I’ve never been too great with endings—the fiction I write, when I write it, tends to be open-ended when it comes to concluding events—and you might have noticed by now that even my posts tend to more terminate abruptly more often than they come to an actual conclusion. I don’t like things to end, especially when they are things I’m in the process of enjoying. It is part of human nature, perhaps, to avoid saying something is over—look no further than our predilection for discussions of the afterlife in our religions. We don’t like considering that things end—there’s always got to be more to the story, more to consider, more adventures to go on. We die, but after that we get to be ghosts, or go live in a magical city in the sky, or come back and start over again as a goat. It’s a comforting thought, to think we’ll continue somehow.

Similarly, in fiction I like a good open-ended conclusion to a story. A little mystery when it comes to the fate of everyone involved is a good thing, or at least I think it’s a good thing. You don’t know what happens to everyone at the end of Against the Day, just that things changed and some folk moved on and others didn’t, and some folk are happy and some still aren’t and probably never will be. Blade Runner doesn’t so much end as it does show the beginning to the next chapter and stop (and if rumors are to be believed, there will eventually be a sequel of sorts, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but then again Blade Runner was the last really great Ridley Scott film so maybe it is better that it never gets off the ground). In the same vein, Mass Effect 3’s original ending doesn’t bother to tell you what happens to everyone after Shepard’s final decision—depending on the ending you selected and what you’ve done up until that point, you see a few survivors and what they might be up to, but that’s it. This is the part where some of you might be getting ready to close the browser window in disgust, but hear me out here:

Mass Effect 3 is one long goodbye to Commander Shepard, and a pretty powerful meditation on our inevitable mortality. You see the effect Shepard has by running into those from the previous two games with whom you interacted. There are few moments more satisfying, for me, than running into some random NPC who I kept from enlisting with mercenaries, and suddenly he’s a soldier for the Alliance. Even hearing my companions reminisce about past exploits was entertaining, and having a hurried choice in the second game wind up having serious repercussions in the third game was more satisfying than it had any right to be. As I frantically attempted to stop the apocalypse from happening—the actual, real apocalyptic end of the galaxy I’d come to know—I kept running into those I’d helped, or failed to help, before. That a group of colonists from the first game would show up to help fight in the third was, for me, immensely satisfying (and made unlocking the Synthesis ending easier, naturally). The people I’d elected to help were present and accounted for, and while I will freely admit the ultimate fate of the Rachni was fucking garbage, the ability to angrily wipe out the very race I’d given a second chance was tempting indeed (I’ve gone down both paths on that one, for the record).

But it is not the bulk of the game that caused a good old fashioned rage explosion, it was the Final Choice, and, more damningly, the Three Colored Flash.

Look, I’ll be real here: the three colored flash isn’t the best way that cutscene could have gone down—surely there were other things you could show—but not knowing the ultimate fates of my compatriots is the sort of thing I live for. The synthesis ending in particular served as a great way to close the loop of what was, after all, one of the larger running themes throughout the series: what is our relationship with technology. The potential for disastrous conflict is, of course, one of the old standbys of science fiction—and an inevitability according to the Reapers (who are themselves AIs), and one they are there to prevent from destroying the galaxy—just, you know, destroying these comparatively young species who are getting all set to fuck everything up again for the stories that have yet to be told. The Reapers are an early end, but their reasons are for those of inevitability—better to stop things now, rather than allow them to potentially get out of hand.

It was refreshing for me, then, that rather than succumb to the inevitable (which is how I see the other two endings—either you destroy all AIs, which will inevitably be rebuilt and cause trouble just as planned, or you take control of the Reapers and assume that as millennia drift by you will somehow be able to retain your human perspective. The third option—marry the organic and artificial together, leveling the playing field in terms of processing power and, presumably, forcing the two sides to understand one another—is the only option that lacks the inevitability of the other two. Rather than repeating or deleting, you create something new.You lose Shepard, yes, and I’d be a goddamn liar if I said I did not get a little choked up (and if you play the piano music near me, I might still get choked up), but you gain a whole new set of possibilities.

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING, SHUT UP

Possibilities which, of course, the game does not feel the need to explore. Instead, you are given the final image of Joker and Eva—whose relationship with one another has served as a microcosm of the larger conflict and its possible outcomes—stepping off the Normandy, irrevocably changed and ready to confront the wilderness of this new world. I felt sad as I watched Shepard scatter herself to the four winds, but the ending shot of Joker and Eva made me excited about the possibilities of the new galaxy I’d had a hand in creating. Shepard’s tale was over, but there were no limits to what could happen next, making the halting of the apocalypse that much more satisfying. Rather than ending the story, the game chooses to start a new one.

AN: I’ve got another playthrough of Mass Effect 3 going on RIGHT NOW, so don’t be surprised if this comes up again. Like most games, there’s more to talk about than can be discussed in a single sitting.

I know there was a significant crowd of ending supporters, so its cool you took something from it also. As for me, I wasn't outraged, but I definitely didn't like it. Overall the game was amazing because I felt the same way, wrapping up loose ends with characters that actually felt like my friends. We had been through so much! And the Geth/Quarian arc? Man.

Just the last few minutes of the game left a sour taste. Like, the relays were destroyed, and all of these alien races were stuck on earth?

I mean, they still had spaceships. They just needed to figure out alternative ways of travel--rely more on the whole jump drive thing more than the whole relay thing.

Also the decision to walk that back and have the relays intact in the extended edition always kind of pissed me off. It makes the massive sacrifice necessary to end the war less massive. I'm not huge on it. That said, I liked a lot of the stuff they added in the front-end (longer goodbyes with your buddies and all that), so I've got the extended edition installed. If I could do that but not have it saddle me with a bloody powerpoint about what happened to everyone at the end, it would be perfect. It's not that I'm against knowing what happened to everyone, it just feels unnecessary to me.

I loved the original ending. In fact, the extended cut messed up some of the pacing.

I'm assuming we're free to talk spoilers in this thread due to "ending" in the title.

So spoilers:

The atmosphere of that game was one of desperation and war, and the whole end mission brought that home. You drop down, everything is messed up, and as you go they keep hitting home that you are all going to die. Battles are being lost and no one's cracking wise. The sky is dark and everyone's just improvising.

Then comes the abruptness of coming over that ridge, and everyone just desperately running with no plan straight at the thing. Harbinger arrives, shit's popping off all around you, but god dammit... this is it. It comes down to these 30 seconds. Then you get the "no survivors" voiceover and you wonder if the galaxy's lost and if this was just inevitable. The extended cut screws this up because all of a sudden you have a nice little breather, which is lame but I digress.

Shepard holds on, and surviving something you think would've killed you drives home that you're ready to die if needed. Hell, you're not even sure what happened to your friends. This is something no one's ever seen before and you don't know what to expect.

You get the Reaper discussion but you still don't get all the answers about their origin. You still feel like you're just winging it and this situation is bigger than you. I'm glad I played Leviathan after the fact, but knowing some of that stuff beforehand would've taken away the mindboggling situation you found yourself in. The Illusive Man was even powerless against this force, why should you have all the answers.

So you make your decision, half-knowing what the hell this is going to result in. I walked in ready to destroy all the Reapers. After the talk, my paragon Shepard was righteous and had no interest in control. He wanted what was best for humanity and the galaxy at large. He didn't think synthetics all needed to die, since he spent time with Legion and began to understand them. I thought about Joker's relationship with EDI. Hell, I thought about Bender. The fact that he was given a choice by this Reaper avatar didn't really guarantee that the destroy path would even work. The last time on my galaxy map, the Reapers took over everything. Could we even recover from this war? Would synthesis allow us to be even better than we were? So dammit, let's go for evolution.

What I'm saying is my experiences to this point all came down to this. All my decisions, my time spent with certain characters, my lack of understanding and hope for the future. It didn't all need explaining and a nice, neat resolution. My experience all came together for this ending.

Synthesis happened. The Reapers stopped firing. Your friends touch down somewhere with no idea what happened, or what your fate was. This was a brave new world. The universe was different and we were past the cycle of destruction. It was a vague ending that resulted from your final decision, and the future was uncertain and drastically different based on your choice. It made you feel like the most important person in the history of anything.

It was incredible. The whole game, one of my favorites of all time. The world, the gameplay, the risks in storytelling, the relationships you had built, and yes... the ending. I hope one day people look back and appreciate it for what it was, not what they expected it to be.

@csl316: Yeah, the synthesis ending is so good, and to me felt like the only real decision--although like you, I walked in burning with anger and ready to wipe out the Reapers once and for all. There's a lot more to say about why I love that ending, but that feeling of improvising because you don't know what the fuck is going on, and with only the word of the Citadel that synthesis might be the answer... it was so good! I will always be partial to that particular ending.

The issue with the ending was that it seemed to come out of left field (which is better than "nowhere") and partially negates the elements and themes scattered throughout the game. So it doesn't seem to make sense structurally or thematically. So it feels like a badly build "deus ex machina" where "the god" that popped out bothered to ask the audience the ending by saying "Forget what happened in the other acts, please pick the ending". Ironically this triply sucks because this itself would have been a clever ending but they goofed it up.

I readily admit the synthesis ending is a novel solution to the problem but the issue is that it was never mentioned anywhere that merging the technology and organics was possible or make The Reapers go away and achieve the goal of "save the galaxy". All it would take was ANYONE suggesting it just once but that never happened. This could have been a prime moment where Joker or EDI (OR BOTH) could have suggested it was possible and let the player explore that idea and the impact but that never happened.

The control ending would have worked as well if ANYONE would have mentioned it was possible to interface and control The Reapers. This could have been a prime moment where Legion or Tali could have suggested it was possible and let the player explore that idea and the impact but again that never happened either.

All along the way, the game is telling the player that Shepard's mission is to stop Reapers from wiping out the galaxy. When presented with the destruction ending, imagine many player's surprise when the game treats you like an idiot for picking it.

Although interesting to me, the original set of ending seemed to be missing a key and obvious ending: Shepard fails and The Reapers wipe out everyone. Maybe my memory is bad on this but I feel no way to lose according to the game's designers. You just need to keep walking forward and you get to chose between 3 colors.

So the ending of Mass Effect gets a giant "blehck" from me. But then again this isn't the first time Bioware has a pretty neat game that was bruised by an ending that seemed rushed or borked instead of planned or written. Its not a problem that the themes in each of the endings presented was bad but they were weakly build where two were sprung on the player literally in the last minutes of the game.

Do you know what would have been a suitable ending for Mass Effect? After Shepard deals with the Illusive Man, we see a nearly unconscious Shepard go up an elevator, The Citadel explode and The Reapers pull back and disappear. What did Shepard do? Did Shepard really save the galaxy? How did Shepard do it? You know...an open ending!

See, I disagree that the synthesis ending was not mentioned anywhere--or rather, that the narrative did not naturally lead you to conclude that there needed to be another way. The conflict between AI and Organic was the core of the first game, back when you weren't sure what the Reapers were apart from really big, really dangerous robots. Once the second game started, Shepard became something of the poster girl for Synthesis, as technology is what holds your former corpse together. Indeed, later revelations involving the nature of your replacement parts do a fairly good job of foreshadowing the inevitable marriage of man and machine.

The whole relationship between Joker and Eva (from Mass Effect 2 onward) similarly echoes the theme of a mechanical/organic union. Having someone outright say "THERE MUST BE ANOTHER WAY" would have been too obvious--hell, Joker and Eva's relationship is one of the more blatantly obvious thematic pointers in the game.

This is one of the things I kept seeing in the backlash against the game--the desire for things to be more spelled out than they needed to be. I don't have a problem with the lack of a failure option (although I found the addition of the failure state to be kind of hilarious), if only because no game really needs a failure option beyond "whoops you died, better reload." Shepard was always going to win, because you're the dang hero. The ending you suggest would indeed be an open ending, but I reckon it would have caused a bigger outcry--some choice is better than no choice, after all.

The very end had a lot of new concepts, sure. But as I stated before, this was a situation no one had ever been in before. No one could've known what was up there, which made the final walk after you teleport off Earth so god damn engaging.

It eventually answered themes that were touched on throughout the series. As far back as the Geth having religion. What does that mean? What role do AI constructs? Is the future meant to be biomechanical?

It all took some dissection and thought, which made it more rewarding to me.

No one, not Sarin not Shepard not Illusive man not any scientist or enemy or ally ever suggested there was a way to co-op Reaper tech or anyone else's tech to anything more. And one must keep in mind no one would have known if turning one's self into a cybernetic life form would have made The Reapers ignore or even serve as a viable defense against their attacks and tech. There was never once an utterance that this was a way to halt the current "the reaping" let alone whole "reaper cycle". You have to squint your eyes, tilt your head and throw on some thick rose colored glasses to even see that was remotely a possibility in any chapter of Mass Effect. Instead it was introduced in the last ten minutes by telling the player to jumping into a light which also makes me wonder "why that?" Any more than shooting a conduit or grabbing some electric pylons or just telling the star-kid "Do synthesis please"? That doesn't read or sound or feel like great writing.

If you need another hint on how bogus the ending is: Neither the player or Shepard came up with the idea of synthesis as a way to halt the cycles. The Crucible, a character that was not revealed to the player until the last fifteen minutes of the game, did and only because "it felt like it".

I guess if you ignore the massive plot holes and the fact that the green ending is basically Shepard, modifying every life form in the galaxy at a core level against their will, I guess the original ending was ok? (blue ending was the true right choice though as it didn't involve genocide or that green nonsense)

Red ending was fine, other 2 were pretty silly. Green is some really, really heavy handed and retarded shit and the presentation of what is ostensibly the major villain is quite poor. However every ending had the same exact cutscene so they might as well not have been different endings. The best part of the game was running to the laser, the worst was the final trudge immediately following that. The "extended cut" doesn't really resolve any issues that the game might have had.

I have no problem with the ultimate resolution to the ending of ME3. I draw a line between the, "Ending," and "Resolution," because to me, the BS part of the ending was the little boy avatar thing and what happened to The Illusive Man. I personally like the "Red" resolution for various reasons but I though the synthesis ending was pretty neat. What I enjoyed thinking about was how the war had effected Shepard and how she (yes she) might have changed. I personally played ME1 as a paragon, ME2 as a pragmatist and ME3 as more of a renegade, which gave a natural arc to her anger. Obliterating The Reapers for what they had done was the only choice for me, even if it cost Shepard her life. I know Shepard survives in some endings, but to me, that's also BS, this was a story about her end.

OG ending was fine, extended cut was a giant waste of time and effort because it added nothing.

Do people just not mean "plot holes" when they say "plot holes" any more?

@starvinggamer: Hey man, Krogan baby.

Just from the top of my dome, going from the og ending only:

• Why was your ground team on the Normandy after Shepard got inside the citadel? The Normandy was fighting in orbit and your squad members were on the ground under fire from the reaper army. Extracting them from down there makes absolutely no sense even in the extended cut.
• Why is the Normandy pulling out leaving the captain behind at the end? Isn't the whole point of this mission to fight for the sake of everyone until the end?
• Why are they seemingly the only ship to make it through the mass effect relay before it blows up and why are they going through it in the first place? Again, leaving the system makes absolutely no sense especially when you consider the Normandy is basically the flagship and they're the first ones to run for no reason.

It was all incredibly lazy storytelling in the sole service of having a terrible eden metaphor at the end. I expect your character driven game to have great characters making character appropriate decisions and not weird nonsensical bullshit decisions all in the service of a unnecessary heavy handed biblical metaphor.

@extomar: Wasn't The Illusive Man trying to find a way to control the Reapers? Wasn't that his motivation?

He tried to use their tech, even at the end of two he wanted to use the Collector base to use some of their technology.

I do agree the "The Extended Cut" was a waste of time because the ending was so flawed that explaining more of doesn't address the flaw. To borrow the currently running metaphor, the game is a nicely build house with a hole in the floor of one room. "The Extended Cut" just redoing that one room but leaving the hole. Mass Effect is a great game with many good ideas, beautiful moments, and stories...just don't go in that last room because you'll be tempted to ask "Why is this hole here?" :)

@csl316

Was Illusive Man trying to control them? Illusive Man and Sarin seem to have some angle but it is pretty apparent to the player if either of them had the goal "control some awesome galactic power" they were failing miserably at it. The suggestion Shepard would get some inspiration like "I can do that" or "I would do it better than them" is a huge stretch. Even the most Renegade play through would be rough to believe nor (and this is important) it was never offered or suggested to player until the last 30 minutes when you encounter The Illusive Man one last time.

@pyrodactyl: Regarding the Normandy bugging out, I always figured everyone started to bug out once it became clear the Citadel was getting ready to do its thing. The Normandy seems to be the only ship to make it through because it's the ship we're following (because who gives a shit about everyone else, for real). I always figured the Normandy's actions made sense, but that's just me. I reckon the decision to leave Shepard behind comes from everyone pretty much assuming she's dead.

I'm not trying to say it's Shakespeare, but I think it's taken a lot of flak that just never made sense to me (complaining about the fact that the difference between the final jump was only in color, for example, is a totally legit complaint--as is the fact that the Normandy winds up in the same place every time. That's lazy, sure, but I was not particularly surprised about anything that happened, even Ghost Child). I still think it's an ending that works, even though there was probably a way to do it better (and the extended ending fails to really sort out the problems I had).

@csl316: Yeah the Illusive Man was definitely out to control the Reapers--he's the one that gives you the idea for the Control option in the first place. He probably would've been all about the Synthesis ending himself, given his attempts to marry man and reaper tech together without, you know, all the horrible brainwashing side effects.

Ok, added nothing of substance :P

A plot hole, or plothole is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that creates a paradox in the story that cannot be reconciled with any explanation.

• Radioed for evac, plain and simple. Normandy is most one of (the?) most agile ships in the fleet and Joker and co. have an established record of going into crazy situations to save crew. I agree that EC version was fucking stupid.
• Giant pulse of energy firing, no idea what it does. If you buy in to Crucible mythos (which Normandy crew does) you assume either A) it saves everyone or B) it kills everyone. Retreat is the most logical option because if A) everyone is saved anyways and you just come back and if B) everyone is fucked anyways so you might as well try to survive.
• Normandy is the most agile ship in the fleet and Joker is the best pilot. Otherwise see above.