Mass Effect 3 Ending Conspiracy. If you love Mass Effect and hated the ending, READ THIS PLEASE

KrossBillNye

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I admit I finished the game and I was also left with a bitter taste in my mouth when presented the options...

I chose the middle option. The merge one.

Why?

I chose that one because the thought of destroying all Synthetic life (Geth and Reaper) just seemed way too extreme of a Paragon choice. I fought hard, made allies with the Geth, lost a friend who sacrificed himself to better his people, only to have it all wiped out because of a button? Umm pass.

The control option. Again pass. This was a horrible moral choice made by TIM that I as a paragon was extremely against, and to sink to that option was to go against everything I fought so hard to stop.

The merge one seemed to be the best of the three choices. The better of all worlds where peace could be earned and kept.
 

Gennadios

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Bravo 21 said:
SajuukKhar said:
Bravo 21 said:
Did some more thinking, even if the relays are destroyed, there is still the FTL drives, slower than mass relays, but still not half bad. Galactic Civilization isn't dead, it just moves slower now, more like, say Firefly, where it can take days, or even weeks to get to a neighboring system. Maybe... just maybe.. this isn't horrible, or maybe I'm just grasping at straws.
You also forget that many of the races had studies the mass relays for years and the asari were at the point they COULD build some.
Quite true. I suppose this merely puts sentient back to the level of humanity prior to the first contact war, but with all the blueprints they need and a massive drive to rebuild.

As for Shepard and the crew dying, I figure I might as well quote Miracle of Sound "It's time to end this story" and "we'll hold the line, at whatever the cost". Both things have now occured, with Shepard and the crew dying/being stranded, while the ending leaves a great deal of potential for more games in the Mass Effect universe.
and at least Shepard didn't pull a Vader-esque "Noooooo" like in the end of Revenge of the Sith, that would have been completely unforgivable.
FTL drives require Eezo, if you've spent time mining for mineral's in ME2 you'll know just how rare an element that is, you visit a planet that's essentially an old sace battlefield with derelict eezo cores up the ying-yang and you'll find about 15k units of the stuff, and remember that it takes as many as 2k units to power a biotic...

Add to that the fact that not every solar system is lucky enough to have an eezo rich planet, and it still paints a picture of entire solar systems getting stranded or ships only having enough reserves to hop through two or 3 neighboring solar systems, which also many not be enough to find a source of it and set up a refinery.

Still a bleak picture.
 

Waaghpowa

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SajuukKhar said:
the catalyst was right, a galaxy without the reapers is a galaxy were synthetics are destined to destroy organics.
This doesn't make sense to me. If that's the case, why bother "Speeding up" tech development by leaving mass effect technology for races to find?

The catalyst says that organics will inevitably create synthetics and there will inevitably be conflict. If the reapers came in to wipe out advanced organics around the same time they create synthetic life, then I would agree, but that's not the case. Why would they bother speeding up organic development time if it's simply to avoid organic/synthetic conflict? Why not come in around the time synthetic life is created such as when the Quarians were making the Geth.

What I think is likely is something similar to the Matrix, hear me out.

Suppose the earliest advanced race, that had no reapers to worry about, advanced in technology to the point where they created an intelligent machine i.e. the original reapers. There was conflict, they went to war, reapers won. In need of a power source sufficient enough to sustain them, they start harvesting organics like wheat once they've progressed to a certain point of advancement where 1) their theoretical population size is sufficient enough for them to maintain power and 2) Just before they gain the kind of technological power to defeat the reapers. The existence of the reaper on the collector base that essentially runs on human slurry could be evidence of that.

Over time, in order to increase efficiency and consistency in their harvest, they leave their tech on key worlds for advancing races to find and cuts their development time down significantly enough for the reapers to come in and repeat the process.

I think that the catalyst knew this, and wanted you to choose the option of control as a kind of false hope because it's worried. The synthesis option seems to be in the reapers favour too. They already create husks that are essentially former organic life but infused with reaper tech. Merging all organics and synthetics is probably what the reapers wanted because it cuts their harvest time down.

I for one chose to destroy the reapers. Who cares if somewhere down the line synthetics get made and there's conflict. At least it gives life an opportunity to choose for itself rather than be herded and slaughtered like cattle by an ancient race of machines for countless millenia.

In my opinion, this talk of maintaining balance and preserving order sounds like lies to me. The reapers are just coming up with it to convince people what they're doing is right because IF they're using organic life to survive, why would they risk the chance of losing it?

I may be wrong, but that's what I was thinking about.
 

Lunar Templar

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-Seraph- said:
...This just seems to be the whole Squall's Dead [http://squallsdead.com/] nonsense again.
*reads the link*

well, that was interesting ... I'd forgotten just how screwed up FF8 was .... shame the 'but hurt fan' theory makes more sense then the game did -.- still no fucking idea what that game was about ....


OT: sure, why not? there's always the possibility of DLC to make the ending make sense or suck less, they did it with fall out 3 after all
 

SajuukKhar

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Waaghpowa said:
This doesn't make sense to me. If that's the case, why bother "Speeding up" tech development by leaving mass effect technology for races to find?

The catalyst says that organics will inevitably create synthetics and there will inevitably be conflict. If the reapers came in to wipe out advanced organics around the same time they create synthetic life, then I would agree, but that's not the case. Why would they bother speeding up organic development time if it's simply to avoid organic/synthetic conflict? Why not come in around the time synthetic life is created such as when the Quarians were making the Geth.

What I think is likely is something similar to the Matrix, hear me out.

Suppose the earliest advanced race, that had no reapers to worry about, advanced in technology to the point where they created an intelligent machine i.e. the original reapers. There was conflict, they went to war, reapers won. In need of a power source sufficient enough to sustain them, they start harvesting organics like wheat once they've progressed to a certain point of advancement where 1) their theoretical population size is sufficient enough for them to maintain power and 2) Just before they gain the kind of technological power to defeat the reapers. The existence of the reaper on the collector base that essentially runs on human slurry could be evidence of that.

Over time, in order to increase efficiency and consistency in their harvest, they leave their tech on key worlds for advancing races to find and cuts their development time down significantly enough for the reapers to come in and repeat the process.

I think that the catalyst knew this, and wanted you to choose the option of control as a kind of false hope because it's worried. The synthesis option seems to be in the reapers favour too. They already create husks that are essentially former organic life but infused with reaper tech. Merging all organics and synthetics is probably what the reapers wanted because it cuts their harvest time down.

I for one chose to destroy the reapers. Who cares if somewhere down the line synthetics get made and there's conflict. At least it gives life an opportunity to choose for itself rather than be herded and slaughtered like cattle by an ancient race of machines for countless millenia.

In my opinion, this talk of maintaining balance and preserving order sounds like lies to me. The reapers are just coming up with it to convince people what they're doing is right because IF they're using organic life to survive, why would they risk the chance of losing it?

I may be wrong, but that's what I was thinking about.
The Mass Relays help the Reapers get to other places faster.

Destroying them means a boring, and a very timely trek across space, even with the reapers advanced ships it would take AGES.

Also as they said in ME1 The Citadel allows them to learn about all inhabited worlds and find and destroy them faster, and it allows them to kill off the heads of the galaxy throwing everything into chaos.

It is so useful for them.
 

Zorg5000

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What's this Shepard waking up ending? I just blew up all the Reapers and all I saw was the usual Joker crash (with Tali even though she should probably be dead with Garrus and Hammer) and then the old man and kid after the credits

Seriously what's with some of my team being on the Normandy? wasn't EVERYONE down on Earth fighting

I'm not going to get my hopes up but I like this theory especially since the option that seems the most GOOD i.e sacrificing yourself by jumping into a huge beam that will bring peace and make things lovely forever, will merge organics and synthetics SOMETHING THE REAPERS HAVE BEEN DOING FOR THE ENTIRE GAME, you know all those hideous mutants we've been gunning down?
So it makes sense that this is all some last ditch ploy by the reapers to make you conform to their way of thinking

P.S. Half Robot Leaves??!!!
 

Acton Hank

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hulksmashley said:
I have a question that I'm going to spoiler, but would really like answered. It's about the "best" ending. Not that I would really be willing call the damn thing best.

I chose the destroy ending, and had a high enough galactic readiness rating that the end showed my Shepard taking a breath. Why did this Shepard still have her real armor on, surrounded by concrete? On the citadel she was wearing some horrible burned armor, and there definitely isn't any reinforce concrete. What's with that?
It's simple. They just got lazy. I mean in the flashbacks they couldn't even be bothered to put in the ME2 love interests, it's just laziness.
 

Casual Shinji

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Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy.

I believe Bioware was simply going for the generic messiah sacrifice ending, that so many other games before it had done.
 

Deadyawn

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Even if this is true, I don't know if it's better. Sure it's a less shitty ending but if bioware are planning on making us pay 10 bucks for the privilage of having it they deserve to burn in the firey pits of hell for all eternity.
 

Acton Hank

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Casual Shinji said:
Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy.

I believe Bioware was simply going for the generic messiah sacrifice ending, that so many other games before it had done.
It's a BAD generic messaih sacrifice ending, That king of ending is the one I think is most appropriate, but it's just so poorly executed that it's astounding.
 

Acton Hank

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ChrisRedfield92 said:
Casual Shinji said:
Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy.

I believe Bioware was simply going for the generic messiah sacrifice ending, that so many other games before it had done.
It's a BAD generic messiah sacrifice ending, That king of ending is the one I think is most appropriate, but it's just so poorly executed that it's astounding.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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I actually thought it was indoctrination because the kid refers to them as 'we' when he says to destroy them. :/

So I chose the ''renegade'' ending.
 

Zorg5000

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I didn't mind so much that Shepard can die or that none of the choices were "ideal". I was pretty sure Shep would likely become a martyr at the end. I'm more pissed off by how short and exactly the same the three choices are afterwards: big energy ball, Reapers stopped, mass relays destroyed, Joker crash lands, THE END thanks for playing BTW some people talking maybe from the future or something who knows?

I was loving every minute of it until the end, it's rare that I actually feel sad about a fictional characters death but Mordin had me close to tearing up there.

All this build up and the only thing I learn about my final choice is that Joker ends up on some jungle planet
 

leppykahn

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The dream sequence struck me from the beginning as you mention.

You've been painfully slowly chasing this child in your previous dreams, and so you come to find a child in a frustrating perpetual struggle oddly reminiscent of my own dreams where I'm powerless to help someone/myself and feel as though I've been stuck in molasses.

Some other things to perhaps consider...

1) Shepard has already been converted/indoctrinated after the laser zaps him/her. The two husks represent your squad members, and you mow them down with ease in a moment of surprise before going up against some foe with a reasonably good weapon who generally has no problem mowing down quick convert reapers.

2) You had no pistol, and certainly had a better one than that by that point in time. Your teammates who were on Earth with you show up in the crash sequence. Why would the Normandy be that close to the relay to escape anyway? As someone else mentioned, your armor changes, and you spend the whole thing limping. And how would Anderson possibly be there at all? Makes no sense.

3) Stargazer. Clearly, this story being told about the ending is a legend. They are prone to mistakes and common acceptance of whatever permeation was passed down generation to generation.

4) The "From Ashes" DLC directly butts heads with this. According to Javik, the Citadel was created by the Protheans for use as the crucible, but was conquered during his lifetime. When shown in the game, in it's closed state, it's clear the point is to aim it at something or send a beam at something. Even the shape of the citadel from the beginning shows what very much looks like a mechanism for magnification or aiming at it's center. This of course, does not explain the keepers, and what they would be doing appearing to tend to the bodies in the "aboard the citadel" thing.


Despite my disappointment at the ending and how lazy it looks from my first play through.... I'm really hoping this was the real reason why they needed to release From Ashes day 1. This of course, supports the "game was not complete" angle. But it seems at this point they are doing what they can simply to cash in on the franchise and go about their merry way.


But the end result it left me with, is that my loyalty to the franchise, and my plans to go through all the games, seeing how my decisions affected the ending are all rendered moot because a number of those choices were ignored in the entire last game. For instance, I did everything in my power to keep Udina from power, because I knew he couldn't be trusted. Spent the entire ME2 first game with default choices, accepting that humans ran everything. (I don't know if that's actually the case when you play through with what you selected).

I also am left to wonder if it is Earth, whether they will be battling with other stranded civilizations some time from now, when everything has been relegated to myth and legend. These species probably can't even breed without the help of an asari.



Another something to consider, what if the crashing of the Normandy shows exactly what the reapers intended to do? Fracture the civilization, handicap the technology, and force them to get back to the same point again. Even if many reapers died, it would seem they would spend much of the rest of their times going around, wiping out other civilizations in other places.

The inevitability of master vs machine vs machine master wasn't exactly compelling the rest of the way through, but I still find myself, even being able to rationalize the dream sequence, extremely disappointed at the laziness of the ending of the game. And now, with only some "global whatever" score mattering to the ending, I have no desire to play any of the games again, despite my love of the lore and the universe that was created. I'm going to finish the game again with a higher war score (first time through was about 2800), and see if I notice anything better...

No, this is a case of Fonzi vs. Shark. Baffling to me how the entire series could get my buyin up until the very ending.

It seems to me like if you saw an injured animal. You take it under your arm, give it every bit of attention, nurturing, etc that it needs to recover. You make it your personal mission to make sure it survives (the child parallel seems good here). One day you come home, just in time to watch your SO shoot the animal as you pull up to the drive. All of your questions are only answered with "well, it's dead now."

Edit: Some of this stuff was stated otherplaces in this thread, but I read the OPs thoughts and am giving my responses to those.
 

Zorg5000

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ChrisRedfield92 said:
hulksmashley said:
I have a question that I'm going to spoiler, but would really like answered. It's about the "best" ending. Not that I would really be willing call the damn thing best.

I chose the destroy ending, and had a high enough galactic readiness rating that the end showed my Shepard taking a breath. Why did this Shepard still have her real armor on, surrounded by concrete? On the citadel she was wearing some horrible burned armor, and there definitely isn't any reinforce concrete. What's with that?
It's simple. They just got lazy. I mean in the flashbacks they couldn't even be bothered to put in the ME2 love interests, it's just laziness.
Yeah I was wondering about that why does it only show Liara, Joker and Anderson when I was banging Tali?
 

SonOfVoorhees

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What if the Protheans missed everything up? In ME1 they stopped the Keepers from opening the Citidal relay thus making the Reapers get Saren to help them. What would a normal Reaper invasion be? For all we know they beam into the seat of power for the galaxy and state what they want to do and the reasons they do it. Maybe the Crucibal is always used to revert all life back to zero....as it were. So within the Paragon choice, we just bought life 50,000 year extra and the Reapers will be back again? After all it would take that long to get our tech up to the standard again, maybe thats our 2nd chance.

But my other thought was if the Reapers left the gates to make us follow a certain path, maybe that path led to the creation of synthetics and thus the Reapers created a continued pattern that they created. All based on their tech. Without the relay gates maybe we may bever be advanced enough to make AI? Or atleast we would be far intelligent as we made them ourselves rather than using Reaper tech.
 

Waaghpowa

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SajuukKhar said:
The Mass Relays help the Reapers get to other places faster.

Destroying them means a boring, and a very timely trek across space, even with the reapers advanced ships it would take AGES.

Also as they said in ME1 The Citadel allows them to learn about all inhabited worlds and find and destroy them faster, and it allows them to kill off the heads of the galaxy throwing everything into chaos.

It is so useful for them.
The relays have nothing to do with this, as far as everyone is concerned, the relays have always been there. They don't need organic life to use the relays. It doesn't explain why they would leave tech on Mars for humans to discover and adapt to advance them hundreds of years technologically.

If their goal is to eradicate all life before a synthetic/organic conflict arises, then there's no need to speed it up. Which is why I presented my idea as being the possible reason.
 

Pierce Graham

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It's a very interesting theory, and I hope it's true, because the ending didn't make any goddamn sense, but I think it's the actual ending. Bioware just screwed up. They thought that a child-space-god-thing would be a good idea, and it might have been it it wasn't pulled out of their ass in the last five minutes. I wish the Crucible would have just been a weapon against the Reapers, not a synthesis machine or Reaper-control device. Sadly, the game we waited so long for turned out to be a dud. I was wondering why it was getting such bad reviews from fans when it came out. Now, I know.
If you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Mass Effect 1, the best game in the series. Unlike Mass Effect 3, you can actually do some exploring, rather than sit around, scanning planets from orbit.