The 2001/Battlestar Galactica ending of Mass Effect 3 has left a few gamers feeling a bit bummed. Some of them, with the power of multimedia technology at their fingertips, took the time to produce videos that detail a theory concerning the meaning behind ME3’s climax.
For those who want to get right to it, the gist of this theorized ending is attempted indoctrination. Harbinger’s beam cuts down the Alliance soldiers rushing towards the Citadel transport beam, Shepard is knocked to the ground, unconscious, and the ultimate war for control, the control of Shepard’s mind, begins.
I rather like this concept, and if Bioware’s forthcoming “clarification” of the ending includes it, I think that would be a smart move. If they actually intended this all along, then they are geniuses. The only caveat is that any expansion concerning this ending should be free. Charging anything for this DLC would be a dick move.
If the indoctrination angle turns out to be correct (whether originally intended or not), it seems like there should be more gameplay left. As far as the narrative goes, no one makes it to the transport beam, meaning that Shepard is still unconscious amongst a pile of rubble and the Reapers are still pummeling Earth and the arrayed galactic forces. The game even shows you this scenario if you are maxed out on war prep. Unless there’s more to play, the Reapers successfully rid the galaxy of advanced organic life. The only positive being that they are robbed of their intended trophy, a fully indoctrinated Commander Shepard.
The ending to the Mass Effect series had to have been tough to work out. The previous two games ended well, but this is (supposedly) it for the series, and it’s only appropriate that it goes out with a bang, or at least with an out loud “WTF?!”. Assembling the galactic fleets and wiping out the Reapers with good old-fashioned firepower would be trite. The game builds up the idea that, while the Protheans ruled the galaxy and were a mighty Empire, they still succumbed to the Reapers in the end. This time around, however, the races are united instead of subjugated, and this difference can mean the ultimate victory over the Reapers. I’m not sure I buy that.
The salvation of the galaxy is also not even due to the amount of ships Shepard can gather to attack the Reaper forces in Sol. The Crucible is the magic bullet that will solve everything, and let’s be honest; it’s a really stupid concept from beginning to end. First, it’s an idea that was cooked up solely for Mass Effect 3. The previous two games are ignorant of such a device. Second, it’s suddenly “discovered”, in the nick of time no less, in the archives of an alien race that has been extinct for 50,000 years. A race that has been studied intensely ever since the first traces of their civilization had been uncovered. Third, the device has been supposedly constructed piece-by-piece throughout each cycle and then finished by the Protheans who discovered that they needed to use the energy from the Citadel as a catalyst. However, in the Prothean cycle, the Citadel was the first thing the Reapers took over when they attacked. By the time Javik is around, the Citadel itself is almost considered a myth. Where in the hell did the Protheans get the idea to use it as the Cataylst in the first place? And how did they engineer the Crucible to interface with the Citadel if it was fully under Reaper control from the very beginning?
No Starchild is necessary: the deus ex machina of the story is the Crucible, a massive weapon, hundreds of thousands of years (at least) in development, and built in record time under heavy attack from a sentient machine race that doesn’t need to sleep or eat.
With the exposition about the Crucible harnessing a massive amount of energy and that no one has a clue as to what it would actually do, I started to theorize that perhaps it wasn’t a weapon at all, but instead single-use time-travel device.
Imagine this: the Crucible is fired up and, instead of wiping out the Reapers, it ends up sending a selected target a thousand years into the future (when the Reapers are surely finished with harvesting and have returned to dark space). To me, this is a much more elegant solution, especially since it would be unexpected to everyone involved. That salvation lies in escape to the future, with the knowledge of what lies ahead so that there is time to prepare. This would have matched up perfectly with the Protheans attempt to place their top people in cyrostasis on Ilos to wait out the Reapers.
Imagine a scenario where Shepard and his/her two selected squad members have to fight their way to the Citadel (the plot hole with that idea notwithstanding), and activate the Crucible, only to discover its true purpose from a Prothean VI. There would be a choice as to what Shepard could target to send to the future. Picking, say, the Normandy, would result in the Crucible firing a beam of powerful energy that seems to disintegrate the ship. The Crucible then powers down completely, all of its energy spent, and the Reapers converge on the Citadel, destroying it and the Crucible. Cut to the future, the Normandy flashing into existence, ready to rebuild and prepare their ancestors for the end of the next cycle.
And you can still end it with Buzz Aldrin.
