Re: Reap what you sow

[vlad78]

The relationship between reapers an leviathan is at the core of the narrative imho.

I'd say I agree with you on everything but I think reapers are not willing partners of leviathan.

I suspect too the AI does not exist but I think the reapers rebellion was real, why would leviathans dig themselves in forgotten hideouts otherwise?
Perhaps in hindsight do they see such rebellion as inevitable even if unforseen.

[smash016]

Today I heard someone say "Reap what you sow." It got me thinking.

The Reapers reap all organic life. That much is clear. The Harvest. ME3 trailer showing a Reaper looming over a girl in a corn field.

But who sows? Who plants the seeds for next season's harvest?

We talked about evolutionary intervention and engineering. We have the Eletania vision. Nonrandom eezo distribution. A sense of someone pulling all the strings to direct the state of the galaxy.

Listen to Leviathan's dialogue. To me it's clear that, despite the (dubious) story about the Intelligence's creation and subsequent rebellion, Leviathan wants the harvest cycles to continue and thinks the Reapers serve their purpose.

"There is only the Harvest. [...] The Reapers perceive you as a threat. And I must understand why. [...] There was no mistake, it still serves its purpose. [...] The cycle will continue. [...] The Reapers will harvest the rest.

And this, earlier at T-GES:

"Turn back. You have come too far. The darkness cannot be breached."

Sounds like Shepard is getting too close to a secret. But when she finds out about Leviathan's existence it's giving her a rather... convenient and censored version of the truth, perhaps.

I'm hypothesizing that Leviathan and the Reapers are less at odds with each other than we think. It just wants full control over the Reapers again. Hence TIM's agenda. Hence Control being Paragon and Destroy being Renegade.

But in the meantime, it is content with the influx of dead organics every 50,000 years. It was part of the plan. But... why? Why would Leviathan require the harvest? To quote it: "Tribute does not flow from a dead race."

Is this leading anywhere, you think?

(The only way I can think of by which the Reapers actually save organics from destruction and preserve them, is by giving them a life after death, after the harvest. // Like what was inexplicably given to Shepard. // And Leviathan is thematically hinted to be Hades... Lord of the Dead. But this is part of Underworld Theory and my Salvation through Destruction ideas. Too much to fully explain here, but you know the gist of it.)