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

[Shiftshaper]

Okay so Mass Effect is amazing, no doubt about that. But lately I have been thinking about the plot and how the reapers have been set up as the big threat that the player has to overcome. And how we are clearly ment to despise and be disgusted by the reapers. But take a look at the greater picture here, is what they've been doing for who knows how long really evil?

Every empire in the history of the world has crumbled. No matter how great, how powerful, in the end it fell apart and another superpower replaced it. And not just human constructions either, I dont need to tell you that everything that exists grows, flourishes, then withers and dies. And shouldnt that be the way things are supposed to be? Life is supposed to be constantly changing, if it simply reached a peak and stayed there forever there would be no point to life would there?

Lets say that in the Mass Effect universe the reapers never existed, and the citadel was built by the council races. What if they lost the war with the Rachni, and the telepathic bug race wiped them from the face of the galaxy. They would keep growing, expanding, swallowing every form of life it would come across, killing diversity and stopping new forms of life from developing. It would be a pretty bleek universe wouldnt it? And there must have been plenty of times the reapers encountered one warmongering race that was dominating the galaxy, enslaving and killing all opposers.

Even if a peaceful race or council prospered into complete control of the universe, Advancing as far as a civilization could, how would that be a good thing? Life would cease to be unpredictable and everchanging. It would become a dull utopia.

If you think about it really, the main quest in mass effect is one in which the player needs to defeat TIME AND DEATH ITSELF. Because isnt thst what the reapers represent? The fact that we ultimately have no control over life and that everyone and everything we know will eventually be gone.

Let me know what you think fellow escapists, do you agree, or do you have a different viewpoint?

 

[Burst6]

No i don't agree. Yes there is a cycle of growth and destruction, but this happens Differently. It's usually a natural cause or the civilizations own fault. Either that or tension with another civilization that has been growing for a time.

The reapers destroying the universe is not like the cycle of growth and destruction, but a cycle of let grow and harvest. Sort of like a farm.

Also i am a firm believer that noone is immortal and unbeatable. Civilizations fall because of mistakes, not because of unbeatable forces.

 

[Cooperblack]

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.

 

[Jedoro]

Who cares what their reason is? I'd say the genocide of all sentient life in the galaxy is a bad thing.

 

[Double A]

The Reapers are inexplicably killing off civilized life.

Humanity is included in the civilized part.

 

[Dreey]

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.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

Perhaps the reapers are doing it in the hopes that they will eventually breed a race capable of defeating them, and freeing them from the terrible curse of immortality? or some other random nonsense, like they are really breeding warrior races to fight an even bigger enemy.

 

[JaredXE]

No, I would say wiping out all the sentient life in the galaxy to be pretty evil. Necessary, maybe, if you think that the Reapers are instruments of the life cycle. But still evil, no matter how you look at it.

Besides, I do believe melting the flesh of millions of individuals in order to make bio-organic metal in order to craft another Reaper.....yeah, all kinds of evil.

 

[voetballeeuw]

Your examples are kind of flawed. Yes, Rome failed but it was not wiped out of existence. The people still remained. The reapers eradicate all life, so everything starts again. So, yes the reapers are evil.

 

[Spacewolf]

Okay so Mass Effect is amazing, no doubt about that. But lately I have been thinking about the plot and how the reapers have been set up as the big threat that the player has to overcome. And how we are clearly ment to despise and be disgusted by the reapers. But take a look at the greater picture here, is what they've been doing for who knows how long really evil?

Every empire in the history of the world has crumbled. No matter how great, how powerful, in the end it fell apart and another superpower replaced it. And not just human constructions either, I dont need to tell you that everything that exists grows, flourishes, then withers and dies. And shouldnt that be the way things are supposed to be? Life is supposed to be constantly changing, if it simply reached a peak and stayed there forever there would be no point to life would there?

Lets say that in the Mass Effect universe the reapers never existed, and the citadel was built by the council races. What if they lost the war with the Rachni, and the telepathic bug race wiped them from the face of the galaxy. They would keep growing, expanding, swallowing every form of life it would come across, killing diversity and stopping new forms of life from developing. It would be a pretty bleek universe wouldnt it? And there must have been plenty of times the reapers encountered one warmongering race that was dominating the galaxy, enslaving and killing all opposers.

Even if a peaceful race or council prospered into complete control of the universe, Advancing as far as a civilization could, how would that be a good thing? Life would cease to be unpredictable and everchanging. It would become a dull utopia.

If you think about it really, the main quest in mass effect is one in which the player needs to defeat TIME AND DEATH ITSELF. Because isnt thst what the reapers represent? The fact that we ultimately have no control over life and that everyone and everything we know will eventually be gone.

Let me know what you think fellow escapists, do you agree, or do you have a different viewpoint?

well the caused the rachni wars, so i would say their not letting civilisations reach their potential and they are stifling civilisation growth by forcing them to advance along a particular technological route therefore stopping them from advancing because the technology the civs now have is past their understanding hence they have to just build upon uncirtain foundations e.g. replication rather than replacement

 

[Warboss Robgutz]

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?

 

[whatsdavid]

I am under the impression that the morality of the issue is immaterial to Commander Shepard's duty (and I would assume, personal interest) in defending the galaxy from mass extinction. Regardless of the Reaper's intent, or if their actions can be defined as evil, I would hazard to guess the current inhabitants of the galaxy feel they have the right to defend their existence through the use of arms.

On a more fundamental level it could be argued that that which hinders one's existence is evil, as it stands contrary to you by attempting to kill you, and death being the greatest hindrance to existence. Therefore, the Reapers are evil in that they are attempting to kill Commander Shepard, as Shepard understands them to be evil. Whether the Reapers consider Shepard to be evil because he is trying to kill them is a different matter, since the Reapers appear to regard other sentient life as lesser, and not worry of a moral comparison, assuming that the Reapers have some form of moral code to begin with.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I think you're taking Sovereign's dialogue in ME1 too literally..

The reapers clearly like to present themselves as an unstoppable force of nature. But at the end of the day they are, to all intents and purposes, a civilization. Like Burst6 said, what they're doing is farming.. They don't trim the dying civilizations, they harvest them when they're at the point of growth, and very deliberately before they can become a threat to the reapers themselves.

Sure, if they weren't there another species might have risen to dominate the galaxy (not the Rachnii, as the Rachnii wars were probably caused by the reapers) but that species would grow and adapt culturally. The reapers don't grow culturally.. they're the perfect parasites.

Mordin put it quite well.. all social progress is a response to challenges. The Reapers have built a system where they have no challenges, so they don't change and never will. Their only purpose is to self perpetuate until the end of the universe. That is the dull utopia you're talking about.

 

[Cooperblack]

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.

 

[Canid117]

Repeated genocide = bad

 

[Cypher10110]

I haven't started playing mass effect 2 yet, but from what I understand, the reapers purpose is shrouded in mystery. My first thought on the reapers was a paralleled with Cthulu and the old gods of h.p.lovecraft.

The key difference being that the old gods were "unfathomable" and "alien" when those words where one and the same. The very idea of non-human intelligent life was terrifying.

In the universe of mass effect, aliens are commonplace and the galaxy is open to exploration. Having an "unfathomable" and "alien" entity like the reapers in this kind of situation, makes the same kind of horror/mystery much more difficult to achieve.

My thoughts are that they are part of a larger system, one of an inter-galactic scale, with many galaxies (perhaps all galaxies) within it's influence. Perhaps organic consciousness is something that the reapers maintain, much like unwanted weeds on a lawn.

Or maybe, just maybe, they are the result of the most large scale trolling of all time. Created by an extremely powerful entity, they were constructed to "help" other races with the mass effect relays and the citadel, only to "kick them in the balls" at the peak of their influence. I mean, the universe is a BIG place, who knows what percent of that is controlled by pure trolling, much like the internet.

tldr; A small part of a larger system within the universe, or the result of the most powerful troll of all time.

 

[Aiden_the-Joker1]

By your argument I could say that I shouldn't be arrested for murdering people because they would die eventually. I see your argument but the reapers are killing dozens of billions of people but who cares they would all die eventually.