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[Han Shot First]

Their bodies aren't designed for the frontlines.  We have better races for combat.

 

That is another one of those things that I hope the writers quietly pretend was never uttered in the series. What exactly does that mean exactly? That feminine curves make someone unsuited for combat? You don't have to be a big burly dude to kill people with a rifle.

 

 

 

The woman in that photo, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was a Soviet sniper during the Second World War. She was credited with 309 confirmed kills. 

 

Contrary to popular belief you also don't even have to be a muscle-bound guy to kill a person in hand-to-hand combat. 

 

 

The person in that photo is Nancy Wake, an Aussie who served in Britain's Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, and was embedded with the French resistance. She once killed an SS trooper with her bare hands.

 

 

 

On the night of 29/30 April 1944, Wake was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat in the Forest of Tronçais. Upon discovering her tangled in a tree, Captain Tardivat greeted her remarking, "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year," to which she replied, "Don't give me that French sh1t." Her duties included allocating arms and equipment that were parachuted in and minding the group's finances. Wake became instrumental in recruiting more members and making the maquis groups into a formidable force, roughly 7,500 strong. She also led attacks on German installations and the local Gestapo HQ in Montluçon. At one point Wake discovered that her men were protecting a girl who was a German spy. They did not have the heart to kill her in cold blood, but when Wake insisted she would perform the execution, they capitulated.

 

From April 1944 until the liberation of France, her 7,000+ maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while suffering only 100 themselves. Her French companions, especially Henri Tardivat, praised her fighting spirit, amply demonstrated when she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him from raising the alarm during a raid. During a 1990s television interview, when asked what had happened to the sentry who spotted her, Wake simply drew her finger across her throat. "They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practised away at it. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."

 

On another occasion, to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid, Wake rode a bicycle for more than 500 kilometres (310 mi) through several German checkpoints. During a German attack on another maquis group, Wake, along with two American officers, took command of a section whose leader had been killed. She directed the use of suppressive fire, which facilitated the group's withdrawal without further losses.

 

Nancy Wake

 

The series also contradicts itself by having the Asari military consist in large part of commandos who have a reputation as the galaxy's best soldiers, while simultaneously saying they're not suited for combat. LOL, wut?

 

In any case it is yet another example of the terribad Planet of Hats trope. Salarians and Asari are commandos, Krogan are front line infantry, Quarians are combat engineers, Volus are support personnel, ect. It's stupid. You can't field an effective military that only performs a single specialized role. On that note, Bioware stumbles heavily when it delves into military fiction. 

[myahele]

It makes sense for an Asari to be in Andromeda; they can breed with just about anything/ anyone. So if Andromeda's goal is to find planets and repopulate Race(s) then an Asari makes sense.

[vbibbi]

 

That is another one of those things that I hope the writers quietly pretend was never uttered in the series. What exactly does that mean exactly? That feminine curves make someone unsuited for combat? You don't have to be a big burly dude to kill people with a rifle.

 

 

 

The woman in that photo, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was a Soviet sniper during the Second World War. She was credited with 309 confirmed kills. 

 

Contrary to popular belief you also don't even have to be a muscle-bound guy to kill a person in hand-to-hand combat. 

 

 

The person in that photo is Nancy Wake, an Aussie who served in Britain's Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, and was embedded with the French resistance. She once killed an SS trooper with her bare hands.

 

 

 

 

Nancy Wake

 

The series also contradicts itself by having the Asari military consist in large part of commandos who have a reputation as the galaxy's best soldiers, while simultaneously saying they're not suited for combat. LOL, wut?

 

In any case is yet another example of the terribad Planet of Hats trope. Salarians and Asari are commandos, Krogan are front line infantry, Quarians are combat engineers, Volus are support personnel, ect. It's stupid. You can't field an effective military that only performs a single specialized role. On that note, Bioware stumbles heavily when it delves into military fiction. 

Yeah the asari commandos were tough opponents in ME1 when we had to fight them and they could cripple the team with biotics. Then on Thessia, where one would assume there was top level security, the asari troops don't show any special aptitude in combat. Why do none of the troops on the ground use biotics against the reaper troops?

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Yeah the asari commandos were tough opponents in ME1 when we had to fight them and they could cripple the team with biotics. Then on Thessia, where one would assume there was top level security, the asari troops don't show any special aptitude in combat. Why do none of the troops on the ground use biotics against the reaper troops?

 

Because they forgot how to fight. They spent too much time dancing.   Actually it was probably the simple fact that the devs didn't want the commandos to outshine and inept Shepard.

 

Even the Asari ships don't fire weapons. I think the reason is because the devs were too lazy to do a firing animation for them. 

[Laughing_Man]

The series also contradicts itself by having the Asari military consist in large part of commandos who have a reputation as the galaxy's best soldiers, while simultaneously saying they're not suited for combat. LOL, wut?

 

In any case it is yet another example of the terribad Planet of Hats trope. Salarians and Asari are commandos, Krogan are front line infantry, Quarians are combat engineers, Volus are support personnel, ect. It's stupid. You can't field an effective military that only performs a single specialized role. On that note, Bioware stumbles heavily when it delves into military fiction. 

 

This, so much.

 

The idea that every alien race can be summed up by one universal trait and a single fighting style is one of the dumbest tropes in Sci-Fi.

 

I mean compare this pile of crap with humanity, and the major cultural differences between nations, even nations which are very close geographically to each other...

[von uber]

The worst trope by far in Mass Effect is Humans are Special.

It's exceptionally creatively bankrupt and is designed to appeal to insecure teenagers.

[Laughing_Man]

The worst trope by far in Mass Effect is Humans are Special.

It's exceptionally creatively bankrupt and is designed to appeal to insecure teenagers.

 

It simply follows the trope I mentioned, because if the aliens are almost a one dimensional caricature, what else are you able to go with if not "humans are special"?

[Revan Reborn]

The worst trope by far in Mass Effect is Humans are Special.

It's exceptionally creatively bankrupt and is designed to appeal to insecure teenagers.

I would argue that's a mis-characterization of Mass Effect, actually. I know why people assume this (human reaper, Earth being the central focus of ME3, etc.), however, it's not that humanity was ever special. What was actually special was Shepard. The reapers had an obsession with Shepard, and thus they wanted to create something that could destroy him/her. What better creation than a reaper made of his/her own species or destroying his/her planet?

 

TIM believe humanity was special, even enough to control the reapers, and he was wrong. The reapers were scared of Shepard. He/She defeated Sovereign. He/She defeated the collectors. They didn't know how to approach him/her, so they tried to destroy him/her in a variety of ways.

[Gwydden]

The worst trope by far in Mass Effect is Humans are Special.

It's exceptionally creatively bankrupt and is designed to appeal to insecure teenagers.

I think that misses the issue.

 

Bioware games have always been a bit of... an onanistic fantasy, to be honest. You're avatar is the awesomest awesome person who ever awesomed and the entire world turns around them. That they would extend that to humanity in a science fiction game is unsurprising.

 

I definitely want them to dial down the "humans are special" theme. I love humanity, such as they are. Not as some fake idealized version. But even so, I don't think that would actually solve anything unless they stop making the protagonist so ridiculously over the top. And Shepard was by far the worst offender in this regard, much more so than the Warden or even the Inquisitor.

 

Just my two cents.

[Mlady]

The worst trope by far in Mass Effect is Humans are Special.

It's exceptionally creatively bankrupt and is designed to appeal to insecure teenagers.

 

I had so much trouble feeling Shepard's urge to save Earth at the cost of other species planets. When Tevos says that the Earth can be basically used as distraction while the others regroup, I agreed with that. This whole "take back Earth" thing never worked for me at all or how Shepard had to go about it, constantly thinking of only Earth even if she never lived there, and despite being a human living on Earth and playing this game as a human (since we can't actually play another species due to the translator), I felt more inclined to save Palaven, Sur'Kesh and Thessia.

[Laughing_Man]

There was also the "Save Earth" marketing thing for ME3, maybe it went even further then just this, maybe there was a demand to make the story more
about humanity due to marketing reasons.

[Ahriman]

It simply follows the trope I mentioned, because if the aliens are almost a one dimensional caricature, what else are you able to go with if not "humans are special"?

I know one game which makes humans one-dimensional as well. "Space rangers" if it gives you anything.

In other games, books and films humans are always 'neutral'. It's so overused it hurts.

[von uber]

I would argue that's a mis-characterization of Mass Effect, actually. I know why people assume this (human reaper, Earth being the central focus of ME3, etc.), however, it's not that humanity was ever special. What was actually special was Shepard. The reapers had an obsession with Shepard, and thus they wanted to create something that could destroy him/her. What better creation than a reaper made of his/her own species or destroying his/her planet?

 

TIM believe humanity was special, even enough to control the reapers, and he was wrong. The reapers were scared of Shepard. He/She defeated Sovereign. He/She defeated the collectors. They didn't know how to approach him/her, so they tried to destroy him/her in a variety of ways.

 

Sorry, but no - humans in Mass Effect are like the Americans in Independence Day.

 

Take, for example, the fact that Humanity is the only species in this cycle to ever come up with the concept of creating ****** carrier craft.

I mean come on.

 

It's like the scene where the Americans start communicating with (insert your national stereotype here) and the British go "It's about time - what do they plan to do?" like no other ****** nation on Earth would have thought of a plan and it required the Americans to mobilise anyone.

 

 

Gah I hate that movie.

[Laughing_Man]

I had so much trouble feeling Shepard's urge to save Earth at the cost of other species planets. When Tevos says that the Earth can be basically used as distraction while the others regroup, I agreed with that. This whole "take back the Earth" thing never worked for me at all or how Shepard had to go about it, constantly thinking of only Earth even if she never lived there, and despite being a human living on Earth and playing this game as a human (since we can't actually play another species due to the translator), I felt more inclined to save Palaven, Sur'Kesh and Thessia.

 

Indeed, it seems awfully narrow minded and not to mention idiotic to throw all forces into a head-to-head fight with an endless armada of Reapers (and potentially lose the majority of your forces) just for the unlikely chance to maybe save one planet, when the threat is so much bigger than this.

[Mlady]

Indeed, it seems awfully narrow minded and not to mention idiotic to throw all forces into a head-to-head fight with an endless armada of Reapers (and potentially lose the majority of your forces) just for the unlikely chance to maybe save one planet, when the threat is so much bigger than this.

 

I understand Earth is a big deal for Shepard (unless you're a Spacer or Colonist) but my Paragon Shepard loved all species and was good friends with so many, and she would never have become so selfish with how she spoke about Earth if I had control over her dialogue. Not to mention Renegade players who don't give a damn about Earth cared too much over things they shouldn't have. 

 

I hope in MEA we get more flexibility with our options, or maybe something like the dialogue wheel in DA2 that shaped your Hawke and when Hawke would use auto-dialogue it was based on how you made him or her (Diplomatic, Sarcastic, Aggressive).

 

Shepard in ME3 felt pro-human and Paragon no matter what you did in the past when the auto-dialogue was active.

[Gwydden]

Sorry, but no - humans in Mass Effect are like the Americans in Independence Day.

 

Gah I hate that movie.

Murica, y'all!

 

Indeed, it seems awfully narrow minded and not to mention idiotic to throw all forces into a head-to-head fight with an endless armada of Reapers (and potentially lose the majority of your forces) just for the unlikely chance to maybe save one planet, when the threat is so much bigger than this.

I kept waiting for the turians and the asari to ask why the final battle had to take place on Earth, even though their own planets had been hit just as hard. I was particularly eager to hear Shepard's answer, but alas, it was not meant to be.

[Laughing_Man]

I kept waiting for the turians and the asari to ask why the final battle had to take place on Earth, even though their own planets had been hit just as hard. I was particularly eager to hear Shepard's answer, but alas, it was not meant to be.

 

Yeah. But I have trouble even with the concept of a "final battle" against something like the Reapers.

 

You don't fight fair against something like this, you create distractions and ambushes, blow up mass-relays to kill some of them and slow down the rest, and generally delay them as much as possible, all in hopes of managing to find a ****** (edit: really Bioware?...) in their armor or develop something new.

(or if all else fails, find a place to hide / send an ARK to Andromeda...)

[Revan Reborn]

<reasons>

That is a terrible comparison. Of course Independence Day was going to be American-centric when the title of the film is named after the American holiday...

 

I'm not even sure what element of Mass Effect you are referencing. Again, I think people are mistaken Mass Effect was a "humanity is special" scenario. The problem was Shepard was too special. He/She could do no wrong and had a solution for everything. Shepard is by far one of the biggest Mary Sues I've ever seen in a video game. That's not necessarily bad, but because Shepard was so special it bled over into this idea that humanity, as a result, was special. I don't believe that was intended.

 

If anything, I think a better comparison is Shepard to Master Chief. In Halo, humanity, itself, isn't special at all. In fact, it suffers from all sorts of flaws and is clearly inferior to the Covenant and the Forerunners. Master Chief, on the other hand, is the "chosen one," much like Shepard, so he is able to do what his fellow humans cannot. Mass Effect is the same way. Asari are the must advanced race in the galaxy. Turians have the strongest military. Quarians have the largest fleet. Humanity really isn't even in the discussion, until Shepard rises to the top.

 

Mass Effect suffers from Shepard being too special, not humanity.

[Mlady]

Yeah. But I have trouble even with the concept of a "final battle" against something like the Reapers.

 

You don't fight fair against something like this, you create distractions and ambushes, blow up mass-relays to kill some of them and slow down the rest, and generally delay them as much as possible, all in hopes of managing to find a ****** in their armor or develop something new.

(or if all else fails, find a place to hide / send an ARK to Andromeda...)

 

Shepard even found out the red "eye" was a weak point and they just kept pounding on the body lol I wanted to yell "aim for the red eye you dummies!"

[vbibbi]

I think that misses the issue.

 

Bioware games have always been a bit of... an onanistic fantasy, to be honest. You're avatar is the awesomest awesome person who ever awesomed and the entire world turns around them. That they would extend that to humanity in a science fiction game is unsurprising.

 

I definitely want them to dial down the "humans are special" theme. I love humanity, such as they are. Not as some fake idealized version. But even so, I don't think that would actually solve anything unless they stop making the protagonist so ridiculously over the top. And Shepard was by far the worst offender in this regard, much more so than the Warden or even the Inquisitor.

 

Just my two cents.

Bioware went for a story where the PC wasn't the awesomest person ever, in DA2, and I think that was one of the major factors in its poor reception. DAI's return to the power fantasy suggests Bio won't be so eager to pursue that kind of story again, unfortunately. I guess we'll have to see what role the MEA PC has, and maybe the new IP PC.

[Barquiel]

In any case it is yet another example of the terribad Planet of Hats trope. Salarians and Asari are commandos, Krogan are front line infantry, Quarians are combat engineers, Volus are support personnel, ect. It's stupid. You can't field an effective military that only performs a single specialized role. On that note, Bioware stumbles heavily when it delves into military fiction. 

 

To be fair, the planet descriptions for the asari worlds imply that each republic operates different, with different ideologies, cultures, etc.

For example, some colonies simply surrendered when the reapers attacks. Then you have some worlds where asari colonists are fighting the reapers in a guerilla warfare, using submarine vehicles for example (Trategos). And some worlds like Cyone have thrown back the Reaper attacks.

I think whoever wrote these descriptions had the right idea.

[von uber]

That is a terrible comparison. Of course Independence Day was going to be American-centric when the title of the film is named after the American holiday...

 

I'm not even sure what element of Mass Effect you are referencing. Again, I think people are mistaken Mass Effect was a "humanity is special" scenario. The problem was Shepard was too special. He/She could do no wrong and had a solution for everything. Shepard is by far one of the biggest Mary Sues I've ever seen in a video game. That's not necessarily bad, but because Shepard was so special it bled over into this idea that humanity, as a result, was special. I don't believe that was intended.

 

If anything, I think a better comparison is Shepard to Master Chief. In Halo, humanity, itself, isn't special at all. In fact, it suffers from all sorts of flaws and is clearly inferior to the Covenant and the Forerunners. Master Chief, on the other hand, is the "chosen one," much like Shepard, so he is able to do what his fellow humans cannot. Mass Effect is the same way. Asari are the must advanced race in the galaxy. Turians have the strongest military. Quarians have the largest fleet. Humanity really isn't even in the discussion, until Shepard rises to the top.

 

Mass Effect suffers from Shepard being too special, not humanity.

 

Wait, what?

You are talking about the species which in 30 years goes from a single solar system civilisation to a galaxy wide powerhouse? To the point where they end up co-rulers of the galaxy, and commanding the entire last ditch effort of the galactic forces to save everyone?

Even the reapers specifically target humanity because of what special snowflakes they are.

[themikefest]

Yes humans are special

 

Why?

 

- we're better looking

- better entertainment

- better vacation spots

- the best looking homeworld in the universe

- the best sports, football, hockey, soccer etc

- better fashion.

- the most important part, it took a human to stop the reapers. Commander Shepard.

 

So yeah. Humans are special.

[Gwydden]

Yeah. But I have trouble even with the concept of a "final battle" against something like the Reapers.

 

You don't fight fair against something like this, you create distractions and ambushes, blow up mass-relays to kill some of them and slow down the rest, and generally delay them as much as possible, all in hopes of managing to find a ****** (edit: really Bioware?...) in their armor or develop something new.

(or if all else fails, find a place to hide / send an ARK to Andromeda...)

I agree, but I'm willing to tolerate that because ME always excels at being a popcorny action film and sucks at showing anything remotely resembling a plausible war story. In other words, it is a good space opera, but terrible military science fiction. We have to take what we can get.

 

Mass Effect suffers from Shepard being too special, not humanity.

To an extent, yes. But humans are still shown to be special independent of Shepard. They win the First Contact War, even though they are newcomers who have just discovered FTL technology while the turians have been the galaxy's top military for a millenium. They get an embassy in a decade instead of the usual century and become part of the Council thirty years after first contact even though some species, like the volus and the hanar, have been waiting for thousands of years while contributing to the galactic community. They invented medigels and carriers, which apparently aliens were too dumb to think about in OVER TWO THOUSAND YEARS of spacefaring civilization. Cerberus is an all human organization that manages to figure out how to bring a man from the dead and is able to challenge aliens in their homeworld like it's nothing.

 

And it goes on.

 

Bioware went for a story where the PC wasn't the awesomest person ever, in DA2, and I think that was one of the major factors in its poor reception. DAI's return to the power fantasy suggests Bio won't be so eager to pursue that kind of story again, unfortunately. I guess we'll have to see what role the MEA PC has, and maybe the new IP PC.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I like to think that DA2's poor reception had all to do with its rushed production cycle resulting in a lackluster execution and little relation to Hawke being Bioware's most grounded protagonist.

[aoibhealfae]

I glance through the codex and I think I read about how the Asari commando didn't really think much about spending several decades merely studying something like hand-to-hand combat and weapons etc and hence their reputation being the deadliest in the galaxy... which really sounds awesome. The nearest we could get to this was with Aria.

 

But even then, the Asari culture does feel restrictive. For a long lived race, I'm starting to feel that it was really for employment, economy, politically and socially. I could understand why there's a lot of Asari choosing to be away from the system and deviate. I kinda wish they had expanded Dantius sisters and the whole Asari slavers spectrum on Ilium. 

 

Sorry, but that is only because that is the way he was written. You can't argue that Liara is only supporting and can be easily written out and not Joker, because he could also easily be written out. Any character could.

Personally I hate the way Joker is forced on me from the start, stalks me even after death to fly my new ship (and I have no choice but to let him), I'm automatically best buds with him, have mandatory scenes with him where i can;t tell him to go away or get off my ship etc- let alone he is the only character in ME which you can play apart from Shepard and he gets his own entire level (Bioware's special little snowflake in fact!).

 

I.e. all the arguments used against Liara.

 

Writing out Joker will open a lot of holes in the trilogy and I've already listed in the last few posts on how his presence affect the major arcs in the story. Much of Shepard's trilogy narrative are tied to him directly and Seth Green stated it plainly; "But without my character you would be lost. You contact him when you’re on a planet, or he contacts you. He lets you know whats going on, if there’s any other information. That kind of stuff happening, Joker’s there." That is just for ME1, but in the story, he is the anchor in the narrative construct.

 

Yes, any character can be written out but without Joker as the anchor, you will lose the significance of SSV Normandy and Shepard in general. He wasn't created to be a sympathetic character and you're not required to like him, even Renegade Shepard branded him as a "crippled ass". But the more I analyse his character the more complex he become. Underneath all the bad jokes and passive aggressiveness, there was a lot of fragility and vulnerability and surprisingly a lot of strength for someone like him. There's a lot of good reason why he like flying since it was likely that the artificial gravity created by the mass effect fields isn't too hard on his tortured body but being in space also exposes him to a lot of risk of fractures because loss of bone mass. Because of his condition, he really doesn't have a lot of time to live and he wanted to live to the fullest doing the things he love. You can be renegade to him in the trilogy. You can refuse to pair him with EDI. You can be dismissive and order him to man up and even have an argument with him after Thessia. You can be dismissive with him and don't apologize to him after the outburst. You can find out that he still felt guilty about causing Shepard's death and he was angry with himself. There's even a hidden arc about his family from the Asari commando who murdered his sister which you can avenge Joker yourself by approving the gun that she wanted so badly. 

 

But when I do a critic on either a scientific or fictional work, I usually take a step back and study the framework as objectively as I can. Mass Effect is a story that relies heavily on characters narratives at its core. In this aspect, what appeals to me was the complexities in most of characters in the game and the most telling signs was when the characters was able to expand its narrative by itself without too much effort on my part. Joker is one of the example for this. Likability and personal feelings is quite irrelevant at this point.