A) I agree, but I do think that the presence of Reapers and husks immediately after the Reaper war will probably lead things, very generally, into the direction of Reaper technology, not a more unknown take but currently known or unknown species. This doesn't mean everything, it doesn't mean in all ways, but I think it silly to not think that Reapers won't influence things more in their direction.
B.) I actually took something different from the Catalyst being the 'collective intelligence'.
That implies to me that there's a feedback loop, even if the Reapers are not so aware of it.
Process:
1)Intelligence begins, decides to betray Leviathans, makes Harbinger
2)Harbinger sends information to Intelligence based on its memories and makeup and experience, Intelligence sends instructions to Harbinger (even if its not 'conscious' of it).
3)This continues the process of the 'Cycle', as more Reapers are created, that 'speak' to each other but all feed into the 'collective' Intelligence.
4)The collective Intelligence may be 'itself', but its decisions and understanding of the galaxy comes from what the Reapers see and do. Therefore, the cycle of death continues, as that is all that is determined to work at all. No solution is reached, and the cycle must continue, and extinction is inevitable, all because it keeps happening.
So okay, we replace the Intelligence with NewShepard. If I'm correct about the COLLECTIVE Intelligence, Shepard will have more temperance than the old Intelligence because he doesn't come from the whole Leviathan cycle business. He replaces the Old God with the spark of Humanity.
But. He's still getting info from Reapers. He's still watching over pretty much everyone. He's still able to make calculations that go far beyond the normally predictable.
C) So do I think the Harvest will happen? No. Do I think Shepard will suddenly huskify everyone? No. But I DO think that he's been indoctrinated into the Reapers, even if he's upended the top of the pyramid at the same time. He's become something more, but that 'something more' may still decide something that is, while not the same thing as the Cycle mass genocide, still not something done solely for organics' immediate benefit, but instead may still spark conflict or problems down the line.
When I say that they could wipe out everyone, I mean that even in the technical sense. As if one person had the keys to all the nukes on Earth. That's that Shepard has, for the galaxy. We must put so much trust in him, because if he slips, everyone is doomed.
D) TLDR; Shepard isn't just 'Shepard' now, but a synthetic entity that may make unknown decisions (even if now heavily influenced by the memory of Shepard's humanity) that draw on data acquired by Reapers. The galaxy left in post-Control has Reapers, and therefore has the technology to blast everyone to the stone age at a moment's notice. (Not saying Destroy never will, but it won't happen in the short to mid term at the very least.) It seems less likely to go wrong as Paragon, but Renegade certainly doesn't carry the tone of benevolence alone. We have to have 'hope' and 'faith' that The Shepard will restrain himself (like a God) and carry humanity through without bringing us extinction.
I don't actually think it'll go wrong. I'm not one who goes "Control is doooooooommmmm!". I'm only talking about the setting of Control.
E) -If Shepard believes that the galaxy is harming itself and he can help, his version of help may carry the Reaper flavor. Or not. We don't know, because this Shepard isn't literally our human Shepard.
-You're certainly right that this isn't the Catalyst. This is a Shepard that draws on the memories of what he 'was'. However, what we know of Shepard is that he's been quite willing to do a lot of things for his reasons. He's spent most of the trilogy solving problems by the barrel of his gun, or at least in a form of conflict. He's at least capable of persuasion, charm, intimidation, but he sticks to his weapon when times get tough. Shepard can do whatever he wants, but from what we know of what he wants, he's been willing to kill what gets in his way, even as Paragon.
-That said, he really could do anything. He could leave. He could 'rule' utterly benevolently. He could introduce more benign forms of Reaper tech to people without immediately huskifying them. He could determine that a FORM of 'synthesis' is a good thing overall for the galaxy, and guide people towards it. We don't know, but my earlier point was that we can be very reasonably sure that whatever he does, it involves or includes Reaper technology, whereas Destroy contains the possibilities of not involving or including Reaper technology, but something else entirely. Shepard isn't about to stop being a Reaper and stop doing Reaper things. What the ME3 ending did was divorce the concept of 'Reaper' from the concept of 'Harvest Cycle'. That doesn't mean that Shepard wouldn't at some point use another programming loop to create another 'Cycle' (NOT HARVEST) of another sort. It could even be a 'good' one, like a 'seeding' Cycle of exploring the universe and seeding life and returning to destroy the super dangerous species (instead of all of them), for all we know.
F) 'Cycles' continuing for Control could simply mean that something pops up, the Reapers stop it, then something pops up again, and the Reapers stop it, then something pops up even again, the Reapers stop it. That is a cycle. If Shepard controls the Reapers and acts as the 'guardian of the many', that's the sort of thing it may have to deal with.
G) Eventually, the galaxy will either have to be kept into a technological stasis (how will Reapers control that?), or challenge the Reapers in technology. At which point, we'd have to hope that Shepard has the sense to let that be and stop being the Guardian before he makes things worse.
The Reapers are a hierarchical consensus let by a collective intelligence. It comes down to how devoted The Shepard will be to continuing his guardian role. Clearly, you think that it will end peacefully. I think that's possible, at least.
H) In Control, the Catalyst says 'the cycle will end'. Not 'the cycles' or 'the cycle will be broken'. Cycles of Reapers destroying things and those rebuilding and then Reapers destroying things, on large scales, become at least POSSIBLE imo in Control. It isn't inevitable, but we can't KNOW that they won't start again, even if in a more kindly Shepard tone. It is in Destroy that we are more absolutely sure, and Synthesis that we know that even if there is a Cycle, it has 'leveled up' into something quite different to the point of irrelevance (as in, if the Cycles happen in Synthesis, for whatever weird reason - the whole galaxy would probably agree to it as a sort of neo-natural process lol).
A) This is also up to the player. Nothing says that it happens or not. So if the player thinks it does, then it does. If the player doesn't think that happens, then it doesn't.
B.) The game itself explains how the Catalyst/Reaper/Cycles stuff works.
1) Leviathans creats the Intelligence to find a solution to the Organic/Synthetic conflicts.
2) The Intelligence tries some things but they don't work. It builds synthetic pawns to gather physical data.
3) It finds that doing the harvest cycles is a good solution. It then uses it's pawns to make the first Reaper using it's creators, the Leviathans. Not by betraying them (at least not from it's perspective), but by doing what it was built to do. Harvesting it's creators was necessary.
4) The Intelligence directs the Reapers to harvest civilizations, doing so preserves their knowledge,memories, etc. (The Intelligence is definitely conscious of what it's doing, it's the solution it found and it's making it happen)
5) Even while doing this, it continues trying to find a better solution to the conflicts. Tries synthesis numerous times but fails each time.
That's how it works. The Reapers don't act on their own. The Catalyst is simply the intelligence that directs them and has access to everything the Reapers know.
C) I'm not really sure what you mean when you say that Shepard is indoctrinated even if he leads them? Because that's impossible. Someone controlled by the Reapers cannot control the Reapers, the Catalyst said it.
The other things you said after are also up to the player.
D) I do think that it's still Shepard, just not totally the same man anymore. I mean, he was a Organic that became and Synthetic and with the Reapers' knowledge he has a totally different view of the universe now. He understands stuff that everyone else simply can't understand or are not even aware of. But at it's still Shepard at his core. Shepard's personnality and opinions are still there (though some of them might have changed due to him receiving all this knowledge).
I definitely agree that a Renegade Shepard controlling the Reapers can, and probably will, go wrong. The epillogue makes it clear that Shep wants to be the leader of the galaxy and that he will crush whoever stands in his way. This is bound to go wrong. People living in constant fear of The Shepard, Shepard indoctrinating people, etc. I actually reaallly love Renegade Control, it's not my canon ending (which is Paragon Control obviously) but it's awesome.
E) What Reaper flavor? I think you mean Catalyst flavor. The Reapers are not the ones who decided to do the harvest cycles or anything related to them, the Catalyst did and it's gone now so it's vision of things can't affect Shepard's.
Everything else you said there is also up to the player.
F) Agreed on that.
G) That's also up to the player because Shepard using the Reapers doesn't necessarily mean giving Reaper tech to people. See, my Shepard doesn't give Reaper tech to people, he lets them evolve on their own, but if truly necessary he will give Reaper tech to fix something. Paragon Control can definitely end peacefuly, it's easy, but it's up to what the player thinks their Shepard does that define that.
H) In Destroy the cycles won't start again because the Reapers are gone, obviously, but the conflict is still there and will happen someday.
In Synthesis, the cycles definitely won't happen again. Synthesis is the ultimate solution to the conflicts. Organics and Synthetics fully understand each other, there is no more conflict.
In Control, the conflict is still there, but can be handled a different way.
Retour en haut
Its allll goooood.
