According to a lot of fans of the Mass Effect series, a popular theory about the ending of the 3rd game is that Shepard was actually indoctrinated. This would mean that the battle taking place after entering the Citadel at the end of the game is actually taking place in his or her mind. Many of the novels focus on indoctrination going into great detail about the process and how it affects an individual. It was also a large theme of the first and second game.
The above video explains in great detail one fans theory about the ending of the game and what could have happened.
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Hi, resident Mass Effect fangirl here - always on the hunt for new info. While we've known for awhile now that BioWare would eventually be moseying back over to their hit space franchise, we didn't have any idea of what it could be. Could we finally be getting a continuation of Andromeda? What about something along the lines of Commander Shepard? Something new entirely? Well, a new trademark seems to suggest that something Shepard related could be on the horizon, though there's a few things I want to get out of the way first before we dive right in.
Firstly, the video is wildly speculative. EA is a mega publisher with a ton of IPs in the works from numerous studios. This theory is 100% fan-coloured, so take everything with a grain of salt. The only reason I'm even sharing it is because I recently sat down with Mike Gamble, the lead producer for Anthem who had previously worked on Andromeda, to talk about BioWare's new IP and naturally - Mass Effect came up.
Before I go into what Gamble said, I also want to state that the Project Apex trademark could also be Star Wars related. Though one game was recently cancelled, another did take its place. A lot of the points the YouTuber in the video above brought up could easily apply to the Star Wars universe as well.
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Now, to what Gamble said. When I asked for anything more he could add on about the future of Mass Effect following Casey Hudson's big tease earlier last year, he smiled at me like a man with a plan and my fangirl space heart instantly knew I wasn't going to get a straight answer but it would be good nonetheless.
'I wish I could talk about Mass Effect stuff,' he said. 'One day, one DAY, we are going to go back to Mass Effect. And who knows what that game could be about,' he added with a wink. 'It could be about anything, ANYTHING. It could be fiction from Andromeda, fiction from the trilogy, it could be something new. You never know, but don't worry - you'll find out soon enough.'
Mass Effect Indoctrination
Since an alternate ending came out following Mass Effect 3's ending where a player's Shepard could survive and pairing that with the secret audio files in Andromeda where you hear more about the reaper takeover from Liara and more on Shepard, the future of the franchise could go anywhere.
Regarding the Project Apex trademark seen in the video above, the part that really struck out to the YouTuber and could actually be plausible is all of the repeating 'not dead' files found. Could that be referencing Shepard? We don't know, but it sure is fun as hell to speculate!
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Thoughts on the video above and Gamble's response? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy!
Source: Skullzi
Mass Effect Indoctrination Theory
Posted by27 days ago
Edit: Fully convinced that the eye thing doesn't support IT at all. This is surprising to me, as this was for me the strongest argument to come to the conclusion of IT. I probably never would've noticed it without the eyes. Nevertheless, I still think there are plenty of evidence supporting IT. Mostly illusionary coincidences, the dreams, and the fact that Shepard CAN be indoctrinated. If you think you can challenge these too, go ahead, I am very open to counterarguments!
Okay, so I guess some people will sigh at the look of this thread, as I can see this has been discussed every few months. Not part of this community, I just replay the original trilogy every few years. But I appreciate anyone who would humor me for a bit here.
Let me preface this by saying that whether or not the indoctrination theory is true, it is bad writing regardless. I see most people saying the ending is good if you believe IT. I think while it may be brilliant, anything that requires the old 'it's just a dream' sort of theory that even I'm very tired of does not constitute a good ending. And well, without IT, it's still bad for more obvious reasons. The way it is, I don't like the ending either way. So explaining away bad writing is not the motivation for me to think IT is valid.
Let me first tell you about how was my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3. I have lost my save files for the first two games before ME3 came out, and I played those two games through a lot of times. I wasn't a part of the community, but there was one detail that striked me as odd. Most people probably heard it first from indoctrination theorists, but I think if I noticed it before ME3 came out, it probably stood out to a lot of people. And that was the similarities between the eyes of Saren and the Illusive Man. Honestly, on my first several playthrough, I haven't done side quests in ME1, so I gravitated to giving the benefit of the doubt to Cerberus. Until I noticed the eye thing. This is why in nearly all my playthroughs, I blew up the collector station along with the reaper tech. Windows 10 photos app albums download. Because I didn't trust the Illusive Man due to his eyes. I was 100% convinced he would be indoctrinated in ME3. I remember jumping in self approval when I was validated, and turned out to be right. The eyes were the massive giveaway here.
Ffw to ME3 ending. I was very suspicious of the star child. Even though my Shepard (all Shepards really) take everything it says for face value, it was very strange to me that of all possible forms the catalyst could've taken, it was the human child that haunted Shepard's nightmares. I ended up choosing destroy, and then I went to youtube immediately to look at the other endings.
I immediately saw the same eyes in Shepard in the other two endings as the Illusive Man and Saren had, and no other characters in the game ever. I find this, along with the oily shadows Shepard sees in his dreams that the rachni queen talks about, oddly specific details. I don't think there is ANY possible explanations for these two details to exist if IT is not true. I'm really open for it not to be true, as it leaves the ending way too ambiguous for my taste. When I saw those eyes, I didn't even yet know the indoctrination theory exists in the community, and I came to the conclusion about the IT myself. Later I found CleverNoob's videos on it and they further convinced me. Probably the strongest reason I believe the theory is that I didn't just stumble on it on the internet randomly, but rather came to the same conclusion by myself. I saw that a lot of people aren't convinced, but..
Indoctrination Theory Confirmed
The strongest arguments from denyers are 1) dream theories are absurd, because there is often no way to really disprove them, and 2) the prothean VI on Thessia doesn't recognise Shepard as indoctrinated. I will admit those both are good points, especially the first one. And I hate it that that's the case. It's like the fact that science cannot disprove the existance of god. The second can easily be explained away. Indoctrination is not an on/off switch. It is likely a spectrum. There are varying degrees of it. Shepard was probably not very indoctrinated at the time, as Shepard has never taken or even heard a command from the reapers up to that point.
I put a question mark on the title on the change my mind part, because I'm not sure my mind can be changed, but I'm definitely open to it. Do you have any more, or stronger counterarguments for me to consider? And how do you explain those two very oddly specific details if IT isn't true? The eyes in particular already turned out to be a predictive sign of the Illusive Man being indoctrinated, so it would be incredibly strange of the sharingan that particular eye pattern to appear randomly there without any meaning. What do you think?
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