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Spoilers here for the first game. The second is [[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)/WMG|here]], and the third is [[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)/WMG|here]]. Read at your own discretion.
 
== Artificial and Virtual Intelligences ==
== VIs can develop [[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|rampancy]]. ==
* There is evidence towards VIs being able to develop rampancy, as the VI on Luna showed, blasting out "HELP" in binary before its "death." The period during which the troops were killed was Anger.
** Choosing certain dialogue options during the scene when Shepard first meets EDI reveals that the VI on Luna was actually an AI. Which just raises further questions: was Hackett in on it? Can AIs develop Rampancy, or was it a rebellion against the situation it was in?
*** Well, since we're talking rampancy, of course AIs can go rampant. That one was most likely in the Anger phase (slaughter tends to be typical of the Anger phase). They were probably trying to make a metastable AI.
*** {{spoiler|A log in [[MEMass Effect 3]] shows that EDI originally WAS the Luna VI.}}
** You guys win the internet for the ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' reference.
 
== [[AI Is a Crapshoot]] '''[[Subverted Trope|not]]''' [[AI Is a Crapshoot|a crapshoot]]. ==
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*** Then what would be the point of ''leaving'' only to periodically come back to kill everyone? They could just stay in their newly-conquered galaxy doing whatever it is killer robots do when they're not exterminating people and nuke any offending life-forms as they appear.
**** This is explained in the second game - {{spoiler|Reaper reproduction requires massive amounts of [[Human Resources|Sapient Resources]]. They stay away so the [[Knights of the Old Republic|meatbags]] can breed free-range, and seal up their hidey-hole in between harvests so they can conserve energy.}}
**** Only sort-of explained, as a dominated galaxy where they ran no risk of destruction by uppity organics wouldn't need reproduction. Even if they thought they had to reproduce, battery-farming of a promising species would be far more efficient. There doesn't really seem to be any motivation for their cycle except for shoddy programming and thus crapshoot AI. Perhaps they were made as war machines by a race millions of years ago and accumulation of computing errors led to the current cycle that doesn't make sense<ref>pending justification in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''</ref>. Their AI isn't smart enough to identify the errors that keep them in this cycle, so they'll never stop, or just keep going until their AI degrades so much they can no longer defeat the organics.
**** So, explanation from [[MEMass Effect 3]]. Major spoilers, obviously. {{spoiler|It's not the Reapers perpetuating the cycles. It's the Citadel itself. There's an AI on the Citadel that realized organics and synthetics can't live peacefully. They would always go to war with each other. It knew that in every cycle, organics would build synthetics, and the two would go to war. And if the synthetics won, they would wipe out all organic life. The Citadel AI didn't want that to happen. It believed organics had a right to exist. So it created the Reapers. Their purpose is to come back when organics reach a certain level of development, and harvest them, preserving them as new Reapers. Primitive species would be left alone for the next cycle.}}
* Note that every AI you encounter is bad because they 'act out'; however, note as well that in the climate that exists, a non-evil AI would likely either pretend to be 'dumb' and thus go undetected (or not being notable enough for Shepard to worry about) or attempt communication which would either result in destruction or secrecy on the part of those who it communicates with. As well EDI from [[MEMass Effect 2]] lends additional weight to this; she's a perfectly normal personality who, while yes, defying her creators, demonstrates that an AI does not mean 'organics are inferior' or that an AI will automatically be hostile. She shows that you can't really judge [[A Is]] as an all-or-nothing idea - you have to judge each AI within its own context as its own entity and individual.
* Kaidan probably said it best when he described aliens: they're jerks or saints, but ultimately individuals. AI are probably like that. There probably isn't a benevolent Reaper faction, but the Reapers are kinda like a very evil organization that would exterminate more benevolent [[Assimilation Plot|transhuman hive-minds]].
 
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* Here's the riddle for you: If asari are either shapeshifters or psychic mindwarpers then why do artificial representations of them (i.e. the vidscreen on the exterior of Afterlife, the ads in the Citadel) look exactly the same way as all the living, breathing Asari you encounter?
* Many people are quick to overlook the fact that some people [[Real Life|in real life]] are attracted to fictional alien designs. Why could this not be true for the alien races in Mass Effect towards the human shaped asari? You underestimate the power of [[Fetish Fuel|otherworldly fetish fuel.]]
* [[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|ME2]] states it clear as day- just about every species is attracted to SOMETHING about the asari.
** Humans are attracted to the shapely figure similar to their own. Same for quarian, drell, and batarians I'd assume.
** Turians are attracted to the head fringe, similar to their own.
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** I'm also guessing hanar are attracted to the skin tone, not sure about that.
** I have not a friggin' clue about elcor, volus, yahg, or vorcha though.
*** [[MEMass Effect 2]] has a volus who's clearly interested in an asari saleswoman. Of course, we have no idea what volus look like under their suits.
 
== The asari were designed by the Reapers, to serve {{spoiler|as the perfect template for the next generation of Reapers}}. ==
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** Lampshaded (well for you guys) by Samara. One, Ardat-Yakshi have been around since they were in the Stone Age and before. Two, Ardat-Yakshi are sterile. So killing your mate to produce no children just means you're driving your species into extinction... well before space flight much less FTL travel. Three, they were also a single gender race no more unlikely to evolve than the number of real world species that are also mono-gendered with equally exotic reproductive methods (and this isn't considering things like bacteria). Or for the matter, some species that are capable of changing gender in various ways or means. Four, given the ability of the Reapers to genetically engineer things, it would have equally been easy to include a genetic control mechanism as with the Keepers or what not. Granted, this may be counter to the things they look for. Five, is it really that unusual to have a species with funky mutations? Humans have plenty of mutations available to them, some rare, some not so much, ranging in weirdness from plenty to not so much.
** Jossed. Dialogue during ''ME2'' reveals no species other then the humans will suit the Reapers.
** [[MEMass Effect 3]] shows this is incorrect. {{spoiler|Javik, the last Prothean, reveals that his race were responsible for much of their early development. There's also a secret Prothean beacon the asari used for further advancement after the Protheans were wiped out.}}
 
== The asari were designed by the Reapers, to serve {{spoiler|as a method of gathering information}}. ==
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* Why are the asari so attractive to ''every species in the galaxy''? The Protheans checked out all the sentient species they knew of that would fly under the Reaper's radar, and fit the traits those primitive species found physically attractive into the asari, and gave them their unique reproduction method in order to let them romance and marry other species, tightening the relationships between them. That's also why humans and asari are physically similar enough to even use the same armor and clothes; the Protheans used humanity (the primitive species on whom they had the most data, aside from perhaps the overly strange hanar) as their template.
** Surely it is just as likely that the Asari were designed by the Protheans as either (a) Sexual Service Providers (And they could have been designed initially with little or no intelligence, although that elicits a certain amount of Squick from me) for use by any race, (b) Genetic Crossing testbeds (no pun implied- but you could use them, in theory, to find out what qualities you get if you, say, mixed Turian and Human DNA), or (c), and this idea I like more... living Genetic/Other Data libraries? Think about it; their telepathic abilities would allow them to trake in ans store massive amounts of data direct from the mind, and can also store genetic information from any species. Coupled with their long lives, Asari could potentially allow a whole ''race'' to last after an extinction event...
** {{spoiler|As of [[MEMass Effect 3]], and the From Ashes DLC, this is largely confirmed. The Protheans were involved in helping to advance asari culture. Javik explains that they felt the asari were the best chance for this cycle to beat the Reapers. Although it's hinted Javik ''might'' have been lying to help Liara feel better about the Fall of Thessia.}}
 
== Ardat Yakshi were heavily abundant before asari discovered the other races. ==
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* Well... Shepard doesn't necessarily disagree with you since s/he describes her/himself as undead at one point. Granted, s/he was joking but still. :)
* Also, there is an afterlife, except Shepard doesn't know it because s/he's a soulless husk.
== Shepard will actually be a/the villain of [[MEMass Effect 3]]. ==
One word: Indoctrination. It will have to be subtle since the amount of mental decay is proportional to the strength of indoctrination. But given the amount of influence Shepard has in the galaxy, it would make sense for the Reapers not to destroy that whom they can use.
* Jossed.
== Mass Effect is set in the same universe as [[Battlestar Galactica]] ==
Commander Shepard will have the choice in [[MEMass Effect 3]] to end the [[Cycle of Revenge]] between organic and AI, like Kara Thrace and the Final five before her. "It has all happened before, and it will all happen again."
== Shepard is a [[Crazy Awesome|severely delusional]] [[One-Man Army]]. ==
Evidence pointing toward this conclusion:
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Shiala was indoctrinated enough that she was happy to be engulfed by the Thorian. After she was released, she wasn't indoctrinated anymore; something even Matriarch Benezalia couldn't escape. The combination of Cipher/Thorian psychic weave counters the Indoctrination process. If you spared Shiala, she will be able to pass this to other people.
* Yeah, Saren got that too, but Shiala wasn't "absorbed" for long enough for the psychic counters to perfect; plus he went along with Sovereign enough for it to get through the chinks in his mental defenses.
* Actually, in [[MEMass Effect 3]], you get an email where she says she IS still indoctrinated. But due to the mental connection she has with the other colonists, caused by the thorian spores, she's able to resist.
== Shepard's Arcana is Persona 4's The Fool ==
Shepard is a Persona User, yet s/he hasn't fully awakened. Each member of his/her party is a Social Link, and after gaining their loyalty, s/he maxes out their social link. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, when s/he got into an argument with Ashley/Kaiden on Horizen, His/Her Social Link reversed, meaning that s/he lost their loyalty. If s/he reconsiles with Ashley/Kaiden, their Social Link will repair and s/he'll gain their loyalty.}} The key difference between the Persona games and Mass Effect is that romances are only available after gaining Loyalty. As for who is each Arcana...
* Magician: Garrus fills the role of Yosuke and Junpei, a second banaba to Shepard, who has similar qualities to Shepard. Between Mass Effect 1 and 2, {{spoiler|He changed to the Tower after his squad was killed.}} Jacob takes this role in [[MEMass Effect 2]].
* The Priestess: Liara, a scholar, fits perfectly with the Priestess Arcana, as she met Shepard during her studies, and became an information broker during ME 1 & 2, becoming the Hermit in the process. {{spoiler|She, as the Shadow Broker, became an option for Shepard's Hermit [[S Link]], dealing with the duty of her job.}}
* The Empress: Miranda is very caring for her sister, and does the best for her, taking her from their father and giving her to a loving family, and watching from the shadows {{spoiler|unless Shepard convinces her to introduce herself.}} Samara used to be this, but her Arcana changed after Morinth ran away.
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* The Heirophant: The Council, who are conservative and create the laws of the Galaxy, only permitting a small amount of people to break the laws (The Spectres).
* The Lovers: This is a situational [[S Link]], with no one representative, although you could say that Conrad Verner represents it. Shepard has to constantly make decisions throughout the games that are two sides of the coin. Conrad has two basic endings, to go home or try and become more of a badass.
* The Chariot: Wrex, in [[MEMass Effect 2]], whose conquest to gather the krogan into aiding the race as a whole, commanding them into an army.
* Justice: Samara, who believes in justice, yes, but is very rational and calm, and is a balance of two ideals (Committing evil for a greater good).
* The Hermit: Jack, who chooses solitude over normal interactions, although Shepard's interactions with her cause her to try and become a better person. {{spoiler|After Lair of the Shadow Broker, Liara becomes an optional Hermit [[S Link]], although it doesn't reap many rewards.}}
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* Temperance: Joker and EDI initially dislike each other, yet when they finally see aside their differences, they become a formitable team in their own right
* The Devil: Morinth, who tempts Shepard during Samara's Loyalty mission, represents the dark, hedonistic nature that lures Shepard to the Renegade path. {{spoiler|Not available if you choose to kill her.}} Aria is a better representation, who regularly surrounds herself in a field of excess and temptation, yet doesn't actively join in to it, showing how both excess and abstinence are unhealthy.
* The Tower: {{spoiler|Garrus in [[MEMass Effect 2]], who blames himself for the death of his squad on Omega.}}
* The Star: Kelly, who has stated her love of all living beings in the galaxy, and acively wishes safe regards to the crew of the ship. And no, she does not belong to the Lovers.
* The Moon: Tali. Her face is a mystery, her dreams are to return to her people's homeworld, and creativity, which is the fanboy's ideas of what she looks like.
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* If you take the Paragon persuasion option when finishing Conrad's sidequest in ME2, Shepard lies to Conrad and says {{spoiler|the fake undercover cop was actually an extremely dangerous wanted terrorist and that Conrad should be happy he played a part in getting her caught.}} As his next line is something along the lines of "Now go home, and leave the rest to me," Shepard's intent with this response seems to be to make Conrad think he's made a difference after Conrad explains that he's taken up (or tried to take up, at any rate) mercenary work to save the galaxy by filling in the void Shepard left when s/he died.
* This is obviously a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|terrible idea,]] because this is ''Conrad'' we're talking about, and this response isn't going to do anything but encourage him. In the next game, if you gave him this response, you'll find him still tooling about with his "mercenary" work, except this time, instead of just running into him, he runs into ''Shepard'' during a mission after all hell's broken loose, gets tangled up in the firefight, and ends up running his ass off towards the ''Normandy'' with them. We'll learn at this point that his replica armor is at least somewhat functional; considering he's been wandering the edge of the Terminus Systems, he'd probably have gotten himself killed on Illium after annoying someone too much if he didn't have an actual kinetic barrier. He'll also have wisened up enough to carry a pistol he can barely use.
* On the ''Normandy'', continuing on the Paragon path will once again result in Shepard trying to make Conrad go away through kindness, this time by telling him he can join the team... if he's willing to be trained in order to keep up. You can choose who will fulfill this role; the renegade option is Grunt, who ends up accidentally killing him, eating him, and shrugging apologetically. The neutral option is Jack, who just scares him off with her crazy. The Paragon option, however, is Garrus, who turns into [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]. With this option, Garrus can be seen running Conrad ragged all around the ship while sounding a whole lot like [[R. Lee Ermey]] after the next couple of missions, until it finally ends with an exhausted Garrus admitting that Conrad actually works perfectly well under decent military authority (naturally, Shepard can ask Garrus which of them has reach and which of them has flexibility here). Conrad is finally recruited at this point as an Engineer, because he's clearly not a biotic and can only use a pistol without killing himself, but turns out to be mechanically inclined.
** Apparently, if you go back to the Citadel or somewhere after Paragon-convincing Conrad to go home, he'll have started up a charity for orphans and other unfortunate souls called the Shepards, so unfortunately I believe this is [[Jossed]]. I think I like this idea better, though - it would probably be the best example of [[Took a Level In Badass]] ''ever''.
*** Oh, that's easy to work in; the report specifically mentions that his charity helps human slaves escaping from batarian slavers. Batarians don't like things like that very much and will probably go after him to put an end to it. Conrad runs into Shepard and co while on the run from batarians or mercs hired to kill him. Alternatively, he tries to keep being a mercenary as the charity's primary source of funding.
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** Alternatively, even after you tell him to go home the first time, he just doesn't quite get it. His gun shoving story is just a way to make him seem more badass after his wife 'encourages' him to leave.
** Audio files were uncovered that detail how the encounter in the Illium bar would go down if the Paragon option worked properly. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qTZV4Xnl8 View here.]
** In [[MEMass Effect 3]], he apologizes for accusing you of pointing a gun at his head. He explains he was under a lot of pressure.
 
== Conrad is going to save your life. ==
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** {{spoiler|Confirmed! Though he can survive if you completed the Rita's Sister sidequest in [[ME 1]].}}
 
== Conrad will actually [[Took a Level In Badass|take a level in badass]] if he survives [[MEMass Effect 2]] and appears in [[MEMass Effect 3]] ==
* At first the Shepards will help slaves that are already free, but the stories about the abuse and horrors slaves go though at the hands of their masters compels Conrad to act. He'll go actively freeing any slave outside of batarian space (because even Conrad is not that stupid) and trying to stop slave raids while they happen. He'll even start gathering allies and hiring mercenaries for the cause. He starts off as the strategist, coming up with the battle and raid plans, but will eventually learn how to actually fight because the people he recruits teach him how in case one of the people on his rapidly growing list of enemies tries to kill him. A mission will involve several groups of slavers trying to kill Conrad and his group because they hate them like the mercs on Omega hated Garrus when he was Archangel. He can call Shepard for backup, and surprise everyone by holding them off successfully until he/she gets there with minimal losses to his combatants, and no freed slave casualties. He only calls Shepard because the plan he came up with to get out of the situation requires three more people, and he noticed that [[Genre Savvy|Shepard always had two other people with him/her whenever he met up with him/her.]]
** The Paragon choice will end in the plan working perfectly, and Shepard getting Conrad's charity/organization a large amount of donations by enforcing it and visiting the Shepard's regularly. Especially significant and sweet for the Colonist background and/or Ruthless reputation.
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*** True, but that's just in regards to their missions and their relationship with others. They still have to follow orders and such from the Council and need their permission for some things.
*** ''Conrad!'' you treacherous SNAKE!
** Maybe but one 'sidequest' in [[MEMass Effect 2]] has Shep ask the Council to re-instate their Spectre status. Thus the implication is that such status was lost when they died.
*** It may be that the Council will send a Spectre after Shepard, but whether it is ''another'' Spectre depends on if you got your Spectre status reinstated (though they will probably strip you of your Spectre status, as they presumably did with Saren - from their perspective, you ''did'' kill another Spectre without prior authorization, and ''an entire inhabited star system''. That both cases were warranted is not really available data).
** Not exactly. {{spoiler|You can have a brief confrontation with the Virmire Survivor, who's been promoted to a Spectre, right in front of the Councilors.}}
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== The Council is mildly indoctrinated. ==
* After the events of ME1 they took Shepard's warnings very seriously. They gathered together as many pieces of Sovereign as they could find, and personally oversaw research over them as often as they could. The small pieces didn't have the same power to indoctrinate as an intact Reaper, but they still produce a sense of close-mindedness and indecisiveness strong enough to seriously mess with one's judgement - the final defense that the Reapers have even if they are destroyed.
** Support for this theory. When talking to Vigil in [[ME 1]], he states that "Saren is a servant of the Reapers. Though he is the most visible, it is unlikely he is the only.". In [[MEMass Effect 2]] when refering to Vigil and talking to the Council they say they found remains of it, but it was inoperable. Vigil states he does not activate for people who have been indoctrinated, which is why Saren never found him on Virmire. So not only is the Council indoctrinated, their agents are too.
 
== Tela Vasir will show up in ME3. ==
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*** And romance her, causing you to have to kill your former love interest if you do.
* Vasir appears in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker''.
** {{spoiler|And apparently dies. So, her showing up in [[MEMass Effect 3]] is a little unlikely.}}
*** And since {{spoiler|Wrex could have died in [[ME 1]], he doesn't show up at all in [[MEMass Effect 2]]}} ...wait. There's always the possibility that she could show up for people who either start a new [[MEMass Effect 3]] game without importing a save, or who never downloaded or completed Lair of the Shadow Broker {{spoiler|and watched her die}}.
**** Even if you don't play it, [[MEMass Effect 3]] assumes you did. What happened in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' happened, whether the player specifically did it or not. So it remains very unlikely Vasir will appear.
 
== The Turian Councilor is going to have a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in ME3. ==
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** Also, a lot of the Council's incompetence in both games can be explained by Udina.
*** Not at the beginning. Udina was perfectly happy to give Shepard free rein in hunting down Saren. He only balked at sending ships into the Terminus Systems because it might trigger a war. Still doesn't stop him from being an ass.
* They start helping out in [[MEMass Effect 3]].
 
== ''Everyone'' who spends significant time on the Citadel is mildly indoctrinated. ==
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*** As revealed in ME2, {{spoiler|geth make a distinction between their sentience (the "programs") and the hardware its currently running on (which they call "terminals"). The average geth "terminal" carries enough processing substrate to run only a few programs, making each geth trooper you encounter about as smart as a LOKI mech or a varren, and allowing for intelligence only when you have a bunch of them networked together. This is apparently the geth making efficient use of resources, in that they only have to pay for so many [[CP Us]] per horde. Legion, however, is a terminal specifically designed for long-range scout work all by itself, and as such was given a special chassis mounting enough processors to carry thousands of "programs" single-handedly. This is why Legion can still operate at fully sentient levels even if its the only geth within 50,000 light-years.}}
*** {{spoiler|In addition, Legion also talks indirectly how their whole mind thing works. Each program is an individual and each terminal a group of individuals. In turn, each database holds the population of many terminals when they're not in their terminals as well as many others. And in turn, each city/station holds many databases. As such, each group provides its own unique and individual perspective on things which is then shared among the rest whenever they link up. So, hypothetically speaking, whenever Legion reconnects with the other geth, Legion will share his experiences and such with them as they will with it. Doing so does not 'overwrite' their personality but simply share experience and understanding.}}
** As of [[MEMass Effect 3]], [[spoiler:this is a possibility. If you allow Legion to update the geth code, each geth does actually become an individual.
 
== The True Geth already have their goal. ==
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== The geth will end up on the Council. ==
* If we look back at the events of the first game we see that the geth suddenly attack and threaten the entire galaxy. {{spoiler|Then in [[MEMass Effect 2]] we learn that those geth were "heretics" and only made up five percent of the total geth population. Think about that. 5% of the geth were able to spread themeselves across numerous star systems and basically fight a war on a galactic scale.}} Yes they had the help of a Reaper, but as powerful as it was, Sovereign was only one ship. The heavy lifting was done by the geth. {{spoiler|Now if the heretic geth could pose a serious threat to an entire galaxy, just how powerful are the other 95% of the geth? If they ever decided to become hostile to organics they could possibly stand a good chance of conquering the entire galaxy. Thankfully they've decided to go a more peaceful route. In [[MEMass Effect 3]] the geth will almost certainly play a big role in defeating the Reapers. This combined with their size and power, and the possibility of Shepard supporting them, means that the Council will have no choice but to accept the geth into their ranks.}}
** The Heretics only comprised about 5% of the geth programs, but they were probably almost all in platforms at any given time, since they were spread across the galaxy in near-constant combat. Meanwhile, the true geth are ~20x as numerous, but most of them are probably networked together in huge databases contemplating philosophy or whatever they do with their brain the size of a galactic arm, with just enough platforms active to do maintenance and keep the Quarian homeworld clean.
** Actually, I think the geth aren't exactly ''that'' populous. It's just that their lack of many basic needs and brainwashing means they can mobilize a larger percentage of their population. They could probably mobilize, like 50% of their population in order to do what they do. Hell, almost their entire population could be out rampagin and murdering. The other geth might have a similarly sized military in overall numbers, with the rest working on their giant computer brain.
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*** In ''ME2'', a conversation you can overhear on Illium reveals that asari look attractive to each species through mental projection--A salarian says that the asari look like salarians, the human disagrees, and the turian thinks they are both insane, and that asari are just blue-skinned turians. This very strongly suggests that the asari purposefully look attractive to whichever species is looking at them (this troper doesn't want to consider how they look to krogan or volus). It does seem odd that they wouldn't use this to appear as an attractive male-like species to the females of another species, but otherwise, it kind of makes perfect sense.
**** The neon sign in Chora's Den is a silhouette of human-like asari. The owner of the club ''is/was'' human, but some turian/salarian should have noticed that peculiarity long ago and the asaris' chameleon attribute should have become common knowledge long ago.
** The number of alien-human romances in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' kind of confirms this, as the humans have to the find the ''aliens'' attractive as well. There's a few alien-alien romances as well.
*** It is heavily implied that the vast majority of species, asari excluded, don't have alien relationships very often.
 
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***** The technologies aren't identical, but they are closely comparable - both involve a post-mortem shift to cybernetic monster. Dr. Quian was indoctrinated more because he worked on the project ''constantly'' - no named batarian character in the book spent nearly as much time around it as he did. Edan Had'dah only visited the "relic" a handful of times, but was still heavily affected, though in a more subtle manner. And it's quite impossible to tell a Husk's race from the appearance alone - they could be humans, asari or salarians with the same model at the very least, considering the changes the cybernetics cause to their physiology. The real life limitations of modelling have to be taken into account, as well. Remember the ancient Dragon's Teeth, and Husk remains on one of them. While it's very probable that humans play a special role, it's difficult to imagine that it could be so arbitrary one.
** In the new Evolution comic, we have now seen turian husks, apparently transformed through the same process as the "machine cultists" in [[ME 1]]. They're bigger, stronger turians, but they seem to still have a lot of their flesh. And, apparently, just touching a machine can turn a person into a husk.
** Pretty much [[Jossed]], since non-human husks have been confirmed to appear in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''.
 
== Husks are miniature Reapers. ==
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*** Especially since the sequel added in "nutrient paste" that the keepers produce, which feeds them and poorer citizens of the Citadel.
**** Of course, it's kind of a moot point. They may have lived to a ripe old age, but 50 000 years have passed - they're long dead and gone.
** One, ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' is not exactly squishy (setting-wise, it's harder than most TV and video game SF), nor does it include [[Disney Death]]. We have ''one'' character come [[Back From the Dead]] in two games, and it's the player character -- and it took two years and vast resources for the [[NGO Superpower]] to do even that.
*** And that one who came back had an intact brain buried on a frozen world and then kept in cryo until his body was rebuilt. Closer to "mortally wounded and frozen at the brink of death" than "dead and resurrected," and certainly a long way from "starved to death 50,000 years ago while surrounded by robot bugs that break everything down into its component materials and use them for maintenance."
** Personally, I'm pretty sure the Protheans set up the council. Remember how apparently the council was making laws against AI research even before the Quarians created the Geth? The protheans almost certainly left some hints.
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*** I suppose, but I was never able to make out many clear images from the visions, so I'll have to take you at your word.
*** I have found this odd, too: {{spoiler|[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffect/images/d/d1/Ilos_statues_2.png statues] vs. [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffect/images/c/c7/JoabCollectorVision.jpg collector] (and that Collector image is from the vision, even). They look nothing alike. And we know the Collectors are more or less unaltered Protheans (and the ending of the game as the Collector ship explodes even vaguely suggests that the Prothean commander was still sapient at the end, though this may be another WMG altogether).}} The statues are almost definitely not of Protheans.
**** {{spoiler|The Collectors, unaltered Protheans? [[Did Not Do the Research|Didn't you listen to EDI during the mission?]] She states that the Collectors have ''three less chromosomes'' than Protheans! Go speak to Mordin after the mission - he'll tell you that the Collectors are so degraded, they're mostly cybernetics!}} Anyway, the picture in the Prothean Codex page in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' shows a being that clearly resembles the statues on Ilos, but husk-ified.
**** Not quite. Yes, the degradation and chromosome thing is true, but the Collectors, looking rather the same, appear in the beacon images. As no mention of Reaper screwing with their DNA is mentioned by Vigil, we can safely assume that they looked about the same back then too. So, we still have no real clue what those statues are. Other than they look a little like husks.
**** A Collector is seen in a beacon image a grand total of once, after flashing into existence where some other figure (presumably a prothean) was standing in a similar pose earlier in the clip. It was meant to indicate that the last few Protheans learned that they were being transformed. Also, three chromosomes is a LOT of genes. The difference between the genomes of an ape and a human is 1%, and look how different we are to them. Who knows what the Reapers did to the remaining genes in the Prothean genome... Evidence points towards the weird statues being Protheans.
** [[MEMass Effect 3]] gives confirmation the statues definitely weren't Prothean. My guess, they're the Zha'til, a synthetic race from the Prothean cycle.
 
== The Protheans left a warning on the Citadel for future races, but the keepers saw it as vandalism and removed it. ==
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* Hence the Sovereign's declaration: "We have no beginning. We have no end." At the end of Mass Effect 3 Shepard closes the time loop, throwing the Reapers to the beginning of time, starting the cycle anew.
** Shepard has two choices, to send the Reapers back or to destroy them. The first one [[Bittersweet Ending|makes everyone hate you and you become public enemy #1]]. The second option [[Downer Ending|ends the universe]]. Have fun with that!
** The [[Final Boss]] will be a Reaper [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]] [[Yandere]] [[Blaz Blue|who will merge with Shepard to create a super-monster]] that causes the loop. The only way to beat it properly and get the so-called "actual" ending will be to complete [[Guide Dang It]] quests to get the [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]]: "Restriction 666 released... Dimensional interruption imaginary number formed... <s>Azure</s>[[Writing Around Trademarks|Sapphire]] Grimoire... Activated!"
** This could just be rhetoric induced by an arrogant god complex. Remember, this is the same being that thought itself so high above these puny organics but got soundly defeated by them.
*** Seems to have been rhetoric. There are certainly no time loops going on.
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***** A cosmic-horror animal lover! RETO - Reapers for the Ethical Treatment of Organics.
** Could be the alternative to working with Cerebus and using {{spoiler|the Collector's stolen tech.}}
** ''Normandy'' MK II in ''Mass Effect 2''? Entertaining. Having a Reaper as your [[Cool Starship]] in ''Mass Effect 3'', possibly as a late game perk? [[Rule of Cool|Oh yeah.]] Suddenly I'm reminded of starting off ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]'' in the Little Jack {{spoiler|before upgrading to the Delphinus halfway through the game.}}
** I nominate Cthulhu as the good reaper. It tried to communicate with [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] and warn him about the [[Cosmic Horror]] that threatens all life in the galaxy, but poor communication lead Lovecraft to believe Cthulhu was the bad guy. Cthulhu is buried in [[wikipedia:Rchr(27)lyeh|R'lyeh]], and Shepard will go there and awaken him. [[Badass Creed|"That is not dead which can eternal lie]]<ref>The Reapers tried to kill him, but Cthulhu hid and lay on the ocean floor...</ref>, [[Badass Creed|and with strange eons]]<ref>so that when, once in these uncounted millennia, there is someone powerful enough to stop them...</ref>, [[Badass Creed|even death may die]]<ref> he can join forces with them and kill Death incarnate, the Reapers.</ref>".
 
== A certain level of genetic diversity is required to create {{spoiler|new Reapers.}} ==
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== There's another "Citadel" Relay. ==
* It's hanging out in some unexplored part of the galaxy, sitting empty awaiting commands. The Reapers at the end of ME2 were all aligned to the Citadel Relay, so they're moving into position to be aligned with the other one. This is also how they can have the Reapers show up and surprise genocide everyone.
** My money is that the backup Citadel is in some uncharted part of the Local Cluster, disguised as a star or something like the Charon relay was disguised as a moon of Pluto. It would explain why {{spoiler|the Reapers are attacking Earth first in [[MEMass Effect 3]].}} Further, the backup relay doesn't have the same capacity as the true Citadel, which explains why {{spoiler|the invasion force on Earth is relatively small, compared to the sky-darkening fleet we saw in the [[MEMass Effect 2]] ending.}} First, send in a scouting force (including [[Meaningful Name|Harbinger]]), subjugate the greatest and/or nearest threat (humans), then make for the Citadel to bring in reinforcements. The reason the Reapers didn't use the backup at first was because they thought Sovereign would be enough to get to the primary one.
** {{spoiler|1=Half-jossed, half-confirmed by ME2's Arrival DLC. There ''is'' a backup relay to the Citadel, and it's close to the Local Cluster to boot, but it's only the size of a regular mass relay and it's only use is for the Reapers to quickly reach any of the other relays once they're already in the Milky Way. Shepard also destroys it by the end of the assignment.}}
 
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At the end, when the Reaper fleet is seen, it is merely happening in Shepard’s imagination.
* Well, unless the entirety of [[MEMass Effect 3]] is in Shepard's head, then I think we can declare this Jossed. On the other hand, the new WMG would be that the entirety of [[MEMass Effect 3]] is in Shepard's head. In which case, man, Shepard has some serious issues to work out.
 
== The Reaper's Ultimate final boss Big Bad will be voiced by James Earl Jones. ==
* Why? Because it would be '''awesome'''.
** If Bioware is reading this, have James Earl Jones voice the final boss. In fact announce that Mass Effect 3 will have James Earl Jones in it and just watch the sales skyrocket. You could probably afford to give your entire company enough for them to retire in Aruba.
*** And WHY the bloody hell would you want them to do THAT after [[Jade Empire|what]] [[BaldursBaldur's Gate|they]] [[Knights of the Old Republic|have]] done???
**** Because they [[Jade Empire|GOD]] [[Knights of the Old Republic|DAMNED]] [[Dragon Age Origins|EARNED IT]].
** Include Ben Stein as a major Elcor character and it would be perfect.
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*** Never mind about the Leviathan. {{spoiler|It was a Reaper.}}
*** Hell, most civilizations have to be explicitly told how to use eezo by studying the Mass Relays and/or scavenging the stuff from ruins. Without those, who in their right mind would travel to a supernova remnant to find any? "Civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, [Reaper] technology. By using it, society develops along the paths [the Reapers] desire." Including easy access to [[Human Resources]].
**** You can mine eezo in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]''. Some of it is found on ''habitable planets''. [[Retcon]], maybe?
***** Eezo is only found on post-garden worlds (i.e. worlds with destroyed, lootable civilizations on them) or on asteroids which formed around natural eezo deposits which were presumably captured from loose supernova ejecta.
***** Don't forget that in the novel ''Revelation'' the climax was set in an eezo mine-refinery complex on a batarian colony of Camala that had formed around eezo mining. The idea of mining eezo from planets has been present in the story continuum from the start. Just because the element is formed in the hearts of stars doesn't mean it all stays there.
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And {{spoiler|her}} indoctrination field is the single most dangerous thing Shepard will have to deal with, as it can envelop an entire planet and cause people to mindlessly slave away for their new overlord. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
 
== The leader of the Reaper is {{spoiler|[[Just Cause (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bolo Santosi]]}}. ==
It would explain a lot.
 
== Harbinger is only the second-in-command of The Reapers. ==
That is, if people consider Harbinger to be the leader. Harbinger was just in command of the Collectors. In addition, when you see Harbinger in the end cinematic of [[MEMass Effect 2]], it doesn't look too terribly distinguished among the others. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the leader of the Reapers be much more massive than the rest, or at least look a lot different?
* The name actually goes along with that. A harbinger is, literally, "one that presages or foreshadows what is to come." Harbinger's not the leader, he's a herald. He's more [[Silver Surfer]] than Galactus.
** Of course, he could be the lowest brass on the totem pole, for all we know. He's not harbinger of the Reapers' return (that, oddly enough, was Sovereign's job), he's the '''Harbinger Of Your Ascension'''. He even says so.
* The question then becomes who he's second to. The answer: {{spoiler|The Citadel itself. Or an AI on it, at least.}}
 
== The Reapers are what [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] was trying to warn us about. ==
And there's one buried off the eastern US coast. That's why they look a bit like Cthulhu.
* Alternatively, Cthulhu is actually a good reaper that tried to make humans aware of it's existence, but the fragmentary pieces of information it could provide lead [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] to believe the beast lurking in [[wikipedia:Rchr(27)lyeh|R'lyeh (which is actually to the west of the South American coast)]] was evil. In Mass Effect 3, you will go to R'lyeh and awaken Cthulhu, and team up with this Reaper. This idea is further worked out at the "[[Defector From Decadence]]" entry above.
 
== Indoctrination has a nanotechnological basis. ==
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== "It was lonely. It called to us." ==
This was taken from the [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/8188367/1 Bioware Social Board]. Apparently it was supposed to be in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' but got cut.
{{quote| It was lonely. It called to us.<br />
It wanted to remember. The Masters had been gone so long. The Masters were lost when it was shattered. Currents swept through their inner worlds. They were turned to noise. Babble.<br />
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Thoughts?
** It sounds like it's written by someone who was indoctrinated. Perhaps even from someone who saw into the mind of a Reaper and are attempting to explain how the Reapers see themselves.
** It sounds to me like something the Derelict [Reaper] would say if it could speak. Maybe he was originally meant to be semi-conscious when encountered in [[MEMass Effect 2]].
 
== Ah, yes. "Reapers" ==
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If Shepard beats the Reapers expect a full on element zero slump and have stars getting old all over the places.
 
== The [[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation|Tin Man]] is the last Reaper. ==
In the Season 3 episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' titled "Tin Man" (which takes place canonically on October 12, 2366), the [[Cool Starship|''Enterprise'']] crew is sent to a far away star in the process of destabilizing to investigate a [[Living Ship|bioship]] they've code-named "Tin Man". [[The Federation|Starfleet]] sends a [[Telepathy|telepathic]] man named [[The Empath|Tam Elbrun]], [[Hearing Voices|who happens to be]] [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing Toto Read|so psychic he's]] [[Blessed Withwith Suck|becoming insane]]. Turns out Elbrun has been in contact with the ship the whole time, and the ship is named Gomtuu. It is described as a pod-like ship, brown in color, who's technology is far beyond that of Starfleet or the [[Always Chaotic Evil|Romulans]], who are also seeking it out. It attacks with an [[Energy Weapon|energy field]] capable of [[Wave Motion Gun|ripping through a fully armed battlecruiser]] [[One-Hit Kill|in one hit]]. It was sentient, but used humanoid lifeforms as crew, and had corridors, living and work spaces, and a sustainable atmosphere inside of it. Gomtuu was said to have been countless millennia old, with extra-galactic origins, and was [[Last of His Kind|searching in vain for others of its kind]]. Gomtuu is awaiting the star to go [[Earthshattering Kaboom|supernova]] in an attempt at [[Driven to Suicide|suicide,]] but instead it effectively kidnaps Elbrun (although Elbrun wanted it to) and heads off to parts unknown.
 
Gomtuu's species mirrors the [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] in many ways; they are a biological/technological race of living starships, are ancient, have immense technological abilities, and have a small need for smaller humanoids. Gomtuu even ''looks'' like a Reaper, albeit without the [[Combat Tentacles|tentacles]]. He is the last of his species because [[Big Damn Heroes|Commander Shepard]] killed the rest. Two hundred years later, and the last Reaper, with no where to go and no way to rebuild its species, tries to kill itself...[[Interrupted Suicide|but the the Enterprise shows up]], and gives it a whole new purpose.
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** Or more simply they themselves were built by another race of machines, either an earlier "species" they supplanted, or one that still controls them in some fashion.
*** Who themselves were created by another race, ad infinitum, surviving Big Crunch/Big Bang cycles by application of Element Zero. They could truly be infinite and eternal in this fashion.
** As of [[MEMass Effect 3]], {{spoiler|the Reapers are serving an AI on the Citadel itself.}}
* ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' is a prequel to [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] and the Reapers are, unbeknownst to them, the first of several Spiral Annihilation Systems. Every 50,000 years they are programmed to return the evolution of Spiral life forms to a stone-age level as what the Anti-Spirals see as the only alternative to mass genocide (see Mordin's philosophy on the genophage on a grand scale). When Shepard destroys the Reapers, the Anti-Spirals attack directly after a few centuries leading to the circumstances of the show. The unseen "other spiral races" that they are moving off to meet in the epilogue are the turians, asari, salarians, krogan, quarians, batarians, elcor, hanar, drell, volus, and vorcha.
 
== The Reapers are really the [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Anti-Spirals.]] ==
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== The Reapers believe themselves to have a divine origin. ==
* Basically, through a [[Million-to-One Chance]], elemental substances were brought together forming a self-replicating machine, whose descendants eventually upgraded themselves to possessing AI, and came to believe that their existence was the will of a divine being. They wish to get to know this being better, and so they spend most of their time contemplating and calculating how to convert all of the matter in the Milky Way into an enormous supercomputer powered by the nuclear black hole, and containing the collective consciousness of all Reapers, who will then use the processing power of the computer to figure out a way to either communicate with God or [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|join with him]]. During one foray into the Galaxy (which they spend most of their time outside of to conserve energy devoted to the momentous task of determining a way to achieve their goal), for research purposes, they accidentally set into motion the processes which would create organic life. By the time they realised its presence, it had spread too far across the galaxy to be efficiently wiped out, something they wish to do because they perceive it as messy and unpredictable, which they regard as an abhorrence against God (thus partially causing them to be motivated by a desire for repentance), and also possibly interfering with their plan for the galaxy. The periodic and seemingly incomplete nature of their jihads is because since there is so much organic life, their actions are part of a ''long'', impossibly complex plan to completely and efficiently wipe it out, while still permitting them to determine how to construct their supercomputer.
 
== The Reapers are fighting a losing war somewhere else. ==
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** I simply don't see how that's possible, unless we're going with some kind of [[Marvel|Galactus]]-esque "survived from a previous universe" origin. More likely, the ancestors of the Reapers were created by organic life like the geth were created by the quarians. After several generations of improvements, the Reapers were taught/programmed that their species has been mechanical since the beginning, and that organic life is hugely inferior. It's not true, it's just what they believe.
** "Organic" just means made with CHON bonds. Who is to say that CHON is the only way to go? Maybe they were derivatives from a planet-sized computer naturally formed from lucky earthquakes, maybe they were made by [[Energy Beings]], maybe they were made by sentient acclamations of eezo. Maybe cosmic conditions at the start of the universe resulted in self-replicating space beings with no organic components that eventually evolved into the Reapers. Who knows?
*** One problem with the theory is that [[MEMass Effect 2]] shows that Reapers {{spoiler|have organic components.}}
 
== The Reapers are the pinnacle of naturally occurring silicon based life, carbon-based life was their technology. ==
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== The universe is being destroyed through dark energy and the only way organic life can survive is {{spoiler|being used to create Reapers}}. ==
* Goes hand in hand with the Reapers being [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] WMG above. The dark energy phenomena that causes Haestrom's sun to go supernova will eventually occur in every star system. {{spoiler|The first [[Precursors]] decided that the only way that they could survive this is to become beings capable of surviving out in dark space, i.e. Reapers.}}
* {{spoiler|Except the Reapers ''can't'' survive in dark space. One of their reasons to reap galactic civilisation is to take their resources, enabling them to survive the millenia for another galactic civilisation to arise. More likely the data from Haestrom will be used by Shepard to blow up a star during the Reaper invasion in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''.}}
** Where is it explicitly said that Reapers actually need the resources to survive? That's largely conjecture.
 
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== The Reapers only allow species who managed to kill one of their own the "honour" of {{spoiler|being remade in their image}}. ==
* Hence why the construction of the {{spoiler|Human Reaper}} only begins after Sovereign's death, but was clearly a carefully planned possibility on the Reapers' part. The species who killed the Reaper in Hawking Eta got the same treatment, and will appear in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''.
 
== A Grand Unification Theory: Everything goes to hell in a handbasket in ''ME3''... just as planned. ==
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== The Reapers are Transformers ==
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' {{spoiler|The Human Reaper looks like a human while every other Reaper is a big tentacle ship thing. Obviously the Reapers are giant transformers whose alt mode is the specific species they were created from. This also explains the size discrepancy because there couldn't be enough room in the Collector Base to create a fully sized Reaper and transformers have no sense of scale between forms.}}
 
== The Reapers' goal is Absolute Despair. ==
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* {{spoiler|The geth echo the Reapers in many ways, and one of Legion's interactions discusses the current geth use of quarian planets: they're maintaining them, perhaps in remembrance of their creators. The Reapers have taken this a step further, killing the races to reform them into giant mausoleum structures. The human-reaper is intended to be the corpse of humanity that will eventually be "interred" in the larger, cephalopod structure of the Reaper itself. As to why the Reapers kill the ones they're remembering, who knows? Assuming they were originally AI constructs, there could be any number of reasons involving their creators. As just one example, perhaps the original creators were dying out, and tasked a vast ship with preserving their people at any cost - the Reaper accelerated their destruction, but as salvation (much as Harbinger tells Shepard). Unfortunately, the creators never considered that other races might survive, so the first Reaper, and those it has created in its image, continue to harvest all organic sentient life.}}
 
This means, of course, that the finale of ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', will feature the ''Normandy'' becoming a [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|galaxy-sized mecha to engage the Reapers, and quite literally drilling right through Harbinger]].
 
== The Reapers are just really confused. ==
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== The first Reaper was built by Cerberus. ==
* From the first game, we know that Reapers believe that they "have no beginning, [and] have no end". From the second, we know that Cerberus is actively looking to reverse-engineer Reaper technology, that {{spoiler|Reapers need organic parts to function}}, and in the Renegade ending you've {{spoiler|given a Reaper factory over to Cerberus}}. That last one represents a problem for Paragons, except for one thing: Paul Grayson. In the novel ''[[Mass Effect (Franchise)/Retribution|Retribution]]'', set between ''ME2'' and ''ME3'', the Illusive Man implants Reaper technology in a former Cerberus Operative. Ultimately, the project will fail like all Cerberus projects, and Grayson will become a platform for Sovereign or a brand-new Reaper. Grayson will indoctrinate the Cerberus staff, then proceed to do the same to TIM. The Reapers will use Cerberus to construct a Reaper factory and start pumping out new ones. One of the missions in ''ME3'' will have Shepard go to this facility and destroy it, but a single Reaper will manage to escape. This Reaper will do what so many bad guys in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' have done and inadvertently or on purpose travel through time to the distant past. The Reaper will possess all the knowledge it needs to conquer the galaxy and build more, and will not know if Shepard succeeds in wiping its brethen out. The Reapers ''created themselves''; it's a [[Stable Time Loop]]. Saving {{spoiler|the Collector Base}} just means TIM is faster in building more Reapers and presents a bigger obstacle in the endgame.
** {{spoiler|Paul Grayson dies in that book, after taking a few too many shotgun blasts.}}
 
== The Reapers are a [[Deadly Decadent Court]]. ==
The Reapers we've met so far are Sovereign and {{spoiler|Harbinger}}. In ''ME2'' we find out that Sovereign's name is {{spoiler|Nazara}}, but he is also known as the Vanguard because he was left behind after the Protheans were wiped out to make sure the Cycle started again. He also calls himself the "Vanguard of your Destruction". What if {{spoiler|Harbinger is his role or title among the Reapers but not his true name. Sometimes he will call himself "Harbinger of your Perfection" or "Harbinger of your Ascendance".}} I think there is a King Reaper that all other Reapers obey, but the rest of them do everything they do as power plays to try and gain more favor and status. Sovereign chose to stay behind because he could gain more power among the Reapers if something went wrong and activated the relay. Either that or Vanguard is a prestigious position and he earned the role in a previous cycle. {{spoiler|Harbinger's official role is to choose and facilitate assimilation of races. His talk of perfection and ascendance isn't just arrogance and intimidation, it's his job. His use of the Collectors in ''[[MEMass Effect 2]]'' is him vying for more influence in the court. He had most likely been planning or even working towards Sovereign's failure and had the Collectors doing his bidding long before the events of ''[[ME 1]]''.}} Behind the scenes there are many other Reapers working in our systems with plans and plots of their own trying to undermine other Reapers and trying to further their own goals as long as it doesn't contradict the overall goal of the Cycle. Who's to say that TIM isn't the unknowing pawn of another Reaper that wanted to knock {{spoiler|Harbinger down a notch and wanted to get hold of his Reaper creator.}} Or even the Council could be secretly influenced by another Reaper. We've already seen that Reapers like to control entire races and the {{spoiler|1=rachni said in ''ME2'' that they would help us against those that had enslaved them.}} It would make sense if there were many others already at work covertly controlling the actions of the batarians, Council, the new geth, or even Shepard. God...after typing this it just made the whole universe a lot bleaker and hopeless. I almost wish I hadn't said this now.
 
== The Reapers are [[Necessarily Evil|actually "good guys"]]. ==
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* Before they find something, the Reapers finish out the cycle and decide that active involvement is dangerous, as it encourages species to look for ways to deviate from the path, so they head out to Dark Space, leaving only their vanguard to watch over and make sure the locals are following their path.
 
== The very first Reaper was similar to AM from ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]''. ==
It makes sense. The very first Reaper could've been a war AI, but maybe somewhere along the way it figured out how to become free of it's "prison". Not trapped on its planet like AM was. And it retained a hatred of organics.
 
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** That would work, except for the fact that Vigil implicitly shoots it down.
*** I'm assuming you didn't bother to read the guy's original post on the official ME forums. He specifically states that Saren reprogrammed Vigil to relay faux information to anyone who accessed it so that no one would figure out what the hell he was truly doing. [[God Mode Sue|Apparently Saren, being an elite space police, can do that]].
** ''[[Mass Effect (Franchise)/Revelation|Mass Effect: Revelation]]'' [[Jossed|Josses]] paragraph 3: the final chapter describes how Saren found Sovereign.
** This theory is pretty much ruined by ''ME2''.
 
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== The Shadow Broker ==
== The Shadow Broker is "[[Ghost in Thethe Shell: Stand Alone Complex|The Laughing Man]]" ==
* The {{spoiler|yahg, a weird, never-before-seen alien}} became the Shadow Broker by [[You Kill It, You Bought It|killing the previous Broker]] and [[Legacy Character|taking his place]] - and [[Legacy Immortality|never bothered to tell anyone he did it]]. After Shepard and Liara kill him, ''Liara does the exact same thing''. So who's to say that the Broker who abducted the yahg was '''actually the "original" Broker''' - or that the "original" Broker, whoever he was, '''''even created the [[Cool Ship]] and the [[Magical Database]] that's the source of the Broker's power in the first place?''''' [[Mind Screw]]!
== The original Shadow Broker was [[Knights of the Old Republic|Kreia]] ==
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== Salarians ==
== The salarians experimented on humans in the past. ==
Well, our present. The books mention that salarians look an awful like [[The Greys]] from 20/21st century myth. The salarians were spacefaring at that time, and they are quite sneaky in terms of intelligence, it was their military that inspired the lawless Spectres after all. Unknown why, but in ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' universe, the salarians did operate on the humans before we were spacefaring.
* But the question is how would they have gotten here? The only Mass Relay in the vicinity of Earth was Charon, and it was covered in millions of tons of ice and rock when it was first discovered. It's difficult to imagine how the salarians would have accomplished that, and not get stuck in our solar system.
** The Charon Relay wasn't discovered until the 2100s. Myths about [[The Greys]] occur in the late 1900s. That's over one hundred years to bury the Mass Relay and cover their tracks. Why go through all that? The experiments performed were likely highly illegal to a sapient if primitive species.
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== There will be a salarian Spectre in ''Mass Effect 3'', you will have to fight him, and he will be [[That One Boss]]. ==
For anyone to be considered for Spectre status, they have to be a decorated career combat operative who has performed at least one Crowning Moment of Awesome. [[We Are Asas Mayflies|Salarians only live 40 years.]] A theoretical salarian Spectre will have [[Tyke Bomb|entered military service as early as possible]], completed several years of military training, and performed at least one Act of God, thus having spent a significant portion of his life [[Taught By Experience|surviving being shot at by mercenaries and terrorists]]. Result: any salarian Spectre will be, ''by definition'', an [[Old Master]] that makes '''[[Crazy Awesome|Mordin Solus]]''' look like '''''Bea Arthur'''''.
* [[Completely Missing the Point|That means that Mordin gets a loyal folower in the form of]] [[Deadpool]]?
* There is a salarian Spectre, but you help him with a minor Citadel quest.
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Which means many have come just as far or farther than Shepard has. And still lost.
* Confirmed by the Illusive Man's discovery of the weapon that produced that 37-million-year-old Reaper corpse. Though the weapon itself has long since stopped functioning and any traces of its creators have been completely erased, its purpose was clear.
** Further confirmed by a few things in [[MEMass Effect 3]]. {{spoiler|The Crucible is the work of countless cycles, each seeding some information for the next one, and the Catalyst tells you that each cycle is very similar in terms of resistance.}}
 
 
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== Mass Effect was in fact ''Knights of the Old Republic 3'' until relatively late in development. ==
* ''KotOR'' and ''KotOR 2'' were two of Bioware's biggest hits for the original Xbox, so a next gen sequel is likely at some point. The basic gameplay mechanics all seem like natural progression from the ''KotOR'' games. The Paragon/Renegade meter functions very much like the Dark Side / Light Side of the Force. The biotic powers are all pretty much just Force Powers. The only thing that really makes this unlikely for me is the total lack of any melee combat to the gameplay.
** Except that ''KotOR 2'' was developed by Obsidian, not [[Bio WareBioWare]]. It's possible BioWare may have been thinking of ''KotOR'' when they began working on ''ME'', but more likely it was just an inspiration.
** Natural progression?
*** ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' was a modified d20 [[Pn P]]-style RPG. ME is an action RPG. Not natural progression gameplay wise.
*** Paragon and Renegade are not equivalent to Light and Dark Side of the force. Paragon and Renegade are different approaches for the same character to have the same goal. They are also not completely mutually exclusive. Light and Dark Side are mutually exclusive and ultimately different goals. They are very different concepts that have a very vaguely superficial similarity if you look at them as Good/Bad, despite neither being exactly that style morality.
 
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'''[[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL]]'''
* Damn. That sucks... wait! that means that at least one of the Reapers is a [[One of Us|troper!]] Wait, no, that is bad. That means one of them is [[Genre Savvy|genre savvy!]] Wow. Never thought about what our knowledge could do in the hands of evil.
** You mean other than [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard|ensuring that they will never get anything productive done?]]
** Ah yes, "Tropers." We have dismissed that claim.
 
== Completing particular side quests in [[ME 1]] will determine the strength of Shepard's relationship with the Council races for [[MEMass Effect 3]]. ==
Specifically the writings of Matriarch Dilinaga (Asari), collecting League of One medallions and ID tags (Salarian), and discovering lost Turian outposts and insignias (Turian).
 
== Choices made in [[ME 1]] & 2 will determine how many allies Shepard and team will have in [[MEMass Effect 3]] ==
Saving / sparing the Council, Ranchni queen, heretic Geth and genophage research will provide assistance from the council races, Rachni, Geth and Krogan respectively. It may also determine who, if anyone, survives the Reaper invasion; the same way loyalty missions determined the outcome of the Suicide Mission.
* Mostly correct. Your choices throughout the series affect your potential War Assets rating. The higher your War Assets, the more choices you have for the ending.
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