Xilizhra wrote...
For clarity's sake... yes, my Shepard does fight for humanity. And asari. And turians, salarians, quarians, geth, volus, hanar, elcor, vorcha, batarians, krogan, rachni, AIs, raloi, yahg, those biotic insect colonies that appeared in CDN, the ghost ship virtual people, and... anyone else I may have missed. Every individual is as important as every other individual (though the concept is shaky with geth, I admit), and I care for them all.
You said that you're willing to sacrifice humanity to let the other species survive. That means that your Shepard does NOT fight for humanity. She fights for something else, instead. She will fight for humanity only until the certain conditions are met. Then, she will choose someone else first. Fighting for humanity is not the core of her beliefs. And ultimately, she has no core beliefs. "Everyone" means "no one."
Is there anything you can clearly define that your Shepard will never surrender? And no amount of logic can convince her to do so? Or is there nothing, at the core?
My Shepard knows exactly what he's fighting for. He will never surrender humanity, under any conditions. This is his core belief - something he will stand for until the death and beyond, something he will never surrender. That means his principles are more defined than your Shepard's. If humanity's gone, the battle's over for him. He has no reason to fight anymore.
It also means that everybody in the galaxy understands him, because everybody is fighting for their own kind as well - that's what the evolution intended. So they know how he will behave, and they can trust him, because they know what to expect from him. That's why they'd ally with him. They know what he wants - to save the Earth. And he will do anything for them to get their help.
Xilizhra wrote...
Unfortunately true. I can't really take any joy in killing, even Reapers. However, one way or another, there will be battle and genocide will be committed. I can't change that, and so I've chosen to fight for those under attack, who did nothing to provoke their aggressors. And who happen to share the same species as myself, plus that of my probable life partner and future children.
Ah, so it's okay for you to destroy a species to let your own kind survive. But it's not okay for humans to do the same? It's all right for you to put your own kind first. But humans can't do the same?
And if you wait until things become inevitable, well, it might be too late. Shepard didn't wait. He killed Sovereign before it could open the gates.
And if I already chose my side, what's the point in waiting until my people are pushed to the brink of survival? Why not to gain enough ground to secure our dominance? To ensure that our children and females are always safe. Why wait until more human lives are lost?
Since I already decided that I would sacrifice entire species for my kind if necessary, and I will stop at nothing to save my people...what am I waiting for? If I wait and humans die, their blood is on my hands. And that would mean I acted against my core beliefs through my inaction or hesitation, or just because I didn't have the guts to do what's necessary - in which case, I should've left the job to someone else, who has the guts for it (like TIM).
If you pick your side, what's the point of stopping halfway? Or are your principles not good enough to follow through with them to the end? Or are you simply not firm enough in your convictions?
If I decided to put humanity first, why help the species who will always be aggressive or neutral hostiles to humanity, no matter what, and who proved to be unreliable in the past? Why not ally ourselves with the species who I managed to make connections with, and who I managed to put greatly into my debt? Even if those species are greatly frowned upon or feared by the rest of the galaxy. I don't care what the majority thinks. If they help humanity, I'll stand by them. We shall prosper together, because we can benefit from each other. And humanity will help them rise to glory from the ashes, and the galaxy will be a better place with the krogan and the vorcha properly advanced and assimilated and balanced at last.
And that will happen because I put my own kind first.
And if the galaxy is such a place that the only way for my kind to survive and to prosper would be to destroy everyone else in it - then so be it.
And if the galaxy is such a place that the only way for my kind to rise to glory and to thrive would be to live in peace with every single species in it and to help them to the best of our ability - so be it.
You see, it depends completely on the other species. Not just on humanity.
The Reapers and the galaxy, both sides are completely justified by evolution. Fighting for survival and advancement of one's own kind is the only "right" side. Sacrificing your own kind to let the others survive, however, is the act of ultimate treachery. It's like the evolutional branch culminating in self-destruction. It's just wrong.
And I simply don't believe that your Shepard can honestly care for all the species she knows essentially nothing about. What if they cannibalize their youth or plotting to massacre the galaxy? What if they have a dark genetic secret that, if certain conditions are met, will unleash them upon the galaxy in a raging desire to murder through sex? What if they enjoy torturing people and subduing them into slavery with horrific inplants, and their every citizen will buy two such slaves, and they all think it's perfectly normal? You'd really choose such species over your own kind?
Frankly, my Shepard simply doesn't know enough about other species to put them first before his own kind. Maybe your Shepard had travelled the galaxy at her leisure and lived among all the other species and studied them in depth, to the point of being able to rely to them as if she were one of their own kind. But my Shepard's been kinda busy with his military training. He knows humanity best. He was brought up by humans, and grew up among humans. He is human himself. It's in his blood.
He obviously has faith in humanity. He's proud of his kind. He believes they have worth. He has all the necessary information about humanity to decide that. He knows everything - history, culture, language, the way they look and move, the way they think, what drives them, what's the very essence of them - he knows it all. He loves them. You cannot love someone you don't know. You can't truly care about someone you don't know. You can't care about something abstract as "all life everywhere". Love is in the details. So is life. It has many shapes and forms - and the Reapers are one of those.
I'd much rather ally myself with someone who fights for his own species, because I can understand and respect that, and I'll know what to expect - it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. You help our kind, I'll help yours. You'll fight for us, and so I'll fight for you. If you betray me and leave my people to die to save yourself, I will not fight for you anymore, and I might extract my revenge on your people, so you'd think twice before doing that. If your species is greatly endangered, I will know to expect you to be desperate and agitated, and will plan accordingly to save my people or help you if everybody else turned their back on you.
Now, if I enter an alliance with someone who fights "for all life everywhere," how do I know they won't betray me if they decide they'd rather defend the majority, some kind of abstract life elsewhere, and leave me to my fate? How do I know they won't get distracted by an interesting and numerous new species, or just by a bright butterfly, who is so alive? How do I protect my kind from treachery if my ally doesn't have any particular species she will never surrender? Such alliance has no glue.
Speaking of aggression, if the only way for you to gain the loyalty of either the geth or the quarians would be to destroy one of these species, would you do this?
Because if you wouldn't, then your Shepard would just be useless during the war. Someone has to make hard decisions.
And if you would, well, you're not the one to speak about aggression and judge "my kind first" view as morally inferior. Don't be a hypocrite. Are you the same as TIM? Would you destroy one of those "innocent, non-aggressive" species to give your own kind advantage in the war?
My Shepard would. For the good of the galaxy, of course.
Which also happens to have my own kind living in it - but that's insignificant details.
Oh, but I'm sure we'll never be faced with such a choice in the game. Doubtless it would be possible to forge peace between the quarians and the geth. And if it's possible - well, then, it's because the galaxy is such a place. Not because I'm, like TIM, completely on the dark side for putting my kind first.
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I don't want to save the galaxy if I have to fight Cerberus and you don't even act sad about this.
