Optimystic_X wrote...
daecath wrote...
Really, you have to be pretty blind not to see the themes. The reapers describe themselves as the pinnacle of evolution, which is what Hitler believed of the aryans. It's what we're supposed to believe is achieved by the merging of synthetics and organics.
The comparison is still nonsensical. Aryans were objectively no better off than any other human, whatever Hitler believed; blond hair does nothing biologically but make you sunburn more easily. Hell, Hitler was proof of that - he stood above all of them, and last I checked he was pretty far from the ideal himself - no blond hair, no blue eyes, short etc.
But cybernetics/nanotechnology DO make you objectively better off. The Alliance implants all of its soldiers, not to create some kind of moronic master race ideal, but because it just makes them fight better and react faster. And if Synthesis is to be the solution the Catalyst claims it to be, it must enhance our minds as well, as that is the only way to keep us from "creating Synthetics, and the Chaos will come back." Once we have the mental capabilities of AI ourselves, we won't need AI - we won't even need the sort of heuristics that accidentally lead to AI, like the Geth's self-improvement algorithm.
Alternatively, we'll still have code like that, but we'll be able to use it on ourselves. Either way, we'll be able to keep pace with Synthetics instead of being run over.
I don't care if synthesis means I can now leap tall buildings in a
single bound and calculate pi to ten thousand decimal places in less
than a second. That's irrelevant. Whether or not synthesis can enhance a person's abilities is not the point I was trying to make. My point is that the synthesis ending is effectively saying that the only way that anyone can coexist peacefully with anyone else is if they are identical. Synthetics will never be able to peacefully coexist with orgianics because they are too different, so the only way to permanently fix that is to make everyone the same synthetic/organic hybrid. You forgot to address the rest of my post.
daecath said...
Bigotry, prejudice, racism, etc. - they are all based on the belief that
a specific group is somehow superior to all others, that they have
nothing to contribute, and should be done away with. These beliefs
preclude the possibility of peace with anyone who is different.
Synthesis supports that premise. It states that it is impossible to
achieve a lasting peace unless everyone is merged together to create
some kind of hybrid race where everyone is the same. The only difference
is that racists would never allow such a merging to take place, but if
it were forced on them, they wouldn't have a choice. They would be the
same as everyone else at that point, and would be forced to live with it
and accept it, or kill themselves.
So yes, I find that option
increadibly insulting, I think it greatly parallels various themes such
as racism, but by validating many of the points of the racists, and I
will point that out without feeling at all guilty.
This is the exact same message as every violent hate group out there. There are only two differences between synthesis and groups like that. The first is that there is usually a statement of the worthiness about the other group that is somewhat lacking in the synthesis ending, unless you take into account the rest of the ending. The catalyst created the reapers to protect organic life from synthetic life. That right there make a value statement that says that organic life is worth saving and synthetic life is not. When combined with the premise of the synthesis ending that these two disperate groups can never coexist with their differences intact, you are very nearly to Hitler, or the KKK, or every hate group out there. "We [organics] are better than them [synthetics] and there is no way to have peaceful coexistance with them." The only difference is that they would destroy the other group, where synthesis creates a merging of the two groups.
Basically synthesis is like solving racism by turning everyone interracial. That's not a solution. And it's not what ME was about. It was always about putting aside our differences and working together to accomplish something great. Look at Ashley in ME1. Look at Pressley's journal in ME2 that you find in the crash. Look at the conflicts between Jack and Miranda or Tali and Legion in ME2. Look at the Tuchunka and Rannoch missions in ME3. Synthesis betrays all of that.
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