Rebellions, Genophages & In-game Depictions - Krogan Whitewashing 101

Andromeda writers really don't know the background lore of the setting. 

The last race to attempt a mulit-species genocide and galactic conquest was, in fact, the Krogan. Out of the two, I can only recall the Rachni actually being sorry for their actions and working to make up for the damage they did. One could even argue the the Rachni were far less destructive in their invasion considering how there is no mention of worlds being rendered completely uninhabitable from the Rachni Wars; save those hives the Krogan utterly destroyed in their counter attacks. But, like anything non-human(oid) in the setting, the narrative is ready to poke fun of, generalize, and/or demonize anything that doesn't immediately conform to it's specific bias.

The game lets Joker and Shepard joke about "nuking the site from orbit" or talk about how they hope to never see one of the 'scary space bugs' again when discussing the Rachni queen in ME 3, but then makes Shepard go along with Wrex's racial slurs on Sur'kesh, or forces him/her to look sad when sabotaging the cure. Hell, when Thessia falls the game even auto-dialoges Shepard into jumping down Joker's throat for an off handed remark about the Asari home world, but then let's those same Shepards remark at how the fall of Kahje, and the very likely extinction of the Hanar, was something "they brought upon themselves". 

The narrative is completely fine with players being ruthless against aliens like the Hanar, Elcor, or Rachni, but then actively prevents Shepard from doing or saying similar things to their 'sacred cows'; i.e. the Krogan, and Asari.

Remember the mission to disarm the bomb Turians left on Tuchanka? I was yelling at the screen at Shep for chewing Primarch Victus out for that when not so long ago, Shep was asked to disarm a nuclear probe the Alliance sent out. Hard to be mad like Wrex was when he could have been there with us dealing with Elanos Haliat who had that bomb.

I'm more mad about the railroading they force Shepard into for the sake of pathos. Much of the third game requires being unaware of events in the first game. Even though we could mention understanding their situation during the mission, before and after led to extreme hypocritical moments from Shepard. It's the same sort of tone taken to convince the Quarians to stand down when I wanted to remind Legion of Eden Prime and how his bunch failed to stop a war with full knowledge of what the heretics would do against humans and all the other races. It's harder to forgive a race that impaled your own on stakes without provocation vs the race that tried to fry your attackers. I'm less mad at Wrex because he has a personal stake in this and given how brutally he'll be removed if he fails. Shepard though? They have no excuse.

That whole mission kept acting like it was as though Turians had attempted some sort of war crime when all the while I kept wanting someone to say, "You know we had to deal with something exactly like this 2 years ago, right?"

Victus wasn't deliberately leaving the Krogan open to attack, though the biased narrative would like to present him in the worst possible light. 

He's just been made leader of his peoples' government by virtue of all those ahead of him in rank being wiped out by the Reapers. So not only does he have to acquaint himself with thousands of years of classified intel and the general oversight of the Turian military, but he's also having to deal with a Reaper invasion of his home planet and the galaxy at large. Then, on top of all of this sudden responsibility, he's told that this human supremacist terrorist group has somehow gained access to one of the Hierarchy's most closely guarded secrets, managed to stealth their way onto Tuchunka and then, though the magic of plot armor, activated the bomb's override and set it to detonate.  

There was no time for Wrex to organize an evacuation of the surrounding area, and it was very likely that Cerberus would have denoted the bomb earlier if they thought the Krogan were aware of their plan. Yes, Victus didn't tell Wrex about the bomb the moment he found out about it, but that isn't quite the damnable sin the narrative would like to paint it as considering the situation.

And if you really want to get down to it, Victus and the rest of the Turians were actually preforming above and beyond the requirements that Wrex demanded. The letter of Wrex's ultimatum was that the Genophage was cured before he would send any aid; nothing in the forced agreement mentioned anything about Turians protecting Krogan assets from hostile third parties. If Victus was as heartless and cruel as the game wanted to paint him as, he would have simply done nothing about the bomb and left the Krogan to their fate. The fact that he took the initiative and ordered an attack on Cerberus forces points to him being concerned with Krogan lives and building an alliance with them. 

Wrex meanwhile, refuses to send even a paltry force of warriors to help defend Palaven as a sign of good faith (like themikefest said).

.. and vice verse - If Victus wants to play hardball (and he was by not divulging anything about the bomb right off the bat), Wrex can too.  In actually, Shepard is railroaded into being complicit with the Turians in that there is no way Shepard can opt to tell Wrex about the bomb after he is told about it by Victus.  The presentation in the game of both sides is actually fairly well balanced.  It's the rhetoric that flies around this site that is biased.

Really, out of all the other species in the galaxy, it was the Turians and the Rachni that actually did the most to prepare and combat the threat of the Reapers; which is where the majority of my contention for the Genohpage plot line comes from.

The Turians took the brunt of the Reaper attacks and offered the most resilient defense against the invasion. Even then, they are perfectly willing to divert sizable portions of their besieged naval forces to provide protection for the Crucible, no questions asked. The fact that players have to get them assistance prior to this is a logistical necessity as they are literally the only major military force keeping the Reapers occupied. The reason why the Salarians and Krogan didn't have multiple Reaper dreadnoughts darkening the skies of Sur'Kesh and Tuchunka is specifically because the Turians were holding the line. Out of the two requests, I find the need to secure aid for Palaven to be much more reasonable than the sudden demand for a complete and total cure of the Genophage. Without Palaven and the Turians it won't matter how many babies the Krogan can have.



As for the Rachni, they are the only species in the entire galaxy to take the warning of the Reapers seriously and prepare accordingly (writers' fiat notwithstanding). Honestly, I would have abandoned all pretense of helping the Krogan and instead have utilized the Rachni if the game hadn't wiped them out off camera. The queen has been preparing her forces for the past two years enough so that the sheer amount of them, though corrupted by the Reapers into Ravengers, saw galactic-wide deployment. The Geth, who were the other species with direct knowledge of the threat posed by the Reapers, couldn't even manage that; instead piddling around trying to create a Dyson Sphere, in the middle of the Quarian home system no less. The queen asks for no restitutions of past wrongs, nor does she beg out of the fighting once freed from Reaper captivity. She instantly sets to work helping the rest of the galaxy in whatever way she can the moment she is rescued (both in ME 1 and in ME 3) and she does this without any demands of new worlds to inhabit once the fighting is over. Wrex, despite his promises to Shepard, only deigns to help the galaxy after they effectively put the war with the Reapers on hold so they can play doctor. In many ways both he and the Dalatress are nearly identical in how they approach the Reaper invasion coming to kill everyone.

Even excusing the dubious politics, and assuming that the Genophage was no issue to begin with, I still would rather have the Rachni as the ground forces over the Krogan for several logistical reasons; not the least of which would be their short gestation period. The Queen had enough troops within two years to fight a war on a galactic scale. Even if the Genophage had been cured there is no way the Krogan could match the sheer amount of soldiers; who are literally born combat ready; the Rachni could offer the united forces of the Milky Way. Add on to that innate weapons and armor, on par with modern technology, the ability to survive in extreme environments indefinitely without the need for a space suit, and an organic quantum entanglement network that could exist outside of supply lines makes the Rachni far more suited to the type of fighting the Reaper invasion would inevitably result in should the hostilities drag out.

I suppose that is one of the major reasons why the writers felt the need to reduce the importance of the Rachni so much in game three. No one in their right mind would bother with jumping through hoops with the Krogan when presented with a superior combat force that demanded no such ultimatums for their aid. Really, if for no other reason, I would have loved to be given the choice of Rachni ground forces over Krogan forces to take the bluster out of Wrex's sails and force him back to the negotiating table with more reasonable terms.

The Rachni were preparing, its made clear in ME2 when the Queen says she'll help cleanse the galaxy of the Reapers with Shepard. Not only that, but the Rachni were building a fleet and their ships had been spotted a few times.

Sure the Krogan can push for the Genophage cure but what happens if, during the time we're off playing doctor, Palaven falls and the Turian navy is decimated? Now the Krogan get to watch thousands of their newborns die at the hands of the Reapers, or get turned into husks to fight them as they die a slow death.

Besides, I'm sure people would be much more agreeable to helping the Krogan out post war if they displayed more altruism for their part in the fighting rather than holding the fate of the galaxy at proverbial gun point.  Congratulations Wrex, you leveraged a cure for the Genophage. But, once the fighting stops, and the other species' leaders have had time to look back on your actions can you be sure that they'll be 'gifting' the Krogan new garden worlds to settle? Or will the result of your little stunt forcing the cure be seen as 'help enough'? 

On the flip side of that, look at the Rachni and their ending slide. For a species of scary space bugs; a species that the entire galaxy is fearful and distrustful of, a race of insect aliens that the rest of civilization would either shoot on sight or capture for scientific study; they seem to have no problem openly settling Tuckunka after the war. There's no sign of orbital bombardment, no evidence to suggest that the Rachni are hiding out on that world. Could it be that their actions to aid the rest of the galaxy, asking for nothing in return, garnered them a sizable amount of good will? 

Obviously there's no way to be entirely sure either way, but my money would be on an alliance formed on trust and altruism lasting far longer than one brought about by threat of omnicide.

Err...the Turians had nothing to do with the Rachni Wars.