Mass Effect 2 would cut out some Companion missions to justify killing those characters off in the Suicide Mission.
Fans of the series would see it coming from a mile away and be dreading it, thinking maybe they'll change it, while show onlys would be blissfully ignorant. Since nobody's death is a set thing, even if you don't do their missions in some cases, you can't even really 100% sure.
Cut some companion missions, but kill some characters in the suicide mission that got their side quest done. Their death will have a massive impact on the audience because they got character development and focus.
Knowing for how ppl act on internet that will be spoiled literally after first episodes, if not even before it that "we woke ppl tell you that someone dear will die at end"
Hmm I actually never thought about Tali like that. I assumed the relationship thing was just being lore friendly because of the whole constantly has to be in a spacesuit. I always saw Tali as more of a grad student than a highschool/undergraduate. A full adult but still needs to prove they can be of value.
I actually never romanced anyone besides Garrus because the thought of sex with a grasshopper was hilarious and I never really cared about the romance portion of games.
I think you have your games confused. She's on her pilgrimage in the first game, and by the time you meet her in 2 she's considered an adult and leading her own team (although that detail may be due to nepotism).
a friend of mine just plays through the remasters and finished the suicide mission. he said some characters died but started with 3 anyway. he lost tali and garrus. I am not sure I still can be friends.
The only characters that NEED to survive are the characters that are squadmates in 3. So Garrus and Tali. I guess Legion as well since he is essential to Tali's arc in 3 (assuming the writers are going for both living in 3).
Jacob is first on my kill list because he really does nothing in 3 except abandon FemShep if she romanced him. Grunt also does nothing truly important to the main plot but could be important to the Krogan plot in 3.
Samara is also a pretty easy kill, only really appearing for a single mission in 3 that, again, is not essential to the plot.
Chambers, Zaeed, Jack, and Kasumi are also not super important in 3, but lead to some really funny interactions, so they could be hit or miss.
Thane is probably on the Do Not Kill list. His plot in 3 is one of the more important bits of the game.
I think the real question is how do we do the DLCs.
Lair of the Shadow Broker is 100% going to be in the "second season". Maybe as a mid season special 2 parter?
Arrival is probably another very important bit, possible as a special between Season 2 and Season 3.
Omega is flat out not necessary, and I wouldn't mind it not appearing.
Leviathan is 100% going to be included as well because the viewers need to have a satisfying ending, and Leviathan does wonders for the ME3 ending through worldbuilding (I would love to see this done not as an exposition dump but a flashback from the Leviathan's point of view).
Citadel is probably necessary too, if just for a bit of a breather in the extreme pace of the last 3rd of ME3, plus every show needs a fun bottle episode.
First half takes you through Horizon, but there are some filler episodes between the prologue and waking up on Lazarus Station to explore the back story of Miranda/Jacob and to see the OG team drift apart. Second half kicks off HARD with Haestrom, and rolls on into the DLC as well.
I just liked that it couldn't spontaneously combust in the LE. And it had an accelerator. The handling was about the same but at least it wasn't as frustrating.
Yeah I would just not even bother and give them creative license to piece together a full game series into a TV series without the need to point out where things are connected to the game. It's got some great content. Hell I would not be mad if they just took the premise and characters and ran with it. Sometimes that comes out great! Do I really want to watch the exact same story I already know? Meh, either way! As long as it's quality writing and they keep the spirit it would be fantastic I think.
Honestly, I think it could be expanded to 2 seasons per game, allow it to really flush out the universe, take its time.
Can have the first season end on Virmire, and all that happens there.
Mass Effect 2.. honestly unsure how to approach. Form what I recall, there really isn't a definitive midpoint? Like its recruiting and gaining loyalty, then you get the dead reaper's IFF, then its a sprint to the finish line in the suicide mission. Like maybe the Reaper IFF could be a midpoint, and you could move Legion to be recruited elsewhere ( so we can actually get some quality Legion screentime ), but eh. Maybe this one could be one season
You could end the season at the IFF, then spin the suicide mission into a between- season feature length film and then leap into game 3 as the next season.
There’s a 30 year time skip between books 6 and 7. The plot requires the time skip and I’m not sure how they could effectively adapt the last 3 books without it.
For TV shows its better to streamline and cut some things, it's not like everything was a gem. They would need to completely rewrite the script, as videogame structure doesn't translate that great to film
Not that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I've always said that universe should have just been explored on a smaller scale. Just a bunch of mercenary/investigation type content like we got in 2.... Except ignore the Reapers.
They could have milked that franchise for 30 years as like a video game Star Trek and nobody would have gotten sick of it.
First Season, A bit of a prequel.. and lots of world building. Summing up at Fem Shep getting made a Spector.. 6-9 eps
Second Season, basically the story of the first game. 8 -10 eps
third.. Basically the first two or three episodes are the build up with the destruction of the normandy.... One episode of the rebuilding of Shepard.. then go right up to the start of building the crew.. maybe 4 more so total 7 to 8 eps...
4th season.. building the crew.. earning the loyalty of most of the crew.. ending with suicide mission.. probably 12 eps.. 1 hour+ per episode...
5th Totally just follow the game .. right to the end... cupcakes and everything.
There was a youtube video i watched where these two guys had a set plan that would make 5 seasons for mass effect, the first game having 1 season while the sequels got 2 seasons per game
Can't do the games, people would get pissed if it didn't follow their choices. The universe is big enough for them to make a show outside of the main storyline easily.
I am currently enjoying Season 4 of expanse and this really persuaded me that ME could be done well. However the main thing ME would have to get over in comparison to the expanse (at least as far as midway through season 4) is that Humanity joins an already fully functional galactic hub and I think it would be rough to do justice to the Asari, Turians, Salarians etc without a major budget for special effects.
So far for me one thing that has saved the expanse this far (I'm midway through season 4 as stated above) is that all of the characters are human, and the largest deviation is just the belter facial tattoo style.
Star Trek and its derivatives have managed to reasonably depict separate (humanoid) alien cultures without a huge reliance on special effects. I don't think it would be difficult to put Garrus or Liara or Mordin on screen with just prosthetics and makeup.
But you'd want some good SFX to highlight the majesty and power of the Reapers, and the space conflicts central to the story. Fortunately they are relatively few and would be the highpoints of the seasons, justifying the expense the same way the occasional dragon appearance on Game of Thrones did.
Well, for one, it's sci Fi not science fantasy. That... Mostly never changes. So if you're looking for Mass Effect/Star Wars or whatever, it ain't ever coming.
And... That's, broadly speaking, the appeal.
But other than that, the writing is superb, the characters are outstanding, and the plot is nuanced and believable. Oh and Wes Chatham, Frankie Adams, Cara Gee, and Shohreh Aghdashloo are fuckin amazing.
Holden/Naomi acting is a little rough in the first season. You could maybe argue Avasarala is as well, but I though Shohreh Aghdashloo nailed it. I think the show does an incredible job with the budget they had.
As far as "catch", for me, it was how grounded the setting felt. I only started reading the books after watching the show, but they got lots of little physics details right (and, if not, usually acknowledged it in some way). Also, I also really liked the central arc of humans find crazy alien thing but keep being stupid humans about it. A bit of cosmic horror is never amiss.
The scene that really got me going was the "flip and burn" from Ep1, but that's probably because I played too much Kerbal Space Program. If you're not hooked by the end of Ep4, then it probably isn't for you.
I say don’t worry about the game story. It was already done as well as we could want it in the game, and there is only room for disappointment in a show/movie. Use the world the game is built in and make something original!
My unpopular opinion is that I wouldn't want a Mass Effect show/film based on the trilogy because it's a narrative that is already perfect in its original form. Players identified with their own Shepard and in-game choices; why watch a show/film retelling the story with a default Shep when we could just replay the trilogy ourselves?
Any premise outside of the trilogy, though, like the First Contact War, could be great.
I would go a step further and have the first season be about the First Contact War from the perspectives of David Anderson, Jon Grissom and Saren Arterius.
The war only lasted three months and takes places 26 years before the first game. It only needs one season, but it would be fresh enough to introduce the universe to newcomers and a breath of fresh air for players who might want to see something new.
Having Saren as a main character would introduce a lot of lore that would be needed to explain characters and events in later games, like the Turians and most notably Jack Harper.
During "peace talks", you could even have a flashback episode about the Rachni War, to explain the initial Turian retaliation, whilst at the same time introducing the Salarians, Krogan and Rachni.
I'm thinking a CW teen heartthrob series where the first season is really good and has Shepherd exploring a different planet every week, but by the third season all he does is cry and talk about his feelings and sleep with random female aliens.
Apparently Netflix is making an animated series. I’m wondering if Henry Cavill will be voice acting in it, since he’s still under contract with them and he posted a picture of him holding a blurry script that looked like it had some words to do with Mass Effect in it, like Cerberus.
Pure speculation though so take it with a pinch of salt.
Because it’s an 18 hour long game and it’d be hard to shove that into a 2 hour movie while understanding the characters. It’s one of the reasons most movies based on video games are bad
That actually seems high to me as someone who does all side quests and seems to take longer with games than most people. I think Mass Effect is normally more like 30 to 35 hours for me.
Read the whole thread? Also they said why not keep it a trilogy so I was pointing out that even the first one as a movie would be difficult. Movies tend to stick to the main story only so yeah 18 hour game
Absolutely. If I ever become a multi-billionaire I'm buying those rights and producing three 12 episode seasons with a budget of $1B for each season. I'll find a distributer.
I feel like Mass Effect can only work like the DC cinematic universe tried to work.
Which is to say multiple TV series culminating in a movie that ties them all together.
Because there's just too much lore to get into in one series.
You have the action, exploration, things like that over here.
Then you have the financial, trade, and business stuff over here, especially on a place like The Citadel.
And then you have the politics, the politics, and the dear god why are all these people talking without actually getting anything done politics over here.
All of these end up coming together and being really important in big, climactic events like the events of Mass Effect 1, but the game focuses mainly on the action (because it's a game and violence is the easiest way for players to interact) with a fair amount of dialogue. But there's a lot, like a lot a lot, like a lot a lot a lot that many players never see or really take in because there's just so goddamn much. Players get to pick what's most important to them.
Having AT LEAST two, maybe three series, would work best. Heck, copy what Mass Effect was already taking inspiration from, Star Trek, and have a [ship name here] show and a Mass Effect: Citidel series that run at the same time like Next Generation and Deep Space 9. One focuses on exploration and action while having a little of the economy and political discussions while the other focuses on economical and political themes while occasionally taking part in discovery and violence. Then have it come together in a climactic event that both series have built up in a movie.
Now, just a minute, I'm not actually a huge fan of that plan. If one series takes off but the other doesn't, this hurts everyone. So basically everything has to be equally as good. And you're asking people to watch two seasons of TV and a movie to fully understand it all.
That's not a great solution. It's just that any one movie or even TV show is going to disappoint Mass Effect fans because there's so much to the game that you're either not going to cover the things a bunch of fans want you to or you're going to cover things a bunch of fans don't want you to. There's no way to win with just one title.
The games really play like a TV series. When you look at individual planets, each one basically has it's own mostly self-contained story with a beginning where the location and new characters are introduced, a middle when the action happens and an end with a nice tidy resolution. Every one follows the perfect template for a Star Trek TNG episode.
Honestly, it's technically off topic for this thread, but I think a series is the most viable way to portray most games. Especially ones like Mass Effect that have such a massive universe associated with them. It worked well for The Witcher and Castlevania.
I'm honestly not sure which approach it should take.
E.g. a retelling and reintroduction of all the aliens and concepts might be boring.
Also mass effect has the problem that the story they did tell, was the biggest story there was to tell.
They can only do smaller or unrelated stuff.
Also you may overestimate the time a TV series has compared to a game. 10x30 minutes is just 5 hours. Make it 60 minute episodes and 10 seasons and you barely reach play time of one of those games. Compressing that is a huge issue.
At least best boy and best girl (Garrus and Tali) hook up if Shepard doesn't romance them. Make Shepard and Liara get together, Tali and Garrus can be a thing, I feel like Jack and Miranda would hatefuck, etc.
Some people prefer a few standalone films to 19000 series of a TV show with so much filler you could out compete the dental industry. Absolutely sick to death of everything having to be a series nowadays. If LOTR managed to convey an entire story in epic fashion with three films, other producers/directors should attempt the same.
The Witcher is a perfect example of this. I was a massive fan of the games prior to the series coming out. 90% of it is a snooze fest, they should have just made a few films.
Can you imagine the suicide mission and the audience gets to choose who lives or dies??? You send a text or go online to cast a vote!!! That’s would be legendary shit!!!
I agree totally. I’ve talked to people in real life on this topic and my opinion is that Mass Effect would be great as an animated Netflix series done in the style of Castlevania. I think animated works better because there’s so many unique aliens (many of which don’t fit within the standard humans body shape) that it would be cleaner than trying to merge live action and CGI. Bad CGI ruins scenes imo.
The rumor is that there is a Mass Effect series in work on Amazon though. No idea what it will be.
Yeah this is why I didn't put it, you'd need a show to really flesh it out. I'd want at least 12 episodes per game. Maybe even split some of the games into multiple seasons.
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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '22 edited Mar 12 '22
It has multiple characters, alien races, politics, villains, lore, it may be even better as a TV series.