Who are you?

Who are you?

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Someone who'd like to know what you want.

A nerd.

Ask that question to a mirror.

A man has no name.

A relatively smart, semi-charismatic dude who really hasn't got his shit figured out but is pretty good at faking it and can damn sure take a punch.

Best elder race

"Who do you serve, and who do you trust?"

DANTE THE DEMON KILLER
HAS A NICE RING TO IT, DONTCHA THINK?

do you think Shadows/Vorlons ever switched sides?

....what terrible sci-fi show are we referencing today?

No one

Over and over again, "who are you?"
And you, for you the question is: "What do you want?"
I have never heard either of you answer those questions yourselves.
Who are YOU?
What do YOU want?

continuing off that question and without any idea who you are you'll either discuss something less asinine with me or we'll see how well you take a punch.

I don't like me much but I detest being looked down upon by others. It's a conundrum but it creates this wonderful realization that you can melt my brain or whatever and I'll die happy if a solid hook connected.

Something tells me you can't take a punch.

More like most edgelord elder race.

Babylon 5.

Babylon 5. Two alien races have questions they ask people to test them. The Vorlons ask "Who are you?", they're interested in progress through control and order, and the question is designed to make you look inwards and examine yourself, your relationships, and your motivation.

The Shadows ask "What do you want?", they're all about progress though conflict. The question is is about looking outward, at desire and opportunity. They use it to spark conflict.

i'm a cute anime girl

At first I thought he was holding a sheathed katana.

He would've actually made it look good.

A man looking for an alien intelligence.

Are you the bastard?

ww.youtube.com/watch?v=PdLIerfXuZ4

>Who are you?

Veeky Forums

You want /tv/.
So, why don't you just babylon over there?

TWO
FOUR
SIX
OH
ONE!

Who, who?

Who, who?

A fat guy
A neckbeard
The Destroyer of Worlds

I'm just an engineer with some questions. Think an elder being should have no problem answering them. I got here a list of paradoxes from fluid dynamics. What was up with God when he was making these things anyway, they make no sense at all.

There are some Babylon 5 traditional games if that helps.

/tv/ is quite a bad board for discussion if you're not interested in cape movie memes and actresses' feet

>GET OFF THE LAWN!

In the tv series, they were both shown to be like squabbling divorced helicopter parents who uses their kids as proxies to hurt each other.

And this guy is the estranged weird uncle.

I really wish you got to meet some of the other First Ones in the same way as the Walkers. I mean you've also got the Kirishiac, Torvalus, Mindriders, and Triad. Would have been cool to know what they were about too.

We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure.


We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world.

We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.

I'm just the pizza delivery man. So are you going to pay or not?

"..."

dont mind me.

just cleaning up this shithole.

My name is Guybrush Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate.

>/tv/
Easily one of the most retarded boards. Kino has to be the most head up its ass meme on Veeky Forums.

I would loved that the reapers were actually that.

Like some sort of Eldritch Machine God.

But no they are fucking star child doomsday play toys. God damn it!

i wish they kept this writer...

No. No, it does not.

Those things are called Vorlons, I think. I only ever watched like one episode of that show, I can't believe I remember that.

To answer the question, I'm a lazy fuck who wants everything handed to me and hate having to expend effort on anything I don't enjoy. I relish the thought of having everything I want and hiding in my own tiny corner of the universe, free of obligation and strife.

>the last light of a dying star fills my heart
>my thoughts crackle and boom like a thunderstorm
>bourbon runs through my veins
>I am the imp of the peverse
>I am the eternal fool who trips, only to destroy worlds
>I am the Lord of the Snark

I am me. Why do you ask?

>I am me.
Are you?

When they do they turn into pimps:

>Who do you want?

>fucking normies, get out REEEEEE

Might be more convincing if you didn't turn out to be mechanical copies of Space Aboleths that killed organics to stop them from being killed

Hobbit detected

A jackass.

Its also interesting that eventually, humans end up looking like Vorlons. The thing you see is actually the 'encounter suite' the Vorlons wear when dealing with lowly species. No one really knows what they actually look like. Thousands of years after the events in B5, humans have reached the tech level of Vorlons and presumably have uplifted many new species before leaving the galaxy to join the Old Ones.

I dunno, I think the forms we see in the Ulkesh vs Naranak('s remains) fight are probably their true forms.

THAT REALLY UPDATED MY JOURNAL

I am a purifier. Are you a spectre?

Are you a god?

I am who I have always been.

It is too late for me, G'kar. It is not too late for you. Honor my name. Honor... my... name.

Who come no one has meme answer yet?

>I'm big guy
>I'm you, but better

Understanding is a three-edged sword.

The reason why we don't know their true forms is that they uplifted some races (like humans) and fucked with their genetic coding so that if said race sees them outside the suit, they see a divine being (so for humans they saw an angel). This is hinted at being a subconscious psychic defense mechanism in the Vorlons, because after revealing himself to so many people to save Sheridan from the bomb on b5, Kash had to spend the next week or so resting.

I liked the revaluation in ME 2 where they were literally reaping a harvest to build more of themselves.

The idea of all of human history being in order to create a new group of immortal god machines who will then go out into the dark and continue the cycle of genocide is pretty decent cosmic horror.

I think that Mass Effect 3 really dropped the ball with the Reapers because the big reveal was ~so close~ to a perfectly logical motivation that would have been suitably alien in nature while still fitting with the story, and would have only been slightly different from what we got. They could have said that the Reapers were trying to make sure that all different types of unique civilization could exist, forcibly ending advanced civilizations to allow other, more primitive species to develop independently of their precursors' interference, while preserving their victims' bodies, minds, and societies inside Reaper shells so that they themselves could live on and continue to advance; that would have fit their actions perfectly while also tying into the series' overarching narrative themes, and would have been a motive far removed from the concerns of any "mortal" while still being internally consistent and making sense from an ancient machine god's perspective.

Instead, we got the whole destroying any species that grows too advanced because they'll "inevitably" make galaxy-destroying killer robots thing, which was barely foreshadowed or played up thematically and goes against virtually all the evidence the game gives you on the matter.

If they stuck to that, sure; but they were too obsessed with "explaining" everything.

Similarly, consistency would be necessary. We should have seen some humanoid reapers. Thousands of god-machines, each in themselves the final relic of a destroyed civilization would have been an amazing climax instead of "And all of them are squid, because who wants to make more than 2 or three models right?"

I always wondered what Vorlon and Shadow society is like.

Like, okay, I can imagine Vorlon society. Ulkesh comes home, takes off his encounter suit, and goes to see his wife that was given to him by his superiors. Basically the ultimate hierarchy.

But what does Shadow culture look like? All we know is that they
a) believe in evolution through chaos
b) can do immaterial, but choose not to
c) are not telepathic but apparently replicated it with technology.

So what's Shadow life like? I doubt they're an anarchy, because they have cities, fleets, and organization. They don't seem to be interested in ruling either, so probably not despots.

Yeah, like there should've been an Insunnan (pre Prothean) reaper and a Prothean reaper at least. They had the opportunity to go absolutely batshit crazy with alien designs and didn't.

Well there is a mass effect 4 coming out, maybe they will retcon it again into something else, ether more or less sensible, hopefully both more and less sensible at the same time!

This is why B5 in my opinion is severely underrated and underused as a universe for tg and media. You have enigmatic races, distinctive faction tech, cool backstories, realistic motivations, beautiful ships, sprawling space battles, high and low politics. The list goes on.

Shadows look insect like. So maybe strict hierarchy society with emphasis on social survival of the fittest. Something like a cross between historical Spartans x Battletech Clanners x Zergs x ants.

Weeeeeeeell... not really.

I mean, it's basically the Cold War IN SPACE! With the humans being one of the proxy fighters.

Traveller has a sourcebook for it, and I think it works well. You've got Tech levels, you've got your spaceships, and so on.

If I wanted to, I could come up with a campaign for B5 in like, 5 minutes.

>The Shadow-Vorlon war has ended, but all is not well in the Galaxy. Earthforce is still a corrupt organization, manipulated by the Psi Corp. Babylon 5 has now become larger by the infusion of new alien tech. The Centauri and Narn are back to a state of hostile peace, while the Drakh are gathering their armies. And while the Shadows and Vorlons left the Galaxy, certainly there are some who didn't get the message...

>You represent the best and brightest of the Babylon 5 alliance. You will be given a ship, and a crew that you can build from any race present on B5. Your goal is two-fold: a) a mission of peace and goodwill to those worlds who have not joined the Alliance of Light, b) to map new hyperlane routes for the Alliance of Light, and c) to recover any alien technology that could be used to upgrade B5 further.

I'd always figured that anyone left behind was some kind of fanatic or eccentric.

Like all the normal civilizations had ascended into energy beings and were off in hyperspace doing whatever you do when you're an immortal god-being.

The Shadows and the Vorlons were so obsessive about their little sentient farms that they stayed behind. So you have to imagine that whatever society they do have is bent heavily towards their purpose. Like, they probably spend all their time spying on everyone, observing, planning, gene manipulating hapless galactic yokels. Or they just stay in stasis most of the time.

youtube.com/watch?v=KmMsxqWYK-g

B5 is an amazingly good setting because it treats its people very fairly.

Every species and every character is given the opportunity to evolve and seize initiative. It's almost hard to remember the characters of the pilot with the cartoonishly antagonistic G'Kar and the swindling buffoon Londo.

They set things up quickly with an overarching plot, but still gave room for things to weave in and out of the story.

I thought they were setting up the Geth to be the saviors of all life. The Geth in 1 and 2 were all about finding their own path, and avoided the mass relay based civilization. So the Geth are the only ones who can really resist the Reapers.

Shep getting resurrected as basically part man part machine also seemed to be leading into the idea that she'd be able to bridge the gap.

The Geth provide tech, plans, gear allowing people to resist indoctrination and build weapons. This version would have the game be basically playing a galactic version of operation Barbarossa, as you try and organize bloody, desperate defenses to the reaper vanguard while the rest of the galaxy gets its collective shit together.

Well, if I were to run my campaign, I would probably have the people left behind be the fanatics and eccentrics, or as the NPC Sinclair would say:

>"Do you honestly believe that after 50 million years of evolution, of having things go their way, after seeing so many other races rise and fall, do you REALLY think they all left? Sure, Lorien told them to scram, and they did - but it wasn't a "on/off" switch either."

>He takes a pause. "So, I'm willing to bet. I'm willing to bet the safety of this station, and all the people that I'm now responsible for - that they left something. Maybe it's listening posts. Maybe it's sleeper agents with telepathic communication. Maybe it's - well, I'm not going to keep guessing. They're smarter than us, more powerful. We might not recognize it if we saw it. But on your mission, if you find something suspicious..."

>He nods to the Ranger sitting on the waiting room couch. "You let him know, and he'll relay a message to me. He's a Minbari telepath. Total security, and no chance of interception." He nods at you again. "Good luck out there."

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT

>If they stuck to that, sure; but they were too obsessed with "explaining" everything.
I think they were right to try to explain things. Sticking with just "our motives are beyond your comprehension" would have been a cheap handwave, and ME2's revelation on its own would've had even more holes than their actual reasons if it was all we got. For example, if their goal is to make more of themselves by mass-kidnapping of mortal races, uploading the minds into a reaper CPU and melting their bodies into a biomechanical ship, then why kill so many mortals? And why do they need a different sentient species each time? They could just support a few compatible species while using their dead and dying members for their special projects, which would not only be more efficient but also simpler, safer, and more reliable. In fact, it would render the entire plot of the Mass Effect trilogy unnecessary. But even then, why would they need to harvest a massive number of organics to reproduce in the first place? If all they wanted was to make more Reapers, couldn't they just, you know, do it?

So, I think that the Reapers definitely warranted further explanation, and it was a good idea to try and give them one. The problem is that the explanation makes no sense.

(cont.)

That happened in later seasons and Crusade didn't it? Some of the Shadow remnants put that neck thing on Londo, and hit humanity with a plague.

But yeah lots and lots of room for Rangers to go on infiltration missions in colonies that may have been compromised. A handful of Shadows or Vorlons scheming to carry on the work.

There's a difference between learning the truth and explaining something.

ME2 did a decent enough job with "What are the Collectors doing?" simply by having you arrive in time for the main event.

ME3 just goes "Fuck it; Starkid's gonna lay it down for ya."

>Similarly, consistency would be necessary. We should have seen some humanoid reapers. Thousands of god-machines, each in themselves the final relic of a destroyed civilization would have been an amazing climax instead of "And all of them are squid, because who wants to make more than 2 or three models right?"
I half-agree. Their similar appearances don't bother me much; supplementary notes imply that the big cuttlefish things are a sort of "shell" that's built around the Reaper's core, which makes sense because some shapes are just more practical than others. Plus, it would be a lot of effort to little effect if every Reaper looked totally unique; it's good for them to look at least as similar as any of the other species.

The real problem is that every Reaper in the Mass Effect saga ~acts~ virtually the same. What happened to "we are each a nation"? Given what we know of the Reapers, each of them should have been a culture unto itself, with many viewpoints on various topics, all originating from a unique point different from any other Reaper. It would have been nice to have a well-developed conversation sequence with at least one or two Reapers to see how they interpret the events of the galaxy, explore how beings like that can even be united in purpose at all, and try to sway them to your cause.

But we got none of that. Instead, the Reapers are a generic, monolithic block of danger, all uniformly devoted to their inscrutable motives. The few snippets of dialogue we have indicate that the various Reapers do have at least superficial differences in personality, but they make no difference; We never get to see how a given member of the Reaper fleet applies its idiosyncracies to a specific part of the invasion, because the vast majority of the Reapers don't even have names, let alone a personality.

The Reapers are such a unique concept, and Mass Effect could have done so much more with them than they did.

I always figured that they didn't want to endlessly create the same creatures. They wanted novelty, diversity. After all, if you're an immortal god-robot, why do you need endless copies of yourself? You're not going to get anything out of them that you couldn't get out of yourself (positing infinity, the rest is easy).

It also makes them much more of a threat. They were the best each generation of life had to offer. To fight them, you don't just have to be better than whatever template they have to create. You have to be better than the combined minds of every species they ever melted into reapers.

So the setup they have is a twofer. It keeps making them stronger and better, and keeps everything else in the galaxy from progressing to a level where they can possibly be fought.

I woke up in a Soho doorway
A policeman knew my name
He said "You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away"

>Sinclair

But he's stuck in the past.

I know you meant Sheridan, I'm just giving you shit.

Zarthras tells them, time is tricky, all kinds of mistakes. But do they listen? No. No-one listens to Zarthras. Very sad.

Who the Hell do you think I am?

A fag weeb

>Who are you?

It doesn't matter who we are. What matters is our plan.

137th

Bearer to another's fire. Douse it or it will consume you and those you cherish.

Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me.

I'm you, but stronger.

Forgot pic

I AM A SHADOW....THE TRUE SELF!

kek

I am the eggman
They are the Eggman
I AM THE WALRUS
KOO KOO KACHOO

THE AXE-MAN DOESN'T GIVE ANY SHITS!!!
WHAT? YOUR A PRIMARCH? THE AXE JUST DOESN'T CARE!!! COME AT ME HERETICS!

I am Ahzek Ahriman,sorcerer of the red cyclops,exile of the thousand sons,lord of the Prodigal sons,wielder of the black staff (INHALE)but I assume you have heard of me.

xcom 2's graphics really are something else

forgot pic

I am Spartacus.

I am A.I, Acquirer of Intelligence and also a super robot

Assassin?

CHARLES! AAAAAAAAAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEEENNNNNDDD!

I'm a man of wealth and taste.