Write a good ending, you will never have to hear from me.
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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow
- Thread starter Patryn
- Start date
Write a good ending, you will never have to hear from me.
Easter egg where you have to achieve certain threshold points to get it is not an easter egg. It implies the game reward the player for doing so and so activities. Moreover, why is said easter egg only available on destroy ending? That is usually done when the writer want to imply that there's something special about that particular ending.
Depending on your war assets his face is colored red, green or blue but he still gets fired anyway.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Oh they would be massively dumb if they didn't roll with it. But if they did, it means we all bought the finale to a trilogy with no ending
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Then the indoc believers will have massive egos beyond our comprehension.
Last Hearth
Member
That's not what the theory says, that it has to be him. It has to be *someone*, but it happens to be him.
If you want me to elaborate on the theory, I'll say that it has to be someone who can overcome indoctrination. We already know that the Protheans can build devices that can detect indoctrination. So the final test is that the device, specifically designed to combat Reapers and knowing of the indoctrination ability of the Reapers, was designed to require someone who can overcome the indoctrination process to direct it, TIM, had he won, would not have been able to activate it. Shepard, by choosing the destroy option, rejects indoctrination and also at the same time activates the device.
Arjen
Member
Don't get me wrong, me believing the IT doesn't mean i don't thonk it's not a bad ending, it is, hell then it's not even an ending at all
PedroLumpy
Member
I really hoped that indoctrination theory was true. And that they didn't end it because they didn't want it to be immediately apparent to people what their choice really meant. It would take such massive balls but be so incredible. Still would be missing an ending that they'd then need to provide shortly afterwards.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
If the indoctrination theory turns out to be "what's in store" I will be much more upset than I ever was at any point with the current disappointing ending. I have no interest in playing DLC for a game I've completed. None. It is never worth going back for even when it's a decent length like Shadow Broker or Broken Steel. There is no replicating the feeling of playing a game obsessively upon release, and holding back the real ending for later is more insulting than any lazy, poorly plotted ending can ever be. I can accept a full expansion pack or even Mass Effect 3-2 ("The story we wanted to tell couldn't possibly have fit in one [30 hour] game, so we decided it to split it into two"), but deliberately withholding an ending like that for later would probably move me from Team Disappointed to Team Outraged.
Thankfully, the wording of the "we're working on a better ending" announcement implies that they're just dumb (in thinking the current ending was acceptable), not maliciously greedy and evil, which I can live with.
Unless it was available at launch as some sort of secret DLC you can only access after finishing, any gap between finishing the game and resolution is completely infuriating to me. A bad ending won't ruin my experience, but segmenting it like that will.
Thankfully, the wording of the "we're working on a better ending" announcement implies that they're just dumb (in thinking the current ending was acceptable), not maliciously greedy and evil, which I can live with.
Unless it was available at launch as some sort of secret DLC you can only access after finishing, any gap between finishing the game and resolution is completely infuriating to me. A bad ending won't ruin my experience, but segmenting it like that will.
Screw the teams' original choice. It's the reason they're in this predicament in the first place.
I don't care if they change the ending or not. There's only two things I want to know.
1) Why were the Reapers made out to be some all-powerful, unstoppable forces with a reason we cannot possibly fathom become a child's play thing. Who by the way, tells us the purpose of Reapers in about 15 seconds.
2) Why was Ashley who was just fighting with me on the ground, on the Normandy and in jungle land? Harbinger was right there. I know Joker is a good pilot and all, but I doubt he was able to avoid Harbinger just to come in to only pick up Ash/Edi and just leave everyone else to die.
Shake Appeal
Member
That's because anything we present as weird, contradictory, or incongruous is assimilated into the theory. It's confirmation bias at its worst. Anything that can be shown to not make sense is simply further evidence of the theory for its advocates, because the theory is exactly that everything shown doesn't make sense.
Pollux
Member
Damn right. And I would expect some crow to be eaten by certain individuals...
Can someone create a list of all the 'journalists' who mocked the fans and called them self-entitled with the sources? I'd like to preserve them.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Eh... I'll just maintain that they didn't have the intention for this. The fact that they had a sequence where Shep is indoctrinated but ending up scrapping it and that Walters called those black squiggly lines "TIM's control mojo" is proof enough.
Last Hearth
Member
No, I think you're mischaracterizing the appeal of the theory, it's not just that everything shown doesn't make sense, it's that they make more sense if TIT (that's what I'm going to call it from now on) is true.
heliosRAzi
Banned
The fan ending on youtube where Anderson and Shep just watch the Reapers being destroyed is my headcanon
You're going to call it tit?
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
They didn't have the Catalyst planned in ME1. Plenty of incongruous stuff there. Why did Sovereign have to signal dark space from the Citadel when the Catalyst is the Citadel? Why didn't the Catalyst ever do something about the Conduit, which sent people inside the Citadel for the purpose of disrupting the signal? Sovereign had to piece together clues over a long span of time to even discover that the Conduit existed in the first place.
Rob N Banks said:
Terrible editing.
Shake Appeal
Member
If I say "Shepard said x, y, z, and that's bad writing", a TIT-fanatic will say "No, that proves he's indoctrinated, because the real Shepard wouldn't say that". If I say "The black indoctrination tentacles disappear when TIM dies, because he's the one who introduces them using the new Reaper-tech he grafted into his face", a TIT-maniac will say "No, the tentacles disappear because Shepard has finally succumbed to total Reaper control". And so on. Everything that suggests incompetence on Bioware's part is equally well-explained, in the minds of TIT-lovers, by their desperate theory.
heliosRAzi
Banned
"Yes, he as TITS."
It's an Easter egg because it's a 5-second clip.
*gasp*
*cut*
It doesn't really add anything except to the speculation.
heliosRAzi
Banned
There's no arguing with tits. Tits are too powerful
Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
BUT THEN WHY IS IT ONLY IN THE DESTROY ENDING?
(Because your body gets vaporized in the other two to either upload your consciousness into the catalyst or to upload your apparently half-machine DNA sequence to create true hybrid cyborgs)
Shake Appeal
Member
No one should have to eat crow because Bioware spotted that their devoted fans came up with a decent explanation for their hapless ending and then decided to run with it post-hoc.
Ok finally finished the game myself. I just have no words to express how bad this fucking ending is. I'll just write some random thoughts, they will probably be hardly coherent.
The final dialogue is awful, AWFUL. Shep asks nothing to that fucking brat, and all the stupid child say can be interpreted as "yes maybe...maybe not lololol speculate"
I chose Destroy btw.
A thing I haven't seen mentioned is that in the description of the Destroy ending Casper says "You could even destroy all synthetic life if you want. But you're part synthetic too trololol". But my Shep survived (sort of...the 10 scene in the rubble)... so should I believe that Shep did not destroy the synthetics? From a certain point of view, I'd prefer not to commit a genocide (the geth are my buddies and EDI is..ok I guess). From another point of view, it's simply another thing left vague so that they can do ME mmorpg without adressing the ending.
The Joker scene with the jungle planet does not make any sense..but I already knew that unfortunately. But Bioware managed to fuck me even there, one last time (no wait there is still the epilogue): Garrus didn't exit from the Normandy even, if I used him basically in every mission. I saw Liara (my LI...ok I guess) and Prothy the Prothean. I mean ok, he's a badass, but I wanted to see my bro Garrus in the end, not a DLC character.
The epilogue...I can't even. Maybe I'll write something about it later. Maybe not
There are not words to describe the horror.
One last thing I might add is that in the end almost every important choice from ME1-ME2 felt purely cosmetic, was retconned or didn't matter in the long run. Even without considering the shitty endings.
Saved the Council/Kill the Council: different skin for the characters lol, you are still reinstated as a Spectre in this one like nothing happened
Udina/Anderson: we knew it since 2 basically but 3 made it official, Udina is always the councilor
Rachni Queen alive/dead: Reapers clone another Queen, didn't you know? Ok maybe something changes. An UPDATE in the war assets if you save the crazy queen.
Feros: email?
Collector base destroyed or not: NOTHING? I destroyed it and still that ugly baby reaper was in the Cerberus base at the end...
Loyalty missions: ok Mordin's, Tali's and Legion's are handled nicely, and I think even the Grunt ones is important for him to survive or not in the Rachni mission. But the other ones are barely mentioned. For example, Sidonis is nowhere to be seen, Garrus doesn't even talk about him lol
Wrex alive/dead: ok this I liked, it's pretty important in the Genophage plot after all
Virmire survivor: meh really, after the Cerberus coup Ashley had maybe two real dialogues..Zaeed treatment.
Last thing: Indoctrination theory = denial. It's just bad writing guys.
I don't even want DLC ending, Bioware clearly wanted to keep the ending vague so that they can make the "500 years later" sequel without the relays and with a clean start. And I don't care about the reunion between cripple Shepard and starved/cannibal LI.
The final dialogue is awful, AWFUL. Shep asks nothing to that fucking brat, and all the stupid child say can be interpreted as "yes maybe...maybe not lololol speculate"
I chose Destroy btw.
A thing I haven't seen mentioned is that in the description of the Destroy ending Casper says "You could even destroy all synthetic life if you want. But you're part synthetic too trololol". But my Shep survived (sort of...the 10 scene in the rubble)... so should I believe that Shep did not destroy the synthetics? From a certain point of view, I'd prefer not to commit a genocide (the geth are my buddies and EDI is..ok I guess). From another point of view, it's simply another thing left vague so that they can do ME mmorpg without adressing the ending.
The Joker scene with the jungle planet does not make any sense..but I already knew that unfortunately. But Bioware managed to fuck me even there, one last time (no wait there is still the epilogue): Garrus didn't exit from the Normandy even, if I used him basically in every mission. I saw Liara (my LI...ok I guess) and Prothy the Prothean. I mean ok, he's a badass, but I wanted to see my bro Garrus in the end, not a DLC character.
The epilogue...I can't even. Maybe I'll write something about it later. Maybe not
There are not words to describe the horror. One last thing I might add is that in the end almost every important choice from ME1-ME2 felt purely cosmetic, was retconned or didn't matter in the long run. Even without considering the shitty endings.
Saved the Council/Kill the Council: different skin for the characters lol, you are still reinstated as a Spectre in this one like nothing happened
Udina/Anderson: we knew it since 2 basically but 3 made it official, Udina is always the councilor
Rachni Queen alive/dead: Reapers clone another Queen, didn't you know? Ok maybe something changes. An UPDATE in the war assets if you save the crazy queen.
Feros: email?
Collector base destroyed or not: NOTHING? I destroyed it and still that ugly baby reaper was in the Cerberus base at the end...
Loyalty missions: ok Mordin's, Tali's and Legion's are handled nicely, and I think even the Grunt ones is important for him to survive or not in the Rachni mission. But the other ones are barely mentioned. For example, Sidonis is nowhere to be seen, Garrus doesn't even talk about him lol
Wrex alive/dead: ok this I liked, it's pretty important in the Genophage plot after all
Virmire survivor: meh really, after the Cerberus coup Ashley had maybe two real dialogues..Zaeed treatment.
Last thing: Indoctrination theory = denial. It's just bad writing guys.
I don't even want DLC ending, Bioware clearly wanted to keep the ending vague so that they can make the "500 years later" sequel without the relays and with a clean start. And I don't care about the reunion between cripple Shepard and starved/cannibal LI.
Harbinger waves goodbye and goodnight.
"Control mojo."
Honestly, you guys are making everything into something beyond what was intended.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Control mojo. Mac Walters, the lead writer says "control mojo" not indoctrination.
"Control" "mojo"
Illusive Man was part-Reaper at that point. He even said "look at the power I now wield" or something right before he made Shepard shoot Anderson.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Because bioware did it as so.
See? The perfect answer.
Shepard having a gun shot wound in the same place where he shot Anderson is one of the biggest pieces of evidence.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Marauder Shields did that
CharmingCharlie
Member
Because it's Bioware being lazy nothing more nothing less. I mean for god sake Shepard gives Tali an invisible rock on Rannoch does that mean something too ?
Arjen
Member
No he shot him in the shoulder
TIM controls him with his reaper powers which were only established minutes ago when you stormed his base. Shepard is visibly struggling against them and they end when TIM is dead.
Wounds from rushing the beam. He was already limping at that point. (plus it's easy to reuse the hold left-midsection animation when your weapon is on the right hand. Bioware reuses all of their animations)
Are you really asking? Bioware's terrible animation of course.
Marauder Shields shot him in the shoulder yo
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
There are also invisible drinks and invisible people. It's a sign.
I'll just start writing a doc now.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Then why no bullet wound at the shoulder?
How do you know? you literally are taking every hypothesis and shitting on it by saying
'space magic lol'
'control mojo'
you aren't entertaining the idea, or refuting with evidence of your own to support your argument.
Let me know when you can back up your "wasn't intended" claim with actual evidence, if not, allow us to continue speculating and interpreting this game.
Come back when you accept the end for what it is, without using confirmation bias.
heliosRAzi
Banned
There are some production notes written by Mac Walters where he says Shep is affected by TIM's control mojo.
And this:
Arjen
Member
New reaper powers that can move other people's arms? Saren couldn't do that.
Fair enough, still they draw your attemtion to it
They're bad, but not that bad
Shake Appeal
Member
Is this not clear to everyone?
TIM was researching a way of adapting Reaper control technology for human ends. That was the whole point of Sanctuary. Scenes shown via terminals on Cerberus station show that, right at the end, he cracked it, at least on a small-scale (it is unlikely it would have worked on Reapers, as he planned) and had the first working tech implanted in himself. With no anaesthetic, I might add. Anderson and Shepard both start moving like puppets when TIM arrives; this is when the tentacles appear in your vision, indicating 'Reaper' control. But in fact it's Reaper control as reinvented and controlled by TIM. He makes Shepard shoot Anderson to demonstrate his new powers. See his clenched fist with the purple stuff around it? That's his own personal Reaper magic. When he dies, however, the control is immediately broken. The tentacles disappear. Anderson collapses.
Or, you know, it's all in Shepard's mind, whatever.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Recap the Destroy ending w/ the 'gasping breath' stinger.
Snap to a black screen for a few moments until the words "Joy of rebirth" are shown.
Fade in on allied soldiers dinging though piles of rubble until a one of the soldiers shouts about finding something, then show more and more pieces of debris being removed until what's underneath is finally viable. A beaten and bloody Shepard lies in scorched clothing.
Then we see from a high POV one person braking though the crowed that's gathered.
We hear a familiar voice speak.
"Is it her?"
The first soldier on the scene raises a salute and before he has chance to response a scratchy worn voice speaks out.
"Yeah it's me... Anderson... I though you had died."
With a powerful resonant tone he replies.
"You stole my line."
We see a smile break across her face.
"Did you really think I'd die before Shenmue 3 got made?"
uhm, so, why didn't TiM abuse this power earlier? why now?
I just finished the game today, and I actually really liked the ending. I think I would have been disappointed if it was all just a big "Oh, you did X, Y, and Z, so these people survived and here's what they did and the reapers died and yay" sort of thing. I kind of had that problem with Dragon Age: Origins. It was a great game overall, but in the end it was just kind of a game. I feel like this was a bit more than that. They tried something a big more weighty, and also bookended the trilogy so it felt like a full piece.
I haven't really read any theories or anything from anyone else yet, but I understand most of the ending. I also saw it coming from a mile away, really. The choices had really been foreshadowed throughout the game and the series and I think thematically the ending fit because of that.
I haven't really read any theories or anything from anyone else yet, but I understand most of the ending. I also saw it coming from a mile away, really. The choices had really been foreshadowed throughout the game and the series and I think thematically the ending fit because of that.