About The Races: The Reapers 

Leviathans: "We are sick of our worshipers solving their problems by creating synthetic AI's which turn on their creators and destroy them." "Let's build a synthetic AI to solve our problem!"

The reapers are just doing what they were programmed to do, so, the leviathans are the ones who messed up big time

The human reaper was meant to be the CORE of a reaper? OOOOOOOHHHH. Now it all makes sense.

*stares at random cuttlefish in aquarium* I'M ON TO YOU BABY CTHULHU!!

The a good chunk of this was covered in 'Leviathan' dlc for ME3 from the Leviathans' POV. Basically billions of years ago the Leviathan, as one of the First Ones and apparently immortal, reached a point technologically that was lightyears more advanced than any of the races in the galaxy, which they dominated in order to service themselves so that they (the Leviathan) could have an easier life while viewing themselves as '"benevolent" masters. Eventually the younger races decided to make their own servants so they could have an easier life as well, so they created adaptive AI's. These AI's invariably adapted beyond their original programming as well as their creators abilities and turned against them. Which led to "Cycles" of the natural rise and propagation of organic (slave) races followed by artificial extinctions via AI machine races on the galactic scale. Which was an inconvenience for the Leviathan. The Leviathan, believing themselves to be immune to the problems of the lesser servant races, created their own AI (the Catalyst) to investigate the problem and develop a solution for them so that they could get back to living the life of comfort. After an eon or more the Catalyst advanced beyond its original programming and determined that it's creators (the Leviathan) were part of the problem and the only way to fix it as well as to preserve them before it became too late, was to "harvest" and convert them into Reaper form, the harvested Leviathan became the first true Reaper, Harbinger, which was at least a billion years ago. With each subsequent cycle new Reapers were made to help "preserve" the races of galactic civilization before they're too (theoretically) became lost. This is apparently a complete deal, they save all recorded information of each harvested race as well as upload or store the individual consciousness, their essence and the basic components of their bodies to be used to make more or to repair the Reapers. After an unknown number of Cycles, the Catalyst AI determined that rather than waiting for everything go south before they could rush in to try "save" as many advanced races within the galaxy before it became too late, that the Reapers should instead force the collapse of galactic civilization themselves. And eventually, "indoctrinated" their own slave races (which often failed within a few Cycles) to help indoctrinate or subdue other races, to build and maintain the Mass Relays and the Citadel so the new races could quickly link up with the larger galactic civilization and develop along a pre-specified technological path as fast as possible These indoctrinated races also removed all traces of the Reapers existence. Afterwards the Reapers retired into "Dark Space", which is between the galaxies where they would sleep unit the next Cycle, which was normally about every 50,000 years. The Reapers, as with most integrated AI networks in the galaxy, operate in a pure democracy to build a consensus by majority as to how best to carry out their task with cold efficiency, with the Catalyst AI stepping in to direct and modify the parameters as needed to improve efficiency, until a new more effective solution is discovered. I think I covered everything. It's all rather dumb and great extent ironic circular logic if you ask me. You can thank our wise and gracious EA...oops, I mean, the Leviathan for that one.

Is.... is it weird that I actually kind of like the BWAAAAAAAAH sound the Reapers make?

Let me try this.. Yo dawg! I heard you don't like getting destroyed by artificial intelligence, so we created these artificial intelligence units to wipe you guys out every 50 thousand years so that you won't be destroyed by artificial intelligence. Good video.

Really wish Mass effect Andromeda was Mass Effect Prothean or Mass Effect Leviathan.

Just recently played the Citadel DLC 5 years after release Still amazing game

The reapers are made out to be the bad guys but they have preserved life for billions of years G.G REAPERS

its quite sad for the previous cycles. they didn't have the hope we had they knew they where going to get wiped out so at the start began to design the first Crucible. the cycle after that would of went in thinking the same over and over till our cycle

I want to romance sovereign 😩😩😤

Shame that reaper and sandworm at 4:07 didn´t fuse and form a metal dragon like the one in the Andromeda trailer, would be awesome. Terrifying but awesome :D

Mass effect one and two were hinting something much different then the cliché protecting everyone from artificial intelligence cop out.The reapers are good villains

I have a problem with the reapers: if they harvest species to make more reapers in the shape of the species (human reaper larva ME2) why would they all look like leviathans?

Come on, didn't you hear Ulysses Klaw in "Age of Ultron"? Cuttlefish are terrifying! ^_^

3:28 what is that mission, is it arrival? I never played arrival

The Reapers are just tools for Japanese Tentacle He***

So, a reaper invades the halo galaxy and attack the covenant who would win

Well, they mentioned something about synthetics overthrowing creators/machines beating their creators whatever. But what if that enemy to organics is the Reapers? The Intelligence's purpose is to solve this problem. But wouldn't that mean, the solution to the machine-creator problem is the problem itself? That would explain the reapers' saying that they have no beginning nor end. It's a disaster trying to correct another disaster by being the disaster in the first place... To put it simply, a self replicating chain

I don't think you've ever seen a cuttlefish.

I want a pet cuddle fish!

also thats why u dont let ai do the work heard of skynet

There are 4 types Sovereign class Aviation Dreadnoughts : Ise version of Reapers Destroyer class : Arleigh Burke of Reapers Troop Transports/ Escort Carriers : Essex class CVL of Reapers Slaughter house : Gas chamber in space

I think the Reapers were kind of ruined in Mass Effect 3. The main problem was inconstancy. They didn't attack The Citadel, which I've never heard adequately justified. And while off screen there were destroying everything, on screen they weren't very threatening. Compare Sovereign at the end of ME1 to any part of ME3. He was disgustingly powerful. Now I know after that battle the Citadel races took his technology and became more advanced but still. I don't feel that Mass Effect 3 felt desperate enough. It felt more like we were fighting a conventional war against a powerful nation, not facing ultimate destruction by a race of overwhelming force.

Makes me wonder how harbinger took down his first civilization since he was the first reaper before they became the army they became later on

I want a Pet Reaper....of course i would want them Tiny like No bigger then a 2L bottle but a Car size would be interesting...use it to travle around the place

But instead of warm friendly rays you get mind control

The destroyers escort the destroyers?

Can ye do the geth in next video ?

is it just me, or does the Didact of halo 4 sound exactly like harbinger? Same voice actor?

If the Thanix cannon fires a stream of molten metal, where does that metal come from`? Its hardly an endless supply of ammo that regenerates.

Dont worry, their leaders are far more civilized than you think. But still...😨

awesome vid bro, keep it up :)

Oops

They are more than good villains, they are some great Neo-Lovecraftian abominations.

Ahh yes, the reapers. 2 Galaxies now in harmony, yet humanity still cannot reach the moon.

Where are the Reapers staying during the hibernation period?

Reapers don't seal your credits like shifty space cows though

Benelovent lol

I wish this was in polish :)

Straight away, I'm firing my lazer.

Right off the bat, a Destroyer on Rannoch.

my question is, was sovereign a prothean reaper?

If you do something well enough, people overlook/forgive the fuck ups/stupid shit. I love Mass Effect! But, the Leviathan race has no hands...How in the hell could they build machines?! Second, you notice your subservient races build ai and it kills them...over and over again...so your solution is to build an ai?! 🤦🏾‍♂️

Shepard x Harbinger 4 eva

Choose your words wisely my friend

I thought they were techno organic

BWAAAAAAAAA!!!

If the reapers existed and saw how earth was doing, they’d be commencing the harvest early 😂

also, a single Sovereign class on its own, is more then a match for at least 3 dreadnought class alliance cruisers

I love the reapers favorite villain.where can I get one?lol

The reapers where inspired by leaf bugs not cuttlefish.

Giant squids? What?! They look like giant fleas!

They look more like water scorpions to me -especially sovereign

Ugh, Harbinger's voice is terrible and narmy.

SPACE!!!

Thank you for saving me from reading 100s of pages in my codex.

In a way the intelligence was fulfilling its programming.

they are not a problem when you the usa in it why nuuuuuuukes

There is one class of reaper that specializes in the creation of new reapers we only see it briefly at the end of me2. There are some diverse reapers that deviate from the stock sovereign frame also seen at the end of me2. I think that reapers have casts where some reapers are upgraded and modified. Meaning the leaders of the reaper society look the most distinct and have the most power.

@MassEffectFollower , Reaper Destroyers resemble Leaf Nymphs not cuddlefish :P

You should maybe try the Protheans!

Great to watch with the announcement of mass effect Andromeda release date! (March 21)

Please do the rachni 😁😁😁

well i want a cuttlefish as pet now

Harbinger Has 2 laser cannons

you already posted this hours ago.

Was this re-uploaded?

1:08 no. reapers are created in the image of harbinger, the first reaper, who was created in the form of a leviathan, the first harvested species. the human reaper was just a creepy experiment by harbinger, because shepard proved humans to be interesting to him.

I was really disappointed by the ending, not just for the usual things you hear like the final choice not making a difference or the last 30 minutes not making any sense. Those things made the ending down right bad but what made me disappointed in the first place was that the catalyst felt like some last minute dues ex machina. They made the reapers way too unbeatable and instead of utilizing some deeply hidden weakness or being a part of designing some clever way to take them down, you had the solution handed to you. The endings of the character arcs were really good though.