@jedijax: I don´t know what to tell you. In the comics he always seemed too American for me, in the MCU and in the skin of Chris Evans always seemed more an World hero.
I really love the "good person" above anything else. Most heroes are too human in their minds, they think in the consequences of their actions, the pros the cons, the MCU Cap will do the right/good thing no matter the end result.
That's refreshing, because there is good and there is bad, the middle ground, by norm, is an excuse for bad.
@jedijax: "Who cares?" Well... Me... Chris Evans' Captain America is the best portrayal of a superhero I have ever saw. I never liked Cap because of it´s representation,but in the MCU he is not a simple hero, he is the representation of honor, friendship, leadership, respect... and so on. You can change it by another actor and a new personality, and it would be the same troubled superhero with some trauma.
There are tons of superhero like that. For once I like to see a superhero who greatest strength is to be a good person.
@Slinqy: "So why would Sovereign be afraid of a galaxy that wasn't near as far evolved as the Protheans?"
Because the modus operandi of the reapers. They only show themselves at the last minute. Sovereign knew Shepard was after him, yet, he risked everything, and you know why? For the control of citadel relays. Wich was the main strategy of the reapers.
"Who Shepard really is depends on your own directive touch."
In ME1 and ME2 I agree. In ME3 you can only be the nice coward bitch, or the sarcastic coward bitch. The certainty is the coward part. Can you imagine ME1 and ME2 Shepard saying " We can´t beat them conventionally...". Even if it were true (wich it isn´t), the honorable Shepard would never say that.
In ME3 your Shepard is constricted to a role, and that role is to give meaning to the glowing kid.
"I say there was already enough momentum and enough influence at that point to keep the narrative and characters fairly strong."
I deeply agree... but that only make things more sad...You really need to be a very bad writer to destroy all the background story.
"The only real mess-ups were the ending and the heavier focus on combat."
Nah... You have the beginning (invalidating ME1 plot), you have the deus ex machina device, the fetch quests...Besides Tutchanka and Rannoch (the two missions who felt like ME), there is very little to praise...
"Hmm... Okay, I read about it..."
What you need to understand is that ME 2 (my favourite game ever until his assassination by ME 3 arrival), was a "stand alone game". In all its greatness it was a bad second game of a trilogy. That in fact is my only excuse I can grant to ME3. ME3 had to do 2 games in one.
"he would seem to be largely responsible for ME3's low-point, and not so much Walters, the lead writer."
The ending was a 2 decision process. Mac Walters and Casey Hudson. I don't need more to know who killed ME.
"Mass Effect wasn't as heavily influenced by some of the writers you're touting as the masterminds of the series as much as you think they were..."
Oh... yes it was. And yes, it was a big team and everyone give his knowledge and creativity. But there is a thing about the word team, it doesn't matters if you have the best player if your team doesn´t works. In ME1 and ME2 the talent destribution was almost perfect and everyone did their job at their very best.
In ME3 you have a nice character writer as the lead writer (great mistake), and in the end you have a "no writer" helping the wrong lead writer... too many mistakes...
"Afterall, who's to say that some of the things Karpyshyn wanted would've benefitted the series and not derailed it worse than some of Mac's post-trilogy visions? None can tell."
I´m not saying that what Drew wanted would be perfect. Even the dark energy plot has many flaws. But I have no doubt that my Paragon Shepard would be able to end as a hero... and not as a villain. That would be enough for me...
"Can you really pin the entirety of that on two men..."
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. There is no perfection. But when a mistake is made you can redeem yourself. You can apologize, you can listen and try to do some good... and on and on. What you should not do is being an arrogant prick and call your work "art".
They were the architects of their own destruction.
"Don't you think it has more to do with internal strife rather than sheer incompetence?"
No. In this case the incompetence is way too obvious...
"And by the same token, you can't pin the success of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 on Karpyshyn or L'otoile or any one writer either, which makes their departures less impacting."
Their influence and leadership was big. And they were not even in the same page when talking about understanding the narrative curse of the story. One of them was the heart/emotions of ME, the other was the brain/logic... Sadly now there are only artists.
"I place the blame for its disembowelment on Montreal..."
There are many blames, but nothing that could not be fixed... they chose not to... ME ending was a personal decision of two people. You can try to excuse them, but if you read their statements you will see that, in their minds, everything was perfect...
Really? Things like the suicide mission of Sovereign (he could have waited 2.5 years), the control of the citadel by the reapers (main strategy of control), and so on. Sorry, but I already have this descussion a lot of times.
"How was ME3 destructive of Shepard's character?"
ME1 - The soldier, the commander, the leader.
ME2 - ME1 Shepard + the family man, the hero, the honorable man.
ME3 - The whiny bitch...+ the main villain of the game.
"Actually, it was co-written by Mac Walters, who helped work on Mass Effect 2. It was also directed by Casey Hudson, the same director who'd helmed the series since the beginning."
Eheh... Do you really think that this is new to me? Yes, Supermac (Mac Walter) was involved in ME1, ME2 and ME3. But in ME1 and ME2 his writing was restricted to some characters narrative arcs, in ME3 he was the lead writer. Same thing for Hudson, he was in control of the serie, but his role as a writer is restricted to ME3 ending. So the two artists are Supermac and Hudson.
There were two great writers who leave after ME2, Chris L'etoile and Drew Karpyshyn. When they left, ME died.
"Mass Effect 3 began its production prior to the release of Mass Effect 2, which means they probably had the story from beginning to end..."
Ahhah. No... For more information search "dark energy plot". It will hep you to understand ME3 debacle.
"Andromeda was made by an entirely different branch, so you can't really compare the two"
The two heads of the snake were there, Supermac and Hudson, and they were on the lead... To me is the same thing, I don´t charge against people who are only receiving orders.
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