89 réponses à ce sujet

[JasonShepard]

I agree that Mass Effect does have some anti-tech messages buried in it. Heck, the only way for you to attract the attention of the local angry-gods is via Science and Technology. Investigating a certain branch of advanced technology almost always results in your researchers going insane and either worshipping it or trying to kill you. Then there's the 'Garden of Eden, Technological Dark Age' aspect of the original endings (fortunately dialled down somewhat for the EC). And, of course, there's the Catalyst and the Leviathans insisting that our own exploration of technology will result in that technology turning on us and killing us.

 

The only Sci-Fi series that I can think of that was worse was BSG - and guess where ME took a lot of its inspiration from...

 

The scientifically progressive message that I personally would have preferred is "Treat Science and Technology with respect, or else". That would have been an ending where co-operation with Synthetics was key to kicking the Reapers out, or where Reaper-research, properly conducted, provided a method of defeating them.

 

Instead we got an unknown, not-understood weapon to fight against our impossible-to-understand foes. The message that "There are things we should not know" is sadly very easy to take away from the series.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

It was Kobol.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

They were trying to figure out how to end it. This is what happens when one starts a series without having a clue about the ending. Another one is George RR Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series. I've got an ending for it written that I can send to HBO if they need a hack job. It would be glorious.

[Iakus]

I think the message is fear because it goes bad immediately once we get to Mars.

 

It stops becoming a story of science before ME1 even starts. It's a story of dependency instead.

 

And the only way to get away from that dependency seems to be ) go back in time and never go to mars or 2) destroy the galaxy and rebuild in a primitive state (like on the jungle planet where Joker lands). Either one of these doesn't encourage any real progress. The message is that we can only be safe by being unremarkable and unnoticed and never educating ourselves again to be a spacefaring species.

 

A real story of science would be one where we built our own future (like Legion wanted for his own people). But we're not allowed to do that.. ever. Apparently.

Before the ending, I think the message was to be safe, one had to go at their own pace, find your own path.  The relays weren't evil, they were simply  a trap.  Something to keep the galaxy from developing down unexpected lines, because, hey, we already have this technology lying around, why bother to learn anything new?

 

the way to "be safe" is to balance ingenuity and caution.  

 

My hope was exactly that, that the galaxy would find a way to throw off the shackles of the reapers and find their own path)s)

 

What sucked about the endings is that we overcame our dependence  on Reaper technology by becoming overly dependent on yet another piece of mysterious technology.  

[Kabooooom]

I understand that..

It's just that it goes beyond cautionary in Mass Effect. It's nihilistic. The ultimate message is that progress is dangerous.. that we should just live in ignorance and primitiveness. Else you'll gain the notice of devils and monsters. It's not a message of "caution", but outright avoidance. Else you're doomed.

That's why I think it's ultimately a story suitable for fundamentalists and rednecks. They're the people who dislike education, embrace superstition and traditionalism, fear the unknown, attack any foreign culture, and if they have their way, would sink us further into the worst kind of medieval mindset (look at ISIS).

It isn't the intent of the writers, of course, but I'm just drawing it to it's natural conclusion.

We just have a different perspective of things. Lets say that in real life, right now, there exists a hyper-advanced alien race that for some reason unknown to us, decides to wipe us out as soon as we figure out how to journey beyond our star. Lets say they succeed. Was it all worth it? Worth the curiosity? Worth the discovery?

I'd say yes, because we went extinct knowing we were not alone. So the Reapers prey on advanced civilizations...so what? Every species goes extinct sooner or later, and that isn't nihilistic, its fact. I'd rather be a species that discovered the wonders of the galaxy and then went extinct, than one that didn't and then still went extinct anyways.

[Jorji Costava]

I'm less bothered by the destruction of the relays than most people; I've always said before that one of the few things that stays consistent from game to game is the idea that we need to get over our own history, whether it's ancient racial hatreds, childhood traumas, etc. If you think of the relays as a sign of galactic civilization's attachment to its troubled past, then it makes sense that the writers would want to blow them all up at the end. Still, with the Adam and Eve imagery at the end suggesting some kind of Luddite paradise, that part of the ending does have a way of backsliding into a general anti-technology sentiment.

 

To ameliorate this regrettable state of affairs, I had an idea from way back when that eezo could have been a conflict mineral; for instance, suppose the Batarians have a disproportionate amount of the galaxy's supply, leaving most of the galaxy's eezo to be mined by slave laborers. This could have added to the sense that the relays were a troubling symbol of the galaxy's corrupt history, without necessarily suggesting that technology is bad just because it's technology, 'against nature,' or some such nonsense. This scenario also could have added to some of the game's political intrigue; for instance, it would explain why the Council is so reluctant to act against the Terminus every time they make trouble for humanity or other denizens of Council space.

[silverserfer28]

The reapers are just vessells tools to be used like remote controlled toys for the creaters,as they please| they own the whole life cycle and evrything in it,

[The Devlish Redhead]

Actually this is wrong but I am struggling with where it is said.  We have already taken the first steps of space travel and if we don't manage to kill ourselves off in the next 100 - 200 years we will be all over our own solar system and probably beyond.  We would be wiped out for just being close.  The reapers knew about us 50k years ago so our existence wouldn't be a surprise.

 

true....... but

 

The Citadel seems to be a focal point for the Reapers. Beings have to first discover that place and get all their data put in the census at the Citadel for the Reapers to work out which people to kill and which to harvest....... The whole station is a "honey trap"

 

That is why I am of the belief that Earth even 1969 Earth would have been safe..

[Excella Gionne]

I'm starting to like the idea that Shepard was some kind of space alien...

[ImaginaryMatter]

I'm starting to like the idea that Shepard was some kind of space alien...

 

It has as much legitimacy as dark energy.

[KaiserShep]

Or a hybrid like Peter Quill (Starlord). I imagine it would rustle the jimmies of the hardcore pro-human lot, which I suppose is enough reason to support it.

[The Devlish Redhead]

Yeah but under his / her skin Shepard is all cybernetic.... Might as well be a human Geth.

[Jerkules17]

Earth born Shepard has no family background so maybe he/her is some kind of alien? I kid, still aren't the other galaxies way far from the Milky way? Unless some race made a mass relay like system that connects our galaxy to another like Andromeda then maybe,but that's stretch. Kind of scary if there's something more dangerous in those galaxies that makes the reapers look like ants.     

[KaiserShep]

Yeah but under his / her skin Shepard is all cybernetic.... Might as well be a human Geth.

 

The geth wouldn't consider Shepard any more like them on account of the cybernetics, because Shepard still has an organic mind, since the brain is totally intact.

[Farangbaa]

Or a hybrid like Peter Quill (Starlord). I imagine it would rustle the jimmies of the hardcore pro-human lot, which I suppose is enough reason to support it.

 

Reaaaallly offtopic, but I went and saw Guardians of the Galaxy. I laughed, I liked the movie. But I nearly died of laughter when the credits were rolling on the screen and it said:

 

"The events of this movie are a work of fiction. The characters are ficticious and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." 

 

It was all a lie!

[The Devlish Redhead]

Reaaaallly offtopic, but I went and saw Guardians of the Galaxy. I laughed, I liked the movie. But I nearly died of laughter when the credits were rolling on the screen and it said:

 

"The events of this movie are a work of fiction. The characters are ficticious and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." 

 

It was all a lie!

 

 

That disclaimer  is at the end of every movie.

 

Why I have no idea since some movies are set in such impossible worlds....... But why the disclaimer?   ooooooo cure spooky music

[Farangbaa]

Oh I know it's at the end of every movie.. it just gets a little bit more than silly when there's walking, talking trees and racoons and green chicks