[@Dynamo Frokane] I feel like I've said my piece for now. But I will step in to offer a view on something right now.

[quote=@Ace of Hearts]

over crazy robot cthulhu beasts that aren't even particularly intriguing because they're so unknowable in their unknownness 
[/quote]


This right here is what makes the Reapers so good and what made Leviathan such an upsetting piece of content. The Reapers are essentially cosmic horror in a sci fi fashion. The conversation with Sovereign in the first game sums up all you NEED to know about them.

[quote]Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. [...] My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure.[/quote]

Cosmic horror works at its best when people don't know exactly what it is they are seeing/dealing with precisely because they can't possibly conceive of such a thing existing to begin with. It's a similar concept to horror in general, that fear of the unknown and why when you start to explain something it becomes less and less frightening and menacing; that obsession horror movies had with gore and blood was because the cavalcade of slasher movies and horror movies explaining things meant that the genre had to resort to new ways to frighten. Gore porn movies aren't exactly scary. It's why the found footage genre saw a rebirth within horror because while Paranormal Activity might come off as boring, the first one explained very little and played on that fear of the supernatural and unknown. And then sequels went on to try and explain things and thus ruin it. 

It's the same with the Reapers and, well, cosmic horror. When you only know that the Reapers are a cosmic entity beyond any possible understanding that this galaxy can know, it's harrowing. It's a legitimate threat because how the hell is anyone supposed to stop something they can't begin to know? Look at the effort it took to take down ONE of them. Nor multiply that by thousands. The Reapers are a constant threat because their whole existence is terrifying. 

Leviathan then came along and pulled the curtain back and ultimately made them less interesting because they felt the need to boil it down to digestible chunks of understanding, which is exactly the OPPOSITE of effective horror, cosmic or otherwise. The Reapers are intriguing BECAUSE of their unknowability and taking that away ruins them as antagonists and cosmic beings. Not everything needs answers. 

I know that has nothing to do with this particular discussion but I thought it needed saying.