Retcons or contradictions that you have noticed

Oh man, where do I start?!?

I mean, I kinda like the game on it's own but they should have made this a new IP or a reboot or a parallel universe or something because it just doesn't fit into the ME universe as we knew it at all (and I say this despite the fact that I usually despise reboots and parallel universes and that sort of thing).

Let's start with the premise: Why go to Andromeda? In 2185 1% of the Milky Way is explored. You don't need to be 600 years in cryo and take the most stupid-ass risk in history to get a fresh start or satisfy your inner urge to explore at that point. I am not through the game yet and maybe there is some secret reason (I am just saying: reapers) that would make this more believable but even if there is, the whole "fresh start/pioneer spirit" thing seems to be the motivation for most low level people you can ask and that already makes no sense.
This by the way is also a problem while playing because to me, all those people in the AI aren't brave, they are simply stupid. For example, when we arrive at the Nexus and are supposed to be like "Oh noooo, this can't be happening!!!", I was outright laughing at them thinking "You idiots!!! This was so completely unnecessary and stupid, you deserve what you got." (and if I think my own protagonist is stupid, it doesn't help with identification either).

Then, there is the technology they used: An ODSY drive would have made a HUGE difference for the original trilogy plot. Not only could the Milky Way people have outmaneuvered the reapers to some extent, who clearly don't have that technology. The bigger problem is that even the faint possibility to cross dark space and travel to other galaxies makes the reapers' cycle of extinction scheme a complete and utter joke. "Yea, we'll keep the Milky Way in check with the cycles and if synthetics develop in other galaxies, where they are a couple of billion years ahead of us in development because we just hibernate and do the same shit all over again every 50.000 years without progress, I am sure it'll be fine" It's even more BS now than it used to be. And Shepard doesn't even mention this (well, it wasn't retconned yet at the time, right?).

Tech Nr. 2: SAM. SAM is a complete and utter violation of council rules on A.I. but all four council races built one without the council stepping in? Did they keep it secret? Oh, I am sure the council didn't mind them building "SAM nodes" into their dreadnought sized ARK ships without supervision or control. Governments usually don't care, right? Oh and what about a bunch of private investors building a space station almost as big as the Citadel itself just like that within 10 years that is also capable of flying to another galaxy? I am sure that was easy.

Timelines: When the Andromeda Initiative was founded, humans had interstellar space flight for just over 20 years. and first contact happened 15 years before. Yet, a private human businesswoman has the clout to start the most ambitious undertaking in the history of - at the very least - this reaper cycle (if not all cycles) as a multilateral cooperative endeavor involving almost all MW species. She did this despite the fact that the other species and their galactic economies are millennia older and more advanced? I mean, the ME timeline was always shoddy at best but this brings it to a whole other level.

They take Krogan to Andromeda and try to cure the genophage (by trying to run gene therapy during cryosleep, which is complete BS on its own but ok). I mean, I am sure the salarians and turians on the initiative were thrilled about that idea, right?


I could go on for ages like this, those are just some points from the top of my head.
While I do agree that the Asari male thing is just stupid and takes away from the species' interest factor, at least they just decided to call themselves something different, I can work with that even if I think it was unnecessary and stupid.
I do not buy some of the fundamental premises of this setup though and while I do really like the game itself, I'll never be able to play it without some measure of contempt because of those issues.

I am not entirely through the story yet but if they don't come up with something absolutely amazing at some point, calling this Mass Effect is a bit of a farce.

I believe Liara even says as much in ME1

He should already know that, SAM mention it in the very first conversation you have with it on the Hyperion.

Wait... the male asari thing wasn't just forum satire? (I've been going through the game really slowly, to explore before my first playthrough ends.)

And apparently there's ambient dialogue on Nexus. This is so painfully shoehorned.

I know that, but:

The Trans-humanism push is probably the most egregious of the retcons. I mean in the OT the Admiral is actually worried if information gets out that humans were researching AI (project overlord) it could start a war with the other council races. They even reference Project Overlord in the game for a quest. Yet somehow, Alec was able to not only create a superior AI in such a short time, they made 4 of them, and used implants to link them directly to pathfinders.

I also think having every race act "human" is a huge retcon. I miss the militant Turians who hate humans because of the First Contact War. I miss the haughty, sexy Asari, who look at the other races like children who need to be guided/controlled. And most of all I miss the Krogan, who'd rather nuke their planet to dust than compromise. They really sucked the soul and uniqueness out of the races.

Yet Liara says "female" have no meaning to them?

If you only had one gender, there would be no "male" , and therefore no "female".  It's still pretty ham fisted writing, since clearly most species of life are binary, so biologically they would have a male and female understanding.  She's probably just referencing that Asari culture doesn't use those terms for themselves.

Which was where I was coming from, they themselves may not have such pronouns. There are after all languages on this planet with no gender pronouns etc. But when asari deal with other species, why not apply a gender pronoun to themselves which they consider fit them best? For us that may seem to be female at all times, but t... Hhh. Well stuff. =P

To some extent, wouldn't there be a selection bias here given that those of council races who would join a human-led mission would be inherently more cooperative with other races? (Tann is pure scumbag salarian, of course.)

They do as of last week...