Mass Effect 3 ending SPOILERS!

[Crazyblade911]

I'm sorry, but I just got finished the Game 30 minutes ago, and I chose the destroy option, now would someone explain how, that particulier ending happened. Cause, I was shooting at either a tube, or a chord, didn't get that good of a look. Now, I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but how in the H E Double Hocky Sticks, does shooting a tube/chord equate with destroy all synthetics?

While your at it, could you explain how putting your hands on/into an electrical beam/current gives you control over an advanced synthetic life force, last I checked, touching or mixing human body parts with an electrical current tends to send you backwards, with a few of the body's systems going into shock.

I'm sorry again, but I've read a few arguments and would like to contribuite.

The Quarians, would likly still have some food, or seed in the liveships, they would also likely leave there children and the more qulified caretakers back on Rannoch, as leaving them on the ships would cause the older generation to be more defensive of the ships carrying the children.

Regarding the Tech talk, As Mordin Solus said regarding the genophage cure... I can't recall, can't find a video on youtube either, no matter. something like "While the path to the cure is reprehensible, it is still useful, no need to abstain from using it." or something like that.

 

[Fapmaster5000]

Someone on the Bioware board posted an ending that I think solves most issues. Go here to see it, throw him some votes:

http://social.bioware.com/poll.php?user=1183972&poll_id=29101

More importantly, here's Bioware's Megathread in regards to the ending. Let them know how you feel.

http://social.bioware.com/633606/polls/28989/

 

[Eric Morales]

In a way, I feel like no ending would have been truly satisfying. Since finishing Mass Effect 1 I've been imagining how the series might end. Reality will always disappoint compared to the things we can imagine. I admit I was always going to be disappointed by anything short of Shepherd becoming Emperor of the known universe.

Still, the ending we ended up with sort of robbed me of my sense of victory. My feeling playing through Mass Effect 3 was "It will take the entire galaxy working together, but we CAN defeat the reapers." Even the Crucible felt more like a new weapon that was going to help us bridge the technology gap with the Reapers rather than some magical Reaper "off" switch. The ending just ended up being an unsatisfying Deus Ex Machina.

I remember reading somewhere that Mass Effect 3 was supposed to have a whole bunch of radically different endings. In the end the three endings that were all variations on the theme of "Shepherd dies, Reapers go away, everything is kind of shitty."

Then again, I also remember reading that this Galaxy at War business was going to affect the possible endings in the single player. So maybe there's that.

 

[theonecookie]

The thing that bothers me other than the endings making no sense at all is where the reapers a race of machines designed to stop machines from wiping up out because that would be some fucking stellar writing on bioware's part

 

[Sp3ratus]

I remember reading somewhere that Mass Effect 3 was supposed to have a whole bunch of radically different endings. In the end the three endings that were all variations on the theme of "Shepherd dies, Reapers go away, everything is kind of shitty."

Well, according to the ME3 entry on the ME wiki page, it's written:

Throughout Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard will be bringing the civilisations of the galaxy together as allies to take back Earth and repel the Reaper invasion. The player's choices throughout not only Mass Effect 3, but the entire trilogy, will affect the fate of these civilisations and the endings the player can receive.

The above quote is supposedly taken from the Game Informer 217, who did an interview with Bioware some time back, so it seems like that was indeed the plan. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way.

You don't HAVE to play multi to get the "full" ending, it's just an alternative. Nah you just have to go around and do all the side-quests and get all of the crap in the galaxy using scan (don't remember what it's called, who cares).

I had like 2 or 3 sidequests I didn't get because I didn't know where to get them from. Hmm. If you're certain, then I'll do that on my 2nd playthrough.

Yeah, if you do everything in single-player you can definitely get the full ending.

Really? From everything I've read and seen, those are the 3 endings you get, there's no fourth secret ending, other than a video clip of Shepard's body making a slight twitch under all the rubble and the whole stargazer/child storytelling. I got the latter, without doing all the quests and only having 50% readiness. The former, I've only seen the clip of, but even with that as part of the ending, it doesn't really make it a whole lot better, at least not for me.

After thinking more about the ending, I've come to accept it. Destroying the Reapers(which is what I did) and by extension all synthetic life put an end to the conflict and finally freed the galaxy of Reaper control. It did screw over the galaxy royally and set it back centuries(if not more) in terms of technological advancement, but in the end, life in the galaxy goes on and Shepard sacrificing herself achieved just that. It's a pyrrhic victory if ever there was one, but a victory, nonetheless.

That said, there are still things I'm unhappy with, like the fact that Normandy wasn't on Earth, for some utterly bizarre reason and not an epilogue, giving some idea of what happened and at least acknowledging the choices I made throughout the games. Oh well, no game is perfect, but this is damn near close to it.

 

[Arina Love]

yep endings and pretty much whole ME3 story suck didn't even bothered with my second playthrough,like i did with me1-2, sold Me3 off right away.

 

[Deathninja19]

It just boggles me. Did the writer die of a heart attack with one chapter left to go, and it was finished by three chimpanzees, someone who googled the plots of Battlestar Galactica and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a malfunctioning electric typewriter?

More like Bioware copied the ending off the original Deus Ex.

 

[michiehoward]

What I don't understand is how this alone and mass relays fucked up aren't the Renegade ending, I thought that using the Crucible would cause the the destruction of the relays and strand Shepard and everyone else, but I also thought that you would use the Crucible if you were such a doucebag that you can't unite enough of the galaxy to your side.



EDIT I'm only 12 hours in

 

[SajuukKhar]

An ending where the reapers win and you have to save whatever you can so that the next cycle has a chance of defeating the reapers would be the bittersweet ending this series deserves.

An ending that leaves you with the inconclusive possibly of the next cycle MAYBE destroying the reapers but most likely losing is better then the supposedly inconclusive ending were you beat the reapers and give the galaxy a real chance to rebuild but you don't know exactly with a 100% certainty what your squad mates did?

That would be a terrible ending because it negates EVERYTHING you did, the ending we get now at least acknowledges bigger choices like curing the genophage, letting the Rachnai live or die, and making peace/destroying the Geth and quarrians.


Not sure if serious or just purposely hypocritical.

 

[Nimcha]

Honestly, have none of you ever read a science fiction story?

I... don't understand why there's such a fuss. The ending made perfect sense to me. Everything the child says adds up to everything that's happened. Now, I didn't get all war assets and as such my ending is probably not as optimistic as the 'best' one. I hear there's even one where Shepard lives. In my ending, the Reapers are destroyed (and by proxy every synthetic). Shepard dies as well. Of course the relays are destroyed and pretty much everyone is fucked. But only for a while. My Shepard's sacrifice has given the galaxy a new chance.

No, the galaxy's sacrifice has done that. That's what I got from my ending. And sacrificing things has been a theme since the very first game.

The whole game has a depressing tone, mixed in with little happy moments. From the get-go, the entire galaxy is under direct attack and everything around Shepard is falling apart. This is really the end. To suddenly have everyting work out at the end, that would be a complete betrayal of everything that happened before.

There is no sudden move into 'MAGIC' territory, as some claim. The Child is obviously an AI of sort and chooses this form to be recognizable for Shepard. It's not a 'MAGIC SPACE CHILD HURRR'. Please.

The Child speaks of 'we'. That implies the first Reapers who decided upon the idea of the cycles. The idea of Reapers as almost almighty beings is not new. Now that Shepard and the rest of the galaxy (very important that part) have broken through that cycle, it clearly doesn't work anymore. That's what the Child literally says. So there has to be a new start. And yes, that can only be done by almost dooming the current galaxy.

But to see so many people disillusioned must mean they haven't made all this clear enough to most people. That is a fail on Bioware, and should be recognized as such. But the claims of this ending making absolutely no sense are just wrong. It's probably just disappointment venting. Take a step back, think about it a little. I will admit I had hoped for a more happy ending as well, but that would just be completely contradictory to the tone of the whole game.

A lot of people will probably still rage and say the ending sucks, but what can you do. I don't think there's any way Bioware could've done this that wouldn't have incurred the wrath of the gaming community. Happy/bittersweet ending? I get why you want it, but as I tried to explain I don't think that would've been any 'better'.

 

[michiehoward]

i knew those fucking dreams were fishy..i'm not looking forward to this...

 

[jrmyers]

Other bitter sweet endings: Half Life, Fallout 3, New Vegas, STALKER, GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Bio Shock (depending on how you played it), most of the really great games I've ever played.

 

[theonecookie]

Honestly, have none of you ever read a science fiction story?

I... don't understand why there's such a fuss. The ending made perfect sense to me. Everything the child says adds up to everything that's happened. Now, I didn't get all war assets and as such my ending is probably not as optimistic as the 'best' one. I hear there's even one where Shepard lives. In my ending, the Reapers are destroyed (and by proxy every synthetic). Shepard dies as well. Of course the relays are destroyed and pretty much everyone is fucked. But only for a while. My Shepard's sacrifice has given the galaxy a new chance.

No, the galaxy's sacrifice has done that. That's what I got from my ending. And sacrificing things has been a theme since the very first game.

The whole game has a depressing tone, mixed in with little happy moments. From the get-go, the entire galaxy is under direct attack and everything around Shepard is falling apart. This is really the end. To suddenly have everyting work out at the end, that would be a complete betrayal of everything that happened before.

There is no sudden move into 'MAGIC' territory, as some claim. The Child is obviously an AI of sort and chooses this form to be recognizable for Shepard. It's not a 'MAGIC SPACE CHILD HURRR'. Please.

The Child speaks of 'we'. That implies the first Reapers who decided upon the idea of the cycles. The idea of Reapers as almost almighty beings is not new. Now that Shepard and the rest of the galaxy (very important that part) have broken through that cycle, it clearly doesn't work anymore. That's what the Child literally says. So there has to be a new start. And yes, that can only be done by almost dooming the current galaxy.

But to see so many people disillusioned must mean they haven't made all this clear enough to most people. That is a fail on Bioware, and should be recognized as such. But the claims of this ending making absolutely no sense are just wrong. It's probably just disappointment venting. Take a step back, think about it a little. I will admit I had hoped for a more happy ending as well, but that would just be completely contradictory to the tone of the whole game.

A lot of people will probably still rage and say the ending sucks, but what can you do. I don't think there's any way Bioware could've done this that wouldn't have incurred the wrath of the gaming community. Happy/bittersweet ending? I get why you want it, but as I tried to explain I don't think that would've been any 'better'.

Your joking right you missed out the whole reason people are mad its not that the endings are bad its that its so full of holes it looks like cheese

Right lets just look a few

The crucible: why does this thing exist its suggested that its reaper tech but why would they leave plans for it the only thing i can think of is that the end goal was to merge organic and inorganic life and if that's true why bother with the fucking cycle

and don't even get me started on how the crucible is nothing more than a magic wand that does things just cause , shepard may as well have read from the codex of the nine divines for all the sense it made

The reapers: this is another thing why are they doing what there doing they wipe out advanced civilizations to stop them from being ....wiped ..out wait what because that makes sense why not just wipe out machines , and for that mater why bother with turning people into reapers why not harvest a hundred vials of blood and build more robots

Magic moon child: seriously whats is with this, ok so its a reaper but why is it helping you sure the cycles failed but its only failed because they let it fail why start helping now just leave shepard to bleed out below and continue the cycle

This is the main reason the ending sucks it relies on space magic and the reapers letting you win for some reason basically it feels unfinished and its poorly written and the whole thing would be better if shepard just bleed out flailing at the console

 

[Nimcha]

Honestly, have none of you ever read a science fiction story?

I... don't understand why there's such a fuss. The ending made perfect sense to me. Everything the child says adds up to everything that's happened. Now, I didn't get all war assets and as such my ending is probably not as optimistic as the 'best' one. I hear there's even one where Shepard lives. In my ending, the Reapers are destroyed (and by proxy every synthetic). Shepard dies as well. Of course the relays are destroyed and pretty much everyone is fucked. But only for a while. My Shepard's sacrifice has given the galaxy a new chance.

No, the galaxy's sacrifice has done that. That's what I got from my ending. And sacrificing things has been a theme since the very first game.

The whole game has a depressing tone, mixed in with little happy moments. From the get-go, the entire galaxy is under direct attack and everything around Shepard is falling apart. This is really the end. To suddenly have everyting work out at the end, that would be a complete betrayal of everything that happened before.

There is no sudden move into 'MAGIC' territory, as some claim. The Child is obviously an AI of sort and chooses this form to be recognizable for Shepard. It's not a 'MAGIC SPACE CHILD HURRR'. Please.

The Child speaks of 'we'. That implies the first Reapers who decided upon the idea of the cycles. The idea of Reapers as almost almighty beings is not new. Now that Shepard and the rest of the galaxy (very important that part) have broken through that cycle, it clearly doesn't work anymore. That's what the Child literally says. So there has to be a new start. And yes, that can only be done by almost dooming the current galaxy.

But to see so many people disillusioned must mean they haven't made all this clear enough to most people. That is a fail on Bioware, and should be recognized as such. But the claims of this ending making absolutely no sense are just wrong. It's probably just disappointment venting. Take a step back, think about it a little. I will admit I had hoped for a more happy ending as well, but that would just be completely contradictory to the tone of the whole game.

A lot of people will probably still rage and say the ending sucks, but what can you do. I don't think there's any way Bioware could've done this that wouldn't have incurred the wrath of the gaming community. Happy/bittersweet ending? I get why you want it, but as I tried to explain I don't think that would've been any 'better'.

Your joking right you missed out the whole reason people are mad its not that the endings are bad its that its so full of holes it looks like cheese

Right lets just look a few

The crucible: why does this thing exist its suggested that its reaper tech but why would they leave plans for it the only thing i can think of is that the end goal was to merge organic and inorganic life and if that's true why bother with the fucking cycle

and don't even get me started on how the crucible is nothing more than a magic wand that does things just cause , shepard may as well have read from the codex of the nine divines for all the sense it made

The reapers: this is another thing why are they doing what there doing they wipe out advanced civilizations to stop them from being ....wiped ..out wait what because that makes sense why not just wipe out machines , and for that mater why bother with turning people into reapers why not harvest a hundred vials of blood and build more robots

Magic moon child: seriously whats is with this, ok so its a reaper but why is it helping you sure the cycles failed but its only failed because they let it fail why start helping now just leave shepard to bleed out below and continue the cycle

This is the main reason the ending sucks it relies on space magic and the reapers letting you win for some reason basically it feels unfinished and its poorly written and the whole thing would be better if shepard just bleed out flailing at the console

Oh, wow. I don't even know where to begin. First, did you even read my post? Second, did you even play the game?

The Child literally explains everything you ask. The point is to wipe out advanced civilizations. To stop the synthetics eventually wiping out everything.

It just literally says that! Word for word. If you have already forgotten that, how can I even take your post seriously? Just pay more attention to what happens, please.

 

[Sp3ratus]

But the claims of this ending making absolutely no sense are just wrong. It's probably just disappointment venting. Take a step back, think about it a little. I will admit I had hoped for a more happy ending as well, but that would just be completely contradictory to the tone of the whole game.

A lot of people will probably still rage and say the ending sucks, but what can you do. I don't think there's any way Bioware could've done this that wouldn't have incurred the wrath of the gaming community. Happy/bittersweet ending? I get why you want it, but as I tried to explain I don't think that would've been any 'better'.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. A lot of it is probably disappointment, due to it not panning out anywhere near what people had hoped for. I must say, I did take a step back and been thinking about it, since I completed the game yesterday and combined with what you just wrote it does make sense. I think my initial negative reaction to the ending came from the shock of how it did indeed end. But props to the writers, both for making me care so much both for my Shep but also for my crewmates, former and current and the galaxy at large. And also props for actually going through with an ending like this. I hope they stick to their guns and don't release an alternate DLC ending as the BSN so craves(among others).

I also agree that there's no way Bioware could've pulled off an ending to please everyone, but I think this is the ending the trilogy deserved. The ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate reward; being rid of the Reapers. The more I think about it, the more I actually like it. I still don't like the Normandy bit though.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Your joking right you missed out the whole reason people are mad its not that the endings are bad its that its so full of holes it looks like cheese

Right lets just look a few

The crucible: why does this thing exist its suggested that its reaper tech but why would they leave plans for it the only thing i can think of is that the end goal was to merge organic and inorganic life and if that's true why bother with the fucking cycle

and don't even get me started on how the crucible is nothing more than a magic wand that does things just cause , shepard may as well have read from the codex of the nine divines for all the sense it made

The reapers: this is another thing why are they doing what there doing they wipe out advanced civilizations to stop them from being ....wiped ..out wait what because that makes sense why not just wipe out machines , and for that mater why bother with turning people into reapers why not harvest a hundred vials of blood and build more robots

Magic moon child: seriously whats is with this, ok so its a reaper but why is it helping you sure the cycles failed but its only failed because they let it fail why start helping now just leave shepard to bleed out below and continue the cycle

This is the main reason the ending sucks it relies on space magic and the reapers letting you win for some reason basically it feels unfinished and its poorly written and the whole thing would be better if shepard just bleed out flailing at the console

1. Because the reapers couldn't make that choice for the other species it had to be made by them. Beyond they state IN THE GAME that the Catalyst itself couldnt do that by himself due to the way the thing was designed.

2.It isn't magic, that is just plain hyperbole.

3.If you cant understand the difference between destroying out ONLY TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED life to prevent the destruction of ALL future life, and the wholesale destruction of all life permanently then you must not have been paying attention.

Because it is easier to harvest already living life then taking blood cloning more people and then harvesting them anyways.

4. It is an AI taking the form of something that Shepards mind can understand, much like the anceints from stargate or the Q from star trek they exist beyond forms.

Secondly The Reapers want to preserve life in the galaxy, Shepard being there gives them options they didnt have before and a possible way to end the cycle, which they never really WANTED to have to do in the first place. It is obvious why he would help Shepard

 

[theonecookie]

Of course I played the game the reapers where protecting less advanced civilizations by wiping out more advanced ones But why. why wipe out life when you can you can just wipe out the machines in fact why not just merge life and machine like they so obviously wanted and had the tech to do

Your joking right you missed out the whole reason people are mad its not that the endings are bad its that its so full of holes it looks like cheese

Right lets just look a few

The crucible: why does this thing exist its suggested that its reaper tech but why would they leave plans for it the only thing i can think of is that the end goal was to merge organic and inorganic life and if that's true why bother with the fucking cycle

and don't even get me started on how the crucible is nothing more than a magic wand that does things just cause , shepard may as well have read from the codex of the nine divines for all the sense it made

The reapers: this is another thing why are they doing what there doing they wipe out advanced civilizations to stop them from being ....wiped ..out wait what because that makes sense why not just wipe out machines , and for that mater why bother with turning people into reapers why not harvest a hundred vials of blood and build more robots

Magic moon child: seriously whats is with this, ok so its a reaper but why is it helping you sure the cycles failed but its only failed because they let it fail why start helping now just leave shepard to bleed out below and continue the cycle

This is the main reason the ending sucks it relies on space magic and the reapers letting you win for some reason basically it feels unfinished and its poorly written and the whole thing would be better if shepard just bleed out flailing at the console

1. Because the reapers couldn't make that choice for the other species it had to be made by them. Beyond they state IN THE GAME that the Catalyst itself couldnt do that by himself due to the way the thing was designed.

2.It isn't magic, that is just plain hyperbole.

3.If you cant understand the difference between destroying out ONLY TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED life to prevent the destruction of ALL future life, and the wholesale destruction of all life permanently then you must not have been paying attention.

Because it is easier to harvest already living life then taking blood cloning more people and then harvesting them anyways.

4. It is an AI taking the form of something that Shepards mind can understand, much like the anceints from stargate or the Q from star trek they exist beyond forms.

Secondly The Reapers want to preserve life in the galaxy, Shepard being there gives them options they didnt have before and a possible way to end the cycle, which they never really WANTED to have to do in the first place. It is obvious why he would help Shepard

1 why was it designed that way why bother wiping out all life when you can just build the machine to combine organic and inorganic life it was designed by the reapers and it took the alliance about a month to build

2 no it is magic everything else is explained in some depth the crucible on the other hand is a magic space wand

3 again why bother just build the magic problem solver and that's not what i was on about the reapers where over designed blood banks whats was the need to create machine people hybrids

4 again this makes no sense why not just build the maguffin and be done with it and why try and stop the humans from using it if machine hybrids are your end goal

 

[jason27131]

Biggest plothole.

Reapers wipe out advance races so synthetics won't destroy them in the first place.

Hello geth and EDI. Only reason Geth took the home planet is because the quarians decided to be a bunch of pricks and kill them for being sentient. Then the geth wanted peace, but the quarians were like fuck no. If you actually remember the data stream part of the game, the flashbacks show that the war was quarian's fault rather than geth, and the geth NEVER tried to wipe the quarians out.

 

[TheFPSisDead]

Ok I'll man up and admit it.  I thought that ME3 was an excellent game, the combat was fun, the characters were excellently written, the content massive and enjoyable and I actually cried when Mordin died.  I was having the time of my life.  Then I read the spoilers for the ending...wow.  Really?  No matter what you do the galaxy is royally screwed over.  I wouldn't mind a bittersweet ending but it doesn't really feel bittersweet, in the very best one, Shepard is all alone, the Mass Relays are offline, all synthetics are dead and the Normandy is stranded in the middle of no where.  That's not bittersweet, that's a Phyrric Victory.

It's sad really, the writting in the rest of the game was the best yet, and then this came out of nowhere.  What happened Bioware?  Couldn't you give me a bittersweet ending that actually had some sweetness to it?  Couldn't you at least have had Shepard with the rest of the Normandy on that planet showing that they were living happily?  I used to be on your side.

I haven't played it yet so maybe it's executted very well, but I'm just not a fan of downer endings.  My only hope is that Bioware goes the way of Fallout 3 and releases a much more satisfing ending.  But there's a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

How did this happen? Seriously, this is the ONLY complaint I have about this game, I thought that the rest of it was perfection, but this destroyed everything. HOW COULD THEY THINK THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEFINITIVE HAPPY ENDING THAT THEY PROMISED US!?

"Sigh" great, now I feel depressed, I'm gonna go watch some My Little Pony to cheer myself up

EDIT: I thought that this would be appropriate

http://www.bethsoft.com/images/games/games_fallout3feature2.jpg

Speaking of which, show of hands, anyone else know if Bioware will actually try to make a Broken Steel for ME3?

Reapers are trying to destroy the galaxy. Why the fuck would there be a happy ending??

I don't think the holocaust ended happily for the jews... this is kind of the same scenario.

 

[Korten12]

You don't HAVE to play multi to get the "full" ending, it's just an alternative. Nah you just have to go around and do all the side-quests and get all of the crap in the galaxy using scan (don't remember what it's called, who cares).

I had like 2 or 3 sidequests I didn't get because I didn't know where to get them from. Hmm. If you're certain, then I'll do that on my 2nd playthrough.

What Multiplayer does it get up the Galaxy Readiness bar which essentially makes it so you need to get less Military strength in the SP. But getting the MS up is really easy.