223 réponses à ce sujet

[Adam Walsh]

3.  The motivation must provide some sort of greater good/utilitarianism or be absolutely necessary as part of some goal that is grand in scope.

But if the Reaper code was capable of giving the Geth free will, independance and intelligence doesn't that mean they have that themselves? What I mean by that is can't they be doing what they do because they're just being pricks? We didn't really need their motivations explained did we? Don't get me wrong though I would like to know some reasoning behind it.

[111987]

ediskrad327 wrote...

Unit-Alpha wrote...

The dark energy one worked fantastically well.

agree

Disagree. It would contradict with the idea that the Reapers hibernate between cycles. Why would they do this instead of looking for solutions and implementing them.

[Soldatto Rosso]

The Reapers, powerful and ancient cybernetic being, have one flaw: they lack creativity.

Thus, every 50,000 years, they come to the galaxy to harvest. Not only organics for their DNA and squishy bits so that they could make more Reapers, but to harvest their tech as well as synthetic life in order to advance their own technology.

Thus, the Reapers, these age-old powerful beings, are so advanced not because of their own efforts but by the efforts of countless other civilizations and species.

[NPH11]

NightHawkIL wrote...

This is a place to discuss possible motivations, not whether there should be any or not.

But that isn't the point of this topic at all. This topic is intended to restrict the scope of our potential motivations to the stupid scope that Bioware provided. Our motivations have just as much creedence.

[Jaze55]

adam_nox wrote...

The endings have lots of problems, but I see an underlying theme with a lot of criticism being tossed around, and that's discontent with ANY interpretation of 'why' the reapers do their reaping.  I tend to think that most people just can't handle the idea of wiping out everything.  It's just too much for them to take, so any reason put forth to explain why they do it is shot down or claimed to have plot holes or rely on space magic.

Here's your chance to prove me wrong.  Shepard asks starkid why the reapers do what they do.  It's your turn to answer in his place, but there are rules (otherwise your answer will suck on a storytelling level and be inconsistent with themes from the game and bioware's style).

1.  The motivation can't be based in selfishness of the reapers.
2.  The motivation must make logical sense and stand up to the same criticisms leveled at the current explanations.
3.  The motivation must provide some sort of greater good/utilitarianism or be absolutely necessary as part of some goal that is grand in scope.

good luck.

Oh this is a contest now? I though it was a demonstration about how we were unhappy with the game not to have a contest with those who did to prove which side is superior or a contest between who believe the indoc theory and who doesnt because that sure seems what this is degenerating into. 

[Eterna]

To protect organic life from itself. Oh wait, that's what we have. Guess I'm good then.

[Spectre Chris]

Dhraconus wrote...

They reap to reproduce.

Simple and logical. No reason to over complicate the issue.

Exactly. This. No matter what, the Reapers are alive, and subject to the same rules of all life. That's the beautiful irony of their god complex.

[KingNothing125]

Asnine112 wrote...

There was no need to explain their motivations.

Should've kept them as a Lovecraftian entity

This.

They should have remained unknowable space cthulus.

Let us speculate and debate about what their purpose or grand designs were... like Inception... was the top about to fall over or not? Let the debate commence.

[MPSai]

I can't think of anything that isn't completely selfish... this being the Reapers and all.

But the Reapers consider themselves the ultimate lifeform, so much so they have convinced themselves they have no beginning, they have always existed, and they've lived so long how could they know otherwise? Reapers have probably been recycled into better Reapers, but that can only go so far. So they started harvesting the galaxies of the universe like livestock, both to add to themselves and to stop any race from reaching their level and thus challenging them.

I don't think anyone needs to explain this because it's the exact impression I've gotten of them from ME1 and ME2. Their arrogant "We are beyond you" speech is enough. The Reapers being cosmic horrors from beyond the veil we'll never entirely understand but still need to stop is enough.

[Quietness]

NightHawkIL wrote...

I'm so incredibly sick of people bombing these threads with 'don't tell us what the reapers were after, keep them mysterious' posts. Make your own thread if that's what you want, I have nothing against that idea. This is a place to discuss possible motivations, not whether there should be any or not.

The topic title is "invent a proper reaper motivation"... and honestly not knowing is fine. In any horror films, a killer is far scarier when you dont know why rather than you can go oh "its cause of blah blah blah".

[DrDetective]

I don't want any motivation to be revealed. LEAVE THEM MYSTERIOUS, FOR THE LOVE OF GENERIC DEITY.

[xxLDZxx]

A) They harvest life so other un evolved life can rise so it can again be harvested.Like a big space zoo, the mission of the reapers is to collect life.

Bio fuel

[Ainyan42]

Dhraconus wrote...

They reap to reproduce.

Simple and logical. No reason to over complicate the issue.

[spartan5127]

I don't know if many would agree, but I'm ok with the motivations of the reapers being incomprehensible. They have been telling you that throughout the games. It was disappointing to find out the the entire purpose of a reaper was just being a toy for some maniac.

[Narsilsword]

Maybe they are created to enact a theory of organic turnover. Lets say some species advance and populate most of the galaxy. This stagnates the overall canvas of the galaxy and may repress other species from having their chance and progressing. The reapers come in, convert all life to a synthetic state so that it frees the galaxy and allows a new "species canvas" to form. This maximizes the "galactic potential" there I came up with that

[FlyinElk212]

KotorEffect3 wrote...

Though I wasn't crazy about the ending myself, the Reapers motivations weren't one of the things that bugged me. I always figured they acted as some sort of safeguard and reaping advanced organic life was their twisted way of safeguarding all organics.

I'm with you. The Reaper's motivations are okay, it's just that the scene describing their motivations was incredibly poorly written and confusing. The word "synthetic" should've never been used in that scene. Instead of making a huge fuss about synthetics vs. organics, they should've just been like:

"Hey, once civilizations get advanced enough, races with differentiating opinions will go to war with eachother. Freedom of choice, and all living creatures' 'will' is the problem.

So before the fighting civilizations go to war with each other and cause a galactic nuclear holocaust, we Reap. We ensure life can't advance to that destructive point, and store each race's organic material in Reaper form.

However, you've done something that no other cycle's done before: united all life under banners of peace. That alone proves to us that our cycle system is flawed, and we need to come up with a new solution. So who better to ask for the new solution than the person responsible for changing it all...you."

Modifié par FlyinElk212, 19 mars 2012 - 02:07 .

[RoboticWater]

Bigdoser wrote...

I got an answer simply don't give them a motivation. I liked my cthulhu death machines surronded in mystery. 

The phrase "better to try and fail than never try at all" comes to mind. While the endings are most certainly terrible, I don't think a "we just like killing things" ending would be well recieved either.

[NPH11]

Hell, even the current motivations of the Reapers go against the scope provided in the opening post. As it stands, the Reapers are incredibly selfish. It's their way, right or wrong. They don't care if the species they are "looking out for" want, because they know best.

[Bigdoser]

Dhraconus wrote...

They reap to reproduce.

Simple and logical. No reason to over complicate the issue.

This person has nailed it. 

[Vaktathi]

adam_nox wrote...

The endings have lots of problems, but I see an underlying theme with a lot of criticism being tossed around, and that's discontent with ANY interpretation of 'why' the reapers do their reaping.  I tend to think that most people just can't handle the idea of wiping out everything.  It's just too much for them to take, so any reason put forth to explain why they do it is shot down or claimed to have plot holes or rely on space magic.

Here's your chance to prove me wrong.  Shepard asks starkid why the reapers do what they do.  It's your turn to answer in his place, but there are rules (otherwise your answer will suck on a storytelling level and be inconsistent with themes from the game and bioware's style).

1.  The motivation can't be based in selfishness of the reapers.
2.  The motivation must make logical sense and stand up to the same criticisms leveled at the current explanations.
3.  The motivation must provide some sort of greater good/utilitarianism or be absolutely necessary as part of some goal that is grand in scope.

good luck.

I'll respond with this.

Through ME1 and ME2 the Reapers and their motivations were described as "unknowable", not something for mortal minds to comprehend or even something that could be comprehended.

Why couldn't we just leave it at that? We don't know their reasons, we don't need to.Yeah, there was a lot of stuff in the ending left "too open" and whatnot, but this is one of the few things probably better left to speculation.

Either way, the entirely refutable justification we're given relies entirely on a circular logic. It's a justification anyone can unravel in about 15 seconds. 

[Cosmar]

I didn't like that the Reapers reaped organics to "save them from themselves."

I would have liked more if the Reapers reaped and preserved organics as a means of immortality, like "you should be thanking us because this way you will never really die." That would have been more in line with what we knew about the Reapers and what they had told us previously, I think...

[RoboticWater]

FlyinElk212 wrote...

KotorEffect3 wrote...

Though I wasn't crazy about the ending myself, the Reapers motivations weren't one of the things that bugged me. I always figured they acted as some sort of safeguard and reaping advanced organic life was their twisted way of safeguarding all organics.

I'm with you. The Reaper's motivations are okay, it's just that the scene describing their motivations was incredibly poorly written and confusing. The word "synthetic" should've never been used in that scene. Instead of making a huge fuss about synthetics vs. organics, they should've just been like:

"Hey, once civilizations get advanced enough, races with differentiating opinions will go to war with eachother. Freedom of choice, and all living creatures' 'will' is the problem.

So before the fighting civilizations go to war with each other and cause a galactic nuclear holocaust, we Reap you before. We ensure life can't advance to that point.

However, you've done something that no other cycle's done before: united all life under banners of peace. That alone proves to us that our cycle system is flawed, and we need to come up with a new solution. So who better to ask for the new solution than the person responsible for changing it all...you."

Basically change synthetic vs. organic to organic vs. organic.

[Artking3]

Dhraconus wrote...

They reap to reproduce.

Simple and logical. No reason to over complicate the issue.

My explaination, since they are bio-synthetic.

[cyric013]

it reproduce or since we talking AI it is possible for syntax error in the AI when it was first created or the reader simply went mad over time plus i do not we really need to know or could understand , Sovereign told us in ME 1 that we could not possible understand. yet ME3 explained in under five minutes.

[CavScout]

Unit-Alpha wrote...

The dark energy one worked fantastically well.

Not it didn't...