A Story Analysis of Mass Effect 3 

Small correction: Javik only says he’s going to kill himself if you encourage him to touch his memory shard. If he doesn’t, he states he’ll adjust to the new cycle and possibly write a book on the Protheans with Liara

When you get to the Citadel docks, there is a teenager asking about her parents. For a while if you come back she is asking again, and the Turian she is asking gets more and more distraught and sad about it. For some reason this is burned into my brain.

Under the correct circumstances at the shroud, Mordin does reveal that he deeply regrets his work on the genophage. If pressed hard enough and the right decisions were made, you can get him to scream "I MADE A MISTAKE!". He then proceeds to give his life to right this grave error.

Mordin was the most badass character in the entire series. From him start to his end. I was really sad to have him go and it was probably the most memorable scene in the whole series for me.

Honestly, I fucking love that Thane absolutely bodies Kai Leng for most of their fight. It shows just how strong Thane is that even in the late stages of Kepral's Syndrome where he essentially has Cystic Fibrosis with an added side effect of low Iron from poor Oxygen intake. He powers through his pain and fucks up the enhanced cybernetic ninja through pure combat skill and reflex and only gets hurt because he got worn out and couldn't be perfect. For my usual trilogy playthrough I romance Liara in ME1, Thane in ME2 and then go back to Liara in ME3

If you read the "Mass Effect Deception" book, then you will realize that you are absolutely correct about how you described Kai Leng. He literally eats cereal while on a mission

When ME1 released, we were explicitly told "You won't be able to say 'I got ending A, B, or C'" at the end of the trilogy. We got ending Red, Blue, or Green.

To me what was weird with Kai Leng is that no matter how tough people made him out to be, he would never feel like an actual threat to Shepard. Shepard took down a reaper, collector base, died and came back to life, and fought countless enemies. The most frustrating thing though is the fight with him and Thane. Shepard and your companions are just there and dont help at all. The writing just makes You ( the player), Shepard, and your companions just feel helpless because of plot. You touched on this but why a sword? Why not two powered up Omni blades that we havent seen before.

Fun fact. The voice actress for Samara is Billie Eillish's mom

Im really glad someone stood up a bit for Vega. I'll admit i dont care about him, but i am also convinced that had he been in the game from the beginning, he would be a fan favorite, he just didnt have time. Also, small gripe: Jaavik doesn't kill himself if you use the renegade option to stop him from viewing the shard, and he goes on to help Liara write a book on Protheans. I love it because its one of the few times Renegade is used to improve people's lives, which proves it isnt just another way of saying "bad" because sometime people need tough love. Id argue Kasumi needs the same thing

You can make Mordin admit that he made a mistake with the genophage and it's pretty personal for him to fix it. The problem with Kai Leng...... he was introduced from the books that barely nobody read at all.

I actually think Kaidan goes through a pretty neat arc in ME3. While Ashley is still doesn't really like Cerberus and still doesn't fully trust them Kaidan after doing the ex Cerberus scientist mission is conflicted on Cerberus and has a mini monologue wondering just how many good people are in Cerberus. He even questions if the Illusive Man was good at a point. Kaidan has a really cool arc of realizing how gray situations and people are. In ME2 he was very clearly "Cerberus=bad" but over the course of ME3 he comes to realize how wrong and stupid he was to just paint the whole organization as bad and he even asks Shepard what to do about Cerberus members. I also love how he leads his own Biotic team and seems to really care about the people in the team. I love the times when he asks EDI about where to find them. I feel him leading a Biotic team is a great way to end his character off. I also just think he's more endearing in ME3. In ME1 (for Male Shepard at least) he was a good bro type character but aside from just being someone you can talk to he didn't have many other traits. In ME3 I like how he's much more of a leader, I like his continued confusion on how to deal with Shepard and I love his talk at the Citadel. If you don't romance him he has a really tender speech about knowing he isn't the life of the party and that his integrity gets on people's nerves but that he values Shepard as a friend. I think Kaidan is a very open character and it's one of the reason's when he was available for Male Shepard as a romance option I took him in a heartbeat. I honestly think Male Shepard with Kaidan is one of the best relationships in the Trilogy especially if you go into the Trilogy wanting that romance.

I wish the ending wasn’t with a choice but only consequences. Low war assets and the reapers kill everyone and high war assets the galaxy is saved.

Last time I was this early Shepard hadn't committed war crimes yet.

I was sad I didn't get to visit the Elkor home world. Elkor are largely ignored in ME3. And ME2. And ME1.

I've heard that there were a pair of devs working on ME3, the one that wrote Kai Leng and loved him, and another guy that absolutely HATED Kai Leng and didn't want him in the story at all. It kinda feels like these two writers were fighting over his inclusion and presentation.

The thing about the stargazer scene that always kills me is how strange the kid looks. It's clearly the character model of an adult, so the proportions are all wrong and the only word I can think of to describe it is goofy.

It's a bummer that the nature of war assets being tied to the multiplayer meant that they would be worthless to a single player interest. Legendary Edition removing multiplayer completely kinda supported this too.

I remember crying the first time i heard Legion say "I" and lo and behold, im crying again, such a great character

Now you got to do entire Metro franchise

Over time, ME1 has slowly crept into my number 1 spot in the series. I adore all 3 games. But ME1 overtook 2 just because how tightly it's written and capped with that amazing end credit song like a perfect movie. Still. All 3 games are absolutely amazing.

For the beam run during the end, a ship could suicide tackle harbinger. The resulting explosion could still injury shepherd instead of a direct shot of a warship destroying beam. If your war assets are low it would be the normandy. If it is high it could be the destiny ascension or your mother's ship (if you didn't save it and have a mom) or some generic alliance ship.

James kicking that console was hilarious. I was endeared to him really fast probably because I could tell he was the "filler" companion and that somehow made me more sympathetic. Also I found his rapport with Cortez nice. That was still when the "gay romance" thing was still kind of a big whoop, and while Cortez's ongoing dead husband angst is its own hamfisted thing, I just thought it was nice for the "token gay" to have a warm rapport with the "stereotypical meathead". The line was something about James doing a lot of chin-ups and James just laughing that Cortez was enjoying the show. I guess the fact that it was the *lack* of any kind of hostility or disdain in the joke being notable is pretty telling for the atmosphere of the day, but whatever. Cortez + Vega BFFs 4ever!

You touch on one of my biggest gripes with the ME trilogy's story when you talk about Leviathan. Our conversation with Sovereign painted the reapers basically gods. We learn that they don't need resources or slaves, that they're almost indestructible, each one of them is "a nation," and that they see themselves as above any organics, and that their presence warps the minds of anyone around them. They're basically Eldritch horror space robots. "We impose order on the chaos that is organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because they demand it." Sovereign never once speaks of salvation or preservation of organics, but their *end.* And when asked about their goals or origin, all we learn is that it is beyond what we could fathom. ME1 painted them to be beyond our understanding and gave them a huge air of mystery which only made them seem even more menacing. Mass Effect 2 gave us a little more info, but it's basically that reapers melt organics down to turn reproduce. The "why" of what they do and their origin is still shrouded in mystery. What little we learned made them more scary, especially since we knew we'd be facing them in the next game. But by the end of ME3, we know exactly what they are, where they came from, where their mind warping abilities come from, and their motivations. And not only that, but everything Sovereign says about the Reapers being the end of organics is a lie because they actually see it as "saving" us. By the end of ME3 the mystery of the Reapers is completely gone and what we learned in the beginning of the trilogy that made them so scary turns out to be a lie anyways.

2:06:09 It's actually worse than that. Because Catalyst claims that Synthesis is the endgame of life. Which means that Catalyst and its Reapers had been actively sabotaging his perfect solution by killing all life before it has a chance to get there.

The 'Evacuating Thessia' email from Kai Leng broke me. It's worthy of it's meme status.

A really cool part of the Omega DLC is that when you’re deciding what to do with the reactor if you’re an Engineer I believe you can quickly reroute the power instead of waiting or cutting it. One of the only times I’ve ever really seen a class have an effect on the story.

One of the weird things about the Omega DLC is it's one of the few times your class comes into effect when making a choice. You get given a binary choice as every class that's not engineer... but as an engineer, you can choose to solve both problems and not be forced to choose the lesser of two evils.

2:00:40 with Javik when he tells you about the memory shard if you tell him to let the past go instead of reliving it again (and he's on good terms with Liara) on earth he'll tell you he's going to help Liara with her book and enjoy peace for a change. If Javik isn't cool with liara then he'll go to the hanar homeworld to live as a king.

About the elusive man having biotics that control people. If during samira's loyalty mission you kill her and take her daughter Morinth. She has an ability called Dominate That allows you to control organics enemies into fighting each other. It's possible with reaper tech the elusive man could have gained a similar ability.

2:03:57 The Reapers dragged the Citadel through a mass relay and started processing its inhabitants. And yet... the Citadel wards in the background look like it's as bustling as ever.

To be fair, Vega did get an entire movie to flesh him out. It covers the backstory you mentioned with the Collectors but adds a lot more depth, explaining that he lost a lot more than he cares to mention. Far from a perfect movie but well worth a watch. Also, Thane's death hits WAY harder on a FemShep run if you romanced him in ME2. I honestly think Thane is the best romance choice for FemShep. Liara is kind of the freebie choice for everyone, Kaiden is usually dead, Garrus works better as MShep's bro, and Jacob is a lowdown dirty cheating S.O.B.

ME3 broke my heart, and was exactly as you described it. Though after Rannoch, the game just goes into a nose dive in quality. The entire final mission of earth was just anti-climatic, and I felt like the writers really had no idea what to do at that point. AND THEN I got to the ending. I didn't touch ME3 again until the Legendary edition was released, my feelings on the endings still felt the same but all the DLC's were very well done.

I just watched your other two Mass Effect videos this week and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was only disappointed that 3 wasn't out yet. Thanks for the early Christmas present!

I have so many issues with this game but my main issue with War Assets as a day one ME3 player; It required you to play the multiplayer to get the max war potential. And eventually, people played so much multiplayer that you could've done the most self-sabotaging renegade playthrough in the entire game.... and still got the best ending, even with 50% readiness. It broke the game in one way, then another. :/

The illusive man wasn't using biotics he is using the special implants that cerberus developed from the horizon experiments. The game just uses the biotics animation when it happens.

One of the things I hate about me3 is definitely how they put missions into your journal. Its a fucking mess to see which one’s are primary missions and which one’s are secundary. I would’ve liked to have it like me2 because it was obvious which one would progress the main quest.

If only we got the dark energy plot line. Its such a better motivation for the reapers and adds so much moral gray!

padok wiks is a really entertaining character in of himself, they definitely put more effort into his writing then a generic salarian replacement.

I always thought the last reaper you kill before the beam should have been Harbinger. It would have made it much more intense and impactful and it would’ve been this showdown between two rivals.

Mordin being involved with the genophage cure isn't that much of a surprise if you pushed him during his loyalty mission. If you did that, it becomes quite clear at the end of the mission that he's changed his mind about the genophage.

I think that the ME2 ending was one of the best endings for a game and should have been used as the model for the ME3 ending. The original ME3 ending at launch was so bad I didn't even replay on my first time finishing the game. Unlike what I did for ME1 and ME2. The DLC ending improved it a little bit but didn't really fix it. I always liked the Indoctrination Theory, Bioware should use it for the next game where it starts by waking up from the ME3 ending we got. Then use the next game as the real ending we should have gotten. But I doubt that would ever happen LOL

CORRECTION: The person who wrote the Planet Codices in ME1 left during ME2, and has since then told us that Leviathan of Dis was a 5-minute blurb he wrote at the end of ME1 production, and he had no intention of it being a backstory to the Reapers -- rather, he felt it was a backstory to a pre-Prothean war against the Reapers, to characterize how different cycles describe the Reapers differently. I played ME3 when it came out originally. The only hint to Leviathan being retrofitted as a Reaper lore, is when Balak shows up on the Citadel. But the Leviathan DLC was only made once BioWare knew they had to make additional content to "rationalize" the bad logic in the ending. I do believe they had theorized Leviathan to become the actual backstory all throughout ME3's development. It was one in 5 popular internet theories back in the ME1/2 days, anyway. But it is absolutely retroactive continuity.

I just found your videos and just binged them all while at work man,the way you break things down it’s masterful you made me wanna go back and replay all those old video games

I see the control ending as the reapers “surrendering” to Shepard. Or rather seeing him as the only person worthy of determining their fate. It’s my personal favorite ending of the 3. I don’t believe a paragon Shepard would destroy an entire race of synthetics ( assuming you brokered peace between the Geth and Quarians) and allow Eddi to die. I also wouldn’t personally pick the synthesis ending because it completely neglects everything Shepard has done to preserve the galaxy’s robust and diverse life. Of course I’m looking at this through the perspective as a paragon Shepard.

The weird conversations on the citadel never bothered me hugely. Definitely more than a little stiff on the writing, but not awful. Shepard doing his job of trying to make everyone work together on every scale imaginable, makes sense for the character. But the one that really gets me is the one where two parents are arguing about whether or not to send their child to school or keep him home with them in light of the invasion. The message Shepard gives is “just do whatever is best for your child”, to which they respond in the typical “oh thank you you are so right oh great and wise Shepard” fashion. But the problem is he not only didn’t resolve their argument (as they are literally arguing over what is best, not whether they should do what is best), but also doesn’t contribute to their conversation in literally any way, but for some reason they are still happy with him. Just horrible writing that really killed my immersion for a bit.

I feel like Thane is always given the short end of the stick as a romance choice, but in my opinion he's got the best romance in the series. Bittersweet, but just as delightful, plus it gives the ending a different weight, especially when he shows up at the end of the Citadel DLC.

Javik is such a great addition because him insulting everyone he comes across is some of my favorite dialogue in the whole game.

FYI the illusive man talk down isn't just related to reputation it's also related to all the conversations you have with him through out the game. If you always talk to him with paragon options he will unalive himself, the same goes for if you only choose renegade. If you mix the choices even once during the game you can't talk him down.

I always saw the lackluster stand ins when the original squad members die as the devs roundabout way of imposing consequences for killing/not investing in the OG squad members throughout the past games. I’m always happy to see another Mass Effect retrospective.

i so love the fact that asari has had the VI for THOUSANDS of years and they didin't think of asking "hey so why are proteans gone" they literally should have had atleast some of the info from the memory of that thing even if the vi "only appears with sipher/protean" there.... Liara spends few weeks and finds out super weapon (funny how now 1 copied that data like certain robot did + ancient ancient computer (not typo) that could stop working at anymoment so no copies?) while "smartest" asari made their race super power with 1 of them and found 0 clues of certain group that is coming to kill them? the asari councill member is so in on the "we know nothing" bit on rule "you must tell others if you find 1 of there" world is burning and only when its burning your feet you decide to "oh maybe i should hint at something" the "story" bucket literally has no bottom here

I'm surprised you didn't mention how absurd the addition of Shepard evacuating his squad mates during the run to the beam is. If people making it to the beam is of the highest importance - pretty much the last chance the Alliance has to stop the Reapers - as the characters say it is, then having Shepard stop what he's doing to call the Normandy in to evacuate his squad mates would never happen. Getting to the beam is more important than anything else, including the lives of Shepard's squadmates or even Shepard's life. Aside from showing a complete lack of judgement and disregard for priorities (incompetence really), it makes him, the Normandy, and the squad mates he's trying to evacuate sitting ducks for Harbinger. It's no wonder Harbinger just stood there like a dunce and allowed it to happen - if he had done something, it would have shown even more how stupid that whole scene was. The Normandy would have been destroyed, Shepard's companions would be dead, and Shepard would be dead. I've actually never heard anyone mention how ridiculous it is.

Small correction: The galaxy has FTL without the Relays. You move through the clusters via FTL very quickly. Its only on the bigger scale of moving between clusters around the galaxy that the Relays are so important.

Another great breakdown! I really feel the Kai Lang character could have either been the Ashley/Kaiden we sacrificed on Vermire. Would have made for a good twist IMO.

Just wanted to put this out there, in reference to why Harbinger didn't just shoot the Normandy out of the sky during the final push. The Normandy has literally the best stealth technology in the galaxy. It's why the Reapers won't detect you when you're in Reaper space unless you use the pulse mechanic to find things on the galaxy map which alerts them. The Reapers detect through heat signatures and the Normandy's stealth drive keeps it hidden from those types of sensors. That's why even since ME1, the Normandy has always been called the ultimate stealth ship but never actually has any form of "cloaking" tech. Could also explain why Harbinger didn't speak to Shepard directly during that instance, there were so many warm organic bodies around it probably couldn't tell one from another. It just saw a ton of warm, fleshy blobs it needed to shoot.

59:30 Tali: "...then introduced into the suit through an emergency induction port." Shepard: "That's a straw, Tali." Tali: "EMERGENCY INDUCTION PORT" That gave me a big chuckle when I originally played the game 😄

I think it may have been part of the Extended Cut endings, but no matter which of the three main endings you pick, it's stated that the relays are repaired after a time. The issue of everyone being stuck without FTL was one of things that prompted them to make the Extended Cut. Also, I'm pretty sure you can play out a renegade and keep most companions alive, lol. Your renegade was just particularly psycho.

Leviathan was the best dlc, loved the exploration and detective work. The only problem I have is that it should be part of the main game as its essential to explain the reapers existence.

Terrific breakdown as always. Seeing a Gingy upload gives me life.

Am currently binging all your vids and suddenly you just release another one XD you've become my favorite gaming story RU-vidr overnight

Been loving your story videos!

If you play an engineer, during reactor decision on Omega you don't have to choose between waiting to reroute or shutdown. Engineer Shep can reroute instantly.

Just to watch this video I watched both part 1&2 of mass effect that you had on your channel cuz you explaining these games are soooo amazing and know this I enjoyed both those videos n I am sure I will enjoy this video as well. Finally gonna watch this part now and I am happy that I got the time to see all the 3 parts and understand each character and their respective story and the story in general. Thank you for making these videos n I am excited and really eagerly waiting for your next video no matter the game I am gonna watch it.

I literally just watched the first two videos yesterday. Wonderful timing!

Solid content as always. I wonder if an in game timer set around the passage of weeks and tracking the reapers advance would have improved the game by forcing the player to prioritize characters and events.

You forgot about Marauder Shields

Your pronunciation is amazing!! This may seem like a lackluster comment but is anything but. You speak quickly, but it's always easy to understand. It gives your narration and analysis great energy, and the SOUND of balance and investment. Thank you!!

Humm the Javik part where he says he'll end it after the final battle, Idk how you got it but in my playthrough Javik said he would relax, enjoy peace and write a book about the Protheans with Liara. He gets a happy ending, you just have to not make him use the prothean thingy in his room i believe

This has to be the best in-depth analysis I've watched/listened to. Thanks for putting into words, what swam around my brain for several years!

I've been really enjoying your videos as of late and I would love it if you would make one about Dragon Age Inquisition! I picked it up again recently and I just fell in love with it all over again, it's definitely one of my favourite games of all time!

Hey, Christmas came early this year? I'm jumping right on this, thanks Gingy!

Damn!!!! Keep up the good work man!! Love your videos

What I loved about Mass Effect 3 is it had a very survival horror vibe to it. The reaper threat is literally the threat of nightmares and seeing Banshis and knowing their lore is so creepy it’s good. I just loved Mass Effect 3. Besides the crap ending and some choices, I had a good time.

Garrus romance just so happens to be the very best one in the series its so cute, awkward and funny at the same time

have a great new year and thanks for the video :)

Your channel is great! Keep up the great work!

The most disappointing thing for me about ME3 ending was the realization that i had spend all these countless hours to get to this point to finally find out that Saren was right??? as the best ending which made sense to me was Synthesis :(

Boy have I been waiting for this video. Obviously haven’t even watch it all yet as of just being uploaded. But thanks again for this 👌🏼

I've always found ME3 interesting in a particular fashion. After playing through all the games in multiple different mixtures of renegade and paragon, I'm often reminded of the "Epic Man Theory" with storytelling and history...

If I remember correctly, the only time I actually encountered a war asset on Earth was Jacks kids helping to destroy the reaper before the Taco Bell run to the Crucible and being on the radio talking about how they’re holding off reaper forces with biotic fields. Otherwise, yeah, that’s about it

I think it depends when you played. My first experience with Mass Effect was through the collection in 2016 so I had much of the dlc and the extended cut from the start. I had no problem with the ending. My biggest problem was how the ME 2 characters got so sidelined in this game.

Man I loved that ME2 had 12 companions, sonmuch replay value in that alone

For me, a lot of the small things, were what hit me hard. Especially the story with Joker's family and the Asari. At first, you think, she's just another shell-shocked soldier, then you hear her story and think, "horrible, but they could have both died otherwise." then Joker tells you about his family, and you realize what happened to them and how. I know it might not be the most upright, paragon decision, but I almost always give her a gun. She could after all have at least tried to save them both, or die trying.

Small correction: Kaiden DOES go through a change just as large as Ashley if you were looking for a male romance option for a male Shepherd. BioWare got a lot of critique for really lacking options and shifted Kaiden into that role for just the third game. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it was important to players like me.

It's always bothered me that Dr. Awa's hair somehow turned into basically a metal helmet after the crash. How the fuck did no one notice that her hair was a solid piece?

I am absolutely thrilled that your content is getting recommended to my front page within 20 minutes of the video going live. Excited for the watch!

There is actually a biotic ability called Dominate in ME2 that makes enemy organics turn on their allies, like Sabotage. The only way to get that is via Morinth, however, so not many people get access to it.

Actually if you side with Morinth over Samara in ME2, one of her powers is Dominate, where she creates a barrier for an organic enemy and commands them to attack their allies for a short period of time. It's still random and stupid that the Illusive Man magically has that ability, but it's not the first time that a biotic power has allowed someone to take control of another person's body

The war asset system really messed up this game for me. It was confusing, and so much of it ended up being tied to whether you played as a paragon or renegade. I personally like to mix the two to create the character arc for Shepherd across the trilogy that feels most compelling to me, and I ended up with this weird and very sudden lukewarm ending that I didn't really know what to do with.

No fuckin way, I just found your channel today on full nostalgia trip watched both 1 and 2 retrospectives. And then you drop the 3rd one on the same day. Fuckin NICE!!

Man, so damn glad to see this video release at last. Personally my favorite of the trilogy despite its disappointing upcoming (The ending, god it is a let down still). Cant wait to rewatch the entire trilogy retrospective videos once again

One thing that always bugged me about Mass Effect 3 was the Banshees. The game makes a point to say only ardat yakshi could become banshees, but if memory serves (it's been awhile since I played Mass Effect 2) Samara tells Shepherd that there are only 3 ardat yakshi in existence, her three daughters. So where did all these Banshees come from?

Mordin’s definitely trying to atone for his role in the genophage. If he’s alive and you go renegade and sabotage the cure, when you try to convince him to not go up to the Shroud’s controls, he’ll state that he made a mistake when Shepard asks why is he so adamant to make the cure.

Thanks for these. I wanted more visible at the final battle rather than war assets, like you stated. The best thing that happened to this game are the AHEM mod, which ends the game with Anderson and Shepard, paired with Citadel Epilog mod, which pushes the Citadel DLC after the main game with a tie in slide to state that it's some time later and the Normandy is going in for dry dock, this giving you a nicer satisfying send off to the trilogy. Also the Shut Up Kai Leng mod helps a lot! Looking forward to watching more of your essays.

I used to have a friend who was a really big ME fan and your passion about these games reminds me of him a lot I never personally played ME but the story is intriguing and - as always - your passion talking about these games makes it all the better And you manage to make me snicker at least once during most of your videos, your snark really lends these videos its charm and your thoroughness combined with your directness is what makes your videos so awesome

Sir. Sir. Please get out of my head. Great video. You pretty much said everything I thought of the game as a whole. I loved everything about the game, save for the ending and the war assets. You summed the latter up pretty well, all our choices were turned into numbers and felt like they were made pointless. Not to mention that war assets were also tied to the multiplayer mode too. While I enjoyed the fuck out of that mode, I know there were people who didn't. Not sure what happens now because I'm assuming people don't play the multiplayer mode that much anymore. I beat the game within 48 hours of it coming out-because I had to do things like sleep and eat, lol. I was so giddy when I got to go past the opening and get to Mars-I played the demo like crazy and was so hyped for the games release. When I got to the ending...words really can't describe how confused and disappointed I was. I think I literally said "Wait. That's the ending? That's it?" when the colored cutscene played. I get that some people like the ending, it fit their Shepard's story and there lies the problem, I think. People are so attached to "their Shepard," the character they've built out through three games and already had an ending in mind for them. I don't know if anything Bioware did would have satisfied the mass majority-something would have always been wrong. Even the 'Extended Cut', like you said, was a bandaid. For some, it fixed the issues they had with it. For me, I'm still salty as fuck. An idea I had about the whole rachni queen choice was give players different enemies to fight depending on their choices from ME1. If you saved the queen then you would have the ravagers to fight. If you had killed her off, then you'd fight another race's reaperfied version, or maybe have the Collectors return-which they did for the multiplayer. That would have made it more fun to replay with different Shepards. The ending made me trust the Mass Effect team less-so much so that I have yet to touch Andromeda, even if I own it...I think I got it for free or on a really good discount years after it's release. I swear...Bioware better not fuck up Dragon Age 4... Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the great video!

the illusive man forcing shepard to shoot anderson isn't unprecedented. You get a power called dominate for choosing morinth in ME2

Congrats on releasing this video!

My new favourite channel! You’re the reason I played bloodborne! Love the videos and can’t wait to see more! Would love to see a story analysis of my favourite game Ghost of Tsushima!

The whole series has been based around making choices. It's an RPG so yeah of course, but it also had your choices carry over from game to game however meaningful they ended up feeling. So, the freedom of choice feels like an important part of the game and the story as a whole in my opinion. With that said, the Catalyst explains the three options to us. Destroy kills all synthetic life, including the Reapers, the Geth, EDI, and any other partial synthetics similar to Shepherd. Ignoring the ending where Shepherd wakes up and the Indoctrination Theory, this seems like an awful ending and even worse if you are Renegade or have low war assets. I'll come back to the Control Ending. The Catalyst says that the Synthesis ending is the best as it will bring harmony to the organics and synthetics by making everyone an organic/synthetic hybrid. If we take what the Catalyst says at face value then that seems like the best choice, but this story has been partially about the freedom of choice and we are making a pretty big choice for all the races in the Galaxy by making them become these hybrids. That feels like that goes against one of the main aspects of the series by taking away the rest of the galaxies choice. Finally, let's talk about the Control Ending. If we ignore the Indoctrination Theory, also consider the freedom of choice being a core tenant of the series which would overrule the Synthesis ending, believe everything that the Catalyst says, have enough war assets, and be a full Paragon player then I would have to say that this is actually the best ending. The reason I say that is because the galaxy would have the Reapers at their disposal as long as AI Shepherd stays Paragon post ending, the other synthetic lifeforms wouldn't be destroyed, and Shepherd would use the Reapers to help repair the civilizations and the Mass Effect Relays which would only be damaged rather than destroyed. Admittedly, the Reapers helping rebuild and the Mass Relays only being damaged are only aspects added in the Extended Cut and is also something that happens in the Synthesis ending, but they do it of their own accord or the Catalyst's accord. Some would say that Reapers still being around in the Synthesis and Control is a bad thing which would mean Destroy is the only good ending, but that doesn't feel right either based on the Geth, EDI, and other partially synthetic people being destroyed as well. Synthesis takes away the people's choice. Renegade Control and low war assets Destroy are probably the worst endings. Paragon Control is only bad if the AI Shepherd eventually goes rogue, but the Synthesis ending could eventually have the Catalyst change its mind and kill everyone as well. I think I would rather take my chances with AI Shepherd. Lastly, the Control Ending as a whole is framed as a bad ending because it was the Illusive Man's idea so that's another thing to feel contentious about. And Refusal is just a bad ending. Which brings us to the Shepherd Wakes Up Destroy Ending. The Catalyst said that partial synthetics like Shepherd would be destroyed in this ending and even if we say he survived that somehow, he was also already in bad shape and would have then seemingly fell from the Crucible way up in the sky (stratosphere maybe?) all the way to the surface of the planet and survived that fall without any kind assistance. No parachute and I don't believe he had any like thrusters on his combat suit, but I could be wrong. It also seems like he probably would have been knocked unconscious from the blast from the Crucible and not even been able to activate any parachute or thrusters even if he did have them. How the hell does he survive a fall from near orbit? This ending is either pure fan service or the Indoctrination Theory is true and everything with the Illusive Man, Anderson, and the Catalyst was all some kind of final test and picking the Destroy ending was simply breaking the Indoctrination meaning that the rest of the "ending" that we saw was just a bunch of bullshit. As much as I like the Indoctrination Theory, it just can't be true and the Shepherd Survives ending is simply fan service. Paragon, High War Assets Control is the best ending in my opinion with Synthesis bringing up second place I guess. The rest of the endings either suck or aren't that satisfying even Synthesis in my opinion. Renegade Control and Low War Assets Destory are the worst endings, but also maybe the funniest in a dark humor sort of way.