Mass Effect 3!

Renegade - Shepard shoots Illuisive Man in the back, and then destroys all Repears and their technology, meaning the Relays and the Citadel are also destroyed, and millions of people are cut off from civilisation (and will probably die in the process), but the Repears are dead and no longer a threat to earth. Shepard manages to transport himself to earth before the Citadel explodes, but is wounded so heavily he dies making one last call to a character of the players choosing.

Paragon - Shepard talks Illusive Man down, convinces him he's wrong and that he's indeed indoctrinated. Illusive man stands aside and allows Shepard to transport the Repears to deep space (shutting them down in the process). Civilisation continues as it is and millions of lives are saved.... but one day, someone somewhere may find a way to reactivate them. Whilst he's doing programming above change, Repears assume full control of the Illusive man, who shoots Shepard in the back. A mortally wounded Shepard shoots Illusive Man in the head, finishes the reprogramming and dies... never being able to warn anybody that the Reapers still exist.

RT/R2 Renegade - You agree with the Illusive Man and try to control the Repeaers yourself. Obviously it all goes tits up.

All this is explained through a standard Citadel VI, or even through one of those multi-legged things that type all day (Keepers arn't they called?)... no wierd god-children in sight.

Nah, we all know Sheperd is indoctrinated and it's alllll a dream sequence

To be fair, I don't actually either the indoctrination or "it's all a dream" stuff are terrible interpretation of events (not that I necceserily go along with them). There are enough "clues" and "evidence" to suggest that either of those (or both) are what Bioware were shooting for (not that they make a terrible amount of sense... though as I keep saying, the a lot of Mass Effect hasn't made any sense!). If it is the Indoctrination thing, and that's what BioWare were going for all this time... then that's pretty clever on their parts (though I seriously doubt thats what they've been aiming for all this time! Could be wrong though)?

About the topic of indoctrination, to be honest I kind of hope that's what Bioware were aiming for! Although it seems a bit too far fetched and the possibility it could be used as a 'scapegoat' for them now with the future DLC, if that's what they were trying too imply all along - fair play to them. But maybe they could of made it a little more obvious.

Yeah I agree with all that. Think people just like complaining about stuff! I think a big annoyance for people was the fact that there weren't the 16 endings to comply with their choices or whatever was promised, but only 3, which largely play out the same why... in that respect I can sort of sympathise but a) it would have been tricky to do anyway, since stopping the repears is the games main concern... and there's only a finite amount of ways you can do that, and it's not like the majority of choices you've made along the way can affect this large outcome anyway! Ultimately your big choices (Quarians/Geth, Genophage) would only really impact 20/30 years (or longer) from then... and b) 3 choices when you want 16 fits nicely with the indoctrination stuff!

And like you, I do hope that's where they were going... whether I believe they were or not is a different story!

Do you remember the dream sequences where the area is all oily and the children fade away into that oily texture, that was almost identical in style to when Illusive man is trying to controlling you during the end sequence. I'd say thats a good sign they planned it all along or left it open to your interpretation that that's what happened

Yeah, that's true. I did notice the 'oily' texture around the screen when you encounter the Illusive man at the end. I also believe the points about only Shepard surviving the Reaper blast and making it to the beam alone, then Anderson managing to reach the Illlusive Man before you when there is clearly only one entrance into the room is a bit of a dream type scenario. But yet again, it could just be bad writing!

• The fact that at the end, the Renegade option is highlighted in blue, and the Paragon option is highlighted in Red. Something that goes totally against what we've been conditioned to believe for 3 games in a row. It clearly tried to trick our minds into thinking what the best option was, despite all logic being against it.
• The lack of fight Shepard shows when dealing with the Catalyst, compared to the amount he shows when dealing with everyone else.
• The (obvious) fact that the Catalyst is the boy from Shep's nightmares and all the stuff that comes with it.
• I swear Shepard's eyes look different... though that might just be me.

Reasons I think indoctrination has some merit, off the top of my head
- Black oily stuff on edge of screen
- All the blatantly ridiculous stuff with the kid still being alive, nobody else noticing him etc. Too large to be an oversight imo
- Shepard having the indoctrinated eye pattern at the end
- The blue and red switch for the end options
- Shepard only being alive at the destroy end
- Shepard being on Earth at the end instead of the Citadel

- Most importantly, I really don't think they could have possibly effed up the game ending that badly. In my game Javik ran with me to the Citadel beam thing, then walked off the crashed Normandy. They just wouldn't have screwed up that badly imo

Shepard being at the Earth? Why does that makes sense and everyone else has fucked off?

Back to the ending, I also think it's quite clever how the two options the Catalyst try to steer you towards are either Saren's option of synthesis that he banged on about in the first game, or The Illusive Man's option of control.

Sorry I don't quite understand what your asking. I'm saying that Shepards body being on Earth indicates he was never actually on the Citadel.

Well not in my game as the Quarians are all dead...but you get my point

The fact that one of the guys you took with you on the mission to London and was with you when you got shot at by the Reapers appears completely unharmed stepping off the normandy on some random planet alongside Joker and EDI.

And that's also ignoring the "it's over 5000!!" ending where you get a glimpse of Shephard alive.

Seems to me that the person you romanced is the one that steps off the Normandy and if you take him/her with you she/he will die and still appear there.