Remember Lucas' Lesson! (Longish)

Er, why not? He's an actor. They needed to employ actors to be Jedi Knights. Samuel L. Jackson was into the movies and the role, and his lightsaber had "BMF" written on it. I don't see anything that makes him spectacularly unsuitable for being in the movie.

Well, that's probably where relative perception comes in. To give you a very simplistic example, I see this as GlaDOS in Porta. In many ways, she is right, she is "the only thing that stands between us and them," and seeing what the world of Half-Life 2 post Combine takeover is, I've no doubt she is right. In fact, "them" may not even refer to the relatively conventional forces of the Overwatch, and instead refer to the truly diabolical, err... What were the floating telekinetic slugs called?

Regardless, the fact that she protects the protagonist from aliens changes little when you consider that she tried to KILL the protagonist, probably intending to just clone and replicate her, as has been fan-suggested before. All the talks of retaining brain scans speak to that effect.

Of course, in a world half empty, it usually does come down to which is the lesser evil, and in such a light, I can see how it could be relative. However, I am a fan of more optimistic stories, if not in setting and theme, then at least in terms of ending. For instance, I very (very very) much enjoyed playing the good guy in Mass Effect, especially towards the end where EVERYTHING is in the hands of Commander Shepard. In fact, probably the most iconic decision in the game, for me at least, was whether or not to call in the Earth fleet to fight for and save the fleeing Council.

This is probably as good a time as any for a morally ambiguous decision - do I endanger the lives of possibly thousands of people from MY world in an attempt to save the ambassadors of OTHER worlds, or do I look the other way, pretend I can't help them and let them die? Having already let Kaiden die in pretty much the same way earlier in the game, I was very much determined that I was done fighting for a world where people were left to die alone and abandoned. Such a world would not be worth living in. That, and despite suffering heavy losses, this FINALLY gave a chance for the people of Earth to show to the rest of the galaxy that they too were brave, strong and noble when it really, really counted. Their enthusiasm over the radio also helped a great deal.

Luckily, Mass Effect is a game where "just deserts" is expertly handled. If you are good and do the right thing, good things happen to you, and if you are bad and do the wrong thing, either bad things happen, or you miss out on all the good. If this were a pessimistic game, I'd probably have gotten everyone killed for nothing, but that's why I dislike pessimistic worlds. This is the grand finale. If ever things had to go right, that would be the time.

Of course, that's just my opinion on what I personally like.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I don't mind Jackson as an actor, but I just don't believe his specific style of "BMF" fit with the theme of the movie, and especially with the jedi council. It's like casting Bill Goldberg as king of the elves or Woody Allen as a titanic monster of some kind. It just REALLY sticks out, and yet the movie makes no effort to acknowledge that. Yes, I know there are ALIENS on the council which would theoretically stick out more, but Jackson sticks out out-of-character.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

It's not what he did. Maybe I'm falling victim to typecasting, but I just don't feel he, as an actor, fits the role of a jedi. I'd be kind of like putting Chris Tucker in as a jedi council member. Even if he doesn't DO anything out of character, I'd still feel he's out of place in that movie, at least in that role.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

But there comes a point where expectations are really traps. If you want all of the Jedi Council to be wise old elven mage types, how would anything ever get accomplished? It would get grating really fast, like in another game where your character gets to uphold the 'balance of nature' by killing 10 of every kind of animal! That, and the constant rain. You need a Jedi who'll throw the 'we need to do SOMETHING!' ball, or all the Yoda clones will giggle and break wind at each other all day long