Mass Effect 3, the 'Endless' spoiler thread

Exactly what happened during the last cycle.

Except next time, you’ll remember. Just like me.

Dammit! I keep trying to forget and you won’t let me!

This. They don’t even try to explain what the hell it means because they know it doesn’t make any sense. I felt like synthesis was intended to be the “good” choice. Since it needs the most points to unlock, I’m pretty sure I was right. But to me it’s extraordinarily creepy to impose that on all life in the galaxy without anyone’s permission.

The illusion of choice worked for me all through the games up until the end. What really made me mad was that I was 150+ hours into the trilogy and then suddenly I’m asked to pick a color. They stopped even pretending that any of my previous choices mattered. I wouldn’t have been disappointed in the slightest if there was only one ending to the game. Just let me believe that it’s my ending.

Oh, of course. Wish they’d done that differently, but it seems like they’ve learned by now (good example being Trespasser DLC for DA:I that is the REAL ending of the game).
I was a bit nervous about not being able to get enough EMS for the “good” ending since I didn’t want to play multiplayer, but that was no problem in the end.

I KNOW - and if someone told me three months ago I would be weeping over a dead robot and proud aliens, I wouldn’t have believed them.

I see your point, that would have been quite a turn, but it would have been a completely different game. It would pose a looot of new problems with an evil Shep running around ruining things.
But why do you hate the space ninja so much? I mean, other than for killing Thane. Sort of.

@Rock8man also mentioned colors, and now I’m a bit confused. Did I miss something? There was no color picking for me, just explenations of the different kinds of choices, and questions about what that would mean, and then walk to the “generator” of my choice.

Yeah I know, It would have made more sence if Control was a renegade choice (my Shep had like… 10-20 renegade points, so that shouldn’t have been an option then). Not really sure yet what I feel is the Paragon choice, but… yeah. All races becoming a bit synthesized? Seems a hell lot like a different kind of control to me. And who’s to say that synthesized beings would live in eternal peace? We’ve already seen geth fighting among eachother, and we’ve seen peace brokered between synthetics and organics.
I think we put too much trust in the Catalyst for telling us the ultimate truth, so in the end, you have to see past its universal truths and just pick whatever you think will work out best in the end.

The energy bursts are colored differently depending on your choice - red for destroy, blue for control, green for synthesis.

And yeah, the synthesis ending completely disregards ideological conflict. What matters isn’t what you do, but what you are. If you feel like being particularly mean, it’s basically a pro-eugenics argument that says what matters is not the content of your character, but the color of your skin. Which feels completely out of kilter with the rest of the series. The implications of it are just so weird if you start thinking about it.

Yes I think synthesis is wrong, but for different reason. Nobody got to choose, Shepherd chose for them/force synthesis upon everyone else. That is wrong.

My gut choice has always been to destroy. Synthesis is wrong and control is simply too unpredictable: what if the AI controls Sheperd rather than the other way round? There is no guarantee control will work. Destroy, or attempt to destroy, is simple the least bad option.

That’s also a big part of why it’s so morally icky, yes. At least Invisible War, for all its flaws, understood that the Helios ending was creepy.

Yeah definitely that too. I just watched the synthesize ending on youtube and frankly, it’s just … freaky. So glad I didn’t go with that.

Because everything about him is just so lame. They try so hard to shoehorn in this new villain and make you just hate him, all the sniping remarks about Shepard’s age and effectiveness, always dogging your steps, killing Thane. But he just comes off as an annoying little brother who is trying too hard to get out of your shadow. Not to mention the fact he’s a space ninja with a damn sword in a universe full of people with biotic powers and, you know, guns. He just doesn’t fit in. At least he went out like a chump.

This is Kai Leng you’re talking about? Man, he was a terrible villain.

He was just kind of an enigma to me, since I only know my Mass Effect from the games. I never quite figured out who the hell he was and why he was a villain. If you guys didn’t keep bringing him up every few months, I honestly would have forgotten about him long ago.

That’s what I said! Goddamn space ninja.

Yeah he is lame, and he didn’t feel like an important part of the story. Could have been just another Cerberus dude in an outfit, really

When you suddenly get to live forever after a green flash, i’ll bet that you’ll manage to get over it.

Yeah, that’s the big problem. He was inconsequential, but took up an inordinate amount of time in the game. He’s set up like those artificial villains with the one eye or the scar but as designed by a ten year old. His frustrating plot armor doesn’t jive with in-game reactions and how hard my eyes were rolling.

Companions: It’s okay Shepard, that dude was totally hardcore. Everyone loses sometimes.
Me: Wait, what? You were there right? I took his health bar down and then a gunship blew us up.

An evil Shepard clone compelled to help Cerberus by the Illusive man could have tied nicely into themes of technology and control. Instead we have this mass hysteria where we collectively blackout large portions of the game.

Well, until we choose to extend our trauma onto someone else @divedivedive :)

I loved ME3, but yeah, it made some huge, ginormous missteps. Kai Leng was merely one of them. I was having too much fun just running around through space dungeons and blowing stuff up, though, to be overly concerned about him.

Plus the whole concept was dumb. Guy with a sword never beats guy with a gun.

IMG_0585

Unless it’s a Jedi against Jango Fett.