A Canon ME3 Ending?

[lacktheknack]

Hopefully they won't take the second route. It would be hilarious, though.

That would indeed be funny. Actually, I'd love to see it at some point, just for the sheer hilarity of it. Maybe, to mix it up some more, also have all other major choices before the ending happen.

Wait'll the fans try to salvage a theory out of THAT! Indoctrination theory was impressive, but very little can match The Warp In The West.

 

[Rack]

I chose destruction basically for that reason. Synthesis and Control just made no sense. It's a shame the path you take to get there is so awful because that and refusal leave the universe in an interesting state, clearly foreshadowed by the rest of the series.

I think refusal was added because Bioware wanted to troll us. Beforehand, it was common that people would shoot the Star Child out of frustration.

Probably true, but if it followed the approach scene on low EMS it would be easily the strongest ending.

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

Refusal is the one option that follows Shepard's beliefs and character, and yet there's no victory for that, which makes EMS useless.

Broken story, broken game.

Shepard's beliefs and character are what you make them. Shepard is essentially a blank slate that you make into your own character, that's the point of the choices that have appeared throughout all three games.

This. Exactly this. My Shepard was all about compromise and finding another solution, a third option, as it were. As such, I ended up choosing synthesis. Sure, people say it's unethical, but frankly if someone offered the entire world the ability to be perpetually healthy, stronger, faster, with access to any knowledge they could ever want, and it all happens instantly and painlessly and leaves your identity completely intact, then frankly it's be quite the idiot who would say no. And let's face it, we do plenty of things that are in people's best interests without explicit consent. Our parents do it for years, we all do it every time we take a vet for a vaccination, etc.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I chose destruction basically for that reason. Synthesis and Control just made no sense. It's a shame the path you take to get there is so awful because that and refusal leave the universe in an interesting state, clearly foreshadowed by the rest of the series.

Its also the safest option:

A. the AI and Geth can be repaired, if not, its never shown if they are all dead.
B. the Reapers may have had a failsafe to kill everything
C. It was your objective, stick to it soldier.

But...But... What about Jokers love life!

He was with me from the beginning, surly he's earned a little robot tail.

Aslo, with synthesis it will not be long until the military might of the galaxy outweighs that of even the Reapers.

Everyone knows everything about everything, surly they can come up with something.

Umm... I'm pretty sure the EC makes it clear that the Reapers pretty much ARE the galactic military now. Same with Control.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I chose destruction basically for that reason. Synthesis and Control just made no sense. It's a shame the path you take to get there is so awful because that and refusal leave the universe in an interesting state, clearly foreshadowed by the rest of the series.

I think refusal was added because Bioware wanted to troll us. Beforehand, it was common that people would shoot the Star Child out of frustration.

Probably true, but if it followed the approach scene on low EMS it would be easily the strongest ending.

It also would have been the strongest ending if Refusal actually took your EMS into account and the outcome of the fight were dependent on it. But you lose no matter what there. Ehh. Irritating.

 

[Unsilenced]

I hope synthesis doesn't become canon.

Say what you will abut the other endings, there isn't enough space weed in the galaxy for that one to make sense.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Simples. Synthesis.

Transhumanism (or transkroganism?!?) ftw.

 

[Aarowbeatsdragon]

To be honest i say the synthesis ending is canonical because for one you only unlock that choice if you have a high ems rating. So...that just preety much confirms its biowares "best" ending. As for what ending i want to be canonical? the synthesis ending because imo its the best of the lot. Really changes the world in interesting ways that i cant wait to see. To be honest though i think the next game is going to be set before 3 at least...i think the reason they said keep your mass effect 3 saves was for future dlc. I WANT the next game to be set after 3 though.

 

[DustyDrB]

I hope synthesis doesn't become canon.

Say what you will abut the other endings, there isn't enough space weed in the galaxy for that one to make sense.

Seconded.
Though my canon ending is the one I made up in my head. I quit the game before the return to the Citadel now.

 

[pandorum]

SO I just finished ME3 and want to talk about the ending....

No! Wait! Come back! There're no flames here!

Also, spoilers for the extended cut ME3 endings.

SO anyway, I chose synthesis, which I thought was the most inappropriate for the occasion. After the bloodiest war the galaxy has ever known, the sentient races begin the first steps toward ascending to a higher plane thanks to Shepard's final sacrifice. The become Reapers are glorified man-servants and all is hunky dory. A completely happy ending.

However, after looking at the other endings, mainly the destruction one, I could not help but feel that if the Mass Effect universe was to continue it would do so after that specific ending. The universe is saved, but is still imperfect and there is a chance that Shepard might still be alive.

After all, we were told to hang on to our ME3 save data.

I also found it's description a tad misleading. I thought that by choosing it, it would set off a galactic EMP which would send all civilizations back to the stone age. However, all it seemed to do was kill all synthetic life. A bitter pill to swallow after working so hard to acquire the Geth and Quarians.

While I doubt that any continuation will follow Shepard specifically it cold include him as a major character, possibly as the replacement to Udina.

Now, the control ending is also not a very good ending to have a game based on. In it, Shepard becomes the peace-keeper of the galaxy, meaning that any conflict that would be meaningful in a game would be null and void because the Reapers would just take care of it.

All that being said, I still think that Synthesis is the best option for the reasons stated above.

I also apologize for bringing such a sore topic up again, but I was so curious as to this dynamic. Keep in mind that I am by no means trying to start a flame war or promote any anti-Mass Effect anit-Bioware anti-EA stigma. I simply want the Escapist to weigh in on my opinion.

Or perhaps the next game will actually have three different campaigns for the different endings. It will be released on next gen consoles so who knows the possibilities.

TL;DR
The Destruction ending is most likley canon because it leaves the world imperfect and Shepard is still alive making for a better setting for the sequel.

Why pick what Seran wanted in the first game? You know the kid is completely full of shit if you shoot him you find out he is Harbinger and he also refers to himself as "us" meaning he is a reaper, he says choosing destroy would kill you? false because you are clearly alive at the end. Please tell me why you would not complete the mission.

 

[pandorum]

Refusal is the one option that follows Shepard's beliefs and character, and yet there's no victory for that, which makes EMS useless.

Broken story, broken game.

Shepard's beliefs and character are what you make them. Shepard is essentially a blank slate that you make into your own character, that's the point of the choices that have appeared throughout all three games.

This. Exactly this. My Shepard was all about compromise and finding another solution, a third option, as it were. As such, I ended up choosing synthesis. Sure, people say it's unethical, but frankly if someone offered the entire world the ability to be perpetually healthy, stronger, faster, with access to any knowledge they could ever want, and it all happens instantly and painlessly and leaves your identity completely intact, then frankly it's be quite the idiot who would say no. And let's face it, we do plenty of things that are in people's best interests without explicit consent. Our parents do it for years, we all do it every time we take a vet for a vaccination, etc.

You forget that's what Saren wanted and look where that got him and look at the Illusive man obsessed with control, destroy or refusal should be canon I kinda like the idea of fighting the reapers as a Yarag.

 

[TimeLord]

After all, we were told to hang on to our ME3 save data.

Wait what? Who said this? When did they say this? Is is not cause they just have more pre-ending DLC planned?

 

[Agayek]

Out of the 3 I picked destruction because the others made even less sense. I mean it's still bat shit insane even compared to the norm in the Mass Effect universe but it makes more sense.

Basically this.

Destruction is the only one of those three original options that makes any sense whatsoever. Let's look at the examples of each we've seen throughout the series:

1) Saren pushed for synthesis. Where did that get him? Indoctrinated and controlled by the Reapers, followed by dead.

2) The Illusive Man pushed for control. Where did that get him? Indoctrinated and controlled by the Reapers, followed by dead.

You see? It's pretty obvious that the only way to not end up indoctrinated and controlled by the Reapers (followed by dead) is to fuck the Reapers in the ass with a wave of red space-magic.

The ending I chose when the EC came out though was refusal. It's the only option that made sense for my Shepard. Fuck the star child, fuck the glowy space magic. I gave it all the finger and stood by my ideals.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Refusal is the one option that follows Shepard's beliefs and character, and yet there's no victory for that, which makes EMS useless.

Broken story, broken game.

Shepard's beliefs and character are what you make them. Shepard is essentially a blank slate that you make into your own character, that's the point of the choices that have appeared throughout all three games.

This. Exactly this. My Shepard was all about compromise and finding another solution, a third option, as it were. As such, I ended up choosing synthesis. Sure, people say it's unethical, but frankly if someone offered the entire world the ability to be perpetually healthy, stronger, faster, with access to any knowledge they could ever want, and it all happens instantly and painlessly and leaves your identity completely intact, then frankly it's be quite the idiot who would say no. And let's face it, we do plenty of things that are in people's best interests without explicit consent. Our parents do it for years, we all do it every time we take a vet for a vaccination, etc.

You forget that's what Saren wanted and look where that got him and look at the Illusive man obsessed with control, destroy or refusal should be canon I kinda like the idea of fighting the reapers as a Yarag.

I believe that Saren wanted the races to serve and become indoctrinated by the Reapers, while the synthesis ending completes the evolutionary development of organics and synthetics. In fact, from what is gathered from the ending the Reapers and all there soldiers are reduced to obeying the whim of the newly evolved races.

 

[Agayek]

Give one, just one reason why the game is actually broken. And not broken in this bizarre sense that people insist on using, but actually BROKEN as in does not work.

Level any criticism you like at the game/ending, it may be an unsatisfying ass pull which leaves more questions than it answers which renders much of your efforts pointless. But the game has an ending. The game works. The ending works. Not explaining everything does not mean it is broken.

Not going to get into the debate really beyond the simple fact that the end of ME3 is quite broken from a narrative mechanics standpoint. Almost every aspect of it violates just about every major rule of storytelling there is.

The EC did a lot of good in making it emotionally statisfying, but it didn't correct the glaring flaws in the actual mechanics of the narrative. A brief synopsis of the biggest of those flaws is as follows:

1) The Catalyst (a major character/exposition font) appears with no foreshadowing whatsoever during the resolution.

2) New plot points and elements ("To stop you from being killed by robots, I built robots to kill you", et al) are introduced during the resolution

3) The tone and central themes of the series are abandoned in that scene

4) It completely and utterly lacks something called "Narrative Coherence [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_paradigm]", which in short means that it's jarring and incoherent.

 

[Thespian]

As many people said, Destruction is about all that makes sense.
All I wanted from the ending was some bullshit way to kill all the Reapers. What I got was that, except a bit too bullshit-y. Then we got two other spectacularly stupid options.

Control: Shepard becomes a magical space ghost and commands the army of almighty mecha-squids from beyond the grave.

Synthesis: Machine and organic life combines to form a new DNA but the DNA doesn't change anything it just makes everyone glow but the Reapers help the organics and share their knowledge so organics won't kill themselves I don't see why they didn't do that in the first place instead of killing us until we invent glow-y green DNA also I don't know if Shepard is still magical ghost shep controlling them or if they suddenly became benevolent because the colour green placates them maybe? but shepard did jump into that big glowing beam and if holding two sparky handles can turn him into a magical space ghost I don't see why the beam wouldn't actually I dunno what the beam is there for, it's not like Shepard is the only half organic, half synthetic being in the Universe, why didn't the Star-Child just use something else if he wanted synthesis to happen and why can that glow-y beam rewrite the DNA of every organic being every in the whole galaxy and actually are all plants, insects, bacteria, monera, protistae, humans and other animals now part of the same DNA, what does that mean the same "DNA"? are new babies being born that are half synthetic, what the fuck does any of this mean I have no idea what this option does or how it works why OH GOD WHY.

So yeah. Destruction D

Oh wait... It kills the Geth...

You know what, just kill me >_< Let the next cycle deal with this bullshit.

 

[salinv]

Elder Scrolls route.<spoiler=Daggerfall spoilers><link=http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Warp_in_the_West_%28event%29>All the endings happened. All of them.

Seriously? That's how it ends (lore-wise)? I really want to play Daggerfall now just to experience it all.

My back log is long enough. Thanks...

 

[lacktheknack]

Elder Scrolls route.<spoiler=Daggerfall spoilers><link=http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Warp_in_the_West_%28event%29>All the endings happened. All of them.

Seriously? That's how it ends (lore-wise)? I really want to play Daggerfall now just to experience it all.

My back log is long enough. Thanks...

Well, what happens is that you get a choice of who to give the artifact to, and it changes how the game ends.

When it came time to pick a canonical ending, I guess they had a hard time choosing. So they took the "wat" route.

So you don't actually experience the warp yourself, you just make it happen.

 

[number2301]

Give one, just one reason why the game is actually broken. And not broken in this bizarre sense that people insist on using, but actually BROKEN as in does not work.

Level any criticism you like at the game/ending, it may be an unsatisfying ass pull which leaves more questions than it answers which renders much of your efforts pointless. But the game has an ending. The game works. The ending works. Not explaining everything does not mean it is broken.

Not going to get into the debate really beyond the simple fact that the end of ME3 is quite broken from a narrative mechanics standpoint. Almost every aspect of it violates just about every major rule of storytelling there is.

The EC did a lot of good in making it emotionally statisfying, but it didn't correct the glaring flaws in the actual mechanics of the narrative. A brief synopsis of the biggest of those flaws is as follows:

1) The Catalyst (a major character/exposition font) appears with no foreshadowing whatsoever during the resolution.

2) New plot points and elements ("To stop you from being killed by robots, I built robots to kill you", et al) are introduced during the resolution

3) The tone and central themes of the series are abandoned in that scene

4) It completely and utterly lacks something called "Narrative Coherence [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_paradigm]", which in short means that it's jarring and cohesive.

Probably best not to go too far into it, although I agree with every single point you make. What you call broken, I can bad, or inconsistent, or poor writing. Saying something is broken implies objectivity in the judgement, which really isn't appropriate, some people liked the ending, and they weren't wrong for doing so.