User blog comment:Subject 9/Reasons/@comment-1900300-20110903020721

Firstly, the Reapers CAN be beaten. I am getting annoyed with people being so convinced by Reaper propganda. If they cant be beaten why are Bioware making a game in which they can be beaten! So now that is clear the reasons for the massacre become clearer, at least on this cycle. Should a race advance beyond the Reaper's path, they could develop technology and weaponary that threatens the Reapers. So they must wipe them out. This cycle has already killed two Reapers and has access to a limited amount of Reaper technology, so the threat is very real.

Secondly, the Reaper's advanced technology is not even theirs. It is clear they are a firm example that machines are incapable of creative thinking. After every cycle they take the technology of the race and study it. Essetally they are letting organic races build their technology and then using the advancements they make to improve what the Reapers have already. It may be the only way the Reapers feel they can advance.

Thirdly the whole reproduction thing works. They harvest organics to reproduce and once they have all the orgainics they need they wipe out the rest. This causes another race to rise up. The Reaper's are taking advantage of natural selection to have the strongest races rise up, then using them to reproduce. The Reaper created will have the strengths inherit to its race and will make the Reapers strong as a whole. The problem is Reapers look for what they think to be strength (numbers, adaptablity, biotic potential) rather then traits that may be useful. Ultimatly they have forgotten the strength of varitity and, with every Reaper having the same basic skills, they may have similar basic weaknesses (They do not seem to care about intelligence in picking races, so maybe the Reapers are not gaining much in the way of intellect into their ranks)