In case anyone here wasn’t actually alive in 1984 and doesn’t see what they’re doing there…

[image transcription: a Welsh phrase says “after the dragon had eaten Owen it went to Cardiff”]

Ahem. 

After the dragon had eaten Owen she went to Cardiff.

DIOLCH r'on i'n sicr fod o'n digwydd dros y flwyddyn newydd ond mae'r we wastad yn colli shit dros y peth adeg dolig. BUDDUGOLIAETH!

(vindication! i knew i saw this fucker at new year not christmas, in contavention of the popular meme timings!)

Old Vid Recs (2002-2012)

(This post is also on Pillowfort! If you want to comment, that’s prob the best place to have a conversation about this. Otherwise, feel free to like/reblog.)

This is not going to be comprehensive. Just be aware of that. This is going to be pulls from the shoddy memory of a nearly-30something fanperson, and will be a mess. But I really desperately love all the vids I’m gonna talk about below and I highly suggest checking them out.

Some loose single-vid recs

That’s all. Happy viewing. Reblogs are fine. Please feel free to hit me up to discuss this shit. I am fuckdeep in nostalgia.

So this is difficult for me to write, because I am genuinely honoured to be included in a list of such fabulous vids and vidders, and because so much of what the reccer writes about my vid - Machine - is lovely.  I honestly believe it is one of the best, if not the best vid I have ever made.  I do not want to tarnish an attempt to share that. 

But I feel uncomfortable knowing this exists without objecting to the framing. I was not fixing Mass Effect’s canon, I was explaining how I saw it. I do not consider it a cohesion or a story that I worked to create; I was just vidding my genuine experience of the game.  Though, yes, an experience framed by being a nerdy transhumanist fangirl whose first priority was to Make Legion My Best Friend... 

I know that a lot of people disagree with me, and I see the genuine value of explaining in the rec that you liked my video even though you disliked a lot of what Bioware ended up doing with the story.  (And that’s also something I really appreciate and am pleased to know).  

But these games* and this vid are really personally important to me, and...I don’t want to see one used to tear down the other.  

*except Andromeda. Tear that fucker down all you like.

Universal translator’s been invaded by a virus!

Bonus:

OH MY GOD THAT WAS WELSH. THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WELSH. THAT WAS THE WORST WELSH I HAVE EVER HEARD.  

Like, I spent the first few times I listened to it convinced this gifset was wroooooong because that couldn’t possibly be Welsh. 

But now, nope, I kinda hear it. 

Bless you Disco, but like...get someone to help your poor actors.  I realise that the chances of you ever having anyone speak Welsh ever again are VERY SLIM, but please, hit me up, I will send you an audio recording.  There are many, many people here who would happily send you an audio recording.

That was literally unintelligible.

O.o

I was a security guard at a major art museum

Over the course of my time there: -A woman came in with a skirt made of neckties. Just. Neckties, all strung together to make a skirt. She had leggings on underneath, thank god. -Been asked for the Mona Lisa -Been asked for the Sistine Chapel -Been asked where the dinosaurs are -Been asked where the animals are -Been asked for “The Bitch With The Pitcher” (Vermeer’s “Woman with a Water Pitcher,” by the way)

-Been asked for “The Girl With The Pearl Earring”

-Been asked for the Mona Lisa

-Got bored and learned the name of every single one of the Buddhas

-Got bored and learned the name of five Chinese dynasties (long day in Asian Art)

-Chilled in the Buddha room

-Watched someone escorted out for trying to take a nude photo in the Arms and Armor section

-Been asked for the Michelangelo’s, then the Raphael’s, then the Leonardo’s, then the Donatello’s (they were naming ninja turtles) -Heard curator in Musical Instrument section play Night On Bald Mountain on giant historical pipe organ while laughing maniacally.

-Fielded a day when a filthy counterfit version of the museum program was disseminated among visitors, guiding them to the filthiest art in the museum – such as the painting of Cupid peeing on Venus

-guarded Cupid peeing on Venus

-Been asked for the Mona Lisa

-Been asked if I had seen the First Lady of Mexico (she had gone missing)

-Been asked for that one sculpture of Kronos that is featured in Percy Jackson WHICH DOESN’T EXIST GUYS (directed children to sculptures of Poseidon with trident instead, children were very happy)

-Witnessed two Secret Service Agents get into a swordfight with pieces of packing material.

-been asked by a very polite Fransiscan monk in full brown robes if he had found ‘One of us. He has gone missing.” -Found missing monk and returned him to the herd

-Coworker was asked for the Ark of the Convenant

-Same coworker was asked for the Baseball Hall of Fame

-stopped about 15,000 people from poking that one lion statue in the nuts -saw a woman in a banana suit with banana shoes take a picture in front of an Egyptian temple

-Been asked for the Mona Lisas (plural) 

I’ve got more but this is what I remember for now.

I would have paid money to witness the Night on Bald Mountain incident.

hard same

Based on the Egyptian Temple comment, was this 1) in NYC, 2) a fair while ago and 3) was the curator’s name Laurie?  Because Laurie would 100% have done that.

CONFESSION:

I know this shouldn’t bother me, but it does. At the speed of light, it would take the Arcs 2.5 million years to get to Andromeda. FTL means faster than light travel, I know, but they didn’t use relays to get through dark space so HOW could they travel faster than light without using wormholes (which I’m assuming relays create)? You just can’t. We’d be obliterated down to the atomic level. Also what bothers me is that relativity isn’t a *thing*. If it took 600 odd years to get to Andromeda going that fast, then time would slow down for those onboard relative to time in Andromeda. So it hasn’t been 600 years since the scourge. It’s been like….a lot more. Like I said, I know this really shouldn’t bother me because of all the other crazy stuff in Mass Effect, but it’s the one thing I can’t suspend disbelief for.

I’m angry that I can’t! I know they say mass effect cores in ships use element zero (aka crazy space magic) to explain why time dilation doesn’t happen because something something less mass less gravity, but that’s absolute bullshit! You can’t just change physics! How you gonna change the mass of a living thing? How does no one die from this? I think about it every time the Normandy or the Tempest jumps to another star system and then travels super fast between planets. From, say, the Nexus to Kadara, Reyes would be dead from old age and Ryder would be a puddle. “Mass Effect: Everyone Dies Before They Even Get Started Because You Can’t Escape Physics”.

But like you said, there IS an in-universe explanation re: the mass effect field and eezo cores.  Honestly it’s a much better explanation than most bullshit space magic explanations.  They essentially created one mass-changing scifi feature and hung most of their space magic bullshit off this single thing.  

Also gravity, mass and time all affect each other.  So while it obviously isn’t going to hold water from a hardcore physics perspective, it honestly addresses a lot more than Star Trek, for instance.

I mean, if nothing else, the entire freaking franchise is names after this effect.  It’s not like it’s not being upfront.

Confession:  I wish that we’d gotten to explore cybernetics a little more in Mass Effect. I know that it’s not really the point of the series, but people in the future don’t need to be all meat all of the time.

1) Me too!

2) It also...literally does end up being the point of the series though? 

source

soooooooo this is happening in my life, hi

I have a persistent problem with Andromeda that I can’t really fix the way I usually do, because I also have a glaring lack of knowledge in the subjects I’d need knowledge on in order to do it effectively

and that problem is the way the Milky Way species just kinda… barge into the galaxy like conquistadors

what I want is for the Initiative to have attempted some sort of contact with Andromeda beforehand – if not long-distance contact, then maybe a set of recon-type missions where they stuck their heads into the galaxy to see what-all was around. in the process, they meet the angara and other native sapient species (mighty convenient that there’s only one native sapient species ingame – assuming the kett are from elsewhere – innit) and kinda just… begin a dialogue. “hey, we’re humanity, the turians, the salarians, etc. we’re thinking about branching out. how do you guys feel about that”

and for the sake of the story, say the angara agree to help, but they have some concerns and boundaries. an agreement is drawn up – the Andromeda Accords, say. now the real work begins. learning about the native non-sapient species to various planets, learning new systems of biodiversity, learning how to minimise the Milky Way footprint on this new galaxy. here’s where my glaring lack of knowledge in scientific matters trips me up, but I like daydreaming about it anyway.

by the time the Arks are actually deployed, the only actual barrier is the unforeseen threat of the Scourge and the kett invasion. in which case it’s a lot easier to get everyone working together when the angara already know us, and know we are not invaders.

knocks about half the canon storyline right out of relevance, which probably is no great crime, but also… I’m just tired of humans barging in on everything and taking it over and then acting wounded when people don’t automatically trust that they have their best interests at heart. if I were angaran I wouldn’t trust the canon Initiative for a fucking second wtf

thank god i’m not the only one who hates this. i really don’t understand why no one ever seems to bring it up. the initiative’s behaviour is legitimately shocking. like TO START WITH they exile their criminals to worlds they know are already populated and low on resources, effectively unleashing a crime wave on the native population! and that’s without even touching the grossness of claiming Meridian at the end. :/

There’s one major problem, it’s that there was no sign of anything alive at the moment of departure. The Angara, the cloud, the Remnants, the Ketts, there was nothing but fertile planet devoid of advanced civilization.

I completely agree that their actions once arrived were very colonialist, but they also were done in extreme circumstances by incompetent people, and I don’t think it had been made abundantly clear.

Andromeda condemns colonialism as every actions, such as unleashing a crime wave or mistreating the locals, are shown to be evil. While the diplomatic decisions during the game are made out of necessity, the choice at the end truly determine which path you want Andromeda to go. And if you choose the Angara way, the sucker in chief protest at the prospect of losing power and control is quickly shut down by a “That’s the point!” from the one responsible for colonization.

Yeah, like…none of that makes it better?  Their scans from another galaxy might have suggested that it was uninhabited, but, like, these are dicey scans from far away, and even if they are accurate, they know it’s gonna take hundreds of years to get there and who knows what’ll happen in between.  

So okay, fine, what’s done is done, and even if the colonists should have understood the dodgy proposition of heading out in the hopes it was claimable land, people don’t always react as they’d like under stress.  Fine.  But then we get to the point - the Initiative totally fucked up and behaved in ways that made their incompetence abundantly clear.  

Then Ryder shows up, starts wandering around promoting this utterly incompetent organisation.  There is never any leadership change.  You can’t fire the people responsible for this clusterfuck.  And honestly, Ryder isn’t even qualified for the position of Pathfinder - it’s ludicrous nepotism.  She wanders around writing checks she can’t cash in terms of convincing the natives to trust the Initiative.  

Like, at NO POINT in that game does Ryder issue a formal apology for unleashing the crime wave or take ANY responsibility from the Initiative’s perspective.  Yeah, she shows up and tries to take some practical steps towards fixing shit, but who ends up in charge on Kadara? Either Sloane or Reyes.  Not a fucking Angaran, for sure.  

And if we’re gonna talk about the shit at the end, omfg.  Let’s break it down.  Without consulting a single angaran, the Initiative decides on the political structure of the entire cluster and tells Ryder to appoint someone as its representative.  If Ryder chooses an Angaran (which is by no means something the player has to do, it’s a wide open multiple choice situation here), the game pipes up to remind you that you don’t have to do that.  If you persist, then Director Tann makes a snarky comment and sure, you get that “That’s the point, you colonialist ass!” remark.  

Which, tbh, pissed me the hell off, because the game had been nothing BUT screaming colonialism from start to finish, but lol, look, we kindly threw the natives a bone, let’s all pat ourselves on the back.  

It’s really patronising, condescending and indicative of the paternalistic “but we’re HELPING!” colonialism that also infects this game regarding the angara.  Like, because the kett are there to represent this aggressive colonising force - literally colonising bodies - the Initiative get a pass for their past actions because they can help in the present, and the game gets a pass for its REALLY SUPER paternalistic writing.  

The Initiative show up and quickly render the angara dependent on them for 1) military defense against the kett, 2) ecological survival, because it takes the Initiative twenty minutes to fix the ancient technology that the angara had been puzzling over for years, (with bonus overtones of literally taming the land) and 3) information on their own fucking genesis.  

The human arc crash lands on Meridian, the planet where the angara were LITERALLY CREATED, and declare it their new homeworld.  An email in a terminal you can read after the end of the game makes it clear the angara are desperate for access to this world, but it’s okay guys, the Initiative are happy to “host” them.  FUCKING HOST THEM. ON THEIR OWN HOMEWORLD. WHICH WE HAVE STOLEN.  

Plus, we’ve reactived the terraforming network, right? Which means, the Initiative now has the means to turn it off, wreaking ecological disaster on anyone who doesn’t fall in line.  Remember what Director Tann did to the Krogan?  Do we trust him with that power?  I fucking don’t.  But I can’t fire him.  I’m just allowed to go around the galaxy cleaning up his diplomatic fuck ups as if I can promise anyone any level of safety or respect.  Which I can’t.  

Seriously, this game paints the thinnest veneer of “colonialism is bad, m’kay?” over what is actually just a series of demands for automatic second chances, and lazy writing that sets up “civilised” saviours.  

I absolutely LOVE the Mass Effect franchise.  I wanted to love Andromeda.  I liked quite a few of the characters and the game play, and I legit went into it expecting it to be more colonialist than I was comfortable with.  But WOW, did I not expect the clusterfuck we got.  

The weirdest thing is they would have fixed SO MANY of their problems if it had just been a refugee convoy, launching in desperation.  That would have explained the bad behaviour due to trauma and desperation, would have meant that I had more sympathy for the explorers in the first place, etc.  

As it is, it just feels like the Initiative launched thousands of Conrad Verners and a few Udinas at Andromeda and called it a day.  *sigh*

I agree with some points, and not with others.

The idea that in 600 years a civilization could pop up is really, really thin. While they took a risk going all in, they certainly did not have cause to progress diplomatically, because there was no sign of anyone. Plus, if all had gone according to plan, the Nexus would have had enough resources to create a true diplomatic effort on the ground.

For the events during the game, I agree that many things could have gone better, but the fact that everyone is in an all out war with a seemingly impossible to beat enemy forces relationships to happens fast. The situation on the Acid planet is completely unfair to the native Angara, however it’s the only place where it’s the case and Ryder do not have the time to negotiate further than who is the next kingpin. Nexus is trying to survive, and not in position to impose anything to anyone, only to call in favors and hope for goodwill.

Now, the fact that the Initiatives arrives to solve everything of the Angara STINKS. It reeks of white savior and is really, really bad taste. I think the worst part is the decyphering of Remnant technology, something the Angara were designed to do (although we don’t know if the design was finished), and can do only at great cost. Ryder, and by extension the Initiative, solves it instantly better than the Angara could ever have done.

The fact that the Initiative is better equipped against the Kett is not problem in my opinion. Not only is it regularly said that they heavily rely on Angara soldiers, the fact that they leaped through galaxy justifies the technological advantage.

The thing at the end is indeed patronizing, however it is justified. The Initiative IS in a position of power. They have all the cards by the end of the game, and it is THEIR decision that will influence the future. Yes, that’s unfair. No, I don’t believe it’s not a promotion or a glorification of colonization, not until we see the results of said choice. I think that’s even the point, for cooperation to happen you must abandon power in order to be equal to your peers. Equality isn’t something that happens naturally, it must be enforced. If you happens to have the power, you must discard it, but the fact is that you have the power and not the others.

If anything, Andromeda dodge the heavy stuff by being in a permanent state of emergency. Both the war against the Kett and the need for Nexus survival justify a lot of harsh or rash decisions. I wish you could fire the authorities, or mount a coup, however it would destabilize the structure and the Nexus is absolutly not in position to resists that at the moment. It’s after the dust has settles that the real problems should be addressed. That the commentary on colonization should really start.

The horrors of colonization didn’t happen when people arrived stranded, with no resources and unable to go back. They began when the colonizers had established themselves enough to overrun the locals while it was perfectly avoidable.

Okay, so like, point by point: 

1) 600 years and civilisation. 

I’m still unconvinced that new tech allowing low res scans should really be proof of anything, and 600 years is a really freaking long time.  600 years before Mass Effect, Earth was a one-planet civilisation who didn’t understand electricity, but if someone had shown up claiming Mars because they had some low res scans from another galaxy, I doubt they’d have been pleased?  Or maybe it was the galactic equivalent of a national park.  The point is they don’t fucking know.  They have no idea what’s going to await them, and the thrill of discovery is, in part, the point.  There’s a huge difference between a refugee (who has no choice but to immigrate to another land and asserts a moral right to do so as a humanitarian matter) and an explorer, who’s just there out of curiosity.  Who chose to go there.  If you choose to go somewhere but you’re willing to defend your right to be there with guns (as the Initiative clearly are), then you are an invader. 

Bottom line, the Initiative may not have wanted to take the land by force, but they were clearly headed there with a willingness to do so if necessary.  

If you sell your house because you thought you could move into an abandoned warehouse but get there to find your information was out of date, and the warehouse had been sold to someone, who had already moved in, and your response is, “But I’ve already sold my house, get the fuck out, I’m taking this because I’ve nowhere else to go,” you’re still an asshole and the situation is still one of your making.  

As to launching a better diplomatic initiative if things had gone better, well…I’m not sure that’s true.  The ambassador you send to the Angaran homeworld is a sociologist who remarks on the fact she’s having to make-do with her skillset.  I can only assume because the Initiative…didn’t bring any diplomats or ambassadors, or people skilled in early contact situations? Which seems outstandingly stupid, but…I’m not sure what else to make of it.  

2) Crisis trumps ethics. 

I mean, yeah, sure, in many practical ways it does.  But the game itself doesn’t engage with the ways in which the Initiative actively caused some parts of the crisis it’s trying to fix.  Ryder doesn’t show up horrified that Tann’s leadership has caused this, Ryder shows up and acts like the Initiative are some Totally Different group to the Exiles.  Which is just…bullshit.  And really dissonant for me as a player.  

Also, using a crisis as an excuse for a power grab doesn’t make it any less of a power grab.  

Ryder didn’t have time to properly sort out Kadara’s leadership or reinstall an Angaran leadership structure, no.  But like…that doesn’t make it okay, and it doesn’t make the fact the game spends no time on that ethical point okay.  

3) Technology & saviourism

Yeah, we agree here.  :)

4) Military superiority

Yeah, I think in isolation this would be fine.  Like, the fact that the Initiative are better equipped to fight the kett, etc., I don’t think that would automatically be a colonialist issue in the narrative.  But with all the rest, it’s just one more way the Angara are at the Initiative’s mercy and dependent on them for help.  

5) Might make right? Colonialism or not?

I’m not actually sure I understand what you’re saying here, but I think you’re saying that, because the Initiative are more powerful than the Angara and “hold all the cards”, they have the right to make decisions for them, to occupy their homeworld and make unilateral decisions about the political structure of the cluster and the direction of the future.  And that while this isn’t fair, it isn’t colonialist either?

I mean…I just straight up think that’s completely wrong.  That’s lunch money bully territory, and it’s absolutely colonialist.  

Like, you say that colonialism didn’t happen when people were stranded with no resources, but when they were established enough to overrun the local population, which is true.  But the ability to overrun the local population isn’t predicated on the ability to reinforce from a parent population if you bring that many people and enough resources with you.  The Initiative are already overrunning and killing the local population, they are already taking over their territory, and imposing their culture on the culture that was there before (as evidenced by the final decision to impose their political culture on the whole cluster).  

So like, again, I just straight up think you’re wrong.  

I also don’t think that the writing is at all self-aware when it comes to these problems.

So, point by point

1) The value of 600 years

Humanity history is around 300 000 years, probably more. The planet is 4 500 000 000 years. The probability that anything intelligent develops withing the span of 600 years is ridiculously small, and we’re not even talking about the possibility than a habitable planet could develop intelligent life.

As for a diplomatic solution having been planned, I have no doubt. No only does the Nexus has a place for alien species to discover the Milky way, there is the fact that most higher ups dies in the first minutes. This included the ambassadors and their attaché, I have little doubt about it. Although, I admit, it’s speculation, I just would find strange to have a building for alien life, scientists for alien life, explorers for alien life, but no diplomats.

2) The feeling of control over the event and a clear position.

I agree that on Kadara, the morality of the situation is left ambiguous. However, it is not on the other planets. On Voeld, establishing an outpost without the authorization of the Angara provokes tensions, and settling Havarl is just impossible.

I also agree that treating the Exile as a different group feels strange, but Ryder is right in the sense that the Exile do not obey the Nexus nor does their action represent the Initiative. Their very existence IS on the Initiative, but I can understand Ryder’s point of view. Besides, as a player, you can try to enforce that distance or try to reunite as many as you can, although those are minor choices.

3) Well, nothing to say.

4) Military dependency.

I think it’s more a matter of perspective. The fact is that the Initiative is a force that could turns the table, so yes the Angara are dependent on them. But the other way is true too, as the Initiative was completely at the mercy of the Kett before Ryder appeared and made things official with the Angara.

I like the idea of seeing more Angaran in action against the Kett, rather than being told so by the various NPC and codex entries though.

5) Might is not right, but power is power

What I am saying is that, by the end of the game, the Initiative does have the power, they can decide for others. Not because it is right, or justified, but because they have the power. Yes, they can act like bullies with it, yes they can abuse that power, or they can share it. Or rather, you can make the decision, as the player, that this power should be shared.

There is a difference between having the legitimacy to do something and the power to do something. Here, the Initiative had the power and zero legitimacy. What to do with that power is at the player’s whim.

And as you said, it is the final decision that decides if Andromeda is going to colonize the cluster or not, not the game. It is unfair to say that they are killing the population as they have no particular will to do so and kill their own in equal number, and ketts in even more. The only two Angara places one can say they take territory of is Kadara, which is a mess that should be resolved as soon as possible, and possible Voed if you decide to settle before asking permission, which is again the player’s choice and results in tensions.

So I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that the game does not promote nor glorify colonialism. I agree that some events and perspective are shady at best, and that others are clearly taking a stand against such behaviors. The most influential events for or against colonialism are decided by the player, and only a sequel would tell the moral of that story.

At this point, I think there are two main areas where we disagree.  

1) Inhabitation. 

I’m unconvinced that low-res extra galactic scans would provide information on low-tech societies, to be honest, and also I wasn’t talking about Earth being inhabited, but rather the sudden expansion and colonisation of neighbouring planets by humans during a hundred year span of the Mass Effect timeline.  Like, if someone had scanned Mars six hundred years ago, it would’ve been uninhabited, but that’s no longer the case by ME1.  

But honestly, I think we’re splitting hairs at this point.  I do agree that, mathematically and logically, most of the universe is empty, and assuming these planets could well be empty also is logical. 

However, they made a cultural centre.  They were hoping to find other life out there.  They also had to know that it was possible they would arrive to find a civilisation already living there.  

So they either chose not to plan for that possibility, which makes them incompetent, or they planned by then didn’t follow through on the plan because of stress and fear, which is more understandable but still basically makes them incompetent because they freak out and fuck everything up when it gets hard.  Or, they planned and the plan was “Okay, in that case, we just invade.”  Which is...fucked up in a different way.  

The point is, as soon as things didn’t go perfectly they went to pieces.  And sure, they were civilians, not military.  But if you’re going to launch yourself to another galaxy with no hope of return based on low-res surveys and hope, and you’re not prepared for it to be really hard and potentially fatal, I will think you’re stupid and probably shouldn’t have been let through the psych screening to join that type of expedition. 

And...that’s the problem.  That’s the reason that “but they thought it was empty!” doesn’t really make any of this any better.  Because the moment they find out it isn’t empty, they react in awful, incompetent, and straight up stupid ways.  

This entire game makes the Initiative look incompetent at best, and “they only enacted colonialism cus they were idiots, not because they were malevolent” still isn’t a great look.  

2) The game’s presentation of colonialism as evil

So, to start, I agree that roleplaying games should allow the player to make a variety of choices, some of them evil.  Something being an option in the game does not mean that the game is endorsing the choice.  

But I don’t think that they choices around colonialism in this game are well-presented or contextualised.  

For example, in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Inquisition is closely aligned with the Chantry - a colonising force, especially with regards to the Elves.  However, it’s possible to play that game and express that concern about the premise of the Inquisition, to roundly criticise the Chantry, and to enact radical reform by installing Leliana as the new head of the church.  

There are no similar opportunities in Andromeda.  We cannot replace Director Tann.  We can’t question whether we had the right to come to Andromeda in the first place.  We can’t give Meridian back to the Angara.  

The game draws a very clear line between “violent, bad” colonialism (forcibly taking land and resources, etc.), and “nice, kind” colonialism (paternalism, coming in and making decisions because you “know better” and are superior, etc.)  

“Violent” colonialism is at least treated as wrong on a superficial level.  I can’t say that it’s treated as evil on a deeper level because the game doesn’t allow for the Initiative to take any responsibility for the Exiles and their crimes.  

But “helpful” colonialism isn’t questioned in any way.  It’s unambiguously presented as acceptable, genuinely helpful, and morally good.  There is no textual criticism.  

This is a problem because these types of colonialism aren’t clearly and distinctly separated.  They are different points on a scale of behaviour.  

As a textual example, I’d offer the final choice of Heleus Representative.  The game will give a pat on the back and a thumbs up for choosing an angaran - look, aren’t we so ethically great!  But it doesn’t particularly criticise you for choosing anyone else.  But, most tellingly, you cannot question the fact you are imposing a political structure that’s convenient for you and your culture on a whole species.  That is the colonialist act.  What if the political structure of the Milky Way negatively impacts on the angara for reasons we cannot yet predict (or didn’t bother trying to predict)?  Utterly changing the governance structure of an entire culture is huge, and could have huge impacts on society.  

But the game hides this.  It acts as though your responsibility is to allow the natives a chance to participate in the culture you are imposing, and that is the ethical choice, not, you know, not imposing the culture in the first place.  

I’m also not certain that the Initiative can claim not to be killing the native population.  The Exiles, obviously, have already caused bloodshed.  But the game also offers you no choice but to slaughter the Roekkar.  Yes, they are paranoid because of their experiences with the kett, but we have no option to pursue diplomacy via the angara who WILL talk to us.  We aren’t allowed to stay out of their territory until they allow us entry.  We don’t even bother trying diplomatic entreaties.  The game just...makes us shoot them or we can’t progress.  

The biggest colonial decisions are not ones made by the player.  The player can’t cede Meridian to the angara, refuse to enforce a milky way political structure, refuse to engage the angara or properly begin a process of reparations for the behaviour of the Exiles.  All these things would have let me feel I was, in some way, contributing towards a more positive future.  

I agree that a future game would show the fall out, but this game makes it clear that the relationship between the Iniative and the angara will be paternalistic and colonialist, even if not violently so.  And to me, that’s still gross.  

I have a persistent problem with Andromeda that I can’t really fix the way I usually do, because I also have a glaring lack of knowledge in the subjects I’d need knowledge on in order to do it effectively

and that problem is the way the Milky Way species just kinda… barge into the galaxy like conquistadors

what I want is for the Initiative to have attempted some sort of contact with Andromeda beforehand – if not long-distance contact, then maybe a set of recon-type missions where they stuck their heads into the galaxy to see what-all was around. in the process, they meet the angara and other native sapient species (mighty convenient that there’s only one native sapient species ingame – assuming the kett are from elsewhere – innit) and kinda just… begin a dialogue. “hey, we’re humanity, the turians, the salarians, etc. we’re thinking about branching out. how do you guys feel about that”

and for the sake of the story, say the angara agree to help, but they have some concerns and boundaries. an agreement is drawn up – the Andromeda Accords, say. now the real work begins. learning about the native non-sapient species to various planets, learning new systems of biodiversity, learning how to minimise the Milky Way footprint on this new galaxy. here’s where my glaring lack of knowledge in scientific matters trips me up, but I like daydreaming about it anyway.

by the time the Arks are actually deployed, the only actual barrier is the unforeseen threat of the Scourge and the kett invasion. in which case it’s a lot easier to get everyone working together when the angara already know us, and know we are not invaders.

knocks about half the canon storyline right out of relevance, which probably is no great crime, but also… I’m just tired of humans barging in on everything and taking it over and then acting wounded when people don’t automatically trust that they have their best interests at heart. if I were angaran I wouldn’t trust the canon Initiative for a fucking second wtf

thank god i’m not the only one who hates this. i really don’t understand why no one ever seems to bring it up. the initiative’s behaviour is legitimately shocking. like TO START WITH they exile their criminals to worlds they know are already populated and low on resources, effectively unleashing a crime wave on the native population! and that’s without even touching the grossness of claiming Meridian at the end. :/

There’s one major problem, it’s that there was no sign of anything alive at the moment of departure. The Angara, the cloud, the Remnants, the Ketts, there was nothing but fertile planet devoid of advanced civilization.

I completely agree that their actions once arrived were very colonialist, but they also were done in extreme circumstances by incompetent people, and I don’t think it had been made abundantly clear.

Andromeda condemns colonialism as every actions, such as unleashing a crime wave or mistreating the locals, are shown to be evil. While the diplomatic decisions during the game are made out of necessity, the choice at the end truly determine which path you want Andromeda to go. And if you choose the Angara way, the sucker in chief protest at the prospect of losing power and control is quickly shut down by a “That’s the point!” from the one responsible for colonization.

Yeah, like…none of that makes it better?  Their scans from another galaxy might have suggested that it was uninhabited, but, like, these are dicey scans from far away, and even if they are accurate, they know it’s gonna take hundreds of years to get there and who knows what’ll happen in between.  

So okay, fine, what’s done is done, and even if the colonists should have understood the dodgy proposition of heading out in the hopes it was claimable land, people don’t always react as they’d like under stress.  Fine.  But then we get to the point - the Initiative totally fucked up and behaved in ways that made their incompetence abundantly clear.  

Then Ryder shows up, starts wandering around promoting this utterly incompetent organisation.  There is never any leadership change.  You can’t fire the people responsible for this clusterfuck.  And honestly, Ryder isn’t even qualified for the position of Pathfinder - it’s ludicrous nepotism.  She wanders around writing checks she can’t cash in terms of convincing the natives to trust the Initiative.  

Like, at NO POINT in that game does Ryder issue a formal apology for unleashing the crime wave or take ANY responsibility from the Initiative’s perspective.  Yeah, she shows up and tries to take some practical steps towards fixing shit, but who ends up in charge on Kadara? Either Sloane or Reyes.  Not a fucking Angaran, for sure.  

And if we’re gonna talk about the shit at the end, omfg.  Let’s break it down.  Without consulting a single angaran, the Initiative decides on the political structure of the entire cluster and tells Ryder to appoint someone as its representative.  If Ryder chooses an Angaran (which is by no means something the player has to do, it’s a wide open multiple choice situation here), the game pipes up to remind you that you don’t have to do that.  If you persist, then Director Tann makes a snarky comment and sure, you get that “That’s the point, you colonialist ass!” remark.  

Which, tbh, pissed me the hell off, because the game had been nothing BUT screaming colonialism from start to finish, but lol, look, we kindly threw the natives a bone, let’s all pat ourselves on the back.  

It’s really patronising, condescending and indicative of the paternalistic “but we’re HELPING!” colonialism that also infects this game regarding the angara.  Like, because the kett are there to represent this aggressive colonising force - literally colonising bodies - the Initiative get a pass for their past actions because they can help in the present, and the game gets a pass for its REALLY SUPER paternalistic writing.  

The Initiative show up and quickly render the angara dependent on them for 1) military defense against the kett, 2) ecological survival, because it takes the Initiative twenty minutes to fix the ancient technology that the angara had been puzzling over for years, (with bonus overtones of literally taming the land) and 3) information on their own fucking genesis.  

The human arc crash lands on Meridian, the planet where the angara were LITERALLY CREATED, and declare it their new homeworld.  An email in a terminal you can read after the end of the game makes it clear the angara are desperate for access to this world, but it’s okay guys, the Initiative are happy to “host” them.  FUCKING HOST THEM. ON THEIR OWN HOMEWORLD. WHICH WE HAVE STOLEN.  

Plus, we’ve reactived the terraforming network, right? Which means, the Initiative now has the means to turn it off, wreaking ecological disaster on anyone who doesn’t fall in line.  Remember what Director Tann did to the Krogan?  Do we trust him with that power?  I fucking don’t.  But I can’t fire him.  I’m just allowed to go around the galaxy cleaning up his diplomatic fuck ups as if I can promise anyone any level of safety or respect.  Which I can’t.  

Seriously, this game paints the thinnest veneer of “colonialism is bad, m’kay?” over what is actually just a series of demands for automatic second chances, and lazy writing that sets up “civilised” saviours.  

I absolutely LOVE the Mass Effect franchise.  I wanted to love Andromeda.  I liked quite a few of the characters and the game play, and I legit went into it expecting it to be more colonialist than I was comfortable with.  But WOW, did I not expect the clusterfuck we got.  

The weirdest thing is they would have fixed SO MANY of their problems if it had just been a refugee convoy, launching in desperation.  That would have explained the bad behaviour due to trauma and desperation, would have meant that I had more sympathy for the explorers in the first place, etc.  

As it is, it just feels like the Initiative launched thousands of Conrad Verners and a few Udinas at Andromeda and called it a day.  *sigh*

I agree with some points, and not with others.

The idea that in 600 years a civilization could pop up is really, really thin. While they took a risk going all in, they certainly did not have cause to progress diplomatically, because there was no sign of anyone. Plus, if all had gone according to plan, the Nexus would have had enough resources to create a true diplomatic effort on the ground.

For the events during the game, I agree that many things could have gone better, but the fact that everyone is in an all out war with a seemingly impossible to beat enemy forces relationships to happens fast. The situation on the Acid planet is completely unfair to the native Angara, however it’s the only place where it’s the case and Ryder do not have the time to negotiate further than who is the next kingpin. Nexus is trying to survive, and not in position to impose anything to anyone, only to call in favors and hope for goodwill.

Now, the fact that the Initiatives arrives to solve everything of the Angara STINKS. It reeks of white savior and is really, really bad taste. I think the worst part is the decyphering of Remnant technology, something the Angara were designed to do (although we don’t know if the design was finished), and can do only at great cost. Ryder, and by extension the Initiative, solves it instantly better than the Angara could ever have done.

The fact that the Initiative is better equipped against the Kett is not problem in my opinion. Not only is it regularly said that they heavily rely on Angara soldiers, the fact that they leaped through galaxy justifies the technological advantage.

The thing at the end is indeed patronizing, however it is justified. The Initiative IS in a position of power. They have all the cards by the end of the game, and it is THEIR decision that will influence the future. Yes, that’s unfair. No, I don’t believe it’s not a promotion or a glorification of colonization, not until we see the results of said choice. I think that’s even the point, for cooperation to happen you must abandon power in order to be equal to your peers. Equality isn’t something that happens naturally, it must be enforced. If you happens to have the power, you must discard it, but the fact is that you have the power and not the others.

If anything, Andromeda dodge the heavy stuff by being in a permanent state of emergency. Both the war against the Kett and the need for Nexus survival justify a lot of harsh or rash decisions. I wish you could fire the authorities, or mount a coup, however it would destabilize the structure and the Nexus is absolutly not in position to resists that at the moment. It’s after the dust has settles that the real problems should be addressed. That the commentary on colonization should really start.

The horrors of colonization didn’t happen when people arrived stranded, with no resources and unable to go back. They began when the colonizers had established themselves enough to overrun the locals while it was perfectly avoidable.

Okay, so like, point by point: 

1) 600 years and civilisation. 

I’m still unconvinced that new tech allowing low res scans should really be proof of anything, and 600 years is a really freaking long time.  600 years before Mass Effect, Earth was a one-planet civilisation who didn’t understand electricity, but if someone had shown up claiming Mars because they had some low res scans from another galaxy, I doubt they’d have been pleased?  Or maybe it was the galactic equivalent of a national park.  The point is they don’t fucking know.  They have no idea what’s going to await them, and the thrill of discovery is, in part, the point.  There’s a huge difference between a refugee (who has no choice but to immigrate to another land and asserts a moral right to do so as a humanitarian matter) and an explorer, who’s just there out of curiosity.  Who chose to go there.  If you choose to go somewhere but you’re willing to defend your right to be there with guns (as the Initiative clearly are), then you are an invader. 

Bottom line, the Initiative may not have wanted to take the land by force, but they were clearly headed there with a willingness to do so if necessary.  

If you sell your house because you thought you could move into an abandoned warehouse but get there to find your information was out of date, and the warehouse had been sold to someone, who had already moved in, and your response is, “But I’ve already sold my house, get the fuck out, I’m taking this because I’ve nowhere else to go,” you’re still an asshole and the situation is still one of your making.  

As to launching a better diplomatic initiative if things had gone better, well...I’m not sure that’s true.  The ambassador you send to the Angaran homeworld is a sociologist who remarks on the fact she’s having to make-do with her skillset.  I can only assume because the Initiative...didn’t bring any diplomats or ambassadors, or people skilled in early contact situations? Which seems outstandingly stupid, but...I’m not sure what else to make of it.  

2) Crisis trumps ethics. 

I mean, yeah, sure, in many practical ways it does.  But the game itself doesn’t engage with the ways in which the Initiative actively caused some parts of the crisis it’s trying to fix.  Ryder doesn’t show up horrified that Tann’s leadership has caused this, Ryder shows up and acts like the Initiative are some Totally Different group to the Exiles.  Which is just...bullshit.  And really dissonant for me as a player.  

Also, using a crisis as an excuse for a power grab doesn’t make it any less of a power grab.  

Ryder didn’t have time to properly sort out Kadara’s leadership or reinstall an Angaran leadership structure, no.  But like...that doesn’t make it okay, and it doesn’t make the fact the game spends no time on that ethical point okay.  

3) Technology & saviourism

Yeah, we agree here.  :)

4) Military superiority

Yeah, I think in isolation this would be fine.  Like, the fact that the Initiative are better equipped to fight the kett, etc., I don’t think that would automatically be a colonialist issue in the narrative.  But with all the rest, it’s just one more way the Angara are at the Initiative’s mercy and dependent on them for help.  

5) Might make right? Colonialism or not?

I’m not actually sure I understand what you’re saying here, but I think you’re saying that, because the Initiative are more powerful than the Angara and “hold all the cards”, they have the right to make decisions for them, to occupy their homeworld and make unilateral decisions about the political structure of the cluster and the direction of the future.  And that while this isn’t fair, it isn’t colonialist either?

I mean...I just straight up think that’s completely wrong.  That’s lunch money bully territory, and it’s absolutely colonialist.  

Like, you say that colonialism didn’t happen when people were stranded with no resources, but when they were established enough to overrun the local population, which is true.  But the ability to overrun the local population isn’t predicated on the ability to reinforce from a parent population if you bring that many people and enough resources with you.  The Initiative are already overrunning and killing the local population, they are already taking over their territory, and imposing their culture on the culture that was there before (as evidenced by the final decision to impose their political culture on the whole cluster).  

So like, again, I just straight up think you’re wrong.  

I also don’t think that the writing is at all self-aware when it comes to these problems.

I have a persistent problem with Andromeda that I can’t really fix the way I usually do, because I also have a glaring lack of knowledge in the subjects I’d need knowledge on in order to do it effectively

and that problem is the way the Milky Way species just kinda… barge into the galaxy like conquistadors

what I want is for the Initiative to have attempted some sort of contact with Andromeda beforehand – if not long-distance contact, then maybe a set of recon-type missions where they stuck their heads into the galaxy to see what-all was around. in the process, they meet the angara and other native sapient species (mighty convenient that there’s only one native sapient species ingame – assuming the kett are from elsewhere – innit) and kinda just… begin a dialogue. “hey, we’re humanity, the turians, the salarians, etc. we’re thinking about branching out. how do you guys feel about that”

and for the sake of the story, say the angara agree to help, but they have some concerns and boundaries. an agreement is drawn up – the Andromeda Accords, say. now the real work begins. learning about the native non-sapient species to various planets, learning new systems of biodiversity, learning how to minimise the Milky Way footprint on this new galaxy. here’s where my glaring lack of knowledge in scientific matters trips me up, but I like daydreaming about it anyway.

by the time the Arks are actually deployed, the only actual barrier is the unforeseen threat of the Scourge and the kett invasion. in which case it’s a lot easier to get everyone working together when the angara already know us, and know we are not invaders.

knocks about half the canon storyline right out of relevance, which probably is no great crime, but also… I’m just tired of humans barging in on everything and taking it over and then acting wounded when people don’t automatically trust that they have their best interests at heart. if I were angaran I wouldn’t trust the canon Initiative for a fucking second wtf

thank god i’m not the only one who hates this. i really don’t understand why no one ever seems to bring it up. the initiative’s behaviour is legitimately shocking. like TO START WITH they exile their criminals to worlds they know are already populated and low on resources, effectively unleashing a crime wave on the native population! and that’s without even touching the grossness of claiming Meridian at the end. :/

There’s one major problem, it’s that there was no sign of anything alive at the moment of departure. The Angara, the cloud, the Remnants, the Ketts, there was nothing but fertile planet devoid of advanced civilization.

I completely agree that their actions once arrived were very colonialist, but they also were done in extreme circumstances by incompetent people, and I don’t think it had been made abundantly clear.

Andromeda condemns colonialism as every actions, such as unleashing a crime wave or mistreating the locals, are shown to be evil. While the diplomatic decisions during the game are made out of necessity, the choice at the end truly determine which path you want Andromeda to go. And if you choose the Angara way, the sucker in chief protest at the prospect of losing power and control is quickly shut down by a “That’s the point!” from the one responsible for colonization.

Yeah, like...none of that makes it better?  Their scans from another galaxy might have suggested that it was uninhabited, but, like, these are dicey scans from far away, and even if they are accurate, they know it’s gonna take hundreds of years to get there and who knows what’ll happen in between.  

So okay, fine, what’s done is done, and even if the colonists should have understood the dodgy proposition of heading out in the hopes it was claimable land, people don’t always react as they’d like under stress.  Fine.  But then we get to the point - the Initiative totally fucked up and behaved in ways that made their incompetence abundantly clear.  

Then Ryder shows up, starts wandering around promoting this utterly incompetent organisation.  There is never any leadership change.  You can’t fire the people responsible for this clusterfuck.  And honestly, Ryder isn’t even qualified for the position of Pathfinder - it’s ludicrous nepotism.  She wanders around writing checks she can’t cash in terms of convincing the natives to trust the Initiative.  

Like, at NO POINT in that game does Ryder issue a formal apology for unleashing the crime wave or take ANY responsibility from the Initiative’s perspective.  Yeah, she shows up and tries to take some practical steps towards fixing shit, but who ends up in charge on Kadara? Either Sloane or Reyes.  Not a fucking Angaran, for sure.  

And if we’re gonna talk about the shit at the end, omfg.  Let’s break it down.  Without consulting a single angaran, the Initiative decides on the political structure of the entire cluster and tells Ryder to appoint someone as its representative.  If Ryder chooses an Angaran (which is by no means something the player has to do, it’s a wide open multiple choice situation here), the game pipes up to remind you that you don’t have to do that.  If you persist, then Director Tann makes a snarky comment and sure, you get that “That’s the point, you colonialist ass!” remark.  

Which, tbh, pissed me the hell off, because the game had been nothing BUT screaming colonialism from start to finish, but lol, look, we kindly threw the natives a bone, let’s all pat ourselves on the back.  

It’s really patronising, condescending and indicative of the paternalistic “but we’re HELPING!” colonialism that also infects this game regarding the angara.  Like, because the kett are there to represent this aggressive colonising force - literally colonising bodies - the Initiative get a pass for their past actions because they can help in the present, and the game gets a pass for its REALLY SUPER paternalistic writing.  

The Initiative show up and quickly render the angara dependent on them for 1) military defense against the kett, 2) ecological survival, because it takes the Initiative twenty minutes to fix the ancient technology that the angara had been puzzling over for years, (with bonus overtones of literally taming the land) and 3) information on their own fucking genesis.  

The human arc crash lands on Meridian, the planet where the angara were LITERALLY CREATED, and declare it their new homeworld.  An email in a terminal you can read after the end of the game makes it clear the angara are desperate for access to this world, but it’s okay guys, the Initiative are happy to “host” them.  FUCKING HOST THEM. ON THEIR OWN HOMEWORLD. WHICH WE HAVE STOLEN.  

Plus, we’ve reactived the terraforming network, right? Which means, the Initiative now has the means to turn it off, wreaking ecological disaster on anyone who doesn’t fall in line.  Remember what Director Tann did to the Krogan?  Do we trust him with that power?  I fucking don’t.  But I can’t fire him.  I’m just allowed to go around the galaxy cleaning up his diplomatic fuck ups as if I can promise anyone any level of safety or respect.  Which I can’t.  

Seriously, this game paints the thinnest veneer of “colonialism is bad, m’kay?” over what is actually just a series of demands for automatic second chances, and lazy writing that sets up “civilised” saviours.  

I absolutely LOVE the Mass Effect franchise.  I wanted to love Andromeda.  I liked quite a few of the characters and the game play, and I legit went into it expecting it to be more colonialist than I was comfortable with.  But WOW, did I not expect the clusterfuck we got.  

The weirdest thing is they would have fixed SO MANY of their problems if it had just been a refugee convoy, launching in desperation.  That would have explained the bad behaviour due to trauma and desperation, would have meant that I had more sympathy for the explorers in the first place, etc.  

As it is, it just feels like the Initiative launched thousands of Conrad Verners and a few Udinas at Andromeda and called it a day.  *sigh*

I have a persistent problem with Andromeda that I can’t really fix the way I usually do, because I also have a glaring lack of knowledge in the subjects I’d need knowledge on in order to do it effectively

and that problem is the way the Milky Way species just kinda… barge into the galaxy like conquistadors

what I want is for the Initiative to have attempted some sort of contact with Andromeda beforehand – if not long-distance contact, then maybe a set of recon-type missions where they stuck their heads into the galaxy to see what-all was around. in the process, they meet the angara and other native sapient species (mighty convenient that there’s only one native sapient species ingame – assuming the kett are from elsewhere – innit) and kinda just… begin a dialogue. “hey, we’re humanity, the turians, the salarians, etc. we’re thinking about branching out. how do you guys feel about that”

and for the sake of the story, say the angara agree to help, but they have some concerns and boundaries. an agreement is drawn up – the Andromeda Accords, say. now the real work begins. learning about the native non-sapient species to various planets, learning new systems of biodiversity, learning how to minimise the Milky Way footprint on this new galaxy. here’s where my glaring lack of knowledge in scientific matters trips me up, but I like daydreaming about it anyway.

by the time the Arks are actually deployed, the only actual barrier is the unforeseen threat of the Scourge and the kett invasion. in which case it’s a lot easier to get everyone working together when the angara already know us, and know we are not invaders.

knocks about half the canon storyline right out of relevance, which probably is no great crime, but also… I’m just tired of humans barging in on everything and taking it over and then acting wounded when people don’t automatically trust that they have their best interests at heart. if I were angaran I wouldn’t trust the canon Initiative for a fucking second wtf

thank god i'm not the only one who hates this. i really don't understand why no one ever seems to bring it up. the initiative's behaviour is legitimately shocking. like TO START WITH they exile their criminals to worlds they know are already populated and low on resources, effectively unleashing a crime wave on the native population! and that's without even touching the grossness of claiming Meridian at the end. :/