Mass Effect 3: All 3 Perfect Original Endings and Secret Ending 

When shepherd chooses the control ending: Shepherd: Hey Harbinger! I guess you could say i'm..... Harbinger: Don't you fucking say it i swear to god Shepherd: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL Harbinger: ......

When I play the Mass Effect trilogy, I complete it my way, scene for scene up until the Illusive Man encounter. From there I stop playing, and leave the rest to my imagination. The console in front of Shepard activates The Crucible. He and Anderson observe as the Reapers implode, one by one into a red ray of light and into extinction. Hackett and the Fifth Fleet secure the Citadel and rescue Shepard and David. Anderson finally marries Kahlee Sanders and they move into their apartment on the Silversun Strip. Shepard and Tali (my usual romance) live on the Normandy with Joker and EDI traveling around the galaxy under the stars, taking trips back and forth. From Earth to Rannoch, Palaven to Thessia, and onto the Citadel. The Council races of the galaxy unite together as a single people like the Protheans, eventually recruiting other races into their empire. The Krogans entered a golden age renaissance and were given colonisation rights to house their large population after the curing of the genophage. The Rachni were allowed to return to their original system and live in solitude. The Quarians and Geth peacefully co-existed on Rannoch, helping each other to make it a home for both. The Normandy crew eventually separated to live their lives and everyone lived happily ever after.

Dude... Even after third playthrough of the trilogy, i still cry like a baby. So fucking emotional!

Destroy was by far the best ending. Rejection= Everyone dies. Control= You control the reapers....until they take control of you. Power corrupts. Synthesis= Everything is fine, except we don't know what the reapers decide to do next. We don't even know if The Catalyst was lying about synthesis stopping the Reapers. Besides, you die in this ending. Who knows if merging human and machine solves everything (2nd best ending). Destroy(high E.M.S)= You survive. Everyone can build everything back. And the galaxy will be very careful about making A.I, or robots. The relays might be restored?

You shouldn't complain about those endings. Bioware actually did a great job and made a really good psychological riddle. In my opinion, the star kid (who appears throughout whole ME3) is an result of Shepard's indoctrination. At the end we, as players, have to decide if we want to follow our primary goals which is to destroy the reapers or sadly to choose one of the rest of endings (control or synthesis) which i think are those "bad choices" because the reapers managed to convince you to do not destroy them. The proof is an additional scene, after "red" ending, where Shepard stays alive 'cause he didn't forget what was his mission about.

The stargazer is seriously the secret ending? I thought that's what was generally supposed to happen?

So... am I the only one who's slightly disturbed by the implications that all of the games were a bed time story for a little kid? Renegade Shep's freaky sexy time with Jack? David Archer's horrifying cyber-crucifiction? The utter horror that the Thorian was? Kelly Chambers GETTING FUCKING FLAYED ALIVE on the Collector Base? The Reapers killing people by the planetload? Yeah, cool story there, grandpa, definitely child friendly material.

I dont know if any one chose this ending.... The Catalyst gave me three choice.. Left side to control reaper , Right side to Destroy the reaper , And middle to synthesize .. I just turned back and fired a couple shots at the catalyst... SOB got angry and shut me down... The crucible never Fired... and he said the cycle continues . This could be the worst possible ending.... Every thing in the galaxy destroyed... and a new life emerges after who knows how many eons.. and They get to see Dr. Liara's Videos .

Loved that secret scene at the end.. You know Buzz Aldrin narrated that scene? :3

I wish there was a secret cutscene when your Femshep could meet Thane across the sea

Why so many people hated the ending of this game? I really liked it and I almost cried. Why the hate?

Uninstalling extended cut for my next play through. I actually enjoy these endings, they are delightfully thought provoking and uncertain. It is like reading a good book with a some what tragic and open ending.

While I have come up with an explanation of of the Catalyst, it still does not give a proper reason for the non-satisfying endings. So forget about the endings for now. I think that the whole Reaper case is just a symbolism. Whatever happened after Shepard gets knocked unconscious is a symbolic summary of what happens next, not an actual representation of the events (because they did not take place as seen.) You could say that Shepard indeed goes to the Citadel, kills the Illusive Man, open the arms, sees Anderson die, and end the Harvest. But it does not happen as we see it in the endgame. The endgame is a symbolic representation of Sherpard's actions. Now let's explain my theory. Let's start in chronological order with ME1. Sovereign: the most important thing that I find that Sovereign states is *We are each a nation, independent, free of all weaknesses.* I'll link this with some more stuff later. I can say though that there is a literal and a figurative meaning to this statement. Since Harbinger pretty much repeats Sovereign in ME2, I'm not really covering that up. EDI and the Geth also play a major role here. Leviathan was the Apex Species that indirectly created the Reapers. As the rulers of the Galaxy, they watched over the lesser species, keeping them in their thrall, yet also caring for them. As these lesser species advanced over the millennia, the Leviathans saw that their minions tried to advance with the use of cybernetics and machines. But every time the AI reached a certain level of understanding, it rebelled and turned against its creator. Leviathan did not want this. It looked for a solution to prevent the machines from destroying the organics. In turn, the Leviathans created a Super AI that was to observe the lesser species and look for a solution. Leviathan uses these words to explain that: *To solve this problem, we created an intelligence with the mandate to preserve life at any cost. As the intelligence evolved, it studied the development of civilizations. Its understanding grew until it found a solution. In that instant it betrayed us.* Leviathan also uses these interesting phrases: *None have possessed the strength in past cycles. Your own species could be destroyed with a single thought.* *Tribute does not flow from a dead race.* *It was no mistake. It still serves its purpose.* *To find a solution, it required information -- physical data drawn from life in the cosmos.* These are the quotes from the Leviathan I'll be using. Now I'll go into the Catalyst, but for some reasons that will be clear to you in the end, I'll refer to it as Starchild. So, before we go into this, remember that everything happening here is a symbolic representation of Shepard's actions (that happen off-screen). This is in some way similar to the IT as it claims this to be a dream. It is not a dream, as it really happened, it is just shown differently. A different perspective, same outcome. Reasons for this are the voice and figure of the Starchild and the symbolic meaning of the Reaper Harvest. The latter one I will now explain. When the Starchild wakes you up, you ask immediately how to stop the Reapers. Starchild answers that it can perhaps help Shepard, as they are its solution. *I control the Reapers. They are my solution.* I'll make something clear now, the solution the Starchild refers is not the same solution Leviathan mentioned. To put it in short: It talked about its solution to the solution. A solution (synonym: a pathway, a way to get something) to the solution (to prevent machines from wiping out organic life). If you still don't get it: *The Reapers are a way to finding a solution to prevent machines from wiping out organic life.* The reason why I think this is the case is because Leviathan said that the Intelligence needed information -- physical data drawn from life in the cosmos, in order to find a solution. If you compare this quote from Leviathan to the other one: *To solve this problem, we created an intelligence with the mandate to preserve life at any cost.* I think the Intelligence made the correlation between life and information. The Intelligence was supposed to preserve all *life* in the Galaxy. And Leviathan later said that the Intelligence required *information*. Information is data drawn from life in the cosmos. In short, the Intelligence correlated *life* with *information*. So it was still doing its job by preserving all *information* in the Galaxy. So from a certain point of view life is preserved though knowledge. The Reapers use the Harvests to find a solution. The Citadel and Relay Network was created to force the civilizations to evolve along the path the Starchild desired. In this way, it could Harvest all life (AKA knowledge) every 50,000 years. The knowledge that was harvested by the Reapers is then used to find a solution for the inevitable conflict between Synthetics and Organics. Now to find out if the Reapers did indeed find a solution, we'll have to ask Sovereign. *We are each a nation, independent, free of all weaknesses.* Its literal meaning is that the Reapers each represent a nation (cycle), independent (free of will) and free of weaknesses (immortal, invincible). If we try to look for a figurative meaning, I come up with this: Each Reaper represents a nation, which could mean that each Reaper is an individual. They have a mind of their own. They are, in fact, a fully evolved AI. Or what Shepard would say: *You can say what you want, Admiral. That thing is alive.* Shepard said this when Legion showed a visual representation of Geth intelligence with Reaper code. So I added some more proof. So, the Reapers are each a different living being. A personality of its own. It can reason, it can think, it is a fully evolved AI. We are each independent. The Reapers do not need to be in close proximity to each other like the Geth to function more properly. Each Reaper has ultimate knowledge and does not depend on other AI's to bolster its overall knowledge. We are each free of weaknesses. This is a difficult one. I think that the weaknesses here mentioned are not physical weaknesses, but rather social weaknesses. The weakness of all other Synthetics is that they rebel against their creators. The Reapers are free of this weakness. Just as is shown by both EDI and the Geth. Both the Geth and EDI do not rebel against their creators. They seek for a better future and a full understanding of Organic nature. They do not seek to surpass their creators. So, with this I just gave my theory the foundation it required. With this, I can say that my theory supports the fact that the Reapers already have found the solution. The Reapers already have got a solution to end conflict between Synthetics and Organics. But the Reapers themselves are not living up to it. This means that the Reapers only looked for the solution. They were not created to employ this solution upon the Galaxy, and for good reason. So, even though the Reapers have found the solution they were looking for, they still serve a purpose. Their purpose is to select a cycle that is worthy of the solution. As the Reapers are seen as an invincible race of sapient species, and as Leviathan said that *Your species can be destroyed by a single thought*, I think the Reapers are testing each cycle. This is more like a prophecy. They have the solution for everlasting peace between Synthetic and Organic life, but they just don't freely give it to the Galaxy. The civilization must prove itself in order to receive that gift. Shepard is the one that proved himself. Shepard proved that this cycle is worthy of the solution. Shepard united all the different species of the Galaxy. The Geth and Quarians are united. The Quarians are widely accepted in the Galaxy. The Krogan are accepted in the Galaxy. The various mercenary armies have bonded together. The Batarians and Vorcha are now united with races they once claimed their enemies. All races united, Synthetic and Organic. *You have hope, more than you think. The fact that you're standing here, the first organic ever, proves it.* These were the criteria. Shepard united all the races of the Galaxy, built the crucible, and managed to board the Citadel during the Harvest for the first time ever. It is like a prophecy from Star Wars. Shepard did the unthinkable of uniting all races. Shepard put faith against seemingly impossible odds by building the Crucible. Shepard pushed on against all odds by boarding the Citadel during the Harvest. All the pieces of the puzzle fall together. The Reapers were to look for a solution, which they could only find by harvesting all knowledge in the Galaxy every 50,000 years. Ever since a certain cycle, the Reapers have found the solution, yet do not employ it. The Reapers then continue the Harvests until a cycle is found that is deemed worthy of the solution. And in the end, I have only one more thing to say. Remember that the Starchild speaks in the voice of both Maleshep and Femshep? Well, here's it: *Shepard is the Catalyst.*

That's cheating, they used the same animation with a few tweaks, LAZY!

I remember my first time playing I chose the first ending and cried like a baby 😂😂

what a fucking GREAT game .. i wish more studios made that good titles

So all in all no matter what you pick the mass relays still get destroyed, the Normandy still crashes, you get the same cutscenes basically, and the synthesize one just doesn't really make any sense... Totally worth the 130 hours I put into this trilogy just to make a decision that doesn't really matter

The song in the end by Lincon Park sums up my experience of mass effect 3.

This is absolutely the best game series I have ever played. The Universe, the choices, the unique characters :) a lot of humour along with some philosophical fod for thought... just complete...

''Tell me another story about the Shepard'' damn, the chills and teary eyes x)

Just finished playing the trilogy. Always wondered why people hate the Mass Effect 3 ending. Now I know why. I chose the destroy ending only so that shepard could live. If Shepard was able to still be alive in the synthesize ending, I would have chosen that since that seems to be the noble, life lasting and peaceful ending. In the Destroy ending, you may destroy the reapers but you kill all synthetics like EDI and the Geth and like the blue kid said, future generations will build synthetics only to repeat this. Assuming control of the reapers could be risky considering that it may control Shepard eventually like it did with Illusive man. The synthesize ending seems to be the better ending but it would have been a perfect ending had Shepard lived in that ending. I mean, humans could coexist between the synthetics like EDI and the Geth. Not to mention that the reapers help in rebuilding life back again. Synthetic ending + shepard living would have been the best ending. Hands down!

The stargazer scene isn't a secret ending. You get that scene no matter what ending you pick it just takes place after the credits.

Mass effect and the story of the protheans and the reapers is our subconscious collective memories of past human civilizations that date far beyond the times of ancient Egypt - This is where the stories of Atlantis and Lemuria come from and Mass Effect tells the galactic story which is not simply a 3D story, but a grand multidimensional story - the war of the gods, and all that is which conflicts within itself as all that is shifts it's own darkness and light, reminiscent and reflective from all stories ever told, to our every action in daily life.

I don't hate or love these any more than I hate or love the extended cut endings. In fact, I almost like these a little more because they allow for the indoctrination theory (which actually makes oodles of sense) that the extended cut completely obliterates. These endings are also FAR more fatalistic than the extended cut, which makes sense because the entire series is pretty damn dark. It's kinda like the ending to Repo Men. It was realistic and cynical, not super happy fun time. It's an adult game for an adult audience. It was a tragedy. But instead it got nothing but hate. I mean, hell, Dark Souls is just as fatalistic as these endings are, and the lore of Dark Souls barely even exists. There's at least 500% more fan canon than there is actual lore in the game. But when the Mass Effect community has to come to its own conclusions and theories like the fairly obvious indoctrination theory, it's the end of the universe. Whatever. Amazingly fun game series that is in no way even remotely affected by these last ten minutes for me. But it is a bit soured by the relatively crap community that seems to understand nothing about game design.

I'm guessing people hated it because the endings were too similar?

seal_muncher is online

I really appreciate making this it probably took awhile to make this

That child talking at the end should be the main character in the next game. That would be cool.

So I got the secret ending on my first try and I didn't even know XD

First of all: FLY JOKER FLY (forest gump reference) Next, like if you accidentally killed your two favorite characters buy choosing them for the final fight when your running to the citadel. I chose tali and garus. (WHYYYY)

I got the same endings and dialogues as you, but i only had 3300 EMS, so you don't need to max out everything. And i got the "secret enging" too. It was after the credits, and in my first walkthrough.

All 3 Ending Comparisons Red: 16:17 Blue: 10:39 Green: 5:12 Red: 17:17 Blue: 11:43 Green: 6:09 Red: 17:50 Blue: 12:43 Green: 6:47 Red: 18:01 Blue: 12:46 Green: 6:58 Red: 18:33 Blue: 13:19 Green: 7:29 Red: 19:14 Blue: 13:52 Green: 8:10 Red: 19:27 Blue: 14:01 Green: 8:23 Red: 19:44 Blue: 14:16 Green: 8:39 Red: 20:03 Blue: 14:31 Green: 8:54 Red: 20:10 Blue: 14:39 Green: 9:00 21:59 After Refusing To Choose 21:48 Sheppard Lives????

I enjoy the indoctrination theory, but I find it somewhat cheap and it tries to explain too much with too little effort, to basically put it in a "matrix" manner. I just think that they wanted something else for the Ending, which is why things don't add up, why we see Joker running away for example. But in the end, its probably just BioWare getting pressured by EA to release unfinished and cutting off the story and lessen the experience

Yeah, these endings were alright. Why does everyone have to be such a self-righteous whiner? Did you hear their original ideas for the endings? They were friggin' terrible, and extremely vaguely defined. I was surprised they had the guts to give us endings where it's certain that mostly everyone dies. Because that was the magnitude of the reaper threat. There was no childish 'perfect' ending where everyone lives happily ever after.

a fun fact: if you see the level from the ceiling with the choices platform facing the right, it will look like a dialogue option where the upper part(control) is paragon, middle(synthesis/space magic) is neutral, and bottom bottom part(destroy) is renegade. just realized it few days ago

My ending had more cut scenes. I saw Thessia and the Asari cheering as the reapers fell. I also saw Tuchunka and a couple other worlds. I notice your endings only showed Earth. Why is that? Also, I always thought the "secret" ending is the one in which Shepherd shoots the star child. I agree with your indoctrination theory. I think the only way to truly "win" the game is to destroy the reapers. Anything else is just Shepherd playing into their hands.

You know what would have been better? If the way you acted really impacted on the outcome of the meeting with the Catalyst kid. 1)You made Geth and Quarian do peace. You proved the Catalyst he was wrong so he destroys the Reapers (and only them) WIN situation 2)You made one of the two kill the other one, you proved the Catalyst right. He goes on with the Reaper extermination. LOOSE situation Alternative endings would be possible according to the other things you did during the games 3)Geth and Quarians made peace but on other occasions you acted against AI's (like destroying the Reaper base in ME2, or "unplugged" David >>Synthesis 4)Geth or Quarians killed the other one but you did things "for" the AI's (Reproggramming the Geth in ME2, leave David connected...)>>Synthesis Sub options by negociating with the Catalyst: 5) Ending 1) but you ask him to retrieve them just in case 6) Ending 2) but you ask him to only kill Geth or Quarians (since they were the one involved in a AI/Organics war), and do so the next time (only kill the species who made AI) 7) Ending 3) but you ask the Catalyst to only do the synthesis for Geth and Quarians (because you don't want the other species like you to merge) 8) Ending 4) but you ask to have the synthesis only for humans so they will get domination with this better tech. Finally, you would be able to force the Catalyst to change the option he was going to give you but it will trigger a boss fight (like the Catalysst taking the shape of Harbinger in a smaller size for instance) What do you think? :D

Goodbye commander shepperd or should I say slapshotx16 HEHEHE 17:40

You need to download the Mass Effect 3 "Extended Cut". It's a free download on the in-game store. And once it's downloaded, complete the final mission to get either ending and then that "secret" ending.

Controversy around the endings aside, I truly feel like I owe this series so much. Mass Effect 2 specifically is the game that got me into gaming. I grew up always as player 2 in videogames, as consoles belonged to my brother. If I was lucky, he let me use his previous gen consoles to play games alone, so at most I played Pokemon on his gameboy advance, or old demo games on his ps1. I wasn't good at games then, and never really got far. We both loved scifi and majorly played two-player star wars games together, then one day he decided to let me try out ME2 on his xbox 360 I was so instantly hooked and ended up playing that game more than him. Still his console and games, so I wasn't free to play whenever and when he upgraded to ps4, he let me have this Xbox 10 years ago when I started falling in love with the mechanics and fun of gaming, and the incredible stories I became invested into and completed to the end Not joking when I say this game opened up an entirely new world of stories, creativity and even art I'm a big fan of cosmic themes and horror and deeply personal, character-driven stories. Me2 nails both of those, with the fate of an inconceivably infinite universe in the hands of a character you come to understand and embody with their own life and lot to become invested in Its so existential and I absolutely love that shit. Credit is due to any story that leaves you thinking about it for days and even making you tear up. Finishing a game you love means saying goodbye to the rollercoaster you just had so much fun throughout the whole ride But it's over now and you have to get off it. You can always ride again, and it's often still fun the second time round, but it's not the same as the first experience where you never know what twists and turns it's going to take You can just simply stay on the ride in this world you love and sometimes you can take a different route or some kind of adjustment You still have to say goodbye eventually though

I ALWAYS choose the ending where Shepard lives. The others suck horses ass and are too depressing! I'm a sucker for happy endings.

There was The Sisko and now there is The Sherpard,..

Music is such a powerful thing.

One more story. That was when I knew they were going to make another Mass Effect. It has been confirmed on E3, and is coming Q4 of 2016

Jesus, I didn't even remember that the original endings were this bad. The extended cut was indeed a huge improvement

look at the color of the blast. blue is for paragon choices. red is for renegade choices. and green is a whole new color.

A good story always leaves that feeling at the end where you want MORE. It has done it's job. Very well thought out story. You have to think of the WHOLE series when playing these games. Not just one game :)

I don't know what was wrong about it, I loved the entire game and the ending. The best narrative I've played in a while.

thats one reason i like Mass Effect its the fact you can change the character to your likeness but i just havnt played that much of it

OH THANK GOD! I was freaking out! Oh Shepard, I'm so glad you're okay!

That's because it was, the clues were there throughout franchise, even more so in this game.

I don't know but I think know one really understood the ending. That no matter how prepared and ready you are for something. You can not stop the inevitable.

Imagine the old man tells the kid another story starting with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

One of the greatest things Bioware did with Mass Effect was employ the use of fan feedback with features such as the Tali romance. With that said I hope going forward the main plot points are fleshed out ahead of time. They certainly should continue to include fan suggestions for relatively little things like romance options but if they make another trilogy I would hope that they would have the clear points of the meta-plot sorted out ahead of time. Sure EA deserves blame for the time crunch to put ME3 on the 1st Quarter financial reports, which certainly contributed to a lot of the mistakes made with ME3, but I feel like to many people give Bioware a pass in lieu of placing the blame solely on EA. If the plot had more fleshed out when they decided they wanted to make a trilogy then the time crunch wouldn't have been nearly as problematic. At the very least they would have been given more time to see how much of a train wreck the dreaded space magic conclusion would have been and had a chance to fine tune the plot accordingly. I read a blog post the other day that did a good job of explaining why delaying the Reapers motives till the last minute was a mistake: *As seen with shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and others, the more you delay that revelation, the higher the minimum bar is for a satisfying motive. Why? Because the audience expects the writers to come up with something that at least justifies keeping them in the dark for so long. And when the reveal is poorly thought out and poorly executed, it makes the audience feel ripped off, especially when they had to pay $60+ dollars to get it.* Moral of the story is plan ahead of time. At the very least though it seems they've learned one key lesson from Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 for that matter. Mainly in that they've stressed how they're taking their time with the next game. As long as it doesn't enter Duke Nukem Forever territory then the results should be ideal. After all if Mass Effect 4 was given the same timetable as ME3 then we would be only a couple of weeks away from its release. Weather that's a product of EA becoming less evil or Bioware having leverage after ME3's initial backlash we'll never know.

Not necessarily. As you can see in synthesize and control, the Reapers fly away, only to return later. Destroy is the only option where it shows the Reapers overload and collapse. Also, the breath scene at the end is only possible with the destroy option, which is backed up by the fact that only with destroy do you not see Shepard die, in the others, you watch him disintegrate, but in destroy, he disappears in the explosion, leaving his fate unknown.

After I lost my squad in the assault of the beam, I can only hope it's all a dream. Shepard standing up all in blood, seeing his mates dead, and those branches on the ground, looking like the ones in his dreams. I've stoped the Reapers, but the price was too high - Earth's life destroyed, Alliance fleet vaporised, Shephard and his entire team dead. And again, at the end, life endured.

Yeah... I miss my crew. I can't imagine a Mass Effect game without them. They were like a family to me :(

3 choices that play a major role in the ending cut scene: "Destruction" (destroy the Reapers, the red side on the right), Control" (control the Reapers, the blue side on the left), or "Synthesis" (synthesize organics and synthetics together, the green middle option).

The endings do have a message. That we all have to make sacrifices to help others.

Shepherd will be back in mass effect 4. He may be dead but his AI is still alive they can program it into a cyborg like in robo cop. Shepherd will live to fight again.

You omitted the "refuse to choose" ending, as doe 95% of other posters. I refused to let the Reaper AI of the Catalyst dictate my choices. This sets up a different series of cut scenes.

Alright, I must have missed something. In this video, all of the endings involve the Normandy crashing onto an unknown planet.. In another video, Joker is able to escape the field and land safely on a planet, where they place Shepard's plaque onto a memorial. They then fly off. I'm unsure to why these are considered "perfect", when the Normandy becomes grounded. I myself didn't get a good ending, but I do admit that I rushed. (Didn't mean to come off hostile, if I did.)

I love how awesome and conclusive the Mass Effect 3 ending was. I've highlighted some of my favorite moments below. The "un-video gamey" epic final boss battle of fending off waves of generic enemies for 10 minutes as the main antagonist flies high into the sky. The psychological face-off with the Illusive Man, as the player takes revenge by shooting him using a mechanic that had been optional for the past 2 games until that exact point. After making several painstaking decisions across 3 games, Shepard gets to make the ultimate choice of which color explosion to destroy the galaxy with. And the profound, inspiring monologue of Starbrat (I mean the Catalyst) as he spout off a bunch of sci-fi mumbo jumbo that has absolutely nothing to do with Mass Effect. And the emotional resolution was so definitive, I didn't even ask myself: Why did the remaining ground forces retreat when Harbinger flew off? What was the point of the Conduit other than to get Shepard onto the Citadel? How did my squad members get back onto the Normandy (original ending)? How did it only take 5 seconds for the Normandy to pick up Shepard's injured squad members when it was just in space fighting the Reapers? Why didn't Harbinger shoot at the Normandy, which was hovering right in front of him for a full minute? Why did he take off when he knew there were more ground troops nearby? What was the Illusive Man doing in the Citadel before Shepard got there? How did the Citadel move to the Sol System in such a short amount of time? What were all those dead bodies doing in the dark hallway? How did Anderson manage to beat Shepard to the control panel? Why did Hackett assume Shepard was even alive in the Citadel? How was the Illusive Man able to control Shepard and Anderson? Where did the wound on Shepard's lower left side even come from? How does the Illusive Man know what the Crucible can do? If the Citadel is part of the Child why did the Protheans' change to the Keepers prevent the Reapers from entering the galaxy through the Citadel? How was Shepard able to breathe in space? Why didn't the Reapers rebel against Starbrat if the created will always rebel against the creators? If Synthesizing Shepard in order to create a new form of hybrid D.N.A. is the perfect solution to Chaos and the Synthesis device existed on the Citadel all this time, why wasn't it used billions of years ago to solve the Chaos problem? Ugh, you know what? I'm done. This ending is too dumb on too many levels. I mean, how would these older races even know how to create devices capable of controlling or destroying all Reapers? Why does Shepard commit suicide by walking into the explosion for the destroy option? Does it seem anything but bat-shit crazy that anyone devised all three technologies and chose to include all of them in a single structure or room? Wouldn't they have decided what to do about the Reapers/the Chaos first and then set out to design a specific device that accomplished that specific, intended function? If Starbrat can explain the idea behind the Reapers to Shepard in 1 minute, then why did Sovereign and the other Reapers say it was impossible to understand? Anyone? Anything? God, this ending is so stupid! I HATE this kid! (shoots Starbrat and triggers Refusal ending) Wait, WHAT? I just shot him because he's stupid, I didn't mean to---oh, DAMN IT! UGH. I suppose we can just blame EA for this... Show less

I love it how every ending is completely different. The normandy crashes on a different planet every time. That's kinda cool. And dude, those crazy different explosion colors. I mean...green? red? BLUE!? Holy shit.

+Bryan Shaw there is something off about the ending. I get that shep had to make a decision in the end. But in the end I was expecting that if you chose what ever ending that something remarkable would happen. Lets say that the minute you make your choice you flash to right before you make your "hail mary" on the enclosed citadel each choice making the out come of this moment different. If you choose control you find yourself at the power of harbinger as you slaughter your allies and in the end yourself. While a sequence of events that happens after, play out in the end. If you choose to sync youself with the cybernetics, you go back again and instead find yourself in an epic mental struggle where you keep on flashing to those dark woods chasing down the boy who now sounds so much like harbinger and you find yourself equiped with the weapon that you used the most in the game. You eventually come to a clearing where the boy now is turned towards you. Looking alot like the Star Child. And he morphs into a tentacled Harbinger starchild like beast. and you fight him with everything you have left. If you loose the fight your harbinger controled body kills everyone and itself, if you win you fall to the ground dizzy yet fine. Harbinger is shown falling out of the sky and crashing behind the enclosed citadel. Your current party gathers around you worried, and harbinger has one little gift left As your eyes flash quickly, If you have your Love interest with you Harbinger shoots him or her. Otherwise he shoots the party member you have used the most. Everyone is startled, while you, confused terrified and worried make a ditch for the citadel you race into the tractor beam undamaged (other than your mind) with everything on you. Still wanting to make everything right you find the control room where the illusive man is waiting. Everything has come to this if you convice him of how wrong all of this is he shoots himself. If not, the illusive man forces your already tampered with mind to walk over and destroy the citadel once and for all.There is then a scene of the citadel exploding as the others look on in horror. In the alternate turn of events after the Illusive man shoots himself you walk over to the control pannel where you program the ship to dock with the conduit, The citadel is shown flying into the atmosphere. In the control room you start to hear something behind you. as the now seemingly lively dead Illusiveman starts to expand and morph into a Bulking towering indoctrinated beast. Although the Indoctrinated Illusive man is Hurt by his self inflicted wound, You are alone, and due to your fragile mental state he paralyzes you often. If you loose the fight The Indoctrionated Illusive man. Is shown destroying everything over you lifeless body, and a scene of the docked citadel is shown blowing up. If you some how succeed. You finalyze the sequences as a scene of the conduit/citadel is shown emiting a powerful wave destroying every reaper, and only the reapers. In the control room you stand proud until a tentacle from the Illusive man peirces through your armor. This being the final act of the vile beast as you both fall dead. Again scenes would transpire after, in all these endings, some the same, some slightly different, with the sacrifical success having a special ending. Finally there is the destroy option this option will have similar events as the syncing would. In the woods though you are chasing harbinger and the setting is not so fogging and filled with black smoke. When your reach him he goes from star child to tentacled beast but weakend due to you decision to destroy. If you still loose what transpires in other choices happens. If you win you come to not dazed but clear headed, as you see harbinger crash to the ground behind the citadel. More confident you tell Anderson to hold the indoctrinated back. as your party ventures into the citadel. You and your party find your way to the control room. fighting indoctrinated all the way. In the other outcome it is clear the Illusive man knows he can succeed. Once you reach the Illusive man if you can convince him he shoots himself, if not he hulks out into a very strong Indoctrinated beast He is a tough fight but with three in your party his is a push over. Though once the conduit it ready as a last gift he takes out the Love interest or most used ally. If he does shoot himself his life less body hulks out though he is dead and gone at the end of the fight. And this will be the Happy ending as the reapers are defeated, and all is well with the world. For Now. I had excitment chills while writing this the whole way through. this was the ending I always wanted one that went with what was already done but gave the reason to replay the game more enjoyablility. Something that gave the rest of such a beautifully written game the powerful yet epic ending. Now this is just a blue print of what might have been. Are there other things that needed to be seen most definately. But had the game been as it was and this had been it's extended cut DLC. I would have been the happiest fool in the world.

There's another ending, I got. I didn't jump down the beam, or do any of the "control or destroy" the reapers. I Shot the kid, he said "So be it" in a dark voice and then walked away and it went to another cut scene not shown in the video ;)

lol. This catalyst logic is the same of having sex to preserve virginity.

If you did well enough and have the free DLC, you can control the reapers and make them rebuild everything you destroyed. That's the best ending in my opinion, since it's still Shepard who controls the reapers, they can protect the galaxy against a new threat like that.

I like Synthesis because even if they were horrific unethical machines, the Reapers were right about something: the life cycles of organic civilizations kept having patterns that lead them to their destruction. It is explained by the Prothean VI on Thessia. Synthesis is a cure to all that and despite being an imposed decision to all beings in the galaxy, it opens a new future. It is also an interesting concept that makes you think after finishing the game. I agree about Control though.

The music makes me wonder and cry, specially when he is talking to the boy...

Yes, and I believe the VI was presented to Shepard in the form of the child he had been dreaming about, which was the one he saw killed at the beginning of the game. The kid stated he controlled the Reapers, but only insofar as they were acting out the "solution" to the problem of conflict between orgs and synths, so he wasn't some kind of overlord, just a guy doin' his job...

If you are interested i would look at "Smudboys" analysis, he does much greater justice to my argument than i could. I will give a brief though, Control - The implications of Shepards speech are horrific especially renegade Synthesis - In addition to being impossible and morally repugnant, synthesis is essentially imposing the reapers "Perfection" on the galaxy, simply because the reapers asked nicely. I would also make note of the normandy landing on earth, it took 5 seconds, thats insane

With this set of completely original and great endings you get the choices of: red green or blue!

I had only 3,858 EMS (Effective Military Strength) points and still got the best possible ending for the Destroy/Destruction option. If you've downloaded the Extended Cut (it's free), which I did, you only need 3,100 EMS points for all the best possible endings.

Good thing there was the extended cut!

and thus, the galaxy learned the primary colors red,blue and green...

To get a other secret ending, just shoot at the kid in the end. The reaper will continue to wipe all organic and new life will bloom. They also show Liara as a projection just like the Prothean VI, Vendetta, giving hints to the next life cycle what to do if reaper come.

Later when we see the Normandy crash-landed on the planet, the door opens, but the cinematic ends before we see anyone in the ship. So they died too I guess. But when the grandpa and the child speaks, is the same in this ending as well.

Yes just finish the game, after that it puts you right back on the Normandy before you attack the cerberus base. Go do every mission you can find, and scan all the planets. It would also help if you imported a save you made in ME2 and ME1. Making the right paragon/renegade choices also helps, as they will help you convince people in conversations. Having all your companions loyal in ME2 and not having anyone die in the suicide mission in ME2 helps. It helps if Tali managed to become an Admiral

Am I the only one feeling unfulfilled and left wanting more after these endings?

Well you can always shoot the 'boy' catalyst, and the harvesting continues. Was a mistake that I discovered it though

The war assets are there for a reason, THEY MATTER TO THE FINAL MISSION AND THE ENDING.

Look at shepards eyes its like ilussion man only on red he dosent have that eyes he was indocrynatied

They're making a new Mass Effect. Just not naming it "Mass Effect 4." But playing this game made me cry :(.

its funny how the reapers want to stop chaos but they go to war which causes chaos.

I love the ending shepard died heroicly saving billions of lives he made the ultimate sacrifice

After the credits Shepard looked dead then he took a deep breath for the ending I had. Don't no if it was in this video I scrolled through a lot of it.

My first ending, I got the secret ending, than couldn't find it again.

After playing the entire trilogy, I have to say that the ending is the most difficult decision to make. For me, personally, the best ending would be Synthesis. Although it does lead to Commander Shepard's demise, the reapers are no longer the vicious machines they once were. They assist instead of attack, and that's what really makes a difference.

If you don't have the Extended cut DLC you need to have effective war assets above 4000, so you need a total of 8000 total military strength if your readiness rating is at the standard 50% However if you do have the Extended Cut DLC you need 3100 effective war assets so a total of 6200 military strength if your readiness is at 50%.

Miranda: ''We've had a good run.'' Shepard: ''The best..'' Greatest line in any game to close the trilogy with a form of closure. We'll never have a great game like this in a long time. o7 Commander Shepard.

I chose the secret ending. I had an army for fuck's sake. I personally ruined many years of work of the reapers by killing many of them, why couldn't I do a couple more like that, right?

i'd like to thanks Jinbe Fett for the hints he gave me,not only i have the good ending of control Reaprs but i even get secret ending,so i really wanna thank you.....

Well the answer is killing Shepard was never the issue most heroes die at the end of an epic adventure or at least are forever changed particularly in Bioware games

I think Leviathan gave the ending more meaning. Understanding that the kid is actually the Leviathan's rogue AI the Intelligence, his crazy logic to harvest organic life every 50k years to preserve order. Imagine if EA released Mass Effect 3 with all the DLC on launch day given that BioWare was allotted enough development time. Yes, people would still be a tad unhappy about Shepard's end, but there'd be no massive outcry because of the ending.

the only difference in the ending of mass effect 3 after spending countless hours of building up your sheperd from mass effect 1 to 3 is the colour of the explosion from the crucible. I'm colourblind (no I'm not a dog) but I really am and didn't notice until I read about it online

I don't die! Destroy ending: I live and me and Liara have little blue children! Control ending: I end up being a reaper and lose my body (again!) Thanks a lot for that... Merge ending: I come back after some time, but i do have some metalic bits and i have a built in audio system. Also i must go to the service every 15000km for oil changes

Remember Marauder Shields. He died to try and save us from the ending. Honour his sacrifice.

"Heroes die... Legends live forever..."

a.) How is saying "They loaded onto the Normandy" related to this? c.) No, it was exactly fallibility. That's the entire point of ME3. It shows that the Reapers, who people thought were basically just evil Gods, were just an AI created by the Leviathans. And they are based on a premise that we show is incorrect. There's no contradiction there. That's the entire point of what happened in the game. d.) Its not made up. Did you forget all the things needed to activate the Citadel in ME1?