My thought process during the end of ME3. (SPOILERS)

[Karathos]

It's another thread about the ending to Mass Effect 3. Looking at my posting history, heck, I've been very vocal in Bioware's defense so far because after ME1 and ME2, I'd yet to be disappointed. I'm not too proud to admit that has changed today, as about two or three hours ago I finished ME3 and am still in a weird state of disbelief and confusion.

Below, my thought process during the ending of ME3 and afterward, pondering over a sandwich and a drink; what the hell just happened?

Spoiler-tagged due to length and well... spoilers.

Spoiler

Shepard, Tali and Garrus charge toward the Citadel beam, and explosions go off everywhere.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap must run faster, must run faster, go Shepard MOVE DAMN YOU!"

The last impact knocks him out. He wakes up very badly hurt and grips his gun. Basically crawling toward the beam, headshotting Husks and one Marauder to get to it.

"Come on, Shepard... we're almost there. Don't you die on me!"

Shepard, Anderson and Illusive Man standoff. Shepard and Anderson talk TIM into blowing his brains out. They sit down and enjoy the view of Earth. Anderson says he's damn proud, and even calls Shepard "son". Shepard looks at him and realises he's dead. My brain was completely blank at this point, and I'm not too proud to admit I actually cried. The emotions were that strong at this point.

Suddenly Admiral Hackett says it's not working. Shepard crawls toward the console, mumbling in his blood-loss-induced stupor. When he passes out on the floor, my heart skips a beat. "Oh goddamnit, he's dead isn't he? GET UP SHEPARD, WE'RE NOT DONE YET!"

The platform starts rising, and suddenly I'm looking at the kid from back on Earth, expect he's in some sort of VI-form. "Erhm... maybe Shepard is hallucinating? I can dig it, let's see what the heck is going on."

Everything from here on out just completely sucked all emotion out of me. The last hour of gameplay had been an emotional rollercoaster, telling my favorite squadmates how we'd make it through and win this thing, and fight through the hordes of Reaper forces (on Insanity no less) by the skin of my teeth.

Then suddenly, this space-God-child-thing explains to me how he controls the Reapers and harvests and "archives" all advanced galactic life every 50k years so synthetics (in this cycle: Geth) won't wipe them all out of existence. My thoughts at this point?

"Wait wait wait. He uses an army of synthetics to wipe out all organic life so synthetics won't wipe them out...? WHAT?!"

Then I'm provided three endings.

1. Control the Reapers and call them off, destroying the relays and killing Shepard
2. Turn all life into this... synth-bio-hybrid stuff, and Catalyst calls off the Reapers and leaves
3. Destroy all synthetic life (including Reapers and Catalyst), destroying the relays. But the peace won't last, as "your children will build more and the chaos will return". Yet the Reapers won't since you destroy them utterly by doing this.

I looked at those three choices and instantly realised what I'd read people comment about was actually true. I thought they might hate the ending because it wasn't happy enough, and I was going into this fight fully expecting a full-on Reaper invasion to seriously raise the body count. But that wasn't it. This ending was just BAD. Allow me to extrapolate.

This Catalyst-being is prepared to give up control of the Reapers, but you have to die and the relays have to be destroyed. You can also turn everyone into hybrids, and Catalyst will call off the Reapers. Or you can destroy all synthetics including the Reapers and Catalyst - and you can just build new ones later.

There was a single question on my mind at this point. "If he's completely open to releasing his Reapers to Shepard or have them and himself destroyed utterly - WHY DOESN'T HE JUST CALL THEM OFF AND LEAVE? These choices are completely arbitary. The only bad part about choice #3 is that the relays are destroyed, and arguably the Geth and beings such as EDI - which sadly don't really count for alot on the monumental scale of the choices we're making here.

I chose to destroy them, and watched the marines on the ground cheer as the Reapers blow up. For a moment I felt cheerful again - oorah, marines. Get some!

Then suddenly Joker is flying away from the blastwave out in the middle of nowhere, for some unknown reason. Joker's been the damn granite wall Shepard has been able to lean against for three games, yet now he's just flying away without us being told why? Why didn't he fly toward the Citadel when it started blowing up? Why aren't we seeing him searching for his friend?

The Normandy starts shaking and cracking, and they crashland on something that looks like Jurassic Park. Joker walks out of the ship, and so do TALI AND GARRUS, WHO WERE WITH SHEPARD DURING THE LAST MISSION. Garrus is the most loyal squad member in existence, and my Shepard romanced Tali so she would never abandon him. Why are they both on the Normandy, and what planet is this? Why didn't I see them look for Shepard? The entire ME3 romance with Tali has her proclaiming her love for Shepard and how she wants to spend her life with him, and how she'll be there for him no matter what.

I see N7 dogtags on a battered body armor. Suddenly, there's a gasp. Even after all the utter garbage I just had non-stop catapulted at me, a hint at Shepard being alive. Maybe there's hope for the future...

After all, they say hope dies last.

And there you have it, folks. My thoughts during the endgame of ME3 put into post-form. I'm sorry if people can't be arsed to read it, but I really couldn't think of a better way to convey just how goddamn confusing this ending is. I absolutely adored your game, Bioware, up until the last 5-10 minutes...

Feel free to comment on my thoughts, or weigh in with your own.

 

[SajuukKhar]

One of the biggest themes of the series was how The Reapers had been controlling the evolution of all the galactic races across time using the Mass Relay and Citadel Network to force a technological and Societal path that they had chosen so they could destroy the races of the galaxy easier.

The destruction of The Citadel and Mass Relays was necessary to free galactic civilization from the Reapers path so they could make things their own way and not the way the reapers wanted.

Not destroying the relays would only mean that the civilization of the galaxy would continue down The Reapers chosen technological path, which is to say a dead end one, and would make killing the reapers meaningless because we would still be constrained by their limitations, and would mean the civilizations of the galaxy are still slaves, but what makes it worse is now they are slaves to a salve master who is already dead.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Sounds about right. The ending contradicted what the series stood for, and it has plot holes galore.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Sounds about right. The ending contradicted what the series stood for, and it has plot holes galore.

Except only someone who didn't pay attention would think that.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Sounds about right. The ending contradicted what the series stood for, and it has plot holes galore.

Except only someone who didn't pay attention would think that.

Then apparently a huge portion of the fanbase wasn't paying attention. Please enlighten me.

Tell me why Shepard suddenly gives up at the end and doesn't fight the choices presented to him, despite that being contrary to everything we've seen prior. Tell me why and how my squadmates magically teleport to the Normandy, which is fleeing the system for some unexplained reason. Tell me why I should even bother saving the geth if I end up having to destroy them.

 

[Karathos]

One of the biggest themes of the series was how The Reapers had been controlling the evolution of all the galactic races across time using the Mass Relay and Citadel Network to force a technological and Societal path that they had chosen so they could destroy the races of the galaxy easier.

The destruction of The Citadel and Mass Relays was necessary to free galactic civilization from the Reapers path so they could make things their own way and not the way the reapers wanted.

Not destroying the relays would only mean that the civilization of the galaxy would continue down The Reapers chosen technological path, which is to say a dead end one, and would make killing the reapers meaningless because we would still be constrained by their limitations, and would mean the civilizations of the galaxy are still slaves, but what makes it worse is now they are slaves to a salve master who is already dead.

I can see what you mean up to a point, but in Arrival a single Mass Relay wipes out an entire system. With these choices, you destroy them all. You're basically wiping out the majority of galactic civilization anyway are you not?

And be that as it may, it still doesn't explain why a synthetic "God-being" would create a race of synthetic monsters to wipe out all advanced galactic life because the synthetics these species might create later would wipe them out. No matter what happens, according to this "Catalyst" being, advanced organic life is always going to get wiped out by synthetics. The difference being that after giving the Geth free will and teaching the likes of EDI what it means to be human - I'd take my chances coexisting with those synthetics rather than the Reapers ones.

At the end of the day, it just doesn't add up. It works to a point, but then it gets completely twisted and drilled full of plotholes.

 

[Karathos]

Sounds about right. The ending contradicted what the series stood for, and it has plot holes galore.

Except only someone who didn't pay attention would think that.

Then apparently a huge portion of the fanbase wasn't paying attention. Please enlighten me.

Tell me why Shepard suddenly gives up at the end and doesn't fight the choices presented to him, despite that being contrary to everything we've seen prior. Tell me why and how my squadmates magically teleport to the Normandy, which is fleeing the system for some unexplained reason. Tell me why I should even bother saving the geth if I end up having to destroy them.

Heh, I pressed "Reply" and it seems you raised the exact same points but in a much better (and compact) format.

The endings fill my head with "Why why why?" - while Bioware in numerous interviews clearly stated there would be closure. I do believe words along the lines of "after three games you deserve it" were used.

Just waiting for Zeel to pop up now, with a smile and a "LOLOLOLOL HOW U FEELIN NAU EH? 8DD WARNED U ABOUT DEM CORPORATIONS"

 

[SajuukKhar]

Then apparently a huge portion of the fanbase wasn't paying attention. Please enlighten me.

Tell me why Shepard suddenly gives up at the end and doesn't fight the choices presented to him, despite that being contrary to everything we've seen prior. Tell me why and how my squadmates magically teleport to the Normandy, which is fleeing the system for some unexplained reason. Tell me why I should even bother saving the geth if I end up having to destroy them.

The choices aren't contrary to anything, if that's you reason for why he would deny them then you argument has no ground.

Synthetics will try to destroy organics, the Geth being nice is a one-off example, and one-off examples don't represent anything, or prove anything.

Making nice with the Geth doesn't prevent any future synthetic race form being built and it trying to destroy all organic life, why people seem to think that ONE example is justification for proving that any possible future occurrence can be stoped I don't know, but it isn't.

1.that is probably a glitch
2. Normandy said it was going to rejoin the sword team, aka the space team explaining why it was in space
3. If you watch the cutscene again the laser takes almost no time to get from the citadel and reach the Mass Relay, given that the Normandy was BARELY in front it shows that they were very likely in between the laser and the relay and joker went through the relay to try to escape it.
4. You dont HAVE to destroy the geth.

 

[Karathos]

Shepard reaching the Catalyst-being is a one-off example, one that makes this being ready to change the universe and abandon his Reaper-solution. If it's prepared to be destroyed or give control of its forces to Shepard over the simple feat of him reaching the Catalyst, why wouldn't it be ready to call off the extinction based on the Geth and the Quarians getting along?

The only hostile synthetics in this "extinction cycle" of the Mass Effect timeline are the Geth and the Reapers themselves. One of those races made peace with their creators and helped them resettle their ancestral homeworld. So which synthetics that are destined to wipe out organic life is this being talking about...?

 

[SajuukKhar]

Shepard reaching the Catalyst-being is a one-off example, one that makes this being ready to change the universe and abandon his Reaper-solution.

The only hostile synthetics in this "extinction cycle" of the Mass Effect timeline are the Geth and the Reapers themselves. One of those races made peace with their creators and helped them resettle their ancestral homeworld.

The Catalyst is a program, It isn't any stretch of the imagination to believe that they put in a "If someone manages to reach you even after you start screwing over their civilizations try something different" code, beyond that it was explained that it couldn't make the choices that Shepard could and when given the opportunity to allow for, arguably better, paths to be taken why should it not allow them to be taken?

 

[Karathos]

Shepard reaching the Catalyst-being is a one-off example, one that makes this being ready to change the universe and abandon his Reaper-solution.

The only hostile synthetics in this "extinction cycle" of the Mass Effect timeline are the Geth and the Reapers themselves. One of those races made peace with their creators and helped them resettle their ancestral homeworld.

The Catalyst is a program, It isn't any stretch of the imagination to believe that they put in a "If someone manages to reach you even after you start screwing over their civilizations try something different" code, beyond that it was explained that it couldn't make the choices that Shepard could and when given the opportunity to allow for, arguably better, paths to be taken why should it not allow them to be taken?

I'm fairly certain the Catalyst was stated to be the Reapers' master AI, and not just some VI left to wait for someone to make it as far as Shepard did. Having complete control of the Reapers, it could've easily just gone "Welp, you made the entire galaxy cooperate against us and even managed to turn the synthetics in your cycle into allies. We will leave this cycle and watch carefully, bla bla bla."

And heck, even if one accepts the current endings they only make sense up to a point. The destruction of the Relays (in the past shown to be an incredibly destructive event), the crash-landing of the Normandy on fuck-knows-where, the complete lack of any closure whatsoever to anyone apart from Anderson, Illusive Man and arguably Shepard (depending on his status in the end)

At the end of the day, even if it made sense up to that point - the endings would still be bad, simply due to what I already said once. Closure was promised. None was delivered, at all.

 

[RJ 17]

Just wanna go ahead and point out something about the whole "god-child using synthetics to kill organics so that their own synthetics won't."

Here's the deal, he's not being hypocritical. Whatever really created the Catalyst and the Reapers and started up the Cycle knew that organic's natural progression would be to develope synthetic life, and synthetic life's natural progression was to destroy all organic life. As such, to ensure that organic life can continue living, the Cycle was started. Without the Cycle in place, synthetics would have overrun the galaxy and there would be no organic life left, everything would be a machine. And just how can you maintain this Cycle if not by using immortal synthetics?

The Quarians and Geth found their peace...but it took the Reaper threat to do so. Without the Reaper threat, who's to say that peace would have happened? Sure, the Geth adopted an isolationist existence, but how long would that have lasted? Clearly they are more than willing and capable to defend themselves, and it's doubtful that organics would ever stop provoking them.

But no matter what the ending choice made, there were only two ways that this game was going to end: 'Shepard rides off into the sunset and everyone lives happily ever after" or "Shepard takes the route that most other heroes in trilogies take these days by going all Matrix Neo and making the ultimate sacrifice to ensure peace for the future." The ME writers chose the latter.

Captcha: While I'm glad that they finally got a new program that you can actually frickin' READ, I just wish it wasn't full of propaganda, like this hippie message telling me about my "carbon footprint"....also I had one recently that was literally an ad. for the Yellow Pages....>.>

 

[RJ 17]

Shepard reaching the Catalyst-being is a one-off example, one that makes this being ready to change the universe and abandon his Reaper-solution.

The only hostile synthetics in this "extinction cycle" of the Mass Effect timeline are the Geth and the Reapers themselves. One of those races made peace with their creators and helped them resettle their ancestral homeworld.

The Catalyst is a program, It isn't any stretch of the imagination to believe that they put in a "If someone manages to reach you even after you start screwing over their civilizations try something different" code, beyond that it was explained that it couldn't make the choices that Shepard could and when given the opportunity to allow for, arguably better, paths to be taken why should it not allow them to be taken?

I'm fairly certain the Catalyst was stated to be the Reapers' master AI, and not just some VI left to wait for someone to make it as far as Shepard did. Having complete control of the Reapers, it could've easily just gone "Welp, you made the entire galaxy cooperate against us and even managed to turn the synthetics in your cycle into allies. We will leave this cycle and watch carefully, bla bla bla."

And heck, even if one accepts the current endings they only make sense up to a point. The destruction of the Relays (in the past shown to be an incredibly destructive event), the crash-landing of the Normandy on fuck-knows-where, the complete lack of any closure whatsoever to anyone apart from Anderson, Illusive Man and arguably Shepard (depending on his status in the end)

At the end of the day, even if it made sense up to that point - the endings would still be bad, simply due to what I already said once. Closure was promised. None was delivered, at all.

The thing is that there actually is closure for everyone on a grander scale of things. Allow me to pull something I said from another ME 3 ending topic:

The thing is, though, that your choices DO matter, they just play out in a way we're not used to seeing since this is the final chapter of the story. Where as the consequences in the previous games showed up in the latter games, you get to see the consequences of your choices first hand in ME 3. You literally write history throughout the course of the game.

You get to see first hand what happens if you decide to cure the Genophage or not: you either bring unification to the Krogan or you doom them to extinction. You also get to see first hand what happens between the Geth and the Quarians depending on how you resolve that situation. Since there's no more games in Shepard's story, you see the consequences of your actions play out before you.

That said, could there have been more closure? For your characters AND the rest of the galaxy? Sure. But the point is that the closure you're seeking is strewn throughout the entire game.

 

[Karathos]

I hear you, and reading the Bioware Social Network and other forums is making me slowly realise that part makes sense - it's just too bad the rest doesn't. There are so many ways this could end, amongst others the "Rides off into the sunset" which would've been the classic way to end it. Then there's the "heroic sacrifice, peace for the future" business. Sure, I can dig it - he was, after all, ready to die to win this war and save the galaxy.

But that's not what these endings provide. The reasons for killing Shepard are completely arbitary. For some reason these two first choices require him to sacrifice himself and either become part of the Crucible's power, or control the Reapers from now on and give up his life. I'm just going to sidestep the Crucible changing the entire galaxy's genetics/synthetics into some sort of synth-bio-hybrid DNA. The entire concept is just such a huge damn deux ex machina it's ridiculous. When some world-altering event can be explained by going "it just works that way, okay?" it completely ruins any credibility. It's all-plot-holes-cavity-insulation. It's something along the lines of the Force. It just does this because it's convenient for the moment.

And the third option makes the two first options completely obsolete anyway. Shepard destroys all synthetic life - including the Reapers and the Catalyst; but then the Catalyst explains how PEOPLE CAN JUST CONSTRUCT MORE SYNTHETICS LATER ON? So the Reapers are destroyed and the cycle will not continue, and synthetics in the future will kill organic life? Sure sounds alot like those Reaper-fellows from earlier, doesn't it?

The third option destroys the Reapers as you set out to do, but also destroys synthetics which basically just means the Geth and AI constructs are wiped out - things that can be rebuilt. Why are the two first options even there when the third one renders them completely obsolete? And even aaaaaafter all this, the random jungle-crashlanding with my final-mission teammates along just doesn't explain anything, and raises even more questions that remain woefully unanswered until the very end.

As far as I've been able to work out, some parts of the endings can be rationalized and explained - but too many things remain unanswered and indeed too many new questions are raised for this to be a good ending to a trilogy. And at the end of the day, Bioware promised closure for the story and the characters. This was not it. Not my a long shot.

 

[Karathos]

That said, could there have been more closure? For your characters AND the rest of the galaxy? Sure. But the point is that the closure you're seeking is strewn throughout the entire game.

Yes, closure regarding the choices you make along the way is indeed readily available and the stuff you mentioned is excellent. The point where Shepard is on the ground on the Quarian homeworld and Tali goes "I love you" right before he engages the Reaper with nothing but a targeting laser - that right there could've been the end of that romance, that would've given some closure. But nah, the romance continues with talk of the future and pictures of Tali and promises that in time she'll be able to walk around on her home planet without her suit. But what happens -after- the Reaper threat is no more? What happens to all of Shepard's squad members and the crew? Does Tali mourn Shepard and start traveling back toward her homeworld?

In the "good" ending a quick bonus cinematic hints at Shepard surviving. If that's the case, why aren't the others looking for him? They were right outside earth at the moment when the Crucible fired. In the cinematic you can see that the Alliance soldiers are unharmed, so earth (as far as people are concerned) wasn't affected by the wave of energy that destroyed the synthetics. And what with Tali reassuring Shepard of her undying love for him, why didn't she instantly go looking for him? I sure as heck would.

But oh, she doesn't go doing any of the things she's spoken of during the game's story. Nor does anyone else in the team. They apparently crash-land in a random jungle instead of somewhere near where Shepard might have reappeared.

 

[Karathos]

I'm off to bed. It's 0700 over here in snowy ol' Finland. I appreciate the arguments for and against. As a massive Bioware fan dating back to Baldur's Gate, I just can't bring myself to accepting something like this. After Dragon Age 2 and the copypaste-dungeons from hell, I sort of... hoped it was one of those "Whoops, never again" things.

The ME3 ending is making me reconsider that stance.

 

[scorptatious]

To be honest, I don't know how to feel about the ending. I myself chose to destroy the Reapers and their technology, along with the synthetics. Part of me believes I'm giving organics a chance to start over. Perhaps what is left of the galaxy will learn from it's mistakes and not repeat what has happened.

At the same time though, without the mass relays, civilization will collapse. All of the the things that I've done throughout the series have been made pointless. I just kind of wished there was a way I wouldn't have to do that.

I kind of have to agree. I felt an immense sense of satisfaction and closure from finally resolving the issues that plagues the characters and the galaxy that have spanned across the entire series. Again though, it all feels undone by the choices I needed to make at the end. Of course then again, this being the final game I don't think it would matter anyway.

EDIT: Thinking about it know, I feel the choices I have made throughout the game weren't all for nothing. Perhaps they were all a deciding factor in who will be able to help me save Earth and whether or not we will succeed or not. I actually wonder what would happen if I chose not to save the council, or let the Illusive Man keep the Collector Base. Would I receive different allies? Would they be enough to help save Earth? Perhaps if I decide to play through the game again with my other Shepard I'll find out.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

While I'm not saying it's necessarily good writing to leave your audience to fill in the blanks for themselves, I would like to offer up some points.

As for "the destroy all synthetics negates the other two options" argument, I don't see how it does. Maybe it would if you were offered two choices, but you're not: you're only offered one. The reason it's the "Renegade" option is because you make the decision that synthetic life is not worthy of saving and as such can easily be sacrificed to spare organics...even if the eventuality exists that more synthetic life will some day rise up.

I believe the reason the "take control of the Reapers" ending is the "Paragon" ending because in that case, the Reaper's still exist...and so does Shepard in some manner of being. This means that the Reapers could be repurposed and become benevoent machines that would help rebuild the galaxy since it is now Shepard's will that drives them.

Considering the effects of each ending, there's no way Shepard was walking out of there alive. He/she either dives into a massive energy beam and disintegrates, grabs a hold of two electrodes that rip his/her consciousness out of his/her body and makes him/her the new will of the Reapers, or he/she sets off some sort of specialized EMP that wipes out all synthetic life...and considering the fact that Shepard's only alive thanks to synthetic parts, this means that he/she would did as well.

As for the destruction of the relays, it was established from ME 1 that the Citadel was the heart of the relay network, having absolute control over it. As such it's not that big of a stretch to assume that it's capable of firing out a beam that could bounce and filter its way through the entire network. As for the relays' destruction causing the destruction of every star system that had a relay, one possibility is that the vast majority of the incalculable energy within the relays is absorbed by the beam before it fires off to the next relay, leaving the destruction of the relays to be far less devastating than what is seen in Arrival in which you use brute force to destroy one by slamming an asteroid into it.

All this said, I will easily give you the major plothole of your final squad being back on the Normandy...last I recall, they were right behind you when you're making the charge for the beam. The only possible way I can try to spin this one is to say that we don't know how long Shepard was unconcious after taking a Reaper beam to the face. When he/she wakes up, though, we do hear a voice on the radio say that the entire force that made the final push had been utterly devastated. To that end, it can loosely be assumed that perhaps your squad pulled out (though I agree that this itself is highly unlikely given their commitment to Shepard and the mission) and retreated back to the Normandy.

In the end it, like everything else, all comes down to each player's individual opinion. I do feel like the endings could have been better, but I'm fine with them as they are, so I won't be joining the ME 3 Rage Association any time soon. Can't remember if I mentioned it in this topic or another one, but I got my ending "experience" during the segment when you're in the last human outpost, about to make the final push, and you speak with all your squadmates one last time on your way to the strategy meeting with Anderson. During those conversations, I was nearly moved to tears...mostly because of an overwhelming emotional response to the thought of "Holy shit...this is really it...I've heard a lot of bad stuff about the ending to this game...but for better or for worse: this is it. This will be the end to the most amazing videogame series I've had the privelege to play." So I guess if anything, I fall into the ranks of the "It's not the destination, but ratherr the experience of the journey" camp. Because no matter what you think of the ending, surely we can ALL agree that god DAMN this has been one hell of a journey!

 

[RJ 17]

That said, could there have been more closure? For your characters AND the rest of the galaxy? Sure. But the point is that the closure you're seeking is strewn throughout the entire game.

Yes, closure regarding the choices you make along the way is indeed readily available and the stuff you mentioned is excellent. The point where Shepard is on the ground on the Quarian homeworld and Tali goes "I love you" right before he engages the Reaper with nothing but a targeting laser - that right there could've been the end of that romance, that would've given some closure. But nah, the romance continues with talk of the future and pictures of Tali and promises that in time she'll be able to walk around on her home planet without her suit. But what happens -after- the Reaper threat is no more? What happens to all of Shepard's squad members and the crew? Does Tali mourn Shepard and start traveling back toward her homeworld?

In the "good" ending a quick bonus cinematic hints at Shepard surviving. If that's the case, why aren't the others looking for him? They were right outside earth at the moment when the Crucible fired. In the cinematic you can see that the Alliance soldiers are unharmed, so earth (as far as people are concerned) wasn't affected by the wave of energy that destroyed the synthetics. And what with Tali reassuring Shepard of her undying love for him, why didn't she instantly go looking for him? I sure as heck would.

But oh, she doesn't go doing any of the things she's spoken of during the game's story. Nor does anyone else in the team. They apparently crash-land in a random jungle instead of somewhere near where Shepard might have reappeared.

Just for the record, despite the fact that the vision you have of the "destroy all synthetics" option is of Anderson blowing up the panel, that is in fact the Renegade ending...notice all the red lightning around the panel..and the fact that the energy blast the Citadel releases is red. To me it makes more sense that the "Taking Control of the Reapers" option is Paragon, because with Shepard being a pure hearted Paragon, this becomes possible:

I believe the reason the "take control of the Reapers" ending is the "Paragon" ending because in that case, the Reaper's still exist...and so does Shepard in some manner of being. This means that the Reapers could be repurposed and become benevoent machines that would help rebuild the galaxy since it is now Shepard's will that drives them.

With the Reapers now controled by Shepard's benevolent will, who's to say that the relays can't be reconstructed and thus galactic society as a whole rebuilt?

Now, to tackle the "what about all our future plans!" point. Last I checked, no one on the Normandy could predict the future. For that matter, no one in the galaxy has ANY idea what would happen when the Crucible was finally set off. If you were in a star ship and you saw the largest space station in the galaxy which is currently attached to who could very possibly be a gigantic dooms-day bomb begin channeling massive amounts of energy before firing it off and exploding, I'm pretty sure your first instinct would be to gtfo...and evidently that was the right choice given the fact that it tore up the Normandy. Anyways, it's easy for your romance choice to say "I can't wait to start a new life with you when this is all over!" when they have absolutely no idea how things are going to turn out BECAUSE they have absolutely no idea how things are going to turn out. It's called being an optimist, but having high hopes for future happiness doesn't mean that those hopes or plans will come to fruition with the future does come.

And besides, we all know that if you romance Tali she starts cheating on you with Garrus.

Edit: Wow, this new Captcha system is.....odd. Twice now I've had it give me straight up advertisements, this last one didn't even have specific words for me to write, it just said "Use any word(s) to describe this brand." So just to test it out, I used "gaaaaaaaaay buttsecks" and sure enough, my post went through.

 

[feeqmatic]

Snip

While I'm not saying it's necessarily good writing to leave your audience to fill in the blanks for themselves, I would like to offer up some points.

As for "the destroy all synthetics negates the other two options" argument, I don't see how it does. Maybe it would if you were offered two choices, but you're not: you're only offered one. The reason it's the "Renegade" option is because you make the decision that synthetic life is not worthy of saving and as such can easily be sacrificed to spare organics...even if the eventuality exists that more synthetic life will some day rise up.

I believe the reason the "take control of the Reapers" ending is the "Paragon" ending because in that case, the Reaper's still exist...and so does Shepard in some manner of being. This means that the Reapers could be repurposed and become benevoent machines that would help rebuild the galaxy since it is now Shepard's will that drives them.

Considering the effects of each ending, there's no way Shepard was walking out of there alive. He/she either dives into a massive energy beam and disintegrates, grabs a hold of two electrodes that rip his/her consciousness out of his/her body and makes him/her the new will of the Reapers, or he/she sets off some sort of specialized EMP that wipes out all synthetic life...and considering the fact that Shepard's only alive thanks to synthetic parts, this means that he/she would did as well.

As for the destruction of the relays, it was established from ME 1 that the Citadel was the heart of the relay network, having absolute control over it. As such it's not that big of a stretch to assume that it's capable of firing out a beam that could bounce and filter its way through the entire network. As for the relays' destruction causing the destruction of every star system that had a relay, one possibility is that the vast majority of the incalculable energy within the relays is absorbed by the beam before it fires off to the next relay, leaving the destruction of the relays to be far less devastating than what is seen in Arrival in which you use brute force to destroy one by slamming an asteroid into it.

All this said, I will easily give you the major plothole of your final squad being back on the Normandy...last I recall, they were right behind you when you're making the charge for the beam. The only possible way I can try to spin this one is to say that we don't know how long Shepard was unconcious after taking a Reaper beam to the face. When he/she wakes up, though, we do hear a voice on the radio say that the entire force that made the final push had been utterly devastated. To that end, it can loosely be assumed that perhaps your squad pulled out (though I agree that this itself is highly unlikely given their commitment to Shepard and the mission) and retreated back to the Normandy.

In the end it, like everything else, all comes down to each player's individual opinion. I do feel like the endings could have been better, but I'm fine with them as they are, so I won't be joining the ME 3 Rage Association any time soon. Can't remember if I mentioned it in this topic or another one, but I got my ending "experience" during the segment when you're in the last human outpost, about to make the final push, and you speak with all your squadmates one last time on your way to the strategy meeting with Anderson. During those conversations, I was nearly moved to tears...mostly because of an overwhelming emotional response to the thought of "Holy shit...this is really it...I've heard a lot of bad stuff about the ending to this game...but for better or for worse: this is it. This will be the end to the most amazing videogame series I've had the privelege to play." So I guess if anything, I fall into the ranks of the "It's not the destination, but ratherr the experience of the journey" camp. Because no matter what you think of the ending, surely we can ALL agree that god DAMN this has been one hell of a journey!

There is one thing that you are missing. The destruction of the Mass Relays inevitably destroys the galactic community as we know it. Beside the fact that this is very disappointing to fans like me who ranked this sci fi universe up there with star trek, is the fact that this will inevitably lead to a ton of strife and turmoil for everyone involved.

All of the alien races will have major players and a lot of individuals stuck on a severly war torn earth for the foreseeable future. You will now have unsterile krogan unleashed on earth with no Bakara to keep them in line, and possibly no Wrex. The Quarian and Turian members will starve. There will likely be a massive struggle for power among what will essentially be refugee races. Furthermore, many colonies who have depended on intergalactic trade to maintain viability will suffer greatly through economic collapse, depression, and starvation. Finally wherever our main characters are (from the ending its assumed they land on a garden planet) they all die gilligan island style. they cant repair the Normandy with no developed resources. Jokers disease will likely kill him with no treatment. Tali and Garrus (who in this case should already be dead) will starve and the rest of the human population will try to create a civilization, but the lack of diversity will kill them off eventually anyway. Sure the Asari maybe will build a relay within the century, but then they would have to travel to earth to build the second one which alone would probably take countless light years.

Within a few centuries maybe everything is back to normal, but in the meantime, how can i feel good about that ending after all this work? Merge, destroy, or control, the end result still has the Relays gone and sets civilization back centuries.