6 réponses à ce sujet

[Esthlos]

Scratch ME3, as if it never happened. No Intelligence, no Leviathans as we "know" them, etc.

What if the Leviathans were sort of a middle ground between Asari and viruses?
Translated, they were predators that reproduced by capturing live preys, melting them in a process similar to digestion, and recombining their organic material in the form of a baby Leviathan, who with the Leviathan DNA conserved also the DNA (and memories, and knowledge: it seems that in the ME universe, DNA stores these too) of the victim.

Then, they developed tech for interstellar travel.
They started conquering alien worlds, and mating with them.
They used their technology to improve themselves, ascending to cyborg-like status.
They became the Reapers.

Eventually, they conquered the whole galaxy.
With no other civilization, though, they couldn't reproduce.

So, they devised the cycles: every 50 000 years they come and harvest every advanced species.
Why only the advanced ones? Because those are the only ones who may have developed off-world colonies, and making a new Reaper at this point requires a lot of raw organic material from a single specie.

Now, how do we stop them without a Crucible and without a Catalyst?

Well, we could cryo-preserve our top scientists so that they could rebuild our civilization after the harvest is done and prepare properly for the next one.
This is what the Protheans attempted, but it didn't work terribly well.

In ME3 though we get a real, living Prothean (as opposed to a fake, dead one, of course), who can use DNA to read the memory and character of other living beings.
We also have dead Reapers, both derelict and fresh (though these last ones are difficult to get, obviously), and Cerberus manages to study indoctrination, and may have found a way to counteract it if they didn't end up indoctrinated themselves.

ME3 could be centered around trying to replicate Prothean technology in order to "read" the Reapers, with the plot revolving around finding and securing Prothean ruins and artifacts up until managing to find and free Javik, then trying to protect him from indoctrination, and then using his abilities to try to understand reapers, in order to get as much info as possible so that finding a weakness to exploit is possible. Also, "reading" them could help in reverse-engineering their tech.

Then we could spend our time uniting the galaxy for the fight, and maybe leave the game open-ended: we united the galaxy. We know our enemy.
We stand united against impossible odds... but we will fight as one.
And even if we fall, we'll make the Reapers afraid.

And/or we are then told that the galaxy ultimately fell if our EMS was too low, and are treated to Liara's warning for the next cycle, or can actually see the galaxy winning the war if our EMS wasn't that bad; with overwhelming losses if the EMS was in the medium ranges, or with enough survivors to start rebuilding if the EMS was high enough.

And in case the united galaxy actually succeedes, we could have ending slides that bring home the consequences of what we did.
Say that we cured the genophage and gave Wreav reaper-based weaponry.
Because we needed the EMS, and Wreav-led Krogan are better at war than Wrex-led Krogan.
This wouldn't combine well with our continued breathing, I guess.

Say that we procured peace between Geth and Quarians.
Since we didn't save Zaal'Koris (or didn't take a Renegade option to shoot Han'Gerrel dead when he tried to shoot down a Geth ship with us on board), the Quarians eventually try to dispose of the Geth, and in response they fight back and get destroyed or destroy the Quarians for good, depending on whether the Heretics were rewritten or not.
Or we saved Zaal'Koris and killed Han'Gerrel: Geth and Quarians manage to live together, but hate us for killing one of their admirals, and relations with the Alliance are strained thin because of their support of the admiral-killing Shepard.

And so on.

What do you think of this?

[angol fear]

I know you dislike Mass Effect 3 but why are you posting here? You want opinion on fan fiction.

[Esthlos]

I know you dislike Mass Effect 3

I don't dislike it.
I only despise how the ending was done.

but why are you posting here? You want opinion on fan fiction.

Where should I have posted it?

[angol fear]

Ok, no problem. But you should have posted it here, in fan fiction, I think :

 http://forum.bioware...fect-franchise/

 

And for the ending itself, "I wish you could see it like I do, it's so perfect".  

[Esthlos]

Ok, no problem. But you should have posted it here, in fan fiction, I think :
 http://forum.bioware...fect-franchise/

Oh, thank you.
Should I just copy-paste it there or is there someone akin to a moderator whom I could contact in order to ask to have this thread moved?
 

And for the ending itself, "I wish you could see it like I do, it's so perfect".  

Have you been indoctrinated too?

[CrutchCricket]

He has been indoctrinated, ignore him. There are probably real fundamentalists fanatics more reasonable.

 

Interesting idea and far superior to what we got. I don't know about the whole "reading Reapers" thing since throughout the trilogy it's clearly stated that getting too close to active Reaper tech will indoctrinate you, no exceptions. And you could still have the Crucible as a weapon developed through each cycle that uses the relays to send some signal that kills or controls them. Those ideas at their most basic aren't terrible. Just no holokid claiming it controls them.

 

What I also like is that you're staying away from some grand (cringeworthingly beneficial) purpose for the Reapers. I do think since they are mechanical or part mechanical they need some greater purpose than merely continuing their existence. But I'm fine with leaving it mysterious or only hinting at it. I also would've liked more to be done with the thorian and I think linking it to the Reapers would've been interesting. Maybe the thorian is the last of the Reaper precursors. It controls in a similar way (spores vs nanomachines) it converts in a similar way (creepers vs husks). You could still do the whole "Reapers perfected the process" angle.