"Conventional victory being impossible is a thematic betrayal in of itself. Up until this point, the player was meant to believe that they could defeat the Reapers on their own terms. Conventional Victory = Impossible was only [arguably] established in the third game.
Prior, we are given the sense of "Our cycle is different." The Reapers' effectiveness at 'reaping' comes not from their firepower or military capabilities, it comes from their patience and ruthless calculus. In the previous cycles, the Reapers would pour through the Citadel, killing the galaxy's leaders and obtaining all the necessary information on advanced organic life. More importantly, they gain total control of the Mass Relays. The Reapers then proceed shut down all the relays, only opening one at a time to systematically wipe out its respective local civilization(s). This is what Sovereign meant when it said "We are legion. Our numbers will darken the skies of every world." Sovereign didn't mean this would occur simultaneously, they don't have the numbers for that. The Reapers' success is the result of cutting off a system's communication, then swarming it, planet by planet.
The Reapers have already lost this critical advantage. I'm curious to know how they learned anything about this galaxy, they didn't capture the Citadel until the end of the game. How did they ascertain which planets were colonies, homeworlds, the location of Arcturus Station, each race's level of technology and capabilities (they obviously prepared for the Turians). There are the Collectors, but they operated in the Terminus systems, and only collected genetic information.
With the destruction of Sovereign, the Turians developed Thanix technology. Commander Shepard retrieved information and Reaper tech from the derelict dreadnought and the Collector base. What about Arrival? What the hell was the point of that DLC? Give the Alliance and Council another 6 months to sit on their asses doing nothing? You think the Reapers would've been weakened from having to make a journey spanning thousands of light years from dark space to the milky way.
Javik comments that this cycle might have a chance, that the reason the Prothean Empire failed was due to its hegemony, and even then, the Protheans came close to defeating the Reapers.
Remember the end of Mass Effect 2?
www.youtube.com/watchThe music is not menacing or depressing, there isn't some long fixation on the Reapers to get the point across to the player "Yeah, look at how huge their fleet is, they are unstoppable." The music is at first subtle, but it is upbeat, optimistic, and hopeful. We then see Shepard glance out into space, with composed look on their face, as if to say "Bring it on." Then the camera switches switches to show the Reaper fleet in dark space, descending upon the Milky Way, but keep in mind the music, it is epic, upbeat, optimistic. It is foreshadowing what an epic and grand scale ME3 would be for the player (one of the best executed endings to get someone excited for a sequel IMO).
ME3 could have been so much more, there was no need for a super weapon, because the antagonists weren't established as invincible (which is poor writing). If done correctly, conventional victory wouldn't have broken Mass Effect's lore or made the Reapers look like pushovers. It was only in the third game that they writers decided "Nope. They're unstoppable, there's no way you can beat the Reapers." Even then, you can still make the argument that we didn't need the Crucible to win in ME3, there wasn't enough information on the Reapers to disprove it."
Pretty much sums up my feelings, even if it is a bit unrefined looking back.
Modifié par Conniving_Eagle, 24 août 2012 - 03:41 .
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