Mass Effect 3!

[Destinizish]

Late to the party!

Ok, but then where did it end? As far as I could tell, the only difference was some added FMV sequences. Did the Star Child explain things differently the first time round? As that's also what SophieChan suggested:

Spoiler

There are quite a few different FMV sequences that attempt to explain a lot of the plot holes. For example, in the original ending, your sequence was pretty much:

Shep gets beamed, shep limps through hallway, confrontation with illusive man, star child, shep dies, your crew is on a new planet, CREDITS.

So lets look at why this is strange exactly:

This entire series has had quite a few core concepts. One of the biggest most important ones is racial tension. Many races don't like each other, yet it's shep's job to unite them. Hell, all of ME3 was about this as well. It was a core concept. Organics didn't really like each other, yet they'd have to band together to fight the bigger threat.

Starchild takes this concept, completely diminishes it, and throws it in your face. It's no longer Organics vs Organics. It's Organics vs Synthetics. Not only this, in his words, it's absolutely impossible for all these races to band together. Eventually, they will also create synthetics that will revolt and kill them all. So they are doomed to a cycle.

Isn't that what Shep just proved wrong? He/She just united all of the organics AND the synthetic geth against the Reapers. Yet Starchild says, "nope. Destroy/control/combine thx."

And pretty much everything Starchild says does literally the same thing to the story in many different ways.

But lets not forget that pretty much everything else doesn't make sense, too. Why did my crew abandon the fight? Why are they running away from earth, especially after all of them talked to me all game about how they wanted to be in the fight and that they'd die there? Why are they on some abandoned planet? Are all the relays gone? If the relays are gone how did I save the galaxy? Everyone should be dead now as they can't leave earth, etc. etc.

Way too many things are unanswered about the universe. At least the remade endings attempted to explain things, then gave a slideshow of the fruits of shep's labors.

 

[Age_of_Truth]

Ok, I see why you and so many others disliked it for those reasons. But I still want to have a go at explaining why I thought it was good...

Spoiler

This entire series has had quite a few core concepts. One of the biggest most important ones is racial tension. Many races don't like each other, yet it's shep's job to unite them. Hell, all of ME3 was about this as well. It was a core concept. Organics didn't really like each other, yet they'd have to band together to fight the bigger threat.

Starchild takes this concept, completely diminishes it, and throws it in your face. It's no longer Organics vs Organics. It's Organics vs Synthetics. Not only this, in his words, it's absolutely impossible for all these races to band together. Eventually, they will also create synthetics that will revolt and kill them all. So they are doomed to a cycle.

Isn't that what Shep just proved wrong? He/She just united all of the organics AND the synthetic geth against the Reapers. Yet Starchild says, "nope. Destroy/control/combine thx."

Shepard didn't really prove anything though. There was always the risk that, by saving or promoting any of the races (Geth, Krogan, Rachni etc.), that conflict may begin anew after, or even during, the reaper threat. That's what made these choices so hard. You can assume that the Geth and Quarians won't fight again, or that the Krogan won't go about building a huge army colonising more worlds, but really you can only assume so because you want them to be true. Maybe you're right and maybe you're not.

Just because they banded together this time, in the face of a galactic threat, doesn't mean the peace will necessarily hold. What Starchild says is nothing new, in fact the warnings have been there all along. I'm not saying that all races are necessarily warmongering, but it is certainly possible. IMO, you have to accept that some of Shepard's choices may have been the wrong ones. I don't think ME was ever supposed to have been about making easy 'good' choices or evil 'bad' choices all the time.

What I'm getting at is that ME is all about tough choices, horrible choices, that normally politicians would make, but in this dire situation, it's a soldier, Shepard, who has to make these decisions on the spot, over and over. I think an early trailer for ME summed it up really well - in fact, wan't this also the title screen cutscene in ME1?

In short, Renegade doesn't equal evil, and Paragon doesn't equal good. Doing the right thing involves making tough choices, some hard line, some benevolent. And the final choice was pre-empted by a conversation between Adams and Chakwas in the mess hall if you remember (not sure what happens if either of these aren't on your crew).

Spoiler

And pretty much everything Starchild says does literally the same thing to the story in many different ways.

Can I ask why? Earlier you said the ending was written poorly, and I've seen others say the same thing on different forums, but why do you think it was poorly written, and how do the Starchild's comments affect the story negatively?

Spoiler

But lets not forget that pretty much everything else doesn't make sense, too. Why did my crew abandon the fight? Why are they running away from earth, especially after all of them talked to me all game about how they wanted to be in the fight and that they'd die there? Why are they on some abandoned planet? Are all the relays gone? If the relays are gone how did I save the galaxy? Everyone should be dead now as they can't leave earth, etc. etc.

I understand that they did add some things in the EC, and that the original version left a lot of unanswered questions. But I think the core ending remained the same either side of the DLC. Personally I don't want every single question answered, and I don't see why some people are so demanding of a total explanation.

The crew did seem to recognise some imminent damger shortly before the crucible activated; maybe hanging around would have clearly been suicide. Obviouly they cared for Shepard but they also cared for each other, and as far as they knew, Shepard had perished on Earth. You could argue that it was a way to force a little extra drama into the ending, but that's no so different to most other video game stories and endings, including the previous ME games.

The Mass Relays were destroyed in terms of being deactivated and damaged, but not blown up, as I think it said somewhere that a relay explosion would destroy the local star system. The damage is repairable, as the Starchild himself says. Those stuck on Earth will have some remaining food supplies from Earth itself and from the assembled fleets that weren't destroyed, and the same goes for other battles in star systems over Palaven and Tuchanka etc. It's not a good situation, as many won't be able to leave the given star system until the relays are repaired or rebuilt (if it's even possible), but that's better than no future at all.

Spoiler

Way too many things are unanswered about the universe. At least the remade endings attempted to explain things, then gave a slideshow of the fruits of shep's labors.

I'm not sure why so many things need to be answered, or indeed whether the slideshows really enhanced the ending. When I was watching them I thought they were good but didn't feel like they were all that important to the ending, which is why I figured that pre-EC the game must've ended much earlier, before the Starchild. The final scene does explain the important stuff, and in a really clever way that tied in beautifully with the key concepts. The important thing is you did it, you saved Earth, and you gave some life forms a chance to carry on living, depending on which outcome you chose, even though it had to come at great cost.

 

[Destinizish]

SNIIIIP

Just going to do one giant post to address things you brought up:

Spoiler

Q: Why does everything need to be explained?

A: Because it's not a short story, it's a trilogy. And beyond that, it's a story. You don't end a story without completing its plot.

I do a lot of writing myself. I'm familiar with a lot of writing tropes (hell I studied and got a degree in lit, creative writing, classics [greco-roman focus] among other things) and while I'll admit, the whole "the end is however you see it!" stuff has it's audience, I'm rather sad that it does.

Warning, this is a BIT of a personal preference rant, but it's something I really feel a lot of writers and readers need to understand: The point of a story is that it is, in itself, a complete story. Therefore, its resolution needs to be complete. There might not be an epilogue, you might not hear where the main characters end up 50 years in the future. However there's a difference with the classic works that end this way and how ME3/some of these artsy "however you think it ended!" endings that are being written recently: The main plot points are resolved in the classics.

For example, you wouldn't write a story where the main focus is a man with cancer and his struggles and then end that story with his son going off to college. You haven't resolved the main focus - this guy has cancer. Sure there may be a subplot about his son leaving for college and the fact he may never see his father again, but this wasn't the son's story. This was the father's story, so you end it focused on the father, not the subplot with the son. You had better bet that a classic about a man with cancer, ends with that man's death or survival. The subplots involving him will either be resolved or he leaves them behind when he dies (but you know the state he left them in).

ME3, however, is a trilogy. There are 3 major plot arcs. All of these arcs are interconnected, but the whole way, Shepard learns more and more about the galaxy, and he/she also causes some pretty big things to happen within the galaxy. These aren't even minor subplots anymore, as Shep has literally committed near-genocide at points. These are big issues in the scheme of things, and I'd argue that the story becomes more about the universe than it does about Shep at certain points. Yet we get a resolution that says: Shep is dead, Reapers leave, yay! But most of these major plot points are not resolved yet, hell I'd say that the only plot arc that really could have been left as is was the krogans. That was a complete plot arc on its own. I really didn't need to know what happened to them. I know what I did regardless of the choice I made, and I know what they'll be doing once the reapers are gone. If any other plot points have resolved as well, I'd have no issue. But they don't. The end of the story changes everything. Hell, you've left the entirety of the united races completely stranded by Earth if the relays are gone. And the last time you destroyed a relay? You blew up a whole system. Is THAT what you just did? Did you just kill countless races by exploding all the relays? Bioware answers that for you with: Shep is dead, reapers leave, yay!

It leaves quite a bit to be desired.


Q2: How is the starchild/ending written poorly? How does Starchild change the story completely?
A: It completely breaks all standards of the genre Bioware is writing, whilst simultaneously introducing new concepts and characters all in the final minutes of a ~100 hour journey.
I mean really, Bioware is writing in the science fiction genre. But it isn't just Sci fi. It's a space opera. Emphasis is put more on interaction and the universe than it is on the "let's go blow shit up!" side of sci fi. In other words - this isn't Starship Troopers, this is Star Trek. The thing about this genre is that everything is explained. Oh, you have hyper weaponry that shoots lasers? Here's how they work. It's all there to create a very believable environment. These universes are based around the question: What if? In ME3's case, it's What if we found a way to create and control mass based around a single element?

For the most part, ME3 pulls this off incredibly well. Their codexes explain things in great detail. It makes the universe believable, the characters are all explained well, organizations and motives all make sense.

Then we hit the final sequence:

I just got shot by a reaper beam, how am I still alive? Well, time to make my way to that beam. Why does everything look like a very dreamlike sequence? Oh hey illusive man - looks like you're indoctrinated - guess we're gonna have a conversation now.

Ok, so we've now resolved the fight on earth, we've resolved the arc of fighting cerberus, all we have to do is activate the weapon! The game should have ended here.But Bioware says no - the game won't end here. Instead, lets introduce you to a completely new character who has less lines than anyone in the series. In fact, let's make it a child. Not just anyone, but the child Shep saw on earth. And you know what? You know what would make this a great idea? Let's not explain who this character is AT ALL, but make it give Shep an ultimatum that he can't deny choosing between.

Really, I mean what the fuck is the starchild? Is it a super advanced AI? Is it the reapers? But it created the reapers! Is it a hyper intelligent being that's off in a remote place? Is it god? You know for all the "Organics vs Synthetics!" stuff it's spouting at me, I have no idea what IT is. Actually, you know what? Why in the absolute fuck did activating a plan that the protheans came up with lead me to talking with starchild? How in the hell did the protheans accidentally create a weapon that has the power to make someone a reaper overlord? How in the hell did they make something with the power to FUSE EVERY LIVING AND SYNTHETIC FORM TOGETHER IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Sorry, but suspension of disbelief got thrown out the window when you stopped explaining things, and completely threw it all in my face.

This ending just doesn't fit in their genre, nor does it follow what they've set up at all.

Point: Shep didn't prove anything though!

Counterpoint: He did, though. He united the races to fight the bigger threat. And while you're right, it's been foreshadowed that conflict will still arise - you're not right that this might not mean anything. After all - through all that effort, Shep made it to the end. And while conflicts might arise, it means they can rise above said conflicts. Shep made it to the reaper control room. Clearly, the galaxy has the will to fight any prophesized synthetics that they might create. And if they don't, then how did they beat the synthetics that the starchild created.. And again, who the fuck is the starchild?

In the end, nothing holds up, everything is far worse off once the starchild exists. I'm still not too happy with the DLC endings, because that entire ending really did ruin the credibility of their universe for me. The fact they kept it makes me pretty sad.

 

[Engared]

Then why make this comment?

I don't know. I think i got tired out from my massive nerdrage on youtube comments lol.

 

[Reave]

The Crucible was a culmination of efforts from races far older than the Protheans and the species in the current cycle. The Protheans themselves did not create it, which would explain how it can "make a Reaper overload".