@Matt: From what I've heard on the podcast, you all seem to be very knowledgeable of the trilogy and thoughtful about it which is something that I respect greatly.
However, I will question you now on a few things. You say if the indoctrination ending is true it would make the ending "incomplete". As I've stated, it would not make the ending incomplete but would more focus on Shepard and his state of mind. As stated from Bioware, this is the completion of Shepard's story and was meant to be discussed. From what has been set-up in the trilogy, the reapers and their origin is something beyond our understanding. Realistically speaking, if the reapers and the creator (if there even is such a thing) were to actually start a war with all sentient life, it would be impossible to win. These are essentially Gods that we're battling. Something that apparently has been apart of the universe since forever... as Sovereign alludes to the fact that the reapers have always been and will always continue to exist.
It would be safe to assume that their creator would be as close to something that we, humans, would understand to be as a God. Something that is simultaneously an intelligent being and an unalterable fact of objective reality. Do you really think that Shepard, or the "Shepards" of previous cycles, would EVER be able to properly do battle with a destructive force on this scale? Do you really think that if Shepard saved Fist or the Quarians or let Jack die or ANYTHING, that any of these decisions would affect such an eerie and bizarre threat? Frankly, it would be ludicrous if Shepard DID win against the reapers in any meaningful way by his own doing. If he did, it would betray all the mystery and menace behind the Reapers. And even if Shepard did win, it still, on a grand scale, wouldn't be Shepard's fight. It would be more about the ingenuity of all the beings that helped create the crucible from the previous cycles.
The endings, to my knowledge are:
You become one with the reapers and control them, essentially becoming something like a God or you've been indoctrinated.
You are indoctrinated into thinking you destroyed the reapers but free yourself from this and/or the reapers were destroyed by someone else. Or at the very least you survive but are still indoctrinated. (ironically, this ending seems the least bizarre and most realistic outcome for what the fiction has set-up. In other words, the Crucible did work but had nothing to do with Shepard and was instead the long and hard work done by many civilizations over numerous, maybe infinite, cycles. Or the Crucible didn't work and its all in Shepard's mind....)
You create a new form of DNA and usher in the next step of evolution, irreversibly changing every living and synthetic being in the galaxy or you've been indoctrinated.
Now, given what has been set up for the Reapers, how exactly are any of the above endings out of line with Mass Effect's lore? How are they lazy? How are they uninteresting? Specifically about the indoctrination theory but this question can be applied to all 3. They are as close to something that could call itself a necessary response to such a galactic and enigmatic terror.
Your choices have made a difference within the galaxy and to its residents but when it comes to a force that is timeless, and arguably formless, and beyond our or any of the previous cycles' understanding, how do you suppose any of the information that has been given to Shepard over the course of all 3 games or any of the choices he has made would affect the Reapers in any way?
I clearly think this ending is the best it could have been with what lead up to it. Its sad, oddly triumphant and always thought provoking.
Now you clearly think this not interesting and you call it lazy. My main question for you and this is an important one and is something that I am very curious about is how exactly did you see the trilogy ending? If I had that information, you may change my mind but just saying it is "lazy" and "not interesting" are meaningless things to say when I can easily say it wasn't lazy because it fell right in line with what the previous games set up and it is interesting because I find Mass Effect interesting.
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