Talk:Reapers/@comment-25869525-20141215225436/@comment-64.121.193.127-20150131005112

I think you're reading to much into the statement. Regardless of their origins, or whether or not they are all just victims, there is no moral ambiguity when it comes to the Reapers.

The Mountain Men are committing atrocities but they are still only doing so because they are simply seeking a way to survive (plus, and this will be true of all the other groups excepting the Reapers, there are different factions within their groups that want different things or at least to accomplish them in a different way).

The Grounders have been hunted by the Mountain Men for generations, had their territory invaded by the Sky People, suffered the deaths of hundreds of their people through various combinations of: fighting with the Delinquents, rockets and debris falling from the sky and burning entire villages alive, a massacre of an unarmed village, further conflicts with the adults, and doubtless some additional destruction as the inevitible consquence of 'Arc-fall'... just to name a few.

The Sky People (who I'll just lump together), after fleeing the destruction of their home, were attacked and killed in response by Grounders and Mountain Men alike. Some were kidnapped for the purpose of having their blood drained while others, in a misguided search for those missing, ended up slaughtering innocents in their search. I'm leaving a lot out for brevity, but don't forget all the 'spacing' that used to occur for crimes like getting food or medicine for one's child that were being withheld by a system of rationing.

The point is that all the groups featured on the show have committed a number of egregious offenses, yet extenuating circumstaces, rational explainations, and simple misunderstandings abound with such prevelence that none of them necessarily would/should be condemned as 'evil' based on their actions alone. The same can't be said for the Reapers. Regardless of circumstance, one always knows where they stand when it comes to the Reapers: they'll rape you to death, eat your flesh, and sew your skin into their clothing – the only uncertainty involved is whether you'll be lucky enough that they'll do it in that order. I'm fairly certain that's what was meant by calling them the only ones that are truly evil- the simple lack of any moral ambiguity surrounding their murderous behavior.