Mass Effect - What Happens If The Council Dies?

In this video I'll show you what happens if you don't save the Council at the end of Mass Effect, including the consequences of letting the Council die.

MASS EFFECT - CAN YOU SAVE BOTH ASHLEY AND KAIDAN ON VIRMIRE?
   • Mass Effect - Can You Save BOTH Ashle...  

MASS EFFECT 3 - HOW TO SAVE CORTEZ
   • Mass Effect 3 - How to Save Cortez  

During Sovereign’s attack on The Citadel, The Council is evacuated aboard the Destiny Ascension. Unfortunately their escape attempt is thwarted as they are pursued and fired upon by Geth ships. Without additional support to counterattack the Geth, it looks certain that the Council will die.

Joker contacts Shepard and lets him know that the Normandy and the Alliance Arcturus Fleet can respond to the distress call and save the Destiny Ascension… if Shepard orders him to do so.

If we let the Council die, the Destiny Ascension is destroyed by Geth ships and the Council does not survive… After the battle with Saren and Sovereign is concluded, Ambassador Udina will meet with Shepard and Anderson to discuss the future of The Council.

This scene will be different depending on Shepard’s morality - paragon or renegade. In the renegade version, Udina recommends replacing The Council with an all-Human government to direct politics on The Citadel.

In the paragon version, Udina recommends selecting a human as Chairman of the new Council, but doesn’t explicitly suggest an all-Human governing body.

In Mass Effect 2, Udina will be furious with Anderson for inviting Shepard to The Citadel and attempting to set up a meeting with The Council. In any case, the new Council will refuse to meet with Shepard. This happens regardless of whether or not the new Council is composed entirely of humans or includes the other races as well.

Even if the Council is fully human, it’s still business as usual. The Council denies the existence of the Reapers and does nothing to investigate mass kidnappings on human colonies throughout The Traverse, causing people like Jacob to step away from The Alliance.

By the time Mass Effect 3 begins, The Council is made up of four members - Human, Asari, Turian and Salarian. Udina will be the human Councilor, even if Anderson served in that post in Mass Effect 2.

If there was an all-human Council in Mass Effect 2, it will be replaced by a multi-racial one in the third game. Presumably the other races no longer tolerated being kept off The Council and applied political pressure until new members were appointed. At this point, the concept of an all-human Council is basically canonically dimmed by the writers at Bioware. We never meet the human councilors or learn their names, at least from anything I’ve discovered. I wonder how many players carried this outcome through an entire playthrough… I imagine not too many.

The decision Shepard made regarding The Council in Mass Effect 1 comes up in conversation from time to time, but otherwise doesn’t make any major impact on the core story of the game.

The only real gameplay impact comes in the form of war assets, but even then the differences are negligible. If you let the Council die you lose the Destiny Ascension, but the Alliance Fleets (First, Third and Fifth) are all stronger and Admiral Mikhailovich is still alive as well. So letting the Council die nets you an extra 30 war assets… again not a huge difference either way.