What if the Crucible is both a mass indoctrination device, and our means of winning?
The Crucible turns out to be a mass indoctrination device, one that, when connected to the Citadel Relay, would spread it's indoctrination-ness throughout the entire galaxy. Not long after waking up, Shepard (& co) learn of this and attempt to stop it. Rather than destroying it, they come up with a better plan: sabotage it. I'm not going to attempt at details, but basically they'd reverse the Crucible's effects, resulting in an
anti-indoctrination weapon, thus freeing all the people under the Reaper's control, notably the indoctrinated civilians turned into Cerberus troops, as well as, according to my other theory, the Reapers themselves! My "Reapers are indoctrinated" idea is key here, obviously, otherwise it wouldn't really help us. We know Reaper tech indoctrinates, so it's not much of a stretch to think that they Reapers themselves are too. Whether they did it to themselves (by accident) like TIM and Saren, or by their creators, etc, that doesn't matter. What matters (for this) is that they are.
-How could the Reapers not know about the Crucible? Solved!
-How do we defeat the Reapers without some kind of super weapon type thing? Solved!
Also, I've yet to see another idea adress
both of these points

It would also reinforce the that the enemy we've been fighting throughout the entire series is actually indoctrination, both on a personal (Shepard) level, and as a galaxy.
-Geth Heretics: Indoctrinated
-Some ME1 side missions: Indoctrinated
-Benezia & Co: Indoctrinated
-Saren: Indoctrinated
-Collectors: Indoctrinated
-Some ME2 side missions: Indoctrinated
-Kenson & Co: Indoctrinated
-Some ME3 side missions: Indoctrinated
-Cerberus: Indoctrinated
-Kai Leng: Indoctrinated
-Illusive Man: Indoctrinated

The vast majority of our time in ME1/2/3 is spent fighting indoctrinated agents, not Reapers, and that doesn't even touch all the times it's talked about and such.
It's just after 01:00 here, so I'm pretty tired and I hope this makes sense
Modifié par BleedingUranium, 22 juillet 2012 - 08:15 .