We're really starting to get back on track aren't we? Maybe we'll actually get another chapter out before the end of this month? You never know. Anyway, for now let's just focus on this chapter. Which I hope was sufficiently action packed even if it feels like a breather.
Three Hero Groups, One Bad Guy: My general way of splitting up this chapter was to go in thirds. Focusing on Zek's group, the Spartan/Normandy group and the ODSTs. I had a short bit on the Normandy to show they weren't doing nothing while this was going on, but other than that my other focus was showing Lurz's progress. This was, in my mind, the most economical spacing. I could cover three specific journeys towards ultimately the same location while also making sure we didn't forget the true threat lurking in the background.
And I fely like I could give each their own feel. Zek's group would be more investigative as Taq takes charge. Shepard and Chief's team would be more action-packed, featuring a more super heroic dynamic between the various Spartans and Normandy Crew members. The ODSTs would be more traditional military-based action, relying less on their enhanced abilities and more on their advanced training and combat skills. It made things more interesting and kept thing rolling to this chapter's conclusion at relatively decent speed. My hope is people can spot those difference and notice them while being engaged in all three.
I think folks will find Shepard and Chief's sections the most familiar, as they feel the most Mass Effect like with some Halo elements thrown in. They, like a lot of scenes featuring those two characters specifically, are meant to read like they were adapted from gameplay even if they are obviously altered to be more interesting and not as limited by the mechanics you'd find in a game. That's always the challenge here, I'm trying to make sure I adapt the feel of the game without falling into the trap of making readers ask "why not just play the game instead of reading this?"
It's a fine line, it's hard to walk, but I'm doing my best to walk it. I think it's entirely possible to remind people of how a game feels while adapting it to work in another medium. See the Fallout TV Series for the best example of that so far honestly.
Figuring out the Slipspace Void: Compared to previous problems the heroes have faced, the Slipspace Void probably feels the most mundane and least dangerous. My Beta Reader suggested as much and frankly he has a point. However, this was in First Strike and I fully intended to adapt that or at least portions of it when I started this thing so many years ago. Ugh, just a few more chapters and I'll be done, I swear.
Anyway, since the way the heroes end up here is different, I needed to explain HOW it happened this time. And my reasoning was simple, this was another attempt by the Forerunners to survive and win the war against the Flood. And it failed horribly, probably worse than the Mind's Eye. They didn't get the Time Crystal they needed to make it functional in time, they jumped the gun and it got them killed. Now the Crystal is here a few too many Millenia late and it's effectively trapped everyone rather than save everybody.
I all honesty, I'm not sure this plan would've worked. Slipspace IS in another dimension, but I'm not sure if its entirely immune to what happens in real space. The Forerunners probably hoped they could make the plan viable at least by just locking themselves in Slipspace, cutting them off from real space where the Halo Energy Burst would erupt in. But that's debatable. The point isn't if it could work or not at its intended means, what matters is the Forerunners on this planetoid were desperate enough to try.
It's like a Fallout Shelter from the 1950s and 60s. Would they have worked to save lives? Probably not the way anyone would've hoped. But when your choices are utter annihilation or the possible chance of survival, most people will choose the latter every time. Why not the Forerunners? I doubt all of them were so consigned to death by the end point of the Flood War. Races aren't monoliths, and I generally reject the "planet of the hats" tropes wherever I can. I think you can find variety and diversity of thought within any culture. I've tried to demonstrate that with the Kig-yar for example. This is just me doing the same for the Forerunners.
At times I was worried the exposition and investigation aspects would get reputative as each group slowly figures out pieces of what's going on. I decided to switch up things by making sure their takeaways were different or they were missing critical information. Taq guesses right that the Crystal is part of the problem, but she doesn't know about the other Slipspace Drives being offline. Zek reasons Lurz might be after him, as does Thane with Shepard, but they have different understandings and ways of drawing that conclusion. If it accomplishes anything, it's making sure the heroes are all on the same page by the time they arrive together. At least mostly, so we can speed things up come the next chapter and what needs to be done.
I do admit, I think the stuff with Zek, or more accurately Taq, could feel more like an adventure game of some kind. Finding and locating specific things to assist them in getting down to the location they needed to be. Probably not as involved as some of those games could be, but enough in my mind that it sorta plays like one of those puzzle sections in Mass Effect 2.
I think it came out well though and the explanation works well enough in pieces, the next chapter gives a proper rundown to just layout exactly how it works and every element that needs to come together to resolve the problem.
Lurz Cutaways: I've already talked at length about Lurz, so I'll make this brief. I like delving into the perceptions of the villains on these because I think its important to understand the actions of others. Even others you don't agree with or find despicable. A lack of understanding the problems of others tends to breed a desire to seek what seems an obvious solution. And that is never a good idea. Seeking the quickest fix is a bad solution. I make that a point with Zhoc's plan. He thinks if he can just force the Covenant to accept him because he has a powerful weapon, he can essentially bully the Kig-yar into a better position of power. He's is likely wrong because both he and Lurz, as I show here, do not understand why the Covenant is the way they are, nor do they care.
My perspective is, you don't need to approve of something to understand it. I think people's fears of creating villains with understandable goals is creating too much empathy for them and potentially making the audience agree with them. It's not unfounded, how many people still seem to think Thanos was right? Villains in general are tricky to get right on this point already. As antagonists, they are usually against the status quo of things. An antagonist wants to alter or change something, disrupt something within the hero's life to create a call to react to this. Zhoc is against the status quo of the Kig-yar, but he's not really thinking of altering it in a way that benefits anyone but his own ambitions.
This is the trap I mentioned. How you can create a villain that unintentionally makes some kind of point. And as a result, far too many seem to make their bad guys... well, boring or obviously horrible. They don't want to take the risk of generating sympathy. I've done a lot to show that, for all of Zhoc's horrible qualities, he is not a total monster, nor does he see himself that way.
That's what a lot of Lurz's asides in this chapter accomplish, ironically through a villain who IS a complete monster. Lurz recognizes the qualities that hold Zhoc back from becoming an absolute horrible person on par with himself. Snarlbeak has some humanity, so to speak, still in him. He doesn't want to mass murder humans, he doesn't believe in the Covenant's obviously fraudulent religion, he's not going to kill all the sangheili, he's just going to knock them down the ladder. Lurz would not be so... kind, as kind as the things Zhoc would do can be contrasted to Lurz's little throne of skulls and rivers of blood plan.
I've made people feel sorry for Zhoc. He was an abused child, who lost the only person he ever truly loved tragically and it turned him into a villain beyond reproach. I wanted people to understand him, but never approve of him. Because I feel you can empathize with someone, without deciding they are in the right. And Lurz is a contrast to how much worse Snarlbeak could be if he so chose.
While there is nothing inside Lurz that is redeemable, Zhoc could've been saved at one point. He's clearly slipped fully into his tunnel vision plan at this point in a desperate attempt to avenge his sister at last. But he's still focused on that goal, that he's doing this for her. He hasn't abandoned or forgotten her. He loves his sister that much. Lurz, although I don't think I explained this, but it should probably be obvious, doesn't understand that at all. He doesn't realize how much Zvasz's memory keeps Zhoc relatively sane. Because as bad as he is, Zhoc still cares, he still feels. Lurz can't do either.
So if anything, the interludes with Lurz fully examine how, in my mind, both of these villain archetypes are valuable. We need villains who are irredeemable as much as those we sympathize with. So we can recognize and deal with accordingly such people in real life. Lurz is a monster, but the tragedy is that Zhoc didn't have to be. Not if didn't choose to rely on a monster so much.
Well, I think that's it for now. See you all hopefully very soon when we'll close off the Void Arc with a bang and head straight into the final stretch at long last. Happy Reading!
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