DarkArk wrote:Again: they provide easy and cheap interstellar travel. OH MY GOD this is horrible and opressive and thus must be wiped out because it will somehow mean nobody is FREE! (FREEDOM FUCK YEAH!)
Cut it with the strawman. The fact that the relays are efficient means nothing, because they are a crucial element of the reapers trap. It makes sense that when you're destroying the reapers you also destroy the things that made them as successful as they were.
Strawman? Really?
DarkArk wrote:I thought that destroying the citadel and mass relays was one of the few things that the final ending got right. The relays are fundamentally a system of control made by the reapers that will stunt growth of all galactic civilization. Freedom from the reapers is impossible so long as the relays and citadel remain intact.
You DID say it's about FREEDOM, somehow. Because destroying the fucking Reapers themselves does not give you freedom from them, right? No, you have to dynamite their autobahns, too, so that people would not be "stunted" (ie. have their extensive infrastructure and their warships and their industry...) by them. This is seriously like dynamiting all communist-built schools instead of changing the goddamn curriculum. And expecting people to magically stop using the incredibly useful magical material (eezo) just because they can't travel FTL now is beyond retarded. It's like thinking "Oh hey I will destroy Roman roads, surely people will now invent something better than the wheel!"
Especially when a huge number of scientists and engineers who worked with eezo-tech are still up and about, and will inevitably use their skills for reconstruction
The Reapers have always been successful in large part because they can expect what technology their opponents are going to have, because everyone develops mass effect tech. If the relays weren't there, it is likely that a civilization would develop technology that would put the Reapers at a severe disadvantage. The relays prevent that, precisely because they are so efficient and easy to use.
If the Reapers are fucking DEAD, they can't use the trap, just like Germany was unable to use their autobahns to transport a massive army around when said army has been utterly crushed.
Meanwhile, if another threat arises in the near future, the galaxy without its transport infrastructure is FUCKED, even if that threat is actually more primitive than the state of the art, because they can't muster an organized military response in any way.