Speaking of TVTropes, here's my take on the degree to which just one little part of the ending has issues. There is nothing wrong with tropes, per se, but when a narrative is just one sequence of tired tropes clumsily strung together, I'd say we have a problem. In this case, the "trope density" is off the charts:
[...stuff happens and...]
Shepard is, for the first time, introduced to a
Sufficiently Advanced Alien, an
Energy Being who, to take
A Form You Are Comfortable With appears as an
Adorably Precocious Child. This being, an ancient
Artificial Intelligence, explains that he has seen so many
Robot Wars across the millenia that, in an attempt to resolve the situation, he developed a
Reset Button solution. In doing so, however, he has become a
Well-Intentioned Extremist who sees the struggle between organics and synthetics as an
Order vs Chaos problem in which his role is to restore order. His solution, creation of the Reapers, required him to
Jump Off the Slippery Slope and accept that
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized; the most advanced civilzations will be periodically "processed" by this
Horde of Alien Locusts to short-circuit the
Robot War cycle.
After explaining
I Did What I Had To Do (which may qualify as a bizarre twist on the
Hannibal Lecture), the being claims (in a lightning-fast
E = MC Hammer moment) that Shepard's presence "changes things," and presents him/her with a set of
Final Solution choices. Each of these choices casually demands that Shepard cross his/her own
Moral Event Horizon by presenting catastrophic variations on an
End of the World As We Know It solution initiated via a
Big Red Button Self-Destruct Mechanism.
In an act of
Heroic Sacrifice, without a word of questioning, objection, or realization that "
I Forgot I Could Change the Rules," Shepard selects an option and ends the trilogy with a
Dying Moment of Awesome.
Modifié par SkaldFish, 19 mars 2012 - 02:46 .