Mass Effect 3 Ending Theory

-The endgame scenario is Indoctrination/Manipulation from the Reapers (Harbinger) trying to force you into choosing to let the Reapers live. Shepard is not awake during the final scenes.

-Choosing Control - You can not control them, they control you. Shepard says as much to the Illusive Man moments earlier.

-Choosing Synthesis - Allows everyone in the galaxy to be manipulated by Reaper code, like they have done to the Geth multiple times now.

-Choosing Destroy - Breaks the hold the reapers have on Shepard’s mind.

-Choosing to destroy all synthetic life option is more Renegade in appearence. Controlling the Reapers is more Paragon in appearence. The Illusive Man’s choice should not be Paragon colors, just as Anderson’s choice should not be Renegade. The reapers are saying that Destroy is the worst, Control is worse, and Synthesis is the best. They want you to fail.

-Stating that all sythetic life will be destroyed will give you pause; destroying the Geth can force you to a different conclusion. This choice exists for the illusion of choice; the other choices are ment to sound better.

-In Synthesis and Control, the various energies cause Shepard to turn black and start to appear VERY husk-like. This does not happen in Destroy because Destroy is the only option in which Shepard is not falling under Reaper control.

-Shepard wakes up after Destroy, because the Reaper’s hold is diminished. Shepard does not awake in the other 2 “endings” because you are fully indoctrinated by the choices you made to allow the Reapers to win. “Assuming Control!”

-How would the reapers (or anything really) know to use the image of the child unless they were inside Shepard’s head?

-The child does not actually exist. He is an attempt to indoctrinate Shepard. Nobody but Shepard ever sees or interacts with the child.

-When Anderson calls for Shepard at the beginning of the game, when Shepard is talking to the child, Shepard turns back and the child is gone. Shepard has been “snapped out of it”.

-When Shepard turns towards Anderson after being “snapped out of it”, a growl is heard. In the third novel, when Greyson resisted the reapers they would make a growling noise once they realized they didn’t have him under complete control.

-During Shepard’s final dream with the child, chatter can be heard over the radio about nobody making it to the beam. Shepard is still in London.

-When Shepard catches the child in the final dream, they are both engulfed in flame. Going with the child (the reapers) means Shepard’s destruction.

-Shepard has spent alot of time around Reapers. Soveriegn, various Reaper artifacts, the Human Reaper, 2 Reaper destroyers, the Artifact from “The Arrival.” Its foolish to assume there is not some level of indoctrination.

-When Shepard wakes up at the end of Destroy, he/she is waking up in London, after being hit with the laser.