17 réponses à ce sujet

[Lavans6879]

I often wonder, what's the purpose of making a Reaper out of organic races, when Reapers themselves see organics as inferior? There has to be some sort of gain for the Reapers by doing so. Do they collect synaptic information and store memories? Do they gather the genetic information so that they could somehow archive the races they assimilated? There's gotta be some sort of purpose behind turning people into Reapers other than symbolism. I find it hard to believe that the Reapers would perform such a process without any sort of gain.

I really hope that BioWare discloses that bit of lore in ME3. The mystery behind the construction of a new Reaper is the biggest aspect I'm looking for more information and/or closure on more than anything else.

[Lavans6879]

I somehow doubt it's that simple, but it might have something to do with it.

It seems that the act of acquiring an entire race and forging them into a Reaper is to facilitate some form of evolution. After all, the Reapers have been wiping out entire races for a long long time, and they always wait for the target race to reach a certain level of technological advancement before they do so. This is the reason why I can't help but wonder if they somehow gain the collective knowledge/memories/culture of that race. The only other possibility I can think of is that if they collect the genetic information from a particular race, would it be possible for the Reapers to recreate the race they assimilated so they can continue the cycle of extinction? But then, that begs the question, why is the process of liquefying an entire race and forging them into a Reaper referred to as "ascension"?

Modifié par Lavans6879, 09 novembre 2011 - 06:22 .

[Rifneno]

My theory is that it helps them anticipate the enemy's decisions.  Remember that the cut dialogue from EDI mentioned that the human reaper was emitting human brainwave patterns.

More importantly, consider the dialogue with Legion.  For hundreds of years of studying organics, the geth are still baffled by the quarian's actions during the Morning War.  Likewise, the technological geniuses of the quarians don't seem to have a clue how the AI's they created themselves think.  If they did, there probably would've been no reason to war to begin with.  The conclusion here is that it's very difficult if not impossible for organic and synthetic life forms to truly understand one another.

The reapers will have to face both organic and synthetic enemies over the course of their countless genocides.  Therefor, it's vital to their war effort for them to be able to understand both enemies' thought processes.  So being purely machine themselves would leave them at a significant disadvantage.  So they melt down some organics and create, for lack of a better word, a simulation of them inside their synthetic bodies.

[didymos1120]

Some easily missed and relevant dialogue:

[Rifneno]

didymos1120 wrote...

Some easily missed and relevant dialogue:

Oh, very nice.  I forgot about that.  So I don't need to fall back on cut dialogue for the reference about the reaper using its victims for organic minds.  Just the "why" part being conjecture now.

[Obadiah]

So the Geth think the Reapers are transcendent races minds/souls? Creepy.

To the OP, we eat meat (cows, chickens, etc...) digest them and use the nutrients to survive and procreate. I think many people think of them as inferior beings to be nurtured, grown, and reaped. The process we saw in the in the Collector base could be likened to some kind of digestion.

Could be the reapers don't even know why they do it, they just do to survive. Being self-aware, like us, they may in fact struggle to find some kind of meaning in their existence. Everything they have told us may just be their notions of existence filtered through some kind of dogma.

[Lavans6879]

I wonder if Legion is summarizing the process in a way that's easy to comprehend and doesn't spoil too much about ME3.

Hm, so if they harvest the organic minds, I'm curious if they effectively gather some form of memories/knowledge/culture from the assimilated individuals. Not only that, but I'm even more curious if the individual minds have some sort of semblance but operate like a hive mind, or if they're fused together into a singular mind.

@Obadiah
In a sense, I can agree with that.Considering what Legion mentioned, I don't think it's necessarily a form of consumption/digestion. IMO, It would be more accurate to call it assimilation.

Modifié par Lavans6879, 16 novembre 2011 - 05:06 .

[We are]

Obadiah wrote...

So the Geth think the Reapers are transcendent races minds/souls? Creepy.

To the OP, we eat meat (cows, chickens, etc...) digest them and use the nutrients to survive and procreate. I think many people think of them as inferior beings to be nurtured, grown, and reaped. The process we saw in the in the Collector base could be likened to some kind of digestion.

Could be the reapers don't even know why they do it, they just do to survive. Being self-aware, like us, they may in fact struggle to find some kind of meaning in their existence. Everything they have told us may just be their notions of existence filtered through some kind of dogma.

The first reaper would have essentially been the Dyson sphere that Legion refers to the geth creating, why that originally organic race suddently decided to turn into a galactic grim reaper, who knows?

Maybe when the original "reaper race" unified it's conscience inside it's vessil it simply got bored of being a demigod and decided to create it's own purpose in the universe as an endless antagonist.

Something for organic races to struggle against and possibly (no matter how small the chance) rise above.
I dont think that the reaper's goal is the destruction of ALL life, just inferieor life. For instance after Sovereign was destroyed the reapers seemingly gained a respect for humanity. Maybe we are their salvation through destruction, and not the other way around

[We are]

Obadiah wrote...

So the Geth think the Reapers are transcendent races minds/souls? Creepy.

To the OP, we eat meat (cows, chickens, etc...) digest them and use the nutrients to survive and procreate. I think many people think of them as inferior beings to be nurtured, grown, and reaped. The process we saw in the in the Collector base could be likened to some kind of digestion.

Could be the reapers don't even know why they do it, they just do to survive. Being self-aware, like us, they may in fact struggle to find some kind of meaning in their existence. Everything they have told us may just be their notions of existence filtered through some kind of dogma.

The first reaper would have essentially been the Dyson sphere that Legion refers to the geth creating, why that originally organic race suddenly decided to turn into a galactic grim reaper, who knows?

Maybe when the original "reaper race" unified it's conscience inside it's vessel it simply got bored of being a demigod and decided to create it's own purpose in the universe as an endless antagonist.

Something for organic races to struggle against and possibly (no matter how small the chance) rise above.
I dont think that the reaper's goal is the destruction of ALL life, just inferior life. For instance after Sovereign was destroyed the reapers seemingly gained a respect for humanity. Maybe we are their salvation through destruction, and not the other way around

Modifié par We are, 16 novembre 2011 - 09:17 .

[Lavans6879]

We are wrote...

Maybe when the original "reaper race" unified it's conscience inside it's vessel it simply got bored of being a demigod and decided to create it's own purpose in the universe as an endless antagonist.

Thinking about it, I dare say that reapers aren't necessarily antagonistic, but that really depends on the reason why the reapers are going around and forging the bodies and minds of entire races into a singular sentient machine.

I mean, yes, they're the antagonist of the main storyline ( for obvious purposes ). But in a way, their current apparent goals don't seem overly hostile. Aggressive, yes, but not beligerient/hostile.

[We are]

Lavans6879 wrote...

We are wrote...

Maybe when the original "reaper race" unified it's conscience inside it's vessel it simply got bored of being a demigod and decided to create it's own purpose in the universe as an endless antagonist.

Thinking about it, I dare say that reapers aren't necessarily antagonistic, but that really depends on the reason why the reapers are going around and forging the bodies and minds of entire races into a singular sentient machine.

I mean, yes, they're the antagonist of the main storyline ( for obvious purposes ). But in a way, their current apparent goals don't seem overly hostile. Aggressive, yes, but not beligerient/hostile.

.... They want to destroy ALL galactic civilization, just to make what? A couple reapers? And then go back and sit in dark space? id say that's pretty hostile. They also don't use all species for making reapers, i think their only using humans so my beloved wrex and legion would be dead, and that's not cool.

If the civilizations were allowed to progress some would eventually do the essentially the same thing as the reapers and make a collective conscience, which is what the geth want to do as well, just on their own terms.

[We are]

btw

[IllusiveMike]

The original Reaper species reached space flight, surveyed the Milky Way, and wept for there were no worlds left (or in range) to conquer.

Before the Mass Relays (because the Reapers had to build them), they had to cross the Galaxy the hard way (ie: sub-light speeds). It took far too long for a single lifespan, so they Reaperized themselves, became immortal, and had plenty of time to plod along to various star systems building relays.

The down-side of Reaperizing yourself? You halt evolution. The Reapers are static, so the cycle begins where they harvest unique and adaptive traits of other organics and make new Reapers that are stronger, faster, better (they have the technology).

Maybe.

Also, we don't know every member of the original Reaper species were willing participants in the whole ascension idea. It could have been a crazy few that simply inflicted it on the others.

[Rifneno]

I still say that their real motivations are unknown to us and that the human reaper was only being made to replace Sovereign rather than because the whole cycle is about reproduction.

[didymos1120]

Rifneno wrote...

I still say that their real motivations are unknown to us and that the human reaper was only being made to replace Sovereign rather than because the whole cycle is about reproduction.

Mac Walters said it wasn't about replacing Sovereign on Twitter. 

[Rifneno]

didymos1120 wrote...

Rifneno wrote...

I still say that their real motivations are unknown to us and that the human reaper was only being made to replace Sovereign rather than because the whole cycle is about reproduction.

Mac Walters said it wasn't about replacing Sovereign on Twitter. 

Hmm.  Maybe.  Seems a bit sketchy.  The question wasn't "Were they only making a replacement for Sovereign?" as "Would he be the new vanguard?"  Even then the answer wasn't really a yes or no.  Sovereign didn't seem different than other full size Reapers from what we've seen of ME3 previews.  The vanguard might not be a special model.  It might just be the eldest Reaper, or they take turns... Nazara might've drawn the short straw.

[We are]

It seems as though some reapers are specialists, Harbinger seems to be unique in that he has the same eyes as the Collectors, which could be why he's the only one seen controlling them.

And i doubt that the eldest reaper would put itself in a position like Sovereign, that would ruin the chances of us being able to interrogate it to finally get some answers in ME3

Modifié par We are, 19 novembre 2011 - 10:21 .