Here's my "letter". It's rather lengthy, but then I'm a Miranda fan of the first hour....
Miranda – demoted to extra, diluted to safe.An article attn: ME3 team, by Ieldra2
I am writing this to express my dissatisfaction with the way Miranda has been written in ME3. I think her character has been diluted, she has been divested of most things that made her interesting and mutilated as a character in the process. I will proceed to explain why.
Miranda in ME2In ME2, Miranda is a woman with many facets. She is an idealist, believing in some form of human advancement, which we can imply to be a little different from the Illusive Man’s vision because she is not a xenophobe but explicitly appreciates non-human culture. She is fiercely protective of her sister. She has problems with her origins but uses her genetic enhancements – all of them can only be said to be desirable – to do impressive things, including bringing Shepard back to life, thus making sure the Reaper war can be won at all. She is awesome in battle and emotionally vulnerable. She is a mission-oriented pragmatist and a competent operative. She is, in other words, complex and controversial, and for that reason utterly fascinating.
Miranda's character in ME3Now comes ME3, and most of that has vanished without a trace. Instead, she becomes a character defined by the most appalling and insulting clichés, reduced to a conventional shell with mostly conventional virtues (yes, the pejorative use of the term is fully intended). Of her complex motivations – the will to justify her genetic gifts by doing impressive things with them, her protectiveness of her sister, doing something for her ideal of human advancement (of course, in ME3, that would include contributing to the war effort) – only one remains: the love for her sister, and love for Shepard if romanced. As I said, conventional. Love and family issues are “safe” issues, no one could take issue with that, right? Well, I do. Because conventional means boring, and using family issues as motivation is so overdone that it makes me groan every single time. Her love for her sister was a good defining trait in ME2 because it offset her devotion to Cerberus, made her more likeable and added depth to her. But reducing Miranda to that trait means mutilating her as a character, divesting her of everything that made her interesting.
Even more annoying is the hint – started with ME2’s “Lair of the Shadow Broker” – that she secretly wants nothing more than to be normal, and that her genetic enhancements have resulted in infertility. I find the conventional, no, the reactionary value system underlying these hints so annoying that it almost made me disown her. She’s engineered to have a longer lifespan, higher learning capacity, better mind-body coordination and improved immune system – and that’s BAD? WHAT! THE! HELL? And what she says in the death scene in ME3 points into the same direction. What I expected to happen is too see her facing her father, who tries to claim ownership of her by saying “You would be nothing without the gifts I gave you”, and Miranda asserting her independence with “Maybe, but they are mine to control, not yours.” Instead, the story insinuates that she’s better off not passing them to any offspring, and the issue is never brought up again, even at the final encounter with her father. That is an inexcusable omission.
Gone, too, is the mission-oriented pragmatist. Instead, in her “confession” (which is itself a term she’d never use) she’s turned conventional again. Yes, it is appropriate that she regrets the control chip, but why does she have to express it in so conventionally moralistic terms? She’s never shown any inclination towards such a value system before. Why couldn’t she just have said “I never had a second thought about depriving you of your choices”? Who the hell is this impostor? Not Miranda as I know her from ME2, that’s for sure. This is not character development, this is character mutilation.
The most annoying change, however, is the destruction of the idealist, the woman who believed in a cause greater than herself, no matter how misguided it may have been. Of course she’s not with Cerberus any more in ME3, no decent person would be. But it was a large part of her life, and as evidenced by ME2, she is a true believer in some kind of human advancement that doesn’t include xenophobia. What I expected to happen in ME3 is that she fights Cerberus for having betrayed her ideals, for having betrayed humanity – Shepard, if you choose the lower options, accuses the Illusive Man of this in the final confrontation, so it would have been appropriate. Also I expected her to explain why she left in case you kept the Collector base in ME2. Instead, that issue, too, is never brought up again, and instead of being motivated by the big picture in any way, she’s only motivated by family issues. Even Kelly (!) has more to say about her past association with Cerberus. It’s one sentence. “This is not the organization I joined”. Something like this out of Miranda’s mouth would have made a world of difference. Instead, her idealism is just gone. She’s reduced to the conventional, diluted to the safe. Mutilated.
I think it is safe to say that nobody who doesn’t know Miranda from ME2 will ever understand the fascination she evoked in her fans. And that’s a very sad thing.
Miranda's story in ME3Now I’ll come to her story arc in ME3. Admittedly, it could have been awesome. In places, it is implied to be awesome. She successfully evades hordes of assassins, she infiltrates a Cerberus base alone, she survives a fight against Kai Leng and tricks him, which gives Shepard critical information. But the presentation destroys what could have been awesome. Her contribution to the plot is accidental because her motivation for going to Sanctuary was to save her sister, and the epic fight against Kai Leng is never shown. Instead, we see her defeated, only able to enact her final victory against her father after Shepard comes in (so unlike Thane and Grunt, for instance). The awesomeness is an informed aspect, told but never shown, what we actually see is pathetic. Was it too much to ask to SEE her fighting Kai Leng? Was it too much to ask to make her contribution to the plot not be an adjunct of the damned family issues? Was it too much to ask to let her confront her father and TALK to him, damn it?
Even more annoying is the impression that Miranda’s survival feels like an afterthought. The meticulous attention given to the death scene combined with the fact that her story arc ends where she would die has given most fans the impression that someone on the writing team wanted her to die, possibly to create a “redemption equals death” scenario. I guess we can count ourselves lucky that she’s popular enough to be spared a forced death, but I get the impression it was a near thing.
Lastly, in terms of doing Miranda justice, I expected her to be present at the Illusive Man’s base. That would have given her Cerberus aspect closure. She could’ve confronted her past and put it behind her, there could’ve been an opportunity to reflect on her ideals and to make a decision about the future. Instead she was denied that closure.
SummaryMiranda’s story arc in ME3 could have been awesome. Everything was in place to make it so. But the writing and the presentation ruined it. It gives nothing more than a hint of what could have been and mutilates her as a character in the process. I am not happy about that. I count myself lucky that I know her from ME2 and that I can assume that ME2 Miranda is still alive somewhere under the conventional shell the writers have turned her into, that she’s still a character who subverts clichés instead of embodying them, still a character who believes in something larger than family. I do not know how all that came to pass. I do not know if there’s any chance of that mutilated image being corrected, for instance in a DLC, or if I have to write my own fan fiction to save her the same way I must do to wrest any satisfaction from the ending of the game. ME3 handled many things exceptionally well. Unfortunately, my favorite character wasn’t one of them. She was the female lead of ME2, with a potential to contribute to the ME3 plot unlike any other character including Liara, in the light of Cerberus' role in in ME3. All that potential has been wasted.
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Appendix 1: Outline of Miranda’s story arc in ME3 as I’d have envisioned it.(1) When we meet Miranda after Palaven, she tells us she's found out Cerberus uses conditioning methods similar to Reaper indoctrination on their own people. After what we've seen on Mars, that shouldn't come as a surprise. If Miranda stayed with Cerberus at the end of ME2, she explains that's why she now left (here a sentence about how what Cerberus has done seems like a betrayal would be perfectly appropriate). Maybe she also says she's been increasingly uncomfortable with the path TIM has taken since the CB. Anyway, she says she'll try to uncover what's happenening around TIM and tells you she'll pass along any relevant information. No mention of Oriana yet.
(2) When we meet Miranda after the Citadel coup, she tells you she's followed the trails and found out her father is working for the Illusive Man on some project related to Reaper indoctrination. She's worried about Oriana but so far nothing has happened. You tell her the usual stuff about Kai Leng etc.
(3) When we meet Miranda on the Citadel later, she's distraught. So far all she did was pass on information, and that has been dangerous enough, but now Oriana has vanished and she knows her father has something to do with it. She has to do something now. She feels partly responsible for whatever things Cerberus has now done and of course there's also Oriana and her father. It's her task to end this. She asks you for Alliance resources as usual, but no control chip conversation and no romance scene takes place here.
(4) Sanctuary goes as usual, only in the last room before the tower, we're running into a scene where Miranda fights Kai Leng. She holds her own against him but you can see she won't last much longer. When Shepard enters, Kai Leng flees after giving Miranda a final hit. If you didn't warn her about him, she's mortally wounded there, otherwise she's only lightly wounded. Together you enter the tower for the confrontation with Henry, which goes as usual only there's an added exchange between Miranda and him, where he goes "You'd be nothing without the gifts I gave you." and she asserts her independence with something like "Maybe, but they're mine, not yours to control." before killing him.
(5) After that, Miranda and Oriana come aboard the Normandy. Miranda wants to help you with TIM's base, Hackett is suspicious but we explain that she just gave us the location of TIM's base and that she raided some Cerberus bases herself while searching for Sanctuary. Liara has data to support this. There is some opportunity for squad banter here. We get the opporunity to invite Miranda to the Captain's cabin for a talk. There's some talk about the future and a romance scene.
(6) At TIM's base, Miranda says she's still got access codes for the base and she'll try to get some doors open for you. She goes in first, alone, to do that. We fight our way through the base as usual on the way to the control chamber, keeping contact with Miranda who has taken a different path as a distraction for the Cerberus troops. We meet at the entrance to the central chamber. There the scene in Appendix 2 (see below). After the scene with the Prothean VI and final fight with Kai Leng, we leave the base, and Miranda leaves to bring Oriana to a save place but says she'll contact you soon.
(7) Final talk on Earth goes as usual.
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Appendix 2: A scene with Miranda on the Illusive Man’s base, written in November 2011Shepard and Miranda are exploring the Illusive Man's base. All defenders have been killed. In a large room at the center - or top - of the station, covered by a large transparent dome through which the sky can be seen, they find the Illusive Man's old chair, surrounded by the u-shaped holodesk controlling Cerberus' computer network. They proceed to hack it to get at the data within. Miranda has picked up a datapad, apparently lost in thought.
Shepard: What have you found?
Miranda: The old Cerberus manifesto.
Miranda (in a choking voice): Damn it.
Shepard: What is it?
Miranda: I told you I joined Cerberus to protect my sister. This....is why I stayed with them.
Shepard: I've never read it.
Miranda: I was...captured by a dream. To illuminate the dark places, to search out the knowledge out there to benefit humanity. That's what I could get behind, a proper use for my genetic enhancements.
Miranda: And if we had to compete with other species - well, I've always liked a challenge.
Miranda (thoughtful): Was it ever *his* dream? Or was I duped right from the start?
Shepard: I don't know. Perhaps we'll never know. But I do know that you don't need to justify your enhancements.
Miranda (smiles): I know, now. And you had a part in making me believe it.
Miranda (more thoughtfully): But am I naive that I still want this? That I want to continue what he betrayed?
Shepard: Don't you think there's some knowledge better left alone?
Miranda: No. Not even in the face of....all this. What have you been fighting for after all? Wasn't it the knowledge we need to survive?
Shepard: And for you.
Miranda (exasperated smile): Don't be absurd. You'd have done fine without me.
Shepard: Duty and obligation are dry masters. I don't know if I could've done all this without knowing you were out there, somewhere. Didn't even matter if I was never to see you again. Just knowing was enough.
Miranda: You're a hopeless romantic, Commander.
Shepard (grins): Someone has to be, Ms. Lawson.
*they kiss*
*some time later*
Shepard: So...what would you do with all this?
Miranda: You know what's infuriating? That everything we....they...ever achieved could've been done without all this horror.
Miranda (looks around): I'll copy everything we find here. I don't know what I'll do with it, but I won't let it go to waste.
Modifié par Ieldra2, 04 avril 2012 - 08:26 .
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No discrimination here! 
