User blog comment:Ironreaper/Problems with the Catalyst/@comment-132.3.61.68-20120601223201

ALL your points are valid simply because they require SPECULATION. A good story never forces you to speculate during the beginning and middle of the tale (unless it is presenting a mystery that is resolved in the conclusion). Since you must assume so many things during the story with no resolution, the story of Mass Effect 3 was poorly presented. Plot holes aside, the ending was also just plain bad. Here is why:

1: Additional mysteries where created with no answers. You could argue that mass effect 3 did not even have an ending, only a false climax followed by more buildup for more story that does not exist.

2: A new major character was added in the final five minutes. This character essentially has control over the majority of the major plot. This was a bad technique used in ancient Greece, and it is still bad today.

3: A good story does not change BOTH the primary plot goal and primary antagonist in the last five minutes. The catalyst not only replaces the primary antagonist, but he turns that antagonist into a plausible solution to a problem that may not exist (without extensive speculation on the part of the audience). He also changes the primary goal of the series from "stop the reapers from killing everyone" to "solve the tension between two races by A) genocide, B) Mind control, or C) a chemically/physically impossible merging of synthetic and organic material into a new DNA."

4: The story uses the “dark sci-fi plot twist” cliché. The common belief is that a vague and dark ending is automatically “profound,” because it makes you think. If done well this is only a cliché (therefore nothing special). If done badly you get a pile of depressing, unsatisfying nonsense (like the chemically/physically impossible merging of synthetic and organic material into a new DNA). Dark is no more profound than happy; and vague is a terrible idea unless you are intentionally creating a cliffhanger. Statements by Bioware claim that this was not a cliffhanger, but the end of a story.

5: The story uses the technological singularity cliché. This has been so overused and abused in sci-fi, and it needs to be forgotten for at least a decade. Mass Effect as a whole was a story that deserved a far more original conclusion. The cliché ending of ME3 degrades the entire saga.

In closing, it has been said that you cannot criticize an authors work on standards like the ones I am using. If that logic is true, then Justin Bieber is a great musician.