I came to Mass Effect late, renting the first game to beat it very quickly and return it so I could move onto Mass Effect 2 which was current at the time. Despite that, Wrex still left an impression on me. Yes he was big and strong and a consummate warrior, but he had a real plight, a real quest. I was fortunate enough to have had enough Paragon Fun Bucks to talk him out of getting himself shot, but though I treasured his presence I never really read into the codex or thought about how much he actually wasn't like what people said the Krogan were. At worst, he was direct about what he wanted and willing to fight if he needed to, but he wasn't beyond sense, he was usually willing to talk even on things that he supposedly was unwilling to budge on. He values his own life as a part of his quest in a way I didn't realize was inverting how so many others go through the motions to throw theirs away.
Honestly I always interpreted Wrex being a mercenary despite his utter contempt for how many young krogan are just nihilists chasing money at the end of a gun until THEY wind up at the end of the gun as him having simply given up hope. He rationalizes it all away tidily enough (the destruction of Krogan culture, most of the remaining leadership being people like Wreav, Gatatog Uvenk, or that guy who leads the Blood Pack who still want to hold to their old ways under the Warlords, the near total lack of Krogan scientists who weren't pariahs like Okeer, etc) but it seemed pretty clear that after his father betrayed him under a banner of very explicitly SACRED truce and Wrex was forced to knife him to death he just lost any conception that the Krogan could be anything but a dying race until Shepard showed up in his life.
Oh man, this is such a good way of thinking about the companions in ME generally - and Wrex was absolutely the right pick to get specific about. I'd never made that association with DnD races and it opens *so* many conversations about the series' handling of race. Thanks for helping me see one of my favorite characters in a deeper light than ever! These ballads have been some of my favorite vids of yours lately. Great piece to round out the first wave.
Huh, never thought of looking at the ME alien races with D&D race equivalents, and having the Krogan being Orc-adjacent makes a lot more sense! And he's definitely my favorite alien tank in the series.
"Do you want me to arrest you?!" "I want you to try." Tuchanka is a fun word to say and a cool name for a planet. Real talk though, i really like Vorn from Andromeda. THAT Krogan is very overlooked and he's just my favorite man...
I keep replaying mass effect 1 and never end up moving on to ME2/ME3 on replays because other games come out and I get distracted after finishing ME1. Of course I played the full series through once. The first starting ME2 without realizing what a dumb idea that was and then play ME1-ME3 in one go back in college. I always remember Virmire. It was the best part of ME1 hands down. Everyone talks about the choice between letting Ashley or Kaiden die. (Always an easy choice, imo. Save Kaiden.) That’s not the part that stuck with me it was the part with talking down Wrex that always stuck. It made me angry because I always wanted the option to be able to get the cure for the genophage and fully side with wrex. But I only had the option to just calm him down and destroy the lab. It was such a gut punch for me. I felt robbed. But at the same time, I realized that if I just got the option to secure the cure, this moment would not have hit as hard. Talking him down showed your growth with Wrex. Also wrex’s greeting dialogue is the only one I remember. Him just going “Shephard.” Love that man.
Wrex was my reason for giving the first game a shot. I just fucking LOVED him appearing. Just that comment between him and the C-sec officer. "Wrex, do you WANT me to arrest you?" *chuckle* "I want you to TRY". He's also the most honest and straighforward guy around. He says it as it is, and doesn't like false sympathy or sugarcoating the situation as it is. Wrex is, and always will be, the ultimate Brogan.
It's a crime that killing Wrex is the default choice if you start from ME2. Back in the day, ME2 was the only one on Steam, so my first interaction with the universe didn't have Wrex in it. When my gf was playing through ME, one of the only times I helped guide her choices was at Virmire. She, much like me, couldn't let her "little lobster man" die.
I do ultimately think there are a lot of things that Mass Effect could have done better about the Krogan, especially in regards to showing us more diverse Krogans outside of the map dressing ones like the Krogan on the citadel really into poetry and Wrex. However, I do actually like in fantasy and science fiction to have alien races with complex issues that don't fall purely into human understandings of race. Like, I like that you can encounter Krogan who are open about the fact that if not for the genophage, they would have taken over the galaxy and murdered everyone, because it complicates the issue on how to deal with them since negotiation was not on the table. Its not a black or white genophage good or bad, its this big issue that has lasting ramifications when paired with how the Krogan do have adrenaline issues and fast birth rates which make a Krogan surrendering nearly impossible in their blood rage. As well it also brings up how the Salarians that are a race that lay eggs with similar volume to Krogan clutches would see the genophage as not a big deal especially with their short lifespans. To the Salarians, they didn't see the mental rammifications of having so many still births would have on the mothers which is really tackled with Mordin's character arc when he has to see this first hand with their task group. These are all things that can be taken and related to real races, but they are alien, messy and can't be entirely related to irl human races so there is always a disconnect and you cannot just insert them into whatever human race here. To me that is a primary function of fantasy, to present us something familiar, but twist it in such a way that a viewer can look at it through a different lens and readjust their prejudices. That all being said, obviously they did include some messy allusions to actual races with the Krogan just like with Orcs that came before them which could definitely be improved lol.
Krogans are my favourite warrior race in fiction. They almost conquered the galaxy while commiting horrific war crimes, so "prejudice" isn't unwarranted. It was them who turned their own homeworld into a nuclear wasteland (ofc they got nukes form other races, so nobody is blameless or solely responsible). And it's not like Krogans aren't ridiculously prejudiced and xenophobic towards all other races. Despite that Krogans still have a lot of respect and appreciation from galactic communities, mostly for destroying Rachni and being effectives bodyguards and mercenaries. They could've been sterilized or killed but instead smartest minds in the galaxy assembled to prevent it. A lot of squadmates in Mass Effect are outliers in one way or another. Garrus describes himself as not a good Turian. Tali seems to be the most sensible admiral Quarians have. Justicars like Samara are extremely rare. Grunt was born in a tank. Liara before meeting Shepard is naive, innocent and not very social. I don't see fictional races as stand ins for real life races, ethnicities or any kind of minorities. It's okay to oversimplify or generalize alien bug/lizard-people to make themes of the story more apparent. But it is weird to force connections to real people or races. I live in a non english country where almost everyone is the same race. Not once in my life it went through my head to view orcs or other evil/brutal fictional race as real life races. In recent years I saw a few comments on the internet doing just that. To me that seems insane and only a racist could think this way.
It's fine to have that perspective, but I think in the case of ME, they seem to want you to relate Wrex and the krogan to real life racism. Pretty much all talking points about the krogan can be found from racists talking about other races to either justify messed up things done to them (e.g. Europeans colonizing various parts of the world, and suggesting they were making the people from said countries "cultured"), or outright commit genocide (e.g. The Holocaust, and what Israel is currently doing to Palestinians). Now, there's much nuance to be had about this subject, and ME certainly tries to show that, given everything you listed, but I would argue it's not just there for world building; it's meant to be an allegory.
Thank you immensely for this video. As someone who grew deeply passionate about indigenous representation I both love and am frustrated by the Krogan. On one hand, as a Canadian I analyze them through a familiar lens, with my country having perpetuated what it too thought would be a bloodless genocide that forced it’s victims, people whose very culture was taken from them, to exist solely to confirm the stereotypes that we Europeans perpetuate about “those bloodthirsty savages.” Where the urban area of Winnipeg is filled with people like the Krogan stereotype Mass Effect seems to want us to believe. But despite it all, the indigenous people who have helped me with my writing most, by sharing with me their stories that I help share in turn through writing about Gnolls in ponyfinder, I hope that the people who read pathfinder see settlements of gem gnolls with a genuinely rich culture who are still very in touch with their roots through millennia of history, that players see beyond a tribal savage and an ability to connect with, and maybe the world will be a better place.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I came to Mass Effect late, renting the first game to beat it very quickly and return it so I could move onto Mass Effect 2 which was current at the time. Despite that, Wrex still left an impression on me. Yes he was big and strong and a consummate warrior, but he had a real plight, a real quest. I was fortunate enough to have had enough Paragon Fun Bucks to talk him out of getting himself shot, but though I treasured his presence I never really read into the codex or thought about how much he actually wasn't like what people said the Krogan were. At worst, he was direct about what he wanted and willing to fight if he needed to, but he wasn't beyond sense, he was usually willing to talk even on things that he supposedly was unwilling to budge on. He values his own life as a part of his quest in a way I didn't realize was inverting how so many others go through the motions to throw theirs away.
Honestly I always interpreted Wrex being a mercenary despite his utter contempt for how many young krogan are just nihilists chasing money at the end of a gun until THEY wind up at the end of the gun as him having simply given up hope.
He rationalizes it all away tidily enough (the destruction of Krogan culture, most of the remaining leadership being people like Wreav, Gatatog Uvenk, or that guy who leads the Blood Pack who still want to hold to their old ways under the Warlords, the near total lack of Krogan scientists who weren't pariahs like Okeer, etc) but it seemed pretty clear that after his father betrayed him under a banner of very explicitly SACRED truce and Wrex was forced to knife him to death he just lost any conception that the Krogan could be anything but a dying race until Shepard showed up in his life.
Oh man, this is such a good way of thinking about the companions in ME generally - and Wrex was absolutely the right pick to get specific about. I'd never made that association with DnD races and it opens *so* many conversations about the series' handling of race. Thanks for helping me see one of my favorite characters in a deeper light than ever!
These ballads have been some of my favorite vids of yours lately. Great piece to round out the first wave.
Thank you for saying so! I really enjoyed working on them
Huh, never thought of looking at the ME alien races with D&D race equivalents, and having the Krogan being Orc-adjacent makes a lot more sense! And he's definitely my favorite alien tank in the series.
"Do you want me to arrest you?!"
"I want you to try."
Tuchanka is a fun word to say and a cool name for a planet.
Real talk though, i really like Vorn from Andromeda. THAT Krogan is very overlooked and he's just my favorite man...
I keep replaying mass effect 1 and never end up moving on to ME2/ME3 on replays because other games come out and I get distracted after finishing ME1. Of course I played the full series through once. The first starting ME2 without realizing what a dumb idea that was and then play ME1-ME3 in one go back in college. I always remember Virmire. It was the best part of ME1 hands down. Everyone talks about the choice between letting Ashley or Kaiden die. (Always an easy choice, imo. Save Kaiden.) That’s not the part that stuck with me it was the part with talking down Wrex that always stuck. It made me angry because I always wanted the option to be able to get the cure for the genophage and fully side with wrex. But I only had the option to just calm him down and destroy the lab. It was such a gut punch for me. I felt robbed. But at the same time, I realized that if I just got the option to secure the cure, this moment would not have hit as hard. Talking him down showed your growth with Wrex.
Also wrex’s greeting dialogue is the only one I remember. Him just going “Shephard.” Love that man.
Nuanced and intelligent discussion. Ur toast kiddo
Heck yeah thank you friendo
Wrex was my reason for giving the first game a shot. I just fucking LOVED him appearing. Just that comment between him and the C-sec officer.
"Wrex, do you WANT me to arrest you?"
*chuckle* "I want you to TRY".
He's also the most honest and straighforward guy around. He says it as it is, and doesn't like false sympathy or sugarcoating the situation as it is. Wrex is, and always will be, the ultimate Brogan.
It's a crime that killing Wrex is the default choice if you start from ME2. Back in the day, ME2 was the only one on Steam, so my first interaction with the universe didn't have Wrex in it. When my gf was playing through ME, one of the only times I helped guide her choices was at Virmire. She, much like me, couldn't let her "little lobster man" die.
I thought Mass Effect came to steam before the second game.
@@GameZard It might have originally, but there was a time there (around 2013 I think) where it was delisted. Probably to promote origin or something
@@LesserKnownMedia They delisted it just to relist it again?
@@GameZard Yeah
finally, good wrex meta
I do ultimately think there are a lot of things that Mass Effect could have done better about the Krogan, especially in regards to showing us more diverse Krogans outside of the map dressing ones like the Krogan on the citadel really into poetry and Wrex. However, I do actually like in fantasy and science fiction to have alien races with complex issues that don't fall purely into human understandings of race. Like, I like that you can encounter Krogan who are open about the fact that if not for the genophage, they would have taken over the galaxy and murdered everyone, because it complicates the issue on how to deal with them since negotiation was not on the table. Its not a black or white genophage good or bad, its this big issue that has lasting ramifications when paired with how the Krogan do have adrenaline issues and fast birth rates which make a Krogan surrendering nearly impossible in their blood rage. As well it also brings up how the Salarians that are a race that lay eggs with similar volume to Krogan clutches would see the genophage as not a big deal especially with their short lifespans. To the Salarians, they didn't see the mental rammifications of having so many still births would have on the mothers which is really tackled with Mordin's character arc when he has to see this first hand with their task group. These are all things that can be taken and related to real races, but they are alien, messy and can't be entirely related to irl human races so there is always a disconnect and you cannot just insert them into whatever human race here. To me that is a primary function of fantasy, to present us something familiar, but twist it in such a way that a viewer can look at it through a different lens and readjust their prejudices. That all being said, obviously they did include some messy allusions to actual races with the Krogan just like with Orcs that came before them which could definitely be improved lol.
Krogans are my favourite warrior race in fiction. They almost conquered the galaxy while commiting horrific war crimes, so "prejudice" isn't unwarranted. It was them who turned their own homeworld into a nuclear wasteland (ofc they got nukes form other races, so nobody is blameless or solely responsible). And it's not like Krogans aren't ridiculously prejudiced and xenophobic towards all other races. Despite that Krogans still have a lot of respect and appreciation from galactic communities, mostly for destroying Rachni and being effectives bodyguards and mercenaries. They could've been sterilized or killed but instead smartest minds in the galaxy assembled to prevent it.
A lot of squadmates in Mass Effect are outliers in one way or another. Garrus describes himself as not a good Turian. Tali seems to be the most sensible admiral Quarians have. Justicars like Samara are extremely rare. Grunt was born in a tank. Liara before meeting Shepard is naive, innocent and not very social.
I don't see fictional races as stand ins for real life races, ethnicities or any kind of minorities. It's okay to oversimplify or generalize alien bug/lizard-people to make themes of the story more apparent. But it is weird to force connections to real people or races.
I live in a non english country where almost everyone is the same race. Not once in my life it went through my head to view orcs or other evil/brutal fictional race as real life races. In recent years I saw a few comments on the internet doing just that. To me that seems insane and only a racist could think this way.
It's fine to have that perspective, but I think in the case of ME, they seem to want you to relate Wrex and the krogan to real life racism.
Pretty much all talking points about the krogan can be found from racists talking about other races to either justify messed up things done to them (e.g. Europeans colonizing various parts of the world, and suggesting they were making the people from said countries "cultured"), or outright commit genocide (e.g. The Holocaust, and what Israel is currently doing to Palestinians).
Now, there's much nuance to be had about this subject, and ME certainly tries to show that, given everything you listed, but I would argue it's not just there for world building; it's meant to be an allegory.
Thank you for another great video!
Thank you immensely for this video. As someone who grew deeply passionate about indigenous representation I both love and am frustrated by the Krogan. On one hand, as a Canadian I analyze them through a familiar lens, with my country having perpetuated what it too thought would be a bloodless genocide that forced it’s victims, people whose very culture was taken from them, to exist solely to confirm the stereotypes that we Europeans perpetuate about “those bloodthirsty savages.” Where the urban area of Winnipeg is filled with people like the Krogan stereotype Mass Effect seems to want us to believe.
But despite it all, the indigenous people who have helped me with my writing most, by sharing with me their stories that I help share in turn through writing about Gnolls in ponyfinder, I hope that the people who read pathfinder see settlements of gem gnolls with a genuinely rich culture who are still very in touch with their roots through millennia of history, that players see beyond a tribal savage and an ability to connect with, and maybe the world will be a better place.
Wrex is the best character in Mass Effect, and the fact I'm not able to romance him will forever be an unforgivable crime.
Another masterpiece of a video sir. Thank you for all the hard work.