So Shepard probably had advanced SERE training as part of N-school, on top of what officers usually get, and it got me thinking…does my Shepard consider herself a POW?
I think…not really.
I imagine it’s something that Taylor tried to warn Miranda about. Shepard never left the Alliance military. It is my duty to escape and help others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy…
It definitely factors into my Shepard’s general recalcitrance and depression during the first few weeks of reanimation. (Besides dealing with Cerberus in general, everything that has changed, and the just-slightly-off-ness of everything that Cerberus calls new and improved).
But as soon as it became clear that the Alliance was not going to ask the obvious question –that they were going to treat her as an agent in her own right, and so is Cerberus, and technically she’s still a Spectre…my Shep feels a lot better about rolling with it. She’s still angry about Cerberus, and she still knows she’s being kept. She would very much like to tell the Illusive Man where he can stick his shiny toys. (She discovered, to her surprise, that she’s angry at Joker for choosing to be so thoroughly taken in. She hasn’t said anything, but it’s there).
But she no longer feels guilty about using Cerberus resources to accomplish her goals, which at this point is “take out the Reapers’ new allies.”