During Samara’s loyalty mission inMass Effect 2, Shepard must help the Asari hunt down her daughter. Upon doing so, Shepard must decide which of the two Asari lives and who dies in one ofMass Effect’s most interesting mother-daughter dynamics.
Samara appears starting inMass Effect 2after coming into contact withCommander Shepard, who is hoping to recruit the Asari onto the Normandy’s crew. Samara has been chasing down her daughter Morinth for hundreds of years. Morinth suffers from a genetic disease known as Ardat-Yakshi, which causes her to kill her mates but becomes stronger and smarter during the process. Morinth has become addicted to this, and Samara is chasing her in hopes of stopping the murders. This leads Commander Shepard into Samara’s loyalty mission, Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi.
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Acting as bait to lure out Morinth, theAsarimeets Shepard in the Afterlife, where she normally hunts for victims. When Shepard and Morinth make it back to her room, Samara will meet them there. Morinth will attempt to stop Commander Shepard from killing her, saying that she could be an asset to Shepard’s squad. Now, Shepard must decide who of the two Asari to kill and who to keep.
Shepard will automatically side with Samara if they were unable to resist Morinth’s seduction. But if Shepard was able to resist, the two will initiate a battle, where Shepard can decide. If Shepard helps Samara, Morinth will die. Of course, this means helping Morinth leads to Samara dying and Morinth will take her place on theNormandy. She looks similar enough to her mother that Morinth will pretend to be Samara and only Shepard will know that she’s really Morinth in disguise.
Morinth and Samara’s abilities differ somewhat. For example, Morinth has an Ardat-Yakshi skill, but leveling this to rank 4 causes it to change to Samara’s Asari Justicar ability.
Whereas Samara will return to help fight off the Reapers inMass Effect 3, Morinth will barely appear in the story. She sends an email to Commander Shepard but does not help their side of the fight.
Morinth and Samara can also each be romanced, in a way. Samara will confess feelings towards Shepard and share romantic dialogue, but resist any urges due to her commitment to the Code. Morinth, on the other hand, can be fully romanced. However, as one might expect due to her genetic disease, if Shepard joins with Morinth while passing through the Omega 4 Relay, Shepard will die, and the save must be reloaded to prevent this.
Mass Effect: Legendary Editionis out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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