Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

Re: my opinion: I'll stop repeating myself, thanks for bringin that to my attention.

Regarding the Mako, I sincerely hope the control scheme for it isn't ass backwards. Otherwise I'm game for the return of planet exploration.

Oh, also, if Threser Maw is named after the Thresher Shark, does that mean there are other variants of the Maw that live on Tuchanka?

edited 21st Apr '15 6:05:19 AM by CalamityJane

Nah, it's just the human name for it. The Krogan probably have a name that isn't derivative of a shark species.

Well, threshing around is something things other than sharks can do...

Basking and megamouth... Not quite good for vehicles either.

Maybe name it after some other kind of dangerous animal? I mean, calling a vehicle "Honey" after the Honey Badger is kind of ridiculous, but you never know.

Well, over in the Legend of Korra thread, we were discussing the idea of a Bioware game set in the Avatar universe...

I think the reason Shepard died was so that there could be a Time Skip, thrusting the player into an unfamiliar situation.

Plus, it sounds pretty badass.

If they wanted a Time Skip, they could have just put Shepard in a coma. Dying and then coming back is something incredibly serious, yet the entire game just leaves it as a giant pink elephant in the room. No questions about the afterlife, no questions about the morality of doing such a thing, no repercussions to anyone involved for playing God, and somehow Shepard magically comes back exactly the same as before?

If they didn't want to explore the morality and consequences of bringing someone back from the dead, they shouldn't have done such a thing. Leaving all those details unexplored... it's a damn shame.

Found this interpretation of Kai Leng's letter on Reddit:

From Asari Military Command:

lol i trold u

git gud or git rekt scrub

mlg420noscoped

cum @ me br0

- swagmaster9000

edited 21st Apr '15 7:30:54 AM by AnotherGuy

Pretty much the same thing as the real deal. Kai Leng was just a petulent kid, no matter the ridiculous getup.

In fact, him being a petulent kid kinda explains the ridiculous elements of his persona. He is an overgrown teenager who digs the cyborg ninja shtick, and is just outright immature.

Also, IIRC all Shepard has to say about the time they were dead, is that they were spaced, suffocating, and then everything went black and, inmediatly thereafter, they were in the Cerberus lab.

Kinda makes sense; memories are a function of the body, if you restore it to how it was beforehand, it will keep on going just as it was beforehand. Mass Effect tends to justify its world with science; if psychic powers are justified by neural interaction with clumps of substance bound to Minorvsky Physics, or by direct neural interaction.

The only instance of supernatural stuff outside of personal beliefs, is Thane's ghost in Citadel.

Thane's ghost could be a simple hallucination, though... Which kind of puts Shepards mental health into concern.

Well, Shepard IS under heavy stress in 3...

If shepard is under so much stress she's hallucinating then she needs more than just shore leave

edited 21st Apr '15 8:24:13 AM by CalamityJane

Stopping the fleet of mecha-chtulhu that intends to turn everybody into biomechanical slaves or grey goo would probably help.

Yeah, in ME 3, Shepard's mental health deteriorates rapidly. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they slipped into suicidal nihilism at some point.

I still think Kai Leng is Nightwing Beyond.

Shepard as a character is probably the best deconstruction of The Hero that I know of. I know that Shepard is archetypal in nature but I am not quite certain what that archetype is, but whatever it is I would expect Shepard to be believed, and lead the battle easily. Instead they become The Cassandra and the stresses of battle mentally shatter them.

Or at least, their mental health is implied to go to shit with the dreams and aforementioned hallucinating Thane's ghost. Shepard still sucks it up and does everything despite having all the reason in the world to just let themselves break down.

edited 21st Apr '15 1:13:45 PM by CalamityJane

Despite the dreams in the third game, up until then Shepard still serves primarily as a fairly blank power fantasy in my eyes.

You have plenty of support from friends/allies, who are all the good guys of the piece. You deal with Obstructive Bureaucrats, yes, but those are common enough, and are used in opposition for you — you're still clearly right, they're but another challenge to overcome, those fools. In the end, you still do lead the armies, at the end of the first one you fight your way through the geth and shame the Council for their disbelief, and you clearly make "big" choices and do big fights — you aren't sidelined in the slightest, despite the official position against you.

The third game adds the stress, though it does directly place Shepard in position as "most important person ever". Still, I'd say the deconstruction does exist more there, and it's well-fitted as a sort of war story, which it seems to try to evoke.

edited 21st Apr '15 2:17:18 PM by Lavaeolus

I do kind of believe Liara's early ME 1 line where she says Shepard has a very strong mind. It takes a lot of mental skill to not completely shatter in despair during a time like the Reaper War and being heralded as "most important person ever."

I wish Shepard had the option to say "You're just a Metal Gear Solid cosplayer that Cerberus enabled!"

Oh god, Kai Leng. If there was ever a character that was more disconnected in his various appearances, it's this asshole. In the book he debuts in (before Mass Effect 3 came out) he was a pretty scary dude with a Determinator streak a mile wide. But in the game proper he's the biggest pansy in tight pants ever seen.

However, I consider Kai Leng a success on a Love to Hate level. I hate him so much it overshoots back into liking him.

I kind of wish you could purchase armor and accessories similar to Kai Leng's before you defeat him, just to one-up him on the killing blow and insult him by showing that you're better than what he's miserably failing to be.

You can get a lookalike of his armor as a reward in the Citadel DLC.

Good thing I have that then, it's a shame though I'm really fond of the weird yet awesome looking cyan visors that cover most of the upper face...whatever those were called.

Kai Leng might have worked if he was an established character or at least had a clear history with Shepard. As it stands, he just sort of shows up a few times as an undeveloped muscle of Cerberus to defeat.

If Leng actually worked with you on a mission or two in 2 he might've worked better.