I finished Mass Effect 3 last weekend.
*** Spoiler Alert ***
If you haven't played the game yet and plan on doing so
DO NOT READ AHEAD!
At first, like many, many others I was very confused with the ending.
I didn’t get it.
It didn’t make sense.
The entire God Child sequence seemed weird and the given options were unsatisfying at best.
So I turned to the web to see what other players were saying, and came across the Indoctrination Theory. I was baffled to say the least.
Throughout the entire game series (all three titles), I have always taken the Paragon approach. That, of course, resulted in me choosing the (blue) Control Option in the end, simply because it seemed that except for Shepard everyone would live, and after all, why shouldn’t the hero die at the end of a tremendous trilogy?
Well, that was what I thought, listening to the manipulating little SOB (God Child).
BioWare had done it.
Even though again and again I, the player, was reminded what indoctrination meant, what the symptoms were, in what way the effects would be felt, I ignored all (!) the signs.
I remember playing through the numerous dream sequences in ME3 thinking this could quite possibly be the beginning of a Reaper’s takeover of Shepard’s mind - I thought that, but dismissed it and forgot about it afterwards.
When Shepard got up after being hit by Harbinger's death ray, I noticed the unlimited ammo of the gun (which was not the gun my Shepard character had when she ran towards the beam by the way though it was lying right next to her when she awoke). The radio chatter told me there were no survivors though my Shepard character was obviously standing there, slowly but steadily approaching the beam. I noticed I couldn’t hurt the keeper in that strangely un-Citadel-like yet somehow familiar part of the Citadel. Also, Anderson, who miraculously had no injuries what so ever, could not be hurt with the weapon. I noticed it, and dismissed it the next second.
When the God Child told me, the Illusive Man’s way of thinking was the blue path (which translated “right path” in my mind), I accepted it, even though just seconds before I had been thinking how weirdly husk-like the Illusive Man looks and that he must be under Reaper control - that he is the enemy, even more so now that he’s obviously been indoctrinated.
I didn’t listen to what the God Child said, I just heard what I wanted to hear, what I was “programmed” to hear. The seemingly Renegade option (red) had to be the bad choice, the God Child had to mean that choosing this path would result in Shepard’s death as well as the annihilation of the Geth (who I had happily reunited with the Quarians some hours ago the very same day) and even worse the destruction of the mass relays. I now see, that the God Child never said that, he never said Shepard would die as he prominently did with the other two options. But I heard it nonetheless, because I believed it.
The Synthesis option sounded very weird, very interesting on some level, interesting in the sense that I had to see the result just to see it - not to live with it (I actually played through all options just to see the different outcomes).
So BioWare did it.
Over the course of the three games, they had in fact managed to blind the player (me) that much, that I (the player) didn’t realise that I (the player! not Shepard) was the one actually being manipulated, being programmed, being indoctrinated.
Wow!
In shame I bow my head to have let my beloved Shepard character do what through three instalments of the game I always fought to prevent.
For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about that - imagine your thoughts being occupied by the actions you took at the end of a “mere” computer game. That’s incredible in and of itself.
I can only most humbly congratulate BioWare on their ingenious game design.
You got me! You really did!
I thought I did everything right.
Everything!
All the time!
But in the end, my choices led to my Shepard’s demise, because I actively ignored all the many signs.
Always remember that evil can only be fought with and defeated by evil.
Evil will prevail over good each and every time ‘cause there will always be a situation where the good will reach an impasse, a decision they cannot make for the cost to them is to high. Evil doesn’t care.
Thanks for reminding me, BioWare, and thanks for a wonderful experience!
I’m looking forward to the “clarifying” DLC…
