Dug up old writer's commentary straight from the horses mouth today (Link inside)

Dec 13, 2016 18:16:29 GMT Link"Guess"ski said:

Dec 13, 2016 17:16:42 GMT Iakus said:

To give credit where it's due, Cole's Pinocchio story was way better handled and made more sense than Legion's.


Maybe fantasy is more Weekes' area of expertise? 

I don't think that matters. I also don't think Cole's story was any better just because he was a spirit that wanted to be a human as opposed to synthetics that wanted to be human. The difference is that there wasn't a cole in DA:O or DA2 to compare it against, but it's just as straightforward and uninteresting.

I wish I still had some of my old posts about the Geth but here is a perhaps poorly formulated post of one of my problems regarding how the Geth were concluded but first, a poorly formulated section about Cole's story in comparison to the Geth: 

I consider Cole's conflict to be the result of his spirit nature and in a way, his personal quest explored that. We also see how this affects him including in that he remains, well, Cole with an otherworldly feel still to his character. The solutions fit with his character and we see what happens when he becomes more human as a result of one of the solutions.

The Geth either die or achieve what seems to be individual intelligence but we don't see how individual intelligence affects them as a race: in what ways does it change them and in what ways does it not? Do they still wish to contruct their megastructure to store all their programs?

The Geth basically exit the story after the Rannoch storyline without addressing what the Geth are like after an event that would very likely change the very way they think. With the Tuchankha storyline, you could see the potential paths and potential consequences to curing the Genophage. With the quarian side of the Rannoch storyline, you could see the same.

With the Geth, though? I don't consider that you really can. Again, you very likely change how an entire race thinks and it feels like it was skimmed over. To put it more briefly: it feels like it was considered and addressed what it could be like if the Genophage was cured and if the quarians regained their homeworld. It does not feel like it was considered or addressed what it could be like if the Geth achieved individual sentience.

Take Legion as an example: Legion was a platform composed of several Geth programs so did each program achieve individual sentience or were they merged together into one program by what happened? Do a platform still need multiple Geth programs to function as well as before or can a platform be run by a single program? Legion even refers to itself by first person pronouns in its final dialogue when, as far as I remember, it would still be composed of a large number of Geth programs. So do the Geth consider themselves one when running a platform unit or are they just doing this for dramatic sake or simplicity? The way the scene is played suggests it is suppose to be that Legion is demonstrating its individualism to convey that it has achieved sentience but if each program has gained individual intelligence then Legion would still be Legion for we are many. 

This is another reason why I feel that EDI should have remained a non-squadmate and instead we should have had a Geth squadmate, be it Legion or another platform. If the Rannoch storyline concluded with the Geth alive then we'd see how this affected the Geth like in how they think. We see the results of the Geth storyline like we do with the quarian storyline through Tali. I don't recall EDI having a Pinocchio story or any other story in the previous game so it's not like there'd be a missing conclusion to something like that pertaining to EDI.  

I do not feel like this individual intelligence or whatever it was suppose to be fitted with the Geth especially as a storyline conclusion for them. Like Vortex13 says, it feels like they thought the Geth needed to become human in thought to truely be considered people but they don't. It was not necessary and in my opinion, it took away from the Geth. The Geth were even already working on their own way of achieving sentience by building a megastructure to house their programs in so it was not like they would never achieve it on their own: they'd just have achieved it in a different manner and a way that I feel rather fits their race better.

The conclusion could have been to free them from the Reapers and create peace between them and the quarians. The Geth build their megastructure in time and if peace was achieved, they do so while co-inhabiting Rannoch with the quarians. You'd even still be able to have that adorable point about the Geth helpping speed-up the quarians' ability to survive outside their suits.

Nov 30, 2016 10:37:45 GMT Sondergaard said:

'Anyway. I fully expected some people write her off as a bigot. What surprises me is that no one's pointed out that her position does have some sense. Evidently, I did something very wrong here.'
He's too hard on himself. I never considered Ashley a bigot. Rough edges and common sense are what I always got from her. Always thought it was brave of them to have a character who took that approach rather than another xenophile.

I don't consider Ashley to be a bigot either but I do see Ashley in the first game as having a racial prejudice towards aliens regardless of author intent. I should note, however, that I don’t see it as something that lessens Ashley’s character: far from it. It is something I like about Ashley’s character. As I can recall, we see that it is not uncommon amongst humans in the first game to have a racial prejudice towards aliens and likewise, that it is not uncommon amongst aliens to have a racial prejudice towards humans. It make sense that she’d have that racial prejudice because of the First Contact War and that said racial prejudice was likely passed down in her family as it commonly is. It does not mean that I think that she considers aliens to not be people or be less in comparison to humans. She just had a racial prejudice in the first Mass Effect where she distrusted aliens because of their race even when the individual she meets haven’t given her cause to.

I do think there was a flaw in his choice of story though perhaps it lies with me. It seems like the roles of human and dog in the story were not necessarily that of humanity in the role of human and alienity in the role of dog. It could have been alien in the role of human and human in the role of dog. The point of the story seemed to have been that each race would sacrifice the other for their own self-preservation.

I think it was a poor choice of story to convey this because it seems to assume that every person's response to the situation would be self-preservation. It ignores that many people love their pets to such a degree that they would not sacrifice theirs just to save themselves. This is even if you consider people who didn't raise their dogs from when said dogs were puppies. I did.  To some, protecting their pets becomes the instinct in a danger situation: it's becomes the response to seeing a loved one in danger. Self-preservation is often set aside without a second thought when something or someone we love are in danger.

If he'd used a story like say about two governments then it likely have been better in getting Ashley's point across.