Dan Lee

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.

We know that Sirens draw their power from the Phase

We know that Eridium is reactive with phase energy and that Sirens can interact with Eridian technology

Thus, the Eridians knew the Phase existed

The Phase exists outside of time, being inside allows you to see every timeline at once, every outcome of every decision

However, you can only *see* these outcomes, not *travel* to them (within the Phase that is)

We know that the Guardians left behind by the Eridians were assigned some sort of specific course of events to enforce at any cost

There's at least one Guardian whose entire schtick was showing the "future" to people in order to make them do what it wanted them to do

In conclusion, it's extremely probable if not near-certain, that the Eridians saw an outcome in the Phase that they liked and proceeded to enforce it on all of existence in an authoritarian manner (i.e. the Course).

It feels cliched and even more outright manipulative than ME2's.

The politicians are useless! There's no point in meetings! The only person who can save us is this one lone soldier! The authorities just get in the one way - you should just listen to this one person who is an outcast because they know what THEY don't want you to know.

Look at this child you never meet! They die! Aren't you sad?

Aliens are invading! Watch them destroy buildings and the military fail to stop them! Isn't it as terrible as every other time you've seen it?

It feels terribly generic and inspires no emotion in me beyond impatience to get the game actually started.

You could swap out the models and it could be the start of your average Alien Monster Invasion movie or game.

... yeah, that's about it.

It doesn't actually get the player up to speed about what's going on. Not if they're a new player, and not if they're a fan coming in from ME2. It doesn't set expectations for the setting or world. It introduces three important characters and kills off everyone else, but doesn't give a reason why they are important. (Anderson at least gets the familiarity and camaraderie communicated by VA work, if not dialogue.)

It presents itself as starting In Media Res, but there's not actually anything before it (and even the stuff during it doesn't matter much). It doesn't want to "alienate new players" by giving any information, but still has cryptic "I used to [know Shepard]" line with the VS.

The less said about the kid the better.

It's just... overly generic. Nothing specific to the setting at all. Swap out the names and it could be any vaguely scifi game. Destiny, Halo, Warframe.

Which is all part of my biggest criticism of ME3: It relies entirely on the player being too panicked to pay attention. Once you've played through a couple times, once you know there's no actual timers and can slow down and analyze things... It all kind of falls apart. There's not enough structure underneath the emotions to stand up to scrutiny. It's "Vibes, the game".

Writing References: Symbolism

Writing Notes: Symbolism

Basic Shapes of Symbols ⚜ Alchemical Symbols

Symbolism of Colors ⚜ Colour Vitamins ⚜ Heraldry

Symbolism of: Numbers ⚜ Food ⚜ Storms

Examples of Symbols: (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)

Holy shit, they never promoted him.

During dialogue with Ashley in ME1, she'll gradually open up about her family - including her grandfather's great (perceived) shame of being the first human to surrender to an alien, and that the Alliance has held it against the Williams for two generations.

Eventually, Ashley will casually drop that her dad never made it above Serviceman Third Class. Which, if you don't read the codex or don't get the military, hey, "three is bigger than one right?"

Enlisted class count down to "First" with promotions, not up (in both the real world and in the Alliance). Private/Serviceman First Class is the last rank before Specialist/Corporal, etc...and in the Codex, there's a table with Alliance ranks from lowest to highest. Look what the first one - the lowest in the entire service is: Serviceman 3rd Class

"But okay, he never got promoted. We get that, but why is that THAT terrible?"

He was a CAREER soldier. Decades.

Do you know what you need to do to earn your first three promotions as an enlisted member of the United States Armed Forces? Run out the clock. That's it. Promotions from E-1 to E-4 (ranks vary by branch) are largely TIME-based. There are ways you can speed up (or occasionally slow) the clock, but if you don't muster out, you WILL make E-4. And not over twenty years - closer to 2-3 years.

Even militaries that don't have formalized auto-advancement will at least usually give the folks who stick it out a token promotion or two.

...Serviceman Third Class Williams entered the Alliance at the lowest enlisted rank, never once got a single promotion, and had to raise a family on the lowest pay.

No fucking wonder he was so delighted when his daughter became an NCO (Chief)

We hear multiple times that Ashley's service record is spotless, her test scores exemplary, and numerous positive remarks left by those who served with her. But her career pre-Shepard is ploddingly slow. She's denied leadership positions right up until Eden Prime. It's taken her seven years of being one of the best Marines in the entire Alliance to make it to Gunnery Chief, the middle of the NCO ranks. She's THAT undeniable even when the Alliance still has it out THAT much for her.

What a badass. And the best is to come. By ME3 if she's alive? A full blown Lieutenant Commander (the same rank Shepard starts ME1 at) and the second ever human Spectre.