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[Taboo]

 I thought it would nice to have another "opinion" piece much like the one I did about babies earlier this week. I'd like to talk about your right as the audience to interpret something as you see fit and will use one of my favorite paintings as a starting point.

Under Pressure: Is Edvard screaming?

One of my favorite paintings in existance is Edvard Munch's The Scream.



Why? I could go on and on about how much I enjoy Munch's use of color but I would like to draw your attention to the one thing Munch has allowed you to do with his wonderful painting. You get to interpret WHY said person is screaming. Is is a mad man? Did his wife just leave him for someone else? Did he forget something? Those are all valid interpretations but I have one of my own. Knowing what I know about Munch's life and his state of mind I really think that what I'm looking at is a projection of Munch himself. The Scream was painted in a time of great stress for Munch and I feel that what I'm really looking at is a man who is very frustrated with life and he expressed it through art. I reserve this right to have this opinion because Munch allowed me to do so and that is one great strength is the interpretation of art.......being able to come to your own conclusions. Munch is the one screaming, not the man in the painting.

A jungle that is not full of fun and games: Should I take Gilligan's Planet at face value?

I can't.

I can't take with what I'm seeing at face value, as something that was meant to be taken literally. I chuckle when I think about it because it suggests some incredibly dumb things. At some point Joker is going to have to make a landing that is next to impossible and being stranded on a jungle planet with a small crew has some..........unpleasent implications. Incest and a bibilical analogy would be great if Bioware was trying to satirize religion in some context but I don't think that was the intention. 

I'll interpret it as something that a very wounded Shepard is hallucinating due to blood loss (intellectual faults are common in those!) and will die if he doesn't get treatment. The crucible has fired without any Star Child involvement. Everything else is irrelevant and meaningless. No, he isn't indoctrinated.

You reserve the right to believe that everything is pile of ****, a pile of wonderful, or a pile of delusion. That is your right as the audience and because Bioware has not commented that we were only supposed to speculate.............I can only gather that any interpretation is correct because the audience reserves that right. The creator has no right to take that away.

[humes spork]

Taboo-XX wrote...

You reserve the right to believe that everything is pile of ****, a pile of wonderful, or a pile of delusion. That is your right as the audience and because Bioware has not commented that we were only supposed to speculate.............I can only gather that any interpretation is correct because the audience reserves that right. The creator has no right to take that away.

That will be the interesting thing with the extended cut, because with what we've been given initially practically any level of exposition will severely curtail room for interpretation.

Granted, saying that makes me Captain Obvious, but in discussion about the ending, its room for interpretation and the deliberation put into that, how it impacts substantive discussion about the game's ending, and ultimately the implications it will have for the extended cut...well, it may be stating the obvious, but it's the elephant in the room.

Modifié par humes spork, 04 mai 2012 - 03:03 .

[sp0ck 06]

just sold for 120 mil right?

[Kunari801]

That was my expression when I finished ME3.

In my head canon the jungle planet is a dream in Shepard's head while he dies next to Anderson after activating the Crucible thus killing the Reapers, or while he's in a coma if Shep lives.  Star-brat is also a hallucination as Shepard never left Anderson's side.  

Stargazer has a similar sky though, so I think it's supposed to be "Garden of Eden" kind of thing where the survivors rebuild society. 

Modifié par Kunari801, 04 mai 2012 - 03:15 .

[JadedLibertine]

If I took Gilligan's planet at face value then I could only assume that Space Grandpa and child are their inbred genetically mutated descendants who have formed an insane cult that worships Shepard as a god, despite Shepard doing nothing to stop Starchild's genocide. Thanks to BioWare I now associate the Moon landings (an awe inspiring example of what can happen when so many work together for one goal) with that.

[nwj94]

I took Gilligan's planet to be symbolic, their not stranded there, they just have to wait around for pick up. Getting out and seeing all the plant life indicates that a new age has dawned or something like that.

Fingers crossed for that to be the case in EC.

[AtlasMickey]

Gonna get locked.

[Taboo]

AtlasMickey wrote...

Gonna get locked.

I've thrown far more matches than this. If it bothered the Bioware staff they would have done something with me by now. I rustle far too many jimmies.

I don't think the endings are a pile of poo but I DO believe that I reserve the right to make my own opinion. Much like Munch's painting it is up to the audience to do what they want via interpretive analysis.

The jungle scene is........bizarre in context. Much like a Lynchian dream. The only thing missing WAS Dean Stockwell and a Roy Orbison song.

[humes spork]

Taboo-XX wrote...

The jungle scene is........bizarre in context. Much like a Lynchian dream. The only thing missing WAS Dean Stockwell and a Roy Orbison song.

Nice. I completely forgot Stockwell was one of Lynch's staple actors.

[Taboo]

humes spork wrote...

Taboo-XX wrote...

The jungle scene is........bizarre in context. Much like a Lynchian dream. The only thing missing WAS Dean Stockwell and a Roy Orbison song.

Nice. I completely forgot Stockwell was one of Lynch's staple actors.

Here's the thing though. If you don't like the Extended Cut you can still use the original cut to speculate.

You get to choose which cut is your favorite.

Fascinating.

Much like Blade Runner.........

[Laurencio]

I'm obligated by Norwegian law to point out that Edvard Munch was Norwegian.

Modifié par Laurencio, 04 mai 2012 - 03:39 .

[Taboo]

Laurencio wrote...

I'm obligated by Norwegian law to point out that Edvard Munch was Norwegian.

Have you seen the movie about him by Peter Watkins?

[incinerator950]

[Taboo]

incinerator950 wrote...

Hmmmmm. What are you implying......

[Kulthar Drax]

This has always been one of my favourite paintings, and it recently sold for $120 million at Sotheby's in New York. Many people believe that the Scream fittingly projects the emotional angst and shattered soul of modern life. Well, modern life back then initially, but it has come to transcend the era in which it was painted to encompass modern life in every decade since, up until the present day, particularly in the world war years. A quote below that is quite relevant, especially in light of the ending of Mass Effect 3:

Simon Shaw, head of impressionism and modern art for the Sotheby's auction house in New York, says it is the malleability of the picture’s imagery that has made it ripe for appropriation by our promiscuous visual age. "Munch is very clever not to explain what the hell he means. [The picture’s] ability to bear so many meanings means it can be whatever you want it to be."

However, unlike Munch, Bioware have NOT been clever about it, and while some aspects of the supposedly artistic ending can be pretty much whatever you want it to be, much of it is also still very clear cut. For example, relays explode (supernova or not, they are still destroyed), Normandy crashes etc.

Munch did "speculation for everyone" better, and did it 117 years ago. Mass Effect will be lucky to even be more than a footnote in history in 117 years from now.

Modifié par Kulthar Drax, 04 mai 2012 - 03:47 .

[Fixers0]

And how does this relate to Mass Effect?

[The Spamming Troll]

prolly just put on the after shave and mikauly culkined just in time for the snapshot.

[Taboo]

Fixers0 wrote...

And how does this relate to Mass Effect?

Read the Original post.

[humes spork]

Taboo-XX wrote...

Here's the thing though. If you don't like the Extended Cut you can still use the original cut to speculate.

You get to choose which cut is your favorite.

True, though it does make one wonder how heavily observer-expectancy will play into the original ending once the extended cut is out. Not that observer expectancy doesn't already play an extraordinarily heavy role in interpretations on the ending (look at the ongoing flamewars about the final choice itself and which is more desirable), but on the other hand it'll be interesting if in the name of exposition BW makes positive statements about the implications and final outcomes of each choice (which they're certainly wont to do, given the number of people complaining the endings' outcomes are unclear).

The interesting thing about the differing editions of Blade Runner is that, technical fixes and improvements aside and the removal of that godawful voice over I've never heard anyone say was to the detriment of the film, the changes made later (especially by Scott, given more creative control) amounted to the readdition of content which emphasizes the presence and ambiguity of the film's $64,000 question.

[Taboo]

humes spork wrote...

Taboo-XX wrote...

Here's the thing though. If you don't like the Extended Cut you can still use the original cut to speculate.

You get to choose which cut is your favorite.

True, though it does make one wonder how heavily observer-expectancy will play into the original ending once the extended cut is out. Not that observer expectancy doesn't already play an extraordinarily heavy role in interpretations on the ending (look at the ongoing flamewars about the final choice itself and which is more desirable), but on the other hand it'll be interesting if in the name of exposition BW makes positive statements about the implications and final outcomes of each choice (which they're certainly wont to do, given the number of people complaining the endings' outcomes are unclear).

The interesting thing about the differing editions of Blade Runner is that, technical fixes and improvements aside and the removal of that godawful voice over I've never heard anyone say was to the detriment of the film, the changes made later (especially by Scott, given more creative control) amounted to the readdition of content which emphasizes the presence and ambiguity of the film's $64,000 question.

To think ONE unicorn could do that.

One little scene can change so much. If it's done correctly it can make quite a few things better.

[TheNthDoctor]

I've always thought the jungle planet was Eden Prime.

It has heavy vegetation, is the closest garden world to Earth and traveling at normal speed via mass relay took under a hour. Joker was pushing the normandy to it's limits so it makes sense that he would arrive there much soon.

Plus it gives me hope that my Shep who survived the ending will still have a chance to be reunited with his love interest in the future.

As for the Scream, all I can think when I see it is the Home Alone kid.

Modifié par TheNthDoctor, 04 mai 2012 - 03:52 .

[Catroi]

sp0ck 06 wrote...

just sold for 120 mil right?

114$ I think, but maybe it was in €...

[Taboo]

Have you heard the VO in the original voice-over.

A dead-pan Harrison Ford......

God........

[Kunari801]

Kulthar Drax wrote...

... Munch did "speculation for everyone" better, and did it 117 years ago. Mass Effect will be lucky to even be more than a footnote in history in 117 years from now.

Agreed for much of our current culture, it's hard for us to say what will "stick".  Though I think ME1 broke new ground, it'll likely be known to game historians of the next century.  
  I'd like to believe that if ME3 had ended on a heroic high note (aka: hero's journey story) then it would have a better chance of being rememberd. 

[nitefyre410]

Taboo-XX wrote...

incinerator950 wrote...

Hmmmmm. What are you implying......

 

I think  he is making a rather  subtle jab at the painting... through the expressions  on the faces.