The elephant in the room

I always take the route of quarian/geth peace.  Then I hit the "Destroy" button and there go the geth anyway.  It's not my fault the Crucible is so poorly designed.

And the irony is that the same mentality you show is why the Reapers exist. Why they harvest organic life.  As you seek to destroy them you validate everything they have done and plan to continue to do.

So you don't realize that the Mass Relays are Reaper inventions. The very inventions that allowed the Protheans to forcibly unite all organic life under their banner allowing them to react quickly and effectively to stem the tide of the conflict. That without Mass Relays the Quarian Fleet escaping Rannoch would only have about a week or so of fuel to reach area's populated by other races for safety. And without those Relays those races wouldn't have been nearly as wide spread.  And without the Reapers and specifically Sovereign providing all those lovely Heretic junk parts to be taken apart the Quarians would have never developed their "flash bang" weapon that confused the Geth.

Without Relays intergalactic travel is less modern day travel were you can be across the planet in hours to a day. And closer to pre WW1 travel when it would take a weeks for a ship to travel from the UK to the US across the Atlantic. When it took 84 hours to cross the USA on a train. Which would drastically effect infrastructure and colony expansion creating much more closely settled and densely populated areas to facilitate the best transfer of goods and resources across their colonies.

Because it really comes across like you are saying that if religion never existed in any form in all of human history then everything would be exactly the same as it is now. Which simply isn't true because the lack of religion and the many events it caused and the reactions to those events being removed would drastically alter that version of human history. To the point that comparing them to each other you might as well be comparing a Krogan and a Hanar to each other.  I genuinely don't understand why this seems to be over looked or ignored by so many. Making the assumption that remove the Reapers and everything will be exactly like it always has been while ignoring all the contributions they added to reach that point. Be it intention like the Mass Relay system and Citadel or unintentionally like Sovereign recruiting the Geth as a disposable force to attack the Citadel with.

A well as given the fact the Geth were not true AI's yet and the apparent massive evolution in the Geth's development since the Morning War. Given the time that would nationally be needed to expand into former Quarian Territory or the natural development of Mass Relay systems the Geth would very very likely be a much more formidable foe. And without hundreds of years of research and thousands of parts to study such counter measures would not come so easy nor be so effective against them.

That is why I see so much irony in your post. Not only are you acting in the way that caused the Reapers to exist in the first place and validating all their actions as necessary to counter such a mentality for the sake of all organic life in general if not specific races. But you are also claiming that you didn't need their help while utilizing all the things they helped with.

And that is the elephant in the room. The scary, scary elephant in the room.

Comparing a Collector Ship to a Reaper is a bit misleading.  And can you really say the Reaper's Kinetic Barrier system is known? I know it exists but actually how it is powered and functions? Can they replicate it in a lab to be duplicated and installed on ships?

It could be relatively effective against the Reapers and I do not doubt that any Reapers on the ground would likely be ripped apart by it. But in space were they can use full power on shields, their numerous AA laser and massive main cannons that are capable of ripping heavy dreadnoughts apart like paper and the fact they are apparently more maneuverable then even Frigates are. Bringing them to bare against them would be a difficult thing to do. Maybe get off one or two shots at near point blank range.

The virus idea is as unlikely and unrealistic as you consider synthesis. To create a virus that would effect them we would need near complete understanding of their systems and a way to make sure the Reaper equivalent of anti virus system couldn't react and disable it. And to create a virus system that can adapt and react it self to the Reapers would be capable of infecting all computer systems all over the galaxy. And there would be no way to stop it and would effectively create a technological Armageddon.

As for the point of the Armada it is the same basic set up as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. When Aragon leads the free people of Middle Earth to the Black Gate even though Sauron's army out numbers them 50:1. Walking them all with open eyes into a slaughter pit were the only outcome is their death all for the chance for Frodo and Sam to reach Mt. Doom with the one ring.  Or in Mass Effect set up the Armada is there to engage the Reapers keeping them on the defensive as much as possible while they land ground forces to lead an assault on the beam to reach the closed Citadel. All to open the arms and allow the Crucible to dock and hopefully stop the Reapers.  Without the suicidal attack of the Armada in space the Reapers would be free to concentrate on the troop transports heading to the ground from orbit. As well as focus more effort on wiping out the ground troops that have landed.  And when the Crucible finally shows up all they would need is one stray shot to destroy it and doom the current cycle to a repeat of so many others.  A slow, drawn out but inevitable destruction and harvest by the Reapers.

Derelict Reaper more then anything else I do think was a deliberate trap. The reapers are to methodical, to good to miss something so obvious as a Reaper corpse floating in space when they take so much effort to eliminate all trace they exist. Leaving only rumor and speculation with no real proof from the previous cycle to the next.  Supported because the Leviathan of Dis was stated in game to be a major reason why the Batarian's fell so fast. All the people who worked on it were indoctrinated and purposefully sabotaged the Batarian defense systems to allow the Reapers quicker access. And we all know what happen to the Cerberus Crew that was assigned there. All that tech including the proto Reaper and Collector base are all in Cerberus' hands and TIM would be smart enough to know to put it in a way that even EDI couldn't access once she went "rouge". I would no be surprised if he kept it on isolated computers and used their equivalent of flash drives only. Wiping the computer after every use.

True the technology in the Collector base was in no doubt enhanced or created by Reaper tech. But the technology gap and the fact the Collectors were throw away cannon fodder. There would be no reason for them to use the best they have.  I mean if we were fighting a group with the equivalent of 1920's tech vs us with our current tech capability. We could easily use 40 year old technology and still do better then them.

I respect what you are saying.  It's intriguing to be sure of.  However, I just suggested the virus to target their specific code, but your argument that my conclusion is illogical might be true however it's no less illogical than the entire Crucible itself.  Essentially in the game, they built this device with no idea what it did, no idea what was going to happen and then somehow it had these three options of how to deal with the Reapers?  Did they read the manual and say "Okay, so whoever gets up there they can decide if they want to press this button and it destroys the reapers, or they can press this button and be absorbed to become and AI and control the reapers or they can jump into this vat and be absorbed and rewrite everyones genetic code.... somehow.

At least the technological virus makes some sort of sense especially when it's specific to the Reaper code.  They could have studied tech from the derelict reaper, or from Sovereign's remains or however.... I mean the entire Crucible is a deus ex machina of epic proportions.  What makes the virus such an implausibility when you have a wave of energy that transforms an organic being into partially synthetic....somehow.  I mean how does that even happen?  It made no sense when the idea was originally used in Transformers: Beast Machines to transform the Transformers into partially robotic partially organic back in 1999/2000 and it made no sense when Bioware used it twelve years later in 2012.

As it stood, the blast wave from the ORIGINAL ME3 Destroy ending destroyed the Reapers, the geth, EDI, ALL technology in the Milky Way, including in theory, our own ships and tech.  However, that was scaled back in the Extended Cut but the Destroy wave still destroyed the Reapers, geth and EDI.  Why?  Why in the world did it destroy the Geth and EDI but NOT the Galactic Fleets technological ships or any one with Biotic implants?  What is so impractical of having a virus that SPECIFICALLY targets the Reaper code that we know exists based on previous evidence given to us in the games.

As for the rest, the Collectors may have been throw away cannon fodder, but they were being used for a pretty significant mission and interest for the Reapers.  Enough so that Harbinger himself specifically took control to intervene and push the agenda forward.  They were abducting humans to create a Reaper due to the unique genetic diversity.  It was a significant and important operation for the Reapers, so I'm pretty sure they weren't going to just outfit their minions with so-so technology... I'm sure they were using whatever resources the Reapers could get in to the Milky Way to conduct the mission.

Either way, I've conceded even in my original post it's not the best solution, I just think it makes more sense to what we've seen in the game and lore as opposed to the magical 3 purpose energy wave created.... somehow....  but no one actually had any idea what they were even building the entire time and what the end result would be.  I mean, they HOPED the Crucible would stop the Reapers but it very well could have just docked to the Citadel and just been an oversized paperweight for all they knew.  At least my virus idea would have given it a PURPOSE to cause the need to dock to the Citadel so they could activate all the Mass Relays and disperse the computer virus.  Like I said though, oh well.  It is what it is and I am fine with the endings as they are at this point.  

Of course they build the machine without knowing what it could do. The Reapers literally represent death to them and any glimmer of hope no matter how small and how much of a long shot it is is still better.  To quote Director Church of Project Freelancer  from Red Vs Blue:

A fight with an alien race for the very survival of our species. I feel I must remind you that it is an undeniable, and may I say a fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable.

The implausibility stems from the logic of the virus making as much sense as synthesis turning everyone into partially synthetic beings. Both require massive amounts of space magic to explain how it worked in a way that didn't cause mass destruction.  Beast Wars (US name for that show I think) didn't to the best of my knowledge turn them into partially organic beings. At least no more then they were already inherently partially organic with how they operate. It only provided a shell of sorts to keep out the radiation that effected their techno-organic bodies from all the energon on the planet. Basically in both cases you really have to ignore how things actually work for them to make any sense. That was the point I was trying to make.

The reason it was scaled back with EC in my opinion is the players. They wanted to make the ending more play friendly so they made the changes. And frankly their change makes sense once you actually pay attention to the logic and concepts used by players who prefer the destroy option. Just look up at Themmikefest's responds to me about the alterations the Reaper had on the galaxy and the chain reactions of events that would have happened. Thus rendering their statement that organic life is shown in game to be able to handle synthetic life.  All very necessary if you are going to make the claim that organic life is capable of handing synthetic life and he basically ignores it and doesn't even vaugly attempt a reply. Then you have players like dmc 1001 who don't seem to care at all about any detail or information that contradicts their Shepard surviving and living with their love interest happily ever after. That is all they care about and nothing more. Then there are the PC mods that turn the ending of the game into the most boring possible ending every for any game. Boring because of how over done and predictable it is. Not even attempting to create a new or interesting ending instead going for the standard done 4.6 billion times ending.

But as dmc has said EDI was created using Reaper Tech and the Geth were upgraded with Reaper tech. Since it was an energy wave and not a virus for their systems to react to the shorting out of those systems due to the destroy wave makes some vague sense. As long as you don't think about it to hard or for to long much like the synthesis ending. Really the only ending that makes any true logical sense in how it happens is the Control ending. 

Collectors were never outfitted for all out combat. They operated on a hit and run mission but even then their actions were not 100% necessary due to the harvest would happen anyways and the Reapers would be able to create a human Reaper anyways.  But that lack of full out attack set up for them means they wouldn't be rocking all the best technology. When your entire strategy is going after isolated colonies, releasing seeker swarms the paralyze everyone then collect them on the ship. Why would you need the best shields on it?

The endings make sense in their own ways. Some are simple like Control, others are more complex in explanation of how they work like Synthesis. We do know the Reapers use nano technology and the use of that could explain the sudden change. Programing the Reapers to release self replicating nano machines into the planet that then effect changes on the nano scale. Synthesis doesn't make much sense to our knowledge of the universe and how it works but then again neither do the Reapers. If you can accept the Reaper exist then accepting that synthesis is possible isn't stretching anything much more.

I was actually referring to the sequel series to Beast Wars, Beast Machines.  In the series, the surviving crew of the Beast Wars returns to Cybertron.  When they arrive, Megatron escapes and 'somehow' launches a virus that essentially shuts down all the Transformers and harvests their sparks, or life essence.  He then runs the entirety of Cybertron from a remote hub using mindless drones and three re-purposed generals that do have sparks.  The surviving Maximals are stuck in their beast modes and can't transform due to the virus so they are "reformatted" by the Oracle to be techno-organic, partially organic and partially synthetic, a brand new blend of Transformers never before seen as a way to counteract the virus.  The entire series revolves then around Optimus Primal being obsessed with finding out Cybertron used to house fully organic life and wanting to bring it back to Cybertron.  Megatron, on the other hand, yearns to be fully synthetic and despises his own beast mode from the Beast Wars, wanting to purge Cybertron to "purity" or fully synthetic.  The series finale shows Optimus realizing the answer isn't black or white based on the war he's been fighting with Megatron.  Instead, he forces Megatron and himself into the Oracle and the fusing of their sparks and "essences" re-formats the entirety of Cybertron into a "techno-organic" paradise, where everything is a blend of both organic and synthetic beings.  

Sounds familiar?

As to the rest, I agree.  The virus would be a fair amount of space magic.  Not perfect, just a thought I had.  Like I said, I do actually enjoy the endings as they are after the Extended Cut was released.  I don't want or expect them to be differently.  I do still wish the ending choice followed in line with our choices through the entire trilogy and took everything you had done in to effect, but I'm fine as it is.  Destroy is my canon ending, and likely always will be. 

Never watched that squeal to Beast Wars then or if I did it was only a few episodes in and then I got bored with it. It is particularly confusing when you realize that Beast Wars sets it self up as a prequel to the original Transformers cartoon of the 80's. But even then Transformers were created when a cosmetic entity formed into a planet and started to manipulate it to create the Transformer's race.  Frankly the whole Transformer's mythos is a confusing cluster fudge. But I do get what your specific intent with using that.  How ever any attempt to explain synthesis simply will not due because we ourselves do not know all that much about the world around us. We are fumbling with the concept of quantum computers and other such research. What if the wave was powerful enough to redefine the quantum universe thus having a cause and effect on the rest of the galaxy.

Sort of what EDI said in ME 3 about a hypothetical concept she was talking about with Liara about if you could apply enough energy would it be possible to enter a reality were 1+1=3.

I approach all endings and their possible outcomes from the stance of practicality. What are the possible cause and effects of these actions and that dictates my responds to it. And like the issue with synthetic uprising and more conflict and blood shed the concept of the virus just raise to much potential for destruction when put in a non fantasy everything ends 100% perfect world.  I know my synthesis ending has it's potential downsides but the upsides far out pace the downsides.

Why assume she doesn't have Reaper tech?  What is Reaper tech without Reapers?  It may just be highly advanced technology but probably no longer has indoctrination capabilities.  (Though, even that is uncertain.)  Tbh, in thinking about this, it's one reason why I'm always nervous about the idea of any technology involving the Reapers continuing to exist.  With that in mind, maybe post-Reaper War the Council races should convert to ODSY drives and just ditch Reaper tech (mass relays) entirely.

Oh no I'm fully aware that she does have Reaper tech. I expressed myself badly I think. What I meant was that all physical platforms can be rebuilt but they wouldn't be the same as they once were. In my previous post I think I dehumanised the geth because I failed to take into consideration their advanced intelligence and 'humanity' due to the Reaper tech while still seeing EDI as more 'human' (might be because I never save the geth). 

I an curious about the indoctrination actually. If it doesn't lose it's capabilities then we'd be indoctrinated to whose will? With no Reapers who would control these indoctrinated people? That's probably the safest outlook to have actually, just get rid of anything form the Reapers completely but I think the galaxy might be too reliant on mass relays to ever give them up. They could try to just use FTL or invent something akin to mass relays without it being Reaper tech but I doubt they'd go this route.