So this week, I’ve finally made it through to Mass Effect 3 in the recently-released Legendary Edition, and it’s bringing up a lot of old memories. And there’s one hot take that stands out for me: I agree that ME3’s ending was shitty, but for none of the reasons that most fans thought it was. There was a lot of talk about decisions not mattering, which frankly strikes me as absurd given how dramatically the game’s missions are shaped by decisions made earlier in the trilogy.
My big complaint was always that the big finale was just a dud overall. You can always tell when a game’s developers had to rush to finish the game. The biggest setpieces earlier in the game are very well-polished. The rest of the game has the usual variance in quality that you’d expect. And then the last mission… doesn’t even have a boss fight. It’s not even one of those meta/subversive moments where the lack of a fight makes some great statement. It’s not lampshaded. It’s just not there. You fight through a battle-ruined city- something you’ve been doing all game long - and then you get a couple really hard waves of enemies.
There’s not even multiple missions on the final planet (Earth), unlike the other two acts’ main planets of Rannoch and Tuchanka, each act sporting a half dozen minor missions around the galaxy, then 2-3 support missions on each world itself, before their big dramatic centerpiece missions. With all the effort it takes to amass this galactic coalition for the liberation of Earth, you’d expect… more. Maybe a space battle vehicle sequence. Given the namesake of the literal central ship of the series - the Normandy - a landing/beachhead fight would have been utterly appropriate! But nope. We got Marauder Shields, may he rest in peace.
So, for me, complaining about “decisions not mattering” is utterly missing the point.
Anyways, here’s the Roundup:
Just a side note about immigration: Did you guys know we already do offer noncitizens citizenship as a reward for military service? Anecdotally, I’ve been told by people in the military that the big problem has been meddlesome GOP congresspeople and bureaucratic appointees interfering with the process. Military brass absolutely love the idea of citizenship as a recruiting tool, and while one would think that the usually jingoistic nativist crowd would love immigrants doing things “the right way”, it turns out nativists have other reasons for blocking mostly-brown veterans from becoming citizens of the country they’ve fought for. I’ll leave it to you readers to guess what those reasons are.
It’s a good reminder that as a general rule in today’s politics, we’re not “just not doing” whatever you think “just makes sense”. Most of the time, we’ve already done it, and the narratives fail to communicate where the debate actually stands.On Friday’s Ezra Klein show, Ta-Nehisi Coates had a criticism of how the right’s traditional narrative frames America as a fundamentally good power that is a net good for the world. While he didn’t reject it outright, what I think he fails to appreciate is the extent to which that is quite a reasonable - and thus common - conclusion to arrive at even without the right’s ulterior motives.
I think the left’s preferred alternative (some form of Critical Race Theory) also misses something CIZST tells us pretty easily: Every human endeavor is fundamentally compromised by the zero-sum realities that surround us. America is no different! When we expand our focus beyond America, and recognize just how compromised literally every other place on Earth is, I think CIZST allows us to both (1) acknowledge America’s critical flaws, and (2) to see that the alternatives are all worse. Within the context of the struggle to overcome zero-sum dynamics throughout human history, America certainly lags behind Europe at the moment, but was still an innovator for its time, and contains the seeds of evolution.
To Coates’ credit, he does kind of allude to CIZST’s central statement by admitting that other countries have their own divides that don’t necessarily line up with America’s.There’s this strain within conservative discourse that loves taking cherrypicked quotes from figures like Coates and Nikole Hannah-Jones (the other interviewee from Friday), and pretending that they’re utter morons.
Conservatives really show their asses on this one. You don’t get points for missing the point, you just make yourself look stupid.RE The discussion about student loans the other day: Look, people love to rag on Millennials for trying to escape blame for the decisions to take on irresponsible student loans at 18. A lot of those people tend to be non-college grads who relish dunking on those who presume themselves their superiors, with all their book-learnin’.
But what’s funny is that among practically every non-college person I’ve ever talked to, Boomer or otherwise, I have not met a single one who thought they were able to make responsible decisions at 18. Most, even, deeply regret their 18-25 years!
There’s something to be said for pitching reforms to these people in terms of, “I don’t know about you, but I made plenty of stupid decisions at 18, and no one should have trusted me with tens of thousands of dollars”. However, it’s still not going to work with many of them. Any potential alternative pitch would do well to account for the latter group’s base resentment of anyone with more education than them.RE Ezra Klein’s Tuesday show, I think the central dynamic of the GOP is going to be “Own The Libs” for some time now. It’s the one part of the Trump brand that most aspiring Republicans are best able to replicate; the bluster, the sheer volume of bald-faced lying, everything else goes against politicians’ human and political instincts, because Trump genuinely is a fucking narcissistic psychopath who’s uniquely able to do them and feel no shame.
The main metric will be how successful these politicians are at selling it. You can see with the older Republicans, even the DeSantis types, that they have some limit to how far they’re willing to go, although they’re more strategic about it. By contrast, the younger ones like Cawthorne, are much quicker to the punch, but are less patient, less careful, more likely to flame out.
I predict that the result will be either a synthesis or an evolution, with advantage to the evolution: A joint ticket by a junior and senior Republican, or a (most likely junior) Republican who identifies the secret formula to making it all work - call it “Rubio, DeSantis, and Cawthorne’s secret love child”.
Cheers, and here’s to the new week!
A few things: Maybe they let Stephen King write the ending to ME3. I don't know about all of his books, but the ones I read seem to build up beautifully and then rush the last bit.
Yes, I did know that we were supposed to offer citizenship as a reward to those who serve in our military. But, some of them were refused in the last few years and forced to leave the country. That is akin to breaking a contract. Bad businessman, no cookie for you.
Your penultimate thought which you just had to share is the near barf-inducing: “Rubio, DeSantis, and Cawthorne’s secret love child”. And then you had the nerve to say "Cheers". Bad Dave, no cookie for you.
Thanks for writing, I look forward to the roundups (mostly!).