1) I'm not english / American, and this is a wall of text, so sorry in advance for misspelling, grammar errors, etc.
I am sure you speak English better than I could ever speak your language, so no problem
2) for the tl;dr version, just read intro / concl
3)This post is split in (nearly) independant section, if you are interested in a specific point only.
----------------------------------
IntroductionIn this post I will discuss the leaked endings of ME3, and (try to) explain why these endings are great. I’ll try to give an insight on why they completely make sense and show that Bioware has great writers, who are able to mix old storytelling canon together to produce a great story, with strong references to past literary masterpiece. I’ll try to mention every major concern of the forum's community, and explain why mostly are not pointless.
1 - PreliminariesFirst, I'll start with some generalities about Bioware, and some consideration about viability of the leaked Endings
1.1 Bioware For me Bioware is not about making great new story, nor about making great game from successful concept.
Bioware's games can be summarized in two words : Storytelling and innovative gameplay.
Bioware makes gameplay-innovative game (story-driven MMO) with a very classic story (kill the big dragon with elves / dwarves / human) but great storytelling.
On a personal note, all Bioware’s games were great, at the exception of DA2 which has been utterly rushed (but it's still good)
As this post is not about what is and what isn't Bioware, I'll won't go too deep here.
Bioware’s MMO is not that good. I played 2 classes to max level , and the gameplay is poor compared to most any other mmo out there. It’s also based on star Wars so not a whole lot of dragons. 1.2 Leaked contentI'll assume in the reminder of this, that the leaked endings are true. Objectively, there is a lot of chance that there are true, and we get more and more evidences every day. I remember the DA2 demo, when peoples fear a bad game, and have completely unlikely hopes of beta-non-final-whatever version of the game/story. The fact is: mostly, demo and leaked content are representative of the final product
2 General concern, storytelling, mass effect universe2.1 Ending is more important than Walkthroughsome peoples claim that no matter the actual content, this game will be bad, because endings are bad. And that no matter what happen during the game, the important bit is the endings of it. This is incredibly wrong, and even if the endings are bad, the game isn't ruined.This is a basic thing about telling a great story : a story is not great because of its endings, it's great because what happen during the story. There is no way for a story to be great only because of its endings. Moreover, typical epic journey are not about the finalgoal but about the journey itself. Look at Greek's Myth Ulysse. The ending has nothing incredible in comparison with Ulysse's journey. Actually, this is the whole point of the quest of the graal. No matter the final goal, the true interest is in the way to achieve your goal.
I would suggest to you that the ending is JUST as important as the journey. Shepard would not be doing anything at all if it were not for what he was trying to achieve. If I am looking for the holy grail , I am not doing it so I can travel all over , sleep in tents , eat crappy food and watch my friends get killed off one by one. I am doing it so I can achieve my goal. Shepard is not risking his, and his friends lives because it is fun, he is doing it to save them from becoming grey goo, or mindless slaves to a race of machines. My Shepard, for instance is not doing what he is doing to save humanity and the galaxy, he is doing it because he is arrogant and he believes he can save himself and his friends from becoming grey goo. If the galaxy benefits…great, but it’s not his motivation.
2.1 Reaper are no gods
Some says that reapers are no-god, and that ME2 has make reapers "mortal".
So in ME1 Reapers are clearly some kind of Cthulhian gods. Unstoppable, and non-Understandable. Just read sovereign dialogs with Shepard to see that.Reapers are basically master of the world, the whole galaxy can live, because they allow them, and give the mass relay to them.The only direct apparence of the reapers in ME2 is the derelic reaper. And, as a reminder, this level is full of cthulhu references.Actually, ME2 focus is on something else than reaper, it sets the background for ME3, but when a reaper is encountered, Bioware remember us thata reaper IS a unkillable god.
Basically, ME series is all about galactic peoples wanting being free of their masters. This is not about the masters, but aboutthe galactic peoples. That's why there is so few informations about reapers. This is not the point of the series, the point is being free.
Reapers are not unkillable gods, as you pointed out yourself by referencing the derelict. It was disabled by an ancient race, it did not get there by accident. It was finished off when it plunged into the brown dwarf, after its mass effect core was destroyed by a squad of three mere mortals. The fact that it set itself up like a god does not make it one, leaders have been doing that since we started grouping together. If you want a modern day example, look at North Korea. Just because you force people to worship you as a god, does not make you one. There is not much information about reapers, because reapers do not want people to be aware of their existence until they come to eradicate them. If they were gods we would not be finding evidence of their existence. Fact is , reapers fail miserably at being gods. 2.3 Galaxy is screw upAs said before, the point of the serie is being free and independant. This is a common theme in story. A slave want to be free of his master.and in every story about this, freedom came with a very hight price !The situation is simple, reapers can domine galaxy because they provide tool to bend the univers laws, if the galactic's peoples want to be free,they have to abandon the tools of theirs masters. Keeping relay intact would be a big error about how this kind of story ends.The idea is that freedom come with a great price.If you want, think Adam and Eve. They live under the control of god, with a symbolic forbidden fruit : the apple. But humans want to be completely free,so they loose god's present, namely the eden.Actually, the whole serie start at new Eden, this is a strong hint about what all of this is about. Being conscient that there is a god, and becomeindependant of him. But in the process (new) eden is lost for ever.
You got the Adam and Eve story a bit off, but I won’t get into that. Suffice to say it was a poor analogy. If you want me to explain it, I will. The relays are technology, the reapers are not twisting any laws of physics, they simply understand them on a level higher than our own. The entire reason they were built was several fold. 1. They were the reapers ticket to fast destruction. 2. They stifled research that would possibly elevate a race to their level.3. They seem to have been linked to them in some way and could have been using them to monitor civilizations progress. Regardless of the mass relays, they would still eventually get here. And unless we destroyed them all simultaneously, they would know it and begin their invasion early. If we freed ourselves from the reapers, than there would be no reason to free ourselves from their technology. We could get to that point ourselves, it would just take time. 3. More Mass effect-centric considerations3.1 SHepard IS a HeroSo obviously, shepard is a hero. Indeed, he is a mythological hero, the kind of hero who fight gods, and beat them.Again there are plenty of exemples in greek's mythology.There is one point about this kind of heroes : they don't get old.Hero are always a Hero, They are born as hero, they live as hero, and they die as hero. Being old is not heroic at all.Having a wheelchair is not heroic, being weak is not heroic.
In that case what are the possiblities of ending shepard's story ?
1) The hero die in action, This is very good ending, because the ultimate heroic act is sacrifice.
2) THe hero is physically lifted of his human status (symbolically he is already not a human) and become a god (this is what happen with tiber septim in Skyrim's lore)
3) We introduce difference between the human and the hero. This is the purpose of costume in comics. In that case there is two entities,the human, and the hero. We can see shepard as a space hero, space being his costume. Indeed, shepard action of glory are in a spacialcontext, and so, lifted of his access to space, shepard is no more a hero, he's just a human.
These 3 possibility are exactly corresponding to the 3 endings for shepard in ME3 confirming that Bioware know what there are doing, andthey doing it very well.
My Shepard, for instance is not doing what he is doing to save humanity and the galaxy, he is doing it because he is arrogant and he believes he can save himself and his friends from becoming grey goo. If the galaxy benefits…great, but it’s not his motivation. He does not fit into any of your three categories. My Shepard has seen what gods can do , and he is not interested in becoming one, merging with one or being seen as anything more than a guy who loves his friends and wants what is best for them. 3.2 Choices that matters3.2.1 Long term choices.Long term choices, in fact are very important. Long term choices are about your character, how you build it, and how he will end. The possibility of keeping shepard alive or not, is just awesome, it allow you to choose what kind of hero shepard is.Is he a hero with a costume, or is he must die, because he has no more purpose ? (see shepard section for details)
An other point, is that choices will matter during game walkthrough. This is more interresting actually. In a game about choices,it is logical to really have to deal with past choices during the game, than having an epilogue at the end.Moreover, as the story end here, there is absolutly no point in delaying choices at the end of the game. it is better to have consequenciesduring the game, to deal with them.Again see the part about walkthrough vs endings for more insights of why walktrhough is important.
3.2.2 Ending choicesThis is basically the big choice in the end. Some complain that it is completely unrelated to war effort. As seen above, long term things are aboutshepard's fate. Ending choice is more philosophical, and it is very important.First it is a decision that will affect the whole nature of the galaxy, this make a full sequel nearly impossible as the galaxywill be completely changed froone choice to the other.
The question of the final choice is very hard, and very interesting and can be stated like that :Given two kind of sentient, who can't live together in the same place, what is the thing to do :-merge them, and make everyone the same, but you'll loose diversity-Wipe one side for the sake of the other-Stay here, and spend the eternity in managing the two (imply becoming permanent god for shepard)
A good exemple is magnets.You have a positive magnet and a negative magnet. do you ?-just leave one magnet here and trash the other ?-Scotch / glue them together, but you will lost their magnetic field properties ?-keep them manually in contact, and use one or the other, depends on your needs ?
The choices need to also apply to the end, and the ending should reflect at least some of your character development. You are basically given three choices at the end, if they do not fit with the Shepard you developed through the game choices that were presented to you during the three games, than the story has failed. I was allowed by the game to make my Shepard a selfish protectionist of himself and his crew. I was allowed to make choices that always kept my crew and myself together and safe.(save Kaiden, but they did not give me a choice to save both) In the end that was denied me. That makes this a poor ending, because they said I could make my own story. They gave me the choices , I took them , but in the end it didn’t matter, I could not complete my story in the way I was allowed to play I up to this point.
3.3 LIs are not with shepardSo the point here is that LIs are a story of passion between two person.if shepard and LIs want to build a long-term relationship, they just have to wait to be sure everything will be alright, 2-3 yrs in a life are nothing.But this isn't this kind of relationship, THe shadow broker's DLC's dialog is just shepard and liara joking about that.So Love story between shepard and Lis are about passion.That's really good, because stable long term relationship are not exciting, great love story are about passion.This love is about passion, passion is an emotion, and emotions do not last forever.Think the canon love-story : romeo and juliet. There is no point in juliet being a mother, and cleaning the house (or Romeo).And so, LIs must die, or at least being unable to be with shepard at the end of the story. it will be ruin the pasion betweenthem, and make an uninteresting love story.(NB : disney's princess movies are not about love story but about an epic quest)
Romeo and Juliet is not the only great love story ever written. Love stories are about much more than passion, and most do not end with the lovers drinking poison . Love stories do not have to be tragic to be great. Contrary to what you believe, they can also be…and they lived happily ever after. The game does not give us that choice, it only allows us the tragic love story, and that does not gibe with bioware’s mantra of choice. The only thing you are trying to do is justify why we were not given a choice, and I reject that.
Conclusion :To conclude, I would mention that Bioware totally could go the forum-fanbase-way, with an easy-happy-predictable-senseless ending.Instead Bioware demonstrated that there are still a great studio, which can make hard CHoices, for the sake of artistical quality.They're staying true to their previous statement about the end of the Shepard's franchise, and definitly ended the story, against all fan-wish and market-wish consideration, which is something not so usual for such a successful saga.
If that were the case , they should have taken choice out of the equation, and made the game like the uncharted franchise. thanks for reading BSN, try to not troll too hard
Great post my friend…cheers.
Modifié par xtorma, 02 mars 2012 - 09:12 .
Ce sujet est fermé
Retour en haut
