User blog:Awayorafk/Reaper Logic: What Bioware was TRYING to get across.

Here is what I believe Bioware was trying to do with their ending. They may have failed at making it obvious (as ME usually does; explaining to a ridiculous extent), but I relayed ME3 non-import and saw some themes that you just don't see if you know diplomatic, friendly members of hostile species (Wrex, Tali, Legion). Much of the fan uproar is very well founded; some fan hate is just due to lack of knowledge (remembering) of the lore.

The Reapers are galactic peace keepers that allow for all life 'get a chance'. This is seen as a gift to us, which is an objectively deep notion. They give us technology so we can flourish, but as soon as we go too far, they take it all away. This is kind of like the Garden of Eden story. The crucible is likened to another christian biblical story in-game: the tower of Babel. Ill get to those themes later. First, lets look at the facts.

Mass Effect 1: Reapers are foiled, twice

 * The Catalyst is some sort of presence within the Citadel (I hate this character, but for the sake of this blog, lets take him seriously). Imagine him as a symbol of organic's 'child' (technology) or something like that.  IT might be true, so just keep an open mind.


 * In Mass Effect, Vigil tells Shepard what the Illos scientists did to warn the next cycle of the Reapers. They used the conduit to get to the Citadel post-Reaper attack and 'locked' the Reapers out of their own mass relays network, delaying them hundreds of years.  They also leave the Crucible plans for the next cycle to find.


 * The first sign of Reaper-influenced attacks occurred a century before ME1, when the Rachni wars began. This is when the reapers originally wanted to enter the galaxy but realized they were locked out.  Vigil states that Sovereign probably had to gather resources for centuries before he could execute his plan(s).


 * Sovereign fails to open the Citadel, which the Reapers did not have access to. to keep up their quota of new Reapers, they get the Collectors to make a new one, possibly to attempt to open the Citadel again.


 * Geth are considered to be a galactic danger and AIs are illegal. Its implied that the geth also aren't quite at the point of truly dangerous AI either.  Not out of aggressiveness, just mere might.

Mass Effect 2: reproduction and harvesting revealed

 * Not much is exposed on the Reapers in ME2 except for elaborations on Reaper reproduction, as well as genetically altered species (the Collectors).

Mass Effect 3

 * Krogan history is further explained. Met their demise b/c technology.  Eve says they had a nuclear war (was probably fought over similar reasons as human beings in real life would; resources, religious, etc) and would have died off completely if not for the salarians.  This lends more credence to the reaper's theory about entropy of organic life. The quarians also forced the Morning war, although the geth COULD have just obeyed and deactivated.


 * Geth VI (the 'true' geth's consensus if Legion was neglected in ME2) mistrusts organics since Shepard never helped them at all. This is the TRUE geth.  That means that usually, the true and heretic geth BOTH mistrust organics and wish to achieve a unified body (Dyson sphere, reaper body).  the reapers are right again.


 * So organic cycles of the past have been planning this Crucible thing since the first time they realized the Reapers existed? This is interesting, especially if you think about WHO may have been adding to it each cycle. Maybe the indoctrinated splinter group of some past cycle added to it? the control functions?  What if some radical minds conceived of a way to get the best of both worlds (synthesis) without getting harvested, in some twisted attempt to satisfy the Reapers?
 * The Catalyst (Citadel), has been 'locked' since last cycle, is obedient to Shepard and provides information when he meets it. It explains these functions, it doesnt 'give' them to you.


 * The happy ending is the synthesis ending. People didnt like the 'space magic' of this ending.  I too didnt like it.  but lets think about it.  Synthesis literally means 'to artificially make', which is what you do to the DNA of the galaxy.  with these improvements, starving, and resources, and war become things that synthesized beings simply dont need.
 * In the control ending, the relay network (although damaged) is heavily implied to be intact. The only difference is really that Shepard decides the cycles (if the geth get out of hand, could step in, renegade Shepard kills for fun).
 * Destroy being the worst ending is kind of the twist. This ending could backfire and kill everyone, but no matter what, kills all synthetic life (which we see to be possoly peaceful).

Themes

 * Tower of Babel: this reference is made by Mordin in an email, comparing the story to the Crucible. In the story, all the races off the world join together and and make a great tower, in which they unify their languages and religions.  God destroys the tower and scatters the races and confuses their speech.


 * Garden of Eden: I mentioned this one earlier. Its not stated in-game, but I use this story as a model to how the reapers think. God gives Adam and Eve immortality, no sickness, discomfort, etc. His only rule is to not eat the apple.  A and E eat it, and they doom humanity to short life, disease, conflict, etc.

These two biblical stories are not meant to be literal, but applied loosely to the situations in-game. i hope this blog gives some of you SOME sort of insight.