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Shepard's trauma regarding the kid on Earth

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BraindeadRacr

Nov 27, 2012 4:23 pm GMT
Lets just put the ending aside and all the theories of indoctrination(debunked or not) and whatnot as well.

I was listening to some of those codex entries about the Reapers and it mentions some pretty ****ed up stuff about Reapers having conversion ships in their fleet along the lines of the human mushymushy machine in ME2 turning people into delicious build materials, not to mention entire cities worth of people being murdered, vaporized and turned into husks at pretty much the same time.

If Shepard saw something more scarring than say two vehicles being shot down cause one of 'em had a kid in there, these haunting dream sections throughout the story would've made a tiny bit more sense.

Sure Shepard would have to prance around Earth a bit longer to see **** of that caliber happening but even the mere idea of half a continent worth of civilians being molten down in some mobile processing ship could've been a improvement in my opinion.

Then again, I guess kids dying is a easy way to tug emotional strings.
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XgArrancar

Nov 27, 2012 4:27 pm GMT
Honestly, it was one of the most laziest and half-assed attempts to tug heart strings. We see the kid for about a total of 20 seconds and it's like bioware expects us to be in melancholy.
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Spandau_Ballet

Nov 27, 2012 4:26 pm GMT
I think the point was up until that point there were no children in the ME universe, similar to how GTA completely ignores them. The first time we see a child and he's blown up and murdered. I guess Bioware took a gamble and thought it would be 'shocking' enough to effect the player also.
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xionnoix

Nov 27, 2012 4:41 pm GMT
agreed. i got irritated when the boy was trying to run away from you when you first try to help him.

in regards to him dying, i wasn't shocked when it happened, i mean they flew their little transport right in front of that reaper's laser cannon.

personally, i was more affected emotionally in halo reach when you're trying to help civilians escape (i don't recall which level), but one of their transport pods gets blown up and i believe cortana or some other person mention's the casualty count.
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MurphysGhost

Nov 27, 2012 4:44 pm GMT
I've said on this board before- the fact that the game never shows the processing ships, the people rounded up in camps and melted/husk'd, being dragged away screaming by hordes of husks, etc. really puzzled me.

From the design of the Reaper enemies and all the thoughts about the Reaper harvesting horrors in the Codex and Shepard being traumatized by everything that he's been through, it seems like they thought a lot about making ME3 almost horror-themed.

I wish they had involved those elements in the campaign, seems like most of that stuff was dropped fairly early in scenario writing.
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BraindeadRacr

Nov 27, 2012 4:48 pm GMT
MurphysGhost posted...
I've said on this board before- the fact that the game never shows the processing ships, the people rounded up in camps and melted/husk'd, being dragged away screaming by hordes of husks, etc. really puzzled me.

From the design of the Reaper enemies and all the thoughts about the Reaper harvesting horrors in the Codex and Shepard being traumatized by everything that he's been through, it seems like they thought a lot about making ME3 almost horror-themed.

I wish they had involved those elements in the campaign, seems like most of that stuff was dropped fairly early in scenario writing.

Gotta admit now I've paid attention to the codex about the Reapers, it's quite depressing how much potential they shelved.

Though you're right, if anything they sure as hell could've gone for one dark, dark themed setting if more action was located on Earth.
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"The car-bra is for your mom, Peg. See it's even in her size - ASTROVAN!" - Al Bundy
GT: Faith of Faye / PSN: Lt_McBadass
Stink_Nasty

Nov 27, 2012 5:48 pm GMT
My shep saw Kelly go through a meat grinder...my shep wanted to bone Kelly..this should traumatize him more than annoying little kid.
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Captain_Sorzo

Nov 27, 2012 7:18 pm GMT
The child isn't meant to be a specific individual that Shepard is haunted by. He's a symbol for everyone that Shepard can't save, which is why he isn't developed or replaced by a prominent deceased character, such as whomever was left on Virmire. Doing so would put the emphasis of guilt on a single person rather than humanity as a whole.

Edit: Come to think of it, using a child as this symbol is quite appropriate. Yes, it is to some degree an attempt at emotional manipulation, but children are associated with the future, with the next chapter of the human race. The destruction of a child emphasizes that the Reapers will utterly eradicate humanity unless defeated, that there will be no future.
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phoenix52

Nov 27, 2012 7:07 pm GMT
It doesn't just have to be because some kid got fried. That's just the symbolic representation of the Reaper threat coming to a head and decimating Earth's defenses almost before they could get word out. The kid was just a perfect choice for that symbol because of childhood innocence which, whether or not you buy into it, is still powerfully ingrained into our cultural mindset.

Your Shep might not care much about the kid, but there's no way the protagonist of the series would get to that point without caring about the fate of humanity. At least that's how I see it with my most renegade Shepards.
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abyss

Nov 27, 2012 10:49 pm GMT
I think the main issue is that that they did a half assed job about it.

There's no 'story link' to him being anything but 'random kid who Shepard met for two seconds and died'. He never mentions it to anyone, so we never get any build up about him being a sign of indoctrination, or him representing Shepard's inability to save people, or that Starchild is getting beamed into Shepard's brain because he's the chosen one, or whatever else he COULD have represented.

Instead, we just get a bunch of crappy 'bad gameplay' segments where we have to run after a kid, then we pretty much move on. Yeah, they had conversations about Shepard having dreams, but nothing on what they actually represented or meant.
macdadams

Nov 27, 2012 11:00 pm GMT
It also might have had slightly more of an impact if we hadn't already seen the kid die in every trailer and demo, and heard it discussed in every interview before the game was even released.

Otherwise, I think they were just trying to put a face on all the death. If you were shepard it may have affected you.
SinisterSamurai

Nov 27, 2012 11:03 pm GMT
Would have been better if you pulled him out of the vents and escorted him a while. Maybe a quick coversation, where they give him a name or something. And I guess when the dreadnaught blows, he falls into the water or whatever, and you only see him climb out of the water and then get in the rescue shuttle as normal. Watching him blow up would have been a little harder if the kid actually believed you could have saved him.
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Halo_Forever

Nov 28, 2012 3:50 am GMT
Captain_Sorzo posted...
The child isn't meant to be a specific individual that Shepard is haunted by. He's a symbol for everyone that Shepard can't save, which is why he isn't developed or replaced by a prominent deceased character, such as whomever was left on Virmire. Doing so would put the emphasis of guilt on a single person rather than humanity as a whole.

Edit: Come to think of it, using a child as this symbol is quite appropriate. Yes, it is to some degree an attempt at emotional manipulation, but children are associated with the future, with the next chapter of the human race. The destruction of a child emphasizes that the Reapers will utterly eradicate humanity unless defeated, that there will be no future.

Which might have worked it the kid wasn't an annoying brat from the get go and the annoying conversation with him in the vent further reinforced that. When the Reaper explodes him I don't care for him, it is a bit heavy handed to say the least. But okay they tried to insert a Zola's Horse and failed, but why in the name of baby Cthulhu do they have to annoy you further with him? Which goes especially for Renegades who would have put a bullet into said kid to stop him from becoming a Husk. Why is such a Shepard thinking of that kid?
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NS_RegentPark

Nov 28, 2012 7:23 am GMT
XgArrancar posted...
Honestly, it was one of the most laziest and half-assed attempts to tug heart strings. We see the kid for about a total of 20 seconds and it's like bioware expects us to be in melancholy.

Basically ^
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turtle225

Nov 28, 2012 8:02 am GMT
Eh... imo if they wanted to show the psychological impact of the war on shepheard, then he should have dreamed about a lot of people that died.

People yelling for help then being killed by reapers or husks. Specifically it should have shown the virmire victim, and some other important squadmates in me3 (as you progress) whom I will leave nameless for spoilers.

I am no script writer, but they could have done a much better job and pulling at our heartstrings then just a dumb repeated dream sequence.

I also think there should have been flashbacks involving squadmates and major plot points right before you do the final attack on earth. During that odd section where you just walk around and get to talk to your old squadmates.
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Drophyd167b

Nov 28, 2012 9:57 am GMT
I never quite understood the kid. In fact, before the game came out, I was wondering if his appearance was a cover-up for a major character death, possibly Anderson. That would have made a lot more sense, since it would have resonated with both the audience and Shepard, instead of feeling like a feeble attempt to create a sad scene.
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