Mass Effect 3: Fan rage aside - is a DLC ending actually plausible?

My final posting about this whole thing, unless they actually DO come up with some new ending. But that's not very likely. Or is it?

Note: Don't forget to buy all our future DLC!
Okay, slamming a stupid little popup like that in our faces after presenting us with an ending, which lots of people didn't seem to find overly satisfying, was really adding insult to injury. Makes you wonder, though. The game came with launch DLC, we've had DLC for Dragon Age (2) and the previous ME titles, so why the hell would they remind us of upcoming DLC all over again? And why at this particular part of the game - the very end?

Look at some of DLC for Mass Effect 2, particularly 'Lair of the Shadowbroker' and 'The Arrival'. Both of them were placed *after* the game's main storyline, bridging the gap between ME2 and 3. They can't do such a thing on Mass Effect 3, obviously, since that game ended it all, the whole series is over, right? Unless... well, imagine the current ending doesn't feel a bit strange, a bit fishy, features a few logical errors because the writers suddenly screwed up, but because it was meant to feel wrong in some way. I don't wanna get into that whole Indoctrination Theory business - lots of people certainly refuse to accept the ending, simply because they didn't like it for one reason or another. But what if they're right and Bioware are hinting at upcoming DLC, because the actual ending is yet to come?


"There will be so many different endings, we cannot possibly count them all!"
One reason why quite a few people were so outraged at the ending is announcements such as the above, just a few weeks before the game had been released. And as it stands right now, the only thing that matters for the actual ending sequence is your military strength and which of the 3 possible choices you pick. Your decisions, whether anyone lives or dies, the whole plot up to this point... none of it makes any difference. Doesn't really sound like anything that was promised. Unless we simply haven't seen the real thing, yet.

"We wanted people to talk about how it all ends. I think we have achieved that."
Regardless whether you liked or absolutely hated the ending - if you're reading this blog, then you've followed the debate about it, you're aware of crazy fan movements and theories and charities and all kinds of crazy shit, all of which had been started only because of a video game. This whole thing is bigger than any fan or even EA or Bioware themselves ever could have anticipated. They *wanted* people to scratch their heads and ask, "WTF!?". But why? Just for the sake of PR? Or for getting them all hyped up for when they release ending DLC?

That said, clearly I - like many other fans - am simply grasping straws here. Is it really likely they've been hiding the "true" ending all along?

Some plotholes - so fucking what?
So Joker is escaping with your crew, possibly even folks you were pretty sure have died. The least you can say about that scene is that it's breaking character. It's more realistic to say it doesn't make any fucking sense. Then they happen to crash-land on a lush, green planet, which is conveniently nearby, breathable atmosphere and everything. Hard to believe, right? But getting a giant worm to attack an unbelievably advanced, hyper-intelligent, ancient life form and pretty much one-shotting it in the process is believable, yes? We forgive all sorts of bullshit, when it's presented nicely enough.

And yes, I know, an exploding mass relay is supposed to wipe out whole star systems, so why could Joker even escape in the first place? Well, maybe that's all in the way these relays have been destroyed by the catalyst. He was doing it right. And why did that catalyst look like that kid from earth? Well, why the hell not? Shepard has been haunted by nightmares ever since leaving earth, ever since that kid got blown up. The boy stands for everybody you couldn't save, all the friends and crew mates you've lost along the way. Shepard's fears and weaknesses. It's not the worst image for some hyper advanced being to pick, is it?

I'm not an overly huge fan of the ending. I didn't utterly hate it, either. But all things considered, it's a plausible ending, warts and all. Yes, so the whole "crew leaves ship alive on the Garden of Eden" crap was a bit over the top, but let's look at the outcome of the (supposedly) perfect ending sequence: The reapers are toast, Shepard is presumably alive, most of the crew got away. Yes, the whole fucking galaxy is in ruins, everybody might get eaten by hungry Krogans in the long run, but what the fuck were you expecting? Honestly? The game keeps telling you the whole time that you're most likely gonna fucking die, that the whole mission is doomed to fail, that the whole world is already fucked long before you start the final attack on the Reapers. So all things considered, that whole ending sequence is a lot less bleak than it could have been.

Part 3 is the ending
One thing that particularly pisses me off about the whole debate is how people keep insisting how none of their decisions made any difference in the end, how the game always ends the same, no matter what they did in the trilogy. What a steaming load of horseshit! The end of the trilogy isn't just some stupid 20 seconds CGI before the credit roll. Part 3 is the fucking ending. Everything matters! You can have a fuckton of well-written, meaningful dialogue with Kaidan, who might not even be alive in your game, depending on your decisions in Mass Effect 1. You might unite the Geth and the Quarians or you could wipe out all Quarians and get Tali to kill herself, depending on what you did in the first two games. You can ignore the Krogans and their stupid Genophage and not give a fuck about them or you can cure them and have Mordin sacrifice himself in a heart-wrenching cinematic. How the fuck can you say none of this matters? What the hell is wrong with you people? So fucking WHAT if none of this is somehow reflected in the final minute of the damn game? THIS is why you demand a new ending? Go fuck a landmine!

A "real" ending would probably be a lot sadder
Alright. Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that Shepard was really indoctrinated, the final moments of Mass Effect 3 were nothing but a hallucination and the Reapers just played a little Matrix on you. How happy, satisfied and complete would it make you feel if some future DLC revealed exactly that? And where are we going from there? Shepard being the first one to ever break free from the indoctrination, fighting back the reapers and saving the day? Yeah, right. Or the whole thing picks up where Shepard wakes up in the ruins back on London, the whole "perfect" ending sequence turns out to be nothing but mindfuck, but you broke free from that by destroying the reapers (red explosion). And it turns out Joker and your crew never actually left you behind. In fact, they're all dead. Earth is safe, but fucked. Billions dead. The mass relays are still working, everyone goes back home to rebuild. What's left to rebuild, anyway. Billions are dead, remember? Heck, let's say all your favourite crew members have survived, even Anderson turned out to be okay in the end. Now what? Where are you gonna hang out to talk about the old times and enjoy a beer with each other? The Citadel? Gone. Earth? Not fucking likely. Thessia? Oh wait! Palaven? Whoops...

Once again, the galaxy is well and truly fucked! Would anything change for the better if they didn't destroy the mass relays, if you didn't see Joker mysteriously flying away and if that whole crash-landing sequence didn't exist? It would get rid of some annoying logical flaws, but at the end of the day, things would be just as depressing and anti-Hollywood as ever. Do you seriously believe they're gonna come up with DLC to depict just that? I wouldn't bet any money on it.

No publisher can be that greedy and stupid, right? RIGHT?
I know, I know. EA is the enemy. They love to bleed us dry, they come up with asshole tactics such as 1st day DLC, which isn't just massively overpriced, but also removes a whole lot of important lore, if you refuse to buy it. But would they really, deliberately keep the real ending to themselves and release it at a later date? Possibly even make it paid DLC? Sadly enough, I could totally see them do that kinda crap. Even sadder, I'd probably pay to see the real ending, if there was such a thing. But what about people, who just don't go online with their consoles? Did they all just buy a game with no real ending? This can't be right.

While I could definitely see EA being evil and money-hungry enough to do that sort of thing, I just don't see it happening. Besides, what kind of ending are people expecting? What do they want? A '20 years later' kind of thing, where everything has been rebuilt and all survivors live happily ever after? I thought most people already agreed that they're sick and tired of all that happy fairytale bullshit.

I love Mass Effect. I don't want it to end. But I'd much rather see it end while I still love it than have it go on and on and on until I grow sick and tired of it. And I'm sure they're gonna milk this fictional universe with more and more stupid novels, which will eventually become canon and then Chewbacca gets crushed by a moon. Oh wait...

-Cat