On 'That Game' (Mass Effect 3)

Works: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Stoob/works

You know... *chews tobacco to create pregnant pause before spitting into spittoon* there's been lots said about Mass Effect 3, and its ending.  It received such bad press, I still feel like I'm defending it even after all this time when the subject rears its head on a forum or whatever.  MEHEM (Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod) just doesn't do it for me.  It's not canon.  Might be odd to hear that from a fan fic writer but as far as I'm concerned and I'd hope most would agree, no fan fic is canon.  'Head canon' is pointless and easily falls apart in any new instalment of a franchise, beyond subtle nuances such as filling in blanks such as a character's favourite food or whatever.

While indeed, the end to vanilla Mass Effect 3 was unsatisfying, the Extra Content DLC didn't really resolve anything, and the missions were much more briefly dealt with, I still enjoyed the game.  I commend smudboy who made the fine critique videos 'Bookends of Doom'.  He said himself that he enjoyed the game, but that's not what he was criticising, it was the story and handling of characters, particularly in the beginning and end sections (hence the name of the vids).  Suspension of disbelief is one thing, suspension of stupidity is another.

While the concepts given at the end of the game were not new, and to be honest well established themes of man vs the machines though a little more far reaching than just man in this case, they were presented badly or at very least,  not clearly.  Hindsight tells us to look to the AI siphoning credits on the Citadel, the conflict between the Geth and the Quarians, the rogue AI in ME2, and so on.  The hints are there, but the themes were quite different in the previous two titles, the whole feel was different.  Not to say that change is a bad thing, but in this case, expectation from the fans should have counted for a lot in ME3 as the final instalment of a series massive in scale and Bioware knew this very clearly but somehow just failed to deliver.

It was this furore that brought me to fan fiction, more specifically, writing it.  So unsatisfying was the finale, I wanted more.  I shall hold my hands up now and say, I am not a fan of reading fan fiction myself... again, might seem odd for me, a fan fic writer, to say so.  There is not a huge amount of 'good' fan fiction to be found.  Take a stroll through AO3 of some of your favourite franchises and behold the horror.  No, don't!  Honestly, I don't want to destroy any childhood memories.  Anyway, my point being that I went straight for writing after reading some that were just poorly written and some that give the expression of "the shit I've seen...".  I must add to that, that I don't assume mine is some of the 'good' work but some have enjoyed it by the comments and I don't think one can say fairer than that.

So yea, it turns out I still have mixed feelings on Mass Effect 3.