Gespenst wrote...
I've ran into something of a problem and you can probably guess what that problem is.
How do I deal with the issue of re-writing the Renegade AI. Even leaving aside whether or not it's immoral to brainwash them (because it is) it's an extremely difficult decision.
Is this all the renegades there are? If so no matter which you do you'll be committing genocide on an enormous scale. Either way you'll be wiping out an entire sentient race.
Even if it's not you'll be killing three million people.
You must be kidding, right? Think about what they've done and will continue to do. They made an active decision to sssist in trillions of murders. In the immediate future. Long term, more murder and genocide than we have numbers to describe. And unlike indoctrinated slaves or technologically enslaved Collectors, they actually made the choice of their own free will and with a clear mind. The only thing lower than the heretic geth is the reapers themselves. Batarian slavers torturing children for giggles are saints by comparison. There is no moral dilemma in the slightest.
So either option is terrible (although perhaps you could argue that blowing them all up is a legitimate act of war, are there renegade non-combatants?) So which one is better for the galaxy at large?
*Perhaps*?! No, there are no heretic non-combatants. Geth are not the same as humans, and I don't mean that in a "they're not real people like us" way, I mean that in a "their society is vastly different" way. A civilian in an organic war is an innocent bystander, someone who only happens to live in the wrong place and is no military threat. Every heretic geth has made an active decision to join a military force that makes **** Germany look sweet and cuddly by comparison, every single one. And every single one poses as much a threat as the next, regardless of whether they're currently in an armed mobile platform, because they can and will get in those mobile platforms to try and kill--well, every other race. You can't even compare them to enemy soldiers in an organic army because most of them were conscripted or drafted or whatever you want to call it. They also have no sense of self preservation like an organic. If a geth can sacrifice itself to aid its fellows... for instance by making a suicidal run into enemy fortifcations so it can transmit data about what it sees before being destroyed, it will do so without hestiation (it's in the codex). Geth don't think of "I," they think of "us." So you can really take POWs like with organics.
Convert them: The renegades bolster the ranks of the geth and fight the reapers...
Or do the renegades change the geth? That would make everything so much worse.
Kill them: Is this all the renegades there are? Or is this at least their "homeworld"? Because if so wiping them out removes the enemy geth from the equation altogether.
But might this sour the geth against us? If we just wipe out their cousins?
Well the choice isn't supposed to be clear cut for us, at least until ME3 is done. But IMO, the geth won't bear any ill will. As Legion says, the heretics are the ones who chose a path that prohibits co-existance. They were trying to brainwash the geth themselves so I don't see how they can blame you for turning it on the heretics. And you're not wiping out all that the heretics are. You're taking away their ability to make one choice, a choice that would destroy all organic races if they were allowed to make it and not killed. Also, the main geth faction is better off for having the formerly heretic geth back. "All will be stronger."
It would help if Legion could come to a consensus but they're only in favour of conversion by a majority of 2 (with 38 abstaining). That's too close to say that the rest of the geth would also decide in favour of conversion (and I imagine that the question of whether or not to wipe out an entire enemy species requires more than a simple majority).
They're not a different species any more than the ****s were a different species than us. ... You know, now that I look at it like that, maybe blowing them up would be better... =/
Also I find it interesting how much this colours the exchanges with the Quarians at the trial, I had no idea that there were Geth and Renegades so the idea of peace with them seemed impossible. If I'd known I might have pushed for
peace with the Geth instead of ... nothing (I didn't feel Shepard should be influencing their decision on that matter - because Tali clearly didn’t think Shepard’s opinion on the issue counted earlier but the politicians would be willing to use an endorsement from Shepard for their point of view if they could get it). That was a hard decision in and of it self, at first I was inclined to disagree with Avernus vas Qwib-Qwib because... well you've met him. But he made some very compelling points. He made peace sound desirable. On the other hand I didn't think that peace with the geth would even be possible at the time and it seemed like it wasn't desirable to the Quarians.
I agree. I mentioned in a thread about Tali's loyalty mission a few weeks ago, ironically many of us are probably going to have the alliances of specific Quarian admirals reversed in ME3. But I guess it should be expected when Simon Templeman voiced the friendly one.
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