Right, Just finished listening to the whole podcast.
Firstly, the ending really browned me off. I played through, as I play all computer RPGs, as though I was actually Shepard, and so the decisions I make reflect the sorts of choices I would make. And Bioware did a really good job of making a mostly paragon but with elements when it's just easier to go renegade... or when sodding Kai Leng just needed to be taught a lesson. The problem with the ending was that philosophically I disagreed with every point there.
Going into the final battle, I had decided that if at all possible, I wouldn't kill all the Reapers, I felt that would be just plain wrong, just as wrong as what the Reapers were doing, so having to kill not only all Reapers, but all other synthetic life? Yeah, that's a huge no no. Then there is control, not only do I agree with what was said about not trusting myself, but again, as with above, I didn't think that I had the right to control the Reapers. Yes, they might be evil murderous types making the Martians from War of the Worlds sounds at me, but they are still alive, and so I have no right to control them.
The synthsis option was the one I hated the most, but also the one I found most palatable... if that can ever make sense. I really wanted an Evolution really doesn't work like that! arguement, Evolution isn't some progression to a final stage, but a wonderful development of diversity, and so to make a decision to make everyone into the same thing was wrong on that level. But also, if we assume that it is a development to a final stage, there are two issues. Firstly, Daleks, we all ended up a Daleks, Really? Is that my ending? And secondly, does anyone have a right to push a magic red button marked stop all development of species now?
I picked that option because, though I hated it the most, it didn't break as many of the philosophies that I hold dear. The whole you're indoctrinated thing... eh, I really don't buy it. Please, if you're going to make that canon, then you've got to give me some idea that it's going on, you've got to give me more to know why it's happening, if you've taken steps that reduce my options leading up to this, so I can see it coming, and I know it's happening to what is essentially me, then yeah, I can dig that, it would be a fantastic Lovecraftian ending. But there isn't any of that, it's just bam, here you go, 3 options, all of which are bad. And then, you'll know nothing about how the universe develops from here. I couldn't give a damn at the end when they were going on about 'The Shepard' What happened to Rannock? What happened to the Krogan? The Rachni?