41 réponses à ce sujet

[ChowMan]

I know there is still a lot of hate towards the endings, but try to keep an open mind and have a nice discussion about this question I have. I thought about the three endings one day and one thing came to my mind…. What happened to the Reapers in Synthesis? It is clear what happened to them in Destroy and Control. However, for Synthesis, all we see is them "leave" like how they did with Control.. but we don't see them again afterwards…. That is unless it was explained in the slide show in the end and I don't remember.

 

So, what happened to them? Did they just leave and lived on in their own ways?

[teh DRUMPf!!]

but we don't see them again afterwards…. That is unless it was explained in the slide show in the end and I don't remember.

 

So, what happened to them? Did they just leave and lived on in their own ways?

 

Nope, they're there, in the slide-show.

 

Some say they're still Catalyst-controlled, but I reject this, as it doesn't make sense to have the Reapers' fate go Destroyed-Controlled-Controlled between three distinct endings (unless you starting delving into "Deception Theory"-nonsense). I'm just about certain the intent is that they are finally liberated/autonomous entities in this ending.

[KaiserShep]

It seems reasonable to assume that without purpose, the Catalyst has no reason to continue to control them anyway.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

It seems reasonable to assume that without purpose, the Catalyst has no reason to continue to control them anyway.

 

This depends upon whether or not the Catalyst is a control freak.

[DeinonSlayer]

Post-Synthesis? The trumpet sound you hear is a Reaper farting a rainbow.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

We see them helping repair Earth in the Extended Cut.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Post-Synthesis? The trumpet sound you hear is a Reaper farting a rainbow.

 

I think it sounds more like a tuba in the lower register.

 

Please keep in mind I hate all of the endings.

[Obadiah]

The Catalyst said that the Reapers would be connected to all of us, which is an odd statement.

 

 

I'd say the Reapers use their enormous processing power to provide analysis on society, our plans, and our future, and offer options to our leaders on how to proceed. This would be similar to what happened in the Decision Chamber. Their purpose would be to continue providing guidance, albeit in a much more cooperative way.

 

In addition to providing us access to their vast knowledge, I'd guess they also act as hive-mind collective hubs that people can join. Their direct input probably gives us a much more clinical (maybe even ruthless) perspective.

[ImaginaryMatter]

I always thought it was the Catalyst still controlling the Reapers in post-Synthesis, mostly because thinking of the Reapers as more akin to VI constructs rather than AI ones makes the whole ending situation a lot easier to swallow.

[Killdren88]

Most stricken with the guilt knowing what they have done, Those who don't do the right thing of destroying themselves will try to atone for their wrong doing by trying to help rebuild all the while living the knowledge that they caused all of it, and destroyed so many families.

[KaiserShep]

This depends upon whether or not the Catalyst is a control freak.

 

I guess so. Let's hope for the sake of the post-Synthesis universe that the Catalyst doesn't get hostile due to boredom, or that Justin Bieber is no longer on any records anywhere in the galaxy.

 

C: "I have searched over twenty-six million four hundred extranet sites and over twenty-five percent of these sites are dedicated to an ancient battle that took place between a warrior named Jared Padalecki and a Canadian bioweapon by the name of Justin Bieber. That's it. Cycle's back on, b*tches."

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Most stricken with the guilt knowing what they have done, Those who don't do the right thing of destroying themselves will try to atone for their wrong doing by trying to help rebuild all the while living the knowledge that they caused all of it, and destroyed so many families.

I always saw it more as them being like Mordin with the Genophage. "Never changed mind. Genophage correct decision at time. New data necessitated course correction." or something like that. 

[CrutchCricket]

I'd say the Reapers use their enormous processing power to provide analysis on society, our plans, and our future, and offer options to our leaders on how to proceed. This would be similar to what happened in the Decision Chamber.

 

Dear God, thanks for making Synthesis even more horrifying.

 

Reapers: You must choose a new domestic economic policy. Pick a color.

Council: We'd rather stick with this one.

Reapers: No you can't! Without us, imports would destroy all GDP. We created a cycle of stock market crashes so that never happens.

Council: ...

[SwobyJ]

They understand organics now..

 

That's what happened.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Dear God, thanks for making Synthesis even more horrifying.

 

Reapers: You must choose a new domestic economic policy. Pick a color.

Council: We'd rather stick with this one.

Reapers: No you can't! Without us, imports would destroy all GDP. We created a cycle of stock market crashes so that never happens.

Council: ...

Speaking of the Council, how would the Reaper seat work? Would Harbinger just float outside the giant window in the Citadel Tower?

[CronoDragoon]

I see the Reapers as doing what the rest of the galaxy's inhabitants do: some will be cooperative, some will wish to dominate and starts wars (even with other Reapers) and so on. There's just as much reason to believe the Reapers won't identify with one another as will, in my opinion, since their minds are the collective consciousness of what used to be organic and synthetic races. That may change if they feel the necessity to band together in an us vs. them mentality, but the slides show that at least in an official capacity the galaxy seems willing to integrate them into galactic society.

[Imperator_Prime]

I've written two parts of a fanfic trilogy so far that speculates about the post-Synthesis galaxy and the way I interpreted it is that the 'Crucible Event' used the mass relays to seed every intelligent lifeform in the galaxy-- organic and synthetic-- with nano-technology.  

 

In organics those 'seeds' combined and multiplied and over time altered us first at a micro (genetic) and then macro (anatomical) level, basically turning us into cyborgs with the ability to send and receive thoughts & feelings via specialized EM/radio emissions, like how geth can communicate wirelessly.  

 

In synthetics, the nano-seeds combined and multiplied to form physical data media that wrote and installed adaptive "software patches," giving sufficiently advanced systems "full AI" capability and protection against reprogramming, making them autonomous individuals.

 

As organics start broadcasting their feelings the effects are two-fold: other organics experience a kind of cybernetic empathy.  Whatever you make me feel through our interactions-- whether it's fear, or anger, or happiness-- you feel it too, and because (almost) nobody actually likes to feel hurt, or sad, or angry, people start treating each other the way they'd like to be treated.  They become more open-minded and open-hearted to each other and society benefits from more compassion (even if it was "forced" on everybody).  Meanwhile, synthetics receive those signals too and start to 'learn' our feelings and how we think, gaining their sought-after "understanding" of us, and because it's happening in a society where people are motivated to be good to each other, synthetics start absorbing that too.

 

The Reapers, meanwhile, bug out initially.  The Catalyst's last command to them is basically "stop harvesting, the Cycle is ended, leave them to achieve their own fate."  The first emotional signals they pick up from organics are terror and anger and hate, and it kinda hurts them, so they take off and once out in space, without the Catalyst controlling them, the gestalt 'racial consciousness' of the species harvested to create each one starts to emerge and realize what they've become, and they decide amongst themselves to commit suicide by flying into the black hole at the galactic core.

 

But in the continuity I've written, organics (not gonna say who, exactly) reach a point where they think the Reapers could be useful in rebuilding the galaxy so they go out and intercept them, and invite them back, saying, essentially, "it won't be perfect overnight but help us, make amends, and in time there may be forgiveness."  Not all, but many decide to pursue a kind of redemption by serving the emerging new galactic civilization.  They share their collective knowledge, they re-build the relays, and gradually we learn to communicate with them, too, in a way that each side can understand.

 

And farther into the future, the ability to communicate mentally by 'radio' and then by touch leads to more direct interface with machines, hybrid intelligences, and conscious control over our own physical bodies, and ultimately the ability to project our minds across compatible technological networks, similar to how geth can upload and download their programs between platforms, and then we become beings of thought able to exist beyond the bodies we're born in.

[shodiswe]

The Catalyst died, the Reapers, who used to be people of different species were freed from their slavery.

 

You just liberated them from their shackles.

[DeinonSlayer]

The Catalyst died, the Reapers, who used to be people of different species were freed from their slavery.

You just liberated them from their shackles.

"You hear that, honey? We get to be part of the hull together!"

No offense Imperator, but I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want to be part of the "utopia" you're describing, and I doubt I'd be alone. I don't suspect a soldier whose spouse was turned into a husk and whose child was reduced to organic slurry would be so... embracing... unless they were brainwashed to do so.

And yes, it is forced.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

I think Mac Walters and Casey Hudson got stoned and ordered a pizza, and decided that the middle path would be like the pizza they ordered: half sausage and mushroom; and half pepperoni and mushroom. That's sort of the way synthesis works for everyone. Shepard was the mushrooms. That's about as much thought that went into the ending initially. Maybe they threw some spinach on it for the green.

[KaiserShep]

I prefer green peppers to spinach on my pizza.

[Ieldra]

LOL, Imperator_Prime beat me to it by half an hour. My vision is somewhat different but follows the same general principles, though with a significantly less utopian vibe. Core elements:

 

(1) The only reason the Reapers acted in concert is because they were mind-controlled by the Catalyst. Free of that, they revert to individual behaviour which is influenced by the collective characteristics of the species each Reaper was made from. Some will be co-operative, some will be hostile, some will want to atone while others will help galactic civilization for unrelated reasons, maybe even reasons incomprehensible to anyone else, some will help civilization against those who are hostile, some will just go away, some will kill themselves.

 

(2) Meanwhile, nanotechnological symbiotes will enable the (not 100% any more) organic species to change themselves in various ways, with the ability of mental networking being at the core of the change. This will enable people to communicate with each other much more reliably and with less unintentional (!) misunderstanding, which will remove one cause of conflict. It will also enable people to communicate with the Reapers, but as they're beings of a higher order of complexity this is an ability that must be learned. Communication between human-level individuals and Reapers is mediated by specially-trained people called "avatars".

 

(3) Analogous to organics, synthetics will profit from the mental networking with their organic counterparts and gain an "understanding from within" of them they were unable to attain before, as some aspects of the unique and common organic perspective was unable to be communicated by less direct means. Some will change themselves to adapt to that perspective, some will be content to understand it from without, but all will learn of the fear organics tend to have of their creations, which can actually be overcome without the Synthesis as Rannoch shows, but which is only now fully part of both sides' common knowledge, ironically outdated now that organics share some synthetic characteristics.

 

(4) Several kinds of (voluntary) mind-melding become additional ways for people to form subcultures and communities which greatly enhance existing cultural diversity. In time, it becomes possible to "visit" Reaper collectives. Reapers and collectives created in their image become known as "transcendants", a technical term referring to improvement of cognitive abilities through mind-melding, and this becomes a philosophical counterpart to the idea of ascension, which refers to improvement of cognitive abilities through enhancement of the individual mind. The two competing philosophies provide the main dividing line of post-Synthesis societies, resulting in a competition which drives a technological and philosophical renaissance, but also creates new conflicts.

 

(5) [Here is where I disagree with Imperator_Prime] Abuse of the new abilities is common. Almost every new wonder has a new horror to accompany it, ranging from invasion of mental privacy to forced mind-melding. On the whole, civilization does see less conflict than pre-event, but it's still very far from perfect. Even the mental networking which causes people to be generally more empathic is unable to prevail completely against the conflicts caused by taking the natural human competitiveness to extreme levels. [I recommend reading "Altruizine" by Stanislaw Lem after reading Imperator_Prime's vision]

 

(6) There is a significant part of civilization which will be unwilling to embrace co-existence with the Reapers. This will result in areas of the galaxy riddled by guerilla warfare against Reapers and their so-called "slaves" (meaning everyone who co-operates with them). As many such wars it is ultimately futile, but it will take a very long time to die out, possibly only be gone once everyone alive at the event has died. Ironically, some of the fighting factions have embraced enhancements that grant them longevity...

[Ieldra]

I think Mac Walters and Casey Hudson got stoned and ordered a pizza, and decided that the middle path would be like the pizza they ordered: half sausage and mushroom; and half pepperoni and mushroom. That's sort of the way synthesis works for everyone. Shepard was the mushrooms. That's about as much thought that went into the ending initially. Maybe they threw some spinach on it for the green.

LOL.

 

I think it may have gone like this:

 

Mac Walters: "So this is my idea of the third option....Synthesis" [goes on to present some nonsense]

Casey Hudson: "That....is confusing. How would it even work?"

Mac Waters: "No idea. I propose we put it in, add some buzzwords and see what the players make of it".

Casey Hudson: "We're running out of time. OK, let's do that."

 

(The roles might've been reversed)

[von uber]

War. The reapers become aware of their strength and either band together to rule the galaxy, exterminating all resistance, or form petty kingdoms from the ashes utilising slave races as resource.

And those who have been forced into this situation by an idiot called shepard curse the name for the remainder of their short, miserable lives.