Before the Citadel DLC was released, I believed that in the end of the DLC, Shepard would find an alternate way to stop the Reapers, but decides to keep it secret from anyone outside from his/her squad which would explain why they are throwing a party in the middle of a war, and why Shepard never mentions it to Anderson or Hackett in the game's original content, keeping the alternative way to stop the Reapers other than using the Crucible top secret.
As I was playing the DLC, when going through the Citadel archives, seeing virtual videos of how the asari discovered the Citadel, how the Spectres were formed, how the genophage was deployed and all that, I believed that Shepard may eventually stumble onto a virtual video where he/she learns the origins of the Crucible, learn its secrets and use its secrets against the Catalyst to beat the Reapers on his/her terms. Or at the end of the party, the war asset called "Team Spirit" could be used as a war asset that helps strengthen Shepard's resolve (which is why it is never found in the war asset list on the Normandy), triggering the Charm or Intimidate dialogue options after the Catalyst says "Then you will die knowing you failed to save everything you fought for", and by choosing these dialogue options, Shepard will explain in Paragon or Renegade style why he/she refused to choose Destroy, Control and Synthesis, and how the Catalyst's methods are not restoring balance, but ruining the growth of life, being afraid of what might happen, just like how the salarians are afraid of curing the genophage, afraid to give the krogan a future, for better or worse. Convinced by Shepard words, the Catalyst would then give Shepard the chance to destroy the Reapers by allowing him/her to use the Crucible manually, which would be dangerous, because without certain war assets for the Crucible, the blast could backfire in any number of ways and Shepard could die destroying the Reapers his/her way. But no, it didn't happen. Nothing changed.
The Team Spirit war asset made me believe that the way to defeat the Reapers Shepard's way is not by finding some other super weapon, but from the bonds of Shepard's allies and friends, who come in many different species, including a synthetic, EDI, which the Catalyst believes would always rebel from organics based on what he has seen back in the era when he tried to manifest the solution similar to Synthesis for the Leviathans. EDI and Joker's friendship is an example of what could happen if the Catalyst let life run its course instead of trying to dictate the way how life evolves and makes decisions.
I also believed that the reason why BioWare left us fans hanging with the Destory, Control and Synthesis endings is because they had no choice but to give endings that give us the sensation that the war against the Reapers really can't be won, they not only rigged the course of humanity and other species evolution, but also the war, meaning they manipulated all species in each cycle to build the Crucible, which is the Catalyst's new plan to find a solution after its previous efforts to find a solution always ended in conflict. Those that fail to complete and use the Crucible get harvested, in hopes that the next cycle succeeds where the previous cycle failed.
Illusive Man (on the Thessia mission): "...No. i'm saying they got it right. Why kill when you can control?"
Shepard (Intimidate dialogue): "The Reapers have it right? You're indoctrinated! you're just doing what the Reapers want!"
Illusive Man: "I could say the same about you, fighting a war that can't be won."
Any war can be won unless the enemy has the whole war rigged and booby trapped in ways we can't imagine.
I believed that the Stargazer epilogue scene at the end of the game hinted that without playing through the "Leviathan, Omega and Citadel" DLCs, the way how Shepard defeated the Reapers is unclear.
"Did that really happen?"
"Yes, but some of the details have been lost in time. It all happened long ago."
I thought that was a sneaky way of telling fans that even though Destroy, Control and Synthesis are one of the accessible endings, they are not canon. How can the next trilogy continue in the state the galaxy is in with the endings we have? Those are endings offered to us by our enemy! They don't give us true victory, even with the Extended Cut! I thought BioWare would eventually give us the "canon" endings, the endings where Shepard lives or dies stopping the Reapers his/her way at a time before we recieve the first details about "ME4", the new Mass Effect related game which won't be called "Mass Effect" at all. I don't know what to think anymore, and so I'm leaving the Mass Effect games, and play games who stay true to the narrative no matter how... "creative" their developers get.
The possibility of there being a Successful Refuse ending is also hinted in what Illusive Man says to Shepard after you have Shepard say this:
Shepard: "I may have believed in you once, but you've gone too far."
Illusive Man: "You're out of your depth. There are choices coming that you aren't equipped to make."
Why would Illusive Man, an indoctrinated person say this? Is he hinting that he knows that Shepard won't approve any of the choices the Reapers will present to him and that refusing them is a bad idea? What can we do to get equipped for this? The answer is: nothing. Even after playing through the last single player DLC, we still aren't equipped. Thanks for yanking our chain, BioWare, very funny.
See you later guys. I'm moving on to games like Baldur's Gate, who stay true to the narrative and nature of its characters.
Modifié par N7Gold, 06 mars 2013 - 10:42 .
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