When you bump into Gianna Parasini on illium and ask her about her next mission she tells you that everyone is talking about dark energy and whether it’s something her bosses (the board of executives of Noveria) are concerned about.
I think it'd be cool if Mass Effect 4 started out with galaxies blinking out of existence in the sky, and you have to figure out why it's happening. Eventually you'd come upon the fact that use of dark energy in those galaxies, since they didn't have reapers to slow them, is causing those galaxies to age and die shockingly quickly. So you have to find a way to stop that from happening in the Milky Way. To stretch it further, you might notice Andromeda is dimming as well, and the colonists from there would return with a warning about the dark energy crisis killing their galaxy. Edit: I just looked at the Andromeda Galaxy in the trailer. It is noticeably smaller and less extravagant than it is in real life and in ME:A.
@@MrHulthen also just noticed: when the camera zooms in on the star in the trailer, there's a subtle but definite sound of the tick of a clock. Plus the camera specifically passing by the hourglass nebula to signify something to do with time. I feel like a conspiracy theorist, but it seems deliberate. Lol.
By converting it into another form of energy, using biotics. If the dark energy is then "used up" (converted into another form of energy, since energy doesn't get lost), the universe's expansion would stop. It would then shrink rapidly, merging every black hole into one that contains the mass of the entire universe, the black hole collapses, and starts the universe all over again. Biotics would literally save the universe/keep the universal cycle going. The dark energy plot doesn't make sense, since using dark energy is a good thing. Or i got something wrong, which i kinda doubt, since I read a lot about dark energy, black holes and astrophysics in general (wanted to become an astrophysicist at one point). Though it is possible, that I'm wrong
From my understanding eezo produces dark energy when subjected to a current and that mass effect/biotics is just the manipulation of the concentration of dark energy created. it's also possible that eezo itself is/contains particles formed from energizing the dark energy field similar to electrons and the electromagnetic field; that being said the use of eezo could be reintroducing "stored" dark energy or adding to it by turning electrical energy into dark energy. i could also be wrong and eezo just act as a catalyst for this energy conversion. i dont have much scientific training so take all this with a grain of salt.
@@woahdan5701 Eezo is a mixture of Higgs Boson, quantum vacuum energy and dark matter. I’m a thermodynamics and fluid mechanics engineer. The only way a physicist can make money is engineering. It’s best not to get bogged down in the science, just enjoy it. Midichlorians ruined the force in Starwars for example. Lost its mystique. The complete, out there theories are what makes a franchise good. Technobabble it’s called, I quite like it. Even though it’s completely made up. Sounds cool. That’s all that matters.
Idk what ME4 will be about but you just can't top giant killer squids harvesting entire races for millions of years every 50,000 years.. you just cannot top that I'm all for a new Triology but it doesn't have to be a threat of a galactic scale..
I disagree. A. Intergalactic Ai. “What happens when the reapers aren’t there to stop the cycle of Biologicals making synthetics”. Where synthetics have overtaken a galaxy, used all its resources and are now moving on. To our Galaxy. They have no interest in preserving life, no matter how twisted the catalyst machine logic was. It thought it was doing the right thing. You could have “refugees” from other galaxies warning what is coming. A governmental fight on to either build an ark and try to outrun them, or stand and fight. Just an idea. I would like it big though. Even if the Turian/Earth first contact war would be interesting. It needs an epic ending that no one knows the answer to. If you had too many choices it would break the lore. The hopelessness of thinking it was Armageddon and we couldn’t win, was great. I’m sick of Cerberus, they are a bland enemy. I’d forgotten how much they dominated ME3.
There are some things about the Dark Energy plot that can be rescued (like having the reapers harvest civiliziations to try to save something) but the idea that anything that happens in the Milky Way can somehow affect the entire universe in all of its infinity is laughable. It would need to be local, like usage of dark energy will destroy the galaxy or something along those lines. Anyway nice video! brings back memories of the time between ME2 and 3 when the dark energy hints where big on fan sites and forums.
@@masterodst1 Given the size of the universe I find it very hard to belive anything could have somehow traveled everywhere, there is just not enough time. There's 200 billion galaxies and only 14 billion years since the universe began and we know the reapers aren't specially fast since it took them 6 months to get from the edge of the galaxy to batarian space.
The Mass Effect universe seems to produce alien life rather easily. An that is in just one average galaxy like the milky way. Since the visible universe potentially contains several trillion galaxies, there ought to be at least hundreds of billions of species. Therefore, a storyline that affects the fate of the entire universe is tricky and not something that most players will grasp or embrace. And the main critique with the ending is not the direction, but the execution :)
Also, all the species we see in the trilogy from The Milky Way still come from less than 1% of its stars. Not to mention what races sit potentially behind dozens, even hundreds of Mass Relays that were never opened and explored.
That might be a particular aspect of our galaxy. Maybe certain physic aspects make life more possible here or the cycles promote the appearance of new sentient life. Like protheans experimented with asari to make them biotic and they were studying our ancestors. Perhaps leviathan or others did the same with primates and other predecessors to the sentient species to guide evolution.
Could go the Xeelee Sequence path where a dark matter based species is terraforming the universe for themselves and killing all bayronic life in the process.
The ME3 ending is a result of one lore guy having too much work and before he made a good ending the first version was already finished and became the one that shipped
100% Agree, I posted on another thread that if it does indeed take place 600+ years later (a BioWare writer said ME4 will reference both the OT and ME:A) I hope Shepard is like Captain America and has been frozen the whole time...thaw him/her out and save the galaxy again haha.
@@rippedtidegames no, Shepard's story is finished. The control ending is the ideal ending where Shepard sacrifices themselves to use the reapers to rebuild the galaxy. Even the best destroy ending with high war assets and Shepard surviving still leave the Geth dead and the galaxy utterly fucked up. And that whole Captain America frozen in ice idea sounds beyond silly, it won't work
Honestly i think its a good thing to let shepards story end. If the next mass effect game is set centuries after mass effect 3 then theres no reason for shepard to exist. If it follows the destroy ending at that point shepard has been through so much bs that a fitting end to it all would be if shepard spends the rest of his/her life with his/her love interest, grow old and die peacefully. Theres no reason that makes sense for shepard to go into cryo to put himself/herself through more stress in the future, shepard is not master chief.
Imagine if there was a hidden ending where if you gather the maximum possible charm or intimidation, you can speak to Harbinger just before beaming up and convince it to work together with the rest of the galaxy, integrating with the other species, having an embassy on the Citadel or even becoming a council race. Now THAT would make Shepard one-of-a-kind.
There's still so much that hasn't been explored. I would love to see a species that doesn't use mass effect technology, but instead they use antimatter. I don't know how true this is, but I remember hearing that the Milky Way is only 1% explored in Mass Effect
I actually have thought about exploring this idea in a Mass Effect and Star Trek crossover fanfic. Trek ships do use antimatter to create a warp field that bends space time around a ship. While Mass Effect ships use dark matter to change the over all mass of a ship via mass effect fields. Both work in a similar but different way.
In ME2 you find evidence of a race that simply ran it's course with its own native FTL technology that never leveraged Reaper technology or the relays and as a result probably just died off without drawing the attention of the Reapers. The funny thing is if you evolve far enough away from the Mass Relays, you probably never stumble onto Reaper tech and never have to deal with them because FTL is so unbelievably slow in the ME universe when you're off the ME grid and relay on an Alcubierre style drive
Ya the amount of explored galaxy is cited as very low, particularly because the mass relays are placed in specific areas so most of the galaxy is still unfeasible to explore. It would be really cool to pioneer uncharted space. Or explore the space between stars like in legions loyalty mission.
Another great video my friend! I really hope they explore the dark energy plot more in future games. There is so much potential there to do a lot of interesting things. Fingers crossed.
Do you think the jardaan for mass effect andromeda could have had some sort of interaction with the reapers? Because both the jardaan and the reapers share way to many similarities between one another to be mere coincidence
I'll go even further, the Jardaan are Andromeda's equilviant of the Milky Way's Levianthan's aka the Alpha species of their Galaxy and were in comms with them.
I loved your video! When I first learned about the dropped Dark Energy Plot many years ago, so many things clicked into place for me. I remember reading an article years ago that I wish I could find today that had more details about the dropped plotline. The article was not an interview with Drew Karpyshyn. I believe it was an interview with one of the other writers. Here's what I remember: 1) The Dark Energy Plot was dropped for a very silly reason. The Dark Energy saturation that was threatening the galaxy/Universe was directly caused by advanced space-faring races using the mass effect relays for travel (FTL travel was never the true purpose of the mass relays, but I don't remember what their "true" purpose was). Early in the trilogy it is mentioned that the mass relays were not destructible by any known method. That was later contradicted in one the DLC's (Arrival, maybe?). That left a big plot hole. If the mass relays were responsible for hastening the end of Universe, why wouldn't the Reapers just come blow up all the mass relays? That left the writers scrambling to come up with a new motive for the Reapers. 2) The Reapers didn't build the mass relays. The Reapers *were* constructed by the same nameless race that constructed the mass relays, though. Originally, the Reapers destroyed all space-faring civilizations on behalf of their creators, then eventually turned on their creators when they wouldn't stop using the mass relays themselves out of a sense of self-preservation. Then whenever a significant build-up of Dark Energy was detected in the galaxy, the Reapers would return and harvest all the space-faring races. 3) The original ending choices would have boiled down to you having to convince the Reapers to either (Paragon) work together with the other races to find a solution to the Dark Energy Crisis or (Renegade) having to convince the Reapers to spare humanity and destroy the other advanced civilizations since humanity was so comparatively young. The trilogy would have ended either way with the Dark Energy Crisis unresolved. The idea was that the Dark Energy Crisis was supposed parallel climate change and the Reapers were, more or less, eco-terrorists that decided millennia ago that the only way to preserve the Universe was to destroy all the species that were "polluting" the galaxy with Dark Energy. Personally, I like this plot way more than the generic man versus machines conflict that we got in ME3. That would have made ME3 a completely different game if this is the direction they were originally intended to go.
I used to think, (before 2 and 3) that the reapers actually travelled between galaxies during the 50000 year cycle constantly wiping out organic life across a set number of galaxies, rather than just hiding in dark space, so the dark energy theory fitted well into my thinking about them. I also had an idea that they were the universe's balance feeding off organic life and the energy (mass effects) they produced to keep the universe from collapsing
Thats a really cool idea. This makes it seem like extinguishing life is exhausting, as reapers have to constantly jump from galaxy to galaxy in order to just keep up with the population control. Instead of just mindlessly waiting in dark space. It could establish a negative stigma of organic life behaving like a plague, like how agent smith sees humanity in the matrix. It reinforces sovereigns original statement in the first game that organic life was a mistake, a genetic defect because organic life is populating at such an uncontrollable rate! This plotline could of tied in alot of cool possibilities.
@@m33tballa Since the reapers make a new reaper from each species they harvest stands to reason that after a few million years they would have more than they need for a small galaxy like the milky way. I could see them looking to other galaxies to harvest and the closest to the milky way is andromeda, so maybe the scourge was that galaxy's answer to a reaper invasion.
Well the Illusive man was indoctrinated by the Reapers which is why he could not control them so even if Udina was indoctrinated by Cerberus they were all being controlled in the end by the Reapers.
@@slackersnacker5541 well didn't give it that much thought when I played the first time. But I've been playing M.E. LEGENDARY and some of the things Udina says made me think
@@lilmsscarlett134 I personally don't think Udina was indoctrinated, I think he was just power hungry & used the current events to try and take control. He wasn't around any Reaper tech long enough for them to take control of him.
Great video, it would have been interesting to see how this idea would have played out in the OG trilogy had it been written that way. I kind of think the Dark Energy idea was used or influenced the Scourge that Mass Effect Andromeda's plot dealt with so I'm not convinced that Mass Effect 4 will return to Dark Energy, at least not yet.
The Synthesis ending reminds me of Babylon 5 and the leaving of the first races. Though in a fixed state Shepard could be the catalyst to halting a destructive cycle to usher in a cycle of growth and Stewardship of the Galaxy. I can see Reapers being a mix between vorlons and shadows in that context. This could also come with a slight retcon of Shepard dying completely. It would explain why even the reapers are stunted technically while the Remnant tech( and the Andromeda races) are tangentially more advanced in many ways. The Geth might have also realized this and planned their own exedus when they built an FTL telescope using a Mass Relay.
I want dark energy to be a plot point and for the canon ending to be that Shepard lived after picking to Destroy the Reapers.. for Liara to have started basically a modified Lazarus Project as the Shadow Broker to ensure Shepard is able to get back to being him/herself.. Dark Matter should be tearing the universe apart, and one of these tears should act as a basically a time portal that for all intents and purposes merges the Milky Way Trilogy with Andromeda. Make Ryder & Jaal (only good things in the game) squadmates, Shep main character and have us start off going through dead Reapers to try and understand more about them
I hope they turn him into Demolition man and cryo him, awakening shepherd when the galaxy needs him, or his cybernetics make him have an asari level life span. That way, we keep shepherd.
TH-cam read my mind again lol. I was just thinking about ME4 bringing dark energy back into play and boom your video pops up a few hrs later. I think it would make sense to bring it back considering its already sprinked in here and there and people were upset it wasn't used. Cant wait to find out!!
The biggest issue is that we are talking about the destruction of the whole universe, however we never left Milky Way (until Andromeda). Also there is no information that would suggest the Reapers were active in the other galaxies too and is also not probable since we know they always left one behind to act as a vanguard and most of the Reapers hibernated in deep space until the next cycle. BUT I would still love this plot to come back in Mass Effect 5, there is so much potential to the story!!
If the Reapers have 50,000 years to waste and don't need sleep given the vanguard proves that...It takes only 634 years with FTL travel to get to Andromeda and that's with the standard Milky Way tech. Reapers could potentially do so faster...Even if they couldn't that's just a trip back and forth in 12,068 years (let's add a few hundred more to wipe out the races) with more than enough time for them to wait and prepare for the Milky Way invasion. They could in fact be harvesting the galaxies closest enough to the Milky Way without us knowing. Even the races of Andromeda are more than likely not 50,000+ years old...In fact just looking at their technology seemingly their evolution was quite similar. Which is fucking weird for alien civilizations in another galaxy to be so similar genetically and technologically...Unless they were in fact guided along similar "paths".
They will probably bring back the dark energy concept in some form, especially after the Scourge was introduced in Andromeda: a dark energy weapon of mass destruction capable of spreading across an entire galaxy. Theres a lot of unanswered questions surrounding who unleashed it and why they were targeting the Jaardan/Remnant. That leaves two mysterious forces/factions/species in the universe with extremely advanced technology (one that can create life and terraform planets and another that can manipulate dark energy), that could be tied in with the Reapers, Leviathans, or anything else. A lot of things in Andromeda were inspired by ideas for the original Mass Effect that werent ultimately included in the trilogy, so it wouldnt surprise me if the Scourge and the mystery of its creation was a way of alluding to the dark energy plotline and creating a possible connection.
You're actually missing a potential end of the universe, one the Reapers would immensely benefit by and one that I think they were preparing their victims for in ME3; the Big Freeze. As an old verse once said "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." One day everything will die, and everything has a drive to live, even the Reapers. This gradual decay of matter and energy into something unusable is called entropy. It's baked into the universe in the real world and we can't stop it. The big freeze consists of everything drifting endlessly, stars dying and not being replaced, black holes slowly evaporating and colliding, white dwarf stars turning to iron. It's dark and cold, no organics could exist in that future. But synthetics could, and actually even though everything was slowed down, they could run on less power than it takes to light up a lightbulb. A thought could take a million years, but that time frame is so slowed down there's no need to think quickly, and changing one's perception of time could potentially prevent one from going insane. And if you're a synthetic, you could create a server that looks like the modern era, a simulation of the current time. They could recreate earth. For all we know the whole mass effect trilogy could be a reaper simulation on a server in dark space, the reapers imprisoning humanity and it's accompanying species until the end of time and forcing them to relive the same story over and over. So I want to number point my thinking on this. 1. The Catalyst is a reaper construct, it's got no obligation to be truthful with Shepard as to the reapers motivations. Offering circular logic like that may well be a lie it tells the organics so they accept their fate. Unless Shepard becomes one of them by selecting the control ending, there's no reason for the Catalyst to be truthful. And by then it's too late. Just because they're synthetic, doesn't mean the Reapers can't experience resentment. They're made up of a species worth of scanned minds, that's a lotta anger, frustration, jealousy, ecetera bottled up in that shiny space cthulu hull of theirs. 2. The reapers were instructed to preserve all sentient life, the method I outlined above is the one able to last the longest. Hence why it's the one they'd select, their milage is the most efficient that way. 3. When the colonists are turned to goo during the suicide mission, it LOOKS like they're being destroyed by heat. Heat is what would be produced if you tried to scan every detail of someone down to the earliest shred of memory as well as every cell, tissue and scar on their body. The slurry is likely just a useful byproduct of the scanning process. 4. Harbinger's atmospheric dialog when you fight him in ME2 implies that he believes he's doing you a favor and you're being rude by refusing to be harvested. He treats it like a right of passage. He CALLS it ascension. That implies that who these people are isn't being destroyed, and this is the only tech based place I can think of where it would go. 5. Why darkspace? It's cold. They can radiate the waste heat from their mass effect cores more easily, and there are still a few stars between galaxies that they can grab for energy and matter if they need to between purges. My guess is there's some kind of central server/depot they go to to resupply when they return to dark space. My conclusion is that the saddest thing about ME2 is that it's Shepard's biggest failure against the Reapers. Even though it was a victory, it meant giving up on the people that were inside the human reaper, stuck in a simulation, and completely unaware of their impending doom. And if you don't get there in time, that means Dr. Chakwas, Kelly Chambers, ect are still alive and aware inside the human reaper when you kill it.
This Dark Energy Plot looks so promising that I wouldn't mind if the Legendary edition give some more hints about it. This whole "Spare some species in this galaxy to save the universe from entropy" thing makes the Reapers such a complex a tridimensional threat. Think about it, the whole game is based upon Shepard's decisions throughout the trilogy and all of the sudden you realize that the Reapers had their share of tough choices throughout this journey too. Killing trillions to save an infinity of people. This would make such a relatable antagonist and yet a frightening one, almost some cosmic horror kind of villain. It really makes you wonder.
I don't know what the plot of ME4 is likely to be. But I hope Shepard is still alive. And after the fall of the Reapers and the Mass Relays, the Council revive the Mass Relay technology so that traversal around the galaxy is the same. And in a panic the galaxy is in a war for struggle after the battle against the Reapers. Shepard is used as a Spectre to bring about peace and in doing so stumbles onto the last remnants of Cerberus and other anti council factions.
Exactly. I dont know why people need to jump on a new super villian right away when the aftermath of a war like that one is a huge context for a lot of tasty conflicts between species. Lack of resources, political and economical colapses, etc etc. Post war galaxy is enough for a whole game, with shepard bringing peace. Of course, something lurking in the back ground like Dark energy is good. But a boots on the ground canpaing focusing inter galatical relations post war is so good
I wish they had made better use of the plot, but we all know which way the wind is blowing. Liara looked like she was in her matriarch stage, meaning at least 600 years have passed. That's about enough time for the Andromeda people to have reached their destination and maybe even complete the events of the game. We know Kett are still out there, as well as whatever was responsible for the state of Andromeda. Kett will probably be the antagonist. The galaxy should've figured out how to mass relay out of and into another galaxy by 600 years
Nah, I think the fact that legendary edition out sold Andromeda and received an overwhelmingly positive review from all major sources indicates that they are sticking with the milky way protagonists. Andromeda flopped so badly that they didn't even make any DLC for it.
I don't think it's going to play centuries after that. Liara is obviously looking for shepard, but should she do that when he's long dead? And we can see destroyed mass portals in the trailer that have not yet been repaired, which can mean that it might play shortly after me3.
@@St_Caledonia The only obvious thing about that teaser is that Liara is significantly older. Not 2, not 5, not 10 years older, but possibly centuries. The N7 logo is a staple of the series, I think it's a bit careless to assume she's after Shepard personally. (Even Andromeda made use of it in the trailers) Unless the implants s/he got from Cerberus makes them immortal, Shepard should be long dead. The only way Liara could be looking for Shepard is if s/he pulled a Revan and went off alone to do something and left behind some clues that Liara can follow centuries later. Or maybe it's a Fallout 4 type of thing where Shepard gets frozen and we'll control a disoriented Shepard centuries after the Reaper war. Either way, I think it would be best to let Shepard go for now, and not get too wild with the theories. This teaser trailer might be the only thing we'll ever get if you pay attention to behind the scenes stuff with Bioware...
i like the theory but i think the main plot now is the harmony between organics and synthetics .. and how the choices you made in the third game will follow up in the next..
Harmony in the whole galaxy, I would say. the aftermath of a war like that one is a huge context for a lot of tasty conflicts between species. Lack of resources, political and economical colapses, etc etc. Post war galaxy is enough for a whole game, with shepard bringing peace. Of course, something lurking in the back ground like Dark energy is good. But a boots on the ground canpaing focusing inter galatical relations post war is so good
im just commenting this before i watch the video, Maybe the Dark energy is a main plot on reuniting the Galaxy and council while also finding a way to repair and use dark energy to activate the relays again
Grrrr! All these great videos are making me seriously consider getting the legendary edition! I never played 3, but 1 and 2 were huge parts of my life, but I have so many other games I havent finished yet!
Here are the BIG issues with this plot: - It is unprepared: It never had any plot-lines. It has a couple of random mentions, but doesn’t add anything to the conversations. It is not more than the words “dark” and “energy” being said, without any meaning. It only has a semi-major role in the Haestrom mission, but even there, it is entirely ignorable, the mission, and the consequences don’t need it at all. It is more like a backup plan from the beginning. It is common from the writers to have backup plots, just a few mentions about something, which likely will be forgotten, but may build on it if they run out of ideas. These random mentions should’ve been in ME1, give some bigger role to it in ME2, and then full on in ME3 to make it work. - It is illogical: Why the heck would the Reapers ENCOURAGE us to use eezo, if they will then punish us for using it? The Mass Relays are by far the biggest users of “dark energy”. They ruined this plot before it existed, by Sovereign, who stated that they built the Relays themselves. -> this might be the biggest reason why they dropped this plotline - It is unrealistic: “Dark Energy” might be a real scientific phenomena, but that has NOTHING to do with how it is represented here. It has zero scientific basis, only borrowed the name. It is completely made up. Also, the energy levels seen here are completely minor and insignificant compared to the energy of the universe, or even the galaxy itself. Drop in the bucket. The only thing which could scratch it are the mass relays, but even those are tiny. Also Haestrom, it is a remote star, nothing is really happening here. If it would be related to eezo overuse, the neighborhood stars would be affected. This was never meant to be a major plot line, and never thought out in the first place. Only a backup plan. On the other hand, the issue with synthetics: - Is integral part of the plot-line from day 1. - It is logical. We see that AI and synthetics have issues repeatedly. Also the Reapers solution does actually solve this problem in a literal way. Stupid solution because it creates equally big problems, but that’s not how they are programmed… - It is realistic. The idea that AI will surpass us is not a made up thing. It is an actual scientific concern. See “Technological Singularity”. Whether or not you like the synthetics plot line, the “dark energy” plot line is subpar in every single way. The only reason it is being discussed is because some people didn’t like the actual ending, and likes to kick into it by preferring ANYTHING else but that, wether it makes sense or not. (Indoctrination theory is the most extreme example of that). But this was not even the issue with the ending. The plot was perfectly fine. The real criticism against the ending were: - Ending was rushed, so the last mission is far from the quality of the suicide mission, or citadel attack in ME1 - Starchild just looks stupid, both conceptually and visually We should’ve talked to Harbinger. - Previous choices didn’t matter. -> it did though, as much as any other choices/consequences - Red/Green/Blue ending -> it was fixed in Extended Cut, which is the canon ending now, so it makes no sense to discuss it in 2021
The synthetic conflict was never the main focus of Mass Effect, in fact AI remains mostly as background lore like the Rachni wars until you you're in the Quarian lore bubble. It wasn't even a main plot point in ME1. Because Mass Effect has always been about the relationship and conflicts of different races. From humanity's attempt to fit in among the other races, to the fucked up way the Krogans were treated and the Quarians being forced from their homeland. Which is why turning it into a synthetics vs biologicals is stupid when you could have easily made their motivation assimilation to eliminate the conflict between races and "unite" them.
@Tha Wolfbeard 194 Yeah, the original ending was just bad. But it is not canon anymore, so using it in an argument is not valid anymore. (Unless the argument is about the company’s general behavior, and not about the game itself)
@@BlueLightningSky Synthetics and AI is literally how the game starts. They are the first thing we shoot. Then we get to the Citadel, the first conversations is about how AI is banned, because they are dangerous in the long term, and what happened with the Quarians. Then we have the Rouge AI. And that’s just the first game. I agree that the casual conflicts are the best parts of this universe, but every games need a main villain. And in most stories, the villain, villains motivations are not immediately made clear. So in general, this storyline is well written and integrated. The only thing we could complain about it is that ME2 didn’t made any real progress in the storyline, so they had to catch up with it in ME3, feeling a bit rushed. But most great stories have such issues, even Babylon 5.
Thanks for sharing this one bro 👍Your lore related videos are some of the best ME content on YT 😁 As for any future games that you want to work on I'd suggest checking the Dragon Age series as much like ME, the DA series also has great potential 👍😄
They can just cop-out the storyline again for the new trilogy. In the weakened state the galaxy inhabits after the Reaper War, an extra-galactic invasion of the Leviathans can finally occur where the universe's apex, organic race finally makes their powerplay to take over. Shepard 2.0 is then tasked with building a coalition of lesser developed species like the Yagh and Raloi to fight them off...
95% Certain the Dark Energy stuff will play a role in whatever comes next. In my Legendary Edition playthrough of Mass Effect 2, it felt like there was an unusual amount of emphasis put on Dholen and Haestrom (Although I admit that most of it was just my personal investment in Tali.) Putting aside my personal investment in Tali, I truly believe that there is something there with Dark Energy. Cause, at the end of the day, where else could it go?
The Scourge in Andromeda galaxy is a dark energy phenomenon. It wouldn't feat into the described Dark Energy plot. However, understanding it could be a solution.
Even though Bioware messed up the ending, they have made a series that has sparked a lot of discussion. A lot of fan theories. The fan theories are awesome to read or listen to. Bioware should take the fan theories to help with the story writing in the next game(s).
Im kinda hoping the new mass effect would have a new protagonist. Honestly i think its a good thing to let shepards story end. If the next mass effect game is set centuries after mass effect 3 then theres no reason for shepard to exist. If it follows the destroy ending at that point shepard has been through so much bs that a fitting end to it all would be if shepard spends the rest of his/her life with his/her love interest, grow old and die peacefully. Theres no reason that makes sense for shepard to go into cryo to put himself/herself through more stress in the future, shepard is not master chief. Besides they already did the whole putting shepard back together in me2 it would be lame to do it again.
I wouldn't mind if they did a Dragon Age Inquisition where you got a brief interaction with Hawke. Having your new avatar briefly meet with Shepard who may be "retired" (as much as someone like Shep could be) would be nice. Some cameos from the longer living characters like Krogans and Asari (especially Aria) that ties it all together.
I have an idea that focuses on the reapers being an embodiment of despair and torment. Basically just pure space horror. Reapers were intended to be ships that could transport people from a galaxy that was dying due to eezo abuse. Slaves who were being worked to death build them in time chose to sabotage the ships. Each was turned into a machine of absolute torment. The ones who destroyed that galaxy were absorbed and kept in a state of semi-conscious misery without end. In order to keep it going forever they would need some resources, and were already programmed to reach the milky way. Once there, the reapers found the mass relay network and a galactic civilization going through the same catastrophe, but at an earlier stage. The sabotage had no end point, thus the cycle began. Once completed you could say that the reapers became the builders of the mass relays, having absorbed the creators.
I could see a dark energy / dark matter story working on a local level. Dark energy seems to be causing the universe to expand while dark matter seems to have some gravitational force that holds galaxies together. Since galaxies rotate with forces that would generally cause local star systems to be flung out, some people speculate that dark matter holds galaxies together. On the same token, certain parts of the universe that are dark, or without clusters of stars or galaxies, are also lacking in dark matter, which can indirectly be detected through gravitational lensing. So if biotics use dark energy and deplete dark matter, that could cause the Milky Way to die out with its stars and local systems being flung away from the Milky Way galaxy. I'd think it'd be an okay premise. Whatever direction they go with the story, I just hope it's better than the space magic that is the crucible. I also hope we get to actually fight any of the main antagonists they show. Although I wanted more closure with the ending, I was more disappointed that I didn't get to personally kick the Illusive Man's ass or the Harbingers shiny metal ass.
maybe because the alpha relay was destroyed that energy it supposed to go to it drift the Normandy instead and few reapers to andromeda and Ryder go to investigate when he saw liara after the Normandy crashed and she and her crew were stuck in the same planet we saw in mass effect 3 ending and it has been years so the climate change to frozen and that N7 helmet is Shepard's that was stored in the cabin perfect theory except that the teaser show all that happened in milky way
Repurpose the dark energy plot post-reapers by having the crucible energy have had drastic side effects on the galaxy and accelerated the dark energy decay. Remember that the crucible was always a weapon born of desperation, not something that was field tested to identify potential danger. Even throughout ME3 the general consensus is "we don't know wtf this thing does, but what else can we do?". In order to figure out the specifics of what the energy did, you have to research the reapers to figure out how to stop it since the crucible likely was burnt out and damage from the initial release. This might prompt the Leviathans to step in due to the "lesser races" tinkering with the very thing that nearly brought their end. A sort of "you can't be trusted with what we once created" stance. Or if that's too similar to the reapers, maybe it starts a civil war of sorts between those who are against testing on the reapers out of fear of their resurgence.
Well you have the Dark Energy in ME:Å... The scourge is actually that. Add in how it wrecks stuff up. On Havarl you find a pilots helmet, but whats more intresting is the comments being made about it when you find the helmet, that it dont look like the scourge was going for the crashed ship, but actually reaching for the pilot. I think thats what the Reapers see as the real threat that the Dark Energy will manifest and do wacky stuff to things(like the sun in ME2, where for some reason Dark Energy have manifested inside of it, instead of around planets or objects etc). Add in the timeline jump that is likely with Liara now looking abit aged(which generally means most of the squadmates would be dead, sans EDI potentially or the Krogans, the rest would be dead). However if you are right that its Liara in Matriarch age, its not unlikely that as BioWare have said that ME4 will bridge in ME:Å and that somehow they make contact between the 2 galaxies. Could have a quantum entaglement device which will be instant-communiction like the Illusive man used with Shepard etc. Given the hints in ME:Å about Cerebrus and how they where potentially the real backers of the project.
If the Dark Energy is revisited ME4 would have to start with "Universe Shattering" that turns Mass Effect on its haed and shows that the use of Dark Matter is a clear and present danger to reality itself. Which means very bad news for the Asari, a species who all use biotics and is somewhat dependent on them. ME4 may start with Thessia being totally destroyed at the start of the game from its sun prematurely going Super Nova.
Would be awesome to see something like that, but in long terms this seems boring. At least if the only treat will be dark energy. Don't get me wrong, the concept is good with dark energy, but something bigger should be behind this...
Maybe it's ok for the Reapers to not be the center of the story in terms of plot moving. Maybe they have served their purpose, destroyed, synthesized, or controlled, and we don't need them as a pivotal part of the galaxy, or even in the larger universe. I am hoping future games explore the option of making them a non-topic, and focusing on their role more like an important part of our galactic history or personal evolution, especially if dark matter turns out to be the major deal going forward.
If the Reapers were trying to save the Universe, with the Dark Energy plot what did they do about the other billion, billion Galaxies out there? While the canon plot is a bit hokey, it does make sense for a plot being isolated in just the Milky Way.
I don't think we need a Big Bad really, I'd be happy if this game focused more on conflicts between the new governments in the Milky way. Everyone got just about equally fucked by the Reapers I think so it would be interesting to see the Milky Way Races scramble to rebuild themselves and take power in the Universe. Think about it even if you didn't cure the Genophage the Krogan were slowly adapting to it, with the Salarians unable to modify it again due to them rebuilding themselves the Krogan Population is almost guarantied to boom. With that in mind all the other Species could feel threatened and begin an Arms and Colonization race. I think that state of the Universe would be awesome to experience and then you also have the Leviathans, Yhag, Khett, and Dark energy storylines in the background.
I don't think you have to make it a universal game. I really don't think there is a need for that. I think there could be a local version of the dark energy plot. Something like: "the localized concentration of dark energy creates unstable stars and might even cause planets to rip apart. If this continues the intire galaxy would be destroyed" this would give something to find a solution to. Maybe study of the scourge in Andromeda could be helpful. The reapers would probably have known about this, and that could retroactively be part of their motivation
I've been rethinking the dark energy plot that they didn't finish. It has to align with the Andromeda game. A week ago I restarted playing Andromeda. I forgot that in the beginning of the game that you run into the scourge and we learn that the scourge is a nickname for dark energy phenomenon that's wrecking the Andromeda Galaxy cluster that we play through. No way in hell that's not connected to the original Mass effect trilogy. And now with the remastered trilogy and ability that they enabled to receive your games and whatnot. They're going to make a Mass effect 4 and the game after that is going to tie into the Andromeda series. They're going to have to make a new Andromeda game. They're going to have to finish the DLC that they never did for the first one and release them. They're not done with the Mass effect universe obviously. It's about to get bigger within these next 5 years. And I'm kind of pumped for it. I just hope that they release games that are complete and that the story makes sense. I hope that they stop rushing crap out. Because if Bungie fails again they will completely lose all faith in all the consumers and get shut down. I already lost my faith it's starting to get renewed but I don't trust them still. I decided to replay Andromeda out of boredom.
Bioware, not bungie. And id say its final decisions are made by EA (shareholders), which lets be honest, still have a horrible reputation. Also casey has left bioware, one of the main visionaries for mass effect so who freakin knows where this could go.
Here's an idea. The crucible could have been created by the reapers as a test for organics to build and insert into the citadel. But the crucible isn't a weapon but an invitation... to be granted an audience with the reapers and engage in a dialogue. The reapers may want to cooperate with organics to find a solution to the dark energy plot, so this test was to demonstrate which cycle was worthy of this cooperation and to make their case(your choices and galactic readiness would take centre stage at this point) on why the reapers should work with this cycle rather than harvest it and await the next cycle. That would have been far more entertaining and impactful. Edit: no starchild shit. But an audience with harbinger and the reapers and the intelligence.
Synthesis is the 'Golden" ending. I prefer Shepard surviving, but if you look at all the details that follow the Synthesis ending, Krogan regaining their old knowledge and becoming more capable of taming their planet, the Reapers repairing everything, Joker and Edi have a good relationship, and everyone has free will. Synthesis has been likened to being turned into a Drone by the Borg, but Synthesis doesn't assimilate everyone. It just adds technology to the organics, so now AI's and organics 'understand' each other, and no longer need to go to war. With a surviving Shepard, AI wars are still possible, and the races will eventually become ambitious, and go to war for the resources. For me, why in the hell should Shepard sacrifice himself again for such an ungrateful bunch? I only did the Synthesis ending once, never did the Domination ending for the Illusive man ending, and mostly did the Shepard survives and destroys the Reapers. That was the most satisfying ending, minus the loss of the Geth, and Edi.
Ironically enough. Control works best of you're a paragon, anything less than full altruism is a danger to everything in existence, I mean reapers with shepards mind, personality and all that
IMO The Catalyst doesn't have a circular logic as it is not : we, AI, kill you, human asari..., to preserve you from creating an AI that will kill you, human asari.... It is we kill you because you are a threat to other organic life. And the leviathan are a proof of the catalyst point : they created an AI that just kill all organic life. Since the beginning the leviathan were a threat to prothean, human,asari.... In the explanation the AI is just the tool and the elevated organic life is the problem. Where the dark energy is a dead end because of its circular logic. And not giving an origin and a purpose to the reaper would have been : "well 3 games to know everything since the first one" In fact I think the scourge thing of Andromeda is kinda dark energy theory but localized to an area rather than the entire universe. For the next mass effect I would imagine that they would rebuild the relay network. But you can't rebuild all the relays at once. So councilian species that decide of the fate of the galaxy would prioritize their own. Result in the non councilian one being jealous. The Batarian will have time to rebuild their society but only to be able to fight against the Human. I would imagine more species would join the council and new species would join the elevated club. This would be, for me, where the story starts. You have a decent relay network but not a perfect one. Everyone only need a spark to go to fight. Then the only thing is what shape would have this spark. I think with everything we know all choices of the 3 can be cannon but wouldn't matter in the story just explain here and there how it happen to set to the current story. e.g. You killed the Quarian but they are alive? There is an ark with 20K of them and all the Quarian that weren't in the fleet can have repopulate the galaxy. It works the other way around. Unfortunately they got a virus on Rannoch and it spread too quickly the survivor were not enough to repopulate the galaxy. Shepard would be dead because it is the only one that can't be alive and respect all ends. And I don't consider the n7 from the helmet as a proof of shepard or at least as shepard alive.
Well... If the reapers are harvesting apex species in search of anomaly/solution to the universe ending and if Shepard is trully that anomaly - that means Control ending is the true one If Humanity (or should i say all species) are the ones who can find solution - Then true ending would be Synergy If however The reapers are the problem - Destroy ending kinda resets the universe as all reaper technology gets destroyed What im saying is it would really come to what Bioware decide for the future of ME
I think the dark energy theory would've worked had it been fleshed out in the third game. What I had heard was that it had something to do with biotics and humans bio diversity gave them potential to solve the problem more than any other race. I like your concept of working with the galaxy good, working alone bad, but I don't think cooperation with the reapers was a good idea, from a stories perspective at least, it's too utopian in my opinion. I think it should've been made apparent that the reapers were immovable in their flawed logic that "they" were the solution, unwilling to accept the unknown possibilities of leaving it up to organics. They create themselves from organics to harness biotics but have been unsuccessful. I think it could've been a concept that would've kept us intrigued throughout the game and fully realized in the end.
I think the issue with the Dark Energy plot is that it’s so… natural? I’m not hype to die an early death because a stinky space squid thinks my Alexa will kill me, and I’ll gladly fight against that so the stinky space squids don’t get their way. But in talking about the end of the universe and dark energy… that’s just going to happen. It’s like dying of old age. I’m not afraid of it, it’s how the universe functions. I don’t feel a big need to unwrite the laws of physics to live longer, when I can just focus on enjoying the life I have. So if the Dark Energy plot does come back, I’m just gonna snuggle up with handsome Turian babe, pour a drink, and watch the universe end.
I think this dark energy ending is seriously overrated, and people would have hated it just as much as the current ending. The current reason for the Reaper harvest is about as good as it gets. The Reapers wipe out advanced life every 50k years, and every Reaper holds the collective memory of every race. Because if they didn't hit restart periodically, then you'd have AI that PERMANENTLY wipes out ALL life EVERYWHERE. If you're a machine intelligence, as advanced as the Reapers, it's not hard to come up with ways to completely and permanently sterilize entire galaxies. So the Reapers' cyclical genocide solution is still better than "hurr durr we need you to use dark energy and bad tech until maybe one day one chosen race comes along who is smart enough to figure something else out. But we deliberately sabotage our own efforts by guiding every race down the same paths so they don't even have the freedom to think outside the box." - Which by the way only halts this problem in the Milky Way and doesn't account for all the other trillions of galaxies that might discover mass effect tech and biotics. Most people just want it because it is different from what they got, and in their imagination it could be the impossible satisfying ending we all wish for. To be fair it is hard to come up with any answer that's not along the lines of "we need resources / we are actually doing this to protect you against an even greater threat". Maybe it would have been better to take the tongue in cheek approach and be like Vigil and say "their reasons are completely unknown, alien, you destroyed them, go on, keep guessing."
I completely agree with you on this. The trilogy ending would never satisfy everyone. It was doomed to be that way from the start. A giant galactic "unknowable" race is Lovecraftian horror, and the only way it can be resolved is through temporary means, never a definitive solution. The Reapers should have remained in a permanent state of ambiguity. Asking questions with no clear answers. Hints, perhaps. Nothing more. Once they decided the audience had to know a clear reason for their existence, it was effectively doomed. Some people will love it, some won't. Theres no ending that will please everyone. My biggest problem is every proposed "better" ending I've looked into sucks worse, or I'd say is about as good as what we got already anyway. Happy ending? Sucks. A Disney ending doesn't fit for a character like Shepard. Shepard is the hero, and is going up against impossible odds. The best narrative solution for the character arc is a heroic sacrifice. A happy ending where the Reapers are just destroyed, good guys win with minimal casualties, and Shepard has a big happy family, is just ridiculous. Indoctrination theory, although possibly as fascinating as what we got, has too many holes to really make sense. Even when I had first played ME3, before the extended cut released years ago, I expected 1) Shepard would need to die. And 2) there's no way to end this in a way that pleases everyone. Ultimately, my expectations were met, and I found the extended cut ending to be a decent close to Shepard/Reapers story. It doesn't "ruin" the 3 games' arcs, all the great experiences I had seeing where the characters started, and how they grew.
@@faded1to3black I disagree with the whole hero sacrifice point. Did I expect a happy ending? No, I was expecting a bitter sweet ending. Shepard lives and reflects on what was lost. But what still remains. That was the ending I wanted. The reason why I don’t care for a hero sacrifice ending. It’s too trendy and kind of a cliche IMO. The main problem I had with the endings of Mass Effect 3. Was that I didn’t had a choice. That’s the problem most people had with the endings. You like them? Good on you. With all do respect. You’re part of the minority.
@@treyart1 the hero's sacrifice is the only way to make the reapers a credible threat. It may be cliché, but its way more fitting than shepard somehow surviving. Shepard is the ultimate hero, but its just one person, going up against a threat billions of years old. Shepard is the player character, and has to strike the decisive blow, but that means that they'll probably have to die, because heroes are the only ones willing to put themselves out there for the good of others. Ultimately, the main point was that no ending would have sufficed for everyone.
With the dark energy plot the reapers set up the relays because it was more efficient and less damaging to the galaxy. Think of it this way, the reapers set up mass relays to combat the dark energy problem in the same way countries set up high speed rail to combat climate change. Trains may use carbon from power plants but they are way more efficient than everyone taking their own car and thus buys the Earth time to combat climate change.
The only problem with that motivation is why allow the knowledge and use of mass effect technology to continue? Rather than wiping all races every 50k years why not search out all of the deposits of tech that most cycles hid and destroy the relays
I don't understand why people moan saying the outcome in me3 need to reflect in me4 obviously me4 wasn't planned. We have the perfect ending where Shepard is alive makes sense that will be canon
You can be certain the Dark Energy plot will make a comeback, simply because so many players bring it up. I wouldn't expect it to be a major plot point however, simply because it was already so vague and so could be literally anything, and because they dropped it the first time around, so any reference will be fan service. I would also bet that they continue to keep it vague, like an "in-joke". You heard it here first NSvenSkwod.
Why didn't they just destroy mass relays after one of the first cycles and then wait, until ME technology was rediscovered without their help? And then come to harvest.
So shephard has to go from stopping an over powered, over developed A.I with millions of ships capable of wiping out entire fleets single handedly. To finding a way of stopping a fundamental force within the universe from ripping the universe apart.
I like both. I think they should bring in the Dark Energy plotline BUT do not have it involve the Reapers. So that even they didn't know about the coming threat showcasing how hidden or overlooked it is. Instead having a more powerful alien threat on the horizon one that travels the entire universe so it took it's time to reach the Milky Way.
ME4's main problem is always going to be continuity. They either have to pick on ending as canon making the other decisions meaningless, or they are all canon. The only way for them all to be canon would be to have some temporal/dimensional anomaly. Its a bit more space magicy but I think rifts in space time would work well with the Dark Energy theory. Its the only way I can think of that respects the endings but also letting them move on with the story without holding everything back. Otherwise making 1 ending canon over the others invalidates the whole point of the extended cut.
Whatever ME4 has in store I just hope we get o play as ANYTHING other than a human. Shepard was great. But like the games themselves said "The universe loves/demands diversity."
No I really don’t like that theory , my take after the harvest the reapers return to dark space , but what if the harvest races are just reaper reinforcements, why with andromeda project did they expect to find golden world only to find the scourge had wiped out most life, who did the jardann lose to leaving remnant indoctrinated , or worse as watchdogs hence when the composers were defeated the signal they send it to tell the race that defeated the jardann that a new race has arrived to be modified (the equivalent of synthetic hybrid ) instead the remnants were old, not just old but one of the first ones , an ai life form that survives its cycles extinction event by a race that was supported by the Leviathans. Harbinger was created to police the races and try to prevent the conflict between life and ai . Harbinger did this for a million years but the ai race tired of fighting humanoid life over and over infected harbinger and changed the program to process all life not just protect it’s younger races . Thus started the program of extinction, each harvest adding to the ai intelligence. Unlike the younger races which fell first, the first ones survived over a million years before losing , but the code was changed once again , a complete re-write was not possible but it’s mission was to defeat the ai lifeforms that had returned to the dark space, this race has evolved and was now just as powerful as the first ones, and it was a stalemate, in its last cycle the reinforcements to the reapers were expecting in the form of prothean reapers took to long, and the ai had instead managed to launch early attacks on the Milky Way galaxy , that’s the dark space formations
Uhh, dude. Synthesis ending is basically letting reapers to harvest us. Bioware went retarded with that crap. I don't even understand why it exists, except maybe someone decided that there should be extra reward for 100% or smth. But in perspective we tried to stop reapers from turning us in synthesis for 2 games only to turn ourselves into them in 3rd one
When you bump into Gianna Parasini on illium and ask her about her next mission she tells you that everyone is talking about dark energy and whether it’s something her bosses (the board of executives of Noveria) are concerned about.
Neat trivia, didn't know that.
I think it'd be cool if Mass Effect 4 started out with galaxies blinking out of existence in the sky, and you have to figure out why it's happening. Eventually you'd come upon the fact that use of dark energy in those galaxies, since they didn't have reapers to slow them, is causing those galaxies to age and die shockingly quickly. So you have to find a way to stop that from happening in the Milky Way.
To stretch it further, you might notice Andromeda is dimming as well, and the colonists from there would return with a warning about the dark energy crisis killing their galaxy.
Edit: I just looked at the Andromeda Galaxy in the trailer. It is noticeably smaller and less extravagant than it is in real life and in ME:A.
I love it!
@@MrHulthen also just noticed: when the camera zooms in on the star in the trailer, there's a subtle but definite sound of the tick of a clock.
Plus the camera specifically passing by the hourglass nebula to signify something to do with time.
I feel like a conspiracy theorist, but it seems deliberate. Lol.
@@joerobins5649 Cool catch!
Call BioWare. You need to be a writer STAT!!!
How to defeat dark energy?
renegade shep: elcor tanks
😂
By converting it into another form of energy, using biotics. If the dark energy is then "used up" (converted into another form of energy, since energy doesn't get lost), the universe's expansion would stop. It would then shrink rapidly, merging every black hole into one that contains the mass of the entire universe, the black hole collapses, and starts the universe all over again. Biotics would literally save the universe/keep the universal cycle going.
The dark energy plot doesn't make sense, since using dark energy is a good thing. Or i got something wrong, which i kinda doubt, since I read a lot about dark energy, black holes and astrophysics in general (wanted to become an astrophysicist at one point). Though it is possible, that I'm wrong
From my understanding eezo produces dark energy when subjected to a current and that mass effect/biotics is just the manipulation of the concentration of dark energy created.
it's also possible that eezo itself is/contains particles formed from energizing the dark energy field similar to electrons and the electromagnetic field; that being said the use of eezo could be reintroducing "stored" dark energy or adding to it by turning electrical energy into dark energy. i could also be wrong and eezo just act as a catalyst for this energy conversion.
i dont have much scientific training so take all this with a grain of salt.
@@woahdan5701 Eezo is a mixture of Higgs Boson, quantum vacuum energy and dark matter.
I’m a thermodynamics and fluid mechanics engineer. The only way a physicist can make money is engineering.
It’s best not to get bogged down in the science, just enjoy it. Midichlorians ruined the force in Starwars for example. Lost its mystique. The complete, out there theories are what makes a franchise good.
Technobabble it’s called, I quite like it. Even though it’s completely made up. Sounds cool. That’s all that matters.
Idk what ME4 will be about but you just can't top giant killer squids harvesting entire races for millions of years every 50,000 years.. you just cannot top that
I'm all for a new Triology but it doesn't have to be a threat of a galactic scale..
Bro I would be happy being in a military squad to take down a Cerberus level threat
I disagree.
A. Intergalactic Ai. “What happens when the reapers aren’t there to stop the cycle of Biologicals making synthetics”.
Where synthetics have overtaken a galaxy, used all its resources and are now moving on. To our Galaxy.
They have no interest in preserving life, no matter how twisted the catalyst machine logic was. It thought it was doing the right thing.
You could have “refugees” from other galaxies warning what is coming.
A governmental fight on to either build an ark and try to outrun them, or stand and fight.
Just an idea. I would like it big though. Even if the Turian/Earth first contact war would be interesting. It needs an epic ending that no one knows the answer to. If you had too many choices it would break the lore.
The hopelessness of thinking it was Armageddon and we couldn’t win, was great.
I’m sick of Cerberus, they are a bland enemy. I’d forgotten how much they dominated ME3.
The Leviathans enslaving all sentient races is a galactic scale threat.
I'd like a game that takes place during the Krogan war, or one of the other wars of the past.
Leviathan race say hi
Idea for the next video: where is the toilet on Normandy SR1?
Airlock ;)
A relief tube in a wall. Or their armors are Still suits.
Built into their suits.
There are some things about the Dark Energy plot that can be rescued (like having the reapers harvest civiliziations to try to save something) but the idea that anything that happens in the Milky Way can somehow affect the entire universe in all of its infinity is laughable. It would need to be local, like usage of dark energy will destroy the galaxy or something along those lines. Anyway nice video! brings back memories of the time between ME2 and 3 when the dark energy hints where big on fan sites and forums.
Thanks for the support, and yeah, it would have to be local : )
You're assuming the reapers aren't multigalactic. This process could be happening in every galaxy
@@masterodst1 Given the size of the universe I find it very hard to belive anything could have somehow traveled everywhere, there is just not enough time. There's 200 billion galaxies and only 14 billion years since the universe began and we know the reapers aren't specially fast since it took them 6 months to get from the edge of the galaxy to batarian space.
@@maurofernandez4539 we dont know how old the reapers are nor do we know how advanced their og creators are. There are many possible explanations
We kinda do though, the Leviathans explained it pretty well.
the great thing about mass effect is how small it makes me feel in such a grand universe...looking forward to the fourth installment
The Mass Effect universe seems to produce alien life rather easily. An that is in just one average galaxy like the milky way. Since the visible universe potentially contains several trillion galaxies, there ought to be at least hundreds of billions of species. Therefore, a storyline that affects the fate of the entire universe is tricky and not something that most players will grasp or embrace.
And the main critique with the ending is not the direction, but the execution :)
Also, all the species we see in the trilogy from
The Milky Way still come from less than 1% of its stars. Not to mention what races sit potentially behind dozens, even hundreds of Mass Relays that were never opened and explored.
That might be a particular aspect of our galaxy. Maybe certain physic aspects make life more possible here or the cycles promote the appearance of new sentient life. Like protheans experimented with asari to make them biotic and they were studying our ancestors. Perhaps leviathan or others did the same with primates and other predecessors to the sentient species to guide evolution.
Could go the Xeelee Sequence path where a dark matter based species is terraforming the universe for themselves and killing all bayronic life in the process.
The ME3 ending is a result of one lore guy having too much work and before he made a good ending the first version was already finished and became the one that shipped
Whatchu mean? Do you mean this as matter of fact or just speculation?
After 198 hours of ME Legendary edition i just want the next game to have Shepard on it .....
100% Agree, I posted on another thread that if it does indeed take place 600+ years later (a BioWare writer said ME4 will reference both the OT and ME:A) I hope Shepard is like Captain America and has been frozen the whole time...thaw him/her out and save the galaxy again haha.
@@rippedtidegames no, Shepard's story is finished. The control ending is the ideal ending where Shepard sacrifices themselves to use the reapers to rebuild the galaxy.
Even the best destroy ending with high war assets and Shepard surviving still leave the Geth dead and the galaxy utterly fucked up. And that whole Captain America frozen in ice idea sounds beyond silly, it won't work
Honestly i think its a good thing to let shepards story end. If the next mass effect game is set centuries after mass effect 3 then theres no reason for shepard to exist. If it follows the destroy ending at that point shepard has been through so much bs that a fitting end to it all would be if shepard spends the rest of his/her life with his/her love interest, grow old and die peacefully. Theres no reason that makes sense for shepard to go into cryo to put himself/herself through more stress in the future, shepard is not master chief.
Imagine if there was a hidden ending where if you gather the maximum possible charm or intimidation, you can speak to Harbinger just before beaming up and convince it to work together with the rest of the galaxy, integrating with the other species, having an embassy on the Citadel or even becoming a council race. Now THAT would make Shepard one-of-a-kind.
There's still so much that hasn't been explored. I would love to see a species that doesn't use mass effect technology, but instead they use antimatter. I don't know how true this is, but I remember hearing that the Milky Way is only 1% explored in Mass Effect
I actually have thought about exploring this idea in a Mass Effect and Star Trek crossover fanfic. Trek ships do use antimatter to create a warp field that bends space time around a ship. While Mass Effect ships use dark matter to change the over all mass of a ship via mass effect fields. Both work in a similar but different way.
In ME2 you find evidence of a race that simply ran it's course with its own native FTL technology that never leveraged Reaper technology or the relays and as a result probably just died off without drawing the attention of the Reapers.
The funny thing is if you evolve far enough away from the Mass Relays, you probably never stumble onto Reaper tech and never have to deal with them because FTL is so unbelievably slow in the ME universe when you're off the ME grid and relay on an Alcubierre style drive
Ya the amount of explored galaxy is cited as very low, particularly because the mass relays are placed in specific areas so most of the galaxy is still unfeasible to explore. It would be really cool to pioneer uncharted space. Or explore the space between stars like in legions loyalty mission.
The reapers just wanted some polarized sunglasses, that actually work.
Another great video my friend! I really hope they explore the dark energy plot more in future games. There is so much potential there to do a lot of interesting things. Fingers crossed.
Do you think the jardaan for mass effect andromeda could have had some sort of interaction with the reapers? Because both the jardaan and the reapers share way to many similarities between one another to be mere coincidence
I'll go even further, the Jardaan are Andromeda's equilviant of the Milky Way's Levianthan's aka the Alpha species of their Galaxy and were in comms with them.
There are so many teases about dark energy in ME2. Would love to see it become the next story arc and yes I myself want another trilogie too ^^
I loved your video! When I first learned about the dropped Dark Energy Plot many years ago, so many things clicked into place for me. I remember reading an article years ago that I wish I could find today that had more details about the dropped plotline. The article was not an interview with Drew Karpyshyn. I believe it was an interview with one of the other writers. Here's what I remember:
1) The Dark Energy Plot was dropped for a very silly reason. The Dark Energy saturation that was threatening the galaxy/Universe was directly caused by advanced space-faring races using the mass effect relays for travel (FTL travel was never the true purpose of the mass relays, but I don't remember what their "true" purpose was). Early in the trilogy it is mentioned that the mass relays were not destructible by any known method. That was later contradicted in one the DLC's (Arrival, maybe?). That left a big plot hole. If the mass relays were responsible for hastening the end of Universe, why wouldn't the Reapers just come blow up all the mass relays? That left the writers scrambling to come up with a new motive for the Reapers.
2) The Reapers didn't build the mass relays. The Reapers *were* constructed by the same nameless race that constructed the mass relays, though. Originally, the Reapers destroyed all space-faring civilizations on behalf of their creators, then eventually turned on their creators when they wouldn't stop using the mass relays themselves out of a sense of self-preservation. Then whenever a significant build-up of Dark Energy was detected in the galaxy, the Reapers would return and harvest all the space-faring races.
3) The original ending choices would have boiled down to you having to convince the Reapers to either (Paragon) work together with the other races to find a solution to the Dark Energy Crisis or (Renegade) having to convince the Reapers to spare humanity and destroy the other advanced civilizations since humanity was so comparatively young. The trilogy would have ended either way with the Dark Energy Crisis unresolved.
The idea was that the Dark Energy Crisis was supposed parallel climate change and the Reapers were, more or less, eco-terrorists that decided millennia ago that the only way to preserve the Universe was to destroy all the species that were "polluting" the galaxy with Dark Energy. Personally, I like this plot way more than the generic man versus machines conflict that we got in ME3. That would have made ME3 a completely different game if this is the direction they were originally intended to go.
I used to think, (before 2 and 3) that the reapers actually travelled between galaxies during the 50000 year cycle constantly wiping out organic life across a set number of galaxies, rather than just hiding in dark space, so the dark energy theory fitted well into my thinking about them. I also had an idea that they were the universe's balance feeding off organic life and the energy (mass effects) they produced to keep the universe from collapsing
Thats a really cool idea. This makes it seem like extinguishing life is exhausting, as reapers have to constantly jump from galaxy to galaxy in order to just keep up with the population control. Instead of just mindlessly waiting in dark space. It could establish a negative stigma of organic life behaving like a plague, like how agent smith sees humanity in the matrix. It reinforces sovereigns original statement in the first game that organic life was a mistake, a genetic defect because organic life is populating at such an uncontrollable rate! This plotline could of tied in alot of cool possibilities.
@@m33tballa Since the reapers make a new reaper from each species they harvest stands to reason that after a few million years they would have more than they need for a small galaxy like the milky way. I could see them looking to other galaxies to harvest and the closest to the milky way is andromeda, so maybe the scourge was that galaxy's answer to a reaper invasion.
Idea: you have to find a solution to the dark energy situation and you decide to reanimate the reapers for help.
The Reapers were never about Dark Energy because the circular logic of that plotline is idiotic
@@Shvabicu Think the easiest way to fix the reapers is to just say that the star child was lying
This is the plot for the game Anachronox.
An absolute banger that deserves to be remade.
It was clearly a huge inspiration for Mass Effect.
Anachronox is the craziest rpg Ive ever played
I got a really good question for you, could Counselor Udina indoctrinated by Reapers or indoctrinated by Cerberus?
Well the Illusive man was indoctrinated by the Reapers which is why he could not control them so even if Udina was indoctrinated by Cerberus they were all being controlled in the end by the Reapers.
@@slackersnacker5541 well didn't give it that much thought when I played the first time. But I've been playing M.E. LEGENDARY and some of the things Udina says made me think
@JB I saw that. That's what made me think there might have been something more somewhere
@@lilmsscarlett134 I personally don't think Udina was indoctrinated, I think he was just power hungry & used the current events to try and take control. He wasn't around any Reaper tech long enough for them to take control of him.
@@slackersnacker5541 well my husband truly thinks that he is. And its been a big deal since we both got the games again.
Great video, it would have been interesting to see how this idea would have played out in the OG trilogy had it been written that way. I kind of think the Dark Energy idea was used or influenced the Scourge that Mass Effect Andromeda's plot dealt with so I'm not convinced that Mass Effect 4 will return to Dark Energy, at least not yet.
Idk, but Conrad Verner maybe is the real response to dark energy
The Synthesis ending reminds me of Babylon 5 and the leaving of the first races. Though in a fixed state Shepard could be the catalyst to halting a destructive cycle to usher in a cycle of growth and Stewardship of the Galaxy. I can see Reapers being a mix between vorlons and shadows in that context. This could also come with a slight retcon of Shepard dying completely. It would explain why even the reapers are stunted technically while the Remnant tech( and the Andromeda races) are tangentially more advanced in many ways. The Geth might have also realized this and planned their own exedus when they built an FTL telescope using a Mass Relay.
I want dark energy to be a plot point and for the canon ending to be that Shepard lived after picking to Destroy the Reapers.. for Liara to have started basically a modified Lazarus Project as the Shadow Broker to ensure Shepard is able to get back to being him/herself.. Dark Matter should be tearing the universe apart, and one of these tears should act as a basically a time portal that for all intents and purposes merges the Milky Way Trilogy with Andromeda. Make Ryder & Jaal (only good things in the game) squadmates, Shep main character and have us start off going through dead Reapers to try and understand more about them
I hope they turn him into Demolition man and cryo him, awakening shepherd when the galaxy needs him, or his cybernetics make him have an asari level life span. That way, we keep shepherd.
Master chief
TH-cam read my mind again lol. I was just thinking about ME4 bringing dark energy back into play and boom your video pops up a few hrs later. I think it would make sense to bring it back considering its already sprinked in here and there and people were upset it wasn't used. Cant wait to find out!!
The biggest issue is that we are talking about the destruction of the whole universe, however we never left Milky Way (until Andromeda). Also there is no information that would suggest the Reapers were active in the other galaxies too and is also not probable since we know they always left one behind to act as a vanguard and most of the Reapers hibernated in deep space until the next cycle.
BUT I would still love this plot to come back in Mass Effect 5, there is so much potential to the story!!
If the Reapers have 50,000 years to waste and don't need sleep given the vanguard proves that...It takes only 634 years with FTL travel to get to Andromeda and that's with the standard Milky Way tech. Reapers could potentially do so faster...Even if they couldn't that's just a trip back and forth in 12,068 years (let's add a few hundred more to wipe out the races) with more than enough time for them to wait and prepare for the Milky Way invasion. They could in fact be harvesting the galaxies closest enough to the Milky Way without us knowing. Even the races of Andromeda are more than likely not 50,000+ years old...In fact just looking at their technology seemingly their evolution was quite similar. Which is fucking weird for alien civilizations in another galaxy to be so similar genetically and technologically...Unless they were in fact guided along similar "paths".
They will probably bring back the dark energy concept in some form, especially after the Scourge was introduced in Andromeda: a dark energy weapon of mass destruction capable of spreading across an entire galaxy. Theres a lot of unanswered questions surrounding who unleashed it and why they were targeting the Jaardan/Remnant. That leaves two mysterious forces/factions/species in the universe with extremely advanced technology (one that can create life and terraform planets and another that can manipulate dark energy), that could be tied in with the Reapers, Leviathans, or anything else. A lot of things in Andromeda were inspired by ideas for the original Mass Effect that werent ultimately included in the trilogy, so it wouldnt surprise me if the Scourge and the mystery of its creation was a way of alluding to the dark energy plotline and creating a possible connection.
You're actually missing a potential end of the universe, one the Reapers would immensely benefit by and one that I think they were preparing their victims for in ME3; the Big Freeze.
As an old verse once said "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." One day everything will die, and everything has a drive to live, even the Reapers. This gradual decay of matter and energy into something unusable is called entropy. It's baked into the universe in the real world and we can't stop it.
The big freeze consists of everything drifting endlessly, stars dying and not being replaced, black holes slowly evaporating and colliding, white dwarf stars turning to iron. It's dark and cold, no organics could exist in that future. But synthetics could, and actually even though everything was slowed down, they could run on less power than it takes to light up a lightbulb. A thought could take a million years, but that time frame is so slowed down there's no need to think quickly, and changing one's perception of time could potentially prevent one from going insane. And if you're a synthetic, you could create a server that looks like the modern era, a simulation of the current time. They could recreate earth. For all we know the whole mass effect trilogy could be a reaper simulation on a server in dark space, the reapers imprisoning humanity and it's accompanying species until the end of time and forcing them to relive the same story over and over.
So I want to number point my thinking on this.
1. The Catalyst is a reaper construct, it's got no obligation to be truthful with Shepard as to the reapers motivations. Offering circular logic like that may well be a lie it tells the organics so they accept their fate. Unless Shepard becomes one of them by selecting the control ending, there's no reason for the Catalyst to be truthful. And by then it's too late. Just because they're synthetic, doesn't mean the Reapers can't experience resentment. They're made up of a species worth of scanned minds, that's a lotta anger, frustration, jealousy, ecetera bottled up in that shiny space cthulu hull of theirs.
2. The reapers were instructed to preserve all sentient life, the method I outlined above is the one able to last the longest. Hence why it's the one they'd select, their milage is the most efficient that way.
3. When the colonists are turned to goo during the suicide mission, it LOOKS like they're being destroyed by heat. Heat is what would be produced if you tried to scan every detail of someone down to the earliest shred of memory as well as every cell, tissue and scar on their body. The slurry is likely just a useful byproduct of the scanning process.
4. Harbinger's atmospheric dialog when you fight him in ME2 implies that he believes he's doing you a favor and you're being rude by refusing to be harvested. He treats it like a right of passage. He CALLS it ascension. That implies that who these people are isn't being destroyed, and this is the only tech based place I can think of where it would go.
5. Why darkspace? It's cold. They can radiate the waste heat from their mass effect cores more easily, and there are still a few stars between galaxies that they can grab for energy and matter if they need to between purges. My guess is there's some kind of central server/depot they go to to resupply when they return to dark space.
My conclusion is that the saddest thing about ME2 is that it's Shepard's biggest failure against the Reapers. Even though it was a victory, it meant giving up on the people that were inside the human reaper, stuck in a simulation, and completely unaware of their impending doom. And if you don't get there in time, that means Dr. Chakwas, Kelly Chambers, ect are still alive and aware inside the human reaper when you kill it.
This Dark Energy Plot looks so promising that I wouldn't mind if the Legendary edition give some more hints about it. This whole "Spare some species in this galaxy to save the universe from entropy" thing makes the Reapers such a complex a tridimensional threat. Think about it, the whole game is based upon Shepard's decisions throughout the trilogy and all of the sudden you realize that the Reapers had their share of tough choices throughout this journey too. Killing trillions to save an infinity of people. This would make such a relatable antagonist and yet a frightening one, almost some cosmic horror kind of villain. It really makes you wonder.
I wish they extrapolated more on the dark energy plot!
me too : (
I don't know what the plot of ME4 is likely to be. But I hope Shepard is still alive. And after the fall of the Reapers and the Mass Relays, the Council revive the Mass Relay technology so that traversal around the galaxy is the same. And in a panic the galaxy is in a war for struggle after the battle against the Reapers. Shepard is used as a Spectre to bring about peace and in doing so stumbles onto the last remnants of Cerberus and other anti council factions.
Exactly. I dont know why people need to jump on a new super villian right away when the aftermath of a war like that one is a huge context for a lot of tasty conflicts between species. Lack of resources, political and economical colapses, etc etc. Post war galaxy is enough for a whole game, with shepard bringing peace.
Of course, something lurking in the back ground like Dark energy is good. But a boots on the ground canpaing focusing inter galatical relations post war is so good
I wish they had made better use of the plot, but we all know which way the wind is blowing. Liara looked like she was in her matriarch stage, meaning at least 600 years have passed. That's about enough time for the Andromeda people to have reached their destination and maybe even complete the events of the game. We know Kett are still out there, as well as whatever was responsible for the state of Andromeda. Kett will probably be the antagonist. The galaxy should've figured out how to mass relay out of and into another galaxy by 600 years
Nah, I think the fact that legendary edition out sold Andromeda and received an overwhelmingly positive review from all major sources indicates that they are sticking with the milky way protagonists. Andromeda flopped so badly that they didn't even make any DLC for it.
I don't think it's going to play centuries after that. Liara is obviously looking for shepard, but should she do that when he's long dead? And we can see destroyed mass portals in the trailer that have not yet been repaired, which can mean that it might play shortly after me3.
@@St_Caledonia That's what I suspect and also my Shepard is Female!
@@leonardodavinci7425 yeah my shepard is always male so i use masculine pronouns.
@@St_Caledonia The only obvious thing about that teaser is that Liara is significantly older. Not 2, not 5, not 10 years older, but possibly centuries. The N7 logo is a staple of the series, I think it's a bit careless to assume she's after Shepard personally. (Even Andromeda made use of it in the trailers) Unless the implants s/he got from Cerberus makes them immortal, Shepard should be long dead. The only way Liara could be looking for Shepard is if s/he pulled a Revan and went off alone to do something and left behind some clues that Liara can follow centuries later. Or maybe it's a Fallout 4 type of thing where Shepard gets frozen and we'll control a disoriented Shepard centuries after the Reaper war. Either way, I think it would be best to let Shepard go for now, and not get too wild with the theories. This teaser trailer might be the only thing we'll ever get if you pay attention to behind the scenes stuff with Bioware...
i like the theory but i think the main plot now is the harmony between organics and synthetics ..
and how the choices you made in the third game will follow up in the next..
Harmony in the whole galaxy, I would say. the aftermath of a war like that one is a huge context for a lot of tasty conflicts between species. Lack of resources, political and economical colapses, etc etc. Post war galaxy is enough for a whole game, with shepard bringing peace.
Of course, something lurking in the back ground like Dark energy is good. But a boots on the ground canpaing focusing inter galatical relations post war is so good
im just commenting this before i watch the video, Maybe the Dark energy is a main plot on reuniting the Galaxy and council while also finding a way to repair and use dark energy to activate the relays again
Grrrr! All these great videos are making me seriously consider getting the legendary edition! I never played 3, but 1 and 2 were huge parts of my life, but I have so many other games I havent finished yet!
Here are the BIG issues with this plot:
- It is unprepared:
It never had any plot-lines. It has a couple of random mentions, but doesn’t add anything to the conversations. It is not more than the words “dark” and “energy” being said, without any meaning. It only has a semi-major role in the Haestrom mission, but even there, it is entirely ignorable, the mission, and the consequences don’t need it at all.
It is more like a backup plan from the beginning. It is common from the writers to have backup plots, just a few mentions about something, which likely will be forgotten, but may build on it if they run out of ideas.
These random mentions should’ve been in ME1, give some bigger role to it in ME2, and then full on in ME3 to make it work.
- It is illogical:
Why the heck would the Reapers ENCOURAGE us to use eezo, if they will then punish us for using it? The Mass Relays are by far the biggest users of “dark energy”. They ruined this plot before it existed, by Sovereign, who stated that they built the Relays themselves. -> this might be the biggest reason why they dropped this plotline
- It is unrealistic:
“Dark Energy” might be a real scientific phenomena, but that has NOTHING to do with how it is represented here. It has zero scientific basis, only borrowed the name. It is completely made up.
Also, the energy levels seen here are completely minor and insignificant compared to the energy of the universe, or even the galaxy itself. Drop in the bucket. The only thing which could scratch it are the mass relays, but even those are tiny.
Also Haestrom, it is a remote star, nothing is really happening here. If it would be related to eezo overuse, the neighborhood stars would be affected.
This was never meant to be a major plot line, and never thought out in the first place. Only a backup plan.
On the other hand, the issue with synthetics:
- Is integral part of the plot-line from day 1.
- It is logical. We see that AI and synthetics have issues repeatedly. Also the Reapers solution does actually solve this problem in a literal way. Stupid solution because it creates equally big problems, but that’s not how they are programmed…
- It is realistic. The idea that AI will surpass us is not a made up thing. It is an actual scientific concern. See “Technological Singularity”.
Whether or not you like the synthetics plot line, the “dark energy” plot line is subpar in every single way. The only reason it is being discussed is because some people didn’t like the actual ending, and likes to kick into it by preferring ANYTHING else but that, wether it makes sense or not. (Indoctrination theory is the most extreme example of that).
But this was not even the issue with the ending. The plot was perfectly fine. The real criticism against the ending were:
- Ending was rushed, so the last mission is far from the quality of the suicide mission, or citadel attack in ME1
- Starchild just looks stupid, both conceptually and visually We should’ve talked to Harbinger.
- Previous choices didn’t matter. -> it did though, as much as any other choices/consequences
- Red/Green/Blue ending -> it was fixed in Extended Cut, which is the canon ending now, so it makes no sense to discuss it in 2021
The synthetic conflict was never the main focus of Mass Effect, in fact AI remains mostly as background lore like the Rachni wars until you you're in the Quarian lore bubble. It wasn't even a main plot point in ME1. Because Mass Effect has always been about the relationship and conflicts of different races. From humanity's attempt to fit in among the other races, to the fucked up way the Krogans were treated and the Quarians being forced from their homeland. Which is why turning it into a synthetics vs biologicals is stupid when you could have easily made their motivation assimilation to eliminate the conflict between races and "unite" them.
@Tha Wolfbeard 194 Yeah, the original ending was just bad. But it is not canon anymore, so using it in an argument is not valid anymore. (Unless the argument is about the company’s general behavior, and not about the game itself)
@@BlueLightningSky Synthetics and AI is literally how the game starts. They are the first thing we shoot. Then we get to the Citadel, the first conversations is about how AI is banned, because they are dangerous in the long term, and what happened with the Quarians. Then we have the Rouge AI. And that’s just the first game.
I agree that the casual conflicts are the best parts of this universe, but every games need a main villain. And in most stories, the villain, villains motivations are not immediately made clear.
So in general, this storyline is well written and integrated. The only thing we could complain about it is that ME2 didn’t made any real progress in the storyline, so they had to catch up with it in ME3, feeling a bit rushed. But most great stories have such issues, even Babylon 5.
Why didn’t they just go with this ending. I know it got leaked and whatever but it would’ve been better than the one we got.
Good question!
Thanks for sharing this one bro 👍Your lore related videos are some of the best ME content on YT 😁 As for any future games that you want to work on I'd suggest checking the Dragon Age series as much like ME, the DA series also has great potential 👍😄
I think the renegade ending with the dark energy theory should be that shephard should become the human reaper ^^
They can just cop-out the storyline again for the new trilogy. In the weakened state the galaxy inhabits after the Reaper War, an extra-galactic invasion of the Leviathans can finally occur where the universe's apex, organic race finally makes their powerplay to take over. Shepard 2.0 is then tasked with building a coalition of lesser developed species like the Yagh and Raloi to fight them off...
Maybe Jaardans have the solution reapers were searching for?
95% Certain the Dark Energy stuff will play a role in whatever comes next. In my Legendary Edition playthrough of Mass Effect 2, it felt like there was an unusual amount of emphasis put on Dholen and Haestrom (Although I admit that most of it was just my personal investment in Tali.) Putting aside my personal investment in Tali, I truly believe that there is something there with Dark Energy. Cause, at the end of the day, where else could it go?
Stars prematurely aging? Photino birds!
The Scourge in Andromeda galaxy is a dark energy phenomenon. It wouldn't feat into the described Dark Energy plot. However, understanding it could be a solution.
The Reapers should've talked to Starfleet. They seem to always solve just about everything.
This would've been so much better than the plot we got. It gives the reapers true purpose and personality
Have to disagree, but that might just be me not liking the trope of, ‘plot twist the villains were the good guys all along!’
@@codyconnor6981 are they really the good guys even then?
Even though Bioware messed up the ending, they have made a series that has sparked a lot of discussion.
A lot of fan theories.
The fan theories are awesome to read or listen to.
Bioware should take the fan theories to help with the story writing in the next game(s).
No they shouldn’t.
What if the stuff in Andromeda that wrecks the space ships is stitching to stop Galactic Tear?!
Im kinda hoping the new mass effect would have a new protagonist. Honestly i think its a good thing to let shepards story end. If the next mass effect game is set centuries after mass effect 3 then theres no reason for shepard to exist. If it follows the destroy ending at that point shepard has been through so much bs that a fitting end to it all would be if shepard spends the rest of his/her life with his/her love interest, grow old and die peacefully. Theres no reason that makes sense for shepard to go into cryo to put himself/herself through more stress in the future, shepard is not master chief. Besides they already did the whole putting shepard back together in me2 it would be lame to do it again.
I wouldn't mind if they did a Dragon Age Inquisition where you got a brief interaction with Hawke. Having your new avatar briefly meet with Shepard who may be "retired" (as much as someone like Shep could be) would be nice. Some cameos from the longer living characters like Krogans and Asari (especially Aria) that ties it all together.
I have an idea that focuses on the reapers being an embodiment of despair and torment. Basically just pure space horror. Reapers were intended to be ships that could transport people from a galaxy that was dying due to eezo abuse. Slaves who were being worked to death build them in time chose to sabotage the ships. Each was turned into a machine of absolute torment. The ones who destroyed that galaxy were absorbed and kept in a state of semi-conscious misery without end.
In order to keep it going forever they would need some resources, and were already programmed to reach the milky way. Once there, the reapers found the mass relay network and a galactic civilization going through the same catastrophe, but at an earlier stage. The sabotage had no end point, thus the cycle began. Once completed you could say that the reapers became the builders of the mass relays, having absorbed the creators.
I could see a dark energy / dark matter story working on a local level. Dark energy seems to be causing the universe to expand while dark matter seems to have some gravitational force that holds galaxies together. Since galaxies rotate with forces that would generally cause local star systems to be flung out, some people speculate that dark matter holds galaxies together. On the same token, certain parts of the universe that are dark, or without clusters of stars or galaxies, are also lacking in dark matter, which can indirectly be detected through gravitational lensing.
So if biotics use dark energy and deplete dark matter, that could cause the Milky Way to die out with its stars and local systems being flung away from the Milky Way galaxy. I'd think it'd be an okay premise. Whatever direction they go with the story, I just hope it's better than the space magic that is the crucible. I also hope we get to actually fight any of the main antagonists they show. Although I wanted more closure with the ending, I was more disappointed that I didn't get to personally kick the Illusive Man's ass or the Harbingers shiny metal ass.
Most likely it would be some extra galactic race that threatens both the milkyway and andromeda galaxies.
maybe because the alpha relay was destroyed that energy it supposed to go to it drift the Normandy instead and few reapers to andromeda and Ryder go to investigate when he saw liara after the Normandy crashed and she and her crew were stuck in the same planet we saw in mass effect 3 ending and it has been years so the climate change to frozen and that N7 helmet is Shepard's that was stored in the cabin
perfect theory except that the teaser show all that happened in milky way
A pretty weird twist would be if the Kett came after conquering Andromeda but that would have to be sooooo far ahead
I always found the kett interesting, because they developed FTL without Mass Effect fields didn’t they?
this plot is interesting they should defo do something with it
Repurpose the dark energy plot post-reapers by having the crucible energy have had drastic side effects on the galaxy and accelerated the dark energy decay. Remember that the crucible was always a weapon born of desperation, not something that was field tested to identify potential danger. Even throughout ME3 the general consensus is "we don't know wtf this thing does, but what else can we do?".
In order to figure out the specifics of what the energy did, you have to research the reapers to figure out how to stop it since the crucible likely was burnt out and damage from the initial release. This might prompt the Leviathans to step in due to the "lesser races" tinkering with the very thing that nearly brought their end. A sort of "you can't be trusted with what we once created" stance. Or if that's too similar to the reapers, maybe it starts a civil war of sorts between those who are against testing on the reapers out of fear of their resurgence.
Well you have the Dark Energy in ME:Å... The scourge is actually that.
Add in how it wrecks stuff up.
On Havarl you find a pilots helmet, but whats more intresting is the comments being made about it when you find the helmet, that it dont look like the scourge was going for the crashed ship, but actually reaching for the pilot.
I think thats what the Reapers see as the real threat that the Dark Energy will manifest and do wacky stuff to things(like the sun in ME2, where for some reason Dark Energy have manifested inside of it, instead of around planets or objects etc).
Add in the timeline jump that is likely with Liara now looking abit aged(which generally means most of the squadmates would be dead, sans EDI potentially or the Krogans, the rest would be dead).
However if you are right that its Liara in Matriarch age, its not unlikely that as BioWare have said that ME4 will bridge in ME:Å and that somehow they make contact between the 2 galaxies.
Could have a quantum entaglement device which will be instant-communiction like the Illusive man used with Shepard etc.
Given the hints in ME:Å about Cerebrus and how they where potentially the real backers of the project.
If the next game takes place in the Milky Way galaxy in the same time period as Mass Effect Andromeda, the dark energy plot could have more meaning.
If the Dark Energy is revisited ME4 would have to start with "Universe Shattering" that turns Mass Effect on its haed and shows that the use of Dark Matter is a clear and present danger to reality itself. Which means very bad news for the Asari, a species who all use biotics and is somewhat dependent on them. ME4 may start with Thessia being totally destroyed at the start of the game from its sun prematurely going Super Nova.
Would be awesome to see something like that, but in long terms this seems boring. At least if the only treat will be dark energy.
Don't get me wrong, the concept is good with dark energy, but something bigger should be behind this...
Maybe it's ok for the Reapers to not be the center of the story in terms of plot moving. Maybe they have served their purpose, destroyed, synthesized, or controlled, and we don't need them as a pivotal part of the galaxy, or even in the larger universe. I am hoping future games explore the option of making them a non-topic, and focusing on their role more like an important part of our galactic history or personal evolution, especially if dark matter turns out to be the major deal going forward.
All I know is that old Shep would be tired
I like this theory video
It was a famous piece of plot that wasn't used. I could see it being dusted off for Mass Effect 5.
If the Reapers couldn't save the Universe from dying I bet Thane would say that "entropy always wins" xD
If the Reapers were trying to save the Universe, with the Dark Energy plot what did they do about the other billion, billion Galaxies out there? While the canon plot is a bit hokey, it does make sense for a plot being isolated in just the Milky Way.
I'd like it to be true because I actually understand it and that makes me feel smart.
The circular logic of the dark energy plotline can't be any further from smart
I don't think we need a Big Bad really, I'd be happy if this game focused more on conflicts between the new governments in the Milky way. Everyone got just about equally fucked by the Reapers I think so it would be interesting to see the Milky Way Races scramble to rebuild themselves and take power in the Universe. Think about it even if you didn't cure the Genophage the Krogan were slowly adapting to it, with the Salarians unable to modify it again due to them rebuilding themselves the Krogan Population is almost guarantied to boom. With that in mind all the other Species could feel threatened and begin an Arms and Colonization race. I think that state of the Universe would be awesome to experience and then you also have the Leviathans, Yhag, Khett, and Dark energy storylines in the background.
I don't think you have to make it a universal game. I really don't think there is a need for that. I think there could be a local version of the dark energy plot.
Something like: "the localized concentration of dark energy creates unstable stars and might even cause planets to rip apart. If this continues the intire galaxy would be destroyed" this would give something to find a solution to. Maybe study of the scourge in Andromeda could be helpful. The reapers would probably have known about this, and that could retroactively be part of their motivation
Cool theory
I've been rethinking the dark energy plot that they didn't finish. It has to align with the Andromeda game. A week ago I restarted playing Andromeda. I forgot that in the beginning of the game that you run into the scourge and we learn that the scourge is a nickname for dark energy phenomenon that's wrecking the Andromeda Galaxy cluster that we play through. No way in hell that's not connected to the original Mass effect trilogy. And now with the remastered trilogy and ability that they enabled to receive your games and whatnot. They're going to make a Mass effect 4 and the game after that is going to tie into the Andromeda series. They're going to have to make a new Andromeda game. They're going to have to finish the DLC that they never did for the first one and release them.
They're not done with the Mass effect universe obviously. It's about to get bigger within these next 5 years. And I'm kind of pumped for it. I just hope that they release games that are complete and that the story makes sense. I hope that they stop rushing crap out. Because if Bungie fails again they will completely lose all faith in all the consumers and get shut down. I already lost my faith it's starting to get renewed but I don't trust them still. I decided to replay Andromeda out of boredom.
Bioware, not bungie. And id say its final decisions are made by EA (shareholders), which lets be honest, still have a horrible reputation. Also casey has left bioware, one of the main visionaries for mass effect so who freakin knows where this could go.
Here's an idea. The crucible could have been created by the reapers as a test for organics to build and insert into the citadel. But the crucible isn't a weapon but an invitation... to be granted an audience with the reapers and engage in a dialogue. The reapers may want to cooperate with organics to find a solution to the dark energy plot, so this test was to demonstrate which cycle was worthy of this cooperation and to make their case(your choices and galactic readiness would take centre stage at this point) on why the reapers should work with this cycle rather than harvest it and await the next cycle. That would have been far more entertaining and impactful.
Edit: no starchild shit. But an audience with harbinger and the reapers and the intelligence.
Synthesis is the 'Golden" ending. I prefer Shepard surviving, but if you look at all the details that follow the Synthesis ending, Krogan regaining their old knowledge and becoming more capable of taming their planet, the Reapers repairing everything, Joker and Edi have a good relationship, and everyone has free will. Synthesis has been likened to being turned into a Drone by the Borg, but Synthesis doesn't assimilate everyone. It just adds technology to the organics, so now AI's and organics 'understand' each other, and no longer need to go to war.
With a surviving Shepard, AI wars are still possible, and the races will eventually become ambitious, and go to war for the resources. For me, why in the hell should Shepard sacrifice himself again for such an ungrateful bunch? I only did the Synthesis ending once, never did the Domination ending for the Illusive man ending, and mostly did the Shepard survives and destroys the Reapers. That was the most satisfying ending, minus the loss of the Geth, and Edi.
Ironically enough. Control works best of you're a paragon, anything less than full altruism is a danger to everything in existence, I mean reapers with shepards mind, personality and all that
IMO The Catalyst doesn't have a circular logic as it is not : we, AI, kill you, human asari..., to preserve you from creating an AI that will kill you, human asari.... It is we kill you because you are a threat to other organic life. And the leviathan are a proof of the catalyst point : they created an AI that just kill all organic life. Since the beginning the leviathan were a threat to prothean, human,asari.... In the explanation the AI is just the tool and the elevated organic life is the problem.
Where the dark energy is a dead end because of its circular logic.
And not giving an origin and a purpose to the reaper would have been : "well 3 games to know everything since the first one"
In fact I think the scourge thing of Andromeda is kinda dark energy theory but localized to an area rather than the entire universe.
For the next mass effect I would imagine that they would rebuild the relay network. But you can't rebuild all the relays at once. So councilian species that decide of the fate of the galaxy would prioritize their own. Result in the non councilian one being jealous. The Batarian will have time to rebuild their society but only to be able to fight against the Human. I would imagine more species would join the council and new species would join the elevated club. This would be, for me, where the story starts. You have a decent relay network but not a perfect one. Everyone only need a spark to go to fight. Then the only thing is what shape would have this spark.
I think with everything we know all choices of the 3 can be cannon but wouldn't matter in the story just explain here and there how it happen to set to the current story. e.g. You killed the Quarian but they are alive? There is an ark with 20K of them and all the Quarian that weren't in the fleet can have repopulate the galaxy. It works the other way around. Unfortunately they got a virus on Rannoch and it spread too quickly the survivor were not enough to repopulate the galaxy.
Shepard would be dead because it is the only one that can't be alive and respect all ends. And I don't consider the n7 from the helmet as a proof of shepard or at least as shepard alive.
Well... If the reapers are harvesting apex species in search of anomaly/solution to the universe ending and if Shepard is trully that anomaly - that means Control ending is the true one
If Humanity (or should i say all species) are the ones who can find solution - Then true ending would be Synergy
If however The reapers are the problem - Destroy ending kinda resets the universe as all reaper technology gets destroyed
What im saying is it would really come to what Bioware decide for the future of ME
I think the dark energy theory would've worked had it been fleshed out in the third game. What I had heard was that it had something to do with biotics and humans bio diversity gave them potential to solve the problem more than any other race. I like your concept of working with the galaxy good, working alone bad, but I don't think cooperation with the reapers was a good idea, from a stories perspective at least, it's too utopian in my opinion. I think it should've been made apparent that the reapers were immovable in their flawed logic that "they" were the solution, unwilling to accept the unknown possibilities of leaving it up to organics. They create themselves from organics to harness biotics but have been unsuccessful. I think it could've been a concept that would've kept us intrigued throughout the game and fully realized in the end.
I think the issue with the Dark Energy plot is that it’s so… natural?
I’m not hype to die an early death because a stinky space squid thinks my Alexa will kill me, and I’ll gladly fight against that so the stinky space squids don’t get their way.
But in talking about the end of the universe and dark energy… that’s just going to happen. It’s like dying of old age. I’m not afraid of it, it’s how the universe functions. I don’t feel a big need to unwrite the laws of physics to live longer, when I can just focus on enjoying the life I have.
So if the Dark Energy plot does come back, I’m just gonna snuggle up with handsome Turian babe, pour a drink, and watch the universe end.
so create the posing and then the cure
really why they don't just blow up the mass relays
DARK ENERGY ROMANCE CONFIRMED IN ME4?! Also join the discord its pretty epic.
I support this plot being expanded upon whole heartedly!
I think this dark energy ending is seriously overrated, and people would have hated it just as much as the current ending. The current reason for the Reaper harvest is about as good as it gets.
The Reapers wipe out advanced life every 50k years, and every Reaper holds the collective memory of every race. Because if they didn't hit restart periodically, then you'd have AI that PERMANENTLY wipes out ALL life EVERYWHERE. If you're a machine intelligence, as advanced as the Reapers, it's not hard to come up with ways to completely and permanently sterilize entire galaxies. So the Reapers' cyclical genocide solution is still better than "hurr durr we need you to use dark energy and bad tech until maybe one day one chosen race comes along who is smart enough to figure something else out. But we deliberately sabotage our own efforts by guiding every race down the same paths so they don't even have the freedom to think outside the box." - Which by the way only halts this problem in the Milky Way and doesn't account for all the other trillions of galaxies that might discover mass effect tech and biotics.
Most people just want it because it is different from what they got, and in their imagination it could be the impossible satisfying ending we all wish for.
To be fair it is hard to come up with any answer that's not along the lines of "we need resources / we are actually doing this to protect you against an even greater threat". Maybe it would have been better to take the tongue in cheek approach and be like Vigil and say "their reasons are completely unknown, alien, you destroyed them, go on, keep guessing."
That last part is probably the way they should have gone with it tbh.
I completely agree with you on this. The trilogy ending would never satisfy everyone. It was doomed to be that way from the start. A giant galactic "unknowable" race is Lovecraftian horror, and the only way it can be resolved is through temporary means, never a definitive solution. The Reapers should have remained in a permanent state of ambiguity. Asking questions with no clear answers. Hints, perhaps. Nothing more.
Once they decided the audience had to know a clear reason for their existence, it was effectively doomed. Some people will love it, some won't. Theres no ending that will please everyone.
My biggest problem is every proposed "better" ending I've looked into sucks worse, or I'd say is about as good as what we got already anyway. Happy ending? Sucks. A Disney ending doesn't fit for a character like Shepard. Shepard is the hero, and is going up against impossible odds. The best narrative solution for the character arc is a heroic sacrifice. A happy ending where the Reapers are just destroyed, good guys win with minimal casualties, and Shepard has a big happy family, is just ridiculous.
Indoctrination theory, although possibly as fascinating as what we got, has too many holes to really make sense.
Even when I had first played ME3, before the extended cut released years ago, I expected 1) Shepard would need to die. And 2) there's no way to end this in a way that pleases everyone.
Ultimately, my expectations were met, and I found the extended cut ending to be a decent close to Shepard/Reapers story. It doesn't "ruin" the 3 games' arcs, all the great experiences I had seeing where the characters started, and how they grew.
Lol, the best idea you could come up is just a dragon ball bootleg? Dark energy plot at least gives themes which we people can project on ourselves
@@faded1to3black I disagree with the whole hero sacrifice point. Did I expect a happy ending? No, I was expecting a bitter sweet ending. Shepard lives and reflects on what was lost. But what still remains. That was the ending I wanted. The reason why I don’t care for a hero sacrifice ending. It’s too trendy and kind of a cliche IMO. The main problem I had with the endings of Mass Effect 3. Was that I didn’t had a choice. That’s the problem most people had with the endings. You like them? Good on you. With all do respect. You’re part of the minority.
@@treyart1 the hero's sacrifice is the only way to make the reapers a credible threat. It may be cliché, but its way more fitting than shepard somehow surviving. Shepard is the ultimate hero, but its just one person, going up against a threat billions of years old. Shepard is the player character, and has to strike the decisive blow, but that means that they'll probably have to die, because heroes are the only ones willing to put themselves out there for the good of others.
Ultimately, the main point was that no ending would have sufficed for everyone.
With the dark energy plot the reapers set up the relays because it was more efficient and less damaging to the galaxy. Think of it this way, the reapers set up mass relays to combat the dark energy problem in the same way countries set up high speed rail to combat climate change. Trains may use carbon from power plants but they are way more efficient than everyone taking their own car and thus buys the Earth time to combat climate change.
The only problem with that motivation is why allow the knowledge and use of mass effect technology to continue? Rather than wiping all races every 50k years why not search out all of the deposits of tech that most cycles hid and destroy the relays
I don't understand why people moan saying the outcome in me3 need to reflect in me4 obviously me4 wasn't planned. We have the perfect ending where Shepard is alive makes sense that will be canon
You can be certain the Dark Energy plot will make a comeback, simply because so many players bring it up. I wouldn't expect it to be a major plot point however, simply because it was already so vague and so could be literally anything, and because they dropped it the first time around, so any reference will be fan service. I would also bet that they continue to keep it vague, like an "in-joke".
You heard it here first NSvenSkwod.
You heard it here first!
I'll never understand why people would like the Saren synthesis option
Why didn't they just destroy mass relays after one of the first cycles and then wait, until ME technology was rediscovered without their help? And then come to harvest.
But how come worlds were not destroyed when then mass relays exploded, like what happened in arrival..?
So essentially the Dark Energy plot line would turn the Reapers into the Anti-Spirals?
So shephard has to go from stopping an over powered, over developed A.I with millions of ships capable of wiping out entire fleets single handedly. To finding a way of stopping a fundamental force within the universe from ripping the universe apart.
I was never a big fan of the dark energy plot. I actually like the AI vs. Organics more.
Yeah as he points out the circular logic of dark energy/Reapers is hilariously stupid
I like both. I think they should bring in the Dark Energy plotline BUT do not have it involve the Reapers. So that even they didn't know about the coming threat showcasing how hidden or overlooked it is. Instead having a more powerful alien threat on the horizon one that travels the entire universe so it took it's time to reach the Milky Way.
ME4's main problem is always going to be continuity. They either have to pick on ending as canon making the other decisions meaningless, or they are all canon. The only way for them all to be canon would be to have some temporal/dimensional anomaly. Its a bit more space magicy but I think rifts in space time would work well with the Dark Energy theory. Its the only way I can think of that respects the endings but also letting them move on with the story without holding everything back. Otherwise making 1 ending canon over the others invalidates the whole point of the extended cut.
Destroy Ending is already confirmed canon.
@@masterpwn3r when was that?
@@therantingcat7891 Destroyed Reaper in the ME4 Trailer and N7 Armour. Synth and Control Ending all destroy the armour of shepard.
@@masterpwn3r OH YEAH! I remember now! My Shepard actually dives into those rays with the two awful endings. I forgot. TY brah.
@@therantingcat7891 np, lets hope we can play as shepard in ME4 though. I cannot imagine a new ME without Shepard, Garrus, EDI, Jack and co.
Maybe the Milky Way races desperately trying to find a solution and come across Andromeda Initiative records and decide to move everyone to Andromeda.
Whatever ME4 has in store I just hope we get o play as ANYTHING other than a human. Shepard was great. But like the games themselves said "The universe loves/demands diversity."
I was kind of disappointed that they just cut the possible 'dark energy' ideas away after mass effect 2 ended.
No I really don’t like that theory , my take after the harvest the reapers return to dark space , but what if the harvest races are just reaper reinforcements, why with andromeda project did they expect to find golden world only to find the scourge had wiped out most life, who did the jardann lose to leaving remnant indoctrinated , or worse as watchdogs hence when the composers were defeated the signal they send it to tell the race that defeated the jardann that a new race has arrived to be modified (the equivalent of synthetic hybrid ) instead the remnants were old, not just old but one of the first ones , an ai life form that survives its cycles extinction event by a race that was supported by the Leviathans. Harbinger was created to police the races and try to prevent the conflict between life and ai . Harbinger did this for a million years but the ai race tired of fighting humanoid life over and over infected harbinger and changed the program to process all life not just protect it’s younger races . Thus started the program of extinction, each harvest adding to the ai intelligence. Unlike the younger races which fell first, the first ones survived over a million years before losing , but the code was changed once again , a complete re-write was not possible but it’s mission was to defeat the ai lifeforms that had returned to the dark space, this race has evolved and was now just as powerful as the first ones, and it was a stalemate, in its last cycle the reinforcements to the reapers were expecting in the form of prothean reapers took to long, and the ai had instead managed to launch early attacks on the Milky Way galaxy , that’s the dark space formations
Uhh, dude. Synthesis ending is basically letting reapers to harvest us. Bioware went retarded with that crap. I don't even understand why it exists, except maybe someone decided that there should be extra reward for 100% or smth. But in perspective we tried to stop reapers from turning us in synthesis for 2 games only to turn ourselves into them in 3rd one
Hyperlink to your earlier video? 😅
Why do the reapers only Harvest the Milky Way why not andromeda