demersel wrote...
BansheeOwnage wrote...
You still want to destroy the reapers in refuse. You just don't do anything.

Yet it is a mystery why you don't do it if you still want to, given that you actually can do just that right this instant.
Well, you can't -- you can perform the "in dream" action, that allegedly has that effect; but at the end of the day NONE of the four choices have the outcomes we are presented with -- those would be Shepard's extended, endorphine-fuelled reasoning (reasoning also weighted by judging your amassed resources, which determines your confidence, which is why you can "die" in your daydream, if it seems likely that would happen) and self-justification, behind their choice. I believe most of us have been in a few real-life situations, where we, after having made an important choice of some sort, have found ourselves running through our decision, over and over, for some time, including extrapolating how we think they'll play out. In this case, I'd say Shepard is also being manipulated on a hormone production level, rewarding uncritical thinking - you're still right in there, in your happy-rush, mind you, even if you DID see though the ruse -- hence the illusion being there for every choice.
The shown actions are not real, of course, but metaphorical to Shepard's "persuasion" for the moment (bad choice of words, but I'm at loss for better, at the moment).
I am fairly sure you agree on that part and would be just as likely to lecture me on it, as my redundantly doing it now.
In my more facetious moments, I like to think that Shepard's just_standing_there, after rejecting the proffered choices and thereby making her own, is her enjoying the lightshow, knowing full well that it's just smoke and mirrors. That's stretching it, given the presentation, but what the heek... :7
I, too, used to see Destroy as Shepard's own addition to the tableau (well, they all are, really; each representing some seed of reasoning already present, but some more than others and some more reaper-sanctioned than others), but it never did sit right with me; It has the same flavour of: "the end justifies the means", as Starbinger's justification for his "solutions" - I had to close my eyes really hard to see it as anything other than just another slight moral compass deviation, towards one that parallels that of the Reapers, so when the Extended Cut gifted me "Opt Out" (which I assess very different to you), that perfected IT for me.
There are reasons (mostly legacy) why I still regard Destroy as beating indoctrination, but for me Refusing is the real thing - more on the nose, with less jumping through logical hoops.
I have my arbitrary interpretation and you have yours -- hopefully at the one year anniversary we'll learn whether one, or maybe both, in any way matches that of Casey and Mac.