I Chose Option A (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Toootaly in the same boat as you man. And untill I read this thread here, I didn't know that in option C every one makes it out alive :(
Is there any easy way to go back and fix that? I dont believe I have another save :( (PS3 btw)...

if you guys are concerned about the 100% achievement, don't worry if you go into the rockstar social club you'll see that franklin only stuff is the one that counts towards the 100% achievement.

I chose option B and killed Micheal and i feel a bit cheated as well. Not because i can't get 100% (although i was in the middle of the epsilon story arc and now that's fucked) but because the game (via Devon Weston) suggests that someone will die. Period. Nothing about Option C or anything leading up to it suggests that they would all band together and anyone that says that is being a complete dick about it.

I deliberately didn't choose C because I liked Franklin and didn't want him to die. I liked MIcheal the least so he was the one i chose. I didn't regret my decision being that i was looking through the guise of "1 of these 3 ppl had to die. Period" Then i come online to discuss endings and such and see that option C keeps everyone alive.

I'm not mad at the consequential nature of it to suggest that people may die but the game was completely misleading about the way it handled Option C.

This. The amount of time Franklin spends getting dudes out of trouble, and the way that Lamar and Tanisha keep hitting him about his seeming lack of loyalty and self-serving nature, and just his general attitude -- in the end I didn't see how anyone could say anything other than: man, fuck it. Someone's probably going to die, but at least some amount of those motherfuckers are coming with me.

But then, I found myself absolutely fucking poisoned on Haines and Weston by the end of the game. I wanted Haines dead pretty much after the first mission for him, and Weston's using Merryweather on Michael's family let me know that dude had to die. I didn't harbor anything much against Wei Cheng or Stretch, but they were both pretty much just 'yeah, fuck it, get them too!' sort of bullet points for me. I wasn't sure what would happen with deathwish, but I knew I was tired of playing puppet to both of those pieces of shit, and moved forward through that uncertainty.

But I can see how you would be frustrated with the endings. I'm honestly surprised that all three made it out alive, even after watching the quick look. I thought for sure there was going to be some major character death in Deathwish, but instead, it's pretty much the happy ending instead of the cynical, clinical depression that was GTAIV.

@donmfjohnson: I mean he backs down immediately and isn't exactly committed to the idea but being hit with the situation, it's hard to not imagine someone like Lester just shrugging and being like, "Whelp. You sound fucked. You're a hood who moved out of the hood being gunned for by a corrupt government militarized police force and a private military contractor. What realisitic hope do you have?"

But then launches right into trying to help Franklin save them

Yeah, pretty much all of this.

Figured, hey, if I have to do this, I'm taking as many of those fuckers out with me as possible. Franklin wouldn't turn on them; like when you go save Lamar from that logging place.

I gotta say, the ambush had a spectacular ending for me. I fired an RPG as Franklin and it chained off like 4 vehicles and killed everyone left outside at once (about 6-8 guys).

Edit: Also yeah, better than GTA IVs' "either person 1 dies, or person 2 dies and person 1 stops talking to you forever".

I was debating between A and C, and whment with C because I couldnt bear to be Haines or Devins hitman, so I choose C

I chose C because I didn't want to kill any of them. Although I thought C might be the "kill Franklin" choice, but I wasn't sure, and on the way to the foundry I figured it was just going to end like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with them all dying in a last stand, but then it turned into the perfect ending.

Then I watched the other two endings on youtube and they are terrible, and it's stupid they are even in the game. I feel bad for anyone who picked A or B.

So if you select to redo the mission from the menu does it dump you back out at the end with the choice you originally make? (trevor or michael dead).

I am not sure but it might be worth a try to redo the mission and then select C, you at least would see that ending right?

Well I'm not a idiot so... yeah, I chose C.

You done fucked up!

I don't know why you felt that one of them NEEDS to die. I didn't. And any option given by Steven Haines or Weston deserved absolute contempt. Come on, the game has been leading you to Option C the ENTIRE TIME. All that talk about friendship and the importance of not betraying your friends leads most to pick C.

Was the ending a let down? I kind of felt that the last third of the game was losing steam. The first two halves had some really funny writing, but towards the end of the game the lines mostly fell flat. There were also several story threads that were hastily and poorly wrapped up. I still loved the game, I am still more-or-less happy with the ending, but it honestly felt like it ended because the Developer panicked about how long it was taking and how much it was costing to make GTA V.

I also thought Franklin would die from C but I chose that one anyway because I felt like that was the most apropriate for Franklin's character. That guy was loyal to his homies, even the druged out ones, since the first mission. Wasn't going to stop now.

I think deaths for the sake of deaths are overrated. Narratively, Franklin knew that Michael and Trevor were his homies. Sure, the player might think Trevor is despicable and want to kill him, but that's not Franklin's line of thinking. Why would anyone kill Michael? He really is like a father figure for Franklin...and they both liked each other. I played through all the endings and am really happy with the way C ended. I really can't see it going any other way.

Revisiting this post to say... this. Completely summed up my issues with the ending, glad I'm not alone on this one.

As much as I would have liked to have gotten rid of Trevor, I just couldn't fathom going through with it. Regardless of how many times I might replay this game, Trevor and Michael will always stay alive, just like Wrex in the first Mass Effect game.

Franklin was by far the worst character. I would have chose to kill him if there was that specific option.

Yeah you are not alone me and my mate both choose option A thinking that C would result in Franklin dying... Oh well!

One should remember that even if you pick A (which I did), Haines dies anyway.

To me option A made the most sense for the story, sure Franklin liked both the guys but he was not ready to sacrifice himself for them, I mean this is no fairy-tale world. Just like the original poster I was lead to believe that Franklin would surely die if I picked C, and when I found out what the actuall outcome was I also felt kinda cheated. However I still feel like I made the right call.

Yeah I think the C option was lame as hell. I wanted it to be intense "we are all fucked, but at least we can take these motherfuckers with us to hell" type of deal. That's why I took option C and instead it was just a cake walk to kill every single antagonist in the game. Just awful. I mean there really wasn't any stakes in the game anyway, but when I'm given a "suicide option" I want people to die. Maybe something cool like a big showdown and at some point two of the maincharacters that you are not controlling die. I was waiting for something like that.

Why the fuck did I jump through 20 hours of these peoples hoops if I can just shoot them all in 20 minutes and be fine?

I just finished the game last night, and found it interesting how this just sort of gets thrown at you, in my opinion.

I did go with option "C" so I enjoyed the outcome, but I just wasn't sure if such a huge choice thrown on Franklin is earned. Still enjoyed the end of the game though.

It's pretty lame most people can only respond by saying how smart they are because they chose C.

I chose to off Trevor cause as Franklin, I was still pissed he threatened to kill me for no reason a few cut scenes back.

I really screwed up.

Trevor was my favorite character actually and I was saving all of his side missions. Now post story my sandbox is empty.

I do agree with OP. The option called Deathwish gives zero clues that anyone would die besides franklin. Him being the most honest character, I chose the option I thought was required to keep him alive. That and the fact that I never expected them to give me a post story sandbox without all my characters.

People complain when a game has meaningless choices, and they complain when a game has real consequences. This is a silly topic.(Also, you don't have an earlier save?)

The way I saw it, Franklin didn't wanna kill either of them but I, as a person, wanted to kill both. So I thought through it and realized that the entire game is not just about Franklin learning the ropes, it was about Michael starting a new life on top of his new life. And he does. He does the film stuff, he gets back with his family, he gets the FIB off his back (He thinks). He's loaded.

The only obstacle left was Trevor.

I love Trevor as a character but if I knew him in real life, I might just kill myself. But here's the thing, Trevor's arc in this game is non-existent. I didn't feel a change or an attachment to the character. And honestly, I don't think Franklin did either. I didn't feel Franklin learnt anything from him.

And so, it was the right choice for my Franklin to kill Trevor. I still didn't want it to happen and I'm pissed that I can't 100% the game anymore but that was my experience playing GTA V and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I chose C and figured that it was the option that lets everyone live but I see how it could be easy to misinterpret "deathwish" as Franklin dying. I wish it had been though, as the option to choose seems pretty pointless. Did you receive any sort of bonus for choosing A or B? If not, there is really no reason not to pick C as long as you know that its the option where everyone lives. It felt like a cop out to present you with a difficult decision only to give you another option that you have no reason not to pick. Why even give the choice at all?

Yeah, but the only weight to Wrex's death is you get some sequences with way less personality because they have a placeholder doing basically all the same stuff. The path of the narrative doesn't actually account for his death. Now, fucking him over in ME3, on the other hand - that was handled more like what you're talking about.

I just finished last night and was also confused with option C...I chose to kill Trevor, but was lucky enough to save before so I can just go back and pick option C

Well thats what you get for killing the best character in the game.

Pretty much. Case closed.

The endings have to have some bit of impact, they can't complete neuter them. I personally would have liked it if a Michael and Trevor confrontation was enivitable, or at least harder to prevent.

I don't agree. It was a powerful, empowering message (and in a way, I think speaking directly to the player's experience of actually playing GTA) letting you take out all these tormentors rather easily and very quickly. Not the most interesting ending as far as plot implications or surprise or anything, but I loved the feeling it gave me. That's kind of the main idea of the whole game, taking control of your life from outside forces that are dominating it, so I think the ending supports it very well.

I at least found it more satisfying than Last of Us (which was predictable and did leave me feeling like nothing really happened) but I do need to play Fire Emblem. Infinite had the best ending of the year, to me.

When given the options, I looked at the screen and thought C was the right choice and only choice. I didn't think Franklin would die either. Deathwish to me meant it was all or nothing. If Franklin failed, all three died. As it turned out, it was nothing less than phenomenal. Reminded me of some Godfather shit, taking all the people down that could hurt you in the long run. Fantastic ending.

I was under the impression that there was only one ending and picking a choice didn't fucking matter. I chose C because why would I even consider killing Michael or Trevor? And then Franklin called Lester because of course. I was actually surprised to find out that Michael and Trevor could die because the story and characters of GTAV are so god damn awful that I didn't think anything of consequence could happen.

I did the exact same thing. I really liked Franklin, and he was the guy I felt I needed to finish the game with. I thought that picking the third option was going to off Franklin without question. The game does a good job at making you think this will happen too. All things considering, if the choice was easily identified (Kill, Kill, everyone lives), I highly doubt any person would have chosen to kill either one.

I don't have a problem with the game forcing you to make a choice like this (it's actually one thing I wished they had carried over from GTA IV - which had more of these situations), but I believe hiding the (what appears to be) canon ending the way they did was a poor decision. Additionally, I think any scenario which allows all of the characters to live doesn't seem to fit into what the game was building towards, especially in the last 3rd of its story.

I also think it's a terrible idea to lock either character after the game is over. "It gives the choice consequences" is not a valid argument because:

1) the choice isn't apparent and

2) the consequence is not important to anything you actually do in the game. It simply hinders potential enjoyment in the world after everything is finished.

At the very least, they should have at least allowed for a "resurrection" option in the menus.

I saved before the choice and did all of them.

Thinking about the game too hard leads people to think that Franklin would be killed. The dude stated that Michael or Trevor would die. Never said anything explicit about Franklin dying.

Finally finished the game, and I don't know why anyone would not choose C. I didn't know what would happen for any options, but I just thought well Franklin wouldn't wanna kill either of them, but more importantly fuck that rich douchebag and fuck that steve haines guy, why would I do what either of them wanted. Honestly if all three of them died in the end for C, but went out in a bang killing all the assholes I would have still been happy with it. Also now that I do know what happens, C is definitely the most satisfying ending.

Hypothetically though, if it was choose Micheal or Trevor, I would have killed Trevor, because Trevor is a deranged psychopath and the world would probably be better off without him lol. Another game down over this winter break, hopefully I can get through the rest of my backlog before school starts back up.

I'm a little late to this thread because I was a little late to the game, having waited on the next-gen version. I chose Option C. The idea of Franklin being a tool of Haines or Weston didn't sit right with me. Also, with Michael having just gotten his family back and Trevor finally forgiving his only real friend, I found it difficult to take out either of them. It didn't seem like something Franklin would have done, either. He had no real issues between himself and Trevor, and Michael was the guy who gave him a chance to be a professional criminal instead of being small-time. I thought Franklin might die, or all the characters might die when choosing Option C. Even if either of those things happened, it was more preferable to go out guns blazing than as some pawn who takes out his crew. I liked the way they phrased the choice with "deathwish" as well. I don't want a game to explicitly tell me what consequences my choices have. Otherwise, they aren't really "choices". I thought it was a great end, and yes, the characters did have story arcs. Michael lost and regained his family, Trevor finally let go of some of the hate and reconciled with his friend, and Franklin learned some selflessness. I also found it very satisfying to tie up the loose ends. Haines especially, as he was easy to hate. What a great game. I'm far from done, but I've really enjoyed GTAV.

For what it's worth, I chose to kill Shithead Trevor too, as he's a despicable person who I didn't enjoy playing as or hearing from, and was glad to be given the option to kill him. What I got was a shitty little chase mission with a deflating ending and no real closure - like the OP said, it's clearly not the 'right' ending after you've gone through with it. Fortunately for me, though, I was able to go back and play the ending over again from a separate save, and although the 'right' ending is more fun, I do still wish Trevor was killed. I want to say that I don't think that Rockstar gets the difference between 'lovable' and 'shitty' if they think I'm supposed to like Trevor in spite of his shitheaddiness, but plenty of people DO like Trevor. I suppose that I just don't share the same sense of humor with Rockstar as I once did, though that's a well-trodden subject by others since this game's release, and a totally different conversation.

@notnert427 said:

I have to respectfully disagree with you there - the fact that they gave me two shitty choices and one good one, and then said "Which one will you choose?" was really no choice at all.

In my opinion, Option C was a total copout, especially considering Rockstar acts like it's some big emotional decision for Franklin. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember getting the sense that Option C would result in Franklin dying, and even if I did he's hardly a character anyway - Micheal and Trevor are the only two dynamic characters in that game.

On that note, I felt that their story arcs would have had so much more weight if the player had been forced to choose between Micheal or Trevor, both of whom were much more sympathetic characters by the end of the game. From the sentiment expressed in the rest of this thread it seems that either of the other two options are extremely underwhelming. As it was, even having the three of them die in a blaze of glory would have been more satisfying than the ending I received with Option C.

It's especially disappointing having played Red Dead Redemption - I know Rockstar is capable of an emotional gut-punch of a climax, and giving me a no-consequence happy ending completely trivialized everything the game built up to. All it showed me was that Rockstar was not interested in telling the kind of story I wanted to see, and that they may never again after GTA4. It honestly left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

The game should have ended in the graveyard I think, having just finished it for the first time. I also selected to kill Trevor because while I liked him at first, when he kills Wade's cousin and his girlfriend he instantly lost me because that wasn't even slightly justifiable as you can say the rest of his murderings have been, then he became a huge dick and wouldn't drop the thing with Michael and kept ragging on it so I just wanted to kill him.

It does suck that I can't go finish the strangers and freaks stuff with Trevor, although I think that stuff got pretty shitty anyways after the first few so eh, flimsy and cheap ending or not, it was a great game otherwise.

Well hello there guys. Im new here, in this particular forum. Id like to share my own story of ending the GTA 5. So I have chosen B, and it was kinda rare option to choose. I have been mislead since I thought that by choosing deathwish Franklin was going to die as he didnt deserve it at all because he was a good guy comparing to Michael and Trevor. Of course another thing that must be mentioned is that i almost have skipped all of the history (cut scenes) and passed the main story in 2 days. So coming back to my choice the thing is I only knew the fact that Michael betrayed Trevor in terms of speaking about Brad. Honestly I didnt even "catch" the moment when Wade's cousin or smh was killed. Poor me. So in my eyes Michael seemed to be the biggest snake who could betray anyone in order to survive and be wealthy and so on. So thats why i chose option B. Of course it was really sad seeing dead Mike on the ground. So I returned to replay an option A and option C and realized that i fucked up big time since ive lost mike and wont be able to continue the game playing with him when I could save em all. Also I didnt think that Trevor would react in such way as he did after the death of Mike. So it is how it is.

I made the same choice back in the day on ps3.. going to do option C this time round on the ps4.. I had the same wtf moment when i discovered you didn't have to kill anyone... Was a bit poorly presented. Great game though.