Ieldra2 wrote...
Addictress wrote...
I'm about to sound incredibly dumb, but my main question to this thread is: why is allegory suddenly a harbinger of mysticism? Allegory is awesome and I welcome allegories in stories. Videogames can have good stories. Stories often utilize allegories. So...science fiction videogames can use allegories. Why must something allegorical suddenly lower the quality of the science fiction that it is in and indicate mysticism?
The very simple difference:
Allegory works because its meaningful to us, the players. The images used in allegory are never meant to be an accurate descriptive account of what actually is. Yet, in several places in the trilogy, the writing suggests that we should take the symbol for the reality.
I'll give you an example. Consider the statement "Contemplating the vastness of space evokes a kind of spiritual awe in us". Never is this meant to imply that there is actually something mystical in space. It's all in us. A matter of psychology, not physics.
It's the same with Mordin's death. That he willingly went up into the Shroud facility to finalize the cure is meaningful to us. For the genophage cure itself, however, the fact that Mordin lost his life while finalizing the cure is meaningless. All that matters is that the machine has the right input and functions according to specification. Nonetheless, there is a believable in-world rationale for Mordin to go up the Shroud, he doesn't just go up to invoke the theme of sacrifice. It's all a coherent whole, the in-world logic and the allegory both work on their own levels, and they are meaningfully connected.
Now consider Legion's sacrifice as a contrast. We are given to know that the upgrade process requires additional input. Geth are software. Software can be copied. There is no believable in-world reason that Legion has to die. Thus, the theme of sacrifice is invoked in a way that suggests it's meaningful beyond the allegorical or psychological, that there is, in-world, a mystical element to the giving of a life, so that certain things do not work unless someone dies for them. If we took this at face value, it would redefine the whole universe in mystical terms. That is what I am criticizing
Thanks for clarifying, I see what you mean. It's been a while since I've read texts on storytelling structure and how one can analyze the functions of archetype, allegory, character in a proper story. After years in an accounting firm, not reading, I can barely read. But I do understand.
I think the bother has less to do with the technical inexcusability of why Legion had to die to upload his evolved AI to the rest of his race - I think the discovery that Legion had to die to better his race is just as last-minute as discovering Mordin had to die to cure the genophage. I don't think we knew Mordin would be sacrificing his life until immediately in the doorway of the environmental control tower. Similarly, Legion suddenly revealed that he had to 'die' uploading the code right as they were standing on Rannoch before shuttle extraction.
So, the breakdown in the cooperation between well-distinguished functions of allegory, archetype, in-story logic, must be in the differences in timing for the introductions of the broader motives behind these two characters.
Mordin's motives were introduced at the start as "Someone else may have gotten it wrong" - this facet of his character is repeatedly stated throughout the series since his introduction. He has pride in his work, and he has doubts on the veracity of the genophage, and there is a smooth acceleration in his character progression toward a final conclusion in his mind that the genophage ought to be cured.
With Legion, the progression toward a conclusion that all geth ought to be fully evolved individuals, and have 'souls' is not so smoothly introduced and accelerated. See, there were multiple competing motives for the geth in a defined budget of storytelling time, rendering each motive too cheap to justify the final sacrifice.
We can see a germinating indication that just as Mordin came to realize that he really does believe the genophage to be wrong and that he was the only one who could fix it, justifying his sacrifice, the writers wanted Legion to realize that the geth should be a people treated as a sentient sapient race, and that if the reaper code allowed the fruition of this future, then that was the only choice and he would die for that. But the desirability of this future was not as clearly aligned with the player as the cure of the genophage was. It was not as hotly debated.
Or maybe it was. I came back in a circle. Because, the 'geth as sentient race' topic had been almost as if not just as hotly debated and fully treated as the 'should the genophage be cured' issue. There was the loyalty mission, geth and quarians had been fighting since ME1, all of Tali's mission explored the geth/quarian world in depth. This is a dead end.
So this boils down to: the mechanism chosen was wrong. Mordin had to die because there was clearly no other way to cure the genophage than to fix the control panel at the top of the tower.
The hazard is not so clear in uploading. Basically what you are all saying is that if they put a special control panel to upload the geth reaper code at the very top of a burning tower on Rannoch, and the situation was clear that the ONLY way to upload this reaper code was if Legion went to the top of this tower and died...
Well, that wouldn't work either, as curing the genophage was necessary in uniting the krogans and turians, which was decidedly more important than evolving the geth. The game could have proceeded well enough without the geth evolving at the last stage - upgrading the geth was simply a side-mission feel-good charity and nothing more. Not enough was at stake.
Not enough was at stake = the player didn't really need the geth to evolve, and so this is why Legion's death was weak.
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