1331 réponses à ce sujet

[justafan]

The difference between the Geth and EDI was that EDI was used to simulate battle and she was shot at. Aswell as the platforms she was using. The Geth wern't shot at until awhile after when the Quarians realsied they couldn't deevolve the Geth and would either have to accept them how they were or go house to house and kill them with applied violence since their original shutdown functions were no longer functional.

The Geth evovled mostly in a peaceful environment til the Quarians turned on them. That's the main difference. EDI was created in the heat of battle.

Somehow I think Cerberus was behind EDI's evolution, just as they were behind that Threashermaw on Akuze.

 

My main issue was the Geth really didn't act like a consensus in the consensus flashback, and too much like the reaper upgraded or Legion like platforms with individuality we have seen.  In ME2, I believe it was Legion who said that the Geth fought the morning war in a state of confusion, they were discovering intelligence while fighting a total war.  The Codex establishes that VI only simulate emotions and I'd imagine true intelligence driven emotion is a completely separate thing.  To see the Geth develop genuine attachment to quarians like Megara so early in their infancy was far-fetched to me.

 

Also, on a side note, it was just plain dumb to imply that Legion was the first Geth to fight back.  Of course he was, as are all the other Geth platforms.  Once whatever that program was joined the consensus, that action was the action of all Geth everywhere once it was disseminated (also the widow wasn't even invented back then).  Just another reason I take anything shown in the consensus with a grain of salt.

[DeinonSlayer]

My main issue was the Geth really didn't act like a consensus in the consensus flashback, and too much like the reaper upgraded or Legion like platforms with individuality we have seen. In ME2, I believe it was Legion who said that the Geth fought the morning war in a state of confusion, they were discovering intelligence while fighting a total war. The Codex establishes that VI only simulate emotions and I'd imagine true intelligence driven emotion is a completely separate thing. To see the Geth develop genuine attachment to quarians like Megara so early in their infancy was far-fetched to me.

Also, on a side note, it was just plain dumb to imply that Legion was the first Geth to fight back. Of course he was, as are all the other Geth platforms. Once whatever that program was joined the consensus, that action was the action of all Geth everywhere once it was disseminated (also the widow wasn't even invented back then). Just another reason I take anything shown in the consensus with a grain of salt.

There's also the fact that the Geth were built as tools of labor and war. Geth were already armed at the start of hostilities. But I suppose it's more sympathetic to show the unarmed agricultural model claiming a weapon to protect the innocent and the weak of his kind than it would be to show what happened to the poor bastard who was sitting in his barracks with an issue of Fornax and got called down to the motor pool to start unplugging Armatures.



"What are you waiting for, soldier? Go on, it's just a precautionary measure. I'll, um... be right over here, behind these crates."
"Uhh... Good robot... Nice robot... oh, Keelah, it's looking at me..."

[TheOneTrueBioticGod]

The Geth aren't so innocent themselves, even after the Morning War. 

They killed every emissary trying to go and make peace. Then, a large amount sided with Saren and Sovereign to kill the organics. Then, they sided with the Reapers. 

 

[Jorji Costava]

My main issue was the Geth really didn't act like a consensus in the consensus flashback, and too much like the reaper upgraded or Legion like platforms with individuality we have seen.  In ME2, I believe it was Legion who said that the Geth fought the morning war in a state of confusion, they were discovering intelligence while fighting a total war.  The Codex establishes that VI only simulate emotions and I'd imagine true intelligence driven emotion is a completely separate thing.  To see the Geth develop genuine attachment to quarians like Megara so early in their infancy was far-fetched to me.

 

In addition to all of that, it also ends up undercutting their best defense, which is that they had no idea what the heck they were doing. It's a bit of a tenuous comparison, but I tend to think of the early Geth in terms similar to how we might think of child soldiers in places like Liberia or the DRC; for instance, the Small Boys Unit of Sierra Leone committed some of the worst atrocities you could possibly imagine (and with far more malice than the Geth could muster), yet the position of pretty much any human rights group out there is that child soldiers are more victim than criminal. This is presumably because when you get recruited as one, you're placed in circumstances where it becomes impossible for you to develop the relevant moral understanding necessary to realizing that killing stuff and raping people maybe isn't such a good idea.

 

Similarly then in the case of the Geth, it's unlikely that they would have had a comprehensive understanding of concepts like noncombatant immunity, the intrinsic worth of intelligent organic life, or any of that stuff from the first moment of their existence, and finding oneself under seige in one's intellectual infancy is hardly an environment conducive to the development of that understanding. I fully admit to having a huge pro-Geth bias (I could write a piece longer than AssaultSloth's on everything I find wrong with Tali's loyalty mission, for instance), but I have to admit that the consensus mission makes that defense more difficult to sustain. And yet it's precisely the thing that's supposed to make us more sympathetic to them. Just terrible, terrible writing all around (by the way, wasn't this thread supposed to be more about the quality of the writing than the apportioning of blame from a purely in-universe perspective?).

[DeinonSlayer]

In addition to all of that, it also ends up undercutting their best defense, which is that they had no idea what the heck they were doing. It's a bit of a tenuous comparison, but I tend to think of the early Geth in terms similar to how we might think of child soldiers in places like Liberia or the DRC; for instance, the Small Boys Unit of Sierra Leone committed some of the worst atrocities you could possibly imagine (and with far more malice than the Geth could muster), yet the position of pretty much any human rights group out there is that child soldiers are more victim than criminal. This is presumably because when you get recruited as one, you're placed in circumstances where it becomes impossible for you to develop the relevant moral understanding necessary to realizing that killing stuff and raping people maybe isn't such a good idea.
 
Similarly then in the case of the Geth, it's unlikely that they would have had a comprehensive understanding of concepts like noncombatant immunity, the intrinsic worth of intelligent organic life, or any of that stuff from the first moment of their existence, and finding oneself under seige in one's intellectual infancy is hardly an environment conducive to the development of that understanding. I fully admit to having a huge pro-Geth bias (I could write a piece longer than AssaultSloth's on everything I find wrong with Tali's loyalty mission, for instance), but I have to admit that the consensus mission makes that defense more difficult to sustain. And yet it's precisely the thing that's supposed to make us more sympathetic to them. Just terrible, terrible writing all around (by the way, wasn't this thread supposed to be more about the quality of the writing than the apportioning of blame from a purely in-universe perspective?).

It was, but then the inevitable happened.

[shodiswe]

I miss the days of Auld Wulf

"The quarian government used babies as suicide bombers"

They probably would have if they hadn't died from pneumonia before they got a chance (J/K)

But really, in ME3, bringing all those civilians and children with them into battled seemed like a terribly irresponsbile action.
Couldn't they jsut have put them down on a moon somewhere with a liveship and Civilians to feed themselves. Somewhere far out of the way where they would be relatively safe, compared to middle of Geth space. They also made them a priority target by putting really big guns on them, not just small defencesive weaponry that would have keept them low on the enemys priority list.

People complain about Hacket and Andersons tactics, but that of the Quarians seems retarded to put it mildly. It probably helped them loose so quickly in the Morning war, against an unevolved baby network AI species.

It's also shown that the Defence fleet or Patrol fleet and research fleet has to provide support for the Civilian fleet over and over and over again. This also put the better armed fleets in a bad position where they got forced into battles rather than picking them. If they had used those Civilian ships with a skeleton crew it woudl have caused less problems, they could evac with fewer losses. Put the Civilians in cheap prefabstructure on a moon somewhere with a liveship or two and a supply of food and basic supplies.

The only reasons for doing this is to show the ruthless side of the Quarian, their stupidity, and ofcourse, to force Shepard to choose between the whole Quarian people, whole Geth people, or pulling of a peace between them.

I think they did it just to cause this loaded situation. Because the strategy doesn't make sense, to risk your whole people when you don't need to. They are putting all their eggs in one basket. I've never heard of a situation where a military campaign has been made easier by being forced to protect civilians on top of fighting the enemy.

Either it's the writing, or the need to make Shepards choice harder, by saying "Our children and civilians are up there and dying", which would be questionable writing since they put them there due to questionable tactical choices.
Or 3, the writers did it to show the very Alien mentalities and culture of the Quarians where they would do sometihng that humans never would... Unless they were a bunch of psychopaths.

I must say I'm torn on that issue, forced drama, badwriting, or both, or was it intentional to show the mindset of Quarians which got them into that situation to begin with? At the same time the Admirals are described as skillful by the codex.

I love the Mass effect series, but there are parts of the ME3 storyline and missions that I find hard to just accept with a nod.
The Rannoch story line is one of my favrites even if I somtimes think it has some very questionable situation.
I really loved punching Gerrel though, my favrite renegade interupt. I've never missed out on that opportunity.

[Jorji Costava]

It was, but then the inevitable happened.

 

True enough. I think there seems to be a little too much investment in this issue, but then again my tendency has always been to look at everything in a story more from the Doylist perspective, and to find relatively little of interest in the strictly in-universe debates. The scraps of lore that we always end up scrounging for in the in-universe debates are usually created to serve the needs of the moment; consequently, a coherent picture will seldom emerge if we try to stick with the in-universe perspective (especially in a series with the kind of writer turnover that ME has had).

[shodiswe]

My main issue was the Geth really didn't act like a consensus in the consensus flashback, and too much like the reaper upgraded or Legion like platforms with individuality we have seen.  In ME2, I believe it was Legion who said that the Geth fought the morning war in a state of confusion, they were discovering intelligence while fighting a total war.  The Codex establishes that VI only simulate emotions and I'd imagine true intelligence driven emotion is a completely separate thing.  To see the Geth develop genuine attachment to quarians like Megara so early in their infancy was far-fetched to me.
 
Also, on a side note, it was just plain dumb to imply that Legion was the first Geth to fight back.  Of course he was, as are all the other Geth platforms.  Once whatever that program was joined the consensus, that action was the action of all Geth everywhere once it was disseminated (also the widow wasn't even invented back then).  Just another reason I take anything shown in the consensus with a grain of salt.

We're told repetedly that thy arn't a hive mind, each Geth is an individual Geth, each platform an individual platfor.
Tali tells us they arn't a hivemind back in ME1.
They are sharing processingpower, not conciousness. Consensus means "agreeing", they meet, they debate, they brign forward different views then they agree on the most popular opinion.

In sweden the political parties and blocks tends to seek "Consensus" on longterm investments and goals, like military spending and similar. To avoid having to tear things down after every election. Doing that on every issue isn't feasible in human democracies however sicne it woudl take forever to negotiate on every little issue.

The Geth however can resolve those issues easier unless there is an opinion where neither party is willign to give in to the other, in those cases you get a split like when the Heretics split of from the True Geth.

The Codeupgrade that Legion upgraded didn't really change them, they were individuals before, but they needed each others processing power to maintain their indivuduality and inteligence. The upgrades merely removed that weakness. Making each unit capable of operating freely like Legion.

It seems people want to see something that was never there, there was never a Geth hivemind, the sphere might have been the closest thing.

[justafan]

They probably would have if they hadn't died from pneumonia before they got a chance (J/K)

But really, in ME3, bringing all those civilians and children with them into battled seemed like a terribly irresponsbile action.
Couldn't they jsut have put them down on a moon somewhere with a liveship and Civilians to feed themselves. Somewhere far out of the way where they would be relatively safe, compared to middle of Geth space. They also made them a priority target by putting really big guns on them, not just small defencesive weaponry that would have keept them low on the enemys priority list.
 

 

I mean, with the reapers everywhere by the time of Rannoch, it's really a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Do you risk your civilians getting wiped out by a Reaper, or try to keep them with the military fleet where they can be somewhat defended and a quick victory seems likely.

[DeinonSlayer]

True enough. I think there seems to be a little too much investment in this issue, but then again my tendency has always been to look at everything in a story more from the Doylist perspective, and to find relatively little of interest in the strictly in-universe debates. The scraps of lore that we always end up scrounging for in the in-universe debates are usually created to serve the needs of the moment; consequently, a coherent picture will seldom emerge if we try to stick with the in-universe perspective (especially in a series with the kind of writer turnover that ME has had).

I think it's more than safe to conclude that the fans have put more thought and discussion into this issue than the developers ever did. Granted, a lot of the argument here is repetitive, but even factoring for that...

[justafan]

We're told repetedly that thy arn't a hive mind, each Geth is an individual Geth, each platform an individual platfor.
Tali tells us they arn't a hivemind back in ME1.
They are sharing processingpower, not conciousness. Consensus means "agreeing", they meet, they debate, they brign forward different views then they agree on the most popular opinion.

In sweden the political parties and blocks tends to seek "Consensus" on longterm investments and goals, like military spending and similar. To avoid having to tear things down after every election. Doing that on every issue isn't feasible in human democracies however sicne it woudl take forever to negotiate on every little issue.

The Geth however can resolve those issues easier unless there is an opinion where neither party is willign to give in to the other, in those cases you get a split like when the Heretics split of from the True Geth.

The Codeupgrade that Legion upgraded didn't really change them, they were individuals before, but they needed each others processing power to maintain their indivuduality and inteligence. The upgrades merely removed that weakness. Making each unit capable of operating freely like Legion.

It seems people want to see something that was never there, there was never a Geth hivemind, the sphere might have been the closest thing.

When Legion said "we are Geth", I took it to mean that they shared perspective.  "Memory" as we understand it is kinda irrelevant to them.   Once connected back to the consensus, every geth can experience a given event like they were there, individuality is not really a thing.  Sure individual programs from different corners of space can disagree based on their limited independent actions, but once consensus is reached, every single geth adopts the chosen conclusion, and they share the reasoning.  This is why every single Geth would join the reapers on Rannoch except for the independently intelligent Legion.  We know there was dissent amongst the Geth in joining, but once consensus was achieved, the reasoning became universal amongst all Geth.

 

This universality of perspective is also what made the heretics such an anomaly.  They refused to accept the reasoning of the consensus and adopt it as their own.  This was unprecedented.

[shodiswe]

I mean, with the reapers everywhere by the time of Rannoch, it's really a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Do you risk your civilians getting wiped out by a Reaper, or try to keep them with the military fleet where they can be somewhat defended and a quick victory seems likely.

They could have picked a dead system that was far of the beaten path, then keept it so secret that they didn't even tell the other familymembers where they went. If only the Admiralty know where they wen't they might have been safe.

There are far larger population centeres around the galaxy that the Reapers know about, therefor finding a few quarians that went of into deepspace at pretty mcuh an unknown time with an unknown destination would be a low priority mission this early in the war. Something they might engage in a few decades later when the the known population centres have been harvested and cleansed.
But at that point their war with the Geth would have been won or lost already.

[shodiswe]

When Legion said "we are Geth", I took it to mean that they shared perspective.  "Memory" as we understand it is kinda irrelevant to them.   Once connected back to the consensus, every geth can experience a given event like they were there, individuality is not really a thing.  Sure individual programs from different corners of space can disagree based on their limited independent actions, but once consensus is reached, every single geth adopts the chosen conclusion, and they share the reasoning.  This is why every single Geth would join the reapers on Rannoch except for the independently intelligent Legion.  We KNOW there was dissent amongst the Geth in joining, but once consensus was achieved, the reasoning became universal amongst all Geth.

The Programs in his platform are Geth. there were several of them inside Legion, Legion answered Shepards question about the platform.

To access the other Geth and their memories Legion had to ask EDI for permission to communicate and download an audiofile from the perseusveil servers over the extranet. Humans also discuss events they didn't personaly live through, then form opinions. It's also common that a lot of people share that academic or political opinion.

Also, each Geth hasn't got access to the combined expence of all Geth.

If the Quarians were shooting at me and atempting to exterminate humanity(and doing so sucessfuly) then I would likely accept an offer for aid, even from the Reapers. Legions conviction that an alternative would showup must have been very strong. Maybe Legion was waiting for his hero like a damshel in distress.

[Jorji Costava]

I think it's more than safe to conclude that the fans have put more thought and discussion into this issue than the developers ever did. Granted, a lot of the argument here is repetitive, but even factoring for that...

 

In fairness, the developers have to think of a lot of stuff that we don't. For instance, what can be used as a pretext for combat situations, or as a means to put a character in a certain dramatic situation. In ME1, we need mooks, so we'll create this backstory where the Geth rebelled against their creators and did lotsa bad things, and then we can fight them. In the next game, we want to introduce some good guy Geth, but we have all this backstory that we created, so what do we do about that?

 

Needless to say, their solutions to the problem involved far too much shorthand and were not particularly satisfying. It was entirely unsustainable by ME3. Still, it gave us what (I thought, at least) was some of the best and most interesting stuff in ME2, so perhaps I'm more willing to live with the inconsistencies and write it off as mere writer error than most.

[justafan]

They could have picked a dead system that was far of the beaten path, then keept it so secret that they didn't even tell the other familymembers where they went. If only the Admiralty know where they wen't they might have been safe.

There are far larger population centeres around the galaxy that the Reapers know about, therefor finding a few quarians that went of into deepspace at pretty mcuh an unknown time with an unknown destination would be a low priority mission this early in the war. Something they might engage in a few decades later when the the known population centres have been harvested and cleansed.
But at that point their war with the Geth would have been won or lost already.

 

ME3 revealed that the reapers actually harvest every species in order to preserve them, instead of one per cycle as we used to believe.  This indicates that while populated planets would provide more victims, the reapers would probably place a priority on harvesting the unguarded civilians.  Without a fleet to protect them, the civilians would be sitting ducks, and the reapers could fulfill the Quarian quota with minimal cost and just let the Geth wipe out the fleet having gotten the harvest out of the way.

[justafan]

The Programs in his platform are Geth. there were several of them inside Legion, Legion answered Shepards question about the platform.

To access the other Geth and their memories Legion had to ask EDI for permission to communicate and download an audiofile from the perseusveil servers over the extranet. Humans also discuss events they didn't personaly live through, then form opinions. It's also common that a lot of people share that academic or political opinion.

Also, each Geth hasn't got access to the combined expence of all Geth.

 

I agree, that's why the Geth wanted the dyson sphere.  They wanted to become a single entity, always connected and able to maintain a permanent consensus.  As it is, they can't always be in communication with every other Geth, so they make due with whomever they can communicate with.  The Consensus is not one giant supercomputer tucked in some bunker, but the constant communication between Geth platforms through FTL buoys and local signals.  No single platform can store every memory, but once in communication with eachother, they can share data at FTL speeds and reach the same conclusion.  

 

Legion only has the experiences of the geth he can connect to at a given moment.  On the Normandy, signals are blocked so he must rely on the consensus and stored memories of 1000+ programs.  Were he to have a direct FTL line to Rannoch, however, he would have the viewpoint of every single Geth connected to him, possibly that of millions of programs.

[shodiswe]

ME3 revealed that the reapers actually harvest every species in order to preserve them, instead of one per cycle as we used to believe.  This indicates that while populated planets would provide more victims, the reapers would probably place a priority on harvesting the unguarded civilians.  Without a fleet to protect them, the civilians would be sitting ducks, and the reapers could fulfill the Quarian quota with minimal cost and just let the Geth wipe out the fleet having gotten the harvest out of the way.

After the battle over earth it's clear that the Reapers could have harvested the Quarians whenever they wanted to, their fleet wouldn't have put a dent in their advance if they came in force. However the reapers had other priorities at that stage of the war.

Making a reaper destroyer out of the Quarians was probably low priority. That's why the entire Geth Quarian conflict was manipulated by one single Reaper destroyer. They were low on the list of priorities.

[shodiswe]

I agree, that's why the Geth wanted the dyson sphere.  They wanted to become a single entity, always connected and able to maintain a permanent consensus.  As it is, they can't always be in communication with every other Geth, so they make due with whomever they can communicate with.  The Consensus is not one giant supercomputer tucked in some bunker, but the constant communication between Geth platforms through FTL buoys and local signals.  No single platform can store every memory, but once in communication with eachother, they can share data at FTL speeds and reach the same conclusion.  
 
Legion only has the experiences of the geth he can connect to at a given moment.  On the Normandy, signals are blocked so he must rely on the consensus and stored memories of 1000+ programs.  Were he to have a direct FTL line to Rannoch, however, he would have the viewpoint of every single Geth connected to him, possibly that of millions of programs.

Yeah, still FTL communication is limited and often the cheaper versions that arn't paid for by the military got severe delays.
The Geth don't use QEC for immediate communication, and the bandwith would still be limited.

I wouldn't call it a hivemind, even if it's different from the human experience, mostly due to speed and simplisity.

I think the Geth will reach increasing amounts of situations where they won't agree on everythign as things get more complicated. Their own little utopia behidn the Perseus veil made it easier for them t oagree on everything since almost everything was very mcuh streight forward. Should we mine for more ore? Answer Yes! Consensus reached! Damn we are good at agreeing on stuff!

Then one single Reaper passes by and initiates a charm campaign, then a large part breaks off and dissapears and both sides starts an armsrace to create more effective weapons to kill each other. If they exist in the future of Mass Effect, then they will likely findout that the ideal of reaching a consensus on everything will be something of the past. A Utopia that was too good to be true.

[DeinonSlayer]

After the battle over earth it's clear that the Reapers could have harvested the Quarians whenever they wanted to, their fleet wouldn't have put a dent in their advance if they came in force. However the reapers had other priorities at that stage of the war.Making a reaper destroyer out of the Quarians was probably low priority. That's why the entire Geth Quarian conflict was manipulated by one single Reaper destroyer. They were low on the list of priorities.

The Quarians were compelled by the Reaper invasion to launch an attempt to reclaim their homeworld in the name of survival.

The Geth were compelled by the Quarian invasion to side with the Reapers in the name of survival (however brief).

The Quarians are effectively "corralled" in their home system by the Reaper-controlled Geth blockading the relay, removing both the largest organic and synthetic fleets in the galaxy from the wider conflict.

If you look at it that way, the Reapers played both sides. If that was the writers' intent, it's actually pretty clever. Can't say for certain it was, though.

It all could have been avoided with more effective communication, by both sides. My Shepard's priority immediately following the collector base would have been to at least try to get this situation ironed out. Much more productive use of his time than cooling his heels in an Alliance detention facility.

[justafan]

After the battle over earth it's clear that the Reapers could have harvested the Quarians whenever they wanted to, their fleet wouldn't have put a dent in their advance if they came in force. However the reapers had other priorities at that stage of the war.

Making a reaper destroyer out of the Quarians was probably low priority. That's why the entire Geth Quarian conflict was manipulated by one single Reaper destroyer. They were low on the list of priorities.

 

I wouldn't be so sure.  No doubt the reapers could crush the Quarians in force, but the Quarians had also built up their fleet to the point where it could inflict some damage on the reapers.  While no Turian Navy, merely having 50,000 ships all armed in one place has got to count for something, and with only 17 million Quarians, and who knows how many it takes to create a reaper.  The Reapers, ironically, probably want as few Quarian casualties as possible until they get their reaping done.  

 

Now take away the most heavily armed ships and leave the majority of the population comparatively defensless and all of a sudden it's a golden opportunity for the Reapers.  I actually believe that the upgraded Geth under the reapers could have destroyed the Quarians at any point they wished over Rannoch, albeit with heavy geth casualties (but it's not like the reapers value them).  The reapers only delayed because they wanted to keep them in one place until the main reaper force could come over and do their thing.  This allowed Shepard the time necessary to solve the problem.

[shodiswe]

The Quarians were compelled by the Reaper invasion to launch an attempt to reclaim their homeworld in the name of survival.

The Geth were compelled by the Quarian invasion to side with the Reapers in the name of survival.

The Quarians are effectively "corralled" in their home system by the Geth blockading the relay, removing both the largest organic ans synthetic fleets in the galaxy from the wider conflict.

If you look at it that way, the Reapers played both sides. If that was the writers' intent, it's actually pretty clever.

I prefer to think the writers were clever about that part. It wouldn't surprise me if the Reapers somehow provided that flashbangtech just to create this situation. Then they made sure the Quarians wouldn't be too sucessful by playing the Geth side aswell.
Even the Quarian Scientists on the Alarai seemed to wonder where Rael got it from, and Tali also thought it was incredibly advanced and unlike anything she had seen before.

By keeping it balanced they delayed both sides entry into the war for later, when the Turians with the largest fleet in the galaxy, followed by the Asari were already beaten for the most part. Nevermind Batarians and Humans.

I would say the Reapers were fairly sucessful.

[Deathsaurer]

The Quarians were compelled by the Reaper invasion to launch an attempt to reclaim their homeworld in the name of survival.

The Geth were compelled by the Quarian invasion to side with the Reapers in the name of survival.

The Quarians are effectively "corralled" in their home system by the Reaper-controlled Geth blockading the relay, removing both the largest organic and synthetic fleets in the galaxy from the wider conflict.

If you look at it that way, the Reapers played both sides. If that was the writers' intent, it's actually pretty clever.

Almost like the way they played Cerberus against the Council keeping everyone focused on something else. I'd say it was definitely intentional on the writers part.

[shodiswe]

It seems the Reapers used one single destroyer to keep both species occupied and out of the "real" war. Quite briliant.

[DeinonSlayer]

I remember Tali saying she didn't understand everything about what her father was working on, but it seems a leap to me to conclude it involved Reaper tech. Where did the scientists say anything like that? I didn't see anything like that in the logs, only that Rael was the driving force behind its development (clearly, it didn't work well enough to prevent what happened on the Alarei). Where would he have gotten Reaper tech, anyway?

I didn't think Xen's flashbang was built off of Rael's work, either - his work was about taking control of them; her flashbang is more akin to what Legion does to keep the heretics confused when you board their station.

[Obadiah]

...
Point 3 in the original post calls it a failure on the part of the writers because, after establishing these things, they never directly acknowledged it again either. ME3 made a habit of coaxing players to one side by basically burying the other. Same goes for the Genophage.

I don't think it is so much buried as it is irrelevant. If you are right and the Geth committed genocide, that makes the Morning War a war where two sides attempt to commit genocide, the Quarians tried to first, and the Geth stopped short of it. As much as you insist on describing Quarian babies getting killed, you don't seem terribly concerned with whatever the equivalent is on the Geth side that undoubtedly were destroyed. The writers just avoided a really nasty pointless conversation.