The last post in this week’s series on zombies is over at another blog I’m a part of called The Corner Booth. I have the privilege of writing there along side friends about all kinds of things. Head here to read today’s post and be sure to check out The Corner Booth and join in on the conversation.
This is Mass Effect March! In honor of the release of Mass Effect 3 (you probably stayed up way too late last night testing out the first few levels, I’m sure), this entire month is devoted to digging into this epic trilogy. We’ll explore the different races, themes, and some major story arcs. At the end of the month we’ll cap things off with a week of posts on Mass Effect 3 to see how everything is resolved (or not). Today’s post looks at the Rachni and some unique themes in their story.
Amongst the volumes of back story that Mass Effect provides is an account of the Rachni Wars. As the Council races explored space, they stumbled upon the Rachni, a surprisingly advanced insect-like species that overpowered and outnumbered the civilized Citadel races.
Insect-like? More like crawfish-like. I hear the most delicious way to eat a Rachni is by sucking out the brain.
In order to deal with this threat, the Salarians hatched a clever scientific way (this will come into play later) of defeating them and drove them to extinction. Or so everyone thought!! A subplot of Mass Effect 1 is defusing the villain Saren’s plan to reboot the Rachni as a means of building an new army to fight the known galaxy. Our hero, Commander Shepard, is tasked with handling this impending threat.
In true decision-based RPG fashion, you are given two choices. You find that the original, aggressive Rachni have completely died off and the new breed is not as aggressive. The new Rachni Queen has no intention of going crazy on everyone and just wants to live in peace. You can either play “better safe than sorry” and ax the whole lot of them anyway, or you can let them go on their merry way (I chose to let them live).
What strikes me about the Rachni is that they are portrayed at the same time as both advanced and primitive. What the Salarians did to them was effectively genocide. The moral dilemma here is whether or not said genocide was justified for the good of the galaxy. This subplot sadly seems to take a page from our history as humans. There have people who thought it necessary to determine which races were worthy and which deserved to be wiped out. The game’s narrative seems to be asking two possible questions- is genocide justifiable under any circumstance? and what constitutes a rational and advanced species?
You can say “Ah, they’re just bugs” and wipe them out, perhaps without giving it a second thought. Or you can see their value as a creature and show them compassion. That compassion is what comes to the forefront if you choose to save the Rachni Queen. She vows to teach her offspring about the kindness shown to her so that they will be allied with Shepard and the rest of the Council. She has been saved from destruction and she is able to joyfully experience freedom while spreading a gospel of salvation. The Rachni Queen’s story (unless you killed her, you murderer) is one of redemption that mirrors our own. We have been born into a body known for death and destruction, but a savior has come along and granted us freedom when we truly deserve death.
Commander Shepard didn’t change the Rachni Queen’s nature, he just set her free. Out of her gratitude, her outlook on the universe was changed. Likewise, Jesus has set us free from our sin in addition to changing our rotten nature (something Shepard couldn’t do), so that we can live in freedom out of gratitude for our savior.
Questions:
Which option did you choose? Why?
When have you been miraculously set free when you were in a tight spot?
What have you done with your freedom?
Next time we’ll look at two other important races in the Mass Effect story, the Krogans and the Salarians.
Halo 3′s religious symbols provide unique retelling of one of the Bible’s stories of true salvation. Today we’ll discuss what salvation really means and where Jesus fits into all of this.
The Ark is the primary focus of the action in Halo 3 and it also serves as a symbol for what’s happening in the story. In order to understand this symbol better, let’s look at the Biblical story of the Ark. This story can be difficult to understand and there’s more to say than I can fit here, so I encourage you to read and study on your own. The account of Noah and the flood is found in Genesis chapters 6-9. Everyone on earth had become so evil and corrupt that God decided, with great sadness, that he should start over. He chose Noah to build an Ark for himself and his family so that they could be saved from the impending destruction of the flood. Likewise, Master Chief is seeking to access the Ark as a means of saving humanity from the Flood.
Noah, but with power armor and grenades.
The story of the flood in Genesis is an incredible story on it’s own, but it also act as yet another example of a theme that is laced throughout scripture- salvation. It’s easy to look at this story and paint God as a blood-thirsty tyrant who enjoys taking vengeance on those who oppose him, but Genesis 6:6 says that seeing humanity’s condition “grieved him to his heart.” Man’s rebellion against God is not like the colonies revolting against the king of England, or humanity fighting to get out of the Matrix. Man’s rebellion against God is more like a stubborn and ignorant child refusing to heed the warnings of a caring parent. God knew that if he continued to let us have our way, things would only get worse.
If you listen closely to the Prophet of Regret’s sermonizing in Halo 2, you may catch a line where he talks about the “cleansing flame.” For those not deluded by the Covenant’s religion, that flame is actually the destructive force of the Halo rings wiping out all life in the universe. However, what otherwise may have been a throwaway line of dialogue brings up a very interesting point- destruction and salvation often go hand in hand.
The haven of salvation is the Ark in both stories, but the flood itself in the Biblical narrative also acts as a form of salvation. In deciding to unleash the flood, God was ridding the earth of the rampant sin and destruction that had taken over his creation. The flood itself is a form of salvation in that it destroys what is evil in us. God’s destruction of sin would wash us away too, since we are sinful. This is why we need an Ark. 1 Peter 3:21-22 describes how Jesus’ sacrificial act, as represented by baptism, is a parallel of the flood that Noah experienced. Accepting Jesus and being submerged in water is a symbolic way of running to Jesus as the Ark and allowing God’s flood to wash away our sin.
Question:
What needs to be cleansed from your life?
That line from the game about “cleansing fire”? that’s especially interesting when you look at 2 Peter 3:7 where it’s said that the next destruction of the earth will come not by flood, but by fire. But more on that next time…
This week we’ll be looking at Halo 3 and the themes of heroism, salvation, and epic conclusions. We’ll start by looking at our always helmeted friend Master Chief and what kind of message we get from his portrayal.
(Source)
As you can see from the above video, there was a great deal of effort (and probably money) put into the promotional campaign for Halo 3. The previous games have led up to this point where the very survival of humanity is in doubt. And who is going to save the day? Master Chief of course. He’s the hero, the savior, the messiah. He’s the one to believe in.
The message of the video is clear- things are looking very grim. Gruesome scenes of war display the many ways that humanity’s soldiers are being defeated. Even Master Chief has been captured and is seemingly incapacitated. But what’s this? He’s very much alive, with plasma grenade in hand. Bet he can’t stick it.
This is how we view all of our heroes. Many movies that have this same plot point, where the plucky hero is a hair’s breadth from defeat before making an awe-inspiring comeback. Our view of a savior is one who can overcome an impossible situation and turn the tide. The hero is the one who inspires us to believe that salvation is near even in the darkest circumstances.
There seems to be no shortage of these messianic references for Master Chief throughout Halo 3. The game opens with mankind’s savior falling from heaven…errr….the sky, an image that has also been used for many other messianic heroes such as Superman and Thor. And speaking of Thor, what is the name of Master Chief’s armor? That’s right, Mjolnir, which is both the name of Thor’s hammer and Master Chief’s special armor. He’s not just any hero, he’s a god sent from another world.
Why does this idea of a super-human, god-like figure coming down to save all of us resonate so deeply? It’s because we’re all looking for a savior, someone we can believe in. It’s fitting that this post comes during the Christmas season, which for Christians is also the time of Advent. This is the time of the year when we look back on history as the series of God-ordained events that led to the coming of Jesus, just as the month leads up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Jesus’ coming was anticipated because he became the hero for the whole world, saving everyone from sin and death and reconciling humanity to God.
So we have Master Chief and we have Jesus. How do they stack up? Master Chief gained the loyalty of his followers through military feats. Jesus had some followers, but he also had a lot of negative press from the religious leaders. Master Chief was inducted at a very young age into a special military program where he was given advanced training and weapons. Jesus was born in a barn and was raised as the son of a poor working Joe. He didn’t get any special training or go to any fancy schools. Master Chief was memorialized with the highest honors after his “death” by all of humanity. Jesus was murdered by a mob.
That comparison obviously favors Master Chief, but that’s not the whole story. By most people’s standards, Master Chief is all we need. Is saving the day by blowing stuff up really enough? What about our sin and failure, who will save us from that? We all want salvation from our mistakes and inadequacies. Do you think that there is one who can save not just the universe but the soul? Do you believe?
Discussion questions:
What other popular characters fit this messianic image?
What heroic figures are most appealing to you?
Next time we’ll talk about salvation and the Ark, another Biblical parallel. Use the comments to discuss and thanks for reading!
Today we wrap up Halo 2 by exploring the solution to the problem of these zealously religious prophets.
Overly religious characters like the prophets don’t just appear in fictional games. Jesus squared off against religious zealots in his time on earth. They were called Pharisees and they were obsessed with rules and making rules for the rules. They were blind and deluded and they denied Jesus as God despite him being right there among them. Ultimately their religiosity was responsible for Jesus’ death. Some great stories of Jesus versus the Pharisees can be found here, here, and here. He fiercely combated their doctrines of salvation by works.
True Christianity, however, is a life based on grace. Grace offers for free what we could not have on our own. We can never by any stretch of the imagination do enough good, go to enough church, help enough old ladies across the street, donate enough money, or activate enough ancient space super weapons to earn or merit God’s favor. Grace is a gift that can only be offered through Jesus.
Romans 5:8 says “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus’ sacrifice was given because we perpetually wallow in our sin with no way out on our own. An attempt to try to gain salvation for ourselves only leads to pride, self-righteousness and further problems. That is what the Prophets in Halo’s story illustrate. In their blind and deluded devotion to the pursuit of The Great Journey, they were actually pulling themselves and the entirety of existence towards destruction. That is the result of a works-based religious ideology.
We have a hard time with grace because it takes the work of salvation out of our hands and recognizes that God is in complete control. We don’t like being out of control of anything. Our tendency is to manage and organize our lives in order to make things happen for ourselves. It is actually a great relief to find that we don’t have to carry the burden of maintaining our own righteousness or earning our own salvation. There is no way that we could ever possibly be good enough for any significant length of time to warrant something as amazing as salvation and an eternal reward. If our salvation depended on the consistency of our behaviors or our ability to find some relic or collect some item, we would be completely hosed.
But God is just that awesome. He knows how lost we are and shows mercy by doing all the work of salvation. The work of Jesus is to make up for our shortcomings by taking our sins and giving us his righteousness. That is something that no Covenant prophet or Master Chief, or anything in else creation could accomplish. Christianity does not depend on what any one person or group can do through works, but what God does in spite of our pride and over reliance on rules and religion. Jesus is the only one who can step in and bring us along with him on his Great Journey.
Questions to think about:
What experiences have you had with crazy religious people and what did they believe?
How do you distinguish between Jesus and religion?
Was there ever a time in your life when you were sure of something you believed, but found out you were way off?
Sound off your reactions in the comments. Next week we’ll dive into the epic conclusion of the story in Halo 3.
