4173 said:
I agree with some of Shamus' points, but the thing that really bugs me is the game telling me that rather than fighting the Reapers because they are threatening the galaxy and everything living in it, what I should really care about is EARTH because I'm (the player) a HUMAN...
Well, understand that there are some themes about that in the game as well.
See, conceptually Humanity is the newest species entering into intergalactic society, but it's also a very powerful one comparatively speaking. First contact came in the form of a war fought against the Turians who are the strongest military force in the galaxy, and humanity did pretty well given the situation, so well in fact that it's scary, given that one would have expected humanity to be crushed outright (and it would have been had the full force of the Turian military entered into it, but as limited as the clash was the Turians were paying dearly for their successes). Humanity also successfully stood up to, and demolished, a couple of other minor space powers, the Batarians, the organized pirate clans. The result is that a lot of the elder races distrust humanity as newcomers, and don't listen to humanity when they should. A big part of the plot initially is that a lot of people don't want to see a Human Specter because they dislike and distrust humanity. What's more while humanity has largely been playing "good galactic citizen" including limiting it's number of Dreadnaughts and such, the Council has made a point out of not doing it's part in helping to protect human colonies and the like. A lot of the ethical questions that exist with the Batarians for example exist because The Council refused to intervene when the Batarians intruded on human territories, but of course conversely refused to intervene when humanity got a little... excessive, with it's retaliation. The second Mass Effect game has The Council refusing to honor it's general commitment to protect colonies, by pretty much leaving the Earth Military to it's own devices to protect it's own colonies when it asks for help. Furthermore when the council is presented with evidence in the first game, it refuses to do anything about the various problems that are mounting, and arguably the whole finale at the end was because The Council was dismissive towards humanity and it's warnings. This is why the final moral choice was "do we let the council die or not?" that's not purely a good or evil choice (Renegade isn't evil) because frankly The Council caused the entire mess with it's anti-human bigotry and refusing to accept evidence that was being plopped down right in front of it.
As they point out a few times, the whole Paragon/Renegade choice system isn't good or evil, Shepard is a good guy and trying to do the right things no matter what you select. If your renegade your a lot more ruthless and anti-alien, but in the scope of the game that isn't evil because it's not baseless bigotry, the council really has been screwing humanity and causing problems. As Renegade-Shep points out, why should he give a crap about aliens, when they are willing to just let human colonies die, and why should Earth Military help support their wars and police actions when The Council ignores earth when it has asked for support against groups like The Batarians and Pirate clans? Paragon Shep takes the attitude that he can change things by being nice to everyone, Renegade Shep takes the attitude that earth is on it's own no matter what nice words are thrown around. Who is right? Well that depends on player choice. I prefer the attitudes of Paragon shep, but I do notice that even if you play Paragon through the first game, The Council is pretty much saying "we don't care about human colonies" in the second game, which according to the database if I remember is exactly the same attitude they have been having all along.
Now yes, it is a bit of humanity-horn blowing that the most important artifact in the universe came from Earth-Space and as such earth becomes the flashpoint of the storyline, but that's not a huge deal. It is important to note though that the Alien races have been telling humanity "play by our rules, but we won't help you" since the very beginning. Not being willing to help defend earth is nothing new, and they ALWAYS have an excuse, every single time. This is a big part of why you can walk around with the whole "recruiting to defend earth" agenda even without some of the final reveals which get everyone involved. Basically the elder races take the attitude that humanity is a race of brutish children who have to be handled with care because of our power and technology (they could wipe us out, but it would hurt to do it, and genocide isn't something they do casually, as they are still grappling with the moral implications of the Krogan plague... besides we aren't that directly hostile or malevolent) they actually think things that hurt and slow down humanity are good as they help keep us in our place since we're not really ready to be involved in galactic affairs like the big three (hence why there is no Human council member to begin with). At the same time the minor species are envious that the council actually deals with humanity and takes them seriously to any degree, given that humans are a relatively new discovery. The basic point there being that military force is trumping say economic contributions, with a new military power getting it's reps face time with the council regularly, where the guys who spent 5000 years building the galactic economy (the Volus) don't even get their own embassy office, meaning the "minor" races aren't exactly part of the humanity fan club either.
Basically the point to begin with is pretty much "Humans are having trouble again, we ask the council for help, and they do nothing and leave us to our own devices". Remember refusing to seriously help defend earth comes after the mess they caused by not listening to humanity's reps during the first game, and refusing to help human colonies in the second game even when a bigger threat is discovered, sure they always have a good sounding excuse, but the point is they always have an excuse. This is also why Cerberus as a group can be fairly heroic in concept, the leadership might be pretty evil in it's endgame plans (or turns that way) but their whole "protectors of humanity" thing is not without merit because after all... humanity really can't rely on anyone else. Also while they never explored it other than mentioning it, they made it clear Cerberus did sort of have it's opposite numbers among the other species. If anything it could be argued the major difference between Cerberus and The Council was that Cerberus was honest about not liking aliens and putting earth first, The Council tended to lie about it and come up with excuses, but it all came down to the same
basic thing. The Elusive Man was a piece of work, but the rank and file Cerberus guys? As you saw in ME2 a lot of them were good guys, doing the hard things that needed to be done in a truly hostile universe... and without Cerberus humanity actually would have been destroyed, along with the rest of the galaxy eventually.
That's my thoughts at any rate.