magic spells and daring swordfights

It is obviously not ideal* for a ship's CO to be running risky ground missions, but the issue demonstrated by Commander Shepard actually brings to light a larger dilemma that's been discussed within the upper echelons of the Alliance military for years. Biotic personnel are a huge asset as front-line troops, and any still able-bodied biotic moving off the front lines is considered a net loss. This poses a potential retention problem, since the usual route for advancement would remove them from where they're considered most valuable.

A trail of internal communications dating back over a decade (recently acquired by Westerlund News) documents how the Alliance instructed recruiters to push biotics to enlist (with exorbitant sign-on bonuses) rather than attend school for a commission.

It's worth noting that when faced with a similar recruitment-and-retention problem for pilots, the Alliance chose to offer commissions, while technically-skilled Specialists can be brought in as officers or warrant officers, depending on their pre-military career and level of education.

Alliance military doctrine suggests preventing a "Shepard Problem" not by restricting a biotic CO to their ship, but by making sure they'll never command a vessel in the first place. If at all possible, biotic personnel should not be given the opportunity to advance to senior command positions until they are physically unable to serve on the front lines.

Sure, Special Forces operatives are valuable in the field, but they also work better if their CO is *one of them*: they get more respect from their subordinates and they have a better handle on what their people can do when dealing with their superiors' expectations. Why shouldn't biotics get the same treatment?

(Every marine a rifleman is still a thing, and as biotics are pretty universally marines, that marine camaraderie is mostly strong enough to counter the heaviest anti-biotic mindsets.)

The brass said all the right things and nodded in public, but they kept very high requirements for biotic MOS' promotions to slow them down and keep them out there as long as possible.

(MOS = Military Occupation Specialist Code; basically your actual job assignment. There is enough variety in the requirements for some highly specialized jobs that the fact that it was that much harder to get promoted as a biotic wasn't anything most non-biotics could pick up on.)

But then Shepard fucked up the status quo, as Shepard tends to do. Shepard is recognized by the general public. Whether that's positive for the "Hero of Elysium", negative for the "Butcher of Torfan", or the galaxy rubbernecking at a tragic accident for the "Sole Survivor", if the Alliance follows its usual molasses speed biotics promotion with a biotic Shepard, people like al-Jilani and Wong will notice and will make it a story.

The Alliance does not want that to be a story.

So someone makes sure that Shepard gets promoted; creative paperwork is a skill set anyone high up enough in a bureaucracy has figured out, after all. And then someone hides Shepard in N training in the hope that they won't do anything else to attract the public's attention.

But the position of First Human Spectre isn't about how effective the candidate is at helping the Council; it's about staking humanity's claim as players on the galactic stage. It's representation in positions of authority. So from the politicos' standpoint, suggesting Shepard is a no-brainer: no one can deny they're accomplished! The military tries to resist, but they can't get enough traction with the 'chain-of-command nightmare' argument because they already presented all their counter arguments when Anderson was the proposed candidate—someone lower profile and without the biotic complication.

So Shepard has a ship, because Spectres have to have autonomous movement. And Shepard leaves the ship, and no one can blame them, because when you have that rare biotic soldier you want them where they can use biotics.

I want to see a production where Horatio just stares at us, and screams “Now cracks a noble heart!” with the subtext “You fucking fuckers. He was better than all of you, you watched him die, and you just stood there.

Then, he just silently cries over the body. For like FIVE MINUTES. And the courtiers peel away into the wings, one by one, until Horatio is alone on stage with a lot of dead bodies. It starts getting uncomfortable. You’re thinking… is the play over? Am I supposed to go? (hamlet is just about the *only* play where the final scene is cut about 50% time, so use that uncertainty, use that ambiguity.) Maybe some people do get up to go. There’s definitely muttering. And then there’s smashing sounds coming from the direction of the box office, and Horatio looks up, with an expression like something’s gone wrong. 

But then he says, “Why do the drums come hither?” Fortinbras enters though the audience, and the play continues.