I've seriously thought about it. The endings I mean.
Okay. Indoc theory or not, this bit is going to assume the endings as they were presented are all there is. No indoctrination. No other craziness.
Let's also define what counts as the ending. Is the ending the last ten minutes? Is it what happens from when the beam destroys the transport?
I personally define the ending being from the lead-up to the final push.
What the ending overall did right:
It gave you a chance to say goodbye to your teammates. Every single squadmate who was still alive and with you, you were able to have a final conversation with. Something long. Something heartwarming. In some cases, even gut-wrenching as the goodbyes were heartfelt.
The final push was challenging. While it wasn't a true boss fight, it gave the feeling of fighting against the odds to do something impossible. Brutes were coming everywhere, Banshees appeared from nowhere. While it would have been nice to see what was going on elsewhere on the battlefield, we were focusing entirely on Shepard's squad, and it was done well.
The dialogue boss fight with TIM was engaging. This was a callback to Saren, and honestly, can you tell me that dealing with TIM any other way would be more satisfying? Martin Sheen does an excellent job voicing the Illusive Man and making the final boss a social boss rather than a combat boss was fitting. As for TIM already being there, it's explained when you defeat Kai Leng that TIM was headed to the Citadel. Anderson's got less of an explanation, but we can just assume that though we didn't see another path, there was one.
The final dialogue between Anderson and Shepard was heartwarming, yet sad at the same time. Anderson has basically been Shepard's father figure throughout the series. (Some of) You made him Councilor, he stepped down back into an Admiralty role, and in the final game, the bond between Shepard and Anderson is very obvious. They respect each other. They care for each other.
Shepard makes a heroic sacrifice. Despite the way they pulled it off... can you honestly say that you didn't expect Shepard to do such a thing at the end? The ultimate sacrifice. One's own life. Given freely to defeat the Reapers. That bit fit. Would I have liked a happier ending? Sure. I wanted my Shepard and Liara to have little blue babies and see them, but from a storytelling perspective that bit made sense.
Now for what the ending did wrong.
The ending up in the N7 armor with the Predator. Honestly. I had the Scorpion V equipped. And the Inferno Armor. Now, admittedly, a scorpion would have made mincemeat out of the husks and Marauder Shields in no time at all, but still, that bit was annoying.
Many things about the Catalyst either had no real context or made no sense. Okay. I can accept the kid form. Shepard had been thinking about that kid pretty much nonstop throughout the game. The reasoning behind the Reapers, I can sort of accept. If I think about it, it kinda does fit with canon. But damn, the catalyst being some AI came out of left field. Or was it even an AI? Was it Harbinger? **** if I know.
The sixteen different endings are really just several variations on the exact same ending. Color, squadmates, etc. Devil's advocate, I can see why they did this. It gives the illusion of choice while saving money and resources to not have to generate three complete five minute cutscenes. Still, with how amazing the rest of the game is, with all the variation on Tuchanka, on Rannoch, depending on who survived, what choices you made, this feels like they're skipping out. While there were only two real endings to both ME1 and ME2, they at least were distinct from each other, whether it was Saving/Not Saving the Council or Destroying/Not Destroying the Collector Base. The fact that sixteen different endings were boasted got the expectations up for the fans that sixteeen different cutscenes were available.
Admittedly, that's completely unfeasible, unless you want another disc just for the endings. What they should have done is had a set of specific cutscenes that could be cut in as necessary depending on the choices etc. But hindsight is 20/20.
Joker crash lands on a garden world of some sort. Some of your squadmates come out with him. This by no means indicates that everyone else on the Normandy is dead, but seriously, that bit came out of left field. There was no indication as to why he was fleeing Earth... rather than sticking around and helping the fleet, or even landing on Earth in the first place. There was a linking scene missing here. Before TIM, after the harbinger boom scene, whatever.... it's missing. We don't have context. The scene would be far more acceptable with context.
As for lore holes.... the relays breaking, falling apart, whatever. They weren't what happened to the Bahak Relay. The Bahak Relay was struck by an asteroid. An asteroid travelling at near-relativistic speeds struck the mass relay and caused a release of all the untapped energy within it. That's why the Bahak system was destroyed. The Crucible used this energy to transmit its signal. Destroy. Synthesis. Control. All were used by the energy, converted to something nonharmful to the systems that they were hitting. Different methods of destruction net different results.
As for fleets being stranded, no hope whatever... People are assuming the worst. You have the best scientists in the galaxy available to you. They just finished the Crucible which is Space Magic.
Do you really think that all these brilliant minds can't figure out how to make a relay given time and resources? Do you really think that they can't improve upon current FTL so it doesn't take 100 years to go from one side of the galaxy to the other?Assuming you saved the quarians, you have liveships which grow food for them. Dextro-amino food. Which means we have plants. Dextro-amino plants, which can be put into greenhouses to create food for both Turians and Quarians. The krogans didn't really bring females along if you have them, why would they? The females don't fight, the men do. The asari live a long time.
Humans adapt. The galaxy will adapt with us.
Now I say this, considering the Retake Mass Effect Movement. I support you. Civil discourse over what you found wrong with the endings, over what was wrong with the endings can end successfully. Bioware didn't screw up completely on the endings, they screwed up on the presentation of the endings in what was otherwise a superb game. You are donating to charity in hopes that your voice will be heard. There are worse reasons to donate, there are better reasons, but in the end, you are still donating to charity.
Bioware is listening, deciding what to do. I do hope they release ending DLC. I want more context. I want more information. I want more closure.
Until then. I ask you all to Hold the Line.
I can't promise that I will with you.
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