User blog comment:The Milkman/End of the Line/@comment-84391-20120701210000

The new and improved endings:

Destroy: Much better. Whereas the original seemed like the path for Terra Firma hicks, now it seems like the neutral option, and also the choice that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Ben Sisko would likely have made if he were in Shep's situation. Hackett's revelation that much of what's lost will be replaced with bigger and better things (if you have high EMS), the krogan renaissance (if Wrex is leader), and reconstruction of the Citadel, makes you feel that you really did make the galaxy a better place. They should've had it possible for EDI and the Geth to survive if your EMS was very high, but otherwise, this the only option that takes something very important into account: the Catalyst could be lying to save its butt. Ultimately, I pick this one for Tali's sake: She's already lost Reeger, both of her parents, I didn't want her to lose her boyfriend too, not even Nicholas Sparks is that tragic.

Control: I could see where they were going here, they were trying to make Shep like Dave Bowman from the Space Odyssey series. But even if he's 100% Paragon, how do we know that thousands of years later, when everyone he has ever cared about (even Liara) has died of old age, and other new conflicts have occurred (if Wreav is the clan leader, he WILL become the krogan equivalent of Stalin), maybe he might start thinking the Catalyst may have been right? In Dan Simmons Hyperion series, we had a military hero, Colonel Kassad, and his Reaper-created nemesis, Shrike; and we eventually find out that Shrike is more or less a future version of Kassad, you later find out that Shrike IS Kassad (sort of). Dave himself eventually gets corrupted (in the novels at least), detonating nuclear weapons orbiting the Earth, not particularly concerned about the ensuing collateral damage. How do we know Reaper-Shep won't be similiarly corrupted. Another issue, Dave still had enough humanity left to visit both his wife and his mother, why can't Shep do this?

Synthesis: This ending could've been great if Dan Simmons had written it. It had so much potential for a hybrid of Gene Roddenberry and cyberpunk. Instead, as others have said, it seems to suggest homogenization rather than diversity. Plus, it reeks of space magic, whereas the other two don't stray from hard science too much, and the baby krogan with glowing green eyes was downright spooky.

Refusal: This one was undercooked. I think we all wanted to say FO to the Catalyst, but they make it seem like you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. They could've had EMS figure into this.