Mass Effect 3 endings

The pros and cons of each Mass Effect 3 ending.

Initially, the game makes Synthesis sound really appealing. All your geth and robot friends get to live, all your organic friends get to live, and they don't have to kill each other in the inevitable war between organics and synthetics. They're all hybrids, so there's no reason to kill each other anymore, supposedly. This option has the fewest people die.

However, we should consider the possibility of the Crucible lying to us. We are standing at the button to destroy all the reapers. Our finger is hovering over a button that annihilates him from existence. So of course *anything* that comes out of his mouth could be misinformation with the intent of ensuring his own survival. And since he himself admits that he is speaking for the reapers, as he is "the combined consciousness of all the reapers", we have to assume this is part of anything he says. We already know the Reapers lie and deceive people, and we already know they are really good at it, since TIM wasn't a fool but he got completely deceived.

If Synthesis is taken at face value, it is an attractive option. It's a new step of evolution (albeit forced) that can enhance both types of life. As long as everyone isn't under the influence of the reapers or something like that, it seems like a fine choice. But how do we know organic life will still have free will, and won't be influenced as part of joining some hybrid collective with synthetics?

The safe bet, considering the possibility of deceit on behalf of the crucible, Synthesis is very risky. And even if it's not flat out deceit, there's still the possibility the the crucible is unaware of a potential side effect, and organic life is lessened in some way that he's not aware of. This choice is all about free will, and the risk of losing it. As Sheperd him/herself states, he's fighting for the galaxy's freedom. Life isn't worth living if we become psuedo-husks and just become a collective reaper entity. Well, perhaps you don't mind that ending, but in that case, choose Synthesis.

So next up is Control. Again, the Crucible makes this one seem attractive. Why fight the Reapers if you can just control them? This goes all the way back to Sun Tzu. Just avoid the fight in the first place and you win.

Within the Control ending is actually a second argument against the Refuse ending. The Refuse ending is the worst by far and isn't even worth it's own paragraph, but in case we needed more reason not to choose it, it is possible that a future cycle will feature a hero less altruistic than Sheperd. Sheperd's post-game monologue during the Control ending features him talking about remembering all the people who got him here, and using the reapers to protect them. He plans on being an eternal vigilant guardian of the galaxy. Sheperd can also stand watch for the inevitable synthetic and organic war, and use the reapers to hopefully mitigate that bloodshed. If a giant squid army is floating above you and says "stop fighting", you might put aside your differences with your enemy on your planet.

The problem with Control is the same as with Synthesis. The same two problems.

The first is that the Crucible could be lying to you. He could be saying *anything* to get you to just not press the Destroy button. In the Control ending, we don't know what influence the reapers will have on Sheperd in return. He's a new entity. in the ending cinematic, Sheperd dies, and the speaker of the monologue even refers to himself as a new entity, and refers to Sheperd as something he will "remember". So this new entity, this entity that is controlling the Reapers and has Sheperd's memories and personality might be not entirely Sheperd. It's created by the Crucible with Sheperd's info in its head. This isn't a safe and reliable scenario for the rest of the galaxy. How do we know the Reapers won't eventually corrode this new entity just like they did with everyone who tried to "beat" them mentally in the past, like TIM and Benezhia. We already saw someone who tried to retain their mind through Reaper contact in her. She eventually fails and just loses the mental battle.

The second issue with Control is free will again. We don't know how much free will the Sheperd-esque new entity will have. He might not think the way actual Sheperd does, and might not be able to come up with and issue commands for the reapers that are beneficial. We don't know if the galaxy will be allowed to prosper without the Reapers looming overhead. The ending cinematic shows them rebuilding the citadel and floating around looking protective of planets, but those are the thoughts Sheperd has during the conversation with the Crucible. They are his intentions, but as above, we do not know how Sheperd's intentions will carry over into the new separate entity that is the Crucible-created Reaper controlling entity that has Sheperd's memories. Everything about him could instantly be different.

So as with Synthesis, this options is just so risky. The possibility of nothing turning out as we hope is too high.

So lastly, we come to Destroy. The safest option. It's certainly not the most attractive one, but it's the most conservative and safe option. There are no unknowns. We know there will be many deaths, but we know who will die. We know much of our technology will be lost, but we know why and how and when. We don't have to wonder how much influence the Reapers will have over Sheperd Entity because they will be dead. There are no loose ends with the Destroy ending. It is the ending with the least unknowns.

That isn't to say it's the most attractive. The Destroy ending has blatant downsides that are immediately apparent. All synthetics die. The Geth die. Joker's waifu dies. Everyone currently in transit between relays likely die. Everyone in remote space planning on taking a relay jump back to populated space is stranded and better make a new home. Sheperd himself likely dies, since he is standing right in front of the blast, and has a ton of cybernetics. But Sheperd dies in the other 3 endings too, so that just sort of happens no matter what.

But one very important thing to note about Destroy, going along with the theme of free will, is that free will is absolutely intact through the Destroy ending. Every organic is free to rebuild how they see fit. No reapers floating over them, no synthetic wires in their brain. 100% natural technological progression can occur. Organics are free to exercise their free will however they see fit in the Destroy ending, and free will is a major theme of all 3 of the other endings.

With this in mind, we can hope that these events are a lesson to organics. In the other cycles, the reapers show up and kill everyone before synthetics destroy all organic life. They pre-emptively stop the "assured" destruction of all organics at the hands of synthetics. But, no other cycle was given the events of the reaper invasion itself to learn from. Every other cycle went along business as usual, until the reapers showed up and killed them all. They didn't have a chance to learn from the reaper invasion. But Sheperd's cycle does. They have the events of the Reaper invasion as a giant sign that says "don't let synthetics run amok". They are better suited than any other cycle to not have the synthetics they build kill them all.

So that is why I chose Destroy when I played Mass Effect 3.