I wonder about something now. I don't buy the whole Indoctrination BS. I still call it BS because that is what it is. If it is Indoctrination, then the guys dropped the ball totally on the "ending" because compared to the rest of the saga, it sucks ass big time.

Now, back on topic. Ash is my romance option (I really like her, most likely cause she remembers me of my actual girlfriend since they are similar in the way they think) and I took her on Priority Earth 2. Which means we both got struck by the Harbinger Lazzor (had to). Now, Why I don't buy the whole Indoctrination BS is because of the ending sequence, you see the Normandy Escaping and Crashlanding. That is just BS that can't even be explained without passing by as a "Loco" (Again, had to).

So, back to the issue. I finished the game, had the app from the get go. Got no message, not during the hospital nor after finishing the game. But I was wondering. I took Ash to that final mission. If the whole Indoctrination stuff is not BS, then that could also mean that she died or something and maybe that's why I got no mission. Perhaps.

I still don't buy it. I believe Bioware rushed the ending, maybe EA pushed them to do so (Though I doubt that). I hope Bioware fixes this. I don't even mind a Directors Cut "Fix" to the game.

I finished the game on the 10th, and got this message from Miranda stamped the 10th after the datapad came out. I'm assuming she's talking about what happened to the Illusive man on the citadel? I can't think of any other thing she'd be talking about given the time frame.

edit: Could also explain why the Datapad was delayed a week, maybe to add stuff like this in?

@ckeats: Huh. THAT's more interesting.

@N7 I've been thinking about the Arrival thing as well (blowing up Mass Relays) - I came to the conclusion that it could be argued that smashing a small planet into a Mass Relay, that apparently has a lot more Eezo than any other Mass Relay, wouldn't have the same effect as effectively calling a "self-destruct" (which could be argued could be designed to not cause catastrophic supernovas).

Sure, a lot of hypothetical could's.

@ckeats: Interesting, but it's too ambiguous. It could easily also be the injuries she takes on Sanctuary. She referenced those to me when I said my goodbyes in London (after you've met TIM) - and that's not very far from the end either - and I wouldn't make too many assumptions on how time-accurate those messages are.

In general, I don't buy the indoctrination theory because most of the "evidence" is extremely flimsy and circumstantial. That said, I'm not happy about the end we got... but I'm not going to go demand it be changed, because I think that sets a disgusting and dangerous precedent. But, if I could go back, I'd want an end that actually explains something, and... maybe a little bit less palette swapping.

What the endings do remind me of is Bioshock (1). Jarring.

@Mnemoidian: It's not the injuries she's referring to that's interesting, it's obvious those are hers, it's what she says about the Illusive Man. There are only 2 events she could be talking about: 1) "That's my chair Shepard", and 2) when he realized he's indoctrinated and got shot. (That's how it happened in my save)

And all the messages are accurately time stamped to when the actual in game events occurred, surprisingly well considering the app came out long after the game was finished.

You guys are digging too much into this... Here is the proof it's from the hospital. I got the message about one missions after I got the "looks like I'm getting out of the hospital" message.

@Pinworm45 said:

There's already tons of threads on this, but it's hard to find one that's good to consolidate more info. I feel like there should be one thread specifically about this, but I also feel like creating another one will just get it locked since it's redundant.

Either way, I'll just leave this here: (hint: look at the name of the model) http://o.imgbox.com/aarTjQEM.png?temporary-url---please-use-the-provided-share-codes-instead

I am starting to feel like BioWare planned this from the start. At first, it all seemed like grabbing at straws, but as the evidence keeps coming in, it seems like this is what they've planned. There's so much evidence and while yes, it's speculation, it all makes more sense than the retcon'd ending. The only thing we don't have is a confirmation from somebody on the team. Unless... that 4chan post is from a low level BioWare employee letting the fans know what is actually happening.

It's just... man. This is literally killing me. Such a mindfuck.

@Pinworm45: The thing that never made sense to me at the end, and I think this supports the indoctrination/hallucination theory, is I don't understand how Anderson is magically the one other guy who's alive and somehow made it to the catalyst beam after you enter it. It doesn't make any sense to me. Almost everybody was wiped out or critically injured. I don't know. There's a shitton of circumstantial evidence to support these claims. I have a hard just believing that BioWare goosed the endings in such a random way without planning something else.

@Hector said:

You guys are digging too much into this... Here is the proof it's from the hospital. I got the message about one missions after I got the "looks like I'm getting out of the hospital" message.

This.

It also doesn't make any sense that Shepard is indoctrinated because he hasn't spent any significant amount of time with a Reaper. Not like Saren who cruised the galaxy with Sov looking for Geth to build their armies and secretly pulling strings from behind the scenes.

@Hector: That don't explain Kaiden or Miranda's messages.

@ckeats said:

@Hector: That don't explain Kaiden or Miranda's messages.

Kaiden's message is the same after the hospital just worded differently from Ash and that specific message you get from Miranda you get while playing the story. I'm almost there so I'll send you a screenshot.

Your "theories" are wrong and I'm doing to disprove them. Try playing the game through now with the app from the beginning and you'll see what I mean. I beat the game before the datapad app came out and I did receive messages that seem to be out of context since I already beat it and Shepard was dead. After going through it on my new NG+ the messages popped up when they were supposed to.

@Red said:

Man, I've went from hating the ending, reluctantly accepting it, to possibly kinda loving it. I know it's sort of awful to offer your real ending as DLC, but man, BioWare is leading me on. It's as if I was flirting with Emma Stone, and she seemed interested. Odds are I won't get her number, but if I do, that'd be pretty awesome.

I feel the exact same way.

Infiltrator is pissing me off, the controls just do not respond that well. Maybe it would be better on an ipad. Nothing like getting rushed by a 2 fucking Krogans when you can hardly move.

@ckeats: Yeah, I was referring to the "that's my chair" meeting. Which, like I said, happens just hours before the shooting part. Which entirely negates Miranda's message as "evidence" for or against the theory, as you can't say exactly when it happened (and see Hector's image vs other ones in regards to the order the messages were received).

Also, another point that goes against the whole "the kid shows how Shepard is indoctrinated" thing is that the Prothean VI shuts down as soon as it detects Indoctrinated presences (just before Cerberus shows up), but doesn't react to Shepard.

Unless you want to argue that that was a dream as well. In which case we're in deep shit.

@Korwin said:

@Pinworm45 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Wrighteous86 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if they pretend this is what they planned all along.

And the Biodrones will eat their bullshit excuse right up.

Depends how soon they announce it. If it's within a month, that means they have been working on it since now, so that's fine. If it's 3-4 months or later from now, yeah, I won't buy the excuse, but, I will accept it.

Odds are whatever they announce will need to be before PAX East... that ME panel would just be an absolute shit show without something to sedate the internet horde.

This is going to end horribly. I am awaiting any info about this with mouth frothing, but I just know that no matter what they do be it DLC or confirming the indoctrination theory, it's going to go over as a shitshow with the fans.

@jillsandwich: Honestly, I think the best thing they can do is to just move on. Let people forget. Learn to fill their promises in the next game, or don't promise as much. Whatever they do with ME3 will just set a bad precedent one way or the other. Unless it's a patch. That fills the gaps in the story. Because that was a glitch.