yorkj86 wrote...
I like her because the Justicars and the Code show that the Asari are, in fact, imperfect, and that they have morally questionable practices. The Justicars present a dilemma when humans interact with Asari, because of differences with regard to the way justice is carried out. It's just important to remember that Justicars are few (I think Samara says there are less than a handful in existence), and are sent to deal with problems that can't be dealt with through normal means.
One reason I like Samara is because I can appreciate the moral ambiguity of her character. I need to think of her from a human & non-asari perspective, and an asari perspective, in trying to understand her character.
If Samara's moral ambiguity was actually explored in the game, that would be great. That would actually make her portrayal a relatively self-aware one on the part of the game writers. Instead (and if you disagree that's totally fine, I'm not coming into the Samara fan thread to troll you guys. At least not anymore
), I feel that Samara was portrayed in a way that didn't really address the kinds of questions you would naturally ask about someone in her position. Shep is in a similar position in terms of accountability, but over the course of the two games we learn a bit about his/her opinion on the matter; paragon Shep seems to not quite like the lack of accountability the Spectres have, and has lines that he/she won't cross, but is willing to take advantage of the situation for the greater cause of justice. Renegade Shep, on the other hand, is more like 'No accountability?! Watch out, galaxy, here I come!' Samara doesn't really get this level of explanation because the Justicars are essentially handwaved as 'good people' by the writing, which I find to be frustrating. The only thing counting in her favor from a Paragon's point of view, in my opinion, is that the alternative to her is Morinth.
There's another problem I have with Jack, Samara, and to a lesser extent Thane, which is that when they're in the game they seem to be written in such a way that it really steals the focus and direction of the game away from Shep. That also means that I'm not exactly surprised when people become big fans of the characters, since, for example, the writer in question seems to have bent over backwards to portray Samara as an uber-cool stone-cold space samurai (but with boobs!). I just feel that the somewhat schizophrenic focus on all of the secondary characters in ME2, rather than the main character, hurt the game, and I think that the portrayals of the three characters I mentioned were too shallow.
That said, it was interesting to find out about Justicars within the context of the ME universe; it makes sense that they would exist, and I'm betting that part of the reason that Spectres exist is that the Asari, who obviously have influenced the governmental and social structure of the Council goverment the most, are comfortable with those kind of wandering, unaccountable arbiters of justice. I don't think that Samara is a totally terrible character, but my negative opinion of her is more part of what I see as the overall problems with ME2. I have to say that I'd like to see her have some character development where she really has to face the implications of her actions and her responsibility for what happens when she's following her Code. In particular, a situation in which another Justicar, perhaps a less thoughtful and more fanatical one, was hunting an Ardat Yakshi who had just realized her situation and was more in the 'running scared' mode, and the other Justicar wasn't really trying to capture her, just kill her. How Samara reacted to a situation like that, with the strictness of the Code vs. what may very well have been an accidental string of deaths rather than murder, all tied up with her own regrets and feelings as a mother, would to me really be a test of her character and a good chance to see what she's like under that calm demeanor. The same situation would be fairly revealing for Morinth, as well.
Anyway, not trying to say 'you're all bad for liking this character and you should feel bad!,' but rather just trying to have a reasoned discussion about the character.
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