User blog comment:Awayorafk/Believe. The Indoctrination Theory./@comment-3450019-20120911171446

Renegade and paragon aren't as simple as "good" and "evil." "Destroy" isn't renegade red because the Catalyst is inside your head trying to discourage you from choosing it. It's the renegade option because in relative terms-- as a choice between Destroy and Control, both of which achieves the ultimate goal of ending the Reaper threat-- it's the one with the unnecessary body-count.

Destroy is renegade because IF you can stop the Reapers' harvest without anyone else dying (which Control accomplishes) then stopping the Reapers' harvest by wiping them out-- presumably for the visceral satisfaction of killing the bad guys, with the geth and EDI written off as collateral damage-- becomes gratuitous.

It's the difference between sneaking into the Nazi bunker and arresting Hitler to put him on trial for crimes against humanity versus shooting him and Ava Braun in the head. Either way no one will argue that point that they were wretched scum outside the realm of human compassion or decency and you got the bad guy so you're a big damned hero. But in one case there will always be those who say "and he resisted the temptation to take revenge right then and there," while in the other there will always be those who ask "did he *really* have to shoot Mrs. Hitler while he was at it?" You're the hero either way, but one way just has that gratuitous aspect to it that makes it less-than-ideal.