Okay. Do you guys remember Casey Hudson saying that the ME1 romance arc follows the 3-act concept, back before ME2 came out? No? He did say that, right here. Well, it turns out, that statement is actually very true: the key events of the trilogy follow the template quite rigorously. Let's break down the VS romance arc, and compare it to the typical narrative of the Three Act Structure. I recommend that you open that link, because I'll use terms from that page, and it'll make this analysis easier to read.
Mass Effect 1
The First Act is the Setup. Generally speaking, it lasts the first quarter of the story, and is where the main characters are introduced and the dramatic premise (i.e. what the story's about) and the dramatic situation (i.e. the setting and context in which the story's taking place) are established. At some point in the First Act (usually half-way, but not always) the Call to Adventure (or in more mundane settings, an Inciting Incident) occurs to set the plot of the film in motion. Whether the protagonist accepts it or not, it doesn't matter; events are set in motion causing the protagonist to follow the path of the narrative, whether they want to or not.
True enough, in Mass Effect 1 we meet Ashley and Kaidan. During the game we learn about them, and their dramatic situation (their personality, their motivations, their personal story) and dramatic premise (whether we're interested in them as friends or something more) are established. It's all tame flirting until the Inciting Incident of the romance arc rolls in: the Normandy is grounded and all regulations are thrown out of the window to finalize the mission, so when the VS visits Shepard they go "ah, what the hell" and there's a confession of feelings. It's clear the flirting has materialized into an actual romantic investment at this point, and we can choose to celebrate that by having sex or not. In any case, the romance is now set in motion, and the relationship is established until Plot Point #1 happens in Mass Effect 2. And Plot Point #1, the reversal that sends the narrative into a different direction than it had previously been going, the jump between the first act and the second act, is Shepard's death.
This is why the game doesn't register if you left to die on Virmire a character you were romancing: the Inciting Incident that upgrades the romance from "mild flirting" to "full-fledged relationship" hasn't happened yet, so it wasn't really a romance yet. This is why the romance imports as complete into ME2 even if you turn them down in your quarters: the confession of feelings and the manifestation of romantic investment is there, you're just turning down the sex. And this is why the emails they send in ME2 talk so highly of the "night before Ilos": it's not because of the sex (they might have had time for it again or not in the month before the Normandy blows up), it's because, you know, it's the event that set the relationship in motion.
Mass Effect 2
The Second Act, the Confrontation, is the longest. In this act, the main character(s) meet their Mentors, Love Interests are established and, most especially, the protagonists will encounter obstacles in the form of people, objects and settings that appear with rising potency and increasing frequency in order to stymie the protagonist. In particular, the presence of the foe will be felt, causing the first clashes between The Protagonist and The Antagonist.
The presence of the foe (Cerberus) is certainly felt in Mass Effect 2: not only do they provide the obstacles that stymie the protagonist (by making sure Shepard is cut off from the Alliance and preventing contact with the VS), they're also responsible for opening a huge rift in the relationship, creating the main conflict to conquer in the romance arc. Sure, it's Anderson that stonewalls you and the VS from knowing about each other, and it's the VS the one who flips out. But ultimately, they all have main plot reasons for doing so, and it's all because of Cerberus.
At some point during this stage (often halfway), the protagonist will seem to be close to accomplishing the ultimate goal, but events will conspire to prevent success. As a result, the protagonist will reach his/her lowest point and will often temporarily give up in despair.
Here comes the Setback (or Midpoint) event of the story: say hello to Horizon. Let's analyze that part and everything surrounding it, from the point of view of the romance arc.
Up until this point we've been unable to contact the VS, but now there's an opportunity where we can actually meet them. And once we do, there's a display of affection between Shepard and the VS; it might seem like we are close to accomplishing the goal (reestablishing the relationship). However, events conspire to prevent success, and that's because of the main plot: Shepard being Alive and With Cerberus is too shocking for the VS to take. We can try to resolve the situation, but it's not possible. In the end, the VS leaves, and we are left with an intense feeling of frustration, of disappointment, of what could have been but wasn't (this is why there are so many Horizon fix fics; it's an outlet for the fans to vent frustration).
(A side comment: remember, the VS doesn't actually dump you, or humiliate you, or do many of the terrible things they have been accused of doing by the fandom. However, the frustration we get from that part of the story heightens our emotions to the point that for us, they might as well have done such things. That sensation is the purpose of the Setback event of the three-act structure, essentially. And like the rest of stories based on that template, it's there to grab and shake the audience, to make us more personally affected by the characters, and to help make the final resolution of the story that much more satisfying. Conflict is the soul of drama, after all. It should also be noted that by the end of the story, when we have the full picture of it, the impression we have of the Setback usually changes quite a bit from the one we get the first time we see it. This happens quite frequently with stories based on the three-act structure, and a tweet from Mac Walters hints that it might be the case here.)
Things go downhill from here. The stakes of the main plot get higher, Cerberus becomes more actively manipulative, Shepard is forced to put down personal feelings to help the crew, and we are still unable to contact the VS. Sure, there's the email, which serves to soften (a little) the sucker punch of Horizon, and it's a reminder that their feelings behind the relationship are still kind of there, even if they're clearly hurt (and it's a necessary reminder for the players, because without it we would have no way to know that the relationship can be salvaged at all). But the email comes at the Crisis part of the story, the dark half of the second act, and it shows: it's not reassuring, it's full of doubts, and it offers no hope. Indeed, for many players, the uncertainty of the email pissed them off even more, while the most hopeful clung to the "reminder of feelings" part.
It's around this part that we can start to define our reaction to the lowest point of the romance arc, when the protagonist is at its worst and the conflict is at its strongest: are we going to give up ("cheat"), or are we going to resist against all odds ("stay true")? The time before crossing the Omega 4 Relay is where we make the final decision: we can put behind the VS for good and consummate a relationship with a ME2 love interest, we can regret it and turn down the developing relationship at the last moment, and if we decided to resist, we spend what could be Shepard's last hours alone, staring miserably at the picture, to drive home the point.
I imagine that this is a reason why the writers consistently refer to "hooking up with someone in ME2 while having a romance from ME1" as "cheating", and why it has somewhat negative connotations. From the storytelling point of view of the ME1 romance arc, it means you have given up; you have abandoned the struggle and have no intention of continuing the fight. And hey, there's a reason why many protagonists have succumbed to despair or temptation at their darkest hour: it's only human. Meanwhile, staying loyal is much more challenging, but there's a reason why protagonists that resist giving up on their struggles exist, too: that kind of determination is what makes them heroes. It all comes down to preference, really; we could argue which way is better, but we are never going to agree on that. And that's without counting many other decisive elements and alternative interpretations, external to this romance, that factor in the decision of the players to go one way or another; it's certainly a situation with a wide array of possibilities. If the writers at Bioware did their homework they'll take most of them into account, with dialogue for every outcome.
Regardless of our actions, at the end of Mass Effect 2 the relationship with the VS is at an all-time low, and it's not going to improve until Plot Point #2. And Plot Point #2, the reversal that sends the narrative into a different direction than it had previously been going, the jump between the second act and the third act, won't come around until Mass Effect 3. This is why there was no chance to reply to the email, to contact the VS at all, to have some extra content that allowed a little reconciliation: aside from "because we already have a use for them in the main plot", the three-act structure demands that the end of act two must be the lowest point of the story, and there's no way around that.
Mass Effect 3
In order to fully analyze this part, I would need to mention spoilers from the leak, but I won't do that here. Instead, I'll give you some reassuring words: the writers still stick to the three-act structure, so you can imagine what will happen. We will be able to choose how to resolve the conflict, and the resolution will be satisfying for everyone. And after that, there will be as much content with the VS as we want. So there's nothing to worry about, because the story will deliver
If you have read the leaks (or if you don't mind getting a BIG amount of ME3 spoiled) and want the full analysis, PM me.
Some of my own conclusions
Some of these are my own opinions. Feel free to agree with them or not.
1) Hey look, it seems like the writers at Bioware actually know what they're doing!
An obvious conclusion, but it bears repeating: the writers don't hate the VS, or the VS fans, or want to steer players away from the VS to their own favorites. They simply would scrap the concept and start over if that was the case, and professional writers don't let their preferences taint the story anyway. No, these kind of plotlines are planned from the start, from the moment you're creating and polishing the characters and their roles in the story, from the moment you're thinking up the main plot and deciding on the key moments and themes and twists you'll hit with the trilogy. And they wouldn't have dedicated so many resources to them if they didn't want players to experience their romance arc (just like I wouldn't be writing ridiculously long essays on fictional characters in my free time if I didn't care for them).
It remains to be seen how well implemented the full story will be in the end. So far, the writers have manipulated our emotions quite masterfully. After Mass Effect 1, we hadn't hit Plot Point #1 yet, and we were still at the part of the romance arc where everything looked promising, and we hadn't met the main conflict yet. The players were happy, and had high hopes for their romances. After Mass Effect 2, we were at the lowest point of the relationship with them, the point where everything looked bleak and giving up seemed like the best option. For the players, the feelings of hopelessness and betrayal and general unhappiness regarding the VS were intense at this point. It's been a while since the game came out, and there's been time for everyone to calm down (or for everyone to rationalize their hurt feelings), but still, something can be said about the VS in ME2: pretty much nobody felt indifferent about them anymore. Whether we love them or hate them, they got us to feel strongly about their characters, and ultimately that is what plays the biggest role in making satisfying the resolution of their personal plotline. So when Mass Effect 3 comes out, everything about them should be explained, and should conclude their story the way we choose to. And from the impression I got from the leaked text, it looks like everyone will be satisfied, one way or another.
It also remains to be seen if it was a good idea to use the three-act structure, a template for creating dramatic storylines, for a romance arc. After all, it seems like the most popular romances are those with little conflict. Maybe fans aren't that interested in all the emotional highs and lows and tension and anxiety of drama when doing romances; they simply want a closer connection to their favorite characters, to get to know them better, and to have a good time with them (and hopefully there will be sex scenes, too). This is probably a good reason (though not the only one by any means) for why so many people picked a new LI in ME2; they were turned off from the ME1 romance because of the dramatic turn it took.
On the other hand, romances have been accused many times of being pure fanservice, pointless fluff that adds nothing to the story. By linking a romance to the main plot, they're adding another dimension to it, a more personal reason to get involved and take sides regarding Cerberus; by making the romance affected by the main plot, they're extending the scope and the seriousness of it, since it's influencing Shepard's private life. By doing this, the mutual feedback between both storylines should help and strengthen each other, ultimately raising the total emotional impact on the player. And emotional impact is what storytelling is about, after all.
Of course, weaving the romance of a character into the main plot creates its own set of problems, such as...
2) What if I don't like the VS?
Obviously, not everybody is going to be interested in romancing the same characters. That's good, romances are optional for a reason, and the VS storyline works for the friendship path too, even if it doesn't have quite the same dramatic punch. However, regardless of the player preferences, certain character plotlines are going to be necessarily involved with the main plot. That's how stories are built. Since characters are different from each other, they can't really have interchangeable roles without weakening the main plot, so you're going to be stuck with certain characters on certain roles whether you like it or not. This means that in the case of the VS, for the players that didn't like or care about them and didn't even consider them good friends, they'll still have forced conflict with them, and the mutual feedback I mentioned earlier that both storylines have on each other could be negative instead of positive. It's the same reason why some people are complaining about Liara's "forced friendship", "forced plot involvement" and such; if the characters you hate have roles on the story you don't like for them, it can have a negative impact on your game experience.
My stance on this topic is that holding on to character hate is as useful as complaining about the roles certain characters will have on the plot because that's how the story was written: it's ultimately pointless. Sure, everyone will have characters that rub them the wrong way (I have my own), but by holding on to that hate and refusing to see their positive traits, the only thing you are going to achieve is to cut down you own enjoyment of the game. I'm not going to ask the fanbase to stop raging -this is the Internet, after all- but from an individual point of view, I do consider it the wisest thing to do.
An extra thought
On the progression of romances: Romantic subplots on a single game always follow the standard of "talk, talk, then sex before the final mission". They aren't following the three-act structure, but they do follow the structure of basic storytelling, which is "rising action until the climax" (there's a sex joke here somewhere). It doesn't make for the most realistic romances, but it helps make the culmination scenes more memorable. It's just the approach the writers have chosen.
Finally, if anyone at Bioware stumbles across this: the fact that I spent the time to write such a long essay on fictional characters (and in English, which isn't my native language!) probably speaks of how invested you managed to get me in the games, and how well you succeeded as storytellers. So, keep going guys. For all it's worth, you have my support
Modifié par Tropulous, 07 janvier 2012 - 03:01 .
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