"One Year Later | I Realize Why The Endings [Still] Hurt
I completed Mass Effect 3 on June 30th, 2012. Like many others, I was deeply afflicted with the endings. They plunged me into a deep two-month depression and have left scars on me that are reflected by a significantly stronger sense of jadedness and cynicism in my personality. Can you believe that? Something like that can be elicited a “video-game”. A year ago, I thought I would never play Mass Effect again, I certainly didn’t care for the multiplayer and didn’t pay the DLCs or MEHEM any mind. But in May, I decided to play it again. I wouldn’t be able to do it in June because I was going away so I did it as a kind of early anniversary type of thing.
I thought that my perspective – my thoughts and feelings about the game and the endings – would have changed after a year. Maybe my hatred for the endings has waned, maybe I can look at the game more objectively and clearly now. Maybe I only hated them so much before because they were so disappointing.
I was wrong. I hate the endings now more than ever.
It was just like last time, I ran through the whole trilogy; same DLCs installed, same Romance, same mission order and same choices for the most part, nothing new. Though I will admit my Sheard was a bit more of a Renegade than usual. My canon Shepard is a Paragade (About 60% of my choices were Paragon, 40% were Renegade). This time, my canon Shepard was almost borderline neutral. I made the Paragon choices where they
counted – I saved Wrex, the Rachni, the Council, etc. But I was a Renegade everywhere else. I either killed, or acted like an **** to anyone I didn’t like, which constituted almost everybody outside of my crew. I guess you could say I played a Paragade in that I achieved Paragon ends by Renegade means. But enough of that, I’m not here to tell you about what my Shepard was like.
One thing was different though. I was playing as a Vanguard instead of an Infiltrator. Consequently, Reave would be an invaluable bonus power in the third game. Except the only way to get it is after a conversation with Kaidan
on the Normandy after the Citadel Coup. On my last character, I saved Kaidan during the Citadel Coup, but I basically told him to get the hell off my ship right after for his continuous second-guessing and Cerberus
suspicions (which had climaxed in that very heated moment on the Presidium). I never really liked Kaidan. I don’t dislike him, but I’m indifferent. This time I let him stick around so I could get Reave.
Then I had that conversation with him in the Presidium Commons at Apollo’s Café. I’ll include a link below for reference.
“You know, my life flashed in front of my eyes back on Mars, and, there weren’t enough moments like this – with people I care about.”
It was that line, and the following conversation, that made me realize something about Mass Effect. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, or why it had to be put so plainly, but…
Mass Effect was never about Reapers or Organics vs. Synthetics or Humanity or any of that BS. Mass Effect was about Friends. Kaidan, as well as everyone else on the Normandy, cared about Shepard. They cared about you. To develop an emotional attachment to a fictional character is one thing… to have them develop an emotional attachment to you, not another character, but YOU – Shepard, for that feeling to be reciprocated… that’s unheard of. You can't find that anywhere else. That is what made Mass Effect so unique, and why people loved the franchise like no other.
And that’s when I realized why the Endings hurt, why they still do now, and why people hate/hated them so much.
People never hated the endings because of the bad writing or the plot holes. They hated it because of how it made them feel. That’s why people still hate the endings now, and why some will never forgive Bioware. Because
they took that away from you. Because of that feeling...
As you walk toward and begin shooting that tube and An End Once And For All begins to play and you get the flashbacks of your closest friends... you're forced to destroy this unique, beautiful and personal universe,
and say goodbye in the worst possible way to all those people whom you developed this special bond with, you feel as if everything you’ve ever loved is slipping away, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Like sand sifting through tightly clenched fists."
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Personally I can't say I agree with this stance entirely. While I certainly don't enjoy how the end made me feel (and it is one of the main reasons I don't like it) I still find my bigger gripes to be the confused plot and hamfisted resolution. My fellow haters, what's you take on this?
Modifié par Greylycantrope, 26 juillet 2013 - 03:02 .
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