D.A. fan is back for an ME1 Text Only 'Let's Play' (page 51)

Ah, missed the ending.
Well, nice finish. I wouldn't be so sure that your Shepard cannot join Thane after all. Keep in mind, the God-Shepard you hear in the epilogue is an AI, created from Shep's personality template, nothing more. The Catalyst says outright that you yourself will die. So you might have gotten your cake and ate it, too.

As for reasoning through the ending: I had pretty much the same thoughts on synthesis as you. I find the forced upgrade to be a vial disregard of the rights and privileges of individuals that I fought for all this time.
Control was not an option for me because it relies completely on you, trusting the catalyst and I as a player did not trust the catalyst at all. His entire dialogue is manipulative and the reasoning he has for the cycle of genocide that the reapers have been perpetrating for countless eons is illogical and insane.
In my view, the catalyst kills billions of people over and over again, in order to prevent a hypothetical event and he doesn't even bother to share the data that lead to this conclusion. In my (first) playthrough, I even had indications to the contrary as I brokered peace between the quarians and the geth and both factions, organics and machines put centuries of hostilities behind them and cooperated, not just because of a common enemy but because they realized that there was nothing standing in the way of peaceful coexistence.
So I chose destroy and I hate the catalyst for forcing me to pointlessly destroy the geth and EDI, just to satisfy a madman who's only real argument was that he had a gun to my head (in the form of the reapers destroying everything and everyone if I refuse).

The wirst part of it for me though was that Shepard himself (a maleShep in my case), the character who had never pulled punches or catered to anyone or anything but his own conviction, the guy who always went the extra mile to satisfy his own conscience, the guy who would beat all odds to achieve the impossible, the person who would talk down galactic leaders, admirals and primarchs, that guy never even tried to argue with the catalyst in any meaningful way. What happened? Did the injuries strip him of his vigor, was he so close to death that he couldn't muster the strength anymore to even try and make his case in this, the most important of all the conversations in the trilogy? If that was intended, than that is just tragic to the point of being cruel to the audience! I would understand if Shepard tried to talk the catalyst out of his mad scheme and failed, that I would get but apart from one single vague and weak question (which the catalyst brushes aside and doesn't even bother to answer), Shepard just either goes along or throws a tantrum and looses badly.
Where is the debate? Why aren't the geth/quarians being brought up? Why isn't the flawed and circular logic and the inconsistencies in the catalyst's arguments challenged? Why doesn't Shepard simply ask the reapers to just stop?

I really felt like I lost Shepard as a character in this last chapter and that's what pisses me off the most.

But I get that this problem only becomes blatantly apparent when you broker the peace between the geth and the quarians (not that that disproves the catalysts claims (they cannot be disproven, it's not a scientific hypothesis he makes but a belief) but it sure as hell should have been grounds for a discussion with him).

Anyway, sorry for the rant but this was how I reasoned through the ending, resulting in me feeling severely let down by Shepard (and in concequence the writing team that IMO didn't really take the most obvious possibilities for this character into account here).

Ah, enjoyed the read.

I was happy with both of my endings, because I suppose I am insane like that.

For me Synthesis was the afterlife, and the new hope etc. Loved it as a Paragon's ending with Thane, because, well, the risky choices always ended up working out for her. So, in my mind the semi-digital paradise of good Borges it was, where she forever shares one soul with Thane.

For my Renegade, I did get the survival scene with Destroy, but did not like the outcome, so I replayed for Control, and he made one hell of a Digital Space God. way cool.

MET was a happy ending for me...

Anyway, for a traditionally happy bright game, I once again suggest Jade Empire. It's funny, upbeat and awesome.

There is a difference though. If the reapers stop, we're good. If they don't stop, I can always continue the fight (though I'll probably get killed quickly). In any case, it's my proposal and they can take it or refuse it, there is really not much I can do about it. And the only thing that can happen is to improve the status quo, we really don't have that much to loose at that point.

However, with the control ending, I give myself up to the reapers in a way and I trust that they'll do with me exactly what the catalyst says. Once I do it, there is no going back and before I do it, there is no knowing what's going to happen. It's an event horizon of sorts. When I first played the game, I thought it was basically a trap to indoctrinate me and send me back (in retrospect not an entirely sound conclusion since the fact that Shep is not indoctrinated anyway is weird as it is). Or they could make me a husk and send me off against my own crew. They could extract everything I know from my brain about the Normandy, about Liara's hidden time capsule idea (and poof goes that plan), about what the next viable targets might be, etc.

If the reapers don't stop, the worst they can do is kill me or take me by force but I was dam sure I wouldn't willingly deliver myself to them.

Of course, the Extended Cut epilogue makes it clear that these worries were all unfounded and that the catalyst is amazingly true to his word but that wasn't clear to me (and it cannot be clear to Shepard) at the time of the choice. And just as a side note, the original pre-EC endings didn't make that clear and there was quite a debate on the forums about whether or not the control ending was not a scheme by the reapers.

But keep in mind, I am just explaining my very own perspective on the matter. Different people with different playthrouhs will come to very different conclusions (as we have seen in this very thread) and I am not trying to say that my perspective is "right" or even "better" or anything, on the contrary, I think a lot of different perspectives on the ending are all equally valid. I just was unlucky enough to end up with one that kinda pissed me off.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one crying!   

The Thane memorial service goes into how he loved his wife because she willingly put herself in danger to save a stranger. it then connects it to how Thane died putting his life on the line to save a stranger. The theme of the game and the theme of Thane's death seems to be that of sacrifice at the cost of self preservation.  I couldn't go that whole time being devoted to Thane's memory and then choose the more selfish options of definite death with a massive loss of life (in the Geth). Or show that I lack belief and hope in synthetics and organics getting along (despite all my actions of getting them to work together successfully) by submitting all of the galaxy to some weird form of ... hive minded ish ness to avoid any potential of conflict. Even with that equalizing change, even humans/krogan war among themselves and they are the same people. This option doesn't promise peace, IMO.

But the AI didn't just say Sheperd would die. He said, "You will lose everything that you are. and you will be completely disconnected and removed." To me, that means that, ya... Shepherd has been removed from the cycle of life/death and the afterlife. And the Shepherd AI talks like they aren't the same person, and that's true, but if I were uploaded to a computer I'm sure my chemically based decisions and my solo point of view would be changed drastically by a million POVs and access to all of the information of a billion years of people's histories.

Maybe I'm just insistent because my version has my semi suicidal Frodo-like Shepherd sacrificing the "rest" she looked so forward to for the betterment of all humanity in the name of the man she loved. I go believing that I got my cake and ate it too would detract from the sacrifice.

I tend to think the Bioware intentionally avoided giving us a patently "peaceful" feeling ending.  They certainly give us plenty of reasons to be concerned that synthesis is not the ultimate high road to peace, and made it such that destroying the reapers would mean destroying the geth and EDI, and left enough holes in the control scenario to make people openly suspicious of the Catalyst.  There is also a "refusal" option in the extended cut that basically has Shepard just knowingly allowing the harvest to continue.

My ultimate conclusion as to what it is the game is trying to convey is that war is hell and there has never been a pat answer to attaining a world-wide (galaxy-wide) peace.  That no matter how we side or what we decide, nothing is really ever everything it can seem to be.  So, for me, it comes down to what I can head canon about each of the endings to make each one a little more palatable for the different playthroughs I do.  Over time, it's become an exercising in trying to interpret each ending in several different ways.

I tend think the fan base have been upset by these endings on such an ongoing basis because they really wanted Bioware to give us a good answer to all the issues they touched on in the Trilogy.  However, Bioware has consistently refused to give us one... and I think perhaps they summed it all up in Javik's words:

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters."

Their silence is our answer.

Not a happy thought, I know... So, how about those Asari Maestros?... they gonna beat us in the next bioti-ball tournament. (I wonder if they'll have bioti-ball in ME:A?)

Gotta say, I really like that. What a big goddam hero she was! (to say it with Zaeed's words)

I actually thought about postponing my PT until daylight hours today so you guys could "follow" better.

But it was too close to the end. I had to see it through, my brain was like, "No sleep, play game now."

So I apologize to anyone that was originally following who missed out on the tenterhook decision making ending. That's probably the funnest part of watching, and it happened between 1-5am mountain time.

I'm only half joking, but is there any games you guys would love "watching" me play? @domi says I can't stop till I play Jade Empire. 

I was picking up on his insanity the moment he started explaining, and then it was confirmed when he added that he had Reaped his own creators against their wishes. I was like, wow. So, essentially, this entire time, the bad guy has been a Rogue AI gone TOO logical for a billion years. But his logic isn't really explained and is probably based on some statistical number. But human nature, IMO, can deviate from statistics by a pretty wide margin. Also, why didn't it just look out for this cateclysm and then and only then go in for the reaping? why put it on some sort of weird time clock? The he was like, "Even you see the war between Synth/Org" and Iw as thinking...yeah. But we're united right now and we seem pretty cool and you don't mention that 2 million similar situations had also failed so this may even be the first time that's happened?Maybe his dialogue about his assumptions having failed because there was Sheperd where she shouldn't be, so he was willing to try something different. But I don't know why Destroy would be a thing he would do. I mean... "I've been absolutely right for a billion years, but today, I've been proved wrong. Logic dictates thatI be okay with my destruction." eh?

Male Hawke with a gruff voice sounds so Loghain then. Still, the guy was lame.

Loved Grunt's goodbye. I just didn't much like Zaeed. He was always telling me violent graphic stories. he rejoins my company because he got involved in the wrong mercs. Then he hits on Samara kinda creepy. I think his memory/service would be better reflected in a hero's death at the end of 2.

I thought Javik interesting and he reminded me a bit of Fenris on occasion. Then I didn't bring him to Thessia ha when that would have been the perfect mission for him. Between Javik flirting and then seemingly so emotionally distressed by us parting ways in ME3? I'm head cannoning that my Shep was a heart stealing Widow and that both Kaidan and Javik had a major thing for her.   related--- apparently Shep can have one night stands during the party? But both the James one and the Javik one gave me creeps. I felt like Shep date rapes James (and he walk of shames out of there) and Javik was just...weird.

Anyway, Garrus is the one who put her name on the wall and Kaidan got a close up. The game REALLY REALLY thought Garrus and I were super tight (after Javik, apparently), Garrus was everywhere.

TIM would really get my goat. So even though I would paragon or neutral him most of the time, I would occasionally Renegade myself through those meetings. And mikefest said it's related to long term reactions to TIM rather than P/R points (whenever I type PR, I think public relations haha)

I have no worries about Samara when it comes to Zaeed. I actually found that whole interaction pretty funny. She shuts him down but good. He was kinda cute about it though.  

Oh, I thought you just might take a look at it since it does have a controller support and it is a BioWARE's classic. I started a play-through here:

bsn.boards.net/thread/4229/jade-empire-today-seriously-dawn

before buying Inquisition. Jade Empire has some screenshots and stuff kicking around, you could always take a look and see if it is too much of Oriental stuff for you or looks too dated.

Am I to understand there is romance? 3 options for dude and 2 options for girl? and fixed protag options? Is the romance any good (romantic scenes?) or is it just a dialogue change hre and there?