Mass Effects future (Spoiler alert)

[Cube]

No fight with Harbinger? Was that him on the planet in front of the beam? I would expect a fight/conflict of some sort!

 

He's the one who blasts Shepard.

[ViPeR]

He's the one who blasts Shepard.

 

I thought it might have been. He burned off my Terminus Armor....the bastard. Still don't get how that happened...

[Cube]

Well, you see, it turns out that the gigantic reapers are actually less powerful than the smaller big reapers, which can kill Shepard in one hit. On top of that, they also have surgical precision with those big beams, so they can cut armour from people while only bruising them.

[flameboy]

One thing that is becoming abundantly clear is how they would have struggled to make an ending that everyone felt would have been fitting to meet what their character would have done. I guess distilling it down to the 3 choices and the slight variant consequences arising from this was there solution.

 

I don't like the indoctrination idea in a way but it does make sense in that space baby or the reapers perhaps had an idea that Shepard was different and was going to make it there so indoctrinating would have made him perhaps make a decision that suited him.

 

I really hope they don't bow to pressure and get rid of the ending, if they do it will never look like this was there creative intention all along it will look like they bowed to pressure. For me it's not gonna work, look at Fallout 3 it removed all meaning from the ending decision when they added a new DLC ending all because people complained you couldn't explore the world post game. I'd much rather they create DLC that fleshes out the Epilogue maybe even has you playing as other characters Joker again for example.

 

I think there is defintely a case for the game being about the journey and not the end. I guess its like life would you say because you die that none of the decisions you've made have any meaning? No so the same can be applied to your relationships with characters and what you did together in the game.

 

PS: I'm not ignoring peoples posting replying to me. I want to though haha enjoying the discussion. I'm at work and for some reason the first page of this thread has become blocked by our filters...@Mike1988uk I can't believe your fighting me mere days before your coming to visit lol.

Edited March 20, 2012 by flameboy

[Cube]

if they do it will never look like this was there creative intention all along

 

The thing is, the current ending wasn't their creative intention all along. It wasn't even decided upon until very late 2011.

 

What I think most people would have been happy with:

 

- Some kind of fight with Harbinger, repeating the "Bring order to chaos" reason the reaper on Rannoch gave you.

- Perhaps even at the end of the fight, you use what you have done (uniting the galaxy) to convince the Harbinger to join you. The thing about the Reapers preserving the species in some way would still exist.

- Even if you convince Harbinger, perhaps the other reapers won't agree (Harbinger is likely the youngest, so perhaps the easiest to reason with), so you still have to go to the Crucible.

- On the Citadel people are still fighting. They're not simply gone or dead.

- The crucible is simply what we expected: An weapon that kills Reapers throughout the entire galaxy (think of the Dakora superweapon from Stargate). Shepard and/or Anderson may or may not die while doing this.

- After this you find out what happened to your squadmates from each game, and they part their separate ways. Some may die depending on choices (i.e. if you choose to have Jack's team attack rather than support, she would sacrifice herself to save them). Wrex is leader of his people and returns, Garrus also helps the primarch in restoring Palaven (perhaps the primarch even dies and the title goes to Garrus), Tali goes home, your love interest is pregnant if it's possible, stuff like that. Perhaps some could die no matter what you do.

 

A simple but effective ending.

 

Edit: Also, the amount of people who die would depend on War Assets. And not just the overall one, but individual ones. The "Citadel Defence Force" war asset, for example, would determine stuff like the council, Bailey and various other people on the Citadel surviving.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Cube

[flameboy]

The thing is, the current ending wasn't their creative intention all along. It wasn't even decided upon until very late 2011.

 

What I think most people would have been happy with:

 

- Some kind of fight with Harbinger, repeating the "Bring order to chaos" reason the reaper on Rannoch gave you.

- Perhaps even at the end of the fight, you use what you have done (uniting the galaxy) to convince the Harbinger to join you. The thing about the Reapers preserving the species in some way would still exist.

- Even if you convince Harbinger, perhaps the other reapers won't agree (Harbinger is likely the youngest, so perhaps the easiest to reason with), so you still have to go to the Crucible.

- On the Citadel people are still fighting. They're not simply gone or dead.

- The crucible is simply what we expected: An weapon that kills Reapers throughout the entire galaxy (think of the Dakora superweapon from Stargate). Shepard and/or Anderson may or may not die while doing this.

- After this you find out what happened to your squadmates from each game, and they part their separate ways. Some may die depending on choices (i.e. if you choose to have Jack's team attack rather than support, she would sacrifice herself to save them). Wrex is leader of his people and returns, Garrus also helps the primarch in restoring Palaven (perhaps the primarch even dies and the title goes to Garrus), Tali goes home, your love interest is pregnant if it's possible, stuff like that. Perhaps some could die no matter what you do.

 

A simple but effective ending.

 

Edit: Also, the amount of people who die would depend on War Assets. And not just the overall one, but individual ones. The "Citadel Defence Force" war asset, for example, would determine stuff like the council, Bailey and various other people on the Citadel surviving.

 

I mean creative intention all along as in the final product being their sign of intention for the story. If that makes sense? I actually like some your suggestions about the Harbinger and if these came prior to a possible meeting with the space baby that would have served to give more context to the decision your making at the end and helped to set up the player much more to this idea rather than the more subtle approach they take, of it just being one of many themes in the game.

 

I certainly feel like the assets thing could have been better managed, sometimes decisions you did make affected things. But they merely popped up as updates on the war map logs or via messages on your terminal or even shadow broker messages. Being able to read these logs as a post ending volume of writing would have helped to show consequences but seem as it dumps you before all that your not able to.

[LegoMan1031]

The execution of the ending was just so dam poor @flameboy! lol. You just know we are gonna be proper geeks talking about this drunk.

 

This cycle was obviously a lot different than the previous one, as from the dlc the Protheans were basically cocks who conquered everyone.

 

There is just far 2 much ambiguity in the ending on too much stuff.

 

This video mad me lol showing the very little differences in endings:

 

 

It's the ending of the destroy version that makes it look like Shepard never left earth being in rubble. (skip to 4:32). As they can't be Citadel bits surely!

 

 

And and this for some lols:

 

[Agent Gibbs]

didn't the original ending for ME3 get leaked and then bioware changed it because of that? so this is technically not the true ending

[ViPeR]

This guy certainly has a lot of good points. Also if he is in any way right. I'd feel like an idiot...I should have chosen to destroy the fuckers.

 

[Cube]

I played an ultra paragon Shepard and I still chose the destroy option.

[ViPeR]

I played an ultra paragon Shepard and I still chose the destroy option.

 

I regret choosing synthesis, I just didn't want to kill the Geth.

[darkjak]

If I were to decide, there'd be the following endings. They would consist of three sections: the space battle, indoctrination and the final outcome

 

Space Battle

 

1) Shephard gathered too few war assets. The reapers almost immediately annihilate your fleet, the crucible gets destroyed and the ground forces are quickly destroyed and the Normandy gets destroyed, killing everyone before you even reach the ground. The game won't continue after this, instead you see a cutscene and epilogue explaining that within a few weeks, the organics have no capability of continued space travel. All organic life is doomed and the cycle starts over.

 

2) Shephard has gathered a fair amount of war assets. The crucible gets in position in the nick of time, but nearly all the organic space fleet is wiped out. Shephard has a limited amount of time to defeat Harbinger before the Reapers manage to break through the organic defence perimiter and destroy the crucible. If Shephard doesen't hurry, the Normandy gets shot down, killing everyone on board.

 

3) Shephard has gathered a large force. The crucible gets in position and the organics can hold their own for a very long time. If Shephard takes too long, the Normandy disengages and escapes.

 

4) Shephard has gathered a huge force. The organic forces can defend the crucible indefinitely and even has fighters to spare, to give close air support to the London assault. If Shephard takes too long, the Normandy disengages and instead helps Shepherd out.

 

Indoctrination

After being hit by Harbingers laser, Shepherd's being indoctrinated.

 

1) Shepherd chooses control. Shepherd's indoctrinated and leads the organics to their doom.

2) Shepherd chooses fusion. Shepherd dies.

a) Organic forces get annihilated.

b) If you've gathered enough war assets, the organics make a straight-out victory against the Reapers.

3) Shepherd chooses destroy. Indoctrination fails and Shephard wakes up in London.

 

Final outcome

If you choose destroy, this ending becomes available. Shepherd beams aboard the Citadel. There's a battle of its own going on in there, with organics fighting Reapers for survival. After saving lots of people from getting (literally) liquidated, Shephard faces off against Harbinger.

1) Renegade Shephard: Shephard sacrifices his squadmates so he can activate the Crucible. Shephard lives on, declared a hero by the alliance, but never speaks to the surviving members of the Normandy crew again.

2) Paragorn Shephard: Shephard sacrifices himself so his squad mates can activate the crucible. Shephard dies and is remembered like a saint and mourned by his friends.

3) Paragorn Shephard (full loyalty with squad mates present): Shephard and his squad fight together and manage to survive. Shephard lives to receive his medal and everyone lives hapilly ever after.

[Ganepark32]

I played an ultra paragon Shepard and I still chose the destroy option.

 

As did I but I don't get why the destroy option is considered the bad/"renegade" option outside of the Geth/EDI being killed. Afterall, it's the only one which kind of fits with the story of stopping the Reapers properly in the previous games (I'd argue the other options are a bit of a cop-out). At least that's how I feel.

 

It's the ending of the destroy version that makes it look like Shepard never left earth being in rubble. (skip to 4:32). As they can't be Citadel bits surely!

 

This is the one thing that I've been thinking about more than the actual decisions. When Harbinger does the laser thing one last time, Shepard and another soldier (at least in my game) stood there and the screen goes white, almost like it's trying to do a life flashing before you're eyes thing but where the ending plays out in that time. But in reality, you're still on Earth, never left it, and are lying injured after Harbinger's attack. If they were to bow to fan pressure, and I hope they don't, they could pull something like that to give a proper ending and it would give a loose reason as to why the Crucible's "spirit" was the little kid and why Joker and crew were inexplicably trying to out run the wave-thing.

[flameboy]

But joining organics and synthetics just seems wrong as I have already said imo. You are basically deciding that everyone in the universe will be joined, thus removing choice from everyone and that just doesn't seem right.

 

Everyone set out to stop the reapers so in that respect destroying the reapers is the 'obvious' one but then gets the added complication of destroying all synthetic life and because of my connection with helping out the Geth made that one a no go for me.

 

I went with controlling the Reapers but in a good way by getting them to basically sod off away but then it's not right that I control a whole race?

 

I didn't feel like the synthesis ending was removing choice as such, just giving organics and synthetics a platform on which to live on harmoniously.

 

Your right everyone did set out to destroy the reapers and it did seem the most obvious choice to make but then the twist that it's truly a renegade choice I do think is excellent. I mean it's not too much of a leap to believe that this technology does not differentiate between different forms of synthetics. For me yes I'm loyal to the Geth and loved Legion and his arc and for me they are not a sacrifice worth making for the sake of every organic being ever being killed by another machine species later down the line, without the Reapers "protection".

 

I didn't like the controlling the Reapers option as it seemed a step too close to indoctrination. The illusive man got in to deep via his own methods and got indoctrinated for me there was a fear that this could happen to me. Also by taking control for that singular moment and then dieing where does that leave the galaxy, are to trust that the Reapers will stay away forever because you told them to?

 

This guy certainly has a lot of good points. Also if he is in any way right. I'd feel like an idiot...I should have chosen to destroy the fuckers.

 

 

There are so many things that point towards indoctrination so many theories and such...see below

 

I regret choosing synthesis, I just didn't want to kill the Geth.

 

As I've said a few times for me synthesis felt like a pure answer for my character. From my initial scepticism about EDI being on the ship to the whole geth story I came round to accepting machines in the world. So to merge the two seemed like my natural choice...Also I feel the Quarian-Geth, Tali-Legion plot worked so well. Also my pushing together of EDI and Joke further reinforced this notion. I feel like this shows some sort of weakness in Bioware's story telling the personal stuff (Tali-Legion, EDI-Joker) is fantastic, the interspecies as a next level up is also great but then they really fell down at reinforcing these points about machines and organics co-existing, when they were gonna bare such a huge focus on the end game. The space baby scene is a mess and they need to work out a better way of setting up that instant exposition to create a more natural twist.

 

I suggest everyone reads this, it makes a few leaps of logic despite claiming to be a logical explanation but then the ending (despite me yes liking bits about it) does require similar dumb leaps of logic:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true

 

very interesting read and a few points have made me think more about the indoctrination angle. One thing I came to independently before reading this is the Arrival DLC...a lot of people were disappointed that the Arrival DLC didn't seem to have much but there is that scene where you were knocked out near a reaper artifact or summit who the hell knows what happens in the missing time?

 

Also I think personally I may have misinterpreted the dream sequences. For me as a paragon they reinforced the huge regret I felt about the kid on Earth not helping him and going down the duct when I could have done (despite not being an option) I guess I also placed this as a general feeling of helplessness manifesting within my heroic character which is understandable if I couldn't save one kid quickly by getting him out of a duct how could I save the world? However as a renegade this makes next to no sense why would you be feeling any sense of regret at all?! I clearly wouldn't one bit. So now I'm starting to side with the people who believe this could have been some form of indoctrination.

 

The execution of the ending was just so dam poor @flameboy! lol. You just know we are gonna be proper geeks talking about this drunk.

 

This cycle was obviously a lot different than the previous one, as from the dlc the Protheans were basically cocks who conquered everyone.

 

We are so not arguing about this drunk lol....my mate ewan will not know the fuck to make of us (he is only a core gamer, FIFA and the like). I know we discussed how the Protheans were dicks on skype before. I actually don't think they were I think it's more Javik is. Then again if it wasn't for the Reapers wiping them out mankind likely would have been enslaved by them so humanity wins lol. Also the videos you posted showing off the differences obviously so subtle and it's kinda dumb how the differences are pretty much all based on the end decision+total military effectiveness not your actual decisions as far as I can tell.

 

Phew what a fucking ton of writing. I really wanna go play ME2 as a renegade and get cracking with that but man I feel like I'm exhausted from this game I need to play something that's a little more light relief.

Edited March 20, 2012 by flameboy

[ViPeR]

I didn't quite understand the last dream you have. Where your looking at yourself with the kid.

[flameboy]

I didn't quite understand the last dream you have. Where your looking at yourself with the kid.

 

I didn't think it was a dream? More like a little example of the legend and legacy you have left as such.

 

On a totally different side note to what you wrote but to with the video you posted... whilst I'm still happy with my ending I do now think there is perhaps enough evidence to suggest indoctrination is taking place...At first when I was reading stuff I though it was people trying to fit the plot holes around a belief.

 

The reversal of the paragon/renegade choices from what you thought they would be, the surreal nature of it, anderson appearing, illusive man appearing, the actions of the space baby (watching/smirking as you save the reapers, dissipating as you kill them) also anyone else notice the strange other voice that you can hear as space baby talks...is that the Harbinger? Also read somewhere that shepards eyes change to those of the illusive mans when he picks control. It is also the only reasonable explanation as to why killing the reapers is the only ending that results in Shepard living. So he does still go there and such but is seeing as it an indoctrinated person so really he is likely just on the citadel hitting some switches.

 

So why the synthesis option? I wonder if this is maybe the true purpose of the crucible? Whoever invented it knew that destroying the reapers was not the solution as organics would eventually be killed by some other machines...perhaps the reapers are a previous cycles "geth" but evolved way past this and created the cycle of destroying organics before they had the chance to create synthetics/sythetics evolve themselves that could rival the reapers. For me this would perhaps explain why when your rating isn't high enough this option doesn't appear as if you havn't unified the galaxy you can't unify synthetics and organics?

[ViPeR]

I didn't think it was a dream? More like a little example of the legend and legacy you have left as such.

 

On a totally different side note to what you wrote but to with the video you posted... whilst I'm still happy with my ending I do now think there is perhaps enough evidence to suggest indoctrination is taking place...At first when I was reading stuff I though it was people trying to fit the plot holes around a belief.

 

The reversal of the paragon/renegade choices from what you thought they would be, the surreal nature of it, anderson appearing, illusive man appearing, the actions of the space baby (watching/smirking as you save the reapers, dissipating as you kill them) also anyone else notice the strange other voice that you can hear as space baby talks...is that the Harbinger? Also read somewhere that shepards eyes change to those of the illusive mans when he picks control. It is also the only reasonable explanation as to why killing the reapers is the only ending that results in Shepard living. So he does still go there and such but is seeing as it an indoctrinated person so really he is likely just on the citadel hitting some switches.

 

So why the synthesis option? I wonder if this is maybe the true purpose of the crucible? Whoever invented it knew that destroying the reapers was not the solution as organics would eventually be killed by some other machines...perhaps the reapers are a previous cycles "geth" but evolved way past this and created the cycle of destroying organics before they had the chance to create synthetics/sythetics evolve themselves that could rival the reapers. For me this would perhaps explain why when your rating isn't high enough this option doesn't appear as if you havn't unified the galaxy you can't unify synthetics and organics?

 

Oh no I didn't mean the ending on the planet. The dreams where you see the kid then he goes up in flames. The last dream your sitting with the kid smiling. Whilst real you is watching from afar. I can't help feel there's a deeper meaning to these dreams...

 

The more I think about the Indoctrination theory the more it makes sense. From a direction/audio point of view everything after you get blasted is just 'off'. Like the weird background noise constantly, the voices...In the ending how does the Illusive man have the power to make Shepard shoot Anderson? Saren didn't have that power, not instantaneously like that. It's just all too surreal like you say. The synthesis option is a weird one, especially as it only appears once you get complete military strength. If we're continuing with the Indoctrination theory, full military strength would mean the biggest threat to Harbinger. So it's way to counter is to give an even more pursuasive option to Shepard, in order to stop him. It worked in my case as I saw this being the final end to the cycles. Though in reality it probably just turned everyone into reapers. I think if nothing comes out of this I'll probably keep this theory as the real ending. It's better

[Cube]

That point where Shepard is randomly bleeding form the same position she shot Anderson is a really, really good one.

[flameboy]

Oh no I didn't mean the ending on the planet. The dreams where you see the kid then he goes up in flames. The last dream your sitting with the kid smiling. Whilst real you is watching from afar. I can't help feel there's a deeper meaning to these dreams...

 

The more I think about the Indoctrination theory the more it makes sense. From a direction/audio point of view everything after you get blasted is just 'off'. Like the weird background noise constantly, the voices...In the ending how does the Illusive man have the power to make Shepard shoot Anderson? Saren didn't have that power, not instantaneously like that. It's just all too surreal like you say. The synthesis option is a weird one, especially as it only appears once you get complete military strength. If we're continuing with the Indoctrination theory, full military strength would mean the biggest threat to Harbinger. So it's way to counter is to give an even more pursuasive option to Shepard, in order to stop him. It worked in my case as I saw this being the final end to the cycles. Though in reality it probably just turned everyone into reapers. I think if nothing comes out of this I'll probably keep this theory as the real ending. It's better

 

Yeah it is weird, its almost like if you have the complete military strength then Harbinger can't prevent you having that choice. That's what makes me think its the true purpose of the crucible, like it requires an organic to make it there. Like you said it is effectively the only ending where the cycle is finally truly broken with no risk of any machines uprising as such.

 

It also means you only really have two possible outcomes to carry over to a new game...because taking over the reapers presumably means they live and continue to take over the galaxy in reality rather than the ending we are presented with. So the two outcomes are 1. A world minus reapers but with risk of future robotic uprising 2. A world where they are synthesised etc... Presents two vastly different starting points for a new game...thats even before you take into consideration whether Shepard lives or not.

[ViPeR]

Yeah it is weird, its almost like if you have the complete military strength then Harbinger can't prevent you having that choice. That's what makes me think its the true purpose of the crucible, like it requires an organic to make it there. Like you said it is effectively the only ending where the cycle is finally truly broken with no risk of any machines uprising as such.

 

It also means you only really have two possible outcomes to carry over to a new game...because taking over the reapers presumably means they live and continue to take over the galaxy in reality rather than the ending we are presented with. So the two outcomes are 1. A world minus reapers but with risk of future robotic uprising 2. A world where they are synthesised etc... Presents two vastly different starting points for a new game...thats even before you take into consideration whether Shepard lives or not.

 

I've never known a game ending to cause so much debate. It's actually more interesting than if we had a real, good ending . I find it hard to believe what we've been given is the end. Something also bugging me is the voices during the Illusive man/Shepard/Anderson scene. Just can't quite work out what they're saying. The whole scene is bloody strange anyway as Shepard is the only one really who should be there. The other two seem to be like the Angel and Devil on your shoulder. No way Anderson and Illusive man made it into that beam.

[Magnus]

In the ending how does the Illusive man have the power to make Shepard shoot Anderson? Saren didn't have that power, not instantaneously like that.

Saren never implanted himself with Reaper technology in an effort to control the Reapers, either.

[flameboy]

I've never known a game ending to cause so much debate. It's actually more interesting than if we had a real, good ending . I find it hard to believe what we've been given is the end. Something also bugging me is the voices during the Illusive man/Shepard/Anderson scene. Just can't quite work out what they're saying. The whole scene is bloody strange anyway as Shepard is the only one really who should be there. The other two seem to be like the Angel and Devil on your shoulder. No way Anderson and Illusive man made it into that beam.

 

I know first time since the matrix trilogy ended that I've kind of been this obsessed with a fiction. I need to find higher quality video files and bop them on ps3 and watch them....youtube vids don't run on high enough resolutions on my pc....or maybe I will replay the ending.

 

Does it make you play through the whole mission again from the cerberus base? Bit of a slog really...where does it save your like end data considering it doesn't store what you did at the end so to speak because it rewinds back to before it happaned..

[ViPeR]

Saren never implanted himself with Reaper technology in an effort to control the Reapers, either.

 

True enough. Bad example. Paul Grayson didn't and he was way further gone than Illusive Man. He's from the books though I don't think many people know him. In terms of DLC though I have no idea what to expect. If it involves extra missions during the single player I probably won't bother as it doesn't effect the ending. Anyone else feeling like that? The sole reason I got the ME1 and 2 DLC was because of how it'd shape the story/ending.

 

I know first time since the matrix trilogy ended that I've kind of been this obsessed with a fiction. I need to find higher quality video files and bop them on ps3 and watch them....youtube vids don't run on high enough resolutions on my pc....or maybe I will replay the ending.

 

Does it make you play through the whole mission again from the cerberus base? Bit of a slog really...where does it save your like end data considering it doesn't store what you did at the end so to speak because it rewinds back to before it happaned..

 

I saved it in London near the end but once you complete it your Autosave is before you attack Cerberus. Not checked if I can load my London save yet but I don't see why I can't.

Edited March 20, 2012 by ViPeR

[Cube]

The technology that The Illusive Man has works through nanite cells or something like that - so it shouldn't work on people, only husks and potentially reapers if they have the same nanite stuff.

[flameboy]

The technology that The Illusive Man has works through nanite cells or something like that - so it shouldn't work on people, only husks and potentially reapers if they have the same nanite stuff.

 

Any idea what the deal with his eyes is? Just there is a school of thought that Shepards change of eye colour points towards indoctrination:

 

3. When Shepard chooses the Control or Synthesize endings, her eyes become like The Illusive Man’s.

 

The Illusive Man’s eyes are very distinct in that they have two glowing orbs on both sides of the iris. Evidently he was slowly indoctrinated over the years since his contact with Reaper technology in the First Contact War. Why would Shepard’s eyes suddenly change to the appearance of indoctrinated eyes when she chooses the options which, according to the indoctrination theory, would result in her failure to overcome indoctrination?

 

She also seems to become husk-like in appearance when her skin burns away. Mass Effect 2 suggests that Shepard is still mostly organic - it seems unlikely that there’s metal under her skin as depicted in th

 

e Control and Synthesize endings, rather than muscle and bones. She does bleed, after all.

 

honestly can't point people enough to this article:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true

 

my theory about it being Harbinger repeating space babys words might be wrong:

 

3. The lines spoken by the Child are simultaneously read by the voices of Female and Male Shepard, panned to the left and right speakers respectively.

 

It suggests, obviously, that the things Shepard is being told are in his or her own head - that it isn't real. This is something that the development team would have had to do very deliberately, they would not triple the amount of dialogue recording work for no reason.

 

Also I never noticed this:

 

4. At various times throughout the conversation, a Reaperish growling sound is heard and strange wispy black tentacles appear from the sides of the screen - a graphical effect indicating Reaper influence or indoctrination.

 

The first time these effects appear is on a shot of Shepard immediately after The Illusive Man enters the room - it deliberately cuts away to a shot with only Shepard in it before displaying this effect.

 

It appears again when Shepard is forced to raise her gun, and disappears momentarily when you choose the Paragon or Renegade options in defiance of The Illusive Man, which indicates that the Reaper influence in waning when Shepard is most resolute.

 

I was clearly way too wrapped up in the dialogue...

 

also this:

 

7. The gun has unlimited ammo and never needs to be reloaded.

 

Even the unlimited ammo pistol in the beginning needed to be reloaded. Some have suggested the gun is a symbol of Shepard's resolve, which is why she is very deliberately shown dropping it to the ground when choosing the blue or green options - the final step to giving in to the indoctrination.

 

so many theories and such...he kind of exargerates when summing it up though:

 

Everything about the final moments of the game is absolutely messed up. Either something is not as it seems and Bioware did this intentionally, or any casual player paying moderate attention to the events depicted on-screen is apparently paying a lot more attention than the professionals whose job it was to craft this story. If that's the case, we, as a society and consumer base need to demand a higher degree of competence from the people we pay to make art and entertainment for us.

 

It's inexcusable. Part of what drove me to write this analysis is that it is inconceivable to me that a professional writer could have produced this staggering degree of literary incompetence and I truly want to believe that it's all part of the plan - not necessarily for the sake of the Mass Effect story, but for the sake of my continued faith in human competence.