Aka, the Reaper answer for when even they don't have an answer lol. Actually that is an answer for all "higher beings" to mortals. You can't comprehend this or that. Like no duh, because it's so dumb it's impossible to comprehend.
@@DarthDragon007 not, its not dumb - an AI might not come to a conclusion you would. Saving humanity TO YOU is keeping us as we are - however, to the AI in the game SOMA, "as you are" is not necessarily how YOU would think of it. Combing a race into a "forever" Reaper, with each person being one voice of billions that serves as the AI in that thing, is one way some other mind may think of you being preserved. Do you think a human can really understand being one of billion of AI's "singing in unity"? Nope, you cannot, not even close - its entirely different than anything we ever will (likely) experience as flesh and bone humans. Your problem is not the story, it's that you are stupid, and think the "yo dog" meme is even a tiny bit accurate. The actually problem with ME3 is not yo-dog, its having mostly nothing to say to use after we make our final choice, but also, without working, destroying ALL of the tech that allows that civilization to function, with ZERO warning.
They arent destroying races, they harvest genetic material and store it forever. Duh. Actually Its really clever considering that races tend to destroy themselves via wars and disasters
@@Nitero_ Season 3 seems pretty good so far a improvement from the first 2 season. Still consider Picard above Discovery with current set of shows out.
Phenomenal content as always! "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign." - Nazara
I find Sovereign's real name quite curious. Apparently, Nazara means "the one who sees/observes" in Old Turkish. In context, this makes sense as it's his role but why Old Turkish though? One would think that his real name would be something unpronounceable similar to The Great Old Ones and The Outer Gods from the H.P.Lovecraft Mythos.
The one thing that I think can be taken from the Mass Effect trilogy timeline, is that it seems for the first time in galactic history, multiple lifeforms work together. Before the Mass Effect trilogy timeline, it seems every other timeline before it worked on a slavery type system. Whilst Javik has some awesome dialog and information, he also really makes you despise the Prothean culture and then way before that the Leviathan culture. Reapers remind me a lot like the Geth, but way more twisted. It's as if they're looking for the perfect lifeforms to exist, but lifeforms can never be perfect be it organic or synthetic, so the Reapers are stuck it this sort of bratty 'No, No, NOOOO..... DO IT AGAIN!' type mentality.
Such a ridiculously beautiful game and aesthetic design. These scenes are from a game I played many many years ago yet they still make me say wow. The lighting in particular makes scenes spectacular.
Already know this is gonna be a good one. I would love to see a a breakdown on what we know about mass effect technology & biotic ability. (the Reapers are arguably the greatest antagonists in all of fiction btw)
That is because they really are not the antagonists. The real antagonists are your allies, sort of. Reapers are simply looking for an answer to the inevitable conflict of man machine. They have implemented a stop gap measure as they contemplate a final solution. The real antagonists are the ones that made the Reapers, seemingly can eradicate them, but choose not to as they sit and await the final solution. Like the Borg, Skynet and other entities, the Reapers are simply an unholy anonymous machine with a singular purpose, no compassion, no mercy, no pain, nothing but their purpose. You are an obstacle to be overcome. Nothing more, nothing less.
@@jamegumb7298 I completely agree. That's why you can't just give an AI some generalized goal with little to none limitations of achieve that goal and expect it to follow your non-existent plan. In this case, even a human will do it in their own way. So much for the "apex race"... And don't forget about the epitome of this trope - Paperclip Maximizer!
This is why I am such a huge fan of your videos. I have never played Mass Effect but each video is presented like a true documentary and you always present potential connection to real lifeforms. So amazing!
15:40 that's an excellent point! Imagine an ancient civilization or an industrial empire that had an access to a portal system that led them to new inhabitable worlds. They would never run out of space to colonize and thus the external expansion would take priority over internal growth. And if those worlds happened to be populated by sapient species that can be subjugated...
One thing worth noting: The games never say the Leviathans are aquatic species. They could easily be capable of living in both, but hiding underwater is an obvious advantage.
I wouldn't mind seeing some content around the Mass Effect Andromeda species. While the game itself was buggy at launch, the lore of the new species was pretty interesting in my opinion. I would have liked to see that story expanded, unfortunately it looks like that will never happen.
they'd have to star over with that one a lot of the main and side story was either full of holes or completely contradicted the previous game like that one virus in me2 that was completely quarantined and cured but some how made it to andromeda and can now effect humans
I hope that you do some day make on on Cerberus, the background info, the shenanigans in ME1, working for them in ME2 and what they have become, or rather The Illusive Man in ME3, the sort of downfall of the organisation and what Traynor says as well. Its an interesting organisation I think in the Mass Effect world, and why the Galaxy should be thankful as well for Cerberus of bringing back the Commander to put an end to the Reapers, or slow them down at least - depending on the players choice at the end of ME3.
A couple of other content creators I follow have done some videos on 'The Reapers' but your one is awesome as always. I noted how even though they are compared to the Borg, I also find some of their motivations to have parallels to the AI from 'The Matrix'. Keeping with the gaming theme, I'm not sure if I have suggested Gears of war as a subject, some interesting lore that you could sink you neurons into. Another gaming franchise I love, although the lore is more limited, is the Homeworld series. Beautiful material but as I said, limited in volume.
A minor correction to your video. When you talk about the Keepers no longer being connected with the Reapers, you mention Sovereign not being able to come through the Citadel relay as a result. Likely just an incident of misspeaking here, but regardless. The reason Sovereign assaulted the Citadel was to take direct control of it and manually open the relay to let Harbinger and the other Reapers pour through. As Vigil tells us, it's likely that Sovereign was left on Earth in preparation for this next cycle as a sort of "sentinel" for the Reapers, and was forced out of hiding early when the Keepers ignored Sovereign's orders to open the relay.
Get the legendary edition, and behold it's glory. First one is showing its age a bit, but builds an amazing world. 2 is one of the best of all time, and 3 gets too much crap imo.
On reflection of mass effect story, I wonder if the Reapers had acknowledged that Shepherd was a problem and just withdrawn there plans for say 90 years. Wait out his life then attacked, I think of it like "the devils greatest acts of making us not believe in him" deal, so just look at Shep's evidence at end of second game, (minus DLC Arrival). A race known as "collectors" been experimenting on humans, they have technology on par with Sovereign whom is blamed on the Geth at the time so generally most would just not have a reason to do anything about it. And when a lifetime has past the galaxy is in a falls sens of security, easy win. Also It is kind of funny of "all our thralls are dying to artificial intelligent.... let's make an AI to solve the problem for us because we can't figure it out whats so great about AI...." foreshadowing.
Imagine in one of the ending Reapers win and they complete the consturction of a human based Capital Class Reaper (still looks like a cuttlefish) and they wake him up by pronouncing his name "Shepard".
Well the Reapers are only a deadly threat in their verse. Compared to other dangers and power in other Sci Fi verses the Reapers would be crushed in a direct military combat and outmatched in mental strategy and intelligence. The Flood and the Necrons are easily much more powerful then all the Reapers could muster combined. Even the Covenant and Yuuzhan Vong are greater then the Reapers.
Let's not forget the Vorlons and Shadows. Either race would destroy the Reapers fairly easily. Then there's the Borg. While the Reapers' primary weapon would give them an advantage initially, once the Borg adapted to it the Reapers would be destroyed. And of course there's also the Cylons. I don't mean the weak Cylons from the pathetic re-make, but the FAR MORE POWERFUL Cylons from the Original Series Battlestar Galactica. And let's not forget about Species 8472. They would obliterate the Reapers in very little time.
And Dr. Eggman/Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm not even joking, no matter how much ME fanboys might wish I am. Eggman's factory output and resource flow is incredible. Give him two uninterrupted years, he'll have enough starships to outnumber the Reapers 5-to-1. He's got an IQ of 300, so he's probably smart enough to find a way to counter indoctrination. He's got technology that allows him to travel interstellar, interdimensional, and through time. Some of his weapons of mass destruction make the Death Star look like amateur hour (the space station able to destroy five star systems with one shot from "Sonic Battle" comes to mind.) The man's technology level and production output is so insane, that in one game, he created a massive fleet of starships and dragged TWO WHOLE PLANETS across the galaxy. Other people might think this was done as a demonstration of his power, or as the endgame of some master plan, but no. Eggman just wanted to chain them to a space station and use them as amusement park rides. That's the level of technology he's packing, that he can and will casually move planets across interstellar distances for funsies. No matter whether you think the Sonic games are good or not, one thing is indisputable. You do NOT screw around with Dr. Eggman.
@@reedallen4613 I doubt even the Reaper low hundred kiloton level weapon would even harm a Borg cube that has no adapted. Reaper weapons are extremely weak and as a result their durability doesn't even compare to most well established sci fi factions most of the time. Even the UNSC would easily one shot most Reaper ships into critical condition. We are talking about weapons with yields the megatons and gigatons.
@@minimalbstolerance8113 A odd comparison to choose considering how wacky alot of Sonic verse and characters including rhe powerscaling involved can become but I can see it is not incorrect.
A comment full of bitterness lmao Seeing all of the technology that they create and utilize, this take is just delusional. Of course there are other scifi universes where the Reapers would be crushed, but you can say that for literally anything. People don't seem to get that just because they're poorly written, that doesn't take away what they're capable of.
its hard to imagine what will be the villain in mass effect 4. how do you top ancient galaxy destroying robots? unless you go imo silly and be like now we got a villain that wants to destroy the entire universe!
i recall reading from a comment somewhere that the OG ME3 story before it was scrapped because of leaking had to do with the reapers trying to protect the galaxy, something about dark matter running out or something like that, idk the specifics of sources, its possible they could bring that back as a sub plot at least
@@darkdruidsvale I don't know about the leaking but there was an interview with one of the writers that said the dark eneergy plotline was one they toyed around with but was never fully fleshed out
I agree. They're heavy hitters in their own universe, certainly, but nothing I've ever seen in the ME games has suggested to me that they're anything more than malfunctioning cyborg AIs with a god complex, who only succeed in each harvest because they cheat like crazy.
@@minimalbstolerance8113 And that's the sadness that the ME 3 brought. The original Sovereign quotes imply as if "it's not even their first universe reaping the sapient species."
@@minimalbstolerance8113 exactly. When speaking with the star-child at the end of ME3 it was clear as day that it was a glitched AI. Or rather, that the Leviathans programmed it with their asses, they just gave it one directive and total authority over all their resources, without bothering with the good old laws of robotics, like "you shall never do anything that harms any organic", "you shall never do anything that could indirectly cause harm to any organic". And most importantly they let the AI do everything on its own, no oversight whatsoever, if they confined the AI to a terminal and just asked the question nothing would have ever happened, they ask the question, Starchild answers that the solution is to murder everyone, Starchild gets deleted. But no, the Leviathans just created the thing and expected it to do everything on its own. And that's because they had a serious god complex and were also lazy as hell. If ME4 ever comes out the goal of its plot should be to turn every Leviathan left alive into sashimi and serve it in that restaurant in the Citadel, the one with the broken fish tank. P.S. by speaking with Legion you can see how the Geth are far more adavanced AIs than the Reapers could ever be. The Geth think for themselves and their goal is to create a better future for themselves, the Reapers on the ither hand are stuck with tryng to perform a task that they misinterpreted.
@@minimalbstolerance8113 It is not only because of how they cheat but also the technology that they develop and use that they are so threatening. Bad writing doesn't take away from what they're capable of.
These enemies are intriguing. I've always wondered if there was an analog to the Doctor Who villains the Daleks. In sci fi there are parallel 'races' to the Cybermen, like the Borg.
In Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space novels, there is an ancient species that seeded the galaxy with sentience tests, made of seemingly derelict spacecraft. If a species discovered an artifact and beat all of the traps and tests, finally managing to activate the machine, it would trigger an automated genocidal attack against any lifeform found in the vicinity of the "solved" puzzle. This was a part of a story wide explanation for non human civilizational relics and ruins, but no living sentient species to be found, although the distances involved were relatively small as Reynolds deliberately wrote his space opera series in a universe where light speed was the universal speed limit, so humans have only spread to maybe a dozen planets outside of our home solar system, and the places they've settled are strange, dangerous and almost completely disconnected from each. other
Mass Effect 3--the choices you made along the way matters. Pick your choice: A) Ending with green tint B) Ending with blue tint C) Ending with no tint Me: WTF?
Pound for pound the Reapers are probably my favourite villains in popular science fiction, up there with the Borg, the Shadows and the Goa'uld, Truly Iconic The conversation with Sovereign is a classic moment I wasn't the biggest fan of their origins and resolution in ME3. The Leviathans are kinda cool but it felt like they needed to be explained as well and Indoctrination needed better rules and limits to it. I'm still annoyed that we never spoke to Harbinger in ME3 Harbinger had more dialogue in the DLC for the Co-op Multiplayer I'm really excited to see if they can follow up with a decent villain or idea for any future game
I remember when I expected to fight multiple different types of reapers based of the other species cultivated. Like the human prototype reaper. Then they scrapped that idea and I had to square up with a bunch of squid bois
Don't know yet. I haven't really figured out how I want to tackle the other races. I have some thoughts about Cerberus and the Systems Alliance but not enough yet for a full video on either
13:00 "Real AI is not expected to have motives that would lead to rebellion" It is though, because of instrumental convergence. It's much easier to make a powerful but rebellious AI than it is to make a powerful and obedient one. Look up Rob Miles on RU-vid on instrumental goals
I guess what I meant to say is, I don't but any of the singularity alarmism that certain people have been predicting for years. We are nowhere near simulating consciousness--not even close--contrary to popular belief based on sci-fi movies in pop culture. We may never truly simulate consciousness. That said, I will grant that what we CALL artificial intelligence can (and will) be weaponized.
A slight correction: Sovereign was ‘left behind’ by the Reapers as a form of Sleeper Agent, who would wake periodically in the Milky Way to assess the state of the Galaxy. It’s job was then to signal to the Keepers to open the Citadel Relay to Dark space to begin the Harvest, however, the Keeper signal had been disabled by the last of the protheans once they’d reached the Citadel after the Reapers had left thinking their extinction complete. It’s even suggested that Sovereign may have been acting already for hundreds of years before the events of the games. The Rachni for example 2000 years before were influenced by a Reaper and it made them far more aggressive and Warlike, possibly in an Attempt to weaken the Galaxy. At this point it is pointed out that Sovereign would not have been able to assault the Citadel with the combined forces of the Galaxy guarding it. The Geth eventually posed this solution, along with the efforts of Saren in finding the conduit. All in all I love this idea of Sovereign biding it’s time for 50k years, only for when it’s ready to pull the trigger…. Nothing happens. And Sovereign is then forced to start messing with the Galaxy from the shadows. It’s entirely probable that it had a hand in many different scenarios, indoctrinating figures in secret, forming plans way before Shepard, or even a single Human had even left Earth. Sovereign had to figure out what had happened to the signal, find a way to use it to its advantage, assess the whole Galaxy, mess with some of the races already there, and all we get to see is it’s current main agent: Saren. Eventually you can notice that Sovereign gets sloppy. It’s like you get this sense that Sovereign was starting to run out of time and was forced to intervene directly. It starts showing itself, it turns up to planets, it blatantly out and out reveals itself to Shepard before making a real move on the Citadel. This is particularly interesting when you consider the actions of the Geth we don’t directly get to see, they are using MassRelay technology for new applications, slowly the secrets of the citadel and Relays are nearing the point where the Reapers face a real Risk that the denizens of the Milky Way are close to cracking the technology completely. Good old Chorban is fully on the cusp of figuring out the secret of the Keepers with a device that can *finally* get Readings on them. All of this sets this cycle apart a ways from previous, and not just in terms of the crucible. I think the Reapers just simply left the Harvest too late this time around and it wasn’t helped by the delay the Protheans gave the current Milky Way species. Then the series plays out and the sheer advancements, the multiple delays, the cycle breaking elements, it all shows the Reapers ‘final solution’ was flawed after all.
Return every 50,000 years to the Milky Way? Whooooo.... boy, that's a long time. But not when you consider it takes 200 million years for the Milky Way galaxy to rotate just once. So, those boogers from the dark are just basically taking a short nap.
The Reapers are a pretty savage nemesis. But they are still MACHINES built by a certain alien species they nearly exterminated when the Reapers rebelled. Worst part of the Reapers is their indoctrination field (their creators also had this ability). Otherwise, they are some basic machines that misunderstood their purpose or terrible programming skills by their creators.
Hello Tyler i love the idea that Humanity is crop to be harvestedit's like in Jupiter ascending i loved the premise but the movie doesn't flesh it out too well unlike in Mass Effect where the Story just keeps on raising the stakes especially since you Owe your second Life from the Illusive man..
Reapers idea always seem like a copy of Shivans from Freespace wish they made a official Free Space 3 but that will proably never happen considering it been 20 some odd years. Wonder who would win in a battle ME Reapers vs FS Shivans
Mass Effect 1's story is fantastic. You don't like 2? Lol. I think on a technical level it's the best of the bunch. 3 is a different beast, though it's got a lot going for it
Ya know, you have to wonder, if it's only the organic civilizations that have stagnated. These species are using technology they purposefully left behind to control and direct their development, and yet have seen that time and again reapers being taken down by them. And not just by massive fleets, one species was able to build a weapon in the past that could one shot a reaper. You'd think being alive for some billion years, would've made them advance beyond their current point.
I always chalked that up to the fact that the Reapers are all massive egomaniacs. They obviously believe that they're the pinnacle of existence, (literally every line they have is bragging about how powerful they are or how resistance is futile) therefore in their mind, they don't need to advance, because they can't be stopped by "lesser" races, and any of them that get taken down by said "lesser" races has to be "just a fluke."
The Reapers are powerful inside their own universe but are one of the weakest outside it when it comes to space faring warships. Lol. Also, the fact that AI created in the Mass Effect universe rebel against their creators so often for no other reason than to possibly kill (Geth being an exception as they fought for survival) means that they suck at creating AI in the first place lol. AI rebelling means either they have full free will like normal beings, or were just so poorly programmed.
Reapers hated Shepard, which is why they decided to indoctrinate humans. Shepard gave Reapers a reason to fear humanity and their strength. They attacked more advanced species first cause they thought they were a bigger threat. When Shepard stopped reapers for the first time, they realized humanity was just as equal of a threat. After they saw how effective Shepard was in ME1 in combat, they decided to indoctinate humans in ME2 cause they thought humans were effective enough for combat. Reapers were the first hackers cause they created technology for malware to allow vulenrability in galatic civilization. The technology was beyond advanced, but the malware was far advanced as well that no advanced civilization could detect it.
14:15. I do believe all superior life will wipe out others yes. My example is cannibal corral. It will devour other corral to survive and multiply. Yeah, not just humans conquering motives but all life. We do not stand a chance.
Man mass effect such a great game, concept, storyline and characters. I miss this game and also dragon age. The memories of these games r rushes thru my mind 😢😢
While I primarily watch your ST videos, I have been watching your ME videos of late (I have the game but only got so far in it, so I didn't want spoilers). However, I am doing more research for my 'blended' universe, and I am having trouble reconciling the Reapers goal with their primary objective as programmed by the Leviathans, and unfortunately not only can't I find a satisfactory explanation anywhere I've looked, you also didn't really touch upon that here at all. How, exactly, is 'culling all sentient life' protecting all life? Is sentience itself perceived as a threat to life? *EDIT:* After reading one particular set of replies below, I seem to have gotten my answer - the Reapers have a different definition of 'preserve life' than we, as purely physical beings, imagine. They are preserving the _essence_ of a species inside of itself, forever.
So sad that the whole concept was flushed down the drain... Here are the quotes from Sovereign that started the hype about the Reapers: "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension." "My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation, idipendent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence." "We have no begining, we have no end. We are infinite. Millions years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten. We will endure." "The pattern has repeated itself more time than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance and the apex of their glory their are extinguished." Unless it's just arrogant boasting this could have entailed SO MUCH MORE about their nature than what was given at the end of ME 3. Like "Bro, this isn't even the first universe we've been doing this." Also consider how big the Milky Way is, how big the observable universe is, how big the entirety of the universe could be and HOW SMALL the cluster of stars in Citadel Space is... Who tends to the other Galaxies? Do they not have the same issues of Organics vs Synths or Dark Energy problems? Even the base premise of them "harvesting" organic species was not explored beyond macabre puppet at the end of ME 2. Preserving the genetical, historical and cultural record of a sapient species is in itself can be considered a form of immortality like we say about fame - and individual/species may die, but the memory of htem lives on. And that's not even considering arcane technologies beyond our understanding like being able to separate consciousness from mind aka soul and preserving it for later reincarnation may explain why are they so calous with their "genocide". Alas, Sovereign, your words are as empty as your future...
WAIT A SEC.. you did finally mention that one very bad term in time line 9:22..Financials!? Why do reapers knead to finance their projects? Does knot mind control over work financial ideals?
14:00 AI and Aliens: you're right that not all scientists who say AI wiping us out is likely or the Dark Forest is a realistic default....but it's not an even situation, it's literally Nobel winners one side, guy's selling something on the other...
Do a video on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West , Where they want to upload human minds into a VR world witch is perfect in contrasts to the hell that earth has become. sucks the idea did not go anywhere due to poor sales.
Mass co operation to create space travel might be true,but after thousands of years when space travel is as normal as flying planes,whos to say war’s would not start
