My Ideal Mass Effect 3 Endings
Inside the Citadel, Anderson and the Illusive Man (in black-painted, gold-lined, Hoplite Freedom armor from the first game) along with an elite platoon of commandoes in Cerberus Trooper armor from ME2, are waiting for you. The Illusive man has sabotaged the Reaper defenses, and despite your hatred of him, you need him and his men to defeat the Reapers. You can accept him, or fight him, which means you meet him later near the descision point at the end. When the Crucible linked up with the Citadel, it turns out to be a trap laid out by the Reapers all along, as an elaborate hoax to give people false hope, and it wakes up the central Reaper consciousness; as it emerges, it helps organize the Reaper fleet against the Allied fleet, and it intends to implant itself onto the Human Reaper in the making within the Citadel, and lead the Reapers to victory. But with the Reapers preoccupied, Anderson, the Illusive Man, and you try to get to the Reaper consciousness, and they are your party members. (The Illusive man was a former soldier under Ashley Williams' grandfather, so it can make sense) You manage to get through, killing a small army of Reaper troops standing guard, and killing the Human Reaper before it becomes complete, like in the last game. Then here is where the team starts to break up. Anderson wants you to destroy the Reaper consciousness, the Illusive Man wants you to take control of it. The Reaper consciousness is focused by the Crucible onto a beacon hidden on the Citadel. Anderson believes it is too strong to control; the Illusive Man believes in the human will to dominate and how it is strong enough to control the Reapers. Shepard can agree with either one, or go for a third option.
I would expand this hidden ending to those who choose the destroy option, no matter how much war assets they have. It would then follow as this:
>2800 war assets: You don't even get up there; before you deal the final blow to Harbinger, the Reapers assist their leader and kill you after annihilating your fleet.
2800-3500: You get up there, but you're running out of time as the Reapers are massacring your fleet. EDI gets in touch and tells you that you don't have enough time to rewrite them; you have time only to have them self-destruct. The Illusive Man tries to stop you, only for Anderson or you to gun him down, then you get to the central Reaper intelligence; it tries to indoctrinate you, again, but you resist it; you enter it like you did the Geth consensus long enough to insert a Geth-made virus set to send a self-destruct command through the Reaper code; Legion's last gift before passing; and you program it in, disconnect, and run like a bitch as you and Anderson get into an escape shuttle and the Reaper intelligence self-destructs, along with the Citadel and the Crucible; and it sends out a galaxywide apoptosis signal which disables all the Reapers and has them all explode. Neutral ending where the Reapers die, the Council and the other races each take pieces of the Reapers home to make new technology out of, Shepard either continues as a Spectre, or retires, and the last you see of our hero is him/her boning the love interest inside the Mako while the Mako is bobbing up and down on Aite, the garden world from the Overlord DLC.
3600-4000:
You can assume control of the Reaper system, key them all to serve you, but doing so will mean them touching your mind, and as such, if you don't have a high enough rating of either paragon or renegade, the Reaper system overrides you; and it's game over. But if not, then you dominate their minds, but your own mind is altered, or you can agree with them yourself, if going the renegade path. You begin to think like a Reaper and see organics as hopelessly trapped in chaos.
You see where their mentality comes from; the Reapers were once a peace-loving and technically advanced race of humanoid, biped, synthetic-organic hybrids; more elegant than the Asari, more smarter than a Salarian, more organized than a Turian, stronger than a Krogan, and more adaptable than a human, and they were a species who valued life, peace, and love, they created the Citadel and the Mass Relays within their own empire, but lived in a time of unending chaos, where many species, both organic and synthetic, warred against each other constantly. This race tries to make peace between the other species, but they are always rejected and the other species keep fighting each other, century after century, millennium after millennium. Billions of years go by, and this peaceful race is still trapped between these warring races and their successors with no end in sight, suffering invasion after invasion, accused of supporting one side or the other, suffering occupations more times than can be counted. They persevere and repulse the invaders again and again, but they are growing more and more cynical about sentient life.
Finally that peaceful race's leaders were overthrown by radical leaders, convinced that sentients will always be wrapped up in chaos, gives up on trying to bring peace and orders that their empire will use all their technology to fuse themselves into the first Reapers, creating the first Reaper armada of a total of 5,000 Reapers, to make themselves strong, in a godlike sense, and wipe out the other races. They then move to assimilate and destroy every other species, and they also turn those species into Reapers, swelling their ranks to about several thousands more. They leave behind the blessings of their previous incarnations, the Citadel and the Mass Relays, and see if any species passes their test; if they are enlightened enough, they can inherit everything left behind and live, if not, they will be exterminated and harvested, and for billions of years up until now, nobody has passed their test, every race that used the Citadel and its Relays succumbed to greed and/or corruption, and they have concluded that organic life is eternally bound to chaos, and they continue the cycle for billions of years more.
Considering how corrupt galactic society was by the time of the first two Mass Effect games, the Reapers have decided to wipe out the current galactic society to start anew. In the first Mass Effect game, Sovereign was sent in to test the resolve of the galactic races, and they bickered and argued and made weak moves that almost led to ONE Reaper decimating their core fleets. In Mass Effect 2, they sent the Collectors to test civilization, and the lone hero who stopped them had to resort to using space terrorists as backup. By the time of ME3, the Reapers have concluded that the current galactic society is hopelessly corrupt, and killing them all to start over is the right thing to do.
Despite the fact that Shepard now controls the Reapers, he/she is still influenced by learning all of this and imposes a dictatorial empire after seizing the Reapers; broadcasting THROUGH the Reapers as to how he/she is the new ruler of the galaxy. If Shepard cured the Krogan Genophage for real, (AND Wrex lived to see it) made peace between the Quarians and the Geth, (or saved one and killed the other) and saved the Rachni, they come together and support your claim to power. The other council races though, are either scared or see it as a betrayal. The Alliance supports you, as does the remnants of Cerberus, but your friendship with the other races depends on your relations with their leaders. If things are good, or you still have a high paragon rating, then they somewhat support you, and the Council acts as a loyal rubber-stamp senate for you. If not, or if your renegade meter is hilariously high, then the Council rebels against you, and flees, realizing that Shepard has little sympathy for them and their people.
You can either become a benevolent emperor or a despotic emperor. As you come down the elevator, the Illusive Man is proud of you; he congratulates you while Anderson sourly disparages your betrayal and calls you out as being just as bad as the Reapers. You can either tell him about your discoveries and assuage him over to your side; he still believes this isn't right but is persuaded, or you can gun him down in cold blood, like a boss. The Illusive Man now swears his loyalty to you, the HUMAN emperor/empress of the galaxy, saying that this moment was what he and Cerberus had been fighting for and that he would be proud to serve you. You can either accept him into your ranks, or gun him down as well, saying that you rule alone. If you do the latter, he still dies with a smile, saying that his work is done.
Emperor/Empress Shepard sends a Reaper with an entire platoon of indoctrinated Cerberus troopers led by a reaperized Kai Leng chasing the ship of the Turian councilor from ME1 (Or a Turian rebel leader if the Council is on your pocket) who is now leading a revolt against Shepard. Like the beginning of the first Star Wars movie, the massive Reaper blows out the rebel Turian cruiser's engine and the Cerberus troopers board the ship. By the time Kai Leng pops out, the Cerberus soldiers have shot up the ship and captured the Turian leader and his entourage. The Turian leader defiantly yells "TELL THAT TRAITOROUS BASTARD/BITCH THAT WE WILL NOT BEND DOWN AND LET HIM/HER SCREW US IN THE ASS!" Kai Leng contacts Shepard and asks "What is to be done with them?" Shepard can either have them spared for a fair trial for breaking the law, or later interrogation and indoctrination, or decide they are a threat and have Leng execute them; which he does, by stabbing the leader in the heart then beheading him, while the other soldiers kill the other crew-members.
Cut to Shepard, who is confronted by repaired Harbinger, who reports that the Yahg have achieved space flight tech and a superweapon similar to the gun that created the Great Rift on Klendagon and killed a Reaper, in direct defiance of Imperial Law. Shepard is questioned by Harbinger on whether or not the Yahg should simply be defeated, indoctrinated, or massacred. Shepard can reason with Harbinger and decide they can make good use of the Yahg and have them spared and brought into the empire, or indoctrinated and turned into servants, and maybe made a Reaper out of, or Shepard can decide they're too much of a threat and have them massacred. Harbinger agrees with Shepard and executes Shepard's commands to the letter. If Shepard chooses the first two options, Harbinger just defeats the Yahg and brings them into the Empire. If Shepard chooses to annihilate the Yahg, Harbinger crashes an asteroid onto the Mass Relay near Parnack, consuming the Yahgs' empire and killing them in one strike.
Cut to a Cerberus Phantom, now working for Shepard. He/she tells Shepard that a former friend (Ashley, Kaidan, Liara, or Garrus, whichever one had the least friendship rating with Shep) is leading a revolt against Shepard and the Empire. Shep can either have the traitor taken alive, or executed in cold blood. If Shep goes for the take them alive option, the Phantom will ask on how can the rebel be swayed. Shep responds that perhaps they can be reasoned with or indoctrinated back into the crew. If Shep orders execution, the Phantom will ask why Shepard is more than willing to kill an old friend, to which Shepard replies that no friend of his/hers would ever rebel against him/her. The Phantom agrees and exits.
Cut to either the Illusive Man or a human Admiral. He talks to you about the current state of the galaxy, and how several races are serving, while others are revolting. He talks about the status of humanity in the galaxy, and you can decide how things will go; for the humans to treat the other races with respect, or with disdain, to impose human dominance upon the galaxy or to create peace for all races. The Illusive Man agrees with your assessments no matter what, but the human Admiral would probably try to question your power, and you can either assuage him, arrest him, or shoot him right there.
Finally, Shepard reaches into an old cabin with a holo device; it plays a recording of Anderson and Shepard getting drunk together, back before the Reapers, with Anderson telling Shepard she/he is the best soldier he's seen, and the most trustworthy, that Shepard can always be counted to make the right choice. Shepard can either put it back onto the cabin, saying that the right choice is usually the hardest, or crush the holodevice under his/her boot, saying that imposing order requires one to go beyond the petty whims of one's conscience for the preservation of order and the greater good.
Shepard then icily looks out the window of his/her new throne room in the Citadel, now reflecting on the great privilege and burden of ruling the galaxy alone. If he/she had a love interest, the LI will question Shepard's motives, and Shep can either assuage him/her saying that it is for the greater good and they have sex, or blow them off and force himself/herself on the LI, striking the LI for insubordination. Shepard doesn't take shit from anyone, anymore.
5000 and above, or 4300 with a high paragon (at least 3/4) rating: The Paragon Ending would have Shepard rewrite the Reapers to be good.
You reject both Anderson and the Illusive Man, and say that there has to be a better option; you then take away their weapons and go up the elevator into the Reaper consciousness inside the Citadel; the Illusive Man and Anderson continue to argue.
There's still time, as the fleet holds its ground and beats back the Reapers. You enter the Reaper consciousness, and despite all they teach you about their history and the weakness and barbarity of organics, Shepard doesn't bulge, especially if you have a high paragon rate. You choose all the paragon dialog options, and you reason with them that every life is precious, and the reason that these past wars were heinous is because they violate the sacred quality of life. Paragon Shepard then reasons that every life has a chance to be good, and the Reapers have become the very thing they were trying to avoid: evil and barbaric. The fact that all races have now been brought by Shepard to resist the Reapers in a united front shows the potential goodness of the organics, and that the reasons the Reapers had for enacting this genocidal cycle is wrong. The Reaper consciousness is convinced that Shepard is right, and paragon Shepard then takes control of it.
You can still go down the renegade imperial route if you want, but you can opt for a higher option: Make the Reapers good and make them into the Guardians, protectors of sentient life, rewriting them to believe that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, Optimus Prime style. Shepard voices his victory and his intention to have a galaxy where everyone is equal THROUGH the Reapers, and that the new Council will have every race's voice heard. Of course, the Illusive Man goes ballistic, saying that despite the fact that you now have godlike powers, you still have the mind of a clueless child; he jumps on and tries to strangle Anderson, blaming him for "poisoning Shepard's mind" but a Reaper Destroyer as well as several Krogan, Geth, Asari, and Turian troops come over and take him away.
You then create a new Republic or a constitutional monarchy, with you as the new Human emperor/councilor, and deal with the problems of the galaxy the paragon way, settling things through teamwork. Sure, the Yahg attack your borders, but all the races move in to stop them, and the Guardians make sure there are little to no casualties. You then end the game with a speech about the right to freedom of all sentient life, and people should do unto others what they would want to do unto themselves, and that each sentient life has the God-given right to free will, no matter how beautiful or crude. Shepard then looks out the balcony out to a beautiful sunset with the Love interest and has sex with the LI, trading backtalk and smiles, knowing that the future may have its hurdles, but hope and life eventually wins.
This will be the canonical ending, so Bioware can make more Mass Effect games (4, 5, 6) with new characters, stories, problems and dilemmas, and Councilor Shepard would be referred to as a background character, leaving the stage open for new characters.
Endnote:
I published this originally in 2012. How ironic that my idea for a new setting for the Mass Effect universe (choose paragon ending and then leave the stage for new characters to come in for the future) wound up being better than Mass Effect Andromeda. I couldn't possibly see Bioware becoming this bad back then, especially when Mass Effect 2 and SWTOR had me hooked, and I loved their older works like Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1, and the eternal classic of the SW Expanded Universe, Knights of the Old Republic.
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