That organics and synthetics end up having fights is about the only pattern that exists. There's nothing more significant about that than organics fighting each other. The Catalyst has hardcoded into it that that's the one it's supposed to deal with, nothing more.
The fact that the Catalyst claims something doesn't make me accept it. It's just bigoted. I'm not going to fall for an appeal to authority fallacy. Its long observation might have some weight in reality but this is fiction, and dealing with an issue that could at least theoretically happen in reality, so you can't just have a character claim anything you like and have me swallow it, and more than if it claimed some racist or sexist nonsense with "Hey, I've seen it!"
None of this emotional-driven speech changes anything. You don't have to accept it, you don't have to believe it, you don't have to agree with it. It doesn't matter what you feel. Those are the reasons the star brat are doing it, regardless. To it, it is right.
You know, for all the horrible problems with the ending and the butchering of the reapers... if there is one thing Bioware managed to pull off somewhat well is the fact that the reapers are supposed to be beyond our understanding. Clearly they are if so many are unwilling/incapable of understanding their motives even when the starbrat explicitly tells you.
Even funnier still is the how some people actually expect the reapers to give any kinds of a damn about morals.
As for the pattern of organics and synthetics... at least you admit it exists. Which is really the starbrats biggest 'justification' for it. You don't have to think its anymore significant than anything else. It doesn't matter. The point is that is the starbrats purpose, regardless of how important you feel it to be. Nothing we can say will change that. Anyone who expected to win a debate with the damn reapers are crazy. They're the reapers. Why Shepard spends so much time talking to the damn thing instead of just destroying them is beyond me.
I didn't need any fraking explanation of why the reapers were doing what they were doing. I just needed one thing. I needed the reapers to be dead. No Starbrat, no long dialogue with him, no choices. Just dead reapers.
The scene with Anderson after The Illusive Man conversation should have been the end. The Crucible should have fired right then and destroyed the reapers. They could have linked Shepard's survival to EMS if they wanted. They could have linked the fate of your entire team to EMS if they wanted. Your entire team should have participated in the charge to the beam. There should have been no guessing or speculation at the end. High EMS Shepard survives, and your team survives. Mod High Shepard survives, but you start losing team members. Moderate and lower Shepard dies, etc. Lowest EMS the Normandy is destroyed. They could have done that. State of the galaxy depends upon your EMS.
Of course, since for a sequel, they could pick high EMS and Shepard still retires to some far off world, the MEU lives on with no controversy.
I agree that would had been my preference. Though I do like that control is an option. If the ending was ONLY destroy with no variation I think it'd still get backlash, although for completely different reasons. Having some choice is good... long as they deliver it in a reasonable way. Which they didn't... I mean come on, synthesis, really? REALLY?
I'd be happy, though, since all I wanted was a destroy ending (MEHEM provides satisfaction here) but I can understand why some will be upset at the wasted potential of control and lack of variation. Before EC the endings were the exact same thing with different colors. BUT! The implications of the choice was very different, even if what it showed you was always the same. Synthesis, control and destroy are each very different choices. If the only ending was to destroy the reapers after all that build up in the game about controlling them being an option... I can see people being upset about that. Synthesis is the only option that comes completely out of the blue, really. Or, well, green, in this case.
I think the problem though with the ending isn't so much that's it's logically wrong (I don't have too big a problem with the Catalyst's logic), but rather that it's thematically wrong to involve this conflict as the center piece of the ending. Firstly, AI vs Organics wasn't a large part of the third game, or the trilogy even. In ME3 it was regulated to the Geth/Quarian arc, which was resolved; and maybe EDI's character arc, which was also resolved. By the time of the ending all this stuff has been put to rest so it's jarring to have it reinserted and suddenly take place as the central conflict in the last 15 minutes of the game, through an exposition dump, no less.
The bigger problem though is that the conflict as presented by the Catalyst represents a deeper conflict between the two than we ever see in the trilogy. The nature of the conflict involves that AI are fundamentally different beings having a greater capacity for knowledge, learning, less restraint by morals, etc; so much so that AI and organics can never live in peace unless the differences are removed by Synthesis. Again, this is fine but why is this never represented in the story proper, aside from maybe ME1? Instead the conflict that we see in the games is some weird analogy for racial tensions. It's not particularly deep but it's one the Rannoch arc repeatedly bludgeons the player with. Never do we get any kind of meaningful or deep insight on how to deal with such conflicts. Instead we get broad strokes about how sparing and freedom seeking the Geth are, the EDI/Joker romance is more about dating advice and has less depth than Tali unzipping her suit, the actual Rannoch conflict (our microcosm of this conflict) is resolved peacefully by yelling at the Quarians to simply not fire for once in their lifetime.
The ending isn't wrong, but it's in the wrong story.
Well, the entire premise of the series is to save organic life from sentient starships hell-bent on our destruction. Yes, granted, the reapers aren't actually AI's but you'd be probably be surprised how many people think of them as 'just machines'. They're still synthetics. Well, their bodies are anyway. First the geth, then the collectors (who are also partly synthetic per Mordin's "replaced my tech" speech) and ME3's actual reapers. Not to mention the fact that in that very game we had to deal with the geth war.
I suppose it comes down to a matter of opinion but to me synthetic vs organic played a big role in the series. Seeing how the galaxy resolved the geth issue was one of the things I was most looking forward to in ME3 (boy was I disappointed). That doesn't mean other things didn't play a role, however. Synthetic vs organic wasn't the primary focus or theme of the series, by any means. It was, however, there throughout the entire trilogy. We've been dealing with synthetics from the beginning and it isn't unique to our cycle either. The leviathans, the starbrat and the protheans all share the same tale of conflict with machines. Everyone is telling us that the pattern is there.
If a momentary peace between the geth and quarians (potentially, some people just kill them) or Edi's romantic life is enough to resolve the issue of synthetics vs organics... Well, again, I guess its just a matter of how you perceive it. Personally I'm expecting another conflict with the geth sometime down the line. With vengeful quarians and insane scientists like Xen I don't see there being zero conflict.
All that being said however I will mention that, personally, I hate the catalyst. I find it to be the worst part about the ending. More so than even the synthesis bullshit. At least synthesis doesn't contradict all other established lore. i just don't feel like the synthetic conflict twist is out of place in the series. I would had preferred if we just NEVER found out about the reapers motives and crap and left them this big ominous mystery. I don't like 'defending' it in any capacity because I don't think it should exist, period. I just get tired of seeing people hating on it for all the wrong reasons. As if the only thing wrong with the starbrat is the fact that it views things differently than us.
Burn it, burn it with fire. Lol.
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