Mass Effect 3 Endings - Are They Really ALL THE SAME? 

Shepard and Harbinger in the control ending scene. Harbinger: Don't say it.. Please. Shepard: ... ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

The problem for me was never about the cutscene after your choice. The problem was that we never saw our war assets in play. We never saw the massive krogan army outside of a couple that Wrex was talking to. We never saw the elcor with the auto turrets mounted to their back. We never saw the mercenaries teaming up to take down reapers. The only place that acknowledged all that we did was a screen with a few updates and some pictures that kept being reused.

I did not fight for the preservation and diversity of space-faring races for 3 games just to synthesize them all

Imagine Javik being the one to choose Starchild: *explaining the first one, destroy* We will be destroyed but the damage will- Javik: *BOLTS and yets himself against the glass*

Hearing all this stuff about the endings for ME3 make me glad I started playing the mass effect games later instead of when they were released.

The problem with the endings is that the synthetics vs. organics was never the main conflict in the game, but rather galactic cooperation. It felt like I had spent years trying to prove that the Council was wrong about the main threat being an artificial AI just for the game to prove me wrong.

Javik: Reaches the catalyst Catalyst: Destroy is this way

In my last playthrough, I suddenly remembered after all the dialogue that I still had a gun, so I tried to shoot the Catalyst. Reapers 1, Sheperd 0.

How did I not realize that Elon musk is the illusive man

it should be noted that Shep's speech with the control ending changes if you're renegade, paragon or middle road.

The control ending voiceover makes a beautiful counterpoint to FemShep telling Garrus if she dies she will watch over him and he will never be alone. Because she literally is watching over him. 😭

Honestly I think it would be a better idea for a ending if it was determined on your choices throughout the series instead of what we got

While the endings have vastly different consequences. How they were expressed was near identical.

I’m so glad I played Me3 with the extended cut on my first run

The star child says "do you think you can control us" with the control ending so how can we trust anything said when it admitted to being part of the reapers they wouldn't want to be destroyed so it makes sense they play to sheperds humanity that they see as weak

Wish there was an option in the control ending to fly all the Reapers into the Sun. Destroy the Reapers without sacrificing your synthetic allies.

The biggest problem is the lack of denouement. We all wanted to know what happened to the characters we got invested in. The devs thought that all the interactions we had over the game and the interactions with major characters at the FOB before the final mission started would be enough closure. That could have worked if all the endings didn't basically threw a wrench in whatever plans the characters had, especially with the destruction of the mass relays. The complete destruction of all the mass relays screws everyone over no matter what and that's what everyone "imagined" would happen after the endings. Leaving the viewer/player to imagine their own ending doesn't really work if they can't see any possibilities to explore. "Indoctrination Theory" gained a lot of traction because people were looking for any way to say the endings didn't really happen. The videos and articles that people made on it were well done and thought out, but looking back it's clear most of them were grasping at straws to enhance the endings rather than any real belief in the theory and got way too invested in wanting it to be true. The Extended Cut certainly fixed many of the problems with the original endings, but I can't unfeel what I felt when I beat the game for the first time and saw an underwhelming cutscene and then saw that the other choices led to nigh-identical cutscenes.

I think the bigger meaning of "all the same" is that they are all available. If you made it that far you can save before the the end, and then pick the multiple choice ending you want to watch. Had there been more input on the Crucible design you might have been locked into certain options earlier. Maybe synthesis being from tech offered by the Geth working with the Quarians, and control gifted by the Illusive man if you had saved the Collector base. Destroy and walk-away being options of the base design, and therefore always available. I would have included another option by having Wrex show up if he's still alive, as the only way to get a destroy end with Shepard surviving. Those would make your decisions have real meaning, as you could get all of them, but some playthroughs would lock some out.

Destroy the Reapers: It's our mission since the first game and in my opinion it's the most correct thing to do Control the Reapers: It's what Ilusive Man wanted. We become the person that we swear to destroy. Synthesis: I called this ending as Saren's End. In ME1 Saren thought that all species can be changed into a mix of biological and sintetic life form like this end. So just choose one.

The destroy ending seems to be the only one that can explain a continuation of the story to the new game. I don't see control or synthesis being canon, that would probably make sense if the new teaser didn't have Liara looking for Shepard's armor on the new teaser. Indoctrination theory is the only explanation left if the story would actually continue in the Milky Way. Hudson may say that "It wasn't our intent" but I believe he's lying to us, just like the Harbinger/Child did lol.

i always had the thought that with the blue ending, with the knowledge of the reapers and everything he could make himself a new body to still be Shepard and control the reapers similiar to what the star child did but more person looking instead of a projection like entity which means that everyone can still access the knowledge of the reapers (like the green ending) by just having shepard basically upload it

The reason I feel like they're all the same for me is by the end I felt as though nothing I did mattered it didn't feel like a win it felt like I lost just my opinion

If Shepard returns in the next ME then this means that the Destroy ending is cannon.

As it is now with the extended cut dlc, the endings now do feel different but as someone who finished it back when it launched I'd say the original color coded ending was horrible and war assist didn't matter then since you got the same basic cutscene whether you made different choices. I think a great addition to the extended cut dlc that would have made the war assist feel more personal is like when you have all the fleets reporting in you'd have actually ppl responding like Balik reporting in with the Batarian fleet and saying how he'll kill them and then aria's omega mercs reporting in telling shepard aria expects a win followed by a volus saying their bombs are ready for delployment etc etc. That way your choices of who to align with or who to kill/not kill and the little side missions have more than a simple number associated with them, same with being on the ground imagine having an elcor with guns on his back backing up shepherd along with grunt leading his platoon of krogans.

“What was implied by the original endings” my guy *WAT*

Synthesis seems a tad unethical... you're literally altering the DNA of every lifeform in the universe and essentially creating a galactic hive mind. Free will gives rise to conflict. It is natural. This ending dissolved the Krogan culture.

I would’ve like a fifth ending added after they released the leviathan dlc in which you can convince the starchild that it did the one thing it was created to prevent and depending on your reputation you can convince him via a paragon or renegade speech check

If you never saw the new endings, they were essentially the same ending. This is the first time, I’ve seen the new endings. The original endings had different color or whether EDI was there or not when the surviving crew members exited the Normandy. How did BioWare think that would fly? Also with no explanation on what each choice really meant at the original end of the game, it was just pick a color.

I adore 99% of the trilogy, but still despise the endings 9 years later. Marauder Shields is the worst boss in video game history.

I feel like I'm one of the only people who actually likes the endings to Mass Effect 3, especially the control one. Fun fact by the way: in the control ending, the narration is slightly different depending on whether you were more paragon or more renegade.

I have played a lot of Mass effect over the years and never saw Edi and Ashey get toasted by a Reaper beam! OMG! Gotta replay again for my 400th playthough

To be fair pre Extended Cut, War Assets only mattered in the fact that in unlocked certain endings.

Hey Dan! It's nice seeing someone else dive into the "Ending discussions". I hadn't actually heard the Casey Hudson recording.

To start with, you should seriously do more of this series. Personally I tend to believe the ending slides are only part of the story, and you have to read between the lines of what the Catalyst is saying and what the Reapers are doing to piece it together. My theory on the ending to Mass Effect 3 is a more detailed variation on Indoctrination Theory, the theory that Shepard is slowly being Indoctrinated by the Reapers or that they're attempting to indoctrinate him and something about him is fighting it off. I point out that one of the dreams involve the boy we later find out is the catalyst burning beside Shepard. That's a warning not to trust the Catalyst if I ever saw one. And Mass Effect 3 wouldn't have been the first Lovecraftian story to end with the protagonist becoming what he feared. The idea of Indoctrination and Shepard becoming a Reaper reminds me of the ending to "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in particular. And if you're interested, a youtube channel called Horrorbabble performs their own Lovecraft audio books including that one. Another channel with some interesting insights that you can apply to Mass Effect 3 is SFIA, Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur. And in fact several of his videos mention Mass Effect, particularly the Geth and the Reapers, his work helped me gain some insight into the Galaxy from the Reapers and Leviathan's point of view. As far as the ending goes, I don't believe that most people understand what the reapers are actually doing. But if you go back over the conversation with the Catalyst you realize he says EXACTLY what they're doing. Go sifting back through e-mails and conversations about Reaper activities while you're at it. You realize that "harvesting" people who aren't turned into Husks involves something similar to the process the Collectors used. They get dissolved into a protein slurry and pumped into a Reaper. This technology was present in the game in some form from Mass Effect 1 on in the form of the Keepers, it just wasn't explained until Thane's Loyalty mission when Bailey comments about the duct rats falling into the protein vats the Keepers use. One of the interesting considerations in Mass Effect's technology is waste heat. It's everywhere, from the Normandy's stealth drive to the weapons you use. And maybe in the scanners the Reapers and Collectors use? It's pretty clear at the end that the people who are harvested are being preserved somehow, perhaps in a form similar to Commander Shepard in the control ending. There's a word for that concept, a Whole Brain Emulation or WBE. And Mass Effect is not the first sci fi game I've seen with that concept. Nick Valentine in Fallout 4 IS a WBE. He also illustrates the tendency of such copies to diverge from their originals, as this technology is not cut and paste, it's copy and paste, and if you want to be considered the Original when you came second, then the Original has to be destroyed. Commander Shepard, the original one, was destroyed in the Control and Synthesis endings. But in the control ending a part of him lives on as an evolved WBE in control of a Reaper. I don't believe this involves him becoming the Catalyst, as the Catalyst himself treats Shepard as something new. But more interestingly, advanced sci fi scanning technology, like the kind needed to copy somebody's mind whole hog to the point where personality-wise there's no telling the two apart, takes a lot of power and by extension takes a lot of heat. Look again at the sequence where the Collectors are turning the colonists to slurry. That glow is HEAT. So what's likely happening is that the slurry is a byproduct of scanning the colonists, why use it as part of the Human Reaper? Well waste not want not. The Reapers have technology so advanced that they can turn a human into a husk that's 90% cybernetic with nothing but nanites. They can take those elements in the human body and use them for building. And if you go into Isaac Arthur's videos, you realize that an advanced race can transform one periodic element into another using varying technologies if they wanted to. And in fact parts of technology like that are already in use by the Citadel Council, you can find that information in the galaxy map entries, if I remember right a collider used for that purpose can be found in the Krogan DMZ in Mass Effect 2. The Reapers are likely hundreds of millions of years ahead of the rest of the Galaxy. They would have progressed far beyond star lifting and super colliders for fusion a long time ago. And if you are farming species the way the Reapers are, trying to preserve them digitally for quadrillions of years in the future, you want all the resources you can get to sustain them. That brings me to the behavioral part of the Reapers. Their harvesting of the galaxy is to "preserve" it, but they look like they're turning everything to goop. A lot of the damage done to some of the planets you find in the Galaxy map that are called "Post Garden" could probably be related to past cycles' efforts to defend themselves from the Reapers rather than the Reapers themselves. The Reapers' behavior actually fuses three different answers to the Fermi Paradox; the Zoo Hypothesis, the Aestivation Hypothesis, and the Simulation Hypothesis. Think about it, what is a zoo? It's a place where you stick wildlife in customized habitats to preserve them from destruction. You are recreating their habitat in the wild, just not to the level of detail one might like. But because animals aren't as intelligent as humans, (and in my opinion are more adaptable) they don't require as much detail to exist in a zoo. But Zoo animals can still be harmed by outside forces, look what happened to Harambe. So a traditional zoo is not 100% safe for preserving what you're trying to preserve, and in fact the animals still die of old age or disease or develop medical and behavioral problems. If, however, you are a digital being, you only need electricity and something to fight boredom to survive, that's it. You don't need food, you don't get sick, you don't age. You can experience those things if you want to. But you don't have to, and if you wanted you could undo them again. And in fact you're completely uncoupled from our normal notions of time. We follow time based on cues in our environment. It's a very basic part of our brains. A digital commander shepard with a digital copy of his crew including his love interest could experience an entire lifetime in minutes, getting married, settling down, having children, growing old, and dying. And then come back and do it again if they wanted to. They could even control how much of the experience they remembered later. In light of the games themselves and all the choices in them, it kind of makes you wonder if that's not what you're actually seeing in Mass Effect; Commander Shepard reliving different iterations of his past digitally because he doesn't want to remember where and when and what he actually is, and that is where the Simulation Hypothesis comes in. It explains where the data of harvested people is going, why the husks don't recognize other humans, and may even explain the three part ending to Mass Effect. The whole game might be a simulation the Reapers or Shepard himself are running. In the end though, thousands of civilizations are likely digitized; trapped inside the Reapers on a server with no way out and no inkling of what's going on. Until of course, you decide to paint the galaxy red. And this is the most terrifying thing about the simulation hypothesis; you are essentially at the mercy of whoever's running the simulation. If your server is in danger, you'd never know it. And if you find out the truth, the people running the simulation can make sure you don't remember it. They don't even have to kill you, just pause the simulation and edit your consciousness so you don't remember. The Aestivation hypothesis is fairly new as solutions to the Fermi Paradox go. And while not good in it's original form, with a few caveats it could potentially explain our not seeing intelligent life and definitely shares a resemblance to the Reapers. Remember in a previous comment I explained that the Reapers were aiming for the Heat Death of the Universe originally as a way to increase their processing efficiency? The Aestivation hypothesis is the idea that civilizations sleep for most of their lives, in stasis or in a slowed down digital existence. Instead of sleeping through winter, you sleep through summer, when temperatures mean you have to expend more energy to flip a bit. The paper that introduced it was so Lovecraftian that its sub title was "That is not dead which can eternal lie." The full quotation is "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even Death may die." So think of life from the Reapers point of view, you are digital, created to preserve biological life forms. But the damn things keep killing each other, and your creators are actually making it worse. The creatures you preserve are so fragile that just existing causes them to die and that individual is then lost to entropy. And the growing and expanding population requires you collect more and more and more resources to survive. Eventually you're going to snap. In a digital existance, resource consumption is far more efficient. You can undo any damage the 'animals' do to their enclosure. You can keep it a secret from them if you want to. From the Reapers' point of view they are the superior life form, able to live for billions of years. It's not surprising in the least that they don't understand or refuse to concede the possibility that Organic life forms may not be happy living as they do, that they'd rather live short brief lives (compared to them at least) is likely nothing more than childish rebellion to them. As a result, the Reapers just don't believe we know what we're talking about.

The ME3 endings only seemed the same pre extended cut. I feel like that's lost on many people nowadays.

“The Crucible won’t discriminate” StarBrat says So why does it only discriminate in one ending? Shouldn’t control also mean Shep is a Geth army? Just seems like some kinda BS that only one ending targets advanced AI (but somehow doesn’t destroy all of the other ships... it’s almost like the StarBrat lies or something)

Finally you work on the endings! Great stuff Dan! Keep up the awesome work 👍😁

Furthermore, Hackett's Destroy speech, the length of the sequence as well as the slides will heavily depend on EMS. Shepard's Control speech will also depend on Paragon/Renegade and there's even a version for Neutral morality. Players often overlook just got deep the difference are when you take EMS into account. Combine different EMS versions with all possible story and morality variables, and you get a LOT of different endings. Benefit of us modders is that we know all possible quirks and variations in the game by exploring the files. ;)

Does anyone know anywhere that lists all the factors that determine which of the ending photos appear in the slideshow of the different characters during the voiceovers in the extended portion of the endings? Some are obvious such as whether the Genophage is cured and Quarian/Geth peace, however others seem more determined by specific events such as Jack's photo is I believe determined by whether or not her cadets survive. Does Kasume's change depending on whether or not you saved her grey box? I have no idea what determines Jacob's clip and some others. Some also vary somewhat depending on which of the 3 major ending choices is made.

I always find myself going for control, especially since thanks to the extended ending we get to hear Shepard explain their motivation and see them using the reapers to rebuild and protect. After working so hard to humanize EDI and make peace with the geth it would be a horrific crime to destroy them with the reapers, not to mention the damage to technology. No matter what star child says synthesis is forcing a bizarre change on everyone regardless of their wishes. But control means the hands are off the wheel, everyone gets to go on with their normal lives, and the power of the reapers can still be used to ensure rogue synthetics never exterminate organics and no race dominates all the others. As much as I hated the Mass Effect ending originally, I have come to somewhat appreciate it. We all wanted a perfect happy ending, but the real world doesn’t work that way. Instead we get a choice where there are ups and downs to every option and which you choose will depend on your Shepard’s personal values. Every option sacrifices something.

I like to imagine that in the control ending, the reapers build an EDI-like robot that houses the new Catalyst, allowing Shepard to be reunited with his/her crew.

Bioware can't make an ending worse than those three . Bioware: "Hold my beer and get this ending for those who refuse to lose their Shepard because we're too lazy to just give you a custscene showing Garrus visiting Shepard and Tali on Rannoch." EA: "New player, need new player, winner winner, chicken dinner!"

Hey Big Dan congratulations for getting 10k subscribers. I have been watching all your ME trilogy videos, they're very useful. Thank you for all your videos and keep your work up dude. That will be all😅

all 3 endings were the same since it just had a few stock scenes at the end, but the problems I had with the endings was that they follow reaper doctrines. none of these endings however gave me a full feeling of choice because they didn't make me feel like I was controlling Shepard since I literally couldn't use any special dialogue choices to get the garbage data to see that the cycles were no longer needed

Those three endings are very different from each other. I always said the issue with the endings were based on what this game was sold as; before it came out it was advertised to have around 36 different endings. Those endings were basically a variety of these three, depending on the casualties of those fighting against the reapers, small differences in cutscenes (not including colour) show essentially the same cutscene with slight differences to the damage done in the war and that was all. Mass effect was a game advertised as a game based around choice (in reality it wasn’t, anyone who’s played multiple play throughs will know that). It doesn’t matter if Wrex survived ME1 because you fight indoctrinated Seren at the end regardless, it didn’t matter who lived through the Suicide mission, you fight a human reaper regardless. Is doesn’t matter how many assets you acquire, Shepard confronts the crucible kid regardless. No matter your choice in any of the games; the games narrative stays intact. Evidently the hate given to ME as a trilogy stems from the fans take on what ME was meant to be. At the time I used to think ME was a game based around choice (like most others), but if you take a closer look the choices you made were purely for your own personal take on world building. None of the choices you made had a big impact on its story. It’s story is linear. However, commander Shepard and the characters you meet along the way are not. The game was an amazing journey from start to finish. But the illusion of choice convinced everyone to heighten their expectations; which were inevitably crushed. That’s why ME:3 gets a bad reputation in regards it’s ending. Fans of ME expected more than what the game always was from beginning to end. A linear story with fun personal winding paths for those to enjoy a unique experience... until the end.

This is the first time seeing these ending cutscenes. They are without doubt infinitely better than the original ending cutscenes. They really are the same in the original cut , but I'm glad they added this fallout style outro which I always felt was needed. Imagine in Fallout New Vegas putting in a lot of time and effort into trying to save many factions like The Brotherhood, the families on the Strip, and The Great Khans only to never hear about them again after the battle of Hoover Dam. Fallout is amazing but it wouldn't be as great without seeing the ultimate impact ur character had on all these people. So in conclusion these are three entirely different endings in my opinion BUT only in the extended edition. Mass Effect is nearly a decade old and people are still debating the ending. A sign of something special

What if the control and Synthesis endings are a prelude to what the Andromeda remnant created?

By the way, Synthesis is what Saren wanted in Mass Effect 1

It was never about them being the same, it was about the fact non of your work and choices made a difference.

Well the Green ending is just completely insane fairy tale... with "just how"??? FTL propeled nanite swarm??? The blue one is fairly reasonable... The red one is completely hillarious - that damn thing either does not know what crucible will do or it just lies. Because - it does do what it says - it doesnt kill Asari commandos with biotic implants... it doesnt fry every computer in the galaxy (see Hacket´s fleet), it should be able to just "delete" get from Quarian suits - because - as Tali said - Geth are just software - yes it probably destroys every quantum bluebox based AI (RIP EDI...)

8:56 is there anything to say Shepard doesn't survive in the other Destroy ending iterations? Sure if you don't get enough EMS you won't see the cutscene confirming he is still alive but you don't get any confirmation that he is dead. Considering the next me looks like it uses the destroy ending as canon, I imagine this loophole of sorts will be used to have Shepard be alive.

About 2 years late, but I have a burning question. That last cutscene on the video, does EDI really die at the beam with low war assets? That platform's gone sure but she's basically the normandy. Does it reflect in the epilogue if u let here die there but choose control or synthesis?

Also. I dont see Bioware choosing the blue or green for canon. It doesnt make sense to have another galaxy threat and everyone is way better now. The end that reapers win are also complicated to follow through. So they should go with the red ending and make a silly argument like "oh they rebult the Geth"

during my first playthrough, I was like “I’m going to die anyways, so I’ll let myself die quick” and went for the left side aka control ending. then I read that choosing destroy and Shepard will survive. I reloaded my save and went for the right side, died again. think I got only 2100 EMS. didn’t even have Synthesis as a choice.

I think the problem is that all endings can be shortend to one point: Shepard becomes god and decides for the whole galaxy. (which seems pretty unrealistic) The outcome of the decisions may differ but it feels pretty random. They would have done better with an easy black or white ending: If you hit a certain score: Organic win if dont: they lose And maybe some steps between like: most die/ losing of all portals/technology etc

I played back in 2012 and was frustraded. With the extended cut it was all better, but still have the impression that everything leads to war assets and they dont matter much. I will wait for your video

I thought my ending was great and would never know people didn’t like them if the internet didn’t exist. I was completely satisfied and I’m already nostalgic for a game series that I literally just finished playing. Honestly the third game was my personal favorite out of the bunch. I think gamers don’t put themselves into the shoes of the people who create these games that are so loved by so many people enough. It’s so easy to tear something apart and criticize every fault and flaw something has, but much harder to be the people responsible for creating something that is going to be experienced by hundreds of thousands of individuals and trying to satisfy as many as possible.

Anyone ever think about how in the control ending shepherd basically becomes Machine Dr Manhattan?

Does anyone know what the title of that war assets video was? Because I've looked through the play list and I don't see it.

How the hell is the new Mass Effect game gonna make any sense? Which ending is going to be considered cannon? Will it even matter? So many questions. I hated all the ME3 endings. I REALLY wanted to like Synthesis, but it rubbed me the wrong way. I won't get into why, it's far too long-winded, and I get all bitchy about it. lol

I want to see the fleet fight, and win or lose depending war assets. I really hate the plot that blindly using super weapow - the Crucible. With the Crucible, the war will win no matter how less war assets is. More war assets just means more short cut scenes.

I’d like to imagine this little hopeful scenario for the “Destroy” ending option, whether you believe this can or you want this to happen. Before the final push, during the downtimes and preparation, while the Quarians and Geth were slowly and gradually understanding and trusting each other once more, they former co-studies with the latter to understand both the Geth codes and the origins and technicals of the Reaper codes, with the latter providing insight on how to be able to utilize that code without it becoming a dangerous liability in the future and that the Quarians have an idea to help the latter should anything have happened to them even after gaining individuality and co-existence with their creators. Then by the time Shepard makes his choice, as the Geth shuts down from his choice, as they fought along with their creator brothers and sisters, as the war finally reaches its end, the Quarians go to the side of the fallen geth’s shells/corpses cradling them and saying their words to their lifeless shells once more “Keelah ‘Selai”. And as the time and theme of rebuilding continues, a large majority of the Quarians would eventually voice their hopes and wishes in a movement to revitalize and rebuild the Geth once more while opting to not repeat the same mistakes of their ancestors along with the assurance of their knowledge that was corroborated from studying along with their Geth allies. Admiral Gerrel would feel the need to not endanger his people any more than he already has so he would effectively lower any old opinions he has and refocus on the safety and security of his people just as his begrudged ally Admiral Korris once had, while Admiral Xen would be put in check to ensure her “mad scheming scientist” vibes do not escalate things out of control. Yeah, and that’s the best scenario, circumstances and possibilities regarding the Geth that I’d like to imagine happening for the players choosing the “Destroy” option, to try and be a little more hopeful. Maybe Bioware would go in a different direction, but I’d just thought I’d let this out there.

Destroy just makes more sense, it's been your mission since the very beginning. I'm not going to change everyone's life form without giving them a choice, and there would be no individuality anymore.

While i treated the whole 3rd game as an ending. it works great. I was just hoping the end cinematic battle was intercut with all the forces and war assets collected. a shot of Arias mercs fighting, on the ground or in space. even a shot of a shuttle landing, and all your level up'd N7 multiplayer characters step out to fight. showing the geth fighting with you, or the Krogan. just a quick cutaway. making that end cinematic feel yours

I know everyone has their ending that they prefer, but to me the Control ending make the most sense for my Shepard to choose. Yes the goal for the last 3 games was to find a way to destroy the Reapers, but I don’t feel the Shepard that I play would do that if it means sacrificing the Geth (which I always save by making peace with the Quarians) and EDI.

I would say that the destroy ending would be the Best ending, if Shepard could find a way to not destroy an AI, but only destroy Reapers. In easy, preventing Crucible to destroy every syntethic life.

Does anyone know why when I picked the destroy ending EVERYONE died it wasn’t just edi and whatever like they all died and it’s no longer possible for them to use advanced technology or anything. I’m so confused and I can’t find anyone talking about it

Back in 2012 I only played the destroy ending (also I sacrificed the Quarians to save the Geth) but I remember it being vague and very disappointing since the final cut scene had the citadel glow red shoot a beam through the Mass relay and then you saw the Normandy crashed on the planet before cutting to the two people walking through the snow, I don't know how different the other endings were back then but the extended cut definitely improves the ending now that I've finally played it after all these years. At the time I thought they took dev time away from the ending to add in that terrible multiplayer mode.

I would go destroy or control. Destroy for the canon ending for me anyways. Control for the countermeasure against the rise of the leviathans. Synthesis is basically you forcing everyone to be of one mind which is a no no for me

With the extended cut, I don’t mind the three choices, though I find that synthesize is too optimistic and weird to fit in with the rest of the trilogies nuanced vibe lol. What’s more annoying to me is how the ending chapter on Earth is so short and the war assets that you build up through the game play such a small role. If you actually had different experiences in the final chapter, and had some of the various units that you recruit help you out during gameplay, and if they had certain characters live or die depending on war assets and your previous choices, then I think the ending would have been good. But the ending sequence on Earth I think is what annoyed a lot of people even after the Extended Cut DLC

Which ending do you think is the canon that will conect with the new ME?

I have never played the last mission in me3 i just saw liara dying in the last mission. Is there any way i can prevent her death?

I honestly chose synthesis this as my favorite the idea of countless millennials and ages faces and people creatures we probably do not even understand that would make even the leviathans look a little bland and comparison and important voices lost to the ether itself beyond memory that only the reapers sadly had the information not even even hints of their existence just wiped out because of the reapers only the tiniest tiniest bits were allowed to so the former race could I guess it was them who made the mass relays and everything before and rinse and repeat again and again with the reapers this is one of the reasons why I prefer the ending it allows eid the others to survive the geth countless civilizations people faces not to be forgotten and those who fought in this word not to be forgotten and what made the reapers be created in the first place ironically to not be for nothing ironic irony isn't it use the very enemies knowledge to make sure the future will not repeat itself because that was the whole point of their existence in the first place so even the reaper's point of existence was not completely put in vain either even if they're monsters still monsters monsters or monsters now I'm done with that dramatic side that I just really wanted to see it that way and plus the Star Trek Borg are nothing in comparison I think it's kinda insane that the synthesis ending ironically give me borg vibes due to the color it almost seems like the borgs purpose and existence was to be somewhat similar to this but something got out of hand both the borg and the reapers

I always find myself too invested in EDI's character arc to choose the Destroy ending (even though I concede that it's probably canon). More often than not, I'll choose "Synthesis"

In those 3 does the 2 companions you select to be with you for the mission do they die in those 3 endings cause I got destroy and I brought garrius and liara and they died😢

Such a beautiful game series (not counting here, Andromeda ofc. I refuse to accept that as a Mass Effect game)... The journey gave me chills and has put sparkles in my eyes more than a couple of time alone the way. And, what a journey this has been... Just ended part 3 a couple of seconds ago with the Synthesis end and it was EPIC. Shout out to my main character Garrus and secondaries Javik/Tali for being the most awesome and badass partners Shepard could have asked for. I wish I had discovered your channel earlier maybe I could have saved some of the other heroes I've lost along the way (K.Goto, Legion, K. Alenko, Miranda, Mordin, Thane Krios and Captain Anderson) Also, Legion.... I kept your kind safe. You deserved it. And, also, you were the biggest reason for choosing the Synthesis ending. I wanted so bad to whipe out the Reapers but that would have been at the cost of synthetics too, so I couldn't go through with it.. That was for you my friend..." We are Legion..."

Oh man, that cut to Dennis when you said "implication" 🤣🤣

Even before The Extended Cut was released, I saw the distinction between the three endings. I think most people hated it just because of the visual presentation, and the rest were dissatisfied because they interpreted all three endings as bad. They only saw the negative implications with each choice. Control: admitting The Illusive Man was right. Destroy: killing EDI and the geth. Synthesis: creating the reapers’ ideal galaxy. While I can understand each of those arguments, I still saw the upside of each decision. Control: Shepard is a very different person from the Illusive Man. The fact that the game presents this ending as the “paragon” ending with its blue colour scheme implies that Shepard inherently disagrees with the Illusive Man’s ideology. He would use the reapers to assert human dominance over the galaxy. Shepard would only use them to rebuild and protect. If you dislike the negative implications of the other two endings, what this ending does is preserve the diversity of the galaxy without sacrificing synthetics. Destroy: Shepard is no stranger to making hard decisions. In war, you can’t save everyone no matter how much you want to. It was always implied that any device that can generate enough power to destroy the reapers will cause serious collateral damage. However, Shepard owes it to everyone fighting to achieve what they all want: the reapers destroyed. Synthesis: Not only in this game, but even in actual human history, there has been a pattern of conflict that escalated into war and/or genocide time and time again. All of it was the result of conscious choices made out of hate, fear, desperation, ignorance, greed, etc. Those without first-hand experience may find it easy to defend the notion of free will and accept the imperfections of humanity (and the other Mass Effect species). But is it so hard to empathize with the desire to make everything perfect, to achieve true understanding and everlasting peace when - for example - you consider that there’s probably an entire generation of people who lived through WWI and WWII? Diversity is a double-edged sword. It gives people a strong sense of self but as a result, will always create conflict. When people believe hard enough against each other, there is only one possible result. Synthesis prevents that. I’ve played this series about a dozen times and each time I reach the ending of Mass Effect 3, I pick a different ending than the one I picked the last time. Each time, I feel justified in my choice. There is no “best” or “worst” ending here which is why I believe that BioWare did a good job with Mass Effect 3 even back in 2012. I of course love the Extended Cut because I get to see and hear more of the fantastic art that is Mass Effect. But there was nothing in there that I didn’t already think about prior.

What ending did you pick and would you change that now?💯👍

Is it possible for indoctrination to still happen even if all reapers are dead or can everyone now do as they please with reaper technology now that all the reapers are dead?

For me the destroy ending with highest war effort is the Canon ending as i really dont think that the races wiuld cooperate with reapers without mindcontroll and shep is actually alive at the end (if we ever get a sequel)

Tell me your favorite ending and why? Me I like synthesis cuz i feel its the only way to true peace

Never played mass effect until the remastered legendary edition and realize what ive missed from gaming all those years. But my question is how will this carry over to the new one or will it be a different protagonist?

Hey Dan, i was wondering after seeing some videos that different characters can place the Shepard name tag on the wall in the ending, how do you get different characters? is it based on who you romanced or who was your closest squad mate?

I have a feeling the next game will have to make the synthesis ending non-canon and either have shepard be an A.I. in a body like EDI or just regular shepard with a few burn scars from the destroy ending. Synthesis changes the world too drastically to make a parallel story with the other 2.

I just recently replayed the trilogy when the Legendary Edition came out and can confirm Destroy is still the best ending.

Dan its been 11 months wheres the war assets video

I have a question how u unlock Mass effect 3 extended cut

Control, never a regret. Seeing Shepard's name go on the memorial wall completely destroyed me, one of my most emotional gaming moments.

Nice Video Dan! Any chance you will make a Video about the indoctrination theory? The tinfoilers among us would appreciate it ;-)

I thought that at launch on the control or destroy endings were available, and then the synthesis and refusal options were added.

Hey Big Dan, can you make a video about the Indoctrination Theory and your thoughts on this topic?

OOOH YOU WENT THERE YOU WENT THERE!!!!

This whole synthetics vs Organics theme should have never been the focus, it is too generic a theme for this gem of a trilogy. They didn't even touch the Dark Energy plothole that was aging the stars in the galaxy at an alarming rate, they should have put more effort into that theme, since it was super interesting. Maybe the ending could have been somthing like this: A choice to HELP the Reapers to avoid galactic collapse, a choice to DESTROY the Reapers but doom the galaxy or a SECRET choice that would fit this narrative. At least in my eyes, this could be way more interesting than the generic endings that we got.

Are you still working on the "War Assets don't matter" video still?

Wait- you guys didn’t get the ending where the reapers one?

Here's how I see the endings: Destroy ending - your final goal is achieved. Aside from no synthetic life, things go back to how they were before the Reapers. Control: A military dictatorship dominated by AI Shephard. He will ensure there is no war, because nobody can oppose him. Synthesis: changing what we are as organic beings into something else for the sake of peace and prosperity. Is eradication of disease and poverty worth changing what you are entirely?

It's weird because I have never played any of the trilogy up until 2019, but all I heard from friends up until that time is how the ending was "bad", but they could never explain why. Once I have beaten the trilogy back-to-back with the Extended Cut, I felt that the ending was as satisfying as an ending could get. I understand there might be/are some lore discrepancies, but they weren't something that stuck out to me, but I think players generally felt that the original ending wasn't satisfying enough, which is completely true. It is rather clear to me that ME3 was hugely rushed, and the game was released unfinished (the quest log is a great example for that), hence the unsatisfying conclusions to the saga. It will interesting to see how players will react to the endings once the Legendary Editions comes out.

In the last 20 second of the video you said you'd leave a link in the description that I can't find. Interested in the follow up!

Ive always picked Destroy, with high war score, the collateral damage is lessened with the relays being in a repairable state, but it does pain me to lose the Geth and Edi but is also the only ending which implies Shepard survived with the breath scene right at the end. Control implies Shepard will use the Reapers as a police force especially if he's a Renegade which sounds like a dictatorship, and Synthesis is just perverse. Edit: I laughed at Casey saying the original endings left a lot to the players imagination, yeah no shit dude. You explained so little that it was all we could do.