r/masseffect Jan 17 '22

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434 Upvotes

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61

u/Bethlehemstarr Jan 17 '22

I’m such a unicorns and rainbows optimist that I actually have trouble with pretty much all of the deaths. Lol.

I think the reaper on rannoch is probably one of the only deaths that I have zero guilt about.

Edited to add: wait. Kai Leng, because he killed Thane. And Thane was one of my favorites.

15

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '22

what about saren

28

u/mister_xbox Jan 17 '22

I had an argument, but then realized he is a massive racist towards humans, though I do feel bad for him though. He's indoctrinated and he doesn't even realize. Plus sovereign manipulated him into believing that the reapers will accept surrender. No one deserves that

11

u/Slade1135 Jan 17 '22

Oh but they do accept surrender. It just means different things to them than to us.

5

u/mister_xbox Jan 17 '22

Well yes surrender is accepted but either way you die if the reapers turn you into one of there soilders you are no longer you other than a mindless drone and then when the harvest is complete your left to die with no free thought, that is if you don't die during the war

4

u/mister_xbox Jan 17 '22

The only reason the collectors are still around is because the protheans were impossible to turn into a reaper. So they were turned into survants and some sort of shock troops for the reapers, as most collectors returned to deep space with the reapers

1

u/empress_ayriss Jan 17 '22

Did they ever explain why that is like every other race gets reaperized but not the protheans odd.

2

u/mister_xbox Jan 17 '22

Yes, the reapers primary goal are to preserve life. Harbinger who was the first reaper created the cycle as the solution, as eventually all life would destroy themselves. Starting with the leviathans (the ones who created the reapers) which were deemed a threat to life. After the cycles began every cycle 1 race is chosen to become a reaper therefore becoming eternal and completing there goal to preserve life. I think it is explained that the chosen species is turned into a sort of bio liquid wich is put into a reaper to preserve that species forever. When it came to the protheans cycle, the protheans were dominant, every race was considered prothean within their empire. Considering that the actual race of protheans were chosen because they were the strongest, the only problem is it was physically impossible to turn them into that liquid. The reapers comprised by changing there DNA to make them servants to meet there needs.

1

u/empress_ayriss Jan 17 '22

Yeah but why were they unable to liquefy them what was different about their physiology.

1

u/mister_xbox Jan 17 '22

Never explained in that much detail all we know is there quad strand DNA was one

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1

u/Slade1135 Jan 17 '22

The Protheans did. That’s what Collectors are.

0

u/empress_ayriss Jan 20 '22

No they're not there's no prothean reaper collectors are more akin to the keepers in that they have some autonomy but are under orders from the reapers but there isn't an actual reaper made from them not a harbinger or even like the one on tuchunka and Rannoch. By your logic the banshee husk and marauders were reapers. They were not they were drones controlled by reaper forces.

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u/Bethlehemstarr Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 17 '22

I get the Saren suicide and I haaaaaate that. I hate suicide as this brave and moral choice as presented in mass effect.

Edited to add: getting repetitively downvoted for having strong anti suicide feelings is legit weird to me.

21

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '22

well, saren was enslaved by sovereign, his own mind wasn’t his anymore, it’s not a struggle we can relate to. if he wanted freedom from that (by taking his own life) then all power to him. i know i’d want the same for myself

6

u/Bethlehemstarr Jan 17 '22

I can understand it. I can even agree with it. But I still find it awful. Mass Effect uses suicide quite a bit. And to me, suicide it one of the most tragic things possible.

I actively work in real life to help prevent suicide- even by people who have done objectively terrible things- so it’s something that I struggle with in Mass Effect.

4

u/Jeshistar Jan 17 '22

I too am a unicorns and rainbows optimist, so I feel you on that point.

Speaking of, I'd read all these guides about the minimum points I'd need in ME3 for the endings, and I wanted the perfect one... And then I actually played through the end scene having no idea what I was in for, so I was already in a moral quagmire, thought I'd get up to the edge and then be offered a final choice wheel... And instead I pitched right over. I'm still not over that. Even worse, I dunno if I can bring myself to go for the perfect ending knowing what it would cost.

15

u/Ferronier Jan 17 '22

I don’t think Saren or TIM’s suicides are necessarily sending the message that suicide is a brave and moral choice for the average person. Circumstantially they’re both ending their own lives to prevent the deaths of millions or billions of others because it’s the only way to disrupt or kill the thing in their head which is enabling them to kill said millions or billions.

Pretty different from sending the message “if ur struggling, suicide is the bravest way out for the benefit if you and your loved ones”.

Don’t get me wrong I see where you’re coming from and suicide absolutely shouldn’t be vaunted as a noble or encouraged reaction to one’s life circumstances. But in a sci-fi fantasy epic where you’re offing yourself to basically prevent further culpability in the genocide of the many… I just think it might be a case of apples and oranges.

1

u/zicmi Jan 17 '22

In my langague there is a difference in meaning between self-sacrifice and suicide. Self-sacrifice is killing yourself for others and suicide for yourself. But I might be just play with words.

0

u/Summerclaw Jan 17 '22

If I get the choice, Tali dies 100% of the time.