I know I know, this is actually just a small piece of the game that I want to talk about. In Mass Effect 3, Legion decides that he wants to upload Reaper code to all Geth, making it so that they will be independent and "true" A.I....even though in ME2 he flat out said that he couldn't understand why anyone wanted to be independent from the rest of their race. Was there an explanation for this that I missed? Was the prospect of extermination so great that Legion was willing to sacrifice who the Geth were? Did he think the Geth needed to change after the willingly sided with the Reapers? I'm so confused.
Something I just realized about Mass Effect 3 (spoilers ahead)
- Thread starter Erttheking
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm assuming that they would all still be apart of their network, or The Collective, except they're intelligence would not diminish if one was alone. That's how I interpreted it but there is a wikianswers page for Mass effect for a reason so check there.
Honestly, the writing kind of fell apart during the whole Rannoch climax.
I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the writers just forgot about that stuff.
After all, remember how adamant Legion was in ME2 about how the 'true' Geth should develop their own path seperate from the 'old machines'? Unlike the heretics who accept the gifts of the Reapers? Yeah... not any more! Reaper code for everybody!
I also loved Legion's explanation for why he wasn't under Reaper control like the rest of the Geth. "This platform is too complex". Yup. That one reaper was controlling the countless billions of programs comprising the Geth collective, but apparently Legion was just too complex for it. (Bear in mind, the only difference with Legion is that his platform houses more programs than the normal ones so he can remain intelligent even when out of contact with other Geth.)
The whole Reaper upgrade kinda "ruins" the Geth if you ask me. They were interesting because they were so distinctly other, with their collective intelligence and synthetic perspectives. Add some Reaper code and BAM, suddenly they are "truly alive" ('cause they were dead before that, right?) and talking in first person and shit. The things that made them interesting are gone. Luckily, we didn't see much more of them after Rannoch, so the game never got a chance to really rub it in.
I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the writers just forgot about that stuff.
After all, remember how adamant Legion was in ME2 about how the 'true' Geth should develop their own path seperate from the 'old machines'? Unlike the heretics who accept the gifts of the Reapers? Yeah... not any more! Reaper code for everybody!
I also loved Legion's explanation for why he wasn't under Reaper control like the rest of the Geth. "This platform is too complex". Yup. That one reaper was controlling the countless billions of programs comprising the Geth collective, but apparently Legion was just too complex for it. (Bear in mind, the only difference with Legion is that his platform houses more programs than the normal ones so he can remain intelligent even when out of contact with other Geth.)
The whole Reaper upgrade kinda "ruins" the Geth if you ask me. They were interesting because they were so distinctly other, with their collective intelligence and synthetic perspectives. Add some Reaper code and BAM, suddenly they are "truly alive" ('cause they were dead before that, right?) and talking in first person and shit. The things that made them interesting are gone. Luckily, we didn't see much more of them after Rannoch, so the game never got a chance to really rub it in.
I've decided in my future playthroughs of Mass Effect 3 (I still have some characters who went through 1 and 2, but not 3 yet) I'm just going to stop after the Tuchanka mission. It's a much better climax than the actual climax.
Within the Mass Effect 3 storyline we discover that the geth were slowly evolving, their programming changing very slowly to a point that an individual consciousness was starting to form. This leads to speculation as to whether or not these machines had a "soul".
Legion's own evolution (I'm assuming) was somewhat quicker, as he had been living outside the rest of the geth populace and learning from other species (so he has context). His time spent with Shepard also allowed him to witness firsthand what it meant to be an individual...and alive.
This is one of the underlying themes of Mass Effect 3: That the existence of individuality and freedom of "choice" (ha ha! I see what they did there!) is one of the defining aspects of living organics, a force capable of crossing species and synthetics.
Legion's own evolution (I'm assuming) was somewhat quicker, as he had been living outside the rest of the geth populace and learning from other species (so he has context). His time spent with Shepard also allowed him to witness firsthand what it meant to be an individual...and alive.
This is one of the underlying themes of Mass Effect 3: That the existence of individuality and freedom of "choice" (ha ha! I see what they did there!) is one of the defining aspects of living organics, a force capable of crossing species and synthetics.
When he said he didn't understand why, he was a Geth collective (although far from the rest of his race).
When he decided to upload the code, he'd already used it to become an individual.
I assume becoming a sentient individual changed his perspective on individuality.
When he decided to upload the code, he'd already used it to become an individual.
I assume becoming a sentient individual changed his perspective on individuality.
No.ravenshrike said:
a) It's only vaguely implied that Legion may have been that original platform seen picking up a rifle. Very vaguely. If you tilt your head. And squint. In fact, that would contradict things said by Legion in ME2, so it would make more sense if they were just referring to the rifle, not the platform, which I'm pretty sure they were.
b) Geth don't evolve according to natural selection over time. They evolve by altering their own programming. Geth share updates and information. Any "evolutions" achieved by Legion would be shared among all the Geth.
So, actually, the only difference between Legion and a normal Geth platform is that he has more programs. If I remember right, he had about 10x the norm. There's no good reason that a Reaper controlling the entire Geth collective wouldn't be able to control Legion the same way. It's a garden variety plot hole caused by lazy writing.
In ME2 legion's problem (well the geths problem with consensus seperation) Was that the heretics served the reapers, and he wasn't a he, he was ALL non-heretic geth. After these events the geth realised that Individuality would be their only means to avoid the heretic problem from happening again, and the reaper code was the fastest method of achieving this.erttheking said:
The real question is, how did legion become an individual before the rest of the geth without the reaper code and without breaking from the consensus (Before he dies he refers to himself as I).
When in doubt: Space Magic.
The problem is that what exactly happened when Legion uploaded the reaper code isn't explained as well as it should have been. So yes, another example of poor writing. But at least you can speculate about it and make up your own explanation that doesn't break that part of the story. You can argue that just because geth would achieve individual intelligence doesn't mean they would stop sharing consensus.