User blog comment:ExSturminator01/Mass Effect 3 Predictions based on ME2 hints/@comment-1878375-20100303162318

@Effectofthemassvariety's Return of the Jedi comment: Blasphemy!!! lol, you have to admit though, it had one of the best space battles in sci-fi history at the end. I don't think it would hurt Bioware to borrow that final battle theme from RotJ, with thousands of ships duking it out while Shepard has an against all odds battle inside the head Reaper (or while he rushes to blow up the star from an experimental space station, etc).

to everyone else: I hope (and think) Bioware will get into the Reapers back-story, and I think the ascension to immortality of an ancient race idea is more likely.

Bioware's made a theme out of the AI running amok thing, so it's possible the Reapers are just ancient space ship versions of the Geth that killed off their creators, but Bioware started leading the theme in the direction of the AI being unique beings with rights to life and liberty of their own by showing us a friendly Geth and EDI as an ally by her own decision, so it may hurt their cause if the Reapers are just out of control AI with no redeeming qualities.

In ME2, Harbinger states that the Reapers are "Humanity's salvation through it's destruction," which sounds like crazed giant robot religious speak to me. I think it's a safe bet the first Reaper(s) were some vastly ancient race that "ascended" to immortality by merging their bodies into one giant bio-mechanical shell, and then decided the best thing to do would be to help other species "ascend" as the eons passed. Those that aren't worthy of acsension (quoting Harbinger: "Krogans, such wasted potential," "Turians, so weak!"), are changed to a form useful to the Reapers, exterminated, or are eaten (Reaper Chow!).

Oh, and in light of the Dark Matter ideas presented above, I think I'll change my prediction on beating the Reapers to: EDI knows Reaper communication methods and lures them to a system where they explode a star in the fleet's face, with the Geth's help. At least one Reaper, probably Harbinger or some other massive Reaper, escapes and attempts to destroy Earth in retribution for Shepard's meddling (maybe by collapsing it into a new mass relay to escape through? shot in the dark, but we still don't know where those things come from.  Maybe they're made of matter super compacted with Element Zero that uses gravity to slingshot ships across space in a specified direction.  Super compacted Earth anyone?). Shepard's fleet of allies arrives to defend Earth and stop the last Reaper(s), while Shepard himself goes aboard the live Reaper to destroy it from the inside, or to rescue someone of importance to him whose been taken captive for indoctrination...*gasp! What if the Reaper captures your love interest and tries to indoctrinate them, and that's the epic final battle, saving them! It won't be of course, cuz that would depend on the player actually having a love interest, but it would be pretty crazy.

Oh, and I think it's a safe bet Nazara is the name of the race that made the Reaper. Seems efficient in a machine kind of way, and kinda creepy in it's assimilative aspects. Oh, and a minor thought on the Reapers: They all look the same in the ending cinematic, in contrast to the Human Reaper. Maybe the Reaper core is made in the image of the race it's composed of, but the shell is always similar to a cuttlefish in appearance. Just a though. Thanks everyone so far for everything you've shared, and keep it up, lol, these are some fun ideas to bounce around.