The story of ME3 made me feel even more invested in the universe I had grown to love. I felt triumphant when Shepard united races that had been warring for so long and desperate when (s)he wasn't able to save everyone. In both cases, I was moved and felt I was edging toward a satisfying conclusion. I spent extra time gathering as many war assets as possible, thinking that the key to a sound victory with the least amount of losses.
Then, the ending forced me to destroy that universe as I knew it with few answers and even more questions.
Some kind of avatar appears in the last 10 minutes of the game, with no explanation of what it is, where it came from, what its motivations are, or how it can say that the created will always rebel against their creators, even given the fact that Shepard just recently united the geth and quarians after 300 years. Is it even talking about synthetic life in this scenario or is it some metaphor about gods? It's impossible to interpret.
Suddenly, Shepard seems to take what this kid says at face value, despite the strong current of self-determination running throughout the prior 150 or so hours of gameplay.
"The created will always rebel against their creators" - Why? What in the prior game(s) stands as a testament to this statement? And even if we are supposed to accept this as true, why should that mean that creating reapers to wipe out advanced civilization every 50,000 years is somehow an acceptable solution? I have NO IDEA how the child avatar came to this conclusion and he provides no explanation.
"Synthesis is the next step in evolution" - Also, why? Where does this wild assertion come from and why am I presumably supposed to just accept it as fact? The only way that this option even seems to be related to any of the prior Mass Effect gameplay is in that Shepard is partly synthetic after being revived by Cerberus. The child asks "could you imagine yourself without synthetics?" Yes. because the entire first game was played without synthetic parts, and aside from knowing they're there, the cybernetics appear to have NO affect whatsoever on how Shepard operates in the entirety of the second and third games. There are only cursory references to the fact that Shepard is not entirely human anymore. Shepard doesn't seem to have an identity crisis or to struggle with the fact that (s)he's partly cybernetic and what that might mean, what the consequences might be. It's simply brushed off until the ending when suddenly it's the basis for the conclusion of the entire series. I am also really confused about the consequences of this decision. Do synthetcs also become partly organic? Do they stop needing food, air, etc? As the reapers are synthetic/organic hybrid creaturs, it leads me to believe that all life becomes immortal, like the reapers, lacking the need for nourishment or air.
"Take back earth" - I don't have any clue what happened to earth except that I appear to be dying in a pile of rubble on it (in one ending). Everything galactic civilization is based on (the citadel and mass relays) is now wiped out, leading me to believe that there will still be a "cleansing" period of some sort, where all those fleets and races stranded in the Sol system fight for resources until enough of the population is culled to continue sustaining life. It seems that even without the reapers, a devolution must take place in order to restore the sustainability of life. Presumably, the only affect war assets and galactic readiness have on the game is whether more or fewer millions or billions will die. It's a pretty bleak picture.
Even in the endings where it is implied Shepard lives, it appears that any love interest you might have had is stranded on some unknown planet that is now likely out of reach due to the destruction of the mass relays. While interesting to pursue at the time, it seems any love interest is ultimately pointless, as there is no real chance for a conclusion to this story. This is a more minor complaint, but it just adds to the sting.
I see a lot of interesting things in the ending as well, when taken alone. The ending seems intended to provide a sense that you can decide the path of the future for all races, having a defining effect on the universe for generations to come with your sacrifice. It also brings up questions about the value of synthetic life, forcing you to make that value determination given all the signs of "humanity' in the geth and EDI you've witnessed. It's also interesting to consider controlling the reapers. You must consider whether it's worth it to control these powerful machines, when they have been nothing but instruments of destruction and genocide for eons. When looking at the ending as a separate scene, it does make you think about these concepts and their consequences. It does give you a weighty sense that the fate of the galaxy is in your hands. After the personal, emotional, engaging relationships you've developed over playing the series, the attachments to characters and places, making this weighty decision based on concepts, ideas, and their possible future extrapolations feels empty. While ultimately it makes sense that your journey is indeed about saving the galaxy as a whole, what the series has really made me care about is the individual people. And receiving very little in the way of satisfying conclusions for their stories makes it feel like it was all for naught.
TL;DR - It's not that the ending is "bad." It is interesting and I do believe epic. I think maybe it just turned out that what I really care about after 150 hours of gameplay isn't being an epic (arguably tragic) hero who determines the fate of the galaxy, but about saving my friends and indulging in the fruits of that effort. Maybe it is "entitled" or diminishes artistic integrity to feel that way, but it's the truth.
EDIT: Not that I don't want to feel like a hero, but I wanna feel like an "EFF YEAH I DID IT!" hero, not a "Yay I saved us from the reap--Oh no what the hell is gonna happen to all those stranded starships!?" hero.
Modifié par Julwise, 24 mars 2012 - 10:24 .
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