|
whoa hold up massive ending spoilers bros be careful
I think
I think the ending
was the best thing we could logically hope for.
It wasn't what I wanted, really, at all. Not even close. Yet, at the same time, it was the only thing I could expect the nearer to the end I actually got. It took me a while to even figure out what was going on but once I did it was sort of neat how it was all set up.
The Crucible was designed to stop the Reapers, by the controlling force they talk about on Thessia. Once a cycle could set it up, that meant that the Reapers could no longer do their job right, and they needed a new solution. The reason why the Reapers existed in the first place is because creations will always turn against their masters, part of the pattern. The most advanced species are processed into new Reapers to preserve them, and to allow organic life to continue before synthetics wipe out all life. Essentially, while advanced species die, new ones can rise up for a time instead of being all killed. Once the species start to destroy themselves with the synthetic lives they create, they're processed.
The Conduit Kid isn't bodaciously the kid you see in the beginning. He's an avatar of the Reapers' master, designed to appear to whoever makes it that far, and to direct them on how to break the cycle. He takes the form of the child more than likely because that's Shepard's big thing in ME3, the fact that he couldn't save everyone, and this gives him the chance to stop it all. Symbolism and whatnot.
The Mass Relays had to be destroyed to send out the signal. This was blatantly obvious although some people don't seem to get it? The Relays sent the signal to other Relays all over the galaxy, but exploded to send the signal through the actual systems. Since an explosion big enough to destroy all Reapers without touching the Relays would be incredibly overly massive, the relays made smaller purges which resulted in them blowing up. It also removes the biggest weapon the Reapers have against the universe, so no matter what, they're severely delayed.
I really did marvel a bit at the choices presented. Despite being almost clearly labeled as Paragon and Renegade, they're really not. The represent the basics of the cycles, once again talked about on Thessia. Control, Order, and Chaos. Control gives you, naturally, control over The Reapers and thus the cycles. Order removes the NEED for cycles, by removing both organic and synthetic life and merging them. Chaos completely annihilates the cycle, meaning that while no synthetics exist now and thus no Reapers, organics can still destroy themselves but now there's no hope for anything stopping it.
However, none of them are Paragon OR Renegade. The closest is the Order option, which is very Paragon in nature, as it allows for eternal peace among organics and synthetics. But Control is what the Illusive Man wanted, with Chaos being defined by Anderson of all people. Chaos isn't necessarily bad, especially if galactic peace can be kept up, and it removes the threat of the Reapers completely. Control allows you to keep the Reapers, but now they're still around so if things go bad they could come back up, allowing Shepard to essentially control all life.
They have Paragon and Renegade aftermaths, but the choices themselves are very much all neutral in nature.
It's a weird choice, and honestly, one that people don't expect to have thrown at them. By the end of the game, it's fairly clear that even if Shepard doesn't make a choice, he'll die. He's severely wounded and struggling to stay awake. It's still unexpected to learn that two of the "good" choices will lead to your death, no matter what you've done before.
While, yeah, I think it's weird and the choices themselves are SLIGHTLY out of left-field, it's really the only way to end Shepard's story. It's been hinted at, Shepard wouldn't be able to beat the Reapers with just brute force, he would need to make a choice that would affect the whole galaxy. The concept of three ending choices has been around nigh-forever. No matter what, some of your choices won't matter in the long run, even if they were big, because that's just how life goes. Even if you take a chance and do something crazy to help someone, there's always the possibility that you won't be helping anything at all.
This is, really, the only way it could have gone down without being completely unrealistic.
Shepard loses, the person himself cannot win. The galaxy can win. Not you.
Yet, you're the one who allows the galaxy to win. You're the one who can end it all, you can save everyone and destroy the threat to the galaxy. That's you. You're the one who did that.
Even if you don't win, even if in the end you die, you've still had a victory. You've still beaten the odds, you've still survived two fucking suicide missions and death itself, and you've ended a war that has killed thousands of species.
You don't win, but you beat them.
Really, while it's not the best one can hope for, it's the best way to end it off.
Sorry if you think Shepard should have lived, or that the Reapers shouldn't have been given a reason for the destruction, or whatever you think should have gone down. Honestly, too bad. Mass Effect 3 had standards it couldn't have lived up to if it was backed by trillions of dollars and given the best possible team. You're going to be disappointed if you compare it to what you wanted. Think of it not as a standard, what you think it should have been, but as a game. As a game with a story that took two other games to fully explore and expand upon. A game that let you make decisions on a level almost unheard of, and let you KEEP them. Even if they don't stick how you wanted, they still happened and they still effect the story. Even if not massively, until the end.
I'm pop flyin' with it.
If only there was a New Game +...
*new game +*
oh snap dawg
_________________
 ^it's a tumblr link oh geez^ oh man is this a steam profile
|