User:The Millionth One/Endings of Mass Effect 3

BioWare's Mass Effect 3, the third game in an overarching trilogy, was released June 26, 2012, whereupon it received a large backlash for its endings. While some defended them, others largely criticised the endings, for... Others looked at the reaction and commented on how invested the series had made fans. One fan theory rose up that the endings were actually false, the result of the player character, Commander Shepard, being brainwashed over the course of the trilogy. On June 26, 2012, developers released an Extended Cut as downloadable content, intended to clarify the endings and remedy fan concerns. The release sparked debates over video games as art and whether, regardless of quality, it was right for BioWare to alter their vision.

Background
Mass Effect 3 was the third in a sci-fi trilogy of BioWare games, the Mass Effect series. In the trilogy Commander Shepard, a customisable soldier and the player character, faces against an race of powerful synthetic lifeforms, called the Reapers, who harvest the galaxy of life every 50,000 years. In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers arrive en masse and begin harvesting the galaxy, and Shepard must form an alliance between all of Mass Effect's alien races to help him build the Crucible, a weapon whose blueprints were designed by previous cycles and can theoretically stop the Reapers.

Creation
One "very, very early" idea for the ending involved either Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams, having become the second human Spectre, face off against a Shepard who has had to resort to Reaper technology, echoing the first game's villain, Saren.

Indoctrination theory
(Section or not?)
 * http://www.gamesradar.com/top-7-fan-theories-we-want-believe/