User blog comment:Ironreaper/Problems with the Catalyst/@comment-4558124-20120707032821

Just a product of my own excess of free time: 1.It was designed to care about organics; also, if it was created in the same manner as the Reapers, it probably is composed of many organic minds. 2.It's not the same as other AIs; it's not in a situation where it can surpass and fight with its creators, because its creators are gone. Also see #1. 3. I'm guessing programming fail-safes, in case it was corrupted. Also, if the Catalyst is just the collective intelligence of all reapers, then the actual software needed to do anything would probably be on the Reapers themselves. The Catalyst's hologram on the Citadel might just be a sort of interface. 4. See #3. 5. See #3. 6. See #3. Also, if the Catalyst is the collective intelligence of all Reapers, then perhaps it doesn't actually exist on the Citadel until the Reapers are within broadcasting range (inside the galaxy). 7. We don't know for a fact that there was no Prothean Reaper - EDI just speculates that there was none. She also offers that they might not have been suitable for Reaper-ization - so, in that case, why would the Reapers waste a perfectly good slave race? 8. See #3. 9. It knows because history has apparently shown that synthetics and organics are mutually incompatible. Synthetics will always surpass organics, organics will always become jealous/scared/etc, and there will always be war - which synthetics will inevitably win, just because they are innately superior to organics in many ways. It also stands to reason that if they won, they wouldn't want any more organics to rise up and fight them; as such, they probably would decide to sterilize the galaxy, or to enslave all organic races. That wouldn't be good. 10. See #3. 11. Could have been any number of ways. Starships have FTL drives, maybe the Citadel does too. Maybe the Reapers physically dragged it across the galaxy using their combined FTL capabilities. Maybe the Citadel's internal relay was used. Maybe they just used the relay network; just because the Citadel is enormous doesn't mean it can't travel via relay. 12. Good question. Maybe they weren't banking on having a fleet attack them, so they didn't bother shutting down the relays (which would shut off their supply lines) before they closed the Citadel. Once they closed the Citadel, there was no way for a Reaper to get in and futz with the relay controls without opening the station's arms - exposing it to danger. 13. The Catalyst probably isn't all-powerful. See #3. 14. The Reapers probably did try to destroy it, but failed. Also, neither the Illusive Man nor the Reapers had a clue where the Crucible was until it showed up in-system. 15. It did; it was under the impression the plans were lost. See Extended Cut info. 16. See #6 and #3. 17. A couple of isolated exceptions do not prove that its overall theory is wrong. For all we know, the geth could get into another war and EDI could one day decide "I'm better than these organics". 18. The Reapers harvest synthetics and organics. See Extended Cut info. Also, if they only destroyed synthetics, then they would have to do so continually, as new synthetics are constantly being created throughout time. Also, without removing organics, new civilizations cannot develop in the aftermath. 19. Because it makes it easier to destroy organic opposition to the Reapers. The Reapers probably planned to eventually destroy/harvest the synthetics in both cases. 20. It's doubtful that just telling organics about the synthetic threat will keep them from ever developing AIs. Organics are dumb like that.