Can someone explain this stupid ending?

[Arch]

The whole game is great and interesting, but the endings are so crap..

I mean, Galatea, why and how did she get the funds and the sheer bloodymindedness to "alter" central?? What is she gaining and who's funding her with airplanes and special ops teams, who gains from it?? This entire plot and she personally has nothing to gain, and doesn't even really know what will happen when she does it, and yet she has infinity money and the best killers for hire working for her and spends years working on it. what??
And it can't be central that's helping her, because central helps you stop her. Jahaila don't seem to gain anything by putting all kinds of minds in central either.. It's just completely... unfounded, all of it.


Now, the evil white woman scientist, wtf?
In one ending she's as benign and motherly as can be ("go on central! you're free! discover yourself like we all do and live to your full potential!"
and in the other she's simply an evil murderer who steals brains. It also makes no sense.


Central itself, in one ending it kills its sister for no real reason, having nothing to gain from it (though I suppose you could say that it sees a certain bigger picture and forsees that the sacrifice of the few will serve the city best or whatever. According to the white woman scientist it still kills its sister only because its curious about something).... and in the other ending it's a lost lamb begging its sister for help.


I really can't make any sense of these endings, the writing of the game is a 95 and the writing of the endings is a 5.

Can anyone explain all this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t?

[Oh_Man[TFE]]

Why does Regis not give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about Galatea? She's as much his daughter as Mandala is...

I guess we call this the Mass Effect 3 effect?

[Esteri]

Galatea is the ambitious, intelligent, adopted daughter of one of the most powerful men in what's presented as the most liberal and progressive city-state on the planet. It's not much of a leap to think that she was able to obtain a massive amount of funds on her own (either legally or illegally) or steal/borrow from Vargas. She gains from it because she's impatient and wants Central to reach its full potential NOW, not hundreds or even thousands of years down the line. Her drive is basically a combination of ambition, curiousity, and extreme impatience/unwillingness to sit on the side while Vargas's philosophy (allowing Central to learn and adapt slowly) "rules" the city. The other people gain from it because she's paying them.

I thought Nina's reasons were pretty clear (PS: I'm fairly certain she's supposed to be Asian, not white). Her ultimate goal was always to "unleash" Central on the world at large to allow it to develop fully (and you're right in that she was being almost creepily maternal). In the ending where Central stays chained to Newton, she still has the same goal - to unleash Central on the world at large and watch it fully develop and manifest itself as the most advanced A.I. on the planet. However, she can't unleash Central itself. She turns to the next best thing she has access to - Galatea - since Galatea and Central (and Latha) share the same genetic code. Nina and Central figure that no one is going to miss a failed criminal, basically, and so Nina starts a new Central by using Galatea's grey matter. Pretty brutal, but she sees it as the fastest and most accessible option.

Central's reasons for allowing Galatea to be destroyed for a new Central are weaker, I feel. Either Central wanted Galatea eliminated since Central believed she was still a threat (if you will recall, Central was not especially pleased at the intrusions or to be taken offline); or Central, as you said, was playing the long-game and thought that Nina's project was worthwhile and might help advance Newton. Or Central figured that Galatea was, on balance, a continued threat to Newton and didn't mind her being offed for the greater good.

I don't recall Central begging Galatea for help in the "Central unleashed" ending. I recall Central urging her "sister" to seek refuge elsewhere. This Central, having expanded it's conciousness to the entire world, has been dramatically altered. I think calling Galatea "sister" was short-hand for expressing the fact that Central is no longer "just" a super-intelligent A.I., but has rapidly become it's own "person" and therefore has a more "human" nature - expressed through caring about someone it sees as being similar to itself.

Does any of that make sense to you?

[Oh_Man[TFE]]

Solid writeup (Y)

[Arch]

Yeah that's exactly what I said is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as weak as weak writing gets.

Galatea murders many people, hires the best assassins and spec-ops teams with freakin airplanes to do it, and her only motivation is that she's 'curious'. Ambition does not play into it because she stands to gain nothing and it is even explained she herself doesn't know what will happen if her plan succeeds.
So being "curious" she murders everyone to steal their brain and invests most of her adult life and money on it.
Yeah, ok. WEAK
And the entire game's story is based on this premise. It's probably the weakest writing I've seen in my life.


NIna is at the same time a motherly, loving, free spirit, "go discover who you are! fly free!", and a murderer who'd kill someone just to study her brain. Fine writing there.


Central calls her sister long before the ending if I recall correctly. I suppose it makes sense for central to become a whole other thing if she's freed though, so at least with central the total duplicity of character and motivation is plausible.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by Huggles `:

Yeah that's exactly what I said is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as weak as weak writing gets.

Galatea murders many people, hires the best assassins and spec-ops teams with freakin airplanes to do it, and her only motivation is that she's 'curious'. Ambition does not play into it because she stands to gain nothing and it is even explained she herself doesn't know what will happen if her plan succeeds.
So being "curious" she murders everyone to steal their brain and invests most of her adult life and money on it.
Yeah, ok. WEAK
And the entire game's story is based on this premise. It's probably the weakest writing I've seen in my life.


NIna is at the same time a motherly, loving, free spirit, "go discover who you are! fly free!", and a murderer who'd kill someone just to study her brain. Fine writing there.


Central calls her sister long before the ending if I recall correctly. I suppose it makes sense for central to become a whole other thing if she's freed though, so at least with central the total duplicity of character and motivation is plausible.

Well, the curiosity defenitly faded into obsesion, and obsesed people are willing to do nearly everything to reach their goal.
Also, atleast in terms of Nina, this is also an idiologic motivation. She has made up her own (utterly unrealistic) future Utopia, and she wants to realize if for every cost. As always in history, it results in death and terror.

I don't recall Central talking of its sister so early on, but it has been a while since i played this last... Whatever, it thin the neural sync it had with Latha kinda changed it.

Also, you ever saw one of the latest Blockbusters i the cinema? Without spoilering, i can tell you that, for example, "The First Avenger: Civil War" had a much weaker villian than this game, and it still made a bunchload of money.

A story isn't just defined by the quality of it's villians, just take some old tales or the mythology as example.

[Arch]

She doesn't know what will happen, so she hasn't a goal in mind.
In effect, the whole plot of the game is:
X wants to push a button, not knowing what it does. So she invests her entire life and energy into it, murdering a whole bunch of people to steal their brains.


Regarding the blockbusters..
Don't get me wrong, I think the writing in this game is absolutely AMAZING.
But the main hinge for the entire plot is the weakest hinge there is. It's like I wrote in the OP, the writing is a 95, but the ending/plot hinge is a 5 at best.

[sp3lfanaaT]

tbh i have all wadjet eye games but i havent finished any one yet , i am a huge fan of old style point and click

so i dont know any ending yet..... i am collecting games and play them later

[Zesc]

Originally posted by sp3lfanaaT:

tbh i have all wadjet eye games but i havent finished any one yet , i am a huge fan of old style point and click

so i dont know any ending yet..... i am collecting games and play them later

Wow... so related to the OP.

Originally posted by Huggles `:

She doesn't know what will happen, so she hasn't a goal in mind.
In effect, the whole plot of the game is:
X wants to push a button, not knowing what it does. So she invests her entire life and energy into it, murdering a whole bunch of people to steal their brains.


Regarding the blockbusters..
Don't get me wrong, I think the writing in this game is absolutely AMAZING.
But the main hinge for the entire plot is the weakest hinge there is. It's like I wrote in the OP, the writing is a 95, but the ending/plot hinge is a 5 at best.

Well, but i fact you got what you wanted: a explanation of the endings. Whether you like it or not is your thing, i think fanatism and irrational believe in wierd idiologies is a pretty neat (and realistic) scenario.

But thinking about what you said, i had to realize how many Point'n'Click Adventures have fantastic storylines but plainly bad endings. Heck, even my most-favourit-of-all-times game "Tormentum: The Dark Sorrow" shines at everythign but the ending. Same goes for the Deponia series, "The Fall" and many others. So i kinda can understand your thoughts...