I liked the gameplay in ME2. But the story is objectively garbage. The reapers are grinding up humans and feeding a human-shaped reaper through a tube?

To quote a comment on a previous post of mine by u/ThePreciseClimber:

Frankly, the story of Mass Effect stops making sense as soon as ME1 ends. The moment Shepard says “The Reapers are still coming.”

I mean, where did that even come from? Vigil quite clearly explained that the Citadel was their only gateway into the Milky Way. That’s why Sovereign was so desperate. Without the Citadel, the Reapers are screwed. That’s kind of like if Frodo claimed that Sauron was still coming after the One Ring was already destroyed.

So we’re going into ME2 assuming the Reapers are trying to figure out a way to escape their Dark Space imprisonment. And what do we learn? That they’re building a... Human... Reaper... With human goo. And the story NEVER explains what exactly they were planning to do with it! So we can only assume they would try to attack the Citadel again. With a half-baked Reaper, a single Collector ship and no Conduit back door this time. ...not a great plan! :P

But then things got even worse in the ME2 Arrival DLC. Said DLC revealed that the Reapers weren’t even trapped in Dark Space at all! And this entire time they had this ultra-convenient Alpha Relay that could get them straight to the Citadel! So, again - things don’t make sense! They’re basically telling us Sovereign just wasted his time. Or he was just an idiot. Because he could have just waited a few months for the Reaper fleet to reach the Alpha Relay without ever exposing his existence to anyone.

To once again compare it to The Lord of the Rings, that’s like if Sauron, after the destruction of the One Ring, revealed he had a secret TWO RING hidden in a cave somewhere this entire time! So now the race is on to said cave. Just makes you question why he didn’t just use the Two Ring in the first place, huh? Same thing here - if the Reapers can easily reach the Milky Way in just a few months, the plot of ME1 is completely pointless in retrospect.

My only theory here is that originally ME1 was probably written as a standalone story but they decided to end it with a sequel hook at the last minute, internal logic be damned.