User blog comment:The Milkman/No Love For Leviathan?/@comment-24174486-20120915231103/@comment-2228120-20120916153224

@LilyheartsLiara: You sure you don't want to read that comment? Because, none of the endings is just about the Catalyst giving its opinion. Basically, what the Catalyst says is "my solution won't work any more, I need a new one, but I need you to manipulate my hardware to implement this new solution because I'm physically unable to this myself, and therefore, you get the boon to pick which it will be. I don't like it much but we're basically holding each other's balls now, so, off you go choosing, or the cycle continues." If the ending was truly designed to solve Shepard's problem, then the Catalyst could merely quit the harvest and send the Reapers back to darkspace, to indulge in whatever they were usually doing in between the cycles - but no, it has to come up with fancy options which more or less conveniently solve Shepard's problem, as well, because the Reapers as the part of the old solution have become obsolete.