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[CroGamer002]

Post link( some profanity warning):

Let’s talk Synthesis for a moment here. The Right choice. The choice that BioWare really, really, please-guise-I-pinky-swear-it’s-awesome-really wants you to take. The choice that results in the galaxy turning into a place of ~magic~ and friendship, where every Tin Man gets a heart and every person gets to live forever, and everyone is always happy and ****ting half-robotic rainbows.

Yeah. That option is seriously ****ed up to the point where it’s just ****ing evil, if you ask me.

I need to talk about this because this option, and especially the way it is presented, ****ing terrifies me.

Look, I know the ethical problems with this option probably aren’t the first ones that come to mind. For one, there’s that whole tiny issue of the whole thing being completely impossible and nonsensical:

Shepard: Explain how my energy can be added to the Crucible?
Star Child: There’s little time left, but I will try. Your organic energy, the essence of who and what you are will be broken down and dispersed.



Oh wow. OK…that sure cleared that right up.



How exactly do you alter the DNA of every living organic in the galaxy to instantly turn them into half-robots using the power of Shepard’s “organic energy,” whatever that is?
And let’s not forget this little gem:

Star Child: Synthesis is the final evolution of all life.

What does this even mean? And, if both organics and synthetics used to evolve, why don’t the organic-synthetic hybrids do? And you can’t finalize the evolution of all life, and even if you could, doesn’t saying that synthesizing everyone was the final step in their evolution directly contradict what EDI says later in the epilogue?

EDI: we may transcend mortality itself to reach a level of existence I cannot even imagine.

How can she not imagine a level of existence she’s already supposed to be at?
**** it, I was going to talk about how nonsensical all of this is, but, you know what?, I won’t. Just **** it, let’s move on… move on to EDI’s epilogue speech and some of the utter bull**** in that, starting with the very first line:

EDI: I am alive.

OK, sure EDI, we’ve known that one for a while now. Oh, you mean now you’re alive? As in, the entire point in ME2 and 3 about synthetics being just as valid form of life as organics was what, bull****? Didn’t you say you were alive back when we were saying goodbye on Earth? Oh, that’s right, you did:

EDI: Jeff was the one who allowed me to think for myself. But only now do I feel alive.

So what is it with this bull**** implication that you needed to become partly organic in order to become a Real Girl?
Next she says this sentence:

EDI: As a galaxy, we can now live the lives we have wished for, taking our first steps into a new and wonderful future, where organics and synthetics can coexist peacefully.



Where do I even begin with this one…

Just the fact that these people were so oblivious to and/or undisturbed by the implications of this monstrosity of a choice they came up with, that they were capable of presenting it in this completely one-sided ~friendship, magic, happiness and prosperity forever~ kind of a way is…pretty ****ing scary, to be honest. Shepard single-handedly decided it was a-ok to completely disregard the bodily and mindly autonomy of every single living being in the galaxy, change their freaking DNA and turn them into something else against their will. The fact that this is treated as a non-issue and that that this violation is presented to us as a gift and a blessing that was for everyone’s own good… look, there has to be something seriously wrong with you present this as a “first step into a new and wonderful future” without a single hint of acknowledging any of the many, many problematic (to put it mildly) aspects of it.

where organics and synthetics can coexist peacefully

Ok, how the hell can “organics and synthetics” coexist in any way when there are no actual organics or synthetics anymore? But more importantly, the implication that the only possible way you accomplish lasting peaceful coexistence between two different groups is by making them more like each other (without their consent no less!) is a beyond ****ed up idea that has brought us so much pain and all kinds of pure horror throughout history that I have many, many issues with it being presented so lightly and cheerfully here.

As a galaxy, we can now live the lives we have wished for

What ****ing galaxy are you talking about EDI, ‘cause it sure as hell isn’t the one I spent 3 games in. No one wished for that.

If you went around the galaxy asking people, from turians, to asari, to geth, how they’d feel about being transformed into some half-organic-half-synthetic form of life without their consent, I mother****ing guarantee you that the great majority of them, if not all of them, would be strongly against the idea. How many people were happy with the way they were? How many of them had religious or philosophical beliefs that’d make them consider being something like this a ****ing abomination? How many of them would say they’d rather die than become some organic-synthetic hybrid?

“But they’re all happy now!” you might say.

Well. I disagree. If you ask me, they’re all gone now; who came in their place might be happy being what it is.

But even that happiness is a proof of nothing. The reapers might be happy being who they are, but that doesn’t justify turning all the people who didn’t want it into reapers. In Dragon Age, the tranquil mages might say they’re better off being tranquil, but that doesn’t justify making people tranquil. When in DA2 Karl’s former-self comes through, he begs to be killed rather than live as a tranquil, even though he had no problem with being tranquil while he was tranquil. Do you get what I’m saying here?

The synthesis tries to present the extent of the changes that happened to these people as simple eye-color change and an added urge to solve all your problems by hugging it out and singing kumbaya, while your personality and identity remains intact, but that is the fault of the horrible, misleading presentation and the writers not thinking through the full implications of their own scenario.

Take Javik, for example. Did he throw himself out of an airlock the moment he became part-synthetic? Apparently not - he’s calmly standing in front of the memorial wall, paying his respects to Shepard. Do you realize how much Javik had to be changed in order for him, not only not kill himself for being a half-synthetic, but be grateful to Shepard for turning him into one? How the hell is this post-synthesis Javik the same person the old Javik was?

Now, the question of personal identity is like really, really, seriously complex. There isn’t a clear-cut answer, and there isn’t an answer that everyone would accept. My personal opinion is that these people were too changed by the process of synthesis to, in any meaningful sense, be considered the same people they were before it.  Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think the fact that there’s a certain degree of bodily (although even their DNA was changed) and/or cognitive continuity between what they were moments before synthesis and after it is enough to make them the same people; maybe you think they have immaterial souls that were kept through the the process of synthesis; maybe you think something else all together. That is exactly my point - all of these people in the galaxy defined themselves differently. They had different answers to that quintessential “who am I?” question. When they’d think “this is what makes me me” they’d point to different things, and for many of those people what they’d point to as that core of their personal identity is gone. Even if you think they survived the process of synthesis, a lot of them would disagree if they were still around to disagree. Would the old Javik consider the new Javik to be him if he could see him? If he could, like Karl, peek through for a few moments, would he beg anyone who’d happen to be nearby to kill him rather than let him continue living as an abomination he’d think he’s become?

More than anything, I simply can’t get past the fact that Shepard did something like this to the entire galaxy without anyone’s consent. And I can’t get past the fact that these problematic (again, to put it mildly) aspects are never touched upon and are treated as a non-issue in the narrative, and when brought up in conversations, justified with “well, it was for their own good”. Especially as we’re living in a world where people’s bodily autonomy is regularly violated in so many different ways, and where so often those violations are ignored or minimized, or justified with that same disgusting “yeah, maybe that’s  not what she/he wanted, but I know it was for the best”, or “it’s not that bad, look, she/he’s not complaining about it being done”.

The thing is that, in my opinion, Shepard had no right to do something like that. And you might say something like, “well, Shepard didn’t have the right to sacrifice the entire Geth race in the destroy ending either!”, but that’s completely different, not to mention pretty wrong.

Shepard entered a…kind of a half-explicit-half-implicit agreement with everyone who willingly signed up to fight. That agreement boils down to this: Shepard agreed to do everything in her/his power to destroy the reapers; in turn, they all agreed to lay their lives on the line, fight, and if necessary even die helping her/him achieve that goal.

They did not sign up to lay their lives on the line to help her/him turn them all into some new kind of new,
half-organic-half-synthetic beings.

Lets be real here, if Shepard came to any of them asking them to lay their lives on the line to help her/him perform what’s essentially corrective brainwashing procedure on all of them, instead of coming to them asking them to lay their lives down to help her/him destroy the reapers (which she/he has been promising to (try to) do since ME1 all the way to the end of ME3), how many of them do you think would still be doing it? A lot less. A lot, lot less, being that that’s to many of them a fate worse than death and definitely something they’d never sign up to help with.

There’s one more thing. There are many more things, but I’ll just mention this one. Even if we say that synthesis is absolutely wonderful, that all these moral issues I already touched upon are non-issues, and that Shepard’s decision to synthesize everyone resulted in an absolute perfect Utopia, it still doesn’t necessarily make it the right, or even a good, choice to make.

Synthesis gets hailed by people as this great utilitarian option that results in the greatest good for the most people, but, even if we were to say that people even truly survived being synthesized and that Shepard’s decision to synthesize everyone resulted in a perfect Utopia, choosing synthesis is immoral according to many kinds of utilitarianism itself. Choosing synthesis is immoral if you subscribe to preference utilitarianism, as it is choosing an option that is almost certainly against the wishes of most of the people it would affect. Choosing
synthesis is probably immoral if you subscribe to any version of utilitarianism that prioritizes the likely consequences over the actual or intended ones. Why? Because Shepard didn’t really have enough info toconvince her/him that the likely consequences of synthesis would be positive. Hell, she/he had barely any idea what they would be.

Let’s take a look at what Shepard knows about synthesis at the time she/he is choosing whether or not to condemn all existing life and all life that will ever exist to it:

Star Child: Add your energy to the Crucible’s. The chain reaction will combine all synthetic and organic life into a new framework. A new DNA.

Star Child: The energy of the Crucible released in this way will alter the matrix of all organic life in the galaxy.

So, you know you’d be altering “the matrix of all organic life,” for whatever valuable insight that gives you. And everyone gets new DNA. No big deal.

Star Child: Organics will be perfected by integrating fully with synthetic technology, synthetics in turn will finally have full understanding of organics.

And everyone gets “perfected” (gee, what does this remind me of…could it be… eugenics?) by “integrating fully with synthetic technology”. Now if only we knew what this “perfected” and especially “fully” entailed exactly, or if not exactly than at least, like, at all…

Star Child: It is the ideal solution.

Hey, now you know that Star Child, you know, the **** who indoctrinates people to make them kill their own kind, turns people into husks, and harvests entire civilizations to turn them into machines for harvesting other civilization, thinks this is jolly good idea.

Star Child: Now that we know it is possible, it is inevitable we will reach synthesis.

Star Child: Synthesis is the final evolution of all life.

You heard it people, not only is this nonsense, like, totally possible, it’s the inevitable “final evolution” of life.



Shepard: Why couldn’t you do it sooner?
Star Child: We have tried a similar solution in the past, but it has always failed.

As it turns out, the option doesn’t exactly have what I’d call a stellar track record when it comes to its implementation.

Shepard: Why?
Star Child: Because the organics were not ready. It is not something that can be…forced. You are ready and you may choose it.

You know that it can’t be forced. It failed every previous time it was attempted, because “the organics were not ready”. I suppose Shepard has good reasons to think the organics are totally ready for it this time… It’s not like they largely don’t even consider geth to be anything more than glorified toasters that should be shot on sight; it shouldn’t take any “forcing” to get them to embrace the prospect of becoming half-synthetic.

The cycle will end. The reapers will cease their harvest, and the civilizations preserved in their forms will be connected to all of us.

OK, the cycle would end, reapers would no longer reap. The first clearly good thing I’ve heard. As for “the civilizations preserved in their forms”, it’s a bit unclear if this would be a good thing, or a chance for those poor creatures to comprehend and become properly horrified by what they are/have become.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the info you have on synthesis at the time you’re choosing it. I can’t say the Star Child made a particularly compelling case for it… All moral issues and **** aside, choosing it based on this info alone seems pretty stupid and irresponsible to me.

I’m supposed to end this or something. ****. Have this gif as a reward for coming this far and reading through all that rambling:

[Earthborn_Shepard]

True.

Just one thing. If synthesis was the natural form of evolution...
then why doesn't it happen by itself? Why does it have to be forced?

[vics20]

can't believe I read that whole thing.

2 things,

1) you can skip the images, they obnoxious.

2) this is almost exactly how I feel. To me, synthesis was the most revolting ending in the EC but this pretty much nails all the problems I have with it.

But hey, its what we got so it is what it is.

[Spartas Husky]

WTF is the last picture LOL is hilarious

[CroGamer002]

Earthborn_Shepard wrote...

True.

Just one thing. If synthesis was the natural form of evolution...
then why doesn't it happen by itself? Why does it have to be forced?

Because whoever wrote Synthesis doesn't understand how evolution works.

[mauro2222]

Garrus has the best hip movement.

On topic. Immortality... EDI doesn't have DNA or cells in her body, she can't die from age. We only need to alter a gene to grant immortality, the one who limits the reproductive capability of the cells.

[Astartes Marine]

Just wanted to add on to one of your points.

Star Child: Organics will be perfected by integrating fully with
synthetic technology, synthetics in turn will finally have full
understanding of organics.



And everyone gets “perfected” (gee, what does this remind me of…could it
be… eugenics?) by “integrating fully with synthetic technology”. Now if
only we knew what this “perfected” and especially “fully” entailed
exactly, or if not exactly than at least, like, at all…



Star Child: It is the ideal solution.

You know what this part reminded me of?  This!

Wait a minute, no, that's not it...although Synthesis does leave everyone like a Borg...this is what I was looking for, from the mouth of Harbinger no less.

[Spartas Husky]

Eugenics... my god how come I didn't think of it... I thought Synthesis was wrong on so many premises of choice and the gift of life in all its forms...

Now, my god I get it. Jesus perfecting through genetic manipulation, that does bring good memories from history class. And I'm a history geek. I admit it I completely missed eugenics for some reason. My apologies. Synthesis was wrong on a literature premise I had thought was sound but now... all I can say is my god I was blind but now I can see. Thank you.

[Unfallen_Satan]

Did BioWare say Synthesis is "the right choice"? I mean, it's harder to reach, but maybe BioWare thought it would be more controversial so they intentionally made it harder to get.

[Forsythia]

True. Synthesis is the worst ending, when I see my crew with that green crap in their face I can only think "They didn't want this!". Seeing Wrex with that green crap, smiling. No way he'd smile after that! I refuse to choose synthesis on new playthroughs, it just goes against everything my Shepard stands for.

[GabrielK]

Remember if you guys don't like it, you obviously didn't get it. Because it's not possible to get something and just not want it. Right guys? Obviously it has to be that you don't get it! HAS TO BE! YOU CAN'T NOT LIKE IT IF YOU GET IT!!!!!!111111111111

Ahem.

Yeah Synthesis bothered me too.

[Thorn Harvestar]

“But they’re all happy now!” you might say.

Well. I disagree. If you ask me, they’re all gone now; who came in their place might be happy being what it is. 

Agreed

Modifié par Thorn Harvestar, 29 juin 2012 - 07:18 .

[Earthborn_Shepard]

Unfallen_Satan wrote...

Did BioWare say Synthesis is "the right choice"? I mean, it's harder to reach, but maybe BioWare thought it would be more controversial so they intentionally made it harder to get.

Well.... it looks like the "canon" ending because it's exactly in the middle and much more striking than the other two "side options".

Also, the folks at Bioware seem to prefer it. I don't exactly remember, but I think some of them defended Synthesis pretty heavily on twitter.

[devSin]

Mesina2 wrote...

Because whoever wrote Synthesis doesn't understand how evolution works.

They appear to also have issues with the concept of ethics and morality.

The most brilliant part of the extended cut is that it simply makes this option patently ridiculous. It went from monstrously offensive in the original ending to just plain creepy.

[Bill Casey]

Earthborn_Shepard wrote...

Also, the folks at Bioware seem to prefer it. I don't exactly remember, but I think some of them defended Synthesis pretty heavily on twitter.

It's because they've been indoctrinated...

[CroGamer002]

devSin wrote...

Mesina2 wrote...

Because whoever wrote Synthesis doesn't understand how evolution works.

They appear to also have issues with the concept of ethics and morality.

The most brilliant part of the extended cut is that it simply makes this option patently ridiculous. It went from monstrously offensive in the original ending to just plain creepy.

It still remained monstrously offensive, only even more with EC.

[TamiBx]

Thorn Harvestar wrote...

“But they’re all happy now!” you might say.

Well. I disagree. If you ask me, they’re all gone now; who came in their place might be happy being what it is. 

Agreed

QFT.

Im creeped out about this in so many ways. We don't even know the consequences to this choice...maybe the Reapers will now (with the help of former organics) move on to another galaxy and do the same thing to other people in another galaxy...

Modifié par TamiBx, 29 juin 2012 - 07:28 .

[Jadebaby]

mauro2222 wrote...

Garrus has the best hip movement.

On topic. Immortality... EDI doesn't have DNA or cells in her body, she can't die from age. We only need to alter a gene to grant immortality, the one who limits the reproductive capability of the cells.

Javiik's is funny.

On topic- well thought out, lot of contradictions there.

[movieguyabw]

vics20 wrote...

2) this is almost exactly how I feel. To me, synthesis was the most revolting ending in the EC but this pretty much nails all the problems I have with it.

But hey, its what we got so it is what it is.

This.

Personally, I just pretend that Synthesis doesn't exist and the only two options at the end are Destroy and Control...  which makes sense, because that's what the whole conflict between Shepard and TIM revolved around the entire game.  Even if TIM was indoctrinated, and there was nothing to suggest Control of the actual Reapers (not their minions) was even possible until the final scene...  Or the idea that destroying the Reapers means killing off a race that you just gave sentience to - kind of the equivalent of killing children...

But I can look past those two as long as I know Shepard can become this all powerful Reaper-god, bent on fixing and protecting the galaxy...  Or knowing that Shepard and his crew will have a huge celebration once they meet up on the Citadel in the Destroy ending, and headcanoning that the Geth and EDI can be repaired, rebooted, and retain some semblance of what they were.


I thought about doing a playthrough with the idea that Shepard is fully indoctrinated, where he chooses Synthesis at the end... but that's the only possibl way I could imagine Shepard making that choice...  it's the ultimate "Reapers win" ending, for me. 

[Earthborn_Shepard]

By the way, in the EC, does Joker still limp after Synthesis?

[Thaa_solon]

yey.....
(silent) *clap* *clap* *clap*

[TamiBx]

Earthborn_Shepard wrote...

By the way, in the EC, does Joker still limp after Synthesis?

 
He does...

[ChickenMan77]

Yeah the Starchild trying to elaborate on synthesis..was one of the best LOL moments in the EC..you could positively feel the writers groping for an explanation..Well you see Shep.. you got the energy or mojo that the galaxy needs baby, so jump into that beam!

[Hudathan]

Mesina2 wrote...

Because whoever wrote Synthesis doesn't understand how evolution works.

Btw, we don't really know how it works neither, that's why it's called a theory. Don't try to use real-world science to try and debunk anything in sci-fi, it assumes that we know everything there is to know about the universe which is absurd.