Are the asari just not trustworthy as a species?

Its as bad as her saying, "Have you ever seen an asari commando before? Few humans have". It was also bad when her stupid mother said the same in ME1. 

If we're just throwing out individual's that suck for each species, the elcor aren't all sunshine and bunnies either.

What about your boy Harrot? Out there extorting Quarians in the Omega markets...

I don't want to tune in to the hatred of the Council, because (in ME1) I think from their point of view they're being reasonably cautious, and I can't blame them for not giving me everything I want. That's politics, you may not like it, but there's a reason to their behaviour, and it's not only to piss me off. They put a lot of trust in me by making me the first human spectre and by letting me do what I think is for the best, but they'd be pretty stupid to just take everything for granted that I tell them--even more so considering their top spectre Saren went rogue.

I do agree that in ME2 they're just idiots, ignoring everything that happened in ME1. But in ME1 I don't have any hard feelings against them.

So aside from that, are the Asari trustworthy? I don't think you can generalise that, because they're very different individually. Some are trustworthy, others aren't. It's pretty individual. I'd trust Samara or Liara with my life, Aria or Morinth not so much. You could ask the same question about humanity. How trustworthy are humans if you consider people like Udina, TIM, Zaeed, Terra Firma, Jacob's father? If this world teaches anything, it's that there are shades of grey to everything and that some individuals are more trustworthy than others. No matter if they're Asari or Quarian, or even Krogan.

In fact, if you asked me which race tends to be most trustworthy, I'd call the Turians. Most of them seem pretty straightforward and principled, their code of honour seems to demand that. Of course there's Saren, but to be fair, he was controlled by the Reapers. If anything, Mass Effect taught me to respect Turians more than most other races.

In principle, I agree. When it comes to Aria, she's an asshole but yes there's context. It's a utilitarian relationship, as in I don't like what you're doing but I've got much more pressing problems, and if you can help me with my shit I may help with yours, no matter if I like it or not. I have more pressing problems than making Omega a just place. However that doesn't mean I'd trust her, I have no doubt she'd try to kill me in my sleep if she considered that beneficial.

Morinth is obvious, not the sort of person you should blindly trust.

Yes, Turians are fallible too. That's what I mean with the individualism of Mass Effect. All races have great people as well as twats. Just when pressed to name a race that seems to be more trustworthy on average, I'd call the Turians. Even if some of them are assholes too.

The Asari seem to tend to extremes, they make both the greatest saints and the most extreme psychopath murderers.

@robtherobber: I had a great response to your first post but my browser deleted it and I just don't have it in my to restructure it. I don't entirely disagree with you. I'd trust Samara to keep her word but not necessarily that she wouldn't kill me or someone I care about if she felt her duty compelled her to do so. Shepard can trust Liara, sure; that doesn't mean everyone can. She's 100% aboveboard with Shepard by ME3 but less so in ME1 (will attempt to romance you even if you've stated to her you're interested in A/K) and ME2 (can't be bothered to tell Shepard's friends that s/he might be alive but that his/her body is in the hands of Cerberus). So...sure, Shepard might be able to trust Liara but that doesn't mean everyone can.

On the Council, well, Sparatus was the worst of them in ME1 and ME2 but the first to come around in ME3. Valern was fairly consistently decent in all three, except when it came to a genophage cure. Tevos was okay in ME1, [blanking on her behavior in ME2] but not at all someone I cared for in ME3 until - as I said in another post - her back was against the wall.

Regarding turians, I do agree with you that they're probably the most trustworthy. Yes, Sparatus was a jerk, and so was Saren (which was true well before he met Sovereign), but they're pretty up front about their motivations. Sparatus just happened to be anti-human, but that's a clear leftover from the First Contact War.

Very cool.  Seems quite possible.  I mean, the Leviathan deserve to be executed regardless but this just makes them so much worse.

I'd have more respect for their "caution" if it were actually based on legitimate concerns instead of simply trying to keep their little clubhouse and keep us down (and out). For fuck's sake, their top agent went rogue! If they were really that concerned, they'd do more than get in our way. First off they're idiots for having practically no contingencies for this type of thing to begin with. It's one thing to allow Spectres to cut through the red tape at lower levels- but to not have any formal checks at your own? What were they smoking when they agreed to it? Even if the solution is only "send more Spectres" to deal with a rogue, there should've been some evidence of a formal process to do so, or some provisions for disavowment. But they only went "oh, durr, status revoked, go nuts". Even if you make a case for not trusting Shepard, why didn't they upon hearing proof of Saren's shenanigans, send their second best (or third, if Nihlus was second) Spectre out after him? Hell even by the "we don't trust humans/we want them in their place" metric, they're morons. Stopping Saren would be a high profile assignment, something a human either couldn't do because lolprimitive or if they pull it off, would gain too much cred to be kept down (as it actually happened). So no, they're idiots, through and through.


Also, turian bomb on Tuchanka. Even turians have their dirty tricks.

Everyone has their dirty little secret, but none come close to what the asari did. How many lives could have been saved if they mentioned the artifact earlier? Don't know since they took away that opportunity. Its true they had no idea it could be a piece of the puzzle needed to help finish the crucible, but they knew they had something that might help. 

What the asari did is go from being top in the galaxy to being dog sh*t in the galaxy. What do you think will happen if the public found out the asari held back valuable information? They would likely demand their governments do something. If not, I could see a lot of them attacking asari when one is seen. I wouldn't blame them. 

This is one of the reasons why I like to see a sequel to ME3. What punishment will the asari receive for what they failed to do in ME3? I have a scenario where they would be wiped out or at the very least banned from ever setting foot on the Citadel ever again. It wouldn't be hard to blame them for a lot of things.

It will be a very long time before they can be trusted again.

Someone posted they would trust T'soni with their life. I wouldn't trust her. Look at the broker dlc. For someone who claims to be a friend, why didn't she inform anyone that Shepard's body is in Cerberus hands? Look at Mars. She says she discovered plans for a device that might wipe out the reapers. For her to say that, she had to have seen the plans, and know that Thessia is the place to go for more information, but they're in the archives. Why didn't she send a copy to Hackett? She couldn't because she hasn't seen these so-called plans. A moment later she sings a different tune by saying, I think I found what we need. Make up your mind asari. Did you find something or not? Later she decides to sing another tune , when exchanging dialogue with A/K. She says she found bits and pieces, clues mostly. 

Agreed, but I did slander the asari government for this, not the race as a whole.  (Yes, I know the title of this thread.)

Quickly?  They had evidence from a guy who NAMED HIM and ignored that.  Sure, that's circumstantial, but who thinks some random farmer on Eden Prime has ever heard of Saren?  Later, Tali played a recording of Saren and Benezia talking about the attack.  Proof isn't lacking here.  What was lacking is the Council being honest that it just didn't want to admit that one of their agents had gone rogue.

I don't get why they didn't just merge Liara and Shiala into the same character. We're sent to find Liara for any information she might have about Benezia, and Shiala turns out more helpful in that regard. Shiala also has more combat experience than Liara. Both characters have the same issue of questioning how much we can trust them due to their connections to Benezia. They could have just made Shiala Benezia's daughter instead. I guess she's not adorkable enough according to the writers?