Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - Favorite Villian

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Starting point is 00:00:22 Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these quick takes on Saturdays to everyone, giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public. And these quick takes are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us. So sit back, relax and enjoy this quick take episode. Shazam! Boom!

Starting point is 00:01:15 Hey guys, it's Paul here for a Gaming Quick Take. What I wanted to talk to you guys about here today is one of my all-time favorite gaming villains, Saren from Mass Effect 1. Now, fair warning, I'm going to be sharing a ton of spoilers from Mass Effect 1, even a little bit of spoilers from Mass Effect 3, so fair warning if you have not yet played those games. But if you're not familiar with the Mass Effect universe, or if you haven't played it in a long time, just for a little bit of context, humans have basically met other alien species, and they basically have found these things called mass relays, which connect across various galaxies, and they all kind of serve with the Citadel as the central hub. The Citadel is basically this

Starting point is 00:01:56 big station where all the aliens come together, and you find out that there is actually an intergalactic council, which is basically made up of the most advanced and the most important races in the galaxy, and humans have not yet earned their place on the council. Now, the council has a special group that they call SPECTRs, which stands for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and this is reserved for the most important agents that they use to preserve intergalactic peace and to protect the interests of the Citadel and the Council. And so basically in Mass Effect 1, as Commander Shepard, you are trying to prove that you earn a place in the Spectres and that you would be fighting to be the first human Spectre. And so in the game, the way it starts out is there is another Spectre named Nihilus, who is a Turian. So he's one of the alien species, and he is going

Starting point is 00:02:51 to be evaluating you on a mission where you are going to recover an ancient alien beacon that might contain important information. So here's where Saren comes into play. Basically, while you're on this routine mission, your team is basically working your way toward the beacon. Nihilus decides to branch off because he can work faster alone, and he'll meet you there at the beacon. You get a cutscene, basically, where Nihilus sees that the place was actually under attack, the people have been slaughtered. And he sees Saren, who is actually another Spectre that is really considered the highest Spectre member. He's the most efficient. He's known for being very ruthless.

Starting point is 00:03:33 But he continually solves all of his missions, no matter what the cost. And basically what you see is that Nihilus says, you know, Saren, what are you doing here? Saren says, the council sent me to help out on the mission. And then Nihilus turns his back to Saren, and then Saren shoots him dead. And so basically, you learn here that we've got like a double agent kind of situation, you know, Saren's clearly evil. Why would he kill Nihilus? What's going on? And over the course of Mass Effect 1, you basically learn that there are a group of artificial intelligent machines called Reapers, who basically every 50,000 years, they allow organic life organic lifeforms to work their way up to earning better

Starting point is 00:04:27 technology. And then the mass relays basically always connect all these species. The Reapers come in, wipe everybody out. So you start to kind of question, you know, why is Saren a bad guy? And you learn that he's actually working in cahoots with the Reapers. So the Reapers are the synthetic machines who want to wipe out all organic life. So why is Saren working with them? And this is why I really like him so much as a villain. So basically, since we know that Saren will basically accomplish any mission at any cost, in a way, he's almost kind of like a renegade Commander Shepard. He's going to accomplish every mission. He doesn't care who gets hurt in the way. And basically, Saren had

Starting point is 00:05:11 discovered a Reaper that was in hibernation out in an uncharted world. And basically, the Reaper talks to Saren and basically reveals some of the plans. And they want to use Saren as an inside agent, basically as a way to get all the information they need so the Reapers can come in and very quickly wipe out all major organic life. So Saren thinks that he can work in cahoots with the Reapers and convince them that he's actually valuable to them because he sees that the Reapers have such advanced technology. They've done this so many times that all organic life has no chance against the Reapers.

Starting point is 00:05:51 And so he decides to ally with them and hope to incur enough favor that they will keep many organics alive basically as their servants. And this is one of the things that I really love about a good villain is that they actually have good intentions it's just clearly gone astray you know so here Saren is actually fighting for the advancement of organic life and he sees this as the only solution now the problem is that Saren has actually been indoctrinated which I'm going to save probably for the next episode it's something that I'd like to explore more later but really all you need to know is that Saren's mind is being altered, kind of like a mind control by the Reaper that he had spoken to. And what's really interesting is that at the end of my main playthrough of Mass Effect 1, you end up face

Starting point is 00:06:40 to face with Saren. Saren basically kind of reveals all of his motives. You know, this is the only way we can survive as organics. We have to be subservient to them or they're going to wipe all of us out. And I end up, you know, kind of making Saren see the error in his ways. And Saren actually committed suicide. And so what's really ironic is that at the end of Mass Effect 3, the hardest ending to earn is called the symbiotic ending, basically where you're able to broker peace between organics and synthetic machines, a way of forging a partnership where they see that they can actually both benefit by co-uniting with one another. And so Saren actually wasn't even really all that wrong in what he was thinking. He just went about it the wrong way. He was thinking the only way they could have a symbiotic relationship is by serving under them as slaves. And he really underestimated what the humans and the alien races could do if they all gathered together and fought the Reapers as one massive unit. So, Saren's a really interesting villain. He dies in Mass Effect 1, does not pop up again

Starting point is 00:07:51 in the rest of the series, but I think he's a fantastic villain for being so efficient, being incredibly evil at times, but still having these, you know, what you could call positive intentions. So, I really recommend playing the Mass Effect games if you haven't. I think Saren makes for a great villain in Mass Effect 1. I think he's the most interesting villain out of all three Mass Effect games. And so that's one that's probably worth checking out if you haven't. All right. Well, that's it for today, guys. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you later. See ya later!

Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - Favorite Villian

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