Taking the ending at face value. Surprised this hasn't been discussed. (SPOILERS)

First off, I'm going to say that I'm not indoctrinated. Really, I'm not. I, like many of you, have been pondering the ending for the past couple of weeks and had some thoughts I wanted to share and discuss.

I'll start by saying that I hated the ending but mainly because it was nothing like what Bioware was espousing in the months and weeks leading up to release. The starchild and all of the 'revelations' at the end were non-sensical, leaving big plot holes, and the Normandy crew running away and crashing on some unknown planet was a kick in the quad. Even the crucible was a deus ex machina but I was willing to overlook it. The starchild, was too much. There was also very little to no display of all of the war assets in the final battle. It all felt so inconsequential. All of the problems with the ending have been covered hundreds of times on this subreddit alone, so I'll just leave it at that. This series of videos sums up quite well how I feel and what I would have wanted to see. Even the indoctrination theory gives me hope for something that makes more sense than what we got. I really do like the theory but I just don't see it being true. Bioware is smart, so if they were going to have Shepard battle with indoctrination, they would have done it (and, as we know, that ending was scrapped from the original outline anyway). The theory we have now, while awesome, is full of stuff that I see as circumstantial and limitations in game design in general (e.g., Shepard's gun not needing reloading or ammo in the end sequence).

Now, after reading the recent statements from Bioware and trying to figure out what they're going to do (fix/change the ending or just clarify). I'm getting the distinct feeling that they might end up just clarifying the ending and maybe adding more epilogue type content. The post by the Bioware writer (assuming it's true) also makes me think that Casey Hudson had a very specific 'vision' for ending the game which is talked about below in the 'green ending' section.

Lots of people are saying that the paragon and renegade choices are flipped in the final decision (either as part of the indoc. theory to mess with Shepard's head, or not) and that the destroy option is in fact the paragon choice (as represented by Anderson) and the control option is the renegade choice (associated with TIM). I have a feeling that this is false.

The real renegade option is destroy

Sounds crazy, but think about it. All of the renegade choices in the series have been an 'ends justify the means' sort of thing. If someone has to die in order to get someone else's help in accomplishing your main goal, so be it. The goal is the only thing that matters with renegade options. As we know, Mass Effect's morality system isn't about good or evil. It's about completing your objective in a virtuous way or at all costs. Choosing the destroy option, as starchild says, will destroy all synthetic life including the Geth, EDI, and any others that we might not know about, as well as sacrificing yourself (the last Shepard breath scene notwithstanding, still can't explain that). So Shepard chooses the destroy option regardless of the negative fallout, i.e., a whole race of sentient machines are gonna get wiped out, even after spending significant portions of ME2 and ME3 trying to help them. Oh well, the reapers gotta go!

The real paragon option is control

Even Shepard says, "So, the Illusive Man was right after all." TIM's motivations were misguided in that he wanted to control the reapers to wield their power. But that isn't the only thing you can do after gaining control. You can basically tell them, "Hey you reapers, leave us alone and go away." In this option, you are sacrificing just yourself. No genocide committed. And this allows Shepard to get rid of the reapers without any more bloodshed. Shepard doesn't necessarily have the same motivation as TIM so he doesn't want to wield their power. He wants to get rid of them. And controlling them would accomplish this.

The enigmatic green ending

The synthesis ending. This, I think, was thrown in as a bonus ending, the true "happy" ending (or as close to one as we can get). I'm still trying to find the reference or post, but it talked about the incorporation of Ray Kurzweil's singularity theory to the ending of ME3. This is arguable the best ending (according to Bioware) for a couple of reasons.

• You only get this choice if you had a high EMS (it's the third and last choice to unlock depending on EMS and choices throughout the series)
• After the Normandy crashes on the planet, Joker and EDI embrace in what would be a really cute moment if not for the stupidity of the ending itself.

In the control ending, Joker and EDI emerge from the Normandy, but they don't hug/embrace/act cute. I know, it seems like a silly thing to point out, but despite everything, I doubt Bioware would have done it this way unless it was intentional. After synthesis, all organics are now apparently part synthetic, so I guess that means that Joker and EDI have a deeper connection now. Whatever. The point is that after synthesis, they appear happier than in any of the other endings.

Where do we go from here?

I really really really hope I'm wrong on all of the above points. I would really like to see the indoctrination theory be true, because sadly it makes the most sense. But I have a bad feeling that Bioware went with a contrived and typical video game ending here. Either because they were rushed by EA (which they would never admit) or because they couldn't think of anything better (which they also wouldn't admit). Or, as some of the writer's notes from Mac Walters have pointed out, they meant to be ambiguous so that there was "Lots of speculation from everyone!" This, I think, would be the worst of the three possible reasons for the crappy ending. This throws the whole 'artistic integrity' argument out the window.

This is LOST all over again. After years and hundreds of invested hours, the end is crap.

Anyway, as I said, I hope this is wrong. But I wanted to get this out there and see what others thought.