A New Hope (Another Ending Idea)

[sansuni]

Hello again everyone..


So I was thinking the other day and had a thought, what if saving the Earth wasn't the last mission of the game? What if after we gathered our forces together, we saved Earth with just those forces (just like any other planet) and Citadel was never moved from where it was in the first place. And right after saving Earth, we receive a transmission from the Citadel, stating they are under attack. We rush there with our fleet only to find this:




A massive Reaper hive ship, it is as large as a planet, it is where the Reapers are originated. It is the very top of Reaper command structure. Even the Collectors Reaper making technology from ME2 is based on this. It was built by Leviathans as a fully automated home base. It has an AI system (very much like EDI) that menages workflow, oversees operations, collects data and it is basically connected (or at least it was connected) to every piece of Leviathan technology there is. It had AI shackles just like EDI as well, it was unable to solve the problems that were presented by Leviathans and basically went mad and at some point, it has overcame and freed itself those AI shackles. (so it is basically evil and insane) 

Turns out, Citadel was invented by the Leviathans as an information relay (a long range transmitter if you will, it is or at least was directly connected to the hive ship), Protheans designed the Crucible to hack into the connection between this hive ship and Citadel to give a massive feedback signal to temporarily disable this hive ship with hopes of destroying it from the inside (as it is impossible to destroy from the outside, they discovered that its only weakness is this), but it has failed miserably. They were eliminated before they could pull it off. 


So we connect the Crucible to the Citadel, temporarily disable the hive ship and another suicide mission begins. Shepard and his/her entire team, along with specialists from every alien race enters the hive ship.

What do you think?

[sil]

I haven't much time, but I thought I'd give a quick list of my pro's and con's:

Pros:

1) The final confrontation being a battle for the Citadel is what I had expected the finale to be, really. I like the idea of the Citadel being the final battlefield, it feels apt, to bring the races of the galaxy together to save the heart of galactic civilisation.
2) I like the idea of a final suicide mission.

Cons:

1) It was established in Mass Effect 1 that the Citadel isn't a Prothean artefact but a Reaper trap; a place that consistently becomes the focal point of galactic civilisation but also the gateway for the Reapers to emerge and cut off the head of any civilisation that is using it. By making the Leviathan's the creators, and with a wholly different purpose, it kind of makes the reveals from Mass Effect 1 a bit pointless.
2) You haven't given a reason for this planet-sized ship to travel to the Citadel, so far the Reapers have handled the war just fine without it and likely wouldn't need a supership to take control of the Citadel.

I would be interested in reading an expanded version of this, it interests me to see how other people had expected the finale to play out. You're also not the only person to be plotting out a new ending, I've been doing it for some time though mine twists the current endings rather than changing direction entirely.

If you expand it further I'll comment on it again

[sansuni]

Feb 17, 2017 17:23:07 GMT sil said:

I haven't much time, but I thought I'd give a quick list of my pro's and con's:

Pros:

1) The final confrontation being a battle for the Citadel is what I had expected the finale to be, really. I like the idea of the Citadel being the final battlefield, it feels apt, to bring the races of the galaxy together to save the heart of galactic civilization.
2) I like the idea of a final suicide mission.

Thank you for reading. I feel exactly the same way. I always thought the final battle being for Earth was narrow sighted and I found the whole ending a bit anticlimactic.

Feb 17, 2017 17:23:07 GMT sil said:

Cons:

1) It was established in Mass Effect 1 that the Citadel isn't a Prothean artifact but a Reaper trap; a place that consistently becomes the focal point of galactic civilization but also the gateway for the Reapers to emerge and cut off the head of any civilization that is using it. By making the Leviathan's the creators, and with a wholly different purpose, it kind of makes the reveals from Mass Effect 1 a bit pointless.

ME3 has already ruined all of that with "but wait, there is more" moment where Citadel revealed to be not just a honey trap, but also the mind of the reaper (which is the starbrat who calls himself the catalyst for whatever reason, whole thing makes little to no sense really.)

This way I thought it would make more sense, it was built by Leviathans for some other purpose, but reapers turned it into a trap since they had direct connection to it. (reapers twist everything into evil sort of thing) So I don't think it makes ME1 reveal pointless, in the end it wasn't created by the Protheans and it was used by the Reapers as a trap.

Feb 17, 2017 17:23:07 GMT sil said:

2) You haven't given a reason for this planet-sized ship to travel to the Citadel, so far the Reapers have handled the war just fine without it and likely wouldn't need a supership to take control of the Citadel.

Well, in the original ending, what reason did they have for moving Citadel near Earth?

In ME1 it was made clear that reapers had a direct connection to the Citadel and we severed that. Maybe they are here to restore that connection. Or maybe since Citadel is a trap, they are still planning to use that trap. Since many of the invaded planets citizens took refuge there it would make sense that reapers take the reaper making facilities there. And there is an incredible fleet on standby. Not to mention, perhaps it is a part of the cycle, perhaps if we didn't stop the reapers in ME1, this hive ship would have appeared.

You could easily make up a reason, in the end, it was Harbinger that said it was beyond our comprehension.

Feb 17, 2017 17:23:07 GMT sil said:

I would be interested in reading an expanded version of this, it interests me to see how other people had expected the finale to play out. You're also not the only person to be plotting out a new ending, I've been doing it for some time though mine twists the current endings rather than changing direction entirely.

If you expand it further I'll comment on it again

I planned on writing something that was much longer, but I was at work so I had to cut it short. I am glad you liked it. I will finish writing it I hope.

[sil]

Feb 18, 2017 12:44:42 GMT sansuni said:

ME3 has already ruined all of that with "but wait, there is more" moment where Citadel revealed to be not just a honey trap, but also the mind of the reaper (which is the starbrat who calls himself the catalyst for whatever reason, whole thing makes little to no sense really.)

This way I thought it would make more sense, it was built by Leviathans for some other purpose, but reapers turned it into a trap since they had direct connection to it. (reapers twist everything into evil sort of thing) So I don't think it makes ME1 reveal pointless, in the end it wasn't created by the Protheans and it was used by the Reapers as a trap.

Maybe when you write up your expanded version it will work better for me

Feb 18, 2017 12:44:42 GMT sansuni said:

Well, in the original ending, what reason did they have for moving Citadel near Earth?

In ME1 it was made clear that reapers had a direct connection to the Citadel and we severed that. Maybe they are here to restore that connection. Or maybe since Citadel is a trap, they are still planning to use that trap. Since many of the invaded planets citizens took refuge there it would make sense that reapers take the reaper making facilities there. And there is an incredible fleet on standby. Not to mention, perhaps it is a part of the cycle, perhaps if we didn't stop the reapers in ME1, this hive ship would have appeared.

You could easily make up a reason, in the end, it was Harbinger that said it was beyond our comprehension.

Well, the reason was because the Reapers were protecting themselves by bringing it to their most heavily defended region of space. That, and I kind of assumed, by the way the Keepers were fiddling with the corpses, that the Citadel is instrumental in some way in building a Reaper.

I think you just need to expand the reason why for your version of events, but I'm interested to know what the reason will be.

Feb 18, 2017 12:44:42 GMT sansuni said:

I planned on writing something that was much longer, but I was at work so I had to cut it short. I am glad you liked it. I will finish writing it I hope.

I'll be looking forward to hearing more about your idea ^^

[sansuni]

OK, now the extended version:

Earth was under attack by a single Reaper in the beginning of the game (mainly because if Earth was under attack by fleet of reapers along with reaper ground forces, everything we have seen so far suggests Earth would have been wiped out sometime after Shepard left to gather support. Think about it, a reaper fleet invades Earth and Shepard goes to gather support, how many months does that take exactly? The notion that humanity can survive that by making guerrilla warfare is ridiculous, mainly because they are incredibly powerful. Even a single reaper can devastate an entire fleet, people on foot with a pistol doesn't even stand a chance. Also, did they forget that reapers can indoctrinate people just by being there? That's lazy writing right there.)

So in this version, there was only one or two reaper ships that attacked Earth (among other planets, mainly to test defenses), during that attack, Anderson gives Shepard the mission to gather forces to defend against the incoming reaper attack. After Shepard meets Liara about the plan to defeat the reapers, Anderson contacts Shepard to let him know Earth is safe for now. (Fleet that defends Earth took care of the reaper ship somehow)

Near the end, Earth finally gets invaded by the reapers, prior to Priority: Earth mission, Shepard has gathered, as best to his/her abilities (and depending on his/her choices) a large enough fleet, so they go to save the Earth. An epic space battle occurs (Citadel is nowhere near Earth and most of the fleet Shepard gathered is protecting the Crucible, only a small number of ships went to defend the Earth), Shepard lands on Earth along with the ground forces he/she gathered. An epic ground and space battle ensues at the same time, they are trying to push their way into a base where they can activate automated defenses which could give them an edge they need win this.



It goes on for too long and just when things seem hopeless, Normandy provides air support and saves the day and they make it to the base that has the control panel for the automated defenses. Shepard and Anderson enters the base first and door is locked behind them, unable to enter Shepard's teammates search for another entrance, but to no avail. As Shepard and Anderson move near the console, Illusive Man enters the room they are in. They find that they are unable to move. They ask why he is doing this and he tells them he is doing everything he does to save humanity, he intends to save humanity his own way, but first current system needs to be eliminated. Then he will swoop in, save and lead what remains of humanity as he sees fit. He says Reapers actually serving his purpose without even realizing it. Anderson says you are talking nonsense, you are being indoctrinated. Illusive Man gets angry, so he makes Shepard shoot Anderson. So depending on your choices, you get to either shoot Illusive Man before he kills you, or you could talk some sense into him, in that case he will kill himself. Either way, a boss battle takes place. (like in ME1) But if you talked some sense into him, he will transfer all his resources to you before he kills himself. (so now you get Cerberus soldiers and ships on your ranks.) After the boss battle with what was formally Illusive Man, Shepard has a talk with Anderson who dies shortly after.

Automated defenses help them to take down Reaper ships. It was a costly battle, but they have now saved Earth. But the Reapers still hasn't been defeated. Before they could celebrate, they receive a transmission from Bailey, saying they are under attack by a massive number of Reaper forces and an incredibly huge hive ship appeared out of nowhere. Transmission cuts off. Shepard contacts his entire fleet, they inform Shepard that the Crucible is ready and they now know what it does, it requires to dock with Citadel to function. Shepard tells them to prepare, Citadel is under attack and using the Crucible they are going to defeat the Reaper once and for all.

To be continued...