Well, I was asked by Thomas Abram to post in a "Mega Thread" about the ideas I wanted to share (from another thread I made myself). So... I hope it applies here, the thread's title fits whit the ideas I want to share well, so I'll post it here.
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Before starting this wall of text...
I'd like to mention (disclaimer I guess) that English is not my native language and that I'll do my best to find the proper words to describe my ideas, and that repetition of some ideas with slight variations will be inevitable since I know that I often have problems with that when I type long posts (even if I re-read myself) with many aspects and ideas in them (I often mix them up, sorry about that if it happens here).
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So anyway, with this said let's start...
First, I'd like to ask to any of you guys reading this and concluding that it doesn't apply to you to simply ignore this thread entirely, it would be pointless to reply that you basically disagree (obviously you wouldn't agree if it doesn't apply to you), not to mention that it would create a futile debate that would amplify the flames and make things worse. If it does apply to you however (and you will recognize yourselves very easily if it does) then hopefully any of the following will at the very least have helped a little bit to "deal with it", rather than seemingly "having to endure it". I'm doing this very humbly, and I don't want to "impose" my views, I simply want to "point at them" and say "look, that's one way to do it, if you want, but I'm not here to tell you that you absolutely have to".
Now, I know that many of us ("us" being those concerned by this) are in disbelief, shock, some are depressed, deeply dissatisfied, or just cannot understand even if we do read hundreds of attempts to explain the seemingly unexplainable from all those unofficial conclusions that basically Mr. Joe and Mrs. Joeys out there come up with to try to self-satisfy themselves exactly because otherwise it "wouldn't make sense" (for them anyway, even if somehow, it'd make sense at some point if you do analyze it enough, I do know that some of it does "make sense", but if there's any debate here it's not even about sense in itself, keep reading and you'll better understand what I mean). There's perhaps a few ways to deal with the depression (or any other similar "low moods") that some of us are going through right now ever since we completed the game with either "one of" our Shepards, or just "the" main Shepard, which I'm sure was the case for the majority of us, playing first with that one Shepard that we almost all started from ME1 up to ME2's ending to build up as "we wanted" for the final showdown.
There's things to consider, first.
Are the current endings "the problem" in themselves?
After thinking about it, I do not believe so (you may disagree, that's fine). On paper, BioWare could have certainly ended up with depressing endings for all we cared. In fact, we were for most of us indeed expecting "awfully dark" endings. The fact that we have such endings that dooms most of the galaxy to isolation even if life (in any form, or anywhere) can seemingly "go on" after the end of this cycle still doesn't make things "bright" nor "brighter" for many of us (for some, it could be, good for them, but it doesn't concern them). Yes, maybe one of, if not all those endings we do have right now might have indeed been able to fit one of our Shepards, that's certainly a possibility. In fact, had we been "granted" more endings (not necessarily endings that would have "replaced" the ones we have, but rather just more of them, to accommodate more decisions made by Shepards out there) then I'm sure that right now we'd be reading about the various fun, fulfilling Shepard games with sense of closure for specific Shepards that we'd have played to the end, with Shepard(s)-specific fitting endings. Some would be typing right now about how awesome it was to see this or that Shepard they built up from ME1 dying in ME3 to sacrifice his/her life to control the Reapers, and how perfectly fitting it was for that Shepard just like that final piece of a years-long puzzle. That, I know, might happen even in the first playthrough of some, if not many of players as we speak, perhaps just out of coincidence, but it might be different if they happen to play with a Shepard that just wouldn't fit with any of the three endings, that's where "troubles" usually start.
Then with more endings we'd also be reading about how awesome it was to see that other specific Shepard being rescued from a destabilized Citadel after the Crucible "does it's job", and crash-landing on Earth while at the same time seeing those life-less Reapers gravity-pulled dropping like flies from orbit and also crashing down on Earth's various continents and oceans after being disabled/killed, and how awesome it was to see the remnants of the allied fleets making it "back home" despite the on-going ravages all across the galaxy. All that with clear, still-burning and smoking sights of the carnage left behind by the invasion and the Reapers various indoctrinated and re-purposed and re-shaped troops. Dreadful things that all species will have to do and deal with for the next centuries, with entire planets made permanently inhabitable, forever made hazardous to all life, forcing the exodus of entire species to new but still devastated home worlds... but with a sense of hope because the Mass Relays were left unoutched, or because they were diabled but still physically present for future study to allow a re-activation (even if very limited) of the network.
If we'd have had more endings to fit more Shepard "builds", there would be much less wide spread discontent. But BioWare has its limits as well. Maybe it was simply intended to have "only those" endings, and that ultimately they never really "ran out of time" to "make more" endings. If not, then maybe they did run out of time even after delaying the game for a few months (remember, it was originally supposed to be released I believe during the holidays last year, wasn't it? imagine what might have happened had it been the case?). Yes, maybe they could have, maybe they actually wanted to create more endings. I do give them an honest chance there, I'm not only pointing at them specifically. Maybe the new writer (well, by "new" I mean not the original, A.K.A Mac Walters, being the writer of ME3's story, the original writer for ME1 being Drew) did have many more ideas for more endings in his mind, but just couldn't impose or "offer" them all to BioWare, knowing that they had a schedule to respect (maybe even the project leader told Mac Walters that despite seeing his good ideas that there wouldn't be enough time, that's possible), therefore limiting the number of endings that would make it to the final version.
That's all possible, but by now, it's not important anymore, trying to ask Mac Walters himself for more endings would be futile, and asking for BioWare to make a DLC to "add variety to the endings", or to add Epilogues wouldn't necessarily "fix it". Of course, fixing it (if not even the appropriate word to start with) for every single one of you guys whom feel concerned out there would be unfeasible. The reality for the moment is that in the end the Mass Effect universe as depicted in final form (games, perhaps excluding the novels entirely) is a grim, dark and depressive universe despite the beautiful (deceivingly so, again now thanks to the standard given by ME3) aspects of it (species, cultures, architecture, name it you have it, a very deep and complex universe on the same details level of the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek and Star Gate, at least in my opinion). That's how it is if you only consider the way that it is being presented to you from the games however, and that's where I want to go with this whole thread and the ideology behind it...
I believe that one of the reasons (not necessarily "the" ultimate universal reason, but one of them) as to why many of us (including myself of course) ended up depressed after our completion of the game was because any of them completely nullified the self-created events that we hold dear to our hearts, all based from the universe of Mass Effect, some of which I'm sure never happened at all in the games themselves nor even in the novels if you happened to read them. What BioWare might have been perhaps "underestimating", or might have been "forgotting", or maybe what they might have been "considering, but couldn't accommodate it" (or even the writer himself, although that would highly surprise me) is the fact that many of us fans of the Mass Effect universe indeed created off-screen, off-games, off-novels events for and with specific characters, at in-game or in-novel existing locations (or new made-up locations). Some of you reading this to this point might think "yeah but then that's your fault, you chose to create those events, and if ME3's imposed endings happen to depress you because it destroyed those non-canon events then it isn't BioWare's nor the story writer's fault!", and guess what? I completely agree, and why would I agree to that? It's because I'm not debating that aspect in itself. What I'm just trying to do is to find ways to "deal with the consequences of that fan-fiction destruction" caused by the endings, without trying to point fingers at BioWare, I'm trying to provide humble solutions to try to work around those dangerous emotions.
How many of us imagined our Shepard having a dinner with his/her Love Interest at the Citadel or anywhere else before ME3 or even ME2 was released? How many of us had simple fun just creating various "fan-fiction" events in our mind? How many Shepards out there were on leave with the Normandy teammates somewhere on a beautiful Earth beach? How many fictitious, non-official and self-imagined missions have various Shepards been injured in only to end up in the Citadel's hospitals. I myself created a "back story" life for my main Shepard and her LI (Liara), but I'm also using existing per-established information coming mostly from ME1, with some from ME2 as well. For instance, Liara in my self-imagined back-story loves to go on newly discovered ruins (becoming new archeological sites) on various planets, often asking if Shepard would like to come along, thus allowing Shepard to appreciate the passion of her love. On the other hand sometimes Shepard goes back on Mindoir (Colonist profile) to slowly but surely help herself deal with the persisting memories of the Batarian raid that killed her parents, all her relatives and her friends as it occurred when she was 16 years-old, something that Liara helps her do when she comes along with Shepard. They often go on the shore of a lake that happened to be a few miles away from Shepard's farm and sit there on comforting home-world (Shepard's) soil looking at the calm waters of her infancy's favorite lake with Liara by her side, discussing, thinking, just having a moment with herself and her love.
I know I'm not the only one out there doing this. I like to call it "self-canonization".
It depends on what you consider being canon in the Mass Effect universe, I believe it's very subjective, and despite the fact that there's one existing per-established definition of canon in literature I still believe that we are free to think that "this part" or "that event" doesn't "fit" with "our vision" of specific characters or locations, or indeed events occurring in any given work of science-fiction, fantasy or drama, be it under the form of novels, movies or video-games. To this day I still remember many Star Trek "followers" passionately "refusing to believe" that the latest re-make of Star Trek "actually happened at all" in the said universe of fiction. I also recall how many times the DC Comics universe (time line and events, characters or locations alike) has been modified, tweaked, twisted, re-modeled and re-written over decades and after being touched by so many different writers' hands. It has happened many times in the history of art and literature, and Mass Effect is one of those work of art that has been "affected" to "a certain degree" by such practices (for various reasons being sometimes inevitable in the domain of art).
There's one thing however that all of us have, when we happen to follow any given work of art or literature. We all have imagination. And nothing forgives us from self-canonization, from imagining, from re-shaping and re-configuring events, locations, characters, behaviors, sentences or anyone and anything else you "want to have the control of".
There's of course limits that you can (not necessarily "have to") impose to yourself, if you want, which is what I do myself when I "imagine" that this or that happened in my Shepard's life. The limits in question are the basic rules, the basic sets of laws that were established by the original writer (if that's how you want the canon story to be carved), and based on most of (literally almost all of them) the events occurring in ME1, with some from ME2 (such as events from the Shadow Broker DLC, including all its dialog, which I like to consider completely canon, but that's a choice rather than an imposition). For instance, I don't give myself the "liberty" to rename locations nor to give a new purpose to specific characters. I don't make Garrus a politician and I don't want to "give" (or give "back", rather) Liara her "original" innocent-like personality from ME1, since I do consider that indeed events in her own life during my Shepard's death re-shaped that personality and made her what she is as depicted in the games (and as I just mentioned, I also indeed consider canon the fact that my Shepard indeed got killed when spaced-out from the SR-1 after the Collector ship's attack).
It's a question of self-imposed sets of laws that I, you or we in general all can make (not that we "have to do it" either, remember it's all a question of liberty to do so, just asking yourself if you want to, rather than if you "have to"), and then use those rules to re-canonize something that we believe doesn't fit with this or that specific Shepard.
My message here is humble, very subjective, the idea I'm trying to make concerned people understand is that you have the power of decision, of choice. If you feel depressed, if you feel like you can only stare at a wall for 30 minutes after the credits, with that ball of compressed emotions in your throat not knowing how to deal with the ending(s), if you feel that almost everything if not every single events that you imagined in your mind prior to ME3's release after all those years seemingly vanished in a gray vapor and that you suddenly feel empty, and that you feel like you could cry an ocean worth of disbelief, incomprehension and sadness, then tell yourself that you can change it, modify it, re-shape it, configure it with the limitless power of your imagination. All those fun moments you fictitiously had with your teammates on any given planets, all those dangerous missions that your Shepard(s) engaged in up in your mind or perhaps even literally wrote on notes or sheets of paper for pleasure, all those beaches of beautiful warm sand you ran on to catch up on your LI during that sunny afternoon on a tropical island, all those investigations your Shepard made on the Citadel, all those Cerberus agents you tried to pursue or identify, all those Blasto scenarios your Shepard and friend Garrus laughed to together at the theaters... all those events, if you thought about them, then they happened!
The power of imagination is limitless, boundless and free to its purest form (to the form of freedom). It is so, without any outside influence to tell you or somehow to try to convince you or worse to try to impose to you the idea that it all suddenly was not only for nothing, but that it didn't even happen in the first place because it wasn't even "canon", or because the endings impose you otherwise. Then give yourself your own definition of canon work, and from that point (with your own limits, if you want, based on "real canon" work, if you want), you can be free in your will to configure stories for your Shepard(s), the one, or the ones that were "affected" by the harsh, brutal and imposed endings that we do have right now (even if "clear" or efficient for some of you, again to reiterate, the debate isn't about trying to explain the endings we do have, it's about finding a way to deal with the consequences in emotional form that they imposed on many of us).
If one of your Shepard does fit within the Control, Destroy or Synthesis endings then good, so be it, it fits, so where is the problem or the depression? It's indeed nowhere. That's perhaps because simply out of coincidence it happens to fit for this or that Shepard that you spent days, if not weeks or even months to build up (perhaps excluding all your own self-made fiction around this or that Shepard). But what if any of the three existing "canon" endings don't fit and because of that alone you feel "betrayed", depressed and shocked? Then please, do yourself a favor and don't limit yourself and don't forcibly accept the imposed ideas, either those of the Codex entries, or the novels, or the in-game events alone, and let loose your free will to re-canonize events, if you want to! Don't ask yourself if "you have to", that would be pointless, just ask yourself if you want to, and if so, you can!
The important thing about this thread is this...
If anything, the ideas that I'm sharing with you whom feel concerned by some if not all of this will help to any extent in "dealing with it", "it" being the emotions you have, the depression if it is one. It is real, some people are feeling depression as we discuss here, down to the very physical symptoms of it. Do not underestimate the power of story-telling and imagination BioWare. I'm sure any writers knows about this, people have feelings, some of us can and will inevitably become emotionally involved and commit ourselves into any given universes of fiction and fantasy, and will emotionally respond to shocking events down to the physical characteristics of those emotions.
Importantly, for my own self, this very thread was a self-therapy of sorts on its own, I really needed to extract and discharge all of this out of my chest and my mind. If in doing so it happens to help any of you guys out there then that's the best I can offer, some helping hand, and a hug, too. You can do it, use your own power of thought and don't let any writer(s) impose unneeded stress, anxiety or depression to your every day life even if would have only lasted for a few hours or possibly days, if not longer. Don't wait for a DLC, don't wait for a new writer, don't wait for the original writer to give his opinions, don't wait for anyone to impose any given visions, make your own, stand up and walk out of the rubles like Shepard would!
I hope this helped, if anything, and thanks for reading all of it if you did.
Modifié par Lyrandori, 11 mars 2012 - 08:45 .
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And then there's that beautiful soundtrack...makes me so sad.
