Thoughts regarding Mass Effect Trilogy and how Bioware can possibly fix it.

[AllotoniFan]

After seeing the news about ME "4", i couldn?t shake this question from my head: Why is Bioware making a new game? Why not remake the previous ones?
Sure, theres nothing wrong with ME1 an 2, but ME3 didn?t quite have the closure feeling i was hoping for. I liked the EC endings, especially the Synthesis ending.
Why? Cause it was the most adequate, at least from my point of view. The Destroy ending was basically throw my efforts regarding synthetics out the window(EDI paired up with Joker and i made peace between Quarians and Geth). The Control one gave me the "This isn?t going to last" feeling. What if eventually the Reapers brake Shepards control and begin the harvesting again? The Refusal ending, if it was better thought out and explored could easily be the Evil ending. So Synthesis was the one that really worked out.
BTW, i disregard the Indoctrination Theory entirely.

Now for the ideas on how to save(more like improve) the endings is not to fix them, but change their results. Destroy, Control and Synthesis would be Neutral endings, with Shepard dying in all of them(even with high EMS). Refusal would be the Evil ending, where Shepard would end up as a Guardian of sorts for the surviving races, ensuring to help them find the relays, the Citadel, etc(Doing all that completely indoctrinated and with only his face barely recognizable while his body is a mix of the raw power of the Brute, the biotics of a Banshee, weapon power of a Ravager and the accuracy of a Nemesis.)

The "Happy" ending would only happen if your Shepard was completely hostile with TIM during ME2 and 3, among other things. In this ending Shepard always survives, since EMS doesn?t count. This would result not in a full closure of Sheps story, but rather DLC-like post ending adventures, with you controlling Shepard and in some missions his/her children. A nice example of this type of ending are the fanfics Legacy of Fire( https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8688193/1/Legacy-Of-Fire ) and Mass Effect: Pathways( https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8227866/1/Mass-Effect-Pathways ). Read those. they?re extensive, but fit well into a DLC of sorts.

BioWare could also fit some DLCs in the story. Omega, Leviathan and Citadel played in a very detached way, Citadel especially. Making different assignments like ME1 would be nice too. One should expect mercenary and rogue groups to rise even in times of war.

These are just a couple of ideas. The thread is for discussion purposes. I would also like to request a not so detailed report of your actions in the Trilogy, belief in Indoc Theory, additional ideas, corrections and criticism, of course.

AllotoniFan ME Trilogy report:

Name: Henry Shepard
Class: Soldier(ME1), Engineer(ME2 and 3)
Reputation: Renegon(emphasis on Renegade bar)

ME1

Romance: Ashley(after i found out she?d turn out that way in ME3, i?d have nuked Kaidan in all my saves.)
Rachni Queen: Free(and doing good, i hope.)
Wrex: Alive(this one was close, though)
Virmire Sacrifice: Kaidan(Ashley suffered a couple of times. Bros before Hoes.)
Council: Rescued
Human Representative: Udina

ME2

Loyalty: All of the squadmates, except Legion(haven?t got the IFF yet.)
Normandy Upgrades: All installed, even the useless ones.
Romance: Did possible and impossible things to keep me from diving into Tali's arms.

[Bones]

Endings sucked big time in ME3 but also they were somehow good, if you give it a thought, ME3 was building that feeling this is not going to be a happy ending from the very beginning, also few hints were given in previous games ;) EC endings were in my honest opinion kinda forced into the game and worked badly for some reason... it's hard to tell what's wrong with both original and extended endings... I like them both but EC are less consistent, there were more mess ups thatn before, at least for me ;)

I hated ME3 for kind of specific feelings those endings caused, tho after few more playthroughs they kinda feel good, I rather have that bitter sweet\depressing feeling than fully happy ending where only Reapers get smashed and everybody lives happily ;) original endings raise many question, which force us to answer them with our imagination, what happened with Krogans, Turians and Asari trapped on devastedet Earth, what happened to other races homeworlds, what happened to Normandy crew or will Mass Relays ever be functional again ?

I like them as they are now

I rather like to see new story, maybe less militaristic ;) maybe more ;) there's plenty room to cover in ME universe ;)

[FarShot]

I'd rather have new then remakes.  Nothing is ever perfect, and I think fans should be happy a thousand times over that we got the games we did.  Sure, none of the endings are perfect, and neither is life nor the choices forced upon us, and that's one of the things ME3 is about - the crushing inevitability of the Reaper armada and the few things Shepard can actually do to make a difference when faced with such impossibility.

I like to think of it like I do the Matrix.  For all the rhetoric about choice, in the end, Neo has one and only one path to take.  The freedom of will he demonstrates, what might epitomize that entire trilogy, is that he freely and unreservedly makes that choice for himself.

[Bones]

I'd rather have new then remakes.  Nothing is ever perfect, and I think fans should be happy a thousand times over that we got the games we did.  Sure, none of the endings are perfect, and neither is life nor the choices forced upon us, and that's one of the things ME3 is about - the crushing inevitability of the Reaper armada and the few things Shepard can actually do to make a difference when faced with such impossibility.

I like to think of it like I do the Matrix.  For all the rhetoric about choice, in the end, Neo has one and only one path to take.  The freedom of will he demonstrates, what might epitomize that entire trilogy, is that he freely and unreservedly makes that choice for himself.

Couldn't have said it better myself ;)

[Shadowknight1]

To be honest, I never played the first, but played 2 and 3, loved them both.  And...I never got the hate towards the ending.  Even before the extended cut, I loved them.  Heck, a lot of things they felt they had to explain in the EC I took for granted as being no-brainers(your other two team-mates being picked up by the Normandy and the Normandy being repaired and leaving the planet they crashed on).  And considering that the games always gave you at best THREE choices per decision, I felt it was fair enough to have three main choices.   Even after the EC, there's only one choice that, for me, feels best for MY Shep.  My Shepard went through hell with both Legion and EDI, made peace with the geth, and couldn't find it within herself(FemShep is real Shep) to sentence an entire race and a newly & fully sentient being to death just to bring down an enemy.  She's human, not Vulcan, "needs of the many" can kiss my ass here.

Besides, "Destroy" would've eliminated all synthetic beings and, to be honest, sounded even more like a stopgap than the "Control" ending.  Creepy star-child AI even said something to the effect of "your descendants will eventually create new synthetics and start the cycle all over again."  Control seems like a good idea, and even WAS with the addition of the EC(seriously, how bad-ass a galactic security system is a bunch of reapers controlled by the unbreakable will of the Shepard??), but when I first played, it didn't sound like an ideal solution...plus admitting that TIM was right felt off to me.  So I went with the middle of the road and put a little bit of Shepard in everyone.  Uniting all races like that?  Sounded like a damn good solution to me.  Now my RENEGADE Shepard...that's another story.

So yeah, for me, Mass Effect wrapped up Shepard's story nicely, but that doesn't mean we should leave that world.  So I say, bring on Mass Effect 4!

[deadthunder2_0]

Mass Effect 3, other than the debatable endings (Which I personally liked), was genius. It really brought out desperation, and the impeding doomsday of the whole thing. Shepard had to go through several tough, hard fought victories. Spoilers!!! Yea you got the data on Mars, but so did the Illusive Man, and Ashley/Kaiden was beat to a pulp. Yes you saved Turchanka but Mordin (Or his replacement) died. You totally lost on Thessia, and yea you found out about the Catalyst, but the reapers did too.  There was only one real victory, and that was IF you managed to create peace between the geth and quarians. It showed just how bad it was, and the solutions given by Star Child were representative of that desperation. After the game-play end, the scene with the Normandy flying away from a Mass Relay as it channels all it's energy into another Relay made no sense, but it was a great way to leave it open to a sequel.

PS: No the Relay explosion in ME2 is in any way representative of the massive pulse sent from Relay to Relay in ME3.

[KrrKs]

Too many pro ending voices in here, so i have to chime in....
(-2 years later and I still thing the (original) endings are an (total) OUTRAGE! - I just had to state that here)
I guess one could actually let the SPOILERs ahead! tag away after all that time...

Someone on the Bioware Forums recently compared The ME3 Ending with the one from Star Trek: TMP, and I think that fits somewhat.

The difference is that Mass Effect never tackled the topics of godlike beings (the reapers are not godlike) nor transcendence. ME started as a more 'Hard' (lore in ME1 is pretty solid) Sci-fi game.
 Star Trek on the other hand started with a weak lore and had numerous occurrences of near godlike (energy) beings and/or transcendent ones. Resolving TMP that way was not out of place for Star Trek.
 Trying to add it into the last 5 minutes ME, which never before had anything to do with that feels totally anticlimactic and out of place!

Heck, a lot of things they felt they had to explain in the EC I took for granted as being no-brainers(your other two team-mates being picked up by the Normandy and the Normandy being repaired and leaving the planet they crashed on).

I fail to see how it is a no-brainer that my 2 dead squadmates -lying at my feed- are suddenly alive and on the normandy again,
or how the Normandy and its destroyed and blasted away wings* are repaired, ( with a destroyed relay network - meaning no aid from anyone else)
* the crack running through the port wing is still visible Post- EC.

You totally lost on Thessia

Thessia and its aftermath were some of the worst handled moments in gaming History (known to me):
 From Liaras reaction/ statements over the poorest presented un-winnable fight I've seen to Shepard reaction afterwards it was completely cringe-worthy.

PS: No the Relay explosion in ME2 is in any way representative of the massive pulse sent from Relay to Relay in ME3.

Pre EC the ME3 end Relay explosions look exactly the same as the ME2 Arrival Explosion. There is zero evidence to suggest they would somehow behave differently!
Really this was what pissed me of the most about the original endings -3 (nearly) identical endings -each of them resulting in destroying large portions of the galaxy !

tl;dr:
Yes, I let the butt-hurt flow/ Me Mad,
But overall ME3 is still a great game!

Besides, i think that the ECs refusal speach is the best, to bad that Shepard is not Kirk, otherwise Glowchild would -out of shame- blow itself up ....

[FarShot]

I would point out a couple of things:

Even assuming the mass relay network is completely destroyed, most ships are still capable of FTL travel.  Case in point through all three games, Normandy can travel between star systems separated by lightyears within each star cluster.  Normandy would not be stranded years from help.  Damage done to the Normandy is now connected to your galactic readiness as well.

The mass relays are transferring huge modulated energy bursts both in local space and also firing a concentrated beam to neighboring relays.  I assume that likely burns out the eezo core, making them much less capable of star system sized explosions.