Mass Effect: Problems with Humans

[rocker77889]

I've come to dislike the role of humanity in Mass Effect's story. The devs turned a story where humans are trying to find their way in the galaxy to one where humans are special and are more important than everyone else.

In ME1, this wasn't so bad. Yes, humans accelerated into galactic politics faster than many other races, but they weren't immediately given a council seat and other races clearly didn't think they were all that great. There was SOME discussion here, but humans being outright better than other races wasn't something the game emphasised.

Starting from ME2, this aspect became more noticeable. Shepard, a human, is now considered a 'bloody icon'. Cerberus is a human terrorist organisation that doubles as a writer's pet; they can resurrect someone from the dead and they can build a better Normandy. Human colonies are disappearing and the Collectors are making a human Reaper. And apparently, Shepard and their crew think the Collectors could attack Earth for... some reason.

In ME3, this was really overused. Earth is attacked and is now considered more important than other peoples' home worlds. Cerberus, a human terrorist organisation, somehow overshadows the Reapers. TIM and Kai Leng are both human antagonists. The last few characters to play a major role in the game's story are humans (Shepard, Anderson and TIM). The catalyst takes the form of some stupid human kid. In three of the endings, the Citadel is now permanently over Earth. Apparently, Shepard being the biggest badass means that humans are overall more badass than every other race.

I should also mention Andromeda. The very premise of the game (the noncensical Andromeda initiative) is that it is an initiative that was led by humans. Enough said.

Why did Mass Effect do this? What made this series special wasn't solely the humans, it was the world. It was the turians, the salarians, the asari, the krogan, the quarians, etc. It was how all the races interacted with each other and the galaxy's shared history. But ME eventually decided that humans are more important than everyone else and bent the story to make this all work. It really is a shame.

[Rhoetus]

It isn't so much that humans are special as it is that Shepard is special.

Because Shepard has defied the Reapers (and the Catalyst through them) they get obsessed with the humans.

Cerberus is a "get out of jail free card", of sorts, but I don't think that is their main purpose. They give us an enemy to fight on equal terms. We aren't supposed to be strong enough to take on the Reapers, not directly.
The writers had to keep them somewhat untouchable, but if they were the only enemy, then we wouldn't be doing much the whole game.

As to why Cerberus rather than, say, a Turian Supremacist group... Cerberus also gives us a foil to counter our own naked ambition against. They are human, and have all the same flaws that we do. (greed, hubris, overreach, fear of "other", etc.) By making them human, we are given a clear view that "That could be us" rather than "xenos bad, humans good".

[barzai]

I think @Rhoetus is onto something I'd not given much thought to. Our perspective on humans is different than on the other species: we know humans and we ARE humans, so we discern their factionalism and competitiveness more clearly.

The other species come across as more monolithic, especially in the first two games--in fairness you begin to see the cracks in ME3--and it's abundantly clear that they aren't as fiercely competitive either among themselves or with other species as humans are (whether this is plausible from an evolutionary standpoint is left as an exercise).

So...yeah, human exceptionalism is definitely a thing. But I don't think it's entirely clear that it's an unmitigated good. The other races dislike, distrust and fear the humans in varying degrees because the humans throw too many elbows. And if the Reapers hadn't shown up, I think it very likely there might have been more conflicts between the humans and the other species, as there already have been between humans and Turians and humans and Batarians.

But as luck would have it, just as things are getting a bit tense, an existential threat shows up and suddenly the human characteristics of fierceness, stubbornness and grit become hugely useful. It's kinda like the utility of the Krogan in the Rachni War, except we uplifted ourselves after--somehow--avoiding global thermonuclear war.

[rocker77889]

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

It isn't so much that humans are special as it is that Shepard is special.

Because Shepard has defied the Reapers (and the Catalyst through them) they get obsessed with the humans.

The human reaper plot went absolutely nowhere. And Earth getting attacked means little when the story emphasises that the Reapers are meant to harvest EVERYONE.

The story says that humans are important yet simultaneously this plot went nowhere. Sure, the Reapers hate Shep, but this stems from the inherent problem that Shepard is a passive protagonist who gets the plot forced on them.

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

Cerberus is a "get out of jail free card", of sorts, but I don't think that is their main purpose. They give us an enemy to fight on equal terms. We aren't supposed to be strong enough to take on the Reapers, not directly.
The writers had to keep them somewhat untouchable, but if they were the only enemy, then we wouldn't be doing much the whole game.

ME3 alone has mutated humans, turians, batarians, rachni and asari as Reaper force enemies. We can beat these on equal grounds. We could have other mutated alien forces, but instead we waste time on Creator's Pet Cerberus and their seemingly unlimited resourses.

As for Reapers being untouchable, the whole war arc in ME3 would not be going on as long is it did if this was true. Sovereign in ME1 took about 30 ships plus Saren-reaper's defeat to be destroyed. We also destroy multiple Reapers in ME3, one in a boss battle in which it chooses to act stupid (why isn't it trying to simply squish Shepard instead of charging lasers?) because the plot forces it to.

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

As to why Cerberus rather than, say, a Turian Supremacist group... Cerberus also gives us a foil to counter our own naked ambition against. They are human, and have all the same flaws that we do. (greed, hubris, overreach, fear of "other", etc.) By making them human, we are given a clear view that "That could be us" rather than "xenos bad, humans good".

Except the story doesn't imply this at all. TIM's motivation to control the Reapers has no basis or foundation. What does he believe that makes him want to control giant death machines? His backstory is not elaborated at all in the games and reading the comics do not count. Cerberus's ideology doesn't go beyond vague human supremacy. And the whole "this could be us" angle doesn't work because the games never built on this.

[Belbe's Phyrexian Toy Collection]

weird take tbh

[Rhoetus]

Originally posted by rocker77889:

Except the story doesn't imply this at all. TIM's motivation to control the Reapers has no basis or foundation. What does he believe that makes him want to control giant death machines? His backstory is not elaborated at all in the games and reading the comics do not count. Cerberus's ideology doesn't go beyond vague human supremacy. And the whole "this could be us" angle doesn't work because the games never built on this.

TIM thinks he can control the Reapers because they are machines. Machines follow their programming, and if you change the programming the AI changes.
Consider how a basic input variation changed the heretic Geth.
But, more importantly, it shows a level of hubris that only a villain or naive hero can achieve.

[barzai]

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

Originally posted by rocker77889:

Except the story doesn't imply this at all. TIM's motivation to control the Reapers has no basis or foundation. What does he believe that makes him want to control giant death machines? His backstory is not elaborated at all in the games and reading the comics do not count. Cerberus's ideology doesn't go beyond vague human supremacy. And the whole "this could be us" angle doesn't work because the games never built on this.

TIM thinks he can control the Reapers because they are machines. Machines follow their programming, and if you change the programming the AI changes.
Consider how a basic input variation changed the heretic Geth.
But, more importantly, it shows a level of hubris that only a villain or naive hero can achieve.

And if you pay attention to the consoles in the Cerberus main base, you'll see that TIM not only thinks machines are machines, but that any alternative is almost literally unthinkable to him.

Furthermore you see him voluntarily making the same fateful mistake Saren made before him: getting Reaper tech implanted in him, which of course has the same effect it had on Saren...it makes him a slave to the Reapers.

It's clear that TIM never takes seriously the possibility that the "machines" might control him rather than the other way around. Thus he takes an instrumentalist view of them rather than seeing them as an adversary. And we see that as far back as ME2, so it's not like they just popped that in during ME3.

[Kalenath]

Originally posted by barzai:

And if you pay attention to the consoles in the Cerberus main base, you'll see that TIM not only thinks machines are machines, but that any alternative is almost literally unthinkable to him.

Furthermore you see him voluntarily making the same fateful mistake Saren made before him: getting Reaper tech implanted in him, which of course has the same effect it had on Saren...it makes him a slave to the Reapers.

It's clear that TIM never takes seriously the possibility that the "machines" might control him rather than the other way around. Thus he takes an instrumentalist view of them rather than seeing them as an adversary. And we see that as far back as ME2, so it's not like they just popped that in during ME3.

If there is a better example of classical hubris in video games, it is not in any I have played.

TIM truly thought all the way until the end that he had it right and everyone else was wrong. Even Miranda could see that he had lost his way in ME2, but he didn't because he was right and everyone else was wrong.

Er, if that observation bias or hubris? Or a mix of both?

[Inquerion]

Humans had the second biggest fleet (after Turians) in the Citadel space.
That's a lot of power projection. And influence.

When it comes to Andromeda Initiative, there is a theory that "The Benefector" who funded them, was either TIM/Cerberus or some human billionaire.

Though humans were overrepresented in Andromeda, because other Arks either suffered some damage (and deaths) or didn't arrived yet (Quarian Ark; which also had Hanar and Volus on board).

[Inquerion]

Originally posted by Kalenath:

Originally posted by barzai:

And if you pay attention to the consoles in the Cerberus main base, you'll see that TIM not only thinks machines are machines, but that any alternative is almost literally unthinkable to him.

Furthermore you see him voluntarily making the same fateful mistake Saren made before him: getting Reaper tech implanted in him, which of course has the same effect it had on Saren...it makes him a slave to the Reapers.

It's clear that TIM never takes seriously the possibility that the "machines" might control him rather than the other way around. Thus he takes an instrumentalist view of them rather than seeing them as an adversary. And we see that as far back as ME2, so it's not like they just popped that in during ME3.

If there is a better example of classical hubris in video games, it is not in any I have played.

TIM truly thought all the way until the end that he had it right and everyone else was wrong. Even Miranda could see that he had lost his way in ME2, but he didn't because he was right and everyone else was wrong.

Er, if that observation bias or hubris? Or a mix of both?

TIM was overconfident and probably at least partially indoctrinated in the middle of ME2.
Saren also believed that he was right.

[Ajexa]

clearly, you must be an batarian.

[Inquerion]

Originally posted by Ajexa:

clearly, you must be an batarian.

Batarians in ME2: "By limiting slavery, Council is limiting basic Batarian cultural rights! We disagree with this!"

Batarians in ME3: "Please we need help! Save us! We are innocent!".