Exploration of Themes: Colonization: Imperialism or ... not

I like to hope that this is just the 'we come in peace, here is our special knowledge that we're sure you want to know, resources we're sure you'll want to have, tools we're sure you'll want to use' phase.

I mean, there's at least hints at a not so wonderful future. Full-on real world history brutality? Probably not. Bad Imperialist Protagonist? Certainly not. But I can see a next game broadening, say, what Ryder thinks he has to do in order to maintain, and grow, order. And this can also include more brutal actions being illustrated by other characters, ally and enemy.


This is a 'fresh start'. Okay! But I found it interesting how many lines there were that seemed to hint that fresh starts are kind of like playing the fool - we don't know whether things will really go 'good' or 'bad' in whatever way yet. At least as Shepard in ME1 we could tell that there was a general direction that was likely going to be mostly followed upon. This? Well, prepare to get blamed for something or another, and to self-justify whatever route you took, or feel guilt whether its rightly placed or not, and I hope Bioware doesn't hold back on that like they did within MEA (they had the idea, but still pushed you along).


I know the writers, or at least the current ones, want to do the scifi 'we're trying to learn from the mistakes of the past (aka today's world)' thing. Great. I'm more into that than the brutality focus, alright. But I felt MEA-series(?) so far neglected that part too much.

I know there's reasons/contrivances for that (as OP even list). I'm saying those reasons/contrivances don't necessarily need to exist, but the writers did it anyway.


Like so much of MEA, it distinctly hints at something deeper, but decides this isn't the chapter to dive into that. Granted, in some ways, I like that more than the MET's "MUST GO KILL REAPER, CHARACTERS SAYING MAYBE INTERESTING THINGS AND SOME MAYBE INTERESTING THINGS HAPPENING BUT MUST GO KILL REAPER I AM SHEPARD I HAVE GUN" (/s) But it still played out weaker than I'd have ever wanted.