Mass Effect Retrospective 15: Andromeda Companions, "Like 'X', but..."

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

 So, even though I've uninstalled Andromeda to free up space for Dark Souls, I'm going to finish off my retrospective. And today, that means comparing the Tempest crew with the Normandy crew. Or rather, to show just how similar the Tempest crew can be to the Normandy crew.

Starting off with the cockpit, Kallo is very different from Joker. While both are crack pilots who are suited to the seat, Kallo was part of the original Tempest design team, and came to Andromeda with the ship. And his memory is good, even for a salarian, meaning he's reliving the building of the Tempest all the time.

Suvi is like a combined Mordin/EDI/Traynor in terms of her roles. Like Mordin, she's the science officer on the Tempest, and like EDI, she's the voice that tells you that you've launched probes. But unlike them both, she's a woman of faith, though it's more of an "I believe in A monotheistic deity, but not any specific one in respect to real world religions." And like Traynor, she's the lesbian romance, though both are more than their sexual preferences, I prefer Suvi's romance to Traynor, since Suvi feels more natural, since it's slower (though you could blame Traynor's romance to it being the last game in the trilogy).

Next on the list is Dr. Lexi T'Perro, who is the ship's doctor. And of course, we compare her to Dr. Chakwas. Lexi plays the role of the "motherly doctor who takes care of the crew", though Lexi lacks Dr. Chakwas' tact. Lexi worries that the crew thinks that she thinks of them as nothing more than experiments, and that bothers her greatly.

Cora Harper takes the role of Kaidan/Jack/Miranda. Like Kaidan and Jack, she's the overpowered human biotic, and like Miranda, she's the second in command of the Pathfinder team. However, what makes Cora "unique" is that she has an asari mindset due to serving with asari Commandos for four years. Little more needs to be said about Cora. She's one of two heterosexual romances on the Tempest.

Liam is the resident "fish out of water", much like James Vega. But where Vega grows into himself over the course of 3, Liam tries to force his views upon a new galaxy. And while he does eventually find his niche, his path is really an annoying one, at least to me. Also, Liam's the other heterosexual romance on the Tempest.

Next up is Nakmor Drak. And Wrex is the best comparison for Drak; an old man of a krogan who wants better for his race, and is willing to fight for it. What makes him unique is that he's got Shepard levels of cybernetics. 

Up next is Peebee. She's like Liara only in terms of being young. In fact, it seems that her writers did everything they could to make her NOT like Liara while still making them both young scientists. The only other thing that's similar between the two is that she's a romance for both Ryders, though if an asari's a romance option, she's probably into both sexes.

Vetra Nyx is pretty much "what if Garrus grew up on Omega instead of Palaven". She's a turian who didn't go into boot camp at 15 and instead became a smuggler. Like Garrus, she cares about her remaining family, though in Vetra's case, her sister is a huge part of the game, and is even a part of her loyalty mission.

Vetra's also a romance for both Ryders.

Gil Brodie takes elements from Lt. Adams in that he's the "Chief Engineer", though unlike Adams, he's the only engineer. He clashes with Kallo over the Tempest; Gil is constantly remodeling and upgrading the Tempest to make it better suited for Andromeda, while Kallo wants him to leave the Tempest alone. That's actually their combined storyline, ending with them coming to an agreement.

Gil's also the gay romance for a male Ryder.

And last but not least, Jaal Ama Darav. And much like Tali was to the Normandy, he's the representative of his species.Lot of lore dumps from Jaal regarding the Angara. But unlike Tali, he's a romance for both Ryders.

All in all, the Tempest crew is very much like the Normandy crew, though much less fleshed out to only having 1 game to shine in. If their story had continued, they'd have had time to grow like the Normandy crew did.

 So, that's it for my Mass Effect retrospective, at least for now. When the next game comes out, I'll review the game and analyze its combat and companions once again. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR Version 2 Summary

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Now, remember, this story was conceived before the SWTOR announcement, some plot details will not conform with the current continuity.

Our story began between Revan and Bastila's Jedi strike team. Revan had just taken down a Jedi while Bastila and her team took down some of Revan's Sith. Bastila spoke her famous "You cannot win, Revan", and he dropped into his defensive stance before Malak's attack rocked Revan's ship, killing Bastila's team and gravely wounding Revan. Bastila was about to leave when she felt Revan's life force still active, though it was weak. She began healing him, only for a memory that they shared to surface; Revan, at 12, found Bastila crying out in the Dantooine wilderness. Bastila was four at the time, and Revan was the first Jedi to be nice to her after she was separated from her parents.

Bastila was shocked that Revan also found this memory important, and did everything she could to save his life. Doing so created their Force bond, though the memory that they shared reinforced it. She brought Revan before the Jedi on Dantooine, and they healed his body and mind. And that's where the hook of this story happens; they recovered Revan's personality, though they chose to not bring back the past 5 years, the length of the Mandalorian Wars and Revan's Jedi Civil War. 

Upon Revan's recovery, Bastila related the last few years to Revan, and he decided that he needed undo the damage he did to the galaxy. He talked to the Council on Dantooine, and they decided to try to deliberately recover his memories of how he managed to create the fleet, though hiding his identity at first.

He followed Bastila onto the Endar Spire, pretending to not know each other, but their bond allowed a sort of telepathic communication not found in most Force bonds. Then the Sith attack over Taris happens, and Revan had to reveal his Force powers during his escape. Due to this, he revealed to Carth his identity, and revealed his plan for this war to Carth; find a way to end the threat to the galaxy that he knew was out there that caused him to fall to the Dark Side and stop it it without compromising himself.

The events of Taris, along with most of the story, happen as they did in the games, though with a slight twist with Revan knowing who he is. the biggest change, other than Carth knowing who Revan is from the start, is that Revan utilized the Force to save the lives of himself, Carth, Mission and Zaalbar from a volley of grenades. He reveals that he is an undercover Jedi, though not revealing his name at this moment. 

The next biggest change is that, during the escape, Mission was injured. And when I say injured, I mean she had a metal bar impale her spine, paralyzing her. For the rest of the story until the Leviathan interception. She's dealing with physical therapy and acclimation to her cybernetics until she finally returns to normal around the time of Korriban. 

Anyway, during Dantooine, Revan finds Juhani, and recognizes her as "that young Cathar he saved on Taris years ago", and redeems her. She joins the crew, and during the Star Map quest, Revan regained some of his lost memories. 

This is how most of the story went; Revan goes through the events of the game, and regains some of his memories when he finds the Star Map. However, Revan has a special interaction with HK-47 and Jolee Bindo. With HK-47, Revan restores HK's memories upon buying him, and with Jolee, he mentions how "familiar his presence is".

As for the Leviathan, Revan, Bastila and Carth tell the crew that they don't want to know their escape plans, so every one of them happens, including Mission's. She finds this to be her "I'm back to normal" mission, since at this point, she hadn't been able to do what she did.

However, the battle between Revan and Malak happened differently than in the game; Revan regains all his remaining memories, and is battling his own Dark Side while fighting Malak, and he lost the fight, and Bastila did her thing to save the crew.

Upon escape, Revan talks to Carth about regaining all his memories, saying he's "now the man who destroyed Carth's world", and that he'd understand if Carth wanted to leave. Carth said that at this point, he "can't hate him" for what he did, since Revan had chosen to be better.

They headed to Korriban, since they still needed the coordinates from the last map, and Revan had to tip toe around his identity, though he was thankful that nobody knew his face. He redeemed Yuthura Ban, and was met by the Sith Lady character from the last story, and they talked about Revan's current plans. He told Sith Lady that he intended to stop Malak, then bring the might of the Republic against his old Sith Master. She told Revan that her team might not like this "redemption", though she herself would stay loyal to him.

The Ebon Hawk crew then landed on Rakata Prime, where Revan got into the Temple, and utilized his romance with Bastila, whom he'd been building a rapport with during this entire story to make her doubt her loyalty to Malak. And upon the Star Forge, he helps redeem Bastila, where they share their first kiss.

Revan defeated Malak, and was made a Jedi Master for his efforts, Bastila a Jedi Knight. He then tasks his friends with their quests for the next few years; Carth to gain influence within the Republic Navy, Zaalbar strengthened the Wookiees, Mission creating an underworld force for Revan to gather supplies, and with Canderous, he retrieved Mandalore's mask. 

From here, Revan and Bastila head into the unknown, where they would try to hold off Revan's old master for a while.

Next up is the story of Vhae Pano, the Jedi Exile. And unlike the two prior stories, this one hadn't been started at the time I stopped this saga. So this will be all new to my old fans. But for now, stay Beautiful Freaks!