Steampunk Viking said:
How to fix the ending with a few minor modifications:
1) Replace Star Child with Harbinger (or an IM controlled by Harbinger).
2) Make the Mass Relays only explode on the Destroy Ending.
3) Explain where the Reapers come from (I like the idea of them being the first organics).
4) Make EMS affect Shepard in a bigger and more personal matter (your EMS is crap, Normandy goes bang).
5) Give the Reapers a slightly better to understand reason for Reaping (preserving every race in Reaper form makes sense when you remove all emotions, but surely making their reasons seem justified ala typical Cerberus train of thought would be better - Dark Energy would've been perfect).
6) Explain what happens to the most prominent people you've encountered.
Having said that, I didn't like the ending but I didn't hate it enough to boycott Bioware, throw the Mass Effect setting out as a lost cause or call a witch hunt. It's Bioware's IP, they have full rights over how they write it.
The ending sucked, but if anything I respect Bioware for listening to the feedback given.
Well, being that I was discussing this earlier, I will discuss it with you. You seemed to have thought about it.
The narrative problem (we) ran into with ME3, was that for all practical purposes it was ME1, with some ME2 items, retold, as a retcon.
Mac Walters, does NOT like writing about aliens, which is why we got Cerberus part 2 all over again. Shamus discusses this in his blog, because it sticks out like a sore thumb.
1) Star Child, is the reaper over-mind, aka. Matrix Architect, Gnostic God, Machine God, it is an homage to Dues ex machina, Mac Walters does not read philosophy, history, science, or religious manuals for his inspiration, he watches TV and Movies, and plays video games... this is why you got this as the ending. It is also why this game is so poorly written.
2) The mass relays exploding was not a big deal, had they had stuck to the "dark energy" story arc, which is in fact, how the damn citadel gets to earth in the first place... it "jumped". This was scrapped so now it is space magic.
3) That would mean talking about aliens, and we have already established Mac Walters does not talk about aliens. As I understand it, he couldn't be bothered with learning about them, which is why he does not write about them. He approached ME 3 like it was Halo, and Shepard like he was a Spartan.
4) No. The writers wanted to make Shepard a deeper character, what your suggesting requires player agency. Shepard was retconned to make this garbage work.
5) hahahah, obviously, but Mac Walters said "people wouldn't get it" also, I have mentioned this before, Drew Karpyshyn wrote Mass Effect in such a way that EVERY CHARACTER was redeemable, and Mac Walters didn't like the idea that the Reapers would have a purpose other than by an EVIL design. If they had a purpose beyond wanton slaughter they could be redeemed in a meaningful way.
6) Most of those are aliens, Mac doesn't like talking about aliens.
Indoctrination was for all practical purposes implied to NOT be what is going on (By the developers and writers in numerous threads and post). However, I do concede that the stories of ME 1 and ME 2 where so Closely Paralleled that it gives the impression that it was PLAUSIBLE, this is why Shepard is written to have "Bad Dreams" about it. He "thinks" he may be indoctrinated. The fact that he is "BOTHERED AT ALL" is a "RetCon of Sheppard".
Shepard has been "retcon'd" to be a deeper character.
ME 3 is ME 1, with polish. It is the same game setup, Cerberus is Cerberus, TIM is the big bad, the Reapers are window dressing. Mac Walters went through the scenes and basically made Shepard have "war guilt", and insinuated that he had fear of "being indoctrinated".
Clearly TIM is being controlled by the reaper. Not Shepard. It breaks cannon? Yes, again, Mac Walters RETCON'd the universe to tell his version of it.
Shepard = Neo, TIM = Smith, (the boss fight here was dropped, which gave rise to "Marauder Shields", God Kid = God, Universe = Matrix on an endless loop of death and rebirth due to synthetic life.
To US, it was always a side story the synthetic stuff... to Mac Walters, that is all he could "connect to" as a writer, because he DOES NOT GET Mass Effect, and wanted to write a Human War Hero story, with next to no turn about's.
Many many aspects of ME3 are contrived to create a story around Earth, which again, is a retcon... changed... to suit the story Mac wanted to dribble out.
This is the ending, it was Jesus Shepard talking to Robot God, and Jesus Shepard either "rejects Robo God, and kills God-Citadel", and takes a breadth if you bothered with all the WA.
Jesus Shepard does like legion does excepts he "combines DNA"... because robot's use that now a days... (ass writing) space magic... I mean it is Jesus Shepard...
Jesus Shepard controls the reapers, ascends to higher consciousness, and becomes robot Buddha of the Reapers.
This game narratively speaking, is tore up from the floor up. The only things worth doing are the quest lines written by the "good writing staff" that carried over story arcs from the previous 2 games... everything else... is just awful, nonsensical rubbish.
Most of THAT for all it's pure garbage writing, could of been forgiven, had the ending, been anything other than what it is, in the box, as it shipped. THAT IS THE ENDING.
Likely-
it will remain the ending... sorry for that.
"His name... was Marauder Shields...." Remember him for the hero he was...