The Reaper Discussion Thread (Mass Effect 2 Spoilers!)

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Namewithheld

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Okay, this thread is going to be made entirely up of spoilers. IF you have not played ME1 or ME2, then LEAVE. NOW.
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Okay, they're gone? Good!

I have a theory.

Let us start with what we know.

Saren found Sovereign (or Sov, for short) and Sov is a Reaper. Saren realized what Sov and the Reapers represent thinks that if he can prove that organic life could be useful, then the Reapers might spare some of them.

You stop Saren, stop Sov, and save the galaxy.

OR DO YOU!?

There are countless other Reapers slowly approaching from the darkness around the galaxy.

The Collectors are a race of buglike beings that...collect things. Technology, biology, and now, entire human colonies. They start doing it right after Shep blew up Sov.

Collectors are actually Protheans, re-purposed by the Reaper Harbinger (or Harb for short) to serve as secondary spies/sampling devices. Sov, as powerful as he was, is but one ship...and a galaxy is LARGE. With the Collectors, Harb could figure the technology and biology of many races.

Now, this tells us that Saren was EVEN MORE of a dupe than we thought he was: Sov needed no PROOF that biological lifeforms could be useful! He and his kind had been using Collectors for 50,000 YEARS!

Okay, so, Shep and company track down Harb's Collector Base. They find the Reaper Larva, which means we now know WHAT the Reapers are doing every time they sweep through the galaxy.

They are REPRODUCING! Taking races and turning them into Reapers, and using whatever technology they have invented.

Humans proved to be more dangerous than the Reapers expected, and so they use Collectors to slowly gather up enough humans to make a human Reaper to use that potential that Sov found (the hard way).

Harb, near the end, shouts something about how the Reapers are the only thing standing between the galaxy and an even worse threat.

AND SO

We come to my personal theory.

The Reapers don't just grab stuff for the fun of it, or even just to reproduce.

The Reapers grab civilizations every 50-60,000 years to PRESERVE them.

Thinkabout it. Reapers are many minds, many people, forged into one gigantanormous ship. One body, many minds. We are all one nation, as Sov says.

Each Reaper is a civilization or a sizable hunk of one! The reaper larva would have been finished by the Collectors hitting Earth and the rest of our colonies.

They are preserving galactic societies.

The only question is...from what?

Thoughts? Comments? Tomatoes?
 

Lonan

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Are you sure that Harbinger said that the Reapers are all that stand between the galaxy and an even worse threat?
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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It could be taken either way. Harbinger could have meant the worse threat as anihillation by The Reapers, or that the reapers stood between them and a greater threat.

I found the revelation about the geth more intruiging.

The next game is definatly shaping up for a Lord of the Rings style showdown - especially in my game, with the potential for help from the Geth, The Quarians (kept Tali's father's crimes secret, told them to hold off on war), the Krogan (kept the cure data), the Rachni (who were possibly manipulated by the Reapers as well when you think about it), etc etc...

Man I hate the council.

PS: You can have sex with Tali in the game.
 

thepopeofatheism

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Cleril said:
Off topic: Tali is hot.

I had to.
Yeah, thank God you can actually develop a relationship with her in this one. I really felt like something was...missing there, last time.

Too bad they still hide her face from you when Shepard takes her mask off.
 

Hiphophippo

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Interesting thoughts, but I almost hate to even think about them because it's not like ME3 is around the corner or anything.
 

Lonan

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madbird-valiant said:
Lonan said:
Are you sure that Harbinger said that the Reapers are all that stand between the galaxy and an even worse threat?
I think it was more "We are your only hope for salvation" or somesuch, so it sort of fits in with NWHeld's theory.

It still raises the question why. It's unlikely that every civilization would fight/kill/devolve itself to extinction, so saying that the Reapers absorb them to preserve them is like saying that the reason we hunt rabbits is on the off-chance that the rabbits are going to be killed by foxes.

The Reapers might absorb life to reproduce, but I don't think they have any ulterior motives besides that. The preservation of the minds they absorb is probably just a side product.

Cleril said:
Off topic: Tali is hot.
Fucking-A. You just got a friend request. xD
MIRANDA is hot.
 

Tattaglia

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I love how this thread derailed from a theory discussion and into a Tali appreciation thread.

*ahem*

Anyway, I'm betting Bioware won't explain the Reapers' motives as Sovereign said in the original Mass Effect that no species could comprehend them, except for the Reapers themselves. Or maybe Sovereign was just being a dick. Villains tend to be like that.