This is partially a following-the-joke-trend thread, and part legitimately serious topic. It has been put into spoilers for your ease of reading.
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Introduction:
Spoiler
A quick show of hands: Who really thinks refusal is a good idea in ME3? You just spent the whole trilogy going 'I must stop the Reapers' only to stop at the end and go 'You know what? None of these options are what I, as an individual, want. Never mind you guys can kill us all now.' . . .what is this? You're a horrible savior, Shepard! You'd be better off dead!
And why would you even need to leave the Milky Way on something called the 'Ark'/'ARKCON' when. . .you know, you won with multi-colored space magic?
And why would you even need to leave the Milky Way on something called the 'Ark'/'ARKCON' when. . .you know, you won with multi-colored space magic?
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Premise:
Spoiler
. . .and that brings us to my favorite way to progress the series: What if we killed The Batman Shepard? What if Shepard had died at the end of the Suicide Mission, or was never revived by Project Lazarus? Either way, the events of Mass Effect 3 never happen in the regard for Shepard being there to interfere: The Crucible is never found and so no concept of a 'Superweapon' is devised by the Milky Way races. If you have no hope in defeating your enemy, and surrender is likewise not an option, what do you do?
Run. Run fast, run far, run silent, run deep. You devise a way to get as many people outta dodge as quietly as possible. You gather as many people as you can while using your forces to distract the Reapers and work on a project as secret as the Crucible was supposed to be, then leave the war behind once its ready. No 'docking with the Citadel', no 'CQC fight with the Reaper Armada', no 'Red, Blue, Green'. . .Well, there's green but that's because we're flooring it outta there and not stopping at any designated stop signs!
More importantly, those big decisions that would require Shepard's interference do not need to necessarily happen as they did now: Tuchanka. . .Rannoch. . .there's no need for these to happen the way they did in ME3:
- How does the Counciltrick invite the Krogan along? They offer to cure the Genophage, but mostly use the Krogans as cannon fodder to distract the Reapers while the 'Ark' is being built, taking some along when it's time to ship out. Given that the cure is possible and having a smaller sample size to dose them with aboard the Ark (Salarian research was already going on on Sur'Kesh.)
- Who has experience with maintaining large ships for an extended period of time? The Quarians. They are invited on the Ark project to assist in construction, before they attempt to attack the Geth and retake their homeworld, and the Geth are left alone. Without being damaged and turning to the Reapers to survive, the Geth may be more willing to assist as well given the Reaper threat affects them as well. It would require a better explanation than this, but would be a way to bring both races along.
Run. Run fast, run far, run silent, run deep. You devise a way to get as many people outta dodge as quietly as possible. You gather as many people as you can while using your forces to distract the Reapers and work on a project as secret as the Crucible was supposed to be, then leave the war behind once its ready. No 'docking with the Citadel', no 'CQC fight with the Reaper Armada', no 'Red, Blue, Green'. . .Well, there's green but that's because we're flooring it outta there and not stopping at any designated stop signs!
More importantly, those big decisions that would require Shepard's interference do not need to necessarily happen as they did now: Tuchanka. . .Rannoch. . .there's no need for these to happen the way they did in ME3:
- How does the Council
- Who has experience with maintaining large ships for an extended period of time? The Quarians. They are invited on the Ark project to assist in construction, before they attempt to attack the Geth and retake their homeworld, and the Geth are left alone. Without being damaged and turning to the Reapers to survive, the Geth may be more willing to assist as well given the Reaper threat affects them as well. It would require a better explanation than this, but would be a way to bring both races along.
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Why?
Spoiler
Why canonize failure, of all ending possibilities? Because it allows for the more interesting (and in this case concise) narrative. For example, the upcoming X-COM2 could have been a sequel to the player winning in the first game, but the developers decided that the most witnessed ending (AKA Failure) was the most interesting from a narrative standpoint given the choice between fighting off alien overlords versus 'The Aliens were defeated. . .but now their cousin Sluggard is here, and he's pissed!'
If the purpose of an Ark is to escape catastrophes, why name it such if we're just exploring/adventuring? There would be no immediate need to venture to a whole new Galaxy if there was no threat pushing us in that direction: All four endings give us no need to worry about leaving the vastness of the Milky Way either because the Reapers are dead, we are dead, the Reapers got bored and left, or because magical hippie love (space) magic made everyone into robo-cop.
Canonizing any of those endings removes the drive to escape to new frontiers which is the implied reason for the move to Andromeda from a story perspective (then there's the whole 'let's escape from the endings!' mentality that's going around). . .unless, of course, The Catalyst is lying to you the whole time, but that's been done to death more times that I can count.
If the purpose of an Ark is to escape catastrophes, why name it such if we're just exploring/adventuring? There would be no immediate need to venture to a whole new Galaxy if there was no threat pushing us in that direction: All four endings give us no need to worry about leaving the vastness of the Milky Way either because the Reapers are dead, we are dead, the Reapers got bored and left, or because magical hippie love (space) magic made everyone into robo-cop.
Canonizing any of those endings removes the drive to escape to new frontiers which is the implied reason for the move to Andromeda from a story perspective (then there's the whole 'let's escape from the endings!' mentality that's going around). . .unless, of course, The Catalyst is lying to you the whole time, but that's been done to death more times that I can count.
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The Flaws:
Spoiler
Now, this plan does have notable flaws in it:
- If Shepard died during the suicide mission, characters such as Mordin, Tali, and Legion might be dead. This would affect the support that would be given to the Ark project in a major way. This could be rectified by Shepard never being revived by Lazarus and thus these characters do not die (for the most part, but the ones 'important' to the world at large do not die): In particular, this means that Legion eventually finds Shepard's last known resting place and returns to the Geth with all the knowledge it collected up to that point thus making them a little more friendlier to organics. The third option is that Shepard DID succeed in the Suicide Mission, as did their squad. . .but s/he got stupid and did the Death Dance with Morinth. Silly Shepard!
- Regardless of where Shepard died, Joker still joined Cerberus. Does he still return to the Alliance after the Suicide Mission (assuming it happens regardless of who leads it.)? Is he the final whistle-blower who gets things in motion? What happens to the Normandy, did it join the Ark (whatever it is) in fleeing to the Milky Way or did it stay behind as a commanding symbol in the Milky Way's last stand to distract the Reapers? The later seems more fitting, as the Reapers would most likely take notice if the ship that lead to the defeat of Sovereign and destroyed/commandeered the Collector Base was attempting to flee the Galaxy. Former members of the Normandy crew returned to serve aboard it one last time, thus preventing any familiar faces from returning in the sequel.
- This plan still doesn't explain what the Ark/ARKCON is, as that is not its main point.
- I don't see it as a flaw (I think of it as a salty perk), but the tears by people who demand 'their' Shepard's story be played out in full. . .delicious.
- If Shepard died during the suicide mission, characters such as Mordin, Tali, and Legion might be dead. This would affect the support that would be given to the Ark project in a major way. This could be rectified by Shepard never being revived by Lazarus and thus these characters do not die (for the most part, but the ones 'important' to the world at large do not die): In particular, this means that Legion eventually finds Shepard's last known resting place and returns to the Geth with all the knowledge it collected up to that point thus making them a little more friendlier to organics. The third option is that Shepard DID succeed in the Suicide Mission, as did their squad. . .but s/he got stupid and did the Death Dance with Morinth. Silly Shepard!
- Regardless of where Shepard died, Joker still joined Cerberus. Does he still return to the Alliance after the Suicide Mission (assuming it happens regardless of who leads it.)? Is he the final whistle-blower who gets things in motion? What happens to the Normandy, did it join the Ark (whatever it is) in fleeing to the Milky Way or did it stay behind as a commanding symbol in the Milky Way's last stand to distract the Reapers? The later seems more fitting, as the Reapers would most likely take notice if the ship that lead to the defeat of Sovereign and destroyed/commandeered the Collector Base was attempting to flee the Galaxy. Former members of the Normandy crew returned to serve aboard it one last time, thus preventing any familiar faces from returning in the sequel.
- This plan still doesn't explain what the Ark/ARKCON is, as that is not its main point.
- I don't see it as a flaw (I think of it as a salty perk), but the tears by people who demand 'their' Shepard's story be played out in full. . .delicious.
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And now I'm done. I leave you with this giant thread post while I wander off to see if anyone has something to eat.
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