User blog comment:Bronzey/Tying up the threads: possible storylines of Mass Effect 3/@comment-96.18.214.239-20100326153012

Wow, I've put deep thought into what Mass Effect 3 may hold, and here is a good bit of it posted here in a understandable format.

Well, for starters I agree that they definitely can't pull another Shepard death, but they will probably find some way to either have him badly injured in some way or form that will make sense for another 'rebuilding' per say. I have a theory that the Alliance/Council is probably going to end up initially being against Shepard either because he assisted Cerberus in acquiring the Collector Base (and they find out) or because Cerberus leaks false information that Shepard and team have gone completely rogue as payback for blowing up the base. This could easily lead to an attack against the Normandy that, while not destroying the ship, could cause something to happen to Shepard that takes him out of action for a few weeks/months while he is put back together. Like he/she says 'It doesn't hurt to have a few spare pieces laying around.' That or another Reaper that has been hiding in the Milky Way Galaxy finds a way to track the Normandy and tries to take it out in a surprise attack in which the ship escapes but our paragon/renegade hero takes a beating... but this is all speculation.

While I wouldn't say that it took EVERY organic species fleets combined to take out one reaper (because honestly those were only small fleets acting as a big garrison at the Citadel when Sovereign attacked, and it attacked with a decent Geth escort at its flank, and that was only the main Citadel races), it would be prudent to believe that even if the entire galaxy came together to fight the reapers, the sheer number of the reapers would decimate everyone. While I am betting that part of the game will be in getting as many races as possible to work together (or finding resources for the human faction if you are Cerberus aligned...) you will also be on the look out for something to help fight against the Reapers. But I also find agreement that even those who follow the Renegade, pro-Cerberus ways will be able to beat the game with as much potential as those who try to play the true hero who tries to get everyone to play nice. As it has been said 'There are many paths to reach the same goal.' Granted, with the technology from the Collector Base in Cerberus hands, who knows how that will affect the galaxy if it didn't go kaboom...I have a feeling that, regardless which path Shepard walks, Cerberus, or at least the Illusive Man, will become an enemy, either through the destruction of the base, or because he becomes corrupt by the twisted technology of the reapers. Like Miranda says, 'He's no saint and he would be the first to admit it.' He could easily fall down a path not so different from a certain rogue specter who was convinced to shoot himself...

Another thought, that while Shepard was given the 'best of the best' in ME2, the galaxy is a VERY big place, and no doubt that even with casualties, there are always more allies that could be found with impressive skills, perhaps not to the level on par with the ME2 crew, but you never know. There are always those that have unparalleled talent, and it would be harder to believe that Shepards team in ME2 was all the best the galaxy could offer. Now finding people who are skilled and that the player can actually trust well...that's another story altogether, but there are always possibilities. Perhaps in his search for a weapon against the Reapers Shepard comes to an uncharted Prothean world where a single Prothean has been in cryo-stasis for over fifty thousand years. True that Virgil could only maintain all the stasis pods on Ilos for a few hundred centuries, but take all that power, and put it to sustaining one pod, and who knows, maybe you uncover a new hidden ally that might have one of many keys to bringing down the Reapers while offering more insight on who the Protheans really are/were. Just throwing it out there.

Like mentioned earlier with the Geth and Rachni forces that could be potential allies in the upcoming war, I'm also curious about what will happen to the Quarians. They are my favorite race, Tali is one of my favorite characters, and after all the hell they seem to keep going through, it would be nice to see them thrive, or have something go well for them. I'm eager to see what will happen to them if Shepard helped Tali with her side quest and threw out his comment about what the Migrant Fleet should do. If he promoted war, then its probable we might hear/see the Fleet attempt to attack the Geth and reclaim the homevworld, only to get utterly decimated. On the other side, if he pushed for peace, and helped Legion with his side quest, it is probable that Shepard might actually be able to broker a peace agreement with the Geth and their Creators, allowing the Quarians to come back to their home system (because it sounds like the Geth haven't been doing anything more to the Quarian home world then cleaning up and keeping it maintained after the Morning War). While thinking on it, Bioware left it open that, regardless of what option you chose while helping Legion, there is a potential that some of the geth could still remain as enemies. After all if you blow up the facility, there are still rebel geth. If you reprogram them, then the original traitor units return to the main geth, but so do their memories with the potential that some new geth might see the 'logic' of following the Reapers, or the original heritics might find a way to resist the virus altogether. And if you decided to give Legion to Cerberus or got legion killed before you could do his side quest then well...yeah...sneaky buggers...errr...synthetics...

I have a theory that part of the end game will include going up against the Reaper fleet, with Shepard using Paragon/Renegade/normal choices to help determine the battle while fighting some new end boss. For example if you have Rachni, Geth, Asari, Turian, Human, Quarian and all the other fun races working together because of Shepard, then they will look to him/her, like it or not, for unit cohesion, because I seriously doubt that they would willingly take commands or...helpful suggestions about the battle from other sources other then their own, or the one who brought them together. Much how Shepard can decide whether to let the Ascension get blown up or saved, such things can have an effect on the bigger battle against the reapers. Say that some of your allies are on/commanding ships that are fighting the reapers while you are out trying to activate some super weapon that can hamper or cripple the Reaper Fleet (because Shepard can multi-task so well. =P)  while you are helping direct the battle or some such, you hear that a ship that Tali is on is in serious trouble. Do you direct some allied vessels to help her make an escape which could cost you potentially more ships, or do you let her be killed for the sake of the bigger battle? Or you reach the controls of some super weapon that can potentially decimate the Reaper fleet, but when its ready to fire you find a number of allied units, perhaps with close companions, are currently in the way of the shot. Do you wait until they pull out, saving more allies but destroying less Reapers, or fire it anyway, doing massive damage to both sides? Not a happy scenario, but war isn't rainbows and smiley faces. Because I have little doubt that if in any way the Reaper Fleet makes it into the galaxy and a massive all out war breaks out, there will be casualties. Bioware made ME2 darker then the first game, and I have no doubt that ME3 will be even darker...

Well, that's my rambling of the moment. ^_^