Posted by We’re back with our month-long Mass Effect challenge! For previous days, click here.
Mass Effect Month, Day 11: Which species is your favorite?
My knee-jerk reaction is to say “drell” because, I’m not sure if you know this, but I love Thane. Like, a lot. An embarrassing amount, actually. Good heavens, I blather on about him in three different posts?? Sigh.
But I digress. If we’re talking about the original trilogy, my favorite species is actually the quarians. I always get the feeling that the rest of the galaxy hates them because they’re so technologically advanced. Sure, there was that whole little mess with the AI, but the fact that they can pull a whole civilization together using discarded spaceships is pretty impressive. Add to that the fact that they are all pretty down to earth (down to Rannoch?) about their situation, and are some of the nicest folks you can meet, even when faced with bigotry, that just makes me like them.
And besides, anyone who can stand behind a name like “vas Qwib Qwib” is okay in my book.
In Andromeda, my favorite species is probably the angara, and not just because the kett are the “bad guys.” I’m just not sure what actually is a “kett,” since they “exalt” so many species. I mean, that’s pretty cool to be a hybrid of the best traits of numerous organisms, but does that mean you have your own identity, or are you defined by the organisms you have assimilated into yourself?
Actually, I changed my mind. I really like the angara because I appreciate a species that doesn’t see feelings as a weakness and judges its people based on their actions (and is subsequently matriarchal, but that’s an entirely different conversation), but the kett are really, really fascinating. Who are they? What makes them kett?
I think I just gave my Mass Effect Month an existential crisis.
What about you? Do you have a favorite species? Any hanar lovers among all you wonderful readers? Let me know in the comments!
I should go,
~ Athena
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AmbiGaming 
Expression of disappointment, I miss the presence of the Elcor
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This!
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With stunned disbelief, I’m not sure how I forgot them. With consideration, they are probably tied with the quarians, simply by their existence. Heartfelt, I am sorry to disappoint.
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I like the Krogan, mostly because of the genophage, always have a soft spot for characters with a tragic back story. But also because they are absolute Bad assess and don’t take Sh**t from anybody!
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The krogen were a surprisingly deep species… They seemed so complex and yet so single-minded at the same time. They were great!
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I liked the Geth in ME1, in the sense that I was desperate to learn more about them and sympathised with their origin story. Unfortunately, ME2 creates two entirely separate versions of them (the ones seen in ‘Overlord’ – closer to their portrayal in ME1, and the ones seen in the main game – a giant retcon but fairly interesting) and then ME3 turned them into a bit of a joke.
I love aliens, and I’m a big Trek nerd so I generally tend to be bummed out when modern sci-fi shows seem to shy away from them; perhaps trying to emulate Firefly. That said, apart from the Geth, I tend to be rubbed the wrong way by Mass Effect’s aliens. They seem to be based more on high fantasy archetypes than anything else.
And I’ve already mentioned that ME2 left the galaxy feeling decidedly empty, by populating the Terminus Systems primarily with the same big three. When you walk into a bar, you don’t get the hustle-and-bustle of Star Trek or the weird-and-wonderful feel of Star Wars. Instead, it’s: “Oh, yeah, the Asari are the strippers.”
I enjoyed hearing about the Elcor, the Volus and the Hanar but they got shafted in follow-up games and I ME2 only has an, apparently, cut side-quest involving the Vorcha and a few conversations with Thane about the Drell.
The Protheans were really interesting in ME1 but they were later given an unnecessary makeover (presumably to make them cooler, or something).
If I had to pick, I’d say the Batarians were my favourite though, as ever, I preferred how they looked in the codex prior to their on-screen introduction in ‘Bring Down the Sky’.
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The batarians were cool; I feel like they got a really bad rap and were always the thugs of the galaxy, but they could have been a really interesting culture, I think. And of course, the elcor, volus, and hanar (and maybe the drell) should have all gotten a little more screen-time!
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Nothing wrong with the drell love, haha. And wow, when you put it like that, the kett kinda remind me of the Borg from Star Trek – assimilating other species into a collective organization. Andromeda left me with a lot of questions, including the origins of the angara. I hope BioWare gets around to answering that in a new Mass Effect game someday.
For me, I’m going to say the asari are my absolute favourite species. They have badass biotic powers, a strong military, and gender doesn’t really mean a damn thing to them. I also love how their reproduction meld does not actually require any physical contact, even though they are often portrayed in an over-sexified light in the games, haha. Liara is definitely my favourite asari, but I think I’ve babbled about her more than enough already 😛
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