#mass effect spoilers

[catsharky]

There we go, 3/3 of what was supposed to be one big part!

This isn't the end, though the next part isn't going to be about Garrus so he will have to stay in grief limbo for a bit. Just while I give a certain someone else a bit of time in the spotlight! Then we'll be back to give the poor boy a break.

Part 1 • Previous Part • Interim Comic 1

[oonaluna-art]

Liara’s character development between Mass Effect 1 and 3.

As a history major, I’d probably be salty too.

—

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[everythingmasseffectdd]

The thing about Garrus Vakarian that makes him such a 10 is that he came out of fucking nowhere.

In the first game I felt mid about him, even a little low-key concerned because he had some alarming ideals and I just had people closer to me who did the job better. Wasn't too sad to see him go.

And then there was the whole harrowing fiasco that was ME2 where he just fucking ajzbeinrbfusjanwb... And his reveal was such a roller coaster, such a colossal relief and horror and relief again. And the ride or die thing, because if you thought I was letting the emotional support vigilante out of my sight after that, think again.

I think I was like 10 hours from the end of ME3 (and WAY too far up another romance route), when the realization knocked me flat on my ass.

I love Garrus Vakarian.

Wtf am I doing with [xyz]?!?!

Holy shit, I LOVE him.

Embarrassing, honestly. He's pixels. I'd had game feelings before but... like via the main character, not like... hit me with a sack of bricks, stop dead in my tracks on a random Tuesday, moment of complete clarity type feelings. The Garrus thing really does sneak up on you though, lmao. Full arc. 10/10. Such damn good writing. Love that little turian forever.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

The ABCs of Mass Effect, according to Reddit

Second place finishers:

[todayontumblr]

Wednesday, November 8.

Mass Effect fanart.

Yesterday was November 7, known to Mass Effect fans as N7 Day. Today, as you may have discerned, is November 8. And so, we thought to ourselves, why not celebrate N7 on N8 and stretch out the celebrations for another 24 hours? It's crazy, sure—but it might just be crazy enough to work.

Voila. Hey presto. Here's some #mass effect fanart. You deserve it, quite frankly. 

[catharsis-scrawled]

[i-lived-bitch-beatdown]

[paragonraptors]

happy n7 day i need ryder back :”))

[monowires]

mshenko is probably the healthiest representation of queer relationships i've seen which isn't saying much because i haven't seen many but their fucking dynamic is just so goddamn important to me.

like... i know the reason we can't be gay in ME1 is because they (bioware) were cowards but in retrospect i really, really fucking love the slow burn. because it's like... they go through ME1 together, go through horizon, and STILL end up drawn to one another. and they actually talk about it, about horizon, in the hospital. i think mars was such a huge example of how deeply shepard really cares for kaidan.

and i think kaidan's love is best represented when they're in the cerberus headquarters and shepard talking about being rebuilt by cerberus says, "i don't know, i..." and kaidan just says, "you're real enough for me"

like on god i WILL fucking lose my goddamn mind RIGHT NOW. because that's so indicative of the way they communicate even without speaking. there's a bond there that's so fucking deep and i just. they make me SO FUCKING FERAL.

[ceo-of-sloppy-men]

If you think about it, Commander Shepard’s mission was never defeat the Reapers, it was survive.

Survive Eden Prime against the Geth so they can save the colony. Survive Virmire against Saren so they can save the galaxy. Survive the Citadel so they can stop the Reapers. Survive the Normandy SR-1’s demise. Survive Cerberus long enough to go through the Omega relay. Survive the collectors base to destroy it. Survive the proto-Reaper to destroy it. Survive Priority Earth to get help. Survive long enough to unite the galaxy. Survive returning to Earth to activate the crucible. Survive the crucible.

They ensured every race could survive to fight the reapers. To spit in the face of extinction. Even if it was at the cost of their own survival.

[catsharky]

As terrifying as it would have been, I like to think there was a moment of peace there at the end, among the stars.

-

So... this is the next part of the Shakarian comic, but it's not the big one I said would come next. I've made the decision to put that on the back burner for now and pick away at it a lot more slowly while I continue on with what I originally had planned. The next thing you see from me will likely be the Joker-centric part I mentioned a while back, but for now please enjoy this rare coloured comic in the meantime.

Part 1 • Previous Part • Next Part

[n7cloacadestroyer]

Very true. I also have doubts that the thorian that Shepard fights on Feros is well and truly dead. Shiala and ExoGeni's recovery team are the only sources we have that confirm its apparent demise. ExoGeni has a vested interest (as well as a demonstrated willingness) to lie. They were willing to purge the colony to protect their secrets and probably would have if Shepard hadn't intervened. So we know that we can't trust them.

Shiala, on the other hand, seems trustworthy at first. She's vital to the plot of ME1, as the prothean cipher would be lost to Shepard after the thorian's supposed death had she not intervened. She wishes to stay with the colonists to atone for their suffering which she feels responsible for. Even if you take the renegade option to kill her, it still reflects well on her character.

But something we often overlook is that she was definitely indoctrinated by Sovereign, following Matriarch Benezia to join Saren. A reminder that Matriarch Benezia was so far gone that she couldn't stop herself from trying to murder her own daughter. Sovereign probably couldn't have exerted any more control over her without turning her brain into pudding.

Indoctrination is stated to be a degenerative condition by multiple characters throughout the series, but we hear about it first from Rana Thanoptis, who was studying the phenomenon at Saren's base on Virmire. We learn that Sovereign (and later, all reapers) emit a kind of energy field undetectable by contemporary technology that subtly alters brain waves and thought patterns, making organic minds more susceptible to suggestion by slowly removing the capacity for independent thought.

If we take the narrative at face value, Shiala remains the only character in the entirety of the Mass Effect series that has experienced any degree of remission in their level of reaper indoctrination. This isn't extremely suspicious on its own within the context of Mass Effect 1, but given what we learn about it going forward? Gigantic red flag.

It's also worth noting that Saren offers Shiala to the thorian in exchange for the cipher, a fate she willingly accepts as an indoctrinated slave. Saren then betrays the thorian, as he has a reputation for. No surprise there. What is surprising is his apparent lack of target priority.

If Saren/Sovereign wanted to breach the colony to destroy the main thorian node beneath it, why didn't they just bombard it from orbit? Instead, they send the geth to attack the humans in the colony and the nearby ExoGeni building. "Killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle," as the thorian says.

There is another creature within the Mass Effect continuity that reproduces via spores--the Thresher Maw. That's the reason we find them on so many different worlds in-game. Their microscopic spores are hardy enough to survive dormant within the vacuum of deep space and atmospheric reentry, so they are unwittingly spread by space travelers, both past and contemporary.

What if Saren was cutting off the thorian's vectors of propagation without directly attacking it? Because large-scale disturbances like bombardment risk throwing its spores into the atmosphere or worse--into orbit where it could cling to passing vessels along with other bits of magnetized space dust.

I also suspect that the geth platforms on Feros were so entrenched because they were never intended to leave. If the thorian's influence can indeed overpower reaper indoctrination, as it seems to be doing with Shiala, the machines have a very good reason to be concerned and act accordingly. They seemingly intend to starve it out/quarantine it--a smart move, all things considered. Especially if my suspicions are correct.

We meet Shiala again on Illium in Mass Effect 2. Her skin has turned green, and she seems fatigued, to put it mildly. We learn that the colonists continue to experience strange side effects and rudimentary linked nerve signals, even sharing sensations like heat and pain when near one another. In addition, they experience headaches and muscle spasms similar to when they were under thorian control seemingly at random. She also notes that her biotics have become 'unstable'.

The colonists contacted a Baria Frontiers survey group to perform some medical scans to diagnose and resolve their chronic issues and were offered a contract to get them for next to nothing. The problem was that they had unknowingly agreed to "invasive follow-up procedures" at the company's behest. With enough charm or intimidate points, Shepard can help Shiala by convincing the Baria Frontiers rep to revise the contract.

Now we're led to believe that these procedures are being forced on the colonists simply because an uncharacteristically racist asari just wants to see them suffer… but what if the initial scans showed some kind of anomaly? If there are parasitic spores within their bodies controlling (or at least influencing) their minds, discovery of this fact would certainly spell doom for the parasite in question. So would it not be in the parasite's best interest to avoid anyone looking at the colonists too closely?

Furthermore, it's strange that the symptoms result in biotic instability for Shiala, an asari commando who has been training her biotic abilities for at least a few hundred years. Unless the thorian spores have begun to sprout and grow throughout her central and periphery nervous systems, thereby disrupting/altering the path that nerve signals must take to reach the eezo nodules in her nerves?

In Mass Effect 3, we meet her on the Citadel presidium after the evacuation of Zhu's Hope. She confirms that she is indeed indoctrinated, but says that her connection to the colonists through the residual thorian spores "is louder" than the tell-tale whispers. She and the colonists have seemingly adapted to the presence of the thorian spores and can now "feel" one another, and "act with one mind" as they fight against the reapers, "ignoring pain when the need arises." They can share some degree of learned experience as well, as Shiala further elaborates, "with one mind, the untrained fight with the skill of veteran commandos."

She's also, notably, still green. So it seems like the colonists just abandoned the whole "let's get medical care" idea and just learned to live with their new hivemind? Yeah, that's extremely suspicious given everything we know about the thorian.

Conclusion: Shiala and the colonists are simply an extension of the thorian, and this is how the creature propagates itself. Feros was not the Thorian's home world, and it was likely carried there by the protheans or a space-faring civilization that predated them as spores within their bodies. When they die, their bodies will be consumed by the spores within them and begin a new "cycle" for the thorian. (got to thinking about this reply from @dragonflight203, but it got a little too big for the reply box.)

[gimjarack]

Playing Mass Effect 2 for the first time knowing about the existence of the final Suicide Mission is almost indescribable.

I LITERALLY DIED at the beginning of the game, that sets up the tone of the story very well... I don't know how bad this suicide mission will be. I have no guarantee that any single crew member will survive. Should I go recruit Tali out of respect for a former crew member of the OG squad, or should I leave her out of the new crew and spare her the almost certain death we will inevitably face? Should I even be bothering with their loyalty missions for an extra edge that might go to waste should they perish? How can I possibly romance any of these hotties and hunks with the looming spectre of "The Suicide Mission" forever on my to-do list?!

There was a mission to visit the crash site of the 1st Normandy, the site is a testament to the inevitability of death. Walking around, collecting the dog tags of fallen crew mates long dead, among the wreckage of my former glory... Something about it made the implications of mortality set in quick.

[inuhodo]

when your girlfriend becomes a mass machine consciousness but then also comes back but then also is a bit weird but its fine because you still love her goofy ass and she kept her promise to take you dancing

[jazzajazzjazz]

AU where Nyreen Kandros is alive and well and happy and continuing to be a gorgeous badass?

You silly goose that’s reality and you can’t convince me otherwise

[for-the-love-of-starwars]

You know I did the survivor background for my first play through. Never thought I’d ever cheer for a Thresher Maw.