Forum:Who picked sole survivor?

Seeing another thread asking for some playable missions based on the service history for your Shephard caused me to wonder.

Who picked Sole survivor? And why?!

The way I see it;


 * Ruthless; A soldier who sacrifices all to achieve the impossible.
 * War Hero; A batshit insane fellow who will fight to his last breath.
 * Sole Survivor: A fellow that pisses himself and runs off while his friends die.

And along those lines, I can see how ruthless and war hero would make someone consider you for spectre duties, but not sole survivor... I mean you dont make someone the president because he survived being savaged by a bear.

So yes, other than gameplay mechanics, why did you choose sole survivor if you did?

By the way, I feel it neccesary to point out, I am not insulting you for choosing it, or saying it is a bad choice, its just not a choice I understand at all and am wondering why you chose it. FeckThisShyt 00:20, May 26, 2012 (UTC)

You pick sole survivor if your Sheaprd is actually Ripley. Ctrl alt belief 20:23, May 26, 2012 (UTC)


 * I dont know, *Spoiler alert* (as if anyone on the ME wiki hasnt seen alien :D) ripley kills it at the end, *spoiler ends* all the Sole survivor shephard does is cower and run.


 * If shep killed the thresher (preferably in a ridiculous way, Ie climb down its throat and tear it apart from the inside), then I could understand why it would warrant him being considered for spectre status, and why people would choose it. But as it is..?

I don't really get how it's as impressive as the War Hero background (though I am also not super-impressed by the Ruthless background -- it's easy to send *other* people to their deaths...), but I'd say the idea is that a Sole Survivor showed the resourcefulness and will to live needed to stay alive where everybody else was killed (or captured by Cerberus). Presumably Hackett/Udina/Anderson/the Council think that this will allow Shepard to stay alive and carry out their missions where others would have died. Sole Survivor also ends up having some interesting story tie-ins with Cerberus later, at least in terms of implications if not in terms of much actual dialog, but nobody knew that was coming back in ME1. As for my own characters ... I only picked Sole Survivor for a character where I was role-playing Mal Reynolds from Firefly. ;-) Diyartifact 20:10, May 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * Making the decision to send others to their death should be harder for a "hero" than fighting to their own death. Personally I completely disagree that it is easier. Every Shepard I make is a Ruthless Spacer. Because as Anderson says, "That's the only type of person who can protect the galaxy." Paraphrasing.--Xaero Dumort 20:21, May 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * Ruthless Shephard doesnt "send other people to thier deaths". Ruthless shephard fights with thier men, but is the only one to survive, because they put achieving the mission ahead of everyones survival, thier own included.  Thats why people mention how you were charging in and hilariously "Killing batarians as they tried to surrender".
 * Also, the war hero background consists of a single man holding off an entire assault by a force capable of taking a colony. What part of that is not impressive?!
 * And "resourcefulness and will", when is any amount of resourcefulness implied for the sole survivor background? All you would have done is run off, as that is all you do to escape threshers in game.
 * Also, is it ever made certain that Cerberus actually had anything to do with the akuze thresher attack? All you have to go on is one deranged moron with a gun babbling on (which shephard has a worrying tendancy to take on faith in all 3 games).
 * I could see picking it if it greatly changed Shephards dealings with cerberus in me2, but since it doesnt...   FeckThisShyt 22:43, May 28, 2012 (UTC)