All three of our endings basically looked like "You lose." and the kid didn't explain anything. We chose our endings completely blind, we were blind to what would happen before we chose and blind to what the consequences were after we chose and all star-child would say when we asked for objections was "NO!", in the tone of a pet owner stopping his dog from crapping on the rug...
Ok but the Star Child is basically asking to you control the Reapers. And literally 5 minutes before that, the Illusive Man had been saying "Shepard! We can control the Reapers!". And Shepard and Anderson had been exclaiming, "No TIM, you can't, the Reapers control you, they've indoctrinated you, they've made you
think you can control them". And then you get a ghost-like child, who looks like the dead kid on Earth who you feel terribly guilty about failing to save, who represents the innocent deaths of all those exterminated by the Reapers, all in a massive 20 minute sequence that resembles all the dream sequences throughout the game. So the consequences are kind of there to see, even if you have to think about them for a bit.
Btw I'm not saying Shepard was indoctrinated, I'm saying that's what I thought, but you could equally say that Shepard had the chance to end the war by controlling the Reapers for the forces of good etc., and that only she/he had the force of will to do so uncorrupted. The Shepard in my story was wary of the Star Child, and had to make a horrible sacrifice to save as many people as she could, a choice that had been preempted by conversations with Garrus, Adams and Dr. Chakwas amongst others. Because she wanted to give humanity and the other races a chance not to exterminate each other. But you could equally say that that would be a reckless way to throw away the chance to end the wars for eternity, and that Shepard should control or synthesise with the Reapers to make way for a new dawn of galactic life.
Now on top of that imagine this: Imagine you were sucker-punched by the ending as I have described it. There's a difference between getting to brace yourself and not getting to brace yourself.
Yeah you're right, I can't imagine what it was like, which is why I'm trying to understand. Cos when I finished it, I expected that the game had ended after the meeting with the Illusive Man, or maybe even before, so I was kind of surprised to see the game ended with exactly the same choice. Unless it
wasn't the same choice, if the Kid had previously explained things differently.
As for me, even after the DLC I found it pretty unsatisfactory. The star-kid's claim that organics and synthetics can't make peace for themselves is at the core of my objection. It places so little faith in the races of the galaxy, and makes everything the player has done up until now seem invalid...
Well yeah, I can see how it didn't seem to reflect your galactic choices with that much weight. But I do think this ending was better. Whichever you chose, you had to make huge sacrifices, terrible sacrifices, and all the games throughout had had these kinds of sacrifices at the forefront of the gameplay. All the way through, you have to make choices whether to try to be a hero, or to let some help themselves so that you can help others more in need. IMO these aren't supposed to be easy 'Oh let's just save everybody in the galaxy and be home in time to watch Blasto (or whoever that was)'. And the nature of the final sacrifice is suggested in some conversations. I remember Garrus asking whether it's ok to let 5 billion die to save 10 billion. And when Chakwas argued with Adams about organic life being more precious than synthetic life, I spent absolutely ages trying to decide who to support, because I get so immersed in these games.
I still hate that we get nothing in the way of info if Shepard lives. It's still just half a breath and nothing more so in that respect, nothing changed. The series has always been about THE MAN. Casey Hudson himself even said in interviews about Dragon Age that Mass effect was Shepard's story, about Shepard the individual. And then in the end it becomes about THE UNIVERSE. I think that is the most personal narrative betrayal.
I dunno, at first I was actually a little disappointed that Shep woke up! Because I thought it was a bit cheesy, and dampened the impact of the sacrifice she'd made. But then I found out that she/he only wakes up if you make specific choices, so after that I figured it was pretty cool, especially if you'd finished it before and didn't wake up the last time. But it is all about Shepard, and that's why the original ending gave little about the future, because for Shepard there was no future. You'd saved the galaxy! Shepard had become a legend! And changed the cycle forever! And to commit to anything more would be risky, in case they make more stuff based on the ME lore, and tbh I also think kind of unnecessary. Maybe you do go live on a beach and drink piña colada. Maybe you do retire, and build a house with Tali on Rannoch. The fact that you miraculously lived through it makes it all possible.
