Ce sujet est ferméAlright, someone asked for it again, brace yourselves ****es! It's gonna get loud!Krimzie wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Lokanaiya wrote...
What paper?
To bring those who weren't awake last night up to speed, I wrote a philosophy term paper exploring the themes and philosophical narrative of the Mass Effect Series, why? Because I could that's why. Though I must admit, I was torn between this and discussing Baldur's Gate.
We've never met (Hi, I'm Krimzie! Nice to meet you!), but I just read your instructor's response and I would really, really like to read your term paper! Or snippets of it. It sounds fascinating. I'm currently writing a term paper about audience participation, interactivity, and avatarism in Hamlet -- and I use a Mass Effect lens at one point -- so I'm really interested in more ME-flavored scholarly work!
Was the Ending a Hallucination? - Indoctrination Theory Mark III!
Débuté par
byne
, juil. 30 2012 07:09
#67676
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:54
Arian Dynas
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#67677
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:54
Arian Dynas
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Danke.spotlessvoid wrote...
Other than the background thumping noise, I enjoyed your profs response. Congrats on the A
#67678
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:55
Arian Dynas
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I’ll start by disagreeing with a very educated and experienced man; Roger Ebert feels that videogames cannot be art. I respectfully disagree. I should first explain; something that has always been very near and dear to my heart is narrative. Fictional ones, or more accurately, ones that are fictional to us; I love stories; Terry Prachett says that man loves stories to such an extent that we are not ****** sapiens, “the wise man” but that we are Pans narrans; “the storytelling ape”, an paradigm I think holds true, even now. When we still dragged clubs and curled about fires to keep warm in the evening, we shared narratives, stories, and in many ways, the best stories were the ones we could identify with, ones we could put ourselves into; so you’ll understand me when I say that the best mediums to connect with their audience are ones that are interactive.
As an actor I enjoy my work; as a writer, I enjoy my creation, as a reader, I live vicariously through the characters, but there are certain mediums which combine my loves; role playing games, the place where actor and writer meet, under the gaze of a storyteller who guides the direction. They come in all sorts of shapes and guises, the infamous Dungeons & Dragons, known far and wide as an example of the occult; an unjust reputation forced upon it by fools with little to no understanding, to one that solitude has forced me to embrace; (not that I’m complaining mind you) videogames.
I know it’s a charged word; lots of people hear it and think “Oh, like Grand Theft Auto? That game that teaches kids to be violent?”, either that or they hear the word and think of something they can relate to; going “Oh, like Pac-man?” and yet, they are a medium for storytelling as rich and as deep as any other, and, I would argue, perhaps more so. They give a direct line to the reader; they involve them, and pull them in in a very real way.
Which is why, even now, one of the most intense experiences arising from a form of media came from the Mass Effect series.
The premise is fairly simple; the year is 2183, mankind has come onto the scene of a larger galactic community, one based around the connection system of the Mass Relays, a method of speedy travel between two points, you are Lieutenant Commander John (or Jane, if you prefer) Shepard, potentially either the sole survivor of a massive attack that lead to the slaughter of 50 men, a war hero who broke the enemy lines at Elysium, or a ruthless commander who sacrificed his own men in the name of victory at Torfan. You are selected to join the ranks of an elite covert force, the hidden left hand of the Council; an interspecies parliament, of which humanity, ever ambitious, is attempting to gain membership; currently only three races are full council members. Humanity is not one of them. You are to be the political instrument by which humanity will prove its worth, and your mentor, Captain David Anderson, noble man, war hero, and close friend, shall groom you for the position.
You are sent to Eden Prime; mankind’s first, and thus far most successful colony, to recover an artifact of a long extinct species, known as the Protheans; it was their technology, recovered from an archive on Mars that heralded man’s meteoric rise to the technologic height it stands at now. You arrive to find the colony in flames, a gunnery chief, one Ashley Williams fleeing from an attack by cybernetic beings known as the Geth, a traitorous member of the very organization you hope to join, fleeing in a ship impossibly massive in size, capable of harming the minds of all in its presence, and this “Beacon” you were sent to retrieve, along with its antediluvian information;
An incomprehensible and foreboding message, foretelling of things to come; organic beings being slaughtered by machines, a coming apocalypse, impossibly massive ships, and things best not spoken or thought of, horrors from beyond where the stars lie.
And you, now the only man, with the exception of this traitor, this Saren Arterius, are to discover its meaning.
Gifted a ship, the name upon the side of her hull; Normandy. Assigned a crew, drawn from all the known corners of the Milky Way; Humans, both noble and ambitious, Quarians, the finest engineers and technical experts the universe has seen, original creators of the Geth, now turned nomads by the aggression of their creation, the doomed Krogan, a warlike and aggressive species, its fate sealed by a manufactured disease called the Genophage meant to limit their fecundity, Turians, masters of military discipline, Asari, the famed monogender diplomats, scientists and artists, and more.
The first game, simply titled “Mass Effect” remains primarily straightforward; evil man desires to conquer the galaxy with his army of machines – kill him. And yet, much like an onion, one layer is peeled off to reveal another; despite being absolutely a despicable being himself, Saren is not the real enemy; merely a pawn in a larger game, manipulated by a horrific and far older species into their dirty work for them; a race of sentient machines, claiming to be “Each a nation, independent, free of all weakness.” known as the Reapers.
But how could a strong-minded and, indeed, some would say fanatic, person like Saren, who by reputation never plays second fiddle to anyone, do ****-work for a race of machines?
By way of their most insidious weapon.
I won’t call it mind control, simply because that is a gross oversimplification; the term used is “Indoctrination” and it lives up to its name. Indoctrination is described as an insidious process by which the Reapers slowly worm their way into the consciousness of their enemies, and twist their darker natures.
Indoctrinated individuals don’t do the things they are told because the voices in their heads make them.
They do what they are told because the voices in their heads make them want to.
Indoctrination is not a mere technology, nor is it an ideology; perhaps it is some perverse marriage of the two. No matter what it is however, it is established that no one can resist forever, and that those who break, are lost.
In many respects, this is the most interesting philosophical aspect of it; is a person forcibly changed still the same person? Or have they died, leaving a sickening doppelganger behind, manipulated as though a puppet on strings for others to use? Is the mind transient? Moreover, can a mere idea change a person’s nature?
What is indoctrination, truly? Is it brute force, attempting to align the individual’s mind to their values, by force if necessary? Or is it merely a technologic catalyst for a perverse kind of brain-washing, which, as we all know, nothing creates a fanatic like a convert.
The series itself remains a debate on these points; the Reapers, themselves technology, argue “Yes” while Shepard informs them they are “machines, and machines can be broken.”
What the commander fails to understand at this point, men can be broken as well.
Shepard and his squad of 6, a former police officer, the renegade Turian Garrus Vakarian, the timid Asari doctor, Liara T’soni, archaeologist, wandering Quarian engineer Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, undergoing her coming-of-age pilgrimage, rough and tough Krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex, and the two human soldiers, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, granddaughter of a perceived traitor to put Benedict Arnold to shame, and the cool, composed, and always under control Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, preform several great works; destroying an ancient life-form plaguing a colony, thereby gaining access to the Cipher, a sort of collective unconscious of the Prothean species, either ending, or seeing to the new beginning of a previously extinct species known as the Rachni, destroyed by overzealous war, and finally, a personal duel with Saren.
In his equal mixture of madness and pride, Saren attempts to sway Shepard to his side claiming that by siding with Sovereign, his ship, revealed to be a living and intelligent Reaper itself, he was “forming an alliance between [us] and the Reapers, an alliance between organics and machines, and in so doing, [he] will save more lives than have ever existed.” proving, quite effectively, that even a villain believes what he does is the right thing.
Saren, now having been grafted and implanted with technological parts and pieces, claimed he had become a synthesis between organics and machines, a being with the strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither, the first in a long line of semi-technologic abominations, nearly universally established as perversions of nature. Shepard, regardless of the player’s chosen outlook, decries him as insane, having given up when he could have fought. Shepard and crew are forced to leave, one of their number, either Gunnery Chief Williams, or Lt. Alenko electing to stay behind and ensure that a planted nuclear bomb go off, destroying Saren’s base of operations on the planet of Vermire.
In the end, Shepard wins, finding a Prothean artifact that takes him directly to Saren’s goal. Having spoken with Vigil, a Prothean Virtual Intelligence, Shepard learned that the very center of galactic government, the seat of the council, the Citadel, a massive deep-space station, was not of Prothean design, as had originally be ascribed, but far older, the method of egress for the Reapers, their quickest gate into the Milky Way. The last Prothean scientists had given their lives, starving to deal on the sealed Citadel in a bid to stop the Reapers from using their largest Mass Relay, now forcing Sovereign, their vanguard, to open it manually through his agent, despite all their vast power it seems even superior beings needs servants to meet their whims, a fact that later, would very well be the Milky Way’s last hope.
Saren and Shepard meet in their final duel at the top of the Citadel Tower, the meeting chamber of the Council, and, depending upon the player’s choices, one of two things may happen; either Shepard is forced to defeat Saren in a personal duel, Saren, still clinging to the idea that what he is doing is right, or, through his loquacious tongue, Shepard can convince Saren to fight. A fight he is destined to lose, committing suicide thereafter as his only method of escape from the influences of the enemy clawing at his mind.
This is a fact hammered into the player again and again; the control of another ends in death once you give in; perhaps a metaphorical death in and of itself- once the mind has been surrendered, the inhabitant is truly dead, with his suicidal shot being nothing more than the last act of a ghost.
The first game ends shortly thereafter, Shepard triumphantly climbing from the wreck, Sovereign dead, and Humanity gaining full membership as a Council species. Shepard may choose to endorse his noble mentor, Captain David Anderson, or he can choose to support Ambassador Donnel Udina. In either event, he is then sent out on patrol, still hunting Geth, as the realities of what motivated the attack are swiftly swept under the rug.
For reasons unknown, perhaps fear, perhaps something more sinister, perhaps mere mundane corruption, the Council refuses to acknowledge a greater threat, claiming Saren was the real enemy, and that he merely fooled the Geth into seeing his ship as a god.
In either event, Shepard and the Normandy, now a famous team of victorious heroes, find themselves on patrol, and then, swiftly under attack by an unknown enemy. Within minutes the Normandy is destroyed, its crew forced to flee, and Shepard is dead; killed first by hypoxia from a leaking suit, physical trauma from explosion, and finally, the intense heat of re-entry, and the force of striking the ground at terminal velocity.
And two years later, he wakes up.
A human supremacist organization called Cerberus had spent the last two years, and billions upon billions of dollars bringing Shepard back from the dead with the finest medical technology money can’t buy. All at the whim of its leader, the Illusive Man.
And here, is where several of the themes of the first game are slowly unraveled and turned about; the idea that “Machines are Evil.” is slowly manipulated, beginning with the discovery that, as one former human soldier, one Mr. Jacob Taylor, puts it Shepard is “Still[ [him], just now with a few extra pieces inside.”
Shepard has begun to mirror his old foe in a number of disturbing ways; he, like Saren, is not entirely organic anymore, nearly half of his body made up of synthetic materials, responsible for keeping him both alive, and in one piece, and yet, simultaneously improving his physical capabilities.
Even Shepard is left to ponder the question; is he still himself anymore? To ask the Illusive Man, he would say yes, in fact, most who see him merely accept Shepard as himself, though, as the commander expresses later, even he has his own doubts, wondering aloud if he is merely some hyper-intelligent AI designed to think he’s Commander Shepard.
Shepard is informed of his new mission. Working for Cerberus, whether he likes it or not, Shepard, as well as the Normandy herself, now guided with an intelligence of its own, one named EDI, are resurrected at The Illusive Man’s whim; he wants them to put a stop to a series of abductions, entire colonies snatched up and taken far away.
Being a more character driven affair than the first game, Shepard is to gather a team of experts to deal with the situation, experts like Dr. Mordin Solus, famed geneticist, philanthropist, and former special operative, most noted for his work on redesigning the Genophage to keep up with Krogan physiology, something he viewed as a necessary evil, ensuring that the Krogan would not turn to their violent natures and swarm over the known galaxy again, as they had attempted previously. And yet, Mordin is getting on in years, deciding that one day he will retire to a beach, maybe “study seashells” to keep himself from getting bored.
Interestingly, each character seems to be associated with a theme; Mordin’s is regret and guilt.
Urdnot Grunt, a genetically engineered Krogan, meant to be perfect in the most Krogan of ways. That is to say, violent, aggressive, honorable, and strong. His theme focuses around belonging, and his search for clan, home, and a purpose in life, seeking a way to connect with the knowledge downloaded into his mind from birth; a way to grant meaning and weight to what otherwise is nothing more than mere pictures and words in his mind. Shepard helps him find this meaning, giving him a clan and home.
Garrus Vakarian, now reborn as the vigilante Archangel, doing his best to cause havoc on Omega, the largest collection of scum and villainy the Milky Way knows of, a lost soul, seeking the meaning of justice, as well as the purpose of bureaucracy, whether or not the ends justify the means. Shepard can push him in either direction, encouraging him to hold himself to the highest standards, or, directing him toward a more “Dirty Harry” worldview.
Tali Zorah Vas Neema, now having completed her pilgrimage, become a full member of Quarian society, and a major player in their politics as they gear up for a war with the Geth, meant to recover their long lost homeworld. In the end, Shepard can help her explore her hatred and fear of the Geth, possibly helping to establish that, whether made of wires and software or not, the Geth remain as valid a form of life as any other
“Jack” a dark woman with a violent personality, and a past riddled with sex, violence, betrayal and torture, kidnapped long ago from her very bassinet, and tortured, meant to become a deadly weapon. And yet, despite all this, she remains a very human person, with very human weaknesses, needs and insecurities; these can either be healed, allowing her to move on with her life, finally leaving all the pain and hatred behind, or, Shepard can choose to justify the means with the ends, and hone her anger and rage into an even sharper weapon than before.
Kasumi Goto, an unknown thief, which is to say, the very best, interested in recovering a memento of a lost love. Upon recovering said memento, it’s revealed that her lover desires nothing more than for it to be destroyed, forcing her to choose between honoring his wishes to protect her, or keeping it, clinging desperately to the past and holding onto the only thing of her beloved she has left.
Zaeed Massani, hard-bitten and gruff mercenary, on the hunt both for revenge and for coin. Despite being a walking love-letter to Joss Whedon’s Firefly, Zaeed too has his depths, leaving one to wonder if the price of his revenge is too high, or if Zaeed could forgive himself for paying it.
The Asari Justicar Samara, bound by a code more rigid than any seen before, and left hunting the brightest and strongest willed of her daughters, now willingly turned to a murdering hedonist.
Thane Krios, skilled assassin, one of a few members of a dying species, himself terminally bound, wanting nothing more than to leave his life with a stronger relationship to his son, and to leave the Milky Way a better place for everyone in it.
And the enigmatic Miranda Lawson, a woman genetically engineered to be “perfect”. Mistreated and abused by her father, driving her to leave home, stealing her younger sister away in the night and joining Cerberus, accepting their protection.
In short order, Shepard and company learn the truth of these abductions, a race of beings known as the Collectors, horribly repurposed from the long extinct Protheans, are kidnapping human beings for motivations unknown, while Shepard is constantly hounded by a twisted presence with yellow eyes, bent on killing him, known only as Harbinger.
The Collectors themselves provide an interesting concept however; much like all Reaper flunkies and footsoldiers, they are a perverse meshing of technology and organic matter, deprived of their culture, their minds, everything that makes life, well, life. In the words of Dr. Mordin Solus; “No stomach, replaced by tech, no nervous system, replaced by tech, no soul- replaced by tech.”
While fulfilling more necessary aspects to prepare for his suicide mission, Shepard comes across a Geth platform who attempted to help them, bringing him to, potentially, activate it, learning that, much like everyone else, the Geth did only what they thought was right. As it turns out, the Geth, split by a religious movement, motivated by the appearance of the Reapers, desire nothing more than to live in co-operative harmony with the rest of the galaxy, the heretical followers of Saren desiring nothing less than the destruction of the Reaper’s enemies. This Geth, named Legion by EDI, the Normandy’s AI, joins Shepard in his fight.
Hence, bringing us to one of the major themes of the series; the Geth, entirely inhuman and synthetic are established now very firmly as being nothing more than another strange and wonderful form of life, while the Collectors, themselves half-organic, are chalked up as being nothing more than automatons, sickening perversions of life, merely aping its movements. Which raises the question; what defines life? What is the measure of that which is not human?
A singular theme that fits, Matryoshka-like inside of another, far larger theme, the bass chord that the series beats on; freedom of choice.
That which is called life in the series is free, free to make their own way, to refuse the gifts and blandishments of the Reapers, the Geth remaining an excellent example, the vast majority of the species flatly refusing to be gifted their future, preferring to find it for themselves. Simultaneously, this is what the Reapers fear most, having created the Mass Relays and the Citadel with the express purpose of not exactly limiting organic development, but rather guiding it along paths they control and can manipulate, for where a species to develop heretofore unseen technologies, they could cause harm the Reapers are not willing to allow.
In Sovereign’s own words; “Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic life. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.”
In the end, the Reapers view themselves as perfection incarnate; the end of evolution, as is revealed when the Normandy’s crew are captured in a surprise attack not long after, necessitating its crippled pilot, Flight Lieutenant Jeff “Joker” Moreau to unshackle EDI, allowing her to pilot the ship and recover the commander. Now the suicide mission has a time limit.
In short order, Shepard survives his suicide mission, reaching the Collector base, and discovering that Sovereign’s claim of being “each a nation” was far more disturbingly true than he realized; the captured humans were being rendered down into a base, genetic paste, one that was being put into the construction of a live, young Reaper, embodying the intelligences and experiences of the entire human species, with plenty more room left, room meant to be filled with the population of Earth.
The Reapers, themselves half-synthetic abominations like their creations, are a very literal personification of Hobbes’ Leviathan; one intelligence ruling a nation of people, a nation of people now deprived of their choices, their ability to live, being nothing more than an undead monstrosity, which, to Shepard, the very personification of personal choice, as well as the player, whose entire experience thus far has been built upon personal choice, is pure anathema.
The entirety of the series is a rejection of Orwellian and Hobbesian utopias, preferring to cleave to a “come what may” view of personal choice. Even early on, Shepard is established as being free; Miranda Lawson had advised a “control chip” be implanted in Shepard, ensuring that he would be less of a liability that way, but even the Illusive Man knew that Shepard would be destroyed by such a thing, demanding he be brought back exactly as he was.
After destroying this Reaper monstrosity, Shepard is left with a choice; destroy the base, or, possibly, see if it can be made use of. This choice, it seems would bear fruit later, though in ways unexpected.
Finally, the interim events come, an epilogue to the game; Shepard deals with an experiment, Project Overlord meant to merge a human mind with a Geth network, controlling Geth programs and platforms, an experiment that goes horrifically wrong. Shepard meets again with his friend, or possibly lover, dependent on the player’s choices, Dr. T’soni, whom, in the years since Shepard’s death, has become a powerful information broker, set on rooting out a far larger group and killing their leader as revenge.
And finally, a mission… unique amongst all others; The Arrival. Shepard is sent alone to recover a lost doctor, Dr. Amanda Kenson, rescuing her from a difficult political situation. Upon reaching her, she informs him that the Reapers will soon arrive in the Milky Way, then, make use of the Alpha Relay, an apparently unique Mass Relay, capable of connecting to all others in the system, unlike the normally point-to-point method.
Shepard is required to do what is considered impossible; destroy the Alpha Relay. As it turns out, Dr. Kenson is aligned with the enemy, their methods long having broken her mind. Shepard is captured, and kept in close proximity to a Reaper artifact for a period of two days, unconscious, sparking his eventual indoctrination, jumping over the final hurdle needed to infiltrate his mind.
Luckily, his no-longer-quite-human physiology enables him to escape, his “Million-Dollar-Man” like attributes giving him a much needed edge. Shepard arranges for the Alpha Relay’s destruction mere hours before the Arrival. Harbinger, the leader of the Reaper Fleet, their flagship for lack of a better term, taunts him as he leaves, claiming that they will arrive, and being both ageless and patient, they will win in the long term.
Shepard has the option to blithely tell him to go to hell.
In the end, the Alpha Relay’s destruction claims the entire solar system, killing millions of its inhabitants, leading the Batarian Hegemony, an independent group that controlled said system, to declare him a war criminal, forcing the Systems Alliance, the Human military, to place Shepard into protective custody, awaiting court martial.
And now, finally, I come to the relevant part. Do not misunderstand me, no matter how much it felt like it, even to me, I was not merely indulging in fanboyism with the above recap, more that this is information required to understand the significance of things to come.
The events of Mass Effect 3, the series capstone begins with a skewed perception of reality; what the player perceives at first, as a ship, is in fact a toy, held in the hand of a young boy, playing on a roof top as Shepard watches from his window far above. His new personal bodyguard, Lieutenant James Vega, comes in to collect the Commander for his court-martial.
En-route, Shepard’s mentor and father-figure, Admiral David Anderson is there to greet him, pointing out that the human parliament would rather continuing to disbelieve the coming enemy. Shepard is there, it seems, not for his court-martial, but to advise the board of admirals on what should be their next step, being the only soldier with any significant amount of experience in this regard.
Moments later, all but two people standing in that room are dead.
The Reaper assault has begun; they’ve cut through Earth’s defenses like a knife through butter, and have begun their slaughter. Shepard and Anderson are forced to move, attempting to get Shepard off planet, in a bid to warn the Council and gather allies for the counterattack. Perceptive players may notice a few… irregularities along the way; the rooftop where the seemingly insignificant child had been playing with his toy not moments before is gone; as though it never existed. Later, one can see the same child climbing a wall, far more skillfully than even an Olympic level mountain-climber, then, entering a locked door, just as a building is leveled.
Shepard finds the boy alive and seemingly unhurt in a ventilation shaft that had been empty moments ago. He extends his hand, offering to help the boy, whose only response is “You can’t help me.” As Anderson snaps Shepard back to reality, the Commander looks into the vent again, only to find the boy gone, without a sound, or a trace.
With considerable effort, Shepard makes his way to an evacuation point and meets up with his Ship, Anderson electing to stay behind to organize the resistance. As they leave Earth, Shepard watches a further evacuation, including the enigmatic boy, who somehow managed to keep pace, in a warzone that two of the species’ finest special operatives have ever produced. The ship carrying him is destroyed a mere moment later, Shepard hearing a scream, far higher than any human throat should be able to make.
Soon after, at the request of Admiral Steven Hackett, commander of the entire human armed forces, in lack of anyone else, Shepard stops off at Mars, meeting Dr. T’soni again, who, had for the first time in many years it seems, been applying her vocation as an archaeologist, in this case, consulting at the Prothean archive on Mars.
Her efforts had not been in vain; a plan for a massive super-weapon, genuinely appearing at the 11th hour, had materialized during their research. Cerberus however, is there as well, and no longer are they Shepard’s allies. Forced to fight his way past the army of quislings waiting for him, Shepard reaches the archive, though not before discovering that the Cerberus footsoldiers had been forced to undergo a process apparently similar to indoctrination, supposedly one that bound them to the Illusive Man’s will.
Upon reaching the archive however, Shepard and company discover a Cerberus operative, apparently a Dr. Eva Coré already attempting to make off with the needed plans. A brief conversation with The Illusive Man ensues, his penchant for telepresence shining through again as he insists to Shepard that his goals have not changed, merely that Shepard, whether he maintained the Collector Base or not, is no longer an ally as far as the Illusive Man is concerned.
Shepard manages to stop the fleeing Doctor, who it is revealed, is an artificial intelligence inhabiting a metallic platform, but not before the survivor of Vermire is seriously injured in the process. Shepard again faces the prospect of loss, as they meet with the council, who give him a collective response of “every man for himself.” Their united front of Apathy notwithstanding, one of their number, the Turian representative, approaches Shepard, offering their support if he could get the support of their Primarch.
In so doing, Shepard sees yet more of the carnage the Reapers are wreaking as they harvest their sentient crop, Palaven, with the largest military in the galaxy, burns as the Reapers assault it. Shepard arrives just in time to help with the selection of a new Primarch, as well as to meet his old friend, Garrus, now a high ranking official in the Turian military. The new Primarch pleads Shepard to bring him the one military force in the Milky Way he can think of to stand before the Reapers;
The Krogan army.
Yet, in so doing, Shepard will open a lot of old wounds; the Turians and Krogan are bitter enemies, from the Krogan’s old rebellion that nearly put the galaxy to the torch, and the Krogan trust the Salarians, engineers of the Genophage that has all but destroyed Krogan culture, even less.
Shepard returns to the Normandy however, to find an even stranger event; a mishap, dealt with by EDI, the AI, has resulted in EDI gaining control of the inert mechanical body of Dr. Coré. She offers her services as a tactical squadmate, and begins to ask Shepard philosophical questions, about the nature of the mind, love, and more. Dependent upon the player’s answers, EDI could very well end up finally pursuing a relationship with the Pilot, FtLt. “Joker” Moreau.
In the end, Shepard manages to weld the three disparate species together, even the Salarians, despite the machinations of one of their leaders, still as bigoted as ever, a bigotry that simply cannot survive in such trying times as those when faced with extinction. Depending on how previous events turned out, Shepard’s old friend Urdnot Wrex may even be the one leading the Krogan to a brighter future, aided along by Mordin Solus, now setting out to put right that which he made wrong.
Even at the cost of his life.
Briefly following the curing of the Genophage, Cerberus chooses to make their move, assaulting the Citadel in an attempted coup, led by Kai Leng, their finest assassin; a coup which could claim the life of Thane Krios, now, undeniably terminal, who sacrifices himself to rescue an endangered councilor.
Following Shepard’s success with the three races, he is called upon again and again, rescuing vital war assets, saving friends from dangerous situations, and, bringing peace to centuries long conflicts.
Such as the one raised by the Quarians and Geth. Each side now left in a deadlock that would result in the extinction of one or another, Shepard comes in to help, at the side of his old friend Tali Zorah, now an admiral in her own right. Dependent upon Shepard’s previous choices, and his interactions with the Geth, Legion, and the Quarians themselves, Shepard could, potentially get the two warring races to declare peace, seeking a future together as one symbiotic relationship, rather than two, separate, floundering species. Legion sacrifices himself to achieve this dream for his people. The defeat of a Reaper on the Quarian homeworld Rannoch reveals to Shepard that Harbinger speaks of him, claiming he resists, and will eventually fail.
Finally, it comes down to the endgame, the forces are gathering, Shepard has gathered his allies; Dr. T’soni, now the most powerful information broker in the galaxy, using her influence for the war-effort, Garrus Vakarian, the finest sniper the Milky Way has yet seen. James Vega, stolid and ever dependable, EDI, now slowly beginning to understand the nature of organics, and what feeling she bears for Joker, Tali’Zorah Vas Normandy, admiral of the Quarian fleets, Operations Chief Ashley Williams, having thrown off the weight of her family reputation, and even Javik, the violent, superior and arrogant Prothean, last survivor of an extinct species, the final scream of a vengeful ghost.
They’re directed to the Asari homeworld, where they are informed they will find the information needed for final victory, the final pieces to find the Catalyst, the necessary missing part of their super-weapon, named the Crucible.
Cerberus and their machinations interfere however; Kai Leng, is there, and challenges Shepard to a personal duel. Shepard experiences his first failure, losing to Leng, and decides to bring the fight directly to Cerberus.
In the end, their attack on the traitors culminates in an all-out assault on Chronos Station, the lair of the Illusive Man himself, where Shepard puts an end to his twisted mirror image, Kai Leng, and learns that, indeed, the Citadel itself is the Catalyst, and Shepard must ensure that the Crucible links with it, if there is any hope to be had.
The allied forces, in an armada never before met in size or scope, gather around Earth for what will be the final battle for survival; failure means extinction, victory, and the Milky Way is forever freed of the grip of their murderous progenitors.
After a hard battle, Commander Shepard, alongside the Alliance Forces, led by his friends, including Admiral David Anderson, charge their goal, a beam leading to the Citadel, their object of final victory.
And there to greet him, in the metallic flesh himself, Harbinger; Shepard’s now most bitter foe. There’s all out dash to the beam, men being struck down left and right by Harbinger himself, blasting them with molten metals accelerated to light speed, when Shepard himself is struck.
Shepard collapses as Harbinger’s beam begins tearing up the ground, and everything goes white. Shepard finds himself in a place where things… don’t quite make sense. Everything is blurry, the beam is there still, but now only a few of the enemy are guarding it; Striketeam Hammer is wiped out, Shepard the only survivor; he crawls toward the beam, and finds himself in a grim parody of the Citadel, things are not as they should be, places resemble other places, colors fade out when observed too closely, sounds resemble other sounds, and a weapon that Shepard did not have moments before is suddenly in his hand.
Shepard crawls toward the control for the Arms; somehow, inexplicably, Admiral Anderson is there waiting for him; as is the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man attempts one last gambit, trying to sway Shepard, though his argument is worth little, when half of his face has clearly been taken over by the Reapers; by all appearances he is slowly succumbing to Indoctrination; and for some reason, his arguments fail to make sense, everything seems wrong, and Shepard, normally strong, straight-forward, and a man of action, is indecisive.
Shepard, Anderson and the Illusive Man argue, Anderson is shot, and Shepard either convinces the Illusive Man to commit suicide in a manner reminiscent of Saren, or merely shoots him himself. For some reason however, if Shepard has the opportunity to speak with Anderson before continuing on, things change for the better, for reasons unexplained.
As Shepard collapses trying to reach the controls, he finds himself uplifted, being carried to a room never-before seen, and, according to its occupant, never even entered by organic beings before;
Standing before him is a ghostly image of the child from the very beginning, the child who has, thus far, quite literally haunted Shepard’s dreams, the child who disappeared without a trace, the child who now introduces himself as the “Catalyst” claiming to be the collective intelligence of the Reapers, despite their claim of being “Each a Nation, independent, free of all weakness.”
This Catalyst offers Shepard three choices; Control the Reapers, as the Illusive Man desired, sacrificing himself and destroying his body in the process, becoming their new guiding intellect; disintegrate himself and spark a nebulous and ill-defined concept that the Catalyst refers to as “Synthesis” where organic beings and Synthetics will be force to combine with each other on a genetic scale, supposedly creating a Utopia, and removing the need for the Reapers to reap, which he claims was motivated by nothing more than altruism. Or there is the third option, Shepard’s goal throughout the series thus far; Destroy the Reapers, but, supposedly, at the cost of not only Shepard himself, but also EDI, the Geth, and all of the very technology that modern galactic civilization has established itself on thus far; the Mass Relays.
And yet… even with such obvious and clear cut choices, not all is so clear, the Catalyst’s arguments seem circular, and he refuses to divulge more information; In the end, Shepard must make his choice; I chose Destroy. No matter what Shepard chooses, the scene is the same however, the Normandy, for reasons equally unexplained, shooting out of the Solar system along a Mass Relay corridor is struck by the expanding shockwave, leading the ship to crash on an unknown jungle planet; where the crew climbs out, seemingly happy and isolated far away, staring up into the sun.
At first, all seems to be a clear biblical narrative, Shepard, the “Shepherd” of the Milky Way having sacrificed his life for the futures of everyone, absolving all of their sins with his life.
But if that were the case, why would the Christ figure die twice?
Shepard has already given his life, gone into death and returned, perhaps not unscathed, nor untouched mentally, but resurrected and ready to continue his hero’s journey.
And a curious thing happened; there is a system in the game for measuring preparedness for the final battle; mine was over 4000, but somehow, my conversation with Anderson had contributed more than a 1000, a larger rating than entire fleets, all for a pep-talk. And after selecting Destroy, firing at a tube reminiscent of the ones connected to the Human Form Reaper in the Collector Base, a scene came on, the camera panning through destroyed concrete, like that found on Earth, in London, where Shepard has begun his insane charge, a distinctive suit of armor appears, bearing Shepard’s dog tags and his symbol, the N7; it takes a single deep breath, as though waking up from a dream, and then; cut to credits.
Perhaps not so clear cut after all.
When the events of the ending of Mass Effect 3 were revealed to the Mass Effect fanbase, fans were outraged; many felt as though their choices had been rendered meaningless, their involvement with the series balled up and thrown away; the same clear cut biblical narrative had been dressed up and thrown at them in a predictable way that, honestly, felt as though an entirely different team of writers had written it.
To this day, this game remains one of a very small handful of media that has ever inspired me to tears; I wept at the sacrifice of Dr. Mordin Solus, giving his life so that an entire species might live, his last words; “would have liked to study those seashells.” Urdnot Grunt, charging forward to a warrior’s death, his body brought down only by the weight of numbers, then, crawling from the wreckage, not long after, tired, hungry, and splattered with the blood of his enemies.
And even the sad, lingering passing of Thane Krios, died a hero, his terminal life given to protect another, his last prayers said in a choking gasp in the presence of myself and his son; Miranda Lawson, finally able to settle the score with her twisted patriarch, her father who desired a dynasty above a daughter, with Miranda taking a bullet meant for her younger sister, while I looked on, helpless as she died.
And throughout the entire thing; one could feel the weight of the entire Milky Way on their shoulders; Quadrillions of lives, all calling out to be saved by one man, as billions upon billions were slaughtered daily by the Reapers. Shepard was not the only man beginning to crack under the pressure of watching the galaxy he loved put to the torch.
So you’ll understand me when I say; people were pissed. And interestingly, I think they were supposed to be.
While the series explores equally interesting ideas like “What is the nature of man?”, “What are the wages of bigotry?”, “Is diversity the key to our futures?”, “What is sentience? What is life?” and many more, offering its own several answers, here is the most interesting, a question posed by Lieutenant Commander Williams; “How can you fight something that can worm its way inside of your head?”
Indeed, how can you? For, despite popular opinion, I view the game, and it’s ending, as brilliant; because I see there as being more than meets the eye, despite what the outcry has been, I chalk the entire thing up to one enemy, the same enemy it has been the entire time; Indoctrination.
Throughout the game, Shepard experiences recurring dreams, chasing the child through a dying forest as hordes of oily shadows look on and whisper warnings; “Don’t trust him.” “Shepard.” “How can you fight something that can worm its way inside your head?” and far more disturbing comments.
There are times both the player, and Shepard are left wondering “what is real?” their perceptions of reality skewed and shifted in different ways, Shepard acting out of character, loss of self-control, and always that same recurring dream; a dream which shows, no mind can resist forever, not even one with superlative willpower.
You see it most interestingly right there at the end; following Harbinger’s attack, everything is wrong; the HUD is gone, the distance, once clear and stark, is now blurred and shifted; places that should not be make themselves apparent, and characters act as they never would.
And the three choices offered; notably they align with three individuals; Saren, Shepard’s first adversary, twisted and warped from his original goal, tricked into believing a concept that is flawed in its very nature, The Illusive Man, naively attempting to control that which already controls him, and Shepard himself, his mind dedicated to his mission at the exclusion of all else.
This is a personification of Indoctrination itself, the aligning of one’s morals and worldview to that of another; the Reapers twisting and perverting what Shepard is, personal freedoms personified, by offering him a Sophie’s choice; for Shepard’s will has proven too strong to be broken by mere brute force; even the Reapers have to offer Shepard a choice, or his mind would reject their offers immediately, as would the player.
Even with the choice concerning the Collector Base, one sees the same themes; Shepards who chose to preserve the base will always have Control as an option, no matter how low their score is, while, conversely, Shepards who chose to destroy it will always have Destroy as an option, reflecting Shepard’s view on the Reapers; Anathema versus a utilitarian belief that the ends can justify the means; the same moralistic view held by The Illusive Man and Saren both, a worldview that, when the Reapers are involved, will doom the one cleaving to it.
Either way, the result is the same; a condemning of enforced Control, a lambasting of naïve notions of a perfect world, preferring to align with the far more achievable, and equally as diverse and beautiful real world.
Themes hang in clusters like grapes within this story however; inextricably bound, much like a grapevine is another theme; what is life? Throughout the entire series, from Mass Effect 2 and beyond, they establish first the classical idea of “All Artificial Intellects are evil.” And then, slowly work against the idea, showing the cracks in the thinking, both with the Geth, and with EDI, while similarly showing that all examples of Synthesis, the Reapers themselves, Project Overlord, the horrific footsoldiers of the Reapers, Husks, shock troops made from the repurposed bodies of human beings and other various species, technological zombies, motivated and controlled by microcircuits formed from the minerals in their own bodies, the result of Tuskeegian experiments that Mengele would call over the line.
Throughout the series they establish very firmly, three things; Machines are not evil, they are merely another form of life, one that can, and does, attempt to understand their organic neighbors, that attempting to merge the two in a bid that is, ultimately pointless, and one that leads only to heartache and destruction; and finally that the Reapers themselves are, in a word, evil; they have nothing but contempt for other races, an sadistic streak a mile wide, and their motivations are clearly not slaves, wealth, mineral resources, or anything else that inspires wars; not even hate.
They are merely motivated by extinction and reproduction; war is the bloody midwife to their abominable children, new Reapers, formed from the dead bodies and shattered minds of extinct species that rose far enough along a technologic scale to meet their requirements.
And yet, somehow, players still are willing to take this “Star Child” who names himself the Catalyst, at his word.
And to those who do, the ending in particular is insulting, destroying the series message of “Freedom of choice”, “Man and machine can live in peace, remain unique, and without destroying each other.” even spitting further in the face of the message in defense of diversity, combining all the species of the Galaxy into one Frankenstenian homogeny, along with the message of “Enough effort, luck, and sheer arsedness can accomplish the impossible.” Rendering the sacrifice of Dr. Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, and so many others entirely superfluous, since the bad guys were right all along, and Shepard should never have even fought.
All the more reason to see it as what it is; an opulent lie.
The Reapers do not believe in the freedom and the diversity Shepard fights to protect, preferring to render it all down into a soup of homogeny, one easily controlled and quantified.
The true enemy here is not the Reapers, but their outlook, their worldview; their “Selfish Meme” as a friend of mine coined. Theirs is a literally toxic outlook, one that infects controls and destroys, the belief that order must be imposed upon chaos at the cost of all else. In the end; the true theme of the series shines through; never give in to your enemy, never surrender your freedom to choose, for once you surrender control, you surrender yourself; Indoctrination is the personification of this, and why throughout the series, stubbornness and sticking to one’s guns are glorified as the proper response to the blandishments of one’s mortal foe.
And in my case, to this day, it is a philosophic question I remain pondering months later, likely as the writer intended from the beginning.
So I will merely join others, fans of the series, in saying; Wake up Shepard.
LINKS
– Choose Wisely, the work of a friend, exploring the themes of ME3 through music.
– Avacayos video on the subject, which inspired me to the theory to begin with.
http://social.biowar...4977/3#13585729 – The Selfish Meme Theory, as explored by another friend of mine.
http://social.biowar.../index/12095388 - My own work on a previous related theory, just for fun.
http://social.biowar...7/2674#15280049 – The third incarnation of the theory thread, where I and hundreds of thousands of others hammered out the ideas herein, and the concepts related to them
As an actor I enjoy my work; as a writer, I enjoy my creation, as a reader, I live vicariously through the characters, but there are certain mediums which combine my loves; role playing games, the place where actor and writer meet, under the gaze of a storyteller who guides the direction. They come in all sorts of shapes and guises, the infamous Dungeons & Dragons, known far and wide as an example of the occult; an unjust reputation forced upon it by fools with little to no understanding, to one that solitude has forced me to embrace; (not that I’m complaining mind you) videogames.
I know it’s a charged word; lots of people hear it and think “Oh, like Grand Theft Auto? That game that teaches kids to be violent?”, either that or they hear the word and think of something they can relate to; going “Oh, like Pac-man?” and yet, they are a medium for storytelling as rich and as deep as any other, and, I would argue, perhaps more so. They give a direct line to the reader; they involve them, and pull them in in a very real way.
Which is why, even now, one of the most intense experiences arising from a form of media came from the Mass Effect series.
The premise is fairly simple; the year is 2183, mankind has come onto the scene of a larger galactic community, one based around the connection system of the Mass Relays, a method of speedy travel between two points, you are Lieutenant Commander John (or Jane, if you prefer) Shepard, potentially either the sole survivor of a massive attack that lead to the slaughter of 50 men, a war hero who broke the enemy lines at Elysium, or a ruthless commander who sacrificed his own men in the name of victory at Torfan. You are selected to join the ranks of an elite covert force, the hidden left hand of the Council; an interspecies parliament, of which humanity, ever ambitious, is attempting to gain membership; currently only three races are full council members. Humanity is not one of them. You are to be the political instrument by which humanity will prove its worth, and your mentor, Captain David Anderson, noble man, war hero, and close friend, shall groom you for the position.
You are sent to Eden Prime; mankind’s first, and thus far most successful colony, to recover an artifact of a long extinct species, known as the Protheans; it was their technology, recovered from an archive on Mars that heralded man’s meteoric rise to the technologic height it stands at now. You arrive to find the colony in flames, a gunnery chief, one Ashley Williams fleeing from an attack by cybernetic beings known as the Geth, a traitorous member of the very organization you hope to join, fleeing in a ship impossibly massive in size, capable of harming the minds of all in its presence, and this “Beacon” you were sent to retrieve, along with its antediluvian information;
An incomprehensible and foreboding message, foretelling of things to come; organic beings being slaughtered by machines, a coming apocalypse, impossibly massive ships, and things best not spoken or thought of, horrors from beyond where the stars lie.
And you, now the only man, with the exception of this traitor, this Saren Arterius, are to discover its meaning.
Gifted a ship, the name upon the side of her hull; Normandy. Assigned a crew, drawn from all the known corners of the Milky Way; Humans, both noble and ambitious, Quarians, the finest engineers and technical experts the universe has seen, original creators of the Geth, now turned nomads by the aggression of their creation, the doomed Krogan, a warlike and aggressive species, its fate sealed by a manufactured disease called the Genophage meant to limit their fecundity, Turians, masters of military discipline, Asari, the famed monogender diplomats, scientists and artists, and more.
The first game, simply titled “Mass Effect” remains primarily straightforward; evil man desires to conquer the galaxy with his army of machines – kill him. And yet, much like an onion, one layer is peeled off to reveal another; despite being absolutely a despicable being himself, Saren is not the real enemy; merely a pawn in a larger game, manipulated by a horrific and far older species into their dirty work for them; a race of sentient machines, claiming to be “Each a nation, independent, free of all weakness.” known as the Reapers.
But how could a strong-minded and, indeed, some would say fanatic, person like Saren, who by reputation never plays second fiddle to anyone, do ****-work for a race of machines?
By way of their most insidious weapon.
I won’t call it mind control, simply because that is a gross oversimplification; the term used is “Indoctrination” and it lives up to its name. Indoctrination is described as an insidious process by which the Reapers slowly worm their way into the consciousness of their enemies, and twist their darker natures.
Indoctrinated individuals don’t do the things they are told because the voices in their heads make them.
They do what they are told because the voices in their heads make them want to.
Indoctrination is not a mere technology, nor is it an ideology; perhaps it is some perverse marriage of the two. No matter what it is however, it is established that no one can resist forever, and that those who break, are lost.
In many respects, this is the most interesting philosophical aspect of it; is a person forcibly changed still the same person? Or have they died, leaving a sickening doppelganger behind, manipulated as though a puppet on strings for others to use? Is the mind transient? Moreover, can a mere idea change a person’s nature?
What is indoctrination, truly? Is it brute force, attempting to align the individual’s mind to their values, by force if necessary? Or is it merely a technologic catalyst for a perverse kind of brain-washing, which, as we all know, nothing creates a fanatic like a convert.
The series itself remains a debate on these points; the Reapers, themselves technology, argue “Yes” while Shepard informs them they are “machines, and machines can be broken.”
What the commander fails to understand at this point, men can be broken as well.
Shepard and his squad of 6, a former police officer, the renegade Turian Garrus Vakarian, the timid Asari doctor, Liara T’soni, archaeologist, wandering Quarian engineer Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, undergoing her coming-of-age pilgrimage, rough and tough Krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex, and the two human soldiers, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, granddaughter of a perceived traitor to put Benedict Arnold to shame, and the cool, composed, and always under control Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, preform several great works; destroying an ancient life-form plaguing a colony, thereby gaining access to the Cipher, a sort of collective unconscious of the Prothean species, either ending, or seeing to the new beginning of a previously extinct species known as the Rachni, destroyed by overzealous war, and finally, a personal duel with Saren.
In his equal mixture of madness and pride, Saren attempts to sway Shepard to his side claiming that by siding with Sovereign, his ship, revealed to be a living and intelligent Reaper itself, he was “forming an alliance between [us] and the Reapers, an alliance between organics and machines, and in so doing, [he] will save more lives than have ever existed.” proving, quite effectively, that even a villain believes what he does is the right thing.
Saren, now having been grafted and implanted with technological parts and pieces, claimed he had become a synthesis between organics and machines, a being with the strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither, the first in a long line of semi-technologic abominations, nearly universally established as perversions of nature. Shepard, regardless of the player’s chosen outlook, decries him as insane, having given up when he could have fought. Shepard and crew are forced to leave, one of their number, either Gunnery Chief Williams, or Lt. Alenko electing to stay behind and ensure that a planted nuclear bomb go off, destroying Saren’s base of operations on the planet of Vermire.
In the end, Shepard wins, finding a Prothean artifact that takes him directly to Saren’s goal. Having spoken with Vigil, a Prothean Virtual Intelligence, Shepard learned that the very center of galactic government, the seat of the council, the Citadel, a massive deep-space station, was not of Prothean design, as had originally be ascribed, but far older, the method of egress for the Reapers, their quickest gate into the Milky Way. The last Prothean scientists had given their lives, starving to deal on the sealed Citadel in a bid to stop the Reapers from using their largest Mass Relay, now forcing Sovereign, their vanguard, to open it manually through his agent, despite all their vast power it seems even superior beings needs servants to meet their whims, a fact that later, would very well be the Milky Way’s last hope.
Saren and Shepard meet in their final duel at the top of the Citadel Tower, the meeting chamber of the Council, and, depending upon the player’s choices, one of two things may happen; either Shepard is forced to defeat Saren in a personal duel, Saren, still clinging to the idea that what he is doing is right, or, through his loquacious tongue, Shepard can convince Saren to fight. A fight he is destined to lose, committing suicide thereafter as his only method of escape from the influences of the enemy clawing at his mind.
This is a fact hammered into the player again and again; the control of another ends in death once you give in; perhaps a metaphorical death in and of itself- once the mind has been surrendered, the inhabitant is truly dead, with his suicidal shot being nothing more than the last act of a ghost.
The first game ends shortly thereafter, Shepard triumphantly climbing from the wreck, Sovereign dead, and Humanity gaining full membership as a Council species. Shepard may choose to endorse his noble mentor, Captain David Anderson, or he can choose to support Ambassador Donnel Udina. In either event, he is then sent out on patrol, still hunting Geth, as the realities of what motivated the attack are swiftly swept under the rug.
For reasons unknown, perhaps fear, perhaps something more sinister, perhaps mere mundane corruption, the Council refuses to acknowledge a greater threat, claiming Saren was the real enemy, and that he merely fooled the Geth into seeing his ship as a god.
In either event, Shepard and the Normandy, now a famous team of victorious heroes, find themselves on patrol, and then, swiftly under attack by an unknown enemy. Within minutes the Normandy is destroyed, its crew forced to flee, and Shepard is dead; killed first by hypoxia from a leaking suit, physical trauma from explosion, and finally, the intense heat of re-entry, and the force of striking the ground at terminal velocity.
And two years later, he wakes up.
A human supremacist organization called Cerberus had spent the last two years, and billions upon billions of dollars bringing Shepard back from the dead with the finest medical technology money can’t buy. All at the whim of its leader, the Illusive Man.
And here, is where several of the themes of the first game are slowly unraveled and turned about; the idea that “Machines are Evil.” is slowly manipulated, beginning with the discovery that, as one former human soldier, one Mr. Jacob Taylor, puts it Shepard is “Still[ [him], just now with a few extra pieces inside.”
Shepard has begun to mirror his old foe in a number of disturbing ways; he, like Saren, is not entirely organic anymore, nearly half of his body made up of synthetic materials, responsible for keeping him both alive, and in one piece, and yet, simultaneously improving his physical capabilities.
Even Shepard is left to ponder the question; is he still himself anymore? To ask the Illusive Man, he would say yes, in fact, most who see him merely accept Shepard as himself, though, as the commander expresses later, even he has his own doubts, wondering aloud if he is merely some hyper-intelligent AI designed to think he’s Commander Shepard.
Shepard is informed of his new mission. Working for Cerberus, whether he likes it or not, Shepard, as well as the Normandy herself, now guided with an intelligence of its own, one named EDI, are resurrected at The Illusive Man’s whim; he wants them to put a stop to a series of abductions, entire colonies snatched up and taken far away.
Being a more character driven affair than the first game, Shepard is to gather a team of experts to deal with the situation, experts like Dr. Mordin Solus, famed geneticist, philanthropist, and former special operative, most noted for his work on redesigning the Genophage to keep up with Krogan physiology, something he viewed as a necessary evil, ensuring that the Krogan would not turn to their violent natures and swarm over the known galaxy again, as they had attempted previously. And yet, Mordin is getting on in years, deciding that one day he will retire to a beach, maybe “study seashells” to keep himself from getting bored.
Interestingly, each character seems to be associated with a theme; Mordin’s is regret and guilt.
Urdnot Grunt, a genetically engineered Krogan, meant to be perfect in the most Krogan of ways. That is to say, violent, aggressive, honorable, and strong. His theme focuses around belonging, and his search for clan, home, and a purpose in life, seeking a way to connect with the knowledge downloaded into his mind from birth; a way to grant meaning and weight to what otherwise is nothing more than mere pictures and words in his mind. Shepard helps him find this meaning, giving him a clan and home.
Garrus Vakarian, now reborn as the vigilante Archangel, doing his best to cause havoc on Omega, the largest collection of scum and villainy the Milky Way knows of, a lost soul, seeking the meaning of justice, as well as the purpose of bureaucracy, whether or not the ends justify the means. Shepard can push him in either direction, encouraging him to hold himself to the highest standards, or, directing him toward a more “Dirty Harry” worldview.
Tali Zorah Vas Neema, now having completed her pilgrimage, become a full member of Quarian society, and a major player in their politics as they gear up for a war with the Geth, meant to recover their long lost homeworld. In the end, Shepard can help her explore her hatred and fear of the Geth, possibly helping to establish that, whether made of wires and software or not, the Geth remain as valid a form of life as any other
“Jack” a dark woman with a violent personality, and a past riddled with sex, violence, betrayal and torture, kidnapped long ago from her very bassinet, and tortured, meant to become a deadly weapon. And yet, despite all this, she remains a very human person, with very human weaknesses, needs and insecurities; these can either be healed, allowing her to move on with her life, finally leaving all the pain and hatred behind, or, Shepard can choose to justify the means with the ends, and hone her anger and rage into an even sharper weapon than before.
Kasumi Goto, an unknown thief, which is to say, the very best, interested in recovering a memento of a lost love. Upon recovering said memento, it’s revealed that her lover desires nothing more than for it to be destroyed, forcing her to choose between honoring his wishes to protect her, or keeping it, clinging desperately to the past and holding onto the only thing of her beloved she has left.
Zaeed Massani, hard-bitten and gruff mercenary, on the hunt both for revenge and for coin. Despite being a walking love-letter to Joss Whedon’s Firefly, Zaeed too has his depths, leaving one to wonder if the price of his revenge is too high, or if Zaeed could forgive himself for paying it.
The Asari Justicar Samara, bound by a code more rigid than any seen before, and left hunting the brightest and strongest willed of her daughters, now willingly turned to a murdering hedonist.
Thane Krios, skilled assassin, one of a few members of a dying species, himself terminally bound, wanting nothing more than to leave his life with a stronger relationship to his son, and to leave the Milky Way a better place for everyone in it.
And the enigmatic Miranda Lawson, a woman genetically engineered to be “perfect”. Mistreated and abused by her father, driving her to leave home, stealing her younger sister away in the night and joining Cerberus, accepting their protection.
In short order, Shepard and company learn the truth of these abductions, a race of beings known as the Collectors, horribly repurposed from the long extinct Protheans, are kidnapping human beings for motivations unknown, while Shepard is constantly hounded by a twisted presence with yellow eyes, bent on killing him, known only as Harbinger.
The Collectors themselves provide an interesting concept however; much like all Reaper flunkies and footsoldiers, they are a perverse meshing of technology and organic matter, deprived of their culture, their minds, everything that makes life, well, life. In the words of Dr. Mordin Solus; “No stomach, replaced by tech, no nervous system, replaced by tech, no soul- replaced by tech.”
While fulfilling more necessary aspects to prepare for his suicide mission, Shepard comes across a Geth platform who attempted to help them, bringing him to, potentially, activate it, learning that, much like everyone else, the Geth did only what they thought was right. As it turns out, the Geth, split by a religious movement, motivated by the appearance of the Reapers, desire nothing more than to live in co-operative harmony with the rest of the galaxy, the heretical followers of Saren desiring nothing less than the destruction of the Reaper’s enemies. This Geth, named Legion by EDI, the Normandy’s AI, joins Shepard in his fight.
Hence, bringing us to one of the major themes of the series; the Geth, entirely inhuman and synthetic are established now very firmly as being nothing more than another strange and wonderful form of life, while the Collectors, themselves half-organic, are chalked up as being nothing more than automatons, sickening perversions of life, merely aping its movements. Which raises the question; what defines life? What is the measure of that which is not human?
A singular theme that fits, Matryoshka-like inside of another, far larger theme, the bass chord that the series beats on; freedom of choice.
That which is called life in the series is free, free to make their own way, to refuse the gifts and blandishments of the Reapers, the Geth remaining an excellent example, the vast majority of the species flatly refusing to be gifted their future, preferring to find it for themselves. Simultaneously, this is what the Reapers fear most, having created the Mass Relays and the Citadel with the express purpose of not exactly limiting organic development, but rather guiding it along paths they control and can manipulate, for where a species to develop heretofore unseen technologies, they could cause harm the Reapers are not willing to allow.
In Sovereign’s own words; “Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic life. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.”
In the end, the Reapers view themselves as perfection incarnate; the end of evolution, as is revealed when the Normandy’s crew are captured in a surprise attack not long after, necessitating its crippled pilot, Flight Lieutenant Jeff “Joker” Moreau to unshackle EDI, allowing her to pilot the ship and recover the commander. Now the suicide mission has a time limit.
In short order, Shepard survives his suicide mission, reaching the Collector base, and discovering that Sovereign’s claim of being “each a nation” was far more disturbingly true than he realized; the captured humans were being rendered down into a base, genetic paste, one that was being put into the construction of a live, young Reaper, embodying the intelligences and experiences of the entire human species, with plenty more room left, room meant to be filled with the population of Earth.
The Reapers, themselves half-synthetic abominations like their creations, are a very literal personification of Hobbes’ Leviathan; one intelligence ruling a nation of people, a nation of people now deprived of their choices, their ability to live, being nothing more than an undead monstrosity, which, to Shepard, the very personification of personal choice, as well as the player, whose entire experience thus far has been built upon personal choice, is pure anathema.
The entirety of the series is a rejection of Orwellian and Hobbesian utopias, preferring to cleave to a “come what may” view of personal choice. Even early on, Shepard is established as being free; Miranda Lawson had advised a “control chip” be implanted in Shepard, ensuring that he would be less of a liability that way, but even the Illusive Man knew that Shepard would be destroyed by such a thing, demanding he be brought back exactly as he was.
After destroying this Reaper monstrosity, Shepard is left with a choice; destroy the base, or, possibly, see if it can be made use of. This choice, it seems would bear fruit later, though in ways unexpected.
Finally, the interim events come, an epilogue to the game; Shepard deals with an experiment, Project Overlord meant to merge a human mind with a Geth network, controlling Geth programs and platforms, an experiment that goes horrifically wrong. Shepard meets again with his friend, or possibly lover, dependent on the player’s choices, Dr. T’soni, whom, in the years since Shepard’s death, has become a powerful information broker, set on rooting out a far larger group and killing their leader as revenge.
And finally, a mission… unique amongst all others; The Arrival. Shepard is sent alone to recover a lost doctor, Dr. Amanda Kenson, rescuing her from a difficult political situation. Upon reaching her, she informs him that the Reapers will soon arrive in the Milky Way, then, make use of the Alpha Relay, an apparently unique Mass Relay, capable of connecting to all others in the system, unlike the normally point-to-point method.
Shepard is required to do what is considered impossible; destroy the Alpha Relay. As it turns out, Dr. Kenson is aligned with the enemy, their methods long having broken her mind. Shepard is captured, and kept in close proximity to a Reaper artifact for a period of two days, unconscious, sparking his eventual indoctrination, jumping over the final hurdle needed to infiltrate his mind.
Luckily, his no-longer-quite-human physiology enables him to escape, his “Million-Dollar-Man” like attributes giving him a much needed edge. Shepard arranges for the Alpha Relay’s destruction mere hours before the Arrival. Harbinger, the leader of the Reaper Fleet, their flagship for lack of a better term, taunts him as he leaves, claiming that they will arrive, and being both ageless and patient, they will win in the long term.
Shepard has the option to blithely tell him to go to hell.
In the end, the Alpha Relay’s destruction claims the entire solar system, killing millions of its inhabitants, leading the Batarian Hegemony, an independent group that controlled said system, to declare him a war criminal, forcing the Systems Alliance, the Human military, to place Shepard into protective custody, awaiting court martial.
And now, finally, I come to the relevant part. Do not misunderstand me, no matter how much it felt like it, even to me, I was not merely indulging in fanboyism with the above recap, more that this is information required to understand the significance of things to come.
The events of Mass Effect 3, the series capstone begins with a skewed perception of reality; what the player perceives at first, as a ship, is in fact a toy, held in the hand of a young boy, playing on a roof top as Shepard watches from his window far above. His new personal bodyguard, Lieutenant James Vega, comes in to collect the Commander for his court-martial.
En-route, Shepard’s mentor and father-figure, Admiral David Anderson is there to greet him, pointing out that the human parliament would rather continuing to disbelieve the coming enemy. Shepard is there, it seems, not for his court-martial, but to advise the board of admirals on what should be their next step, being the only soldier with any significant amount of experience in this regard.
Moments later, all but two people standing in that room are dead.
The Reaper assault has begun; they’ve cut through Earth’s defenses like a knife through butter, and have begun their slaughter. Shepard and Anderson are forced to move, attempting to get Shepard off planet, in a bid to warn the Council and gather allies for the counterattack. Perceptive players may notice a few… irregularities along the way; the rooftop where the seemingly insignificant child had been playing with his toy not moments before is gone; as though it never existed. Later, one can see the same child climbing a wall, far more skillfully than even an Olympic level mountain-climber, then, entering a locked door, just as a building is leveled.
Shepard finds the boy alive and seemingly unhurt in a ventilation shaft that had been empty moments ago. He extends his hand, offering to help the boy, whose only response is “You can’t help me.” As Anderson snaps Shepard back to reality, the Commander looks into the vent again, only to find the boy gone, without a sound, or a trace.
With considerable effort, Shepard makes his way to an evacuation point and meets up with his Ship, Anderson electing to stay behind to organize the resistance. As they leave Earth, Shepard watches a further evacuation, including the enigmatic boy, who somehow managed to keep pace, in a warzone that two of the species’ finest special operatives have ever produced. The ship carrying him is destroyed a mere moment later, Shepard hearing a scream, far higher than any human throat should be able to make.
Soon after, at the request of Admiral Steven Hackett, commander of the entire human armed forces, in lack of anyone else, Shepard stops off at Mars, meeting Dr. T’soni again, who, had for the first time in many years it seems, been applying her vocation as an archaeologist, in this case, consulting at the Prothean archive on Mars.
Her efforts had not been in vain; a plan for a massive super-weapon, genuinely appearing at the 11th hour, had materialized during their research. Cerberus however, is there as well, and no longer are they Shepard’s allies. Forced to fight his way past the army of quislings waiting for him, Shepard reaches the archive, though not before discovering that the Cerberus footsoldiers had been forced to undergo a process apparently similar to indoctrination, supposedly one that bound them to the Illusive Man’s will.
Upon reaching the archive however, Shepard and company discover a Cerberus operative, apparently a Dr. Eva Coré already attempting to make off with the needed plans. A brief conversation with The Illusive Man ensues, his penchant for telepresence shining through again as he insists to Shepard that his goals have not changed, merely that Shepard, whether he maintained the Collector Base or not, is no longer an ally as far as the Illusive Man is concerned.
Shepard manages to stop the fleeing Doctor, who it is revealed, is an artificial intelligence inhabiting a metallic platform, but not before the survivor of Vermire is seriously injured in the process. Shepard again faces the prospect of loss, as they meet with the council, who give him a collective response of “every man for himself.” Their united front of Apathy notwithstanding, one of their number, the Turian representative, approaches Shepard, offering their support if he could get the support of their Primarch.
In so doing, Shepard sees yet more of the carnage the Reapers are wreaking as they harvest their sentient crop, Palaven, with the largest military in the galaxy, burns as the Reapers assault it. Shepard arrives just in time to help with the selection of a new Primarch, as well as to meet his old friend, Garrus, now a high ranking official in the Turian military. The new Primarch pleads Shepard to bring him the one military force in the Milky Way he can think of to stand before the Reapers;
The Krogan army.
Yet, in so doing, Shepard will open a lot of old wounds; the Turians and Krogan are bitter enemies, from the Krogan’s old rebellion that nearly put the galaxy to the torch, and the Krogan trust the Salarians, engineers of the Genophage that has all but destroyed Krogan culture, even less.
Shepard returns to the Normandy however, to find an even stranger event; a mishap, dealt with by EDI, the AI, has resulted in EDI gaining control of the inert mechanical body of Dr. Coré. She offers her services as a tactical squadmate, and begins to ask Shepard philosophical questions, about the nature of the mind, love, and more. Dependent upon the player’s answers, EDI could very well end up finally pursuing a relationship with the Pilot, FtLt. “Joker” Moreau.
In the end, Shepard manages to weld the three disparate species together, even the Salarians, despite the machinations of one of their leaders, still as bigoted as ever, a bigotry that simply cannot survive in such trying times as those when faced with extinction. Depending on how previous events turned out, Shepard’s old friend Urdnot Wrex may even be the one leading the Krogan to a brighter future, aided along by Mordin Solus, now setting out to put right that which he made wrong.
Even at the cost of his life.
Briefly following the curing of the Genophage, Cerberus chooses to make their move, assaulting the Citadel in an attempted coup, led by Kai Leng, their finest assassin; a coup which could claim the life of Thane Krios, now, undeniably terminal, who sacrifices himself to rescue an endangered councilor.
Following Shepard’s success with the three races, he is called upon again and again, rescuing vital war assets, saving friends from dangerous situations, and, bringing peace to centuries long conflicts.
Such as the one raised by the Quarians and Geth. Each side now left in a deadlock that would result in the extinction of one or another, Shepard comes in to help, at the side of his old friend Tali Zorah, now an admiral in her own right. Dependent upon Shepard’s previous choices, and his interactions with the Geth, Legion, and the Quarians themselves, Shepard could, potentially get the two warring races to declare peace, seeking a future together as one symbiotic relationship, rather than two, separate, floundering species. Legion sacrifices himself to achieve this dream for his people. The defeat of a Reaper on the Quarian homeworld Rannoch reveals to Shepard that Harbinger speaks of him, claiming he resists, and will eventually fail.
Finally, it comes down to the endgame, the forces are gathering, Shepard has gathered his allies; Dr. T’soni, now the most powerful information broker in the galaxy, using her influence for the war-effort, Garrus Vakarian, the finest sniper the Milky Way has yet seen. James Vega, stolid and ever dependable, EDI, now slowly beginning to understand the nature of organics, and what feeling she bears for Joker, Tali’Zorah Vas Normandy, admiral of the Quarian fleets, Operations Chief Ashley Williams, having thrown off the weight of her family reputation, and even Javik, the violent, superior and arrogant Prothean, last survivor of an extinct species, the final scream of a vengeful ghost.
They’re directed to the Asari homeworld, where they are informed they will find the information needed for final victory, the final pieces to find the Catalyst, the necessary missing part of their super-weapon, named the Crucible.
Cerberus and their machinations interfere however; Kai Leng, is there, and challenges Shepard to a personal duel. Shepard experiences his first failure, losing to Leng, and decides to bring the fight directly to Cerberus.
In the end, their attack on the traitors culminates in an all-out assault on Chronos Station, the lair of the Illusive Man himself, where Shepard puts an end to his twisted mirror image, Kai Leng, and learns that, indeed, the Citadel itself is the Catalyst, and Shepard must ensure that the Crucible links with it, if there is any hope to be had.
The allied forces, in an armada never before met in size or scope, gather around Earth for what will be the final battle for survival; failure means extinction, victory, and the Milky Way is forever freed of the grip of their murderous progenitors.
After a hard battle, Commander Shepard, alongside the Alliance Forces, led by his friends, including Admiral David Anderson, charge their goal, a beam leading to the Citadel, their object of final victory.
And there to greet him, in the metallic flesh himself, Harbinger; Shepard’s now most bitter foe. There’s all out dash to the beam, men being struck down left and right by Harbinger himself, blasting them with molten metals accelerated to light speed, when Shepard himself is struck.
Shepard collapses as Harbinger’s beam begins tearing up the ground, and everything goes white. Shepard finds himself in a place where things… don’t quite make sense. Everything is blurry, the beam is there still, but now only a few of the enemy are guarding it; Striketeam Hammer is wiped out, Shepard the only survivor; he crawls toward the beam, and finds himself in a grim parody of the Citadel, things are not as they should be, places resemble other places, colors fade out when observed too closely, sounds resemble other sounds, and a weapon that Shepard did not have moments before is suddenly in his hand.
Shepard crawls toward the control for the Arms; somehow, inexplicably, Admiral Anderson is there waiting for him; as is the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man attempts one last gambit, trying to sway Shepard, though his argument is worth little, when half of his face has clearly been taken over by the Reapers; by all appearances he is slowly succumbing to Indoctrination; and for some reason, his arguments fail to make sense, everything seems wrong, and Shepard, normally strong, straight-forward, and a man of action, is indecisive.
Shepard, Anderson and the Illusive Man argue, Anderson is shot, and Shepard either convinces the Illusive Man to commit suicide in a manner reminiscent of Saren, or merely shoots him himself. For some reason however, if Shepard has the opportunity to speak with Anderson before continuing on, things change for the better, for reasons unexplained.
As Shepard collapses trying to reach the controls, he finds himself uplifted, being carried to a room never-before seen, and, according to its occupant, never even entered by organic beings before;
Standing before him is a ghostly image of the child from the very beginning, the child who has, thus far, quite literally haunted Shepard’s dreams, the child who disappeared without a trace, the child who now introduces himself as the “Catalyst” claiming to be the collective intelligence of the Reapers, despite their claim of being “Each a Nation, independent, free of all weakness.”
This Catalyst offers Shepard three choices; Control the Reapers, as the Illusive Man desired, sacrificing himself and destroying his body in the process, becoming their new guiding intellect; disintegrate himself and spark a nebulous and ill-defined concept that the Catalyst refers to as “Synthesis” where organic beings and Synthetics will be force to combine with each other on a genetic scale, supposedly creating a Utopia, and removing the need for the Reapers to reap, which he claims was motivated by nothing more than altruism. Or there is the third option, Shepard’s goal throughout the series thus far; Destroy the Reapers, but, supposedly, at the cost of not only Shepard himself, but also EDI, the Geth, and all of the very technology that modern galactic civilization has established itself on thus far; the Mass Relays.
And yet… even with such obvious and clear cut choices, not all is so clear, the Catalyst’s arguments seem circular, and he refuses to divulge more information; In the end, Shepard must make his choice; I chose Destroy. No matter what Shepard chooses, the scene is the same however, the Normandy, for reasons equally unexplained, shooting out of the Solar system along a Mass Relay corridor is struck by the expanding shockwave, leading the ship to crash on an unknown jungle planet; where the crew climbs out, seemingly happy and isolated far away, staring up into the sun.
At first, all seems to be a clear biblical narrative, Shepard, the “Shepherd” of the Milky Way having sacrificed his life for the futures of everyone, absolving all of their sins with his life.
But if that were the case, why would the Christ figure die twice?
Shepard has already given his life, gone into death and returned, perhaps not unscathed, nor untouched mentally, but resurrected and ready to continue his hero’s journey.
And a curious thing happened; there is a system in the game for measuring preparedness for the final battle; mine was over 4000, but somehow, my conversation with Anderson had contributed more than a 1000, a larger rating than entire fleets, all for a pep-talk. And after selecting Destroy, firing at a tube reminiscent of the ones connected to the Human Form Reaper in the Collector Base, a scene came on, the camera panning through destroyed concrete, like that found on Earth, in London, where Shepard has begun his insane charge, a distinctive suit of armor appears, bearing Shepard’s dog tags and his symbol, the N7; it takes a single deep breath, as though waking up from a dream, and then; cut to credits.
Perhaps not so clear cut after all.
When the events of the ending of Mass Effect 3 were revealed to the Mass Effect fanbase, fans were outraged; many felt as though their choices had been rendered meaningless, their involvement with the series balled up and thrown away; the same clear cut biblical narrative had been dressed up and thrown at them in a predictable way that, honestly, felt as though an entirely different team of writers had written it.
To this day, this game remains one of a very small handful of media that has ever inspired me to tears; I wept at the sacrifice of Dr. Mordin Solus, giving his life so that an entire species might live, his last words; “would have liked to study those seashells.” Urdnot Grunt, charging forward to a warrior’s death, his body brought down only by the weight of numbers, then, crawling from the wreckage, not long after, tired, hungry, and splattered with the blood of his enemies.
And even the sad, lingering passing of Thane Krios, died a hero, his terminal life given to protect another, his last prayers said in a choking gasp in the presence of myself and his son; Miranda Lawson, finally able to settle the score with her twisted patriarch, her father who desired a dynasty above a daughter, with Miranda taking a bullet meant for her younger sister, while I looked on, helpless as she died.
And throughout the entire thing; one could feel the weight of the entire Milky Way on their shoulders; Quadrillions of lives, all calling out to be saved by one man, as billions upon billions were slaughtered daily by the Reapers. Shepard was not the only man beginning to crack under the pressure of watching the galaxy he loved put to the torch.
So you’ll understand me when I say; people were pissed. And interestingly, I think they were supposed to be.
While the series explores equally interesting ideas like “What is the nature of man?”, “What are the wages of bigotry?”, “Is diversity the key to our futures?”, “What is sentience? What is life?” and many more, offering its own several answers, here is the most interesting, a question posed by Lieutenant Commander Williams; “How can you fight something that can worm its way inside of your head?”
Indeed, how can you? For, despite popular opinion, I view the game, and it’s ending, as brilliant; because I see there as being more than meets the eye, despite what the outcry has been, I chalk the entire thing up to one enemy, the same enemy it has been the entire time; Indoctrination.
Throughout the game, Shepard experiences recurring dreams, chasing the child through a dying forest as hordes of oily shadows look on and whisper warnings; “Don’t trust him.” “Shepard.” “How can you fight something that can worm its way inside your head?” and far more disturbing comments.
There are times both the player, and Shepard are left wondering “what is real?” their perceptions of reality skewed and shifted in different ways, Shepard acting out of character, loss of self-control, and always that same recurring dream; a dream which shows, no mind can resist forever, not even one with superlative willpower.
You see it most interestingly right there at the end; following Harbinger’s attack, everything is wrong; the HUD is gone, the distance, once clear and stark, is now blurred and shifted; places that should not be make themselves apparent, and characters act as they never would.
And the three choices offered; notably they align with three individuals; Saren, Shepard’s first adversary, twisted and warped from his original goal, tricked into believing a concept that is flawed in its very nature, The Illusive Man, naively attempting to control that which already controls him, and Shepard himself, his mind dedicated to his mission at the exclusion of all else.
This is a personification of Indoctrination itself, the aligning of one’s morals and worldview to that of another; the Reapers twisting and perverting what Shepard is, personal freedoms personified, by offering him a Sophie’s choice; for Shepard’s will has proven too strong to be broken by mere brute force; even the Reapers have to offer Shepard a choice, or his mind would reject their offers immediately, as would the player.
Even with the choice concerning the Collector Base, one sees the same themes; Shepards who chose to preserve the base will always have Control as an option, no matter how low their score is, while, conversely, Shepards who chose to destroy it will always have Destroy as an option, reflecting Shepard’s view on the Reapers; Anathema versus a utilitarian belief that the ends can justify the means; the same moralistic view held by The Illusive Man and Saren both, a worldview that, when the Reapers are involved, will doom the one cleaving to it.
Either way, the result is the same; a condemning of enforced Control, a lambasting of naïve notions of a perfect world, preferring to align with the far more achievable, and equally as diverse and beautiful real world.
Themes hang in clusters like grapes within this story however; inextricably bound, much like a grapevine is another theme; what is life? Throughout the entire series, from Mass Effect 2 and beyond, they establish first the classical idea of “All Artificial Intellects are evil.” And then, slowly work against the idea, showing the cracks in the thinking, both with the Geth, and with EDI, while similarly showing that all examples of Synthesis, the Reapers themselves, Project Overlord, the horrific footsoldiers of the Reapers, Husks, shock troops made from the repurposed bodies of human beings and other various species, technological zombies, motivated and controlled by microcircuits formed from the minerals in their own bodies, the result of Tuskeegian experiments that Mengele would call over the line.
Throughout the series they establish very firmly, three things; Machines are not evil, they are merely another form of life, one that can, and does, attempt to understand their organic neighbors, that attempting to merge the two in a bid that is, ultimately pointless, and one that leads only to heartache and destruction; and finally that the Reapers themselves are, in a word, evil; they have nothing but contempt for other races, an sadistic streak a mile wide, and their motivations are clearly not slaves, wealth, mineral resources, or anything else that inspires wars; not even hate.
They are merely motivated by extinction and reproduction; war is the bloody midwife to their abominable children, new Reapers, formed from the dead bodies and shattered minds of extinct species that rose far enough along a technologic scale to meet their requirements.
And yet, somehow, players still are willing to take this “Star Child” who names himself the Catalyst, at his word.
And to those who do, the ending in particular is insulting, destroying the series message of “Freedom of choice”, “Man and machine can live in peace, remain unique, and without destroying each other.” even spitting further in the face of the message in defense of diversity, combining all the species of the Galaxy into one Frankenstenian homogeny, along with the message of “Enough effort, luck, and sheer arsedness can accomplish the impossible.” Rendering the sacrifice of Dr. Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, and so many others entirely superfluous, since the bad guys were right all along, and Shepard should never have even fought.
All the more reason to see it as what it is; an opulent lie.
The Reapers do not believe in the freedom and the diversity Shepard fights to protect, preferring to render it all down into a soup of homogeny, one easily controlled and quantified.
The true enemy here is not the Reapers, but their outlook, their worldview; their “Selfish Meme” as a friend of mine coined. Theirs is a literally toxic outlook, one that infects controls and destroys, the belief that order must be imposed upon chaos at the cost of all else. In the end; the true theme of the series shines through; never give in to your enemy, never surrender your freedom to choose, for once you surrender control, you surrender yourself; Indoctrination is the personification of this, and why throughout the series, stubbornness and sticking to one’s guns are glorified as the proper response to the blandishments of one’s mortal foe.
And in my case, to this day, it is a philosophic question I remain pondering months later, likely as the writer intended from the beginning.
So I will merely join others, fans of the series, in saying; Wake up Shepard.
LINKS
– Choose Wisely, the work of a friend, exploring the themes of ME3 through music.
– Avacayos video on the subject, which inspired me to the theory to begin with.
http://social.biowar...4977/3#13585729 – The Selfish Meme Theory, as explored by another friend of mine.
http://social.biowar.../index/12095388 - My own work on a previous related theory, just for fun.
http://social.biowar...7/2674#15280049 – The third incarnation of the theory thread, where I and hundreds of thousands of others hammered out the ideas herein, and the concepts related to them
#67679
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:56
Raistlin Majare 1992
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Rifneno wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Rifneno wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Lokanaiya wrote...
What paper?
To bring those who weren't awake last night up to speed, I wrote a philosophy term paper exploring the themes and philosophical narrative of the Mass Effect Series, why? Because I could that's why. Though I must admit, I was torn between this and discussing Baldur's Gate.
I hear they remade BG recently too. Am I the only one who didn't care for the first one but loved the second one?
If the reason was the combat, then no, you're far from alone; such is the curse of low level AD&D combat.
The combat was definitely part of it. There's just something undeniably awesome about stopping time. But the whole storyline felt kind of... meh. Just lacked that epic appeal. Oh no'es, an iron mine is in trouble? I can't even pretend to give a damn.
Although I hope if/when they remake 2, they redesign trolls. Trolls were the worst part BG2, much like this thread. The average troll in that game took more damage than a god because of the convoluted way you had to kill them. Haven't played that game in probably 5 years and it still gives me nightmares.
Meh once you realized just how broken certain builds in the game are, it becomes so easy.
Stumbled across a broken build in BG2 on accident while playing my Rogue. I had access to a special feat which removed the class and other limitations on items. The examples given included scrolls, wands and the like, the feat clearly intended for those items.
But on picking it I found out it applied to any items. Chaotic Good using the Equalizer? Check. Monk Belt? No problem. Ranger Gloves? Not breaking a sweat. Hell it even removed the dexterity limitation on Full Plate Armor.
Result was that my Rogue ran around with an average AC of -38 and with Improved Evasion active it jumped to -53 making me nigh unhitable even as i smashed anything which came near me.
Ah good times.
#67680
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:56
Rifneno
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Arian Dynas wrote...
Not a chance they'll remake trolls; it's a mark of the setting. Wild animals have been known to dine on troll meat, a seperate troll regenerates and bursts from their stomach ala the alien movies.
Oh and congrats on the new nightmares.
But seriously, no worries, troll flesh goes up like a match when you put a little bit of strong acid (stronger than stomach acid before you ask.) or so much as an open candle flame near 'em.
I know how to kill them, obviously. The problem is when they had 300 hp, and I wind up doing 25,000 damage (8,000 of it fire/acid damage) before the damn game realizes "oh yeah, this thing is supposed to fall down so you can kill it."
#67682
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:58
Arian Dynas
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Rifneno wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Not a chance they'll remake trolls; it's a mark of the setting. Wild animals have been known to dine on troll meat, a seperate troll regenerates and bursts from their stomach ala the alien movies.
Oh and congrats on the new nightmares.
But seriously, no worries, troll flesh goes up like a match when you put a little bit of strong acid (stronger than stomach acid before you ask.) or so much as an open candle flame near 'em.
I know how to kill them, obviously. The problem is when they had 300 hp, and I wind up doing 25,000 damage (8,000 of it fire/acid damage) before the damn game realizes "oh yeah, this thing is supposed to fall down so you can kill it."
Huh. I never had that problem actually.
#67683
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 07:58
Rifneno
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Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
LOL. You should see some of the dickery that mages can pull off with loops of infinite spells and the like.
#67684
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:00
Raistlin Majare 1992
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Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
Only ever used it once, simply couldnt resist once I realized the possibilities in the build.
As for other broken things I recall a cloak, cloak of spell deflection if I remember correctly. Essentially it is designed to negate single target, pure damage spells directed at the wearer, but due to a bug in it it negates all single target spells, including nasty spells like disentegration and the like.
Beholders suddenly become quite easy to defeat.
#67685
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:01
Raistlin Majare 1992
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Rifneno wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
LOL. You should see some of the dickery that mages can pull off with loops of infinite spells and the like.
Cast stop time, cast bunch of spells, cast stop time, cast another bunch of spells, cast wish, restore spells, repeat as necesary.
Modifié par Raistlin Majare 1992, 15 décembre 2012 - 08:02 .
#67686
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:03
Arian Dynas
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Raistlin Majare 1992 wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
Only ever used it once, simply couldnt resist once I realized the possibilities in the build.
As for other broken things I recall a cloak, cloak of spell deflection if I remember correctly. Essentially it is designed to negate single target, pure damage spells directed at the wearer, but due to a bug in it it negates all single target spells, including nasty spells like disentegration and the like.
Beholders suddenly become quite easy to defeat.
Perhaps you're confusing it with the cloak of spell REflection, which is a mirrored cape that basically redirects spells back at the caster; including Beholders; it's the only thing that made the Eye Tyrant hive doable.
#67687
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:03
Rifneno
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Most broken thing of all time in any game: Alchemy in Morrowind. Remember that? Just hilariously broken.
#67688
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:03
byne
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A genuine Arian textwall! I havent seen one of those in forever.
#67689
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:07
Raistlin Majare 1992
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Arian Dynas wrote...
Raistlin Majare 1992 wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
Only ever used it once, simply couldnt resist once I realized the possibilities in the build.
As for other broken things I recall a cloak, cloak of spell deflection if I remember correctly. Essentially it is designed to negate single target, pure damage spells directed at the wearer, but due to a bug in it it negates all single target spells, including nasty spells like disentegration and the like.
Beholders suddenly become quite easy to defeat.
Perhaps you're confusing it with the cloak of spell REflection, which is a mirrored cape that basically redirects spells back at the caster; including Beholders; it's the only thing that made the Eye Tyrant hive doable.
Ah so thats was its name. I only remember it specifically saying it only negated damaging spells and then working on everything from debuffs to insta kills.
Also while we are on the subject of broke stuff. Demi Liches in BG2 were some of the worst enemies to fight...unless you knew how incredibly, like broken, weak they were to sunburst. If a single sunburst spells got through their spell resistance you would see damage in the thousands, insta killing it.
Personal record is 6800 damage against a Demi Lich.
Modifié par Raistlin Majare 1992, 15 décembre 2012 - 08:10 .
#67690
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:08
Rifneno
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Raistlin Majare 1992 wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Raistlin Majare 1992 wrote...
Arian Dynas wrote...
Raist? That's just cheap.
Only ever used it once, simply couldnt resist once I realized the possibilities in the build.
As for other broken things I recall a cloak, cloak of spell deflection if I remember correctly. Essentially it is designed to negate single target, pure damage spells directed at the wearer, but due to a bug in it it negates all single target spells, including nasty spells like disentegration and the like.
Beholders suddenly become quite easy to defeat.
Perhaps you're confusing it with the cloak of spell REflection, which is a mirrored cape that basically redirects spells back at the caster; including Beholders; it's the only thing that made the Eye Tyrant hive doable.
Ah so thats was its name. I only remember it specifically saying it only negated damaging spells and then working on everything from debuffs to insta kills.
Kangaxx disagrees with extreme prejudice.
#67691
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:11
Arian Dynas
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Kangaxx was the only Demi-Lich I can recall in the series.
#67692
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:12
Arian Dynas
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byne wrote...
A genuine Arian textwall! I havent seen one of those in forever.
It's the same one I put up last night, you must have been asleep.
#67693
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:12
Rifneno
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Arian Dynas wrote...
Kangaxx was the only Demi-Lich I can recall in the series.
There was also one in that tower that came with ToB.
#67695
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:27
Bill Casey
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Rifneno wrote...
Someone kept mentioning how often the word nightmare is used in the game, so I threw together a collection of nightmare quotes from the vanilla game's tlk files. Enjoy.
Mission Tuchanka where you meet the Primarch's son
"The crash site's a nightmare."
Well the conduit run is sure as hell a crash site.
Upon turning and seeing a Reaper capital ship on Thessia,
EDI: I am starting to understand what the word "nightmare" means to organics.
EDI: And why you feel trapped when you can't wake up.
Tali: As a child, I always had nightmares about geth attacking me in my sleep.
Tali: The worst horror I could imagine. Until now.
Later on Thessia
Liara: This nightmare never ends.
Shepard: The hell it won't. We get to this artifact, and we can all wake up.
Shepard: What did you say to the Illusive Man?
Dr. Archer: I told him if his intention was to work with the devil, he only had to look in the mirror. I wanted out of his nightmare.
Out of TIM's nightmare, huh?
Dr. Archer (pulling a gun before killing himself with it): A precaution if I was ever captured by the enemy. Or couldn't wake from my nightmare.
Dr. Archer: I couldn't bear the thought of reliving the nightmare. So I destroyed all of my research--Overlord is no more.
Dr. Archer (Explaining Overlord to a Shepard that never played it): Believe me, it's a nightmare I re-live every night. He went berserk--his mind became a computer virus that infected all our systems.
Damn, Archer has a lot of "nightmare" dialogue. I'm sure it's just a coincidence and nothing to do with his synthesis-control stuff.
Shepard (to Vega): I can hardly believe it, myself. Like everything back on Earth was some kind of nightmare.
Turian Soldier: It's a shame to see another planet get hit like this.
Garrus: It'll be the last one if I have anything to say about it. This nightmare finally ends today.
Liara (encounting ravagers, Reaperized rachni, for the first time on Tuchanka): Now I can have all-new nightmares about them.Unknown, at Ardat-Yakshi monastery:Garrus after Ardhat Yakshi Monastery Now it's mutated asari. The Reapers are just a giant nightmare factory that never ends.
Shepard and Liara chatting on the Normandy:
"Too bad we never found another Prothean beacon."
"Haunting the Council with visions of the Reapers might've saved us a few years."
"Well, anyone who lives through this war won't be short on nightmares."Garrus:Javik Some of the crew seems shocked by the monstrosities we have encountered.
Javik: They haven't seen what the Reapers could corrupt after a hundred years. That was our war. Every battle conjured a new nightmare.
Ashley Williams, after Rachni queen mission:
"I still have slime to clean off my armor."
"What a nightmare."
"Dark tunnels, toxic goo, and those damn cockroaches again?"
Unknown, after Rachni queen mission (Wrex or Wreav?): Sounds like it was a nightmare down there.
If I remember correctly, this is Ashley if you don't bring her on the Rachni mission.
Allers doing a live report: Breaking now: A nightmare on Earth. Human leaders using military force on their own people.
Javik before return to Earth: The reapers have haunted the galaxy long enough. It is time to end the nightmare.
Ashley at T-GES Mineral Works It's gotta be a nightmare for these people.
#67696
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:34
Krimzie
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Bill Casey wrote...
Ashley at T-GES Mineral Works It's gotta be a nightmare for these people.
Which, I think is important to note, is a DLC line -- likely penned (or at least approved) after the hallucination/nightmare speculations were well underway on the interwebz.
Like I say about the Robin/Ted HIMYM theory all the time... if the writers wanted to kill the theories, they could. They just keep feeding them.
Nom nom nom theory food is good sustenance. Damn it, I need sleep. Kbai, thread.
#67697
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:35
Bill Casey
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Speaking of TGES Mineral Works...
NOTE TO STAFF: This new crossbreed appears harmless and would be inconspicuous in an office environment. However, it is exceedingly dangerous.
#67698
Guest_magnetite_*
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:39
Guest_magnetite_*
Guest_magnetite_*
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Bill Casey wrote...
Dr. Archer (pulling a gun before killing himself with it): A precaution if I was ever captured by the enemy. Or couldn't wake from my nightmare.
The way he looks at you when he says that is, well, he's definitely trying to warn you.
#67700
Posté 15 décembre 2012 - 08:42
Krimzie
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Bill Casey wrote...
Speaking of TGES Mineral Works...NOTE TO STAFF: This new crossbreed appears harmless and would be inconspicuous in an office environment. However, it is exceedingly dangerous.
I forget... is this re: the poppy-looking flowers on the desk with the datapad, a la the ones on the Citadel?
Modifié par Krimzie, 15 décembre 2012 - 08:45 .
