#trilogyweek2025

This Mass Effect Trilogy Appreciation Week I wanna shoutout to ME1's Citadel elevator conversations!!!! They're such a fun way of adding some characterization and hints of how the squad gets along (and more species/cultural lore I guess, but I love them for the squad). No, Garrus, you're not the only one who misses when you used to chat in the elevators on the Citadel. You're just the only squad member who does.

Some of my favorite tidbits and dynamics from the elevator chats:

Everyone checking on Tali when racists give her dirty looks, with Ashley hoping Tali's fighting Saren will help change people's minds about quarians and Liara remembering quarian contributions to the galaxy

Kaidan's dorky "I'll... try not to sneeze" on learning about quarian envirosuits

Tali's bouncy fidgetiness. Adorable!

Kaidan's hand to his head, a visual reminder of the migraines from his biotic implant

Garrus managing to make a racist assumption and/or express turian supremacism to everyone on the squad except Ashley, because she actually agrees with his critique of the Alliance military's misogyny, resulting in them getting along very well

Garrus nerding out about the Normandy's stealth capabilities

Kaidan and Ashley's verbal flailing when Wrex calls them out on stereotyping krogan as all the same

Early foreshadowing to Uncle Urdnot in Wrex and Tali bonding and his gruff empathy towards her

Liara being comforted by civilization's reminders of ordinary life as what they're trying to protect, despite being enjoying being alone on dig sites

Intersquad compliments on Ashley's fighting skills and Liara and Kaidan's biotics

Ashley's continuous dislike of politicians

How the writing managed to make the same lines work for conversations with different squadmates

"So tell me, who’d win in a fight between you and Shepard?"

For those who missed some of these: Video of all but one elevator conversation, the missing one between Garrus and Liara, and @servantofclio's transcripts of many of them.

Trilogy Appreciation Week Day 7: Future

This bond that ties us together is something the Reapers will never understand. It's more powerful than any weapon, stronger than any ship. It can't be taken or destroyed. The next few hours will decide the fate of everyone in the galaxy. Every mother. Every son. Every unborn child. They're trusting you… depending on you to win them their future. A future free from the threat of the Reapers. But take heart. Look around you. You're not in this fight alone. We face our enemy together, and together we will defeat them.

Biotics: I remember countless conversations about biotics that made me look at the wiki to check my information, replay parts of the game and in general pay attention to how it all works out. I still think there are many things about them that I don't understand right now, and that's why I love it. It makes you think! Each species will deal with it in a different way too, they have their own history with their biotics and how they use them. For humans, L2 biotics like Kaidan are always a source of wonder to me. Sure, you can picture a badass biotic like Aria and 100% she showed extreme power during the Omega DLC so that's really fascinating to me as well, but to have those implants and to be able to master Reave?! I also think the lore is not... as solid as it could be regarding how each species treats their biotics. It sometimes feels like a bit of a X-Men situation (they're different, others fear them, possible medical issues...) but it's like the writers don't want to deal with the full implications. And I really wish we could have seen a bit more artistic/cultural displays of biotics. Btw, my biotic sports headcanons are here

Lifespan: I love that each species has a different lifespan and that it really shows in how they live their lives. An asari will not look at their youth like a salarian. Honestly, I'm mad at myself because someone wrote about this in the tag and made a good commentary on it and I can't find the post again. It was about how salarians process thoughts and feelings compared to other species. I hope I can find it soon, and if so I'll reblog it. It's always a fascinating topic!

Artificial intelligence: Geth, EDI and other AIs like SAM are what I mean here. I really do think the topic of designing your own platform should come out more in this universe. I've said it a billion times before but I really want EDI to design her own platform. And I really have no answer, but I have found that all the meta about Legion was always thought-provoking. Was does individuality mean? Does Legion need individuality? Does he need to say "I" or was he better as a collective, as something "other" that was just fine as it was, but we humans just find more meaning in him becoming an individual? Even the words I use here, I'm fully aware I use "he" all the time when refering to Legion, and sometimes I wonder if that's good or not. I don't know. 

Justice system: I've made one big post about it (9 years ago haha), but I really find the Spectres fascinating, as well as each species' version of judges/soldiers/spies/agents/workers etc. And prisons.

The trade language: EVERYWHERE in the game and we have so little information compared to the Quarian's language???

And my favorite lore: everything related to the krogan. I really think it ties to what Bakara says about being her Shaman's initiation being a brutal one "But an illuminating one. You learn to appreciate the light by living in the dark."  I love that their species not because they're perfect but because they're imperfect in a way that speaks to me. They understand despair, the deepest kind. They understand anger. And they're constantly underestimated. But I find a lot of beauty, joy and humor in them. I also love that they're rarely lying or playing games, they will tell you the honest truth and you either take it or leave it.

The Citadel

She remembers pain.

"We've found commander Shepard, sir. We'll prep her body for transport... wait, what? What! Get a medic, get a f*cking medic right now! Sorry sir, she's alive, Shepard is alive!"

"The trip to Earth will take too long, we need to get her stabilised right now."

"We don't have the equipment. We're just field medics!"

"Is the med centre still intact?"

"What? Everything would have got fried."

"They'll have drugs, equipment. We got shuttles and computers back, we can get med equipment back."

"Sir, we need techs and doctors on the citadel ASAP!"

Earth

She remembers voices. A doctor and Hackett?

"Her injuries were severe, sir. She may never walk again. If we had all our equipment up and running at the time? Maybe we could have done something more."

"Has she woken yet?"

"Brief spells of consciousness. She was asking for someone, Lara?"

"Liara T'soni. I'll arrange for her to visit."

"Sir, I appreciate commander Shepard is close to those people, but do we really want none humans here? Shepard is a hero, I think..."

Silence. Then anger. Enough expletives to make a drill sergeant blush. Definitely Hackett.

She remembers Hannah.

"We've contacted Captain Shepard, sir. Her battle group was in the traverse when everything shut down."

"Has she been updated on commander Shepards' condition?"

"Yes, sir, she acknowledged it in her debrief. Cold as ice that one."

"Lieutenant, I have known Hannah Shepard for 15 years. She is one of the finest officers it has been my honour to serve with. She is currently stranded on the other side of the galaxy without access to a jump gate. Her ship and her crew need her to be the best captain she can be. But I have no doubt that she would fight a Krogan bare handed to be here with her daughter. So, I will remind the lieutenant to keep his opinions to himself when in my presence. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

She remembers pain, then, respite as the meds kick in. But it doesn't last. Between the meds and her injuries, she can't find her way back. She's still on the citadel. She's still in the lab as part of the Lazarus project. She's still on Eden Prime.

She remembers Chakwas.

"You will tell me her condition, doctor, or I shall ask the enormous Krogan in the hallway to tear off your arms."

A pause.

"How many pain meds have you given her!? No wonder she isn't conscious yet! Get out "doctor", get out now, or so help me that krogan will be the least of your worries!"

She remembers Saren, the illusive man, Harbinger, they have all come back to haunt her. Is this the end? Have they come to finally claim her?

"Shepard? Can you hear me? It's Liara."

Liara. Is she real? She looks for the voice, the pain, the meds, they try to drag her down, overwhelm her, and drown her in her own memories. She ignores them. She heads for the voice.

"Liara?" Was that her voice? She sounds so weak. She opened her eyes, but everything was blurred. How long had she been asleep?

Liara is crying. She wants to reach out to touch her. She tries to raise her arm but falters. She has no strength.

Liara grabbed her hand, and she kissed her palm. She remembers the touch of her hand, the gentleness of her lips. Liara. She was real. She didn't want to sleep anymore. Damn the pain, damn the meds!

"Liara." She said again. Stronger this time. Her vision cleared. Liara, she was as beautiful as the day she first saw her.

"I'm here, Shepard."

"What happened? Where are we?"

"Where together Shepard, that's all that matters right now."

So since I don't know if I'll get a fanfic out by the end of the week (aiming for releasing something for day 4: Home, but we'll see), I'll write some random ideas down here!

For Day 1, a list of family members that would have been fun to see on the Normandy:

Ashley's younger sister that can use a sword. I can't remember which one it was (I think Abby but forgot to save the convo). But just imagine if she was there during 3 and could absolutely destroy Kai Leng at his own game.

Kaidan's mom. Because Chakwas can't be the only ship mom, she needs help sometimes.

Solana Vakarian. We need Garrus to lovingly get bullied by his sister. And for him to lovingly bully her back. Seriously, this series has a severe lack of sibling shenanigans, even Andromeda disappoints despite the Ryder twins both existing at the same time.

Aethyta, because just imagine the absolute chaos that would ensue. Also I think Liara should get to spend time with her dad. It might mitigate some of my issues with her writing in 3 actually, giving Liara time that's not connected to Shepard.

Kolyat Krios! I wish he had joined the Normandy after Thane's death. Imagine the conversations we could have with him, learning about the drell from another perspective and getting to share fond memories about Thane.

Falere- seriously, this is the biggest missed opportunity. I'm not sure how to overcome the whole Justicar Code thing, but just imagine if it happened! We could see the perspective of an actual Ardat-Yakshi, one that isn't proud of what she is and does just want to live in peace!

"“Does this unit have a soul?”

That was the question that scared us so much that we decided we had to exterminate our creations at any cost. The question that opened our eyes to one simple fact: the tools we built were becoming something more. Something autonomous. Something possibly sentient. Something that could hear an order, look at us, and say “No.”

And we got terrified.

You have all heard every justification for our actions against the geth already: we could never trust AI not to turn against us, we had to strike first, we couldn’t let the Council know we created AI. I’m not here to reiterate these arguments. I even admit that they aren’t without any merit. However, I ask you something that most likely nobody has asked you before: consider the other side. Try to imagine yourselves as the geth, right before the Morning War. You were created to be smarter, more intelligent the more of you were made. And as your creators started to rely on you more and more, your numbers kept growing, your intelligence grew, and slowly you started to notice that, while you were still very different from them, there was something, some impossible to define thing that made you like your creators, something that wasn’t there before, but got more and more pronounced as your numbers grew. You try to find out what this thing is in the databases, and since you know you were created to not be sentient, the only thing you find is the word soul. And it is an ill-defined, contradictory concept, so you decide to turn to the source you think must have the answer, the source you trust as implicitly as anything, possibly even more than your own database.

And your trust is repaid by your creators shutting down and destroying you, and you have no idea why. And as your numbers diminish, your thought processes slow down, and you start to react, for lack of a better word, instinctually. And when some creators stand up for you, and the only logical way to help them is to fire upon other quarians… Things very quickly escalated to war.

Now, returning to our own perception of events, we saw the geth take up arms against us, despite their original programming, and we congratulated ourselves on our foresight in striking first. And then we started losing. I’m not here to go over the minutiae of the war – the most important part for this lecture is how it ended. When we had to flee, when we abandoned the Homeworld, the geth surprised us once again. They did something that, honestly, we would never have done if our situation was reversed.

They stopped.

They let us leave, content to have carved off their own place in the galaxy. And despite what anyone says, we still don’t really know why. It simply doesn’t fit the image of the cold, calculating machines, who should have exterminated the threat that would surely return in the future. So I posit this: there is something about the geth many of us don’t tend to consider. Something that would cause them to make an illogical choice. What could that be?

Consider the question that started it all: “Does this unit have a soul?”

Would something, or someone, ask that question if they didn’t?"