ME3: Why do the reapers all look the same?

[Dogstile]

I finished the game yesterday and this has been bugging me more than the ending, which opened up far to many questions anyway.

Throughout the second game, we eventually find out that the reapers are built to look like the race that they're harvested from. However they look the same in almost every encounter. Now while I do realise they wrote in that the reapers standardise the destroyers to cover their backs, that doesn't make sense that during the giant space battles they all looked like giant... cuttlefish or whatever.

Is their a logical explanation for this? Or did organic life decide that being a tentacled fish was the best way to go a couple hundred cycles in a row?

(Also, I apologise if this has come up, but i've been searching through the quite frankly amazing amount of threads and I didn't see this question)

 

[Zhukov]

It explains this somewhere in the codex thingy.

The thorn bug/cuttlefish form is like armour or a shell. Inside they presumably all look different.

Of course, the real reason for this is that they just couldn't be arsed coming up with a unique design for each reaper.

 

[endtherapture]

Because they're lazy.

End of Mass Effect 2 there - I see at least 6 different looking Reapers.

In the game we only get 2 types - Sovereign and Destroyers (and Destroyers with Hades Cannon too).

The game was rushed and Bioware was lazy, that's it.

 

[Saegrim]

I just figured that the ship design was a shell of some sort, or that they all eventually became ships as to allow space travel.

 

[Kahunaburger]

They look the same to you? You humans are all racist!

But really, the answer is the same answer you can apply to almost any Bioware-related question:

The game was rushed and Bioware was lazy, that's it.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

They look the same to you? You humans are all racist!

But really, the answer is the same answer you can apply to almost any Bioware-related question:

The game was rushed and Bioware was lazy, that's it.

I figured it was mainly EA's fault. Didn't they only get two years to work on this, as opposed to four to five years for the older games?

 

[Kahunaburger]

They look the same to you? You humans are all racist!

But really, the answer is the same answer you can apply to almost any Bioware-related question:

The game was rushed and Bioware was lazy, that's it.

I figured it was mainly EA's fault. Didn't they only get two years to work on this, as opposed to four to five years for the older games?

I'd say a little of column A, a little of column B.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Now come on, you can't really fault Bioware for this. That's the same as bitching that all the Star Destroyers in Revenge of the Sith were exactly the same.

Only two named Reapers get unique shapes, Sovereign and Harbinger, and this is to designate them as leaders.

Bioware has pulled a lot of crap with this release, but not making the background Reapers entirely different isn't one of them.

 

[Rawne1980]

Because mummy Reaper and daddy Reaper didn't have a TV so did the only entertaining thing they could think of doing.....

thousands of kids and a massive child support bill for daddy later they realised they had created an army so set out to wipe out the galaxy every 50.000 or so years just to give mummy Reaper a break to catch up on her soaps.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Now come on, you can't really fault Bioware for this. That's the same as bitching that all the Star Destroyers in Revenge of the Sith were exactly the same.

Only two named Reapers get unique shapes, Sovereign and Harbinger, and this is to designate them as leaders.

Bioware has pulled a lot of crap with this release, but not making the background Reapers entirely different isn't one of them.

It kinda makes sense for all Reapers to look the same too. They are machines and think like machines, they have no interest in looking "cool" or "unique". They all go with the design that gives them the biggest edge in battle.

Though why "giant space Cuttlefish" was their best tactical solution is beyond me. Must be one of those transcending logic things.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Now come on, you can't really fault Bioware for this. That's the same as bitching that all the Star Destroyers in Revenge of the Sith were exactly the same.

Only two named Reapers get unique shapes, Sovereign and Harbinger, and this is to designate them as leaders.

Bioware has pulled a lot of crap with this release, but not making the background Reapers entirely different isn't one of them.

It kinda makes sense for all Reapers to look the same too. They are machines and think like machines, they have no interest in looking "cool" or "unique". They all go with the design that gives them the biggest edge in battle.

Though why "giant space Cuttlefish" was their best tactical solution is beyond me. Must be one of those transcending logic things.

Well, just because the reapers have no interest in looking cool does not mean Bioware dont >.>

I dunno man, I am happy with the design of the reapers. If you can call something the smallest concern when looking at the Mass Effect series, its that.

Well, they do luck pretty fucking scary when they come at you like an octopus. Having a two kilometer long giant tentacle mass filling up the front windows of your battleship would be scary.

 

[Hal10k]

Though why "giant space Cuttlefish" was their best tactical solution is beyond me. Must be one of those transcending logic things.

Ever since Lovecraft, "unfathomable horror beyond mortal comprehension" has always been synonymous with "octopus" for western audiences.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Though why "giant space Cuttlefish" was their best tactical solution is beyond me. Must be one of those transcending logic things.

Ever since Lovecraft, "unfathomable horror beyond mortal comprehension" has always been synonymous with "octopus" for western audiences.

But Octopuses are so cute!

 

[Rude as HECK]

Because the reapers are based on the previous species they harvested. They look kinda like protheans. Thus, the baby reaper you kill was to look like a human.

 

[Dogstile]

Now come on, you can't really fault Bioware for this. That's the same as bitching that all the Star Destroyers in Revenge of the Sith were exactly the same.

Only two named Reapers get unique shapes, Sovereign and Harbinger, and this is to designate them as leaders.

Bioware has pulled a lot of crap with this release, but not making the background Reapers entirely different isn't one of them.

It kinda makes sense for all Reapers to look the same too. They are machines and think like machines, they have no interest in looking "cool" or "unique". They all go with the design that gives them the biggest edge in battle.

Though why "giant space Cuttlefish" was their best tactical solution is beyond me. Must be one of those transcending logic things.

Well, just because the reapers have no interest in looking cool does not mean Bioware dont >.>

I dunno man, I am happy with the design of the reapers. If you can call something the smallest concern when looking at the Mass Effect series, its that.

I just figured instead of raging at the ending, which I could well do, I would instead point at something that i've not seen asked much. Its not a point of concern, its more of a case of "wait, something is off with these".

Don't get me wrong, i'm happy with the design, I just didn't understand why they only went with two types.

I mean hell, its not like they even had cold machine logic. They preserved each species allowing them to live on in a weird machinelike form? Why would they design it like the species if logic was involved, that implies that each species holds sentimental value.

I dunno, it doesn't sit right with me.

 

[mattttherman3]

Yeah, I noticed that, but that didn't bug me, I mean the Human reaper in space would be ridiculous looking lol. Maybe there are multiple of the same type, I mean species have billions of lifeforms sooo

 

[DustyDrB]

Eh, they probably say the same thing about us.