[ SECRET POST #2041 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2041 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 125 secrets from Secret Submission Post #292.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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19. http://i.imgur.com/6DPlC.jpg

The Extended Cut explained what the original Synthesis implied but did not outright state. Your interpretation was mistaken.

As somebody whose only exposure to ME is through Video Games Awesome's playthroughs, I was initially irritated by all the ending wank, but by the extended cut and all the essays about the "Fuck You Ending", I was just really, really glad I'd never played the series, tbh. And kinda amused.

You missed out tbh. I only played the extended ending and I don't understand why people would wank about that.

Because it wasn't what THEY WANTED.

Some wanted their LI to have some great moment. Some wanted shepard to be unmistakeably alive. Some wnated Garrus to be naked. Whatever it was they didn't get, they were mad about it. As if they were ever entitled in the first place.

I mean, I hated the endings, and I'm glad they made them better, but that doesn't mean I expected the endings to be a blowjob by the games makers. And a lot seemed to expect just that.

The EC was more of what I wanted. The original endings were too confusing and vague, and endings with Shepard and the LI reuniting and all that explicitly-spelled-out crap would have been way overboard.

Fuck you ending was hilarious though. To this day I don't understand the butthurt.

The entirety of the third game was drilling in "WE ARE LOSING BADLY, OUR EVERY VICTORY COSTING US FAR TOO MUCH. THIS ONE PLAN IS THE ONLY HOPE."

So what does abandoning the one plan get you? YOU LOSE.

It makes sense. The troll way they did it was best though. So many people found it out in ways that injected the hurt right into their butt.

When I played the EC for the first time, I got the 'Fuck You' ending (which I didn't realise it was being referred to as until now lol) by mistake. I heard the catalyst out and listened to everything he had to say and then, while walking backwards towards "destroy", I shot in his direction (like I had done the first time round) and when it zoomed in on his face and his voice changed, oh my god, I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't believe shooting him in the face would make everything go so wrong. I thought it was brilliant that they put that in.

Bioware's reaction was just as butthurt, though. Like, auto-forcing the Reject ending if you so much as shoot through the Starchild's hologram because, apparently, they found out that players were firing at him out of sheer frustration? You could practically hear Bioware crying "No, YOU!"

Shooting at the hologram was how I found that ending, and honestly? I thought it was great that such and ending was added and that it could be sprung onto you in such a surprising fashion.

I don't pretend to know the motivation behind making that trigger the ending, but I honestly saw it more as an easter egg - and a hilarious one at that - than as a passive-aggressive "take that" at the fans. Then again, I got ME3 something like a week before the EC was announced, so although I had found the original ending(s) lacking, I never had the time to actively participate in the fandom's disappointment or to let said disappointment fester. It's possible that the surprise Fuck You ending was mean-spirited in intent, but I think it's also possible they just thought it would be funny or make sense that the Starchild would react to open hostility.

I agree that it's possible it's just for a lark (though I don't think it makes sense in-story - why would a hologram of an invincible intelligence older than dirt care if you're mean to it?) The surprise and the Reject ending as a whole is just one of those things that would have been pretty innocuous if part of the game from the start, but come off as suspicious after months of so many fans writing unwieldy essays about where Bioware can shove their Starchild. I can't say what was intended, but they had to knew exactly how it might come across at this point, so there's at least a dash of trollolololol going on.

(no subject)

insanenoodlyguy - 2012-08-06 21:42 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

darkmanifest - 2012-08-06 21:51 (UTC) - Expand

It was hilarious trolling on BW's part and I appreciate that. Plus, it was a good use of Liara's beacon thing, which I loved.

Honestly my favourite ending out of that mess.

Eh, some people love them, and there are still plenty of people who hate them too. Everyone's allowed their opinion.

I personally can't stand any of them except the new destroy, but if you like the old synthesis one you could just head-canon the new bits away? I know what it feels like to completely hate an ending, and it sucks, but...there's not much you can do about it either. :/

So you actually preferred that every ending seemed the same? Whatev.

so... you were okay with the series that promised you that your decisions would matter all across the three games rewarding you with... that?

THIS.

When I watched the extended cut for Synthesis, there was a shot of some husks who stopped attacking and that's what really put me off ever choosing that ending. I (maybe mistakenly) took from it that the husks become "self aware" again and that just seemed like a really traumatic experience to put someone through. I felt pretty good about the Destroy ending though.

I've seen a bit of discussion and pretty disturbing fanfiction about this, self-aware husks in agony and committing suicide and whatnot. Some of fandom finds Synthesis even creepier than Control. But I've also seen some fic that contends that they aren't conscious, just remote-controlled tools for the Reapers, so they only stopped attacking because the Reapers did. It'd be nice to have some definitive answers for that. I'm usually happy with ambiguity, but the way Synthesis was heavily implied to be the most positive of the endings (with EDI's whole "I am alive" monologue), I don't think we're supposed to wonder if it's actually some messed-up body horror tragedy.

Just imagine the wacky consequences of the husk creatures made out of two or more bodies regaining their consciousness! He's a Batarian slaver, and he's an Alliance Marine! Can they learn to live together as a single hideous mockery of flesh and machine? The sit-com writes itself!

(I doubt that’s what Bioware intended – but then, I’m not convinced they put any thought into the consequences of any of their half-baked ending ideas…)

Well, you know what? The series would have been completely ruined for me if they'd never released Extended Cut. At least you got what you wanted in the intended version of the game. You're welcome to just uninstall EC and carry on with your original interpretation. Yeah, the evac scene doesn't make sense, but I don't even care anymore. I got what I wanted. A secret like this would just stir up more of the wank you're so opposed to.

I only wish I knew why they didn't just send a shuttle to pick up the ground team. The Normandy looked ridiculous playing the role of an ambulance while intergalactic war was going on.

The Normandy is a stealth ship. Recon is what it's pretty much there for. Quick and quiet drops and extractions. Shepard's team is an important team, one who has single-handedly done more for the galaxy than any other. Also rather important people populate it.

It's because the Normandy is such an important stealth starship that I was confused about why it was doing what would have made more sense for a shuttle suited to surface combat. It bulldozing into the middle of incendiary chaos on the ground seemed a weird risk for a ship that big with so many people on it. I mean, if it was that easy, they could have avoided the whole "run" sequence and just have the Normandy drop Shepard and his team right next to the beam, right?

Plus, it's specifically said in ME2 that the Normandy SR-2 is too big to land - that's why it has a shuttle...

tbh I don't like the synthesis ending no matter how you spin it and the EC didn't change that for me. It was kind of sweet seeing EDI hug Shepard's LI though.

It made Control more interesting to me, even if it's still kind of weird in the Shepard-as-a-Reaper-lord sense.

But hey if you like short, identical, incoherent endings who am I to argue

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