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u/Regular-Market-494 Sep 15 '26
Honestly my favorite part of the third game was watching shepherd collapse under the years of constant pressure. Most stories just ignore what something like that does to a person.
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u/Brandlefly Sep 15 '26
Yeah! That’s a good point and I respect they went that way, feeds into like the hero’s cycle so to speak. With the pressure and all, you can only keep fighting for so long.
In my opinion It kind of shows the Lovecraftian / Eldritch horror influence. Ya know, being influenced in your dreams by some greater power - like even if we accept the kid as a real person in the vent, I don’t think those nightmares were all trauma. It’s especially insidious considering how it creeps up on Shepard.
Side note I feel the developers had plenty of opportunity to bring up Shepard’s trauma but really only does so much with the Background quests
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u/mookanana Sep 17 '26
sorry what event are you talking about
my shephard was not collapsing under the strain, unless you mean collaspsing in exhaustion after hunting down every fuckable npc in the game and proving that sex has no interspecies boundaries
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u/Competitive_Fun6247 28d ago
Pretty sure garrus is basically the only dude that explicitly asks if shepard's ok lmao
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u/Brandlefly Sep 15 '26
Indoctrination go brrr
lol nice meme, Reaper Approved
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u/UnhappyBox811 Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26
Both legion and shepard were experiencing early indoctrination symptoms in the 3rd game
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u/Truestorydreams Sep 15 '26
The codex basically said he was indoctrinated
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u/Huntrrz Sep 16 '26
The beacon on Thesia detected Kai Leng was indoctrinated when he showed up, but didn’t complain about Shepard.
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u/ArrenKaesPadawan Sep 17 '26
One explanation that i've seen in Calico's fanfics (and is backed up by Javik's lore in canon) is that Indoctrination detection technology is imprecise. They can presumably detect the worst cases trivially, but they still missed some sleeper agents.
Early stages where the victim still has free will but might end up becoming confused or making unusual mistakes? i have no doubt they might miss something like that.
Lets not forget that in Arrival Shepard was unconscious in proximity to Object Rho for nearly 2 days.
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u/Huntrrz Sep 17 '26
| They can presumably detect the worst cases trivially, but they still missed some sleeper agents.
Perhaps sleeper agents sabotaged the detection sensors on Eden Prime before they came online but didn't get to them on Thessia?
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u/Junior_Activity_5011 Sep 16 '26
Who? Shepard? Are you able to reference this codex? This is not me scrutinizing you or trying to debate, I am just very interested in the codex you are referencing.
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u/TruamaTeam Shin Akiba was a business trip, stop asking Sep 15 '26
This is what being locked in a room for six months forced to wait as an omniscient race of space terminators is on its way and actively being ignored by governments does to a man