User blog comment:Extra-Planetal/Even more Reaper logic fails/@comment-1679409-20120428221838

Responses to a couple of your points:

1. The Reapers can't get directly to the Citadel this time because they're locked out. They also can't use the Alpha Relay as it's been destroyed. So, the Reapers have to rely on the smaller relays (meaning several jumps) and FTL. Doing this allows everyone else time to prepare mass their forces. If they ignored everything else and tried to do a bunch of jumps directly to the Citadel, they would would likely face stiffer, massed opposition, increasing their own casualties. Going about it planet by planet allows them to divide and conquer and concentrate on the biggest threats first (notice they first go after the batarians, humans, and turians, probably the three most formidable races fleetwise while leaving the salarians alone until the end?) Plus, unlike other cycles, the Reapers are without the species' starcharts and census data to plan their attack. Attacking planets one-by-one provides a way for Reapers to find other plaents by tracking refugees.

2. Agreed. One of the plotholes opened by the ending of ME3.

3. I don't know. They did take the homeworlds of the humans, turians, batarians, asari, elcor, and volus. They only Reapers we destroy are the smaller ones. Plus, this cycle's technology has improved thanks to things like thannix cannons.

4. It's a very big galaxy. The Reapers never found Ilos either. In fact, one of the ways the Reapers are able to destory species is by using the species' census data and star charts.

5. Who's the say they haven't? I personally think Shepard is being indoctrinated. For the others, as far as I know, Indoctrination requires both proximity and time (remember that Saren and Benezia were actually in Sovereign and even then it took a while and both were able to fight it somewhat at the end). Hackett is away with the Crucible (see my point above), meaning he's had little to no exposure. Anderson has been on Reaper-controlled Earth, but that doesn't mean he was near anything that could possibly cause indoctrination. Ditto Victus.

6. Agreed. Despite the strawman argument brought up by people who actually defend the current abomination of an ending (i.e., "You just wanted a 'happy' ending!") I would have liked there to be a Reapers win ending available.