An Open Letter to Bioware: Mass Effect 3, it's Controversial Ending, and a polite suggestion on where to go from here.

Warning, I intend to talk about about the ME3 in detail, Spoilers and all, so if you haven't finished it, go do that first. 

First of all, I have to set the record straight on something.  Some have heard/read my initial response to the closing scenes of Bioware's final installment of this epic space adventure and assumed that the game is in some way not worth bothering with.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Mass Effect 3 is an absolute Masterpiece, and a prime example of why the argument that "Games Cannot be Art" is nonsense. The characters are compelling, interesting, sympathetic and excellently fleshed out.  The story is rich, humorous, entertaining, and often heartbreaking.  As far as game play goes, combat is rock solid and fun as hell to play, especially with the streamlined powers, improved cover, and much appreciated selection of weapons with wildly varying properties (like a pistol that fires proxy mines and a shotgun that you can charge).  I would recommend it to anyone who has a system that can play it, no joke.  For 98 % of my playtime, I was utterly enthralled with the game, to the point that I was doing damn little else besides playing it.

But...

That 2 percent.  The Ending.  Say the last 3 scenes or so.  That bit of story that wrapped up the universe at large almost killed my enthusiasm for the series altogether.  A series that I've played religiously since the first installment and invested hundreds of hours in.  It's that jarring.  It's that... selfish, I guess is a word to describe it.  Whoever came up with the ending decided that this was the end, and nothing else besides their narrative mattered.  Which is fine, it's their story to end.  But... It doesn't really end it in any meaningful way.

Allow me to elaborate.  From frame one, the goal of Mass Effect 3 is very clearly Defined.  Stop the Reapers.  And as you progress through the game, your mission goes from insanely impossible to in the realm of possibility and finally a long shot that people are finally beginning to believe may pay off.  You collect a crew (An anemic 7 to ME2's 12, and that's assuming you got the DLC) which includes most of your ME1 crew and enlist the help of your other past crew members in support roles.  As the game progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that whatever happens, the solution to the Reaper invasion will cost a devastatingly huge number of lives and almost certainly be the end of Shepard.  The lion's share of the game is spent helping key members of sympathetic races to stabilize their systems and thus gain their undivided support.  The whole time, the goal is to bring every race into the fold and form the single most powerful force the galaxy has ever known.  With careful diplomacy, even the wholly synthetic Geth, the reluctant villains of the first Mass Effect game can be brought into the war effort.  The situation gets more and more desperate as the Illusive Man and Cerberus constantly antagonize Shepard and the galaxy at large, believing they can take control of the Reapers rather than destroy them.  All the while, a super weapon of ancient design, the Crucible, remains the best hope the Alliance has to end the reaper threat.  When it becomes clear that the Citadel is the Catalyst, the key to the Crucible, the Reapers move it to Earth at the center of Reaper controlled Space.  When Shepard at last returns to Earth, along with his assembled fleet, and a space battle of unfathomable proportions takes place.  It's a scene to rival any science fiction film to date.  As the battle between the fleet and the reapers rages on, Shepard returns to the surface and meets up with Admiral Anderson, who has been fighting there since the invasion began, and takes time to have one last conversation with all of his crew as he tours the ranks of the worn down Alliance Military. 

Then, in a final last ditch effort to open the Citadel and use the Crucible, Shepard and crew drive into the heart of the Ruin of London, fighting desperately through a no man's land that was once one of the great human cities, and at last come to the transport beam that can take them to the Citadel.  Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers are cut down, as the Reaper Harbinger flays the blasted out wasteland just to give Shepard and his/her crew a chance to make it to the Citadel.  Just as it begins to look like you might make it, Harbinger strikes your squad with a viscous blast.  At first, it seems hope is lost, until a battered Shepard, armor ravaged and flesh in tatters, rises once more.  Unable to determine if his squad, or indeed anyone from the assault, is alive, and barely able to lift his pistol, Shepard stumbles towards the beam, desperately shoots the last few husks and marauders between him and the beam, and collapses into it.  It's an incredible sequence of events and emotionally draining. 

Then... The end.  The one that has a lot of fans up in arms.  In an unusual area of the Citadel, littered with corpses, Shepard awakens and finds that he and Anderson are the only ones who made it to the beam.  As they locate a control panel, the Illusive man thwarts them, using his reaper-tech derived ability to indoctrinate humans to control Anderson.  The final confrontation with The Illusive Man ends up the only way it could, an argument about control that either ends with Shepard shooting him or The Illusive Man committing suicide if you convince him he was wrong about controlling the Reapers.  The Alliance docks the Crucible at the Citadel and a lift takes Shepard to a massive area where a VI calling itself The Catalyst explains that the old solution, the Reapers purging the most advanced organic lifeforms in the galaxy, will no longer work, as the knowledge that will be passed on and the resistance of the current species is too great.  It claims that the balance between Organic and Synthetic must be maintained, or the organics will destroy everything (How?  Why?  how do the Uber Powerful reapers not tip the balance?  Never explained.) 

The Catalyst offers Shepard a choice.

Unfortunately, no matter what choice you make, you will inevitably feel like it doesn't matter.  The Galaxy is Fucked no matter what you do.

(Bear in Mind, these are the so-called "Best" endings possible.  I'd hate to see the bad ones...)

Option One.  Control.  As it turns out, the Illusive Man was right that the Reapers could be "Controlled", but only Shepard could do it.  If you select this option, Shepard takes Control of the Reapers and basically cancels their invasion with a wave of blue energy, sending them back into intergalactic space, at least for now. 

Option Two.  Destroy. The original plan, and the one Anderson suggested, Destroy the Reapers outright.  However, it wont just kill the Reapers, but all synthetic life, including The Geth, EDI, and Shepard (who became part synthetic at some point?  When Cerberus resurrected him?  I guess I missed that.)  If you choose this option, Shepard blasts conduits with his pistol and ends the reaper cycle forever with a wave of red energy.

Option Three.  Synthesis.  The Metaphysical Evangelion ending.  Shepard can leap into the energy beam of the Crucible, and his combined Organic and Synthetic biology will overwrite the biology of every life form with a wave of green energy, organic and synthetic alike, making all life a hybrid of the two and thus eliminating the presumed need for balance. 

And all three follow the same basic story from there.

The effort of performing any of the 3 tasks appears to be fatal to Shepard (More on that in a bit).  The Blue/Red/Green energy beam required to reach all life in the galaxy overloads and destroys the Mass Relays.  For some unknown reason (it's never stated where they are going or why), the Normandy is attempting to flee the beam, but is overtaken.  After crashing on a primordial planet, Joker and two other crew members emerge from the Normandy, look around and smile (if you chose synthesis, it will be EDI and she will be huggin on Joker as they are both covered with circuits. Your love interest will always be there as well.)  Then... Credits.  After which you may, depending on your military strength or something, get a brief scene in the distant future of that same planet, where an old man (voiced by Buzz Aldrin!) tells his grandson legends of "The Shepard". Then a message appears that says that Shepard ended the reaper threat and became a Legend.  Now make his legend greater by playing DLC when it comes out!  (Shit you Not!)

Oooookay, where to start?  Why does every possible outcome of even the best endings mean a depressingly shitty end to an epic series, a snub to a cast of sympathetic characters fans have a vested interest in, and a blanket party for one of the richest sci fi universes since Star Wars?  I'm glad you asked.

Control.  This option sucks.  Just completely sucks.  It's the trite and cliched do-gooder solution.  Shepard sacrifices his life to send the reapers packing and solves nothing in the process. 

Sure, the reaper threat has ended.  For now.  But for how long?  Will the reapers remain controlled by a dead man for all eternity and never return?  And if not, how long until they do?  At best, another 50,000 years, the end of another Cycle.  At worst, just as soon as they come to their senses and rebuild the Mass Relays.  Who knows how long that is, building Mass Relays might be child's play to them.

And what about this "Balance" that suddenly became so fucking important in the last five minutes of a 100+ hour game series?  Given that Shepard got rid of the reapers forever, wont that still mean that the balance will go bad and Organics will obliterate themselves (Again, fucking how?!)? 

Destroy:  This option would be the obvious choice, except for one bullshit provision. 

All synthetics Die, including EDI (even though there is no indication that she died in the final scene) and the Geth, for no adequately explained reason.  Why the hell would the Catalyst and the Citadel have any power over Synthetic lifeforms of this cycle?  Did the Catalyst adapt it's program to included new synthetics in the event some guy blasted it's innards?  And if so, why?  If not to be a big Fuck You to the player.  Personally, the last thing I did before the Invasion of Cerberus and Earth was broker Peace between the Quarians and the Geth, in the process helping the Geth become truly Sentient Beings and welcoming them into the galactic community of enlightened races, as well as the Allied Fleet that would help me take back earth and use the Crucible to deal with the Reapers. 

So the inclusion of the "Kills the entire synthetic race you just liberated and convinced the rest of the galaxy to accept because the Catalyst said so" clause in the Destroy option takes the most sensible course of action and turns it into the biggest Dick Move in galactic history.  You would be worse than the goddamn Slimy Salarians, fucking over the Krogan with the Genophage after you didn't want to deal with them any more.

Synthesis:  This is the Option I actually took, but only because it seemed Less Dickish by a narrow margin and it's the "Hidden" one I did all that extra work collecting resources for.  It's not worth it.  I don't even have a particular gripe, other than it feels like the Tree Hugger option.  Two constantly warring lifeforms become one new form of life, like, so deep man!   Not to mention, been done, in a bunch of Anime Movies/series for a start (Eyes on Mars, Gall Force, Vandred, etc).  Not to mention that the Crash scene is all about Joker and EDI and how they can bump uglies now because they are the same life form or something.  The "EDI and Joker, sittin in a Tree" subplot was cute, but it's not what I want the last goddamn scene to focus on.  Also, shouldn't she be dead since the Normandy got fucked up by the beam and crashed?  Not to mention that the two lovebirds are making kissy faces at each other while your love interest (in my case Tali.  Poor, sweet, awesome, brave, and kind Tali) is standing right there, most likely devastated by the fact that the love of her life is almost certainly dead.

Which brings me to another point.  There is apparently some kind of dark magic that I wasn't aware of that you can perform to earl a 15 second bonus clip where what appears to be Shepard's body draws breath before the cut to the credits.  I'm sure the developers thought this was a great way to placate the fans who were pissed off about Shepard dying, nobly or otherwise.  "Look, he's alive!  Stop writing us angry emails now please!"  But in reality, it's just another poorly thought out Fuck You to the player.  Let me explain.

Lets just assume that Shepard somehow managed to live through his ordeal.  And lets assume that he gets medical attention and makes a full recovery.  Or lets say, just for funsies that Miranda puts together another Lazarus team and resurrects him again.  Great.  You know he's alive!  Guess who Doesn't?  Tali and the rest of the folks who got stranded on fuck knows what planet in fuck knows what system, in fuck knows what sector for Fuck knows what reason.   So consider this.  With the Mass Relays destroyed, this tragic couple will never be in the same system again, let alone the same room.  Assuming inter stellar communications aren't FUBAR'ed, the best they can hope for is to Holo Chat from light-years away.  What would that do other than constantly remind them that they will never be able to embrace one another again?  How long until one of them moves on or kills themselves in grief? 

And that's another point, how fucked are all the aliens who bravely volunteered to help the Alliance repel the Reapers, not to mention mankind.  We're talking probably hundreds of thousands of aliens trapped in the sol system with mankind.  Will everyone go to Earth?  If so, how will a planet that just got the ever loving shit kicked out of it support it's native population and accommodate a bunch of most likely pissed off aliens who will probably never see home again?  How pissed are the Quarians trapped in the Sol system not weeks after they got their home planet back, for example?  If you cured the Genophage, you will have a runaway Krogan Population before you know it, and that's to say nothing for the Krogans back on Tuchanka, a nuclear wasteland of a planet.  The Turians have entirely different body chemistry, could they survive long term on Earth?  The Asari are the only race among them that might accept their lot and become a part of Human society.  The Batarians certainly wouldn't.  Not to mention Aria's Mercs.  How long until they become Space Pirates?  And what becomes of all the devastated Council home worlds now that they are cut off from most of their colonies that supported them?  Massive famines and civil wars, that's what. 

In short, the ending is a fucking mess that feels like they threw it together at the last minute for some reason (The IGN leak, some have speculated). 

You know what this ending feels like?  Pointless and Tragic, in spite of the fact that the Reaper Cycle is broken, and that's a terrible way to end it.  I don't mind a sad ending, but only when it makes sense.  

Now, How do you fix it?  It's bafflingly simple, in my book.

First, forget everything after the Mass Relays are destroyed, and the Geth and EDI being lumped in with the reapers.  The Normandy outrunning the beam, Shepard not dead, Joker and EDI sucking face, that stupid plasticine forest they seemed determined to include, Buzz Aldrin, everything... Well, Buzz is okay I guess.  But Toss that shit, it fucks everything up.  In it's place have a montage of scenes based on What resources you unlocked in the process of building your army.  If you united the Geth and the Quarians, have a scene of Tali and the Geth working together on a plan to build new Mass Relays or ships that are capable of Mass Effect travel without the relays.  Krogans setting up homes on Mars or Luna.  Turians maintaining order against pissed off Batarians and Mercs, with Garrus and Zaeed in charge.  Asari helping preserve human culture and rebuild infrastructure, coordinated by Liara, the Shadow Broker.  Jack and her former students opening a school for Biotics.  Miranda working on a second Lazarus Project to bring Shepard back again.

You know what that ending feels like?  Hope. 

And that's what we really needed to make Shepard's death to save existence worthwhile.  Hope for the future of the universe we know and love, not the supposed future that will come about thousands of years from now on the planet where Buzz is.  We don't even need an actual Payoff of those events for them to be more meaningful than what we got.  Just the possibility that life in the Mass Effect universe might some day soon recover from the Reaper invasion is enough.

People have argued that expecting Bioware to change the ending is ludicrous because we would expect it for free.  Not at all, I'd be willing to pay a few extra bucks to have this mess cleaned up as part of the next DLC.  It can be done, it remains to be seen if it will be done.  Will the creators accept that the ending could be improved by these types of changes?  Or will they stick to their guns, ignore the, I'll say it, Anguish this cheap ending caused and claim artistic license as their reasoning?  I don't know, but for now, I for one consider everything past the Relays blowing up Non Canon, and that allows me to love this game again.  I just wish I didn't have to bullshit myself. 

But who knows, if Bioware makes another Mass Effect game, maybe they will clear up some of the craziness in the process, fingers crossed!