An Unusual form of Badassness from Mass Effect 1 (Warning: Spoilers)

[Crazyshak48]

Ok, so this is my second playthrough of ME, which I'm wrapping up so I can play ME2 now that I have the time to play and enjoy it. So I battle my way through the Citadel and reach Saren. I'm ready for a fight, but when I look at the dialogue I see a Charm option highlighted. Now I maxed that skill out, so I thought, what the hell, lets see what this does. I click it, and the dialogue progresses. A second one comes up, and I do it again. The dialogue continues, and Saren's starting to waver. A third one comes up. Wondering where this is going, I click it again.

Imagine my surprise when Saren thanks Shepard, then shoots himself in the head.

Now, I still had to fight the Saren-Sovereign husk thing, but I was still completely surprised by this turn of events. It was a bit anti-climactic to be sure, but the more I think back on it, the more enjoyable I find it. It's an unusual innovative twist that I can't say I've ever seen in a game before, plus I think it speaks to an unusual form of badassness that Shepard can actually talk the game's antagonist into killing himself (and still has enough guns to deal with him the hard way with if charisma fails).

In any case, I thought it was a fun (and funny) surprise twist to a game I like. Tell me what you think Escapists.

 

[dududf]

I've never actually fought saren on the citedel, pre-weird-huskification.

Although I don't think it's a redeemable quality if your so charming you can get people to commit suicide...

 

[Pandalisk]

I didn't find it Anti-Climatic, if anything i found it profound and deep.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Well, that part of the game also took me by surprise, but I found it very interesting and a good way to solve things.

 

[reg42]

Yeah, I did that on my playthrough. It was pretty shocking.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I thought it was pretty cool.

Fallout and Planescape: Torment had similar ways of talking the final boss to death.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Ah, yes I remember doing that on my first playthrough. It was quite a shocking twist and I was completely amazed.

 

[Legend of J]

Yeah i thought it was pretty epic (mine was intimidate) i scared him enough for him to kill himself.

 

[Irridium]

I wouldn't call it anti-climactic. If anything, it gave Saren more character. It showed he was guilty of all that he did. It showed he did what he thought was right at the time, and was sorry for it. He wished there was another way, and he realized as long as he was controlled by Sovereign, he would try to stop Shepard from saving everyone, so he killed himself so the galaxy could live.

Of course I could be reading too much into it, but thats what I got from that situation.

Loved Saren as a villain.

 

[moose49408]

Yeah, my first play through, I didn't have a high enough charm skill to do this (which unfortunately also caused the demise of Wrex) so I had to do it the hard way. There are more difficult moments in that game, but in terms of a "boss battle" I think that fight is hardest. His second form is actually much easier. Imagine my surprise when on my second play through I got him to commit suicide:

"Seriously? You're telling me that I could have talked my way out of this the first time through!?"

 

[Sronpop]

Yeah that happened to me aswell on my second playthough, I went pure renegade and had the intimidate options maxed, so I picked the intimidate option and he off'd himself. That was awesome. Still had to fight the other skeletal form though. Made me feel like a super bad ass though.

 

[wolf thing]

yeh i got that ending to. it also made saren seem less of a evil for the sake of being evil but made him seem more like a good guy that lost his way

 

[Danny Ocean]

Not really innovative. It's been done before.

Who cares?

It still kicked ass.

 

[Deofuta]

This was in fallout 3 as well. Made the pres kill himself. It was epic.

 

[Shaun555]

Yeah, I did that on my playthrough. It was pretty shocking.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts: "What's he gonna do, what's he gonna- wow he just shot himself!"

 

[reg42]

Yeah, I did that on my playthrough. It was pretty shocking.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts: "What's he gonna do, what's he gonna- wow he just shot himself!"

I was thinking "He's gonna shoot himself! No wait, he's the boss, he can't die- HOLY SHIT HE JUST SHOT HIMSELF!"

 

[Thunderhorse31]

I wouldn't call it anti-climactic. If anything, it gave Saren more character. It showed he was guilty of all that he did. It showed he did what he thought was right at the time, and was sorry for it. He wished there was another way, and he realized as long as he was controlled by Sovereign, he would try to stop Shepard from saving everyone, so he killed himself so the galaxy could live.

Of course I could be reading too much into it, but thats what I got from that situation.

Loved Saren as a villain.

I thought pretty much the same thing. Though personally I don't think the dialogue was done as well as it could have been - as guilty as Saren may have felt, Shepard's speech didn't strike me as being particularly convincing (Paragon especially) - but that's more of a script issue than anything else. Still, the scenario was pretty deep, much more interesting than simply "go here, fight boss."

 

[carpathic]

This happened on my first playthrough, I actually thought it was the only way to resolve the game...until I beat it recently with an *ahem* less charming, somewhat inept female character who managed to win mostly through luck most of the time...and incredibly powerful biotics too..

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I've never actually fought saren on the citedel, pre-weird-huskification.

Although I don't think it's a redeemable quality if your so charming you can get people to commit suicide...

"So tell me? Would you die for me?"
"Of course Commander Shepherd!"
"And would you...Kill...for me?"
"Anything for you Commander Shepherd!!"
"Good" *hands ensign a pistol with one round in the chamber* "Kill everybody in this room!" *As The Commander leaves the overly enthusiastic ensign alone in said room*

OT: Upon reflection, yes: it was pretty bad-ass that Shepherd was [theoretically] able to get Saren to reclaim his human...uh...sanity long enough to realize he was being used by Sovereign. I believe that qualifies The Commander for the highly sought-after title: Charismatic Stallion