on ME3 and "the Indoctrination Theory"

[cmdr_zoom]

(yeah, this one's a bit old/overdue, but I've had it for a while and just haven't bothered committing it to pixels until now)

"Seriously? Look, I get that you're majorly invested in this narrative, but... you're saying you'd rather accept that Shepard spends the final act, and maybe a good portion of the game, as a brainwashed puppet with no actual agency. You'd rather go with that than what Bioware has set before you. ... That's #%$@ed-up."

Comments

[kowh.livejournal.com]

Indeed. While it's an ingenious what-if solution to the challenge of staying within canon while still fixing the horrible ending, but if Bioware adopted it it still wouldn't be an ending worthy of the series.

That said, if I had to pick between the as-is endings and indoctrination theory, I'd go with the later. A "not so great" ending still beats a horrible one.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I feel that even a poorly told/clumsily executed, but earnest, ending is better than one which depends on the assumption that we as players were being lied to, that we had no real control or free will. (Mind you, some will surely argue that this is already true, on a meta level - that choice is taken out of our hands just as much by the "official" ending(s) - but I prefer not to mix things like that.)

If we're already rejecting the official ending, can't we find something better to replace it with than a tortuously-constructed conspiracy theory whose practical result is that Shepard ends up just as much a tragic, deluded tool as Saren and TIM?

[kowh.livejournal.com]

The fans obviously want to reject the official ending, but it sounds like Bioware refuses to do this, so we're probably stuck with some variation of the indoctrination theory. I'm not sure it's possible to come up with a less convoluted but still improved ending without dumping the kid & three colours.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Then do it. If you're going to reject the official ending, then reject it, and own that decision. Don't go around pretending that the clues were there all along, waiting for the sufficiently clever to notice them; acknowledge that you're breaking with canon because you do not find canon acceptable.

And while you're at it, if you think you can do better, then do better. Personally, for example, I don't find Shepard hallucinating everything, Owl Creek Bridge-style, as he or she bleeds out after that final Reaper blast to be an improvement in any meaningful sense. I thought the idea was to come up with something less futile and hopeless and out-of-our-control?

[kowh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm all for folks jettisoning the crap in their fanfic, and I wish it'd be cut in canon too, but Bioware has stated they plan to do "more (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/324/index/10089946)" with the ending, and rumour has it they're considering (or depending on who you ask, have decided on) the indoctrination theory.