History Fridge / MassEffect2

** The Reapers and their Collector minions are engaged in creating an embryonic human Reaper. As EDI says, it is their form of reproduction. In a way the Reapers can be thought of as Lovecraftian Ardat-Yakshi (if Ardat-Yakshi were fertile),[[note]]Compare Morinth's "We are the genetic destiny of the Asari" with Sovereign's "We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence" and Harbinger's "We are the harbingers of your perfection"[[/note]] using their victims to "randomize the DNA" of their offspring and destroying them in the process - but in their unfathomable scale not murdering individuals, but entire species. The whole driver of the story, Collectors abducting and processing uncounted thousands of humans, is the Reapers' quest to make the next generation, [[note]]As well, of course, as building a replacement for the destroyed Sovereign as their Inside Man,[[/note]] and the Reaper-embryo's discovery and destruction are quite rightly the climax of the story.

** While the "daddy issues" of some squadmates are right out in the open, as with Jacob and Miranda, parental dynamics are also manifest in Samara's and Thane's arcs, Tali's father's crimes done allegedly for her sake and her filial guarding of his posthumous reputation, and Legion's attempt to understand not just Shepard-Commander but also the Quarian Creators; the three-game Quarian-Geth arc is a tale of parenthood gone wrong (Admiral Koris even says "They are our children"). Then there is Grunt's status both as Dr. Okeer's "legacy" (shades of Henry Lawson), and also his finding a surrogate parent in Shepard. Jack is an abused foster child, stolen from her mother and raised, horrifically, by Cerberus: her "daddy" issues are worse than anyone's. What of Garrus and Mordin? Garrus' conflict with his father was covered directly in Mass Effect 1; in the sequel we see the outcome of that struggle within Garrus. Mordin, on a personal level, stands alone in this regard, as a childless bachelor without evident parental problems: but then, Mordin's entire arc across two games is taken up with the Krogan genophage, the ability of a whole species to reproduce. [[note]]It's worth noting that this pattern does not apply to the DLC squadmates Kasumi and Zaeed, whose personal issues have to do with peers. They of course were written after the main game and after the departure of ''Creator/DrewKarpyshyn''[[/note]]
** And what of Shepard? S/he may or not be an orphan, but biological parents aside, the story of ''[=ME2=]'' is much occupied with Shepard's problematic and ultimately rebellious relationship with a very bad paternal figure, the Illusive Man. (In ME 3, we instead see a return to the "good father," Anderson. In the Citadel DLC, Anderson even provides Shepard with a home!).

* Many wisecracks have been made about so many characters in Mass Effect 2 having "daddy issues;" but this really scratches the surface of ''Videogame/MassEffect2'''s overall theme: ''parenthood.'' This applies not only to Shepard's squadmates and other characters, but to the main trunk of the game itself, the Reapers.

** While the "daddy issues" of some squadmates are right out in the open, as with Jacob and Miranda, parental dynamics are also manifest in Samara's and Thane's arcs, Tali's father's crimes done allegedly for her sake and her filial guarding of his posthumous reputation, and Legion's attempt to understand not just Shepard-Commander but also the quarian Creators; the three-game Quarian-Geth arc is a tale of parenthood gone wrong (Admiral Koris even says "They are our children"). Then there is Grunt's status both as Dr. Okeer's "legacy" (shades of Henry Lawson), and also his finding a surrogate parent in Shepard. Jack is an abused foster child, stolen from her mother and raised, horrifically, by Cerberus: her "daddy" issues are worse than anyone's. What of Garrus and Mordin? Garrus' conflict with his father was covered directly in Mass Effect 1; in the sequel we see the outcome of that struggle within Garrus. Mordin, on a personal level, stands alone in this regard, as a childless bachelor without evident parental problems: but then, Mordin's entire arc across two games is taken up with the Krogan genophage, the ability of a whole species to reproduce. [[note]]It's worth noting that this pattern does not apply to the DLC squadmates Kasumi and Zaeed, whose personal issues have to do with peers. They of course were written after the main game and after the departure of ''Creator/DrewKarpyshyn''[[/note]]
** And what of Shepard? S/he may or not be an orphan, but biological parents aside the story of ME 2 is much occupied with Shepard's problematic and ultimately rebellious relationship with a very bad paternal figure, the Illusive Man. (In ME 3, we instead see a return to the "good father," Anderson. In the Citadel DLC, Anderson even provides Shepard with a home!).

** If you confront Sidonis, [[spoiler:he seems genuinely ashamed and guilty of his actions in betraying Garrus' squad.]] It initially seems like he is trying to save his skin, but the Codex entries on turians reveals that [[spoiler:betrayal of the team and refusing to own up to your mistakes and actions (like Sidonis did) by fleeing and hiding is a ''deep'' taboo among the race.]] No wonder the guy is so torn up about it.
** Garrus will reluctantly forgive Sidonis if pushed by Shepard, because Sidonis confesses and owns up to his mistakes (another huge thing for turians).
** Goes the other way for Garrus. Turian culture puts the stigma of a subordinate's incompetence, failures, or otherwise unsuitability on the heads of those who promoted them to that responsibility (as they made the mistake of putting someone in a position they were incapable of handling or simply couldn't be trusted with). Garrus doesn't just blame the deaths of ten of the finest men he's ever worked with on Sidonis; it's common for officers in today's military to suffer severe psychological trauma upon their units taking heavy casualties. It'd be even worse for a turian, hence why Sidonis' betrayal is eating so heavily on Garrus. To a turian, the treachery is as much Garrus' fault as Sidonis', so taking out Sidonis is important to Garrus; he doesn't just want revenge, he wants ''absolution'' for his own errors in judgment. It's subtle, but you can ''see'' it in Garrus, both in body language and voice.

* [[spoiler:Legion's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZJZKk6dj8k theme music]] contains hints of the ''Mass Effect'' [[spoiler:geth]] theme.

* When you find out that Archangel [[spoiler:is actually Garrus]] and he's been holding off wave after wave of mercenaries, mech soldiers, and elite hitmen for ''days'', you might just assume that [[spoiler:Garrus TookALevelInBadass]], right? Except if you talked to [[spoiler:Garrus frequently in the first game]], you find out that he was originally ''[[spoiler:hand-picked as someone who would make a good Spectre candidate]]''. Of course he [[spoiler:was able to take fifteen [[TookALevelInBadass Levels In Badass]] in the sequel -- he could have been the turian ''Shepard'', and he's embracing his innate Spectre talents]]!

** 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 MechaMooks. 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.
** Why can [[GoddamnedBats Fenris]], [[MechaMooks Loki]] and [[DamageSpongeBoss Ymir]] mechs be hacked for only a few seconds too? When a Loki gets hacked, it briefly squawks [[CallingYourAttacks "viral attack detected"]]. These mechs most likely have their own countermeasures installed. Since their programming is very simplistic compared to geth, backups can be stored onboard.
** In the Shadow Broker's Dossiers, Legion is a huge gamer. Not because they found it fun, but rather it was a means of PsychicStatic. One way for Legion to counteract that is to delegate a set of programs to be playing video games, another set to combat function, and the rest to deal with annoying AI intrusion, switched regularly of course. It was only during the whole conversation with EDI were they able to get a relevant log related to Legion. More than that, Legion used a video game to funnel significant funding towards the rebuilding of Eden Prime. Whether Legion feels genuine remorse or is just trying to distance the actions of the Heretics from the main body of geth is up to debate.

** The most shocking part is that, if pushed enough, Mordin gives his main reason for perfecting the genophage: The simulations did not show krogan immune to the genophage taking over the Galaxy. They showed turians and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] committing genocide against the krogan. Mordin didn't fear the krogan; he didn't trust his very own civilization. Had the genophage 2.0 not been designed, chances are that the Alliance, Cerberus, or both, would have tasked ''Shepard'' with slaughtering the Krogan.
** [[spoiler:In the third game, his suspicions are confirmed somewhat, when it is discovered that the turians planted a hyper yield bomb under a heavily populated area as a backup if the Krogan became troublesome again.]] Would the Alliance have gone through with genocide? Probably not. But [[WellIntentionedExtremist Cerberus]] would have.
** Also, between the mission and [[AllThereInTheManual the Codex entries on salarians]], it's clear that the salarians used the genophage to reshape Krogan society to be like their own. Males must compete for the right to mate, while females have more power because of it.

* Why don't people respond in panic if Shepard [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom brings Legion onto the Citadel]]? A) Legion has a ''giant hole in them''; B) Legion is ''wearing N7 armor''; and C) It's in the company of Shepard, a Spectre and war hero who saved the Citadel and would ''never'' do something like bringing geth onto the Citadel, or signing on with Cerberus, or bringing the rachni back, etc. It's quite obvious that whatever Legion is, they ''aren't'' a geth, at least not after a moment's observation. Besides, maybe most people haven't actually seen geth, and the ones who have may be so traumatized that in their imaginations, the geth look entirely different. They really don't infiltrate... intentionally.

* Why do Legion and Tali have the same powers? Because the quarians ''built'' the geth, so they are going to have the same base traits (Higher shield levels, tech-based skills etc.) Secondly, quarians ''hate'' the geth because they forced them off of the homeworld. The ''races'' aren't compatible, so the ''individuals'' aren't compatible. Meanwhile, putting multiple combat drones downrange draws enemies away from them, their weapon selections are perfectly complimentary (shotgun and sniper rifle), Legion can tank with the best while Tali screws with enemy shields (assuming they're both loyal). Throw in Squad Warp Ammo as your advanced training and even barriers aren't an issue anymore. They make perfect teammates... if Shepard can convince them to get along.

* The reprogramming vs. destroying of the Geth Heretics; the renegade option has Shepard destroy them, while the paragon option has Shepard brainwash them. While paragon vs. renegade seems to boil down to nice guy vs. jerk, it's actually more complicated. Paragon actions tends to benefit allies over humanity, and vice versa for Renegade options. Therefore, reprogramming the Heretics is clearly the paragon option, because it turns a great enemy into a potential ally, while the renegade option simply removes a threat. Also, if you listen carefully to Legion, it becomes clear that releasing the virus won't force the Heretics to come around to the rest of the geth's way of thinking. It instead just creates a compulsion for them to return to the geth homeworld and integrate their experiences with the rest of their race. So all you're really doing by reprogramming is forcing the Heretics and the geth to come together, confront their differences, and build a consensus.

* During the final boss fight of Overlord, [[spoiler:geth pop out of thin air to slow Shepard down. A few minutes earlier, David hacked Shepard's omni-tool and is basically controlling them. The geth also vanish when they die, implying they don't physically exist. They ''do'', and they ''are'' real geth. But they're ''programs'', not platforms. David is sending the few remaining programs to MindRape Shepard]].

* Joker's throwaway line about "plugging in the Overlord" isn't a case of HarsherInHindsight given the ''Project Overlord'' DLC. It's actually an indicator that canonically, Shepard deals with Overlord ''before'' they try to use the Reaper IFF. Joker's not giving some unintentionally prophetic line, he's cracking a tasteless joke about a past experience because he's stressed out. Supported by talking to him after the [[spoiler:fall of Thessia]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', where he cracks a tasteless joke to Shepard [[spoiler:about how the asari must be wishing they had more commandos instead of dancers right about now]].
** Of course, this together with the "organic batteries" quip are also allusions to ''Film/TheMatrix'' franchise, where humans are reduced to just that by their machine overlords.

* There's actually a fair bit of logic in the abilities of the squadmates; Garrus remains an Infiltrator swap, so he has a combat ability and a tech ability; [[spoiler:Legion is a geth who not only has a sniper but whose powers consist of hacking other robots or providing fire support]]; Miranda was bred to be perfect, so she's the only squadmate who can take down all four forms of defense; Mordin is a scientist specializing in organics, so he has the two tech powers useful against organics; Tali grew up with a father who wanted war with the geth, and thus has abilities that take down shields and hack synthetics; Thane is an assassin, so he has the biotic abilities dedicated to killing people instead of crowd control; and Zaeed has spent most of his life trying to take down the Blue Suns, who all use Shields, with disruptor ammo. However, Jack is the absolute best; some in-universe consider biotics to be an evolution of humanity, some kind of higher form of existence. To use Harbinger's words, biotics are humanity's ''genetic destiny''. Harbinger constantly taunts Shepard with these words, and it is eventually revealed that ''his'' idea for humanity's genetic destiny involves either [[spoiler:being turned into a Reaper or becoming a slave race like the Protheans]]. Jack is the most powerful human biotic in the galaxy. In other words, she has already reached humanity's genetic destiny, with Shockwave (best move for taking down husks) and Warp Ammo (specifically designed to take down barriers, armor and health). These are the only form of defense that the Collectors use.

* 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 Sovereign. Then Shepard showed up, kicked his ass, and ''got Sovereign 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''.

** The krogan and the quarians--both races are trying to restore (resurrect) themselves.

** Legion is "disabled" and, for all intents and purposes, dead when Shepard recovers it on the "dead" Reaper. Activate it and it "resurrects" to give Shepard a mission to ensure that all heretic geth are either KilledOffForReal or mind wiped. Several other squadmates opine that mind wiping the heretics is just the same as killing them. Legion forces us to ponder what constitutes death. As a synthetic, it also forces us to question what constitutes life.

** The track called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcScbgc5HqA Infiltration]] is played at three separate points: Tali's recruitment mission (fighting the geth drones), Legion's loyalty mission (holding the main room against a geth onslaught), and the vents run on the Suicide mission. Guess which two (barring DLC) are ideal candidates to run through the vents?

* Liara needing Shepard’s help to uncover the identity of “The Observer.” The tell-tale sign that [[spoiler:Nyxeris]] is The Observer is that [[spoiler:all of her contacts are male and they refer to her as a “she.”]] The [[spoiler: asari]] believe that [[spoiler:gender]] is a meaningless detail so much that they might even translate terms such as [[spoiler:"he"]] and [[spoiler:"she"]] as the same word, so ''of course'' The Observer would never expect Liara to figure it out by herself, particularly since Illium is [[spoiler:an asari-dominated world]]. The Observer might not have realized their own carelessness themself!

** A large reason why Tali's mission on Haestrom was such a bloodbath was because its layout is exactly what quarian soldiers are ''not'' trained for: wide-open spaces where staying out of cover for too long fries your electronics (including shields, which the quarians rely on for defense). They fare slightly better when hiding behind bottlenecks such as tunnel entrances, but without long range weapons, they can't attack the geth at long-range (Kal'Reegar was the only one we see with a ranged weapon, and he was the leader). The geth, on the other hand, have plenty of ranged weapons like rocket launchers and sniper rifles (not to mention the colossus' self-repair program), which would make the quarians easy pickings when they're all holed up in one place.
** The fact that shields are completely useless on Haestrom because of the sun. One can recall that in the predecessor, Tali had the strongest shields in-game, making her virtually invincible if her stats are built upright. This is to make up for her being a quarian; they can only wear light armor, so they make up for it by integrating components on their hardsuits that strengthens shields. On Haestrom, however, this backfires because of the radiation exposure from the system's unstable sun. Shields are useless, therefore leaving the quarian team sitting ducks.

* So a badass sniper assembles a merry gang of people and it all goes swimmingly until he's betrayed by someone from within. He gets shot in the face, decides against dying from it, but wears both physical and psychological scars from the whole debacle. Oh, and he asks Shepard to help him track down and kill said traitor so he can focus on the mission. Basically, the only difference between Zaaed and Garrus is that Garrus had much more affection for his squad, to the point of blaming himself for trusting Sidonis enough to let the other turian do what he did. Similar things happen and they both want Shepard's help in getting revenge, but Garrus feels responsible for the people he led (even the traitor) and needs barely any nudging to recognize that it's wrong to hurt unrelated people in pursuit of revenge. Zaeed's motives are a lot simpler and more basic, and he doesn't have that empathy.

* When Shepard visits the Migrant Fleet, the quarians insist on calling them "[[TheCaptain Captain]]" instead of "Commander", based on their own customs and due to Shepard being the captain of their (and Tali's) ship. This is a mark of great respect amongst their people. Admiral Xen, arguably the least sympathetic of the Admirals, is the only quarian who doesn't know Shepard from elsewhere and that refers to them as "Commander". Snub on her part?

* The lovestruck krogan and his asari paramour. During his fits of poetry, he calls her the "Blue Rose of Illium". Blue roses don't occur naturally, just as their relationship would not have. The poem by Creator/RudyardKipling "Blue Roses" describes them as a symbol of unattainable love and also death. He wasn't just commenting on her skin color and beauty, he was making her into a symbol of everything he wanted but didn't think he could have.

** Why doesn't Vido go public about being the Blue Suns CEO, instead making some Batarian the public face of the company? Because he has no combat abilities and is quite the DirtyCoward, as revealed in Zaeed's loyalty mission's renegade ending. Zaeed also mentions that while Vido was a sadistic bastard, he only ran the books and never even once participated in an op. Most mercenaries would never take this kind of person seriously and would never agree to work for him. By putting a notorious slaver in charge, he can be TheManBehindTheMan. The rank and file mercy have a notorious operational veteran they can rally behind, while Vido grows the business. This makes the Blue Suns on the surface similar to the asari commando fronted Eclipse and the Krogan Battlemaster fronted Blood Pack.

** Reave is something Jack may never be able to have because the only known person to have it most likely has Ardat Yakshi genes or even a very mild form of the condition herself. And humans can only produce garden variety serial killers, not OutWithABang life force vampire types. Which might postulate that an ability to Reave, reinforced with black and white thinking if not outright sociopathy in purebloods, might be a screening factor for further pureblood progeny being Ardat Yakshi. Samara provides not one but three confirmations of this hypothesis, while Aria T'loak can Reave and is a confirmed sociopath. So how could she have spawned Liselle a normal asari? [[spoiler:Because Liselle was conceived by Aria with Nyreen, a turian.]] So how can Shepard and Kaidan learn to Reave? Because Reave is essentially a warp field coupled with Neural Shock and simultaneous health regen for the caster. In Shepard's case, the omni tool can be programmed to link with the cybernetic implants, deliver a Neural shock when they generate a warp field, and regenerate Shepard's health. In Kaidan's case, he too had Neural Shock and health regeneration via First Aid. Isn't too much of a stretch for him to learn to warp, then hack his omni tool to deliver a similar jury rigged version of Reave. After all, he is a Sentinel - a biotic cross trained in tech.

** While Legion doesn't have any explicit powers against different types of protections, its preferred repertoire of weapons actually does. As a geth, it would prefer a Geth Pulse Rifle, which is a high rate of fire weapon with Phasic jacket rounds. This weapon can easily shred shields and biotic barriers better than an SMG with disruptor ammo or warp fields. For armor, it has the Widow, which can punch through armor as effectively as a Mantis with armor piercing rounds. Once the target is down to health, the Widow can one shot it. Along with AI hacking, which is very effective against synthetics, this makes Legion able to handle any kind of enemy. The true geth are universally hated, after all; Organics hate them, as they are synthetics, while the heretic geth are also out to get them.
** Samara has nothing to counter shields because as a justicar, she expects to operate mostly in asari space against other asari. And asari, being natural biotics, don't have shields.

** A close inspection of Mordin's abilities reveal that he functions best against armor and health. Incinerate will immolate any armor, but also has the ability to stop health regeneration. Cryo blast and Neural Shock are effective crowd control powers, making him ideal against Krogan enemies. It also explains him preferring the Carnifex - it is marketed specifically as a Krogan killer. The Krogan are the most likely people to target him, whether for modified genophage work or for just being what they despise the most: a salarian scientist.

* 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.

** The salarians placing so much importance on reproduction contracts seems over blown, and makes it seem like if one person cannot find a mate then the entire clan perishes. A closer look at the codex entry on Salarian biology reveals why. As haplo diploid, a Salarian female can lay unfertilized eggs at will. These eggs hatch into males, so as long as a clan has even one female, they can keep their numbers constant. However, once that female dies, there is no one that can repopulate the clan until a replacement female hatches and matures. And for an egg to hatch a female, it must be fertilized. So a reproduction contract secures the ability to create females for the clan. Since males imprint on their mother only while females imprint on the matriarchs of both clans involved in the contract that spawned her, whoever this female spawns in the future will have some allegiance to not one but two clans. That is why these reproduction contracts seem like a political alliance rather than simple mate selection.

* The ShipTease between Shepard and [[TheAtoner Shiala]] seems to come out of nowhere, portraying her as yet another person infatuated with the PlayerCharacter after being rescued. Looking at Shiala's past history with Shepard, this doesn't seem to come out of left field. Shiala was the first asari to ever meld minds with Shepard (before [[CreatorsPet Liara]]), and the asari consider melding minds as a rather personal and intimate act. It is only natural that Shiala took a shine to Shepard after melding with them.

* During Garrus' "reach and flexibility" conversation after his LoyaltyMission, he mentions that Turian ships have less personal restrictions compared to Alliance ships but more operational discipline. You would expect an autocratic race like the turians to have both personnel restrictions and operational discipline. However, turians are poor swimmers and don't like water, so their lack of personnel restrictions make sense. Personnel restrictions on ships are derived from the human seafaring tradition in which ships crews were restricted from doing certain things owing to logistical constraints (shipboard water usage restrictions, curtailing, showering, and washing clothes). Owing to their water aversion, turians most likely never had navies or developed a seafaring tradition, and therefore never saw a need to restrict even off duty personnel activities. As long as a turian does his duty satisfactorily, he or she is free to go about their personal lives as they see fit.
** This also reveals doctrinal differences between the Alliance and the turians. The turians like to keep their fleets close to their colonies or patrol Council space, so they behave more like a troop garrison. If a few odd people are injured in sparring contests, they don't lose effectiveness by much since they are close to their bases and replacing troops isn't an issue. The Alliance, on the other hand, operates as a long range power projector by patrolling the Traverse and even the Terminus if necessary. Being so far away from their bases, Alliance ships can't just lose people to extracurricular injuries since medicines are at a premium, and getting replacements may take too long. They therefore will do everything they can to keep everyone mission ready at all times.

** 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.

** Similarly, the quarians and drell both once had populations of billions, but have both been reduced to just a few tens of millions.

* There are multiple indicators that Wilson is the mole: His money troubles, how dismayed he was at your survival, and he lets slip that the bots are "going crazy and trying to kill ''him''". No single conclusive piece of evidence, but taken together, they're quite obvious.

* If you were lucky to do the 'N7: Archeological Dig Site' mission on the planet Joab '''before''' the TheReveal, you'd discover yourself that [[spoiler: the Protheans portrayed in the vision/massacre/flashback Shepard sees are Collectors... the Protheans '''ARE''' the Collectors]]! The Horror! The ending of the second game does in fact explain the strange visions Shepard gets shown from the beacons in the first game. When you play the game for the first time, it looks like flashing images of random gore, but given the knowledge of how Reapers are created, the images appear to show the Protheans getting torn apart and remolded on the mechanic parts of a new reaper.

** There's a mission in ''[=ME2=]'' where the Blue Suns mercenaries are raiding a starship. In one room, Shepard finds two Blue Sun [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy turians]] who are not helping any of the teams dispatched to stop Shepard. There aren't really any valuables in the room. There's nothing too noteworthy... except a pile of six or seven somewhat burnt, completely unclothed humans. Man, those Blue Suns sure are murderous - wait, unclothed, burned human corpses? [[BrainBleach What you've thought cannot be unthought]]. However, they were probably just stripping and cremating them. Like Nazis. [[SarcasmMode That's much better, right]]?[[note]]Although Turians can't eat human food and have a radically different biochemistry than humans, so it's quite possible they ''can't'' eat humans and were just torturing them. [[SarcasmMode Much better indeed.]][[/note]]

* During Thane's recruitment mission, you find a lot of salarians sealed into windowless rooms. Apparently Thane locked them in to protect them from the ensuing violence. However... what if Shepard hadn't let them out? What if Thane had died before he could come back and free them? How long would it be before someone found them?

* Rael'Zorah was manufacturing geth platforms and allowing the geth to download run times on to them in order to test new weapons and AI hacks. But simultaneously Legion was attempting to stop the heretics from reprogramming all geth to boost their numbers nineteen fold. What would have happened if the [[SpaceJews Quarians]] hadn't decided to try Tali and thus let her and Shepard go on their merry way? And what if Shepard had sold Legion to Cerberus after acquiring the IFF, thus never learning of the heretic virus? The Alerai would have communicated the position of the migrant fleet to the now completely hostile geth in the Veil nebula. And the fleet was in the Valhalla Threshold refueling. The geth would have been able to completely annihilate them, before the Quarians even had a chance to escape.

* During the Reaper IFF mission, you hear work logs from the Cerberus research crew, and watch as they slowly lose their minds to indoctrination. Yet this isn't the drooling incoherent babbling form of indoctrination we saw before on Virmire, this seems to be stripping away the workers' sanity in a different way by Gaslighting them. These people are first experiencing each others' thoughts, each other's dreams, and horrifyingly lose the ability to recognize whether some thoughts are their own or someone else's!! This reaper isn't just creating SlaveMooks out of them, it is removing their sense of individual identity and forcing them to collectively experience everything. [[spoiler: It is priming them for their species' possible eventual fate - Reaperization in which all minds are interconnected and act as one with a single purpose]].
** Which kinda makes you look at the asari siari religion with its philosophy of "all is one" in a whole new terrifying way. Is that religion [[spoiler: similarly priming the asari for eventual Reaperization too?]]

* 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 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.]]

* The Terminus systems and probably even Citadel space had a lot of trouble looming even without the Collector threat. Archangel had forced all three major mercenary groups to unite and go after him, and once he was dealt with they were going to target Aria. What would most likely have followed after taking her down is a tripartite struggle for control of Omega that would have spilled over into the entire Terminus, including Illium. A three way gang war by itself might not have been that bad, but both the Blue Suns and Blood Pack had plans in the works. The Blue Suns were breeding genetically engineered super Krogan on Korlus, while the Blood Pack was having Maelon develop a genophage cure on Tuchanka. Had both these plans come to fruition, the war would have escalated between the Blood Pack Krogan hordes and the Blue Suns Krogan lances. How many worlds would they have cratered before one side won? And it gets worse. The Overlord VI would have raised the dish and transmitted itself off world - most probably into the heretic station just a system away. And now this VI has a virus that it can repurpose to corrupt and infect all geth. There are no more isolationist geth who just study organics from afar or heretic geth who want to harvest organics for preservation in Reaper form. The geth are now all [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal]] driven by this scared and deranged VI. That and the Blue Suns Blood Pack Krogan war is enough to doom most life.

* [[http://youtu.be/PDylgzybWAw Payday Loans]] still exist and are being targeted towards low income people. And alternatively, Exo-geni, the same company that subjected the Feros colonists to horrible mind control experimentation is also targeting low income people to colonize a world where they had previously sent husks for experimentation by Cerberus.
* Captain Anderson mentions that most of Sovereign's wreckage couldn't be recovered because of "illegal salvage." We know from the Leviathan of Dis and the derelict reaper that even reaper corpses can still indoctrinate organics. So how many people took pieces of Sovereign only to become indoctrinated?

* The Collectors are primarily interested in humans, so why would they need Okeer's Krogan clones? They used them to build the Brutes.
* A bachelor party on Illium has the Salarian bachelor in question wonder why his human colleague would find the asari dancer they're all watching attractive, saying that she just looks like a salarian. The human and turian both disagree, stating that, aside from the head fringe and blue skin, asari look like turians/humans. Which prompts the human to ask if maybe asari have a way to mind-control other species into perceiving them as [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith attractive]] by their standards. Which adds a whole new, kind of terrifying level to the "everybody loves the asari"-thing.
* Next time you're playing through the prologue on the Normandy SR-1, stop a moment when you get to the breached section of the ship and look around. Take note of where the damage to the ship appears concentrated. It cuts right through the rear of the command deck, just above the Galaxy Map. Now proceed to the cockpit and save Joker, but watch where the Collectors hit when they fire again. Their beam cuts through the ship right behind the cockpit, where Shepard had been standing just seconds before. Later in the game, you start finding indicators of the Collectors having a vested interest in Shepard, on behalf of the Reapers. The Collectors were targeting Shepard, not the Normandy.

** While the "daddy issues" of some squadmates are right out in the open, as with Jacob and Miranda, parental dynamics are also manifest in Samara's and Thane's arcs, Tali's father's crimes done allegedly for her sake and her filial guarding of his posthumous reputation, and Legion's attempt to understand not just Shepard-Commander but also the quarian Creators; the three-game Quarian-Geth arc is a tale of parenthood gone wrong. Then there is Grunt's status both as Dr. Okeer's "legacy" (shades of Henry Lawson), and also his finding a surrogate parent in Shepard. Jack is an abused foster child, stolen from her mother and raised, horrifically, by Cerberus: her "daddy" issues are worse than anyone's. What of Garrus and Mordin? Garrus' conflict with his father was covered directly in Mass Effect 1; in the sequel we see the outcome of that struggle within Garrus. Mordin, on a personal level, stands alone in this regard, as a childless bachelor without evident parental problems: but then, Mordin's entire arc across two games is taken up with the Krogan genophage, the ability of a whole species to reproduce. [[note]]It's worth noting that this pattern does not apply to the DLC squadmates Kasumi and Zaeed, whose personal issues have to do with peers. They of course were written after the main game and after the departure of ''Creator/DrewKarpyshyn''[[/note]]

** The Reapers and their Collector minions are engaged in creating an embryonic human Reaper. As EDI says, it is their form of reproduction. In a way the Reapers can be thought of as Lovecraftian Ardat-Yakshi (if Ardat-Yakshi were fertile),[[note]]Compare Morinth's "We are the genetic destiny of the Asari" with Sovereign's "We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence" and Harbinger's "We are the harbingers of your perfection"[[/note]] using their victims to "randomize the DNA" of their offspring and destroying them in the process - but in their unfathomable scale not murdering individuals, but entire species. The whole driver of the story, Collectors abducting and processing uncounted thousands of humans, is the Reapers' quest to make the next generation, [[note]]As well, of course, as building a replacement for the destroyed Sovereign as their Inside Man,[[/note]] and its discovery and destruction are quite rightly the climax of the story.
** While the "daddy issues" of some squadmates are right out in the open, like Jacob and Miranda, parental dynamics are also manifest in Samara's and Thane's arcs, Tali's treason charge, Legion's attempt to understand not just Shepard-Commander but also the quarian Creators, and Grunt's status both as Dr. Okeer's "legacy" (shades of Henry Lawson), and also finding a surrogate parent in Shepard. Jack is an abused foster child, stolen from her mother and raised, horrifically, by Cerberus: her "daddy" issues are worse than anyone's. What of Garrus and Mordin? Garrus' conflict with his father was covered directly in Mass Effect 1; in the sequel we see the outcome of that struggle within Garrus. Mordin, on a personal level, stands alone in this regard, as a childless bachelor without evident parental problems: but then, Mordin's entire arc across two games is taken up with the Krogan genophage, the ability of a whole species to reproduce. [[note]]It's worth noting that this pattern does not apply to the DLC squadmates Kasumi and Zaeed, whose personal issues have to do with peers. They of course were written after the main game and after the departure of ''Creator/DrewKarpyshyn''[[/note]]

* Killing the [[SandWorm thresher maw]] on Tuchanka is seen as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome taken UpToEleven by the Krogan, with such a feat not having been since a thousand years ago by Wrex. Yet in the original, Shepard can rack up multiple thresher maw kills on foot. Why do the Krogan treat this as such a huge achievement? Because the most effective way to kill a thresher maw is completely against the standard way that Krogan fight. Shepard previously slaughtered maws by running circles around them. Krogan on the other hand like to charge up close and use their shotgun. In the rite, Shepard and Grunt are confined to a pedestal where the maw can run rings around them. If you get a krogan's health low enough, he will go into a blood rage and try to charge the thresher. So Shepard is forced to change tactics, impressing the Krogan that much more.

** Although the Thannix cannon was intended for frigates, this Normandy is not one. She’s twice the size and a very unique stealth frigate. Since the Thannix fires molten metal, it needs to have a reservoir of that melt onboard. And all that intense heat needs to be hidden, lest it give away Normandy's position. Also, the cannons and molten metal reservoir add weight that the Tantalus drive core needs to adjust for when creating gravitational fields for the ship to fall into. And then there is the electricity draw of the cannon itself. Ken and Gabby even talk about the power draw and having to compensate for it. All of these require some initial tuning by Garrus before they are usable.

** Stockpiling mineral resources also adds weight. Using mineral resources for research projects reduces weight. The Tantalus drive core changes its power draw to keep up, thus affecting the power available to the Thannix. Got to compensate for that. Until...

** Tali comes along and installs the Cyclonic barrier technology which is a huge energy hog by itself. Firing the Thannix while these shields are deflecting enemy fire is a real possibility in combat. More tuning of the power draw.

* Matriarch Aethyta, the Asari bartender on Ilium, talks about how nobody back on the homeworld wanted to listen to her counsel and guidance, so she went to Illium, a place where people would. What does she end up doing? [[TheBartender Being a Bartender, who humans always ask for advice and guidance, or just to pour out their life story to]]. She's got the perfect job for someone trying to be an adviser.

* The mechanic from Horizon [[spoiler:blames Shepard and the Alliance for bringing the Reapers down on the colony, despite the fact that Shepard saved most of the colony and other neutral colonies are being targeted.]] Yes, he's a coward for not helping out, but [[spoiler:Shepard and the Illusive Man both agree that it is too big a coincidence that the Collectors target a colony where one of Shepard's former crew is stationed]], so technically he had a point.

* If you buy an upgrade from a store, you don't need to research it, unlike all other upgrades. The stores would rapidly go out of business if the buyer had to build it themselves, so you're buying the complete product from the get-go.

** If you confront Sidonis, [[spoiler:he seems genuinely ashamed and guilty of his actions in betraying Garrus' squad.]] At first, it seems like he is trying to save his skin, but check the Codex entries on turians. [[spoiler:Betrayal of the team and refusing to own up to your mistakes and actions - like Sidonis did, by fleeing and hiding - is a ''deep'' taboo among the turians.]] No wonder the guy is so torn up about it.

** Goes the other way for Garrus. Turian culture puts the stigma of a subordinate's incompetence, failures, or otherwise unsuitability on the heads of those who promoted them to that responsibility, as they made the mistake of putting someone in a position that they are incapable of handling or simply can't be trusted with. Garrus doesn't just blame the deaths of ten of the finest men he's ever worked with on Sidonis - it's common for officers in today's military to suffer severe psychological trauma upon their units taking heavy casualties. It'd be even worse for a turian. Thus, we know why Sidonis' betrayal is eating so heavily on Garrus - to a turian, the treachery is as much Garrus' fault as Sidonis'. That's why taking out Sidonis is so important to Garrus; he doesn't just want revenge, he wants ''absolution'' for his own errors in judgment. It's subtle, but you can ''see'' it in Garrus, both in body language and voice.

** Then you've got Cerberus, a human-supremacist organization with an unhealthy obsession for manipulating human genetics to make supermen, maximizing human biotic potential, and Reaper technology. [[spoiler:Along with a newfound raging hard-on to kill Shepard according to ''3''[='=]s developers.]] Borderline FridgeHorror if you consider [[spoiler:Shepard can deliver to them their very own Human-Reaper factory in the end of ''2'', and would then be the only person standing in the way of Cerberus constructing their own Reaper]].

* So, hey, the credits are pretty nifty and all, with that awesome music playing in the background as you're reading that white text against a black background with gold section headers... wait a second. [[spoiler:That's ''Cerberus'' colors!]]

* Shepard dies in the suicide mission if their entire team does because, with Joker too weak and brittle, there's no one who can pull them up after their leap onto the ''Normandy''. They hold onto the edge, but the Collectors manage to shoot Joker, making him drop Shepard anyway. This doesn't happen if two teammates survive: Joker can provide cover fire while one of the squadmates pulls Shepard up. When Joker is alone, no one can give covering fire and the Collectors can take their time to properly hit something.

** Miranda makes a big deal of how she was "designed to be perfect" and that [[CursedWithAwesome hasn't really made her life significantly better]]. It's easy to take this at face value as AnAesop against the limitations and potential misuse of genetic engineering, but then you realise there's a a double, out-of-universe, meaning. Miranda is a Sentinel: she can use both Warp and Overload, making her effective against enemies with all four types of protection. Her passive boosts the entire squad's weapon damage and health points. She also gets the most powerful Advanced ability in terms of raw damage; Slam can [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu one-hit kill Collectors]], and its cooldown is ''one second''. And she's one of only two squadmates that can max out three abilities instead of just two. Miranda '''literally''' was designed to be the perfect squadmate.

** A large reason why Tali's mission on Haestrom was such a bloodbath was because its layout is exactly what quarian soldiers are ''not'' trained for; wide-open spaces where staying out of cover for too long fries your electronics (including shields, which the quarians rely on for defense). They fare slightly better when hiding behind bottlenecks such as tunnel entrances, but without long range weapons they can't attack the geth at long-range (Kal'Reegar was the only one we saw with a ranged weapon, and he was the leader). The geth, on the other hand, have plenty of ranged weapons like rocket launchers and sniper rifles (not to mention the colossus' self-repair program), which would make the quarians easy pickings when they're all holed up in one place.
** The fact that shields are completely useless on Haestrom because of the sun: One can recall that in the predecessor, Tali had the strongest shields in-game, making her virtually invincible if her stats are built upright. This is to make up for her being a quarian; they can only wear light armor, so they make up for it by integrating components on their hardsuits that strengthens shields. On Haestrom though, this backfires because of the radiation exposure from the system's unstable sun. Shields are useless and therefore make the quarian team easy pickings for the geth.

* There is a news report that the hanar believe the kidnapping of human colonies is some sort of vengeance by the Enkindlers (A.K.A. the Protheans) for destroying the beacon. This may seem humorous, but in a weird way they are right. For starters, the Reapers may not have developed as much interest in humanity had Shepard not discovered the beacon and saved the galaxy. Now, with [[spoiler: the collectors being revealed as modified Protheans]], it seems a lot more like foreshadowing...

* You bust Jack out of Purgatory, a prison ship held by the Blue Suns. The gang may not seem important on first glance, but they are holding a female trained killer who [[Series/{{Firefly}} can kill you with her brain]]. Yes, it is a Firefly ShoutOut, with the Blue Suns being the jackasses who are a large part of the Academy's funding/control. In another [[Film/PitchBlack shoutout]], Jack is a badass bald chick who is rescued from a [[TheAlcatraz maximum security prison]]).
* The Collectors [[spoiler:releasing the plague onto Omega.]] Not only would they have [[spoiler:cleared Omega of non-humans so that they can harvest all the humans there]] if they had their way, but they would also have poisoned relations between humans and non-humans due to [[spoiler:everyone thinking that humans caused the plague. Isolating humans from aliens in this way would it make it easier for Collectors to hunt humans ''throughout the entirety of the Terminus Systems.'']]

* Jack hates Miranda because Miranda is part of Cerberus, the organization that captured and tortured her throughout her entire childhood. Miranda hates or at least strongly dislikes Jack because Miranda sees her as an unstable wildcard and an embarrassment to Cerberus, her employers. But deeper than that; Jack and Miranda actually have more in common than meets the eye. Both were designed to the liking of their "creators"; Miranda's father wanted a perfect daughter whose talents he could exploit while Jack was created to become the ultimate biotic weapon. Jack and Miranda have both been used and effectively enslaved by people that have no regard for their status as human beings from infancy and birth respectively. The two hate each other because they remind each other of their own suffering.

* The chef selling ramen noodles as a 'delicacy' seems like a quick jab at people taking advantage of tourists by fooling and scamming them. However, when you think about delicacies like lobster and escargot, they both started as food people only ate when they were too poor or desperate to get anything else. So maybe he's telling the truth? Alternatively, ramen wasn't originally freeze-dried noodles in a plastic bag. In Japan, you can get ramen with high quality pasta and everything from pork to hard boiled eggs prepared for you by a master chef.

* 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 a human language, 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.]]

* The Terminus systems and probably even Citadel space had a lot of trouble looming even without the Collector threat. Archangel had forced all three major mercenary groups to unite and go after him, and once he was dealt with they were going to target Aria. What would most likely have followed after taking her down is a tripartite struggle for control of Omega that would have spilled over into the entire Terminus, including Illium. A three way gang war by itself might not have been that bad, but both the Blue Suns and Blood Pack had plans in the works. The Blue Suns were breeding genetically engineered super Krogan on Korlus, while the Blood Pack was having Maelon develop a genophage cure on Tuchanka. Had both these plans come to fruition, the war would have escalated between the Blood Pack Krogan hordes and the Blue Suns Krogan lances. How many worlds would they have cratered before one side won? And it gets worse. The Overlord VI would have raised the dish and transmitted itself off world - most probably into heretic station just a system away. And now this VI has a virus that it can repurpose to corrupt and infect all geth. There are no more isolationist geth who just study organics from afar or heretic geth who want to harvest organics for preservation in Reaper form. The geth are now all [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal]] driven by this scared and deranged VI. That and the Blue Suns Blood Pack Krogan war is enough to doom most life.

** 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.

** Although the Thannix cannon was intended for frigates, this Normandy is not one. She is twice the size and is a very unique stealth frigate. Since the Thannix fires molten metal, it needs to have a reservoir of that melt onboard. And all that intense heat needs to be winked, lest it give away Normandy's position. Also, the cannons and molten metal reservoir add weight that the Tantalus drive core needs to adjust for when creating gravitational fields for the ship to fall into. And then there is the electricity draw of the cannon itself. Ken and Gabby even talk about the power draw and having to compensate for it. All of these require some initial tuning by Garrus before they are usable.

** How does Samara have the Reave ability which explicitly targets the victim's nervous systems whilst simultaneously restoring health to the user? Well, according to Morinth it was Samara who gave her her own abilities as an Ardat-Yakshi. They specifically kill their victims by overloading their nervous system and eventually causing a brain hemorrage. Samara carries the genetic default that produces Ardat-Yakshi and therefore has the ability to cause the same harm to her opponents as one of her daughters could.

** While Legion doesn't have any explicit powers against different types of protections, its preferred repertoire of weapons actually does. As a geth, it would prefer a Geth Pulse Rifle, which is a high rate of fire weapon with Phasic jacket rounds. This weapon can easily shred shields and biotic barriers better than an SMG with disruptor ammo or warp fields. For armor, it has the Widow, which can punch through armor as effectively as a Mantis with armor piercing rounds. Once the target is down to health, the Widow can one shot it. Along with AI hacking, which is very effective against synthetics, this makes Legion able to handle any kind of enemy. The true geth are universally hated, after all; Organics hate them, as they are synthetics, while the heretic geth are also out to het them.

** Samara--"Appointment in Samarra." In the original story, Death appears as a woman. Her loyalty mission has Shepard help her hunt and corner her daughter, who kills through mating.

* The lovestruck krogan and his asari paramour. During his fits of poetry, he calls her the "Blue Rose of Illium". Blue roses don't occur naturally, just as their relationship would not have. Blue roses are also symbolic of the unattainable and mysterious, and show desire for goals you cannot reach. They are also used to say "I can't have you, but I can't stop thinking about you." He wasn't just commenting on her skin color and beauty, he was making her into a symbol of everything he wanted but didn't think he could have.

* In the Shadow Broker timeline on Cerberus, there's an entry reading "Cerberus begins to infiltrate the human media." Who might have an interest in Khalisa al-Jilani keeping her job?

* For all the debt of gratitude sci-fi fans owe Creator/HugoGernsback for creating the first sci-fi magazine, the fact remains that he was crooked and a douche. Well, the highest-ranking survivor of the wreck of the ''Hugo Gernsback'' makes him look like a paragon by comparison; the officers aren't much better.

* For all the debt of gratitude sci-fi fans owe Creator/HugoGernsback for creating the first sci-fi magazine, the fact remains that he was crooked and a douche. Well, the highest-ranking survivor of the wreck of the ''Hugo Gernsback'' makes him look like a paragon by comparison.

* A renegade Shepard essentially becomes quite like Saren: cybernetic implants, glowing eyes, the option to let a refinery full of civilians burn in the name of completing the mission (see above). What Shepard is forced to do in the Arrival DLC is essentially a scaled-up version of what Balak tried to do in Bring Down The Sky. The reasons are different, but it's a NotSoDifferent moment.

* Next time you're playing through the prologue on the Normandy SR-1, stop a moment when you get to the breached section of the ship and look around. Take note of where the damage to the ship appears concentrated. It cuts right through the rear of the command deck, just above the Galaxy Map. Later in the game, you'll start finding indicators of the Collectors' vested interest in Shepard on behalf of the Reapers. Which means that yes, they ''were'' targeting that spot on the original Normandy in an effort to kill Commander Shepard.