[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Very Tired]

Of course Shepard is special. He goes up to Level 60, the rest of the army only goes up to 20.

[Nazrark]

The first game could be stated that it is Shepard's journey to prove himself along with humanity. Their place in the galactic politics. In ME2, Miranda asks TIM why Shepard. He explains that he is an icon, someone that humanity can rally behind. He is to humanity as to what McArthur was to the US army. Shepard would have been able to rally an enormous amount of people to whatever cause he chose. TIM wanted him to eventually be his running mate in turning humanity into an empire. Which would have been nice, to see what TIM would have built in preparation for the Reapers. Considering he amassed a massive fleet and army in such a short amount of time. I suppose it helps to have the military industrial complex supporting you.

Which brings me to another question. For the most part, the Council does not give the Spectres a lot of funding. Sure they give them a ship and some gear. But the rest is pretty much up to the Spectre to find out. If Shepard hadn't died, I'm positive he would have amassed his own personal army and fleet. Started preparations for the impending invasion much earlier.

[Deleted]

Doesnt Spectres have seemingly unlimited funding?
Mission is priority, all the time. Even at expense of prothean ruins so i really cant imagine them being moneygrubbers like real governments.
Its their elite, it would be far too smalltime for them to whine about lunchexpenses when the guy just saved an entire colony.

And Shepards ace is pretty much his verbal steamrolling, he himself never does anything special until he duels the reaper on Rannoch.
Probably how he became a spectre candidate to begin with.

[May90]

As I understand it, this cycle is fundamentally different from others in that it created much more genetically various organics. They are different, but there is no genetically dominant race, Turians, Asari, Salarians and Humans manage to live together, unlike previous cycles in which there was supposedly always one dominant race enslaving other races (in the previous cycle it was the Protheans). As Javik says, it may be the only hope of the current cycle. Then, Leviathan directly tells Shepard that he/she is unique among many cycles: "Your confidence is singular. It is clear why Reapers perceive you as a threat", first time they openly joined the war along with organics because they saw something in Shepard they've never seen before. And why is Shepard so different? Because in this cycle races are much more genetically diverse, especially humans, and, as such, there are certain extreme examples, such as Shepard with "singular confidence".

I think, when Shepard gets to the Crucible, Catalyst realizes that there have been no organics like Shepard before, that Shepard's "code" is superior, and that may be why Crucible works so well with Shepard's sacrifice; someone else could not cause energy outburst enough to stop the cycles forever.

So, basically, this cycle is different from previous cycles in three ways.
1) Protheans managed to tweak Citadel's systems preventing Reapers from destroying organics with one swift blow and giving them some minimal chance in the war.
2) Organics are genetically more diverse. As such, they managed to create something akin to democracy, instead of totalitarian empire ruled by a dominant race, which made the war more manageable when Reapers arrived.
3) Diverse genetics led to stronger extremes in personalities. Culmination of this is Shepard with immense confidence, strong enough to make the whole Galaxy believe in success.

Catalyst didn't expect any cycle to be so unique, it thought that the pattern could not be broken. When it saw that its vision was limited and that there was more to organics than it thought, "new variables" came to place, and when Shepard first among all the organics reached the Catalyst, it finally realized that the old solution was not perfect.

Remember how Leviathan answers Shepard's question about when the cycles will end? "Unknown... The cycles will continue until the intelligence finds what it seeks". Perhaps what it seeks through cycles is this turn in organics evolution, when there are many races cooperating with each other, instead of one dominant race which inevitably creates synthetics that destroy everything?

[May90]

And Shepards ace is pretty much his verbal steamrolling, he himself never does anything special until he duels the reaper on Rannoch.
Probably how he became a spectre candidate to begin with.

As EDI put it, Shepard manages to survive despite very low chance of survival. Shepard almost never does anything special, but very often does something that is a little bit too dangerous - and consistently makes it out alive (except for once, which still didn't stop him). Just count how many enemies he has killed through all 3 games. At least 10,000, I think, plus 3 Reaper Destroyers and 1 Reaper Capital Ship. The reason he manages to do it, according to Zaeed, is that "persistent enough person can survive just about anything". Shepard's main weapon is infinite confidence which lets him rally entire civilizations for war despite impossible odds.

I find it more interesting than typical world saving stories. Like Revan: he was just way stronger than anyone else and made it through mainly by his abilities, and people followed him more because of his power than because of his personality. Shepard is a more "realistic" kind of hero: he is not much stronger than a strong veteran soldier, but the way he speaks to others, the way he keeps going no matter what happens and no matter how slim chances of success are - it impacts others in such a way that they start fighting 500% better and start believing too. At the end of ME1 and ME2, when he left the crew, people just scattered immediately: Shepard was the only power holding them together doing crazy things. But they also learned a lot from him: look at what Garrus did on Omega, or what Liara did, well, everywhere. And, again, they did so not because they were so strong, but because Shepard taught them how to go after impossible results no matter what. I find this much more compelling than all those standards "super-heroes" dodging every bullet and killing bad guys with a sneeze.

[rhorle]

Shepard is not something special in the Universe. It only seems so because she is the protagonist and writers gave her "Special" aura in later games.

You forgot the back story. Where Shepard was the sole survivor of a thresher maw attack on Akuze, Risked your life to save your follow soldiers against impossible odds by almost single-handedly repelling an attack by Batarian slavers on Elysium, or Cold, calculating and ruthless and the first choice for when failure isn't an option and you sent 3/4ths of your unit to its death to murder surrendering batarians on Torfan.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cod...istory_Summary

Shepard is set up as something special in the universe. The things Shepard does isn't something any run of the mill human can do.

[Elim Garak]

These back-stories (Sole survivor, War Hero and Ruthless) were created only for intro explanation of why Shepard was chosen as a second candidate to become a Spectre.
Don't read too much into them. Shepard wasn't the only Sole Survivor, War hero and Ruthless. There were many people in N7 too.

[zealo]

Shepard is not someone unique as far as combat goes, there is bound to be plenty of other commandos both within the spectres and the N7 that could have pulled the same shit off.

At the start of ME1 he is no one extremely special but its the events taking places during the series that shapes that image, its the fact that he becomes a symbol of humanity in combination with being portrayed as a born leader that makes him special more so than his combat capabilities.

[May90]

Shepard is very strong emotionally and verbally. He can take a few strong shots and survive, but not because his physiology is superior, but because he has extreme confidence and willpower and will go forward no matter what. This makes him a very strong combatant, not his skill, but his emotional state. And, since Shepard also influences positively anyone who fights alongside him, a group of Shepard, Liara and Garrus, for example, can take down just about anything, even though separately they are just very good soldiers.

Shepard is like Joan of Arc or Alexander The Great: not a supersoldier, but an idol, a strong charismatic leader able to rally the entire Galaxy against the common enemy.

[rhorle]

These back-stories (Sole survivor, War Hero and Ruthless) were created only for intro explanation of why Shepard was chosen as a second candidate to become a Spectre.
Don't read too much into them. Shepard wasn't the only Sole Survivor, War hero and Ruthless. There were many people in N7 too.

Of course he wouldn't be the only exceptional Human in the galaxy. All of N7 is exceptional but remember that N7 by default is the special select few that are already above the ordinary. The back stories are part of the lore of the game. If you can't read to much into them then any other lore in the game should be treated equally. Which means that no lore should be taken seriously and is of little value.

[Deleted]

Vega made N7.
So theres that.

Did anyone else watch the movie?

[Nazrark]

Vega made N7.
So theres that.

Did anyone else watch the movie?

The movie was fine. Wasn't great or bad. Just fine, but also makes a nice back story for Vega. I kinda wish they would have done more animations.

[Deleted]

The movie was fine.
I liked the krogan battle scene.

But what really was enjoyable was to watch Vegas ultimate good guy (the way they forced the idea of Vega being an impeccable hero rolemodel down our throats was suffocating) abandon everyone that depended on him just to go for the blue lady that he fancied.

[Deleted]

Movie? What movie is this?

[Deleted]

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

[zealo]

Found paragon lost to be god awful but i suppose it could do if you really have nothing else to do.

[Nerraw]

I haven't watched it, and I probably never will.

[Tekkommo]

So I bought the Citadel DLC because I was bored and wanted something new to play.

OMG it was cheesy as fuck, couldn't play it for long. Now if Miranda is in it later, I might play it.

[May90]

So I bought the Citadel DLC because I was bored and wanted something new to play.

OMG it was cheesy as fuck, couldn't play it for long. Now if Miranda is in it later, I might play it.

Yes, it was cheesy, and it is the reason this is my favorite DLC of all 3 games. As for Miranda, yes, she is there. There is every companion you've ever had, except for, of course, Mordin (you get a few funny messages he left), Thane (you get to talk with his son on the memorial evening), Legion and whoever died on Virmire in ME1.

[Deleted]

You know its a hell of a party when Shepard gets raped by Javik.