One wonders how many deaths would be avoided if the Catalyst wasn't such a fooking idiot. I still don't know if the developers actually expected people to take anything it said seriously.
Mass Effect 1, Shepard "The reapers will destroy us, we need to do something!" Council "Lol no" Mass Effect 2, Shepard "The reapers are coming to destroy us, we need to do something" Council "Lol no" Mass Effect 3, Shepard "Oh look the reapers are destroying us" Council "PLEASE SAVE OUR PLANETS SHEPARD!" Really hate the council!!
Under extreme conditions he lives: 100% readiness, full crew survival, Had Elusive man kill himself (sure theres more but it was a hill to climb to get that ending)
@@christopherdavidson17 If you use Citadel Ending lite mod, you can end with the Party and they have everyone talk about how great it was to beat the Reapers and such there. It's terrifically well done.
"WE DO NOT FIRE FROM THE HIP! WHEN YOU FIRE THIS GUN IT WILL NOT STOP! WHEN YOU FIRE THIS GUN SOMEWHERE SOMETIME YOU ARE RUINING SOMEONES DAY! IT COULD HIT A SHIP! IT COULD HIT THE PLANET BEHIND THE SHIP!" Sword Fleet: .... Fuck ....
+Matthew Smith It wasn't my first playthrough. I wanted to customise my experience a little more the second time around. ;) To be fair, he looked pretty handsome in the first game... I just imported the save file after that.
+Matthew Smith You can tweak the appearance between games. I learned my lesson on the first editor. The problem with the face creator is the lack of angles and a choice to see him talk when creating a character. It should have given you the ability to see the head full 360 field of view. I learned everything I did wrong and corrected it. My custom Shep looks badass.
"Triumphantly: Elcor. Fleet. Reporting. Suspiciously: Wait. Where. Did. Everybody. Go." The elcors are my favorite species, the first who actually have been nice to me on the citadel in OG ME
Its a mildly more hopeful ending for tali then her other fates - shepherd defintely dead and life without him or the truly heart breaking suicide scene if you choose the geth. I like to think they maybe with this they did get that more time...
To me the most heart breaking thing is Joker realizing he has to abandon Shepard again around 1:10:00. You can see the pain of abandoning Shepard for the second time (the first one being the original destruction of the Normandy)
like honestly i'm not an emotional guy but this game it broke me down and made me cry couldn't replay it for at least a month it's the first and only game i ever cried to and ever will
Actually, when the DLC for Javik came out, I had a brain wave about what the ending should have been- Javik makes it into the Crucible with Shepard, and he offers to commit the ultimate sacrifice instead of Shepard. When he makes the offer, it can go one of two ways, as per usual. Renegade Option: "OK. See ya." Paragon Option: Shepard tries to talk him out of it, but Javik is determined. Javik uses his biotics to hurl Shepard out of the room, and locks the door. Either way, Shepard only has a few minutes to get to an escape pod or shuttle or what have you. Javik fulfills the vengeance of his people, Shepard gets a long, happy life with (insert name of love interest here). Everyone wins. Well, except the Reapers, but what are they gonna do about it?
I assume that the "ultimate sacrifice" is the synthesis ending. There is no sacrifice in the destroy ending, you just get hit by collateral damage and buried under the debris.
Christian Yaerger The geth are the only synthetics that have ever been brought to peace with organics in Mass Effect history. It's illogical but still formerly true.
And also Starchild looks on the order of millennia, not individual events. If the Geth advance even further (likely at a higher rate, as a synthetic consensus) and then decide 5000 years down the line to eradicate everything, then that’s within Starchild’s purview. He’s saying it always happens eventually, every time they tried
Actually no. The reapers were peaceful for decades before they decided to harvest the Leviathans and all the organic beings. Geth are peaceful now but what is the warrant they will stay that way forever. They evolve, improve, no emotion, no pity, no remorse, they will attack u as soon as they decide they change the rules.
@@zotyo86 Well... The Geth weren't peacefull for 300 years, but they didn't start pursuing the end of organic life until a Reaper showed up and convinced them, but if you do everything right you can broker a peace between the synthetics that never really wanted to destroy their creators. EDI is also an AI that doesn't wanna destroy them and actually starts to love one. She even comments on how she and the Geth were made differently and maybe that's why she developed sentience and feelings faster/more organically. It's also interesting to point out that Shepard had a huge role in both of those cases so without him/her they'd be in the same situation. Maybe what it takes for AI to not turn against organics is to actually develop a sense of individuality to respect different views and emotional decisions better.
Jeff B but the geth literally have reaper intelligence at the end of the game. When they're at their level of awareness, the first thing they do is assist the Quarians in construction, immunization, and other things. The starchild and endings are all really flawed.
This fleet compared to the bad ending is unremarkable. This fleet is able to dodge and destroy reapers, while the bad ending fleet... gets annihilated.
Honestly, the last encounter with the Illusive Man was really fucking climactic... The stand-off, the dialogue, the raw *emotion* in his lines and animations...
Yeah, you're right. It's Henriksen, not Peter Cullen. I was almost certain that I've read about him doing Admiral Hackett's voice acting but it must've been wrong, just double checked and it is indeed Lance Henriksen.
01:18:37 Wait... they didn't even put Jenkins' name on the memorial? I know he wasn't the fierciest warrior or the most useful biotic or engineer, but that's cold.
My definition of a perfect ending would be this: Shepard tells the Reaper god that he managed to bring peace between the Quarians & the Geth, without using the Crucible in the first place. The Reaper god realizes that peace is possible and agrees to end the cycle, without forcing Shepard to make a difficult choice. Shepard doesn't have to die or be absorbed, EDI & the Geth survive, and the Reapers assist in the rebuilding of the galaxy. Final scene: Shepard & his/her romance hanging out on the beach. You can guess how that goes...
I don't understand how Bioware couldn't come up with this ending in the first place! I hope they've learned something from this for the next installment.
I would have also accepted an ending where the Crucible just points and shoots each Reaper, and Shep and LI (in my case Femshep and Garrus) Just have sex on top of a now dead Harbinger.
4 years late but your idea is good, bro. Or maybe the reapers would be divided. Some would say " hey the sucessfuly co exist. Then our purpose is done. We should leave them now. " and the other half is " Fvk them. Continue the cycle. " Like what happened to the Covenant in Halo.
I chose Destroy. I first reached that ending months before any mention ever came of any Extended Cut, and long before the total war resources without multiplayer were even worth a damn. Thus, I only ever attempted Earth with Readiness as close to max as possible. I then went through Control and Synthesis with paragon male and female Shepards, with and without the EC. Neither of those choices felt right. This is one of the few video game science fiction stories we've had in our time to rival the power of character development and storytelling of the films and novels most of us grew up with. The endgame has become brutally clear, bad writing or no: the Reapers are *not* allowed the last word in the fate of the universe. Even in a fictional context, I can't abide by becoming the embodiment of the enemy, nor forcing all of sentient life into a techno-biological abomination. I chose to *gut the bastards*. Sic semper tyrannis, virtute et armis.
Nicholas Arroyo Yep, never understood why anyone would ever choose control or synthesis, literally goes against everything Shepard wanted and there’s never a hint of dialogue suggesting he/she would choose anything but destroy, that and the fact Shepard lives if you have high readiness leads to my mind being boggled by anyone who’d choose the other two
@@donjon5442 by not choosing destroy it would be insult to everyone who has died to destroy the reapers and most importantly to Anderson, that's why I chose destroy make sure their deaths were not in vain and give humanity their ultimate survival
@@donjon5442 100%. Even if you ignore Shepard living, destroy is the only valid option. The goal of the trilogy was always to destroy the reapers, not make peace with them. Control and synthesis always seemed fake to me
Well, he's not "becoming the embodiment of the enemy" when he chooses control. He's becoming the dominant consciousness, and assumes control of the entirety of the Reaper fleet, across the galaxy. He essentially becomes the new Catalyst, and halts the cycle. He's no longer the Commander Shepard he was, but his morals, desires, ambitions, and desire to safeguard all life becomes the morality of the Reapers, not the other way around. They become like cells in a giant Commander Shepard. It's still my least favorite ending, though. Synthesis is actually not an unreasonable choice at all, since biomechanical evolution *is* the most likely culmination of human evolution. When they talk about genetic nanosciences, they're referring, literally, to the presence of tiny machines in the tissues and bloodstream that can protect the body, fight what we naturally cannot, and can repair any illness or damage we suffer, given enough time. I think the way they portrayed it, with the circuitry-styled lights on everyone was a bit silly, but nonetheless I believe it could have been a solid ending, if they had done a better job with how it was presented. Both of those endings involved absolute sacrifice on the part of the hero, however. And if you recall, control and synthesis are not that far-fetched, since at one point Shepard tried to reason with Sovereign, saying that there was no reason they had to fight, and that they could come to a peaceful resolution, if the Reapers were willing. The destroy option is simultaneously good canon, and incredibly dumb. The notion that the Crucible wouldn't differentiate between the Reapers and the Synthetics is ridiculous. As well, if the Catalyst was going to give that as an option, why not just shut them off, since he flat out says, "I control the Reapers," verbatim. Okay? So.... shut them down, since you've said you control them, and you're okay with me destroying them? Why would Shepard have to kill himself, commit genocide, and kill EDI when the Catalyst could just permanently shut the Reapers down, or fly them away into deep space and make them self-destruct? The goal of the destroy option was two-fold: to give players the "I'm gunna' take 'em down!" ending they wanted, while providing an arbitrary and seemingly morally ambiguous and questionable choice that was literally available - like the other two - regardless of what choices you made in the game, up to that point. All you had to do was make it there, without completely ignoring the notion of building up military resources, and boom.... same three endings regardless. Like some feel the synthesis ending was a lazy cop-out ending(though I strain to see the logic behind that appraisal), I feel that the destroy option requiring the genocide of all synthetics, and shooting a big tube, causing Commander Shepard to "die," was a pretty lazy approach to that ending, itself. If you apply logic, for even two milliseconds, there was no reason that the Catalyst, who presented that as a viable option, couldn't have just shut them all down or had them self-immolate. There was so much wrong with these endings, across the board. In the control ending, for instance, why couldn't Shepard build himself a biomechanical body, and transfer his base consciousness - or an exact copy of it - back into that, and allow himself a full life? I mean, he became software, right? If his whole, base consciousness is there, as data, why can't he do for himself what Cerberus managed to do? Are we expected to believe that Cerberus had better technology than all the civilizations ever to exist in the galaxy, over a span of billions of years, combined? I've already taken my poke at destroy, so let me move on to synthesis.... why would it require his entire body to be dissolved? Why does it require Shepard's energy at all? It's not like Shepard himself contains the entirety of human experience in his cells in some special way, nor that his "energy" should be required for such a shift in biological and synthetic composition or understanding, respectively. The concept of bio-technological synthesis makes sense, but the execution and explanation doesn't, nor does the notion that he would have to kill himself to make it possible. In the end, destroy becomes the most viable option, and I get the idea of the martyred, heroic figure, creating a world he/she will never live to see or enjoy.... it's a tragic, heroic archetype as old as literature itself. A character who lives life, forever, in conflict, who wouldn't know what to do without a fight, and so the world they create is for others, not themselves, adding to the selflessness and emotional response to their inevitable, heroic death. However, that doesn't make the execution any more sensible than the other two options. The real problem is production deadlines, and EA Games. BioWare has always been excellent about finishing their games strong. Jade Empire and the Knights of the Old Republic Games are solid evidence of that. But making high-quality, AAA games of this scale and scope are costly, and incredibly time-consuming if you want them done properly, and EA is all about that dollar. All they cared about was keeping their deadline, product quality be damned. That wasn't always the case, but you've seen the same from Activision, who I called out during the Closed Alpha Test for Call of Duty: Black Ops, of which I was a part. I gave them a five-page list of major flaws, bugs, and issues with the game, and how it played, digitally signed by about a dozen other play-testers. The only person who didn't ignore it was Morgan, one of their QA staff, and Dave Vonderhar, Treyarch's studio head. Josh Olin, the Community Manager for Treyarch, and EA at large told me to shove off. Their release day player-base went from over 600 million to 23 million in under five hours, and became one of the best-known flops of a Call of Duty release in history. All it would have taken to fix it was another three to four months delay, but they were dead set on an 11-11 release date, instead of putting quality first. These things happen, and these big game producers are usually the problem. It's also why you build resources for Citadel defense that do absolutely nothing but boost readiness score.... or am I the only person who realized that you improve the Citadel's military readiness, only to have the Reapers snatch it, and murder every living inhabitant? I mean, everyone who was on the Citadel was killed. What was the point in doing anything to help them? Or is this one of those Rian Johnson, "subverting expectations" moments? Because regardless, it was dumb. There was another 20 hours of gameplay that seems like it was left off the table, and culminated in one path to three options, choices and competence/effort be damned. So, I would still argue that while I loved the games, the endings were still pretty trash, even with the Extended Cut backpedaling. Not the worst I've seen. Certainly not an "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"-level failure, but I still feel like these three endings were really one ending, with three slight variations, that cumulatively amount to "well, beating the game was pointless, but god the journey was fantastic." I just wish that the parameters of the endings made sense.... if you wanted to put an option in to sacrifice Shepard, I think that should have been on the table, perhaps with special conditions. However, I think all three lacked in dramatic fashion in their own ways. I blame EA, not the creative and writing staff as much. My guess is that they were under extraordinary levels of pressure to tie it off.
"The blast will destroy all Synthetics." BUT WHY?! Why can't I save EDI and the Geth if i have all the stuff for a perfect ending. Even Shepard gets to survive and he was on the fucking citadel when it got destroyed. That was my main problem with the ending. "Ohhhh... you wanted to stick to your original mission and get to keep everything you worked for like Geth-Quarian Peace... Well too fucking bad because you don't get a happy ending. You get a plaque and a breath. Fuck you"
I can deal with the destroy ending despite it being a let down but at the same time it could of been better. They should of made the crucible be this awesome weapon that kills all reapers instead of what we got.
Well from my expirience, I honestly think every Paragon ending (excluding refusal) is a really good ending. With the Extended Cut, there really isn't a reason to not choose anything. I chose destroy, I would have chosen the other two, but I wanted Shepard to live cause he's such a badass.
I think Hackett puts it best why this ending is 'perfect'; "we can rebuild everything that was destroyed." If they truly wanted to, the galaxy's population could rebuild the Geth and EDI. I understand the whole 'EDI is more human than machine now' thing, but the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few for me. My sole purpose by the end of ME3 was to destroy the Reapers. Neither control or synthesis would have been the 'solution'.
Donnie By destroying the Reapers you are ending the cycle though. The war is a war against the Reapers coming back in the next 'cycle'. Ultimately in this ending you destroy the Reapers meaning that the cycle you are in now is, if anything, the never ending cycle. There are no more Reapers to destroy the civilisations throughout the galaxy. I see why you may be confused but the Reapers in this version are GONE. No more cycles :)
"By destroying the Reapers you are ending the cycle though" - not really. Another galactic civilization will create their replacement. So there's no point. This IS the cycle. The reapers just came between the cycle, to make the extinction selective, and not universal. You've missed the whole point. The game is built around the same motive that a huge part of the SciFi genre is centered around. AI becomes independent, perfects itself, surpasses its creators. So far, the scenario is inevitable. So if they turn against the creators, it will be the end of those creators. Why wouldn't they? It would be very hard to control something which greatly surpasses yourself. The catalyst was created to solve this problem, and after research, it has found a solution - to eliminate the cause of the problem. Not a good solution, but a solution nevertheless. It has allowed thousands of civilizations to rise, each with their uniqueness. It has allowed less developed species to carry on their life. It allows organic life to exist. Imagine a superpower on Earth, that used systemic methods to annihilate countries that created nuclear weapons. This would protect all other countries, from the maniacs that are capable of destroying the entire world by the push of a button. Sure, they would destroy a country by this, but they would save the entire globe, so new technology could be developed. It would be a stopper in development of civilizations, but this solution would WORK, for the problem of preservation of life. A greater solution came later on - talks, peace, disarmament, use of nuclear power for power generation and not destruction. It's the same idea as with the reapers. But unlike nuclear weapons, AI can destroy selectively, anything that is not themselves, thus eliminating the downside of the process of elimination of the opponent.
I've just seen 40 lines of this and think you've been thinking WAAAY too coldly here. You are basically agreeing with what the Reapers are doing, you would allow them to destroy all the fantastic civilisations that have risen because they would get too powerful for their own good. We're just complete polar opposites here as I have a bit of optimism that the galaxy would learn from the mistakes of the civilisations in the past. After talking to the Leviathans, learning about the Prothean plight and the Collectors I couldn't help but think that this cycle would be different. With the Reapers gone my family, my race, my galaxy's population could flourish in the knowledge of all that has come before them. Rather than needing to neutralise new tech threats, instead the galaxy is united under one banner and despite the loss of the Geth and EDI, the universe is a better place. Ultimately all I say here will be wrong to you as clearly our way of seeing things is different. You see the Reapers for what they are so the perfect ending for you is letting them get on with the job, saving the galaxy through destroying perceived threats. My perfect ending is destroying the Reapers, overcoming a threat to all my friends, family and the galaxy in the hope that our cycle has learnt enough from its predecessors to not repeat the same mistake of letting power get the better of us. Interesting argument you put forward though, especially from the human perspective. But I ask you if you were in one of the nuclear countries, and your culture, family, friends...YOU were going to be wiped from the map, would you honestly not do anything about it? Would you really just accept your death as necessary?
I want to slap BioWare in the face for not making this actually part of the actual ending. They had to make this DLC? Tsk tsk tsk. But all things aside, this has been the best trilogy I have ever played so far. Well done.
finished first and last playthrough of the trilogy last month. got the "perfect" ending and there's no way I'm playing a playthrough where Shepard dies
Pathfinder Ryder and his friends look up into the night sky as they begin to settle in on Meridian. They’re greeted with quite the light show coming from what appears to be the Milky Way. Pathfinder Ryder quickly makes the connection. “Oh no.” He says softly.
The Catfather Yeah my bad fairly sure they left in 2185 which would be just before the events of ME2s Arrival DLC in 2186, they still wouldn’t have any knowledge of the reaper threat though.
Don Jon Hm. I guess I would’ve said otherwise had I gotten that far yet. Obviously, the Endgame’s already been spoiled for me. It was before I watched this. I’m still on Mass Effect 1, I’m waiting until money isn’t tight for obvious reasons so I can buy the Story DLCs for the game before I go and finish it. Last I played, I got an achievement for completing most of the game. And I’m thinking: “How close am I to the end???” If I can find just ONE more Light Metal Deposit, I’ll have completed “The Search For Resources” Say is there any special bonuses in 2 or 3 for meeting all the requirements for that? Where I left off is the intro to the mission in which I’m to go to that Mass Relay that takes the Normandy beyond Citadel Space. I’ve got a distinct feeling that once I pass through that Relay, I’ve passed through the game’s Point of No Return.
My cannon story is: "eventually Shepard was found by a repair crew and given medical treatment, he lives and the Normandy was contacted. Tali runs into the medical room and hugs Shepard after his recovery Shepard retires and lives a long life with Tali helping her build a house on her homeworld" also babies
Imagine the crucible is actually just a gigantic microphone and Shepard simply unleashes an earth-trembling scream into it when it docks. The resonance vibrates the Reapers to pieces and Shepard goes on to have a really competitive chance singing on Galaxy's Got Talent, but gets beaten out by a species with two mouths.
I find it cool how people are so adamant about their different opinions. Whether or not the ending provided closure or satisfaction, at least there's no clear best choice. People have their own ideas. People can get the ending they most believe in. That's actually pretty cool.
SuperAfroManXD perhaps, perhaps not. think of it this way. You think EDI, in all her awesomeness, WOULDN'T have some backup of herself on some safe storage device? Like, does an EMP fry a USB drive that's not plugged into anything? no. I bet EDI did something similar in the event of a big EMP. As for the Geth, seeing's how the tech in their suits (and the power doors for the Normandy's hatch) didn't seem fried, we can assume minor tech was untouched. And if you talk to Tali after uniting the Geth and Quarians, she explains how Geth have been going inside Quarian suits to simulate diseases to help jump-start their immune systems. Perhaps the Geth inside those suits were protected as well.
Mad Nimrod idk man i just picked destroy for my maleshep cuz in my head hes found alive and him and tali live happily ever after. which is selfish. But the "perfect" selfless ending is synthesis. A small scale example would be the Qurian-Geth thing you brought up
Mad Nimrod I chose a different ending: The Happy Ending Mod. I installed that and just don't do the Leviathan DLC and it makes me want to play the game again :)
How it should have ended: -Anderson beats the Illusive Man to death while calling him a bitch, he survives and asks for his apartment back -Shepard takes a whiz in the crucible energy beam, shorting out all reapers while the crucible AI dies screaming in a short-out -Shepard and co all have another kickass party at Anderson's place only every major side character is there too -Shepard is named King of the Galaxy and has a VERY explicit scene with his romance interest on the corpse of a dead reaper -The grounds are laid for a sequel that actually has Shepard in it when Liara finds out that the species who created the reapers are still alive in a neighboring galaxy, know about the destruction of the reapers, and may be coming back
Funny how they try to confuse the player with a bunch of double talk about the greater good and preservation and the grand scale of things, but in the end that's all just so much bullshit, and the initial goal : DESTROY THE REAPERS - is still the legitimate one.
Read the description. ;) "Perfect" refers to "the full paragon and 5000+ EMS destroy ending" - you know, as in a perfect score, not perfectly written. I apologise for the ambiguity. But Destroy certainly was the best of the 4 options.
@@vashes4729 Yea, original endings are destroy, control or synthesis but the fourth option is do nothing and get destroyed by the reapers, then they explain in cut scenes how the next cycle finally defeated the reapers thanks to the intel gathered by Shepard. This was added in the extended cut DLC
For my opinion, there is only one real and best ending; Destroy. I want to explain my reasons. Firstly our real target is destroying Reapers. This is the point. We have to "DESTROY" the Reapers. . I just want to eliminate "Syntesis" ending from starting. Firstly remember EDI, she rathers die than having Reaper like form. Also changing every single organic's and syntetics life form is a very big responsibility and if not neccessary, you should avoid this one. Also in this ending Reapers will not die, we synthetise the Repaers and Us, we will be same with Reapers. So this is not our target, this is not we have to do. This is Saren's target, Remember Saren, he is a synthetic you know. He has implants from Reaper, and Saren thinks of himself as "the future", a true cyborg, a fusion of both organics and technology, comprising "the strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither." And we know Saren is indoctrinated. So we eliminate the Synthesis ending. In other hand we have another ending to eliminate; Control. Remember the Admiral Hackett's words "Dead reapers is how we end this" Also Samara Mentions "Show no quarter, mercy, or weakness." So don't show mercy to Reapers. They must die. Illusive man wants to Control the Reapers, he has good reasons on this. He want's make to Humanity Galaxy's most powerfull species. But he always have good cards to play, remember to starting ME2. He convinced you to work with them, give you a perfect ship and most powerfull companions. And you learn that charming friends is only a mask between you and Cerberus. He lied you before. Also don't forget Illusive man's research methods going extreme. He using HUMANS to understand Reaper mind control methods. And Illusive man indoctrinated too. You hear this from Harbinger but also he can realise if you can convince him. And let's come to Harbinger, he tries to indoctrinate us. Lying to us. You know otherwise Reapers will die, he has to do something to save Reapers. Tells Shepard can be new harbinger and if he wants he can end the war. But what if Shepard realises harvesting species is neccessary for Reapers? What if he changes his mind after a few years? What if Shepard indoctrinates after being new Harbinger? What if Shepard tries to destroy Salarian's because of they withold their supoort on the war? What if being Harbinger is means losing his mind and doesn't thinking like Shepard? A lot of unanswerable questions.So many dark points. So many risk to take. Let's come to Destroy ending. Why Destroy ending? Firstly, our goal is destroying Reapers. Also destroying Reapers is a real solution. There is no dark points, no unanswered questions, no Reapers. Harbinger tries to convince us, indoctrinate us. Firstly he show himself as the Child who dies when Normandy leaving from Earth. This is a bad trauma for Shepard. He sees Nightmares about that child. That child is a weak point for Shepard. Remember Leviathan, he showns himself as a lot of people who is Shepard meet before. But Harbinger uses only that child for exploiting Shepard's trauma. Well, threatening us organics create new synthetics and peace wont be last. But we reconcile The Geth and Quarians? Also threatening us with Edi and Geth's loses. You know Geth lives in a Software form. But Reapers live in a Hardware form. They're completely different. Geth doesn't need bodies to live. They can live in a Quarian's suit you know. Even if Geth die, they rather dying than being like Reaper. Remember Legion's dialogs, remember Heretics. EDI also living in Normandy, she can find another body whenever she wants and Geth too. Also EDI rather dying than being a Reaper. But in other hand, Crucible is calibrated for only affect Reapers. So EDI and Geth doesn't affected, maybe their bodies affect but this is a little dark point. Also Normandy repaired after Crash Landing an unknown world, It can't be without EDI's Help (Remember the repair on crash landing at Collector's Base). So EDI and Geth doesn't affected for my opinion. And Reaper threat will eliminate. For the reasons I explained you must chose Destroy ending but If you chose any other endings, with all due respect but that means you indoctrinated. :D Yes. I'm not joking. This game tries to indoctrinate you from starting. In the end, If you can select Destroy ending, you reach the correct goal. Sorry for my bad English.
English is good enough to understand, you make some really good points. I think it's a shame that there's not more people like you who actually think about the game rather than take it at face value, there's a lot of things hidden in these three games...
Mustafa Okat From my understanding, and head canon, the Geth and EDI can be resurrected, or reincarnated if you will. The idea is that the Geth uploaded there memories into storage boxes and buried them and once the reapers were destroyed, David Archer can recreate the Geth with his mind and all the memories of the Geth would be inherited by all the newly made programs. And EDI's memories are saved too to be given back to the AI core. They aren't the same programs, but they inherited a piece of the previous programs, making them reincarnations of the previous programs.
Joseph Burger also look at sheperds eyes in the ending for both control and synthesis ending and compare them to saren and the illusion man eyes when they were indoctrinated it's a dead give away
... Noooo..? BioWare showed that last part as a story being told in the far future, which seemed to be not as technologically advanced as before. Hence the term "The Shepard" when the child asks to hear another story. Cmdr. Shepard was seemingly told to be a savior of the galaxy. So.. it's not like it was a dream sequence. And if you're referring to after the credits and all rolled, just don't. That is to allow players who might not have completed every mission or the DLC to continue to do so.
I was stunned by the ending. I don't understand how some people can be so ungrateful for all the effort that the company who made this game has put into each detail in this game and those before. I've looked in nearly every detail in this game. What and how was something created, Reapers, Krogans, Quarians, Geth, Salarians, Turians and others. All the weapons, ships, technology, galaxy and planets with mass relays and so much more. I just love the story. I know I wasn't a big follower of Mass Effect series but I will surely check out other series. People who have problems with ending, saying how it's bad, just simply don't appreciate Mass Effect. This is not 'JUST ANOTHER SPACE GAME', or is it something like a simple shooter game.( I'm not showing any less respect to other sci-fi games, just leaving an opinion. Games like 'Halo' are also one of those that I loved at least watching if not always playing.) This might just be me saying this, having a different opinion, but as a big sci-fi fan I think this game deserves many many medals.
Bro im big fan of me trilogy me1-me3 I love these games. But to think this ending is good? It literally has like 200 plot holes and is complettly absurd in many ways
+LawofForms +DuronWS Well, this escalated quickly over a damn video game character being something that doesn't apply to us, since we are, to our limited knowledge, the only species in the galaxy. So until another race appears, It doesn't apply to us.
I'm doing a second play though of ME3 and I just made peace with the Querians and the Geth again and I have a theory of how the Geth can be resurrected to make this ending even more Perfect: When Shepard was connected to the Geth consensus, Legion Imprinted the reaper-coded Geth blue prints into Shepard's mind as a fall back plan because of the Geth's suspicions of the Crucible being the destroyer of synthetic life. All Shepard has to do is return to Rannoch and reconnect to the damaged consensus and the blue print can be imported to have the Geth start rebuilding themselves. And with the Querians accepting the Geth as people, they will welcome them back in their society. There is no need for Shepard to leave his love interest to be the reaper god or say "fuck you biodiversity" in order to save the Geth. As for EDI, well their might be a way for her to be resurrected and retain some of her personality like at the end of WALL-E. But I don't have many ideas or details of how that could happen. Share this theory with all the other "Perfect" ending enthusiasts.
Honestly, I am actually satisfied with this as an ending because it just fits. This ending in the video mixed with the breathe scene at the end, leaves it open, AND it makes it a satisfying ending. Ive played through all the games and the DLC and at the time (it has been about six months since I played ME3) I was not happy with the way things went. I do not remember all the stuff at the end with hackett talking though. Hmm. Every time I think I'm bored with the games or have just played them enough, Mass Effect just keeps pulling me in. I'm a huge advocate for the Indoctrination Theory though and I cannot wait to see what the ME universe has in store for it in the future. (I hope it does NOT involve an MMO)
If you mean the in-dialogue popups for renegade/paragon actions, then I always ignored the renegade ones and always did the paragon ones. If you mean how the "Destroy" option itself is coloured red (as opposed to blue for control or synthesis), then know that there's nothing indicating that the red/blue colours indicated paragon/renegade options in this scenario. In fact, Indoctrination Theory suggests that the colours are used to trick you (and thus Shepard) into sparing the Reapers.
"When Fire Burns, Is it at war? is it in conflict? Or is it simply doing what it was created to do" ..........Yeah We don't learn anything from video games at all...🙄🙄 ( Man what a profound Line)
I have to give credit where due, this is outstanding. You edited this perfectly and clearly had done this for our pleasure just as much as your own, since you even already knew the dialogues ahead of time and skipped all combat for our sake. Thank you for this video, it was fantastic and made my day.
"Synthesis is something that cannot be...forced" five seconds later giant super beams are kriss crossing the galaxy forcing every organism to become part of synthesis like wtf what was different from the first time the reapers tried it haha
Yup, it happened concurrently with Star Wars, except in our galaxy instead of a galaxy far, far away. Mass effect fields are actually manifestations of the Force and indoctrinated people have actually fallen to the dark side.
+Killerbrine 40 the reapers were originally a peaceful society. They saw value in organic life and used indoctrination to end wars and help the mentally ill. Soon, though, they met Jar-Jar Binks, and with 3 days decided to wipe out all organic life forever in order to prevent him. Thus, Mass Effect was born.
+Luxai Yes, but on our terms. We invented shoes to augment ourselves, but to give in to the reapers would be like replacing your feet with robot-hooves after they were used by your worst enemies to beat your family to death. To deny the sacrifice of countless galaxies of life killed just to give us a _chance_ of defeating the enemy that murdered them would be to betray the faith that they put in us. It would be unforgivable. Not to mention we'd be altering species that had no way of giving consent. It's down to avenging countless trillions or choosing to let them live on inside of life forever like some technological original sin.
Hoyt Mueller I'm reminded of when Dr Doom sought vibranium and had to lay his soul bare before the panther god - it peered into all possible futures and saw that only Doom's rule would save the world from suffering. Even if millons died to save billions. What I'm saying is, a great price might be worth the result. What, where, and when, who knows.
Luxai Doom would not choose to remake humanity in accordance to the Catalyst's will. That is for him alone.He would destroy the Reapers for their insolence.
I don’t see how’s this is the perfect ending sure Shepard is alive but you kill EDI and the geth in the process and it means legions sacrifice was for nothing
In my opinion Destroy ending is only way to preserve not only lives but also freedom of organics. Synthesis ending always rubbed me in the wrong way because you forcing everyone to be the same. Everybody has a same dna and “understanding” of each other which is basically hive mind, so its not actually freedom. One of the strong themes of Legion story arc is finding his own identity which is basically destroyed by synthesis. Control ending better in this terms but still how galaxy can make their own choices if there is big space overlord? So yeah destroy ending kinda “perfect” one. P.S. Well you can also preserve freedom in Rejection ending...sorta
his sacrifice was for preserving life and fight against the Reapers. Killing lots of batarians in ME2 just to delay them in arrival is ok, but killing geth here to stop Reapers is bad?! Why, because we met two Synthetics.... Synthesis stops evolution because synthetics cant evolve, they are "perfect" and evolution are random mutation. And what with new life, all bugs, plants, cells are now stuck in that state because of this Synthetic properties? Or they arent changed and can evolve and fight with new "synt/organic mix"? Starchild said that peace with them is impossible because one side will always want to destroy another but u can made peace in the game so every solution given by it (Starchild) is flawed. But yea it isnt perfect (because war cant have perfect ending, war is bad and someone will die) but this is the best result
The toughest choice in this game is to end it, haven't played it in years and now that i've done everything perfect i just feel empty wanting more. Bittersweet ending even if shepard survives, the crew might be together but i won't be able to experience the life after those choices. If something like andromeda was made within the same galaxy but with a less serious setting than ME 1-3 i wouldn't complain. Just imagine the feeling of meeting some of shepards crew or shepard as an unknown and having a savegame that changes their behaviour based on how you played through ME 3. I Would've loved it.
kinda funny how your description is how you're all paragon and the best ending (I agree) is the destroy ending (which obviously represents renegade). As for my overall thoughts on the game, while I wasn't as upset as alotta ppl were with the three similar endings, the actual ending given still was satisfactory for me, especially with extended cut. and epic music and cutscenes are always a nice touch.
I think regardless of what everyone says about the endings being bad (well, the original was worse than this, and this one was pretty good), this is a damn good game.
I felt this was the best ending for me, even thought it was against my Shepards beliefs: "No race deserves extinction." Felt bad for EDI and geth, since I chose them over Quarians. But I felt that kid was lying to me whole time it talked. Control? Hell no. Synthesis? I don't belive that. What if this is the Plan B for the reapers and the synthesis side takes over sooner or later? Destroy was the only answer to assure reapers don't come back. +Shepard lives!
How would the kid be lying if it's prewrote wats gonna happen and the comics show no diff... And in Andromeda u go to a whole nother Galaxy because yours is detroyed so in hind site you weren't able to repair anything and Shepard isn't in Andromeda... So the destroy option was null n void cause everything is destroyed and the chaos restarts because u chose not to keep them from coming back from the chaos that would ensue which is y u have to go to another Galaxy slash planet... The rite decision was synthesis fucc the points logics
Tali romance should be canon if there is ever a "canon path" for Mass Effect's lore. Tbh, it had the best of the lines and memorable moments for my gaming experience... Tbh Tali's romance made the game be beautiful besides it's epic nature.
1:10:00 The way Joker so quickly shoves Garrus' arm away while desperately circling the Cruicible, hoping to find Shepard... The way he finally stops and slumps a little before giving in... Man, say what you want about the endings, but the characters are still beautifully represented...
The entire trilogy is just a story an old man told to a child. Quite remarkable when you think about it. He did ask for another story about "The Shepard" and thus we have ME4 on the horizon, with Sheppard's voice in the trailer. This is gonna be good :3
You know, I had the highest GR possible when I first beat the game. I remember getting that little scene of shepard still alive. I always wondered why that had no change in the story or the EC.
hildebob Your comment on participant's ribbons has next to nothing to do with the subject. If you want to complain about that, you can, but this comment chain and video is not the place as it is not related to your desired subject matter.
I only scrolled down to several months ago, so not sure how many people have mentioned this. But for 'Extragorey' and others who might not understand why some fans were so upset and frustrated at the ending (there are videos explaining better than I EVER could). Two reasons that I share about the bad quality of the ending are. When Casey Hudson made a press release PROMISING that there would NOT be a simple a,b,c ending to ME3 (which we got 1 ending with different 3 colours. And also the buildup towards the end that seemed to show shepards' possible indoctrination. Which is supported by official in-game lore and codex releases. It was as if they were building towards a lore friendly gut twisting ending, and someone (EA) brought down the hammer and said "no, gamers want simple endings. That's too complex, and we want it released immediately, so scrap the story and release". (EDIT: return button not letting me make paragraphs spaces :S)
+Jcktheripper I get that people see it that way. But to me the ending is more than just the final cutscene. The whole game in itself contains many endings, but it's the entire final mission on Earth and talking to all your former crew mates that wraps up the series for me, and that did address the choices I'd made throughout the trilogy and was more than just an a/b/c ending (as you can see in the video). But I do wish the indoctrination theory was canon. That would be awesome, and certainly more satisfying than the Control/Synthesis/Destroy outcomes were at face value. I agree there's a lot of support for it in the lore, and it may really just have been someone at EA bringing down the hammer on the more nuanced story conclusion. We may never know.
Thanks for the speedy reply XD Sadly true, the real politics of EA/Bioware will probably never be known. The 3 main endings to me always felt like a trick (indoctrination), Control was illusive man, synthesis was Saren, and destroy was ruse to get you to destroy VI's and computer systems ((as even the dead reaper in ME2 was still somewhat alive) and who's to say the reaper invasion wasn't just the first wave?). Anyway only thing I/we can hope is that the 'Andromeda' story won't suffer from interference from EA, or dev time cuts.
Indeed. And I'm sure there were far more Reapers than those that actually arrived at our galaxy, but the ending choice conveniently affected ALL Reapers... somehow. Space magic. ;) I'm staying away from Andromeda news as much as possible from now until its release, but I hope it's as awesome as the Mass Effect trilogy was... or better. :)
Why doesn't any of Hammer's troops have any shields?!? Really? They're dying left and right in the initial ground assault. Shields didn't seem that rare. Love the game but that always bugged me.
Shields in the Mass Effect universe offer literally no protection against laser weapons, hence them being called "Kinetic Barriers"... because they only offer a barrier to kinetic/particle weapons
@williamnixon3224 That's not true for infantry after Sovereign's destruction. Reaper ground tech can protect from everything except radiation. It's presumably more difficult to build, though. Outside of ME2 Hardcore and Insanity, most grunts can't afford it.
I just cant see why people consider the Destroy ending to be the "perfect" ending. People say that the Synthesis ending was bullshit because of ME1 and Sarens goal and how everyone had a list of reasons why the goal was bad, but the Synthesis ending was different. Saren was indoctrinated and believed that indoctrinating the galaxy would be the best way to save it. The Synthesis ending is not that, its combining synthetics and organics to create a "new form of life", as the Catalyst puts it. Thats not the same as Sarens goal, and is so much better. Another reason for believing that the Destroy ending is actually the WORST ending comes from what we learn from the Catalyst itself. If you actually LISTEN to what it said, you'd learn that destroying the Reapers (and all synthetic life along with them) would only TEMPORARILY solve the problem that the Reapers were designed to solve (not that im saying that the destruction of all the civilisations that reach the point of creating synthetic life is the best way to solve the problem). Hackett himself said it when he said "We can rebuild everything that was destroyed." This implies that one day, their gonna make synthetics like the Geth again, and, according to the Catalyst, eventually the synthetics will rebel, and the galaxy will go to war again, and without the Reapers there to stop it, there would be no more organic life in the galaxy, or potentially the universe if it gets that far out of control. *The Synthesis Ending*, on the other hand, stop the need for the Reapers to harvest organic civilisations by advancing organics with synthetic abilities, and giving the synthetics the ability to truly live (the Quarian people learned that it is a bad idea to deny the synthetics this the hard way). There would be no reason for the "chaos" that the Catalyst described. EDI herself says it in the Extended Cut Synthesis Ending. Allow me to share her quotes. "As a galaxy, we can now live the lives we have wished for; taking our steps into a new and wonderful future, where organics and synthetics can coexist peacefully." Like I said, no more war, or chaos, or conflict between the two. "The war is over, and the Reapers are helping to rebuild." Just like Hackett said, only this time the Reapers are helping to speed up the process and, as EDI later says, surpass what they could do originally (ironically proving the Illusive Man right about that, except on a galactic scale, rather than just humanity). "With peace across the galaxy and unlimited access to knowledge, to recover the greatness that was lost, and surpass it." Need I include more quotes from the Extended Cut to make my point clear? No, I don't think so. Honestly, the only good thing to come out of the Destroy ending is to see Shepard survive, but thats just selfish, and as James Kirk said in his comment, ironically, about why the Destroy ending was "perfect" ("the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few for me." - James Kirk, 2014). So you potentially send the world into chaos in the future JUST SO ONE MAN CAN HALF SURVIVE AND NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN? SURE, THAT DOESN'T SOUND HYPOCRITICAL AT ALL!
agreed, the synthesis ending is the best ending for everyone, as far as i know the control ending would be Shepard controlling the reapers to be like galatic police and stop wars from starting. Only reason i picked destroy is because in my head shepard is found and him and Tali live in the nice "beachfront property". I couldnt leave my Tali, man.i...i just couldnt.
The reason people find the Destroy ending as the best one is simply due to the indoctrination theory. If you don't know what it is, it basically says that anything post Harbinger's death beam happens only in Shepard's mind. There are various factors that are way too large in number for me to mention here, but i'll list a few. Well one theory is that what the Starchild says is complete bullshit and is actually a reaper (Again, there are a few instances that could prove this, such as his voice in the refusal ending when he says "so be it") trying to indoctrinate Shepard and turn him away from the destroy ending. Another thing to support this is how during the entire ME3, you've been told over and over that Destroy is the only way and that there is NO other viable option, yet Destroy is colored red as if it's a "bad" option. Also, the starchild said Shepard would die if he chose the destroy option since he is partially synthethic, but we see him live. How could that be true if the Starchild is correct? Simple, he ain't, and he is a lying little shit. There are 3 very long documentaries (hour and a half each) here on youtube about the indoctrination theory (Search up "Indoctrination Theory Documentary") which are very interesting to watch. Don't jump on people's decisions since you don't know why they have them. You are obviously not as informed as those who have chosen the Destroy option are (Not that i devalue you for that) but don't jump to conclusions.
well i know of the indoctrination theory, it just feels to me like really conspiracy theorist BS. If you listen to the Catalyst he says " When fire burns, is it at war? Is it in conflict? Or is it simply doing what it was created to do? We are no different." He basically states that Leviathans created the catalyst/reapers to obtain synthesis. The reapers don't destroy ALL life they destroy the civilizations that have reached their peak before the Quarian-Geth problem turns into something on a galatic scale. Thats why synthesis is the most logical ending, and im pretty sure EDI even explains why in the extended cut. "Organics seek perfection through technology, synthetics seek perfection through understanding." Anyone who tells you hurr durrr saren wanted that is dumb. What happened to saren is what happened to the illusive man, and those 2 are different than what happens to everyone when you pick synthesis
Or maybe he is bullshitting you into not picking Destroy. The fact that he said Shepard would be destroyed and he wasn't is something i personally have decided not to pass up and go over. (Along with many other things) Plus, regardless of whether or not the Indoctrination theory is true, i find it a much better ending than what was given to us and i prefer to have it as the "official" ending.
UndeadGothaX "It is now in your power to destroy us. But be warned, others will be destroyed as well. The crucible will not discriminate. All synthetics will be targeted. Even you are partly synthetic." Hes just warning Shep of a fact that the main reason he is alive is because of synthetics. When he explains the other 2 choices he says you will die, so theres no big conspiracy there. If you listen to what the Catalyst says he is saying he was created to achieve synthesis, but never could truly do it, (the husks, cannibals,marauders, banshees, etc are all failed attempts at synthesis). Any of the 3 choices break the cycle the only difference is that after you learn all the facts from the Catalyst, the destroy option is red because if you destroy you have now set technology back a few years, and left the universe open to the high probability of a Galactic scale Quarian-Geth conflict.
if you come to think of it. picking Synthesis will dissolve Shepard's body, dispersing it and turning everyone into a synthetic-organic hybrid. making Shepard, "part of us"
+Blunt Dragon I doubt people are willing to set aside their petty squabbles and dramatization over tiny problems to do anything productive. I wonder how big of fools people not even 100 years from now will think of us to be, or how far behind we are compared to other potentially millions of civilizations across the billions of stars each within our own single galaxy alone. Or what threats or friends lay out there far beyond our comprehension, waiting. If only...
we're not on this level yet, unification is a natural process determined by many variables, such as technology, life space, a common foe and so on... Look at history, we had tribes, polis (which would unite temporarily against Persians), countries, and now international organisations like the European Union.
I played the entire trilogy over a week while I was sick and practically bedridden a couple weeks ago and noticed they were all on sale for like $15.00 (total). I had the extended cut dlc and while I still thought the ending a tad underwhelming (mainly the whole god-child ai thing and the number of war assets you have only changing one ten seccond clip), this ending still kicked ass (I always get chocked up for some reason seeing the thousands of ships exiting the relay), and this has to honestly have been my all time favorite experience with a video game. I littlerally think the last time I was so in awe of a game was LOZ: The wind waker (which was the first game I ever played), games like Fallout and TLOU came close with the exploration and characters but this game truly blew me away and Im almost glad I got as sick as I did cause I may not have ever played this amazing trilogy otherwise.
Hey, I'm in a bit of a similar situation. I bought the trilogy on Steam, it was like 75% off and i got the 1st one for free through discounts. I caught COVID-19 in late June (luckily a really mild case) so i was stuck at home. I have to say i kinda like the whole god-kid thing. It really cements the Reapers as beyond our understanding. The fact that the intelligence chose the kid from the prologue is both symbolic (young boy in white/wool clothes really hits home on the Christian symbolism part) and kinda grim since the kid in question died. Shepard's just talking to an AI wearing the processed "skin" of a young child. It's a good way to finally reveal the reapers' true nature. It'd be kinda stupid if it turned out that all the reapers just work for an EVEN bigger reaper.
my perfect ending shepard gets out alive lives happily retires that's the ending I want all the choices sucked give me the ability to kill the reapers and still visably let shepard live.
No matter what happened, Mass effects ending was brilliant. with the extended cut, it showed us that life goes on, buildings can be rebuilt, ships can still be used. The loss was great, but the victory was greater.
I think after playing the same character for over 100 hours (since each game is around 40hours) I actually wanted a happy ever after ending. At this point what was even the point of the paragon/renegade system. For me the best ending would have been a fully happy ending for paragon Sep (he/she lives and everyone lives) and for renegade Sep the ultimate sacrifice (he dies every1 else lives) since even renegade Sep was a hero, an ass but a hero. Oh well... that's how it ends in my mind :')
I do kind of understand what they were going for in the form of the reapers. Yes there's massive conflict that seems paradoxical to their ultimate goal, BUT the idea is to preserve a species in synthetic form basically for eternity. And considering the number of reapers there were in the fight, they seemed to be awfully successful. My biggest gripes include the God child thing, that was just ridiculous and the voice acting gets abrasive after a couple minutes. And the way they killed Anderson. I don't care what the circumstances are, the Illusive man did not gain magical powers that made Shepard do that. Instead, if they were determined to kill Anderson, the Illusive man should have just opened with that himself. It would have made more sense. Frankly, while I get that the developers wanted to be all cool and philosophical with their ending, I don't entirely feel it was the best. I don't care if Shepard dies, but after hundreds of hours of game play and over two hundred dollars in games and DLC, I was really hoping for a satisfying ending and I feel we were justified in asking for it. They had all three games to force those difficult decisions and make you think about philosophy stuff, and they did that well. But the end should have been much more straightforward. Crucible in, reapers bite the dust. OR, instead of making it a weird choice thing, how about the Crucible was some sort of synthesis inducing thing instead of a reaper-bomb. Then the developers get their fancy ending, it's something a little different that makes the gamer think, but gives us a sense of closer without the glaringly obvious and annoying end choices. Heck, the choice at the end isn't even that difficult considering how obvious each answer is and they feel like they erase what we were trying to accomplish. Anyways, that's my two cents on the issue. Still a fun series and I absolutely look forward to the next entry in the series!
Not trying to boar anyone with history, but when Hackett said this is the largest assembly of fleets. It made me think of d-day which was our largest assembly of ships, about 44,000.
For me, the best ending is control -the normandy gets to travel home because the mass effect relays are being rebuild -curing the genophage is acceptable, because you have an unstoppable army to keep them in check. Wrexx always talked about rebuilding the glory of the krogan, which can only mean war - shepard becomes a god - you can keep the leviathan race in check since they can easily decide to dominate the "lesser spicies" again - letting the geth live becomes more attractive, but I'd still kill them -galactic peace is ensured
