@Potts
Now you’ve done it.
Here’s why I don’t buy the indoctrination theory:
a. You didn’t think of it. In fact, 99.999 percent didn’t (I’m saying, like one dude did) come to this conclusion. Said dude came to this conclusion, put it on the internet, and then spread it around like it was too much cream cheese for the bagel he bought. If you say you did come to this conclusion on your own, and smugly sat in your chair going onto the internet to find your equally genius brethren to share and revel in your true understanding, I will call you a fucking liar. There is nothing you will be able to say to waver my conviction that you are a fucking liar, Because..
b. It’s way too elaborate. There are too many little details that blow this theory up. You really think they recorded an entire large series of dialogs with Martin Sheen, Lance Hendrickson, and Keith David, only to throw it all out and pretend it didn’t really happen? That it was all in Shepard’s head? Or that they paid these actors for this scene annndddd mooooreeeee! That’s coming on the DLC. How big is this DLC going to be? Is it really going to just explain, “Ohhh, it was all in Shepards heeaaadddd. Woooo. You may or may not have won.” That’s almost as stupid as the real ending. How does the game even actually end then? If you people are right, and destroying them is only way to not get indoctrinated, does Shepard then crawl out of the rubble, climb up to the really real citadel, and then use the Catalyst to save the day? But we don’t get to see that, because they decided to be even more clever with their deep and mysterious ending that you’re supposed to be able to puzzle out. This isn’t inception. This isn’t even Fight Club. NOBODY ELSE came to this conclusion. It’s not like people weren’t smart enough to figure it out like the above two mentioned movies, it’s that it would be impossible for anybody to come to that conclusion, especially if they picked one of the other two “bad endings” without talking about it online. People were always supposed to look on the internet and see Youtube videos of each ending so they could learn which one was the right one? Or supposed to play it multiple times to try and piece the puzzle together, always rejecting the “true” bad ending because they knew there was some kind of secret that would explain it all? You really think they were surprised that nobody would be satisfied, so they made two obviously veiled and IMPOSSIBLE to understand endings that are actually the “wrong” ending? People who don’t have the internet (somehow) or don’t care to check just don’t get to know if there is a good one, and then the conclusion dawns on them? Is this ending so brilliant that they knew people would have to talk about it to puzzle it out?
c. It’s evil. So many IT(ists?) think it’s the most daring and clever ending ever. It’s not. It’s a horrible thing done by a (potentially) horrible company. They actually made the ending so secretive that they knew the public would be so angry as to vote them the NUMBER ONE WORST COMPANY of the year, so they would finally then be able to reveal the true secret so all of the dimwits who didn’t understand it, could have their tiny idiot hands held through the truth. A shitty ending is going to be water under the bridge. It’s a videogame; nobody in the press is going to care if a videogame has a shitty ending. A video game that was created and sold for full price with NO ACTUAL ENDING; one that has to be downloaded after the game has ended, is going to make it into real news.
d. Indoctrination has never been portrayed as this. Ever. You people have literally invented some kind of deep concentrated indoctrination beam, that instantly hypnotizes Shepard into a dream sequence that he can somehow fight against, and win, if he happens to choose a certain path. Who in the game has ever struggled against indoctrination and won? Who? Everybody who says they were indoctrinated described it as a whispering in their head, gradually winning them over to the reaper way of thinking. Everybody who was indoctrinated eventually falls into it completely. Only in the end being able to break away from it for possibly one last second of redemption. People say “ohh, he was actually being indoctrinated through the whole series!!” So, through the whole series, he’s just been able to resist it completely, COMPLETELY. No sign of it? Oh, there are signs whenever you pick a naughty Shepard option. That explains why no matter how you behave you’ve been FIGHTING THE REAPERS, and KILLING THEM, through the whole series of games, only to ultimately possibly betray the galaxy.
e. What about PC users? What about people who bought the game and sold it? Too bad? PC users have to reinstall the game in order to see this DLC? Or they shouldn’t sell their game, because it’s precious and that’s not fair to EA, and blah blah blah.
If you really believe this theory, then you have to really believe that most people are supposed to have come to this conclusion on their own. You have to believe that Bioware, and EA, both believed that most people would come to this conclusion on their own, and be happy about it because they knew “the truth”, and not angry like most people who played through this game are. There is literally no way that they assumed this. No way.
I’m going to toot the fuck out of my horn; I’m a pretty bright guy, but I didn’t come anywhere NEAR this answer after having played through. As I said above, I just thought it was weird. And then like everybody else I got angry. I’m sorry; it’s just a horrible nonsensical ending. Trust me, I don’t want it to be. I WISH it wasn’t. I wish it could somehow be a good ending. But it isn’t. It’s just stupid stupid lazy shit. Ask me any question about why certain mysterious things happen at the ending sequence. The answer to all of your questions is that it’s just a stupid plot hole.
(And seriously, is there really no way to get email notifications when someone posts on a thread you want to follow? Do I really have to troll my own posts, checking periodically to see if anybody has written something on it?)
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