Mass Effect 3 ending SPOILERS!

[KingofMadCows]

Yeah, guys, I have to agree with the people defending the endings. While not what most people were expecting, the endings were kind of perfect in their own way. It shows that the galaxy is once and for all free to rebuild, restart, free of the Reapers influence. And as the cutscene with the stargazers showed, civilization did continue, they did rebuild, and they're starting space travel on their own, without the tech left behind by the Reapers.

I understand the disappointment and rage though. It all stems from this: it's because there were no epilogues, no explanation as to what happened to all those characters that you spent so much time getting to know and love. And I am disappointed with this as well, but you just have to sit back and hope BioWare releases some sort of patch or DLC that gives epilogues for everyone.

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

 

[feeqmatic]

1. As the catalyst mentions when Shepard gets there it cannot do the things Shepard can or enact the choices that Shepard can make.

The Catalyst was limited in options and as it stood destroying the relays would have left the galaxy in such a state that a race could develop synthetic life, which could then eventually make its own Mass Relay like system and spread across the galaxy destroying all organic life.

The relays were necessary because
1. They forced organic civilization down a predictable path which made the easy to control and kill
2. It allowed the reapers a significantly easier time at destroying civilization faster so that they couldn't make synthetic life
3. Keeping the relays up meant The reapers had full control of them instead of letting the races build their own relay system which the Reapers may not have the same ability to turn on and off as they can with their own.
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2. One of the biggest points of the series was self-sacrifice. Shepard died to free the galaxy from the cycle, Mordin may die in curing the genophage freeing the Korgan from countless more deaths Legion may die uniting the Geth and Quarrians ending a long and needless war. All of their deaths helped save so many people.

Beyond that while, yes, they will have to struggle, they can now make their own path, and go their own way. How is being able to do what YOU want insted of what someone else set out for you not a good ending?
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3. I guess the Q from Star Trek, and The Ancients from Stargate, are all Deus Ex Machinas also?

Just because a race has technology so far beyond us we don't understand it =/= it is a Deus ex Mahinca. This is a sci-fi series were people use dark energy to lift object in the air, this is a sci-fi series were there is an entire race of females who propgate by doing a vulcan mind meld.

If the star child is really irking you this much how did you stand the rest of the series?

As for The Normady, they specifically mention that they plan to help the Sword team, which is the space armada team, explaining why they are in space, and the cutscene shows them going into the relay trying to escape the giant beam of death coming out of the Citadel.
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4. How is it not appropriate?
-The Reapers were destroyed/merged/controlled
-The civilizations of the galaxy are freed from continued technological and societal enslavement
-You crew survives and made a colony
-The stargazers showed that civilization will go on regardless of the lack of relays
It gives considerable hope for a future made by each species and not some predetermined one set upon them by being who only wish to destroy them.

Ok... thanks for responding but i still have to disagree with you on a lot of levels.

1- Why? Why is it possible that the catlyst can through "space magic" merge all synthetic and organic life but not on its own come to the conclusion that destroying the relays was the best way to accomplish its goal. That is really weak writing. Why would it be ok with killing trillions of lives for the sake of "order" but not allowing said lives to seek their own destiny by removing the reaper interference.

Furthermore, how does destroying the relays further its goal? I mean what is stopping people from eventually creating their own relays (which they hint at trying to do anyway) If he is trying to prevent the inevitable why would he allow shepard to reset the cycle when it is still going to end up at the place of "chaos" except now without the reaper oversight. By keeping the relays around the reapers are creating their own self fufilling prophecy. It doesnt make sense.

2- Sacrifice i give you. I was sad when Mordin and legion died, but their sacrifices mean much less given that the end results were rendered highly moot by the destruction of the galactic community. Now all of the sacrifices seem bland and pointlessly melodramatic in the face of the end result. Furthermore they dont present the ending events as sacrafices but as the idea for new beginnings. YOU are interpreting sacrafice based on your want to make sense of things, but in the end where you see Garrus, or Tali or a bunch of other getting out on a garden planet he is clearly smiling not wondering where he will get the proper food to feed himself. There is clearly no explanation of how the Quarian fleet will make it home on the OTHER SIDE OF THE GALAXY after finally liberating it. These are just a few parts that are not sacrifices but holes in the plot. Now if this were just one of the endings then it would be cool but ALL of the endings lead to a variation of this situation. And again, my point is that they gave the player all of these option that are traditionally supposed to lead to a good ending, and EVERY OTHER BIOWARE GAME has the same mechanics where the choices you make lead to logical and clear results based on the players desires, but this time they chose to stick solely with the authors vision. This is not how you tell an interactive "choose your own adventure" story. This will not led to multiple play throughs in order to see what happens as in DAO, KOTOR, ME2, and countless other non bioware games like Infamous. They knew what the players would want and instead of giving them variety they gave them what they wanted for us. Not cool.

3- I am not truly abreast of Star Trek and I know Jack about Star gate, but if Q and the Ancients were used as last minute plot developments to explain something with major build in a long running story with absolutely no preparation, hint, or indication that they existed until the last moment then yes they are Deus Ex Machina. The kid is a Deus Ex Machina. There is no indication where he came from, his motives are illogical, and his powers are unexplained. Again i wouldnt even care if the players choices still mattered despite the Deus Ex Machina, but using a plot hole to pidgeonhole a stories ending into bitter sweet is even more infuriating.

Furthermore, before the battle every single one of my team mates is on earth how did they manage to get into the ship after the reaper battle really started. why would they do this? Why are some people stating that some of the same people on their squad that seeming got blasted by the reaper lazer also managed to get onto the ship no more than 10 min later in the middle of this huge galactic fight. Also, why/how could they have possible gotten to the relay in such a short period of time. The Relay is behind pluto, I dont know how fast the Normandy goes but they would have had to fly out of battle, pick up at least 3 crew mates, fly back through the battle and fly to pluto to hit the relay in a matter of 10-20 min right after I get beamed up to citadel. Sorry you gotta admit that is outright nonsense.

4- It is not befitting of the aftermath of an epic trilogy. This is just a matter of opinion, but for me it was very much a let down considering the ending to the first two and and the ability to get some ending dialogue.


Which brings me to another point. It destroyed the mass effect universe. The only thing they can make in this games universe are prequels which considering the end result really wouldnt garner much attention from me and plenty of other gamers. They would have to greatly change the games ideology because there is no point in choice if the things you choose all lead to the same result.

 

[SajuukKhar]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

 

[theonecookie]

This is how I wished it had ending. Well not exactly but imo better then the actual ending.

I'm surprised so many people are annoyed with the destruction of the Mass Relays, the destruction really is a good thing. From a story telling point and logically. It keeps post war, conquering of other species by races that were not as hard hit in the reapers invasion from occurring.

With the destruction of the relays each race has maybe a century or more (my guesstimate) to recover from the invasion.

Well i guess we can agree on one thing.

Personally I would have had the relays feed the crucible not the other way around and then have it go off like a bomb destroying the earth the reapers and the fleets you had assembled

Personally I think it hits all the bases for a good renegade ending not too sure how it would work for paragon though

 

[synobal]

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

I personally find it amusing that people keep throwing around the word 'magic' like it is some how a valid argument to what happened at the end of ME3

Check out Clarke's 3 laws [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws] specifically the third one and finally take a look at the man whose those laws are named after.

Mass Effect didn't preform some sort of genre breaking feat when they came up with the synthesis ending. It is completely valid and its insulting to keep saying 'magic energy' seriously.

 

[Deathninja19]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Hey don't accuse people of ignoring something, I'm still waiting for your explanation about why the Reapers don't use non-violent ways to invade.

 

[synobal]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Hey don't accuse people of ignoring something, I'm still waiting for your explanation about why the Reapers don't use non-violent ways to invade.

Nonviolent invasion, heh that is kinda funny. Also hippy reapers don't make for good story telling.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

-You crew survives and made a colony

I feel I need to chime in here, because that is really the most horrible implication of the whole ending.

How many crew members does a ship the size of the Normandy have? You could be very generous and say about 25 (and I think that is really stretching it), and even then it wouldn't matter in the long run. You simply wouldn't have enough genetic material to keep a diverse population for more than a few generations, eventually leading to extensive inbreeding. And considering the loss of FTL, this could go on for centuries.

But that is just the long run consequences, because what about Joker and his disease? I can't imagine him lasting long in a small society with limited resources. And what about Tali and Garrus who aren't able to eat the same food as humans? Are they just going to starve slowly to death? What about the homosexual crew members who will probably be forced to procreate against their sexuality?

All of these implications are one of the main reasons why many people doesn't like this ending. The fact that they happen to involve some of the characters that the players have grown attached to over the years just amplifies this feeling.

 

[feeqmatic]

I personally find it amusing that people keep throwing around the word 'magic' like it is some how a valid argument to what happened at the end of ME3

Check out Clarke's 3 laws [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws] specifically the third one and finally take a look at the man whose those laws are named after.

Mass Effect didn't preform some sort of genre breaking feat when they came up with the synthesis ending. It is completely valid and its insulting to keep saying 'magic energy' seriously.

they are calling it "magic" because it is brand new in the world of ME at the very last minute. We should have know something was up when we were building a weapon of which we knew nothing about, but for it to work the way it did was magical in the sense that it was an instant fix to the wall the writers hit at the end of the story. Personally i dont mind it too much if it werent being used to shoehorn the same 3 endings. It is becuase the ending left so many unsatisfied that they are now breakind down so many parts of it.

 

[eventhorizon525]

I personally find it amusing that people keep throwing around the word 'magic' like it is some how a valid argument to what happened at the end of ME3

Check out Clarke's 3 laws [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws] specifically the third one and finally take a look at the man whose those laws are named after.

Mass Effect didn't preform some sort of genre breaking feat when they came up with the synthesis ending. It is completely valid and its insulting to keep saying 'magic energy' seriously.

The reason (I expect) why people keep using that word for what happened, is that the Mass Effect series had a very good track record of giving an explanation for why everything worked the way it did, even if it was hand-wavy. The crucible doesn't (understandably prior to running into the Citadel-AI), but neither does why that energy can do what it does. Even the most odd parts of indoctrination and stuff like that Bioware offered an explanation for, then had the conclusion use an unexplained device that generated vast sums of energy to be able to do 3 different things based on what Shepard does. Thus it comes off as a lot more "magicy" then the rest.

 

[wicket42]

You know what would have made sense?

The Reapers create a spider's web of mass relays across the galaxy, designed to allow organics to propogate themselves across the stars, down the paths created for them, until they reach a population size vast enough for the reapers to emerge from their hibernation and feed on organic life to sustain their own organic/synthetic hybrid existence; they leave less advanced civilisations alone so that the galaxy is a sustainable resource.

Not some shoehorned in bullshit about order and chaos, magic space wands converting organics into borg out of thin fucking air...

Look, what is the reason for the Reaper Cycle?

The Catalyst says that, once created, synthetic life immediately outstrips organic life and will destroy all organic life in the galaxy.

But it is synthetic life (The Catalyst/The Reapers) that is sustaining organic life in the universe via this cycle.

The fact that this solution (the cycles) to the problem (synthetics killing all organics) is based on synthetics preserving organic life invalidates the original premise, that synthetic life will kill all organic life.

It. Makes. No. Sense.

 

[feeqmatic]

-You crew survives and made a colony

I feel I need to chime in here, because that is really the most horrible implication of the whole ending.

How many crew members does a ship the size of the Normandy have? You could be very generous and say about 25 (and I think that is really stretching it), and even then it wouldn't matter in the long run. You simply wouldn't have enough genetic material to keep a diverse population for more than a few generations, eventually leading to extensive inbreeding. And considering the loss of FTL, this could go on for centuries.

But that is just the long run consequences, because what about Joker and his disease? I can't imagine him lasting long in a small society with limited resources. And what about Tali and Garrus who aren't able to eat the same food as humans? Are they just going to starve slowly to death? What about the homosexual crew members who will probably be forced to procreate against their sexuality?

All of these implications are one of the main reasons why many people doesn't like this ending. The fact that they happen to involve some of the characters that the players have grown attached to over the years just amplifies this feeling.

lets watch as the "ending was good" people instantly jump to explain these issues...


(sarcasm)

 

[synobal]

-You crew survives and made a colony

I feel I need to chime in here, because that is really the most horrible implication of the whole ending.

How many crew members does a ship the size of the Normandy have? You could be very generous and say about 25 (and I think that is really stretching it), and even then it wouldn't matter in the long run. You simply wouldn't have enough genetic material to keep a diverse population for more than a few generations, eventually leading to extensive inbreeding. And considering the loss of FTL, this could go on for centuries.

But that is just the long run consequences, because what about Joker and his disease? I can't imagine him lasting long in a small society with limited resources. And what about Tali and Garrus who aren't able to eat the same food as humans? Are they just going to starve slowly to death? What about the homosexual crew members who will probably be forced to procreate against their sexuality?

All of these implications are one of the main reasons why many people doesn't like this ending. The fact that they happen to involve some of the characters that the players have grown attached to over the years just amplifies this feeling.

Ya I kinda disagree with the whole 'your crew survives and makes a colony. We know they landed (some what roughly) on a planet. We don't know if they stay there, after all the Normandy appears to be mostly intact. I sort of doubt they made a colony there, unless a large portion of the fleet that was fleeing the blast also landed there and there was some reason to say, or they just couldn't leave.

Nor do we know if the planet was uninhabited either. Maybe they landed on a planet with an asari colony

lets watch as the "ending was good" people instantly jump to explain these issues...


(sarcasm)

I'd like to think I just did.

 

[Deathninja19]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Hey don't accuse people of ignoring something, I'm still waiting for your explanation about why the Reapers don't use non-violent ways to invade.

Nonviolent invasion, heh that is kinda funny. Also hippy reapers don't make for good story telling.

More than one way to skin a cat my man, why damage what you are trying to save it goes against the point of trying to 'protect' sentient life.

And no it does make good storytelling, it makes a bad action game but it's fine storytelling. Actually I take it back it made a good game called Mass Effect 2 where the Collectors and, through proxy, the Reapers were using non-violent means to kidnapp colonists. Why not do that again, sure the stasis bugs were neutralised but the Reapers could have easilly come up with a new non-violent way.

 

[synobal]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Hey don't accuse people of ignoring something, I'm still waiting for your explanation about why the Reapers don't use non-violent ways to invade.

Nonviolent invasion, heh that is kinda funny. Also hippy reapers don't make for good story telling.

More than one way to skin a cat my man, why damage what you are trying to save it goes against the point of trying to 'protect' sentient life.

And no it does make good storytelling, it makes a bad action game but it's fine storytelling. Actually I take it back it made a good game called Mass Effect 2 where the Collectors and, through proxy, the Reapers were using non-violent means to kidnapp colonists. Why not do that again, sure the stasis bugs were neutralised but the Reapers could have easilly come up with a new non-violent way.

It wasn't nonviolent, they turned those people into sludge of some sort, and maybe you missed those piles of corpses in the collector ships too.

You harvest with a scythe and trust me they were harvesting.

 

[KingofMadCows]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Every Mass Relay has a massive Eezo core, that's how they work.

As for relays using up all their energy for the pulse waves, there's a little something called the conservation of energy. It's already established that the destruction of a Mass Relay unleashes enough energy to destroy a solar system and that's how much energy was at work there. It doesn't matter if you change it into a different form of energy.

 

[Hypermini]

i dont think the destory ending is as bad as people are making it out to be, yeah all the mass effect relays are destoryed but that doesnt mean galactic civilisation has regressed 50,000 years to the stone age like usual in the cycle. The protheans even managed to make their own mass relay on eden prime within their alotted 50,000 years. Given the tech you see in the normandy and from the other civilisations they too probably arent far off achieving this. id also bet even though the fleets maybe stranded a while i cant imagine thats permenant. So with breaking the cycle and the reliance on reaper tech; the probablity the damage to the galactic infrastructure is merely temporary and that you can potencially have you and squad mates survive id say thats pretty happy consindering the galxay was doomed at the start of the game!

i guess the real issue is closure, people want concrete evidence of what i said or the true long term implications of your desision and that really just could have been a cut scene, a voice over or even just some text like at the end of dragon age origins. An extra bit of DLC set a couple of years later mopping the remnants of the mess whilst having a character even just in passing mention saying 'have you been to the turian built relay?/ the councils new building project' or something to that effect about how your squad mates have done since would solve this and given the message bioware gives you at the end 'further his legend by playing DLC' i'd say its likely, bit naughty we have to pay for it though.

 

[SajuukKhar]

snip

1. The Catalyst doesn't use "space magic" to enact whatever choice you picked, Shepard does. Furthermore the Catalyst was an AI built within the limitations of The Reapers who, at the time of its creation, didn't know how, or simply couldn't, merge Organics with synthetics and thus built The Catalyst to do what they knew worked.

Secondly destroying the relays doesn't further its goal, but then again it didn't destroy the relays, Shepard did. As the Catalyst pointed out the fact Shepard was able to reach it shows that the cycle as it has been will not work anymore, and so gave the decision to of what to do to the person who proved himself above the cycle and thus his better.

The destruction of the relays was not intentional, it was a side affect of the necessary expenditure of energy to enacting whatever choice Shepard picked.

Why you keep implying the Catalyst is enacting the 3 endings when it is Shepard doing it is beyond me. Also why you cant understand that a computer can't go beyond its programming without help is also beyond me. It strikes me as you didn't pay much attention to what happened.
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2. Except that your decision are not rendered moot by galactic civilization getting destroyed.
1. The Korgrans don't suddenly become re-infected, or unaffected, with the genophage
2. The Rachnai don't just come back to life or die
3. The geth and Quarrains don't suddenly come back to life/die/make peace/ stay fighting
by destroying the relays.

Just because the Krgans don't rampage across the galaxy with their new numbers, the Rachnai don't invade again, and the quarrians/Geth start fighting again doesn't mean the things you did to them wont be remembered or still have an affect.

Beyond that the fleet wouldn't need to make it back as most of the people are on the homeworld already, as needing a place to leave their civilians was the entire point of them not wanting to help fight the reapers in ME2, why you assume that they had their entire civilization on the fleet at the time is beyond me.

Thirdly as has been pointed out countless times before the big choices, the ones that would have an affect in the long run, still play out even with the destruction of the mass relays, just because they don't give you a pop-up saying what happened to the quarrians doesn't mean nothing happened.
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3. It isn't a last minute development, the Mass Relays were stated several times in the series to have the biggest element zero cores and the biggest power producers in the galaxy, their ability to enact a giant pulse wave is far from dues ex machina.

Also how is there no indication on where he came from? he was built by whoever built The Reapers and/or whatever race became the first reapers. That is a understood.

Thirdly we don't know how much time the conversation between Shepard and the Catalyst takes. He could have been there for an hour for all we know. beyond that the Normandy can make it in and out of a system in less then 30 minutes, spaceships do move REALLY fast.

The Normandy was able to use a relay, move close to a planet while avoiding Geth ships, drop Shepard off, and get back to Earth in less then a hours time in ME1. getting to pluto in 30mintus isn't anywhere that illogical.
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4. What are the standards for an ending that befits a trilogy? ohh wait there isnt any, its solely a subjective decision.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Every Mass Relay has a massive Eezo core, that's how they work.

As for relays using up all their energy for the pulse waves, there's a little something called the conservation of energy. It's already established that the destruction of a Mass Relay unleashes enough energy to destroy a solar system and that's how much energy was at work there. It doesn't matter if you change it into a different form of energy.

And it was established at the end of ME3 that it requires ALL the energy of ALL the mass relays to get this thing to work.

The energy of the element zero core is drained 100% to make the pulse, and to send the beam to the next relay so it can do it also.

No energy has vanished, it has been converted into the pulse wave that enacts the choice, and thus there is no energy left in the actual relay to cause a supernova.

 

[Deathninja19]

But the ending contradicts what happened in "The Arrival" DLC. The destruction of the Mass Relay in "The Arrival" unleashed enough power to destroy a solar system. If all the Mass Relays are destroyed, then every solar system with a Mass Relay is also destroyed.

Also, the synthesis ending makes no sense even with Mass Effect's magic science. How does the radiation magically rewrite everyone's DNA to contain synthetic components without killing them?

The good parts of ME3 are great but bad parts of ME3 reminds me of a lot of the dumbest stuff in Star Trek. The way they wussified the Reapers is a lot like what Voyager did to the Borg. They built them into this massive unstoppable force but had no idea how the heroes were going to beat them so they dropped their IQ by about 90%. The whole synthesis ending reminds me a lot of terrible episodes like "Genesis" and "Threshold" where the "science" part of "science fiction" is screwed up to such an unbelievable extent.

The Mass Relay in Arrival had a fully working element zero core, the relays at the end of Mass Effect 3 had used up all their energy with their pulse waves that enact whatever choice you made.

why do people constantly ignore the glaring difference?

Hey don't accuse people of ignoring something, I'm still waiting for your explanation about why the Reapers don't use non-violent ways to invade.

Nonviolent invasion, heh that is kinda funny. Also hippy reapers don't make for good story telling.

More than one way to skin a cat my man, why damage what you are trying to save it goes against the point of trying to 'protect' sentient life.

And no it does make good storytelling, it makes a bad action game but it's fine storytelling. Actually I take it back it made a good game called Mass Effect 2 where the Collectors and, through proxy, the Reapers were using non-violent means to kidnapp colonists. Why not do that again, sure the stasis bugs were neutralised but the Reapers could have easilly come up with a new non-violent way.

It wasn't nonviolent, they turned those people into sludge of some sort, and maybe you missed those piles of corpses in the collector ships too.

You harvest with a scythe and trust me they were harvesting.

Non-violent means I mean, look they are trying to turn sentient life in to that sludge to preserve it, which is stupid but whatever, so why kill these things that you are turning in to sludge if you want to preserve it. You could say you can't make an omlet without breaking a few eggs but the way the Reapers act there won't be any eggs left.

The Reapers just don't make sense, it was Bioware trying to do a unique spin without thinking about the logic behind the Reapers actions in ME1 and ME2. You can't look at those 2 games and say Bioware had planned the Reaper's origins from the begining, it stinks of retcon and because of poor planning the whole series starts to peel away everytime you try to analyse it. I don't care how the game ended I just care about how little the Reapers make sense.