Stupid Newbie Questions, The Prequel: Mass Effect 1

Wut... you didn't enjoy telling off the council?

Did you take on any extra passengers after Virmire?

I found that mysterious as well... as long as you do all the tasks helping Kirrahe's team, they'll survive regardless of which one you choose.  I used to always save the one I send with Kirrahe's team until I accidentally didn't and was shocked to find the Salarians had still made it onboard... sneaky STG guys!

My first time on Virmire I had a feeling I'd lose Kaidan or Ashley when we got to the salarian camp -- which was accidentally confirmed by somebody while I was playing.  I was, of course, romancing Kaidan so I sent Ashley along with the salarians. I had some doubts, but she had proved to be professional, so, I wasn't overly worried about her working with them and I wasn't gonna lose Kaidan.

Which left him with the bomb.

And Shepard saving him at the bomb site. I do prefer that fight to rescuing the salarians, it all feels so dramatic and tense with the BIG BOOM BOMB just sitting there TICKING down while I scuffle with Saren. Pretty intense. It also made some sense to me to make sure the bomb was ok, even though Kirrahe says little can stop it.

Then I'm back on the Normandy and see the salarians on my ship and I just  Why did they live but Ashley died? At first I thought I could've saved her too, and I was pissed. Alas, not true...

That same reasoning can be applied to Kaidan as well, now there's just context. When I saved Ashley she was romanced so I've yet to see her non-romanced version on Horizon, but... It is called the "Horizon Treatment" for a reason.

I still generally rescue the squad mate with the Salarians.  My normal reasoning now is that the squad mate with the bomb has already armed the bomb and is voluntarily staying with it to "make sure the bomb goes off, no matter what."  Since that squad mate is protecting the bomb and I trust them, my duty is clear... to go get the Salarians and the squad mate with them and then get all our asses off the planet before the bomb goes off.  The fight is more intense at the bomb site (and worth a little more XP).  To me, the following dialogues Shepard has about this also make a lot more sense - He says that the VS died a hero in order to save the rest of the team; and in ME2, he says that he had to save as many people as he could.  The Salarians being on the ship make more sense if Shepard goes to that group and picks them up.

The whole situation, though, is somewhat bogus in that the roles are reversed from what they should be.  The Salarians should be putting a squad of their men on Normandy to arm and protect the bomb once it is delivered simply for the fact that it is their jerry-rigged bomb made from their ship's drive core.

I've started Ilos. Told Anderson to break into Udina's computer and got to see Anderson knock him out. Had surprisingly rough asari sex...I will never look at Liara the same way again

Ummmm....

Saving the council is more in line with Shepard's personality, and I already had a worldstate where the council was sacrificed...so I guess I'll save them?

I'm not confident in this choice.


Edit: Shit. I thought killing Saren was too easy.

She can be xenophobic at times, and gets badly misquoted in ME2 if she was the one who died on Virmire, but I don't think she's that bad.  However, I hate an ME universe without Kaidan in it so...sorry, Ash, I can romance tons of women but not too many guys.  You lose.

Don't worry, it has absolutely zero effect on the next two games' plots anyway.

There are 3 different world states involving the council - saved; saved and replaced with a new mult-species council (default); and saved and replaced with an all human council.  It can affect Shepard's ability to keep his/her spectre status in ME2.  In ME3, a multi-species council returns regardless and Shepard gets reinstated as a specture regardless in ME3.  So, all even an all-human council in ME2 does is change the "tone" of things on the Citadel in ME2 (as in how much anti-human sentiment you can overhear being expressed during the game).  One of the biggest dialogue changes is the speech Joram Talid makes during Thane's loyalty mission.

Yeah, the final battle with Saren is pretty underwhelming.  Did you talk Saren into committing suicide or fight him while he was flying around on his little platform?  I usually don't talk him into suiciding just to get at least a little more out of the final battle... but it's still not that difficult a fight.

Congratulations on finishing ME1.  No more mako!