Vid: Machine [Mass Effect]

[beccatoria]

This premiered at the WisCon Vid Party last night! :D

Title: Machine
Video: Mass Effect // Bioware
Audio: Machine // Regina Spektor
Summary: The war is in your body. The future is here. The future is a machine.
Notes: Spoilers for all three games. Vid features close variations on the default FemShep model from ME1 & ME2 (due to impossibility of using prior footage with the default from 3). With many thanks to cosmic_llin for the song inspiration.

Direct download available here. 94 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to vidding and masseffect [link]

Other vids available here.

Comments

[gorgeousnerd]

OMG A MASS EFFECT FANVID YOU ARE MY NEW FAVORITE

Seriously, I can't say how perfect this is: the music, the clip choices (I'm particularly fond of FemShep/Liara, so I loved the little bits of them that snuck in), the overall emotional quality. I ended up really misty at the end, which is just how I like my ME. Thank you for sharing!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for letting me know. The music was a total gift to work with.

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

I saw this at Wiscon last night, and was all LDLKJLKJDF. Still haven't played the game yet, BUT. This made me want to get over my DIRECTIONS issues and actually play it VERY SOON.

It was totally epic (the editing, song choice, FEMALE SHEPARD, and just...everything), and there was a general consensus that we all wanted to play this game.

Hopefully, I'll have more articulate thoughts later. But for now, I just want to draw hearts all over it.:)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE AN ISABELA ICON <3

Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed it - I'm so glad I got the chance to premiere it at WisCon. Before ME3 I don't think I would have thought I could vid Mass Effect (though I know other people have), but the third game was just so cinematic, I knew I had to try and it turned out to be so much more rewarding than I'd hoped.

I'm so happy you enjoyed it and that it made you want to play the game. I want you to play the game so I can hear your thoughts on it!

I much preferred the directional radar thingy in ME2 when it literally told you what direction to walk in right now and when you got to the next corridor it would reorient itself again, so it was like satnav or whatever but then in ME3 suddenly it was this general direction thing and I was like, wtf, HOW DO I GET THERE?! So yeah, I empathise, but it was worth getting over, and once I stopped stressing about it and just started wandering around, I found that usually you can just swan off in whatever general direction the corridors are leading you and you get to where you need to be.

If you have articulate thoughts, I would, of course, love to hear them, but if not, these are more than wonderful enough already. *draws hearts all over your comment*

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

I love Isabela SO much. And well, um, pretty much all the women of Dragon Age.

Randomly, one of the best panels so far has been the Identity in Video Games panel, which I had been to right before the Vid Party, so your video really sort of brought the themes of that panel ALL together in an awesome way for me?

I mean, there are definitely OTHER themes here that are intriguing me VERY much? But I probably don't know enough about the game to comment on them in a meaningful manner, but just the realization that this story CAN be told in this medium? Very powerful. To have a female heroine that you can lead on a journey that doesn't screw her over because you ACTUALLY have agency with the narrative? Just <3.

And just the EPICNESS of the video (and Femshep!) and the realization that that's the PRIMARY story the game is telling, and of course, your own interpretation of the events is going into it, too, but it's a VALID interpretation and not one that's challenged by authorial intent to a degree it would be in other mediums, if that makes ANY sense. I can't wait to watch this again after playing the games.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most of them are pretty freaking rad. I adore Morrigan beyond words and Isabela I just want to run away with and do crime forever. Anora is really layered and interesting for a character who is essentially present in a very small part of the story. I made her queen in my first playthrough (and the one I imported into my first DA2 playthrough that I'm currently working on), then next time I made Alistair marry her. I sort of want to play through as a human noble to romance Alistair and be the queen but I'm not sure I'd have the heart to be shut Anora out in the cold. D:

I saw you mention that panel on your LJ and was immediately hugely jealous that I wouldn't get to go - I'd love to have been there, particularly in wake of the outcry over the ending. I'm sad about that for a bunch of reasons, but partly it's because it's effectively overshadowed everything else about the ending, including the role of Shepard as a character in terms of gender representation. And there are...so many things to say about that. I mean, the universe in general, while not awful at it, is hardly free of the sexualisation of women, but Shepard as a female character is fascinating in part because of, well, the fact Bioware either deliberately or due to laziness didn't even rework the motion capture for the male and female versions. She moves the same way, she says, in 99% of situations, the same lines. She physically gets up into people's space in an identical way. It's empowering and interesting in ways I didn't expect.

I've seen some people claim that she's not as much of a landmark character as Lara Croft or Samus Aran, and in some ways she isn't. It's a sad fact that most will always see her as an alternate version, not even included in official marketing until the third game (although she was included eventually because of her fan following). On the other hand, she's never been sexualised in the way Lara Croft has either. She's in the fairly unique position of being a character whose story arc we know for sure wasn't affected by her gender. And yet stars in an epic, and character-focused journey. And I agree, there's something freaking amazing about that.

And that's aside from the fact that, yeah, there are a bunch of other transhumanist and technological/scifi ideas that permeate the series that I find fascinating. This article (http://www.popbioethics.com/2012/02/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation/) (written shortly before the release of the third game) does a good job of explaining some of why I feel this way (even if I don't agree with everything he's saying. But it's an interesting argument that the Mass Effect universe is one of the few that so directly confront the ideas of cosmicism, existentialism and a potentially meaningless, godless universe. Might be worth a bookmark for the future if you find yourself enjoying the games.

In some ways I enjoy the world of Dragon Age more, and I love the NPCs more too (err, broadly speaking, exceptions exist of course!), but I love (GIRL!) Commander Shepard and the themes of the Mass Effect universe just...more than I can even express.

And now I've babbled all over you. But just, GAH, GAH, *FLAILS*. I'm just SO thrilled that you picked up on both the epicness and the, you know, validity of her existence. Because she's just there and real and AAAAAAAAAAAAAH. <3

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

It's probably the fact that I have replayed the Anora bits a million times, but my headcanon insists that she's there just as much as the companions. ;) Fandom, I believe, has also contributed much to my ever expanding love for her. And, um, I MAY have a thing for Machivellian women having political/institutional power. ;)

If it helps, Mass Effect games didn't get discussed in the panels much, so you didn't miss much. The year you are able to go, you should totally purpose and RUN a panel on Mass Effect, because that would be epic, and I'll happily be a part of that audience.

She's in the fairly unique position of being a character whose story arc we know for sure wasn't affected by her gender. And yet stars in an epic, and character-focused journey. And I agree, there's something freaking amazing about that.

I HAVE SO MANY FIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THAT. On the one hand, yes, I love that that allows her to be written as a PERSON and not a WOMAN, which, well, the fail therein is mostly that the writers tend to somehow...limit themselves when writing for WOMEN, as if we're some mysterious spieces that works COMPLETELY differently from men. On the other hand, it bugs me that the writers' default is constantly the male hero? Like, the whole fandom went all squee-y over David Gaider saying that he wrote the Fenris/Hawke romance with a Male!Hawke in mind, but I am bitter enough to have wondered if he wrote ANY part of the story with the female Hawke in mind. So, um, in theory, I am very bothered by the fact that for the writers and most of the fandom, the female heroes are the alternate version, but also happy that we can have our own headcanon. MIXED FEELINGS, like I said. ;)

In some ways I enjoy the world of Dragon Age more, and I love the NPCs more too (err, broadly speaking, exceptions exist of course!), but I love (GIRL!) Commander Shepard and the themes of the Mass Effect universe just...more than I can even express.

I suspect that I will end up agreeing with you on all of that? Because, yes, with Dragon Age, I mostly just squee over all the awesome, epic women NPCs, and while I love Hawke, I was pretty ambivalent on the warden. I am mostly just happy that I have an epic fantasy series that doesn't ignore women or feels the need to make its FANTASY world a darker place by introducing the social realism of rampant misogyny, um. Which is tragically rare.

But! That article on "Mass Effect" is awesome, and I am looking forward to playing it. And watching your video again after playing it, of course. ;)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Well, since you didn't mind me spamming you with articles, last time, there's an interesting one here - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-21-ms-effect-the-rise-of-femshep - about exactly that ambivalence regarding the strength of Shepard's gender portrayal essentially being the net result of corporate apathy rather than thoughtful intention.

I think in some ways the article takes a harsher view than I would regarding some of the issues of gender portrayal. For instance, the Asari I'd define by the contradiction between their social status as a race that conform to a sort of scifi Ancient Greek archetype - the elder matriarchs who bring democracy and science to the galaxy - and the fact that as young women they essentially all seem to find employment as psychic lesbian strippers or commandos. But, dude, they're psychic lesbian stripper commandos. Ashley I actually don't find as objectionable in the first game as they do; on the other hand, there's nothing redeemable about the way every scene with Miranda begins with a shot of her ass. Similarly, I wouldn't quite characterise the "choose official femshep's look" competition as a beauty pageant, but I that's sort of beside the point when it takes three games for them to even construct an official "canon" face for her, and they don't even use the previous default (as opposed to canon?) face when they do. At least that's a lesson they learned with Hawke. Anyway I think it's a valuable article for the way it deconstructs the notion that FemShep makes the Mass Effect Universe unproblematically feminist without negating the fact that she is an important figure in the ongoing way we negotiate female characters in video games, particularly in games where gender is a choice.

Another thing I find interesting is my own willingness to adopt "FemShep" as a moniker grew exponentially after I noticed that "BroShep" was being used to identify male Shepard with increasing frequency. I wouldn't choose "bro" or "fem" as prefixes myself, but I am pleased that, for example, the official ME twitter account does seem specify gender in both cases now.

Re: Other stuff! I was quite annoyed in DA2 when Aveline started talking about how the King had sent out a decree that she could return and take up her commission in the army again after they finished sorting out the lists of the dead from Ostagar? Like, dude, THERE IS NO KING. DON'T YOU MEAN THE QUEEN?! Gah! I hope that was just a glitch like Dead!Fenris staying at my side.

I'm sad to hear that the ME panel wasn't that great, though. I'd love to GO to a panel like you describe but wouldn't have the first clue about how to run one. I could go and ask pointed questions though! :p

It's interesting how much having a voice actor for the character makes me care more about them, I think? I'm sure part of my feeling that the Warden was a fairly blank slate stemmed from that. I didn't get a sense of consistent tone in the text dialogue choices, so instead I sort of felt like the Warden was a...window through which I was viewing and interacting with this virtual reality, and sure, making the choices I wanted to make, but still...more of a proxy automaton than a living breathing character I was inhabiting, if that makes sense?

And finally, WORD on the rarity of historical fantasies not being misogynistic FOR TEH GRIT. Cus we all know that makes them of objectively higher quality, right? *le sigh*

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to any thoughts you have on Mass Effect but I promise not to be TOO annoyingly impatient. :p

[alias_sqbr]

This is hands down the best Mass Effect fanvid I have ever seen. I got chills.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it and thanks for letting me know. Chills are awesome and humbling. ♥

[bionic.livejournal.com]

WOOOWWW. WOW!!!! That was so unbelievably amazing. Beautifully done and perfect and bittersweet and perfect. Thank you so so much for sharing. Absolutely loved this!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks! <3 I'm really glad you liked it - thanks so much for letting me know. Bittersweet was exactly the note I was striving for.

[runawaynun.livejournal.com]

Ever since I heard this song, I've wanted a vid to it. You did an amazing job with it! Even though I don't know the source material, it feels like it connects with the song so well. :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really thrilled you felt it worked given you didn't know the source, and that you think I did the song justice - as you say, it's extraordinary and just begging to be vidded.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

As you know, I don't know this source at all, but this is still just a really beautiful vid. It's so visually thoughtful, if that makes sense. Every clip choice seems to add something significant to your narrative and theme, to blur what's biological and what's technological. I love the bookends of the beginning and end, the giant creepy looking arm things clamping down at the beginning, and leaving at the end, and the spaceship among the leafy green. The whole thing is so epic and complicated and lady-driven. <3

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. The source is, well, on the one hand incredibly popular, on the other, fairly obscure in the arena I am presenting it, and I did want to at least get...I don't know, the message, the tone across to those who aren't familiar with it. It's such a potent subject for an interactive, technological piece of media to embrace, but at the same time so unusual and it does it with such a mix of body horror and transcendence... As you say, lovecraftian horrors giving way to leafy utopias. Thanks so much for being my sounding board on it. <3

(Plus we all know how I feel about lady messiahs with ambiguous technological relationships... :p)

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, incredible! This sooong, gah, so perfect, and it's a gorgeous blending of narrative/technology/biology/EVERYTHING. I have zero knowledge of who this character is, but every bit of this just builds up this complex story I can't look away from. Wow.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm so thrilled you like it and that it works even without context. The footage from this game is gorgeous and so evocative in places, I'm really glad that came through. I don't play many games, but this is one of the few I have played that have really left me with a strong sense of theme, philosophy, just...this glorious mess of ideas and questions with no clear answer. In the end, I think that was the beauty of the series for me - it gave me this beautiful, complicated world, showed me all its flaws and conflicts and then asked me what to do with it, with no clear right or wrong answer, just my own story and experience. It was arresting, even if it's also why, I think, it was not particularly popular among a lot of the fanbase.

But if I conveyed even some of that compelling build of technobiological philosophy sweeping across the galaxy and one crazy heroine in the middle of it, then...that's just freaking awesome. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it. If you ever get the chance to play the games, I definitely recommend them. ♥

[eponymous-rose.livejournal.com]

Just stumbled across this now, and holy crap this is good. A lot of things I'd always been uncomfortable with in the games' narrative suddenly clicked into place (including the ending), and now I'm looking at the series from a totally different perspective. Thank you for that! I'm often frustrated by sci-fi depictions of technological/biological struggles, because it's the future and there's not so much a sharp dividing line between organics and synthetics as there is a messy, constanty evolving techno-biological soup. This vid made me sit back and go, "Hey, Mass Effect got it right!"

Gorgeous editing, too. The "my eyes are bifocals" line is a fantastic hook in terms of editing, I love the little shudders on the low notes just as the kid is introduced, and the subtle little zooms here and there are really brilliant (loved the completion of the N7 on Legion especially). I think my favourite juxtaposition of shots would have to be that flash of the Reapers approaching the galaxy right next to the flash of Shepard approaching the synthesis beam. The song choice is so perfect, and your matching clips to the lyrics is flawless ("who just lacks my perspective", "pre-war/post-war apartment", "who covets my defects" are my faves). And I am always a fan of FemShep/Liara.

Anyway, yes, loved this very much, thank you for making it!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you - seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and detailed comment. This is just fantastic to receive. The idea that I helped provide a new perspective on the game and its ending is humbling and incredibly gratifying. I adored the ending, essentially for all the reasons you state, the way the universe embraces the messy, diverse, contradictory, continuum of the relationship between biology and technology without offering clear answers except that it's an issue that is unavoidable and important? But - obviously - a lot of people didn't see it such a positive light, and I've been on the other side of this kind of situation too - painfully, horribly let down by the end of something I loved. So, anyway, tl;dr, the point is, the idea that I helped anyone take another look at the ending with a fresh perspective is pretty much the best piece of feedback I could ever get on this vid. So thank you.

Also, I'm so glad you liked the editing. You basically picked out everything I loved! :D You're right, the lyrics and the song are just so perfect, I almost feel I can't take credit for the vid! I spent ages trying to work out how to handle the "low note" judders you mentioned. I didn't have anything there for a long time and it didn't look right. Ultimately I went with a shifting zoom-blur to mimic unfocused camera movement. I wanted subtle, but noticeable - so thanks for noticing! And yes! The N7 on "covets my defects". That was one of the earliest things I knew I wanted to do in the vid because it was too perfect not to try, but I was really unsure if I'd be able to pull off the masking. It was a little tricky but actually easier than I'd feared, I think partly down to the uniformity of computer game graphics. I actually used the N7 from Shepard's hoodie in a different shot to composite over the chestplate (resized, and stuff).

I also saw you recced this over on the dreamwidth vidrecs comm - thank you so much, it was a totally awesome rec. ♥

[settiai]

Oh, wow. This was absolutely amazing. ♥

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D And thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it!

[caramarie (from livejournal.com)]

This is an awesome vid! I love how you've contextualised that particular ending – how fitting it is, when Shepard is after all already a synth/organic combo. And you've explored those themes beautifully.

But also, the whole vid just tells a really moving story. I especially like the instrumentally sequence towards the end (and the ending overall). Even though it makes me sad (and also relieved, because my playthrough wasn't quite that sad!)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The synthetic/organic themes were always a huge part of what I loved about the franchise, particularly as they relate to, well, the nihilistic/existentialist technothreat of the reapers. It's really gratifying to hear that the vid does a good job of conveying the story I got from the series.

The instrumental sequence was interesting to vid because I knew I'd be breaking from the main themes of the vid and going more into the personal - the...emotional effect of all the voices of the dead in her dreams, I suppose. The vid is supposed to convey my experience of the game, but that's not (visually) my Shepard (I went with the original default model) and it's not quite the personal journey my Shepard got either. It took me a while to decide to do that - and what to include/leave out, but in the end I decided to go with the events I thought told the best story and had the most visual punch. I was this close to showing Tali's swandive from the cliffs because good lord that image. But given the ending I was using, I couldn't quite bring myself to vid in a way that implied peace between the Geth and Quarians was not achieved.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to comment - I very much appreciate your words! :)

[cyphomandra.livejournal.com]

This was amazing! I don't actually think I've seen a fanvid for a game before, but that didn't even occur to me until I was watching it for the third time. Perfect song choice, and so many really nice moments that remind me of the games and the decisions I made in them, while still fitting together as the story of a particular Shephard who took some different paths (having said that, I think it's actually the shot of Legion collapsing that got the most emotional reaction from me - I'm still processing that). Really well done.

(I'm playing Dragon Age for the first time now, and trying not to get resentful because it's not IN SPACE)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! \o/ I'm really glad you like it. Fanvids for games are a bit rarer, I guess because it's harder to get a wide variety of footage but YouTube has a fair few - though honestly, my experience has been that the fan trailers there are great but the fanvids aren't so awesome.

I'm so thrilled that the vid managed to convey the sense of the game without sticking to the same decisions - that was something that I was wondering about when making it. I've never vidded a game, or anything with a branching narrative before. The choices reflected in the vid aren't actually all the same choices I made, either, but I went with ones I thought fit best the tone of the vid and what I wanted to say with it, while still evoking a feel for the grand sweep of the story? I'm so happy that came across.

(And gah, Legion, yes, *wibble*).

(Also Dragon Age, I KNOWWWWW. I tend to forgive it because of Morrigan. But can you imagine the sheer awesome of MORRIGAN IN SPACE?!)

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to leave me such a thoughtful comment - I really appreciate it - sorry it took me so long to reply!

[goodbyebird]

aahhhhhhhh so I finally got to see this! And OH MY GOSH it was worth the wait! I love how you dive head first into the whole technological/organic meta. Gods, the "hooked in to machine" bits gave me shivers, and all the while we see Shepart struggling fowrard, fighting her way through all the obstacles, and the losses she suffers along the way btw thank you for not showing Tali diving off the cliff. God damn that game, killing two of my favorites within a three minute window D: The "and who covets my defects" detail is so subtle, but I hope everyone catches it because it is also made of awesome. And I love how you highlighted her relationships in the instrumentals. Just, WOW. I am downloading this for keeps. It's all mine and you can't ever have it back!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you so much! I'm so happy you liked it! It's just such a freaking perfect song, I couldn't resist using it - the lyrics, just so perfect for the themes of the series.

Also, yes! The "covets my defects" thing is one of my favorite parts of the vid - I had the idea very early on and was terrified I wouldn't be able to execute it, but it actually was slightly easier than I'd been worried about, since I found a clip with exactly the right angle for masking it in. I kind of like that it's subtle, but like you, I figure a lot of people probably miss it and its significance. So thank you for noticing. ;)

I actually thought about using Tali's swan dive, but...ultimately my heart couldn't bear it, and I felt that if there was a narrative "canon" to the vid, then it ought to stick to the make-peace option, so I used that as an excuse, even though I did want the instrumental section to highlight all the loss, and it's...such a magnificently awful/beautiful shot.

So glad it merits downloading. You can totally keep it forever! ♥

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I've finally sat down to watch a backlog of vids and I've had this one on repeat for an hour just marveling at it. It's so... eerie and disjointed and thematically sound. It puts me very, very strongly into the mindset of a Shepard who is a reluctant messiah for the synthetics because of how she's Not Quite Human anymore. There are so many lines draw between her and the synthetic characters of the games in this vid, it's so so interesting to me.

And seconding another comment in that this vid made me a lot more okay with the Synthesis ending (which I have STRONG UNHAPPY FEELS ABOUT usually).

Thank you for sharing.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you, that's a wonderfully gratifying comment to receive. I am completely thrilled that I managed to successfully draw out that theme from the footage and so happy to hear that I managed to present a version of that storyline that you found more acceptable than the original. I really loved the ending, weird as it was. I understand why people didn't, but I loved it, and a large part of the purpose of this vid was to say, "this is what I experienced," you know? So to hear that I managed to convey that in a way that made sense is pretty much the best response to this vid I could get.

Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

Probably the best compliment I can pay you is that in this vid, your Shepard felt as real as mine. Mine would never pick Synthesis because of the loss of autonomy inherent in radically changing every organic being on a cellular level without their consent. But this Shepard is wholly different and... whenever the vid draws parallels between the Reapers and her, I like to imagine that in her own way, she is as awesome and terrible as they are, and her actions can be that much bigger, so. Yeah. It worked for me so hard, though what I took away from it might not be what you intended? IDK. Loved it though.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that is a totally wonderful thing to hear. This isn't actually visually or narratively entirely my Shepard (I used the ME1 and 2 default), but it is largely representative of my Shepard's journey and experience.

You're right that the message you took from the vid aren't precisely what I intended, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I find your interpretation fascinating and brilliant.

To be honest, the chief goal I had was simply to draw out the themes that I had loved in the series all along. I was the girl who saved a bunch of sidequests until after the suicide mission in ME2 in order to make sure I got all Legion's dialogue and then died of excitement when he started talking about Dyson swarms. ;) But I know all the technological, transhumanist themes of cyborgification, of technology and ethics, came out of left field for a lot of people. It's not something I judge anyone for - hell, even though it was my favourite part of the series, it wasn't something I was expecting to be raised up as the chief conflict in the final choice either. It just thrilled rather than confused me when it was. Soooo, I made this, you know?

I think all three of the ending choices are important to be included - I think together they form a really interesting framework and I like how none of them are cleary "right" or "wrong" or even "paragon" or "renegade" though ultimately that lack of clarity after three games of clear division probably hurt them and might not have been the best choice. Ultimately, any choice you make at that point, including nothing, affects everyone in the galaxy. I found the way you were forced to make a choice, high above your pay grade, without enough information, poignant, terrifying and exhilarating.

But then again I also chuckled at the extra lines from the Catalyst in the EC with regards to synthesis where it seemed like he was trying to make the player feel better about making such a unilateral choice and I was a bit, like, "guys, I know what I'm doing, you don't need to handhold me here!" Though I did like most of the EC.

(Oh and also, just for clarity, I never got any implication from synthesis that the change meant a loss of autonomy or personality or turning everyone into the literally the same species, though it seems a lot of others believe so? If I'd thought that's what it meant, I probably would have chosen Control!)

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts - I really enjoy reading them - I hope I didn't babble too much at you. Once again, I really enjoyed hearing your response to my vid. I am genuinely always excited when people read things into my work that I didn't necessarily intend, but once I hear about, can completely understand.

[cadenzamuse.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. I don't even know if this is what Mass Effect is about: a cyborg soldier woman who angsts in a heroic way and eventually dies in a heroic way (and reincarnates as a man? maybe?), but if is, I am waaaaaaaay more likely to play it and way more interested than I ever have been!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much EXACTLY what Mass Effect is about (well except the reincarnating bit, though you're the second person who didn't know the source to wonder if that final shot was an alternate version of Shepard!), except that she becomes a cyborg as part of that journey and actually Shepard's gender, race and sexual orientation are fluid because you can choose these things as part of the game.

I'm really thrilled you enjoyed it and I definitely recommend playing it. It's a truly epic tale, with a great protagonist who manages a lot of consistent characterisation even though you get to control how she acts/reacts to things to a large degree. It's also a really interesting scifi universe with strong transhumanist and cosmicist overtones.

Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it! :D

[milly.livejournal.com]

SOOOO AMAZING.

So, I'd had this vid on my harddrive for a LONG time, I can't remember why (oh wait, I think someone sent it to Brad because they said you wanted comments, but he couldn't watch it because he hasn't finished ME3 yet, so I watched it, but then I forgot to send you comments because I'm made of fail). Anyhow, the first time I watched it was the week I finished ME3. While I had conflicted feelings about the game ending, the whole game (which I considering a 30-hour long ending, tbh) had *broken* me, and when Brad walked into the room after I finished watching it, I was bawling and going THIS SO MUCH THIS.

There were a lot of differences between your vid and my game(different romances, different deaths (I let Ashley die in ME1 okay, I'm in that apparently 3% of all players), different options, etc), but the FemShep looked so much like mine that all the emotions from the journey I had just finished (which... made me cry pretty often, I have to admit) just... poured into your vid... And then there were lots of tears on my face.

The vid is just so gorgeous, and the song choice is pure perfection. The lyric ties you made were spot-on and the innocent yet assertive voice is sooo perfect for Shep. The editing is fantastic, really highlighting the intricate musicality, and I just... want to rewatch it forever and forever.

ME3 ORIGINAL ENDING SPOILER:

I chose to destroy the Reapers, and been feeling so much guilty over EDI (I know, I know, it's just a game), so the ending of your vid really hit me :/

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you SO MUCH! (Actually, I think I got some message that you weren't sure when you'd be able to take a look via...kuwdora I think? So you didn't fail, and I wouldn't have minded if you did anyway!)

But really - I'm so thrilled that you liked the vid. I totally agree that the whole game was a huge 30 hour ending. I liked the end a lot, actually, but I understand why I wasn't in the majority with that. I definitely felt the thing broke me pretty much until I'd made this to sort of...say my piece and make my peace.

The vid doesn't actually represent my canon Shep's experiences entirely. For one thing, she looks different - as I play on XBox, I had no way of capturing the footage, so I used a ton of different online playthroughs to cap the cut scenes, using close variations on the ME1 & ME2 default FemSheps (since they changed it in ME3, but there were a lot of imported playthroughs, whereas, obvs, none for 1 & 2 with ME3 FemShep), both for recognisability and so as not to "steal" anyone's custom Shep.

Because of that, while I followed the broad strokes of my game, I went with a number of tweaked choices that I felt better reflected the tone I was going for (for instance I saved Miranda and Samara, though I immediately regretted the latter; it was her choice, I shouldn't have taken it from her).

But enough random backstage details! I really am just endlessly thrilled that the vid connected so well with you - thanks so much for letting me know. I love the way you describe the "innocent yet assertive" voice - that's just perfect. I'd never have thought to describe it that way, but when I heard it I thought it was so *her*, even though it was...pretty metaphorical and surreal and Shepard is so straightforward and direct, but you totally nailed why it works with that description.

Finally - I totally get feeling guilty about EDI. I chose Destroy on my AltShep playthrough and I honestly almost failed to make myself do it because I felt so bad about EDI. But it's what that Shepard would have done.

[violace]

Omg.
I've been keeping your vid on my hard drive for about a month, while I was playing ME3 for the first time and I've been looking forward to this all along and OMG it's perfect. I'm crying. AGAIN. This game, this fucking game. I'm all incoherent now but I wanted to let you know I loved it. Thank you so much for making this vid.

[jetpack_monkey]

I saw this vid ages ago and I don't know where and I thought it was well put together but I was... missing some element.

Then I played Mass Effect all the way through (as FemShep). HOLY FUCK THIS VID. HOLY. FUCK. THIS. VID.

I like that it's not just a game overview but takes a very specific philosophical thread that I thought was just ignored in the games -- the question of Shepard's resurrection and its effect on her humanity and what she is now.

I mean, in a game that has a lot of serious questions about machines and consciousness and the rights of survival, doing something like killing and then resurrecting your protagonist with cybernetic parts should be a huge huge thing and it just... wasn't. I mean, hell, there's dialogue saying Shepard is exactly the same with the same parts, but we saw the tech go in during the cutscenes.

I love how that particular thread informs this entire vid in the choice of song and the specific clip choices, but it's not just that. It's also about living during this massive, larger-than-the-individual conflict between machines and organics at the same time.

And and and.... *flail*

This is wonderful.

[xparrot]

I just played the games for the first time and am fanning badly and went looking for vids, and this is the first great one I've found - I'm hoping there are others, but if there are not, then this one was simply beautiful, and so much of what the game was to me - the default fShep doesn't look like mine but this was so much the story mine had, and your take on the Synthesis end seems very much like my own.

[walkthegale]

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH.

So it turns out I am maybe even less coherent about this vid than With Blood? ;)

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful gorgeous vid and it's everything we've been rambling about on twitter about the Synthesis ending and oh god it's such a fascinating vision of a future, and aaaahhhh organics and synthetics blended and left with a new and utterly open and totally different future to head into.

You've really caught how all this Shep's moments and choices lead up to her making that choice, and it's brilliant.

I love love love the moments at "eyes are bifocal, and "everything's provided", and the part with Shepard's hands, and the pre/post war apartment parts, and "upgraded daily", and the dreams fading into all the starchild stuff, and "lacks my perspective" with Shep so tiny on the cliff, and ohhhh the EDI part, and LEGION, and I am now basically listing the entire vid, aren't I? ;)
And the ENDING, with the juxtaposition of Joker and EDI, and Shepard, and how it drives home that THIS is what she has chosen, this is what she has created. <333