I think in the Quarian/Geth conflict. The Quarians are at fault, back then and even now.
There is no question that the Quarians started the war. Even their own history admits this. The fact that they did not intend to create sentient AI is essentially irrelevant to me. The fact remains that they DID. They created a new sentient species. And the very first action they took upon realising this, was to try and wipe out this new species. I place no blame on the Geth for trying to survive against a hostile aggressor trying to wipe them out.
Yes, the Geth did cause significant civilian casualties both directly and likely indirectly. Given that the Quarian labor force was mostly Geth, simple refusal to work probably caused mass starvation and such. And it is certainly possible that the Geth did not/could not distinguish which Quarians were non-combatant and killed them in the fighting. And it seems likely that when the Quarians fled, they probably did not have enough resources to maintain their numbers in the ships, and had people die due to overpopulation problems. So there is no denying that innocents died in that war, on both sides. And the Quarian population has continued to dimish due to population control, until we reach the current 17 million.
But again, the Quarians could have tried to find peace, apologize for their actions, try to explain that they reacted out of fear and so on. If they had, and the Geth had refused these attempts to reach a settlement, I would have more sympathy for the Quarians. But there does not seem to be any sign of this happening. The Quarians kept fighting and trying to wipe the geth out until the very end, when they were forced to flee. And even then, after all this aggression and attempted genocide, the Geth did NOT follow. They could easily have done so then or anywhere afterwards, and wiped the Quarians out completely. They did not, and have not done so. I doubt the Quarians would have showed such mercy if the situation had been reversed.
Now it may seem unfair to blame the current Quarians for the actions of their ancestors. After all, these events happened 300 years ago. Everyone who took part in the war is long dead. Some Geth programs may potentially be around, but on the whole the Geth have changed and evolved massively. We can see this when we talk to Legion. And ofcourse the Quarians responsible, and their children and grandchildren all have died of old age long since. So there is no denying that blaming either the current Geth, or Tali's generation of Quarians for the Morning War would be unjust.
The major problem however, to me atleast, is that unlike the Geth, the Quarians have not learned a damn thing from their past mistakes. Rather than accepting responsibility for their mistakes and trying to fix them by seeking peace, they continue to view the Geth as slaves. Look at Tali's loyalty mission. The Quarians were seeking a way to reprogram the Geth as a whole, returning them to slavery. Think about admiral Daro'Xen, who freely and openly wants to erase the sentience of Geth and turn them back into slaves, essentially committing genocide. And she obviously has a lot of support. She even sends you an email about how she found the research of Tali's father, and how she intends to "reclaim not just her homeworld, but the largest synthetic army in the galaxy"
The only "good" Quarian, the one who is actually willing to see the Geth as a fellow sentient species with the rights therein, and who is trying to seek peace is Zaal'Koris. But his desires seem to be in the minority. Mostly the Quarian attitude towards the Geth seems to be JUST like the attitude of those, who tried to pull the plug in the first place and commit genocide during the Morning War.
So essentially, most of the Quarians of today may be merely the descendants of those who actually begun the war. But they are the ones who are continuing to fight it. They are the ones who see the Geth as little more than machines and want to turn them back into mindless drones (committing genocide in the process), just like their ancestors tried. It is difficult to have sympathy for them.
I finish this with a quote from Legion if when talking to Zaal'koris, you ask him if peace would be possible.
Shephard: Do you think the Geth would be willing to accept a truce with the Quarians, Legion?
Legion: We did not seek hostilities with Creators. We fought for continued existence.
Admiral Koris: So your people would be open to peace?
Legion: Not without additional data that suggests coexistence is possible or desirable for Creators.
Legion: When the Creators have believed victory is possible, they have attacked us 100 percent of the time.
The Quarian homeworld is essentially uninhabited with only a token Geth presence. They could return at any time. They would only need be willing to accept the Geth as a sentient species and let go of their bigotry , hatred and pride. And in 300 years, they have not been able to do that. Their fate (the flotilla) is entirely of their own making.
Hopefully, in ME3 we will get a chance to show this fact to them, and maybe bring about a chance for the better.
Modifié par datakim, 18 février 2010 - 08:37 .
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