More Thoughts on Mass Effect 3's Ending (Spoiler Warning!)

The more I think on the ending of Mass Effect 3, the more I suspect something is going on that is far cleverer than most people might initially perceive. Many players saw the ending as being something so intentionally confusing and vague that it would be seen as somehow "profound" and "thought-provoking" without actually having any distinct substance to it. A sort of video game equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which, admittedly, would be a sort of genius in its own right when you consider that Mass Effect was, from the very beginning, intended to invoke classic science fiction in exactly that manner. Another idea is that it's actually a downer ending; a hallucination concocted by Shepard in his/her final moments while either lying dead on the battlefield or in the finalization process of Indoctrination, and thus becoming the Reapers' pawn.

However, probably the most controversial theory is that this is just a scheme to cause players to have to purchase a DLC ending, in essence releasing the game with an unsatisfying ending in order to get long-time fans seeking closure to shell out more cash for a "true" ending. It's this theory that has come to capture my own attention. The more I think about it, the more I am beginning to suspect that DLC is coming that would alter the ending, but not in the way the most pessimistic players see it. Indeed, I have come to believe that not only is this NOT a disingenuous plot to make more money, but rather an actually very clever way to make the ending far more meaningful than it could have otherwise been.

My reasoning for this begins with the controversy and outrage itself. People are upset, and reasonably so, that there are numerous apparent plot holes and depressing aspects about the finish to the trilogy. I, myself, was extremely depressed for about 48 hours after initially finishing the game. Part of that depression was that I had been lead to believe this was not, in fact, the end of Mass Effect, simply the end of Shepard's story and of the overall Reaper war story arc. The ending seemed to shatter that perception, and left me mourning for something I had come to truly love as well as all the characters I had become very attached - perhaps TOO attached - to.

But it was that point that my grieving lead me to a sort of denial that feels, to me, like it's not actually denial. Is this REALLY the end of the Mass Effect universe? Something feels like it's missing. Not in the sense that there is a lack of closure, or that the ending left us with more questions than answers, or even that the ending was missing reasoning (i.e. "all organic life must be harvested by synthetic life to save it from being destroyed by synthetic life" being a ridiculous tautology). It was missing something else. And then, as I was exploring some of the various theories and the evidence presented supporting those theories, I realized what it was: the ending is so incredibly complex and has so many potential implications that the leaps in logic seem even more glaring than they would if things were truly rushed. It's as though there's a sort of ingenious profundity peeking through the trees in a forest of gaps; a truth that is right in front of us, but concealed just enough that no one can make sense of it. The conclusion I draw from this is that there IS more to this story. There is a part of the tale yet untold that fills in the gaps.

And that's where the second part of my theory comes into play: the outrage is a good thing. The fact that so many fans are SO riled up over an ending they see as unsatisfactory plays into a greater narrative, generating a sort of suspense that Hitchcock could only have dreamed of. Whether the controversy and outrage were intentionally manufactured or wholly accidental, it presents an opportunity for BioWare to create an ending that is far more powerful and memorable than anyone could have anticipated by holding off and letting the ending sink in on the minds of brokenhearted gamers and then, when many of them would lose hope, to surprise them by bringing to light something else; something new. Not an entirely new ending, but something that alters the perception of the ending by presenting new evidence or ideas that bring a whole new level of excitement to the fans.

In essence, there is a level of brilliance to the inexplicable "ending" that was either cleverly executed or foolishly stumbled into, but either way the result is the same: the ending we are given is not the "true" ending, or rather it IS a true ending, but it's not the whole ending, in the same way that if you were presented with half an apple, but could only look at one side, you might see just an apple and not realize the truth of the object before you.