Poll: mass effect: The council

[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.

 

[Setrus]

I never blamed the Council for what they did, even though it frustrated me I could understand them...oh and considering the Destiny Ascension is a freaking Dreadnought with thousands of crew I figured saving them was worth it.
As to the choice of Council-member...while I couldn't blame the Council for what they did I COULD blame Udina...hence there was no way he'd get to be a Council-member...I have a feeling that will bite me in the ass...

 

[Robert632]

I'm going for my first playthrough here, which I did as a "what would I do run?" and ended council dead anderson.

My reasons. You are specifically told that saving the Acension will result in many casulties, possibly meaning not there will not be enough ships left to beat Sovereign. Under those circumstances the only logical choice is to let them die so everyone in the galaxy doesn't.

Yes I know that Shepard was always gonna win and after seeing both endings there is no real difference whether they live or die. I really think there should of been more difference depending on what happened.

Actually there could be an argument that saving the Ascension is the most logical choice.

For one thing, Shepard knows that the rest of the Reapers will try to come eventually, no matter what. The Ascension is also one of the most powerful ships in the known galaxy. Thus it'd be an asset in the long run.

As well, the council, while obstructive, are still a symbol of unity and, most importantly, they are obstructive for the right reasons. They question you because what you claim has very little in terms of proof that they can see, and when they do get evidence, they are fairly quick to do something(this can be seen while trying to prove Saren's guilt. They dismiss you when you have very little credible evidence, yet also act reasonable when you do bring them evidence.) That being said, they are rather stupid about certain things(I think most anyone could see Sovereign's not of Geth design), but then again, Shepard has been rather dumb of things as well.(Ilos? the pointlessness of that journey is astounding in hindsight) Another thing to note is that Shepard is part of Cereberes at the point it sounds like the council is denying the existence of Reapers, so even if they were merely putting out a media blackout so everyone isn't panicking about the space-thulus coming to get them, they wouldn't be likely to divulge much information about it to Shepard anyway.

O.T: Saved council, Anderson human representative.

Edit:

People harping about "galactic stability" are complete fools. These are the same three assholes who were just sitting up in their bunker while a renegade spectre goes around trying to commit Racial genocide.

Anyone who thinks the council members were promoting galactic stability aren't thinking clearly. They needed to be purged, clearly they weren't doing their jobs effectively anymore.

How weren't they doing there jobs right in ME1? Because they were questioning someone about the existence of giant space-thulus? I want you to think of the concept of Reapers, and tell me that you'd believe someone who started talking about there existence, especially someone with little in terms of practical evidence.

Oh and BTW, don't bring up ME2 as an example of them being bad at there job, as there was no way you'd know that they'd be like that after the end of ME1.

 

[skywolfblue]

Kill the council, elect Anderson.

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.

This is pretty much how I felt about it as well.

It's throwing away half a battle fleet (and possibly the fate of the galaxy) to save some corrupt politicians. Hell no.

 

[RatRace123]

In my "default" playthough, I kill the council. Even knowing how it ends, I always operate based on what Shepard knows at the time, saving the Ascension could lead to many human casualties, that means not having enough ships to take down Sovereign, and not having enough ships to keep protecting humans across the galaxy.

And my default Shep gives the seat to Anderson because, well Udina's a dick.

In another Playthrough (The one I like to call repentant paragon, with a Shepard who led the assault squad on Torfan and who treats it as her greatest failure so she compensates by trying to be the perfect model of a soldier) I save them on the grounds that the Council is the heart of galactic power, and even if the Citadel is lost, the Council will be needed to rally the forces of the galaxy against the Reaper onslaught.

And Anderson is given the council seat again because, well Udina's a dick.

And finally in my renegade playthrough, I kill the council because, screw them. And Udina gets the seat because I want human dominance and having that ruthless bastard in charge is the perfect way to get it.

 

[endtherapture]

However, you end up defeating Sovereign by defeating Saren with Sovereign's conscience linked to him temporarily, fleet or no fleet.

At the time you don't know this though.

I'm not metagaming, and at the time it's an all or nothing decision, sacrifice the council and have a better chance of defeating Sovereign, or save the council and possibly let intelligent life in the galaxy end now. In Universe, defeating Sovereign via Saren isn't a possbility to Shepherd, so sacrificing the council is the only chance of success.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Council Alive/Anderson on Council.

I find myself incapable of leaving them to die, because its just not how Fiona Sheperd rolls. Not saving them reeks of posturing and amounts to a galactic coup d'état. So despite some pretty shabby treatment from them, I still act the bigger person and save them.

Also, one thing that absolutely SHAT me to tears in ME2 was that I was unable to at least have earned the Asari councilor's trust. Sure, the Turian councilor is probably a total douchebag and steadfastedly refused to accept the truth even when a giant peice of Space Cthulu fell on his office. Trouble is, the way Bioware writes it, they seem deadset on saying "Aliens SUCK. Humans MUST rule the universe for anything to get done". Why can't I visit the Asari Embassy (especially once I obtain Samara) and make my case personally and perhaps get them into my (and by extension, the Alliance's) corner.

Admitedly showing up with Cerberus would be akin to a Navy SEAL showing up to the Pentagon with some guys from Al-Qaeda to say "Shit man, the Martians are coming and these guys believe me". The Joint Cheif's of Staff would look at you like you were a fucking lunatic and ship you off to Ft. Leavenworth in a straight jacket forthwith. I really can't blame them for looking over my evidence and deciding that I'm not seeing the picture correctly.

 

[ManimalR]

Saved the council with Anderson. Mainly because they're in a massive dreadnought that looks like it could kill a reaper or two

 

[Alade]

On my own choice walkthrough I let them die to have the upper edge on sovereign.

And even with my knowledge that sovereign gets defeated either way I let them die soloely on the reason that it is not rational to sacrifice the lives of people trying to save the galaxy for the lives of the ones that delievered the galaxy to it's doom.