CosmicGnosis wrote...
Cgow91 wrote...
I'm not so sure about this line of reasoning. This could be used to undermine the validity of almost any choice your character makes across the series.
Let's say I am playing a jerk Shep, who chooses not not to destroy the heretics, not because it spared synthetic life, but because my Shepard views them as nothing but machines, and has no moral quandry brainwashing/repurposing them. Is this a pro-synthetic solution because the idea of equality of life-forms exists in the decission? The heretic example is framed as thematically positive, but even if chosen for anti-synthetic reasons, is my jerk Shep actually pro-synthetic because the idea is still there? I would say that the reason someone picks a choice is the deciding factor on the morality of it, and whether or not it discredits any form of life.
Let's say instead of wiping out synthetic life, the crucible would instead kill all biotics, because of the implants (or something equally as arbitrary). If a Shep would still pick destroy in a hypothetical situation where any other non-synthetic race was sacrificed , doesn't it mean that particular Shepard is not anti-synthetic, just anti-reaper? Or do the geth deserve special attention above and beyond the other races?
The Geth were collatoral damage, just as any race sacrificed would have been collatoral damage. My Shepard was pro-synthetic throughout ME2 and ME3. He still shot the tube. He would have shot the tube if it killed all humans, or all asari, or any other of the individual races as well. It will haunt him forever, but in his eyes it was the only choice that ensured the reaper threat was dealt with permanantly.
I truly think that whether or not the destroy option is inheritly anti-synthetic or not depends on the individual Shepard or player. Justs because the idea of synthetics being lesser than organics can exist in the Destroy ending, it doesn't mean it always does.
In my opinion The Reason > The Act
And Javik hates everything. It is beautiful yet twisted form of equality
I think it's important to emphasize that this isn't the same as killing the vorcha or humans or asari. Destroy kills all synthetic life. Thus, the only equivalent would be the destruction of all organic life. Destroys obliterates an entire "lifetype", not just a few races. It just so happens that there are less synthetics than there are organics.
It also doesn't help that picking Destroy places you in the company of people like Javik, people who don't consider synthetics to be truly alive. I think this crowd taints Destroy even more.
I can see where you are coming from, and it is a perfectly valid line of thought, but the way I see it, at the time of crucibles firing, there is only a single synthetic race, +edi. Two if you count the virtual aliens only mentioned on the cerburus daily news, but to be fair, they were originally organic, they just uploaded themselves into a big computer.
Assuming that all forms of life are equal, it becomes a numbers game. As numerous as the geth are, they are a small portion of the galaxy. As the geth do not have civillians, their entire population can be represented by their war asset values. In terms of realised AI units, they are numerous, but not considerably more so than the quarians, or any other race for that matter.
Shepard sacrifices 300,000 batarians just to slow the reapers down, not because he views Batarians as lesser life forms, but because all other life would suffer if he did not. Along the same lines, it is not unreasonable for him to sacrifice a single race of the galaxy to end the threat once and for all, no matter if organic or synthetic. I don't think comparing killing the geth (a single race) to killing all organic life (everyone else) is treating synthetic and organic life equally, but rather treating the geth as special soley for the virtue of being synthetic. That is positive racism (specism?), valuing a single synthetic race over multiple organic ones.
Also, on the Javik point, I think the only reason he is so adamant about destroying the reapers is because he does not know of a viable method to control them. From what we know about the Prothean Empire, you know, with their fondness of valuable slave races, I think he would have no problem enslaving the reapers if he could be convinced that it would be successful. Of course, he would still view AI as mere machines.
Modifié par Cgow91, 06 novembre 2012 - 11:19 .
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