{"id":45960,"date":"2019-03-19T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=45960"},"modified":"2019-03-22T17:28:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T21:28:45","slug":"andromeda-part-22-actually-meridian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=45960","title":{"rendered":"Andromeda Part 22: Actually Meridian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plan is for Ryder to return to the control center from the previous mission. I realize this is a very<\/strong> minor pointParticularly in a story as troubled as this one.<\/span> but it feels strange to come back here so soon after our last big visit. Imagine if the Enterprise crew had their meeting with V’ger, left, and then turned around and came back for a few more words. Imagine if Neo turned around and visited the Oracle a few minutes after his first visit. It’s not wrong<\/strong> or anything, but it seems like an odd way to pace the story. I’d never thought about it before, but it does seem like casually re-visiting the mysterious location of revelation takes some of the mystique out of it. It’s less that I’m bothered that Andromeda does this, and more curious how it made me notice that other stories don’t<\/strong> do this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

At any rate, Ryder is here to release a bunch of Remnant robots.\u00a0The robots will fly through the currents of the scourge, and we can follow them to Meridian. I’m not sure why small robots traveling for ten minutes would arrive at the same location as a planetoid that’s been cruising for centuries through the ever-shifting scourge, but it seems to work out.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

This is where the Archon springs his trap. He begins talking to Ryder through her SAM implant. He monologues at you for a bit, saying things like, “FALL TO DARKNESS, PATHFINDER. YOU WERE ALMOST WORTHY.” (The subtitles aren’t in all caps, but the line delivery is. This guy sounds exactly like Harbinger in Mass Effect 2, including the same pitch-shifted reverb vocal FX.) Then the Archon does…<\/p>\n

Well, it’s not clear what he does here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Can Someone Explain the Rules to Me?<\/h3>\n

Everything is NOT fine.<\/div>
Everything is NOT fine.<\/div><\/p>\n

In Star Trek<\/em>, there are a lot of rules. You can’t use the transporter when the shields are up, but communications work just fine. Sensors don’t work in a nebula, but they work through shields. You can’t fire weapons when you’re cloaked but you can fire them through your own shields thanks to the shield modulation frequency. If your enemy learns your shield frequency, then they can shoot through your shields. The list goes on and on. These rules don’t often make scientific sense, but they’re the rules of the universe and we’re able to accept them as givens. A lot of Trek action sequences involve exploring these rules and how they interact in different situations, which is why writers are willing to burn precious screen time making those rules clear to the audience.<\/p>\n

In Star Wars<\/em> or Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>, we don’t get a lot of rules. Sure, there are shields and zap guns and some sort of faster-than-light travel, but for the most part you can just intuit how things work based on real-world analogues: X-Wings are jets, Star Destroyers are like naval destroyers, deck guns shoot down X-Wings, and so on. If the storyteller does take the time to explain a rule, it’s usually something super-important and conceptually easy to grasp, like “A little missile from these jet things can go in this hole and blow up the big evil moon.”<\/p>\n

The problem in Andromeda is that this is (sort of) a drama-firstI don’t know if this is really the intent, but it’s the most charitable of the possible readings. I’d rather believe the writer thought that details are just dumb fluff that don’t matter rather than assume they were trying to build a coherent system and failed.<\/span> story with a bunch of fussy details-oriented moving parts left over from the previous games, and the writer doesn’t seem to know how to reconcile this. We have plot elements that the writer never explained, and now we need to understand how they work to follow everyone’s reasoning.<\/p>\n

Your goal is to stagger towards the door. It feels just like the slow walk to the beam at the end of Mass Effect 3, except this time you've got the Archon monologuing at you.<\/div>
Your goal is to stagger towards the door. It feels just like the slow walk to the beam at the end of Mass Effect 3, except this time you've got the Archon monologuing at you.<\/div><\/p>\n

The Archon uses the mystery gizmo he injected into Ryder. It apparently sabotages Ryder’s SAM implant, which seems to injure and weaken her. I guess this is because of the way SAM was connected to Ryder at the start of the game, but since the writer never explained how that worked this comes off as random. The start of the game told us that being disconnected from SAM would kill her, without getting into specifics. Now the writer is trying to pay off a premise they didn’t properly establish.<\/p>\n

Ryder’s implant is disabled, but the Archon continues to use it to talk to her anyway. He announces that he’s figured out that she’s able to interface with all this Remnant tech because she’s got an AI in her head that does everything for her. So he’s going to go to the human ark and kidnap Scott, and use Scott’s implant.<\/p>\n

But… I thought you had to be the Pathfinder? Like, wasn’t that the whole point of that scene at the start of the game? SAM has this special connection to Sara that allows her to interface with the computer. The other members of the Pathfinder team have SAM implants, but they can’t interface with alien tech. Moreover, the story makes it clear that SAM is the one who understands the alien stuff and does all the interfacing. SAM obviously isn’t willing to help the Archon, so what good will an implant do him? Why kidnap Scott? The Archon can torture Scott all day, but that wouldn’t make SAM willing to help the Archon, even if Scott had the super-special Pathfinder connection.<\/p>\n

Maybe the writer had a mental model for how all of this was supposed to work, but they never bothered telling us what it was so it all feels lazy and random.<\/p>\n

At this point Sara passes out and we switch to playing as…<\/p>\n

Our Backup Reserve Protagonist<\/h3>\n

Okay, but how does rebooting a computer on the ship fix the sabotaged implant inside her head?<\/div>
Okay, but how does rebooting a computer on the ship fix the sabotaged implant inside her head?<\/div><\/p>\n

SAM tells Scott that he needs to reach a computer console and reset \/ reboot Sara’s implant. I thought it was destroyed or disabled, but apparently rebooting the connection will fix it? But what’s to stop the Archon from severing it again?<\/p>\n

Sara will still be able to use her class profilesYou can switch between different types of combat bonuses based on what powers you want to use. It sort of allows you to class-switch in the field.<\/span> after this reset and in the past the game made it clear that this was something only a Pathfinder could do. Is the writer saying she’s still got Pathfinder powers, or are they saying she’s transcended SAM and no longer needs his help to do these amazing things, or is this a compromise made in service of gameplay, or is this a simple oversight?<\/p>\n

SAM can open doors and hack computers remotely through walls, but he apparently can't NOT help the Archon? Just... what?<\/div>
SAM can open doors and hack computers remotely through walls, but he apparently can't NOT help the Archon? Just... what?<\/div><\/p>\n

Scott reboots a random computer terminal to fix his sister, which makes no sense. Didn’t the Archon attack the implant inside her head? How does making changes on this end fix that? Moreover, wouldn’t it make more sense for Scott to fight his way to SAM Node? That’s where this goofy adventure began and where Pathfinder powers were conferred, so it would make narrative sense to return there when doing whatever this is. Also, why doesn’t the Archon capture SAM Node? That’s what he’s really after anyway. He wants access to SAM’s magic ability to manipulate Remnant tech. But instead of capturing SAM, he chases Scott around.<\/p>\n

The mechanics of this are completely unclear so it’s hard to care about all of this supposed peril. Whatever. Once Scott reboots the random computer, more goons show up and capture him in a cutscene.<\/p>\n

We switch back to Sara, who is on her feet again.<\/p>\n

Details? Drama? What am I Watching?<\/h3>\n

Sara gets a nosebleed when she interfaces with the computer to summon the Remnant fleet. Scenes with Archon dialog have the same effect on me.<\/div>
Sara gets a nosebleed when she interfaces with the computer to summon the Remnant fleet. Scenes with Archon dialog have the same effect on me.<\/div><\/p>\n

Sara stumbles over to a computer console and summons a remnant fleet. Without SAM’s help it’s really hard for her to use Remnant tech, so this gives her a nosebleed. But wait, why doesn’t she have SAM’s help? The entire previous section was all about restoring her connection to SAM so that he could keep her alive. Which means that SAM is helping her again, right? So… why can’t he help her with these consoles? The dialog makes it sound like SAM is gone, but earlier dialog made it clear that Scott was trying to restore SAM and that’s what got Ryder on her feet again.<\/p>\n

Is the writer saying that this reboot has made Scott the Pathfinder? If so, then why couldn’t we have done that at the beginning of the story and made Cora Pathfinder?<\/p>\n

The game never explained what SAM was doing to interface with these computers. Sara just held up her hand and machines did what she wanted. I wasn’t even sure if we were supposed to understand that she was just “typing” on these consolesShe is holding her hand over a keyboard-looking thing, and the pieces move around as if being pushed down.<\/span> but they didn’t have time to animate it properly so they just showed her holding her hand still. What is Sara doing to control these machines? Is she able to emit wifi signals from her fingertips? What is this based on? Alpha waves? Electrical impulses? The power of love?<\/p>\n

I should make it clear that I’m not trying to “gotcha” the writer over some breach of narrative orthodoxy. “Oh you broke the rules of storytelling and sinned against the gospel of Joseph Campbell<\/a>, therefore you are a bad writer and that means I, the critic, win.” I’m not asking these questions because I’m trying to fill in the technical details of the Mass Effect wiki. I’m not trying to rules-lawyer the writer over the details of their own story. I’m asking these questions because this story does not work<\/i><\/strong>. The things I’m asking for here are fairly basic building blocks of drama. This is like having a Superman story where you never explain the rules of kryptonite so at the end the audience has no idea why this glowing green rock takes away his powers.<\/p>\n

The team is all here for the big speech before we go fight the Big Bad, but since the last 45 minutes of story were random bunk and hokum, this moment has absolutely no momentum.<\/div>
The team is all here for the big speech before we go fight the Big Bad, but since the last 45 minutes of story were random bunk and hokum, this moment has absolutely no momentum.<\/div><\/p>\n

We need to understand the challenge the protagonist is facing so we know what we’re rooting for. We need to understand the peril before we can experience their fear of failure. We need to understand the capabilities of the protagonist before we can share in the self-doubt that creates the tension within the story. Before we can be impressed at their overcoming impossible odds we have to know what they can and can’t do. We need to understand these things ahead of time so that when they overcome the physical danger, resist temptation, solve the mystery, or make the right decision, we understand how this moment led them to victory. If we have a hero overcoming a challenge we don’t understand using powers that were never explained to meet a goal we don’t know about, then none of those things are contributing to the drama. Mass Effect Andromeda has vaults, SAM, Remnant devices, the scourge, the Archon’s floating scanner gizmo, and Ryder’s implant, and none of them are explained well enough that we know what is or isn’t possible. It’s one giant lazy confused hand-wave.<\/p>\n

Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> is vague as hell about the rules of the world but gets away with it because the plot is a very simple “keep the bad guy from getting the magic space rock” kinda deal and the characters themselves are doing all the heavy lifting in terms of drama. Andromeda<\/em> can’t go that direction because the crew of the Tempest aren’t a driving force in the plot and their character arcs are small, self-contained, optional, and completely disconnected from Ryder and the battle for Meridian.<\/p>\n

Oh, hey doc. If you have time, can I make an appointment to have you GET THIS ALIEN TECH OUT OF MY BODY? No? We're not even going to discuss it? Okay then.<\/div>
Oh, hey doc. If you have time, can I make an appointment to have you GET THIS ALIEN TECH OUT OF MY BODY? No? We're not even going to discuss it? Okay then.<\/div><\/p>\n

This moment where Ryder commands the Remnant is supposed to be like the moment in Thor: Ragnarok<\/em> where Thor discovers he never really needed the hammer and is the GOD OF THUNDER whether he has his weapon or not. The problem is that the game is trying get a payoff for rules they never established. In Thor, that big turning point of “the power was inside of you all along, Dorothy” was explained to us by OdinAlso: The fact that Thor and Odin still had unfinished business was established earlier in the story during the Hulk fight.<\/span>, and acts as the moment of change within Thor’s character arc. Here in Andromeda we’re missing that pivotal scene. Once again, the writer is borrowing tropes without understanding how they work or how to integrate them with a story.<\/p>\n

How I’d have done it:<\/p>\n

\n

I have no idea how I’d untangle this mess without re-writing the entire game. By this point in the story all of the writer’s cut corners and missed opportunities become insurmountable. Still, let me see what I can do here:<\/p>\n

At various moments throughout the story, we can have points where Ryder has to use a Remnant consoleThere’s still the problem that you can complete the main story and skip a lot of the messing around in the vaults, so this idea wouldn’t totally work. Like I said, we’re too late in the story to fix a lot of these problems.<\/span>. When Ryder activates the monoliths on the various planets, we need a little dialog from her indicating that this is more than just her flipping a switch. We should telegraph to the player that something fantastical and mysterious is going on. Maybe she swoons a bit when she activates a major device. When she regains her composure, she’ll say something to her team:<\/p>\n

“I’m okay. I’m just… I saw something. Or someone. I feel like I made contact.”<\/p>\n

“I saw it again. It’s not a person, it’s the vault network. I could feel how large it is. Terrifying.”<\/p>\n

“Not so bad this time. I feel like every time I use one of these, I understand the network a little more. Or not the network. The Remnant. It’s hard to say.”<\/p>\n

“I saw a lot more that time. I don’t know if I can explain it, but the network is more than a bunch of machinery and computers. There’s a kind of intellect here.”<\/p>\n

The thing we’d lean into here is that SAM isn’t seeing this. Only Ryder is. To SAM, the network really is just a ball of machinery. Then at the end when Ryder can suddenly control Remnant systems, we understand it comes from this mysterious bullshit we’ve been building up over the course of the game. This means it will feel like a proper payoff to a proper setup. This will also make our lead character into a legitimate protagonist by giving her growth and agency so she’s more than a meat-based taxi for SAM.<\/p>\n

If something is supposed to be vague and mysterious, then you need to build that up. The first Mass Effect game did that with the Cypher. Sure, the Cypher was a bunch of vague nonsense, but the writer sold the hell out of it. They used camera framing, dialog, and musical cues to telegraph that HEY KIDS SOME STRANGE ALIEN HOODOO IS GOIN DOWN WATCH OUT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I’m not going to try to fix all the nonsense with Ryder’s implant. It’s random, it’s annoying to think about, and none of it works. I honestly can’t tell what the writer was trying to accomplish and my first instinct would be to say, “Throw the SAM character away. He’s a disaster, he undercuts our protagonist, he doesn’t fit in this setting, and you’re using him like a crutch to avoid revealing characters and ideas through exploratory dialog.”<\/p>\n

We’re almost at the end. Next week we’ll find out about this Meridian place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plan is for Ryder to return to the control center from the previous mission. I realize this is a very minor pointParticularly in a story as troubled as this one. but it feels strange to come back here so soon after our last big visit. Imagine if the Enterprise crew had their meeting with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[508],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mass-effect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45960"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45962,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45960\/revisions\/45962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}