The EC are what they should have been in the first place... there are still plot holes to be filled but the closure is there this time around (like... where the heck is Normandy going... why is not going where the fleet is going???... and staff like that).

But all the new endings are not in the line with my Shepard suppose to be... i saved the krogans... reunite the quarians and the geths... basically... a good guy that looks for the best solution for everybody...

control - not good ... is like exchanging a hearbringer for another... is like having a way to relive all that reaper *** again...

synthesis - why should i impose such a drastic effect on all life on this galaxy... i'm not a god and shouldn't suppose to be 1...

destroy - again, not good... why would i wanna save the geth only to kill them in the end?... this hole war was for saving all life in the galaxy from reapers

all of the above choices are the hearbringer's solutions... are the reapers solutions that where there from the start... not Shepard's

the denial - then this war was all for nothing...

the solution i wanted for a paragon Shepard is not there... my solution is not there

and that is why i still think that all these endings are just in Shepard's mind and just a dream after he was hit by that beam of light (this is different from the indoctrination theory... that i hate by the way). in this way ME4 it is easy to happen... this is what i hope.

PLEASE READ THIS!!!

This is copy and pasted from my Blog on the site, from my blog post entitled My Ideal Mass Effect Ending I swear I did right this you can check out the original post on my Blog @killerclown2143. So here goes.

Let me get this straight I am not a big Mass Effect fan (yes I know I'm a terrible person) but I did like the gameplay and decision making scenarios that the games presented to you, I've been aware of the controversy surrounding ME3's ending(s) and having only played through one (Destroy Ending) and having to watch the other two on Youtube and I must say after watching those three endings found them to be satisfying I mean yes I could like anyone poke holes in the existing endings but I won't bother with that cause unlike the millions of fans that started the controversial Retake Mass Effect movement I don't have a particular love for the franchise and didn't really care about the effect my decisions made on the games ending...but I must say that given the three existing endings (four if you count the extended cut added ending) none of them are how I would have done it.  I think  a lot of people would agree with me when I say the synthesis and destroy endings were the best of the bad situation Shepard was in, but in my minds eye I see in what is in my opinion a perfect ending Shepard has the choice to either pick one of the original endings or the Catalyst himself proposes one to Shepard and it would go something like this. "There is another option Shepard." Shepard answers "What do you mean?" The Catalyst speaks once more "You could meld your conscience with mind and you could successfully call off the Reapers and you could have complete and total control over them all ways." Depending on Shepards choice they meld and Shepard becomes the equivalent of the new Catalyst and can control the Reapers and calls them off their varying assaults on the planets of the Galaxy and every life both synthetic and organic is saved without having to have them meld Shepard can never leave the heart of the Citadel and as stated before effectively becomes the new Catalyst his crew and indeed the rest of the Galaxy have no idea what really occured that day and they assume Shepard is dead and go on living their lives until Shepard reveals himself and tells the Galaxy what really happened and says he can never return to normal life but says that he will protect the Galaxy using the power of the Reapers as a safeguard any who would disrupt the peace in the galaxy be it a synthetic rebellion or just a plain out war would be beat down by the strength of the reapers and a forced peace would always be present in the Galaxy. That is how I think mass effect 3 should have ended.

Yes I know you all loved the un-ending, it made you feel artistic and intellectual, but honestly it's just lazy. It comes across as the writers just ran out of story and stopped before they finished. Also, after hearing about how much effect your choices have and how every little decision matters it's pretty disappointing to cap off such an amazing game series with a simple "choose your ending" dialogue that basically invalidates all of your prior decisions.

I think this extended cut ending was genius and btw it doesn't disprove the indoctrination theory ( that I will call IT from now on ) at all, not even for a second.

Let me explain : If you don't believe in the IT then you probably have chosen control or synthesis and you get pretty much everything you've asked for, that is to say more closure, you know what happens to the rest of the world, your crew etc...
If you don't believe in the IT and you've chosen destruction then well it's a bit weird and you might wanna ask yourself why you made that choice,
especially if you have the end where Shepard survives.

If you believe in the IT then you have to realise that the Bioware crew found the only way to actually keep that theory alive and the end as epic as it already was.
I won't come back to the every specifics of that theory since the facts have been discussed a million times before and there are too many of them.

But if you do believe then you know that what's so good about this game is not only the fact that you can chose various options that have sometimes drastic consequences throughout the series,
but the fact that commander Shepard is not the center of this story, YOU are, Jack Shepard was my player, some were John, Patrick, Amanda, Sharon etc.
Everyone customize his palyer so every avatar is basically an extension of the player itself.

In any other game with the same kind of plot, it would be at least pretty obvious that the character is being indoctrinated but you,
the player would be aware of the process by the narration or something else.
Now if you're aware of it the only thing the game can provide is a an obstacle to overcome the indoctrination such as a big boss, a final quest/level or whatever...
if you beat the boss, finish the quest or the level then you don't get indocrinated, if you don't, you lose and become indocrinated in a very clear way that leaves no doubt whatsoever.

That's where it gets interesting, the mass effect saga has already been praised for being somewhat revolutionary, even sometimes being described as an interactive movie.
With this subtile indoctrination ending it goes even further by providing an amazing immersion experience to the player.

The indoctrination theory says that, if you make the right choice, then you know that in the very end you survived the attack,
but more importantly you survived because you overcomed the indoctrination, you beat the reaper, you accomplish something that neither the illusive man nor Saren ever could do.

If you don't care/believe the theory then YOU the player is actually indocrinated, thinking like the illusive man that HE and only HE can control the reapers,
or like Saren believing that you're building to a better world where synthetics and organics can live in perfect harmony.


It's pretty funny to make one of this two choices when you've passed all the mass effect 1 trying to convince Saren that he's being controlled
and that he can't provide this peace he's talking about, and the end of mass effect 2 aswell as the whole mass effect 3 tryinng to convince the illusive man
that he is also being controlled by reapers ( that's what they do...) that he can't actually control them, rallying all the races possible, making a prothean superweapon that will
DESTROY THE REAPERS, when speaking with admiral Hackett, he even says at some point that the difficulty in making the crucilbe is being able to DIRECT ITS ENERGY TOWARDS THE REAPERS
ONLY. Which is exactly what you do in your mind if you chose the "destroy option".

Up until the end it's pretty obvious you must destroy them and you absolutely can't ally with them or control them but five minutes later a imaginary child tells you he's the catalyst
and that YOU can control them because you're the first human to ever step foot here.
Isn't it a bit easy ? You're the only one in the galaxy that actually can controll the reapers. If you remember the conversation throughout the saga,
Shepard is often described as a fantastic soldier, extremely strong-willed, the only one who can convince the council to work together and face the reaper.
But it's also said that in the end Shepard is just human, an exceptionnel human being yes, but not a superhero, she/he has weaknesses and it's clearly shown it the mass effect 3 that all the death and culpability is starting to come at Shepard in a quite intense manner.
Basically, in the final sequence a little boy convices you that just because you're here means that YOU can do it, the others failed and were actually indoctrinated ?
No worries bro, you're so amazing that you're different from them, you can do it...
Another funny thing is that if you really think about it, the reapers have done some really horrible things throughout the series, I mean they may be machines but they fit the villain
description perfectly, I'll even say super villain, here's a short list :

- Indoctrination : in short mind control, allowing them to control organics and synthetics and making them do whatever they want.
Discussions with Javik, the prothean from the dlc "from ashes" give you an idea of how horrible it can be to have to kill your inoctrinated friends or even childs... ain't that sick ?!

- Mass murder and Genocides ( plural )

- All of that repeatedly since hundred thousands of year !!!

But when you talk to the child about his solution, ask him if it is simply to kill you, he says : " NO, we harvest you....allowing the advanced civilazations to "ascend" into reaper form,
leaving the young ones behind "....Yeah ok...makes sense, you're not that bad then, thanks for giving us a end.... but wait, don't you come back 50 000 years later, anihilate half of the galaxy,
transorm the other half in husks, brutes, marauders, banshee and stuff, the rest becoming sentient machines without any free will and with the only purpose to destroy and reap ?
Didn't you create the mass relays, the Citadel, just to give us the illusion of being freelly exploring the galaxy when we're actually trapped and ready to be killed and reaped
all over again ?
They did, and most of the thing they do are done in a sneaky or brutal way, spreading pain and suffering in the whole galaxy destroying planets and worlds.
If what they did was so righteous, why would they need to use force and mind control to achieve their goals ?
Because what they do is really really horrible , just try to keep that in mind, because that little child is trying to convince you that they're just helping you ascend, like it's sweet and all and you have a choice.
He justifies himself saying that created with ALWAYS rebel against their creators, sythetics will ALWAYS wipeout organic life......
That's the biggest B*ll$h!t ever said in the game, I'll explain why.

A lot of incoherences have already pointed out but I'll speak of one among many that I find quite convincing :
The child tells you that synthetics will always rebel against their creator just as the reaper you destroy on Rannoch tells you that the fight between Quarians and Geth for their homeworld disproves Shepard's arguments who thinks that they can achieve piece.
But what happens next if you've maid some right choices ? You end that endless war and the Geth are now willing to welcome the Quarians back to their homeworld, even offering great help to rebuilt it, to fight the reapers etc... Just as you achieved peace between turians, krogans and salarians.
After all that happened between all of them you can say it is quite an accomplishement. I'm not saying their aren't scars that still need to heal, or issues that won't resurface,
but it appears pretty clearly that YOU CAN ACTUALLY ACHIEVE PEACE BETWEEN SYNTHETICS AND ORGANICS.

Reapers are machines, sentient machines okay, but still machine, designed with the purpose of harvesting life at each cycle to preserve life.
I don't think they possess free will, even the Geth sound/look muchmore alive than them. Being a machine implies being a creation of organics.
I believe the ending scene is all in Shepard's head but since it's still Shepard's understanding and interpretation so I believe it is overall quite accurate.
In the extended cut, it is said that they were created in order to achieve peace between organics and synthetics.
They conclude that the only way to achieve that goal is by doing what they do, but since organics won't comply with the solution, they must force it uppon them.

Again in the extended cut, it is said that the repaers harvested their creators, the creators rebelled but they lost and they became the first reapers .
The the first reaper was from the organic race who devised the solution to achieve peace between synthetics and organics, no wonder they're pursuing this goal over and over again.
But think about this : how do this machines arrive to the coclusion that this is the only solution, is it based on empirical evidence ?
Empirical evidence that synthetics will wipeout all organic life ? No, because if it was the case, then there won't be any any organic life left, therefore no need for the reapers.
This solution was found by machines, machines designed by organics and as we all know, organics are flawed, if organics are flawed machines can be flawed too.
What I want to say ultimately is that it is impossible to come to the conclusion that creators will always rebel against their creators and that it will lead to the wiping out of organic life !
You'd have to be omniscient for that, a God...
There's no way you an make those calculation with 100% certainty, and saying this is the only thing that can happen ever ever...
Why ? Because Humans, Krogans, Turians etc have free will and can chose peace, simple as that.
.
Because the Geth just proved this theory wrong and they largely have to thank Shepard for it. One could argue that the war could start again and that the geth could attack organics, but...
Wiping out all organic life in the whole galaxy ? And the others after that ?
Turians and a handful of krogans could easily end the geth, plus as synthetics being able to evolve freely, they don't have anything to gain by starting a war.

Look how EDI evolved and became very much alive, you think that's just to add more to the adventure, to give Joker a compagnin ? I believe EDI's word and evolution ( if you speak with her and encourage her ) are here to show you that a AI can evolve to a point where it seeks peace, cherish love and life, is willing to sacrifice itself for the sake of love ( more or less her words ), EDI has no intention to overcome her creator or whatever, she'e even able to make jokes about it...
Actually if you really think about it, it seems that synthetics are actually very influenced by their organic "entourage" , Joker is known for using his sense of humor to a great extense,
and EDI is doing it more and more from the ME2 to ME3, in the end she tells you that the illusive man created her, Joker gave her free will and you gave her the ability to feel alive.
Will EDI rebel against you, develop a scheme to overthrow humans, come to the conclusions that organics must be harvested to preserve life ?

No, because she's acting more and more "human" by being in contact with Shepard, proving there again that the reaper's conclusion is biased, biased by they're flawed creators, who designed this thing in a hundreds of thousands years ago in a different time, different world with different cirumstances.
To make such a strong willed person as Shepard think that they're solution, answer is correct not as outrageously horrible as you ever thought it was with a few simple answers clearly show there's something wrong with Shepard's stae of mind.
The illusive man only asks Shepard not to destroy the collector base so that they can use the technology against the reapers, and you chose to tell him to f*$k off.
Child tells you that killing and suffering and indoctrinatig and abominations are the best solutions and you go : hmmm .. yeah... I don't know.. maybe...

That means that reapers are obsolete, even if what they say was true, I bet most of the humans would' rather die fighting than being turned into reaping-killing-sneaky machines forever....

Another thing you have to consider is that all you've done since the begining tends to that goal of destroying the reapers, that's also why every other races have chosen to form an alliance
with each other, and most of them put their fate in your hands, so that you can... destroy the reapers. Most of them ahve sacrificed much to give you that opportunity : a son, a unit, a planet... but if you chose synthesis, then you're basically telling them : nope sorry , changed my mind
we need the reapers, I understand them now, so what I'm gonna do is allow every living thing to fuse with reaper tech, you okay with that ? No ? But if I don't the Geth will die, how do I know
that ? ThaT child here told me so.. yeah... he says he's the catalyst, I trust him yeah... already saw him back a on earth during the attack... yeah got blown away actually... how's he here ?
Who cares let's just pick the most obvious choice that he's telling me to pick....that's usually what I do. I mean come on !


As I said , it makes a lot of sense for the processus of indoctrination to be so subtile, if not why were Saren and the Illusive man ( who seem to be fairly intelligent ) so convinced that they were still in control and that they were genuinely making the right choice.

Saren really believes that he's doing right thing by joining with the reapers, he thinks it's the only way for him and ultimately for the galaxy to be saved from the reapers,
Well guess what, the end of mass effect 3 gives you the (imaginary) opportunity to destroy all the reapers once and for all, ain't it the best way to be free of their menace,
especially of their indoctrination : " something that can worms its way into your head" ( if you're vigilant enough you can see that process slowly taking over Shepard's mindmany times )

The Illusive man truly believes he CAN control them, so if he can why shouldn't he ? Fact is he cannot, he's just indoctrinated, so why is he so convinced he can ?
Wouldn't it take some very subtile and long process to overcome his reason and will, how would that happens, just try to imagine , how can you convice a strong willed and intelligent person
that ,one : he's not indoctrinated, 2 : allying with the reapers or controlling them is the best possible option ?
Then play the end of the game again and there you have it : conviced by imaginary child that synthesis is the best thing you can do, you have the choice but that's the right one, he's telling you so.. No imagine if instead of the child, the light would have taken the form of the Illusive man for instance. I know that's not possible since he killed himself before (dream), but if he hadn't and it was his image telling you that sythesis isthe best choice would you still do it ?
I wonder...because the child is a particular symbole in the game , symbole of something you can't protect, something fragileand important you can't save and you want to save, and know he's telling you how to...


My own theory about the synthesis choice is that it actually allows the reaper to create that human reaper who seems quite important to them.
I believe that is the reason why the supposed catalyst says something about fusion of the dna between synthetics and organics.
I think it's exactly what's needed of Shepard to create this "abomination" as described by Shepard himself.
I think that's why it reappears at the illusive man's base, that's why he wanted you to keep the collector base safe, because the last piece needed to complete it is Shepard, that's why he's so important even to the reapers.
It makes sense for the illusive man to rebuilt it since he's being controlled by the reaper.
But that's just a wild guess...

I won't go over every details that makes me believe in the IT, they're so many incoherences without it and so many clues to support it that I can even imagine how it's not true.
I'll just conclude by talking about this final sequence and the fact that in is not really happening, the extended cut doesn't change anything to that , it just gives more details about Shepard's hallucination and about how he imagines the scene.
If you read carefully what the child tells you when you ask him unseen questions, he doesn't really give you new information, I mean yes he does, but his explanation is just what anyone
could have guessed based on the informations the Reaper already gave you throughout the saga, because they do.
Nothing too fancy but they're the one telling you they're harversting you, they're your salvation, sythetics will destroy orgnanic life etc, you already know they're sentients machines
so you know they have to be the creation on some race. Someone (don't remember who, maybe Liara in my case) even points out the fact that reapers are merely following a pattern and
that they're not their master.
So everything that happens later can easily be imagined by Shepard, based on what he knows, what he understands of the reaper, his fears, his lost etc...

I find that only those arguments are sufficient to show that IT makes way more sense than the no IT, and I didn't even talk about the surroundings, the sounds, Benezia's explanation about
reaper indoctrination, Rachni Queen description, dream sequences, Saren and the Illusive Man's eyes as well as Shepard's when he makes the control or sythesis choice, why Shepard lives
only when destroying the reaper and how he survives the explosion of the citaldel aswell as the fall downt to London (wtf !), the bullet wound, and so on.

But it the end that's what I like about this game, it had to be that way, if it was tooo obvious that you were being indoctrinated, then indoctrinaion would have sucked and only affected the character, With this ending, YOU the player can be indoctrinated, that's quite unseen for a video game and it's genius.
I know that it might piss off some people but in my mind if you don't believe in the IT then you've been indoctrinated, no offense that's jut the way I see it.
And Bioware managed to keep this IT alive by not making it official, in my opinion it would have ruined it, since everyone would have said : oh ok so it was true after all, let me change my choice and get the good ending. The point of indoctrination is thinking you're making the good choice , now if Bioware came out and said : you got it wrong there bro, it would be such a shame.
That being said I'd be happy to debate any topic about this IT with anyone willing to disrpove it and ot propose arguments against it.
If you've seen some of quality documentray made ont that theory , there's a ton os other clues taht goes in that direction.
I would't be conviced by 2 or three incoherences and as much supporting clues but we're talking about dozens and dozens of them in both cases...
Sorry for posting such a long text, guess I just have a lot to say!

overall the ending(s) are a slap to the face, fact remains that basically everything  you do in the previous games is essentially useless and derail the main concept that mass effect built its legacy around.. the first two endings were based on what you did not a b c d, and at the very least should of been a fifth ending where if you had enough military resources you spent the entire game building you should of been able to beat them, im glad for the extended cuts but the damage has been done and im guessing ea is to blame for rushing the release

Can't wait to play Mass Effect 3, especially with these add-on items.

The old Destroy ending is still canon for me.  I'm glad Shep still takes a breath in the new Destroy ending though.

if people are still complaining they are out of there minds. i played the new ending and it left me with chills all my questions were answered

Read good Mass Effect 3

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