Grimwick wrote...
Medievalist wrote...
Honestly, I wouldn't spend my time on explanations regarding the technical details/usefulness/purpose of the Crucible, sorry OP. Everything you or any of us might come up with, is merely academical, because ME3's plot simply doesn't deliver enough details.
In fact, the first thing that came to my mind when I played ME3 and they started talking about some giant ancient super-weapon was: "MacGuffin"
I won't deliver the explanation here, just look it up and you'll find this term quite fitting.
I wouldn't define the crucible as a Macguffin at all.
DEM? Yes. MacGuffin? No.
Well, the definition is more or less the following:
"Mac·Guf·fin (noun): an object,
event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep
the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance"
I think it is exactly that, while the Catalyst/Starchild is a literally a personification of a "Deus ex machina".
The Crucible is not involved at all in any of Shepard's missions. It is always present in the background, because Shepard and we as the player know that the Crucible's construction is the only chance of destroying the Reapers. We don't know how it works or if it works at all, but we are aware of its importance.
So Shepard sets off on a mission to rally the free peoples of the galaxy,
just to ensure that the Crucible will be completed and used.
From time to time we get some info about the progress of the Crucible's construction and how it serves as a unifiying experience (eg. Rachni engineers working with humans, Turians etc.) but that's it.
Of course, the counterargument could be: "Shepard would try to unite the different races anyway, also in the absence of something like the Crucible."
Sure thing, but you'd come along several problems as a writer, because Shepard would have difficulties with conveying a feeling of "the greater good" to the other races. As you can encounter as a player, it is a challenge to get them to find common ground even WITH the Crucible.
It is a very important item WITHIN the story (ie. to Shepard and everyone in the ME universe) although it is not important from OUR POINT OF VIEW, because we don't have much to do with the Crucible until the very end.
The Crucible, as an ancient, mysterious super-weapon is the unifying momentum in ME3 and the only source of real hope to the sapient races of the galaxy for ever destroying the Reapers, while of no real value to the player.
And that's all we know about it, nothing more. So it's a MacGuffin. QED
PS. I know these arguments are not waterproof... I guess, nothing is, in the theoretical realms of Bioware's dark plot holes and space magic...
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:devil:
