on Mass Effect
Apr. 3rd, 2015 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotFor years now, whenever I complained about the lack of space opera on TV (which is every other month or so - and right now is more just "why are there no shows in space at all, argh?!" - but glorious sprawling epic multi-world culture-clashing space opera is my joy) my brother's answer has always been, "PLAY MASS EFFECT!"
So last month I finally did. And now I'm a couple hours away from beating the third game, and. Yeah. This is where the space opera has gone, and it is amazing. (Doesn't hurt that of all ME's influences - which range from Star Wars to Niven's Known Space - the strongest might be my beloved Babylon 5.) Being a game, it has elements in common with both visual and literary scifi - while it has the cinematics like TV and movies, it also has a ton of background text that fleshes out the universe, explaining details of aliens and technology in a way TV can only do in tie-in books. And yes, I'm one of those geeks who has to read the entire Codex.
And it's worth it! The alien species are fascinating, and not just in the character designs - though those are great, being a video game they aren't limited to humans in makeup. (Actually the aliens look better than the humans, who tend to live in that point in the uncanny valley where their fixed-plastic features don't quiiiiiiite ruin the dramatic scenes, but it's close.) All the species have distinct, complex cultures, and the story manages that difficult trick of having alien characters who are representative of their species, and yet are also unique individuals - their personalities are shaped by the societies they were raised in, but not determined by them. So Garrus is very obviously a turian in how he thinks and acts, and yet as he admits himself he's not a very good turian. (Turians tend to be about law and order; Garrus has the "order" part down great but gets really impatient with the "law", when it's so much faster to just shoot the bad guys...)(To the surprise of no one who has ever met me, read my stuff, or been in the same city as me, Garrus is one of my favorite characters - which I knew would be true before I even played the games - but when it comes to morality I agree with him pretty much never.) And the krogan deserve special mention for being possibly the most interesting "warrior race" I've seen in any space opera - I'm usually bored by that trope, but the krogan were not what I was expecting. (I'd heard of them a little because Urdnot Wrex is the brother's favorite character; he laments the lack of a romance option. I can't blame him, I'd love to see how that would play out!) (Though I'm maybe the only ME fan whose favorite species ended up being the salarians. I don't know, I just love them, with their fast chatter and adorable salamander eyes. Also, Mordin! Mordin is an amazing character, an ethics-obsessed mad scientist pushes buttons I didn't even know I had.)
It's also an neat exploration of using a game as a storytelling medium. The advantage of storytelling with games is that they're so immersive; by the nature of game-playing you identify with the protagonists more than just about any other medium. Mass Effect uses this, among other things, to explore questions of morality - you're not just watching characters struggle with ethical decisions, but are making them yourself, personally. And the writers are very skilled at setting up complicated situations without clear right or wrong answers. Sometimes the game will give you a 'hero' type option that you can save everything - but for a lot of the big stuff there isn't any easy solution. (The brother and I spent a good couple of hours arguing about the whole krogan genophage situation...)
Conversely, Mass Effect wouldn't really work as a movie or TV show - or at least would be a significantly different experience. Not the least of which because Shepard, the protagonist, is so dependent on how you play them. Shepard is definitely not me; the character has an innate core however they're played (primarily, that they don't understand the concept of "fear". Even in abstract. Shepard's default reaction to facing civilization-destroying godlike monsters is to grab the nearest firearm and run straight toward them until close enough to do damage). But my Shepard, this hawk-nosed hard-ass heroine (I've been playing like 99% paragon, not intentionally, it's just how I go), isn't quite like anyone else's. (I don't know yet if I'll be able to read ME fic, because while the other chars are consistent and I really like a lot of them, the different Shepards might trip me up.)
And yeah, a ton's already been written about the gender dynamics in Mass Effect and the intentional and unintentional effects of making the hero's gender irrelevant to most of the story, I've got nothing to bring to that discussion - but I gotta say, it's really satisfying to see a woman saving the galaxy, no questions asked. That Shepard is a human, yeah, that raises a few intragalactic eyebrows; but the only time Shepard's sex matters in the story is in the choice of romantic partners.
(Mass Effect isn't perfect on the equality front. It's definitely trying, and even some things like the asari, who are obviously someone's blue alien women fetish, are handled a lot better than they could be. But on the other hand there's annoying stuff like how you never actually see a female turian (except apparently in the downloadable content) - even though the codex and some dialogue makes it clear that female turians serve in the military same as the males, and it's implied that they're a mostly egalitarian society. At least with the krogan and the salarians there are biological reasons why you only meet a couple of females.)
Now I just gotta do the final missions (and yeah, I've been warned about the end...which I'm already pre-emptively frustrated by, because otherwise ME3 has been my favorite of the series, the gameplay's the most streamlined but more importantly there is just SO MUCH awesome character stuff. I love all your crew talking to each other, gaaah so funny and sweet! And also a lot of the little side conversations that you keep hearing in passing have been sucking me in, I've spent a lot of time running around the Citadel going back and forth to make sure I get the whole story...)
So last month I finally did. And now I'm a couple hours away from beating the third game, and. Yeah. This is where the space opera has gone, and it is amazing. (Doesn't hurt that of all ME's influences - which range from Star Wars to Niven's Known Space - the strongest might be my beloved Babylon 5.) Being a game, it has elements in common with both visual and literary scifi - while it has the cinematics like TV and movies, it also has a ton of background text that fleshes out the universe, explaining details of aliens and technology in a way TV can only do in tie-in books. And yes, I'm one of those geeks who has to read the entire Codex.
And it's worth it! The alien species are fascinating, and not just in the character designs - though those are great, being a video game they aren't limited to humans in makeup. (Actually the aliens look better than the humans, who tend to live in that point in the uncanny valley where their fixed-plastic features don't quiiiiiiite ruin the dramatic scenes, but it's close.) All the species have distinct, complex cultures, and the story manages that difficult trick of having alien characters who are representative of their species, and yet are also unique individuals - their personalities are shaped by the societies they were raised in, but not determined by them. So Garrus is very obviously a turian in how he thinks and acts, and yet as he admits himself he's not a very good turian. (Turians tend to be about law and order; Garrus has the "order" part down great but gets really impatient with the "law", when it's so much faster to just shoot the bad guys...)(To the surprise of no one who has ever met me, read my stuff, or been in the same city as me, Garrus is one of my favorite characters - which I knew would be true before I even played the games - but when it comes to morality I agree with him pretty much never.) And the krogan deserve special mention for being possibly the most interesting "warrior race" I've seen in any space opera - I'm usually bored by that trope, but the krogan were not what I was expecting. (I'd heard of them a little because Urdnot Wrex is the brother's favorite character; he laments the lack of a romance option. I can't blame him, I'd love to see how that would play out!) (Though I'm maybe the only ME fan whose favorite species ended up being the salarians. I don't know, I just love them, with their fast chatter and adorable salamander eyes. Also, Mordin! Mordin is an amazing character, an ethics-obsessed mad scientist pushes buttons I didn't even know I had.)
It's also an neat exploration of using a game as a storytelling medium. The advantage of storytelling with games is that they're so immersive; by the nature of game-playing you identify with the protagonists more than just about any other medium. Mass Effect uses this, among other things, to explore questions of morality - you're not just watching characters struggle with ethical decisions, but are making them yourself, personally. And the writers are very skilled at setting up complicated situations without clear right or wrong answers. Sometimes the game will give you a 'hero' type option that you can save everything - but for a lot of the big stuff there isn't any easy solution. (The brother and I spent a good couple of hours arguing about the whole krogan genophage situation...)
Conversely, Mass Effect wouldn't really work as a movie or TV show - or at least would be a significantly different experience. Not the least of which because Shepard, the protagonist, is so dependent on how you play them. Shepard is definitely not me; the character has an innate core however they're played (primarily, that they don't understand the concept of "fear". Even in abstract. Shepard's default reaction to facing civilization-destroying godlike monsters is to grab the nearest firearm and run straight toward them until close enough to do damage). But my Shepard, this hawk-nosed hard-ass heroine (I've been playing like 99% paragon, not intentionally, it's just how I go), isn't quite like anyone else's. (I don't know yet if I'll be able to read ME fic, because while the other chars are consistent and I really like a lot of them, the different Shepards might trip me up.)
And yeah, a ton's already been written about the gender dynamics in Mass Effect and the intentional and unintentional effects of making the hero's gender irrelevant to most of the story, I've got nothing to bring to that discussion - but I gotta say, it's really satisfying to see a woman saving the galaxy, no questions asked. That Shepard is a human, yeah, that raises a few intragalactic eyebrows; but the only time Shepard's sex matters in the story is in the choice of romantic partners.
(Mass Effect isn't perfect on the equality front. It's definitely trying, and even some things like the asari, who are obviously someone's blue alien women fetish, are handled a lot better than they could be. But on the other hand there's annoying stuff like how you never actually see a female turian (except apparently in the downloadable content) - even though the codex and some dialogue makes it clear that female turians serve in the military same as the males, and it's implied that they're a mostly egalitarian society. At least with the krogan and the salarians there are biological reasons why you only meet a couple of females.)
Now I just gotta do the final missions (and yeah, I've been warned about the end...which I'm already pre-emptively frustrated by, because otherwise ME3 has been my favorite of the series, the gameplay's the most streamlined but more importantly there is just SO MUCH awesome character stuff. I love all your crew talking to each other, gaaah so funny and sweet! And also a lot of the little side conversations that you keep hearing in passing have been sucking me in, I've spent a lot of time running around the Citadel going back and forth to make sure I get the whole story...)
