As I said in my comment I think you definitely should. According to your thoughts in the outro I think some clarification is needed for at least one of the endings. Watching the video for each ending will surely help (more than it helped any of the first time players all those years ago as none of those videos were even in the game on first release, they were only added months later with the so called "Extended Cut" DLC so we mostly had to work it by ourselves at first). I also think it's a moot point discussing what ending is the best one or could be considered the best one before you've seen them all and truly consider those endings not as separate single events but in regards of everything that happened and everything you learned in the course of the whole trilogy, everything the trilogy tried to show you. These endings are not separate events, they are supposed to be the final result of three games. So ask yourself the question "is that ending in accordance with the notions the games put forward most of the time? And with the way I reacted myself to events most of the time?"
Originally, Anderson's final words were longer, but it was heavily cut down as it contradicted his backstory from the books/comics. The speech also included his final order for Shepard: to survive, have a family, live a happy life.
Honestly, that would not fit in with the story... You and Anderson fought to wipe Reapers and save galaxy. It would be hell of a leap if suddenly Anderson starts to talk about you having family. Not to mention that it could be considered cruel knowing, that Shep. was heavily wounded and had about same chance to escape from the Citadel with her/his injuries and quickly find medical help as Anderson himself. edit. i mean Shep. was in totally unexplored part of the Citadel. Even IF someone got to the Citadel to save him(if it did not exploded after ending) they would have like next to 0 chance of finding Shep. before he/she bleeds out. It is simple impossible.
@@HanithSVK Not entirely impossible. HIghly improbable sure, But lets face it, even if she bled out, you can be sure that Miranda showed up and made a very clear case that shepard is owed another rebuilding. She saved the entire galaxy, and she was owed by everybody. So, in that case, Shepard likely woke up again in Huerta Memorial or a lab. More likely, she was found pretty damn quick, by Hackett, like priority one in securing the citadel (don't need that thing falling on earth) and if the body existed, she would be given likely a state funeral on the citadel, cept guess what, she's still breathing. Whereupon Hackett gets doctors like there and then to stabilize her, and give Anderson a proper burial. I just don't see Hackett not coming back for her or Anderson asap, on the just in case.
The stargazer at the end credits has one of my favorite lines of the game now, purely because we know that Mass Effect 4 is coming soon. Child: "Tell me another story about the Shepard." Stargazer: "Okay, one more story." Queue ME4 Intro- I can't wait
Great Playthrough - congratulations! Regarding the Catalyst: The AI doesn't exactly do the same thing synthetics and organics do - it is essentially using the entire galaxy as the stage for an ongoing process of trial and error. In each cycle, it checks whether or not synthetics and organics can manage to coexist without conflict. If they don't, it uses the Reapers to "wipe the slate clean". I think it does that because it believes that if the organics vs synthetics conflict was left unchecked for too long, it could result in the total destruction of all organic life - including the "primitive" races. After the "reset", it then allows the natural evolution of the primitive species to progress - essentially restarting the process. The citadel is the core control element that ensures that the civilizations to come develop along the path that leads to the same organics vs. synthetics confrontation. As long as the outcome of that confrontation is conflict, the reset via Reaper will always happen. The Catalyst was essentially waiting for one cycle to "get it right". Until Shepard forced it to find a new solution.
I really wish the writers put more explanations and hints at this being true throughout this last game. It goes over the heads of about 95% of the people and to them it just seems nonsensical, even though it makes perfect sense.
I always personally go with destroy. It is the only one that just feels right to me. Control was the Illusive Man's solution and he was indoctrinated. Synthesis was Saren's solution and he was indoctrinated. Inaction just isn't a real solution and is pretty much what the Reapers are doing by continuing the same cycle over and over again. So I am always left with destruction as my only choice, because it is the only solution which has not been put forward by the Reapers or the Catalyst.
I have always chosen synthesis, because of having access to the information and cultures that came before, its the bold choice I grant you, But think about it. If you choose destroy, the cycles are over forever, But you have the Leviathan out there, and their big honkin deal was controlling everyone in the galaxy and having them pay tribute to them. There is every chance, they'd do it again, remember the collectors (former protheans) are still out there too. This way, everyone is united and connected, and no one gets the upper hand or can go back to scheming. There may even be a chance to reverse what happened to the protheans, under the strict understanding that they are not the end all be all either. Longer term it makes alot more sense. But you die, you'll be spread across the galaxy only maybe vaguely aware of anything if at all. Synthesis keeps everyone alive today and gets rid of the future threats. BUT you become the one making the choice for everyone and who should really have that ultimate authority? Destroy makes the most sense of agency. We destroy the reapers, we rebuild, we can get EDI back online, and the Geth (We only need to get one geth hardsuit working and it'll do the rest), and you live. So, obvious choice? But now you live in a galaxy where you know the Leviathan might make a play again, take over the collectors and start some stuff because they wan't their tribute. With Control, that just means you get to make that decision over and over again for eternity, and F THAT. SO Destroy and synthesis are the only real choices. Destroy if you want a future that's largely uncertain but with a whole lot of free will and Synthesis, if you want paradise for everyone you love that you will never see yourself. In the end its a question of faith verse practicality. Do I believe in the paradise that could come or do I believe we'll get there eventually, but alot of death is going to happen and every I love will die eventually. THere's no right answer between those two, just a choice, a very human choice.
The main reason I could never pick destroy is that all of the knowledge etc of all the civilizations that were destroyed by the reapers would be permanently lost. Their great sacrifices in ensuring the design of the crucible remains for the next cycle. With Synthesis their struggle was not forgotten they live on in the bodies of every living being.
In general, all endings make sense if you think about it. The "Synthesis" ending (at least before the DLC) was only available if you had almost maxed out the war assets, which was only possible by establishing peace between the geth and quarians. That is, Shepard really had to demonstrate the possibility of peace between organics and synthetics to get this ending. Also at 2:43:30, the AI says that it tried to achieve Synthesis by force, but met resistance. Actually, it is talking about the Reapers. Forced synthesis of organics and synthetics, which the organics are clearly not happy about. The motivation of the Reapers is also much more complex than "kill all organics". It is no coincidence that they repeat over and over again "There is no war - only harvest". In order to prevent the destruction of organic races by synthetic servants, the Reapers collect advanced races at the last moment. They collect genetic material (ME2 finale), and digitize the consciousness of thousands/millions of individuals into a single gestalt consciousness (Legion in ME2 talks about the structure of the geth society and compares it to the gestalt consciousness of the Sovereign) If you try to imagine the cold logical calculation of AI, then the Reaper is a transcendental transition of an entire race to a new level. DNA - check. Collective consciousness - check. Scientific potential and cultural heritage - check. The mandate to preserve life is fulfilled. Galactic evolution does not care about the suffering of individuals. Or, (which is already my personal theory) each Reaper is a way to preserve the race until the moment when the AI finds its solution. In order to revive these races in their original form after the last Cycle. That is why so much genetic material is needed to create a Reaper - it is literally a DNA bank for future cloning. And splitting the Reaper's gestalt consciousness back into individual consciousnesses is literally what the Legion did on Rannoch. But that's my take on the picture.
Since the original Reaper AI was based off the Leviathan, it possess the same ability to take form as a familiar person to speak through. So it chose the child, though in hologram form.
"It is not something that can be ... forced." Precisely why I never choose Synthesis - that ending has you invasively modify all life at a genetic level without anyone's consent.
Oh so let’s kill all the geth and edi and fuck all life in the galaxy to be destroyed by synthetics such a great way to end it giving a big middle finger to everyone who survived
I understood the synthesis that way: It cant be forced as you cant force a newborn to walk. The muscles havent developed enough yet. Or you cant make a monkey talk like us altough they can understand us "somewhat"(Sign language). Our vocal anatomy has evolved due to evolution. Some things need time to evolve or..."cook". While you do it infact without consent. As the child said "It is the final stage of all life" and it is where the problems started with in the ME universe. Some things went wrong but i suppose all the past knowledge that the reapers possess could serve the synthesis solution in a way that every species(DNA) can accept.
I respect that - it's a huge concern. For myself, I can never bring myself to decide that way, though. I think the Leviathans and intelligence were right about synthetics eventually destroying all organic life unless there is a permanent solution. In that case, modifying all currently existing life in the galaxy (while making the collective knowledge of all civilizations ever harvested available to all) to me seems to be the lesser evil compared to genociding every currently extant synthetic species and failing to prevent the extinction of all organic life by future synthetics. But none of the choices are self-evidently correct, so that's obviously as debatable as any other. It depends both on how likely you think that total extinction of organic life is going to be and on how you value preventing that, refusing to commit genocide and salvaging the collective knowledge of all harvested civilizations versus violating the autonomy of every currently existing individual. And that's what I actually like about the ending - it's a huge moral conundrum that we each solve in our own way. Sadly, it also led to vitriolic flamewars because people thought that their choice was *obviously* the only morally defensible one and thus had to belittle and insult others.
@@DumblyDorr remember though, that Reapers harvest civilizations once they hit a threshold of technological development. That threshold just so happens to be the technological level that asari, salarians and turians are currently at. So, any collective knowledge frrom previously harvested civilizations isn't going to be any better than what is already currently available. Remember what Legion said - accepting one technological solution, blinds you to alternatives. Humans could come up with a way to achieve synthesis that works best for them, turians come up with something different that functions well with their hierarchical society. Each species would be free to achieve synthesis on their terms at their pace. That way, we don't end up with a "cavemen with nuclear weapons" scenario.
@@manofwarbAn interesting thought for sure - but I don't think I can agree with the conclusion of your first paragraph. It would be truly miraculous if civilizations from different cycles at the point of harvesting would have the exact same knowledge base. One would certainly know a good number of things the other wouldn't, and vice versa - it's only required that technology in the galaxy is advanced enough to create the kind of synthetics that threaten the survival of organics. But even in computer science and AI research, the mere parity in terms of level of danger to organic life doesn't mean that the used knowledge, techniques and technologies must be the same. There might even be things to learn in that area. The Protheans with their understanding of physics (being able to "read" the "memory" of objects) are a good example of knowledge we don't have in this cycle. Thus, making the knowledge of all harvested civilizations available will certainly be huge treasure-trove of scientific knowledge - and of cultural achievements (let's not forget that all the knowledge of artistic works and philosophical works would be preserved as well). I'd imagine galactic civilization after synthesis and the availability of all collective knowledge of harvested civilizations would also be a lot closer to matter re-synthesis technology (programmable matter). As for your second paragraph - that all assumes that synthetics won't wipe out these organic civilizations before that - which is quite possible, since Quarians creating the Geth already were the "cavemen with nuclear weapons". In any case - the issue remains complex. I love these kinds of thought-experiments and friendly discussions. So thank you for you input - and for giving me something to think about.
Garrus: "It's time we get you back home, Shepard." After visiting so many planets through the series, there's almost a feeling of the fantasy crossing into reality by seeing the team on Earth with Shepard.
Only tip of the iceberg with that comment; let's just say Hale has even a better response with that moment, confirmed by the VA herself with N7 Day vids.
The final conversation with Garrus before the charge really cements how much of an unofficial married couple they are during ME3. When their work is done, they're taking the kids and taking a trip to the beach, lol.
Whether or not one agrees with the end choice, I think you gave the options due diligence and consideration :) Well played, over a long complex epic :)
2:56:34 I was waiting to see your reaction to this and it was beautiful! Thank you for playing all the Mass Effect games I don’t know what I’m going to do now except play them myself! ❤
Tali if you romance you and take her on the last push. "Go back to Rannoch, build yourself a home." Tali: (whimpering) "I have a home...come back to me." My heart breaks every time I play this game. Try to do a yearly run. It's been about a decade of playthroughs and I still have never managed to do a full renegade run. I always falter being mean to the characters I've come to adore so much. If this franchise doesn't make you cry at least once, something is broken. Perfect ending on your first playthrough, completely blind. Good on you!
Javik and shard was one of those moments in ME3, when "paragon" option have renegade consequences and "renegade" option paragon ending. Similar to Kelly at beginning. Also, while I always picked synthesis, still, generally ending of ME3 does not make much sense. I heard it was because of some confusion and problems with plotwriting, especially after some of previous authors left game development. Plus, original endings also absent large number of "details" about each ending and were quickly expanded by free-dlc because of players criticism. From what I heard, original storyline was much less confusing and mission on Haestrom in Mass Effect 2 and whole "dark matter/energy" issue were remnants of original storyline. OS would be something like "every advanced race will experiment with dark matter/energy (because of energy sources) which will cause galactic catastrophe, thus reapers destroying advanced civilizations to prevent this and preserve life". This, IMHO, make much more sense than changed storyline.
(Hi 1yr old comment) The original story is much better and straight forward, yes, but I can sort of see the logic in what we got. Organics create synthetics, and eventually a synthetic entity will systematically exterminate ALL organic life, from people to proteins, by some warped logic. So the Reapers destroying any advanced civilizations prevents that doomsday AI from ever being created
Incredible. Thanks for sharing your journey. From Marauder shields, saying bye to Garrus, and the confused look on your face when space kid came out. Quite an emotional rollercoaster.
If you pay close attention to what actually happens versus what the Starbrat says, you notice that it's only technology based on the Reapers that is destroyed - like EDI, the Mass Relays, the Reapers themselves. Not all technology is destroyed, after all there are still spaceships flying around, and people are using data pads in the epilogue slides. So, while all of the Geth who received Reapers upgrades would be destroyed, if there were any pockets of independent Geth anywhere that did not receive any upgrades, I assume those would have been untouched... it's possible, therefore, that not ALL of the Geth have been wiped out in the Destroy ending.
I have always been a "Destroy" ending, for pretty much every reason you stated. From day one, Mass Effect has been about a horrible thing happening, and doing everything we can to stop that from happening. Destroy does that. Control is simply replacing one master with another. And who's to say Shepard's morals, altruistic as they may be, won't change and shift as the millennia pass? The Catalyst thought it was doing the right thing when IT started off as well, and look how that turned out. Finally, Synthesis. It never sat well with me, because it IS a forced transformation. No say, no bodily autonomy- here, cut off your arm and replace it with a robot hand so the Space Cuttlefish stop attacking us. And as I get older, the "Information is shared, so there is no longer any misunderstandings" bit holds less and less credibility as well. Look at the internet: a free exchange of information, that everyone can access. We're all connected, so all misunderstandings can't happen, correct? Not only has that NOT happened, in many ways we've gone backwards.
Welcome to Destroy ending club! Metaphorically, Illusive man is Control, Saren is Synthesis and Anderson is Destroy ending. Game has left bread crumbs to help you choose the most fitting ending
Highly disagree about Saren. He didn't want synthesis: he wanted organics to surrender to what he saw as the supremacy of synthetics. I still think synthesis is the ideal ending, as well, though I get that it's a narrative dead end.
@@thembill8246 I wish you were right but then we both would be wrong. Go back to ME1 finale, in Saren's own words, he believed the relationship between organic and synthetic was symbiotic. Joining both organic and synthetic life was the true pinnacle of evolution and destiny of all organics life. You can debate on the choice of his words but that's Synthesis in a nutshell
@@Paragon_north Which is ok. There’s nothing to indicate that synthesis = indoctrination. The devs have come out and said the ending slides aren’t a figment of Shep’s imagination, or a fantasy, whatever people want to say. It is the pinnacle of evolution, and it prevents any further misunderstandings between organics and synthetics in the future. Destroy just means the awful wars will repeat infinitely.
@@squares4u It always have bothered me from the fact that the Synthesis ending only used Shepard, a HUMAN. as a template for this "evolution" to work on EVERYONE. sure the "upgrades" does sound good on paper. but what are the implications of these "changes" in the long run specially if they specifically only use one organic being as a template in this forced evolution? we might be able to understand each other after said evolution yet what is the cost. there must be a cost. every ending has it's own consequences. Synthesis sounds too good to be true.
@@thembill8246 Synthesis only leads to more questions rather than answers. because of how vague it was. plus since this game is Mass Effect. a game of choices and consequences. Synthesis sounds too good to be true.
The ending theme that plays over the credits is "Immoral Action", representing how no matter the ending, Shepard had to make a costing choice she wouldn't have wished for. Also composed by the same band who did the ME1 credits song.
Everytime someone points against "destroy" saying that the new war will emerge eventually - they seem to forget that quarians and geth worked it out. Who says it can't be done in the future? BTW, Legion was fighting reapers because geth believed that everyone should progress on their own terms, not because someone's forcing them. And synthesis is exactly that - forcing an antire galaxy an artificial unrequested solution. And Bioware recognized "destroy" as canon, so...
Saren wanted synthesis, the illusive man wanted control, Anderson wanted destroy, I know who's judgement I trust. What a ride this has been, to relive this trilogy through watching you play brought all the emotions back, as if i was playing it for the first time again, thank you. It was magical.
>"This is the end... I should go." Good one :) And the pendant is back in its full glory because of course, it is required here :) >5:46 You know in the military, when people start saying "it's been an honor" it's generally because they think the chances are pretty good they'll never see you again, either because you'll be dead, or they'll be dead, or you'll all be dead... If there's one last thing you want to say to a comrade in arms you respect before a battle, this is it. So it's always comforting to hear. >7:52 What makes you say that? All the "it has been an honor"? :D Or maybe the nightmare where you and the child burnt together? I mean, BioWare literally spread the endgame with clues regarding what was coming; I guess they didn't want players to be too upset... And yet, some people managed to ignore most of those clues in a "oh, all we be fine" way. >10:01 Oh, I know what you may think... And yes this scene would play very differently in other... circumstances. >11:45 This is were things are getting real. Hackett, whom is currently the top commander of all the alliance forces and by extension of the fleet you assembled, wouldn't just stop by to say hello and have some tea and biscuits :) >16:57 The Lancer is the best gun in the game and the most efficient when fully upgraded to level 10 on a NG+ (because it looses a lot of weight) so it's definitely the best alternative to any SMG, even for a sniper. However I wouldn't have suggested it on a first playthrough because considering you're a sniper, weight is definitely an issue especially because your favorite sniper rifle is already one of the heaviest in the game. With that said the fact that it hits hard (for an AR) and has unlimited ammo compensate the disadvantages, if you manage to use it because clearly you always have an issue with repeating fire weapons, whatever the game is :) >18:05 You still almost double the time it takes for your abilities (including the cloak) to refresh compared to your previous loadout (11% faster refresh against almost 60% previously) so I hope you will use the damn Lancer :D Otherwise this odd choice just would be plain silly. Especially on the final run -- one tends to test new weapons on inconsequential missions, not on a mission that decides the fate of the Galaxy :D Still the best assault rifle in the game IMO, but not for your class on a first playthrough. >43:22 Apparently Shepard's memory was badly shot because she doesn't even remember that Anderson already told her were he was born :D >Anderson: "...it took the Reapers to brings us together." Funny thing is, I can't imagine even an alien invasion of Earth would be bringing people together. Lot of scavengers, survivalists and militias shooting at anyone they don't know, traitors trying to get the upper hand, sure... but bringing people together? Hard to even imagine. In all of human history there's no indication that this may happen. True, we've never been invaded by an alien species but so far our "cooperative" and "bringing us together" records are far to be stellar. And I don't think that "humanity" (as in our species as a whole) is a concept that flies really high with most people. It's always about countries, races... etc. The fact that we're all in the same boat barely registers. >53:50 There were some mix up with some of the conversations here and there. That one with Miranda only truly makes sense if you romanced her in ME2 and 3. Otherwise it's just talking without an actual point being made. They didn't really even made an effort for all the Shepards that actually didn't romance her. >Jacob: "Shepard, that you?" Why, you have shitty eyes too? Welcome to 50% of the human population :D >Jacob: "There's this little bar in Rio we have to check" Now that's true optimism right there. The guy doesn't even envisage one second that his bar might a pile of rubble by now, and Rio too :) >55:00 As I said, Bioware left so many clues to prepare players for the worst... I was perfectly OK with that. Not overjoyed but OK. Shepard giving their life for the survival of the entire Galaxy? As far as sacrifices go, one can do so much worse than that. >59:41 "Does that even work?" Genetics says "No" but one can always dream... it's free :D Who knows, maybe one day a mad scientist will find a way to break the inter-species anti-crossbreed protections put in place by nature and we'll have dogcat or humhorse... or whatever other crazy things you may think of... I'm sure there is at least one scientist out there thinking about it :D You know? Just for the sake of testing and science? >1:06:15 An interesting thought there. Remember when you first met Liara and she told you how Asari reproduction worked and that physical contact was not required? That makes one wonders what just happened there. Maybe nothing... or maybe Bioware was making provisions for future plans. Thing is, this scene occurs whether you romance Liara or not and by design, they made it impossible for the player to miss Liara on their way in (though the player can refuse her offer). The whole thing always seemed a bit fishy to me... even the way Liara offers it sounds fishy. And her "Thank you. For everything" got to make you at least a bit suspicious there... >1:14:38 Well, next playthrough as a renegade you'll see what other options he has :D >1:39:40 It's not so much the lack of accuracy but the recoil and the class you're playing. Only a soldier can use an assault rifle with barely any recoil. Some other classes like engineer and adept require the Lancer to be equipped with a stabilization mod or they will spray bullets all over the place. As a sniper you're somewhat in mid-range, not excellent at controlling recoil from an automatic weapon but not terrible either. It could definitely be worse. >1:45:40 Really? There are people not liking you combat-pausing? Why? It's a game mechanic, if Bioware didn't want players to use such a feature why would they implement it in the first place? >2:17:45 It's interesting because Shepard hallucinating is one thing a lot of the fans wished for back then :D And if you want to know more it's enough to google "ME3 Ending indoctrination theory" to have the full explanation. Of course that was never the intent at Bioware and even if some of the game writers found this alternative way to look at the game pretty interesting, they also certified they never intended the story to be that way. In fact they couldn't because when they developed ME1 they weren't even sure there would be enough interest for a ME2 and even less for a trilogy so Mass Effect was not envisaged as a trilogy from the get go. Only the success of ME1 ensured that there would be more games, the writers weren't thinking as far ahead as ME3 when they were working on ME1, clearly. There are even some prevalent elements in ME2 that never made it into ME3 so even by the time they were wrapping things up in ME2, what would happen in ME3 was still pretty much unclear. >2:28:38 The death of Anderson hit me much harder than the death of Shepard actually. I was expecting Shepard to die but Anderson was a true surprise... Following below
>2:30:48 Pretty valid reaction right there. Reminds me of myself more than a decade ago. Yeah, this is the AI you've been told about but back then we had no way to know that because the Leviathan DLC didn't exist. So literally this "thing" was dropped on us out of nowhere like the proverbial "Deus Ex Machina". Thing is, the whole conversation with the "starchild" (common nickname for the catalyst) always gives me a headache, even knowing that this is the AI Leviathan told us about. It's like talking to a wall. And it didn't get better after Bioware re-wrote some of the dialogues in order, ironically, to make it better. >2:32:20 Exactly! But for whatever dumb reason it has the starchild doesn't connect the dots between the two situations. Otherwise it would already have eliminated itself realizing it was (and continue to be) part of the problem, not a way to the solution. >2:33:26 True again. This thing is so totally flawed that it cannot even make the distinction anymore between what it was designed to do and what it has been doing all this time. On the one hand its program is to find a solution for peace but on the other hand it doesn't want the organics to succeed in finding one (it doesn't even acknowledge the current situation with the Geth. Synthetics are fighting synthetics to preserve a way of life of both organics and synthetics... take that in your face little guy). >2:34:37 My advice: do like me. I stopped trying to get any sort of common sense out of the Catalyst a long time ago because there's none to be found. Generally when I get to this conversation I skip it as fast as I can until it presents me with its solutions :D Everything else is just repeated nonsense and hammering the same old nail. >"What is the point of this preservation?" Beats me. I had a decade to think about it and I'm still no closer to any kind of logical answer to that question :D However, when you think about it, it seem suspiciously close to synthesis, just in a gentler way. >Catalyst: "When the fire burns, is it at war? Is it in conflict? Or is it simply doing what it was created to do!" And one more time you're missing the point. You were NOT created to do what you have been doing. Part of the problem right there. How could you be part of the solution to the problem? >"No, I don't buy that." Welcome to the camp of all the people who didn't buy it then :D >Catalyst: "I was created to bring balance, to be the catalyst for peace between organics and synthetics" And you did such a splendid job right there! Millions of years of slaughter by your own creations and you're no closer to fulfill your original programming. You, my little AI, is the greatest moron ever created. No strike that because even a moron after having tried with no success the same thing for millions of years would have realized that adjustments to the plan needed to be made. >Catalyst: "...they failed to understand they were part of the problem themselves" Ooh, kinda like you then? The apple never falls far from the tree as they say :) >Catalyst: "The flaws of their organic reasoning..." And if we talked about the many holes in your synthetic reasoning instead for a change? I've seen gruyere with considerably less :D >2:37:26 Right on the nose once more. The Catalyst was never part of a solution because it is part of the problem. However it will provide you with some solutions but not from his own volition, just because successfully docking a fully functional Crucible to the Citadel introduces new parameters and forces it to reassess the situation. >Catalyst: "My solution won't work anymore" And it took you millions of years to deduce that? When has your solution even worked just once? >2:43:03 That works very well if you think you're God :D Altering the future of trillions of people in completely unpredictable ways without asking them first... is it not what a God is supposed to do? It's also a very Deus Ex solution, we're talking about merging biological and machine here. This is Deus Ex territory, not Mass Effect where understanding, cooperation and cohabitation were always put forward first and foremost. And there's a little something you seem to have missed there about the options. The colors. Control is the paragon option, destroy is the renegade option and synthesis the neutral one. >"We're doing it" Yep, there's a reason why destroy is the renegade option though... You're also killing EDI and the Geth. Joker will be pleased :) And to be clear because I've seen a lot of wishful thinking that are supposing that Bioware write endings with consequences just to cancel those consequences later... The Geth are truly gone, Sure you can reconstruct a race of synthetic but they won't be Geth and Legion's efforts to bring true intelligence to his people have been in vain and the Quarian have lost their quick way to re-adapting to their environment. As for EDI, the Catalyst was at least pretty clear about that: ALL AI will be terminated. There's no special magical condition there. It doesn't matter if she was in a box inside the Normandy considering the force of the catalyst (we're talking about something able to explode mass relays here) it wouldn't even matter if she was buried inside Fort Knox. And if the Alliance even thought there was a chance to somehow "recover" her, her name wouldn't be on the memorial. There again, you can reprogram an AI, but it won't be EDI, will it? And the mass relays are also technological in nature and will be destroyed or damaged beyond functionality too except that nobody but the Reapers (and maybe Leviathan) know how to build or even repair one. Do you see Leviathan helping with that? Which means that unless a miracle discovery happens the whole Galaxy will be stuck at FTL speeds for a decade or more. >2:46:30 Dead wrong there. At least according to most fans and a certain video. Because you chose the only ending where Shepard gets a chance, however minimal, to survive. >2:55:48 It's the only ending where Shepard plaque doesn't end up on the wall and I told you why just above (although there's no way for Garrus -- or whoever Shepard romanced -- to know that). That's what made fans go "Yay! Shepard survived!". Again no official confirmation, only this and the bit of movie that follows (where one can see what could be Shepard's dying breath for all we know but for some reason everyone goes ballistic about that). In fact a lot of people who chose this ending do it for this sole reason. >3:00:00 It could also be of immense importance in the control ending. Reapers can be a force for good. It depends on the one controlling them. >3:00:26 You mean, the kind of synthetics that you just betrayed and completely eradicated in order to protect organics? Sure because when the next AI race will learn about that little episode they will be overjoyed and totally trusting everything organics do and say. You just set an example of organic behavior and you were considered the best among organics, even by the Geth themselves. People will have to deal with that little "faux-pas" first, either by banishing it from history or being clever enough to make the next AI species think that the sacrifice of an entire AI species by someone they considered to be their best ally among organics was really truly needed... Diplomatic nightmare, good luck with that. :D Anyway, this concludes the epic journey through the Mass Effect trilogy. And to answer your question yes, I think you should actually watch the other endings even if only for yourself. You might be surprised. Although in all honesty none of the endings were ever appealing to me. I have a less terrible one so to speak, a "meh" one and a worst one. And when I'm really pissed off with the whole Catalyst thing I'm choosing the fourth ending because it's still a valid ending despite being the most useless one. But there's not one ending in ME3 that leaves me in awe saying "this is the perfect ending and I definitely want to replay that part". In fact as soon as I approach the moment to go back to Earth I really, really slowdown. I think Mass Effect perfectly represents the idea that a good ending is always more difficult to achieve than a good beginning. Well this year and a half (around that) was a splendid journey. Through one of the most interesting universe in video gaming with some of the most fantastically designed characters (a couple of them could have admittedly been better). I don't know if the chosen ending will have any impact in a future ME4/5 (depending how people want to number it -- some consider Andromeda to be #4, I don't) or if Bioware just intend to take what they consider to be the canon ending and go from there -- it would suck for a lot of people if this canon ending was the Synthesis one though...
Mass Effect _was_ planned as a trilogy from the beginning. After the success of KOTOR, the doctors gave Casey the green light to invest the company's future in a trilogy of connected games. While the story for all three games wasn't fully planned out from the beginning (and large parts of ME2 changed with Drew Karpyshyn's departure), there was a basic outline in place.
Destroy is my ending too, because I'm confident everything else is indoctrination, especially synthesis. If you remember Saren, he was pretty convinced synthesis between organic and synthetic was a wonderful idea, he talked about visions the Sovereign gave him. I believe these visions are similar to the one you get in the green ending, where everything is wonderful and shiny. I believe it all happens in Shepard's mind. Indoctrination consists in making you believe that synthesis is a wonderful idea, and that's exactly what happens when you choose that ending. Imho. Furthermore, I don't trust what the very same AI who tricked and betrayed the Leviathans tells me, I wouldn't even listen to it if I could. AIs can lie, as the game tells you from the very beginning, because they are self aware, and can be afraid to die, have goals, just like organics. Synthesis is described so well by Mordin in ME2 about Protheans becoming Collectors: "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever." "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intelligence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous." I also wanted to point out that the Galaxy trusted you to destroy the Reapers, not to turn everyone into something else, without asking them if they are ok with that. I see it as a violence against self-determination, similar to what happened to David. With Synthesis you act like David's brother, forcing everyone into something that they might dislike a lot. Another point is that the whole trilogy teaches you that the best thing is working together though maintaining differences and peculiarities, while synthesis is peace because we are all the same. And being all the same is not enough to get along, since organics moved war to each other and machines did too, heretics against the other Geth for example. About Edi dying, her self awareness is mainly in the Normandy, I believe that only her mobile sexy platform was down and that's why you see her name on the board and Joker is not crying.
Admittedly, the catalyst doesn't do a great job of explaining, but here's my understanding of its reasoning based on what it said and some clues I pieced together from the leviathan dlc and the prothean VI. The reapers weren't about ending conflict themselves, so much as they were a stall tactic, buying time for the catalyst to figure out how to reach Synthesis or an equally viable solution. Before resorting to the reapers, the catalyst tried several times to resolve conflict between organics and synthetics, but nothing ever worked permanently. You might point to the geth and quarians as an example of peaceful resolution, but keep in mind that the peace is still very new and still very shaky. There is still a vast disconnect between the two forms of life. Remember that Tali and Legion, despite growing to trust and care for each other, were willing to sacrifice the other's species to save their own. The destroy ending further exemplifies this. Choosing this means that Shepard is willing to sacrifice all synthetics to save organics, further proving the catalyst's point that neither views the other as an equally valid form of life, making future conflict inevitable. Another thing to keep in mind is the geth are really just starting to evolve. They have only achieved a fraction of their potential. Imagine where they'll be in a hundred, or a thousand years. When a new conflict arises, organics would stand no chance. Eventually, synthetics would have the means to wipe out all organic life if they so desired. We know that the reapers could do so easily if their objective wasn't instead to harvest them. From a purely logical standpoint, the catalyst is correct that their actions are the only thing stopping such an advanced form of synthetic life from evolving, which in turn saves organics from an inevitable extinction. That is why I think synthesis is the best ending. Destroy is solving conflict with more conflict; a continuation of the flawed and brutal system that will always end in the strong dominating the weak until something stronger dominates them. Control does represent an end to this brutal system, but at the cost of free will. To ensure that peace lasts, Shepard/the reapers have to see to it that nothing ever surpasses them, thus keeping all other forms of life under their thumb; comfortable perhaps, but inherently stagnant and subservient. Synthesis has the most unknowns but also the most potential. It gives all life the potential to evolve in tandem, instead of one surpassing the next. What they will evolve into is unknown, and they could still succumb to more petty forms of conflict, but it is the only option that gives hope for a diverse, growing, and peaceful future.
Just finished Mass Effect Legererdy Edition this is one of the best game series ive ever completed. Feel sad i finished it. You will never get that experience of finishing it your first play through.😢😢😢
Moira Shepard chose to Destroy as she viewed it as her mission from the beginning, despite knowing that it would also be genocide for the Geth and kill EDI. Kit Shepard decided that she'd rather control the Reapers because she's a bit power hungry and found TIM's arguments to be flawed but have merit.
For me: Rachel ( Balanced Renegade/Paragon - did the right things by her Crew - everyone else could just get TF out of her way - Adept ), chose Synthesis, as it solved the situation, with the smallest body count, and at least inflicted the "solution" uniformly - this is my personal "canonical" ending. Lilith ( Renegade Engineer ) chose Control - but she always was a hard ass. Ivan ( the complete Renegade "dick" character, Infiltrator ) shot the Catalyst, so ... Li-Chen ( Paragon Soldier ) chose Destroy, because that was the mission.
@@Vedexent_ Moira is a Paragon Infiltrator, and my canon Shep. Kit is a mostly-renegade infiltrator who was usually nice to the crew and hated everyone else.
Janet Shepard (My canon Shepard) is a Mostly Paragon with a bit of Renegade in her. She ultimately choses Control. She cannot betray her friends and allies, taking Destroy off the Table, and she found Synthesis far too invasive. She also does not believe that the peace will last, and with a weakened military, someone needs to keep everyone in check.
So now you see why all of the Mass Effect Fandom got mad on ME3 release. The Ending was basically "congrats, you won! to claim your prize please select one of three ways to off yourself. The End" With one voice, we cried out in sorrow and anger. Bioware agreed to polish it, but no more. It still boils down to which color of Instagram filter do you want the explosion to be? and how would you like to end the life of shepard. The ending breath was ONLY because you got SO many war assets and chose destroy. All others, Shepard no longer has A body. Barring that, the whole trilogy was amazing. obligatory "His name...was Marauder Shields." old meme that the fandom fell in love with.
Liera! Thank you so much for letting us accompany you on this ride. I got the sense from the early going that we were like-minded in our feelings and logic, and this ending proved me right. When the game was released, so many players didn't see the contradictions in the Catalyst's solutions (since it's a machine, it's only concerned with self-preservation, just like that escaped AI on the Citadel in the first game, so it presents the non-Destroy solutions as the appealing ones to distract you from the goal, even though they're the solutions that the two most indoctrinated a-holes in the series, TIM and Saren, wanted). People put too much stock in his trash-talk about others being affected by the Crucible, despite the actual ending showing that technology wasn't affected. Also worth noting that if you have low EMS, he mentions that the geth will also be destroyed, but on high EMS, he doesn't (even though you don't see them in the slide show at the end). And your tears! Brava! Such an emotional experience and an all-time great playthrough for the archives. Thank you again; this was a privilege!
Since Liara's dialogue takes priority over the other characters, there's some good lines from Garrus missed during the final mission. Specifically in the Mako, while Liara says it's an honor to be on the team, Garrus' line is more personal, that it's fitting that the final battle lies on them.
On a personal note, thank you for guiding us in this incredible quest. I've played these games a dozen times, and enjoyed each one of them. But it was nice (to put it mildly) to see you wrestle with all those questions, and come up with youw own answers, in your own journey. Sometimes we chose the same solutions, sometimes not. At all times it was a pleasure to watch you make those choices.
You had a good read on the catalyst. It, just like everyone else in the entire series, only had so much self awareness. Especially if you have no equal, who's going to tell you when you're full of shit?
It is actually okay. Not as god a mass 1 2 3 but okay. The gameplay is god especially the player creation. You can use all power if you chose to. The lack is the story. Not as god as in 1 2 3.
This. I honestly didn’t find as many issues with it as others and I was there from day 1. The issue is it was competing against a trilogy and meant to be only part 1 of a trilogy itself. It didn’t have any more flaws than the first mass effect.
@@SethScapesGamingHonestly, I always thought most of the blow back for Andromeda was residual hatred for the Mass Effect 3 ending which was still strong at the time.
@@MandalorianRevanI felt it was that mass effect has always being about the OP reapers. Thus when playing you must see andromeda as a completely different game. Then it ia fun. The antagonists is not half what the reapers were. This leaves me with 1 problem though. Mass effect 4... what if this is the same ahort coming? And tali... better bw there.
Javik once mentioned there was a race that tried to mix flesh and machine, and that race died out over generations. Note the Catalyst said they tried Synthesis once and it failed, hmm.
The difference between AI and the reapers is that the reapers leave younger species alone thus allowing life in the galaxy to continue. They fear that rebelling AI would not stop at their masters and wipe out ALL organic life.
The best ending - at least back in 2012 - was letting the true hero of Mass Effect, Marauder Shields, shoot you and prevent you from having to listen to Starchild's nonsense.
@@Vedexent_ I still have a "Marauder Shields' Tshirt. Thankfully the 'extended cut' (now the default) went a long way to making the ending that exists understandable.
good job kid, good job, not many people take that ending, I did, if you control or synthesize, there is NO justice for anything the reapers did over countless ages of killing people.
I think people slightly misunderstand what the catalyst is saying. The catalyst claims that synthetics don't just destroy their creators, but will eliminate ALL life. If the Reapers harvest advanced species, they prevent them from developing a synthetic race that is capable of eliminating all life in the galaxy, so they achieve their goal. The AI's job isn't to preserve any particular species, but life itself. Their approach is flawed, but from their perspective they are actually doing what they were designed to do.
You made the right choice, at the end. The other 2 are just either morally awful (Synthesis) or contradict what we were told in the entire trilogy about organics wanting to control the Reapers (Control). Everybody was in it, willing to give up their lives, to stop the Reapers. Destroy was the way to go, from every pov.
Also, you should react to the ME4 teaser trailer. The other endings I don't feel are worth the effort to react to on the channel. I think you'd be better off just watching them off-camera.
@@justaguyfromeurope Why did Shepard unite the Geth and the Quarians in Rannoch and then suddenly destroy the Geth and all synthetics. How does that make sense at all?
@@justaguyfromeurope Shepard would rather die himself than undo his work by killing the Geth and Synthetics, after all the shit he went through to get them and the quarians working again.
Sorry, the last time...synthesis is what we seen in mass effect 1, saren was the synthesis between himself organic life and the sovereign. Control is what we seen in mass effect 3, the illusive man tried to control the reapers. I have never wanted to be like saren or the illusive man, so in my opinion destroy is the right choise. Byeeee ❤
I like how you called out the contradictory nonsense of the little brat immediatly, destroy makes the most sense as Shepard has no reason to trust it at all.
And thus, this is where the War Assets come into play, the amount you have determine how protected the Crucible is when it arrives. The less your fleet is, the more damage is dealt to the Crucible by the Reapers. As a result, the damage affects what options (choices) are functioning... and how accurate they'll be. If the Crucible was damaged enough, the destructive energy released would be... too much and no longer targeted.
The Reapers were able to control the cycles because they control the technology used by developing races. In the Control and Synthesis endings you are still using the Reaper technology. By choosing Destroy you are forging your own path free of Reaper control.
Because everyone is giving up the Reaper tech? Like we don't see repaired Mass Effect relays? Destroy does no such thing. You don't have an option for *new* Reaper tech, but it's not like they ran a *Best Buy* down on the corner and handed out tech to people.
OMG With your ending? Garrus did not put the Plackard of Shepard's name up. It showed Shepards dog tags. And his helmet. In tact. *There is a great chance Shepard survived!!! glad I watched your vid till the end!. Never knew... 🎉🎉👍👍👍👍👍👌👌🔥🔥 Talk about the paradoxes created, by choices the player makes... 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 I believe your choice with the female Shepard so far overall? Since I have already played through 5 times already? IS the best choice. Whether by blind luck in choosing? Or deliberately. 😊
If you choose the assimilate ending you might as well have sided with Saren in ME1 and not bothered playing ME2 and ME3. If you choose the control ending you might as well have sided with The Illusive Man in ME2 and not bothered with ME3. There's only one outcome that Sheppard wanted and the galaxy fought so hard for. Sheppard's mission from the get go was to destroy the Reapers and in the end I didn't see a compelling reason to change it.
Yeaaaaaahhh when she started crying during the space battle I was thinking, I hope she is staying hydrated or this lady is gonna die. 😱 Personally speaking, having our entire playthroughs boiled down to 'red, green or blue' was obnoxious but I favored green thematically - but we all know red is the only one that makes sense canonically.
Congratulations on finishing this epic trilogy. For my part, I chose destroy because that was always the end goal. I was really sad about the fate of the EDI and the Geth, since it is strongly implied that they died. After discovering the little clip that seems to hint at Shepard's survival, it became my only choice, if only for the possibility of a happily ever after with our chosen love interest.
Thanks for allowing us to watch your play through - I found it super enjoyable to visit with all my old friends through you🙂 You did a great job. I chose synthesis, as I understood from the Catalyst that it had evolved and hence the new solution options. Also that organics were now ready, due to them all coming together this cycle, and that Shepard was the embodiment/manifiestation of that readiness - so not forced.
Welcome to the ranks of N7, commander. It's been a pleasure being on this journey with you - and what an emotional journey it is. We've all come to love these wonderful characters, this epic story. I'm very glad you found it so meaningful and enjoyable - and you did amazing on your first run! Here's to a few more playthroughs :)
Finally the last part since 2007 I've put thousands of hours into this series and I love watching other people's play throughs to see what choices they make I'm typing this comment at the star of your vid so I hope you enjoy the ending so good luck👍
The destruction ending seems to me the best solution because its the only one that finally puts an end to the reapers forever. I just cant feel comfortable leaving them roaming around the galaxy in any capacity.
@@S0LAVELLANHELL Doesn't matter. If you have two other perfectly valid choices and _intentionally_ choose the one that basically has you acting with the same logic as _The Catalyst,_ then that means you've made a mistake.
Liera, Loved your entire playthrough. You made it, and you get to go to the beach with Garrus. The loss of Edi is brutal. But I like the fact that you chose the ending the way you did. You reasoned it out. Thankyou so much for sharing this with us.
90% of the time pick destroy and consider it my canon ending. It feels like the only real option. Control you are just becoming the illusive man so screw that. Synthesis I can’t force that on the galaxy. I mean what if people don’t want their DNA rewritten no I won’t do that. Hackett told me dead reapers is how we win this. This has been our goal for 3 games and now that we made it we don’t do it no we end this war we have shown organics and synthetic life can coexist. It’s sad EDI and the geth must be sacrificed but I think they would be willing to give up their life to rid the galaxy of the reapers just like so many organics were. There is a 4th hidden option many don’t know which is the refuse path. Not choosing anything the war continues and you leave it to the next cycle to decide what happens
4th way is one of 2 true endings. Without Karpishin's vision we've lost the meaning of this series: MASS EFFECT. Galaxy is dying during using null-element. And at the end of 3rd game we still have no decision.. Ai is not a problem: Sheppard solved this problem on Rannoch 1 day ago. Official 3-colored endings are bs, none of our decisions make sense at all. Endings are emotional but without any sense
I believe this is the best choice. By destroying the reapers you accomplish the objective we have since the very begining. Besides, that's the only option that gives us that last scene of Shepard breathing, and Garrus not placing Shepard's name in the wall.
Thank God you chose the destroy ending, the others are not what we set out to do from the start which is to destroy the reapers, also the other endings will not be canon when the future mass effect is released I'm guessing. Thank you for this epic playthrough
Woah what a journey this has been! So many memorable moments... Thank you for sharing your whole experience with us, Liera, and all the effort you've put into it (onscreen and behind the scenes)! It's been a blast seeing your reactions and hearing your thoughts on everything that is Mass Effect. Though it's still miles-or should I say light years-away (hehe) don't forget there's a Mass Effect 4 trailer you can look up if you want. Any thoughts on the post credits scene? Getting a snippet of what apparently seems to be a distant future. Them talking about "The Shepard" as if some mythological, larger than life figure from ancient history always struck me as fascinating and wanting more😅
Great ending Liera. I loved seeing you get so emotionally involved. I chose the Synthesis ending but wasn't really happy with any of them. I didn't want to destroy the Geth and EDI, as I felt they were essential to keeping the peace between synts and organics. The Destroy ending was my second choice but I'm not convinced a future race of synthetics would find a peaceful solution.
@@squares4uIt actually is though. EDI gladly would’ve sacrificed herself for billions of people. As for the Geth. Hackett states „we can rebuild EVERYTHING…“.
You mean forcing what is just an objective upgrade... saving the lives of billions of people that have some kind of handicap, diseases or other problems... because some kind of abstract moral stance. Yeah, thanks for not forcing me to be more intelligent, stronger and immortal. Thank you so much XD
@@spectre9948 But given the other choices, EDI was sacrificed for nothing, she didn't need to die. She did just so some people could stand in their high horses and say "at least I didn't force perfection on an unsuspecting population"... sure.
@@Alfonso88279 do we even deserve the "upgrade"? Synthesis is the literal definition of losing individuality since we "understand" each other. do we even lose our morality once this happens? Synthesis is so vague in explaining what would happen to everyone affected by it.
Fun Fact: Mass Effect 3 used to have a companion app that allowed you to receive texts from various companions/squad mates/characters based on how your Mass Effect 3 story went. Receiving a drunk text from Tali was hilarious! However, a High EMS Destroy Ending would result in the final text being from Shepard saying he was recovered and up and about. Also, there are multiple endings- High and Low EMS endings and Paragon and Renegade versions of Destroy, Control and Synthesis.
there was 4 options , you could have shot the kid and refused and put you,re hope with all you,re info in the next cycles people ! this is one of the best series i have ever played and now i think its you,re to , this is why this series is sooo loved !
In my first playthrough, I chose the destroy option. It was my instinct because, from the start of the first game, it was my mission to destroy them, but I decided without thinking about the peace I had cultivated with the Geth and Quarians and also the progress and friendship I built with EDI. On every subsequent playthrough, I have chosen synthesis.
Bioware has made subtle references to things that happened only after the Destroy Ending, one being that Shepard was most likely pulled from the rubble by their love interest after the breath. Garrus refused to put Shepard's name on the memorial wall and smiled instead because this time, he felt she wasn't gone. And thus, the Normandy departed for the long journey back to Earth...
Thank you for sharing you first play through Liera, it's been great watching you. Your reactions and thoughts have been fantastic. You've now completed the best game series ever made (in my humble opinion anyway from those I've played). Destroy is a fine choice, and would certainly like to see your reactions to the other endings. My first play through, I chose destroy, however not enough war assets for the ideal destroy ending. Would also like to know your favourites, and least favourite squad mates now all completed.
Control: Remember the proto-Reaper from ME2? It had inside it the minds of every person liquefied to create it. The Reapers are a gigantic file saving system, preserving the minds of all the people harvested. It was the Catalyst's way of preserving civilizations that would otherwise become extinct at the "hands" of the synthetics they created. The difference of what they did from what you'd do was that your mind would be in control of the Reaperts, and not the other way around. Destroy: I'll admit it was my least favorite choice, as, among other things, would mean betrayingthe Geth and EDI, andI couldn't do it. The Greater Good be dawned. As EDI once said, the difference between us and them was that we cared for those near us. Plus, I agree with the catalyst that it would just change apocalipsae. Now our descendants are slated to die in a synthetic armagedon. Thanks, I'll pass. (and EDI's name was in the Normandy's mural, if you look closely). It left synthesys. It couldn't be forced, it had to be chosen - by Shepard. If SHE chose it, it'd be feasible. And everybody else would be swept along with the tide. No votes or discussions, just the decision of a single woman. Not perfect, but the best available choice. As a transhumanist, I do like this choice (for me), personally. It shouldn't be forced upon you, even by Shepard, but, again, the other choices sucked more. A decision had to be made right there end then, no callbacks. And it had the bonus of freeing (as I understood it)the countless civilizations that were stuck inside the Reapers all those millions of years, to become active participants in this Brave New Galaxy
Talking to the Catalyst this time, I was reminded of the HAL 9000. According to the book and the sequel reveal that the reason HAL acted the way he deed was because was caught in a fundamental contradiction: on the one hand, his entire purpose was to disseminate the truth fully and without distortion, but on the other, he was ordered to keep the true nature of the Jupiter mission secret from the crew. These contradicting directives put him into a circle of logic that eventually led him to decide that the best solution was to kill the entire crew! The Catalyst seems to have gone through a similar loop of logic that eventually makes it decide that the best solution is destroying everything and starting over.
Only played the whole triolgy for the first time this year and I can say without a doubt it was one of the best gaming experiences Ive had beginning to end I had tried every couple years to get into mass effect but rarely even got past the citidal in ME1, mostly cause I was too young to understand what was needed or what was going on so I'd give up without getting far and I'm actually happy I did because being able to play it when I'm older and being able to understand everything made the experience so much more enjoyable
Very emotional episod, i am never tired to play mass effect and I hope our shepard can return back in next mass effect. Very very good playthrough. Byeeee 👍
The catalyst thought it was ok to destroy that small ship with the child in it at the beginning of 3. So, remembering that, I thought it's ok to destroy the reapers. So I did.
Wonderful! What a journey! It’s been great seeing you play this and it’s been quite something seeing you react to things, I too am in the group that literally cries at some of the content of these games. And the experience is better for it. My first time I went for control. This was before synthesis got added and without any DLC. What a lovely fresh experience this is! You’re awesome, can’t wait to see what else you have planned!
The other ending for the confrontation with the Illusive Man occurs if Shepard simply makes him snap. He shoves Anderson out of the way, placing himself right in front of Shepard, allowing her to pull the trigger as he attempts to shoot her. As the Citadel opens, Illusive Man stares outward and comments on how beautiful Earth is before he dies.
IDC what anyone says, ME3 alone was an amazingly good game and even though the ending isn't what everyone wanted, it's worth the 120 hours playing this trilogy from start to finish over and over when you get to the ending, every time. I already played through twice this year and I may honestly do another one once I get my new setup situated.
Great playthrough took me back to my first time thanks Liera. I have tried all endings the one i end up choosing the most is the synth ending. I feel like they all have issues but synth to me has the least.
Should we watch all endings in the next video so I can clarify for myself all the things I didn't get?
I love this idea!
i would also recommend watching the Mass Effect 4/5 trailer
As I said in my comment I think you definitely should. According to your thoughts in the outro I think some clarification is needed for at least one of the endings. Watching the video for each ending will surely help (more than it helped any of the first time players all those years ago as none of those videos were even in the game on first release, they were only added months later with the so called "Extended Cut" DLC so we mostly had to work it by ourselves at first).
I also think it's a moot point discussing what ending is the best one or could be considered the best one before you've seen them all and truly consider those endings not as separate single events but in regards of everything that happened and everything you learned in the course of the whole trilogy, everything the trilogy tried to show you. These endings are not separate events, they are supposed to be the final result of three games. So ask yourself the question "is that ending in accordance with the notions the games put forward most of the time? And with the way I reacted myself to events most of the time?"
Yes please! I'd definitely enjoy seeing your reactions to the rest of the potential endings (Including the "4th" ending)
Sure
"I'm proud of you." Is a punch in the gut every time.
Hurts even more playing as Male Shep. "You did good SON" sound more close and personal than "CHILD" 💔😭
Yeah, especially if you play as street orphan shepard ...
@@geotcxs1697 Even more if you mod it to add the lines that they removed about being a father/mother
That line...
And joker that does not want to leave you...
Mass effect: "You thought this would be game with a happy ending, but it was I!!! A punch in your feelings!!"
Fun fact: the Stargazer at the very end 3:03:58 is actually voiced by Buzz Aldrin. The second person to set foot on the Moon.
Shepard was also named after Alan Shepard. The 2nd person and 1st American to go to space, and the 5th and oldest person to set foot on the moon.
@@redwings0142 i had to look that up to double check. huge congrats to Shepard, i didnt think he went
The final two conversations with Garrus are the only times Jennifer Hale broke a bit in the voice recording booth.
Originally, Anderson's final words were longer, but it was heavily cut down as it contradicted his backstory from the books/comics. The speech also included his final order for Shepard: to survive, have a family, live a happy life.
Honestly, that would not fit in with the story... You and Anderson fought to wipe Reapers and save galaxy. It would be hell of a leap if suddenly Anderson starts to talk about you having family. Not to mention that it could be considered cruel knowing, that Shep. was heavily wounded and had about same chance to escape from the Citadel with her/his injuries and quickly find medical help as Anderson himself.
edit. i mean Shep. was in totally unexplored part of the Citadel. Even IF someone got to the Citadel to save him(if it did not exploded after ending) they would have like next to 0 chance of finding Shep. before he/she bleeds out. It is simple impossible.
@@HanithSVK Not entirely impossible. HIghly improbable sure, But lets face it, even if she bled out, you can be sure that Miranda showed up and made a very clear case that shepard is owed another rebuilding. She saved the entire galaxy, and she was owed by everybody. So, in that case, Shepard likely woke up again in Huerta Memorial or a lab.
More likely, she was found pretty damn quick, by Hackett, like priority one in securing the citadel (don't need that thing falling on earth) and if the body existed, she would be given likely a state funeral on the citadel, cept guess what, she's still breathing. Whereupon Hackett gets doctors like there and then to stabilize her, and give Anderson a proper burial.
I just don't see Hackett not coming back for her or Anderson asap, on the just in case.
The stargazer at the end credits has one of my favorite lines of the game now, purely because we know that Mass Effect 4 is coming soon.
Child: "Tell me another story about the Shepard."
Stargazer: "Okay, one more story."
Queue ME4 Intro-
I can't wait
Great Playthrough - congratulations!
Regarding the Catalyst: The AI doesn't exactly do the same thing synthetics and organics do - it is essentially using the entire galaxy as the stage for an ongoing process of trial and error.
In each cycle, it checks whether or not synthetics and organics can manage to coexist without conflict. If they don't, it uses the Reapers to "wipe the slate clean". I think it does that because it believes that if the organics vs synthetics conflict was left unchecked for too long, it could result in the total destruction of all organic life - including the "primitive" races.
After the "reset", it then allows the natural evolution of the primitive species to progress - essentially restarting the process.
The citadel is the core control element that ensures that the civilizations to come develop along the path that leads to the same organics vs. synthetics confrontation. As long as the outcome of that confrontation is conflict, the reset via Reaper will always happen.
The Catalyst was essentially waiting for one cycle to "get it right". Until Shepard forced it to find a new solution.
I really wish the writers put more explanations and hints at this being true throughout this last game. It goes over the heads of about 95% of the people and to them it just seems nonsensical, even though it makes perfect sense.
@@nemangame Made perfect sense to me.
Bingo
I always personally go with destroy. It is the only one that just feels right to me. Control was the Illusive Man's solution and he was indoctrinated. Synthesis was Saren's solution and he was indoctrinated. Inaction just isn't a real solution and is pretty much what the Reapers are doing by continuing the same cycle over and over again. So I am always left with destruction as my only choice, because it is the only solution which has not been put forward by the Reapers or the Catalyst.
I have always chosen synthesis, because of having access to the information and cultures that came before, its the bold choice I grant you, But think about it. If you choose destroy, the cycles are over forever, But you have the Leviathan out there, and their big honkin deal was controlling everyone in the galaxy and having them pay tribute to them. There is every chance, they'd do it again, remember the collectors (former protheans) are still out there too. This way, everyone is united and connected, and no one gets the upper hand or can go back to scheming. There may even be a chance to reverse what happened to the protheans, under the strict understanding that they are not the end all be all either.
Longer term it makes alot more sense. But you die, you'll be spread across the galaxy only maybe vaguely aware of anything if at all.
Synthesis keeps everyone alive today and gets rid of the future threats. BUT you become the one making the choice for everyone and who should really have that ultimate authority?
Destroy makes the most sense of agency. We destroy the reapers, we rebuild, we can get EDI back online, and the Geth (We only need to get one geth hardsuit working and it'll do the rest), and you live. So, obvious choice? But now you live in a galaxy where you know the Leviathan might make a play again, take over the collectors and start some stuff because they wan't their tribute.
With Control, that just means you get to make that decision over and over again for eternity, and F THAT. SO Destroy and synthesis are the only real choices. Destroy if you want a future that's largely uncertain but with a whole lot of free will and Synthesis, if you want paradise for everyone you love that you will never see yourself.
In the end its a question of faith verse practicality. Do I believe in the paradise that could come or do I believe we'll get there eventually, but alot of death is going to happen and every I love will die eventually.
THere's no right answer between those two, just a choice, a very human choice.
The main reason I could never pick destroy is that all of the knowledge etc of all the civilizations that were destroyed by the reapers would be permanently lost.
Their great sacrifices in ensuring the design of the crucible remains for the next cycle. With Synthesis their struggle was not forgotten they live on in the bodies of every living being.
In general, all endings make sense if you think about it.
The "Synthesis" ending (at least before the DLC) was only available if you had almost maxed out the war assets, which was only possible by establishing peace between the geth and quarians. That is, Shepard really had to demonstrate the possibility of peace between organics and synthetics to get this ending.
Also at 2:43:30, the AI says that it tried to achieve Synthesis by force, but met resistance. Actually, it is talking about the Reapers. Forced synthesis of organics and synthetics, which the organics are clearly not happy about.
The motivation of the Reapers is also much more complex than "kill all organics". It is no coincidence that they repeat over and over again "There is no war - only harvest". In order to prevent the destruction of organic races by synthetic servants, the Reapers collect advanced races at the last moment. They collect genetic material (ME2 finale), and digitize the consciousness of thousands/millions of individuals into a single gestalt consciousness (Legion in ME2 talks about the structure of the geth society and compares it to the gestalt consciousness of the Sovereign)
If you try to imagine the cold logical calculation of AI, then the Reaper is a transcendental transition of an entire race to a new level. DNA - check. Collective consciousness - check. Scientific potential and cultural heritage - check. The mandate to preserve life is fulfilled. Galactic evolution does not care about the suffering of individuals.
Or, (which is already my personal theory) each Reaper is a way to preserve the race until the moment when the AI finds its solution. In order to revive these races in their original form after the last Cycle. That is why so much genetic material is needed to create a Reaper - it is literally a DNA bank for future cloning. And splitting the Reaper's gestalt consciousness back into individual consciousnesses is literally what the Legion did on Rannoch. But that's my take on the picture.
Mass Effect 3s soundtrack is an absolute masterpiece!
Anderson's death broke me. He was like a father figure to Shepard.
I like spacer background, so Shepard has a family.
Since the original Reaper AI was based off the Leviathan, it possess the same ability to take form as a familiar person to speak through. So it chose the child, though in hologram form.
"It is not something that can be ... forced." Precisely why I never choose Synthesis - that ending has you invasively modify all life at a genetic level without anyone's consent.
Oh so let’s kill all the geth and edi and fuck all life in the galaxy to be destroyed by synthetics such a great way to end it giving a big middle finger to everyone who survived
I understood the synthesis that way: It cant be forced as you cant force a newborn to walk. The muscles havent developed enough yet. Or you cant make a monkey talk like us altough they can understand us "somewhat"(Sign language). Our vocal anatomy has evolved due to evolution.
Some things need time to evolve or..."cook".
While you do it infact without consent. As the child said "It is the final stage of all life" and it is where the problems started with in the ME universe. Some things went wrong but i suppose all the past knowledge that the reapers possess could serve the synthesis solution in a way that every species(DNA) can accept.
I respect that - it's a huge concern. For myself, I can never bring myself to decide that way, though. I think the Leviathans and intelligence were right about synthetics eventually destroying all organic life unless there is a permanent solution.
In that case, modifying all currently existing life in the galaxy (while making the collective knowledge of all civilizations ever harvested available to all) to me seems to be the lesser evil compared to genociding every currently extant synthetic species and failing to prevent the extinction of all organic life by future synthetics.
But none of the choices are self-evidently correct, so that's obviously as debatable as any other. It depends both on how likely you think that total extinction of organic life is going to be and on how you value preventing that, refusing to commit genocide and salvaging the collective knowledge of all harvested civilizations versus violating the autonomy of every currently existing individual.
And that's what I actually like about the ending - it's a huge moral conundrum that we each solve in our own way. Sadly, it also led to vitriolic flamewars because people thought that their choice was *obviously* the only morally defensible one and thus had to belittle and insult others.
@@DumblyDorr remember though, that Reapers harvest civilizations once they hit a threshold of technological development. That threshold just so happens to be the technological level that asari, salarians and turians are currently at. So, any collective knowledge frrom previously harvested civilizations isn't going to be any better than what is already currently available.
Remember what Legion said - accepting one technological solution, blinds you to alternatives. Humans could come up with a way to achieve synthesis that works best for them, turians come up with something different that functions well with their hierarchical society. Each species would be free to achieve synthesis on their terms at their pace. That way, we don't end up with a "cavemen with nuclear weapons" scenario.
@@manofwarbAn interesting thought for sure - but I don't think I can agree with the conclusion of your first paragraph. It would be truly miraculous if civilizations from different cycles at the point of harvesting would have the exact same knowledge base.
One would certainly know a good number of things the other wouldn't, and vice versa - it's only required that technology in the galaxy is advanced enough to create the kind of synthetics that threaten the survival of organics. But even in computer science and AI research, the mere parity in terms of level of danger to organic life doesn't mean that the used knowledge, techniques and technologies must be the same. There might even be things to learn in that area.
The Protheans with their understanding of physics (being able to "read" the "memory" of objects) are a good example of knowledge we don't have in this cycle.
Thus, making the knowledge of all harvested civilizations available will certainly be huge treasure-trove of scientific knowledge - and of cultural achievements (let's not forget that all the knowledge of artistic works and philosophical works would be preserved as well).
I'd imagine galactic civilization after synthesis and the availability of all collective knowledge of harvested civilizations would also be a lot closer to matter re-synthesis technology (programmable matter).
As for your second paragraph - that all assumes that synthetics won't wipe out these organic civilizations before that - which is quite possible, since Quarians creating the Geth already were the "cavemen with nuclear weapons".
In any case - the issue remains complex. I love these kinds of thought-experiments and friendly discussions. So thank you for you input - and for giving me something to think about.
Garrus: "It's time we get you back home, Shepard."
After visiting so many planets through the series, there's almost a feeling of the fantasy crossing into reality by seeing the team on Earth with Shepard.
Only tip of the iceberg with that comment; let's just say Hale has even a better response with that moment, confirmed by the VA herself with N7 Day vids.
@@derecho7926 What'd she say?
The final conversation with Garrus before the charge really cements how much of an unofficial married couple they are during ME3.
When their work is done, they're taking the kids and taking a trip to the beach, lol.
Whether or not one agrees with the end choice, I think you gave the options due diligence and consideration :)
Well played, over a long complex epic :)
2:56:34 I was waiting to see your reaction to this and it was beautiful! Thank you for playing all the Mass Effect games I don’t know what I’m going to do now except play them myself! ❤
Tali if you romance you and take her on the last push.
"Go back to Rannoch, build yourself a home."
Tali: (whimpering) "I have a home...come back to me."
My heart breaks every time I play this game. Try to do a yearly run. It's been about a decade of playthroughs and I still have never managed to do a full renegade run. I always falter being mean to the characters I've come to adore so much.
If this franchise doesn't make you cry at least once, something is broken.
Perfect ending on your first playthrough, completely blind. Good on you!
Javik and shard was one of those moments in ME3, when "paragon" option have renegade consequences and "renegade" option paragon ending. Similar to Kelly at beginning.
Also, while I always picked synthesis, still, generally ending of ME3 does not make much sense. I heard it was because of some confusion and problems with plotwriting, especially after some of previous authors left game development. Plus, original endings also absent large number of "details" about each ending and were quickly expanded by free-dlc because of players criticism.
From what I heard, original storyline was much less confusing and mission on Haestrom in Mass Effect 2 and whole "dark matter/energy" issue were remnants of original storyline. OS would be something like "every advanced race will experiment with dark matter/energy (because of energy sources) which will cause galactic catastrophe, thus reapers destroying advanced civilizations to prevent this and preserve life". This, IMHO, make much more sense than changed storyline.
(Hi 1yr old comment)
The original story is much better and straight forward, yes, but I can sort of see the logic in what we got.
Organics create synthetics, and eventually a synthetic entity will systematically exterminate ALL organic life, from people to proteins, by some warped logic. So the Reapers destroying any advanced civilizations prevents that doomsday AI from ever being created
Incredible. Thanks for sharing your journey. From Marauder shields, saying bye to Garrus, and the confused look on your face when space kid came out. Quite an emotional rollercoaster.
23:13 It's like candy for my ears! The Normandy has such an iconic engine sound. I love it!
With the damage to the Citadel, Bioware confirmed all named characters already present on the citadel were safely in emergency bunkers.
"I, uh... What do you need me to do?" - That broke my heart, first time I heard it.
If you pay close attention to what actually happens versus what the Starbrat says, you notice that it's only technology based on the Reapers that is destroyed - like EDI, the Mass Relays, the Reapers themselves. Not all technology is destroyed, after all there are still spaceships flying around, and people are using data pads in the epilogue slides.
So, while all of the Geth who received Reapers upgrades would be destroyed, if there were any pockets of independent Geth anywhere that did not receive any upgrades, I assume those would have been untouched... it's possible, therefore, that not ALL of the Geth have been wiped out in the Destroy ending.
I have always been a "Destroy" ending, for pretty much every reason you stated. From day one, Mass Effect has been about a horrible thing happening, and doing everything we can to stop that from happening. Destroy does that.
Control is simply replacing one master with another. And who's to say Shepard's morals, altruistic as they may be, won't change and shift as the millennia pass? The Catalyst thought it was doing the right thing when IT started off as well, and look how that turned out.
Finally, Synthesis. It never sat well with me, because it IS a forced transformation. No say, no bodily autonomy- here, cut off your arm and replace it with a robot hand so the Space Cuttlefish stop attacking us.
And as I get older, the "Information is shared, so there is no longer any misunderstandings" bit holds less and less credibility as well. Look at the internet: a free exchange of information, that everyone can access. We're all connected, so all misunderstandings can't happen, correct? Not only has that NOT happened, in many ways we've gone backwards.
Welcome to Destroy ending club! Metaphorically, Illusive man is Control, Saren is Synthesis and Anderson is Destroy ending. Game has left bread crumbs to help you choose the most fitting ending
Highly disagree about Saren. He didn't want synthesis: he wanted organics to surrender to what he saw as the supremacy of synthetics.
I still think synthesis is the ideal ending, as well, though I get that it's a narrative dead end.
@@thembill8246 I wish you were right but then we both would be wrong. Go back to ME1 finale, in Saren's own words, he believed the relationship between organic and synthetic was symbiotic. Joining both organic and synthetic life was the true pinnacle of evolution and destiny of all organics life. You can debate on the choice of his words but that's Synthesis in a nutshell
@@Paragon_north Which is ok. There’s nothing to indicate that synthesis = indoctrination. The devs have come out and said the ending slides aren’t a figment of Shep’s imagination, or a fantasy, whatever people want to say. It is the pinnacle of evolution, and it prevents any further misunderstandings between organics and synthetics in the future. Destroy just means the awful wars will repeat infinitely.
@@squares4u It always have bothered me from the fact that the Synthesis ending only used Shepard, a HUMAN. as a template for this "evolution" to work on EVERYONE. sure the "upgrades" does sound good on paper. but what are the implications of these "changes" in the long run specially if they specifically only use one organic being as a template in this forced evolution? we might be able to understand each other after said evolution yet what is the cost. there must be a cost. every ending has it's own consequences. Synthesis sounds too good to be true.
@@thembill8246 Synthesis only leads to more questions rather than answers. because of how vague it was. plus since this game is Mass Effect. a game of choices and consequences. Synthesis sounds too good to be true.
The ending theme that plays over the credits is "Immoral Action", representing how no matter the ending, Shepard had to make a costing choice she wouldn't have wished for.
Also composed by the same band who did the ME1 credits song.
Destroy is the correct ending. Anyone telling you that there is no correct ending is wrong.
Congratulations on "perfect" ending! Anderson would have been proud of your choice at the end.
Oh yes killing all the geth and edi and fucking over all life in the galaxy to be destroyed by synthetics such a great way to go so “perfect”
That shot of the Mass Relay when the Crucible arrives is a callback to the ME1 loading screen.
Bravo for playing it through and experiencing the complete story. Your reaction at the 'breath' was exactly mine.
Everytime someone points against "destroy" saying that the new war will emerge eventually - they seem to forget that quarians and geth worked it out. Who says it can't be done in the future? BTW, Legion was fighting reapers because geth believed that everyone should progress on their own terms, not because someone's forcing them. And synthesis is exactly that - forcing an antire galaxy an artificial unrequested solution.
And Bioware recognized "destroy" as canon, so...
Also because Shepard knows what caused the war, and would teach the galaxy what to avoid this time.
Amazing play through. Followed along during the entirety of ME3. Appreciate how much you loved these games.
Saren wanted synthesis, the illusive man wanted control, Anderson wanted destroy, I know who's judgement I trust. What a ride this has been, to relive this trilogy through watching you play brought all the emotions back, as if i was playing it for the first time again, thank you. It was magical.
>"This is the end... I should go."
Good one :) And the pendant is back in its full glory because of course, it is required here :)
>5:46
You know in the military, when people start saying "it's been an honor" it's generally because they think the chances are pretty good they'll never see you again, either because you'll be dead, or they'll be dead, or you'll all be dead... If there's one last thing you want to say to a comrade in arms you respect before a battle, this is it. So it's always comforting to hear.
>7:52
What makes you say that? All the "it has been an honor"? :D Or maybe the nightmare where you and the child burnt together? I mean, BioWare literally spread the endgame with clues regarding what was coming; I guess they didn't want players to be too upset... And yet, some people managed to ignore most of those clues in a "oh, all we be fine" way.
>10:01
Oh, I know what you may think... And yes this scene would play very differently in other... circumstances.
>11:45
This is were things are getting real. Hackett, whom is currently the top commander of all the alliance forces and by extension of the fleet you assembled, wouldn't just stop by to say hello and have some tea and biscuits :)
>16:57
The Lancer is the best gun in the game and the most efficient when fully upgraded to level 10 on a NG+ (because it looses a lot of weight) so it's definitely the best alternative to any SMG, even for a sniper. However I wouldn't have suggested it on a first playthrough because considering you're a sniper, weight is definitely an issue especially because your favorite sniper rifle is already one of the heaviest in the game. With that said the fact that it hits hard (for an AR) and has unlimited ammo compensate the disadvantages, if you manage to use it because clearly you always have an issue with repeating fire weapons, whatever the game is :)
>18:05
You still almost double the time it takes for your abilities (including the cloak) to refresh compared to your previous loadout (11% faster refresh against almost 60% previously) so I hope you will use the damn Lancer :D Otherwise this odd choice just would be plain silly. Especially on the final run -- one tends to test new weapons on inconsequential missions, not on a mission that decides the fate of the Galaxy :D
Still the best assault rifle in the game IMO, but not for your class on a first playthrough.
>43:22
Apparently Shepard's memory was badly shot because she doesn't even remember that Anderson already told her were he was born :D
>Anderson: "...it took the Reapers to brings us together."
Funny thing is, I can't imagine even an alien invasion of Earth would be bringing people together. Lot of scavengers, survivalists and militias shooting at anyone they don't know, traitors trying to get the upper hand, sure... but bringing people together? Hard to even imagine. In all of human history there's no indication that this may happen. True, we've never been invaded by an alien species but so far our "cooperative" and "bringing us together" records are far to be stellar. And I don't think that "humanity" (as in our species as a whole) is a concept that flies really high with most people. It's always about countries, races... etc. The fact that we're all in the same boat barely registers.
>53:50
There were some mix up with some of the conversations here and there. That one with Miranda only truly makes sense if you romanced her in ME2 and 3. Otherwise it's just talking without an actual point being made. They didn't really even made an effort for all the Shepards that actually didn't romance her.
>Jacob: "Shepard, that you?"
Why, you have shitty eyes too? Welcome to 50% of the human population :D
>Jacob: "There's this little bar in Rio we have to check"
Now that's true optimism right there. The guy doesn't even envisage one second that his bar might a pile of rubble by now, and Rio too :)
>55:00
As I said, Bioware left so many clues to prepare players for the worst... I was perfectly OK with that. Not overjoyed but OK. Shepard giving their life for the survival of the entire Galaxy? As far as sacrifices go, one can do so much worse than that.
>59:41 "Does that even work?"
Genetics says "No" but one can always dream... it's free :D Who knows, maybe one day a mad scientist will find a way to break the inter-species anti-crossbreed protections put in place by nature and we'll have dogcat or humhorse... or whatever other crazy things you may think of... I'm sure there is at least one scientist out there thinking about it :D You know? Just for the sake of testing and science?
>1:06:15
An interesting thought there. Remember when you first met Liara and she told you how Asari reproduction worked and that physical contact was not required? That makes one wonders what just happened there. Maybe nothing... or maybe Bioware was making provisions for future plans. Thing is, this scene occurs whether you romance Liara or not and by design, they made it impossible for the player to miss Liara on their way in (though the player can refuse her offer). The whole thing always seemed a bit fishy to me... even the way Liara offers it sounds fishy. And her "Thank you. For everything" got to make you at least a bit suspicious there...
>1:14:38
Well, next playthrough as a renegade you'll see what other options he has :D
>1:39:40
It's not so much the lack of accuracy but the recoil and the class you're playing. Only a soldier can use an assault rifle with barely any recoil. Some other classes like engineer and adept require the Lancer to be equipped with a stabilization mod or they will spray bullets all over the place. As a sniper you're somewhat in mid-range, not excellent at controlling recoil from an automatic weapon but not terrible either. It could definitely be worse.
>1:45:40
Really? There are people not liking you combat-pausing? Why? It's a game mechanic, if Bioware didn't want players to use such a feature why would they implement it in the first place?
>2:17:45
It's interesting because Shepard hallucinating is one thing a lot of the fans wished for back then :D And if you want to know more it's enough to google "ME3 Ending indoctrination theory" to have the full explanation. Of course that was never the intent at Bioware and even if some of the game writers found this alternative way to look at the game pretty interesting, they also certified they never intended the story to be that way. In fact they couldn't because when they developed ME1 they weren't even sure there would be enough interest for a ME2 and even less for a trilogy so Mass Effect was not envisaged as a trilogy from the get go. Only the success of ME1 ensured that there would be more games, the writers weren't thinking as far ahead as ME3 when they were working on ME1, clearly. There are even some prevalent elements in ME2 that never made it into ME3 so even by the time they were wrapping things up in ME2, what would happen in ME3 was still pretty much unclear.
>2:28:38
The death of Anderson hit me much harder than the death of Shepard actually. I was expecting Shepard to die but Anderson was a true surprise...
Following below
>2:30:48
Pretty valid reaction right there. Reminds me of myself more than a decade ago. Yeah, this is the AI you've been told about but back then we had no way to know that because the Leviathan DLC didn't exist. So literally this "thing" was dropped on us out of nowhere like the proverbial "Deus Ex Machina". Thing is, the whole conversation with the "starchild" (common nickname for the catalyst) always gives me a headache, even knowing that this is the AI Leviathan told us about. It's like talking to a wall. And it didn't get better after Bioware re-wrote some of the dialogues in order, ironically, to make it better.
>2:32:20
Exactly! But for whatever dumb reason it has the starchild doesn't connect the dots between the two situations. Otherwise it would already have eliminated itself realizing it was (and continue to be) part of the problem, not a way to the solution.
>2:33:26
True again. This thing is so totally flawed that it cannot even make the distinction anymore between what it was designed to do and what it has been doing all this time. On the one hand its program is to find a solution for peace but on the other hand it doesn't want the organics to succeed in finding one (it doesn't even acknowledge the current situation with the Geth. Synthetics are fighting synthetics to preserve a way of life of both organics and synthetics... take that in your face little guy).
>2:34:37
My advice: do like me. I stopped trying to get any sort of common sense out of the Catalyst a long time ago because there's none to be found. Generally when I get to this conversation I skip it as fast as I can until it presents me with its solutions :D Everything else is just repeated nonsense and hammering the same old nail.
>"What is the point of this preservation?"
Beats me. I had a decade to think about it and I'm still no closer to any kind of logical answer to that question :D However, when you think about it, it seem suspiciously close to synthesis, just in a gentler way.
>Catalyst: "When the fire burns, is it at war? Is it in conflict? Or is it simply doing what it was created to do!"
And one more time you're missing the point. You were NOT created to do what you have been doing. Part of the problem right there. How could you be part of the solution to the problem?
>"No, I don't buy that."
Welcome to the camp of all the people who didn't buy it then :D
>Catalyst: "I was created to bring balance, to be the catalyst for peace between organics and synthetics"
And you did such a splendid job right there! Millions of years of slaughter by your own creations and you're no closer to fulfill your original programming. You, my little AI, is the greatest moron ever created. No strike that because even a moron after having tried with no success the same thing for millions of years would have realized that adjustments to the plan needed to be made.
>Catalyst: "...they failed to understand they were part of the problem themselves"
Ooh, kinda like you then? The apple never falls far from the tree as they say :)
>Catalyst: "The flaws of their organic reasoning..."
And if we talked about the many holes in your synthetic reasoning instead for a change? I've seen gruyere with considerably less :D
>2:37:26
Right on the nose once more. The Catalyst was never part of a solution because it is part of the problem. However it will provide you with some solutions but not from his own volition, just because successfully docking a fully functional Crucible to the Citadel introduces new parameters and forces it to reassess the situation.
>Catalyst: "My solution won't work anymore"
And it took you millions of years to deduce that? When has your solution even worked just once?
>2:43:03
That works very well if you think you're God :D Altering the future of trillions of people in completely unpredictable ways without asking them first... is it not what a God is supposed to do? It's also a very Deus Ex solution, we're talking about merging biological and machine here. This is Deus Ex territory, not Mass Effect where understanding, cooperation and cohabitation were always put forward first and foremost.
And there's a little something you seem to have missed there about the options. The colors. Control is the paragon option, destroy is the renegade option and synthesis the neutral one.
>"We're doing it"
Yep, there's a reason why destroy is the renegade option though... You're also killing EDI and the Geth. Joker will be pleased :)
And to be clear because I've seen a lot of wishful thinking that are supposing that Bioware write endings with consequences just to cancel those consequences later...
The Geth are truly gone, Sure you can reconstruct a race of synthetic but they won't be Geth and Legion's efforts to bring true intelligence to his people have been in vain and the Quarian have lost their quick way to re-adapting to their environment.
As for EDI, the Catalyst was at least pretty clear about that: ALL AI will be terminated. There's no special magical condition there. It doesn't matter if she was in a box inside the Normandy considering the force of the catalyst (we're talking about something able to explode mass relays here) it wouldn't even matter if she was buried inside Fort Knox. And if the Alliance even thought there was a chance to somehow "recover" her, her name wouldn't be on the memorial. There again, you can reprogram an AI, but it won't be EDI, will it?
And the mass relays are also technological in nature and will be destroyed or damaged beyond functionality too except that nobody but the Reapers (and maybe Leviathan) know how to build or even repair one. Do you see Leviathan helping with that? Which means that unless a miracle discovery happens the whole Galaxy will be stuck at FTL speeds for a decade or more.
>2:46:30
Dead wrong there. At least according to most fans and a certain video. Because you chose the only ending where Shepard gets a chance, however minimal, to survive.
>2:55:48
It's the only ending where Shepard plaque doesn't end up on the wall and I told you why just above (although there's no way for Garrus -- or whoever Shepard romanced -- to know that). That's what made fans go "Yay! Shepard survived!". Again no official confirmation, only this and the bit of movie that follows (where one can see what could be Shepard's dying breath for all we know but for some reason everyone goes ballistic about that). In fact a lot of people who chose this ending do it for this sole reason.
>3:00:00
It could also be of immense importance in the control ending. Reapers can be a force for good. It depends on the one controlling them.
>3:00:26
You mean, the kind of synthetics that you just betrayed and completely eradicated in order to protect organics? Sure because when the next AI race will learn about that little episode they will be overjoyed and totally trusting everything organics do and say. You just set an example of organic behavior and you were considered the best among organics, even by the Geth themselves. People will have to deal with that little "faux-pas" first, either by banishing it from history or being clever enough to make the next AI species think that the sacrifice of an entire AI species by someone they considered to be their best ally among organics was really truly needed... Diplomatic nightmare, good luck with that. :D
Anyway, this concludes the epic journey through the Mass Effect trilogy.
And to answer your question yes, I think you should actually watch the other endings even if only for yourself. You might be surprised. Although in all honesty none of the endings were ever appealing to me. I have a less terrible one so to speak, a "meh" one and a worst one. And when I'm really pissed off with the whole Catalyst thing I'm choosing the fourth ending because it's still a valid ending despite being the most useless one.
But there's not one ending in ME3 that leaves me in awe saying "this is the perfect ending and I definitely want to replay that part". In fact as soon as I approach the moment to go back to Earth I really, really slowdown. I think Mass Effect perfectly represents the idea that a good ending is always more difficult to achieve than a good beginning.
Well this year and a half (around that) was a splendid journey. Through one of the most interesting universe in video gaming with some of the most fantastically designed characters (a couple of them could have admittedly been better). I don't know if the chosen ending will have any impact in a future ME4/5 (depending how people want to number it -- some consider Andromeda to be #4, I don't) or if Bioware just intend to take what they consider to be the canon ending and go from there -- it would suck for a lot of people if this canon ending was the Synthesis one though...
Mass Effect _was_ planned as a trilogy from the beginning. After the success of KOTOR, the doctors gave Casey the green light to invest the company's future in a trilogy of connected games. While the story for all three games wasn't fully planned out from the beginning (and large parts of ME2 changed with Drew Karpyshyn's departure), there was a basic outline in place.
Destroy is my ending too, because I'm confident everything else is indoctrination, especially synthesis. If you remember Saren, he was pretty convinced synthesis between organic and synthetic was a wonderful idea, he talked about visions the Sovereign gave him. I believe these visions are similar to the one you get in the green ending, where everything is wonderful and shiny. I believe it all happens in Shepard's mind. Indoctrination consists in making you believe that synthesis is a wonderful idea, and that's exactly what happens when you choose that ending. Imho. Furthermore, I don't trust what the very same AI who tricked and betrayed the Leviathans tells me, I wouldn't even listen to it if I could. AIs can lie, as the game tells you from the very beginning, because they are self aware, and can be afraid to die, have goals, just like organics. Synthesis is described so well by Mordin in ME2 about Protheans becoming Collectors: "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever."
"Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intelligence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."
I also wanted to point out that the Galaxy trusted you to destroy the Reapers, not to turn everyone into something else, without asking them if they are ok with that. I see it as a violence against self-determination, similar to what happened to David. With Synthesis you act like David's brother, forcing everyone into something that they might dislike a lot. Another point is that the whole trilogy teaches you that the best thing is working together though maintaining differences and peculiarities, while synthesis is peace because we are all the same. And being all the same is not enough to get along, since organics moved war to each other and machines did too, heretics against the other Geth for example. About Edi dying, her self awareness is mainly in the Normandy, I believe that only her mobile sexy platform was down and that's why you see her name on the board and Joker is not crying.
What a wonderful, logical read this was.
@@quintyss1290 thank you
Admittedly, the catalyst doesn't do a great job of explaining, but here's my understanding of its reasoning based on what it said and some clues I pieced together from the leviathan dlc and the prothean VI. The reapers weren't about ending conflict themselves, so much as they were a stall tactic, buying time for the catalyst to figure out how to reach Synthesis or an equally viable solution. Before resorting to the reapers, the catalyst tried several times to resolve conflict between organics and synthetics, but nothing ever worked permanently. You might point to the geth and quarians as an example of peaceful resolution, but keep in mind that the peace is still very new and still very shaky. There is still a vast disconnect between the two forms of life. Remember that Tali and Legion, despite growing to trust and care for each other, were willing to sacrifice the other's species to save their own. The destroy ending further exemplifies this. Choosing this means that Shepard is willing to sacrifice all synthetics to save organics, further proving the catalyst's point that neither views the other as an equally valid form of life, making future conflict inevitable.
Another thing to keep in mind is the geth are really just starting to evolve. They have only achieved a fraction of their potential. Imagine where they'll be in a hundred, or a thousand years. When a new conflict arises, organics would stand no chance. Eventually, synthetics would have the means to wipe out all organic life if they so desired. We know that the reapers could do so easily if their objective wasn't instead to harvest them. From a purely logical standpoint, the catalyst is correct that their actions are the only thing stopping such an advanced form of synthetic life from evolving, which in turn saves organics from an inevitable extinction.
That is why I think synthesis is the best ending. Destroy is solving conflict with more conflict; a continuation of the flawed and brutal system that will always end in the strong dominating the weak until something stronger dominates them. Control does represent an end to this brutal system, but at the cost of free will. To ensure that peace lasts, Shepard/the reapers have to see to it that nothing ever surpasses them, thus keeping all other forms of life under their thumb; comfortable perhaps, but inherently stagnant and subservient. Synthesis has the most unknowns but also the most potential. It gives all life the potential to evolve in tandem, instead of one surpassing the next. What they will evolve into is unknown, and they could still succumb to more petty forms of conflict, but it is the only option that gives hope for a diverse, growing, and peaceful future.
Just finished Mass Effect Legererdy Edition this is one of the best game series ive ever completed. Feel sad i finished it. You will never get that experience of finishing it your first play through.😢😢😢
Moira Shepard chose to Destroy as she viewed it as her mission from the beginning, despite knowing that it would also be genocide for the Geth and kill EDI. Kit Shepard decided that she'd rather control the Reapers because she's a bit power hungry and found TIM's arguments to be flawed but have merit.
For me:
Rachel ( Balanced Renegade/Paragon - did the right things by her Crew - everyone else could just get TF out of her way - Adept ), chose Synthesis, as it solved the situation, with the smallest body count, and at least inflicted the "solution" uniformly - this is my personal "canonical" ending.
Lilith ( Renegade Engineer ) chose Control - but she always was a hard ass.
Ivan ( the complete Renegade "dick" character, Infiltrator ) shot the Catalyst, so ...
Li-Chen ( Paragon Soldier ) chose Destroy, because that was the mission.
@@Vedexent_ Moira is a Paragon Infiltrator, and my canon Shep. Kit is a mostly-renegade infiltrator who was usually nice to the crew and hated everyone else.
Janet Shepard (My canon Shepard) is a Mostly Paragon with a bit of Renegade in her.
She ultimately choses Control. She cannot betray her friends and allies, taking Destroy off the Table, and she found Synthesis far too invasive.
She also does not believe that the peace will last, and with a weakened military, someone needs to keep everyone in check.
So now you see why all of the Mass Effect Fandom got mad on ME3 release. The Ending was basically "congrats, you won! to claim your prize please select one of three ways to off yourself. The End" With one voice, we cried out in sorrow and anger. Bioware agreed to polish it, but no more. It still boils down to which color of Instagram filter do you want the explosion to be? and how would you like to end the life of shepard. The ending breath was ONLY because you got SO many war assets and chose destroy. All others, Shepard no longer has A body.
Barring that, the whole trilogy was amazing.
obligatory "His name...was Marauder Shields." old meme that the fandom fell in love with.
Liera! Thank you so much for letting us accompany you on this ride. I got the sense from the early going that we were like-minded in our feelings and logic, and this ending proved me right. When the game was released, so many players didn't see the contradictions in the Catalyst's solutions (since it's a machine, it's only concerned with self-preservation, just like that escaped AI on the Citadel in the first game, so it presents the non-Destroy solutions as the appealing ones to distract you from the goal, even though they're the solutions that the two most indoctrinated a-holes in the series, TIM and Saren, wanted). People put too much stock in his trash-talk about others being affected by the Crucible, despite the actual ending showing that technology wasn't affected. Also worth noting that if you have low EMS, he mentions that the geth will also be destroyed, but on high EMS, he doesn't (even though you don't see them in the slide show at the end).
And your tears! Brava! Such an emotional experience and an all-time great playthrough for the archives.
Thank you again; this was a privilege!
Congratz, you reached the only solution where Shepard survives.
Since Liara's dialogue takes priority over the other characters, there's some good lines from Garrus missed during the final mission. Specifically in the Mako, while Liara says it's an honor to be on the team, Garrus' line is more personal, that it's fitting that the final battle lies on them.
On a personal note, thank you for guiding us in this incredible quest. I've played these games a dozen times, and enjoyed each one of them. But it was nice (to put it mildly) to see you wrestle with all those questions, and come up with youw own answers, in your own journey. Sometimes we chose the same solutions, sometimes not. At all times it was a pleasure to watch you make those choices.
You had a good read on the catalyst.
It, just like everyone else in the entire series, only had so much self awareness.
Especially if you have no equal, who's going to tell you when you're full of shit?
gonna miss your ME videos....gl with the next adventure.
I hope you’ll give Mass Effect Andromeda a go. Despite what people might say, it’s definitely worth checking out for any Mass Effect fan.
It is actually okay. Not as god a mass 1 2 3 but okay. The gameplay is god especially the player creation. You can use all power if you chose to. The lack is the story. Not as god as in 1 2 3.
This. I honestly didn’t find as many issues with it as others and I was there from day 1. The issue is it was competing against a trilogy and meant to be only part 1 of a trilogy itself. It didn’t have any more flaws than the first mass effect.
@@SethScapesGamingHonestly, I always thought most of the blow back for Andromeda was residual hatred for the Mass Effect 3 ending which was still strong at the time.
@@MandalorianRevan that’s possible. Personally I mostly thought it was just “hating the new thing for internet clout”
@@MandalorianRevanI felt it was that mass effect has always being about the OP reapers. Thus when playing you must see andromeda as a completely different game. Then it ia fun. The antagonists is not half what the reapers were.
This leaves me with 1 problem though. Mass effect 4... what if this is the same ahort coming?
And tali... better bw there.
Javik once mentioned there was a race that tried to mix flesh and machine, and that race died out over generations.
Note the Catalyst said they tried Synthesis once and it failed, hmm.
The difference between AI and the reapers is that the reapers leave younger species alone thus allowing life in the galaxy to continue. They fear that rebelling AI would not stop at their masters and wipe out ALL organic life.
The best ending - at least back in 2012 - was letting the true hero of Mass Effect, Marauder Shields, shoot you and prevent you from having to listen to Starchild's nonsense.
I remember the discussions about "Marauder Shields" :D
@@Vedexent_ I still have a "Marauder Shields' Tshirt. Thankfully the 'extended cut' (now the default) went a long way to making the ending that exists understandable.
He lived as Marauder Shields, he died as Marauder Health
good job kid, good job, not many people take that ending, I did, if you control or synthesize, there is NO justice for anything the reapers did over countless ages of killing people.
I think people slightly misunderstand what the catalyst is saying. The catalyst claims that synthetics don't just destroy their creators, but will eliminate ALL life. If the Reapers harvest advanced species, they prevent them from developing a synthetic race that is capable of eliminating all life in the galaxy, so they achieve their goal. The AI's job isn't to preserve any particular species, but life itself. Their approach is flawed, but from their perspective they are actually doing what they were designed to do.
Right in the feels, every single time. Damn, now i have no choice but to play through it again.
You made the right choice, at the end. The other 2 are just either morally awful (Synthesis) or contradict what we were told in the entire trilogy about organics wanting to control the Reapers (Control). Everybody was in it, willing to give up their lives, to stop the Reapers. Destroy was the way to go, from every pov.
Also, you should react to the ME4 teaser trailer. The other endings I don't feel are worth the effort to react to on the channel. I think you'd be better off just watching them off-camera.
Synthesis is what the entire series leads up to. Shepard brought the Quarians and Geth together. He was the bridge between organics and synthetics.
@@stynershiner1854 "Synthesis is what the entire series leads up to."
*Point missed, lvl: over 9000.*
Allegedly. 😆
@@justaguyfromeurope Why did Shepard unite the Geth and the Quarians in Rannoch and then suddenly destroy the Geth and all synthetics. How does that make sense at all?
@@justaguyfromeurope Shepard would rather die himself than undo his work by killing the Geth and Synthetics, after all the shit he went through to get them and the quarians working again.
Loved your playthrough liera! Thank you for taking all of us on this journey with you!
Sorry, the last time...synthesis is what we seen in mass effect 1, saren was the synthesis between himself organic life and the sovereign. Control is what we seen in mass effect 3, the illusive man tried to control the reapers. I have never wanted to be like saren or the illusive man, so in my opinion destroy is the right choise. Byeeee ❤
I like how you called out the contradictory nonsense of the little brat immediatly, destroy makes the most sense as Shepard has no reason to trust it at all.
And thus, this is where the War Assets come into play, the amount you have determine how protected the Crucible is when it arrives. The less your fleet is, the more damage is dealt to the Crucible by the Reapers. As a result, the damage affects what options (choices) are functioning... and how accurate they'll be.
If the Crucible was damaged enough, the destructive energy released would be... too much and no longer targeted.
exactly, synthesis forces your will on the galaxy whether they want it or not.
The Reapers were able to control the cycles because they control the technology used by developing races. In the Control and Synthesis endings you are still using the Reaper technology. By choosing Destroy you are forging your own path free of Reaper control.
Because everyone is giving up the Reaper tech? Like we don't see repaired Mass Effect relays? Destroy does no such thing. You don't have an option for *new* Reaper tech, but it's not like they ran a *Best Buy* down on the corner and handed out tech to people.
I love your videos. Your reactions & emotions are so pure. Can't wait for your next game.
Allers home world (Bekenstien) was the planet you did Kasumi's loyalty mission on.
You’re doing fine. I don’t think I ever found that string of disembodied voices
Strange to think that entire confrontation with the Illusive Man was under the Council Chambers.
Thank you for playing through the series! I loved your playthrough and your thoughts on it :)
OMG
With your ending?
Garrus did not put the Plackard of Shepard's name up.
It showed Shepards dog tags.
And his helmet.
In tact.
*There is a great chance Shepard survived!!!
glad I watched your vid till the end!.
Never knew...
🎉🎉👍👍👍👍👍👌👌🔥🔥
Talk about the paradoxes created, by choices the player makes...
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I believe your choice with the female Shepard so far overall? Since I have already played through 5 times already?
IS the best choice.
Whether by blind luck in choosing? Or deliberately.
😊
Loved your playthrough! Thanks for delivering this content to us. :)
If you choose the assimilate ending you might as well have sided with Saren in ME1 and not bothered playing ME2 and ME3. If you choose the control ending you might as well have sided with The Illusive Man in ME2 and not bothered with ME3. There's only one outcome that Sheppard wanted and the galaxy fought so hard for. Sheppard's mission from the get go was to destroy the Reapers and in the end I didn't see a compelling reason to change it.
Yeaaaaaahhh when she started crying during the space battle I was thinking, I hope she is staying hydrated or this lady is gonna die. 😱
Personally speaking, having our entire playthroughs boiled down to 'red, green or blue' was obnoxious but I favored green thematically - but we all know red is the only one that makes sense canonically.
I loved the way you played the whole game, you reminded me of the emotions and excitement i had for the first time i played MassEffect 😍
Congratulations on finishing this epic trilogy. For my part, I chose destroy because that was always the end goal. I was really sad about the fate of the EDI and the Geth, since it is strongly implied that they died. After discovering the little clip that seems to hint at Shepard's survival, it became my only choice, if only for the possibility of a happily ever after with our chosen love interest.
Thanks for allowing us to watch your play through - I found it super enjoyable to visit with all my old friends through you🙂 You did a great job.
I chose synthesis, as I understood from the Catalyst that it had evolved and hence the new solution options. Also that organics were now ready, due to them all coming together this cycle, and that Shepard was the embodiment/manifiestation of that readiness - so not forced.
Welcome to the ranks of N7, commander. It's been a pleasure being on this journey with you - and what an emotional journey it is. We've all come to love these wonderful characters, this epic story. I'm very glad you found it so meaningful and enjoyable - and you did amazing on your first run! Here's to a few more playthroughs :)
Behold the true last boss of Mass Effect trilogy - the Marauder !
Finally the last part since 2007 I've put thousands of hours into this series and I love watching other people's play throughs to see what choices they make I'm typing this comment at the star of your vid so I hope you enjoy the ending so good luck👍
The destruction ending seems to me the best solution because its the only one that finally puts an end to the reapers forever.
I just cant feel comfortable leaving them roaming around the galaxy in any capacity.
yes, but killing EDI and Geths. And it end reapers threat only in short-term, no in long-term (like some future advanced race will repeat this).
Honestly, hard Disagree.
Any ending that requires you to betray your friends and allies is uncatagorically the worst out of the options.
@@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim not when destroy is the whole point of the games, and everything we've been working towards lol
@@S0LAVELLANHELL Doesn't matter. If you have two other perfectly valid choices and _intentionally_ choose the one that basically has you acting with the same logic as _The Catalyst,_ then that means you've made a mistake.
@@S0LAVELLANHELL 2:57:17
Liera,
Loved your entire playthrough. You made it, and you get to go to the beach with Garrus. The loss of Edi is brutal. But I like the fact that you chose the ending the way you did. You reasoned it out. Thankyou so much for sharing this with us.
90% of the time pick destroy and consider it my canon ending. It feels like the only real option. Control you are just becoming the illusive man so screw that. Synthesis I can’t force that on the galaxy. I mean what if people don’t want their DNA rewritten no I won’t do that. Hackett told me dead reapers is how we win this. This has been our goal for 3 games and now that we made it we don’t do it no we end this war we have shown organics and synthetic life can coexist. It’s sad EDI and the geth must be sacrificed but I think they would be willing to give up their life to rid the galaxy of the reapers just like so many organics were. There is a 4th hidden option many don’t know which is the refuse path. Not choosing anything the war continues and you leave it to the next cycle to decide what happens
4th way is one of 2 true endings. Without Karpishin's vision we've lost the meaning of this series: MASS EFFECT. Galaxy is dying during using null-element. And at the end of 3rd game we still have no decision.. Ai is not a problem: Sheppard solved this problem on Rannoch 1 day ago.
Official 3-colored endings are bs, none of our decisions make sense at all.
Endings are emotional but without any sense
@@АлексейГальцов-х8д it’s a not true ending it’s a cop out
I believe this is the best choice. By destroying the reapers you accomplish the objective we have since the very begining.
Besides, that's the only option that gives us that last scene of Shepard breathing, and Garrus not placing Shepard's name in the wall.
Thank God you chose the destroy ending, the others are not what we set out to do from the start which is to destroy the reapers, also the other endings will not be canon when the future mass effect is released I'm guessing.
Thank you for this epic playthrough
Woah what a journey this has been! So many memorable moments... Thank you for sharing your whole experience with us, Liera, and all the effort you've put into it (onscreen and behind the scenes)! It's been a blast seeing your reactions and hearing your thoughts on everything that is Mass Effect.
Though it's still miles-or should I say light years-away (hehe) don't forget there's a Mass Effect 4 trailer you can look up if you want.
Any thoughts on the post credits scene? Getting a snippet of what apparently seems to be a distant future. Them talking about "The Shepard" as if some mythological, larger than life figure from ancient history always struck me as fascinating and wanting more😅
Great ending Liera. I loved seeing you get so emotionally involved.
I chose the Synthesis ending but wasn't really happy with any of them. I didn't want to destroy the Geth and EDI, as I felt they were essential to keeping the peace between synts and organics. The Destroy ending was my second choice but I'm not convinced a future race of synthetics would find a peaceful solution.
You chose as I do every time, I will not ever force synthesis on an unsuspecting population... organic or synthetic. Well done Commander!! ❤❤❤
But you’ll force destruction on the Geth and EDI… the “moral” choice isn’t so cut and dry as many people want to believe in this game
@@squares4uIt actually is though. EDI gladly would’ve sacrificed herself for billions of people. As for the Geth. Hackett states „we can rebuild EVERYTHING…“.
You mean forcing what is just an objective upgrade... saving the lives of billions of people that have some kind of handicap, diseases or other problems... because some kind of abstract moral stance. Yeah, thanks for not forcing me to be more intelligent, stronger and immortal. Thank you so much XD
@@spectre9948 But given the other choices, EDI was sacrificed for nothing, she didn't need to die. She did just so some people could stand in their high horses and say "at least I didn't force perfection on an unsuspecting population"... sure.
@@Alfonso88279 do we even deserve the "upgrade"? Synthesis is the literal definition of losing individuality since we "understand" each other. do we even lose our morality once this happens? Synthesis is so vague in explaining what would happen to everyone affected by it.
Fun Fact: Mass Effect 3 used to have a companion app that allowed you to receive texts from various companions/squad mates/characters based on how your Mass Effect 3 story went.
Receiving a drunk text from Tali was hilarious!
However, a High EMS Destroy Ending would result in the final text being from Shepard saying he was recovered and up and about.
Also, there are multiple endings- High and Low EMS endings and Paragon and Renegade versions of Destroy, Control and Synthesis.
I wish they still had that app. That's a cool idea.
there was 4 options , you could have shot the kid and refused and put you,re hope with all you,re info in the next cycles people ! this is one of the best series i have ever played and now i think its you,re to , this is why this series is sooo loved !
You did choose good child!
In my first playthrough, I chose the destroy option. It was my instinct because, from the start of the first game, it was my mission to destroy them, but I decided without thinking about the peace I had cultivated with the Geth and Quarians and also the progress and friendship I built with EDI. On every subsequent playthrough, I have chosen synthesis.
Any chance of playing Andromeda?
Bioware has made subtle references to things that happened only after the Destroy Ending, one being that Shepard was most likely pulled from the rubble by their love interest after the breath.
Garrus refused to put Shepard's name on the memorial wall and smiled instead because this time, he felt she wasn't gone. And thus, the Normandy departed for the long journey back to Earth...
Thank you for sharing you first play through Liera, it's been great watching you. Your reactions and thoughts have been fantastic. You've now completed the best game series ever made (in my humble opinion anyway from those I've played).
Destroy is a fine choice, and would certainly like to see your reactions to the other endings. My first play through, I chose destroy, however not enough war assets for the ideal destroy ending. Would also like to know your favourites, and least favourite squad mates now all completed.
Control: Remember the proto-Reaper from ME2? It had inside it the minds of every person liquefied to create it. The Reapers are a gigantic file saving system, preserving the minds of all the people harvested. It was the Catalyst's way of preserving civilizations that would otherwise become extinct at the "hands" of the synthetics they created. The difference of what they did from what you'd do was that your mind would be in control of the Reaperts, and not the other way around.
Destroy: I'll admit it was my least favorite choice, as, among other things, would mean betrayingthe Geth and EDI, andI couldn't do it. The Greater Good be dawned. As EDI once said, the difference between us and them was that we cared for those near us.
Plus, I agree with the catalyst that it would just change apocalipsae. Now our descendants are slated to die in a synthetic armagedon. Thanks, I'll pass.
(and EDI's name was in the Normandy's mural, if you look closely).
It left synthesys. It couldn't be forced, it had to be chosen - by Shepard. If SHE chose it, it'd be feasible. And everybody else would be swept along with the tide. No votes or discussions, just the decision of a single woman. Not perfect, but the best available choice. As a transhumanist, I do like this choice (for me), personally.
It shouldn't be forced upon you, even by Shepard, but, again, the other choices sucked more. A decision had to be made right there end then, no callbacks.
And it had the bonus of freeing (as I understood it)the countless civilizations that were stuck inside the Reapers all those millions of years, to become active participants in this Brave New Galaxy
I have about 5 months worth of content to catch up on first but I'm glad you've finally reached the end, what an amazing trilogy it is. ❤
Talking to the Catalyst this time, I was reminded of the HAL 9000. According to the book and the sequel reveal that the reason HAL acted the way he deed was because was caught in a fundamental contradiction: on the one hand, his entire purpose was to disseminate the truth fully and without distortion, but on the other, he was ordered to keep the true nature of the Jupiter mission secret from the crew. These contradicting directives put him into a circle of logic that eventually led him to decide that the best solution was to kill the entire crew!
The Catalyst seems to have gone through a similar loop of logic that eventually makes it decide that the best solution is destroying everything and starting over.
Only played the whole triolgy for the first time this year and I can say without a doubt it was one of the best gaming experiences Ive had beginning to end
I had tried every couple years to get into mass effect but rarely even got past the citidal in ME1, mostly cause I was too young to understand what was needed or what was going on so I'd give up without getting far and I'm actually happy I did because being able to play it when I'm older and being able to understand everything made the experience so much more enjoyable
Very emotional episod, i am never tired to play mass effect and I hope our shepard can return back in next mass effect. Very very good playthrough. Byeeee 👍
The catalyst thought it was ok to destroy that small ship with the child in it at the beginning of 3. So, remembering that, I thought it's ok to destroy the reapers. So I did.
Wonderful! What a journey! It’s been great seeing you play this and it’s been quite something seeing you react to things, I too am in the group that literally cries at some of the content of these games. And the experience is better for it.
My first time I went for control. This was before synthesis got added and without any DLC.
What a lovely fresh experience this is!
You’re awesome, can’t wait to see what else you have planned!
The other ending for the confrontation with the Illusive Man occurs if Shepard simply makes him snap.
He shoves Anderson out of the way, placing himself right in front of Shepard, allowing her to pull the trigger as he attempts to shoot her. As the Citadel opens, Illusive Man stares outward and comments on how beautiful Earth is before he dies.
IDC what anyone says, ME3 alone was an amazingly good game and even though the ending isn't what everyone wanted, it's worth the 120 hours playing this trilogy from start to finish over and over when you get to the ending, every time. I already played through twice this year and I may honestly do another one once I get my new setup situated.
Great playthrough took me back to my first time thanks Liera. I have tried all endings the one i end up choosing the most is the synth ending. I feel like they all have issues but synth to me has the least.
Especially if you have geth and edi.... it is cruel to kill them.