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

[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.