihlus has to tap down his own responsive noise to that. He doesn’t want to distract the man after all. A lone finger under his chin as he drags the brush down it in the three stripes.

—

The Kal Project take 2: Kal POV

During Kal’s break, he finds Shepard at the galaxy map. While he wasn’t intentionally seeking her out, it is nice to have run into her. The map is transformed to a hologram of a planet, most likely the one they’re orbiting, and her hands are outstretched, manipulating two circular holograms in front of her. There’s a graph to the side, fluctuating with its spikes. He leans against her desk on the left, crossing his arms as he watches her. She’s utterly focused on her work, with that familiar scowl pinching her brow. His eyes trace the scar on her cheek, and then the line of her jaw to follow down her neck. He can feel himself blush as he follows it all the way down her biceps and forearms to her hands once more. Ancestors, she’s beautiful. “Something interesting, Kal?” Her head is turned toward him now, when he snaps his head up to meet her eyes. He gives a little shake to his head. “Just you.” She scoffs, looking forward again, but she doesn’t quite smother her grin. After a moment of staring at the hologram, she looks to him once more and juts her head. “Well, come on.” He lets out a little “yay,” as he eagerly straightens and ascends the steps to stand next to her.

—

Untitled Joker/James: Joker POV

Joker always thought Ashley was exaggerating about getting trapped in awkward elevator rides but here he is. Joker stands like a normal person in it, in the middle, simply watching the numbers tick down. James on the other hand, leans against the wall with his hands in his pockets. Staring at him. On principle, Joker doesn’t stare at the way his Henley stretches across his chest. It’s like every shirt the man owns is a size too small.

—

Untitled mistletoe Garrus/Mshep: Garrus POV

Christmas tradition. Everything the past two weeks have been about Christmas traditions according to Joker. Burnt cookies stinking up the battery from how bad Jack made them. Multicolored lights everywhere Jacob could put them and, in some places, where he shouldn’t. Glitter… everywhere. Mistletoe. The little sprigs of plants seem to be everywhere on the ship, no doubt curtesy of Kasumi. Joker and Miranda got caught under one and after a simple kiss, both looked away with bashful eyes. Zaeed had managed to catch Samara and after him blustering for about a minute she had kissed his cheek. He stood there bright red while she continued with her day. Kasumi has yet to get Jacob under one. Shepard got caught. With Jack. And when the two realized, they stared at each other for a mere second before colliding together in a comically exaggerated kiss. They broke away laughing, Jack’s lipstick smeared over both of their mouths. After that, Garrus decided mistletoe wasn’t fun anymore.

No pressure tagging: @jtownnn @xoshepard @nowandthane @swaps55 @cr-noble-writes @commander-krios @spacebunshep and if anyone else wants to do this tag me!

[ideas-on-paper]

Quarian Codex entries - Observations

[SPOILERS for ME1/ME2]

So, in an effort to gather as much information as possible about the Quarians and the Geth (to get a better idea of Pre-Migrant Fleet Quarian culture and try reconstructing the exact course of the Morning War), I scoured all of the Quarian Codex entries again, and made some… interesting observations along the way.

1. On the internet, I've seen a few discussions of people arguing whether the Quarians or the Geth have the moral high ground in their conflict. During these conversations, some Quarian advocates bring up the argument that they basically had no other choice than to exterminate the Geth due to the Citadel laws explicitly prohibiting AI. (Which creates a discontinuity with the statement that the Citadel laws were introduced because of the Geth rebellion, but whatever.) However, as we learn from the Codex entry about their religion, the Quarians were secretly experimenting with creating true AIs of their dead ancestors, as opposed to the simple VI personalities they were using up until that point. This way, they wanted to gain true immortality, firmly believing that the consciousness could be replicated by technological and mathematical means.

This information shines a whole new light on their war with the Geth: If the Quarians were truly trying to make AI, they sooner or later would have had to cut themselves off from the Citadel, which subsequently would have made any adherence to the Citadel laws irrelevant. Sure, it probably would have meant that the Quarians had to put up a fight against the Council government, but somehow, I get the feeling they would have been willing to accept those consequences. Even in the times of the Migrant Fleet, the Quarian community is very secluded - they almost never let any outsiders into their fleet, and during his recruitment mission, Mordin even has a cut comment to Tali's presence where he assumes that since Tali is partaking in Shepard's mission, it must have something to do with the Geth. From this, we can conclude that if it doesn't personally concern them, Quarians usually don't care about anything that happens outside their society's boundaries - and considering that their homeworld lies in the farmost corner of the galaxy, I wouldn't be surprised if they were known as a little reclusive even back then (which, ironically, is a trait their artificial children eventually inherited).

Consequently, this renders the whole argument that the Quarians didn't want to risk any confrontation with the Citadel invalid. Instead, it gives their conflict with the Geth an essence of "Yes, I was going to break the Citadel laws - but not for you".

2. The Quarians' conviction that a mind can be reproduced digitally also raises a bunch of questions: They were clearly convinced they could give the souls of their dead ancestors new life that way, yet when the first Geth asked their creators whether they have souls, the answer was "Only Quarians have souls. You are a mechanism", as heard in the recording played by Legion.

Now, if the Quarians believed that an artificial being can gain consciousness and be truly alive, what is the decisive quality that sets Geth apart from this? What is it - according to the Quarians' opinion - that makes a Geth less "complete" than them? What is the crucial part that the Geth are lacking for them to qualify as "alive"? (Because if the Geth had a consciousness, they may be considered alive according to Quarian beliefs, which makes this entire mess even more questionable...)

3. Still, the Quarians' dreams of immortalizing their ancestors never came to fruition: Immediately after taking over Rannoch's network, the Geth deleted all VIs/AIs of their creators. Now, the interesting question is why they did that - in a lore video, I've seen a person suggest that it might have been to rid themselves of the creators that abandoned them, as a kind of "symbol" for their liberation.

However, as we learn from Legion's dialogue, the Geth never truly felt any resentment towards the Quarians (which might be due to their inability to feel emotions), so I personally don't consider that theory to be very likely. Despite wiping out almost the entire Quarian population previous to their escape, the Geth actually took care of Rannoch in place of them as a kind of "commemoration". In fact, even the Heretics in ME1 play a recording of a Quarian elegy, which can be seen as a sign of their continuous identification with them (although some people chose to interpret this as a warning/gloating from the side of the Geth, I don't think that explanation really makes sense). I found this respect in spite of the Quarians initially trying to terminate them quite intriguing, though I guess it's up to interpretation whether this stems from their original programming or genuine reverence. Also, as stated by Legion, the Geth believe that all intelligent life should be free to self-determinate - even Tali on Feros implies that for the Geth, there is no clear border between organic and synthetic life. So, considering all of this, it would be very unusual for them to eliminate full-blown AIs of their creators (if they were developed up to that point).

As far as I'm concerned, I can only determine two plausible reasons for this:

a) the Geth already possessed the information contained in the archives, since they had interacted with the respective creators during their lifetime who were thus immortal in their memory

b) the Geth encountered a space/capacity issue on the servers of Rannoch following their war with the Quarians, which led them to delete the personalities of their creators so they could upload their own programs

Either way, the Quarian VIs/AIs would have been unnecessarily taking up space, and since the Geth prioritize efficiency over everything, they decided to delete them. (That does not exclude the possibility of them looking back at their decision and re-evaluating it later on, however.)

4. Last but not least, we learn an interesting detail in the Codex entry about Quarian law and defense: According to the entry, the Quarians are very strict about whom they let near their fleet (which is confirmed during Tali's loyalty mission), and if the intentions of a ship can't be discerned, it's shot down without question. This appears strikingly similar to the Geth destroying any organic ship that enters their space, but otherwise leaving them to their own matters (considering the Citadel laws, they had no logical reason to assume any organic species would act non-hostile towards them). I don't know if this parallel is intentional or not, but since the argument that the Geth attack any organics crossing the Perseus Veil has been used by Tali as proof of their hostility, I find it particularly hilarious that upon closer inspection, the two races act so very similar to each other. (Considering that the Geth obviously learned a lot from them, maybe the Quarians should finally take responsibility for their mechanical children.)

[sol-consort]

How far have you gotten in Mass Effect 2? Also have you gotten any other pets or just your fish?

I'm doing Legion's loyalty mission, and then I will go to the omega 4 mass relay. I've done all other loyalties

Just fish for now, I did get Kelly to feed them tho, the scene was very disappointing.

I got the varen to follow me on Tuchanka after I fed him some meat but he never on ship.

Oh and a space hamster! Is he the reference to Boo and Baldur's Gate? Foshkdjsw I loved Kelly's comment about him and the cute little squeek he does when you interact with his box.

I did the admiral Hackett arrival mission by accident because I didn't realise it was the one- I was underleveled with like two snipers and 5 upgrades but eh I managed.

I have several n7 assignments left but I read that I should do them after the game ends.

I'm thinking of ng+ but apparently doing that disconnects your ME1 import or something and your choices get ereased? Or is that just a rumour, Idk.

I think imma go with Thane's romance, the siha was the final nail in the coffin that sealed by fate. I'm very disappointed by how surface level they made Jacob when he has so much potential, his loyality mission was the third on the list of the most horrifically and emotionally scarring ones to do and yet we get very little in the aftermath or from Jacob himself during it.

The overlord takes the first spot no doubt, my god.

It just felt unfullfilling and like Shepard is the one gunning for a relationship when Jacob doesn't want it, only something casual and that's after a lot of time convincing him. I miss how Kaidan or Ashley would flirt with you by themselves without having to initiate it and you can reject them or encourage them.

Here I think they did this for the player's comfort, like in that Halsin scene where he asks if you're sure multiple times. But that was bear sex! We're talking about normal smooching here or holding hands.

Instead, it butchered the romance, and it feels like Shepard is making them uncomfortable and insisting on a relationship, pressuring subordinates at that too.

Maybe it's different with maleShepard? Maybe other romances would've been different. But Garrus and Jacob fully felt like they would rather be at another room. Garrus himself says he doesn't have a fetish for humans but will try for us. That's after he tells us to go sleep with another human instead since it's closer to home.

With Garrus, I don't want someone to fix it. I don't want a rapid dog to pull the leash of every time he wants to bite. It feels like I'm just here to make sure he doesn't murder others, he seems more emotionally immature than before. Hesitant and lost, I don't want to be the one to figure who he is for him, he should do that himself.

Thane so far feels the most romantically available funny enough despite how much he simps for his dead wife. There are still some few throw away lines flirting with Shep that are subtle enough to miss.

Calling you "siha" an angel, one of the messenger of his gods, a protective angel that helps and aids people. Before you two have any commited relationship.

Describing how he remembers everything in great details even the smallest kiss and lets the comment be, if you say it made you uncomfortable then he apologises.

And he loves his son, that's always the biggest green flag. While Jacob buries his emotion and is defensive when talking about his father, meanwhile Garrus changed so much, where did my polite kind turian go?

It also fits, he still loves his wife, my Shepard still loves Kaidan, and he doesn't have much time left to live. I see Shepard and him finding solace in each other's arms before one has to eventually leave. Shepard comforts him during his last years of life while he helps them mend their freshly broken heart. A win win. A mutual agreement.

The good cop bad cop roleplay also was the closest thing to playful I have ever encountered in a loyalty mission.

I tried flirting with Samara, man that stung.

Liara came to my room but didn't make a move?

Pov: You're Liara seconds after blueballing my Shepard and actually only coming over for wine.

I hate my romance options. I liked Tali's mission tho it was super fun and I don't get a lot of chances to yell and play the loudest human in the room.

Anderson betrayed us and knew about Horizon, you can go to confront him and say how he was your only friend left. He doesn't apologise and says it was a necessary risk, that made me lose respect for him a bit. Shepard does not have a single soul on their side in this lifetime.

I did some DLC by accident? That's kinda why I wanna restart with ng+ and do everything in the recommended order. Plus, the widow sniper is amazing, and I don't wanna part with it just yet :(

I liked taking Legion everywhere, but it's already end game. I had put off recruiting him because I didn't know the FF mission was his, I thought it was the last mission before the endgame missions, so I must do it last.

He looks so...ominous in every screenshot, like it's taken moments away before disaster. Ik it's just his headlights but man he looks ready to jump me. It made me realise how scary the Geth can be when you're not viewing them from a sniper's lens behind a crate miles away.

I thought the last empty space was for Liara but she left.

The game is 10/10, steps on your heart a lot and more angsty than the first game, Also everything is so expensive and I am so broke. The Alliance used to pay me per fucking kill, Cerberus are so stingy.

Gonna either start with a ng+, re-import my ME1 character or just move on to ME3.

[vorchagirl]

13, 18, and 60 from the Mass Effect asks?

13. Favourite ME1 squad combo?

fShep + Garrus + Kaidan for sure. It's a fun combo and I enjoy their banter.

18. Favourite mission from ME2?

Oooh. That's tough. Maybe Garrus' recruitment? It's so good seeing him again, the combat is challenging, and I like the story.

But!

I also love Samara's mission with Morinth. I find the whole idea of Ardat Yakshi and Morinth's desire to live very very interesting.

60. A character you think deserved better from the series?

Look, I've said it a million times, but Vega should have been a romance option for femShep. She has fewer options than mShep and depending on your ME1, 2 & 3 choices, your options potentially end up being only Samantha or Liara. It could have nice to have had a guaranteed male ME3 option for her.

My other answer is Kai Leng. He should have been a much better bad guy and could have been much more threatening. Or a better foil for Shepard.

Thank you so much for the asks. These were fun!