Mass Effect and Space Magic

[Radoh]

Alright so there's been a ludicrous number of people who hated Mass Effect Three's ending, right? One of the primary reasons for this is the inclusion of one "Star Child" and that the ending was all one big case of "Space Magic". What I need help with on this is someone to explain to me how this "Space Magic" is in any way different from the rest of the space magic that has been rampant throughout the entire Mass Effect series.

I mean, right off the top we've got the titular Mass Effect Fields. These things are capable of making ships have stronger shields, more potent weapons, move faster, have easier landings by reducing ship weight, and of course the instantaneous travel across a galaxy with the aid of a Mass Relay (these are also just giant Mass Effect Field Generators, so more of the space magic).

Then you have Biotics, which is more or less just many different flavors of telekinesis brought on by exposure to lyrium Eezo and proper training after that.

But my absolute favorite being the tech abilities, the real meat of the magicing. So Omni tools, a device made of light that is strapped to the arm and capable of creating tech armor (Additional armor also made out of light), Tactical drones summoned out of the ether (essentially a pet summon, Tali even named hers Chikita Vas Paus), incinerate (casting fireball), and the creation of Omni Gel (melting everything/anything down to something that can open/repair anything).

Whether any of this gets explained away in the codex I don't know, as I've never read the thing, so if someone could explain to me any of this it would be really appreciated.

 

[TimeLord]

The "Star Child" doesn't really have an explanation (that I'm aware of) for its own existence. Biotics are a biological evolution, Mass Effect technology and tech abilities are both basically science excuses.

That's the way I see it at least. I haven't diligently read the entire Codex but I have read a few articles.

 

[Radoh]

The "Star Child" doesn't really have an explanation (that I'm aware of) for its own existence. Biotics are a biological evolution, Mass Effect technology and tech abilities are both basically science excuses.

The Citadel is of the same construction as the Reapers, so if the Reapers exist and we don't mind that, why not the Star Child as simply being an AI/VI that is just waiting for someone to get in that room?

Biotics I don't really know too much on, that's why I didn't dwell too long on them in the argument, but just explaining sciency at the tech and Mass Effects, how does that not also apply to Star Child?

 

[TimeLord]

The Citadel is of the same construction as the Reapers, so if the Reapers exist and we don't mind that, why not the Star Child as simply being an AI/VI that is just waiting for someone to get in that room?

The "Star Child" is technically an AI that inhabits the Citadel.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Catalyst

So it's not really space magic, it's just more technology.

 

[Euryalus]

Mass effect fields are based around the concept of Eezo which itself is based on the actual physics concept of "exotic matter." The science behind the idea is sound...ish. As with most science fiction they take a legitimate concept and twiddle with it. Also it doesn't matter if the Mass effect fields are consistent with how things work in the real world only that they are internally consistent with the narrative world. Lord of the rings, The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, etc... all have real magic in them, but no one cries foul, because they are based upon "rules" that govern the world of the story. The God kid and the explanation of how the crucible tech works is not consistent with everything that has happened so far. Watch this video it explains really well...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

The "Star Child" is technically an AI that inhabits the Citadel.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Catalyst

So it's not really space magic, it's just more technology.

Well the existence of starchild isn't space magic. It's a simple ass-pull. Control and especially Synthesis are space magic.

 

[Smeggs]

The only true Biotics I'm aware of are the Asari. Any other race using Biotics is more of a second-hand thing. That's why you hear a few times how humans had so much trouble originally getting used to them.

Omni-gel isn't that much of a stretch, the device breaks down matter into what I always assumed to be like futuristic superglue+duct tape+neosporin. It's omni-gel, it can be used for a lot of stuff.

The Space Magic comes in not simply because of the stupid tack on of the Star Child, but because of the ridiculous, "And then the pretty green wave went out, and somehow magically turned AAAAAALL the organics into part-robot, and AAAAALL the robots into part-organic. Because why the fuck not. And then the Reapers became everybody's friends all of a sudden because hey, we're all part-robot-part-organic monstrosities, so OBVIOUSLY that means we are able to outright settle our differences in the whole galaxy with no repercussions from suddenly changing everyone's DNA, because tolerance and acceptance totally works out just like that."

It was essentially the bullshit, "AND EVERYONE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER" ending, except it was, "AND THEN EVERYONE WAS FORCED TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CHOICE, BECAUSE SHEPARD-WHO KILLED HIMSELF-BASICALLY INDOCTRINATED EVERYBODY TO BE ACCEPTING OF ALL RACES BY REWRITING EVERYTHING'S DNA AND SOMEHOW MAKING SYNTHETIC LIFE FORMS PARTLY ORGANIC, HOWEVER THE HELL THAT WORKS."

Pretty much anything else in the series can be explained with some Future-Tech mumbo-jumbo. That cannot. That will never be able to be explained realistically, because it was just stupid. Just completely stupid.

 

[Hawkeye 131]

I think one of the MANY reasons that people disliked the Catalyst so much was how it really is a deus ex machina plot element that almost literally came soaring in from left field. As for the space magic, if you want to you can find direct qoutes from Mac Walters (Lead Writer on ME3), saying something along the lines of, "Well we didn't want it to be just magic in space..." and low and behold that's essentially exactly what we received.

At no point in the entire game is it explained how either the Crucible or Catalyst actually works. There are codex entiries for the components, organizations and people that help make the Crucible but again to the best of my knowledge there was never a single codex entry or scene in the game that explicitly explains how they are able to function.

What seperates most of the other "science" in Mass Effect from the Crucible is how some of it is based on real science like the actual existence of "Dark Energy" as well as the vast majority of other "science" based phenomena in the Mass Effect universe is explained in the narrative throughout the game, (codex entiries, dialogue, NPC's etc...) Considering that it is a sci-fi game and the suspension of disbielf is very important to keep the player's level of immersion high. I think for the most part the in-game "science" is rather well constructed, implemented and perpetuated thoughout the vast majority of the trilogy up until the last 15 minutes of ME3.

-Hawk

 

[Moth_Monk]

In the Green ending, "Synthesis" we find out that...

Spoiler

USB sticks have DNA and that gets mixed with Shepard's "energy".

 

[Euryalus]

Star Timmy isn't explained.

Star Timmy? Why are we calling him that?

 

[GloatingSwine]

Alright so there's been a ludicrous number of people who hated Mass Effect Three's ending, right? One of the primary reasons for this is the inclusion of one "Star Child" and that the ending was all one big case of "Space Magic". What I need help with on this is someone to explain to me how this "Space Magic" is in any way different from the rest of the space magic that has been rampant throughout the entire Mass Effect series.

The rest of the space magic had been present throughout the entire series, was developed as part of the setting and was used consistently.

I mean that's pretty much the biggest difference there can be. Established part of the setting vs. last minute bullshit.

 

[GloatingSwine]

The only true Biotics I'm aware of are the Asari. Any other race using Biotics is more of a second-hand thing. That's why you hear a few times how humans had so much trouble originally getting used to them.

No, that's not how biotics work in Mass Effect. There's no such thing as "true" biotics and "second-hand" biotics. All biotics, including Asari*, use cybernetic implants which vastly increase the scale and power of the mass effect fields they can generate. Humans had trouble producing effective and safe implants at first, and the earlier generations had unpleasant side effects, this is a major feature of Kaiden's character in the first game.


* Asari, in fact, make the best such implants.

 

[sanquin]

"Space magic" doesn't mean "Actual magic used in the game". With space magic, people mean something that just magically happens for no apparent reason. An ass-pull. A deus ex machina. However you want to call it. How the citadel shoots a beam of light, that explodes the mass relays, that either destroys all tech, controls it or merges is together with organics, is not possible in any way from what we know of the mass effect universe before it. There is no explanation. There is no basis on anything scientific. It's just a 'the beam can do it because we tell you it can'. And that's it.

THAT'S why the starchild ending is space magic, while biotics and omni tools are not. As they do have explanations in the mass effect universe. The do have at least some basis in science.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Fiction by definition contains elements that do not exist in reality. People call shit 'space magic' pejoratively because it violates the tacit agreements between the authors and the audience concerning the rules of what is possible in the Mass Effect universe. Those rules are usually laid down in the first minutes of a story, no matter if it's fantasy, science fiction, or whatever. The tension and emotional impact in the story depends on abiding by the tacit agreements. The agreement doesn't have to be rigid or static but it does have to be respected.

Why didn't Gandalf just summon an army of Nazi Zombies From Outer Space to defeat Sauron and destroy the Rings of Power? Because he can't. That's the arrangement between us and Tolkien. You didn't sign a contract, it's just implied.

 

[Asita]

Whether any of this gets explained away in the codex I don't know, as I've never read the thing, so if someone could explain to me any of this it would be really appreciated.

They are. At length. Suffice to say that much of the technology in Mass Effect is based on a fictional material known as Element Zero, which has the unusual property of releasing dark energy that can and is used to create the eponymous Mass Effect fields, which as the name implies, effectively alter mass within them, either raising or lowering the mass of all objects within the field. This is what allows for Faster than Light travel in the universe, forms the basis of biotic abilities, allows ships the size of Sovereign to actually land, etc. The technological crux of the series revolves around the question of "What if this material existed?", and the explanations behind it was such that Mass Effect was often lauded as perhaps the most internally consistent universe Bioware had ever contributed to.

What sets the finale apart, however, is not the invocation of fictional concepts, it's the lack of explanation and that the actions involved seem too counterintuitive to fit in with the rules established in that universe. Case in point:

Spoiler: Synthesis

One of the solutions offered, and by far the most 'magicky' of the lot is 'synthesis', which via a wave of energy, rewrites all matter in the universe into some organic/synthetic hybrid. Instantly. Now, at even a glance, this requires that matter either be quite literally created from nothing, or segments of existing matter transform, in many cases requiring molecules that would not be present (See artificial constructs like the geth gaining organic compounds). Odder still, we must also assume that a human with cybernetic augmentation created a universal template which applies not only to other humans and synthetic life, but also to species with radically different physiologies (ranging from species as physically different as the jellyfish-like Hanar to species as chemically different as the Turians and Quarians...just to name a few of the sentient races encountered). Compounding issues further, the Extended Cut implies that those cybernetic enhancements were used as a template for synthetic tech that operates on the molecular level, freely combined with DNA itself. All accomplished in an instant, because of a wave of light. And that's basically the extent of the explanation the ending gets.

The full of the Crucible actually suffers from this to one extent or another, if only because of the sheer oddity of its very nature. For starters: They built it, coded it, designed every structure within it, and yet had no idea what any of its intended effect? Nobody in ANY cycle was aware of the true nature of the Catalyst, but the Crucible is designed to fundamentally change it? And what's more, it provides three radically different options for it, none of which should logically work if the Crucible was made without a working knowledge of the program through which these changes are implemented? One might very well assume the Destroy option and work around it, but even with that the execution itself is counterintuitive enough to seem to fly in the face of logic. When working properly, this option specifically targets synthetic life and doesn't so much as cause anything else to flinch...and you activate it by shooting a pipe to make it explode...that kinda implies accidental function, though the Catalyst presents it as an intentional one in addition to it being what the organics who built it believed to be the intent behind the Crucible, and which is far too specific in its targets to be lucked into.


I could go on. The short version though is that it is not the invocation of fiction that makes 'space magic', it is unexplained effects that [at least seriously threaten to] break the suspension of disbelief within a given story that makes it.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

There's this really good video on youtube that explains the difference. Draws a comparison between Star Trek's tech and Q and--oh, never mind. Someone beat me to it. You really should watch it. I loved it.

Watch this video it explains really well...