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Saren
🕑 Added 2021-06-18 14:01:03 +0000 UTCTonight, I watched a friend complete Mass Effect 1 for the first time. Being fourteen years old, they knew you fight Saren on a Hoverboard at the end (if you didn't pick the right conversation options), but that's about it. The rest of the finale was blind, and very fun to watch someone go through for the first time like I did ten years ago.
From here, I'll be mentioning a couple spoilers for Mass Effect 1, which, if you're like this friend of mine, and haven't played it to completion before, you should.
The more I think about Mass Effect 1, the more I take a liking to things. The emphasis on humanity's aggression, the corporate intrigue on planets like Noveria and Feros, and witnessing your Shepard grow from your average soldier to a Colossus Armor Wearing badass with enough firepower to embarrass a company of Batarians.
Specifically in Bring Down the Sky.
This time around I've been thinking about Saren. He's quite a Villain that didn't leave a good first impression on me. He speaks with an overtly evil tones, murders the first friendly Turian on your squad, speaks with said tone at the Council who assumes his innocence, it's not bad storytelling but… traditional storytelling.
And depending on how you play the game, that can be all there is to see of Saren, during my first playthrough, there weren't any other attempts made to understand him, empathize with him, or get to his true motivations. I mostly accepted what he said as a brainwashed bad guy, that he'll do anything for this giant piece of Sushi wanting to rule the galaxy.
And yes, those things are true but… he is a reflection of Shepard.
Not just because you're both Specters, but because you're both ultimately reacting to the same knowledge, that the Reapers are going to wipe out the galaxy, it is inevitable, and Saren sees no hope in fighting, so he settles for the next best thing.
Best, might be the wrong word to use.
And not being able to appreciate this reflection depending on how you play the game, is in part Role Playing. Shepard doesn't need to empathize or debate Saren to have the motivation to stop him, so choosing to see exactly how he portrays himself without intervention, is rightfully seamless. Saren only would ultimately come around to Shepard's perspective, if Shepard actively contests his beliefs.
I've thought about things that could've made Saren's connection to Shepard more powerful. Maybe, the vision from the Beacon is less mysterious, and therefore, you better understand Saren's fear of the future. Maybe you play a mission as Saren and experience his torment directly. Maybe the debates between him and Shepard are longer and more inquisitive.
But really, the more I think about it, that Saren's a Villain you need to reach out to understand, is part of what makes him grow on me. I've changed my mind about people after learning more about them in the real world, and Saren's merely that in a Virtual World. He goes from being a one note bad guy to a rather tragic figure, who spent years of his life having his free will slowly siphoned without even realizing it, and nobody but his mortal enemy trying to help him.
Even his heroic sacrifice doesn't let him die as himself, forced to fight Shepard as Sovereign's puppet via the implants and augmentations forced upon him...
Comments
Something I find about not having much of a connection with Saren is his amount of screentime, which I’m gonna guess amounts to 10 minutes in the full game. That’d be OK if he had an overshadowing presence but that’s hard to do when in Mass Effect, you’re so caught up in the other stories (corp intrigue on Noveria, Thorian etc). It’s actually similar to Dragon Age Inquisition. Corypheus isn’t that great a villain in it yet he’s incredibly intimidating in the Dragon Age 2 DLC he’s introduced in, because the focus is on him. I think it’s a unique problem to RPGs with dozens of side stories to distract from the main threat
Justin Wolownik
I think that whole "you need to reach out to understand" aspect can be applied to the squad members as well, and it's one of the biggest strengths of the game. Admittedly, I wasn't really into Garrus as a character initially - after 2020, it was a little difficult to grow attached when he can be summarized as: "cop who dislikes working under restrictions and wants to shoot bad guys on his own terms" - but talking with him more provides enough development to make him extremely likable by the end. I particularly sympathized with his strained relationship with his disapproving father, and I find it compelling that you can actually argue with him and eventually change his views by taking the Paragon route. Mass Effect gives the players the freedom to engage with its characters and the universe as much or as little as they want, and that's pretty cool.
