MystEU wrote...
Shepard walks into the implied sunset for that particular ending. That's good enough for me, along with the placement in the narrative, especially since the endings finally feel like you've actually "won." The presentation of each ending also better illustrates what line you have to cross to achieve victory. Each one is something else with its own downside. The EC execution makes that so much better.
The endings in no way feel like you've won anything if you really look at them.
Refuse can't be taken seriously because it was not a serious attempt by the devs to solve the real problem that still exists; the function of the crucible was to create alternate solutions and the explanation of those solutions are given by a less than trustworthy being. For one thing he may still be lying. But for another, he may be wrong in what he thinks they do. But the only way to object to that, refusal, leads to certain death which is a stupid thing for any video game to do. It's the devs saying that if we think their design for an ending was stupid, then "game over".
All of the choices still mean people are fated to a certain outcome, no matter what. In picking one, Shepard must agree with the star kid's premise that conflict is inevitable and people are not willing or able to ever work things out. It still denies what happened between the geth and the quarians and that the issue was solved one way or another. The devs omitted that, persisting in their idea that they are right about it because someone somewhere theorized it was a possibility.
Destroy is what you set out to do, but it has a high cost. It is the only choice that leaves people's futures in their own hands in reality. It is the hardest in many ways because it requires Shepard kill the best examples of why people are not fated to do what the star kid says they will always do-be at conflict with synthetics. So, it also says the only way to avoid that is to just destroy all synthetic life. It is more mature in the consequences, but still childish on what it says about people. If you choose this, there's no clear win. In fact, a living Shepard will have to face the fact s/he destroyed what his/her heart helped create.
Control is not what paragon Shepard's want and the new Shreaper echoes this saying what only a renegade or TIM might say-in mine (almost full paragon) she says that the woman she was knew she had to become something greater. No she didn't. Not in my game. My Shepard knew she had to rely on people to want to do the right thing, the better thing, and she did not want to control reapers. She wanted the reapers gone. She never found TIM's position valid. She destroyed the Collector's base because it was an abomination full of the renderings of people's life that had been literally sucked from their bodies. No way she could ever become reaper commander knowing the reapers contain the same. She is also sensitive to the fact people will suffer knowing reapers may contain their loved one's goo. And, self-determination is denied to people since Shreaper and the reapers will be there to fix and create tech advancements and to police the galaxy. This is a childish choice that says again that people cannot rely on themselves to do anything, to face conflict (they have worked out in the past) and fix it. They need an overseer to make sure no such conflict ever exists. This is not a win. It is fatalistic and creates the super nanny in space. It leaves open questions as to what could be a very dark future since it's not known how the catalyst became a warped program or AI. It is unknown since the catalyst was the collective intelligence of all reapers, just what Shreaper is now and what influences will come to bear on him/her. It is ominous as shown.
Synthesis is not what any moral Shepard would do. It was never a goal of anyone's in any serious way, outside of the indoctrinated (Saren) and even TIM. TIM saw it as a way to control the reapers-a means to get to them or he was investigating it while indoctrinated. Further, it is the goal of the star kid who is warped. It also is forced upon people without their knowledge or consent. It says that people cannot solve problems with others that are different from them without becoming a part of them or more like them. It says that in order for people to avoid a conflict which they have already been able to resolve at one point, they need an external influence to make them become more like their perceived adversary. It is fatalistic and creates a more homogenized populace. It also leaves the reapers alive but more perfectly achieves one of their goals. It uses trumped up ideas of perfection-warped in its explanation and in its existence as a goal. It's a goal apparently of some of the writers, but not of all people. It's childish in this way as well. It leaves open many questions as well of what could be a very dire future. Immortality leading to over-population and no clear way to naturally deal with that. There is no win here.
None of the choices are wins at all. As well the only non-choice is no win or even a satisfying loss.
The whole thing calls into question just what makes life worth living. EDI and the geth strived so hard and finally found it (paragon Shepard choices), but in the only end choice that would be most in line with what they did, they get punished for it as does Shepard for adhering to it. Destroy (if the kid is believed and the crucible does what he says it does) is the only choice that fits what Shepard taught EDI about what being alive means. But someone sadistically made her pay for it.
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