The Solitary Path to Salvation

Again, Talonz is right. It doesn't make sense to hate on this Cassandra lady, because, obviously, she's dead-set on her beliefs. You said that she's indoctrinated (that's fucking stupid, but we'll ignore it), so what's the point in arguing.
She's essentially saying, "Hey people, something horrible happened, and I think that if we all unite, we can avoid it happening again." Reapers, for better or for worse, were fucking terrifying. I managed to avoid seeing 'em in person, and even I think this. So, is it hard to believe that someone thinks that these things, that are far technologically superior to us and can fucking brainwash us, can be considered an"angel" or a "demon" or whatever Cassandra's saying they are?

Yeah, and that's the policy we operated on during the war, because it was the difference between a successful recon and being captured or torn to shreds. And I was talking about the war, not it's aftermath. We didn't have the benefit of hindsight - let alone stable communications - to accurately determine who was and wasn't indoc'ed during the invasion, what with being isolated and actively hunted every other day.

When it was over, you figured out who wasn't indoctrinated by looking at those who weren't braindead or spouting Reaper worship. The former indicated they were in later stages, just above husks, basically. The latter were in the early to mid-range stages, and were a lot like the indoc that made this thread. You quarantined those ones as best you could, and the others... Well, there wasn't anything left to save, really. They were basically vegetative, so you could either try to keep them alive, or do what you could to ease their passing.

You do realize that when the Reapers left, the people who almost immediately trusted the civilians on Earth when they were going in for salvage and rescue were the offworlders, and mostly navy, right? Most of whom hadn't done extended groundside combat in Reaper-controlled zones, and certainly nothing like what the resistances on planets like Earth and Palaven went through. You ask Alliance guys in the Earth Resistance, and a lot of them will probably say that they are worried that a lot of the planet is indoc'ed to some degree, especially in the case of the Reapers coming back some day. But if they aren't making shrines or religions to worship the damn machines, then there isn't much else you can do except give them the benefit of the doubt. More pressing concerns, and all that. Maybe it's possible for people to resist indoctrination to an extent, or 'recover' from some of the really early stages. We don't really know.

But the OP is spouting Reaper worship, so the inclination would be to take her out of the 'resistant' and 'recovered' camps.


Well seeing as you've outright admitted to never having seen a Reaper first-hand, I guessing I can safely assume that you didn't fight in any Reaper warzones. While I wish you would enlighten me on how you came to be an authority on indoctrination, I'm going to ask you something instead. I was in a war where indoctrination was a constant threat, once that could cripple or compromise an entire operation, and could range from husk-level obvious to 'I'm just trying to save my family, so I have to stop you'-subtle. It could come from within the local civilian populace, or the marine at your side, who'd been on too many incursions into the cities.

So try to look at this from my perspective, and ask yourself, what's the meaningful distinction between a low-to-mid-level indoc and a Reaper worshiper, at a glance?


Yes, her basic message is good, but I'll be damned before I sit by and watch it be spread on the back of 'Benevolent Reapers, servants of God' without saying my piece. We didn't lose billions of people just to turn around and idolize the things that took them from us, and I for one won't accept it.

Honestly, I think it's a big mistake to lump all Reapers-are-divine freaks together as indoctrinated. Not only is simplification rarely a good idea under any circumstances, but in this particular case, the homebrew groups are probably a lot more dangerous than any surviving indoctrinated anyway.

@EchoTheFourth : She doesn't paint Reapers as benevolent at all, she paints them as a cruel test from her divinity. So as bad things that needed defeating. I don't share her belief but I'm not shocked by it. I myself see the crucible plans as the long, hard work of the Batarian goddess of Order.

@Cassandra : You seem like a good person so I hope you won't be put off by the energetic greetings this board gives you, they do the same for everyone but they're a good bunch, don't worry!

Your colleagues have already addressed the shortcomings of your accusations of indoctrination, so I will only comment to say this: challenge my words, not my person.

I can only offer my sincerest condolences for what you have endured, although I understand that these fall far from compensation.

I similarly understand that the idea of our struggle against the Reapers being a test of resolve can be repulsive. Some see it as an effort to 'justify' the brutality and violence which accompanied this period. But such is the nature of deterrence. Humanity had suffered through scores of conflicts previously, yet none had succeeded in diverging our people from the path of violence. Nothing short of the abject malevolence of the Reapers was necessary. If these divine instruments had merely occupied our cities and annihilated our fleets, they would be no different from a conventional foe. It was their unrelenting and merciless ferocity, and the abominable means by which this ferocity was practised, that provided the impetus for our alliance with the other children of God and their eventual defeat. It required a flood to save the world from corruption; there had to be an apocalypse to save the universe from internecine war.

I thank you for your sentiment, but you need not worry. This reaction was hardly unanticipated. Because of my beliefs, I am a maligned minority, universally hated and despised. I do not protest my treatment; it is only natural that my evangelism would provoke such scorn. Asceticism and strength of soul are the essential characteristics of the faithful. If I cannot endure mere persecution, how can I claim to have surrendered myself to God?