ME1 & ME2 plot structure
The prevailing opinion is that Mass Effect 2 lacks any central narrative concerning the Reapers. However, Mass Effect 1 is no different and I don’t know why people have contradicting standards. Mass Effect 1’s central narrative was about chasing Saren’s trail, which forced Shepard and company into open conflict with the geth. At the end, we realize Saren and the geth were tools of the Reapers, the distant looming threat that insidiously affects the galaxy’s actions. Note how the Reapers were not the central narrative, Saren was.
In Mass Effect 2, the plot is structured toward building a team to stop the collectors, a puppet of the Reapers, who again, still influence the galaxy from afar. The central narrative is about the team, as the main missions deal with recruiting and gaining the loyalty of a squad. Similarly, Mass Effect 1 main missions dealt with chasing Saren, the direct threat. The Reapers act more or less as a framing device and the end-all villain.
Mass Effect 3’s central narrative will in all probability deal with stopping the Reapers directly. Whether or not there will be a middleman villain like Saren/Heretic geth and the collectors, is to be seen. My guess is this is where Cerberus fits in the story, seeing their soldiers make up a large portion of the enemies encountered in the game.
Regardless, maybe those critics wanted the Reapers to be the direct antagonist as they were outed at the end of ME1 and therefore had different expectations than what they received in ME2. But to say ME1 had a more relevant central narrative to the Reaper threat would be incorrect.
Collector Bee Motif
I’m sure some of you caught this, but the collectors’ insect-like appearance is a clue to their purpose, not just an aesthetic choice. The collectors pick humans from colonies or “harvest” them, bringing them to the Collector Base in the galactic center to create a Human Reaper. Now, bees harvest or collect nectar from plants and bring them to their nest, where they create honey by regurgitating the nectar, not so different from how humans are melted down in the nest-like Collector Base.
Also, collector architecture, like the floating platforms (and oddly Cerberus) frequently use hexagons and honeycomb shapes.
Harbinger & Double-Determination
To recap, Harbinger the Reaper remotely controls the Collector General, which acts as an intermediary so Harbinger can assume direct control of one collector. Beyond a gameplay element to introduce variety and place pressure on the player, there is an interesting parallel or inspiration, if you prefer, to Greek mythology.
In Greek and Roman mythology, the all powerful gods can help a human they deem worthy and imbue them with immense power by taking direct control of them. Paradoxically, the human affected is still held responsible for his or her’s actions despite the fact a god was controlling them. This is called double-determination. The length a God’s control of a human can vary, from making a human a puppet or merely influencing their actions, but the most pertinent example in my comparison is from the early fight scenes in The Iliad. Here, the goddess Athena helps the Greek warrior Diomedes fight the Trojans by giving him strength and special powers to fight off the Trojans. This is essentially what Harbinger does when taking over a specific collector.
Remember though, a God’s influence can be direct like in the case of Diomedes, but other times, a God’s influence is more subtle, such as a revealing a riddle to a hero’s future to direct his future in a predictable way or stopping a human from carrying out a specific action (like Athena pulling Achilles’ hair to stop him from killing Agamemnon, who was destined to be murdered by his wife after the Trojan War). In Mass Effect, the analogous action is called “indoctrination” or the slow and subtle brainwashing of people in close proximity to the Reapers.
EDIT: fixed weird formating glitches
Modifié par HBC Dresden, 31 octobre 2011 - 12:13 .
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