129 réponses à ce sujet

[kirvingtwo]

@ the OP - You lost me with "He".

Modifié par kirvingtwo, 13 décembre 2011 - 12:45 .

[knightnblu]

iakus wrote - "It will definitely take tactics to beat the Reapers. But not the tactics anyone right now is used to. Atm the Reapers are the Empire and the Alliance are more akin to the Ewoks than the Rebel Alliance. I wouldn't count on winning just because humanity is a bunch of plucky teddy bears"
 
So you are saying that we really need...Darth Shepard? 

[lucidfox]

knightnblu wrote...
Shepard should be a warrior. He should be

knightnblu wrote...

Man's greatest gift

Gendered language alert!

[What a Succulent Ass]

Sounds like a bunch of pseudo-intellectual rambling to me.

[saracen16]

iakus wrote...

knightnblu wrote...

There has been a lot of discussion about how Shepard should handle the situation in ME3. So I decided to weigh in on the issue with this: Shepard should be a warrior. He should be so shot in the ass with confidence that he inspires those around him to join the fight. He should attack, attack, attack. He should find any and every weakness and begin to tear and if he can't find any weaknesses he should start making them at every opportunity. He should toss out the rules of war because what he will be called to do will not be civilized, but barbaric and vicious in the extreme.
 
He should be death's special emissary to the galaxy and his mission is to send all of the Reapers to death's embrace because their end is long overdue. His mission is not to preserve the citizenry because that time has now past. It is time to end the threat once and for all by whatever means necessary and God help anyone who gets in his way be they friend, lover, or foe.
 
Man's greatest gift is the ability to destroy and to conquer. We have honed those aspects of humanity for thousands of years freely spilling the blood of our fellows. It's high time we employ those skills to their maximum effect and allow the resulting rivers of blood to run under our feet and if it is to be our end, let the Reapers quake when they recall their victory over us because of the terrible cost of that victory. Let us show them the great error of their ways illustrated in their dearest blood.
 
That should be Shepard's attitude and mindset in ME3.

Call me overly paragon, but I think Shepard's goal and mindset should be about preservation.  Saving whoever he can.  Doing that will mean stopping the Reapers, of course, and he should pull out all the stops to accomplish that.  

Basically Shepard needs something to fight for as well as to fight against.  A cause, a group, a person.  More than simple survival.  Shep needs something to cling to when things get grim.  And things will get grim.  It's not enough to simply kill.  He also needs to save.  With too bloodthirsty a mentality, Shepard may prove as destructive to the galaxy as the Reapers.

http://www.youtube.c...ch?v=4hOArZSg3cI


As Lorien in Babylon 5 put it "It's easy to find something worth dying for.  Do you have anything worth living for?"

It's kind of interesting to see how video games progressed over the past few decades: from simple, pixelated, almost mindless flashes of black and white on a screen (Pong, Snake, etc.) to action-adventures that carry deeper philosophical meaning within their stories (Deus Ex, Mass Effect, etc.). I agree pretty much with most of what you guys are saying, but the way I look at it is that the Reapers are an objective threat that needs to be eliminated, and whatever the method is (whether by sacrificing or seeking the help of other races) doesn't matter so as long as that evil is eradicated. Even then there is a sense of moral ambiguity in whatever your actions may be.

As a Paragon myself, I look at the Reapers as an ultimate evil, one that can not be reasoned with or changed, and one that, through their manipulation of galactic events (such as the Rachni Wars), have become a force that represents cunning, belligerence, and selfishness. In spite of their so-called "godhood", they are in themselves representatives of destructive organic or human impulses. The game will be about how one man, Shepard, will attempt to (successfully) halt let alone destroy altogether the Reaper advance. It shows that even one man can make a difference in his world let alone the galaxy, and we as human beings are able to do the same for the sake of our future and the future of this planet, the basic malicious instincts of Man notwithstanding.

In short, I think there are many ways we can interpret ME3's storyline. It may have different meanings to different people, but in the end, it's an experience that hopefully we will all enjoy regardless.

Modifié par saracen16, 13 décembre 2011 - 03:57 .

[marstor05]

It's all in 'HIS' jeans........those 501's shrunk to fit a maggot

[jackyboy666]

knightnblu wrote...

iakus wrote - "It will definitely take tactics to beat the Reapers. But not the tactics anyone right now is used to. Atm the Reapers are the Empire and the Alliance are more akin to the Ewoks than the Rebel Alliance. I wouldn't count on winning just because humanity is a bunch of plucky teddy bears"
 
So you are saying that we really need...Darth Shepard? 

Darth Shepard was my last ME2 character! Adept on renegade.

SSNNOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

[Yakko77]

My Sheps are Admiral Halsey and General Patton rolled into one ball galactic **** kickery!!!

Modifié par Yakko77, 13 décembre 2011 - 06:18 .

[PPF65]

Shepard's mindset should be whatever the player wants it to be...

[Iakus]

knightnblu wrote...

iakus wrote - "It will definitely take tactics to beat the Reapers. But not the tactics anyone right now is used to. Atm the Reapers are the Empire and the Alliance are more akin to the Ewoks than the Rebel Alliance. I wouldn't count on winning just because humanity is a bunch of plucky teddy bears"
 
So you are saying that we really need...Darth Shepard? 

Well, the Alliance probably wouldn't turn down a Death Star or two at this point...


But barring that, Shepard needs to keep the galaxy alive long enough to learn about his enemies.  Courage, daring and a warrior's heart will take you far, but only to a point.  

[knightnblu]

iakus -
 
Agreed. But I think that most don't realize the true circumstances facing us in ME3. Essentially, all of the galactic races who are space faring will find themselves between the devil and the deep blue sea. There is no retreat, there is no surrender, there is only death if we fail. If we try to run we will be pursued until we are caught and destroyed. There is no escape.
 
The key factor here is time. The Reapers have it by the boat load. We don't. As time progresses the Reapers advance and indoctrination erodes the will of the races to resist and Reaper sleeper agents will uncover hidden pockets of victims and reveal crucial defense strategies to their machine masters. If we play a hit and run guerilla war with the Reapers we will be playing directly into their strengths and indirectly undermining our defenses as we do it.
 
We have maybe two to three weeks before our window of attack closes and we are left out in the cold because it will be too late to strike. Part of slowing the Reapers down has already been accomplished by Shepard because he has instilled them with a degree of caution. Now we have to keep them off balance until we can marshal a force capable of inflicting some hurt on them because as soon as we boot up the game, the clock will be ticking down to our demise.
 
Take time to study the Reapers and to learn their weaknesses, take time to develop new tactics and strategies, take time to retro-fit warships, take time to train the crews to utilize those retro-fits, and take time to defend strategic and tactical points, but there will rapidly come a time when it will be far too late to do anything more. We will have run out of time.
 
What we desperately need is a vicious and tenacious offense. We need to find weak spots and begin to eat into them. We need to hammer the Reapers every opportunity we get because the Reapers will be doing exactly the same thing to us and they will be doing it to prevent us from gaining any more time. They are well aware of their advantages and will be loathe to relinquish them without one hell of a fight.
 
I'm just saying.

[JBONE27]

Mr. MannlyMan wrote...

OP was trying to be poetic. He succeeded, in a dorky kind of way.

IMO Shepard's mindset should still be augmentable by the player. If I want someone who's still hesitant to make morally challenging decisions in the face of huge civilian sacrifices....

110 percent this!  If you want to make Gangas Kahn Shepard, that's your decision.  Me, I'm going with a cross between T. E. Laurance and Teddy Roosevelt... the two biggest badasses of the 20th century.  

Here's how I see my Shepard, first she'll get all of the other races to band togeather and do gurilla warfare stuff, then when they're positioned to 3D flank the reapers, she'll lead a head-on charge.  Liara gripping her leg like in the Star Wars poster... except Liara is tossing around a reaper like a ball.

But that's just my version.

[Iakus]

knightnblu wrote...
 
What we desperately need is a vicious and tenacious offense. We need to find weak spots and begin to eat into them. We need to hammer the Reapers every opportunity we get because the Reapers will be doing exactly the same thing to us and they will be doing it to prevent us from gaining any more time. They are well aware of their advantages and will be loathe to relinquish them without one hell of a fight.
 
I'm just saying.

Those opportunities to hammer the Reapers will be few and far between before we can find a weakness.  Essentially it will be "catch a Reaper out on it's own, jump it with multiple fleets and hope the victory isn't too pyrrhic"

Shepard and the galaxy are operating on a limited time frame, true.  That will likely be part of the tension in the game.  But they also have a limited amount of strength.  Only the Reapers profit if that strength gets spent too early.  Then, once a weakness is found, there are no resources left to hit them with when we can face them directly.

[knightnblu]

iakus - What about the effects of Reaper indoctrination, the advancement of the Reapers throughout the settled space faring systems, and those still stuck on Earth getting hammered/indoctrinated/taken? How long do you think that they have? Couple of months? Six weeks?
 
That's where we differ. I see the need to counterattack as being imminent. We just don't have the time for a lot of planning, consideration, whatever. The time for all of that has long since past. The gun is against our head and the trigger is being squeezed. While it is true that we need to learn our foe's weaknesses, we really need to find that out ASAP and using combat to probe their weaknesses will be one of the best methods, if bloody. But it is the only way that we can learn what we need to know "right now." Some of that data can come form forces that have already engaged and took a beating. New strategies and tactics can be formed off of that data, but you still need combat to prove them effective.
 
Now is the time for action and the sooner we get started the more people we can save. The Reapers are famous for using surprise and stealth to maximize their advantages. When Sovereign showed up at the Citadel the Turian fleet was taken by surprise as was the Alliance fleet when they hit Earth. Surprise can entail a good deal of tactical advantage.
 
But that tactical advantage is now gone. No longer can the Reapers use the element of surprise to take down the races. Therefore, they must transition to traditional strategies and tactics. They have to take space one star system at a time. That puts them more in line with us. They are strong, they are more advanced, and they have the home court advantage because this isn't their first time to the dance and they have reams of intelligence on us. But that doesn't mean that we cannot win.
 
The galaxy has known that this was coming for more than two years and did nothing. They are going to pay dearly for that mistake. If we win we will save trillions of lives, but we will lose billions along the way. The longer we delay the higher the body count. If ever the galaxy needed to unite in a shared purpose, it is now. We either stand together or we fall alone.
 
The sooner we can bloody the Reapers the more advantage we gain and the resulting morale boost to the galaxy would go a long ways as well.

[Ieldra]

You will not defeat the Reapers by determination, resources and tactics alone. Against an enemy like that, knowledge is the key to success. Shepard should, of course, do what needs to be done, but in order to do that, they must *know* what needs to be done. Against an enemy like the Reapers, that is not obvious.

Shepard's mindset should be to uncover all knowledge about the Reapers from the past and the present, only once a weakness is found that can be exploited will there be any chance of winning.

[knightnblu]

Ieldra2 wrote...

You will not defeat the Reapers by determination, resources and tactics alone. Against an enemy like that, knowledge is the key to success. Shepard should, of course, do what needs to be done, but in order to do that, they must *know* what needs to be done. Against an enemy like the Reapers, that is not obvious.

Shepard's mindset should be to uncover all knowledge about the Reapers from the past and the present, only once a weakness is found that can be exploited will there be any chance of winning.

And how long will that take do you reckon? A few months? Eight weeks? Just ball park it for me and give me a time frame. Because as far as I am aware, the Shadow Broker has nothing, the galaxy has been scrubbed after each reap leaving no data behind, and none of the Intel agencies have any solid data on the Reapers either because if they had assets close to them they got indoctrinated (remember the Arrival DLC) and many governments believed they were myths including the Alliance and the Council. Even T'soni had no data on the Reapers and she studied their most recent victim for 50 years indicating that they did a good job of removing their presence. They even hid the true nature of the Citadel from the Council races that had been living on the thing for more than a thousand years. How much info is out there do you think?
 
Where are we supposed to glean this information from? Who has the 411 on the Reapers? What happens if several Reapers in close proximity potentiate each others indoctrination signal resulting in far faster conversion of the civilian population? How long do we take to figure that out before we act? How many Reaper sleepers will infiltrate pockets of resistance while we wait and send intel back to the Reapers on us do you think? Its one thing to advise caution in unknown circumstances, but with the Reapers I believe that such advice will get us all killed. We need to act and we need to act now.
 
Shepard has to organize a resistance and that is going to take some time. I suggest that is all the time that we have to research, gather data, or do whatever it is people believe we have to do. Because if we don't strike then, we all die and none of it will matter any more. I say we have two, maybe three weeks tops before it is all over with and resistance will be futile and when we attack, we had better win. That engagement is going to be swift, brutal and final for either us or them with no second place winner.

[Iakus]

knightnblu wrote...

iakus - What about the effects of Reaper indoctrination, the advancement of the Reapers throughout the settled space faring systems, and those still stuck on Earth getting hammered/indoctrinated/taken? How long do you think that they have? Couple of months? Six weeks?

Unknown.  The galaxy will get hammered, no question.  Though it may not be as grim as that.  Vigil said it took decades/centuries to destroy the Protheans, and that was with their ambush wit hthe Citadel going off withuot a hitch.
 

That's where we differ. I see the need to counterattack as being imminent. We just don't have the time for a lot of planning, consideration, whatever. The time for all of that has long since past. The gun is against our head and the trigger is being squeezed. While it is true that we need to learn our foe's weaknesses, we really need to find that out ASAP and using combat to probe their weaknesses will be one of the best methods, if bloody. But it is the only way that we can learn what we need to know "right now." Some of that data can come form forces that have already engaged and took a beating. New strategies and tactics can be formed off of that data, but you still need combat to prove them effective.

I don't disagree that sooner's better than later in finding a weakness in the Reapers.  But I think the focus should be less on going on the offensive now, and more into slowing the Reapers and avoiding direct confrontations when possible.  With any luck, studying Sovereign's remains and the data from the Collector base will make a "meat grinder" method of finding weaknesses unnecessary.  Or at least less necessary.

Every ship that gets trashed on a "facat finding" mission is one less you can use to take the fight to them with once a weakness is found.  It does no one any good to find a weapon only to find you're no longer strong enough to use it.
 

Now is the time for action and the sooner we get started the more people we can save. The Reapers are famous for using surprise and stealth to maximize their advantages. When Sovereign showed up at the Citadel the Turian fleet was taken by surprise as was the Alliance fleet when they hit Earth. Surprise can entail a good deal of tactical advantage.
 
But that tactical advantage is now gone. No longer can the Reapers use the element of surprise to take down the races. Therefore, they must transition to traditional strategies and tactics. They have to take space one star system at a time. That puts them more in line with us. They are strong, they are more advanced, and they have the home court advantage because this isn't their first time to the dance and they have reams of intelligence on us. But that doesn't mean that we cannot win.

Suprise was only one weapon they had.  Another was their mastery of technology the Council only reverse-engineers and uses without fully understanding.  Still another is sheer eon-spanning experience.  A third is the fact that they're two kilometer long sentient dreadnoughts withweapons, kinetic barriers and armor to dwarf the mightiest Citadel ships.
 

The galaxy has known that this was coming for more than two years and did nothing. They are going to pay dearly for that mistake. If we win we will save trillions of lives, but we will lose billions along the way. The longer we delay the higher the body count. If ever the galaxy needed to unite in a shared purpose, it is now. We either stand together or we fall alone.
 
The sooner we can bloody the Reapers the more advantage we gain and the resulting morale boost to the galaxy would go a long ways as well.

Agreed the galaxy is going to pay for that foolishness.  But the fact that it should have been done before does not mean it's less necessary now.  On the contrary, it's more necessary, for the catch-up that needs to be done now.   Because if the galaxy faces the Reapers unprepared, we lose anyway.  Only faster.

[FoxShadowblade]

lucidfox wrote...

knightnblu wrote...
Shepard should be a warrior. He should be

knightnblu wrote...

Man's greatest gift

Gendered language alert!

....So? Shepard is generally refered to as a man. I can say with confidence that most people who have played the games thing of Commander Shepard as a man.

It always bothers me when people try to correct that.

/soapbox

[knightnblu]

iakus -


While Vigil most certainly did say that the extinction of the space faring species occurred over centuries, he did not say that the battles continued during that period. Vigil said that the Protheans experienced a surprise invasion that captured the Citadel, destroyed the fleet guarding it, and that the Reapers acquired the galactic records and census data. To me, this means that the Prothean offensive capability was destroyed early on and that no other species offered any effective resistance.
 
The loss of the element of surprise shifted the initiative to the galactic races. The Reapers needed to re-acquire it and establish military dominance and what better way to do that than to take Earth? They steamrolled over all of the Alliance's defenses and according to leaked information (possibly changed by now) the Alliance was only aware of a loss of communications and while they were wondering why, the Reapers appeared out of nowhere and began their disassembly of Earth.
 
The Alliance was unprepared, was not aware of the Reaper advance, and was shocked by the totality of devastation. The Reapers had regained the initiative. Their objective, of course, is to maintain it. I believe that it is critical to achieve a victory as early as possible for several reasons: 1. To restore morale across the galaxy in order to sustain the fight. 2. To prove to the Reapers that we are still dangerous forcing them to consider before they commit. 3. To prove battle strategies and tactics in combat with our enemy.
 
Surprise is a two way street. I think that the Reapers will not expect an early counter-attack because they will believe that they have us scared and that we are licking our wounds while we consider our options. We need to disabuse them of those illusions and the sooner we hit them the better. I am not saying that we commit to an all out offensive initially, but we need a win and we need it badly.
 
I don't know how much the people of Earth will get to hear about our war with the Reapers, but if we can win one battle soon after the Reapers seize Earth, we will give those left behind hope. Hope that they are not forgotten, hope that we can win, and hope that they will still have a future. We owe them at least that much.

Well, at least if we weren't discussing a hypothetical.

[Destroy Raiden_]

knightnblu wrote...

iakus -


While Vigil most certainly did say that the extinction of the space faring species occurred over centuries, he did not say that the battles continued during that period. Vigil said that the Protheans experienced a surprise invasion that captured the Citadel, destroyed the fleet guarding it, and that the Reapers acquired the galactic records and census data. To me, this means that the Prothean offensive capability was destroyed early on and that no other species offered any effective resistance.

 
The loss of the element of surprise shifted the initiative to the galactic races. The Reapers needed to re-acquire it and establish military dominance and what better way to do that than to take Earth? They steamrolled over all of the Alliance's defenses and according to leaked information (possibly changed by now) the Alliance was only aware of a loss of communications and while they were wondering why, the Reapers appeared out of nowhere and began their disassembly of Earth.

 
The Alliance was unprepared, was not aware of the Reaper advance, and was shocked by the totality of devastation. The Reapers had regained the initiative. Their objective, of course, is to maintain it. I believe that it is critical to achieve a victory as early as possible for several reasons: 1. To restore morale across the galaxy in order to sustain the fight. 2. To prove to the Reapers that we are still dangerous forcing them to consider before they commit. 3. To prove battle strategies and tactics in combat with our enemy.

 Surprise is a two way street. I think that the Reapers will not expect an early counter-attack because they will believe that they have us scared and that we are licking our wounds while we consider our options. We need to disabuse them of those illusions and the sooner we hit them the better. I am not saying that we commit to an all out offensive initially, but we need a win and we need it badly.
 
I don't know how much the people of Earth will get to hear about our war with the Reapers, but if we can win one battle soon after the Reapers seize Earth, we will give those left behind hope. Hope that they are not forgotten, hope that we can win, and hope that they will still have a future. We owe them at least that much.

Well, at least if we weren't discussing a hypothetical.

The way Vigil laid out how they were attacked leads me to believe the SB will be attacked during 3 as well. She should be attacked just as Earth is she holds tons of info in one place unlike them having to go through all the records on all the worlds. She may have the means to look all that up with little effort if bugs were placed in every major world's census banks.

I also can't help but think the SB was made as the back up and the reason no one knows who they are or where they are was too a back up so the Citadel wouldn't re-happen when the reapers came.


Earth's take over to me is revenge motivated its like hating a specific country and your first target before trying to take over the world is to take out the country you've been harping on. Earth is hated by the reapers so they take them first, make them into an example, and then demand the other worlds give up or die. We also have yet to understand what the human genetic destiny is are the reapers looking at them as guinea pigs useful to combine with their experiments to make them better or are they looking at humans because we can breed with them to get some odd hybrids? Or both. Are the reapers like the VI people wanting to have bodies instead of exist or what? Either way they've got two motives for taking Earth the destiny thing and they hate them that'll be interesting for Anderson to have to deal with since he'll be stuck in it all.


I don't think all of the Alliance was destroyed, remember we've got a lot protecting the Citadel and other worlds if you held your troops back the Turians and others dont' have the fleets to do that type of work right now. So when Earth gets hit we've still got alot of Alliance patrolling other areas. I really don't see why they would order them all to come to Earth for she's trial thats a little extreme.


If they shut down the relay we'll definitely being trying to figure out what to do. I suppose thats when shep and co flee to Mars to try and wait it out while they come up with a way to get to the other solar systems that don't involve a 1,000 year ship ride. I assume they'll figure out how to get the relay back on and will upload their IFF as an acceptable friendly code and we'll have very little problems from there though I think the reapers should post several units on both ends of the relays so going in you've got a check point and coming out you've got one but in our case it would be going we've got fight and coming out we've got one too. BW better not just leave them unguarded they're very important highways.


Somehow I think Anderson's group won't stay in the dark somehow they'll find the only comm buoy that wasn't destroyed and they'll hear about what shep is doing over the game, happens all the time.

Modifié par Destroy Raiden , 16 décembre 2011 - 04:17 .

[DRSH]

knightnblu wrote...

There has been a lot of discussion about how Shepard should handle the situation in ME3. So I decided to weigh in on the issue with this: Shepard should be a warrior. He should be so shot in the ass with confidence that he inspires those around him to join the fight. He should attack, attack, attack. He should find any and every weakness and begin to tear and if he can't find any weaknesses he should start making them at every opportunity. He should toss out the rules of war because what he will be called to do will not be civilized, but barbaric and vicious in the extreme.
 
He should be death's special emissary to the galaxy and his mission is to send all of the Reapers to death's embrace because their end is long overdue. His mission is not to preserve the citizenry because that time has now past. It is time to end the threat once and for all by whatever means necessary and God help anyone who gets in his way be they friend, lover, or foe.
 
Man's greatest gift is the ability to destroy and to conquer. We have honed those aspects of humanity for thousands of years freely spilling the blood of our fellows. It's high time we employ those skills to their maximum effect and allow the resulting rivers of blood to run under our feet and if it is to be our end, let the Reapers quake when they recall their victory over us because of the terrible cost of that victory. Let us show them the great error of their ways illustrated in their dearest blood.
 
That should be Shepard's attitude and mindset in ME3.

WE SHALL RIDE THE THRESHER MAWS TO VICTORY AND RECLAIM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS! - Sebi "The Barbarian" Shepard. In other words: I like the way you think

[Iakus]

knightnblu wrote...

iakus -


While Vigil most certainly did say that the extinction of the space faring species occurred over centuries, he did not say that the battles continued during that period. Vigil said that the Protheans experienced a surprise invasion that captured the Citadel, destroyed the fleet guarding it, and that the Reapers acquired the galactic records and census data. To me, this means that the Prothean offensive capability was destroyed early on and that no other species offered any effective resistance.
 
The loss of the element of surprise shifted the initiative to the galactic races. The Reapers needed to re-acquire it and establish military dominance and what better way to do that than to take Earth? They steamrolled over all of the Alliance's defenses and according to leaked information (possibly changed by now) the Alliance was only aware of a loss of communications and while they were wondering why, the Reapers appeared out of nowhere and began their disassembly of Earth.
 
The Alliance was unprepared, was not aware of the Reaper advance, and was shocked by the totality of devastation. The Reapers had regained the initiative. Their objective, of course, is to maintain it. I believe that it is critical to achieve a victory as early as possible for several reasons: 1. To restore morale across the galaxy in order to sustain the fight. 2. To prove to the Reapers that we are still dangerous forcing them to consider before they commit. 3. To prove battle strategies and tactics in combat with our enemy.
 
Surprise is a two way street. I think that the Reapers will not expect an early counter-attack because they will believe that they have us scared and that we are licking our wounds while we consider our options. We need to disabuse them of those illusions and the sooner we hit them the better. I am not saying that we commit to an all out offensive initially, but we need a win and we need it badly.
 
I don't know how much the people of Earth will get to hear about our war with the Reapers, but if we can win one battle soon after the Reapers seize Earth, we will give those left behind hope. Hope that they are not forgotten, hope that we can win, and hope that they will still have a future. We owe them at least that much.

Well, at least if we weren't discussing a hypothetical.

I believe what Vigil said was with control of the Citadel, the Reapers seized total control of the relay network, isolating systems and picking them off individually while the Protheans could no longer effectively coordinate.  Meanwhile, the Reapers as a whole could step on each system like the Wrath of Cthulhu.  Suprise decapitated their government, but it was the loss of the Citadel that really killed the Protheans.

The situation now is a bit different.  The Reapers still took the Council by suprise ('cause they didn't listen to Shepard) but don't seem to have control of the Relay network.  There's still functional governments and coherant military through the galaxy  Resistance is still organized with systems capable of supporting each other.  If anything, this sycle will likely take longer, because they have to account for inter-system cooperation.

I believe the Reapers will expect counterattacks.  At least from humanity.  Shepard has proven that they do not go down easily. "You strive against inevitablility.  Dust struggling against cosmic winds"  Heck the Reapers seem to think humans are worthy of "ascension" to Reaperhood.  I don't know what they think of the other races, but they're done underestimating humans.  

So when humanity does strike back, it needs to be on humanity's terms, with the deck stacked as much in their favor as possible.  The Reapers know humans will punch back, so we ned to be cerrtain that punch will actually hurt.  In the meantime, they need to slow the Reapers as much as possible, denying them the tools they use in their cullings:  husks, indoctrinated agents, and human smoothie.  

[knightnblu]

Then I only have a couple of questions for you. First, how long do we wait and what are the likely consequences of waiting? Second, do you believe that it is possible to wait too long?

[DRACO1130]

knightnblu wrote...

There has been a lot of discussion about how Shepard should handle the situation in ME3. So I decided to weigh in on the issue with this: Shepard should be a warrior. He should be so shot in the ass with confidence that he inspires those around him to join the fight. He should attack, attack, attack. He should find any and every weakness and begin to tear and if he can't find any weaknesses he should start making them at every opportunity. He should toss out the rules of war because what he will be called to do will not be civilized, but barbaric and vicious in the extreme.
 
He should be death's special emissary to the galaxy and his mission is to send all of the Reapers to death's embrace because their end is long overdue. His mission is not to preserve the citizenry because that time has now past. It is time to end the threat once and for all by whatever means necessary and God help anyone who gets in his way be they friend, lover, or foe.
 
Man's greatest gift is the ability to destroy and to conquer. We have honed those aspects of humanity for thousands of years freely spilling the blood of our fellows. It's high time we employ those skills to their maximum effect and allow the resulting rivers of blood to run under our feet and if it is to be our end, let the Reapers quake when they recall their victory over us because of the terrible cost of that victory. Let us show them the great error of their ways illustrated in their dearest blood.
 
That should be Shepard's attitude and mindset in ME3.

*VERY MUCH TONGUE IN CHEEK*

but what if you play Shep as a woman ?

[knightnblu]

DRACO1130 wrote...

knightnblu wrote...

There has been a lot of discussion about how Shepard should handle the situation in ME3. So I decided to weigh in on the issue with this: Shepard should be a warrior. He should be so shot in the ass with confidence that he inspires those around him to join the fight. He should attack, attack, attack. He should find any and every weakness and begin to tear and if he can't find any weaknesses he should start making them at every opportunity. He should toss out the rules of war because what he will be called to do will not be civilized, but barbaric and vicious in the extreme.
 
He should be death's special emissary to the galaxy and his mission is to send all of the Reapers to death's embrace because their end is long overdue. His mission is not to preserve the citizenry because that time has now past. It is time to end the threat once and for all by whatever means necessary and God help anyone who gets in his way be they friend, lover, or foe.
 
Man's greatest gift is the ability to destroy and to conquer. We have honed those aspects of humanity for thousands of years freely spilling the blood of our fellows. It's high time we employ those skills to their maximum effect and allow the resulting rivers of blood to run under our feet and if it is to be our end, let the Reapers quake when they recall their victory over us because of the terrible cost of that victory. Let us show them the great error of their ways illustrated in their dearest blood.
 
That should be Shepard's attitude and mindset in ME3.

*VERY MUCH TONGUE IN CHEEK*

but what if you play Shep as a woman ?

If you mean to point out the use of "him" or "her" to describe Shepard, English dictates that when the gender is uncertain or unknown, the male is used. I will not bastardize the English language in an effort to make the PC police comfortable. It is nothing more than the King's English and to all of those who are offended by it, get over it.
 
I realize that your post was "tongue in cheek," but others have posted regarding the proper use of the English language as well and my comment is not intended as a response to your post, but as a response to the PC crowd in general.
 
Regarding your post directly, regardless of my proper use of English, how do my words preclude the same mindset in a female Shepard? They do not. She can be as much a warrior as any man, if she so chooses. However, it has been my experience that most women and many men do not wish to see such a female. While they praise a woman's strength and tenacity as a warrior, they undercut her by treating her like a sixteen year old who is off to her first Cotillion. One cannot be a blood thirsty b!tch on the one hand and a proper lady on the other because the two roles are mutually exclusive because each relies on very specific character traits.
 
If one uses Ashley Williams as an example, she is tough, resourceful, and deadly. She is not the kind of woman that you would expect to find in high society sipping champagne because she is a killer at heart and therefore she acts like it. That's what makes her good at her job. Regardless of gender, she could well be the "barbarian" in the context that I was writing about. History is full of such women. The Amazons for one who were likely members of a tribe that employed both their men and women in combat in the Anatolian region in the days of Mycenae. Further, there were women who were samurai and reveled in bloodshed as much as their male companions.
 
The mindset of the warrior is very specific. The warrior lives for battle and revels in the flow of blood. Those who have squirmed at my words would be very uncomfortable on a military base where elite troops train. Heroic sagas such as Beowulf or epic poems like The Iliad place a spotlight on the warrior and his trade and such tales find a resonance in the public's heart. It calls to the uncivilized blood that pumps through the heart of every human being and reminds us of the veneer of civilization that only exists so long as we keep our hunter's predatory instincts in check.
 
Whether you are male or female is unimportant, because we all share the same genetic encoding and history and are therefore equals in the warrior's heart, if not in strength. However, nature has provided women with other equally effective methods of conquest in compensation if they choose to use them.