Poll: Best Mass Effect Moral Conundrum
- Thread starter fdbluth
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The Ashley/Kaidan choice isn't a moral choice - it's just pure chance/whim ultimately.
A lot of these "conundrums" ultimately come down to whether you consider them using a deontological method (using principles only without consideration for consequences) or a consequentialist view (considering the consequences).
I am a hard-line deontologist so most of these choices were easy for me.
Saved the Rachni, Saved the council, Dissuaded Garrus, Rewrote the Geth, Saved the Genophage research, Samara, Destroyed the base. Those all happen to be paragon choices, which leads me to believe someone at Bioware has studied some ethics.
The only choice I did a bit of a double-take on was the Geth question.
Ultimately, I remembered that it was Sovereign that was responsible for changing the Geth's programming, and what he did is more akin to the indoctrination on organics than it is a means of "persuasion." The game and extra credits kept trying to present it as an analog between groups who just held different perspectives, but I did not see it that way. Those Geth did not have a choice to serve Sovereign, and I was freeing them. If they chose to make enemies of humans again of their own free will, so be it. It was obvious that there wasn't a perfect analog between human consciousness and Geth consciousness anyway.
A lot of these "conundrums" ultimately come down to whether you consider them using a deontological method (using principles only without consideration for consequences) or a consequentialist view (considering the consequences).
I am a hard-line deontologist so most of these choices were easy for me.
Saved the Rachni, Saved the council, Dissuaded Garrus, Rewrote the Geth, Saved the Genophage research, Samara, Destroyed the base. Those all happen to be paragon choices, which leads me to believe someone at Bioware has studied some ethics.
The only choice I did a bit of a double-take on was the Geth question.
Ultimately, I remembered that it was Sovereign that was responsible for changing the Geth's programming, and what he did is more akin to the indoctrination on organics than it is a means of "persuasion." The game and extra credits kept trying to present it as an analog between groups who just held different perspectives, but I did not see it that way. Those Geth did not have a choice to serve Sovereign, and I was freeing them. If they chose to make enemies of humans again of their own free will, so be it. It was obvious that there wasn't a perfect analog between human consciousness and Geth consciousness anyway.
She didn't kill her because of what she was. Morinth has two sisters, both of whom are locked away in secluded monasteries not being killed. Samara was hunting Morinth because she's addicted to killing people by agonizingly overloading their central nervous systems and went on the run rather than give it up.Dendio said:
As for ME3, assuming Shepherd didn't take the bait and suffer death by snoo snoo, I guess Morinth will get bored and go off to find someone else to eat. She's an addict, it's what she does. I'll be surprised if she reappears in more than a vague supporting role.
I think the Krogan was the most interesting philosophically - is it justified to essentially commit genocide to protect the galaxy - but Garrus' was the most emotionally powerful choice. I spent the whole mission expecting Sidonis to be this mustache-twirling villain, and when I finally met him I was taken aback.
The only decision that actually made me stop and think was the reaper base. Sure, when I tried playing ME1 as a renegade (second playthrough, having just come off as a paragon soldier the one before), I couldn't bring myself to kill an entire species. With the Reapers, it was Grunt saying, "you don't throw away a weapon that the enemy gives to you" hit home. Up to that point I was fully gung ho about wiping out the base, but I ended up stopping mid conversation for about 10 minutes (twice as long as Kaidan/Ashley)
Rewriting or destroying the geth.It's either give them an honorable death despite their bad loyalty choice or rewrite them practically destroying them for a choice that might've been forced on them.Honestly toughest choice.The roles are even kinda inverted since the paragon choice is a lot more pragmatist and unjust.
It'd still be the more interesting option come Me3. Imagine running past morinth as she just finished feasting. My shepard would reply " oy Morinth you so silly" xDevilthecat said:
Samara would probably be a boring run of the mill cameo. She doesnt eat people when bored lol
the geth one. i was thinking about how the geth are so destructive, but when i thought of Legion i took the option of rewriting their programming.
the destroy/preserve the collector base one was also a tough choice. i made the destroy one simply because i knew it was the paragon option. personally, i wouldve preferred keeping the base, since it could be used against the collectors. Shepard just didnt trust the Illusive Man so the paragon option was to decide against his plan.
the rest are either easy choices or theyre from ME1, which i didnt finish
the destroy/preserve the collector base one was also a tough choice. i made the destroy one simply because i knew it was the paragon option. personally, i wouldve preferred keeping the base, since it could be used against the collectors. Shepard just didnt trust the Illusive Man so the paragon option was to decide against his plan.
the rest are either easy choices or theyre from ME1, which i didnt finish
Its actually comical that the one I found hardest wasn't represented here, perhaps because it was one you could cop out on.
I found the question they posed with Tali's loyalty mission regarding her father the hardest. To defend Tali's name and bring her back into the fleet or honor her father and not destroy his reputation really took me for a loop. I couldn't decide what was best, since both hurt Tali and both felt like I was the difference between one truth being shown and another discarded. I was truly pissed when you could cop out and be charismatic without making the choice, but that is the one I liked the best. (Closely followed by the Geth rewrite one.
yeah, in this situation i chose whoever was with the salarians at the time, ashley i think, since if you go back basically nobody is alive anyway besides your squadmate, so i chose the many over the few.jakko12345 said:
the rest of the choices i put very little though into because the answer always seemed clear, the greater good came over minorities, evil was slaughtered. garrus's guys? deserved it, had the potential to be harmful. geth rewrite or kill? they wont know the difference if they are rewritten and they can be more helpful alive than dead. reaper base? its evil, so is morinth over samara. the council? their descisions will be pretty much the same either way so may as well gain the trust of all of the aliens.
the racchni that you couldve saved were a non-genocidal sect so save them.
the only one that made me think was the krogan, since they could be a valuable asset with their numbers, but the last person to think that almost doomed the galaxy. but without the cure they die out slowly. tough choice. but of course if one species must die so the rest can survive, no matter how horrible it is, it must be done. (im talking intelligent species here, i dont want to die as one of the humans slowly destroying the earth, specially since ima trying best as i can w/ my high school IB schedule to help the environment in a number of little ways, as is my dad but on a much larger scale since thats his company's business)
The council was very hard when I played the first time, except when I found out after playing through the second time that saving the council dose not interfere with destroying our big bad reaper friend. After I found that out the decision was super easy from then on.
Strangely, some of her dialogue initially led to me to suspect she might be an Ardat Yakshi herself. She passed it on to all of her daughters, she pointedly shuts down any kind of sexual relationship and she's shown to be a ridiculously powerful biotic.Dendio said:
While I don't think that's true, it would be interesting to see how she adapted psychologically after killing Morinth. It was the whole reason she became a Justicar, after all. I'd also be interested to see if it mentions her other daughters, or whether she's taken any steps to reclaim a sense of family for herself.
There's potential for real character development which isn't there with Morinth. Morinth will never change, she's an addict. Everything she does is merely to feed her addiction.
Didn't really find any difficult, just chose the option that matched my characters alignment, good sheperd = good choice, evil sheperd = evil choice. It would be better if they didn't actually have a paragon or renegade choice for everything, just some morally grey choices instead.
I saved the Rachni.
Kaidan/Ashley: I was romancing Kaidan but I was seriously considering saving Ashley. Even though I played a soldier and didn't really need her. I eventually just saved Kaidan. I'm not even sure why. It wasn't as if romancing him was at all important to me. I just made a split second decision and headed in his direction. My husband asked me why later, and I just shrugged. Then again, even after he ...scanned and probed my planet (if you know what I mean), he just ups and turns into the biggest douche ever in ME2, calling me a traitor. Though I doubt Ashley would have been any different in ME2.
I saved the Council.
I allowed Garrus to kill the man who betrayed his whole team, even though I did (in the beginning) try to talk him out of it.
**Rewrite/Destroy Geth Heretic was the hardest choice for me. I actually stopped playing, and thought about it while I made dinner. My husband and I even had a discussion about it while we ate. I eventually ended up rewriting them. But I didn't feel as if rewriting them was a good thing. Neither option seemed very Paragon to me.
I didn't even really think on the Samara/Morinth choice.I picked Samara. Especially after talking to the victims Mother. Listening to her talk about her daughter was gut-wrenching to me. Also felt pretty bad about Samara, especially since she bred three of those monsters. It was her job to make it right, and avenge the victims.
I saved the Genophage work. "Better not have it, and not need it." If the Krogan start shit, I'll be there to handle it.
And I destroyed the hell out of the Reaper base. No question. The Illusive Man is a racist ass who is pretty damn far up his and the rest of humanities ass.
Kaidan/Ashley: I was romancing Kaidan but I was seriously considering saving Ashley. Even though I played a soldier and didn't really need her. I eventually just saved Kaidan. I'm not even sure why. It wasn't as if romancing him was at all important to me. I just made a split second decision and headed in his direction. My husband asked me why later, and I just shrugged. Then again, even after he ...scanned and probed my planet (if you know what I mean), he just ups and turns into the biggest douche ever in ME2, calling me a traitor. Though I doubt Ashley would have been any different in ME2.
I saved the Council.
I allowed Garrus to kill the man who betrayed his whole team, even though I did (in the beginning) try to talk him out of it.
**Rewrite/Destroy Geth Heretic was the hardest choice for me. I actually stopped playing, and thought about it while I made dinner. My husband and I even had a discussion about it while we ate. I eventually ended up rewriting them. But I didn't feel as if rewriting them was a good thing. Neither option seemed very Paragon to me.
I didn't even really think on the Samara/Morinth choice.I picked Samara. Especially after talking to the victims Mother. Listening to her talk about her daughter was gut-wrenching to me. Also felt pretty bad about Samara, especially since she bred three of those monsters. It was her job to make it right, and avenge the victims.
I saved the Genophage work. "Better not have it, and not need it." If the Krogan start shit, I'll be there to handle it.
And I destroyed the hell out of the Reaper base. No question. The Illusive Man is a racist ass who is pretty damn far up his and the rest of humanities ass.