If you spend sometime reading this forum, you know that when people talk about making a ending canon, if they aren't saying that none ending should be made canon, they probably will defend that it should be destroy. I strongly disagree with it, but before I tell why (which I already did in some threads), I want to make some things clear:
- ME need a canon to keep going. It was fun to see our choices going through an entire trilogy, but it should stay in the trilogy. ME need a solid structure to be build upon and would be a disservice to keep it stuck in the past. It's impossible to keep importing our choices indefinitely and trying to do it will result in a lot of generic consequences, like the Rachni in ME3. For example, let say that the Geth will show up in the next ME, so if they died in your save the Quarian will recreate them and you will have the same story of other players that saved them, only with a few, almost insignificant changed details, completely killing the impact of your decisions. Generic consequences, nobody want that so canon it is.
- This thread is about the ME universe as a whole, not about Shepard. I want to look at the matter without Shepard's death weighting upon it. Personally I prefer to think that Shepard died in every ending, but even if Bioware decide that they want him alive, it's better to get a retcon than to stuck ME to one possibility based merely on Shepard's death. So the perspective of this thread is that Shepard might be alive or dead in any ending (with a considerable retcon to help to keep him alive and with a personal preference to keep him dead), this way we can look at the ending free of the feelings we have toward the character.
- I won't even bother talking about synthesis as a possible canon. This thread is about control as a better option compared to destroy. I think almost everyone agree that synthesis is just too messy to build upon and by far the worse choice to do a canon.
Now we can talk about control itself. All boils down to 3 matters: The reapers fate, the synthetics fate and the recover of the galaxy.
The Reapers doesn't need to stay around. One of the issues people find in control is how the presence of Shepard's controlled reapers would affect the story, but there's no reason to assume they will be present. They might just vanish, which I see as a compelling way to deal with the matter. They help to rebuild things, maybe set some matters then Shepard decide that it's better not to interfere and just vanish to dark space. This open a wildly range of possibilities, like religions being created around Shepard, "prophecies" about his return, maybe some fanatics doing "his will". He can be kept as a mystery, something that will leave his influence over this galaxy and might even show up again in a far future (ME7 =D). An example I can use is the Elder Scrolls Dwemer race. They vanished and became an interesting mystery. You still can see their influence over Tamriel, with their technology scattered across the continent and they might even return someday, since nobody know exactly what happened to them.
If this isn't appealing to you, they doesn't need to be alive in control. Shepard might just rebuild and after sometime realize that the best solution, the best way to start a new era is to get rid of them. He might just send them to the nearest star and you will have the same outcome of destroy but with benefits (my next two points). Shepard might go with them to die or keep one reaper to "be" him, then go to dark space or hide somewhere in the galaxy. In anyway, you get destroy inside control.
The synthetics won't be destroyed. I like the outcome of Rannoch where both races survive. Why? Because it create an interesting scenario to explore. How Rannoch will be some years after ME3 with Quarian and Geth living together? They will live in peace, with an almost symbiotic relationship like Drell and Hanar, or there will be factions that can't get over the hate and will bring conflicts back to Rannoch? It's a disservice to the franchise to kill this possibilities and control solve this issue by keeping them alive.
The Reapers will help to rebuild the galaxy. One of the major issues with ME3 ending is the state of the galaxy after the crucible is used. They even changed it on the extended version, where most Relays aren't totally destroyed, only the core is damaged. The Reapers rebuilding create a more solid scenario to work with. They build the Relays, they are the best option by far to rebuild them. In control, the galaxy rebuild faster, the impact of the war still something terrible but we still have pretty much the same universe. They might even rebuild the Citadel, after all, it's their own creation. I think everyone would love to have this iconic station back, right? Well, control make it possible.
So, that's it. There's no reason to pick destroy as canon when control can achieve the same result with half the issues, or even something more compelling, like Reapers vanishing back to dark space.
TLDR: ME need a canon and control have the potential to offer the best scenario to build the franchise upon, considering that you don't need to keep the reapers around (or even alive), the synthetics survive and the galaxy will rebuild faster.
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