User blog comment:The Milkman/Extended Expectations, Part II/@comment-147.26.199.70-20120627235228/@comment-4950455-20120628012047

Like I said, I think there's a couple of things wrong with that.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Bioware did its best to present all the endings as equally appealing. How the players think of them is up to them, but I think it's clear that no ending is really meant as better or worse then any other.

As such, I think adding in a reunion scene like the one you want to Destroy would be a mistake. There's already a large segment of players who view it as the only good ending simply because Shepard survives where s/he does not in the others, and to heck with the geth and EDI. Adding a full-fledged reunion scene would reinforce this group even more, and to a certain degree screw over those fans who picked the other endings.

Let me ask you this: if Shepard was guaranteed to die in any ending, would you have as much of a problem with closure?

It's also worth noting that, surprising as this may seem to some, the entire romance portion of the game is optional. You don't have to ever have a love interest. So I feel that, while this is a minor concern (since it's not like you can't have platonic friendships with your team), this feeling that a LI reunion scene is needed is sort of being unfair to celibate Shepards as well.

Incidentally, on that note, how does the Normandy retrieving your squad play out if you don't have an LI (or didn't bring them on the final push)? For that matter, who appears in the flashbacks now that the Liara thing has been fixed?

Overall, like I said, I think the endings come across as very balanced - no matter which of the original three you pick (Refusal is a different story, but I pretty much agree with your comments there and don't feel they need restating), it's not depicted as bad unless the player feels that it is. Adding a reunion scene upsets that balance in favor of Destroy. I think the purpose of establishing that Shepard is still alive - not taking their last breath - is done well enough by cutting away from the final crew scene without having your LI put your name on the wall, as s/he does in the "really most sincerely dead" endings.