The next chapter in the Mass Effect franchise, for now known as Mass Effect 4, was finally revealed at The Game Awards in December. The teaser trailer strongly hinted that the series would be returning to the Milky Way and familiar faces like fan-favorite companion and Asari Shadow Broker Liara T’Soni.
In order to continue the story of Mass Effect in the Milky Way after the drastically different endings of Mass Effect 3, the trailer implied that several optional moments from the original trilogy would be made canon to give the next game a solid foundation to launch its story from. The trailer also hinted that Commander Shepard could be returning as the next game’s protagonist. Together, these raise one big question for Mass Effect 4.
Mass Effect 4’s trailer from The Game Awards 2020 came with some huge implications. Between showing a dead Reaper, the return of Liara, and a shot showing two distinct galaxies at the start of the teaser, it seems almost certain that Mass Effect 4 will be returning to the Milky Way to pick up from the events of the original trilogy.
Before the announcement, BioWare had seemed tentative about returning to the Milky Way. Returning to the Milky Way would require addressing the huge differences between the three main endings of Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect: Andromeda avoided this question by taking place 600 years in the future in a different galaxy, following a group who left the Milky Way before the conclusion of the original trilogy.
Now it appears that BioWare is making Mass Effect 3‘s Destroy Ending canon in order to continue the story. The Destroy Ending is the only ending which sees the destruction of the Reapers, and it’s the only ending which hints at Shepard’s survival like the trailer does, as long as the player has enough war assets. It also sees the destruction of the Mass Relays, which images released by BioWare show are being rebuilt.
The Destroy Ending didn’t just target the Reapers and the Mass Relays, however. At the end of Mass Effect 3 the Crucible explains to Shepard that choosing the Destroy Ending will wipe out all synthetic life in the galaxy, and even points out that Shepard has some synthetic parts due to being rebuilt by Project Lazarus.
The fact that Shepard is partially synthetic and yet is only hinted to survive in the Destroy Ending raises some huge questions, especially now that Mass Effect 4’s trailer has hinted at Shepard’s return with Liara discovering a piece of N7 armor. For a start, Shepard’s survival would imply that the synthetic aspects of Shepard’s body were not necessary for their survival.
In the most extreme case, this could be used to reveal that the ending of Mass Effect 3 was not all that it seemed. Famous fan theories like indoctrination theory have long-speculated that Shepard might have been hallucinating towards the end of Mass Effect 3 or was otherwise being mentally manipulated by the Reapers. If Shepard’s survival reveals that their synthetic parts were only unnecessary additions to their organic body, it’s possible those parts may have been involved in manipulating the Commander’s experiences in some way, and that their destruction freed Shepard. This could explain some differences between the Destroy Ending as presented in Mass Effect 3, and it’s realization in the next game.
Shepard’s survival also opens the door for the return of other characters who would have died in the Destroy Ending according to the Crucible. The Destroy Ending would have also ostensibly killed EDI, the Normandy AI, and all of the Geth. However, Shepard’s survival makes it seem possible that the Destroy Ending was in some way misrepresented by the Crucible, and that EDI and Geth characters like Legion could return.
It’s possible that BioWare will canonize some aspects of the Destroy Ending while retconning others. It’s also possible that BioWare will use Shepard’s synthetic body parts to find an in-universe explanation, like those synthetic elements having been a part of an attempted indoctrination that Shepherd was going through but was able to overcome to destroy the Reapers. It’s possible that Shepard’s synthetic parts were deceiving Shepard in some way about the true consequences of the Destroy Ending in order to prevent them from choosing it.
In fact, the Destroy Ending as described in Mass Effect 3 raises a lot of questions if used as the starting point for Mass Effect 4. Why did it destroy the Mass Relays but not other forms of non-AI technology? If the species of the galaxy are rebuilding the Mass Relays, are they also making new AI, and if so, what’s to stop another Reaper-style AI threat becoming an eventuality? Was the Normandy affected or able to escape the Crucible’s power, and what does that mean for the survival of synthetic characters like Legion and EDI?
It’s possible that the destruction of the synthetic parts of Shepard’s body can somehow be credited with saving their life, with BioWare reworking existing story to explain the opening events of Mass Effect 4. Nonetheless, Shepard’s survival and the apparent canonization of the Destroy Ending raises a lot of questions that the studio’s storytellers will have to answer without undermining the story of the original Mass Effect trilogy, soon to be fresh in fans’ minds with this year’s release of the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
In a best case scenario, however, all of these unanswered questions could make the Milky Way an exciting place to explore once again, with as many unknowns as it had when it was first introduced as the setting of Mass Effect 1. This will only happen, however, if BioWare is able to come up with satisfying explanations which are slowly revealed over the course of the game.
A new Mass Effect game is currently in development by BioWare.
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