I'll let this off first: Taken on their own, Mass Effect 3 and its ending (edited or not) are fine, even quite good.
But,
The last time I wrote on this forum, like many others I was angry about some hologram kid asking what my favorite colour was. I was disapointed, but I did not know why exactly at that time.
Recently I watched a video on how Cthullu was "impossible" to do right in a video game (linky), and then it hit me.
In the first game, the Reapers were presented to the player as an omnimus, unstoppable, unweavering, un-things, chtullu-esque space Artificial Intelligence.
(not robots, robots are servants, not scary; killing them is a bit like twarthing slave rebelions as the Romans, it's simply not scary)
Reapers, can twist mind and flesh, time and space, whole civilizations and even themselves at the whim of their will. In the Mass Effect universe they're even referred as "gods", Deus Ex Machina. We can see a bit of that in space-cyborg Jesus Commander Shepard, though that thematic idea got muted in the noise of, well, everything else. Back to the Reaper, even though we are told that our fleshy brains cannot understand their motive, it's pretty clear what the result of their action is: CHANGE. Reapers, to me, reprensent the Immuable March of Change, and, again to me, Mass Effect main focus should have been on the struggle of us tiny sentient creature against it.
Why do organics don't like change? Why are they fighting for the status quo? Well, for one orgnics, well, people don't want to die, they don't want to lose, and this is why they love, because at the end we always lose everything so better make the best of it. Organic creature are also slow on a selfish level, an individual cannot evolve (much) only the population does. And so on, I'm sure you can find many other reason for why change is scary but I got to keep a pace to the point.
Really, what was the first Mass Effect was about, and why the other two games felt...diluted in comparison. In ME, humanity is the great game changer, and many species are not comfortable with that change, it's clear with the conversation with the volus in the embassy, when they complain that we got to their level in mere decades while it took them centuries. Or the tragic reaction of the space gypsies to the change of heart of their robot domestics. Or, the reason behind the First Contact War(let me telegraph this one: don't activate the Relay, what lays beyond might change everything...for the worst. ever.) Or, what happens when change is imposed to you when you're not ready, I'm talking about the Krogan, you know Garrus. Garrus is a Krogan, right? No?
Now, to the point:
Sure, Immuable March of Change doesn't mesh well with Bioware's philosophy of player fantasy fullfilment and by making the Reapers god-agent of that march they both shot themselves in the foot and raised the steak too high and overcooked it (is that the expression?). Well, looking at the past execution that's what one might say, but let me lay what part of me was unknowingly expecting before being disapointed. The struggle against change is not one to be won, it rhymes, no, it's to be delayed. The phyrric victory at the end of Mass Effect 3 was trying to honor that idea that change is unevitable, but it was sloppy. An alternative would have been that, no the Reapers cannot be stopped, they're always coming, they always influence us, but they're not coming now. Say, we pushed them back so that our civilization can die on its own, but they will still raise hell for the next one. At the end of a fight with change, one should accept it.
Also, since the Reapers can still come back, it's easier to milk the franchi$$$$$$$e.
tl;dr Deus Ex Machina, and the fear of change would've been great themes for the over-arching story of the trilogy and not the "organics v.s. robot slaves" that was served at the end.
P.S.: For the trilogy remake, feel free to introduce and make available characters in earlier games(like that guy you gave for the new players in 3), and make some available later (like miranda in 3, just saying); because were supposed to bing-play that thing so, try to make everything seamless both in tone, gameplay and graphics. Give us a reason to re-pay big bucks on a game we already played.
P.P.S.: If the theme I just talked about is the theme the dev want to tackle again, advice: keep it simple and don't overdo it or you'll look pretencious, like me.
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