Raistlin Majare 1992 wrote...
Edit: Oh damn, that picture. Sorry guys you gonna have to do without. You get the idea though that the different Clusters are far apart, right?
Hello everyone, wall of text incoming so brace yourself.
There are four clusters which the following will focus on. Athena where we found Vendetta, Local Cluster with the Mars Archive, Exodus Cluster with Javik and the Prothean Beacon and finally Pangaea with Vigil. I tried getting a picture dpeciting them in...but failed.
But minus Exodus Cluster to Local Cluster all the Clusters are far apart and this is going to be important as we delve into the Information the Protheans left behind, specifically regarding the Crucible. I am specifically going to highlight many problems and inconsistencies of Vendetta and the Information he gives as well as interesting differences between Vigil and Vendetta.
Now I know much of this has been brought up in one form or another, but this is one post where I have tried to gather as much as possible as well as add what I believe to be a few new points.
The Vendetta Survival Problem
Now first things first, we know that despite knowing of the Reapers before they arrived and preparing, the Protheans were overrun as the Reapers hit the Citadel without warning shutting down the Relay Network and isolating each of those four systems.
But the Protheans were not without communication as the beacons remained intact, at least for a while allowing
them to transfer data across the network.
With that established let us dig into Vendetta and the problems he raises.
First think back to the scene where Shepard falls down following the fight with Kai Leng. We see the base of the Prothean Beacon and it is huge! (wanted to upload picture, couldnt find one)
To quote Vigil quickly on the Reapers: "They were relentless, brutal and absolutely thorough." My problem here is the fact that something this big escaped the Reapers.
The Mars Archive can be explained of as based on the hole it is in, it might have been buried beneath the surface…same could off course be the case here, but it is enormous this thing.
It also gets even more interesting as we continue.
"An advanced Virtual Construct of Pashek Vran, overseer of the project you refer to as `Crucible.´" This is Vendetta
talking about himself. As we have just established that the Protheans were isolated to clusters this would imply that the Protheans Crucible was constructed in the Athena Cluster…one would think the Reaper would be extra thorough
to remove all traces of Prothean technology there, especially since they had Indoctrinated agents sabotaging the Crucible who might give more information.
But let's move on.
The Catalyst Knowledge Problem
We all know how Vendetta tells us about the Reaper cycle and what the Catalyst is, but a question I have raised before is, how did he or rather those that created him know? They were cut off from the Citadel, in fact as Javik states the Citadel became a legend among his people, a place only visible in memory shards. So how did they figure out they needed something they couldn't even get to, let alone study? I doubt it was from left over information as the Protheans didn't know the Citadel was a Mass relay until it was too late and most of their information was lost along with the Citadel according to Vigil.
Off course they might know what the catalyst is from the plans they themselves found, but why was this information
not in the Mars Archives then along with the rest of the plans?
So they must have found out what the Catalyst is later…so why didn't they transmit this data to other systems? We
know the Athena system had a working Beacon because Javik, all the way over in the Exodus Cluster was aware of the Crucible´s existence.
Off course all Beacons containing the knowledge might simply have been destroyed, but why not place a beacon in the Mars Archive for uploading new Information?
Or even better give this information to Javik who was supposed to become the leader of the next cycle. While I doubt he could understand or memorize the blueprints for the Crucible, telling him the Catalyst is the Citadel would be a huge step in the right direction. But this one can be written off as game play since Javik knowing the Catalyst would have cut down the game quite a bit.
The Cycle Knowledge Problem
But let us move on to the second part of Vendetta´s statements, the cycle and how the Reapers are only a part of it and not the Masters. Question here is the same, how does he know?
The Reapers for all we have heard and seen are not exactly a race prone to discussing their motivations with the
"lowly organics" and in fact don’t even seem to talk much unless it is to a Individual they consider interesting. But even this Individual doesn't get much information out of Reapers concerning motivations. In fact Vigil states that some Protheans tried to surrender and contact the Reapers, but the plea met only silence.
On this part I should add that Liara in Mass Effect 1 mentions that: "There is little left behind by the Protheans and next to nothing on those who came before." A good guess is that this is the same for every cycle meaning knowledge
on the past cycles would be sparse for the Protheans to work with in this regard.
And it cannot have been the Catalyst itself who told them since as established the Protheans were cut off from the Citadel. Any information concerning the Reaper cycle would have to be gathered and given to Vendetta purely on what happened in the Athena Cluster and probably while the Reapers were harvesting it already…I wouldn’t call that ideal research conditions.
Off course they might have contacted other Protheans through the beacons gathering more Information, but it still leaves the problem that the current cycle is in the middle of its harvest with full access to Citadel and Relay Network, but has seen no indication of a guiding force.
To support this even further I'd like to bring in Vigil a VI much different from Vendetta, in fact the difference is
almost uncanny.
Vigil vs Vendetta
Vigil was designed by the top Prothean Scientists and while their ability to study the Reaper certainly was limited, Vigil seemed to have enough access to the Beacon network or other means to know when the Reapers retreated back through Dark Space.
But even when based on those great scientists and their studies of the Citadel signal Vigil has nothing to offer
when questioned about the goals of the Reapers. He can only theorize that they might need certain resources. in fact this is a running thing with vigil, when talking about the Reapers he often state that it is theories and ideas, not fact.
But on the other hand Vendetta, who was based on the overseer of the Prothean Crucible speaks in certainties. He never once say it is a theory despite providing no clear explanation as how he got the information.
It is a stark contrast to Vigil, one that doesn't end there.
Vigil seems very positive in the way heacts. To quote:
"So perhaps we did not fail after all."
"You standing here proves that their sacrifice was not in vain"
"There is still hope, if you hurry"
On the other hand Vendetta multiple times state there is no hope, that the Reapers cannot be beaten conventionally and that the best option is to insure as much information survives to the next cycle. An interesting thing to note about that is the fact that Liara is always along when you meet Vendetta for the first time, the same person who is making data caches for the future.
But in general there is stark contrast in the way Vigil and Vendetta act. Is it just a result of different people making
them, different stages in the cycle or is it something more? The Protheans fought to the last even if they also took steps to insure their survival, one would think a VI from them would embody at least a part of that.
The Prothean Scientists and the Catalyst
Now for the final and perhaps most interesting part.
Vigil explains in detail how the Keepers are controlled by a signal transmitted from the Citadel itself, the very thing
the Catalyst claims to be and that the Prothean Scientists changed this signal so that the Keepers no longer obeyed the Reapers.
Now this is twice interesting. We have long theorized the Citadel might have a low level Indoctrination field, here is
specific mention of the Citadel emanating a signal none in the current cycle knew about.
Secondly, if the Citadel was emanating the Signal should the Catalyst who is the Citadel not have been able to change it?
Finally the last bit here is not really related to the rest of the post, but Catalyst also mentions how they thought
the Crucible plans had been eradicated despite the Protheans having been building it the cycle before…with Indoctrinated agents sabotaging the Crucible no less.
In fact if you killed the Rachni Queen and spared the fake Queen the Rachni will turn out to be Indoctrinated and turn
upon you. How did this not alert the Reapers to the Crucible´s existence?
Anyway this was my write up, hope you guys like it and I hope some nice discussion can spawn from it.
I have a few problems with this, but only a few.
It's stated that the Thessia Beacon was intentionally hidden by the Asari, we have no idea where it originally was buried.
But they did discover it by way of Prothean survivors who led them like Gods...
Also, you are forgetting Victory, in the flashbacks, had a fairly positive outlook too; "They will be remembered in the coming empire." Things to that effect.
Also, you notice each VI has a name, starting with V indicative of their purpose. Vigil was meant to keep watch, Victory was meant to secure their final victory through Prothean Survivors forming a new empire.
What is Vendetta's purpose? Why would it be stored in a beacon in the first place?
HOW would it be stored in the beacon in a way that could be stolen?
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lol jk, It would theoritically be possible but I really would recommend nothing less then 5 lvl 20 people, with high level weapons and apps/ammo.
