The most interesting thing to me about this whole debacle is how everyone I've talked to has found completely different faults with the ending. There's a million threads suggesting what went wrong, where, why, what really happened etc. and no one has the same complaints - which makes sense given the level of choice in these games, every player is different.

That said, what I'd like to know is for all these complaints, how would YOU do the ending? Be awesome to see the sheer range of different ideas others had. Not what it should be, or actually is inside a dream or whatever, but how'd you do it?

I like what Bioware were trying to do with the ending, but I think they did it badly. I'd do it like this: The Crucible was designed by the reapers, and 'left' for the cycle to find, to give them a strategy to follow, a beacon of hope to keep the cycle motivated, after previous species wiped themselves out to prevent being harvested or something, and is in reality a large piece of space junk. It doesn't help anything. The Choice Presented to Shepard is as follows - He can lie, inform the Galaxy that the crucible is not a weapon, it is a Giant Mass relay, which will allow them to escape this galaxy and escape the Reapers - but purely to ensure that Harvesting is quick and painless for all involved. Or he can refuse, inform the Galaxy that the Crucible is nothing, is a trap, and that they have to fight for themselves, and he and his team would all meet their ends fighting until they eventually got wiped out, just like the Protheans.

Yeah, I like hopelessness. So what are the other ways people would have handled those last 20 minutes? It's just something I'm curious about.

Here's a "off the top of my head" list of thigns I would have liked to see from the ending.

• A motivation for the reapers that made fucking sense. They're a sentient race that kills everyone to save us from sentient races. wut.
• Do away with this star child bullshit. The idea that there needed to be something/someone behind the reapers was unnecessary, but if you're going to do it, at least give us some explanation as to what the hell this being is, and what it's role is.
• Galactic readiness. Cool concept I think, but it didn't mean anything in the end. The final mission could have been a lot better. I just spent an entire game putting this army together, now show me why. Show me those biotic kids saving some people with a barrier, or running around modding ammo at the outpost. I got the Krogans to join me, show them holding the line. Show me how brining the Flotilla helped us in the battle. Show the Geth sharing info with the other races. Everything I did in the last 3 games amounted to nothing but a goddamn number.
• The worst part of the whole ending to me is that everything my Shepard did in the series didn't matter. The relays are all destroyed. It doesn't matter if you saved the council, it doesn't matter if you cured the genophage or saved the Quarians. Bioware specifically played up the rachni choice to be huge. But in the end it did nothing but increase galactic readiness by a tiny amount.
• So now that the relays are all destroyed, what happens to the MILLIONS of Quarions, Turians, Krogan, Rachni, Asari and every other race that are stuck on earth? There is absolutely no closure AT ALL.
• GAH, why did they put the star child in. Why couldn't you just have that last conversation with Harbinger.
• How did my choice actually affect people in the galaxy? Nobody is going to have an idea what happened. I bet the Krogans on Tunchanka are curious as to why they have crazy green techno shit on their skin, Or if you chose destroy, show me how that affected the lives of people at large.
• I wanted Shepard to be rewarded and recognized for what he did, not become a myth that people tell. My Shepard changed the galaxy in so many ways I can't even list them all.

Might add more later.

The thing that annoyed me the most is that I'd spent 3 games building relationships with characters and game cuts an ending so abrupt you don't even see if most of them are alive, what they think, if they know what's happened, if they miss Shepard etc etc. I wanted a real large amount of closure, that's what I'm disappointed about.

Closure doesn't sell sequels/dlc!

I would go for the op ending, not too different from what i wished it would be. Well in a way i would also really like a good ending, and a really good one. Like Everyone after teh last reaper fell comming together and celebrating. To put a really cheesy image on it like the way star wars ended. Shepard been through quite a bit of feces. He deserves a break.

That or complete hopelessness.

@CheapPoison: Yeah I know, I just wished the ending really closed out those characters, I come to these games for those characters. I just wanted more dialogue with the crew, especially some from ME2, and for all the 'I'll see you on the other side Shepard' talk you get before the final mission. For the ending to almost identical with 3 very minor changes, which then cuts with absolutely no input from any of your characters or any context at all, is pretty disappointing. I didn't understand the talk of this game bumming them out, now I can understand why.

one thing that bothers me, after finishing the game, its barren.

in skyrim i can still walk around in a seemingly living world with random encounters.

its just so empty feeling in ME.

@rebgav: Touché.

@CheapPoison: Cheesy wise, what I would have given for an ending where it seemed hopeless, there were too many things for Shepard to do to save the Galaxy, but everyone shows up in person on the citadel and does something amazing and it's a huge 'I don't stand alone' type thing, and them not even like needing the crucible because of how many people they've got working together. That would have been too great.

Cut straight to when you kill the illusive man. You go to Anderson and after a few seconds, hear a slow, ominous "assuming control". Harbinger assumes control of the Illusive Man. You talk to him. He says some **** like "You rounded up the entire galaxy for us to harvest in one spot. Thank you shepherd, for doing half the work for us. We can only repay this gift by giving you answers, in your species last fleeting moments".

You ask him why the reapers are doing this, what are they accomplishing.They explain its their method of reproduction. You ask something along the lines of "All of this is to have sex? to make babies? That's it? That's what it's all about?" And then Harbinger responds "Your species is on the brink of annihilation, and yet even now your pregnancy rates are high. Your people will risk lives, and expend enormous effort with the goal of procreation. And you sit here, questioning our methods of reproduction? Methods that ascend inferior beings into the pinnacle of evolution?" [I think it's fitting that the destruction of the galaxy comes down to something as simple as procreation)

More chatter, random answers (explain that every 50,000 years is their mating period, etc), eventually shepherd says "I won't let you do it. We're going to stop you." And shoots illusive man in the face several more times.

You start to walk to the control panel that views the center ring of the citadel. Suddenly, a massive form flys in - It's harbinger himself. Huge boss battle where you're on an outside ring of the citadel, harbinger is in the middle of it attacking you. You have to call on fleets to attack him and distract him while you either activate some **** on the citadel for the crucible, or find his weak spots or something.Eventually, he's about to stop you, but the normandy flies into his face damaging and distracting him long enough for you to activate the crucible.

You're presented with a choice. The crucibles strength is so much that if you send it's power throughout the galaxy, it will destroy the entire Sol system, including all of the fleets there, the citadel, earth, but it will destroy all the reapers in the galaxy.

Choice number 2 is to use only a portion of its power, which will save earth and the fleets in sol, as well as kill all of the reapers in Sol (which happens to be a majority - but not all - of them). However, the power won't be enough to send it through the relays and throughout the galaxy. The galaxy will have to continue fighting, but the citadel/humans/fleets will continue to exist. Is humanity worth saving the galaxy?

Game ends with text bubbles ala Dragon Age Origins that explain things based on your choices - cured the genophage with Wrex? No problems with the Krogan. Cured it with Wreave? Wars. Same with Rachni. etc, things like that

Plot holes resolved, ending has an epic fight to end it, harbinger is actually dealt with, the choice fits in way better with the themes of sacrifice, boom, done.Hire me, Bioware.

I wrote this on the spot the other day. They had years. Obviously I'm bias, but I think my ending is a million times better. I do not do it for a living.

@Pinworm45 said:

Cut straight to when you kill the illusive man. You go to Anderson and after a few seconds, hear a slow, ominous "assuming control". Harbinger assumes control of the Illusive Man. You talk to him. He says some **** like "You rounded up the entire galaxy for us to harvest in one spot. Thank you shepherd, for doing half the work for us. We can only repay this gift by giving you answers, in your species last fleeting moments".

You ask him why the reapers are doing this, what are they accomplishing.They explain its their method of reproduction. You ask something along the lines of "All of this is to have sex? to make babies? That's it? That's what it's all about?" And then Harbinger responds "Your species is on the brink of annihilation, and yet even now your pregnancy rates are high. Your people will risk lives, and expend enormous effort with the goal of procreation. And you sit here, questioning our methods of reproduction? Methods that ascend inferior beings into the pinnacle of evolution?" [I think it's fitting that the destruction of the galaxy comes down to something as simple as procreation)

More chatter, random answers (explain that every 50,000 years is their mating period, etc), eventually shepherd says "I won't let you do it. We're going to stop you." And shoots illusive man in the face several more times.

You start to walk to the control panel that views the center ring of the citadel. Suddenly, a massive form flys in - It's harbinger himself. Huge boss battle where you're on an outside ring of the citadel, harbinger is in the middle of it attacking you. You have to call on fleets to attack him and distract him while you either activate some **** on the citadel for the crucible, or find his weak spots or something.Eventually, he's about to stop you, but the normandy flies into his face damaging and distracting him long enough for you to activate the crucible.

You're presented with a choice. The crucibles strength is so much that if you send it's power throughout the galaxy, it will destroy the entire Sol system, including all of the fleets there, the citadel, earth, but it will destroy all the reapers in the galaxy.

Choice number 2 is to use only a portion of its power, which will save earth and the fleets in sol, as well as kill all of the reapers in Sol (which happens to be a majority - but not all - of them). However, the power won't be enough to send it through the relays and throughout the galaxy. The galaxy will have to continue fighting, but the citadel/humans/fleets will continue to exist. Is humanity worth saving the galaxy?

Game ends with text bubbles ala Dragon Age Origins that explain things based on your choices - cured the genophage with Wrex? No problems with the Krogan. Cured it with Wreave? Wars. Same with Rachni. etc, things like that

Plot holes resolved, ending has an epic fight to end it, harbinger is actually dealt with, the choice fits in way better with the themes of sacrifice, boom, done.Hire me, Bioware.

I wrote this on the spot the other day. They had years. Obviously I'm bias, but I think my ending is a million times better. I do not do it for a living.

I'd give you 1200 MS points for this ending.

Elusive Man dies but then pulls a Dragonball and gets back up again yelling "haha I bet you thought I was dead but now here is my true form!" and then Shepard overloads his/her biotic implants from when he/she was remade, essentially turning in to the ME equivelant of a super saiyan. Planets explode, reapers are used as thrown projectiles and theirs a lot of grunting. At some point Shepard wins, Reapers die, galaxy saved, happily ever after. The End.

@Pinworm45:

Hire this guy Bioware

Would have loved to talk to/fight Harbinger, he looked really cool too, but you barely see him.

And yet another repeat thread, where are the mods?

You go to activate the Crucible, but Illusive Man's corpse then becomes controlled by Harbinger's, much like how Saren's was by Sovereign. Before fighting you, however, he converses with you. He offers you a spot as the brain of the Human Reaper, but you of course decline. In this conversation, you learn that the Reapers purge organic life every 50,000 years in order to insure no life can advance enough to challenge them. Lesser races are spared so that they can later be used to make more reapers later on. You fight Illusive Harbinger, managing to defeat him. However, at the same time, actual Harbinger ascends to the citadel, trying to kill Shepard. Depending on the size of your fleet, Harbinger is either destroyed before he can reach Shepard, or after, in which case he mortally wounds Shepard, and damages the console

If Harbinger reaches Shepard, he limps to the control panel, activating the Crucible, which explodes, destroying everything in the Sol system, leaving some Reapers alive elsewhere, but the bulk of their forces gone. In an epilogue, it is revealed that, if the Genophage was cured, the Krogans become the dominating force in the Galaxy, taking down the reapers, and holding a role much like that of the Protheans in their time.

If Harbinger does not reach Shepard, he is left with a choice to either use the Crucible to destroy the reapers, or to control them. The Crucible, if fired, launches through every Mass Relay, destroying the reapers in each system, as it is locked onto Reaper Code. However, if the Illusive Man's tech is added to it, it can be used to rewrite the Reaper's Code, allowing them to be controlled, and their forces can then be used by Shepard for whatever he wills.

@Pinworm45 said:

Cut straight to when you kill the illusive man. You go to Anderson and after a few seconds, hear a slow, ominous "assuming control". Harbinger assumes control of the Illusive Man. You talk to him. He says some **** like "You rounded up the entire galaxy for us to harvest in one spot. Thank you shepherd, for doing half the work for us. We can only repay this gift by giving you answers, in your species last fleeting moments".

You ask him why the reapers are doing this, what are they accomplishing.They explain its their method of reproduction. You ask something along the lines of "All of this is to have sex? to make babies? That's it? That's what it's all about?" And then Harbinger responds "Your species is on the brink of annihilation, and yet even now your pregnancy rates are high. Your people will risk lives, and expend enormous effort with the goal of procreation. And you sit here, questioning our methods of reproduction? Methods that ascend inferior beings into the pinnacle of evolution?" [I think it's fitting that the destruction of the galaxy comes down to something as simple as procreation)

More chatter, random answers (explain that every 50,000 years is their mating period, etc), eventually shepherd says "I won't let you do it. We're going to stop you." And shoots illusive man in the face several more times.

You start to walk to the control panel that views the center ring of the citadel. Suddenly, a massive form flys in - It's harbinger himself. Huge boss battle where you're on an outside ring of the citadel, harbinger is in the middle of it attacking you. You have to call on fleets to attack him and distract him while you either activate some **** on the citadel for the crucible, or find his weak spots or something.Eventually, he's about to stop you, but the normandy flies into his face damaging and distracting him long enough for you to activate the crucible.

You're presented with a choice. The crucibles strength is so much that if you send it's power throughout the galaxy, it will destroy the entire Sol system, including all of the fleets there, the citadel, earth, but it will destroy all the reapers in the galaxy.

Choice number 2 is to use only a portion of its power, which will save earth and the fleets in sol, as well as kill all of the reapers in Sol (which happens to be a majority - but not all - of them). However, the power won't be enough to send it through the relays and throughout the galaxy. The galaxy will have to continue fighting, but the citadel/humans/fleets will continue to exist. Is humanity worth saving the galaxy?

Game ends with text bubbles ala Dragon Age Origins that explain things based on your choices - cured the genophage with Wrex? No problems with the Krogan. Cured it with Wreave? Wars. Same with Rachni. etc, things like that

Plot holes resolved, ending has an epic fight to end it, harbinger is actually dealt with, the choice fits in way better with the themes of sacrifice, boom, done.Hire me, Bioware.

I wrote this on the spot the other day. They had years. Obviously I'm bias, but I think my ending is a million times better. I do not do it for a living.

Hire him Bioware.

@rebgav said:

@Tylea002 said:

how would YOU do the ending?

Give me $60 and I'll tell you.

Plus $10 for an extra episode and $10 more for the real ending.

After the credits when the old guy and the kid are there, the old guy says:

AND I WAS THAT SHEPARD!!!

THE END...?

How about we just fix the structure of the whole damn game so we don't need to resort to resolving everything at the final moments, and after the final moments of the game in the form of epilogue text?
 
Drag the time frame of the game out more.  Instead of the weeks that it actually takes, let it be years.  Reapers don't gun for earth.  They bore in from some less important sector of space like the Terminus system and slowly drill towards earth.  Reapers don't show up everywhere, they do it one system at a time, obliterating all life on those planets at a slow, methodical pace.  How do you make the rest of the galaxy wary?  Let smaller reaper scout and transport ships start seeding husks, cannibals, harvesters, etc, everywhere.  
 
This actually gives you time to see how certain political intrigue can play out.  If Krogans are led by Wrex and Eve, you get missions involving fighting off reapers on besieged colonies and Salarian zealots that really hate the idea of fertile Krogans.  If Wreav leads, you eventually have to put down a Krogan rebellion.  The paths you take actually gets you different in game content, not some different paragraphs of words at the end of the god damn game.   This is what it means to for decisions to actually have impact.
 
Also, the game needs to start with the Arrival DLC and show the actual trial that landed Shepard in house arrest.  It also needs at least one failed attempt at fighting off the reapers by a combined galactic fleet to exemplify their military superiority, the importance of the Crucible, and some well deserved gloating by Harbinger during a dialogue.

Directly from the mouth (Twitter) of ZODIAC_MOTHERFUCKER:

HEY BIOWARE HERES AN IDEA FOR AN ENDING: SHEPARD OWNS THE REAPERS HIGHFIVES GARRUS AND GOES HOME TO FUCK LIARA. THE END