Quote Originally Posted by Kaecilius View Post
.... and the reactions of the characters left a bitter taste for a lot of us. It may have just been muddled writing, where what they say doesn't seem to match what we see.

This is the whole crux of this dilemma. The Endless are indistinguishable from "real" npcs, the way they are written and portrayed. They show emotions, feelings, dreams the same way as any other npc. If the writters wanted to portray them just as computer programs, they should have added more clear differences in their behaviour.