#truth is I'm doing this to avoid filling cardboard boxes with my stuff

[crapeaucrapeau]

An asari expression

I recently discovered that, when you arrive on Noveria and learn that Matriarch Benezia is here, every companion very strongly urges you to bring Liara along to Peak 15 for maximum hurt to the heart as does Liara herself ; a Renegade-leaning Shepard can bluntly express doubts about Liara's commitment to their cause, citing the well-known (if usually misunderstood) proverb, "Blood is thicker than water."

Very interestingly, Liara immediately counters that the asari, too, have an expression : "Only a child never contradicts her mother" — and goes on to say that she knows Benezia's actions are morally wrong and she will stand against her.

And that's such an interesting perspective. First, it runs opposite a human constant, which is that family loyalty has traditionally been a cornerstone of just about every culture on Earth — and while (hopefully) a lot more people these days would not put their family before any and all moral considerations, it's generally considered completely understandable (if not necessarily excusable) if someone does something heinous or unlawful for the sake of a family member. And the asari believe in the opposite : blind loyalty is childish. Adults are their own individuals, with their own points of view, and should stand by them.

Second, it's all the more interesting if your cultural background assumes parents are figures of authority, people who have the right to dictate what you should and shouldn't do, to whom you are obligated (even into legal adulthood : if you "shamed" one of your parents in front of others, reactions would range from "awkward" (this isn't supposed to happen in the public sphere) to "infuriating" (how dare you treat the persons who gave you life like that)). It's all the more striking if we remember that, per Peebee, mothers are considered the "senior" parent in asari culture.

Third, it's really asari to consider that actualization as your own, unique self is what makes you an adult, that what makes you you is what you know and what you believe in : here, "contradicts" is very telling, as it suggests dialogue, principles, knowledge. At the same time, there is also a social dimension (you contradict someone usually in front of other people), underlined by Liara's own actions later in the game : you are expected to take a stand for your principles, what you believe in should have consequences in how you act. At the same time, there's this liberal expectation that different (even clashing) points of view will, can and should coexist in society (and that this is for the best).

Finally, it lends some (unintended) cultural context to Samara's mourning of Morinth in ME2, as she laments the daughter she just murdered was the best of her children. This is puzzling for someone who's made a war out of her life to kill the very same daughter, a serial killer ! Up until now, I thought this was about Samara seeing her younger self in Morinth and knowing that, in Morinth's shoes at the age the diagnostic hit, she'd have acted the same (in a "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" kind of way — you don't have to take the bad hand life has dealt you gracefully. You shouldn't.) — and I still stand by that interpretation. But there's also this, too : Mirala/Morinth, barely more than a child, saw the way her mother and society wanted her to act, and she refused, and that's admirable to some extent.

Fuck, what's so interesting about asari (among other things) is that their mesh of individualism and collectivism is different from our own, and they manage to be more individualistic and more collectivistic than your bog-standard Western audience member. Usually, when an alien species is set up against humans (as a species, but really "Western"/American culture), the aliens exist as collectivistic foils which act as justifications for the way our society is set (sure we kill more people, but at least we make good art and are more in touch with our feelings), as reaffirmations of "our" values (see also : Vulcans, Mimbari, Gems, etc). Here, however, the alien's culture makes them behave more morally than a human would have in the same situation. The aliens are superior.

(Obviously this is completely unintended, and the reason the asari are complex is because they're half-assed and written more or less incoherently by different writers, who completely drop the ball by ME3, but man, sometimes that makes for a very fertile soil for ideas.)