I like to think of the (somewhat creepy) control ending to be canon. Shep truly is immortal with that choice, and makes the Reapers his bitches, which is what we wanted all along. And he replaces the Star Brat too, so a win-win situation for the gamer.
I prefer the (even creepier) Synthesis. There are a lot of arguments against it that I don't really have the energy to deflect, but in the end I just can't get enough of the EDI monologue. I have my reasons beyond that, so it's not like I'm sticking implants on every sentient creature in the galaxy because I like Tricia Helfer's line delivery. But when it boils down to Synthesis and Control being neck-and-neck as they otherwise are in my mind, I'll take EDI's monologue over Shepard's. Also, Control's music piece is kind of unsettling. Now, people have countered with, "you find the music unsettling enough that it bothers you less than the free will implications concerning Synthesis?" Why yes, as a matter of fact I do!
I don't like EDI's monologue that much. "I am alive." Yes, I know EDI is alive, she told me so back in London. The monologue seems to claim that undergoing synthesis caused her to become alive and give her to ability to understand organics, but she already had those qualities before, so what the fuck did she gain from synthesis? Nothing. So why is she doing the narration? Because it was a cheap, cynical attempt to create a feel-good ending for Casey Hudson's (alleged) favoured ending after it was mercilessly, and rightfully, criticised by fans who put more than 11 seconds of thought into the concept. It had some cool music though, very reminiscent of Uncharted Worlds.
Before I get to that... http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-10-mass-effect-3-leviathan-dlc-confirmed-by-voice-actor The rumored Leviathan DLC was just confirmed by a VA who popped up on IMDB for it last night.
Welp! I did say it was even creepier, so I even admit it's got major issues. And I really don't appreciate how the dialogue tries to shove you toward it a little, and that's coming from someone who prefers it over the endings all the same. (I also really dislike how Shepard automatically responds to the Destroy summary with, "there has to be another way." In general, I love ME3, but it took some of its auto-dialogue too far, it really did.) As for the EDI speech being redundant... valid point, man. Still does it for me.
Hardly surprising considering the source of the leak, but still looking forward to it. As this will be their first plot based DLC, how well it does or doesn't sell will probably show how much damage the EC managed to undo in the eyes of their customers. It'll probably also determine whether or not there will be any other paid DLC to follow it. I just hope it does enough business that it won't scupper the obviously planned "Retake Omega" DLC. For my part, I think the EC has indeed made the game palatable again. The endings still leave a bad taste, but at least now it's tolerable. While people will of course have their favourites for their own reasons (all of them totally valid), as I think I've said before, from a purely practical standpoint of being able to continue the franchise; the only viable "canon" ending is high EMS destroy. The Citadel is back up and running and relocated in Earth orbit, with an apparantly permanently operational conduit beam from (and to?) London. The reapers are all gone for good, nobody's eyes are glowing green and while the face of the galaxy has been changed forever, there's still potential for conflict and the introduction of new races. With the reapers still around either as partners or as guardians, it rather eliminates and chance of a new external threat. The only way that can go is either eternal stagnation, or a rebellion against Catalyst-Shep. In which case proceed directly to "refuse" ending. Do not pass go, do not collect 500 credits. I doubt that crucible trick will work twice.
I kinda felt like Control would work too, if they play their cards just right, really. Shepard as the new Catalyst is clearly already feeling a distanced relationship toward the mere mortals they knew in life, and over time the Reaper fleet under his/her command could venture far, far away in order to allow the races a kind of breathing room from an evolutionary standpoint. I don't know, it sounds hokey, but I envisioned it the other day and it sort of worked in my head. If there's an ME4-ME6 trilogy in the future (absolutely no guarantees, of course) it'd be sort of neat if the new protagonist had to go seek out the Catalyst, and they get either Meer or Hale or both (synced up like they are when the Catalyst speaks at the end of ME3, layered on in the background, except this time there's no child VA) and the protagonist has this really bizarre conversation with the franchise's former hero in their new form. Like I said, it'd be tough, but I could see it. Destroy's far more likely, though, I'd say, especially with the poll results I've been seeing on preferred endings.
The way I see it, having the reapers around as guardians completely eliminates any chance of conflict because as we've seen, there's no force in the galaxy that can oppose them head on and live. That doesn't leave a lot of room for conflict on any scale conducive to drama. Not that I'd want the next story to be yet another massive epic war, but just having them there puts too many limits on what can be done. I suppose they could set up that the reapers have mysteriously disappeared, but in that case it may as well be the destroy ending. A thought I had back before ME3 came out was that it'd be an interesting twist if when the reapers were finally defeated, it turns out their purpose was to preserve organic life in this galaxy from an external threat. Something even worse than they were. The thinking being that they weren't hibernating in dark space, but fighting a constant battle across the aeons and the harvesting cycles were the only way they could keep their numbers up against the sheer attrition of a billion year war. So by destroying the reapers, you open the milky-way up to be sterilized by whatever nightmarish force that had just barely been held in check by a hundred thousand reapers. Bit of a cheep "there's always a bigger fish" ending I know, but I liked the irony that the reapers really were actually acting in the interest of all life as they claimed.
Hell, well that's the thing... IMO -- and this is coming from a huge fan of the series, mind you, it doesn't actually bother me too much -- BioWare's developers are masters of folding seemingly big choices back into a main... plot threshold, if you will. So it wouldn't really surprise me. That's sorta what I was intending to imply, a little, is that it could be folded inward like that, whereas with Synthesis... I dunno, it'd still be possible, but they'd probably want to tone down a lot of the implications and explain that most races decided green wasn't their color. It's not great storytelling practice, but it's not anything we haven't seen BioWare's writers do before, and they've rarely done so in completely idiotic ways. That's cool, and kind if ties in with original series lead writer Drew Karpyshyn's idea, although I prefer yours to his, lol. Karpyshyn's initial thought -- and this is where that seemingly-abandoned (for now, at least) gig in ME2 with the quarians investigating dark energy came from -- was that the Reapers were preserving races and using their scientific diversity to spend the eons and eons required to figure out how to combat the build-up of dark energy in the galaxy that was threatening to destroy us all at a certain point. It was a touch-and-go plotline, and the endgame choice really didn't interest me. It made the Catalyst gig seem positively jaw-droppingly good by comparison, IMO. (You had to choose whether to destroy the Reapers, or join them on their quest. I'd almost certainly choose destroy damn near every time in this instance, and it really makes the Reapers seem far softer than ME3's endings even did.) I don't have a link offhand, but check out the Mass Effect Wiki for more information if you're interested. It's... I don't know, I really don't care for it very much and genuinely prefer what we were given, heh. But the way you tell it, I think it'd be potentially interesting. As far as "there are no real threats after this" is concerned, well, I'm not a big fan of Star Wars literature as it seems to constantly try to raise the stakes to higher and higher, more and more absurd levels from what I've seen, but I wouldn't be completely opposed to Mass Effect's universe raising the stakes once. Just once, lol. Some extragalactic threat, so long as it was handled far better than, "and just when the survivors thought they caught a break, this completely untimely attack from the Andromeda Galaxy killed Joker and destroyed the fledgling Galactic Alliance". Or something. There's plenty of room for smaller-scale conflict in Mass Effect's future, too, and I'd gladly take that as well. Probably more so, yeah, but a 'bigger' threat could allow all three (out of four >_>) endings a shot in the dark of working.
Like I said, I don't think following up the Reaper War with yet another massive conflagration is a good idea. Down the road a ways, maybe, but not from the outset. I'd prefer them to tell a smaller scale, more personal story. Think 'Firefly' in terms of setup and stakes. No big galactic fleets (unless you're either stealing from and/or running away from them) no unfathomable cosmic threat from the unknown reaches of darkspace and I think most importantly; no uniforms. I'd like the next ship and crew I play in the ME universe to be a civilian one. Sort of like what was done with Dragon Age 2 (not the best example, I know.) It'd also be nice if you get to pick your character's race, but that might be too resource intensive to pull off.
Oh, that'd be rad. I'd be down for it, for sure. Those sorts of things come down to what the parent companies feel will market best, though, which we all know as Trek fans, hehe. I think that'd be really cool, and while Dragon Age 2 might not be the best product to reference... in general, really, it does show that BioWare has done this in recent times and might be open to doing so again.
I'd be cool with a smaller-scale story in a future ME game. Maybe you get caught up in some crazy villain's scheme to salvage leftover Reaper tech to do something dastardly and evil! And I'd rather just stick with human characters. I'd rather play a character who has a voice and a personality. If they brought multiple races into it they'd probably have to cut way back on dialogue options.
I think I'd enjoy a smaller-scale story, especially with how the large-scale one ended up. [insert requisite whining about DA2 here].
I have a feeling Bioware will not, nor anyone else, be doing a big-ass trilogy like ME1-3 for a LONG time. ME3 was 4 months late, and it was still rushed, which is why the original ending didn't make a whole lot of sense, and a lot of the little things (like the magic pistol that shows up every cutscene even when you didn't pack it) weren't to the same level of polish as previous games. I personally expect a one-shot story, probably a prequel, though I'd personally find continuing the story further into the future a lot better. Just do what Deus Ex 2 did and mix elements from all of the endings. Just fit in Grunt, he was hilarious and I didn't get nearly enough of him in ME3.
Yeah, I hear that. Well, either way I'll be happy, honestly. For now I'm just eagerly awaiting DLC news. I'm excited that Leviathan has been confirmed, I'm looking forward to Aria's LOTSB-inspired almost-obligatory Retake Omega mission, and I'd be delighted with most anything else they throw at me, if it maintains ME2's level of DLC prowess. Firewalker and Arrival weren't all that spectacular, though, but I wouldn't trade my experiences with them each file to get my money back or anything.
Huh, I forgot about that. Well, in that case I wouldn't even have mentioned it. It's like saying "oh, Normandy Crash Site didn't have a memorable boss battle." Well, it was free! ...and it was kinda cool, anyway.