Mass Effect 3 Speculation

[Vrex360]

I give the Collectors more credit than having to painstakingly load every colonist one by one before their crappy poison wears off. They certainly aren't in a hurry in the footage from Freedom's Progress. The marine unfreezing on their own makes sense, as Kaiden would know exactly what they did to him, and all Alliance marines have a modest degree of gengineering. But remember about indroctination: it's a slow process, and the best forms of it convince you your actions hurt the Reapers. Benezia from the first game started out as a mole trying to bring Saren down from the inside, and by the time she realized she'd been played it was too late.

This shall be my closing statement on this matter. I personally think it is much more believable that Ashley/Kaidan was overwhelmed at the emotional trauma of having survived a Collector attack and seeing Shepard just suddenly return into their lives now working for the arch enemy of the alliance after believing him/her to be dead. Like I said before, the ability to perfectly straighten out ones thoughts after that is a little bit hard to do given the circumstances and I believe that emotional reaction is a better explanation than indoctrination.
Also as I said before both Ashley and Kaidan's emails apologise for their actions and not only express an understanding of why Shepard is working with Cerberus (albeit still a grudging understanding) but also a desire for Shepard to defeat the Collectors and defeat the Reapers as well as the possibility to be together once more.
The fact is, Cerberus is evil and distrusting them is a perfectly valid reaction considering the Alliance and Cerberus history. Granted it is crazy to think that Cerberus is working with the Collectors but again expecting someone to just change their entire perception of the world in three minutes worth of conversation is simply put, ridiculous.

Besides, considering the Illusive Man's interest in Reaper technology and the way he evily smiles if you save the Collector station or the fact that 'The Reapers are your salvation, human' or something to that extent is said by Harbinger or even the fact that the Illusive Man was clearly more interested in that base then he was in saving humans I wouldn't put past the idea that Cerberus, an organisation only really interested in saving humanity if it is in their best interests, might have some long term goal involving the Reapers.

Finally as I said before, Bioware pretty much said that staying faithful to the ME1 LI (god that looks like a licence plate number) will be met with a good ending in Mass Effect 3. I doubt Bioware would piss off a lot of people just so that they could give some kind of explanation to a plothole which I doubt people were really supposed to notice all that much.

Besides any form of indoctrination requires Reaper technology. The Seeker Swarms can only paralyse people for the Collectors to take away and when they take them away they then dissolve them into mush. I doubt they'd make any kind of exception to this rule. Plus it was noted that the process is subtle but that you have to BE exessivley exposed to the effect of Sovereign or indeed any Reaper tech to feel the effects.

Still it was an interesting thought and I certainly don't mean any offence I just personally think there is WAY too much evidence to the contrary both in character, plot and indeed Bioware's need to please the fans, for this to be the case.
But still, thanks for a good conversation and I can certainly see some of your points but I just doubt it somewhat.

 

[blindthrall]

haold on whats all this about a crash with andromeda?? where did this come out of

The Andromeda Galaxy is accelerating towards our own due to gravitational attraction. The hole in the logic here is it will take millions of years for the collision to happen, and even when it does happen they will merge without a catastrophic explosion because the average density stars in a galaxy is so low.

5 million years to be exact. I don't think we can get a sustainable foothold in another galaxy that's not Andromeda, which is the closest one, within that time frame. We're talking about ridiculous distances that make 5 million years seem like a blink. Also, I know stars won't actually crash into each other, but the chaos from all those different gravitational fields will rip planets from orbits and slam others into stars. Once Mildromeda stabilizes, the new galaxy may well be habitable, but any existing advanced life will be gone. Even if Earth is only nudged a little closer or farther from the sun, we'd all die. To say nothing of whether or not the new orbit is stable.

 

[bigsby]

I think everyone who didn't die in the end of ME2 will die in the beginning of ME3, creating storylines for so many characters is a lot of work.

Bioware knows that if they do that, they will have legions of angry fanboys ( me included, don´t you dare touch my beloved Legion) storming their headquarters and demanding heads, so I highly doubt that.

 

[procyonlotor]

If they don't feature fully, I expect all of them to at least have some cameos in there.

My thoughts on the matter? If you went with the Illusive Man's plan at the end I'm betting you'll either have Reaper technology at your disposal, though probably at some sort of morally-ambiguous cost; if you didn't go with the plan I'm willing to bet you'll have Cerberus, or at least a faction of it against you.

Also, given how hard it was to take down Sovereign at the ME1 I'm pretty sure Shepherd is going to have to pull some sort of magical reaper apocalypse out of his hat because that many reapers is just ridiculous. My bet is they find some sort of relic pointing to th ancient civilization who built the Reapers (or their prototypes, most likely) and who engaged in war with them (obviously not successfully, but with some manner of efficiency).

But who knows!

 

[Sparrow]

I just hope they have a human sidekick that doesn't suck, and a new Turian teammate. I love Garrus, but he will most likely not be returning due to the possibility that he might die at the end of ME2.

Also, all the human sidekicks are just horrible. They're all cliches, and not even the good ones. The only reason Ashley survived in my ME1 save file was because she had a rack.

 

[Snicks]

I see the story of this becoming very similar to Dragon Age.

Basicly, you go around collecting allies to fight the reapers, picking up old and new allies along the way,

You will probably have to make a choice between Geth/Quarians or Tali/Legion.

The Rachni will be allies if you saved the queen im ME1, or at least play some part in the story.

The Krogans will definately be an ally race if Wrex is alive, or if you did Grunt's backstory.

Depending on your choices to save the council in ME1 and the Reaper base in ME2 you will join either the Alliance or Cerberus and work out a power stuggle on who leads the defence against the Reapers. Along with this you'll have to choose between Captain Anderson or the Illusive Man.

As for companions, I'm thinking Liara and Ashley or Kaiden are in. Probably Tali or Legion depending on how you deal with the quarians war. Considering pretty much everyone can die in the finale of ME2 though, there will probably be side quests to get the support of the survivors, but I doubt they will be in your party. There will undoubtably be new companions though. Maybe a vorcha or batarian or something.

Also, though I never came across it myself, I've heard Shepard could apparently die at the end of ME2, which means that will have to be taken into account.

Well, thats all I can think of off the top of my head at least.

 

[GLo Jones]

I'm definitely all for the thought that the Shadow Broker is either a reaper construct, or maybe of geth origin. A simple geth server would have all the resources needed to do exactly what the broker does, and it provides another source for the geth to learn about organics.

 

[blindthrall]

This being the third game, they could have wildly divergent storylines, since they don't all have to end at a common point like the first two. I'd say at least half the squad in 2 will be recruitable in 3, since that's the whole point of importing save files-everybody's experience will be different.

 

[AbnormalFetus]

I see the story of this becoming very similar to Dragon Age.

This is probably the way the overarching storyline for ME 3 will play out. There are so many different encounters in both ME 1 and 2 that can be directly tied into this kind of story.
Krogan.
If Wrex survive ME 1 and you help out Grunt in ME 2 it will probaly help recruit the Krogan. In addition you have a choice of what you want to do with the "cure" for the genophage during Mordins mission. This can also impact how the Krogan storyline will progress. Maby you can use it as leverage or whatever.
Quarian / Geth
This will probably be featured heavly in ME 3. The Quarians are close to war. But with Legion comes great insight into the Geth mind and their motivations. For instance he states that they do not infact occupy the Quarian homeworld but are more like "caretakers" for it. They dont seem interested in war but finding thir own path of evolution. In fact they want to merge all there minds (programs) into one huge hub like the reapers. I expect at least one or both off these to be possible recruits in the comming war. Most likely you will have to choose one of them, but it would be awesome if you could infact get both. Both reprograming/destroying the Geth, and what you do with Talis fathers research can impact this.
The Rachni seems like a possible recruit if you saved them as they have a stake in this as all of the galaxy have.
The Counsil races will probably have to join in, but I think they will remain reluctant at first and you will have to unite more of the other species before they join in.
As for returning characters. I'm fairly confident we will see Garrus, Liara, Tali and Kaydan / Ashly. I love Mordin but I dont think he will return. Atleast not as a squad member. Thane is dead (Maby his son but I don't think so). Samara will go back to beeing a zealot for justice. DLC characters are not most likely not in. Atleast not in the main story. Grunt is breeding Krogan on Tutchanka. As it was mentioned you may be split between Alliance or Cerberus, maby Jack / Miranda will join as a result of who you join up with. I dont see any reason for Jacob returning. He is boring and one dimentional. But that may just be me not really likeing him.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

My thoughts

Kaiden/Ashley is not dead (whichever one you left behind). Probably captured before the nuke went off and in ME3 Shep will encounter him (I'm going with Kaiden from here on out). He will accuse Shep of leaving him to die and betraying him. He will say it was the Reapers that saved him, and he owes them everything. Obviously, he'll start preaching that the Reapers are right, at which point you will either have to kill him or save him from himself. Why do I think this? You never actually see him die. You see a big explosion on the planet, but that's it. The Reapers are extremely advanced, and if Cerberus can rebuild Shep, who's to say the Reapers can rebuild Kaiden? What better weapon to have than a former friend of the hero? Also, if you convert your data from ME into ME2, you will notice that the information says "Missing in Action" in the title, not killed. Granted, it says he died in the subtext, but M.I.A. seems like a deliberate clue to me.

Liara will join you in hopes of tracking down Shadow, but when she does, you will be confronted with a choice. Shadow is either going to be Liara's "father", or have information on her father. Liara is going to be torn between her need for revenge and her desire to know her father, and Shep is going to have to decide what she does.

The Geth are going to join the fight full force, probably after showing up to save the day. However, they will only be accepted IF you told the Qurians not to go to war. Otherwise, they will be too busy fighting to be of any help. This will tie into my ending theroy.

The Rachni are also going to play a huge part, as hinted at in the second game. Again, end theroy.

The game is going to end with a galactic battle, where the choices you made in the previous games come back to either help or haunt you. The Geth and the Rachni are going to be key in the final battle, along with the Counsel races. However, if they are not around (i.e. you killed/let them die in the previous games), you may save the galaxy, but Shep will not survive. It will be like the final mission in ME2, just on a bigger scale. You had to do things to make sure you crew survived, so you have to do things to make sure you survive at the end.

What I think would be funny would be if Conrad finally joins your team and turns out to be a powerhouse, but only if you were nice to him in the other two games. Also, I'm curious to see if that green Asari ends up joining as well, but only if you saved herin the first game and helped her in the second game.

 

[Regna]

I wonder if In the 3rd one You will have a kid based of who you poked in the first or second game..I went for Tali and Miranda..

 

[Ckeesy]

I reckon Cerberus is, one way or the other, going to wind up as an antagonist this time around. Either fueled by anger at Shepard's betrayal or using the Collector base to launch attacks against the Council either way I get the feeling they are going to be enemies. There might be some kind of final choice involving the reapers and humanity and I get the feeling that every character in the series still left alive is going to get screentime.

I definitely agree that Cerberus will feature as a major antagonist in the next game. Obviously, by destroying the station you pit yourself against the Illusive Man, and in the third game this will probably result in Cerberus becoming a secondary antagonist, in addition to the Reapers. My speculation, however, is that if you preserve the Collector Base, Cerberus will use the technology gathered to develop a weapon to stop the Reapers, and succeed. However, as stated in-game, the Illusive Man's goal is the advancement of Humanity above all other races, so it is not too far-fetched to assume that he would use this tech against the council races, possibly becoming the main antagonist and climactic end-boss.

I'm not sure what's going to happen as far as the teams are concerned, but one thing that is worth noting is that a major theme of ME2 is the unification and strengthening of several key races (Wrex and the Krogan, Legion and the Geth, etc.), so I think that instead of recruiting a "team" per se, Shepherd will be tasked with Rallying an army, made up of various races, against the Reapers. Depending on player action, this could result in the recruitment of The Krogan, Quarians and Non-heretic Geth, all united to defeat the approaching threat. ME3 will, without a doubt, climax with the return of the Reapers and a massive space-fight (most likely centered at the Citadel or Earth), and Survival of the Galaxy could hinge on how many races are recruited to Shepherd's cause. The Reapers are formidable, but it is important to remember that, to the best of our knowledge, no other Species in galactic History knew of the Reapers before their Cycle, and none had a mobilized armada to meet them head on.

Also, it is mentioned throughout ME2 that the Collectors, and by extension the Reapers, are specifically focused on Humanity, the reason being that humans were the first race to discover the Reaper Plot and destroy the Vanguard before the cycle could begin. So, I feel like Bioware might allow a dialog option with one of the reapers (Harbinger, perhaps), in which the Reaper promises to spare the Galaxy, so long as they can still Harvest the Humans. Obviously this seems like a dumb ending, but after considering that the Alliance seems to have turned their back on Shepherd, and assuming Cerberus becomes a major enemy, Shepherd might start to see humanity as not worthy of existing, or something like that, and side with the Reapers. All just speculation, of course.

Other things I wouldn't mind seeing:

Living Protheans that aren't Collectors: Ilos was uncharted and remained un-touched by the Reapers. Is it not possible that another Un-charted Prothean Planet existed, with a much larger, more sustainable population than Ilos? Such a find would provide an opportunity for a deeper explanation of the Reapers and Prothean society, and since Shepherd already understands Prothean, they dont have to figure out a contrived method of communication.

A "Good" Reaper: At this point it seems like the reapers are pretty much all bad, but it's possible that one might start questioning the purpose of the Reaper extinction cycle (they are sentient, after all). Such a Reaper might seek out Shepherd, and would serve not only as a powerful Ally, but also as proof to the Galactic community that the Reapers are, in fact, real. Maybe the Reapers constructed a Prothean-Reaper, or something like that.

Mass Relays turned into weapons: In ME2, there is mention of the Collectors being able to "manipulate" relays. Perhaps Cerberus would uncover this technology, and re-program the Relays to act as weapons. They're already essentially giant Trans-galactic cannons, so who's to say one couldn't be altered to fire ships into planets/space stations/Reapers. It's explained outside of customs on the Citadel that a small mass (about the size of a baseball) impacts with enough force to rival the Hiroshima explosion, so a Starship could cause considerably more damage, possibly enough to cause an extinction event on a planet, much like the one that killed off the dinosaurs. (In my opinion, this is a likely scenario, or maybe I just really want to see this happen )

 

[Awake-]

I just hope they have a human sidekick that doesn't suck, and a new Turian teammate. I love Garrus, but he will most likely not be returning due to the possibility that he might die at the end of ME2.

Also, all the human sidekicks are just horrible. They're all cliches, and not even the good ones. The only reason Ashley survived in my ME1 save file was because she had a rack.

Wait, are you kidding? Everyone has the possibility to die at the end of ME2. Mordin, Garrus and Wrex. If not a single one of them is in the game, no matter how much I love ME, I WILL BOYCOTT ME3 AHAHAHAHA! No actually that would make me very sad, *sob*.

 

[Ckeesy]

I think everyone who didn't die in the end of ME2 will die in the beginning of ME3, creating storylines for so many characters is a lot of work.

Bioware knows that if they do that, they will have legions of angry fanboys ( me included, don´t you dare touch my beloved Legion) storming their headquarters and demanding heads, so I highly doubt that.

I think the most logical way to go about this problem would be to just create a lot more new followers 3rd time around, say 10 more in addition to your ME2 crew. However, you'll only be able to choose 10 for your final squad. So if the entire squad died in ME2, then your new squad will be all new characters. If most of your squad survived, though, then you will have to pick and choose 10 for your final team from the pool. That's how I'd do it, anyways.

 

[RewardMe]

I doubt theres any more characters to recruit in ME3. We definitely have two surviving members from the series who are: the asari and ashley or kaidan. With shep that will make three members, which is all you need. The surviving characters from ME1 and ME2 should also be party members aswell, if they survived.

But who knows? Bioware have brought out alot of surprises with their games.

 

[Cooperblack]

First of all i think we'll join a new faction in the next game (Bioware likes doing that and it does give the game a freshness).

Perhaps we'll join up with the Geth since it seems to me they are the only major faction left to join, And also they are up to something - Haelestorm, The many reports of climate change on different worlds, Even one of the Hammerhead missions was about flying around on a world the Geth had frozen though climate-control.

So i guess we'll join up with the Geth, Which makes most sense since they have had the longest to prepare for the old machines...i for one cant wait to see a Gethifired Normandy with Joker at the helm and EDI in her shiny new body at his side.

 

[Diddledock]

As long as you're going to be able to bone Chakwas ME3 will be great.

 

[Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon]

It's probably not going to happen in the story, but...

I'm going to build Tali that house on the homeworld!!!

That way we'll get to see her face!
We better see her face or bioware will go on my hitlist...
Tali is awesome...
more tali pleas...
NOW!
OT: I don't realy care as long as I get to see Tali's face
I expect one of the choices will be to save your romance option or a bunch of peep's or even the Galaxy in which case i choose Tali...