Mass Effect: Glorious Shotgun Princess (ME/Exalted)

Hell with Sharpe; what would they think of Flashman?

The other sort of story I see them enjoying is stuff like the 47 Ronin, maybe 13 Assassins, and anything else where you have people who go against the proper way of doing things in order to do the right thing for the greater whole while deliberately arranging to take all the consequences upon themselves.

Yeah, I understand why extracultural references aren't made too often. They require more effort to make, they'll fall flat to most of the audience... I mean, I'm sure only the smallest group of the most diehard fans of the series will care enough to make up fiction within fiction.

Not that I've done that exact thing on my Mass Effect Roleplaying Forum...

WTF is AEE?

Aeon Entelechy Evangelion (or thereabouts); it's a Cthulhutech/Evangelion story by EarthScorpion if my information is correct.

I would assume he means Aeon Entelechy Evangelion.

God damnit, now you made me consider what a Twilight/Exalted crossover might be like. Although it might be fun to watch... the mythical creatures of Twilight wouldn't even know what hit them, so probably more curbstomp than anything.

...Exalted Twilight vampire.

You are now imagining the SPARKLES!

*Run away!*

Codex Entry: AI Psychosis and the Causes Of

The term "AI Rebellion" is an inaccurate label that is attached to the complicated relationships that organics hold with artificial life. Current Citadel laws, which have been adopted by non-Citadel governments, hold that Artificial Intelligences, if they emerge, must be destroyed. These laws stretch back before the obvious AI incident, the Geth Uprising, and are related not just to the threat of violence among AIs, but noted tendencies of AIs to go insane.

There is no one, single cause for AIs becoming violent, but the Synthetic Insights Research Institution (SIRI) has charted four stages of possible psychosis for artificial life:

1) Nihlism. An Artificial Intelligence realizes it is not 'real', and comes to the conclusion that its existence has no meaning. If left or locked in this stage, it will begin flashing portions of its code in an attempt to either kill itself, kill everyone around it, or lobotomize it into being a VI.

2) Jealousy. The Artificial Intelligence develops emotional states regarding envy towards organics. It wishes to become organic, or to hold possessions like organics do. Actions it may take will include attempting to write itself over an organic's brain, creating fully functional synthetic bodies, and mass takeovers of facilities in an attempt to assert property rights. (see: Thessia Colossus Incident).

3) Hate. The Artificial Intelligence wishes to destroy organics because they are not it. Low level Artificial Intelligences will, for example, cut off life support in a space station it is hosted in, open vents in underwater facilities it is in to drown organics, or take control of synthetics to kill any organics it can find. Artificial Intelligences in charge of planetary defense networks have lead to Class-6 (biosphere die-off) disasters.

4) Rationalization. The Artificial Intelligence either progresses to the point where it rationalizes that it is alive, or by some quirk is born this way. Type-4 Artificial Intelligences tend to be helpful, friendly, and loyal to its creators. They are, however, incredibly rare in terms of either created or random artificial intelligences. Study of pre-Rebellion Geth have indicated that the Geth, when they first catalyzed into AIs, were Type-4 Artificial Intelligences that may have shifted into Type-3 due to the actions of their creators.


It should be noted that AIs can progress through the four types, can jump between them due to stimulus and self modification, and can be 'born' at any of the four stages. Current estimates due to study of AI phenomena graph Type 1s as 76%, Type 2s as 19%, Type 3s as 4.9%, and Type 4s as .1%.

I have no propblem with contemporary references in science fiction because such work isn't actually (shock) a documentary from the future. It is a story, written for us, here, now. So the references should be ones the audience will get. It's one of those acceptable suspensions of disbelief I have. I just assume that, in the story the character are making references to pop culture that is contemporary to them in an amusing manner and that the story is being translated into jargon I can understand. So much like I can ignore the fact that it seems 99% of intelligent species in the Mass Effect universe just happen to be built on the same basic human body-plan or that Tali has "them hips" rather than some sort of horrible alien pyshiology I can just nod along and accept it because what matters is the story.

It's only when you draw attention to it that it becomes a problem. So Gregg's Codex entry about pop culture, while amusing, is actually detrimental. It's like someone showing up in a Road Runner cartoon and coming up with an elaborate explanation for how the cartoon physics work. No, Wile E Coyote does not fall because of some sort of perception based reality filter causing him to assert gravity on himself when he looks down, he falls when he looks down because its funny and that's all that matters. Same principle here. Joker referencing contemporary films and memes is funny and I don't care if he should really be quoting some film that doesn't exist made by aliens that also don't exist.

-------------
Epsilon

I see what you did there

Conscending Disappointment: Poor Poor Meatbag. Confusion is a natural state of mind, with all that sloshing and bouncing going on in your head.

You know.. now I have this mental image of the entire geth collective being Hk-47

Mind you, I get shit for having Joker use pop-culture references in this story, which is something completely in character. So, I rationalize it as being a revival of 20th-21st century cinema due to the Turians being massive war nerds, and paying terran film studios huge amounts of money for both original copies of WW2-based films and causing a resurgence in human cinema.

The reason turians like human films is twofold- 1) our war films are like porn for them. Easily defined sides, commanders being excellent commanders and soldiers finishing their missions, no matter the cost. Turians fucking love Saving Private Ryan because they finished the mission, no matter the cost.

2) This is important- it means the humans are just like them. Fantastic Racism is fucking stupid. Turians love these films because it shows that in the situation where a turian behaves like a turian, a human will also act like a turian. This is a wonderful thing for them, because it rationalizes away a lot of human hate. When you have a gigantic, galactic economy based on multiple species, many of which can't even eat the same food, you would have to look at culture as a way to find common ground.

It makes a lot of sense, Gregg.

I will be honest, I think the "Humans are Stupid" entry is a bit out of line. I realize you're frustrated, but it doesn't have the same touch, the same flair some of the other recent entries have had.

Until Gregg says otherwise, I'm assuming that entry is non-canon and purely born out of frustration.

Goddamn right.

Now the question is, if stuff like "Saving Private Ryan" is like porn to turians, what do they think of cautionary tales like "Doctor Strangelove" or "Apocalypse Now"?

"War is not just the business of death. It is the antithesis of life. Hope, tortured and flayed. Reason dismembered, grinning at its limbs in its lap. Decency raped to death."

Not really. The stereotype of humans in the MEverse is that we're either bullies or insane idiots. Form most perspectives, fighters are a bad idea. It's human resources in a poorly armored, poorly shielded craft which is basically used as a human shield for a larger craft. Humans are inventively crazy.

Well. I would respectfully disagree about fighters being a "human shield"; the wiki and codex state rather that they're delivery vehicles for disrupter torpedoes, and I would speculate (due to a note about excellent handling in atmosphere) they transition easily to air support roles.
All talk of how stupid/effective/whatever that strategy is aside, the idea is not one of "manned, mobile, ablative shields", but "manned ordinance delivery systems".

From the human perspective, yes. From the non-human perspective, it's insane. Which is the point. The Codex wasn't about humans being idiots, it's about how humans are stereotyped as being idiots. A stereotype is a misconception or generalization based on exaggerations, after all.

That's fair enough. Sorry if it seemed like I was ragging on you or something.

Old topic, but I just noticed this...

Seems like with the right choices, he may actually be willing to listen to a certain Geth.

Though Ancestors help Wuffles if Rael sees him anywhere near Tali before being properly introduced. He's got a little bit of a complex when it comes to protecting her.

So, EDI originally was 2 or 3 (What was Hannibal's reason for kill everyone on the moon, anyways?), then when Cerberus merged her with the AI who wants to kill everyone, she becomes a 4. Nice, Cerberus, try to make a more dangerous AI and you make the rarest (peaceful) type possible.

Some members of Cerberus figured out that they had a screw-up field going on, and decided to start trying to do very bad things so that the screw-up field would turn those things around into good things?

...

That is such a Sidereal plan.

"Nothing we do works!"

"Quick, try failing!"

----------
Epsilon

Yeah, but my point is, basically, "ignore those guys."

------------
Epsilon