Why the ending did not work (repost)

I think you're misunderstanding me... I don't "want" a collapse at the console, but I don't mind it at all if Shepard had died in every single instance of the endings; and a collapse at the console sort of equates to a "refuse" ending or a "cliffhanger" one since then what happens to the galaxy remains an unknown... and I would have been OK with that if they had of intended to do a straight sequel trilogy in the Milky Way.

I still think it makes more sense to have the progress of the game improve the Crucible (i.e. it's ability to focus on the Reapers alone) in some way rather than just having Shepard's survival in the destroy ending be tied to the EMS.  The low EMS Destroy results in the same explosion as the high EMS one and I don't see how collecting more war assets magically makes the same explosion survivable by Shepard.  The war assets aren't portrayed as making Shepard stronger personally... they are portrayed as the resources that go towards building the Crucible.  Opening up the Synthesis ending after a certain level of EMS makes some sense; whereas tacking on a "Shepard lives" ending at the highest EMS just doesn't make sense to me.

My understanding is that what the central problem was with the ending for a lot of people. In my case, I definitely thought it would of been nice to have more of an epic conclusion, you know, one high charge beam into the Reaper stronghold and just kind of wipe them out once and for all, everyone celebrates. 

I don't think it's always that technology and everything needs to be destroyed, it has more of a MAD feel to it all.... 

Anyway yes of course by this point absolutely 4 years or so? That's the time someone takes to complete HS... maintaining salt after so long is just silly. 

Ain't nothing logical about EMS in these endings.   

Well, yea but it kind of make sense that way. More ships--->less f uped crucible----->more time before citadel explodes(?)-----> ????-----> profit! 

I repeat:  I'm not advocating the Control or Synthesis options be removed and Destroy be made canon. The Control and Synthesis endings do suit certain Shepard personalities better than Destroy does and, I think, players should have the opportunity to choose those sorts of options if they want to... regardless of how heavily other people criticize them for doing so.  I agree, having only the Destroy ending would be boring.  Depending on the personality of that particular Shepard in any given playthrough, I will quite willingly select Synthesis or Control.  Anyway, I've said my piece on this many times.  Could the endings be improved - absolutely... in many different ways.  Was I upset about the endings as they were initially - no.  Am I upset about the endings as they are now - no... and with that I'll end my participation on this thread just to keep the peace.

I'm pointing out a correlation. People who favor destroy more often then not complain about Catalyst. Mean while players that favor Control or Synthesis tend not to have as much a problem with Catalyst.

They even went out of their way to create  a fan mod for the PC version to completely strip the choice away and have it instantly activate Crucible after Shepard passes out and wave wipe out Reapers.

The Catalyst has also seen countless cycles repeat the same actions but with different faces.  Which is also echoed in the game multiple times.  They are living in a paradise compared to our current set up. The races of the galaxy have the literal entire galaxy to explore and expand on. No longer are they at a shortage of supplies or limited in space to grow.  And yet the same old set ups still follow them. Conflict is rampant in the galaxy not just between races but between similar groups. There are massive multi billion dollar mercenary groups that earn a ton for violence and murder.


Shepard fights the Reapers because they are to him and the galaxy at large anyways killing everyone for no understandable reason. They just showed up and decided to wipe everyone out.

Control option is a significantly different set up to previous Reaper plan.  You might as well be saying that Superman and Batman are the exact same thing.

How and why was peace gained between Geth and Quarians. Everyone is so fast to point it out but never examine the reasons and effects behind it.  Without Reaper intervention the Quarians would have completely wiped out the Geth. Due to their completely unprovoked attack on Geth controlled space. If the Reapers didn't attempt to completely strip all Geth of any free will they would have effectively wiped out the Quarians. And Legion wouldn't have wanted to assist Shepard because there would be nothing wrong in what they are doing to it.

Peace is only achieved because the Reapers tried to pull a fast one over the Geth and that they represent a serious threat to both groups and they have no choice but to join together to fight against them or be wiped out individually anyways.

Not every Shepard personality in the game would find "control" amoral.  A form of control of synthetics is used extensively in combat throughout the 3 games (i.e. hacking).  Shepard can also opt to rewrite the heretics (another form of hacking).  Control can also be viewed as a route toward eventually destroying the Reapers as well (i.e. gain the upper hand by infiltrating their network and then taking them down from within).

Hacking is a gameplay mechanic, mostly. That heretics mission takes place way before solving the Geth/Quarian conflict. If something is gonna shoot you but you can prevent that by hacking, sure you would.

And 'Control can also be viewed as a route toward eventually destroying the Reapers as well'. Perhaps yes, but you don't have that information when you make that choice, so that's pure speculation. Maybe you can destroy them, maybe you can't. I doubt it though, because the choice would have been presented differently. The choice would have implied you could.

Like I said, many conversations do steer you towards those principals. The whole image of Shepard is one of a hero that will save the galaxy, not one that will screw the galaxy over. You can go Renegade and be a douche (sometimes just for the sake of it), but the game does try to make you take the high road. Although, to be fair, I never picked that many Renegade options as they mostly made no sense, or were there to just entertain people that like to be a dick.

You as as player can speculate perhaps. Shepard can't. Shepard is given choices and their outcomes. Never did Starkid say 'if you control Reapers, you can eventually destroy them if you wish to'. That's what the Destroy ending does. So given the ingame choices, that's what Shepard has to go with.

Why the ending didn't work? I will answer that at the end of my long winded post

Once Shepard passes out, Hackett stops calling her/his name. Why? I'm not even sure if he heard Shepard before she/he passed out. Why didn't he send a shuttle to that location? Time is not on his side.

A platform lifts Shepard up to the promised land. Why did the reapers have that platform when the Citadel was built? Did they and its master foresee that an organic would pass out on that very spot?

While going up, Shepard awakens to get on her/his hands and knees. All of a sudden a cloaked human child shows up. Wait a minute. Its the catalyst. Hold on. If that's the catalyst, than why did Vendetta say the Citadel was the catalyst? Was it just coincidence that the group building the crucible during the prothean cycle called the Citadel, catalyst? Hmmm.

It tells me it controls the reapers. Lets backup for a minute. Why is it using 3 different voices when it talks? Maybe I'm dead. Yeah. That's it. There's no way I would've survived Harbingers beam of doom. Or this could be some messed up dream. And another thing why did it take the form of a human child? Unfortunately Shepard can't ask that question. I know why. That isn't my Shepard. That's the stunt double provided by Bioware.

Also why isn't Shepard making any attempt to get a hold of Hackett to let him know what's going on and to give his/her location? I mean what would happen if Shepard passes out again. How long would Hackett stand in his ship twiddling his thumbs waiting for something to happen?

The thing says it preserves the old life in reaper form.  If you're preserving, why put the reapers in harm's way?

It tells me its creators became the first true reaper. Yeah I met your creators. Idiots. And because of their idiocy, they programmed the thing the way they did. Leviathan suffered from politician syndrome.

I ask the thing about the crucible. Its known about it for several cycles. Interesting. Vendetta says the plans for it have been around for millions of years. Does that mean the cycles before the thing knew about it, wasn't able to build the crucible at all. I know the Levaithan says its never been finished, but still curious that the thing didn't know about it earlier. I ask who created the plans. It tells me I wouldn't know them, and there's not enough time to explain. What? Does it have a destroy this planet party it has to get to? I would say it doesn't know who or what created the plans.

It tells me about destroying the reapers. I see a vision of Anderson shooting something while walking into the explosion. I knew the guy was an idiot, but I figured he would shoot from a distance. It tells me the chaos will return. My children will make robots and the chaos will return. Good to know I'll be a dad/mom. I guess I'll have to tell my kids not to build any robots. So that won't be a problem. It also mentions by destroying the reapers, all synthetics will be targeted as well. Ok. Is that suppose to mean something to me?

It mentions control. There's TIM. He's pulling handles. So he was right about that. He was always a smart guy. Too bad he had to die. The thing tells me I would die and be able to direct the reapers as I see fit. What's odd is that it hesitates for a moment when saying it would be forced to accept that I would take over as the reaper ruler. Why would it do that? Interesting.

It tells me about synthesis. What? No vision? How I'm I suppose to know what to do? Yes I'm playing stupid. It says my essense of who I am can be added to the crucible. So do I add a drop of blood? Maybe a urine sample will work? What if I spit in the beam? How about a few strands of hair? I know. hahaha. I take a dump in the beam. See I can't choose this ending. I don't know what to do. I tells me it tried something similar, but it failed. Its something that cannot be forced because they weren't ready. I'm ready? Hmmm. Sounds like I'm the one doing the forcing while the thing keeps its "hands" clean. It says its the ideal solution. Hmmm. I think I understand now. It also says synthesis is the final evolution of all life. That doesn't sound good.

So synthesis it likes and it hesitated when saying it would be forced that I would take control of the reapers. Sounds like it doesn't want to lose control of the reapers.

For those that are interested, there is a brown ending.

As I walk forward, I think of everything that got me to this point. But I forgot the people who died since the reapers invaded. What would those people want me to choose? What would their surviving family members want? For a moment, I put myself in their shoes.

Paul Smith walks out his front door to the end of his driveway to pick up the morning paper. Its a nice sunny day. He looks around to see his neighbors out and about. He turns around to hear his daughter telling him that breakfast is ready. Paul smiles, Its going to be a good weekend. His parents are here to watch the kids while he takes his wife to Vegas for the weekend. Its their 15th wedding anniversary. He hears someone saying to look up. The sky darkens. What is that? In one single moment, he sees a bright red light firing at the house near him. On no. He turns back around to see his son waving just as his house explodes. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. He blacks out.

Paul Smith wakes up. He flickers his eyes for a moment. Its true. Everything is gone. Tears start flowing down his face. He hears screaming. That sounds like Ann. What is that? He grabs a pipe near his feet. Runs over and starts hitting the thing. DIE.. DIE.. DIE. The thing is dead. He helps Ann to her feet. I don't see her husband and kids. The tears started flowing again. All of sudden a couple more of those thing showed up. Paul tells Ann to grad that beam looking thing over there. Once the uglies are dead, they see a shuttle land near them. A few folks took it to gather people to help fight the giant looking robots that attacked. Count me in. The same with Ann. As Paul steps in the shuttle, he see's the city of  Boston on fire with the giant looking robots firing a red laser beam. He mutters to himself that he will get revenge for his family.

Its settle. Destroy the reapers. As I walk to the tube, I smile knowing the things will be destroyed shortly.

That's the one problem I have with destroy. Shepard has been in the military for over 10 years. She/he would know the effective range of the pistol. Why would she/he shoot the tube while walking towards it? It makes no sense.

So to answer the above question. No the endings, sythnesis and control, do not work for my Shepard. I like destroy.  Just not having Shepard  shoot the tube while walking towards it.