3 Years Later: Mass Effect 3 Ending Revisited [spoilers!]

[IceForce]

I remember reading on the Bioware forums from an Admin that the original ending script was leaked at some point during writing, and that it involved Dark Energy. Remember Tali's recruitment mission in ME2 on Haestrom? And the sun that was dying abnormally fast? Apparently that was supposed to play into how you beat the Reapers.

I heard the rumor that the ending was changed BECAUSE of that leak. In other words, they didn't want the leak to be the ending, so they hurriedly changed it to something else (thereby invalidating the leak).

 

[ecoho]

so yeah the ending wasn't the best but I didn't mind it. Then again I know endings are hard to do when you have such a large story to wrap up, hell even great author's don't get it right all the time.

Also I think anyone who thought that the last 15 mins of anything weather its a movie, game, or TV series can ruin hours if not days worth of enjoyment is a self entitled twit. (note that this does NOT apply to those who disliked the game from the get go as different tastes and such) If you've had fun with something longer then 12 hours that something is by definition enjoyable regardless of how the ending was.

 

[IceForce]

Narratively speaking, the story had been pushing the idea that while the Reapers were an incredibly powerful foe, they were pretty much at the weakest they had ever been and the Galaxy was at its strongest, that for the first time in history victory against them was possible. Almost certainly costly, but possible. And then it doesn't go anywhere with it. It builds up and then falls flat. Every single advantage shown, discussed, and present in the codex is ignored in the final act.

Excellent post. I've snipped this down to keep things shorter, but the rest of your post was excellent, and highlights a lot of key problems where the narrative fell over.

Yes indeed, the reason why the Reapers were so disadvantaged THIS cycle was because they were embarrassingly late with their invasion this time around, due to the modifications the Protheans made to the Keepers ("When the Reapers sent the signal to the Keepers to open the Citadel relay, the Keepers ignored it." --Vigil)

Out of interest, how would you have personally preferred the Reapers to have been defeated in ME3? If not a mega-weapon-that-saves-the-day, then what ... attrition?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Alright, I like a good lynching, even if I'm the subject. I liked Mass Effect 3, ending and all. The gameplay wasn't as good as ME1, but better than 2. The technicolor ending didn't bother me either.

 

[The Madman]

I heard the rumor that the ending was changed BECAUSE of that leak. In other words, they didn't want the leak to be the ending, so they hurriedly changed it to something else (thereby invalidating the leak).

There were a number of different ideas being thrown around for ME3's ending. The main original concept being that the advancement of galactic civilization and the use of the games namesake biotics are what was causing dark energy buildup leading to events such as the stars dying in Haelstrom. Reapers being an enigmatic and basic sort of 'start over' solution to this problem either by design or through self-preservation, that was never clarified.

Another early concept for ME's plot was that Shepards 'upgrades' at the advent of ME2 would play central to the story, with the eventual end goal being a circular story of sorts where Shepard is becoming less and less human in the name of destroying the reapers, culminating in a confrontation ala ME1's Saren where the survivor from ME1, either Kaidan or Ashley, would confront Shepard on their increasing inhumanity and possible Reaper influences.

You can read some more about it HERE and HERE, which even has some early concept art including the original Tali design for under the helmet.

Frankly it all sounds wayyyyy better than what was eventually put into the game. Go figure.

 

[Somebloke]

Look like I'll be the one to bring up that the ending remains just fine from the perspective of the so called "Indoctrination Theory" (give us our follow-up).

 

[Tsun Tzu]

The entire game was a let down, aside from some choice scenes (the victory fleet was orgasmic) but, yeah, the ending retroactively killed my interest in the series. I'm giving it a wide berth from now on, though, with Hudson out of there it may not suck quite so much.

Had a blast with the multiplayer though. So there's that, I guess.

I replayed ME1 and 2 so many times...but ever since 2012? Haven't touched them. Just feels stupid.

Kind of hoping for an indoctrination theory retcon at the beginning of 4. That would be fucking glorious.

Also, OP: Wow. You're so god damned entitled. How could you expect a decent ending? Ugh.

 

[Casual Shinji]

But honestly ME3's problems go way beyond just the last twenty minutes or so. Given the awfulness of the very end part coupled with the rose-tinted glasses being firmly in place its easy to miss the fact that...actually on the whole a big chunk of the game isn't particularly well written. For all that people complain about the ending roughly the last quarter of the game it starts dropping off. As if they made the first roughly three quarters of it and then got told the deadline was the week after, so they slapped whatever they could together and shipped it.

The only part of the game I genuinely enjoyed was everything up to curing the Genophage. It's when the Citidal gets attacked and frikking Kai Lang gets introduced that things start to take a major nose dive. Although the beginning takes a big hit when Liara utters the epicly stupid phrase 'Process of elimination mixed with a little desperation' when asked why they only now found the giant anti-Reaper microphone.

 

[Imre Csete]

Also, OP: Wow. You're so god damned entitled. How could you expect a decent ending? Ugh.

Haha, I had so much fun reading all those dudes sporting the "Shepard deserves better fans" banners back in the day. Entitlement was the word of the year 2012! Artistic Integrity comes in close second.

While the ending really sucked, crowned with the 'you can buy more DLCs' (now retconned) message at the very end, I was more disappointed by the fallout that followed. How the PR department came down on the raging mob like the smuggest assholes of all time really showed us what to expect in the future. It's telling how nearly all the old names are gone from BioWare, and it showed on DA3. I forget I played that game most of the time.

 

[Kwak]

There's been several references to indoctrination theory but not one explanation of what it is. Obviously I wasn't invested enough in the series to know what it means, as I stopped playing halfway through the second game, but I still find this discussion interesting.
So what is it? Some form of 'it was all just a dream'?

 

[Pr0]

Mass Effect was an amazing journey. It was like having the job of your dreams and the hottest significant other you could ever have for your prefered sexuality...then in the last ten minutes of your amazing journey, you suddenly wake up and you realize you are actually a septic tank cleaner and your significant other turns out to be a 70 year old with dentures and a colostomy bag thats just been really good at hiding their age and physical condition the entire time.

Thats the kind of suicidal 180 on quality the end of Mass Effect 3 is. Its wasn't good when they pressed it to a DVD-ROM, its still not good now. The only upside of the entire situation is that Casey Hudson no longer works for the BioWare studio and theres a fair chance his stupidity won't fuck up another franchise again. Unfortunately though Mac Walters is still creative director there so, its really only a 50/50 chance that ME4 or Dragon Age won't scuttle themselves with stupidity again some time in the very near future.

 

[Snotnarok]

This must be the most common topic on the escapist,

Honestly the ending was sub-par considering the rest of the games content in total but I honestly didn't care, had my fun with the games and I'll likely go through them again.
Maybe I'm jaded from many endings just being "hey, you won!" roll credits but honestly the series was fun so I really can't really lean the ending against the series too hard.

 

[Monsterfurby]

I liked my red ending, thought it fit pretty well. Then again, I also follow the theory that the red ending is the only proper way to tell the Reapers where they can shove it.

 

[Megalodon]

There's been several references to indoctrination theory but not one explanation of what it is. Obviously I wasn't invested enough in the series to know what it means, as I stopped playing halfway through the second game, but I still find this discussion interesting.
So what is it? Some form of 'it was all just a dream'?

Not quote. It was a reactionary fan theory to the abysmal ending that boiled down to 'Shepard was being slowly Indoctrinated throughout the game'. Under this theory the three coloured endings represented the final stage of this struggle, with Destroy being Shepard resisting Reaper influence, while the other two being ultimate Reaper victory. However, this theory ignores the establishes process of Indoctrination (which is clearly laid out in ME2), as all Shepard really has is some bad dreams/PTSD. As well as ignoring what a Prothean VI says in 3, it can specifically detect Indoctrination (and does so when Kai Leng approaches), so the fact that it continues to interact with and help Shepard cou8nts against the Indoctrination Theory.

 

[GabeZhul]

There's been several references to indoctrination theory but not one explanation of what it is. Obviously I wasn't invested enough in the series to know what it means, as I stopped playing halfway through the second game, but I still find this discussion interesting.
So what is it? Some form of 'it was all just a dream'?

Not quote. It was a reactionary fan theory to the abysmal ending that boiled down to 'Shepard was being slowly Indoctrinated throughout the game'. Under this theory the three coloured endings represented the final stage of this struggle, with Destroy being Shepard resisting Reaper influence, while the other two being ultimate Reaper victory. However, this theory ignores the establishes process of Indoctrination (which is clearly laid out in ME2), as all Shepard really has is some bad dreams/PTSD. As well as ignoring what a Prothean VI says in 3, it can specifically detect Indoctrination (and does so when Kai Leng approaches), so the fact that it continues to interact with and help Shepard cou8nts against the Indoctrination Theory.

The thing about the indoctrination theory is that, thought it is obviously non-canon, it still fixes more plot-holes and provides a better narrative than the original story did.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

There's been several references to indoctrination theory but not one explanation of what it is. Obviously I wasn't invested enough in the series to know what it means, as I stopped playing halfway through the second game, but I still find this discussion interesting.
So what is it? Some form of 'it was all just a dream'?

Here's a documentary on it. Really well put together too.


If ya can't handle the audio glitches (google+ integration fucked it somehow) then...well, there WAS a download, but apparently it's broken.

AngryJoe has a video too

Not quote. It was a reactionary fan theory to the abysmal ending that boiled down to 'Shepard was being slowly Indoctrinated throughout the game'. Under this theory the three coloured endings represented the final stage of this struggle, with Destroy being Shepard resisting Reaper influence, while the other two being ultimate Reaper victory. However, this theory ignores the establishes process of Indoctrination (which is clearly laid out in ME2), as all Shepard really has is some bad dreams/PTSD. As well as ignoring what a Prothean VI says in 3, it can specifically detect Indoctrination (and does so when Kai Leng approaches), so the fact that it continues to interact with and help Shepard cou8nts against the Indoctrination Theory.

Disagree.

IndocTheory covers a lotta bases. I thought it was really well done and, genuinely, would have made for a better explanation/ending.

As for the VIs? It detected indoctrinated beings. Saryn and Kai were completely indoctrinated. They were essentially thralls when they came into contact with the VIs. Shepard? Not indoctrinated. But, under the 'theory,' fighting the occasional attempts at it from the reapers.

In the end, getting whacked with that laser? Made the opening they needed to make a hard push annnnd...man, it would have been so much more interesting than the fucking star child.

I mean, come on, Shepard was rendered unconscious by a reaper artifact at one point, then spent days, unconscious, in its presence. It doesn't make any sense at all for him/her to not be affected in some way when EVERYONE else was.

Bioware had a chance to make something memorable. To pull a 180 and make something awesome. But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Stand by that pile of dogshit, Mac and Casey. You fucking savants you.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

The ending was awful, it's been three years and I'm still bitter about it. Your choices not mattering and not following up on what happened (at least pre-EC) were both bad but the real problem for me is that it made no fucking sense. And it's not just the ending of Mass Effect 3 that has these problems, all of Mass Effect 3 does. After I finished it I started to look back at other things that happened and go, wait, why?

Why don't the Reapers shut down the Mass Relay network? They did it in literally every other cycle, it's what Sovereign was going to do in Mass Effect 1.

Why is Earth so important? I understand wanting to saving Earth because I'm human, if Aliens invaded Earth I'd want to save Ireland but I'd understand the rest of the world is also in danger. Shepard seems to go, screw the rest of the galaxy, everyone needs to help Earth.

The crucible makes no sense. If they had it in the form it is, thousands of cycles building a machine that does something, they don't know what, it should have been a red herring planted by the Reapers to waste people's time.

Why don't we go to Ilos? There is a Mass Relay to the Citadel right there and the Reapers don't know about it. We killed the Reaper who knew about its existence years ago. They even call the beam to the Citadel in London in Mass Effect 3 The Conduit, the same thing that mass relay was called. It would be much better than the crazy London run to the beam they do in 3.

 

[Metalmacher]

Here's my opinion: I felt like the Citadel DLC completed for me any feelings of emptiness because I felt like I've cemented the bond between my shepard and her crew. So that helped.
Buuut... The ending felt rushed to me. I wanted it to be longer, explore the various crew member's role in the final battle.
Regarding the final choice, well... I think I'm ok with it. The science magic felt deus-ex-y to the point of annoyance, but I get the idea behind the choices. I really liked how it foreshadowed to Saren, from the first game, regarding Synthesis. I'm ok with.
Most importantly however, whatever issues I have with the ending, they're not substantial enough to warrant me not replaying ME3 over and over and over again.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

It was pretty shit. Seriously, had they not just made the starchild into some kind of AI that pops up and goes "Please don't, reapers reap because of reapers reasons!" and then you either fire it or not. If you fire it, machines wiped out have a sob etc., if you don't, you all join the reapers in their reaping fun.

In fact, I'd have preferred it to simply damaged the reapers, as that would save the tone of the end of the game, as Shep could still go out with all of his allies to fight the damaged reapers in a final, desperate attempt. Mass Effect was almost Lord of the Rings in space, all of the fractured races of the galaxy's being banded together in the end to try and survive against an encroaching evil that will kill them all.

But instead, philsophy, and either you wipe out everything (best option), you pull a fucking wizard out of your arse and make magic organ-sythenic-mongoloids (seriously, how the fuck does it even happen?! Everything else, even the literal biotic magic is explained, but nope, synthesis is literally just magic) and Shep leading the reapers (eh, kinda weird, pretty much destined to end terribly when Shep starts to go a bit nuts.

Also, fuck Bioware SOOOOOO much for including the Stargazer ending. Seriously, fuck that giant pile of shit. They included it because of all of the people who said they wanted a choice to simply say "No" to Starchild and fight the Reapers. The moment you do so, it fades to black and then reveals you all died and the next generation is telling stories about you. Seriously. Fuck you Bioware, it's just a giant middle finger to everyone who formed an army and actually wanted to see it fight against the big bad. Hell, Mass Effect 2 did it better with the ship upgrades, where if you didn't get enough your ship would start to fall apart and people would die, but if you worked hard enough to get all of them you scrape through with everyone mostly intact.

Urgh. Lastly, if anyone knows, why in the bleeding fuck does Shepard need to gather points to get the various endings? Seriously, if there is a reason I can't remember. At first gathering the points made sense as they represented the war effort against the Reapers, so having a low score basically meant losing the war. But if at the end you just choose what to do regardless of what you did, why does Shepard need his magically points exactly?

EDIT:

However, the Citadel is literally the greatest DLC ever for anything. Seriously, that DLC is fucking brilliant. It lets you enjoy and really get into the characters of everyone you have met and bonded with throughout the story, and then you have a bloody stupid but fun plot where you fight your own twin, and most importantly the Citadel battles involve your ENTIRE team fighting. You get to see all of the people you've found and trained work together to kick some evil clone ass. Seriously, good DLC. Still, shit ending. Kinda made worse by the fact I loved that damn DLC so much.

 

[Neonsilver]

There's been several references to indoctrination theory but not one explanation of what it is. Obviously I wasn't invested enough in the series to know what it means, as I stopped playing halfway through the second game, but I still find this discussion interesting.
So what is it? Some form of 'it was all just a dream'?

Yeah pretty much, during all the games shepard came into contact with a lot of reaper tech and it was already established that even deactivated reaper tech could cause indoctrination. The strange dreams throughout the third game, that anderson got to the room with TIM before you, wihtout you seeing him (there was only one way to get to the room), that the star child looked like the child from the beginning and from the dreams, all that coupled with the resentment of the original ending turned into the indoctrination theory. It pretty much said that, I think, from the point you get hit by a reaper beam during the final charge is a representation of shepard being indoctrinated and fighting against it. That the destruction ending, the only ending that resulted in the reapers destruction, is the only ending where shepard might survive, strengthened that theory as well.

TLDR:
The indoctrination theory was the fans telling EA and Bioware that an ending that tells us everything is a dream, would be better than what they gave us.

Without looking into it, the points where shepard might have been indoctrinated:

Virmire ME
If Saren acted as some kind of relay, every time you encounter him. ME
Derelict Reaper ME2
Collector ship ME2
Collector Base ME2
fighting the Reaper larvae ME2
Same argument with Saren in regards of the collectors themselves, at the least whenever Harbringer takes one over. ME2
the arrival DLC ME2
in ME3 you are close to reapers several times
The infection in the geth code could probably count
Earth during the finale and beginning

Also some low level possibilities the Normandy SR2, the Citadel and the Relays.