Kotaku: Mass Effect 3‘s Ending Disrespects Its Most Invested Players

Take a look at this excellent critique of the pre-EC endings of Mass Effect 3 when taken at face value. Especially this section which further backs up why we should distrust the Catalyst's narrative.

However, I think they are wrong on their main point. I believe the ending actually rewards Mass Effects most invested players. For those of us invested enough to analyse the ending in detail, we are rewarded with not only the joy of this analysis but with an interpretation of the ending that is simply brilliant.

The larger problem for the ending, though, is that it leans on the series' least interesting theme, and even then disregards everything that the games have conveyed on the subject.

After all, the genuine synthetic intelligences present throughout the series have generally not been inimical to organic life. The robotic Geth, although initially presented as aggressive foes, are later shown to have been the victims of pre-emptive attacks by the Quarians. Even the ones that joined the Reapers in the first game did so out of a desire for self-advancement, not out of intrinsic malice towards organics. The other true AI the series presents is EDI, whose voluntary aid repeatedly proves crucial in helping Shepard's missions succeed, and who might even be in love with Joker. Though the game undercuts itself by almost always placing synthetic lifeforms on the business end of Shepard's gun, in dialogue and plot the synthetics are neutral, or even allies.

Yet even though the story of the Mass Effect games refutes the necessity of war between AI and organics at every turn, the finale presents their conflict as inevitable. The ending does not even give Shepard the option to use the truth about the Geth to argue against the Catalyst that controls the Reapers.

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