Mass Effect's species and Human Nature

In this post I am going to look at the designs of the Krogan and Salarians (The aliens from the Mass Effect series which i talked about in a previous blog post about representing the primitive side of human nature and the elevated civilized side of it)

First off we will analyses the appearance of the Krogen and see how if at all it's design has any presence of the primal violent nature of man or something which represents that. For those of you who have not played Mass Effect, and as a visual aid so we can both explore the design together, i will have a picture posted.

As you can see the Krogan features are strong, heavy, thick brow's, hunched back and small eyes. The thick eyebrow ridges arching over there eyes and the big hunched back obviously make them imposing but also (At least in my mind) cause them to look rather neanderthalic and a little gorilla like. That i would say supports my theory of them representing the more primal violent urges of human nature. They do posses features that are reasonably reptilian and in looking at these images i cant deny how there mouths and necks look a little turtle like but i assume those are small ascetic choices simply to make them look alien and to be adventurous with their design.

Take a look at the Krogans armor choice, looking at it i would say it strongly resembles medieval armor. Maybe not at first glance but compared to the armor of other races in the Mass Effect universe (For reference scroll down to compare to Salarians) it does have much more of an old battle armor style to it.

These in contrast are the Salarians. Looking at their design it is easy to discern they are much more classical alien, considering there appearance is more similar to the classical grey aliens that have been prevalent in media since the idea of aliens first came about. The Salarian clothing and armor is very reminiscent of things that are quintessentially "futuristic" in our eyes, the armor is classically futuristic with the smooth curves and matte colours on glossy under colours which i can't help think looks a little like something apple would make. There design is completely juxtaposed to the Krogan in everyday, from their slight frame to their large eyes to their fairer features they have been specifically designed to be the opposite of the Krogan.

While the Salarian aren't as obviously linked in there design to human nature as the Krogan are i still feel there juxtaposition/relationship to the Krogan shows there relation to the role i think they take as a representative of the more civilized side of humans suppressing the more violent and primal tendencies of human nature.