If Bioware ever decides to choose a canon ending for Mass Effect 3, which one would you prefer?

Why did they need to become individuals, though?  The geth consensus is a perfectly valid type of existence.  Sci-fi is no stranger to hive minds where the individual is simply part of a greater whole.  I get that they were in danger in the moment but why not just retreat to somewhere else?  It worked for the quarians.

Destroy with the geth surviving. I'm fine with EDI dying because of her Reaper components, but the destruction of the geth was obviously just there to give players a reason to choose a different ending.

I think its best to treat the Catalyst as the liar it is. It's an intelligence that has survived for a billion years, and it knows Shepard as it has studied him, do you think it would happily sell its own extinction to him, or put road blocks in the way to encourage him towards a different choice?

The Catalyst clearly wanted Shepard to choose Synthesis, promoting it as the Best Thing EVAH!!!  Meanwhile, a billion years ago, the first thing it did was turn on its creators.  I doubt it saw the irony in that action.  Best to make sure that thing is made permanently non-functional - not overwritten but destroyed.  Send that lying piece of crap to synthetic hell.

Except that it did, in fact, lie.  It said Shepard would die from being partly synthetic.  High EMS = living Shepard.  Ergo, the Catalyst was lying.  I see it as making the Destroy option less appealing.   There is only one option that lets the Catalyst remain fully functioning.  I don't have to point out which one, do I?

Let's face it there were contradictions abounding in the explanation of the Catalyst. In fact I don't see why we call it the catalyst since, as the word implies, the catalyst is required to make the device fire and clearly that means that Shepard is the catalyst. Without Shepard making a choice the weapon simply doesn't work, refuse ending. Synthesis, control or destroy are all dependent on Shepard doing something definite. Otherwise, if the goal of the Reaper AI is to achieve synthesis, then with Shepard opting out of a decision, why didn't it just grab another human with synthetic parts and throw them into the beam?

So the biggest problem I have with any of the endings is that Shepard is playing god. Literally the fate of the entire galaxy is dependent on them making a choice in the few seconds you are allotted to do so. My first run, before the extended cut, I was so befuddled by the brief exposition on the part of the hologram, I was totally confused about what to do and what the outcome would be. Having the choices colour coded did not help either.

To have my ideal ending of Reapers destroyed but EDI and Geth surviving, a number of things would have to change within the game.

First the arrays that target only Reaper tech should have been part of an actual sub-quest, not simply hidden in the planet scanning quests.

Second, if you do the quest before doing the Geth/Qarian one, then you have the option of killing Legion to stop him uploading the Reaper codes to the Geth but still allowing the Geth to survive as they had up to that point. It is clear that letting Legion upload those codes is what dooms the Geth and to my mind is one of those instances when then writers are loading the outcome in favour of one in particular, Synthesis. At the time I did the quest, having just destroyed a Reaper virus in the Geth, I could not understand why Shepard would want to allow Legion to upload another Reaper code to them. It just didn't make sense. But the only way to prevent it was to doom the entire Geth consensus when it was Legion, the only one with freewill, who was proposing it.

Third, make it clear to EDI that you suspect that as she has Reaper tech, she may be in danger from the targeting arrays, which then give EDI the opportunity either to make the necessary adjustments or more likely, download her consciousness to a back-up system that is shielded from the effects. Alternatively have EDI simply assert as she does anyway that she thinks the Reapers are vile and is willing to die in order to remove them from the galaxy.

Lastly, the writers themselves would have to view all outcomes as equal in merit depending upon your point of view, when it is clear the hologram, voicing their view of the matter, is clearly suggesting that synthesis is the ideal solution for long term peace. What is most annoying about this is the assertion that synthetics and organics will always end up in conflict with one another, to the ultimate destruction of organics, if you have just succeeded in uniting an entire galaxy against the Reapers, including the former enemies of the Qarians and the Geth. You are never allowed to use this obvious paradox to its argument as a means of disproving its theory but it is what lies behind my decision that destroy is ultimately the best outcome for the galaxy, trusting that the various races will be capable of using what they have learned to prevent a similar situation arising in the future.

The ending has been debated so much, I doubt there is a fresh perspective left

There's the fatal flaw in Synthesis.  The Catalyst with his "final evolution".  Did that thing not pay any attention to organics for the past billion years.  The only way a species stops evolving is when it goes extinct.  Maybe that thing thinks that Shepard doesn't know biology and can be fooled?  Of the three choices, this is the one that leaves the Catalyst fully intact.  I wonder...if the organics are all "Reapified", and the Catalyst controls the Reapers...

dmc1001, you made my day.  I would love to copy/paste this into a number of the threads running on this site.

Nah... That's not how catalysts work. The definition of a catalyst is a substance that is used without being consumed, to speed up or allow a reaction. Shepard is obviously consumed. From that perspective, Shepard cannot be the catalyst, but is more a substance in the reaction. If you have a catalyst but lack one of the substances, the reaction does not take place. Shepard being required does not necessarily mean he is the catalyst. It has been stated multiple times that the Citadel is the catalyst. The childlike being is likely the AI that controls the Citadel.


It's smudboy. He has made these videos for ME1 and ME2 also. He has a LOT to bash regarding all the games, not just ME3.

ME3 is still the most underrated game of the trilogy, and ME2 the most overrated one.

If they choose destroy as canon I'm ditching Mass Effect.

Take note BioWare.

I prefer MEHEM but I'd still go for EC if I didn't have the mod.  I found Control to be very depressing so I wouldn't choose it again.  All I have left is Refusal, which I also suspect I'll dislike.