didn't understand the ending or
didn't see the clear themethroughout the game, and this seems like the best place to rant about
it.
First, we have to look at the two
primary decisions in the game, the Genophage and the Geth. These two
decisions, and the events surrounding them, are a culmination of
everything you've done and seen in the previous games. When people
ask about lack of consequences it blows my mind. But anyways, back to
the main point:
The Genophage question is, at its core,
'Do you believe that the Krogan can change? Or do you think that
history will inevitably repeat itself?'
The Geth question, at its core, is,
'Can synthetic and organic life co exist?'
Jump to the end game revelations: We
find out that the cycle was created by beings who determined that
organic life creating, and then being destroyed by, their synthetic
life is inevitable. As such they created a cycle: when organic life
creates synthetic life and said synthetic life is nearing the point
where it will inevitably destroy organic life, the Reapers come in
and harvest all organic life, preserving them forever as Reapers.
Each Reaper is the genetic culmination of a civilization. A single
entity or avatar for a species.
But life adapts. The cycle could never
last forever. So they built the Crucible, a 'test' to determine when
life had gotten to the point that the Cycle would soon fail to work,
and Shepard is the one to do it. He activates it, is informed the
truth about the Cycle, that it will no longer work, and is given a
choice.
This choice is a culmination of
everything that has happened before (except the middle choice).
'Will history inevitably repeat itself,
or can life change?' 'Can synthetic and organic life co exist?'
Well if you think history won't repeat
itself, that society has learned, and we can co exist with synthetic
life, you can command the Reapers to leave. THIS time will be
different. Life and the galaxy continue as it is. We'll find a way.
If you think history will repeat
itself, that synthetic and organic life can never co exist, then you
destroy all synthetic life simultaneously. The Reapers are
obliterated, as are the Geth. Organic life, you hope, never makes the
mistake of making AI again. Two decisions that reflect the two
central questions in the Mass Effect universe.
Of course, to do this, the 'space
magic' that will either tell the Reapers to leave or destroy
synthetic life will need to go out through the relays and they'll
fall apart in the process. The third option, to rewrite life as
organic/synthetic hybrids is pretty ridiculous, I'll admit, but it
was meant to be the 'good option', where you don't have to make a
choice.
BUT WHY WAS JOKER IN THE RELAY?
Well we know that the Fleet couldn't
actually win the battle. In fact, the Crucible was our only hope.
When it didn't fire and our fleet was being obliterated, is it
ridiculous they'd call a retreat?
How did my squad get on the Normandy?
Well, in universe, I assume time passed between your beam up and you
waking up and working on the Citadel. They had time. Out of universe?
So Bioware could give you a happy ending.
BUT LIFE IS **** NOW. THE RELAYS ARE
GONE AND GALACTIC CIVILIZATION IS BROKEN
Well, the easiest answer to this is
that the Protheans built a Relay, so we're probably not TOO far
behind. But beyond that, the answer is in the conversation between
Shepard and the Catalyst. I'll paraphrase, but Shepard basically
says, “We don't want to be preserved, we want a future.”
That's what the Crucible gives you, a
future. An uncertain future where things could go terribly wrong,
where endings aren't necesarily going to be happy, where things might
work, but a FUTURE. A future of your own making. Knowing what happens
to your squadmates, knowing how the galaxy rearranges itself isn't
important, what's important is that they even have a future.
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