Yeah, this article understands it. Its disgusting to see IGN, Kotaku and PA all telling fans they should stop being whiny babies and focussing everything on the non-existing idea that fans complain because the ending wasnt happy.
it's also something you would never see among movie critics. Since usually they will tell you the movie sucks first, not afterwards.
I think people claiming the dark energy ending would be better are in denial upset about this ending grasping at straws. That would have been just as bad if not worse with the same people raging about it. What precedence or great foreshadowing for it was there beyond a quick glaze over in one mission in ME2? At least with the whole rogue AI thing we've been dealing with since ME1 at every turn between the geth, murderous VI's and the whole is EDI going to turn on us and kill us all. The groundwork is right there I'm not understanding why people are claiming that was out of nowhere yet the dark energy thing had precedence? Really!?
Not trying to defend this ending either just saying lets not get too crazy here. I'm not really sure if they could have came up with an ending to totally satisfy everyone. Make it to convulated and mindblowing and people poke holes in it and you turn off all the dudebros you just got on board with ME2 and adding MP in ME3. Could have been worse though, they could have had Dietz write it with no editor.
I have become convinced that Dietz' deception is a consequence of changes in ME3, not a cause. But yeah, the dark energy setup would have required some more careful planning and would ultimately be a showdown with Harbinger or other reaper avatar (Virmire casualty, not the stupid kid!) . Technically it would be unexpected and perhaps hard to understand, but it would be a far more consistent choice to make for the series.
for instance:
1. use crucible to destroy reapers, but speed up dark energy build up, which without the mass relays is basically a death sentence, but you get to live.
2.allow TIM to use the crucible to gain control of the reapers, spreading the control signal destroys mass relays.
3. tell harbinger to go to hell, but try to save the mass relays. Fleets duke it out with reapers and succesfully get reapers to retreat. Both dark energy and reaper problem remain, but hope lives.
- (fail condition based on war assets) allow reapers to continue, humanity is harvested. Dark energy problem remains.
4. best ending, paying off paragon plays in all games: convince harbinger to have the reapers back off, as their solution is clearly not paying off. Harvesting humanity will not allow them to solve the problem.An uneasy truce is made, allowing the races to live on, but with a new problem at hand. Mass relays are saved, making this canon.
(future games deal with problems of future generations, possibly with an Asari lead. Shepard lives on to have to go to a bar, a beach and have those smurfs. )
Why else would anyone even have bothered to play to through all these games? Surely not to have themselves trolled. All that hard work for nothing? Who the hell would want that?
Also not that hard to create and could be done by Bioware, presumably in the allotted time, since the kid was not required. Ahsley / Kaiden voice actors were already secured. Only problem being the Harbinger VO, but that could have been avoided by using Ash or kaiden as an avatar.
Avoiding confusion and complexity was really not a smart move for this series, as it basically made it rubbish instead of eternal classic. They really, literally threw away the potential for an all-time classic trilogy.
