I'm surprised that so many people are taking the ending 100% at face value. I'm not sure I believe that any of the events after Shepard passes out (or dies?) on the "magic elevator" are really supposed to have happened. Look at it: the breathing in space, the hologram/ghost/whatever-it-is that looks exactly like the boy Shepard saw die, Shepard's odd child-like demeanor, the magic glowing elevator, the illogic of Joker and friends being in the Normandy without any motivation whatsoever... It's easy to look at all these things and say "this makes no sense, someone dropped the ball." But I truly believe the creators of Mass Effect are smart people. I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

Consider the Geth mission from earlier in the game, where Legion takes you into their servers and on a tour through Geth history. None of that is "really" happening, it's all in cyberspace or whatever. It's clear that Shepard's mind is capable of interacting with computers on a visual level. And here's Shepard, talking to a mysterious boy who claims to be the Catalyst, and who identifies himself as being the master of all the Reapers. In my opinion, that last platform where you make your final decision is happening only in Shepard's head. Not necessarily a dream, mind you: I think it's possible that the Catalyst is creating a visual representation of Shepard's options, in Shepard's mind.

Does that mean that the rest of the ending, with the destruction of the Mass Relays and with Joker's brave new world, is equally unreal? Maybe, maybe not. But I seriously doubt that we're supposed to accept that ending as the complete literal truth. Either way, it works incredibly well on a symbolic level in my opinion. I mean hell, this is a series where the first planet you visit is called "Eden Prime". Anyone who thinks this ending goes against the spirit of the rest of the series simply wasn't paying attention.

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

I'm surprised that so many people are taking the ending 100% at face value. I'm not sure I believe that any of the events after Shepard passes out (or dies?) on the "magic elevator" are really supposed to have happened. Look at it: the breathing in space, the hologram/ghost/whatever-it-is that looks exactly like the boy he saw die, Shepard's odd child-like demeanor, the magic glowing elevator, the illogic of Joker and friends being in the Normandy without any motivation whatsoever... It's easy to look at all these things and say "this makes no sense, someone dropped the ball." But I truly believe the creators of Mass Effect are smart people. I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

Consider the Geth mission from earlier in the game, where Legion takes you into their servers and on a tour through Geth history. None of that is "really" happening, it's all in cyberspace or whatever. It's clear that Shepard's mind is capable of interacting with computers on a visual level. And here he is, talking to a mysterious boy who claims to be the Catalyst, and who identifies himself as being the master of all the Reapers. In my opinion, that last platform where you make your final decision is happening only in Shepard's head. Not necessarily a dream, mind you: I think it's possible that the Catalyst is creating a visual representation of Shepard's options, in Shepard's mind.

Does that mean that the rest of the ending, with the destruction of the Mass Relays and with Joker's brave new world, is equally unreal? Maybe, maybe not. But I seriously doubt that we're supposed to accept that ending as the complete literal truth. Either way, it works incredibly well on a symbolic level in my opinion. I mean hell, this is a series where the first planet you visit is called "Eden Prime". Anyone who thinks this ending goes against the spirit of the rest of the series simply wasn't paying attention.

This is the most well-reasoned argument I've seen for why the ending makes sense. The whole "unreality" of the final moments with the Normandy also make sense in this context. The epilogue where Shepard's body is seen breathing also lends weight to this argument. So let's take a moment and think on this theory and how it gives me closure to a series I've been in love with for the last six years.

Where the hell is my resolution with the characters and peoples I cared about? Even if we take all of this as a symbolic representation of Commander Shepard interfacing with the Citadel's AI/whatever it was, why was it so difficult to include post-script FMV, or hell, even title cards a la Dragon Age: Origins, explaining what happened to everyone? If you can answer those questions as reasonably as you defended the current ending, I'd love to hear it.

 I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

But, we already know this is the case. The whole Mass Effect universe is in fact made up by grandpa, telling stories to his little kid.

This little kid's name "sweetie"

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

But, we already know this is the case. The whole Mass Effect universe is in fact made up by grandpa, telling stories to his little kid.

This little kid's name "sweetie"

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

But, we already know this is the case. The whole Mass Effect universe is in fact made up by grandpa, telling stories to his little kid.

I'm not the coda's biggest fan, but the scene itself is harmless. They wanted to show that X number of years later, people still remembered what Shepard did. United a galaxy and fought off an extinction event. I wouldn't take it to mean more than that.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

But, we already know this is the case. The whole Mass Effect universe is in fact made up by grandpa, telling stories to his little kid.

Not necessarily. The kid asks grandpa if the story is true, and grandpa says yes. So maybe it's true, or maybe he made it up, or maybe it's based on truth and the details were made up. It's telling that the achievement for completing the game is called "Legend". But whatever, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm saying, even in the context of grandpa's story, I don't think the ending is happening in any kind of reality.

@Oldirtybearon: I agree there should have been more closure with your six crewmen, but then I think that's what the section in the London FOB was supposed to be for, when you tell everyone what honor it's been and so on. The mistake was letting you bring two of them along on the final mission. If that abandoned building had been the last time you saw all of them, and if you were out there on your own for the last push to the beam, I think that abandoned building section would've been closure enough for me. As it stands, we're left to wonder what happened to them when you charge down the hill. It's a serious flaw, I mean the ending does leave a lot to be desired, and I'm not necessarily interested in defending it. But I do think it's a perfectly valid ending, and not a betrayal of the series like most are making it out to be. Doesn't mean everyone has to like it.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

I don't think there's any way that these logical flaws could've slipped by them. In fact, I think they're there deliberately, to clue us in on the fact that what we're seeing isn't literally what is happening.

But, we already know this is the case. The whole Mass Effect universe is in fact made up by grandpa, telling stories to his little kid.

I don't see it that way. I viewed that last scene as a far-in-the future scene where the Mass Relays are gone, space travel is effectively obsolete and the whole notion of aliens, reapers, Shepard, space travel are myths at this point. As plot holeish as that may be, I prefer it greatly to "the whole thing was a made up story" bs.

Still hate the ending though.

If telling people their choices are going to matter for five years and then ending it with dream sequence in which the only player agency is choosing which colored cutscene they want to see isn't betrayl I'd really like to hear your theories on how they could have possibly fucked it up more.
 
It doesn't fit thematically, it doesn't fit logically, and Mass Effect has never tried to be a philosophical mind quest until the last 15 minutes of this game. It's so fucking out of place it's like they ripped it out of another game entirely. A game which is definitely not Deus Ex.

I just beat it as well. Well...I loved it. I think ending suits it. My shepard died and earth was fine. I personally thought the whole game was great. Will play through again for sure. I don't get all the hate.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@Kevin_Cogneto: Seriously though, you're suggesting that because Shepard passed out and then a series of illogical events happened, the ending was meant to be symbolic? Why write an illogical ending full of plotholes even if it was meant to be symbolic? Is every story that involves a dream sequence/ someone passing out and then some shitty ending a candidate for some 2 DEEP 4 U symbolic ending?

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

No.

If you're just making you're own symbolic reading of the endings, whatever, that's totally up to you. But if you think the endings weren't meant to be taken literally? Nah, no way.

No.

Actually, yes. If there was a story where the protagonist passed out, and then the rest of the story had a completely different set of rules (which in this case I've already listed: breathing in space, etc.) that seemed to fly in the face of what came before it, then yes, I think it would be perfectly valid to interpret a story like that as having a dream (or at least ambiguously real) ending. I think about Minority Report for example, there are a lot of people who think the entire last half hour of that movie is a dream. I don't agree with it, just like you don't have to agree with my reading of the Mass Effect ending, but both are perfectly valid interpretations.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@Kevin_Cogneto: Seriously though, you're suggesting that because Shepard passed out and then a series of illogical events happened, the ending was meant to be symbolic? Why write an illogical ending full of plotholes even if it was meant to be symbolic? Is every story that involves a dream sequence/ someone passing out and then some shitty ending a candidate for some 2 DEEP 4 U symbolic ending?

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

No.

If you're just making you're own symbolic reading of the endings, whatever, that's totally up to you. But if you think the endings weren't meant to be taken literally? Nah, no way.

No.

Actually, yes. If there was a story where the protagonist passed out, and then the rest of the story had a completely different set of rules (which in this case I've already listed: breathing in space, etc.) that seemed to fly in the face of what came before it, then yes, I think it would be perfectly valid to interpret a story like that as having a dream (or at least ambiguously real) ending. I think about Minority Report for example, there are a lot of people who think the entire last half hour of that movie is a dream. I don't agree with it, just like you don't have to agree with my reading of the Mass Effect ending, but both are perfectly valid interpretations.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: My old English professors would tell you that the author's intent doesn't matter, as long as you can provide evidence from the text to back up your interpretation, and I think I've done that. But actually, I also really believe that the writers did it intentionally. It seems more likely than the notion that an entire production staff of hundreds of people would suddenly forget that Shepard can't breathe in outer space.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: My old English professors would tell you that the author's intent doesn't matter, as long as you can provide evidence from the text to back up your interpretation, and I think I've done that. But actually, I also really believe that the writers did it intentionally. It seems more likely than the notion that an entire production staff of hundreds of people would suddenly forget that Shepard can't breathe in outer space.

You guys do know that there is a "Perfect" Ending, get Galaxy at War to 100%, do a 2nd Playthrough and get all sidequests done.

I wanted to have blue babies. :/

really people from day one since you find that beacon and learn how the Reapers destroyed the Protheans your mission is to destroy the Reapers who are trying to do the same thing to you...i am maybe stupid but i do not see any other fitting ending for this series except that...i mean in the whole game you are focused on doing that finding the secret weapon and all and on top of that the DLC (which is not really DLC) pushes you in that way since you know now how much the Protheans suffered and the last of them wants to get revenge...and here comes the end where you are faced with a number of choices ala Deus Ex with no meaning at all in my opinion...Shepard was never a scientist or a mastermind to be able to think beyond the mission..he was always the man who got the job done and that's why he became a Spectre in the first place...i gladly accept other opinions but i am ready to strongly support mine and i think people who played all the games would agree with me more or less...finally since one of the endings is about you being a half-organic half-synthetic being after Cerberus brought you back to life i guess either Bioware had thought this since the making of the second game or it was something they came up the last moment...for the record i did not enjoy playing the game at all with all the lazy N7 multiplayer map mission stucture and the fetch side-quests out of nowhere..Shepard was never meant to do that...he was born a hero and a leader..not an errand boy

I loved ME3 and was so excited to get to the end and see what all of this hard work amounted to. Like everyone else here I was disappointed with the ending. The game its self was such a step up from the games before it was a great transition. I just wish that one of the choices would have ended with Shepard being able to live to enjoy this new reaper free world. I can deal with the fact that the ending cut scenes were all the same but would it have been difficult for one of those bursts of light to put Shepard back on Earth. I mean a big beam of light brought them to that choice why couldn't a big beam of light bring them back. They wake up on the battle field and see the reapers falling. That would have been good enough to let me have my happy ending. The way it was done made it seem like the creators wanted to end it in a way where they would never be tempted to make another one. I think that I am more sad at the lack of enthusiasm in the ending then I am mad about it.

1. I am fine with Shepard dying/disappearing up there. It has to happen. It's thematically consistent with the series.

2. I am fine if future Mass Effect games don't 'carry over' my saves. Ie: I'm fine if they're set 200 years in the future when Liara is the only surviving character from the series. Shepard and Garrus and Wrex are all historical legends now.

3. I'm fine if the only resolution with the characters is title cards that say "after the war, Tali returned to Rannoch and"

But that ending prevents any future Mass Effect games from happening. It ends not just 'Shepard's story' but the entire Mass Effect fiction. Which is/was my favorite fictional setting ever. People get mad at Return of the Jedi's ending, but it didn't end the fiction.

@Complex: really? i had at least "most" sidequests done and i made sure i boosted my war readiness to 100% before the point of no return. i know oyu said 2nd playthrough. so i have to NG+ it? i was going to do a second playthrough, probably start it today or tomorrow, but its gotta be NG+ for that? i was gonna try a different class :\ ah well. i did love my sentinel lol

@LordXavierBritish: well, to be fair, your choices do matter. not for the very end of the game exactly. but TONS of your old choices do effect how the game plays out. i was able to secure peace between the geth and quarians. i know alot of people because of their past choices, just couldnt pull that off and they had to pick one or the other. other people couldnt properly pull off the happy krogan genophage cure because they didnt keep maelons research data. i did find it a bit cheap that i killed the rachni queen and the reapers just sorta, cloned another one? that was lame but didnt bother me much. other choices were constantly popping up in sidequests and the like. even that super tedious asari writings quest from ME1 showed up at one point. so to say your choices don't matter isn't quite right. it just doesnt effect the ending scene is all.

@jmic75 said:

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: My old English professors would tell you that the author's intent doesn't matter, as long as you can provide evidence from the text to back up your interpretation, and I think I've done that. But actually, I also really believe that the writers did it intentionally. It seems more likely than the notion that an entire production staff of hundreds of people would suddenly forget that Shepard can't breathe in outer space.

I really don't have a problem with the breathing in outerspace thing, it's sci-fi there's probably an invisible barrier, I mean bare in mind the Citadel is always open and exposed to space what keeps the atmosphere in? (someone better versed in the lore could probably answer that).

As to your English professors.....I think there is an over tendency to project ones' own ideas and thoughts onto the writings of others. The intent, as well as the context within things are written are immensely important, other wise you could make the case for almost anything meaning the complete opposite of what it really means. I mean I could make the case that Shepard is having a coma dream after touching the first beacon, as it fried his noggin, I mean giant space robots?! How preposterous! Granted there are many texts that are deliberately open to interpretation, however if something isn't explicitly stated that doesn't mean you can interpret it however you want.

The breathing in space thing is just one example, a page back I listed a bunch more details that, in my opinion, indicate that it might be a dream or some kind of Reaper-induced vision. To me, there was a very distinct sense of unreality to that entire sequence, starting with the weird glowing elevator all the way to Joker's garden planet. This isn't some after-the-fact rationalization on my part, I can see how it might look like I'm trying to wish away the ending by pretending it never happened. But that's not the case, I was thinking this at the time I was playing it, before I even knew how it was going to end. All that the stuff on top of the Citadel seemed like it might not be real -- yes because he's breathing in outer space, but mostly it was Shepard's strange demeanor. Here's this hologram or ghost or something that claims to control the Reapers, an entity that claims to be personally responsible for all this destruction and death, and Shepard is oddly okay with it. He's not angry or indignant, he's just weirdly placid and accepting about the whole thing.

You're right that it's easy to project your own ideas on a work, it happens all the time. It has to be there in the text somewhere, and in this case I think it's there. For example: for the first time in the series, dreams became an important part of the story. We see Shepard constantly dreaming about his inability to save Vent Boy, which of course isn't about Vent Boy at all, it's about Shepard's fears that there's nothing he can do to save the galaxy. And right at the moment when it seems those fears are about to become a reality, when Hackett is pleading with Shepard to activate the Crucible and Shepard doesn't know what to do, he/she passes out and wakes up to discover that Vent Boy is there to provide three ways to end the Reaper threat once and for all. In a way, there's still nothing Shepard can do: no matter which of the three choices you make at the end, the galaxy as they know it is gone forever. And Shepard has to decide what kind of universe to leave behind after it's gone. To me, that's the important part of the ending, and why it works for me. It's not about the specific details about whether or not alien races will be stranded on Earth and starve to death, or whatever.

when Shepard is wounded at the end by the laser and walks to go up to the Citadel... that's gotta be a dream state, just like earlier with the boy in the forest. I think you have infinite ammo (no reloading) during the last parts. In the real life, you cannot have infinite pistol ammo, therefore the last moments of the game must be a dream state.

when Shepard is wounded at the end by the laser and walks to go up to the Citadel... that's gotta be a dream state, just like earlier with the boy in the forest. I think you have infinite ammo (no reloading) during the last parts. In the real life, you cannot have infinite pistol ammo, therefore the last moments of the game must be a dream state.

The thing that maybe gives me hope is that it's literally the last 7 minutes where everything just goes to shit. Everything that happened before that is pure Mass Effect, Shepard struggles through insurmountable odds, has a long philosophical argument with an exceptional antagonist (Sheen's breakdown is better written than even Saren), and then is seconds from giving this trilogy, this franchise, this fiction, the ending it truly deserves. And then all of a sudden everything just goes hard left. It would be one thing if the last three hours were completely terrible, but this is literally the last seven minutes. The last seven minutes have nothing to do with anything the series has ever dealt with. And it completely scuttles the fiction.

For all everyone gets on EA for milking their franchises for all they're worth, for making everything cookie-cutter and simplistic, this ending is like something Jonathan Blow would come up with. This ending almost seems to exist to confound people who love Mass Effect and are ready to put money down for anything with that name on it. You can blame EA for making a BioWare game less adventurous or craven, and I wouldn't really argue. I don't know how EA let BioWare do this. It feels like Casey Hudson is intentionally trying to poison the well so he'll get to make a new project, it's like if Kojima actually had the balls to blow Solid Snake's brains out. But times a billion.

The Mass Effect universe is my favorite fictional setting, more than Star Wars, D&D, Resident Evil, Star Trek, Dragon Age, Dead Space, BioShock... and I'm really shocked and sad that they seem to want to slap this ending on it. All they had to do was have Shepard hit that button and cut to black. I would happier. Patch that ending in.

What if none of the endings even happened? I know its a stretch but if that was the case it would make perfect sense, especially with the old man telling the tale of Shepard and how over time stories told from generation to generation become further and further from the actual truth seeing how everyone lovs to put there own fabricated twist on things. It would also make sense in the context of when people tell stories they tend to like to try and make some grander finale then what truly happened

After thinking about it, here's why the ending doesn't bother me too much. If we define ending as whatever happens after your last action in the game, we have this. (For simplicity's sake, I'm going to lay out how my series playthrough looked instead of all the outcomes)

Mass Effect 1: Sovereign dies, they find your team that killed Saren, and you appoint someone to the council (if it's around). Oh, and that HILARIOUSLY cheesy shot of Shepard in space.

Mass Effect 2: Escape Collector Base, Harbinger is a Reaper, Illusive Man calls you an ass for blowing up the Collector base, and btw Reapers on Earth.

Mass Effect 3: Synthetic life is wiped out, The Mass Relays and Citadel are destroyed, Joker and some crewmates live on. Then the cheesy ending of the storytelling stuff.

I'll agree that ME3 could use a longer epilogue simply because it's the end of the series, but for me... I'm fine with the talk with the cyber-boy and choosing the outcome. Everything you've done leads up to that decision and you already know how it's going to play out. It's a shame you don't get to see it play out MORE, but the effect is similar. I will also agree that it's a shame all the endings are so alike, but, I still think that's a minor issue.

ME2 had the best ending, probably, but I don't think ME3's ending is an atrocity or anything. I actually like it more than ME1's ending. For me, Mass Effect has always been the journey and not the endings. I think all of the endings are lackluster, except for maybe ME2.

I have the same feelings about the end of Mass Effect that I did with Battlestar Galactica. The journey to the ending was awesome the whole way, but the ending itself was not only an unsatisfying conclusion, but it disrespected everything that came before it. Mass Effect is my favorite modern series, and my favorite fictional universe of all time, but this ending is the most depressing conclusion to a work of fiction I've ever experienced. No matter how I try to rationalize it, the ending is simply terrible.

The ending to any great sci-fi series...

Blow up the whole Milky Way. Have a half-dead US astronaut tell you it was all a story. Bravo.

I loved the game until you go up and see a fucking blue space child that has never been brought up in the entire series of games. The ending was "powerful" I suppose and I was actually extremely upset when Shepard died to save the universe, but I also kind of saw the logic that the reapers had. It helps the younger generations advance further then the previous ones. I can see that logic. I think this series should have ended with Shepard just blowing the fuck out of the Reapers and everyone lives happily ever after. I have been waiting for this ending since I first beat ME1 when it came out, and I am not satisfied.

I hated the ending but certain things would have made it better for me. I took Garrus and Tali on the final mission and when I synthesized everything I saw pictures of Anderson, Joker, and Liara. Why them? I romanced Tali so at least she could have replaced Liara. And when they walkk out of the ship at the end. I only see Joker, EDI, and Tali. And I went through it again choosing to wipe all synthetic life and I only saw Joker, Tali, and Javik. Nothing can change how I hated the end but why did that all happen? I still loved the game though.

I enjoyed the gameplay and large parts of the story, but I think this was still the weakest entry in the series overall, even without the ending. I had some fatigue to the formula that was exactly the same as in pervious games and filling up that bar just feels silly.

The ending was just a total culmination on my feeling on the game as a whole. I really expected it to end as Shepard and Anderson watched the reapers explode and then there would be a short prologue to remember the dead and celebrate the living. I mean that's not unique or anything, but it would give at least some satisfaction and not be completely stupid and nonsensical...

It really hurts to think about it. With both of the previous games I started a new playthrough almost immediately, but I don't see myself playing ME3 ever again. I think it's pretty telling that there are people in this thread saying that the end didn't really happen, that it was just a dream or whatever. That's like believing in God when you are feeling down, delude yourself to believe in a fantasy rather than face the truth. I can sympathies with both, but I can't find any comfort to myself from either.

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

@jmic75 said:

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: My old English professors would tell you that the author's intent doesn't matter, as long as you can provide evidence from the text to back up your interpretation, and I think I've done that. But actually, I also really believe that the writers did it intentionally. It seems more likely than the notion that an entire production staff of hundreds of people would suddenly forget that Shepard can't breathe in outer space.

I really don't have a problem with the breathing in outerspace thing, it's sci-fi there's probably an invisible barrier, I mean bare in mind the Citadel is always open and exposed to space what keeps the atmosphere in? (someone better versed in the lore could probably answer that).

As to your English professors.....I think there is an over tendency to project ones' own ideas and thoughts onto the writings of others. The intent, as well as the context within things are written are immensely important, other wise you could make the case for almost anything meaning the complete opposite of what it really means. I mean I could make the case that Shepard is having a coma dream after touching the first beacon, as it fried his noggin, I mean giant space robots?! How preposterous! Granted there are many texts that are deliberately open to interpretation, however if something isn't explicitly stated that doesn't mean you can interpret it however you want.

The breathing in space thing is just one example, a page back I listed a bunch more details that, in my opinion, indicate that it might be a dream or some kind of Reaper-induced vision. To me, there was a very distinct sense of unreality to that entire sequence, starting with the weird glowing elevator all the way to Joker's garden planet. This isn't some after-the-fact rationalization on my part, I can see how it might look like I'm trying to wish away the ending by pretending it never happened. But that's not the case, I was thinking this at the time I was playing it, before I even knew how it was going to end. All that the stuff on top of the Citadel seemed like it might not be real -- yes because he's breathing in outer space, but mostly it was Shepard's strange demeanor. Here's this hologram or ghost or something that claims to control the Reapers, an entity that claims to be personally responsible for all this destruction and death, and Shepard is oddly okay with it. He's not angry or indignant, he's just weirdly placid and accepting about the whole thing.

You're right that it's easy to project your own ideas on a work, it happens all the time. It has to be there in the text somewhere, and in this case I think it's there. For example: for the first time in the series, dreams became an important part of the story. We see Shepard constantly dreaming about his inability to save Vent Boy, which of course isn't about Vent Boy at all, it's about Shepard's fears that there's nothing he can do to save the galaxy. And right at the moment when it seems those fears are about to become a reality, when Hackett is pleading with Shepard to activate the Crucible and Shepard doesn't know what to do, he/she passes out and wakes up to discover that Vent Boy is there to provide three ways to end the Reaper threat once and for all. In a way, there's still nothing Shepard can do: no matter which of the three choices you make at the end, the galaxy as they know it is gone forever. And Shepard has to decide what kind of universe to leave behind after it's gone. To me, that's the important part of the ending, and why it works for me. It's not about the specific details about whether or not alien races will be stranded on Earth and starve to death, or whatever.

While i think you're making a well articulated claim to your view, I think the fundamental flaw of it is that the entire 150 odd hours that precede it give no precedent to such an event happening. At best, you could maybe construe the dream sequence to be hinting at this, but when we consider the Mass Effect series as a whole it is not one that engages in such dream states and illusions. David Lynch hasn't been ruining the show. It's been Bioware, and Bioware has given no indication through the story itself that such extensive dream landscapes are a theme of the fiction. For such a scenario to turn up at the end would be in stark contrast to much of the narrative that came before. If Bioware's intent was to show a nonreality, I would argue that it still stands as a cop out and dishonest to the fiction. Even if it is a dream, it is just as undercutting of its own narrative as the ending of Lost.

I loved ME3 to death. It was an amazing journey.
 
But the endings?
Man, what a major blue balling, so uneccesary contirved to make them depressing and Shepard die in all of them, after he went through hell and survived. Just, no fucking real reason for that shit. I guarantee if Shepard lived it would have made almost everyone so much happier.  It's not about "boo-hoo he dies", sometimes these things work. The noble sacrifice is a tried and true concept, but it has to be done extrenely carefully to work. The way Bioware did it here was hamfisted and felt placed there just for the sake of drama.

Secondly they provide no payoff for the player. No conclusions, not even a little disclosure at how things move on from there. Players have invested so much over the course of 3 games, spent so much time. To have absolutely 0 payoff at the end is just fucking bad, it's mean and heartless, worst of all stupid.  I'm not asking for Fallout3 style slides, that's not very interesting either. I'm arguing that they should have provided at  least a little bit of payoff to the players. Recognition of efforts. It's a basic phsycological blunder.

Finally The post credit scene is just dumb. Not because it's a contrived way to get you back into the game before the final missions. To hell with that. Whatever. I don't care. BUT by making it so removed from the ME timeline, by creating this abstract future a long long time ahead. It trivialises the players actions. Pure and simple. That's bad. It directly detracts from a sense of achievement. 
 
And the above is even without going into the enormous plotholes terriory that makes the entire ending illogical/insane/contrived utter bullshit.
 
I still love ME3.
Because like I said, the journey has been incredible. I had so many memorable moments with my favourite characters. 
This redeems the game for me. it's too bad that it had to be redeemed because of those endings.

Maybe they'll pull a Fallout 3 and release a DLC pack that re-writes the ending.

Because, Christ, does this game need it.

I may never play this game again. And I played through the other two 7 or 8 times.

(EDIT: Wow, I posted in this thread before reading it. Heard the saying "can't see the forest for the trees"? In my mind, an ending, especially one you choose, is about more than what happens just before the credits. It's about your imagination taking you through the future possibilities caused by those events. Mac Walters & company could have taken the easy way out, made the Crucible a Deus Ex Machina that destroys the Reapers and lets Shepard live out her days with Liara and their children with them looking into the sunset as the credits being to roll. It might have been satisfying, but rote. They took a risk and I respect them for it. /edit)

I love the Mass Effect franchise. I'm struggling to collect my thoughts on the ending of the series. With the relays destroyed, there can't really be a story set after the events of this game that is recognizably "Mass Effect". In addition, whatever choice the player made would end up having to be retconned or otherwise made irrelevant, which would then alienate the fanbase that didn't disapprove of the ending (myself included).

So that just leaves other stories to tell that take place before or alongside the events of this series of games. How will they make them interesting, when the fate of the galaxy is already sealed?

Honestly, I would be completely okay with this being the end of the franchise. In fact, I would encourage it. Leave me to imagine EDI, robo-Joker and Liara rebuilding civilization after the heroic efforts of Amy Shepard. It's been a great ride.

With the relays destroyed, there can't really be a story set after the events of this game that is recognizably "Mass Effect". 

@Waffles13 said:

Sure, they could say that Shepard did, in fact, survive

Shepard does survive in the "destruction of all synthetic life" ending, or at least long enough for her charred body to take a last breath. If EA makes BioWare use a canon ending to bring Shepard back for a fourth game, I'm certain this would be it.

@Waffles13: I don't think it would be that hard. Just change it so that last 5 minutes doesn't play. Instead, have Anderson and Shepard watch as the Crucible shoots some beam that destroys all the reapers, Then cut to Shepard stumbling back out of that beam that shot him up to the Citadel in the first place while a shuttle lands and his love interest jumps out and runs towards him/her in jubilation. Wouldn't even need any more VO. Yes, that would require a new cinematic but given the absolute poisonous reception the current endings have gotten, might be worth the cost.

@wsowen02: This is my point. The game is still great up until that platform goes up and completely ruins the entire fiction.

@Tennmuerti: I think Shepard needs to either die or leave (in the control ending, lets say he goes with the Reapers back to dark space). Shepard needs to be out of the galactic picture in order for anything new to happen that doesn't involve him. The problem I have is every ending completely obliterates what we know to be true about the fiction.

There's a thread on the BioWare forums that asks people how they felt about the ending. 82% want it to be happier, 15% just want Shepard to survive (which is incredibly shortsighted considering everything else), and 3% are fine with it is. I don't know if EA is going to let BioWare get away with a 3% approval rate. I don't want it to be happier, and I don't want Shepard to survive... I just want the story to remain Mass Effect. The moment Shepard makes any of those choices, it stops being Mass Effect and starts being something else entirely.

@Tennmuerti: I think Shepard needs to either die or leave (in the control ending, lets say he goes with the Reapers back to dark space). Shepard needs to be out of the galactic picture in order for anything new to happen that doesn't involve him. The problem I have is every ending completely obliterates what we know to be true about the fiction.

@Waffles13:

The thing is that I had Tali and Garrus with me, not Javik. Thanks for the answer though!

@Tennmuerti: Totally agree. It flies in the face of every known logic that it seems like it's some intentional Kojima-style attempt to kill off their creation before it controls their lives. Either that or they had some sort of insane fever dream idea of what Mass Effect has been, and it's us who've got it all wrong.

I don't mind if Shepard lives or dies, I don't mind if he retires or if future games are 200 years in the future when Liara is the only surviving member. I don't care if the next era of Mass Effect games make a 'canon' of what happened (quarians and geth uniting, krogan genophage ended) and begins a whole new conflict unrelated to 2186. But... with this ending, I can't see any more Mass Effect games. Ever again. Everything that has defined that fiction just ended. The galactic civilizations we've come to know, all the technological advancements we learned, all snuffed out in seven minutes.

My only hope for the future of this series is that they admit fault and retcon some sort of ending where Shepard destroying the Milky Way was some sort of bugfuck scrambled vision that her dying mind showed her as she passed out there next to Anderson. And then you can get up and defeat the Reapers. And things return to almost normal.

@wsowen02: 
The issue was that Fallout 3 didn't "rewrite" anything; it just said "Hey, there's more to the story!" Sure, you could argue that your character did actually die in the end, but there's no reason the Broken Steel stuff couldn't have happened.
 
For ME3, anything short of straight up saying "Our game is no longer canon" or "It was all a dream!", they can't "fix" the events of the ending. Sure, they could say that Shepard did, in fact, survive (or got rebuilt again, or whatever), but the lack of relays means that you're pretty much destined to either hang out on shitty Earth, or on mystery Eden planet. Or, of course, immediately invent a relay-less mass effect field within days of the war ending.