Mass Effect 3 - The Ending (Spoilers and Discussion)

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Seriously.

First off, let's let me rant:
The ending was the definition of shitty writing - pulling a Deus ex Machina out of nowhere. The God-Child and his space magic were introduced at the very last few minutes and the ending was tied up poorly and had nothing to do with the rest of the game and, in many cases, directly contradicted many themes set up for what your paths were.
For many other games, I wouldn't complain as much about a Deus ex Machina ending. For some (such as Shadow of the Colossus) it works out pretty well - but in the case of Mass Effect 3, we've basically been humored with the idea that all of our choices and the entire story mattered. The alliances we've built, the forces we've gathered, the actions we've taken, and so on would eventually build up to an ultimate ending. In the last 2 games, Bioware had no problem putting an ending out to appease the masses regarding with choices.

Pic related -

Secondly:
I was waiting for the Paragon/Renegade option where I could fucking shoot the God-Child in the face.

Why can't we have the option to refuse the choices, anyways?
In every other point in the game, you can decide to directly refuse or go against something. The Shepard I was playing wouldn't have pulled that shit. He would have stood there, spat in the God-Child's face and said:
"Fuck you. I pulled together the entire galaxy - synthetics and organics alike - to come here and stand against you and the Reapers. If you want to destroy us, then we're going out our way: Fighting you."
And then watched off with the God Child as they all pulled together and held a last stand or whatnot. And left it up to all the forces and such we gathered to duke it out in one, final, epic battle of beings vs. the Reapers.

And, Finally:
Why not a happy ending?

Not all of the endings have to be happy - but why doesn't the player deserve a pleasant ending?
If there was even a chance of the player achieving an ending, it should be there in the options - why can't we have Shepard dragging through after the end and see the galaxy rebuilding?


I'm done ranting - does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[televator]

Never forget.

Here's a copypasta of some of the fail logic in ME3 I dragged out in another forum:

Premise - All (this is an absolute in the game) synthetics will result dead after choosing one option.

EDI is a synthetic.

Logical conclusion - EDI will die if that option is chosen.

Contrived Space magic (Does not logically follow) - j/k lol! EDI lives.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Premise - EDI and the Geth have chosen peace with organics.

EDI and the Geth are synthetic.

Conclusion - Many synths have and will chose peace along side organics.

Contradicting Reaper logic - NO! Synths will always (Another absolute, but this is more absurd for a supposedly logical machine to rely on.) destroy organic life.

Some advanced organics create Synths.

Absurd and flawed conclusion - Therefore all advanced organics must be brutally killed and horrendously turned into reaper jelly food in the most horrific way possible.... Wait, Shepard made it to the catalyst? Ummm... J/K lol! Destroy all synths if you want.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

My problem is that the "good" choice will kill off the Synthetics...
Isn't that directly contradicting what we just worked to do for a good portion of gameplay?!

 

[Your Funny Uncle]

My problem is less with the space child's logic, more with the complete lack of supporting evidence it puts forward to contradict the Geth/EDI example. It has been around for millions of years and has seen countless organic civilisations rise and create synthetic life. It should be providing us with its hundreds of counter-examples and explaining how the Geth and EDI may be peaceful for now but that their decision will not be permanent. It should also be explaining WHY it decided that harvesting organic species in such a brutal manner was necessary...

I don't think that you're supposed to see killing off the synthetics as the "good choice" any more. The reapers are no longer a threat whichever option you choose, so "destroy" actually seems like the worst to me, as you are wiping out the remnants of all teh previous organic civilisations that have gone before. I think it's supposed to be an "oh shit, everything I thought I knew is wrong!" moment but it's so poorly explained that it just leaves people confused and frustrated. I reckon that control or synthesis is supposed to be better, depending on your point of view.

In the real world, it's pretty clear that if we allow synthetic intelligence to arise, it will be able to outstrip us in a very short time. Each successive generation will have the ability to design a more and more efficient and intelligent one meaning that it will evolve far faster than clumsy natural selection or even genetic modification ever could. The question is what will it decide to do with us next... Would it wipe us out as suggested here, or would it ignore us as we ignore microbes/ants. I reckon our best hope might be to somehow integrate ourselves into it, which is why conceptually I actually favour the synthesis ending.

I'm really hoping that the extended cut DLC they are working on will provide the supporting evidence that they need to make the endings comprehensible.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

>.>

They had made this universe where, literally, anything was possible within it's own realms. It's tacky that they had to resort to "Space Magic" and some really shitty and flawed reasoning with a deus ex machina at the end to say "yo dude. I know we spent the last 5 years leading you to believe that your choices actually mattered and that there was a decent ending - but it comes down to 3 shitty endings with the same single cutscene. And you can't refuse and just let all the forces of Earth duke it out against the Reapers."

I mean, I could have thought of better endings than what was presented - at the very least they could have subdivided what you did in all 3 instances. Like, if I was evil and decided to control the Reapers I would make the default "Nah... I'll just Rule humanity forever" with a cutscene of Reapers destroying everything and anything that I could manage.
And all that stuff.

 

[Your Funny Uncle]

Hmmm... I never believed the hype about multiple significantly different endings. every Bioware game I've yet played has ended with variations on a theme. The marketing hyperbole definitely oversold the game but I really wasn't expecting them to pull that off.

No arguments that the endings were shoddy, poorly explained and full of holes. I just hope that what they come up with in terms of the extended cut DLC will address those issues at least enough to make the endings acceptable. I think that there is a kernel of a good idea there. It just needs way better execution.

 

[scalyblue]

I'll be the first to say that it's a gainax ending, but I enjoyed the game regardless, and I'm going to reserve judgment until we see the definitive version including the DLC that was announced that is presumably going to clarify the ending.

edit: relevant link
http://me3finalhours.com/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GainaxEnding

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

If I could mod worth ANYTHING and if I had the ability to CGI the likes of Bioware can manage, then I would be on top of modding a new ending.
I'm thinking of releasing a prank ending where all it does is that after you make your final choice you get a end-credit scene that says the same thing in the three different colors with slight variation for what you did. And the last line will say "And Even this was a better ending than in Bioware."

 

[televator]

If I could mod worth ANYTHING and if I had the ability to CGI the likes of Bioware can manage, then I would be on top of modding a new ending.
I'm thinking of releasing a prank ending where all it does is that after you make your final choice you get a end-credit scene that says the same thing in the three different colors with slight variation for what you did. And the last line will say "And Even this was a better ending than in Bioware."

Just cue a rick roll vid. Same troll function as the real ending.