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[Han Shot First]

Everything exactly like it is in the pre-EC endings except with Yakety Sax as the end credits song.

[General TSAR]

What bothers me more is one of the squadmates getting suppousedly injured so badly they need to be evaccuated. And then we see them walking out of the Normandy on the jungle planet unscratched. They should've just come up with a different excuse to have Shep go into the beam alone.

Yeah that too. Even with space magic, I don't think you can heal shrapnel wounds in five minutes. 

[MsKlaussen]

I can't mention anything that happens before the final couple of seconds, save to say that somewhere someone blows up a water treatment plant and the water ends up completely surrounding the elevated walkway on which the final scene takes place and the electronic god kid and the funky computer with the buttons end up the only dry electrical devices still in the room on a crumbling bridge facing certain electrocution and painful blue screen of death in the raging water below with other mangled electronic devices partially sticking up all around and my FemShep pointing a black market Flak Cannon from Unreal Tournament directly at god kid's face and snarling :

 

"Live for nothin. Or die for somethin. Your call."

 

BIG flaming ball of molten metal with a smiley face comes toward screen....in 3D!

 

- Flames! Electrical frizzling noises!

 

- Fade out - Urgent by Foreigner

 

- Background montage of FemShep in action with resting ****** face

 

~ Fin

[DanishGambit]

Instead of the 'dead man's mile' I would've preferred that Shepard's team would have found a way into that transporter. I didn't really like Priority: Earth because it felt like a straight shot to the end of the level rather than a kind of difficult slog. The terrain was often level and there weren't many opportunities for much other than a frontal assault. This typically led to sitting at one piece of cover for long periods and gradually getting rid of enemies. And whenever Banshees and grenades came the only real option was to retreat and go right back to the same spot so they didn't really help too much with that. 

 

After getting through the transporter the squad would find themselves on the presidium at the same location where they were transported from Ilos. They would find that they had no choice other than to go down into the wards. As they descended Shepard would start having those visions and sense that a beacon was around. So they would move in that general direction. They would then start engaging Reaper forces in hallways, alleys, stores and other establishments where there was a lot of cover and a lot of opportunities for flanking on both sides, It would be similar to the second stretch of the priority mission which was the best half. In ME1 there were counters and crates down there that were large enough for cover. 

 

As they continued down they would find themselves in one of the warehouse areas about to be taken from behind by Reapers. One of the squad mates would suggest that one of them needed to stay back to hold them off. But instead of giving you the option like on Virmire, one of them would simply volunteer to do it. As Shepard and the other squad mate continued they could throw in a twist and have the other squad mate have to stay back due to an injury or something. This sort of thing could add in special dialogue for the Virmire survivor and romance character. The non-romance character could volunteer first to avoid making the first situation less impactful. Shepard would be able to hear his team on the coms occasionally but they would often fade out and he wouldn't be able to communicate with them.

 

Shepard would then have to move down the wards on his own and into the range of TIM's indoctrination (unknown to the player). While in the depths of the Citadel a real Reaper could then start to play mind games with Shepard and try to break his spirit. Then while he moved through the alleys of the wards he would be attacked by not only Reapers but indoctrinated C-Sec officers, Alliance soldiers and other armed races on the citadel. The environmental controls would then go off causing the sprinklers to come on making it more difficult for him to fight. 

 

The Reaper could then mock Shepard for having to fire at the people he was supposed to protect. Shepard would then do his usual hero talk but the strain of being separated from his team and having to fight colonists would be heavy. As he got closer to a white area of the wards he would then be fired upon through a wall by a praetorean. The blue laser would blast him through glass into an abandoned area. His armor would be blown off and he would lose his weapons. 

 

He would then pick up an old M-7 Lancer (yes a lancer) from the floor and have to use it to kill the praetorean. Instead of having to shoot directly at it for an hour he could instead fire at the combustable objects in the area to do damage to it. The battle would be more dynamic in that he would be forced to move into different rooms to avoid the alien's laser and AOE attack. It would be more like a horror scene than a shooting scene. You wouldn't be able to simply shoot at it. 

 

After killing the alien, Shepard would find that he was bleeding and that his omni tool was busted or that he was too damaged for his biotics and tech abilities to work properly. They would become either unavailable or work erratically. He would also find that his health was permanently decreasing as he moved towards a long hall.  

 

At the end of the hall was a bright light. From that light Reaper stragglers attacked Shepard. From here Shepard would have no health left and the hallway would be turned into a slo-mo sequence as he made his way to the end of the hall. As he moved to the end Reaper forces continued to attack as he could then hear the voices of people from his origin story (I don't know what it's called) and his squad mates. Certain powers like charge would have to be permanently disabled for this to work but I think you could simply chalk it up to requiring too much effort to use them. 

 

Anyway at the end of the hall would be a dead end with a bright light fixture on the wall. He could then sense the beacon on the other side of the wall. By pressing his hand on the wall an elevator (yes an elevator) would open through the wall on the other side of him. That could lead him to the area where there were a bunch of bodies and up to the balcony where Tim and Anderson were. In the elevator could be a bunch of flashbacks and thoughts and whatever. The elevator music might mess up the mood so it probably wouldn't fit here. 

 

Now we can say that Anderson simply got up there before Shepard because the beacon just popped him up there where Shepard was in the real ending. We can say that TIm was already aware that Anderson was on board and that he could only change the coordinates of the beacon afterwards but he couldn't shut it off The showdown could go exactly the same way it did in the real ending to Anderson's death. 

 

Now instead of being beamed up to the mothership, Shepard could look at the console and see that it was in Prothean. He would then have one of those mind melds with it and suddenly be able to understand the language. He would then find that he activated a Prothean AI that would explain to him exactly what could be done. 

 

After much exposition and philosophical talk he would find that there were two options:

 

A: Destroy the Reapers and disable all other electronic devices across the galaxy which could cause other problems

 

B: Control the Reapers but risk losing control of them allowing them to do whatever they want 

 

There was also a third option. Shepard could, if the conversation was handled in a certain way, reason with the Reapers by disabling their primary objective forcing them to destroy everything. With practical free will the Reapers could be reasoned with and Shepard could then have a long talk about how synthetics and organics don't have to fight and all that stuff. But in that conversation you could fail and if you do the Reapers would turn on the crucible that they have full awareness of and destroy it. They would then continue with their old objective.

 

You could fill that with cutscenes where they get angry or interested so the conversation has a little more meat to it. 

[Iakus]

How about this as an option:  Rejection

 

Shepard rejects the Reapers, thier philosophy, everything about them.  And uses the Crucible to destroy the Reapers, but not as the standard Red ending.  Shepard takes out the Reapers and the trap they laid for the galaxy:  The Citadel and the relay network.

 

The geth and EDI can survive, but the geth return to being a consensus, and EDI's capabilities are greatly diminished.  But the relays are permanently nonfunctional.  This leads to a "mini dark age" Interstellar travel is still posible via standard ftl, but galaxy spanning governments like the COuncil are frakked.

 

Are there deaths?  Yes.  Starvation?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  Put a lot of heads together and a solution may be found.

 

Does Shepard survive?  Maybe, based on chcoies made (and in the 'best' outcomes, yes there is a reunion) 

 

Can the relays be repaired?  No.  But new ones might be made.  Or maybe new methods of travel can be found.  After all:

 

Technology is not a straight line. T here are many paths to the same end.  Accepting another's path blinds you to alternatives. Nazara -- Sovereign -- said this itself. " Your civilizations is based upon the technology of the mass relays.  Our technology.  By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire."

Legion

 

A fearful galaxy, but one also of limitless possibilities.  The cycle of death ends, but so does the easy life of the realays.  The galaxy will finally be allowed to grow up.  Its people must now start thinking for themselves.

[Vazgen]

So you replace one genocide with another? Interesting...

[Iakus]

So you replace one genocide with another? Interesting...

I replace one genocide with another possible genocide.  But at the very least, a version of the galactic dark age that was hinted at before Bioware got it into it's collective head that we thought the endings were "too sad"

 

To my mind, it makes sense.  If we're going to break out of the Reaper's trap, we need to break their trap entirely, and stop being dependant on thier technology.

[Vazgen]

I replace one genocide with another possible genocide.  But at the very least, a version of the galactic dark age that was hinted at before Bioware got it into it's collective head that we thought the endings were "too sad"

 

To my mind, it makes sense.  If we're going to break out of the Reaper's trap, we need to break their trap entirely, and stop being dependant on thier technology.

I was referring to the people on the Citadel. There are 13.2 million people living on the Citadel. You kill them to stop the Reapers. Why can't you do the same with the original Destroy?

[Iakus]

I was referring to the people on the Citadel. There are 13.2 million people living on the Citadel. You kill them to stop the Reapers. Why can't you do the same with the original Destroy?

Yo did.

 

Until Twitter canon decided that "Uh, yeah, they were in, uh, emergency shelters.  Yeah, that's it!"

 

Edit:  besids which, the Ward arms opening up at that speed would likely have sent everyone flying into space to begin with.

[Vazgen]

Yo did.

 

Until Twitter canon decided that "Uh, yeah, they were in, uh, emergency shelters.  Yeah, that's it!"

 

Edit:  besids which, the Ward arms opening up at that speed would likely have sent everyone flying into space to begin with.

I was comparing that choice to sacrificing the geth in Destroy. Both are equally genocidal IMO. 

 

What Twitter canon? I never knew that

[Iakus]

I was comparing that choice to sacrificing the geth in Destroy. Both are equally genocidal IMO. 

 

What Twitter canon? I never knew that

 

The assumption has generally been that the Reapers harvested everyone on the Citadel when they captured it and took it to Earth.  That TIM was the only living being on the Citadel by the time SHepard and Anderson got there, let alone before Shepard has a chance to shoot the pipe

 

Twitter-canon states that no one of importance died on the Citadel, that they rode it all out in "shelters" 

[Vazgen]

The assumption has generally been that the Reapers harvested everyone on the Citadel when they captured it and took it to Earth.  That TIM was the only living being on the Citadel by the time SHepard and Anderson got there, let alone before Shepard has a chance to shoot the pipe

 

Twitter-canon states that no one of importance died on the Citadel, that they rode it all out in "shelters" 

Interesting... Though it makes sense, harvesting takes time. No way they would've managed to harvest that many people in the short time between Cronos assault. Not so sure about shelters but then again, the Reapers never came out as tech-savvy in the game (the way they try to get in that mining facility during Leviathan DLC comes to mind). If people lock themselves in sturdy enough shelters, it would take the Reapers some time to harvest them. Do you happen to have a source, or at least the author of the tweet?

 

Still, the original question still stands. What's the difference between killing 13.2 million people on the Citadel and killing the geth and EDI?

[Iakus]

Interesting... Though it makes sense, harvesting takes time. No way they would've managed to harvest that many people in the short time between Cronos assault. Not so sure about shelters but then again, the Reapers never came out as tech-savvy in the game (the way they try to get in that mining facility during Leviathan DLC comes to mind). If people lock themselves in sturdy enough shelters, it would take the Reapers some time to harvest them. Do you happen to have a source, or at least the author of the tweet?

 

Still, the original question still stands. What's the difference between killing 13.2 million people on the Citadel and killing the geth and EDI?

 

Well, keep in mind that the Reapers built the citadel, and it's a much more confined area than a planet. 

 

And that's just one point where it can be assumed everyone's dead.  The other is, as I said before, when the ward arms upen up (flinging everyone into space)

 

Also, in Destroy, when the explosions rip across the Citadel.  So, I guess Destroy had two genocides.

 

I hinestly don't recall who tweeted it.  It was a couple of years ago.  I want to say it was Mike Gamble, but I'm honestly not sure.

[Vazgen]

Well, keep in mind that the Reapers built the citadel, and it's a much more confined area than a planet. 

 

And that's just one point where it can be assumed everyone's dead.  The other is, as I said before, when the ward arms upen up (flinging everyone into space)

 

Also, in Destroy, when the explosions rip across the Citadel.  So, I guess Destroy had two genocides.

 

I honestly don't recall who tweeted it.  It was a couple of years ago.  I want to say it was Mike Gamble, but I'm honestly not sure.

Well, the Citadel does have a huge mass effect core which theoretically can nullify the negative effects of high arm speed. And explosions are indeed present but some of the infrastructure remains intact. I think that the fact that the station stays near Earth and doesn't crush with it means that its mass effect core is still active even after the explosion. So you don't really kill everyone on the station. You do kill quite a lot of people though. 

[SharpWalkers]

I've often thought with the ending as it was for better or wore (...worse), I'd have already been much less annoyed by it, had the Crucible been an actual weapon. You press the button, or the hologram or whatever, and boom go the reapers.

Why that would ****** me off less is because, the more I though about explaining the reapers in Mass Effect, the less intimidating they become. It's as Sovereign says in that spine-tingling first encouter with him, they are beyong our comprehension.In that way it's became, and would've stayed a completely unknown threat. Instead of getting proffessor doctor Star Child saying he made robots to destroy robots (paraphrasing here). 

 

For some the trouble with the game's plot started much earlier, and perhaps they're right. But to me; I kinda liked the Earth mission, largely because of the atmosphere it had. I genuinly felt like I was in a terrible warzone. So I wouldn't really want to miss that. I would have liked to see war assets have a point, like in DA:O when you're calling on troops during Denerim's siege. Or/and use those armies in some strategic choice-situation, where you set up all those units you've collected to attack/defend/etc. sections on a strategy map (not real-time, not like a mini-game), and depending on the total strength of those groups, it impact your game during the mission, and impact who lives (the Miranda war asset etc.).

The later's actually how I expected it to be when I first played the game and those assets became a thing. Sadly wasn't the case.

[dorktainian]

The ending of Mass Effect 3 would have been brilliant if they could have shown a writer sitting at his desk trying to think of how to end the damn thing.

 

One More Story..... maybe one that makes sense.....

[Linkenski]

Lol, imagine that. Full on meta narrative cop-out at the end. I would've liked to see Casey enter the story with a model of himself in the game saying "It's your story. You make up your own ending!" *trollface*

 

That would've been about as controversial as what we got.

[Iakus]

Lol, imagine that. Full on meta narrative cop-out at the end. I would've liked to see Casey enter the story with a model of himself in the game saying "It's your story. You make up your own ending!" *trollface*

 

That would've been about as controversial as what we got.

Still better than what we got.

 

Though I think if the Catalyst was Eliza Cassan that might have been a bit more controversial

[Ranadiel Marius]

Still, the original question still stands. What's the difference between killing 13.2 million people on the Citadel and killing the geth and EDI?

I like Iakus's proposed Rejection ending better than any in game options. Speaking personally, the difference between killing the people on the Citadel and the Geth/EDI is that there is no logical explanation for why the Geth and EDI die in Destroy. The "explanation" is reaper code but it breaks my brain trying to comprehend how anyone thought that makes sense since the Geth are still using the exact same hardware. Also based on what is presented in game, my assumption would be that everyone on the Citadel was already dead. Twitter canon be damned.

Honestly though, what I like most about Iakus's ending is that my Shepard would be consistent for the most part. He would be rejecting the Reapers, their beliefs, and everything they stand for. It is certainly a dark ending, but more consistent and with logical consequences although I would get rid of the Beth and EDI downgrades.....because those make no sense either.

[Valmar]

The "explanation" is reaper code but it breaks my brain trying to comprehend how anyone thought that makes sense since the Geth are still using the exact same hardware.

 

What does that matter? The geth are not hardware. They're purely software. Legion tells you this himself. The geth decided to abandon everything they stood for and accept reaper upgrades. They have reaper code now. The hardware being the same doesn't matter since the geth never were hardware in the first place.

 

EDI was created using parts from Sovereign - she has reaper code.

[Ranadiel Marius]

What does that matter? The geth are not hardware. They're purely software. Legion tells you this himself. The geth decided to abandon everything they stood for and accept reaper upgrades. They have reaper code now. The hardware being the same doesn't matter since the geth never were hardware in the first place.

EDI was created using parts from Sovereign - she has reaper code.

*headdesks* The hardware being the same is incredibly important. There are two possible explanations for Destroy, a kill signal or an EMP like phenomenon which targets a specific critical component of Reaper tech that isn't in wide use outside of the Reapers.

Kill signal:
A desktop computer cannot receive or interpret a radio broadcast on its own. It needs a receiver configured for radio frequencies and software/firmware configured to interpret the signals. Reaper code at best gives the Geth the interpreter. However if they don't have hardware configured to receive whatever frequency range the signal is on, they can't interpret it. I recall no indication that geth carry the same sort of recievers that the Reapers do. I recall nothing indicating that Beth can just listen in on Reaper communications thanks to their reaper code upgrade. The simple fact is that there is nothing to indicate prior to starbrat that the Geth use the same receivers as the Reapers.

As for EDI, I have a hard time imagining that they would install a reaper receiver on her because that is just asking for trouble.

EMP Like Thing:
If the Geth are using their frames, then they would lack any Reaper components to be killed off by the "EMP". Reaper code doesn't cause the hardware to magically change its physical properties. EDI hypothetically could be effected by this, but only her.

And don't even try and tell me that the wave scanned the systems or something before determining whether or not to impact them because that falls into both the categories of space magic and bullshit.

Further if either of these methods were how destroy works (and really it has to be one or the other) then it should have been possible to reverse engineer the method based on the awakened Geth or EDI to develop a smaller version for victory without relying on a giant, we don't know what we are doing button.

[Valmar]

You're using headcanon to validate why you think its wrong. They never explain how the crucible works. It just said it would target all synthetic life. If it only targeted reapers then it could also hit the geth and EDI. EDI was rudimentary before they smacked reaper tech in her. The geth were no smarter than your average varren before the reaper code. The hardware might matter for EDI since she is tied to a bluebox but the geth are completely unique in this fashion. They are purely software. Software that now is primarily written in reaper code. 

 

I'm not going to "try to tell you that the wave scanned the systems" because I don't know how it works. It's headcanon to assume either way. How lovely of you to strut in acting as though you have all the answers, though. I didn't know they made your opinion or headcanon official lore. Fascinating. Clearly I should pay more attention to Bioware's lore announcements if this is the case. I wonder what else I missed out on.

[Ranadiel Marius]

O.o It isn't head canon, it is simply how hardware and software work. I don't care how incredibly advanced your technology is, the basic principles of how hardware and software work won't change. You just can't target software without going through the hardware which requires a common protocol.

[dreamgazer]

And don't even try and tell me that the wave scanned the systems or something before determining whether or not to impact them because that falls into both the categories of space magic and bullshit.

 

No different than scanning for wireless signals, really. 

[Ranadiel Marius]

No different than scanning for wireless signals, really.

Extremely different, one is looking for exterior signals output by an antenna intentionally so that other devices know the device attached to the antenna exists. The other is decompiling running code on a physical platform and determining that the decompiled code includes whatever markers indicate that it is an AI. Unless all AIs output wireless signals saying, "Hey I'm an AI." In which case....why?