Why do you think The Reapers did it?

[Suomimaster]

We, as organics, cannot understand nor comprehend the reason for why Reapers do it.

We are nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident.
The Reapers simply are[i/].
The pinnacle of evolution and existence.
They have no beginning. They have no end.

WE CANNOT EVEN GRASP THE NATURE OF THEIR EXISTENCE!

It would have been interesting if they hadn't told the reason why Reapers go kill frenzy every 50k years. To me, the Citadel could have been the Reaper collective, and when Citadel is blown apart Reapers would just shut down or be critically weakened.

 

[Ricky 49]

it takes the reapers 50,000 years to fully calculate Pi.....they don't like the answer so they harvest all advanced civilizations that are aware of Pi to see if they have got a better answer. with the new cycle harvested the reapers think they may now have key to a good answer to Pi. so they spend 50,000 years calculating with the new harvested civilizations. they return each cycle thinking maybe this time we will find the key to our problem.

 

[VoidWanderer]

To me it is like I, Robot.

Assigned to protect a particular system, their programing tells them to cull any threats. After doing this for millenia, they come to a pattern.

10 Kill all advanced civilizations
20 Sleep
30 GOTO 10

 

[MrFalconfly]

Easy.

They want to exterminate all life that has developed to the point of being capable of creating AI.

They do this to give other life a chance in the galaxy (NOT to make sure YOUR kind of life survives, just ANY kind of "intelligent" organic life).

But why destroy I hear you ask? Well technically they aren't as much destroying as they are storing the information.

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

I thought the Reapers came from some elder race which overcame an Instrumentality [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AssimilationPlot?from=Main.Instrumentality], just as the one in Evangelion, but in a spaceship instead. Then, since that Reaper was the only one of its kind it started to feel lonely (weird, since it is actually billions of minds fused together) and tried to create itself some company. Thus, the Reaper "race" began to develop, being their life cycle a 50k year long harvesting of spacefaring races.

 

[Hyper-space]

Why wouldn't they get "a chance at life" if the reapers didn't kill them? Humans didn't go extinct when they first discovered the relays, they just joined the ranks of other older space traveling races...

The logic is a stupid solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Have you even played the game? The gist is that Organics, once advanced enough, will inevitably create a race of synthetics which will rise against them and WOULD exterminate all organic life WERE IT NOT FOR THE REAPERS. You see, the reapers harvest the organic races that are advanced enough to create synthetics, while leaving those more primitive alone. Its all to guarantee that life will continue, instead of being completely exterminated by the Synthetics.

I have no idea what your comment was trying to prove or put forth.

 

[Asita]

Really? show me the words were he states "We The Reapers hate organic life"

In as many words? Reading between the lines sheds some light on the Reapers attitudes.

"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident"
"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it"
"We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotton, we will endure"
"The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom"
"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction"

Really, the attitude presented doesn't exactly mesh well with the idea beings which value organic life. One of the introductory lines for them flat out trivializes it, and the later ones come out as outright antagonistic towards it. At best, the Reapers come off as an abusive boyfriend who hits you and then tells you its for your own good. At worst, it comes off as something from one of George Carlin's standup routines about God[footnote]You know. The bit where he goes on about how 'religion' (his phrasing, not mine) claims that God's looking down at everyone all the time waiting for them to screw up so that he can send them to Hell for an eternity of torture, and then comes the punchline "But he loves you". If it's not ringing a bell, you can find the routine here[/footnote]

Harbinger doesn't come off much better and its dialogue very much suggests that the Reapers don't care about organic life, they care about useful organic life.
"Quarian. Considered due to cybernetic augmentation. Weakened immune system too debilitating."
"Drell. Useless. Insufficient numbers."
"Human. Viable possibility. Aggression factor useful if controlled."
"Human. Viable possibility. Impressive genetic malliability."
"Human. Viable possibility. Impressive technical potential."
"Human. Viable possibility if emotional drives are subjugated."
"Human. Viable possibility. Great biotic potential."
"Asari. Reliance upon alien species for reproduction shows genetic weakness."
"Salarian. Insufficient lifespan. Fragile genetic structure."
"Krogan. Sterilized race. Potential wasted."
"Turian. You're considered...too primative."
"Geth. An annoyance. Limited utility."
"We are limitless. You are bacteria."
"Your worlds will be our laboratories."
"You are vermin."
"They are vermin."
"Take what is useful. Destroy the rest."

Again, not exactly presenting the Reapers as if they're concerned with organic life in a general sense, just the ones they can use.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

The Reapers do it for fun. Shepard's just a party pooper.

 

[Leodiensian]

After thinking about it, my theory is this:

Rather than being the creations of a "First Race", the proto-Reapers were the creations of a First-Race-contemporaneous "Second Race" as weapons of war to be used against the more powerful First Race. (For this theory to work, suppose for the sake of argument that the First Race is somehow more militarily powerful without necessarily being the most technologically advanced; think about the difference between the turians and the salarians) However, as the Reapers are true AI's and thus capable of independant decision-making, the Second Race needed to 'indoctrinate' their Reaper creations to believe that it was necessary to cull the First Race; the First Race were too advanced, they were keeping other species and civilisations from being able to naturally evolve and flourish. This was made core programming to the Reapers, something so fundamental to them that they have never considered changing it - that we know of, at least. We know they upgrade their hardware, but we've never really seen the Reapers upgrading their own software.

The Reapers followed their creators programs and sure enough devastated the First Race, giving the Second Race freedom. How do they do this? Indoctrination. The First Race was too mighty a force to fight directly, so the Second Race created the Reapers to turn the First Race against themselves; this strategic pattern will go on for millions of years, softening up the target with internal strife before a decisive strike against population and political centres, adapting First Race technology (biology and mentality) into themselves to ensure victory in all theatres, as well as allowing them to make up for any losses suffered in the war. The Mass Relays are seeded to distribute Reaper units across the Galaxy, piggy-backing one to the next with the Citadel/Catalyst acting as a central 'co-ordinator'.

Fifty thousand years pass. The Reapers go hibernate, their mission accomplished; they're the ultimate WMD, capable of galactic genocide and thus no-one wants them to get used. The descendants of the Second Race (for the sake of this theory, let's call them the Third Race) have spread across the galaxy, having taken prime position. Which is when the Reapers wake up again. Their programming has started up again; the Third Race is no longer identifiable as the Second Race (culturally and perhaps biologically) that created the Reapers in the first place. But they've set themselves up as the target now; they're the most advanced civilisation in the galaxy, keeping others from developing. So the Reapers do what comes naturally to them; indoctrinate, assimilate and destroy. Then retreat to Dark Space and start scanning the universe for signs that it's time to get back to work.

As the Reapers assimilate organics, the existential fear of synthetics they were feeling at the time imprints upon their collective consciousness; while retaining intelligence and independence, they can't quite gel this with their core ideology/programming, as well as their self-aware status as synthetics, causing them to suffer a kind of cognitive dissonance. Their self-justification for their own existence changes to become simultaneously organic cultural and evolutionary equality AND the prevention of AI-genocide. It's like the ghost of a murder victim possessing the murderer, but neither quite being aware of the true identity of the other. I don't think the Reapers are aware of the paradoxes they've been building right into themselves. Their core programming, their entire raison d'etre, remains and they have no reason to change it because they don't see why it doesn't really fit with what's happening now.

In this theory, I don't think fifty thousand years actually is a hard and fast 'rule' the Reapers have for when the next Harvest begins. I think it's just a sufficient amount of time to guarantee that a civilisation advanced enough to trigger the Reaper's programming; they wait for galactic civilisation to reach a certain standard, perhaps something to do with the amount of space occupied by a small number of species, or how often the races are using the relays. I think it's a rule of thumb rather than something written into them. After all, I don't think they'd risk the possibility of some particularly fast-developing species (such as humanity) popping up and getting to such a point that when the 50K mark comes around, the Reapers find themselves completely outclassed.

My interpretation at least.

 

[SajuukKhar]

snip

I have to, again, stop talking to you because it is impossible. You change the meaning of words as you please, you twist words and content as you please, you keep mentioning things as established fact when they aren't and you bring up stuff that isn't relevant.

It's tiring for me, and frankly, sooner or later a waste of time and nerves.

I get the impression you don't even understand what I'm saying. Nor that you'd want to. I get the impression you want to feel superior for understanding this bad writing so you pull stuff out of your arse to make up some half-assed logic no one but you can really get.

Yes, it really reminds me of Lost. Same things happened there.

I dont change the meaning of words at all.

And I do get what you saying because you try to force feed it at every turn "The reapers using genocide is not an acceptable option and makes them like Nazis"

Funny becase Lost had a ending I actually enjoyed.

I thought the Reapers came from some elder race which overcame an Instrumentality [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AssimilationPlot?from=Main.Instrumentality], just as the one in Evangelion, but in a spaceship instead. Then, since that Reaper was the only one of its kind it started to feel lonely (weird, since it is actually billions of minds fused together) and tried to create itself some company. Thus, the Reaper "race" began to develop, being their life cycle a 50k year long harvesting of spacefaring races.

that would have been a cool motive.

Although in instrumentality individuality doesn't eixst, those billions of mind become one, so there could be loneliness.

 

[GabeZhul]

@Leodesian. Fascinating theory, though it becomes a little jumbled as it goes on. However, you know what would have been even better? If Bioware would have actually explained anything in the ending so we didn't need to make theories on the first place... I mean, seriously, they dumped an exposition-fairy (starchild) right into the middle of the ending, they might as well made him, you know, explain things...? -.-

Seriously, I have seen a dozen or so really creative and sometimes even ingenious explanations about the Reapers' origins and motivations, but in the end they are all just theories, and even though one can piece together a somewhat satisfying explanation to the "Wait, you kill organics to stop the killing themselves?" question, they are still not canon and we have no idea what really was going on. I really hope the "Epilogue DLC" will shed some light on these questions as well...

@SajuukKhar: Errr... Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, there is no "collective consciousness" in the Reaper bodies. When harvesting, they are just preserving the genetic material of the race, not its thoughts or culture. In that regard, the instrumentality angle kind of falls flat... So yes, cool motive, but not really feasible.

 

[Leodiensian]

Gabe, remember that the ending was rushed by Bioware's own admission due to the original script being leaked. In the original, the Reapers DID have a "collective consciousness" reasoning behind their harvesting; that's why they take the most advanced civilisations and make Reapers out of them. They were trying to create Reapers intelligent and capable enough of fixing the dark matter crisis that was originally going to be the main 'bad guy'.

But I disagree that the Reapers should have had their origins explained at all - I think explaining their motives a little is acceptable, but not necessarary. I think leaving the Reapers still partially shrouded in mystery is necessary for them to remain interesting; like Sovereign says, they simply ARE and they don't feel the need to explain or introduce themselves to you. This is really basic storytelling - the answer will never ben as interesting as the question.

 

[SajuukKhar]

@SajuukKhar: Errr... Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, there is no "collective consciousness" in the Reaper bodies. When harvesting, they are just preserving the genetic material of the race, not its thoughts or culture. In that regard, the instrumentality angle kind of falls flat... So yes, cool motive, but not really feasible.

Sovereign states that each reaper is a nation in itself.

Also a single gestalt entity made up of all of humanity wouldn't have the same thoughts as individual humans nor would it particularly care for culture.

 

[GabeZhul]

Gabe, remember that the ending was rushed by Bioware's own admission due to the original script being leaked. In the original, the Reapers DID have a "collective consciousness" reasoning behind their harvesting; that's why they take the most advanced civilisations and make Reapers out of them. They were trying to create Reapers intelligent and capable enough of fixing the dark matter crisis that was originally going to be the main 'bad guy'.

But I disagree that the Reapers should have had their origins explained at all - I think explaining their motives a little is acceptable, but not necessarary. I think leaving the Reapers still partially shrouded in mystery is necessary for them to remain interesting; like Sovereign says, they simply ARE and they don't feel the need to explain or introduce themselves to you. This is really basic storytelling - the answer will never ben as interesting as the question.

Actually, I'm not completely satisfied with the "Dark Matter" twist either (if they don't want civilizations to overuse Element Zero, they why the hell did they give them the ropes by leaving the Mass Relays lying around?), but it's still better than the "To save organic life from the synthetic life it hasn't even created" plot. So... I guess we have to blame the guy who leaked the original script, huh?

As for the Reaper's origins, yeah, I actually have to agree with you. If I think about it, the reapers were a lot more interesting in the first game, where they were just this ominous, incomprehensible force, kind of like some Lovecraftian horror. Much of that were already destroyed by ME2 and ME3, but you are right, explaining their origins would just turn them into "yet another race in the galaxy"...

P.S.: Also, I just realized: In the original "Dark Matter crisis" script, destroying the Relays would have made sense. I mean, what better way is there to cut down on Ezzo usage than shutting down the long-range transport system...? Which begs the question why the Reapers let the operate this far on the first place, but whatever...

 

[GabeZhul]

@SajuukKhar: Errr... Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, there is no "collective consciousness" in the Reaper bodies. When harvesting, they are just preserving the genetic material of the race, not its thoughts or culture. In that regard, the instrumentality angle kind of falls flat... So yes, cool motive, but not really feasible.

Sovereign states that each reaper is a nation in itself.

they are singular entities made up of the minds of countless lifeforms.

The only problem I have with this one is the whole "minds" issue. As we have seen during the suicide mission in ME2, they are turning people into this protein-soup when they make the a new Reaper, and even THAT protein-stew gets turned into the husk-metal when it's built in. Where is the mind in that...?

Yes, your argument is valid, he said that, but empirical evidence shows otherwise, so... I guess we are just missing a step? Once again, a little more info on BWs part might have been nice...

 

[Leodiensian]

Well, if we accept the original scripts motivation for the Reapers (seed the progress of organic life, then harvest when it reaches a pinnacle to make Reaper babies) you could interpret the whole Mass Relay thing as a necessary evil in order to speed along the progression of the civilisations they need to cull. Like Sovereign says, they needed the Mass Relays and the Citadel so that organic life would follow along certain predictable 'paths' to make the harvest possible.

 

[Joccaren]

Their reason was incomprehensible, and I would never understand it.
Would have made it far better IMO if we never learned the Reapers motives. There was no real need to learn that.