Further thoughts on the ME3 ending
Mar. 17th, 2012 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSpoilers!
Not feeling quite so unambiguously positive about things now. Still way happier than 99% of fandom, though.
First, and most importantly:
My version of Mass Effect 3 had 3 endings, parodying Dragon Age 2: you persuade the reapers to be nice, you seduce them, or you destroy them.
These actually match up fairly well to the control/synthesis/destroy endings, I am a genius :D (I didn't get synthesis in my playthrough but watched Cam get it)
Anyway. I still think the ending was a really good end to Gina Shepard's journey. But having read up on the other endings and people's opinions, I can see how the ending choices are really unsuited and unsatisfying for a lot of other kinds of Shepard, possibly including my m!Shep. Though the "obvious things that should have been different" do seem to vary a bit from person to person ("depressing is fine as long as it makes sense", "confusing is fine as long as it's triumphant" etc)
I wouldn't want an entirely happy ending, and if the indoctrination theory about control/synthesis is right then all I'd really change about destroy is giving it a longer ending, one that actually shows the geth dying and other consequences of your choice (and galactic readiness etc), and is less fluffy and dreamy. Yes, the geth and EDI dying is sad (if we assume the catalyst is telling the truth) but SO MANY people have already died that I don't see that it adds to the total sadness quotient that much. Victory over beings as powerful as the Reapers has to require real sacrifice to feel real to me. The people wanting Shepard to have a totally happy triumphant ending obviously experienced the story very differently to me: I felt like Shepard stopped being entirely heroic in ME2, and there was so much tragedy all through ME3 that no consistent ending could make me feel triumphant and happy.
I've been thinking about what might make for a better ending, apart from general changes like having it make more sense and having more variation depending on the choices you've made. I like the idea of somehow contacting Hacket and getting him to destroy the Citadel, with you on it. If you wanted to really go overboard, there could be a "destroy the Earth, killing all the reapers and almost all of humanity and the galaxy's armies" option.
The synthetic/organic divide is a bit…weird. I think "destroy" would make more sense if it destroyed everything based on Reaper tech, which would still kill EDI and the (now upgraded) geth, as well as Shepard herself.
Actually, yes: if the catalyst controls everything made with Reaper tech, then it can be used to destroy or control it, or spread the Reaperyness to everyone.
*realises I am thinking of reaper-i-ness like The Darkspawn Taint, lol*
So what would "synthesis" really involve? Memory is simultaneously biological, electrical, and chemical. Technology is knowledge, and knowledge is memory. HMM.
Who made the catalyst? Maybe it sees organic life as chaos and really just harvests the technological species to keep us from becoming a threat. And created organic life (the created turn on the creators)
nb, I have read enough comments from people ranting about why they hated the ending for a lifetime. I'm not saying anyone is wrong to feel that way, but I just don't feel like hearing about it right now, not in a venue like this where I have to read every comment. Talking about alternative endings is fine, just try not to harsh my squee too much. As it is I feel really unenthusiastic about making fanworks, because I feel like the fandom's too miserable to get into them. I'm hoping people come to terms with it more for the entirely selfish reason that it would make my fannish experience more pleasant, as well as because it would mean everyone being less miserable! And there's always the hope of Bioware releasing some DLC that Fixes Everything, but we'll see.
Maybe I'll make any fanworks I feel inspired about and just not post them until I feel up to dealing with the comments. It's bad enough getting "I liked this even though I hate the character/pairing etc" comments, I think "I liked this but hate the entire story it's a part of" would be quite upsetting, especially since the commenter would expect me to agree with them.
Not feeling quite so unambiguously positive about things now. Still way happier than 99% of fandom, though.
First, and most importantly:
My version of Mass Effect 3 had 3 endings, parodying Dragon Age 2: you persuade the reapers to be nice, you seduce them, or you destroy them.
These actually match up fairly well to the control/synthesis/destroy endings, I am a genius :D (I didn't get synthesis in my playthrough but watched Cam get it)
Anyway. I still think the ending was a really good end to Gina Shepard's journey. But having read up on the other endings and people's opinions, I can see how the ending choices are really unsuited and unsatisfying for a lot of other kinds of Shepard, possibly including my m!Shep. Though the "obvious things that should have been different" do seem to vary a bit from person to person ("depressing is fine as long as it makes sense", "confusing is fine as long as it's triumphant" etc)
I wouldn't want an entirely happy ending, and if the indoctrination theory about control/synthesis is right then all I'd really change about destroy is giving it a longer ending, one that actually shows the geth dying and other consequences of your choice (and galactic readiness etc), and is less fluffy and dreamy. Yes, the geth and EDI dying is sad (if we assume the catalyst is telling the truth) but SO MANY people have already died that I don't see that it adds to the total sadness quotient that much. Victory over beings as powerful as the Reapers has to require real sacrifice to feel real to me. The people wanting Shepard to have a totally happy triumphant ending obviously experienced the story very differently to me: I felt like Shepard stopped being entirely heroic in ME2, and there was so much tragedy all through ME3 that no consistent ending could make me feel triumphant and happy.
I've been thinking about what might make for a better ending, apart from general changes like having it make more sense and having more variation depending on the choices you've made. I like the idea of somehow contacting Hacket and getting him to destroy the Citadel, with you on it. If you wanted to really go overboard, there could be a "destroy the Earth, killing all the reapers and almost all of humanity and the galaxy's armies" option.
The synthetic/organic divide is a bit…weird. I think "destroy" would make more sense if it destroyed everything based on Reaper tech, which would still kill EDI and the (now upgraded) geth, as well as Shepard herself.
Actually, yes: if the catalyst controls everything made with Reaper tech, then it can be used to destroy or control it, or spread the Reaperyness to everyone.
*realises I am thinking of reaper-i-ness like The Darkspawn Taint, lol*
So what would "synthesis" really involve? Memory is simultaneously biological, electrical, and chemical. Technology is knowledge, and knowledge is memory. HMM.
Who made the catalyst? Maybe it sees organic life as chaos and really just harvests the technological species to keep us from becoming a threat. And created organic life (the created turn on the creators)
nb, I have read enough comments from people ranting about why they hated the ending for a lifetime. I'm not saying anyone is wrong to feel that way, but I just don't feel like hearing about it right now, not in a venue like this where I have to read every comment. Talking about alternative endings is fine, just try not to harsh my squee too much. As it is I feel really unenthusiastic about making fanworks, because I feel like the fandom's too miserable to get into them. I'm hoping people come to terms with it more for the entirely selfish reason that it would make my fannish experience more pleasant, as well as because it would mean everyone being less miserable! And there's always the hope of Bioware releasing some DLC that Fixes Everything, but we'll see.
Maybe I'll make any fanworks I feel inspired about and just not post them until I feel up to dealing with the comments. It's bad enough getting "I liked this even though I hate the character/pairing etc" comments, I think "I liked this but hate the entire story it's a part of" would be quite upsetting, especially since the commenter would expect me to agree with them.
