User blog comment:Ygrain/ME sequel: what shall we do with the extinct races?/@comment-4953843-20121123151800

it's a big galaxy, anything's possible. ehem. virtual alien squadmate.

the most readymade excuse for bringing back potentially extinct species: isolated pockets of whatever we have that were far enough from the galaxy to escape from shep's christmas-color redecorating. splinter groups of whatever race subscribing to whatever philosophy in life also fall here.

only requirement is that they have to be really far out because we're shown the changes affect the entire galaxy with no room to spare. pulled that off with the rachni (and ONE prothean AND a bunch of collectors), doesn't mean bioware won't do it again.

as to what they're doing in that part of the universe, anyone's guess. wormholes? farscape? spaceship destiny? outbound flight? v'ger?

the second most readymade excuse: cloning. a few vital scraps of genetic material from organics and we're good to go. can't see something for the geth in the destroy scenario unless they had the first option working for them.

the only real problem in any future-based sequels is if people get depicted with circuitboard skins and glowing green eyes. also, blog lacks images.

krogan: curing or not curing the genophage may turn out to be irrelevant depending on the timeframe for the sequel. it may even end up the genophage was at least cured in the future even after sabotaging it. mordin/wiks was able to come up with something in mere weeks even if maelon's data was purged. synthesis cures the genophage outright everywhere, and even if the shroud just had a localized effect as opposed to planetwide (we see it disintegrating as it disperses the cure), we can still fall back to cloning in the other three (inc. refusal) scenarios. albeit with rachni-settled or wasteland tuchanka in the worst cases.

whatever the case, we probably won't get to visit tuchanka anymore as it's either barren or covered in krogan-style pyramids (synthesis). same with rannoch.

quarians: meh. nothing that hasn't been said. also, quarian exiles and their families/offspring.

geth: you're confusing "networked VI" with "networked AI". geth aren't the former anymore due to the upgrades (provided they lived). 1 AI unit > 10 networked VI units; explanation before the battle for rannoch. individual geth are still autonomous AIs even if by some fluke the crucible did disrupt their networks. we simply have to assume they're classified as "true synthetic life" by the time the crucible rearranges the galaxy. and the only way for their survival that doesn't really raise any lorebreak flags is the isolated pockets route.

...oooor, yep. some form of other AI inhabiting geth bodies - that may probably be reconstructed from old specs in case there are no more bodies around (low-EMS destroy possibility). a la grievous->necrosis. why, dunno. body-swapping fetish perhaps. geth in appearance but not geth, excellent mooks again (erm, multiplayer geth enemies already are reaper-infested geth bodies - not that hard to imagine something similar in the future)

shielded geth backups? possible, but sounds even more cliched than the current two most readymade excuses for bringing "extinct" races back. considering none of the people in or out of universe know how the crucible actually works bioware will have to devise a really roundabout explanation to that shielded backups thing or i'm calling bull. "thick" shielding of whatever kind is no explanation, condoms offer better protection in my opinion.