Mass Effect 3: The Process

[Starke]

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler: Do Not read this if you don't want the ending spoiled

Spoiler: I warned you

After disposing of the Illusive Man and activating the Crucible, Shepherd collapses onto a segment of the ground, which glows bright white and turns into an elevator that takes him to the top of the Citadel/Crucible link.

There he meets 'The Catalyst/Starchild', a ghostly glowing blue effigy of the little boy he saw die on Earth. The Little Boy informs him that he controls the Reapers, and that they were his solution to 'chaos'. He explains to Shepherd that war between Synthetics and Organics is and always will be inevitable, so the little boy created the Reapers - every 50,000 years, the Reapers fly through the galaxy and harvest advanced civilizations to convert into more reapers while sparing the less advanced, giving space for new life to grow and sparing all organic life genocide at the hands of the Synthetics they make ('The created will always turn on their creator'). He then, depending on your War Assets #, presents Shepherd three options.

Control the Reapers, which the Illusive man tried to do but failed because he was already indoctrinated, destroy the reapers and -all- Synthetic life (including the Geth) in the Galaxy simultaneously, or achieve 'Synthesis', that is combine all organic and Synthetic life into a new form. Three paths open, depending which path you take you get that ending - in reality the ending video's are all the same, the only thing that changes is the color of the light that shoots out of the citadel and into the mass relays.

Via this colored space magic, the desired effects are achieved, and all the mass relays are destroyed, whichever ending you choose. At the end, you see Joker fleeing the colored space magic in the Normandy, but it overtakes him and he crash lands on a jungle world and a few members of your crew step out of the wrecked ship.

Depending on your war assets, you may receive 2 additional vignettes. One is an old man talking to his grandson about Space on a snowy world, revealing that 'The Shepherd' was a story he was telling his grandchild. Another is a brief snippit of a slagged N7 breastplate (assumed to be shepherds) surrounded by rubble, suddenly drawing in breath with a gasp. The latter video of 'Shepherd' 'living' is only viewable if you had 5000+ warassets and chose 'destroy the reapers'. Then it shoots you back to the place in the game right before you launch the Point Of No Return assault with a little message about how Shepherd has become legend and encourages you to purchase DLC.

Also, it might be worth pointing out that the Normandy cut-scene makes no sense, from a continuity standpoint:

Spoiler

The crew of the Normandy, including all of your party members were planet side before, and the two you take with you for the final push are both vaporized. In that context, it's hard to explain why they would, in the middle of a climactic battle: (potentially) rise from their graves, shuttle back up to the Normandy (which at this point, based on player actions, may not even have a shuttle or shuttle pilot anymore), and flee the system.

There are a couple ways you can guarantee you'll be seeing dead crew members in that cut scene by the way.

 

[Starke]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

 

[Starke]

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

Honestly, the Reapers being partially organic wasn't explained until the reveal at the end of ME2.

Spoiler

The Starchild claims that conflict is inevitable between synthetics and organics, that nothing you do can prevent that, and that said conflicts will always be apocalyptic. However, it's entirely possible that the player has already managed to make peace between the quarians and the geth. To say nothing of the fact that the geth deliberately allowed the quarians to escape, or that the quarians effectively forced the geth to rebel through implausible levels of stupidity.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I googled "Mass Effect Garrus Body Pillow". The first result was a Tumblr page.

THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF A GARRUS BODY PILLOW!! STAT!!!

 

[mdk31]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

Jesus Christ, what was so bad about it?

Can someone tell me what the endings are and how they are so horrible? Using spoilers or a PM, of course.

Spoiler

The short version is that right at the very end of the game, as you're getting ready to fire your magical space MaGuffin that will get rid of the Reapers, an elevator drags you up to meet the Catalyst, the intelligence that created the Reapers and started the cycle.

When you meet him, in the guise of a child you see killed by a Reaper very early in the game, you get some expository infodumps. Primarily that he created the Reapers for one purpose: To prevent synthetic life from wiping out organic life, because synthetics will inevitably betray and kill their creators. If this has already thrown up red flags for you, good job.

After that, the Catalyst says that you have three choices. You can either assume control of the Reapers, destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy, or merge all synthetic and organic life in the galaxy.

You then get a cutscene, which plays out exactly the same no matter which option you chose, save for the color of the wave of space-magic that fulfills your choice

The primary problems with it are that A) The reason the Reapers exist at all makes absolutely no sense, and is self-contradictory, B) the lack of proper closure and epilogue, and C) the severe tonal and thematic shift from the rest of the series.

I actually really, really like the endings.

Spoiler

Few games actually make the endings phyric victories like that.

The reasoning is really, really stupid. Assuming ME canon is anywhere near halo in level of size and depth, I expect a mind blowing valid reason will be explained at some point.

The fact the cutsecnes are the same and you don't see the aftermath is also stupid.

Regardless, I'd be pretty happy with the ending, if I were a ME fan.

EDIT:

I get the reason for the reapers not, and how it's not circular logic:

Spoiler

They aren't killing the organic races, they are assimilating them, right? We are still looking at it from the POV of assimilate = kill.

It's like with the flood: They view themselves as the SAVIOR of life, not the end of it

I don't even know what the citadel or a relay is, and I figured that out.

The problem isn't that it's a Pyrrhic victory, that would be fine, and, I agree, something we don't see enough of. The problem is, the conditions that stipulate the three best case options are all predicated on "facts" that the player has quite possibly disproved during the course of the game.

How so?

I thought the fact that the reapers

Spoiler

assimilated life into cyborgs and into other reapers

was covered way back in ME1/2?

An example is the assertion used by the god-child-deus-ex-machina thing that:

Spoiler

synthetic life and organic life can not coexist because the synthetics will always destroy the organics. However, you prove that false if you manage to broker peace between the quarians and geth. The quarians created the geth 3 centuries ago, but if you manage to broker peace, they live together on their homeworld, reunited and (presumably) peaceful.

That's one example. Then there's the continuity problems mentioned above. Also the fact that

Spoiler

destroying the relays is shown in the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2 to sterilize the system the destruction occurs within. In every conclusion to ME3, every single mass relay everywhere is destroyed. So every single system in which a relay exists (almost every home system of major spacefaring species, for instance) has just been utterly destroyed. You cause more damage in the conclusion than the reapers ever could.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I think for most it just stops at the Anger stage.

 

[boag]

How true

Mass Effect 3: The Process

Let the healing begin.

Read Full Article

Freaking brilliant, I am still in the negotiation part, and from all the Twittering the ME PR guy is doing, a DLC is coming.

 

[Yvl9921]

Hah. This is probably the best strip you guys have done since the one of the Battlefield 3 story. Her words are so perfectly chosen in the last two panels.

 

[scorptatious]

A Garrus love pillow?

Garrus is my favorite squad member, but I don't love him that much. XD

As for the endings, yes, they could have been better. But I'm fine with them now. Mass Effect 3 is still a great game and I'm not going to let the game's endings prevent me from enjoying my second playthrough.

 

[Dice Warwick]

It felt too much like Deus Ex Machina at the end. I was expecting, with how the game was moving at that point, for me to have to fight agents Indoctrination before pressing the kill switch. After that we would have been treated to the Reapers being defeated in some awesome way, and Sheppards friends coming to save him in the Normandy. The ending would be a quick overview of the survivors returning home before the Mass relays shut down for for good, and possibly Sheppard being still alive. That would have been cool, but what we got was a Deus Ex Machina ending.

The ending sould have had a lot more involved with your actions through the passed three games, and how awesome Sheppard was.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Hahaha. I haven't played ME3, but last night my brother came out at 11pm bearing Erin's exact expression in panel 5. After he explained the options to me, all I could think was "What, isn't that just a terrible ripoff of Deus Ex's choices?"

Also Grey and Cory, I liked your subtle nod to The Doors and Apocalypse Now.

 

[Erttheking]

Odd that this comic is the first thing on the Escapist to bring it up.

 

[VanTesla]

*sees final panel*

So, hands up. Who thinks Erin needs a therapist?

*Raises hand*

I do too.

I think we all need one after the atrocity we have witness in Mass Effect 3 ending...

 

[Smiley Face]

[Illusive Man]
*smokes cigarette and breaths out slowly*
"Shepard. By now you should be reading this in my voice, which may speed up the process.

Goddamnit, now I have Martin Sheen in my head! (

I believe what you meant to say is "Hell yeah, now I have Martin Sheen in my head!"

Also the fact that

Spoiler

destroying the relays is shown in the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2 to sterilize the system the destruction occurs within. In every conclusion to ME3, every single mass relay everywhere is destroyed. So every single system in which a relay exists (almost every home system of major spacefaring species, for instance) has just been utterly destroyed. You cause more damage in the conclusion than the reapers ever could.

Spoiler

No, my guess is that all the energy of the mass relay is put into the 'crazy wave', so when it properly explodes, there's not enough pent up energy left to destroy everything. In Arrival, you just broke the damn thing, and all the energy was released in the most convenient way possible - a system-engulfing fireball.

That said, endings still stupid.

EDIT: My bad about the accidental over-quote.

 

[Aisaku]

*sees final panel*

So, hands up. Who thinks Erin needs a therapist?

*Raises hand*

I do too.

I think Erin's therapist will need a therapist...

 

[karaku32]

Well i was severely disappointed in the ME3 ending, i would have been fine without a happy ending,but with the amount of time i put into my relationships with these characters, the amount of detail and background i painstakingly worked for (including my first play through of mass effect 2 was with 3 broken fingers >.<) The most i see is them getting out of a destroyed normandy out in the middle of fucking nowhere? and i only get too see Joker + 2 others that change depending on my relationships? WTF? even though i did the "destroy" option and saw the scene where shepard breathed again i have to face facts, She is severly wounded, losing alot of blood and lying in the middle of a war zone, so even though she took that breath, she is prbably still gonna die anyway, also even if she does survive, all the time and effort i put into my relationship with garrus, he's in the middle of no-where with a broken down ship and no plausible way short of shepard spending decades looking for him to find him and thats only if she survives on earth.....Well done bioware.....Well done....

Edit: Not to mention the massive plot hole of all the Turians/Salarians/Asari/Quarians being abonded around earth with no mass effect relays, wtf are they gonna do now? It would take a very long time for them to get back to their respective homeworlds...

 

[Adultism]

Where can I buy that pillow?