So everybody dying is the best ending? Just to have free will? In the old endings, I thought the choices were a test, with destroy being the only 'right' one, but now that the extended cut has been released, each ending has their pluses and minuses.
It's the only ending choice that is free from the glut of inconsistencies found in the other three. It's the most grim, certainly, but it's the only one that comes closest to not contradicting the themes found throughout the series. It's a shame that it's considered the 'bad' ending. While I won't say that it's the ending I'll stay with, I'm almost certain that's the most mature and logically uncomplicated one of the bunch. It's the only one that says "no" to the Catalyst's flawed logic and refuses its options. The EC clarifies the nature of the Catalyst as well as its motivations, but the newfound perspective only works to make the Catalyst less of a reliable character.
Don't get me wrong, the EC endings are certainly and improvement over the originals, but they still, for the most part, keep the central flaws that plague the endings to begin with and in some ways, the clarification does a lot to introduce new problems.
'Destroy' is the probably my preferred ending after 'Reject', because it's the one that rids the galaxy of the Reapers. The problem though is that you have to commit genocide on all synthetic races (though somehow, Shepard survives this.). One could chalk that up to a casualty of war, but I just spent the game uniting synthetics with organics. The game spends a lot of time extoling the virtues of synthetic life and understanding, and the 'Destroy' ending places the future in a precarious situation. If organics do create synthetics again, will the synthetics be as sympathetic to organic life once they consider how their predecessors were sacrificed?
And man, it felt really bad to kill off EDI, when I managed to save everyone else on my squad (in ME3). There's also a plot hole introduced in the EC. They retconned the Mass Relays being obliterated, but still malfunctional (though reparable). With the Reapers gone, how did they repair the relays so quickly?
The "Control" ending also contradicts some of the themes inherent in the ME series. A running theme in the ME series is that assuming control over a sentient species is bad. The reapers themselves do this a lot (Indoctrination, control of the Geth), and The Illusive Man sought to control the Reapers. You can argue that Shepard's intentions will be far more noble than either of the former two groups, but Shepard being the wielder of this power leads to the implication that he/she now stands in the middle of tensions between races and species, holding sole control over an enormous power. What happens if a war between two species breaks out? On which side would Shepard fall? There's that saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely. Shepard has always repeated the idea that organics were not ready to control a power like the Reapers, what's changed now?
Then there's 'Synthesis', which I believe goes against the core theme of the ME series, which exemplified how the differences among individual species made them stronger when united as a collective of individual perspectives. "strength through diversity'. It's repeated countless times in the series and is actually one of it's main gameplay features (amassing a racially diverse team of badasses). Now everyone is just one homogenous group of weird cyborgs with a shared collective knowledge of some sort. It removes individual free will.
Javik even remarks upon this in ME3, stating that the Prothean empire's greatest weakness was their homogeneity, that they all thought alike.
I feel pretty bad for the husks that now get to look at themselves in a mirror, fully aware of what they are.
Anyway, I think the "reject" ending is the least of the available evils. The only downside is that Shepard gives up, which I wouldn't do. However, by choosing from the questionable options presented by the Catalyst based only on its word, in essence, Shepard had already given up. It's a no-win scenario. At least by rejecting the Catalyst's agenda, Shepard places the decision into the hands of the resistance. It may have been a futile battle, but at least the next cycle will be prepared.
And wasted time, money, and manpower on multiplayer in a game where it doesn't belong. Adding multiplayer in games like this is done for one reason and one reason only...$$$!
Nobody and I mean NOBODY would have batted an eye if ME 3 was announced and released without multiplayer. No one asked for it and no one was expecting it until EA made it happen. There's no doubt in my mind that the single player experience suffered as a result. Too bad we'll never know how this trilogy would have turned out if EA never acquired Bioware.
I'm not a fan of shoe-horned multiplayer components, but I honestly had more fun in ME3's multiplayer than it's single-player campaign. I think two different teams worked on each mode independently.
