So, was Shepard indoctrinated?

[Veldan Rath]

Apparently, there is some heated discussion if by the end of ME3 Shepard had actually been indoctrinated, so his last choices we actually the will of the Reapers and their guiding AI. I really didn't see it that way. Anyone else that play the series get that impression?

[evenstar]

It was after I had finished playing ME3 for the first time and saw all the fan complaints about the ending that I first heard of the "Indoctrination Theory". It never even occurred to me that Shepard could be indoctrinated before that. I'll be honest that I thought a lot of the theory made sense and it would have been cool with me if it had turned out to be the case, but Bioware have stated many times that there was no indoctrination. They said they had considered something similar at one time, but decided against it.

[Lewkowski]

Indoctrination is clearly fan made concept. Of course it would be better than the garbage that was given to us...

[Veldan Rath]

I actually should rephrase...IT actually suggests that Harbinger is attempting to indoctrinate Shepard when the Alliance is charging the beam. Everything after the laser strike on Shepard actually takes place in his head, a battle for his mind.

I would love it if BioWare was that clever...but if it WAS an attempt to indoctrinate, then it means we actually do NOT have an ending...and Destroy with a VERY high military force was the only right choice (as the cut scene shows us a nice WTF??!?!).