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[Ranadiel Marius]

As I've been looking around the forums recently, I've been thinking about the endings and if there was anyway that the endings that we got could have been made "to work." Yes I know some people do like them, but I mean from my perspective. I started with tinkering with the mechanics and consequences of Destroy at first and then it just sort of spiraled out from there. I decided for this thought experiment to keep Synthesis because clearly one of the writers is in love with it, and I think it could of worked with better presentation although I am making more than a couple of changes to how it works.

Note: This is largely going to be a brain dump from this point out, so my apologies if it gets hard to read at any point.

Where to Begin

Alright so I should probably start with at what point I am diverging from what we got. While there certainly are a lot of details which could be changed about the final mission, I think we all know them well enough at this point(lack of war asset impact, Harbinger being blind, Catalyst, etc.). While I would ideally change all of the gripes that I had about Priority Earth, I'm not going to go into laborious detail about every single fault. So basically I would cut out everything that occurs after Shepard heads to the beam and replace it with what I describe below.

The Set Up

Originally I was thinking that keeping the race to the beam would be fine, but I decided while typing this that two/three changes needed to be made. First off somehow Shepard isn't hit by Harbinger, either remove Harbinger from the scene or let Shepard get in while being fired upon. Second the beam gets turned off after Shepard reaches it. Rather than having your squad evac, they are just a few seconds too late to be able to join Shepard. This change would also require Anderson to reach the beam before Shepard. Other troops possibly make it up with Anderson, but if so they get killed before they have any real impact.

Shepard gets beamed up to an unknown portion of the Citadel. It turns out to be the place where the Keepers are born(pretty sure that is an unknown area). Shepard wanders around where he sees the equipment used to create the Keepers is being converted by either Husks or indoctrinated people(which he possibly has to fight) into something similar to the facilities used to create the Human Reaper on the Collector's Base. Shepard continues walking through these hidden facilities while Anderson explores in a different direction. Shepard stumbles upon a hidden control room, radios Anderson to tell him where to go, and then he opens the arms to the Citadel.

Shepard examines the controls to see if he can use it to turn the beam back on or if if he can find a route to a portion fo the Citadel he knows so him and Anderson can get off and back into the fight. As he is examining the room, the Illusive Man walks in thanking Shepard for everything he has done. The Illusive Man does an info dump explaining how the room they are in now hosts the AI that controls the Reapers, the so called Catalyst. When the Crucible docks it will disbale the security systems for the Catalyst allowing anyone to access the code and alter it. When that happens the Illusive Man will upload a virus/alter the code so that the Catalyst will obey orders from his implant giving him de facto control over the Reapers. A scene is shown of the Crucible entering the battle area.

As if in response to the Illusive Man's comments the room begins powering up, and then Saren appears!.....well a hologram of him at least. He says that the Illusive Man's plan would amount to nothing more than slavery for all those who had become part of the Reapers through th countless cycles. He then explains that his mind was somehow backed up in this room when Sovereign took over his body. Existing purely digitally now, he is free from his former indoctrination and now he has learned more about the Reapers(probably giving an info dump on their orgins) and believes that a path of coexistence with them can stil happen. He proposes rewriting the Reaper control code to free them of their compulsion to Harvest and to alter the networkign signal used by the Reapers so that everyone with configured cybernetic implants/hardware will be able to access the Reaper's network allowing a new galactic utopia to be created through better and instant understanding of each other. Alternatively Harbringer or Star Brat could fill the role of proposing this solution, but I like Saren filling the role and if one is pessimistic enough they could still believe that the Saren hologram is a Reaper trick. Maybe Saren only shows up if you have a ME1 import otherwise it is Harbringer. *shrug*

Anderson busts into the room pointing his gun at the Illusive Man and for the sake of convenience we'll say that Shepard had intentionally left his radio on so Anderson heard the entire exhange up to this point. Anderson says that Shepard can't trust either of them, he can't trust the Reapers, and if it is possible for them to rewrite the Reapers' control code there is nothing to prevent someone else from doing the same. The only solution is to destroy the Reapers for good regardless of what doing that takes. The Crucible then docks with the Citadel and the room fully powers up.

Decision Time

Well at this point you would obviusly get to choose who you side with determining which ending you get. I figure you probably end up shooting whoever you disagree with(other than Saren since he is a hologram).

Destroy

Shpard rushes to console after dealing with the Illusive Man. He tries to alter the programming to essentially make the Reapers catatonic so they become easy pickings. However since he doesn't have a premade solution on how to alter the code, it takes him a little bit to figure out what he is doing even with Anderson's help. I'm thinking there would be three versions of the ending.

In the two low EMS versions, the fleet is unable to keep the Reapers off the Crucible long enough for Shepard and Anderson to finish working. As the firewalls and other defenses go back up, Shepard and Anderson look on at the battle going on through a screen realizing they failed at stopping the Reapers. As they watch, one of them utters "If this is the control center for the Reapers, what happens if they lose it?" Saren possibly answers, possibly not. Either way Shepard sends out a message for all forces to focus fire on the Citadel. In the lowest EMS version there isn't enough firepower to destroy it and the fleet is obliterated as Shepard and Anderson fail to hold out against an influx of husks that swarm the room. The Reapers win and I guess it is closest to the current Refuse ending. In the middle EMS version the fleet manages to destroy the Citadel killing Shepard and Anderson in the process. The Reapers continue fighting, but at a diminished capacity because of the loss of their overall controller and the united forces eventually stop them with a hgih casualty rate.

In the high EMS version, I guess Shepard and Anderson succeed at disabling the Reapers because the fleet are able to hold the Reapers back long enough. I sort of like the consequence of Destroy being that Shepard dies(and also that the Citadel is destroyed by the fleet), but I really can't think of any reason for a high enough EMS not to result in this so I'm including it. As a result of the Reapers being disbaled the Reapers are defeated with minimal casulaties after the program goes into effect.

Control

After you deal with Anderson, the Illusive Man goes to the controls and then uploads the virus/quickly makes the necessary changes. Saren objects but is unable to do anything. There would be either two or three variants of Control. If your EMS is abyssmal, then maybe an ending variant where the Crucible is destroyed while the Illusive Man uploads or the Crucible just doesn't work right and the two of you are killed by husks. Normal and High EMS versions would have the upload be successful, the Illusive Man sends out a message declaring humanity's victoryas he now controls the Reapers and he is going to be making some changes, Saren then calls the Illusive Man master or just vanishes as he is deleted by the Illusive Man(possibly both). In the normal EMS version, the Illusive Man decides that Shepard knows too much, so he uses his new control over the Reaper forces to kill off Shepard. In the high EMS version the Illusive Man considers Shepard too valuable to kill despite the risks, so he makes Shepard into his second in command, primary agent in the galaxy, and de facto successor. Either way the Illusive Man begins a new reign over the galaxy where he promotes human interests first above all other species.

Synthesis

After you deal with both Anderson and the Illusive Man, Saren makes the neccessary changes and the Reapers stop attacking. Shepard announces to the fleets to stop attacking as peace has been reached. The battle eventually comes to a stop. It becomes standard process to install all synthetics with the hardware necessary to access the Reaper network and likewise it becomes a societal norm for all organics to get the implants. The sudden influx of new technologies from, previous cycles result in an increase in the amount of cybernetics that is normal. A counter movement begins which believes that the new implants are actually an elaborate indoctrination attempt and that organics should remain pure eventually resorting in groups performing terrorism. Shepard's new role in the galaxy is to stop these groups from disrupting the new peace. Probably ends with a scene which could be interpretted as Saren having been a fake by a Reaper but is not actually conclusive.

For fun there could be a failure low-EMS ending for this as well where the changes fail and Shepard gets killed by Husks(like in the other two).

Conclusion

So there is my (really long) thought on how the endings could have worked with better presentation(and killing Star Brat). I think I ended up changing a bit more than I was originally planning on, but I'm content with how the brain dump turned out. So let me know what you think. Better? Worse? Exactly the Same?