7 réponses à ce sujet

[Greg Shepard]

For the significant majority of us we were quite disappointed with the endings of Mass Effect 3. Personally I find the endings to be a little disappointing but, to be honest, I'm not completely perturbed by their presence.

I instead think that Bioware should have put in at least four new alternate endings to go parallel to the endings that are already there. These endings are as follows:

The Leviathan ending

The conventional destruction ending

The convince ending

The Alliance ending

I know Mass Effect 3 has been out for years now but I still think I should share these endings in order to have a discussion about them. So here goes...

1. The Leviathan ending would be determined by three things: whether or not you have the Leviathan DLC (obviously), whether or not you could convince the Leviathans to fight the Reapers more directly. (This of course would be determined by a more complicated conversation where you actually have to convince the Leviathan to fight with you against the Reapers, meaning that the conversation with the Leviathan that is already there would have to be a little bit different.)
The third thing would be determined by your EMS rating with the war assets.
If you are war assets are high enough and you convince the Leviathans to directly fight the Reapers then that would determine how the final battle carries out. You would fight the Reapers and win with minimal losses because leviathans would use their own small army of enslaved Reapers to decimate the Reaper forces without the use of the crucible. The catch is that in the aftermath, the Leviathans would use this army of Reapers to enslave the galaxy after the war has ended.

2. The conventional destroy ending would be where you have every single alien race united against the Reapers and you are able to destroy the Reapers conventionally in the fight to retake earth. You would thus destroy the Reapers without having to use the crucible. In order to unite every single species you would have to achieve peace between the Geth and Quarians, kill Wrex (so you can trick Krogan later), sabotage the genophage cure to get Salarian support, and save the rachni queen both times.
The amount of losses ranging from devastating to minimal would be determined by your EMS rating and the amount of war assets that you have.

3. The convince ending would be determined by choices you have made concerning the Geth and Quarian conflict. Those choices being achieving peace AND rewriting heretics. If you do this and have a high enoug if you do this, and have a high enough Paragon rating, then you would be able to use the peace between Geth and Quarians as leverage to convince the catalyst that the synthetic/organic conflict has been resolved and that the cycle is no longer necessary.
The result would then be the Reapers coming to a ceasefire with the galaxy and ceasing their harvest. And then the Reapers with retreat back to dark space and shut down (or maybe stay and share their knowledge with the Galaxy).

4. The Alliance ending is similar to the convince ending as it also involves some convincing. In order to get the Alliance ending you would have to destroy the heretics and then also destroy the Geth. Shepard could then, with a high enough Renegade dating, convince the catalyst to ally itself with organics against all synthetic life. This would therefore mean the cycle would continue, but the catylist would then target only synthetics. Thus ending the conflict for organics at the cost of an entire form of life, the artificial form.

Tell me what you think of the endings I came up with. I'd like to have a discussion about them as I have not shared them with anyone else. If you have any ideas of how these four endings could be improved in some way, I would be more than willing to hear them. I honestly think that if Bioware had done these endings (or something like them) alongside all of the endings concerning the crucible, a lot less people would have been pissed off at Bioware and EA. What are your thoughts? do you think these endings could have worked? I honestly think that they could have worked.

[ThomasBlaine]

I like your ideas, they have a bit more nuance and definition than the canon endings and the idea that you actually have to back your arguments in the vital discussions up with actions made throughout the games could be a really cool solution to the whole "our choices don't matter!" complaint, although people might be upset if the necessary chains of actions were too obscure to reliably end up with the endings that fit just by playing the games. I.e: a massive guide dang it scenario.

 

That said, the Convince and Alliance endings you propose seem a bit problematic.

 

The Catalyst would never be convinced that the entire conflict between organic and synthetic life had "ended" just because the Quarians and Geth set aside their differences for the moment, it has too much experience with that situation going sour in millions of independent civilizations and cycles before the present. You might convince it to some kind of 'trial period' while waiting to see if it takes on a much bigger scale and in the long run though. Which could be an interesting ending in and of itself, the organics and synthetics learning how to figure things out at reaper gunpoint with the constant potential of failing and restarting the cycles. It might even turn out to have been a policy all along, but one which the Reapers only offer for civilizations that independently decide to try living alongside synthtics as equals in the first place, with all previous attempts having failed at some point.

 

The problem with the proposed 'Alliance' ending is that the Catalyst already is on the side of organics, at least in its own view. The reason the reapers destroy every galactic civilization along with synthetics each cycle is specifically so that nobody develops artificial intelligence to the point of it destroying all organic life. Destroying all existing synthetic life once every 50.000 years would not keep the existing advanced civilizations from developing more and causing disaster before the next cycle, and so wouldn't fulfill the Catalyst's purpose of "preserving organic life at all cost" to its own satisfaction.

 

I think the reason that the 'Alliance' ending with shortened cycles or just constant hunting down and destruction of synthetic life as it was created didn't originally strike the Catalyst as a viable option was because at some point organic life would just grow powerful enough to destroy the reapers on its own in order to do as it pleased, allowing synthetic life to flourish and destroy its makers in the end anyway.

[Greg Shepard]

I understand the issues you brought up with the Alliance and convince endings. It crossed my mind that the catalyst couldn't be reasoned with. I included them because I find them way more reasonable for the sake of variety.

I should probably explain the logic behind the convince ending. You're not saying the entre conflict is resolved just because synthetics and organics made nice in one instance. Shepard would argue the Geth/Quarian peace is an example of why the catalysts's Reapers are unnecessary. By saying that the conflict can be resolved via more ideal means than galactic harvests. What you would basically be convincing the catalyst of is that it's Reapers are an unnecessary middleman to solving the problem and that the problem can be better solved more ideally by diplomacy.

As as for the convince ending what you're essentially doing is blaming the entire problem on syntheti the entire problem on synthetics instead of acknowledging Organics as part of the problem. Shifting the blame entirely on synthetics and painting organics in the life of victims. You would convince the catalyst that just because the organics create synthetics doesn't mean that it's necessarily their fault by wwhateve method Shepard uses is up to the writers.

BTW:
I'm not sure I came up with the original idea but I did expand on it, the idea of a "Thanix ending". I can't remember where I saw it but someone on tumblr made the suggestion that a conventional destruction and then be made available by outfitting an entire fleet with Thanix cannons which would then destroy all the Reapers. In other words using reverse-engineered Reaper technology against the Reapers. I remember expanding on this by coming up with the idea that i by coming up with the idea that its availability will be determined by whether or not you invest a TON of money into it and convince Hackett to invest in a Thanix fleet instead of a Crucible. I know it sounds a little confusing but that's another ending that I thought would be a really cool alternate ending for them to have.

[Greg Shepard]

I like your ideas, they have a bit more nuance and definition than the canon endings and the idea that you actually have to back your arguments in the vital discussions up with actions made throughout the games could be a really cool solution to the whole "our choices don't matter!" complaint, although people might be upset if the necessary chains of actions were too obscure to reliably end up with the endings that fit just by playing the games. I.e: a massive guide dang it scenario.
 
That said, the Convince and Alliance endings you propose seem a bit problematic.
 
The Catalyst would never be convinced that the entire conflict between organic and synthetic life had "ended" just because the Quarians and Geth set aside their differences for the moment, it has too much experience with that situation going sour in millions of independent civilizations and cycles before the present. You might convince it to some kind of 'trial period' while waiting to see if it takes on a much bigger scale and in the long run though. Which could be an interesting ending in and of itself, the organics and synthetics learning how to figure things out at reaper gunpoint with the constant potential of failing and restarting the cycles. It might even turn out to have been a policy all along, but one which the Reapers only offer for civilizations that independently decide to try living alongside synthtics as equals in the first place, with all previous attempts having failed at some point.
 
The problem with the proposed 'Alliance' ending is that the Catalyst already is on the side of organics, at least in its own view. The reason the reapers destroy every galactic civilization along with synthetics each cycle is specifically so that nobody develops artificial intelligence to the point of it destroying all organic life. Destroying all existing synthetic life once every 50.000 years would not keep the existing advanced civilizations from developing more and causing disaster before the next cycle, and so wouldn't fulfill the Catalyst's purpose of "preserving organic life at all cost" to its own satisfaction.
 
I think the reason that the 'Alliance' ending with shortened cycles or just constant hunting down and destruction of synthetic life as it was created didn't originally strike the Catalyst as a viable option was because at some point organic life would just grow powerful enough to destroy the reapers on its own in order to do as it pleased, allowing synthetic life to flourish and destroy its makers in the end anyway.

Do you have any similar ending ideas?

[AlanC9]

The conventional Destroy ending isn't very plausible, and I'm not sure it could be made plausible without rewriting a lot of the game. The Reapers don't fight the war as if there's any possibility of them losing it conventionally, and they would have very good information about Citadel fleet numbers and capabilities after a couple of months of war. For instance, if the Reapers thought that they were vulnerable to defeat in detail over Palaven, they could bomb the place flat in minutes.

[ThomasBlaine]

The conventional Destroy ending isn't very plausible, and I'm not sure it could be made plausible without rewriting a lot of the game. The Reapers don't fight the war as if there's any possibility of them losing it conventionally, and they would have very good information about Citadel fleet numbers and capabilities after a couple of months of war. For instance, if the Reapers thought that they were vulnerable to defeat in detail over Palaven, they could bomb the place flat in minutes.

 

Actually, Hackett says that if the attack on Cronos Station leads either Cerberus or the Reapers to the Crucible then he's willing to take the fleets straight to Earth and just take his chances. If you played the game with coordinating the species and collecting a massive fleet in mind, as in really fought and compromised yourself to make that happen including making actually difficult decisions with significant military benefits on one hand and things like sentimental value(squadmates' lives?) or moral certainty on the other, then a conventional victory ending would be awesome and fit right in with the series' atmosphere. The Crucible is kind of a cop-out in comparison.

 

Also, the Reapers were aware that Sanctuary was homing in on a way to control them, and they still sent in their ground forces instead of just leveling the place. They're machines following their programming, you can't expect them to think and strategize rationally.

[AlanC9]

Actually, Hackett says that if the attack on Cronos Station leads either Cerberus or the Reapers to the Crucible then he's willing to take the fleets straight to Earth and just take his chances.

Sure, because there's nothing else to do. Attrition ratios are favorable to the Reapers, and there's nobody left to recruit. Even if you're not going to win, you'll maybe take a few more of them with you.

Also, the Reapers were aware that Sanctuary was homing in on a way to control them, and they still sent in their ground forces instead of just leveling the place. They're machines following their programming, you can't expect them to think and strategize rationally.

Well, yeah, if we want to resort to that sort of handwave then we can do anything.

[Bill Traynor]

Your options are well thought out.
The Leviathan DLC provided another clue into the Catalyst mindset that leans toward Synthesis. Shepard became the first organic to actually communicate with this villain, who though possibly Billions of years old still hasn't come up with a better option beyond the Harvest. The Leviathan stated that the Catalyst had perverted it's purpose and betrayed it's creators! Shepard is the Anamoly in this scenario. He/She unites the Galaxy against the Reapers, organic and AI allied to the cause; A recognized threat to the Harvest.
A fifth choice could be an offer to foster the Catalyst onto a new path through the eyes of the true child that it is.