Mass effect 2 storyline questions *MASSIVE SPOILERS*

[Maximilian]

Massive spoilers! You have been warned. If you havent finished the game dont read on.

There were some aspects of the plot i didnt understand fully, either because i wasent meant to (until the 3rd game anyways) or i just missed somthing. So if anyone can clarify any of this that would be great

1. What was the collectors plan? I gather it was steal humans --> make human shaped reaper --> profit? Even if they had finished it its still 1 reaper, sovereign failed so its likely human reaper wouldve met the same fate no? Or would it just have done the exact same thing sovreign did previously and continue to try new strategys, rachnai wars failed, geth failed, it wouldve tried somthing new maybe?

2. The collectors themselves were once protheans, fair enough. But why were they created in the first place? The 36 million year old dead reaper says there were a hell of a lot more races before the protheans, one even killed that specific reaper, why did the reapers turn the protheans into the collectors and keep them in the centre of the galaxy? I thought maybe there were always "collectors" but they were made up of the dominant race from the previous extinction cycle so they would be different every 50k years and they collect stuff to get an idea about the races currently living there before the reapers invade, but thats just my guess i never saw anything supporting that.

3. Do the reapers actually improve themselves, hence the human reaper? They all looked like sovereign in the ending movie and the derelict one also looked a lot like sovreign, so from that it seems they havent done much self improvement over the past 36 million years. Do they maybe model themselves on the last race that killed one of them and messed stuff up? Like they all look like that race that killed the derelict which may have been sovereigns predecessor, and if they were to invade again and win they would all eventually remodel themselves to look humanish? Is that how it works?

So... yeah i dont get the above stuff, awesome game though! Really liked the fleshed out character specific missions, theres always a twist it seems.

 

[Regs]

I think you're making it into something bigger than it is. This game was a character study for what ever happens in ME3.

 

[Qbah]

I think it was an experiment only. Shepard was the first organic in a long time to actually destroy a Reaper (or played a major role in it) so perhaps the Reapers wanted to have a new member, based on the species that Shepard was from? EDI was speculating heavily in the last chapter, so I think she was very wrong in her conclusions.

As for the Collectors/Protheans, maybe they put up a fight against the Reapers (that's why it took several centuries to wipe them out) and the Reapers saw some value in their species? So they made them the base for their slaves. I guess if Saren would succeed, something similar would happen to Turians - they would be the only survivors of this cycle? Just guessing.

 

[Xed]

I am mainly guessing here based on what I saw playing, I could be wrong.

Spoiler

1) Harbinger (a reaper) was controlling the collector general. He was using them to collect humans used to fuel the reaper larva. Reapers pro-create by basically wiping out entire species and using them as material.

2) They state the reapers tried to make a prothean reaper and failed. I assume because they weren't diverse genetically (they reference this about humans more than once). I also assume the reapers then converted the few remaining protheans into those shells (remember how they re-purposed saren) to assist them in their goals. Remember they say the collectors traded for unique members of species? I think of them as reaper scouts.

3) They say the reapers resemble the race that made them. Maybe they all assume some huddled up form for hibernation and travel or maybe they have really bad luck at making baby reapers. Or maybe it's just a huge plot hole.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Where does it say Harbinger is a reaper? The scale is entirely wrong, and he looks like a collector, not a reaper

 

[Xed]

Where does it say Harbinger is a reaper? The scale is entirely wrong, and he looks like a collector, not a reaper

Spoiler

When you kill the human reaper larva and the station starts to blow up you'll see in the cutscene the general mumble about we'll find another way, etc. He then states he's leaving that form and the original collector looks around and goes oh fuck as he explodes.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Ah, so he's not a reaper per se, but simply possessed by one. Gotcha.

 

[Xed]

Ah, so he's not a reaper per se, but simply possessed by one. Gotcha.

Spoiler

Harbinger is name of the reaper. The collector general is the one possessed by harbinger.

 

[JoshGuru7]

My opinions:

Spoiler

1. The collectors have no plan as they are reaper slaves. The reapers have a very long term plan as we saw in ME1. They allow civilization to develop in the galaxy over 50,000 years to a point of sufficient diversity, then use the keepers to activate their own citadel relay and return. The galaxy is basically a farm for them, and they return periodically to harvest it. In ME1 the prothean VI speculates that they wipe out all sentient life but has no guesses about motive. In ME2, we see that they use the species they destroy, either by rewriting their genetic code to be slaves or by liquifying the diverse races in order to procreate.

Spoiler

2. The Protheans evolved like any of the other species. They would have been liquified to form new Reapers, but the first attempt failed because they were not genetically diverse enough as a species. As a result their genetic code was rewritten and they were kept around as slaves. Presumably the Reapers would prefer to procreate by liquifying the races they capture, so this is a rare step.

Spoiler

3. On one hand, the Reapers invasion is simply business as usual for them. Sovereign determined the galaxy was ready to be harvested again, so they are returning to condense all sentient life into a few new Reapers. If EDI's estimates are correct, then they can get multiple Reapers out of the same race depending on population size. The similar looking Reapers that you see were simply created out of the same race for any number of reasons. One speculation is that it could have been the race directly before the Protheans and as relatively young Reapers they were given the task of summoning the rest of the Reapers back while the 20 million year old reapers snoozed in deep space.

On the other hand, much is made throughout ME2 about the supposedly vast genetic diversity of humans. Since genetic diversity is necessary for strong reapers this is clearly a source of interest to them as humans might make great reapers. The plot of ME2 revolves around a single reaper (Harbinger) commanding a bunch of collector slaves to build a human reaper for him. The reason for this isn't explicit, but it's probably part experiment and part desire to procreate. It's reasonable for the Reaper to assume that this will be risk-free, as only Reapers have the necessary technology to pass through the Omega 4 relay. Harbinger probably wouldn't have risked the destruction of it's slave race for a single Reaper, since presumably it could make dozens of Reapers instead if it was able to open the Citadel Relay.

Spoiler

One other thing to keep in mind is that at this point we have no idea how many Reapers there are and how far away they are. ME1 and ME2 have proceeded under the assumption that the Reapers are so far away in deep space that the only way they can make it back in a meaningful amount of time is through the Citadel relay. However, ME2 involved the destruction of both the prothean/collectors and the geth faction that the Reapers adjusted to serve them. This may make further plotting to open the Citadel relay much more difficult in ME3 and so they may attempt to construct another relay elsewhere via pawns unknown or to directly fly back to galactic space. Millions of Reapers could have been headed at full speed towards the galaxy since the moment that Sovereign was destroyed.

 

[Qbah]

My opinions:

Spoiler

1. The collectors have no plan as they are reaper slaves. The reapers have a very long term plan as we saw in ME1. They allow civilization to develop in the galaxy over 50,000 years to a point of sufficient diversity, then use the keepers to activate their own citadel relay and return. The galaxy is basically a farm for them, and they return periodically to harvest it. In ME1 the prothean VI speculates that they wipe out all sentient life but has no guesses about motive. In ME2, we see that they use the species they destroy, either by rewriting their genetic code to be slaves or by liquifying the diverse races in order to procreate.

Spoiler

2. The Protheans evolved like any of the other species. They would have been liquified to form new Reapers, but the first attempt failed because they were not genetically diverse enough as a species. As a result their genetic code was rewritten and they were kept around as slaves. Presumably the Reapers would prefer to procreate by liquifying the races they capture, so this is a rare step.

Spoiler

3. On one hand, the Reapers invasion is simply business as usual for them. Sovereign determined the galaxy was ready to be harvested again, so they are returning to condense all sentient life into a few new Reapers. If EDI's estimates are correct, then they can get multiple Reapers out of the same race depending on population size. The similar looking Reapers that you see were simply created out of the same race for any number of reasons. One speculation is that it could have been the race directly before the Protheans and as relatively young Reapers they were given the task of summoning the rest of the Reapers back while the 20 million year old reapers snoozed in deep space.

On the other hand, much is made throughout ME2 about the supposedly vast genetic diversity of humans. Since genetic diversity is necessary for strong reapers this is clearly a source of interest to them as humans might make great reapers. The plot of ME2 revolves around a single reaper (Harbinger) commanding a bunch of collector slaves to build a human reaper for him. The reason for this isn't explicit, but it's probably part experiment and part desire to procreate. It's reasonable for the Reaper to assume that this will be risk-free, as only Reapers have the necessary technology to pass through the Omega 4 relay. Harbinger probably wouldn't have risked the destruction of it's slave race for a single Reaper, since presumably it could make dozens of Reapers instead if it was able to open the Citadel Relay.

Spoiler

One other thing to keep in mind is that at this point we have no idea how many Reapers there are and how far away they are. ME1 and ME2 have proceeded under the assumption that the Reapers are so far away in deep space that the only way they can make it back in a meaningful amount of time is through the Citadel relay. However, ME2 involved the destruction of both the prothean/collectors and the geth faction that the Reapers adjusted to serve them. This may make further plotting to open the Citadel relay much more difficult in ME3 and so they may attempt to construct another relay elsewhere via pawns unknown or to directly fly back to galactic space. Millions of Reapers could have been headed at full speed towards the galaxy since the moment that Sovereign was destroyed.

That makes a lot of sense actually Made me feel a lot better about the plot and that it's actually very good! And not rushed and cheap as I first assumed after finishing the game. Thanks for sharing!

So I guess:

Spoiler

1. Reapers use the galaxy as a farm to grow organic life - they need it to procreate.
2. This organic life needs to be varied enough for a new Reaper to be "born" from it
3. Once it's varied enough, they return, indoctrinate everybody, turn them to goo and build themselves new Reapers from the "soup"
4. Protheans cycle wasn't varied enough, the Reapers couldn't build more of themselves - left Protheans as drones for Harbinger (a Reaper) to gather samples and intel on the next cycle - if species diversified enough - come back, conquer, indoctrinate and add to their numbers.
5. The human species alone is very diverse on its own, enough to build a good Reaper just from one species - we saw it at the end (and killed it ). Go hummies

If that's how it worked then nice job BioWare No to mention, the Citadel fleet killing Sovereign was a major blow to the Reapers

Spoiler

- even though their numbers are huge, if just making one is such a pain, loosing one is huge.