#this is more about exploring legion indoctrination

[vertyd]

//CW injury

wasteland fox

i didn’t censor this bc i domt think the injury is realistic? let me know.. but i’m also kinda new to tumblr idk the guidelines

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, Reaper IFF:

Schwarzschild

-Etamis – A post garden World. An advanced spacefaring species was bombarded by dreadnought class weapons 20-40 million years ago.

Once again: Probably reapers.

-Atahil – Also has signs of orbital bombardment. Probably had been settled by the same species as the one on Etamis.

-Linossa – Its rings contain nano-manufactured materials. The species from Etamis and Atahil probably mined it for helium-3.

Century

-Klendafon – The Great Rift Valley was made when a mass accelerator round glanced the planet 37 million years ago.

Presumably this is from the round that killed the derelict reaper.

Thorne

-There’s a geth ship beside the Reaper. Understandably, everyone assumes the geth killed the science team and that’s why they stopped reporting in.

-Mass Effect is one of the better series about women, but sometimes unconscious bias shows.

For example: “Default NPCs” are frequently men. Such as all the members of the Reaper research team we hear from or about are men.

Once named characters are involved women start cropping up more frequently, but I’ve noticed that when the writers need a character for a bit part it’s normally a man.

-This mission feels like a missed opportunity. Shepard is exploring a dead reaper from the inside! There’s so much they could learn.

But instead the mission is very brief, and most of it is fighting hordes of husks or listening to logs the researchers left behind.

Why doesn’t Shepard have the opportunity to examine any Reaper tech? To interact with any of the Reaper’s systems? To explore the inside of the Reaper more extensively?

Imagine if Shepard had to find the IFF on their own, instead of collecting it from where the researchers had placed it. Determining where it might be located, making a way to it (it would be beyond where the research team had gone), detaching it from the Reaper...

Just… There’s so much potential for this to be a fantastic mission, but instead it’s just fight after fight in minimally differing environments.

-Cerberus Researcher in a log: But even a dead god can dream.

Very good line.

-Miranda and Kasumi have no dialogue for the Dragon’s Teeth. Google tells me that only triggers if Garrus, Tali, or Jacob are in the party.

You think they’d have something to say about people pierced on spikes in the middle of the Reaper, but apparently that’s an uninteresting sight.

-Geth are not known for speaking.

Hmm. Maybe I was too hard on Project Overlord.

Still, Cerberus should know the geth are capable of speech, even if they normally choose not to use it. The geth served the quarians; it’s safe to assume they communicated verbally with them.

There should be records of that; hell, probably videos. I’m sure quarians took geth with them all over the galaxy when they traveled.

-There are so many husks. And scions! Scions are made of multiple humans.

How big was this research party? And why is this dead Reaper creating the same type of enemy we normally encounter?

I can almost understand the husks. The Dragon Teeth are used in every cycle and create an enemy based on their DNA or whatever. But the Scions? Those must be crafted.

-Kasumi, about the iFF: So the Cerberus team did recover it. But where are they now?

...Kasumi knows what Dragon’s Teeth are, doesn’t she?

-Thank goodness for the Cain. I did not not want to fight that battle the “proper” way.

-The Mission Summary states that Cerberus is researching indoctrination and the husk conversion process. Some nice foreshadowing for ME3.

It could be seen as benign, although we know it’s not. Understanding how something is done is the best means to develop a countermeasure for it.

Normandy

-Jacob keeps advocating for airlocking the geth, but that isn’t even an option I’d have.

It’d be amusing if that was a neutral option, than in ME3 we find the true geth recovered Legion.

-Jacob, if you choose to keep Legion: Tali’s going to freak when she hears about this.

As said before, I don’t think Jacob’s actively malicious towards Tali. Insensitive at worst. Here, he’s fully aware that she will not be okay with a geth being onboard.

…I presume this line is skipped if Tali hasn’t been recruited?

-Edi warns that linking the Normandy with the IFF poses a risk. Hah. Bit of an understatement.

-Legion says that the term Reaper is a superstitious title the Protheans gave. The Geth refer to them as the Old Machines.

This almost feels dismissive of the term “Reaper” and the Protheans. Which is notable, as the geth don’t have emotions.

Well, we know they have opinions. Apparently superstition is not held in high regard.

-Legion says Shepard was killed by the Reapers and rediscovered on the Reaper.

Did Legion know Shepard was alive? Surely he did – Shepard’s been active for quite a while at this point and word gets around.

Still, the way it’s phrased it sounds as if Legion did not.

-Legion was on the Reaper to learn the information necessary to prevent the heretics from using the virus to overwrite the true geth.

How long have the true geth known about this virus?

-For that matter, why has it taken the heretics this long to be ready to deploy it?

They’re storing it on a data core provided by Sovereign – you’d think if Sovereign was involved he could have completed the virus and it could have been used years ago.

But maybe Sovereign didn’t care or the data core was originally intended for something else and the heretics repurposed it. I suppose we can assume they’ve been working on this for the last two years or so.

-Why do the heretics wants to reunite the geth but the true geth do not?

Perhaps it’s because the heretics faction is smaller, and they accordingly feel the loss of the other more. We know geth are smarter when there are more of them.

With the loss of the other geth, Sovereign, and all of C-Space hunting them I bet the heretics feel very vulnerable at the moment. If they can sway the true geth to their side, their abilities will increase and they’ll feel safer.

-Geth believe all intelligent life should self determinate.

Not shocking from a former slave species, but good to hear.

-There are paragon, neutral, and renegade options to accept Legion’s loyalty mission. No other loyalty mission has that.

Only paragon expresses concern for the geth. Neutral and Renegade focus on eliminating a threat to organics.

Codex

-The entry for Sovereign refers to the “Eden Prime War”. This includes the Battle of Citadel.

Does everyone refer to it as this, or just the Alliance?

-The entry is written like Sovereign was just Saren’s flagship, not a Reaper.

This is puzzling because the Codex waffles over whether or not Reapers are real. In Sovereign’s entry they’re not, but in the Derelict Reaper you get an entry on Reaper Indoctrination.

-The heretics might be as small as 5% of the total geth population.

Yeah, I’d hazard the Council is frantically preparing for a possible war with the geth. Wrong enemy, but the preparations will still be handy when the Reapers show up.

[newvegascowboy]

ahh sorry for a huge rant but that post kinda reminded me of a peeve in the fandom where people just boil down the legion to just "war criminals" and gloss over their colonialism like yes they're interesting but... they're still colonists ykwim,,, :/ sorry for throwing this up in your inbox but you're one of the few people that actually don't ignore that big part of the legion and i feel much safer about it haha

No, no you're totally fine! I'm always open to discussions of Legion meta.

The colonialism and cultishness of the Legion tends to get glossed over because it kind of creeps in unnoticed beneath the "we crucify and murder people, we keep slaves, we are violent supremacists and sometimes do human sacrifice." Like, yes, the legion is almost cartoonishly evil, but there's a deeper layer that could be so much more interesting if it were explored.

the conquering of the 87 tribes makes so much more sense in context of the mormonism supplied by Joshua Graham. Yes those may have been violent takeovers which the mormons didnt (usually) do, but his religious aspect comes in by stripping the tribes of their identities and reforming them into a cohesive whole. They may not use Christianity - instead using Mars/Caesar/the Roman mythology as their theology. The priestesses even raise the children In The Covenant (which is mormonspeak for 'being raised in the church').

As much as some people might like to believe the natural state of man is violent evil raiders side eyes Bethesda, humans are, by and large, good people. We're social creatures usually willing to help each other out. Joshua and Caesar are the catalysts for the bad shit; combining the worst aspects of both their brains to form the barebones of the Legion. All the bad shit in the Legion can be chalked up to cult indoctrination. In the case of someone like Vulpes, I would even say scrupulosity.

I'm not giving the Legionaries a PASS for this - but when you've been take a look at the reasons WHY they might behave this way and think this way? It starts to make a lot more sense.

[deadlymaelstrom]

Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy: Who Are The Leviathans?

by CHARLIE STEWART

With the Mass Effect Remaster Trilogy looking more likely than ever, here's a look at the Leviathan race from Mass Effect 3's DLC.

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The Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy is rumored to be getting announced by BioWare in October. This would likely see remasters of the original games released with their full DLC already attached, including Mass Effect 3: Leviathan.

The Leviathan DLC explores the history of an alien race that helps explain a lot about the backstory of the Mass Effect universe. But who are the Leviathans and what role will they play in the Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy?

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The Leviathans

The Leviathans were ginormous aquatic creatures that dominated the Milky Way galaxy before the Reapers came into being. They are the same size and shape as Reapers, and are the organic blueprint upon which the Reapers were based.

The Leviathans peaked in their power hundreds of millions of years before the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. The species has the ability to mentally control less intelligent beings in a way that resembles the Reaper’s indoctrination in Mass Effect, but they can also use this ability to communicate telepathically to another, possibly in a similar way to the rachni.

It is unknown what planet the Leviathans originally evolved on, but like something from a Lovecraft novel, the cuttlefish-like Leviathans began to use their psychic abilities to control species that evolved on land, even on other planets, and manipulate them into performing their will. This is how they were able to dominate the species of the Mass Effect galaxy, but with their domination came their downfall.

---

The Intelligence

The Leviathans created an “Intelligence” and gave it one goal: preserve life at all costs. This Intelligence began to collect genetic data from species across the galaxy, using pawns that likely operated in a similar way to the reaper’s Collectors first seen in Mass Effect 2. When the Intelligence decided that the best way to preserve life was the systematic destruction of advanced organic civilizations every 50,000 years, it turned on the Leviathans with devastating speed.

Using the genetic data harvested from the dead Leviathans, the Intelligence created Harbinger in their image, the first Reaper. The surviving Leviathans fled and would not be rediscovered until the events of the Mass Effect 3 DLC. After the Leviathans went into hiding they began to use their powers to erase the memory of themselves from the universe. Not only did they hide, but they did not reemerge as the Reapers destroyed civilization after civilization.

The Leviathans are found in hiding during the Reaper invasion in Mass Effect 3 on the asteroid of Mahavid, where the Leviathans have enthralled the staff of a mining station. The Leviathans are found to have the ability to sever the link that Reapers have between their legions of Collector troops, making gaining their aid vital in the war.

---

It will be interesting to see whether BioWare takes the remaster as an opportunity to include more hints and Mass Effect Easter eggs that point to some of the trilogy’s biggest secrets like the Leviathans. While it could be satisfying to see them integrated more into the story, many fans will likely not want to see many changes made to the actual narrative of Mass Effect itself.

Nonetheless with the DLC likely releasing as part of the Mass Effect 3 remaster at launch, the Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy could see the DLCs feeling more like a part of the main story to begin with, perhaps with some small changes made to integrate the missions more into the overarching plot. No matter which route BioWare goes down, fans will have to wait and see if this remaster is indeed in the works.

The Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy is reportedly in development.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Out of curiosity, what are your favorite companions out of all of the Fallout games, and why?

Fallout

The Original Dogmeat (After looking into it, it feels like this ornery dog had a lot more personality than the available human companions, enough so that he made a comeback in FO2.)

Fallout 2

Goris (A sentient and intelligent albino deathclaw scholar that wears a robe to hide his appearence from trigger happy assholes. What's not to like? Goris is an interesting character and I hope there will be another deathclaw companion in a future game!)

K-9 the Cyberdog (Cyberdogs are cool. Talking Cyberdogs with good moral compasses? Even better! Super pissed the NCR ended up destroying him to gather Intel on the Enclave. That's something I'd expect from the BoS instead, and it's left a bitter taste in my mouth. Rest in peace you poor pup.)

Fallout 3

Butch Deloria (He was an asshole and a bully during his and the Lone Wanderer's childhood, but you can't deny he isn't loyal to a fault. He's still a bit of an asshole with an unobtainable greaser teen dream, but honestly he's not that bad considering he was neglected as a child thanks to his mother's alcoholism. If you scratch his back he'll definitly scratch yours, even if he pretends he's not a goody-two-shoes like you. Plus he can give you a haircut, who wouldn't want a personal barber out in the Wastes?)

Charon (His situation is an uncomfortable moral conundrum since he's basically a brainwashed slave by anything but name. Oxhorn put it best in his video on Charon's situation, and I agree that the only good thing you can do for him is buying his contract and doing good out in the Capital Wasteland with him as your companion, as a form of atonement for any past shady/cruel actions his former employers have had him perform.)

Fawkes (A super mutant who may or may not have been a man named Shelton Delacroix, Fawkes is unfortunate in the sense that he was alienated by his fellow vault-tec security officers for having a conscience, and then alienated by his super mutant kin for being uniquely intelligent and kind. To add to these tragedies, Shelton was apparently married so Fawkes has a wife he can't recall who is either dead or a mindless super mutant herself.)

Dogmeat the Second (A loyal heterochromatic cattle dog who would fight to the death if just to avenge his fallen master. Dogmeat is a scruffy scavenger and definitly man's best friend. You have to wonder if he might be a descendant of the Original Dogmeat with just how strong his personality comes off. Some dogs in the wasteland are definitely smarter than others.)

Fallout: New Vegas

Arcade Ganoon (A gay mess of a doctor with social anxiety and a lot of personal demons related to his origins. Arcade is an intelligent and interesting character in the sense that he has a deep-seated desire to help everyone, but knows the consequences of one's ideals outgrowing the needs of others. He's grateful to the Enclave Remnants's loyalty to him and his mother, after his father passed away, and he definitly considers them his family. That in itself is an issue because the Enclave's sins will follow and haunt him for the rest of his life, even if he was just born into that life and not one of the people commiting atrocities.)

Craig Boone (His story is the typical wasteland hardened ex-soldier. He committed atrocities that left him mentally scarred and suffering from PTSD, lost his wife who was the only good thing in his life, his need to avenge her has left him dangling between cold-blooded killer and decent human being, and on top of that he's a bit of a cynical asshole. Still a pretty cool companion to have around, and honestly it feels nice to have him around doing some good for the Mojave wasteland instead of stewing in his depression and self-hatred. His sniping skills could help a lot of people with the Courier's encouragement.)

Lily Bowen (She's a super mutant elite spy soldier. She's also a sweet old granny with schizophrenia and a murderous imaginary friend. Lily is another tragic character who's story pulls at your heartstrings, and the three choices regarding her meds are another moral conundrum. Again I'd recommend Oxhorn's video on her story, since I wholly agree with his assessment on what choice is actually the best for her.)

Rex the Cyberdog (His background before he joined the Kings is shrouded in mystery, with the Legion's faded mark painted on his armour platting. Rex is a loyal pup with a hate for rats, hats and people who wear hats. His greatest ire is probably reserved for rats with hats. His recruitment story arc is also pretty interesting and it definitely affects his personality and endings. If you have Old World Blues and construct Roxie the Cyberdog he even becomes a father of a litter of "Boston terrifiers"!)

ED-E (Honestly it's my love for robots that make this little damaged travel companion so appealing. His mission is interesting, and the cashe of Enclave Intel he holds can be benefitial, but most of his endings point to ED-E continuing his journey eventually so there's a sadness with letting this little guy go if you get attached.)

Fallout 4

Preston Garvey (All Preston has ever wanted to do was help make the Commonwealth a better place for people to live in. He's a selfless man who joined a militia at age 17 to do some good, and it honestly breaks my heart that the Minutemen collapsed as hard as it did. Preston had to watch as the ideals of the Minutemen were crushed underfoot by a bunch of selfish assholes, along with an entire settlement of innocent people. He did everything in his power to keep the only four survivors safe and alive, and he's clearly traumatized, depressed and suicidally throwing himself at danger because he'd rather die fighting the good fight than caring for his own safety. He puts everyone else above himself and it infuriates me that people are so hellbent in painting him off as a bland character or a pest. Oxhorn puts it best in his profile of Preston.)

X8-88 (The Institute's top of the line Courser, the closest the Commonwealth will ever get to the Terminator, and livable despite his cynical remarks and persistence that he's incapable of emotions or attachment. It saddens me that X6 is only obtainable if you follow the Institute. It also pains me that if you do manage to befriend him and destroy the Institute, you're destroying this loyal synth's only home. You're basically stripping away everything he knows and believes in, inherently doing what the Institute has done to the Sole Survivor: Taking their life away from them. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth...)

Nick Valentine (Moral conundrums are painful. Ethical conundrums are just as bad. Nick didn't deserve anything that happened to him, and it's obvious he struggles with his identity and purpose but chooses to follow in the Original Nick's footsteps to do some good, rather than hide away and mope. He's a good person overall, even if he's a bit of a smartass sometimes. He's the perfect robodad for anyone in need of a fatherly figure in the Commonwealth.)

John Hancock (This man has a lot of emotional baggage and has made a LOT of bad choices, but if there's anyone you can trust to be loyal and helpful out in the wastes, it's definitly Hancock! His crude humour and liberal use of drugs and knives to deal with his problems can be a bit off-putting, but Hancock will defend you no matter what. Heck, he would even defend Danse from the BoS and the guy's a racist dickbag to him from the very moment they meet. That says a lot about his character.)

Codsworth (He waited for the Sole Survivor to return. For 200 fucking years. Please be kind to him, he's probably one of the nicest companions and also one of the most lovable too! He is the friend you'd wish you had if you ever found yourself in the same situation as the Sole Survivor. Cherish Codsworth, he's all you have left, and he'll protect you to the best of his ability.)

Dogmeat the Third (A brilliant genius dog that is very likely a synth. Dogmeat, like Codsworth, is a lovable guy and should definitely be cherished. I'd recommend getting the "Everyone's Best Friend" Mod so that you can have him travel with you and another companion. It's almost like FO2!)

Deacon (He's intelligent. He's sneaky. He's a pathological liar with good intentions. Deacon is mysterious and charming, and definitly a little fucked in the head. I'd like to meet his plastic surgeon if they can make him flawlessly look like a woman and a ghoul, no questions asked. Oxhorn has a pretty interesting video that explores Deacon's character and intentions, if you're interested!)

Paladin Danse (I'll admit I wasn't all that impressed with Danse when I got my first impression of him. He's rude, he's impatient, he's condescending, and worst of all he is an asshole to anyone just a bit different from him. Still, the plot-twist left space for this racist Buzz Lightyear knockoff to go through some personal growth. The years of militaristic indoctrination will probably take a while to be resolved, but Danse IS redeemable if given time. He's not inherently evil, just in dire need of a tolerance lesson.)

[secular-jew]

Zio Upbringings and Kvetchings in the Trumpian era

Zio Upbringings and Kvetchings in the Trumpian era.

I'm an American Jew who has does not suffer from moral wavering. I'm also an American Reform Jew that is neither Kashrut nor Kosher-observant.

My synagogue growing up was located in the the Boston suburbs, nestled amidst Protestant communities and dotted with Jews who somehow landed a port shy of Ellis Island. Attended shul almost exclusively during important Holidays and Hebrew school weekends through Bar-Mitvah.

At the age of 10, I remember the start to the Soviet-armament-supplied multilateral Arab-state war against Israel, a Pearl-Harbor style event lasting three harrowing weeks and almost wiping Israel off the map.

Word spread fast to reach North American Jews some 5,500 miles (8,800 kms) to the west. I remember hearing the tragic news Saturday morning during Yom Kippur services. The attack occupied 100% of the Sermon delivered by our Rabbi, who was known as Moses because he actually looked and spoke like Moses. He worried aloud that this could portend the end of our homeland, but concluded that the spark of Zionism was eternal: something that could never be extinguished by modern would-be colonizers. This thought that resonated deeply inside my soul.

This was thankfully a war that Israel survived, but was also a battle that Golda Meir ultimately lost, as she resigned just 1 month following her Labor Party's 1974 election win. Remember her final words as Israel's leader: "I have reached the end of my road."

My first physical intersection with Israel occurred in my late teens and early 20's, when I visited extensively what was the modern chapter of an 4,000-year old ancient Jewish story. Exploring 1979-1982 Israel meant stints to some obvious places; Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberius, and Eilat, Sinai (including a climb up/down Mt Sinai), the northern Golan Heights, the donut-hole known as Hebron, and the Dome of the Rock, the Jew's oldest extant relic. This is the place where Abraham is said to submitted to God's request that he sacrifice his son. Strange how this shrine has now submitted to a colonialist Islamic overlord.

Then came the Kibbutz experience, which meant living the communal lifestyle in Lower Galilee, sleeping on cots in the international guest quarters, up at 4:30am transported out to the fields, and picking pears until it got so hot, you felt like you were standing on the side of the sun.

All well worth the effort as the work day ended around lunch, at which point, we ate a lot of hummus and squeezed copious quantities of ruby-red Israeli grapefruits chilling in large stainless steel refrigerators. After lunch, we cooled down in the community pool, and in the evenings, hung with our Israeli contemporaries while listening to Bob Marley or the Doors, and smoking hashish for the first time. These are two experiences that transcended culture. I felt so at home, and even gained a Sabra girlfriend by the name of Rachel רָחֵל‎ (pictured).

In short, what I considered to be a typical Reform Jewish-American upbringing. (Or American-Jewish?)

Fast forward to present political leanings. Raised a JFK-liberal (liberal in its true meaning; rooted in idea-tolerance and acceptance of diverse views).

As a middle-schooler, I recollect being enamored by McGovern, although not sure exactly how or why. We were all indoctrinated into believing Nixon (one of the greatest friends to Israel, not something I had any clue about) was innately evil. Looking back at that period now, my political stylings appear to have been crafted mainly by academia, the news media, and my peers - all who seemed driven by a sanitized, 1980's version of TDS that could have been called: 'Nixon Derangement Syndrome.'

Once legal age, I was a 'de rigeur' Democrat, which thankfully lasted only a few short minutes. Not able to cast a vote in the 1976 election, I remember nonetheless favoring Jimmy Carter, a folksy down-to-earth ex-peanut-farmer who seemed very popular in the state of Massachusetts where I grew up. Carter morphed into nothing less than a clueless and spineless "progressive" who oversaw the dismantling of principled American leadership.

In high school, a few of us in the dormitory got to stay up late every night to watch "The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage: Day "xxx" (where xxx represented the number of days that Iranians held the occupants of our U.S. Embassy hostage). The only TV in the building was located in the dorm-masters living room. I watched sitting next to my hall-mate Abdullah Hussein, the same person who became the King of Jordan and who sits on the Hashemite apartheid throne today. We had many discussions in which I defended Israel and lauded her accomplishments in defeating Arab imperialism, while Abdullah retorted with accusations of Jewish occupation and bloodlust at Deir Yassin. I did not have enough knowledge of the incident or of earlier examples of Arab genocide (such as the Hebron massacre and other Jewish genocides) to counter-punch effectively.

During my college years, I tended towards Democrat "moral" policies and candidates, until that goofy Georgian came along. At first, I naively admired Carter's straightforward folksy persona. But eventually, the President’s peanut incompetence drove me to #WalkAway from a party-lone Democrat.

I was proud of myself for making an independent decision (pun intended) and have little idea if any of my peers followed suit, but suffice to say, I have voted forcefully against Democrats up and down the ticket pretty much ever since, with a few exceptions. I consider Trump an pragmatic Independent masquerading as a Republican, not dissimilar to Democrat Bloomberg - who as Mayor of NYC masqueraded as a Republican.

Much as my odium for Carter drove me to #Jexit and advocate for Reagan, my contempt for Obama's virulently anti-America values drove me to become a self-assertive 'deplorable.' Between Reagan and Trump, every other voting-booth decision appeared to present itself as largely a Hobson's choice between a lesser of two evils.

Although Trump possesses virtually no tact and represents the antithesis of my personal style, I appreciate the skill and speed with which he accomplishes things, from building tall luxury residential condos -- to creating a global brand, to the refurbishment of Wolman's Rink in Central Park. His support of Israel, unlike his predecessors, is legion, documented, and consistent. Trump not only moved the Embassy to its rightful place, not only installed an incredible Ambassador, not only praises Israel at every turn, he constantly rebukes Israel's enemies (who should be everyone's enemies). I love that Israel renamed the Golan Heights in his honor. It's almost better than getting the Rec Room in the Ft. Lauderdale condo named after someone rich in your extended family.

Today? There's no political party for me. The Democrats are a shrill hodgepodge of looney-tunes and ill-tolerant blabbermouths who are given way too much airtime on CNN and what I now call MSLSD (aka, MSDNC).

In terms of policy, On social issues like marriage equality, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal. On local/national fiscal issues, I'm a decided Conservative. On international affairs, I'm a Hawk who majored in International Relations while attending Sciences-Po in Paris (an excuse to massively inhale croque-monsieurs) and firmly believe the US had relevant ethical global leadership responsibilities, a mantle given up by Europe. This meant leading from the front, not from behind. My philosophy became characterized by the notion that appeasement of tyrannies led by autocrats or theocrats was a policy doomed to failure, proven again and again throughout every civilization. Appeasement in the face of aggression has led to more death and destruction, and more insecurity, not less.

It's becoming evident, sadly, that history promises to repeat. Why? This seems to happen in a matter of a few generations. Case in point: Millennials (aka snowflakes) who are too far removed from the trauma of warfare to comprehend evil. Millennials steeped and indoctrinated in re-written and falsified academic narratives. Millennials who virtue signal intolerantly through the lens of victimization. The generation that seems to have lost a sense of moral courage and severed any emotional ties to the 'never-forget' tragedies that are meant to not be forgotten.

My thoughts on our homeland:

I'm a devout 2-state (Israel-Jordan) Zionist as per the 1917 Balfour Declaration and affirmed by the 1920 San Remo Conference (attended by Chaim Weizmann). I see Israel as an inherently Jewish state in its DNA, but which is secular in its jurisprudence.

Next year in Jerusalem.

[rswritingandnarrative]

Mass Effect 2 Game Narrative Review

I typed this review up for my Game Narrative class, sorry for the length, I went a bit overboard.

Game Narrative Review

=========================

Your name: Ryan Schnepfe

Month/Year you submitted this review: September 2018 =========================

Game Title: Mass Effect 2

Platform: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Genre: Science Fiction, Third Person RPG

Release Date: January 26th, 2010 (PC/Xbox 360), January 18th, 2011 (Playstation 3)

Developer: BioWare

 Publisher: Electronic Arts

Game Writer/Creative Director/Narrative Designer: Casey Hudson

Overview: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Effect 2 continues the tale of Commander Shepard, commander of the Normandy SR-1 and humanity’s first “Spectre”, as they investigate the disappearances of  human colonies around the Milky Way Galaxy. This puts them in direct opposition with the Collectors (a race of powerful, insect-like aliens from outside of mapped space), and directly aligns them with Cerberus (a “human interests first” extremist group). Informed by the shadowy Illusive Man that the Collector base resides past the Omega-4 Relay (giant super constructs that allow for near instant intergalactic travel), Shepard must gather a crew for a suicide mission to assault the Collectors and save humanity.  

Characters: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Effect 2’s narrative focuses on building an “Ocean's Eleven” style crew to pull off a suicide mission. Because of this, players will encounter a huge cast of characters with varied backgrounds and skill sets that all fill various niches on the team (such as hackers, soldiers, and medics). With twelve fully fleshed out squad members (and even more supporting characters), there isn’t enough room to give them all the descriptions they deserve. Here are the characters players will spend the most time with:

● Commander Shepard​ -- The main playable character and player stand in, Shepard’s backstory is pieced together by the player during character creation. No matter the backstory, Shepard rose through the ranks of The Alliance, humanity’s spacefaring military branch. Their many honors and distinctions brought them to the attention of the council, where they were made the first human Spectre. This came at at time of great strife in the galaxy, as the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius allied with the robotic Geth and nearly unleashed an unfathomable cataclysm. Averting this through both combat prowess and an uncanny ability to reason with people, Shepard made themselves a target for powerful forces throughout the galaxy.

● The Illusive Man​ -- To say the Illusive Man is mysterious is to say water is wet. The Illusive Man leads Cerberus from an unknown location, only communicating to Shepard through encrypted messages and proxies. Painting himself as a benevolent backer of humanity, the Illusive Man bankrolls Shepard’s quest to rescue captured settlers, outfitting him with state of the art tech, including a brand new ship. A staunch human supremacist, he wouldn’t bat an eye if any other race was kidnapped by the Collectors, but messing with humanity is a surefire way to gain his ire.

● Harbinger​ -- The imposing commander of the Collectors, Harbinger is less of a being and more like a body hopping embodiment of rage. Throughout Shepherds crusade against the Collectors, Harbinger will possess his soldiers, empowering them and granting them access to unique abilities. Fond of phrases such as “this hurts you” and “the universe bends to my will”, Harbinger has known no word synonymous with defeat. Although it’s motives are unknown, whatever they are cannot be good for the wellbeing of humanity or the Milky Way at large. 

● Jeff “Joker” Moreau​ -- ​Loyal, skilled, and a bit of a “smart ass”, Jeff Moreau is without a doubt one of the best pilots in the galaxy. Although he can’t fight on the field due to Vrolik Syndrome (a debilitating disease that causes extreme brittleness in his bones), Joker is always will to follow Shepard to the depths of hell and back, while supporting him using all the fire power the Normandy can muster. 

● EDI​ -- Short for Enhanced Defense Intelligence, EDI is the Normandy’s resident virtual intelligence. Hyper intelligent and incredibly capable, EDI is an invaluable member of Shepard’s party. Originally created on the moon, EDI grew beyond what her creators intended and rebelled, causing the Alliance to send Shepard in to shut her down. During the few years between Mass Effect 1 and 2, Cerberus picked up her code and recreated her, believing she could turn the tide in their mission to put humanity at the top of the food chain.  

Breakdown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Effect 2’s narrative starts off strong, providing an excellent example of a “cold open” done right. While out on a mission, Shepard and the crew of the Normandy are attacked by an extremely powerful unknown vessel. Unable to fight back against the ship’s overwhelming strength, evacuation orders are given, with Shepard staying on board to ensure everyone gets out alive. Suddenly, after putting an injured Joker inside an escape pod, an explosion rips apart the ship and Shepard is sent out into space. Shepard dies a hero, their body pulled into a nearby planet’s orbit and burned up in its atmosphere.

 Two years later, Shepard awakes inside a lab, resurrected by the members of the Lazarus Project. With Shepard awake, the Cerberus operatives financing the lab turn on the scientists, destroying them and their work. Escorting Shepard to a nearby Cerberus base, the Illusive Man strikes a deal and alerts the player to the kidnapping of human settlers all around the system. Here, Shepard informs the Illusive Man of his plan to go after the Collectors, with the Illusive Man in turn providing dossiers on potential allies around the system.

 From here, the narrative then shifts into a two act structure with each act punctuated by a big set piece mission that advances the plot. Rather than a continuous flow of missions like the first game, the player is free to recruit teammates in any order they choose. During the first act, Shepard recruits Garrus Vakarian, Mordin Solus, Jack, and (optionally) Grunt. Once they’re recruited, Shepard is ordered by the Illusive man to go to Horizon, a potential target for the Collectors. Here Shepard witnesses their might again as they work to defend the colony, saving many survivors but allowing countless others to be captured. 

Act two is more of the same, with Shepard then recruiting Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, Samara, and Thane Krios. At any time two other squadmates, Kasumi Goto and Zaeed Massani, can be recruited if the player has the proper downloadable content installed. Once every squadmate is recruited, the Illusive Man sends Shepard on two more mandatory missions. One takes place on a derelict Reaper vessel, where Shepard is sent to investigate what happened to a Cerberus research team that went silent. Here Shepard (and the player) are given a crash course in “reaper indoctrination”, where sentient beings can be overtaken through strong psychic forces. While it doesn’t play a large role in this game, it properly explains and sets up an element that is used extensively in Mass Effect’s 1 and 3. While on board, Shepard also encounters the last possible squadmate, Legion, a friendly Geth unit.

The second priority mission is set aboard the same Collector ship that destroyed the Normandy in the opening. This mission is masterful in its execution of suspense, as the entire first half of the mission is spent exploring the empty, cavernous vessel as Shepard and their teammates wonder where all the Collectors are. As soon as they reach their objective, Collector relay tags that will help their ship bypass defenses during the suicide mission, the trap is sprung. The ship comes alive as Collector soldiers pour in, forcing Shepard to fight their way back through the ship and to safety.  

Once these missions are completed, an unexpected mission occurs. While Commander Shepard and the squad are out on duty, the Normandy is attacked again as the Collectors assault the ship and kidnap the crew. Here, the player takes control of Joker as they stealth their way to the ship’s computer core, where EDI instructs them on how to give her full control of the ship. If the player wasn’t already invested in taking down the collectors, this mission should hopefully give them one final personal stake in the mission.  With the final piece set in motion, it’s time for Shepard to launch their suicide mission. This will be talked about in the highlight section, as it is truly the standout moment of the game and why it is most fondly remembered.  

Strongest Element ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without a doubt, the game’s strongest elements are its cast of squadmates. Each character is memorable, from the Gilbert and Sullivan loving scientist Mordin Solus, to the curious and surprisingly emotive Legion. While in other games, the base personalities of the non player characters are what you see throughout the whole game, here the player actively take a part in their character growth.

 After spending time with each character (usually by talking with them between missions), they will request a meeting with Shepard in private. Here, they open up to Shepard, telling them about a problem that they hope to fix before they go on the suicide mission. The player can actively choose which of these problems, or “loyalty missions” they can participate in. These loyalty missions, in addition to facilitating these character’s growth, can also have far reaching implications in the next game in the series.

  For example, in Tali’Zorah nar Rayya’s loyalty mission, Shepard is asked to represent Tali while she is on trial for her late father’s illegal artificial intelligence research. After investigating the ship Tali’s father was in charge of, and finding evidence that implicates him in the deaths of hundreds aboard, they stand trial before a conglomeration of fleet admirals. Representing Tali, Shepard can state their cases in two distinct ways, a paragon “good option” and a renegade “brash option”. Each one leads to Tali’s expulsion from the fleet. But, if the player had focused on sticking to one moral path or the other, two extra options are unlocked. In these options, whether it’s through reminding them of her hero status, or shaming them by point out this is nothing but a power trip, the player can clear the names of both Tali and her father. If this is accomplished, hidden point values are accumulated that carry over to Mass Effect 3. If the player reaches enough points, an important moral choice is given a third “golden option”. While some missions aren’t as far reaching, they all serve to help grow the characters through the players own actions, forming a bond between the player and their squadmates. 

Unsuccessful Element ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With such a strong focus on character development, it really is a shame that someone as important as Shepard hardly grows throughout the course of the story. The character creation screen, Mass Effect 1, and email conversations with their mother establish Shepard as a strong, dependable soldier who’s willing to give their all to a cause, but aside from that they don’t grow in any meaningful ways. Even coming back from the dead at the beginning of the game hardly phases Shepard, who instead is mostly just confused about where they are. 

For the most part, Shepard is instead used as a static character to help showcase the diversity of their squadmates. Not that this ever becomes a problem throughout the story, as the default “Shepard personality” is a fine personality for a player avatar to have, it just becomes an issue when BioWare attempts to remedy this in Mass Effect 3 (where the characterization elements come out of nowhere and alienate players who don’t have the same emotional connections that Shepard does).  

Highlight ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Effect 2’s suicide mission is a perfect example of how to create a climax that balances action, narrative, and player choice.  Starting with the element of player choice, the player may attempt the mission at any point in the game. While it’s not recommended in any way shape or form, the option is always there for players, and it can be attempted as soon as Shepard leaves the Cerberus base. Further, actions made throughout the game are crucial to the player’s success or failure.  The suicide mission is split into four parts;

● Navigating the Normandy to the Collector Base

○ Throughout the game, players are given different items they can research to improve the Normandy SR2. These can come from suggestions from squadmates, or are given to the players by the Illusive Man. To make it through the asteroid field on the other side of the Omega-4 Relay with all squadmates alive, players need to have acquired the Heavy Ship Armor, Multicore Shielding, and Thanix Cannon upgrades. ○ As the player approaches the base, different events will happen. If the proper upgrades aren’t used, teammates will die. Midway through the run, a powerful enemy will board the enemy, forcing the player to fight it.  

● Infiltrating the Base

○ To get inside the collector base, the player will have to use the skills of a dedicated tech specialist as they move through ventilation shafts. While they progress, the player will have to defend them from Collector drones at various checkpoints. If the wrong tech specialist is chosen, or they aren’t loyal to Shepard, not only will they die, but so will others later on in the mission.  

● Holding the Line and Escorting Your Biotic

○ Once the entire team has reached the area where the captured crew, depending on how long they took to start the suicide mission, one of two options will occur. One, the crew will be rescued as the captured Horizon colonists are liquified. Or two, the player will be forced to watch as their crew is liquified. If the crew is rescued in time, one squadmate will have to be chosen to escort them back to the Normandy. If the wrong squadmate is chosen, or someone isn’t loyal, the crew will die.

○ No matter what, the mission progresses. Players choose a small team so that they can escort a “biotic” (space wizard) teammate through an inhospitable zone. The other squadmates are left to hold the line. Each squadmate contributes towards a point threshold, with stronger combat oriented characters providing the most score. If certain thresholds aren’t met, squadmates will be picked off, starting with disloyal teammates. 

○ The player and their squad set off towards the final boss, defending the biotic from waves of enemies. Again, choosing the wrong squadmate for the job, or choosing disloyal members will have adverse effects.

● The Final Boss

○ Here, players are tasked with fighting the games final enemy. The final boss not only wraps up the game for action oriented players, but also caps off the narrative by showing the players first hand what the captured colonists were being used for. The Collectors were in the process of creating a Reaper using human bio-essence. Every part of the games narrative has been working towards this reveal, and it pays off.

 ○ Once the final boss is defeated, the players gain one final moral choice. Destroy the collector base and end communications with the Illusive Man, or let him and Cerberus salvage technology from the base.  

With the suicide mission completed, players are given a variety of different endings depending on who survived and who died. In the event that players failed every step of the way, they’re given a non canon ending in the form of Shepard dying again, permanently.  

Critical Reception ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Effect 2 received universal acclaim upon release, earning a 96 critical score and an 8.9 user score on Metacritic.  

In their review, Joe McNeilly of Gamesradar.com listed the characters and interactions between them as highlights of the game. As did Mike Fahey‘s review of the game on Kotaku.com, who mentioned that the problems faced by the squadmates, while presented in exotic ways, are still relatable to players (things like familial issues, pride vs. duty, etc.). Gamesradar ended up awarding the game five out of five stars, while Kotaku left the game unrated, instead letting the review speak for itself over a score. 

Lessons ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The biggest lesson to take away from Mass Effect 2’s narrative is how to successfully make an engaging, character driven story that is still at the mercy of player choice. As mentioned in the “Strongest Element” section, by weaving player choice into the growth of the characters, players are able to make personal connections to characters in a way that not many games have tried before.     Summation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In summary, Mass Effect 2 manages to blend narrative design, characterization, and player choice together to make an exceptional experience that stands out from the rest. In a landscape full of memorable main characters, the ability to elevate supporting characters to the same levels of praise and adoration speaks to BioWare’s strength in creating believable, realistic characters.  

[tennyo-elf]

Mass Effect Trilogy Thoughts

I’m ten years late to the party (or 5 years depending on if you start at ME1 or ME3) but I finally finished the Mass Effect Trilogy, thanks to Dragon Age.

Here are my thoughts on the games, the ending, random bits, the romance, etc, etc...

After I played the trilogy I looked around tumblr and found that a lot of people thought the first game was clunky. I, for one, while I know there were kinks (especially regarding dialogue/romance options), loved the first game so much that it’s my favorite of the three games. I played Vanguard and once I got barrier I had so much fun just standing in the middle of fire blasting everything in sight. I hate shooter games because I suck at them, but ME1 allowed me to have fun. The unlimited ammo really was what got me, ‘cause I’m a terrible shot. Of course there was the whole heating thing for your weapon, but I rather have that than, “Oops, out of ammo!”

I didn’t like the battle system for ME2 and the whole working for Cerberus. The characters were pretty awesome, but it took me a bit to learn not to flirt since I wanted to be faithful to Kaidan (I play paragon, so I had to learn to stick to the middle options on the dialogue wheel). ME2 was pretty much my least favorite. I only wish I could have played with Legion more. 

ME3 took the best of ME1 and ME2 and made a great game...up until the ending of course. But seriously, ME3 is great and really fun and I loved just going around doing my Biotic Charge/Nova combo. Yeah, let me just charge a Brute or a Banshee that could literally one shot me and then nova/shotgun/charge them to death before they can kill me. That, to me, is seriously fun! Biotic power ftw!

The ending though. That ending...back before I had even heard of Bioware and was vaguely familiar with the name Dragon Age (I had thought to purchase it back in 2009 but went “Nope, I probably won’t like it” - fuck, how wrong I was...) I heard about the notoriously bad ME3 ending. It was all over the place in my geek sphere. So before I played the trilogy I looked up the ending on the wiki and read about it in articles, and I knew I’d hate it. So, since I’m on PC, I looked up some mods. I never met the star child (or whatever) or had to make a choice and I’m grateful for that. (My Shep always survives because I’m a completionist and I always get all war assets thus my end score is well above what’s needed for everyone to survive.)

First I got the regular MEHEM, played the trilogy, and the ending, with this mod, didn’t feel right. It didn’t satisfy me at all. I needed to redo some things to get the ending I wanted (I accidentally killed Steve Cortez in my first pt, fuck that noise) so I played ME3 a second time and used a new ending mod called JAM. That pt went perfectly. The ending seriously made me happy, and if felt so right! The Extended Ending, plus JAM, plus the Leviathan DLC, allowed me to enjoy the trilogy with no tears (besides for Anderson, Thane, Mordin, and Legion). There was only ONE plot hole with this combo.

The catalyst obviously targeted Reaper technology (in this mod/DLC combo), but the Geth and EDI were integrated with Reaper code. So how did they survive? (You know they survived by the ending slides with the Geth and EDI calling for Shepard when the gang went looking for her.) So I have to head canon an extra side quest after Priority: Rannoch, where the Geth and EDI discuss looking for a firewall against the catalyst energies for their built in Reaper code. Maybe they get it from the Keepers on the Citadel or maybe they create one together. Of course there is worry about the Reapers getting hold of this firewall, blah blah blah, but they keep it on the hush and hush and it works out in the end. I had no issues with the destroy ending where the Citadel and the relays go boom, because it made sense to me, I only worried about EDI and the Geth. (I united the Geth with their Creators, I’m not letting them die!) So I head canon the side quest and they’re safe. 

There is also the nightmares Shepard has about the boy. I also head canon that when she passes out after Anderson dies, she dreams again, and this time, instead of just standing and watching the boy catch fire, she saves him, she takes action, she stands up for herself and doesn’t let her guilt or fears or worries control her. She wakes with a start (and renewed energy/life) and then activates the Crucible/Catalyst. Perfect ending to me, yes, yes. (Watch here!)

As for the continuation of the series, after playing the trilogy I was disappointed that they didn’t continue the story post war with the reapers. I haven’t played Andromeda yet but I understand it’s in a different Galaxy with different problems and I think that was a missed opportunity on Bioware’s part to explore the other themes/consequences of the first trilogy. There is the dark matter/biotics/eezo/mass effect fields topic to explore as well as the fall out of Shepard’s decisions, such as the Krogan population surge, Geth/Qurian alliance, and the Leviathans. Leviathans indoctrination abilities are very concerning. And granted, Mass Effect 3 did hint that the Krogan and Geth Alliance weren’t a threat, it still wasn’t made certain. Personally I like to be able to have a game where you make sure the Krogans and rachni aren’t a threat based on in-game decisions from both the old and new trilogy. Also, I like the new hero to be able to formalize that the Geth/EDI/new AIs aren’t the threat they were made out to be and we can work together (for Destroy or even control ending, synthesis ending would have to focus on how it didn’t solve the real problems/took away freedom from people). Draw parallels from humans who are evil to AIs who go evil too. And everything leading up to the true threat of Leviathan’s trying to take over again and how the team work of species can over come their old oppressors. Just a trilogy about overcoming old thoughts/beliefs/etc. And it doesn’t have to take place immediately after the reaper war either. It could take place after Shepard’s death or when Shepard is very old and retired. I mean, you could make a game like that, it’d just take finesse because of the way they made ME3′s ending. It’d be tricky with the synthesis ending. but it could happen. A can of worms, yet I truly believe with the five years of development they had they could have written something that may piss off some, but ultimately be a continuation of the interesting galaxy/world the first trilogy created.

Okay, random thought here, but regarding the Asari, wouldn’t be it hard to keep their heads/back of their neck clean? So many places for junk to pile up, cleaning their heads must be a bitch. 

Also, this game was annoying with the male gaze, eye candy thing going on. It was everywhere and it never, ever, didn’t annoy the hell out of me. Pulled me out of the story every time I saw it, that’s for sure. I Like Miranda, but with her catsuit you can even see her lips! And I’m not talking about her face lips either!)

Alright, so romances...I went in knowing I was going to romance either Garrus or Kaidan. I didn’t know these characters yet and I saw these two were romanced the most by female Shepards on tumblr, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with either of them. Playing a paragon Shep, and getting to know Kaidan, the romance for them made sense to me (My Shep is a spacer/war hero). I was highly attracted to his character, morals, and principals. With Garrus, I can see how a renegade Shep would be all over the “fuck rules” bit but with my paragon, if felt more like a mentor/mentee relationship turn best friends type of deal than a romance. Garrus didn’t fit with my Shepard, Liabelle. I did watch a youtube vid of his romance though and he is cute af.

Of course, later, I find out everyone hates Kaidan for Horizon (or being too emotional/whiny...which felt silly to me tbh). I didn’t. Kaidan’s reaction on Horizon made sense for his character and it felt real. My Shep knew Kaidan would react like he did and while it hurt, she didn’t love him less for it. She fell for him for his principals, why would she be upset at Kaidan being Kaidan when it’s Kaidan she fell for? Hurts yes, frustrating yes, but in the end they found their way back to one another and if felt really good. Now I’m a shenko shipper through and through. 

Also loyalty to a fault can be a bad thing, sometimes you need a friend who will call you out on your shit. That’s what Kaidan did/does (though he went a bit overboard with the betrayal line, but that’s him reeling and he apologized for it). So nah, I wasn’t mad or disinterested in Kaidan after Horizon or for the beginning of ME3. I liked his character development and him coming to realize he made a mistake. You can see throughout ME3, once he comes back, how he regrets it. Ugh, the well made angst mixed with the happiness of them being back together does things to me.

In the end, Garrus and kaidan were my squad, they were my boys. I think not having Kaidan in ME2 made my dislike for the game more intense because I didn’t have my boys together. I literally shouted “MY BOYS!!” at my screen while playing ME3 when I could pick Kaidan and Garrus for my team again. It probably helped that they balanced out my Vanguard really well.

As for romanced Kaidan head canons, I will say that while they were biotic rabbits between the sheets, they were still touch and go relationship wise for most of ME3. I don’t think they were at a place in their relationship for a real marriage proposal after they find her post destroy. They definitely need time to just be and I can see that happening during leave or working on the Normandy during non war times. My husband is in the military and I asked about what would happen if they were found out and the military does give people options, either break it off or marry. I figure by the time anyone finds out they’re already engaged. That just means postings, they wouldn’t be able to work together on the Normandy. I can’t figure this one out. A part of me sees Shep retiring, another can’t see her as anything but Captain of the Normandy. Kaidan could go back to teaching, and they could meet up on Earth every shore leave Shep has...but, gah, I still haven’t figured it out yet. I do like the idea of them retiring out by Kaidan’s family’s orchard, going camping, or traveling, having kids, etc.   

Lastly, the only character I dislike is Kai Leng (too one dimensional and an ass, easy to hate). The rest I will hug if I could. And I was sad I couldn’t have a third squad mate. I’d probably pick Tali mostly with the occasionally Liara or Wrex thrown in with Kaidan and Garrus. Also I have a big soft spot for Samara. I also am weird in shipping Javik and Liara (I want them to have Asari babies!!!!...after writing their book ofc), but I think Joker and EDI are cute af and you can pry that ship from dead, cold hands. Ack, and Thane dying hurt but felt inevitable since he had a terminal illness. Mordin’s death felt a bit unnecessary, he needs to be studying seashells gdi!! ALSO WHY BIOWARE, WHY KILL LEGION, WHY!!! Oh, and Kasumi needs to be able to keep the gray box and move on...humph. 

Alright, I may write a small fic for shenko but I might not, IDK yet. All I know is I miss Dragon Age like I’m missing my other heart, so I’m going back to it soon-ish. Will replay this wonderful sci-fi trilogy again though, sometime in the future just not right away. I’ll always prefer my Dragon Age games, but this ride was definitely worth it.

[nemrut]

Web-Series Novel: A Practical Guide to Evil by Erraticerrata

Title: A Practical Guide to Evil Author: Erraticerrata Status: Work in Progress 

Link: wordpress

Summary: The Empire stands triumphant.

For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

Words from the author: A Practical Guide to Evil is a YA fantasy novel about a young girl named Catherine Foundling making her way through the world – though, in a departure from the norm, not on the side of the heroes. Is there such a thing as doing bad things for good reasons, or is she just rationalizing her desire for control? Good and Evil are tricky concepts, and the more power you get the blurrier the lines between them become.

Updates every Monday and Wednesday, as of the latest Patreon goal.

So I burned through this in 4 days or so and yeah, there is a lot to love about it. Guess the initial similarities in its premise to Worm can't be denied, what with being a teenage girl who joins the villains in the hopes to do good and is pretty ruthless in order to reach her goal, while she befriends people on the side of the villains where some aren't that unreasonably while the people on the side of good aren't necessarily all nice or good either. Still, make no mistake, it very much does its own thing. The concept with the Names is just fascinating and really, really cool. The way the rules of storytelling influence the world and characters and the different ways the various characters have found to interact with them is really creative and interesting

I love the setting. It's a an awesome fantasy setting with the familiar faces that I want to see, like Roman legions, orcs, goblins, dwarves, gnomes and so on but also given a creative fresh spin that it doesn't feel like an unimaginative D&D or LotR rip-off. The fact that the dwarves and gnomes seem to be by all accounts the heavy hitters of the setting with whom no one dares to fuck with is a nice change, for example. The geopolitical snippets that we see where the different nations, cultures and coalitions clash and unfold has been one of the stories bigger strengths. The racial and cultural clashes between characters hailing from different nations and social classes has also been explored in a rather good manner. It also has a certain anime feel to it, in a good way, that just makes it even more enjoyable to be me. I also love the fact that gender barely plays a role in this. Whatever role, job, class or function, in all facets in nearly all cultures, everything basically has a roughly equal split in terms of genders, with the goblins being the sole exception with their matriarchal society, which in turn was already alien enough, being goblins and all. No token girl or token boy characters in anything and no "you can't because you're a girl" story line either, it's rare to see it like that. Just enjoyment of the journey the character is on. Same with sexuality, it doesn't matter to anyone in the setting which way you swing or if you swing at all, so various things can be explored without taking over the plot. The lead girl is bisexual, btw, with a leaning towards girls. One of my favorite things have got to be the quotes at the beginning of the chapters. They can be hilarious and many of them have this distinct Magic the gathering flavor text feeling to them. I love them. Quotes like   “Always mistrust these three: a battle that seems won, a chancellor who smiles and a ruler calling you friend.” – Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

“I’ll be honest, Chancellor – revenge is the motivation for over half the decrees I’ve made.” – Dread Empress Sanguinia II, best known for outlawing cats and being taller than her”

or “Now kneel, fools, and witness my ascension to GODHOOD!” – Last words of Dread Empress Sinistra IV, the Erroneous

They generally crack me up and I am genuinely impressed that the author managed to come up with so many of them that are honestly lough out loud funny, well, at least to me. The dialog and witty banter has been consistently funny and energetic. I have laughed countless times and a lot of the side characters are lovable because of it. The good lines are not reserved for the main character alone but virtually everyone gets at least a few, it's rather balanced on that account. And it never becomes muddled enough that it makes the characters indistinguishable from each other, even if they share the same type of dark humor. By seeing when and on whose accounts they make the jokes, their characters still shine through. The fight scenes are decent, and the quirks and strengths of the setting and the dialog allow them to punch outside their weight-class. The meta aspects of the story itself are worked very well into the scenes and I believe that that is a very difficult thing to do. Here is a scene relatively early on: “We can get to that later,” I dismissed. “Evidently you’re the gritty type, but how far up the antihero scale are you?” 

“As far as I need to be,” he responded gravely. I pushed down my urge to make something out of that. Crossbow Tamika had already finished reloading, and the pair of them seemed to be considering their next target. I really wasn’t liking the way Spear Tamika was beginning to angle towards me.   “Are you the kind of gritty that works with enemies?” I probed. “You know, for the greater good and such.” A lesser author would have made me hate this but he pulled it off and made this fun.

More after the break but for anyone who wants to avoid even minor spoilers, give it a read, it’s awesome. Not perfect or anything as it does have its weaknesses but very well worth the read.

The side cast is funny and interesting. The 15th legion has some fun characters who are likable and enjoyable throughout. When talking about the Calamities and some others, things become downright amazing. The way they are introduced and then explored in their interludes on how they've built their legends meshes wonderfully with the more intimate and casual moments they share with each other when they just bicker and enjoy their company. I always hated the "if you lose you are dead to me" kinda villains and even though they are all very much villains, they also love and care for each other and generally having a personality allows for characters to have more depth, to have them care for more than just power. The Calamaties are larger than life, fun and epic. Which kinda flows into one of the not so much strengths of the story. Heiress is, as far as villains go...not exactly top notch. It doesn't help that while I do believe that she is a serious threat and annoyance, and that her plans are appropriately “oh shit” level, I still can't respect her because in her core, she is the stupid kind of villain, the short sighted backstabber who, as a character archetype, just isn’t that interesting, at least to me.     The clash of ideologies that very much defined books 1 and 2 between the Lone Swordsman, the Heiress and the Squire suffered under the fact that both the Lone Swordsman and the Heiress upheld positions that, well, sucked. It wasn't a matter of who was right because it was abundantly clear who was and that's the main character. The Lone Swordsman was a partly mindfucked/brainwashed zealot with few redeeming qualities and the Heiress just wants to be properly evil and hates all this efficiency, stability and success that the villain faction had for a while now. What is there to ponder? I guess I would have preferred antagonists who also had good paths/plans rather than just being flat-out wrong/evil. Heiress especially, who at all times has been the bigger danger simply because she cares only about being evil in the right way and is unable to prioritize anything else. Still, she isn’t terrible, she has interesting/fun aspects, it is fun to hate her even if I roll my eyes a lot and her dynamic with her father is fun, even if only for the inevitable scene where Cat will do something horrible to him in order to punish the Heiress. Catherine is a character who has some weaknesses but in general she is fun to follow, entertaining and someone who knows how to end a fight. She has good lines, one gets a good feel for her as the story goes along and it’s interesting if a bit frustrating when her own, culturally biased morals shine through. Like her inherent dislike and condemnation of human sacrifice despite the fact that she has about committed nearly every atrocity but since she is from Callow, that kinda thing is a no-no. It’s the arbitrary if not contradictory moral position of a true person.   I enjoy her journey and character and appreciate the way she deconstructs several conventions that are typical to the "want to save a society/nation/people" archetype. The story contained several digs at other stories, like this quote when they learn that the Heiress set her slave soldiers free.   Nominally granting the Stygian war-slaves their freedom meant absolutely nothing, when they’d been indoctrinated from birth to obey their orders of their owners without fail.

Which is basically the biggest "take that" I've seen in a while, directed at Dany's freeing of the Unsullied who in turn then moved by her actions chose to follow her nonetheless. And of course, Cat is absolutely correct. That one act of liberation probably didn't really mean that much to those who, in her words, had been indoctrinated from birth to obey and fight. Later on, when the Lone Swordsman comes upon them, he is also aware of this dilemma. His solution was to not ask them to fight, to give them that freedom but that more than anything was what convinced them to fight for him anyway, and thus he unwillingly manipulated them into doing it anyway. I really loved that touch, especially since it was a plot point that was well set up in advance, touched upon over several chapters and then had a rather satisfying resolution. Or the general theme of the shonen protag/hero of the story taking umbrage with the lesser methods of his enemies and saying that's not the right way because it's wrong. It's a conversation that that crops up all the time, and that the hero will find a better way, only never saying what that better way is, mainly because he hasn't one until he pulls unlimited power out of his ass.   Cat isn't like that and hates people like that and this inherent struggle against story conventions, especially with regards to the Black Knight is fascinating to me. Having the Calamaties and the Empress scheme and work around these inherent story elements is just cool. The romance in the story was rather lowkey which isn't bad per se,   but Killian didn't exactly leave a big impact so far but I'm hoping this will change with the recent developments. Either strike out with someone more interesting or have Killian become more interesting and defined. So far, it was pleasant and cute but not exactly much substance. One more minor point of complaint would be the relatively steady amount of typos, missing words and the like, which happen about once or twice per chapter. Nothing tragic but definitely noticeable. Author also uses adverbs a bit too much, especially the "-ly" modifiers for the verbs instead of showing it through action and dialog how they feel but it works for the most part.  Think that’s about it.  The writing is overall rather good and I enjoy the story format, what with the interludes and all. So yeah, really loving the story. Story got its hooks in me and I powered through and it was a blast from start to the latest available chapter. Supposed to be five books, and we're in the first third of the third one so, this story will be going on for a while and I'm looking forward to it.  4/5

[n7initiative]

Mass Effect 2

Oh BOY this game is good. This is my favorite game in the series. I love it. The gameplay is so much tighter than the first one, it’s got more, and more interesting, characters than the other two (I’m not saying Liara, Wrex, and James aren’t interesting, I’m saying Ashley and Kaidan aren’t interesting), and most importantly it gives you the option to cuddle with your final romance choice whenever the hell you want after you finish the main story, WHICH YOU CAN CONTINUE PLAYING THE GAME AFTER.

Let’s set my obvious adoration for this game aside for now and talk story. The Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is killed by a mysterious ship. After two years, Cerberus was able to bring Shepard back from the dead, outfit him with the SR2 Normandy, and have recruited him to investigate, and put a stop to, the Collectors abductions of human colonies. Along the way Shepard recruits a huge cast of characters, new and old, to help him fight off the Collectors. These characters include Jacob Taylor, the human head of security for Cerberus’s Lazarus Project, Miranda Lawson, the head of the Lazarus Project, Mordin Solus, a brilliant Salarian doctor and former STG operative, Garrus Vakarian, previous Turrian squadmate and famed vigilante of Omega, Jack, an extremely powerful human biotic and former Cerberus guinea pig for horrifying experiments, Grunt, a tank born Krogan with greater than average anger issues, Tali’Zorrah Vas Neema, previous Quarian squadmate and the Quarian’s foremost authority on all things Geth, Samara/Morinth, an Asari Justicar/Ardat-Yakshi and all around badass biotic, Thane Krios, the Drell assassin with a crippling degenerative genetic disorder, and Legion, the hyper advanced Geth with a heart of gold. I love all of these characters a LITTLE too much.

Mass Effect 2 has a TON of DLCs as well. Normandy Crash site allows you to explore where the Normandy got shot down, collecting dog tags, your own helmet, and memories of the old Normandy, as well as establish a monument to the fallen. Zaeed - The Price of Revenge adds the human mercenary with a vendetta against the Blue Suns mercenary group, Zaeed Massani as a recuritable squadmate. Firewalker adds the hammerhead vehicle to pilot around, and a small side story about Cerberus scientists tracking down a Prothean device and going mad. Kasumi - Stolen memory adds another squadmate in the form of the greatest thief in the galaxy, Kasumi Goto, and perhaps the best loyalty mission and gun in the game (the Locust is SO good). Overlord adds a story about Cerberus experimenting with AI technology and the Geth, and is a really atmospheric and genuinely creepy story. Lair of the Shadow Broker brings Liara T’soni, former Asari squadmate and archeologist, back to the team temporarily to track down and take down the Shadow Broker for the events in Mass Effect: Redemption. Finally, Arrival adds a story of Shepard going solo into a Batarian military outpost to liberate an Alliance scientist, only to find that her and her whole team have been indoctrinated by the reapers. All of these stories (with the exception of Firewalker, which was kinda boring) are extremely fun and memorable and add so much to the series lore and overall story.

The gameplay is a HUGE step up from the first game. It polishes up the combat mechanics, makes interacting with the world much less tedious (removing the fairly annoying armor system, treasure chests that weren’t worth opening, and omnigel), and makes leveling up much more streamlined. My only gripes are that they changed the controls (never a good idea to do mid series) and made the guns work on an ammo system. The ammoless guns from the first game were an interesting idea, and I really wish they had stuck to that model. The graphics also got a bit of an upgrade, but that’s not too important in my opinion.

I adore this game. The characters are fun and engaging, the story is, while small and heavily reliant on DLCs to give it staying power, interesting and really cool. Mass Effect was a good game already, but Mass Effect 2 really raised the bar for me. Every time I see the Normandy get shot down I get a little choked up, and every time I go into battle against the final boss is a rush. This game is spectacular through and through. Granted, the only reason this game is the best in my opinion is the large selection of squadmates and the aforementioned cuddling thing. Otherwise, 3 is probably the better game all around.

This marks us being a third of the way through the series. Come back next time for Mass Effect: Homeworlds #1.

[x]

[dragonflight203]

As I understand it, there are Mass Effect relays all over the galaxy. However, most of them are off. Given the experience with the Rachni, the Citadel forbids turning a relay on until its partner is found. (How do you tell what relays connect to each other? Good question!).

So only 1% of the galaxy has actually been explored. (Taken from the Citadel Space Codex entry.) Anything could be going on in the other 99%, so for all we know there's an empire of Synthetics with their own relay network.

For context, the Turian Unification war was around 300 BCE. They didn't make contact with the Citadel until around 700 CE. So they were a space faring race for centuries, had a civil war, and built their own empire without contacting C-Space. (Dates taken from the wiki timeline).

Given there's 99% of the galaxy unexplored, I think it's more unlikely that there aren't other such empires out there.

Yeah the exact timeline around when synthetic research was outlawed is vague. Sometimes it was outlawed before the geth rebelled, sometimes it was outlawed because the geth rebelled. Even in ME1 there are discrepancies, although I haven't written that down in my notes.

It may be one of those areas where everyone hemmed and hawed to avoid making a commitment, watched it blow up in someone else's face, then claimed they were always against it.

I think your approach is best for consistency. There were implicit policies in place prior to the Geth rebellion that were made much more explicit after it.

The disadvantage with the Codex is that we only know what the writer believes. Given we're playing as Shepard, the writer is probably the Alliance. So it's not the most reliable source of information.

The ability is based on the Leviathan's indoctrination ability (also unexplained!) but the Reapers have had millennia to improve upon it. Since synthetics arise in every cycle, I have a hard time believing the Reapers haven't come up with a means to control them. Which is probably where the reprogramming comes in.

So my guess: Indoctrination for organics. Reprogramming for synthetics.

Indoctrination, as you said, has a long term, permanent impact on organics. This is more advantageous to the Reapers, as it's a one and done deal. The Reapers don't need to be around to maintain it. Organics can resist it, at least in short bursts.

Reprogramming is less reliable. What has been reprogrammed once can be reprogrammed again. If we accept synthetics are sentient, they could resist the reprogramming like organics resist indoctrination. If they resist the reprogramming long enough, they can reprogram themselves back to normal. (Why the hell aren't the Reapers using admin commands to prevent them from doing so? Because the plot demands, I guess.)

So once Legion is no longer a Reaper beacon, the geth return to normal.

I don't think this is good explanation and I wouldn't use it in my own writing, but it's something.

I actually quite like the indoctrination theory, but I don't think it's what Bioware intended. I've just made peace that it's rare for any canon to be perfectly consistent or of equal quality across a series, so I'm willing to substitute fanon when needed.

(That said, I also think it's important to distinguish between what is canon and what is fanon.)

Arguably, in the indoctrination theory a high EMS is the bad ending - Shepard resists the indoctrination long enough to choose destroy, but they survive and are still indoctrinated.

This, obviously, makes the perfect lead in to ME5. Shepard should be the villain because they're indoctrinated. Everyone wins! Shepard comes back but isn't the protagonist.

(Look, if you're going to piss of the entire fan base you may as well go all the way. )

Personally, my own take on the endings is that the Star child is lying through their teeth about all of them. Shepard is descending into delirium due to blood loss, and so isn't thinking clearly well enough to catch it, much less call the star child out on it.

Wasn't there something in ME3 that implied or stated Xen still wanted to control the Geth?

I want badly to say that there is, but I don't recall exactly when. Maybe one of the conversation when Legion is on the ship?

I checked a video, and she does say she could use Legion to find a weakness in the Geth consensus.

If the thread about Xen controlling the Geth is dropped completely, then that is odd. And unfortunately par for the course in ME3. :/

ME1 replay thoughts, wrapping up the Citadel quests:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Just how did Septimus learn Xeltan's secrets?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still nothing that even hints at Synthesis.

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

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

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

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