Before watching: Unlikely. The progressive elements of ME were fairly minor, there were some downright unprogressive ones (like most of Miranda's screentime, including the camera angles). The main problems were more due to a thematic and genre shift in transition from 1 to 2, the ensuing spiderweb of poor writing choices, and wasting the mid part of a trilogy on a pointless, distracting side-story instead of the main conflict, and therefore needing to cram the last two acts of the sory in one game, giving up, and jumping straight to act 3.

And Andromeda is the result of overall hackery.

EDIT: After watching: Well, that was supremely interesting. I'd really like the over 5min TL;DW rule reinstated to this place, but the basic gist of things seems to be that ME consciously virtue signals about diversity being our strength, and the story seems to push incorporation of new demographics as the replacement for tribalistic identitarian conflict. Yet at the same time there is a strong, likely unconcious undercurrent of homogenisation. Diversity is not shown as a weakness as such, but definitely a source of tribalistic conflict, but initiation of that tribalistic conflict is at the same time willified and condemned. The primary examples given being the First Contact war, Human nationalism and Cerberus, Quarians vs Geth, and Reapers vs all sufficiently advanced organic life. And that still ignores the juicy backstory example of the Rachni Wars.

Yet at the same time, the ultimate solution the game seems to be pushing towards is homogenization. Undoing the divide between in- and outgroups, synthetic and organic life. All of the sudden diversity is not our strength anymore, but an obstacle to be overcome. This is the choice in the ending-o-tron the game seems to be pushig towards. The alternatives given for this are domination and eradication of the outgroup by the ingroup, or being eradicated in turn by the outgroup. For all their posturing, the choice most suggested by all the messaging is absent: harmonious, diverse coexistence is not on offer, or even discussed.

And not just homogenization of separate demographics, but also within them, with humans becoming increasingly samey-looking, and many other species having outgrown genetic diversity and become increasingly samey.

Before watching: Unlikely. The progressive elements of ME were fairly minor, there were some downright unprogressive ones (like most of Miranda's screentime, including the camera angles). The main problems were more due to a thematic and genre shift in transition from 1 to 2, the ensuing spiderweb of poor writing choices, and wasting the mid part of a trilogy on a pointless, distracting side-story instead of the main conflict, and therefore needing to cram the last two acts of the sory in one game, giving up, and jumping straight to act 3.

And Andromeda is the result of overall hackery.

EDIT: After watching: Well, that was supremely interesting. I'd really like the over 5min TL;DW rule reinstated to this place, but the basic gist of things seems to be that ME consciously virtue signals about diversity being our strength, and the story seems to push incorporation of new demographics as the replacement for tribalistic identitarian conflict. Yet at the same time there is a strong, likely unconcious undercurrent of homogenisation. Diversity is not shown as a weakness as such, but definitely a source of tribalistic conflict, but initiation of that tribalistic conflict is at the same time willified and condemned. The primary examples given being the First Contact war, Human nationalism and Cerberus, Quarians vs Geth, and Reapers vs all sufficiently advanced synthetic life. And that still ignores the juicy backstory example of the Rachni Wars.

Yet at the same time, the ultimate solution the game seems to be pushing towards is homogenization. Undoing the divide between in- and outgroups, synthetic and organic life. All of the sudden diversity is not our strength anymore, but an obstacle to be overcome. This is the choice in the ending-o-tron the game seems to be pushig towards. The alternatives given for this are domination and eradication of the outgroup by the ingroup, or being eradicated in turn by the outgroup. For all their posturing, the choice most suggested by all the messaging is absent: harmonious, diverse coexistence is not on offer, or even discussed.

And not just homogenization of separate demographics, but also within them, with humans becoming increasingly samey-looking, and many other species having outgrown genetic diversity and become increasingly samey.

Before watching: Unlikely. The progressive elements of ME were fairly minor, there were some downright unprogressive ones (like most of Miranda's screentime, including the camera angles). The main problems were more due to a thematic and genre shift in transition from 1 to 2, the ensuing spiderweb of poor writing choices, and wasting the mid part of a trilogy on a pointless, distracting side-story instead of the main conflict, and therefore needing to cram the last two acts of the sory in one game, giving up, and jumping straight to act 3.

And Andromeda is the result of overall hackery.

EDIT: After watching: Well, that was supremely interesting. I'd really like the over 5min TL;DW rule reinstated to this place, but the basic gist of things seems to be that ME consciously virtue signals about diversity being our strength, and the story seems to push incorporation of new demographics as the replacement for tribalistic identitarian conflict. Yet at the same time there is a strong, likely unconcious undercurrent of homogenisation. Diversity is not shown as a weakness as such, but definitely a source of tribalistic conflict, but initiation of that tribalistic conflict is at the same time willified and condemned. The primary examples given being the First Contact war, Human nationalism and Cerberus, Quarians vs Geth, and Reapers vs all sufficiently advanced synthetic life. And that still ignores the juicy backstory example of the Rachni Wars.

Yet at the same time, the ultimate solution the game seems to be pushing towards is homogenization. Undoing the divide between in- and outgroups, synthetic and organic life. All of the sudden diversity is not our strength anymore, but an obstacle to be overcome. This is the choice in the ending-o-tron the game seems to be pushig towards. The alternatives given for this are domination and eradication of the outgroup by the ingroup, or being eradicated in turn by the outgroup. For all their posturing, the choice most suggested by all the messaging is absent: harmonious, diverse coexistence is not on offer, or even discussed.

And not just homogenization of separate demographics, but also within them, with human becoming increasingly samey-looking, and many other species having outgrown genetic diversity and become increasingly samey.

Before watching: Unlikely. The progressive elements of ME were fairly minor, there were some downright unprogressive ones (like most of Miranda's screentime, including the camera angles). The main problems were more due to a thematic and genre shift in transition from 1 to 2, the ensuing spiderweb of poor writing choices, and wasting the mid part of a trilogy on a pointless, distracting side-story instead of the main conflict, and therefore needing to cram the last two acts of the sory in one game, giving up, and jumping straight to act 3.

And Andromeda is the result of overall hackery.

EDIT: After watching: Well, that was supremely interesting. I'd really like the over 5min TL;DW rule reinstated to this place, but the basic gist of things seems to be that ME consciously virtue signals about diversity being our strength, and the story seems to push incorporation of new demographics as the replacement for tribalistic identitarian conflict. Yet at the same time there is a strong, likely unconcious undercurrent of homogenisation, and diversity being not necessarily weakness, but definitely a source of tribalistic conflict, but initiation of that tribalistic conflict is at the same time willified and condemned. The primary examples given being the First Contact war, Human nationalism and Cerberus, Quarians vs Geth, and Reapers vs all sufficiently advanced synthetic life. And that still ignores the juicy backstory example of the rachni wars.

Yet at the same time, the ultimate solution the game seems to be pushing towards is homogenization. Undoing the divide between in- and outgroups, synthetic and organic life. All of the sudden diversity is not our strength anymore, but an obstacle to be overcome. The alternatives for this are domination and eradication of the outgroup by the ingroup, or being eradicated in turn by the outgroup. For all their posturing, the choice most suggested by all the messaging is absent: harmonious, diverse coexistence is not on offer, or even discussed.

Before watching: Unlikely. The progressive elements of ME were fairly minor, there were some downright unprogressive ones (like most of Miranda's screentime, including the camera angles). The main problems were more due to a thematic and genre shift in transition from 1 to 2, the ensuing spiderweb of poor writing choices, and wasting the mid part of a trilogy on a pointless, distracting side-story instead of the main conflict, and therefore needing to cram the last two acts of the sory in one game, giving up, and jumping straight to act 3.

And Andromeda is the result of overall hackery.