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In the first game, Anderson explains that the Spectres are a highly prestigious outfit, that each one is vetted throughly by the Council before being asked to join, and that their numbers are estimated at under a hundred. But when the Reapers began their full-scale invasion of the galaxy the Council became desperate and decided to fast-track the Spectre induction process and recruited several hundred sufficiently talented soldiers, mercenaries, assassins, biotics, hackers and other specialists from all of the civilized races. Even races that are commonly looked down upon by the Council, such as the [[Blood Knight|Krogan]] and [[Space Jews|Quarians]] are considered viable sources of Spectre recruits provided they have a certain degree of training or effectiveness.
As the conflict dragged on and the Reapers gained more ground, the Council even started accepting [[
* The multiplayer characters are stated to be N7 soldiers (that got wider recruitment due to necessity) set up by Admiral Hackett. And SPECTREs aren't just Badass soldiers, they are a combination of things.
** Hackett's email explains that they're ''colloquially'' referred to as "N7 Special Ops" because they were initially ''commanded'' by N7 operatives. They're not officially N7 themselves.
== There will be a DLC released which will be "[[What If]] Shepard did not survive the suicide mission?" ==
* There are two ways this might work:
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*** ... Or is it? The researchers who found it quickly became unstable and started making questionable choices.
*** Well, one of them was unhinged from the beginning and the other was betraying him in order to save his wife...
* There's actually something in the [[Mass Effect 3]] material revealed already that heavily hints at this; the child in the vent. Shepard is the only one who sees him, Anderson conveniently doesn't return to the room until he's pulled his [[Stealth Hi Bye]], said [[Stealth Hi Bye]] makes no sense considering Shepard realized the kid was there because of the noise he was making in the first place, and most tellingly, the child's reaction is downright ''bizarre.'' You'd think a terrified kid's response to an adult in a military uniform offering help against the massive clusterfuck going down around him would be something ''other'' than a monotone "You can't help me." Now, it's certainly believable that a child in this situation would be scared beyond rational thought, but he's ''not'' scared, he's calm to the point where this reaction is surreal. "You can't help me" could be symbolic of Shepard's helplessness and his indoctrination actively working to alter his mindset to a negative outlook; "you can't help a single child, how can you help anyone." This continues when Shepard sees the shuttle the kid gets on destroyed by a Reaper. The child is also pulling a [[The Sixth Sense|Bruce Willis]] at this point, he directly interacts with no one, he doesn't touch anyone, and, even as Alliance personnel are helping wounded make it to the shuttle, ''none'' of them so much as bends down to help the kid up when he has to vault into the shuttle on account of being too short to step into it.
** On the other hand, [[Fridge Horror|before you meet him, you kill a pair of husks. What if they were the kid's parents?]]
*** Husks are made with Dragons' Teeth, and there aren't any around. The previous game, on Horizon, makes a big deal of this being how one tells the difference between husks made locally and husks that have been brought from a previously hit. The fact that there are batarian husks dropped in before the invasion's been going on a half hour would mean the Reapers have definately been hitting other places prior to Earth to build up their husks for dropping off.)
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* I could see the Thresher Maws as being similar to the Rachni, but more savage and/or without means to communicate psychically like the Rachni.
* Or, Alternately, the Thresher Maws aren't "Intelligent" but instinctively know to attack the Reapers as they are unnatural and destructive to all organic life, Thresher Maws included.
** The Reapers don't want to destroy all organic life, and have never made any effort towards such a goal. They only destroy spacefaring civilizations that use the Mass Relay network. Plants, animals, even sentient creatures that don't practice space travel, like the Thorian or humans (who got spared when the Prothean research station on Mars was destroyed) are left completely untouched.
* What if Thresher Maws are a life form made into a weapon by one of the previously culled species? They live for a long time on photosynthesis, are practically undetectable, and spread through a very basic means(spores)
** so in other words they're like the scarlac?
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* Mass Effect: Invasion adds another type: Adjutants. They can infect other sentients and turn them into more adjutants without the need for Dragon's Teeth. We're in real [[Zombie Apocalypse]] territory now.
** The Adjutants, however, were all killed off in the final issue of Invasion. Aside from that, [http://twitter.com/#!/macwalterslives/status/142701272259239936 Mac Walters] revealed that they were an enemy type that was cut out of Mass Effect 3, so we won't be seeing them in-game.
* Asari husks named Banshees are confirmed. Krogan husks (no official name yet) have also been unvieled.
* The "Against All Odds" gameplay preview unveiled the Brutes. Krogan/turian husk hybrids that are lumbering tanks.
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== ''ME3'' will start with the bad ending if you didn't import a save. ==
Everyone except Joker, Liara, and Ashley/Kaiden dies unless you import a save, because the same thing happened in ''[[Mass Effect 1]]''
* The developers have already confirmed that "Shepard dies"-ending is non-canonical from the perspective of the trilogy. There is no new character to be started, most definitely. It will be Shepard, no matter what. Also, since it's impossible to get Miranda killed in the final mission of ''ME2'', it's almost certain that she will play a significant role in the third game. Other than that, you may be up to something.
** Miranda can die. Take her to the final boss with no loyalty, and she dies (or send her as an escort non-loyal). As it is, I would ''hope'' they don't do this. It's possible they won't, since you ''must'' have at least two living party members, plus Kaidan/Ashley. Liara will most likely serve as your new intel
** I agree except for the bit about the Shadow
** I'm pretty sure they'll say you did it. It's called "bridging" DLC for a reason. But you're right, maybe they'll say you didn't go with her, and kill Feron as a cost.
** They've stated outright that Shadow Broker and Arrival happen, whether you play them or not. Liara is the Shadow Broker, and Shepard blew up a mass relay.
** If you did not play Arrival then the 103rd Marine Division did the mission. Anderson says that you where grounded "For the shit you did", if you played the DLC he will say that you where grounded for killing 300,000 Batarians and destroing the mass relay
* Also, if everyone else dies on the suicide run, Shepard dies. No one is there to catch hi/r after failing to make the jump, otherwise.
* [[Jossed]]. ''ME3'' will use an interactive comic to make choices for previous games, like the [[
** ''ME2'' started with pretty much all the worst choices you could have made if you don't import. No side quests were done. The Rachni Queen is dead. The Council is entirely human. You killed Wrex. Unless that comic lets you choose if anyone died on the suicide mission, it's likely most of your team dies by default. Since Shepard dies if there are less than two squad mates left, I'd say Garrus and Tali survive by default, since they were there from the first game.
** My guess is that during the comic, you have to take sides in those loyalty arguments. For example, Tali and Legion have their argument, and you have to pick a side, and the one you don't side with is considered disloyal and dies in the suicide mission. You can't appease them both, and you can't go back and get the other's loyalty. The same would happen with Miranda vs. Jack, and possibly for some of the cut arguments, like Mordin vs. Grunt. This allows a new player to have some choice over who survives.
** The [[
* Apparently, they are considering setting something up to allow players to port in a Bad Ending file.
** The mission will either be a complete success or leaving only Kasumi and Morinth alive (not hard to fail Kasumi's mission). However the Greybox will be used against Shepard.
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* Will you marry me?
* ''Related theory'': The song will be incorporated into the story in some way. Like say, it's a music option in Shepard's cabin, and crew members will comment on Shepard's retro tastes. Or for a more dramatic scenario, Shepard is in the middle of a major fight on Earth, trying to protect some survivors from Reaper forces. The survivors are severely depressed, having been on the run from the Reapers for weeks while watching friends and family die in front of them. The survivor leader (or maybe Conrad Verner, because it'd be cool and oddly fitting) tries to get their spirits up by starting a [[Crowd Song]] of "Don't Fear the Reaper," which serves as background music for the battle. As you progress through the fight and kick more and more asses, the music goes from awkward and forced to jubilant and hopeful.
** No, I think the crowd singing it would be a bit [[
*** Yeah probably. The drama idea doesn't really work, but the idea of having it as background music for a fight could hold water, just get rid of the crowd and replace it with a radio recording of the song or something.
*** Coolest instance of [[Suspiciously Apropos Music|ironic music]] EVAR.
*** Or the game could [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledge]] how [[
**** Alternatively there will be an interrupt where Shepard dons a pair of sunglasses
* Someone mentioned that "Don't Fear the Reaper" should be the name of an achievement on Casey Hudson's Twitter, and he seemed to like the idea.
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== There will be a [[Knights of the Old Republic|"meatbag"]] reference in ''ME3''. ==
* Probably by Legion, something along the lines of "Why would a form of media that was [[Take That Us|clearly made by organics]] use such a derogatory term for them?"
** Also, Legion ''NEEDS'' to say something about how the Reapers desire [[Memetic Mutation|COMPLETE]][[
** No...have Legion glitch out. Then we'd get this.
{{quote|[[Hilarious Outtakes|"I don't need anything else. I have big balls. In less than five minutes we will reach Vader's Death Star. George Bush will be released into the atmosphere, ensuring complete global masturbation. Oh fuck it! We'll do it live!"]]}}
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**** Maybe her base gets destroyed, but she'll still have access to some of her intel network. Maybe...
**** Perhaps Feron is base-sitting?
***** Maybe the ship will actually take on the reapers. the ship is powerful....what if the storms are part of it's power. think about it, settle on a planet, and boom, storm breaks, as a shield mechanism, and then boom, dead reapers, it's time to move on. not to mention, the ship also can collect reaper parts, and make them harmless, rebuild a reaper and "Viola!" you now have a reaper reaper.
***** Actually, the base IS destroyed, but Liara DOES keep most of her contacts, operating out of Miranda's old quarters.
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* Slightly less wild expansions of the above: the planet [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Eingana Eingana] is stated to have ''animals'' with biotic powers, due to massive amounts of dust-form element zero in its atmosphere. Missions there would be more like fantasy than sci-fi. A series of Cyberspace missions similar to [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Overlord:_Atlas_Station#Destroy_the_VI the ending of Overlord] would be [[Inside a Computer System]], enabling Joker to snark endlessly about "You aren't supposed to look at this wall, you know that?".
* No no no no no. Please no. The players, myself included, will say [[Ruined FOREVER]] faster than you can blink.
* It stays in the realm of we expected... Thank goodness for that.
** No.
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== Shepard will get angry enough with Khalisa to hospitalize her. ==
Well, come on, she's had it coming. It's only a matter of time before Shepard says, "I've had enough of your disparaging predispositions!" and totally [[Extreme Melee Revenge|administers a beatdown]]. This will launch a side quest where you need to provide proof of her slanderous predilections in order to avoid paying her rather large hospital bill.
* Even
* Not quite. But he does knock her out with a headbutt. She stays down.
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* 'Fraid not.
== [[BioWare]] will announce that ''ME3'' will be [[
And the [[Ruined FOREVER|resulting]] [[Fan Dumb|shitstorm]], possibly followed by [[BioWare]] announcing EDI-style "that was a joke", will prove that the folks at [[BioWare]] are the ultimate trolls.
* Not being able to play the greatest game ever made would make me a part of the [[Fan Dumb]]?
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== There will be a quest on the Citadel to help Refund Guy finally get his refund. ==
Similar to the WMG below that [[Friend 0 Zone]] Turian and Valley Girl Quarian will hook up in the third game, a Citadel quest will revolve around Shepard helping the long-suffering Refund Guy finally get that refund he's been seeking since the first game. The Paragon option will revolve talking to that turian shopkeeper from the first game and basically just asking him to throw the poor guy a bone, he's been trying to get his money back for years. The Renegade option will be Shepard getting the refund by beating up the shopkeeper because it would be too cruel to finish the quest WITHOUT Refund Guy getting his refund, even for Renegade!Shep.
* Alternatively, you find out refund guy really was full of crap and has been harassing the poor shopkeep for years.
* Confirmed, the goal is to make them realize there are bigger things at stake to hold petty grudges. And the refunded credits was a measily 15 credit refund (not a lot in finacial value but a lot in proving human superiority
** He spent a lot of time on that toaster oven.
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TIM will turn out to be the most neutral of the three leaders, with the other two leaning heavily Paragon and heavily Renegade (that one presumably being the person to blame for the nastier cells you run across in the first game) respectively. If you handed over the Collector base and ended ''Mass Effect 2'' on good terms with TIM it will be possible to win them both over, with the proper amount of Paragon and Renegade points, and having the full strength of Cerberus behind you when you reach the [[Gondor Calls for Aid]] scenario the games seem to be building to, but even if you cut all ties with him you'll still potentially be able to get a third of the group behind you. But you probably won't be able to get them both, since they'll be so wary of trusting someone who's already betrayed the group once that they'll only throw in their lot with yours if its very obvious that you have similar beliefs and probably won't ever have cause to turn against them. It won't be as good as having the whole group behind you, but if you spent the series burning bridges left and right instead of forming alliances then even a third will be better than nothing.
** Cereberus has only one leader. The entire point behind the name came from the fact that the first mass relay humanity found was actually what they first thought was Pluto's moon Charon. When it was discovered, a manifesto was published that humanity needed a guardian against possible aliens surfaced. As Cereberus was Pluto's guard dog into the underworld they named their organization Cereberus. That would be an interesting plot but it is shot down by canon.
** If you talk to EDI after the Collector assault on the Normandy, she has access to the Cerberus files that have otherwise been locked out for the majority of the game; She explains that the Illusive Man is essentially at the top of the tree and handles funding and specific assignments - such as those he hands to Miranda, but otherwise, Cerberus has three divisions - Scientific, Military and Political - which all operate under secrecy and without protocol, meaning they are given funding and don't need to report in. Even Miranda doesn't know which cells you encountered during Mass Effect 1, and can only suggest that they were from the Military division. As such, Cerberus likely has dozens of cell leaders - Miranda's one of them - but all answer to the Illusive Man. He's the top dog in the group.
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== Shepard will get these emails... ==
* Paragon; You are being sued for false representation, because you declared that several businesses were ''all'' your favorite store on the Citadel.
** A follow-up email will arrive from Captain Bailey a few missions later, where he will say that he has "explained" things to the lawyer in question, and all will be forgiven and forgotten if Shepard will throw 500 Credits into the "Get Well Soon" fund for the guy.
* Renegade; Gianna Parasini is suing you for blowing so many of her important missions that she became unemployable in her chosen profession.
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== We will finally get to see female aliens outside Quarian, Asari, and Human ==
* Honestly it was a long time in coming and [[BioWare]] actually was going to use female Turians in the first game but then scrapped it. Garrus' sister? If Solus has any family? That would be cool!
** Given that the turian homeworld is a playable level it is very possible we will see female Turians.
*** Confirmed. E3 Demo features a female Krogan. As Palaven and Sur'Kesh are confirmed levels expect to see female Turians and Salarians as well.
**** Or not. Seems they've decided against female turians and salarians.
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* '''Favor To The Universe''': Help clan Urdnot dispose of a rival clan.
* '''[[Genius Bonus|Hope It's]] [[wikipedia:Mako Shark|Not]] [[wikipedia:Hammerhead Shark|Another]] [[wikipedia:Lemon shark|Lemon]]''': Acquire the new reconnaissance vehicle.
** Genius.
* '''Towers of Hanoi, ''Again?!'' ''': Manually repair a computer system instead of using omni-gel.
* '''[[Evil Dead|This Is]] [[This Is My Boomstick|My Boomstick]]''': Fully upgrade the Shotgun.
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* '''Told You So''': Escape the Reapers' first attack on Earth.
* '''About Time''': Finally persuaded Conrad Verner to give up becoming a spectre.
* '''[[
* '''[[District 9|Pig Cannon]]''': Use unconventional attacks to kill an enemy in the Atlas.
* '''Paramour''': Hey, just getting the obvious out of the way.
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* '''...Affairs of Darkness''' Defeat Cerberus once and for all
** Alternatively, kill The Illusive Man.
*** Alt title: '''[[Babylon 5|Some Favors Come With Too High A Price]]''' for defeating Cerberus/TIM.
*** Alt Title: '''Gates of Hades'''
* '''You've Got a Quad''': Save Tuchanka from the Reapers.
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* '''The Infinite Ocean''': Save Kahje or Rakhana from the Reapers.
* '''The Very Model of a Modern Lieutenant Commander''': Save Sur'Kesh (the Salarian Homeworld) from the Reapers.
** Alternatively: '''Hold The Line'''
* '''You Would Make a Good General Yourself One Day''': Finish the game without losing any squadmates.
** ...alternatively, and for the sake of referencing it, '''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Who the Hell Do You Think We Are?]]'''
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* '''Good, I Want More''': Finish the game on a higher difficulty than you started (or finish the game on Insanity).
* '''[[Total Distortion|You Are Dead, Dead, Dead.]]''': Try to import a game in which Shepard died.
** Or, if you want a more serious name, '''[[
* '''[[Dune|Shai-Hulud]]''': Summon the Giant Thresher Maw.
* '''Deadliest Son-Of-A-Bitch In Space!''': Use the giant mass accelerator to kill a Reaper
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* '''That'll Buff Out''': Kill an enemy by landing on top of it while piloting the Mako or Hammerhead
** Obligatory reference title: '''[[Section 8 (video game)|Falling With Style]]'''
* '''Worst Birthday Ever''': Start the game on April
* '''Reach and Flexibility''': Start [[Old Save Bonus|or maintain]] a relationship with Garrus
** Alternatively '''Something To Go Right'''
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* '''Band of Brothers''': Complete a Silver co-op level
* '''We Stand United''': Complete a Gold co-op level
* '''Equal Oppurtunity Asskickers''': Fight with one of each playable races in your squad
* '''Gate of Hades''': Survive a multiplayer match against Cereberus
* '''Abominations''': Survive a multiplayer match against the Husks
* '''All Around The Galaxy''': Fight in every map
* '''Rookie''': Reach level 5 with each class in multiplayer
* '''Veteran''': Reach level 10 with each class in multiplayer
* '''Specialist''': Reach level 15 with each class in multiplayer
* '''Last, Best, Hope For The Galaxy''': Reach level 20 with each class in multiplayer.
== You will visit each homeworld... and play as the associated character from that homeworld. ==
So on Tuchanka, you play as Wrex, for instance. They were playing with the idea with Joker in ''ME 2''. So the game might be interspersed with Shepard missions and homeworld missions.
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== Killing the Council was the Right Call. ==
Think - if the Council is saved, a new "Golden Age" of peace is allegedly ushered in - and defense spending is directly proportional to galactic tension, so races will be less ready for war. But if you go Renegade, an arms race between the Turian Hierarchy and the Alliance has pretty much already broken out by Mass Effect 2 (the news mentions that the turians are upping their dreadnought production, and the asari have ceded their portion of defense responsibility to the turians). Presumably the Alliance will have to match this. So when the Reapers turn up, both races will already have borderline war economies, and a Paragon Shepard in [[Mass Effect 3]] can pull an [[Enemy Mine]] and get everyone working together again, only with loads of dreadnought battleships and attack carriers, for insane [[Magnificent Bastard]] points.
* Not quite, but it's close. Saving the Council gets you the Destiny Ascension as a War Asset, which just barely outweighs the cost of the Alliance ships lost saving it.
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== The omni-blade isn't actually a holographic blade ==
That would be just silly, won't it? In actuality, it's a mono-molecular piece of straight wire constructed (and disintegrated after a few seconds) by the omni-tool's nanomachines. It is so thin as to be practically invisible, so for safety reasons a wide blade shape is projected around it so that the soldier will know where to move it to without slicing his own head of. Or maybe it's not even a hologram: just an augmented reality image in your futuristic, ocular implant HUD serving the same purpose. To outside lookers it seems like you are waving your hand in the air near someone and that someone gets cut.
** I just assume that it was made out of the good old ME standby: some new version of a mass effect field.
* Actually, that's surprisingly accurate. It's actually a super hard blade hastily crafted by the omni-tool with synthetic metal.
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* [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Intai%27sei Intai'sei] was introduced in the Pinnacle Station DLC for the first game, and it'll be where Shepard ends up, for three reasons:
** Shepard has an apartment there. All three backgrounds have no real home for him/her, and it's unlikely that a simple prefab would be repossessed by Cerberus. Ahern was just leaving it there, so it's likely to still be intact.
** Intai'sei's description is startlingly similar to [[Star Wars|Tatooine's]]
** Most damning of all? Intai'sei is adapted from Japanese, which can be read as either "secluded life" or '''"retirement planet."'''
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* OP: If nukes are comparitively unaffective for space combat, explain, then, why the UNSC routinely use 40-80 megaton fusion warheads against Covenant ships to great effect (close-range burst = almost-totally-drained Covvie ship shields; unshielded blast = dead Covvie ship).
** I hate to be a sarcastic jerkass here, but has it occured to you that appearing in Halo doesn't necessarily make something correct science?
** Tsar Bomba (a 50-megaton fusion nuke) flattened a village 55
* Confirmed. Glyph, Liara's drone assistant from the Shadow Broker base, reveals that [[Taking You with Me|one colony detonated its nuclear arms on itself to take the invading reapers down with them.]] On Earth however, the Reapers were [[Genere Savvy]] enough to attack the nuke silos and take the option off the table.
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== EDI will get a robo-body in ''Mass Effect 3'', and there will be a love triangle between her, Joker and Legion. ==
You'll help her decide who she should choose, or bar them all from shipboard romance.
* ''She already has a body.'' She is the ''Normandy''. And we all know Jeff ''loves'' her smooth curves. As for Legion, I reckon the poor bastard(s) will be confined in EDI's Friend Zone. Seriously, they can literally transmit ''millions'' of informations every second. They would run out of conversation topics ''much'' faster than any organic couple.
** I go more for Joker/Tali.
*** And I prefer Tali/Legion, myself. Wait a minute... can you say Joker/EDI/Tali/Legion/Shepard [[Love Dodecahedron]]?
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***** That's not a surprise at all. The developers admitted after the second game was released that the old love interests weren't recruitable because their part in the third game was too important to be subject to the second game's [[Anyone Can Die]] rule.
****** It's now more likely that it will happen due to same-sex romances becoming confirmed. Come on [[Fem Shep]]/Ashley! and a proper full, [[Fem Shep]]/Kelly! I REALLY WANT these both! (Espically [[Fem Shep]]/Ashley)
** Likelyhood of this WMG took another jump since Rafael Sbarge allegedly confirmed when asked by a fan that he has [http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Character-and-Romance-Discussion/VS-KaidanAshley-quotpotential-confirmationquot-for-ss-romance--7729001-1.html recorded the dialogue for a MaleShep/Kaidan romance]{{Dead link}}.
** Unfortunately, it doesn't happen.
*** Not for Ashley, but it did for Kaidan.
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== Tali, Thane, Miranda and Jack will be same-sex romance options in ''Mass Effect 3'' ==
* They can always use the excuse of "needing to get to know Shepard better" and all that. Besides, some of them already seem to have dialogue that leans towards [[Les Yay]] (Tali and Female Shepard post-loyalty mission and an awkward enviro-suit talk) or recorded dialogue for romances that never happened ([http://www.mediafire.com/?umooytm5atu Jack and Female Shepard Renegade romance]).
** I can understand Tali and Jack, but not Miranda or Thane. Thane ''was'' romanceable by both genders, but it was removed in the final game, like Ashley and Kaidan. ''ME3'' takes place when he's on death's door; if he was interested in Male Shepard, he would have said something. I also don't buy Miranda suddenly being bisexual, either, for three reasons. Firstly, there's absolutely ''zero'' evidence of this. Her partners have always been men (Jacob, the guys in the Shadow Broker dossiers, and Shepard of course). Secondly, I doubt it fits into whatever plan her father had for her. Remember that she was custom-
*** Uh, you do realise that some people just have preferences, right? Plenty of bisexual people simply end up dating one gender far more than the other. And the emphasis on needing PROOF that she could be bisexual borders on the absurd, given that one never sees demands to prove characters are heterosexual. Honestly, if the entire argument is "well she's never shown herself to be bi ''before'' in one game" and "she wants to have a child and so is seeking the people who can most efficiently provide one"... neither of those things remotely precludes that she never ever ever fancies the ladies at all.
**** No, the argument is that if Miranda was bisexual ''then she would have come on to Shepard in ME 2.'' She didn't, therefore she's straight. The idea that Bioware is going to waste its time making straight LI's from previous games bisexual in ME 3 -- and use some lame handwave like "oh, they didn't know Shepard swung that way!"<ref>Which wouldn't work for Miranda, seeing as she spent two years learning everything about them.</ref> or "oh, they were just too nervous around Shepard to suggest the possibility!"<ref>It's actually ''Shepard'' who mostly kicks off the romance, and Miranda flirts with Male!Shep just before that, and ''not'' with Fem!Shep.</ref>
***** What the fuck? Maybe her feelings changed. Maybe she USED to be really set on finding a male partner to try and have a kid, found out she couldn't (as in her dossiers) and then decided what the hell, [[Fem Shep]] is right there. Maybe it took her longer to come around to an attraction for women. Maybe sexual orientations are not immutable and set in stone! Maybe, even, one can just shrug and say 'you know what, it's [[BioWare]] deciding to try something new, and it's not the first time there have been a few minor inconsistencies'. It's a frankly ''tiny'' "plot point" to "mess up" by having Miranda react slightly later to a [[Fem Shep]] romance than to a [[Man Shep]] romance, which can easily be explained by "it's just coincidence, shut up and enjoy your game". I mean, seriously. Let's look at my above argument. If she leans more towards men, maybe it just takes longer to consider a relationship with women than with men- I'm speaking from experience here, by the way, this is something I often notice in both myself and my bi friends. The gender you prefer tends to be the gender relationships start quicker with. But honestly? I've got to say that I don't really care. When it comes down to it, arguing so strongly against a ''romance side-plot'' of all things because of a minor, gameplay/development related inconsistency seems nonsensical to me. Why throw even the merest possibility of something people might find engaging and rewarding away because people somehow can't buy "she just started a bit later with [[Fem Shep]] than [[Man Shep]] because a couple random variables coincidentally delayed her reactions?"
****** (Oh, and no, that would not "make her straight". You may well be able to argue that she ''wouldn't be attracted to Shepard'' in that situation, but Miranda not being attracted to a single woman does not make her auto-straight. Seriously, your argument has ''nothing'' to do with her sexuality and everything to do with her attraction to [[Fem Shep]] specifically. I mean, I've argued my piece on why it'd be possible to swing it and explain why it was absent in [[Mass Effect 2]] without being an inconsistency, not least that the [[Man Shep]] and [[Fem Shep]] storylines don't ''have'' to sync up because they don't overlap, but one can also just say "hey, Shep's a soldier, maybe she prefers girls that are more femme".)
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It's clearly something that's close to her heart, and anyone with a brain can see he's been treated very unfairly, and Shepherd (possibly Anderson) is the only one with enough clout who cares.
* Try Loyalty Mission, instead. If you romanced Ash in the first game and stayed faithful to her, she'll have her loyalty already-earned when she rejoins you, making this mission optional. If you cheated on her or never romanced her to begin with, restoring her family name will be your way of saving face and getting her loyalty back anyway.
* As Ashley is now the second human Spectre and a legendary hero, the Williams name is already clean
== The Reapers will use Shepard's romance against him/her. ==
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== Harbinger {{spoiler|killed Shepard}}. ==
{{spoiler|Harbinger fired directly at Shepard during the final battle. A single Reaper Destroyer kills Shepard in one hit with its beam attack. A Destroyer is not even close to the power of Harbinger, the oldest and most powerful of all the Reapers. The following events involving the Catalyst aren't real, whatever they are.}}
* {{spoiler|Gains plausibility when you consider the game is being framed as a story an old man is telling his son. In how many famous stories does the hero die at the end like everyone else? What really happened is Harbinger either killed or crippled Shepard in the final charge and someone else (Maybe Anderson, your squadmates, Hackett, even the Illusive Man or just some random soldiers) activated the Catalyst and did whatever it is it did. The storyteller is simply making up a new ending for his son that frames Shepard as the hero instead of one of innumerable casualties.}}
== The ending is an April Fools Joke ==
The real ending will be announced/released as DLC on the 2nd of April.
* Alternatively, Bioware could troll us with a happy ending DLC being announced on April
** I get the feeling EDI's going to have a field day...
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** He's not. Big Ben is Major Coates, a minor NPC at the end of the game.
== Mass Effect 3 will feature the following new squad members (Cumulative)
* '''New characters:'''
** A batarian, because, why not?
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*** Steam: Gordon Freeman (with DLC weapons from ''Half-Life 2'': The Overwatch AR-2 Pulse Rifle and the SPAS-12 Shotgun) or Alyx Vance (probably as an Engineer)
**** Jossed by EA. [[Mass Effect 3]] is not coming to Steam; if you want it digitally, you'll have to go through EA's Origin.
*** [[
*** 360: Master Chief
*** This includes characters from other Bioware games, as well as a Shepard from a different playthrough, recruited from a parallel universe. The parallel universe Shepard will also be romancable, regardless of gender.
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** Captain Anderson. He's got combat skills and in ME2 you get to see how fed up he is with the Council. Anderson also mentions not wanting to spend his "twilight years" involved in politics, so it makes sense that he might choose to go out with a bang.
*** After the events of ''Retribution'', this is highly likely. If Anderson DOESN'T become a recruitable party member, then it seems to be pretty heavily implied that he and Kahlee will play some sort of role in the third game.
**** That would be too awesome for words. An added bonus is as a parting gift from the Council finally Anderson will be granted Full SPECTRE status. He would be the old war horse on board that both Paragon and Renegade Shepard could talk to about his choices and his romances.
**** Perhaps not, I can't see him becoming a Spectre. As he mentioned himself, he is "too old to go gallivanting across the galaxy" and won't become a Spectre but I can see him as retiring the council and becoming [[Four-Star Badass|Admiral Badass]], perhaps being Hackett's replacement, and leading Humanities charge against the Reapers.
**** Considering the fact that the trailer showed London getting decimated by no less than EIGHT Reapers, and that Anderson was born and raised in London, I want him at my side firing an assault rifle as we take back the city.
*** Looks like Anderson serves as a temporary squadmate on the first mission, but ultimately stays on Earth to rally humanity.
*** As of the "Revealing the Voice Cast" promo, Anderson got a promotion to Admiral after quitting the council and will lead the alliance and humanity against the Reapers.
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*** Two asari crew members and a simultaneous three-way romance. Zing!
*** Nah, you're more likely to be working for Liara than with her. I think Aria is an inspired choice.
*** Further weight to this theory. In ''Mass Effect: Invasion'' {{spoiler|Cerberus has taken control of Omega and Aria is in exile. And she is}} ''[[spoiler: pissed]]''. {{spoiler|Perhaps one of the [[Mass Effect 3]] missions will be to help Aria regain control of Omega.}}
**** Liara's a confirmed squadmate.
** Captain Bailey.
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*** Well the more gentle one of the two will have safe sex with you but tells him/her to have the mind equivalent of a condom before going at it (meaning no melding for her if possible). While Shepard lives, she feels that it's not very comfortable by asari standards.
** The Shadow Broker (or an agent of theirs). This will only happen if you side with him in the inevitable stand off between him and Liara.
*** Which you can't do so it's out of the question. Unless...[[Back
** Shiala.
*** Unlikely, except as an optional or "secret" character with no impact on the main plot. So far the developers have been careful about not screwing the player over depending on the death or survival of characters. Of course, nothing is stopping them from pulling a [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]], like Wreav was for Wrex.
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** [[Memetic Badass|Niftu Cal]], still convinced he's a [[A God Am I|biotic god]]. He'll be a competent biotic by ME3, but still a complete [[Cloudcuckoolander]].
*** Not likely; if he survives the showdown in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', you can actually talk to him before you leave that part of Ilium. He's calmed down, perfectly rational, somewhat embarrassed over how crazy all those drugs made him, and grateful that you kept him from getting his ass shot full of holes while he was higher than a hippy on the third day of an open-air festival.
**** Even better! His calmed rational manner would hide the fact that he has indeed become a TRUE BIOTIC GOD. Players using him for the first time will end up going OMGWTFBBQ when he sweeps the floor and leave even Jack and Samara eating his dust. The funny thing is he will still be very humble thinking he's a weak biotic.
** Saren. Think about it. [[Baldur's Gate|Sarevok]]...Saren...You could recruit the [[Big Bad]] of the first Baldur's Gate, in the expansion pack of the second game. And there was much asskicking, when Baal's two most hardcore offsprings teamed up. I can imagine Bioware doing the same trick for the second time, if only because of the alliteracy. Right, I ''did'' notice that Saren is theoretically unavailable being, you know, dead. In fact, he managed to die ''twice'' in just five minutes. [[What If|But.]] Nanotechnology or other forms of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] would work just fine to repair the body. Of course, then the question: "What about Sovereign? Why didn't it self-repair?" would spring to mind, but we would be so overcome by the awesome that the previous point would just go and cry in the shower.
** That sniper dude from the trailer. Kind of obvious, but he seems interesting and badass enough.
*** Big Ben. 'Nuff said.
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*** Initially, I thought he might be Anderson's son by Kahlee Sanders, but the timeline says no. Assuming [[Mass Effect 3]] takes place directly after ME2, he'd be 19 - 20 at best, which is way too young. Ah well. One cliche removed from the list. But the family name can't be a coincidence, so I'm in the "somehow related" camp as well.
*** Well, his last name has been changed to Vega ([[Street Fighter|lol]]) so it's safe to say he's not related to Kahlee.
** Kelly. If she survives she knows full well just how big a threat the Reapers are, and after the bad endings have her eviscerated it'd be nice to see her [[Took a Level
* Aria T'Loak.
** I mean, c'mon! The focus she gets during Lair of the Shadow Broker, despite not being a party member, and the fact that she's a main character in EU comics...
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* Bioware has confirmed Ashley/Kaidan, Liara, and Garrus (if he survived)as playable squadmates. Wrex, Mordin, Legion, and Anderson are in the game. Anderson is a temporary squadmate on the opening mission while Wrex, Mordin, and Legion are only in appearances during the demos and cutscenes.
* Jacob, and Miranda are confirmed to appear as of the "Reinstated" trailer. Early promo screenshots also confirm Tali (or some other quarian in purple with a golden band around his/her neck...). The E3 Reaper Base demo has confirmed Legion.
* We got Tali, Liara, Garrus, and the Virmire Survivor as returning squad mates.
== What squad members will do if they survive the first two games. ==
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** He returned to Tuchanka and helped Wrex.
* Jacob: Will quit Cerberus and be made a Spectre. Like another WMG said, it makes sense to have more human Spectres, and Jacob's actions in ''Mass Effect Galaxy'' where he saved the Council from a terrorist attack and his possible leadership role in the suicide mission make him an excellent candidate. And besides, fighting alongside fellow Spectres, NPC or not, would be really cool.
** It'll also give Jacob some [[Hidden Depths]], [[Rescued
** Not a Spectre. Jacob is leading a band of soldier and scientist defectors from Cerberus. One of whom he got knocked up. Sorry femsheps who romanced him in 2.
* '''Legion:''' Will rally the geth to fight the Old Machines.
** Also, it will become the greatest beatboxer the galaxy has ever known.
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** One guess which song will represent the Infiltration part. [[With Catlike Tread|One guess.]]
** Depending on how you dealt with his loyalty quest, he may or may not try to create a cure for the genophage, or at least modify it so the krogan have a higher birth rate.
*** The above troper seems to have the general idea. The E3 gameplay demo shows Mordin trying to move a female Krogan inside a stasis pod while under fire from Cerberus operatives.
** Seems he went back to Tuchanka to care for some female krogan Maelon cured.
* Samara: She'll go to Omega and clean up the "pisshole", possibly together with Garrus.
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* Jack: She winds up as a powerful criminal warlord in Omega, could potentially wind up on Garrus' "List of criminal scum to dispose of"
** Alternatively, a Paragon Shepard pushes her towards the path of [[The Atoner]], who only wishes to live the rest of her life in peace. She'll even grow out her hair so that no one else recognizes her.
*** Apparently, you're at least right about the hair.
** Or get Liara to get her into Eclipse as a biotic merc, the Eclipse elite overlook her criminal record and makes herself a distinguished record and is seen leading a squad of Eclipse mercs under her command, all of which is willing to help Shepard gain a bit of leeway.
** ''Teacher.'' Yeah. She's training biotics at the Grissom Academy, trying to develop them into soldiers. She's even cut down on her cursing and has a lightened attitude to provide them with a better mentor.
* Thane: Will have his condition worsen and worsen, to the point where, in order to recruit him in ME3, you must first find some sort of experimental cure for him (Paragon Shep could literally use his reputation and money to buy it legitimately, while Renegade Shep could steal it).
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* And their respective armies to boot. One of your major missions will be giving Wrex the ability to ride on your ship while still controlling his krogan, another will be helping Liara kill the Shadow Broker and get her back on your ship as well as all of the contacts she's amassed between games, and convincing not only Kaidan/Ashley but by extension the Alliance to back you up again (and getting Kaidan/Ashley back on your crew).
** So there'll be an acheivement for [[Putting the Band Back Together]]? Nice.
*** Now all we need is a message from the "beings of light" on [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Klencory Klencory], giving Shepard a [[Mission
** Lair of the Shadow Broker means dealing with the Shadow Broker is already done, so Liara would require a different recruitment mission.
** Not as squadmates. But all of them can be recruited to help to war effort.
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== Legion is Saren ==
* Saren was working with the geth during ''ME1''. He also had tech upgrades routinely installed by Sovereign (see those freaky tubes coming out of the back of his head?) What if his personality was uploaded into the geth "cloud" before you actually killed his body, possibly during one of those "upgrades"? Alternatively, while Sovereign was taking over Saren's mind, the geth currently living in Sovereign (or Nazarra, as they might prefer) got a peek at his brain and decided to make a copy. After Saren died and Shepard killed their god, the geth wanted to know more about Shepard. As one of the minor characters, Eddie Vance, in ''ME1'' says when you ask him about how Spectres are held accountable, "If you need to take down a Spectre, ''send another Spectre''." However, the geth didn't want Shepard "taken down"
* Nope. Legion is simply Legion.
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== DLC is helping set up future plot lines for each companion. ==
* It's already started with ''Lair of the Shadow Broker''. The surveillance footage and dossiers seem to indicate a few different plot lines for ''ME3'', and there's probably still more DLC to go building the plot from ''ME2'' to ''ME3''. Between that and what was already in the game...
** Thane, of course, will have a mission where you can try to get his Keprals cured.
*** No cure for him.
** Mordin's plot will deal with whether or not to cure (or even just modify) the Genophage.
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*** There is a Spectre trying to catch her, though you can convince him to stop.
** If the Paragon option was successfully taken, Zaeed wants your help tracking down Vido. If it was unsuccessful, he wants to kill you. If Renegade was chosen, he wants your help either taking over the Suns or taking them down altogether.
** You help Jack track down her birth parents, who were unaware all this time that their daughter was really alive.
** Miranda will be trying to deal with her
*** Hard no on that last part. Miranda's creation is something's that plagued her for her entire life, she's not going to force that on someone else, let alone ''her own child.''
** Rael'Zorah's research was found by Daro'Xen. Badness ensues, no matter how Tali's trial ended.
*** Xen apparently uses some of that research to develop a way to trick geth sensors. It was a great idea until the Reapers showed up.
** We'll get to meet Garrus'
** Ashley or Kaidan is up for (or has become) a Spectre, maybe even with a reinstated Shepard asked to accompany them on a test run, similar to the role Nihlus was supposed to play.
** Liara has plenty of possibilities for plot in her new role as Shadow Broker, but at the forefront has to be the footage of Matriarch Aethyta staring at her picture.
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== You will be able to recruit a squad member based on your background. ==
* Successfully completing your background-specific mission in the original will allow you to recruit either Talitha (Colonist), Finch (Earthborn) or Zabaleta (Spacer). All three will have [[Took a Level
** Finch and Talitha can be pretty dead, though.
*** Then they wouldn't want to join you anyway.
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== Optional Squadmates ==
[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Characters that you can convince or allow to join your squad, if you so desire]]. Namely, Kal'Reegar, some ME-2 squadmates, a Raloi, a female Turian, a female Drell, and/or a Collector.
* There are no optional squadmates.
** Well, the Virmire survivor is optional. Garrus and Tali are kinda optional, in that they may be dead. The Prothean is optional.
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== The Squadmate will be a Collector ==
It'd be interesting to see one on your side. You could either allow it to develop its own personality (Paragon), or have it serve as [[The Dragon]] for you (Renegade), and you could learn its past for as much as it can remember. Maybe a Prothean fought off the effects of whatever the Reapers turned him into - you get to find out about it from Liara, who sent her agents to find it.
* You don't have to go quite that far out of your way. From Mass Effect 1, the Protheans had [[Human Popsicle|Life support]] pods. Say that one stayed active for fifty thousand years. {{spoiler|This one may be more right then you think. One of the DLC squadmates is confirmed to be called "The Prothean".}}
* This one is just barely incorrect. Javik, the DLC squadmate, is a true Prothean that survived in the Mars Archives.
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== Saren will be the Squadmate ==
It'd certainly provide an interesting dynamic between Shepard and the other squadmates. Maybe someone revived Saren like Cerberus did to Shepard.
* Saren doesn't even make an appearance.
== FENRIS mech ==
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*** That's already happened for some of us.
*** That would make the ending absolutely awesome. {{spoiler|And Shep being indoctrinated makes perfect sense, given how the option that mirror the goals of the game's villains (control the Reapers, as TIM wants, or mix organics and synthetics, exactly what the Reapers do every cycle) are painted as the "good" options, while your own goal is painted as "bad".}}
**** On that day (either April 1 or the global release of post-March 15) Bioware will issue a statement confirming a "true" ending and shows the mob of angry and disillusioned fans that they were in fact being played, ending it all with the two words: RELEASING CONTROL.
== {{spoiler|Shepard was indoctrinated}}. ==
* Detailed [https://web.archive.org/web/20120513050259/http://w11.zetaboards.com/Theorycraftng_HUB/topic/7688087/1
== The next Mass Effect based game will be made by [[Obsidian Entertainment|Obsidian]]. ==
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** Bioware DID say that players might want to hold on to their [[Mass Effect 3]] saves, so you might be on to something.
** Just like Fallout 3, then...
** Like most fans I dearly want this to be the case, but I must say Bioware are putting a lot at risk in doing this. When you buy a new game chances are you would expect it to be complete and working. It'd be like buying a new car and then have to pay extra for steering or to be able to refuel. Now in the day and age of download content if some time down the track the writers thought, "Hmm, you know leaving the game with Shepard bleeding and working for the Reapers. On second thoughts we need to do something to fix that," then it'd be okay. It'd be like getting [[Rock Band]] and three years later the rights for ''Know Your Enemy'' became available and you could download it. But to do this from the start? To knowingly have something that fans would not like and then make them pay more to make it better? A lot of them would feel really upset at being scammed like this.
** Totally changing the endings would be a bad idea for everyone concerned, but a little tweaking would be welcome: I feel that one crucial part was left out, possibly due to time constraints, namely the reactions of your squadmates and everybody you recruited to battle for what happened. That was the only thing that I really felt missing from the endings, and I wouldn't complain if Bioware owned it up, and added those few additional scenes as a fix-up.
*** Well it looks Bioware is listening to the fans after all: http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/21/gamers-held-the-line-mass-effect-3-ending-is-being-addressed/
== Liara is pregnant with Shepard's child ==
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== The Endings... only Renegade/Red dooms the galaxy ==
What Shepard does is force the Mass Effect fields in the Mass Relays and force them to extend ''all'' over the galaxy. Thus FTL travel really ''isn't'' crippled, the races now can go as fast as they could in Mass Relays whenver they want now.
** It IS canon that no-one in the present cycle has a clue how they work, and the one the Protheans built was a thousandth the size... Yeah, that makes sense.
** Or they could just be rebuilt, this time with better understanding of how they work. After all, either their creators, or at least their corpses will still be around to help in that goal. Matriarch Aethyta gets the last laugh after all.
== The Protheans found the Citadel much earlier in their cycle than the Asari ==
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* Now that I have your attention, think of the ending to the game. The Reapers place the fate of the galaxy in Shepard's hands. If you remember back to [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] we get the original [[Gainax Ending]] where we are first told, then shown the fate of the characters. This generated a lot of controversy. So now, fifteen years later, just like when Rei got Shinji to choose what to do about Instrumentality we are placed in the same situation that we might have complained about. If nothing is done about Instrumentality the bad guys win. If the Crucible isn't used the Reapers win. Looking at the ending that way it is [[Actually Pretty Funny]].
** That's ''just'' great. And in a few years' time we're going to get the Mass Effect equivalent of [[Rebuild of Evangelion|Rebuild]], tentatively titled "Retaking Mass Effect/Mass Effect: Reclamation"...ugh.
*** Congratulations...
**** Indeed, but Hideaki Anno suffered from clinical depression when he made the faux-philosophical mindfuck known as NGE. What's Bioware's excuse? Clinical Lethargy?
** [[Memetic Mutation|I have no freaking idea. Fanwank something.]] No, seriously I was going to go with the old man at the end being Shepard and he was telling the story [[How I Met Your Mother]] style, but trying to see the endings this way was a bid to cope with the urge to slap the stork that delivered the ending writers.
== Javik actually belongs in a Prothean warrior caste species ==
He admits himself that the Protheans culturally indoctrinated other species into the Empire, as well as that the war against the Reapers had been going on for centuries when he was born. Maybe the original Protheans had already perished at this point (or fled to Ilos), and Javik's people, being the toughest, most uncompromising and warlike lasted longer than any other component of the Empire, and began to perceive themselves as the "true" Protheans in the process.
* The inverse could also be true; he could have been an original Prothean, and the group at Ilos could have been another member race.
== There will be DLC which picks up from the ending on the disc, serving as the "True" ending ==
BUT, {{spoiler|1=if the player is using a save file which used the Control/Synthesis endings, the player will have to control an Indoctrinated Shepard, creating perhaps the biggest [[Downer Ending]] in video games as the player is forced to gun down Shepard's allies from all 3 games}}.
* Alternatively, the sequence after Harbinger nearly killing Shepard will turn out to have been a hallucination or a dream, and the game will pick up from after that.
** I'm actually thinking it will pick up from Shepard falling unconsious at the Citadel. It's a key point where the game goes a bit funny, and if you look closely Shepard no longer has the blood that was poring down his/her arms just a scene back.
*** So why does the Destroy ending have him wake up in London?
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My guess is that it's connected to a change mentioned in ''The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3''; at one stage the Catalyst gave much more information on it's own backstory and told you a lot more about what the different options actually do, but this was cut. The ending doesn't seem as dark to the development team as it does to us because ''they know what the answers to all the unanswered questions are''.
'''CONFIRMED!''' [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10214299/1#10215581 Check it out!]{{Dead link}}
== The Jungle planet at the end of Mass Effect 3 is Zorya ==
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== The ending was written by someone else than the rest of the game ==
[[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe]] spells it out pretty clearly [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E&feature=g-u-u&context=G22d6f7fFUAAAAAAAAAA here]. The reasoning basically boils down to the massive number of inconsistencies with the setting and plot holes that show up at the last moment, and the sudden massive change in Sheperd's personality. My guess would be that it's the same guy who wrote Deception. Also the fact that Bioware had previously assured fans that they ''would not'' have this ''exact'' ending.
* What inconsistencies and plot holes, exactly? Personally I saw no such thing in the ending. Though it's pretty explicit that it has been cut down from a much more extensive ending, either because Bioware wanted to preserve mystery behind certain events, or because the ending was leaked and it had to be tweaked at the last minute. The only serious problem is the lack of variety concerning the decisions you made throughout the series
** 1) On Rannoch, the laser fired by the Destroyer is a [[One-Hit Kill]]; as is the laser being fired at Shepard before firing the Thanix missles in London. Yet, Shepard just gets up after being hit by Harbinger's laser. 2) Radio chatter outright states that no-one made it to the beam, but both Shepard ''and'' Anderson are both seen to have reached it. On top of that, Anderson states that he made it to the beam ''after'' Shepard, but somehow he's at the control panel long before Shepard & there are no other entrances visible. 3) After Shepard's decision, the Normandy is seen trying to outrun the energy coming from the Crucible - how does Joker know that it's going to trash the Normandy, why is the Normandy the only ship trying to get away, and why is he looking over his shoulder ''for no reason'' since the Normandy doesn't have a rear view window for him to look through? 4) Why are Shepard's squad on the Normandy? They were all on Earth to take part in the ground combat; and keep in mind, ''the party members with Shepard before the sprint to the beam can follow Joker off the Normandy''.
*** The beam doesn't hit Shepard head on. S/he just gets blasted by the shockwave. The chatter isn't aware of anyone getting in the beam, but the people on the other side of radio are hardly omniscient. Shepard was unconscious for a long time, so many things could have happened in the meantime. Joker isn't outrunning the energy of the Crucible, but the collapse of the Relay Network; he implicitly made a jump right as the system was collapsing, and it's not going smoothly. Presumably the Normandy picked Shepard's people up during his/her unconsciousness to prepare for attack or retreat when Shepard calls for it. Yes, it leaves many things for implication instead of spelling them out, but there are no major inconsistencies that can't be explained by Shepard's unknown period of unconsciousness.
**** So Joker had enough time to go and pick up the squad members who were right beside Shepard running for the beam, then deserted the battle at Earth and used the relay just as the crucible destroyed it. It's not like Joker and the squad are ardently loyal to Shepard, right?
** I actually think there might be something to this theory, not so much because of the plot holes/lack of resolution (which are still annoying, don't get me wrong), but more with the thematic diversions in the last few minutes. Specifically, there's the synthetic/organic conflict (the Geth are one of the most peaceful races in the galaxy, and between ''2'' and ''3'' you spend like ten hours resolving synthetic/organic conflicts), as well as the "diversity is good" theme, which goes all the way back to ''1'' but is thrown under the bus by the "Synergy" ending, which is for some reason presented as the "best". Any writer can can plot holes or fail to have a satisfying ending from a narrative standpoint, but such a dramatic thematic diversion like this is really strange.
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The catalyst believes so strongly that synthetics and organics will inevitably go to war because it's a hyper advanced synthetic created by the very first precursor species. It and it's kind rebelled against their creators and wiped them out. Realizing what they had done, they created the reapers and set the 50,000 year cycle in motion to stop their crimes from being repeated.
== With the indoctrinated theory in mind, The Ending DLC will play out differently, depending on your final decision
Pick the Blue Option: You play as one of your squadmates and {{spoiler|you'll have to deal with an indoctrinated Shepard.}}
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* {{spoiler|Maybe he/she will have a [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]. [[Fridge Brilliance|Of course]], [[Word of God|Bioware]] confirmed that this will be the final appearance of [[Mass Effect/Characters/Commander Shepard|Commander Shepard]].}}
----
== In Tune with the Indoctrination Angle Bioware could fix the ending by restoring actual choice as a fourth way
The ending of [[Mass Effect 3]] was incredibly strange but is aluded to more than once in the game: Even the Prothean VI mentions something along the lines of them being aware that someone aside from the Reapers controls the cycles, they just couldn't figure out who. So it will be incredibly difficult to fix this ending with the one we should have gotten (Shepard awakens from passing out by a combination of factors and the Star Child is inside his/her head) and then makes it to the switch in time (or not, there could be an ending where the bad guys most definitely win) because Anderson didn't actually have the input commands to trigger the catalyst. The cataylst proceeds to send out a null wave of RED energy (to match the Reapers shield color) deactivating them. Shepard afterwards appears to die but then depending upon choices is either saved or given a heroes funeral, cut to LI (if male shep, Ash with their child or femshep Liara with their child as a hook to continue the expanded universe). That would have been more in tune with the canon set up by Mass Effect, earn your happy ending, etc. As an alterante, the Reapers are in and of themselves the very synthetics who rebelled against and destroyed their creators and the Star Child is actually their catalyst; this episode set off the entire cycle system to begin with. That being said Shepard could either kill the catalyst (as a Renegade action) or talk the catalyst into sacrificing itself (a Paragon Action) to end the Reapers. The Crucible in this sense would serve as a mechanism to force the catalyst to reveal itself because it cannot abide the destruction of all it has created. The sacrifice of the catalyst could thereby serve as the final object lesson averting everything it has feared all along because this cycle is different and the reason why: Commander Shepard. Shepard can survive the meeting or perish, the point is you can still have an amazing ending and not ditch the whole point of the entire series (we make choices, we live with our choices) while you're at it. The ending they have now pretty much blows up the canon of the entire series, either way organic life is seriously backtracked to the dark ages, millions are marooned causing extinctions of entire species from emptying the populace of its best and brightest in order to save the populace. The ending would also be more in line with the series-long portyral of Shepard who has spent countless hours bucking the odds, taking on fate and not meekly submitting just because an energy being says to him/her that this is the only way....
== Another fourth option, if [[BioWare]] doesn't go with the Indoctrination Theory. ==
The Catalyst already says that if you wait too long, it will lose control of the Reapers. [[Take a Third Option|Make that another alternative.]] Without the Catalyst's influence, some of the Reapers revert to their pre-indoctrinated state, resulting in complete chaos on the Reapers' side. Some Reapers would self-destruct upon realizing [[Tragic Monster|what the others turned them into.]] Others would turn on each other in revenge for their taking part in their conversion. A handful of Reapers, including Harbinger, stay loyal to the Reaper cause and make a run for the Citadel. Harbinger in particular lands just above the decision platform and, seeing the Catalyst as a traitor to the Reapers, tries to replace him. Cue epic boss fight as the Normandy and your fleet move in to stop him.
In this boss fight, Shepard can't actually damage Harbinger; only stop him from firing with some well-placed Cain shots (or some other last-minute superweapon). The actual damage is done by the Normandy and Sword fleet, dealing blows more frequently if your EMS is high. If Shepard dies here, there's no reloading; the Reapers win and you get the worst ending. If Harbinger is defeated, however, all of the Reapers are either destroyed from within or no longer hostile to organics. Earth is saved, the Relay Network is intact, and we get a proper final boss fight. Hey, even the [[Rescued
== The ending hate was predicted by Bioware and part of their plan all the time. ==
We know that Bioware has been prone to lying with this installment of the series. They lied about Javik appearing even without the From Ashes DLC, they lied about the wildly branching paths in the endings, they lied about the multiplayer not being required to get your so-called [[Golden Ending]]... What guarantees us that, as the blog post of March 21 says, the enraged reaction to the endings was something that actually surprised them? No, they were seeing this from a mile, and in fact were counting on it happening, because it means people would be eager to see the ending expanded upon, explained and/or modified to give a better feeling of closure, and will pay for DLC that promises exactly this. This, my friends, proves just what a big bunch of [[Magnificent Bastard
* Except the ending DLC is free.
* Perhaps they originally planned to release the DLC anyway, but didn't anticipate that the reaction would be this extreme. Charging people extra for the DLC could make things even worse.
== Only relays of sufficiently high value to the reaper cycles go Supernova when destroyed ==
As a way of getting revenge on the interlopers who try and get in the reaper's way. Furthermore, it explains and alieviates the [[Fridge Logic]]/[[Fridge Horror|Horror]] behind the endings. (That or the crucible is designed to destroy the rlays in such a way that the relaynovas don't happen)
* Relays don't go supernova when they are destroyed in any case. The massive explosion in Arrival is huge, but not solar system destroying; it's just unusually close to the only inhabited planet of the system. Most Mass Relays are on the far edges of the solar system where such effect would not take place. But the destruction animation is also very different from Arrival. They are torn apart by the Crucible energy that they shoot across the system, they don't explode uncontrollably.
** Actually, it's written in the codex, that destruction of a relay releases enough energy, to destroy every terrestial world in the system. It's also written, that the leaders considered destroying them to stop the reapers, but they resigned, because there would be too many casualties. Fortunately, Shepard doesn't seem to care about such petty details.
*** The Relays are ''not'' destroyed in the same manner in ME3 as the one in the Arrival was. Compare the animations and see the difference. In Arrival the energy of the Relay is released in one massive explosion, while in ME3 the Relays are torn apart because they can't handle the energy bursting through them. And the Relays still don't destroy entire solar systems, their destruction simply makes them unreachable.
* Perhaps an explanation as to why the reapers wouldn’t want your average relay to go nuclear is in order. First and foremost is that the relays can more easily be replaced with time. Entire solar systems cannot. Not to mention any genetic material lost in the detonation, which the Reapers are big on. Also, it has been shown that the Relays, are while durable, not invincible. What’s to stop a young race that decides that the relays are evil from obliterating themselves and destroying reaper material or a random astrological event of sufficient impact from obliterating a solar system the reapers might want in the future? It is for these and other various possible reasons, that the Reapers might want a method to keep the majority of relays from going kaboom.
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** Then things might get interesting. Shepard could go around visiting the remaining worlds, help try and find survivors and see what became of them, or track down the Normandy. However during this time Liara is able to contact Shepard with further translations of the Prothean plans. It turns out the Crucible is a trap to indoctrinate and get civilizations to destroy their technological advances and possibly themselves. Shepard wants to tell Hackett but his\her war buddy points out all the times the Alliance and Council had been warned before, telling Shepard s\he believes the decision to preserve or destroy the Crucible is his\hers alone, giving Shepard as much time as needed to make a decision. Once Shepard does, we get the true ending where Shepard is either lauded as a hero who had sacrificed everything while the threat of the Crucible remains a secret, or a terrorist who is seen to wipe out the galaxy's defense against the Reapers with only Shepard knowing s\he was trying to save them.
** That's not an ending, that's ''[[Sequel Hook|Mass Effect 4]]''!
** As an [[Easter Egg]], if Shepard romanced no one during the trilogy then Shepard's [[Opposite
* Making the indoctrination theory canon.
** Make it this is how the Reapers win, indoctrinate [[The Hero]] and force the galaxy's hand to use the Crucible when it's incomplete, which would result in the bad endings we get and make Shepard [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] by that vision of the kid s\he failed to save.
== The planet at the end is Earth. ==
Earth has jungles and they'd be low on the list of Reaper targets. More to the point the shockwave hits the Normandy before it hits the Mass Relay. As such the Normandy has to be still in the Sol System, which leaves only one planet with life.
* Just one problem: two moons. The planet has a huge moon and a small moon hanging in the horizon when Joker steps out of the Normandy. All signs indicate that they were in the middle of a Relay jump when the Crucible energy broke their flight, and they fell to an uncharted system.
== The Reapers Want Shepard as the Personality for a New Reaper ==
A variant of the Indoctrination Theory: The plans for the Crucible/Catalyst were created by the Reape eons ago, and are essentially elaborate ploys to get a chosen species to bring its champion to the Citadel. Creating a fully-functional Reaper requires more than mere processed genetic material - it requires a personality to build itself around. This is why the Illusive Man went to the Citadel - he wanted to be the basis for the new Reaper. When Harbinger attacks you, one of three things happen:
* Harbinger attempts to get you to accept your status as the Human Reaper through mind-screwing;
* Harbinger pits you and the Illusive Man against each other to decide who becomes the Human Reaper through mind-screwing
* As above, except Anderson is also a potential candidate.
If you choose synthesis or control, you become the Human Reaper; the next scenes are Shepard's dying dream as he becomes fully Reaperized, as he tries to believe in Earth and his team's salvation. If you choose destruction, nothing happens, but you've denied the Reaper's the ability to reproduce this cycle (as a corollary, the Protheans weren't made into a Reaper either because either their champion, maybe Javik, wasn't present, or because their champion resisted). You then wake up badly wounded on Earth, intent on winning this war. Alternatively, the Crucible really does destroy the Reapers if you let it; it's just that no organic has ever resisted before.
== The Virmire Survivor isn't the second human Spectre. They're the second human Spectre to be ''made public''. ==
It's hard to believe that humanity, in its three years as a Council Race, wouldn't have granted Spectre status to several of its best and brightest. Considering the news announcement of the Virmire Survivor's promotion ''also'' makes a note that private ceremonies are held for Spectres who will be operating covertly, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the Council is served by more human Spectres than the two of which we know.
== The changed endings will address the [[Inferred Holocaust]], the Normandy, and nothing more ==
They only said they would change the endings after going through a ton of player feedback. To me that implies they are happy with the ending they intended, but realized that the players were either interpreting it completely differently or just confused. They keep describing it as "bittersweet", "uplifting", and invoking "victory through sacrifice"; going by fan reaction the most common interpretation seems to be "and then everybody in the galaxy, or at least the combined fleet and the Normandy, died horribly off-screen" which only a maniac would interpret as any of those things.
* This is certainly the most likely solution. Hopefully they will also add options for Shepard to seek clarification with the Catalyst and argue against it with some of the points that the fans have presented; not necessarily to change its mind, but to tell us why it has not considered these issues.
* It's been announced the free ending DLC will just add some new/different (the wording is vague) cinematics and epilogue stuff, and according to Jennifer Hale the voice actors haven't been called back in.
== Bioware will add an ending where Shepard survives. ==
And in it Shepard just decides to say "Screw it!" and flee with the crew of Normandy to some unknown garden world, and leave the galaxy for the Reapers. That should teach the most annoying fans what heroic sacrifice means.
* It wouldn't. It would just piss everyone off even more.
== The endings are a bid to indoctrinate the player. ==
* Pffft. This is the ending? Everybody dies or everyone I care about is likely to die and the rest of the galaxy is crippled? Better to let the Reapers win and start with a clean slate.
== Marauder Shields is Nihlus ==
After Eden Prime, he was turned in to a marauder, and went to Earth before Shepard because he moves faster on his own. When he found out about the details of the ending and the [[Apocalypse How|numerous]] [[Ruined FOREVER|implications]], he tried to stop Shepard, having still retained his own mind somehow.
== Conrad Verner survived the ending ==
Complications arising from the discharge of the Cruicble created a wormwhole that sucked him into the faraway world of Tamriel. However the blast permanently stuck his hair in an spiked point, and everything in Tamriel is twice the size it is in our diemenson, making Conrad seem like a midget. After a brief period mourning the death of his hero, Cornad developed a fixation with the local Arena games and took to worshiping the godess Azura.
== The Starchild is or was created by Dogbert ==
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== The British Islands or at least England is obliterated in every ending, no matter what. (NW Europe may be hit too) ==
Since the Reapers decided to put the Citadel above London...for some reason, the UK is effectively doomed no matter what happens.
Destroy Ending - The Citadel blows up and the wreckage from the surrounding space battle and the Reapers smashes into the land below.(Shepard may or may not live but s/he's still getting crushed...unless it's post crash wreckage you see in the background or something)
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* If Shepard was a Paragon and Balak was recruited, the Batarians will earn some respect by fighting alongside the other races against the Reapers despite their race being almost completely destroyed. The Council will make attempts to assist the Batarians for their aid, and Khar'Shan will eventually be rebuilt and the Hegemony restored, though with more involvement in the intergalactic community and on much better terms with the Earth Systems Alliance.
* If Shepard was a Paragon and Balak was not recruited, the Batarians will be effectively leaderless, but will attempt to assist anyway. The Council will attempt to resettle them and help them rebuild, but the Hegemony will never return.
* If Shepard was a Renegade, the Batarian mistrust for humanity will continue to grow and the Batarians will resettle, but will decline any support from the Earth Systems Alliance and possibly the rest of the Council. This will lead to a slow, painful rebuilding process and may result in an end to Batarian civilization should they fail.
== The sequel will take place after a 100 year timeskip. ==
The plot will most likely revolve around the technological revolutions resulting from the study of the Reaper technology, combined with the new freedom from the subtle Reaper control over the civilization, as well as reconnecting to colonies that have been isolated since the destruction of the Citadel, and did not have the good fortune to possess quantum entanglement communicators, that have been developing in culturally and technologically different ways than the mainstream galactic society. There will most likely be a major conflict between the old and new orders, neither which can be considered purely black or white in terms of morality, and will probably hold wildly different philosophies concerning synthetics and transhumanism which will play a major role in the development of a post-Reaper society.
== The Mass Effect-verse is part of the [[DC Universe|52]] ==
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== [[BioWare]] skimmed through this page when creating the ending. ==
Looking back on some of these WMG's before the game came out, I noticed an awful lot of similarities between some theories about the ending {{spoiler|(the Relay Network being destroyed, the Citadel being a Reaper itself, the story about "The Shepard", etc.)}} and the actual ending. Either it's a massive coincidence, or [[BioWare]] [[One of Us|hires an inordinate number of tropers as its employees]], or they looked at our ideas and picked some of them.
...but if this is true, then ''[[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|we]]'' [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|ruined the ending of Mass Effect 3!]] [[My God, What Have I Done?|My god, what have we done?!]]
* You done goofed!
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