It’s no surprise, then, that how Mass Effect 3 brings the trilogy to a close actually diverges quite noticeably from what BioWare’s initial ideas for the ending were.
If things had gone differently though, Mass Effect 3 may have had a very different ending.
The Mass Effect series has many fans, but even the original trilogy of BioWare’s beloved space-faring RPGs has some undeniable flaws.
As explained by Drew Karpyshyn – lead writer on the first two Mass Effect games, who left BioWare before the launch of Mass Effect 3 – in a Reddit AMA, in that originally envisioned ending, the galaxy would have essentially sacrifice the galaxy-wide network of Mass Relays by using them as a trap, luring the Reapers in with the network and then detonating all the Relays.