[Phoenix Draven]

I'm probably not the only one afraid to look into the Mass Effect thread in fear of ending spoilers. I figure it would be best if everyone would discuss the supposedly controversial ending(s) here, since not everyone appears to be equally careful with spoiler tags in the main thread. That way the rest of us can safely discuss the rest of the game and series in the main Mass Effect thread.

I′d also use spoiler tags in this thread though, in case people accidentally click on the thread. Meanwhile I'm getting the hell out of this thread, because I haven't finished the game yet.

[Eddie Howe]

Spoiler

It’s like this: Mass Effect 3 is like a running back on the greatest touchdown run of his life. He’s juking and jiving, making defenders miss, thrilling the crowd beyond measure. For the first 99 yards of his run, he’s Barry Sanders and Jim Brown and Bo Jackson combined.
Then, at the one-inch line, with no defenders in sight and the crowd going wild, he pulls up and executes a textbook basketball jump-shot, directly through the uprights. The crowd is stunned. They start to boo.
The running back looks around, says “Well, you’ll definitely remember that ending!” and winks at the camera. Roll credits.

Oh and

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Story-and-Campaign-Discussion-Spoilers-Allowed/Mass-Effect-3-Final-Hours-Pictures-removed-due-to-Copyright-9999272-1.html

holy [censored] they actually thought their ending was good.

'One night walters scribbled down some thought on various ways the game could end with the line "Lots of speculation for Everyone!" at the bottom of the page.'

[rebecca moody]

Spoiler

It’s like this: Mass Effect 3 is like a running back on the greatest touchdown run of his life. He’s juking and jiving, making defenders miss, thrilling the crowd beyond measure. For the first 99 yards of his run, he’s Barry Sanders and Jim Brown and Bo Jackson combined.
Then, at the one-inch line, with no defenders in sight and the crowd going wild, he pulls up and executes a textbook basketball jump-shot, directly through the uprights. The crowd is stunned. They start to boo.
The running back looks around, says “Well, you’ll definitely remember that ending!” and winks at the camera. Roll credits.

Ha! I like it! That describes the current ending perfectly.

[Trista Jim]

I definitely like going over to BSN to watch the rage unfold. Its way better than a soap opera.

Spoiler

I love how people are rallying behind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoIwHychkY too. Cracks me up.

[Ellie English]

I definitely like going over to BSN to watch the rage unfold. Its way better than a soap opera.

Spoiler

I love how people are rallying behind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoIwHychkY too. Cracks me up.

Spoiler

It's not funny! He died trying to protect us...

[Mark Churchman]

That's not all, folks. From the link in my post above:

Spoiler

Mac Walters on the Star Child/Reapers
"Originally, with the catalyst, the star child at the end of the game, I had written that much more in the guise of a investigative style conversation, where there is something he tells you but then, you get to ask a bunch of questions and you get your questions answered. But then me and Casey talked and decided, lets keep the conversation "High level". Give you the details that you need to know, but don't get into the stuff that you don't need to know. Like "How long have they been reaping?" You don't need to know the answers to the mass effect universe. So we intentionally left those out"

Holy [censored]. How did he become a professional writer?

[James Baldwin]

That's not all, folks. From the link in my post above:

Spoiler

Holy [censored]. How did he become a professional writer?

Why do I have the sudden urge to hurt something?

[Maria Garcia]

Spoiler

I understand the idea of withholding the secrets of the ME universe. If you give those things away, there is nothing interesting to draw you into the next game. This obviously isn't the last we've seen of ME. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to release some of these secrets, as any future MEs practically have to occur before or during Shepard's time, where some of these ideas aren't relevant anymore.

Oddly enough I would have chosen to let the reapers continue on with their plans, if that was an option.

I was kind of upset that we didn't fight Harbinger.

The indoctrination theory is really stupid and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's just a crappy excuse to make something really crappy seem slightly less crappy.

I guess those are my thoughts for now.

[Trevi]

Spoiler

It’s like this: Mass Effect 3 is like a running back on the greatest touchdown run of his life. He’s juking and jiving, making defenders miss, thrilling the crowd beyond measure. For the first 99 yards of his run, he’s Barry Sanders and Jim Brown and Bo Jackson combined.
Then, at the one-inch line, with no defenders in sight and the crowd going wild, he pulls up and executes a textbook basketball jump-shot, directly through the uprights. The crowd is stunned. They start to boo.

The running back looks around, says “Well, you’ll definitely remember that ending!” and winks at the camera. Roll credits.

I love it!

So, was the entire series a story from the perspective of the old man? The child? Or was just the ending "made up" by the Old Man?

[Fanny Rouyé]

Spoiler

I understand the idea of withholding the secrets of the ME universe. If you give those things away, there is nothing interesting to draw you into the next game. This obviously isn't the last we've seen of ME. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to release some of these secrets, as any future MEs practically have to occur before or during Shepard's time, where some of these ideas aren't relevant anymore.

Oddly enough I would have chosen to let the reapers continue on with their plans, if that was an option.

I was kind of upset that we didn't fight Harbinger.

The indoctrination theory is really stupid and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's just a crappy excuse to make something really crappy seem slightly less crappy.

I guess those are my thoughts for now.

I'd agree with you normally, except (and I quote one of the BSN forumites' response):

Oh good grief that is a depressing read.

There's a time and place for "lots of speculation", and it absolutely isn't at the very end of a three-part trilogy.

Spoiler

I love it!

So, was the entire series a story from the perspective of the old man? The child? Or was just the ending "made up" by the Old Man?

We'll never know, shall we? Bioware wants us to speculate. At the end of a trilogy.

/Iwishthisforumhadatrollfacesmiley

[April D. F]

Though I doubt I am going to buy ME3 ( Origins, new style Bioware etc. ) I might eventually play it so have been avoiding spoilers. What is the hate for the endings? Is it simply because its not a happy, hero saves the day and everything's fine ending? After seeing the Reapers in ME1 an invasion of them SHOULD be impossible to beat, anything else would be downplaying their insane power. Maybe I've just grown tired of the "ancient evil that has wiped out people more advanced than you in the past, but somehow you are the chosen one who beats them" plot.

So without any spoilers, whats the deal? Simply not a happy ending or a bad ending?

[Portions]

I had an invite to watch the ME3 the final hours, but i read about it and how the developers were going to talk all about the game and i thought, how boring, now im only sorry i didnt because i could have got those snippets of how they decided the ending, at that stage i hadnt finished the game. But cant say im suprised, with what they said, about the ending. I read an article last year, why it was held over for its 2011 release, they were tacking on the multiplayer to the game at the last moment.

Why would you not give a definite ending to the end of a trilogy, and then say, its to make you think, ive done all 3 endings theres nothing to think about, bland ending, bland ending, bland ending, and none of it makes sense with what happens in the game, im not going to bother running around screaming and carry on, its just basically a statement of what it is, no matter what they did they would have gotten those huge sales numbers because it was popular, something like over eight hundred thousand copies in one day in north america alone, now with all the bad reviews lets see what their future sales are after a week from the release date.

[Gwen]

Though I doubt I am going to buy ME3 ( Origins, new style Bioware etc. ) I might eventually play it so have been avoiding spoilers. What is the hate for the endings? Is it simply because its not a happy, hero saves the day and everything's fine ending? After seeing the Reapers in ME1 an invasion of them SHOULD be impossible to beat, anything else would be downplaying their insane power. Maybe I've just grown tired of the "ancient evil that has wiped out people more advanced than you in the past, but somehow you are the chosen one who beats them" plot.

So without any spoilers, whats the deal? Simply not a happy ending or a bad ending?

The entire third game does its best to wrap up all the conflicts from the first two games. Then with the last 10-15 minutes, all of that is rendered utterly pointless, every choice you have ever made is worthless. All because the devs want you to "speculate" and they want the ending to "breed discussion". On top of that many people believe that the "real" ending is going to be sold to us later.

[ruCkii]

I definitely like going over to BSN to watch the rage unfold. Its way better than a soap opera.

Spoiler

I love how people are rallying behind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoIwHychkY too. Cracks me up.

Too right. I'm having way much more fun with the melodrama around the game than the game itself. The whole thing is laugh-inducing... I also get to say

Spoiler

nanananananana

to everyone who's been defending Bioware all these years, so that's a plus.

[Chase McAbee]

Remember those days as a young lad playing games just to kill stuff... Now people pay attention

[Britney Lopez]

Thats why i didnt bother going to the forums there, mostly because theirs no administration till obviously they get criticised, but also when i opened my account, it had a huge box carrying on about the change in term of conditions of using their forums, and that you had to open another page to read, their updated rules, and i said bugger this for a game of soldiers, and got out of my account.

[Motionsharp]

The gf and I are literally sitting here with a bowl of popcorn, laughing our asses off.

Words cannot express what I am feeling right now; there are only reaction faces.

worst.

notes.

ever.

did they use crayons for their branch charting too??

So it's an intentionally ****ty ending so there'd be "lots of speculation"? Am I reading that correctly?

Its amazing because you really had to TRY to ruin mass effect. At worst, people were expecting a tragic ending, or a generic good ending. This was like, effort. Phantom menace style effort.

[Barbequtie]

The entire third game does its best to wrap up all the conflicts from the first two games. Then with the last 10-15 minutes, all of that is rendered utterly pointless, every choice you have ever made is worthless. All because the devs want you to "speculate" and they want the ending to "breed discussion". On top of that many people believe that the "real" ending is going to be sold to us later.

Besides the bad ending, Bioware did that part really well.

[Melis Hristina]

I think the ending(s) was(where) great. But I feel like it is very close to what happened in Battlestar Galactica.

Spoiler

They finally overcome the cylons (Reapers) and have a life with not technology.

[Lily]

I think what part of my problem with the ending is the lack of closure. I would of really liked to see the results of my deeds. I think I could live with the rest of if I was able to see what happened to the universe and the characters I came across.

[Mariaa EM.]

I think what part of my problem with the ending is the lack of closure. I would of really liked to see the results of my deeds.

Well you do troughout the game, though the ultimate fate of the galaxy is left open. And i think that is for the best.

[Sabrina garzotto]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lF4S6vHn_M&feature=youtu.be - This video contains the end of ME3!

A well made video on the "Indoctrination Theory". I think its giving the dev team to much credit but I also think they should "steal" the idea, it seems to fit best from all the theories I've seen so far.

[Miragel Ginza]

Though I doubt I am going to buy ME3 ( Origins, new style Bioware etc. ) I might eventually play it so have been avoiding spoilers. What is the hate for the endings? Is it simply because its not a happy, hero saves the day and everything's fine ending? After seeing the Reapers in ME1 an invasion of them SHOULD be impossible to beat, anything else would be downplaying their insane power. Maybe I've just grown tired of the "ancient evil that has wiped out people more advanced than you in the past, but somehow you are the chosen one who beats them" plot.

So without any spoilers, whats the deal? Simply not a happy ending or a bad ending?

There wasn't going to be a happy ending no matter what. Events that take place during the game ensure that the cost of even a clean victory would have been extremely high. It's just a badly produced ending.

It's vague. The motivation of the Reapers is explained in an abrupt nonsensical circular-logic fashion. You're forced to make one of three choices that all feel like defeat. The choices all lead to the same cutscene, except for some different colors. They all have consequences (one in particular that's shared by all three) that basically undo all that you've accomplished throughout the trilogy. There's no followup, not even a text epilogue to wrap up individual characters' stories. And it all ends with the most bizarre sequence of the whole trilogy -- the Normandy sequence -- that even people who otherwise liked the ending found totally nonsensical.

[Bereket Fekadu]

i wasn't too fussed about the ending. the way i see it, ME3 is one large ending. like others have touched upon, it's a case of wrapping up most major ME story lines.

[Judy Lynch]

Well you do troughout the game, though the ultimate fate of the galaxy is left open. And i think that is for the best.

What i meant is what happens after? Barring that ridiculous scene with the Normandy I want to know whether they lived or not, just a 5 minute wrap-up would of been nice.