To the People Who liked the Ending to ME3

[boag]

Can you please explain why you liked it?

What made you feel so satisfied?

Can you explain it without falling back to making assumptions?

Can you relate to the choices given and explain how they mattered to you depending on the end game choice?

Can you tell me the difference between each of the choices the end gives you?

I am not making this thread to bash or insult, or inflame, I just honestly want to know, how you relate to the ending, and why you like it and feel satisfied by it.

EDIT:

If Given the choice would you

A) Want a Different ending
B) Want an Epilogue without changing anything in the Ending sequence
C) Leave it as is

Follow up question, Why?

I should have made a Poll >_>

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Can you please explain why you liked it?

What made you feel so satisfied?

Can you explain it without falling back to making assumptions?

Can you relate to the choices given and explain how they mattered to you depending on the end game choice?

Can you tell me the difference between each of the choices the end gives you?

I am not making this thread to bash or insult, or inflame, I just honestly want to know, how you relate to the ending, and why you like it and feel satisfied by it.

Personally, I'm wondering if there's a rebuttal to this: http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

 

[MisterShine]

Can you please explain why you liked it?

Well... like is a strong word. I accept it as the ending, and in a way I see them as almost necessary. I was... satisfied?

What made you feel so satisfied?

I've seen a lot of "Oh the developers said this! The developers said that!" about the game, and some of it is backed up by actual posts, but all I remember is "This will end Shepard's story", and it certainly did that. Well, mostly. 95%.

Can you explain it without falling back to making assumptions?

Not sure I understand? I assume you're referencing the "It was all a dream/manipulation by the reapers" explanation, which while interesting, I do not subscribe to.

Can you relate to the choices given and explain how they mattered to you depending on the end game choice?

Absolutely. I felt terrible for Shepard at the end. Especially after I'd already destroyed the Quarians to save the Geth, I had to choose annihilating them and the reapers just to ensure they'd never come back. Also hoping that even after her death, that Organic life wouldn't repeat its many mistakes concerning synthetic life.

The "control the reapers" ending was just too full of variables, and I couldn't be sure becoming one of them wouldn't make me crazy and finish off organic life anyway, so I ruled that out.

And the "Synthesis" just made no god damn sense, so I ignored it.

Can you tell me the difference between each of the choices the end gives you?

Ultimately the Mass Relays are all destroyed/deactivated, thus shattering galactic civilization as we know it.

The main difference being you sacrifice the Geth/EDI to ensure the reapers are permanently kaput, or you take control of them, leaving the galaxy slightly better off, but with the potential for the reapers to return. I didn't exactly trust that little ghost-kid bastard. Which might lead some to ask "Well why didn't Cmdr Shepard do what she always did, tell those Space Cthulu's to F-Off?", because this time they had me by the balls, and we both knew it. The reapers would have crushed us with conventional warfare, and we would've subjected 10 generations to a slow and miserable existence until we finally were extinguished, just like every other cycle. Crucible offered a way out, as bleak as those were, they were literally her only options.

While "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" holds true, I simply couldn't comprehend how the Synthesis ending did what it did, so I'll ignore it. Though that certainly would be the happiest of the three, if you chose that one.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

As an addendum to Boag's post...leaving aside personal feelings about Star Baby, choices taken into account/not taken into account/themes employed and abandoned, can the people who liked the ending explain the following to me, using data actually provided for us in the game/lore and not their own speculation?

1. Why is Joker fleeing? How is fleeing consistent with his character? How did he know to flee?
2. If Garrus was shown in a pool of blood at my feet, why is he exiting the Normandy on the garden world?
3. How does Hackett know Shepard is on the Citadel? Radio chatter indicated no one made it.
4. How does Anderson beat Shepard to the Crucible? Anderson entered the beam after Shepard.
5. The ending shows us all the relays exploding. We are to understand from the Arrival that this obliterates the systems containing them. Did Shepard just wipe out dozens of densely inhabited systems?
6. If you got the Rubble Shepard/Wake Up Breath ending, how does Shepard go from standing on an exploding Citadel to waking up in a pile of concrete rubble in London?
7. What is the wisdom in creating a synthetic army to wipe out advanced organic life every 50,000 years to prevent a synthetic army from wiping out advanced organic life? Why couldn't your synthetic army fight against the hypothetical bad synthetics? Or warn the organics? Or do ANYTHING ELSE?

I can make my peace with the Star Baby ending if so much of the stuff surrounding it didn't make no sense at all.

 

[tendaji]

To be honest I had not idea what to expect from the ending. Because a weapon that could easily wipe out the Reapers with no ill effects seemed like it would be like pressing an "I Win" button.

Can you please explain why you liked it?

I don't really know why I like it, but the thing is I don't consider it really a terrible ending like most people consider it. To me, it was another choice, sorta like how Saving or Destroying the Collector's Base was just another choice.
All the decisions I made basically got me to Catalyst, and then I was given 1 last choice as a finale to the story of my Shepard.
The thing I did wish for was a bit of an epilogue, I can understand them wanting to leave it open for personal interpretation, but the problem is that they left it TOO wide open.

What made you feel so satisfied?

It was the finale of the Mass Effect series, 99.9% of the series was incredible, so I don't let the ending (however a flop it might have ended up being) ruin everything for me. I can't really explain it, but part of me likes it, but another part dislikes the lack of closure.

Personally, I'm wondering if there's a rebuttal to this: http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

The entire synthetic organisms destroying organics makes sense to me, because if I were a very advanced race, and created a war-like race like a worse version of the geth. And let's say that I lost control and the synthetics wipe out my species, well they wouldn't stop there, they would destroy all organic life, including all the pre-spaceflight civilizations.

What the Reapers do, is cull out the advanced species, so the knowledge of creating an unruly synthetic race will be lost. But they leave the lesser species there to continue to grow. So it is more of a pruning the galaxy, instead of cutting off all organic life. I mean to me it makes sense, remove the ability to create rogue AIs and then you save the rest of life from total extinction.

And people like to argue about how geth are allied with organics. But the problem is, there are there now, we already know the Alliance have been working on AI themselves behind the Council's backs, so why wouldn't it be impossible that an AI system does get out of control and wipe out everyone?


As for the plot holes, we can give lots of speculation, like the the Catalyst uses the energy from the Mass Relays to create the ending chosen. And instead of it exploding because of a blunt force disrupting energy distribution (aka an asteroid), it's being converted and used as a changing force, therefore reducing its destructive ability.
Normandy I have no explanation, I won't even give it guess.

 

[boag]

Can you please explain why you liked it?

Well... like is a strong word. I accept it as the ending, and in a way I see them as almost necessary. I was... satisfied?

What made you feel so satisfied?

I've seen a lot of "Oh the developers said this! The developers said that!" about the game, and some of it is backed up by actual posts, but all I remember is "This will end Shepard's story", and it certainly did that. Well, mostly. 95%.

Can you explain it without falling back to making assumptions?

Not sure I understand? I assume you're referencing the "It was all a dream/manipulation by the reapers" explanation, which while interesting, I do not subscribe to.
any assumption in particular, what I mean is anything that isnt detailed by the ending, and is assumed to happen via drawing from the In Game Lore and following it to a Logical Conclusion.

Can you relate to the choices given and explain how they mattered to you depending on the end game choice?

Absolutely. I felt terrible for Shepard at the end. Especially after I'd already destroyed the Quarians to save the Geth, I had to choose annihilating them and the reapers just to ensure they'd never come back. Also hoping that even after her death, that Organic life wouldn't repeat its many mistakes concerning synthetic life.

The "control the reapers" ending was just too full of variables, and I couldn't be sure becoming one of them wouldn't make me crazy and finish off organic life anyway, so I ruled that out.

And the "Synthesis" just made no god damn sense, so I ignored it.

Can you tell me the difference between each of the choices the end gives you?

Ultimately the Mass Relays are all destroyed/deactivated, thus shattering galactic civilization as we know it.

The main difference being you sacrifice the Geth/EDI to ensure the reapers are permanently kaput, or you take control of them, leaving the galaxy slightly better off, but with the potential for the reapers to return. I didn't exactly trust that little ghost-kid bastard. Which might lead some to ask "Well why didn't Cmdr Shepard do what she always did, tell those Space Cthulu's to F-Off?", because this time they had me by the balls, and we both knew it. The reapers would have crushed us with conventional warfare, and we would've subjected 10 generations to a slow and miserable existence until we finally were extinguished, just like every other cycle. Crucible offered a way out, as bleak as those were, they were literally her only options.

While "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" holds true, I simply couldn't comprehend how the Synthesis ending did what it did, so I'll ignore it. Though that certainly would be the happiest of the three, if you chose that one.

Interesting response, It mirrors some of my views on the ending.

I just have a nagging wish to understand what happens afterwards. I wanted closure to understand why my choices in the end mattered.

If Given the choice would you

A) Want a Different ending
B) Want an Epilogue without changing anything in the Ending sequence
C) Leave it as is

 

[omega 616]

Hey, this thread again ... what we up to now? 20? 25?

I did like the ending, I became near enough a god of destruction and balance (I chose control).

Isn't the whole idea of the 3 games that you destroy the reapers? All your efforts and building forces and such leading up to you ridding the galaxy of reapers? That was one of the choices.

What did you want to happen EXACTLY!?

Please also list flawless books, games and films. I really want to know how many have no plot holes or whatever ... despite the billions of them out there I'll assume the list isn't huge.

 

[boag]

To be honest I had not idea what to expect from the ending. Because a weapon that could easily wipe out the Reapers with no ill effects seemed like it would be like pressing an "I Win" button.

Can you please explain why you liked it?

I don't really know why I like it, but the thing is I don't consider it really a terrible ending like most people consider it. To me, it was another choice, sorta like how Saving or Destroying the Collector's Base was just another choice.
All the decisions I made basically got me to Catalyst, and then I was given 1 last choice as a finale to the story of my Shepard.
The thing I did wish for was a bit of an epilogue, I can understand them wanting to leave it open for personal interpretation, but the problem is that they left it TOO wide open.

What made you feel so satisfied?

It was the finale of the Mass Effect series, 99.9% of the series was incredible, so I don't let the ending (however a flop it might have ended up being) ruin everything for me. I can't really explain it, but part of me likes it, but another part dislikes the lack of closure.

Personally, I'm wondering if there's a rebuttal to this: http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

The entire synthetic organisms destroying organics makes sense to me, because if I were a very advanced race, and created a war-like race like a worse version of the geth. And let's say that I lost control and the synthetics wipe out my species, well they wouldn't stop there, they would destroy all organic life, including all the pre-spaceflight civilizations.

What the Reapers do, is cull out the advanced species, so the knowledge of creating an unruly synthetic race will be lost. But they leave the lesser species there to continue to grow. So it is more of a pruning the galaxy, instead of cutting off all organic life. I mean to me it makes sense, remove the ability to create rogue AIs and then you save the rest of life from total extinction.

And people like to argue about how geth are allied with organics. But the problem is, there are there now, we already know the Alliance have been working on AI themselves behind the Council's backs, so why wouldn't it be impossible that an AI system does get out of control and wipe out everyone?


As for the plot holes, we can give lots of speculation, like the the Catalyst uses the energy from the Mass Relays to create the ending chosen. And instead of it exploding because of a blunt force disrupting energy distribution (aka an asteroid), it's being converted and used as a changing force, therefore reducing its destructive ability.
Normandy I have no explanation, I won't even give it guess.

I wanted closure too, that is why I am so disjointed with the ending, there just no information given on how my actions changed the Galaxy after using the Catalyst.

On the plot of the Synthetics, I find it kind of near sighted, I mean the possibility that a race of Synthetics may rise up against the creators, is as viable as a Race of Genocidal Sapients that want to wipe out all life in the Galaxy, sure, It happened with the Protheans being total Dicks that had a Imperialistic stranglehold on every species ever, but what makes one assume that Synthetics wouldnt just subjugate the entire organic species, or just fuck off to build their thought spheres in Dark space?

I mean, by their very nature synthetics can choose to say, "No fuck you meatbag, Im going home", and go outside of the reach of Organics, as they are likely to wage a war of extermination.

Or even then the 3rd possible choice, which is my favorite, and was presented in way in ME3, but I remember it fondly from Ghost In the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

The Synthetics realize how poor stupid and helpless organics are, and Take the moral High Road of letting them believe they are the masters while subtly guiding them not be total douchebags anymore.

The closest analogy I can think of, is a Child who grows up and starts taking care of their Senile Bigoted Parent.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

It was an ending. Sure it wasn't the greatest ending ever but for me everythinng made sense. We all knew throughout the game that th cruciable was to be a weapon against the reapers but no one really knew what it would do beyond it can beat the reapers. Only the cycle that designed it had any idea or at least they thought they thought they did. Sure I was kind of disappointed that it boiled down to select a button and the gathering of all the fleets didn't matter too much in the end. The only thing that bothers me was Joker flying away with the crew. That didn't make sense. I think it should have been a random ship filled with refuges from various species.

 

[boag]

Hey, this thread again ... what we up to now? 20? 25?

if you would be so kind to link me to the exact threads that ask this question, I will ask the mods to lock this one up.

I did like the ending, I became near enough a god of destruction and balance (I chose control).

Isn't the whole idea of the 3 games that you destroy the reapers? All your efforts and building forces and such leading up to you ridding the galaxy of reapers? That was one of the choices.

What did you want to happen EXACTLY!?

I wanted an Epilogue


Please also list flawless books, games and films. I really want to know how many have no plot holes or whatever ... despite the billions of them out there I'll assume the list isn't huge.

Dont be silly, all media has flaws and pits of logic where some internal inconsistencies require some leaps of faith.

I am not arguing the plot holes, or lore inconsistencies of ME3, what I am asking is what people liked about it. If you see Mister Shines response, he put down a well thought out argument that mirrors some of my views.

 

[XMark]

I mostly didn't like the ending, but I did like that it at least had closure on the primary conflict of the series.

Too bad it didn't give closure on anything else in the galaxy though.

 

[MisterShine]

can the people who liked the ending explain the following to me, using data actually provided for us in the game/lore and not their own speculation?

Unfortunately this is mostly impossible. A big part of many endings are you filling in the blanks for yourself. I could guess or speculate on many of those based off of details, but ultimately they would be only conjecture and you will have to interpret events for yourself. Lots of things don't end with details spelled out for you.

I just have a nagging wish to understand what happens afterwards. I wanted closure to understand why my choices in the end mattered.

Understandable, and of course your choices mattered. Did the Geth/Quarians make peace? Was the Genophage ended? Did the Rachni have another chance at survival? Did Conrad die a hero? Perhaps no one will remember these events, but they mattered to each of us when they happened, and that is all that life ever gives us.

That's a part of the Heroic Sacrifice, you don't get to live in and experience the world (galaxy) you helped save. You just have to hope for the best.

If Given the choice would you

A) Want a Different ending
B) Want an Epilogue without changing anything in the Ending sequence
C) Leave it as is

Oh boy.. That's a tough one. If I could wave my magic wand, I'd like the ending 10 minutes to be expanded to an ending 30 minutes, with a DA style epilogue. But Bioware chose the ending they did for the reasons they did, and I have to come to terms with what that meant. I didn't pout when 2001 or Ergo Proxy ended in a messed up fashion, I just tried to figure out what it all meant. Though considering the immense time investment I've put into Mass Effect, I expect it will take quite a lot longer for me to do so.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Unfortunately this is mostly impossible. A big part of many endings are you filling in the blanks for yourself. I could guess or speculate on many of those based off of details, but ultimately they would be only conjecture and you will have to interpret events for yourself. Lots of things don't end with details spelled out for you.

Really? So I make a list of things that demonstrate:

1. Characters abruptly acting contrary to their established personalities.
2. Things happening out of sequence/unexplained events.
3. Things that are actually logically/rationally impossible.

And your response is "lots of things don't end with the details spelled out for you".

That's great. No, you're right. That's an excellent ending.

 

[omega 616]

Hey, this thread again ... what we up to now? 20? 25?

if you would be so kind to link me to the exact threads that ask this question, I will ask the mods to lock this one up.

I did like the ending, I became near enough a god of destruction and balance (I chose control).

Isn't the whole idea of the 3 games that you destroy the reapers? All your efforts and building forces and such leading up to you ridding the galaxy of reapers? That was one of the choices.

What did you want to happen EXACTLY!?

I wanted an Epilogue


Please also list flawless books, games and films. I really want to know how many have no plot holes or whatever ... despite the billions of them out there I'll assume the list isn't huge.

Dont be silly, all media has flaws and pits of logic where some internal inconsistencies require some leaps of faith.

I am not arguing the plot holes, or lore inconsistencies of ME3, what I am asking is what people liked about it. If you see Mister Shines response, he put down a well thought out argument that mirrors some of my views.

This thread is basically an inverse of the "the ending of ME3 was bad", so I am lumping this thread in with them 'cos instead of stating the ending was bad, it implies it is bad.

You wanted an epilogue? "Tough titties Turkelton" as doctor Kelso would say.

Exactly, if all media has flaws why are people getting there precious panties in a bunch over just another piece of that media? 'cos "zomg it's a bioware game!" isn't good enough.

I know this site has a huge bioware fanboy base but srsly, get over it and that goes with the rest of the net.

You wanted a better ending or whatever? You can't always get what you want (but if you try sometimes, you get what you need).

 

[boag]

can the people who liked the ending explain the following to me, using data actually provided for us in the game/lore and not their own speculation?

Unfortunately this is mostly impossible. A big part of many endings are you filling in the blanks for yourself. I could guess or speculate on many of those based off of details, but ultimately they would be only conjecture and you will have to interpret events for yourself. Lots of things don't end with details spelled out for you.

I just have a nagging wish to understand what happens afterwards. I wanted closure to understand why my choices in the end mattered.

Understandable, and of course your choices mattered. Did the Geth/Quarians make peace? Was the Genophage ended? Did the Rachni have another chance at survival? Did Conrad die a hero? Perhaps no one will remember these events, but they mattered to each of us when they happened, and that is all that life ever gives us.

That's a part of the Heroic Sacrifice, you don't get to live in and experience the world (galaxy) you helped save. You just have to hope for the best.


oh i understand completely that my choices during the game mattered a great deal, what i want to know is how it affected them after the fact, its completely logical to say, you are shepard and your part in the story ends now, but from a Players Perspective, I have meta powers to follow up on information, and i would like to know what happens afterwards, specially with the Relays Destroyed.

I could of course make up my own fiction about it, but then it would just turn into a Fleet wide orgy celebration.

If Given the choice would you

A) Want a Different ending
B) Want an Epilogue without changing anything in the Ending sequence
C) Leave it as is

Oh boy.. That's a tough one. If I could wave my magic wand, I'd like the ending 10 minutes to be expanded to an ending 30 minutes, with a DA style epilogue. But Bioware chose the ending they did for the reasons they did, and I have to come to terms with what that meant. I didn't pout when 2001 or Ergo Proxy ended in a messed up fashion, I just tried to figure out what it all meant. Though considering the immense time investment I've put into Mass Effect, I expect it will take quite a lot longer for me to do so.

I didnt follow ergo Proxy, but I can offer up an example, the Berserk Anime ends in a Cyclical fashion that puts you back into the beginning of the series, which prompted me to go out and find the manga and read on all the shit I missed.

Im hoping Bioware is doing the same line of thinking, that the whole ending sequence is the opening gates for a continuation without having to rely on Shepard.

 

[boag]

Hey, this thread again ... what we up to now? 20? 25?

if you would be so kind to link me to the exact threads that ask this question, I will ask the mods to lock this one up.

I did like the ending, I became near enough a god of destruction and balance (I chose control).

Isn't the whole idea of the 3 games that you destroy the reapers? All your efforts and building forces and such leading up to you ridding the galaxy of reapers? That was one of the choices.

What did you want to happen EXACTLY!?

I wanted an Epilogue


Please also list flawless books, games and films. I really want to know how many have no plot holes or whatever ... despite the billions of them out there I'll assume the list isn't huge.

Dont be silly, all media has flaws and pits of logic where some internal inconsistencies require some leaps of faith.

I am not arguing the plot holes, or lore inconsistencies of ME3, what I am asking is what people liked about it. If you see Mister Shines response, he put down a well thought out argument that mirrors some of my views.

This thread is basically an inverse of the "the ending of ME3 was bad", so I am lumping this thread in with them 'cos instead of stating the ending was bad, it implies it is bad.

Im going to stop you right here, because now you are making baseless asumptions, where in the opening of the Thread am I making the Statement "The Ending to ME3 is bad"?

You wanted an epilogue? "Tough titties Turkelton" as doctor Kelso would say.
indeed, Bioware doesnt have to give me anything, that wont change the fact that I would still like some closure.

Exactly, if all media has flaws why are people getting there precious panties in a bunch over just another piece of that media? 'cos "zomg it's a bioware game!" isn't good enough.
Listen, I understand there are rabid people out there that have been pretty irrational with their dissent, but it seems they have colored your perspective entirely, isnt the rational civil thing to do, to give everyone a fair chance to voice their opinions and not judge every single person by the interactions youve had with others?


I know this site has a huge bioware fanboy base but srsly, get over it and that goes with the rest of the net.

You wanted a better ending or whatever? You can't always get what you want (but if you try sometimes, you get what you need).

I dont understand what your last statement even means, its a videogame, I dont NEED anything from it, by its sole purpose its a Luxury item that warrants a few hours of entertainment. The moment someone NEEDS a videogame they have a completely different set problems, further more, Voicing opinions on any media doesnt even begin to relate one to the other. unless you buy into the crap theory that "Videogames cause school shootings" idiocy.

 

[Redd the Sock]

I appriciated what they were going for, but felt they phoned it in. It did make a degree of sense in that "all this has happened before and will happen again" way from Battlestar Galactica. The reapers saw the potential for total destruction in the fight between organics and synthetics, and chose selective destruction of races before they got too far as a way to mitigate damage. Like pruning a bush's overgrowth. The depth of this point of veiw doesn't get explained well and the context of the final choice seemed rushed as well which, yes, makes Sheppard's lack of fight seem out of place. Also since I made peace with the Geth and pretty thouroughly humanized EDI, it immediately makes the overarching fear unfounded.

I'm also willing to overlook the destruction of the relays as a cheap "no sequels" escape, but the lack of epilogue, even in breif text like Dragon Age just hurt. What happened to everyone, not just the normandy crew, but everyone at the battle? It's not that choices didn't matter, but we get denied knowing just how. I'm sure the enitre Quarian and Krogan population didnt' go to war, so how do the survivers deal with the more limited galaxy? What about all the side characters that became war assets?

Since I expect more DLC to be coming, what I want is something that makes all this seem to not come out of left field, and maybe answer the question of why Harbinger seemed to want Sheppard alive in the last game, and if they do that, a few pictures and text aren't hard to splice in.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Ahhhh, I remember the days....
YOU remember those days, right?
You know, when a bioware game had multiple endings that made sense(such as KoTOR), and the sequels of said games which provided multiple choices again(KoTOR II).

Endings which didn't require money to make sense or even invoke such thoughts...
Those days when the term DLC still made red wavy lines appear in Microsoft Word...

Ahh those were the days...
/nostalgia

OT:
Didn't like the ending cuz my choices which I made in the previous games & ME3 didn't have any impact whatsoever, and each of the choices is THE SAME BLOODY CHOICE , as Destroy kills all synthetics, even the geth, who I so rated & EDI, and the relays are all destroyed, Control has unforseen consequences, i.e. what if Shepard's "Code" expires or dies? Do the Reapers keep on killing, and even then, if the other alien races found out about this, all that unity that Shepard fought for will be undone(cuz he's placing humans at the top, forcefully), and you guessed it the relays are destroyed & Synthesis(the one I picked) was the most 'neutral' ending and the most peaceful to me; if the quarians can live in peace w/ the geth, & since all organics will possess synthetic upgrades, then they will sympathize with Synthetics, which would hopefully result w/ peace, but it does enforce synthetic technology into human DNA, which supresses free will(as does Control), and yes, the relays are destroyed.

TL;Dr endings are meh, and your choices aren't considered.