TO THE BIOWARE TEAM:
First off, congratulations on wrapping up this epic game trilogy! Excellent job!! Some of the things I've enjoyed in ME trilogy are the moral, philosophical and existential aspects and debates in the story and dialogue which makes for great cerebral scifi.
As a writer, I should say it's an epic ending to this monumental game/story. It reminds me of Dune, Book 4 (God emperor) whereby Leto II (son of Paul Atreides) decides to sacrifice himself for the continuation and future of the human race. Killing the hero in a story if done well can be profound and meaningful but if done improperly could lead to bad results.
So I do understand the intention behind the sacrificial aspect, a usually-profound way to wrap up the protagonist's story (if done properly).
Let's also look at Star Wars as an example: the story of Anakin which ends with his death; HOWEVER Anakin had a different character journey... (the RENEGADE way for using the ME lingo) whereby he went to the dark side, did bad things and could only redeem himself in the end, a well-fitted ending.... and considering the fact that the audience had Anakin's son - Luke - as the embodiment of hope and better future... 'the son saved the father' story element...
...and back to Dune Book 4, Leto II was from the beginning a solitary type of character, less of a human, more of a demi-god. He has no place among humans and can only sacrifice himself as a final act to save humanity.
...but in ME, there's only Shepard -- there's no son or father of his, and his human (with some cybernetic implants) -- and the unique feature in ME is that the hero is customized by the player which creates a very strong bond between protagonist and player/viewer. So one has to be even more careful when deciding whether or not to kill the protagonist!!
Since user can choose paragon over renegade, and can do the 'right thing' based on the many decisions in ME1 and ME2, an additional, possibly more hopeful ending should have been written if conditions are met by players, for e.g. 100% paragon Shepard + large enough war assets + completion of game at level Insanity or Difficult perhaps.
... and that additional ending could simply be: add inserted shots of Shepard and his longtime love interest - whichever player had chosen - together. It doesn't have to be cheesy or cliche. It could perhaps be Shepard badly hurt, lying next to Normandy wreckage and his soulmate - say Liara for argument's sake - finds him and they simply smile at one another (thinking "we made it!") -- THIS WOULD REWARD THE PLAYERS A LOT AND CREATE BETTER RESOLUTION -- especially for gamers who had invested so much time and effort for collecting max. paragon points, finishing the game(s) at high difficulty level, collecting max. war assets, and such.
Even in the ending whereby Shepard apparently lives (which is still unclear whether it's him or not in that N7 suit), viewers are left with a bad departing image of their hero. The attempt at nuance doesn't work in this case.
Maybe that 'special' ending is out there already and no one has seen it yet, let's hope so, because the story ends on a too bitter than sweet note.
TO SUM IT ALL UP: The endings are profound and meaningful, but fail to be inspirational and hopeful. Maybe the way the ending sequence shots are put together are to be blamed?!
A SUGGESTION: Add a 'happy' ending version whereby Shepard lives and is found by his/her soulmate in the wreckage, which wouldn't compromise the original intention of the endings, especially if it's only unlocked for players with right conditions, that is, 100% paragon, max war assets, game level Insanity) and/or whatever have you.
Modifié par Dr_Hello, 11 mars 2012 - 01:05 .
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