Ten eerste: Hallo Tweakers!
Ten tweede: deze post is in het engels omdat ik deze post oorspronkelijk schreef in een e-mail conversatie met een kennis. Gezien de lengte had ik geen zin hem HELEMAAL te gaan lopen vertalen en vandaar. Ik hoop dat dit acceptabel is.
Ten derde: Ik heb maar 1 einde gezien en gekozen (control) en ik heb de Extended Edition NIET gespeeld noch enige andere vorm van DLC. Ik heb uiteraard wel alle (oorspronkelijke, niet EE) eindes bekeken op Youtube achteraf.
Ten vierde: een disclaimer vind u onderaan de post (in het engels).
Enjoy!
When at the end the Citadel AI confronted me with the choice it took me quite a while to figure out which ending I should pick.
Up till that point I hadn't really struggled with most of the moral/ethic choices as I am a Paragon player through heart and soul and most choices,
even the ambiguous ones did tend to have one lopsided more towards paragon and one towards renegade but this one just blew my mind.
The choice between the geth/quarians was also difficult for me, as both sides of the coin had their ups and downs.
Initially I chose the geth side as I figured the quarians should just be reasonable enough to stop firing on the geth and thus all would be well..
They of course failed to comply and they got destroyed by the now sentient geth AI's.
Seeing Tali take off her mask and jump over the cliff was a REALLY touching moment and made me cry.
When I reloaded the save and chose the quarians the geth tried to kill me for my betrayal, we stopped him and the geth got annihilated while the quarians lived.
So the geth were vengeful and the quarians were irrational. Neither side was completely in the right and neither side was completely at fault.
The moral/ethic choice between the Krogan and the Salarians I had less issue with at first because the salarians were 'clearly' the ones in the wrong,
trying to backstab the krogans by misleading them and not actually curing the genophage and only wanting to use them for the war.
I picked the krogan side and thus the salarians refused to help me.
I cursed the salarians for refusing their help regardless because.. well,
'total universal annihilation by reapers' and stuff in my eyes seemed a bit more pressing than krogan population control
(which is a very iffy issue relating ethical standpoints to begin with.. what gives them the right?!)
It was however apparent early on and at the end that the Krogan leader WOULD eventually plan to start a war against the citadel races.
Had the krogan female survived she might have steered the krogan in a 'more constructive' path and lead them towards enlightenment but alas that was not to be.
So on the one side we have salarian stubbornness and on the other side we have krogan aggression.. both understandable from certain standpoints but both far from 'ideal' choices.
Now for the iffy stuff... Here I will allow myself to go a bit philosophical and psychological so I hope that doesn't put you off.
I am a pacifist and would rather not hurt a fly if I didn't HAVE to. Killing is not the answer to anything. It doesn't solve problems, it solves symptoms of problems.
If someone is aggressive towards you the problem isn't that person its his/her aggression. Taking care of the person (by killing) thus seems a bit stupid when actually his/her aggression is the issue.
I am a man of reason, intellect and diplomacy. No world is perfect and we simply can not all have everything we want.
We have to be willing to compromise and be able to look at the bigger picture of things if we want to be able to maintain an enlightened society made up of countless individuals.
This means sacrificing some personal happiness if it means increasing general happiness among the population.
If making you 10% less happy makes 2 people 10% more happy it's basically a GOOD trade as long as happiness levels are equal among you 3 to begin with;
there is of course the issue of base-happiness and/or 'minimum' happiness levels.
I am also a man who believes in change and duality. These two fundamental ideas are, I believe, the only things that are needed to make our universe possible.
I thus find it paramount that people should be open to change and even strive for it. Without change progress cannot be made. Change defines life and to live without change is similar to not living at all.
I thus also find it paramount that people understand the duality of things. Duality is found EVERYWHERE either directly or indirectly apparent.
You need duality for change to exist and you need change for duality to exist.
On top of that I believe you need a balance between both. (which is outside of the scope of this analysis for now so I will not discuss it)
These are my core ideals and these are the ideals which guided my journey through Mass Effect's story.
Now, onto the choices at the end of ME3 and their implications...
- Destruction: Reapers destroyed, all AI life + relays destroyed.
As I stated earlier, I fundamentally oppose 'murder' and this option seemed unappealing from the get-go.
The death of EDI and the Geth also did not really help sway me towards this choice.
The Citadel AI and the Reapers merely reaped civilizations to maintain 'order and balance', something they, being AI's, value a whole lot and believed to also be best for all life in the universe organic and non-organic.
I am inclined to agree with them on the ground of my personal belief in balance.
- Control: You 'die', reapers live and everyone else also lives. No technology destroyed.
This seemed appealing to me as it meant everyone stayed alive and you (commander sheppard) now basically had control over the most powerful force in the universe.
- Synthesis: Everyone dies and is reborn as some organic non-organic hybrid.
All non-documented knowledge is lost and all personalities are lost. This seemed like a VERY unwanted choice as basically nobody would be happy with this.
To make a decision you have to weigh the pro's and con's of each choice so you can then make a decision that has the best happiness mutation among all 'individuals' affected by the choice.
From my scourging the internet I found some very frustrating (to me) analysis by other players which, frankly, quite upset me.
For instance I found a youtube video proclaiming Destruction to be the only viable option as control is what the illusive man wanted, and he was bad, and synthesis is what saren wanted, and he was also bad..
The video contained footage taken from all 3 ME games (including the final stand-off with saren) which was supposed to illustrate his point.
Sheppard in said footage convinced saren that 'synthesis isn't the right choice, the reapers are bad and must be destroyed, you are indoctrinated by sovereign' and thus saren committed suicide.
The author for the video stated very sure of himself that this was all the evidence he or anyone else should need to know that destruction was the only 'right' choice.
'Indoctrination'.. now that's a funny word to think about. Let's look at that a bit deeper shall we?
Basically indoctrination is generally accepted to be a form of 'brainwashing' where by repetition or certain argumentation/influencing someone can be brought to believe certain things.
So how exactly is sovereign 'convincing' saren that synthesis is a good thing any different from sheppard 'convincing' saren that it isn't?.. logically and linguistically there really is no difference.
So let's take a look at 'resistance' to indoctrination shall we. Basically from the ME story we are 'told' that Sheppard had been 'immune' to indoctrination while saren and the illusive man weren't.
I simply have to call Bullshit on this as it simply is not true.
Sheppard (while limited by what choices are available) is controlled by the player sitting behind the screen. He or she is the one deciding his actions, limited by the actions allowed within the game and/or the game universe/story.
I would like to put it forward that said author of said youtube video is in fact a prime example of someone 'indoctrinated'..
not by the reapers, but by himself. All throughout ME1, 2 and 3 he's been playing as Sheppard.. At the beginning you start off with the notion that 'reapers are bad and must be stopped/destroyed'.
And what has he come up with at the end? He sticks right to his original assessment (the one handed to him originally by the game) and THAT's his choice. (HERP DERP)
So what did he do wrong in my eyes? He disregarded change and duality!
He maintained his original belief (stagnation) and failed to consider the 'other side' of the coin by simply dismissing saren, sovereign, the illusive man, the geth and/or the reapers/citadel AI (duality).
He failed to see the bigger picture entirely!
The other main reason for his bias towards destruction was the ending footage of sheppard breathing. Apparently because destruction is the only choice that keeps sheppard alive it MUST be the best choice..
Way to go hero.. no self-sacrificing for the greater good for you 'eh? So apparently his own survival weighed HEAVILY on his decision making.. a decision affecting the ENTIRE UNIVERSE mind you..
Excuse me if I say that sounds an aweful lot arrogant to me.
All throughout the Mass Effect games I saw MY commander sheppard grow as a person while his beliefs were questioned as new information became available,
his alliances changed, trust was broken by allies and new allies were formed with thought-to-be enemies.
He started as an N7, then a spectre fighting against the reapers and cerberus, then he became a cerberus operative and then back to being a spectre/N7.
Regardless of the choices you make presented to you throughout Mass Effect THIS major allegiance changing serves to prove the point that there is no 'right' or 'best' organization/allegiance.
We do what we can with the knowledge and tools to our disposal.
Making a choice depends on the available intelligence available to you, your ability to cope with change and see its use and your ability to analyse the duality apparent in each choice and it's pros and cons..
and then on top of that you have to factor in personal and general happiness.
A choice like this, which affects basically the ENTIRE universe simply SHOULD NOT be made by someone that lets his personal happiness even be ANY part of the equation.
My analysis of the end and my choice?
Destruction? No. While causing much unhappiness to all organic life, the reapers did have a point about order and balance and chaos. The Reapers are not 'evil' and merely did what they deemed best.
Synthesis? No. While organic and non-organic life are both flawed in their own respect I believe those flaws can be overcome without the need to 'reroll' the universe.
Control? Yes. A dictatorship is required for maximum happiness to be obtained. It only works with a correct dictator but I believe MY sheppard to be that person. Nobody 'dies' (except me), the end.
The reason I believe Control (dictatorship) to be the best choice is because I have very good reasons to do so. I would even go so far as to state Bioware probably believes so too.
All throughout the ME games bioware throws the notion of 'one person can change the future' towards us. We (as commander sheppard) are capable of forming allegiances with people from ALL races,
We are capable of ANYTHING (with help from our trusted teammates!) and WE save the universe.
Bioware wants us to realize a few important things with their ME series:
salarian/krogan dilemma: Control is needed. SOMEONE has to have control.
The Salarians initially controlled the krogan (for the betterment of the universe) but this did not make the krogan happy.
They did it the WRONG way. The female krogan COULD have controlled the krogan and all would have been well on that front but she died.
Control requires not only someone capable of control (like the salarians with their genophage) but it also requires the people to LET you control them (like the krogan female who had sway over the krogan population).
geth/quarian dilemma: The world isn't perfect. There is no right or wrong. You cannot please everyone at the same time and sometimes both choices in a duality are 'equal' in their effect on general happiness while different in who gets happier and who gets less happy.
Another important thing this dilemma teaches us is that someone HAS to make the tough decisions like these. You cannot 'refuse' to make the decision.
You need duality, you need change...
You need both AI and organic life, as they form a perfect duality in the sense that AI can rationally strive towards order (maximum happiness global) and organic life strives towards change (its in their chaotic nature).
Chaos and order thus form their own duality. You need an AI to keep the chaos in check and you need organics to ensure change (and thus progress) is maintained.
Incidentally, my most favourite symbol in the world is the Yin-Yang symbol.
My MOST most favourite symbol in the world is this one:
http://animations1.tripod.../animation/images_119.gif
So, there you have it. My analysis of Mass Effect and it's ending.
DISCLAIMER:
This is my personal interpretation of Mass Effect based on my personal belief system. You might not agree with me on one, some or even all fronts and that's fine. We're all different individuals after all

I am not a professional author nor do I strive to be one. My post might come off uncoherent and might seem to jump from one subject into the next without 'smoothing' into it.
I am very sorry if this discourages you from reading all of it but I do hope you read it all.
MOST IMPORTANTLY:
My goal is not to align you with my view of Mass Effect, Life, The Universe and Everything. All I want is to provoke thought.
The more we think, the more we learn, the more we learn, the more we understand. The better we understand, the happier we can make ourselves!
FINALLY:
If you would be so kind as to propose your own analysis and/or thoughts on Mass Effect, my analysis, and/or life, the universe and everything..
This would brighten my day immensely.
What does not brighten my day immensely is non-thought. If you reply without thinking saying "TL;DR" or "LOLZ DESTRUCZTION IZ ONLY GOOD CHOICE" you are not part of the solution.
You are in fact part of the reason I believe control/dictatorship to be the only viable option in this inperfect world filled with inperfect beings (such as yourself).