Mass Effect 3: The Ending, Why I Loved It, and Battlestar [Redact][Galact]ica

I played Mass Effect 3. Most of the world seems to hate the ending. On the wrong side of a technocalypse featuring Tricia Helfer as a robot yet again, I adored it.

This post will detail some of why, although I don't intend to get into a detailed rebuttal of the criticisms of the ending and its apparent tonal and logical diversions from what came before - I may do so at some point, when I want to actually discuss what I thought the game and the ending was about, but this is actually more of a post about artistic intention, the purpose of authorship in a shared world, and how the meaning of an ending can vary depending on the experience of the story. A lot of these thoughts relate to my experience of hating the end of Battlestar Galactica so much I created an alternate fan-edit of the last half-season titled Battlestar Redactica. Obviously that makes for a fairly large and ironic counterpoint to my current position. ;)

Broad spoilers follow.

( Infinite shades of meaning in singular events. )

And anyway...there's what I think about that.

This post brought to you with many thanks to nightxade for letting me bounce most of these ideas off her in email form. ♥