Shepbio

Commander Shepard – Personal Quests

 

There needed to be certain story elements that also helped mold Shepard's emotional state, and would become an example for how humanity is represented in Mass Effect 3. I decided to go with the three sub-stories that could be considered tropes (or even clichés), but never the less helped flesh out the character in a way that could be appreciated. Only one of the four sub plots (indoctrination) that make up Shepard's personal self-quest becomes tied into the main plot (this one being , while the o ther two are intensionally meant to remain separate, so that Shepard can grow and develop as more than just a character in a story-- but as a person in a universe. As such, the story specific subplot segments are the only Shepard-side quests required from the player during a play through for Shepard to grow, though, one would certainly be missing out on a great chance to control and explore Shepard's past more if they did skip the other two personal subplot segments.

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1) Indoctrination

Indoctrination is the main personal struggle that Shepard faces in Mass Effect 3. It effects four missions, including the game's intro-mission, four dream segments, and finally the conclusion in the final level of the main quest, and is the subject of conversation twice, once by Legion or Union (who are the only quad mates able to detect the hints of indoctrination), and once again in the epilogue, making it an element of varying degrees of importance in six missions in total. Indoctrination is conveyed through hallucinations of a boy, Shepard's dreams and memories, and the final struggle to activate the Crucible.

a) The Boy

Shepard stumbles across a boy hiding in a ventilation shaft. Shepard attempts to either scare or lure the kid away from the danger of the oncoming Reapers outside, but the child is silent. When Shepard's side kick attempts to catch up with Shepard, they do not seem to notice that protagonist is trying to save the boy, and instead commenting on how the ventilation shaft is too small for either adult to squeeze into. When Shepard attempts to look at the boy after the small side-kick distraction, he discovers that the child has vanished. The scene shows that it is not unlikely for the boy to have simply slipped away, but the entire scene is shot in a way that is intentionally slightly creepy, and Shepard himself appears to be a bit surprised. Later in the game, Shepard and the VS (Virmire survivor) will be having a discussion about the VC (Virmire casualty). When the conversation turns to innocents being the casualties of warfare, Shepard will reply by mentioning the child he saw, and how it relates to good people dying. When the VS asks Shepard how it felt to see the kid, and not know if he survived or not, Shepard can reply a number of ways (the most renegade one being that Shepard is more disturbed that this kid is effecting him, than the fact that one child may have died-- a perfectly organic response for a renegade).

b) Dreams and Memories.

Shepard has four dreams, each relating to events in Shepard's life, and each having a fairly simply level designs and objectives, though ambitious in the struggle they try to portray.

The first round of dreams double as memories, because they detail Shepard's pre-service life, though, just as in typical dreams, certain elements are fuzzy, hazy, or just plain wrong.

If Shepard has an Earthborn background, he'll first dream about being back on Earth and working with his ex-gang. Subtle Reaper horns mesh in the background with the sounds of an Alliance broadcast on a TV, teenagers dealing red sand, and police vehicles zooming by. Shepard prepares to lead the “10th St Reds” gang with the tactics of renegade dialogue, to sabotage a restaurant run by volus merchants. The dream ends Shepard throwing a brick at the restaurant's window.

If Shepard has a colony background, he'll dream about being on a colony not unlike Eden Prime. Shepard will watch as an unnamed mother, father, and sister are slaughtered by batarian pirates who raid his home, and butcher his town. Shepard is forced to run from house to house for survival against waves of enemies. He manages to hide in a barn, and hides in a corner. The dream ends with him listening to gun fire and screaming while he covers his ears, tears forming in his eyes.

If Shepard is a spacer brat, he'll dream about being in at his father's funeral. Hannah Shepard (seen for the first time) will be being comforted by guests, and when someone approaches Shepard, and the teenager is forced to respond to their grief in a number of ways, thus hinting at how Shepard's child-to-adult temperament change/stayed the same over the decades. The scene ends with him walking away from his father's coffin, either angry or dismayed.

In all of these dreams, the boy-from-Earth is seen on the peripheries of the scene, interacting with an action figure of a masked N7 agent (male or female depending on Shepard's gender). This is a subtle hint that Harbinger is trying to manipulate Shepard (though Shepard remains semi-protected by the Prothean cipher-- see my “ME2 Fixes” to see the relation)

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In the second round of dreams, we see Shepard in military service, and his gaining of the titles “Ruthless”, “War Hero”, or “Sole Survivor”.

If Shepard is Ruthless, a combat heavy dream commences in which the only decisions Shepard can make (outside of the normal combat) are renegade prompts that rally and inspire Shepardr bloodthirsty troops, and allow for Shepard to perform brutal executions of batarians. The level design is fairly simple, with Shepard and his men killing their way down a large hall way of Torfan batarians. Shepard can personally (via a ren-prompt) kill the remaining batarians who surrendered, or (if prompt is ignored) have them lined up against a wall as they plead for their lives, and Alliance soldiers will jeeringly kill the pirates. A soldier in the dream's conclusion will tell Shepard that they lost 100+ men in the struggle, then will question whether the Commander's tactics were worth it. Shepard will give the same reply in two different tones. By hitting the ren-prompt, Shepard will grab the soldier and yell that finishing the mission is always worth it. If the prompt is missed, Shepard will say the same thing, but in a voice that sounds much more like Shepard is trying to convince himself of the cost.

If Shepard is a Sole Survivor, a combat heavy dream commences in which both paragon and renegade decisions (via the conversation wheel) of influence effect Shepard's command over his squad on Akuze-- though with no real difference in the ultimate fate of his men. Shepard and a squad of a few dozen people are investigating a mysterious sound signal on Akuze (which is actually Reaper chatter), when they are assaulted by monstrous snake-like creatures. A boss fight initiates, and Shepard must use heavy weapons to take down one of the thresher maws, but at the end of the fight the other troops are still overwhelmed. They are all killed by giant thresher maws – with the exception of Corporal Toombs, who is seen falling into one of the maw's pits as Shepard tries to save him. The level design is fairly simple, with the four or five maws making the most complex actions, including taking down two gunships, and eating some twenty men and women. The dream ends with Shepard retreating, entirely drenched in blood, while the helpless screams of his squad are downed out threshers sounds.

If Shepard is a War Hero, a combat heavy dream commences in which only paragon prompts (as a replacement for the conversation-wheel) show how Shepard saves several dozen Alliance troops in a mercenary ground war. The Alliance troops are flanked by mercs, and Shepard (presumably scouting the area) initiates a one-man/woman counter attack to his enemies' backs. He must move from area to area, rallying a handful of men and women together to fight. After 20 kills, a cutscene kicks in showing Shepard almost singlehandedly pinning the mercenaries, who are now sandwiched between the hammer of rallying Alliance troops, and anvil that is the Commander's combat skill. At the end of the dream, Shepard is standing in a sea of enemy corpses, while the Alliance leads away the remaining mercenaries who are now POWs. Shepard receive a call from David Anderson

 via comms link, Shepard exclaims that Shepard saved hundreds of lives, and are a hero.

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In all of the second dreams, “Reaper chatter” can be heard amist the chaos, as a subtle but noticeable sound effect. Like in the first game, it is a hint that the Reapers are trying to indoctrinate Shepard. However, only in the Sole Survivor dream/memory is the chatter actually recognized as an actual noise (this ties in with the Sole Survivor's story and eventual revelation-- read about why this is in the next part of Shepard's personal side quest).

In the third dream sequence (which always occurs before the birth of “Homeworld” story mission), Shepard's mind remembers the being captured by Dr. Kenson. Shepard is tied to a stretcher, and hauled into the room that houses Object Rho. Rho begins to glow and shake, Kenson and her staff fall to their knees in worship of the artifact, and Shepard struggles against his bindings. Then Harbinger's voice starts mocking Shepard's struggling attempts. Harbinger exclaims that he will break the Prothean cipher guarding  Shepard's brain, and seize control, and the Commander struggles harder. Harbinger then commands Kenson to subdue Shepard's will somehow, and wait for his arrival, promising that he'll personally deal with Shepard. Kenson administers a high dose-sedative to Shepard, and Shepard wakes up. It is not clear if Shepard managed to fully protect himself from Harbinger's assault.

In the fourth and final dream sequence of the game, (before the last story mission) all Shepards are in the streets of an untouched city called Earth. The streets are empty, and the level is quiet. Shepard looks up into the sky, and sees the quiet but terrifying form of Harbinger descending upon him. Harbinger's eye color matches Shepard's renegade-neutral-paragon levels (green eyes representing neutral). The objectives for the dream are simple: kill Harbinger. This is impossible, as Harbinger is 2km tall and large as a skyscraper. Shepard (via game play) just charges the Reaper while shooting or throwing tech/biotics, until Harbinger blasts the Commander with one of his beams. As the screen fades to black, the Reaper exclaims “we are the end of everything”. Shepard wakes up.

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These last two dreams don't need subtle Reaper messages behind them. They are directly about Shepard's struggles with the Reapers-- with indoctrination being an extension of that.

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c) Indoctrination at the finale.

Shepard can be indoctrinated by Harbinger during the last push against the Reaper threat, with the rationale being that the more forces were recruited, the fewer Reapers were able to get close to the Crucible. If this happens, Garrus (Liara if Garrus died in ME2) or Anderson (Vega if Anderson is a councilor, and Shepard chose to save the Citadel instead of Earth) will confront Shepard-husk, and regretfully fight him as the final boss. If Shepard succeeds in defeating his squad (its a tough and very personal fight) Harbinger is victorious, Shepard destroys the AI systems controlling the Crucible, and the device becomes permanently inactive. The Reapers win the Cycle war by quickly demolishing fleet.

If Shepard “dies” fighting Garrus/Liara and Anderson/Vega, the player can either choose to restart the boss fight, or “continue the story”. Continuing the story sees Shepard, mortally wounded regain his mind (Harbinger releases control), and Shepard can give a number of responses to his squad mates before dying. Shepard's first-person vision goes through a series of flashback images, before fading to black, and Shepard's demoralized squad activates the Crucible. The ending of the war scenes commences (details on Shepard-less endings can be found in the outlines of the ending).

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2) The decisions from the previous games

While there are a huge amount of decisions that any one player's Shepard may have made from the events of Mass Effect to Mass Effect 3, four story elements of the previous two games effect Shepard most of all, coaxing the commander into emotional moments and personal questions. The reason for this simplicity is to highlight the most important moments of Shepard's recent career. These past moments include: which council members Shepard endorsed, fallen squad mates over the course of the series, the destruction of the Alpha Relay, and finally romantic interests. All of these past choices are reflected upon a few times throughout the course of Mass Effect 3's story.

a) The council members chosen from ME1 are important to the state of the Citadel (particularly human-alien relations effecting the daily lives of the station's inhabitants) and their final decision on where the Crucible will be deployed.

The old council are mostly hostile, resistant, and unreceptive to Shepard and Anderson/Udina. They are strong advocates of using the Crucible to save council space worlds first, and pretend that the plights of Earth, Tuchunka, and Khar'shan are not of any particular importance. They are also planning on using the Citadel's master controls to lock off several Mass Relays manually, in a foolish attempt to “lock” the Reapers to certain systems. This council underestimates the Reapers capabilities, and is often more concerned with maintaing a good image than saving lives. Udina is angry that the council refuses to aid Earth, and eventually alerts Shepard, Hackett, and Anderson to their plans of isolating star systems. The old council is torn as to where to deploy the Crucible. They represent traditional thinking that has defined the good and bad of all galactic cultures.  

The exclusively human council is receptive to renegade Shepard's methods, and perspectives. While they half-heartedly try to ensure equality and prosperity between the races, their long term interests to the Reaper threat are to protect human worlds (Earth, Eden Prime, and Bekenstein in particular) while using Thessia, Tunchunka, and especially Palaven and Kar'shan as shield-worlds against the old machines. During the War Summit, they strongly advocate taking the Crucible to Earth. This council recognizes Shepard's authority in matters regarding the Reapers, but woefully ignorant to the legends and stories surrounding the old machines, believe that the Reapers (and Mass Relays) were constructed during the Prothean Empire, and are simply giant war machines. Their ignorance is enlightened after they seek a personal meeting with Javik, and they become dismayed when they discover that the Leviathan of Dis is estimated to be over a billion years old. They represent galactic bullies, and are eventually likened to an early batarian hegemony.

The new council consists of a new member of the turian, asari, salarian, and hanar species, in addition to Anderson/Udina. They are agreeable to the overall preservation of galactic interests (even outside of their own home-worlds), and are also receptive to the addition of krogan, geth, and batarian councilors. They agree to dock the Crucible with the Citadel, and lure the Reapers in for a trap They are ignorant of the Reapers tactics and powers, though they are desperate to learn about the Reapers. They represent new styles of cooperation and diplomacy for the future of the galaxy, if the old machines are defeated.

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b) The fallen members of Shepard's squad over the course of two games can weigh heavily on the Commander. Through conversations with these squad mates family members, crew mates, Shepard's love interest, and moments where one of the dead might have been useful or insightful, Shepard can react in a number of ways.

Renegade responses are generally cold and objective. They try to distance themselves from the memory, and move on.

Neutral responses are generally frustrated, but try to remain in control.

Paragon responses are generally solemn, and insightful as to why a certain character died, and what they meant to Shepard.

Additional emotional responses can be given for the death of a romantic interest.

c) The Alpha Relay's destruction effects Shepard in a similar manner to the death of a squad mate. [Someone] will point out Shepard's ability to save the galaxy, yet willingness to destroy a star system if need be. The destruction of the Bahak system also effects how all batarians treat Shepard (mostly with fear and anger), and Shepard's personal feelings influence how much information Balak gives the council on the Leviathan of Dis.

d) Regarding love interests, I won't go into much detail other than to say that there are more of them in my ME3, and that they'll act (in large part) as someone who questions Shepard's past, present, and future role in the galaxy. Every character who was a love interest previously gets their own specific romantic scenes.

e) Class specific moments are something I came up with a while ago. These are moments in the story where Shepard's specific class allow him to perform a unique action during a cutscene or renegade/paragon prompt. There are a handful of times where a class specific moment is applied to all of the classes that Shepard could potentially be, but for most of the story, these moments are isolated to a specific class for a specific purpose. They do not change the overall story, but merely alter a sequence of events slightly make Shepard's abilities more recognizable. For example:

In the first combat conflict with Kai Leng, Shepard performs a heavy melee. Depending on Shepard's class (adapt, infiltrator, etc) he will perform the same action  multiple ways (aiming a blow at Leng with a biotic fist/omni-gauntlet/omni-blade, etc). Here is a rare example in my rewrite of ME3 where class specifics must be applied to all classes-- because regardless of  whichever class Shepard is, every class can perform a melee attack.

In a scene where Shepard manages to ambush Leng in his Citadel apartment, the two combatants once again engage in close quarters combat. For all classes except the engineer class, the scene plays out the same, with Leng managing to wrestle himself away from Shepard and escape off the apartment balcony. Specifically for the engineer class, Shepard activates his shoulder turret while grappling with Leng, and shoots the assassin's synthetic arm apart. Leng still manages to escape, but is wounded in the attempt. The wound ultimately plays little to no role in the story, other than to show Leng in a vulnerable state, while also showing engineer-Shepard (for this moment specifically) in a dominating state.

These class specific moments exist to credit Shepard's class, without altering the story in a way that makes one class (like the soldier) “better” than the other classes.

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All of the pieces that make up Shepard –  his pre-service record, military service record, indoctrinated state, past game decisions, squad-mate casualties, love interest(s), etc –become the focal point of one part of the game known as “The Trial”, in which Citadel councilors, Alliance HQ, krogan battlemasters, STG overseers, mercenary leaders, the batarian hegemony, the asari matriarch(s), the turian primearch, etc etc band together to put Shepard on public display if he is to lead the final strike force against the Reapers. Here, Shepard can make publicly documented comments on some of his past decisions, and rationalize his opinions in order to win over public opinion, and gain whatever remaining (or excessive) war assets. The trial is an emotional finale to the personal adventure Shepard has gone through, and shows how the Commander's choices and interactions with the people in the galaxy will effect his ability to lead.