SubAstris wrote...
v0rt3x22 wrote...
I'm kind of confused by people who don't believe in IT - who accept the fact that somehow - Shepard managed to not come under the effects of indoctrination throughout 3 full games - even though he was exposed plenty of time to the Reapers.
Shepard (except for Arrival, but that's another story) was with Reaper artifacts for relatively short amounts of time, taking extreme precaution to avoid indoctrination and having done what he has done immediatedly being removed from the area where the artifact resided. Compare that to Saren, the archetypal indoctrinated being, who was on Sovereign for a much longer time with no knowledge of the effects of indoctrination until it was too late. Furthermore, if Shepard is suffering from the effects of indoctrination, then one has to answer why none of your squadmates suffer anything.
But the biggest thing IMO is that there isn't sufficient evidence to show he is in fact being indoctrinated, especially in the first two games. If IT was real, it would seem that they only thought of it for the last game.
What is a relatively short amount of time to you? The Arch monolith could completely indoctrinate with a touch. Instantly. Any being touching it would be reduced to a husk faster than you could cook an egg. (Oh yes, Saren was indoctrinated and sought out Sovereign because of it, not the other way around.) Saren had only contacted a being who had been touched by the Arch monolith, a tiny exposure compared to what Shepard has gone through.
Your squadmates ARE suffering indoctrination. The early stages at least, go visit the human Reaper in the Cerberus base, "veiwing the Reaper itself with superstitious awe" and "Feelings of being watched" come to mind. They even comment on it. Shepard is merely a more advanced case.
He wasn't, in the strictest terms, being indoctrinated in the first two games. He was exposed surely, but he still had the mental and physical strength to resist, you heard Joker, by the time of the Reaper war, Shepard's stress levels are higher than they have ever been in his entire life. As a result of his weakening willpower, symptoms started to appear, much like how you can be a carrier for a disease without coming down with it yourself until your immune system is weakened.