#elcor hamlet

[continuous-spec]

Brooding Monolouge: Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

All I actually want from a Mass Effect tv series is an in universe behind the scenes about the production of Elcor Hamlet.

[msunitedstatesjames]

I'm playing through the Mass Effect games for the first time, and I never expected my love of classic literature to overlap with a science fiction, far future, RPG style video game:

Something about an Elcor referring to anyone as "a fellow of infinite jest" is just perfect. Also the "insincere endorsement" at the end. (Every advertisement at the Citadel in ME2 is hilarious to be fair.)

[anghraine]

Speaking of beauty, I'm really enjoying my steely Dúnadan Shepard:

[fuckyeahbioware]

The annual N7 Day Mass Effect Modding Showcase premieres at 10:55am Central today! Go see what the amazing Modding community has done this year, and will be working on in the year to come!

[bashfulfruitart]

I do have a WIP of something that's just, gonna make no sense

[sol-consort]

Aliens discovering our movies, art, books and video games and realizing why they’re all so precious to us

Like, a turian who comes from a high ranking family but just doesn’t have the abilities or skill the rest of their family has and it’s kinda outlasted for it puts on this old human vid called Encanto out of curiosity and by the end of it they’re a sobbing mess (whatever the turian equivalent of sobbing is) because “Mirabel just like me, fr fr.”

An Asari who just lost her first bondmate to old age and finding one of our sad songs about loss feels so touched by it and listens to it over and over again until she’s processed her own grief.

A Quarian who feel moved by a beautiful sculpture made of scrap metal and spare parts because it reminds them of the flotilla; a fleet of ships all held together with ductape, thread, and a prayer and yet still something beautiful.

The vibes I get from the other species is that they make their vids, games, books, and songs just to entertain, just background noise to fill the silence. Maybe they carry a deeper meaning sometimes but nothing compared to humans who pour their souls into their projects. Humans make fantastical stories out of the little parts of our lives that others can relate to and feel seen.

The handprint paintings on cavewalls come to mind. How instinctive drumming your fingers is how natural humming feels, how your brain spins stories before bedtime unprompted.

As much as war and disease have been parts of human history since the dawn of time, since the first spear was filled down, likewise music and art went with it hand in hand ever since the first flute was carved out, made from hollow birdbones and mammoth ivory, dating back to the time of ancients.

It's therapeutic. No one can deny the benefits of art on your mind and soul. It is what makes life worth living for many, the whimsy, the joy, the passion, the elation, the misery, the envy. The good and bad mirrors and reflections of our inner most desires, shameful feelings, and most creative ideas.

While the other species definitely don't lack in their culture and art—turians face tattoos borrowing from the batonical designs of nature—there is something to be said about the elcor deciding to adapt hamlet out of everything

There is a reason it's human music you hear playing at any self-respecting galactic club, ranging from the Citadel to Omega's own bars, the lights, the atmosphere, the valvety seats and soundtrack has a clear human touch. The human fashion which took over the asari modern wear like a swarm, inspiring many new designs combining the best of both worlds.

Humans aren't the only creative species, nor the one who care most about art. Rather, art comes naturally to us, all of us picked up colouring and drawing as kids, the urge to sing along to the radio, the desire to decorate your room, to spend hours moulding and sculpting characters in videogames even if they're end up wearing a helmet for the reminder of the story.

Art to us isn't necessarily a refined and polished thing like it is to the asari, neither is it an intricate impossibly complex dance with thousands of layers like the elcor. Our art is primal and integral. It's messy and often flawed. It's as mundane and common as the hair on our bodies, and it's everywhere. We breathe it into the world. Otherwise, it might sufficate it inside. It's so embedded within our whole existence that we are often blind to the more mundane forms of art, glossing over the way looking at sunsets gets our hearts slowing down.

Beauty was never the purpose of art for humans, but relief, communication, and self expression.

We look for art in everything, for a story under every unturned stone, for a poetic meaning behind the alignment of the stars, drawing shapes from their formation and assigning it meanings.

The other species could see that. it's what helped our reputation recover faster after the whole First Contact incident. What made the other species forgo their "bullies" perspective of humanity once they sampled our food, tasted our drinks, and were gifted bouquets of our flowers with cursive apologises worded so thoughtfully.

Art is the one thing you can't take from a human, we resort to it even during the most grim times of our life, especially during that, seek comfort in someone's creations, even quietly make our own versions inside the privacy of our heads. Just because art happens behind closed doors—or brains—doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's not a tree, it never required an audience to exist, its purpose is its mere just existence.

It's even infectious, wasn't the humans who got a krogan to agree and film a romantic comedy about falling in love with a human?

Do you think the hanar aren't absolutely fascinated by our tales of the sea, the ruthless spiteful ocean we seem to fear as much as we revere. The sirens, the krakens, the sailor shanties, the beautiful ships, and intricate wood carvings meant to bring luck.

Maybe the Turians can't get enough of human "coming of age" cheesy romcoms because our depictions of teenage rebellion and daring to be "selfish" and come into your own personhood is such a taboo amidst their military culture.

Or maybe they loathe it.

Instead, they prefer the stories about humans coming together to solve problems, realising the strength of cooperation, of beehive-like efficiency and utter trust in one another. Be it war films about soldiers coping with the cruel world while finding warmth in their comrades, or depictions of larger revolts where a whole population works together to put an end to their tyrannical leaders.

Maybe they're secretly Marvel fans, who knows.

Art doesn't have to be deep. It can be fun just for the sake of fun. Simple self-indulgence at its purest form. For every great classical piece of literature has been surpassed in sales by an erotica romance novelette with a shirtless cowboy on the cover.

I think the salarians would watch love paradise and other romantic reality shows about humans competing for one human's affection, hand in marriage, sometimes roses are involved—but salarians watch it with the same intensity of football fans watching a match, it is their own game of thrones, they don't care much for the sex but by the stars the "picking a mate" drama and gossip is equivalent to catnip for salarians

[iheartgarrus]

N7 Month Day 5: Elcor

(AO3 Link - Shepard and Garrus get a cultural education.)

Days after Shepard's discharge from the hospital, Garrus walked into their living room to find a couple of elcor wearing… odd outfits on the vidscreen. After watching for a moment, he asked, "What is this?"

"Elcor Hamlet. It's 12 hours long, and I figure if I'm going to be stuck on this couch all day every day, I might as well finally take the plunge." Shepard adjusted her blanket and patted the couch next to her. "Come on, it's kind of fascinating."

"Suspicious: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

He took the invitation and sat down, quickly becoming hypnotized by the low, droning voices (which his translator was rendering in a turian dialect that hadn't been spoken in centuries) and the way the elcor slowly ambled back and forth on the stage to punctuate their words. "Huh."

The next time Garrus checked his omni-tool, he was startled to find that an hour had passed, and he shook his head and stood up. "Sorry, I need to go back to work."

"Suit yourself," Shepard said with a smirk, her eyes never leaving the screen.

[faejilly]

Thing 1 is playing ME and I just heard the blurb about Elcor Hamlet and am once again struck by questions! How long would that end up being? How many of Hamlet's conflicted emotional intentions would they actually announce? Would they do that every time he spoke? Would the emotional blurb end up being even longer than his lines half the time?like. How do you clarify any of that when the disaster-ness of it all is kind of the point?

[not-a-newt]

Hamlet // Yorrick (Mass Effect: Annihilation)

Seems, madam! Nay, it is! I know not 'seems.' / 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, / Nor customary suits of solemn black, / Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, / No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, / Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, / Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, / That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, / For they are actions that a man might play. / But I have that within which passes show. / These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Thinking about Yorrick and how he would relate to this line (of Hamlet talking about how it isn't possible through any physical means to externally express his drastic emotinal state), as an elcor surrounded by aliens whom he is physiologically unable to meaningfully convey his emotions to outside of the traditional one or two word tone indicators, in spite his characterization as a perceptive and emotionally intelligent character, especially during those last few fanatic moments at the end of the novel

[tadpoled-sloth]

It's a nice show, but I prefer the all-Elcor production of Hamlet myself.

[hiddenbysuccubi]

I want to see the Elcor version of Hamlet. I'm still on ME1 but I'm sure Thane would love it. Joker, my love, I appreciate that I can choose to NOT call the council every time I do something remotely interesting, but could you ALSO put the Normandy on Do Not Disturb while I'm off gallivanting and side questing? Thanks.

[nemo-me-impune]

Francis Kitt adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set during the First Contact War that gets banned on Palavan for being anti-military propoganda

Garrus watches it out of curiosity and wakes Shepard up in the middle of the night in tears to make her promise never to fake her death without telling him first

[bashfulfruitart]

And you thought Elcor Hamlet was long.

Friend of mine voiced this, and only asked for this drawing in return.

[sol-consort]

How do you think the mass effect aliens would’ve reacted if instead of the humanity they met, they’d instead first had contact with the cyberpunk version? Or even just a version of humanity that went hard into the metal upgrades sorta idea?

I adore this ask because this AU has been bouncing around in my brain like a rubber ball ever since I booted up Cyberpunk.

It really depends on what elements from each world make it into the timeline

Like it's easy to highlight some key elements in ME such as

Prothean base on Mars

First Contact War

Reapers

Biotics

Mass Relays

The geth

The Citadel

While in Cyberpunk, we have (that I'm aware of so far)

Cyber psychosis

The collapse of the first web

Netrunners

Capitalism on steroids

Normalisation of carrying weapons

Streamlined cyberware

Moon terraforming project

Now we just mix and match to determine what happens in that timeline!

To simplify things, and for my peace of mind, if one variable depends on another variable to exist

ex: Collapse of first web ≤ One Netrunner

Then we assume either of the following:

It happened some other way that resulted in the same consequences

The second variable did exist but no longer does (didn't become widespread or something else)

For example, if we use the following variables

Prothean Mars base

The Citadel

Mass Relays

The collapse of the first web

You get a world where everything is relatively the same, except that humans now say "nova" instead of "cool" and "choom" instead of "friend"

Please, just for a moment, imagine a turian calling you choom.

Feels weird doesn't it?

"You big gonk jellyfish" doesn't have the same rhythm to it

A lot of humanity's past history would be lost, the elcor adaptation of hamlet might never occure :( The collapse of society would definitely be brought to discussion and used as a "gotcha" card when humans attempt to join the galactic council.

Now, if we add

Moon terraforming

To the above universe. We get super racist humans!

Weren't Earthside humans calling all the highriders by "aliens" in cyberpunk? They already disowned the humans who travel to make home in space. How do you think those very humans would react to a real alien.

-

Now, here are some very fun combos and "what-if" scenarios. They aren't full fledged timeline, more like predictions of what would happen it those two+ points specifically occurred in the same universe.

The geth

First Contact War

Streamlined cyberware

Cyber psychosis

The council might not step in this time to stop the war the turians started because of a teeny tiny misunderstanding.

They think humans are synthetics.

Easy misconception, but very hard to disapprove when fully chromed up cyborgs in military grade cybernetics is all that they ever see.

We might as well be the second coming of the geth. Until one salarian team who was sent to help the turians by studying the enemy and determining our weaknesses, finds out, that we are in fact, flesh and blood!

The war would've stretched to longer than 3 months. By the end, humanity's reputation would've plummeted even harder than it did in Mass Effect.

Especially with how unshackled AI is allowed to run in the wild on Earth. A lot of species would get extremely sceptical and suspicious of humanity's nature. Just how viable is it to count a 97% synthetic being as organic? Well, that's for the council to decide.

And if you add

Biotics

Netrunners

Normalisation of carrying weapons

Capitalism on steroids

Then it evens the playing field and humanity's chances to beat the turians doubles if not triples. Assuming we have netrunners while they don't, it'd be a goddamn cakewalk.

All of their advanced technology will be turned against them. Whole ships decimated before a single shot is fired.

Best thing, even when they get their hands on it and crack the technology, even if they create a perfect replica to emulate it, they can't use it.

Or well, they can, but they won't.

Because it requires cyberware, it requires an operating system that gets embedded into your brain and connects to your synthetic eyes. It required a cooling system because it turns your entire goddamn body into a supercomputer, a one at a high risk of overheating.

It's not like biotics implants where it lets you concentrate element zero (even those are rare amongst non-humans + asari don't use them; they've been genetically engineered). This is a literal computing system.

Like, yeah, sure, aliens get necessary organ replacement surgery when a person's state is critical. Swapping some parts to synthetic is cool and all.

But none of this—what cyberpunk humans are doing—is necessary. In fact, it's so out of the necessary. It's pure indulgence at best, absolute gluttony at worst.

No, their pride wouldn't allow them. Especially when the war escalation was partly caused by doubting the organic authenticity of humans.

The only thing that will give them an edge are their precious biotics.

Which, luckily, we can very easily use with some training!

Like implants? That's nothing. Your average night city citizen would get like 6 implants on a whim while drunk.

My heart goes out to the poor fool who was the first to face off a fully chromed up biotic user, goddamn, that must have been a terrifying sight.

But if the war keeps progressing with no signs of slowing down, then the galactic species would gradually integrate cyberware into their armies, eventually trickling down to the average day citizens.

And then it'd be humanity's turn to get fucked because we only had this one trick up our sleeve, and now they're using it against us. Not to mention the great breakthroughs their scientists (which greatly outnumber humanity's) would achieve.

Well until

Reapers

Ever imagined what it would be like to play ME3 but on the side of the reapers?

Much like they sent an invitation to the geth, one might get thrown in our direction as well! Or maybe just our AI's who knows.

But a good chunk of humans-turned-AI or humans with AI brainchips would get the okay.

Maybe even the rest would follow. Parents rushing to get their kids into ripperdocs clinics so our benevolent reaper overlords allow them aboard.

While the reapers might not protect us exactly, attacking our enemies will take priority, which is the same in essence. Offence is the best defence and all.

Anyway, this is the "everything's gone to shit" timeline, let's move on.

-

The Citadel

Capitalism on steroids

Streamlined chrome

I can't tell if Arasaka would be impressed by the asari's rebranding of slavery or offended that they didn't think of doing it first.

The legal system is about to see a lot of revisions as asari-esque laws get tailored to fit humanity. Shady business practices are akin to blackholes nowadays.

-

Prothean base on Mars

Mass Relays

Reapers

Cyber psychosis

The collapse of the first web

Netrunners

Capitalism on steroids

Normalisation of carrying weapons

Streamlined cyberware

Moon terraforming project

Aka "everything is the same this is just the plot of Mass Effect" BUT we're the first ever species to explore space after the prothean cycle of the reapers.

So no asari, no turians, no salarians, no aliens in general, no fun.

Just synthetic humans against reapers, who might not even see us as threats or true organics.

Maybe peaceful coexistence with reapers? AI prospering? Robots getting rights?

Or maybe we just get harvested and slurped right up.

Who knows.

-

Last idea I have is a world where after the destroy ending of ME3, humanity sprials into the direction of Cyberpunk humanity.

So while everything started the same...

your average human eventually turns from this

into this

Until just like the quarians, only the matriarchs asari remember what fully organic humans looked like.

I'd imagine the aftermath of Shepard's death would lead to a lot of exposé articles that present the oh ever so shocking reveal of the beloved hero commander being 99% synthetic.

(That is if Shepard truly died in the destroy ending)

and even if they recover, it'd be with the use of more synthetics.

And what does the total wipeout of everything relatively AI/synthetic reminds you of? It might as well be the second (first in this universe) collapse of the web!

Man I sound like a conspiracy theorist—spending too much time around Garry ingame, my bad.

Listen, I'm a storyteller, I'm here to build an interesting narrative on the basis of hypothetical scenarios and slightly smuged facts.

The most likely answer to what would happen if aliens were introduced to cyberpunk humans is probably nothing.

Nothing would happen. They're goddamn aliens. They out-weird us in every way imaginable. Asari literally fuck your mind. No braindance can ever beat that in the weirdness-O-meter

But nothing is boring, it's anticlimactic.

So I play up facts, exaggerate ripple effects, and add some seasoning to create a fun story to read.

You know I wish cyberpunk customization made it into Mass Effect. Not just for the player, but npcs as well.

Neon eyes, vibrant haircolours, opaque silicone skirt, and hologram tags. THOSE are what come to mind when you tell me sci-fi galactic civilisation.

Not...goddamn dresses with holes in them and the most vanilla latex tailored suit imaginable. Balloon iphone cover looking ass.

I mean goddamit look at these two characters and tell me which one looks like it belongs to the sci-fi future and which one you'd see in any of today's Pinterest inspiration board for pixie haircuts?

I wish Mass Effect took that leap. Cyberpunk still gives you the choice to look natural, but most people don't take it because it doesn't fit the setting!

Fashion evolves, and aesthetics evolve. You might think you don't comply with fashion, but you do. Hell, if you've ever worn a hoodie, then congrats, you've reached the pinnacle of the 21st century fashion.

Because fashion isn't about what's the most impressive, pretty, or eye-catching.

It's about culture, time periods, and what's COMMON.

It's a language by itself, a social language like hello and goodbye. And the most important words to learn in any language are the most common, like your hoodie.

Graphic T-shirts, button-up blouses, jeans, various prints, and patterns are the essence of today's fashion. Who cares if it's good-looking or not? It's what's the most socially acceptable currently, what spells "I'm a normie" in the street.

Alternative fashion is called alternative for a reason. When everyone is doing it, it stops being alternative and becomes the next preppy, the next casual wear. Is what happened in Cyberpunk despite it being many years behind Mass Effect, who's still latching to the early 21st century—our timeperiod—fashion. Be it in clothes, makeup, hairstyles, or tattoos.

It's all about the message you're sending.

In a futuristic sci-fi setting WITH ALIENS, if you want to comply with the norm, you dress like V. If you want to comply to the vintage style and stand out extremely amidst society, you dress like Shepard.

But because it appears jarring to us, because we haven't reached that trend yet, because this style is associated with completely different meanings in today's society, the ME devs didn't add it.

Because the player exists in the early decades of the 21st century, the devs wanted to use a language that the player understood. You would've developed a completely different first impression on the commander Shepard if a military personnel was waltzing around with blue neon hair and rainbow eye contacts.

but that's only until you see that the admiral himself has a pink goatee and you realise this is the norm for this setting! I get wanting to make communication easy but goddamit have some faith in your audience.

How to put this...

To get an idea of how different Mass Effect and Cyberpunk treat the sci-fi setting, consider how all foreign languages (alien or else) in Mass Effect are translated instantly, even in subtitles. Evebn when Shepard is at their most beat up and bloody. By some magic, the translator never glitches.

While in cyberpunk, there is a slight delay. If someone's speaking a different language, you only see the translation if you have subtitles on, which at first appear as the originally said by the different language, but quickly reform themselves into English (or the language you picked] as the person speaks.

Because your eyes are synthetics, you can very easily add subtitles into real life in the world of Cyberpunk. So this behaviour, while less instantaneous and rewarding on the short term, is imperative to the world building around you, to show you the limit of the current technology.

So despite both games being sci-fi, it's very hard to mesh them together because of this very approach. Mass Effect treats technology as if it was magic, which is what it was set out to achieve, it's an action fps game, the science fiction takes a backseat despite the world brimming with alien life. Cyberpunk shows you the failures and limits of its technology, your gun can get hacked, your eyesight can be rebooted, and your AI can disobey you to abide by the company set regulations and instructions.

Swords are still a very viable option in Cyberpunk because it meshes well with the technology! They evolved with the world around them, mantis blades, and such inventions.

Yet, look at how Kai Leng is treated because he dared to not weild a gun.

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

So one of the Elcor hamlet things that's cited in elevator news in Mass Effect is "a chance to judge hamlet by his deeds and not his emotions."

That alone is such a hilarious concept because everything Hamlet does is just a fuck up.