User blog comment:The Milkman/End of the Line/@comment-1035046-20120703130431

If I my add my two cents:

I'm not certain that picking the Control option makes us just like The Illusive Man, or that picking the Synthesis option makes us just like Saren.

The problem is we possess some qualities that they did not. The Catalyst even explains it: The Illusive Man couldn't have controlled the Reapers because they already indoctrinated him.

Shepard does not have that problem; as the Catalyst explains, since Shepard ISN'T being controlled by the Reapers, he/she really COULD do what The Illusive Man couldn't. So Shepard isn't exactly like The Illusive Man if you pick Control.

As for Saren, part of the reason he wanted organics and synthetics to fuse was out of self-preservation; he thought the Reapers would inevitably win, so in Saren's opinion opposing the Reapers was only suicide.

But Shepard does not have Saren's problem; he/she isn't completely selfish (not even if he/she's Renegade). So when Shepard picks Synthesis, he/she's not doing it for the same reason as Saren did, so he/she isn't exactly like Saren if you pick Synthesis.

But, it's possible that I'm biased: I made about 12 different Shepards so I could test every path in every game and every dialogue and every romance, so I do sort of have a vested interest in not being convinced that Destroy is the only viable choice.