games

The way the Batarians have been portrayed, from the very start, has always rubbed me the wrong way. Shepard, who is portrayed as a force for good (even his Renegade path has him framed as "crude but effective"), derisively tries to justify the Batarians being outcasts when talking with a terrorist leader speaking about their grievances. Even the goody-goody Paragon options doesn't have anything to convey sympathy. Then comes Mass Effect 2 where Zaeed, the veteran of a fucking PMC, is portrayed as having a moral compass since he refused to let Batarians ("Goddamn Terrorists") join the Blue Suns when he lead them (as opposed to his greedy partner). They're so obviously a stand-in for [designated bad guy in the global periphery], even incorporating some of the DPRK (being a "Hermit Kingdom" and all).

Also, another thing about ME is that class conflict seems to never be brought to the forefront, despite the Galaxy being a crapsacharine neoliberal hellhole where corporations and their mercenary companies run amok, and poverty is still an everpresent problem. It's effort to be a "dark" science fiction setting just end up making it Capitalist Realist as fuck.