[BengalTiger]

THats veering into "Humans are special" territory

Why? If we're being one of the hundreds of species that acted as pawns for the "bigger problem" over the ages, I don't think we're any more special than those before and after us.

[Ziame]

Vary nice theory, ziame approves 

About wondering into "humans are special territory" well... I don't recall terrans being in other galaxy. Gotcha. Now I wanna cookie.

The 'special' thing may be that GTVA are TWO races, instead of one. But would it be fun if we were wiped out in the first place?
GTVA -> two races -> humans aren't special, zods are -> Shivans fear -> we eat their cookies -> we kill their masters -> muahahahahah

[redsniper]

My idea about this "bigger problem":

The Shivans are just it's slaves, free labor type of dudes, cannon fodder. Some of them could be fighting some war for the "bigger problem".
Others could be looking for a candidate to become the next slaves, cannon fodder, free labor.

Let's say they have this deal that they work for the "bigger problem" until they find new 'pawns' on the galactic game of chess. Once they succeed, they are free to go home. Admiral Petrarch's speach of them being travelers who are homeless like the Humans would be pretty much right on the money.

And since they are speculated to have opened a supernode leading to their homeworld, it's possible that the GTVA passed the test in terran_emperor's theory (perhaps they're forced to do it on each candidate to amuse the "bigger problem", like gladiators had to do different tasks to amuse Ancient Romans).

That means we are to become the next Shivans, and we'll be forced to fight some war on the other end of the galaxy, while having small fleets search for civilizations that pass some kind of new test to take our place...

...while the "bigger problem" guys bet money on how long it would take us to find a replacement for ourselves.

No. We don't become the next Shivans. We team up with the Shivans, and the Vasudans, and the returned Ancients, and the Vishnans, and the Andarta, and the Nightmares, and the Starborn, and every other race that was ever thought up for an FS campaign, and we take the fight to the "bigger problem" and save the galaxy forever. FIGHT THE POWAH!

[Killer Whale]

Unfortunately, the bigger problem is much nicer on other races and the shivans are truely evil

[Pred the Penguin]

Who says the Shivans are evil? They could be protecting the universe from the terrible humans...

[terran_emperor]

Good and evil are like beauty - Subjective - in the eye of the beholder. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The difference between a religious zealot and a religious martyr is a matter of oppinion.

Take Jeanne d'Arc - she got canonized for her actions. Another person is just as likely to be declared insane and a religious terrorist for the same actions.

So From our limited perspective, the shivans appear to be evil.

[Charismatic]

Shivans real enemy is the origional and only remaining Alpha 1 decendent line. In Sol. Alpha 1 (copy, aka fs2) died. Sol has a whole mess of True Blooded Alpha 1's ready and waiting for the shivans all personally trained.

[terran_emperor]

Yes but ST Alpha 1 was Bosch so...

I dont care what anyone elses opinion on the matter is. IMHO Alpha 1 in Silent Threat was the then Lieutenant Aken H. Bosch

[Droid803]

Yes but ST Alpha 1 was Bosch so...

I dont care what anyone elses opinion on the matter is. IMHO Alpha 1 in Silent Threat was the then Lieutenant Aken H. Bosch

Nice to see we agree here.
But don't force your opinion on others or bad things will happen XD.

[terran_emperor]

I'm not forcing my opinions on other people. I'm just saying that it is my honest opinion that the Silent Threat Alpha 1 is Aken Bosch and No one is going to change my mind on that, But everyone is free to believe whatever they want to believe

[TrashMan]

Honestly this idea seems silly to me. Why would the shivans be wasting so many resources to "groom" another race for fighting over decades? It takes REALLY long, the race grows to hate your guts, so once it becomes powerfull enough it's probably gonna go after YOU, not your enemy.

Those 80 Sath's could be a LOT more useful in whatever war they are fighting. Wouldn't a more logical step be to try and find allies? Not shooting at the, but sharing technology with them, helping them expand their military might?
The incorporation of new tech would go so much faster and neither the Shivans nor the GTVA would loose recources on eachother, but could both forcus on the big enemy.

[SPECTRE87]

Pretty hard to tell...
The Shivans obviously has mastered Subspace, and may even reside in it. I remember someone comparing them to the immune system, and that humans (and other space-faring civilizations) were like parasites. Whenever a race grew strong and vast enough (discovery of Subspace) then the Shivans would take notice and eventually move in to eliminate the threat. But I don't really know - I guess it's up to the individual to decide who or what the Shivans really are.

[Droid803]

Honestly this idea seems silly to me. Why would the shivans be wasting so many resources to "groom" another race for fighting over decades? It takes REALLY long, the race grows to hate your guts, so once it becomes powerfull enough it's probably gonna go after YOU, not your enemy.

I am inclined to agree.
Wasn't there that quote that went "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts."?
This takes it one step beyond that, purposefully inciting a second war, instead of seeking to prevent one.

[Grimper]

Honestly this idea seems silly to me. Why would the shivans be wasting so many resources to "groom" another race for fighting over decades? It takes REALLY long, the race grows to hate your guts, so once it becomes powerfull enough it's probably gonna go after YOU, not your enemy.

Those 80 Sath's could be a LOT more useful in whatever war they are fighting. Wouldn't a more logical step be to try and find allies? Not shooting at the, but sharing technology with them, helping them expand their military might?
The incorporation of new tech would go so much faster and neither the Shivans nor the GTVA would loose recources on eachother, but could both forcus on the big enemy.

Ah but those 80 Saths could be peanuts to the Shivans, just training drones, for all we know they have a ship bigger than 80 Saths put together. It could be that their sense of scale is completely different to ours and they have a collosal amount of resources hidden somewhere.

[Droid803]

In that case, it'll take a really long time to actually groom something worth using.
Also, regardless if 80 Saths are peanuts, if they're making a race get more powerful, they'll eventually have to test them with stuff that isn't...
This whole thing about 'oh lets make these random weak guys stronger by throwing our stuff them so they can eventually kill what we're fighting' makes absolutely no sense, unless you make it really clear that you're just training them. (In which case, they would have attempted communication).
Even then, it may be a lot less effort to simply make yourself stronger than to make something weaker surpass you...

[Killer Whale]

Who says the shivans know what inter-species communication is? They might never of thought of the idea, it might be against their nature.

[eliex]

Perhaps, but it is as good as anything since anyone can make up anything since no one exactly knows the agendas behind the Shivans as a race. 
But seriously, for a race that advanced, I highly doubt that they wouldn't know what inter-species comm. is, but I think it'd be more of being against their nature of a hive.

[Killer Whale]

I had to reread that first sentence thrice before i got it.

[TrashMan]

Ah but those 80 Saths could be peanuts to the Shivans, just training drones, for all we know they have a ship bigger than 80 Saths put together. It could be that their sense of scale is completely different to ours and they have a collosal amount of resources hidden somewhere.

In that case what possible help could the GTVA be? It would be too small and insignificant to help in any way for millenia to come. And it will certamly take longer for it to reach higher power if you destroy it's people, scientists and infrastructure in regular intervals.
Again, makes no sense.

[TrashMan]

Who says the shivans know what inter-species communication is? They might never of thought of the idea, it might be against their nature.

Last time I checked they were supposed to be intelligent.
Without understanding what communication is, they never would have gotten anywhere.