I admit on my first playthrough, the ending made zero sense to me, all I knew is that I didn't want to wipe out the Geth. and so I just chose Control, not really putting much thought into it, whatever I chose, the consequences would be unknown.
It occurred to me later that I had probably made the right choice, as I imagined (at the time) that choosing Destroy would create a galaxy-wide holocaust due to the Relay explosions, killing giga-trillions and sterilising countless planets of all life, leaving the handful of survivors in a new dark age, or condemning them to slow starvation.
On repeat playthroughs I was able to think things through a little better, especially after the gift of the Extended Cut DLC, which helped display the consequences of my actions. After weighing matters in my mind, I concluded that Control was still the best solution, given the limited choices available.
What it really comes down to (in my mind at least) is:
Destroy: No Reapers, war over, but at the cost of genocide of an entire race - one I had worked hard to preserve, and bring a peaceful resolution to their conflict with the Quarians.
Cost unacceptable. For me, Destroy is a pure Renegade choice, a chance to achieve the desired result, regardless of cost, potentially preserving Shepard's own life in the bargain.
Synthesis: Reapers no longer a threat, war over, but with unknown and potentially dire long-term consequences. Little is explained about the effects and nature of synthesis. At it's best and most benign, it could result in a new galactic peace, based upon uniformity of form and purpose, but at what cost?
"We must join them, we must join with the Reapers, Organic and machine intertwined, a union of flesh and steel"Sound familiar?
I believe that the underpinning lesson within the Mass Effect series is that differences are to be preserved, and celebrated.
We celebrated the fact that, with effort, the various races were able to overcome their hostilities, and prejudices, regardless of philosophical premise, location or physical makeup. We cured the Genophage, and saw Turians and Krogan - once the bitterest of enemies, joined together for common cause. We (pending choices) witnessed an end to the destructive conflict between the Geth and the Quarians. We saw Humans given a place on the Council. Even the Battarians played their part.
Ultimately, our Prothean squad-mate explained how the very homogenisation, and enforced uniformity brought about by the Prothean's empire-building was one of the very factors that contributed to their eventual extinction. Lacking diversity and the flexibility that comes with it, they were unable to adapt to the Reaper invasion. It was this very diversity (according the Javik) that could allow the current galactic community defeat the Reapers.
Synthesis (for me at least) flies directly in the face of this lesson, replacing diversity with homogenised uniformity. Rather than celebrating the differences between species, synthesis (potentially) creates a single common 'race'. A vast melting pot similar to the one used in the old song. When you really think about it, this is the very essence of the Reapers - Each Reaper a community of harvested civilisations, now melded into a single, vast entity; all individuality fused together into one synthetic being. Synthesis says:
"Diversity, and differences between species can never be reconciled. We must therefore fuse all into one organism", the polar opposite of the original Mass Effect lesson.
My Shepard rejects this choice utterly, seeing it as a defeat, a failure to learn the lessons he has witnessed first hand.
Reject: The 'throw the toys out of the pram ending', and an obvious wrong choice, as doing so dooms the entire galactic civilisation. Choosing to go down in a blaze of glory has a certain romantic feel to it, it's very Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but refusing a series of choices that would save trillions of lives, and instead choosing to sacrifice everyone and everything simply in order to stick it to the man (or in this case the Star Bratt) is as murderously nihilistic as it is selfish. Shepard already knows The Reapers cannot be defeated by conventional means, the Crucible is the only hope.
This leaves only one solution - Control.
It's not without it's danger, and certainly a gamble. How do we really know that Shepard will be able to control the Reapers indefinitely? What if his personality is slowly subsumed into the Reaper collective, allowing the cycle to begin again?
This was the ultimate goal of Cerberus all along, is Shepard eventually forced to admit that The Illusive Man was right all along?
Regardless, given the limitations of the choices available, I firmly believe that Control offers the best possible outcome.
Modifié par AshenSugar, 10 décembre 2012 - 11:47 .
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Shepard's personality having been stored in Javik's memory shard, © the Crucible storing Shepard's personality and sending out a copy of the information - after all information can be copied, (d) Shepard spontaneously re-coalescing.
