![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
You don't need to talk to him every mission. Just everytime he changes location in the cargo bay. In fact Samantha Traynor will really tell you when you need to talk to him. And besides that, there is a time where you see him watching his dead husbands good bye communication over and over again. It's so damned annoying because it won't stop until you talk to him.
buting weapon upgrades, using the store, modding weapons or even selecting armor mods / colors etc. has you down in the shuttle bay a lot. So you really can't ignore him too much.
Time to put on my tinfoil hat.......................
BioWare has a huge potential cash cow on their hands. There are Mass Effect Paragon and Renegade cuff links. EA won't let BioWare kill off the franchise as they've done. Even if BioWare attempted to sneak one past them with the current ending, EA will overrule them and force change on them. If there is one thing EA knows how to do it's make money and there is a shit ton more cash to be made here.
Personally I think the ending was left the way it is to generate controversy on purpose, but it's so vague and so full of plot holes. I think that imagery in the ending, and the dream sequences in the game are actually designed to allow BioWare to pull the "it was all a dream card" and then do Mass Effect 4 however they like. Not necessarily with Shepard, but in general. Prequels suck. We've analyzed this possibility to death. Nothing good can come of it on any regular basis. The only way through is foward. I think this was done because the original story arc didn't allow for forward continuation and the game as a whole wasn't designed for it. So this, combined with the looming deadline forced BioWare's hand to do things the way they did.
They had to buy time to figure out how to milk this franchise further. That's all this probably is. I'll be shocked if that's not how this plays out in the long run. We'll see. It may have to wait until Mass Effect 4 launches before we truly know how this all ends up working. Even the "Extended Cut" DLC may not provide real answers. BioWare released the Arrival to bridge the gap between Mass Effect 2 and 3. I'm not sure they knew how to transition between the two the way they did ME2, and decided this was how they were going to do it. It was also a back door plot setup for indoctrination and dream sequences. I'm not saying indoctrination theory is right entirely, I think half the connections people see aren't valid, but some of them are too hard to ignore.
But mostly, I just don't think EA will let it end this way no matter what. It's a huge waste of a money making opportunity. Mass Effect's controversy in the long run has done nothing but help it overall. I think this stunt is just that, and the pay off for EA and BioWare is around the corner. Somewhere. We just don't have all the right context yet.
The first time I saw the initial dream sequence I thought to myself; "Jesus Christ I hope they don't do some is it real or all a dream bullshit at the end." There is something that doesn't fit about the dream sequences and the ending once you go into the conduit beam. The dream sequences are also just guilt. The only people who speak in them are those who have died along your journey and Harbinger. Also the description of these dreams match the Rachni Queens description of "oily shadows" all too well.
God, I wish Karpyshyn had stayed on as a writer. This ending would have been epic. Not a "happily ever after", but a "and once the conflict ended, the real work began". Instead, we got some space magic BS. Oh, what could have been.
I do too, but as I said before the original story arc left no potential to continue past a third game. I think EA stepped in, saw the gold mine that this franchise could become and decided to maximize the game's potential for commercial success. (That last part sound familiar? It was taken from EA/BioWare's statement about the game's initial delay.)
There are no shrubberies in the middle of the street when you are running to the beam. There are plants and trees all over London, but not in the same places they are after your hit. The shrubberies are the same ones found in the dream sequences. And again, none of these shrubs are in the path that everyone is moving down before the beam hits. Why would they be there after?
I hate to ask this but which direction do you go in to destroy the reapers? I finished the game but picked the wrong direction I wanted to destroy the reapers. I went to the middle. Do you take the right or left to destroy the reapers?
Right. Always bet on red.
So I was thinking about ways the game could have ended that would have been awesome. I'm conflicted on whether or not a sad "Shepard saves the day but dies at the end" would work. Obviously, he'd have to die in a way that doesn't involve space magic beams. Shepard himself isn't really a tragic figure though, so I'm not sure it'd be setup to work or not. While thinking about that though, I stumbled upon a picture (not sure what fan made it, I'd love to give credit where due though) in one of their forum threads. It isn't perfect, there's some oddities in it, but it's well done.
My "canon" LI was Liara, so that probably added to it, but this picture floored me. I stared at it for a couple minutes. This fan made picture, with no explanation, no back story, no nothing...made me feel more emotion than the entire actual ending.
There's just so many ways the ending could have been better.
Actually, the guy who did that make a video of it. Fully rendered and everything. I only saw the FemShep version though. I'm not sure how he did it as the models look almost like they were pulled from the game. I also noticed that many people who post videos and pictures like this one, opt to use that outfit for Liara as well. I always put her in that one too. I don't really care for her default outfit.
