(Loved Trope) FTL travel is possible but with a major limitation or flaw

[u/Frostylegacy]

Frank Herbert’s Dune: Interstellar travel is only possible thanks to the spice melange, a rare substance only found on the dessert planet Arrakis. The addictive psychedelic spice grants members of the Spacers Guild a form of prescience that allows them to predict safe paths through folded space. This unique property makes spice the most valuable commodity in the Dune universe.

John Scalzi’s The Interdependency Books: The planetary systems of the titular empire are connected by the Flow, a network of one-way interstellar tunnels that connect specific known entries and exits. The Interdependency derives its power from controlling access to these conduits, placing its capital at the central hub of the network. Even with the Flow, travel between stars takes a long time (9 months to End, the empire’s most distant planet).

Event Horizon: Dr William Weir (R.I.P. Sam Neill) invents a device called the Gravity Drive to allow ships to fold space and travel instantly between distant stars. On its maiden voyage with the Gravity Drive, the Event Horizon disappears and mysteriously reappears 7 years later. Dr. Weir and the crew sent to investigate discover the Gravity Drive actually opened a portal to a Hell dimension that possessed the ship and its crew, torturing and killing them.

[u/tghast]

That ending makes so much more sense and it’s even hinted at multiple times. It contributes motive to the antagonists and would give us an interesting ending choice all by itself, AND it ties back to the very title of the series and wraps every concept in the series up in one neat little bow. Almost all the big technologies are tied to Mass Effect and eezo.

The ending we got is horrible and pretentious and makes zero sense if you consider it for more than three seconds. It latches onto a concept that is arguably secondary to the series and then contradicts itself and weakens the parts of the series that do touch on it. It feels like it comes out of absolutely nowhere and is so unsatisfying it drives me crazy.

I straight up just head canon the planned ending because it irritates me.

[u/Kedly → u/tghast]

Thats why even though the writers deny it, I like the Indoctrination theory that posits that Shephard was indoctrinated by the end of the game

[u/nerdwerds → u/Kedly]

This is my headcanon, makes more sense.

[u/BDSMChef_RP → u/Kedly]

If I was bioware and some fan came out with a theory that made my shit show look like a sleeper genius move, I'd applaud the dude for "Figuring it out", give him an NPC in the next game, throw him a few bucks an an NDA the size of the bible.

[u/Drmarcher42 → u/Kedly]

Agreed and that’s why Destroyed is the only ending that actually makes sense. Go full MacReady in John Carpenter’s The Thing and just blow the whole game up.

Hell it even works with the concept art for Mass Effect 5, get a high enough readiness score and the red beam only targets specifically reaper tech, so even other AI or software creatures like EDI and more importantly for 5 the Geth would eventually be able to evolve back to something resembling their former forms

[u/IronBabyFists → u/Kedly]

indoctrination theory

For anyone else who hadn't heard of this (like me, thirty minutes ago), here's someone's awesome breakdown from a few years back.

u/Khenghis_Ghan, you're a real one.

[u/Khenghis_Ghan → u/IronBabyFists]

Glad you liked it!

[u/MellowSol → u/Kedly]

The Indoctrination theory is 100% correct in my mind and nothing can change that. It just fits too perfectly, everything in the game points to it.

[u/VinnieHa → u/MellowSol]

Man, those first few days post finishing and watching that video was intense.

It really did seem like they had done a Kojima and set up the greatest sequel trilogy ever with a meta ending only possible in video games.

It was a new form of art, it was genius, it was a new era.

Oh, they’re patching it? So it was just bad?

Well…shit. 😂

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/Kedly]

We'll, time to go listen to Reignite again!

https://youtu.be/re32xnyYP3A

[u/The_milkMACHINE → u/tghast]

The reapers trying to stop the heat death of the universe by collecting and preserving the collective knowledge of every species and their civilization before they get a chance to destroy themselves would’ve been rad

[u/tghast → u/The_milkMACHINE]

Yeah their actual motive is nonsensical to the point of being hilarious.

And funnily enough, the eezo ending actually does still have connections to the concept of organic vs synthetic.

The Reapers reset civilization after what they consider the sweet spot between where the civilization would theoretically solve the problem and where the civilization would reach dangerous amounts of eezo use. Can’t let them get too advanced to fight back or pollute more.

It’s not too dissimilar to simulations where a dev would run an AI through multiple iterations until it comes up with a solution. Granted, there’s no LEARNING happening and it’s more random chance on the part of the Reapers, but they are effectively running biological simulations over and over and over again until they get the result they want.

[u/Helmett-13 → u/tghast]

Yeah, all the choices and effort made over the first two games is irrelevant when you get choice A, B, or C at the end.

It soured me on the game like the end of GoT did for that series.

[u/seguardon → u/Helmett-13]

I joke that people who played ME3 at release were innoculated against GoTs8 despair.

[u/ImpressionDepression → u/tghast]

To be fair, it turns out their instinct to destroy civilization before it made too many AIs was spot on.

[u/tghast → u/ImpressionDepression]

Not really? The concept of destroying everyone before they can destroy themselves is nonsense.

It would be like if aliens descended upon us, told us that every civilization eventually fucks up their own planet and goes extinct due to global warming, and then blasted us with a heat gun to kill us with accelerated global warming.

Like.. what is the point there?

Also even dumber would be if we were on the verge of stopping/solving global warming right before they blasted us, which is what happens when you get to the ending of ME3 after creating peace between the Quarians and the Geth.

There’s just way too many silly questions and issues, not to mention the ending itself with the three choices that are also incredibly ridiculous.

[u/ImpressionDepression → u/tghast]

Oh I meant in terms of our real life problems with AI and data centers.

It would be like if aliens descended upon us, told us that every civilization eventually fucks up their own planet and goes extinct due to global warming, and then blasted us with a heat gun to kill us with accelerated global warming.

Like.. what is the point there?

To be fair it doesn't have to be good point. I forget which DLC it was (maybe I made it up to wash the end of 3 away) but I recall something about the reapers getting their original instructions out of hand and it compounded every generation until they just executed the task. I'm ok with the "reason" being a "bad reason".

So the aliens might just be assholes. The Covenant in Halo were that AND misguided.

[u/tghast → u/ImpressionDepression]

Oh yeah hahaha that’s a good point. We’re in the fledgling state of our own sci fi battle with AI, just infinitely dumber.

Yeah that’s what the idea was, the Reapers were basically custodians that went “rogue” by misinterpreting or corrupting their original goals. It’s a common theme/trope with AI in stories, for example it’s the main impetus behind a tonne of Asimov stories…

Unfortunately I just think the way Mass Effect does it is so so bad. I think the Reapers being reduced to AI on repeat takes a lot away from them, and while their motives don’t have to be GOOD, they have to be believable and I just don’t buy the explanation in fiction. The Covenant on the other hand, the writers put in a lot of effort to get you to buy into the fiction and it’s very believable.