Who's the dumbest person in Heleus?

I guess a lot of the Stupidities of the figures comes from the writers. Most plot progresses were made to go on, no matter it make sense. The Kett were not really a clever enemies only overpowered (and this because of to have a overpowered enemie), but the Tempest crew were clever and smart until the plot needed they dumb than they were dumb. I relay on the moment where they enter the Kett ship to find the Meridian Map. The thing in itself, I think, is already badly written, with Archon can see Ryders memories, but this careless handling with this information was terrible. Neither the Tempest crew nor the others on the Nexus did anything to be prepair about this lack of security.

they have a fighter force right?

ok

Yes they have trident fighters inside Hyperion's hangar.

Unless you were following your father...

This is why I'm inclined to nominate Jien Garson, despite already being dead.

This entire half-baked excursion was her idea.  And she didn't have the Reapers as an excuse.  the AI started years before Shepard learned about them.

True, but his life was so screwed up it's entirely plausible he expected to die anyway.  Dying wife, career a complete dumpster fire due the whole illegal AI experimentation, almost completely estranged from his kids, who's careers he screwed up too.  Why not one last suicide mission with these idiots?

Then he learned about the Reapers...

Like I said, with knowledge of the Reapers, NOW he has a vested interest in the Initiative succeeding.  Half-*ssed though the AI was.

It was meant to be a civilian project, so turning the Nexus into a dreadnought would not have flown with any authority back in the MW.

Plus there's the issue of bad PR, both home and away.

It was going to be hard enough to get people to sign up for a one-way trip to another galaxy, let alone if you tell them you plan to turn their colony ship into a decked out warship. And if Andromeda has people already living in it, you can't exactly sell the notion of "We come in peace" if you show up on the back of a giant gun strapped to an engine.

Alec might have urged more defenses, but could have been shot down by the civilian leadership of the AI. They probably told him that when it came to defense, that's what he (and their other armed forces) were meant to be there for.

Ah, I see your point.

Yeah, some decent point-defense systems and shielding on the Nexus and the Arks wouldn't have hurt. If ship-mounted offensive weapons were out of the question, they could have at least gone into Andromeda a little more tankier than they seemed to have been.
Agreed, that entire sequence felt really jarring.

Even if we presume Archon found the Nexus when he lo-jacked SAM, I don't know how much I buy the Kett steamrolling through both ships as easily as they did. The Asari and Turian Arks managed to put up heavy resistance (and trashing the place in the process) before their vessels were overrun. And those guys didn't have Nexus reinforcements available to them! Was everyone on the Hyperion on a coffee break, where was security?

any of the idiot rioters in hydroponics.
we don't care! let our families out of stasis... so we can watch them die slowly do to starvation, dehydration, or asphyxiation...

yeah... not rocket scientists there. so, why did we thaw-out those particular morons again?