History Fridge / MassEffect2

* Jack's design seems too over the top at first. However, it is common for abuse survivors to get tattoos and piercings as a way to reassert control over their own body.

* Between games, Garrus takes up the sniper rifle as his weapon of choice. It goes along with his arc with Shepard in the first game. Renegade Shepard taught Garrus to be ruthless. A sniper rifle allows Garrus to stay at a distance, where he doesn't have to hear or think about his target's justifications and apologies. Paragon Shepard taught him to be patient and avoid putting innocents in danger. A sniper rifle allows him to take his time and choose his angles so as not to harm anyone but his intended target.

* Between games, Garrus takes up the sniper rifle as his weapon of choice. It goes along with his arc with Shepard in the first game. Renegade Shepard taught Garrus to be ruthless, while Paragon Shepard taught him to be patient and avoid putting innocents in danger. A sniper rifle allows for both at once; it keeps him disconnected enough to have his own way, but still allows him to take his time and choose his angles so as not to harm anyone but his intended target.

** They start to capture human colonists en masse [[spoiler:to create a new Reaper based on humanity.]] This makes a lot of sense considering [[spoiler:the Battle of the Citadel and [[strike:Sovereign]] Nazara's destruction. With the Reaper fleet stranded in dark space after the death of their (presumably) only vanguard, a Reaper based on defiant and promising humans would be the perfect replacement and pave the way to the inevitable invasion. But Shepard ''comes back from death and destroys that too'', leaving the Reapers no choice but to power up and charge headlong into the galaxy to unleash hell.]]

* So, why does it appear that HumansAreSpecial now? Well, they weren't. Until Shepard came along. [[spoiler:Originally, Saren made turians the candidate by working alongside Nazara. Then Shepard showed up, kicked his ass, and ''got Nazara killed''. By humans, no less. At this point, the Reapers made the practical decision of picking humans instead, since they've obviously shown their dominance. Then add to the fact that Shepard ''died and came back'' to foil their plans even more]]. HumansAreSpecial because ''Shepard made them special''.

** Considering how smashed up Shepard's body is seen to be in the beginning cinematic, plus the fact none of the rest of the armor they wore in the planetfall is ever seen or referenced, that's not a unreasonable theory. Shepard's head and neck vertebrae are the only parts of their body that remained more-or-less whole, so the helmet helped preserve their head and brain, even if they were separated from the rest of their body. That helmet may be the reason Shepard was revivable in the first place.

* Why is Shepard surprised at the Quarians in the flotilla calling them "Captain" despite them having not ranked up to Captain yet? After all, human naval tradition also states that the commanding officer of a ship should be addressed as Captain. Reading the codex on the Alliance gives answers this - the Alliance was formed by combining all nations' space programs, not their navies. While navy men including an earlier Captain Shepard have gone to space, that seems to be only an American phenomenon. Most space programs select from the Air Force. And most space programs including NASA designate the commanding officer of shuttles, modules and stations as some variation of "Commander". Most likely this stems from the Air Force's use of terms such as Command Pilot or Aircraft Commander. Also astronauts tend to use actual rank, just like the Air Force. If a mission commander is a Lieutenant Colonel, they might address him as such, just like the Air Force. Only navies have a tradition of ignoring rank and calling someone Captain. Furthermore, Shepard is not a pilot. They are infantry and special ops, who use actual rank and address unit leaders as commanders.

** As a corollary, the other two loyalty fights do make sense. Jack had it in for Miranda the moment they met, so the loyalty fight is either due to Miranda stubbornly insisting that Jack's captors [[NoTrueScotsman wasn't really Cerberus]] even after visiting Pragia, or Jack petulantly choosing to pick a fight when Miranda is distracted by having to deal with Oriana's relocation. Meanwhile, Legion is a master hacker with a motivation to protect the geth from the Quarians, so of course it would scan Tali's omni tool to gain some intelligence on the Creators' plans.

** Asari melding is a form of parthenogenesis and the mother passes on both sets of genes to the offspring, i.e. they reshuffle their own genes and the only variation comes from using their partner's genes as a template to reorganize one of those sets. This means Asari essentially reproduce via cloning, which can also explain why reproducing with ''other Asari'' is basically like inbreeding for them and why recessive traits, such as Ardat-Yakshi, occur as a result. Their 1000-year-long lifespans may also contribute, since a longer life may have lessened the need to reproduce and thus their DNA doesn't mutate anywhere near as much as a human's.

** Krogan were once known for their explosive breeding capabilities, which evolved as a result of the hostile conditions on their homeworld. Removed from that, their populations grew exponentially. However, the Krogan Rebellions and subsequent deployment of the genophage put an end to that, and with the wars, drain of Krogan going off to join mercenary crews and gangs, and the general sense of hopelessness, it's likely the species has gone through a genetic bottleneck. Mordin points out that they ''were'' adapting a resistance to the genophage and a second version had to be dropped to keep their population stable.
** Similarly, the Quarians and Drell both once had populations of billions, but have both been reduced to just a few tens of millions.
** While they have very short lifespans, Vorcha both breed quickly and have the ability to adapt to virtually any environment and can eat and breathe almost anything. This is due to the presence of non-differentiated neoblast cells that can trigger somatic overhauls in response to environmental pressures. However, this ability to adapt as individuals has removed the need for them to evolve as a species. Vorcha DNA is described as having remained unchanged for millions of years.

** The Vorcha have the ability to adapt to virtually any environment and can eat and breathe almost anything. This is due to the presence of non-differentiated neoblast cells that can trigger somatic overhauls in response to environmental pressures. However, this ability to adapt as individuals has removed the need for them to evolve. Vorcha DNA is described as having remained unchanged for millions of years.

** Considering how smashed up Shepard's body is seen to be in the beginning cinematic, plus the fact none of the rest of the armor they wore in the planetfall is ever seen or referenced, that's not a unreasonable theory. Shepard's head and neck vertebrae are the only parts of their body that remained more-or-less whole, so the helmet helped preserve their head and brain, even if they were separated from the rest of their body.

** Considering how smashed up Shepard's body is seen to be in the beginning cinematic, plus the fact none of the rest of the armor they wore in the planetfall is ever seen or referenced, that's not a unreasonable theory.

* The Overlord mission gives us a terrifying preview of a possible outcome of [[spoiler: the synthesis ending of VideoGame/MassEffect3.]] The experiment was going right when [[TheRainman David Archer]] could communicate with a single geth platform. However, it was when David was plugged in to the entire ship's neural network that the experiment [[GoneHorriblyWrong went off the rails]]. His brain couldn't handle all off the crosstalk between millions of programs sharing everything. And this was without all those programs sharing sensory data. Now in [[spoiler: the synthesis ending, everyone is connected to everyone else including their sensory perception, from all the cybernetic implants. The sensory overload and crosstalk is going to be a billion times worse. Can a single mind handle it? Or will everyone be driven insane screaming QUIET PLEASE!! Make it stop!!" Except this time, it is permanent. There is no way to make it stop.]]

** When talking to Legion, Shepard mentions off-hand that the geth are immune to hacking. However, in what would normally look like a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, the AI Hacking ability works on them just like any other MechaMook. It isn't until you think about ''why'' the geth are hack-proof that it makes sense. Their programming acts [[TruthInTelevision like a giant wiki, or a subversion repository like GitHub]] ([[IncrediblyLamePun GethHub?]]). If a couple of geth programs start acting weird, they can just replace them with older, unhacked versions. The reload, however, takes time, which is why the AI Hacking ability works, if only for a few seconds. Non-geth synthetics have anti-virus software or internal backups which accomplish pretty much the same purpose.

* Mordin remarking on never having met a Krogan scientist worthy of the term seems like racist stereotyping, especially if Okeer and Fortack have been encountered. He isn't stating that Krogan can never become scientists; he is instead stating that the few Krogan scientists he met were appallingly inept. Consider Fortack's case; instead of debating the merits of his "invention" with a scientific peer, he gutted that peer. And while Okeer seems like a more conventional scientist, his statements reveal that his engineering of Grunt was due to brute force trial and error, creating multiple failures. Later during his own loyalty mission, Mordin reveals his utter distaste for simple brute force experimentation, opining that any scientist worth his salt should not have to rely on brute force. He correctly states that using ethics, knowledge and data to narrow down cases to test the theory is what a real scientist should be do; neither Fortack nor Okeer fit that description.

* Why was the [[ReplacementGoldfish SR2]] made twice as big as the original Normandy, when it would have been economical to build an exact duplicate? Doctrinal differences with the Alliance. The old Normandy had the armory, shuttle bay and engineering crammed onto the same deck, while the SR2 has them on three separate decks. Cerberus expects Shepard to scavenge and store mineral resources, as it doesn't have the same ubiquitous supply chain as the Alliance. They have a roomier galley and mess hall, because they can't exactly let the crew have extended Liberty whenever they dock somewhere (like an Alliance ship might typically do), so the crew needs to be kept happy onboard the ship. They added a tech lab, as the Illusive Man believes in compartmentalization to such an extent that one cell can't and shouldn't rely on other cells for research work. He also wanted to keep Shepard away from the nastier experiments that other labs may be carrying out. They made the captain's cabin more roomy and spacious specifically to sweeten the pot for Shepard to work with Cerberus.

* Why was the [[ReplacementGoldfish SR2]] made twice as big as the original Normandy, when it would have been economical to build an exact duplicate? Doctrinal differences with the Alliance. The old Normandy had the armory, shuttle bay and engineering crammed onto the same deck, while the SR-2 has them on three separate decks. Cerberus expects Shepard to scavenge and store mineral resources, as it doesn't have the same ubiquitous supply chain as the Alliance. They have a roomier galley and mess hall, because they can't exactly let the crew have extended Liberty whenever they dock somewhere (like an Alliance ship might typically do), so the crew needs to be kept happy onboard the ship. They added a tech lab, as the Illusive Man believes in compartmentalization to such an extent that one cell can't and shouldn't rely on other cells for research work. He also wanted to keep Shepard away from the nastier experiments that other labs may be carrying out. They made the captain's cabin more roomy and spacious specifically to sweeten the pot for Shepard to work with Cerberus.

* Why was the [[ReplacementGoldfish SR2]] made twice as big as the original Normandy? After all, it would have been economical to build an exact duplicate. Doctrinal differences with the Alliance. The old Normandy had the armory, shuttle bay and engineering crammed onto the same deck, while they are on three Seperate decks here. Cerberus expects Shepard to scavenge mineral resources and store them, as it doesn't have the same ubiquitous supply chain as the Alliance. They have a roomier galley and mess hall, because they can't exactly let the crew have extended Liberty whenever they dock somewhere like an Alliance ship might typically do, so the crew needs to be kept happy onboard the ship. They included a tech lab on the Normandy, as the Illusive Man believes in compartmentalization to such an extent that one cell can't and shouldn't rely on other cells for research work. He also wanted to keep Shepard away from the nastier experiments that other labs may be carrying out. They made the captain's cabin more roomy and spacious specifically to sweeten the pot for Shepard to work with Cerberus.

* When Shepard regains consciousness after destroying the Human-Reaper, why does Joker say "all ''survivors'' on board" regardless whether there were casualties? There can be a lot of in-universe reasons, but out-of-universe, it maintains dramatic tension before the final conversation with the Illusive Man.

* After heading down to Tuchanka for whatever reason, [[spoiler:provided he wasn't killed, Wrex meets Shepard.]] As they meet, Shepard is shook by the hand firmly, a second hand gripping roughly close to the elbow. Their name is then repeated, once before the shake, once after. To many, it seems like old friends reuniting. However, to shake someone's hand while gripping their wrist suggests distrust, used in the past to check visitors for any weapons hidden with the sleeves of their garments. It wasn't a friend's disbelief of seeing an ally return from the dead, it was him reassuring himself that Shepard wasn't an impostor! [[spoiler:Wreav doesn't greet Shepard the same way, simply threatening and talking down to them. Wreav clearly doesn't like Shepard, while Wrex needs to know that his friend is safe and indeed who they once knew.]]

* The pods Collectors put people in are terrifying enough, but on the Collector Ship you can use them as cover. If [[spoiler: Kelly Chambers]] survived and you talk to her in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', she will tell you that she was conscious for the entire time. Imagine being stuck in one of those pods and having gunfire slamming into the sides. Your hopes come up when you hear people shouting in English, but their voices slowly fade away as they do nothing to help you. [[spoiler: Kelly Chambers]] saying that she was conscious brings up another question: what did the colonists eat? As far as we see, there is only [[IAmAHumanitarian one source of protein in the Collector Base.]]