Poll: The Consequences of The ME III Endings

[Boogie Knight]

This is why I argue whether or not to destroy the Reapers should not have been a choice (think about how retarded it would have been if at the end of ME1 you were asked whether or not to kill Sovereign), but rather the choices should have been in negotiating the peace when the tide turned. Shepard then leverages alliances and deals with parties antagonized when figuring out who controls what piles of rubble for the rebuilding of civilization.

 

[Willinium]

This is why I argue whether or not to destroy the Reapers should not have been a choice (think about how retarded it would have been if at the end of ME1 you were asked whether or not to kill Sovereign), but rather the choices should have been in negotiating the peace when the tide turned. Shepard then leverages alliances and deals with parties antagonized when figuring out who controls what piles of rubble for the rebuilding of civilization.

That . . .. . . would have been amazing honestly but I think that the good folks at bioware ultimatly decided not to do that as they were still committed to make a definite last stand of the Commanders with a epic finale kind of deal . Honestly I would have preferred what you suggested.

 

[Willinium]

Having replayed ME III to it's conclusion I have begun to comptemplate what would of happened to the galaxy after your path is chosen. My opinion is that the worst possible ending for the galaxy would have to be the Synthesis ending as as all organics and synthetics are now all a mesh of the two types of organisms. This will wreck with all modern medicine as the newly meshed species will be prone to viruses of the computer kind and it will be unknown how long it would take to fix this from happening or what the computer viruses would cause to the organic halves of the individual. The former Husks now have their minds back , which I imagine were probably better off as mindless beasts unaware of what has happened to them. There is probably more I am missing here but I need to elaborate on the other endings.

Destroy the Reapers: This would seem the most reliable choice as this is what you originally set out to do but depending on your level of Galactic Readiness this can utterly destroy the Mass Relays abandoning billions of Soldiers of more than 6 species to live on a already cramped Earth not to mention the planet is already war-torn so it would be under a mass effect (heh pun)of famine worldwide caused by the destruction of the reapers.

Control: My main problem with this one is that no one man no matter how capable should have that much power as absolute power corrupts absolutely now imagine this after shepard takes control , all of his grief anger and pent-up rage from all that has happened hits him and while dealing with that quickly succombs to the other reaper consciousess.

Defiance: Whilst I like this idea , all of the species melding together into a singular force to protect their very existences after many losses eventually arise victorious with a new age of Galactic Peace and famine will sweep through the galaxy.

I can not think of any-other consequences at the moment but these are my musings, pleas tell me your own opinions and vote your own opinions.

Now for curiosity's sake on the subject of the star-child. My understanding is that it is supposed to be a collective of the entirety of the Reaper force to talk to the one being they fear and respect that are giving this 'one' person a chance to prove the woth of organics. This would have been better if instead of being on the form of a child it should of had a form based on the amalgamation of the reaper force or constantly shifting to different reaper forms.

To be fair, according to the books, husks are fully aware fo what's going on - they just have no choice in the matter.

I also don't think the galactic military scale is in the billions. I don't think the entire galactic population exceeds more than 100 or 200 billion.

But I think the best would be destroy. That's what I did in my play through. I feel like shepard would have worriedthat the other choices were a ploy by the Reapers... or at least my Shepard would have. As for the consequences? I think that it worked out pretty damn well, at least in my game. Sure, centuries of not thousands of years from now all out genocide will be committed by either synthetics or organics, but who cares? The world has to end someday.

Really the husks know what is happening to them .. . huh guess I should go read the books than, are they any good?

 

[Daget Sparrow]

I always saw Destroy as the worst option, as it destroys all technology available to the galaxy. At least with Control and Synthesis there's hope of using the Reapers and their technology to rebuild galactic society and reestablish communication, but with Destroy it seems everyone's isolated from each other for a much longer time.

Well to be fair it would only destroy all electronical or machine based technology not wrenches or cranes ,since people already know how to build things it would only take a few decades to rebuild the lost technology.

True, but even so they have next to no information on, nor any method of rebuilding the Mass Relays. This happens in all three endings, but at least in both Control and Synthesis the Reapers are still functional and can be used to either rebuild the relays or provide an alternate method of interstellar travel. In the Destroy ending, it would take a much longer time (centuries even) to figure out how to achieve FTL again and make contact with the other isolated star systems.

 

[Silly Hats]

High EMS Destroy -> Refusal -> Synthesis

In my own interpretation you either destroy the reapers or refuse their manipulation, without going into the theories it makes sense. Leviathan DLC suggests that Reapers are afraid of Shepard and they try to persuade Shep to keep their existence. I liked Refusal because while incredibly depressing, it still encapsulates everything that Shepard is. The Liara time capsule is a nice touch. Synthesis was a nice ending just for the world peace and that.

I like depressing stories so I'm happy either way.

 

[TheLogicalGamer]

The Control Ending seems best to me. Destroy would kill EDI and the Geth and that is a price way too high. We FINALLY got AI that isn't a race of Serial Killers. We needed the Reapers AI upgrades to make the Geth fully sentient, and Legion sacrificed himself to spread the upgrades without the Reapers getting control too. EDI was built out of a Emergent AI and Reaper Tech, so we couldn't replace her either.

Sythysis would turn EVERYONE into Transhumans, Transturians, and so on. While it would save the Quarrian Race's immune systems it would also change everything suddenly. Too suddenly for any society to adapt without a period of chaos, even with the Reapers helping out.

Control on the other hand replaces the Catalyst VI with the Shepard AI. The Catalyst did what it did because it was just a VI, and even the Leviathans admit that the Catalyst technically succeeded in fulfilling its programming by creating the Cycles. So replacing the Catalyst as the Reaper's controller, Shepard became what amounts to The God of the Machines. Besides, this ending also allows for Shepard to return. The Shepard AI has Shepard's memories, and his biometric data is contained in the Citadel's computers. Just reverse-engineer some Prothean Tech to insert the memories into a clone, and suddenly the AI can recreate himself and still get to be the God-Emperor of the Reapers.

 

[afroebob]

Synthesis strikes me as the worst option.... forcing the entire galaxy to become part-organic part-synthetic hybrids without consulting ANYONE seems pretty abhorent to me, and goes against everything we've stood for throughout the rest of the series.

You make a good point but here is how I look at it. Destroy means that an entire species will die. Control means that the Reapers continue being enslaved and more or less mindless despite having that capacity for sentient life and that they, like it or not, are innocent considering that have been controlled and had there free will taken from them when they where created. That's even worse than death. Defiance I don't know what happens, once I fix me PC I'm probably going to go back and play through it so I won't comment on that.

So, of those two choices, it is either death or having everyting about you taken away, which is even worse. For me the only thing to do is give synthesis and give everybody an upgrade. If you don't like it, fine. You can feel free to die. Seriously, if someone doesn't like it they don't have the choice to kill themselves, in the other two choices the Geth and Reaper's don't have any choice, they're screwed either way. So for me, Synthesis is the only way to go. The people who want to evolve can, the people who don't want to can die like how the Geth would have, which is even better than the Reapers fate.

 

[AD-Stu]

I would say the destroy ending, because you are flat out murdering Geth, Quarian and the majority of the Volus.

Atleast if you chose Defiance they got a fighting chance.

Not sure I understand - how does the destroy ending murder the quarians and the volus? They're not AIs, their suits don't rely on AI technology, they shouldn't be affected.

So, of those two choices, it is either death or having everyting about you taken away, which is even worse. For me the only thing to do is give synthesis and give everybody an upgrade. If you don't like it, fine. You can feel free to die. Seriously, if someone doesn't like it they don't have the choice to kill themselves, in the other two choices the Geth and Reaper's don't have any choice, they're screwed either way. So for me, Synthesis is the only way to go. The people who want to evolve can, the people who don't want to can die like how the Geth would have, which is even better than the Reapers fate.

That's what makes it a personal / moral choice - personally I see Destroy as you only lose the Geth and EDI, and even then you only lose them temporarily - maybe permanently in EDI's case, as has been mentioned above, though if we're going to go around rebuilding the mass relays and other stuff based on Reaper tech then I don't see why we couldn't rebuild the bits that EDI and the Geth used too.

There's really no right or wrong to it though.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Here's my thoughts:

Technically speaking, assuming you have the Leviathan DLC, it would seem like a no brainer that the Defiance ending is the best. Flip off the star child, have some Leviathan's get your back (since they can also clue you in on the whole dealio with the crucible), save galaxy, profit. Of course it didn't work that way, so I got to work with what is actually there.

Destroy: I picked this first time through, and still stand by that this is the better of the four options. The geth may die (don't actually care about EDI) but it's morally the best ending. It's also the only one IMO that actually has you "win" in a sense, since everything else is sort of a sham in it's own way.

Defiance: The way it plays out it's a bad consequence, even though it doesn't have to be. I guess by all accounts it technically has the worst consequences, but I hold this as actually tying with Control for worse consequences.

Control: Let's assume for a moment that this isn't an indoctrination theory scenario (even though it totally is) The main problem with the control ending is thus: if we believe to a certain extent that the Hive Mind is exactly that, a Hive Mind, there's no reason to assume that the Sheppard personality will win out. For one thing, it's not just the entire Reaper collective they deal with, it's every single life form that was harvested up to that point. All of that buzzing around, and we're supposed to believe the Sheppard personality will keep the collective in check? Even though I don't believe in the hog-wash, the existence of several life, many of which probably stronger than Sheppard, being unable to take control shows that the Control ending is ultimately futile. By this ending's account, the process will simply start again, especially considering the Star Child's veiled threat that Sheppard WILL have to harvest at some point. By my account, we just watched the Universe's strongest warrior kill themselves as a means for the Reapers to trick sentient life (as they had done with the "Peace Negotiations" on Earth)

Synthesis: Despite the implications with the Control ending, I stand-by that the Synthesis ending is actually the worst one with the worst consequences. Again, assuming this isn't an indoctrination theory scenario (and again, it totally is) there is one major issue with the synthesis ending: it inherently destroys and will phase out all organic life. Let me explain: the stupid rational for the ending according to Star Child is that organic's lack the ability to understand machines and vice versa, and that giving both the opposite traits will create unity. First, how does giving a human robot parts suddenly make them synthetic friendly? After all, Sheppard is a hybrid themselves, and they can easily be anti-synth if needed. Also, how does giving a robot biological components suddenly make it like organics? Unless it's adding some sort of weird higher-brain function thing, I don't know how that'll work. But even aside from that, here is where this ending favors synthetics over organics. It seems the understanding of synthetics on an organic's part is all relative to that specific life rather than a mass wide problem in physiology. By contrast, we see first hand how machine life, regardless of type or form, can assess and incorporate organic traits into themselves. They don't become organic, but they can start to pick up and learn organic traits. What does this mean? Well, quite frankly, it's obvious that most of the change or "synthesis" that is occurring will target the organics as opposed to the synthetics. Changes will be made, but it's more kickstarting the aspects already there rather than making inherent changes to the system. In my mind, I see this leading to only to one conclusion: at some point, synthetics will eventually revert back to their original status since they are still the same entity essentially, and organics, what with their permanent change, will start to accommodate themselves otherwise, until all that's left is, you guessed it, synthetic. Plus, I just hate this ending on principle that it's all too "happy" and "peaceful" for my liking. Sorry, Commander Sheppard didn't get to where they were by be being some weird space-hippie.

 

[ecoho]

Having replayed ME III to it's conclusion I have begun to comptemplate what would of happened to the galaxy after your path is chosen. My opinion is that the worst possible ending for the galaxy would have to be the Synthesis ending as as all organics and synthetics are now all a mesh of the two types of organisms. This will wreck with all modern medicine as the newly meshed species will be prone to viruses of the computer kind and it will be unknown how long it would take to fix this from happening or what the computer viruses would cause to the organic halves of the individual. The former Husks now have their minds back , which I imagine were probably better off as mindless beasts unaware of what has happened to them. There is probably more I am missing here but I need to elaborate on the other endings.

Destroy the Reapers: This would seem the most reliable choice as this is what you originally set out to do but depending on your level of Galactic Readiness this can utterly destroy the Mass Relays abandoning billions of Soldiers of more than 6 species to live on a already cramped Earth not to mention the planet is already war-torn so it would be under a mass effect (heh pun)of famine worldwide caused by the destruction of the reapers.

Control: My main problem with this one is that no one man no matter how capable should have that much power as absolute power corrupts absolutely now imagine this after shepard takes control , all of his grief anger and pent-up rage from all that has happened hits him and while dealing with that quickly succombs to the other reaper consciousess.

Defiance: Whilst I like this idea , all of the species melding together into a singular force to protect their very existences after many losses eventually arise victorious with a new age of Galactic Peace and famine will sweep through the galaxy.

I can not think of any-other consequences at the moment but these are my musings, pleas tell me your own opinions and vote your own opinions.

Now for curiosity's sake on the subject of the star-child. My understanding is that it is supposed to be a collective of the entirety of the Reaper force to talk to the one being they fear and respect that are giving this 'one' person a chance to prove the woth of organics. This would have been better if instead of being on the form of a child it should of had a form based on the amalgamation of the reaper force or constantly shifting to different reaper forms.

only want to point out one thing and that would be that with the control ending your basicly killing the reapers' own minds and putting yours into all of them. In other words harbinger is brain dead after you do this so theres no other reaper consciousness to fight shepard for control.

OT: chose control cause in my personal cannon shepard left a copy of his mind in the reapers and used their tech to make himself a new body were he lived on with liara

 

[Mikejames]

I would say the destroy ending, because you are flat out murdering Geth, Quarian and the majority of the Volus.

Atleast if you chose Defiance they got a fighting chance.

So, losing one race is worse than a futilely suicidal campaign for everyone in which they'd be killed anyway?

Alright.

ALL synthetics die, including shepard due to his cybernetic bits, and the volus and quarians are partialy cybernetic and use advanced life support systems.

The Quarians are still shown in the Destroy ending, and Shep takes a breath. That much is debunked with a high enough EMS.

 

[Agayek]

I also don't think the galactic military scale is in the billions. I don't think the entire galactic population exceeds more than 100 or 200 billion.

The Citadel is explicitly said to have a population of trillions of individual beings. They never specify exactly how much, but it's at least 1x10^12

 

[Something Amyss]

I believe that one would be defiance.

That's still kind of a cop-out. You have an alien entity that admits its prior solutions don't work, but locks you into its thinking by providing three options as the only options, and punishing you if you refuse to take them.

...Wait, maybe Mass Effect 3 is a clever indictment of Bush-era foreign policy....

 

[Gatx]

Destroy - you kill Legion and EDI. Can you live with yourself? Even though Shepard lives in the best possible version of this ending, can you still look Joker in the eye?

Control - more or less fine, but I find it a bit creepy. Also I guess there's no guarantee that god Shepard won't snap at some point.

Synthesis - don't think of this as forcing everyone to become half machine (or half organic in the Geth's case), rather you're just jump starting evolution to reach the pinnacle of life, at least according to the Catalyst (or was it the Crucible? Ah, doesn't matter...) anyway. You're upgrading them to a form evolution would've taken them to anyway, not turning them into mutant freaks.

Refusal - while I really like this one and I think it goes nicely with the Stargazer clip, everyone was counting on you to do something that would save them in the last minute so wouldn't NOT doing anything when you had an opportunity to be the same as betraying them?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I always thought Synthesis was the worst. It creates an evolutionary dead end for every species in the Galaxy. Think back to ME2, where Mordin gives his speech about the Collectors.