Allan Schumacher wrote...
ph34r-X wrote...
I mean look at the refusal ending. Why can't we have that in the refusal ending, but if you're readiness is too low you get the current refusal ending.
I'm just asking this to facilitate discussion, so I'm not trying to pour salt on the wound or anything (my that sounds ominous...).
I see your opinion come up, and I often state my opinion and perspective. I want to try something a bit different. Many feel "why can't we have that in the refusal ending?"
Which is a fair enough point. The writers/designers could have easily allowed that to be an option (what happens in the game is literally whatever they put in).
Just to be direct though: Why should this be an option for the refusal ending. Or even more generally, why should there be an ending that contains the following:
Shepard Lives, reapers defeated by conventional means, Geth/ EDI lives, Shepard walks off into the sunset with love interest.
I'm just asking to hear your thoughts on the subject. Open question to others that feel the same way.
To answer your question: There is no reason why an ending
should include all of those things, or even those things in part. However, the issue most have with the endings stems from the sudden and jarring break from the theme that takes place in the final moments of the game. Shepard stayed resolute and defied the Reapers throughout the entire series and believed that they could be stopped. Then, at the last minute, we are told that we MUST go along with the Reapers because we have no other way. And, not only that, we must make choices that force us to sacrifice numerous things we paintakingly went out of the way to assure their survival. Allow me to break it down so you can see what everyone who is upset sees:
OPEN SCENE - Shepard is now somewhere on The Citadel thanks to a random elevator that appeared out of the floor. A glowing child who sorta resembles a kid that Shepard saw get disintegrated by The Reapers is standing before him claiming to be The Catalyst. Shepard isn't quite sure that's even possible, but whatever. Shepard's just going to roll with this one. Shepard asks the Catalyst how to stop The Reapers.
CATALYST: Want to still defy the Reapers and destroy them? Oh, well, you're going to have to kill Edi, The Geth, Glyph, and pretty much every other synthetic thing in the galaxy
SHEPARD: Wait, what? Why? I gathered all of these war assets, went out of my way to fulfill everyones requests, and then made sure that my paragon/renegade scores were high enough to broker peace between synthetics and organics. I cured the incurable disease! I did everything that everyone said I couldn't!
CATALYST: It doesn't matter. If you destroy us by shooting that glass tube then you're going to completely negate everything you just did.
SHEPARD: God, that sounds terrible.
CATALYST: Well...there are other choices.
SHEPARD: *sigh*
CATALYST: You can kinda/sorta kill yourself by going over there and grabbing ahold of some metal prongs which will allow you to control the reapers.
SHEPARD: What do you mean by "kinda/sorta kill yourself"
CATALYST: Well, those prongs will dissolve your very being and then turn you in to some kind of super catalyst that will allow you to control The Reapers.
SHEPARD: That sounds terrible and how is that even possible!?
CATALYST: I'm not going to explain it to you. Like it or leave it. Kill yourself and become one of us or kill us and destroy so many things that you love.
SHEPARD: You're an ****.
CATALYST: Well, there is one other solution...
SHEPARD: *screams in to space but no one can hear it*
CATALYST: You can kill yourself and jump in to that beam over there. That will cause every organic and synthetic thing in the galaxy to become a new kind of hybrid species. Also, We'll still be around, but because you forced everything to become hybrid synthetics, we'll stick around and help you. We'll be like...BEST BUDS! We'll be totes sorry for trying to shoot you in the face.
SHEPARD: I know this is supposed to be science fiction, but you do realize how absolutely impossiblly dumb and weak that sounds, right?
CATALYST: Of course. I'm not even going to explain to you how it's even possible. You're just going to have to take my word on it that it's the best solution out of all of these three. Except, unlike in the control option, you'll completely die in this option. Look on the brightside! Everyone else will get this wicked cool, green, glowly tech design thing that moves on their skin. It'll be sick, man.
SHEPARD: Take your word? You've attempted to murder EVERYTHING FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. Hell, you've come after me personally!
CATALYST: Yeah, I'm so terribly sorry that you completely misunderstood what we were trying to do by killing you over and over.
SHEPARD: I don't like any of these options
CATALYST: Well, that's all you get, bro.
SHEPARD: I think I'd rather just shoot you in the face with missiles until you die. You were going to just let me destroy you anyways, right? You could just stop trying to shoot us back and die. That sounds like a much better idea to me.
CATALYST: NOPE. YOU CANT CHOOSE THAT. I know I just told you that I'd let you destroy us, but I'm only going to do that if you destroy us in that way. You can't destroy us and people not die, Shepard.
SHEPARD: You literally make no sense.
CATALYST: I was written this way.
SHEPARD: Yeah, I refuse your options. You'll have to excuse me if I don't want to partner up with the GIANT, GENOCIDAL SPACE SQUIDS that have been trying to kill me and everything that I love.
CATALYST: SO BE IT!!! *takes ball and goes home* The cycle continues and now you can just look at the floor all sad. Jerk.
SHEPARD: I hate you so hard.
END SCENE
While that was obviously a comical dramatization between Shepard and The Catalyst, that is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. I'm just paraphrasing it in a comical matter, but I haven't actually changed ANY of the substance between the original scene and my comical version. The most frustrating thing about the final sequences has to be the fact that Shepard has essentially ceased to be the protagonist of the story. The Catalyst becomes the sole focus and has stolen the ability to drive the plot away from Shepard. The choices given aren't Shepard's choices, they're the Catalyst's choices. Shepard just becomes The Catalyst's index finger on which button should be pressed. It's frustrating, and, in contrast to the brilliant and fulfilling final moments to Mass Effect 2, it's almost insulting.
Now, admittedly, the EC is better than the original endings. However, better than awful can still be bad. The endings are just....well...extensions and don't really tell us anything we didn't already know from the original ending. We already knew that Shepard became a Reaper God...you just kinda showed it this time. We already knew that Synthesis would turn everyone in to some hybrid species of synthetics and organics...you just showed us more of it. We figured that Destroy would kill EDI and The Geth...you just confirmed it. Also, the Relays being destroyed? RETCON, BABY! This was the only new and interesting thing added to the EC because at least we know that people didn't starve to death.
The EC was basically just more of what people didn't like. It's satisfying in the sense that we can now see what you intended to portray the first time around. However, it doesn't alleviate any of the plot holes and it still forces the player to stop being Shepard in the final moment when we needed to be Shepard the most.
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