Ok so I’ve been thinking more about it and also I just played through the Leviathan DLC again, which is giving me some new insight regarding indoctrination. I’d like to expand more on our previous conversation, @eb-n-flo and @dalishfemme, particularly the bits on whether indoctrinated persons recall anything about their memories/personhood.
We know that Reapers are built/modeled from the original AI Reaper, Harbinger, built by the Leviathan race. The Leviathans considered themselves as far above other lifeforms of their galaxy, since they had the natural ability to control the minds and bodies of entire populations to serve them. Thus they coded their AI to do the same, although for the purpose to serve the Leviathans and preserve intelligent life (which the Reapers took to extreme lengths, blah blah, we’ve all played the game). This is all just preamble, but I find that looking at how Leviathan controls people is an interesting perspective into how indoctrination works.
The people who are controlled by Leviathan black out when they are under its control. They remember nothing from that time, and seem dazed and disoriented when brought out from Leviathan’s grasp (e.g. the scientists and miners at T-GES Mineral Works, Bryson’s assistant, Ann Bryson).
Additionally, the Leviathan pawns don’t seem to have any real knowledge of who they are or what their real selves might have known. However, they definitely retain some knowledge, abilities, skills, etc. related to how they are used as pawns. For example, the miners at T-GES Mineral Works continue to work and monitor that system using skills they would have had to recall from their real selves. My guess is that Leviathan pawns aren’t fully themselves but still can do the things they could in their normal lives so Leviathan doesn’t have to micro-manage every single action. This makes sense, since it wouldn’t be useful to control specific people if they can’t do the things that made them worth controlling in the first place.
As for whether Leviathan knows the things that their pawns knew (like Ann Bryson’s plans with Shepard to come after them), I’d guess that’s either personal knowledge that doesn’t get transferred, or (more likely) Leviathan ignores that sort of thing as beneath them. After all, why should the giant care about the thoughts of an ant?
I don’t know how accurately Leviathan’s abilities compare to Reaper indoctrination. I would assume they work on the same basic principles, since Harbinger was modeled after the Leviathans and every Reaper since has been copies of Harbinger (I’m citing information spoken by Leviathan here, who I guess never heard of the Human Reaper). Although in the millions of years since their creation I’m sure there’s been some evolution/upgrades that might make this different.
