On the effects of mass.

[shirenomad]

I'm doing this exercise again, but this time I'm giving you some advance notice: these are my Mass Effect characters. Refrain from asking about actual Mass Effect events (especially as I haven't played ME2 through yet and do not want to be hit with spoilers), but feel free to tailor your questions to your knowledge of the ME universe in general (culture, tech, politics, etc.)

1) Dara
2) Cole
3) Brit
4) Zaku

Comments

[westmarked.livejournal.com]

Once you've finished playing though the game at least once and will know, what's the hardest decision each character had (will have) to make? How would making that decision and seeing the results of it change them in the future (i.e. the next game)?

[shirenomad]

I have finished my first run (with Dara) so here's what I've got. (I'll try to be vague for the readers who haven't played yet.)

Dara: The escape from Virmire. For the first time she had to make a choice based on pragmatism (she ultimately chose to go back to the bomb; it absolutely needed to be armed) rather than idealism. She consciously made "who will survive" the secondary priority, and paid the expected price. It'll take her a while to get used to the idea that it was necessary, but it will have sunk in by ME2, and she'll be more willing to make similar calls... not that she'll enjoy it. (Also, some of her other decisions may come back to haunt her, but none of them backfire in the short term of the first game.)

Cole: The finale of X57. He's not letting the lead terrorist get away for several reasons (some selfish, some not), but the resulting hostage casualties will haunt him for a while. I'm not sure if he'll really let it affect his later decisions but he may hesitate to make similar "catch the bad guys but lose the civilians" decisions next time.

Brit: The Thorian's "defenders." She won't think to ask in advance if there's a non-lethal option, but actually having to gun them down... she'll try to ignore it with "they weren't really on my side" but it won't stick. "Will this kill civilians?" (or at least "will I have to see the civilians die?") will enter her considerations in later decisions.

Zaku: The escape from Virmire. If it was hard on Dara, it's gonna be devastating for Zaku; suddenly he's painfully aware that he can't always save everyone. (And it'll immediately follow the beach confrontation, which he'll blow.) Really, all of Virmire will change Zaku: outwardly, he'll probably still act the part, but his confidence will waver and he'll begin avoiding plans that put people he cares about (well, other than himself) at heavy risk. (If you remember Maniac's brief run as squadron command in Wing Commander: Prophecy, and how it ended, it'll resemble that.)