[Henry Fool]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Spoiler!

Also, if the Citadel is sentient why did they need Sovereign to activate the mass relay? Couldn't the god just have opened the relay and signaled the Reapers?

Spoiler!

It's a good question. I'm sure there are other questions like this. To me that's the kind of question that might lead to interesting speculation within the story's framework rather than accusations directed at Bioware.

Things were different then. Back then they were simply following their normal plan. Perhaps the Catalyst can't actually perform such acts. It's not presented as a puppet master but someone whose plan the Reapers are fulfilling. And the plan is something that's considered inevitable, like the Reapers say. You can't stop them from coming even if you shut down the Citadel relay, as we eventually see ourselves. But it's a good question, why isn't Citadel designed in such a way that it can be opened from the inside even if the Catalyst's power to affect its surroundings isn't that great? Perhaps it was somehow necessary in order to conceal the Citadel's true nature. Perhaps it doesn't "open its eyes" at all before the Crucible arrives.

Perhaps it simply doesn't wish to manipulate the history beyond the grand plan. It allows the eventuality that the Reapers will no longer be the final answer. It gives the universe a chance to get to where Shepard ends up. This is just pure speculation.

But really, I think the idea is that the arrival of the Reapers is simply inevitable. No need to come out into the open and direct the Citadel from the inside, probably leading to everyone leaving the place. Turns out it was nothing more than the quickest way in, you can't just lock the doors into the galaxy.

At the end of ME3 two things have changed: (1) the Catalyst says that it's the first time an organic has reached that place and that means the old plan doesn't work anymore (a really good question to focus on could be what this means exactly), and more importantly (2) the Crucible, the work of many cycles of extinct civilizations, is finally in place, which changes how the Catalyst "sees" things. So at that point things are definitely different.

That it is a terrible, alien choice based on inhuman logic is understandable considering what Shepard is dealing with. The Catalyst is not good or evil or benevolent or malevolent or even wise in any human sense. Not a god in any such sense either. But it is the tool that you need to stop the Reapers and the only way to make the nightmare end.