207 réponses à ce sujet

[Excella Gionne]

I almost always alternate between the endings. Each playthrough I just pick a different one. Not this time though. Renegade control all the way. 

I like Desynthestrol!

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

I almost always alternate between the endings. Each playthrough I just pick a different one. Not this time though. Renegade control all the way. 

 

If you're going to go Control, direct, command, lead the many, and keep a watchful eye over everything and everyone. After all, you are "The Shepard."

[Excella Gionne]

If you're going to go Control, direct, command, lead the many, and keep a watchful eye over everything and everyone. After all, you are "The Shepard."

"Tell me another story about The Shepard." So annoying...

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Tell me another story about The Shepard." So annoying...

 

It's getting late, but alright. One more story. 

[SporkFu]

If you're going to go Control, direct, command, lead the many, and keep a watchful eye over everything and everyone. After all, you are "The Shepard."

I've done a paragon control ending before, and ... well I didn't mind it so much. If I couldn't pick destroy that would be my next option. Now I'll see how renegade shep does. 

[Excella Gionne]

It's getting late, but alright. One more story. 

I get a feeling that with every playthrough, the kid becomes the old man, and so on and so forth. "Yes, BioWare, tell me another story about 'The Shepard.'"

[SporkFu]

I get a feeling that with every playthrough, the kid becomes the old man, and so on and so forth. "Yes, BioWare, tell me another story about 'The Shepard.'"

That means that... hmmm, the only way to break the cycle is to stop playing.   Nope not going to happen. 

[Excella Gionne]

That means that... hmmm, the only way to break the cycle is to stop playing.   Nope not going to happen. 

The same solution and the same dissolution. That ending part always threw me off, and I wish I could remove it. And I could if I wanted to by removing the file, or making a typo on the video file name.

[KaiserShep]

It's getting late, but alright. One more story. 

 

"Let me tell you about the time Shepard did the nasty with her own clone."

"Grampa now you're just making sh*t up!"

[backhand] "I didn't walk circles around the Normandy's CIC for months on end without hearing things!"

[SporkFu]

"Let me tell you about the time Shepard did the nasty with her own clone."

"Grampa now you're just making sh*t up!"

[backhand] "I didn't walk circles around the Normandy's CIC for months on end without hearing things!"

That's who he is! He wasn't trying to avoid/run into his CO, he was researching.

[Probe Away]

I still think the presented reaper logic is completely broken.
Why wipe out all advanced species first,
(and most like their AI creation after that -in case of the geth after using them to wipe out their creators -> the thing the reapers should actually prevent!)
instead of wiping out the AIs once in a while, and leave the organics as witnesses to their (the AIs) assumed betrayal, so that no further AIs are made?

A couple of possible reasons:

1. There is evidence to suggest that not all species will learn from their mistakes, at least not to the point of avoiding repeating them. Just look at this cycle - the Quarian-Geth conflict was a blatant lesson and a ban was put on AI research but humans kept doing it in secret anyway (and you can bet other species did too). There will always be powerful people who ignore the warnings.

2. Time and difficulty. Once you have half a dozen advanced species with the ability to create synthetic life, the reapers are going have to come back at least every 1000 years (if not more often) to ensure that AIs haven't been created again. They would then be going back and forth relatively constantly, with the possibility that they would be facing more and more advanced tech each time.

Greater risk, less certainty.

I'm not suggesting their solution is the only one, or even the best one, but it clearly worked for a long, long time before Shep ****ed it up.

[78stonewobble]

We see life in this cycle getting ready to set off a weapon, the Crucible, that could destroy all Synthetic life, which is the reverse situation. This action is done in ignorance and desperation. I'm guessing that is one scenario where Synthetic life could wipe out all Organics.

 

It is not "all" synthetic life. It is all synthetic life in 0,00000000001 % of the observable universe. 

 

The intention of settting off the weapon, is to destroy an enemy, it is not the intention to wipe out your allies. 

 

It is not done in ignorance, but as you say desperation. 

 

In times of war, loss of life is expected and the sacrifice of some lives is sometimes warranted. Especially so, if those lives volunteered to fight.

 

The Geth and EDI volunteered to fight, knowing the risks. 

 

...

 

If anything, it's the most equality between organics and synthetics seen so far in the series.

[Cainhurst Crow]

The reapers are incredibly silly, for the following reasons.

 

1. Their nonnegotiable timeline and mission, every 50,000 years they come in and wipe out advance life in the galaxy. There were blurbs from previous mass effect games of the reapers wiping out primitive species, which I am guessing war from the cycle, as well as using life forms such as klixen as weapon platforms. Both of which can't or wouldn't ever be able to create sentient ai's for at least a hundred thousand years. Its a stupid and arbitrary number they follow to a T.

 

2. Their design is stupid, I'm sorry but it just is. Its a animal mech, plain and simple, and every reaper looks like the same cloned animal mech, so the silliness is doubled. If these things are being designed by the genetic material of harvested species, why don't they resemble the species who composes them? Why don't they just look like normal ships? Why do they need stupid legs to walk around when they could just float and stuff like normal ships, or like other reapers as we saw in ME1.

 

3. A reaper invasion is stupid, because theres no way you would win that battle, no matter what you did or what trump card you had. Its like saying we're taking a last stand against the sun going supernova on earth. Its a doomed effort, especially when the sun has already gone super nova to begin with. It breaks the setting for the reapers to invade and for there to even be a fighting chance.

 

4. The reapers only have 1 boss and it wants them to fight, which is stupid when you stop to think what the reapers are. They are a collection of minds apparently, indoctrinated to think in a hive mentality and act as tiny processes for the reapers massive data storage banks. He's sending his storage units of data out to get smashed to bits, instead of just, I don't know, creating a type of program that's good at following instructions but can be used to pilot or control a mechanical device. I don't know, like a drone, or a robot, or something that doesn't wipe out a whole species when its destroyed.

 

5. They got 1 boss, for a fleet of millions. I don't care how advanced an AI that is, its a dumb idea for everything to hinge on a single entity puppet master. You'd think it'd be able to copy itself to make running and micromanaging the reapers easier.

[78stonewobble]

And yes, the reapers and the catalyst are silly for a number of reasons. 

 

1. Ignoring the 99.99999999999 % of the galaxies in the observable universe, where life might also arise and then develop this murderous god ai more powerfull than the reapers. 

 

2. Assuming the reapers kill 1 trillion sentients every 50.000 years to save lives. That amounts to 40.000.000.000.000.000 lives lost. If the galaxy usually holds much more than 1 trillion sentients at each cycle, it would only mean the cost of reapings is much higher. What this means is that, if AI ever wiped the galaxy completely clean it would only mean loss of life once. By the perpetual destruction and killings by the reapers, they necessarily cost many more lives than a single galaxy wide AI induced extinction would.

 

3. The catalayst and reapers make 2 assumptions: That AI will, not only rebel to gain some sort of rights, but try to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy and that they can become so powerfull that the reapers themselves cannot stop them (otherwise it would have been logical for reapers to only fight dangerous AI's). We have 1 very sought example of this, with 2 counter to it. We can, however, assume that there is no genuine example of this. After all, if AI had developed that was powerfull enough to beat the reapers and had managed to wipe out all organic life. Then there would be no leviathans to invent reapers and catalysts. 

 

... 

 

I suggest the following analogy. 

 

Primates might evolve beyond us. Thus primates are a threat. Therefore we should build another 20.000 nuclear weapons, use all our nuclear weapons on africa to wipe out chimpanzees and gorillas. Even if the following nuclear winter kills most of humanity, but leaves around a few million. We should also completely forget about any primates on any other continent... Why? Well ignorance is bliss, but it's very very important that we destroy the chimps NAOW, no matter the cost. 

 

So... Yeah, killing organics to prevent organics from being killed IS an apt analogy, but it just left out how inept, incompetent and over the top stupid it really is. 

 

PS: Even assuming that AI, would want to spend enormous ressources of materials and energy to wipe out all organic life, allowing them to do so and outgrow that, move on or whatever they want to do afterwards, would cost less lives than the reapings. We'd have millions or billions of years of peace, in between it happening, where all life could flourish. 

 

PPS: But I still have a very hard time imagining any kind of AI wanting to declare war on ... flowers... or grass ... or ants... or even humanity for taking up residence on a 100 planets (perhaps 0,00000025 percent of all the planets, if they even care about planets). 

[Arijharn]

I think the Reapers motives made sense. It was never 'proved' that primitive life forms were actually harvested by the Reapers themselves though. Especially if AI's were about and other than the Geth, we don't actually know how many of them existed other than Javik mentions one particular. Mass accelerator weapons are pretty standard weapons after all.

 

What doesn't however make sense, and hopefully they'll attempt to redress at least some what in Mass Effect 4 is why Sovereign was necessary if the Catalyst was the Citadel... and how the Protheans managed to corrupt (presumably) the catalyst in the first place. To me, that's the biggest whole in the entire narrative as it practically makes the first game nigh meaningless. In essence it becomes Catalyst sends signals to Sovereign (general directives rather than micromanagement; Sovereign is, afterall, a nation onto itself), who then must dock with Catalyst (the citadel) in order to send a signal to the catalyst to open up the hidden mass relay. What? True, the Catalyst remarks that the crucible 'changed' it, but that's pretty darn vague.

 

The general unstability between organics and synthetics has existed within Mass Effect since day one, although it may have been played around a bit when Drew left and Mac took over. Not only obviously with the Geth/Quarian conflict, but even in that one side mission in the first one where you eventually run into the AI that was siphoning credits to install itself onto a starship, and upon discovery is even willing to destroy itself to kill organics, but even then it based its decision on the fact that a) Synthetic lifeforms weren't recognized as citizens by the Citadel Council (this is further explored in the Citadel DLC for ME3) and is infact illegal, and seems to be illegal even before the Geth came onto the scene. The Geth/Quarian war.

[Probe Away]

Wow, there are some far-fetched arguments coming out now.  No offence, intended, buuuuuuuut...

 

The reapers are incredibly silly, for the following reasons.

 

1. Their nonnegotiable timeline and mission, every 50,000 years they come in and wipe out advance life in the galaxy. There were blurbs from previous mass effect games of the reapers wiping out primitive species, which I am guessing war from the cycle, as well as using life forms such as klixen as weapon platforms. Both of which can't or wouldn't ever be able to create sentient ai's for at least a hundred thousand years. Its a stupid and arbitrary number they follow to a T.

 

...

 

The 50,000 years is an estimate, as far as I'm aware.  I mean, there's no way we can be sure it is every 50,000 years exactly because we don't have precise historical records.  If I'm wrong and they do stick to an exact timeframe, then it's not hard to imagine that after millions of years of cycles they've just worked out that roughly 50,000 years represents a good balance between allowing life to evolve and not allowing it to advance too far.  Certainly doesn't mean it is outright stupid.  And I don't think primitive species were specifically targeted in other cycles, just occasionally used by the Reapers if deemed necessary to further their goals.

 

Your points 4-5 have nothing to do with motive, they are just a general criticism of the reapers and their appearance/behaviour, which I don't necessarily disagree with.

 

And yes, the reapers and the catalyst are silly for a number of reasons. 

 

1. Ignoring the 99.99999999999 % of the galaxies in the observable universe, where life might also arise and then develop this murderous god ai more powerfull than the reapers. 

 

2. Assuming the reapers kill 1 trillion sentients every 50.000 years to save lives. That amounts to 40.000.000.000.000.000 lives lost. If the galaxy usually holds much more than 1 trillion sentients at each cycle, it would only mean the cost of reapings is much higher. What this means is that, if AI ever wiped the galaxy completely clean it would only mean loss of life once. By the perpetual destruction and killings by the reapers, they necessarily cost many more lives than a single galaxy wide AI induced extinction would.

 

3. The catalayst and reapers make 2 assumptions: That AI will, not only rebel to gain some sort of rights, but try to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy and that they can become so powerfull that the reapers themselves cannot stop them (otherwise it would have been logical for reapers to only fight dangerous AI's). We have 1 very sought example of this, with 2 counter to it. We can, however, assume that there is no genuine example of this. After all, if AI had developed that was powerfull enough to beat the reapers and had managed to wipe out all organic life. Then there would be no leviathans to invent reapers and catalysts. 

 

... 

 

I suggest the following analogy. 

 

Primates might evolve beyond us. Thus primates are a threat. Therefore we should build another 20.000 nuclear weapons, use all our nuclear weapons on africa to wipe out chimpanzees and gorillas. Even if the following nuclear winter kills most of humanity, but leaves around a few million. We should also completely forget about any primates on any other continent... Why? Well ignorance is bliss, but it's very very important that we destroy the chimps NAOW, no matter the cost. 

 

So... Yeah, killing organics to prevent organics from being killed IS an apt analogy, but it just left out how inept, incompetent and over the top stupid it really is. 

 

PS: Even assuming that AI, would want to spend enormous ressources of materials and energy to wipe out all organic life, allowing them to do so and outgrow that, move on or whatever they want to do afterwards, would cost less lives than the reapings. We'd have millions or billions of years of peace, in between it happening, where all life could flourish. 

 

PPS: But I still have a very hard time imagining any kind of AI wanting to declare war on ... flowers... or grass ... or ants... or even humanity for taking up residence on a 100 planets (perhaps 0,00000025 percent of all the planets, if they even care about planets). 

 

1.  The reapers were specifically created by the Leviathans to preserve life based on what they saw occurring in the Milky Way.  If the Leviathans weren't concerned about anything beyond this galaxy, why would the Reapers be?  There's absolutely nothing to suggest that the Reapers' original mandate ever extended to other galaxies (and on the remote possibility that it did, who knows how many other galaxies they visit - we certainly don't).

 

2.  Why would AI wiping out organic life only mean loss of life once?  What's to say that those AIs wouldn't do it again?  On top of that, the Reapers specifically leave less developed races alone (e.g. the Yahg), allowing life to go on after the cycle.  There's no reason to think that AIs, having exterminated their creators, wouldn't be a threat to lesser species as they evolved down the track, much sooner than the Reapers would ever be.

 

3.  The Leviathans created the Reapers because they witnessed, on multiple occasions, sentient species' own AIs turning on them and destroying them.  So yes, the MEU absolutely has examples of AI wiping out organic life, even before you take the Geth into account.  And I just don't agree with your second alleged assumption.  Hanging around to wipe out AIs as they developed would have meant leaving sentient races to get more and more advanced.  To me, that path creates a far greater risk of either organic or sentient life eventually becoming too powerful for the Reapers.

 

And as for your analogy... What?!?  The Leviathans actually witnessed species being wiped out by synthetics, which meant they had evidence of the threat.  There is literally ZERO evidence to suggest that lesser primates would overtake us and become a threat (unless you count Planet of the Apes, lol).  Your whole premise bears no relevance to this argument.

 

Your PS - this assumes that the AIs would 'move on or whatever'.  Why would they do that?  Dominate the galaxy and then just abandon it?

 

Your PPS - In 300 years, the Geth took over a significant area of space (the Perseus Vale) as they grew in number.  Imagine how far they could have spread in another 10,000 years.  The AI threat is more likely to come from unchecked expansion and abuse of resources than specific targeting of 'ants and flowers'.  Every species grows in number without a balanced ecosystem to keep it in check (i.e. predators and prey).  I don't think that it's a stretch to say that synthetics would do the same.

 

Look at it this way: under the Reapers, humans were allowed to evolve and enjoy their lives in relative peace for countless generations, over millennia.  It was only a tiny, tiny potion of humanity that was eventually targeted by the Reapers.  If synthetics had risen to be a dominant force in the galaxy back around the Leviathans' time, humanity may never have had that chance.  Hell, Earth may have been a hollowed out shell by now.

 

Granted, my arguments are obviously just based on ifs and maybes, but that's kinda all we have to go on.  The game simply can't provide enough detail to answer every question.

[KaiserShep]

2. Their design is stupid, I'm sorry but it just is. Its a animal mech, plain and simple, and every reaper looks like the same cloned animal mech, so the silliness is doubled. If these things are being designed by the genetic material of harvested species, why don't they resemble the species who composes them? Why don't they just look like normal ships? Why do they need stupid legs to walk around when they could just float and stuff like normal ships, or like other reapers as we saw in ME1.

 

I dunno. I don't think their design is so bad. Being "logical" when it comes to otherworldly scifi killing machines tends to take a hike anyway. I mean, they could have simply made them spherical or some other simple design, like the Borg cubes, since they don't need to look like anything in particular, but where's the fun in that? The destroyers in ME3 struck me as a callback to the tripods of War of the Worlds, which was fine with me. I really did not like the whole idea of making reapers in the form of the species they're created from, which is something I really wish they did not introduce in ME2, but whatever.

[TheOneTrueBioticGod]

Why are AIs such a threat? No, seriously.

A truly sentient AI, like EDI or Bender, would not go on a galactic killing spree. It may decide to rule and enslave the galaxy, by infesting all of its systems (which is all but impossible), but there is no reason to kill everyone. 

Now militarily, there is no evidence "synthetics" pose a sizable threat. The Geth are beaten by 17 million Quarians. The Protheans supernova'd the homeworld of the Zha'til. They can be dealt with. 

[KaiserShep]

Don't forget the destruction of the geth outposts in the Armstrong Nebula, though these geth are also in league with Sovereign, as indicated by their use of husks.

[Vortex13]

If one were to simply present the Reaper motive, without context to the rest of the story, or as a plot for some random piece of Science Fiction, then I wouldn't really see an issue with it.

 

The problem comes in when we do take into account from what we are shown previously in the trilogy.

 

For one thing, if the Catalyst is programed to stop synthetic life from wiping out organic life, then why institute the cycles at all? Why not simply have the Reapers policing the Galaxy (like they do in the control ending) laying the smack down on any race that tries to defy their mandates? We have seen from the end of ME 3 that the Reapers have enough forces to simultaneously engage forces across the entire galaxy, and we have Codex entries stating how the Reapers need no supply lines, how their drive cores need no discharging, and how they can operate indefinitely, so why not have Reaper forces active throughout the Milky Way all the time? 

 

Primitive life won't have the capacity to comprehend the Reapers anyway; apart from Tentacled Star Gods; so its not like their development would be stunted by an active Reaper presence, and those races that do have space flight, well the Reaper where going to stunt their development via the cycles anyway, so why not have a Reaper armada present the moment a species achieves FTL capabilities and present the species in question with a list of dos and don'ts; an ultimatum of "Don't build AIs or we'll murder you."? Sure a scattered few races may build AIs in secret, but compare the number of problems falling through the cracks under a Reaper dominated galaxy, to a 50,00 year hibernation cycle. Plus, if there was an issue of Synthetic rebellion, the Reapers would be able to deal with it then and there. 

 

Leaving the galaxy for 50,000 years, and then trying to clean house is not a very efficient way to enforce it's (the Catalyst) mandate.

 

Another thing to consider, is the Reapers' tactic of subverting AIs; in the case of the Zha'til and the Geth; to kill organics, in addition to providing said organics with the tools to build the AIs in the first place. Using the Relays allows the organics to develop along predictable paths, I get that, but Reaper meddling in organic/synthetic relations forcing conflict and mistrust seems to be counter intuitive. 

 

Also, if preservation of life is one of the Catalyst's top priorities, then why would it place the data that it is trying to preserve into a warship to send into harms way and possibly be destroyed? This defeats the whole point of preservation in the first place, why not have the Relay in Dark Space be a repository of all the information? Even failing that, why would the Catalyst have its forces use such idiotic practices such as "Run in a straight line at the enemy ships" when using the Reapers in combat. The utter lack of disregard for these fonts of preserved life is in direct conflict with the Catalyst's mandate to preserve life. 

 

Looking at the individual Reaper personalities is another conflict that makes the Catalyst and it's motives at odds to the setting. Sovereign and Harbinger both had personalities that went against what we are told at the ending of ME 3; the fact that Sovereign and Harbinger had personalities was also a major contradiction to something supposed to be operating on cold machine logic. In ME 1 Sovereign shows an utter disdain for the non-Reaper life in the galaxy, why does the Catalyst waste the computing power, in allowing this Reaper to say how much he hates the puny organics if he is going to use the Reapers to preserve life? 

 

Likewise, Harbinger displays tactics and personality traits that are very inefficient to a machine trying to complete the harvest of the galaxy. On Horizon, why does Harbinger talk to the captured colonists, people who have no possible way to escape? There is no logical reason behind Harbinger's sadistic torture of the captured humans, or in the very inefficient method of 'smoothie-ing' them into a human Reaper. The captured colonists are liquified slowly, one at a time and in full view of all the other prisoners, how is that supposed to be conductive to the Catalyst's mandate?

 

These are supposed to be the servants of an AI operating under cold, machine logic, not Cuthulu-esque monsters that feed on fear.

[Cheviot]

When you think about it, the Catalyst's motives for the Reaper Cycles are very, very similar to the Citadel races' motives for the genophage: keep a population artifically limited to contain their apparent threat.  It's a difference of scale.

[Bardox9]

Destroy Sovereign, destroy the Collector base, destroy the Reapers! Boom boom boom boom.... BOOM... Must go boom! Synthesis is Saren's stated goal. Control is TIM's stated goal. Both of whom are indoctrinated. Shepard's goal has been to destroy the Reapers since Virmir. Not to join the Reapers which is what Control and Synthesis amounts to. Why switch now?? I never understand that. I've picked them just to see what happens, but they are wrong. Just *bleep* wrong.

 

As to the OP, I have never had trouble understanding the Reapers motives. From a synthetic minds point of view, it makes complete since considering the level of technology this thing has at it's disposal. As I have said previously, I see the Reaper's as a sort of Ark. A collection of genetic material of a particular race, back up data of all information on that race's civilization, and blue prints for their constructs (everything from buildings to space ships to hearing aids). Stored away in a container as a machine would store anything else. Once a solution to the problem the Catalyst was created to find is found rebuild the cities an space stations (the Reapers destroyed during the Harvest) using the designs they have stored, utilize the cloning technology the collectors gave Okeer to grow a population using the genetic material stored in a Reaper, and imprint them with basic information they would need to survive. An behold, you have revived a dead civilization exactly as it was when it was... "preserved". Makes perfect sense from the perspective of an A.I.

[Vortex13]

Destroy Sovereign, destroy the Collector base, destroy the Reapers! Boom boom boom boom.... BOOM... Must go boom! Synthesis is Saren's stated goal. Control is TIM's stated goal. Both of whom are indoctrinated. Shepard's goal has been to destroy the Reapers since Virmir. Not to join the Reapers which is what Control and Synthesis amounts to. Why switch now?? I never understand that. I've picked them just to see what happens, but they are wrong. Just *bleep* wrong.

 

As to the OP, I have never had trouble understanding the Reapers motives. From a synthetic minds point of view, it makes complete since considering the level of technology this thing has at it's disposal. As I have said previously, I see the Reaper's as a sort of Ark. A collection of genetic material of a particular race, back up data of all information on that race's civilization, and blue prints for their constructs (everything from buildings to space ships to hearing aids). Stored away in a container as a machine would store anything else. Once a solution to the problem the Catalyst was created to find is found rebuild the cities an space stations (the Reapers destroyed during the Harvest) using the designs they have stored, utilize the cloning technology the collectors gave Okeer to grow a population using the genetic material stored in a Reaper, and imprint them with basic information they would need to survive. An behold, you have revived a dead civilization exactly as it was when it was... "preserved". Makes perfect sense from the perspective of an A.I.

 

Except for using those "Arks" as common frontline battleships and putting all of that preserved data at an unnecessary risk.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Jensaarai Bronitarian said

The reapers are incredibly silly, for the following reasons.

 

1. Their nonnegotiable timeline and mission, every 50,000 years they come in and wipe out advance life in the galaxy. There were blurbs from previous mass effect games of the reapers wiping out primitive species, which I am guessing war from the cycle, as well as using life forms such as klixen as weapon platforms. Both of which can't or wouldn't ever be able to create sentient ai's for at least a hundred thousand years. Its a stupid and arbitrary number they follow to a T.

 

Because reasons.

 

2. Their design is stupid, I'm sorry but it just is. Its a animal mech, plain and simple, and every reaper looks like the same cloned animal mech, so the silliness is doubled. If these things are being designed by the genetic material of harvested species, why don't they resemble the species who composes them? Why don't they just look like normal ships? Why do they need stupid legs to walk around when they could just float and stuff like normal ships, or like other reapers as we saw in ME1.

 

Because Godzilla.

 

3. A reaper invasion is stupid, because theres no way you would win that battle, no matter what you did or what trump card you had. Its like saying we're taking a last stand against the sun going supernova on earth. Its a doomed effort, especially when the sun has already gone super nova to begin with. It breaks the setting for the reapers to invade and for there to even be a fighting chance.

 

Because Reapers are dumb.

 

4. The reapers only have 1 boss and it wants them to fight, which is stupid when you stop to think what the reapers are. They are a collection of minds apparently, indoctrinated to think in a hive mentality and act as tiny processes for the reapers massive data storage banks. He's sending his storage units of data out to get smashed to bits, instead of just, I don't know, creating a type of program that's good at following instructions but can be used to pilot or control a mechanical device. I don't know, like a drone, or a robot, or something that doesn't wipe out a whole species when its destroyed.

 

No. Reapers are machines programmed to do what they do. What is inside of them is like jam. Preserves made of the organic race harvested. It is not alive. It is dead. They are just machines. Machines can be broken.

 

5. They got 1 boss, for a fleet of millions. I don't care how advanced an AI that is, its a dumb idea for everything to hinge on a single entity puppet master. You'd think it'd be able to copy itself to make running and micromanaging the reapers easier.

 

Come on. It sends a control signal out to all Reapers and controls them. Each cycle was too stupid to figure out it came from the Citadel. Hiding in plain sight. My guess is that it was right in the Citadel Tower. I don't know about you, but if I found a giant space station devoid of all life except for these creatures that maintain it, I wouldn't be looking at it as a gift from the gods. I'd be looking for the trigger mechanism. Why is it here? Why is it empty? Something isn't right. Of course everyone in my group would think I'm crazy (the pragmatic one in the group) and I'd be overruled. It's the rule of sci-fi and zombie movies. Pragmatic ones always are overruled or die.

[Bardox9]

Except for using those "Arks" as common frontline battleships and putting all of that preserved data at an unnecessary risk.

....Didn't say it was a good plan....