11 réponses à ce sujet

[LeVaughnX]

Going back and playing Mass Effect 1 all over again (to get level 60 on my Infiltrator for the four millionth time) made me wonder about something. The Reapers are meant to be all powerful creations that somehow magically popped into existance (though were probably first created by a species of intelligent people outside the Milky Way Galaxy; which could explain the whole "Save the Universe" thing); why are they designed so poorly? I mean I understand that there are various different classes of Reaper that range from front line little frigates to all-mighty dreadnaughts; but I don't really understand why they haven't created something worthy of any real respect.

Take Sovereign as an example; he was the vanguard of our destruction and really wasn't all that badass or amazing. He caught the civilizations by surprise and basically used the Geth as cannon fodder. Now I know everyone by now has established this; and very easily knows that on a full on war where everyone is prepared that the Reapers would have a tough fight on their hands. But my question is; why are the Reapers so willing to have poorly designed versions of themselves (so to speak)? I mean; take a look at the "Original Reaper" for a second...

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As you may know that picture is one of "Lavos" from the popular franchise Chrono Trigger. I know these two franchises are not related in any sort of way, but I am curious...Would a hybrid design of a more "Cybernetic-Lavos" be more efficent in the short and long term goals of the Reapers? The hybrid would make for an amazing ending(ish) boss type battle; and it would in theory make a load of sense to have a creature like this deep within the core of the planet Earth or some other major location (Maybe locked away in the Citidel somewhere due to the Keepers as a last-resort type weapon). Lavos (or as it's known as "Big Fire") is much more Reaper-ish than the Reapers in Mass Effect.

I mean I understand the concept of ME's Reaper but it makes me feel like it will all turn out to have some cheezy ending; where as a decent ending at the least could feature not some massive space battle but a battle between the galaxy and the Reapers as well as Shepard battling against the "Hive Mind" (Lavos-Hybrid thing) that basically controlled everything. That would be more fitting but less cheezy than some super space battle..

Regardless; I love Mass Effect and I have some faith in ME3 being alright as a game, I just thought I'd bring something fresh into the mix. And yes I know neither game are relaited but I (like I said) just wanted to kind of see what the community thought about that kind of scenario...What it would be like to battle a large Reaper that basically had been Lavos with more cybernetic bits and pieces.

-Thoughts?

[ME-ParaShep]

What makes me wonder is: How were the Reapers brought up from the beginning? We know from the Human-Reaper battle that they reproduce by collecting millions of specimens, liquifying them, and composing the liquid with other metals and elements to form a new Reaper that's based on the used specimens shape. From the Derelict Reaper we know that they've been thriving for approximately 37 million years. That's a vast amount of time to prosper and gain the intelligence to be the most dominant species in numerous galaxies. One of the questions out there is: Is/Was there an original Reaper creator? And to that lead, is the Reaper creator going to make an appearance later in the ME universe? It's far-fetched to say that the Reapers were created out of plain elements that formed into insect like constructs. They're too complex to create without any help from a civilization that's intelligent.

Based off of the general looks of the Reapers, they look like squid, cuttlefish, or insects, but how were they created from the get-go is still a mystery. There's still plenty that needs to be learned about the Reapers. They're still mysterious. In ME 3 we'll be fighting hundreds of them, yet we still don't know much about them and their purpose for harvesting life throughout the galaxy every 50,000 human years.

[Dannyboy9876]

IMO, the first spacefaring race in the Galaxy made these machines themselves, and fused themselves with them. The AI of these machines overpowered the minds of these aliens, and BINGO, WE HAVE REAPERS.

[LeVaughnX]

I originally thought the Reapers were/are the creation of a space fairing species that reside beyond the Milky Way Galaxy - which would explain why the Reapers leave when they are through with their mission. Hence also why the advertising for Mass Effect is "Save the Universe" -- meaning maybe Shepard has to leave the Milky Way to go elsewhere using the Reaper IFF. In theory this would make a great deal of sense...

What if the "creator" of the Reapers had the desire to play "God" so to speak? Or what if their species required resources that only could be found in the Milky Way? Or maybe the Milky Way is one giant experimental location where they force their "Reapers" to drop-off technology in hopes of attempting to "learn" about the way people grow once they are found?

Shepard sacrifices himself and what crew he has to go beyond the Milky Way - losing the Normandy and himself in the process all to deal with the creator of the Reapers...The species of the galaxy have to hold off long enough for Shepard to come to some form of sollution..and boom - Mass Effect 3 is probably going to be like this.

[knightnblu]

I think that the Reapers are the servants of another race. The Reapers have little need for the material that they take aside from repairs or regeneration of their numbers. So where does all that swag go? The older a civilization, the fewer resources it has because it consumes resources along the way. As they progress they would also consume the resources of a star system, quadrants, etc. until they reached the pinnacle of their civilization.

What do you do when all of your resources are spent? You find more. You send servants to other galaxies to seed sentient life there and leave behind seed technology that induces sentient species to produce tech that is compatible with your own. Periodically, your servants then harvest the results of the plantings and send you the booty. Thus, you can continue to grow and survive with raw materials, technology, and husks/slaves of reaped sentient life from many different galaxies.

Do I know all of this for a fact? Nope, but it does make sense and it explains the reaping cycles. I suspect that something like this awaits us at the end of ME3.

[DCarter]

First of all you're idea of a final boss battle with a hive-mind that's been controlling everything is far more cliché and "cheezy" than a battle in space, hive-mind super bandies are a feature of the majority of sci-fi universes.

As for the origin of the reapers. It's possible they were genetically engineered by a species at least a billion years ago. Hence the leviathan of Dis. However there's also a rather interesting codex entry for the planet Klencory - Klencory is famously claimed by the eccentric volus billionaire Kumun Shol. He claims that a vision of a higher being told him to seek on Klencory the "lost crypts of beings of light." These entities were supposedly created at the dawn of time to protect organic life from synthetic "machine devils."

[ME-ParaShep]

@knightblu. Which is a lead to believe that there truly indeed IS a Reaper government, boss, king, CEO, whatever you may call it. Back to what I said about Reapers living for at least 37 million years as found from the derelict Reaper mission in ME 2, it makes sense that they travel to other galaxies to muster resources as well. The Milky Way Galaxy couldn't have been sufficient enough to support trillions of species over the hundreds of thousands of years that's apparently suggested by time notes in the games. The Reapers would have to have started in a galaxy where they clearly are currently dominant. A fraction of the Reapers forces are the Reapers heading the Milky Way Galaxy right now. If that's true, then the Reapers would be unbeatable as a species unless there was a definite game-changer to turn the tide in our favor. They are like the Geth. The Geth could be rewritten, so maybe winning the war could be somehow implementing a reverse engineered Reaper virus like the one Sovereign gave to the Heretic Geth to transform the minds of the True Geth to their liking. That virus is Reaper tech most likely because it was made by a Reaper. If that virus was rewritten in it's Reaper made tech, that virus could change Reapers to suit all sentient life in many galaxies. The problem is HOW do we do that? Shepard and his crew would have to use that virus to "indoctrinate" a major Reaper leader like Harbinger or a Reaper Creator lurking out in another galaxy or even in dark space. It's all starting to make sense about how the Reapers live now, but still the mystery resides.. How were they all brought up and who is the master mind behind all the Reapers and their actions? Knowing that may be the key to the whole war.

Modifié par ME-ParaShep, 30 juin 2011 - 09:03 .

[dreman9999]

Wait.....You don't call plowing through one huge part of a fleet and lazering another huge art of a fleet bad ass?
As for original reaper....won't that be explained in ME3?

[ME-ParaShep]

@dreman

Fighting a galactic war with the Reapers is badass, but that wouldn't be the end of the ME universe so to speak. I believe there needs to be more things involved with the Reaper's lore. That alone can't fit in ME 3 because there will be so many things that needs to be done in that game already in terms of the war effort.

[LeVaughnX]

dreman9999 wrote...

Wait.....You don't call plowing through one huge part of a fleet and lazering another huge art of a fleet bad ass?
As for original reaper....won't that be explained in ME3?

The Original Reaper is Lavos from Chrono Trigger . Everything after Lavos is just a copy!!

Sure Lavos isn't a space ship; but damn it all he/she/it did a better job of staying safe while harvesting the resources of the planet and its people hah.

[Ace of Dawn]

All I have to add to this is that real life has a way of making us thing there needs to be more to something and that there needs to be elaborate reasons for every single thing in life.

Simply because the Reapers are threats does not equate to them necessitating "effective" designs. Really, their modus operandi meant they never really needed to be the epitome of functionality in combat in every facet.

Really though, the Reapers are so much more than their appearance. It's their blue and orange morality, the incomprehensibility of their goals, their unknown origins, relentlessness, patience, abilities, and so much more. Facing a "hive mind" would be cliche and cheezy... but being placed in a situation where you face what makes the Reapers so fearsome... a situation where you feel there is a clear, realistic goal... with impossible chances of success...

But that's just me.

[Whatever42]

Sovereign is Cthulhu and the Reapers are the Great Old Ones. The indoctrinated are the Cult of Cthulhu.

"... the Great Old Ones are telepathic and 'knew all that was occurring in the universe'. They were able to communicate with the first humans by 'moulding their dreams', thus establishing the Cthulhu Cult."

Sure, its been mixed with other sci-fi creations, such as the borg, but I've always thought Reapers = Old Ones.

Modifié par Whatever666343431431654324, 01 juillet 2011 - 01:57 .