#and that's why shepard's guidance is /so/ integral to him and his development

[immobiliter]

so something that i will probably continue to talk about in regards to garrus is his sense of morality because on the surface he is very influenced by shepard in that regard, especially in me1 because you can literally push him into a more paragon ( due process is important ) or renegade path ( take justice into your own hands ) depending on how you respond to his quest ( me remembering how i accidentally renegaded him in my original me1 playthrough lmaoooo ). plus he has that whole cowboy cop thing about him which admittedly isn't my favourite thing in the world

however, i think the best way to define his morality is that he takes a very binary, black and white approach to it, and i think that's the turian in him in all honesty. something is either right or its wrong, as he admits during his loyalty mission in me2, "i don't know what to do with grey." i think this matches with the way that turian society works as a meritocracy: as a leader you either make the right decision, or you don't. you either succeed and you are lauded for it or you fail and take all of the blame and responsibility. garrus was raised to be a by the book turian and nuance doesn't really have a place in their culture, and so that makes human nuance something that i think both perplexes and fascinates garrus in equal measure, and something he becomes more and more influenced by as the trilogy goes on.

but this also explains why he's so eager in me1 to go rogue on c-sec and investigate saren on his own without those checks and balances on his behaviour, and why he goes full vigilante mode pre-me2. garrus does have a very strong sense of right and wrong and has had this from the very beginning: he knows what is unjust and unfair, and he has a strong desire to correct those wrongs. but for him it's a binary issue: he either sticks to working at c-sec where he can't uncover saren's treason or help others in need because of the limitations and corruptions within the institution, or he takes matters into his own hands and does whatever it takes to get that justice, no matter if some of his methods are underhanded or straight up immoral.

that space in between is what shepard fills in for him, the idea that he can seek justice while following his own personal moral code that may not always align with the rigid institutions of authority that he has been trained to abide by as a turian. and the evidence of shepard's influence on him is no clearer that in the way he conducts himself as archangel in avoiding civilian casualties at all costs