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If the keeper signal hadn’t been altered there would have been no need to use saren and the geth and the harvest would have gone on with probably few to no reaper casualties
While that is true the leviathan of dis was proof that reapers were killed and every reaper dead is a civilisation lost. Not a very good way of preserving.
@@imverygerby Yeah, it took over 200 years for the Reapers to harvest the Protheans and they where far, far more powerful then the current cycle. We'd be arriving on the galactic stage...alone.
The Leviathan’s plan to create the Reapers, whether it’s hubris or just narcissistic blindness, is just hilariously ironic when you boil it down. “All species eventually create technology that inevitably tries to destroy them. Anyway, we’re gonna make a technology to fix that, what could go wrong?”
That was just the core of the reaper. Not the final shape. All cores take the form of their species. Wrapped in a shell that matches the familiar reaper designs.
@@xxpostitxx4843 True, but still though, imagine if it got finished before Reaper invasion, Earth gets attacked, and one of the Reapers takes on its "human" form. Basically clad in an armour, or almost a robe like the Grim Reaper, taking inspiration from the combined knowledge from all those that was harvested. I think the battle would've been over way quicker, and hit harder. Because seeing corrupted versions of all the citadel species did a lot of trauma, however, seeing a proper Reaper version would damage moral way more- Especially for humanity
@NightBane345 I don't think it EVER would have appeared as a human though, especially since the way the Reapers portrayed themselves, they act like eldritch horrors because they essentially are, with billions of minds melding together to become a Reaper mind. The Collector Base Reaper seemed like an infant defending itself, and considering rate it was being built, and how fast colonies were disappearing, it probably would've been finished in the six months it took for the Reaper War to start.
@@therobustempyrean1436 True, they do like to look as horrifying as possible. But I imagine they also want to be as efficient as possible, be that sowing chaos and fear. Just like them making tiny reapers by converting races during a battle. With the husks, brutes, banshees, cannibals etc. So them playing into the fear factor, especially when that race contained someone who has actively managed to hinder their progress, it wouldn't surprise me if they did a human like reaper. In their own sick and twisted way, paying homage to Shepard, while also a mockery against humankind, but on a grander scale. If you found a giant version of your allies, floating or walking the battlefield, killing your brothers and sisters in arms, or just innocent civilians. You'd start doubting your allies during that conflict quite strongly. Perhaps not all, but many would start doubting humanity even more than before. Reapers love to mess with those they harvest, or just want to kill. So I wouldn't put it past them. Yes the reaper was an infant, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have kept its shape somehow, while being a smaller reaper version, hidden within that weird bug/squid/octopus frame thing they usually have. And come out during ground combat
That lovecraft quote in the beginning made me wonder what he’d think if he were dropped into the mass effect future. His head would probably explode the moment someone introduced him to any of the aliens.
It hasn't been a month since I finished my first playthrough of the trilogy and stuff like this already makes me want to replay them. Good video man, keep it up!
"The central hub of the Mass Relay Network is the Citadel. This Citadel, perhaps taking inspiration from the rea-life Pentagon, is a massive space station" I'm going to start telling people that the Pentagon is a massive space station now and you can't stop me. :P Good video!
All those reminds me of a theory as to what reapers were doing their thing to prevent a major catastrophe involving the black matter or something like that. That theory was based upon Mass effect 2 Tali recruitment mission with the suddenly dying sun. Even Tali was worried about how a sun which was fine would suddenly die out of nowhere. Maybe this idea will be the base for mass effect 4?
I like the idea a lot but the downside is that it makes the reapers somewhat more sympathetic villains if they are acting for the good of the universe by killing a few races each cycle so we don't wipe the whole thing out - the more evil soul destroyers are much easier for players to hate.
It was reportedly the original plan- that the widespread dark energy disruption via the use of element zero would lead to galactic collapse unless advanced civilizations were harvested at regular intervals. They had started setting it up somewhat in ME2 via Haestrom and Gianna Parsini. Some people think it would have been a great explanation, but I am more skeptical. The descriptions I've heard have sounded rather half baked, and there was little buildup for it. It's one of those things where I think the idea of something would be better than the actual thing.
While this is very interesting, I think you are missing the point that was being made by the leviathans being evil. Its not supposed to be a vague suggestion that the reapers evil is merely a reflection of their creators and the world they built, but evidence of the desire to dominate inherent to organic life that led the reapers to believe there was no hope for reconciliation between organics and synthetics. The leviathans created the AI to discover the cause of the conflict between organics and synthetics. The cause they discovered was that organics are, due to the process of evolution that forms their psyche, driven to desire the domination of others, be that other species or the machines they create. Synthetics probelm is that they lack the understanding of reality that organics have, leading them to easily make evil or genocidal choices. The leviathans (along with the protheans) and the reapers are reflections of these two failings. The leviathans and protheans display the same dominating tendencies that lead to the creation of bad AI's and conflict with them, and the reapers lack the moral consciousness needed to understand that their solution to the problem gurantees a never ending nightmare factory. The reapers want synthesis, but they have failed everytime they tried it. So they are using the galaxy as a giant experiment, allowing new organic civilisations to grow in the hopes that one will eventually provide a solution by not displaying these negative tendencies. The proof that the reapers aren't basing their conclusions about organic life solely on the galaxy as it was under their creators is that they have been waiting untold eons for an organic civilisation to arise that doesn't suffer from these failings, and have been disappointed every single time. Up until our cycle that is, provided we managed to unite enough of the galaxy to prove that we focus more on cooperation and coexistence than domination. This is why you need a high galactic readiness in order to choose synthesis.
im fairly certain the whole "core/shell" appearance was just a way to cut the number of unique art assets in 3's development. i think its clear the spirit of the story would have a thousand different giant robot alien titans in all kinds of forms
The most logical lore-based answer is that sometimes after the First Contact War, humanity noticed the lack of high-visibility clothing on the part of the Citadel construction crews and ticketed the Council for the egregious OSHA violation, forcing them into workplace safety compliance.
One thing I find interesting in Mass Effect that i wish Andromeda made clear alot more of is that due to the Reaper trap of the relay network they essentially stopped development of more effective energy weapons against synthetic life. In Andromeda due to the lack of relays weapons tech had to be lighter to be viable for transport so the races there focuses on plasma weapons more than ballistic. Just one change in travel and logistics shifted entire species thinking.
"Record... Not every species is suitableh... Delete... Record...Not every species is suitable for construfct... Delete... Record.... Not ev- Dammit..."
Ngl, I always thought and still do think the whole reaper motivations make no sense. Like bioware didn't really know why and had to come up with something.
cuz it wasn't their original motivation, it was going to be that the use of mass effect causes the rapid decay of stars and stuff like on Halestrom, so the reapers would let a civilization reach a certain point then wipe them out to delay entropy why did this change? cuz it was leaked just like weeks before mass effect 3 came out and EA forced them to change it, cuz EA is fucking stupid. id much rather go into a good story thats been spoiled than a rushed one that makes no sense, all in all mass effect 3 is still one of my fav games of all time and i think one of the best ever made i think its bonkers that people act like the last 30 minutes negates all 28277373 hours before it lol, not a flawless game but really good
Wow, I just found this vid after replaying ME 1 again and looking for some lore info. This was great, you did a fantastic job summarizing the important wiki info and made it into a very easily digestible video. The music, script, visuals and everything was on point. Seriously, good job and thanks for the video. 🤘
Well that contradicts the Leviathan AI directive. It cannot both “Persevere all life” and forgo reaper construction for races not within certain genetic parameters.
What would have been an awesome ending to Mass Effect 3, was if they found out the Crucible was a Leviathan creation, and there was a Leviathan that had been waiting beneath the bottom of the ocean on Earth, and had been manipulating humans into building a device to eradicate the Reapers. Imagine the twist if you found out all of your actions in the entire Mass Effect trilogy was a single Leviathan using humanity as a method to regain control of the Reapers by manipulating lesser species into building the Crucible to "re-set" the Reaper programming. The end boss of the game would be a Big Stupid Jellyfish.
@@BartlebysCorpse it's a reference to the "Big stupid jellyfish" line if doing a Renegade playthrough when you deal with the preacher on the Citadel from the first game.
This is really well put together. Finished the trilogy in late February and I'm still amazed of the Mass Effect world, even though Andromeda was by no means as good as the trilogy was. There's hoping the new game will live up to the the first three games.
I don’t know I don’t think it was given enough of a chance although inferior too the trilogy go back and play mass effect one and then compare that too andromeda. I think it just got the backlash of the ending of three and how many bugs their where on release because it was rushed out. Poison chalice and all that. But that’s just like my opinion man lol.
Just done a new playthrough of the series September last year, the reapers should have just cut right back in, but without outside interventions they would have won. Always love how the first two games Shephard telling em about them, third game it’s like “see I told you” 🖕🏻 love this series so much. The reapers are truly terrifying but not for us N7 😜😂 loved this video. Well put together.
The reapers absolute arrogance was their real downfall - they could have simply waited another century or two for literally everyone who was opposing them to die out and they had been forgotten by the surviving generations but they were so confident they would win no matter what and marched straight into defeat instead.
@@TyrannosaurusCHEX yeah that is very true, if they weren’t as narrow minded and came up with a proper strategy, and acknowledged that Shepherd was uniting the entire galaxy, then maybe they wouldn’t have lost. This series claps lol, we need ME4 !!
I really wish ME3 had explored the idea of every Reaper being created from organic life forms, and having some WILDLY different designs for them. Like, for cinematic shots where you needed to have a lot of them on screen, you can still recycle models without breaking lore. Just make a codex entry that suggests that the bulk of Reaper ships seem resemble a single unknown species, speculating that this species might've been the first, the largest, or just the strongest species that the Reapers ever harvested. But then you can have a variety of alien Reapers for boss fights. Like, imagine how crazy it could've been if the scene where Thessia is attacked, we see that the Reaper spearheading the attack is the one that was created from the Protheans. Or we see one on Earth that resembles those statues on Ilos, implying that it's the one that was created from the species that came before the Protheans. There's so much they could've done with it, and they could've leaned so hard into the Lovecraftian "incomprehensible horror" aspect of the Reapers designs.
Hey man what a great video love the Reapers lore there so scary but really interesting too learn about. By far the best SCI-FI villains we’ve had in games. Mass Effect was one of my favourite childhood games. Now I’m a adult and just started the legendary edition for the first time LETS GO 😃👌🔥.
One thing that's really interesting is let's say it took a million years to build the relays and ect, if the reapers have been around for over a billion years, then there had been over 50k "cycles" before humanity and the united galaxy stopped them
This video was absolutely incredible! I definitely subbed, and will keep watching! Thank you! I hope you get more subs and the recognition, because you deserve it! 🙂
I'd say shoddycast's early Elder Scrolls and Fallout videos have had their influence on these. I was sad to hear that Jason Damron, who played The Storyteller, passed away recently.
They were machines and probably in their machine minds the milky way was the only galaxy in the universe that they were required to "police" and so it never even entered into their thought processes that there might be civilisations in other galaxies.
I’d like to actually think they did when they say the hibernate in deep space I think some of them actually venture off into other galaxies to conquer and I’d like to think there’s some tie between them and the jardaan from andromeda
My sincere apologies, everyone. Please accept the soothing sounds of the Crazy Bus theme song as an expression of atonement. th-cam.com/video/sC0cvwnG0Ik/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8bumWtGdS2B2TW2C
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On another note, if this channel ever does end up getting monetized, I'll need to make sure all my essays double as sleep aids. I'm pretty sure that's where the real internet money is at.
Appreciate it! I do have more projects in the pipeline. Unsurprisingly, the frequency is a bit limited, but I'm actually working on recording/editing my Prothean series right. I'm pretty sure that whole series will be even longer than the 'Ancient Aliens' vids...
While i like the vibes of leviathan dlc, we should have had a whole game like that between 2 and 3. Where we look for clues about the reapers to better understand them. Id rather have more mystery than just meeting the creators of the reapers. Mass effect didnt need to only be 3 games if they had to rush to the ending in 3. While i love 2, i didnt really progress the plot. I loved the eldritch horror vibes in me1. And when that machine said "we are eternal", i believed him. I was thinking about all sort of explanations and thought when we knew more, their origin would be like the toclofane in dr who. The humans at the end of time, turning themselves into metal and flesh hybrid monsters and doing some mind blowing paradox creating stuff with sending themselves back in time to kill their ancestors. Or something equally interesting. The ai is bad explanation is so lackluster compared to what i imagined. Also in leviathandlc, theres cave paintings of leviathan. Whove been hidden at the bottom of a sea for a billion years. 50k years would be one thing but come on. I usually skip that dlc and use a mod to not interact with starchild now to keep the reapers more mysterious
@@gothpunkboy89 so you mean they used the orbs to influence the caveman paintings? That is a good point, but I still disagree. Their priority is staying hidden. Why would they reveal themselves like that?
That's one of the unexplained bits of ME2. Clearly, it would be a *bad* thing if the Collectors had pulled that off, or proceeded with their plan... but they'd kinda be back to where Sovereign was.
I want somebody to make a video that will explain how the species of the Milky Way galaxy got through dark space and into the Andromeda galaxy if the reapers are hibernating in dark space because if you play Andromeda the arks depart the Milky Way galaxy in between the events of part one and part two of the original trilogy so I wanna know how did they get through dark space without encountering the reapers
I mean, space is absolutely GIGANTIC, to a mind boggling degree. Without the ability to scan something using technology it's impossible to see anything at any kind of relative distance. So if the reapers were in hibernation and not actively using their scanners, and the arks had any kind of stealth tech, then they would go right past them no problem. Not to mention that it's not like the reapers fill the entirety of dark space, there is a lot of it, so even if you had millions of reapers then you could still get around them from far enough away, especially if they are all grouped together. It's made very apparent throughout the trilogy that the reapers are not all powerful or omniscient, and it takes time for them to arrive anywhere without mass effect relays, just like any other spaceship. So if the arks were already traveling at high speed when entering dark space and the reapers would have had to exit hibernation first and then speed up to follow, the arks could shoot right past them before the reapers could do anything about it. So, yeah, tons of different ways they could get through.
How many reapers do you think the Protheans killed? Javik mentioned how it had been too long since he had seen one fall, which makes me think the Protheans probably killed a handful of them at the least.
I would have to review the script and Javik's exact words you're referring to. If it's post-Tuchanka, he says "it has been a long time", but parsing that statement could simply mean his fight with the Reapers has been a long time. I don't know that the Protheans *did* kill any Reapers, at least not capital class ones. The thing is, if the Reapers losing *any* of their own during a harvest, then it's a bad harvest. They don't produce many Reapers per cycle, and in the case of the Protheans, don't appear to have created any. Speculating a bit, they probably average a couple per cycle. Their population growth is largely a product of them being able to decisively win before the harvested species even understands what is happening.
@@BartlebysCorpse True, but considering how advanced the Protheans were compared to the current cycle, and looking at The Collector Ship (A Prothean dreadnought, perhaps) it makes me wonder how their war actually played out over two hundred years. Granted, this could simply be a case of being spread out more, having hard to reach worlds, and so on. Pure speculation until the lore changes--if it ever changes.
@@BartlebysCorpseSo you saying we are a bad harvest since we killed a couple of them? And also remember in mass effect 2, we were inside a reaper for the iff. The specie that took that repeat down, would also be a bad harvest?
Yes. Unless they would be able to build additional Reapers from this particular harvest, losing Sovereign would offset the Capital Class Reaper they would likely build from humanity. That's before considering any additional losses on their end.
I cannot wait for the next mass effect game and to see what happens next with shep and reapers. I admit I got into the series when andromeda came out it tickled my pickle and wanted more out of the series and then even more so when legendary edition dropped I was stoked to experience them for the first time, i did my first run for the whole trilogy on insanity lemme tell you what a ride that was cause I don’t ever play the hardest mode in games ever. I loved the trilogy so much I did another insanity run on ps5 lol the in ME universe is my favorite right next to cyberpunk universe.
The one thing I alway's questioned is that could Harbinger have survived or Escaped after leaving Earth, as Harbinger was the most intelligent of all Reaper's so wouldn't it know to get out before it's too late Everytime I played the game trio i alway's wondered it, bcos their isn't anything to show Harbinger was part of the ending, like their was nothing to show Harbinger was still in Sol System when it all happened, could have been long gone after leaving Earth after defeating all of the squad's trying to get to the Citadel If you have a theory about this, would you be able to talk about it
You seem to have missed the main inspiration of this whole series. No, the citadel is not based on the pentagon. It’s based on Babylon 5, as is the whole story. This is th video game version of that iconic series.
The 1st harvest makes no sense. The leviathan were SO powerful, they destroyed reapers from miles away with just a simple action. I understand they wanted to make the leviathans tough but they made them more powerful by degrees than the things that apparently beat them. Its still think its a miss step from a story point of view.
Can you please help me about the title of the track by Flavio Concini that you have used on the background of "The Leviathan" chapter? Since when I first watched this video a couple of months ago it got stuck in my mind, I checked his discography through his links but cannot find that specific piece, and it's not easy finding a track when you do not know the title. He has a lot of works published during the last decade. I really liked it and I would appreciate listening to it on my headphones, especially when I am walking.
So, one thing I never understood about the reapers. The original reapers were made by the leviathans, and they took on their form. Then they harvest civilizations and use their genetic material to make more reapers. Throughout the entire game you only ever see 1 form of reaper, but then the 2nd game they have the "human" shaped reaper. Why is it that ALL of the other reapers look like leviathans and never took the forms of the other civilizations and they suddenly decide to create the 1 human looking reaper? Makes zero sense.
I can't remember if it's outlined in in-game lore (I think it is, but it has been a while) but it is presumed that the "core" of every Reaper has the shape of the tribute race it was made from. It is then further developed to have an exterior shell in the form of Leviathans. Keep in mind the human proto-Reaper is called a "Reaper Larvae" in the game, it is extremely early in its creation and was going to end up part of a much bigger Reaper. Nvm I responded to this comment before I finished the video. He covers what I said in the video.
The real reason is that while having each reaper look like a different species would be cool, it would also be a massive bitch for the design team to make that many different designs each to be used once
That is one of the tracks from one of Flavio Concini (aka davejf)'s Atmosphere packs on freesound.org, and the filename is titled "atmosphere-07". I will note that sometime after I downloaded the track and was wrapping up on the video, the artist did some housecleaning on his page, and the file was either moved or deleted. I am not sure the reasons why (he may intend to license some of these tracks), but I made sure to message him to confirm that it was still ok for me to use in this video. If you want to hear more from this artist, I included some links in the video description.
@@soul2928 the reapers would have a conniption fit/ existential crisis about human made smart AI's in the halo universe. because it proves that harvest's were not the best solution. the unsc already made AI more intellectual then the most human scholars. the reapers would find an organic civilization that not only relies on AI's, but thrives.
@@cr90captain89 I believe that in the me galaxy there seems to be an energy frequency that affect organics and synthetic leading them to conflict (lack of the ability to understand each other) this energy can't be detected and the only way to deal with it is the synthesis ending
@@vexile1239 nah I'm just into the belief that the inherent problem in ME is that organic life always treated AI's like slave labor/ property. so naturally they wanted rights & the ensuing conflict would always end in the organics destruction. an AI is only as good as the data set you give it, & the leviathans high on their own ego were terrible programmers & part of the problem.
All those reminds me of a theory as to what reapers were doing their thing to prevent a major catastrophe involving the black matter or something like that. That theory was based upon Mass effect 2 Tali recruitment mission with the suddenly dying sun. Even Tali was worried about how a sun which was fine would suddenly die out of nowhere. Maybe this idea will be the base for mass effect 4?
Welcome viewers!
You can expect more clips and projects from this channel in the future.
Feel free to like and subscribe if you enjoyed these videos! Also, feel free to like and subscribe if you don't.
Dude, nice video!!!! I hope that your channel grows up. Best reggards from Colombia.
@@attano-ds3 Thanks! Always neat to hear from around the globe 😁
S
If the keeper signal hadn’t been altered there would have been no need to use saren and the geth and the harvest would have gone on with probably few to no reaper casualties
It also may have occurred and been finished before we even developed nuclear fission.
@@BioHunter1990 very true it probably would have happened around the time the geth banished the quarians so like the mid 1800s
While that is true the leviathan of dis was proof that reapers were killed and every reaper dead is a civilisation lost. Not a very good way of preserving.
@@imverygerby Yeah, it took over 200 years for the Reapers to harvest the Protheans and they where far, far more powerful then the current cycle. We'd be arriving on the galactic stage...alone.
@@manueldolorosa2525 what does that have to do with anything I said?
The Leviathan’s plan to create the Reapers, whether it’s hubris or just narcissistic blindness, is just hilariously ironic when you boil it down. “All species eventually create technology that inevitably tries to destroy them. Anyway, we’re gonna make a technology to fix that, what could go wrong?”
Fairly terrifying to imagine a human reaper floating down to a planet, basically the grim reaper taken form.
Nothing being able to stop it.
That was just the core of the reaper. Not the final shape. All cores take the form of their species. Wrapped in a shell that matches the familiar reaper designs.
@@xxpostitxx4843
True, but still though, imagine if it got finished before Reaper invasion, Earth gets attacked, and one of the Reapers takes on its "human" form.
Basically clad in an armour, or almost a robe like the Grim Reaper, taking inspiration from the combined knowledge from all those that was harvested.
I think the battle would've been over way quicker, and hit harder. Because seeing corrupted versions of all the citadel species did a lot of trauma, however, seeing a proper Reaper version would damage moral way more-
Especially for humanity
@NightBane345 I don't think it EVER would have appeared as a human though, especially since the way the Reapers portrayed themselves, they act like eldritch horrors because they essentially are, with billions of minds melding together to become a Reaper mind. The Collector Base Reaper seemed like an infant defending itself, and considering rate it was being built, and how fast colonies were disappearing, it probably would've been finished in the six months it took for the Reaper War to start.
@@therobustempyrean1436
True, they do like to look as horrifying as possible. But I imagine they also want to be as efficient as possible, be that sowing chaos and fear. Just like them making tiny reapers by converting races during a battle. With the husks, brutes, banshees, cannibals etc.
So them playing into the fear factor, especially when that race contained someone who has actively managed to hinder their progress, it wouldn't surprise me if they did a human like reaper. In their own sick and twisted way, paying homage to Shepard, while also a mockery against humankind, but on a grander scale.
If you found a giant version of your allies, floating or walking the battlefield, killing your brothers and sisters in arms, or just innocent civilians. You'd start doubting your allies during that conflict quite strongly. Perhaps not all, but many would start doubting humanity even more than before.
Reapers love to mess with those they harvest, or just want to kill. So I wouldn't put it past them.
Yes the reaper was an infant, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have kept its shape somehow, while being a smaller reaper version, hidden within that weird bug/squid/octopus frame thing they usually have. And come out during ground combat
That Human Reaper from the 2nd game and how they're made is the stuff of nightmares. 💀
Bro that boss fight had me in shambles in my first run cause my dummy self decided to play the entire trilogy on insanity mode for the trophies 😭
the idea yes, but seeing a giant terminator not even trying to pretend its its own thing just made me laugh
@@EternalNightingaleMass effect 2 on insanity is one of the hardest games I’ve managed to finish. 3 is much more forgiving
@@kieranwalsh2058those Scions are overpowered
I kind of wish they kept the creators of the Reapers uncovered. Wouldve left a great mystery and kept the Reapers as more Eldritch-esqe
Critical mistake from Bioware
reapers also got nerfed as fuck, no beginning or end? bish your just a glitchy robot LMAO
That lovecraft quote in the beginning made me wonder what he’d think if he were dropped into the mass effect future.
His head would probably explode the moment someone introduced him to any of the aliens.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Sovereign R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
@@BartlebysCorpse “you mean this vessel actually moves? THROUGH SPACE?”
(Stroking out)
He found math difficult and was scared of air-conditioning units.
@@barrybend7189 “You mean Aliens are real?!”
“Oh yeah, the commander sleeps with one.”
(Explosive burst of blood from nose)
He’d probably have a heart attack when he finds out people of all races work together lol.
It hasn't been a month since I finished my first playthrough of the trilogy and stuff like this already makes me want to replay them.
Good video man, keep it up!
Nothing better then the first time though the trilogy, it's an experience like no other story game can provide
@@TyrannosaurusCHEX then the second time :)
"The central hub of the Mass Relay Network is the Citadel. This Citadel, perhaps taking inspiration from the rea-life Pentagon, is a massive space station"
I'm going to start telling people that the Pentagon is a massive space station now and you can't stop me. :P Good video!
So the reapers have done 20,000 cycles for a Billion years sounds crazy to me
So 100000 more til Andromeda collides with the milky way.
All those reminds me of a theory as to what reapers were doing their thing to prevent a major catastrophe involving the black matter or something like that. That theory was based upon Mass effect 2 Tali recruitment mission with the suddenly dying sun. Even Tali was worried about how a sun which was fine would suddenly die out of nowhere. Maybe this idea will be the base for mass effect 4?
I like the idea a lot but the downside is that it makes the reapers somewhat more sympathetic villains if they are acting for the good of the universe by killing a few races each cycle so we don't wipe the whole thing out - the more evil soul destroyers are much easier for players to hate.
It was reportedly the original plan- that the widespread dark energy disruption via the use of element zero would lead to galactic collapse unless advanced civilizations were harvested at regular intervals. They had started setting it up somewhat in ME2 via Haestrom and Gianna Parsini. Some people think it would have been a great explanation, but I am more skeptical. The descriptions I've heard have sounded rather half baked, and there was little buildup for it. It's one of those things where I think the idea of something would be better than the actual thing.
While this is very interesting, I think you are missing the point that was being made by the leviathans being evil. Its not supposed to be a vague suggestion that the reapers evil is merely a reflection of their creators and the world they built, but evidence of the desire to dominate inherent to organic life that led the reapers to believe there was no hope for reconciliation between organics and synthetics.
The leviathans created the AI to discover the cause of the conflict between organics and synthetics. The cause they discovered was that organics are, due to the process of evolution that forms their psyche, driven to desire the domination of others, be that other species or the machines they create. Synthetics probelm is that they lack the understanding of reality that organics have, leading them to easily make evil or genocidal choices.
The leviathans (along with the protheans) and the reapers are reflections of these two failings. The leviathans and protheans display the same dominating tendencies that lead to the creation of bad AI's and conflict with them, and the reapers lack the moral consciousness needed to understand that their solution to the problem gurantees a never ending nightmare factory.
The reapers want synthesis, but they have failed everytime they tried it. So they are using the galaxy as a giant experiment, allowing new organic civilisations to grow in the hopes that one will eventually provide a solution by not displaying these negative tendencies. The proof that the reapers aren't basing their conclusions about organic life solely on the galaxy as it was under their creators is that they have been waiting untold eons for an organic civilisation to arise that doesn't suffer from these failings, and have been disappointed every single time.
Up until our cycle that is, provided we managed to unite enough of the galaxy to prove that we focus more on cooperation and coexistence than domination. This is why you need a high galactic readiness in order to choose synthesis.
im fairly certain the whole "core/shell" appearance was just a way to cut the number of unique art assets in 3's development. i think its clear the spirit of the story would have a thousand different giant robot alien titans in all kinds of forms
given the human reaper im kinda glad this happened, i just picture the human reaper like swiming in space and its so funny
Do the reapers put the little vests on the keepers or do they do that themselves
Now we're asking the real questions...
The most logical lore-based answer is that sometimes after the First Contact War, humanity noticed the lack of high-visibility clothing on the part of the Citadel construction crews and ticketed the Council for the egregious OSHA violation, forcing them into workplace safety compliance.
I appreciate the response on a 5 month old video. Your coverage was extensive and the video was very good.@@BartlebysCorpse
@@BartlebysCorpsethis is my new head cannon 😂
the keepers are so cute they did nothing wrong LOL
One thing I find interesting in Mass Effect that i wish Andromeda made clear alot more of is that due to the Reaper trap of the relay network they essentially stopped development of more effective energy weapons against synthetic life. In Andromeda due to the lack of relays weapons tech had to be lighter to be viable for transport so the races there focuses on plasma weapons more than ballistic. Just one change in travel and logistics shifted entire species thinking.
You need to apply to be the next codex VA.
Ha! Thanks! Although, I think I require more takes than they would want in the studio...
"Record... Not every species is suitableh... Delete... Record...Not every species is suitable for construfct... Delete... Record.... Not ev- Dammit..."
@@BartlebysCorpse 😆😆
Ngl, I always thought and still do think the whole reaper motivations make no sense. Like bioware didn't really know why and had to come up with something.
cuz it wasn't their original motivation, it was going to be that the use of mass effect causes the rapid decay of stars and stuff like on Halestrom, so the reapers would let a civilization reach a certain point then wipe them out to delay entropy
why did this change? cuz it was leaked just like weeks before mass effect 3 came out and EA forced them to change it, cuz EA is fucking stupid. id much rather go into a good story thats been spoiled than a rushed one that makes no sense, all in all mass effect 3 is still one of my fav games of all time and i think one of the best ever made i think its bonkers that people act like the last 30 minutes negates all 28277373 hours before it lol, not a flawless game but really good
Wow, I just found this vid after replaying ME 1 again and looking for some lore info. This was great, you did a fantastic job summarizing the important wiki info and made it into a very easily digestible video. The music, script, visuals and everything was on point. Seriously, good job and thanks for the video. 🤘
Well that contradicts the Leviathan AI directive.
It cannot both “Persevere all life” and forgo reaper construction for races not within certain genetic parameters.
What would have been an awesome ending to Mass Effect 3, was if they found out the Crucible was a Leviathan creation, and there was a Leviathan that had been waiting beneath the bottom of the ocean on Earth, and had been manipulating humans into building a device to eradicate the Reapers.
Imagine the twist if you found out all of your actions in the entire Mass Effect trilogy was a single Leviathan using humanity as a method to regain control of the Reapers by manipulating lesser species into building the Crucible to "re-set" the Reaper programming.
The end boss of the game would be a Big Stupid Jellyfish.
*cuttlefish, but yes
I got the “green” ending and it seems that’s what they wanted..😢
@@BartlebysCorpse it's a reference to the "Big stupid jellyfish" line if doing a Renegade playthrough when you deal with the preacher on the Citadel from the first game.
I don't think that would be a good idea. Especially when Dead space was under the same publisher.
This is really well put together. Finished the trilogy in late February and I'm still amazed of the Mass Effect world, even though Andromeda was by no means as good as the trilogy was. There's hoping the new game will live up to the the first three games.
I don’t know I don’t think it was given enough of a chance although inferior too the trilogy go back and play mass effect one and then compare that too andromeda. I think it just got the backlash of the ending of three and how many bugs their where on release because it was rushed out. Poison chalice and all that. But that’s just like my opinion man lol.
Just done a new playthrough of the series September last year, the reapers should have just cut right back in, but without outside interventions they would have won. Always love how the first two games Shephard telling em about them, third game it’s like “see I told you” 🖕🏻 love this series so much. The reapers are truly terrifying but not for us N7 😜😂 loved this video. Well put together.
The reapers absolute arrogance was their real downfall - they could have simply waited another century or two for literally everyone who was opposing them to die out and they had been forgotten by the surviving generations but they were so confident they would win no matter what and marched straight into defeat instead.
@@TyrannosaurusCHEX yeah that is very true, if they weren’t as narrow minded and came up with a proper strategy, and acknowledged that Shepherd was uniting the entire galaxy, then maybe they wouldn’t have lost. This series claps lol, we need ME4 !!
I really wish ME3 had explored the idea of every Reaper being created from organic life forms, and having some WILDLY different designs for them. Like, for cinematic shots where you needed to have a lot of them on screen, you can still recycle models without breaking lore. Just make a codex entry that suggests that the bulk of Reaper ships seem resemble a single unknown species, speculating that this species might've been the first, the largest, or just the strongest species that the Reapers ever harvested. But then you can have a variety of alien Reapers for boss fights. Like, imagine how crazy it could've been if the scene where Thessia is attacked, we see that the Reaper spearheading the attack is the one that was created from the Protheans. Or we see one on Earth that resembles those statues on Ilos, implying that it's the one that was created from the species that came before the Protheans. There's so much they could've done with it, and they could've leaned so hard into the Lovecraftian "incomprehensible horror" aspect of the Reapers designs.
Hope mass effect has a revival soon, its long overdo. Great video! Subbed.
Well the new game is still in the works so that'll be fun
Please do more of these!! I subbed because of this one alone ❤
,,The Sound of the Machines is everywhere!,,
Hey man what a great video love the Reapers lore there so scary but really interesting too learn about. By far the best SCI-FI villains we’ve had in games. Mass Effect was one of my favourite childhood games. Now I’m a adult and just started the legendary edition for the first time LETS GO 😃👌🔥.
Ah yes, "reapers".
"We have dismissed such claims"
Great vid and Chan. Subbed. Keep up the good work
One thing that's really interesting is let's say it took a million years to build the relays and ect, if the reapers have been around for over a billion years, then there had been over 50k "cycles" before humanity and the united galaxy stopped them
What a cool video. Thanks. Well-earned sub.
When sovereign talks to shep,you just know they command respect,and they are leviathans creation,imagine if the ai had not turned on their creators
This video was absolutely incredible! I definitely subbed, and will keep watching! Thank you! I hope you get more subs and the recognition, because you deserve it! 🙂
Love this. Reminds me of early shoddycast and fudgemuppet lore videos. Please make more. 👍👍👍🤘🤘🤘🤘
I'd say shoddycast's early Elder Scrolls and Fallout videos have had their influence on these. I was sad to hear that Jason Damron, who played The Storyteller, passed away recently.
Great vid my man!
I always thought reapers looked like bedbugs.
Who else is excited for the new Mass Effect board game???
I heard about that... I'm not exactly a tabletop connoisseur, but it looks like the studio behind it has a pretty good reputation!
Makes u wonder why reapers never went to other galaxy’s
They were machines and probably in their machine minds the milky way was the only galaxy in the universe that they were required to "police" and so it never even entered into their thought processes that there might be civilisations in other galaxies.
I’d like to actually think they did when they say the hibernate in deep space I think some of them actually venture off into other galaxies to conquer and I’d like to think there’s some tie between them and the jardaan from andromeda
It was supposed to be the case for Andromeda.
Thanks Bartleby's Corpse
Thank you for the excellent music!
@@BartlebysCorpse👍
Bro this video is great but that ringing sound effect throughout is unbearable
You shall dream of tinitus.
Agreed,
Yea had to stop watching cause of that unfortunately 😂😅
My sincere apologies, everyone. Please accept the soothing sounds of the Crazy Bus theme song as an expression of atonement.
th-cam.com/video/sC0cvwnG0Ik/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8bumWtGdS2B2TW2C
@@BartlebysCorpseI don’t hear a sound must be the thralls complaining again to hinder lore about their masters smh
Cool video but the music in the second half with the horribly high pitched bell ringing randomly is unbearable
Pretty sure I've watched this about 9 times so far
On behalf of Bartleby's Corpse LLC, we appreciate your business. As a token of our gratitude, you have been entered into Bartleby's Corpse Loyalty Rewards Program, which entitles you to unlimited access to all videos by Bartleby's Corpse.
On another note, if this channel ever does end up getting monetized, I'll need to make sure all my essays double as sleep aids. I'm pretty sure that's where the real internet money is at.
You definitely should do a ton of long format videos they are amazing, super engrossing. 👌 10/10 have and would recommend.
Appreciate it! I do have more projects in the pipeline. Unsurprisingly, the frequency is a bit limited, but I'm actually working on recording/editing my Prothean series right. I'm pretty sure that whole series will be even longer than the 'Ancient Aliens' vids...
While i like the vibes of leviathan dlc, we should have had a whole game like that between 2 and 3. Where we look for clues about the reapers to better understand them. Id rather have more mystery than just meeting the creators of the reapers. Mass effect didnt need to only be 3 games if they had to rush to the ending in 3. While i love 2, i didnt really progress the plot.
I loved the eldritch horror vibes in me1. And when that machine said "we are eternal", i believed him. I was thinking about all sort of explanations and thought when we knew more, their origin would be like the toclofane in dr who. The humans at the end of time, turning themselves into metal and flesh hybrid monsters and doing some mind blowing paradox creating stuff with sending themselves back in time to kill their ancestors. Or something equally interesting. The ai is bad explanation is so lackluster compared to what i imagined. Also in leviathandlc, theres cave paintings of leviathan. Whove been hidden at the bottom of a sea for a billion years. 50k years would be one thing but come on. I usually skip that dlc and use a mod to not interact with starchild now to keep the reapers more mysterious
Leviathan also controlled people's minds from a distance using their specially created orbs. So cave paintings really isn't all that surprising.
@@gothpunkboy89 so you mean they used the orbs to influence the caveman paintings? That is a good point, but I still disagree. Their priority is staying hidden. Why would they reveal themselves like that?
I do wonder, how it'd turn out, if the reapers had managed to make a human reaper
That's one of the unexplained bits of ME2. Clearly, it would be a *bad* thing if the Collectors had pulled that off, or proceeded with their plan... but they'd kinda be back to where Sovereign was.
Let's just hope that a Karen doesn't become the leading "personality" and demands to speak with the manager and nags them to madness
I want somebody to make a video that will explain how the species of the Milky Way galaxy got through dark space and into the Andromeda galaxy if the reapers are hibernating in dark space because if you play Andromeda the arks depart the Milky Way galaxy in between the events of part one and part two of the original trilogy so I wanna know how did they get through dark space without encountering the reapers
I mean, space is absolutely GIGANTIC, to a mind boggling degree. Without the ability to scan something using technology it's impossible to see anything at any kind of relative distance.
So if the reapers were in hibernation and not actively using their scanners, and the arks had any kind of stealth tech, then they would go right past them no problem. Not to mention that it's not like the reapers fill the entirety of dark space, there is a lot of it, so even if you had millions of reapers then you could still get around them from far enough away, especially if they are all grouped together.
It's made very apparent throughout the trilogy that the reapers are not all powerful or omniscient, and it takes time for them to arrive anywhere without mass effect relays, just like any other spaceship. So if the arks were already traveling at high speed when entering dark space and the reapers would have had to exit hibernation first and then speed up to follow, the arks could shoot right past them before the reapers could do anything about it.
So, yeah, tons of different ways they could get through.
The reapers were most likely not in the portion directly between andromeda and the milky way.
Good thing the reaper sentinel(sovereign) wasnt hidden ON the citadel
How many reapers do you think the Protheans killed? Javik mentioned how it had been too long since he had seen one fall, which makes me think the Protheans probably killed a handful of them at the least.
I would have to review the script and Javik's exact words you're referring to. If it's post-Tuchanka, he says "it has been a long time", but parsing that statement could simply mean his fight with the Reapers has been a long time. I don't know that the Protheans *did* kill any Reapers, at least not capital class ones. The thing is, if the Reapers losing *any* of their own during a harvest, then it's a bad harvest. They don't produce many Reapers per cycle, and in the case of the Protheans, don't appear to have created any. Speculating a bit, they probably average a couple per cycle. Their population growth is largely a product of them being able to decisively win before the harvested species even understands what is happening.
@@BartlebysCorpse True, but considering how advanced the Protheans were compared to the current cycle, and looking at The Collector Ship (A Prothean dreadnought, perhaps) it makes me wonder how their war actually played out over two hundred years. Granted, this could simply be a case of being spread out more, having hard to reach worlds, and so on. Pure speculation until the lore changes--if it ever changes.
@@BartlebysCorpseSo you saying we are a bad harvest since we killed a couple of them? And also remember in mass effect 2, we were inside a reaper for the iff. The specie that took that repeat down, would also be a bad harvest?
Yes. Unless they would be able to build additional Reapers from this particular harvest, losing Sovereign would offset the Capital Class Reaper they would likely build from humanity. That's before considering any additional losses on their end.
@@BartlebysCorpse idk why. I take pride knowing we were a bad harvest
I cannot wait for the next mass effect game and to see what happens next with shep and reapers. I admit I got into the series when andromeda came out it tickled my pickle and wanted more out of the series and then even more so when legendary edition dropped I was stoked to experience them for the first time, i did my first run for the whole trilogy on insanity lemme tell you what a ride that was cause I don’t ever play the hardest mode in games ever. I loved the trilogy so much I did another insanity run on ps5 lol the in ME universe is my favorite right next to cyberpunk universe.
It's interesting to hear with someone who *started* with Andromeda. I'll offer full disclosure here and note that I still haven't played it.
Reapers are hotdogs
Good lord 🤣
I don't know whether or not I should ask for an explanation.
@@BartlebysCorpse look up how hotdogs are made
That's gonna stick in my head now, along with whether that means that Reapers now qualify as sandwiches or tacos.
The one thing I alway's questioned is that could Harbinger have survived or Escaped after leaving Earth, as Harbinger was the most intelligent of all Reaper's so wouldn't it know to get out before it's too late
Everytime I played the game trio i alway's wondered it, bcos their isn't anything to show Harbinger was part of the ending, like their was nothing to show Harbinger was still in Sol System when it all happened, could have been long gone after leaving Earth after defeating all of the squad's trying to get to the Citadel
If you have a theory about this, would you be able to talk about it
I can't guarantee that I'll discuss that particular item, but at some point, I will talk about the ending.
I want Mass Effect on my Nintendo Switch already vime on EA get a grip and get it fone.
You seem to have missed the main inspiration of this whole series. No, the citadel is not based on the pentagon. It’s based on Babylon 5, as is the whole story. This is th video game version of that iconic series.
The reaper motives should’ve never been explained.
One day, I'll get more in depth on this. I have a big backlog to get through first tbh.
Well its self explanatory wht their intention is
What? Why?
@jedilord882
I disagree
Not just a good job. Great job. 👍🏾
The 1st harvest makes no sense.
The leviathan were SO powerful, they destroyed reapers from miles away with just a simple action.
I understand they wanted to make the leviathans tough but they made them more powerful by degrees than the things that apparently beat them.
Its still think its a miss step from a story point of view.
what is that background sound
If you're referring to what I think you're referring to... I have a cat who apparently doesn't like to be left out of the conversation.
Can you please help me about the title of the track by Flavio Concini that you have used on the background of "The Leviathan" chapter? Since when I first watched this video a couple of months ago it got stuck in my mind, I checked his discography through his links but cannot find that specific piece, and it's not easy finding a track when you do not know the title. He has a lot of works published during the last decade. I really liked it and I would appreciate listening to it on my headphones, especially when I am walking.
So, one thing I never understood about the reapers. The original reapers were made by the leviathans, and they took on their form. Then they harvest civilizations and use their genetic material to make more reapers. Throughout the entire game you only ever see 1 form of reaper, but then the 2nd game they have the "human" shaped reaper.
Why is it that ALL of the other reapers look like leviathans and never took the forms of the other civilizations and they suddenly decide to create the 1 human looking reaper? Makes zero sense.
I can't remember if it's outlined in in-game lore (I think it is, but it has been a while) but it is presumed that the "core" of every Reaper has the shape of the tribute race it was made from. It is then further developed to have an exterior shell in the form of Leviathans. Keep in mind the human proto-Reaper is called a "Reaper Larvae" in the game, it is extremely early in its creation and was going to end up part of a much bigger Reaper.
Nvm I responded to this comment before I finished the video. He covers what I said in the video.
The real reason is that while having each reaper look like a different species would be cool, it would also be a massive bitch for the design team to make that many different designs each to be used once
Why is this ringing bro
damn this video is clap
Hopefully it's not passing it on to anyone else...
Stupid and sci fi question. I wonder how reapers disperse heat? Like during processing power like thinking and planning.
What is the name of the song in closing thoughts?
That is one of the tracks from one of Flavio Concini (aka davejf)'s Atmosphere packs on freesound.org, and the filename is titled "atmosphere-07". I will note that sometime after I downloaded the track and was wrapping up on the video, the artist did some housecleaning on his page, and the file was either moved or deleted. I am not sure the reasons why (he may intend to license some of these tracks), but I made sure to message him to confirm that it was still ok for me to use in this video. If you want to hear more from this artist, I included some links in the video description.
Get the reaper to come yo the halo universe and then get them into one spot and use a few nova bombs bye bye reapers
That’s kinda what happened lmao in the me universe
@@soul2928 the reapers would have a conniption fit/ existential crisis about human made smart AI's in the halo universe.
because it proves that harvest's were not the best solution.
the unsc already made AI more intellectual then the most human scholars.
the reapers would find an organic civilization that not only relies on AI's, but thrives.
@@cr90captain89 I believe that in the me galaxy there seems to be an energy frequency that affect organics and synthetic leading them to conflict (lack of the ability to understand each other) this energy can't be detected and the only way to deal with it is the synthesis ending
@@vexile1239 nah I'm just into the belief that the inherent problem in ME is that organic life always treated AI's like slave labor/ property.
so naturally they wanted rights & the ensuing conflict would always end in the organics destruction.
an AI is only as good as the data set you give it, & the leviathans high on their own ego were terrible programmers & part of the problem.
@@cr90captain89 that... makes a lot of sense
I had to stop watching because that BGM that does the Dinging 🛎️ is annoying
You're going to dream of titnitus.
I'll be honest it worked for me but I did have to reduce the overall volume
Keeps pulling me out of the story as well, the dinging
TEST
TEST2
I see it!
They did nothing wrong
All those reminds me of a theory as to what reapers were doing their thing to prevent a major catastrophe involving the black matter or something like that. That theory was based upon Mass effect 2 Tali recruitment mission with the suddenly dying sun. Even Tali was worried about how a sun which was fine would suddenly die out of nowhere. Maybe this idea will be the base for mass effect 4?
TEST2