Is the Quarian Ark under attack by the Reapers?

The arks travel at FTL which is impossible to track and follow. That's why in ME3 when you left a cluster the Reapers stopped chasing you.

"It was tough because we learned a lesson that there was no way to really know ahead of time, because who had created a trilogy spanning story with choices that mattered throughout it? Nobody. And so we were the first. As much as some people say they loved the ending, we also know that it wasn't what some people were looking for. We misstepped there," he told IGN during an interview at the 2016 Game Awards. "That's not why we're not doing another trilogy, I wouldn't say that, but certainly I think we learned from that sort of sense of how much people invest in their characters and how important it is to them to carry that forward. If there was one thing that was important it was really to look at how we would start Andromeda with a new protagonist, with a new character that people could fall in love with as sort of a fresh start. I think that was something that was really key to this as we started."

--Mac Walters

People talk about Mac Walters in egregiously hateful terms, blaming him above all others even though he wasn't the ME3 lead, but the only one I've seen defend the ending to the death without ever giving an inch was Casey Hudson. Granted, Mac should have said "what MOST people were looking for", not some, but Mac at least gets that it was a mistake, and makes the valid point that they were pioneering it. I doubt EA would ever let anyone apologize, but he's come about as close as he can.

I think we'll initially think the enemies are Geth stowaways, but it'll turn out to be the Roekkar or something.

Without the alien aliens ME:A feels stale. All we have are the humanoid aliens that are humans in different colours.

Elcor, Hanar and Volus should have had their own arks as part of the main game.

Agreed. It would even be better if it's the new enemy in MEA that takes out the old enemy in the original trilogy. It would be a passing of the torch, in a sense.

Nothing is impossible, especially when it comes to Mass Effect. The arks and the Nexus were impossible until BioWare decided to make them possible. That's a moot point.

I am paraphrasing, but that was the essence of what Gaider stated. Considering he was the Lead Writer on all Dragon Age games, it was his decision to bring Leliana back and use her as he did. He did not care if it was invalidating the world states of a portion of the player base.

Mac Walters was the lead writer and "synthetics vs organics" was definitely his work. Otherwise, had Drew Karpyshyn stayed on board as the lead writer, we would have received the dark energy theory that was showcased in ME2. Regardless, I don't have an issue with the direction the ending and choices took. My issue was the lack of context and then a lack of closure. We didn't know anything about the Catalyst, who its creators were, and why these cycles began. We just knew it had a warped understanding of "preservation" and that BioWare tossed in this curve ball villain at the very last moments of a trilogy that never had one mention of it previously. It was poor execution, and Walters definitely is to blame for that as he wrote it. Leviathan and Extended Cut largely fixed the problems that ME3's ending had. But obviously, those additions should have been in the base game from the very start.

As far as Casey's unwillingness to state there was a mistake, it's likely due to how many death threats the entire studio received due to ME3's ending. While people are more than within their right to critique any story or game, violence is never the answer and the games were ultimately BioWare's creation. They had the liberty to make them however they felt was best. It was a bad situation that was blown out of proportion, and the gaming media certainly did not help by fueling the fire. Yet again, BioWare seems to be drowning in a controversy over a Mass Effect game, and it's media doing most of the damage again.

Most of the Flotilla was not armed nor had the capabilities to actually conduct a war. Unlike the turian fleet, which wasn't as large, but was entirely dedicated for combat. I can't really say the Reapers ignoring the quarians was dumb, as they really weren't a threat. The Geth, by comparison, were far more useful.

Either way, I can't see the Reapers ignoring a gigantic ark leaving the Milky Way, regardless of what species is inhabiting it.

But they were a threat. Their guns combined with the Human, Turian and Asari fleets are what bought Shepard time to get to Earth and take down the Reapers in the first place. If not for those fleets the Reapers would've touched down and demolished the ground teams and Shepard would never get close to the conveniently placed beacon. The Reapers made the erroneous mistake in thinking that because they couldn't be defeated conventionally they could just do whatever they wanted and still win. That is a very questionable decision from such an advanced opponent as the Reapers who have never been defeated by anyone that they have come against.

No all the Flotilla was not armed, and yet they were able to take down a mini Reaper alone. Just imagine what a bigger fleet could do? But wait, we don't have to. We can clearly see in the movie of the attack on Earth that Reapers were getting REKT just like everyone else was. The Reapers were better sure but they were dying out there. And as we saw the joint efforts of all the races was enough to slow the Reapers down and it led to their defeat. No one with any sense would operate thinking that they could never lose and those that did have always been defeated in history. How the Reapers could repeat such a mistake with the hindsight of tens of thousands of years is mind-boggling.

It doesn't make sense for them to avoid the tactical threat of the Quarian fleet but to go after a completely unarmed ark that couldn't do anything to them at all. But then a lot of things the Reapers did didn't make a lot of sense. And the fact that the chance of people running into that beacon and catching the Reapers with their pants down was a bigger threat than the freaking Normandy warship hovering in front of them is more than enough proof that the Reapers were completely unorganized and had no clue of what they were doing.

I mean maybe the Reapers had some directive that required them not to let anyone leave the galaxy I guess, but that doesn't really explain why all the arks wouldn't be attacked in the same way. I just don't think this theory can work.

danishgambit Oh but Bioware has repeatedly shown that they can 'wave their hands' at some plot hole, come up with some lame reason that truly makes no sense and do it anyway. Nothing they come up with story wise, no matter how badly it fits into their own canon, can surprise me anymore.

The other arks left before the Reaper invasion even began. The quarian ark is the only one that likely would have left at the very start of the invasion.

Intergalactic travel definitely does "break . . . established lore" because it definitely was not possible based on the original trilogy. I find it utterly ridiculous that you don't believe that Reapers, the most advanced lifeforms in the Milky Way, can't track the simple trajectory of an ark. Are you now going to tell me that Synthesis conforms to the establish lore and isn't just BioWare waving around its magical wand for "reasons"? You have to do better than that. BioWare can do whatever it wants, and a Reaper tracking the quarian ark isn't that hard to believe.

That doesn't address the issue in any way. Is this you admitting the Reapers following the quarian ark is possible? It doesn't actually matter to me if you believe it or not. I just think your "canon" argument is a rather weak position to take, given the subject matter we are dealing with here.

They aren't "programmed to protect" the Milky Way. Their purpose is to "preserve" and harvest the Milky Way species so that the organics and synthetics do not destroy themselves. Nowhere does Starchild ever state the Reapers cannot follow after Milky Way races trying to flee, especially when it could lead to more trying to flee "preservation." Reapers have no jurisdiction.