[duncan_idaho]

Spoiler!

I'm going to stump for the indoctrination theory again.

Reasoning:

1) After reviewing the Shepard dream sequences again, the dead figures show up as inky blots (which is how the Rachni queen referred to indoctrination in ME).

2) There are some references to buzzing or humming sounds when Shepard is around

3) The final sequence: Just way too many questions/inexplicable things for this to be just poor game design.

- Why does Shepard have a gun with unlimited ammo? Seriously, you can sit there and just pound away with that thing for however many shots in a row you want. Complete violation of the game mechanic. Mistake?
- How does Anderson get to the station before Shepard? How does he beat Shepard down the only hallway to the control console?
- How is the Illusive man able to control Shepard and get him to shoot Anderson?
- Why does you see inky blackness at the edge of the screens when the Illusive man is trying to influence Shepard (as he holds his head)
- Why does Anderson look at Shepard while saying things such as "You're indoctrinated!" to the Illusive man?
- Why does Shepard only notice he's bleeding from a wound in his left side ONLY after Anderson "dies" (coincidentally, the same wound Anderson took from Shepard's gun)
- Why is the final sequence so inexplicable. The Normandy is suddenly in space AND in the middle of a Mass Relay jump. Your squadmates from the last mission somehow: 1) Survived the charge to the beam with no wounds and 2) were transported to the Normandy before its jump
- The only other time we've seen the destruction of a Mass Relay, it caused the system's sun to go nova. How does Earth survive this fate?
- Doesn't the synthesis thing sound an AWFUL lot like Saren's plan? Wasn't Saren ALSO completely unaware he had been Indoctrinated?
- Why is the ONLY way to get the "best" ending to do the "red" or "renegade" or "bad" option?

Lots of reasonable stuff with some video evidence backs it up (some good stuff on YouTube if you take the time).

And it makes the ending - and the entire third game and really everything done since the mission on Arotoht, a great, big mind-f***. That's the type of thing Bioware LIVES to do.

The final mission on the "Citadel" wasn't Shepard fighting to win the war against the reapers. It was Shepard fighting to win the war for his mind. He defeated the indoctrination. The reapers and relays haven't been destroyed, but his mind is his own. Winning by "synthesizing" or "taking control" are false victories seen only in his mind - and that's why Shepard can't survive. Winning by "destroying" the reapers gives him his mind back.

And they still have the chance to address this/expand on it in DLC or even a future game.

If the entire story arc was set up to cleverly conceal that Shepard was indoctrinated, they wouldn't just blow that in a press release.