Mass Effect 3 - Legendary Edition

Liara invite to Normandy

-This was clearly written with a Liara romance in mind. Shepard pours drinks, Liara’s wearing a fancy dress, at the end Shepard sits on the bed and says “Come back soon"…

-If you aren’t romancing Liara, no one drinks the wine. Does Shepard just chug it back after Liara leaves?

-If you go renegade, Shepard acknowledges that Horizon was a set up even as they (weakly) attempt to justify TIM’s actions.

Shepard is not having a good time in ME2.

Samara

-Samara’s been hunting Morinth for 400 years. Brutal for both of them.

-Samara says there are three ardat-yakshi alive that she is aware of.

Even in ME2, this isn’t true. You get a Codex entry immediately after this that says around 1% of asari are on the spectrum.

She might have meant ardat-yakshi with the condition severe enough to be banished to monasteries, but that seems unlikely. Surely in one of the calls to her daughters they would have mentioned some of the others there?

Basically, either Samara outright lied or her writer was working from a different script than everyone else.

-Shepard says asari don’t mention ardat-yakshi in literature or art. Samara says this is out of a desire to hide their existence.

I suspect that’s true on the government level. There’s probably some censorship going on. On an individual level, there’s no way every asari creator has collectively decided to never mention ardat-yakshi. If nothing else, they’re way to useful a source of drama to not utilize.

-Considering that ardat-yakshi are sterile, how have they stayed in the genetic pool?

I suppose it could be like sickle-cell disease. Shitty if you have the misfortune to have the active form, but there’s an evolutionary advantage of some kind as well – like how if you’re a carrier of sickle-cell disease, you’re less likely to get malaria.

-Samara says Morinth fleeing proves that she wants to keep killing.

While I’m skeptical of that – not wanting to spend the rest of your life in a monastery seems a good enough reason for me – this makes it sound like Morinth had already killed. Likely by accident, since the dangers of an ardat-yakshi manifest at puberty.

Her first partner, possibly. Or – as I’ve seen speculated – possibly Samara’s partner, for an extra layer of trauma for everyone.

-Samara insists that killing is addictive for ardat-yakshi. I’d like to know some more about how that works.

There are people who claim sex is addictive, but plenty of people manage celibacy just fine. Is that what we’re talking about, or something addictive like a narcotic?

And how the hell does killing make Morinth more powerful? Does she absorb the what, mental energies of those she kills?

-So Samara learned Morinth as an ardat-yakshi after she presumably killed someone. Fine.

How did she learn her other two daughters were ardat-yakshi? Is there some kind of test that can be performed?

If so, why wasn’t Morinth tested earlier?

I suppose Samara could have refused the testing – the classic “it can’t happen to my child” thought process, even if would spare everyone trouble in the long run.

If not, how were Falere and Rila confirmed ardat-yakshi? What, were they locked in a room with a condemned prisoner and forced to bond with the prisoner to see if the prisoner died or not?

Or were they banished to monastery since the condition is genetic, just to be on the safe side?

Thane

-Thane and I are not on the same page. He’s back to insisting he has no guilt for his assassinations because he’s just a tool and killed on reflex. Actions performed on reflex don’t account. Only actions you choose.

And we’re just going to ignore that Thane chose to accept the contracts to kill those people…?

Also, I take issue with not holding people accountable for what they do on reflex. If you kill people on reflex, you chose to let yourself get conditioned to do so and you chose to put yourself in a situation where it might occur.

-Also, this makes the hanar sound shady as fuck. A species where “it’s not murder if it’s a reflex” has a huge “take advantage of me” sign on their back. And the hanar did.

What else do the drell do “on reflex” that benefit the hanar?

-This is the second conversation that dances around Thane’s dead wife. It’s odd because it ends at a natural lead in for discussing her. Why draw it out so long?

Garrus

-Garrus is so cheated of dialogue. He had one conversation when he came onboard and that was it.

Getting his loyalty mission is also a short conversation. Just a couple of lines and investigate options that essentially reiterate what he said in your first and only dialogue with him.

Compared to the conversation for Samara’s loyalty mission, this is nothing. Why did the writers not want to spend time on Garrus? He’s a love interest!

Tali

-And Tali is also apparently on the “do not engage” list. I’m not getting anything more from her until her loyalty mission.

She’s also a love interest. This is ridiculous.

-Yes, I know this is because Garrus and Tali are returning characters from ME1. The writers probably didn’t know what else to do with them or wanted to make sure you fell in love with the new characters, so focused their attention on them.

I still think sidelining them was a poor choice. ME2 was intentionally written so new players could easily pick up the game; they wouldn’t know anything about Garrus or Tali. They’re also both aliens – would it have been that hard for the writers to come up with new points for them to discuss with Shepard? Have them discuss media, or political events or something.

MASS EFFECT: LEGENDARY EDITION [6/?]

 “… Hate it when your doom and gloom has a good point, Commander.”

 “You’re telling me.”