150 réponses à ce sujet

[Tovanus]

1) Anything dealing with the Crucible or the Reapers history and motivations is something I think you can classify as part of an ending failure. Was the Crucible likely to flop as a good plot device? Yes. But a writer can keep a function or history of a device a secret until the end and still come out with a good story. To me, the Crucible sucked, but I don't think that means it was absolutely doomed to be terrible. I see all of these as being ending-related complaints.

2. With Cerberus, they were badly handled. No question there. I absolutely disagree with you that Codex entries can't salvage things. I think it's fine for them to stick important, vital plot points in the Codex, as long as it's treated in a serious way that makes you want to look for it in there. It's just my opinion that, even with the Codex entries, Cerberus had a ridiculous arc across the three games. They were definitely a result of poor writing for the most part (leaving aside that Martin Sheen is awesome with his voice-overs and his character was the most enjoyable thing about Cerberus).

All that said, Cerberus being poorly handled wouldn't have been enough to drive me away from replaying the games. Even with how terrible Kai Ling was. (A final fantasy villain reject, if ever there was one in ME). I think the pre-ending story of the game is outweighed by the greatness of the Tuchanka and Rannoch missions. Mordin Solus's plot arc alone comes close to redeeming the whole game for me. Close. He doesn't overcome the ending. But he comes close.

[Elishiaila]

Luc0s wrote...

1. The Opening:
This is no way the worst part of ME3, but it certainly felt hush-hush. No proper character introduction for the newcomers and there wasn't even the promised trial/hearing. There is a huge gap between the ending of ME2 and the beginning of ME3 that isn't explained. Instead the game forces me to fill in the blanks myself, something I had to do a lot duing ME3 by the way. That's not good writing and it's not "mature" or whatsoever. No, "speculation for everyone" is not cool guys, it comes of as lazy, rushed, or uncreative (pick one).

The trial was delayed to protect you, and Reapers came. Not sure if they have promised the trial. And not much happened after Arrival. When you pick up a series at later point you can check what happened in prequels. Too much introduction for characters at that time would be strange. So I beg to disagree.

Luc0s wrote...
2. The Crucible:
All of the sudden this McGuffen gets thrown in your face. So apperantly there are plans for some kind of super anti-reaper weapon buried in the prothean archives on Mars. How convenient that we just so happen to find this information right now at the beginning of the Reaper invasion! Those prothean data archives are around for how long exactly? 30 years at the very least? And we just so happen to find this Crucible data NOW while the Reapers are at our doorstep? Sorry, but this smells like an ass-pull to me.

Or whats even simpler: Crucible is Reaper design. They were able to manipulate prothean beacons and archives (with the help of the Collectors it was easy). They have manipulated the archive to make crucible plans available only when the time is right. As all archives released that, but only a few looked for Reapers, it made sense to find it in Alliance space, by people who believe in the Reaper threat.

Origin of Citadel (and thus Catalyst) is explained, and a device that uses is extensively is probably Reaper design.

ME2 told us how Collectors are protheans serving the Reapers. - They had the technology to augment archives

Even since ME1 we know Reapers know everything about our civilization. - They had access to the archives

We knew about the Prothean archive on Mars since ME1

We know a few alliance who trusted our judgement about Reapers (and this explained delaying trial after Arrival)

Luc0s wrote...
3. The Coup:
Seriously, what's up with this coup? It didn't make sense at all. Why did Cerberus attack the Citadel? Why did Udina help Cerberus? Why was Cerberus trying to kill the Council while they tried to protect the very same Counci before? There was absolutely NOTHING about the whole coup that made sense. it didn't add anything of value to the plot, it didn't make Cerberus look cool (instead, it made Cerberus look even more like a joke than they already were). Seriously, can someone explain this silly coup to me (without adding headcanon or fan-fic to it)?

Taking over Citadel and reconfiguring it to fullfil its role during this part of cycle was and is important for the Reapers. We know this since ME1. The Illusive Man is indoctrinated as this point. We know his status from end of ME3, and it explains his actions.

Luc0s wrote...
4. The Reapers' Motivation:
Do I even need to address this? I thin we all know their motivation behind the cycle is silly to say the least.

No. But how they define things and how you define things is different. We see they are "killing us". They see how they give us a new form. They believe that converting a civilization to reaper form is better than extinction. It is their view of things.

They know for sure, that advanced civilizations with the help of technology (synthetics can include all machines) can use up resources more and more quickly. For some time technology (Synthetics) solve problems for you, you can even colonize the stars, but in the end it leads to your extinction when you use up all resources you need.

A global extinction that kills not only advanced civilizations but all forms of life seems to be worse than converting only a few advanced civilizations to reaper form. They only convert civilizations that aren't sustainable and started colonizing planets (using up resources of multiple worlds) by use of technology. As it is your "only" future that can avoid this extinction path they see it as ascension / salvation.

The prebuilt option to control reapers or remove their technology (sadly it is galactic dark ages) is a safeguard in the cycle. If you are too advanced and cycle wouldn't help, or if you can fix the problems, they can stop converting you.

Luc0s wrote...
5. The Silly Dreams:
Seriously, why the hell are we all forced to watch these bad, over-the-top, silly, kiddy dreams about Shepard running after this kid like a f*cking moron in slow-motion? Some of Shepard's best crew members and best friends die, but does he have nightmares about them? Noooooo! So why in the world does Shepard keep dreaming about this stupid kid from the prologue that he hardly even knew? Sorry BioWare, but that's just dumb and cheesy. Just because I love cheese on my sandwich doesn't mean I love cheese in my Mass Effect.

As we see noone else seen that kid in those scenes. Such illusions and nightmares are announced symptoms of any indoctrination. While I think Shep isn't indoctrinated, Reapers try to communicate with him / her as the role of Shepard as hero of the cycle is set by them.

If a "young" civilization with help of a single hero can save the problems, probably they can save themself from extinction events as well, so the cycle, etc. isn't needed. You are picked for this role by interacting with the Beacon (probably modified by reapers), having hands to use the consoles (it is probably common for advanced communication) and by belonging to a "newcomer" civilization.

This role leads to communication rather than indoctrination if you serve your role good. If you are bad, you can get indoctrinated (and perhaps replaced).

Luc0s wrote...
6. The Citadel above planet Earth:
This was a huge WTF moment for me. What the hell is the Citadel doing above planet Earth? It seems like they're using a beacon like the Conduit to beam human corpes up to the Citadel, but for what? To build another Reaper? And why do they have to move the entire Citadel to planet earth for that? The prothean Conduit on Ilos worked just fine when the Citadel was chillin' at it's regular place. You'd think a Reaper conduit would work better than a prothean conduit, so why the f*ck bother moving the Citadel over to planet Earth?

To give the catalyst more control over the events on Earth. Earth is important because it represents the young civilization the "hero of this cycle" represents. 

[GigaTheToast]

Because compared to the ending, those are nitpicks. The entire series has weird moments like those and you're just now pointing them out?

[Sailfindragon]

The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan, the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng, to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:  Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to  command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not  succeed.

Executor Pallin is dead. He was under investigation at Udina's request. Bailey killed him. Am I missing something?

Modifié par Sailfindragon, 30 mars 2012 - 09:05 .

[Lugaidster]

Luc0s wrote...

byne wrote...

Mass Effect 3 Codex - The Cerberus Coup

Councilor Udina's attempted coup will no doubt be analyzed for
generations to come, but a clear picture is beginning to merge. Udina
had contacted Cerberus
to coordinate what was intended to be a bloodless takeover of the
Citadel, in which he would force the other councilors to grant him
emergency powers so that he could command the Citadel Fleet. He would
then direct the fleet to liberate his homeworld, Earth.
The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin
and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan,
the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng,
to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with
an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes
have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:
Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to
command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not
succeed.
Persistent rumors suggest that Udina might have been a
high-functioning victim of Reaper indoctrination. His actions played
right into the Reapers' plans: even if the coup failed, it would damage
Citadel governance. If it succeeded, his plan to retake Earth would
likely have turned into a military blunder that Council forces could ill
afford. However, there is no direct evidence of his indoctrination, nor
obvious opportunity. It is more likely that Udina acted out of
desperation, and in doing so, cost humanity its councilor.

It's not the Codex's fault you choose not to read it.

DERP! So I have to read the friggin' codex or else I'll miss VITAL plot points? That's not very good game-design. The codex should be OPTIONAL, but now it seems to be a VITAL part of the plot (because without it, the coup makes no sense).

I still think the coup plot is poorly written, even after reading the codex now (thanks for the tip), but at least it makes a little sense now.

Vital?! It's only vital if you want to know it. The codex is a gameplay element that goes all the way to Mass Effect 1 and has always been there to fill in the blanks. 

[Lugaidster]

Sailfindragon wrote...

The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan, the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng, to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:  Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to  command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not  succeed.

Executor Pallin is dead. He was under investigation at Udina's request. Bailey killed him. Am I missing something?

You got your answer right there. Bailey was promoted by Udina, as was Ashley. What you don't know is the time reference nor the amount of time spent in planning the coup.

[Gruzmog]

Luc0s wrote...

byne wrote...

Mass Effect 3 Codex - The Cerberus Coup

Councilor Udina's attempted coup will no doubt be analyzed for
generations to come, but a clear picture is beginning to merge. Udina
had contacted Cerberus
to coordinate what was intended to be a bloodless takeover of the
Citadel, in which he would force the other councilors to grant him
emergency powers so that he could command the Citadel Fleet. He would
then direct the fleet to liberate his homeworld, Earth.
The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin
and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan,
the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng,
to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with
an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes
have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:
Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to
command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not
succeed.
Persistent rumors suggest that Udina might have been a
high-functioning victim of Reaper indoctrination. His actions played
right into the Reapers' plans: even if the coup failed, it would damage
Citadel governance. If it succeeded, his plan to retake Earth would
likely have turned into a military blunder that Council forces could ill
afford. However, there is no direct evidence of his indoctrination, nor
obvious opportunity. It is more likely that Udina acted out of
desperation, and in doing so, cost humanity its councilor.

It's not the Codex's fault you choose not to read it.

DERP! So I have to read the friggin' codex or else I'll miss VITAL plot points? That's not very good game-design. The codex should be OPTIONAL, but now it seems to be a VITAL part of the plot (because without it, the coup makes no sense).

I still think the coup plot is poorly written, even after reading the codex now (thanks for the tip), but at least it makes a little sense now.

Wait wait, you are playing an RPG. You recieve background information in the codex, but you don't read it? I did not expect everyone to read it, but someone like you who cares about the story

Ill stop being annoying now

Anyways I think the codex is needed for these kind of things, the other option is an extended debrief after each mission but some people already thought Hackett talked to much.  Think this is a balanced solution. Background infor for the people who want it and not botter for the rest.

[Hejdun]

I'd say that in general the whole plot suffered from a distinct lack of polish. The intro in particular was very bare on any details. Why is Shepard on trial? I never played Arrival, I've been nearly full Paragon. It would've been enough to just say that they're worried about the association with Cerberus. Why is James introduced as though we know him, when we don't? We aren't even told how we know him.

Another 6 months of production time would've done ME3 a world of good.

[WeAreLegionWTF]

Pretty much the whole game felt very rushed. MOST of it we were able to overlook because bioware painted such a beautiful universe and had the player build some very powerful connections to the characters. when you stop an realize that there really were only like 12 different enemies in the game, and that you keep on running back to the same 5 spots on the citadel, you know that many corners were cut... but you dont care because of the strong story telling...

The ending gets the most grief because once you land on earth and you lose all of that. The connection you have to all those characters starts getting wrapped up in one or two hasty lines of dialogue, this is where you lose that suspension of disbelief and the change in feel of the game becomes very apparent.

When The space child shows to completely sever you from the entire story you were playing the last 3 games. the entire enchantment that the story had built up is completely lost.

Modifié par WeAreLegionWTF, 30 mars 2012 - 09:28 .

[Mandemon]

Lankist wrote...

The thing is, though, most of those things would fly under the suspension of disbelief had it not been shattered by Starkid and his technicolor dreamsplosion.

Here we go.

Thanks to Star Kid we have lost our suspension of disbelief and are now seeing everything that is wrong.

[Flextt]

Luc0s wrote...

byne wrote...

Mass Effect 3 Codex - The Cerberus Coup

Councilor Udina's attempted coup will no doubt be analyzed for
generations to come, but a clear picture is beginning to merge. Udina
had contacted Cerberus
to coordinate what was intended to be a bloodless takeover of the
Citadel, in which he would force the other councilors to grant him
emergency powers so that he could command the Citadel Fleet. He would
then direct the fleet to liberate his homeworld, Earth.
The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin
and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan,
the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng,
to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with
an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes
have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:
Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to
command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not
succeed.
Persistent rumors suggest that Udina might have been a
high-functioning victim of Reaper indoctrination. His actions played
right into the Reapers' plans: even if the coup failed, it would damage
Citadel governance. If it succeeded, his plan to retake Earth would
likely have turned into a military blunder that Council forces could ill
afford. However, there is no direct evidence of his indoctrination, nor
obvious opportunity. It is more likely that Udina acted out of
desperation, and in doing so, cost humanity its councilor.

It's not the Codex's fault you choose not to read it.

DERP! So I have to read the friggin' codex or else I'll miss VITAL plot points? That's not very good game-design. The codex should be OPTIONAL, but now it seems to be a VITAL part of the plot (because without it, the coup makes no sense).

I still think the coup plot is poorly written, even after reading the codex now (thanks for the tip), but at least it makes a little sense now.

Yeah, that bothered me A LOT. Just like the entry "The Miracle of Palaven". I mean, it has been made clear by the plot, that Krogan ground support would probably allow the Turians to win back their home world. But the ingame conclusion of the mission was lame. It was only through my immersion that I enjoyed the scene nevertheless.
Wrex: "Genophage cured, we will now help you."
Victus: "NICE!"

It was only in my second playthrough, that I read the Codex article, that elaborated a lot more. I simply wasn't expecting to let the Codex be part of the overall presentation of Mass Effect. It hasn't been before, considering presentation has always been ME's strength.

[stysiaq]

@OP

Besides the coup (which is explained, as you already know) these are valid points.

The whole Crucible thing made me facepalm, but I swallowed it and got used to the idea because it was introduced early enough. Still, finding plans for a super weapon just when the invasion starts is extremly poor.

The reapers motives should never be revealed. Any reveal contradicts the statement that it is incomprehensible for organics. What Sovereign was? Stupid?

I don't have problem with dreams if they are indeed part of indoctrination. If not, I can accept them if the starkid gets out of the story, because they show that Shepard thinks about the people who can't be saved.

The Citadel moving suddenly to Earth took me by surprise, but I thought its just a mean to make the finale more epic. Or maybe Prothean conduit worked different than the Earth one.

However, I think that with enough effort we could point out similar inconsistencies in ME2 (with ME1 it would be much harder, because it was establishing the lore)

[Daidarus]

Eleventhchild wrote...

byne wrote...

Luc0s wrote...

 3. The Coup:
Seriously, what's up with this coup? It didn't make sense at all. Why did Cerberus attack the Citadel? Why did Udina help Cerberus? Why was Cerberus trying to kill the Council while they tried to protect the very same Counci before? There was absolutely NOTHING about the whole coup that made sense. it didn't add anything of value to the plot, it didn't make Cerberus look cool (instead, it made Cerberus look even more like a joke than they already were). Seriously, can someone explain this silly coup to me (without adding headcanon or fan-fic to it)?

Mass Effect 3 Codex - The Cerberus Coup

Councilor Udina's attempted coup will no doubt be analyzed for generations to come, but a clear picture is beginning to merge. Udina had contacted Cerberus to coordinate what was intended to be a bloodless takeover of the Citadel, in which he would force the other councilors to grant him emergency powers so that he could command the Citadel Fleet. He would then direct the fleet to liberate his homeworld, Earth.

The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan, the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng, to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile:  Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to  command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not  succeed.

Persistent rumors suggest that Udina might have been a high-functioning victim of Reaper indoctrination. His actions played right into the Reapers' plans: even if the coup failed, it would damage Citadel governance. If it succeeded, his plan to retake Earth would likely have turned into a military blunder that Council forces could ill afford. However, there is no direct evidence of his indoctrination, nor obvious opportunity. It is more likely that Udina acted out of desperation, and in doing so, cost humanity its councilor.

It's not the Codex's fault you choose not to read it.

/Agree

/Agree agian

[CTWraith]

The only things (aside from the ending, which I've made peace with since I've head canon'd alot) that I was caught off guard by was:

1) The lack of a sense of urgency. I mean, the Reapers are destroying Earth, Thessia, Palaven, and hundreds of other worlds....but why not stop on the Citadel as much as you want so you can party it up in the bar while billions of people are dying.

2) The Journal and lack of mission updates. Frustrating as all heck when you're trying to figure out which item finishes what quest and when....I hardly used my Journal after I cleared the first couple of side quests and just went with the flow.

3) Lack of real character development. Sure, we know everything about Garrus and Tali, et al, but James kinda felt like he was half done/written. At least to me. The character seemed to have potential, but there wasn't anything done with him really.

4) .....that's all I can think of....

Good night

[KingKhan03]

I think the ending of the game caused alot of people to find faults with the overall game and story.

[Elishiaila]

Luc0s wrote...

That's non-sense. Vega for example, doesn't get any proper introduction at all. Only after Mars do you get to know him a bit.

You know the difference between asscanon and headcanon? Headcanon involves thinking, while asscanon is just pulling junk out of your ass while throwing insults at people while there is 0 tolerance policy towards that attitude.

When you know that Citadel is reaper design and catalyst is the technology controlling the reapers, and it takes account of crucible and is designed to work with it you claim that cruicible isn't reaper technology. Fine, you want to ignore known facts just to throw insults around, because you seem to forget to think about things. We seen many such flamers.

But saying: While on soldiers on front line usually need only an uniform to know they are on same side and work with each other, you would need a device to stop the time for everyone, so you can get a "proper introduction" and can also ask questions about the family. While Reapers are destroying the earth.

Now that is precious.

[Lugaidster]

Luc0s wrote...

Thats BS and you know it. The entire Coup felt like a complete cop-out and it felt like it wasn't related to the main plot AT ALL. The coup felt completely random. 

Information like this IS vital if you want to tell a GOOD story and not a horrible mediocre mess like ME3 is.


And no, ME1 was vastly better than this. Even ME2 was better than this. 


But still, even now after I know the reason of the coup, it still feels incredibly dumb. So Udina wanted to sieze control over C-Sec so he could use C-Sec to save Earth? Are you kidding me? Is Udina mentally retarded or something?

You're entitled to your opinion, but that's just BS and you know it.

[daboy042188]

Luc0s wrote...

 Lets be honest folks, it was not just the ending of ME3 that was bad. The entire plot of ME3 was at the very least cheesy as hell. The build-up was bad, the Crucible is just a silly McGuffin, the way Cerberus is threated in ME3 is just plain horrible, the Citadel coup (Cerberus attacking the Citadel) was stupid and silly, the motivation behind the Reaper cycle is stupid, Shepard having those silly dreams was just cheesy as hell and the entire thing with the Citadel above planet Earth was also pretty silly. The horrible ending is just the final nail in the coffin.

Let me point out some facts on why the writing in Mass Effect 3 is just plain bad in general:


1. The Opening:
This is no way the worst part of ME3, but it certainly felt hush-hush. No proper character introduction for the newcomers and there wasn't even the promised trial/hearing. There is a huge gap between the ending of ME2 and the beginning of ME3 that isn't explained. Instead the game forces me to fill in the blanks myself, something I had to do a lot duing ME3 by the way. That's not good writing and it's not "mature" or whatsoever. No, "speculation for everyone" is not cool guys, it comes of as lazy, rushed, or uncreative (pick one).


2. The Crucible:
All of the sudden this McGuffen gets thrown in your face. So apperantly there are plans for some kind of super anti-reaper weapon buried in the prothean archives on Mars. How convenient that we just so happen to find this information right now at the beginning of the Reaper invasion! Those prothean data archives are around for how long exactly? 30 years at the very least? And we just so happen to find this Crucible data NOW while the Reapers are at our doorstep? Sorry, but this smells like an ass-pull to me.


3. The Coup:
Seriously, what's up with this coup? It didn't make sense at all. Why did Cerberus attack the Citadel? Why did Udina help Cerberus? Why was Cerberus trying to kill the Council while they tried to protect the very same Counci before? There was absolutely NOTHING about the whole coup that made sense. it didn't add anything of value to the plot, it didn't make Cerberus look cool (instead, it made Cerberus look even more like a joke than they already were). Seriously, can someone explain this silly coup to me (without adding headcanon or fan-fic to it)?


4. The Reapers' Motivation:
Do I even need to address this? I thin we all know their motivation behind the cycle is silly to say the least.


5. The Silly Dreams:
Seriously, why the hell are we all forced to watch these bad, over-the-top, silly, kiddy dreams about Shepard running after this kid like a f*cking moron in slow-motion? Some of Shepard's best crew members and best friends die, but does he have nightmares about them? Noooooo! So why in the world does Shepard keep dreaming about this stupid kid from the prologue that he hardly even knew? Sorry BioWare, but that's just dumb and cheesy. Just because I love cheese on my sandwich doesn't mean I love cheese in my Mass Effect.


6. The Citadel above planet Earth:
This was a huge WTF moment for me. What the hell is the Citadel doing above planet Earth? It seems like they're using a beacon like the Conduit to beam human corpes up to the Citadel, but for what? To build another Reaper? And why do they have to move the entire Citadel to planet earth for that? The prothean Conduit on Ilos worked just fine when the Citadel was chillin' at it's regular place. You'd think a Reaper conduit would work better than a prothean conduit, so why the f*ck bother moving the Citadel over to planet Earth?



And these are just a few obvious points from the ME3 story that are incredibly bad. I can make a much longer list, but I'm not going to bother you with that. I think these 6 points make it perfectly clear and obvious that the story and plot of ME3 is just a big joke.

I don't get it. wasn't BioWare supposed to be famous for their quality narrative and story-telling in their games? So why haven't I seen a single decent story from BioWare after ME1 and DA:O? BioWare, what's happening with you guys?

a point by point debunk:

the opening: seemed pretty clear to me, shep was grounded pending inquiry about his time with a terrorist organization including the destruction of a mass-relay

the crucible: the atomic bomb was conceptualized and developed DURING world war II. presumably they didn't find the plans in the archives earlier because they weren't looking that hard since nobody thought the reapers were comming cept for shep

the coup: if cerberus eliminates the council (-udina) then they effectively take control of the galactic government. plus it's a huge strategic victory since it's the hub of the mass-relay network. they probably told udina they'd do it (provided he wasn't with cerberus from the get-go) so they could get the citadel fleet to go retake earth or something

The Reaper's motivations: i happen to agree with you, not unbelievable though since people do bad things for stupid reasons

The Dreams: the reason shep feels like **** is because unlike Ash/Kaiden the kid was a kid and not like a soldier. wasn't sacrificed for the greater good or anything, there was nothing shep could do about it, and stress builds up, im sure leaving A/K behind didn't help his mental state

Moving the Citadel: Once TIM told the reapers that the citadel was the catalyst the reapers moved it to earth where the bulk of their fleet was so that they could protect it. since Widow is the main hub of the mass relay network it's very hard to defend since fleets can come from anywhere and everywhere and they're already pretty close to the citadel, in Sol, the fleets can only come in through one point (charon relay) and have a decently long trek to go (probably a few hours) until they're even at the citadel. if you can move it, moving it makes sense

[Chaoswind]

The thing with the kid feels wrong, because my shep tells everyone he meets that **** happens and to not dwell in the past or let the past go, yet I can't take the whole thing to heart and let the damn thing go? I even go full renegade telling everyone that I don't give a **** about the kid, and I still get the damn dreams, they are out of character for my Sheppard.