Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
It does actually add a bit of fridge-horror (more than before) for the Reapers:
Spoiler
Show
They are fully evolved AI's, but shackled to a VI. It might actually be possible that they are innocent, and forced to carry out orders against their will. At least some of them.
Spoiler
Show
Of course, it's unlikely we will ever meet any of those. And besides, if they've been taught all their - I hesitate to use the word "lives" - that they have an important mission to bring order to the chaos and protect the elder alien races from themselves and bringing them in to the great work they do every 50,000 years or so, it's very reasonable, IMO, that enough Reapers believe in the message that there's a very low possibility of Shepard encountering even one "sympathetic" Reaper. Coupled with the rarity of anomalies (let alone successful anomalies - the Starbrat says that Shepard is the "first organic ever" to get to that fulcrum point), and with the arrogance of their creators ("tribute" was mentioned but not explained several times, and they wouldn't get up off their a**es until Shepard lit a fire under them), and I have no trouble believing that they all follow Harbinger gleefully and without question. And besides, if they wanted the Reapers to be sympathetic, we would have seen one willing (if not, perhaps, able) to turn traitor. In fact, that possibility was specifically passed over in favor of the Leviathans pulling an "enemy of my enemy" ploy.