Candidate 88766 wrote...
Worufu wrote...
Candidate 88766 wrote...
Worufu wrote...
Candidate 88766 wrote...
The main argument that Shepard is not indoctrinated is that game explicitly tells you that Shepard's defeat of the Reapers has turned him into a legend. Thats about as blatant as Bioware could be in telling you that you defeated the Reapers.
I don't get why people are so adamant about this idea. Its worse than the current endings - it invalidates every choice by making it so Shepard fails no matter what - he falls under the Reapers' influence. At least with the current endings you actually beat the Reapers, despite them being poorly explained, essentially reliant on magic, and providing poor closure for the characters. Shepard being indoctrinated would mean that the Reapers win and the Cycle continues regardless of what you do.
It does not invalidate EVERY choice. We can see something resembling complete change of Shepard into Husk. The thing I saw as the first thing when I was watching Control/Synthesis endings were the eyes.
They are EXACTLY like The Illusive Man's eyes and it's a very noticeable feature that shows an early, but already invasive stage of indoctrination.
I see it as Control means that it's actually the Reapers that control Shepard. He loses. He becomes just like TIM - a puppet. He becomes a simple husk, no longer able to control (eh) his actions. His personality, everything that makes Shepard, uh, Shepard, dies. All is left is a husk.
In Synthesis Shepard, a being mostly organic, yet partly synthetic joins the energy of the Crucible to join organics and synthetics forever. Only, you know, THE REAPERS ARE THE APEX OF SYNTHESIS. They harvest organics in order to create synthetic life. Their core, though, remains organic. Of sorts. Gel, liquid, you know. That means either you simply will be processed and just as thousands of others you will be used in creating a new Reaper, OR Shepard will become a new Reaper's main mind. Like, some resemblance of personality, it's 'voice'. Of course your indoctrinated body will drag itself to the closest processing device/facility and well, there you go.
The Destruction, presented by The Catalyst in a very negative way, is actually Shepard's mind REJECTING the indoctrination. He will wake up right there in the rubble, among bodies and burning Mako's. He didn't move previously and it looked like he was dead (while in truth he was dreaming), so the voice at the beginning of the 'walk to the beam in slo-mo' sequence says that there's nobody alive, 'they', your team, didn't make it. You wake up, free of Reaper's control, shrugging off the indoctrination like it's a flesh wound, retaining your personality and mind, defeating the Reapers at their own game through your willpower and determination, not swaying and deciding to end this the way you always thought was right - by destroying the Reapers.
But if you believe Shepard is indoctrinated, how can you believe any of what the game presents you with?
And if the Reapers did somehow cunjure up this illusion through indoctrination, why provide the option for destroy at all?
And why is it the only choice if your GaW is low?
I can't believe, that's the 'sweet spot' right there. Shepard a couple of times said himself that 'what if'. What if he's not himself since the Cerberus supposedly rebuilt him? Or did he get out of the Geth Consensus at all? (Consensus is brought up by Joker and it is less possible, yet it somehow fits the theme of things not being reality, also some kind of foreshadowing) But the game makes, please notice, prefect sense and everything is seemingly clear thorough the whole game (except ambiguous dream sequences) and the very trippy ending. Heck, the most obvious point of Shepard's start of indoctrination would be either the visit in the dead Reaper's body or the impulse from a Reaper's artifact in Arrival. An impulse similar to the one that probably started TIM's indoctrination during the First Contact War. It's in the comics. Also, indoctrination isn't forcing something on you. It usually makes you BELIEVE what the Reapers are saying to you. Like Saren, Benezia, TIM. What, if at some point they had a similar dream-like experience, but their choice was wrong? It's like Saren - his motives were good, but he ended up as a puppet. Same here - your intentions are good to choose Control or Synthesis, yes, because there would be less casualties etc - EXACTLY what the Reaper would present you if it would want you to believe that your own actions would be good.
The Destruction option is your own mind, your subconsciousness fighting. Reapers know that you need a choice, that there would always be a choice. Because it's your mind, and your mind will always resist. The Destruction is like the exit from this system, a backdoor that seems very bad and cruel and brutal, it will do things that you don't want to. It will cause death and destruction on a scale that the Reapers could not do themselves. Would Shepard, who's fighting for saving the galaxy take that? Or, the correct question should be: would YOU choose that, knowing that there are other options that will save many people and seemingly will make the Reapers dissappear, too? Food for thoughts.
Destruction being the only option by having not enough GaW (though IDK if it's the only one, I had around 6k EMS at the end) would be a simple, well, BioWare's backdoor. A new ending would just close on the true choice, Destruction, the only where Shepard survives and has his mind intact. The proper ending will start from there. This way players who did not get all the neccessary EMS points wouldn't be screwed up. Then, of course, they could have their True Ending screwed up by not having enough EMS and, well, Reapers win. This time, though, you see everything with your own eyes and not through Reaper-inducted dreams.
But why make the other endings require a higher GaW? Games provide better rewards for those who work for them - Bioware wouldn't simply give players who worked harder more chance of unknowingly failing.
That's exactly the thinking! Look at it from the psychological point of view. It's some sort of carrot on a stick, only the carrot is poisoned. You worked hard and you get the possibility to Control or Synthesis. And if you got them, that means they;re better endings, right? While in truth
they are not. The player gets indoctrinated as well. You think you have the choice, and that choice is your reward by working hard. The only problem it's not a reward. It's another trick to make you fail.
And IMHO if (or, hopefully, when) the true ending will be released, your natural option will be the Destruction option. Because you will know that there's something after the Choice Sequence. If you work hard you can be deceived into choosing wrong, because you have the choice. If you didn't work hard enough, you will be forced to get the True Ending, but the True Ending will have the worst possible outcome. you will be forced to eat up the whole ME3 experience, then go back to the menu, click New Game and start over, this time trying to get things right and completing the game in a better way.
Oh man, I'm sure making walls of text here. But that's because I love the game.
Modifié par Worufu, 13 mars 2012 - 12:49 .
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