Yes, I'm late to the party. Chances are, people have moved on and many others were angry. With limited exposure to the Mass Effect series, I looked into the original cut endings on Youtube and remembered how random it all looked and felt. It just ended and there was little of anything in it. It was so unsatisfying, but I also pointed out that without the actual journey, the ending would be likely meaningless. BioWare eventually came out with the Extended Cut release and the endings there were much lengthier and more effectively rounded out the ending. It was much better when compared to the original cut, but without the journey, it would be difficult to understand the experience.
Fast forward a year, I've finished Mass Effect 2 and then Mass Effect 3 while relying on some research readings and the Genesis 2 Comics to supply me the Mass Effect 1 story. There I was, watching the endings as they unfolded. As much as the endings felt better, there was a weak point and as predicted, it involved the Catalyst's conversation with Shepard. The three choices were Destroy, Control, and Synthesis and all of them were seemingly random. I was bothered by that and why those three strange options had very little setup, very little support, and very little explanation. I knew that BioWare had wanted to keep the endings open to interpretation and let fans speculate on the future, but it was incredibly poorly presented.
Destroy seemed to be easy to comprehend as it would destroy all synthetic life. Why was this choice setup with heavy implications was a mystery to me. I chalked it off as BioWare wanting players to make really hard moral choices but it seemed to be convoluted without the proper presentation. Control was the only option that seemed to have some precedence as it seemed to be the Illusive Man's main thrust in defeating the Reapers. Unfortunately, all instances of this plot arc seemingly involved indoctrinated individuals so it seemed like choosing this would be folly. BioWare seemingly hoped players would take the Catalyst's words at face value, but trusting a character who only appears in the ending is quite a gigantic leap. For me, the hardest to swallow was Synthesis primarily because I could see no reason why the Citadel, the Catalyst, and the Crucible could alter all organic life and merge them with Synthetic. It was insane to ponder on how this operated and even worse, it seemed to be BioWare's preferred ending. I suppose if BioWare wanted speculation on the ending, the mere fact I've pondered on this for far too long showed they achieved it.
I do think the endings could have been better and as I pondered on what an appropriate solution would be, I figured I'd change this and that and drop the Catalyst's conversation. But without knowing the full intentions of the developers for its endings, it was hard for me to ponder on the "How I would do it" scenario. This was when friends of mine generously let me indulge in the "Final Hours of Mass Effect 3". This journal provided me very little new insight on the development process as everything seemed to be normal for any development studio. In that app, though, there was one particular image that made it all clear.
There was a photograph of Mac Walters' notes on the ending that is basically all over Google. After pondering for countless hours, this single image unlocked what I believe was the underlying themes of the ending. Though out Mass Effect, there was this constant struggle between the organics and synthetics and that the cycle of destruction and chaos repeated over and over. When the Leviathan's created the Intelligence (the Catalyst), the Intelligence concluded that to prevent the synthetics from taking over the galaxy, it had to basically wipe the board clean of races that were advanced enough to create synthetics and make way for newer life. To me, it did not matter that the current cycle's generation was preserved. The Reapers preserved only what they could and basically annihilated them to make sure any trace of organics would still flourish. For many, many cycles, the Reapers would follow this pattern and destroy everything so that the primitive organic races could flourish. With the existence of Shepard, all of that seemingly changed. When the Crucible docked into the Citadel, the Intelligence had realized that the pattern was no longer the same. Shepard's presence in the Catalyst's chambers had given him or her the power to alter the pattern and resolve all organic and synthetic conflict.
The Catalyst's first choice was Destroy. For many, many years, the organics have fought against the synthetics with the last cycle's instance being the Protheans' Metacon War. In that war, the Protheans sought to annihilate the synthetics before the Reapers came in and crushed the Protheans. No wonder the solution involved destroying everything. The designers of the Crucible had wanted to destroy all synthetics but as the Catalyst points out, this only repeats the pattern and the cycle, only this time, there won't be any Reapers to preserve primitive organic races. BioWare, I think, had intended players to look back at how Shepard resolved the Quarians and the Geth to see how feasible the option was. If Shepard failed and let only one of the factions survive, then the player would hope to think that any lasting peace with the synthetic may not be permanent. EDI seemed to be the only proof that cooperation and lasting peace was possible, but that serves to make Shepard's choice even harder. Would it be possible for peace when your only instance of success is a lone renegade AI? If Shepard was successful in uniting the Quarians and the Geth, then the commander knows that peace would be possible. I imagine the Catalyst would counter that by saying any peace would be temporary. It was only programmed to seek a final resolution to the conflict of organics and synthetics after all.
The next choice was Control. In this case, subjugation of the Reapers ensured that Shepard would take the Intelligence's place and use them as he saw fit. Looking back to even the time of the Metacon War, the Protheans failed to finish the Crucible because indoctrinated elements from within lobbied that controlling the Reapers was the means to defeat them. This was the same sad conclusion the Illusive Man had and due to this, it was difficult for the players to actually believe the Catalyst in his choice. While BioWare's intention for the Catalyst was to genuinely present this choice, the past history would lead players to believe this as a false choice. Even worse, EDI was a shackled AI and removing the constraints on her did little to make her an evil entity, thereby even further devaluing the option.
Last and not least, Synthesis. BioWare had hoped to present a resolution that would end all conflicts between organics and synthetics and came with the idea of merging the organics and synthetics. As this idea had been unheard of in the Mass Effect universe, this particular choice seemed to present the most optimistic outcome. The Catalyst itself asserted as much and left Shepard to decide the fate of the galaxy. While on a superficial level, this would make sense, it seemed to players as Shepard imposing his will on the entire galaxy. From Walters' notes, this seemed to be intentional as he hoped Shepard to ascend as godlike by the end of the trilogy.
I think I have found clarity with the three ending choices presented, but I also found why BioWare's final conversation proved to be so vapid. At this point, I would likely have advised on several things in the ending. One does not need to explain everything that the Reapers did nor where they came from. What needs to happen is proper support for each choice. Shepard should be allowed to explore his past decisions and experiences while conversing with the Catalyst. He should be allowed to bring up the Quarian-Geth conflict, the Prothean conflict, and EDI. The Catalyst should have been written to point out different perspectives and be more receptive to Shepard's experiences. In searching for the solution to end organic and synthetic conflict, the dialog should go both ways. Shepard should have been able to use his experience to put doubt on the Catalyst's evaluation and the Catalyst could evaluate Shepard's experiences and let him know of what he may have done and accomplished. Simple flashbacks would round up the experience of this conversation. The most challenging area of this is to make Control a viable option as the Catalyst should prove to Shepard that it is not a false choice and that it may bring to an end the conflict. Perhaps, it may be that Shepard's wisdom can guide the races and simply destroy threats. The Extended Cut shows what happens in the future, but does not really give the Catalyst's choice any sort of support structures. With Synthesis, I think BioWare missed a great opportunity.
During the Quarian-Geth conflict, Legion points out that it had Reaper technology that would give the Geth collective individuality. It may or may not be successful depending on Shepard's choices, but this should have been made that Legion failed to make that transmission. Then, I would have advised altering Synthesis as giving the synthetics the added Reaper upgrade to give it individual thought and be more sympathetic to organics, completing its goal to be like its own creators. Like attained peace between each of the organic races, the synthetics would then have the proper thought and consciousness to broker peace between the organics, thereby ending the conflict with mutual benefit. This to me, makes much more sense than the Crucible transmitting energy to alter all life. It's more magic than science fiction. With this option, it would be easy to leverage the Quarian-Geth conflict and see how Legion's ascension prove to be beneficial, just as EDI's steps towards what it means to be human proved to be her growth. Total missed opportunity.
And so ends my brain-wracking over Mass Effect 3. Over all, it is a great game and ends a great trilogy. The endings are not air-tight nor do they need to be. All BioWare needed to make the boat sail smoothly towards the end is to give its endings more proper plot support. Flashbacks, additional conversations would help the pill go down, so to speak. Instead, players are left to their own devices, pondering over choices that seemed to be random with a shiny blue boy who offered no answers. Fortunately, I have found mine.
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