** WARNING SPOILERS AND WHINING **
The indoctrination theory widely praised as an alternative on teh webz is effectively the worst and most ridiculed ending in the history of literature. 'It was all a dream'. Spare me. He was barely in contact with any Reaper and Virmire made it clear that it is subtle and would take months or years to reach the point of delusion and paranoia that Saren and the Illusive Man display. My Shepard has three discs worth of examples to help combat exactly that and he is arguably the most dedicated and single minded being in the galaxy. How many times did we hear 'Your mind is exceptionally strong', 'a lesser mind', 'strong willed' etc. Perhaps their Shepard is different. Sort of how people resemble their dog.
The alleged 'best' ending would be my choice and see Shepard help the stranded survivors first replant the devastated earth in the spirit of cooperation he painfully built in bringing them there. Then they would use the technologies of FTL-flight, Prothean Cryo Pods and Quarian Life Ships to fight their way back to the stars. Nothing in the multi-coloured explosions explicitly removes all life and technology from the galaxy. They could shorten the time needed to rejoin their own species by forming dozens of fast-moving colonies formed around the construction sites of dozens of relays. That is the kind of massive, progressive effort that only Shepard could demand, organize and lead.
My biggest beef with the endings is that the 'man vs mech' meme is as old as sci-fi and I thought by bringing both the Geth and their creators to the final battle I had broken the boring old mold. So much for that. It turns out the badguys were a collective vacuum cleaner for an entity as undefined and obviously ill-considered as Jodie Foster's daddy cum Contact. Just dreadful. 'We couldn't think of anything so here's the kid you chased around your mind forest! Sorry. We're under a lot of time pressure.'
If the fate of the Geth were not so unceremoniously removed from my decision making, their long range communication to other members of their collective could have helped immeasurably in my hypothetical and triumphant reunification of the galaxy. Instead they are sacrificed by the human they defended or else assimilated in an equally unsatisfying PC ending. I agree with the posters above that I would rather suffer abject defeat than end up as Lord Reaper. Sorry BioWare but defending your lofty artistic status should not be a priority right now. We can only blame so much on the suits at EA. You need to wear some of this s***storm.
