The litmus test

for this to truly count as dues ex machina, it would require the last minute addition of an activator that comes from nowhere with god like power to solve a problem that can't be solved any other way. the crucible was in the game from nearly the beginning of mass effect 3, so have the mass relays, and most of what i'm using for this theoretical ending. i have no star kid, i'm using existing technology, and operating principles that are already in place. i'm at no time introducing omnipotent characters at the last minute that utilize nonsensical superpowers to save the day in nonsensical fashion. and second, i'm just rewriting the ending here... not the entire game. so i'm using what the developers have already provided to do so. i'm not about to just rewrite the entire story of mass effect 3 for our own amusement, i've got better things to do with my time.

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and as for the reapers having an exploit that no one has conceived of before, and tried to use against them. you're argument seems to fall apart when it's revealed that countless cycles were involved in the construction of the device, they simply failed to take advantage of it. if you recall, the reapers like to stack the deck when playing intergalactic war. most races never lasted long enough to take action, or even had the ability to do so even if they had the time. the only reason this cycle's survived was the prothean's interference with the keepers this go around. 

You're correct that without the protheans altering the signal, this cycle would never have had the chance to destroy the reapers. The other advantage this cycle had is the use of the relays. I believe had the protheans been able to use the relays in their time, they might have succeeded in destroying the reapers.

The other is Bioware had to make the reapers stupid for this cycle to have a chance to stop the reapers. It didn't matter if the galaxy had the crucible or not.

actually, going by the text book definition... including the crucible in the beginning of the game actually does exclude it as a deus ex machina pot device. now, interfering with command and control function is a staple of warfare, especially in modern warfare, and the reapers rely on interstellar communication even more then a conventional military force. just because the reapers are supremely powerful, doesn't mean they can cover all their weaknesses, even over all that time. if that weakness was incorporated into their initial construction, it might be too ingrained to alter... also, if you read a lot of literature, a lot of times the more powerful the foe, the more vulnerable they seem to be in some fashion or another. is it so hard to believe that a force that thinks it's invincible, actually overlooks, or even intentionally ignores it's greatest weakness? pride itself can be deadly.

you're forgetting the purpose of hijacking the reaper signal is to use it to blowout the receivers that utilize it. those receivers are likely either embedded in the reaper nanites themselves, or attached to either the brain or nervous system of said reapers. this has nothing to do with simply disrupting communications. this is about violently overloading and "detonating" those receivers... and you seem to think that the reapers act, or can act independently, even starkid tells you he is controlling them, and he/it continues to state that if you upload your mind/personality/etc to become the new reaper operating system, then that will continue controlling them. what would happen if the reaper signal was severed? would a reaper capitalship think... screw this i'm going home? or would the legion of voices in it's head not be able to come to a conciseness without the control signal guiding them? but, none of that actually matters. because scrambling the reaper's communications isn't actually what this is about. it's about the millions of reaper nanites running through a reaper capitalship, husk, brute, or marauder, or the receivers that connect them to the control signal. shorting them out might cause "brain damage", or damage the "nervous system". or if those receivers are in every nanite that would likely turn a reaper into paste if they all detonate at once or in rapid succession.

now about the whole dues ex machina argument... the crucible is introduced to us from very near the beginning of the game, many characters are theorizing that it may be a super weapon. that makes it a cheap plot device, true, however just because it's a cheap plot device doesn't make it dues ex machina. the fact that the device is introduced to us from the beginning of the game precludes it from being dues ex machina.
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and around and around we go. *sigh*

well, at least we were able to stop arguing about dues ex machina.

a lot to go over here. first i should note that i don't really know how various communication systems work, or might work, i think i said this in the beginning of this discussion, however many pages back that was. the little bits of knowledge i do have, comes from the little bits i know about radio telescopes, and the telescope "farm". though my knowledge here is passing at best, i mostly helped my father make low cost computer networks with outdated castoffs, for the sole purpose of processing data sets.

now, most of the technology available to galactic civilization is based off of less advanced versions of reaper tech, true. however, it is cherry-picked bits of reaper tech... tech the reapers themselves have some control over, or have perfected countermeasures to defeat. the reapers have held back plenty of interesting bits of technology for their own use. i can see extremely advanced communication completely based off of another set of technologies being one.

now, are the reapers simply using more sophisticated versions of the same interstellar communications that everyone else is? honestly, i don't know. i don't recall hearing about reaper based communications in game, i supposed i could look, but if i'm wrong you'll likely correct me anyway, and i'd rather not waste my available time... i just picked up some new games i'm eager to try out. though, knowing nothing specific about reaper communications i could see it going either way. perhaps they have held back some new comm tech for their own use, as cerberus needed a whole research facility to study that reaper command signal, maybe they needed specific tools to listen in or tap into as well? iirc, cerberus found it, if it were possible to detect the control signal with existing tech someone else would have likely been on to it too, no? 

now, would a massive overload simply cause a receiver to just frizzle out and fuse, seems to me if there were micro receiver inbedded in reaper nanites they would be less stable, and more temperamental even? perhaps, or maybe not, i admit this is beyond my area of expertise, but the explosion seems more likely (though i'm barely even a layman in this case). like i said, we were pretty far out of my comfort zone when we began this discussion (entirely my fault i admit), now i feel as if i'm drifting in space. well, if all of a reaper's nanites only "frizzled" how quickly could said reaper restore them? what, if any damage at all might that do? 

as for the lack of direction not effecting anything. this isn't really the same as a manager going on vacation and the employees not misbehaving all that much (likely because an assistant manager stepping up or a replacement sent from hq arrived to maintain order). as far as i'm aware, an actual reaper's mind (as in the reaper capital ship) is a composite of the collective conciseness of their entire civilization or race, or a large chunk of it. or something along those lines. do you really think it likely that once freed from the control of the entity, that a reaper would just continue doing what it had been told? now, if there was an answer to this in some dlc somewhere i likely avoided buying it, as after watching a video by total biscuit, i figured i'd start protesting such practices as day-one-dlc, though by that point i had already purchased from ashes. 

you know what... were probably not going to end this debate, ever. so what do you say i keep my opinion that still flawed... my ending is better then bioware's, and you can keep yours... which would be that mine is no better or worse still? as i want to get back into playing games, and not arguing about bad endings for another, what... another three days?

just because most people can't write a better ending doesn't mean that bioware's ending is somehow good. now, i'm not saying the concept of the ending is bad, i'm saying it was poorly executed and terribly out of place.
overall, i feel that the ending itself is about on par with the quality of most writing in video games, though i admit that i feel most of the writing that goes into video games is fairly poor anyway.

just out of curiosity... would a massive jolt to the reaper control signal kill the all the current instances of the reaper nanites, assuming they have receivers in them... as you weren't entirely clear about that? even if an overload wouldn't cause them to explode, having all of a reapers nanites disabled in rapid succession would have to do something i would think.

Actually it does kind of mean the ending is good some how. Because the people like you who complain about bad writing can't write anything better. Given the responds is fairly typical of what you did. More or less following the path of someone trying to agree to disagree when their own ideas are held up to close scrutiny. It continues to show the only reason you disliked it is because it didn't follow specifically what you wanted or expected.  Being what you wanted or expected and being good or bad writing are two very different concepts. One many people seem to confuse and think are the same.


A powerful enough DDOS could potentially overload and burn out existing nanite control signals like any other machine if you knew how to access the signal. But while Reapers utilize nanites to create husks and other Reaper troops it isn't shown or hinted that they play any other role in the Reapers themselves other then construction. And any smart person would have all critical systems hardwired with nanites acting as self repair systems rather then act like an equivalent to our blood as you seem to think. But given the Reaper's ability to adapt they would inevitably change the frequencies that they operate on. Thus making it a one shot attempt that would delay the Reapers but ultimately not stop them.

Curiosity has me wondering why you bother to post if you don't want to contribute to the discussion.

Are you attention seeking?

Do you not understand the fundamental concept of a fourm existing to talk about a specific game?

Are you just salty?

first off, I don't like going in circles with a self important twat. I am not salty but I do see the ending for what it is and you have proven that you are unwilling to listen to the other side of the argument. Much of the time, when people talk, they make themselves look like an idiot. So why not break out the sterotypical popcorn post with this pissing contest of a thread. Video games are very fun but even then quality video games even Mass Effect are not the masterpiece they are made out to be. 

Oh, this is why I prefer to not engage you in any thread given how you treat others that don't share your Point of view. I can see why people like the endings and hate them as well. As for me, I take issue that we didn't have more Harbringer. Yes he grew on me as a villain goes. Second Coming of the Sith Empire within Cerberus as an enemy is another issue I have despite my fanboy of the Cerberus Phantom(yes I do have a thing for chicks in leather that can kick my ass). I can make an long list on how to improve Mass effect 3.

Interesting. So its ok for Anderson to say its up to Shepard to find a way to stop the reapers. He doesn't care. Why should my Shepard respect Anderson for saying that? Or when he mentions Shepard's visions to the council. Why would anyone respect him after saying that? They likely find him to be a idiot expecting the council to fall for that crap
For you to say that, you must have had experience with that.

That must have been some tramatic event for you since you've brought that up twice.