Mass Effect 3 Ending, and the 50k Drive to Change It (Some Spoilers)
I wanted to keep this in the End Game thread, but it just felt too tangential for it there. So I'm bringing it here, and starting from the beginning.
Mass Effect 3 has a horrible ending. The game tears apart and throws away everything the previous games stood for and demonstrated. Themes, character traits, lore, and even basic plot consistency are tossed out the window in one of the worst writing efforts I have ever seen in a game, and this is from someone who has played through all of FFX-2.
There are more plot holes in the last ten minutes of Mass Effect 3 than there are in the rest of the series combined, including the Cerberus retcons. The themes of choice, tolerance, and never giving up are tossed out of the window. The character personalities are shattered and warped in the most jarring and painful way possible. Nothing is as it should be, and the stain this has left on the game has tainted the entire experience for me. Another great game is ruined by the ending.
And I am not alone in this. Indeed not. A petition has started, requesting a change to the ending. A fix to the travesty on what was one of the best written sci-fi stories of our generation. The petition, rather than just being simple name signing, is using chipin to track donations to Child's Play. Everyone who wants a different ending made is asked to contribute, as much or as little as they want. The result is staggering. In 65 hours, fifty thousand dollars have been brought to the Child's Play charity through this movement.
I think it is one of the most beautiful expressions of love for a franchise I have ever seen. Not bribes, not threats, just an outpouring of unity and support, with the slogan "The worst thing that can happen is that we help some kids".
For those wanting a little more detail over the ending, and what's wrong with it, here's my explanation from the BioWare forums, followed by a link to the main thread for the Child's Play charity drive, which, in the fourth post, contains links to many different solid explanations for the errors, including Forbes analyzing why it was a horrible business decision.
Quote:
VERY Spoilery ExplanationThe ending feels wrong. It comes in a stark contrast to the entire rest of the series. Shepard, Paragon or Renegade, is the strongest personality in the universe. While the individual feelings may vary, Shepard's force and drive never do. Shepard can talk down those suffering Reaper indoctrination, and coerce entire civilizations to follow her lead. Until the ending. Then Shepard completely collapses as a character, being forced to choose these three paths, without any evidence that any of them will work, and with no reason to believe the star child who admits to being the force behind the Reapers all along. Shepard is not the type to mindlessly believe the enemy of all civilization, or to accept that the only three options that it presents are the only ones there. Or, for that matter, that shooting some vital power cables in the heart of the anti-Reaper device is actually what triggers it to destroy the Reapers. Yeah, if I was Shepard, I'd believe that too. "Yeah, just shoot that power conduit over there and your superweapon will start working, yep. Oh, and you can trust me, I only control the things it is supposed to kill."
Then to, the central premise of the ending, that organics and synthetics can never live together, is proven wrong. In Mass Effect 3, no matter what, you get to work together with EDI. A completely free, unshackled AI that chooses to side with the organics, even reprogramming herself to do so better. Depending on your choices, you can get the geth and the quarians to cooperate, ending a 300+ year war with a peaceful, cooperative solution. And yet synthetic/organic coexistence is impossible? Bullfeathers. We have proven it's possible. From the appearance of EDI and Legion in ME2, there has been the possiblity of cooperating with synthetics. You say our decisions matter, but where was the chance to bring in actual proof of the Catalyst's flawed judgement to that discussion?
Not to mention, everyone dies. Period. Except possibly the quarians. When you detonate that device, you fragment the galaxy. Without the Mass Relays, any ship or colony without a nearby food source is doomed. No food, no life. There are plenty of colonies that aren't self-sufficient, and all of those would die. The entire fleet, brough in to assault the Reapers on Earth, is screwed, as there is nothing close enough to Earth to sustain anywhere near the population. Even in the best possible ending, even with that brief glimpse of Shepard taking a breath, everyone is already dead. The Mass Effect universe has been killed. By you. And that's the "good ending" reward.
Then too, there is no closure. No wrap up, no chance to see how the galaxy changed, no conclusion to the story, nothing. It isn't an ending. We don't get to see how the galaxy changed. We don't get to see how our choices mattered, except, possibly, to know they didn't, because our work uniting the galaxy has been destroyed because the galaxy has been ultimately torn apart by the lack of Mass Relays. Everything we have done becomes pointless, and that is the closest thing to a wrap up we get.
Then, there's the plot holes, and these go on for pages. Why does Anderson enter the beam after Shepard, yet wind up in front of her? How does he reach the console without being spotted, when there only seems to be one entrance to the chamber? Why does Shepard's gun have unlimited ammo, despite still using thermal clips? Why is Marauder Shields so easy to kill that two shots from a pistol can eliminate him, when no other Marauder in the game is that weak (at least, on the difficulty setting I was on)? How did the Illusive Man reach the room, and what was he doing there? What is the point of sending humans into the beam to be processed when there were no forces on the other side to process them, and instead it is a direct conduit to the shut-down switch for the entire Reaper force? How did your squadmates arrive back on the Normandy? How did the location of the final confrontation, clearly visible from space, go unknown by everyone for millions of years? Why did the Catalyst take the form of the Child? Why are these three options availible, set up, and ready to go if they were never expected to be used, or indeed never forseen, even by the Catalyst? How can the Reapers possibly have free will, as they claimed in previous games, if they are in fact controlled by the Catalyst? Why does the Catalyst, an entity of which the Citadel is merely a part, need Saren and the geth to open the Citadel relay in ME1, instead of just opening it himself to further what he admits is his own plan? Why does Joker leave through the Mass Relay before the end of the battle? Why does your crew go with him? How does EDI survive the destruction of all synthetic life, if you choose that ending? Why is the destructive force of the Crucible directly tied to the strength of the fleet you brought with you (I can see, for example, the synthetic fusion ending requiring a greater fleet strength to pull off than simple destruction, as it might require more time to trigger, but how does the strength of the fleet you take literally determine whether you just kill all Reapers or you incinerate the entire Earth)?
And those are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head, in a few minutes. There are probably hundreds more, and they are ALL introduced in only those last few minutes.
Worst of all, none of this was necessary. You were leading up to a perfect ending. Right up until the point Harbinger's beam hits, there is no problem. Had we not been hit by Harbinger's beam, we would have been transported to the Citadel. We would have had to fight through the processing forces that were on the other side, turning Humans into another Reaper. We would have to fight our way up the Presidium to the Council chamber, the control center of the Citadel, thus bringing the game full circle, back to ME1. There we would confront the Illusive Man, the logical place for him to hide out, if he was believing that he was truly in control. And again we would open the Citadel arms. And then the Crucible would arrive, and our final decision takes place.
Only this decision is the ultimate one, and does take into account our previous choices. You have two options when firing the Crucible: Eliminate all Reapers in the Sol system, or eliminate all Reapers across the galaxy, at the cost of the Mass Relays. Paragon or Renegade. And now everything comes into play.
For Paragon's, the destruction of the Reaper's galactic stronghold on Earth, and the complete control of the relays offered by the Citadel, the forces you bring in go into a new battle, taking the fight to the enemy. The fleets jump together, as a single massive unit, hitting system after system. We see geth and quarians working together to retake Thessia. The Krogan, Turians, and even Rachni working as a team to push the Reapers off Khar'shan. The Batarians and Humans teamed up to clear Palaven. It is the ultimate, final war. A war of extinction as the might of the entire galaxy is brought to bear on the enemy, one system at a time. And, if you aren't strong enough, you'll lose.
For Renegade's the universe is now different. The Reapers are destroyed, everywhere, but the relays are also inactive. The armada brought with you will never see their home again. Earth cannot support them. A small armada is left, barely alive, cooperating and struggling for existence on a burned world. A larger armada tears itself apart through infighting. But, if you did everything, you have the galaxy's most brilliant minds in one place, for the Crucible project, and they have the Citadel. They work together to open the Citadel relay. They figure out how to control it, to direct it to send things where they want, not just to and from dark space, because it can work without a second relay at the other end, apparently. They beam forces across the galaxy, not just to their homes, but to where they are needed. Asari, Quarians, Turians, Geth, Batarians, Salarians, Humans, Krogan, Rachni, Elcor, Volus, Hanar, Drell... All start to work on a new project, the creation and emplacement of new Mass Relays, a new system, reconnecting the universe.
Those are the endings I want. Ones that do justice, to the series, and to our choices.
Charity Drive Thread
