Andromeda and SJW influence: Delusional Rage or Unfortunate Reality? (Discussion)

Bear in mind, the biggest driver behind krogan social organization in TMW was the genophage. Under the genophage, they'd separated themselves into male and female clans, each with their own leadership, shaman, etc. Krogan females were entirely valued according to their fertility; Eve even tells us that some of them were suicidal upon learning that they were infertile. By the end of ME3, with the genophage cured, we see them once again organizing into family units in the ending slides - no longer separated into male and female clans, no longer threatened with extinction.

Frankly, I found a lot of the lore about krogan reproduction confusing. According to EDI, krogan females could produce 1,000 eggs annually, but the genophage ensured that most of them did not result in viable young. Krogan lay eggs, but then they talk about birth. Eve tells us about her child being stillborn, concluding that she was infertile - so on the one hand, we get a story from Mordin claiming the genophage was designed to reduce viable offspring to a certain percentage, on the other we have the claim that some females are fertile while others are not. Per Mordin's explanation, I would assume that out of all of the eggs produced by any one krogan female, only a few would survive... yet the reality is that some females were rendered altogether infertile. The various information we got about krogan reproduction in MET did not create a clear understanding about how it actually works.


'Tis true that salarian females are rare, but that's by choice, not nature. They could easily produce more females if desired.

The salarians are amphibian haplo-diploid egg-layers; unfertilized eggs produce males and fertilized eggs produce females. Once a year, a salarian female will lay a clutch of dozens of eggs. Social rules prevent all but a fraction from being fertilized. As a result, 90% of the species is male.

The bottom line for all of this, though, is that we're not in TMW anymore. Except for the krogan (who have their own colony), none of the other species yet have home worlds with their own governments and cultures. These people chose to join the Andromeda Initiative, and (apparently) live according to its social constructs, at least for the time being.

If I remove the "physical combat" part, I have no argument with your statement. Men have a decided advantage in muscle strength and size, when comparing large populations, kilogram for kilogram. I don't think anyone credible disagrees with that. It's also the only sex-correlated difference that no one disagrees with, besides the obvious anatomical ones.

For physical combat, it would depend on what you mean: if you mean trading punches to the face, sure, men have the advantage. If you mean martial arts more generally, that would depend heavily on the style -- men have no advantage over women in aikido, even when weight and size are drastically different. If you mean armed combat with automatic weapons at 30 meters, I don't think there's any proof of a sex correlation in performance.

In game terms, there's no lore that says men would be better than women at being biotic commandos.

Is the determining factor interest or opportunity or something else? In my opinion, you are making one whopper of an assumption that those statistical differences are attributed solely to intrinsic, inborn, neurobiological interest.

While I agree that the lore is unclear at times, the cure of the genophage wouldn't impact the krogans in Andromeda and therefore doesn't explain the sudden cultural changes at such a fundamental level.

As far a salarians go, whether or not the rarity of females is cultural, there is still no explanation why the roles have changed so fast in Andromeda. Cultural values don't change overnight after all.

There could simply be a disconnect between the OT and ME:A's lore continuity due to bad writing, but the utter lack of explanation as to the change makes me feel as if it was done intentionally and then cloaked due to political motivations.

Uhh... you made a leap here and I'm not following...

Tann's assistant is in a place where a salarian female would be if she wants to eventually play at politics in Heleus. (One of the places -- the other line would be in whatever the salarian ark's command structure looks like, but we don't have much info on that.) You said that this is where salarian females should be, right?

She'd want to be higher up in the structure, but the AI isn't going to automatically start salarian females at a higher level even if a salarian organization would.

Oh. That clears it up.
Still, I would've expected a female salarian to have taken Tann's place and expected Tann to be a low-level bureaucrat based on pre-established lore.

While yes, the writers could entirely explain away recoil (the thought of an assault rifle with a high rof and no recoil makes me giddy) I would propose the following:

ME explains the way in-universe small arms operate by stating that they use a mass effect field to reduce the weight of the projectile to almost nothing and then said projectile is accelerated to blistering velocity levels. Even though the projectile is tiny, the kinetic energy it imparts on a target would be great due to sheer speed.

That sheer speed would inevitable create a recoil impulse on the shooter no matter what. Otherwise, you would end up breaking basic physics.

This is Mass Effect, a franchise literally named after the thing that breaks basic physics.

It's not really a cultural change. The old golden days of the krogan had females leading them, not men. It makes sense that considering they want a fresh start the krogan go back to that. Plus as expressed Morda became Overlord because she showed she had what it took to lead the krogan.

Yes, which is why I see Morda as a good fit for leader of the krogan colony. My issue lies in the fact the in ME:A, many female krogan end up in positions like mercs & raiders. That to me is a significant change to pre-established lore.

As for salarians, they haven't changed as much as you are thinking either. The role of Pathfinder is first and foremost a scientific and diplomatic position, with violence being a last resort, so a female salarian fits that perfectly. Also you can't really say the leaders of the Nexus go against the lore since they are just following the chain of command, with Tann having been eighth in line but one through seven died. He isn't even a real politician, his role being an accountant but with everyone above him dead he had to take that role.

Ryder's experience as pathfinder is one the revolves primarily around combating the kett with maybe some diplomatic relations stuff thrown in. Too me, that seems like a job that wouldn't be given to a salarian female strictly based on the likelihood of mortality and a limited (especially in Andromeda) number of females.

To be honest, I see no consensus in our future and am completely open to a civil "agree to disagree" situation.

You mean like a physics bending principle like a hyperdrive? 😝

Nah I'm talking Star Wars/Star Trek hyperdrive/warp drive. Much different.

But isn't it the case that the story is Ryder is forced into that position because of the unexpected - hilariously unanticipated really - situation in Andromeda when they arrived?  They didn't know that was going to be the case when the Salarian pathfinder was appointed.  Their whole schtick is peaceful exploration.

This made me think about "Tachyons", which are a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light at all times. A problem with the Mass Effect series (I haven't read the books), is that time dilation doesn't seem to be part of the equation with space travel. Something I did find out was that kett ships use mass effect fields in a manner similar to how an Alcubierre drive functions. (One of the two ways that we know of ATM to travel faster than light without breaking Einstein's theory of relativity.) Space is so cool.

... except that the krogan underwent some form of therapy while in cryostasis on the trip, so it's no longer an issue for them in Andromeda. They're all 4% more fertile now.

My read is that BioWare is officially finished with the genophage storyline. The MW cure left the possibility that krogan could again overrun the galaxy with their insane population growth, resilience, and propensity toward violence. The Andromeda krogan can reproduce, but not at such a high rate as to threaten the other species.

Anyway, there's no reason for them to continue to live as they did with the restrictions imposed by the genophage. They can go back to the way they were pre-genophage, and evolve themselves however they see fit. It's what TMW krogan did once it was cured - I'm not sure why it would be any different in Andromeda.


Well, the way that salarian reproduction works, they don't need to "protect" females as breeders.  As I pointed out in a previous post, salarians have complete control over the gender ratio of their population.

I would also suggest that Raeka is an individual, not the culture. If you recall, we met some krogan in TMW who behaved much more like sophisticated gentlemen than the usual krogan we encountered.  Plenty of people in our world have shunned gender role expectations, some of whom became widely known for their successes.  As for Tann's assistant, it's probably the only job she could get in a political/administrative capacity.


I don't see the disconnect.

I went into the game fully expecting that things would be very different from TMW, and I guess my expectations were met.  Alex Ryder gives this little speech to the pathfinder team before they  set out, explaining that they were chosen because they are dreamers.  People who completely fit the mainstream populations and cultural expectations in TMW would have precious little reason to take the risk of joining the Andromeda Initiative.  Those who joined were more the outliers, the marginalized, and/or those who simply wanted something different.