*sigh*
ULS 980 wrote...
Couple things that have been bugging me.
Can we stop calling it an "indoctrination attempt". That implies the Reapers try indoctrination on an individual many times until they finally "crack them", like trying to throw cards into a hat. It also implies failure to indoctrinate someone, which isn't the case. Indoctrination always works (until, if the theory is correct, now). A closer analogy would be like putting a cup under a dripping faucet, where a full cup is full indoctrination.
Grayson in Mass Effect: Retribution novel. He was remarkably strong-willed, and managed to fight off the reapers a few times, untill Cerberus started dosing him with Red Sand.
Harbinger's not "attempting to indoctrinate Shepard". At the end, I think Harbinger just thought he killed Shepard. The only reason (again, if we subscribe to the theory) we get an "indoctrination sequence" is because at that point, Shepard's mental state is so battered that the indoctrination is finally starting to take real hold on his thoughts.
Doesn't really affect anything, I just think the phrase "indoctrination attempt" sounds incredibly stupid.
Explain the random 100 meter foward leap Shepard takes, from being a fair distance back from the beam to between the outer layer of pillars.
Secondly, Shepard's indoctrination (assuming the theory is correct) does not start when he's knocked out at the end. Indoctrination does not work that way. It's not a switch that Reapers flip and ten minutes later someone's indoctrinated. It's a subtle and drawn out process that doesn't draw attention to itself.
It more likely starts around the time he was knocked out on that base in Arrival, sitting a few rooms away from a massive Reaper artifact. Which explains part of why Shepard is second guessing himself and having nightmares and whatnot throughout ME3.
Indoctrination impacts different people differently. We also know that it is easier to perfom on people who are weakened mentally (Note - shep is quite close to a breakdown after Thessia), and when they have high levels of narcotics and/or Adrenaline in their system (I'd imagine the battle fighting the Destroyer, and the sprint to the beam would cause Shep to have a fair bit of adrenaline pumping about in there).
I Figured Arrival as the best time for it to start, too. Shep gets tricked into opening his mind to the Reapers. His strength-of-will and determination is probably all that stops him being indoctrinated by the start of ME3. The prothean VI's being able to only detect Reaper Tech implants would also be useful, but I thought they used some reaper tech in project Lazarus.
Lastly, the Prothean VI, as has already been stated, DOES recognize Shepard as indoctrinated (according to the theory), or at least partially so. Not on Thessia, but on TIM's base where Shepard asks him what the Catalyst is and the VI replies with "My security protocols have been overridden, I will comply", and the only time we've heard the VI use the phrase "Security protocol" is when he locked down because an indoctrinated presence showed up. It's not a statement or something just saying his protocols have been overridden. It's a direct reply to Shepard.
"I will comply" implies that had his protocols not been overridden, he would have refused to talk to Shepard.
Not necessarily - Kai Leng may have entered proximity for the VI to detect his indoctrination as Shepard asked the question, not to mention the next room contains a mostly-dead proto-reaper. Too many variables to say for certain it was Shepard.
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