My Fanfiction Profile Page:
Updates
for Chapter 11:
Hunter
Husks: When you
have an alien that is essentially a pile of worms in a suit you can pretty much
do anything you want with them in terms of Reaper husks. This is especially
true when you realise that those giant Scarabs you encounter in the third game
are in reality piloted by Hunters. Yeah, that things are basically mech suits
for worms. I love the hunters for that reason, they’re just really interesting
aliens in general and I do want to explore them more, not just in husk form.
However, currently we’re keeping our alien bad guy focus on Jackals and
Batarians, so the Hunters will have to wait. Doesn’t mean we won’t get into it
a little though.
In
keeping in line with the Hunters being the most creative out of the original
Covenant, I’m trying to see how crazy I can get with them. I’ve already
introduced the bad ass dual wielding versions, who I still haven’t figured out
a name for, and now we have these Hunchback guys. Basically, I took the Scions
and I gave an even more devastating weapon and a barrier that goes Nova. I have
other designs though that I’m working on. They are the walking tank of the
Covenant, so anything I come up with will reflect that. Something that is hard
to kill via conventional means.
We will
be getting Hunter Classic alongside the New Hunters though, (This is not a ploy
to get money) as the next Chapter will show. Just know that any time you expect
hunters to show may end up leading to something unexpected. I may not use the
same design twice in a story in fact.
Legion
and Dot: So,
these two seem to be getting a bit screwier the more time they work together.
Do the benefits outweigh the potential damage? I think what you've seen
suggests they might not. This glitch ain't going away anytime soon guys, so
keep an eye on Legion. It doesn't seem like much now, but you can expect it to
get worse before it gets better.
Lot
of Sniping:
Recently replaying the mission, I realised Truth and Reconciliation doesn’t
give you the pistol at any point in the level! So, you’re stuck with a sniper
rifle for long range attacks. Meaning if you drop that thing you’re gonna be in
a real pickle when you really need a bullet to go flying across the room to hit
something.
You may
have noticed that there was a lot of sniping in this chapter. I like to think
it was because of that very reason, sort of a meta-conceptual theme... or I
just like writing snipers, who knows.
Chapter
12 Updates:
Lat
‘Ravamee: You
never really care all that much about some of the faceless aliens you
slaughter.
It was
recently brought to my attention that the Golden Dude you kill on the T&R’s
bridge has a canon name. Realising that he is a real person in universe, that
the guy I ran into all those times actually has a friggin name, set off a light
bulb in my head a little. What was that poor Schmuck thinking while I was
helping Chief kill all his men? He must’ve been really pissed off how bad
everything was going to say the least. I mean, I practically gave the inside of
his ship a new paint job. This was probably the worst day of his life... as
well as his last. Here was this super human plowing through his guys and
nothing he did seemed to even slow him down, and then I splatter his brains on
his precious command console. What a shitty day for him.
So I
decided what better way to do something different and show how a Covenant
leader views a Master Chief assault. How do you handle knowing some super death
machine is aboard your ship and just killing everyone, including your best men?
While I made him more dignified, I can’t help but think most of us in Lat’s
position would feel a lot like Professor Nakayama from Borderlands 2, just
freaking out of our little minds.
Give Lat
credit though, at least he didn’t breakdown and cry like a bitch. He is a
sangheili after all, he has to go out like a man... alien... whatever.
EDI
meets 343: Talk
about invading your personal space. It wasn’t hard for Spark to find the
Normandy, considering it only masks it’s heat sig and nothing else. My goal for
this was simple, show more of 343’s thought processes with both EDI and the
Covenant AI and have him discover the truth about where the Normandy comes
from. How would he handle that kind of knowledge? What would it mean for the
protocol he abides by? And more importantly, how is the Normandy crew going to
react over some blue one eyed robot teleporting around and talking cryptically?
They obviously won’t figure out that whole “What lies Beneath” thing, as Spark
didn’t tell EDI anything in a straightforward manner. But Shepard is gonna want
to learn more about this ring now, especially since he knows it’s a potential
weapon.
Amendum-Guilty
Spark wasn't so much as countered by EDI as he was caught off guard. Much like
in the original game when Cortana does something similar. The shock of learning
that another universe has visited the ring is a bit jarring. While there may be
protocols for such an event, they are most likely not particularly high
priority. The Forerunners may have visited other universes, but the idea that
any of them would apply to the Halo Array probably didn't occur to them. Why
bog down their Monitors concerning a detail that was unlikely to ever occur?
So, they more than likely decided that it wasn't something to bother with and
made it like a two line piece of code saying. "Visitors from other
Universes are to be treated as such, blah, blah, blah." Rest assured
Guilty Spark will figure how protocol dictates he should act in this situation,
regardless of how unlikely it was, there was probably something in there. It
was just so unlikely that he figured he'd never have to figure concern himself
with it.
Balak: His appearance is to tie in with
Liara’s story a bit and show that Balak has a way of communicating with his men
beyond the wormhole. Plus I get to have a villain speech and Balak is pretty
much the only person who would probably give one in this story. Well, one of
the Prophets would, maybe. Expect the tie-in of that scene to Liara’s story to
come in soon.
Jack's
Revenge: Jack
will have her well deserved revenge, fear not everyone. You'll see her kick
some serious Covenant ass next mission she goes on. Expect there to be blood,
and lots of it. You didn't see much here because, frankly, I had done
everything I needed to and it was time to wrap the chapter up. I didn't want it
to run longer than it had to. Besides, there wasn't much left after the rescue
of Keyes.
Chapter
13 update
Cyber-Legionnaire: So the truth comes out, Nelanax
steals all her material from her favourite movies. So basically every fanfic
writer ever... yes that includes me, we all do it, let’s not deny that.
I came
up with the idea that Nel was obsessed with Turian Action Movies after playing
a certain game called “Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon”, a downloadable title that
essentially distilled the 80s into an FPS and ran with it. I felt that if any
race was going to embrace similar action film aesthetics featured in Blood
dragon, it would be the Turians. The films of Slyvestrix Stalaxian (an Expy for
Sylvester Stallone if you haven’t guessed) are essentially everything Hollywood
in the eighties did. Except they star Turians as the heroes. Of course that
means anyone who isn’t a Turian is often the bad guy. But that is how it worked
with us and still does.
We tend
to simplify conflicts in our media in order to better appeal to the audience.
We did it back in World War II, sometimes in very racist ways, with propaganda
cartoons and films. There isn’t room for discussion of the other side’s
opinions and reasons for fighting or talking about their families in war time.
It’s even easier to do after the war because the Nazis were so cartoonishly
evil you can always get away with knocking them. Even now that it’s accepted
not all German soldiers were Nazis or killed Jews, we still make a lot of games
and movies featuring Nazis as the principal bad guys. Why? Because we need to
hate the villain and root for the hero, and the easiest way to do that is to
simplify the conflict.
I
imagine the Turians, after the First Contact War, weren’t too happy about all
the flack they were given over their conduct. Even though they bombed civilians
and made some pretty brutal decisions, in the end they felt they were just
protecting the galaxy from a potential threat. It’s hard to admit you’re wrong,
especially if you’re a race of honour bound raptor-things that take pride in
their sense of duty to the whole. So, why wouldn’t they simplify the conflict?
They already do it by calling it an “Incident” and not a “War.” And if they do
that with humans, why not the other perceived enemies of the Hierarchy?
To be
fair, Nel raises a good point, the Alliance probably does the same thing. So
you really can’t argue from a position of “These films are lying propaganda”
when someone can argue back with “So are yours.” One thing though, just because
others do it, doesn’t make the alternative anymore truthful, accurate or
unbiased. A film made by an Arab-Muslim that depicts US Soldiers as
bloodthirsty murderers is just as shameful as an American Film presenting all
Muslims as secretly planning and plotting to destroy America. The conflict is
simplified and one side is demonized in favour of the other.
That
said, there are things to admire about these films and not all of them intend
to be the overly nationalistic flag-waving garbage that is so derided now a
days. They can just be viewed as fun movies that you enjoy watching, so long as
you ignore the politics. I am aware the original Red Dawn is one giant “Support
those Afghan Rebels fighting the Russians!” PSA. That doesn’t detract from my
enjoyment of it because I ignore the politics and focus on other aspects I
like. I enjoy how they try to give the villains depth, I enjoy how they try to
keep the movie grounded in a semblance of reality and I think the themes are
more about growing up and taking responsibility in the world around you.
Of
course, Nelanax buys into the message hook line and sinker, enjoying the movies
for their explosions, imitating their fight scenes and adopting their
simplistic viewpoints. Nel lives in a black and white world of sorts where the
hero can do no wrong and every bad guy deserves punishment. She’s cast herself
in the main character role of her very own movie and obviously can’t tell the
difference between fantasy and reality anymore. It’s not the fault of the
movies though; it’s her own psychosis that drives it. You saw her constantly
make up excuses for her actions, deny she had ever done anything wrong or
stupid and brush off any criticism or derision with little thought and maybe a
wisecrack. This will continue as the story goes on. Nelanax essentially thinks
she’s in Call of Duty: Space Warfare... and not Mass Effect.
That
being said, I did enjoy writing the movie sequence for “Cyber-Legionnaire.” It
was fun intentionally writing something terrible for a change. Hopefully you
found the over the top deliver and general cheese the snippets of Slyvestrix’s
movie presented because we’ll be seeing more snippets from his library of films.
And they will all be as ridiculous and stupid as the first one. Hopefully
though, you’ll get a chuckle out of them.
Bi-Sexual
Characters: I’m
not very confident in writing Gay or Lesbian characters. I’m gonna say that out
loud. I know how they should be written, but I’m not sure I can pull it off as
well. However, if I’m going to be a writer I can’t shy away from the fact that
not everyone is my sexual orientation. If I’m going to write in the Mass Effect
universe, which has a ton of homosexual characters, then I will have to
practice.
Nelanax
is my compromise for now. I wouldn’t really call her bi-sexual, as she doesn’t
really care about gender. It’s more about the fact she enjoys the adrenaline
rush. You can get that from anyone or any gender if the internet has taught me
anything. The point is though, she can go wherever. It’s just the way she is,
and it fits both her personality and philosophy of “Screw you all, I’ll do what
(or who) I want.” Because she defies gender conventions, despite being a girl,
she possesses a lot of male attributes in concurrent with her female ones.
I may
have showcased her more masculine attributes more though in this chapter. It’s
hard to properly gauge what constitutes a feminine or masculine trait in my
mind though because I feel there are plenty of ways you can be a boy or girl.
There’s no single defining convention. A girl can be strong and a man can be
compassionate, a man can enjoy shopping and a girl can enjoy fixing up cars.
There’s no one right answer here. I didn’t enjoy sports as a kid, still don’t.
Does that make me less of a man?
However,
there is strangely, among males and females, an idea of how a man or woman
should be portrayed. People argue that writing a woman as a man is the wrong
approach and that writing them as a person should be the thing you ascribe to.
I attempt to do that certainly with characters like Liara and Tali, but it’s
harder to figure out how to do that with a character that defies traditional
conventions. Such as, a character like Nelanax, for example, who is attracted
to both sexes.
It’s
harder for me because I just don’t know what it’s like to be Gay. I certainly
know how it feels to be ostracized and ridiculed, but I don’t know how it’s
like to be a certain sexual orientation. I know as much about being gay as I do
about being black, I’m a white straight dude who suffers from an egregious
amount of first world problems. (Do I get Stewarts Root Beer which tastes
better or A&W Root Beer because it’s more convenient?) I’m the frickin’ one
percent, what do I know about the shit homosexuals go through? All I can do is
try to translate how I’ve felt at times for being a bit different, as a nerd,
on to them. Which is, admittedly, not easy.
So I
guess I’m at the mercy of my readers for this one. I don’t know if any of you
are gay or bi-sexual or omnisexual or whatever. That’s your business and I
won’t judge you for it. But I guess I’m asking if you think I’m doing a decent
job so far. I’d also like if you were honest about my portrayal of Nelanax in the
hopes that I can improve. Remember, she’s not loose so much as she’s free
spirited and doesn’t subscribe to standard rules or conventions. She’s trying
to emulate the macho characters she sees in action movies first and foremost,
and that probably means she’ll act more like them than anything. It would be a
great help to me to see me improve in writing a character that doesn’t follow
my orientation. It would certainly make writing Nyreen later on a lot easier.
That’s
where we fit in: I
love the song “We’re a Couple of Misfits”, it’s July, it fit the theme... so
yeah, Christmas reference in the title.
The
closest thing we got: So
let’s just quickly review the myriad of problems Liara has on her crew. Kayap
is the least combat capable and, despite him showing some courage, is still
pretty cowardly and uncomfortable on the battlefield. Other than that, he’s
probably got the least amount of problems.
Vik is
paranoid, delusional and doesn’t trust anyone. Saya is a racist who isn’t big
on being playing ball with a krogan and looks down on Nel and Vik for their
lack of professionalism. And Nel’s problems we’ve already covered.
The idea
behind bring this band of wildly disproportionate characters together was
simple, create the anti-Normandy team. Nel is like Garrus if he screwed justice
altogether and focused on more selfish pursuits, mainly personal pleasure. Vik,
as discussed before, is everything Tali isn’t. He’s introverted, he doesn’t
trust others easily and his obsession with conspiracy theories makes him dangerously
unstable. Saya lacks Mordin’s friendly demeanour and objectivity, his sense of
professionalism blinding him from accepting help from those he sees as
outsiders or beneath him, krogan especially. Having a disability that has muted
him and refusing to communicate at all with his team mates at times doesn’t
help.
It’s
easy to see where Kayap, Nel, Vik and Saya would all have potential problems
with one another. In Mass Effect 2, you were supposed to gather up people from
across the galaxy and form them into a unit. You had to make them loyal to you
and committed to the mission. However, there were only two incidents that were
implemented into the game that actually allowed for potential rivals to butt
heads. Grunt and Mordin’s confrontation was removed, probably because of the
available memory or other gameplay reasons. It was pretty clear that there were
a few characters that should’ve had other problems with each other. They seemed
to set up a potential confrontation between Jacob and Thane for example, but
they never went through with it. It is possible Samara and Garrus could’ve had
problems with each other, although honestly, I’m not sure what those would be
considering they have the same method of dealing with bad guys.
Now, I
don’t intend to have the characters constantly arguing with each other as that
would get annoying. But there has to be conflict of some kind among the group.
Different political opinions, different ideas, different motivations, those
sorts of things can potentially stir things up among the crew. You’ll be seeing
Liara’s recruits slowly move towards becoming a real team, but for now their
various issues and problems stand in the way of that.
As the
B-Team of sorts while Shepard and friends are away, they will have to become
the heroes that each of them, in one way or another, want to be. The Normandy
is fighting another battle and someone has to take up the torch for them until
they return. Like it or not, we’re stuck with them, but they’re not completely
hopeless. They all have good intentions at heart and they all believe in doing
the right thing, so that’s a start.
As of
now though, Liara and Wrex have their hands full trying to do what seems like
an impossible task to them. This is especially so when they each have their own
problems to deal with and issues to sort out for themselves in the long run.
But hey, if Shepard could do it, why can’t they?
World
War Kaiju Fundraising Contest:
Alright, main event time here.
In order
to help Team Kaiju reach some of their goals before their deadline, they’re
gonna need some help. While you giving them your money isn’t an obligation on
your part, I am offering you the chance to shape some elements of the story.
Because
the comic is about monsters, we might as make this little contest about
monsters. So here’s the deal. Provide me proof that you have given a
significant amount of funding to “WWK” and I’ll give you the chance to have a
hunter-husk design featured in one of the upcoming chapters. Either Silent
Cartographer or the Control Room, haven’t completely decided yet. All you have
to do is fund the project and send me your design in (picture or textual
description) to me. I’ll pick the top three I like and I’ll have the rest of
the readers vote on them. I’ll also be sure to give you guys a credit in the
appropriate chapter.
So, how
do you prove you funded the WWK? Once you fund the project, you’ll receive an
email stating that you have. Don’t bother trying to forge it, I’ll know if it’s
fake. It would probably be good of those who don’t have an account on KS yet to
sign up as their FF.Net names, just for added insurance that you are who you
say you are. All you have to do is forward that notification from Kickstarter
to me (or take a picture of it and attach it to a message) at this address:
It’s not
my main address, I like you guys, but I have my privacy to consider. Once I
authenticate that your entry is legit you will be entered. It would be best if
you featured your description of the hunter-husk, or picture of your design for
the more artsy types, in the same message to decrease clutter.
Now you
may be asking yourselves, “Yo, GR, Dawg, how you going to pick the winner? You
gonna base it on how much we pay WWK?” While that can’t hurt your chances, as I
want to see the project at least get funded, you don’t necessarily have to
donate much. You spreading the word about the project to people you think would
be interested is a lot more valuable that you forking over all your money. I’ll
be basing my top three for the vote on three things primarily. How original the
design is, personal preference for how cool it looks and how detailed it is.
So, if
you want to get your very own Hunter-Husk into this story, please endeavour to
enter the contest. I’ll be accepting entries up until the fundraiser ends,
that’s August 12th. So get your entries in before then. I’ll have all three of
my final choices ready for your vote at least a day after that. Good luck to
everyone, and thank you for your time.
Chapter
14 Update:
VykurCorp: I didn’t realise this
consciously, but I think I may have named the evil megacorporation after the
Vykkers from Oddworld. Funny how that name stuck with me enough that when I
settled on something that sounded sinister enough, it was that.
Part of
my plan for Liara’s story was to get a deeper look at the other alien races and
how they work. The turians are probably one of the most well known,
recognizable and heavily influential species in the universe. And yet we rarely
get to discuss their galactic viewpoint on things. Most of it comes from Garrus
and he’s kind of an exception to the standard turian. Turians are like the
noble aspects of the Roman Empire (In Space). They’re democratic, but mandatory
military service is required to be considered a full-fledged citizen. They
don’t go around conquering planets for the hell of it, but when they do attack
they’re pretty merciless. (Ask the folks of Shanxi) They’re a weird little ball
of conundrums like that. I’ve heard comparisons to the Federation in “Starship
Troopers” when Turian politics are brought up. Save for the fact they aren’t
fascist allegories, (Although Vik would probably disagree on that point) I
think that’s a fair assessment.
So
VykurCorp is my way of exploring Turian society, or more specifically, what can
happen when the ideals of the Hierarchy are turned on their head. You got Dav’s
spiel about a stronger nation, the need to root out weakness and stand united
against foes within and out. I’m wondering if anyone here got the similarities
to some certain radio talk show hosts. Suffice it to say, for those who didn’t,
Orukuri and his people are the kinda guys who would use the “Thanks, Obama”
meme and mean it.
So, what
the hell is his game and how does it fit in with Balak’s own plans? Well,
that’s for another time. Just know that, like Nel, they’re gonna be giving us a
huge dose of Turian culture.
Vid
Debates: Vik and
Nel’s little debate this chapter was indicative of several debates I’ve had
myself with people who I felt took a movie too seriously, saying it was
purporting some kind of agenda, was racist or whatever. I’d probably be on
Nel’s side in these kind of debates more than Vik’s actually. But it is hard to
deny how many movies tend to have very specific bad guys based on the audience
they want to attract. There are also quite a few minority groups that
unfortunately end up in the “Stock Villain” category.
I’d like
to say that the films don’t give the impression that those movies are selling a
specific image, but most of the time they are. Whether intentionally or not,
Hollywood tends to pick out groups we would most likely see as enemies to make
the story easier for the audience. This guy is a Soviet, so he’s evil. This guy
is a Mexican drug lord, evil. This dude lives in the ghetto, thus he is a thug.
This dude is from an Arabic country and Muslim, so he’s a terrorist.
I think
we’ve all learned by now real life isn’t that simple. Muslim Terrorists, as we
saw with the bombings in Boston, aren’t necessarily going to be Arabic all the
time. And even before that Timothy McVeigh proved you didn’t need to be a
Muslim to attack America. But of course, we tend to stereotype to make
understanding a villain’s background and history easier for us. We relate
easier to a character when they look like us and they’re from the same country.
So they’re usually American and White. It just makes good marketing sense.
At least
with Call of Duty they had you play a lot of the story as either a Brit or a
Russian, with the Americans getting like a secondary role of sorts. Mass Effect
allows you to be any Gender or Race you want. Halo features prominent set
pieces and characters of different nationalities and colours as well. Jorge was
Hungarian, for example. Pacific Rim has a Japanese Woman as its main leading
lady and we’re moving away from making movies with Islamic villains. Its
progress at the very least, but we still got awhile to go before we completely
stop using minorities as a crutch for our storytelling.
In the
Mass Effect universe, it would only make sense that with the ongoing prejudice
against quarians, vids tend to depict them as thieves and criminals. They are a
lot like Gypsies with their nomadic lifestyle, and we still kinda piss on
Gypsies a lot, even today. Of course the quarians aren’t exempt. I imagine any
films they make involve the geth as their primary enemy, we all do it in a
sense, no one is innocent of stereotyping to make an easy villain. However,
that doesn’t make it right.
Nel
clearly doesn’t understand why it pisses Vik off so much, and that was partly
me criticising my own failures in the past. While I still don’t think every
little thing in films and other media can be so casually labelled as offensive,
I recognize that as a Straight White Male I have to try and understand things
from a different perspective first.
I can
see why Black people would dislike being the first character to die in any
movie. I can see why a lot of women would have problems with some of the
depictions of females in comics and games, because there are problems. I doubt
I’d enjoy seeing a movie where the entire cast was made of stereotypical nerdy
White Canadian gamers who are presented as violent dipshits who take over an
airplane for “achievements.” It’s not the same for Muslims, obviously, but it is
something that singles you out and says “This is how you act and you are a
horrible person who deserves to get their ass kicked.” I don’t think any of us
would be comfortable with a film, game, comic or TV Show presenting us poorly,
so how do you think a Muslim feels when they sit down to watch a movie where
all the Muslims talk about killing Jews and blowing up Americans?
So, Vik
may indeed be a bit oversensitive about the topic, and Nel’s movie is probably
just a movie, but I would hope people would see both sides of their argument.
Although I do probably come down a bit harder on Nel as she does represent my
usual stance on the issue at times. I can be guilty myself of saying, “It’s
just a movie, get a thicker skin.” (Usually with Disney films.) But like Nel I
don’t think the people in charge are doing it to be intentionally racist half
the time. It’s just what they’re trying to sell. And despite watching lots of
movies with Arabic terrorists, and enjoying a lot of them, I still find people
who tell Muslims where they can and can’t worship or how they should dress
offensive and wrong. This is motherfucking North America after all, not North
Korea. I guess what I’m saying is, unlike Nel, I don’t try and let films
dictate my beliefs. If I did, I’d probably think I could smash through a window
and not bleed out from the dozen or so cuts I endure.
And yes,
the film mentioned was obviously an allusion to Die Hard. But every action
movie wants to be like Die Hard anyway. It’s such a simple story, is it any
surprise it keeps getting copied? So why wouldn’t a bunch of aliens come up
with the same idea?
Juiced: Nelanax is on drugs, adrenaline
drugs. Can you honestly say you’re surprised? I’ve called her an adrenaline
junkie tons of times already, and I meant it.
For clarification,
Nelanax had a stash of the drug in her room at Charlan. But she kinda left it
behind when she terminated her contract. She only had one vial left after that
and she used all of it during the camp raid. She took it off camera, just
before they got on the shuttle. So everything you saw, that was pretty much her
on her juice. While she wanted to pay the Blood Pack back for lying to her by
destroying the place she had trained bad guys in, redemption wasn’t her only
goal. She needed to go back for her second stash, otherwise she’d be without
her sweet adreno-nectar.
So now
she has a whole box of the stuff and she is going to get the most out of it,
let me assure you. The whole idea of making her a wannabe-action hero played
into this. The fact is, those action heroes should not be able to do half the
things they do. The only way they could keep going after being shot, blown up,
cut up and beaten to a pulp, is if they had some extra help. Any real person
would no doubt need some chemical substances to be willing to do such crazy
stunts as well as ignore the obvious pain they must be in. Also, anyone who has
a prepared line for every murder he commits in relation to his method has to be
a little nuts already, or at the very least on some kind of drug that allows
him to ignore the carnage around him.
Shepard
can get away with it though, because his lines sometimes feel like he’s just
making them up as he goes. That and he’s also pretty much earned them at this
point. Nelanax’s drug problem, on the other hand, has just heightened her
already rather warped view of the world, so not the best of combinations. You
better believe this will come back to bite her.
Talon
Raider XP60: I
took the Smartgun from Aliens and made it even more ridiculous. Think of it as
something Rob Liefeld designed and then manufacturers had to figure out a way
to make it somewhat plausible. That’s the Talon Raider, a portable sentry gun
(Ala the Mass Effect turret sequences) with four barrels that is so damn big
you need to lug it around with a harness and require a targeting eyepiece just
to figure out where to aim.
I think
the idea of making such a stupid gun came out of a documentary I saw from back
during the Iraq War hay day. Everyone and their mother was putting out all
these documentaries venting their frustration at the rather unpopular war.
Politics aside, there was this one scene that did stick with me through all the
cluttered Military-bashing and half-hearted pleas of “giving peace a chance.”
There was this poor kid who was trying to join the military because it seemed
like his only real option. He got sold on the idea of this new helicopter he
hoped to fly, the Comanche.
The
Comanche was meant to be the next big aerial combat vehicle for close range
tactical support. It was sleek, it was cool looking, hell, it even looked like
something out of a science-fiction movie. It appeared in a few video games
around the time as well. Then the Military decided to go with the cheaper
Drones to accomplish the missions intended for the Comanche and the contract
for it was discontinued.
I kept
wondering, what happened to that kid? Did he finally join the military? And was
he pissed when he learned he wasn’t gonna be able to fly that Comanche they
promised him? So I guess this was my little tribute to him and all the poor
suckers who didn’t get to try out some cool futuretech hardware the Military
Channel probably advertised was coming out soon.
The
Talon Raider may show up in the future, but I’d prefer to not make it a game
breaker. The thing chews up ammunition and it’s not exactly a practical weapon
for every combat situation. I may come up with a more plausible machine gun for
Nelanax to start using. Think of it as potential character development for her,
learning that just because somethinglooks cool, doesn’t mean it makes sense to
use.
Hunter
Husk Contest: In
the end, I only got two people willing to put down some money to get their
designs in the story. I suppose, even when there’s no set minimum as to how
much you can give and none of the money even goes to you anyway, people just
aren’t that desperate to get into the story somehow.
Ah well,
I don’t blame any of you guys. Like I said, there was no obligation. At this
point, I’m just happy I at least got two applicants. I would’ve hated to end up
with only one. It would’ve meant none of you would get to pick your preferred
husk. But now, you do get to choose, although both were so interesting I may
end up using the other one at a later date. For now, let’s just see which one
you’d prefer to see sooner rather than later. The two designs are as follows.
From
Andrew Ungaro:
“It's
not much, but since you had a hunter-scion hybrid a few chapters back I was
thinking of a Hunter-Praetorian hybrid as an upgrade to it.
I call
it the Plague Spreader, though we can just shorten it to Plague, due to several
Dragon's Teeth grafted onto its tentacle-limbs, impaling nearby enemies (and
sometimes allies) and converting them to husks at a horrendously quick time
frame due to the Inquisitor deciding that the usual amount of conversion is too
slow. Due to the sheer bulk of all the hunter worms, it doesn't fly very high
or very quickly, but it's able to dish out a lot of hurt with biotically
charged Assault Cannons for its eyes, or a single one inside its mouth.”
I love
this one for the sheer utter messed up thought process behind its creation. On
the spot conversion and assault cannons for eyes, not to mention tentacle rape!
Diabolically clever, and a bit disturbing, I may fear for Andrew’s sanity just
a bit.
From
Dylan Biancamano:
“My
hunter husk carries neither a shield or a fuel rod cannon, this is because they
walk about on all fours to support the weight of a wraith cannon grafted to
their backs, it isn't as strong as an actual wraith mortar, but the added bonus
of the hunters mobility and ability to climb over obstruction (without the
impediment of carrying things) I envision a devastating creature.
My idea
for them is that they move around sort of like gorillas then when the fire of a
mortar shot the dig there heals in to the ground and the cannon part unfolds
from the tops of their backs. Around the hunters normal weak spot is, there is
the wraiths generator, guarded by the shield the hunter usually carries, it is
grafted in place to protect the exhaust port, this however means that the husk
can over heat vary quickly if it fires off too many shots at once. Its maximum
is about 1 shot every 15 seconds, any more and it could over load the system.
Their necks no longer extend, instead the helmet is welded to the chest piece,
on the helmet the eyes protrude out like worms to be able to look around. It’s
big and tough and almost entirely sealed.
As for a
name I was playing around with Mûmakil, those are the giant elephants from lord
of the rings, I was thinking that because this particular husk reminds me of a
big animal the has something strapped to its back, although that might be a
little obscure and out there for names. Either that or Thunder Backs. however
if you have an idea for a name that is better, feel free to use it. I look
forward to hearing from you. Thank you.”
So we’re
just gonna forgo all formalities and make them literal walking tanks huh? Seems
cool to me, how about you guys? Mumakil is a pretty decent name for Lord of the
Rings fans to enjoy. Although, I’ll probably see about coming up with another
name, one that could be potentially dreamed up by the Mass Effect or Halo cast.
I’m not sure how popular Tolkein would be in the future.
So,
those are your two choices the “Plague Spreader” and the “Mumakil.” (Name
pending) Both awesome designs, both very creative, but only one can be chosen
by the fans to appear in the upcoming Assault on the Control room chapter. Feel
free to choose which one will come alive, I’m already thinking up scenarios for
both of them.
If you
did send in a design idea, but it’s not here, then it may have gotten lost due
to my own negligence and my fussy hotmail account thinking everything is spam.
Please simply resend your application with proof you funded the “World War
Kaiju” project and I’ll make sure to take it into consideration. If I do
receive more applicants, I’ll be sure to have another round of voting to settle
exactly which design will appear. I’ll only choose one other though, so I hope
your design is good enough. If none of you sent in an application, well, I
guess we’re stuck with these two. But that’s okay.
Thanks
to all who supported the “World War Kaiju” project. Because of your efforts,
the story will be published by next year and this wonderful story will have a
chance to be told. Again, thank you.
Chapter
15 Updates:
Liara
and Shepard:
This is probably the biggest character related revelation in this chapter, so I
might as well explain myself. In Mass Effect 2, I was always confused as to why
Liara is the one who rescues Shepard’s body. It makes sense if she’s your love
interest, but why didn’t Ashley save you? Or Kaiden? Or Anderson? Why didn’t
Wrex get all depressed and go looking for your body? Why Liara out of everyone
on that ship? If Liara isn’t your love interest, what is her motivation behind
not being able to let Shepard rest in peace and go out of her way to search for
a lead on where she can find his body? No one else does that but her.
It’s not
just a case of her being in the right place at the right time. She goes to
Omega originally to meet with someone who can find Shepard’s body. That’s how
the story goes. She later finds out the whole thing was orchestrated by
Cerberus, but she’s the one they pick in the end. Sure, she’s your friend
whether you romance her or not, but why her? What made Liara decide to travel
to the Terminus Systems in search of Shepard’s body and then team up with
Cerberus (An organization that she probably helped Shepard fight in the first
game) in the not entirely assured hope that they’d bring Shepard back to life
somehow?
It was
something a lot of people brought up when the Redemption comic hit the shelves.
Mostly by people who didn’t romance her or didn’t even visit Therum as their
first stop in the game. (That’s where she goes a little crazy waiting so long
for you to find her and gets a bit pissed off that you’ve pretty much figured
out everything without her.) I thought about it myself, mainly from the
perspective of Liara not being your romance. I always felt that Shepard not
going to Therum first in search of a potential link to Saren was kinda dumb.
But hey, maybe Shepard isn’t attracted to hot alien babes with blue skin? So
how would that work?
I hit
upon the idea that Liara was still in love with Shepard, despite being rejected
by him/her. She had seen into the Commander’s mind with the Cipher, experienced
the struggles she/he faced and found the connection Shepard shared with the
Protheans ultimately fascinating. What if, using her telepathic abilities with
Shepard, had enforced some kind of mental bond between them, or at least a one
sided bond with Liara. Could everything she does over the course of the three games,
whether you romance her or not, be out of a desire to prove to herself that
this connection means something?
Mass
Effect 3 seems to suggest so. The ways she greets you when you find her on
Mars, how she comes up to your Cabin a number of times just to talk things out,
the fact her time capsule has a whole section devoted to you, you can kindle a
romance with her here, even if you refused her in ME1, and then she says she’s
always wanted to hear you say that, that whole freaky memory sharing thing you do
at the end which is highly suggestible and happens regardless of your
relationship status. Everything points to one inescapable conclusion to me,
Liara still loves you.
Of
course, Liara is too nice a person, and too socially awkward, let’s admit that,
to force herself onto you. She’d never want to come between Shepard and what
makes him/her happy, which is why she probably accepts the fact you’re not
dating her and is fine with that. So long as she can prove that her connection,
what she feels for Shepard, is true she can live with not having him/her. Sorta
like wanting your beloved to be happy even if it isn’t with you, but different
in the sense it’s a bit more complicated. Liara wants Shepard to be happy, but
also wants to know if what she feels is genuine or just some silly crush she’ll
never get over but should because it’s pointless. (“Do I really love this
person or am I just lying to myself that I do?”)
I think
in a sense a lot of us can relate to that, trying to find out if our crush is
real or just a fantasy we can never fulfill. How many of us have looked at a
Hollywood Star or Music Idol or Olympic Athlete or just some popular person in
school and wanted to be with them? How many of us eventually realised that what
we felt was love but adoration for someone, or a fantasy we just created? How
many more of us wondered later on that if we had just acted on those impulses,
those feelings and tried, we could’ve found true love with this person? It’s
never as easy as we want it to be though, is it?
Part of
me sympathises with Liara’s lack of a romantic relationship with someone she
wanted. I guess, in a way, I’d like to know if what I felt for a number of my
high school crushes were genuine romantic feelings or just my teenage libido
acting out. It was probably the latter, but who knows, maybe one of those
people was my soul mate and I just never gave it the chance I should’ve.
In a
way, Liara’s relationship with Shepard, when it is non-romantic, seems to me
like someone who thinks they found the one they wanted to be with, but knows
they can’t have them. How would you respond to that kind of situation? Liara
has the best possible reaction in my mind, she tries to live up to the ideal in
her head about what her feelings mean and hopes in some way that she can prove
what her heart tells her isn’t some foolish fantasy. That the connection she
has with Shepard is real and not just some figment in her mind. It’s both
tragic and a little touching. It also makes me want to go back and do a FemShep
run where they both get together. This from a Talimancer, I know.
The
Lunch Scene: A
bit of commentary on this. I wanted the characters to sit around a table and
actually talk with each other for a bit about things. At this point in time,
however, I couldn’t think of anything they’d be interested in talking about.
Vik and Nel don’t agree on anything, Saya doesn’t really like any of them and
Kayap is too meek and quiet to really direct any kind of conversation. The only
thing they all have in common right now is their work with Liara.
So, I
couldn’t have Nel talk about her favourite vids without Vik either criticising
or admitting he’s never watched them. That would’ve been retreading old ground
anyway. I couldn’t really have Kayap lead any conversation among the others,
save for answering questions about his people and we’ve already gone over a lot
of that stuff already, so again, retreading ground. And Saya... well... Saya
can’t talk and he’s a loner. So yeah, that doesn’t really work.
I
settled on having the characters go over some plot specific elements about the
tech they were encountering. I peppered bits of their personalities throughout
based on how I felt they’d react to the conversation. Nel would get bored
easily, action vids don’t spend a lot of time on explaining stuff after all.
Vik would get caught up in the technical aspects while slipping into spewing
out some of his crazy beliefs. Saya would only speak up when he wanted to ask a
legitimate question, feeling above the whole discussion in general. Kayap would
only really talk when he had insight on the Covenant to add to the proceedings.
So, that’s how the conversation broke down in the end.
Also,
another reason its work related more than anything, is probably because of
Liara. She’s a bit caught up in her work as well mind you and she’s never been
much of a social butterfly herself. So she struggles with casual conversation.
As for
Nel straddling Vik and freaking him the heck out, that was just added for some
honest bits of hilarity. Originally, Nel was going to put a knife to Vik’s
throat as a joke to scare him, but I felt in the end that went too far and made
her look like too much of a psychopath. I preferred her attempt to see if she
could seduce him, because Nel will screw anything to get her fix. Plus, Vik being
scared of sex made sense given his origins. Nel didn’t help by feeding into his
paranoia about cameras in her eyes and all that. I was even still able to get
the knife in there sorta. Vik’s overactive imagination about what she meant by
using a knife during sex was more effective in my mind and got the message
across a lot better about who Vik is.
It’s
been said that the best characters often write themselves, I think this little
scene was a good example of that. I also got to get out some exposition too, so
that was a bonus as well. Also, foreshadowing if you hadn’t guessed. Speaking
of which...
Ben: I introduced Ben back during
Tuchanka and had him show up every now and again as the face of the ShadowNet
mercs in a sense. He was just some kid who was working for the Shadow Broker
and while not always confident about the job was more than eager to be a part
of the team. I finally named him during these last three chapters in the hopes
I’d get people attached to him a little and appreciate when he came up. I
wanted people to care about this guy... because I knew he was going to die.
To force
Liara to take a drastic step like going to Khar’Shan was going to require more
than just one factor. Ben’s death played into that because I needed an outlet
for Liara’s caring nature. Ben was that, a nice guy she recruited into her
organization who trusted her and followed her and was willing to risk his life
to protect her. The kind of person Liara as the Shadow Broker wanted to
surround herself with, loyal good people and not a bunch of crooks and
murderers out for cash alone.
Ben
dying would only be seen as a loss by Liara in this way, a person who died who
she brought into this fight and risked his life out of purely non-selfish
reasons. The failure to acquire anything useful from the facility she attacked
would only push her to make Ben’s death mean something. In any way, she’s
another person she couldn’t save. First her mother, then Shepard, Feron got
captured because of her as well, and now a young rookie merc has died on her
watch because of her leadership. She could find another way of getting into
Balak’s Network. But besides wasting more time she doesn’t have, it would also
mean admitting Ben died for nothing and that’s not something I think Liara can
accept.
Now,
another reason I felt Ben had to die, is fairly simple. Someone had to
eventually. This is a war story after all, and while certain characters are
exempt, some have to die eventually. Especially when I have so many and I need
to start thinning ranks soon. Ben isn’t the last good guy death I’ll have for
sure, but he represents how I feel a death should be represented. When a Good
Guy dies, it should mean something. It doesn’t have to mean much, but it should
mean something. The death of a noble, heroic individual, should make your
readers feel something other than pure shock.
Consider
the current trend in Comic Books. How many huge Event Storylines have we
endured from Marvel and DC? How many of those storylines involve a Superhero’s
death kicking off the proceedings? How many of those were just pointless shock
deaths to assure the readers that “Shit had gotten realz, for serious yo!”
Duela
Dent, the Joker’s Daughter, was murdered pointlessly in cold blood for the sole
purpose moving a story forward. They admitted as much within the story of
“Countdown.” It was a disgusting, senseless move that removed a character that
had no reason to be killed off in such a manner, and all because the guys in
charge felt it would shock people into buying more issues.
Marvel’s
Ultimatum ran off that despicable premise, even adding a fucking Dead Pool
betting on which characters would be horribly and brutally murdered. Like
Wasp... who was eaten by the Blob. Classy. They even killed off Johnny Storm
within the opening salvo, along with Nightcrawler. Sure, it was the Ultimate
Universe and no one gives a shit about the Ultimate Universe, but it was still
shameful. Hell, before that they murdered the Scarlet Witch just as a lead in
to their big stupid “Kill Everything” story.
Final
Crisis kills the Martian Manhunter at the start, only to bring him back a few
months later as a zombie and then back to life completely. Marvel decides to
ice Black Goliath and then had the gall to suggest his murderers were the Good
Guys at the end. Scores of Teen Titans have been murdered over the years to the
point it’s become a friggin joke. Cry for Justice started killing dozens of
supporting characters off panel before the story had even finished the first
issue and then decided, just to put a cherry on top of it all, they’d throw in
the death of a little girl who hadn’t even been a part of the storyline at all
during the course of its run just to shock readers even more!
Brilliant
fucking storytelling guys, murder dozens of characters, cut off potential
storylines that could be told with them and make them all pointless meaningless
shock deaths in an attempt to make yourselves look all mature and shit. Well
you’re not, okay? It makes you look wasteful and mean-spirited, nothing more.
I’m not
saying death should never ever happen in a story or that no good guys should
ever die. I’m saying those deaths should follow a logic, should never feel
cheap, should be meaningful to the audience instead of shocking for shock’s
sake and should never EVER be done in a manner that suggests your characters
are disposable.
Think of
Mordin’s death in Mass Effect 3, why did that get you so choked up? Because you
cared about him right? But it was more than just that, it was Mordin coming to
terms with his past and hoping for a better future. He had finally done
something good and noble. He gave the race he once doomed on statistics and
variables another chance because he knew it was the right thing to do. You felt
his story had come full circle, that the man who had so casually written off
the krogan before had become their greatest advocate. They didn’t kill him to
shock you, they killed him because it was the most logical way for his story to
end, it was the most meaningful way for it to end, it wasn’t cheap and gave the
character’s final moments poignancy and reverence. He was not disposed of in a
vain attempt to say to the players “ANYONE CAN DIE! WHO WILL BE NEXT?” That is
lazy writing and stupid.
When I
considered whether or not to kill Kat in the end, I decided against it because
I felt there were more stories to tell with her. When I decided to let Carter,
Emile and Jorge all die, I did so because I felt it was their time. I wanted to
give those deaths meaning, as they had been given meaning within the games themselves,
I did not want to shock my readers and pretend I was oh so damn mature by
killing them off. I killed Commander Jensen, because I felt he had played his
role in the story.
I do not
kill characters to create a false sense of tension. I do not create characters
to be disposable pounds of flesh that no one can feel invested in because
they’ll likely be dead within the span of a paragraph. I make people care, and
that way, if the character does die, if I eventually feel they have run their
course, then the connection I feel with that character translates into my
writing. And hopefully, I’ve built a connection with him among my readers and
they’re saddened by his loss as well.
I refuse
to treat the characters I write like they are meaningless, that they are all
expendable in the pursuit of giving my stories a false sense of maturity
because the body count is high. That is the trap horror films fell into when
they started caring more about making body counts and shocking blood and guts
scenes rather than stories. That is the very thing Marvel and DC decided to do
with their big event storylines, season after season. I refuse to become them.
That is
why Ben died here, at the half way point of Liara’s storyline, and not all the
way back on Tuchanka when he first appeared. The deaths to follow will not be
done for the sake of some bullshit idea that the senseless murders of countless
individuals left and right is the only way to make a story interesting or
provide it with a sense of tension. That is the lazy coward’s way out. There is
more than one way to build suspense. Character interaction, plot development,
changing the setting, advancing character relationships, these among other
things are ways to keep the audience guessing. Getting them to bet on who bites
the bullet next is the most simplistic and generic way of building suspense in
a story.
I
apologise for how soap boxy this felt, I’m just trying to address a larger
concern in media that I feel I can touch upon now with Ben’s death. I
appreciate you listening for this long and I’ll accept if you don’t completely
agree with me. This is simply how I feel about the subject of character death
and if I’m not true to myself in that belief of how stories should operate,
than I’m just following the herd.
Update
Chapter 16
Following
the Book: For
those who have read it, I have been using “Halo: The Flood” are a reference
guide for many of the events surrounding the Battle of Installation 04.
However, I haven’t been following it one hundred percent. Besides the obvious
changes concerning characters who shouldn’t be here but are, I’m trying not
copy the fight scenes word for word. I think that would constitute as
plagiarism. So I try not to read those, unless I need to remind myself which
bad guys the heroes are going to encounter next.
This
chapter marks the greatest departure so far and I feel I need to address it. In
the book, best as I can tell, it takes McKay until well into Silent
Cartographer’s completion to return to Alpha Base with her spoils from the Autumn.
I instead had her get back home around the same time Shepard returns with
Keyes. Now, obviously in the book this is because McKay has to pretty much
drive everything back to Alpha Base and that probably takes awhile. I suppose,
through a combination of remembering the story wrong and feeling that took too
much time, I brought them all back home quicker. If I didn’t, Garrus would be
unable to get back in time for Silent Cartographer and I kinda need him for it.
Now, the
best explanation I can offer for this is that, with the increased troop numbers
Holland brought with him, there are more Pelicans capable of flying at the same
time and thus they were able to carry many of the vehicles McKay recovered,
making it easier to speed all the way back home. Second, with the added
assistance of the Normandy crew, and the remaining members of Noble Team, they
were able to grab everything they originally had in the book and then some
faster. Thus, they were able to escape sooner before the Covenant could
initiate a proper response to their raid. So their little blockade in the book
is formidable but not nearly sufficient enough to hold back McKay and the
others for long.
I think
it is important overall not to rely too much on someone else’s work. This is
not a knock against “The Flood”, but this is my story and to copy too many
scenes and elements from it would mean I’m not trying hard enough to be my own
animal. So, I think it’s important to regard the canon of the book as a
guideline, but not an outright rule. There are things I can’t mess with, but
details like how long it takes McKay to return to Alpha Base and such are open
to fiddling. This is especially so when you have a bunch of characters from
another game0 inserted into the story. Changes will inevitably occur, and this
has been one of the bigger technical ones.
Identifying
with a Slaver:
It’s hard to make a villain like Varvok truly sympathetic without the reader
forgetting that he’s not entirely a nice person. I’ve already made him
sympathetic enough in his devotion to those under his command, as well as the
fact he isn’t a spineless toadie who buys into the Covenant bullshit. I felt it
was time the flesh out his personality, but reminded myself that the reader
couldn’t get too attached to him. He’s a good man in some respects, but he’s
still working for a corrupt evil system that oppresses others and enslaves
sentient beings.
I hit
upon the idea that Varvok had lost a family member to humans. It’s easy for us
to forget that everyone has family, even the most evil people alive. We always
see the henchmen in movies, but rarely do we hear of their families. Why do
these people decide to work for bad guys? What drives them to it? Who would
want to work for someone like the Joker or Penguin? Is the money really worth
the risks inherent in being a minion? In some cases you can just assume many
are destitute and poor, seeing this as their only option to get ahead in life.
But what about ideological groups like Hydra or Cobra? Why work for these
assholes who clearly murder people so casually?
In
Varvok’s case, it’s just the family business. Slavery is a simple fact of life
and accepted in Hegemony space. It’s engrained so deep into their culture, that
batarians are apparently offended by everyone else’s hatred of slavery. It’s
like the Japanese who don’t get why people are pissed off about the fact they
murder dolphins and whales or how Canadian Seal Clubbers were annoyed by people
telling them they couldn’t slaughter newborn pups for their fuzzy white coats.
It’s just the way things are to them, and they don’t really see anything wrong
with it. We of course recognise that they’re killing creatures who can’t defend
themselves and that there far less morally objectionable occupations they could
undertake. They just think we’re bleeding hearts in return who just don’t get
it.
Varvok’s
justification for slavery is fairly similar to many a person in history who has
rationalised keeping another human being in bondage and servitude. The Southern
Elite convinced people, who had no slaves at all, that owning Blacks was just
the natural order, their God given right and part of their heritage. They
argued that the North only cared about Abolition so they could make the South
poor and subservient, that they treated slaves better than the migrant workers
in factories, that the Blacks were happy to pick cotton and any escapees were
just a bit stir crazy is all. Of course, none of this changed the fact that
they were still putting other people in chains and selling them like cattle.
Whatever point they had about the North’s intentions or motives didn’t make
them any more right, but that was how they chose to justify things.
Varvok
believes that slaves have their place in society, that some are born to be
servants while others are born to rule them. That is how a caste system works.
So, when he sees a bunch of hostile aliens threatening that, of course he’s
going to feel threatened. When members of his family are murdered in the
pursuit of freeing slaves, he’s not going to be sympathetic to the humans
responsible.
The
deaths of his brothers was the defining moment of his life, when Varvok chose
to take up arms against the people he saw threatened his culture, his people,
his livelihood. We can sympathise with that in some way, despite the fact his brothers
probably deserved what they got for being the flesh peddling bastards they
were. If his brothers had been involved in any other business at the time of
their birth, not selling slaves, we may even agree with him in some respects.
But the fact is, Varvok is a slaver, he does horrible things to other people,
he forces others to serve his corrupt rulers. We may understand him, sympathise
with his loss, but we can’t really deny that he’s supporting an evil system.
I
thought that was important, to show that there are layers to Varvok. I didn’t
want to make him wishy washy on the issue, he needed to be a firm believer in
the system he fights for. Otherwise why would Balak hire him? His loss of
family reminds us that even he has people he cares about, that he’s not just
some guy who enjoys grinding people beneath his heel. He does what he does
because he thinks it is right, that the humans are the monsters and are hurting
his people with their cries of abolition and justice for the enslaved. He
wouldn’t take sadistic pleasure in breaking a slave. He’d accept it as
necessary to the process of maintaining the social caste.
The
tragedy here is that Varvok is an otherwise good man, but believes in a
horrible disgusting system of government. He’d be a hero, were it not for the
fact he were working for Balak and his Black Ops group. Thankfully, his
devotion to his men insures he isn’t a completely blind follower and can see
some problems with this alliance. He’s not stupid, he knows the Covenant aren’t
trustworthy or reliable allies, that they will attempt to absorb them into the
greater whole. They’re as big a threat in a sense as the humans. But, Balak
says they can keep that from happening, so he trusts his leader. That trust is
probably misplaced though
In the
end, it’s important to have a villain you can sympathise with and has
dimensions. It’s also important to remind the reader that for all his virtues,
he’s still a horrible person, being a slaver and all. The quarian comment he
made shows he’s a racist too, so there’s that as well.
Samara’s
Issues: It’s not
always easy to write Samara. As someone so aligned to the cause of Justice,
it’s hard to properly determine how she would react to certain situations.
She’s a difficult character to read. As you can see, I’m trying to explore some
deeper aspects about her Code. I’m also trying to make sure I don’t turn her
into a Judge Dredd rip-off. Everything she does is aligned with her code, so
what happens when her Code tells her to do two things, but she can only do one?
What happens when she has spent too much time among those her Code demands she
kill? She’s not supposed to feel empathy for the unjust, but she can’t help it
now. That’s very dangerous for a Justicar, and it’s something we’ll explore
further. Hopefully, I won’t struggle to rewrite a single line of her dialogue
so it sounds right sixty over for about an hour each time I do decide to delve
into her character.
Legion’s
Glitch: The
problems inherent in Legion’s systems error are getting greater. It was important
to bring this out here. I’ve been saying the glitch is going to be a problem
constantly, and I needed to start delivering on that. As the Platform, and
Legion itself, becomes more compromised, we’ll see the dangers this presents
our favourite Geth. As well as the questions it forces Tali to ask about
herself, but that’s for another time.
Tongue-Tied
Garrus: You just
can’t get the words out, can ya? Poor stupid turian. This will come back up
again later one. I assume many of you have already figured out what’s up with
him, so I won’t insult you by spelling it out. Don’t fret guys, Garrus and Kat
still got a lot more scenes together. Tali is a mutual friend to both of them,
it is inevitable things will cross paths eventually. Don’t expect too much
drama though. I’m not one for that kind of high school crap in stories about
giant killer death rings and space zombies, but again, that’s another story.
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