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Why am I writing this?
Just to get some thoughts out of my head and file it away. Might be interesting to others. This is /not/ a defense of the ending. I tend to agree with a good part of the general consensus. I'm ok with the premise, but far, far too vague and unsatisfying. I'm filling in a lot of holes in my own head, which I'm honestly not comfortable with.
Still, in the absence of more stuff from Bioware, the below is how I think about it. Feel free to give your own analysis or point out things I've missed.
Why did the mass effect relays have to go away?
You are breaking the cycle, destroying the order of things as dictated by the catalyst. To break that order, you need to break the framework -- the mass effect relays, and the citadel. Which, even if the citadel survives, it is now under permanent reaper control. If the galaxy wants to be without the reapers, then they must also lose the things that came with them. The relays and the citadel.
Tossing these things also has an important consequence for non space-faring species. Gives them room to breath and come into their own without the galactic community mucking about in their biological and technological evolution.
Presumably, this will set the stage for the next game.
Why didn't Shepard have a long conversation with the catalyst, to get more information?
Shepard is dying. They are seeing the universe around them crumbling. They are also desperate. Alone. The character has poured everything they are, every fiber of their being, into defeating the reapers. Now, here they are, on death's door, with an impossible-to-make decision.
Notice how Shepard boils the choices down. "But the Reapers will be destroyed?", "But there will be peace?", "They will really listen to me?". Shepard isn't in a philosophical mindset.
Part of ME3 was watching Shepard slowly unravel, and this is that point. Though we, as players, are able to pause and think, Shepard is long past being able to sit down and having a logical thought process. It is just "Must. Stop. Reapers. Now." So they choose, based on incomplete information, whatever their instinct (you) tells them is the best course of action. It was actually one of the few parts of the ending I liked, my Shepard obviously felt entirely at the end of their rope.
Was it all for nothing? What about the mass relay explosions?
I think it is a plot hole, but it is very, very likely the mass relay explosions do not obliterate the systems they are in as they did in Arrival. Couple reasons for this. First, depending on your readiness, Earth may survive with some semblance of being 'intact'. Despite some of the other false choices, it is a bit of a stretch that they would waste time with the differing cinematics if Earth would going to be blown apart by the mass relay anyway. Second, we see Shepard alive (in one ending), on Earth, after the explosions.
So the mass relay destruction can be viewed as doing three things. One, destroying the mass relay network; two, spreading the wave that destroys artificial life / makes people part synthetic; and three, ruining the day of anyone currently using the network. Obviously anyone very close to the relay is screwed, but that's not the whole galaxy.
Is all technology gone?
No, probably not. The Normandy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the entire fleet may be wiped out (or, more likely, crash landed), but I don't think all technology is gone. Few hints here and there. Garrus' visor still works, for example. Further, I do not think Shepard is capable of living if the cybernetic implants stop working. Or, at least, if they could, then Shepard would probably be crippled.
Also, I strongly believe they ended it like this in order to make room for a sequel set far in the future. Give it a few thousand years, and what does it matter if the reapers were destroyed, left, or if people combined with synthetics? The details are lost to time.
But the destruction of the mass relays would not be lost to time. Nor would wiping out all technology. It would make the destruction ending too different from the other two (where tech obviously survives -- EDI). Technology is still there, but the mass effect relays are gone. Probably with some other side-effects, but people aren't back in the stone age all of sudden.
Finally, though my initial reaction to the after-credits scene is that everyone started over and space travel is impossible, now I see it could go either way. When the grandfather tells the child 'one day', they may have been serious. Perhaps it is far more rare for people to fly all over the galaxy, but not impossible.
What about Shepard and their companions?
If Shepard survives, there's a chance they may run into some, or all, of their squad mates before the end of their life. It is reasonable to assume at least some of the squad mates on earth (Grunt, Wrex, Miranda, etc.) survived.
The Normandy's crew is likely not permanently stranded. Going on the theory that not all technology was destroyed (especially in the non destruction endings, where a complex AI is hanging around), it is logical to assume someone can swing by and grab them. There are many billions of people, and many millions of civilian ships, that are likely still intact.
So, it is a happy ending for those whom survived. Tossing them off Earth was very, very, odd, but not insurmountable. At least assuming they aren't clear across the galaxy.
Obviously not all of them lived, and it may be a stretch to think Shepard sees their significant other again. But not impossible.
What does the future hold?
Well, with the destruction of the mass effect relays the galaxy just became a much, much bigger place. Your travel is limited by time, and fuel. Races will carry on, some amount of contact may be possible, but sporadic at best. Races that are way out there -- like the Quarians -- may be cut off from the rest of the galaxy for a long, long time.
This also gives something else, though. A chance for other, less advanced, organic life to rise up. The relays made the galaxy a small place, just a few species dominated it nearly entirely. Now, the Yahg, among others, have a bit more breathing room to explore without the interference of other races.
So we may see a far more diverse universe going forward.
What's my ending?
Destroy the reapers, with a surviving Shepard. When it comes down to it, I feel a nearly unraveled Shepard is going to want to finish what they set out to do. Destroy the reapers. Losing the Geth, EDI, and perhaps all VI's is unfortunate. But, the galaxy needs to keep going. Controlling the Reapers, or synthesis both seem like poor options for a lot of reasons, not least of which being the Reapers remain. I think, as well, my own Shepard believes in self determination too much to force the DNA changes on the galaxy. They did just say, after all, that organics don't want their form changed.
Shepard would be found, nursed back to health, and assist in rebuilding Earth. Once that is a little ways along, she would go off in search of the Normandy. Eventually finding it, and reuniting with her companion and crew.
The universe at large rebuilds, slowly. Some races, like the Batarians, go extinct. Those that survive do not make contact with others again for a very long time. Galactic politics are essentially reset, but there is the backdrop of the reaper invasion in the history books.
Life goes on, for a few thousand years the races rebuild, other races figure out space travel, and some kind of galactic community is rebuilt. From that point, impossible to even imagine where it goes.
I'd prefer to see something -- a book, a post, dlc, whatever -- to make things a bit more concrete. But, in the absence of such a thing, that's how it ended for me.
Modifié par raeting, 08 mars 2012 - 07:58 .
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