The smallest possible change to fix the ending

The same Council who denied the Reapers existed? I know it wasn't the Council per se but remember how Aethyta was laughed at for suggesting reverse-engineering relays and figuring out how they worked? Maybe TIM would have done something like that but the Council is exceptionally stupid and not at all forward-thinking.

In the Citadel DLC we see the Council buried the information about Sovering even inside the Vaults, it was not until the Spectre status of Shepard, and A/K if they are with you, that they show you they knew all along. The Conduit is  literal backdoor that Shepard proved without a doubt that it worked. That might have placed a ton of pressure in the same Asaris who mocked Aethyta how idiot they were and besides, if you now had a one way Relay next to you, wouldn't you work to reverse engineer it in secret and the reason TIM knows where it is located is thanks to Udina?  

Would I do it? Sure. Would the Council do it? They're idiots. They did absolutely nothing to protect the galaxy from an invasion they knew was coming.

What do you expect from cowardly Xenos?

Don't forget, they also planned that the best way to utilize A/K is have them be a character that questions the player allegiances to Cerberus, nothing wrong with that but FFS Bioware have the decency to at least allow the player more input and meet up with either of them in ME2.

They were written as a cameo and rather than actually have more conversations where we started explaining how close to reality Williams was suggesting that we might have had a mind control chip in our heads Bioware chose to only make one scene and how they behaved during the coup.

I was pissed off when I first got the reunion on Horizon but after going back and choosing neutral options the scene works wonderfully. It just needed a follow up scene, more so than the email the LI sends you, in ME2 to either mend the relationship or end it. In ME3 the Virmire Survivor reacts differently on Mars regarding our words and actions much like pretty all other characters.

Imagine this scenario: Shepard and the surviving crew decide to go present all their findings to the full Council and Anderson (we can use recordings if we have Legion) and in the process the VS is on a room listening to the reunion. Depending on the characters (Samara, Mordin Solus, Legion recordings) players can have an easuer time with the Council and Alliance and the VS sees how they decide to bury thw information to the general public which drives him/her to ignore Anderson warnings and go wait for Shepard in the Normandy docking bay. Shepard either decides to tell the VS how TIM played all and with the help of Miranda, if she survived, she gets part of the story of Shepard condition then and there and not in Cronos Station if the player chooses to take them to the mission.

Bioware made amazing strives into making sure even the most obscure things qere mentioned and shown in the games, so why they sidelined the VS in ME2 and treated them like a punching bag in ME3?

This all goes back to the Trial I was desperately hoping ME3 would open with. THat would have been the perfect time to do something like that. Oh well. 

You don't have to. It's just how they wrote it.

In that case, back to cutting out everything between Anderson conversation and firing of beam. Literally the least possible change.

You want to know why it would work? Because it was already in the game.  It can lead to different scenarios to having another ME game after ME3.

The one idea I like the most is  ME4 has Shepard traveling to darkspace to make sure the reaper threat is truly destroyed. I even came up with a suggestion for a trailer.

I know folks have said Shepard's story is over, but I don't believe that. Sure the reapers are destroyed, but how does the galaxy know for sure? Shepard has known there's another relay in darkspace since ME1 when learning the Citadel is relay that the reapers use to enter the galaxy to start the harvest. That would be the plot for ME4. I've said that when Hackett visits Shepard in the hospital, Shepard mentions he/she never encountered this intelligence. Hackett tells Shepard that will be the mission to find this intelligence and destroy it. The problem with that is Leviathan never existed until months later after ME3 was released. That's find. Reword it having Shepard tell Hackett on Thessia, Vendetta believe the reapers have a master controlling them, but never encountered that master. Another thing to consider is the geth telescope joke. The geth moved relays to whatever location. I guess that means those systems do not have a relay meaning the red wave never reached that area leading to the possibility that any reaper in those locations remain

Of course Shepard doesn't have to return. A new main character with new characters can show up after the events of ME3 to deal with whatever. The game can take place in a single area trying to deal with whatever the problem is.

Here's another idea to play as a bounty hunter.

Like I said, there's a number of ways to have another game after ME3, had they used Hackett's ending. What about Andromeda? I left that for last because of what you posted a short time ago 

While I agree Andromeda Initiative should never have happened, I believe it still can, but after ME3. What bothered me the most about MEA is Jein Garson and the benefactor. Garson comes across as an idiot with a lot of credits. Did she not know what the cost of the project might be before starting making sure she had enough? I wouldn't want her and any of her financial planning team to watch over my finances. If anything, I would have done a project on a much smaller scale to make sure what she plans is feasible. Meaning travel to an unknown location in the Milky Way with a much smaller ship. It would be a trial run before wasting her time and credits on something that was doomed from the beginning. She also isn't very smart. If someone/thing offered a bunch of credits, I would at the very least do a background check, and question them why and what do they hope to get out of it. But that never happened. As soon as she saw that dollar sign, her brain turned to mush.  By the time she gave it any thought, it was too late.

Now for the benefactor. Why help Garson? It knew something was out there that posed a threat. Obviously known before the events of ME1. As far as I know, there's only a few that knew something was out there, one of them being TIM. Someone can correct me about that. If this benefactor has all these resources, why not approach the council with your information? With the amount of resources they had, or alleged to have, those resources would have served better to helping find a way to stop the reapers. Had Garson not come up with her silly sightseeing adventure crap, what would the benefactor have done? Sit around doing nothing while watching the galaxy burn when the reapers show up? I know it's been said those answers could be in a sequel, but at this point, I don't care. I would guess the explanation would be another you don't know them, and there's not enough time to explain crap.

As said above, MEA would have been better if it happened after the events of ME3 instead. What about Ryder? What if Ryder is a squadmate in ME4, using the idea I posted above. Instead of being 21/22, he she is 18/19. She/he just finished basic training when the reapers showed up. Ryder could replace Vega who goes off to deal with the N program. Even though Ryder is wet behind the ears, they show promise. During the game, Shepard gives some tips to help. During that time, the player learns Garson is planning a trip to Andromeda. A lot are volunteering since they have nothing left, and figure a new location would be best.

ME5 or rather MEA starts several years after ME4. Ryder is mid to late 20's. MEA plays out nearly the same.

I find it amusing that people just assume the Reapers went to Andromeda, when the implication of "The Enemy" was as vague as humanly possible. The Jaardan and the Enemy are just as likely two unrelated races that hated each other, and one gained the upper hand. Literally nothing in the game implies Reapers, people just hear "overwhelming enemy" and make assumptions. Any Species capable of making fucking Dyson Spheres would be able to fight Reapers successfully. It was just lazy rehash writing using different names. People overthink this stuff way too much.

The council always being so against Shepard really did come off as weird at some points... if at least one of them was shown to be clearly indoctrinated maybe I would have understood, but with what we got? Like, Shepard serves them hard evidence on a platter and they still hesitate and procrastinate.

How?