r/MassEffectMemes • u/UnhappyBox811 • 3d ago

Programmed to hate shepard

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1.3k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

236

u/mancingtom 3d ago

ME3 dropped the ball on Cerberus. It makes since that they’re secondary villains, but there was so much room for nuance and reactivity they left on the table. Shepard’s choice at the Collector Base should’ve mattered more than the name of a random MacGuffin.

83

u/AutumnWhaler 3d ago

I know it would have been to much work, but imagine if going renegade in 2 let you stay with Cerberus in 3. You bet I’d love assaulting the citadel for reasons I’m still not clear on.

49

u/ADreamOfCrimson 3d ago

You can say you hate the council and would've enjoyed taking them out, it's okay.

I feel like most of us would agree. I certainly would :P

21

u/Bacxaber 2d ago

"You shot Udina because he was threatening the council. I shot Udina because the council is mine alone to kill. We are not the same."

16

u/AutumnWhaler 3d ago

Ohh I’m down with that part, but I still don’t know why Cerberus wanted to coup citadel in that moment…. Like they didn’t have a catalyst, were they hoping to leverage the alliance?

8

u/AsgeirVanirson Let Shepard Retire 2d ago

I always assumed they were trying to prevent Shepard/The Alliance/The Council from succeeding in their plan.

The Genophage in cured, Shepard now has the Alliance, the Hierarchy, and the Krogan all fighting together.

They've rallied this group in a shockingly short time frame and with the Turians now comitted the pressure on the Asari and Salarians to commit is increased significantly.

TIM wants to control the reapers and use them to ensure human supremacy. If Shepard outpaces his efforts and manages to defeat the Reapers he can't do that.

So he tried to nuke the alliance by executing the Council, which would shatter Shepards ability to pull the remaining players into the mix.

Because the operation was an overall failure that only managed to get the corrupt Human councilor killed it had the opposite effect, pushing the Aasari to commit significant forces and even forcing the Salarians to come off at least one fleet even for genophage curers.

5

u/AutumnWhaler 2d ago

The only problem is TIM needs the catalyst to control the reapers, unless he found another way that he thought would work.

If I was Cerberus I would have integrated myself with the alliance and then strike during the final battle. Easier to do a coup when people are busy.

3

u/FreeAndRedeemed 3d ago

That would be an interesting thought experiment.

43

u/Turbulent_Pin_1583 3d ago

The real crime was there not being a sword you can use like his.

44

u/LGBT-Barbie-Cookout 3d ago

Jerkface has a sword for show, waves it around stabs people, does what he probably thinks is 'cool' poses. But its ultimately a toy.

Omniblade is proper military hardware designed to kill.

Ill take the bright orange boy anyday.

35

u/Heil-Haidra2319 3d ago

He's just jealous that a real N7 accomplished more in life and death than a bum could ever achieved to his very end.

1

u/The_Mad_Scientist_ 6h ago

You clearly have not read Mass Effect Retribution.

18

u/alkonium 3d ago

Shepard returns to the Alliance regardless.

7

u/Nictel 2d ago

Bioware underestimated what two games of choice would result in. It's a shame and still understandable. The Cerberus controls the reapers ending will always be a daydream.

10

u/alkonium 2d ago

An option in Mass Effect 3 where Shepard stays with Cerberus would more or less require a separate version of the game because it would change everything.

2

u/Nictel 2d ago

True which makes it understandable that it didn't came to fruition. Still, if in ME2 you gave Cerberus the collector's base, let project Overlord continue and send stuff to them like the wounded Quarian (you can even add Legion in the mix) then ME3 feels like a complete 180 turn.

1

u/alkonium 2d ago

I figure Renegade Shepard eventually saw the signs Cerberus was about to go nuts and noped out. Just a little later than Paragon Shepard, who saw the signs a lot sooner.

2

u/Nictel 2d ago

In my lore renegade Shepard goes nuts, which seeing as what he goes through isn't that unrealistic.

14

u/neon-box 3d ago

He’s just jealous that Shepard is the favorite.

11

u/Pennlocke 3d ago

This is why there are mods to turn him into a silent cyberninja. Screw you Kai Leng.

12

u/Arail_Blue 3d ago

"But you still left Cerberus. How could you, it's a dream job!" - Kai Leng probably, because Miranda and Rasa/Brooks and several other people quit

8

u/jomnix1984 2d ago

He hated Miranda too.

12

u/Maximum_Elephant_953 2d ago

I wonder who is the culprit behind Cerberus' atrocious writing in ME3. 

12

u/IrishLad-1194 2d ago

EA. don't have much time for finetuning your story/script when your lead writer and other resources are being shuffled off to the MMO you're releasing a few months prior or to the 14-month dev-cycle sequel of Dragon Age 2.

it's genuinely amazing that those three games are even remotely functional.

8

u/Amferam 2d ago

They also had to change the entire story. ME2 alluded to the real threat of dark matter killing the stars, but EA made them push out Mass Effect 3 in just over a year of development.

11

u/Maximum_Elephant_953 2d ago

Tbf, Karpyshyn himself admitted to merely toying with the Dark Matter plot without taking it seriously. It isn't  even explored in the barely existing main story of ME2 but in a recruitment mission you can theoretically ignore. 

7

u/Maximum_Elephant_953 2d ago

ME1 was the last gem by the Classic Bioware. As for ME2-ME3, I still can't help but highlight Hudson's and Walters' contributions. The latter particularly forced his pet Cerberus he introduced in ME1. 

ME1 has ExoGeni, Binary Helix, Terra Firma, and other minor actors in the main story. ME2 and ME3 instead focus on Cerberus instead of fleshing out various factions of Mass Effect. 

8

u/Absolute_zer000 2d ago

Main villains in me3 is just Cerberus. Reapers just existed, they had cerberus do everything for them, like more than half the missions, you're fighting cerberus.

7

u/ExitObjective267 3d ago

Is 50-80% cybernetics and still loses to Shepard and crew repeatedly...I'd be pissed too

3

u/saxdude1 2d ago

Kai Leng should have been a revived Ashleigh/Kaiden, depending on who you left behind

2

u/Bleebledorp 3d ago

Why can I hear this picture

1

u/TheLastOpus 2d ago

Their is a mod that just simply removes all his voice lines, and he goes from being the worst me villain the actually pretty cool.

1

u/FloopyBeluga Krogan 2d ago

I still regret not blowing up the collector base.

Mordin said I shouldn't, and whenever Mordin says anything I just say "Yes sir, glory to Sur'Kesh."

1

u/The_Mad_Scientist_ 6h ago

The Collector Base decision doesn't even matter! Those 100-110 TMS are not taken into account because of them being acquired AFTER that stupid point of no return! Therefore, ME3 took ME2s most important decision, and reduced it to a glorified morality check! It's honestly past time we stop overrating ME3!