Which is the right thing for me, because I ain't no filthy paragon. The council doesn't really make it that tough, illegal business goes on right under their nose in the Presidium. Everyone can operate in the Terminus systems, especially on gateway worlds like Illium as Nassana does.
The ones who get stuff done, who really deal with the big problems, are groups like the Spectres, STG, asari commandos, and Cerberus. Renegades who don't have to follow the rules. The council just gets in the way or makes things worse. Bioware advocates renegade!
most of those groups are species-centric organizations. the council spectres are different because they have to consider things other than the advancement of one race.
also, the universe is much ruder place without the council. just like the UN, they aren't very effective, but having a structure in place for discussion and negotiation means everyone is at least making an effort.
makes me think about warlord okeer in a different light, though. Grunt was probably the krogan version of a spectre.
curly haired boy on
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
I browsed through the last ME: Redeption comic. I'm hoping that I get to chance to team up with Liara to take down the Shadow Broker, whoever/whatever it is. I heard a rumor that someone had found soundbites of extra Liara dialogue. I hope there might be some creedence to it.
She seemed to be close to that drell friend of hers, even if he was pulling a Jack Sparrow-esque side switching thing on her.
I browsed through the last ME: Redeption comic. I'm hoping that I get to chance to team up with Liara to take down the Shadow Broker, whoever/whatever it is. I heard a rumor that someone had found soundbites of extra Liara dialogue. I hope there might be some creedence to it.
She seemed to be close to that drell friend of hers, even if he was pulling a Jack Sparrow-esque side switching thing on her.
No, but seriously, Liara's voice actress is awful. It's a good thing Liara had the best facial expressions in ME1 because her voice actress can't emote to save her life and her speaking patterns are sometimes Shatner-esque.
No, but seriously, Liara's voice actress is awful. It's a good thing Liara had the best facial expressions in ME1 because her voice actress can't emote to save her life and her speaking patterns are sometimes Shatner-esque.
The weird thing is that Ali Hillis also did Lightning from FFXIII, and she sounded pretty good in that role.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Even Hackett doesn't know about it? Why would the Alliance want to keep this operation secret and through Cerberus? To keep it a human matter and out of politics? That would be dumb even for them, the reapers are too big to worry about that. Even TIM wouldn't turn down Council or Alliance help if he honestly believed they would be useful. And how does that explain Ashley/Kaidan? That was high-level stuff.
Here's my hypothesis:
Cerberus according to Kahoku was initially an alliance research program, that is since supposed to have gone rogue.
But, the alliance also had initiatives like the Corsairs - which Jacob was in - trying to emulate the Council Spectres with plausible deniability for the alliance. Why would they not simply take it a step further with Cerberus? Take a guy like TIM at the top and more or less cut him loose, let him draw his funding largely from donors and front companies - i.e. military industrial complex companies who would largely get their profits from government contracts in the first place.
TIM takes vague directives from the very top, in turn being granted a degree of administrative leeway so the Alliance tries to avoid needing to directly confront him even if they're publically opposed to Cerberus. Important information also ends up having a habit of finding its way too him. Now, they have a way to more or less completely flaunt Council regulations on various avenues of research with complete deniability. And it shows - biotics programs, genetic engineering, EDI, the Normandy SR-2.
I imagine they get other things from it too: how in god's name could Cerberus have that enormous space station at the start with multiple warships guarding it? More likely it's an Alliance facility with a docking clamp that gets used a lot but you never seem to meet anyone who's been there. The Corsairs become your mid-range recruiting - funnel good soldiers into that program and see how they deal with it, do they adapt to working with reduced regulations? Those like Jacob who perform, but want even less regs, then get targeted for Cerberus recruitment.
As for the Collectors thing: TIM notes the Alliance isn't investigating because they're stretched too thin filling in for the destroyed Citadel fleet. Still rebuilding. More importantly, would the Alliance really want to send a fleet of starships through the Omega-4 relay into potentially another big-ass fight? Sending just the SR-2 makes more sense - it's a stealth recon, fitted with quantum entanglement communications. Even if it can't return, it can still relay data on anything it finds. And more importantly, if Shepard and co should happen to blow away a bunch of Reaper operatives, it would leave all the tech. for Cerberus, and thus the Alliance.
Ashley/Kaiden seems like they may have been sent out on different mission to the intended one. If we assume TIM is lying through his teeth most of the time you talk to him (and seriously, why think otherwise?) then the main reason he said he didn't know about them was because he did want to test out his theory that the Reapers would target people associated with Shepard.
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
The more I explore the ME universe, the more a realize what a well-orchestrated sham the council really is. They have laws, but nobody follows them, not even the governments under their "jurisdiction". And even legal activities love to skirt the line, with VIs and gene therapy getting more and more advanced. Then you have diplomats like Nassana running business in the Terminus system, and the Shadow Broker's jazz, even their own institution of the Spectres.
They are worthless. Letting humans take over didn't make any difference because the Citadel is more useful as a reaper portal than a center of government. Cerberus 4 lyfe
To be fair, 90% of your time is spent exploring and running into the seedy underbelly of the galaxy. The rest of the galaxy could be sunshine and rainbows.
The more I explore the ME universe, the more a realize what a well-orchestrated sham the council really is. They have laws, but nobody follows them, not even the governments under their "jurisdiction". And even legal activities love to skirt the line, with VIs and gene therapy getting more and more advanced. Then you have diplomats like Nassana running business in the Terminus system, and the Shadow Broker's jazz, even their own institution of the Spectres.
They are worthless. Letting humans take over didn't make any difference because the Citadel is more useful as a reaper portal than a center of government. Cerberus 4 lyfe
To be fair, 90% of your time is spent exploring and running into the seedy underbelly of the galaxy. The rest of the galaxy could be sunshine and rainbows.
But it's not. The galaxy is a rather cruel place. Even Citadel space isn't always super safe.
Even Hackett doesn't know about it? Why would the Alliance want to keep this operation secret and through Cerberus? To keep it a human matter and out of politics? That would be dumb even for them, the reapers are too big to worry about that. Even TIM wouldn't turn down Council or Alliance help if he honestly believed they would be useful. And how does that explain Ashley/Kaidan? That was high-level stuff.
Here's my hypothesis:
Cerberus according to Kahoku was initially an alliance research program, that is since supposed to have gone rogue.
But, the alliance also had initiatives like the Corsairs - which Jacob was in - trying to emulate the Council Spectres with plausible deniability for the alliance. Why would they not simply take it a step further with Cerberus? Take a guy like TIM at the top and more or less cut him loose, let him draw his funding largely from donors and front companies - i.e. military industrial complex companies who would largely get their profits from government contracts in the first place.
TIM takes vague directives from the very top, in turn being granted a degree of administrative leeway so the Alliance tries to avoid needing to directly confront him even if they're publically opposed to Cerberus. Important information also ends up having a habit of finding its way too him. Now, they have a way to more or less completely flaunt Council regulations on various avenues of research with complete deniability. And it shows - biotics programs, genetic engineering, EDI, the Normandy SR-2.
I imagine they get other things from it too: how in god's name could Cerberus have that enormous space station at the start with multiple warships guarding it? More likely it's an Alliance facility with a docking clamp that gets used a lot but you never seem to meet anyone who's been there. The Corsairs become your mid-range recruiting - funnel good soldiers into that program and see how they deal with it, do they adapt to working with reduced regulations? Those like Jacob who perform, but want even less regs, then get targeted for Cerberus recruitment.
As for the Collectors thing: TIM notes the Alliance isn't investigating because they're stretched too thin filling in for the destroyed Citadel fleet. Still rebuilding. More importantly, would the Alliance really want to send a fleet of starships through the Omega-4 relay into potentially another big-ass fight? Sending just the SR-2 makes more sense - it's a stealth recon, fitted with quantum entanglement communications. Even if it can't return, it can still relay data on anything it finds. And more importantly, if Shepard and co should happen to blow away a bunch of Reaper operatives, it would leave all the tech. for Cerberus, and thus the Alliance.
Ashley/Kaiden seems like they may have been sent out on different mission to the intended one. If we assume TIM is lying through his teeth most of the time you talk to him (and seriously, why think otherwise?) then the main reason he said he didn't know about them was because he did want to test out his theory that the Reapers would target people associated with Shepard.
it's a pretty good theory. i'll have to reread the books one of these days, see if there's anything in there to possibly support it. one interesting thing: it was kahoku who initiated your investigation of cerberus, not the alliance brass. i don't recall hackett being involved at all. interestingly, kahoku went to the shadow broker to find out what he did about cerberus. (i, thinking that i did not want to alienate a possible ally, gave the broker a copy of what i found. only in ME2 did i find out what a dick the shadow broker is. ah well. i gave the information to him in good faith, but he's got a renegade interrupt in his future. *cracks knuckles* )
also adept with cooldown bonuses is a lot of fun. settin' up singularity bombs all day erry day
I think my biggest barrier to playing is when I get all OCD about having enough minerals, so I clean out a system. Of course by the end of doing that, I've given myself carpel tunnel from all the scanning.
One time through was enough. Cheating all the way afterward!
I'd like to take a moment for the owners of ME2 on pc to spare a thought for those of us who do mineral scanning on the 360 version. Pray for the hardship we have to endure of slowly, ever so slowly watching the cursor move across the planet and then repeating this endless times just so we can get the minerals necessary for your team to survive.
Pity the console owner of ME2 who can't cheat his way out of mineral scanning.
I pity each and every one of them. Up until they have access to console exclusive games. RAGE.
As opposed to PC exclusives, right?
those exist? in any significant number comparable to console exclusives?
Why assume TIM is lying to you? Dude's done a lot for you.
Dude's done a lot for what he wants. I haven't trusted anything he's said. He is the epitome of "at all costs." And not like, oh, lets not help these civilians because we need to go over there RIGHT NOW at all costs. Like, nuke the orphanage and vivisect the survivors because we need to know EVERYTHING at all costs.
I don't like him, don't trust him and I want to punch him. Renegade interrupt indeed.
Why assume TIM is lying to you? Dude's done a lot for you.
Dude's done a lot for what he wants. I haven't trusted anything he's said. He is the epitome of "at all costs." And not like, oh, lets not help these civilians because we need to go over there RIGHT NOW at all costs. Like, nuke the orphanage and vivisect the survivors because we need to know EVERYTHING at all costs.
I don't like him, don't trust him and I want to punch him. Renegade interrupt indeed.
Nah, it would be a paragon interrupt to smack him one.
All the most adversarial replies to his comments got you paragon points.
Am I the only one who thought the ending choice was a little odd?
Throwing away such a vastly important technological breakthrough is ridiculous. Like, leaving the Manhattan Project's schematics lying around on Hitler's bedside table ridiculous. I think the choice should've been, do I give this to the Council or Cerberus?
Its like he goes "Send this to us and we can research it, come up with ways to fight the Reapers!"
And I'm all "No, fuck you, its stays with me shady man."
The best is the paragon ending
You just straight hang up on the wanker.
I was all "YEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH 8-)" when that happened.
I was smirking like Shepard was as I swaggered out of the briefing room.
It was glorious.
Ha that was the ending I got yesterday. I love the Sheperd I made in ME 1 and her smirks.
I played through ME 1 five times and Cerebrus were bastards so don't try to retcon one on me with them being humanties secret heroes. Fuckers are going down.
No, but seriously, Liara's voice actress is awful. It's a good thing Liara had the best facial expressions in ME1 because her voice actress can't emote to save her life and her speaking patterns are sometimes Shatner-esque.
The weird thing is that Ali Hillis also did Lightning from FFXIII, and she sounded pretty good in that role.
She's overly breathe-y as Liara, but frankly I'm so used to her now that that clip doesn't sound over-acted. It sounds like I expected Liara to speak.
No, but seriously, Liara's voice actress is awful. It's a good thing Liara had the best facial expressions in ME1 because her voice actress can't emote to save her life and her speaking patterns are sometimes Shatner-esque.
The weird thing is that Ali Hillis also did Lightning from FFXIII, and she sounded pretty good in that role.
She's overly breathe-y as Liara, but frankly I'm so used to her now that that clip doesn't sound over-acted. It sounds like I expected Liara to speak.
Agreed. I'm so used to Liara that other asari sound weird.
Posts
most of those groups are species-centric organizations. the council spectres are different because they have to consider things other than the advancement of one race.
also, the universe is much ruder place without the council. just like the UN, they aren't very effective, but having a structure in place for discussion and negotiation means everyone is at least making an effort.
makes me think about warlord okeer in a different light, though. Grunt was probably the krogan version of a spectre.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
shepard was punching reporters before it was cool
yep
So I'm curious Pancake, is there anything you like? Other than watching the intro movies.
Girls with faces that look like they're made out of drying, cracking clay.
All Shep needs is a little moisturizer...and a lot of luck.
Every time I look into a monitor Shepard, my circuits sizzle. When are we going to start busting Reaperchops?
Edit: Or alternately... "More than you imagine Shepard."
omg pancake you hit it right on the head
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
The weird thing is that Ali Hillis also did Lightning from FFXIII, and she sounded pretty good in that role.
Children of the 80's, unite!
Here's my hypothesis:
Cerberus according to Kahoku was initially an alliance research program, that is since supposed to have gone rogue.
But, the alliance also had initiatives like the Corsairs - which Jacob was in - trying to emulate the Council Spectres with plausible deniability for the alliance. Why would they not simply take it a step further with Cerberus? Take a guy like TIM at the top and more or less cut him loose, let him draw his funding largely from donors and front companies - i.e. military industrial complex companies who would largely get their profits from government contracts in the first place.
TIM takes vague directives from the very top, in turn being granted a degree of administrative leeway so the Alliance tries to avoid needing to directly confront him even if they're publically opposed to Cerberus. Important information also ends up having a habit of finding its way too him. Now, they have a way to more or less completely flaunt Council regulations on various avenues of research with complete deniability. And it shows - biotics programs, genetic engineering, EDI, the Normandy SR-2.
I imagine they get other things from it too: how in god's name could Cerberus have that enormous space station at the start with multiple warships guarding it? More likely it's an Alliance facility with a docking clamp that gets used a lot but you never seem to meet anyone who's been there. The Corsairs become your mid-range recruiting - funnel good soldiers into that program and see how they deal with it, do they adapt to working with reduced regulations? Those like Jacob who perform, but want even less regs, then get targeted for Cerberus recruitment.
As for the Collectors thing: TIM notes the Alliance isn't investigating because they're stretched too thin filling in for the destroyed Citadel fleet. Still rebuilding. More importantly, would the Alliance really want to send a fleet of starships through the Omega-4 relay into potentially another big-ass fight? Sending just the SR-2 makes more sense - it's a stealth recon, fitted with quantum entanglement communications. Even if it can't return, it can still relay data on anything it finds. And more importantly, if Shepard and co should happen to blow away a bunch of Reaper operatives, it would leave all the tech. for Cerberus, and thus the Alliance.
Ashley/Kaiden seems like they may have been sent out on different mission to the intended one. If we assume TIM is lying through his teeth most of the time you talk to him (and seriously, why think otherwise?) then the main reason he said he didn't know about them was because he did want to test out his theory that the Reapers would target people associated with Shepard.
To be fair, 90% of your time is spent exploring and running into the seedy underbelly of the galaxy. The rest of the galaxy could be sunshine and rainbows.
But it's not. The galaxy is a rather cruel place. Even Citadel space isn't always super safe.
it's a pretty good theory. i'll have to reread the books one of these days, see if there's anything in there to possibly support it. one interesting thing: it was kahoku who initiated your investigation of cerberus, not the alliance brass. i don't recall hackett being involved at all. interestingly, kahoku went to the shadow broker to find out what he did about cerberus. (i, thinking that i did not want to alienate a possible ally, gave the broker a copy of what i found. only in ME2 did i find out what a dick the shadow broker is. ah well. i gave the information to him in good faith, but he's got a renegade interrupt in his future. *cracks knuckles* )
also adept with cooldown bonuses is a lot of fun. settin' up singularity bombs all day erry day
also:
well shit.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
those exist? in any significant number comparable to console exclusives?
Dude's done a lot for what he wants. I haven't trusted anything he's said. He is the epitome of "at all costs." And not like, oh, lets not help these civilians because we need to go over there RIGHT NOW at all costs. Like, nuke the orphanage and vivisect the survivors because we need to know EVERYTHING at all costs.
I don't like him, don't trust him and I want to punch him. Renegade interrupt indeed.
Nah, it would be a paragon interrupt to smack him one.
All the most adversarial replies to his comments got you paragon points.
And I'm all "No, fuck you, its stays with me shady man."
Where is that guy? He was a bastion of light.
The best is the paragon ending
I was all "YEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH 8-)" when that happened.
I'm afraid to ask for details, but something compels me.
I was smirking like Shepard as I swaggered out of the briefing room.
It was glorious.
Ha that was the ending I got yesterday. I love the Sheperd I made in ME 1 and her smirks.
I played through ME 1 five times and Cerebrus were bastards so don't try to retcon one on me with them being humanties secret heroes. Fuckers are going down.
She's overly breathe-y as Liara, but frankly I'm so used to her now that that clip doesn't sound over-acted. It sounds like I expected Liara to speak.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Welcome to every country ever?
and immoral!
but also effective!