Art causing pain

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

I think the people complaining about how the choices you made were irrelevant with how the game ended isn't too familiar with life in general. I'm not saying that to be a condescending douche, but like life this is game is about choices.

And life is what happens when you make other plans to paraphrase an old saying. How many times have you personally in life set up plans and things in motion so down the road something would happen only to have something come up later and ruin everything you've set up in the past?

Same thing happened here.

So yeah shepherd made all these choices which at the time was the best he/she could do in a crappy situation. Sure in those instances it led to peace, or a resolution for future relations without war between former enemies, etc, BUT when you got to the end of the game you had three choices and you had to make the best choice you could with your limited options.

So I'm not saying there shouldn't have been a happy ending, or whatever, but sometimes life and the choices you're left with don't work out that way.

Sometimes you just get dealt a ****ty hand no matter what you've done, and you have to make the best of a ****ty situation. Shepherd had to worry about saving the entirety of the universe with only three options. The alternative was to do nothing and let everything die.

Sometimes life just sucks like that

I'm guessing they didn't put a final pin in the other characters because they wanted to continue the story via DLC for the future. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but if they closed the book on the franchise and characters then they close the book on any future DLC/game play. I'm not saying I want to pay for an ending, but if it means I get to continue the adventures of the Mass Effect universe (this is the last 'game' after all) for some time to come via DLC, it's a small price to pay.

I'm not saying the ending was good, or the ending was bad, but sometimes like life things don't end the way we plan on it

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I might expand on this in a bit, but right now Ima see if I can convince Cipher into a game.

HA! Good luck on that. I've had that conversation, he's already made his mind up.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

spoilerz, I guess...



Thing is, TAG, Shepard's fate is what "hurts" me least about the finale. It's tragic, I wish a happy ending had been possible, and I don't think this ending fits the story (Shepard is really not a tragic hero), but it's at least tragic in a way that tugs at your heart without stomping it on the floor. It's the utter devastation and isolation of everyone else in the freaking universe that hurts so much.

I dunno, we're kinda getting into specific discussion rather than general like I was hoping for, but maybe that question's been answered.

[clashcityrocker10]

I don't understand why people say this. Did you miss out on some hugs growing up?

If you look at a lot of very important works of art, especially those from the last century or so, they're made by people who have rather depressing life stories. I would go so far as to say that depressing/tragic works of art end up involving the artist much more than happy ones. If I was to hazard a guess as to why this is the case, I'd say that many artists with a more depressive slant to their works have less people around them. Misery may love company, but company sure as hell doesn't love misery. Whereas "happy" artists have people around them to express positive emotions with, "sad" artists don't have as many (of course, when discussing people around an artist, I'm referring to meaningful connections, superficial relationships don't count). The "sad" artist can be much more engrossed in his or her work, leading to a piece that's much more thought-provoking.

I think it's important that art can be an outlet to express negative emotions. It's a way to connect and a relatively safe way to express such emotions.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Yeah that makes sense, but actually preferring tragedy to happiness seems...well, tragic to me. With the exception of actual, direct abuse, I feel like I could accurately say that my childhood was no bowl of cherries either, yet my writings run the gamut of 'positive' and 'negative' emotions, and I'd say nothing has a Cruel Twist Ending (disclosure: Mass Effect 3 wasn't listed on that page until I added it). I guess I ascribe to the philosophy of "Everybody knows life kinda sucks, why can't a fictional story cheer you up?"

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

Yeah without going into specifics no matter what ending you got things do look dire. However the game has built up the fact that one Reaper can wipe out an entire planet, so when thousands of them show up you have to know that devastating things are going to happen.

I wasn't expecting a happy ending (actually I was expecting shepherd and the entire crew to go down stopping the Reapers), so maybe I was a little prepared for the downer nature of the endings.

BUT even with everything in disarray there is still life. Sure it'll be hard but it's a new beginning for everything so to speak and as long as there is life there's a way. It might not be happy, it might end badly, but at least there's the chance to continue living.

The option of doing nothing (which wasn't an option of course) would have ended everything. At least with shepherd making a choice, then there is a chance for life to go on and find a way to flourish again.