Was it ever explained how Legion got Shepard's armor?

[Raider]

Minor spoilers I guess, no spoilers in the title tho don't worry.

I remember Jacob saying how when he first saw Shepard, he was "meat and tubes". So how is it that his armor survived?

[Craftian]

"No data available." Who knew synthetics could be shy?

In all seriousness though, Legion is quite evasive when Shepard tries to find out, even after repeatedly asking, and we're never really given an answer. However, the implication is that the Geth, specifically the platform/consensus that we know as Legion, have begun to "evolve" and express emotion; namely admiration and respect for the Shepard-Commander.

But how exactly did Legion get the armor?
The idea is that Legion was following Shepard and salvaged it off their corpse. Since we already know that the Council sent the SR1 to clear the remnants of Saren's forces at the beginning of the game, it would seem that the Geth may have witnessed the SR1's destruction and, considering Legion's interest, would've recognised the cultural significance of the armor.

How this ties in to the canon surrounding Liara and Feron recovering Shepard's corpse from the Shadow Broker, I can't answer as I haven't read the comics. But since Legion is such a rarity in the context of the series, it may be that this sense of individuality is unique to the platform alone.

We'll never know, but it's interesting to speculate. The armor itself - though damaged - would've survived the explosion and re-entering the atmosphere, since the option to later recover the helmet and dogtags is available.

[Raider]

Craftian lähetti viestin:

"No data available." Who knew synthetics could be shy?

In all seriousness though, Legion is quite evasive when Shepard tries to find out, even after repeatedly asking, and we're never really given an answer. However, the implication is that the Geth, specifically the platform/consensus that we know as Legion, have begun to "evolve" and express emotion; namely admiration and respect for the Shepard-Commander.

But how exactly did Legion get the armor?
The idea is that Legion was following Shepard and salvaged it off their corpse. Since we already know that the Council sent the SR1 to clear the remnants of Saren's forces at the beginning of the game, it would seem that the Geth may have witnessed the SR1's destruction and, considering Legion's interest, would've recognised the cultural significance of the armor.

How this ties in to the canon surrounding Liara and Feron recovering Shepard's corpse from the Shadow Broker, I can't answer as I haven't read the comics. But since Legion is such a rarity in the context of the series, it may be that this sense of individuality is unique to the platform alone.

We'll never know, but it's interesting to speculate. The armor itself - though damaged - would've survived the explosion and re-entering the atmosphere, since the option to later recover the helmet and dogtags is available.

Great answer, thanks!

I suppose I should start reading the comics, as I do have access to them.

Also, if Shepard's armor survived, why would Shepard be "meat and tubes"? I mean, if the armor survived, why wouldn't Shepard? He was IN the armor.

[Craftian]

While there's always the convenience of working the death in as part of the whole science fiction theme, the description probably wasn't meant to be literal.

Though the Normandy's explosion ruptured the armor and Shepard would've burnt up upon re-entering the atmosphere, the few armor pieces that are available for salvage indicate that Shepard's body remained surprisingly intact, with the helmet and Legion's version of the armor being the best examples.

That doesn't necessarily mean that Shepard wasn't an absolute mess, especially considering the amount of time, credits and effort that went into the Lazarus Project. The few snippets we see prior to character customisation certainly shows some of the severe trauma that Shep endured.

[Tilarta]

The original version of the story had Legion be the one who recovered Shepherd's body and delivered it to Cerberus for reconstruction.
So one possibility is that Legion removed the armor during the recovery process and kept it around for sentimental reasons, even if they didn't comprehend why they were doing so.

However, they changed that version of events and it was Liara (in the comics) who was chasing mercenaries that had stolen Shepherd's body, frozen it in cryostasis and were going to sell it to the Collectors.
Said mercenaries worked for the Shadow Broker and during the raid, her friend was captured, leading into the ingame DLC where you rescue him while on the way to the Shadow Broker.

So I would assume the revised version is that Legion arrived after the mercenaries had taken Shepherd's body and left the discarded armor behind.
They might have even arrived as the body was being loaded into the cryostasis pod, which would explain their statement "about the last time they saw Shepherd".
Leaving Legion with nothing better to do then pickup the pieces of armor and leave.

From what I gather, Shepherd "died" because the oxygen supply tubes on the back of the helmet were severed, causing oxygen deprivation.
That's the part we see ingame, Shepherd reaching backwards as the oxygen tubes snap and depressurize the suit.
There wasn't as much physical trauma from impact as you'd think.
Basically, all the damage was inflicted from the armor crushing Shepherd's body on impact, the metal plates flexing inwards as the body hit the ground hard.
Or at least, that's what I speculated happened, as we don't see it onscreen.

There is additional data in the comics that the cryostasis pod used in the recovery process was inefficient and caused tissue damage of it's own accord by failing to freeze Shepherd's body properly.
But then again, the Reapers didn't care how damaged it was, they just wanted Shepherd's genetic material.
Presumably to serve as the new overmind core personality for their Human Reaper.

[BDK]

Yes, if you've played the game.

[Raider]

BDK lähetti viestin:

Yes, if you've played the game.

I have, 3 times actually.

[BDK]

Raider lähetti viestin:

BDK lähetti viestin:

Yes, if you've played the game.

I have, 3 times actually.

What I meant - If you play the game haha, if you talk to him or 'it' you should be able to ask how it got the armor :)

[Raider]

BDK lähetti viestin:

Raider lähetti viestin:

I have, 3 times actually.

What I meant - If you play the game haha, if you talk to him or 'it' you should be able to ask how it got the armor :)

Unfortunatley, I didn't give a ♥♥♥♥ enough about in my first playthrough so he died. Second playthrough I sold him to Cerberus. Now I finally got him loyal and he survived but I never bothered to talk to him that much.

[BDK]

haha fair enough. Talking might lead you to a new mission ..

[Tilarta]

Technically, as their name suggests, Legion is not a "he" or an "it", it is "them",
1183 seperate AIs inhabiting one body, as they explain it.

Legion simply says they recovered the armor, most likely from the crash site.
That's all the information you get.
Inquiring further only reveals that they have no idea why they did it.

I speculate this is a common occurrence with an artifical lifeform that is developing into a true emotion based AI, they have emotional reasoning, but don't fully understand why it is influencing certain decisions or even recognize it when it happens.
From what Legion says to Shepherd on the subject, they don't know why they did it, just that they did.

[Raider]

Found this on Legion's wiki page "If questioned about specifically using Shepard's N7 armour to repair itself, Legion becomes evasive, first rationalizing that "there was a hole" and then stating "no data available" after being pressed. This suggests that the use of Shepard's armor was an irrational decision, which goes against the concept that every action the geth take is the result of calculation, unaffected by emotion."

[horrid74]

Sheperd's armour ruptured and the body was subjected to reentry; I'm not sure if there was an atmosphere invovlved. The kit might have still afforded some protection but I was always under the impression the, "meat" was a real mess. Flash-frozen and cooked poor Sheperd was dead, dead, dead. The prelude scenes with Miranda always gave me the impression they were doing a rebuild right from the cellular level with genetic material harvested from the remains.

I figure that the Legion unit had sustained severe damage that might have affected it's programming or link to the remainder of the Geth and components from Shep's armour allowed it to complete a field repair that kept it "alive".

[Sevro au Barca]

OP, you ARE aware that the fact that "tubes" probably does not refer to something inside of Shepards body (what kind of the human body has tubes?) but that Jacob probably first saw Shepard when he was already in the process of reconstruction and inside of some mechanical device where he was connected to tubes and other machines, so Jacob's "The first time I saw you" probably refers to a point of time already well into the Lazarus project.

[Raider]

Neuro lähetti viestin:

OP, you ARE aware that the fact that "tubes" probably does not refer to something inside of Shepards body (what kind of the human body has tubes?) but that Jacob probably first saw Shepard when he was already in the process of reconstruction and inside of some mechanical device where he was connected to tubes and other machines, so Jacob's "The first time I saw you" probably refers to a point of time already well into the Lazarus project.

I'm not stupid.

[Sevro au Barca]

But then your first question is pointless, since

Raider lähetti viestin:

I remember Jacob saying how when he first saw Shepard, he was "meat and tubes". So how is it that his armor survived?

This question only makes sense if you assumed that the point of time Jacob first saw Shepard was the point in time Shepard's body was salvaged.