DPSSOC wrote...
Interactive Civilian wrote...
What have they done to earn the loyalty of my canon Shepard? They made her a SpecTRe. The game may not do the best job of showing how big a deal it really is, but it's a Big Deal™. Being chosen to be a SpecTRe is not supposed to be a small matter to be taken lightly. It should be the highest ideal and highest honor that anyone serving in any way for the Council could aspire to.
Yes but the discussion with Nihlus seems to indicate you were chosen based on what you'd done, to me that makes is a position/reward that I've earned, for which I owe them nothing. I don't feel any particular loyalty to my employer because they hand me a paycheck or give me a promotion because I've worked to earn those things, they're my due.
We'll just have to agree to disagre, then. However, I do think that it is a slight flaw in the game that how big a deal it is to become a SpecTRe was not adequately addressed. Or, perhaps it's a feature, so that it leads to different individual game-play experiences, such as our separate interpretations of the event.
In my interpretation, being chosen to be a SpecTRe is much MUCH more than just a job promotion and new title. Yes, you were chosen based on what you'd done (they even say that in the induction speech: "
SpecTRes are not trained, but chosen; individuals forged in the fire of service and battle; those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."). But, not just anyone is chosen to be a SpecTRe. The way they frame it, it strikes me that you have to be not only truly extraordinary in your actions and abilities, but extraordinary in your dedication to the protection of the galactic community. Again, this is just how I interpret it. You've shown your stuff enough to get the attention of the Council and have them send Nihlus to take a look at you for consideration. But you don't get made into a SpecTRe because you deserve it, but because you've
earned it. It's not meant to be a reward. It's meant to be a terrible responsibility ("
SpecTRes bear a great burden"), and being chosen as a SpecTRe means the council believes enough in your strength, abilities, and dedication to trust you with such responsibility.
Again, in my interpretation. And being trusted with such responsibility has earned them my loyalty, at least moreso than any other single faction in the Galaxy.
Of course, there's also the possibility that your assignement as a SpecTRe could be the equivalent of Harkin getting to work with CSEC. But, the way I play my Shepard, she lives up to the ideals of what being a SpecTRe should be. Partly because she has something to prove (showing that Humans can handle the responsibility and stand with the rest of the Council), and partly because she believes that's the right way to be.
Relating this back to the main topic of the thread, this is not directly why I saved the Council during the Battle at the Citadel. I wasn't motivated only by blind loyalty to save 3 politicians who, aside from granting me such responsibility, had frustrated me to no end. No. In saving the Council, I was doing 3 things: I was saving the idea of the Council, embodied in the 3 individuals who currently occupied it; I was saving the Destiny Ascension and her crew; and I was removing the Geth threat so that all forces could focus on Sovereign once the wards opened.
At least, that is how I rationalize it now.
As I said earlier in the thread, my first original decision was more of an instinctual "this is the right thing to do" decision. I'd played my first play-through blind, and I'm not much of an RPG player, so I didn't honestly know beforehand what kinds of consequences either decision would bring, so I made the more emotional choice of what I thought was the right thing to do.
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Yes, the conversation in the second game wasn't very pleasant but it's such an obvious plot device that I can hardly take it seriously.
