Poll: mass effect: The council

[TakeyB0y2]

Well, the council died on my canon paragon Shepard because someone said civilian ships were in danger or something so I picked the neutral option to concentrate on Sovereign. I remember hearing that the council was moved to the Destiny Ascension for evacuation and I remember seeing it at the beginning of the game and how Ashley commented on how big it was and how it's defenses were awesome so I thought "Ahh, they'll be fine".

Aaaaand, then they weren't. x_x

Oh and I picked Anderson because Udina never did anything good or helpful ever.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

in mass effect remember the final decision where you choose to either help or abondon the council did any of you actually save them because i think everyone hates them and i really think this is gonna effect ME3 hugley.p.s who did you pick as the human ambassador

Um, which time, with which character?

I have done each of the above combinations EXCEPT for council dead + Anderson.

If I had to pick a favorite, it's council alive + Udina, because that is the most practical option (Council Alive makes the Council like Earth/Shep better, and Udina is the better ambassador, and I respect him).

 

[CleverCover]

Have both killed off the council and saved them, but I always had Anderson as my stand-in Councilor.

I understand Udina to know that at the first sign of trouble he would sic me on the bear and run away. I don't want someone like him in charge of the galaxy.

 

[PaganAxe]

I mix it up as I please with my runs.

 

[bjj hero]

However, you end up defeating Sovereign by defeating Saren with Sovereign's conscience linked to him temporarily, fleet or no fleet. The fleet is just there to pound on the outer shell of Sovereign's form, and soften him up for the final blow from the Normandy. Not even the entire Alliance Fleet could make Sovereign flinch, so quite frankly, sacrificing the Council to allow more ships to engage Sovereign is more or less pointless in the end. You are losing what equates to the UN of the Mass Effect universe, that ties all of the races together in the galaxy, with little to no extra benefit against Sovereign from it.

But you only find this out by playing through. At the time Sov is about to hit the kill switch for every known life form and you are unsure if you have the resources to stop him. Splitting your troops to save some high ranking diplomats struck me as terribly elitist and selfish.

Knowing this is a bioware game and that everything will be hunky dory in the end you can safely assume you can save both the council and the universe but if it was RL, I would not feel confident enough to do it. Thats why I was disappointed that it earned Renegade points.

I felt the same way about gassing the Rachni queen. Everything you had heard, read and known pointed to you releasing a disaster that would take millions of lives into the wild amongst civilians, contractors and colonists. Of course; knowing its bioware you know this is not really the case but in reality you would not. Another time I felt the renegade points were unfairly dished out. Only by playing ME2 do you get the additional information showing that you didnt doom the galaxy.

Thats why I really hate the lightside-darkside/renegade/paragon BS. Its really subjective. Dragonage really improved for ditching the morality systems.

 

[draconiansundae]

Wow! I'm really surprised by the poll results. Most people I know killed the council with great relish. I thought by saving them I was in the minority. Also... who would ever let that prat Udina be the ambassador?

 

[tippy2k2]

Well, the council died on my canon paragon Shepard because someone said civilian ships were in danger or something so I picked the neutral option to concentrate on Sovereign. I remember hearing that the council was moved to the Destiny Ascension for evacuation and I remember seeing it at the beginning of the game and how Ashley commented on how big it was and how it's defenses were awesome so I thought "Ahh, they'll be fine".

Aaaaand, then they weren't. x_x

Oh and I picked Anderson because Udina never did anything good or helpful ever.

I did the same thing but in my defense, I thought when Shepard said "We'll save them if we can but we're going to focus on stopping the bad guys", he didn't mean "I'm gonna turn off the communicator and let them die".

 

[Shock and Awe]

Council Alive because it is better for the stability of the Galaxy. I chose Anderson because hes a cool and smart guy; plus simply FUCK Udina.

 

[Smiley Face]

Why would you kill the council? Yeah, they never listened to you, but Shepard never makes a very smart or covincing case, and for the most part they take reasonable precautions.

In all honesty, I was always pretty sure that a human council would be even worse, so it never entered my mind.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

....

letting them die only proves to them that humanity isn't worth having a position in the galactic council.

...

This! You actually have no choice but save them. The entire premise of the story is mankind wanting to be treated better by the other aliens. Just like with the bomb on Virmire, you actually have no choice at all.

... Once I played mass effect 2 I regretted my decision because they replaced the council with all humans, that's a terrible idea.

Those writers are shit! That is not only a terrible idea, it also makes no sense whatsoever. According to the wiki:

During the year 2185, the dreadnought count is 39 turians, 20 asari, 16 salarians, and 8 humans.

Another reason you HAVE TO save them. Because mankind would not stand a chance against all three council races.

How was a "human only council" "justified" in ME2?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I save the council every time. An all human council would cause such a massive backlash that it wouldn't be worth it.

In terms of Udina or Anderson.... Well......

Option 1) Some politician who is a complete dick

Option 2) MOTHERFUCKING GOLIATH/THE ARBITER

It wasn't hard.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

Saved them and picked Anderson. But I regret that I picked him. Even tho I hate Udina, I think that he would be the better one.

Udina is a jerk, but he knows all the small politician tricks. Anderson is green in politics. You can see how the council just ignores him. Yes, Udina doesn't believe in Reaper, but once he finds out the truth, he will be able to persuade the council. Anderson on the other hand does believe you, but he can't persuade the council into doing anything.

To be quite honest if that is how that decision plays out it would be awesome. But I seriously doubt that it does.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

I let the council die, and chose Anderson, however, steam decided it didn't want to remember my decisions, even though I tried to draw them across, so I had to play through ME2 with that dick Udina in charge of the Galaxy. Hooray -.-

 

[ranger19]

Wow, there's a lot of hate for the council in this thread. Yes, they didn't exactly believe every word you said all the time, but they did let you get things done. That's the whole point of the Spectres - do things that the council can't officially sanction. Imagine the madness if the council openly endorsed or admitted a full scale invasion was incoming.

That said, my very first run through I picked "focus on Sovereign". I didn't want the council to die and I certainly didn't kill the council, but unfortunately that was what happened. I echo the earlier sentiments in this thread - I was worried that trying to save them would split our forces and getting us all killed. I was complete paragon pretty much the whole way through.. but I had a galaxy to save and had to be realistic.

(On another note, I picked the paragon option at the end of Mass Effect 2 - that gut instinct to survive by any means necessary was still there, but maybe lingering guilt over losing the council and suspicions that giving the tech to the Illusive Man would come back to haunt me made me say no. That line about "I'll find a way and I won't sell the soul of my species to do it" was pretty on target.

 

[Sewer Rat]

Even though I was playing Paragon, I let the council die. This was for 2 reasons.
1. It makes sense from a strategic standpoint in terms of the battle of the citadel, better to hold back the forces to have a better chance of winning then to risk many ships to save one.
and 2. Fuck the council. Racist pricks.
I had Anderson as my ambassador because I hated Udina with a burning passion.

 

[Sagacious Zhu]

Wow, lots of Paragon Xenophiles in here

 

[Risingblade]

Saved them, you can't really blame them for not believing you when you say I had dream that giant cuddle fish were coming to kill us all.