Why are there no Reapers in Andromeda?

Yeah me too. One of the primary reasons I was excited for ME3 before it came out was because at one point in ME2 during Legion's Loyalty mission or something she starts to ponder "What could the Reapers really want? Resources? There must be a reason they're here" or something to that effect and that led me to believe the writers wanted to give an answer sometime later in ME3. They did, but dear lord, I wasn't expecting something on that level of disappointment. I was intrigued because i already loved the concept of the Reapers as Sovereign made it out to be and the new info in ME2 that they're really techno-organic didn't really contradict what we knew in ME1 as I saw it, it only made us realize that we were ignorant to simply call them "Machines". I guess I would even be okay with them if their progenitor story had been that in some faraway galaxy a machine-world exists created by organic hyper-advanced cthulhu species of a forgotten era and Reapers are reproduced via their machine-world as long as they keep it energized or anything really, I just hated how in ME3 it turns out the Reapers are incredibly local, they only harvest the Milky Way, their motive is really fucking easy to comprehend and the motive doesn't really add to the trilogy's plot at all as it just exists in an isolated bubble that derails Shepard's story. I'm not saying reducing Reapers to "AI gone wrong" couldn't have worked, I just think if that was really the story they were going for that should've been hinted at way back in ME1 and ME2 and it really wasn't.


Where were you in my trilogy topic about this? We agree 100%.

And when what you say is a given the only way the ending could've worked was for the narrative to address this fact but all Shepard's counter-arguments in Extended Cut had to do with other things like "We're at war with the Reapers right now!" and if you refuse to use The Catalyst's solutions you don't do it because you disagree with his statements, you just do it in that generic renegade-fashioned way on the principle of not wanting to listen to authority and being selfishly stupid. All Shepard needed to do was to point out with all his evidence counter-arguing the Catalyst's claims and then regardless of whether the Catalyst would've done something about it or not it would've still been an okay ending because the Reapers aren't suddenly turned into protagonistic plot-elements; they'd remain the antagonists and Shepard would get to shine in his resolve as this paragon/renegade persuasive prince that he has been throughout the trilogy.

But fact of the matter is, the ending was hot garbage (like nothing I've ever seen before in a series that had thus far been great!) and Andromeda is created because of the ME3 ending -- in an attempt to escape the complete mess the trilogy turned into. I sure hope whatever Andromeda is like it will reignite a similar spark as ME1 or ME2 did after completing those games. ME1 left me in awe of how original that universe was and how immersive it was. ME2 left me in awe over an outstanding finale and a really diverse campaign and I was super invested in my Shepard and his relationships with ME1 mates and ME2 mates. ME3 left me feeling completely lukewarm therefore it was disappointing and the ending itself made me devastated. As for other BioWare titles, DA:O was amazing, DA2 grew on me a lot but DA:I made me feel kind of empty. So many memorable character designs and interesting people in the plot... but it felt like it didn't have enough content whatsoever. Half of it was pure meandering. This is mainly why I'm wary of Andromeda rather than super excited when it continues to open-bloated RPG approach.

But as for the main threat or myth in Andromeda, I really hope whatever the Remnants are they don't mirror the Reapers and I hope they don't become the primary focus, but knowing Mac he's a revisionist sequelizer (Look at TIM in ME3 vs Saren ME1, Beam rush vs Ilos Conduit, Prothean VI vs Vigil etc.). He'll probably think "this is Mass Effect right?" just as how they decided we had to be human all over again when creating a more open-ended Mass Effect would've been the perfect opportunity for interspecies protagonists.

You sure do love grinding that ME3 axe huh.

Because the Leviathan programmed them to look for solutions to protect life in the Milky Way galaxy. Only our galaxy was included - or that's how I understood the Leviathan's explanation.

It's just speculation, but IMO it is logical to assume that since the Reapers didn't just go "U know what? This is dumb" at some point, that even though they might very well be adaptive, they are not actually able to go against the basic operating principles. So, since their programming says "fix the problem w/ synthetic and organic lifeforms coexisting in the Milky Way", it might come to a conclusion of "harvest all >> protect everything >> problem solved temporarily >> persists when new civilizations rise >> repeat cycle when necessary", but it will not go against its base code and move beyond the Milky Way.

... and the cosmos, by definition, includes the universe beyond the galaxy.  The specific line that refers to the cosmos in Leviathan is actually contradictory within itself:

"To find a solution, it required information.  Physical data drawn from organic life in the cosmos.  It created an army of pawns that searched the galaxy, gathering this data."

I think it's actually not even completely clear whether or not the Leviathan species was always limited to our galaxy.  Leviathan does indicate that they were the "apex of life in the galaxy," but being at the apex in one galaxy doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't possibly exist or once have existed beyond that galaxy.  They could well have been "Something more."

this is true.

it had no story it was a stupid space play land for a main character who had no soul at all and wen Bioware decided to give it one in  3 it was bad cause it was stupid to think a character with no soul can have one all of a sudden . you ME trilogy lovers must think its awesome its not 

Seems an illogical argument to me, but you're entitled to your view.

the trilogy had a story in the first game you are hunting Saren and to stop him and his plans to release the reapers on the galaxy and in the second game you are helping Cerberus to find the homeworld of the Collectors because they are servants of the reapers. The collectors were trying to build a reaper so that it can open the citadel relay to Dark Space, and in the third game the reapers are in the galaxy killing the major starfaring races leaving the others that are not in space yet alone with shepard and crew trying to find a way to permeantly defeat the reapers once and for all.

As far as we know Andromeda Galaxy doesn't have anything remotely like the reapers so the khet or any other spacefaring civilizations that we run into would be more technologically advanced than the milkyway galaxy races I would think like the remnant - which I would like to know more about, I wonder if the remnant will be the andromeda galaxies version of the protheans

I for one think Bioware games have always just had "eh" stories. They are adequate skeletons which get their characters to interact with each other. The characters (both the PC and their companions) are the point. Even the "challenging" moral dilemmas are generally only interesting in as much as various characters embody those dilemmas. That is actually the main issue with the ME3 ending. Bioware made the mistake of assuming that most people care more about catchy plots than the characters. They don't.  Them reverting to Chosen One with Big Bad in DAI and people mostly being satisfied proves that point. 

That is certainly my opinion.  Give me Chosen One with Big Bad with meaningful characters over avant-garde, edgy bullshit with no humanization any day. 

They are also good with world-building, though they play fast and loose with lore a lot. 

Possibly also a nod to the Cthulhu mythos, since Shepard descends to a 'sunken city' to meet a 'great old (tentacled) one'.
And no, of course it didn't help anything.

The Genophage (especially the resolution(s)) and the Rannoch 'arcs' were pretty much the only redeeming factors in the writing of ME. The rest sits on a gradation of amusing cliche to revolting banality. (Which isn't all that much different from mainstream TV sci-fi, including Star Trek; so I'm not bashing ME, really.) The Reapers started as a clever variation on the Cthulhu theme (unimaginably ancient & advanced civilization, before whom you are less than a speck of dust) and then descended into sheer silliness with the tacked-on incoherent 'singularity' theme. People who were derided for criticizing all this were ultimately vindicated, though, in the 'new galaxy copout'.

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Problem definition would have been given to the AI; creating a solution is what the AI was tasked to do.  The AI was given a defined problem to solve, and there's no legitimate reason to think that definition went beyond TMW.  The Leviathan even tells you that the AI made the entire galaxy (Milky Way, singular) into its experimental lab.

What the Leviathan apparently did not do was restrict the solution to something that would not include their demise - or provide them with an organic definition of what constitutes life and the preservation thereof.

Totally off the top of my head theory:

Everything the Reapers have done so far is an experimental solution that didn't actually get the desired result.  The Catalyst said it wanted Synthesis but was unable to make it work in the past. That was the real solution it wanted.  However, until it could bring it about it was futile to bother with other galaxies.  Once Synthesis is achieved, the Reapers (who will still be in existence) can then move to other galaxies and replicate the synthesis wave.