#starting with me2

[edenprime]

During Saren's speech right before the battle at the citadel tower, he claims that Sovereign has implanted him with the objective of bettering him. He claims he is "the evolution of all organic life" and "[their] destiny". The benefits of organic and synthetic life without any of the weaknesses.

These are the reapers' words, obviously. He's so far gone in the indoctrination that I'm pretty sure there's nothing left of the man Saren Arterius once was. Was he lying, though?

At the end of ME3, when Shepard's talking with the Catalyst, and it offers its infamous RGB choices, it pretty much pushes Shepard into choosing synthesis. It even says it's something they've tried before, but that the previous civilizations were not ready for it. The "solution" of the alleged chaos organics bring, as understood by the reapers, is to merge organic life with synthetic life. That would bring the harmony the leviathan were craving when they built the AI that would turn into the reapers.

So I don't think Sovereign-through-Saren was lying when it told Shepard they could join it and live. I don't even think it had bad intentions when it implanted Saren with the latest tech. It genuinely believed that Saren was better now that he was part synthetic. The indoctrination was a means to that end. (Imo, the reapers aren't a chaotic evil villain, killing indiscriminately just because, but that's another post).

In fact, this could even be what Saren meant in Virmire when he told Shepard that submission was preferable to extintion. Maybe Sovereign told him, or showed him, that that was one of the possibilities. Maybe Saren was choosing the green ending (for himself, at least, and the turians/council races at most) before Shepard was even aware of the choice.

[1071png]

aaaa i finished mass effect 2 ｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡

[the-fae-tricked-me]

If they never intended on Garrus being romanceable, they shouldn't have gave him the small, slutty, switchy waist on top of the immaculate personality and vibes they made that man exude in me1

[ndostairlyrium]

I think I'm less disappointed with the finale than others because I was there for the me3 finale debacle lol

The bad part is that me3 finale made sense. It was just um, straight up one of the worst ideas they could ever think of, but it made- sigh.

Here you have like, the perfect build up, the stakes are me2 level of "if I fucked up during the pt my friends are gonna pay the price", and closure with your companions. However it's contradictory asf, it forces you to break immersion and, in the wrongest moment for a rational thought makes you say "wait, why are we back to step 1? what about the bli- aw the lost elf theme ;; hold on, why aren't you bringing up the things that has been repeated nonstop via super long expositions throughout the game?? MR. MORRIS COME BACK, CONFUSE ME AGAIN"

It's gorgeous, but it doesn't make sense, and then it does, and then it doesn't again. I am confusion

Back in my days (lmaooo) we got an apology and a 2gb free dlc called "extended cut" that was like this meme

but it did patch only a few things. The finale stayed there. Immutable

and we only had to presume what went wrong during development, but then we all saw the artbook and agreed that maybe there were interferences from above and that the real treasure was the friends we made along the way and that would die horribly if you had 50% or less of reactivity that you could raise only by playing the multiplayer and those who were playing the game on a console had to spend money to gain access to it

Yeah, I don't think they're good at finales. "But at least"

[notebooks-and-laptops]

THEORY TIME I'm at the start of ME2 please don't confirm or deny if I'm correct BUT my theory is a potential avenue for them to go down is that - as proved with Shepard's resurrection - eventually organic life always 'cures' death - either through science or just plain old evolution - and when it does it often begins using up resources at a rapid rate that the universe can't sustain if the population continues to grow (because nobody 'leaves' the universe everyone just continues to exist) so the reapers are the invention of an ideological terrorist group that was the first species to achieve immortality who believed that the best way to solve the crisis was to build machines which could 'control' this impulse in organisms so that once they reached immortality they were wiped out so new life could grow in its place ('harvesting' life to make way for the new crop of organic life?). In this scenario, originally the reapers would come only once immortality was achieved, but they've begun to come earlier and earlier as their AI consciousness works out the optimal 'time' to harvest. The slaves/drones they leave in the galaxy to use for some time spend their time enslaved restoring natural resources as best as possible, and undoing any damage caused by sentient life for the next bout of people (literally tending the fields of sentient life)

BONUS POINTS if they do this except that not EVERY species/society to achieve immortality has actually gone down the route of using up limited resources to the point of instability (because they've found ways to make their existence sustainable/fairer to everyone either out of scientific process/societal change etc.) BUT the machines can't comprehend that/are programmed to believe that it will eventually devolve into chaos anyway and so they come back regardless and kill everyone even if people can prove they're wrong (so the game doesn't end up with a very simplistic Thanos viewpoint that's easily disproved - that's why I think the reapers have to be the result of a terrorist/radical/fascist group)

Bonus BONUS points if the original group installed some of their consciousness into the reapers making them hypocritcs because they DO continue to essentially live forever while they're committing genocide against other species.

Idk I just think it'd be neat if Shepard was the poster child for the reason the reapers felt they had to do what they did when they're the ones trying to stop them.

[nonuel]

mass effect fandom typically has no problem disregarding or rewriting portions of canon, but one thing i have almost never seen touched is the friendship between garrus and shepard. so here is a poll because i am genuinely curious. i tried to be as expansive as poll limitations allowed, but since we are already throwing out canon i recognize there are a lot of variances that haven't been included. because of that, i would particularly like it if people elaborated about their non-romantic relationship with garrus in the tags, comments, or reblogs - especially if you are someone who has voted for any of the non-friend options. thanks for your time!

this post is not meant to be garrus critical. garrus enjoyers are welcome to participate in the poll, i only ask that you are respectful toward other people who may not have him as their favorite, or who may just simply roleplay a shepard that does not have him as their (best) friend for whatever reason.

[kami-in-space]

Anyone else weirdly reminded of the Temple of Mythal during the Ilos mission in ME1? No? Just me?

[shepcdr]

in terms of shepard and sex throughout the course of the trilogy... shep's extremely easy to have a one night stand with pre-me1;

far too busy thinking about/pursuing saren during the events of me1 — though Perhaps he fucks around with the consort... perhaps — and generally does Not romance someone during me1 (subject to heavy plotting);

in me2, jumps back to "easy to sleep with/have a one night stand with" perhaps even more so than pre-mass effect 1 (haha dont worryyyyy its not in any way connected to bodily expression/autonomy/reclamation of self after project lazarus even though he'll deny having any worries about it and brush over the topic if you ask him);

and despite being a ho... he is, i think, almost completely inaccessible sexually in me3 except in cases of shore leave/ship maintenance where he's pressured to "do nothing/unwind." might go out and search out one night stands (if he didn't romance anyone) to take his mind off of things but it's unhealthy and extremely dissociative. as he is with anything that isn't actively contributing towards the war against the reapers

in most cases, he — not always, but generally — has sex with someone (usually on the regular, veers towards friends with benefits) and then has a slow burn to romance and feelings... even if he already undoubtedly has feelings for someone; processing those feelings beyond "it feels nice to be around this person" takes a while!!

[the-blue-wraith]

I understand the sentiment of "DA isn't dead because it's yours now" but to me personally? The series is over. I hope Veilguard will be the last game. Bioware will never "return to form" bc all the writers are gone. I just don't have that passion anymore not only bc Veilguard was a disappointment to me, but also it's sad to see what Bioware has become.

[sweetmage]

Zaeed is so hot!! Why did no one tell meeeee!?? Sketchy old man fucker mode ACTIVATED! I need him BAD!!!

[jaderavenarts]

No one:

Me: *makes a new mShep to romance Jack and also recreates my ME3-only mShep who I accidentally got very attached to and have been wanting replay the whole trilogy with but modded so he can romance Kaidan from the start*

[heat-sink]

I forgot how much I fuckin hate the game mechanics in me2

and the limiting of what guns each class can use.... man they made some stupid ass decisions

[shepcdr]

writing (read: thinking about and occasionally putting two words down on paper every few hours) yishai's squadmate romance... and i think he'd be sooooo heads over heels for a paragon sheploo ngl

[omegalegacy]

Is there anything I can do to help?

"I appreciate the offer - thank you, though I am perfectly fine. I can handle a challenging amount of work", the asari protested, tone leveled and polite, her surprise remaining hidden.

What a strange day this was, to have this fully-armored woman with an N7 symbol on her chest plate walk into this place amidst all this chaos and claim her name was Shepard. There have been a few rumors here and there that Shepard wasn't been truly dead, though if Liselle had learned anything in her centuries of living is that rumors were often the result of ridiculous misinterpretations being passed on and on.

There were definitely even stranger things going on, though, Liselle remembered. Things that the majority of people here, even the elite who worked closely to Aria brushed off as nothing more but stupid rumors. They could not be more wrong. That's why it was worth not writing this woman off immediately.

"So, Shepard, what would be your first name?", Liselle asked, deciding not to send Shepard away yet, the hint of a smile gracing her indigo features despite the fact that she was busy and had to get going soon. She had a feeling that whoever this person was, the answer would be Calliope. The last name and the N7 symbol.. there were few soldiers who made it to N7 and only one was called Shepard.

She might have been some kind of impostor, but it was worth keeping an eye on her regardless. She exuded a respectable presence, a natural confidence that was rarely found on Omega. Even though they had barely exchanged words, Liselle could tell that this woman was not your average low-level mercenary.

[roarrrgame]

Insanity difficulty in ME2 is legit hard I’m so depressed trying to beat it as a first timer 😭😭😂 Why does the UI feel so old? Reminds me of games from a certain era that I don’t associate fond memories with for some reason

[otherpigeon]

ok until dawn is a masterpiece