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[Embrace_destruction]

There were a number of plot points in ME2 that were never explained.  I assumed everything would be tied up in ME3, but alas, that answered absolutley nothing about anything!  It feels like the whole point of ME2 was to introduce the Illlusive Man.

So I'm brainstorming on my own ending, something comprehensive that will tie everything together so I'm trying to resolve these issues.  If there's obvious I missed, or you have your own theroies, please fill me in. 

#1:  The purpose of the Collector plauge on Omega.
Why would the Collectors supply the Vorcha with a bioweapon that kills everything except Vorcha and humans?  It doesn't make sense to be killing off species that you intend to harvest.  I had a few ideas....

• Everyone on Omega assumed a human spread the virus, this would create a schism that would make it more difficult for Shep to create a united front
• It was given to the Vorcha as payment for some samples they collected for the Collectors (Omega is close to the Omega 4 relay)

#2:  What is the signficance of Haelstrom's sun failing?
On Tali's recruitent mission, you discover that the Quarians are investigating a star that is prematurely dying due to the influence of dark energy.  What is the signficance?  The importance of dark energy is never fully explained, but it does power pretty much everything in the galaxy (via Eezo) especially Reaper and Relays which have huge reserves

#3:  Why are the Collectors building a Human Reaper?
Harbinger is very interested in humans, for their genetic diversity and the killing of soverign.  But why do the Collectors start work before the invasion?  The Reapers will build one on Earth during the invasion.  It is impied via the Collector datapad Aria gets in Invasion that the Collectors are going to harvest Earth for the Human Reaper, but again, why?  Why start building it at the center of the galaxy?  Either you have to transport all the humans from Earth through all the Relays to the Collector base (doesn't seem very efficent when your fleet is equipped to do it on Earth) or the Human Reaper has to be moved to Earth. I don't think the Collectors alone could harvest Earth

• After the destruction of the base, Harbinger says 'We will find another way.'  Was the human Reaper supposed to be completed, go to the Citadel and open it?
• Maybe the Human Reaper is to serve as the next Vanguard to replace Soverign, and they want to start early

#4: (bonus from ME1)  The 'souring of the song' and the Rachni Wars
Why would the Reapers sour the song of the Rachni?  It makes sense to use them to replace the Collectors, but why would you commit them to war, one that threatened the existence of the other races?  Again, if you're going to harvest later, why destroy now?  Maybe the Reapers use conflict to force races to evolve, get races to the 'pinnacle of evolution' before harvest?

[PsiFive]

Very good questions. #2 could just be one of those mysteries that science in game can't yet explain just like there are still heaps of things we don't yet understand in the real world, and nothing to do with the Reapers or anyone else. But #1, #3 and #4 is all about the games' antagonists and those things are harder to explain.

[Spitfire_mcguire]

I think I can offer insight into #2, though it is an outside the ME universe explanation...the whole "dark energy" was meant to be a significant plot line of the trilogy, and involved in the original ME3 ending (rather than the **** ending we got). However, as writers left and new ones came in, they seemed to drop the ball and leave this matter of dark energy out. I can only speculate as to why the Quarians were interested...maybe they thought the Geth were involved or doing some science experiment.

Also, your reason for #4 actually sounds like something the Reapers would do. Conflict has usually pushed progress forward faster than peace, and they could have saw it as an opportunity to speed up the cycle.

[freestylez]

#3: Why are the Collectors building a Human Reaper?

With the release of ME3, we can confirm that this made no sense.

What was the purpose? It took the Reapers less than a year to travel to the Milky Way for ME3. And you mean to tell me the Reapers previous plan was abducting humans for the past 2 years...for what? One more Reaper? What were they going to do this Reaper, fling it at the Citadel again? If it took 2 years to get to Baby Reaper stage, how long would it have taken?

[Embrace_destruction]

Spitfire_mcguire wrote...

I think I can offer insight into #2, though it is an outside the ME universe explanation...the whole "dark energy" was meant to be a significant plot line of the trilogy, and involved in the original ME3 ending (rather than the **** ending we got). However, as writers left and new ones came in, they seemed to drop the ball and leave this matter of dark energy out. I can only speculate as to why the Quarians were interested...maybe they thought the Geth were involved or doing some science experiment.

Yeah I was under the impressio that dark energy would play a big role.  I fear these questions are just unanswerable, due to the loss of the good writers.
*sigh

[swenson]

#1: Mordin talks about this in ME2. He theorizes it was to test genetic diversity. Alternately, to cause trouble between species (especially if this plague was spread to Council space or the Citadel) or simply to weaken other species. The last two are my own theories, but the first is in the game.

#3: I think the idea was that the Human Reaper could replace Sovereign. Or they just wanted to get a headstart while they waited for the rest of the Reapers to show up. Perhaps it was even an initial test to see if it would work--laying the groundwork for the full invasion, or something like that.

#4: The general theory on this one is that the "sour yellow note" was indoctrination. The Reapers were trying to use the rachni in a similar manner to how they later used the geth, to seize control of the Citadel to usher in the return of the Reapers.

Here is my theory for the timeline:

50,000 years ago, Reapers come and kill everybody. They leave, so Vigil wakes up the last Protheans. They use the Conduit to travel to the Citadel and change the Keepers without the Reapers' knowledge.

Time passes. The Reapers (or just Sovereign) do freaky experiments on the Protheans to turn them into Collectors. They begin to monitor the progress of other species.

Sovvy's giant Reaper alarm clock rings and he sends out the signal to the Keepers to open the Citadel for the Reapers. This is when he figures out it doesn't work! He now needs some agents to assault the Citadel so he can open it himself. He finds the rachni, indoctrinates their queen/queens, and uses them to attack the other species.

Obviously, we know that he was foiled by the salarians uplifting the krogan, but my point is that this seems to have been his plan.


I still wanna know about the dark energy stuff, though, I'm confused on that one.

[PsiFive]

swenson wrote...

#1: Mordin talks about this in ME2. He theorizes it was to test genetic diversity. Alternately, to cause trouble between species (especially if this plague was spread to Council space or the Citadel) or simply to weaken other species. The last two are my own theories, but the first is in the game.

The problem with Mordin's theory is that it was made before the characters realised that the Collectors don't have their own agenda - they don't even appear to have free will - and are entirely the tools of the Reapers.

With this knowledge would Mordin have come up with the same theory? Perhaps not as he'd surely realise that the real question is why the Reapers (or maybe just Harbinger) would want the Collectors to spread a plague on Omega. I thought maybe the inverse of Mordin's original idea, that humans are the test subject rather than the control, but since they've been abducting humans and processing them into the baby Reaper for at least some months before the plague broke out there wouldn't seem much point to such an experiment. Earlier, maybe, but not after so many thousands have already been nabbed and Reaperfied.

Creating trouble between other species or weakening the forces against them would be plausible if it had been more widespread, but it's not even widespread on Omega let alone common on someone's homeworld or somewhere like Ilium, or best of all, the Citadel. When the Salarians can successfully pull off something similar on Tuchanka it begs the question why the Reapers with all their resources can't even get it all over Omega. Because they need to use Vorcha and Vorcha wouldn't be welcome anywhere else? Maybe, but why not use indoctrinated members of other species instead of Vorcha? Indoctrinated humans would be in plentiful supply - simply keep a few thousand back from Reaper processing, indoctrinate them, give them the virus and send 'em all back with instructions to stick it in the Citadel air conditioning or whatever.

swenson wrote...

#4: The general theory on this one is that the "sour yellow note" was indoctrination. The Reapers were trying to use the rachni in a similar manner to how they later used the geth, to seize control of the Citadel to usher in the return of the Reapers.

Nice idea and plausible timeline but with one slight problem: humanity. Absolutely the Rachni were indoctrinated, or at the least steered into war. But we're told that the Reapers strike when galactic civilisation is at its height, which happens to be roughly every fifty thousand years. Doesn't seem like that would be a regular as clockwork every 50,000 years, first Monday in May, 10am sharp kind of thing but more a generalisation that the galaxy becomes reaper-able about every 50,000 years (wasn't 57,000 mentioned at one point in ME1). We also know from Vigil that it doesn't happen overnight but takes a few centuries.

And here's why humanity is a problem for Sovvy-boy setting the Rachni loose in the hope of gaining access to the Citadel and bringing in the rest of the Reapers. From the point of view of the Reapers that'd be inititating the Rachni wars at a point when a significant pre-spaceflight civilisation is on the cusp of leaving its own system and discovering the rest of the peoples of the galaxy. Yes, two thousand years, but to a Reaper that's practically immortal that's not even time for your coffee to go cold. And more to the point, to the Reapers wouldn't that mean that galactic civilisation is not quite at its peak yet and that they should wait twenty centuries or so for this nearly-there civilisation to catch up? If they do then the reset the galaxy as planned to primitive organic life only. If they don't then a successful Rachni wars -> Soveriegn switches on Citadel -> Reaper party time would result in humantity discovering the relays right after the rest of the galaxy had been wiped out for them. They'd either run the galaxy for the next fifty thousand years or so and maybe become a far more dangerous opponent for the Reapers when they return, or they'd need the Reapers to come back far earlier than they normally do to prevent that garbage that the ME3 ending went on about. From the Reapers point of view there'd be every reason for Soverign to hit the snooze button on his Reaper alarm clock and roll over for another two thousand years and get up in time to sweep humanity up along with all the other space-faring species.... so why set the Rachni loose back then? humanity because the Reapers have the same problem in contemporary ME times. The Yahg are pre-space flight but even more nearly there than humanity was at the time of the Rachni wars, so why wouldn't the Reapers leave it another couple of centuries and attack during the time of Shep's great, great, grandkids (or maybe just children if Liara is involved)?

#3 is a good idea though.