[Henry Fool]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

I'll start off with saying I harbor no anger towards Bioware for the ending they put in. It's there but I don't have to like it. I disagree with you here.

Spoiler!

I think it's bad writing to introduce a character in the final 5 minutes of a story but I'll put that aside for arguements sake. Now, I get to the Crucible and this god tells me that organics and synthesis cannot coexist peacefully. Oh really? Then why did I just end the Geth/Quarian war? It's not just a momentary cessation of hostilities in order for us to fight the Reapers. The war is done and they've made peace with each other. Having something tell me that it's impossible completely flies in the face of what I've just accomplished. I've proved that it's possible.

I have to be honest, I had a real hard time deciding which of the 3 endings I'd go with. Allow me to explain my difficulty and why I feel that the endings just don't work for my character.

1. Control the Reapers. My Shepard is pretty adamant that controlling the Reapers is the wrong course of action. He doesn't believe it's possible and even if it is, that we are not ready for that kind of power. So that ending was pretty much out of the question for me.

2. Synthesis. The trilogy has highlighted how individually we are weak but together our diversity makes us strong. Shepard defeated Sovereign, Saren and the Collectors with a team comprised of various races, backgrounds and beliefs. He's done the impossible because he's had the support of different species. This option is telling Shepard that diversity is a weakness. That if he makes everyone the same, they'll all get along and be better for it. He cannot accept that. Not given his personal experiences.

3. Destroy Synthetics. This is the only realistic option my Shepard is presented with and even then it goes against what he believes in. Shepard finishes his mission by destroying the Reapers leaving everyone as they are. However, he has to sacrifice his allies, the Geth, who he believes have every right to an existance and to which he just spent part of the game defending.

None of these choices are ones I think my Shepard would choose which is why I would have liked a 4th choice. Do nothing. I am serious. I've said this already but I spent 3 games building alliances and the entire 3rd game securing war assets. Shepard has personal proof through experience that everything the god tells him is wrong. So instead he decides to take his stand here and now. If the Reapers wipe out everyone then at least they went out on their own terms. Shepard doesn't bend to anyone and he believes that nothing is impossible to accomplish. Why all of a sudden does he just gives in at the end? It doesn't make sense. It's completely contradictory to his character. I'd be more satisfied if the game ended with Shepard and Anderson dieing on the Crucible after they activated it.

Even worse is that with the mass relays destroyed it's probably more than likely that everyone will die anyway. What happens when supplies run out? Many of those alien races cannot survive on human food and it will be impossible for them to get back to their home systems.

I don't know, it felt like a completely different team of writers took over in the end. But you're absolutely right, it is Shepard's story. That's why I dislike the ending because it fails to take into account his character.

Spoiler!

I don't see synthesis as making everyone the same. At least physically the races clearly retain their individual character, we know that much, and there's no reason to assume that the synthetic-organic "DNA" makes everyone the same any more than organic DNA makes all organics the same.

Like I said, Shepard "gives in" in the end because that's their only hope. They put all their resources and hope in the Crucible plan. Don't forget that she's talking to the Catalyst itself which is necessary for the plan to work. The AI's logic is terrible from a human point of view and Shepard can't possibly know that it's right. But the idea is that there's no choice. If you're Shepard standing there half-dead, what do you do? Either you take the last desperate choice or you do nothing. Going out "on your own terms" doesn't seem noble or heroic to me when when we're talking about all advanced life in the universe right now and infinitely into the future. It would mean that Shepard suddenly abandons the plan that everyone agreed to and everyone is counting on and sacrifices everyone's lives - for what?

She's there to fire the Crucible, period. There's no plan beyond that.

You seem to object to the godlike nature of the Catalyst, but I don't think that's a mistake at all. Even Legion says that the Reapers are fundamentally unknowable to him. They are godlike in some aspects, so it makes sense that the Catalyst is as well. Like I said, the fact that you can talk to the Catalyst doesn't make it bad writing to me. They are introducing a new character in a sense but really it's just the godlike AIs explaining their motivation to Shepard. It's not as radically new as it might seem at first.

I agree that a lot of people will die when the relays are destroyed and in the struggles afterwards. There's no clean solution. It's a super weapon and it would have been naive to expect that it somehow just wipes out the Reapers leaving everything else unharmed. But I'd say that those that live and get back to the ruins of civilization have very good chances of surviving.