I've recently tried another playthrough of ME3 after finishing it one time. So far, I've gone as far as finishing Mars, and put it on hold for the time being to await further developments concerning everyone's favorite topic, the resolution-and-is-there-more-to-come one. My main focus will be on other things that I haven't seen mentioned all that much so far, however, and I'll try to keep things vague so spoilers aren't too obvious...:S
Now, one thing I had on my mind the first time I encountered the kid from the beginning in the vent on Earth was this: If indoctrination is awfully strong enough to sway personalities such as Saren, what awful effect does it have on kids, whose will is arguably far more easily malleable than that of a hardened spec op such as Mr Arterius?
While I am now convinced, after my second run through the prologue, that the whole vent-incident is indeed awfully suspicious - no comment from Anderson on what Shepard was doing nor any mention of the kid to anyone else -, I do not doubt that in the very beginning, the kid is in fact an actual person and not merely conjecture of Shepard's mind; I've seen the argument that the kid was supposedly playing with a miniature Normandy - which, while possibly an interesting twist, is not the case: it's clearly an Alliance fighter.
So given this, I have no doubt that in the very beginning, at least, Shepard merely idly watches a kid that does what any other kid might do at that age: dreaming of becoming a space-pilot, kicking some slaver flotilla's arse or what-not all by himself, and so on.
Given Shepard's fame and that all too likely Shepard would be every kid's favorite hero-figure on Earth - we've got to remember the recruitment ads that are mentioned in ME2 specifically featuring Shepard -, the kid's reaction is still somewhat odd if we do not consider Reaper influence on youths, write it off as Shepard having received a more than merely sound knock to the back of the head (keep in mind the Reaper laz0r blowing up the tribunal...wish they had fleshed that scene out more prior to the Reapers crashing the party, but I digress) or else apply the kids-are-scared-in-awful-situations thing. The latter of these does not make sense to me, really, except if the kid were like a 3- to 5-year-old. He looks to be somewhat older than that, though, in my opinion, so seriously going with that explanation is indeed something of a stretch.
Now, moving on to the next stage, Mars...it is mentioned in one of the datapads one can pick up that the Prothean complex there might have lower levels that were not yet unearthed.
Now, seeing how the Protheans left behind a certain blue-print of utmost importance in an outpost whose only purpose was to supposedly observe humanity's progress...could this indicate more possible finds there?
I find this especially interesting as it could serve as an alternative to the idea of reintroducing Ilos which was brought up in another post here a while back...if you are familiar with that one, I think you'll know what I'm driving at...
Now one might theorize that this might not be valid, after all we see the Reapers touching down on the site. Then again, strong Reaper presence did not stop us from going in in other places, or did it?
Moving on onto the last point I reflected on, despite not having quite touched down there again yet...Is it just me, or do the Cerberus grunts seem to be something of a rip-off of Star Wars's stormtroopers, only a deal "worse"? While not exactly the same deal origin-wise - they aren't just kicked out of clone-vats - it is mentioned how only borderline individuals and psychopaths voluntarily sign up with Team TIM, and if I recall correctly the Empire's rank-and-file had a similar target audience of people widely considered as "criminal scum" in the days of Luke, Chewie and company.
Now, the reason I equate Cerberus with stormtroopers-gone-worse is their one main supply we are introduced to later on in the game - and how everyone acted surprised how that worked, even though it was painfully obvious to me as soon as the place was given as the next destination...that Ash would still be in shock at who these people used to be even later on in that other Cerberus base even though I had her along in that Cerberus location before that was frankly quite...irritating...
Hope I haven't brought up topics that were already discussed to great lengths before.
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