Admiral Koris

[WindKnight]

Been thinking about Admiral Koris from Mass effect 2/3

He's introduced in an antagonistic manner in me 2, and the way the other admirals talk about him make him sounds weak and ineffectual, and the Qwib-Qwib ship name and the Vas thing being used to make a couple of dick jokes makes him seem like Bioware wanted you to dislike and dismiss him.

Usually a character introduced in this manner is weak, ineffectual and antagonistic - opposing the player for petty reasons and proving a roadblock.

But actually, when you talk to him, he's a reasonable, thoughtful person, and aside from Shala'Ran and Tali, the only one of the Admirals not a complete nutjub intent on a stupid, pointless war, and in ME3 becomes one of the important factors in saving both the Geth and the Quarians.

Not often you see that kind of character in games.

 

[Zhukov]

Umm... I agree?

Not much else to say. You've kinda covered it all.

But yeah, I was happily surprised when the character who seemed placed to be an enemy and who was widely described as a coward actually turned out to be a level-headed peacemaker and all round reasonable guy. He even straight up apologizes to Tali for using her trial as a political stepping stone.

(Yes, I'm aware I basically just repeated your post. Like I said, you kinda covered it all.)

 

[BarryMcCociner]

Yeah, a nuanced character is nice but sometimes you need a dick. People say the best antagonist is one with equally justifiable morals to the protagonist. That's good and I certainly like to see it, but let's be honest. Every now and then we want a character we don't have to think about, who we can point at while drooling and go "BAD GUY". The quarians were sorely lacking that and I found myself sympathizing with everyone on the admiralty board.

Also, vas Defranz and vas Ictomy were the only dick jokes that took me more than 5 seconds to "get" so there's that.

 

[Kingjackl]

I sort of agree, but I think there was still some moral signposting there. In typical Bioware fashion, the level of likeability is proportional to how well they get on with your party members. Koris is opposed to Tali in the trial, while Admiral Han Gerrel is supporting her, henceforth Koris is portrayed as a dick while Han Gerrel is portrayed as a kindly old uncle. But in ME3, Koris's views on the geth/quarian war line up with Tali, Legion and basically every crew member not named Javik so he's the responsible one while Gerrel becomes this mad armchair general, firing on a ship with you inside and generally being uncooperative.

Their values are at least consistent: Koris opposes war with the geth, while Gerrel supports it. While Shepard goes from being neutral on the war to trying to stop it, your sympathies change and the characters bend to reflect that. It might have been better if Koris had stayed somewhat grumpy while Gerrel retained a degree of likeability even after you've switched from favouring one to the other.

 

[Dornedas]

What about the woman who wanted to capture and brainwash the Geth to weaponize them and use them in future conquests?

But that is only evil when you believe that the geth are more than just machines.
Aside from the fact that Legion himself had the same idea in ME2 and he is not really presented as an evil character.
Technically speaking the "brainwash the geth" option is the GOOD Option in ME2.

On topic:
There were dick jokes in Mass effect? I'm serious here. Normally I'm pretty good at picking them up but I didn't really notice any in Mass Effect.
But then again Mass Effect 3 was when I started to play my games in English and not in German. Maybe I just need to replay and pay more attention.

 

[Zhukov]

On topic:
There were dick jokes in Mass effect? I'm serious here. Normally I'm pretty good at picking them up but I didn't really notice any in Mass Effect.

Yeah. They snuck a couple in there.

At one point Admiral Koris says he would prefer to command a ship with a nice respectable name like "Defranz" or "Ictomy" instead of his silly sounding "Qwib-Qwib".

Given that adult Quarians take their surname from their ship and put "vas" between their given names and surnames, this means that if he got his wish his name would be "Koris Vas Defranz" or "Koris Vas Ictomy".

Or in other words, Vasectomy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy] and Vas deferens [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vas_deferens].

Not just any old dick joke, but a stealthy pun on dick-related medical terms!

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

On topic:
There were dick jokes in Mass effect? I'm serious here. Normally I'm pretty good at picking them up but I didn't really notice any in Mass Effect.

Yeah. They snuck a couple in there.

I get it!

OT: I certainly noticed this too, and it always bothered me. Not so much Koris, as he doesn't change from ME2, he just gets to show why he's a high-ranking admiral. But Han Gerrel does a 180, from a reasonable and sympathetic, if gung-ho, leader and father-figure, into a violently aggressive loose cannon, willing to kill the daughter of his dead best friend to take a shot at an already disabled dreadnaught. What is he doing in charge of the quarian's strongest fleet when he doesn't seem to have the slightest grasp of tactics or leadership? It ticks me off.

In fact, the whole handling of the quarian-geth conflict bothers me. I did love that ME2 gave some depth to the geth so that they weren't just your typical evil AI. But in 3 the quarians somehow became the bad guys, pursuing an apocalyptic war at the worst possible time, and, as it turns out, they've been the aggressors since the beginning, and the geth are just poor children being slaughtered by their racist former overlords. It pretends to be a gray moral area, but places 100% of the blame on the quarians. And then, the geth go from a really cool concept of a truly alien race, into a Pinocchio story. "Does this unit have a soul?" Please. The geth don't give a shit about human metaphysical concepts. They're perfectly happy being a hivemind.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Yeah. They snuck a couple in there.

At one point Admiral Koris says he would prefer to command a ship with a nice respectable name like "Defranz" or "Ictomy" instead of his silly sounding "Qwib-Qwib".

Given that adult Quarians take their surname from their ship and put "vas" between their given names and surnames, this means that if he got his wish his name would be "Koris Vas Defranz" or "Koris Vas Ictomy".

Or in other words, Vasectomy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy] and Vas deferens [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vas_deferens].

Not just any old dick joke, but a stealthy pun on medical dick-related terms!

I never would have picked up on that! That's really fucking clever of them. Or at least the single writer who put it in on a dare and no one noticed.