I Have Obtained ME 3 Ending Enlightenment, A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE QUESTIONING THE ME 3 ENDINGS!

[Appleshampoo]

I agree with a lot of the points here, especially the ending feeling unfinished.

I finally finished my play through not 30 minutes ago and came straight onto forums looking for answers. Even right now I still don't feel as if I finished the game. There was no 'Thank fuck for that, wowzers that was EPIC!' I just feel as if I've put the game on pause and will finish it later.

I loved the game, all the way through I was like 'This is amazing, there's no way the ending can be bad' and then it turns out nothing mattered and everyone loses anyway.

Well, I chose to destroy the reapers and got Garrus and Vega step out of the shuttle at the end, a long with some old man who sounded a lot like the illusive man telling some kid a story of the Shepard.

So obviously everything works out fine, and the little PDA told me Shepard won the day and is a legend.

However, that seemed REALLY forced and stuck in at the last minute. I KNOW Shepard is a legend, because I fuckin' just played him. What happened to the rest of my squad who I've spent the last 3 games getting to know and really caring for? Am I supposed to be happy with them crash landing and staring into the sunset and that's it?

To me, I'd have been happy if the reapers died, the relays lived and then it just showed me little pictures of what everyone's doing now. Is Jacob waiting in Rio for me? Is Garrus being the manliest Turian around?

I'd hope for some DLC, but I'm willing to bet the only DLC we will see is multiplayer maps. Whoopie.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Anyone other paragon Shepards curious as to how Cerberus got hold of the human reaper after you blew that and the collector base to kingdom come at the end of ME2?

I'm sure Cerberus had a back-up space ninja infiltrated in the galactic core to pick that shit up.

... I mean, why the hell not!?

 

[AD-Stu]

I've read your explanation, and It makes sense, however, I still say the way the endings were presented and the options available smell like corporate meddling to me.

It gave me the exact opposite feeling - I would have suspected corporate meddling if all the endings had been happy Hollywood ones that left the door open for a hundred sequels. If this is EA corporate meddling then they're really bad at it, because there's no way an ending like this would have made it past focus groups, business planners and marketing directors.

Instead, what we got felt very much to me like artistes flexing their creative control muscles. Actually, it kind of reminds me of the ending of What Just Happened when the on-screen director decides to...

Spoiler

...leave the shooting-the-dog scene in, as an explicit "fuck you" to the wishes of the studio

Except from what I can tell, even that decision had better justification than this one

 

[Appleshampoo]

Also, after spending 99% of the game liking Joker, I can't help but think he's a dick now since he pretty much stranded all your best friends in the middle of no where after he abandoned the ENTIRE galaxy to run away.

So thanks for that Joker, you just killed my crew. Asshole.

 

[JPArbiter]

I gotta pipe in on something.

anyone ever consider that the endings were always meant to be Pyrrhic victories at best? that sometimes the hero does not quite save the day? that something horrible has to happen to save what you care about the most?

sure, it is not the ending we want, but it was the ending that the developers wanted to tell.

 

[Thraxen]

I gotta pipe in on something.

anyone ever consider that the endings were always meant to be Pyrrhic victories at best? that sometimes the hero does not quite save the day? that something horrible has to happen to save what you care about the most?

sure, it is not the ending we want, but it was the ending that the developers wanted to tell.

Well, sure. But it's still incredibly annoying that virtually everything you do is completely meaningless. When someone can skip all of the extra content and side missions and get almost the exact same ending as you, it makes all your work seem pretty insignificant.

 

[wicket42]

Questions? Comments?

Assuming arguendo that the glowy fuckwit's hypothesis is correct leads inevitably to synthetic seed ships from the Andromeda galaxy coming along and stripping all resources from our galaxy. After all, his entire contention is that AIs will always arise that destroy organic life and ONLY the reapers are stopping this from happening in the Milky Way. Thus, sooner or later the seed ships will come. And since the cycle has been going on for millions of years they could already be a significant part of the way to the Milky Way. Unless you want to make some BS claim about intelligent life not arising in other galaxies. Otherwise that IS what will happen. Only logical conclusion.


The reason the ending is so godawfully bad is because IT WAS CHANGED. Either because of the leak or because EA thought it couldn't be milked enough is up for debate. But it was changed.

What was the original ending? Or do we know? I've been curious about it since I beat the game and haven't been able to find it anywhere.

It had to do with the Dark Energy buildup on Haestrom and how the reapers were integral to finding a way to stop it.

Is there any more info on this?

I always wondered what was happening there, one of the few things from ME2 that didn't get any closure at all.

All I've really seen is this

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/somethingawful-the-plot-of-me3-changed-dramatically-big-big-spoilers.250066288/

 

[JPArbiter]

not necessarily.

it is the content of your character, (hehehe pun) that determines how you face these choices, none of which are what you want, but are what you have. I would be pissed off too in such a situation, particularly since the battle rages below and I can not sit and think about the consequences of each action.

I competently understand the rage at this situation btw. I call it the "Disney Ending Effect." Think back to the third Pirates of the Carribian film. Orlando bloom marries his woman in the middle of battle, Davy Jones is killed by his hand, and he by law of nature has to take his place.

Bullshit! I wanted happily ever after, and for him to create little Keria Knightly's all over the world! but I did not get that, cause it was not the story the Mouse House wanted to tell. similar situation here.

 

[wicket42]

Anyone other paragon Shepards curious as to how Cerberus got hold of the human reaper after you blew that and the collector base to kingdom come at the end of ME2?

How did they even get through the Omega-4 relay when the normandy was the only ship with the Reaper IFF?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Stupidest plot hole of all, is why the hell did Shepard walk right into the explosion radius while shooting the red cable.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Anyone other paragon Shepards curious as to how Cerberus got hold of the human reaper after you blew that and the collector base to kingdom come at the end of ME2?

How did they even get through the Omega-4 relay when the normandy was the only ship with the Reaper IFF?

That's another lovely plot hole. Not as big though. They can always say that he managed to acquire one from Sovereign's remains.

Captcha: nap time

I could use a nap actually. OK then.

 

[Darkmantle]

I gotta pipe in on something.

anyone ever consider that the endings were always meant to be Pyrrhic victories at best? that sometimes the hero does not quite save the day? that something horrible has to happen to save what you care about the most?

sure, it is not the ending we want, but it was the ending that the developers wanted to tell.

pyrrhic victories are fine, dumb pyrrhic victories are not. Dumb deus ex machina Pyrrhic victories are the worst.

that is most people problem. not that it was pyrrhic, but it was dumb, and felt rushed

 

[Thraxen]

not necessarily.

it is the content of your character, (hehehe pun) that determines how you face these choices, none of which are what you want, but are what you have. I would be pissed off too in such a situation, particularly since the battle rages below and I can not sit and think about the consequences of each action.

I competently understand the rage at this situation btw. I call it the "Disney Ending Effect." Think back to the third Pirates of the Carribian film. Orlando bloom marries his woman in the middle of battle, Davy Jones is killed by his hand, and he by law of nature has to take his place.

Bullshit! I wanted happily ever after, and for him to create little Keria Knightly's all over the world! but I did not get that, cause it was not the story the Mouse House wanted to tell. similar situation here.

It's difficult to compare a movie to a game, especially when one of the main focuses of the game is about your choices impacting the story. I'm not sure whether people are annoyed by the lack of a happy ending, or just that all the endings are so similar and it feels like the game is penalizing you for something you couldn't control.

 

[Merrick_HLC]

I gotta pipe in on something.

anyone ever consider that the endings were always meant to be Pyrrhic victories at best? that sometimes the hero does not quite save the day? that something horrible has to happen to save what you care about the most?

sure, it is not the ending we want, but it was the ending that the developers wanted to tell.

Here's the thing though.

They told us before that the ending would have huge changes depending on what you did in previous games.

I'm tired and thus am not gonna look it up, but I believe there was a quote about how there'd be a big amazing ending if you put in the time to accomplish it.


Put in several hours, get that bar all the way green and..... you get a glorified palette swap.


"See, it's green, and Joker kinda glows now"


The game has taught us things over the previous 2 games.

The game TAUGHT us that everything we did mattered, that we could overcome the odds. That inspiring people as a Paragon or that being a badass Renegade could have huge differences.

That despite the fact you're always told you "Can't stop it" or "Nothing can be done" you can always make a difference.


And then, in the last 10 minutes of the 3rd game....they take it all away.

You just do as your told, and which choice you make barely makes the slightest of differences in game terms (Yes if you want to read in big changes you can, but none of those are even remotely evident in-game)

They lied (Or at the very least purposely mislead) about what the ending would be like ,the capabilities of it.

There's also the fact the game very well contradicts itself.

"The Reapers do this because without it Technology will destroy organic life. It's unavoidable"

Several Hours Earlier.

Shepard sees how the Geth purposely didn't continue war with the Creators/Quarian, and can actually bring the two together in peace once again.

The game itself gives good reason to believe the very "inevitability" we're supposedly acting to prevent in the final act isn't an inevitability.

If the series had really had some overarching "You can't fight fate" theme then the endings being barely different would be acceptable.

But it hasn't.

The ending of ME3 just 'feels' like a contradiction of everything that made the Mass Effect series great and made me buy the games.

I'll just put it this way. ME1- After I beat it, I immediately had the desire to replayed several times, seeing the differences and seeing how things changed.

ME2-I replayed several times, seeing the differences, sometimes having more survivors or less. (I lucked out and got everyone out the first time)

ME3- I won. Went "Well that was disappointing, but I'll complete all the sidequests this time and it'll be better". I played it the second time, got the 'perfect' ending....and it was the same with just cosmetic differences.

I have no desire to play through again.
I still have my copy of ME1 even though I don't even own a 360 anymore. (it RROD'd)
I still own my copy of ME2.
My copy of ME3? I'm already pondering trading in.

That's not the hallmark of a satisfying conclusion to a great series.

 

[PureAussieGamer]

I'm probably alone on? this,but I like one of the endings to Mass Effect 3. Hear me out. Ok, so throughout all the Mass Effect series all the races are completely divided. Asari, Turian, Salarian, Krogan, Quarian, humanity, etc. Well with the relays destroyed and all the different fleets at earth at the time this happened, they now have to all stay together on earth and coexist.Shepard truly unites all the different species. And thats why Shepard's a legend. Thats my two cents, anyway.

 

[b33fman]

2: It is unclear how long Shepard was out of it when struck by the lazer. When she awakens, you hear the radio saying that the entire assault force was oblitherated. It's possible (though I admit unlikely) that your squadmates retreated.

How exactly would they have retreated, I saw Garrus and Tali lying on the ground not moving with big puddles of blood under them. Did the Normandy quickly swoop them up, perform a Lazarus and still make it away in time?

 

[Thraxen]

If they were down at that point, you shouldn't be seeing them at the end.

 

[Bvenged]

snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip snip super snip

This. is. so. damn. accurate. I. don't. even.

Just post that on Bioware's forums. It's EXACTLY what is wrong with the ending. Even if you can comprehend the final 5 minutes, this post of yours hits the nails head with a toothpick from 20KM away. It's that damn accurate.

for reference, click Zetsubou-Sama's name in the quote heading above.

 

[wintercoat]

"The Created will always rebel against the Creator"

Bullshit. My pilot is dating his ship.