Mass Effect - Is what the reapers have been doing really evil?

[dalek sec]

The reapers have done this before and they will do it again. Just like the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica. The major plotline was almost ripped straight from Battlestar.

Prediction: Mass Effect 3 opens with a version of "All Along the Watchtower"

If it does I hope it's either the one from the show or Hendrix's remix of the song, pure and simple. Also, any hope the Reapers could say "By your command"?

OT: They're killing us for their own uses, yeah they're evil.

 

[Nieroshai]

The Reapers are genocidal, although TECHNICALLY this is part of their reproductive cycle so TECHNICALLY they're just trying to survive. But doesn't prey deserve a chance to thwart the predator as much as the predator gets to hunt? Not evil per se, but still a threat to sentient life. And no one wants to die, so if one of them has to go, it might as well be the reapers.

 

[Necromancer1991]

They are more or less doing the intergalactic equivalent of corpse-camping, they are more or less just farming us for resources and labor, think slavery, only worse.

 

[D Moness]

Seriously, dude?
They eat entire races for food, they harvest entire races.
Play Mass Effect 2 to the ending and tell me that they are not evil.

We harvest the animals we breed for food. I know it is a bit of a stretch comparison.
Are we evil in the eyes of the animals.

The question is do they harvest and make new reapers to survive themselves or for something else. If it is to survive doesn't whole of nature do that.

 

[Crimsane]

Yes, I'd say the genocide of nearly all living beings and the enslavement of those who seem useful (in order to commit more efficient genocide) would qualify as evil. It's not a natural evolution of events, it's a forced one from a race who believes themselves superior to all others.

 

[kickyourass]

YES!! They are commiting genocide on a galactic scale for no real reason, and that's an evil thing to do.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

The reapers have done this before and they will do it again. Just like the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica. The major plotline was almost ripped straight from Battlestar.

Wow that's just..wow.

Is that a wow because you think I'm right or because you think I am dead wrong? I stand by my statement either way! I'm a dork!

If i were to make a list of 20 sci-fi shows that i think Mass Effect took inspiration from, Battlestar Galactica wouldn't be on it.

In any case Bioware has confessed that the main inspiration for the Reapers comes from H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

Really?! Geth=Cylons, Quarians=Colonials. The Geth/Reapers are out to wipe out humanity like they have done so many times before to start civilization anew. The Cylons are out to wipe out humanity like they have done so many times before to start civilization anew. Sure Battlestar ened quite differently and epic in it's own right but the core fundamental plot concept is damned near identical. Just sayin. I don't know if you've seen all of Battlestar Galactica but it is suitably epic and the visual asthetics are very similar to ME as well.

Yeah well if you throw a net that broad then you might as well claim that Mass Effect is a rip-off of Babylon 5.

Indeed. Reapers are the Shadows. Both go into hiding, wait till civilization reaches a certain point, then "come out and knock down all the any hills." I love that show! Often thought the two races were similar.

Honestly though, Reapers are evil. Bad. Not good. Wiping out everyone for no reason (at least, one that's not given yet) and enslaving the few that are still left? Evil.

 

[badgersprite]

Because genocide totally isn't evil, right?

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

HAHA! its funny how many of you think that the reapers are evil, they are protecting every civilization in the galaxy against the other beings from other galaxies, they've said so a couple of times.

BOSS SEZ: WHURE?

I say :where?

"your species has attracted the attention of those infinitely your greater, those that you know as reapers were your salvation through destruction"

Harbinger at the end of mass effect 2

That can mean anything and to come to the conclusion that they are protecting every civilization in the galaxy against the other beings from other galaxies.. from that is a long shot by far.

One might as well speculate that the Reapers despise organic life to the point that they consider that being made into DNA-juice is a form of salvation.

I know, just quoting the place where dreey gets his info.

 

[Timmibal]

I know that the ME dev said the inspiration was lovecraftian, but does anyone see a similarity between the Reapers and the Eternal Ones from Star Control 3?

Both influence the development of sentient life to suit their own ends (Reapers ensuring blitzkriegable galactic civilization through reliance on mass relays, eternal ones by seeding planets with artifacts to enhance 'precursor potential' thus rapid ascension of sapient life) and both pop in once every age to completely wtfpwn it for lunchables.

Just thought it was a funny parallel.

Anyhoo, on to the OT...

'Evil' is an absolute concept. If the Reapers were doing it for naught but shits and giggles, then I'd be more inclined to say it's evil. As far as they're concerned, it's the equivilant of a pregnant woman 'eating for two' (reducing sentient life to genetic paste being a prerequisite for their reproduction.)

I would say it is wrong however. Legion put it best when it/they were explaining why the geth majority rejected Nazara's offer. All sentient life has the right to self-determinate. By enforcing their 'salvation' on sentients, the reapers are denying them that right.

That could be the paragon ending for ME3, now that I think about it. Reckon it's possible that Shepard can convince the reapers that all races should self-determinate?

Nah, where's the fun in that. Shep's gonna find a supergun somewhere and blow some shit up, then have a big multispecies moresome in his cabin.