One Tali Moment Doesn’t Make Sense With What We Know About Quarians In Mass Effect

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The Mass Effect trilogy includes a variety of species to populate the Milky Way Galaxy, and each has its own history, culture, and defining features. While there’s a lot to explore when it comes to the races of the Milky Way, details that pop up early in the trilogy can lead to questions that are answered later or perhaps only answered through digging into extra information provided either in the game or through additional content. Questions like why Tali and the rest of the Quarians wear special suits are luckily answered through completing quests.

Quarians are one of several races that call the Milky Way their home, and Tali represents them in the trilogy since she’s the only Quarian who joins Shepard on the Normandy. Additionally, she can be recruited in all three games, giving Shepard plenty of time to learn about her and the Quarians. As it turns out, Quarians and Geth have a complex history with each other, and that factors into the reason Quarians wear their suits.

What Led To Quarians Creating The Migrant Fleet

The Importance Of Rannoch

Tali points a gun at Legion in Mass Effect 2

Understanding the importance of Rannoch to Tali and the rest of the Quarians first requires understanding how they ended up creating the Migrant Fleet and living there rather than on their homeworld. This also ties into why Quarians and Geth are enemies in Mass Effect since the conflict between these two led to the Quarians evacuating Rannoch. When the Geth showed signs of becoming sentient, the Quarians planned to eliminate them.

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This plan backfired, and the Geth wiped out most of the population, leading the remaining Quarians to flee the planet. With living on their home planet no longer an option, the Quarians developed the Migrant Fleet, also known as the Flotilla, as their new home. Naturally, this had cultural impacts that led to Quarians needing to wear special suits to survive, using technology to live on overcrowded ships, and having the young people go on pilgrimages to learn about life beyond the fleet and how they can help the fleet with new knowledge from their pilgrimage.

Why Quarians Wear Their Suits

The Downfall Of A Sterile Environment

Most Forgotten Facts About The Mass Effect Universe Tali Quarians Unmasked Romance Photograph Shepard

While this wasn’t always the case, Quarians all wear enviro-suits by the time that Shepard meets and recruits Tali. The information shows that their weak immune system isn’t a new feature when it comes to Quarian biology. However, their immune systems have worsened after living in the sterile environments of the ships that make up the Migrant Fleet. Because of this, any exposure to pathogens can make a Quarian rather ill, and they wear specialized suits to help protect them and support their immune systems.

Tali Shouldn’t Have Removed Her Visor During A War

She Risked Severe Sickness

Priority: Rannoch is an emotional mission for Tali, and it’s Shepard’s chance to broker peace between the Quarians and Geth in Mass Effect 3 if they made the right choices throughout the trilogy leading up to that moment. By this point, life on Rannoch is a distant memory for the Quarians. Since centuries have passed, their immune systems are likely no longer compatible with their homeworld, especially when they’ve become progressively worse. Of course, this would include Tali, which is why she shouldn’t remove her visor when she was on Rannoch.

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Tali has survived a lot, including the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, but that doesn’t make her invincible. While seeing Rannoch with her own eyes, and not through a visor, makes sense, it also presents a risk that could’ve turned into a big issue, especially in the middle of a war for survival against the Reapers. It would’ve been easy for her to get sick when removing her visor since her immune system is so weak, and a war for survival is the worst possible time to get ill, whether it’s mild or severe.

Mass Effect has many emotional moments, and it’s easy to see why Tali needed to remove her visor to see Rannoch with her own eyes. However, when looking at information about the Quarians and the circumstances happening at that time in the galaxy, it might not have been the best option to potentially expose herself to any number of pathogens at that moment, which could have made her severely ill. In the end, Tali’s actions make sense, even if they weren’t the best because she didn’t know if she’d have another chance to see Rannoch in Mass Effect.