Yeah, I agree. I honestly never even questioned this part. It seemed obvious. Over a period of many millennia, races will develop. If you're an all-powerful race who enjoy being all-powerful, you can't let them surpass you. When they're a threat, you wipe them out. Much like the Quarians tried to do with the Geth. The only real question here is why the reapers don't bother to advance themselves (instead being content to just stay ahead of the game), and that question is more or less answered by the "Harvest" line of thinking. Instead of putting time and effort into developing oneself, just go to sleep for fifty thousand years, wake up, and incorporate any worthy developments into yourself.




Eh. . .perhaps. Nothing wrong with the theory, but I don't think there's anything that supports that. The current crop of races is but one among many that the Reapers have cultivated and destroyed. Who's to say any of the others had Biotics? I don't believe it ever says that the Harbinger controls his minions through use of Biotics, does it? Even if there's evidence that the protheans/collectors had Biotics (and there might be) that's still just two race revolutions among many. Maybe the Reapers are indeed impressed/scared by the unknown potential of Biotics, and harvest races after they begin to develop them, but I don't think there's much evidence for it.




This is a good thought. I didn't really bother asking myself why / how the Reapers made the trip from dark space. I had assumed that the destruction of Sovereign alerted them to problems on the homefront, and they immediately ignited their improbability drives and headed for home, and simply took a couple years to arrive. I like your explanation better, though. Why build one Reaper? To act as an inside man. Another shot at opening the door, now that they understand the capabilities and limitations of current galactic defenses.

Furthermore, I like your idea because it gives a decent reason for weakened Reapers, which are obviously necessary. Sleeping for 50k years would probably drain their power, and a cross-universe trek would likely put further strain on their systems. This could definitely account for an extreme weakening of weapon and shielding systems, and give Shepard and company a fighting chance. I really hope they don't spread them thin over the galaxy, though, and put a new Reaper at the end of every level. I don't want them to each be a weak miniboss of the day. Not just a Scion among husks, or whatever. We first saw the Reapers as epic machine gods, and that's how I'd like to see them on the battlefield. With the exception of ONE OR TWO bosses maybe, I'd rather the Reapers were just story, and not fought at all. Basically, I think the Reapers are awesome, and am afraid that they'll have to be greatly minimized in order to allow the player to fight them. I don't want that.




I actually don't care for this line of thinking at all. Are the Reapers REALLY incapable of determining desirable qualities for themselves, without resorting to some sort of medieval trial-by-combat classification system? Thinking of the Reapers as Cyborgs presents two realistic reasons to harvest aliens.

1) They need raw genetic material. They're part organic, and organic parts die, so they need new tissue.

2) They seek to analyze individuals for beneficial traits. Perhaps one in a million humans has a super immune system, for example. They harvest them all to examine them all, and incorporate desirable trains into themselves.

I'm ok with either of those, but not "you defeated us in what was clearly a complete fluke, but that means you must be the bestest, so we want to be just like you!"



I can definitely see how that would make them the most interesting species to the Reapers, particularly if what I was saying about sifting a population for interesting new traits to add to themselves is correct. I don't see that it provides a reason to shape a Reaper like a human, though. That still just seems silly.



Could be, but again, I see no evidence to hint in this direction.



If I see them as Cyborgs, I can understand them needing organic tissue, for reasons I stated above, and in other places in this thread. I no longer take issue with them processing people. Still, though, I just can't think of any GOOD reason to shape a Reaper like a person, even in an intermediate shape. I completely don't buy the argument that they're doing it out of respect for someone who managed to defeat one of their number. That notion seems antiquated and ridiculously simplistic for beings as powerful as the Reapers.

The only possible reason at all that I can think of for them to shape themselves like a person is if they use civilization as one giant experiment in evolution. They ignore the universe for 50k years, then come back, and change themselves into whatever's workin' for the current state of things. That still seems to ascribe a certain humbleness to the Reapers that I never saw in game, though. I can't see them following along in the wake of evolutionary randomness. They seem like the sort to pick and choose their attributes for good reason.




Yep, that sure seems to be what they're about these days.



Perhaps. I like the energy drain theory though. I can't imagine they'll be overly bewildered by the tactics of the current batch of aliens. They've been fighting various races for millions of years, after all. They're not fighting on unfamiliar terms, they've just lost their element of surprise. They might not have it quite as easy, but it's nothing new, and (if they were all at full power), they still have unstoppable force. One of their number almost defeated the combined races, after all. Without some other explanation thrown into the mix, I don't think that "they're doing things differently this time" is enough to explain a complete defeat, should it happen.



Yep, good thoughts. I liked reading your opinions, and apologize for the rambling nature of my response. If something didn't make sense, just ignore it. I probably can't explain it anyway.