However the Rachni were anthropomorphized when they were given motivations that are human. The Arachnids and Xenomorphs are never given those motivations, or at least not expressed, which is what makes them truly alien since we have no idea what they think or feel.
Aside from vengeance on the Reapers ("When the time comes, our voice will join with yours. And our crescendo will burn the darkness clean") the Rachni don't seem to have much motivation beyond isolationism.
The rachni appear to be based on a mix of the Formics from the Ender saga, the Arachnids from Starship Troopers, and a little bit of xenomorph from the Alien movies.
All of which are truly alien by human standards. Nothing anthropomorphic about them.
Well the Rachni are essentially talking insects, or at least how we would imagine ants would sound like if they could talk. So in the most basic definition of the term the Rachni are anthropomorphic, but I agree that they are very 'alien' in their depiction; which is why they are my favorite species of the setting. *The Geth, Elcor and Hanar were a close second in ME 1 (ME 2 for the Geth), but all of that depth was quickly thrown out the airlock in ME 3.
Aside from vengeance on the Reapers ("When the time comes, our voice will join with yours. And our crescendo will burn the darkness clean") the Rachni don't seem to have much motivation beyond isolationism.
You can't wave off them wanting vengeance, since that is a very human concept. Almost no other beings on Earth depict having a desire to get back at a being that personally wronged them. The few that do is in a much more broad a sense, like attacking a predator that killed one of them since that is more self-preservation than vengeance. The Arachnids and Xenomorphs are shown to have no inclination of this. And wanting isolation to build a civilization is still a human trait, since animals don't really show this. Some get close, but not quite to what the Rachni wanted making that desire more human than animal, thus anthropomorphism.
Plus as Vortex said, them speaking to us in a language we understand is also a case of anthropomorphising them.
The Rachni are one of the closest times that Bioware has gotten to depicting a truly alien race in the ME franchise, but they are still anthropomorphized.
Well the Rachni are essentially talking insects, or at least how we would imagine ants would sound like if they could talk. So in the most basic definition of the term the Rachni are anthropomorphic, but I agree that they are very 'alien' in their depiction; which is why they are my favorite species of the setting. *The Geth, Elcor and Hanar were a close second in ME 1 (ME 2 for the Geth), but all of that depth was quickly thrown out the airlock in ME 3.
Personally I think the Thorian actually is the most alien alien race in Mass Effect. It has intelligence yet we have no grasp at its mindset other than it sees others as tools, which isn't a universal human attribute, and unlike the Rachni it never actually speaks with us, instead using a Shiala clone to do so. The real Shiala even says how alien its mind is, and that's coming from an asari which are the best in our cycle at reading other alien races since they can meld minds.
The Reapers were also truly alien in ME1 and ME2 when they were originally written to be like Lovecraftian horrors like Cthulhu, but in Mass Effect 3 that was changed.
Personally I think the Thorian actually is the most alien alien race in Mass Effect. It has intelligence yet we have no grasp at its mindset other than it sees others as tools, which isn't a universal human attribute, and unlike the Rachni it never actually speaks with us, instead using a Shiala clone to do so. The real Shiala even says how alien its mind is, and that's coming from an asari which are the best in our cycle at reading other alien races since they can meld minds.
The Reapers were also truly alien in ME1 and ME2 when they were originally written to be like Lovecraftian horrors like Cthulhu, but in Mass Effect 3 that was changed.
Good points. I suppose I should rephrase my opinion to be that I found the Rachni to be the most 'alien' alien that we could interact with in a way that didn't always lead to conflict.
The Thorian is a great alien; and I would love to see more plant based species in future titles (though please stay away from the Groot memes); but all the player could do after a very brief conversation was shoot it in the face. Likewise the Reapers were great eldritch horrors, but as you said, all that was dropped in ME 3, which real was a detriment to their pre-existing character. I mean if the Reapers are just mindless murderbots in service to the Catalyst, then why even bother having them talk to the puny beings of the current cycle? If the Reapers were designed only to ensure the most efficient means of completing the harvest then why let Harbinger torture and smoothie-fy human colonists slowly and in full view of each other? That's hardly efficient, and definitely not conductive to being a passive force of nature; the whole "when fire burns is it at war?" bit.
You can't wave off them wanting vengeance, since that is a very human concept. Almost no other beings on Earth depict having a desire to get back at a being that personally wronged them. The few that do is in a much more broad a sense, like attacking a predator that killed one of them since that is more self-preservation than vengeance. The Arachnids and Xenomorphs are shown to have no inclination of this. And wanting isolation to build a civilization is still a human trait, since animals don't really show this. Some get close, but not quite to what the Rachni wanted making that desire more human than animal, thus anthropomorphism.
Plus as Vortex said, them speaking to us in a language we understand is also a case of anthropomorphising them.
The Rachni are one of the closest times that Bioware has gotten to depicting a truly alien race in the ME franchise, but they are still anthropomorphized.
I chalk up the rachni's attitude more is something of a survival instinct: remove yourself from the threats (since the rachni are still comparatively weak). Or, in the case of the Reapers, cooperate with those who are fighting a much stronger foe. The rachni's words are often filled with references to color and music. They seem to have an appreciation for patterns and harmony. Something the Reapers pervert.
Also, the rachni speak to us in a language we understand because they speak to us through others. Through dead or living asari. or in the case of ME3, with dead krogan. The rachni queen never directly addresses Shepard.
Something also to consider: the rachni are neither human nor animal. So the thing to consider is, is their behavior a human trait, or the trait of a sapient being?
I blame that on Javik being DLC.
I blame that on Javik being DLC.
What's Liara's excuse?
Which is why we need to have a greater focus or at least a greater presence of the 'alien' aliens. Forcing the writers to work with a species that doesn't really have any clear cut references to any particular culture or race means that they can't rely on the 'Space Jews' or 'Space Russians' trope to populate the setting.
Look at the Rachni, they weren't based off of any human culture. The foundation of the species was essentially anthropomorphic ants it's true, but that simple concept kept the writers from falling into the same ditch of using exaggerated facets of human culture or society; there aren't any actual hive based cultures that I am aware of.
Likewise, the culture of the Hanar was based off of the cultural expectation of extreme politeness typically found in Japan, but it did it in a way that wasn't blatantly obvious (at least in ME 1), that the Hanar are just space Japannese.
If the writers can keep the foundational concepts behind an alien race different enough, or broad enough, we shouldn't see too much of that particular trope.
Yeah. A franchise that is doing that really well right now is the Halo franchise. They either have truly alien alien lifeforms like the Flood, or the ones that are anthropomorphisms are done in a way where there is no real correlation with a human culture. Looking at the Forerunners and the various Covenant races, there isn't a single one that can be described as or by an Earth culture equivalent. At most you get things like how Bioware did the Hanar having extreme politeness akin to Japanese culture, for example the Sangheili having an honor code similar to Bushido. Just like the Hanar, a part of their culture is relatable to one of an Earth culture but not to the point that they are that culture in space. Plus their aliens actually look like aliens rather than following the Rubber-Headed Human trope.
What's Liara's excuse?
Favoritism from Bioware.
I blame that on Javik being DLC.
Well, it's funny, because Liara had a proper helmet in the main game of Mass Effect 2, albeit only briefly in the prologue, and the breather was introduced in Lair of the Shadow Broker.
Anyway, Zaeed and Kasumi are both DLC and they had only partial helmets too. Zaeed almost seems to have a proper helmet, until you see his hair poking out of it.
Lover with dead spouse
Yeah. A franchise that is doing that really well right now is the Halo franchise. They either have truly alien alien lifeforms like the Flood, or the ones that are anthropomorphisms are done in a way where there is no real correlation with a human culture. Looking at the Forerunners and the various Covenant races, there isn't a single one that can be described as or by an Earth culture equivalent. At most you get things like how Bioware did the Hanar having extreme politeness akin to Japanese culture, for example the Sangheili having an honor code similar to Bushido. Just like the Hanar, a part of their culture is relatable to one of an Earth culture but not to the point that they are that culture in space. Plus their aliens actually look like aliens rather than following the Rubber-Headed Human trope.
Maybe add a more obvious language barrier like 4 did with the Sangheili (although it's nice to have the Covenant races speaking English again, especially the grunts).
Maybe add a more obvious language barrier like 4 did with the Sangheili (although it's nice to have the Covenant races speaking English again, especially the grunts).
They could do that, and have a VI in the Omni-Tool translate.
It was a neat thing, but yeah I missed the Grunt's hilarious banter. I do like how there is a lore reason for them speaking their native languages in 4 and now speaking English again though: Jul 'Mdama banned the use of human languages under his Covenant remnant, but now that that faction is falling apart so are all the rules.
Bioware, try to make a game for once that doesn't have a character with daddy issues! Would be refreshing.
Humanity is special.
Please, never again. Or at least try not to be so blatant about it.
Pretty much everything else is a fair game, as far as I'm concerned.
I'll be honest, I thought the focus on Earth in ME3 was...a little selfish. The ENTIRE galaxy is suffering from the Reapers, millions are dying every day, on every advanced world. What makes Earth so special? Because our protag is human? Instead of liberating Earth, and having the final battle take place there. There should have been several priority liberation missions in the game.
Liberate Thessia, Palavin, Sur'Kesh. Then as the Reapers lose ground, they gather their forces at Earth, preparing for one final battle. So much priority was placed on Earth and it was unfair.
Don't get me started on the "Take back the Earth" tagline. It really should have been "Take back the Galaxy".
Let's see.
Well, generally-speaking, clichés and trophes I "hate", but unfortunately can definitely imagine them being present in Andromeda, because BioWare:
º A " chosen one " protagonist. I sort of hate it because it's extremely overused... but it seems to work most of the time anyway. It's fast-food story telling.
º A " misunderstood " enemy / antagonist. I hate it usually because I can't tell if the author(s) were simply lazy and couldn't make the actual enemy's intentions clear (at any given point in the story), or if they really wanted us (the audience) to actually misunderstand (which then becomes sort of a brilliantly-written and planned out story... if it works). The problem, indeed - and to repeat myself - is that ultimately nothing is clear (I.E. I have to "guess").
º Discovering ruins / remnants of long-gone ancient civilization(s). It's only useful and meaningful if it actually plays part of the story at hand that's currently unfolding, especially if I don't have to wait an extra or two installments in a series to finally see what all those ruins and impossible-to-currently-understand artifacts actually do. If you want us to explore planets in a new galaxy that we know absolutely nothing about - in which it is guaranteed that an untold number of civilizations had their time and then went poof at some point - only to eventually and inevitably find Prothean-style ruins scattered around... then PLEASE give us actual information about said "gone" civilization that we're discovering things about BEFORE having to wait for the final "big reveal" that we always seem to have to wait for until the sequel, or the sequel of the sequel comes out 3 to 6 years later. I do NOT want to see my teammates going nuts over some egg-shaped alien 'device' that I found in some unknown ruins and brought back to my ship only to still have the thing levitating uselessly in some containment room when it played zero freakin' role whatsoever and generated a maximum of three conversations by the time the credits roll on screen.
º Having to wait until the final mission, or the one just before it, before being able to bang your Love Interest. Ok, seriously. Please, don't do it? I'm asking gently. Also, it's not exactly just literal, but also figurative. I'm not just referring to a " sex / love " scene. I'm referring to either us (protagonist) or the LI to reveal his/her feelings for the other. It could just be a short speech or something. Or, of course, the actual love scene(s) (well there's usually just one, and not always for every available LI anyway). It's a damn lazy and senseless cliché that the blue chick is going to wait for the moment when she realizes " OH ****!... that mission sounds REALLY serious, like... more serious than the twenty we did before it in the past month. I mean this time the bad guy will be there IN PERSON. Damn, better go see that girl/man I've been lusting for all that time to see if something can happen 'coz HOT DAMN I wouldn't want to die before being able to see his/her bombchicapowow! ".
º Leaving the ending and the main story arc (by the time the credits roll) with " open to interpretation " routes about what in the bloody great heck actually happened. I know there's going to be disagreements because apparently there's people who would actually eat conjecture if they could. I, for one, usually absolutely loathe being forced to interprete story or characters-specifically elements. Now, I said 'usually', because in very rare cases it can work to some degree, but only when done with control and moderation by the writer(s) (it also depends on the context at hand). I still generally just hate it though. I see that as a form of complete laziness in writing, but most importantly in IMAGINING. If you're a writer, and you create a context / condition in which one or more characters end up trapped, or blocked (just examples) and you just STOP the development of that scene, then we have to guess "Sooooooo... hummmm... wait so... did the guy get crushed by the machine or... ?" Did he actually manage to climb up to escape? And if he did... how did he get rid of the three guards above making sure nothing would go wrong? And wouldn't the guards just fire at him anyway if he attempted anything, ensuring his doom down there? * facepalm * Seriously, if you want to be a writer, and a story-teller, then WRITE me a story and TELL me what's happening! My 'job' is NOT to sit down and continue your work on my own dammit! I'm here to enjoy reading a story, not just breaking eye contact from the page / scene I was immersed in only to end up staring silently at the wall confused by what I'm supposed to think on my own to make sense of what you couldn't think of yourself.
The kind of context, or obvious situations I can sort of tolerate interpretation (doesn't mean I actually like it though) is usually when I KNOW that something else about previously-incompleted scene / conversation is going to happen (or be "revealed") either within the next pages / scenes / hours (of game-play) or, in the worst case scenario, in the next book / chapter / game sequel. But if that's the case then it MUST have been made clear in the situation itself (or perhaps a bit later on) that we WILL see or hear of it again. Don't just leave us in the complete void and unknown... THAT is when it not only makes my blood boil but it feels cheap.
Anyways... that's what I can think of for now (and, yeah, no... I don't want to see any such clichés in Andromeda, but yes I believe at least one of them will make it).
Yeah. A franchise that is doing that really well right now is the Halo franchise. They either have truly alien alien lifeforms like the Flood, or the ones that are anthropomorphisms are done in a way where there is no real correlation with a human culture. Looking at the Forerunners and the various Covenant races, there isn't a single one that can be described as or by an Earth culture equivalent. At most you get things like how Bioware did the Hanar having extreme politeness akin to Japanese culture, for example the Sangheili having an honor code similar to Bushido. Just like the Hanar, a part of their culture is relatable to one of an Earth culture but not to the point that they are that culture in space. Plus their aliens actually look like aliens rather than following the Rubber-Headed Human trope.
I don't really care for the Halo franchise anymore to be honest. Partially because of the constant fascination with the Spartans to the exclusion of all other elements at times, but mainly because of the sheer dominance of humanity, and how we appear in every facet of the setting. Defending ourselves against an alien crusade, sure that fits, but also having us exist back in the time of the Forerunners; and kicking the crap out of them? That's just self gratifying fan service at that point.
The various aliens in the franchise are cool, but we never get to see more about them, or interact with them outside of bullets to the face. Apart from the Arbiter in Halo 2 (which I feel is the best out of all the main Halo titles) we don't get any sympathetic insight into the aliens' way of viewing things, and even then he was quickly demoted to cameo status in Halo 3 and then just as quickly forgotten about in the grand scheme of things. According to the Halo-verse alien = bad, and it's really, really boring.
Humanity is special in Mass Effect, but at least the alien races get their moments to shine and they work with us. In Halo humanity is the literal ubermensch of the universe. We are so special that other aliens just want to kill us because they are jealous of our superiority, and/or will actually inflict self-genocide upon themselves to protect us. 
I don't really care for the Halo franchise anymore to be honest. Partially because of the constant fascination with the Spartans to the exclusion of all other elements at times, but mainly because of the sheer dominance of humanity, and how we appear in every facet of the setting. Defending ourselves against an alien crusade, sure that fits, but also having us exist back in the time of the Forerunners; and kicking the crap out of them? That's just self gratifying fan service at that point.
How did we do that? Ancient humanity lost the war against the Foreunners to the point we literally got bombed back to the Stone Age, and then wiped out by the Halo Array. We were reseeded, but so were every other race. And in the Human-Covenant War, we only started to win because the majority of the Sangheili joined us after the Great Schism because we were the enemy of their enemy. Humanity's record of wins vs losses is pretty bad.
The games are focusing(which is debatable) on the Spartans because it's John's story. They've already said they have plans for other games that will focus on other things. It will still probably be a human-focus sure since the protagonist will probably be human but Bioware is doing the same with Mass Effect. ME1 was humanity making its place, ME2 was protecting human colonies and how we are the best race, ME3 was getting forces to take back Earth, and MEA is finding a new home for humanity in a new galaxy.
The various aliens in the franchise are cool, but we never get to see more about them, or interact with them outside of bullets to the face. Apart from the Arbiter in Halo 2 (which I feel is the best out of all the main Halo titles) we don't get any sympathetic insight into the aliens' way of viewing things, and even then he was quickly demoted to cameo status in Halo 3 and then just as quickly forgotten about in the grand scheme of things. According to the Halo-verse alien = bad, and it's really, really boring.
In Halo 5: Guardians, the Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee and the Sangheili actually play a pretty significant role according to what we know so far. They help us fight the Guardians and we will be spending a few missions exploring their homeworld(more than we can say for most Mass Effect races). Plus in the Expanded Universe they focus a lot more on the other races. There is a book coming out that is solely about the Sangheili.
Yes the aliens in Halo are generally seen as bad so far but that's only because most of the games take place during our war with them. It'd be like if all the Mass Effect games so far were about the First Contact War.
Humanity is special in Mass Effect, but at least the alien races get their moments to shine and they work with us. In Halo humanity is the literal ubermensch of the universe. We are so special that other aliens just want to kill us because they are jealous of our superiority, and/or will actually inflict self-genocide upon themselves to protect us.
What? The Prophets wanted humanity wiped out because they found records that incorrectly suggested we were related to the Foreunners(they aren't the best at translating Foreunner stuff), which was a contradiction to the religion that they used to hold sway over the other races in the Covenant. So they said humanity was essentially a disease that deserved to be exterminated.
And the Foreunners inflicted self-genocide purely to exterminate the Flood by robbing it of its food supply. There is even a notion that they weren't completely wiped out but before firing the Halo Array went on the Great Journey, which the Prophets mistranslated to mean the Halo rings were what started the Great Journey. Sure they reseeded humanity to live after the Halo Array fired, but they did that for every other race in the Milky Way and the Dwarf galaxies around us as well.
How did we do that? Ancient humanity lost the war against the Foreunners to the point we literally got bombed back to the Stone Age, and then wiped out by the Halo Array. We were reseeded, but so were every other race. And in the Human-Covenant War, we only started to win because the majority of the Sangheili joined us after the Great Schism because we were the enemy of their enemy. Humanity's record of wins vs losses is pretty bad.
The games are focusing(which is debatable) on the Spartans because it's John's story. They've already said they have plans for other games that will focus on other things. It will still probably be a human-focus sure since the protagonist will probably be human but Bioware is doing the same with Mass Effect. ME1 was humanity making its place, ME2 was protecting human colonies and how we are the best race, ME3 was getting forces to take back Earth, and MEA is finding a new home for humanity in a new galaxy.
Humanity only lost to the Forerunners because they were fighting both them and the Flood. One-on-one ancient humans were the gods of the universe; we even developed a "cure" for the Flood infection (because that's how awesome we are) but the information was lost when the Foreunners pushed back (sliding once again back into the alien = bad trope).
You are right to say that humanity's win/loss record is terrible; we literally let the Covenant take Reach (according to the video game) because our military branches were too stupid to communicate with each other but somehow we are still superior to the Covenant, and the Forerunners considered us to be the only species worthy of inheriting "The Mantle". Humanity might not have achieved victory flawlessly, but we have titan omega level plot armor when it comes to winning a fight and coming out on top of the pile. After the war in Halo 3, humanity should have been decimated seeing as how Earth was all we had left and it was decimated by both the Covenant fleet and a near Flood infection. But come Halo 4, just a few years later, and we have ships and tech that put anything the Covenant have to shame. We can even stand toe to toe with technology the species that created the Halo Arrays use, despite just coming out of a war for our very survival.
Humanity's Mary Sue-ishness in Halo is over 9000 (IMO).
As for the over focus on Spartans, one doesn't have to look any further than the trailer for Halo 5. Apparently anyone can be a Spartan now, even sergeant Buck, and as Spartans, anyone can completely devastate a Covenant battalion while fall/skiing down a mountain… because Spartans. Spartans, Spartans, Spartans.
In Halo 5: Guardians, the Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee and the Sangheili actually play a pretty significant role according to what we know so far. They help us fight the Guardians and we will be spending a few missions exploring their homeworld(more than we can say for most Mass Effect races). Plus in the Expanded Universe they focus a lot more on the other races. There is a book coming out that is solely about the Sangheili.
Yes the aliens in Halo are generally seen as bad so far but that's only because most of the games take place during our war with them. It'd be like if all the Mass Effect games so far were about the First Contact War.
Humanity only lost to the Forerunners because they were fighting both them and the Flood. One-on-one ancient humans were the gods of the universe; we even developed a "cure" for the Flood infection (because that's how awesome we are) but the information was lost when the Foreunners pushed back (sliding once again back into the alien = bad trope).
The humans weren't alone when they developed the 'cure'. That was when they were in an alliance with the ancient San'Shyuum or Prophets, a race known for their vast scientific knowledge. The Flood 'cure' is essentially the same thing as the Turian/Salarian 'cure' for the Krogan.
You are right to say that humanity's win/loss record is terrible; we literally let the Covenant take Reach (according to the video game) because our military branches were too stupid to communicate with each other but somehow we are still superior to the Covenant, and the Forerunners considered us to be the only species worthy of inheriting "The Mantle". Humanity might not have achieved victory flawlessly, but we have titan omega level plot armor when it comes to winning a fight and coming out on top of the pile. After the war in Halo 3, humanity should have been decimated seeing as how Earth was all we had left and it was decimated by both the Covenant fleet and a near Flood infection. But come Halo 4, just a few years later, and we have ships and tech that put anything the Covenant have to shame. We can even stand toe to toe with technology the species that created the Halo Arrays use, despite just coming out of a war for our very survival.
How are we superior to the Covenant when the Covenant was unified? Despite our best efforts, we lost nearly every campaign. And the ones we won usually were not because of human superiority but because the Covenant obtained what they came for. And no, Earth was not all we had left. Earth was the last military stronghold we had left. There were dozens of human colonies that never saw the war since they held no value to the Covenant. And the only ship that puts Covenant ships to shame is the UNSC Infinity, which is a massive ship powered by Forerunner tech. And even the main guns on that barely punched a small hole in the Didact's ship.
As for the Foreunners seeing humanity as worthy of holding the Mantle of Responsibility, no they did not. Only the Librarian and a few of her allies ever thought that. The majority of the Foreunners, like the ones under the Ur-Didact and especially the Master Builder, saw us as either petulant children or rapid animals needing to be put down.
Humanity's Mary Sue-ishness in Halo is over 9000 (IMO).
As for the over focus on Spartans, one doesn't have to look any further than the trailer for Halo 5. Apparently anyone can be a Spartan now, even sergeant Buck, and as Spartans, anyone can completely devastate a Covenant battalion while fall/skiing down a mountain… because Spartans. Spartans, Spartans, Spartans.
Still less than in Mass Effect, where we are the perfect species. At least in Halo our being special is just because we were a pet project of the Librarian, rather than the "just because" of Mass Effect.
You mean the Covenant battalion that is also currently engaging Foreunner Prometheans? It's a three way fight. The Prometheans and Jul 'Mdama's forces are fighting each other for some reason, and Fireteam Osiris does a tactical drop and catches the enemy unawares from behind. And no, while more people can be Spartans with the dialed down Spartan-IV Project, it is still a rigorous change that involves a lot of screening in order to even be considered, and even if you are good enough and your mind and body show you can do it, not everyone can. That's why there are only at most a few hundred Spartan-IVs. They are like the N7 Operatives or the Spectres, which have done even more outrageous things than we see in the trailer.
That's the biggest problem though, in order to glean anything else about the setting that's not human focused you have to dive into entirely separate media. People don't consider Ki Leng to be an awesome character in ME 3 because of one novel that included him in it; likewise I don't consider Halo (the video games) does a good job of displaying a varied setting because of a couple novels that featured Elites in them.
The terminals disagree with you. You get a lot of background info of the Covenant races in Halo 2 Anniversary for example. And people don't consider Kai Leng to be an awesome character because how the scenes with him were handled in the game. Before Mass Effect 3 came out, we saw a glimpse of him in one of the promotional videos and people were ecstatic to see that him was going to be in the game.
Halo 3 had the Elites as allies, but we barely see them outside of 3 or 4 cutscenes, and despite the fact that it was the Aribiter led faction that turned the war around for humanity we only see the odd Phantom dropship on a few missions; everything else is UNSC. Coming out of that into Halo 4, the Covenant are bad guys again; blindly worshiping the Didect. Two games that canonically, feature the Elites (at least, there were other client races that sided with us) as allies, but both relegate them as minor cameos, or as relapsed villains. Comparatively, humans and Turains weren't on the best of terms after the First Contact War, but the Turains weren't minor players, nor where they all depicted as evil monsters when it came to interactions with the Alliance.
We don't see humans outside of Chief outside of just as many cutscenes. And as the game states, the reason we don't see more Elite forces is because they are facing the Covenant fleet in a space battle, keeping them from reinforcing Truth. In coop, the second player plays as the Arbiter, so he can be there the entire campaign. And in Halo 4 that was addressed as being a Covenant remnant, not the Covenant. Though the Covenant were always the bad guys. Those who followed the Arbiter aren't considered part of the Covenant. Again, the Turians are a different situation. If all the games were about the First Contact War like how all the games have been about the Human-Covenant War, the Turians would be depicted the same way the Sangheili were.
But I'm done. It's clear that you won't be changing your mind, even though Mass Effect is more guilty of this trope you are railing against. My response was just that Halo did a better job of having aliens be aliens than Mass Effect does, both in appearance and culture. Please don't reply. We've cluttered this thread enough.
But I'm done. It's clear that you won't be changing your mind, even though Mass Effect is more guilty of this trope you are railing against. My response was just that Halo did a better job of having aliens be aliens than Mass Effect does, both in appearance and culture. Please don't reply. We've cluttered this thread enough.
No, its cool. We all have our opinions about different things.
I am glad that you are able to enjoy the Halo series; sometimes I wish I still could. I would have to respectfully disagree that it does a better job at handling the aliens and "humans are special" trope though. 
EDIT:
A video game setting that handles aliens as aliens satisfactory, and avoids the "humans are special" trope is Sword of the Stars. That universe even handles things similar to the Reapers in in a much more balanced and nuanced fashion (IMO). Too bad I can't play it to save my life 
Retour en haut
