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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- !!! SPOILER ALERT !!!
DOWNLOAD (audio fixed): mega.nz/#!UptCGApS!LR3mCx6TOw...
(Since 2013 most of my TH-cam videos have suddenly audio glitches for some reason, i guess it's a codec problem but i can't change it, no response from TH-cam Helpdesk, sorry about that)
Please read the FAQ below before posting a question!
Please turn captions off / on via the [CC] symbol on the menu bar.
This video is for educational purposes considering the Mass Effect Trilogy.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted.
"Fair Use" guidelines: www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
UPDATE:
After the release of the Extended Cut & the other story DLCs Bioware hasn't directly denied nor approved the IT (with its many arguments makes perfectly sense (also within the lore)). They want to keep their artistic integrity which is okay, so it's up to YOU whether you interpret the ending with IT (Indoctrination Theory), other theories or take the endings at face value.
However, if Bioware wants us to take the endings at face value, there is no profound mind struggle, no interesting indoctrination attempt and everything happened as we have seen it. Either way, Bioware has missed the chance to write gaming history by delivering us one of the greatest mind blowing twists ever...but apparently it was not to be (or at least not clearly).
Fortunately everybody can choose his/her own personal ending... whether it is IT or not ;) Therefore we have our own imagination...
Choose whatever pleases you and remember all the great moments in the entire trilogy
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Please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors
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Enjoy this new version of my video that shows you evidence of the Indoctrination Theory.
The Mass Effect 3 ending was nothing more but an illusion induced by Harbinger to trick Shepard to give in to indoctrination and become one of their tools in the war.
Here is a proper version of my first video regarding the INDOCTRINATION THEORY. It shows you many interesting hints which all support this theory of Shepard being indoctrinated (at least Harbinger tries to) at the end of the game.
MUST READ
Everyone who wants to be completely convinced or who still denies it please read this:
uninhibitedandunrepentant.tumb...
It will blow your mind away!!!
Follow this links to take part in further discussions about this theory:
social.bioware.com/forum/1/top...
w11.zetaboards.com/Theorycraft...
THE INDOCTRINATION THEORY
has been created and assembled by many people independently all over the world. Fans who paid attention, who slowly recognized the big picture
There are sure many different interpretations of this theory, this video shows you just how i think of it.
The credits go to everybody out there who contributed to this well thought theory.
F A Q
Frequently Asked Questions about the Indoctrination Theory (IT)
Please visit this website to take a look at the FAQ:
acavyos.de.tl/FAQ.htm
(The amount of text for a video description is unfortunately limited, so i had to move the FAQ to my website.)
!!!! Do you have any additional answers that could be added to this FAQ? Please send them to me via PM. !!!!
What do you think of this?
CREDITS:
Video created by
ACAVYOS
acavyos@gmx.net
Video & audio footage
MASS EFFECT I - II - III
Music
Mass Effect II & III
Special thanks to:
anatole (english editing)
pkm100 (polish captions)
gundam94, x256kx,
MUSIC LIST
00:00 - 00:10 - ME2 OST - The Collector Base
00:11 - 01:37 - ME3 OST - Prothean Beacon
01:38 - 02:38 - ME3 extracted ingame music Wwise_Generic_Music.018
02:39 - 02:46 - ME3 EXT Wwise_End001_Streaming.077 (dream music)
02:47 - 3:24 - ME3 EXT Wwise_End002_Streaming.055 (Crucible music)
3:41 - 4:42 - ME3 OST The Ardat-Yakshi
4:43 - 5:22 - ME3 OST Leaving Earth
5:23 - 6:20 - ME3 EXT Wwise_CitSam_Streaming.023
6:21 - 6:40 - ME3 EXT Wwise_KroGru_Streaming.035
6:41 - 7:03 - ME2 EXT Wwise_EndGame2_Music.017
7:10 - 7:53 - ME3 EXT Wwise_Generic_Music.001
7:54 - 14:37 - ME2 OST The Collector Base
14:38 - 17:22 - ME3 OST An End Once And For All
17:35 - 19:20 - ME3 OST A Future of the Krogan
19:43 - 20:30 - ME3 OST I Was Lost Without You
20:33 - 21:30 - ME3 OST Mars
If you can't extract the music by yourself (tutorials on the web) than maybe you will find some of the tracks in the unoffical expanded score:
• Mass Effect 3 (score) - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
His name was Marauder Shields
He died as Marauder Health
I love you both
God I hope he gets an update with legendary edition. Maybe marauder savior or something
@@joshuamoore9014 *Legendary Marauder*
omg
here we are 9 years later...... the legendary edition is out..... i dont care what bioware said...thats a red herring...this is still my absolute head canon
Agreed
Some of the greatest art is subconscious.
no they are really not smart just like they said. too stupid even to make this theory happen
Shepard is 100% indoctrinated.
Confirmed fact
Yep
And the fact that the song from the Citadel its named "Wake up", its somehow scary
If you understood the technical terms of the reaper indoctrination you would be horrified. This technology is all around us and yet, no one seems to notice. Maybe when people start talking to invisible creatures in mass numbers people will 'wake up'. I have ringing buzzing in my ears, I also am starting to feel watched and I hear people in my home. The enemy is mocking us with our own entertainment. lol.
@@fiftyfiveseventythree That means that you are losing your mind. You need to seek professional medical help.
It is just fiction. Stories are written by a script writer. The art on Mass Effect is analogous, maybe to the player to understand the message about our real word not to a fictitious character. The name of that music is for you not to Shepard.
Dark Starr Maybe it might be because the kid says wake up to shepard... but you know that’s just a theory
And there is also a file from the ending with the name starting with the word "dream"
in the end bioware either fucked up mass effect ending or made it the best masterpiece in the history of video games... to think we might never know is driving me crazy
There is a third option. But few will likely accept it as truth. The series like many others are actually a mix of subtle indoctrination and propaganda being used against the gamers. Rather ironic actually.
The first minute or so of the codec is basically talking about televisions, music and various other sources of images, audio sources. The magnetic spectrum that is mentioned is basically smart technology. Myself and others have started having buzzing with flashes of light and various other problems with smart technology. I quite literally mean that games are used as a means to indoctrinate (to teach or enforce an idea,) in this case that these symptoms are a work of fiction and should be seen as a sign of insanity. most researchers that attempt to bring these side effects up either get discredited or lose their job. Something is going on but I am uncertain of what. It maybe nothing more than a struggle to keep a multi billion dollar industry from potentially losing a lot of business due to a safety hazard. Work is starting to be done to prove these signals are harmful, I just hope the people doing the tests don't get laughed out of the building like most groups. But that leaves several holes that I won't fill on this page.
www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/2014/924184/
Just wait for another Mass Effect game
The indoctrination theory doesn't have an ending tho . It's just ''shepard is indoctrinated'' , no closure whatsoever .
until now, nobody saw through the ending. i guess you could say they were indoctrinated.
Still how MY Mass Effect story ended.
+Anibal Morales Defining an entire game series based on the ending the last one. Cool.
+Anibal Morales I understand your frustration man. I was there. I haven't come back to ME in two years. The other day I decided to look up the extended cut destroy perfect ending. Well..it actually wasn't that bad for me. As much as I love the indoctrination theory and haven't decided completely for myself, that ending wasn't as bad as I remember.
I'd explain more but I don't want my comment to get cut off. Maybe give it another shot? Dude.. I bought all the books, comic books, collectors edition games, I teared up in the beginning of ME2. If I can look past the discrepancies and let down of ME3's ending to enjoy the amazing ME universe again maybe you can too.
+Anibal Morales Also, you can almost bet money BW is not going to garbage another ending to a ME game after the colossal outrage over ME3. I bet their endings from now on will be spectacular. I'd also venture to say that will clear up a lot of discrepancies of Shepards story and "ending" as time goes on.
+kris tindell It's enough for me to play Leviathan DLC to be sure that IT is correct. Just compare both DLC and main storyline endings on two screens and you will get it :)
Imo when BioWare was talking about DLC with 'improved' ending, they didnt mean Extended Cut. they were talking about Leviathan.
And talking about BW 'endings', I think they wanted player to be indocrinated in some way too. What is the point of magic if you know how it works? Whole 3rd part would be useless if we knew we are indocrinated from the start by being told we are. So it's something we have to see by ourselves, not by game developers. The sad thing is that gaming community is not ready for it because we have never 'truely' been in game characters shooses and allways been told what the ending is.
I hope you understood my point, my Englando is not good at all :D
snazzy Brilliantly said!
I still believe to this Theory, Bioware never said it isnt true. NEVER.
Cascco So, you believe to it, cuz Bioware didn't approve? Comic..Ofc they didn't, why should they destroy their cash machine?...
Miłosz Kosowski Where do you see connection with this theory and their "cash machine" ?
The growing popularity of the ME series, for example? Even I started to play ME after reading articles titled "Worst game ending ever? Gamers gets furious!" etc.
Bioware will release or say something in about 1-2 years, some tip or anything, and the game will start the storm again, getting new potential players in the same time.
More noise = more players = more buyers = more cash.
Miłosz Kosowski It wasnt worst ending ever, it was just dissapointing,
then why did they apologize and say they would make it better in me4 ?
The audio on this video is fucked up now ;/ I'm blaming TH-cam and Google+.
Its been like that for a long time. Although I don't like Google+, It's not their fault.
Noja199 Shhh.....blame them anyways.
Don't forget Obama
Titto Rios Can we still blame Bush?
what is this Google+ you are talking about?
There's another thing. Even if you take the IT aside, the game itself tells you that DESTROY is the right choice.
Let's say the Illusive Man is really at the Citadel talking to Shepard. He clearly is indoctrinated. His eyes are Husk-like, and for us not to take that lightly, Bioware even make his face different, so you know he has Reaper influence.
So, If he's indoctrinated, he WILL advocate in favor of the Reapers, guess what he tells us to do? CONTROL. Control is what the Reapers want, no indoctrinated being would say anything otherwise.
And what other character was indoctrinated? Saren! Guess what he told us to do? SYNTHESIS.
It works in the exact same way.
So at the end the Catalyst is LYING.
Even with the sacrifice of EDI and the Geth, (that may not even happen, since he was lying, and they may be reconstructed),
YOU'RE SHEPARD, ACT LIKE IT, DESTROY THE REAPERS.
EXACTLY
AND in the end sequences NO dead Geths are shown, when you used destroy and they were still alive. Only dead quarians, if they died before but NO Geths, that proves it, too.
The only thing is... EDI is on the memorial board when they show the love-interest hesitating with the nameplate. :(
EDI and the Geth all had Reaper code. It's an unfortunate truth. Even though I like to pretend that I didn't see her name there and that they were all exempt from it.
You're Shepard, you've given every galactic race a second chance, and you've been proven about sentient synthetics.
Therefore unless you're a spoiled imbecile thinking you can win without solving the cyclic variable, you choose Synthesis.
Some people has seen too many movies it seems, and their brains have followed suit by choosing a default ending.
In the end it doesn't really matter. Once one of the three choices is made, the game is over. Maybe in the choice of destruction you see Shepard draw a breath, we just don't know if he drew his final breath. I chose synthesis and still would. It allowed for symbiosis between organic and machine. To control and destroy would have made is no different from the reapers. Only through synthesis do organic and machine stand together.
Its been years and I still believe in this theory. Anyone else still believe in it ?
I keep hoping they'll double back to this and just use this ending. Especially since Andromeda made the Mass effect saga grind to a screeching halt.
If the theory states that in the destroy ending Shepard wakes up from indoctrination under that pile of rubble. Then all he's accomplished is just resisting indoctrination. But the war isn't over yet. The Reapers are still trying to harvest all organic life. If BioWare wanted this to be true I don't think they would leave it on a cliffhanger like that.
And no I don't believe in this theory.
Doesn't matter what other people think
Once you you see the truth you can't go back
The creators cannot openly say Shepherd was indoctrinated because it ruins the entire concept
We experienced Shepherd's struggle
Just a whole bunch of grown ass adults just can't admit that they got fooled by a videogame
2020 and it still makes the most sense as an ending.
Yup. I think EA/Bioware didn’t have the courage to just admit that it was correct at the time - not with so many people upset at the ending of ME3.
But I’ve seen people go to jail for the rest of their life on far, far less evidence than this.
IT is the only thing that give ME3 logical coherence.
I love the part about the reversed colors, how paragon means renegade and vice versa.
I don't think it's reversed. Paragon means co-operation, working together with your adversary to the mutual benefit of both. We consider it a virtue as it binds our society together, but, if you are talking with Reapers, then cooperation means you work *with* them and their intent to destroy all life! Renegade, which represent actions that prioritize your own self-interest, means you are putting the interest of *mankind* first. Hence, this is the correct colors. Bioware may be showing how immoral a binary morality is.
What? Paragon *does not* mean "co-operation, working together with your adversary."
I gotta disagree. Compassion, heroism, cooperation vs. ruthless, selfish, apathetic. If you are showing paragon qualities towards the Reapers, you let them win.
Paragon is also about taking a stern stance against what is wrong (e.g. Shepard's Paragon interrupt in ME2 where he rants at the volus and C-Sec officer for behaving so disgustingly to the quarian). Paragon is also about convincing people to stop doing wrong (in ME1 you can convince a criminal leader to break up her little empire and reform it into something good after eliminating her seedier competition). A Paragon Shepard would never side with the Reapers (thus dooming all innocent life in the galaxy) no matter what.
Shepard became a eternal protector the first time I got my ending. I struggled to reach my conclusion, but I realized that destroying the reapers would cause more harm than good, though disagree with the claim that the elusive man was right in every respect except that it is possible to control the reapers through some means. I realize, however, stripped of context, to seize power like that would not be something morally congruent IF it was for the sake of justifying a means. But there was no means for Shepard to justify, if you stuck to paragon decisions. The aforementioned "altered variables" may have meant that the assumption about human volition was offset because it became possible to prove end up in a position of acquiring power without acting in line with mere self-preservation instincts (as brought up with EDI, as she asked about why prisoners would not prioritize survival over compassion), which might have been recognized through the fact Shepard already had died to save another. It was pointed out that the reason the Elusive Man could not seize control was because of the fact he was indoctrinated, which, looking at the series as a whole, seems to mean that your beliefs align with the ideology of the reaper collective AI, prioritizing self-preservation over other qualities that make us human, such as empathy. The indoctrinated lost free will, or did not demonstrate it, because they were unable to see things in such a way that differentiated them from the will of the collective, so there was no guiding framework to make a difference, regardless of the choice made, if the underlying ideology and motivation remained the same, thus no purpose for a successor. there was no reasoning that surpassed that of the AI until faced with the virtue and idealism Shepard held: that there was a greater reason.
The beginning of this video, with the voice over and the music, makes Mass Effect a bit creepy / scary in hindsight.
I agree that shit was creepy asf lol
The fact that a video game can make humans think so far into a concept based on knowledge gained from within a series is phenomenal. Genius, even.
Regardless of whether this is true or not, or unintentional, it is genius. And now everyone is eager for the next game only because of the interest sparked within the conclusion of this one. Fantastic theory.
AND NOW WE CAN ONLY THINK OF HOW MUCH THE MICROTRANSACTIONS WILL COST FOR THAT SWEET 2% EXTRA DMG ( THAT THEY WILL CHARGE US ANTOHER $50 FOR)... GENIUS,,, I MEAN FOR THAT DUDE THAT THOUGHT OF THAT, AND THAT EXTRA $3 DOLLAR BONUS FOR IT HE WILL GET... my... how times change...
copy and paste that to all games from now on... eh doubt anyone will care til 2027... when ur all like *qq why as games like slot machines*
ME3 had a terrible ending but, if indoctrination theory is true, then it had the best ending in the history of video games.
I believe...
But there's also a chance the fans have better writers than Bioware, and if they came together, no matter what you gave them, they could give you the best script in all of history.
You clearly need to play a couple more games... what you're saying is ridiculous at best.
The ending is to deep 4 u
Eric_Vidfarne it’s been 5 years, but no. It isn’t the best ending, because if it were true and he was still alive, and became conscious on earth, then that means that there’s still army of reapers alive, and still to get rid of.
@@user-vo8zx1db6m yep its true bioware confirm is alive but thats mean reapers is still here and shepard is mia
From what I've come to understand through various forums and leaked ME3 script documents prior to the game's release, the original intent of the Reapers were to be a perverse Noah's Ark. The reason that they harvested the species wasn't because the reapers feared a devastating war between organics and synthetics (a war only originally between Geth and Quarians that you have the chance to resolve for better or worse in ME3), but because they feared the "big crunch" scenario caused by rapidly decaying universes due to an over abundance of Dark Energy which is produced when using biotics or Element Zero.
Tali's investigation on the home world of the Quarian stated that the sun was rapidly decaying and they didn't know why. This was never brought up again despite its clear importance to the Quarian people. Its assumed to be a Geth strategy through the majority of ME2 but never directly handled. This was meant to be a description of what Dark Energy would do when exposed in vast quantities to the universe, expanding at an exponential rate with each new species that uses it.
The reapers harvested and looked similar to what they were harvesting in order to prepare for the big crunch and subsequent big bang so that the universe can be more rapidly populated with intelligent species that could potentially overcome the impending problem and continue on that new universe from scratch with a much greater amount of time on their hands since so many other species before them had already used up time unwittingly.
War assets are a leftover functionality of this storyline since, largely, it has no baring on the events. There was supposed to be an option to allow Shepard to make the choice to allow the species to be harvested rather than fight them on it since Shepard may or may not have the war assets/research partners to aid in dealing with the Dark Energy problem themselves.
To me, this sound like a much better ending than what we got because the game and anything after it feels more final. Like no matter what happens, its no longer the Mass Effect Universe we came to know and love because the relays are destroyed and the universe is forever altered to the point of unrecognizably.
Any prequel will by marred by the thought that any actions taken are ultimately meaningless because in 200 years (first contact war) your actions will be void. A billion years is a far greater stretch of time to feel your actions have made some kind of difference, but a finite 200? And any sequels will have the problem mentioned above that nothing will be the same aside from, perhaps, armor and ship designs. Arguably even those might not be the same since the Mass Relays are completely destroyed and most civilizations are now left stranded again.
That's my thoughts, let me know yours.
Actually, if you played through ME3, it has been confirmed that the Reapers were created by the Leviathans with their original purpose being to protect sentient life, however they turned on their creators.
"Eventually, the Leviathans utilized this thrall species' civilization to achieve spaceflight and spread throughout the galaxy, despite their immense size and aquatic nature. Every new species they encountered was enthralled to serve them and provide "tribute", and in return, the thralls were cared for and protected. With their dominance assured, Leviathans considered themselves the galaxy's apex race. Over time, however, they observed that their thralls would frequently build synthetic constructs to aid them; these synthetics consistently rebelled, wiping out many thrall species. In response, the Leviathans created an Intelligence with the mandate to preserve life at all costs."
-masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Leviathan
CheetosVikings
Leviathan was a post hoc attempt to justify the ending that didn't really make sense with the universe of mass effect. If their intent was to keep synthetics from achieving dominance then they failed on two levels because they themselves are synthetics ruling the fate of the galaxy AND depending on choices made Shepard could unite the geth with the quarian in a cohesive relationship which should have made the reapers reconsider their position.
Andrew S
Again, post hoc. This was meant to address player complaints, not actually designed into the story itself as it was mentioned in Mass Effect 1 that the technology of the Mass Relays was so far beyond them that they didn't understand it in the slightest. Hell, the Protheans barely got a semi-functional miniature mass relay in the Citadel and they were, for all intents and purposes, more highly advanced than the races we know in the game. How were they supposed to work out how to build one? Especially if you didn't chose control for the ending where you could potentially state that the Reapers knew how to construct them. The Extended Cut was nothing more than a bandage for what needed stitches.
Eleo235
They ARE arks. They lived in the blackness of space outside of the horizon of the galaxy for not just generations, but eons at a time. So the theory was that they could keep out of reach of the massive collapse and survive to see the next 'big bang'. Its a video game, no one said it had to be COMPLETELY logical. It just makes more sense than the ending we got.
Thi Nguyen
Who's? There are a few people commenting in this thread.
I'm still disbelief that most people didn't believe this years ago... Especially if you were to watch CleverNoob's almost 3 hour long documentary back then. Everything adds up for the indoctrination theory to be the true ending.
Not sure why this popped up in my recommendations after 9 years but I appreciate the nostalgia.
Bioware lied when they said “We weren’t smart enough”
Given all the evidence and things included (the dream, the boy), this theory was likely the oringal ending
But Bioware changed it because:
EA wanted them too since the ending wouldnt be casual experience (like how the RPG elements were dumbed down in ME3)
Bioware thought the ending was bad because there was no “Real” choice or the choices from the other two games wouldnt matter (which still didn’t end up mattering in their original, bad ending)
The theory wouldve been so much better than their original ending (which goes to show that if all they could have was a color swap meaning the ending was scrapped at the last minute, leading further evidence into the indoctrination)
I remember thinking the nightmares had a reason only to find out they didnt matter in the end. Seeing this theory, they made sense: Shepards mind was fighting indoctrination the whole game
I even thought Shepard was partially corrupted after playing the ARrival DLC and how he had a ringing noise and headaches
I don’t think I would’ve believed this theory, it only exists because of the countless plot holes in the story. I’ll admit though, while it does seem like a desperate attempt to make sense of the confusion regarding ME3’s ending, it’s a damn good theory, and I would’ve gladly accepted it as the canon finale, were it confirmed.
Too many pieces fit together for this not to be true. The irony is, if they went with this ending, it would have been the greatest finale of all time.
@@regencyrow1867 And more money.
@@wyslanniknewworldorder9525 Of course it's not true people always want to create theories, one of the most masterful theories I ever saw was on for Naurto that was so detailed and so insane it had too be true and guess what, It wasn't. People wanted to believe Rinoa was Ultimecia in ff8 for years as theory until Square finally had enough said it wasn't fucking true. Bioware obviously didn't want the indoctrination theory. If you think the pre DLC ending were a sign of cut content it just a sing of EA, Ea are famous for rushing any and everything out the door. Anything can be a theory you can find and create one of the smallest thing.The Extended DLC ending was already being made before ME3 came out since it was suppose to be there from the start. Indoctrination is a interesting theory yes but not real. If anything Leviathan and the new Mass Effect Teaser shows this isn't true and Destroy is the canon ending.
This still makes more sense than the RGB ending even if BioWare denies it.
This is still my head-canon. Commander regained consciousness after defeating the Reaper’s indoctrination attempt.
You mean the game were organics were changed to kett?
My cannon as well!
8 years old, and still the COOLEST video game theory ever concocted. Thank you for all the great memories Mass Effect R.I.P :'(
After what they done with Andromeda, yeah.. RIP.
Yes and no. Could have just been hallucinating from being ass-rocked by a huge beam.
i come back to this vid after a while, i still love this theory, the way everything clicks in and makes sense, can be argued sure but if it was true, the ultimate story telling heel turn in Mass Effect
Jonathan Bzovsky It 'is' true! Its just that it wouldn't have been as cool if Bioware told it themselves, so they left it for the fans to unravel. Did a pretty good-job, I'd say.
Jonathan Bzovsky He tells a good story and it only would take a slight effort by the dev team to make this true in game. However, it's VERY easy to have a well-put-together theory to convince others of headcannon.
They're called conspiracy theories and there are a lot of fanfictions for other games and anime as well (even normal American TV shows). As well put together as they all are, they can't ALL be true, if any, because a lot of them contradict each other.
Jonathan Bzovsky Maybe it's just me but after I read BioWare changed the endings while the endings before the change got leaked so they changed it instead of the whole story. I mean I think BioWare was doing something with indoctrination a continue after the breath scene would've been so awesome before the real fight starts but anyway ME3 is still good but also opens for me more question than before and now ME: Andromeda is coming :S *sceptic mind* It's just my opinion I still
***** On the contrary, it wasn't the ending intended at all, they just saw potencial and didn't disprove it.
At best, it may have been the ending intended somewhere along the way, but after a while they decided to go with another ending, but kept some things (like the eyes and other IT clues).
although i choose to believe IT (because it is awesome, way better than the original), i know it can't be the ending Bioware was thinking when they released the game... because it isn't an ending at all.
If the indoctrination theory is real, shepard wakes up in the concrete rubble, all burnt up, destroyed, with harbinger staring down at him (or at the very best Harbinger is incapacitated because shepard won the "mental" battle for his sanity).
but he still can't do shit to stop the reapers... because everyone's dead around him and can't reach the beam.
Gonzaga78 Yes, it isn't an ending. Its just an experience where the player gets pulled into the game, so the idea is nice.
Well, he took a breathe-in, so he surely is gonna fight his way through to activating the Crucible. Or, maybe you don't need to enter the beam anymore as Shepard just activated the Crucible with his mind's signal. But its too far-fetched, I don't know.
In my opinion, the purpose of the whole game was to indoctrinate the player itself. If that is true then it is the best game in the world.
Would you kindly remember that Bioshock did that on 2007 already?
Double-Check your facts about the best game in the world.
@@Changetheling No because they actually tell you *Would you kindly* is a trigger mechanism. Bioware actually had the balls to leave the ending open for interpretation just like the Matrix ending or donnie darko
My first ending without knowing this theory and without even playing the whole trilogy because I only have ME 3, was destruction, I guess I won against indoctrination ;)
Anyone else having problems with the sound? Jesus it's annoying
Yes, it's been like that since around the Google+ migration, though I have no idea why that would cause it.
YEAH IT SPORADICALLY CUTS OUT ON ME
every since Google took over TH-cam all of Acavyos' videos are like this... damn Google codecs
In the Refuse Ending the "Child" gives up on you and it`s voice changes to that of a reaper...if that´s not a clue...than I don`t know anymore...
The child itself said that it's the collective mind of all reapers. Also it thinks the previous solution does not work anymore. The fact that the voice changes does not prove anything. I am not saying that IT is not good or anything but the voice change can be interpreted either way.
@@Eliteplayer1988 I don't trust a word that spooky hologram utters. I always go through that dialogue correcting the Child from things I've done through out the trilogy. Shepards answers to what the Child tells you are somehow ridiculous. Shepard should answer very differently to most of them. Specially if you broke a truce (well more of a full alliance) between Quarians and the Geth. Specially knowing what Saren and IM were trying.
@@thekageryuu776 People seem to forget, the Starchild didn't give you the choices, you are given the choices depending on the state of the Crucible. He can't change any of the outcomes, but people think he can. Besides, the Reapers trying to destroy the Crucible as you sit there and talk. None of the Reapers believe peace is possible and that damn kid is no different. In fact, there is no kid standing there at all. He is a manifestation of Reaper indoctrination, but anybody who thinks they can try and reason with it is someone who is taking the ending way too literally. The child is NOT real. There was plenty of hints in the game to back this up. Shepard is talking to himself the whole time during that final conversation. He is losing his mind.
bUt me sHeparD iS A reaPeR gOd iN teH eND wHeN I choOsE blUe enDinG...
@@Eliteplayer1988 Sorry to break it to you but he never says he's the collective mind of all the reapers. He just says he controls them. Which is entirely illogical because if that were true then Sovereign wouldn't have tried to use the Citadel to make all of the Reapers return. He would have gone to find the Crucible first instead of trying to pull the reaper flock out of dead space first. There just doesn't seem to be a reason for the star brat to go full reaper voice here. All he wants is a new method to fix the flaw in the cycles and I think it's clear that it is an indoctrination attempt but they want Shepard's mind and they fail to control it. So they drop the ruse and just say SO BE IT and proceed to kill every as usual.
Even looking back at this video today, it's still a far more compelling story/twist than the actual ending was. Unfortunate that Bioware was stubborn and unwilling to accept input on the ending and instead made something banal and STILL full of holes and unanswered questions. GG Bioware...
Eji I kinda agree......
well can't change the ending still :/
that tricky thing make it interesting remembre Deus Ex ?
Eji more like EA I'd say
To be honest, me1 was the most complete and immersive game. 2 and3 are just filledwith retarded gameplay decisions and plotholes
Eji
Why do you act like Bioware denied IT? The point of such ending would be lost if publicly explained
10 years later this video is still so amazingly put together. A shame this amounted to nothing.
Not nothing to me ... This is what i believe happened.
@@Zero-0-Cypher yeah mass effect was very unique in its story telling and giving a ending you had to PAY for people didn't like so they had to change it to appease the fans
Indoctrination theory is cannon for me.
Now with the announcement of a new Mass Effect game, the IT it's almost on spot. I mean i was a fan of this theory and i saw all the clues and pieces like a puzzle in the games, and now with the new game, i guess this somehow confirms that those last 15 minutes, were the fight in Shepard's mind, the last fight against the indoctrination. And with the teaser we got, i guess he prevailed and he destroyed the Reapers since we saw a mass relay destroyed and a Reaper corpse too.
Sadly the devs denied it..
as they said
"We weren't smart enough"
@@warwolf3005 i agree that was the case at the time. I do wonder if they are going to change it. Maybe why Casey Hudson left because he didn't like this idea or art changed.
Even if that wasn't the intent during ME3 development, Bioware would be smart to make this theory canon in the new game. That patches the problems with the ending.
@@Eaglemcfly1 I hope they will make it canon , it would make game far more interesting
This theory is still completely fascinating to me. There is so much incredibly solid evidence, so many almost undeniable connectons and yet still, Bioware never seemed to fully commit to the theory. There is still some really weird gaps of logic that punch some unfortunate holes in the theory. Leviathan seems to try it's hardest to give validity to the starchild and that's really tough to argue.
And yet I just... Still don't know if this is what Bioware was intending or not. It's almost like the indoctrination theory was an ending that they were going with at some point and then changed their minds. There is evidence everywhere but no conclusion to it. What we are left with is a bunch of compelling bits and pieces that don't ever converge to deliver a satisfying ending.
Oh and people who say that this theory came out of nowhere are just completely blind. The Arrival DLC provides some evidence that is near-irrefutable.
End of the day it's a theory I think it's intentional that bio ware never flat out denied it because that's the point of ME you have your own experiences and write your own narrative within the story
Head canon works tho . There's a reason why Destroy is the only ending where you see shepard alive , he broke the indoctrination and the war can still be won if you have a lot of war assets ( which are also requied for the Shepard alive ending )
Then why isn't Control & Synthesis available at low War Assets, if they were then I would have hade more confidence in the indoctrination theory, but if it's all about beating Shepard's resistance then why is "winning" and seeing through the illusion the only option available at the minimum level of War Assets? The order of which you unlock the various options are completely out of sync with the indoctrination theory. If the indoctrination theory was originally intended and not just a fan hallucination then all endings should have been available, possibly only Destroy should have been unavailable.
+Drazahir Control is available at the lowest EMS
It is illogical for a Reaper to waste time convincing you to join their side if they were already going win. Harbinger may decide "I will convince Shepard to join us" - only to say, "Meh, whatever. We just crushed everyone." So they let you wake up to your certain doom.
In contrast, if they are losing the fight, then it is logical to continue the indoctrination. Hence, why indoctrination is only an option when the fight will drag out - i.e. at higher war assets.
Does not matter what they say. Doesn't matter if its fan theory. It fits too perfectly.
5 years later and I still believe to this day that bioware intended to go with this ending. Clearly something happend, they pulled out at the last second and gave us this nonsensical ending. In the collectors edition artbook, they hinted how they planned on going with an ending such as the indoctrination theory but ended up getting scrapped. Unfortunately, they didn't scrap the evidence that surrounded the theory such as the boy on earth, the dreams, Shepards weird behavior throughout the game etc. It sucks that they never fully went through with it and it still hurts to this day, but it is what it is.
EA probably didn’t like that ensign because they thought of the casual sales
The ending was the way it was because it was rushed and wasn't review by the writing team. The lead writer Casey Hudson and Mac Walters literally locked themselves in a room and wrote it, without letting any of the other writers review it. I mean Shepard actually barely came into contact with Reapers for prolonged amounts of time, most of the indoctrinated people took weeks whereas Shepard only ever did for a few hours at a time.
@@Glorfendal You can be indoctrinated by a reaper from just one encounter depending on your will
Those other people didnt take weeks ot indoctrinate all the time. They already were subtle. Its just weeks later, it becomes obvious and such. Depends on rapid indoctrination or “slow, patient” indoctrination
Also Shepard:
Spent time inside a Reaper
Encountered and had reapers talk to him in his head
The human reaper
@@aceclover758 indoctrination theory was debunked by the writers. While it's an interesting theory, it's a bit if a stretch and can't be proven. It's nothing more than a series of coincidences, and Shepards direct exposure is way too fleeting for it to be plausible imo. If Shepard could be indoctrinated that easily, then the reapers job would be a lot easier and they would barely have to fight anybody
@@Glorfendal agreed. Bioware are just too stupid even to make this theory happen and they admitted even last year. this theory is debunked and the ending is the worst ending ever
I still love watching this video. The editing and structure is superb and it remains the sharpest argument for the indoctrination theory being the most logical and thematically coherent interpretation of both ME3 and the entire trilogy.
If there is one fan-made video regarding Mass Effect that I always recommend, it's this one. Indoctrination Theory makes more sense than the actual ending. lol
After the announcement of Mass Effect 4
Who else?
To me the new trailer just confirmed this theory. The dead reaper in the Background and the other one Liara walks on uphills points out that destroy was the right choice. Also her eyes aren't glowing blue nor green. Can't wait 😍 I just hope Shepard is still alive.
@@PantherEve liara talks to a geth. the destroy ending was supposed to destroy them as well right? destroy is no canon
synthesis could be canon actually
I know yall saw that trailer and said hold up Imma look this back up again
You know that ending I saw where Shepard was breathing in the ruins never made sense to me. I couldn't tell where he was and it looked like he fell from space. This now makes perfect sense
"They're controlling YOU"
"Controlling ME is a lot different than controlling a Reaper"
"Have a little faith"
These sentences alone prove there's something going on, the way TIM says "Have a little faith" sounds like there's hidden meaning behind his words.
Perfectly done and edited.
I feel like I come back to watch this at some point every year.
This theory is still true..if you played through all 3 games and paid attention...they gave you the hints and clues...we all know the true ending is destroy as Bioware mentioned Renegade isn't always "evil" and the color Red can be misleading to moral choices.
Another clue that supports the indoctrination theory is the tone of voice that the Reapers use when they interact with Shepard: When Shepard talks to Sovereign, and later Harbinger in ME1 and ME2, their tone is one of sadistic glee, of triumphant arrogance, a feeling of absolute (almost fascistic) superiority. However, in the end, when Shepard talks to the Star Child, his tone is completely different. Suddenly, the Reapers seem almost harmless, they're doing organics a favor, it's not personal for them.
Even before I heard of the indoctrination theory, I found that contrast in attitude jarring. If the Reapers are indeed merely galactic lawnmowers curating organic life in the galaxy, as the Star Child claims, why would they gloat and insult and belittle? Wouldn't they have the same tone of voice as their master, Star Child?
No. Their true nature is that in ME1, when Sovereign tells Shepard that for the Reapers, organics are nothing. It makes much more sense that the conciliatory tone in the last segment is just a last, desperate attempt to get Shepard to accept indoctrination and view the Reapers as reasonable.
"This isn't about me or you! It's about things so much bigger than all of us!"
"He's wrong! Don't listen to him"
More hints.
My boyfriend and I have been replaying the Mass Effect trilogy and I've been trying to argue with him just exactly WHY I always choose the Destroy ending. His arguments are always that it's going to destroy the Geth and Edi and he worked too hard to bring about peace between the Geth and the Quarians and to bring Edi and Joker together. I tried to tell him that the Boy literally tells you that if you choose destroy, you will die too, but you don't. The boy is lying to you. So what's to say he wasn't lying about the complete destruction of Synthetic life? And even if it does, I have to make a decision to ensure that the future of the world is set on a good path - WITHOUT the Reapers. Because in the end, any other option is just indoctrination with a pretty name.
The boy is not lying. The ending he says you will die is the control ending
Ashlea Johnston The "boy" is not lying, "he" has absolutely no reason to lie to you. If you choose the "destroy option" then EDI and the Geths will be destroyed too and all the Reaper knowledge will be lost forever, the galaxy will be in ruins, Legion's sacrifice would be for nothing and you wont fix anything, eventually someone will create new AI and the cycle will begin all over again. In other words... you royally fucked it up in long term. The catalyst and the Leviathan are right about it.
BTW... the Indoctrination theory is just that.... a fan theory, it's full of holes. That theory sunk even before the extended endings came out. Even Bioware debunked it.
Alex L.P You put quotation marks in weird places. Also, stop lying. BioWare never debunked it.
Zach Gobah Do you seriously believe we are gonna get a fourth installment? it's over.
Doing what you're told to do is a less subtle form of indoctrination where you preserve the status quo without breaking the cycle.
Seems nobody learned from Bioshock's legendary "Would you Kindly".
Peace is a consensual indoctrination. Therefore, Synthesis is the only way to break the cycle.
IF you managed to learn something about galactic races during the course of the three games, of course.
One thing that truly gives it away, or used to, is the ''they're all gone'' transmission in the radio.
Ther orders before going were clearly stated as ''no going back'' due the depletion of men
Meaning That the scene was a Illusion since the Orders were to Go All In with no retreat.
...I turned everyone into a husk. My whole vision of the game was tainted by the Reapers, and I couldn't even see it. This honestly is a revelation that, I'm not sure I'll get past until I replay it...
One thing I noticed lately was that the view on the Normandy crash planet is similar to a planet called Aite, which is the setting for the ME2 DLC Project Overlord.
This is interesting because, in that DLC, the VI on the Firewalker specifically tells you to appreciate the amazing view. That would be something that Shepard would remember, when creating a fantasy in his mind he may well recall a landscape he found beautiful.
I will check this fact
I can imagine Bioware devs watching this video and saying" damn this is so much better than what we came up with"
How incredible would it have been if that had embraced this theory and ran with it. One can dream
Loved watching this video almost as much as playing the games, the production quality is terrific.
It makes perfect sense now. I never looked at the ending like that. I had my doubts as well about the sidearm and the single path. I lost my mind at the ending to ME3 at first, but now it makes PERFECT sense! Thank you for explaining it to me. Now I HAVE to replay the whole series again to experience this! THANK YOU!!!
Great editing and use of dialog and sound effects btw.
When you meet the Starchild in the crucible there's music playing while your meeting takes place.
This perticular track is only heard when you have your conversation.
The name of the song is "Wake up."
Think about that for a second.
The Starchild is a reaper and everything it says is to misdirect and decive.
Shepherd is still on earth. Injured and hallucinating, the reapers makes one final push to take over the commanders mind. From a tactical standpoint it absolutely makes sense since Shepherd is at the center of the resistance against the Reapers.
Completing the game on insane difficulty with a united galaxy and choosing the destroy option (thus staying true to your principles on what was the goal since the first game) you will get a cutscean where you see a person lying in the rubble with charred, blackend N7 armour. The chest rises and a breath is heard. It end there. Who is that if not Shepherd?
Shepherd is not some special snowflake who can negate the reapers indoctrination. No matter how strong the mind the indoctrination will bore into them. By the third game you can clearly see its effects on shepherd. No matter how strong the mind, indoctrination wins at the end. It even stated multiple times in the lore.
He has the weight the galaxy on his shoulders. Wouldn't that be the perfect time to fully exploit the strain that's on him. Think of the doubt, fear and hopelessness that must undoubtedly go through his mind when considering the task in front of him. For an enemy that exelles at instilling these emotions in those they face, it would not be hard for them to exploit that.
However, what shepherd has going for him is his mind. As seen when you choose your origins and in games one and two, he's got an extreme willpower. Pushing on against impossible odds and emerging victorious time and time again. He is able to motivate himself because he doesn't believe that's there's something that cannot be done. Failure just isn't in his vocabulary. But he has doubts as seen in the end cinematic of Citadel DLC. The war is getting to him.
Shepherd is fighting an uphill battle in his mind, and the indoctrination IS slowly winning. But can you delay it?
Yes, yes you can.
There was another spectre who also fought the same battle in his mind.
Saren.
Saren shows that you Can resist it.
Doubt and fear are the reapers most powerful weapons. But shepherd helped Saren push that fear and doubt aside and resist the indoctrination. I belive both knew that the resistance could only be temporary. And so to stop Sovereign, Saren killed himself. So that he would not be it's instrument.
What most deniers to the indoctrination theory seems underestimate is just how powerful the reaper indoctrination really is.
Indoctrination is a red line throughout the series. And it makes everything so much more interesting.
That's my take on it.
Indoctrination is so dangerous, one of the top Salarian scientist that helped created the genophage states Reaper indoctrination is a bigger threat than even the Krogan species at their prime.
Unlike being indoctrinated by a human, the only way to escape reaper indoctrination is to destroy the reapers and all their tech or realize you are under control, followed by committing suicide
Just finished a Mass Effect trilogy playthrough...gotta come back and watch this...love the editing/sound design (besides the audio glitches). Obviously the real ending, playing thru ME3 there's a lot of clues
Remember, than it isn't a canonical theory.
It can't answer on the all questions after mission "Cerberus HQ". Only old endings (before DLC Extented Cut)
I don't believe in the theory anymore. The Extended Cut ending did debunk a lot of stuff. But the more I play Mass Effect 3, it's quite clear that the Destroy ending is the correct choice.There is tons of hints and foreshadowing throughout the game for Destroy/to pick that. The other two options, not so much. The only ones for Control or even Synthesis are villain characters. Pretty much ALL "good" characters are for Destroy.
First: BioWare got sloppy with the writing. IT came about because we wanted to fill the holes.
Now to the questions:
The dreams are from PTSD. After what shepard has been through, you really think he won't have PTSD to some degree?
No one notices the boy because everyone is in the middle of a reaper invasion. Everyone else has bigger fish to fry. Combat tends to do that.
Not that he is immune, just hasn't had the extensive exposure that Saren and TIM have had. Saren lived on a reaper for a bit and had reaper tech implants, and after ME2, TIM and Cerberus have had access to large amounts of reaper tech. Shepard had comparatively limited exposure to reaper tech. One mission on the derelict, limited close interaction with Sovereign, one mission in the collector base, and limited interaction with the thing in Arrival DLC. Indoctrination seems to be like radiation. Both proximity and time are factors. He has basically had maybe a couple of days of close interaction with reaper tech (troops don't seem to count) over the course of nearly 3 years. Arrival DLC is also a bit interesting because when Shepard is seemingly controlled by the artifact, you see blue-ish glowing around him. Glowing like a biotic field. No indoctrinated person has ever had that kind of aura. Biotic persons, on the other hand, have. The glow can be blue and black. Nothing says that biotic glow has to be blue and white. Javik's biotics are green and black. Banshees have purple-blue and black.
Harbinger takes interest in Shepard because Shepard is responsible for Sovereign's destruction and for what happened at the collector base. Simply put: it is personal. Shepard directly interfered with Harbinger's plans. Harbinger wanted payback or was otherwise intrigued that a human could do so much to fight him.
Shepard was in close-proximity to a reaper blast. Probably has head trauma. Head trauma can result in visions/hallucinations. Combine with PTSD point from earlier.
Sidearm: No good answer here. Chalk it up to being necessary for game play. Relatively minor point anyway. Nitpicking.
Beam does not lead directly to the control room. IT got that wrong. It leads somewhere inside the citadel and Shepard stumbles his way into the control room.
Corpses because the Citadel had been moved to earth. Probably because it can act as a reaper processing center. Just like the collector base. The Citadel has been shown to have other purposes already. Not reasonable to think that the reapers produce other reapers only at the collector base. They would need larger facilities for that, especially when you consider just how many of them there are and how long it takes to build even part of a reaper. Collector abductions in the terminus systems began mere months after ME1 was done. Shepard died as was out of action for 2 years. When he got to the collector base, weeks or months after he came back, the human reaper wasn't anywhere near being done. The major reapers (like harbinger/sovereign) are all different. The human reaper was going to become a major reaper. It takes the form of the species used to make it, and then gets encased in the general reaper shell. Leviathan DLC states that almost explicitly.
Shepard is knocked out on the ground after the reaper blast. Nearly impossible to know how long he/she was out. Anderson could have easily made his way to the beam.
The beam doesn't have to teleport to the same place. And Anderson could have easily gotten to the beam first and/or easily could have been teleported somewhere closer to the control room. No way to know exactly where the beam spits anyone out. Since TIM is clearly very indoctrinated and willingly put reaper tech into himself (footage of him just prior to surgery w/o anesthetic). Easy to see that the reapers put him on the citadel intentionally, to act as their agent. He isn't seen in the cerberus base. There is a hologram, but the image shown could have easily been modified so that he looked "normal" I also wouldn't put too much stock into the eyes thing. Shepard's eyes glow green when interacting with prothean tech. TIM's eyes glowed at the beginning of ME2, and Shepard's eyes had the same type of glow during Citadel DLC courtesy of contact lenses that can display information and what not.
Hackett could have easily found out when he saw where Shepard's communications where originating. The radio in ME has almost always been shown to be based on omni-tool tech. Nothing physical to destroy or fry.
Reaper blast causes a lot of shrapnel. Could have been hit prior to getting to the beam. You also see him limp while holding that part of him well before Anderson gets shot. Just checking on the wound.
Extended Cut explains how the squadmates get out. They get injured by the blast, the Normandy evacs them, and Shepard charges off to the beam.
Extended Cut again handles the mass relay explosions. They get shown as being damaged, but not destroyed. Plus the one in Arrival was the Alpha relay. Relays with special names often do special things. The alpha relay, citadel relay, and omega 4 relay are all prime examples.
A gunshot to the abdomen is not a wound that would cause instant death. Anderson could easily survive that. The keepers are a minor point and not very important, nitpicky. BioWare could have easily made it to where players couldn't fire the weapon at this point, and just got lazy. Also: we know almost nothing about the keepers. For all we know, bullets might not have any effect on them.
That growl? Citadel systems at work, or just atmospheric soundtrack.
Leviathan DLC also points to the starchild being the AI that controls the reapers. Also consider what Vendetta says on Thessia. He says that the reapers are servants of the pattern (the cycle), but not its masters. He also says that the presence of the master of the cycles is inferred rather than observed. This holds with what is known about the starchild via Extended Cut and Leviathan DLCs.
BioWare has decided not to say anything about IT because it is more interesting than what they could come up with and/or had in mind. Nintendo did a similar thing with the Zelda franchise and the debates about the timeline. Then came the "official" timeline (which is wrong because it violates Aristotle's law of non-contradiction) and almost every fan hated it. I don't know if the official zelda timeline or IT came first, but it is clear that BioWare did not want to cause every fan to hate the ending to ME3/trilogy. So they left it up to interpretation.
I will admit that the theory is very interesting, and many of the pieces fit. However, there are alternate, simpler and equally likely answers to most of the questions and arguments that IT raises. IT also fails to peek behind the curtain, as the case may be. While it fits nicely in the story of mass effect, it doesn't take into account factors that are outside of the story of mass effect. There are external factors at BioWare and EA that also have an impact on the story of mass effect. IT also has a startling number of ad hoc hypotheses. Occam's razor is your friend. IT also relies way too heavily on dream theory. Where everything is a dream or otherwise not real. In that case, what are the bounds, what are the limits? Who's to say that the mass effect games have anything that is actually canon? See the problem yet? Dream theory is just way too slippery to be reliable because you can just call anything that disagrees with your theory to be a dream. Just another case of ad hoc explanation.
Finally, let's all be honest with ourselves. IT is just a way to find closure and satisfaction from an unsatisfying story ending. Both ME1 and ME2 had very concrete, cut and dry endings. There was no ambiguity about how those games ended. ME3 is the only game in the trilogy that has a fuzzy ending. It breaks the pattern. Makes me inclined to believe that it was just bad writing.
Wow this makes me wonder if we were all following the will of the reapers the whole time this is actually terrifying
I've played ME 3 at launch, so many years ago. Finished it with a sense of...nonesense. I did embraced Indoctrination theory at the time, as a more fulfilling ending. Im playing the Legendary Edition rn. The indoctrination theory still make so much sense.
Wonderful theory. It makes so much sense. ... :/ I liked Saren. I feel sorry for him. Guy has a shitty job for 30 years (Spectre is like glorified janitor duty from the council), still wants to save the world, and then realizes someone else is the goddamn hero. And no one credits him for it.
He reminds me of Loghain in Dragon Age where he is trying to do the right thing but almost ends up screwing everyone over and dooming them.
making it canon would solve a lot of problems in the plot. Devs could continue Shepard story, and wouldn't need to create another heroes living in another galaxy like in ME:A which was a disaster in many ways.
WAKE UP SHEPARD!
we have city to burn!
Good video. Makes a lot of sense. Whoever made this put an enormous amount of effort and paid very close attention to every detail.
Indoctrination? After all this time? - Always
Thanks for this analisys. It fits well mate.
I like that this time a software house talks about the anthropocentrism. Humans won't stand with something more powerfull than themself, so they do the impossible. This is a pure meta-game. Great job Bioware. Hope is a human concept. Used so much in the ME3. Reapers used their hope on their in favor.
I remember the Rannoch Reapers saying:"you still resist...". I don't think he's talking about fighting...
Imagine if bioware comes out with me4 and tells us “ yea actually shepard was indoctrinated we are 300 iq “
WHY DID I NEVER HEAR ABOUT THIS. This is amazing :p it honestly explains a lot of holes. Thank you for the video!
This video is sweet! Awesome editing! n.n
All I want Bioware to do is state that the Indoctrination theory isn’t impossible, cause if it is correct, then one of the worst endings in gaming history will transcend into one of the greatest. That’s quite a turn around.
They’re too full of themselves to ever admit that
I come back here once like every 6 months to re-watch this, so awesome, I force myself to believe this was the true ending!
Great video! Great upload
your freaking analysis astound me
after 8 years, destruction ending confirmed canon in the new ME trailer! we all knew it was true
how?
In my opinion they could have solved this problem very easily. Make the IT canon, dish out a FREE dlc of around an hour playtime in which you ACTUALLY go aboard the citadel and activate the crucible.
The aftermath?
Reapers die, Geth/EDI used the reaper code/IFF to find a way to survive this shit, the quarians get rid of their space HIV, Shepard marries Garrus, they adopt a Krogan, TIM commits suicide, Javik wants to fight Shepard so he dies with dignity, Anderson takes a dump on Udinas grave and Shepard is gonna get pissed that everyone is praising her, Al Jilani gets punched in the face, blackscreen before the fist connects, we still hear the smack, she hits the floor and then the credits roll.
Sounds better than what we've got, right?
Why hasn't Bioware hired you yet?
SuperKami Guru sounds a lot better,just do that destroying simply removes the reaper code shit bad writing.
and do that male shep goes with Tali to build that house on Rannoch
Or go with Garrus for a drink he promised you, and then go with Liara to dig prothean arthifacts.
Not happening, bro. Easier to make shitty game which will piss off fanbase and THEN make a NEW game ("ME 5: Final" stand or something) to take more cash prices (like, 120$ or so) on new product with some boxes, dlc content and may be some unfair online weapons, because EA.
I love how this guy used the codex narration a lot, very eerie, great video
Awesome use of the ME3 ost! Big props to ya...
so bioware either made the worst video game ending of all time or the best video game ending of all time and we don't know which one was intended
I love Liara :'(
Me too(
So do I, but Ash "indoctrinated" me with her hotness, apparently.
I love Garrus :'(
I'm a huge Jack fan. She was such a badass!
even the Extended Cut DLC already out. I still love this vid. The Indoctrination Theory is amazing.
Thank you for gaving me a better ending than devs did.
Devs gave us this ending.
Much better explanation then what they provided.
Well now we know that destroy is Canon and that the Reapers probably really tried to indoctrinate shepard with the synthesis and control Option.
So this theory is at least to 80% true. Nice one
Yup it's basically all but canonized at this point. Lots of things are pointing to that ending and honestly it would be a great way to start a new'ish series because then you could play where you are not only filling the gaps from the ending events of ME3 but also what other story plot that is the main driving force for the game. My guess with what info we have, which isn't much, is they will have us try and figure out how to bring a reaper back to life. I think there is a few ways to make that a logical move to send us on this journey that is terrifying the entire way for the Pandora's box we could be opening.
This video is legendary.
Thank you for this video. I knew nearly nothing before watching this video and I understand it now.
I think I'm missing something major about this theory: what's the point? If everything after approaching the beam was in Shepard's head, doesn't that mean the Reapers are left to free wipe out and reset all biological life and continue the cycle? Isn't the whole game about stopping that outcome? With Shepard MIA and the armies pulling back, what hope is there and why does anything that happen in his head matter? (They've already won by disabling the last ditch effort so whether Shepard is dead or indoctrinated doesn't really further Reaper goals in any way from my recollection.)
+Jaqen Essentially, the outcome of what happens in shepards head is almost inconsequential beyond his own survival. If he gets indoctrinated, well, he gets indoctrinated. But if lets say, he does resist the reaper influence and chooses to destroy there are only two real possible outcomes, and both depend on how well your army was fortified. If your army was subpar, they lose, end of story, shepard wakes up from indoctrination just to be killed or indoctrinated by the reapers more directly. End of story. The reason that the destroy ending only works if you have the largest possible warforce, is because that's needed for them to have the resources to be capable of launching a second assault on the crucible or just survive the battle in general and get shepard out of there.
In terms of indoctrination furthering their goals, that could simply be put down to "this guy charging us is nearly indoctrinated, lets give him the push he needs so he stays down/ gets up for us". The artifact from ME2 just zapped shepard because he was getting handsy and seemed to be in charge. For the reapers it's entirely possible this wasn't a long term plan and more of a happy coincidence.
+Jaqen Also, I myself amn't 100% sold on indoctrination theory. But if it is true, the premise means that inherently the choices shepard makes at the end matter less. Conversely though, it does put more emphasis on the players decisions before this point through the whole galactic readiness system. If it was done well it wouldn't feel like the only decision that really mattered was the last one, as opposed to all decisions having a strong knock on affect that would impact the ending.
***** I suppose. Though I'd think no matter what your readiness they couldn't possibly defeat the Reapers if they couldn't manage it without Shepard.
It's intentionally vague, but the way I see it, it's more like a hallucination, or being drunk kind of. Shepard still has to make a choice, but the reality of it is blurred. Like how Fight Club was really happening, but Tyler Durden wasn't really there. The consequences remained. Shepard is choosing to control or destroy the reapers, but due to the indoctrination attempts, Shepard can't tell if what he/she's experiencing is real. So he's actually in the Citadel, but Anderson and the Illusive Man are in his head.
I have to agree that the ending seemed vague. Which doesn't make sense because they're launching a fourth mass effect. My idea was that the Shepard woke up and was in a drunk stage. Shepard made it to the cidital, but isn't fully there. Shepard's perspective is screwed due to the reaper's indoctrination. I'm pretty sure Anderson and the illusive man aren't up there. I agree that I think that the two might have been the reapers trying to fight Shepard's willpower. I do believe that Shepard really was presented with three choices and that the reapers didn't have anybody on the cidital except for a lousy hologram. I'd like to think that they tried to manipulate Shepard the whole game but fail if Shepard continues with their goal of destruction and that Shepard crashed along with the crucible after the use of it. That's my theory. It's messy. I just finished the third game last night. I'm still sour. But the reapers must have been neutralized because the extended cut suggests that.
I just beat the legendary edition after having never played mass effect in my life and felt there was something wrong with the ending lol. I loved nearly every second up until the ending and I felt the e tire conversation with the ghost kid was off. I didn’t pick up on the other stuff, but I felt like the kid was trying to manipulate me to go against Anderson which made me very confused. Everything after the ending doesn’t make much sense and isn’t very satisfying to me. This is honestly my head canon lol.
The whole "we harvest to keep synthetics from killing organics" came out of no where in the last minute. The starchild is a fucking hypocrite tho cause /it/ is fucking synthetic killing organics so that synthetics dont kill organics, its logic was flawed from the start and its too dumb to realize the irony.
You sir, have the greatest and most nerve-wracking explanation of all.
If indoctrination theory is true, and Shepard is laying unconscious on earth in the rubble, and all those "choices" are going on in his head, then who makes the final decision up on the citadel?
How are the Reapers ultimately destroyed (or not) if there is nobody to make the decision? Did he somehow destroy the reapers with his mind whilst being knocked out?
Neither Indoctrination theory nor the "real" ending make any sense!
quigleyfox Well, I guess we'll find out when the next game is released.
Going with the theory, its likely that the citadel being destroyed was just Shepard's imagination; possibly him/her imagining the outcome of each choice. I like to think that Harbinger's beam never hit Shepard, the impact resulted in him/her being under all that rubble so they're not fatally wounded. Once Shepard awakens, free of indoctrination, he/she can make the final push to the citadel and the rest is up for you to imagine.
There's plot holes for the theory, sure; but there's a hell of a lot of plot holes for the "cannon" endings too. I think this is a brilliant theory and a fantastic twist were it true, but I think Bioware debunked it :( won't stop me from believing it though - there's too much evidence there
quigleyfox well you see, the conflict in sheperd's head could have taken like a minute or so, so if he destroy the reapers in his head he can lead the army he made to fight the real ones, remember the Indoctrination make you see them with a superstiches owh without it they are big machins that can be blown up
quigleyfox That's where the theory falls apart. I never believed in IT. It's interesting, but it is very flawed. IT does not explain what if your Shepard didn't do this or that, nor does it explain why squadmates aren't indoctrinated.
Also, the crucible is not a deus ex machina.
+Exedome The next game (Andromeda) will be placed in a different galaxy, will have different plot, different characters and all that shit...
Time to start calibrations, welcome back everyone
Here's the problem with the whole thing: You lose. Regardless of what path you take, you lose. If you're indoctrinated then you never reach the beam. If you never reach the beam the Citadel arms never open, the Crucible never docks, and the Reapers aren't wiped out. It doesn't matter what choice you make. Whether you choose to be indoctrinated, or think you're wiping out the Reapers, you're laying in a pile of rubble on Earth. That alone means there's no way anything depicted could've been real. And if the Reapers aren't destroyed, baibai galaxy. So long and thanks for all the fish.
And that is true to real life. What is our purpose? Why do we exist? All we know is that we had a beginning, and one day will have an end. But it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey to it. The choices that you make that define who you are as a person. This is why choice is such an integral part of the game. No matter what you do, the ending is the same, but how you got their, who you are, that's what matters, no matter the outcome.
You actually don't know if you loose. Shepard makes a breath nearby beam and now if the amount of Allies you found is enough to kill Reapers without Crucible then Galaxy has chances to survive.
And that would be the ME4 Game - It would start after Shepard's resist of Indoctrination happens. And now after the Earth fight where part of Allies' fleet survived and possibly retreated. Would be really good one. But looks like no more.
There's no way to beat the Reapers conventionally. And the game flat out says nobody made it to the Citadel. Taking a breath in some rubble after you failed to kill the thing killing you isn't a very positive sign. Plus, if the Reapers destroy enough of the combined fleet, the other races will be basically helpless.
The whole point of indoctrination is that Shepard loses...That was the meaning. The only way Shepard would win was to destroy the Reapers...
It was meant to take place inside his mind as the choice for him to make, whose side does he really fall on. Then when he wakes up he would of known what to do depending on what he decided to do when the Reapers were indoctrinating him. The Reapers took a gamble and knocked him unconscious from the beam...everything after that was in his head, and after Shepard makes the decision he wakes up, either indoctrinated or not
Best 3 games I've ever played and when others told me the ending ducked I had to look into it and noticed the more obvious things but after watching this its the most complex and intricate ending I've ever seen in a video game and all it required you to do was pay attention to bad not everyone did/will great video man
Mind. Blown. Amazing eye opener so much makes sense to me. Some of these "theory's" or "scenario's" I myself have figured out and questioned. But this video took it to a whole new level.
Almost ten years and this is still my head canon ending. Even with the dlcs aditions like Leviathan. The Leviathans to me just didn't know why they created the reapers, and the organic vs. machine bullshit was the lie they told themselves to try to justify their actions. Destruction is the right ending or in any case reject and they better acknowledge that in ME4.
Great video to iniciate the count down to the Legendary Edition launch.
I refuse to call it the indoctrination theory because Shepard resisted and in the end, he broke the reapers hold on his mind. I call it the Indomitable Theory
Each year on this day (Nov 7th) I watch this video
Thank you for the closure
BIoware's greatest creation. The indoctrination theory is my cannon ending
I would add just two more issues to the list of conflicts to answer.
First issue is with Crucible and Catalyst, or rather Catalyst as an AI aboard the Citadel. Let´s say that Prothean device - the Crucible, the one that we are building has been created by the countless of cycles and with certain purpose to interact with Catalyst, the AI aboard the Citadel. The kind of AI, which was supposedly to be invisible to the countless of cycles while its creations - the reapers were harvesting civilisations, leaving no witness alive. The problem itself presents firstly with the idea that Protheans or the cycle before them even knew about existence of Catalyst and how to interact with it. They had no idea about the Reapers, how would they find out about Catalys, when the Citadel was always first to fall to the invasion force. Second problem with this issue is the idea of being even able to physically deliver the device to Citadel and to interact with it. First of the issue could be adressed with lore, as we have the Leviathans who were able and even admitably pulling the strings with previous cycles to plant a blueprint for Crucible. In that way it is possible for previous cycles to know about inner workings of Catalyst as they have been the whole time led by the Leviathans. However the second issue to unpack is the problem with the infrastracture or rather lack of it. It has been said that each cycle begins with an invasion of Citadel and shutdown of the whole relay network, making impossible to travel on long distances or creating an organized ressistance, impossible to win through convetional means as the whole infrastructure and means of traveling, trade, communication are crippled by the Reapers. Javik said that and Vigil on Ilos said that too, that by the time that they realized of what is happening was the empire shattered into pieces. The second problem simply cannot be adressed unless Leviathans also know how to hack the relay network, which they doesn´t seem to know, or if they knew - all they would need to to hide some portion of slave population and later on in betwen the cycles to use it and to deploy their own Crucible, while the reapers are still in the dark space in sleep mode. You could argue that they know how to shut down the Reapers and hack the AI, as they did managed to kill a reaper through the black pearl artifact. However my assumption is that they did not kill the synthetic part of reaper rather than its organic parts, otherwise all they would need is to place one of those pesky black pearls into the Citadel and shut down the Catalyst.
The second issue partially belongs to the first one. If the Catalyst is highly advanced AI that is based on the Citadel, why would it need something - such as the keepers to push an invasion button. I get that it needed workforce to keep the station in working and habitable condition, but It´s beyond retarded for self-proclaimed super advanced AI to handle its own shit through the analogue. The argument could be that Protheans that came from Ilos did managed also to cripple the AI´s ability to control the internal systems of the Citadel, however all they seemed to do was to put funny radio packs on backs of Keepers, to block the signal that is sent by the Reapers each 50k years to refresh the clock. They simply did not engage with Catalyst, they had no idea about its existence, all they did was to block the Keepers from radio signal that was comming out of deep space, that´s why Sovereign was trying to get into the Citadel - to manually command the relay network. The entire existence of hyper advanced AI that is based on Citadel is plothole that consumes whole plot of ME1.
The AI - Catalyst, that is supposedly to be based on Citadel simply does not exsists, otherwise it wold not need the keepers to keep an eye on the apocalypse button - it would push it on its own. The AI that Leviathans have mentioned however does exists, and it does not matter if it was or is the first Reaper, or what was its purpose or even goals in all of this. What matters is that it has a simple plan that works. That plan was always to hide in the deep space and when times comes, then they to divide by shuting down the relay network and conquer with brute force one system at the time. Occam´s razor says it all, an AI is a reaper, Harbinger probably, and it sent Sovereign to manually open the Citadel relay and shut down the whole network. The Catalyst ? That is a lie, there is no ghostly boy - an AI, waiting on the top of the Citadel.
This brings me to my last point, while convetional means of winning the war seems impossible, it´s not unlikelly. Reapers always used divide and conquer tactics, they channeled their highly advanced fleet one system at the time, taking them even centuries to fully harvest entirety of cycle. They´ve never before faced war on multiple fronts, and that´s why they´ve choose to charge the homeworlds instead. To cripple civilisations by taking the centers of their gouverments and military. If they coulnd´t take the command of Citadel control by "peaceful" means, they woulnd´t risking it taking it by force. That´s why they tried multiple times to use indoctrinated agents to take it, direct battle would be too risky, especially if it could damage or destroy the CItadel which is also a huge relay.
Even though this has been pretty much proven wrong now... I always go back to this video. The opening part of it is so well edited. Good job, dude!
Still loving this video. And I will keep coming back.
Dead Reapers in the ME4 trailer :)
Its the summer of 2018 as I write this and I am still not over the ending of the Mass Effect trilogy
Same, it has been 7 years and im still mad.
Watched this video when I first went on my neckbeard weeklong playthrough of the mass effect trilogy, changed my whole outlook. I believe.
might be the best video on youtube.
8 years later and this is my official explanation for ME3 ending and I don't care what anyone says, the reapers won, as they should!
Holy shit, this is canon.
Apparently not. A writer for ME denied it is real, however the proof is too much for me to even believe the writer
Too many pieces fit together for this not to be true.
I love this legendary video 🤗🤗
Shepard is a supersoldier not a superhero, his mind is still Human. Even though Shepard is incredibly strong-willed and possesses a strong ability with logic, he can still be turned, it just takes longer. I kind of like the idea that the extensive reconstruction at the start of ME2 kind of "reset" Shepard's indoctrination, erasing, even if temporarily, the beginnings of indoctrination that occured in ME1.
But this theory isn't ideal, unfortunately.
M-6 has a unlimited thermal clip after Harbinger's hit. But I can't remember that you could shoot any, who wasn't an enemy before this mission (remember mission on Benning).
Author forgot than any armour suite changes to heavy damaged N7 armour suite. Any weapon changes to M-6 Carnifex.
The main part of this video - there are Harbinger's words from ME 2 missions with Collectors, if I didn't forget ME 2
Javik can feel emotions, but Vigil in the ME 1 told, that prorhean empire fallen very fast "thanks to" indoctrinated "refugees".