Dark Energy made more sense as it was a plot point throughout ME2. All in all it would be better than what we got but the main issue is that Bioware tried to explain the Reapers which was a big mistake from the beginning.
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It's been 8 Years, What was the CORRECT Mass Effect 3 Ending choice?
- Thread starter Stalker
- Start date
Dark Energy made more sense as it was a plot point throughout ME2. All in all it would be better than what we got but the main issue is that Bioware tried to explain the Reapers which was a big mistake from the beginning.
Synthesis gets me in trouble on all sorts of ethical quandaries but it has the most emotional resonance in its ending. Synthesis is my pick almost every time.
Looking back at it now, I think refuse would have been an interesting cannon choice. They could've written it so that the reapers win that cycle and that the next trilogy of games would be you playing the next cycle, with all new races, discovering relics of what Shepard accomplished in the first three games.
destroy made the most sense to me narratively. shepard set off to blow up the reapers and that's what she did in the end despite bioware trying to swerve mass effect away from being an action scifi movie in the last act
as a player, i still like destroy the best. the geth and edi got offed, but i really didn't care since their writing was so piss poor at that point. synthesis was just silly and my shepard would never choose control
as a player, i still like destroy the best. the geth and edi got offed, but i really didn't care since their writing was so piss poor at that point. synthesis was just silly and my shepard would never choose control
The correct ending is turning off your gaming console or PC immediately after killing TIM and opening The Citadel.
I've pretty much never picked Synthesis since it's giving the Reapers exactly what they want, setting aside the immoral nature of it. My favorite part about Synthesis is the rationale, even after the Extended Cut. The Starchild said "they've tried a similar solution in the past" but it didn't work since organics were not ready. It specifically states, "it is not a thing that can be forced." Then it gives you the choice to Force Synthesis on the entire galaxy. LOL.
I've pretty much never picked Synthesis since it's giving the Reapers exactly what they want, setting aside the immoral nature of it. My favorite part about Synthesis is the rationale, even after the Extended Cut. The Starchild said "they've tried a similar solution in the past" but it didn't work since organics were not ready. It specifically states, "it is not a thing that can be forced." Then it gives you the choice to Force Synthesis on the entire galaxy. LOL.
For me? Control. My Shepard wouldn't sacrifice EDI and the Geth.
"So the Illusive Man was right after all..."
The creative team almost certainly thinks Synthesis is the best ending, but it's just too late a swerve and isn't really properly introduced as an option at any point in the game.
"So the Illusive Man was right after all..."
The creative team almost certainly thinks Synthesis is the best ending, but it's just too late a swerve and isn't really properly introduced as an option at any point in the game.
I agree with this. Same can be said for the last few seasons of Game of Thrones, or the latest Star Wars trilogy. They decimated investment.
Destroy, because it was better to wipe out the Reapers than leave it to chance. Plus Synthesis is a complete ethical nightmare that barely makes sense.
Destroy, only one where Shepard can survive and it was the end goal all along. Of course Edi and the Geth dying isn't great, but guess that was Bioware adding some silly ambiguity for their pick three lights ending choice.
I remember being really into it at the time but I guess I just don't care anymore I can barely remember any of it to be honest
I was gonna mak
I was gonna make this joke, but honestly I just don't even care at this point. What a letdown for the series combined with Andromeda.
Jokes aside, probably Synthesis
I feel kinda blessed because while I did play the series, I honestly never really got into it and felt it was one of my more mediocre gaming experiences... which shielded me from the disappointment others felt.
I don't even remember which one was which any more. I used to live and breathe Mass Effect, but that ending took me from being a huge fan to just never thinking about the series again. I wouldn't even dignify it with the effort of mulling the choices over eight years later. Shit's dead, who cares?
that is a fucking copout answer if there ever was one
but also, (just for your own reference), if there WAS a canon ending to Me3...
Destroy, IMO.
Because synthesis, changing the nature of all species forever, without their consent, goes against everything I took from several of the storylines. I just found it superficially, simplistically utopian in it's 'we're all one, we all want the same thing, the pain of existence and the cycle of warfare stops' idea. It kinda works with the main plotline of the cycle of war between synthetics and organics, I get that. But it really falls apart vs several of the species-specific plotlines when you ask why some random human space messiah has the right to make that choice without consent for all the species you've met, fighting for survival on their own terms and giving you command of everything they've got left against the reapers.
Because synthesis, changing the nature of all species forever, without their consent, goes against everything I took from several of the storylines. I just found it superficially, simplistically utopian in it's 'we're all one, we all want the same thing, the pain of existence and the cycle of warfare stops' idea. It kinda works with the main plotline of the cycle of war between synthetics and organics, I get that. But it really falls apart vs several of the species-specific plotlines when you ask why some random human space messiah has the right to make that choice without consent for all the species you've met, fighting for survival on their own terms and giving you command of everything they've got left against the reapers.
Destroy. I don't trust Reaper space child to begin with considering the stupid logic the Reapers have been rolling with the past million years or so.
Synthesis doesn't really make sense, what are the implications of everyone (and if it's in fact all life, that includes plants and animals and even bugs and bacteria) being a cyborg now? What does that mean for the food chain, for reproduction, is everyone mentally still individualistic or are they connected like the Geth? Or does everyone just kind of glow now? And will any future technology that might run AI just be magically a partially organic as well, because if not, you've kicked the problem down the road anyway.
Control is honestly somewhat underrated, but again I don't trust space child. So yeah, fuck the Geth, we're finishing the fight.
Synthesis doesn't really make sense, what are the implications of everyone (and if it's in fact all life, that includes plants and animals and even bugs and bacteria) being a cyborg now? What does that mean for the food chain, for reproduction, is everyone mentally still individualistic or are they connected like the Geth? Or does everyone just kind of glow now? And will any future technology that might run AI just be magically a partially organic as well, because if not, you've kicked the problem down the road anyway.
Control is honestly somewhat underrated, but again I don't trust space child. So yeah, fuck the Geth, we're finishing the fight.
It doesn't just destroy the Reapers though. All synthetics die includine EDI and the Geth who just broke free of their programming thanks to Legion uploading himself to the cloud. The relay network is destroyed too stranding all races in Earths orbit who will die without suitable food sources since the Quarians and Turians can't eat human food.
Synthesis is the correct ending because it requires the most work to do and is the only absolute solution to human/machine unity within BioWare's stupid narrative revolving around "inevitable conflict between man and AI". It makes fundamentally no sense and is gaudy in its absolutism, but that is literally the purpose of the Reapers (to curb this cycle from imbalancing one way or the other) and also the "solution" the Catalyst comes up with that has not been presented to prior cycle generations who've contributed to the Crucible's design.
Destroy wipes out all AI, so that's a bust.
Control buys into the Illusive Man's ideology that the Reapers are to be controlled, which the narrative repeatedly frames as a bad idea.
Synthesis "merges organics and machines", whatever the fuck that means, for total utopian unity and the only solution to this inevitable conflict. It is a solution that the Catalyst can only present in this cycle and after the player does majority work to service the galactic war effort, and is thus framed as the "best" answer.
But it's also not the best answer, for obvious reasons, and is also supremely stupid and nonsensical even within Mass Effect's whimsical scifi nonsense.
Destroy wipes out all AI, so that's a bust.
Control buys into the Illusive Man's ideology that the Reapers are to be controlled, which the narrative repeatedly frames as a bad idea.
Synthesis "merges organics and machines", whatever the fuck that means, for total utopian unity and the only solution to this inevitable conflict. It is a solution that the Catalyst can only present in this cycle and after the player does majority work to service the galactic war effort, and is thus framed as the "best" answer.
But it's also not the best answer, for obvious reasons, and is also supremely stupid and nonsensical even within Mass Effect's whimsical scifi nonsense.
It has to be control.
Destroy means everyone dies in a week through lack of food.
Synthesis doesn't even make any fucking sense. Synthetic and organic life are merged! Everyone will live in harmony! Okay, what happens two weeks later when someone builds a new synthetic life so there's techno-organics and synths? The Crucible doesn't work in perpetuity, it's a one off. It doesn't fit the theme. It doesn't provide any meaningful resolution.
Control, generally, is an ending that isn't the end of the galaxy. Shepherd/The Reapers fix everything and then depart for a new galaxy. The end.
(They're all bad endings. The entire maguffin to end the war is stupid and breaks the entire trilogy. The current races should just win by conventional military means, with your readiness determining your losses. They have found lots of things that if widely deployed would mean the Reapers would be at a disadvantage they've never been at before.)
Destroy means everyone dies in a week through lack of food.
Synthesis doesn't even make any fucking sense. Synthetic and organic life are merged! Everyone will live in harmony! Okay, what happens two weeks later when someone builds a new synthetic life so there's techno-organics and synths? The Crucible doesn't work in perpetuity, it's a one off. It doesn't fit the theme. It doesn't provide any meaningful resolution.
Control, generally, is an ending that isn't the end of the galaxy. Shepherd/The Reapers fix everything and then depart for a new galaxy. The end.
(They're all bad endings. The entire maguffin to end the war is stupid and breaks the entire trilogy. The current races should just win by conventional military means, with your readiness determining your losses. They have found lots of things that if widely deployed would mean the Reapers would be at a disadvantage they've never been at before.)
If you don't get what the game is telling you, maybe. It still the only correct one. And it's the paragon ending so lol.
Personally, despite how Control is the hardest pill to swallow because it confirms that Illusive Man was at least partially correct on how the Reapers could be controlled, the Paragon version probably has the best possible outcome for the galaxy (yes, there is a difference between Paragon Control and Renegade Control). In Paragon Control, the reapers may protect the galaxy but they rebuild and probably fuck off. I would like to assume that after rebuilding, Paragon Shepard flew most of the Reapers straight into the nearest sun because that would match Paragon Shepard's personality in saying "yeah, technically TIM was right but this technology is based on the pain and suffering of countless races and it would be catastrophic if it fell into the wrong hands again."
Destroy seems like BioWare realized after the fact that people would overwhelmingly pick this option and then shoved in that last second "oh you'll genocide all of the synthetics if you do this." Destroy defenders can dance around this all they want, but picking Destroy under these terms might as well be somewhat buying into the Reaper's dumb-ass logic in that "well, might as well kill all synthetics because some of them are killing organics." And not recognizing the Geth as a sentient race after everything in these games might as well be tantamount to being like these old, stubborn Quarian folks who perpetuated this conflict for 500 years. Watch what happens when the galaxy does create the next line of synthetics and they find out what happened in the Destroy ending.
Synthesis is... weird... It takes the galaxy out of the Reaper's broken equation without their will, knowledge, or consent. Plus, that doesn't stop the Reapers from flying to another galaxy and repeating this same shit over there.
These endings are all terrible and directly go against prevalent themes across all games, but I feel like Paragon Control is the one true hope of breaking this cycle.
Destroy seems like BioWare realized after the fact that people would overwhelmingly pick this option and then shoved in that last second "oh you'll genocide all of the synthetics if you do this." Destroy defenders can dance around this all they want, but picking Destroy under these terms might as well be somewhat buying into the Reaper's dumb-ass logic in that "well, might as well kill all synthetics because some of them are killing organics." And not recognizing the Geth as a sentient race after everything in these games might as well be tantamount to being like these old, stubborn Quarian folks who perpetuated this conflict for 500 years. Watch what happens when the galaxy does create the next line of synthetics and they find out what happened in the Destroy ending.
Synthesis is... weird... It takes the galaxy out of the Reaper's broken equation without their will, knowledge, or consent. Plus, that doesn't stop the Reapers from flying to another galaxy and repeating this same shit over there.
These endings are all terrible and directly go against prevalent themes across all games, but I feel like Paragon Control is the one true hope of breaking this cycle.
Forcing genetic changes on to people without consent is not a paragon choice.
A playthrough where you play as Femshep, romance Thane, go through the Citadel DLC just before the ending, and pick Synthesis is honestly really, really good in terms of impact. Mass Effect is a series I feel is at its best when it's about the characters and, regardless of the silly level of stakes, I think the emotion of that particular combo works.
I wonder what the final "representation" of humans would have been if the reapers won. A giant floating robo Shepherd that shoots lasers from its eyes.
Synthesis makes no coherent sense on any level. It is a solution based on a totally false analysis of the problem, that something being carbon based or silicon based was why conflict existed.
Destroy smashes everything. The revised ending apparently makes it slightly clearer the geth aren't dying? Or something? Anyway I award no points for the hacked together extended cuts.
Control offers a slight hope because the reapers will now rebuild the galaxy's infrastructure.
I could accept people thinking control or destroy was the optimal one (if you think Shepard can't be trusted to control the reapers or whatevs), but I can't relate to anyone who thinks Synthesis is the best.
Destroy smashes everything. The revised ending apparently makes it slightly clearer the geth aren't dying? Or something? Anyway I award no points for the hacked together extended cuts.
Control offers a slight hope because the reapers will now rebuild the galaxy's infrastructure.
I could accept people thinking control or destroy was the optimal one (if you think Shepard can't be trusted to control the reapers or whatevs), but I can't relate to anyone who thinks Synthesis is the best.
Control goes against one of the messages of all 3 games, that the Reapers cannot be reasoned with or controlled
The game doesn't say control ends with the reapers breaking free and killing everyone, so any thematic framing doesn't seem like a good argument against it.
Synthesis has very strong thematic backing but is total gibberish.
But people's ability to create AI hasn't been destroyed. Tali will get them all back up and running in no time! lol
