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Virodhi
Current Version
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Okay: The Problem With Synthesis and Writer Bias, Virodhi edition (YMMV as all hell, I know):
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Okay: The Problem With Synthesis and Writer Bias, Virodhi edition (YMMV as all hell, I know. Also, spoilerrific, because tagging this would take forever):
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Synthesis is presented as the \
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Synthesis is presented as the \\\"best\\\" ending in fairly unambiguous terms: It is the last ending to unlock, and only becomes available at reasonably high EMS. Similar conditions are usually the benchmark for EarnYourHappyEnding in other games, including ME2, where you had to work your ass off and pay attention to squad assignments in order to get the golden ending.
Shepard not getting out alive had been foreshadowed throughout the game. Hell, just look at the DeathSeeker entry and similar on the character sheet. Shepard dying in any ending wouldn\\\'t have been a surprise, and I think most players were okay with it at that point. It would be a worthy sacrifice. So that sort of negates it as a flaw in the Synthesis ending.
So the problem becomes that Synthesis isn\\\'t depicted as having any \\\'\\\'inherent\\\'\\\' flaws. Destroy? You kill off the geth and EDI, along with some other ambiguity. Control? The Reapers are \\\'\\\'still around\\\'\\\', no matter the assurances you get. Synthesis? You get to have your cake and eat it too. Nothing is made of the fact that there\\\'s all sort of ethical concerns about playing god, etc.
Ultimately, to someone who is not overly fond of it, the Syntehsis ending comes off thusly: It is introduced out of nowhere in the last ten minutes of the game. It fails biology so very, very hard. It requires...god, magic...whatever you want to call it to even make it work, whereas Mass Effect had until that point attempted to stay internally consistent and go for a \\\"show, don\\\'t tell\\\" approach to its science. And most damning: it\\\'s the only ending that \\\'\\\'needs\\\'\\\' the Catalyst to work (it being the god/magic component mentioned above). Destroy had been the goal since day one, and could concievably have been accomplished via \\\"mundane\\\" means. Control was introduced as an idea in ME2 and could have been an offshoot of Destroy, or something the Illusive Man comes up with after researching the Reaper larva. Synthesis? Comes out of nowhere in the last ten minutes of the series, and hasn\\\'t been foreshadowed as possible or even desireable until that one moment at the eleventh hour. And it only works because the Catalyst (the Starchild form, which also shows up out of nowhere) almost literally handwaves it. So in a sense, the Catalyst is the avatar of messrs Hudson and Walters, and exists only as a way to shoehorn in Synthesis as the golden ending, whether it fits or not. It\\\'s bad storytelling.
Shepard not getting out alive had been foreshadowed throughout the game. Hell, just look at the DeathSeeker entry and similar on the character sheet. Shepard dying in any ending wouldn\\\'t have been a surprise, and I think most players were okay with it at that point. It would be a worthy sacrifice. So that sort of negates it as a flaw in the Synthesis ending.
So the problem becomes that Synthesis isn\\\'t depicted as having any \\\'\\\'inherent\\\'\\\' flaws. Destroy? You kill off the geth and EDI, along with some other ambiguity. Control? The Reapers are \\\'\\\'still around\\\'\\\', no matter the assurances you get. Synthesis? You get to have your cake and eat it too. Nothing is made of the fact that there\\\'s all sort of ethical concerns about playing god, etc.
Ultimately, to someone who is not overly fond of it, the Syntehsis ending comes off thusly: It is introduced out of nowhere in the last ten minutes of the game. It fails biology so very, very hard. It requires...god, magic...whatever you want to call it to even make it work, whereas Mass Effect had until that point attempted to stay internally consistent and go for a \\\"show, don\\\'t tell\\\" approach to its science. And most damning: it\\\'s the only ending that \\\'\\\'needs\\\'\\\' the Catalyst to work (it being the god/magic component mentioned above). Destroy had been the goal since day one, and could concievably have been accomplished via \\\"mundane\\\" means. Control was introduced as an idea in ME2 and could have been an offshoot of Destroy, or something the Illusive Man comes up with after researching the Reaper larva. Synthesis? Comes out of nowhere in the last ten minutes of the series, and hasn\\\'t been foreshadowed as possible or even desireable until that one moment at the eleventh hour. And it only works because the Catalyst (the Starchild form, which also shows up out of nowhere) almost literally handwaves it. So in a sense, the Catalyst is the avatar of messrs Hudson and Walters, and exists only as a way to shoehorn in Synthesis as the golden ending, whether it fits or not. It\\\'s bad storytelling.
