I've was admired how fleshed out were the Geth in ME2, with Legion being a "diplomatic platform" for the Geth Consensus, showing us that the Geth were not all evil.
They didn't want to be like humans, they were happy just being all together, with building a dyson sphere where every geth would be uploaded into, so no Geth would be alone.
Also they rejected the Reapers (Old Machines) help to achieve their goal, believing that they would be blinded to other paths if they accepted the Reaper's offer.
A part of them accepted the Reapers' help due of "mathematic variable", they allowed their own people to leave them to serve the Reapers, and were not expecting that the "Heretics" were planning to unleash a virus on them to make them worship the Reapers too.
Then in ME3, Legion accepts the Reaper code "upgrade" that makes the Geth individual AI, but that's not what they were after, suddenly wanting to become like organics, when Legion told us that the Geth hated the concept of organic individuality.
Legion's quote when I destroyed the Collector Base cemented my respect for the True Geth.
"An interesting choice, Shepard-Commander. Your species was offered everything the Geth aspire to, true unity and understanding in transcendence. You rejected it, you even refused the possibility of using the Old Machines' to achieve on your species' own terms. You are more like us than we thought".
I am aware that the real reason for this change is due of change of writers, when Chris L'Etoile wrote Legion and the Geth in ME1-ME2 and was no longer in Bioware in ME3.
For me, Legion is the Geth in ME2, in ME3 is not Legion.
This coincidentally with the Quarians de-humanized and portrayed like complete monsters with the Geth as innocent, with the favourable points for the Quarians reduced drastically if not removed.
For example:
Han' Gerrel: In ME2 he was very friendly with Tali and Shepard, and didn't even want to put Tali on trial, he was sympathetic with them, but disliked the Geth. Suddenly in ME3 he's portrayed like a dumb warmongering idiot that shoots the Geth dreadnought where Shepard and Tali are on, risking their lives "for a perfect target".
Also we are given the option to punch him, but no option to confront Legion about the Reaper code BS.
Kal'Reegar: A badass quarian marine that isn't afraid to defend Tali in front of the Admiral board if it means to save her. In ME3, he was conveniently killed off in a mail.
"Damn straight! Tali's done more for this fleet than you assholes ever will! You're pissing on everything I fought for! Everything Tali fought for! So, if you decide to exile her... you may as well do the same to me."
Originally he was supposed to be appearing on the mission on Rannoch, instead of the Geth conseus, leading a Quarian specialist team known as "Fire Time Taurash", happy to see Shepard again.
Replaced by a mission that sympathizes for the Geth.
The only Quarians that are left and are likeable are Tali and Raan, where Koris the admiral that in ME2 costantly pissed on Tali and her father, is now portrayed like a savior and the only good guy.
The Quarians were de-humanized to make the player see the Geth as good and Quarians as bad.
How I would have done Rannoch arc
Legion: He appears asking help to Commander Shepard, isolated from the Consensus to free his people from Reaper control, that would use them as slaves to wipe out the Quarians.
Tali:If was pardoned, she appears as one of the Admirals trying to advocate for peace, if exiled, she appears alongside Legion to ask Shepard to help them to prevent the Geth from killing the Quarians.
Geth: Under reaper control the Geth are forced to amass an army that the Reapers want to use to help them exterminate the Quarians and the rest of life after, to ensure compliance, the reapers used a virus that has an effect similar to indoctrination for synthetics, but can be reversed and use a research on that Virus to make the Geth immune to Reaper hacking.
Quarians: The quarians are now looking for a planet to host their refugees and non combatants, as the Reapers attack, they need a planet closest to their physiology to minimize risk for them, Rannoch.
Quarian admiralty: Han Gerrel wants to push for war and claim their homeworld with brute force, but understands that attacking a Reaper and a full Geth army will tear apart. Zaal' Koris asks for a way to free the Geth from the Reapers to turn them in allies. Daro' Xen instead suggests exploiting the Reapers' hold on the Geth and reprogram the Virus to make them their slaves.
The mission arc would be trying to be helping Legion and the Quarians research the Reaper Virus, that would have three possible choices:
Neutralize the Virus, to prevent the Reapers from taking control of the Geth Consensus, Geth and Quarians join as war assets, requires Tali and Legion alive, Legion and Tali join as permanent squadmates.
2)Use the Virus to shut down the Geth, all Geth shutdown, and all their servers destroyed, the Geth are wiped out, and the Quarians join as war assets.
3)Exploit the Virus, Admiral Xen's plan with help from Rael's research and potentially from Project Overlord's data to make the Geth slaves to the Quarians again, both join as war assets, but Legion shuts down.
In any case, the Geth follow their old philosophy
Something else I would add. Kal'Reegar as a squad member.
part of me wishes Reegar could've been recruitable. Maybe it's like a KOTOR 2 situation where if we chose a male exile, then we get the Handmaiden. If we chose female exile, then we get the Disciple. If we chose Male Shepard, then Reeger is just a war asset. If we chose femshep, then Tali stays with the Admiralty board and becomes a war asset while Tali recommends Reegar to join the Normandy.
I'd also like to add possible romances after the direction of the war.
If you romance Tali in ME2, Tali is yours.
If you didn't romance Tali and Legion lives, then you can point them in the right direction like you do with Gabby and Ken
If you didn't romance Tali and Reegar lived, then Tali and Reeger get together
If you didn't romance Tali and Reegar and Legion are dead, then Tali and Garrus get together
Not the post for Maar lore I promised, but I have more Azar titbits while I work on the lore post!
I see a lot of horses in ArSen (makes sense, it's the primary source for travel, you doofes), but we only know of one (1) horse, actually being important enough that he is mentioned by name - and that's Shabrang!
So I thought, "Hey! Let's make it TWO (2) horses that are important to be mentioned by name!"
I had roughly an idea of what horse Azar should ride (I personally like rather big horses, so that influenced it a lot), searched around a bit, and found the perfect horse for her! Meet Zaal, Azar's Noriker horse! Zal means "albino" in Persian. In the 11th century in the persian epic "Shahnameh" it is also the name of a white-haired warrior. The double a in the name is the georgian form of the name!
Here are some pictures I found of Noriker horses:
Already pretty
But THIS I like more. It's the pattern that fits better with my vision. Less black in the face.
Twee dingen: aan het woord komt VPRO-coryfee Jan Donkers over de ultieme punk-rock-band The Ramones. En, wie een indruk wil krijgen hoe dat destijds live klonk, kan niet om de dubbel-lp It’s alive (1979) heen. Die kan ik aanraden. Maar nu eerst: Jan Donkers, grand old duke van de VPRO-radio die samen met Rik Zaal en Wim Noordhoek een trio radio-platendraaiers vormde en daarmee mijn generatie op…
Zoals jullie wellicht weten is aan deze pagina ook een facebook groep verbonden. De Belgian BBQ group waar ondertussen al ruim 37000 mensen verenigd zijn om hun passie voor het vuur te delen. Bij een groep van dergelijke omvang zie je wel vaker dat frequent dezelfde vragen worden gesteld. Om de trouwe leden wat te ontlasten probeer ik met regelmaat een uitgebreide post te ontwikkelen op de blog…
(48/54) “I didn’t raise them to be Iranian first. Above all I wanted them to be good people. I wanted the same things for them that I want for all people: to do the next right thing, to say the next true thing. But they were growing up in tough times. So many bad things were being done in the name of Iranians. I wanted them to know the real Iran. I wasn’t able to bring them there, but I did try to build a little Iran around us. I’ve surrounded us with my memories of home. On the wall hangs a painting of Nahavand that I made in Germany. Above the back door hangs the horns of the first ibex I ever hunted. On the shelf in the dining room is my jar of soil. It was collected from a spot in Nahavand at the base of the mountain, right at the source of the spring. And next to my jar of soil, for anyone who needs it: sits my Shahnameh. As soon as they were old enough I asked each of them to memorize a verse about their namesake. Zaal went first. His namesake was one of the wisest heroes in all of Shahnameh: 𝘡𝘢𝘢𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘳. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳. Rostam went next. He chose his verse from a part of Shahnameh when Iran finds itself in a moment of great darkness. Three enemy kings have aligned their forces. Three hundred thousand men march against us. The army is on the brink of defeat. The dirt’s turned clay with blood. Rostam arrives at the battlefield on foot: no horse, no armor, carrying nothing but a bow and arrow. He walks out to face the enemy alone. And with a single shot, he slays the greatest champion on the other side. The enemy is stunned into silence. Their courage flees them. Their commander screams: 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴? 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮! It’s one of my favorite verses in all of Shahnameh. My entire life, ever since I was a little boy, those have always been my favorite scenes. The ones that make me most emotional. The ones that make my voice break. When at the moment of greatest darkness, one champion makes a stand. And with a single act of courage reveals the soul of an entire people.”
در پرورش نوادگانم نکوشیدم که تنها به ایرانیبودن خود ببالند. میخواستم مردمان خوبی باشند. هر چه برای آنها آرزو می کنم، آرزوی جهانی من هم هست. ویژگیهای فرهنگ ایرانیان جهانگسترانه بودن آن است. راستی را بنیاد زندگی اجتماعی بدانند. با ناراستی نمیتوان دو تن را به هم پیوست. نیک اندیشیدن، نیکخواهانه سخن گفتن و به کارهای نیک که آبادگر جهاناند کوشیدن را به جان دریابند. مردمان ما در روزگار سختی بزرگ میشدند. رویدادهای ناگواری به نام ایرانیان نشان داده میشد. میخواستم ایران راستین را بشناسند. نمیتوانستم آنها را به میهنام ببرم، ولی تلاش کردم ایران کوچکی پیرامون خودمان بسازم. بر روی دیوار نگارههایی از نهاوند است که آن را هنگام زندگی در آلمان کشیدهام. بالای دیوار اتاق، شاخ کَلی که شکار کردم، آویزان است. روی گنجهی اتاق ناهارخوری، شیشهی خاکام را نهادهام ،خاک نهاوند که درست از کوهپایه گردآوری شده است، از سرچشمه. در کنار شیشهی خاکام، برای هر کس بخواهد شاهنامهام را. از آن هنگام که به سن درک و فهم رسیدند، از آنها خواستم که هر یک بیتی را در پیوند با نامشان برگزینند. نخست زال آغاز کرد. نام او برگرفته از یکی از خردمندترین پهلوانان شاهنامه است. زال همه چیزهای بزرگ و کوچک، و دور و نزدیک را میدانست. خرد او چونان ستارهای میدرخشید. سپس نوبت رستم بود. بیتاش از بخشی از شاهنامه است که ایران در هنگامهی جانشکاریست. سه پادشاه دشمن به هم پیوستهاند. سیسدهزار مرد جنگی رو یاروی ایرانیان ایستادهاند. سپاه در آستانهی شکست است. خاک آغشته به خون است. رستم تازان میرسد، سم اسبش کوفته است، پیاده به رزمگاه میرود، آری، بی اسب، بی جنگافزار، تنها با تیر و کمانی. او به تنهایی با دشمن روبه رو میشود، تنها با یک تیر، سردار بزرگ سپاه دشمن را از پای در میآورد. دشمن شگفتزده به خاموشی فرو میرود. دلاوری آنها به یکباره رنگ میبازد. فرمانده آنها بُهتزده میگوید: تو گفتی که لَختی فُرومایهاند / ز گردنکشان کمترین پایهاند / کُنون نیزه با تیر ایشان یکیست / دل شیر در جنگشان اندکیست. در تمام دوران زندگیام، از آن هنگام که پسربچهای بیش نبودم، چنین صحنههایی مورد علاقهام بودهاند. صحنههایی که بیش از همه احساس مرا برمیانگیزند. پهنههایی که مایهی لرزش صدایم میشوند. زمانی که گُردی ایرانی به پا میایستد و با کاری دلیرانه، همهی جان و روان ملتاش را آشکار میسازد