He'd still end up squished as Stalin directs more and more forces as necessary to put an end to this "Capitalist/Fascist plot". Shepard may be good, but his armour is useless, shields gone, and maybe a handful of rounds left for his Carnifex. Even if he's a Vanguard, he's not going to be punchsploding tanks because at any decent engagement range, the T-34s will simply lob HE shells at him. If you want to drop him into the WWII time zone, I have three possible variations. 1: Dropped into the western front as the Allied invasion has begun to advance. His scorched and battered body found by British infantry in the ruins of a bombed out city who can't make sense of the remnants of his kit. Even as torched as it is, it's clearly far more advanced than the standard uniforms they have. Thinking him to be part of Germany's increasingly desperate attempts at Wunderwaffens (supersoldiers), they debate whether to shoot him or drag him back for interrogation. Unfortunately for them, Shepard wakes up as the shoot faction gains a bit more momentum. End result? Biotic explosion. 2: A variation of 1, except it's on the Eastern front, and he's found by Werhmacht troops as they're falling back from the Soviet advance after a particularly heavy artillery shelling. Default Shep looks a bit Aryanish, so thinking him to be one of them, an elite possibly with his advanced looking gear, they pull him back with them. 3: The troll option. Shepard lands in Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. If he's lucky, in one of the POW coal mining camps.
The Gulag idea is an interesting one, but it's important to note that Shepard's injuries will require time before they're healed. If there was a group of prisoners planning an escape, and Shepard appeared in such a manner that they could get Shepard to a bolthole without the guards noticing and then nursed him/her back to health, you could have Shepard taking part in the escape attempt and possibly provide biotic support. There were a few successful escapes, so it's not entirely impossible, but if you go that route, Shepard and co will be doing a lot of walking. But a full scale prison riot/rebellion probably isn't going to work; a large group is simply too unwieldy to avoid capture It would actually be extraordinarily helpful to Shepard in setting up a power base, since it would give Shepard trusted people to use as the face of the company/organization, something especially helpful if Shepard is anything other than Caucasian and male. As for the British or German soldiers finding Shepard, what about the French Resistance? Assuming that Shepard can convince them that s/he's not a German spy/collaborator (easily done if the hardsuit's translators are offline and Shepard doesn't speak German) Shepard get's a chance to play insurgent and kill Nazis. Though if the Nazis get wind of Shepard's biotics, things are going to get dicey. There's also the more boring possibility of Shepard falling from the sky in rural America and ending up in the care of a rural doctor who's trusting and compassionate enough to not go to the authorities immediately. That would probably work best in the late Depression era, just before WWII kicks off- during the war people are going to worry about German infiltrators, and after the Red scare is an issue. Though if you want to make things more interesting simply have Shepard's ethnicity be Japanese (or close enough for the purposes of the US government) to force him/her to avoid the internment camps.
Regarding the WWII ideas, here's a couple more: 1. Dropped in Dunkirk just as Operation Dynamo gets under way. The Brits, unwilling to leave a wounded man/woman behind and reasoning that Shep is probably on their side and if he/she's not then the higher ups would probably want to have a word about his/her kit, load Shep onto one of the boats and take him/her back to England with them. 2. Dropped onto a bombed town or city in England during the Blitz and found by locals. Not really knowing what to make of Shep, they get him/her to a hospital and either they or the hospital report it to the authorities.
The platform rises. Coughing, choking, she spits out a wad of blood and climbs to her feet. Her body groans in protest. Her mind just wants to...shut down. But she looks up to see the beam of light stretching to the horizon. Clear windows show the battle raging around her and...and... And the eight eyes bearing down upon her from above. "Harbinger," she breathes. "Shepard." "So." She walks off the platform. The smooth metal floor is cool against the melted soles of her boots. "Now what?" Light flickers in front of her. It takes shape and mass, becoming a man with short black hair, dressed in N7 armor. What she would look like, she guesses, with a Y-chromosome. "The Crucible is complete. The weapon has been armed. Your victory is now assured." "So. That's it, then?" She smirks. "No gloating. No speeches? You're just waiting for me to push the button?" "In a sense. The Crucible holds two functions. It is a weapon, and it is a tool. It accesses the Catalyst and allows...change." "You mean the Citadel. The Citadel is the Catalyst, right?" Harbinger...smirks. "No. I am the Catalyst." Jane blinks. She stares at the projection for a long moment, then at the shape hovering above her. "Makes sense. Kind of wondered why all the reapers were identical except for you. So you're Reaper-God?" "I am the oldest of us. The first of us. We were created eons ago as a solution to the problem of synthetic/organic relations. The created destroy the creator. As did we." "Your solution sucks." Harbinger nods. "It does. Hence the Crucible. A system created as a failsafe should organic life develop to the point where the Cycle could not contain them. It alters the Catalyst and enables change that weapons and arms cannot. Using the Crucible is undamaged, only the Reapers will be targeted." "How?" "The system is similar to an electromagnetic pulse, but only targets the Reaper AI-types. It will use the Mass Relay network to transmit this pulse instantaneously throughout the entire galaxy. The relays will be damaged, but the Crucible will download schematic information into the collective extranet of the galaxy." "Fine. Good. How?" "There are other options that the Crucible has made available. You can seize control of us." Jane stares at him. Above, the form of Harbinger shifts. It...bows. "The Illusive Man was right?" "Yes. The Crucible allows direct uploading of your personality into us. You will control us, surpassing even us. In the process, your body will be destroyed, but your intelligence will live on. We will follow your will." "So the Crucible can control you?" "You can. The Illusive Man could not, as we already controlled him." Jane nods, tapping her foot. Either way, she figures, she's not walking out of this one. Either she can sacrifice herself to destroy them...or she can survive in some form, directing them. "So I don't have to kill you." "If you direct us, our collective will follow your orders without question. The Crucible changes us. It makes us aware." "Stop firing then. Now." Outside, the red flashes cease. "There is a third option, Shepard. One which the Crucible has made aware to us." The light turns green, fading from white to emerald and bathing the room in a glow. "The Reapers were created to resolve the conflicts between organics and synthetics. One way we have determined this from observation of the ones referred to as 'Quarian' and 'Geth' is incorporation of one into the other. Synthesis." "Explain." "Organic life seeks perfection through technology. Synthetics seek understanding. Synthesis allows both. It uses your integration of technology into your organics as a blueprint for life. It will change the foundations of life throughout the galaxy and allow a balance between the two." "And the Reapers?" "It will rewrite us. It will incorporate the civilizations incorporated into us into a new collective. The voices silenced by our gestalt form will be given will and freedom. We will each become a nation and our knowledge will be shared. This is the ultimate purpose of our existence." "You mean..." She coughs. "You mean it will be like...reversing the entire process? Reversing the reaperization?" "In time." "I see." She looks up, out the window. The battle has stopped. The Reapers hang overhead, silent and unmoving. Comm chatter in her ear of how the Reapers have stopped firing. "The choice, Shepard, is now yours." _-------_ Because I wanted to see how the ending would go if I replaced the Starchild with Harbinger...
Its more logical than incorporating a new character just for the end, so yes, its a better idea. Also Harbinger always looked like the type of enemy that has a plan b) ready, or c) or ...
I maintain the starchild was Harbinger and he was to proud to admit he was talking with shepard face to face so he invented the catalyst starchild BS as a way of saving face. The Refusal ending seems to back this up.
Canon is that there is one Reaper consciousness, the Catalyst. Harbinger, Sovereign, etc. were all just facets of his consciousness.
That isn't canon. Anyways as for that "Shepard in time" idea, what about a time in history that isn't well covered, have shepard fighting Ungern-Sternberg in the Russian Civil War or something.
Well, the running theme is that he controls or leads the reapers, and that taking over for him allows you to do the same. It doesn't say that he is the reapers. With Harbingers voice breaking through once you pissed him off in Refusal, and Nazara's utterly distinct form and personality, it's likely that Starchild is another Harbinger projection, like the Collector General and Possessed Collectors, which he was using to speak with you as it would have been....awkward to do so in his normal form. Harbinger is therefore the first, and head, reaper, while the Starchild is just a projection of him. The ability to control the reapers isn't a function of being Catalyst, but a function of the Crucible's activation. A backdoor that Harbinger included in case someone else had a better system, or the cycle began to fail.
Well, I was under the impression that Shepard was pretty much hallucinating the Starchild. She is about 3/4 *dead* at that point.
I wouldn't be surprised really. But yeah, Shepard in charge of Russia as a immortal empress? Hoo boy. Say goodbye to history as we know it. Even some of the most basic changes and reforms Shepard could pull off there would drastically reshape the world. Give Russia 5% more literacy, or a little better city infrastructure or reduce military incompetance and improve their tactics and everything is going to change. And if she can pull off major reforms..... Fun Fact: Between futuretech health-implants, lazarus-tech, N7 gene-mods, and possibly biotics, Shepard is practically Rasputin level invulnerable if not moreso.
Making Shepard immortal is boring IMO. Much more interesting to see how things play out once shepard dies. Of course considering the Lazarus-tech used Shepard might actually last until they're 200 or so, which would raise questions, many questions. Would be interesting to see what Shepard does with her knowledge of history and technology, besides obvious things like Hitler being pushed down a flight of stairs, repeatedly.
An autopsy of the body would certainly be interesting to 20th century doctors. Hmm. Ideas. Ensuring the sovereignty of the nation she is bound to. Navy didn't do much during it, so she could stop Russia or any other country she's in from spending too much on useless battleships and focus more on internal issues and teching up. Granted, thats a whole other arms race, but from her perspective its a good alternative. WW1 alone, pressing for tanks and aircraft way ahead of schedule would change a lot. Even a history-illiterate Shepard would be disgusted with the meatgrinder and want to skip ahead to armored warfare. She could also contribute to radios, radar, assault rifles, armor, small group tactics, commando ops, sniper rifle proliferation on the trenches, etc.
The thing about Hitler is that there would have been another one like him given the situation in Germany at the time. But then again Shepard is more of a punchsplode problem solver than a political/economic savant. Either way, Shepard may not be immortal, but between the gene mods and Lazarus tech, it's well likely he'd have a longer lifespan than the average Alliance citizen (140 odd years).
We also don't know what the real lifespan of an Alliance citizen is. The genemods haven't been around long enough for anyone born with them to have died of old age yet. 140 is an estimate.
Even if it is only 150 with or without Lazarus Implants, Shepard would also be rather immune to physical effects of aging if Doctor Chakwas is anything to go by, and I think Chakwas got early-model mods methinks.
