"there was the word of another Spectre" No, there wasn't? Literally the only evidence that Saren was involved with Eden Prime was that dockworker who slept on the job and engaged in smuggling. That was it. There may have been plenty of evidence of Saren being a ruthless,sadistic bastard. But the Council deliberately turned a blind eye to that sort of thing as long as it benefited them.
While Koris is the closest the games come to a reasonable civilian leader, I maintain that the way quarian society is set up does mean they're actually kinda similar to the turians in being a military government, and arguably a military society. By necessity, yes, and a little more nuanced than that. But even non-combatants are basically serving in military support roles.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.There was. Guy/Gal named Shepard.
Like, Saren is not a celebrity. There's zero way that some random colonists on a remote human colony would come up with his name because they're just space racists. Anderson knows him, but he is the elite of the elite of human military forces, he's not Jim Random from Eden Prime.
The Council should definitely know that. It was stupid of them to completely dismiss Shepard's claim firsthand and not even say anything to Saren aside from "Okay have fun", even without hindsight.
They all live on ships. Space is super limited. Oxygen is limited. Obviously they need strict rules of life.
But the Quarians you meet outside of the flotilla are waaaaaaaay less military-minded than the average Turian. Even Garrus, who is a superduper laid back Turian, is by far the most militaristic squadmate you can recruit aside from a couple actual, current marines like Ashley.
The Quarians are less militaristic than they are communist by force. They have to live under strict rules because they have so few resources to share, but it doesn't mean that Koris' responsibilities are mostly focused around military matters - especially as he's head of the Civilian fleet, which only gets equipped with cannons when Gerrel and Xen decide to start a war.
They were getting their final eval on Eden Prime. It's not like they turned from "untrustworthy" to "trustworthy" just because of a ceremony.
In any event, the Council's inaction, in any direction, is stupid at this moment. Either they believe Shepard tells the truth and they should do more to try and reign Saren in. Or they do not believe Shepard tells the truth...and they let them roam free in the Citadel despite possibly having murdered the Spectre sent to evaluate them AND accusing another one of the deed.
Talking from a purely Game Theory perspective, doing nothing gives the worst possible outcomes.
Somome on a discord I'm on felt that the whole concept of a spectre is a bit of a product of the old post-9/11 environment the first Mass Effect come out in.
I kinda see what they mean since it's all about you playing as a secret agent without full oversight, allowed to do "whatever it takes" to win the day, and presenting it as a power fantasy.
It's pretty close to being a Inquisitor from 40k, except your in a more ideal B5 type setting, instead of the grimdark one it originated from.
Edited by Avenger09 on Feb 26th 2025 at 1:40:52 PM
"There was. Guy/Gal named Shepard." Shepard wasn't a Spectre, and didn't actually see Saren at Eden Prime. The only witness, the only evidence at all, was the dockworker heard Nihlus say "Saren." A smuggler who was only alive because he liked to sleep on the job, so not the most reliable witness in the first place. Beyond that, is there only one Saren in the galaxy? And was he sure he heard the name Saren and not something similar? It's nowhere near enough evidence to actually take action, not against one of their top operatives who has never given them any reason to believe he would work with the geth.
"But the Quarians you meet outside of the flotilla are waaaaaaaay less military-minded than the average Turian." Sure, but my point is that the quarians still effectively live under martial law, and their leadership is military in nature, even if they do also have elected councils to advise captains. I actually also forgot about the Conclave, which I think is civilian and is primarily in charge of fleet-wide policies, but we never meet anyone from there. We only meet the Admiralty Board, who are very much military (hence the name), and who also have the authority to override the Conclave. Albeit, with plenty of restrictions that allow for checks and balances and prevent abuse.
I will concede that the presentation of the quarians doesn't treat civilian leadership as inherently inferior to military leadership. But they're the one exception. Otherwise, the franchise absolutely takes the stance that civilian leadership is inferior to military leadership, and that they should get out of the way and let the military do pretty much whatever they want to do.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.Sorry, what? Shepard became a spectre by bringing proof that Saren is a traitor, not the other way around.
Also, I don't remember the council ever suspecting that Shepard was the one who killed Nihlus?
Shepard was on a mission to be certified as a Spectre, Nihlus said so. Shepard didn't go from nobody to Spectre when he found proof on Saren, s/he was one step removed to become one.
And them being suspected of Nihlus' murder should be the logical next step if the Council does not believe Saren to be responsible. If it was an accident, they wouldn't hide it by bringing another Spectre in the story. And if Shepard lies about Saren, the only rational explanation for the Council should be that they are the guilty party.
There is no logical grey area here.
You know, I feel like that's something the first game doesn't really put a lot of emphasis on. Shepard is already N7 when the story starts. Literally one of the most experienced soldiers in the Alliance but you don't really get the feeling that Shepard is particularly more experienced than Ashley or Kaiden aside from being their commanding officer.
Specters are attempts to do Grey Wardens in Space.
Which are to give unreasonable amounts of power and authority to P Cs so they can do PC things.
And even before 9/11 we have James Bond types.
Now it's James Bond and Captain Kirk.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.It's a Power Fantasy. To be fair, at least the games make it clear (and sympathetic) that there are in-Universe worries about the Spectres and you are free to share those views (especially with examples like Saren and that Asari lady).
That's clearly the real reason why, after all if they didn't have that excuse, you'd just be some weirdo who walks into people's homes and takes all there stuff.
Does he? He's heavily reliant on the Geth, who are only in it for the Reapers. Benezia is only on his side because she's been brainwashed by the reapers and his Krogan shock troops seem to only be possible with Reaper tech/resources? He's definitely got some money/power/allies, but he turns his allies into slaves and steals their resources/allies by using Reaper mind control, without that I dunno that he's got warlord levels of power (I mean, on any serious level, it certainly seems like any five guys with a ship can go and call themselves warlords outside Council space).
"And them being suspected of Nihlus' murder should be the logical next step if the Council does not believe Saren to be responsible." That is not the next logical step. The next logical step is to assume the geth did it. Alternatively, they may accept the possibility of there being another turian there, they just don't see any reason to believe one of their best Spectres murdered a guy he was known to be friends with.
The Council doesn't think Shepard is lying, they think Shepard is simply incorrect, and that Shepard is drawing conclusions without sufficient evidence. Probably because Shepard was drawing conclusions based on insufficient evidence.
Saren is a major investor in Binary Helix, and even before the events of the game, there was at least one occasion where he secretly hired a bunch of mercs (even if he killed them all after). So, yes, he probably does have the resources to become a warlord, if he so chose.

There was no evidence but there was the word of another Spectre. That should have been enough for the Council to have at least call Saren back for an explanation instead of the blatantly racist explanation they let the blatantly racist Spectre get away with. Something of a middle ground.
That's because they're a fleet, not a planet, and as such have to follow rules other races aren't concerned by. Koris is 100% the equivalent of a civilian leader of any other race. Just like Xen is the equivalent of a (too) high-ranking scientist, but has a military title because Quarian.