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What is the EMS system really about?
So from what I’ve worked out so far, I believe that the EMS rating relates directly to Shepard’s resolve and hence willpower. I feel this is most evident in how the crucible presents new options with slightly improved outcomes as the EMS rating starts to increase. Not only increasing Shepard’s hope or desire to survive but also the Reapers desire to indoctrinate Shepard due to his military, political and social influence on others.
The Crucible
Considering the crucibles construction is independent to Shepard’s military strength and regardless of most choices, is always built the same way (even if you did or didn’t take the options of having the Rachni or Geth working on it).
Not only this but the options the crucible presents to you are always tied directly into your EMS, for example with a low EMS (and a destroyed collector base) Shepard’s only option is ‘Destroy the reapers’ (more on this later).
The Choices
But how would a construct suddenly present you with less or more options because of your effective military strength? How would it logically be able to determine this? Did the StarChild take a gander outside, do a quick head count, checked to see how the N7 spec op teams are doing and then based on this information decided to turn a few options off just because he felt Shep did a pretty crap job of rallying the galaxy together!?
When does reality become fantasy?
Now, if we chose to believe that everything from Harbingers beam onward is just happening in Shepard’s head and that he’s actually heading down the slippery slopes of indoctrination, than we can assume that everything that takes places in the citadel onwards; from the arguments with Anderson and TIM to the choices Shepard can make, are just illusionary fictions.
A different interpretation of EMS
Now for arguments sake lets stop thinking of EMS as Effective Military Strength and start thinking of it as Shepard’s Will Power and to help illustrate this point I will break down each level.
With a Destroyed Collector Base from ME2 (I’ll talk about the opposite later)
0-1749
So with the lowest EMS Shepard can only choose this option to destroy the reapers. Not only this, but the StarChild treats Shepard with more indifference than usual. So why the one option? and why is it destroy? Simply put the Reapers feel that Shepard has no worth, influence or value. He couldn’t rally the galaxy to defend earth and hence his death or indoctrination doesn’t carry a consequence for them. Essentially they just don’t give a frak and although Shepard’s resolve is high his will power is too low and doesn’t have the strength to survive the journey back from indoctrination.
1750-2049
The Reapers treat Shepard are little more seriously this time. He might not have rallied the Galaxy to the full potential he could have, but he was still more successful than any organic before him. The Reapers now offer him an additional choice: Control (become indoctrinated) because as a servant to the Reaper cause; Shepard could now potentially influence the amassed galaxy forces.
Notes: Codex clearly states that the Reapers chose to indoctrinate those in key positions of power and influence, Who fits this bill better than Commander Shepard?
The the two handles Shepard holds in the control option are labeled BadEnding in the game design map.
Shepard’s eyes not only glow bright blue in the control ending but his iris’ also have identical patterns to those of the illusive man.
2050-2799
These present increasingly better versions of the above two options, each improvement representing both Shepard’s increase in will power (Destroy option) or the Reaper’s desire for Shepard as an asset (Control option) hence why he starts to envision better outcomes due to the Reaper’s trying to solidify their hold on him or Shepard being closer to breaking free of the indoctrination process.
The notable improvements happen at these stages.
2050 - Earth is only ravaged and the Normandy crew now survives in Destroy ending.
2350 - Earth now survives opposed to being ravaged in the control ending
2650 - Earth now survives opposed to being ravaged in the destroy ending
2800 - 3999
Shepard by this stage has proven how valuable he really is as an asset to the Reapers, not only this but by this stage the Reapers realize how powerful Shepard’s will is becoming and hence they fear he might break free of the indoctrination process.
Fearful of loosing their best potential asset, the Reapers pull out their big guns and present another tempting choice: The synthesis of Organics and Synthetics. This choice is not only the moral high-ground but also seems incredibly amazing due to implications it has of galactic peace for both Synthetics and Organics for all eternity and essentialy ends the cycle and removes the need of the Reapers. It represents the hope of a permanent end to the cycle of destruction and the dawn of the next evolutionary step for galactic life. To bad it’s a big fat lie.
Pause and think about what Synthesis and final evolution is to the Reapers; well to be honest it's more Reapers. Think about Sovereign’s conversation with Shepard or any of the taunts Harbinger gives you in ME2, both reapers state that "they are our destiny, they are the final evolution". Also take note that during the suicide mission EDI points out that the human reaper was both made from organic and non-organic materials, which would be the very definition of Synthesis from a Reaper's perspective.
This added choice is also the Reapers attempt to get Shepard to see things their way, just as they did with Jack Harper and Saren. Indoctrination isn't about being told what to do or being controlled, it's more subtle than that, it's design is more like inception in that it makes the individual full heartedly believe that the Reapers are to be revered, and that the individual came to this conclusion themselves, this creates the distinction of the control they have of the husks and the conviction of their indoctrinated mouth pieces such as Saren. Indoctrination is to truly believe that whatever thought they've planted in your head is your own.
What about Synthesis being the last additional choice as far as being a game mechanic?, aren’t ‘we’ as players expected to be rewarded for more work and accomplishments? Well, yes we are!, We’ve been conditioned time and time again for this to be the case! So wouldn’t it stand to reason that if BioWare wanted to indoctrinate “us the player” that they would use a game mechanic and typical reward system as their last best chance to throw us off the right path?
Notes: When picking this option Shepard seems to morph into an almost husk like appearance complete with glowing blue eyes which also share the same iris pattern as the Illusive man.
4000 (or 5000)
The only notable difference with an EMS of 4000+ is that Shepard now survives after the Destroy ending. Hence alluding to the fact that his will power is now strong enough to overcome the indoctrination process.
Also, this threshold is knocked up to 5000 if Anderson doesn’t survive his encounter with TIM, once again proving how EMS is directly related to Shepard’s will to survive.
The indoctrination alternative
So if the events on the Crucible are real than Shepard can apparently survive coping a face full of explosion (about 1,000,000,000 that of TNT) from the complete destruction of the crucible/catalyst/citadel, he also hurtles through the vacuum of space (without a breathing mask?), manages to avoid his circulatory system from stoping after the first 90 seconds of exposure, than also manages to propel himself at around 50,000kph (31068mph) so he only takes 13 hours to reach earths outer atmosphere and resists temperatures of up to 1480 degrees C (2700 F) to than also survive the 200 mile drop to the ground by magically coming to a slow gentle stop in a neat little pile of rubble, and despite all this he takes a deep breath?.
Or, the events all took place in his mind, and because his will is strong enough and has the desire to keep fighting he breaks free of the indoctrination process, takes a deep breath and wakes up in the rubble of London where Harbinger’s beam struck him.
I know which I feel is more likely and sticks much more tightly to the lore of the ME universe.
Also, here' a very in-depth rubble comparison of the ending scene done by Gunslinger_ruiz: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9727423/2140#11951474
So, what if you kept the collector base in ME2?
Well, nothing, seriously... It’s been said that the control option is available first when you have a really low EMS and chose to save the base; and many use this as an argument against the indoctrination theory.
But, I look at this way; if Shepard made the immoral choice of retaining a technology that is that perverse and than decides to freely handed it over to the most sinister man in the whole galaxy, it’s pretty clear that Shepard’s resolve to destroy the Reapers has started to wane.
It’s interesting to see that what was once considered a renegade action now leads to the “paragon-colored” conclusion to the series. Which I guess is where I’ll start to dissect it a little bit; I guess the first point most raise is that Shepard’s perception of what is right and wrong has now been clouded by the Reaper indoctrination (much like how the Codex points out) and hence why he doesn’t actually see this option for what it really is, but that also raises another issue, which is “why would Shepard actually care if it was blue, red, purple, tangerine or pink with plaid stripes?” the simple answer is: he wouldn’t, the blue paragon and red renegade options are only something us the player are witnesses too, it’s a system for us to judge quickly and easily what those options are. So if we separate the colors out of the equation, we could look at it from the point of view that Shepard had already once sided with the illusive man (an agent of the reapers) and potentially could see the value in the dangled carrot of power that is the “control ending”, not only this but Shepard also showed he was able to help secure one of the most crucial bits of tech in the universe and that he was willing to sacrifice humanities soul to do so, proving that he was malleable and more willing to see things from the enemies perspective, not only making him easier to indoctrinate but that he had enough clout to keep around as an asset due to his outcome focussed attitude. This might also have been the easiest way for the reapers to get Shepard out of the picture and remove him as a liability in their war against organics.
This could be paralleled with the alternative low EMS option of Destroy being the only option, demonstrating Shepard’s desire to overcome the Reapers but never actually having the strength to do so. Either way the Reapers win their psychological battle with Shepard and in both cases plays to Shepard’s weaknesses to take him out of the picture one way or another depending on his moral stance. This could possibly just be demonstrating their desire to take the path of least resistance.
Other things to keep into consideration:
The illusive man (Jack Harper) was altered by a Reaper Artifact on Shanxi during the first contact war (about 3 decades before ME2) Not only did this encounter change his eyes (that’s right, they’re not implants), it also makes him able to sense Reaper artifacts and also gave him the ability to speak every alien dialect including that of the Reapers themselves. It’s also to be noted that he started Cerberus after this and that it’s possibly an idea that Reapers implanted into him... he’s also indoctrinated.
Shepard’s encounter with Object Rho is considered Canon by ME3 lead writer Mac Walters as stated in his comic ME:Conviction.
Object Rho is considered only one of the many possible points in which Shepard’s indoctrination could begin, although it’s the most obvious considering this artifact affects Shepard much in the same way the Arch Monolith affected Jack Harper (by putting him in a coma).
The illusive man is the only person (other than Reaper-Child) to consider Control as a viable option, and considering he’s indoctrinated would you really consider this to be a wise choice?
Only Saren and maybe Kai Leng consider Synthesis to be the only way forward, but yet again “Indoctrinated”
All you most trusted friends and allies (even EDI and the Geth) would consider Destroy to be the only option... and none of them are indoctrinated.
All through ME2 Harbinger wants to capture Shepard as mentioned in all of his comments to the commander, not only this but it’s shown in ME:Redemption that the Collectors want Shepard’s body. So why doesn’t the illusive man just hand Shep’s body over to them? Simple: He’s indoctrinated, not a husk, the Reapers have planted subtle ideas in his head not assumed control of him, The Illusive man still has some degree of free will and in all honesty he believes that what he is doing is right, unfortunately the Reapers have clouded his judgement.
The meaning of the word Catalyst:
1. Chemistry: a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.2. something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.3. a person or thing that precipitates an event or change.4. a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.
Modifié par Salient Archer, 09 mai 2012 - 11:44 .
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