439 réponses à ce sujet

[Gambit458]

I tend to play Paragon in Mass Effect. Mostly because the Renegade options in Mass Effect seem pointless. It's usually pointless bullying for no gain or real satisfaction. One of the few Renegade picks that feelt good was punching Admiral Gerrel.

In SWtor I actually enjoyed the Inquisitor story arc and mostly played it dark or neutral throughout the playthrough with perhaps some very rare exceptions. There you could make dark decisions but it actually meant something and it was for a reason.
In Mass Effect it's mostly, LOL I punt you because I can, I'm an ass because I can.

In the Inquisitor storyline it was a job and served a purpose, in mass effect it was more like playing a bully in kindergarten. Which totally doesn't work for me, I got no respect for mindless bully's, a determined person with a purpose is something else however.

As for endings, Control seems to be a good way of cleaning up the mess and save as many lives as possible. There you can repair the damages, make sure people are feed, given medical care and society is returned to normal to find it's own future.
Least if you played Paragon.

After that Synthesis doesn't seem so bad, but it will likely happen by it's own given time. It's better if it happens because people make it happen and choose it. Which is why I picked Control.

Destroy would be my third choice, it's dark, but at least the reaper threat and the Catalyst is gone. The Catalyst is centered on the Citadel and it's destroyed or wiped out in all three endings. In control you wipe out and replace the Catalyst and take control over the Reapers. The Reapers are tools, with a dark history and tragic origins.
In Synthesis the Citadel is destroyed and the Catalyst with it, leaving the Reapers free.

Shepards job as a Spectre and Alliance officer is to save lives and maintain the Status Quo and the interests of the Council/Alliance.

How I would have ended it.... It might seem too straightforward, but just having the nanites that created all reapers loose their functionality and have them fall apart would have worked just fine with me. Kind of boring and generic to every movies ever made.

But tbh, I wish several of our companions or factions we recruited could have come up with their own suggestions on how to use the Crusibles capabilities. Rather than getting it from the Catalyst.

Volus Admiral: I think we can reprogram the nanites to deconstruc all reapers and assemble all materials harvested in easy to recycle piles of valuable materials! We will be rich!

Geth: We can take over their forms and use them as new proxies to replace what the Quarians destroyed and give us new homes.

Admiral Garrel: Xen has a virus that can reprogram the Reapers to destroy all Geth and then deactivate. Finally our task of deactivating every Geth will be completed.

Garrus: Let's program the Reapers into fighting it off in hand to hand combat between themselves to determine which one of them will be the last to die.

Batarian's: We lost most of our slaves to this conflict, we wouldn't mind some replacements.

Asari: All of those species inside those things.... Just think of the possibilities! We will embrace eternity for an eternity and it will add to the Asari diversity a million fold!

Salarians: We would like them to deactivate safely on our homeworld for an in depth study of their technology, carefully hidden and sealed off from outside interference by the STG and Salarian Fleets.

Shepard: I think it's actually a good thing I get to pick...

Gotta correct you on the part about the renegade option. Tell me it doesn't feel good to hit that renegade option as soon as it shows up when Kai Leng tries to kill you at the Cereberus base lol 

[shodiswe]

Gotta correct you on the part about the renegade option. Tell me it doesn't feel good to hit that renegade option as soon as it shows up when Kai Leng tries to kill you at the Cereberus base lol

You're right, the end result is pretty much the same, but yes.

[Mister J]

Alright, let's take on the challenge of rewriting Me3. Well first I would want Me3 to end with another 'suicide mission', in the sense that in the final attack the player would have to assign people to a specific task. Although instead of squadmates it would be the war assets this time. The player would have to decide which armies or other assets would be best suited to the task at hand. Geth and Salarians to some tech problem, Turians and Krogan to a frontal attack, you know how it goes... I think that was BW's original plan anyway, otherwise what would be the point of those war assets? They're pretty useless.

 

Then, after fighting through London, Shepard would arrive at the beam were he fights Harbinger in the same way as the Reaper destroyer on Rannoch, although this time he would have to dodge Harbinger's two beams and Harbinger takes more shots (from the fleet or the ground artillery). Perhaps after taking 5 shots or so Harbinger would retreat for a moment to recharge, and in the meantime assume control of some Reaper ground forces to attack Shepard. After Shepard kills those Harbinger itself would return and then the fight continues. This way there's a little more variation in the bossfight.

 

After dealing with Harbinger Shepard and Anderson would then arrive in the Citadel were they confront Illusive Man AND the Star Child. Man tries but fails to control the Reapers. After Man is dead, either by killing himself, or by being killed by Shepard, or killed by his attempt to control the Reapers, Shepard will, if enough right decisions were made, destroy the Reapers -no choices here, just destroy- and together with the dying Anderson would enjoy the view of the dead Reapers floating by. Then Anderson would say his 'seems like years' line and dies.

 

After that the galaxy would be shown celebrating and Shepard would retire with Love Interest to some nice apartment next to a beach on a quiet planet to get away from it all.

 

If that would have been Me3, combined with the inclusion of all Me2 squad mates, temporary or not, and while we're at it, more Reaper and less Cerberus enemies, then I have little doubt that ME3 would have been my all time favourite game by a long shot.

[Valmar]

Not once that I can remember was my angel of paragon ever punished for those blue choices.  Odds are that some of them would come back to bite us but never did.  Same with renegade.

 

Really? Rachni, council, geth heretetics...

 

Though I will agree that they really should had made some of that come back in much harsher, dramatic ways.

 

 

Oh and this paragon player has no issues killing off the geth, edi, krogan, or whoever needs to die in order for everyone else to live.  It is called sacrifice for the greater good and while I am willing to kill anyone off it doesn't mean I don't care for them and that I won't look for other ways to achieve victory.  As Hackett says win at all cost or something like that but that does kinda ruin the "happy" ending so many cry for.

 

I wasn't speaking in absolutes (if you're paragon or renegade you MUST feel such and such!). I meant, generally speaking, a paragon player would appreciate it more if EDI and the Geth didn't have to die. I'm not saying paragons won't choose destroy because it kills them, only that if it DIDN'T kill them a paragon would appreciate it more then a renegade, typically. Be honest, if you had a choice in the matter would you prefer a version of Destroy that only targeted the reapers so that EDI and the geth could survive? I'm not saying you have to be all "nope, cant do destroy, cant sacrifice, nope" but you would appreciate not HAVING to sacrifice them for destroying the reapers, wouldn't you?

 

I'm not saying paragons aren't willing to make sacrifice, only that they're more likely to appreciate having the least amount of sacrifice. Having EDI and the geth be sacrificed though, generally speaking, is a bit of a moot point for pure-renegades. They'll shoot friends in the back if it means winning the war, as long as they get victory over the reapers they don't give a honeybadger. A paragon will at least try to minimize the loss and strive for the the outcome that requires the least amount of sacrifice. Hence why they would more appreciate not having EDI and the geth die.
 

[Alamar2078]

@Valmar:  Honestly I didn't feel especially PUNISHED or REWARDED by my choices in ME1 & ME2.  Whether I save the Rachni or don't they still come back anyway to be a pain.  No "reward" of having easier levels by killing them off.  Whether I wanted Anderson as ambassador or not he decides it's not for him.  Destroy or Keep the Collector base -- no real changes that I recall.  The Geth decisions .... no substantial difference that I recall -- no matter what you decide they're brain-washed by the Reapers anyway for large parts of ME3.

 

I may be off base but IIRC the decisions you make just get you more [or fewer] EMS points and then you wind up in the same position you were after the points were awarded -- no branching story of significance, no lasting impact, etc...  Only if you don't get "enough" EMS is there an impact and even then you just have fewer options [with somewhat nastier side effects] to choose from.

[Valmar]

I never said you were punished or rewarded in any huge dramatic way. I'm not saying to be happy with what we have, only to acknowledge that we did get some reward/punishment. Not as much as we should have, though, definitely.

 

You fight more geth and suffer a greater quarian loss if you rewrite the geth. If you killed the Rachni and spare the clone she goes crazy and kills a bunch of people on the crucible. If the council is alive you get the destiny ascension later on in the war over earth. In some playthroughs saving the collector base will unlock the control ending where they may otherwise be unable to get it, since it reduces  the EMS requirement for control.

 

Again, not saying to be satisfied with the trivial degree of punishment and reward. Though it IS there.

[Alamar2078]

Fair enough.  To me the trivial reward is almost "beneath the radar" so it certainly feels like I'm not being rewarded or [even more important] punished for some idealistic decisions that come back to bite me.

 

Note:  I'm mostly Paragon but "knew" going in that sometimes idealism just gets you bit and was hoping for my come-uppance (sp?) in ME3.

[themikefest]

What's cool about the trilogy is the player, namely me, can do the worst possible playthrough and still get the best ending. Excellent. For those who haven't done a bad playthrough, here you go.  http://forum.bioware...entry17434813. 

[CptFalconPunch]

The Crucible turns out to be a big intervention sniper rifle, shepard noscope the reapers, everyone shouts "rekt"!

 

Game cuts to credits.

[ImaginaryMatter]

The Crucible turns out to be a big intervention sniper rifle, shepard noscope the reapers, everyone shouts "rekt"!

 

Game cuts to credits.

 

The thing always looked like a microphone to me. Maybe have Shepard lay down the phattest beats the galaxy ever heard.

[themikefest]

I would include all remaining ME2 squadmates, but for now, I will go with what the game provides

 

Version #1

 

Javik would be required. Just as Harbinger lands, Shepard tells Joker to fire on the reaper so she can get to the beam. From behind, Joker fires on Harbinger causing the reaper to be distracted enough for Shepard, Javik and other squadmate to go up the beam. Anderson does not go up the beam. Yes. You read correctly. Anderson does not go up the beam. I will explain later.

 

With the 3 of them on the Citadel, they encounter Cerberus troops. A squadmate tells Shepard to go open the arms while they deal with Cerberus. As Shepard approaches the console, she is stopped from moving any further by TIM, who has a pistol holstered on his side. He says the same thing we hear in the ending. If Shepard has chosen the paragon path, she can talk him into adding a another hole to his head or as a renegade, get him mad leading to a renegade interrupt with TIM being shot.

 

As the arms open, both squadmates show up. They are surprised by the floor lifting them upward. They stand before the Catalyst. Javic tells Shepard he will destropy the reapers and to call for a shuttle to leave the area. Shepard gives a nod to Javic as she enters the shuttle and a moment later as it enters the Normandy, a red light can be seen coming from the Citadel

 

Ok. Why did I leave out Anderson? He was not necessary at all. I don't see any reason why he has to be part of the confrontation with TIM. There was no reason to have Anderson shot since TIM already proved he had control of Shepard. Having Anderson shot was overkill. The other thing is it explains the pistol. When you first see Anderson at the console, there is no pistol on his person and when TIM shows up, he has no pistol, but when he reaches down behind Anderson, a pistol is shown in his hand. Did he pull it out of Anderson's a**? 

 

Version #2

 

It plays out the same as above except Anderson goes up the beam. One of the squadmates shoots TIM just before Shepard shoots Anderson. Anderson tells Shepard he will pick destroy and to leave.

 

Version #3

 

It plays out the same as we see in the game except after Hackett isn't able to hear from Shepard, he dispatches a shuttle to that location to find out what's going on. Shepard realizing the timing of the shuttle was just luck, boarded the shuttle and tells the pilot to fire at the tube. 

 

I will post a low-ems version later on. Hahaha.

[Metalrocks]

i would love to that that stupid space jesus child would have never been in the game. rather have the illusive man be your end boss. he could have a machine that allows him to controll the reapers but fails at it because was not expecting the power behind them and you have ot fight him. anderson get wounded and shep tries her luck to controll the reapers long enough for her assets to destroy them. the more assets she has, the less time she needs to spend controlling them and most likely survives. if lack of assets, then anderson is forced to kill shep before the reaper takes control over shep.

 

that way we can have a sad and a happy ending.

[GalacticWolf5]

The Illusive Man was going to be a final boss but they didn't keep that idea. I would've loved to fight him like this.

 

[Valmar]

The Illusive Man was going to be a final boss but they didn't keep that idea. I would've loved to fight him like this.

 

 

 

Personally I agree with the devs on this one. That being said I would had loved to see this concept art become a reality:

 

Spoiler

[KLGChaos]

I'd give more player agency to the ending-- depending on how you played through all three games, the decisions you made, and the allies you gain, would determine the outcome. There's be no RGB, just a collection of data from the previous games that determine how it all ends. And yes, that means you could get everything from a conventional victory happy end to an utterly bleak bad end.

I'd have a final boss battle against Harbinger, possibly linking his defeat to the weakening of the other Reapers to allow that conventional victory, or even use the Crucible to destroy the kinetic barriers.

There's a lot of possibilities, honestly. I'd just prefer anything other than "you have no hope no matter how much you prepared, choose one of these colors and like it".

[Valmar]

I'd give more player agency to the ending-- depending on how you played through all three games, the decisions you made, and the allies you gain, would determine the outcome. There's be no RGB, just a collection of data from the previous games that determine how it all ends. And yes, that means you could get everything from a conventional victory happy end to an utterly bleak bad end.

I'd have a final boss battle against Harbinger, possibly linking his defeat to the weakening of the other Reapers to allow that conventional victory, or even use the Crucible to destroy the kinetic barriers.

There's a lot of possibilities, honestly. I'd just prefer anything other than "you have no hope no matter how much you prepared, choose one of these colors and like it".

 

I would had loved it if the crucible only disabled the reaper's shields, like when Shepard killed Saren. That being said, your final statement was exaggeration. The endings are more than just colors, unless you're seriously still playing with pre-EC Mass Effect. In which case, download EC and get with the times.

[CptFalconPunch]

The thing always looked like a microphone to me. Maybe have Shepard lay down the phattest beats the galaxy ever heard.

 

So the ending will be a rap battle between shepard and sovereign. Doesn't get any better than this.

[Aisabel]

Long story short- the endings they gave us PLUS endings that came from important choices (saving Rachni queens or something like that) with the option for Shepard to live or die based on things like point scores and armor and whatnot. I honestly feel like Shepard could have lived in all of the endings.. but, that's just me. I put myself in my character's shoes and don't want them to die.

[themikefest]

My low ems version of the ending.

 

Just before the beam run, a scene shows the fleets being torn apart by the reapers. As Harbinger lands, femshep calls to Joker to fire on the reaper to cause a distraction. Instead of firing from behind on Harbinger, the Normandy is seen been pursued by a couple of Oculus. Harbinger fires at the Normandy missing it since Joker avoided  its beam, but the Normandy is shot by both Oculus. The Normandy can't recover and crashes just beyond the beam. The explosion from the Normandy seriously injures femshep and her squadmates. At that point Haringer flies away.

 

She has no idea if anyone onboard is alive.  She looks behind her and sees Anderson dead and all the others that were running to the beam dead. She and the squad go up the beam. Right away they encounter Cerberus troopers. The 3 of them fight them, but are out gunned. A squadmate tells femshep to get the arms open. As femshep heads forward, she turns around to see one of the squadmates killed while the other is doing their best to fight back.

 

As she approaches the console, TIM makes his appearance. The scene plays out the same except no Anderson. 

 

The crucible is moved into place. It finally hooks up to the Citadel, but Hackett's ship and many others are destroyed by the reapers

 

Femshep slouches before the Catalyst and listens to what it has to say. As she heads to the tube, she collapses a couple of times. Through sheer willpower she makes it to the tube and as the last shot is fired she collapses for the final time.

 

The beam of magic destroys all allied ships and the reapers in the area and on Earth and is sent through the relays to destroy all the other reapers in the galaxy. The relays are completely destroyed.

[prosthetic soul]

Two words.

 

SHEPARD. LIVES.

[Alamar2078]

I like that low EMS ending from the beam on.  I'd prefer to shoot something other than a tube but seeing that BW gave us a tube I would find it hard to deduct points based on that.

[Vortigernrex]

Just played the game again and suffered the ending ... the pain doesn't stop! Bioware obviously has very talented writers, but they must have been excluded from the ending part, which was written by the big names in the credits (they pulled a 'George Lucas').

 

With that obligatory gripe out of the way, here's what I feel needs to be here (maybe Bioware will learn from this mistake or a kind soul will create a mod, or a fan-made graphic novel):

 

There needs to be some detail on how the Reapers take control of the Citadel and get it to Earth. Sovereign wasn't able to do this without Saren physically taking control of the Presidium Tower and accessing the controls. The easiest explanation would be that the earlier Cerberus attack was a cover to install some insidious Reaper-based code into the Citadel control which would override all security. The Illusive Man would have done this in order to sabotage the Citadel and allow the Reapers to interact directly with it, with the idea of sweeping in and taking control of the Reapers using the Catalyst in turn (of course he is deluded and was acting under indoctrination).

 

A cutscene showing the Reapers warping into the system, and C-Sec officers panicking as they lose control of the Citadel systems would be enough. A deck officer could make a comment like: 'Cerberus must have uploaded a Reaper virus during the attack - warn the Council, we've lost access to the Citadel controls'.

 

Depending on Shepherd's efforts to build up Citadel security preparedness, the Reaper forces attack and we see scenes of civil and C-Sec resistance in the streets (or a massacre if preparedness level is too low). Some small Cerberus ships, commanded by the Illusive Man, could be seen dodging the chaos and fighting between the Reapers and the Citadel fleet, to dock with the Citadel.

 

Either way, while fighting rages, Harbinger docks with the Citadel (much as Sovereign did before) and the arms then close - the Citadel and escorting Reapers then warp out of the system and warp into Earth space, where hundreds of Reapers are massing. A small relay can then be revealed in London (much like the Ilos one), where Reaper forces herd prisoners (maybe in cocoons like in ME2). They are being sent up to the Citadel where players can imagine they are being 'liquified' in preparation for a new Reaper to be made.

 

The rest of the plot-line can take place as is, with Shep and company fighting their way through London to get to this mini Relay. We do need to see more examples of races fighting on the ground (not just 16 Krogan standing on parade). We need to see Geth and Quarian marines fighting side by side, Krogans swarming over rubble to help some Turians from being overwhelmed, some Asari Commandos fighting with humans. There needs to be a sense of the whole galaxy fighting side by side, not a human battle with a few token aliens on the sidelines. The space battle gave some sense of this, but not the ground battle.

 

Needless to say, Harbinger (being docked with the Citadel) will not appear, although it should be quite a challenge to get to the Relay - maybe even with two smaller Reapers backing up lots of Reaper ground troops (similar to the one guarding the Spire on Tuchanka) - Wrex could even make a comment like 'wish we had a couple of Thresher Maws with us now'...

 

The Normandy should drop off the rest of Shep's team just before the final assault, and then fly interference for the ground forces during the attack - with Joker pulling some insane pilot manoeuvres. The final attack then begins on the Relay.

 

After winning through to the base of the London Relay, Shepherd could be cut off from other allied ground forces by a counterattack of vast hordes of Reaper ground forces. Anderson could call out - 'we'll hold them, just get to the Relay, Shepherd!' - and then carry out a heroic holding action with what is left of his forces. Another nice scene for small bands from different races saving each other and fighting back to back (maybe even the Rachni could swarm in at one point to save some Krogan!)

 

Shep and his team should be the only ones who get through the Relay and land on the Citadel (on the Presidium where the mini-relay previously linked to Ilos was) - this would be a nostalgic reference back to ME1 scenery. As in ME1, it is mostly blocked and the team has to detour and fight through the streets (combat in a ruined Silversun Strip would be fun). They should come across other characters still resisting the Reapers - Commander Bailey and some C-Sec grunts, Aria and her mercs, Some civilians, etc. Shepherd will have to assign members of his/her team to assist the different groups, like in the Collector Base in ME2 (3 squad members to back up Bailey as he tries to take back C-Sec HQ, another 3 to help Aria save a group of trapped civilians, etc). Eventually, Shep will be left with only 2 companions who will accompany him/her into the Tower where they will find a final scene (maybe a ruined High Council chamber - maybe a previously concealed chamber at the heart of the Tower, where the new Reaper is being assembled). There s/he will run smack bang into the Illusive Man and his last surviving henchmen. Shep's companions can hold off more Cerberus henchmen while Shep personally confronts the Illusive Man in a scene not unlike the one currently. Shep can still be injured at this point, but obviously without Anderson. Maybe Shep's 'love interest' (captured  just before - 'sorry Shep, he took me by surprise ...') could be the one held hostage by the Illusive Man - making resistance that much more risky. 

 

After overcoming him, Shep accesses the controls, opens the arms, allowing the Crucible to dock, and gets up to the Master Control area where he is confronted by the Catalyst intelligence. The Catalyst can appear as the kid, or shift through multiple shapes (like the Leviathan did when it communicated with Shep), but eventually it should reveal itself as an avatar of the Citadel itself (recommended: Avina - the guide that has appeared all over the citadel from the beginning). The 'Avina Avatar' would be essentially an AI in control of the Reapers but lacking full control of the Citadel, thanks to the Prothean scientists who sabotaged it previously (ME1).

 

The final choices can be offered to Shep, but need to be re-written and waaaaay less confusing and disjointed. The 'Green' choice of symbiotic integration between organics and machines should be dumped (it makes no sense to anyone). The choices can be between 'control' - which is an 'indoctrination' ending where, if Shep falls for it, will be indoctrinated, and the 'pruning' of organic races will continue ('assuming direct control ...'). A very 'civilised' Yog archaeologist could come across Liara's recording in a 'future-time' cutscene 50,000 years in the future. The second choice would be destruction, which should release energy waves via the Relay network (not blowing them up!) but causing huge damage to technology (damaging the Citadel and nearby ships), causing Reapers to self-destruct, and basically kicking off a Galactic dark age - but at least organic races would survive, and technology could slowly be repaired or rebuilt. A really sad scene of Joker bending over a dying Edi would add a good emotional hook. The third choice should be 'sacrifice' which should cause a feedback loop between and Citadel (catalyst) and the Crucible, blow out part of the Citadel itself, destroying the master control section and the Catalyst and crippling the Reapers, which become inert, while not damaging other technology, but this one would result in Shepherd being killed in the explosion (despite efforts by his/her injured love interest or companions to save him - a nice emotionally jerking scene here to bring some tears ...). A low preparedness score would result in more of the team members and other characters on the Citadel dying along with Shepherd. It would probably be a good idea to have a 4th option too (to get away from the typical 3-option ending), and that would be some kind of delaying tactic, whereby Shepherd threatens to destroy the Reapers if they do not withdraw - this would need an absolute max out in either Paragon or Renegade scores. The catalyst intelligence would then download itself into Sovereign and bug-out, along with the rest of the Reapers, to fight again another day (once they've adapted their defences to withstand the Crucible). The galaxy would still be under threat against their implied return in 50,000 years, but it would be the least destructive ending. It would also allow for the 'Yog' archaeologist scene ...

 

Preparedness levels and players' choices would then impact on the aftermath regarding who died and who lived, what condition the planets were in, etc. Scenes of Citadel cleanup or ruin, the raising of a monument to Shepherd on the Presidium (if he didn't survive), scenes of vast destruction of planets if preparedness levels were too low, etc.

 

This is a long rambling post - but maybe someone will enjoy the train of thought here, and add to it even.

[dorktainian]

wait till we get the crucible into place docked with the citadel then blow it the hell up.  Blow the Citadel.  Kill Star Jar.  Everyone is happy again.  The end.

[Asharad Hett]

Let's say that the Mass Effect 3 ending we knew didn't exist, that there was no "star child", or no red, green, and blue endings, or scrapped dark matter endings, and you're approached to write the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy. How would you do it?

 

Shepard reaches the crucible, and discovers TIM has indoctrinated Anderson.   After TIM is convinced to commit suicide, Shepard activates the Crucible and takes a seat next to Anderson.  They watch the view outside, as Reapers begin targetting each other (but they never stop attacking our fleet).  After Anderson's passing, the Citadel/Crucible begins its self-destruct sequence.  The facility collapses upon Shepard.

 

During the final space conflict, we see the repercussion of EMS.  Our ending is impacted by the number of allies we have assembled.  With low EMS, the Fleet is victorious, although most ships are destroyed and life on Earth is lost.  With high EMS, the Allied Fleet experiences few losses and Earth is saved.

 

After credits roll, there will be different post credits scenes based on EMS.

 

Low EMS = Memorial for humanity and the races we didn't save, held on a rebuilding allied planet.

Mid EMS = Memorial for Shepard and the Normandy crew, held on rebuilding Earth.

High EMS = Memorial for Shepard being conducted by Normandy survivors, followed by a Shepard breath scene.

 

 

[TLDR] = No starkid, no RGB, and our choices matter [/TLDR]

[God]

Made the Reapers into some assimilation plot villains (ala the Cybermen from Doctor Who, the Borg, the Flood from Halo, etc.) who want to make everyone into them while holding that they are inherently superior and must purge the universe of imperfection (which is why they want to assimilate everyone. Two choices there; become them or die). Drop the AI BS, but still have the Geth and EDI die as a consequence.

 

I'd have destroy work the same as it does.

 

Shepard would be mentally assaulted by the Reapers and fights through their influence by holding onto ideals/people/concepts he holds dear. Synthesis and Control would be false victories that basically win the war for the Reapers, with Synthesis making everyone into a Reaper organism and achieving the 'happy state'. It's kind of a win, since everyone technically lives, though they all become Reapers for the most part. Control would just backfire, with a new Shepard AI simply replacing the old Catalyst and continuing the purge since it can't overwrite the programming that is part of the Reapers hardware (it'd basically be unable to see anything but what's in the hardware). 

 

Refuse would fail of course.