Nick, Chip, and Kurabara are back this week to talk about their experiences playing through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. This week, they are approaching the end of Mass Effect 3 as they head to Cerberus Headquarters to confront the Illusive Man.

They talk about how half the map is Reapers as they head to the base. They wonder why Liara, as Shadow Broker, doesn’t know where this is and take more shots at Liara. After recapping the mission, they use notable Martin Sheen roles of late to evaluate the Illusive Man. They also compare the Illusive Man to tech-billionaires like Elon Musk. They talk about the Illusive Man’s desire for humanity to dominate the galaxy, and consider whether he is more fanatic or pragmatic. They react to the revelation that the Cerberus Troops weren’t all volunteers, and debate when the Illusive Man decided to control the Reapers. They mention the Human Proto-Reaper’s heart is just out in the open and wonder just how indoctrinated the Illusive Man and Cerberus were.

They then get into the series of console videos that reveal some of the relationships between EDI and Shepard and the Illusive Man. First, they talk about EDI being the AI from the moon in Mass Effect 1 and how EDI’s presence in all three games now aligns more with Shepard. Nick considers EDI and Shepard as siblings, with the Illusive Man in a patriarchal role. Chip points out that going to kill their father is like a Greek tragedy. Then they talk about the Lazarus Protocol and Shepard’s reaction to watching the Illusive Man rebuild them. They take a brief intermission to talk about Shepard trying to apologize to Joker. They then consider the creation of EDI and compare it with the news about Google potentially having created an AI with a soul. They talk about how EDI saves Shepard and team from being ventilated out of the bay into space.

They talk about the Kai Leng fight and how underwhelming it was, although it felt good to have him defeated finally. They talk about the final revelations of the mission: that the Citadel is the Catalyst and it is now near Earth in heavily controlled Reaper space. Finally, they go over the last interactions with the crew on the Normandy before deciding to head for the finale on Earth.

Thank you for listening to Squad Goals - A Mass Effect Legendary Edition Podcast! Please send any comments or questions to [email protected] or @squadgoalsN7 on twitter.

Website: https://mashthosebuttons.com

Discord: https://mash.gg/discord