CrutchCricket wrote...
Where is the underlined coming from? I think that's the assumption that's throwing you off. What evidence do you have for it?
Let's take a look at the LotSB dossier. These dossiers tend to reflect the main direction for characters in ME3 (not just Miranda's dossier), as do the little snippets of video, Liara's comments on the LIs, etc. It's not always a perfect fit (some things do change in the course of development, but that is the pattern).
Miranda's dossier contains a lot of information, more than anyone else's, a lot of it is completely new information, and it is more jarring than anyone else's because it doesn't fit with Miranda's prior characterisation.
This can't plausibly be chalked up to a lack of effort or planning, since a lack of these things doesn't normally produce a heap of new information, obviously.
Miranda's LotSB dossier tells a little story, and this story is a complete reworking of the character from top to bottom. Some of the following could be said to be unconfirmed prior to ME3, but in ME3, it is confirmed for the most part. This is only really scratching the surface, but a few relevant points:
1) Miranda was devoted to Cerberus because of an obsession with human dominance. This directly contradicts all of Miranda's dialogue on the subject, or related subjects, in ME2. Thus her motivations were evil (and retro-actively in conformity with the more shallow view of Cerberus presented in ME3), lacking the nuance that the ME2 dialogue suggests is present.
2) The Lazurus project awakened in Miranda a desire for children, which gradually replaced her devotion to Cerberus. This is a good, healthy motivation that gradually replaces the evil motivation that was initially present. Miranda doesn't say a thing about wanting children in ME2, she talks about wanting to be a part of Humanity's STG, and other things along those lines. Not that Miranda shouldn't want children, but there's no reason to introduce the idea as incompatible with her other ambitions (see below).
3) Tragically, she discovers she can't have children because she is infertile. Another completely new piece of information that can't really be accounted for with the idea that nobody was really paying attention to Miranda at the time. (Nevermind that it's nonsense.)
4) Combined with the overall progression above, certain details, like the change in reading material from a scientific journal to a romance magazine or whatever it is, suggests that the dossier is introducing a dichotomy that didn't exist previously, between Miranda's professional side and her more personal/emotional side, i.e. that her devotion to work was only compensation for an underdeveloped family life. This is a sexist cliché.
Does this reworking of the character have an impact in ME3? It absolutely does. Do you realize that Miranda in ME3 *never has any dialogue/interaction of substance* with anyone other than Shepard, Oriana and (momentarily) her father? This suggests that the above cliché is actually driving the writing to such an extreme that it has become tabou for Miranda to even *speak* to anyone outside of her immediate family, other than the protagonist (who is often a romantic partner anyway).
Now, we can discuss the extent to which other details of the role compensate for this somewhat.
But I don't think we can plausibly say that this was an accident. LMAO.
Modifié par flemm, 31 mars 2012 - 09:11 .
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