[Typhoid]

I literally just finished the game and wanted to post on it while it's still fresh - and I put spoilers on nothing.

I just wanted to put my thoughts on the indoctrination theory. So I've never watched any of the videos - these are solely my thoughts on how I perceive that possibility. I don't think that's what it is, for the record - I'm just open the idea of the concept.

So the kid at the beginning is the same as the kid posing as the Catalyst, who is also the same kid in Shep's dreams who burns. Leading me to the possibility the kid at the beginning who blew up, and who is running away from you in all of your dreams and being set on fire - was not a real kid to begin with, and was an implanted image in order to break Shep's will, or resolve, or something. I mean, that kid is a super bummer. He's so negative and all he does is tell you that you can't help him, blow up, get set on fire, until the very end when he's trying to essentially get you to side with synthetics.

At the end the kid/Catalyst keeps saying things about how he controls the Reapers, and was controlling the Illusive Man, who was controlling Shep [essentially meaning The Catalyst-kid was controlling Shepard]. But then suddenly in that conversation when it starts really pushing for synthesis or control, the Catalyst starts referring to itself and the Reapers as one-in-the same, as "us", and the voice gets a little more barotone - a little more Harbinger-y (Harbinger is said to be on the way to Earth towards the end of the battles) Maybe simply because he [The catalyst] is now including himself in the group of life who will be destroyed, or maybe the kid is an implanted Reaper image by and it brings Shep to the core at the end out of Reaper-arrogance, giving him 2 options to prolong the cycle, and 1 to obliterate it. Maybe it's just cocky. That way players get to make the final option, and [possibly] get to overcome Reaper arrogance with Human resolve and good-will (if you choose that option, that is) Like I said, I'm not pushing for the Indoctrination Theory, and I don't essentially believe in it. I'm taking the ending at face-value until proven otherwise by the people who wrote the game. I just think it's 'fun' to speculate otherwise.


Or maybe the catalyst is simply trying to get you to side with synthetics because it fears it's own demise, and is only trying to preserve itself, too - and in the end it's all just about the will to survive. Whaaaaat.


Really though, the end of the game was pretty epic. I enjoyed the entire thing, it was so many shades of epic. I want them to make fourteen more Mass Effects.

The ending of the game, on Earth was so badass. Defending fake alien planets from giant robotic versions of small cuttlefish is one thing, but I got into the battles so much more just because everything seemed familiar (in comparison to the other planets).

And I didn't mind the part after the credits, either. Essentially saying it's a story. I noticed there was some pretty hard emphasis when Buzz Aldron says he'll "Tell him another story" about "The Shepard". (Because Shepards 'lead sheep', and 'the sheep' would be the populace of the galaxy. Whaaaat.)


I don't really believe half of what I said. I just like to speculate from all possible angles for absolutely no reason.

I plan on giving this game another go on the hardest difficulty. I figure I won't be able to get the game to Dylan before the weekend, and there are...like 72 hours until then. I completed the game in about 24 hours, so I figure I'm good to go.