inko1nsiderate wrote...
ld1449 wrote...
Arokel wrote...
Yes. I don't know why people didn't. Shep just saw a child blown out of sky. Also its not just about the child. Imo Shep sees the child as a symbol for everything he is fighting for and he saw that symbol get vaporized.
Because the audience doesn't know this character. There are a hundred characters they know better that would have had a much bigger impact. Like Anderson.
Anderson getting blown up in the first five minutes of the game would be enough to get people to care, AND to traumatize Shepard. Because that's the other thing the ending fails at. No matter what Shepard you're playing, they've gone through a hell of a lot more than just seeing some random ship, because they didn't even see the child himself die, no, he saw a ship get blown out of the sky.
So yeah. Unbelievable circumstances for trauma, coupled with a character the audience knew or cared little about due to poor interaction (and very short interaction at that) makes it a contrieved, useless mechanism for tugging at the heartstrings.
Yes, but on the other hand, seeing a soldier the player knows well and who is willing to die in any number of heoric situations might be more emotionally impactful, but it doesn't have the same symbolic impact. The purpose of the kid (as I see it) is to show that people who are totally innocent, have nothing to do with the alliance, have never really interacted with Shepard before, and people Shepard will never know are dying horrible deaths at the hands of the Reapers. It is about bringing the sacrifice of the off screen world to the forefront. They do this repeatedly in game. The primarch we never meet is dead, we see a Turian cruiser go down, we see a fighter crash infront of you with no sruvivors. These are all military causalties, but the more instances we see and hear of innocents not connected to Shepard the stronger the idea gets: you are not just fighting for those around you, but you are fighting for those who you will never truly know. The teenager with the dead parents, the grandma with alzheimers who's son is probably MIA talking to her daughter-in-law that she doesn't remember, Joker's sister, etc.
I find that impactful, even if I never found that scene emotional because a kid died. The impact comes from what the death represents, and it still gets me in that sense well after the shock factor has worn off.
See here's the thing. There's two types of symbolism in literacy.
Concrete, and Abstract.
What is concrete and abstract symbolism?
Abstract symbolism, is for instance, say that the Turian cruiser on Tuchanka where you meet Primarch Victus' kid had the same designated codename/number as the helicopter in Black Hawk down.
This is abstract symbolism. Its almost an afterthought, or a foot note, authors throw it in as a
;) because it requires almost no work at all.
Typically, its labeled as an "easter egg"
Then there's more concrete symbolism.
Concrete symbolism is much harder to pull off properly because its meant to carry an overeaching thematic element of the story. Its supposed to be seen more than once as opposed to the abstract or the "easter egg" symbolism.
And because its supposed to have influence over the story at XYZ time period it requires a framework.
Mass Effect 3 has no framework.
It dumps a kid on you, two seconds later the kid dies, and then in four different sequences the kid reapears. The three (if I'm not mistaken) dreams and the ending itself.
The first dream is understandable.
The second and third, not so much. Shepard just suffered through the death (and possible murder) of his friends and allies Mordin, and Legion, maybe even the wiping out of an entire race (Krogan, Geth, Quarians)
These are MUCH bigger decisions with FAR more emotional backlash than some random kid you don't know getting killed, or at least shot down.
It needed a framework, it needed something to support Shepard being haunted by this death that Mass Effect 3 just did not have.
For example, lets say Shepard put some REAL, TRUE effort into saving this kid punches his way through a hundred canibles, shoots a brute in the face with a predator, stabs a Banshee to death, basically Shepard makes Neeson in Taken look like a **** just to try and save this kid.
He fails, the kid dies, vaporised, screaming. Horrible death. His last words to Shepard are "Save me" or "Help me" or something equivalent.
Again, first dream is understandable.
Second and third dream, when Mordin or Legion dies they say something similar with legion saying "Help me save the Geth Shepard comander." Or SOMETHING, that can feasibly trigger Shepard recalling the little boy and his last words.
Or hell, even throughout the story you have people crying out for Shepard to save them. He suceeds in some, in others he doesn't.
This is an adequate framework that could show why Shepard is so hung up on the death of this child. Because the memories are just regurgitated over and over again by XYZ thing.
Shepard is trying to forget it, but things just keep bringing it back and that's why he can't just get over it like he's done with so many other horrifying things like someone getting liquefied right before his eyes.
This is why Mass Effect 3 fails at its attempted symbolism.
Because concrete symbolism requires a framework to work properly.
In this case its got the framework of an abstract symbolism, which is to say none at all, and its trying to act like a concrete one.
And its even further reduced in significance by the fact that just because of his history all the way back to ME1, Shepard has already seen much much worse.
Whole team killed on Akuze
Butchery of every Batarian combatant AND non combatant in Torphan,
The killing of over a hundred reported enemies in the Blitz
That's not even mentioning the stuff he may have seen through the events of ME1 and ME2 not the least of which included DYING.
And while yes you do HEAR about more and more of the stuff happening in the galaxy you don't see it. Saying Shepard could be traumatized by it is like saying I'm traumatized by Hurricane Katrina even though I've never stepped foot into New Orleans.
Furthermore, with audiences desensitized to such things it requires a lot more effort on the writers part than just saying "Here's a kid. Feel sad." To actually get people TO feel anything, let alone sad.
And that's my take on the kid.
Is it any surprise that this bit was written by Mac as well?
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