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beccatoriaOKAY! So first a very important announcement - tightpresent - the Sarah Connor Chronicles Vid Exchange is LIVE! Behold 16 vids all for TSCC! I haven't had a chance to watch them all yet, but two were made just for meeeee and they're lovely! I'm sure the rest are too - go look!
Really, participating in this was so interesting - but I feel like I can't talk about it without potentially giving away my vid, so I'm gonna maybe do a retrospective and stuff after the reveals next week. But really, go check this out!
Favourite Storyline Mission.
Virmire. It's a tough call, but I think I'm going with Virmire. Because it has that fantastic introduction to Sovreign, where the game very clearly sits you down and tells you exactly where it's going and what it's about.
Because it has the standoff with Wrex which I appreciate all the more now that I can see how it ultimately plays out in the Tuchanka sections of ME3, because I think how the Genophage storyline unfolds is one of the best examples of branching narratives and the same action having powerfully different ethical meanings in different contexts, in the entire series.
Because it has Kirrahe's Hold The Line speech, and I just feel like there's something lovely about the play on expectations in giving the chest-thumping rousing speech to the Salarian Special Ops Commander.
Because I love getting out of the Mako and doing that ENTIRE THING on foot because of the massive extra dose of experience, and because there's nothing better than watching Kaidan or Liara life an entire Geth Colossus into the air.
Because I think the whole thing happening on an idyllic tropical paradise is a really interesting choice of setting.
And, of course, because of the choice between Kaidan and Ashley. Which I hate making even when I know who I'm gonna pick, but again, is the game telling you exactly what its deal is. Especially if you end up realising that the person you think it's tactically best to save is not the person you wanted to save, and then, do you stick with your tactics or your preference, and if the latter, how do you live with yourself? Like, it's just one more choice - where you send each person before you then choose which position to evacuate first - but it can really add a whole heap of psychological difference.
So, yeah. Virmire. So many different things going on that impact the rest of the game in so many ways.
But as a runner up, for emotional impact: Thessia.
Favourite Loyalty Mission
Hmm, I find it hard to choose. I enjoy both Thane and Samara's for their quiet pathos and the fact that both operate without combat, and can be failed without an opportunity to redo them if you spook the kids. So from an artistic standpoint, I'd pick one of these.
On a personal level I love Tali's because I love Tali and I want to do everything I can to help her. Adopting her onto my ship and saving her from exile is probably the loyalty mission from which I gain the most personal satisfaction.
But I think I'm actually going to choose A House Divided, and go with Legion. Because it's just so damn interesting to me and I just fucking love robots. It's a genuinely interesting set of questions and an interesting clarification of the Geth's existence as a gestalt rather than series of individual consciousnesses. Plus I love listening to Legion talk about stuff.
Favourite Side Mission.
Hmm, okay, I'm not totally sure what this means. If it means, like, the really small missions - the N7 stuff, or the "oh look I found something while scanning!" stuff, then I'd probably say either the errands for Emily Wong in ME1 because I felt like I was helping Space Lois Lane, or that time you get to wander around on the half-crashed ship on the edge of a cliff - the Estevanico, I think? Because it's a beautiful, lonely setting.
But if we're just talking about anything that's skippable (but not a recruitment or loyalty mission), then I'm probably going to pick the Ardat-Yakshi monastery. I'm sorta still disappointed they walked back on Samara's kids being the only Ardat-Yakshi at all and made them the only ones with the most severe form of the disease, but still, while this mission is hardly what I'd call a favourite, it is probably the most striking and emotionally affecting.
Basically because I tend to let Samara shoot herself in the head. I've spoken about why before, but I have a feeling that might have been on the dreaded tumblrz, so I shall duplicate here because here's a better place for these things to be archived anyway.
So. Samara. I hated her code, her inflexible, insane, stupid, absurd code. I thought it was monstrous. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t vindictive or cruel or unstable. I loved her.
I saved her, the first time I played through, then immediately regretted it, vowed never to do so again, and didn’t. I wish I could adequately explain why.
I suppose it’s because her absolute dedication to her code is the only thing she has. Without it, it’s just psychotic. And if I make her bend here, at the end, if I prevent her from making the one choice her code will allow her to make that can demonstrate to her daughter that she does love her more than that damn code after all, if I stop her here, if this is where she compromises... What does that mean for every time she didn’t, or couldn’t, or wouldn’t?
It’s a house of cards based on self-denial and the impossibility of exceptions. If I trick her into the ultimate exception - the one based on personal attachment - maybe it’s not a greater tragedy than dying, maybe it’s not. But maybe it is. Maybe it renders her decision to eschew those attachments for centuries - for the child she’s about to die for because of that very choice - moot. So if the only way she can make that exception - to ensure it really is the only, the last, the most important - is by ending her own existence? By saying, I can no longer live by this code, and thus, I will no longer live? Is that integrity? Is that honour?
I know that it’s a choice. And I know that when I pressed that paragon interrupt button, I had no way of knowing a convenient third option would present itself, I simply wanted her to break her own rules, just this once.
I’d take away Kaidan’s choice for his own good in a heartbeat. Same with Garrus or Ashley or Tali, or a whole damn species, or the galaxy for that matter, because I’m the one stood up on that platform with a trinary choice and everyone’s future staring me down.
I can’t take away Samara’s choice. A continuous, exhausting, unyielding choice to be who she is, to be how she is, is all she is. It’s the seams of her. Every day she wakes up and chooses this life. One day, she chose to end it. It was not a decision that involved me.
Really, participating in this was so interesting - but I feel like I can't talk about it without potentially giving away my vid, so I'm gonna maybe do a retrospective and stuff after the reveals next week. But really, go check this out!
Favourite Storyline Mission.
Virmire. It's a tough call, but I think I'm going with Virmire. Because it has that fantastic introduction to Sovreign, where the game very clearly sits you down and tells you exactly where it's going and what it's about.
Because it has the standoff with Wrex which I appreciate all the more now that I can see how it ultimately plays out in the Tuchanka sections of ME3, because I think how the Genophage storyline unfolds is one of the best examples of branching narratives and the same action having powerfully different ethical meanings in different contexts, in the entire series.
Because it has Kirrahe's Hold The Line speech, and I just feel like there's something lovely about the play on expectations in giving the chest-thumping rousing speech to the Salarian Special Ops Commander.
Because I love getting out of the Mako and doing that ENTIRE THING on foot because of the massive extra dose of experience, and because there's nothing better than watching Kaidan or Liara life an entire Geth Colossus into the air.
Because I think the whole thing happening on an idyllic tropical paradise is a really interesting choice of setting.
And, of course, because of the choice between Kaidan and Ashley. Which I hate making even when I know who I'm gonna pick, but again, is the game telling you exactly what its deal is. Especially if you end up realising that the person you think it's tactically best to save is not the person you wanted to save, and then, do you stick with your tactics or your preference, and if the latter, how do you live with yourself? Like, it's just one more choice - where you send each person before you then choose which position to evacuate first - but it can really add a whole heap of psychological difference.
So, yeah. Virmire. So many different things going on that impact the rest of the game in so many ways.
But as a runner up, for emotional impact: Thessia.
Favourite Loyalty Mission
Hmm, I find it hard to choose. I enjoy both Thane and Samara's for their quiet pathos and the fact that both operate without combat, and can be failed without an opportunity to redo them if you spook the kids. So from an artistic standpoint, I'd pick one of these.
On a personal level I love Tali's because I love Tali and I want to do everything I can to help her. Adopting her onto my ship and saving her from exile is probably the loyalty mission from which I gain the most personal satisfaction.
But I think I'm actually going to choose A House Divided, and go with Legion. Because it's just so damn interesting to me and I just fucking love robots. It's a genuinely interesting set of questions and an interesting clarification of the Geth's existence as a gestalt rather than series of individual consciousnesses. Plus I love listening to Legion talk about stuff.
Favourite Side Mission.
Hmm, okay, I'm not totally sure what this means. If it means, like, the really small missions - the N7 stuff, or the "oh look I found something while scanning!" stuff, then I'd probably say either the errands for Emily Wong in ME1 because I felt like I was helping Space Lois Lane, or that time you get to wander around on the half-crashed ship on the edge of a cliff - the Estevanico, I think? Because it's a beautiful, lonely setting.
But if we're just talking about anything that's skippable (but not a recruitment or loyalty mission), then I'm probably going to pick the Ardat-Yakshi monastery. I'm sorta still disappointed they walked back on Samara's kids being the only Ardat-Yakshi at all and made them the only ones with the most severe form of the disease, but still, while this mission is hardly what I'd call a favourite, it is probably the most striking and emotionally affecting.
Basically because I tend to let Samara shoot herself in the head. I've spoken about why before, but I have a feeling that might have been on the dreaded tumblrz, so I shall duplicate here because here's a better place for these things to be archived anyway.
So. Samara. I hated her code, her inflexible, insane, stupid, absurd code. I thought it was monstrous. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t vindictive or cruel or unstable. I loved her.
I saved her, the first time I played through, then immediately regretted it, vowed never to do so again, and didn’t. I wish I could adequately explain why.
I suppose it’s because her absolute dedication to her code is the only thing she has. Without it, it’s just psychotic. And if I make her bend here, at the end, if I prevent her from making the one choice her code will allow her to make that can demonstrate to her daughter that she does love her more than that damn code after all, if I stop her here, if this is where she compromises... What does that mean for every time she didn’t, or couldn’t, or wouldn’t?
It’s a house of cards based on self-denial and the impossibility of exceptions. If I trick her into the ultimate exception - the one based on personal attachment - maybe it’s not a greater tragedy than dying, maybe it’s not. But maybe it is. Maybe it renders her decision to eschew those attachments for centuries - for the child she’s about to die for because of that very choice - moot. So if the only way she can make that exception - to ensure it really is the only, the last, the most important - is by ending her own existence? By saying, I can no longer live by this code, and thus, I will no longer live? Is that integrity? Is that honour?
I know that it’s a choice. And I know that when I pressed that paragon interrupt button, I had no way of knowing a convenient third option would present itself, I simply wanted her to break her own rules, just this once.
I’d take away Kaidan’s choice for his own good in a heartbeat. Same with Garrus or Ashley or Tali, or a whole damn species, or the galaxy for that matter, because I’m the one stood up on that platform with a trinary choice and everyone’s future staring me down.
I can’t take away Samara’s choice. A continuous, exhausting, unyielding choice to be who she is, to be how she is, is all she is. It’s the seams of her. Every day she wakes up and chooses this life. One day, she chose to end it. It was not a decision that involved me.
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Date: 2013-05-15 07:51 pm (UTC)That ship that you can wander around on. Oh god. I did that for the first time recently and I loved the scenery (because dang, ME has some AMAZING scenery porn), but it gave me the shits because I am deathly afraid of heights, and every time that ship moved, I basically crapped myself.
I didn't know/realise they retconned the Ardat-Yakshi (I mean, I realised there were more at the monastery, but I thought maybe when Samara first told Shep about it she was purposely lying? IDK, it's been a while and I've only played 3 once).