Anarchos Credit

So I made this into my blog for me posting my Mass Effect photos and little mass effect musing. 

[diekaduwee]

When you defeat a thresher maw, does it die or just sulk off?

[diekaduwee]

Day 3 of learning to draw. This day has cylinders, I could not escape them for long. Also it turns out complexity as well as size influences how long it takes to draw something. In fact complexity might even be more important. Anyway I drew a table.

[diekaduwee]

When a Mako and a Geth love each other very much .

[diekaduwee]

[diekaduwee]

Why does the Mako's shadow look cuter than the Mako itself.

[diekaduwee]

Day two of being bad at drawing. Yeah I definitely need to get an eraser.

[diekaduwee]

I haven't just completed a major task that has in total taken 6-7 years, there is a big gap in my life. I have decided to try to learn to draw. Now I am terrible at drawing, and may lack the necessary finesse motor control to be better than bad. But there is something to be gained from developing your weaknesses as well as your strengths. A different type of self knowledge, and there is a sense of freedom in practicing a skill I do not need to become good at. I am bad at drawing and if by the end of this process I am still bad at drawing that is okay. What I have learned about myself so far is that I can't draw cylinders. I am bad at all shapes, but I am really bad at cylinders.

[diekaduwee]

An often overlooked challenge of virtual photography is angling the shot to hide the bits of physics that don't quite work.

[diekaduwee]

[solarmane]

new fanfic writer who has marked their work completed ao3 only to leave a note at the end saying: thanks for all the support guys if you want to read the rest of the fic subscribe to my patreon :)

me, an elder fandom veteran, suddenly having anne rice flashbacks:

no.

NO.

starting to rock back and fourth.

you do not understand.

you were born into an age of peace. i was there Gandalf. i was there three thousand years ago. i remember the cease and desists. i remember authors hunting fanfic writers for sport. i remember when every fic opened with a disclaimer because we genuinely thought it might protect us.

we do not charge money for the copyrighted gay wizard stories.

do not tempt fate youngling.

step away from the paywall.

that is how you summon the ancient evils.

that is how you wake the lawyers.

[odins-price]

Remember people, this is against AO3s terms of service. If you see a fic that does this REPORT THAT THING!!! These people may not know better or they might, but them doing this has the potential to ruin things for everyone.

[peppermintquartz]

Tell the writer to read the TOS. Writers absolutely CANNOT ask for payment in exchange for fanfic. If they won't take it down ASAP, report it to AO3.

[mossdftba]

From the Terms of Service FAQ, a list of money-focused things you cannot talk about on Ao3:

- linking to or referencing the use of a commercial platform or the monetization features of a non-commercial platform

- providing a "tip jar", bank information, or other method for people to give you money

- offering paid commissions or other content in exchange for money, gift cards, or similar

- stating that a fanwork was created as a result of a donation or paid commission (I see so many 'commissioned by' authors notes!)

- encouraging donations to a person or cause

- listing potential benefits of a paid membership or subscription

- posting free previews for paywalled content

- advertising a paid service or product (linking to an item's product page, suggesting that others purchase an item, etc.)

- selling merchandise, even if the merchandise is fannish in nature

- discussing the sale of the creator's other works, even if that paid content is not itself hosted on AO3

- creating or promoting an app or website that charges money to access works posted on AO3

[artassdumpr]

Reminding the people who matters the most… Javik, obviously. Happy pride folks!

[sagewing]

Carrd

[diekaduwee]

One of the few recurring themes in the art pieces found in Mass Effect are krogan statues. One only such statue is seen on public display and that is in the one of the safest parts of the Galaxy, the citadel's presidium. Donavan Hock stores his sizable collection along side his most valuable art (David, the Head of Liberty and the Quarian stone writing). Which clearly indicates they must be very valuable. Morinth ownership of one also suggests their might be a subversive element to statues as well. It doesn't take much to work out why. It is likely that after the Rachni Wars many Krogan statues where built (Krogan's are the only race to earn a statue in the Presidium), but following the Krogan Rebellions I am pretty sure the Turians when out of there way to destroy of get rid of as many of statues as possible. This would make krogan statues from that era rare and valuable and add and element of subversiveness to owning one.

This does raise the question why the statue on the Presidium is still in place. The asari relations to the krogan are very different to the krogan relations with the turians and salarian, with the later two being strongly associated with the genophage. We also know that asari still invite krogan to their celebrations of the end of the Rachni wars. The asari are the ones who insisted that the Presidium statues stays. A potentially another reason that the asari maintian strong links with the krogan is matching life spans. The krogan and asari can bond for life and maintain personal alliances and friendships for much longer than they can with other races.

[diekaduwee]

I wasn't quite sure about this until I checked the capture. But it appears that while the 3 original council members are still centred in their original position, Udina is off to one side. This is a nice touch of visual story telling, humanity despite their supposed importance, they are still, separate, outsiders to the galaxy. They hold their position as a token and so the galaxy can gain access to humanities resources, not the other way around.

[diekaduwee]

I personally believe that Dr Chakwas was an Alliance/ Hackett plant in Cerberus. I think this is hinted at in ME2 as the Dr doesn't wear the Cerberus logo, but that could just be the model they used. Much stronger evidence comes from ME3. When you meet Dr Chakwas in the Citadel you discover that unlike many of the Normandy Cerberus crew, such as Kenneth Donnelly, Gabriella Daniels and Joker Dr Chakwas was court marshalled or thrown out of the Alliance but given a post secret research post under Admiral Hackett. The sort of post only a very trusted member of the Alliance would get and not one given to ex-Cerberus, unless of course they were never truly Cerberus after all. It is clear that the crew of the Normandy was hand picked by the Illusive man to make Shepard feel comfortable and build trust. The crew is full of ex-alliance personal and those with close ties to the colonies under risk. Other than Miranda all the crew has "cleans hands" so speak, as that none of them have been involved in the nastier parts of Cerberus. Even in Miranda's case she believes (probably incorrectly) that worse parts of Cerberus don't present what Cerberus truly is.

Hitting up Joker and Dr Chakwas fits into the recruitment strategy perfectly. How did Hackett know about Shepard to set this up in time. Well Liara was aware of Cerberus attempting something like this, and Liara also works closely with Hackett (see her presence on Mars at the start of ME3) so she could easily tipped off Hackett. As for the recruitment efforts well there are numerous way that could have been uncovered, from Alliance intel monitoring ex-Alliance to Chakwas herself contacting Hackett after Cerberus makes contact.

[diekaduwee]

Samantha Traynor and Kelly Chambers occupied the same location, just at different times and fulfil many of the same function. Reminding you that you have unread messages and that a crew member might need some moral support. Narratively and in the ME world, they fulfil very different roles. But before we get into that, lets look at the differences in the desks between ME 2 & ME3. Most people any familiarly with the games shouldn't have a problem telling whose desk was whose from the above images. While the space might be the same shape, there a differences in colours and style that make it obvious which is which. In the top image you can see the Ceberus yellow colour used a highlight on the Normandy. In the bottom image the floor has been retextured to a give a more rugged and military feel. There are problem a hundred other differences like that let the player know ownership of the Normandy has changed.

So back to the point. What do the desks tell us about Kelly and Samantha. Firstly Kelly space was given to her with some thought, whereas Samantha had to find a place after being one of the random crew on the Normandy when if fled earth. Yes, Samantha's placing makes more sense than Kelly's. Samantha's role is to analysis data and feed information to the captain and crew. It makes sense for her to be near the command operations and other technical officers. Sharing info and insights is central to her role.

It makes less sense for Kelly to be there. Her role to advise on the mental health and well being of the crew and has access to personal files on the crew. File that one expects to be confidential, yet there Kelly is accessing all those files, in an open plan, easily spied on desk. It would make much more sense for Kelly to be sat with Doctor Chakwas. As the Illusive man doesn't do anything without a good reason, we have to assume Kelly's purpose is something else. Why might ITM put an alien loving Cerberus member (who clearly has the hots for Shepard) in a seat (so to speak) next to the commander. Simply for that, to ensure that Shepard gets to see the alien loving side Cerberus, and maybe create some deeper emotional bonds with its membership. I very much doubt Kelly is even aware of her true purpose on the SSV2

[diekaduwee]

Jacob Taylor. Before I discuss Jacob's workspace, I want to say a few words about Jacob. Jacob as character doesn't seem that popular, nor is he strongly disliked. A once saw him described as Mr Bland. Personally I would go Good Solider number 4, with additional daddy issues. I don't think Jacob was always like, but suffered the most from design by committee. In a large project like Mass Effect 2, nearly everything would have some group design elements. Most of the characters came out that process reasonably well, Jacob less. We can see some evidence of a more complex character. Jacob has biotics, but unlike most other biotic humans, it isn't a think. He is a soldier with some biotic skills, and by the third game the biotics appear to have been forgotten, as he never uses them. Other evidence is in the suggestion that

"Jacob was previsualized as a male/male romance, with his scene matching shot-for-shot with certain sequences from Brokeback Mountain"

Both of the above hint at a character where much of the depth was left on the committee table.

I would like to thank Adam Lazarre-White for his great performance.

Now onto the bit you are all here you, me talking about desks.

Jacobs, workbenches and desks are all functional, efficient with little if any unnecessary features. The displays show weapons you don't have, suggesting that Jacob is actively researching and developing and not just keeping the weapons clear. Of course you have a look a little closer to see that, but that is also true for Jacob.

Jacob presents himself as a simple solider, but any closer examination will reveal more depth than that. Jacob isn't simple and doesn't see the world as simple either, but he mostly keeps that to himself.

To be honest I thought that was mostly it, until I saw the table. That table doesn't fit the Normandy. It looks like a cheap office piece rather than the carefully integrated furniture is found throughout the rest of the Normandy. Another way of asking this question, is why did Jacob feel the need to give up valuable space (and all space is valuable on a ship) for a cheap table. I think the reason is because, Jacob understands how to lead better than Miranda. Miranda is an expert at manipulation, that skill doesn't scale. Jacob knows the crew aren't all marines with the discipline that entails but wide range of civilians, Cerberus trained crew and ex-Alliance members with Cerberus issues. That table is extra space, for the crew to be social in, and relax. The space is needed so cope with the additional tensions that the very diverse crew the Normandy SSV2 has.

Also I think it is the table that the crew play cards at.