He isn't going to defeat the Reapers.

He will get a bunch of twats from 4chan to hack the Reaper networks and bring them all down in one fell swoop. Its a little known fact that the Reapers use PSN to communicate.

lulzsec will hack the reapers.

So ya...there is this giant power cord and....

It would be pretty awesome if shepard dies in any feasable fashion no matter what choices have been made. A heroic sacrifice to save humanity, a selfish move to safe self/humanity at the cost of others.

I think it would be bold of them to have any possible ending having shepard die...

Now let the rest of the universe know how to bring those sons of bitches down!

It would be pretty awesome if shepard dies in any feasable fashion no matter what choices have been made. A heroic sacrifice to save humanity, a selfish move to safe self/humanity at the cost of others.

I think it would be bold of them to have any possible ending having shepard die...

Its a little known fact that the Reapers use PSN to communicate.

Who said the Reapers aren't going to win. 
 
The Reapers have been floating in empty space and coming to the milky way for billions of years possibly harvesting the universe of life thousands of times throughout many evolutions. If we beat them that is pretty sad. That is like a MMA champion getting his face kicked off by a preschooler.

Shepard will use all of his Paragon conversation prowess to completely change the reapers mind on destroying the universe.

Well it could end more like The Matrix did, and after Shepard brings down Harbinger he sacrifices himself and peace is made with all the other Reapers. Most of the Reapers then decide to leave.

Shepard and his crew dies and they all fall into Limbo. Then they wait it out, Shepard wakes up and is reunited with his children.  
 
Problem = solved... BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH 

@Ryanmc94 said:

Shepard and his crew dies and they all fall into Limbo. Then they wait it out, Shepard wakes up and is reunited with his children. Problem = solved... BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

And have a 5 minute interlude of shepard dying where he first woke up with constant cutting with himand everyone important to him being at a church as they all move on.

Shepard will defeat the reapers once and for all by playing a game of 10-Di-Prime with them...

And winning.

ME 3 is like inception, Shepard is going to plant the idea in the reapers heads that they dont want to take over earth, and once its planted they all leave, problem solved lol

I'd like to see earth destroyed. Humanity scattered. The reapers defeated or pushed back.  Leaving room for more games in the future.

ME 3 is like inception

They'll probaly let the galaxy get wiped out. Then let a new civilization rise, so they can start fresh with mass effect 4.

Well it could end more like The Matrix did, and after Shepard brings down Harbinger he sacrifices himself and peace is made with all the other Reapers. Most of the Reapers then decide to leave.

Actually, in independents day that drunk guy won the battle for humanity. And a drunk guy (Randy Quaid) will kill the final reaper. 
 
Actually, what I think will happen, is there will be a part of the game where the Dead Space story intertwines with the Mass Effect story. It's a few hours after the Dead Space 2 ending, and Isaac and Ellie are shot through a wormhole (back in time 400 years back) only to find Shepard and the Normandy crew fighting reapers. Isaac is told that there's a reason he's there from some unknown source he can only hear from his ear, and soon you'll have to take control both Isaac and Shepard by switching off through the game. Isaac and Shepard figure out that it was the reapers who created the marker, and they both work together on a common goal; to stop the reapers! Making it end both the Dead Space and Mass Effect stories at the same time. Just kidding, as much as I'd like them to do some sort of DLC where my Shepard can where Isaac's Elite Advanced Suit, or a new weapon for Isaac from Mass Effect, that would be kind of dumb. 

Shepard will have sex with all the aliens. All of them. Then they will band together and defeat the reapers. Then space orgy.
 

My theory is that Shepard will sacrifice himself/herself if they are a Paragon. If they are Renegade I think that Shepard will force somebody else like Anderson to sacrifice himself.

Weren't they learning about what makes the Reapers tick at the end of ME2? I suspect that they'll have weapons they can use against the Reapers, or perhaps they'll turn that indoctrination thing against them.

My other theory is that they build a fleet of gold plated Death Stars. Able to destroy a planet and reaper in a single blow.

What if they ended it with the Reapers winning?

My theory is that most of the mission will take place on earth, but near the end a bigger planet will collide into the earth creating a crash explosion that destroys all the reapers, then hurtling through space you hit the normandy, crawl inside and fight through space rescuing people before the air released from earth runs out. Then Shepard becomes ruler of the world.

It's obviously going to be a big ol' Deus Ex Machina explosion.You'll go to planets and shoot things and then Shepard will use X to screw up Y and everything explodes. Just look at how they handled Mass Effect 2. You can't cross over there because you'll die but now you won't die because you got a thing.

So Shepard is going to punch a reaper in the face and shout 'welcome to earth' at it? Like the movie right?

Duder, you're wrong. 
He'll do that weird rape face he did when Garrus was telling him about fighting that lady-turrian (bumping uglies in reality) and they'll all blow up.

It's going to come down to a single Paragon/Renegade choice:

Paragon: Peace is negotiated, the Reapers leave, and Shepard prances through a field of sunshine, flowers, and rainbows with the Normandy crew.

Renegade: Shepard blows up Earth, killing everyone and everything on it. The concussive force of the explosion eventually destroys all life in the galaxy.

@Hailinel said:

It's going to come down to a single Paragon/Renegade choice:

Paragon: Peace is negotiated, the Reapers leave, and Shepard prances through a field of sunshine, flowers, and rainbows with the Normandy crew.

Renegade: Shepard blows up Earth, killing everyone and everything on it. The concussive force of the explosion eventually destroys all life in the galaxy.

I hope it isn't this.

I hope it is something a long the lines of the final mission of ME2 where you make descions and immediately you see the consequences, except this time it is the entire game, so when you go into the final mission, everything is already set, you just see the dominos fall from 3 games of decision making

I basically want them to re-imagine Star Trek TNG's The Best of Both Worlds, with Shepard turning into Locutus of Reap.
 
At the end, the Reapers are defeated by... going to Sleep Mode. Yeah, that sounds about right.

A real guess so don't read.

It involves a three headed monkey.

You're assuming they'll actually take out the Reapers. It could be sort of a truce ending or something.

I want the final sequence to show the consequences of all the choices that you've made through the 3 games, and that will decide what species will live, if Shepard dies, and if all the planets are okay.

It will be much like ME2 where who you recruited will determine how it plays out.....EXCEPT it will be who as in what races. Did you make friends with the Rachni Queen? Did you get Legion to "build a consensus" to convert the Geth? Did you destroy the Batarian's planet on the side mission or save it? So yeah...better hope you made some friends in ME1 and ME2.

Don't we already know how it happens?

No asshole better post those spoilers in here.

If those leaks were true I just hope the present it well cause godamn it sounds like Bioware didn't give a fuck about any previous choices and tried to find as many loopholes to get you to the same type ending.

@msavo: Just like TOR, and DA 2? Yeah that sounds about right.

I have a feeling that no matter what happened in your playthrough, Wrex, Ashley, Kaiden, and the entire cast of ME 2 will show up and kill the king reaper. Oh, they died in yours? Fuck you. Also, your Shepard will get in an accident at the beginning, and will be rebuilt to automatically look and act the way he/she does in the promo videos. Make your choices, and we'll make ours is Bioware's new MO.

I will go out on a limb and say: You're going to be doing a lot of shooting.

@MonkeyKing1969 said:

It will be much like ME2 where who you recruited will determine how it plays out.....EXCEPT it will be who as in what races. Did you make friends with the Rachni Queen? Did you get Legion to "build a consensus" to convert the Geth? Did you destroy the Batarian's planet on the side mission or save it? So yeah...better hope you made some friends in ME1 and ME2.

I don't think any of that is going to matter one way or another. Like others have noted, Bioware is going to use every loophole they can to ensure that the path you're on in Mass Effect 3 is the path they choose for you and not the path you chose in the first two games.

I know how it ends, assuming those leaks are true

@Wrighteous86 said:

@msavo: Just like TOR, and DA 2? Yeah that sounds about right.

I have a feeling that no matter what happened in your playthrough, Wrex, Ashley, Kaiden, and the entire cast of ME 2 will show up and kill the king reaper. Oh, they died in yours? Fuck you. Also, your Shepard will get in an accident at the beginning, and will be rebuilt to automatically look and act the way he/she does in the promo videos. Make your choices, and we'll make ours is Bioware's new MO.

Not quite as egregious as TOR/DA2, but still pretty disappointing.

If you're super worried about spoilers for ME3 don't highlight this, but its pretty damn minor:Everyone who died in 1/2 actually remains dead. However.....they are simple replaced by a character who fufills pretty much the exact same role the story requires of them. Exceptions are Tali, Ashley/Kaidan and Garrus, who are full-time squadmates if you saved them, but simply don't appear if you don't.

@Hailinel said:

I don't think any of that is going to matter one way or another. Like others have noted, Bioware is going to use every loophole they can to ensure that the path you're on in Mass Effect 3 is the path they choose for you and not the path you chose in the first two games.

Ohhh, boy, I haven't read all the leaks on ME3, but here's one I have and its pretty goddamn stupid(end result of a big choice you had to make in previous games, fairly big spoiler):

Remember the Rachni Queen? Welp, if you choose to spare her the reapers indoctrinate them and have them fight for their cause. If, however, you kill the rachni Queen......some other egg which Shepard didn't get to in the universe containing another Rachni Queen hatches and the reapers indoctrinate them.

Ugh. Why even gives us the fucking choice?

@mutha3: Yup that second one you got there was one I too read from the leak and man if that's true I'll have a pit in my stomach. I don't mind not crafting tons of stories for the amount of choices made in Mass Effect but just don't be fucking lazy. Bioware has been hiding behind the"your choices impact the story of your Shepard" type bullshit for far too long because ultimately your choices usually just send you up to see one ending or another ending which is totally fine as long as it's a fascinating ending wrapped around an equally fascinating and thrilling story. The original KOTOR really had a couple ways things could end but they were satisfying and the reveals throughout were soooooo good. I hope Mass Effect 3 is at least not mediocre but if the leaks are true than it might just be that.

Also whoever thinks adding multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 had zero impact on the single player is fooling themselves. I'm not saying the co-op team made the core team make significant story changes but by the inclusion of, from what I've read of previews a sub-par mode with the ending comment always being something akin too "I guess it's fine but why is it here?", it in there you can see EA's grips on the game slowly dragging it down.

*Reading over my comment I see I have become what I usually hate, a complainer on the internet about how "his franchise" is being treated, but that's my gut reaction being a fan of everything Mass Effect. From the games, books and comics I have most of it. I pray I'm wrong and I'm not even a religious person.

@MariachiMacabre: I... I like this idea. Probably more than whatever dumb thing they come up with.

@Bribo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platium?

In all seriousness,I think they should make it so that if you destroyed the collector ship at the end of 2, the reapers win. Especially because the reasons Paragon shepherd gives for blowing it up are just really weak sauce. They always bang on about decisions having consequences too - this would be a great way to really make good on that