Hi guys, unlurking here to say that I coming here and seeing so many people feeling the same hurt and depression because of the ending helps a little bit (very little). God, it took me two days to stop randomly breaking into tears thinking about all these goodbyes and promises to survive. My life is such a mess right now and I'm emotional wreck as it is, and I so wanted it least Shepard to be happy, if I can't be right now.
Although I'm so happy that I had no idea about the endings and could truly enjoy the game without it overshadowing everything. Hell, I was so gushing about it my friend (mostly just wow and omg), that I actually convinced her to start the trilogy. And now she enjoys it so much, and I'm already heartbroken for her, knowing that she's going to face same shock as me in the end.
As for all these theories about indoctrination / hallucination in the end, I think it's just grasping the straws (I so want to be wrong about it

). And here are my straws. I think that after Shepard beams up, that teleport stops functioning. The teammates (btw, the entire team, not just the squad is on Earth) are just stunned by that beam attack, so they regain conscience and call for Normandy to pick them up so that they can get to the Citadel. They make it there, in case Shepard is alive, they pick her up, and if she’s dead they say goodbyes. Then, once they on Normandy, Citadel finally explodes, Normandy is caught in the blast (the scene that we see in the ending), and while trying to override it crushes. We don’t see Shepard, because she’s in the sickbay.
So yeah, these are my straws. I still hate the basic idea of the god-child.
I think also that I read somewhere, that you see bodies of your team around you only if your readiness is too low, because I just found some random soldiers around me.
One more thing, thinking back, if Shepard died in the end of the first game, it would be sad, but I wouldn’t mind. But after second game I become too much invested in my character and people surrounding her. She survived through so many life and death situations, she was even brought back from death once, just let for these of has, who would like the happy ending, some chance at it.