User blog comment:Phantomdasilva/Fan Entitlement and the sanctity of artistic vision/@comment-4933332-20120327075857/@comment-4950455-20120327090822

I didn't really want to get into any more of these ending blogs, but I felt this deserved a response. The artistic integrity argument is not "nonsense" or "silly"; it's a very decent point. I do think it's being used as something of a diversionary tactic by Bioware (though I'm increasingly convinced that at least some of the devs somehow really did think the ending was great). And Legionwrex has a point as well - I'd be a lot more supportive of Bioware choosing to stick by its ending, no matter how unpopular, if their advertisements hadn't promised something else entirely (although I've never seen any specific numbers like that, and certainly nothing close to "1000 endings").

But at the same time, there is a legitimate concern here about the precedent that's being set. here. Assuming the ending is genuinely changed, we'll have a case of a creator backing away from their own creative vision because of fan backlash. Given the circumstances and deceptive advertising mentioned above, I'm inclined to feel it would be justified. But the precedent still will be there, and next time the circumstances might be a lot less justified.

Regardless of all the lofty talk about "closure", the community polls show that a lot of people really do just want a "Hollywood happy ending". In a game that was supposed to have lots of possible endings, giving you the chance to earn your happy ending is fine - but what about a work like a novel or TV series? Will their creators have to deal with this kind of demands if their works don't end with everyone living happily ever after? Every work with multiple possible romances will develop its own contingent of 'shippers', some of which will inevitably be disappointed at how things turn out. Will they demand that writers go back and "fix" the endings to make sure their so-called OTP wins out? These kinds of things already happen in any large fandom; how much worse might they get if a creator actually does change their ending to placate angry fans?

In this specific case, I don't think it's wrong for fans to demand some kind of "fix" for the ending. But I think we shouldn't dismiss worries about the precedent this sets either.