Protheans are largely left up to the player’s imagination during the course of Mass Effect. They’re the advanced civilization that preceded the current galactic community and are credited with many technological advancements. As a result, anything Prothean is highly valued for detailed research and evaluation.
However, not everything that galactic citizens believe about Protheans is actually based on fact. Rather, many people are simply looking for something to believe in when faced with a threat as incomprehensible as the Reapers. These are five lies about the Protheans that players may come across in the games.
5 They Built The Citadel And The Mass Relays
It’s widely believed in the galactic community during Shepard’s time that the Protheans were responsible for building the greatest technological marvels in the galaxy. The first is the Citadel, an enormous space station that’s essentially a small city, with commercial districts, political headquarters, apartments, and more. It also seats the head of galactic government: The Citadel Council. The other is the Mass Relays; these are incredible devices that allow ships to travel between systems in mere seconds, rather than having to pilot for days or weeks to reach them the old-fashioned way.
However, as the player learns when progressing through the trilogy, both these inventions were actually made and set up in the Milky Way by the Reapers. Over the cycles, many species have found these devices and used them. They help the galactic civilization evolve quickly, thus decreasing the amount of time between Reaper harvests and limiting the chances that synthetics will overtake organic life (a catastrophe which Reapers are trying to avoid by wiping space-faring races into extinction every few thousand years).
4 They Were The Asari Goddesses
While the Asari have taken encounters with Protheans from their primitive history and spun them into tales of goddesses, the Protheans’ interactions with Asari were not nearly as benevolent as contemporary Asari believe.
According to Javik, the Protheans studied all primitive races, not just the Asari; they did the same with the Turians, Volus, Elcor, Humans, and Salarians too. The Protheans simply decided that Asari were best suited to stand against the Reapers in the next cycle. Javik speaks of it like a backup plan, of sorts, in case the Protheans failed to stop the Reapers once and for all. Asari are a deeply respected race in Shepard’s time, with diplomatic prowess and extraordinary biotics – all thanks to the Prothean’s hard work.
3 The Statues On Ilos Are Protheans
In the first game, Shepard visits a planet called Ilos and sees statues of alien creatures. These beings were thought, at first, to be the Protheans. This was even true at BioWare. However, the Collectors’ backstory became tied to the Protheans, so when Javik was introduced as a companion, his basic look needed to align with the Collectors'.
Since then, the senior writer John Dombrow has retconned it and said that the statues found on Ilos are actually representations of a species called the Inusannon. They predate even the Protheans: Protheans lived approximately 50,000 years before the time of the Mass Effect trilogy and the Inusannon are thought to have lived 127,000 years before the time of the games, at least! Protheans actually developed some of their technology based on remnants of the Inusannon civilization.
2 They Were The All-Powerful Pinnacle Of Evolution With All The Answers
Considering the way that Protheans are discussed by characters in the Mass Effect community, you couldn’t think too highly of them. Protheans are practically gods to the average galactic citizen, ancient sages with good intentions to destroy the Reapers that they couldn’t fulfill in the end.
The introduction of Javik’s character (a Prothean companion for Commander Shepard) destroys many of these assumptions about the Prothean people. The player learns of how the Protheans conquered other races, forcing them to work together and killing anyone who disobeyed. There’s one moment when Javik is in the Citadel and citizens approach him looking for hope, asking how they can defeat the Reapers if even the Protheans couldn’t. Javik begins to answer with blunt honesty. If Shepard chooses to interrupt him, however, Javik will switch to a canned speech about how they can conquer the Reapers.
1 No Romantic Entanglements With “Primitive” Races
Javik repeatedly insists that Protheans did not have romantic or sexual relationships with members of primitive species such as Humans or Turians, though he does mention that they found some to be attractive, like the Quarians. The only exception to this rule, according to Javik, was the Asari. It seems an uncomfortable detail to include since it almost makes the Protheans seem like groomers (considering how they uplifted and amplified the Asari species).
However, despite all this talk, there’s a chance that Shepard will end up in bed with Javik during the Mass Effect 3: Citadel DLC. It can only happen if Shepard is female and not involved in a relationship with any of her crewmates. Upon the two waking up together the next morning, Javik comments that there is “at least one thing primitives are good at.”
NEXT: Mass Effect Original VS. Legendary Editions: Character Differences
