Reasons why the Crucible/Catalyst/Citadel explanation as presented in the game does not make sense. Credit to Bynes for originally posting the images included.
1) The combined scientific might of the galaxy had no understanding of what the Crucible would do.
So...we're building a doomsday weapon, one we believe will unleash an apocalyptic amount of energy, but we don't know what it will do or how it will do it. This is incredibly poor writing. To have any understanding of how to build it, you have to have some understanding of what the device will do. This wasn't a do-it-yourself kit that we stumbled upon. All we had were blueprints and schematics. Which means the guts of device, the technology involved in its creation, had to be understood by the people constructing it.
This is hand-waved away by Hackett at one point who compares their ignorance of the Crucible to the uncertainty of the scientists who build the first atomic bomb. But this is a false comparison. The atomic bomb scientists knew how the bomb worked, they knew what it was meant to do. What they didn't know is the extent to which it would work. They understood the science behind it, and they knew what its intended result would be. This is a far cry from a doomsday weapon that no one understands how it will work, or even more importantly, how to activate it. This leads into -
2) The combined military might of the galaxy is willing to bet the galaxy on this device that they don't know what it will do and don't know how to turn it on.
This is underscored by Hackett pleading with Shepard to find some way of activating the Crucible from the Citadel. Apparently, everyone had been expecting it to simply activate once attached to the Presidium.
Which essentially means Hackett and the Alliance brass and, depending on how you played through the game, the Turian Primarch and his advisers, Balak and the remnants of the Batarian Hegemony, the Quarian Admiralty, Urdnot Wrex and his advisers, whatever makes up the new Geth consensus, the remains of the Asari Matriarchy, the strategists of the Salarian Special Tasks Group, and whatever military leaders remain from the Volus, Elcore and mercenary teams you have managed to recruit, all agreed to take part in a mission to attach a device to the Citadel in which none of them knew what it would do or even how to turn it on.
Really? That was the plan? This leads into -
3) The Citadel as the Catalyst.
If the Prothean VI Vendetta is correct, the plans for the Crucible have been passed down from Cycle to Cycle, each Cycle improving upon it and getting it closer to completion. Are we seriously supposed to believe that no one in the Crucible's history ever had a plan for what it was meant to do? They were just building it in the hope it would do...something? Nor did they know how to activate it. Nor does it make any sense that in the development of this device that a missing "element" called the Catalyst would hinder the progress of the device. How do you design something without knowing what this key component will be? Are we honestly led to believe that the knowledge of this device was passed down from Cycle to Cycle in the hopes that one Cycle would eventually figure out what was necessary? It is very implausible that the preliminary designs could have been developed without the understanding of what was necessary to make the device operate.
Now, saying that the Citadel is the Catalyst, as Vendetta believed, makes sense. As the hub for all the Mass Relays, it would be the one device with enough power to make a weapon powerful enough to destroy the Reapers, and potentially, use the Mass Relays to deliver the destruction in a galaxy wide burst. This part of the ending makes sense, including the destruction of the Mass Relays as a result of firing the Crucible. It's hard to believe Liara's statement early in the game about how the Catalyst was this unknown element to this regard, however. If the Citadel is the key to making the Crucible function, that seems like a fairly obvious observation one would make and information that would be fairly important in the design phase of the Crucible throughout the many Cycles. And if that wouldn't be enough, did no one make the mathematical connection that the arms of the Crucible opened to such a circumference that it could grasp the Presidium while centering the main sphere directly underneath the Citadel tower? That could not have been coincidental, and yet, this is never mentioned in game, as though no one told Hackett about it and if they did, that Hackett didn't feel it noteworthy enough to tell Shepard prior to the assault on the Illusive Man's base where we learn this from Vendetta.
Which brings us to -
4) Activating the Crucible/Citadel mechanism.
No one knows how to activate the Crucible/Citadel weapon. Hackett and his advisers apparently believed simply connecting it to the Presidium would be enough. No one on the massive, multi-species think tank knew that something else was necessary.
In the end, activating the Crucible had to be done on the Citadel end, on the exterior of the Citadel tower.
So...to activate the Crucible, one of three things must take place. One must a) destroy the red conduit on exterior of the Citadel tower,
take hold of conveniently human sized hand grips on the blue conduit of the Citadel tower, or C) jump into the beam of energy connecting the Citadel to the Crucible. So...no one knew this? No one in the countless Cycles that have come before thought to include this information in the Crucible details? Was it known once and lost? Seems to me that if this was required to activate the Crucible, the Crucible itself would have been considered useless as a weapon. Someone has to physically go onto the exterior of the Citadel tower and manually trigger the necessary reaction.
4A) Destroy the red conduit.
So...is this similar to the retardation mechanism on a common fire suppression sprinkler head? Destroy the plug and the energy simply pours out? If so, then the designers of the Citadel had to take this into account long before the Crucible was designed with the knowledge that this Crucible might someday be attached to the Presidium. Otherwise...why have such a mechanism in place?
4B) Grasp the handgrips on the blue conduit.
So...this mechanism, already in place long before the Crucible was attached, is going to disintegrate whatever organic grabs hold of it while downloading their consciousness, and allow that consciousness to take control of the Reapers, the Citadel, and apparently whatever else is currently using Reaper technology. Why is the Crucible necessary for this? It makes sense if this was the mechanism that created the Catalyst/Starchild entity (we'll get to that later) but if the Catalyst controls the Citadel and the Reapers, why would the Crucible be necessary for this process to take place again? Are we to believe that without the pulse sent out across the Mass Relays, that the Reapers in outlying systems would not head the command of he/she that controlled them? They seem to be working in some manner of concert or at least in communication with each other already...I'm not sure the destruction of the Mass Relays was necessary here.
4C) Jump into the beam of energy.
Right...so HOW does this work? The Starchild says "add your essence," but how exactly does this cause synthesis between organics and synthetics? Could it have been ANY organic? What if a random pilot from the battle had ejected from their fighter, and the trajectory of their escape carried them right into the beam? Would that have initiated synthesis without the intent to have done it? Or is it merely because Shepard has extensive cybernetics? If that's the case, how in the world did any of the designers of the Crucible or the Citadel take this possibility into account? Synthesis will be an option if an organic with extensive synthetic modification interrupts the energy flow by throwing themselves into it? REALLY?
The only possible reasoning behind any of these three option is that these mechanisms predate the Second Cycle of Extinction and the Crucible was originally designed by the the Reaper intelligence in anticipation of this day coming. But...if that's the case, and they anticipated needing a new solution to their technological singularity problem, why didn't they simply choose synthesis at the outset? The Starchild, if he is to be believed, states this wasn't possible until the Crucible was attached to the Presidium, but if that's the case, why were these mechanisms in place prior to the Crucible's construction? Why did the designers of the Crucible not take this into account? None of this makes sense from a design or technological standpoint which leads into -
5) What did the designers of the Crucible intend to happen?
The simplest explanation is destruction of the Reapers - a means to destroy the threat to advanced organic life. We are led to believe that the Crucible was developed over countless Cycles, but did anyone creating the Crucible over these Cycles understand this device would also facilitate the control and synthesis outcomes? We can make arguments that the control option was developed by a sect of slowly indoctrinated agents, similar to the Illusive Man in other cycles, but if that is true, why would they have included the technology for the destroy option if their blueprints? We can make arguments that a civilization of sufficiently synthetic/organic hybrids were behind the development of the synthesis technology, but if that was the case, why would they include the technology for the destroy or control options in their blueprints? This is supposing, of course, that the Crucible has any means of influencing these options by itself, and that the conduits on the Citadel tower are not the true means for which these options are possible. This is what the Starchild essentially said, but that contradicts the fact that these choices are enacted from the Citadel, and not from the Crucible. If the Starchild is accurate, however, did no one in the history of the Crucible's development realize that these technologies existed with the Crucible, that these outcomes were possible?
No one in the galactic think tank looked at the technology of the Crucible and said, well, it appears it may be able to do THIS, THAT, or THE OTHER THING? The only person who seems to have a clue what the Crucible might do is the Illusive Man when he insists that the Crucible will allow him to control the Reapers...but does he actually KNOW that by looking at the designs, and if so, why didn't anyone else? Some will argue that the designs the Alliance retrieved from Mars were incomplete, but they were complete enough that the device worked in all three methods, so this perspective isn't valid. Or is the Illusive Man simply presenting a heavily indoctrinated view, and he actually doesn't know the Crucible is capable of this and the Reapers/Starchild/whomever is controlling him is instead is trying to steer organics away from the destroy option?
This ties into -
6) The Starchild's explanation.
We are led to believe that, in his words, the Catalyst "changed him." Changed him...how? The technology to activate the Crucible on the Citadel tower apparently existed long before the Crucible was built...so why did we need his intervention to make it work? As far as we can tell, all of this would have worked fine without once speaking to him.
So...why does he speak to us at all? If his purpose is keep the current plans of pruning advanced organic life intact, he doesn't need to speak to Shepard at all. Shepard is, if the ending is to be believed, dying from a profusely bleeding wound. Why bring Shepard to that point on the tower? There's no need to do this. Allowing Shepard to die allows the current plan to continue, as the Reaper forces are winning convincingly in the battle beyond.
Are we to believe that the Crucible somehow compels the Starchild to speak to Shepard, that its basic programming is somehow over-ridden? That the Starchild MUST present these options to Shepard? This really doesn't make sense in the context of the various endings where some of the options are available and others are not. The Starchild clearly says that Shepard's presence proves his solution will no longer work...but why? If Shepard dies, the Reapers destroy the Crucible before it is fired, organics are harvested, and before the Reapers leave, the Citadel is modified so that both the Relay to Dark Space will open when summoned again, and that another Crucible, if built, would not function as this one did. There's no valid reason at all for the Reaper intelligence to present these options to Shepard, much less to bring Shepard to the controlling mechanisms in the first place.
Speaking of...how exactly does Shepard survive outside the Citadel? We're not in the Presidium...we're not even in the Wards. All of the locations we've ever been to clearly have the occupants indoors, minus the docks which according to Mass Effect 1 still needed to be pressurized ship to docking cradle. But the exterior of the Citadel tower isn't a location meant for occupants. In Mass Effect 1, Shepard and company had to don hardsuits to go on the exterior of the tower and fight their way to Sovereign, and that's when the station's arms were CLOSED. So...suddenly Shepard can survive outside, with the arms open, in the same location that required suits before?
Regardless of that...was anyone in the development of the Crucible throughout the various Cycles aware that interfacing with the Reaper intelligence was necessary to fire the Crucible? That seems highly unlikely considering no organic had ever spoken to it (if the Starchild is to be believed) and the true value of the Citadel is not this intelligence but its massive power and ability to control the Mass Relays. So...if they weren't aware of how to activate it, what it would do, why it would do what it could...that leads us back to -
7) If you ignore the War Assets specific to the Crucible, the ending is not different.
Apparently, the total EMS rating itself is what is important here, and not the specifics of that rating. Regardless of what assets I've acquired, it's the total number of assets that determine how the Crucible is going to work, not what assets went into the Crucible itself. And if the construction of the Crucible, and the resources I've gathered to build it are irrelevant to how it will function in the endgame (minus a few variations for things like saving the Collector Base vs. destroying it), that leads us back to -
1) The combined scientific might of the galaxy had no understanding of what the Crucible would do.
Back to the beginning.
POST EXTENDED CUT THOUGHTS
“The device you refer to as the Crucible is little more than a power source. However, in combination with the Citadel and the relays, it is capable of releasing tremendous amounts of energy throughout the galaxy. It is crude, but effective and adaptive in its design…We first noted the concept for this design several cycles ago. With each passing cycle, the design has no doubt evolved…We believed the concept had been eradicated. Clearly organics are more resourceful than we realized.” - the Catalyst
Problem #1
We already know that the mechanism to initiate Control, Synthesis, and Destroy are located on the Citadel itself and not part of the Crucible. Which means if the Crucible is nothing more than the power source, the Citadel was designed specifically with these possibilities in mind. The likelihood that docking interface where Shepard and the Catalyst have their conversation was added later is almost non-existent, since the Catalyst indicates the design originated several cycles ago but not during the first cycle. The Catalyst also does not take credit for the Crucible’s design, which indicates it was not developed by it in preparation for a day like this coming.
In all prior cycles, we are led to believe that the Reapers entered the galaxy through the Citadel relay itself and then immediately took control of the Citadel. We are also led to believe that only the creation of the Conduit on Ilos and the subsequent tampering on the part of the Prothean survivors after the Reapers left (see conversation with Vigil: Mass Effect 1) prevented this from happening in the current cycle. It is therefore highly unlikely that any of the previous cycles would have been able to construct the docking interface after the Reapers arrived, and they would probably have had little reason to do so prior to their arrival.
So, again, I have to ask why do the mechanisms for Control and Destroy currently exist on the Citadel? An argument can now be made for the Synthesis mechanism, despite the fact that apparently all one needs to do is
jump into the Crucible’s beam, as the Catalyst explains later that Synthesis has always been their goal and it has always failed. But why would the Catalyst or its predecessor race (who seemingly became the first Reaper against their will) have built a mechanism specifically to allow an organic to replace it or destroy its creations, one that is essentially useless without an independently designed organic device to give it sufficient power? What purpose did they serve, or were they intended to serve prior to the inception of the Crucible?
Furthermore, how did the previous cycles know how and where to dock the Crucible for these mechanisms to interface with it? If the mechanisms were, like the Crucible, built independent of the Catalyst and the Reapers, why
do they all appear in one place? It’s doubtful any one cycle would have constructed all three of them, much less more than one of them. It’s also unlikely that Catalyst, who now admits to being aware of the Crucible’s existence prior to this cycle, would have allowed them to remain on the Citadel at all if it felt the mechanisms could one day threaten it.
Problem #2
We are now given the option to refuse the three main choices. Refusing to select a choice, or shooting at the Catalyst, will now end the game in the Reaper’s favor. At that point, the Catalyst either shuts the Crucible down entirely or it calls upon its forces to destroy it. We’re not shown exactly what happens, save that we do see the energy beam connecting the Citadel to the Crucible dissipating.
Which now returns us back to the heart of the problem: why does the Catalyst speak to us at all? There’s a throwaway line that the Crucible changed” the Catalyst, and during the original ending, many people interpreted that as though the Catalyst was forced by the Crucible to offer these option to Shepard. Clearly, this isn’t the case. When Shepard refuses to cooperate, the Catalyst become angry and storms off, resulting in the eventual destruction of the allied forces.
Since the Catalyst isn’t being forced to speak to Shepard, why does it speak to Shepard at all? It was the one that activated the elevator that called Shepard to it. It could have easily left Shepard there to bleed out and die next to Anderson, thus allowing the current cycle to end as it had originally ended it to. Why does it even offer the Control or Destroy options to us? It doesn’t have to. It doesn’t serve its purpose. If Synthesis is its ultimate goal, why doesn’t it just state that this is all the Crucible can do and hide the other possibilities?
None of this makes any sense at all from the perspective of the Catalyst. There’s no need to find a new solution, as it tells us earlier, as the old solution would have worked fine had it not brought Shepard up to the docking area.
Which means, essentially, that nothing we did in preparation for the final battle means anything at all. The entire survival of the galaxy rests in our ability to please a malevolent god who for reasons we will never be allowed to know, deigns to speak with us and gift us three means of removing him from the galaxy. Should we refuse its generosity, we will instead feel its terrible wrath.
Yes, we had to build the Crucible. Yes, we had to get it to the Citadel intact or mostly intact, if you have low EMS.
Yes, we had to get the Citadel’s arms open. But why do any of these things matter to the Catalyst, who can refuse to deal with us? Why, after all this time, does it feel the need to negotiate with organics after untold millennia of
harvesting them?
We must ask these questions, because after the time invested in allowing the cycle of destruction to continue, the logical and easier path for the Catalyst is to let Shepard die, destroy the Crucible, and then comb the galaxy for any trace of evidence of the Crucible and eliminate it prior to leaving for dark space again. Or, the easier path, just remove the mechanisms from the Citadel that would enable the Destroy or Control options, especially if Synthesis is the ultimate goal.
Modifié par Arisugawa, 05 juillet 2012 - 05:45 .
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