Anyway, let's get to the analysis, shall we?
Collectors and Reapers
I said I wouldn't touch on them much until the end of the game, but I realized that I may as well discuss them now. The revelation(s) at the end of the game are really interesting - it floored me the first time I played the game, let me tell you - but that's for when the time comes, eh?
I took note of the recurring themes of indoctrination or hypnosis throughout the game, primarily from the Reapers. Carrying over from ME1, the Reapers have the power to infiltrate one's mind and control them. It's a gradual process, though, rather than an instant, dramatic mind-control technique. They work their way into your mind like a virus, but do so slowly and subtly. It begins with simple things, like giving you a feeling that something is right or wrong, or slightly altering your memories. Eventually, many of your memories could become corrupted and your beliefs will change; you'll follow the Reapers because you don't know any better. They now own you and your mind. You will do their bidding and feel that it is the right thing to do. Of course, you're just bait, a distraction to keep people busy while the Reapers do their business of plotting to take over the world. Well, galaxy, really. (Insert Pinky and the Brain reference.) It covers something that's occurred to me a while ago and become all the more relevant since playing video games like this: The human mind. Nothing in our body is more sacred. Yes, the heart and lungs and such and such keep us alive. They serve the functions of sustaining life, the things that make us what we are. But our brain is everything that makes us WHO we are. (Fairytales and pop-culture always make the reference of "listening to our hearts" or falling in love with our hearts and stuff, but the heart has nothing to do with love at all. Nor is it shaped like a geometric heart. It's all in the noggin.) If something or someone manipulates and controls our brain just like a computer virus corrupts a hard drive on our computer, we lose everything that makes us who we are. All people have fears of something, some more rational than others, but it is my personal belief that fearing the loss of sanity - the loss of one's own mind - is one of the greatest, most understandable fears. The Reapers not only take away your mind and free will, but they use you as a tool to their ultimate goal of galactic destruction. Yikes. Thankfully, this is over one hundred years in the future, so I'll be long gone by then.
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| Reaper (Sovereign from ME1) |
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| Collectors (with big, nasty guns) |
I thought I'd make a quick note about these. Their significance is to gain the loyalty of the crew members. The purpose of gaining loyalty is to be sure that each crew member can attain some level of closure before heading off on a suicide mission to save the galaxy. Perhaps the most ideal death is one where you're ready for and comfortable with it. Furthermore, from a Renegade FemShep perspective, it keeps the crew focused, which is key in such a critical mission. Is loyalty worth providing, especially in such a touchy, difficult mission where there are some potentially disloyal crew members alongside you? Does loyalty matter in general? It's a matter of bias and perspective.
Mordin and the Genophage
I touched on this in my previous post with Okeer and Grunt. The salarians created the Genophage. They mainly thought of it as a threat; they didn't plan on using it. But the turians saw how effective it was an, during the war (I forget which war, sadly), they released all of it. Yikes. This is similar to World War II on earth. I don't claim to be a biologist or ecologist or the like, but there were dangerous chemicals used during WW2 that still have lingering effects today. What beings will do for war... (This also reminds me of Inglourious Basterds.) Most creatures adapt to their environments as time goes on, and the krogan began to build an immunity to the Genophage. Because they still posed a threat - even greater, since the Genophage was released and they've become more aggressive and reckless - the salarians redeveloped the Genophage and launched it again, though in a more subtle circumstance. I think of it as a specifically-targeted computer virus, meant to block and destroy malicious websites and malware. While it does its job well, it also takes down some of the good and productive sites and services with it. The Genophage itself is a genetically-engineered flaw that doesn't cause severe harm to individual Krogan. It's hard to justify it, though, even from my more Renegade perspective.
Can you tell I like Mordin? His character is fascinating to me. I always pay close attention to what he has to say in dialogue options. Partly because he talks so freakin' fast, but because he has very intelligent and insightful things to say.
Jacob Loyalty
There wasn't a lot to note here except for the nature of our hunger for power. Jacob's father found himself with a lot of a power at a difficult time and wasn't prepared for it. Power, confusion, and fear is a dangerous combination. It does no good for anyone. The result was turning all of his crew members into primal animals. Men died off or became ravenous warriors, and women were sent to a camp to mill around and be used (yes, in that way) by the men. It's sickening. Segregation like in concentration camps back from the war days. I guess war tends to be a recurring facet of humanity. History repeats itself, whether we like it or not. Male dominance reappeared here, too. Perhaps being a woman myself affected my view of this. I would feel so violated by it. Then again, no one there except for Captain Taylor was in their right mind. (This refers back to my previous statements of the mind and its sanctity.)
Sidenote: I was never a big fan of Jacob's character. Or Kaidan's, for that matter. I liked the fact that he was loyal and a genuinely good guy. As far as character development and abilities go, though, he's a character I rarely deploy on missions or bother getting to know. Feel free to persuade me otherwise.
Gaming Segment (3 Hours)
Something that video games - and technical images - allow people to do is disassociate oneself from the truth. Parents fear for their kids when they play things like Grand Theft Auto and do some pretty violent and obscene stuff, it will correlate to their actions in real life. Kids' retorts will be that their decisions are only in the gaming world and they'd never do that in real life. "It's just a game!" It's just a bunch of technical images, simulated by an advanced set of symbols, made to look like something real or feasible. But there is some truth to the fact that video games have an effect on gamers - good and bad. (I'm sure I have at least slightly better mental reflexes because of gaming.) I'm interested to see what you guys think of this.
I jotted down a quote from a passing turian in the Citadel:
"Everything would be so much simpler if we all had the same DNA. But no, the universe loves diversity."
I wish I had jotted down more than just the quote because I know I had something awesome to say about it. What a shame. It's still worth considering.
Something that I jotted down in this segment is the power of ideas versus the power of reality. People often underestimate ideas and how much influence they have over your mind. I'll use The Hunger Games as an example. On a very basic level, it's a trilogy of novels about how Katniss Everdeen defies a corrupted government and stays alive in very competitive and public combat. I read all three in a week and loved them. They displayed war and brutality and life in a strikingly realistic way. They're part of the reason I hope to become an author myself. Now it's been translated into movie form, which will hit theaters in two weeks (I very much intend to see it). The movie broke box office records, reeling in more opening-day funds than both of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films and the first part of Twilight's Breaking Dawn film combined. That's impressive. This is all based on the power of ideas. Nothing in THG is real. It's purely fictional, but strongly founded in realistic life. We flock toward this stuff. Arguably, people fear the unknown and the chance that impossible things could be possible more than they fear the known and the possible. I bring this argument to the technical images format because, as I've said before, technology makes the frighteningly realistic in previous levels of imagery (drawings, photographs, novels) and makes it even moreso. If ideas were already powerful, than it's scary to imagine how powerful technical images could become as technology continues to progress. There will always be an argument between writing and technical images. I adore books and don't think I could give them up for video games. Some people see it as a way of perception: seeing is believing versus believing is seeing. As an open-minded person, I look at it both ways.
Why do we believe technology is going in the direction of items like holograms and holographic screens and systems of contained energy (like lightsabers)? What made us think that? Why are we so consumed with the idea of it? We many never have the technology for that and have simply tricked ourselves into thinking that it's possible. Or maybe it is, but it's limiting the potential to what we could really do with technology. Who knows? Maybe we really will see a society like Makers had. Is space the final frontier? Are we destined to meet alien life forms? Are we truly a superior race, or will we find that there are other species far greater than our own? Is all of this a load of bullocks? Maybe. I guess we'll find out.
~Mel
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