Guide this one, Kalahira
and she will be a companion to you
as she was to me.
Okay. Now that I have that out of my system a bit, I would like to talk about Mass Effect 3. Heavy spoilers, so don't read below the cut if you want to avoid them.
THIS GAME. I will not be joining in the outrage over the ending. Why? Well, several reasons.
This game made me smile. Made me laugh uproariously at times. This game also occasionally took my heart, ripped it from my chest, ground it into a fine paste, spread it on a piece of toast and gave back to me so I could have a nice snack. If you were not moved by Thane and by Kolyat's prayer...by Mordin's final redemption...by David Archer, counting the number of days you lengthened his life...Liara, writing your name in the stars...when Legion sacrifices himself - HIMself - so that the rest of his people could finally truly live...and when Shepard ultimately eases down besides Anderson and cries for all she's lost as her old friend and strongest supporter dies beside her...
Well, that last one at least is only fair, I've cried more over the course of this magnificent game than I have in years.
THIS.
GAME.
Most especially as I'm coming off a weeklong bender of playing all 3 games + DLCs back to back, seeing these characters' lives, and the end of some of them, is so powerful. I know people are unhappy with the ending(s), and all I have to say to them is...did you PLAY the games at all? I do support the indoctrination theory, 100%. Countless pieces of evidence back it up. The signs of indoctrination are, progressively, feeling hums or vibrations. Hearing whispers and voices. Visual hallucinations. And finally the closing off of all other paths of thought, so that the Reapers' ways look to be the only correct choices.
You ARE NOT godly. They emphasize this most especially with Morinth. Your strength of will may prevent you from dying to the Ardat-Yakshi psychic vampireness...only it doesn't, does it? You'll still die, horribly. You've gone through the whole game insisting you were just a normal soldier, not some hero. Saren thought he could merge with the Reapers. He was indoctrinated. The Illusive Man spent his last months of life trying to find a way to control the Reapers. He was indoctrinated, and the Catalyst itself (assuming you can believe the little glowy bastard) says that he wouldn't have been able to...but YOU can! Sure you can. Heard that before.
Most specifically, the Destroy option is red. Red is Renegade. Red is selfish, red kills you, your friend EDI, your strongest allies the Geth, and the mass relays...which if you played Arrival, you'd know that the mass relays being destroyed is the equivalent to a supernova. And that will happen across all relay-connected clusters, throughout the entire galaxy. You wouldn't, you couldn't kill everyone just to destroy the Reapers, could you? Especially if you were Paragon enough for your choice to matter, and you've grown accustomed to disregarding red options and looking for another way. So here. Here is another way. Control them, like TIM. Synthesize them, like Saren. Don't destroy them, like Anderson would have.
And remember, again according to Arrival, you were kept sedated for two days in the direct presence of a Reaper machine. You've been inside Reapers. You've been in front of Reapers, usually to kill them. You've immersed your consciousness inside a Reaper-controlled server. You've taken Reaper code and salvaged Reaper tech and rubbed it all over your face. Made a pile out of it and took a cozy nap, just about. The possibility that you were NOT indoctrinated is far less likely, to be perfectly honest. Of course the Reapers would put the Destroy option in an unfavorable position. True Renegades value strength and efficiency, they wouldn't destroy something if they could make use of it. True Paragons strive for accord and compromise, they wouldn't destroy something if they could redeem or convert it. Control and you will be controlled. Synthesize and you will be merged with them. Only by Destroying can you win...and that's another thing that gets emphasized in this series.
The perfect ending - which I unfortunately didn't get, even though I SUPPOSEDLY reached the criteria for it - pans over you taking a sharp breath while lying amidst rubble. Since it's not likely that you would have survived plummeting through the atmosphere, let alone impact, I choose to believe that you fought off the Reaper indoctrination and never actually left Earth. For indoctrination can be fought. Benezia, Saren and TIM (and Fai Dan if we want to bring Thorian possession into this) all broke free, at least long enough to help you or take themselves out so they couldn't hurt you. They'll only do this if given something worth fighting for. The Rachni Queen resisted indoctrination completely. Shiala had been indoctrinated, but broke from it after being absorbed by the Thorian. So, the Normandy flying off to crashland on a garden planet? Joker wouldn't have left the battle to run. Kaidan was IN MY SQUAD, it would have been impossible for him to be on the ship as well. The very fact of its illogic should be a sign - it's not real. Whatever it is, I believe that it's your unconscious desire to keep your friends safe. And it can be used to realize how unreal the situation is, and to see your loved ones again, and to gain the strength to snap out of it. To answer Joker's question after the server mission...how WOULD you know if the simulation didn't actually end, and you only thought you were back in reality? Give it enough examples of things that simply Cannot Be and hope it's enough.
And finally...one other thing this game got me to do was agree that sometimes, Renegade options can be good to take. The one against Kai Leng. The one against Han'Gerrel. Sometimes it is the best way...or at least the most satisfying.
as she was to me.
Okay. Now that I have that out of my system a bit, I would like to talk about Mass Effect 3. Heavy spoilers, so don't read below the cut if you want to avoid them.
THIS GAME. I will not be joining in the outrage over the ending. Why? Well, several reasons.
This game made me smile. Made me laugh uproariously at times. This game also occasionally took my heart, ripped it from my chest, ground it into a fine paste, spread it on a piece of toast and gave back to me so I could have a nice snack. If you were not moved by Thane and by Kolyat's prayer...by Mordin's final redemption...by David Archer, counting the number of days you lengthened his life...Liara, writing your name in the stars...when Legion sacrifices himself - HIMself - so that the rest of his people could finally truly live...and when Shepard ultimately eases down besides Anderson and cries for all she's lost as her old friend and strongest supporter dies beside her...
Well, that last one at least is only fair, I've cried more over the course of this magnificent game than I have in years.
THIS.
GAME.
Most especially as I'm coming off a weeklong bender of playing all 3 games + DLCs back to back, seeing these characters' lives, and the end of some of them, is so powerful. I know people are unhappy with the ending(s), and all I have to say to them is...did you PLAY the games at all? I do support the indoctrination theory, 100%. Countless pieces of evidence back it up. The signs of indoctrination are, progressively, feeling hums or vibrations. Hearing whispers and voices. Visual hallucinations. And finally the closing off of all other paths of thought, so that the Reapers' ways look to be the only correct choices.
You ARE NOT godly. They emphasize this most especially with Morinth. Your strength of will may prevent you from dying to the Ardat-Yakshi psychic vampireness...only it doesn't, does it? You'll still die, horribly. You've gone through the whole game insisting you were just a normal soldier, not some hero. Saren thought he could merge with the Reapers. He was indoctrinated. The Illusive Man spent his last months of life trying to find a way to control the Reapers. He was indoctrinated, and the Catalyst itself (assuming you can believe the little glowy bastard) says that he wouldn't have been able to...but YOU can! Sure you can. Heard that before.
Most specifically, the Destroy option is red. Red is Renegade. Red is selfish, red kills you, your friend EDI, your strongest allies the Geth, and the mass relays...which if you played Arrival, you'd know that the mass relays being destroyed is the equivalent to a supernova. And that will happen across all relay-connected clusters, throughout the entire galaxy. You wouldn't, you couldn't kill everyone just to destroy the Reapers, could you? Especially if you were Paragon enough for your choice to matter, and you've grown accustomed to disregarding red options and looking for another way. So here. Here is another way. Control them, like TIM. Synthesize them, like Saren. Don't destroy them, like Anderson would have.
And remember, again according to Arrival, you were kept sedated for two days in the direct presence of a Reaper machine. You've been inside Reapers. You've been in front of Reapers, usually to kill them. You've immersed your consciousness inside a Reaper-controlled server. You've taken Reaper code and salvaged Reaper tech and rubbed it all over your face. Made a pile out of it and took a cozy nap, just about. The possibility that you were NOT indoctrinated is far less likely, to be perfectly honest. Of course the Reapers would put the Destroy option in an unfavorable position. True Renegades value strength and efficiency, they wouldn't destroy something if they could make use of it. True Paragons strive for accord and compromise, they wouldn't destroy something if they could redeem or convert it. Control and you will be controlled. Synthesize and you will be merged with them. Only by Destroying can you win...and that's another thing that gets emphasized in this series.
The perfect ending - which I unfortunately didn't get, even though I SUPPOSEDLY reached the criteria for it - pans over you taking a sharp breath while lying amidst rubble. Since it's not likely that you would have survived plummeting through the atmosphere, let alone impact, I choose to believe that you fought off the Reaper indoctrination and never actually left Earth. For indoctrination can be fought. Benezia, Saren and TIM (and Fai Dan if we want to bring Thorian possession into this) all broke free, at least long enough to help you or take themselves out so they couldn't hurt you. They'll only do this if given something worth fighting for. The Rachni Queen resisted indoctrination completely. Shiala had been indoctrinated, but broke from it after being absorbed by the Thorian. So, the Normandy flying off to crashland on a garden planet? Joker wouldn't have left the battle to run. Kaidan was IN MY SQUAD, it would have been impossible for him to be on the ship as well. The very fact of its illogic should be a sign - it's not real. Whatever it is, I believe that it's your unconscious desire to keep your friends safe. And it can be used to realize how unreal the situation is, and to see your loved ones again, and to gain the strength to snap out of it. To answer Joker's question after the server mission...how WOULD you know if the simulation didn't actually end, and you only thought you were back in reality? Give it enough examples of things that simply Cannot Be and hope it's enough.
And finally...one other thing this game got me to do was agree that sometimes, Renegade options can be good to take. The one against Kai Leng. The one against Han'Gerrel. Sometimes it is the best way...or at least the most satisfying.