[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Elim Garak]

There is one excellent ending to me3 - it's when you choose to shoot the kid - it's not the happy ending but it's an excellent ending - we failed. I will not be surprised if that becomes the canon ending and we're never coming back to Milky Way because Reapers.

[Deleted]

the logical option to speed up the process which will happen naturally anyway.

It's so natural it had to be tried and forced upon countless of civilizations and always failed but whatever, the Starbrat swears it will work this time!

[May90]

snip

This game isn't about "good" choices (not to mention that what is considered "good" varies with individuals), it is exactly about hard moral decisions, where each option has drawbacks.

Also, I don't get the argument people make that "Synthesis is what you've been fighting against". How so? There is a difference between being reaped into oblivion and, after continuous suffering at the hands (claws?) of hell incarnates, you finally become a part in the biomass forming a giant robot... And getting all the technological and societal progress in one instantly without having to sacrifice anything, without anyone dying, suffering, etc.

One of the things I liked the most about ME3 ending is how it changes your perspective, how it makes you rethink everything you've believed in throughout the series. You thought the Reapers were just an evil alien civilization that wanted to keep all life exterminated, but it turns out there is a bigger picture here, and just destroying the Reapers, ignoring the consequences, isn't really a solution to anything long-term. Prothean VI on Thessia kinda hinted at that, it was probably the first moment in the game that made me think, "Ummmm, maybe there is more to it than I thought".

Of course, if you charged into the final sequence with the thought "Kill Reapers or bust", then, I suppose, you were going to be disappointed anyway.

[Witchblade77]

This game isn't about "good" choices (not to mention that what is considered "good" varies with individuals), it is exactly about hard moral decisions, where each option has drawbacks.

Also, I don't get the argument people make that "Synthesis is what you've been fighting against". How so? There is a difference between being reaped into oblivion and, after continuous suffering at the hands (claws?) of hell incarnates, you finally become a part in the biomass forming a giant robot... And getting all the technological and societal progress in one instantly without having to sacrifice anything, without anyone dying, suffering, etc.

One of the things I liked the most about ME3 ending is how it changes your perspective, how it makes you rethink everything you've believed in throughout the series. You thought the Reapers were just an evil alien civilization that wanted to keep all life exterminated, but it turns out there is a bigger picture here, and just destroying the Reapers, ignoring the consequences, isn't really a solution to anything long-term. Prothean VI on Thessia kinda hinted at that, it was probably the first moment in the game that made me think, "Ummmm, maybe there is more to it than I thought".

Of course, if you charged into the final sequence with the thought "Kill Reapers or bust", then, I suppose, you were going to be disappointed anyway.

its like we played different games. I didn't think reapers were evil in a sense that we understand evil. with first game, they were made to sound almost like... gardeners. cultivating and then harvesting life in a galaxy "keeping it in check" if you will where the evil part is them not seeing sentient life as worthy of making their own choices. we were lifestock to them essentially. and they used ourselves against ourselves. husks. collectors, SAREN. you know... synthesis between organic and inorganic, turned into obedient slaves. and in a third, Illusive man takes it further and converts cerberus troops as well as unsuspecting colonists into HIS obedient slaves via reaper technology. all in a name of protecting humanity no less.

reapers were a solution to a problem that they themselves created - you know that whole "organics and machines cannot coexist together, so we'll just do a whole bunch of culling to protect organics.. by killing them. oh yeah.

or their creators anyways. and what ME3 did was take this advanced borg like terrifying civilization.. and turned them into slaves to programming as well - well.. in the last 10 minutes of it. with Leviathan DLC only making this worse, making them make LESS sense.

you are assuming that synthesis accomplishes all that happiness and joy and progress without anyone suffering and dying. you are TAKING THE WORDS OF A REAPER CONTROLLING AI AT FACE VALUE. but it contradicts EVERYTHING that we were shown so far. this is a classic show don't tell derp, where they show us one, thin,g but then expect us to accept something opposite, just because they told us that is how it works and even then... synthesis fundamentally changes us on ALL levels. without consent. I'm still trying to figure out how you do not see it as brainwashing.

there was a great episode of "Charmed" that illustrates the cost of this fake happiness and progress. season 7 finale specifically. you may want to watch it.

and btw, I charged into final battle sequence (which alone was insanely badly written and only got worse with EC and its "nice guy harbinger" etc) with a thought of stopping the reapings now and forever, whatever it took. whether reapers died in a process or were just sent to dark space or made a bargain with? would have worked either way. but synthesis is not a bargain. synthesis is permanently huskifying every damn one and every damn thing.

[hellhamster]

its like we played different games. I didn't think reapers were evil in a sense that we understand evil. with first game, they were made to sound almost like... gardeners. cultivating and then harvesting life in a galaxy "keeping it in check" if you will where the evil part is them not seeing sentient life as worthy of making their own choices. we were lifestock to them essentially. and they used ourselves against ourselves. husks. collectors, SAREN. you know... synthesis between organic and inorganic, turned into obedient slaves. and in a third, Illusive man takes it further and converts cerberus troops as well as unsuspecting colonists into HIS obedient slaves via reaper technology. all in a name of protecting humanity no less.

reapers were a solution to a problem that they themselves created - you know that whole "organics and machines cannot coexist together, so we'll just do a whole bunch of culling to protect organics.. by killing them. oh yeah.

or their creators anyways. and what ME3 did was take this advanced borg like terrifying civilization.. and turned them into slaves to programming as well - well.. in the last 10 minutes of it. with Leviathan DLC only making this worse, making them make LESS sense.

you are assuming that synthesis accomplishes all that happiness and joy and progress without anyone suffering and dying. you are TAKING THE WORDS OF A REAPER CONTROLLING AI AT FACE VALUE. but it contradicts EVERYTHING that we were shown so far. this is a classic show don't tell derp, where they show us one, thin,g but then expect us to accept something opposite, just because they told us that is how it works and even then... synthesis fundamentally changes us on ALL levels. without consent. I'm still trying to figure out how you do not see it as brainwashing.

there was a great episode of "Charmed" that illustrates the cost of this fake happiness and progress. season 7 finale specifically. you may want to watch it.

and btw, I charged into final battle sequence (which alone was insanely badly written and only got worse with EC and its "nice guy harbinger" etc) with a thought of stopping the reapings now and forever, whatever it took. whether reapers died in a process or were just sent to dark space or made a bargain with? would have worked either way. but synthesis is not a bargain. synthesis is permanently huskifying every damn one and every damn thing.

The AI had a point if you saw it from the perspective of an intelligence whose sole purpose was to prevent annihilation of either synthetics or organics in an inevitable all out war between them (source: Leviathan DLC).

Reapers were just tools, they weren't sentient in the true meaning of the word as their sole purpose was the harvest and not self-preservation. I'm pretty sure the kid wouldn't give two shits whether they would live or not.

Also, the synthesis ending is an interesting concept, many technologists see it as the only true future of the human species, since there is about 100% certainty humanity will meddle in human augmentation.

Edit: I'm not defending Bioware by any means since they backed themselves into a corner in the end, but the synthesis ending is justifiable and logical.

[May90]

reapers were a solution to a problem that they themselves created - you know that whole "organics and machines cannot coexist together, so we'll just do a whole bunch of culling to protect organics.. by killing them. oh yeah.

No, there was much more to it than that. Leviathans/Reapers didn't create the problem, it existed long before them. If you listen carefully to the words of the Prothean VI on Thessia, it says that Protheans noticed that a lot of patterns in the galaxy are cyclical, those cycles being beyond the harvesting and manifesting in many different ways - implying that the problem of synthetics opposing organics is a native property of the universe, not just someone's failed experiment.

you are assuming that synthesis accomplishes all that happiness and joy and progress without anyone suffering and dying. you are TAKING THE WORDS OF A REAPER CONTROLLING AI AT FACE VALUE. but it contradicts EVERYTHING that we were shown so far. this is a classic show don't tell derp, where they show us one, thin,g but then expect us to accept something opposite, just because they told us that is how it works and even then... synthesis fundamentally changes us on ALL levels. without consent. I'm still trying to figure out how you do not see it as brainwashing.

It doesn't contradict anything at all, in my eyes. Combined with what Leviathans told me (and they hardly had a reason to work with the Reapers here), it is pretty clear that the Catalyst speaks the truth, or, at least, what it believes to be the truth. It also logically explains something that the last two games have been hinting at repeatedly, in sub-stories of EDI, Legion, Quarians and the Geth: synthetics and organics aren't fundamentally different in their motives and actions, and the only real difference between them is their hardware. I don't see Synthesis as brainwashing, I see it as a logical conclusion of possibly billions years of cycles, with the question finally answered when Shepard managed to do something no one else has ever done, signifying the appearance of civilization that can finally work with synthetics without wiping each other out.

[Witchblade77]

execution of synthesis ending, HOW it was written and presented is neither justifiable nor logical. adding in leviathans only makes already shoddy illogical writing - worse.

the concept of human augmentation in itself? while fraught with consequences we may not have even considered - is not the issue. the issue among other things? lack of informed consent. which is especially jarring with that whole "oh the all out extermination war between organics and synthetics is inevitable" being directly shown to be possible to prevent with peace between geth and quarians. and using synthetics to prevent that from happening is just definition of irony right there.

the more I think about details of the story in ME3, the more glaring the holes in it become. everything from characters being out of character becasue "plot demands!" to entire storylines just being.. a mess.

but you will just continue to disagree with me so... /shrug. if you liked it? more power to you.

[May90]

I don't know, to me everything in all the endings made perfect sense, once they released Director's Cut and Leviathan DLC. Of course, I could pick on some minor inconsistencies, which any story has - but I prefer to enjoy the story instead.

[rhorle]

which is especially jarring with that whole "oh the all out extermination war between organics and synthetics is inevitable" being directly shown to be possible to prevent with peace between geth and quarians. and using synthetics to prevent that from happening is just definition of irony right there.

The AI has stated that peace is possible for a short time but something always flares it back up. The geth and the quarians were only able to come to peace because of Shepard. There is a reason why Shepard is so important in all of this and its not just because of the DNA. Remember in ME2 the Collectors were creating a Human reaper rather then another race. Human's and Shepard were made to be important to everything that happened without ever explaining why.

The Child AI though has seen enough cycles to know that the peace has only been temporary. It might last 100 years but something will spark a conflict back up. Remember that the Cycles have been happening for a million years or something.

[Witchblade77]

The AI has stated that peace is possible for a short time but something always flares it back up. The geth and the quarians were only able to come to peace because of Shepard. There is a reason why Shepard is so important in all of this and its not just because of the DNA. Remember in ME2 the Collectors were creating a Human reaper rather then another race. Human's and Shepard were made to be important to everything that happened without ever explaining why.

The Child AI though has seen enough cycles to know that the peace has only been temporary. It might last 100 years but something will spark a conflict back up. Remember that the Cycles have been happening for a million years or something.

I love how you all are trusting the child who has apparently been perpetuating countless cycles BY DESTROYING THE CULTURES AND EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM. like... we literately have almost no evidence of other cultures and only sparse evidence of protheans, mostly cause they managed to hide some of it from reaper destruction.

but ok.

its almost like that AI has been perpetuating a self fulfilling prophecy where instead of allowing species to evolve and learn, it would just scrap them at the merest moment of what it perceived as trouble and start again. bound and determined to repeat the same mistakes over and over, but somehow hoping for a different outcome? I thought that particular brand of insanity only existed in organic beings, but.. ok then

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I don't know, to me everything in all the endings made perfect sense, once they released Director's Cut and Leviathan DLC. Of course, I could pick on some minor inconsistencies, which any story has - but I prefer to enjoy the story instead.

I cannot enjoy the story when inconsistencies are anything but minor. Leviathan actualy made them even worse. but hey.. to each their own, right? they did push down HARD on the feelz in ME3, to the point where it threw me right out of the story because emotional manipulation is something I recognize all to easily.

[May90]

I love how you all are trusting the child who has apparently been perpetuating countless cycles BY DESTROYING THE CULTURES AND EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM. like... we literately have almost no evidence of other cultures and only sparse evidence of protheans, mostly cause they managed to hide some of it from reaper destruction.

but ok.

its almost like that AI has been perpetuating a self fulfilling prophecy where instead of allowing species to evolve and learn, it would just scrap them at the merest moment of what it perceived as trouble and start again. bound and determined to repeat the same mistakes over and over, but somehow hoping for a different outcome? I thought that particular brand of insanity only existed in organic beings, but.. ok then

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I cannot enjoy the story when inconsistencies are anything but minor. Leviathan actualy made them even worse. but hey.. to each their own, right? they did push down HARD on the feelz in ME3, to the point where it threw me right out of the story because emotional manipulation is something I recognize all to easily.

There is a bit more to the AI telling the truth, than just its words. There is the Prothean beacon, there are Leviathans, there are the Crucible designs, there are words of multiple Reapers throughout the series hinting at that... Plus, the AI doesn't have any reason to lie to Shepard anyway, because, if it wanted to get rid of Shepard, it could just order Reapers to destroy the Crucible right away - which it didn't; it didn't have any reason to even talk to Shepard, other than to explain the choices.

[Witchblade77]

There is a bit more to the AI telling the truth, than just its words. There is the Prothean beacon, there are Leviathans, there are the Crucible designs, there are words of multiple Reapers throughout the series hinting at that... Plus, the AI doesn't have any reason to lie to Shepard anyway, because, if it wanted to get rid of Shepard, it could just order Reapers to destroy the Crucible right away - which it didn't; it didn't have any reason to even talk to Shepard, other than to explain the choices.

that's the thing. all of those things? tell me that what start child is giving me as options, especially synthesis? will NOT be the utopia that it suggests they would be. AI child doesn't need to outright lie in order to be horribly wrong. after all - that same AI apparently thought that turning organics into reapers via melting them down to DNA slush, while destroying all other evidence of their existence out in the galaxy - was preserving them and their cultures.

[rhorle]

its almost like that AI has been perpetuating a self fulfilling prophecy where instead of allowing species to evolve and learn, it would just scrap them at the merest moment of what it perceived as trouble and start again. bound and determined to repeat the same mistakes over and over, but somehow hoping for a different outcome? I thought that particular brand of insanity only existed in organic beings, but.. ok then

As it said the cycles were the only answer it could come up with that fit what he was created to do. He tried other methods but nothing would work and the culling and preservation turned out to be the best method. It tried a bunch of things over the years it ruled over the milky way. We have no evidence because part of the cycle was erasing as much evidence as possible. But they miss stuff because even though they are very good at cleansing the galaxy they are not perfect.

It wasn't hoping for a different outcome with the cycles. That was the outcome it wanted after spending countless cycles hoping for a different outcome. This cycle, thanks to the protheans, provided different answers that allowed it to change. We know that not all traces get wiped out because the Crucible wasn't created by the protheans and no one was ever able to build or finish it in time.

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that's the thing. all of those things? tell me that what start child is giving me as options, especially synthesis? will NOT be the utopia that it suggests they would be. AI child doesn't need to outright lie in order to be horribly wrong. after all - that same AI apparently thought that turning organics into reapers via melting them down to DNA slush, while destroying all other evidence of their existence out in the galaxy - was preserving them and their cultures.

They were preserved in reaper form. Why are you arguing that they weren't? It says it tried synthesis before but it didn't work out. There is something about Shepard that allows it to work. Bioware never explained those parts of the story and we probably never will since Andromeda takes place outside of the Reaper Trilogy. He could be wrong in his conclusions about what is best but does that really matter in the end?

All options have potential problems. Synthesis is what the Citadel AI wanted to do for a while but could never make it work.

[Nazrark]

The Starbrat does say that the construction of the Crucible means that current methods will have to change again.

[Witchblade77]

As it said the cycles were the only answer it could come up with that fit what he was created to do. He tried other methods but nothing would work and the culling and preservation turned out to be the best method. It tried a bunch of things over the years it ruled over the milky way. We have no evidence because part of the cycle was erasing as much evidence as possible. But they miss stuff because even though they are very good at cleansing the galaxy they are not perfect.

It wasn't hoping for a different outcome with the cycles. That was the outcome it wanted after spending countless cycles hoping for a different outcome. This cycle, thanks to the protheans, provided different answers that allowed it to change. We know that not all traces get wiped out because the Crucible wasn't created by the protheans and no one was ever able to build or finish it in time.

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They were preserved in reaper form. Why are you arguing that they weren't? It says it tried synthesis before but it didn't work out. There is something about Shepard that allows it to work. Bioware never explained those parts of the story and we probably never will since Andromeda takes place outside of the Reaper Trilogy. He could be wrong in his conclusions about what is best but does that really matter in the end?

All options have potential problems. Synthesis is what the Citadel AI wanted to do for a while but could never make it work.

have you considered. just for a moment. for a tiny moment. that crucible, just like citadel and the relays was.... reaper creation? the fact that it just... interfaces with it so seamlessly... did you never wonder? and just the whole concept of building something we have NO idea how it works and yet we are making improvements to it, wut? we are just.. throwing EVERYTHING into developing a maybe weapon? we are not sure. really? seriously? instead of trying to figure out how to block effects of indoctrination, instead of trying to reverse engineer reaper technology properly, instead of trying to figure out what the hell was that weapon that took down a flagship reaper centuries ago - we just.. conveniently find plans in archives we had acess to and studies FOR DECADES. no idea what they do but hey - lets build them anyways. I just... no words.

moreover aside from crucible and occasional random artifact on an out of the way planet that we cannot figure out, because there is literally no other context for that artifact - no broken down cities, no petrified bones, NOTHING left - we have no idea what came before us. even traces of protheans are mostly eradicated to the point that most scientific community thinks they are a myth - a myth that Liara tries to prove to be real and its proving difficult because she has very little archaeological evidence to work with.

I suppose - melting species down into dna slush and turning them into organic based machine of destruction is preserving them.. you know in a way that I preserve flowers by throwing them into compost bin and turning them into fertilizer to grow more flowers... the fact that actual cultures and people are completely lost and forgotten? pftt, who cares, their dna was.. kinda sorta preserved. more or less >_>

and what the hell is there about Shepard that allows synthesis to work exactly? how in a world does that make ANY scientific sense. this is supposed to be sci-fi and yet it pretty much turns into magical "just go with it, trust me it will work now!" he could be wrong, but does it matter in the end - OF COURSE it does. fate of the galaxy depends on it. more and more cultures, history, species going lost is at stake. and a reminder. ALL the species in the galaxy. not just sentient developed species. ALL of them. flora, fauna, primitive species just starting on their evolutionary path - ALL of them are affected by synthesis. I just... I mean to each their own, but...

[May90]

Honestly, you seem to just be criticizing usual fiction elements in general. I mean, let's go ahead and criticize the FTL tech in Star Wars universe, which physically doesn't make much sense. Let's criticize it how in Fallout 3 a green person with no experience gets out of the vault for the first time, and suddenly knows how to fight the most dangerous enemies post-apocalyptic America has to offer, topples powerful factions...

This is fiction, things are supposed to not be entirely believable. In fiction, characters meet each other by pure accident, survive countless fights in which just one bullet could put them down, defeat evils entire armies couldn't defeat, etc.

Yes, we find the plans on Mars conveniently. Yes, we easily build Crucible which countless civilizations before us couldn't. Yes, Reapers don't attack Citadel right away (which any reasonable invasion force would start with), which would immediately nullify our chances. This is fiction, you shouldn't expect it to be perfectly logical and sensible.

Reapers can't be defeated legitimately, without a deus ex machina. If the writers went with the most logical scenario, then the game would be over a few minutes after the news of the Reaper invasion reaches us: they would target Shepard and Citadel first and foremost, and with death of Shepard and loss of Citadel everything would be over. But, as you understand, it wouldn't make for a good story.

[Gorsameth]

Think of the Crucible like the matrix. As the Architect tells us, simply enslaving mankind doesn't work. We have the be offered a choice, even if it is only the illusion of choice.
That is what the Crucible is, an illusion of choice. It gives the false hope that it is a weapon to defeat the Reapers when it is in reality just another tool.

It shapes the way in which the Reapers are fought. it imposes order upon the chaos of war (to somewhat quote Sovereign).

[Dhrizzle]

specters are not elected by the people to be their leaders. spectres are elected by the COUNCIL. to be their OPERATIVES. and operative making a decision like that? is way out of line. more over.

Like I said, Spectres are empowered to preserve stability in the galaxy by whatever means they deem necessary, and besides in this case Shep is the only one who can be involved in the decision, there was hardly an opportunity to stop the battle and run a quick poll as to what everyone wanted to do.

the whole decision in a first place didn't fit the game, didn't fit themes of the game, made no sense within the scientific laws of the game and was just arbitrary "Shepard is a Jesus figure who must die, becasue we are tired of making games about them" no choice is more contradictory to those themes when set up as a GOOD choice? is synthesis. to the point where even right before the damn sequence with the tubes, we see a result of said synthesis and indoctrination. on Illusive man. its NOT pretty. you cannot just steal and ending from another game and then not even fit it properly into your own story (cough, Deus Ex, cough) I'm not the biggest fan of transhumanism, but you can handle it well.. and then there's ME3 ending.

The idea of finding a way to deal with the threat without the need for genocide is very much in the theme of the game, at least in my playthrough I saved the Rachni, the Krogan, the Geth and the Quarians. The science of Mass Effect is vaguely defined at best, sure they pass a few glances at the harder end of sci-fi but in the end there's still wizards and psychics. TIM is suffering under the effects of Indoctrination which is a different proposition to Synthesis.

The ending where a single person gets to choose between Destroying a faction to let the galactic community develop free from interference, keep the Controlling faction or do some weird space magic thing introduced at the last minute by an Ancient AI/Synthetic being was very much lifted from Asimov's Foundation series (cough, which predated Deus Ex by a long, long way, cough) to the extent it very much coloured my perceptions of what Synthesis entails (although my head-canon still fits within BioWare's loose/speculative explanation.)

P.S. if you are talking about genocide of the reapers? based on that whole "we preserve the species by melting them down" shlock? no. genocide was committed by the reapers. those species and everything that they were? is gone. considering that reapers have destroyed as much as possible of what was left of those species civilizations to the point where if we do find some scattered artifact, we can't do much about it because there is no longer any context left? they have a VERY interesting idea of cultural preservation right there.

Each Reaper consists of "billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bodies," combine this with the Reaper core comprising the genetic information from (presumably the same billions of) members of the species and each Reapers is a monument/recording/preservation of a species destroyed during one of the cycles.

I do agree, they do have a very interesting idea of cultural preservation. Very alien and, from the perspective of an ancient super-AI, very logical. It really adds to the sense of cosmic-horror where our ideas are so out of line with what is actually going on the universe.

like I said, I think all endings suck. NONE of them are perfect. NONE. there is just no way to call any of them perfect, especially since SYNTHESIS is exactly what you fought across 3 games.

I wasn't fighting Synthesis, I was fighting the extinction of intelligent, space-faring races in the galaxy.

since you know the whole... husk thing? that's your synthesis right there, and btw, those husks that were hit with the wave... what becomes of them? are they turning from one horrific drone to another horrific drone? do they regain their memories? what happens to composite husks? are they all too brainwashed to care? Synthesis is positioned to be "the best" ending the middle one, the green one. until you start to think about what it actualy entails

Husks are not the result of Synthesis, they're AI constructs from organic components much like mini-Reapers themselves. I don't know what happens to the husks and other Reaper creations when they're hit by the green light. My guess is with all the modifications they become new beings, perhaps with some traces of the beings that made up their components.

I was going to comment on some of your other posts but it seems quite clear that you've got your own head-canon about Synthesis being the same as Indoctrination or "huskifying," and you seem determined to stick with it despite the ending showing it to not be the case.

[rhorle]

I just... no words.

So in a sci-fi setting you can't even comprehend that someone might find blue prints that spell out how to build something? If the reapers were the ones who designed and wanted the crucible built then why didn't they build it themselves? Cerberus tried to block and control indoctrination. It didn't work. Cerberus reversed engineered reaper tech, it didn't help them much for a few different reasons. The weapon that took out the derelict reaper is long gone. Its why its a derelict reaper.

Is it convenient that plans were found? Sure. But that was part of the protheans plan. And cycles before that. Remember the Citadel AI states that it thought they were destroyed and all traces wiped out. The reason why the cycles can't go on is because of those plans existence and the existence of things like Liara's beacon which we are shown to have allowed the next cycle to win the war against the reapers. If you don't think that things that have been studied for decades can't reveal new information then you need to look at all the examples in the real world that do just that. They are still finding new species, or plants, or new burial sites.

Of course there is no context. The reapers don't leave behind traces of the civilizations they wiped out for the next cycle to find. They want all traces to be eliminated so they can guide the cycle into the direction they wanted. Also you are ignoring that the Reapers are not just melted down DNA but also include some form of uploading of the people/culture that is is created from.

Sure there is scientific sense. He is a fusing of synthetic and organic material. Cerberus created a synthesis life form when they brought him back from the dead. You also have EDI that theorizes a significant amount of energy can transform something into something else( creating a object from energy). If it works for star trek then it certainly can work for the Synthesis ending. Of course all of them are effected by synthesis. That is one of the moral choices to the ending. Each one comes with positives and drawbacks. That doesn't make it a terrible ending or "magic". Besides if you pick that apart from magic then nothing in the ME universe would survive since it is all pretty much space magic. Even more so in Andromeda with the pathfinder and Biotics being more prevalent.

[Dhrizzle]

Honestly, you seem to just be criticizing usual fiction elements in general. I mean, let's go ahead and criticize the FTL tech in Star Wars universe, which physically doesn't make much sense. Let's criticize it how in Fallout 3 a green person with no experience gets out of the vault for the first time, and suddenly knows how to fight the most dangerous enemies post-apocalyptic America has to offer, topples powerful factions...

This is fiction, things are supposed to not be entirely believable. In fiction, characters meet each other by pure accident, survive countless fights in which just one bullet could put them down, defeat evils entire armies couldn't defeat, etc.

Yes, we find the plans on Mars conveniently. Yes, we easily build Crucible which countless civilizations before us couldn't. Yes, Reapers don't attack Citadel right away (which any reasonable invasion force would start with), which would immediately nullify our chances. This is fiction, you shouldn't expect it to be perfectly logical and sensible.

Reapers can't be defeated legitimately, without a deus ex machina. If the writers went with the most logical scenario, then the game would be over a few minutes after the news of the Reaper invasion reaches us: they would target Shepard and Citadel first and foremost, and with death of Shepard and loss of Citadel everything would be over. But, as you understand, it wouldn't make for a good story.

It might be contradicted in some DLC (I only got the day 1 Prothean bit) but I always got the feeling the Crucible had been set up by the Catalyst. Rather than the device itself being a game-changer it seemed like a galactic society that could construct the Crucible and bring it to dock with the Citadel would go beyond the parameters of what the Catalyst believed organic life was capable of. At that point the Reaper cycle would no longer be the most prudent/logical way to proceed so the Catalyst gives Shepard the choice of either taking over the Reapers and shaping the galaxy to their own design (Control,) letting life take it's own chances without guidance from the ancients (Destroy) or starting a whole new paradigm with Synthesis (speculation ahoy for everyone.)