User blog comment:Damous/Why Bioware has NOT betrayed us/@comment-4930593-20120321015031

This series from the very beginning has been about "choices and sacrifice". But up until the very end the player doesn't know what he/she is actually choosing. Throughout the series we the players have been going on a journey as Shepard making decisions, and sacrifices. Each choice being either a paragon, renegade or something either in-between (or neutral). Now I know, like many of you, have made several Shepard(s) and have played them all out going into this game. [An all-Paragon Shepard, an all-Renegade Shepard, etc.] At the core, I also have always kept one Shepard that fits as close to being my true self when it came to making those same decisions (which was somewhere mostly Paragon but with a little Renegade as well). When you get to the ending, if you were lucky enough at getting the three choices, WE the players are asked to choose the fate of two competing forms of life in the universe (organic and artificial). The first is the renegade, which doesn't just mean the destruction of all AI life but also the fact that organic life will be bound to repeat the same mistakes and continue to battle themselves and their "new" creations. The second one is TIM's choice, "Control", many people have discussed this issue in so many threads that it doesn't need repeating here. The third fate is not what I would call "Synthesis" but rather"Co-Existence", this choice is the hardest one to choose and the one NOT offered by the child-AI because throughout the series WE the players have been fighting at everything there is out there. The Geth, other races, the Reapers... life and death. Life itself has always been a struggle and it has always been at odds with everything that is around it. This is what the child-AI could not see, it stated that both type of life could not exist for long in the galaxy so it came up with this decision about creating the Reapers out of the most advanced forms of organic life (the ones that learn to create artificial life) every 50,00 years, as a means of balance. Having been the first organic life form in 370 millions years to reach the apex of the citidal, the child-AI has given Shepard the choice to decide on the fate of all life in the galaxy. It has only given Shepard two choices because those are the only ones that the AI can see as the only possible outcomes. But as we all know, there is always a third (unseen) option, because life is never as simple as black or white, good or evil, or simply picking either the blue one over the red one. There is always that something in-between we struggle to find... that "leap of faith" if you will. :)

So when you play this game again, pick that import that most resembles yourself and play the game as honestly as you could. As if Shepard was really you and see what outcome you will truly come up with on your own.... the answer may surprise you.

Well played Bioware