Do you still believe we'll get a Sequel to Andromeda? Or a Reboot like Tomb Raider/Mirror's Edge?

I think part of the reason Ryder feels more "trash-able' is because Andromeda's story fell flat for a lot of people, where he/she wasn't presented with very many interesting altercations along the way.  Combined with that, is the lack of choice via watered down personalities in dialogue - whereas in the trilogy, players had more ownership over making a distinct version of Shepard they could identify with via black and white choices.  We also knew beforehand that our choices were carrying over/mattered, so that added to the immediate connection between players and Shepard.

Ryder is just kind of "meh" in comparison - but that's the writing's fault more than anything (exacerbated by the animations - unfortunately).

I disagree with this one, if anything the ending in which the council is sacrificed does make it clear that the power relationships have been altered by Shepard's actions. Udina explicitly states that the citadel fleets where decimated during Sovereign's attack and that the other races can't rebuild without humanity's help. Furthermore The council races do not merely have to cope with dead of several statesmen but also with a total loss of naval assets around the citadel, the dead of a large part of the citadel's law enforcement and severe structral damage to the citadel itself. So saying that Shepard's actions didn't alter the balance of power in the galaxy is wrong assesment when the explicit narrative of ending (even if the council was saved!) is that Shepard's did alter said balance.

One could validly argue that Humanity's rapid ascent to power is implausable and contrived given ME's earlier depiction of the Alliance, yet the precedent for such jumps was created when Humanity recieved an embassy less than ten solar years after first contact, with Avina mentioning that century or more is standard (I assume she's talking about solar centuries), or that Humanity was considerd for the Spectres around that same time (The events of Revelation take place right after Humanity's embassy openend, in 2165). However I'd say the responsabilty for these continuinty issues lie more with Mass Effect's premise than with it's conclusion.

Funny enough, if the council was sacrificed then Mass Effect 2 opens with a title screen that literally states humanity seized political control of the galaxy, even though this quickly is rendered moot as Cerberus is set up to be only group looking out for the abducted human colonies, so much for seizing control. As a whole though Mass Effect 2 is probably a more interesting setting with the council sacrficied, increased social tensions on the citadel, the Asari ceding their defence responsbilies and Turians starting an arms race by unilaterally rescinding treaty obligations. It's such as shame that Mass Effect 3 just brushes all this aside, and reduces it down to just war assets or neglects it all together (in some cases the war assets don't make much sense either, like the Alliance fleet not recovering from their losses from the battle citadel three years earlier).

True but as I pointed out the game would end before it starts otherwise.

Thoughtful discussion? Always lol. Sure when you feel better I'd be happy to.

I do see your point I do but from a storytelling perspective it wouldn't have worked unless you simply wanted a "scorched Earth" story.

He'd still want Saren or Benezia or somebody to walk up to that panel and override the Citadel arm controls, just in case. Of course, walking up to it would be all it took, since Shepard can walk there just fine.

Protip: if your Evil Plan requires that a switch be moved to position "B" and stay there, have your henchman blow the switch up after moving it.

Of course the biggest problem with the trilogy is that you can go straight from ME1 to ME3 and miss out all of ME2 without causing any issues.
ME2 is practically a standalone story.

Yeah, they tried to handwave it. The problem is that the handwave is completely divorced from the realities of the MEU. Humans have a relatively tiny population and industrial base; Earth is the only human world with more than a few million in population. And the small size of the Alliance military is established in lore.

Know I'm arguing that I don't believe it's stupid writing.

It didn't take me longer than 10 minutes let alone 10 hours to realize Ryder has all the charisma and likeability of a wet paper bag.  Come to think of it, he/she would ideally be wearing the paper bag as well.

When playing only ME1? I don't remind much choices with consequences that aren't immediate local consequence. But my point of view could be flawed because the black and white approach never worked that well for me.

Here a probably incomplete list for MEA: orcz.com/Mass_Effect_Andromeda:_Choices_and_Consequences

I don't see ME1 alone doing significantly better. ME is more interesting on that aspect only from the full trilogy perspective.