User blog comment:The Milkman/End of the Line/@comment-4967682-20120701202952

Once again, a good read (I forgot to log in for my comment on your last blog, heh). I agree with a lot of what it says, but here's my specific breakdown of the endings:

Control: Way, way too big of a risk. For five years, I've wanted to Destroy the Reapers. For five years, everyone has been telling me how the Reapers deserve no quarter, how no solution will work except killing them. The series has also been telling me that it is cooperation and teamwork that solve problems, not rule by a single God Emperor. On top of that, it's possible that in total isolation from everyone, the new Shepard based Catalyst will become just like the old one. And I don't want to take that risk. This isn't even getting into how much of a middle finger this is to that entire multi-species fleet that assembled out there to Destroy the Reapers; notice how I said "Destroy the Reapers", NOT "make Shepard God Emperor."

Synthesis: By far the worst ending. You mostly covered why; it brings homogenization to the galaxy against everyone's will, and removes the diversity that made the galaxy so strong. But I hate it for another reason: it doesn't stop people from just creating more synthetics. I mean until literally everyone in the universe is a god, there's always machines that can be built that can make one's life easier. There's always something you can build that does things that you can't, and eventually natural technological progression will mean they will eventually end up as machines that can operate themselves. The only mark of a synthetic is that it is artificially created; in that respect, you can never stop people from making synthetics as long as there are people. And if you truly believe that the Catalyst is right, and synthetics and organics will never get along (keep in mind, i think he's full of crap), then this is not going to solve anything. Not to mention that it goes against one of the other core themes of the series; imposing advanced technology on primitive species is dangerous. It happened with the krogan, and almost happened with the yahg, both with devastating results. And that was only military technology about two hundred years out of their grasp, not complete and utter genetic rewrite along with Reaper tech that is clearly thousands of years ahead of ours. It's even worse than that actually, since Synthesis affects EVERY being in the galaxy, including ones who don't know the Reapers exist and are still in their Bronze Age. Are they freaked out that their insides have changed and now they glow green? And on top of all THAT, what the hell happens to husks? We saw one come back to life post-Synthesis... does it have any memories of what happened? Can it ever be returned to normal? Does the same thing happen to Cannibals? To BRUTES!?

Refuse: It should be renamed: "Dear fans, screw you. Love, Casey Hudson." It essentially makes everything you ever did pointless, and it brings about the very real possibility that the next cycle will be ruled by the yahg. Even if the next cycle beats the Reapers conventionally, how is picking refuse different from just firing the Crucible, i.e. Destroy? I mean I guess if you don't want to kill the geth you can choose Refuse, but that matters for precisely nothing since the Reapers kill the geth anyway.

Destroy: The best ending. This is the only option where you accomplish your goal; kill the Reapers. Not Control them, not become God Emperor, not impose your will on the rest of the galaxy. Just Destroy the Reapers. Sure, the geth are dead, but I sort of lost sympathy for them a while ago. And even if I didn't: it's the fate of one race versus the fate of many. This is the only ending that doesn't completely change the way the galaxy works, and the only choice that doesn't have Shepard abuse godlike power. The fact that Shepard lives (I'm coming back Tali!) and you get to give the middle finger to Starbrat in addition to killing it is just icing on the cake. Seriously, screw that kid.