A Picspam Recap of Mass Effect (Part 3)
Mar. 19th, 2012 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eponymous_roseBack to Part Two (in which the best dialogue wheel of the game is discovered, Shepard has a fan club, and our heroes hold the line)
Shepard watches the explosion, and the sad piano music of comradely sacrifice starts playing. Another group meeting ensues, and Shep and Kaidan talk about why she chose him over Ashley, while the other people in the room sit around awkwardly.
Liara finally jumps in and points out that the beacon on Virmire might have given Shep enough information to put the whole vision together, with the help of another mind meld. Flash again to the creepy nightmare-stuff - the animators must be awfully proud of this sequence, to have it come up so often in pretty much exactly the same form every time. Liara finally interprets it as a distress call - a sort of "Hey, guys, heads up, the Reapers are gonna kill us all!" Seeing as how the Protheans still went extinct, it may have been just a liiittle late. Liara also manages to recognize one of the planets flashing by in the vision, and deduces with it's-almost-the-end-of-the-game clarity that the Conduit must be on a planet called Ilos. It seems likely, since that's one of the places the Mu Relay links to. So now we have a destination! Sweet!
Tali points out that the Mu Relay is inside the Terminus Systems (remember that place where the Council didn't want to send anyone, because it might trigger a war? Yeeeah.), which is gonna make things tricky. Shep figures their stealth ship might be able to manage it. Liara mentions that if Saren's headed there, he'll probably have a whole fleet with him. Good point, Liara. She suggests a visit to the Council, since they'll probably have a fleet to borrow. And then, because it's the only way these meetings end anymore, she nearly passes out again from the vision-induced exhaustion.
I bet this method works just as well to end interminable board meetings. "Oh, I'm sorry, my mystical nightmare-vision interpretation skills are exhausting, I'ma just take this donut and go back to my cubicle."
Joker calls down, sounding decidedly subdued (with the sad piano music of comradely sacrifice being piped all over the ship, who can blame him?) to report that he's found a comm buoy so they can call ahead to the Council and warn them about Sovereign. For once, the Council is all, "Good job, Shepard! You're awesome!" Mostly they just focused in on the part where Shep prevented Saren from raising an army of krogan. She tries to bring up the end-of-the-galaxy Reaper stuff, at which point the Council is all, "Yyyyess, about that crazy talk. We're pretty sure Saren just heard about your nightmare and is using that information to make shit up and mess with you."
Seriously, guys? Seriously?
Time to chat with the crew again! Joker, still really subdued, says that he understands it couldn't have been easy for Shep to make that choice. "There is no right choice for something like that," says Shep, handily absolving the player of any lingering guilt. She clues in on Joker's, well, lack of joking-around-ness, and tells him to hold it together just a little longer. He assures her that he's determined to see this through until the end.
Then it's off for more flirty times with Kaidan! Well, angsty flirty times. They're both a little guilt-ridden, since a large part of Shep's decision was based on, well, her relationship with Kaidan, but Shep's lost people under her command before, and she gives Kaidan some advice on how to deal with it. And then we get some awesome bad punning:
Kaidan: We're fighting giant machines from outside the galaxy. Should I be afraid of them, or in awe of them? Anything so old, so intelligent...
Shepard: Yeah, they've been around a while. So were the turians, and we gave them a boot in the ass.
Kaidan: I think we're gonna need a bigger boot, Commander.
Now I'm picturing the Reapers humming the Jaws theme.
Shep talks to Liara for a bit, and they both realize that maybe Saren's to be pitied, since he's essentially become a slave to the Reapers out of a misguided sense of trying-to-save-everyone. Sucks to be Saren, basically. But much as he's something of a victim, he's also the one trying to destroy all life in the galaxy at the moment. So.
Kirrahe and his team are also chillin' aboard the Normandy (I guess it was just Ashley's team that was pinned down), and Kirrahe mentions that Ashley's sacrifice has earned humanity a great deal of respect from the salarian people. Shep's newest salarian buddies are going to get dropped off at the Normandy's next port of call, which is a shame because they're kind of awesome to have around.
There's a bit of an awkward talk with Wrex over the whole pointing-weapons-at-each-other thing, but Wrex tells Shepard that he respects her decision, and Shep acknowledges the sacrifice Wrex had to make to take Saren down. BFFs!
And then word comes in that Udina wants the Normandy to get back to the Citadel to meet up with the joint-species fleet that's being prepped to go take on Saren. Awesome!
Everything's coming up Shepard!
Another meeting with the Council. "If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel, as you believe, we will be ready for him." Shepard is all, "Wait, what about Ilos? The Conduit? The awesome fleet?" The Council's all, "Yeah, not worth declaring war with the Terminus Systems." And Udina backs them up. Ooooooh, ganging up on Shepard! This probably isn't a good strategy.
Somewhat desperately, Shepard asks if she can take her awesome stealth ship into the Terminus Systems, because it's all awesome and stealthy and probably won't start a war. "I can be discreet." The turian councilor fires back with, "You detonated a nuclear device on Virmire. I wouldn't call that discreet." Heh. Point to the turian councilor.
So the Council's pretty convinced Saren just made up the whole thing about the Conduit to lure forces away from the Citadel and leave it vulnerable to attack. And the "Reapers"? They have dismissed that claim. Udina states that Shepard's become more trouble than she's worth, which Kaidan gets pretty pissed about, and again, the whole Council meeting goes downhill from there. The Normandy's been locked down and grounded to keep Shepard from haring off into the Terminus Systems, where she'd presumably set off nuclear devices willy-nilly and declare war on everyone. Which, knowing Shepard, is a bit of a reasonable fear.
Young lady, you are officially grounded. Give me back the keys to the starship! Go to your room!
Shepard goes back aboard the (unflyable) Normandy to angst a bit.
Maaan, my ambassador totally grounded me, and now all organic life in the galaxy is going to be wiped out. What a drag.
Kaidan shows up and is generally encouraging. Or, er, not so much. "So where do you think the best view will be to see the Reapers roll in? If we have to sit it out, might as well grab a good seat." Shep asks him for his emotional support.
Shepard: You can't just pull out a good, old-fashioned 'it'll be all right', can you?
Kaidan: It's that easy, huh? All right. Everything will be fine, Shepard. You'll figure it out.
Shepard: That wasn't so hard, now, was it?
Aaaand we nearly get a kiss.
Which, of course, Joker interrupts. Innocently. Apparently Captain Anderson wants to meet Shepard at Flux, one of the clubs on the Citadel. On the way there, Shepard shoots down a pro-human-anti-alien politician (because she's Shepard, and even when the galaxy is at stake, there are still subplots to be found).
At Flux, Anderson is busy being awesome. He believes Shepard's story about the Reapers, and he's just as pissed off as she is about how the Council's treating this whole thing - he knows she has to get to Ilos to stop Saren from using the Conduit (again, we don't know what the heck that actually is, but hey, details), no matter the cost. Anderson points out that if they can override the ambassador's orders, they'll be able to remove the locks on the Normandy, and Shep could take it in to Ilos and save the day. This is a pretty risky proposition for Anderson - he could get charged with treason, a capital offense, for countermanding those orders, but he thinks it's worthwhile if it, y'know, saves all life in the galaxy.
Unlike nearly everyone else in the game, Anderson has an excellent sense of priorities.
As a side-note, it's a nice touch that the squadmates Shepard has along with her now - Tali and Garrus - are both really concerned for Anderson's safety as well. They barely know the guy, but he's obviously made a great impression. Because he's just that awesome. This is an Anderson Appreciation Picspam.
Anderson goes up to hack into Udina's computer and countermand the orders keeping the Normandy grounded. Udina is there at the time. Anderson punches him out.
With the fist of DIPLOMACY!
So, yes, no turning back now. The docking clamps are released, and the Normandy makes her escape and heads straight to Ilos. (I guess it would've been a little awkward if Shep had decided to do some subplots first.) Speaking of not-turning-back, we're getting into serious end-of-game territory here, so Kaidan goes to visit Shepard in her quarters. This time, Joker doesn't interrupt. (Well, maybe he does after the fade-to-black, but that's the realm of fanfiction.)
If you go the romance route in these games, you'll soon notice that the final destination is always juuuust far enough away to give you time for Life-Affirming Sex (TM). The Reapers probably positioned the relays like that on purpose, the little scamps.
The Normandy goes through the Mu Relay and reaches Ilos, where the stealth systems keep them hidden from Saren's fleet. Unfortunately, the nearest landing zone is too far away to catch up with Saren on foot (or Mako, presumably), but Joker goes all badass-pilot on us and manages to drop Shepard and her final team of epicness (Tali and Garrus) nearly right on top of Saren.
It would've been kind of hilarious if they'd actually dropped the Mako on him. Splat. Sovereign would be sooooo embarrassed. "I am the vanguard of your destruc- okay, seriously guys? Really? *cosmic sigh* Good help is so hard to find."
A chase ensues, with Shepard and company constantly a few steps behind Saren.
Probably because they're still spending all their time in elevators. I think this qualifies as an emergency, guys! Take the damn stairs!
They run around the complex for a while and wind up getting back into the Mako. (Garrus: "Who votes we take the vehicle into the creepy underground bunker?") They drive for a while, and are understandably discomfited by the lack of deadly traps left for them by Saren. So they're a little freaked out when a barrier appears right in front of and behind them, funnelling them into a little side passage. But when they don't die instantly - and when the background music goes from tense to calm and idyllic - they relax a little and follow the mysterious path.
There, they meet the Prothean answer to the Epic Exposition Dump, a fifty-thousand year old virtual intelligence named Vigil.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to adjust the antenna before leaving, so Vigil is mostly all static. I wonder if he gets HBO?
Vigil gives them fifteen full minutes of exposition (I guess Saren's stopping at a gas station or something, because nobody seems too concerned about him getting away.) The salient points are as follows:
So Vigil gives our heroes a key to lock the Citadel doors once they get there, to prevent the Reapers from coming through. Phew. Did you get all that? The Citadel's a traaap. Admiral Ackbar's having a field day.
Vigil assures them that they still have time, that Saren's not quite at the Conduit yet. Our heroes set off.
Enough plot twists. Time to... ride some elevators. Heroically. Yeah.
Oh, right! Remember that bit of Prothean modern art on the Citadel I pointed out oh-so-subtly earlier? The scale model of a mass relay? That'd be the Conduit - a teeny-tiny mass relay to sneak onto the Citadel itself. So now our heroes have to battle their way through Saren's geth to follow him through said Conduit. Luckily, they have the Mako, so this mainly consists of driving over them.
While Shepard and company are off-roading it, we cut to the Citadel itself, where Sovereign and a geth attack fleet have arrived to start the party.
Don't mind us, just passing through.
Eep. The ships around the Citadel are entirely unprepared and start getting blown up en masse.
Next time, install a giant gloved lightning hand detector. Those things save lives!
Aboard the Destiny Ascension (remember the giant ship I pointed out oh-so-subtly earlier?), the crew is trying to seal the station, since the Citadel's "arms" can close up, making the station itself nigh-on impenetrable. Unfortunately, it's not working. They give the order to evacuate the Council. The geth and Saren are on the Citadel. The invasion's begun.
Meanwhile, our heroes are still driving the Mako towards the Conduit, trying to get there before it closes. They make it! Because they're awesome, natch. And our little Mako gets to pass through a mass relay. How cool is that? Granted, the landing is a little rocky.
Wheee! Pretty sure this wasn't in the design specifications on that thing.
They also land on top of some geth. Splat. Our heroes stumble out of the Mako, none the worse for wear (honestly, the way the Mako handles, they're probably used to surviving that sort of crash) and stop to chat with the virtual intelligence Citadel tour guide, who's looking a little jumpy and full of static. Oh, and most of the surrounding area is on fire. Things don't look great for the Citadel just now. "Civilian casualties are high," the VI reports, and suggests they approach the geth with caution. Riiight. Good plan.
Shep does manage to get the VI to spit out a report on the Council - they've been successfully evacuated to the Destiny Ascension. Anderson and Udina are unaccounted for. The VI also gives them directions to Saren, who's up at the Council chambers. "A warrant has been issued for his arrest, but Citadel Security is unable to respond at this time." Heh. No kidding.
And then it's a race against time, setting a frantic pace, as our heroes-
-ride more elevators. Oh, for crying out loud.
The least they could've done would be to have the elevator music playing during this scene. That would have been hilarious.
Meanwhile, Saren, looking pretty pissed off, stomps up to the control panel in the Council chambers and starts sealing the station. Sovereign and the geth fleet are steadily approaching, obviously aiming to get in just as the Citadel arms close, effectively locking everyone else out. The Citadel fleet tries to hold them back, but Sovereign is really. Freakin'. Strong.
It cuts through a turian ship like a knife through hot butter. Or, er, a Mako through geth.
Sovereign manages to make it in just as the arms close. The Citadel fleet is locked out, and now Sovereign is chillin' in the Citadel, where it goes down to, I dunno, plug in or something and open the relay to the rest of the Reapers.
I'm just gonna leave a lot of pictures here, because this scene is pretty.
Well, apocalyptic, I suppose. But also pretty.
The true secret to the Reapers' success is their use of plug-and-play technology. And USB 3.0.
Anyway, Saren, up at the top of the Citadel Tower, finally notices there's an elevator headed his way and stops it in its tracks. Shepard shoots out the glass wall of the elevator, and she, Tali, and Garrus fight their way up the vertical side of the tower in magnetic boots and pressure suits (zero-g and vacuum!). It's pretty awesome, although I'ma let you finish, Mass Effect, but Mass Effect 3 has the best zero-g fight of all time. Of all time.
Nifty!
There are a bunch of difficult battles, and Shep manages to activate some defense turrets, which help keep the geth at bay. Finally, she finds a convenient maintenance hatch and manages to get to the Council chambers.
...which are sort of on fire.
She confronts Saren at last, still in the process of trying to open up the relay for the Reapers. He has a little hoverboard thing and does some evil bad guy speechifying. Shepard won't have any of it, and starts prodding that weakness she discovered back on Virmire. Apparently Sovereign's been running some upgrades on Saren, adding technology to supplement the indoctrination. Shepard's all, "Dude, seriously, you're being controlled. Why else would you need all the implants?"
Apparently, after Virmire, Saren couldn't stop thinking about what Shep had said, that Sovereign was the one manipulating him. Shepard points out that Saren was starting to break free of the indoctrination, which is why Sovereign freaked and started implanting him with control devices. After some more tense yelling, Saren starts to doubt again, which makes his implants very painful indeed. Shepard boils it down: "Step aside, and the invasion will never happen." Saren is obviously afraid - the Reapers, he says, are too powerful. Considering one Reaper just seriously messed up the entire Citadel fleet in the process of just passing by, that seems like a valid concern.
But Shepard is determined, and keeps dragging that doubt up again and again, until Saren starts to think that maybe, just maybe, things aren't completely beyond hope. Which triggers the implants again.
Shepard, sensing that Saren is perhaps not so focused on killing her just now, rolls out of cover and yells that Saren can still redeem himself. Saren figures out how to do that.
"Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you."
Yeah, that's probably the most "hooooly shit" paragon moment in the game, convincing the main villain to shoot himself. Who says renegades are the only badasses? So Saren falls very dramatically, and Shep runs over to the control panel.
Garrus suggests opening the station's arms to give the fleet a chance to attack Sovereign. Shep manages to open a communications channel, and reaches the Destiny Ascension, which is currently under attack by the geth fleet, with the Council aboard. Joker manages to get a comm link in from the Normandy as well, and tells Shepard that he's managed to rendezvous with a human Alliance fleet, and that if they jump in now, they can save the Destiny Ascension. Tali points out that if they divert to save the Destiny Ascension, human casualties will be extremely high. Garrus argues that keeping the Council alive is something that goes way beyond humanity. Tali agrees, but also mentions that if the ships save the Destiny Ascension first, they might not have enough firepower to take out Sovereign. Should the human fleet jump in now and save the Council, risking heavy losses, or should it hold back and join the assault on Sovereign at full strength?
Another big decision! Shepard tells Joker to bring the fleet in now and save the Destiny Ascension at any cost. "I hope the Council appreciates this," says Tali. Given their track record, I'm sure they'll be just thrilled with Shepard.
The Alliance fleet relays in, with the Normandy leading the way!
So the Alliance get to be big damn heroes, and humanity stops being quite so human-centric. They take heavy losses in the process, but save the Destiny Ascension.
Thanks, dudes!
The Citadel's arms start opening, and all the ships move in and start firing away at Sovereign.
Meanwhile, being somewhat genre-savvy, Shepard tells Garrus and Tali to go down and make sure Saren's dead. Garrus confirms it by shooting Saren again. "He's dead."
Yeeeah, except those implants Sovereign gave him? Apparently reanimate his corpse and turn it into a robot zombie thing. Ouch. Sucks to be Saren.
Our heroes all get thrown around a bit by the energy cascading everywhere, and then they have to battle zombie!Saren. Nothing's ever easy.
Yeeeeeah.
Sovereign speaks through zombie!Saren and taunts Shepard a bit (apparently even hyper-advanced machine aliens aren't above a little "neener neener").
Outside the Citadel Tower, the fleet is dealing some serious damage to Sovereign, so it gets pissed off and starts bringing out its laser - oh yes, all the destruction it caused up until now didn't involve any weapons, just smashing into things - to wipe out more of the fleet attacking. The Normandy's still flitting around the fight, managing to avoid destruction mostly by virtue of being waaay smaller than all the other ships involved, but Sovereign is too strong. They keep pushing, because a strategic retreat right now would give Sovereign a chance to find a way to bring all the Reapers through.
Meanwhile, Shepard and company manage to destroy zombie!Saren, who handily disintegrates, thus confirming no further resurrections. And outside, Sovereign gets distracted, starts losing power, and sloooowly begins to topple from its perch. Apparently taking out zombie!Saren also took down Sovereign's shields, and Joker and the Normandy lead the final press, blasting a hole right through Sovereign.
Boom, baby!
It's all very inspiring, and Sovereign explodes completely amid the wreckage of all the Citadel and Alliance ships destroyed in the battle. Oh, and one piece of it goes hurtling off... right towards the Citadel Tower where our heroes are standing.
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
Shepard yells, "Go!", collision, explosion, and everything goes black.
Yeah, that doesn't look good.
We fade back in to see a recovery team, led by Captain Anderson, picking through the wreckage. They come across a badly shaken Garrus and Tali, sheltered from the worst of the blast. Anderson pushes in to reach them. "Take it easy, it's over, you're safe now. Where's the commander?"
Sad Garrus is sad and just shakes his head.
But the music starts swelling dramatically, everyone turns around, and Shepard scrambles out from under the worst of it, looking a little the worse for wear, but otherwise all heroic and awesome. (There's a great moment the uploader on YouTube pointed out, where in the background Tali slaps Garrus on the back in celebration. Hee.)
This is Shepard's patented "Did you forget? I'm the hero of this story. Bring on the sequel!" grin.
Some time later (after, presumably, some medical attention), the Council meets with Shepard, Udina, and Anderson. They're... well, if not overwhelmingly grateful, certainly a little on the contrite side. They appreciate that humanity made such an enormous and self-sacrificial gesture to save the Citadel - to save them - and in recognition, they're willing to grant humanity a seat on the Council. There's some speechifying, and it's revealed that Shepard's word will go a long way toward choosing who acts as humanity's voice on the Council. Another decision: Udina or Anderson? Perhaps choosing personal feelings over political savviness, Shepard recommends Anderson to the post. Udina is irritated, to say the least, and brings up the whole getting-punched-in-the-face thing. "Anderson prefers to let his fists do the talking!" "Only with you, Ambassador. Only with you." Heh. It'll be interesting to see how this development pans out in later games.
The Council is getting all "hurrah, new era of cooperation, optimism for all!" which leads Shepard to point out that, even though the Reapers couldn't sneak through the Citadel relay, they can still make it to the galaxy via, you know, flying there. They're still out there, they're still coming, and now galactic civilization is a distinct threat to them. And if one little Reaper caused all this chaos and destruction, what could thousands do?
"I'm gonna find some way to stop them," Shepard says, and stalks off. The Council exchange dubious looks again. But hey, Shepard doesn't care, she's doing a heroic march to some dramatic music! And we get the final shot of Shepard striking a pose in front of some sort of space station that I'm sure will be relevant... in the sequel!
We'll defeat the Reapers, even if it takes two more games and countless downloadable content add-ons to do it!
The Normandy zips off into space. Roll credits.
Well, if you stuck with me through all that, you deserve a cookie or something. Now you're about as prepared for Mass Effect 2 as you possibly could be without playing the game yourself! If you get a chance, though, please let Hathur99 on YouTube know how awesome they are for putting together these excellent game playlists. Without those playthroughs, there's no way this post would've ever come about.
And here's the requisite link: Episode 1 of Mass Effect 2. (As you might expect, there are spoilers in the comments of some episodes.) Enjoy!
Shepard watches the explosion, and the sad piano music of comradely sacrifice starts playing. Another group meeting ensues, and Shep and Kaidan talk about why she chose him over Ashley, while the other people in the room sit around awkwardly.
Liara finally jumps in and points out that the beacon on Virmire might have given Shep enough information to put the whole vision together, with the help of another mind meld. Flash again to the creepy nightmare-stuff - the animators must be awfully proud of this sequence, to have it come up so often in pretty much exactly the same form every time. Liara finally interprets it as a distress call - a sort of "Hey, guys, heads up, the Reapers are gonna kill us all!" Seeing as how the Protheans still went extinct, it may have been just a liiittle late. Liara also manages to recognize one of the planets flashing by in the vision, and deduces with it's-almost-the-end-of-the-game clarity that the Conduit must be on a planet called Ilos. It seems likely, since that's one of the places the Mu Relay links to. So now we have a destination! Sweet!
Tali points out that the Mu Relay is inside the Terminus Systems (remember that place where the Council didn't want to send anyone, because it might trigger a war? Yeeeah.), which is gonna make things tricky. Shep figures their stealth ship might be able to manage it. Liara mentions that if Saren's headed there, he'll probably have a whole fleet with him. Good point, Liara. She suggests a visit to the Council, since they'll probably have a fleet to borrow. And then, because it's the only way these meetings end anymore, she nearly passes out again from the vision-induced exhaustion.
I bet this method works just as well to end interminable board meetings. "Oh, I'm sorry, my mystical nightmare-vision interpretation skills are exhausting, I'ma just take this donut and go back to my cubicle."
Joker calls down, sounding decidedly subdued (with the sad piano music of comradely sacrifice being piped all over the ship, who can blame him?) to report that he's found a comm buoy so they can call ahead to the Council and warn them about Sovereign. For once, the Council is all, "Good job, Shepard! You're awesome!" Mostly they just focused in on the part where Shep prevented Saren from raising an army of krogan. She tries to bring up the end-of-the-galaxy Reaper stuff, at which point the Council is all, "Yyyyess, about that crazy talk. We're pretty sure Saren just heard about your nightmare and is using that information to make shit up and mess with you."
Seriously, guys? Seriously?
Time to chat with the crew again! Joker, still really subdued, says that he understands it couldn't have been easy for Shep to make that choice. "There is no right choice for something like that," says Shep, handily absolving the player of any lingering guilt. She clues in on Joker's, well, lack of joking-around-ness, and tells him to hold it together just a little longer. He assures her that he's determined to see this through until the end.
Then it's off for more flirty times with Kaidan! Well, angsty flirty times. They're both a little guilt-ridden, since a large part of Shep's decision was based on, well, her relationship with Kaidan, but Shep's lost people under her command before, and she gives Kaidan some advice on how to deal with it. And then we get some awesome bad punning:
Kaidan: We're fighting giant machines from outside the galaxy. Should I be afraid of them, or in awe of them? Anything so old, so intelligent...
Shepard: Yeah, they've been around a while. So were the turians, and we gave them a boot in the ass.
Kaidan: I think we're gonna need a bigger boot, Commander.
Now I'm picturing the Reapers humming the Jaws theme.
Shep talks to Liara for a bit, and they both realize that maybe Saren's to be pitied, since he's essentially become a slave to the Reapers out of a misguided sense of trying-to-save-everyone. Sucks to be Saren, basically. But much as he's something of a victim, he's also the one trying to destroy all life in the galaxy at the moment. So.
Kirrahe and his team are also chillin' aboard the Normandy (I guess it was just Ashley's team that was pinned down), and Kirrahe mentions that Ashley's sacrifice has earned humanity a great deal of respect from the salarian people. Shep's newest salarian buddies are going to get dropped off at the Normandy's next port of call, which is a shame because they're kind of awesome to have around.
There's a bit of an awkward talk with Wrex over the whole pointing-weapons-at-each-other thing, but Wrex tells Shepard that he respects her decision, and Shep acknowledges the sacrifice Wrex had to make to take Saren down. BFFs!
And then word comes in that Udina wants the Normandy to get back to the Citadel to meet up with the joint-species fleet that's being prepped to go take on Saren. Awesome!
Everything's coming up Shepard!
Another meeting with the Council. "If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel, as you believe, we will be ready for him." Shepard is all, "Wait, what about Ilos? The Conduit? The awesome fleet?" The Council's all, "Yeah, not worth declaring war with the Terminus Systems." And Udina backs them up. Ooooooh, ganging up on Shepard! This probably isn't a good strategy.
Somewhat desperately, Shepard asks if she can take her awesome stealth ship into the Terminus Systems, because it's all awesome and stealthy and probably won't start a war. "I can be discreet." The turian councilor fires back with, "You detonated a nuclear device on Virmire. I wouldn't call that discreet." Heh. Point to the turian councilor.
So the Council's pretty convinced Saren just made up the whole thing about the Conduit to lure forces away from the Citadel and leave it vulnerable to attack. And the "Reapers"? They have dismissed that claim. Udina states that Shepard's become more trouble than she's worth, which Kaidan gets pretty pissed about, and again, the whole Council meeting goes downhill from there. The Normandy's been locked down and grounded to keep Shepard from haring off into the Terminus Systems, where she'd presumably set off nuclear devices willy-nilly and declare war on everyone. Which, knowing Shepard, is a bit of a reasonable fear.
Young lady, you are officially grounded. Give me back the keys to the starship! Go to your room!
Shepard goes back aboard the (unflyable) Normandy to angst a bit.
Maaan, my ambassador totally grounded me, and now all organic life in the galaxy is going to be wiped out. What a drag.
Kaidan shows up and is generally encouraging. Or, er, not so much. "So where do you think the best view will be to see the Reapers roll in? If we have to sit it out, might as well grab a good seat." Shep asks him for his emotional support.
Shepard: You can't just pull out a good, old-fashioned 'it'll be all right', can you?
Kaidan: It's that easy, huh? All right. Everything will be fine, Shepard. You'll figure it out.
Shepard: That wasn't so hard, now, was it?
Aaaand we nearly get a kiss.
Which, of course, Joker interrupts. Innocently. Apparently Captain Anderson wants to meet Shepard at Flux, one of the clubs on the Citadel. On the way there, Shepard shoots down a pro-human-anti-alien politician (because she's Shepard, and even when the galaxy is at stake, there are still subplots to be found).
At Flux, Anderson is busy being awesome. He believes Shepard's story about the Reapers, and he's just as pissed off as she is about how the Council's treating this whole thing - he knows she has to get to Ilos to stop Saren from using the Conduit (again, we don't know what the heck that actually is, but hey, details), no matter the cost. Anderson points out that if they can override the ambassador's orders, they'll be able to remove the locks on the Normandy, and Shep could take it in to Ilos and save the day. This is a pretty risky proposition for Anderson - he could get charged with treason, a capital offense, for countermanding those orders, but he thinks it's worthwhile if it, y'know, saves all life in the galaxy.
Unlike nearly everyone else in the game, Anderson has an excellent sense of priorities.
As a side-note, it's a nice touch that the squadmates Shepard has along with her now - Tali and Garrus - are both really concerned for Anderson's safety as well. They barely know the guy, but he's obviously made a great impression. Because he's just that awesome. This is an Anderson Appreciation Picspam.
Anderson goes up to hack into Udina's computer and countermand the orders keeping the Normandy grounded. Udina is there at the time. Anderson punches him out.
With the fist of DIPLOMACY!
So, yes, no turning back now. The docking clamps are released, and the Normandy makes her escape and heads straight to Ilos. (I guess it would've been a little awkward if Shep had decided to do some subplots first.) Speaking of not-turning-back, we're getting into serious end-of-game territory here, so Kaidan goes to visit Shepard in her quarters. This time, Joker doesn't interrupt. (Well, maybe he does after the fade-to-black, but that's the realm of fanfiction.)
If you go the romance route in these games, you'll soon notice that the final destination is always juuuust far enough away to give you time for Life-Affirming Sex (TM). The Reapers probably positioned the relays like that on purpose, the little scamps.
The Normandy goes through the Mu Relay and reaches Ilos, where the stealth systems keep them hidden from Saren's fleet. Unfortunately, the nearest landing zone is too far away to catch up with Saren on foot (or Mako, presumably), but Joker goes all badass-pilot on us and manages to drop Shepard and her final team of epicness (Tali and Garrus) nearly right on top of Saren.
It would've been kind of hilarious if they'd actually dropped the Mako on him. Splat. Sovereign would be sooooo embarrassed. "I am the vanguard of your destruc- okay, seriously guys? Really? *cosmic sigh* Good help is so hard to find."
A chase ensues, with Shepard and company constantly a few steps behind Saren.
Probably because they're still spending all their time in elevators. I think this qualifies as an emergency, guys! Take the damn stairs!
They run around the complex for a while and wind up getting back into the Mako. (Garrus: "Who votes we take the vehicle into the creepy underground bunker?") They drive for a while, and are understandably discomfited by the lack of deadly traps left for them by Saren. So they're a little freaked out when a barrier appears right in front of and behind them, funnelling them into a little side passage. But when they don't die instantly - and when the background music goes from tense to calm and idyllic - they relax a little and follow the mysterious path.
There, they meet the Prothean answer to the Epic Exposition Dump, a fifty-thousand year old virtual intelligence named Vigil.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to adjust the antenna before leaving, so Vigil is mostly all static. I wonder if he gets HBO?
Vigil gives them fifteen full minutes of exposition (I guess Saren's stopping at a gas station or something, because nobody seems too concerned about him getting away.) The salient points are as follows:
- He can tell that Shepard and company haven't been indoctrinated by the Reapers, so there might still be hope.
- He's a virtual intelligence based on the chief overseer of the Ilos Research Facility, back when the Protheans were, y'know, not extinct.
- He needs Shepard and company to break a cycle that's been going on for millions of years. So no pressure or anything.
- This one is pretty badass, so it gets some bold font going: The Citadel has been the seat of galactic power for the Protheans and every civilization that came before them - because, hey, free space station someone left lying around, sweeeet! But the Citadel is a trap. It's actually a giant mass relay that links to dark space, the region beyond the galactic horizon. When the relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through and destroy everything. Holy. Crap.
- Apparently the Reapers go dormant and retreat beyond the edges of the galaxy for tens of thousands of years, but leave a scout behind (like Sovereign) to activate the Citadel relay and let them know when organic life has evolved to a point worth harvesting. Now I'm picturing Sovereign with a little apron, yelling "Soup's on!"
- So that's what happened to the Protheans: the Reapers poured through the relay, all the Protheans' leaders were killed instantly, and things just went downhill from there. With access to the Citadel, the Reapers were able to control the mass relays and prevent communication and transportation. But it took centuries to exterminate everyone, so the Protheans started doing research to try to stop them, and, when it was obvious that wasn't going to happen, to set up a sort of time capsule to warn future races.
- Yeah, nobody's really sure why the Reapers do this whole harvesting thing. The writers do their best to keep people from thinking too hard about that one.
- The Conduit is a secret backdoor to the Citadel. The Protheans used it to sneak in and mess with the Citadel's systems, so that the Reapers were trapped out in dark space. And now Saren is trying to sneak in the same way and take down the Citadel's defenses, so that Sovereign can manually open the relay and let all his buddies through.
So Vigil gives our heroes a key to lock the Citadel doors once they get there, to prevent the Reapers from coming through. Phew. Did you get all that? The Citadel's a traaap. Admiral Ackbar's having a field day.
Vigil assures them that they still have time, that Saren's not quite at the Conduit yet. Our heroes set off.
Enough plot twists. Time to... ride some elevators. Heroically. Yeah.
Oh, right! Remember that bit of Prothean modern art on the Citadel I pointed out oh-so-subtly earlier? The scale model of a mass relay? That'd be the Conduit - a teeny-tiny mass relay to sneak onto the Citadel itself. So now our heroes have to battle their way through Saren's geth to follow him through said Conduit. Luckily, they have the Mako, so this mainly consists of driving over them.
While Shepard and company are off-roading it, we cut to the Citadel itself, where Sovereign and a geth attack fleet have arrived to start the party.
Don't mind us, just passing through.
Eep. The ships around the Citadel are entirely unprepared and start getting blown up en masse.
Next time, install a giant gloved lightning hand detector. Those things save lives!
Aboard the Destiny Ascension (remember the giant ship I pointed out oh-so-subtly earlier?), the crew is trying to seal the station, since the Citadel's "arms" can close up, making the station itself nigh-on impenetrable. Unfortunately, it's not working. They give the order to evacuate the Council. The geth and Saren are on the Citadel. The invasion's begun.
Meanwhile, our heroes are still driving the Mako towards the Conduit, trying to get there before it closes. They make it! Because they're awesome, natch. And our little Mako gets to pass through a mass relay. How cool is that? Granted, the landing is a little rocky.
Wheee! Pretty sure this wasn't in the design specifications on that thing.
They also land on top of some geth. Splat. Our heroes stumble out of the Mako, none the worse for wear (honestly, the way the Mako handles, they're probably used to surviving that sort of crash) and stop to chat with the virtual intelligence Citadel tour guide, who's looking a little jumpy and full of static. Oh, and most of the surrounding area is on fire. Things don't look great for the Citadel just now. "Civilian casualties are high," the VI reports, and suggests they approach the geth with caution. Riiight. Good plan.
Shep does manage to get the VI to spit out a report on the Council - they've been successfully evacuated to the Destiny Ascension. Anderson and Udina are unaccounted for. The VI also gives them directions to Saren, who's up at the Council chambers. "A warrant has been issued for his arrest, but Citadel Security is unable to respond at this time." Heh. No kidding.
And then it's a race against time, setting a frantic pace, as our heroes-
-ride more elevators. Oh, for crying out loud.
The least they could've done would be to have the elevator music playing during this scene. That would have been hilarious.
Meanwhile, Saren, looking pretty pissed off, stomps up to the control panel in the Council chambers and starts sealing the station. Sovereign and the geth fleet are steadily approaching, obviously aiming to get in just as the Citadel arms close, effectively locking everyone else out. The Citadel fleet tries to hold them back, but Sovereign is really. Freakin'. Strong.
It cuts through a turian ship like a knife through hot butter. Or, er, a Mako through geth.
Sovereign manages to make it in just as the arms close. The Citadel fleet is locked out, and now Sovereign is chillin' in the Citadel, where it goes down to, I dunno, plug in or something and open the relay to the rest of the Reapers.
I'm just gonna leave a lot of pictures here, because this scene is pretty.
Well, apocalyptic, I suppose. But also pretty.
The true secret to the Reapers' success is their use of plug-and-play technology. And USB 3.0.
Anyway, Saren, up at the top of the Citadel Tower, finally notices there's an elevator headed his way and stops it in its tracks. Shepard shoots out the glass wall of the elevator, and she, Tali, and Garrus fight their way up the vertical side of the tower in magnetic boots and pressure suits (zero-g and vacuum!). It's pretty awesome, although I'ma let you finish, Mass Effect, but Mass Effect 3 has the best zero-g fight of all time. Of all time.
Nifty!
There are a bunch of difficult battles, and Shep manages to activate some defense turrets, which help keep the geth at bay. Finally, she finds a convenient maintenance hatch and manages to get to the Council chambers.
...which are sort of on fire.
She confronts Saren at last, still in the process of trying to open up the relay for the Reapers. He has a little hoverboard thing and does some evil bad guy speechifying. Shepard won't have any of it, and starts prodding that weakness she discovered back on Virmire. Apparently Sovereign's been running some upgrades on Saren, adding technology to supplement the indoctrination. Shepard's all, "Dude, seriously, you're being controlled. Why else would you need all the implants?"
Apparently, after Virmire, Saren couldn't stop thinking about what Shep had said, that Sovereign was the one manipulating him. Shepard points out that Saren was starting to break free of the indoctrination, which is why Sovereign freaked and started implanting him with control devices. After some more tense yelling, Saren starts to doubt again, which makes his implants very painful indeed. Shepard boils it down: "Step aside, and the invasion will never happen." Saren is obviously afraid - the Reapers, he says, are too powerful. Considering one Reaper just seriously messed up the entire Citadel fleet in the process of just passing by, that seems like a valid concern.
But Shepard is determined, and keeps dragging that doubt up again and again, until Saren starts to think that maybe, just maybe, things aren't completely beyond hope. Which triggers the implants again.
Shepard, sensing that Saren is perhaps not so focused on killing her just now, rolls out of cover and yells that Saren can still redeem himself. Saren figures out how to do that.
"Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you."
Yeah, that's probably the most "hooooly shit" paragon moment in the game, convincing the main villain to shoot himself. Who says renegades are the only badasses? So Saren falls very dramatically, and Shep runs over to the control panel.
Garrus suggests opening the station's arms to give the fleet a chance to attack Sovereign. Shep manages to open a communications channel, and reaches the Destiny Ascension, which is currently under attack by the geth fleet, with the Council aboard. Joker manages to get a comm link in from the Normandy as well, and tells Shepard that he's managed to rendezvous with a human Alliance fleet, and that if they jump in now, they can save the Destiny Ascension. Tali points out that if they divert to save the Destiny Ascension, human casualties will be extremely high. Garrus argues that keeping the Council alive is something that goes way beyond humanity. Tali agrees, but also mentions that if the ships save the Destiny Ascension first, they might not have enough firepower to take out Sovereign. Should the human fleet jump in now and save the Council, risking heavy losses, or should it hold back and join the assault on Sovereign at full strength?
Another big decision! Shepard tells Joker to bring the fleet in now and save the Destiny Ascension at any cost. "I hope the Council appreciates this," says Tali. Given their track record, I'm sure they'll be just thrilled with Shepard.
The Alliance fleet relays in, with the Normandy leading the way!
So the Alliance get to be big damn heroes, and humanity stops being quite so human-centric. They take heavy losses in the process, but save the Destiny Ascension.
Thanks, dudes!
The Citadel's arms start opening, and all the ships move in and start firing away at Sovereign.
Meanwhile, being somewhat genre-savvy, Shepard tells Garrus and Tali to go down and make sure Saren's dead. Garrus confirms it by shooting Saren again. "He's dead."
Yeeeah, except those implants Sovereign gave him? Apparently reanimate his corpse and turn it into a robot zombie thing. Ouch. Sucks to be Saren.
Our heroes all get thrown around a bit by the energy cascading everywhere, and then they have to battle zombie!Saren. Nothing's ever easy.
Yeeeeeah.
Sovereign speaks through zombie!Saren and taunts Shepard a bit (apparently even hyper-advanced machine aliens aren't above a little "neener neener").
Outside the Citadel Tower, the fleet is dealing some serious damage to Sovereign, so it gets pissed off and starts bringing out its laser - oh yes, all the destruction it caused up until now didn't involve any weapons, just smashing into things - to wipe out more of the fleet attacking. The Normandy's still flitting around the fight, managing to avoid destruction mostly by virtue of being waaay smaller than all the other ships involved, but Sovereign is too strong. They keep pushing, because a strategic retreat right now would give Sovereign a chance to find a way to bring all the Reapers through.
Meanwhile, Shepard and company manage to destroy zombie!Saren, who handily disintegrates, thus confirming no further resurrections. And outside, Sovereign gets distracted, starts losing power, and sloooowly begins to topple from its perch. Apparently taking out zombie!Saren also took down Sovereign's shields, and Joker and the Normandy lead the final press, blasting a hole right through Sovereign.
Boom, baby!
It's all very inspiring, and Sovereign explodes completely amid the wreckage of all the Citadel and Alliance ships destroyed in the battle. Oh, and one piece of it goes hurtling off... right towards the Citadel Tower where our heroes are standing.
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
Shepard yells, "Go!", collision, explosion, and everything goes black.
Yeah, that doesn't look good.
We fade back in to see a recovery team, led by Captain Anderson, picking through the wreckage. They come across a badly shaken Garrus and Tali, sheltered from the worst of the blast. Anderson pushes in to reach them. "Take it easy, it's over, you're safe now. Where's the commander?"
Sad Garrus is sad and just shakes his head.
But the music starts swelling dramatically, everyone turns around, and Shepard scrambles out from under the worst of it, looking a little the worse for wear, but otherwise all heroic and awesome. (There's a great moment the uploader on YouTube pointed out, where in the background Tali slaps Garrus on the back in celebration. Hee.)
This is Shepard's patented "Did you forget? I'm the hero of this story. Bring on the sequel!" grin.
Some time later (after, presumably, some medical attention), the Council meets with Shepard, Udina, and Anderson. They're... well, if not overwhelmingly grateful, certainly a little on the contrite side. They appreciate that humanity made such an enormous and self-sacrificial gesture to save the Citadel - to save them - and in recognition, they're willing to grant humanity a seat on the Council. There's some speechifying, and it's revealed that Shepard's word will go a long way toward choosing who acts as humanity's voice on the Council. Another decision: Udina or Anderson? Perhaps choosing personal feelings over political savviness, Shepard recommends Anderson to the post. Udina is irritated, to say the least, and brings up the whole getting-punched-in-the-face thing. "Anderson prefers to let his fists do the talking!" "Only with you, Ambassador. Only with you." Heh. It'll be interesting to see how this development pans out in later games.
The Council is getting all "hurrah, new era of cooperation, optimism for all!" which leads Shepard to point out that, even though the Reapers couldn't sneak through the Citadel relay, they can still make it to the galaxy via, you know, flying there. They're still out there, they're still coming, and now galactic civilization is a distinct threat to them. And if one little Reaper caused all this chaos and destruction, what could thousands do?
"I'm gonna find some way to stop them," Shepard says, and stalks off. The Council exchange dubious looks again. But hey, Shepard doesn't care, she's doing a heroic march to some dramatic music! And we get the final shot of Shepard striking a pose in front of some sort of space station that I'm sure will be relevant... in the sequel!
We'll defeat the Reapers, even if it takes two more games and countless downloadable content add-ons to do it!
The Normandy zips off into space. Roll credits.
Well, if you stuck with me through all that, you deserve a cookie or something. Now you're about as prepared for Mass Effect 2 as you possibly could be without playing the game yourself! If you get a chance, though, please let Hathur99 on YouTube know how awesome they are for putting together these excellent game playlists. Without those playthroughs, there's no way this post would've ever come about.
And here's the requisite link: Episode 1 of Mass Effect 2. (As you might expect, there are spoilers in the comments of some episodes.) Enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-20 12:38 am (UTC)(Also, I find to my interest that I sort of wish it was possible to play as ALL THE CHARACTERS. Because I am always going for the sidekicks who really don't have enough screentime - that's actually how I got into Captain America fandom /OT. In this case, Joker. *silly wry face as if you didn't see that one coming several miles off* ;P Me and flying starships in a badass manner has always been a thing... although I have no interest whatever in learning to fly anything that has to abide by the laws of physics! XP)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-20 01:29 am (UTC)Mass Effect 2, however, has tons of different endings, since things are starting to branch out - and it is possible for Shepard to die at the end of Mass Effect 2! (Of course, at that point it's the end of the story and you're not allowed to carry that saved game over to ME3. Unless there's some sort of zombie!Shep option I missed.) It takes a lot of work to come up with that ending, mind you, but it's possible for Shepard to die and the game to still be winnable.
I'm... not even gonna try to figure out the answer to that question for ME3. ;) ME3 is a bit of a mess at the moment. Also, I'm on my second playthrough, using much different starting parameters, and it's pretty much a completely different game.
Because I am always going for the sidekicks who really don't have enough screentime (...) In this case, Joker.
Oh yes! Bioware clued in to the fact that everyone loved Joker, so he gets a much bigger role in ME2 and ME3, which is awesome. ♥ (And there's a moment in ME2 in particular I think you might enjoy, as a Joker fan.)
I had no particular interest in Shepard's character until ME3, actually, so I can relate with wanting to play the other characters. For reasons that may or may not become clear after you watch ME2, I'd love to see a game focused on Garrus between ME1 and ME2. There's a lot of awesomeness potential there. And I think I'd also play a game called "Liara T'Soni Does Awesome Research", because I am a geek that way.
But yeah, I don't think you ever get to actually fly a starship in this series, which makes me sad, since I do have lots of interest in learning to fly pretty much everything. ;) (I've been saving up for flight school for a while, now.) I mean, the Galaxy Map gets a little fancier in the later games, so you get to move the teeny-tiny Normandy around with your cursor, but it's just not the same. Alas. There are some absolutely gorgeous space battles in the last two games, though, that blow away the whole Battle of the Citadel thing from the first game. Possibly because graphics became ridiculously better between 2007 and 2010.