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[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm fine with the new endings.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Especially Reaper-God-Shepard in Control, which was my favorite ending in the first place. It causes the least harm. Organics live, Synthetics live, Shepard "lives" in a sense, even the Reapers live and undo the damage they caused under Shepard's control. That was pretty much what I was expecting when I picked Control with the original endings, this just actually says that's what happens.

I think having the Reject Ending isn't meant to be an attack on the fans, it's just a logical extrapolation of what happens if you refuse to use the Crucible. Some people's Shepards are played in a way that they'd do just that, and the option is there now. The Reapers have never been a threat which has been portrayed as conventionally defeatable. The Reapers even still end up losing in Reject, just not in Shepard's cycle.

[Gunner-Chan]

Ill admit to actually enjoying the new, more explained endings myself. And the Catalyst feels less out of place when it gives it's explanations.

Does anyone know if there's still a "bad" destroy ending? Or is the everyone dies ending just the old destroy ending with missing resources again?

[fenrif]

I'm fine with the new endings.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Especially Reaper-God-Shepard in Control, which was my favorite ending in the first place. It causes the least harm. Organics live, Synthetics live, Shepard "lives" in a sense, even the Reapers live and undo the damage they caused under Shepard's control. That was pretty much what I was expecting when I picked Control with the original endings, this just actually says that's what happens.

I think having the Reject Ending isn't meant to be an attack on the fans, it's just a logical extrapolation of what happens if you refuse to use the Crucible. Some people's Shepards are played in a way that they'd do just that, and the option is there now. The Reapers have never been a threat which has been portrayed as conventionally defeatable. The Reapers even still end up losing in Reject, just not in Shepard's cycle.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Lets not dwell too much on the portrayal of the reapers, because frankly that's about as consistent as the portrayal of technology, or cerberus, or the council, or the rachni, or ME relays exploding, or what DNA is, or the concept of player choice, or the concept of synthetics Vs organics, etc.

The entire ME franachise has been about people saying things are impossible, then Shepard doing them anyway. I mean there's something like 10 reaper deaths in the series allready. What was the point spending the entire game gathering all these war assets if you don't even get a chance to try to succeed? Surely it would've been just as easy to have the reject ending check to see if you're at maximum (or whatever maxiumum you could get without multiplayer) war readiness, and if so present a hard-faught victory over the reapers that probobly cost the galaxy dearly, but was ultimatly worth it?

But that's really besides the point, because even if we keep the same ending, what essentially happens is Shepard says "no" to the space child, who then screams at him and dissapears... While shepard stands there akwardly. There's no defiance or action beyond the initial "I reject these choices." It's a really lame duck ending.

And again, that's ignoring all the other posibilities that would've worked. Shepard could've presented another option, or called the star child on his bullshit, convincing the kid with his diplomacy. He could've found a way to still use the crucible, or self destructed it somehow. By saying no he could've shown the star kid that this cycle had the (insert generic virtue here) to overcome the obstacles. He could've said something along the lines of "well I want to destroy the reapers, but none of the other synthetics because im cool with quite a lot of them" and juked one of the other options so it's not so bleak.

Basically what people wanted was a heroic death, a defiant last stand, a blaze of glory. Something that was driven by Shepard's actions. They wanted to reject what the star child is saying (and the other three illogical inconsistent nonsense endings) on a level deeper than "no." What we got was "I reject this" and then rocks fall and everyone dies. And I may be misremembering, because I watched the video first thing this morning, but it never says one way or the other if the reapers are defeated? It just shows you that Liara beacon thing playing it's message. So it's fairly safe to assume that even if you reject the star child nonsense then the next cycle (if they're lucky) gets the same four choices as Shepard got.

The biggest problem with it is that it's still an ending in which Shepard has no agency as a character. It's still all happening on the 5-minutes-from-the-end deus ex machina character's terms. Your choices are essentially the three original endings or no ending. This is why it seems like a middle finger from the writing team.
 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The entire ME franachise has been about people saying things are impossible, then Shepard doing them anyway. I mean there's something like 10 reaper deaths in the series allready. What was the point spending the entire game gathering all these war assets if you don't even get a chance to try to succeed? Surely it would've been just as easy to have the reject ending check to see if you're at maximum (or whatever maxiumum you could get without multiplayer) war readiness, and if so present a hard-faught victory over the reapers that probobly cost the galaxy dearly, but was ultimatly worth it?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not going to say I'd disagree with a super-high EMS being able to conventionally defeat the Reapers, but there's thousands of them and they can take out dreadnoughts with trivial effort. It would seem a bit anti-climactic to not portray the rest of the war after rejecting the Catalyst, but that isn't really possible within the framework of the game. "Everyone goes down fighting" is the only thing that can be properly shown in the existing context of the game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And again, that's ignoring all the other posibilities that would've worked. Shepard could've presented another option, or called the star child on his bullshit, convincing the kid with his diplomacy. He could've found a way to still use the crucible, or self destructed it somehow. By saying no he could've shown the star kid that this cycle had the (insert generic virtue here) to overcome the obstacles. He could've said something along the lines of "well I want to destroy the reapers, but none of the other synthetics because im cool with quite a lot of them" and juked one of the other options so it's not so bleak.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shepard does call the starchild on his bullshit in the renegade options. The starchild doesn't care. It even says, and I quote, "Your belief is not required." if Shepard expresses skepticism towards the truthfulness of the options. Nor is it portrayed that the starchild is even able to use the Crucible any more than it tells Shepard it can. I did not get the impression that Destroy targets all AI because the starchild wants it to, but because that is the inherent nature of using the Crucible as a destroyer. It would be like trying to make a nuke that doesn't kill people you like.

Given what happens in low EMS Destroy, I think that violently destroying what is basically the largest battery ever would end badly for everyone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And I may be misremembering, because I watched the video first thing this morning, but it never says one way or the other if the reapers are defeated? It just shows you that Liara beacon thing playing it's message. So it's fairly safe to assume that even if you reject the star child nonsense then the next cycle (if they're lucky) gets the same four choices as Shepard got.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the post credits cutscene, instead of terrible voice acting you get a confirmation from the inhabitants of the next cycle that they were able to defeat the Reapers because of the warning left behind by "the Shepard" in Liara's archive.

[Euld]

Ok I watched the rest of the endings, I didn't know they added to the other endings.

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I think I'm ok with the endings now.  Shepard really needs to grow some balls when he's talking to the Star Child, but other than that... well the endings finally make sense mostly.  The Synthesis one is still freaken' weird, with everyone's glowing eyes and such.  But at least each ending doesn't result in the end of life as we know it.

[Pnx]

Unfortunately it still doesn't help with my biggest gripe with the ending, that the principle behind the reapers is idiotic as hell.

[Xenxe]

So many spoilers... MUST NOT CLICK

[Gunner-Chan]

Unfortunately it still doesn't help with my biggest gripe with the ending, that the principle behind the reapers is idiotic as hell.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is actually the point, speaking with the Catalyst shows that the reapers were never the intention of it's creator in the first place, and they were just the first victims of the asinine "Solution" it thought up after several failed attempts to end conflicts. It's not perfect in fixing some of the problems, but making the reapers and the catalyst/reaper AI a somewhat self fulfilling prophecy with no real larger goal was an interesting choice at least.

When you talk to it and it says that, it really does mesh a bit better with the world in my opinion.

[lemon10]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The entire ME franachise has been about people saying things are impossible, then Shepard doing them anyway. I mean there's something like 10 reaper deaths in the series allready. What was the point spending the entire game gathering all these war assets if you don't even get a chance to try to succeed? Surely it would've been just as easy to have the reject ending check to see if you're at maximum (or whatever maxiumum you could get without multiplayer) war readiness, and if so present a hard-faught victory over the reapers that probobly cost the galaxy dearly, but was ultimatly worth it?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not going to say I'd disagree with a super-high EMS being able to conventionally defeat the Reapers, but there's thousands of them and they can take out dreadnoughts with trivial effort. It would seem a bit anti-climactic to not portray the rest of the war after rejecting the Catalyst, but that isn't really possible within the framework of the game. "Everyone goes down fighting" is the only thing that can be properly shown in the existing context of the game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I see how they could destroy the reapers, but any type of war (with any outcome other then total defeat) with the reapers relies on the reapers being total idiots.
Assuming:
A) The reapers can't build more reapers between cycles
B) They can build solid state AI ships about equivalent to the ships that the current civilizations have (although they should be able to build ships that are dozens of times better since they have the best war tech of every cycle, and taking the control out of the hands of organics would improve combat capabilities significantly).
C) They can build ships that self repair and last forever if not destroyed (a fair assumption since we know the tech to do that exists).
D) They have a industrial capacity equal to a single percentage of what the humans+allies have at full mobilization (although they could very easily have a capacity thousands of times better if they chose too (since they could have hundreds of forge worlds building ships constantly without any need for human economies or similar and be using precursor level technology for production).
E) It has been 10,000 years since the last cycle (and they didn't save any non-reaper ships since that cycle)
Even assuming these very low assumptions, that's a fleet (excluding reapers) equivalent to what it would take the humans a hundred years to build at full capacity.
More realistically they would have a fleet thousands of times stronger then what humanity (or any type of organics that hadn't been simply building fleets for centuries at maximum industrial capacity) could reasonably build.

The only way humanity could hope to win (without dues ex machina) would be if the reapers were complete idiots and didn't have any other ships at all, something that makes almost no sense.

Now, as far as I know they DIDN'T have any other ships, but I have no clue why (maybe it was explained at some point and I missed it, but I doubt it).

[Digital Hellhound]

The best I expected from the Fuck Off ending was

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fleet pushing the Reapers away from Earth or somesuch, but not beating them. The war would turn into a grueling centuries-long struggle with a sort of 'The war continues.' voiceover.

I still think the game has flaws enough as it is, but I suppose there are enough memorable moments to start playing again. Knowing there's something worthwhile at the end of everything helps a lot.

[scriver]

Still seems ridiculous to me. No faith in Bioware's writing ability restored.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

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The fleet pushing the Reapers away from Earth or somesuch, but not beating them. The war would turn into a grueling centuries-long struggle with a sort of 'The war continues.' voiceover.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Note that earlier in the game Liara estimates that it will take a couple of centuries for the Reapers to kill everyone even if they win, but that the galactic economy can't last more than a year before collapsing under the strain of the war effort. Javik also mentions that the Prothean Empire took 500 years to completely fall to the Reapers, and that when he was born the invasion was already well underway.

Not making any points there, just saying.

[Tilla]

Still insulting to the intellect of the players and the idea of freedom of choice - maybe moreso with the way the Reject option turns out.

[Virtz]

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People keep saying they couldn't defeat the Reaper without a sudden deus ex machina... but what about the Geth? They had like Reaper tech in them. And that was like a plot development right before all the crap at the end. They could've provided some technological knowledge that'd help defeat the Reapers. Maybe they could've even sacrificed themselves for the Quarians' sakes provided you managed to ally them. It'd be sorta banal, but at least it could be the result of your earlier actions. It'd even be sorta fitting considering the first game started with you fighting Geth.

Though anything would be better than the stupid kid and the Matrix Reloaded ending, really. I actually thought the ending up until the kid was alright. Like it could've ended with Shepard and Anderson just bleeding out there while the Crucible does its thing. Maybe the Normandy crew could come in while the Citadel was open (which is something they should've done, by the way) and save Shepard if your EMS was high enough or whatever. But basically the whole scene with Anderson and the Illussive Man was great, everything afterwards was awful.

Also, does anyone else find the green ending sorta funny? Everyone in the cinematics is like "What? Oh. We've got green stuff on us now. Oh well.", and continue doing whatever they were doing. And then I guess the guy who made the Tali photo goes to town on the ending slides and just puts green stuff on everyone.

[fenrif]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

People keep saying they couldn't defeat the Reaper without a sudden deus ex machina... but what about the Geth? They had like Reaper tech in them. And that was like a plot development right before all the crap at the end. They could've provided some technological knowledge that'd help defeat the Reapers. Maybe they could've even sacrificed themselves for the Quarians' sakes provided you managed to ally them. It'd be sorta banal, but at least it could be the result of your earlier actions. It'd even be sorta fitting considering the first game started with you fighting Geth.

Though anything would be better than the stupid kid and the Matrix Reloaded ending, really. I actually thought the ending up until the kid was alright. Like it could've ended with Shepard and Anderson just bleeding out there while the Crucible does its thing. Maybe the Normandy crew could come in while the Citadel was open (which is something they should've done, by the way) and save Shepard if your EMS was high enough or whatever. But basically the whole scene with Anderson and the Illussive Man was great, everything afterwards was awful.

Also, does anyone else find the green ending sorta funny? Everyone in the cinematics is like "What? Oh. We've got green stuff on us now. Oh well.", and continue doing whatever they were doing. And then I guess the guy who made the Tali photo goes to town on the ending slides and just puts green stuff on everyone.

The green ending is hillarious because it's complete nonsense, and is laugh out loud ridiculous... And yet it's blatantly supposed to be the "good" ending.

I think it's also kinda funny that people don't want the reapers to be defeated because that'd require a deus ex machina at the last minute... When that's exactly what the endings are anyway. Except used and presented in the worst possible way.