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[animedreamer]

Basically why I think Quarian though not intentional got it right in terms of their enviro-suits. 

 I would imagine though in the games there is no real evidence, Quarian's would have to rely on things other than what we humans preceive as physical characteristics that make up beauty. As they themselves live almost their entire lives within suits, they can't distingish adnormalities or disfiguration until the idea of becoming intimate with one another is esablished, and I would assume at that point the person already means more than enough to them that any such affliction wouldn't matter as much anymore. This leds me to believe that Quarian's as a whole are more accepting of each other and less judgemental as concepts as racial diversity mean little to them. 

 Then there is the idea of pilgramage. A rite of passage that suggest that ones greatest contribution to the community is to venture out and learn what one can then return with said knowledge or resources to further improve life for the rest of the community. That's awesome, where as by comparison the closet thing we as humans do is probably send our kids off to college or something compariable in the hopes that they better themselves for the sole purpose of their own benefit, then should they do something that can benefit others hope that they profit from it primarily while helping others secondarily.

The idea of recycling everything and everyone also seems pretty nifty. Though we might not have the technical know how to do the same, I could very much see us adopt similar mottos. When I say recycling people, I mean taking those who no longer have the ability to work in one area and instead re-educsting them and putting them in a different area. 

It's been awhilfe since i read through the games journal on Quarians and their culture so maybe there are those out there that can contribute to the discussion/idea.

[Degs29]

I would find the Quarians a lot more interesting if it wasn't for their narrow-mindedness towards the Geth.  They DO have a lot of good qualities.  But, at least in the ME trilogy, they have this overwhelming obsession with returning to their home planet and eradicating an entire race that was all too willing to co-exist with them in the beginning.

Plus, I don't think a closed-off, tight-knit community is the right course of action for an interconnected galaxy.  It's also perplexing, since they do have the pilgramage as a way to learn about other cultures.  I suppose the case could be made that they have shut off most ties to the other races because the other races view them as Tinker-like. 

On the whole, the Quarians frustrate me to no end.

[animedreamer]

Degs29 wrote...

I would find the Quarians a lot more interesting if it wasn't for their narrow-mindedness towards the Geth.  They DO have a lot of good qualities.  But, at least in the ME trilogy, they have this overwhelming obsession with returning to their home planet and eradicating an entire race that was all too willing to co-exist with them in the beginning.

Plus, I don't think a closed-off, tight-knit community is the right course of action for an interconnected galaxy.  It's also perplexing, since they do have the pilgramage as a way to learn about other cultures.  I suppose the case could be made that they have shut off most ties to the other races because the other races view them as Tinker-like. 

On the whole, the Quarians frustrate me to no end.

They didn't choose to be closed off, they excommunicated by the entire galaxy, because of their creations, a sentient race of robots who if they weren't hostile certainly got a good rep for it considering how badly people feared the Geth. Yes it's true the Quarians stripmined planets of their natural resources but what else were they suppose to do, and maybe the reason they wanted to eradicate the Geth in the first place was to prevent the very thing that happened, excommunication from the rest of the galaxy. Not saying it was right, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. As you said, they are tight-knit, they think of the community first and foremost so anything that would jeopardize said community/race would of course be dealt with the utmost permenancey... in this case eradication.

[Degs29]

animedreamer wrote...
They didn't choose to be closed off, they excommunicated by the entire galaxy, because of their creations, a sentient race of robots who if they weren't hostile certainly got a good rep for it considering how badly people feared the Geth. Yes it's true the Quarians stripmined planets of their natural resources but what else were they suppose to do, and maybe the reason they wanted to eradicate the Geth in the first place was to prevent the very thing that happened, excommunication from the rest of the galaxy. Not saying it was right, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. As you said, they are tight-knit, they think of the community first and foremost so anything that would jeopardize said community/race would of course be dealt with the utmost permenancey... in this case eradication.

I don't think that fearing repercussions from the other races is justification for genocide.  They played God, knowingly, and against the wishes of the Council.  I'd say that's entirely wrong, but that's just my personal opinion.  You don't fix a mistake by making an even bigger one.

I could be wrong, but as far as I'm aware the Geth did not act with hostility against organic races, with the exception of the Quarians, and then only once threatened.  That is, until they were indoctrinated by the Reapers and led by Saren against the Citadel.  I hardly think you can blame them for that, as the other races have proved to be just a susceptible to indoctrination (just less interconnected, and hence indoctrination would not work on the same scale as with the Geth). 

I actually think the Geth and Quarians are alike in some regards.  The Quarians tried to eradicate the Geth to protect their people, andt he Geth joined with the Reapers to protect their own race.  However, I think the difference is that the Geth were open to co-existing with the Quarians, where as the Quarians didn't feel the same way about the Geth.

[animedreamer]

Degs29 wrote...

animedreamer wrote...
They didn't choose to be closed off, they excommunicated by the entire galaxy, because of their creations, a sentient race of robots who if they weren't hostile certainly got a good rep for it considering how badly people feared the Geth. Yes it's true the Quarians stripmined planets of their natural resources but what else were they suppose to do, and maybe the reason they wanted to eradicate the Geth in the first place was to prevent the very thing that happened, excommunication from the rest of the galaxy. Not saying it was right, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. As you said, they are tight-knit, they think of the community first and foremost so anything that would jeopardize said community/race would of course be dealt with the utmost permenancey... in this case eradication.

I don't think that fearing repercussions from the other races is justification for genocide.  They played God, knowingly, and against the wishes of the Council.  I'd say that's entirely wrong, but that's just my personal opinion.  You don't fix a mistake by making an even bigger one.

I could be wrong, but as far as I'm aware the Geth did not act with hostility against organic races, with the exception of the Quarians, and then only once threatened.  That is, until they were indoctrinated by the Reapers and led by Saren against the Citadel.  I hardly think you can blame them for that, as the other races have proved to be just a susceptible to indoctrination (just less interconnected, and hence indoctrination would not work on the same scale as with the Geth). 

I actually think the Geth and Quarians are alike in some regards.  The Quarians tried to eradicate the Geth to protect their people, andt he Geth joined with the Reapers to protect their own race.  However, I think the difference is that the Geth were open to co-existing with the Quarians, where as the Quarians didn't feel the same way about the Geth.

I think this is were Admiral Xen's line of reasoning comes into play. It's all a matter of what you consider sentient at that point. They were incapable of higher thought unless they were networked together, and it wasn't until ME3 that even the Geth themselves considered themselves truly alive after processing the Reaper Codes. Therefore prior to that, maybe Xen wasn't to far off in considering them simply as machines.

[Han Shot First]

The Quarians certainly do have some good qualities, but like all factions in the Mass Effect universe they also have some bad.

With the Geth they've shown to be irrational, paranoid, and aggressive, and that paranoid fear of their creation almost caused their own extinction.

The current leaders of the Quarians, with the exception of Koris, have also proved to be strategically inept. Despite accepting that Reapers do in fact exist and are planning to invade, the Quarians go to war with the Geth at the worst possible moment, and in doing so get bogged down in a costly distraction that nearly dooms them.

[Mandalorkian]

I agree completely with the thread-creator on the positives of the Quarian society, and those qualities really do make it seem somewhat superior to what I grew up with (U.S.A.).

As to the argument concerning them with the Geth: AI were against galactic law, and the Geth weren't meant to become AI. The quarians simply wanted synthetic workers, and gave them a nifty technological advance similar to a hive mind (which is extraordinary on a world without insects), which evolved their processes into the current Geth AI system. The quarians didn't intend for that to happen, so when they realized what was happening, they panicked, as we would have in a similar situation where we found out we accidentally broke galactic laws concerning AI. In that situation, they hastily tried to fix the problem in the only galactically-acceptable method: extermination. The Council wouldn't allow AI to exist if they couldn't be dealt with. It wasn't until after the Morning War showed the Geth's might that Council diplomats were sent. In the end, you could blame peer pressure form the other galactic races as much as the quarian themselves.
A psychological effect could provide some insight into this matter; ever heard of the "uncanny valley"? Essentially, there is a point in a robot's similarity to humans that we go from positive reactions towards it to feeling negatively towards it. <http://tvtropes.org/.../UncannyValley> The Geth became too similar to the quarians, and many freaked out, although there are always exceptions, such as the Geth-sympathizers. It is possible that every organic-synthetic war in Mass Effect history was caused by this psychological effect. That question, "Does this unt have a soul?", was the tipping point into the valley.