Now I know that there are people who like the ending and really enjoy it and after Mass Effect: Andromeda the ending does really seem that bad and, as it's the name of this site, I'm glad the ending of ME3 has it's fans and I mean that sincerely. However, I HATE the ending of ME3.
For those of you who haven't seen it or know little about the ending of ME3 is pretty much the 2012 equivalent of the end of Game of Thrones in Season 8 back in 2019. For many, myself included, the ending is one of the worse endings in speculative fiction as it doesn't really tie into the series thematically, brings in a new character who becomes the focus of the whole damn series taking attention away from Shepard and, worse of all, is in no way shape or form affected by your choices throughout the Trilogy, let alone the 3d game.
This is a problem because Mass Effect was a series that was sold on the idea that it was about your choices and said choices would determine the outcome of the ending of the series only for the last 10 minutes to basically go, "Your choices do not, and have never, mattered. This is the ending we want so it's the ending your getting."
Now, one of the most common arguments in defense of this ending is that there was no way the developers could have included all the possible outcomes to address every choice players made throughout out the Trilogy as there's only so much that can be done. To which I say, Bull $#!t.
Knights of the Old Republic had 3 endings and that game was 12 years older then Mass Effect 3. Far Cry 4 had at least 4 endings and was released only 2 years after ME3. But all of this pales when you bring in another game. One that was also the third game in a series, one that was released 3 years after ME3 and one that had not only 3 endings to the main story but literally thousands of endings for the various side quests and side characters you meet in the game.
Even with the Extended Edition of ME3 it gave us, at best, 1 additional ending while keeping the original one and the reason I say the ME3 only has one ending is because it's literally the same situation with, at best, minor alterations between what only looks like different scenes.
Making Peace between the Geth and the Quarians or letting one or the other die, Curing or sabotaging the Genophage and Saving your friends or letting them die? At best you'll get a few still frames of them in the Extended Edition and that's IT!!! And the Extended Editions second ending is actually worse since it's basically a middle finger to people who didn't like the original ending because you can refuse to do what the game wants in which case you lose, everyone dies and someone else creates the Deus Ex Machina and has Liara asking whoever finds this message to, Quote, "Avoid Our MISTAKES".
Contrast this with the Witcher 3 which gives you 3, VERY Different Endings. Ending One: Ciri becomes a Witcher. Geralt tells the Emperor that Ciri is dead only for it to be reviled that she is alive & well and is officially made a Witcher. Ending Two, Ciri becomes Empress: Geralt and Ciri go on one last hunt together before Ciri leaves Geralt to become the Empress of Nilfgaard. Ending 3: Ciri dies. Geralt goes on one last hunt to find Ciri's medallion, killing the last Bog Witch. He finds Ciri's medallion and gives into grief as hundreds of monsters surround and presumably kill him.
Three Endings, all VERY different from one another and ALL are a result of your choices throughout the game's 3d act. The. Third. Act! Not the series as a whole, just the third act of the third game.
And what's worse is that ME3 Proved that it COULD have done this as Tuchanka and Rannoch BOTH have multiple endings that are directly affected by your choices not only in ME3 but from ME1 and ME2. Even the Citadel DLC's side content will alter greatly depending on who is alive and what sort of relationship you have with the characters.
Even BioWare admitted that how they handled the ending of ME3 was a mistake and have said they hope to avoid such a mistake in the future.
Back in 2017 I wrote up a idea for who I would Rewrite Mass Effect 3 and not only took the time to write up no less then 4 endings, (one happy, one bitter sweet and one tragic (ALL of which alter either slightly or greatly depending on your choices)) but I also took the time to write out ALL of the possible consequences of your actions throughout the Trilogy.
The reason I hate ME3's ending but greatly enjoy W3's ending is down to a number of factors. Thematically the ending of ME3 doesn't match with the rest of the series while W3's endings do. There is little to no build up or foreshadowing to the Little Blue Troll at the end of the game and his ideas that organics and A.I.'s can never exist in peace was never THAT big of a factor to the rest of the series and doesn't line up with what we've learned about the Reapers up to this point.
By contrast, W3 is all about Geralt's relationship with Ciri and the ending is determined on who you treat her, which is heavily foreshadowed in many of the game's side quest and a major arc in the main story until the 3d act. Even the DLC's re-enforce this theme with their stories and side quests. So, when Ciri enters the portal at the end and you have one last conversation with her before she goes in feels earned because the game built up to it and it's still about your choices all coming to ahead.
ME3 doesn't do that with it's ending even thought it DOES do that with Tuchanka and Rannoch, so why is it that ME3 didn't do that same thing throughout the game.
ARGH!!! Still, for all my issues with ME3 I'm still looking forward to the Re-Release and who knows, maybe BioWare will release a Remake of ME3 that actually fixes the issues of ME3. However, to be completely silly for a moment, I will Somewhat forgive all of ME3's issues IF I'm allowed to Romance Tali as Femshep. Do that BioWare and I'll promise not to completely hate the ending I will only strongly dislike it.
