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Thank you Anne (please excuse the spelling if it's different) for making this video. Very generous of you and very helpful.

Is there still a 'special diploma' in Oxford and how is it different to a diploma or degree?

This was so good, and so helpful. Thank you so much for being honest about the interview process! My interview is tomorrow, wish me luck! 🤞🏽

Can I get your Ig 🙏 I'm a teen girl

Sister regarding getting into Oxford I really need your help .Can I dm you? Please...

I'm hoping to apply for history and economics at Oxford this year! Would you be able to give me a bit of advice on preparing for the HAT?

Personally, I do not consider the Reapers to themselves be evil. I consider them to be slaves of the Catalyst, and I have no reason to believe that they enjoy committing genocide. In particular, in the synthesis ending, the Reapers - and their creations - seem to gain free will, after which they immediately stop firing. That's also why I consider Synthesis the best ending: it frees the Reapers from their bondage. Shepard's sacrifice would then be analogous to the earlier sacrifice of Legion.

Better but definantly not optimal

It is just ridicilus how ME 3 gets so much hate. Okay the gameplay is not as cool as ME2 but the story even the little chat of random citizens in the citadel is awesome.

How many subjects you can choose for Oxford University?!

I love you brought up new mass effect content for me now,ha.

I wasn’t a fan until I played ME3 and because of ME3 I started to play the whole trilogy

That doesn’t really explain how it was going to end though, it explains the whole dark energy subplot and the Reapers motives but not how it was actually meant to conclude.

You know, at first I thought you were right, that this would be an INCREDIBLE ending! Then I realized a problem. A series of problems, actually. If Biotics are the problem, then the Reaper's response is complete overkill. They have more than enough power and strength to enforce a ban on use of Biotic abilities. Additionally, that then begs the question, if Biotics are the problem because they use Mass Effect fields to manipulate dark energy and that accelerates the decay of the universe... then what about the rest of Mass Effect based technology? It does much the same thing, and in the case of things like Starships, or, you know, the Mass Relays and the Reapers themselves, on a MUCH larger scale. If biotics are the problem, then wouldn't the rest of the Mass Effect technology be problematic as well? If it's not, then what makes utilizing the same technology and methods from a biological source different from a purely technological one? And either way, why the HECK do the Reapers manipulate technological development in the Galaxy to use the Mass Effect in the first place, thus encouraging use of biotics and or M.E. tech, and use it/them themselves! That makes absolutely no sense! So there you have it. The problem with that ending, is that it makes the Reapers LESS understandable, rather than more. While the explanation we got, (that the Reapers are preserving a living record of ancient civilizations as themselves before those civilizations inevitably wipe themselves or each other out) is an arguably flawed conclusion and methodology, it is at least an understandable one, and the Gardening metaphor still holds true. However, with this explanation, that biotics or Mass Effect technology itself is the problem, then the Reapers are absolutely shooting themselves in the foot by how they manipulate the evolution of Galactic civilizations, AND are either going completely overboard and overkill with their response, OR are total bloody hypocrites. Or both. Edit: And that means there's even more problems with their methods. Like, if biotics or M.E. tech are so dangerous, then shouldn't the first use of either be the event the triggers the cycle for that species, rather than some arbitrary 50,000 year interval? While I agree with you that this may be what the lead writer was going for, having thought about it for a while, I'm GLAD he didn't get the opportunity to put it into action, for all the reasons listed above.

Unpopular opinion: I chose the synthesis ending and I enjoyed it pretty much.

I still can't get passed the fact that Anderson was planning to take sheps ship. AND! I also saw footage of Anderson talking to a Cerberus agent.

I have been a great fan of Mass Effect. Like the majority I've been disappointed by the ending of ME 3, Besides been too dark and sombre it seemed a bit illogical you had three possible endings (actually "fusion" ending is impossible if you don't play on line!) Anyway, even if I agree with your analysis about the Reapers "good" intentions, I also think that Shepard's goal was the destruction of them since ME1

ME 3 is my favorite . Despite the bad ending

I think regarding your comment about the pooling system during Oxford interviews, there is one further reason as to why you may be pooled and I actually went through this possibility. At New College, like you, I had one amazing interview and one terrible interview and they sent me off to Mansfield to have a third interview. On the interview notice board however, it said that a girl from Mansfield was pooled to New for an interview for the same course as I so it could just be that the tutors at different colleges want another opinion of you as a candidate.

Admissions interviews from highly ranked universities shouldn't stress anyone out unless you're majoring in STEM or other majors where empirical knowledge is key. A music or sociology degree don't hold the same weight in the workforce regardless of which university you graduated from. Where you get your postgrad or PhD's are where the institution really matters though, so undergrads rejected from Oxbridge will have another chance to apply down the line if their dream job requires further education.

This is the best game ever made

I also love the indoctrination theory

This was helpful thanks. Did you get any hard math problems? If so, how do you work them out?

I love these series so much it hurts. There's only 2 games that ever made me shed a tears. One is Mass Effect and the other is Witcher 3. Witcher had only one such scene. Mass Effect had about 3 or 4. In my mind the characters of Mass Effect are real, they exist. That's the level of story telling, voice acting and animation those games had. There's nothing since then than even comes close to this with the exception of Witcher which comes very close. (I like sci-fi more then fantasy so I might be bias).

"How many bananas could I eat in 53 days if I was on a desert island?" Is the goal each day to hit a caloric intake or is it to maximize the number of banana's eaten? What kind of banana? Because Rhino Horn bananas can reach 2 feet (60cm) in length while finger bananas are around 3 inches (7.6cm). If the desert island is unclaimed can I establish a monarchy based micro nation and declare that I am the people? If so then does every person who is granted citizenship and eats a banana count towards the total since it's the royal we? This is more than just a multiplier as there would be an age range for the citizenry. If I take a page out of the pop-Roman playbook, do bananas vomited count as uneaten? If so if I eat a banana the night before then vomit it up in the morning will I cause the counter to stack underflow and achieve the maximum amount? Are we talking the fruit or trees?

Thank you for speaking on this topic, although i didnt mind the ending this would have been much better.

What you're suggesting would be better that what we got, if done right (but that goes for anything tbh). But it still doest get rid of the fundamental problem of Mass Effect being a trilogy where the first act is setting up a different story to what we got. Mass Effect 2 doesn't make much sense as a follow up of Mass Effect 1. I got the impression that the Reapers were never ment to be explained, they were the Lovecraftian monsters that are beyong our comprehension (as is literlaly said in the game). That said Ive played Mass Effect far too many times, Ive played mass effect to the completion about 3 times and Mass Effect 3 once, and im still salty about it lol. I still see the potential of what the story could have been if corporate greed didn't exist.

The main difference between Esports and Traditional Sports is that video games are products. Can you imagine if the NFL released "Football 2: Touchdown" with slightly different rules?

Although this plot you shared is more likely and makes more sense (good job with the video!) I would like to disagree about the Reapers. They are not pure evil, as explained both by the Catalyst and the Leviathan. Most of the good points and themes of Mass Effect comes to play in the ending just like it does with the original plan. The Reapers were created in order to make life possible. Think of it this way: the Quarians nearly got annihiliated by the Geth, and the Geth were based on Quarians. Imagine a species of synthetics based on the krogan, they would destroy the galaxy... the Reapers are there to stop it, and the irony that their creators suffered the same fate in order to save the others from extinction. That is the Reapers' motivation in the end result. And I think this odd moral system of theirs actually works. Just like with the Dark Energy plotline, the Reapers stop organics from doing something stupid. However this time it is more odd and ironic than sensical and easy to understand. In the end, it's all about preferences. I loved the endings.

Interesting but the end was still turd. And I loved the game don't get me wrong

The problem with Mass Effect ending is that it doesn't depend on the choices you made throughout the series at all. Your journey over all this years has no value. There are 3 buttons and you can push to get all the endings. That's not the way an RPG should end at all. Even more - the game nullifies the choices you've made in previous games. It doesn't matter if you killed rachni queen or not - there would be one anyway in the game. Your choices bear no consequences in the third game. I personally dislike Mass Effect 2 storyline and combat system but they made a fantastic job with the ending there your choices matter and you can FAIL depending on your choices. I would very much liked the same one for Mass Effect 3 but with taking into account all of the combined choices throughout the series.

Awesome analysis! Love it :) Also, I can't stop talking about mass effect either and yes - Thane for life lol ^_^

There was a lot of discussion about this particular ending at the time, and the general opinion I got from that time was that it was an equally weird ending. People compared it to that awful Star Trek TNG episode about Warp Speed wrecking space time itself. But to your credit, you do give good points, and it leads me to conclude that regardless of the value of the concept of the ending itself, it's always better to keep the course, for the main reason why the endings we got were so hated was mostly because they were not foreshadowed in any way (the Geth story does even negate it thoroughfully if you get it right, which is hilarious). These little bits of dialogue within ME2 were not big enough to really rally the story into this kind of environmentalist question (which is something that irks me a lot in ME2, the lack of progression in the overall story), but they would at least make a lot more sense in the end than the stuff we got.

Damn, I would've liked to see that and see Shepard bargaining with The Reapers for a new solution to the problem. Or, The Reapers not giving organics the chance and so Shepard destroy them. But then he would have to go against the ways of the organics, ushering them to an era of conservative use of dark matter and dark energy. There are many choices to be made there.

It seems like Drew karpyshyn is cursed or something. He was also heavily involved in Kotor's story, but then Obsidian took over part 2. They used some of his ideas, but made their own script for it. Years later when The Old Republic was announced, Karpyshyn was in charge of writing again and tried to revive his old ideas. However, some fans interpreted the similarities between kotor 2 and the old Republic more as a rip-off than anything else

Honestly I like the overall direction they went with for the ending in 3 more, I just don't think they earned what it became. Synthetics and Organics should not have been the main subject to draw a conclusion from for the Reapers and the journey of the trilogy. That is a false message to be left with. However, I think the idea of Reapers controlling our population because we would otherwise and unknowingly cause infighting on larger and larger scales and disrupt natural order, would've been a great reason for Reapers to be there. They ARE evil, they have to be because you can't sympathise with them when they killed billions of people, but their evil has a rational, cold dimension to it. The Reapers are AI that follow a programming that makes sense to themselves, which is devoid of emotion, so to them they're doing everyone a favor, no harm done, by preserving people in Reaper shape (but killing them in the process) in order to avoid advanced civilization from spiraling out of control. I just don't like that they completely nailed down the reason for why we would spiral out of control on our synthetics rebelling against us. This was the subject the Quarians dealt with, and that was the "Mass Effect" version of AI vs Organics, not the Reapers and not Shepard and the rest. I'm even fine with the Starkid. I would've just liked it to be explained more and to expand what I said above, I wanted him to represent all Reapers in a way that didn't boil down to "Your machines will kill you so we must solve your problem for you". I wanted it to boil down to "We are machines, you're organic, and organics are bad because you have no control over your population (check: Did you cure/prevent the Genophage Cure and did you have Wreav or Wrex?), you cannot keep your synthetics from running amok (check: Did you resolve the war with the Geth or did the Quarians or the Geth die?) and finally, you do not have faith in your species's own freedom (Did you end with a human-led council in ME1 and did you preserve or destroy the Collector base in ME2?) Then it would lay down these choice-checks from the whole trilogy and ME3's primary conflicts and pave the way for a final persuasion that would ultimately make the Reapers let go of their solution entirely. //The Ending: The Moment of Truth// *Outcome: The Genophage* 1: Genophage state: peaceful and cured krogan = Reapers acknowledging that we are able to work together in peace despite how far we've advanced as a civilization. *+2 to their faith in organics*. 2: Genophage state: chaotic and ready for expansion with Wreav = Reapers judge you as being unable to be led to your own actions. *-1 in their faith in organics*. *Outcome: Rannoch* 1: Peace = Reapers determine they were wrong to manipulate the Geth and that we're good enough to develop alongside our created synthetics. *+2 to faith in organics*. 2: Quarians died = Reapers are extremely adamant about their own solution pointing out that we are paving the way for another technological singularity (hints that Reapers are themselves also a tech singularity that happened eons ago), *-1 to faith in organics*. 3. Geth died = The Reapers approve of our decision to preserving ourselves but reaffirm their own solution to preserve us as the only option to maintain order *-1 to faith in organics*. *Outcome: Organics' fellowship* 1: Council survived against Sovereign, Collector base destroyed, and our Genophage and Rannoch states are favorable = The Reapers approve entirely *+2 to faith in organics* 2: Council survived against Sovereign, Collector base destroyed, and our Genophage and Rannoch states are negative = They disapprove slightly *-1 faith in organics*. 3: Council survived against Sovereign, Collector base kept, and our Genophage and Rannoch states are favorable = The Reapers argue that keeping the base was unwise when The Illusive Man was its caretaker. *faith in organics doesn't change*. 4: Council survived against Sovereign, Collector base kept, and Genophage and Rannoch states are negative = The Reapers point out that keeping the base was forethought on our part to find a failsafe solution if AI like on Rannoch outgrow us. *+1 faith in organics*. 5: Council died, Collector base destroyed, and the Genophage and Rannoch states are favorable = The Reapers doubt our ability to cooperate as a multispecies society but accept how we have kept the peace. *+1 to faith in organics*. 6: Council died, Collector base destroyed, and the Genophage and Rannoch states are negative = They disapprove entirely, claiming we are at the brink of evolution to where we are about to doom ourselves if the Reapers don't level set the galaxy. Destroying the base doesn't favor their approval either since it means we didn't think of a safeguard against our self-damnation *-3 to faith in organics* 7: Council died, Collector base kept, and Genophage and Rannoch states are favorable = The Reapers decide organics are unstable and in particular the humans of this cycle are an example of the organic greed that leads to their own downfall, *-1 to faith in organics*. 8: Council died, Collector base kept, and Genophage and Rannoch states are negative = They tell Shepard that we are on the brink of our own extinction and that by keeping the base they offer Shepard to become the Catalyst and control the Reapers as long as the Crucible remains docked. *-4 to faith in organics* Then if the Reapers reach +5 in faith in organics and you were able to succesfully argue that you kept the galaxy together and the Reapers's solution is the only problem that remains, the Catalyst will change its variables and send the Reapers permanently to Dark Space if you refuse his solutions. If faith is below +5 he offers you his solutions. If faith is zero the Reapers will offer no remorse and we will have to fight to our last stand like the Protheans and all other civilizations did.

I don't know about you people, but the lameness of the ending that we got wasn't what pissed me off. it was actually how BioWare gave me a middle finger for wanting to have agency. shoot the child in the head and see what happens. they must truly hate us.

The reaper's motivation was to bring order to the universe instead of allowing the races to cause chaos. Chaos being when synthetics turn against their creators. This is a MASSIVE theme which is played out throughout the series. The reapers are synthetics that turned against their creators, the Leviathans. Which just adds a level of irony, but at the end of the day the reapers are just robots with no morals, just goals. I think the ME3 ending makes perfect sense, it just needed more possible outcomes depending on your choices throughout the series

Vít Kozikowski has some good points, though like you I couldn't find the list of sport criteria on Sport Accord's site. However, there is a college notes reference website that shows up if you search google for the 4 terms. Personally the one test that esports has yet to pass in my mind is longevity. Most games that are developed with an eye to esports fail that test. Currently SC, CS, and DOTA are the 3 games that are farthest along in achieving that legitimacy. I'm expecting the Overwatch league to implode in a couple years due to Blizzard's mishandling of players which is worrying as it will discourage host cities from having their own teams in the future. On the Dota side of things, APM varies drastically between players. Back when it was tracked more actively I know there was at least one pro who played under 100. He managed it by being extremely deliberate with his actions. APM is more a Starcraft metric anyway. It's nice to be able to play dota competitively at a lower APM because those muscles fail over time and anyone in their mid twenties struggles mechanically in pro Starcraft. I'm happy to see that dota pros so far haven't really been held back by age.

You're gorgeous af Also it's Drew "Carp-ash-in" And I would've loved that ending, instead of the archetypical "ancient evil" and zero-sum choices with zero nuance. You can't tell me superintelligent beings would genocide entire species for the fear of artificial intelligence that eventually genocide them without the need for ancient beings to carry that out.

-we ll bang okay? "commander Sheppard". Jokes apart all mass effect games starting from the first one (trilogy) till mass effect andromeda they all have deep meanings and it's my favorite game

I agree. I fell in love with ME1 the first time i played it. Pirated on my crappy pc. The crack was broken so saving didnt work. I played through all of the first citadel hoping it would allow me to save. Way past my bedtime (2007~). Before me2 came out I had 20+ playthroughs of me1 ready for import. I played me3 through only twice. During the first month of its release. Ever since then I've waited for the day when I would stop giving a shit about some Canadian sci fi video game series. I guess that day still hasn't come.

This was well done. One thing I didn't hear specifically was that the ending was leaked weeks before launch and redone in that time because Casey hated the idea of players knowing the ending beforehand. Did your research on this topic find that to be true or not?

ME3 gets too much hate

Mass Effect is dead. Bioware betrayed it for their stupid attempt at a destiny like 'service', that being anthem. Truly heartbreaking, especially the fact that they went so far as to an other galaxy(andromeda) just to dodge the shitty ending of me 3. Now I know this comment isn't really contextual, I wanted to get it off anyway. Not enough people are angry about the sacrifice of the ME series, in favor of an other live service, like there isn't too much of that anyway. EA is cancer people, and it was very much terminal for Mass Effect

The problem with that ending is that it's too similar to Babylon 5, one of ME's biggest influences.

Nice insight! I really haven't thought about some of these things. I always wondered what that stuff with dark energy from Tali's mission was lol

5:09 not simple bacteria and cells, they left whole primitive races alive. During the prothean cycle, humans were already fully formed Homo Sapiens, it was 50k years ago, not a million years... If we used Consort's trinket on Eletania, we see a scene of a Prothean spying on a Cro-Mangnon from Mars. Sticks and stones? Yes, but obviously more developed than bacteria and simple organisms. Quarians were there, already considered conventionally beautiful by the protheans. At the time, Asari were already developed around the level of humans from antiquity to middle ages: planting crops, having pantheons, and writing (again, plot hole between contradictory Javik dialogues). Similarly, vorcha were considered to be too primitive to be harvested in the current cycle, IIRK. Unknown about yahg (Shadow Broker race). Some assumed the next cycle would likely be theirs. As to, Mordin, he's clearly stated he's NOT making a genocide ("not a war criminal"), genophage "doesn't kill krogan, only limits the birthrate." None of that is even abortion-level, it's more like handing millions of condoms to krogans! :3 Well, forcing them to wear them, but still... It was called "bordering a war crime" and "gentle genocide", but if you noticed, the krogan are not anywhere close to being extinct, only limited in population. Rachni were [considered to be] completely eradicated though, but they were treated as rabid animals... not an intelligent race... games never fleshed out them, apparently they always crawl back, first the queen is revived, and if you kill her there's the breeder magically appearing? Whatever... A. Plot. Co-lan-der. Anyway, it was stated numerous times that krogan plight was not because of genophage, but because they nuked their planet over multiple times... And Mordin regrets what he did anyway, and he only modified the virus slightly. While Reapers are pretty clear-set on completely destroying whole civilizations and races. Dark Energy twist still falls under the same cliche of "you organic meatbags are a threat to yourself so we, synthetic AIs will kill you to save you" that the original ending also fell victim for... In ANY case, they're mass murdering BILLIONS of living people. Not even a single person in million is left alive, everybody dead till the last member. Javik survived by a miracle (of EA's first day DLC greed lol), and he couldn't procreate anyway. It's a pretty far cry from a lot of unfertilized eggs in the genophage. Protheans, the inussannon, and everybody else before them, were completely extinct. Reapers were that one big, ancient Lovecraftian absolute evil that we cannot comprehend, and they were much better when they were mysterious... Any attempt to give them reasoning that we can sympathize with... would be a plot twist just for the sake of it. The one we have now is... that organic Leviathans created a synthetic AI Intelligence to solve the problem of organics and synthetics killing each other, only to be killed by the synthetic AI... that's the first Darwin Award winners we got here! Still better than "in my mind the Jedi are evil", and "the ancient machines that destroy all living do it to save the world." Ech! xD Thing is, all ME3 endings so far are bad. I haven't tried numerous alt ending mods, but I heard they are cheesy as hell.

It's pronounced CARP-EE-SHIN, he's from Edmonton, Alberta, many people there have Ukrainian roots...))) So, in his very first ME novel, Mass Effect: Revelation, Drew Karpyshyn already wrote that the Council banned AI research of ANY kind exactly because they believed it would lead to Armageddon, it's basically is their equivalent to MAD doctrine (belief in Mutual Assured Destruction with nukes during the Cold War). In a later chapter, AI research that humans make in secret is directly compared to Manhattan Project, so what the Catalyst says about synthetics going Skynet is not only canon, it's pretty much common knowledge at that point. The galaxy in Mass Effect already believed that AI will develop, rebel, and bring the end of all living. Leviathans built Reapers, Quarians built Geth and during Prothean cycle there was also a major AI rebellion that Javik recalls. However, with ME3 story both the Council and the Catalyst are supposed to be mistaken, as it's basically proven we can either destroy the Geth, or get peace with them during Mass Effect 3. Whoever wrote the Catalyst reasoning for Reapers' purpose obviously used Revelation as a base, but whoever wrote the Geth arc directly contradicted it: AI is just a bogeyman at this point. And judging how in Mass Effect universe, the usage of 20th century equivalents, nukes and chemical weapons, never brings the end of the world, then, yes, the Illusive Man WAS right and AI can, eventually, be controlled, much like the atomic energy was tamed and is no longer considered world-ending. Doesn't fix many plot holes, but... that is literally contradicted by final dialogue with Illusive Man (yes, the game does 180 turn on AI in like 5 minutes, midway though the ghost child conversation). Also, nothing explains how Shepard escaped indoctrination. It's not even handwaved! Or how in Arrival, Mass Relay being destroyed takes the nearby planet with it, killing everyone, and all relays exploding don't in ME3 original ending. Also, apparently, everybody seen Quarians look without a mask in the Fleet and Flotilla movie, which contradicts NPCs in ME2. Mass Effect 3 is a PLOT COLANDER... Yet!.. Dark Energy plot was scrapped early in development, even before Drew quit, they weren't going for that ending. It was just one of many brainstorming ideas that were thrown away. It's highly likely that if they ever used it, it would be critiqued as much, if not more... and HELL NO, it doesn't make Reapers good guys, they are still genocidal machines, no matter how you put it. Also, Mass Effect tech bringing entropy created an even bigger plot hole: If Reapers wanted to stop people from using Element Zero-based technology, they wouldn't let them develop in the ways that facilitates that - and the games make it pretty clear that Reapers do everything to let people develop to use Mass Relays, Citadel, Biotics - on purpose. So it's contradictory in itself. Edit, here's the quote: "By using it [mass relay technology] your society develops along the paths we desire." That's Sovereign. Dark Energy story would need to retcon original Mass Effect. That would be George Lucas level of meddling. SO, ME3 final ending is still Drew's work, even though he didn't know it. They just reused his older writings. Without expanding or developing where it was needed.

Incredible great work, the truth disappointed me the first time I heard this end I was disappointed that it did not come out. You knew for example,that the quarian-geth conflict was changed so that it made more sense with that end of the struggle between organic and synthetic, they demonized to the quarians to humanize the geths just to make more sense with the end of the child. One example is when the farixen treaty is named that the quarians should not comply with, the council's anti-AI laws are forgotten, what destroyed me was what they did with such an interesting race as the geths, in the original conflict the geths were searching ,being together rejected individuality , them want be one. Them rejected the individuality sought to be a single mind but after they changed writers changed the plot to that of I want to be a real boy I think the changes at the end were not the best