Not only are Legion's thoughts that of all Geth, but they show that the Geth are hardly these hard computing, heartless machines. Legion is constantly asking Shepard for advice because the 2,000+ Geth operating on his server cannot reach a consensus.
A great example of this is in their loyalty mission, where they can't even reach a consensus on whether or not to save their kind of indoctrinated fellow Geth. The typical machine attitude would be to preserve their numbers for strength. EDI and Legion ask some terrific questions throughout the games, morally, and it's good to see that not all Artificial Intelligence is bad. It's like normal organic intelligence, everyone's different. Some are bad, some are good.
It's very tragic how wrong the Catalyst is about things. As I played through the Mass Effect series I realized that the ideology I wanted Shepard to take was one of giving everyone a chance. That meant destroying all forms of mind control and Reaper control, and giving Geth, Krogan, the Rachni, and all the galaxy's black sheep a chance for redemption.
Then you find out that the game was rigged from the start by someone who never counted on the uniting force that is Commander Shepard, and he holds all the cards. Every last one.
In my very first playthrough, I never had this long-term vision. I'd solve each situation individually. The shades of grey are plentiful, BioWare sure do like them, as you know if you've played any of their other games like the KOTOR or Dragon Age series. However in my second playthrough, I took a very similar approach to the one you speak of, I just wanted to save everyone and was fully paragon. The Catalyst, is indeed, a right cunt I think. It's so wrong, this synthetics versus organics "logic" was trumped by the Geth & Quarians reaching peace. As for the Reapers, well, they were programmed to wipe everything out every 50,000 years and believe this hocum the Catalyst conjurs. So they don't really count in the synthetics versus organics nonsense.
But that reminds me, on my first playthrough I didn't shoot The Illusive Man when the first renegade action was prompted, and he executed Anderson. I didn't make that mistake the second time around which allowed for one of the best scenes in the entire trilogy as Shepard and Anderson, humanity's two greatest heroes, sit side by side and look at the galaxy they saved together.
Absolutely beautiful.
In my first playthrough, I managed to convince The Illusive Man how wrong his ways were, and just how much he cost Humanity in the Reaper War, he then shot himself in rebellion against the Reaper Indoctrination bestowed upon him. Exactly the same thing happened with Saren for me. 'Twas good to see that they weren't themselves and that it was always the Reapers that were the problem. Not that they were genuinely that wrong, and that warped in their right mind. Anderson dying was the second saddest moment for me in the entire trilogy. So much happened so quickly, 'twas thrilling and poetic at the same time. Great work again from BioWare.
Clearly you didn't use the sniper rifle. Or maybe you did, but didn't get the most out of it. The sniper rifle will slow down time for a few seconds after you look through the scope, and that gives you plenty of time to score a headshot on a Phantom. I didn't find them to be too challenging when I had my handy dandy sniper rifle. I would imagine they would be absurdly difficult if you were rocking a shotgun, though. Good thing I decided to do my third play through as a Sentry on hardcore mode!
I forgot about Ravangers. To me they are more of a nuisance than anything else. They are easy to dodge attacks from, and if you find good cover against an army of Ravangers it's easy to pick them off from a distance and deal with their children later. However, if they're used to support Husks, Benshees, or Brutes, things that force you out from cover, they're going to pound away at your shield and health within seconds.
I've not used any sniper rifle properly throughtout my three single player playthroughs, seeing as my classes were the soldier, adept and sentinel. My fourth will be an infiltrator though, so the sniper rifle will be my primary weapon. I've used the sniper rifle called Mantis in multiplayer as the Salarian infiltrator, and you're right about the Phantom. If you're one on one with it, and you're careful, a headshot is very possible and boy oh boy, isn't it satisfying. Almost as satisfying as headshotting a Bloodmount rider in Gears Of War 3. That what I was talking about with the Ravagers, as support. They're rarely on their own or leading a group of Reapers. If so, then they're not difficult, especially if you've got armour-piercing ammo.
The only time I ever really struggled with Cerberus was in the mission at Grissom Academy after you save Jack and the kids and you fight your way to the shuttles. That was ROUGH.
That certainly was. The wave of Centurions was endless, and it didn't help that Eningineers laid turrets everywhere and there was an Atlas lurking about. Fucking turrets.
I think it's important to let you know that I was never exposed to the original ending as I downloaded the extended cut right after my original play through.
I've seen all four of the endings and think they are all fantastic (I've only done two in the game, Destroy and Synthesis).
Destroy is, in my opinion, the best possible choice to make. The negatives are that it destroys the Geth and EDI, but it also removes the Reaper threat permanently. It's up to future generations of Humans, Salarians, Turians, Asari, Krogan, and so on not to make the same mistakes we did. They're given a second lease on life and it's up to them to keep the peace and not create a race of sentient machines with the sole duty of killing intelligent life. To me, Destroy is the existentialist ending to the Mass Effect series, so that fits right in with me.
Still, the complete annihilation of the Geth and EDI is quite depressing.
Synthesis is really the only "they all lived happily ever after" ending, but it feels empty. The idea of altering someone's DNA does not sit well with me at all, especially when you essentially turn everyone into a robot of sorts. It would be even more haunting if EDI explained the extent to which their genetics are altered. To they just have creepy green eyes, or do they have some sort of groupthink that suppresses individuality? In my opinion, Synthesis is a very Machiavellian ending.
Control was VERY tempting during my first play through. I have already explained my philosophy to you, and knowing that Shepard was highly unlikely to abuse his powers as controller of the Reapers, I put a great deal of consideration into going for it. But as I thought more about it I thought how much power corrupts. What if Earth is attacked by the Krogan, will he fly in the Reapers to defend Earth? What if Liara's Shadowbroker hub is besieged by an angry Bartarian pirate, would he drop an army of Cannibals on the ship to stop the attack?
Additionally, what if the Catalyst changes the rules again? What if the code is corrupted or changed or the Reapers develop the ability to rebel? I deemed keeping them in the galaxy was too dangerous, so I destroyed them.
Finally, you have the 4th ending, which ends in the annihilation of the galaxy as we know it. It's horribly depressing, but ends on a very hopeful and somewhat beautiful note of Liara describing to the species of the next cycle how to stop the Reapers, and judging by the Star Child's post-credit appearance, you have to believe that they did. It's their galaxy now, let's hope they can do better with it than we did.
All of them were unbelievably powerful, though, and all of them (except maybe the last one) had its very appealing pros and very scary cons.
Well, just to let you know, the original ending was flawed. Very flawed. There were a couple of massive plot holes and I think that's what all the rage from everyone was about. That Mass Effect could be amazing and flawless for almost three games and then make those two massive errors right at the ending of the trilogy was indeed irritating. With the Extended Cut however, I feel the endings were more than satisfying.
I completely agree that Destroy is the best ending of the four. In two of my three playthroughs, that has been my choice. The other being Synthesis. Removing the Reaper threat forever is worth wiping out the Geth and killing EDI for, as depressing as doing that is. Especially after having a big hand in creating EDI's relationship with Joker and forging peace the Geth and Quarians. Destroy always felt like the right thing to do.
After I did Synthesis, I immediately regretted it. My two biggest reasons for choosing it was that; everyone lived, including the Geth and EDI, and that there'd be no more war. Ever. However, seeing how everybody changed after the explosions, seeing everybody become synthetic and not think for themselves, was disturbing. Taking away everybody's individuality is by far, the worst thing you could do. And I fell for it. You were right, 100%, when you said that it feels empty. You have Anderson for Destroy, The Illusive Man for Control, and then is it me, or Saren Arterius for Synthesis? I mean, I know he isn't there, but that's what he wanted.
Control is the only ending I've never considered. Because like you said, power corrupts, and I wouldn't be there to see just what happens in the very far future. I'd trust future generations of Salarians, Turians, Asari and so on to rebuild civilisation over Shepard, or any being for that matter, to be in charge of the Reapers for as long as they exist. Which is pretty much forever. They'd turn mad.
For me, Refusal is the second best ending you can do. Because not only do you give that prick known as the Catalyst the middle finger, but you see Liara's message for future species. And then they win! But you have get past being the reason for the death of everybody you know and love, and I couldn't get past that. It's why I picked Synthesis in my second playthrough. To save everyone.
They are powerful, even with the original ending and it's big flaws, they were powerful. I don't think BioWare will ever top Mass Effect, but I'm welcome to being proven wrong.