Mass Effect 3 SPOILER THREAD: LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE

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"Maybe it was a dream or hallucination" is really not a positive for the ending. It's one of the oldest, most cliched, discredited tropes in the history of human literature.
 
The argument you said I'm not seeing is actually the one I'm referring to. It doesn't have to be either/or, but the choices you made throughout trilogy never changed Shepard's mission, they just built his character in different ways. Like I said, the good cop, bad cop dichotomy. You were always rushing towards the same end; the difference was in the means you took to get there. I don't see a necessary connection between having several means and several ends, especially when your choices never changed what you were trying to accomplish.

Now, whether or not you thought the ending sucked on its own terms, outside of the element of choice, is another thing altogether.

No. Having just beaten the game, I have not gone through 42 pages of mostly meaningless posts. I just noticed a consistent reaction, and decided to ask for more information. I was asking for the arguments, not attacking them.

The point is all those choices should have culminated in something completely different than the ending that was given. I say "ending" here because all three are basically the same in some fashion.
 
What the fucking dicks is with that ending?

So it turns out God (or functional equivalent) lives inside the Citadel (completely out of fucking nowhere might I add) and offers you a choice of how to end le game totally regardless of the bullshit you did during it. Right?

I don't know. I don't understand. That ending was balls. And they all suck, too. GREEN SPACE MAGIC.
 
What the fucking dicks is with that ending?

So it turns out God (or functional equivalent) lives inside the Citadel (completely out of fucking nowhere might I add) and offers you a choice of how to end le game totally regardless of the bullshit you did during it. Right?

I don't know. I don't understand. That ending was balls. And they all suck, too. GREEN SPACE MAGIC.
Welcome. Embrace the pain and enjoy your stay. :lol
 
No. Having just beaten the game, I have not gone through 42 pages of mostly meaningless posts. I just noticed a consistent reaction, and decided to ask for more information. I was asking for the arguments, not attacking them.

Synthetic vs organics has never been a central issue of the series; the ending of ME3 summarizes it as THE driving theme for the story where the omnipotent child space wizard says the reapers need to save the organics from eventually creating synthetics that would kill organics even though the Citadel banned the creation of synthetics and the main synthetic vs. organic conflict in the series (geth/quarian) was the result of the organics being immense assholes.

And that's just one reason why it's shit.
 
The point is all those choices should have culminated in something completely different than the ending that was given. I say "ending" here because all three are basically the same in some fashion.

Yah, it's strange. The idea of there only being only one general sort of ending for a choice driven game means that someone at Bioware must have really, really loved it. Maybe they were going for some kind of divisive reaction..

Synthetic vs organics has never been a central issue of the series; the ending of ME3 summarizes it as THE driving theme for the story where the omnipotent child space wizard says the reapers need to save the organics from eventually creating synthetics that would kill organics even though the Citadel banned the creation of synthetics and the main synthetic vs. organic conflict in the series (geth/quarian) was the result of the organics being immense assholes.

And that's just one reason why it's shit.

You might have a point there. I've watched the two Ghost in the Shell movies recently, so those themes struck me as interesting and they didn't seem out of place (probably because they were kicking around my head)..but now that you mention it, they kind of come out of nowhere..they were only ever mildly hinted at.

I firmly believe that the ending choice could be the exact same, but that if instead of showing you a cutscene of the Normandy Crashlanding god knows where with magically teleporting squadmates, it ended on a 4-5 minutes epilogue of Liara narrating how all the races went about after the War (depending on your choices as usual), the backlash would be much, much, much less than what it is now. That's what we wished for ; closure.

Oh no. You're right...it just hit me. The lack of closure is too deliberate; they're obviously planning on putting out some kind of epilogue DLC..and I bet it'll feel more like a true ending. That's a huge fail, especially with all the Mass Effect 3 DLC controversy already hitting the fan.
 
Yah, it's strange. The idea of their only being only one general sort of ending for a choice driven game means that someone at Bioware must have really, really loved it. Maybe they were going for some kind of divisive reaction..



You might have a point there. I've watched the two Ghost in the Shell movies recently, so those themes struck me as interesting and they didn't seem out of place (probably because they were kicking around my head)..but now that you mention it, they kind of come out of nowhere..they were only ever mildly hinted at.

Yeah... what we've ended up with is a conceptually decent ending, for a completely different game series.

It's a shame.
 
Also? Fuck vent kid. Horrible, ham-fisted, clumsy attempt at emotional drama. Zero connection or elaboration.

But seriously I'm really pissed off that they just pulled a GOD out of their ass at the last minute. WHAT? Okay, they didn't call him that, but it's that or he's a space wizard.

For fuck's sake Tengen-Toppa Gurren Lagann had a better galaxy-ending plot than this and that show makes no excuses about it running on complete nonsense.
 
Where was my face-off with the Harbinger? Does he even exist? I thought he was the antagonist. But no...

Otherwise I wanted to make a post about the ending but I see people posted them already.
 
Where was my face-off with the Harbinger? Does he even exist? I thought he was the antagonist. But no...

Otherwise I wanted to make a post about the ending but I see people posted them already.
Harbinger probably shot that beam that injured you on earth

That reaper had yellow eyes
 
Where was my face-off with the Harbinger? Does he even exist? I thought he was the antagonist. But no...

Otherwise I wanted to make a post about the ending but I see people posted them already.

He is the Magic Beam wizard that put you in hallucination mode at the end just before the conduit. :)
 
TTGL actually does have a better reason that ME3 for an extinction cycle because the reason for TTGL's is actually built into the fundamental laws of their fictional universe, whereas ME3 just shrugs and goes "YOU HAVE TO DO IT OTHERWISE THEY'LL KILL ONE ANOTHER". Goddamnit.
 
Where was my face-off with the Harbinger? Does he even exist? I thought he was the antagonist. But no...

Otherwise I wanted to make a post about the ending but I see people posted them already.

Harbringer was the reaper firing at you as you rushed to the citadel.

I hate that the controversial ending detracts from the amazing sequences immediately before it. Martin Sheen played a blinder as the illusive man (he was an infinitely more interesting villain than saren ever was), and Anderson's death is one of the most affecting since (the one that happens at some point half life 2 episode 2).
 
So the final, final dialogue choice with the Illusive man... I couldn't pick the paragon choice. Why? My Paragon bar was full!
 
So the final, final dialogue choice with the Illusive man... I couldn't pick the paragon choice. Why? My Paragon bar was full!

I know same here! I did paragon everything except at the end when you could shoot the illusive man I did the renegade shoot option. I didnt mean to press it :-/
 
I too fucking loved playing Frogger 10.000 times in ME1, yes.

yeah, I'm not sad to see all minigames removed either, to be honest. Still, something more compelling than re-using planet scanning as a fetch quest system would have been preferable.
But I can see why they went with it, because they had to create reasons for the player to keep coming back to the Citadel, making it central to both the forced-down plot and the player's own created narrative.

I wish they hadn't gone with "first and only kid in the series is my constant" kind of writing though. Games are not a vehicle for forcing emotions onto people. When I see those dreams and shephards "buuhuhuhuuu" face I feel like laughing, not crying.
Losing Kelly Chambers however, now that gets to me. Losing Thane gets to me.

Some kid I couldn't possible care less about? Get it the fuck out of my game and stop wasting time on some bullshit emotional pull nobody gives a shit about.
And the worst part is that he's only there to create a supposed symmetry with the ending. Even when there is absolutely no need for that since going back to Earth, going back to the Citadel, already takes care of that across all games and their narratives.


There is a "test" among editors of ANY writing (fictional, academic, whatever): if you can remove something that doesn't change anything to the narrative structure, that element NEEDS to be removed. Occam's razor, while commonly associated with science, is an argument against unnecessary fictional elements, that is: theoretical, ontological entities that add nothing and do not explain anything further than already explained by other elements.

As it is now, Bioware could have cut the kid and the "guardian" (more like galactic douche) and nothing would change. The Catalyst would still be an element to be used and that would be the end of it.

That's what bothers me about this "ending". They might as well just have gone with one ending: destroy the reapers at the cost of all spacefaring civilization. Ram that reset button. Which ignores all the player actions and series of course, but that's the point.



There is something else about the ending: those piles of bodies. Used as future material for the keepers so they will respond again to the signal to start the cycle? Excellent motive.
Used to build another baby reaper while the codex establishes that the reapers use harvest ships to do this already? Again: not required at all. Bogus motive.
 
Just pulled an all nighter to beat the game. The ending. wat. Haven't slept in 24 hours, so tired. All endings watwat
 
There is a "test" among editors of ANY writing (fictional, academic, whatever): if you can remove something that doesn't change anything to the narrative structure, that element NEEDS to be removed. Occam's razor, while commonly associated with science, is an argument against unnecessary fictional elements, that is: theoretical, ontological entities that add nothing and do not explain anything further than already explained by other elements.

As it is now, Bioware could have cut the kid and the "guardian" (more like galactic douche) and nothing would change. The Catalyst would still be an element to be used and that would be the end of it.
case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZDDC7vhdug
 
So the final, final dialogue choice with the Illusive man... I couldn't pick the paragon choice. Why? My Paragon bar was full!

It appears from looking at the Quarian-geth conflict that these selections are dependent on actions in the previous games.

Really: if you have sufficient 'points', Shepard will have a paragon / renegade addition that makes him do what any sensible person would do anyway at that point.

You probably need the same with TIM. Destroy the collector base, telling him to go to hell, convincing Saren to shoot himself, those things.
 
So what was that ending clip with the normandy about? Watch some crazy ass DLC ending come out of it dealing with time travel due to exiting hyperspace travel, etc, etc
 
Goddamnit Bioware, why did you cut this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=booBmcFw_Lk

Oh god. They cut the best part of the conversation!

That's sad.

If that were to be the ending I would have been very happy.

I was actually thinking about Shepard having kids earlier in the game. I was thinking about how crazy it would be to be the child of the Shadow Broker and the Hero of the Galaxy.

That would be a LOT to live up to.

Not to mention, it would be cool as hell to be able to play as that character in ME4.
 
Oh god. They cut the best part of the conversation!

That's sad.



I was actually thinking about Shepard having kids earlier in the game. I was thinking about how crazy it would be to be the child of the Shadow Broker and the Hero of the Galaxy.

That would be a LOT to live up to.

Not to mention, it would be cool as hell to be able to play as that character in ME4.

Fuck. Yes. I don't mean to go all Bioware Forum/Tali's Sweat because of this, but... fuck yes.
 
probably future DLC dialogue with another ending

Bioware here for your solution !
Didn't u like the Mass Effect 3 ending like many other ? Well now u can have a good ending for just $12,99 !

Hell im so weak i would probably even pay $15 for it just so i can keep on playing the trilogy without it becoming a chore because you know how they will treat you at ME3 ending.
 
I was actually thinking about Shepard having kids earlier in the game. I was thinking about how crazy it would be to be the child of the Shadow Broker and the Hero of the Galaxy.

That would be a LOT to live up to.

Not to mention, it would be cool as hell to be able to play as that character in ME4.
So for people who picked Garrus, you would play as a baby Krogan. Haha.
 
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