You can read part 1 of this three-part quasi epic here.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS and SPOILERS.
To explain, I have to not only delve into the lore set up by the three games, but also the DLC, and ending itself. If you've missed any of that, you've been fairly warned. Here there be spoilers, matey.
SPOILERS, DAMN YOU.
Ok. Are the uninitiated gone? I hope so.
Shepard might object, but the Reaper's greatest evil achievement was spoiling the end to Harry Potter and the Eezo Escalator for the rest of the galaxy.
The Mass Effect 3 ending, to me as a writer, is guilty of five crimes. The associated charges are, in ascending fuk-da-space-police order:
CRIME ONE: Reckless Abandonment of Established Tone
We're going in. first off, let's tackle the first charge. There's already some interesting theories (interesting here ranging from thought provoking to ass-slapping insanity) concerning the nature of the ending and how it was presented. Was it a dream? Was it a hallucination? Was it the metaphysical world touching the physical as Shepard ascended to the ranks of legends? Was it all the fan-fic of Dr. Archer's autistic brother-turned-heavy-metal-album-cover? I would offer the following:
Does it even remotely fucking matter?
Seriously. Let's step away from endorsing any one theory for a second here. This is Mass Effect, not Inception. The finale should be at least concise enough to let us sit back and enjoy it. If there are any lingering questions, NONE of them should ever be “wait, was that real or not?”. The tonal shift was such a 180 from how the game, and its predecessors, presented the narrative. One could argue that this was hinted at with the recurring nightmare Shepard experiences, but I call bullshit. Those could be easily- and rightly – construed as they seemed to be used; they were contextual pieces offering insight into Shepards deteriorating state. That's his guilt. That's the very real and very identifiable reflections of what Shepard believes to be his failure, and yet another flagstone on the long road that's lead him to stand up and fight the Reapers. This child died, and there's nothing I can do about it, but I can and WILL do something for the rest.
By switching over to such a vague and muddled presentation, the story stops cold while the audience attempts to figure out what's what. What's worse, is that the lovely filters and visual cues do not carry over into what happens next, which is all presented in the stark clarity and YES THIS IS HAPPENING NOW of the rest of the game. No matter how you slice it, even with all the examples of mental trickery and plot revelation used by the Reapers, Asari, and Rachni, this shift is counter to what the players have come to already accept as the established format for delivering basic character interaction, let alone the critical moment that concludes the entire tale. More importantly, the nature of the delivery STILL has no impact on what happens after, as the tone then slams back into what we're all familiar with.
Hi there. I'm Reality. We had an appointment?
Dream, hallucination... I'm the guy with the gun and the puzzled look on his face. Mass Effect delivered a Sci-Fi war epic, not an allegory or a metaphor or strange thought experiment, so why does the ending need to? It doesn't. Period. If I want to appreciate that kind of gameplay, I'll fire up Jacob's Ladder Funtime Experience (better with Kinect!) or The Freudian Adventures on Wii. Not surprisingly, the whole “shake your remote to sexually fantasize about your mother” minigame is disturbing enough, but at least there's a “repress” function to clear save data.
Oh God it that my mom? Naked? In hi-def?! I... I don't want to play anymore.
In short, the work should speak clearly and concisely, given that is how you've presented it. Mass Effect was never a supernatural or cerebral experience, and should not even be construed as taking on those aspects unless you give clearer indication. See also: Dallas, St. Elsewhere, etc. It is not the job of the audience to discern your motives or meanings when you randomly change perspective and tone. That's basic creative writing.
CRIME TWO: Abuse and Abandonment of Narrative
Next, let's talk about charge numero dos: the ending was counter to the narrative. This is where I have the hardest time understanding why the people who enjoy the ending are comfortable. This to me is such a sin of writing versus what's come before that I might just have to start a religion centered around declaring it anathema.
I might do that anyway. The cash intake would be... substantial.
This has to do a bit with the tonal shift, but mostly focuses on the story as it was delivered to us, and what the viewer is supposed to take away from it. At this point, it's no surprise to me at all that the game, including advertisements, are so focused on London. While I'm not accusing the writers of drawing exact parallels, if they did not have WW2 in the backs of their minds for some of the key set pieces and story developments, I'll eat my laptop. The galaxy itself feels like Bastogne. You're beset on all side by the enemy, and even the leisurely act of scanning planets is no longer a safe prospect.
The upshot? No more lines on the Underground! Silver lining, kids.
The war plays out like the greatest hits of an Ambrose novel. We have capitulation and collaborators (knowing and unknowing), Allies that too often work at cross-purposes until they are united in the face of utter annihilation, a monolithic threat that is winning victories with seeming ease or little to no active resistance, revelations of mass atrocities and genocide, refugees trying to flee and realizing that there's no where to flee to, drives for soldier recruitment and utilizing the press to push the importance of fighting and resisting ,and the ever present macguffin of technology that could prove the key to ending the great war.
Hell, even the Turian moon mission plays out more like the trenches then a Sci-Fi lazer-war.
Then, you have the culminating final push across – you guessed it – a “no'mans land” in a futuristic London that looks like it's been through a very past-tense Blitz. I approve, I applaud, and I was reasonably hooked. That last fight to the convenient teleportation beam (seriously, it's a small gripe, but WHO leaves a teleportation beam in the ON position when it's not in use?) was one of the most satisfying and pulse-racing experiences I've had in a videogame in a long time, augmented by the very real pathos of speaking to all those you knew, and perhaps loved, for what could very well be the last time. Sci-fi trappings aside, Mass Effect 3's narrative was one we've seen played out countless times. This is your world, the one you love and know, turned upside down by war and invasion, and it is up to YOU to fight back. In the face of staggering odds, betrayal, and loss, it falls to you, as Shepard, to push back this menace and end this war- break the cycle of death and entropy that pushed us to this brink.
All of this erudition finally funnels you into a literal 100 yard dash for the goal. Even after things seem to fall apart, Shepard shambles to his feet, more battered and bloody then we've ever seen him, and with only pistol in hand he pushes through to that beam because the war needs to end. The horrors need to stop. Here in London is the wish fulfillment of the British from past-Earth, who suffered and held out and hoped and prayed in the face of their destruction. Here, in London, is the promise to the galaxy kept: trust in Shepard, and we WILL prevail over the Reapers. Every promotional ad, every pre-release interview and special, and every second of the trailers has pushed us collectively to this point. We WILL win. We WILL beat the Reapers. WE WILL TAKE EARTH BACK. UP YOURS, REAPERS! VIVA LA OMNI-BLADE RESISTANCE!
Mothafuckin'. Laser. Sword. Arm. Bring it, Harbinger.
Shepard steps into the beam, deals with more nightmarish imagery and the (possible) death of yet another dear friend, and then... and then...
We're presented with well... some call it the “God” of Mass effect, some call it the “Sentience of the Galaxy”, but I simply call it utter nonsensical deus ex machina in the most literal sense of the phrase. The final conflict, or whatever Shepard's heroism or sacrifice might be in this struggle, is reduced to three choices in a room that, not so subtly, is patterned after the conversation wheel you've been utilizing this entire franchise. Your taking back of Earth, or failure to do so, is not hinged on some boss battle, or even a cathartic expression of a massive ground battle, or even that final agonizing push through to the goal and the slamming of a button. The war, and everything about it, is now all about eenie, meenie, miney, moe.
...the fuck?
Get used to this pose. It happens a lot from here on in.
Again, this might be simply a matter of stylistic choice. That's fine, and would be completely adequate (if not satisfying) if the narrative was leading us down this path. It wasn't. Not in the slightest. Not even remotely. This is an 11th hour bait-and-switch, and smacks of either trying to hard to be clever, or simply running out of time to craft an ending schematic that gelled with the established thematic copy. I don't think the latter's what happened, given that we are asked to believe (via interviews) that this ending was on the table since the initial script-writing of ME1. Ok, fine. Somewhere, along the way, the right hand completely forgot about whatever the hell the left hand was supposed to be doing.
Moreover, and as for the macguffin side of the narrative – the Catalyst – fine. I get it. The reveal on the Crucible was the first sign of something problematic to me, but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt. We get the Catalyst, we finish the super weapon, we win the war. Again, I'm just seeing slight nods to past takes on WW2. To reveal what the Catalyst was is a fine piece of what you need the narrative to do. To do a FURTHER reveal, once that effectively retcons and makes the player forget the impact of the first reveal, isn't a clever twist. It's broken writing.
It's been argued by another reviewer that ME3 plays it safe and doesn't risk raising any new questions. I disagree. The narrative raises plenty, and all are true to form for the MEU. The ending, however, raises TOO many that were not even hinted at previously, and offers no explanation or apology for it. This isn't the real-life equivalent of “some mysteries remain mysteries”. This is the “I have no idea what you are talking about, and it doesn't even relate to what we were just discussing five minutes ago” brand of storytelling that I would never have expected of such a solid team of wordsmiths. And because those questions are raised...
---Continues in in Part Three: Revenge of the Return of the Son of This article.
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