1- IMO, the Catalyst's choice to let Shepard choose the Reapers' fate was created by the writers because they wanted Shepard's story to end like the Hero's Journey dictates.
I like this post but I disagree with this point. They had Shepard choose to give the player the choice. This is more mechanics than writing at this point.
I'm not sure how that makes sense.
First, i don't know why you think this is an analogy, and not just an application of existing modern acceptable practices.
If the Reaper war isn't analogous to our real human conflicts, which it isn't, then it is not appropriate, or at least not necessary, to apply our real world approaches to it.
Second, this discussion is about why we would or would not pick Destroy. Why wouldn't our sensibilities as players matter?
They could, but you're applying sensibilities that are based on a situation fundamentally different from the one you're currently facing.
Third, "collateral damage" isn't just a thing that happens while one side achieves victory or some goal. We have rules derived from ethical principles on what acceptable collateral damage is. Collateral damage ought to be justified as proportional to the military objective. When someone calls the death of AI murder and someone else calls it collateral, that's essentially what they're arguing about and as players we may evaluate that destruction differently.
Are you saying that you can only make an application of modern standards by calling it an analogy? Fine. Stipulated. As far as you're concerned consider it an analogy.
This has nothing to do with rules. Whether or not the collateral damage is acceptable or moral is another discussion entirely. It would be murder if you could have accomplished Destroy without killing the Geth and no other changes but chose to kill the Geth anyway for some reason. The distinction between murder and collateral damage has to do with the situation and, most importantly, the mindset and intent.
Again, you're applying modern standards from one situation to a fundamentally different situation. That's where it fails.
You can make a case that the Catalyst doesn't actually have real-time control over the Reapers, and that the process is more like a permanent imprint when a new Reaper Is created. Control requires beaming stuff all over the galaxy rather than a simple swap-out of Catalyst programming.
Yeah, but it's not a strong case. The Catalyst says "I control the Reapers." The wave could just be replacing a driver or something. It's also a cutscene provided for visual reasons, so I don't know how much narrative value you can derive from it.
I don't see how this supports your point. Any choice except Refuse will stop the destruction. Destroy is the worst of the lot since you'll have less repair capability.
And sure, the murder machines are still around in two of the choices. Again, I don't see your point.
Sure, but at what cost? AI overlord or forced genetic manipulation, both of which keep the mind altering machines around doing their mind altering. And what of all the Reaper ground troops? Are they sapient now? While silly, the EC says they rebuild everything without a problem.
Look, I get that you want to murder the Reapers and feel good about yourself while doing it, but what's the argument? That they were forced to be evil? So Indoctrinated people should be executed out-of-hand even if they could be cured, because they once did something evil?
Killing my enemy in war isn't murder.
As for Indoctrinated people, if a cure were available, then no. However, there is no comparison between a Reaper and an Indoctrinated person. A cure would return that person to normal, but there is no restoring all the people killed to make a Reaper. Where you would actually raise a good point is if the new consciousness of a Reaper is "alive" just as we ask if the Geth are "alive." Both are artificial constructs. Actually, that's an amazing thematic reason to have the Geth and EDI be killed with the Reapers in Destroy. If you decide that the Reapers aren't alive than neither are the Geth and EDI. Themikefest will like that. I doubt the writers thought of that though. Synthetic destruction was to give Destroy a cost so it isn't the obvious choice.
Since there isn't a cure of Indoctrination and the victims' brains are permanently altered, it is an interesting question of what to do with them. Vigil tells us that those in the Prothean cycle were mindless husks and died of starvation and exposure. I suppose for the current galaxy it depends on the level of Indoctrination and if it continues to progress after the Reapers are dead, which we don't know. Although, the continued Indoctrination effect, particularly on those already effected, is another good reason to pick Destroy. With the other two, you have to imagine that it turns off.
Actually I answered your question perfectly. You have always been a very strong supporter of the concept that the Reapers blinded all the races to all other paths of technological development. And by doing so it limited them to allow the Reapers to harvest them. Here comes the Crucible which exists outside their technological path. Taking countless cycles to come to the form seen in game. That different path opened a new possibility up.
Based on what do you say the Crucible is outside the Reapers' technological path? But assuming that's all true, it has nothing to do with why the Catalyst couldn't make it since there is nothing special about it. It's just a power source designed to work with a piece of Reaper technology, the Citadel. It also does nothing for how preposterous it is that the Crucible was made by each cycle adding just a little piece and the design surviving every cycle. This is why the Catalyst just blows off Shepard's question of who designed it. "Don't ask questions. Just take your Deus Ex Machina and pick a color."
Now, the Crucible could have worked if they'd just allowed some discovery so that we actually had a plan. Using the Citadel as some sort of broadcast antennae to send a Destroy or Control signal to all Reapers is perfectly logical and sensible, but that discovery never happened. Nobody knew what the hell they were doing. Synthesis would still have been nonsense though.
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