257 réponses à ce sujet

[Ieldra]

It should come as no surprise that I like the outcome of Synthesis. A great deal. Why, that you can read in the OP of my Synthesis thread (link in my sig).

However, the rationale for it, the way it comes about and the way it's explained, that's so full of contradictions - even after the EC - that I'm still wondering what Mac Walters had been smoking. I would've thought that they'd use the EC to remove the worst aspects that make no sense, but no, they even add to it with parts of the exposition contradicting each other where before they "just" didn't make sense.

So even though I'm one of the main proponents of Synthesis here on BSN, I'm not blind to the flaws in its execution. Shepard's sacrifice is forced, the "final evolution" and the "new DNA" make no sense and contradict other parts of the exposition.

As much as like the outcome, Synthesis as presented in ME3 manages to mangle its own themes, and parts of it are rooted in comic book logic and vitalism and have no place in an SF universe. I pick Synthesis for the outcome and make up my own rationale, and if I have to ignore a part of the given exposition, well, that can't be avoided if there are contradictions. You have to discard one side.

[dsl08002]

hate synthesis

[xAmilli0n]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

xAmilli0n wrote...
My main question is how do synthetics gain this understanding?  What fundamentally changed in them?  If this transition were to be done without Synthesis, what would it require?  Harvesting has been used as an example of how creating a Synthetic-Organic hybrid works, but that doesn't seem to be what is going on with Synthesis.

As for the Reaper's motives, I have not played Leviathan, so if I'm missing some insight, please let me know, but how does Synthesis fulfill the Reapers goal (other than helping them understand, as Crucible Synthesis also affects them).  If this transition had happened slowly, without the Crucible's intervention, what would stop the Reaper's form "preserving" them anyways?

1) With organics being synthesized, they gain synthetic parts surrounding their genetic code, enhancing them. Synthetic life recognizes that and since its synthetic as well can connect to it in some way. and since its attached to our genes which control everything we think/do, Synthetics can recognize those too and thus gain a full understanding of organics.

2) Since you haven't played Leviathan, you did miss out on the Reaper motives. It starts with an apex race called the Leviathans that through a process similar to indoctrination ruled the entire galaxy as gods more or less. However, theior thrall species would develop AI that would enter conflicts with the races and wiping them out, meaning the Leviathans weren't getting resources from their servants. To stop this, they develop something called "The Intelligence", what we know of as the Catalyst, to find a way to preserve organic and synthetic life in order for them to serve the Leviathans. Catalyst realizes that this can never occur because organic and synthetic life couldn't cooperate without Synthesis which was currently impossible, and thus developed another way to preserve all life via the Reapers. He started this by harvesting the most advanced race, his own creators, and turned them into Harbinger. And the rest is history. Since Synthesis is now achievable due to the Crucible, Catalyst's original plan is actually possible and once achieved has no reason to continue harvesting. 

Thank you for the reply, especially the run down on Leviathan.

1. I understand the idea they are trying to sell, but don't really buy into it.  How do Synthetics regocnize it?  How does one's genetic code provide understanding?  Why is this so?  Why was this never considered before for the Geth?  I don't expect you to be able to answer this, but these are the things that lose me with Synthesis.  Call it loss of suspension of disbelief.

2.  Okay, so the goal is Synthesis.  Though I do not buy into the inevitable Synthetics vs Organics thing, lets assume it is inevitable.  Synthesis will eventually happen, why does the Catalyst interfere every 50,000 years rather than waiting until a certain point of no return in the conflict?  Why not help in building the Crucible?  As for preserving the races as Reapers, does this really help in future species achieving the goal of synthesis?  Are Reapers true representation of their former civilization?  Again, I don't expect an answer, but these are the kind of thing that put Synthesis into question for me.

[DoomsdayDevice]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

I love the Synthesis ending. Everyone, Reapers included, benefit from it.

The scientist disagrees with you.

Mordin: "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intellegence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."

Also:

Mordin: "Reapers added tech to compensate. Mental capacity almost gone, replaced by overworked sensory input, transfers. Transmitting data to masters. No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever. Understand now? No art, no culture, closer to husks than slaves, tools for Reapers. Protheans dead, Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed."

Modifié par DoomsdayDevice, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:00 .

[Steelcan]

@ Reth Sheperd. No, that's not why I picked destroy. I picked destroy because I wanted the reapers dead. I didn't say that organics and synthetics will always fight, I reject that notion.

[AresKeith]

Steelcan wrote...

@ Reth Sheperd. No, that's not why I picked destroy. I picked destroy because I wanted the reapers dead. I didn't say that organics and synthetics will always fight, I reject that notion.

And the Reapers themselves are the real problem behind the supposed "organic v synthetic" notion

[Reth Shepherd]

Steelcan wrote...

@ Reth Sheperd. No, that's not why I picked destroy. I picked destroy because I wanted the reapers dead. I didn't say that organics and synthetics will always fight, I reject that notion.

Sorry, I should have phrased that better. I didn't say YOU picked it because of that; I'm saying that in picking it, he is proving himself right (because he's forcing it to happen, but he doesn't seem to see the distinction). I'm also saying that in picking Destroy, the chances of future peace with a future race of synthetics are now lower.

EDIT:
@AresKeith: yep, you are 100% right. Starboy says he wants to prevent a war between them, promote peace, blah blah...and yet we have multiple lore incidents where there WAS peace and the Reapers were the ones turning organics and synthetics against one another. There were at least two examples of this during the Prothean cycle, and of course we already know that the Reapers were more than happy to use the Geth this time around.

Modifié par Reth Shepherd, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:14 .

[Hanako Ikezawa]

xAmilli0n wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

xAmilli0n wrote...
My main question is how do synthetics gain this understanding?  What fundamentally changed in them?  If this transition were to be done without Synthesis, what would it require?  Harvesting has been used as an example of how creating a Synthetic-Organic hybrid works, but that doesn't seem to be what is going on with Synthesis.

As for the Reaper's motives, I have not played Leviathan, so if I'm missing some insight, please let me know, but how does Synthesis fulfill the Reapers goal (other than helping them understand, as Crucible Synthesis also affects them).  If this transition had happened slowly, without the Crucible's intervention, what would stop the Reaper's form "preserving" them anyways?

1) With organics being synthesized, they gain synthetic parts surrounding their genetic code, enhancing them. Synthetic life recognizes that and since its synthetic as well can connect to it in some way. and since its attached to our genes which control everything we think/do, Synthetics can recognize those too and thus gain a full understanding of organics.

2) Since you haven't played Leviathan, you did miss out on the Reaper motives. It starts with an apex race called the Leviathans that through a process similar to indoctrination ruled the entire galaxy as gods more or less. However, theior thrall species would develop AI that would enter conflicts with the races and wiping them out, meaning the Leviathans weren't getting resources from their servants. To stop this, they develop something called "The Intelligence", what we know of as the Catalyst, to find a way to preserve organic and synthetic life in order for them to serve the Leviathans. Catalyst realizes that this can never occur because organic and synthetic life couldn't cooperate without Synthesis which was currently impossible, and thus developed another way to preserve all life via the Reapers. He started this by harvesting the most advanced race, his own creators, and turned them into Harbinger. And the rest is history. Since Synthesis is now achievable due to the Crucible, Catalyst's original plan is actually possible and once achieved has no reason to continue harvesting. 

Thank you for the reply, especially the run down on Leviathan.

1. I understand the idea they are trying to sell, but don't really buy into it.  How do Synthetics regocnize it?  How does one's genetic code provide understanding?  Why is this so?  Why was this never considered before for the Geth?  I don't expect you to be able to answer this, but these are the things that lose me with Synthesis.  Call it loss of suspension of disbelief.

2.  Okay, so the goal is Synthesis.  Though I do not buy into the inevitable Synthetics vs Organics thing, lets assume it is inevitable.  Synthesis will eventually happen, why does the Catalyst interfere every 50,000 years rather than waiting until a certain point of no return in the conflict?  Why not help in building the Crucible?  As for preserving the races as Reapers, does this really help in future species achieving the goal of synthesis?  Are Reapers true representation of their former civilization?  Again, I don't expect an answer, but these are the kind of thing that put Synthesis into question for me.

     The first one is hard to sell, so I probably didn't explain it as well as those who wrote it did.

     As for why harvest at all if Synthesis is inevitable is because the odds of it happening are so remote and its more likely that both sides of that cycle will wipe each other out, like the Geth an Quarians almost did if Shepard hadn't intervened. This goes against Catalyst's programming which is to preserve life, so he stops them from wiping each other out by turning them into Reapers. This might be why Catalyst gives each cycle a fifty thousand years to evolve and possibly if a cycle had achieved peace between organics and synthetics that cycle would've been introduced to the concept because they "are ready" as Catalyst explained about this cycle to Shepard.
      
     I do not know why Reapers keep destroying a cycle's Crucible before it connects to the Catalyst except maybe they are judged to not be ready for that evolution. Hopefully a DLC goes into the crucible more because its the only universal plot point thats not explained even though both Catalyst and Leviathans seem to know more about it than they let on.
 
     Those who are judged unworthy in this argument are turned into Reapers because they are the same rtace as before, just in a different form of Synthesis.

     Finally, each Reaper has the collective wisdom of the race that made it, which may hint towards their personality like how Harbinger, being built from an apex race, is very prideful while Sovereign, who was built from the Nazara I believe since thats what the programs(lives) inside him are calling themselves, may have been a warlike species contributing to Sovereigns wrath.

Modifié par LDS Darth Revan, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:16 .

[xAmilli0n]

DoomsdayDevice wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

I love the Synthesis ending. Everyone, Reapers included, benefit from it.

The scientist disagrees with you.

Mordin: "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intellegence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."

Mordin makes a good point against such advancement.  His is probably the best argument against a Crucible based Synthesis.

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Catalyst states we are ready.

I think this is up for debate, but yes he does say that.

Modifié par xAmilli0n, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:19 .

[Hanako Ikezawa]

DoomsdayDevice wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

I love the Synthesis ending. Everyone, Reapers included, benefit from it.

The scientist disagrees with you.

Mordin: "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intellegence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."

Also:

Mordin: "Reapers added tech to compensate. Mental capacity almost gone, replaced by overworked sensory input, transfers. Transmitting data to masters. No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever. Understand now? No art, no culture, closer to husks than slaves, tools for Reapers. Protheans dead, Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed."

Catalyst states we are ready.

[Reth Shepherd]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

DoomsdayDevice wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

I love the Synthesis ending. Everyone, Reapers included, benefit from it.

The scientist disagrees with you.

Mordin: "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intellegence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."

Also:

Mordin: "Reapers added tech to compensate. Mental capacity almost gone, replaced by overworked sensory input, transfers. Transmitting data to masters. No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever. Understand now? No art, no culture, closer to husks than slaves, tools for Reapers. Protheans dead, Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed."

Catalyst states we are ready.

I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Reth Shepherd wrote...
I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

Sarcasm?

[Reth Shepherd]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...
I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

Sarcasm?

Very much so, unless you can produce the lines of dialogue where he does precisely that.

[AresKeith]

Reth Shepherd wrote...

EDIT:
@AresKeith: yep, you are 100% right. Starboy says he wants to prevent a war between them, promote peace, blah blah...and yet we have multiple lore incidents where there WAS peace and the Reapers were the ones turning organics and synthetics against one another. There were at least two examples of this during the Prothean cycle, and of course we already know that the Reapers were more than happy to use the Geth this time around.

That makes him a hypocrite and me not trust him even more

[DoomsdayDevice]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

DoomsdayDevice wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

I love the Synthesis ending. Everyone, Reapers included, benefit from it.

The scientist disagrees with you.

Mordin: "Disrupts socio-technological balance. All scientific advancement due to intellegence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready. Disastrous."

Also:

Mordin: "Reapers added tech to compensate. Mental capacity almost gone, replaced by overworked sensory input, transfers. Transmitting data to masters. No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul. Replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever. Understand now? No art, no culture, closer to husks than slaves, tools for Reapers. Protheans dead, Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed."

Catalyst states we are ready.

Of course he does. He's a Reaper.

Don't you realize what's going on?

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Reth Shepherd wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...
I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

Sarcasm?

Very much so, unless you can produce the lines of dialogue where he does precisely that.

We are the first to connect the Crucible to the Citadel, Shepard is the first personto stand where you are ever, etc.
This means we are the most advanced of all cycles so perhaps we are ready for Synthesis.

[DoomsdayDevice]

[DoomsdayDevice]

Project Overlord is heavy foreshadowing for control and synthesis, and it clearly warns us:

Gavin Archer: This is a hybrid intelligence the likes of which I have never seen. I don't know where the man ends and the machine begins.

Shepard: You should have considered that before you started the experiment.
_______________________________________________

Gavin Archer: I'm begging you, don't do anything rash.

Shepard: Rash? Like forcing your brother into an experiment?

Gavin Archer: I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him. You must believe me!
______________________________________________

Gavin Archer: Any war we fight with the Geth will be bloody. I was asked to find a way to avoid that.

Shepard: Who gave you the right to play God?

Gavin Archer: People who were too afraid to make difficult decisions themselves. When they pray for a miracle, they're really praying for men like me to make the tough choices. If my work spares a million mothers morning the loss of a million sons, my conscience will rest easy.
_______________________________________________

Gavin Archer: It would be the perfect weapon. -- Victory without casualties! We could avoid war with the Geth altogether. That was the plan, anyway.
_______________________________________________

Shepard: What went wrong with the experiment?

Gavin Archer: David volunteered to interface with the VI to give it genuine consciousness. Theoretically it should have been safe, but... with artificial intelligence there is no such thing as safe. (Replace David with Shepard here and think about the ending)

Shepard: Then you shouldn't have attempted it.

Modifié par DoomsdayDevice, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:43 .

[xAmilli0n]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

xAmilli0n wrote...

Thank you for the reply, especially the run down on Leviathan.

1. I understand the idea they are trying to sell, but don't really buy into it.  How do Synthetics regocnize it?  How does one's genetic code provide understanding?  Why is this so?  Why was this never considered before for the Geth?  I don't expect you to be able to answer this, but these are the things that lose me with Synthesis.  Call it loss of suspension of disbelief.

2.  Okay, so the goal is Synthesis.  Though I do not buy into the inevitable Synthetics vs Organics thing, lets assume it is inevitable.  Synthesis will eventually happen, why does the Catalyst interfere every 50,000 years rather than waiting until a certain point of no return in the conflict?  Why not help in building the Crucible?  As for preserving the races as Reapers, does this really help in future species achieving the goal of synthesis?  Are Reapers true representation of their former civilization?  Again, I don't expect an answer, but these are the kind of thing that put Synthesis into question for me.

     The first one is hard to sell, so I probably didn't explain it as well as those who wrote it did.

     As for why harvest at all if Synthesis is inevitable is because the odds of it happening are so remote and its more likely that both sides of that cycle will wipe each other out, like the Geth an Quarians almost did if Shepard hadn't intervened. This goes against Catalyst's programming which is to preserve life, so he stops them from wiping each other out by turning them into Reapers. This might be why Catalyst gives each cycle a fifty thousand years to evolve and possibly if a cycle had achieved peace between organics and synthetics that cycle would've been introduced to the concept because they "are ready" as Catalyst explained about this cycle to Shepard.
      
     I do not know why Reapers keep destroying a cycle's Crucible before it connects to the Catalyst except maybe they are judged to not be ready for that evolution. Hopefully a DLC goes into the crucible more because its the only universal plot point thats not explained even though both Catalyst and Leviathans seem to know more about it than they let on.
 
     Those who are judged unworthy in this argument are turned into Reapers because they are the same rtace as before, just in a different form of Synthesis.

     Finally, each Reaper has the collective wisdom of the race that made it, which may hint towards their personality like how Harbinger, being built from an apex race, is very prideful while Sovereign, who was built from the Nazara I believe since thats what the programs(lives) inside him are calling themselves, may have been a warlike species contributing to Sovereigns wrath.

I can buy the idea of the Catalyst judging species unworthy, therefore destorying the Crucible (or did they...).  Definitely needs to be expanded on.

I can buy the Reaper personalities, but it should have been expanded on in game.  A sample size of two is quite limited (3 if you include the Destory on Rannoch, though we didn't much from it).  Where is our helpful, friendly, I'm doing this for your own good Reaper?

As for the Catalyst intervening to prevent one species from wiping another out (Geth/Quarians), species go extinct very often.  Heck the Krogan wiped out the Rachni (okay not really, but you can say the same would be true for any extinction) but the Catalyst did not intervene.  I do understand your point, and I do like the idea of these conflicts going against his programiing, forcing him to act, but it seems the exact trigger is a very vague "50K years, time to clean up."

Last point, if our cycle was ready, why not help with it?  After Rannoch, make contact with Shepard, and lets move forward together.  Of course, this would remove the main conflict of the game, so, that probably would not happen lol.

[Foxhound2121]

AresKeith wrote...

Steelcan wrote...

@ Reth Sheperd. No, that's not why I picked destroy. I picked destroy because I wanted the reapers dead. I didn't say that organics and synthetics will always fight, I reject that notion.

And the Reapers themselves are the real problem behind the supposed "organic v synthetic" notion

I always agreed with that, and I think a lot of people don't realize it^

It has been shown countless times in the trilogy that there is no such thing as an absolute synthetics vs organics.

It's like saying that just because sometimes different races don't get along with each other, we have to purge all races and create one master race. That is a flawed solution to anything.

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Catalyst states we are ready.

So? If the catalyst is an artificial intelligence, his educated opinion holds about as much merit.
If the catalyst is a programmed computer that can't lie, that holds even less merit.

Modifié par Foxhound2121, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:44 .

[Reth Shepherd]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...
I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

Sarcasm?

Very much so, unless you can produce the lines of dialogue where he does precisely that.

We are the first to connect the Crucible to the Citadel, Shepard is the first personto stand where you are ever, etc.
This means we are the most advanced of all cycles so perhaps we are ready for Synthesis.

And again, whose word do you have for that? Starkid's. Actually, let me refute this one really quickly. From the codex:

The zha'til were a synthetic race that existed at the time of the Protheans. They originated when a race known as the zha implanted themselves with symbiotic AI technology to enhance their intelligence in order to survive as their homeworld became inhospitable. When the Reapers arrived, they subjugated the AIs, known as zha'til, who then seized control of the bodies of their masters and altered their genetic material at the deepest level, transforming the zha into synthetic monsters and their offspring into slaves. The zha'til proceeded to multiply into "mechanical swarms" that "blotted out the sky". With no other recourse, the Protheans sent the star of the zha's home system into supernova, destroying the zha'til entirely.

 The zha'til WERE Synthesis. Since they had achieved it on their own, there is no doubt that their culture was ready for it, and they would have been the ideal race to push synthesis galaxy-wide. Instead the Reapers enslaved them and sent them out to destroy the other species of the cycle.

Also, we are FAR from the most technologically advanced of even those few cycles we know of. The Protheans were much farther along than we are, and the Densorin were even farther than that. The ONLY reason we had a chance to finish building the Crucible (IF Starkid is telling the truth about us being the first, which we do NOT know for certain) was because the Protheans gave us extra time to prepare. Usually the Reapers hit the Citadel first, wiping out governments and cutting off cross-galactic communication, then they wipe out the various races at their leisure.

Modifié par Reth Shepherd, 25 octobre 2012 - 03:49 .

[Argolas]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...
I have to admit, Starkid does make a very compelling argument, and the evidence he uses to support us being ready is abundant and next-to-impossible to refute.

Sarcasm?

Very much so, unless you can produce the lines of dialogue where he does precisely that.

We are the first to connect the Crucible to the Citadel, Shepard is the first personto stand where you are ever, etc.
This means we are the most advanced of all cycles so perhaps we are ready for Synthesis.

Not true. The Protheans could have finished the crucible, too, they only ran out of time. The fact that this cycle finished it is only due to the efforts of some individuals, especially Shepard and his/her squad delaying the invasion and coming up with the plans. That does not say anything about the galaxy being ready for everyone's DNA altered or not. In fact, the Protheans were more advanced than this cycle: Their tech is still superior and the reason the Asari are developed further than the rest of the galaxy. Protheans were even capable to create a small Mass Relay themselves, the ME1 conduit. If We could have done that, the whole attack on London would have been pointless, we'd only need the crucible and Shield fleet.

[Argolas]

Reth Shepherd wrote...

The zha'til were a synthetic race that existed at the time of the Protheans. They originated when a race known as the zha implanted themselves with symbiotic AI technology to enhance their intelligence in order to survive as their homeworld became inhospitable. When the Reapers arrived, they subjugated the AIs, known as zha'til, who then seized control of the bodies of their masters and altered their genetic material at the deepest level, transforming the zha into synthetic monsters and their offspring into slaves. The zha'til proceeded to multiply into "mechanical swarms" that "blotted out the sky". With no other recourse, the Protheans sent the star of the zha's home system into supernova, destroying the zha'til entirely.

 The zha'til WERE Synthesis. Since they had achieved it on their own, there is no doubt that their culture was ready for it, and they would have been the ideal race to push synthesis galaxy-wide. Instead the Reapers enslaved them and sent them out to destroy the other species of the cycle. Also, we are FAR from the most technologically advanced of even those few cycles we know of. The Protheans were much farther along than we are, and the Densorin were even farther than that. The ONLY reason we had a chance to finish building the Crucible (IF Starkid is telling the truth about us being the first, which we do NOT know for certain) was because the Protheans gave us extra time to prepare. Usually the Reapers hit the Citadel first, wiping out governments and cutting off cross-galactic communication, then they wipe out the various races at their leisure.

Thank you. Another example that synthetic/organic hybrids are the easiest to control. That is why Reapers, husks, collectors and every other reaper servant as well are "synthesized" in some way. Synthesis means ultimate win for the Reapers- and the Leviathans who have the same ability to control such hybrids.

[AresKeith]

Argolas wrote...

Reth Shepherd wrote...

The zha'til were a synthetic race that existed at the time of the Protheans. They originated when a race known as the zha implanted themselves with symbiotic AI technology to enhance their intelligence in order to survive as their homeworld became inhospitable. When the Reapers arrived, they subjugated the AIs, known as zha'til, who then seized control of the bodies of their masters and altered their genetic material at the deepest level, transforming the zha into synthetic monsters and their offspring into slaves. The zha'til proceeded to multiply into "mechanical swarms" that "blotted out the sky". With no other recourse, the Protheans sent the star of the zha's home system into supernova, destroying the zha'til entirely.

 The zha'til WERE Synthesis. Since they had achieved it on their own, there is no doubt that their culture was ready for it, and they would have been the ideal race to push synthesis galaxy-wide. Instead the Reapers enslaved them and sent them out to destroy the other species of the cycle. Also, we are FAR from the most technologically advanced of even those few cycles we know of. The Protheans were much farther along than we are, and the Densorin were even farther than that. The ONLY reason we had a chance to finish building the Crucible (IF Starkid is telling the truth about us being the first, which we do NOT know for certain) was because the Protheans gave us extra time to prepare. Usually the Reapers hit the Citadel first, wiping out governments and cutting off cross-galactic communication, then they wipe out the various races at their leisure.

Thank you. Another example that synthetic/organic hybrids are the easiest to control. That is why Reapers, husks, collectors and every other reaper servant as well are "synthesized" in some way. Synthesis means ultimate win for the Reapers- and the Leviathans who have the same ability to control such hybrids.

Exactly, having the Reapers benefit in doing something they wanted from the start is not a good idea IMO