Literature Professors take on the endings...

Saw this posted by drayfish in a thread started by Made Nightwing and felt it was worth a repost. Be warned it's a wall of text, but is SOO good!

I've never posted on this forum before, so I hope I don't embarrass
myself or this discussion entirely – and I apologise for the wall of
text that is to follow, but I'm an academic, and tedious tracts of
self-important linguistic gymnastics is what we do.

My name is
Dr. Dray, and I should start by saying: oh, dear, I've been cited for my
nerd indignation. I'm surprised Made Nightwing didn't mention that my
little fists were shaking with rage. But they were. They did. With
feeble, pointless nerd rage.

I must point out though, that as
flattered as I am to be referenced, were I still marking Made
Nightwing's work I would have to circle this passage and remind him that
these words are not in fact directly attributable to me: his phrasing
is a paraphrase of our
conversation rather than a quotation. ...However, he has an attentive
mind, and I must admit that he has captured the majority of my issues
with the ending, my penchant for hyperbole, and the general dislocation
of the thematic threads that I felt violated the larger narrative arc of
the trilogy. And I'm sad to say I did use the words 'thematically
revolting' – although I've watched both the Matrix sequels and Godfather 3, so I've probably said that phrase quite a lot.

If
you'll permit me then, I did just want to write quickly in my own words
to clarify some of my issues with these endings, and why I thought that
they erode the themes heretofore at the core of their series. Of
course, all of these arguments have no doubt been stated numerous times
by voices far more worthy than mine over the past few weeks, but as
someone intrigued by the production and reception of literature in all
its forms this has been a fascinating – if disheartening – time to be an
enormous fan of this fiction. I'd also like to particularly commend
Strange Aeons for the fantastic post. And that analogy: 'It’s like
ending Pinocchio with Geppetto stuffing him into a wood chipper'. What an exquisite image!

So,
putting aside all of the hanging plot threads that rankled me (where
was the Normandy going? why did my squad mates live? Anderson is where
now? wait, the catalyst was Haley Joel Osment? etc), I would like to
explain why, when I was offered those three repellent choices, I turned
and tried to unload my now infinite pistol into the whispy-space-ghost's
face. It was not because I was
unhappy that my Shepard would not get to drink Garrus under the table
one last time, or get to help Tali build a back-porch on her new
homestead, nor that I was pretty sure no one was going to remember to
feed my space fish – it was because those three ideological options were
so structurally indefensible that they broke the suspension of
disbelief that Bioware had (up until that point) so spectacularly
crafted for over a hundred hours of narrative. Suddenly Shepard was not
simply being asked to sacrifice a race or a friend or him/herself for
the greater good (all of which was no doubt expected by any player
paying attention to the tone of the series), Shepard was being compelled,
without even the chance to offer a counterpoint, to perform one of
three actions that to my reading each fundamentally undermined the
narrative foundations upon which the series seemed to rest.

In
the Control ending, Shepard is invited to pursue the previously
impossible path of attempting to dominate the reapers and bend them to
his will. Momentarily putting aside the vulgarity of dominating a
species to achieve one's own ends (and I will get to complaining about
that premise soon enough), this has proved to be the failed modus
operandi of every antagonist in this fiction up until this point –
including the Illusive Man and Saren – all of whom have been chewed up
and destroyed by their blind ambition, incapable of controlling forces
beyond their comprehension. Nothing in the vague prognostication of the
exposition-ghost offers any tangible justification for why Shepard's
plunge into Reaper-control should play out any differently. In fact, as
many people have already pointed out, Shepard has literally not five minutes before this moment watched the Illusive Man die as a consequence of this arrogant misconception.

The Destroy ending, however, seems even more perverse. One of the constants of the Mass Effect
universe (and indeed much quality science fiction) has been an
exploration of the notion that life is not simplistically bound to
biology, that existence expands beyond the narrow parameters of blood
and bone. That is why synthetic characters like Legion and EDI are so
compelling in this context, why their quests to understand
self-awareness – not simply to ape human behaviours – is so dramatic and
compelling. Indeed, we even get glimpses of the Reapers having more
sprawling and unknowable motivations that we puny mortals can
comprehend...

To then end the tale by forcing the player to
obliterate several now-proven-legitimate forms of life in order to
'save' the traditional definition of fleshy existence is not only
genocidal, it actually devolves Shephard's ideological growth,
undermining his ascent toward a more enlightened conception of
existence, something that the fiction has been steadily advancing no
matter how Renegadishably you wanted to play. This is particularly
evident when the preceding actions of all three games entirely disprove
the premise that synthetic will
inevitably destroy organic: the Geth were the persecuted victims, trying
their best to save the Quarians from themselves; EDI, given autonomy,
immediately sought to aid her crew, even taking physical form in order
to experience life from their perspective and finally learning that she
too feared the implications of death.

And finally Synthesis, the
ending that I suspect (unless we are to believe the Indoctrination
Theory) is the 'good' option, proves to be the most distasteful of
all. Shepard, up until this point has been an instrument though which
change is achieved in this universe, and dependent upon your individual
Renegade or Paragon choices, this may have resulted in siding with one
species or another, letting this person live or that person die, even
condemning races to extinction through your actions. But these decisions
were always the result of a mediation of disparate opinions, and a
consequence of the natural escalation of these disputes – Shepard was
merely the fork in the path that decided which way the lava would
run. His/her actions had an impact, but was responding to events in the
universe that were already in motion before he/she arrived.

To
belabour the point: Shepard is an agent for arbitration, the tipping
point of dialogues that have, at times, root causes that reach back
across generations. Up until this moment in the game the narrative, and
Shepard's role within it, has been about the negotiation of diversity,
testing the validity of opposing viewpoints and selecting a path through
which to evolve on to another layer of questioning. Suddenly with the
Synthesis ending, Shepard's capacity to make decisions elevates from
offering a moral tipping point to arbitrarily wiping such disparity from
the world. Shepard imposes his/her will upon every species, every form
of life within the galaxy, making them all a dreary homogenous
oneness. At such a point, wiping negotiation and multiplicity from the
universe, Shepard moves from being an influential voice amongst a
biodiversity of thought to sacrificing him/herself in an omnipotent
imposition of will.

(And lest we forget that the entire character
arc of Javik (the 'bonus' paid-DLC character that gives unique context
to the entire cycle of destruction upon which this fiction is based) is
utilised to reveal that a lack of diversity, the failure to continue
adapting to new circumstances, was the primary reason that his race was
decimated. ...So I guess we have that to look forward to.)

And
this was the analogy I made to Made Nightwing in our discussion (and
which I have bored people with elsewhere): this bewildering finale felt
as if you had been listening to a soaring orchestral movement that ended
in a cacophonous blast, the musicians tossing down their instruments
and walking away. I find it hard to conceive how the creators of such a
magnificent franchise could have made such a mess of their own
universe. The plot holes, thematic inconsistencies and a deus ex machina
that was unforgivable in ancient Greek theatre, let alone in any modern
narrative, all combine to erode the foundations upon which the rest of
the experience resides. (It's a disturbing sign when apologists for such
an ending have to literally hope that what they witnessed was just a
bad dream in the central character's head.)

I'm sure in
my diatribe with Made Nightwing I would have cited Charles Dickens being
alert to, and adapting his writing in response to the floods of letters
he received from his fans in the serialised delivery of stories such as
The Old Curiosity Shop. And I know I mentioned F.Scott Fitzgerald extensively redrafting Tender is the Night
for a second publishing after receiving negative critical feedback.
Indeed, whatever you think of the final result, Ridley Scott was able
to reassert a definitive vision of Blade Runner in spite of its original
theatrical release. Despite what critics might burble about artistic
vision there is innumerable precedent for such reshaping, even beyond
fundamental industry practices such as play-testings and film
test-screenings. If a work of art has failed in its communicative
purpose (and unless angering and bewildering its most invested fans was
the goal, then Mass Effect 3 has done so), then it cannot be considered a success, and is not worthy of regard.

And
for those who would respond that I, and fans like myself, are simply
upset because the endings do not offer some irrefutable 'clarity' that
would mar the poetic mysteries of the ending, I would point out that I
am in no way against obscure or bewildering endings: if they are earned. In contrast to a majority of viewers, I happen to love the ending of The Sopranos
for precisely this reason – because, despite the momentary jolt of
surprise it engendered, that audacious blank screen was wholly
thematically supportable. The driving premise of that program was a man
seeking therapy (a mobster, yes, but a psychologically damaged man) –
indeed, the very first beat in that narrative was Tony Soprano walking
into a psychiatrist's office. The principle thematic tie of the entire
series was therefore revealed to be a mediation upon the underlying
psychological stimuli that produces identity: whether the capacity to interpret and understand one's impulses can impact upon the experience of one's life; whether one can attain agency over one's life.

That
ending might have been agonising, but it was entirely fitting that the
series ended with a loaded ambiguity, inviting a myriad of
interpretations in which we the audience
were now placed into the role of the psychiatrist, suddenly compelled
to reason out the ending of those final thirty seconds with the
cumulative experience of the preceding six years of imagery. Did Tony
die? Did he have a second plate of onion rings and enjoy his family's
company? Did Meadow ever park that car? In its final act The Sopranos gives
over the interpretive, descriptive function of its narrative to its
audience, intimately binding the viewer to Tony Soprano's own (perhaps
failed) attempts to comprehend himself and attain authorship over his
life. ...But the only reason that they could even try
this is because every minute of every episode to this point has been
propagated upon the notion that Tony Soprano was a man with a
subconscious that could be explored, and that motivated his actions
whether as a loving father or brutal criminal.

The obscurities in the ending of Mass Effect 3
have not been similarly earned by its prior narrative. This narrative
has not until this point been about dominance, extermination, and the
imposition of uniformity – indeed, Shepard has spent over a hundred
hours of narrative fighting against precisely these three themes. And if
one of these three (and only these
three) options must be selected in order to sustain life in the
universe, then that life has been so devalued by that act as to make the
sacrifice meaningless.

And that is why I shall continue to go on shooting Haley-Joel-Osment-ghost in the face.

...Sorry again for the length of this post.

#1
Dr. Megaverse

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 01:58

#2
David7204

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:01

#3
krayt298

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:01

#4
Dr. Megaverse

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:02

#5
ImmovableMover

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:02

#6
Dr. Megaverse

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:04

#7
Palladin123

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:13

#8
crimzontearz

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:15

#9
Bill Casey

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:15

#10
chemiclord

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:17

#11
bclagge

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:26

#12
matthewmi

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:30

#13
Geneaux486

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:30

#14
wantedman dan

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:31

#15
Geneaux486

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:33

#16
Balmung31

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:38

#17
Balmung31

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:40

#18
Made Nightwing

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:41

#19
CulturalGeekGirl

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:42

#20
Johcande XX

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:45

#21
Balmung31

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 03:48

#22
devSin

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 03:54

#23
eddieoctane

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 04:35

#24
zovoes

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 04:47

#25
Nobrandminda

Posté 18 avril 2012 - 05:04

Literature Professors take on the endings...

#1 Dr. Megaverse Posté 18 avril 2012 - 01:58

#2 David7204 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:01

#3 krayt298 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:01

#4 Dr. Megaverse Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:02

#5 ImmovableMover Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:02

#6 Dr. Megaverse Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:04

#7 Palladin123 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:13

#8 crimzontearz Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:15

#9 Bill Casey Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:15

#10 chemiclord Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:17

#11 bclagge Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:26

#12 matthewmi Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:30

#13 Geneaux486 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:30

#14 wantedman dan Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:31

#15 Geneaux486 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:33

#16 Balmung31 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:38

#17 Balmung31 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:40

#18 Made Nightwing Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:41

#19 CulturalGeekGirl Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:42

#20 Johcande XX Posté 18 avril 2012 - 02:45

#21 Balmung31 Posté 18 avril 2012 - 03:48

#22 devSin Posté 18 avril 2012 - 03:54

#23 eddieoctane Posté 18 avril 2012 - 04:35

#24 zovoes Posté 18 avril 2012 - 04:47

#25 Nobrandminda Posté 18 avril 2012 - 05:04

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