Mass Effect '5' speculation (Official Thread)

Firstly in the beginning of the game it was establish that if Ryder is separated from SAM he would die. So I don't understand how he was able to interact with the remnant tech without sam, he should have been dead like the Doctor Asari explained at the beginning. There is no connection. Ryder was only able to talk to his sister because of Sam. 

In the beginning, Ryder’s skills were lacking, that’s true. But as the game progresses, Ryder definitely grows into the role. At one point in his career, Alec Ryder wasn’t a leader either. He was just a team member on Grissom’s expedition. Whatever the case, by the end of the game, Ryder is well respected by the crew, the AI leadership, and the heads of state of the Angara. The Ryder twin just needed to be tested to bring out what Alec put in them. The Ryder memory where they all came home for dinner established that the twins both had Alec’s pioneering spirit.

Also, Cora admitted herself that Ryder makes a better Pathfinder than her as Ryder has whatever intangible people need to be a good leader.

It still doesn't make any sense no matter how much "spirit" the twins have. Cora trained for the position, has combat experience, has leadership experience, and as the game illustrated was closer to Alec then his own son. It made no sense at all for the position to be given to Ryder instead of Cora. Alec is suppose to be an N7, and his decision to pass on the responsibilities of a pathfinder to someone who is underqualified is just reckless. The story would have been better if Ryder was Cora second in command. Cora is a seasoned officer. Ryder is at best a researcher. It baffles me how people don't see the flaw in this. It's laughingly bad and not believable at all. Ryder is well respected? Yeah that's why Liam gave his contact the Nexus location without even consulting Ryder, or PeeBee just decides to launch that escape pod recklessly. Ryders team did what they wanted with, or without Ryder say so. He was a pushover. They probably respected him because of their friendship, but they disregarded his leadership. He was a joke of a leader.

You would need to read the Cora novel to learn why Cora couldn’t be Pathfinder.

Liam and Peebee are similar in that they both act first, think second. They very well could’ve done the exact same things even with Alec or Shepard in control as neither of their actions were based on not respecting leadership but rather being impulsive.

Kadara Port was already there. They didn’t build anything from scratch. They just took it over by force. And the water was still poisoned. It was a short term fix as the Collective was already planning to overthrow the Outcasts when Ryder arrived.

How they activate the remnant tech is explained clearly in the game, SAM acts as a translator and a force multiplier but Ryders brain still needs to learn how to think like the remnant builders to activate it.

Cory indeed should have gotten the role, but Alec Ryder had Secrets and a Child dying in front of him, so it went to them.

Part of the secrets is the hiding of Ellen.

Another part is that the Reapers were coming.

He wanted his family together and would fight, lie, and even die to keep them together.

Alec didn't exactly intend for Scott/Sara to be Pathfinder. He intended to save his child's life, and it seems he may have intended to at least one day pass on his SAM to them. People only  assumed that SAM integration, one now stuck into Scott/Sara, equaled being Pathfinder. For obvious reasons. Sure Cora technically could have assumed the role even then, but it would still have to be understood that Scott/Sara was the best hope to actually pathfind, due to keeping SAM in them.


I don't recall any content suggesting that Alec was always going to pick Ryder over Cora for Pathfinder. Sure Cora wonders about it all, and it does seem that there was something of a prep for Ryder to one day have SAM, but what I gather is that Cora was still the one to get it, with Ryder(s) likely considered not enough yet.


And it's true that the crew would have initially respected Cora as Pathfinder more. But it is also suggested that if Cora was Pathfinder, she would have found herself surprisingly in over her head through the unique Heleus situation, while Ryder was a more adaptable personality that is absorbing all the plot-given challenges better. "Always looking for the mentor, the plan... as a Pathfinder, my mistakes would be worse than Sarisssa's." She's still a follower, but it is hoped and possibly suggested that a post MEA Cora may be better leadership material..


EDIT: Nevermind, it was never going to be Cora lol

I think MEA should continue. I think there's more to the Ryder story than we were given in MEA since MEA is like the first ME and it introduced a plot with many subplots that really didn't get us anywhere until the sequels. I also think that Ryder's mother knew something and Alec suspected his death and did not want the truth to be passed on to his children to protect them, and that's why he smuggled her into Andromeda.

Just so its clear, Alec Ryder discovered during ME:Initiation that SAM wouldn't be able to transfer to Cora, it'd have to go to someone related to him. Which was a shame, as SAM-E and Cora got along really nicely, it's a shame he was lost :<

... yet.  I agree that, for most of the game, Ryder is not a capable leader; but at the end of the game, he/she is showing signs that they are becoming a capable leader.  The decision to raise the Remnant fleet is all Ryder's ("I can still do... something.")  The directions he/she gives to his/her sibling to continue revealing targets are more definitive than at the start of the game.  This is character development over time... something that's not normally done in a video game.  Maybe you personally didn't request it, but there were a large number of fans on the old BSN who were requesting it.  They didn't want to just be handed a background, they want to participate in developing one.  I would fully expect to see an older, more experienced, more confident Ryder in the next game... and with some options to make him/her more ruthless, jaded and even perhaps, evil (if we choose to develop our PC towards the dark side).

I do agree that the lack of PC background choice was a mistake. The funny things is that background still didn't mean a whole lot. I could be Earthborn Butcher of Torfan and still play entirely Paragon. Or I had one Shepard be a total dick in ME1 and ME2, then regret some of his choices and go Paragon in ME3. Still led to some squadmate losses in ME2 and so had some impact on ME3. My roleplay allowed me to do this.

Ryder doesn't need a huge change in background (at this point) but maybe opening up to see what his or her past was like could go more into defining backgrounds. I would have loved to find out Scott was some asshole in dealing with Alliance marines he served alongside, or that Sara looked down her nose at Prothean archaeologists and thought she could do a better job. Small changes but it helps with RP.

No need to degrade others like this.