253: Garrus, Interrupted (by Reapers)

0:12 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Commander Shepherd, and this is my favorite lorecast on the Citadel. [SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Mass Effect Lorecast. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm in seven the legend. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Genesis. [SPEAKER_02]: Join us. [SPEAKER_03]: As we explore along tides of light. [SPEAKER_03]: And through shows of dust.

0:30 [SPEAKER_03]: To see where this lore began. [SPEAKER_02]: And consider where it may go. [SPEAKER_03]: Spectre is a welcome back to a delayed episode of the Mass Effect Lord cast. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm your host in seven the legend and joining me as always is the Locuacious Genesis [SPEAKER_02]: Luquatius, okay, um, that makes me think of the drag queen looking necromancer in Act 3 of Baldur's Game 3.

1:21 [SPEAKER_03]: Isn't isn't uh, isn't her name, Luquatius? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: It's literally low-quatious, yeah, I think we should have like a P.E. [SPEAKER_03]: Herman or whenever we say that word now, which is never. [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, no. [SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, sorry guys, a quick personal note, basically this episode has been delayed because of me and me needing to get my life together or rather because I've gotten it together so other parts of my life have fallen apart and that being the Lord cast.

1:59 [SPEAKER_03]: I've started work on my new job, and I'm now on my shift, which is the 3am shift. [SPEAKER_03]: And I wake up at like 1.30 a.m. to go to work. [SPEAKER_03]: And then when I come home, I got to watch my son and until, you know, his bedtime, which his bedtime is later than mine. [SPEAKER_03]: that doesn't mean that I get to sleep before he sleeps.

2:24 [SPEAKER_03]: That's not how that works. [SPEAKER_03]: So what it means is I get less sleep and it means that I have zero free time. [SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, that being said, here I am. [SPEAKER_03]: We are still doing the show, much to our enemy Shagrin. [SPEAKER_03]: We persist and Genesis, how has your past couple weeks gone?

2:46 [SPEAKER_02]: So they've been a little bit of a roller coaster for me as well, if I can get thoughts and love towards my family right now, that would be amazing. [SPEAKER_02]: We are now moving up my grandmother into our final days. [SPEAKER_02]: and it's been weighing heavily on the family, but there's also some really big exciting news going on with my daughter.

3:13 [SPEAKER_02]: So I've been on a pretty emotional roller coaster over the last week. [SPEAKER_02]: So I am happy to be back talking about garris and just kind of getting some of that [SPEAKER_02]: normalcy back in my life of hanging out with the best bro, talking about the best bro. [SPEAKER_03]: well that's a great way to put it and we're glad that you're here as well and we can't wait to dive into Garrison speaking of whom last time we spoke about Garrison it was his romance in Mass Effect 2 right so now we've got Garrison in the you know ultimate game Mass Effect 3 and we start with him meeting him on Palaven there's yet another game where we don't start with [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, all three games, Garus is not in the starting party.

4:07 [SPEAKER_02]: We have to go and recruit him. [SPEAKER_03]: Right on, so set the stage for us. [SPEAKER_02]: Here we go. [SPEAKER_02]: This is my peak, Garus, and I have written so much about my man. [SPEAKER_02]: From the 25-year-old Turingen, who was trying to break away from the bureaucracy of the Citadel Law and the perceived oppression of his father.

4:29 [SPEAKER_02]: Garus has come a long way by the time [SPEAKER_02]: Now he has learned his key lessons by shepherd's side. [SPEAKER_02]: He's resolved his issues to salion and sadonus. [SPEAKER_02]: He's walked the path of his archangel crew and has survived the collectors. [SPEAKER_02]: He knows the Reapers are real, and he knows that shepherd is his best friend, confident, and potential lover.

4:58 [SPEAKER_02]: So when we meet him on one of the moons of Palaven, he's somewhere between 28 and 30. [SPEAKER_02]: And it shows, because he's respected by the other officers posted at the base of Manay. [SPEAKER_03]: Which this would definitely put him, by the way, some of it almost like you were gonna say, Manay's, but yeah.

5:22 [SPEAKER_03]: at the base of mayonnaise, no, so this would put him probably among some of the most respected 28 to 30-year-old military officers in the Terrian hierarchy. [SPEAKER_02]: No, absolutely, especially with the battles that he's seen, the fame that he's gotten from that, because he was ground floor of the battle at the Citadel, and then it was there when Shepard and crew took the whole Omega 4 thing, killing off the collectors.

5:53 [SPEAKER_02]: He's gained notoriety as Archangel, and so he's definitely going to be respected, and [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so he, so 28 to 30, when we first meet him, he kind of almost feels like a teenager, like a 19, 20-year-old young buck who's looking to make a name for himself. [SPEAKER_03]: And now we meet him, he's much more older, he's much seasoned, he's respected by his peers, which was totally not the case when we run into him in the Citadel Tower in Mass Effect 1.

6:32 [SPEAKER_03]: uh... him being basically told to stand down by the executive uh... and garrison basically has undergone this almost spiritual trends like spiritual uh... what do i want to say like spiritual transition i guess you could say uh... with what happens with his dad [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Gois has definitely worked through a lot of his daddy issues and I love that we see that that it starts in the comic book of his recruitment mission and Mass Effect 2.

7:09 [SPEAKER_02]: So they've already kind of seeded the storyline of how it's been starting to rebuild. [SPEAKER_02]: And we also know this because while Shepard has been doing time on Earth as a war criminal, Gareth has continued to work on his relationship with his father. [SPEAKER_02]: To the point that he was able to convince Dad that the reapers are a real threat.

7:35 [SPEAKER_02]: And Castis Fakarian believed him. [SPEAKER_02]: believed him enough to convince Primerc for Dorian that the threat was real. [SPEAKER_02]: And Garrish was given a reaper task force to fight against them. [SPEAKER_02]: And yes, it wasn't fully funded or truly respected, and it was just kind of a title.

7:55 [SPEAKER_02]: But Garish was, you get, Garish used what was given to him and helped to set up advanced warning systems to hopefully give the people living on Palavan enough time to flee when not if the repers attacked. [SPEAKER_03]: And we know from when the Reapers attacked that it was like a Blitz Creek, right?

8:17 [SPEAKER_03]: People on Paladin had a very little time, but I'd like to believe that Garrison's work here resulted in at least a few people having their lives saved. [SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that he does say that at one point that the advanced systems did work, they knew that the reapers were coming into their space and they were able to start the evacuations earlier than if they hadn't been there.

8:46 [SPEAKER_03]: All right, so basically when we find garris, we are on our own mission, which this one, this, so it makes sense why we meet garris and massfic to, right? [SPEAKER_03]: But in my opinion, it almost feels a little too convenient that we run into garris and less it's been so long that I've just forgotten something critical about the circumstances of going to Manay.

9:11 [SPEAKER_03]: But it feels a little too convenient [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I will agree with that, that him showing him being on the base that we are headed to in order to find the new primarck, you know, it's like we, that just is gaming coincidence, that's just how we have to find garrison. [SPEAKER_03]: you got to suspend your disbelief a little bit.

9:38 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and speaking of that new primarck, our goal is to find Victus. [SPEAKER_03]: General Adrian Victus, and if you don't remember the dozens of time, Victus said it in this mission, have you even played Mass Effect 3? [SPEAKER_03]: So we fight our way to the base and speak with another commander on site, and there he is [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I absolutely loved this.

10:06 [SPEAKER_02]: And I wanted that instant, oh my God, my boyfriend is back moment, but that's not who these two are. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: They've been separated for months and those conversations on the couch after Mass Effect II must have been a breakup. [SPEAKER_02]: Because, sorry, honey, I'm going to be arrested after we stop the collectors.

10:28 [SPEAKER_02]: So both Shepherd and Garrison spent some time apart. [SPEAKER_02]: And we get a hand shake as a greeting, which to me is perfect because it is exactly how they met in Mass Effect 1. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, but okay, I didn't realize they were bringing up full circle with that. [SPEAKER_03]: Do you think there was any conjugal visits?

10:48 [SPEAKER_03]: Well, Shepard was in prison? [SPEAKER_02]: Robably not. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think so. [SPEAKER_03]: But I had to have been like a cushy prison. [SPEAKER_03]: It couldn't have been like, you know, maximum security. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, no, and we saw that because Shepherd was living in what looked like a single-bedroom apartment on this, on, on Earth.

11:09 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, I, not that a maximum security prison would even matter for a shepherd. [SPEAKER_02]: Right. [SPEAKER_03]: not that it would even matter, but yeah, that's really cool to see that they kind of approach this meeting, the same way that you approach a meeting in Mass Effect 1, and granted maybe they didn't have time to go back and program a different meeting for if you'd romance garrison, but if that was the case, it kind of feels like a grand oversight.

11:41 [SPEAKER_02]: To me, the fact that in Mass Effect 3, you're the ones that you have that carry over, they all take a little bit of a reconnection of a rekindle. [SPEAKER_02]: It makes sense that Garrison's also like this, because you have to agree to get back together with Thane. [SPEAKER_02]: You have that conversation with Jacob where he's not going to continue the romance with you.

12:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Miranda Jack, everybody. [SPEAKER_02]: There's all a conversation of, you know, do we want to continue what we had before you went to prison? [SPEAKER_02]: And with Garrison, it's also the only one who is like in a fight zone. [SPEAKER_02]: All the other recruitment missions are we going to find them doing something.

12:30 [SPEAKER_03]: That's true. [SPEAKER_03]: He had his hands a little bit full. [SPEAKER_03]: So it's not like he had been just sitting around, twiddling his turian thumbs waiting for a separate shot. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: She loves me. [SPEAKER_03]: She loves me not. [SPEAKER_03]: She loves me.

12:47 [SPEAKER_03]: And since you're listening to this probably, not watching the video, I'm using the Turian fingers. [SPEAKER_03]: with the terrain air quotes and plucking an imaginary flower, as I say that. [SPEAKER_03]: So, um, okay, so what kind of character development do we even get with garrison in this mission?

13:09 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, much character development, because during this mission, we get a lot of updates and we can hear the changes that Garus has made over the last few years. [SPEAKER_02]: When Garus looks at Paladin and quietly tell Sheppard that the huge burning area they can see is where he was born.

13:32 [SPEAKER_02]: It's one of the first [SPEAKER_03]: that scene in particular for me as someone who always had, you know, garris as my best bro, that scene in particular stands out as well as the scene later in Mass Effect 3, where Shepherd is kind of distraught by the map in the, oh man, the CIC, I forget what it was called, the Warmap.

14:00 [SPEAKER_03]: And garris kind of [SPEAKER_03]: Why don't you take a rest or something along those lines and Shepard says I'll sleep what I'm dead. [SPEAKER_03]: And I know it can be your romance interest as well, but I think if they're not around right then it's garrison. [SPEAKER_02]: It's either Garus or Lyra, who takes up that position.

14:26 [SPEAKER_02]: But if your romance option is not on the ship with you, and that scene is very impactful both for a romance and non-romant shepherd, because it is your best friend telling you, like, I'll watch your back while you go and rest. [SPEAKER_02]: No matter what's going on around you, I will make sure that you're okay.

14:51 [SPEAKER_02]: and as for a romance shepherd, it's honey, I see that you're struggling and I need you to be okay. [SPEAKER_02]: So please go take some rest and you know, I'll be there to comfort you. [SPEAKER_03]: And you know what's so interesting about Garrison saying that is that from most of the series, we've known Garrison as this person who's not exactly like a caretaker, [SPEAKER_03]: You know, he's not exactly this loving, caring individual who, you know, gathers his flock under his wings and to protect them.

15:27 [SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_03]: Like, he has very much been a lone wolf and someone of an edge lord at times. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know because the way that we see him interacting with his mother in the comics where she's hospitalized and she's to end garrison's taking care of her, garrison's taking care of her through the donations to the fund, the way that garrison's takes care of his sister Salana, the way that garrison's cares for Tally and Lyara.

16:00 [SPEAKER_02]: I think maybe it's just the fact that Gary likes women and doesn't show off his sensitive side to other men. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that might be it. [SPEAKER_03]: But you know what that also goes back to his daddy issues, right? [SPEAKER_03]: A dad that was constantly pushing him to be perfect.

16:19 [SPEAKER_03]: and wasn't accepting anything less. [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, it would make sense why garrison might have a hard time being vulnerable around men. [SPEAKER_03]: Then yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: But that said, like we're talking about that scene by the QEC, by the Warmap. [SPEAKER_03]: I remember as one like, wow, like this is really confirmation of like how close garrison I are.

16:45 [SPEAKER_06]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_02]: Garus is your complete best friend. [SPEAKER_02]: And that has grown and shifted throughout the three games because in Mass Effect 1, Garus was defined by his sarcasm and a desperate need for action. [SPEAKER_02]: But in Mass Effect, three is mind-set has shifted away from personal vandettas, or just winning the fight, because Turing culture tells us that even if only one Turing is still standing at the end, the battle was a victory.

17:23 [SPEAKER_02]: And said, we seek Harris deeply concerned for his father, his sister Solana, and the millions of innocent souls caught in the crossfire on Palavin, knowing that even if they were to all survive, victory is not what you call surviving the reapers. [SPEAKER_03]: Can you imagine standing on the surface of the moon and looking back at earth?

17:51 [SPEAKER_03]: looking at your hometown and it is a giant scorch mark. [SPEAKER_02]: It then puts it into perspective with garrison and because that's exactly what Shepherd had to go through. [SPEAKER_02]: Shepherd had to get onto a ship and watch as earth burned, as, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: far away from the battle, away from all the drama and everything going on on earth.

18:24 [SPEAKER_02]: And now Gareth is living through the exact same thing. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, this is yet another instance in which Gareth's journey is mimicking shepherds, where Gareth's Gareth's is like playing this, I don't want to say like, [SPEAKER_03]: not a proto-shepard, but like a microcosm of shepherd, but in a terrain suit, which is funny because shepherd, in Mass Effect 1, at least, was definitely... you can tell that Captain Anderson was the proto-like shepherd.

19:00 [SPEAKER_03]: mm-hmm and uh... that that was the case so so this kind of archetype of of this kind of hero and this hero's journey appearing multiple ways throughout the lore also makes me think that garrison if given the time probably would have gotten to be good friends with uh... admiral anderson i think so i definitely think so [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

19:24 [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, that brings us to the middle of the show. [SPEAKER_03]: So let's go back. [SPEAKER_03]: Let's go to the middle. [SPEAKER_03]: We got a new review that we want to read out. [SPEAKER_03]: And this is news to me. [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't read this yet. [SPEAKER_03]: And we've also done our due diligence and we picked some voice lines for the voice line pop quiz.

19:41 [SPEAKER_03]: So let's go to the middle of the show and we will be right back. [SPEAKER_08]: We have beef bacon. [SPEAKER_08]: We [SPEAKER_05]: Young men have funny ideas of what a star you're like. [SPEAKER_05]: I blame the extra net and computer games. [SPEAKER_06]: Brakes? [SPEAKER_06]: Shepherd? [SPEAKER_06]: Grant?

20:01 [SPEAKER_06]: Shepherd? [SPEAKER_06]: Brakes? [SPEAKER_03]: All right, here we are in the middle of the show. [SPEAKER_03]: This is the part where we read out your five star reviews. [SPEAKER_03]: And we have been left one, a five star review from Science Lord in Australia, who writes along tides of light and through shows of dust, I will return to this podcast again.

20:23 [SPEAKER_03]: and goes on to say five stars as a relatively recent fan of Mass Effect picked up the game in December 2024, I began to crave more. [SPEAKER_03]: Is there going to be a direct sequel to the trilogy? [SPEAKER_03]: What do volus look like under their suits? [SPEAKER_03]: Is it Danny DeVito?

20:38 [SPEAKER_03]: And as to these questions, this podcast holds all the answers. [SPEAKER_03]: I originally came in from aspect news, but got quickly wrapped up in interesting facts and sightful discussions and witty banter. [SPEAKER_03]: Since my journey to be in my indoctrination has led me to have now listened to every single episode, I enjoyed all of them from the jokes between Sam and Tom to Genesis' unique perspective and insight on the lore that I would not have thought of.

21:02 [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, Sam being an organic codex with the experience of a journal is not to be understated in its awesomeness. [SPEAKER_03]: I should go. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, science, Lord, thank you so much. [SPEAKER_03]: I hope that we prove to be worthy of that level of praise. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sure that I am, but I can promise you that I'll never stop trying.

21:23 [SPEAKER_03]: Genesis 1, I guess. [SPEAKER_02]: thank you so much. [SPEAKER_02]: I really do love the lore of Mass Effect and I love that our brains work so differently that we come to each episode with unique perspectives and the different ways that we'll think about the exact same thing that we're reading and we just have different viewpoints.

21:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I like that. [SPEAKER_03]: right on. [SPEAKER_03]: And it looks like my camera has once again flipped off. [SPEAKER_03]: So some problems come and go some stay. [SPEAKER_03]: This looks to be one of them. [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we will continue onward. [SPEAKER_03]: We have a pop quiz for voice lines.

22:05 [SPEAKER_03]: Genesis, would you like to go first? [SPEAKER_03]: Should I go first, quizzing you? [SPEAKER_03]: Mine is pretty short. [SPEAKER_02]: Mine is also short, so either way is good. [SPEAKER_02]: I have it pulled up, so let's go ahead and I will play the voice line you sent me first. [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so I sent her the file and it's called WhatTheHell.Wave.

22:27 [SPEAKER_03]: So, all right, pay close attention is a very, very short audio bite. [SPEAKER_03]: I'll play it twice. [SPEAKER_03]: Shepherd, what the hell? [SPEAKER_03]: All right, we'll play a one more time. [SPEAKER_03]: Shepherd, what the hell? [SPEAKER_03]: All right, Genesis, any guesses? [SPEAKER_02]: That's Jacob Taylor.

22:48 [SPEAKER_03]: Well, yes, definitely. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna say, Mass Effect three, his renewal, not recruitment mission, but when you find him. [SPEAKER_03]: So that's a good guess. [SPEAKER_03]: Alas, it is not correct. [SPEAKER_03]: That is actually when we first meet Jacob in Mass Effect 2. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, what the hell, what are you doing out of bed?

23:14 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yep. [SPEAKER_03]: Yep, it's Shepherd, what the hell? [SPEAKER_03]: I just thought this is such a versatile voice line that I might put it in my repertoire of different stream deck effects to use whenever I stream next, whenever that's going to be. [SPEAKER_03]: probably when the next game comes up.

23:35 [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, all right. [SPEAKER_03]: Genesis, let's see what you've got for me. [SPEAKER_03]: It's just a one word file and it's called Statue.mp3. [SPEAKER_03]: Let's go ahead and give it a listen, shall we? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, last time I was at the Citadel, I didn't see a Turian statue in your honor.

23:52 [SPEAKER_03]: Okay. [SPEAKER_03]: That's Rex and it's got to be Mass Effect One Citadel banter in the Presidium comments. [SPEAKER_03]: No, no, really? [SPEAKER_02]: It's Mass Effect 3. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man. [SPEAKER_03]: How? [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, wait for me. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like 3. [SPEAKER_02]: It's banter between Garrison, Garrison Rex.

24:14 [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and in which part? [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, I believe it's Citadel DLC. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay, yeah, that would make sense. [SPEAKER_03]: That checks out. [SPEAKER_03]: Wow, well, we both stumped each other. [SPEAKER_03]: So I feel like that's a good, that's a good return to the voice lines.

24:29 [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, now we want to take a moment to shout out some patrons. [SPEAKER_03]: We have no new patrons this week. [SPEAKER_03]: But if you do sign up, we will make sure to shout out your name when you're new patron. [SPEAKER_03]: And for our tier 5 patrons, we like to shout them out every week.

24:43 [SPEAKER_03]: We want to shout out William, Superfly 440, Retro Bot, Latina Tocino, Kira C, Ed Boy, and Day. [SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of whom? [SPEAKER_03]: We are getting brand new patron to shirts with brand new designs based off of the different nightclubs throughout the game series. [SPEAKER_03]: The designs are courtesy of one day zero.

25:05 [SPEAKER_03]: So our own community giving back to our own community and the wonderful talent of day there on display. [SPEAKER_03]: If you sign up for our Patreon and you are able and willing to support us at the tier 4 level or above, you'll get a 1 t-shirt every quarter and I forget if it's still sending out hoodies, that's not really up to us.

25:29 [SPEAKER_03]: That's like up to Patreon. [SPEAKER_03]: But do you know if it's still sending out hoodies? [SPEAKER_03]: I don't. [SPEAKER_03]: We should probably figure it out. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we can definitely offline about how all that stuff works and I would like to make a little correction. [SPEAKER_02]: It's not during the Citadel DLC.

25:46 [SPEAKER_02]: It is during Rex's mission on to go get Eve or Lady Bikara and it's if you bring Gary's and you start asking him all the questions. [SPEAKER_02]: It's the same part of the conversation where he can talk about eating salarian livers. [SPEAKER_03]: Ah, so this is when he's real riled up right before that crowgeneir drop.

26:06 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I like riled up Rex. [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, all right. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you just put to bed a bunch of anxio leaves. [SPEAKER_03]: And there's something someone deleting their comment as we speak. [SPEAKER_03]: So, with that, let's get back to the rest of the show.

26:20 [SPEAKER_03]: Here we go. [SPEAKER_04]: After time and drift among open stars, a long tide of light and through shows of dust, I will return to where I began. [SPEAKER_07]: Celery and reproduction different, very little sex drive. [SPEAKER_07]: If intended to try human, we'll try you. [SPEAKER_07]: Ow, my pain grease.

26:36 [SPEAKER_03]: All right, here we are in the second half of the show and Genesis, we've been talking about Priority Palvin and the kind of significant character development we get right off the bat in Mass Effect 3, 4 garrows. [SPEAKER_03]: Just in this recruitment mission on Mene. [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.

26:54 [SPEAKER_02]: And it is, it marks this shift in his core personality, because Gary's is seeing not a personal trauma, or even the small scale events like he saw on Omega, but this is front and in his face a global universal scale event. [SPEAKER_02]: And we know that he hasn't risen in the ranks of the Turian Army out of a need to establish his authority.

27:23 [SPEAKER_02]: But he was assigned a position to help his people. [SPEAKER_03]: So that must be a source of an ongoing ship on his shoulder. [SPEAKER_03]: you know, like, do I deserve to be here? [SPEAKER_03]: And I can already see someone like Harris suffering from imposter syndrome, but you add in Harris' own personality with the culture of the Turian military and the Turian society that everyone should earn their place, and seems like most of the time that's through sheer time spent.

27:54 [SPEAKER_03]: you know, tenure. [SPEAKER_03]: And Garris is still rather young, hasn't risen through the ranks like you mentioned, and is now in a position of authority over people who are far older than him. [SPEAKER_02]: And I can kind of see both sides of the coin on that. [SPEAKER_02]: I can see where Garus might have a little bit of that imposter syndrome, but he also can look back at his years of history and see everything that he has accomplished.

28:23 [SPEAKER_02]: It may have not been the way that his dad wanted him to. [SPEAKER_02]: It may not have been the way that the Tory and hierarchy would want him to, but he has done his time. [SPEAKER_02]: He has proven his worth. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, do you think he'd like the song, My Way by Frank Sinatra?

28:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yes. [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like we have that to the playlist. [SPEAKER_03]: That would be his karaoke song. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: 100%. [SPEAKER_03]: yeah do it my way yeah he he's he's he's always done things his way for better or for worse and he's proud of that so uh okay so let's talk about shepherd and garruses interactions as different commanders because garruses a commander of his own sword right now and when shepherd meets him obviously shepherd is [SPEAKER_03]: And this is kind of a different change of pace from when we meet him in Mass Effect 1 and even different from Mass Effect 2.

29:28 [SPEAKER_02]: And because the Mass Effect one garrison needed to prove himself to his dad, like, see dad, I can do this. [SPEAKER_02]: I can do this my way, like he said, Mass Effect two garrison needed to prove his worth to himself. [SPEAKER_02]: He'd cried to go out there, he'd tried to run a team, he'd tried to be shepherd and ultimately failed, but learned quite a lot from it.

29:53 [SPEAKER_02]: Mass Effect 3 Garrison is the fully actualized version of the man that he wanted to be. [SPEAKER_03]: This is his final form. [SPEAKER_02]: it is. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: So while you were talking, I was thinking about, you know, a phrase that I've heard before, which is that Garus is kind of like a river.

30:15 [SPEAKER_03]: He carves his own path through the terrain. [SPEAKER_03]: And he's certainly not going to choose an easier route just because there's less resistance. [SPEAKER_03]: It's that Garus is going to choose the route that he believes is right. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, uh, now I'm thinking of just around the river bent from Poko Honest.

30:36 [SPEAKER_03]: But I see it, I think maybe a glacier is more apt. [SPEAKER_03]: Because that really does just carve its way through things. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but that's also really slow, you know, we need something a line of fire, because that car was its own path quite quickly and compares it into a glacier or water.

30:57 [SPEAKER_03]: Gamma Rayburst, there we go, yeah, so they start to see each other as equals, right, [SPEAKER_02]: and not only do garrison shepherds start to see each other as equals but I feel like we as the player also see it that way because like you said when we're playing mass effect one we feel like garrison is a bit of a young kid and then in two we feel like he's this you know cocky and like what were you freaking thinking trying to take on all of omega [SPEAKER_02]: And now, in three, we can see him kind of on equal footing as shepherd, because before there is often looked up to shepherd, being the one with all the answers, the one with the moral compass to follow, the wrong person on a renegade actions, and the tactical mind needed to win the fight.

31:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Now, garrison can see that Shepherd has been carrying the burden of watching your home planet burn and desperately trying, but fully unable to save the people that you share a planet with. [SPEAKER_03]: And a fighting that hopelessness. [SPEAKER_03]: you know. [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like they did a pretty good job of trying to depict the mental battle that was going on during Mass Effect 3 of being faced with total desolation.

32:27 [SPEAKER_03]: And yes, there are, it's easy to sit back and look from the outside in with this work of fiction and say, well, you know, [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that sucks, but like you can just think about what you need to do to do this and this and this and this and to do the mission. [SPEAKER_03]: Not if you think it's all pointless, not if what you're looking at has got you thinking in terms of maybe I should just say, [SPEAKER_02]: If you're playing this game, just to shoot the bad guy when the war, yeah, at the end of the game, then you're not really playing Mass Effect.

33:09 [SPEAKER_02]: There's, I, when I play this game. [SPEAKER_02]: feel for the characters. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm invested in their storyline. [SPEAKER_02]: I want them to have the best possible solutions and resolutions, but it doesn't always go that way. [SPEAKER_02]: And so for me, it's just like going through all of this, I'm able to see how much effort and how much love and dedication the writers and everybody put into garrers because we can clearly see this art that is going through.

33:43 [SPEAKER_03]: And even later, after Palavin, you get to see that with Shepard's dynamic with Garus because Shepard is the one asking for Garus' expertise a lot more when they're in the battery talking. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, because now it's not just shepherd looking up the garrison, they are looking at each other for advice, and that is a huge shift in their relationship, platonic or romantic, no matter what way.

34:11 [SPEAKER_02]: And for me, priority, Palomin is more than just a recruitment mission. [SPEAKER_02]: It's this garrison's coming of age moment as a true leader. [SPEAKER_02]: It completes his personal growth arc from being the idealistic and pulse of seasick officer who is frustrated by red tape and is inability to break the same laws the criminals break to becoming a vigilante who fought too hard, who desperately and lost his entire team because of it.

34:41 [SPEAKER_02]: And now, now this garrison is the actualized version of a Turing Commander who understands sacrifice, responsibility, and the emotional burden of war. [SPEAKER_02]: This is my garrison. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man. [SPEAKER_03]: All right, yeah, so I can see that even though he's only 28 to 30, he's aged mentally a lot, and he's got that kind of, I don't know, the makings of becoming like a trillion hack it.

35:18 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you imagine, garrison's an old man, [SPEAKER_02]: mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, you know, and it's, it's said a couple of times that, um, that garrison should be in the line to become the next primarck. [SPEAKER_02]: And I could see that being his future. [SPEAKER_02]: Not, not anytime soon.

35:41 [SPEAKER_02]: He wouldn't want it, but that's normally the best person for the job. [SPEAKER_03]: He'd pull a John Snow. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't want it. [SPEAKER_03]: She's, she's a queen. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't [SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of similarities between Garrison, John Snow. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't think that Garrison's going to give up everything to go fight on the wall, though.

36:08 [SPEAKER_03]: No, but if he does get killed, I better see him resurrected. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we do. [SPEAKER_02]: We watch Garrison die out and O'Pulhu is on blood and then all of a sudden he's sent to his back in with new facial scars. [SPEAKER_03]: And he does get betrayed. [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.

36:24 [SPEAKER_03]: Okay. [SPEAKER_03]: There we go. [SPEAKER_03]: We need to get Garrison wolf. [SPEAKER_03]: Although I think dogs are extinct in mass-fact, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Or am I thinking cyberpunk? [SPEAKER_02]: We can get him a variant, it's fine. [SPEAKER_03]: The variant, there we go. [SPEAKER_03]: So now we approach the end of Priority Palavan, and it's less like we have a subordinate.

36:45 [SPEAKER_03]: It's more like we have a coworker and a guy that has just been there with us through it all who understands us, us being the players and shepherd. [SPEAKER_03]: More than anyone else, perhaps, on the ship. [SPEAKER_03]: And of all of the different crew members, you know, like, garris is one of the few people that shepherd can be vulnerable with.

37:12 [SPEAKER_03]: Felt him or her worrying about a jeopardizing their command. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, definitely, I would put Tally right in that same rank of being able to be open and vulnerable and also Lyra. [SPEAKER_02]: I think Kaden actually definitely in Mass Effect 3, you can be open and vulnerable with them once later in the game, but it.

37:38 [SPEAKER_02]: With Gareth's romance or not, that vulnerability shows up a lot earlier. [SPEAKER_02]: You can definitely talk to Gareth's openly about the calculus of war. [SPEAKER_02]: A lot sooner than you can with the other characters. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and they developed the platonic relationship with Gareth a lot more than I think they developed [SPEAKER_03]: so yeah i just remember like as a brochure if you're not going to romance tally there's not like a lot there in massfic three besides the ranic arc yeah yeah i could see that uh in terms of like his buddy buddy you know i mean there's not a lot there [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because that's kind of how I feel the same way playing as a femme ship, where she's not a romance option, it feels like she's one of my best girlfriends, but there's still a little bit of a barrier there.

38:39 [SPEAKER_02]: And with Garrison, there is none of that. [SPEAKER_03]: So, okay, so we bring Garros aboard the Normandy, right? [SPEAKER_03]: And so one of these first conversations we can have with him is where we learn more about his Reaper Task Force, and kind of how he minted things with his dad. [SPEAKER_03]: So, what did you make of these two conversations?

39:03 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, pretty much right when you invite him on, it's like, hey, where do we pick up where we left off? [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_02]: He's, I mean, he goes straight to his first love, which is the, the battery gun, and he goes right to his home where he belongs. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, it's where a lot of the conversations happen, and that's okay.

39:24 [SPEAKER_02]: You can love the ship too, Gary. [SPEAKER_02]: So we all love the Normandy. [SPEAKER_02]: And then he tells us we have a very long conversation with him catching up on all the different things that have been going on. [SPEAKER_02]: We learn more about the Reaper Task Force. [SPEAKER_02]: We learn the fact that he is waiting to hear if his dad and sister made it off of Palovin.

39:47 [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the first time that we actually hear through dialogue about Solana, his sister. [SPEAKER_02]: We are also able to have had to have read it in Mass Effect 2 during the Shadow Broker DLC. [SPEAKER_02]: And so it's also the point where you can rekindle your romance. [SPEAKER_02]: now that things have calmed down, you're not in your not an armor, you're not having a weapon in hand, you know, it's finally time to see if you can pick up or you left off and if you guys want to start testing that reach and flexibility again.

40:23 [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, yeah because you got kind of teased at the end of mass-frag two, right? [SPEAKER_03]: A little head, a little head touch. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yes, we got the head touch in Mass Effect 2, but I will say that it gets a lot better in Mass Effect 3. [SPEAKER_02]: The physical aspect of the romance between the two of them picks up for sure.

40:47 [SPEAKER_02]: Bye! [SPEAKER_02]: There's also the fact that he's still a little bit of the awkward shy garrison. [SPEAKER_02]: Garrison isn't swath when it comes to romance in him. [SPEAKER_02]: He eventually gets there, but everything starts off a little bit like, am I doing this right? [SPEAKER_02]: I need reassurance from you.

41:10 [SPEAKER_02]: And he pretty much straight-up asks you because you guys have been separated for months and months and you haven't been allowed to communicate. [SPEAKER_02]: He straight-up asks, I'm not sure if you want to pick up where you left off. [SPEAKER_02]: Where are you at Shepherd? [SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's a nice kind of way to approach it with the player, you know, like, hey, did you want to romance me again or were you thinking of maybe trying a different flavor?

41:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, especially because there is the potential that, and Garus was there when you were romance as a femme ship, romance and caten in Mass Effect 1, and now caten is already back on the Normandy. [SPEAKER_02]: in massive during that attack and everything like that, like he knows that Caden is back in your life.

42:00 [SPEAKER_02]: So he's super respectful of that and says that now that Caden is back, does that, is that going to, you know, where do you, where do you want to pick things up at? [SPEAKER_03]: Well, and at that moment, I think Caden is like in the hospital, right, on the citadel, but yes, still remember the crew.

42:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_02]: And he, Gary's really wants to pick up the relationship again, but we'll totally respect it if Shepherd doesn't. [SPEAKER_02]: It's actually a really, really sad animation the way that he will look at you and his entire face gets crestfallen and he turns around and faces away from Shepherd puts his hand on the gun like, fuck my girlfriend just broke up with me again.

42:47 [SPEAKER_02]: And then turns back around and it's like continues the conversation, but it's like not letting go of me. [SPEAKER_03]: Nope. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, don't you don't see this tier height behind my wife there. [SPEAKER_02]: I swear, uh, but if you do want to continue it. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a very cute Paragon Interrupt where Shepherd can lean up.

43:07 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: She actually animates getting up on tiptoes. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, you His him skit on the scarred side of his face going. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, buddy. [SPEAKER_02]: We're still good. [SPEAKER_03]: If Turians could blush, he would be Crimson. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

43:24 [SPEAKER_02]: He does smile and you can see the mandible flare that you said doesn't show up anywhere else. [SPEAKER_03]: It does. [SPEAKER_03]: The arbiter face, yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I love that. [SPEAKER_03]: That only shows up like a couple times throughout the series. [SPEAKER_03]: The first being nihilist, of course, watching that vid on the Normandy.

43:43 [SPEAKER_03]: So, okay, so this is already more physical than things were in Mass Effect too. [SPEAKER_02]: And I can confirm that they express their physical affection in every romance specific scene. [SPEAKER_02]: They keep a buttoned up when it's not romance specific, but there's a lot more like hugs and forehead touches, kisses, things like that throughout the game, when it's romance specific scenes.

44:09 [SPEAKER_03]: I wish I got that with any romance with brochure. [SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like, then again, I never romance, [SPEAKER_02]: I'm trying to remember it through mine, and I guess it's with Jack, you've only got like the mission. [SPEAKER_02]: You romance the make out and then the the Citadel DLC stuff and the dancing.

44:32 [SPEAKER_02]: Guys touch what you're dancing. [SPEAKER_02]: Miranda only has the one interaction and you guys go have sex. [SPEAKER_03]: even with, so what's so, I got a bone to pick with the Jack romance, and maybe we'll talk about that at some point when we talk more about Jack's romance, but basically my bone to pick is in Mass Effect 3.

44:53 [SPEAKER_03]: If you ended things the Paragon way and Mass Effect 2, why does it feel like I'm just friends with benefits with her in Mass Effect 3? [SPEAKER_03]: You know, after all that and kind of like going and finally breaking through her rough exterior, [SPEAKER_03]: I am now one of, if not the only individual in the galaxy that she is that vulnerable with and now we are like, fuck buddies.

45:19 [SPEAKER_02]: I am right there with you. [SPEAKER_02]: My first brochure playthrough was Lyra Jack Jack. [SPEAKER_02]: And I was not very happy with the way that things ended in Mass Effect 3 with her. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yep. [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think we're running out of time for Garris today, but obviously we've got a lot more Garris to talk about.

45:44 [SPEAKER_03]: Yay! [SPEAKER_03]: Including, you know, Garris on the Citadel in that refugee camp and his role there and how he once again kind of takes a leadership position. [SPEAKER_03]: But we will be talking more about that. [SPEAKER_03]: Not next week, next week is the patron chat. [SPEAKER_03]: It's also my birthday.

46:01 [SPEAKER_03]: So we will [SPEAKER_03]: have that patron chat, I will maybe stream maybe, and we're talking about possibly restarting that Sharon Shepherd play through. [SPEAKER_03]: So if you haven't gone, go ahead and follow us on Twitch at Mass Effect Lortez, and you can follow both Genesis and I, you're not your IM Genesis, right?

46:28 [SPEAKER_03]: on Twitch. [SPEAKER_02]: On Twitch, yeah, on Twitch. [SPEAKER_02]: I am I am Genesis. [SPEAKER_03]: You are. [SPEAKER_02]: I am I am. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, you are. [SPEAKER_03]: You are. [SPEAKER_03]: And I am at in seven legend. [SPEAKER_03]: So you can go follow us there and turn on your notifications.

46:45 [SPEAKER_03]: You'll see when we are live. [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, that's all we got for this week, folks. [SPEAKER_03]: Prepare for more garrison and whatever the patrons cook up to talk about next week. [SPEAKER_03]: So alright guys and again, sorry for the delay in getting this episode out to you as well as the what if Koreans won that we recorded a little while ago we still haven't published yet promise we're trying to work things out with this new schedule of mine and uh we will get there but just know that we are not giving up on the lorecast.

47:18 [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Have a good one, everyone, and tell your loved ones that you love them and hug them so that their mandibles flare. [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: Have a good one, guys. [SPEAKER_03]: Take care. [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for listening to the Mass Effect War text.

47:47 [SPEAKER_03]: Reach out to us on BlueSky, Twitter, Discord, Patreon, or email us at Mass EffectLoreCast at gmail.com. [SPEAKER_02]: Join us next week for more and more. [SPEAKER_02]: Same space, same time. [SPEAKER_02]: Or check out our live streams at twitch.tv slash Mass Effect WarCast.