The ME Next trailer's imagery seemed pretty aligned with Destroy.
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Mass Effect 3 - Which ending did you pick?
- Thread starter Lightning Count
- Start date
OP
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There are dozens of us, man. Dozens! God-Emperor of the Galaxy Reaper-Shepard is the only way.
Also I refuse to even complicate the synthesis ending because it's such nonsensical space magic.
First time I did Synthesis. Felt like the ending you were "supposed" to choose for the ""Best"" ending.
But in reflection it's just such a dumb concept and such an ass-pull of a move (what if robots were a bit organic and people were a bit robot!?). It really doesn't make much sense and definitely won't fix any societal bigotry that leads to people thinking they're better than Robots, or Robots thinking they need to wipe out emotional organics because they're trying to kill them.
It's like, "let's cure racism by making everyone green!" That's not going to solve anything, people/robots will just find other things to hate each other for.
So any future playthrough I do Destroy. The Reapers are idiotic robots with the stupidest idea of "saving" organic life by killing all the smart ones so they don't make robots to kill them. I get that there trying to stop TOTAL death of all organic life, but they're just doing it half-way instead of doing anything to fix it.
Plus it's the one ending that Shepard potentially lives.
I just hate that the make Destroy ALSO kill the Geth and other Ai. In my head I reject that, like SOME Geth have to survive (EDI survived at least) and more Ai can be built eventually. It's just a stupid consequence they added to make it a less good option.
Control is alright I guess, I just don't like that it destroys Shepard in the process. Couldn't the Reapers just respond to Shepard directly? Did they need his brain uploaded into them for it to work?
I guess Shepard could potentially still live with that ending, maybe they could make a synthetic body for him/her to go into after they finish fixing everything the Reapers broke.
And what if Shepard eventually goes insane after living forever and decides the Reapers had the right idea after all? Or you just go drunk with power and decide to rule over the Galaxy?
Too many weird unknowns with that ending for me.
"Refuse" should have been the ideal option in my head. If you'd gotten the galactic readiness high enough, cured the genophage, made peace with the Quarians and Geth, you should be able to say "fuck you Star Child, we can take down the Reapers without this stupid magic Red/Green/Blue thingy".
The whole point of the Reapers in ME1 taking over the Citadel was to isolate all the species so they could pick them off one by one, implying that if they all banded together the Reapers are defeatable.
ME3 shouldn't have needed a magic "Win" button to get a definitive ending, if you made all the best choices you should have had a united army big enough to wipe the Reapers out.
But in reflection it's just such a dumb concept and such an ass-pull of a move (what if robots were a bit organic and people were a bit robot!?). It really doesn't make much sense and definitely won't fix any societal bigotry that leads to people thinking they're better than Robots, or Robots thinking they need to wipe out emotional organics because they're trying to kill them.
It's like, "let's cure racism by making everyone green!" That's not going to solve anything, people/robots will just find other things to hate each other for.
So any future playthrough I do Destroy. The Reapers are idiotic robots with the stupidest idea of "saving" organic life by killing all the smart ones so they don't make robots to kill them. I get that there trying to stop TOTAL death of all organic life, but they're just doing it half-way instead of doing anything to fix it.
Plus it's the one ending that Shepard potentially lives.
I just hate that the make Destroy ALSO kill the Geth and other Ai. In my head I reject that, like SOME Geth have to survive (EDI survived at least) and more Ai can be built eventually. It's just a stupid consequence they added to make it a less good option.
Control is alright I guess, I just don't like that it destroys Shepard in the process. Couldn't the Reapers just respond to Shepard directly? Did they need his brain uploaded into them for it to work?
I guess Shepard could potentially still live with that ending, maybe they could make a synthetic body for him/her to go into after they finish fixing everything the Reapers broke.
And what if Shepard eventually goes insane after living forever and decides the Reapers had the right idea after all? Or you just go drunk with power and decide to rule over the Galaxy?
Too many weird unknowns with that ending for me.
"Refuse" should have been the ideal option in my head. If you'd gotten the galactic readiness high enough, cured the genophage, made peace with the Quarians and Geth, you should be able to say "fuck you Star Child, we can take down the Reapers without this stupid magic Red/Green/Blue thingy".
The whole point of the Reapers in ME1 taking over the Citadel was to isolate all the species so they could pick them off one by one, implying that if they all banded together the Reapers are defeatable.
ME3 shouldn't have needed a magic "Win" button to get a definitive ending, if you made all the best choices you should have had a united army big enough to wipe the Reapers out.
Oh and Javik(can't believe they made him DLC) mentioning how his cycle also had their own version of Cerberus, indoctrinated traitors who believed they could control the Reapers, furthered my stance on never choosing Control. From the Leviathans all the way to TIM, everyone who's tried to get cute with dealing with the Reapers got screwed.
I know BW didn't intend for it to be a trap and they want to you accept that Star Kid is telling the truth but narratively it makes so much sense for it be one.
I know BW didn't intend for it to be a trap and they want to you accept that Star Kid is telling the truth but narratively it makes so much sense for it be one.
Sadly, they made the Reapers too powerful for that without extending the time span of the trilogy. ME1's ending showed everybody getting clowned on until Sovereign assumed direct control of Husk Saren and Shepard bodied him, which is when Sovereign was weak enough to beat.
If the Reapers were a bit weaker and ME3 took place ten years after ME1 instead of like 3, maybe then a conventional military solution was possible. But as shown off in the games, they wrote themselves into the deus ex machina corner hard.
It will be pretty similar, I guess. The crucible ends up destroying the reapers for good, without destroying other synthetic life in the process, and Shepard may or may not have survived.
Definitely Destroy.
Control doesn't make sense thematically and Synthesis is just magic, even in the context of biotics etc.
Control doesn't make sense thematically and Synthesis is just magic, even in the context of biotics etc.
Yeah, but they could have easily just made the Catalyst some anti-reaper shield weapon, or turn their indoctrination tech against them, or something like that. I don't hate the idea of a multi-cycle device that you finally get to finish, I just hate how they executed on it.
Like you finish it and "boom" the Reapers are more killable, then the end-game choices could be more normal like:
- Finish off all the Reapers.
- Scare them off.
- Negotiate with the Reapers, show them you made peace between the Quarians and Geth and AI/Organic races can live in peace.
- If your galactic readiness was too low you could still die and the cycle would start again.
Destroy is Paragon but has forced Renegade feel to it to make you choose other options with the Genocide hook, Control is Renegade with the caveat you believe Renegade Shepard wants to rule the universe (I could believe it), and Synthesis is the pseudo "best ending" seen in RPGs where everyone becomes basically one happy family by being made the "same" which as some stated is actually a version of Genocide....especially if this leads to a Gestalt consciousness.
So Destroy is Canon being Paragon, but the one that literally avoids a form of Genocide is Control as Shepard becomes the Mass Effect version of the Emperor of Mankind dictatorship.
So Destroy is Canon being Paragon, but the one that literally avoids a form of Genocide is Control as Shepard becomes the Mass Effect version of the Emperor of Mankind dictatorship.
Control is creepy as hell, so definitely not that one.
I did Synthesis the first time, but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Did Destroy in Legendary Edition.
I did Synthesis the first time, but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Did Destroy in Legendary Edition.
In my initial playthrough, I chose Synthesis b/c I feel like it was viewed as the "best" ending at the time, given how the bar to obtain it was higher than the others. However, over time and the more I thought about it, I prefer the Destroy ending. It's the ending that keeps the most of the galaxy I loved intact and the most ripe for future potential.
Secretly though, I love the refuse ending as one giant way to say "Fuck You" to Bioware's stupid choices and handling of the ending. The idea that Shepard and Co. just botched the whole thing and that it'll take a whole additional reaping cycle for the galaxy to make it right is an intriguing one.
Secretly though, I love the refuse ending as one giant way to say "Fuck You" to Bioware's stupid choices and handling of the ending. The idea that Shepard and Co. just botched the whole thing and that it'll take a whole additional reaping cycle for the galaxy to make it right is an intriguing one.
Synthesis because genociding the geth (i.e. removing all their choices, forever) is worse than making one harmless** decision for all life.
**As far as we are lead to believe in the game there are literally no negative consequences to synthesis other than muh freedom violated.
I don't get people whose objection to synthesis is that it's incoherent. So is 'Mass Effect', it doesn't work in the laws of physics. You have to suspend disbelief and take the choice as it's presented.
**As far as we are lead to believe in the game there are literally no negative consequences to synthesis other than muh freedom violated.
I don't get people whose objection to synthesis is that it's incoherent. So is 'Mass Effect', it doesn't work in the laws of physics. You have to suspend disbelief and take the choice as it's presented.
Control. All the other options I did not like
Did not like destroy- wipe out the Beth? No thanks
Or synthesis- forcibly alter everyone? That's a no.
Did not like destroy- wipe out the Beth? No thanks
Or synthesis- forcibly alter everyone? That's a no.
Synthesis and Destroy force a lot of permanent effects on the galaxy. Control allows Shepard to help rebuild damage done by the Crucible and then if they so choose just march the Reapers back into dark space to contemplate godhood while everyone else lives happily ever after.
Destroy: Once.
Control (Paragon): Once.
Control (Renegade): None.
Synthesis: Thrice.
Refuse: None.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool Synthesis picker, but I will absolutely respect the decision to make Destroy canon should that be the case for ME4.
the hell you got against Beth
Control (Paragon): Once.
Control (Renegade): None.
Synthesis: Thrice.
Refuse: None.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool Synthesis picker, but I will absolutely respect the decision to make Destroy canon should that be the case for ME4.
the hell you got against Beth
the hell you got against Beth
Haha.
Make sure your eyes don't get stuck then.
Destroy my first time, Synthesis every time after.
I get very "These people vote!" with synthesis-choosers.
There's literally no way that rewriting every living person's DNA wouldn't have massive consequences, not just psychologically and sociologically (seriously, the number of wars that would ensue is insane, and if the galaxy learns that some human decided to flip that switch, it would probably mean humanity gets fucked extra hard), but all of medical science just has to be totally rewritten. The galaxy wakes up one day to find that all sorts of medications and procedures just straight up don't work anymore because everyone's DNA is different now, and they didn't even get a heads up. Societies have collapsed under less stress.
The game saying "ahhh it's fine," without even addressing any of that goes far, far beyond "just assume this one very abstract thing about physics works differently than we currently understand it in certain contexts." Especially when that supposition is the starting point, and not the conclusion of the story. It's like if ME3 insisted that the answer to the ultimate question really is 42, and made no attempts to explain how. Except even that's better because just going "42 lul" doesn't have civilization-ending consequences.
I chose synthesis. When you can execute the greatest war crime existence will ever know, gotta do it.
I also like this one restaurant all the way over there and losing the relays would be a major inconvenience.
True 'Renegade' decisions.
I also like this one restaurant all the way over there and losing the relays would be a major inconvenience.
True 'Renegade' decisions.
Destroy is the only way.
Synthesis is reprehensible.
And fuck the thought of an individual pulling a harbinger.
Synthesis is reprehensible.
And fuck the thought of an individual pulling a harbinger.
Destroy, it seemed the most logical when looking at the series starting with Mass Effect 1 where I always felt like the thing to do was destroy them. It didn't help that I just never felt like I was given a motivation or reasoning for the other endings the way I played as a Paragon Shepard.
I'm not really happy with the way the Destroy ending was either. It's hard for me to articulate, but it isn't like I'm completely opposed to bittersweet endings or anything like that. This was a war for survival against a highly evolved race of machines so I would expect there to be casualties, but the way it played out with literally every single robotic life just felt tacked on and forced. At least that's what I remember though it's been a while.
I'm not really happy with the way the Destroy ending was either. It's hard for me to articulate, but it isn't like I'm completely opposed to bittersweet endings or anything like that. This was a war for survival against a highly evolved race of machines so I would expect there to be casualties, but the way it played out with literally every single robotic life just felt tacked on and forced. At least that's what I remember though it's been a while.
I really don't understand how people can look at Control or Synthesis and say, "These make sense in the context of these games."
It's what always baffled me about the endings. It feels like the writers had to know they were incongruent with the rest of the game. But I should not be surprised that for a lot of people it came down to, "I wanted to save X people, so I did Y." I guess those "stakes" were all the writers cared about too.
It's what always baffled me about the endings. It feels like the writers had to know they were incongruent with the rest of the game. But I should not be surprised that for a lot of people it came down to, "I wanted to save X people, so I did Y." I guess those "stakes" were all the writers cared about too.
It didn't choose one IIRC. Andromeda's plan splits off before ME3 ends as a safeguard against failing to stop the Reapers - a convenient way to not have to address the question.
It doesn't address it and plotholes aside, Andromeda was only a thing because of the corner ME3's endings painted the series in from a lore standpoint.
Every
You realise that your alternative to this (assuming destroy) is executing guaranteed genocide right?
In synthesis, I wake up - I am different, but, based on the in game information we have to go on, I'm still me. There are new challenges to overcome in the world, like you said, but an opportunity for us all to work to overcome it. And yeah that likely won't be perfect and smooth, but that's life.
In destroy, the Geth don't wake up. EDI doesn't wake up. All that they were is gone.
Personally I was not willing to pull that trigger at all.
I've chosen them all at least once across multiple playthroughs.
I also downloaded some mods to make the outcomes less stupid without completely undoing what Bioware did, but I'll opt to go for all of the endings every so often, even if most of the time I go for a modded Destroy.
I also downloaded some mods to make the outcomes less stupid without completely undoing what Bioware did, but I'll opt to go for all of the endings every so often, even if most of the time I go for a modded Destroy.
Another reason Control is dumb is that it doesn't really solve the Star Child's problem of organics eventually creating synthetics that wipes everyone out. The Leviathans were in a similar role as God Shepard where they ruled over all the others species and even actively used their indoctrination to ensure their domination and they couldn't stop the creation of more killer AIs.
How is God Shep(who presumably won't be as heavy handed as the Leviathans, especially if Paragon) gonna stop AIs from being made? Are the Geth doomed for destruction once they get too advanced and start outpacing the Reapers? Eventually an AI is gonna slip through the cracks. The solution can't be for God Shepard to be a guardian and fight off any AIs that rebel because Star Kid could have done that itself. It's exactly what the Leviathans were doing(fighting off AIs that their thrall species would create) until they got scared/tired of the endless cycle and created the catalyst to come up with a solution.
Do you just go back to doing what the Reapers were originally made to do and wipe out a society once they get too advanced? And if God Shep decides not to do anything as to not become like the Star Child, and lets organics/synthetics kill each other endlessly well then he isn't really a good guardian is he? It's nice to dream that God Shep could just negotiate peace for every AI like he could do for the Geth but I can't believe anyone would be that naive to think he could do that until the end of time, Reapers are not omniscient. The whole thing with the Star Kids argument about killer AIs is that it isn't falsifiable.
If you believe the Star Kids arguments then Control and Destroy are certainly doomed down the line, Control buys more time. It's all designed to push you towards the ending BW deemed as the "good one", human instrumentality aka Synthesis and it sucks.
If you don't believe the Star Kids words then you can't believe anything good he says about Synthesis or Control. It's now a malfunctioning AI, the fuck does he know? He thought the harvest cycle was a good idea, why would I trust that fusing all life together or turning me into an immortal god like itself is also a good idea? He did all this shit off of a broken foundation. Maybe we need another Super Duper Crucible to present it with more "options".
Anyway Destroy becomes the most sensible option as the other two are far too sus.
How is God Shep(who presumably won't be as heavy handed as the Leviathans, especially if Paragon) gonna stop AIs from being made? Are the Geth doomed for destruction once they get too advanced and start outpacing the Reapers? Eventually an AI is gonna slip through the cracks. The solution can't be for God Shepard to be a guardian and fight off any AIs that rebel because Star Kid could have done that itself. It's exactly what the Leviathans were doing(fighting off AIs that their thrall species would create) until they got scared/tired of the endless cycle and created the catalyst to come up with a solution.
Do you just go back to doing what the Reapers were originally made to do and wipe out a society once they get too advanced? And if God Shep decides not to do anything as to not become like the Star Child, and lets organics/synthetics kill each other endlessly well then he isn't really a good guardian is he? It's nice to dream that God Shep could just negotiate peace for every AI like he could do for the Geth but I can't believe anyone would be that naive to think he could do that until the end of time, Reapers are not omniscient. The whole thing with the Star Kids argument about killer AIs is that it isn't falsifiable.
If you believe the Star Kids arguments then Control and Destroy are certainly doomed down the line, Control buys more time. It's all designed to push you towards the ending BW deemed as the "good one", human instrumentality aka Synthesis and it sucks.
If you don't believe the Star Kids words then you can't believe anything good he says about Synthesis or Control. It's now a malfunctioning AI, the fuck does he know? He thought the harvest cycle was a good idea, why would I trust that fusing all life together or turning me into an immortal god like itself is also a good idea? He did all this shit off of a broken foundation. Maybe we need another Super Duper Crucible to present it with more "options".
Anyway Destroy becomes the most sensible option as the other two are far too sus.
I mean if you can't trust it on the other two there is no reason to suddenly trust it on Destroy either. The whole scenario is suspect.
I honestly don't even know. I remember I thought I was picking one and accidentally got the wrong one because I'd forgotten which was which and couldn't get Star Boy to repeat anything. I played the game pre-patch when they were all the same cutscenes in different colours, though, so it doesn't matter anyway lol.
Pretty much. Far worse endings than shep becoming machine space jesus.
Synthesis as an ending is borderline incoherent.
We're stopping racism by grafting small patches of black skin onto all the white people and vice versa. Clearly the Geth only rebelled against their creators because they had metal bodies instead of flesh.
We're stopping racism by grafting small patches of black skin onto all the white people and vice versa. Clearly the Geth only rebelled against their creators because they had metal bodies instead of flesh.
Synthesis and Control always made me uncomfortable. Changing the bodily composition of all life without their consent or becoming a god both never sat right with me from an ethical perspective/
Destroy isn't a "great" ending either, but its the most consistent with what the games had been leaving up to, and consequently the only one that made sense with regards to the Shepard's mission. A fitting, if somewhat obvious, capital E ending.
Destroy isn't a "great" ending either, but its the most consistent with what the games had been leaving up to, and consequently the only one that made sense with regards to the Shepard's mission. A fitting, if somewhat obvious, capital E ending.
Not a hot take at all. Control is the best of the available options for the reasons you describe, though I don't know that I would call Synthesis genocide so much as a very weird and stupid violation of everyone in the galaxy's bodily autonomy.
It's confusing to me how many players play as paragon, but then choose the genocidal Destroy option.
The ending really could've been so much better if your paragon/renegade levels and choices determined which resolution you could choose. A high paragon that sided with the Geth and had encouraged EDI should've been able to persuade the Catalyst that peaceful coexistence between organic and synthetic life was possible and that the Reaper programming was based on a false assumption, and delay the harvest another 50,000 years. A high enough renegade could do the destroy option. The endings would feel more earned.
Synthesis, I figured Shepherd + Geth + Talia + others would figure out a way to reverse it for people who don't like it
i intend to replay as pure evil a second run this year sometime and i'm definitely gonna choose Destroy
i intend to replay as pure evil a second run this year sometime and i'm definitely gonna choose Destroy
Synthesis just gives much too much eugenics vibes. Like seriously it's basically just that and the idea is really really gross.
No you can trust it in that the colored beams will largely do what it says they'll do. I'm not saying the Star Kid is ever explicitly lying, the Reapers don't really ever outright lie,(they just indoctrinate) the point is that it can be mistaken in its overall logic and how the future will turn out. You can't trust that Synthesis might have not some crazy batshit unforseen consequences rather than this utopia it assumes and tries to sell you on. You can't trust that God Shep will be a good thing forever if at all, look at Renegade Control Shepard who is on some God Emperor WH40k shit.
Destroy just becomes the "cleanest"(as in least amount of unknowns) option. And it's the one Star Child tries to steer you away from, making it the most unlikely to be any kind of unforseen trap. If it wanted to trick you into Destroy it would never have told you the red beam would also destroy the Geth or EDI. BW knew all this to an extent which is why they had to poison pill Destroy so much.
Since people don't want to kill the Geth, Control can look like the more attractive option whether you believe the Star Child's logic is wrong or not as long as you believe your paragon god Shepard is truly capital G Godly and incorruptible.(and this is where I personally break off from Control)
And for me, if you don't accept the Star Kids fundamental logic about synthetics inevitably killing organics then you probably shouldn't want to be fucking around with crazy things like Synthesis, and Control which is more the height of arrogance imo. This is a being that saw the harvest solution as benevolent, that becoming a reaper was salvation, its whole notion of what's for the greater good is flawed and there's too many unknowns.
Now if you believe the Star Child is outright lying about everything then Refuse starts to come into play because god knows what those colored beams might do. Every option could be a trap.
I don't like any option so I just resort to headcanon. My Shepard is still in his apartment with Liara, that's how the story ended for me lol
