Hulk liked the ME3 ending

[ultrachicken]

I'm not even going to go into them whipping out the ultimate deus ex machina at the last possible second...

Not to pick on you or anything, but I go into a bloodrage whenever this complaint is raised.

Mass Effect's namesake and opening narration establishes that humanity, and every space-faring species in the galaxy has reached their status by utilizing this technology. We later see people using hard-light interfaces, much later used to stab people. With light. The main antagonists are sentient robots sometimes kilometers long that fire massive lasers capable of instantly destroying starships and with metal hides capable of stopping basically anything, and traveling to and from dark space without relays. The crucible is first introduced as a method of inexplicably destroying the reapers.

If you check the codex, you'll find little to no explanation for these marvelous feats of technology.

So what is one of the most prominent running themes of the Mass Effect universe?

Humanity going beyond its understanding.

This is evident in how so much of the technology (mostly "prothean" tech) is incomprehensible to us, and how we are newcomers in an ancient, galactic civilization, whose politics and history go beyond us. How our enemies are, for most of the series, a complete mystery. Our spacefaring is akin to cavemen playing with fire, in that we use this tool to an extent that it becomes necessary in our lives, yet we haven't the slightest idea how it works.

So when the Crucible fired its magical explosion that destroyed all robots, or controlled the reapers, or synthesized organics and robots, not only were we warned of this type of conclusion from before we set foot on Mars, it was completely appropriate given what happened in the other games.

Because every time Shepard shanks a mook with his/her light blade, or tosses a fireball, or travels faster than light, the same kind of storytelling is being used, just on a smaller scale.

*Ahem*

I would disagree with "Hulk" regarding the prevalence of cycles in Mass Effect. I don't recall any cycles of love or revenge, only the overarching threat of another destruction of galactic civilization.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Except that the ME series was always just Space Opera popcorn flicks. Bioware just decided to try to get deep at the end. So I have no idea where he is pulling most of this from.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Space Crabs try destroy Hulk? HULK SMASH PUNY SPACE CRABS! HULK IS STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!

I wonder if that would have made Mass Effect 3 any better? Or atleast a lot shorter...

 

[Savo]

I'm not even going to go into them whipping out the ultimate deus ex machina at the last possible second...

Not to pick on you or anything, but I go into a bloodrage whenever this complaint is raised.

Mass Effect's namesake and opening narration establishes that humanity, and every space-faring species in the galaxy has reached their status by utilizing this technology. We later see people using hard-light interfaces, much later used to stab people. With light. The main antagonists are sentient robots sometimes kilometers long that fire massive lasers capable of instantly destroying starships and with metal hides capable of stopping basically anything, and traveling to and from dark space without relays. The crucible is first introduced as a method of inexplicably destroying the reapers.

If you check the codex, you'll find little to no explanation for these marvelous feats of technology.

So what is one of the most prominent running themes of the Mass Effect universe?

Humanity going beyond its understanding.

This is evident in how so much of the technology (mostly "prothean" tech) is incomprehensible to us, and how we are newcomers in an ancient, galactic civilization, whose politics and history go beyond us. How our enemies are, for most of the series, a complete mystery. Our spacefaring is akin to cavemen playing with fire, in that we use this tool to an extent that it becomes necessary in our lives, yet we haven't the slightest idea how it works.

So when the Crucible fired its magical explosion that destroyed all robots, or controlled the reapers, or synthesized organics and robots, not only were we warned of this type of conclusion from before we set foot on Mars, it was completely appropriate given what happened in the other games.

Because every time Shepard shanks a mook with his/her light blade, or tosses a fireball, or travels faster than light, the same kind of storytelling is being used, just on a smaller scale.

*Ahem*

I get what you're saying, but it doesn't make the ending any better for me personally.

See, it's not that it's unbelievable that ruins it for me. It is ridiculous even by ME standards, but it's more the fact that it's so random and out of line with the series theme of choices.

To expand a little more, let me compare the Crucible and the Catalyst. Some people didn't like the Crucible because it was a cliche super-weapon that served the purpose of cleaning up the reapers, but it didn't receive a fraction of the complaints Star-kid and his nonsense at the end did.

To me, what made the ending such a failure was that it sprung a major plot point right at the end to clear up all loose ends in one fell swoop and reduce the amount of work Bioware would have to do to create multiple endings. Bioware at least spent much of the game building up the Crucible, letting you fight for it, and then purposing it in the final battle. It's still kinda an ultimate weapon cop-out, but if feels much more natural than the ZOMGWTFHAX twist that so many people got offended at in the current ending.

Fighting for years and finally having the fate of all existence on the line and then having some kid come up to you in the last 15 minutes and say "HAI I'm the catalyst bro, let's fix all this shit with some A-grade space magic! Now coming in three colors!" is on a whole different level from "X number of years in the future, technology has advanced to where we can do all this crazy stuff that makes no scientific sense", which we have been accepting for the last three games.

It's kinda weird, both are utterly ridiculous, but I guess we just take those technology things for granted when we enjoy science fiction.

But yeah, you do raise some interesting points, it's one of the better takes on the ending I've heard lately. On another note, do you like or dislike the ending? I got the vibe that you were a fan of the ending, but you didn't explicitly say either way.