As I sat on my couch eating a stale danish pastry and drinking a cup of tea, I thought to myself, people tend to compare Mass Effect to Star Wars, at least often enough for me to notice. Why? Why do people compare these seemingly unrelated franchises as if they were brothers?

Star Wars

If I rack my brains I can think of two similarities between the two: Space and memorable characters.

If you think about it, memorable characters appear in various works from all mediums of entertainment, so really, this shouldn't be anything to compare to two over; if it were, we could all be comparing Mass Effect to 24, or Star Wars to A Game of Thrones.

But the setting, and all the tropes that accompany it, is a valid comparison. They are both obviously set in a future where Space travel has become a viable option, and both have extra terrestrial races and space ships and such. But this is pretty much where the comparisons end.

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Now if I was to think about something that actually is comparable to Mass Effect it would absolutely be Star Trek.

Star Trek

(I must make it known, I am definitely not the most knowledgeable when it comes to Star Trek, but I'll do my best.)

From the handful of episodes/films I have watched I can note numerous similarities between these two franchises. Both have Councils who 'rule' over a large multi-species conglomerates and allies; the Citadel Council and the United Federation of Planets respectively.

They both feature fully fleshed out crews, each with their own roles and specialities; not just a man and his dog. This gives a greater feeling of realisation, a stronger backbone if you will. The ships in question also are much more fleshed out, both having galleys, private quarters, stock bays etc.

Star Wars only really has one main enemy: the Sith; whereas both Mass Effect and Star Trek have mutiple: Reapers, Geth, and Collectors; and the Borg, Romulons, and the Dominion. And even here, there can be similarities found between two of these races: the Borg and the Geth. Both are cybernetic races that belong to a collective with one singular mind.

Now, obviously, there are many more similarities than this, but the point of this blog was never to list them all, it was to ask, why do people compare Star Wars and Mass Effect so rampantly when there is a more obvious comparison to made right here? If you have any sort of reason please tell me... Help me understand.

That was corny as hell. But thanks for reading and hopefully responding.