It's been an exciting time to be a Mass Effect as of late. Between the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the official announcement of Mass Effect 4, and now the news that Amazon is nearing a deal with EA to adapt the beloved sci-fi space opera into a live-action TV series, there's a lot to celebrate within the community. The latter two details are exciting to fans because they mean that a new life is going to be breathed into the franchise following the disappointing and controversial entry that was Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Unfortunately, one of the major issues that fans have been citing with the continuation of the story from the original Mass Effect trilogy into Mass Effect 4 is making an appearance when discussing what a possible TV series would be like. The issue in question is in regards to the canonization of the events of the trilogy and whether or not players truly had agency in their choices if it's all going to be undone for whatever BioWare, EA, and Amazon have in mind for the future of the series.

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The Problem With Mass Effect Canon

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The Mass Effect trilogy tells a fantastic story about found family and the hope that good leadership can instill in the hopeless. Conversely, it can also tell a story about how sometimes war brings out the worst in those fighting and how power can be used for personal gain. The way that those opposing ideologies can be told in a single series is due to Mass Effect's branching story and choice system that allows the player to role-play as either a paragon Commander Shepard or a renegade rogue version of the character who's only out for themselves. Those sorts of options are part of the major appeal of the series as a whole, but begin to be lost when thinking about a potential sequel or TV series that would canonize the events of the games.

There's almost nothing known about what's happening with the story of Mass Effect 4, but it seems like it's going to be picking up where Mass Effect 3 left off. Given the branching nature of the Mass Effect trilogy's story, a direct sequel means that BioWare will need to be choosing which ending was the canon one from Mass Effect 3, causing an issue where some fans' playthroughs might be made completely irrelevant from a story standpoint. While there will still be plenty of merit in playing the original games even after Mass Effect 4 releases, it will lessen the impact of many of the choices if players know that, in the end, it doesn't matter for the direction of the narrative.

Although there are no details regarding the Mass Effect Amazon series (because it's not officially in the works just yet), it feels like a safe bet to assume that it will follow the crew of the Normandy and the story of the trilogy. If that's the case, then it also runs into a canon issue as each episode will be making canonical choices as to what Commander Shepard does and how they behave. This would make a "true" path through the trilogy regarding Shepard's paragon/renegade status and, unfortunately, invalidate a lot of the choices that players made that won't be in line with those included in the show.

Obviously, this is all speculation, as neither Mass Effect project is out and there's next to nothing known about how they'll handle canon. Hhowever, both raise a lot of concerns for fans who flocked to the franchise for the seemingly endless options for how the story would play out, only to have there be a set way that its narrative is meant to be. Hopefully, both BioWare and Amazon respect the canon of the Mass Effect trilogy and find a way to have some common ground between both paragon and renegade narratives.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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