Asari in Combat

Given the regular arguments on this board, my current theory is that Nikolai is in fact attempting to distance himself from the asari, to which standard humans bear an uncomfortable resemblance.

Who can blame him, really?

Firstly, greetings and welcome to the boards etc etc please try to keep your hands, feet, and authoritarian nationalismboner within the vehicle at all times. Secondly, there is enough commonality with the way we process the galaxy and general stimuli (barring exceptions like the rachni or geth) and higher order emotional processes that certain things, even if not identical, are at the very least very much comparable. Which, for the purposes of this discussion is by and large the same thing. Thirdly, intimations aside, what you're saying doesn't actually rebut anything I said so congratulations on already learning the fine fine use of a well timed verbal barrage. Aaaaaaaactually it's all the associated benefits from a crash course in managing a multi-species military body about a decade back. Surprisingly applicable.

When they portray themselves as being undisputed authorities on the subject, rather conclusively have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and literally inflate with self righteous rage when challenged?

Pooooooooooooosibly. But frankly I'd call it more of a hobby than anything. Get out.

You too. Out. Get out.

No I am actually a dragon, my avatar is completely correct and I am actually a fire breathing reptile in a fancy suit. And I-


Hey!

I-

Eurgh.

Fine.

I'm a transhumanist because I believe in the practical applications of medical technology primarily genetic engineering and cybernetic implantation. It's not about "casting aside humanity" or being less whatever, it's about pushing the limits of what it means to be an organic. An accident of biological soup. A collection of proteins and acids and lipids with a degree of self awareness. It's about transcending the arbitrary boundaries that limit us and taking control of our own bodies, our own destinies. It's about choice. And before there's the inevitable flood of "BUT MY EVOLUTION" I don't disagree. Evolution is, as a collective, an amazing, nuanced, and visceral engine of organic development and change. But it is by no means perfect and all those gaps. All those cracks and rents in the process can be improved. Organic ingenuity can match disease. Innovation can give people who, years ago, wouldn't have survived past birth the opportunity to lead happy, healthy, and normal lives.

It's about being more than just this bundle of genes, not about being something else.

Then all the power to you, fantastic extranet dragon! You are not held down by standards posed by others upon you about crossing borders between men and machine. Are you content as you are now or is there a new procedure already envisioned in your mind, waiting to be realized? If you are taking suggestions, allow me to pitch in, for that avatar you have right now would make a very good body to implant yourself into! Surely, an executive like you would have the means to pay for it?

But alas you have caught me. I do not have expertise regarding asari PTSD, and I find myself fighting with borrowed sword of Encyclopedia Galactica and what else the extranet can fetch me in timely manner. I can only console myself with the knowledge that at the end of day, I am still a batarian, and my opponent was not.

This board just became infinitely more delightful!

The fantastically fabulous augmented extranet space dragon.



Is not amused.

...I'll continue to reply to things along these lines, and stop walking down the road we've taken instead.

And this is why I rarely find myself able to read these boards anymore.

Those who suffer from traumatic experiences are not, by any civilised sense of the word, damaged, and the fact that you happened to use such a phrasing only exasperates your clear ignorance on the topic, and is, honestly, completely and utterly insulting to anyone who suffers from PTSD and related disorders - asari, human, turian, or otherwise.

And for those of you do not believe treatments are similar enough, I am personally aware of multiple asari psychologists and therapists who treat humans, and humans who treat asari - with complete respect to the trauma something as horribly invasive as melding can cause to someone who already has suffered the terror of a soul being violated.

Please, step away from your consoles and omnitools and actually do some damned research on how your species actually handles PTSD, and then return to this discussion with proper arguments.

Actually I can speak with a little authority on this one - I used to know a commando Speaker a little (my late cousin was part of her crew), and during one of our conversation that exact point came up (although humans weren't involved, since you guys hadn't turned up yet). She was relating to me how, as a young Huntress, she felt unease about the notion of non-asari commanders who didn't have that level of emotional connection to their comrades - to put it into words, how (she had wondered) could someone feel safe in their judgement to send a soldier to her death, when she had kept that soldier at emotional arm's length from herself, and thus denied herself a full understanding of that soldier's worth? How could she overcome the bias inherent in the absence of that bond? She knew better than to suppose that 'detachment' from subordinates equalled 'dehumanisation' as you'd put it, but that was the... the shape of her unease, if you follow me. (Happily she had the chance to serve aboard some Hierarchy vessels, and came to understand the truth of the matter.)

Not that I'm particularly bothered by you accusing our finest of being sociopaths, but I do feel maybe you ought to take a moment - again - to reflect on how asari and humans are not the same thing, and what holds true for one may not for the other. The commando I spoke of was (I'm reliably told) a frighteningly effective battlefield commander and (this I know personally) a deeply compassionate person, and whether you believe that's possible or not doesn't change the fact.

You were the first one to bring
into a conversation which, up to that point, had nothing to do with sexual activity at all, so yeah, you kind of did.

Is that what that is? Without the context of the surrounding image, all this time I thought your avatar was some kind of slightly surrealist take on a timox. It's a... there isn't an exact equivalent, like an eel, but also like a bovine, they're kind of... docile is the word that keeps coming to mind. Thought it was an odd choice for you.

I have never been a huntress myself but I have commanded many so I know what it can do to an asari. The distribution over life- and service time differs of course but I think the overall statistics are similar in the end. But that never was the question anyway, was it?

During my lifespan I had to face and do an awful lot of troubling things, commanding commandos among them. Speaking just for myself and what the years did to me, I keep my house clean by meditation, I think it works quite well for me. It's popular among Matriarchs and a bit frowned upon by disciples as it can be time consuming to wait through a session if you're not part of it. Meld therapy is something I am not qualified for and which is quite exotic as well, nothing for me but to each their own.

The only thing that's bothering me really these days are stiff joints, so massage therapy is what I need.

Read: "I have literally no authority on this subject but I'm going to make the most hamhanded attempt at scrounging up a bit of ethos ever and try and discredit everything you said on the basis of 'But Shut Up'". Viola. Subtext made supertext; for fifty credits an hour I can even write your arguments for you. Critiques of your general existence are, as always, pro bono.
...What? No I mean really, in all seriousness, what? I...what? I am at a loss for words. Words have failed me. Language is officially a dead construct of a feeble and swiftly forgotten age because shit like this is apparently a thing. Why? I don't know. Maybe there is no God. Maybe he's just a sadist as to inflict such calamitous idiocy on his creations.

Because no seriously darling this is fucking stupid. I don't care how different you are. How special you are. I don't care about the fact that you keep saying you basically have a cure for PTSD or that traditional things like cause and effect don't apply to you.

This is complete bullshit.

The job of an officer is not to personally and intimately acquaint themselves with every facet of those under their command. They can't. Why? Because their job is to formulate strategy. And strategy has to, by necessity, contain a degree of cold metric and calculation. You have to accept the fact that the person you're having lay down suppressing fire, or the fireteam you're sending around to flank could get hardfucked. That you are deliberately exposing them to risk as a part of your plan. And that's not a thing you can consciously do if you have the kind of deep and abiding mutual relationship that you're describing. Not without throwing in shades of supremely inconsistent psychopathy. Your job isn't to know their "inherent worth", it's to know what they're capable of and how to use that most effectively.

Otherwise you're actively impeding them from doing their jobs and dear that's the fast track to nobody getting home.

...But then again this is all predicated on the notion that the asari are trying to make an actually effective military so talk about flawed foundation.

So, to reiterate, your argument is basically "aliens work in mysterious ways and can fix their PTSD with long lingering eye contact and mental invasion"? Wow. Darling. You've had like three pages. Try to come up with something new.

Or...you know. Actually coherent. Oh but of course. How could a single member of the vaunted commandos be anything other than completely and totally perfect in all facets?
Oh my what's this? Is this me? A post later. Qualifying and expanding what it means to fraternize and how it can be less than ideal?

Also, you know, the fact that nine times out of ten the context of melding is overtly sexual might have something to do with it.

Yeeeeaaaaaaaaah.

No. Just no.

...Beg pardon?

...Why. Why are you part of the military command structure?

i've always been here?

Please don't use the words "blink" or the ever offensive "squints" on these forums as they are offensive to my good friends the batarians, whom are sometimes pretty cool guys whom do not always advocate slavery and subjugation of the furheads.

You may continue using the word goronak because its really fun to say and it amuses me

~Goronak~

Bravo, bravo! An excellent assault! Clearly it must have been a fluke, or dare I say...mercy of her neighbours that enabled the Republics to thrive for 2600 years or so on the galactic stage and much of it dominating the Council. The greatest empire forged, without fighting a shot or a war fought! Perhaps they have melded with everyone to avoid war, and only the Rachni, krogan and Reapers had enough fortitude to resist their vile seductions!

Where would we be without the humans, who in their brief existence beyond the Arcturus relay have revolutionized warfare as we know it, leaving the krogan, turians and batarians into the dust? Even now, one of their soldiers, no doubt sent by Hackett or one of his cronies is giving us a course in basics of human strategy and how it trumps over millennia of alien doctrines and planning! The miraculous one plan that suits all and invalidates everything before it! Different biology and development be damned, only 32 years of human participation was needed to discover the evolutionary end of military doctrine that works for everyone.

you've also got a 50/50 chance of that being their name if i can't remember someone's name i'll just call them goronak and i'm often right

Yeah but there's a lot more of you than there was.

and you became a drug dealer.

*ex-drug dealer, i'm a mechanic now

Next time I feel the need to point out how terrible the asari military is, I need only point at this thread, for which I thank you all very much. You've saved me moments of tedium and no doubt preserved the sanity of my opponents, as I'll be much less inclined to toy with them when I'm merely linking to another thread in which the asari essentially destroy themselves.

((see below))