Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

I wonder who will end up being the Anora of ME. She's queen all on her own in my "canon" DA run but fuck if the series will ever acknowledge her or give her any importance. Everyone wants King Alistair.

Heh, 100 years after 3, and Miranda could still have another 90 years left to live (and other than Zaeed, most squadmembers would still be within their projected lifespans more likely).

Killing off any of the known Krogan or Asari by then would feel quite in bad taste. Most of the deaths in 3 were Dying Moment of Awesome, or a extreme renegade doing their things.

(And yeah, I have this problem of playing most stuff on PC and limiting my console shenanigans to Nintendo, so I tend to think of backwards compatibility as the norm rather than as a barrier).

edited 27th Mar '15 10:50:59 AM by Eriorguez

This may be the stupidest thing I've ever suggested, but I hope they take the Running Gag that Shepard couldn't dance and completely invert it with the new character (or at least allowing the player to decide) becoming the best dancer in the whole team.

The only characters who I can picture dying offscreen are Atheyta and Samara (If she isn't already dead), since they're in the Matriarch stage, and any Salarians. Wrex could die offscreen if he isn't biologically immortal, but I don't think Bioware is stupid enough to just say he passed away/got shanked in his sleep. On that note, I don't think Aria is old enough to die naturally unless 4 is some 500 years in the future, in which case Liara, Wrex, Grunt, Eve, Starshep, and the Geth are the only ones who could still be alive.

Well, Samara said she still had centuries to live... Late matron stage maybe?

Nevermind, went through all the hoopla. On another note though if the Omni-tool has omni-blades, one has to wonder if they can be used to scale walls.

edited 27th Mar '15 8:32:47 PM by ParadoxialStratagem

Speaking of Aria, there are apparently quite a few people who don't like her. In fact, I had a friend elsewhere say he was stunned people liked her.

isn't she, like, easily the most popular secondary NPC in the trilogy? She got her own DLC where they made her playable, she had her own comic miniseries.... Seems pretty evident I'm not the only one who loves her.

Blue mobster Trinity is quite neat. Makes a dislikeable first impression, but then keeps growing on you, and then you realice that first impression wasn't really the first impression you got of her...

Also, having a power that basically ammounts to an artillery strike is kinda neat.

I loved Aria even before ME 3 but when she gave me Flare in 3, I knew I'd love her forever.

So does it seem like it to anyone else that the writers couldn't come up with a good reason why only Humans were to be turned into then next Reaper?

For example, all these criticisms are valid enough, from a Reaper perspective:

“Quarian; considered due to cybernetic augmentation, weakened immune system too debilitating.”

“Drell; useless, insufficient numbers.”

“Asari; reliance upon alien species for reproduction shows genetic weakness.”

“Salarian; insufficient lifespan, fragile genetic structure.”

“Geth; an annoyance, limited utility.”

“Krogan; sterilised race, potential wasted.”

But then you get to Harbinger's comment on Garrus...

"Turian; you are considered...too primitive."

What the heck does that even mean?

Turians could make a fine Reaper.

Funny thing is that I'm pretty certain it was hinted/stated somewhere that the turians were supposed to be this cycle's chosen race, but then Shepard's actions drew the Reaper's attention to humans.

Harbinger's dismissal towards the other races, including the turians, could probably be summed up as confirmation bias.

The girls in ME 3, they're Morinth's younger sisters right? As in Samara had them later on with a different parent? Or maybe the same parent? Point is they weren't all born at the same time from the same union, correct?

I mean, you have to start to wonder, after she has brought THREE children with this affliction into the world, after this has happened THREE times, who is the one really at fault here?

edited 28th Mar '15 1:14:49 AM by Nikkolas

Probably the fact that Ardat-Yakshism would really only show itself after Morinth started having sex.

Well, if asari have similar genetics than humans, and if AY are recessive genes, then Samara probably had the same partner all along, and they got unlucky. With human genetics, it would be a (1/4)^3 chance to have all three of your children being sick - 1 chance out of 64, which is not that exceptional.

Also, think of it as parents having their firstborn handicapped. Should they automatically stop making children because they know the risk exists?

So earlier on I asked about ME 2 Squadmate alignments. But that was with D&D.

I'm curious if anyone had any thoughts on how the various squadmates across the trilogy stack up in terms of ME's own morality scale?

Obviously you can't just say Paragon or Renegade...we all know there is that sweet spot in between with Paragrade or Renegon for example.

Someone like Kaidan would be a Paragon for example while I think Thane would be Paragrade.

Liara in ME 1 was solid Paragon but across the trilogy I think she dropped to Paragrade.

Interestingly, looking at other peoples' lists, Ash is supposed to be Renegon. I never knew that. It will be interesting to see her in 3 when I get there.

Also in other peoples' lists they were mean and didn't even say Morinth was Renegade. They just said "Evil".

edited 28th Mar '15 4:49:08 AM by Nikkolas

That's because Morinth is evil. She's a damn serial killer, and her sisters show that becoming so was completely her own choice.

Meh. I still say a game where you work for Cerberus and have a team that consists of at least 4 career murderers is not one where you should be picky about morals.

At the very least Jack and Zaeed could both be labeled "Evil" as well.

edited 28th Mar '15 5:17:28 AM by Nikkolas

Well, let's see: Thane is an assasin, raised from childhood to be a killer, Jack is mentally unstable due to torture as a child, Zaeed's... pretty much a dick, yeah...

Who's the fourth?

Samara, her whole job is going around and killing whoever she feels like because "her code" says she can.

Well, her code is the basis of the entire Asari justice system.

She still kills people for a living. I just had a chat with her in my old save file and she calmly mentions how she would kill all the people who worship and look up to the Justicars if her Code demanded it. When a Justicar comes into a situation, there's no room for dialogue or peace, they just kill the target.

Regardless, my point was just that Morinth is a Renegade. "Evil" shouldn't come into it.

edited 28th Mar '15 6:07:26 AM by Nikkolas

Justicar isn't a career, it's... a way of life? She's not paid or anything and Justicars give up all possessions apart from weapons and armour. She just roams the world, helping out, doing justice. She's also not, strictly, a killer, though when you're a strict black-and-white ancient law-dealing samurai in a sci-fi franchise where thousands of different cultures mingle, this gets a bit blurred — part of Samara's character is that her way of life is dying and is outdated as hell.

From a certain perspective, she's really, really Paragon, since she abides purely by principles. The specifics of those principles often lead to her taking what is to us the Renegade choice, though. Paragade, perhaps, if she isn't full Paragon? It doesn't help that Paragon/Renegade are a bit fluidly defined. Note she'll tell a Renegade Shepard she's going to kill them for the crap they've pulled once her vow is over.

edited 28th Mar '15 7:13:11 AM by Lavaeolus

A Renegade is an unscrupulous hero. Morinth is a hedonist, who finds pleasure in frying brains.

Oh, and Samara would have kept a normal life if Morinth didn't come to the conclusion than frying the brain of the partner in a sexual relationship felt too good to stop doing that, and thus, rather than trying to do something about that, escaped the planet and kept going.

Samara is throughly broken. Morinth is delusional. Her sisters are far more worthy of respect than she is.

And the three are from the same union and of quite close ages. Read the Shadow Broker dossiers on Samara (they are in the Wiki). In fact, read the Shadow Broker dossiers for everybody, those are pure character development stuff.

Also, after a Spacer/War Hero Paragon male Soldier, I am starting a Earthborn/Ruthless Renegade female Vanguard. Other than biotic charging everything in sight, anything else I should know?

edited 28th Mar '15 7:33:15 AM by Eriorguez

There is nothing heroic about Jack or Zaeed. They kill people because they can and they're on the mission because it benefits them.

ME 1 Wrex is the same way. He's given up on his people and just kills whoever he's paid to for excitement and profit.

As for who deserves the most respect between Morinth, Falere and Rila, I think Samara is most qualified to assess the character of her three daughters and she respects Morinth the most. Because Morinth was the strongest, the smartest and didn't throw her life away.

edited 28th Mar '15 7:52:49 AM by Nikkolas

Nah, I don't think killing people as a kink and fighting for that is more respectable than facing down a banshee while indoctrinated. And throwing their lifes away? Morinth is only doing things for herself, Falere and Rila made life better for other people.

Jack was conditioned to be aggressive, her whole life being treated as a thing, and ends up showing she can change. Zaeed is a massive asshole tho, and has mellowed down since his prime.

edited 28th Mar '15 7:58:41 AM by Eriorguez