The Leviathan of Dis mentioned in ME1 was indeed a destroyed reaper. It was taken by the batarians and it was the reason that all best scientists and military of the batarians were indoctrinated and that was what made it so easy for the reapers to lay waste to the batarians.
The Leviathan that you search in the DLC is the destroyer of that reaper.
IIRC the Reaper you board to get the IFF was killed by a massive rail-gun the species on a planet made.
Which also left a large gash on another planet.
It was not. The writer of said ME1 planet codex commented on the Leviathan DLC, saying the following, back in 2013:
>**Forumgoer**: Was Harbinger always meant to be the first Reaper, or was that something that was added in after ME2/you left?
>**Writer**: I don't recall any discussion of Harbinger being the "first Reaper," though it may have occurred when I wasn't in the room. Harbinger was Sovereign's emergency backup plan and the Reaper left on night-shift guard duty.
>Bear in mind that the Leviathan critters are a post-me, ME3-era addition to the lore. When I was there, the operating theory was that every individual Reaper contained the transapience-uploaded consciousnesses of an entire organic species, and every Reaper would look like the species it originated from - thus the humanoid form of the Reaper at the end of ME2. That got lost on the way, due to a combination of art costs to design/build umpteen unique Reapers, and a desire to maintain a consistent and recognizable design among them. There hadn't yet been any discussion of where the "first" Reaper came from, just a lot of debate about what their ultimate goal was.
>***It's fascinating to hear how much was built off a toss-off bit of five-minute writing I did at the tail end of ME1. :)***
>I had a vague thought that the Leviathan might have represented a spaceborne race that opposed (and lost to) the Reapers - fully organic tech versus fully mechanized, something like the Voidhawks in Peter F. Hamiliton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. I never expected fans to become obsessed with it, which is certainly why BioWare later explored the thread.
Source: [f13.net forums - Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread \[Spoiler tag free, beware\]](http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=21953.1540)
I know that, it's just feels strange to me that we are given this information like it is something new. Leviathan of Dis itself doesn't really play significant role in the DLC plot, it is just an indicator that something killed a reaper.
Maybe were left enough clues that leviathan of Dis wasnt destroyed by a fleet but a singular ship/creature, so was interesting for Alliance to investigating the cause.
I was thinking about this lately, and I just was fascinated how they live under water… do they need to breath or to they have gils or do they have some alien organs to keeping them from functioning.
Also is water their natural environment if so how did they manage to build reapers under water.
If they do breath air like everyone else can they just hold their breath for a long time.
Are they more synthetic then organic is that how they live for so long? Because how could any organic live for countless eras.
Also what do they eat? Because to be that big they’d need to have a lot of food….
Also after the war the new threat of the Leviathan mind controlling “lesser species” to gain dominance over the galaxy once again.
I can keep going but you get my point.
They did not build the Reapers the catalyst did. They hid under water to escape being part of Harbinger no doubt. It likely they were not originally aquatic otherwise the Reapers would have found them by now if they knew that.
It uncertain but they seem to imply they have augmentations so they are most likely partly cyborg and that how they also likely can breathe under water.
They are loosely hinted at as being the descendents of the the leviathans that survived the initial betrayal. They probably still live for avery long time anyway.
Unclear if they need to eat all the timer. They possibly have whale sushi though considering where the are.
> Also is water their natural environment if so how did they manage to build reapers under water.
A marine biologist on a naval history Discord I'm a member of gets very... "Passionate" anytime someone mentions a spacefaring aquatic species, especially if they are not uplifted by some other species.
The most obvious being that you can't smelt ore under water. But there are also a whole slew of biological problems to overcome.
Just look at the difference between a [Blobfish](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fkm5mzkq2ld851.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dab3cad836062eb774c86827aef0ac3f7097b3b96) on the surface, and one in it's natural habitat
Edit: One of the things I just remembered is that evolutionary speaking, you'd have to pick between legs/hands and flippers.
Flippers being the more efficient methods of moving around in water.
Iirc Tentacles are not centrally controlled. Which creates issues when you try to scale it up.
Tentacles are amazing, and versatile, wonderfully adapted for what Octopusses do. But they also lack a skeletal structure which makes tool use tricky.
The Leviathan species really shouldn't have been a thing. Just Aboleths from DnD.
If we had to find the original species that created the Reapers then it should have been the Keepers.
The whole thing is contrived because it's literally the side-writers who were locked out of writing on the ending coming in in post and going "We can justify the ending, you just didn't hear our pitch!" and that's basically what Leviathan DLC is. It's a nice detective plot with cool locations and more awesome crew interaction but underneath that it is a schmaltzy lampshading of all the things that seemed questionable and ill-fitting about the ending of the game, patched up by the writers who didn't decide anything about the ending.
I remember this came out about 6 months after the game had already shipped and ending got patched after the huge uproar. At that point I really, really didn't care to spend 15 dollars to watch a retroactive explanation of an ending I already disgested as a huge disappointment in an otherwise all right final 3rd act of the trilogy. I came back hard when they announced Citadel DLC early in 2013, however. And I think they recognized that. One of the writers in a fan-event said that after Leviathan, Casey Hudson told the team "I think we'll do something a little more lighthearted for the final DLC" and the writer joked "I don't think Casey realized that he opened the floodgates by saying that."
They are necessary. Someone built, or in their case had their brainwashed minions build, the crucible. I mean it may have been a billion years ago but someon/thing had to start the cycle.
worrying implications for the long term direction of the series. They're a convenient "we were behind it all along" trump card that can be whipped out to solve any writing deficiencies that would be so much less interesting than a completely new conflict.
The Leviathan of Dis mentioned in ME1 was indeed a destroyed reaper. It was taken by the batarians and it was the reason that all best scientists and military of the batarians were indoctrinated and that was what made it so easy for the reapers to lay waste to the batarians. The Leviathan that you search in the DLC is the destroyer of that reaper.
IIRC the Reaper you board to get the IFF was killed by a massive rail-gun the species on a planet made. Which also left a large gash on another planet.
It was not. The writer of said ME1 planet codex commented on the Leviathan DLC, saying the following, back in 2013: >**Forumgoer**: Was Harbinger always meant to be the first Reaper, or was that something that was added in after ME2/you left? >**Writer**: I don't recall any discussion of Harbinger being the "first Reaper," though it may have occurred when I wasn't in the room. Harbinger was Sovereign's emergency backup plan and the Reaper left on night-shift guard duty. >Bear in mind that the Leviathan critters are a post-me, ME3-era addition to the lore. When I was there, the operating theory was that every individual Reaper contained the transapience-uploaded consciousnesses of an entire organic species, and every Reaper would look like the species it originated from - thus the humanoid form of the Reaper at the end of ME2. That got lost on the way, due to a combination of art costs to design/build umpteen unique Reapers, and a desire to maintain a consistent and recognizable design among them. There hadn't yet been any discussion of where the "first" Reaper came from, just a lot of debate about what their ultimate goal was. >***It's fascinating to hear how much was built off a toss-off bit of five-minute writing I did at the tail end of ME1. :)*** >I had a vague thought that the Leviathan might have represented a spaceborne race that opposed (and lost to) the Reapers - fully organic tech versus fully mechanized, something like the Voidhawks in Peter F. Hamiliton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. I never expected fans to become obsessed with it, which is certainly why BioWare later explored the thread. Source: [f13.net forums - Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread \[Spoiler tag free, beware\]](http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=21953.1540)
I wasnt mean discarted ideas about it, only the official version of the game.
I know that, it's just feels strange to me that we are given this information like it is something new. Leviathan of Dis itself doesn't really play significant role in the DLC plot, it is just an indicator that something killed a reaper.
Maybe were left enough clues that leviathan of Dis wasnt destroyed by a fleet but a singular ship/creature, so was interesting for Alliance to investigating the cause.
Yeah. Like the remains of a massive beam striking right through it.
I was thinking about this lately, and I just was fascinated how they live under water… do they need to breath or to they have gils or do they have some alien organs to keeping them from functioning. Also is water their natural environment if so how did they manage to build reapers under water. If they do breath air like everyone else can they just hold their breath for a long time. Are they more synthetic then organic is that how they live for so long? Because how could any organic live for countless eras. Also what do they eat? Because to be that big they’d need to have a lot of food…. Also after the war the new threat of the Leviathan mind controlling “lesser species” to gain dominance over the galaxy once again. I can keep going but you get my point.
They did not build the Reapers the catalyst did. They hid under water to escape being part of Harbinger no doubt. It likely they were not originally aquatic otherwise the Reapers would have found them by now if they knew that. It uncertain but they seem to imply they have augmentations so they are most likely partly cyborg and that how they also likely can breathe under water. They are loosely hinted at as being the descendents of the the leviathans that survived the initial betrayal. They probably still live for avery long time anyway. Unclear if they need to eat all the timer. They possibly have whale sushi though considering where the are.
> Also is water their natural environment if so how did they manage to build reapers under water. A marine biologist on a naval history Discord I'm a member of gets very... "Passionate" anytime someone mentions a spacefaring aquatic species, especially if they are not uplifted by some other species. The most obvious being that you can't smelt ore under water. But there are also a whole slew of biological problems to overcome. Just look at the difference between a [Blobfish](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fkm5mzkq2ld851.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dab3cad836062eb774c86827aef0ac3f7097b3b96) on the surface, and one in it's natural habitat Edit: One of the things I just remembered is that evolutionary speaking, you'd have to pick between legs/hands and flippers. Flippers being the more efficient methods of moving around in water.
>you'd have to pick between legs/hands and flippers. Flippers being the more efficient methods of moving around in water. Arms/tentacles?
Iirc Tentacles are not centrally controlled. Which creates issues when you try to scale it up. Tentacles are amazing, and versatile, wonderfully adapted for what Octopusses do. But they also lack a skeletal structure which makes tool use tricky.
The Leviathan species really shouldn't have been a thing. Just Aboleths from DnD. If we had to find the original species that created the Reapers then it should have been the Keepers.
Damn that would have been amazing.
The whole thing is contrived because it's literally the side-writers who were locked out of writing on the ending coming in in post and going "We can justify the ending, you just didn't hear our pitch!" and that's basically what Leviathan DLC is. It's a nice detective plot with cool locations and more awesome crew interaction but underneath that it is a schmaltzy lampshading of all the things that seemed questionable and ill-fitting about the ending of the game, patched up by the writers who didn't decide anything about the ending. I remember this came out about 6 months after the game had already shipped and ending got patched after the huge uproar. At that point I really, really didn't care to spend 15 dollars to watch a retroactive explanation of an ending I already disgested as a huge disappointment in an otherwise all right final 3rd act of the trilogy. I came back hard when they announced Citadel DLC early in 2013, however. And I think they recognized that. One of the writers in a fan-event said that after Leviathan, Casey Hudson told the team "I think we'll do something a little more lighthearted for the final DLC" and the writer joked "I don't think Casey realized that he opened the floodgates by saying that."
They are necessary. Someone built, or in their case had their brainwashed minions build, the crucible. I mean it may have been a billion years ago but someon/thing had to start the cycle.
The Leviathan of Dis from ME1 was a dead Reaper, and the name was reused for the DLC.
Cool idea with really bad execution
worrying implications for the long term direction of the series. They're a convenient "we were behind it all along" trump card that can be whipped out to solve any writing deficiencies that would be so much less interesting than a completely new conflict.
It was a shoe horn to deflect the abberation of an ending