Spoilers!

I enjoyed Mass Effect 3. However, I am left wanting. The ending leaves me with so many questions rather than answers. I was expecting every story to come full circle like it does in the endings of the Fallout games, where it even tells the future of your companions. My concerns are these:

• No matter what ending you choose the Mass Effect Relays end up destroyed. That makes me wonder about the future of the species in the systems. For example, do the species now know how to build Relays. Can they leave the systems? We have an multiracial armada in the Local Cluster and I'm pretty sure they want to just go home. The Krogan are probably itching to get back to Tuchanka and repopulate. The Quarians most likely want to settle Rannoch. As with the other species. But they can't get back to their systems now. They can't take FTL since they will run out of fuel or just die because of how long it will take to get to another system. I wasn't expecting the destruction of the "highway" system that allows inter-system travel. How do people get around now?
• Why do the Reapers simply want to destroy life so that other lifeforms may prosper in the future? If they are machines why did someone build them just so that other species can have the universe to themselves? Who the hell would build a machine that would just turn around and destroy them because that is their programing? Or did the Reapers rebel against their creators and thought this was their only purpose left.
• I choose the Synthesis (Green) ending how exactly does that work? I choose this because destruction would result in the destruction of all machines; Like the Geth, and I don't want that because they had semblance of organics, so I thought they deserved a chance to "live". Also, wouldn't EDI get destroyed too? I didn't see her walk out with Joker in the Destruction (Red) or Control (Blue) endings. So, I'm left with an explanation from a ghost boy that Synthesis will rewrite the DNA of all species and that it is the apex of evolution. How did the Reapers meld with us? The only thing I saw was that Joker had funky eyes and I pray that synthesis doesn't carry over the Reapers ability to indoctrinate.
• My crew that was left on the Normandy crash lands on a lush world and...what? Do they establish a town? How do they survive? Can Tali eat what's on this planet, being that she can't eat what the non-dextroaminoacid (or what ever the Humans and Asari are) lifeforms eat. I'm left with a simply smile and wink from Joker but that doesn't answer my questions.

If someone knows that answers please enlighten me and then the ending won't be so incomprehensible to me.

Spoilers!

I enjoyed Mass Effect 3. However, I am left wanting. The ending leaves me with so many questions rather than answers. I was expecting every story to come full circle like it does in the endings of the Fallout games, where it even tells the future of your companions. My concerns are these:

• No matter what ending you choose the Mass Effect Relays end up destroyed. That makes me wonder about the future of the species in the systems. For example, do the species now know how to build Relays. Can they leave the systems? We have an multiracial armada in the Local Cluster and I'm pretty sure they want to just go home. The Krogan are probably itching to get back to Tuchanka and repopulate. The Quarians most likely want to settle Rannoch. As with the other species. But they can't get back to their systems now. They can't take FTL since they will run out of fuel or just die because of how long it will take to get to another system. I wasn't expecting the destruction of the "highway" system that allows inter-system travel. How do people get around now?
• Why do the Reapers simply want to destroy life so that other lifeforms may prosper in the future? If they are machines why did someone build them just so that other species can have the universe to themselves? Who the hell would build a machine that would just turn around and destroy them because that is their programing? Or did the Reapers rebel against their creators and thought this was their only purpose left.
• I choose the Synthesis (Green) ending how exactly does that work? I choose this because destruction would result in the destruction of all machines; Like the Geth, and I don't want that because they had semblance of organics, so I thought they deserved a chance to "live". Also, wouldn't EDI get destroyed too? I didn't see her walk out with Joker in the Destruction (Red) or Control (Blue) endings. So, I'm left with an explanation from a ghost boy that Synthesis will rewrite the DNA of all species and that it is the apex of evolution. How did the Reapers meld with us? The only thing I saw was that Joker had funky eyes and I pray that synthesis doesn't carry over the Reapers ability to indoctrinate.
• My crew that was left on the Normandy crash lands on a lush world and...what? Do they establish a town? How do they survive? Can Tali eat what's on this planet, being that she can't eat what the non-dextroaminoacid (or what ever the Humans and Asari are) lifeforms eat. I'm left with a simply smile and wink from Joker but that doesn't answer my questions.

If someone knows that answers please enlighten me and then the ending won't be so incomprehensible to me.

The single worst thing was the mass relay destruction, effectively killing the franchise.

What do the numbers mean?

@Dagbiker said:

What do the numbers mean?

What?

I will reply with a post I did in a similar tread:

I think if the game ended with everyone still together and high-fiving, mass relays still operational, everything back to "normal" etc it for me would be just another Hollywood blockbuster. Horrible in other words.

It ended with a great meaning in my opinion. I mean, it was either this or everyone getting wiped out! At least now the majority of people are still alive, sure, some are probably stuck in certain systems, but I like that they leave this part up to my own imagination rather than try and explain to me what each and every character did after the reapers died (they had already resolved the characters in the story so why add more bullshit), because if they did I'm pretty sure I would have been disappointed with what they showed. The galaxy now got a new chance, a galaxy without the reapers in the future, maybe now giving the species more time to evolve they will eventually come together peacefully in the far far future? I can picture what some of the characters would be doing after this etc.. See, for me this is so much better, they are teasing my imagination instead of feeding me everything and the ME universe becomes so much richer because of it.

Why do so many people want to know absolutely everything? Leaving some mystery left is a good thing. For example, who made the reapers? who are the "masters"? What did such-and-such do afterwards? I hope they never explain it. It's a mystery and it makes me wonder and think about the universe long after the story is finished.

It's a bit like the real universe I suppose, the mystery out there is a good thing and as we discover new things new mysteries open up. I hope we never get the answers to "everything", how boring would that be?

So in a sense, the answers to your questions are whatever you imagine, or like life's many mysteries.. we don't know. I just find this so much better and it tingles my brain with ideas for for example your question: "My crew that was left on the Normandy crash lands on a lush world and...what? Do they establish a town? How do they survive?" This makes me think and wonder!! And guess what? I will probably think about this for some time as well. Rather than if they told me and showed me exactly what happened I would have probably been disappointed and forgotten the whole thing.

@Jost1 said:

The single worst thing was the mass relay destruction, effectively killing the franchise.

Great! Finally a franchise that ends. (however.. EA will probably make them pump out prequels, don't you worry).

@Divina_Rex said:

@Dagbiker said:

What do the numbers mean?

What?

TELL US ABOUT THE NUMBERS

@PolygonSlayer:It's not just about it being a happy ending. People are constantly saying that the ones who are complaining about the ending, are only complaining for that reason. You are dead wrong. The ending is illogical, unsatisfying and gives no closure. For a series that's about the decision making, the universe it created and the races/characters that inhabit that universe, they sure as hell threw every last bit of that out the window in the worst possible way. Why do people want to know everything? Because that's the kind of series Mass Effect has been, if you don't understand then I have a hard understanding you as a fan of the series. Also any ending that's like "What do YOU think happened?" is a bullshit, poorly written excuse for an ending. You can have an ambiguous ending, you can have an ending that doesn't quite give all the details but you don't just drop the ball and say "I dunno, what do you think happens now after we've destroyed everything you've been trying to save?" How did the entire crew of the Normandy get back to the Normandy? Why was Joker leaving Earth? How the hell did Anderson get up to the Citadel before Shepard? There is no satisfying logical explanation. Having an unexpected ending does not mean it's a good ending. There's plenty of bad endings that are unexpected and this is one of them, for me and many others.

And really a franchise ending is why it's a great ending? No one ever said this was the last Mass Effect, this is however the last of Shepard's story. There will definitely be more games with "Mass Effect" in the title if EA has anything to say about it. So no, the franchise isn't gone either.

@Jost1 said:

The single worst thing was the mass relay destruction, effectively killing the franchise.

That's one of the few reasons why I was unsatisfied with the endings. I'd like to see where they take this franchise now, though, considering galactic travel is pretty much gone.

Other questions I have: Why the hell was the Normandy even going through the relay? What was the point of me reclaiming Rannoch/saving the Krogan/etc. if the races will never see their planets again?

@Liquidus: I have to disagree. Illogical? In what way? Unsatisfying, well that one is a matter of taste. Closure? They gave plenty of closure. They finished each of the character stories, the journey came to and end with new hope given to the galaxy. Sure, they could have made the decisions carry a bit more weight towards the ending perhaps, but I think the decisions you make throughout the story matter a great deal, not towards the ending of the game, but for the characters involved, for what you imagine them doing after the game ends.

Saying Mass Effect is a series about explaining everything is in my opinion completely wrong. It's quite clear that it's both inspired by Star Trek and hey, the real universe out there, and as such contain mystery. You don't think there is mystery in the universe of Mass Effect? This is one of the core reasons I enjoy it.

You also totally misunderstand or should I say stretch my opinion to the extreme (hey, it's the internet) when you say: " Also any ending that's like "What do YOU think happened?" is a bullshit, poorly written excuse for an ending". This is not what I meant, or said. A good writer tells you a story, gives you good characters that develop and you care about, makes an interesting world and then leave enough room for mystery and wonder so that when the story ends, you are left thinking about the world that you left behind. I did not say (let me put it extreme) put a big black screen with; "You decide what happens", at the end of it.

And and definitely did not say it was a good ending because it ended the franchise. I don't know how that one came up.

@Divina_Rex: Go read this and it might make more sense for you : http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Story-and-Campaign-Discussion-Spoilers-Allowed/Was-the-ending-a-hallucination-9727423-1.html

Sorry, duder, we don't know the answers to these questions either.

@PolygonSlayer:If I seriously have to explain why the ending is illogical than I'm pretty sure this will go nowhere. So, good day to you sir.

@Liquidus: Erm, ok fair enough. I'm sure there are bits and pieces that "doesn't fully add up" like, why did he get there before such and such, why do none of the character ever change clothes, how does it work that Shepard throws himself into the beam does this, blah blah, or all the usual "plot hole" that you can find in pretty much all written stories, but if your hanging up on those, then you are missing the big picture, the part that actually matters.. sir.