Well, if you have beaten the game Mass Effect, then you will know that the Reapers are the "pinnacle of evolution". But I am sure plenty of us that have played throughout this amazing software, hold questions like: How and why were the Reapers made? (If they were made that is) Why do the Reapers wipe out advanced civilizations? What is the purpose of this practice and what are the Reapers' goals? And my favorite: How in Blue Hell is Shepard and the Galaxy going to stop the remaining Reapers? Here is my theory about this mysterious and all-powerful race... The first two of these three questions are relevant to each other. I will answer each question that I presented: How and why were the Reapers made? (If they were made that is) I am going to bring up the fact that this race was once a regular civilization. They were the only ones in our Galaxy to ever exist; until that is other populations started popping up. The Reapers were upset about this and started experimenting with technology and eventually constructed 'super bodies' for themselves. With this new synthetic hardware, the Reapers began exploring space; they traveled from solar system to solar system, finding more and more life. And then the first cycle of extinction took place; but this was only in the Milky Way. The Reapers knew there had to be more life outside our galaxy but they could not come up with the technology to travel galaxy from galaxy, so they put together a plan. And now to transfer to the next question... Why do the Reapers wipe out advanced civilizations? Reapers were probable enough to know that life is always going to repeat and that new populations would spring up in time. Hmm... what if we can wipe out a race of intelligent life form and gather their technology and ideas; the Reapers thought. So the Reapers forged the Mass Relays and the Citadel; linking all of them together. They were actually constructing a path for the next intelligent life form to follow and produce their own technology with. And so began the cycle of genocide. Every extinction, the Reapers collect that civilization's inventions and knowledge, using it to travel across The Universe, and hoping to conquer the endless space. I believe this is the goal of the Reapers; they feel too compact in the Milky Way and have the need to expand their existence farther than one can imagine. And now on to the final question... How is Shepard and the rest of the Galaxy going to stop the remaining Reapers? Aye, this thought is pretty facil to comprehend after you played through the actual game 6 Times. On my most recent playthrough of Mass Effect, which I just beat the game a couple of minutes ago, I did some research when talking to Vigil and learned an interesting fact about the Reapers when they are in dark space. It is to be believed that the Reapers conserve energy while they are on the edge of the Galaxy, and they do this by going into some sort of weaker state. Think about it, if we can get into dark space, we would have a much greater chance of wiping out the Reapers. And that is the end of my theory. If you guys have any other questions about the story about Mass Effect, just ask in a reply. 1...2...3, Discuss.
I dont know how shepard is gonna stop the reapers the only one I saw is sarens flagship the soveriegn which took over his mind and messed it up.Im on my 2nd time beating the game doing side quest and stuff before i complete it to find better armor and weapons for the final battle.I think if they are making Mass Effect 2 it will use the saved files from Mass Effect so you can continue the story that would be great. Mass Effect 2 'soon but not real soon' - News at GameSpot Mass Effect 2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first theory I'm staying silent on, I get the feeling it'll never be officially answered via the games and if it is, such answers probably won't be given until the end of Mass Effect 2. I find a flaw in your logic in regards to theory 2, no offence to you mind. You claim that the Reapers forged the Relays and the Citadel to provide a path for further galactic civilizations to take and this much is clarified in-game by Sovereign himself. However you also say that the Reapers are harvesting the technology of the races and using it to better themselves. Surely the most advanced technology any species could bring to bear on the Reapers would be that given by knowledge of the technology the Reapers left behind for them such as the Citadel and the Relays? The in-game codex states that FTL travel wasn't possible and shouldn't have been for many, many years before the discovery of the Relays. Everything used in game from guns to ship's engines to shields was back-engineered from the Reaper's technology. Thus, I cannot see what possible advantages any species could offer the Reapers in terms of technology, anything they could have developed up to "Harvesting" would simply be a variant of the Reaper's own. Your third theory I agree with, currently it seems the only possible way of defeating the Reapers that Shepard could carry out to fit in with the game's format.
This is an excellent theory Mikey. I too have played this game numerous times, and each time I'm astounded by how amazing it is. The Reapers are so powerful though, if they've used all of the technology used in passed then they are in tie with the rest of the galaxies technology. I'm thinking they've found a way to enhance it, which seems possible for they are so advanced they probably used their own ways to do this. Now, it may sound strange, but I believe a lot of this has to deal with super-natural beings such as spirits. These beings are not power worthy, meaning they cannot physically interact with others, but they hold all of the knowledge of the Universe, and this could possibly be the key to defeating the Reapers.