Your Mass Effect 3 Ending.

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

So, I recently had the urge to play the Mass Effect trilogy again. I encountered a problem. The ending sucks so much that it made the playthrough seem pointless. The solution: I reject their reality and substitute my own! Willing the ending into non-existence was pretty easy (I had practice with Highlander 2). So this topic is about the rest of you who chose to do the same thing. What is your ending?
Mine:

Spoiler

The Reapers just "harvest" us every 50,000 years. They plant the "seeds", the Mass Relays and such, and the resulting civilizations are the crops. They store the cultures and technology and either destroy the races themselves or use them like the Collectors or make new Reapers. Sovereign was just being arrogant in the first game. I picture them to be like Brainiac. The "Star Child" and his disingenuous assertions? They don't exist. Yay!

At the climax of the game, if your galactic readiness is high enough, your armies beat the Reapers (albeit with heavy losses). It your galactic readiness is too low, then the Reapers win and the cycle continues. Turns out the Reapers aren't this unstoppable force after all. They haven't actually ever beat anyone in a straight up fight. They are used to ambushing the races through the Citadel and then cleaning up the resulting shocked, disorganized mess. The battle around Earth was the Reaper's Waterloo. Following that, we harried the rest of the Reapers until they retreated back into Dark Space. We stand ready, should they return.

Then starts the rebuilding. The asari are given a new world by the Council and the rest of the races head home to start rebuilding. The rachni help with the numerous construction projects. They rebuild in Maskim Xul, sending ambassadors to the Citadel and become a recognized member of the Citadel races. The Geth, Quarians, and Krogan are all eventually given Council seats, in large part due to their contribution against the Reapers. Ambassador Din Korlack was rushed to the hospital after suffering an aneurysm. The Krogan institute a birth limit (after a heated debate in the Council) to keep their population from exploding. The Citadel races, including humanity, are more trusting of each other than ever before.

Whether Shepard lives or dies is irrelevant. His legacy survives. But I like the idea of Shepard reclining on a beach next to Garrus taking shots at a Reaper hull in a ocean while saying things like
"THIS HURTS YOU."
"I KNOW YOU FEEL THIS."

Fin.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Just as the Star Child has finished talking a magical, talking pink Elephant called Alan and his transvestite pixe lover, Bob, come along and kill all the reapers with a duet of Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.

 

[Terminate421]

Where Commander Shepard beats the fuck out of those two people at the security CIC check point.

 

[tippy2k2]

The only thing I would change about the ending would be your galactic readiness and your specific army having a more defined role. Instead of a generic giant battle, we should have seen bits and pieces of it that show your specific story.

For example:
I allowed the Geth to fight back. There should have been something in the cut-scene to demonstrate the fact that the Geth had a role in the battle. Do this for each of the groups that are recruited by Shepard and have it have a bit more impact (like the suicide mission in ME2; maybe I get to choose that this group should do X while this group does Y).

Other than that, I wouldn't change anything (also note that I have not played the EC but to my knowledge, that's more of a "when the dust settles" kind of thing and doesn't really affect the battle itself).

 

[everythingbeeps]

The only thing I would change about the ending would be your galactic readiness and your specific army having a more defined role. Instead of a generic giant battle, we should have seen bits and pieces of it that show your specific story.

That, but I would still change a lot about the ending. Specifically, I would have an ending where things turn out much better. The mass relays aren't destroyed, Shepherd clearly survives and meets up with her crew, and the Reapers are pushed back at least semi-permanently. This was my main problem with the ending, that even the "best" outcome is miserably bad for everyone involved.

 

[The]

I was mostly fine with the ending. The only thing it needed was a boss battle with Harbinger. Or maybe a dialog battle where you talk the shit out of him. That would have been cool.

 

[Goofguy]

I dunno, one that makes sense? Sure, Shepard's "happily ever after" would be welcome but that's irrelevant. I would like to have had more emphasis on the space and Earth battles as opposed to seeing Shepard faff about on the Citadel. The decisions made throughout the trilogy should have impacted the battle a lot more. It would have been cool to see a platoon of Geth Infiltrators ambush a pack of Cannibals. Or a bunch of Krogan decimating some Ravagers as they're flanking Shepard and his squad. Or maybe Shepard working in tandem with an STG squad as they clear some Reaper resistance across a couple of city blocks. Some strategy/tactics in the space battle would have been cool, such as having a fleet come around from the opposite side of Earth to flank the Reapers. I would have loved to see Shepard and the Normandy go out in a blaze of glory, taking Harbinger down with them.

 

[AD-Stu]

Working with the material we were given, my "easy fix" is this:

- Game runs as normal, I grimace through idiocy of the Normandy landing during the run to the beam to collect my squadmates, shoot Marauder Shields in the head, go up to the Citadel and have the big talk-off with the Illusive Man that results in Anderson getting shot

- Shepard limps over to the console, hits the button, slumps next to Anderson, gets told "you did good kid" and Anderson dies, just like normal

- Brief pause while shedding a tear for our bro Anderson, then skip straight to the Crucible firing for the Destroy ending, with or without the "Shepard lives" bit at the end

- Cue credits, no fracking Buzz Aldrin at the end

 

[bug_of_war]

Heh, my ending was the ending we were initially given. I'm happy with it, maybe could have used an allocation aspect with all the assets you acquired, or even like in Dragon Age: Origins where you can call 40 or so of the assets together.

 

[DRTJR]

After uniting the Galaxy into one Massive armada, we win and for the next thousand years many Colonies have spontaneous reaper attacks but with only a hundred or so Reapers left, and then mostly the small ones, the council win. because that was the whole stick of ME 1 & 2 was finding that one in a million chance at victory. Shepard dies in the fight and a memorial is built in the presidium that has Shepard and his crew from Tali and Garrus who were in the entire series to Zaeed and James who only had one adventure with us.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

The reapers are turned into icecream and the galaxy exploads into happiness.

/end.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I will make Citadel a post game DLC, a what if Shepard Survived, several months after Destroy/Control/Synth, Shepard is brought back by some sort of convulted reason when someone activates the Citadel Archives. The Catalyst Reconstruct Shepard in any gender they choose and they are sent to the citadel to stop the person from unlocking the archives and causing the end of both sides of galactic civilization.

Then comes the party aboard Shepard's personal Reaper if they Control, or at the Citadel Suites if they chose another option. Shepard then returns to traveling to avoid the inevitable medal award ceremonies and autograph signings.

 

[deathbydeath]

It's time to let the ME3 ending go.... Let it go... Shush.... It's okay... It'll be all right... Sleep now...

Also this ^

Seriously, stop. Please.

 

[soren7550]

Ok, mine is simple enough.

Everything pretty much goes as it does (save for the Normandy coming down to save your squad, that's just dumb), bla bla bla, now Anderson kicks the bucket and Hackket calls in for you to do something [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMTDQZzQMKk], Shep tries but collapses, bla bla bla, red green blue, choose now!

Ok, so here's where things get different (other than the previously mentioned Normandy thing). See, the whole bit with the Starchild is all in Shep's head since the Reapers are all 'oh shit, we're all about to die!' so it's one big indoctrination push on their part to stop Shep. Choose blue or green, the Reapers successfully stop Shepard, and the cycle continues. Red however, Shep manages to resist falling into their clutches and comes back to their senses and activates the Crucible. The Crucible is getting ready to fire, so Shep has to skedaddle! Shep tries to take Anderson with them, but due to Shep's ragged and beaten state, they can't do it. Regretfully, and they can do is take his dog tags and continue. Shep makes it back to the beam that brought them there in the first place and goes through just as the Crucible activates.

Depending on your EMS, you either survive or don't, and it determines how much of Earth is left and how many people survive. None of that 'EDI and the geth are gone too because we had to have a reason for Destroy to be bad' crap, and if your survive, several months to a year later you have that big fun Citadel party.

Oh, and maybe a bit where if you survive your LI comes to your hospital room to see you as you wake up, and your friends and crew come in too because friendship.

(sorry if the above is a bit disjointed, kinda sleepy right now)

 

[solemnwar]

Mine are pretty much the same just in the Control option Star!Shepard uses the advanced reaper technology to make themselves a new body to control (sort of like EDI's but organic) to go and have awesome biotic fun times with Jack.

Yep.

... and my asshole!Shep who romanced Jacob and got her heart broken shoots him in the face and laughs.
[sub]No I'm not bitter why would you say that.[/sub]

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

The ones the game has.

Because those are the ones given you.
They are canon. The only way to change that is by getting an official retcon or time traveling and setting forth a plan spanning years to get into Bioware and work for the Mass Effect writing staff to make endings you want.

It has been over a year. Let it go. Dwelling on it is pointless and unhealthy.
The endings are bad. Accept it. Move on with your life.

But if you simply must insist on knowing, here is the ending I thought was going to happen given my decisions.

Spoiler

You lose. Completely and utterly. No hope. No "last hurrah." No chance at preparing the next cycle any better than the Protheans tried to prepare yours. You don't even put up that much of a fight against them.

Your choices do not matter. Because you lose. Invariably.

The Reapers have been built up over the course of three games to be unbeatable. Hell, the only reason we got the three/four endings we did is because Bioware threw in a deus ex machina because they realized just how powerful their mechaCthulhus are.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

Still for me, an Awakening style expansion would had been fine by me, the real ending to Mass Effect, fight your clone in an epic duel to the death and then party aboard your decked out apartment or Reaper.

 

[Tom_green_day]

They're all standing outside the beam, the crucible blows up and it seems like the end... But then the entire named (and alive) cast of the trilogy all turns up, stands in a circle, starts singing songs and the power of love destroys the reapers forever.
So basically the Doctor Who ending.
OT: By the time I got to my second playthrough, I didn't mind the ending any more.