TSC_1 wrote...
PurpleWhisper wrote...
'Art' doesn't always have to be depressing. Plenty of us love a good happy ending. Fiction is a great way to escape reality and my favourite thing about Mass Effect before the ME3 ending was how pumped and uplifted i always felt playing as Shepard.
See, that's the thing - people have been disparaging happy endings throughout this entire debacle. Know what? I want a happy ending where Shep lives and reunites with his/her crew and LI in a galaxy where the mass relays still exist. And I don't think there's a thing wrong with wanting that.
It isn't silly. It isn't non-artistic. It isn't childish. And it's sure as heck not unintellectual.
In a game about choice this should of come across the board at some point. Not everyone sees Sheaprd having to sacrifice his/ her life for the greater good. If it were one of many possibilities then they have the option to go back and do a "what if Shepard has this outcome playthrough"? I can't wrap my head around this " we only want happy endings" nonsense. NO we don't. We want to CHOICE to have one if we choose to. That's the beauty of the game: "how does this story end"?
Does Sheaprd make the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the reapers and finally bring peace to the galaxy?
Does Shepard live to see all he/ she has done, and return to earth knowing that while the losses are devastatingly huge there is still work to be done in the rebuilding of the galaxy?
Does he/ she get to see the pay off of the LI they fought for?
I could go on but the point is choice should always be a factor. What's the point of talking about endings with the same outcome? That's a short conversation. However if each end varies to a point where no two are exactly the same then we have the discussion of why this ending suits my Sheaprd and why I the player choose it.
In an ending regarding happiness it could mean a variety of things depending on who you ask. To me it means seeing the outcome of the choices you made, seeing that you were able to rally people/aliens who were once distrustful of one another or just hated each other outright, but are now brothers and fighting for their future.
It means Shepard getting to bury his dear friend Anderson who had his back since the beginning. To have that drink with Garrus. To help the the galactic rebuilding of the galaxy. To see that even though we are different if we are willing to forgive and put aside our differences we can accomplish amazing things.
It's more uplifting than happy as it shows that the war is over, casualties are everywhere and we lost good friends, allies, and civilians trying just to survive this nightmare, but at the end of it all we get to live and build a better tomorrow/ future
We exist not because the Repears allowed it but because we earned the right to. We have earned they right to go on living.
How I see it anyway.