Shepard's traumatized little brain...

[oddlittleturtle]

The Cipher.

Getting in Shepard's head to explain stuff is hard.

The game is vague. The Wiki does not help. The BSN is... well, I'm not going there. xP

Shepard is the only human to have direct access to the Prothean culture.  Shepard knew what sequence of keys to press to free Liara on Therum, and they knew what sequence of keys to press to activate

Comments

[tipo]

I assume Shep DOES know something about the language since s/he's the only one who can understand one of the prothean terminals on Ilos - the one after the room full of geth and before the lift.

As for everything else, I got nothing. Never thought about it. xD;

[zidane]

As I understand it, the Cipher transferred over the understanding of what a Prothean knows to be Prothean, like a forever of "LURKING MOAR" in one moment. I don't think Shep could, say, recite a list of Prothean leaders, but s/he might, say, spontaneously laugh at a Prothean's idea of humor.

Now to track down Prothean cable re-runs.

[sinvraal]

That's how I see it too. It's a background intuition that means when faced with Prothean tech and culture, Shepard makes better guesses than anyone else, without consciously knowing why.

[yesthatnagia]

Adding my vote to this theory.

Shepard doesn't seem to notice that the broken "can't stop it" terminal isn't in hir native language/a language the translators know. That hints at unconscious knowledge, to me.

[cpip]

I add my vote to your vote.

[luslanz]

If I remember right, the only time the Cipher has been used was to understand the Prothean warning recording on Ilos (the broken "cannot be stopped" one). Shepard was not using it on Therum or Virmire because those missions can be completed before getting the Cipher from Shiala on Therum.

The Cipher thing didn't really go anywhere in ME1; I hope it comes up again in ME3 with the Mars dig site or something else o.o

[thirteenthchime]

I just always assumed it was largely unconscious knowledge that's only useful or relevant when Shepard comes into contact with Prothean ruins/tech.

There was an interesting fic from a while back, one where Shepard zones out and acts weird at times due to that background information, and I found it a very interesting take on the whole 'Protheans in my braaaaaain' idea (which, honestly, doesn't get done enough). Let me see if I can dig it up. Yup! Here it is, it's called Twist by wickedtrue and it looks like it was actually sparked by this comm ;)

[lanoger]

The Cipher is one of these not-as-useful-as-you'd-think things in a practical sense. That allows for much hand-waving of sticky issues.

Also, I don't think the Firewalker artifact signifies. Shepard is always touching stuff.

[cupcakesusie]

Shepard is always touching stuff.

Yep yep; see Overlord for an example of when Touchy Touchy should really have been No Touchy.

[yesthatnagia]

Congratulations! That last line has spawned a fic.