Rob's Notes:

For this outing, it was a relief to start on a story that was more on a smaller scale than the last few that I wrote. Writing Peroration was a topic that I had gestating for a while now and I'm glad I could see it through. Being a huge fan of the Mass Effect universe, I was monumentally upset at the ending to the epic trilogy and I began creating ideas in my head that would be considered more acceptable as my own headcanon to the debacle.

It was a painstaking maneuver to make sure that I wrote all of the characters correctly and to give my reasoning for their actions. The end result is something that I am reasonably pleased with, a strong ending that the Mass Effect series deserved.

The word "peroration" means "coda." Because this was only dealing with the ending, having it as a literal coda to the series made sense as a title. Funnily enough, the original title of this story was Mass Effect: Coda, but I had to change it once I realized that there was another story that shared the same name, so I switched it to Peroration, which sounds a little more obscure and professional, a happy accident.

Prologue:

For some of my stories, I had been commended for my use of realistic dialogue in military scenarios so I was itching to use some of my experience writing more, as I like it when I can make the scene sound more realistic to the reader. It sucks them in more and builds upon the world.

I made sure to make a few small changes in this chapter so that the audience would know that it wouldn't be a simple retelling of the story. It gave me a chance to write more heart-wrenching dialogue between Shepard and Tali and to actually introduce Harbinger as an actual character. It was all an exercise in expansion and I made sure to play up the dramatic nature as far as I possibly could.

Recommended Music:

Serve Us: "Tornado" by Hans Zimmer from the film Man of Steel

Chapter 1:

What I loved about writing this chapter was showcasing how devoted Tali was to Shepard by stealing the shuttle. In the past, I have been rather disappointed in myself for not embracing Tali as a badass warrior and I didn't want to portray her again as a crying, sniveling girl so I made sure to not pull any punches with developing her character.

Readers will spot a parallel with that scene and the one I wrote in Third Stage but in actuality it was this scene that I had envisioned long before that actually inspired that, I only got to write it now.

Tali Steals the Shuttle: "Warp Core Values" by Michael Giacchino from the film Star Trek: Into Darkness

Chapter 2:

Now this is where I started to break the lore of the established universe. I never liked the idea that the Leviathans created the Reapers for the purpose of preserving organic life at all. It never made any sense to me in the games so I just wrote them out completely to fit in with the characterizations that Sovereign revealed in the first Mass Effect. With that in mind, it gave the Reapers a more chilling perspective as their motivations became more and more nebulous as this scene went on.

What was crucial about this scene was that Shepard was only thinking of Tali throughout the entire scene and how she influenced his final choice in the end. I wanted Shepard's decision to have some weight in it and to have the knowledge that someone loves him was the one factor that prevented him from falling into the Reapers grasp. It fit the character and I love where it ended up.

Make the Choice: "Tiangong" by Steven Price from the film Gravity

Chapter 3:

Out of all the chapters I have written, this is the one that I can say is my favorite. The idea of a mental confrontation was the one thing that persuaded me to write this story (seeing as I hadn't read another FF that featured it, which is not a lot because I don't read that many FFs to begin with) and I spent most of my time outlining it.

The idea that Saren would be Shepard's guide throughout his whole experience was not the original plan. The first concept would be to have the figure shapeshift between Saren, the Collectors, and the Illusive Man but this was scrapped as I would have to embody several different characteristics which would have made the scene more clunky. As it is, I do like that Saren is the one to share in Shepard's torment.

Of course, the themes present in this chapter and the next briefly made me consider changing the rating to M but I decided against it as there is nothing terribly explicit but they were fairly intense to write.

With that being said, I'm not sure how the audience took my alternative reasoning for the Reaper's motivations to "harvest" organic life. This explanation made more sense to me than just doing it for the hell of it. They're machines and they believe they're perfect so preventing other from ascending to perfection would be a natural cause to initiate conflict.

And yes, I did include several themes from the Indoctrination Theory as influences but since that theory did not offer an explanation on what happens afterward, I had to create my own ending. Pretty much, this whole chapter was devoted to "fixing shit" that I was dissatisfied with, namely the endings, the choices, the Reapers' motivations, the entire ending. To have it take place in Shepard's head made so much sense because the audience now could explore these alternatives in a place where time is not so much important and can be more readily accepted.

(There is also a slight easter egg to the For Her trilogy in there somewhere, even though it is rather difficult to spot)

Drowning: "Watertank" by Junkie XL from the film Divergence

Saren: "Stay With Me" by Clint Mansell from the film The Fountain

Ascension: "Truck" by Unknown (I have no idea who wrote it, just look up on YT the words "Truck" and "Steve Jablonsky," you'll know what I'm talking about)

Chapter 4:

Remember when I said I didn't want Tali to stand around and do nothing? Well, here was that chance for her to kick some serious ass.

I initially pictured the fight with the Illusive Man to be a team effort with Tali and Shepard but I changed it so that Tali could have all the glory and that Shepard, in his weakened state, could only focus on activating the Crucible.

Because I am a fan of multi-staged fights, I wanted the Reapers to have one last shot at controlling Shepard and paralleled his situation to Saren's by almost having him commit suicide. The fact that Tali was there only heightened the dramatic tension and brought a heavy weight upon the story.

Through Destruction: "Shenzou" by Steven Price from the film Gravity

Chapter 5:

I labored over this one for a while, trying to write a few scenes every time I got on. Like I said in the afterword, I had several things preventing me from releasing it on time and some of the presentation might have gotten lost in the struggle. I might have to go back and clean it up but it will suffice, for now.

I intentionally downplayed some scenes because I did not feel like dragging them out to the point where the audience gets bored. I condensed them to the point where they should be at that spot where they want just a tiny bit more before it finally ends.

Reunion: "Ender's Promise" by Steve Jablonsky from the film Ender's Game

Epilogue:

This was made to give the sense that there was some actual closure for this series as a whole. Having a news broadcast offer a quick summary of the crewmembers was the obvious choice for getting this done.

Plus I could finally give an actual decent ending to Shepard's story. I left some plot details vague but those are elements that I don't want to explain and will leave it to the audience's imagination.

Close: "Where To?" by Marco Beltrami from the film The Wolverine

Bonus Cue – Tali's Theme: "Tris" by Junkie XL from the film Divergence

So, when all's said and done, you have this smaller tale that I've had in my head for a while that I wanted to finally share. I did enjoy writing this one a lot and I wonder how everyone accepts the changes that I've made. All criticism welcome.

In the future, I have a few ideas for one-shots that I want to develop that will reuse characters that I've made in the past. They will tide me over until the next big thing crosses my head (which could be a while). Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope to see you all again.

It was a pleasure.

-Rob Sears