So if you know me in anything more than passing, you're probably familiar with my astounding lack of knowledge of most things pop-culture related. See, I grew up in absence of TV, and almost all of my media exposure was in the form of books and video games.
I AM getting better at it, though! This partly involves working at a media and culture magazine, and partly involves furiously catching up on Things I Need To See. Mostly shows. Occasionally movies. And on very, very rare occasions, games.
Specifically, certain very high profile games which I somehow missed.
Anyway, last weekend I went up to Boston to visit some friends who happen to possess a certain game system I lack, with a certain game I've been dying to finish for a year and a half. And as luck would have it, a certain winter storm trapped me there with little to do but finish that game.
So I'm happy to announce that in my latest round of Catching Up On Media Several Years Too Late For Anyone To Care...I finally finished Mass Effect 3.
(I know I often discuss at length the Nature and Meaning of whatever bit of media I'm analyzing, but I'm going to assume you know how Mass Effect 3 ends. I knew how it ended before I even started the first game. If it's not a spoiler to mention that Snape kills Trinity with Rosebud, this isn't a spoiler either. My point is, if you somehow avoided the colossal storm of angry nerds yelling after the game's release, and you don't want spoilers, now is your last chance to stop reading.)
(Okay, I can see you didn't. Good!)
Even after dying six or seven times in the grueling penultimate battle - even after dying several more times against the final (very weak) enemy because I had played as a Vanguard and this fight me to actually aim at something - I finished Mass Effect 3.
It was a wonderful and immensely experience, and...
(I'm now stuffing my ears with wax in preparation for the inevitable tide of Nerd Rage.)
(Speaking of Nerd Rage, I'm going to be consistently referring to Shepard as female. If that bothers you, you should probably do some serious thinking about your personal opinions on women and why you hold them.)
...I'm not counting the ending out when I say I iked it.
I can understand the problems that a lot of people had with the ending. It was imperfect. But I don’t think its flaws were nearly as serious as the bulk of the audience seems to think. All in all I’m about…80% satisfied with it.
But because the bulk of the audience seems to have developed an cultish dedication to shitting on the ending, I feel like I have to answer that.
So. Let’s talk about the 20% I didn't like.
There were two major I could see with the ending. First was the change in tone between the intense, emotional, and philosophical clash between Shepard, Anderson, and the Illusive Man and the almost serene atmosphere of the scene following it. As I saw it, this reflected nothing so much as Shepard's utter exhaustion. She's not just tired, she's so tired she can't even feel it.
That worked because the Crucible was always going to be a moment of transcendence, and to accept that sort of moment, to really understand it, we have to be at our lowest. To accept the miracle, we have to first accept that the situation is beyond our control. Mass Effect 3 is about bringing the entire galaxy to this point. That's what the Crucible is. It's a shot in the dark, a prayer, because nothing else will work - and at the end, Shepard accepts it. She can rest.
But it is a change in tone, and it's a sudden one. Jarring, even. And for some people, that can break immersion.
The other problem was that the writers didn't seem to put much thought put into what Synthesis would actually mean.
I don't have any problem with the fact that Synthesis existed. The Crucible was this Big Thing We Don’t Know What It Does, which would naturally to several options, any of which would be drastic, even transcendent moments that altered the very nature of this universe
Destroy was always going to be on the table, because that was Shepard's original goal. Control was going to be an option too, because that was the Illusive Man's goal. But both are awful! The writers did well to recognize that. Destroy doesn’t fix anything in the grand scheme - it takes care of the Reapers in the short term, but does nothing to stop them from coming back. It's not a step forward; it's a step back. A Shepard who chooses Destroy is the one who looks over the precipice, sees the new world that could be, and backs away. It's passive, and it's cowardly.
Control is worse because, to quote the main villain of Fullmetal Alchemist, the whole point of it is to CAST GOD DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS AND BECOME A PERFECT BEING. It's the height of arrogance. There is a reason Control is the Illusive Man's goal, and it's the same reason he's a villain. Sure, you can say it’s better because Shepard is better, but that’s EXACTLY THE SAME ARGUMENT THE ILLUSIVE MAN MAKES. That he deserves to rule the universe because he's BETTER than other people. Which should be a pretty big damn hint that it's wrong.
(And the less we say about Refusal, the better.)
No, the correct answer always had to be something truly transcendent. An active choice, a choice to move the world forward, but without arrogance. Synthesis was clearly supposed to be that option. It needed to be there.
But…I don’t think the writers really fully thought through what it actually entailed? Or if they did, they didn’t work hard enough to make those thought processes clear to us - basically, they got lazy.
Yes, there needed to be a moment of transcendent, universal change. But why did that moment of transcendent change SPECIFICALLY have to be the union of synthetics and organics? I’m sure there are arguments, good ones - but I’d like to see them within the actual game. And I'd ideally like to see them made by someone who ISN’T A REAPER.
I's okay though. It's okay.
I’m like 80% satisfied.
