Choosing an Ending for Andromeda Canon

Shepard: Do you know anything about the crucible?
catalyst: Yes. It creates a portal.
Shepard: To where?
catalyst: To docking bay D24. There you will find a red, blue and green box.
Shepard: What do you mean?
catalyst: The red box is to destroy the reapers. The blue box is to control the reapers. The green box is to merge machine and organics. Be aware. Once you open a box, there is no turning back. 

We've seen no other examples of Reaper-tech based organic-synthetic hybridization than horrific ones, but the Quarian / Geth situation could be the only example if we knew how it worked out in the long run in a scenario where the conflict hasn't been resolved.

On the other hand I can throw around copious amounts of horrific examples.

But let's agree to disagree.

I'd like to address the other argument, where you're making comparisons to real life situations about resolving conflicts and trusting your enemies.

In real life, we're not facing an enemy that's been around for a billion years, is vastly more intelligent than anything we could even imagine, and is known to be able to influence people's thoughts, control their behaviour, and rewrite entire neural pathways just by letting a few trinkets lie around for them to toy with. We're talking about an intelligence that has conned at least twenty thousand civilizations into "ascension", and has "harvested" at least a hundred thousand other civilizations. An intelligence that can read your mind and your memories and use those to show you completely realistic illusions. No one can afford to pass up the opportunity of technical (or in the Geth's case: spiritual) advancement that its tech offers; the Citadel, the relays, it's all nothing but a trap. Study the tech, fall into the trap. Not only that, it knows its psychology. It knows how to manipulate mental weaknesses, like how humans always want to save everyone. And perhaps the greatest weakness it knows is that an organic will do anything, if offered hope. The Reaper intelligence is the greatest example you will ever find of a perfect con man.

The Crucible was possibly the biggest trap of all. Like all other "Prothean" tech, we just find it somewhere conveniently close to Earth, it's conveniently easy to use and build, even though we have no idea how it works. It's genius. Make the silly organics find the blueprints to a supposed super weapon. Give them hope. They'll pour an ungodly amount of resources into the thing that would have otherwise been spent on the war against you. In the end they themselves will have constructed the device for you that'll help them ascend, and they won't even realize it. It's so devious, so clever. Giving them hope and letting them build the thing that'll end them. That's the kind of con man we're talking about.

It would be like Trump not only succeeding in getting the Mexicans to pay for the wall, but also in letting them build it themselves. And not only that, when the thing is finished, having it come to life and wiping Mexico off the face of the Earth, and having the Mexicans welcoming it with flowers and festivities because they'd been tricked into thinking it's the second coming of Christ.

That's the kind of con man the Reaper intelligence is.

Giving the Reapers far more credit then they deserve.

I'm supposed to take a leap of faith based on an entity that has killed more lives than we can actually conceptualize?  And it did it to "save" us?  No, my Shep won't buy into it.  Option Red: The Intelligence, and everything it created, is destroyed.  Option Blue: The Intelligence, and everything it created, is mind controlled.  Option Green: "This won't kill me or make me a slave so please pick it!"  Sounds a bit like the Intelligence it just trying to save his ass.  And, for the record, it does't reserve forgiveness of any sort.  No, it has to go,''

Note: I try to come up with this stuff from the perspective of Shepard when presented with these choices.  Shepard doesn't know about the cut scenes that will follow.  Shepard only knows this thing has turned humans into husks and has tricked others into thinking that killing their own people is actually a beneficial thing to do, or that siding with the Reapers will save them.  Those were lies.  The thing ain't trustworthy from a Shepard perspective.

Not asking you to "judge" the Krogan decision... just saying they are both "scorched earth" policies... that you outright destroy the past and start over fresh to go forward.  The opposing viewpoint is that you build upon the past, both the good and bad in it.  The Reapers, because the game indicates that they represent all the past knowledge of all the civilizations from previous cycles are, essentially, an archive.  The choice - you retain the knowledge and lessons of the past and build from their (improving on the AIs that already exist) or you destroy them utterly and start over.  By nuking their old civilizations repeatedly, the Krogan frame of mind is to destroy utterly and start over.  A Krogan would pick destroy.  (I find it somewhat ironic that people here so vehemently criticize the Krogan for nuking themselves and then so vehemently defend utterly destroying the only remain record of every past civilization in the galaxy.)

A Shepard who perhaps believed that he himself (or her herself) had made progress towards solving the AI issue permanently (by the understandings he/she had instilled in EDI and Legion by simply talking with them... might be more inclined to believe the he/she could do the same with the Reapers (i.e. select Control to gain a foothold into their society and then work to bring about an improved understanding of organics while in control leading them)... or he/she might choose synthesis to make it all happen instantaneously through "space magic."  Either way, a goal of preserving all that past knowledge is fulfilled rather than seeing it all lost and destroyed.

When on Cronos, Shepard indicates that he/she doubts he/she would have been able to rebels against Cerberus had there been a control chip inserted or if he/she was merely an AI that thought it was Commander Shepard.  That same line of thought is again introduced during the conversation with the Catalyst.  TIM can't control the reapers in such a way that they would go against their original mandate because the reaper already control TIM... but Shepard can because they don't control him.  So, he/she can take "command" and then bring about any future "he/she see's fit."

I don't see that our feelings are so vastly different... I also have had many Sheps who have followed the mandate, etc.  Perhaps it's all the absolutist phrasing that goes on around here that skews things.  My ONLY point is that there are multiple, and bi-polar ways to interpret these endings... and ALL interpretations, even those that oppose each other, can have some basis in the little details that were presented earlier in the game.)  So, I keep bringing up the little tidbits I see that counter all that absolutist talk going on around here.

I would suggest that Destroy is NOT a completely "happy ending" deserving of a title of "happy ending" mod (it has some negative consequences).  Synthesis does not deserves to be described as being portrayed ONLY as being the "perfect" ending (some negative consequences of that ending are described in the game) neither does Synthesis deserve to be descrbied as being portrayed ONLY as having horrific consequences (some positives to gene modification and tech oriented implants are also shown in the game).  Furthermore, I would say that there are some characterizations of Shepard who logically would accept that the Catalyst is at least be describing the info dump as to what the choices are accurately.  I would also suggest that the "as you see fit" used in the control ending means precisely that... after taking control Shepard can do with the Reapers as he/she sees fit... might be a good thing, might be a bad thing - depending on what Shepard decides to "see fit" doing.

I'm torn on that... some days I think, yeah, that would be cool to encounter Leviathans outside the MW... and other days, I think I'd prefer the whole story line just end with the Trilogy (even though the endings are less than ideal).  There's a little Krogan in me, I guess... just scorch the MW and move on with a fresh start.