Am I going to cry at the end of Mass Effect 3? No spoilers!

CrystalViolet

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I finished it. I had a good cry about... I don't know how to use a spoiler tag so see this line as a warning...

The crew members' response to Shepherd's death and her name going on the wall.

Other than that. I just feel... numb. I cleared with the the extended cut and it still feels like an anticlimax that didn't make any sense. I don't think I'm saying anything new here though.

All in all I think I cried well over a dozen times throughout the game. I probably would have had a more satisfying cry had the ending been better.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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Auron225 said:
mavkiel said:
TheVampwizimp said:
So I finished it today - spoilers on my own thoughts on it contained below;

I can see why people were outright offended by it. Personally, I'm content with the Destroy ending... just bummed that it means the deaths of EDI and all geth. Especially since in my playthough; I united the quarians and geth, and EDI & Joker got together. That whole "organics and synthetics will always be enemies" just seemed to be bullshit pulled out of the air, particularly given what I said just happened in my file!

I did have the Extended Cut too, so I'm sympathetic for those who only saw different coloured explosions. I can't imagine the logic behind choosing Control or Synthesis. They are both options that the Reapers want you to choose.

Control is especially stupid - it's been reiterated several times that the Reapers cannot be controlled and I imagine they're going to say whatever they damn well have to if it stops Shepard from nuking them all. Who's to say they can't or won't just "delete" Shepard entirely once he's decided not to kill them?

"No you don't understand - that kid told me that I would have control".
"Which kid?"
"That Reaper... kid... ... shit".

Synthesis I was tempted by initially, but then realised that (1) He could again be talking out of his arse in attempt to save his own skin. How do we know the Reapers were made to "preserve life", and not simply to just stop anything from ever catching up to them or posing a threat to them? They could just be killing off all their potential enemies before they become competent enough to fight back. Shepard only has their word for it that they have everyone's best interests in mind. (2) Even if it was true, it'd be forcing evolution on all life whether it's ready for it, wants it, or not. (3) It seemed like something the Reapers could take advantage of - all organic life is part synthetic now, does that mean Reapers have kill switches for all life? The next Harvest is gonna be pretty damn quick. (4) It kinda takes the broad message I got from the trilogy of "The races are all different, and will sometimes fight, but they can unite and work together while holding onto what makes them unique", and shoots it in the face. "Nope, no more fighting now cause we're all synthesised". Also seemed far too convenient.

(5) The kid likes the idea = I don't like the idea. Bottom line is; it's beyond me why anyone would consider advice offered by the mother of all Reapers.

The Extended Cut Refusal Ending was just plain stupid. "I shouldn't be able to make this choice, so I'll condemn all life to the Reapers Harvest" - is still a f*cking choice! Even the kid recognised that it wasn't a good solution - "we need a new solution". Although granted he didn't think Reaper extermination was a good idea either; I can't see how anyone (even the Reapers) win in this scenario.

Destroy just seemed by far the best, even if EDI and all geth die. Also, Shepard lives so that's a plus.

I get the feeling Bioware themselves didn't think through the weight of each of these decisions, and the players put a lot more thought into it.
If you are interested in how the reapers really work and how they actually came to be, I suggest playing the Leviathan DLC. It answers several questions, and also add some new dialogue to the Catalyst encounter at the end, to better inform your final decision. Granted, all the new info in Leviathan is still given by someone you've never met and have little reason to trust, but it's the only info you get, take it or leave it.

I am mostly with you though. Sure, the Catalyst could be entirely truthful. Maybe it is just as disgusted by the harvest as you are, but just saw it as the lesser evil. But can you trust that? The only one you can be sure of, in Shepard's shoes that is, is to destroy every reaper and end it forever.

Control sounds good in principle, but what happens when the Shepard/reaper overmind finishes rebuilding the galaxy, and has nothing left to help with? Do the reapers go back into darkspace again? Do they fly into a sun to be destroyed forever? Or do they continue to police the galaxy, making sure that no AIs arise to threaten anyone? Does this mean they get to put down synthetic rebellions with military might? Do they execute people who may be trying to develop self-aware synthetics? How does all this work, and is it any better than what we have now?

And Synthesis (aside from being just bonkers in a technical sense; where in the lore of Mass Effect does it say that this green energy can create organic flesh from a synthetic body, or vice-versa, and how can it reach every planet in the galaxy, and why do the reapers need Shepard's body to do it---AHHH!! It makes no sense! It weirder than the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and without the foreshadowing), Synthesis is horrible. It is almost as bad as galactic genocide, and is even more egomaniacal to attempt. How could you possibly decide the eternal fate of every living thing in the galaxy? Hundreds of billions of lives changed forever, with no warning or explanation, changed into something new and unknown. How could anyone know the consequences of this irreversable universe-alerting event?

So yeah, Destroy is clearly the "right" choice. "Right" being incredibly relative.
 

BloatedGuppy

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CrystalViolet said:
Other than that. I just feel... numb. I cleared with the the extended cut and it still feels like an anticlimax that didn't make any sense.
I'm sorry. I'm laughing because, well...what else were you going to end up feeling? That's ME3 for you. I'm glad you battled all the way through though.

Now go play the Citadel DLC and let the series go out with some semblance of style.
 

RagingTiger

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I cried at the end, I cried at how many hours I had invested in the series and how attached I got to the story only to get EA'd in the end. Every time I start up ME to make a new play through from 1 to 3, I get like 30 mins in before it dawns on me what waits at the end, then I stop playing again.
 

Johnny Impact

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If you're the crying type then probably.

Not because of the ending itself, which is an arbitrary, tacked-on A/B decision having fuck-all to do with the story you've been playing for ninety hours.

Neither do I have a problem with the "no clear right answer" thing. Both choices should have consequences, that's why they're meaningful choices. As far as that goes, the game delivers. The galaxy will NOT be the same.

No, the spoiler-free version of what bothers me is I spent a lot of time demonstrating certain things and it all got wiped away in favor of somebody else's answer. It didn't match what I'd been told or what I'd been doing.

Characters die, planets are wrecked, victory is measured in survival rather than getting everything you want. It's hard to say what's a spoiler because, for example, characters can live or die at many different times. I lost Kaidan in the first game but I understand it's possible for him to live through the whole series. I made quite a friend of Garrus and was very upset when my Garrus died at the end of ME2. Your Garrus may live or he may not. And so forth. It's different for everyone.
 

Vault101

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CrystalViolet said:
I'm the kind of girl who gets waaaay too into my fiction. When I really, really like a book, a movie, a game, etc I get excessively emotionally invested. This is why it was a very bad move for me to start playing the Mass Effect series during a transitioning time of my life (my bad!) However, I started this quest and I must persevere!
.
no way to sugar coat it...

you will cry

you will feel empty inside

and NOT for the right reasons
 

Starbird

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I don't get all the hate on the ending tbh. It wasn't perfect - sure - but in a game like ME it would have been hard to do it perfectly.

The extended cut was pretty damn awesome though, and the final message in the ending was just brilliant.
 

votemarvel

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You can mod The Extended Anderson conversation back into the PC version of the game. I've done it because it doesn't change the pacing that much and it really cements the Shepard/Anderson relationship.

Here's a link to it http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/173/?.

Edit Spoilers I suppose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmofIH7rN9U
 
Mar 8, 2012
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At the very last moments of the game, probably not. As you watch the culmination of all your efforts to rally the different peoples of the universe pay off. As you watch beloved party members die because of decisions you weren't even aware of in previous games, you betcha.

I miss you, Mordin! *tear*
 

GloatingSwine

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Johnny Impact said:
No, the spoiler-free version of what bothers me is I spent a lot of time demonstrating certain things and it all got wiped away in favor of somebody else's answer. It didn't match what I'd been told or what I'd been doing.
Well yeah, the whole second half of the game completely thematically undercuts the ending.
 

mega lenin

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Auron225 said:
mavkiel said:
TheVampwizimp said:
Snip
What's worse about the synthesis ending is the underlying logic of it's utopian dreams. That the solution to the end of conflict is the end of differences and limitation. It hearkens back to Nazi dreams of ubermenschdom and frankly is the driving logic behind any genocidal policy. That peace and power can be obtained through the elimination of a group different from ours. Now I don't believe that to be the intended message of writers. I attribute this bizarre abomination to unrealistic EA deadlines, wanting to shoehorn extra ending choices, and really not thinking it through because fuck you this needs to be done before the holiday season.

The other problem with it was how antithetical it was to all the struggles of the entire series. The Reapers were billed as leviathan's that homogenized culture and opinion to their's. The collectors were warped to their image, their chief feature of subjugation was through indoctrination whose inner-workings are investigated by a ton of different characters in the game. Indoctrination the homogenization of will and opinion was their key feature as a race. And they were our enemy. Throughout the games we fought to preserve freedoms and our own will with our pluralistic crew against an enemy whose sole purpose was to eliminate us and assimilate what remained into their vast species. Even along story terms synthesis IS their solution. They harvest people and making them into biological and machine hybrids we refer to as reapers. And in the process they become part of the reapers vast machinery. Believing themselves independent (each of us a nation) but in fact simply doing the will as directed by apparently the catalyst in the citadel. And now the catalyst presents it as the best alternative and amazingly perhaps embracing the idea of shepherd as god power fantasy agree.

The other problem with that and the control ending is you can't really incorporate them into a canon of a post reaper invasion mass effect. Each create a utopia without conflict and without conflict there is no story. It's the end of history. It is all the current races of the galaxy reaching a technological singularity. You can't set a game in those settings. At least not one anyone would enjoy or would be relatable to people in the way the original series was.