So okay. Maybe it is necessary to destroy the Mass Relays in a narrative sense, and we just don't know why yet. Fair enough.
But to make us choose between three choices we probably don't agree with on top of it was a little much. I mean, okay, destroy the Mass Relays and the economic/poltiical structure they support. But at least give us the option to say, "No thanks," to the Child Entity. Tell him that we don't share his beliefs, and that we aren't going to play his game or accept his logic, that Synthetics and Organics can live together, and that we can destroy the Reapers and break his system without his help or input.
In this route, Shepard would simply take the elevator down, ignoring all three options. Then if he collected all the main fleets and/or had a high enough EMS score, the Child Entity would destroy itself (because it has failed) or at least shut down its operations and vanish. The Reapers would be weakened (like Sovereign was after the destruction of Saren), and the ground forces and fleet would rally and destroy them (perhaps with Shepard's companions leading the fight, if it isn't too much trouble). This would not require much alteration of the existing scenes.
You can even destroy the Mass Relays by having the Child's death/disappearance short circuit them, thereby preserving whatever continunity they are trying to develop between the endings.
This ending would impart me with a deeper sense of triumph, since it would show that the resources I gathered and the allies and friendships I formed mattered in the end.
I also don't like Shepard "having" to die. Contradicts the idea behind the character, which is that he/she is unstoppable and always wins -- even his/her death in Mass Effect 2 is used to underscore the character's resilience. It's like watching Indiana Jones or Han Solo get killed in their trilogies, and it sucks all the fun and joy out of Mass Effect.
Enough dark stuff happened throughout the trilogy and in Mass Effect 3 in particular to underscore how dire things were. We don't have to kill Shepard too. Having a high enough EMS score should give a 'real' Shepard survival ending. I don't see that killing him/her off is essential to the continunity of the franchise -- just let him/her walk into the sunset, if that's what the player wants to do. My proposal for a 4th ending encapsulates that idea; he/she can die in all the rest if that's what Bioware wants.
Note -- when the Child disappears and the Mass Relays short circuit, I would use purple energy or better yet orange "omni tool" color energy.
Note 2 - I can actually appreciate the 'green' ending where Organics and Synthetics are spurred into the next stage of evolution (although I wouldn't choose it generally except as an experiment) but I don't think we should be boxed into a situation where we can't reject the Child Entity's proposals without some degree of success, because the Shepard a lot of us played simply wouldn't agree with his arguments.
Note 3 - Not getting all of the fleets or a low EMS score would result in some sort of failure -- maybe the fleet fails and the cycle continues, or maybe the Reapers go crazy without the Entity and destroy all life forever, as the Entity feared, thus showing the price of defiance without the resources/EMS scores to back it up.
Note 4 - A lot of people want to see their Shepard standing next to their love interest at the end. I don't really support that concept, because I think the romace sub-plots received adequete resolution in the plot and that there is no reason to let them overtake the ending completely -- there was a lot more going on than Shepard's love life, enjoyable and meaningful though it was for the players that pursued it. I do support showing that the love interest was still alive and "somewhere" for Shepard to find "somehow", but I think the current endings already show the survival of the love interest.
Modifié par Aedan276, 10 mars 2012 - 10:45 .
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