{"id":152188,"date":"2020-12-24T15:01:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T15:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamerant.com\/mass-effect-4-dark-energy-indoctrination-theory\/"},"modified":"2020-12-24T15:01:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T15:01:27","slug":"how-mass-effect-4-could-benefit-from-dark-energy-or-indoctrination-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/12\/24\/how-mass-effect-4-could-benefit-from-dark-energy-or-indoctrination-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mass Effect 4 Could Benefit From Dark Energy or Indoctrination Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Although it may surprise some fans of the original trilogy, there was no overarching plan for how the Reaper plot would be realized over the original Mass Effect<\/em> trilogy. As a result, the games\u2019 writers had several ideas which would begin to manifest in the games but would be dropped before Mass Effect 3<\/em>. The next game, colloquially known as\u00a0Mass Effect 4<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0has a chance to reintroduce some of those plotlines.<\/p>\n

Mass Effect 4<\/em><\/a>\u2019s new trailer just dropped at The Game Awards 2020, and seems to show the series returning to the Milky Way and possibly even Commander Shepard to continue from the events of the original trilogy. This means that there are several dropped plotlines that could reappear now that Mass Effect<\/em> appears to be back in the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Mass Effect 4 Should Embrace a Changed Galaxy<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

3 <\/span>Dark Energy and Biotics<\/h2>\n
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Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer of both the original Mass Effect<\/em> and Mass Effect 2<\/em>. He has spoken before about some of the story arc ideas that began to get introduced, particularly in Mass Effect 2<\/em>, with an eye to integrating them into the main Reaper storyline. Though most of those plotlines never saw the full light of day, original developers are flocking back to BioWare<\/a> to take part in Mass Effect 4<\/em>, which means some could certainly be revived.<\/p>\n

One major dropped plotline involved Dark Energy, as there are hints in Mass Effect 2<\/em> that Dark Energy is beginning to spread across the universe. To recruit Tali<\/a> the player has to visit the planet of Haestrom, a former quarian colony now occupied by the Geth. Haestrom\u2019s sun is hinted to be releasing strange energy, and if Shepard or their crew members stay in sunlight for an extended period of time, it will deplete both their kinetic and biotic barriers, leaving them extremely vulnerably to damage. Originally, the idea was that Haestrom\u2019s sun was releasing Dark Energy.<\/p>\n

Not only is it possible that Dark Energy will return alongside Shepard in Mass Effect 4<\/em><\/a>, but its integration could also help deal with one of BioWare\u2019s biggest narrative challenges to overcome.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0How Mass Effect 4 Can Integrate Andromeda<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2 <\/span>Time Manipulation<\/h2>\n
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There is already a degree of time manipulation in Mass Effect<\/em>\u2013the faster-than-light travel enabled by the Mass Relays<\/a> might be considered a form of it. However, the Dark Energy plotline has hinted that time manipulation could have been a far greater part of Mass Effect<\/em>\u2019s main plot.<\/p>\n

If Dark Energy somehow holds the key to time manipulation, then BioWare may have just found a way out of one narrative corner. Currently, it looks like there will somehow be species from both the Milky Way and Andromeda<\/a> present in Mass Effect 4<\/em>, despite the events of Andromeda<\/em> taking place 600 years later. The \u201cmud skipper\u201d image appears to show an Anagara \u2013 a species endemic to Andromeda \u2013 while the trailer not only references the image but implies that it takes place on a planet with a Dead Reaper on it, meaning an Anagara\u00a0could be in the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

Just as the discovery of the series\u2019 eponymous \u201cmass effect\u201d led to FTL travel, so too could the discovery of Dark Energy allow for some degree of time manipulation to factor into the plot of Mass Effect 4<\/em>. For example, a Mass Relay which utilizes Dark Energy as well as Element Zero could be used to bring the characters from Andromeda<\/em><\/a> 600 years into the past. Though time travel elements might seem unlikely, BioWare already appears to be making the move to combine the Milky Way and Andromeda settings, so a drastic move will likely have to be made.<\/p>\n

1 <\/span>Indoctrination Theory<\/h2>\n
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Though there isn\u2019t much indication that this was a part of the writers\u2019 intent, Indoctrination Theory<\/a> has been a huge part of the Mass Effect<\/em> fan base for years. In short, it posits that Shepard became indoctrinated by the Reapers and that the final events of Mass Effect 3<\/em> involving the Crucible weren\u2019t actually literal but instead took place in Shepard\u2019s mind as a mental representation of him overcoming or succumbing to indoctrination.<\/p>\n

The Destroy Ending<\/a>, which is what Mass Effect 4<\/em>\u2019s new trailer seems to imply the game is going with, would potentially be the one where Shepard overcame their indoctrination and destroyed the Reapers. Mass Effect 4<\/em> has the opportunity to establish which events were literal and which weren\u2019t at the end of the original trilogy, or to explore the residual effects that indoctrination had on Shepard. Doing that is a risky move, though, one likely to just be completely skipped over.<\/p>\n

Even if the new games don\u2019t fully endorse indoctrination theory, they could still lean into the ambiguity, leaving it unclear if the events towards the end of Mass Effect 3<\/em><\/a> when Shepard was alone ever literally happened or not. Indoctrination Theory could even be a great way to explain why one canonical ending was chosen \u2013 the other two were illusions that represented succumbing to indoctrination.<\/p>\n

Whatever path the developer goes down, there are plenty of old threads which could be picked up in Mass Effect 4<\/em>. Many fans will be hopeful that there are references to dropped storylines, though others will be hoping that Mass Effect 4<\/em> is also able to capture the originality of the\u00a0Mass Effect<\/em> trilogy<\/a> when it released back in 2007.<\/p>\n

A new\u00a0Mass Effect\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>game is currently in development.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0A Complete Breakdown of Mass Effect’s Hulking Elcor Alien Race<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n

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The original Mass Effect trilogy had plenty of dropped plotlines that BioWare could pick up again to kick off Mass Effect 4.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"How Mass Effect 4 Could Benefit From Dark Energy or Indoctrination Theory - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"The original Mass Effect trilogy had plenty of dropped plotlines that BioWare could pick up again to kick off Mass Effect 4."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152189,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152188\/revisions\/152189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}