That quote would be the perfect slogan for companys and parent gaming companies to use to undermine and keep their employees or studios that they own in check lol
@TheUnknown285 & Jake Mayes The Real Best Line of the Series: “Your words are as empty as your future. I am the Vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over.” EXPLOSION!!!
What's actually infuriating is that if the Virmire Survivor was in your Squad on this mission they specifically say "We could always just show them our suit recordings." Why didn't they then?
The council would have dismissed it as fabricated anyway. I mean, how hard is it to create a VI interface in the shape of Sovereign and record some lines for it to play? Those morons on the council would never believe it is legit.
The Avenger at Ilipa True. But it is easier to believe one of your operatives turns traitor than to believe that an army of sentient starships is about to destroy all spacefaring life in the galaxy. Don't forget that they have dismissed the existence of the Reapers in ME 2 as well, even though they had pieces of Sovereign scattered all over the Citadel.
Harbinger came close too, being (SPOILERS!!) both the boss Reaper and the *first* Reaper, but he seemed to lack a chilling quality that Sovereign possessed.
Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
@@hassansuboh8033 all it takes is 1 person to alter the odds. As big as his talk was, shep stopped the reapers from invading rapidly 2 times. And eventually saved the galaxy...
The scary thing is how sovereign speaks. Threats are barely acknowledged, everything it says sounds like a statement of fact and not an assertation, and it ends the conversation as though it is just bored of it
and still, in the end, he sounded like talking stupid shit... "our existence is beyond your comprehension"... hmmm created to kill and process organics otherwise they would be annihilated by synthetic life in a cycle that repeats... not so complicated... :D
"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire." This was the first truly horrifying line to me. Where it is revealed that all our technology was provided by the antagonists, knowing we would use it and knowing that all our weapons technology would be based on it, to develop weapons they could be prepared for, reducing the threat of our own resistance before it even begins.
Agreed. The Reapers laid a trap older than our species, and every galactic civilisation has fallen into it, over and over and over and over - and so have we.
The writing in ME 1 is so great not only in video game history but of any media, Its a shame Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware after ME2. I always wondered what ME3 could have been if he was the lead writer.
@Innocent Jogger they had a different ending in mind. But it was discarded after it was leaked. The ending was supposed to be that the reapers harvest the galaxy because the usage of element zero and biopics accelerated the amount of dark energy in the universe and shortening the life of the universe. Which is really cool and a lot better than what we got. But it still has a ton of plot holes. Because the reason people were using Eezo in the first place was because of the reapers.
For sure. This part was certainly an "Oh shit" kind of moment, Like it truly feels like there is no hope, I can sort of see where Saren was coming from, To me ME1 had the best story by far, Even tho ME2 has always been my favorite, The Reapers are just the ultimate enemy and having that factor of you can't possibly comprehend the existence of them makes it so much more intriguing.
What makes Sovereign truly terrifying is that his words go beyond confidence or pride. He doesn't threaten. He doesn't boast. He simply informs you that what's coming cannot be fought against. "We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure." His voice gives you a real sense of hopelessness. It's like he's had this very conversation countless times before, and will have it again in another 50,000 years.
Totally! Dare I say I wasn’t even convinced a badass like Shepard could stand a chance against a machine army that’s eradicated organic life every 50,000 years and have been doing it for...not even the Protheans know how long.
His Voice rings fear, it brings death, it brings destruction, it brings chaos, it brings order, this is what a Reaper stands about and that's what makes him so darn intimidating.
And yet after everything about this scene, choosing to focus all ships on destroying Sovereign before it can summon thousands of reapers is seen as the bad option at the end. There is one ship under attack, admittedly filled with the Citadel council and 10,000 people trying to evacuate but think about it, if you save the Destiny Ascension from the Geth and then 30 seconds later (You don't know how long it'll take Sovereign to complete his task, what the limits to his power are, or how easily you can save the Destiny Ascension, everything is based on assumptions and sheer luck, you have every reason to believe Sovereign will take every ship you have) thousands of reapers show up then the fact that you saved one ship means nothing since the Reapers will kill it immediately anyway and every ship in the battle will be destroyed. If you can't even destroy one of them, how can we destroy thousands of them. These reapers have made life in the galaxy extinct hundreds of times over the course of millions of years, if you don't beat Sovereign here and now then you lose the one chance the galaxy will ever have of breaking that cycle of death. You will save literally infinite lives if you sacrifice 10,000, in which you don't even know if it will die, you just know that you won't be the ones saving them (it did die, but that doesn't really matter when you compare 10,000 to a literally infinite number). If you DON'T kill Sovereign then you will have doomed literally infinite lives. In a video of the Battle of the Citadel, someone else made the same arguments I just made in favour of destroying Sovereign, but the only arguments people came up with to debunk it were strawman arguments which took individual phrases like "Greater good" out of context. People said things like "The council are the most influential people in the galaxy, they control the government" What would the council be governing if the Reapers arrived? Somebody else said that "You're just letting the council die out of spite because of the way they treated Humans in this game, you're letting your emotions get the better of you, that's why it's the bad option." This is hypocritical and factually wrong, they chose the "Save DA" options because they wanted the galaxy to see the Humans weren't selfish, power hungry monsters, they enjoyed the symbolism of the scene, that humanity proved the galaxy wrong and stepped up to save the lives of those that held them down. Believe me, I wanted that too, and if the stakes weren't so high that you couldn't rebuild and if there was any more to that decision you can bet your ass I would save the Citadel council, they're begging for help from anyone nearby and then when the Arcturus fleet shows up they show much more than relief, they believe they are saved and before you've even saved them you can see their perspective on Humanity changing. Of course I wanted to save them, but saving them wouldn't mean anything if Sovereign succeeds. This is why that choice at the end of the game is incredibly stupid, no matter which of the three options you pick the events play out almost exactly the same way. When the battle starts, it's absolute chaos and you are losing exponentially to the Geth, the Citadel vanguard is splintered and Sovereign literally bodies some of the ships as he flies into the Citadel. The Geth are the main enemies of the game and with the first scenes of this battle are shown to be very powerful in fleet combat... KEEP THAT IN MIND. When you make the decision to save DA, a single fighter (not a cruiser or capital ship) fires one missile which destroys a Geth flagship which does not appear to be damaged at all... Who would have thunk it. You lose a total of 3 fighter class ships to the Geth fleet before destroying them completely and those events take up the same amount as if you picked "Concentrate on Sovereign" meaning that those choice descriptions are VERY misleading. The fight against Sovereign after that decision literally doesn't change AT ALL, you have the same amount of resources and the fight plays out EXACTLY the same way. If I knew the choices didn't take an ounce of logic into account and were influenced exclusively by emotional payoff of course I would have chosen to save Destiny Ascension. If you choose to concentrate on Sovereign, the fight against him doesn't play straight away like you would think, instead a different cutscene of approximate length to the other choices plays in which the Council reacts to the fact that you won't help them. The choice "Concentrate on Sovereign" might as well be relabeled "Flip off the DA" because that's what you are actually doing. If I had any of the information I have now when making that choice, of course I would pick something different. I thought Mass Effect was supposed to be a game where you're choices had a Mass Effect and don't get me wrong, it is and they do in a lot of cases, but not in the ways you would think. I was under the impression that one of the three choices was going to be the bad, untrue ending in which you fail and the next games don't happen, but no, you win no matter what, which kind of spits in the face of what Sovereign said in this scene when Shepard first meets him. Let me clear up, I love this game, although I haven't finished ME2, I think it's way better, both in gameplay and in characters IMO, I haven't played ME3 yet but I'll be avoiding spoilers for both of those games in discussion.
I love how the most chilling scene in the whole game also has one of the best bits of deadpan humor "What is that? Some kind of VI interface?" *"RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH. YOU TOUCH MY MIND, FUMBLING IN IGNORANCE, INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING"* "...I don't think that's a VI."
@@KarmanicMizery "What is this, some kind of virtual interface?" "What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Reapers, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on advanced organics, and I have over 300 trillion confirmed kills. I am trained in harvesting and I'm the top Sovereign-class in the entire Reaper Fleet. You are nothing to me but just another harvest. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before in this galaxy, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Extranet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of indoctrinated puppets across the Terminus Systems and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare tentacles. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the Reapers and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo." "...I don't think this is a V.I."
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding..." If that wasn't the sickest burn in existence I don't know what is... xD
Ironic you say that, since the heretic geth worshiped Sovereign as if he were a God...and Sovereign was *insulted*, seeing the geth as little better than tools, and, in the words of Saren, "no amount of worship on [the geth's] part will ever change that".
Except SHODAN *explicitly believed* she was a goddess, and tried forcing others to see her the same way. Sovereign was *already* revered as a god by the heretic geth, (AND unlike, usually, SHODAN, he had the muscle to back up any potential claims of godhood). Except Sovereign never believed itself a god (unimaginably superior, yes, but not deserving of worship; in fact, when the geth did, Sovereign *hated* it). SHODAN in control of Reaper technology though? *Nightmare of beyond Biblical proportions.*
+DorianMichaelsIII Imagine the Normandy crew return to Omega, finding Aria only to see her corpse, then hear "The Aria form is dead, insects. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? W-w-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence. I am SHODAN." *Shudder*
"You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it." Seriously this was one of the most bone-chilling quotes I've ever heard in a video game. Apart from everything else he says, this one and his last sentence "Your threats are as empty as your future" are seriously best script-writing work I've seen for a long time.
Not even a conversation. It's just a simple declaration, delivered without inflection or emotion. Like a psychopath's monologue to himself above an ant nest he's burning with a piece of glass.
But it's here to save you from synthetics. It's obvious from it's dialogue that it's controlled by an AI that makes it not sentient, but instead as basic as fire and it will perverse your species by turning it into flesh for another Reaper! Makes perfect sense, right? Right?! (Fuck the ME3 ending with a cheese grater. Only a shithead waste of food would think that made any sense.)
@@derlich09 Please forget about me3 plot. Original plan of Sovereign and all of reapers is to save galaxy from dying because of consumtion of element zero. Remember me2 tali mission? The star was dying for this reason. The original goal of the reapers is to find the solution to mass effect which is killing the galaxy by aging stars. So yeah, Sovereign is right, the problem is a lot more important than some lives of entire races.
"We are legion". That voice is just so fittingly creepy. Threatening and yet devoid of emotion. There's no rage, no anger, no hate, just cold logic bordering on dogma. I kind of admire that :-/ And there's nothing to reason or argue with. Those are, in my opinion, possibly the best villains. Apart from the batshit crazy ones, like the Joker, who are so past logic and reason that no one understands them.
+Corristo89 I agree -There is nothing you can say to them that they haven't heard LITERALLY a million times before...And all your arguments basically boil down to "Hey, you don't HAVE to destroy us" -to which the answer is pretty much : "NO.BUT WE WILL" -like a cockroach trying to reason with a exterminator.
Harbinger sounded too close to human, used to like it, then saw this. This one doesn't go into long platitudes. Real great, basicly the exact opposite of Legion in ME2
Also Harbinger hardly had any memorable or meaningful dialogue besides cliché villain lines. I think because that Sovereign is more admired because, even if he didn't have too much dialogue either, he says much more in a few scenes than him.
Yeah, like harbinger was all like "Something something perfection" and Shephard this and Shepherd that while Sovereign was like "This exchange is OVER". If Reapers are entities that are over a billion years old and immensely powerfull, they would hardly fixate on a single specimen, even one like the character. Like someone said, they would've seen and heard it all a million times. Well more like 20,000 times, but who's counting...
3:42 - the most chilling part is knowing the Sheperd is wrong here in retrospect. The Reapers aren't machines. That's the worst part. They are closer to cybernetically lifeforms than pure machines. Their minds being made up literal millions or even billions of sentients(for the largest among them) digitally encoded and housed within the reaper body's vast databanks. In effect, Sheperd is talking to the ghosts of a dead civilization without even realizing it.
It really can't be understated how good this scene is. So incredibly effective at using cosmic horror to raise the stakes of the story. Some of the best dialogue in all of science fiction.
@@kahlzun Sovereign does not address your insults. Sovereign does not make any threats. Sovereign informs you of the foe you will face and states plainly that you will not be victorious. That is pure menace
Sovereign's voice defined the Reapers so perfectly, they were the perfect bad guys. It could have been so perfect but.. we know what happend... Still awesome
PascimanArc23 I finished it a week ago, and I wasn't dissapointed at all. I don't understand people who disliked it. I mean, what didn't you like about the endings?
Zaeed Massani What did you liked about it?! The Endings aere all pretty muich the same, while there completly different ending promised. Well, it would take too much time to list it all, so maybe you can go on and watch "10 reasons why we hat the Ending of Mass Effect 3", that cuts it perfectly
PascimanArc23 I've seen the video and don't agree with it. Many of the plotholes were fixed in the Extended Cut, and really, you want a happy ending? When going against godlike machines, you can't seriously expect a happy ending.
"Reaper. A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply, are." One of the greatest lines in the series right there.
true, but harbinger had the benefit o hindsight. Sovereign had absolute no reason to think humanity would ever become close to a threat. imagine how many civilizations he wiped and try to not feel small.
@@PeagaportoGood point. Also, Sovereign has the benefit of being the first Reaper we actually get to interact. We as players know what to expect from the Reapers in future games, and so the others like Harbinger are less individually terrifying because the thesis of their cosmic horror antagonism has already been wonderfully conveyed by the initial twist of Sovereign's very existence. Fortunately, the horror is added on by the body horror of the Collectors and the human Reaper in the second game and the overwhelming sense of despair the third game establishes with their invasion. We first came to know what they were, then we learned the impending consequences of their arrival, and then we felt the weight of trying to fight against the seemingly inevitable.
+JoestarKisama Well it would have ended a lot better that's for sure. I think his original idea for the ending was that Reapers were harvesting civilizations for material to reproduce and combat the growing threat of Dark Energy hastening the heat death of the universe. The dilemma at the end was that by destroying the reapers, you would be destroying the only beings intelligent and capable enough to reverse or slow down entropy - so it was sort of a bittersweet victory.
+portl_ I was pretty happy with the ending, although it was a little simple. A program stuck in a loop. The Leviathan DLC added a nice twist to it though.
+portl_ I didn't like that your choices in the game had almost no effect on the game's ending, but the way I chose to interpret it is, sometimes your decisions don't matter, and you can't stop something from happening.
+Justin Hannay yeah thats a good way of looking at it. I like drew karpshin's idea more though, the whole organic vs synthetic debate didnt really fit into the rest of the story
+JoestarKisama ...Good? Honestly, this franchise started out so good! Then Mass Effect 2 made quite a few hiccups plot-wise, but was ultimately still pretty good. By the time the third came out, all hope was gone...
"Your words are as empty of your future, I am the vanguard of your destruction...This exchange is over" Sovereign mic drop. I still remember the first time I played this, I just sat their silent with my mouth open for a minute and was like oh no he didn't. This is good stuff that gives you chills and makes for great games.
This moment is what sold this game to me. Up till this moment in the game , I had mearly liked Mass Effect, and then when this came along I loved Mass Effect. Then came Vigil, and Mass Effect had become one of my favorite games in my gaming repertoire. That is the power that this first game has, despite ME3 being chock full of flaws, this game alone carries the other two games (though ME2 honestly was pretty good given it was made under the direction of EA, it's no ME1, but it was very good). I will say that ME1 has mechanic issues, in terms of it's FPS mechanics and so on. However the beauty of this game is atmosphere and setting, it was beautifully orchestrated.
***** I personally think ME was it its best in the first game, though it is really hard to say that because ME2 was top notch story telling and production quality. Still, ME1 will always have a special place in my heart.
+Baxter Rhodes I loved the game as soon as I read the line In the year 2148...... Once I read that paragraph I was hooked and boy was it one hell of a ride lol
Mass effect 1 has the best story and RPG elements, 2 has the best character interactions and breadth of squad, 3 has the best combat dynamics and emotional pay offs (and comedy moments). They are all awesome, but if you could combine the greatest aspects of all 3 you would have a flawless experience.
That reaper is definitely underrated. He also has some good lines and a proper voice. I think almost nobody remembers him because of his minor role and the fact he even doesn't have a known name. BTW, ME 3 Rannoch and Tuchanka arcs were some of the best and most epics moments of all the series IMO.
TheLordexilius while Sovereign is great, they are all by definition lovecraftian. The reapers are precisely a version of the Great Old Ones, as they were always meant to be. Life is given a meaning, but one so far beyond us that we are ultimately meaningless. That's what Lovecraft invented, and what the reapers convey.
@@MonoKrohm_2020 I get that, but Harbinger sounds too much like his voice actor with o ly subtle voice modulation. Sovereign sounds completely alien and terrifying
LibertyPrimeV1 I know, but there are exceptions like the Transformers. The voice actor for Optimus Prime, Peter Claver Cullen, actually sounds that epic, without the tuning.
Ma1 Reapers- eldritch nightmares of the of a forgotten age and the dark aeons to come Ma3 Reapers-automated killbots of a faulty Ai's shit plan ....no wonder people where pissed.
+Diablos It had to choose the best of bad options to accomplish an impossible task to redirect an inevitable course. Don't criticize what you do not understand.
+JohnZ117 I criticize stupidity and limited inflexible intelligence that lurks only within machines. This inevitable course has been stopped by the anomalies of that cycle. Don't speak in matters you don't understand, idiot.
+Claire Morris Yeah, Sovereign seems really ill informed on the Reaper agenda. He calls every one of us an evolutionary accident, but then that Laser Kid tries to tell us that this is all in an effort to save us. Sovereign also goes on about their mission being too large to comprehend, but the Kid manages to get it out in about 10 minutes. In fact, he summarizes it so easily I'm not sure why the Reapers never tried TALKING to someone in the first place.
+Jacob Bielski The Reapers weren't programmed to negotiate. They were programmed to destroy everything. Even when the Catalyst explained it, it didn't make sense.
It's the year 2020 and this is still one of the best conversations I've ever heard in a video game. Even after all these years (played the game when it first launched), I've never forgotten this convo - it's that damn GOOD!
The entire last piece of dialogue from Sovereign - "Your words are as empty as your future" to "This exchange is over." is just incredible. Left Shepard in the burns unit.
This scene has only gotten better with subsequent games. Honestly, I took Sovereign for a bit of an arrogant exaggerator. The constant claims that they are totally beyond our comprehension and that they have no beginning or end just seemed like exaggerations and lies intended to frighten. But... it really wasn't a lie. They're totally beyond comprehension. The more you learn about them, the more bizarre they get. One question is answered and 3 more take its place. It was very well done. You learn enough, but you never really comprehend them. They took a dichotomy like organic and synthetic life and just defied it. There are the seemingly impossible third option.
ME1: Sovereigns Speech, feeling of hopelessness from an almost omnipotent seeming being ME2: Anything the illusive, harbinger or even some of the side characters. Fighting to push back the collectors knowing they’re paving the way for the reapers. ME3: Working your ass off to recruit allies for the ongoing reaper war where the galaxy is being devastated by the reapers who have finally arrived. MEA: my face is tired Ok BioWare ggwp
I like how sovereign actually lived up to his threats, And ya know, Actually took on the citadel with a few geth ships aiding him, If it wasn't for the giant energy burst after shepard killed sarens body, Sovereign would've won.
"That ship Sovereign? I don't know what you did down there, but that thing just pulled a turn that would sheer any of our ships in half.." As if Sovereign didn't demonstrate his ridiculous superiority over them enough already just from the conversation, this comment from Joker just serves as another chilling emphasis on how much more advanced these Reapers we just found out about are compared to everyone else.
And it also has that effect of realising that Sovereign is now on his way to kill you personally, after that speech of him telling you what the Reapers are, he then beelines straight for you
ethan1142028 Google: confirmation bias. (It would also help to Google "self-fulfilling prophecy.") This conversation had nothing to do with the ending of ME3. Your inability to dispute that claim in any sense combined with your unnecessary utilization of Sophistry straight out of the gate are conclusive of your own arrogance. I find it all the more hilarious that you believe you understand the ending of ME3 and the role of this specific conversation as even the lead writers had (and still have) a very limited idea of how exactly the series would be wrapped up and/or what the actual plot of ME was supposed to mean. www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-19-ex-bioware-writer-discusses-dropped-ideas-for-mass-effect-trilogy-ending
This is honestly some of the best written dialogue in sci-fi, let alone just video games. Every sentence, the delivery, sovereign's tone... I wouldn't change a single word in that whole 4 minutes exchange. Holy shit I love ME2 and 3, and consider them better overall games, but the writing in ME1 was simply on a level of its own when it mattered the most, such as in this scene, or Vigil's.
Looking back, this really was the peak of the entire series. They never managed to make the Reapers more interesting or menacing than in this conversation. Harbinger was a cheap Saturday morning cartoon villain version of Sovereign and the Reapers as a whole were just pitiful in Mass Effect 3. These immortal, unstoppable creatures of untold intelligence and unfathomable goals... who conquer planets by chomping on skyscrapers and firing giant red lazers at everything, managing to inflict roughly $7.52 in damages in the time it took Shepard to solve the entire galaxy's problems and have a rockin' party on the Citadel. I don't know what I expected, but it was certainly something more impressive than that.
Aretak idk what you’re talking about. I thought mass effect 3 was very good in portraying how badly the Reapers were overwhelming the galaxy and how the galactic community was on the brink of collapse.
I only played the trilogy a little more than a year ago, in part, to prepare for ME:A. After finishing Andromeda, I had this sense of “wrongness,” that never crystallized for me until one day I realized just how boring Bioware managed to make its aliens and how self-important it made humanity. In ME1 even the less interesting aliens are fascinating-the monogendered Asari, the Salarians who have what, 8 names-not to mention the Hanar, Volus, Quarian, and Elcor. Humans are clearly the “Other,” the “alien” in the first game. In 2 and especially 3 this seems to have been lost. With respect to aliens, the true geth are fascinating, and I love the eidetic Drell memory coupled with their dualistic polytheistic spirituality, but the Collectors are only interesting inasmuch as they show Shepard et al. what lies in store for the races of the galaxy if they fail. In 3, we see a Prothean. In ME:A, we see what, two races that are bipedal obligate aerobes. Something ... happened.
@@nomorepartiezz ME3 portrayed the Reapers as an army, a formidable one, but an army nonetheless. But THESE Reapers, these are straight up Lovecraftian nightmares, which simply cannot and will not ever be defied, let alone defeated. Pro tip: Lovecraftian horrors are notoriously difficult to write for these reasons; a creature like Sovereign should be immune to even the deadliest barrage of whole fleets of dreadnoughts, rewriting their circuits or imploding them with merely a thought, and SHOULD BE COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE, but correct in their thinking, because being wrong, or less-than-(de facto)devine is simply beneath them.
@@kelbybrewer2038 I think ME2 also implies that the Protheans were simply outgunned and that the Reapers didn't win due to power but just a battle of attrition since the Protheans were probably much more powerful as a one-galaxy power than the Alliance here.
@@Taospark Well it's like Javik says in ME3. The protheans fought the reapers system by system, planet by planet while their people worked on the "super weapon" So the Protheans put up a much better fight than the humans, Asari and so on but it was still a losing battle to the point where they basically threw bodies at the reapers hoping for the crucible to be finished. That kind of thing happens a lot in sci fi games.
This moment is in my humble opinion one of the pinnacle moments in the history of video games. Fantastically written and voice acted. It still sends shivers down my spine. This is definitely one of the few times a game world managed to really pull me in and suspend disbelief.
I've played games for decades. I've seen some of the most insane and epic cut scenes and moments. I've heard some of the deepest and most thought provoking dialog. But to this very day the line "You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it. " Is the only line that gives me chills every time no matter how many times i hear it.
"Rudementary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch me mind. Fumbling in ignorance!" The second I heard that, I knew this conversion wouldn't be boring >;D
Mass Effect: "We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist becuse we allow it. You will end because we demand it." Mass Effect 2: "This hurts you!" Mass Effect 3: "We'll kill you to save you from the AI that might kill you." Something went wrong somewhere.
May it be that no one see this comment, but I just want to acknowledge the sheer depth of intellectual and reflective prowess of the community within these comments. It is astounding. We all collectively understand our insignificance, whilst aware of the power of this "unstoppable" force and its eloquence. What an amazing dialogue in such an amazing game. Truly an underrated and overlooked correspondence.
Come on though, Mass Effect 3 was still badass. I see people bitch about its ending but it was fine after the extended cut DLC. Yes, there were different colors. But also you could choose to become a reaper yourself and control them, destroy them outright and even choose to do nothing. It fell short but don't be ungrateful. Games like Mass Effect come out once every few console generations.
@@k1ln1k37 What they did to the Mass Effect universe is downright disgraceful, a great universe with a great lore and setting destroyed in a stupid ending because of the writer’s ego, I like the universe so much that I still hold a tiny bit of hope that they will make another one. If they don’t at least I still have Obsidian to make my RPG set in space fix.
@@tex4096 I can’t find the source now but back then Bioware apparently got very pissy about people criticizing their ending because apparently that was “their vision” but it’s clear that that wasn’t originally intended to be the ending, it was something to do with dark energy and the reapers were going to be tied to that in some way, one reason why I’m not too excited about the mass effect trilogy remaster is that I don’t want to see those stupid 3 choices again,well I guess the destroy ending is the only one that makes sense for there to be a continuation though.
Turn on captions. Oh my lord this feature just provides endless entertainment regardless of the video. Imagining Sovereign saying the things the captions say just cracks me up to no end. Best one so far: "You cannot grasp the nature of our existance" into: "you not grasp furniture orange."
Can't help watching this over and over again from time to time. Still one of the scariest moments in any video game I've played. The voice work is absolutely amazing! :D
The best mass effect game in terms of story and characters. In the others you have the reapers shit talking Shepard. Here Sovereign projects power and just notes "You are not Saren" like Shepard is just another organic pissant.
Well the Reason Harbinger shit talks Shepard is that he "killed or better to say destroyed" the Sovereign. That means they actual did destroy one of them. And why? Because even the sentinent A.I who lived for so long made a mistake with there own Arrogance. Ironic isn't it. That's why Harbinger tried to annihilat Shepard in the beginning of ME2. Just because Ceberus was so interested in Shepard everything after that happend.
I actually like how Harbinger is pissed in ME2 and trashtalks with Shepard. Soverigh didn't really cared about Shepard, but Harbinger did. In ME3 devs could do such a epic battle between Shepard and Harbinger.
"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it" This whole conversation is chilling, but that line shook me when I first played through Mass 1
My opinions Mass Effect 3's story have really softened over the years, but one thing I don't think I'll ever get over is the shift in how the Reapers were portrayed. Here they're introduced to us as this Lovecraftian, cosmic horror beyond our understanding. But by the end of ME3 they're just a cliche, dime-a-dozen, rogue AI.
Yeah, they arent even Sentient. They are just robots controlled by the catalyst. EA turned them into dumb machines. This speech from Sovereign makes no sense when thought off in ME3. Neither sovereign, nor a nation nor beyond understanding, just dumb robots. My toaster is smarter lol. I wish their motivations werent revealed. I would have prefered they remained a mystery.
I love Sovereigns attitude throughout this whole conversation. It's like if a human deigned to hold a conversation with microbes because they had nothing else to do for the next 5 minutes. And what's really scary is that Sovereign has every reason to believe the power disparity is truthfully that big since the Reapers have repeated the cycle over 20,000 times at this point and they've conclusively mopped the floor with the opposition every single time. The possibility of defeat doesn't even occur to it, not because it's megalomaniacal or just arrogant, it's simply used to winning out of habit that's been developed over a billion years.
"What they choose to call us is irrelevant, we simply are."
Underrated line
it implies that they dont even have a group name for themselves, that they have no need for a name. There is simply them, and 'other'
Names are for inferior beings. They need no such things
fr this is the hardest line from his speech.
There are no underrated lines in this conversation 😊
They have no beginning. They have no end.
"You exist because we allow, and you will end because we demand it" might be the best line from the series.
It is also the slogan of EA ;)
That quote would be the perfect slogan for companys and parent gaming companies to use to undermine and keep their employees or studios that they own in check lol
"Confidence born from ignorance" does it for me.
@TheUnknown285 & Jake Mayes
The Real Best Line of the Series: “Your words are as empty as your future. I am the Vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over.” EXPLOSION!!!
Best line in gaming history!
"Your words are as empty as your future." Fucking hell, I love that line.
halofornoobs93
Says the robotic guy with the very hollow voice. XD
+halofornoobs93 Boy, if only Sovvy got to see the next three years, he'd shut up...
+halofornoobs93 Not as good as, " You exist, because we allow it. And you will die, because we demand it."
+halofornoobs93 spine chilling
+halofornoobs93 ME1 may have had the best writing of any videogame ever. If ME3 had 1/10th the talent of ME1's writing...
It's a shame no one recorded this and, say, gave it to the council.
Apparently they never thought about helmet cams
What's actually infuriating is that if the Virmire Survivor was in your Squad on this mission they specifically say "We could always just show them our suit recordings." Why didn't they then?
The council would have dismissed it as fabricated anyway. I mean, how hard is it to create a VI interface in the shape of Sovereign and record some lines for it to play? Those morons on the council would never believe it is legit.
Astoran They were convinced that Saren was a traitor based on a random audio-recording recovered from a random Geth. Just saying.
The Avenger at Ilipa True. But it is easier to believe one of your operatives turns traitor than to believe that an army of sentient starships is about to destroy all spacefaring life in the galaxy. Don't forget that they have dismissed the existence of the Reapers in ME 2 as well, even though they had pieces of Sovereign scattered all over the Citadel.
Sovereigns voice is exactly how a Reaper should sound..
Cold, calculating, methodical, and ungodly powerful
KingCraze22 they all shouldn't sound lie machines since they are partly organic Harbinger was a good example of it
KingCraze22 Kinda like Ultron but without the sarcasm the Avengers movie gave him.
partly organic was in the first game just look at shepards visions they show the melding og organic tisue and technology
Yet when you fight him, he's a little bitch.
Harbinger came close too, being (SPOILERS!!) both the boss Reaper and the *first* Reaper, but he seemed to lack a chilling quality that Sovereign possessed.
"I don't think this is a VI.."
Thank you for the input Garrus.
He was worried that not callibrations can be made to improve it.
Best space bro since chobaka
Remember to stay hydrated!
Sovereign: No shit, Sherlock
You're welcome.
Never have I ever seen an antagonist who is so quotable within such a short conversation.
You're not wrong
"You exist, because we allow it. And you will end, because we demand it."
Man, I freaking love that quote lol
Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over.
"I know that your powers of retention are as wet as a warthog's backside; but thick as you are, pay attention! My words are a matter of PRIDE."
Arcturus Mengsk in SC1.
Never has a game character made me feel so worthless. It is perfect.
+SonicOverlordUK I know, right?
Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
That’s cos you are worthless.
Pathetic
kinda true but *Spoilers* The Relic chip form Cyberpunk 2077 makes V's She/He/They quests just a ticking time bomb albeit on a personal level
Most of Soverigns speech is just “Bro, you don’t even know”
😂😂😂
“Man you guys are so boned”-Sovereign
Yep. U O E N O
😭💀
"bro you wouldn't believe me if I told you"
translate to best words in the dictionary
The first time I played ME1 and I experienced this encounter, I suddenly felt very, very small and totally insignificant.
DocHazard No. This is how big human imagination is.
Yes, I felt the very same. First time a game ever made me have a feeling that like. Chills
@@downsjmmyjones101 probably
It made you feel the truth. We are utterly small and insignificant.
@@hassansuboh8033 all it takes is 1 person to alter the odds. As big as his talk was, shep stopped the reapers from invading rapidly 2 times. And eventually saved the galaxy...
The scary thing is how sovereign speaks. Threats are barely acknowledged, everything it says sounds like a statement of fact and not an assertation, and it ends the conversation as though it is just bored of it
capn crumbs yes my thoughts exactly and its why i loved him among the Reapers he was amazeing
Yes and I always get the feeling that it is not me that ends the conversation but Sovereign.
Perfect example of Neutral Evil.
and still, in the end, he sounded like talking stupid shit... "our existence is beyond your comprehension"... hmmm created to kill and process organics otherwise they would be annihilated by synthetic life in a cycle that repeats... not so complicated... :D
@@matis188 fun at parties i see
The voice, dear GOD the voice!
+Connor Brown
Polish might be better...
@@WadcaWymiaru Русский
"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire." This was the first truly horrifying line to me. Where it is revealed that all our technology was provided by the antagonists, knowing we would use it and knowing that all our weapons technology would be based on it, to develop weapons they could be prepared for, reducing the threat of our own resistance before it even begins.
Agreed. The Reapers laid a trap older than our species, and every galactic civilisation has fallen into it, over and over and over and over - and so have we.
It's brilliant because you've just been sort of blithely absorbing the rules of the world, and then suddenly everything clicks.
The writing in ME 1 is so great not only in video game history but of any media, Its a shame Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware after ME2. I always wondered what ME3 could have been if he was the lead writer.
@Innocent Jogger they had a different ending in mind. But it was discarded after it was leaked. The ending was supposed to be that the reapers harvest the galaxy because the usage of element zero and biopics accelerated the amount of dark energy in the universe and shortening the life of the universe. Which is really cool and a lot better than what we got. But it still has a ton of plot holes. Because the reason people were using Eezo in the first place was because of the reapers.
For sure. This part was certainly an "Oh shit" kind of moment, Like it truly feels like there is no hope, I can sort of see where Saren was coming from, To me ME1 had the best story by far, Even tho ME2 has always been my favorite, The Reapers are just the ultimate enemy and having that factor of you can't possibly comprehend the existence of them makes it so much more intriguing.
What makes Sovereign truly terrifying is that his words go beyond confidence or pride. He doesn't threaten. He doesn't boast. He simply informs you that what's coming cannot be fought against.
"We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."
His voice gives you a real sense of hopelessness. It's like he's had this very conversation countless times before, and will have it again in another 50,000 years.
reading this made my spine tingle
Totally! Dare I say I wasn’t even convinced a badass like Shepard could stand a chance against a machine army that’s eradicated organic life every 50,000 years and have been doing it for...not even the Protheans know how long.
Mate... by some dumb luck, JUST AT THE EXACT MOMENT I started reading your quote.. he started saying it. xD
His Voice rings fear, it brings death, it brings destruction, it brings chaos, it brings order, this is what a Reaper stands about and that's what makes him so darn intimidating.
And yet after everything about this scene, choosing to focus all ships on destroying Sovereign before it can summon thousands of reapers is seen as the bad option at the end. There is one ship under attack, admittedly filled with the Citadel council and 10,000 people trying to evacuate but think about it, if you save the Destiny Ascension from the Geth and then 30 seconds later (You don't know how long it'll take Sovereign to complete his task, what the limits to his power are, or how easily you can save the Destiny Ascension, everything is based on assumptions and sheer luck, you have every reason to believe Sovereign will take every ship you have) thousands of reapers show up then the fact that you saved one ship means nothing since the Reapers will kill it immediately anyway and every ship in the battle will be destroyed. If you can't even destroy one of them, how can we destroy thousands of them. These reapers have made life in the galaxy extinct hundreds of times over the course of millions of years, if you don't beat Sovereign here and now then you lose the one chance the galaxy will ever have of breaking that cycle of death. You will save literally infinite lives if you sacrifice 10,000, in which you don't even know if it will die, you just know that you won't be the ones saving them (it did die, but that doesn't really matter when you compare 10,000 to a literally infinite number). If you DON'T kill Sovereign then you will have doomed literally infinite lives.
In a video of the Battle of the Citadel, someone else made the same arguments I just made in favour of destroying Sovereign, but the only arguments people came up with to debunk it were strawman arguments which took individual phrases like "Greater good" out of context. People said things like "The council are the most influential people in the galaxy, they control the government" What would the council be governing if the Reapers arrived? Somebody else said that "You're just letting the council die out of spite because of the way they treated Humans in this game, you're letting your emotions get the better of you, that's why it's the bad option." This is hypocritical and factually wrong, they chose the "Save DA" options because they wanted the galaxy to see the Humans weren't selfish, power hungry monsters, they enjoyed the symbolism of the scene, that humanity proved the galaxy wrong and stepped up to save the lives of those that held them down. Believe me, I wanted that too, and if the stakes weren't so high that you couldn't rebuild and if there was any more to that decision you can bet your ass I would save the Citadel council, they're begging for help from anyone nearby and then when the Arcturus fleet shows up they show much more than relief, they believe they are saved and before you've even saved them you can see their perspective on Humanity changing. Of course I wanted to save them, but saving them wouldn't mean anything if Sovereign succeeds.
This is why that choice at the end of the game is incredibly stupid, no matter which of the three options you pick the events play out almost exactly the same way. When the battle starts, it's absolute chaos and you are losing exponentially to the Geth, the Citadel vanguard is splintered and Sovereign literally bodies some of the ships as he flies into the Citadel. The Geth are the main enemies of the game and with the first scenes of this battle are shown to be very powerful in fleet combat... KEEP THAT IN MIND. When you make the decision to save DA, a single fighter (not a cruiser or capital ship) fires one missile which destroys a Geth flagship which does not appear to be damaged at all... Who would have thunk it. You lose a total of 3 fighter class ships to the Geth fleet before destroying them completely and those events take up the same amount as if you picked "Concentrate on Sovereign" meaning that those choice descriptions are VERY misleading. The fight against Sovereign after that decision literally doesn't change AT ALL, you have the same amount of resources and the fight plays out EXACTLY the same way. If I knew the choices didn't take an ounce of logic into account and were influenced exclusively by emotional payoff of course I would have chosen to save Destiny Ascension. If you choose to concentrate on Sovereign, the fight against him doesn't play straight away like you would think, instead a different cutscene of approximate length to the other choices plays in which the Council reacts to the fact that you won't help them. The choice "Concentrate on Sovereign" might as well be relabeled "Flip off the DA" because that's what you are actually doing. If I had any of the information I have now when making that choice, of course I would pick something different. I thought Mass Effect was supposed to be a game where you're choices had a Mass Effect and don't get me wrong, it is and they do in a lot of cases, but not in the ways you would think. I was under the impression that one of the three choices was going to be the bad, untrue ending in which you fail and the next games don't happen, but no, you win no matter what, which kind of spits in the face of what Sovereign said in this scene when Shepard first meets him.
Let me clear up, I love this game, although I haven't finished ME2, I think it's way better, both in gameplay and in characters IMO, I haven't played ME3 yet but I'll be avoiding spoilers for both of those games in discussion.
This was the moment when Mass Effect went from "really good" to "epic"
At this point, the series went from "Wow, this is really good homage to Star Trek" to "Oh shit, cosmic horror!"
This and the conversation with Vigil I'll never forget
I love how the most chilling scene in the whole game also has one of the best bits of deadpan humor
"What is that? Some kind of VI interface?"
*"RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH. YOU TOUCH MY MIND, FUMBLING IN IGNORANCE, INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING"*
"...I don't think that's a VI."
In conclusion
“Is this some virtual interface?”
“Fucking idiot”
“Not a V.I….”
I'm gonna quote this next time someone annoys me.
😂😂😂😂😂
@@KarmanicMizery lmao
@@KarmanicMizery "What is this, some kind of virtual interface?"
"What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Reapers, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on advanced organics, and I have over 300 trillion confirmed kills. I am trained in harvesting and I'm the top Sovereign-class in the entire Reaper Fleet. You are nothing to me but just another harvest. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before in this galaxy, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Extranet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of indoctrinated puppets across the Terminus Systems and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare tentacles. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the Reapers and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo."
"...I don't think this is a V.I."
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding..."
If that wasn't the sickest burn in existence I don't know what is... xD
njintau That was a sick ass haiku.
Sounded like something out of System Shock
Ironic you say that, since the heretic geth worshiped Sovereign as if he were a God...and Sovereign was *insulted*, seeing the geth as little better than tools, and, in the words of Saren, "no amount of worship on [the geth's] part will ever change that".
Except SHODAN *explicitly believed* she was a goddess, and tried forcing others to see her the same way. Sovereign was *already* revered as a god by the heretic geth, (AND unlike, usually, SHODAN, he had the muscle to back up any potential claims of godhood). Except Sovereign never believed itself a god (unimaginably superior, yes, but not deserving of worship; in fact, when the geth did, Sovereign *hated* it).
SHODAN in control of Reaper technology though? *Nightmare of beyond Biblical proportions.*
+DorianMichaelsIII Imagine the Normandy crew return to Omega, finding Aria only to see her corpse, then hear
"The Aria form is dead, insects. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? W-w-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.
I am SHODAN."
*Shudder*
"You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it."
Seriously this was one of the most bone-chilling quotes I've ever heard in a video game. Apart from everything else he says, this one and his last sentence "Your threats are as empty as your future" are seriously best script-writing work I've seen for a long time.
AMEN!
Coverwatch YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR SOUL
@Curry Beans "Then we will fight in the shade"
"Lay it on me Joker, I love bad news."
+kumisz
The sass is strong in this one..
+kumisz
Joker: Shepard Bioware just killed you then brought you back only to kill you again.
Shepard: Picks Paragon option. *PEW*
It's sadly missed when joker said "that thing just pulled a turn that'd rip our ships in half" really shows how advanced he is.
"Studies show girls speak in a higher pitched voice when attracted to someone"
Girls talking to me: 0:11
@OneLuckyWriter Says you, if my crush threatened to harvest me, at least I'd be getting her attention..
@@ToastiestWaffle "if my crush threatened to harvest me" I´m dead :D
Not the right video to simp
This is the best conversation in the entire game.
Yuuki Hikari in the entire trilogy. Maybe aside from ME2 where Garrus asks Tali to tell him about her immune system.
Long as it's quick, I welcome the serene embrace of Synthesis
Not even a conversation. It's just a simple declaration, delivered without inflection or emotion. Like a psychopath's monologue to himself above an ant nest he's burning with a piece of glass.
This is the best conversation in any game period.
"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."
God, Sovereign was such a badass villain.
But it's here to save you from synthetics. It's obvious from it's dialogue that it's controlled by an AI that makes it not sentient, but instead as basic as fire and it will perverse your species by turning it into flesh for another Reaper! Makes perfect sense, right? Right?! (Fuck the ME3 ending with a cheese grater. Only a shithead waste of food would think that made any sense.)
@@derlich09 Please forget about me3 plot. Original plan of Sovereign and all of reapers is to save galaxy from dying because of consumtion of element zero. Remember me2 tali mission? The star was dying for this reason. The original goal of the reapers is to find the solution to mass effect which is killing the galaxy by aging stars. So yeah, Sovereign is right, the problem is a lot more important than some lives of entire races.
The most badass voice I've heard in the last 20 years of my life.
Harbinger isn't to bad either.
I want his voice
Smonjirez It's not that hard to do.
***** only with programs on compturer, but it'd be epic to speak like that in real life xD
welcome back to this video, is this still the best voice you've heard in the past 30 years?
"We are legion". That voice is just so fittingly creepy. Threatening and yet devoid of emotion. There's no rage, no anger, no hate, just cold logic bordering on dogma. I kind of admire that :-/ And there's nothing to reason or argue with. Those are, in my opinion, possibly the best villains. Apart from the batshit crazy ones, like the Joker, who are so past logic and reason that no one understands them.
+Corristo89 I agree -There is nothing you can say to them that they haven't heard LITERALLY a million times before...And all your arguments basically boil down to "Hey, you don't HAVE to destroy us" -to which the answer is pretty much : "NO.BUT WE WILL" -like a cockroach trying to reason with a exterminator.
that's why sovereign was better than harbinger. harbinger sounded almost cheesy because of the anger as if he was trying to prove something.
Harbinger sounded too close to human, used to like it, then saw this. This one doesn't go into long platitudes. Real great, basicly the exact opposite of Legion in ME2
Also Harbinger hardly had any memorable or meaningful dialogue besides cliché villain lines.
I think because that Sovereign is more admired because, even if he didn't have too much dialogue either, he says much more in a few scenes than him.
Yeah, like harbinger was all like "Something something perfection" and Shephard this and Shepherd that while Sovereign was like "This exchange is OVER". If Reapers are entities that are over a billion years old and immensely powerfull, they would hardly fixate on a single specimen, even one like the character. Like someone said, they would've seen and heard it all a million times. Well more like 20,000 times, but who's counting...
Sovereign is absolutely terrifying. His lines are just statements of fact, there's no anger, no gloating. Just explanation. A+ work, Peter Jessop.
3:42 - the most chilling part is knowing the Sheperd is wrong here in retrospect. The Reapers aren't machines. That's the worst part. They are closer to cybernetically lifeforms than pure machines. Their minds being made up literal millions or even billions of sentients(for the largest among them) digitally encoded and housed within the reaper body's vast databanks. In effect, Sheperd is talking to the ghosts of a dead civilization without even realizing it.
To Garrus: "Thank you Captain Obvious, you've now been promoted to Major Understatement."
It really can't be understated how good this scene is. So incredibly effective at using cosmic horror to raise the stakes of the story. Some of the best dialogue in all of science fiction.
and the voice design. Such incredible menace, and power and sheer AUTHORITY.
@@kahlzun Sovereign does not address your insults. Sovereign does not make any threats. Sovereign informs you of the foe you will face and states plainly that you will not be victorious.
That is pure menace
Sovereign's voice defined the Reapers so perfectly, they were the perfect bad guys. It could have been so perfect but.. we know what happend... Still awesome
Are you people still bitching about the ME3 endings!? Get over it!!
Zaeed Massani of course, that was dump and sorta made the reapers look bad, i happend to have played ME3 just several weeks back so I'm newly wounded
PascimanArc23 I finished it a week ago, and I wasn't dissapointed at all. I don't understand people who disliked it. I mean, what didn't you like about the endings?
Zaeed Massani What did you liked about it?! The Endings aere all pretty muich the same, while there completly different ending promised. Well, it would take too much time to list it all, so maybe you can go on and watch "10 reasons why we hat the Ending of Mass Effect 3", that cuts it perfectly
PascimanArc23
I've seen the video and don't agree with it. Many of the plotholes were fixed in the Extended Cut, and really, you want a happy ending? When going against godlike machines, you can't seriously expect a happy ending.
Holy shit I didn't know so many people liked Sovereign's speech as much as I did. Awesome!
"Reaper. A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply, are." One of the greatest lines in the series right there.
Nothing beats "Our numbers with darken the sky of every world" so fuckin rad!
Sovereign > Harbinger
Far, far scarier.
true, but harbinger had the benefit o hindsight. Sovereign had absolute no reason to think humanity would ever become close to a threat. imagine how many civilizations he wiped and try to not feel small.
1183314 fuckin Harby lmao xD
AsSUmInG DiReCt CoNtRol
@@amirg7225 tHis hURts You
@@PeagaportoGood point. Also, Sovereign has the benefit of being the first Reaper we actually get to interact. We as players know what to expect from the Reapers in future games, and so the others like Harbinger are less individually terrifying because the thesis of their cosmic horror antagonism has already been wonderfully conveyed by the initial twist of Sovereign's very existence. Fortunately, the horror is added on by the body horror of the Collectors and the human Reaper in the second game and the overwhelming sense of despair the third game establishes with their invasion. We first came to know what they were, then we learned the impending consequences of their arrival, and then we felt the weight of trying to fight against the seemingly inevitable.
24 people fumbled in ignorance.
gradplanner LOL
I couldn't pass it up. Lol.
+gradplanner Fondled*
lol
i lolled xD
I have goosebumps every time I hear this voice. It's just so perfectly matched to the image of Reapers. Voice of absolute power.
*****
Indoctrination!
*****
And it's such a smexy voice! =3
MrCorvusC the voice of absolute PERFECTION
+MrCorvusC Sounds like Leviathan, and that other guy, Harbinger.
The voice of god
I wonder what Mass Effect 3 would have been like if Drew Karpyshyn was still lead writer on it.
+JoestarKisama Well it would have ended a lot better that's for sure. I think his original idea for the ending was that Reapers were harvesting civilizations for material to reproduce and combat the growing threat of Dark Energy hastening the heat death of the universe. The dilemma at the end was that by destroying the reapers, you would be destroying the only beings intelligent and capable enough to reverse or slow down entropy - so it was sort of a bittersweet victory.
+portl_ I was pretty happy with the ending, although it was a little simple. A program stuck in a loop. The Leviathan DLC added a nice twist to it though.
+portl_ I didn't like that your choices in the game had almost no effect on the game's ending, but the way I chose to interpret it is, sometimes your decisions don't matter, and you can't stop something from happening.
+Justin Hannay yeah thats a good way of looking at it. I like drew karpshin's idea more though, the whole organic vs synthetic debate didnt really fit into the rest of the story
+JoestarKisama ...Good?
Honestly, this franchise started out so good! Then Mass Effect 2 made quite a few hiccups plot-wise, but was ultimately still pretty good. By the time the third came out, all hope was gone...
"Your words are as empty as your future." Well, I sure lost that battle.
"Your words are as empty of your future, I am the vanguard of your destruction...This exchange is over" Sovereign mic drop. I still remember the first time I played this, I just sat their silent with my mouth open for a minute and was like oh no he didn't. This is good stuff that gives you chills and makes for great games.
This moment is what sold this game to me. Up till this moment in the game , I had mearly liked Mass Effect, and then when this came along I loved Mass Effect. Then came Vigil, and Mass Effect had become one of my favorite games in my gaming repertoire. That is the power that this first game has, despite ME3 being chock full of flaws, this game alone carries the other two games (though ME2 honestly was pretty good given it was made under the direction of EA, it's no ME1, but it was very good). I will say that ME1 has mechanic issues, in terms of it's FPS mechanics and so on. However the beauty of this game is atmosphere and setting, it was beautifully orchestrated.
***** I personally think ME was it its best in the first game, though it is really hard to say that because ME2 was top notch story telling and production quality. Still, ME1 will always have a special place in my heart.
+Baxter Rhodes I loved the game as soon as I read the line In the year 2148...... Once I read that paragraph I was hooked and boy was it one hell of a ride lol
+Baxter Rhodes You cound't have said it any better.
Mass effect 1 has the best story and RPG elements, 2 has the best character interactions and breadth of squad, 3 has the best combat dynamics and emotional pay offs (and comedy moments). They are all awesome, but if you could combine the greatest aspects of all 3 you would have a flawless experience.
David Jones precisely!
I think I speak to everyone when I say we all thought "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" the moment Joker tells you that Sovereign is heading right for you.
Yeah, and the way the music pace quickened, it really drove in the sense of urgency. You can't help but feel pressured into hastening.
This is what the Reapers in Mass Effect 3 should have been like.
You didn't like the voice of the reaper on Rannoch? His remains my favorite.
+Badass Elite YEEEEEES and ME2!!!! Harbringer and the Collectors are NOTHING compared to this almost-Lovecraftian Monster of the first Mass Effect.
That reaper is definitely underrated. He also has some good lines and a proper voice.
I think almost nobody remembers him because of his minor role and the fact he even doesn't have a known name. BTW, ME 3 Rannoch and Tuchanka arcs were some of the best and most epics moments of all the series IMO.
TheLordexilius while Sovereign is great, they are all by definition lovecraftian. The reapers are precisely a version of the Great Old Ones, as they were always meant to be. Life is given a meaning, but one so far beyond us that we are ultimately meaningless. That's what Lovecraft invented, and what the reapers convey.
Well, how exactly would you like the Reapers to act like in Mass Effect 3
Sovereign is far more terrifying to listen to than Harbinger
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
THIS FORM IS IRRELEVANT
THIS HURTS YOU.
I think it’s important that there’s a distinction tbh
@@MonoKrohm_2020 I get that, but Harbinger sounds too much like his voice actor with o ly subtle voice modulation.
Sovereign sounds completely alien and terrifying
“Your words are as empty as your future.”
A chilling line among chilling lines.
"your words are as empty as your future"
And your words as empty as your soul, Nazara... XD
now that's a refrence
And a half ^^
The last guy who tried to trash talk me was a few kilometres taller than you! -Shepard
"You exist because we allow it, and you shall end because we demand it." 🔥🔥🔥
I want that voice.
I either want that voice or the Leviathan.
When you actually hear the voice actors real voice, it's pretty crazy what they can with technology.
LibertyPrimeV1 I know, but there are exceptions like the Transformers. The voice actor for Optimus Prime, Peter Claver Cullen, actually sounds that epic, without the tuning.
Titan Slayer Yeah true, or like Master Chiefs voice, Steve Downes, thats his actual voice, with out tuning.
me to
It's weird knowing that the guy who voiced Sovreign voiced Paladin Danse.
Mind blown
+Matt Allen Seriously?!
Curiously enough, both characters share a "similar" nature.
In both games he's a Synth. Funny.
I'm a year late, but I'm PRETTY sure you mean Daladin Panse.
He also voiced Miraak in Skyrim: Dragonborn. He tends to voice characters with...elegant, strong words.
Ma1 Reapers- eldritch nightmares of the of a forgotten age and the dark aeons to come
Ma3 Reapers-automated killbots of a faulty Ai's shit plan
....no wonder people where pissed.
+Claire Morris
Ironically, the Catalyst wasn't faulty. Its plan _was_ faulty, though.
+Diablos It had to choose the best of bad options to accomplish an impossible task to redirect an inevitable course. Don't criticize what you do not understand.
+JohnZ117
I criticize stupidity and limited inflexible intelligence that lurks only within machines. This inevitable course has been stopped by the anomalies of that cycle. Don't speak in matters you don't understand, idiot.
+Claire Morris Yeah, Sovereign seems really ill informed on the Reaper agenda. He calls every one of us an evolutionary accident, but then that Laser Kid tries to tell us that this is all in an effort to save us. Sovereign also goes on about their mission being too large to comprehend, but the Kid manages to get it out in about 10 minutes. In fact, he summarizes it so easily I'm not sure why the Reapers never tried TALKING to someone in the first place.
+Jacob Bielski
The Reapers weren't programmed to negotiate. They were programmed to destroy everything. Even when the Catalyst explained it, it didn't make sense.
I love how you can tell it’s almost insulted when it says “you touch my mind”. You can hear the contempt
And yet despite the contempt the Reapers insist on repeating the cycle. Almost like they are dependent on it.
It's the year 2020 and this is still one of the best conversations I've ever heard in a video game. Even after all these years (played the game when it first launched), I've never forgotten this convo - it's that damn GOOD!
The entire last piece of dialogue from Sovereign - "Your words are as empty as your future" to "This exchange is over." is just incredible. Left Shepard in the burns unit.
"You're not even alive! Not really...you're just a machine...and machines can be broken!"
I love how funny Renegade Shepard is
This was the scene that blew my mind and made me completely fall in love with this game.
My hands were shaking when I first played this year's ago.
Same here
It was one of the single most badass moments in video game history.
I was so on fucking fire in this scene. Best mass effect moment imo
Still get the chills when I see this, to this day!
This scene has only gotten better with subsequent games. Honestly, I took Sovereign for a bit of an arrogant exaggerator. The constant claims that they are totally beyond our comprehension and that they have no beginning or end just seemed like exaggerations and lies intended to frighten.
But... it really wasn't a lie. They're totally beyond comprehension. The more you learn about them, the more bizarre they get. One question is answered and 3 more take its place. It was very well done. You learn enough, but you never really comprehend them. They took a dichotomy like organic and synthetic life and just defied it. There are the seemingly impossible third option.
Still hits just like it did 15 years ago. Such a great game.
One of the best conversations in games or movies.
Mm, other than the Gravemind from Halo 2 Anniversary.
ME1: Sovereigns Speech, feeling of hopelessness from an almost omnipotent seeming being
ME2: Anything the illusive, harbinger or even some of the side characters. Fighting to push back the collectors knowing they’re paving the way for the reapers.
ME3: Working your ass off to recruit allies for the ongoing reaper war where the galaxy is being devastated by the reapers who have finally arrived.
MEA: my face is tired
Ok BioWare ggwp
Blame EA
I like how sovereign actually lived up to his threats, And ya know, Actually took on the citadel with a few geth ships aiding him, If it wasn't for the giant energy burst after shepard killed sarens body, Sovereign would've won.
Fvck off spoilers 🤣😭
12 years later, and Sovereign's voice still gives me shivers
"That ship Sovereign? I don't know what you did down there, but that thing just pulled a turn that would sheer any of our ships in half.." As if Sovereign didn't demonstrate his ridiculous superiority over them enough already just from the conversation, this comment from Joker just serves as another chilling emphasis on how much more advanced these Reapers we just found out about are compared to everyone else.
And it also has that effect of realising that Sovereign is now on his way to kill you personally, after that speech of him telling you what the Reapers are, he then beelines straight for you
Sovereign, I'm so sorry about what the end of ME3 did to you, I'm so, so sorry...
Idiot. This conversation perfectly foreshadows the ending. Just because most fans didn't understand it doesn't make them right.
ethan1142028
hmm... hmm... tell us all about that.
ethan1142028 it did perfectly foreshadow. tough not the one we got in ME3
ethan1142028 Google: confirmation bias. (It would also help to Google "self-fulfilling prophecy.")
This conversation had nothing to do with the ending of ME3. Your inability to dispute that claim in any sense combined with your unnecessary utilization of Sophistry straight out of the gate are conclusive of your own arrogance.
I find it all the more hilarious that you believe you understand the ending of ME3 and the role of this specific conversation as even the lead writers had (and still have) a very limited idea of how exactly the series would be wrapped up and/or what the actual plot of ME was supposed to mean. www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-19-ex-bioware-writer-discusses-dropped-ideas-for-mass-effect-trilogy-ending
iHumanist i was talking about the dark energy theory which was supposed to be the original ending this conversation perfectly forshadow
This is honestly some of the best written dialogue in sci-fi, let alone just video games.
Every sentence, the delivery, sovereign's tone... I wouldn't change a single word in that whole 4 minutes exchange. Holy shit I love ME2 and 3, and consider them better overall games, but the writing in ME1 was simply on a level of its own when it mattered the most, such as in this scene, or Vigil's.
Looking back, this really was the peak of the entire series. They never managed to make the Reapers more interesting or menacing than in this conversation. Harbinger was a cheap Saturday morning cartoon villain version of Sovereign and the Reapers as a whole were just pitiful in Mass Effect 3. These immortal, unstoppable creatures of untold intelligence and unfathomable goals... who conquer planets by chomping on skyscrapers and firing giant red lazers at everything, managing to inflict roughly $7.52 in damages in the time it took Shepard to solve the entire galaxy's problems and have a rockin' party on the Citadel. I don't know what I expected, but it was certainly something more impressive than that.
Aretak idk what you’re talking about. I thought mass effect 3 was very good in portraying how badly the Reapers were overwhelming the galaxy and how the galactic community was on the brink of collapse.
I only played the trilogy a little more than a year ago, in part, to prepare for ME:A. After finishing Andromeda, I had this sense of “wrongness,” that never crystallized for me until one day I realized just how boring Bioware managed to make its aliens and how self-important it made humanity. In ME1 even the less interesting aliens are fascinating-the monogendered Asari, the Salarians who have what, 8 names-not to mention the Hanar, Volus, Quarian, and Elcor. Humans are clearly the “Other,” the “alien” in the first game. In 2 and especially 3 this seems to have been lost. With respect to aliens, the true geth are fascinating, and I love the eidetic Drell memory coupled with their dualistic polytheistic spirituality, but the Collectors are only interesting inasmuch as they show Shepard et al. what lies in store for the races of the galaxy if they fail. In 3, we see a Prothean. In ME:A, we see what, two races that are bipedal obligate aerobes. Something ... happened.
@@nomorepartiezz ME3 portrayed the Reapers as an army, a formidable one, but an army nonetheless. But THESE Reapers, these are straight up Lovecraftian nightmares, which simply cannot and will not ever be defied, let alone defeated. Pro tip: Lovecraftian horrors are notoriously difficult to write for these reasons; a creature like Sovereign should be immune to even the deadliest barrage of whole fleets of dreadnoughts, rewriting their circuits or imploding them with merely a thought, and SHOULD BE COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE, but correct in their thinking, because being wrong, or less-than-(de facto)devine is simply beneath them.
@@kelbybrewer2038 I think ME2 also implies that the Protheans were simply outgunned and that the Reapers didn't win due to power but just a battle of attrition since the Protheans were probably much more powerful as a one-galaxy power than the Alliance here.
@@Taospark Well it's like Javik says in ME3. The protheans fought the reapers system by system, planet by planet while their people worked on the "super weapon" So the Protheans put up a much better fight than the humans, Asari and so on but it was still a losing battle to the point where they basically threw bodies at the reapers hoping for the crucible to be finished. That kind of thing happens a lot in sci fi games.
This moment is in my humble opinion one of the pinnacle moments in the history of video games. Fantastically written and voice acted. It still sends shivers down my spine. This is definitely one of the few times a game world managed to really pull me in and suspend disbelief.
"we simply are" still hits hard man. Always loved the reaper interactions throughout the series
“Shepard. Harbinger speaks of you.”- Rannoch Reaper Destroyer.
"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it." That is quite possibly the most terrifying thing i have ever heard in a game.
That's what I say to NPC's... XD
It’s the most terrifying thing I’ve heard EVER!
It seems that Reapers' plan was incomprehensible even for Bioware writers.
honestly it will be much better if they don't explain the origin of the reapers. It will make them much scarier
Very true. A truly terrifying enemy is an enemy whose intentions and capabilities are unknown.
Not true. In order to create true fear, you must know the nature of the fear.
they do explain it in mass effect 3 in a expansion pack that i can't remember the name of
RYTY THE TRIPOD MAN LLA LLA
Leviathan.
Banchoking yes
Don't know if I've ever had a moment in a game that made feel so small and insignificant like this conversation did.
I've played games for decades. I've seen some of the most insane and epic cut scenes and moments. I've heard some of the deepest and most thought provoking dialog. But to this very day the line "You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it. " Is the only line that gives me chills every time no matter how many times i hear it.
Alternate title: How to do an Evil Monologue. Doesn't give away the plan and is intimidating as all hell
Just make statement in cold tone. No need to be overdramatic.
"Rudementary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch me mind. Fumbling in ignorance!" The second I heard that, I knew this conversion wouldn't be boring >;D
My favourite game moment of all time.
I love Bioware ...
"This exchange is over", used that line a couple of times after being in an argument with somebody here on TH-cam. Works everytime to shut them up.
Did you make the windows of their house shatter??? Lol
@@dl30wpb Nah, though I wish I could, then some of those guys would get a nasty shock plus an even worse repair bill lol
This still gives me chills, all these years later. Man... bioware writing was so strong back then...
"our numbers will darken the skies of every world"
God that's chilling
The Chad Sovereign vs the Virgin Harbinger.
When Shepard drops contact with the Council, it is funny and trolling. When the Reapers do it, it is an existential crisis.
This is 15 years old, gosh this conversation send shivers every time. Now i gotta start playing it again!
Sovereign really pulled a "Trust me you're not that guy pal" on Shepard
Mass Effect: "We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist becuse we allow it. You will end because we demand it."
Mass Effect 2: "This hurts you!"
Mass Effect 3: "We'll kill you to save you from the AI that might kill you."
Something went wrong somewhere.
Also I think the voice acting on reapers went south. Sovereign's voice was so unique and scary.
Harbinger's dialogue in ME2: Arrival DLC is top-notch
I agree. This conversation might have been the best part of ME1.
called bad writting and falling into plotholes ^^ ahh ME..loved the story of 1..and mostly 2 ,shame 3 was little more then a linear shoot gallery
Yeah exactly I thought the same way First they were like "You're going to die" and "We'll save you"
This was the only scene where Sovereign talks, yet he said so many sinister lines that sent chills up your spine.
May it be that no one see this comment, but I just want to acknowledge the sheer depth of intellectual and reflective prowess of the community within these comments. It is astounding. We all collectively understand our insignificance, whilst aware of the power of this "unstoppable" force and its eloquence. What an amazing dialogue in such an amazing game. Truly an underrated and overlooked correspondence.
perfect combination of music and dialogue. one of the best cut-scenes in all of video game history.
Mass effect 1: "there is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you can not even imagine it"
Mass effect 3 "LOL Red, blue, or green"?
Its pretty surreal how much the writing changed from 1 to 3, just this conversation alone is such a stark difference in quality
Come on though, Mass Effect 3 was still badass. I see people bitch about its ending but it was fine after the extended cut DLC. Yes, there were different colors. But also you could choose to become a reaper yourself and control them, destroy them outright and even choose to do nothing. It fell short but don't be ungrateful. Games like Mass Effect come out once every few console generations.
@@k1ln1k37 What they did to the Mass Effect universe is downright disgraceful, a great universe with a great lore and setting destroyed in a stupid ending because of the writer’s ego, I like the universe so much that I still hold a tiny bit of hope that they will make another one. If they don’t at least I still have Obsidian to make my RPG set in space fix.
@@mrxxsesshomaruxx9642 How is a writers imaginable ego even remotly relevant?
@@tex4096 I can’t find the source now but back then Bioware apparently got very pissy about people criticizing their ending because apparently that was “their vision” but it’s clear that that wasn’t originally intended to be the ending, it was something to do with dark energy and the reapers were going to be tied to that in some way, one reason why I’m not too excited about the mass effect trilogy remaster is that I don’t want to see those stupid 3 choices again,well I guess the destroy ending is the only one that makes sense for there to be a continuation though.
My guy, the single fact that you have both Tali and Garrus in your squad. You got my sub.
Lost my shit at this part my first playthrough, that bass in his voice is so frickin intimidating.
"Our numbers will darken the skies of every world." *Ralph voice* Hahah I'm in danger.
Turn on captions. Oh my lord this feature just provides endless entertainment regardless of the video.
Imagining Sovereign saying the things the captions say just cracks me up to no end.
Best one so far: "You cannot grasp the nature of our existance" into: "you not grasp furniture orange."
Closed captions. Making demonic 2km mechanical space Cthulhus into oddly zen furniture critics.
POV: The neat Star Trek like game you where playing is now cosmic horror.
Can't help watching this over and over again from time to time. Still one of the scariest moments in any video game I've played. The voice work is absolutely amazing! :D
The best mass effect game in terms of story and characters. In the others you have the reapers shit talking Shepard. Here Sovereign projects power and just notes "You are not Saren" like Shepard is just another organic pissant.
Well the Reason Harbinger shit talks Shepard is that he "killed or better to say destroyed" the Sovereign.
That means they actual did destroy one of them. And why? Because even the sentinent A.I who lived for so long made a mistake with there own Arrogance.
Ironic isn't it. That's why Harbinger tried to annihilat Shepard in the beginning of ME2.
Just because Ceberus was so interested in Shepard everything after that happend.
I actually like how Harbinger is pissed in ME2 and trashtalks with Shepard. Soverigh didn't really cared about Shepard, but Harbinger did.
In ME3 devs could do such a epic battle between Shepard and Harbinger.
"Your words are as empty as your future" is the best insult I've ever heard.
Your words are as empty as your future, I am the vanguard of your destruction....incredible writing
"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it"
This whole conversation is chilling, but that line shook me when I first played through Mass 1
"Your words are as empty as your future."
Top-tier roast game by Sovereign.
"I don't think this is a VI" my homie Garrus bringing the jokes like a badass :D
My opinions Mass Effect 3's story have really softened over the years, but one thing I don't think I'll ever get over is the shift in how the Reapers were portrayed.
Here they're introduced to us as this Lovecraftian, cosmic horror beyond our understanding. But by the end of ME3 they're just a cliche, dime-a-dozen, rogue AI.
Yeah, they arent even Sentient. They are just robots controlled by the catalyst. EA turned them into dumb machines. This speech from Sovereign makes no sense when thought off in ME3.
Neither sovereign, nor a nation nor beyond understanding, just dumb robots. My toaster is smarter lol.
I wish their motivations werent revealed. I would have prefered they remained a mystery.
I love Sovereigns attitude throughout this whole conversation. It's like if a human deigned to hold a conversation with microbes because they had nothing else to do for the next 5 minutes. And what's really scary is that Sovereign has every reason to believe the power disparity is truthfully that big since the Reapers have repeated the cycle over 20,000 times at this point and they've conclusively mopped the floor with the opposition every single time. The possibility of defeat doesn't even occur to it, not because it's megalomaniacal or just arrogant, it's simply used to winning out of habit that's been developed over a billion years.
Can't wait to watch this in 4K. Still gives me chills all these years later