7 réponses à ce sujet

[CareerKnight]

First off to limit myself so that this isn’t three posts long. I’m not going to be talking about the truth about the reapers or the three choices or the plot holes the ending created in the trilogy; instead I’m limiting myself to just talking about the aftermath. Also this will mainly be limited to my perspective of playing the game as a paragon.

If there is one term to sum out the problem with Mass Effect 3’s ending its hollow victory, and let me be clear I’m not talking about a lack of a happy ending. Trillions of people had died and many of them from your choices, happy was never going to really enter into it. There are three main reasons this is a hollow victory and one big reason a hollow victory really didn’t cut it for me here.

First off it’s a hollow victory because Sheppard has to die. Now let me be clear for those of you ready to attack me immediately upon saying this that in DAO my character died and I was completely happy with it. Part of the reason it didn’t work for me here is that Sheppard has been through so much hell that in my opinion he deserves to be able to walk away from this, he deserves to be able to enjoy the fruits of his victory even if defeating the reapers left him crippled or with only a few months left to live. I’ve become so invested into my Sheppard over these years that his inability to enjoy his victory means I can’t enjoy mine. (the other part of why the death didn't work for me was in DAO the reasons for your death were strait forward and the two survival options didn't appeal to my character where as in ME3 the citadel just says you have to die and there is no arguing with it even though my actions over the course of the game kindof disproved its theory that organics and synthetics have to fight each other)

Second, it’s a hollow victory for the galaxy. I united the galaxy as never before and what comes of it? Nothing. With the relays gone the sentient races of the galaxy are cut off from each other and many can’t even get back to their homes (not sure how fast they can travel without the relays but since it took the reapers 6 months to get from the relay you destroyed in arrival to the next nearest one I’m guessing it’s too slow). I was hoping for something along the lines of an era of galactic cooperation to follow the destructing of the reapers due to my actions and instead I get an effective dark age. As a minor aside I’d been hoping ever since ME1 that I would be able to appoint another race to the council in recognition of their help against the reapers.

Thirdly and perhaps most importantly it’s a hollow victory for you crew. They’re basically trapped on a planet unable to get home and many will probably die within a year. Like Sheppard they are also unable to enjoy the defeat of the reapers and many of them earned the right to one as much as Sheppard did. Even if the sentient races of the galaxy could still get around quickly they would never be found because they were dropped on some random planet between two mass relays.

Finally the reason a hollow victory does work here is that it doesn’t fell like a satisfactory end to the tone or spirit of the game. The tone of ME3 is dark so at first it seems like a hollow victory with no remotely happy ending would fit right in, but it doesn’t for me. I think the reason is that it’s too dark for that. After seeing so much destruction and death I need more from an ending that maybe in two thousand or so years the galaxy will begin to return to normal. It fails spirit-wise because despite the dark tone ME3 I felt was a celebration of the Mass Effect trilogy. You have a lot of really well written interactions with your returning companions and crew that really acknowledge how far you have come and what you have been through with them ( Garrus particularly comes to mind). And in the end you effectively destroy the universe you fell in love with over the course of the three games.

Modifié par CareerKnight, 10 mars 2012 - 06:03 .

[CareerKnight]

edit: Fixed the format from coping it over, looked like I had written a poem.

[PilotaceVII]

First off, I completely agree with you. The victory, in and of itself, is very hollow. That doesn’t mean that the game was bad, at least to me, or that the ending was bad either. It was conflicting, it should have caused all of the gamers to stop and wonder, was there no other way? Is this how the great Shepherd must fall?

It’s sad, and it hurts. And that makes this a great game.

To some extent, it makes sense that there would be very limited options. It seems like the Catalyst had created the Reapers and then let them do whatever they wanted, unable to control them after the fact. There is also the fact that the Catalyst would not have been able to see that Shepherd had created a peace between the organics and synthetics. Even though everyone saw it, and even saw what Legion did to ensure the peace happened, the Catalyst would have little reason to believe it would last.

Not that I disagree that the Aftermath needed more than what we received, because it does. We were given what I can only imagine is a single ending that probably wouldn’t have changed that much depending on what you did in the other games. I can say that honestly because it’s simple. Maybe a character would have been taken away here or there depending on what Shepherd finally did, but in the end it showed that the previous actions of the game wouldn’t change anything for the ending, except that between Joker and EDI. Or your romantic interest (mine was Tali) ultimately left alone and depressed.

We don’t even see Garrus, or Wrex or any of the other members of the crew. It’s bare bones, leaving us with nothing until we see this (admittedly kinda epic) epilogue where Shepherd is considered God. Not surprising, but the story was a trilogy, it deserved a better, and longer, ending than that. We don’t even see a funeral. I mean, that would have been even sadder, but I feel like it was deserved.

Sorry if this is ranting, kind of at work and unable to edit. But ultimately, I think the aftermath needed more like you said, and I do feel like shepherd dying is difficult to accept since we put so much effort in him, but what can we do? No one else can compare as far as heroes go at least, right?

[Dilandau3000]

My problem is more with the lack of aftermath, really. We have no idea what happens beyond a few nonsensical scenes.

[HovisLoaf]

Let's not forget that ME2 had an epilogue as DLC, so further expansion to the end of ME3 isn't entirely unprecedented.

[Dreogan]

The people that "hate" the ending have strong reasons to objectively hate it; this is not mere taste, folks. Even if the ending were a hallucination/indoctrination, then it is not an ending, let alone an ending worthy of a trilogy. Actually, if the ending is meant to be just a dream, Bioware made an empirically worse ending than if they simply put an embarrassing abortion of a hamfisted, plothole-ridden, mess in at the last minute.

There is no falling action, there is a clear violation in reader/writer trust (the reader-writer contract) in multiple places, and Bioware simply has shown us in the past it can do better.

Modifié par Dreogan, 13 mars 2012 - 03:55 .

[Dilandau3000]

Dreogan wrote...

The people that "hate" the ending have strong reasons to objectively hate it; this is not mere taste, folks. Even if the ending were a hallucination/indoctrination, then it is not an ending, let alone an ending worthy of a trilogy. Actually, if the ending is meant to be just a dream, Bioware made an empirically worse ending than if they simply put an embarrassing abortion of a hamfisted, plothole-ridden, mess in at the last minute.

That's also why I don't believe in the hallucination theory. While it makes internal sense, I can't believe it was BioWares intention since it would just be too far-fetched, and executed very poorly to boot (too vague for their own good).

And if it wasn't their intention, and we don't get a DLC showing what happens after, then saying it's a hallucination simply means there was no ending.

[PilotaceVII]

 I have a hard time imagining what an epilogue dlc would be like, though you're right that the possibility is there. Maybe they'll do something crazy like a fourth option at the end wih the dlc (like fallout 3)