User blog comment:Damous/Why Bioware has NOT betrayed us/@comment-5024700-20120416105855

The reapers have to trick him into misusing this strange device nobody even understands how to use? He has the power to make this decision while hallucinating on the ground, horribly injured? A husk kills you in this hallucination, and you're dead for real? Is this The Matrix now? Harbinger couldn't just finish the job with him laying there in the rubble? Harbinger/reapers were aware of Shepard's proximity to the citadel beam, but couldn't just turn the beam off? Couldn't stop processing for 10 minutes and just deal with Shepard? Choosing to control the reapers implies he's fully indoctrinated, yet...he, unlike any of the others, is actually able to control them? All this elaborate crap makes more sense than what the game actually tells you.... because a video game's graphics weren't great when he walked toward the damn beam?

I have another "theory." The creators of this game are human and the writing's not perfect. Occam's razor - which "theory" is more likely? Hint: the length of this sentence.

Bioware isn't trying to trick you. It's not a hallucination, he's not indoctrinated, and the DLC isn't going to tell you otherwise. The writing simply isn't that great. You don't get to find out what the reapers really are - the game goes out of its way to get you used to that idea. Even Legion describes the Reapers as "unknowable." Your "theory" brings up far more questions than it even attempts to answer. The idea that Shepard could be indoctrinated from all that exposure to the reapers is solid - but the specifics you suggest....it's starting to sound as wacky as some 9/11 conspiracies. This kind of crap always happens at the end of a good RPG. I'm not saying the ending was perfect, very far from it. What I'm suggesting is you'd be crying about it no matter how good it was. I'm sorry, the game's over. Grow up and move on.