A 600 Years Old Popsicle [Mass Effect: Andromeda]

I must not be parsing what the implications of that are. I was getting the impression from the game that

Spoiler: Memory Trigger spoilers

The benefactor was The Illusive Man, or Cerberus in general.

Has that been jossed?

 

i mean that's totally possible but!!

Spoiler

in my opinion that would be super boring, disappointing, and also just bad writing! the illusive man's the obvious option if you just consider 1) mysterious and 2) lots of money, but beyond that it doesn't make much sense in universe or in a meta sense for the illusive man to be the benefactor!

why would the writers inject so much mystery and menace into the identity of the benefactor if the reveal is going to be "surprise! it was that guy who died in the last game"? why would the illusive man invest in an expedition that is only one fifth human? why would jien garson be killed, leaving the leadership of the initiative in non-human hands? and why would jien emphasize that she was afraid that they had not, after all, been brought to andromeda for a "good reason" when the illusive man's goals have always been, however abstractly, the benefit and advancement of humanity?

BASICALLY the benefactor is a Current shadowy menace, pulling strings in andromeda itself, whereas the illusive man is the shadowy menace of Yesteryear, six hundred years dead!! the benefactor's motivations are unclear and don't line up with the illusive man's known priorities!!

SO maybe i'm picking up that which was never put down but i would be INCREDIBLY UNIMPRESSED if the new bogeyman was just the sub-villain of mass effect 3. like, SO UNIMPRESSED

also it's like two in the morning and im typing on my phone and i have no idea how coherent this is but ITS IMPORTANT TO ME

 

Spoiler: Benefactor

see I totally disagree. Not making the benefactor TIM seems like terrible writing to me. It just seems like the kind of thing he'd do, the sort of contingency he'd help fund. It seems like a brilliant tie in to the ot. Sure he's dead, but the possibility of a Cerberus presence in andromeda is great. Saying its a new big bad who is just conspicuously similar to Cerberus seems boring. Everything you said as to why it doesn't make sense for it to be Cerberus seems to me more like we haven't gotten to that part of the mystery yet. And if bw is smart, Cerberus would be evolved or different in this series but still recognizable, and I think they're setting up the recognizable part now. Changing things to say another shAdowy, filthy Rich person who backs questionable ventures and knew about the Reapers retroactively opens up new plot holes and weakens the ot. As for the ai not lining up with Cerberus' pro human agenda, I can think of reasons why it would be useful to act as though the journey was for all the Milky Way species. It's also possible that Garson insisted they be included and the benefactor needed her to get the project completed. I personally think that one or more of the seven who were in line to take over after Garson were Cerberus. Or they were similarly assassinated so they could set an unpopular Tann up for failure.

 

hello i have a complaint to file

look at this goddamn npc who has no lines and just stands around addison's office fiddling with a datapad

Spoiler: large

first of all how DARE they create an npc this cute and then do NOTHING with them???? like WHAT?? i would like to date this npc!!!!

second of all it is a genuine outrage that this hairstyle exists within the game and is NOT AVAILABLE TO THE PLAYER, WHAT THE FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK???

 

I have some good news for you about a questline...

 

QU'EST-CE QUE C'EST???

(i genuinely don't recall this super cute npc doing anything notable!! did i miss something vital)

 

Spoiler: spoiler

she's a minor character in the quest "first murder"

 

ohhhhh yes now i remember. still!! that is insufficient. i should be able to date her. and also acquire her haircut!!!!!

 

Voeld's towers are driving me batty I cannae find the glyphs! One of the lines in the scan is pointing deep down into the ice and doesn't resurface at all that I can tell.

 

if it's the one I'm thinking of, two glyphs are on the surface up above and one glyph is down below with the console!

 

It was! Power of the Post got me (also I decided to try the other tower and literally drove my dumb ass into the chasm which got me thinking on the Z axis, I just had to set my goal so I could find the cave with the console), I just forgot to edit that I'd got it since I planted an outpost, got the scientist quest, and kept getting my ass kicked by the boss fight until I decided to go to bed.

 

oh FUCK that guy, architects are bullshit enough without HAZARD LEVEL 2 COLD....... that was my first architect fight and it was Not My Favourite...... also very confusing since my companions were all like "oh shit it's another architect!! :0" and here's me hopping around like a fool screaming SPACE JELLY!! SPACE JELLY MURDER JELLY WHY IS THIS HAPPENING WHAT IS AN ARCHITECT

 

I fought the one on... Eos I think? first, but that was after I dealt with the radiation. And it was out in the open with more room to maneuver. This one herds you towards the kett buildings, which keep you warm... but it's a complete PITA to dodge it's giant fuckoff aoe attacks, especially if you have to pause to open a door.

The design for the architects are pretty sweet though.

(Even if the Remnant sometimes making Reaper-ish sounds BUGS THE FUCK OUT OF ME)

 

It kinda makes sense that they make reaper sounds, I've always assumed that the reaper noises were binary code for chatting. Similar to what the geth do.

 

Yeah, but I can tell the difference right off between Reaper noises and Geth noises? Whereas the occasional Reaper-like noise always makes me pause and go ??!

 

yea, i was thinking they used a similar mechanism, sorry I didn't articulate that very well.

 

Nono, it's fine! I might be a little irrationally upset because I really want to play around in a new galaxy with as few tie-backs to the original trilogy as possible. If later games involve the Reapers somehow I swear I'mma shit in a box and send it to Bioware.

 

I would be surprised if they brought back the reapers. I think they're being very careful to leave all the big decisions Shepard made unaddressed in Andromeda. I'm certain that they know better than to touch the pile of controversy that was ME3. Both for those who hated it or the ending and also for those of us who loved the game and/or the ending and don't want our canon messed with. They lose no matter what if they touch it again.

That being said, I hope the arcs with the other species at least bring the news of the invasion so people realize that they're not explorers, their refugees. and in all likelihood, they'll never know what ended up happening.

 

sorry for bringing this up again when everyone else had stopped talking about it

Spoiler: the benefactor

I was pretty convinced that Cerberus was involved with the Initiative even before I got the benefactor memories, mostly because references to the Normandy SR2 keep popping up. I've not been able to find a conclusive timeline, but ME happens in 2183, and ME2 in 2185, which is also when the Inititative launched. The SR2 was a secret project unlike the SR1, which was public knowledge as this amazing new joint project - also, Shepard spent most of ME2 in the Terminus. You can completely play through the game and leave the Citadel authorities convinced you're still dead. The Tempest is stated to have stealth drive technology based from the SR2. There's still a possibility it could have been built after Shepard returned to the alliance, but Kallo's conversations about building the ship imply it took longer than that.

Also, there were Knight and a few other Project Overlord staff on the Nexus, even if they did defect pretty quickly.

Going on to the actual benefactor quest information, we're told that they were incredibly rich and new about the reapers early on, which limits us to only a few characters from the OT - TIM, the original shadow broker, maybe Saren or Benezia before the indocrination became overwhelming, and maybe that one eccentric volus billionaire. The Initiative had already been set up by Garson at that point, and she'd probably already got backers from the other species. Whoever the benefactor was wouldn't be able to change that. Also, Cerberus' overall stated goal is the survival of humanity. They'd prefer dominance, sure, but they've used aliens before against the collectors and the Intiative may truly be the only chance for any humans to survive the reapers.

The command staff could also originally included more humans. All personnel senior to Tann were killed in the Scourge attack, after all.

(Another point - I think this would genuinely be a really shitty twist and I hope it doesn't happen, but Cerberus has cloning technology. TIM could easily have had a clone of himself among the colonists)

 

Spoiler: the benefactor

I wouldn't be too bothered if it was a clone of the illusive man if the clone turned out like Grunt, he has the memories (maybe only some due to cry or whatever) but they didn't take, so he just has those memories but is his own person. And also, he has to not be a villain, maybe an advisor, or working somewhere in administration, but if he was a villain that would ruin any chance of it working out. And yea, it felt like cerberus had to be there in some capacity. I don't think they were controlling the initiative - they would've had more weapons/warships etc. If they had been. But they at least had agents there.