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[Arios1570]

This is the only way I'll accept the game as ending, at least in my first playthrough, Male Shepard, Tali LI, Ashley died at Virmire.  Haven't covered everyone, but I enjoyed writing this...if all your results were different, I may be interested in writing a version for yours.  This may be very Rainbows and Sparkles, but hell, I got everyone together, did everything, my bar was green, so this is what I'm accepting as my ending, vanilla be damned.

After the Catalist finishes his speech:

Shepard turns back to the Catalist:

Shepard: You arrogant fool.  For someone who was once so obviously wise, you understand nothing of life.  Organics, synthetics, they're not destined to war.  You look at examples of the past and see only bloodshed, I've seen with my own eyes a peace between us, and no, we don't have to be merged.  The Geth now live side by side with the Quarians who once lost their world in attempts to destroy them, a symbiosis you have not anticipated.

You have accepted that your solution will no longer work.  You were foolish for seeing this as a solution.  This solves nothing, it causes a larger problem, more pain, and enslavement.  The reapers aren't ascended, they're made into your play things.

Here's my solution: send these abominations into the nearest black hole to be crushed and never seen again.  Destroy all the monsters they have melded from organics, and free your indoctrinated slaves.  Shut down any reaper that can't reach a black hole, completely.  The souls within could use the rest.  Leave the mass relays and Citidel as compensation for all the pain you have caused.

But you, I want you to stay active, I want you to see the impossible: I want you to look out and see that unfathomable peace as it spreads across the galaxy, that peace I worked so damned hard to build.

Catalist (silent for a moment): Very well, the reapers will be no more.  We will try it your way for now.

Shepard leaves the platform, holding his hand to his ear.

Shepard: Admiral Hackett...
Hackett:  Shepard?...what's...the reapers are leaving!  What's happened, is it over?  What happened?
Shepard: The reapers have been dismissed.  (smirks)
Hackett: What do you mean?  What happened?
Shepard:  We did it, the reapers are...
Shepard collapses, as he falls, radio signals call out, loudest of all, Joker.  As the screen goes dark, Tali and Garrus run up to lift Shepard.

Eyes open very slightly to the med-bay of the Normandy, Tali holding Shepard's hand as she sobs, Garrus and Liara there to comfort her.  The others stare on in somber silence.  The heart monitor beeps rapidly and unsteadily, then eyes fully close


Shepard opens his eyes, he's badly injured but still alive.  Doctor Chakwas turns away from her monitor and smiles.

Chakwas:  Good to have you back, Commander.  There's someone...
Tali:  SHEPARD!
Tali rushes over to his side, almost ready to hop over him in a tight hug but stops.
Tali:  Oh...right, I...bad idea right now...Keelah, I...
Shepard: I know, good to be back...what...what happened to the reapers?
Tali:  They retreated, all at once.  It was madness, husks were ripped apart as their synthetic parts combusted, and I heard that indoctrinated prisoners all lost consciousness, but when they woke, they were their old selves again. (pause)  What did you see up there, Shepard?
Shepard:  The Catalist, he was...he told me his solution: the reapers, were no longer valid, that a new one must be formed.  I told him to let us be, let the reapers fade into memory and watch as he was proven wrong.
Tali:  You saved us, this entire galaxy is in your dept.
Shepard:  No, you saved us, you, your people and the geth.  Ha, didn't think the geth would represent the hope of life.
Tali:  Well, I guess people will start to look at Quarians a bit differently now.
Shepard: I didn't mean to boost your ego, sure you don't need to take off your helmet to make room for your big head?
Tali: Why not? (remove helmet, this time, the camera actually shows her face.  They kiss, screen fades to black).

Weeks later.  Shepard looks out his window in Huerta memorial, crowds are gathered below holding signs of support, Shepard smiles and turns to a desk.  There's a note that reads "Damn, Shep, even I couldn't steal an army of reapers, nice one. ~Kasumi. P.S. Thanks for all the tech loot."  Shepard shakes his head and smiles.

Nurse: We've prepared an escort, Commander, the council would like to see you.

Shepard nods and leaves for presidium tower.  Shepard is awarded a metal, announced as the highest award possible, yadda yadda.  He walks down the steps, to both sides, high ranking officers and politicians applaud, many notable faces bow slightly or nod, whatever is custom, screen fades to black.

Images of Allied fleet

Hackett:  The forced gathered against the reapers suffered heavy casualties, some fleets lost more than others.  Upon returning from the war, the militaries watched cautiously for others to make a move, but no one lifted a finger.  Everyone had seen enough bloodshed, and they were all grateful for the aid each offered.  We were no longer divided by race, we are now a true galactic alliance.

Images of Tuchanka, Wrex issuing decrees over his people, who are, for the most part, in agreement.

Wrex VO:  The Krogan people spread rapidly, populating and rebuilding Tuchanka, then spreading to other worlds...uh, uninhabited worlds, nothing taken by force.  I think softer races were relieved at that.  We even got an ambasidor, Urdnot Bakara.  The years that followed saw things never thought possible.  Krogan intellectuals, politicians, engineers, each, of course, could kick a Turian's ass with both arms lopped off.

Bakara and I contributed to the population, about six thousand by now...I think.  She got her wish, the first to hatch was named Mordin, second was Shepard, third, though it pains me, Garrus, then (voice fades out.)

Images of Palaven being rebuilt.

Garrus:  The Turians returned to Palaven in force, eager to rebuild.  We had help though, Geth, Quarians, Rachni, and after a few years, Krogan, though we used them for heavy lifting at first, they later proved themselves with engineering.  My heart nearly stopped when our engineers checked their plans and said they'd actually work.  I still wouldn't want to live in a Krogan design any time soon.

Me, well, I retired, I travel from one scenic place to another, Illium, the Citidel, Omega.  They're...scenic, no greater sight than a busted up crime boss crying for his mother.

Images of Geth and Quarians working together on Rannoch.

Tali:  It only took us a year to build up our immune systms thanks to the Geth.  However, once the reapers went into that black hole, they were returned to their previous intelligence.  Rannoch is now a cultural paradise.  We aren't "suit rats" or nomads, and we have the geth to thank for that.  They could have destroyed this world with mindless polution in search of resources, but they kept it for us.  As long as I live, I will not let our people forget that.

I built that home on Rannoch, overlooking the shore, it's beautiful.  A geth helped, he wouldn't talk to me, but I once saw him doing a dance known to humans as "the Robot". 

Shepard lives here as well, Raan says she disapproves of us, but I see her smile when she thinks I'm not looking. When we heard how many Quarian children were orphaned, we stepped in, adopting a young boy and his sister, both children of the Neema.  We know we can't have children of our own, but it's fun to try.  We visit the others often, and they all seem to be getting by just fine, I'm so happy for Joker and EDI.

Images of mass cleanup of Thessia.

Liara:  Thessia's rebuilding was slow, but everyone worked together, the cooperation was remarkable.  A former bar owner and matriarch gave the rallying cry for the building of new mass relays into uncharted systems.  With so many ears listening, it became a reality, she named the first Asari-built relay, "The Little Wing".  We've found many intelligent races, evolved far from relays.  It hasn't all been smooth, but we are creating protocols to aid in the progress. And we thought we were in a golden age before the war...I think I will enjoy the next nine hundred years. 

Image of Javik in a meditative pose near destroyed cryogenic pods.

Javik:  I returned to Eden Prime to put my men's spirits to rest along with mine, but a faint glimmer caught my eye.  An active pod, revealed by a crashed Cerberus ship.


(and just for added flavor)
20 years later

The camera pans across the navigation area of an advanced starship.  The crew is made up of every race from council space.  The galaxy map is covered in relay markers, at the head of the team is a Quarian man, unmasked.

Navigator:  Calan, we are clear to proceed, just give the order.
Calan: It's Captain now, we're not kids anymore, remember, Nasaan?
Nasaan: This isn't a military vessel, brother, we're scientists.  You're still Calan to me.
Calan: Great, hello, history, remember that day we sent a manned mission to another galaxy?  Its navigator checked her bed for spiders every night.
Nasaan: And its captain couldn't ask a girl out without wearing a reinforced mask.
Calan: (sighs)  I'm sure everyone has heard enough to last the trip.  (Presses intercom) Crew of the SS Williams, it is my honor to lead this great mission in the name of discovery, the first of its kind.  Our races once worked together to end a cycle of destruction that stiffled advancement.  My father stood in the presence of those mighty enemies and said "no more", with all our races allied behind him, they fell, the impossible happened, and now, this voyage, deemed just as impossible is going to reveal to us a whole new galaxy.  We don't know what we'll find, but we'll be ready. (deactivates intercom)
Nasaan: Now if you could just be that determined around women.  (Activates communicator) Unit 4395, we're good to go.
Unit 4395: Acknowledged, Creator Nasaan.

Camera moves to a view of the ship, a design with influences from all major races flying to a colossal mass relay, the power source being dyson web.  They fire off toward another galaxy, the view being from over the top of the ship, showing them rapidly approach the galaxy.

Upon slowing, they see several worlds around a blue sun.  Zooms in on a small rocky planet.

Calan: That must be the world the signal came from.  According to the readings, it's capable of supporting life!
Unit 4395: Captain, I do not believe the local life needs a planet to exist.
Calan: What to you mean?
Unit 4395: This unit's databanks offer no accurate way to describe what it has detected.
Calan marches to the cockpit, Unit 4395 points to an approaching creature, colossal in scale, light blue and best described as a combination between a whale and a manta-ray..
Calan: If only father could see this...

[Ferelaren]

 I don't mind the happier tone of the ending, but I don't feel like it adequately reflects the trouble you put into amassing a fleet and truly making everyone work together if you just convince their leader to leave. It also stretches belief that an AI that had been doing something for, what, 17 million years- and had never had any trouble with it before- would just give up his plans. That being said I do think it's more likely for a Shepard to do than just accept the Catalyst's words and give in. In my opinion, the Synthesis ending is the Reapers winning, as they've forever changed the whole galaxy and it will never come back to the way it was. You could say the same for the other two endings in various degrees. I've posted this in a couple of other places and am starting to feel like I'm shamelessly touting my ideas, but yours is another opinion I'd be interested in having- though my idea isn't as well thought and and enumerated as yours, it's my idea for the most logical ending based on all setup. 

Here's the ending I would have envisioned my Shepard doing... When the Child-AI-Creature posits that synthetics will always eventually overcome organic life and destroy it, and that the Reapers are necessary to prevent that from happening, I imagined that the conversation would go something like this: 

Kid AI: "Synthetic life will always achieve a level unreachable by Organics. It will always destroy them. The cycle prevents this, and allows Organic life to live on, in some form."

My Shepard: "In some form? No. As agents of a perpetual genocide, forced upon the galaxy by a creature which has no right to decide the fate of trillions. In truth, synthetic and organic life can live together- I've proven that by convincing the Geth and Quarians, enemies for hundreds of years, to work together. The true strength of Organic life is that we have hope. When you kill us, reap us, you steal our future. You steal our hope. Within each and every organic is the potential to live peacefully, and the same can be said for every AI. This cycle, this murder... it snuffs out any hope of true peace. It allows some life to live by sacrificing the potential to have any real future for anyone. It kills us all, by robbing us of our hope. Take your flawed solutions, kid. All the races of the galaxy have proven you wrong today. We stand together, fighting against the injustices that you perpetrate through your god-machines. We stand together, as one, against any and all comers. And I would gladly give my life, to keep that hope alive."

This would be followed by a desperate run to overload the Crucible, resulting in an enormous shield-destroying pulse that would render all entities in the Sol system shieldless.

If you'll recall, reapers without shields are quite vulnerable to the sustained fire of the enormous fleet that my Paragon Shepard had amassed. I'd imagine that this would be followed by a final rally and battle, dependent on one's readiness score, that would defeat the reapers and leave the relays and citadel intact, giving organic life a TRUE chance..... 

Thoughts? This is just my attempt to be constructive rather than just being angry or hating on Bioware, and it's more than welcome to criticism. It's just what I thought I'd see happen. I'm also aware it's Bioware's game and that while I reserve the right to criticize it, I have no right to demand they change it, even as a paying customer.  

[Thomas Abram]

Both of you have very interesting, well written points. I ask that you take your opinions and this discussion to one of the mega threads so you can be sure it gets seen.

Unfortunately there are a lot of posts floating about regarding the endings and the sad truth is a lot of them get lost in the volume of threads we get. By taking it to one of the mega threads you can be sure it gets the exposure you're looking for.

As such I am closing this thread down.