IoCaster wrote...
1) There's plenty of evidence throughout the game that Cerberus is guilty of a slew of dirty deeds. Jacob admits as much almost in your first conversation. Blind trust and denial reflects poorly on her judgment. Bad judgment in a supposed leader is an indicator of incompetence for the role.
2) How many times did she overhear the radio transmissions that were quite clear about the situation with Nikets betrayal. You even get a dialogue choice that flatly states that he betrayed her. Blind trust and denial reflects poorly on her judgment. Bad judgment in a supposed leader is an indicator of incompetence for the role.
3) Rationalize it however you want to, it was a clear attempt by the writers to convey a suspect judgment on her part. I simply take them at their word and agree. I'm stating that they did that throughout the course of the game. They kept it up and constantly reinforced the idea that she's incompetent even at the very end of the game.
4) Why even bother at that point unless it was an intentional attempt by the writers to convince the player that Miranda is ill suited to the role of competent leadership?
5) Not very inspiring leadership qualities. The boots haven't even hit the ground yet and the real leader conveys a sense of optimism and can do spirit. It's kind of a "we're not done yet" bravado and something that even a born cynic like Joker appreciates.
6) You left out the obvious correct choice here, which is to activate and interrogate. That whole introductory segment with Legion was intentionally provocative. It was quite startling to me to hear "Shepard-Commander", while it was picking off those Husks. Again, it was the writers making a conscious decision to have her react the way she did. It's not my fault that they made her appear to not consider the value of any information that could be gleaned from questioning the salvaged Geth. I'm at the point where I believe that her primary function in the game was to act as a foil or sounding board to the player. As a consequence of that they gave her the appearance of being an incompetent boob.
AN XO's job is to keep you abreast of options. Once she voices her concerns or suggestions, she doesn't continue to argue the point, unless you're in the briefing room where the entire object is to have open discourse.
I'll absolutely disagree with your assertion here. An XO's job is whatever the Captain designates it to be, full stop.
That's the question that I'm pondering (regarding writers' intent). What exactly were the writers attempting to accomplish with her character? If the intent was to make me as the player accept her as a competent second to my Shepard, then in may case they failed miserably. She's dead, Jim.
1) She has an explanation for all of those. In each case, it's plausible. Plausible, not necessarily correct or the best viewpoint, but acceptable.
2) Her inability to realize the probably betrayal from a few radio transmissions has nothing to do with it. She is positive he's loyal to her, and it's going to take a lot before she's going to change her mind. You are gaming the situation, and are not placing yourself in her mindset. She's also a cocky one, so the idea that she's wrong is hard for her to accept. I know you see that as yet an additional weakness, while I simply see it as a trait.
3) I have no real answer to that, except that I disagree. Since this is an question of writer motivation, and this, metagame, further argument will probably be wasted.
4) No... it and other dialog were a plot mechanism to trap the player that simple goes along with the flow and fails to think. Also, the fact of the matter is that no character is permitted in the ME universe to be better or even comparable to the Great Shepard. Otherwise, who needs you? I admit this is metagaming, though, and can be dismissed.
5) I hope you play an ultra-paragon Shepard all the time. Because the RenShep has no inspiring leadership qualities at all, aside from generating fear. She also probably makes that statement as a bit of convincing herself, but I doubt that impresses you, since you won't accept her as a complex person.
6) Of course that's left out! That's how it's written! The correct move, ingame, is to activate, but they can't even argue that because it's such a bonehead move. The actual best move is to give it to Cerberus where it can be turned back on and interrogated with little or no fear of having problems. I mean, really... having Shepard reactivate it in his own AI core, with one marine to help if things go bad? That's intelligent? But, NO! We all know that Legion is a squad mate, so obviously there's only one correct decision.
Regarding an XO's position. I'm afraid you are mistaken. I am sorry, however, that the game does not permit you to shut up all your crew such that they don't communicate at all with you, since it sounds like that's the "tight ship" you'd want to run.
And, yes.. I think we all caught the Star Trek allusion the first time you used it.
Still, I would trust Jacob's word about being able to pull off the tech specialist assignement even less than Miranda telling him he wasn't fit for it. I can just imagine the rest of the crew's reaction while those two argued. Lots of head shaking and face palming happened at that moment I would imagine.
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