Okay, so I've not read all the posts in this topic because it would take me a fortnight and make me want to kill myself. But I've been turning this stuff over in my head for the last 3 days and have no one else to talk to about it.
I am open to the idea that the final scene was the Reaper Leader of some sort trying to indoctrinate Shepard, and by extension the gamer, that is just the kind of grand idea that a finale to this epic trilogy deserves. There are several bits I like in the game that lend themselves to this theory, but a few points I don't understand and hope someone can help me with or point me to a relevant discussion.
1) There's something weird about that kid from start to finish, no one else interacts with him throughout the entire game, the things he says to Shepard are things that would make someone lose hope in winning the war, like they're trying to break down his resolve. There's even a change in the ambient music/sound effects if you listen for it. The dream sequences with him in have the strange shadows and whispers, like the voices of other Reapers.
2) The Prothean VI detects an indoctrinated presence both times Shepard speaks to it, but is deliberately ambiguous about who that is. We're supposed to believe its Kai Leng or TIM but it could easily Shepard.
3) The whole game is about Paragon vs. Renegade choices, if the last scene is in his mind then who better to play the angel/devil on your shoulder than TIM and Anderson, arguing and trying to kill each other to win your support. I can't work out how Anderson would even have got there if that sequence was real.
Now, one of my issues with it is that if it's all in your mind then how does an imaginary decision have any effect on the citadel/crucible weapon being fired in one of 3 ways. The idea I'm leaning towards is that when you choose Destroy and then see Shepard come to life on earth at the very end, that's because he's the only one to snap out of the indoctrination because he made the correct choice. But that would imply that he still needs to get to the beam and set the weapon off. The hallucination could have just been to show him what could happen if he chose either option, but neither has actually been made in the physical world by the I've the game ends.
At first I thought Synthesis was the best ending, because it's harder to achieve than the others and breaks the cycle of Renegade/Paragon choices and AI/Organic war, but now I don't have a clue.
I think the most misleading and confusing part is how any of the team got back to the Normandy, why Jeff decided to outrun the blast in any of the scenarios when for all he knew it was just intended to harm the Reapers, and how on gods green earth they ended up crash landing on a random planet. Did he go through a relay? Was he trying to get somewhere specific? What are the odds of even flying within a million miles of another planet that is suitable to sustain life when you're crashing Ian spaceship? Astronomical, in the most appropriate sense of the word.
Another issue is that in a series of games about making your own choices, how could there even be a right choice (only one where Shep lives) and two wrong choices (being indoctrinated). But then they don't let you save after the final mission, so if they do come out and say 'you're supposed to choose Destroy in order to carry on the story' everyone can redo the final mission. I'm just not convinced that's what wil happen
So I guess Bioware were going for the kind of ending that leaves it up to the player to decide what to make of it, and I admire them for that, and if they'd got rid of the stuff with the Normandy in it that would have been fine (don't even get me started on the Stargazer thing), but I think we'd all appreciate an official comment on some of these points to help us make our minds up because there are a lot of disappointed people out there who can't cope with things that don't make sense, myself included.
Modifié par zoidberg241, 12 mars 2012 - 09:38 .
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