Forum:The reapers are all about control, so...

...why was it a surprise that we only found out the why of the reapers when they chose to tell us? Not finding this out until the very end fits their method of operation. Based on the idea that the catalyst isn't telling us everything, this could have all happened before and the "shepard" of that time could have chosen something that explains why it's all happening again. It makes no sense to assume that we would know anything about an enemy that operates this way unless they chose to reveal it to us. Either way, when we found out that this was MUCH bigger than us, why was it surprising that it was revealed in the way it was. It's like people blame the catalyst as the reason for all of this when it's actually just another result of what the actual issue is. Organic life reaching the point in technological advancement where they create artificial intelligence. We found out that this was all the result of... life. Technology. Evolution. Limitations. Understanding and a lack thereof. All causing life forms in positions of power to make decisions on the behalf of others whether they like it or are aware of it or not. This is all that ever happens. There is nothing illogical about any of it. I think the wisest thing anyone can admit when it comes to life, is that they know pretty much nothing about it in the grand scheme of things. It was an almost humbling experience in a way. I found out that I was small, you were small, shepard was small, the life of this cycle was small.

Now that's not to say the presentation of all of this wasn't executed badly. The original ending was so vague that if they didn't expect a million questions to be asked, they were foolish. I would say that getting the info leviathan gave us AFTER the fact seems kind of backwards. But at the same time, again, this comes down to the way the reapers operate. The leviathan basically explained everything, so to get that beforehand and then run into the catalyst would have killed some of the impact of that final confrontation. But again, it was so vague that so many people jumped to what was pretty much the most negative conclusions about the catalyst. It's like everyone forgot that the enemies were machines. Meaning that someone had to create them, and with a purpose. That alone dictates a lot about what we were going to find out before we did. The active enemy being machines BEGS the question of their creators and the purpose for their creation to be asked. Fighting evil machines that are evil "just because" is the worst possible way of going about this because of that. That would be ignorance on the writers part or just plain lazy writing. As far as the whole "conventional victory" thing, we found out from the beginning(ME1 vigil conversation) that the reapers were AT LEAST millions of years old. While each cycle only sees 50 thousand years of technological advancement. That's like throwing a pebble at a tank and expecting to destroy it. Enough people wanted the option to refuse, it was given, but now they don't like the way it turned out despite what the story suggests. So now it's a "middle finger" from the writers. It ended exactly the way it should have considering the circumstances. It's like people wanted their cake and to eat it too, when they forgot about, never realized, or even never even considered that that there was an extremely good chance that there was never any cake in the first place.